Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: 1-3. The King of Hyenas Heading to the Four Limbs
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“Pant! Pant!”
My breath was coming right up to my throat. No matter how good my stamina was, sprinting at full speed in full gear was inevitably exhausting.
But to survive, I had to keep my legs moving.
Because a truly vicious bastard was chasing us from behind.
“We’re almost there. Hurry!”
Three team members who had volunteered to play bait alongside me were running around me.
We pushed through a forest of grotesquely massive plants. It was called a forest, but the surroundings weren’t filled with trees—it was grass.
Grass that grew to nearly two or three stories high blanketed the area.
It made me feel like a miniature person.
Our current location was near Dongjak Station, along the Banpo Stream.
It had once been an ordinary stream flowing into the Han River, but now it was a colony teeming with monster plants.
Bizarre giant plants sprouted like buildings, and among them were plenty of highly dangerous carnivorous ones. If you wandered in carelessly, a massive flower bud might open its maw and swallow you whole in an instant.
There were all sorts of those predatory plants—sticky vines that spelled doom once they latched on, or ones that lured victims with narcotic scents.
Crossing this plant zone in Banpo Stream was sheer madness. Even hunters avoided it unless absolutely necessary. But just because that was the norm didn’t mean we had to follow it.
To reach our destination, Noryangjin, regular hunters took the lower route from Soongsil University to Jangseungbaegi-ro. But I judged that path too grueling for hyenas.
It was a route you couldn’t traverse without raw power.
On the other hand, the path from Dongjak through Hyeokseok straight to Noryangjin held potential for us.
Hunters had suffered massive casualties in this Banpo Stream forest zone and now steered clear, but we were different.
Brute-force hunters might hack and burn their way through these plants, but that wasn’t for us.
“This way!”
As we reached our objective, a team member who’d been waiting about twenty meters ahead appeared.
Perfect timing.
From the sounds behind us, it seemed we’d nearly been caught.
If the destination had been just a bit farther, we might’ve had to sound the alarm.
“Final sprint, everyone!”
We bellowed and charged, deftly dodging the traps we’d set up ahead.
But the monsters chasing us got caught without fail.
Kek!
With short shrieks, two boar-sized bugs shot into the air.
Iron wires were attached to their legs.
Those insect-type monsters were called monster aphids. They actually resembled aphids quite a bit.
But one stark difference was the sturdy jaws on their snouts. Once they bit down, they could snap a person’s waist in half.
“Keep ’em tied!”
The deputy team leader, who’d been hiding, appeared and directed the trap team. Soon, the monster aphids were lowered, and iron wires shot out from all directions.
Keeek!
For all their brute strength, the monster aphids were helpless against the wires binding their bodies.
“Sever one leg at a time!”
I watched as they pinned the monster aphids’ legs with several poles and sliced them off.
Their claws were huge and sharp.
One wrong move on the belly, and guts would spill out everywhere. So we had to cut off all the legs first.
“This fucker’s strong!”
“Hit it! One shot, take it down!”
Team members pulled fire axes from their subspace pockets and hacked away relentlessly. Pale green bodily fluids splattered everywhere.
The stench was brutal.
Well, foul odors were a hyena’s friend and survival tool, so no complaints here.
Once all the legs were severed, the bound monster aphids looked pathetic. Only their 1.5-meter oval bodies remained, rolling on the ground.
There was one reason we’d deliberately lured and captured these monster aphids.
To safely cross the Banpo Stream forest zone.
This forest was home to all sorts of carnivorous plants.
Terrifying predators that devoured any edible creature that wandered nearby.
The one group that roamed freely in this forest was these monster aphids. They served a beneficial role in the ecosystem, so the carnivorous plants left them alone.
That was the key we planned to exploit.
Monster aphids had pouches that emitted a unique scent.
The carnivorous plants, lacking eyes, identified them by smell. So if we just smeared their bodily fluids on ourselves, we could pass through unharmed.
Even so, hostile actions like spraying oil on plants and setting them ablaze would provoke instant attacks. Best to behave as quietly as possible.
Most hunters didn’t know this, and even those who did preferred detours over slathering on the reeking aphid fluids.
“Scoop out the fluids. Careful not to mix in any blood.”
I warned them about precautions while slicing open the belly, then plopped down exhausted.
The fluids evaporated after a few hours, so they couldn’t be processed or stored. To survive this Banpo Stream forest, we had to hunt monster aphids fresh every time.
In truth, venturing this deep into the forest was extremely rare even over ten years. And even then, it was only to retrieve monster corpses from inside—not to cross it.
“It’ll only get tougher.”
The intel from the Michaela Family covered only Noryangjin, not this upper route.
So the path through the forest to Hyeokseok-Nodeul-Noryangjin would require improvisation.
No choice.
The lower route had two monsters we couldn’t handle.
No matter how skilled hyenas were, some threats were unavoidable. Against those, we had to detour or avoid entirely.
Squelch.
Yellowish fluids poured from the split monster aphid bellies. Two of them filled a pair of 1.5L plastic bottles.
I took one handed to me by a team member and ordered.
“Smear it on.”
“Ugh……”
The team groaned again.
Had to lead by example. I applied it first without hesitation, and the others followed.
Urk.
