Chapter 122
Chapter 122
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 122
Chapter Title: Returning the Gift
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“Throwing me away whenever it suited you, and now... How can a human be so shameless?!”
Akiko’s brow furrowed deeply, her face turning red.
“Ah… No! I didn’t abandon you! It was a strategic retreat…”
Takahashi made excuses, but no matter how you sliced it, he had clearly ditched Akiko just to save his own skin.
He had fled, but the bomb hadn’t gone off and all the angels were dead, so he came slinking back.
“Don’t come near me!”
Takahashi glanced nervously at Akiko and looked around pointlessly.
The magic circle was steadily losing its glow as time ran out.
Following Takahashi, the Self-Defense Forces and Japanese hunters came rushing in late.
Kwaaaaa!
“What’s that?”
Takahashi whipped around at the unidentified noise.
When he turned toward the source of the sound, he spotted a glowing red-hot core amid the wreckage of the missile Japan had fired.
“...So they used a magic stone engine as the warhead.”
“Kanematsu~~~!!! Didn’t you say it wouldn’t explode?!”
Takahashi yelled into his earpiece at someone and bolted again. Leaving Akiko behind once more.
Akiko stared after him in disbelief at what kind of person he was, then came to her senses and shouted at the Self-Defense Forces and Japanese hunters.
“Everyone, stay back! Retreat right now!”
They heard Akiko, but no one budged.
“The Prime Minister ordered us to recover the core.”
One hunter approached. His face screamed that he wanted to run off with Takahashi, but he followed orders anyway.
“That thing? How?”
“Well…”
The heat was so intense it made the air shimmer, keeping the Japanese hunters from getting anywhere close.
I pushed past the Japanese hunters and approached the missile’s crash site. The metal hunk that used to be a missile and the ground around it were melting cherry-red. And yet, the core’s temperature kept climbing.
The core we’d seized from the submarine had been a little bigger than a basketball, but this one was large enough to fit a person inside.
“Huuu!”
I enlarged myself, exhaled a blast of chill, and grabbed it with both hands.
The moment I seized the core, my hands started burning, but I clamped down harder and began absorbing its energy.
“Damn…”
Magic stones came in types rich in life force and types rich in mana—this was the mana-heavy kind.
I could only siphon off a fraction of the life force from this core, while its mana kept reacting and ramping toward meltdown. I kept cooling it, but there was no guarantee it wouldn’t blow. In my past life, one had detonated even submerged in the frigid deep sea.
Na-young had mana drain, but the sheer volume was too much, and unlike me, she couldn’t endure the heat up close.
I racked my brain over what to do if it blew. If I burrowed underground and shielded my comrades with my body, they’d probably pull through. But the Self-Defense Forces soldiers and hunters swarming back in would all die.
I didn’t want to turn a blind eye just because they were another country’s troops. What crime had the grunts or low-level hunters committed?
Smashing it outright might set it off right then.
With no clear solution, I scanned around—then looked up at the sky and grinned.
A perfect trash chute hung open overhead.
“I’m heading up!”
Clutching the core that could pop any second, I kicked off the ground and rocketed into the sky.
Sang-hun caught on and conjured a foothold in midair.
I planted my foot and leaped even higher.
Akiko’s mithril orb streaked upward like a bullet. I caught it sole-first and rode the momentum for one more boost.
For that final stretch, I jetted aura from my feet to climb.
My eyes locked with the massive gaze of Metatron peering down at me.
“Felt like I’d just been on the receiving end too much. So, a little gift for you.”
I slipped the magic stone engine core into the nearly sealed gate.
Then I plummeted back to earth.
The gate snapped shut completely before I hit the ground.
No telling how much that bomb would hurt a being like Metatron, but damn, it felt good.
Kurururung!
Thunder rolled as the space where the gate had closed warped.
“...Was it that strong?”
I’d figured I could tank it with my body—arrogant assumption. If it had blown on the surface, even I and my comrades might not have made it.
* * *
World Hunter Association reinforcements arrived, and the scene was cleared fast.
Angels from the nearby gate were wiped out, while the escapees were hunted down one by one via searches and civilian tips, then killed off.
With Heaven’s No. 2 down, the World Hunter Association deemed angels no longer a threat and declared the incident over, mere months after it began.
Now came postwar cleanup.
Japan had to answer for summoning humanity’s enemies with that magic circle—and making it in such an inhumane way.
Prime Minister Saika naturally popped veins denying it all.
“Fellow citizens! Don’t fall for foreign schemes! We’re the victims here! Victims! Should victims pay reparations?!”
Thanks to media blackout, Japan’s citizens—old hands at this compared to Korea—bought Saika’s line. They trashed the World Hunter Association and Korea. For a fleeting moment.
“Under Prime Minister Saika’s orders, we used humans as sacrifices to build the magic circle. It was an accident from forcing the schedule.”
One researcher sensed doom, fled right before activation, and spilled every atrocity in an interview: humans as sacrifices, even the previous lab director turned into one after his research flopped.
“The researcher’s testimony checks out. We confirmed the magic circle and bodies on-site.”
Hunter Akiko dodged government interference for her interview, testifying to what she’d witnessed.
I’d figured Akiko might bail on Japan after getting fed up with Takahashi and Saika, but she stayed, unwilling to abandon her homeland.
