Chapter 22
Chapter 22
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: 1,500 Meters from the Dark Cloud
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A high-rise apartment 1,500 meters from a dark cloud hanging in the middle of a clear sky.
Kang Jin-hyuk and Lucia stood on the rooftop of an apartment building over thirty stories tall.
Lucia, her face covered by a mask, frowned as she looked up at the sky.
“The air here is fucking awful. It feels like my lifespan’s getting shaved off with every breath.”
Lucia’s first impression of the outside world, having followed Kang Jin-hyuk’s guidance, was the absolute worst.
As a half-elf, she couldn’t endure Seoul’s pollution without a mask.
Even a deep breath felt like it would rot her lungs on the spot.
“You guys actually live in a place like this.”
“……We just make do because we have no choice.”
Lucia kept up a dry cough even as she raised her bow and took aim.
“This won’t do. To hit it properly, I’ll have to hold my breath completely.”
Lucia stifled her breathing as much as possible to stop the coughing and gauged the distance to the dark cloud.
Once she was confident she could hit it from this range with the wind conditions, she nocked an arrow.
“You promised unlimited sweet treats every day. If that’s a lie, the next one through your head will be mine.”
Kang Jin-hyuk flinched at the sincere threat.
It was ridiculous to stake his life on mere sugary snacks.
“You can hit it, right?”
“You call that a question? How could I miss something that huge?”
Before holding her breath, Lucia drew far more mana through her body than she had shown in the dungeon.
The overflowing mana flow was visible even to the naked eye.
As she pulled back the bowstring, enveloped in a blue aura, all the mana converged at the arrow tip.
Compared to the immense aura Lucia gathered on her arrow, the aura Kang Jin-hyuk used was like a drop in the bucket.
“If you don’t want to get caught in it, stay at least five steps back.”
With that short warning, Lucia released the fully drawn string in one go.
Kang Jin-hyuk, who had been backing away, jumped in shock at the massive boom that erupted.
To make matters worse, the backlash wind hit him like a gale, sending him tumbling backward before he could regain his balance.
While Kang Jin-hyuk was flat on his ass, the arrow shot forward in a straight line like a beam of light.
The monster hidden in the clouds had no time to react before the arrow reached its target in the blink of an eye.
The arrow pierced straight through the monster’s body, its blue aura now completely gone.
The aura carried by the arrow had been fully absorbed into the monster’s body.
Moments later, it detonated with an even louder explosion than when the arrow was fired.
The culprit behind this astonishing sight shrugged lightly.
“No big deal.”
The explosion’s aftermath dispersed the dark cloud that had enveloped the monster’s entire body.
This revealed the monster’s true form, but it was so high up that it was hard to make out with the naked eye.
Kang Jin-hyuk pulled a telescope-like device from his inventory and examined the enemy.
“That’s…… a turtle with a crocodile head?”
The monster, with an appearance he’d never seen before, was still alive, blinking its eyes.
It seemed utterly baffled, as if it couldn’t comprehend why this had happened to it.
[Leviathan]
LV: 300
Kang Jin-hyuk couldn’t hide his shock upon checking the monster’s level.
“Level 300? That’s the highest of any that’ve appeared so far.”
It wasn’t a tricky opponent for no reason.
Even if the Leviathan had appeared on the ground instead of in the sky, no one but an S-rank Hunter could have handled something at that level.
“Good thing only one showed up…….”
The thought of those things swarming like goblins or orcs sent shivers down his spine.
“You’re making a fuss over nothing. What’s so special about that?”
Lucia smirked at Kang Jin-hyuk’s pale face.
To her, a level 300 monster posed no threat at all.
Kang Jin-hyuk had no choice but to acknowledge her attitude.
She’d taken down an enemy that had all the Hunters scrambling with a single arrow—what was there to argue?
“Thanks for the help.”
“Skip the thanks. It’s not like I did it for free.”
Lucia brushed it off casually, but her contribution was enormous.
Without her, who would have taken down this Leviathan?
Would anyone have been able to?
Even the mages of Gehenna weren’t a sure bet for cooperation, and any more delay might have collapsed the defensive line entirely, leading to civilian casualties.
Despite averting that crisis, all Lucia demanded in return was some candy.
From Kang Jin-hyuk’s perspective, he couldn’t thank her enough.
“Grroooaaarrr!”
Kang Jin-hyuk startled at the sudden massive roar.
