Chapter 61
Chapter 61
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 61
Chapter Title: Triple Gate Break
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“Gate Break? Three at the same time?”
Sangheon’s face turned pale as he read the hunter alert on his app.
“Grab the essentials. We’re leaving right now.”
At my words, the Oh brothers and Sangheon hurriedly tossed their gear into the vehicle, and I shoved mine in without even sorting it.
Thud thud!
“Let’s go!”
I hung off the back and banged on the vehicle body.
I opened the app to get a grasp on the situation. Two gates near the temporary command post and one near Shinbukhan had all burst open. This was the first time three had broken simultaneously since gates first appeared. Even in my previous life, nothing like this had happened at this point—probably because Korea’s North Korean territory reclamation project had altered the future.
The silver lining was that there were a ton of hunters in the area. With this many gathered, they could probably hold back the break. Still, with three happening at once, the damage was bound to be massive—assuming Shinbukhan stopped theirs without issue.
“Hyung! You see it?!”
“Yeah. I see it.”
Monsters were already pouring out of the gates and heading south. Unlike those that bred on Earth or wild animals turned monstrous, the ones fresh from the gates had an uncanny sense for human scent.
I hopped off the back and ran alongside, taking out the ones in our path.
“Changhee! Get up here and fire!”
Changhee sniped the distant ones while I shot aura blasts to finish them, but there were horrifying numbers spreading out wide and pushing south. It was like pissing in the wind. Even if my compressed aura shots were small, I couldn’t fire them endlessly. I’d run out of life force before taking down that horde.
Just like the troll gate break before, there was no chasing these down. We had to seal the entrances first. All we could do was hope the remaining hunters in Korea handled the southward ones.
After thirty minutes of hard driving, we reached the nearest gate. It was already hell. Modern weapons and hunters were unleashing hellfire from the front lines, but they couldn’t plug all the monsters pouring out, which were scattering in every direction.
“You guys stay back! Don’t push yourselves!”
I left instructions for Sangheon and the Oh brothers and charged into the heart of the battlefield.
“Lee Ji-seok, Hunter! Glad you’re here!”
Ignoring the commander who greeted me, I immediately gigantified and leaped to the front of the hunter unit.
As I swept up the small fry littering the ground in my troll-sized form, the defense line stabilized, freeing up troops to circle around and contain the fleeing monsters.
“An A-Rank Hunter’s here! Push them back!”
Seeing me crush monsters in giant form boosted the hunters’ morale.
Everyone started finding their footing, and things were looking manageable. The gate that broke was D-Rank, which helped—a lot. The higher-grade monsters were C-Ranks like minotaurs and hellhounds. Plenty of them, but not overwhelming for the forces here.
If it had been a C- or B-Rank gate, holding it would’ve been much tougher.
I figured reinforcements from the rest of Korea would arrive soon, so we just needed to hang on a bit longer.
“C-Commander! Monster group approaching from the flank!”
“What? From the side? Are monsters coming back from the gate?”
“N-No, sir. They’re coming down from the north. From the Shinbukhan gate!”
“Damn it, they couldn’t hold it... Reorganize the troops! Strengthen the flank defense line! Fire every machine gun, mortar, missile—don’t hold back!”
At the commander’s order, modern weaponry incinerated the small fry, but the big ones burst through the flames and dust.
“They’re coming!!”
I moved to where the gate-spawned monsters converged with those from the north, slamming into them with my body and fists. But even though they were smaller than me, the hellhounds—mid-sized monsters—came in packs like a dog horde. I couldn’t swat them all; plenty slipped past me.
Even the B-Rank hunters struggled. One down, and three more swarmed in—a relentless numbers game pushing us back.
“If they get through here, they’ll flood all of Korea! Hold the line!”
“If you’ve got breath to yell, fire one more shot, you bastard!”
Soldiers screamed curses as they hosed down with machine guns and mortars. Every trash mob they took lightened the hunters’ load.
“Healer! Healer!”
Frontline hunters were taking wounds one by one and falling back. Monster numbers swelled while ours dwindled. I wished Nayeong were here, but wishing for the impossible was pointless.
That’s when a troll lumbered out of the gate. D-Rank gate, so not a swarm, but one was threat enough.
“Fuck... We’re all dead?!”
Hunters’ despair echoed, but to me, it was a jackpot opportunity.
I broke from my position and charged it.
“L-Lee Ji-seok, Hunter! Where are you going?!”
A hunter who’d been fighting spear-in-hand beside me yelled. Without me, his spot got dicier.
“Don’t stop him! If Lee Ji-seok can’t take that troll, we’re all dead! Eyes front!”
Another hunter shoved back an orc with his shield.
The troll spotted me stomping and kicking monsters toward it and swung its massive club sideways.
I accelerated, diving into its guard before the swing finished. I hooked my arm over its shoulder, twisted, and slammed it face-first into the ground.