Nearly puked right in front of the team.
Barely held it in. This was a matter of the team leader’s dignity.
“Uweeeck!”
But our team’s rookie couldn’t hold it and vomited his guts out.
Experience couldn’t be ignored. Unlike the griping veterans, the rookie looked miserable.
“First time?”
“Urk… Yes, Team Leader.”
“Everyone pukes the first time, kid.”
I comforted him while splashing the remaining fluid from the bottle onto him.
“Uweeeck!”
The rookie heaved again, and stifled laughter erupted around us. I couldn’t help but smirk.
“Line up quick. We’ll break through the forest as fast as possible. Smearing the fluid isn’t the end—stay sharp, everyone. Getting stuck in sticky vines is game over. Some use stems like booby traps. Touch a slight protrusion on the ground, and a maw suddenly pops out to devour you. Those don’t even qualify as aphids.”
No such thing as perfect safety.
To survive, don’t rely solely on the fluid—maximize your instincts.
“Lead scout, move out.”
Our team’s top three veterans—ex-special forces, sharp as blades—took point. Reliable enough to trust with the lead.
We silently traversed the deadly forest.
The air was thick with noise. Bizarre insects and birds invisible in the normal world created a cacophony.
In a forest like this, a roar fifty meters away would be drowned out. Evasion by sound alone was nearly impossible. Unlike building-filled areas, radar was hard to use effectively too.
So we trusted the seasoned scouts’ guidance.
I scanned around and pointed to the upper left with my fingertip.
The team looked and swallowed hard.
A massive flower with huge teeth grew there.
The stem was about six meters tall, topped with a monstrous bloom the size of a tiger.
Its maw bristled with sharp, dry thorns like fangs.
It had sensed us.
The flower was visibly tracking our movement.
Team members bit their lips.
The thing looked ready to drop on us any second. Thank god for the aphid fluid.
Without it, we’d have been chomped before knowing what hit us.
“Don’t chicken out, you lot.”
I smirked at them. Seeing their relaxed leader eased their expressions.
Pressing on, we reached a flat clearing unlike before. Stems didn’t rise upward but lay sideways, forming an open space.
The ground was carpeted with leaves over a meter long, hiding something.
“Bypass it.”
I signaled the halted lead scout, and they skirted the edge of this massive biological trap.
The plant in that clearing was called Gomora Excent, a giant carnivorous plant.
Beneath those countless leaves hid a twenty-meter-wide colossal flower that greedily devoured anything falling from above.
Carelessly dropping in there, even a high-rank hunter couldn’t guarantee survival. As perilous as falling into lava.
“All sorts of dangers, huh.”
The rookie trailing me muttered in a fear-tinged voice. After that gut-slicing incident last time, the deputy and I had been babysitting him.
Useful guy, but his curiosity was a problem.
“Yeah, so let’s nail this and retire properly.”
After that, more danger zones appeared, but we reached the forest’s edge safely.
But just when everything was going smoothly, it went south at the end.
Receiving the scout’s report, I took point—and cursed involuntarily.
“Fuck…… what a shitshow.”
At the forest’s exit stood two three-meter-tall giant humanoid monsters.
They were called Cyclops.
Three meters tall with a single eye on their foreheads.
Their arms dangled to their knees, long and lanky, while their legs were relatively short, making their gait unsteady.
Clever hunters exploited that, dodging swiftly to make the Cyclops trip over itself—a trick that went viral online with ten million views.
But that was hunter talk. Hyenas were utterly powerless against them.
Cyclops were rank-5 monsters.
They had cores called magistones inside, generating barrier shields.
Guns were useless no matter how many you fired.
“Hold position and observe cautiously for now.”
I sighed again.
We waited an hour, but no movement. They were settling in for camp, even lighting a fire and pulling out food.
That put us in a real bind.
The monster aphid fluid had a limited duration.
Plus, the forest at night swapped daytime predators for nocturnal ones. I had no intel on them.
All in all, we couldn’t linger.
It was 3 p.m. now.
Early winter meant sunset came quick. We had to clear those Cyclops and exit within two hours at most.
“Bypass routes?”
“None. Left road’s blocked by an old concrete barricade—no climbing it. Right side’s swarming with small monsters on radar.”
Something big must’ve died on the right recently. Small fry probably swarmed like maggots to feast on the corpse.
So the only path was straight ahead, blocked by those two Cyclops.
After agonizing, I made a call.
“Use them as bait.”
“Huh?”
The scout blinked uncomprehendingly.
“You saw the Gomora Excent on the way. Lure ’em there. Drop ’em in, and no matter how tough they are, they’re done.”
“Ho… as expected of the team leader. But will they follow so easily? Forest-edge monsters hate entering the woods.”
I tapped my temple with my index finger at the scout.
“That’s why we use our heads. Who are we? Homo sapiens. Our ancestors toppled mammoths off cliffs. No reason we can’t drop those Cyclops into a Gomora.”
I gathered the team and explained the impromptu plan.
They all marveled.
The deputy couldn’t hide his bitter smile.
“Our team leader’s a real son of a bitch, a total son of a bitch.”
They say don’t bother even dogs while they eat.
But who’s the one that always butts in annoyingly during mealtime? Hyenas, that’s who.