He’d thought it was over, but the Leviathan was still alive, even with its body mangled below the chest.
Worried it might lash out with lightning bolts in all directions, Kang Jin-hyuk grew anxious.
“That thing doesn’t seem dead yet. Could you finish it off?”
“No need. That’s just its death throes.”
As Lucia said, the Leviathan only let out the roar and showed no other movement.
Even if it wanted to do something before dying, most of its body, including its magic stone, had been blown away.
Lashing out was beyond it; screaming was all it could manage.
After venting its frustration, the Leviathan’s breath finally stopped.
Its uncontrolled corpse immediately began plummeting from 35,000 feet in the sky toward the ground.
“See? It’d be weirder if it survived that hit.”
Confident of the Leviathan’s death, Lucia pulled the counter from her pocket where she’d been keeping it.
“Here, you said you wanted it back after I killed the monster, right?”
The counter Kang Jin-hyuk received had an astonishingly high score.
It went without saying that it was thanks to the Leviathan kill.
“That really counts as proof you killed the monster?”
“Of course. With a score this high, they can’t argue.”
Kang Jin-hyuk spoke with strong conviction, but Lucia’s expression was lukewarm.
“Don’t trust people too much. I lost count of how many times I got screwed over as an adventurer.”
Even with proof, people looking to cheat you would always find an excuse.
To claim fair compensation from such folks, one piece of evidence wasn’t enough.
Kang Jin-hyuk knew that much.
“Don’t worry. The boss there seems to be on my side, so no backstabbing.”
Kang Jin-hyuk’s confidence came from Seo Sang-ho’s presence.
Seo Sang-ho wanted to recruit him into the guild, so he’d likely back up the claim that Kang Jin-hyuk killed the Leviathan.
Of course, it wasn’t 100% certain.
If even Seo Sang-ho tried to weasel out, Kang Jin-hyuk planned to take the counter straight to the Association.
Since it was an officially recognized Association product, it was solid evidence.
The item the secretary had given him, anticipating inflated claims, was now his strongest weapon.
* * *
As the Leviathan died and began its fall, chaos erupted on the ground.
Even with two-thirds of its massive body gone, the remaining parts exceeded 100 meters in size.
If that huge corpse collided with a high-rise during its descent, it could spell disaster.
But Kang Jin-hyuk wasn’t worried about it.
A mere corpse posed no threat now that it was dead—Seo Sang-ho could handle it easily.
As expected, Seo Sang-ho was already waiting at the predicted crash site.
“What kind of trick did you pull off?”
Seo Sang-ho had been skeptical when he got Kang Jin-hyuk’s call.
Honestly, he’d barely believed half of it.
Who would think a C-rank Hunter who could barely swing a baseball bat had taken down a new-type monster?
Especially one that even he, an S-rank Hunter, found troublesome.
“The more I see, the more I want you on my team.”
Seo Sang-ho chuckled as he faced the falling Leviathan corpse.
Just before it hit the building, it met Seo Sang-ho’s fist first.
The corpse, plummeting at terrifying speed, stopped dead in its tracks like a paused frame.
Seo Sang-ho swung his fist once more, redirecting the Leviathan’s body to crash into an open plaza.
“That takes care of cleanup…… Now, let’s wrap this up.”
The sky monster disrupting the battle was gone.
All that remained was mopping up the stragglers rampaging on the ground.
Seo Sang-ho pulled out the microphone he’d prepared to call the Hunters hiding from the lightning.
“We’ve taken down the new-type monster!”
His voice boomed through the speakers set up around the command posts.
Hunters who had taken shelter in buildings began emerging one by one.
“They got that thing?”
“Really?”
The Hunters who came out to verify spotted the Leviathan’s corpse in the plaza.
Its unprecedented appearance and size convinced them it was undoubtedly the new-type monster.
“It’s real!”
“Did the Titan Guild Master take it down?”
“Seo Sang-ho, S-rank Hunter, could do it!”
The Hunters assumed it was Seo Sang-ho and the Titan Guild members who had hunted the new-type monster.
It was only natural.
Even Seo Sang-ho couldn’t fully believe it was a C-rank Hunter’s doing—how could the others?
Seo Sang-ho saw the misunderstanding but didn’t bother correcting them.
It wasn’t about hogging credit or glory.
With the defensive line on the verge of collapse, there was no time for lengthy explanations.
“We can sort out the details after this is over.”
