4
# My Daughter Is the Final Boss
## Chapter 4
“A rift? Now?”
The siren was a warning that a rift was about to open nearby.
Rifts could be predicted through radar before they appeared.
The predicted location of a rift would be reported to nearby guilds or independent hunters.
Normally, hunters should already have been waiting at the location before the rift opened.
But this siren also carried the meaning of an emergency.
Could it be an unpredicted rift?
Sometimes, rifts appeared without any warning signs.
They were the kind that couldn't even be detected by radar.
The probability of one occurring was extremely low.
And yet an unpredicted rift had suddenly appeared.
Flustered, I looked around.
There wasn't a single person in sight on the deserted street.
“Daddy?”
“It's okay. It's okay.”
I felt Seol-ah clinging to my leg.
I placed a hand on her head to reassure her.
First, I needed to find something that could be used as a weapon.
The only thing I could see was a broom leaning diagonally against a wall.
Crack.
I broke off the end of the broom.
I intended to use the sharp end as the tip of a spear.
I picked Seol-ah up with one arm and held the makeshift spear in the other.
“Seol-ah. Hold on tight.”
“Mmhmm.”
Perhaps the sound of the siren frightened her, because Seol-ah wrapped her arms around my neck.
I immediately started running toward home.
My mind was in complete turmoil.
An unpredicted rift had occurred now? Why?
This had never happened before.
Unpredicted rifts had an extremely low probability of occurring in the first place.
There had only been a handful of recorded cases in all of South Korea.
If one had appeared near my home, there would certainly have been chaos, and I would have remembered it.
Could this be……
There was a term called the butterfly effect.
The flutter of a butterfly's wings could cause a storm.
If there was only one thing that had changed now, it was me.
In other words, because I had changed the future, something had become distorted.
But still.
I hadn't done anything that could cause an unpredicted rift!
Without even having time to think, I simply ran.
My body right now was practically that of an ordinary person who hadn't undergone any training.
If I encountered a monster, there was a high chance things wouldn't end well.
More importantly, I was worried about Seol-ah in my arms.
I wasn't strong enough right now to fight while protecting a child.
Crack.
A sound like ice splitting apart came from the sky.
I abruptly stopped and looked up.
A huge crack had appeared in the air, as though someone had smashed it apart.
Damn it!
I had unbelievably bad luck.
I immediately turned around.
The rift rapidly widened.
Something forced its way through the crack and emerged.
Boom!
It landed directly in front of me.
Its weight was enough to crush the asphalt beneath it.
The creature looked straight at me.
Cretan Bull.
It looked like a pitch-black bull with enormous horns pointing downward.
Because of its resemblance to the bull of Crete, this monster had been given the name Cretan Bull.
Its body was almost the size of a compact car, and if that thing charged into you, it would basically be the same as being hit by a vehicle.
The Cretan Bull snorted hot breath as it surveyed its surroundings before fixing its gaze on me.
Damn.
Running away wasn't going to solve anything.
The Cretan Bull's maximum instantaneous speed was 90 kilometers per hour.
It was a monster as fast as a car speeding down a highway.
Seol-ah's safety came first.
Somewhere I can hide……
I spotted a narrow gap between two buildings along the wall.
It was a gap so small that only a child could barely fit through.
Keeping my eyes on the Cretan Bull, I slowly set Seol-ah down.
“Seol-ah. Listen carefully to Daddy.”
Seol-ah seemed to have seen the Cretan Bull.
Her eyes were filled with tears, as though she might burst into tears at any moment.
Her tiny body was trembling with fear.
Unfortunately, there wasn't even time to hug her.
I blocked the Cretan Bull from her view with my body and calmly explained.
“Go inside this passage. Don't come out until Daddy tells you to. Okay?”
Seol-ah couldn't even answer and barely nodded.
I pushed her back, and she slipped into the gap between the buildings just as I had told her.
She kept looking toward me, apparently worried about me.
“Phew.”
I steadied my breathing.
The fact that the siren had sounded meant that the Rift Management Headquarters had detected the rift.
Nearby guilds or independent hunters would have been contacted immediately.
Even if they came as quickly as possible, it would take about five minutes to arrive.
If things went wrong, I could die here.
The Cretan Bull kept its gaze fixed on me as it scraped the ground with its front hoof.
It lowered its head slightly and positioned its horns forward, making it clear that it was about to charge.
I needed to draw its attention and buy time until help arrived.
But if I made even one mistake, Seol-ah could get hurt.
I raised the hastily made wooden spear.
Snort!
The Cretan Bull exhaled forcefully and kicked off the ground.
A monster weighing nearly 1,500 kilograms charged toward me at tremendous speed.