“Grraaaargh!”
It roared as its arm wrenched backward.
I pinned its neck to the dirt and hammered its head with rapid aura-infused punches. My fists, armored and aura-wrapped, smashed the troll’s skull like it was nothing.
I’d crushed effortlessly the troll that once gave me hell, but no time to savor revenge. I clamped its legs under my arms.
“W-What... What’s he doing?”
“No way... Get back!!”
I spun. A giant swing, straight out of wrestling.
Whirling it like a weapon, I battered the monsters spilling from the gate.
“The monsters are falling back! Ranged hunters, unload everything!”
I hurled it into the thickest cluster. The troll sailed skyward, casting a huge shadow, then crashed with a boom. The dozens-of-tons beast rolled, flattening everything beneath.
I snatched its club. I didn’t usually use weapons, and gigantified it was even harder, but this gate-spawned wooden club was perfectly sized for me—and tougher than steel despite the wood.
I swung it, smashing and repelling nearby monsters.
“Nice! Wreck ‘em all!”
“Fuck yeah! You think you’re the only ones with a troll?! We’ve got Giant Lee Ji-seok!”
The hunters, hyped to the max, shouted some embarrassing cheers.
With monsters still pouring south from the flank, sealing the gate front was pointless. Hunters shifted to a horizontal line. It let me dash side to side, picking off the strong ones, but the longer front meant I couldn’t cover it all.
“Hold!”
A warrior shoving back monsters with his shield.
“P-Potion... Potion!”
A hunter clutching his gushing gut, fumbling for a potion.
“Healer! Where’s the healer!”
The battlefield was pandemonium, comrades cradling fallen allies and screaming for help.
“F-Fuck... I ain’t dying here!”
Some hunters backpedaled, trying to flee.
Boom boom boom boom!!!
A rain of fire fell from the sky, turning hordes of monsters to ash.
“S-Support!”
Helicopters overhead—a hunter with a wand unleashing flames on the ground.
More hunter-laden choppers followed. Reinforcements.
Boom!
As hunters rappelled without landing, a massive arrow pierced the helicopter.
“Huh?”
Before the pilot and others could react, it exploded. Falling hunters got caught in the blast and plummeted.
“W-What...?!”
Arrows hit the trailing choppers, forcing them to veer off sharply.
“What the hell! A monster?!”
“No! Fired from the mountain!”
Zing.
Sensing danger, I jerked my head back—an arrow whistled through where it had been. The speed and power meant it wouldn’t have ended cleanly.
Boom!
The arrow grazed me and skewered monsters in a straight line before embedding in the ground.
I bolted toward the shot’s origin. Giant form made me a bigger target, so I shrank back, raised an armored arm to shield my head, and ran.
My honed senses and vision scanned kilometers to the mountain. Dodging another arrow with my gauntlet gave me a precise lock. Amid the dense trees, a figure drew a man-sized bowstring. Face masked, but the massive bow, arrows, and eyes told me who. Why the hell was this guy here now? No time to ponder. Whatever the reason, he was attacking us—we had to stop him.
Arrows flew in barrages. Relying on sharp senses, I deflected with armor and charged. Some grazed me, but regeneration handled it.
Even as I closed in, he didn’t flee.
“Hah!”
An axeman leaped from the side, bellowing and swinging at me.
I rolled aside and created distance.
The axeman raised a hand, and the archer behind him eased his draw and lowered the bow.
“Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be holding the Shinbukhan gate?”
“Oh. Didn’t know? I caused these breaks.”
He bragged cockily.
“What?”
“Stuffed it to capacity with dead weight and killed ‘em.”
“You psycho... You wanna die? You think you’ll survive with monsters spreading like this?”
“Of course I will. How do you think I survived North Korean land till now? Once you lot get pushed back by monsters, we take it all back.”
“That why you brought Tian Fei?”
I nodded at the guy behind him.
“...How’d you know?”
The archer was China’s hunter Tian Fei. Not famous in Korea yet, but he’d become an S-Rank in China later. Hell, judging by the arrow power, he might already be entering S-Rank.
“Dunno how you know Tian Fei, but doesn’t matter. Korean hunters die here. Then China sweeps the monsters with missiles like old times.”
No wonder China stayed quiet during our North reclamation—they were plotting this. No manpower to occupy and rebuild themselves, but it stung watching us claim it.
“So that’s why you handed over North Korean territory rights for peanuts? Never planned to coexist, huh.”
“Coexist? Best case, you catch me later and put me on trial. Surround me with Koreans, and I get quietly assassinated. Why coexist?”
“No wonder you can’t sleep straight, you bandit scum.”
“Let’s see if your mouth keeps flapping after I chop off your limbs.”
Veins bulging on his forehead, he infused his axe with dark red aura and charged.