To Seo Sang-ho, exterminating the remaining monsters took priority over clearing up misconceptions.
The new-type monster’s appearance had already caused heavy losses—no more casualties could be allowed.
Seo Sang-ho rallied the Hunters, rebuilt the shaky defensive line, and pressed the remaining monsters.
Without their aerial backup, the ground monsters were demoralized.
Hunting down the disheartened foes wasn’t difficult.
By the time Kang Jin-hyuk returned, most of the monsters had already been slain.
With only fleeing ones left, Seo Sang-ho had pulled back from the front lines to oversee cleanup with his executives.
Spotting Kang Jin-hyuk during a breather, Seo Sang-ho approached with a welcoming smile.
“Good work out there. That was impressive.”
Kang Jin-hyuk was genuinely surprised by Seo Sang-ho’s greeting.
He hadn’t expected the Guild Master to voluntarily acknowledge his achievement.
Seo Sang-ho offered a handshake to the stunned Kang Jin-hyuk and asked a question.
“Could you tell me how you took it down?”
“Oh, that’s a secret.”
‘I brought a half-elf from the dungeon and asked her to shoot it with an arrow.’
Unable to say it straight, Kang Jin-hyuk dodged with “trade secret.”
Han Young-seok, following behind Seo Sang-ho, bristled and snapped.
“A secret? You can’t say because you didn’t do it yourself!”
Hearing the nitpicking, Kang Jin-hyuk felt relieved.
‘Yeah, this is more like you guys.’
It didn’t make sense for these profit-hogging types, who even tried to steal kills, to readily admit someone else’s merits.
Kang Jin-hyuk had almost let an outlier like Seo Sang-ho skew his view of normalcy.
“If you don’t believe me, check this out.”
Kang Jin-hyuk snorted and handed over the counter from the secretary.
The blustering executive’s eyes bulged like a frog’s at the score.
“2…… 240 points?! No way!”
During this invasion, Seo Sang-ho’s counter had read 173 points.
A score 70 points higher meant either overwhelming monster sweeps or soloing a big one.
But Titan’s executive refused to accept it even after seeing the score.
“Don’t bullshit me! You’re trying to fool us with a pre-loaded counter!”
“I got this here. How could it be pre-loaded?”
“You got it here? Who gave it to you?!”
Seo Sang-ho’s secretary stepped forward at the executive’s question.
She approached and stated the facts plainly.
“I gave it to him in case someone tried to inflate their contributions.”
The executive checked the counter’s back upon hearing this and saw the Titan Guild emblem engraved there.
With a unique ID number, swapping it out was impossible.
With the evidence clear, the executive tsked irritably.
“Then you should’ve quietly taken your pay and left. Why are you still here?”
“Why do you think? To pick up what’s mine.”
“Pick up what?”
Kang Jin-hyuk pointed at the Leviathan’s corpse in response.
The executive flipped out at the sight.
“What nonsense is this? Why should you take that?!”
“Because I killed it. I get to claim it.”
“We stopped it from crashing! Think it would’ve stayed intact without our Guild Master?”
The executive could offer money, but not the Leviathan’s corpse.
Materials from a new-type monster like that were priceless rarities.
Handing it to the Association alone would net hundreds of millions, and an auction could snowball the profits.
Sighing at Han Young-seok’s frantic obstruction, Kang Jin-hyuk spoke.
“I told you not to pull shit over the monster corpse later.”
“W-what?!”
Kang Jin-hyuk’s claim was perfectly valid.
Even in a legal battle, victory was assured.
Han Young-seok knew that much.
But he couldn’t just hand this treasure to some punk.
Instead of fair play, Han Young-seok decided to leverage the major guild’s power.
Pressuring Kang Jin-hyuk by force here would silence him forever, he thought.
But before Han Young-seok could signal the guild members, Seo Sang-ho intervened.
He grabbed the arm Han Young-seok was raising with one hand.
“Stop embarrassing yourself. Give him what’s his. We’ve got plenty of money—why keep being greedy?”
“……!”
With Titan’s Guild Master saying that right to his face, Han Young-seok was powerless.
He could only watch, seething, as Kang Jin-hyuk claimed the Leviathan’s corpse.
Han Young-seok glared at Seo Sang-ho, who still gripped his arm, with venomous eyes.
‘Whose side are you on?’
He couldn’t fathom why the Guild Master prioritized a mere C-rank Hunter over the guild’s interests.