“Yes. We committed an unforgivable blunder. Who’d help a nation that won’t own its mistakes and just points fingers? The world looks big, but it’s small. In this global crisis, we survive by helping each other.”
With Japan’s lone two S-Rank Hunters—and the ever-popular Akiko—speaking out, viewership exploded.
“Some say ‘It was Saika, not me, I’m uninvolved.’ But who voted for that prime minister? Did you even track what he was up to?”
Saika’s radical, aggressive policies had drawn ire from neighbors. I later learned the magic stone engine I’d stopped in the East Sea had been rushed to test under his pressure.
“We picked that man as our leader and just watched. Swallowed easy lies and sweet talk, eyes shut to the truth. Japanese people, I love our country. Help me make it one we can hold our heads high about.”
Akiko’s heartfelt interview swayed countless hearts.
Japan’s far-right didn’t fully buy in, but digging in with Saika now meant Association expulsion—not to mention becoming every nation’s public enemy—so they swung to Akiko’s side.
Worse, what if Akiko soured on Japan and defected elsewhere? Especially Korea, which she’d said she liked?
Losing one of two S-Ranks meant over 50% combat power gone. The moment one stepped into a gate, they’d be sitting ducks.
The choice was obvious.
Saika was ousted as prime minister on the spot and hauled to the International Criminal Court. The trial would drag, but given his crimes, he’d never see daylight again.
Japan shelled out massive reconstruction costs to Korea. They also accepted the Association’s control over their hunters for a set period.
With the Association seizing hunter data, locations, and even command authority, Japan had effectively lost hunter sovereignty.
And the Korean government and Korean hunters—who’d racked up big merits this time—were now tasked with managing Japan’s hunters.
* * *
“Phew…”
Bureau Chief Baek Youngshin leaned back in his chair after finishing his document review.
Swamped with overwork, he slept just four hours a night and nursed constant headaches. He pressed his temples hard while reclined. It wouldn’t shake the fatigue, but it was a habit born of nonstop grinding.
“Director, more coffee?”
Awakener Management Bureau Chief’s secretary, Shin Sora, came in. Already knowing the answer, she carried a tray with steaming coffee.
“Thanks.”
Baek Youngshin took the cup. It was the sweet instant mix the director favored.
“I keep telling you to take a break, but you won’t, will you?”
“Too much on my plate.”
“Most of it Hunter Lee Ji-seok could handle in a snap.”
“He’s better off not sweating the small stuff. Man’s got enough weight on his shoulders already. So we each handle what we can.”
The items on Bureau Chief Baek Youngshin’s desk—and the hundreds of daily emails—were packed with Lee Ji-seok-related matters.
Petty ones ran from civilian gripes and hate comments to big fish like corporations gunning for Regen, sleazebags sniffing around Lee Ji-seok’s mother, and government bigwigs applying pressure—all cut off at the source by the chief.
“You keep this up, I can’t rest either.”
Secretary Shin Sora pouted. For all her words, no one outworked her sense of duty—and the chief knew it best.
“Always appreciate it.”
“Phew… Oh, and that last task you assigned? Wrapped up.”
“The Seo Kyung-hyun matter? Handled clean?”
Seo Kyung-hyun was the Justice Sword serial killer. About a year and a half back, Ji-seok had dragged Min-woo to his place, offed him, and dug up his crimes.
“DNA from Hunter Jung Min-woo’s vomit traces at the house? Swapped it with samples from a hunter who died in a gate a few months ago.”
Min-woo’s cleaned-up puke had left residue in the sink. Vomit usually didn’t yield DNA, but luck—or bad luck for Min-woo—struck, beating the odds.
“Good work. CCTV?”
“Outsourced to an external firm—wiped completely.”
“No loose ends?”
“Routed through several cutouts. No way they trace it.”
“Hm… One more off the list.”
“Yes. Next up: Lee Ji-seok’s mother.”
“...What fresh pests this time?”
“A guy pitching business investments approached her.”
“Business? To Regen’s chairman’s mom?”
“Exactly why he went for her. Knows she’s loaded.”
“So what’s his angle?”
“Claims he’ll process magic stones into health-boosting items to sell.”
“...Guy’s insane? Anyone without power gets mana poisoning straight up. Mother’s health holding?”
“Hunter Lee Ji-seok pumped life force into her—she looks mid-thirties now. Low-grade stones won’t faze her.”
“Nail him for Gate Byproduct Management Law violation. Shake him down for everything else too—max sentence.”
“Got it. Finally, got wind of a newspaper prepping an article on Hunter Lee Ji-seok.”
“Articles pop up all the time. What’s the worry?”
The article Baek Youngshin picked up was headlined with Lee Ji-seok’s “Promiscuous Relationships.” It featured shots of him dining close to Bae Na-young, another with Choi Ye-seul, and Mexican hunter Adriana draped over him in skimpy clothes.
“...Pressure the paper. Get that reporter to yank every piece immediately.”
“All of them?”
“Can’t let on we’re leaning on them over the Ji-seok angle. Dig up unrelated dirt. Make sure he never writes again. It’s the kindest thing for him.”
Bureau Chief Baek Youngshin shuddered, recalling Hunter Bae Na-young’s wrath.
“Yes, handling as ordered.”
“Always appreciate it.”
Shin Sora bowed her head and left.
Having the secretary had slashed his workload massively. But a mountain remained. As chief, he couldn’t just focus on Ji-seok matters. For now, though, it was time to unwind the stress.