The pressure radiating from it was indescribably intense.
But I had to endure it.
“Daddy……”
I could hear Seol-ah calling for me in a tiny voice.
I couldn't let the child suffer another misfortune.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Cretan Bull charged forward with enough force to tear the ground apart.
My instincts screamed at me to run.
But instead, I ran toward the Cretan Bull.
Bang!
The Cretan Bull slammed directly into me.
All the air was knocked from my lungs, and my vision instantly turned white.
“Ghk……!”
It was an impact that would have killed an ordinary person instantly.
But I was still a hunter, after all.
Because I had covered my entire body with mana, I could withstand it at least once.
The pain was so intense that it was difficult to remain conscious.
But this much!
I could endure it through sheer willpower.
I forcibly drew in a breath and held it.
The Cretan Bull continued charging while keeping me pinned against its horns.
They had a habit of pinning their prey against a wall with their horns and crushing them to death.
Boom! Boom!
My body was rapidly being pushed backward.
Even while being struck by the Cretan Bull, I reversed my grip on the makeshift spear.
Monsters that emerged from rifts, just like hunters, had their skin covered in mana.
Conventional firearms didn't work against them, so there was no way a spear made by snapping a broomstick could pierce the Cretan Bull's tough hide.
“Ghk!”
My body was being shaken helplessly up and down.
If this went on too long, I would be crushed against the wall.
I pulled myself together.
Still gripping the spear, I concentrated every nerve I had.
I'm not the prey……
There was a place that could be considered a weakness in every animal.
The target was the Cretan Bull's eye.
I had to accurately drive the spear into that tiny point while being violently shaken around.
For an instant, it felt as though time had slowed down.
I'm a hunter!
I drove the spear downward.
Thwack!
I felt definite resistance through my hand.
It had gone in.
At the sudden attack, the Cretan Bull raised its head.
Whoosh!
My body flew over the Cretan Bull and landed behind it.
I hit the asphalt and rolled several times before finally coming to a stop.
Bellow!
The Cretan Bull, with the spear embedded in its left eye, thrashed violently in place.
I exhaled through the pain and barely managed to get back on my feet.
Bang!
It felt as though I had been hit by a car, sent flying, and then slammed into the ground.
My body was in terrible condition, but the same was true of the Cretan Bull.
Apparently suffering considerable pain, it repeatedly slammed its head against an innocent wall.
Bang!
The Cretan Bull smashed its head against the wall again and again.
The shaft of the spear embedded in its eye snapped.
The Cretan Bull shook its head from side to side, turned toward me, and snorted.
Hostility and rage were visible in its one remaining eye.
It's coming again?
I had bought a few minutes, but it seemed to have recovered much faster than expected.
This time, I had no weapon, and I could barely keep my body upright.
Can I dodge it?
No matter how I avoided it, it would immediately turn around and charge again.
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't find a solution.
If I had undergone at least some training, things might have been different.
But right now, I wasn't much different from an ordinary person.
Think!
The Cretan Bull kicked off the ground and charged toward me.
My thoughts accelerated.
Its left eye was injured.
That meant I needed to jump toward its left side, the blind spot in its vision.
At that moment.
“Huh?”
The strength suddenly left my legs, and I collapsed.
The problem was how I had landed awkwardly when I had fallen onto the road earlier.
I must have sprained my ankle because I couldn't put any strength into it.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
I could see the Cretan Bull charging toward me in fury.
I knew instinctively.
I'm going to die.
Crack!
At that moment, something strange happened.
Maybe I had seen it wrong.
For an instant, the Cretan Bull's front leg bent sideways.
Screeeech!
The creature lost its balance and toppled over onto its side.
The Cretan Bull slammed its head into the asphalt and came to a stop.
If it had been even slightly later, the monster definitely would have killed me.
This is……
If I had been an ordinary person, perhaps I wouldn't have realized it.
But I was a hunter who had spent more than ten years fighting on the front lines.
That's why I knew.
Magic?
This was magic being used in an incredibly natural manner.
I didn't even have time to think about the answer to the mystery.
I sensed multiple presences approaching from behind.
“Cretan Bull! There's a civilian!”
“Protect the civilian first!”
Hunters dressed in traditional martial arts uniforms moved in front of me in perfect formation.
The hunters carrying Korean-style swords in one hand belonged to the Goryeo Sword Family.
If it were them, they should be able to hunt a Cretan Bull with ease.
The tension suddenly left my body, and my vision blurred.
All the strength drained from my battered body.
One of the Goryeo Sword Family hunters examined me.
“Excuse me. Are you all right?”
“My child……”
The person I was worried about before myself was Seol-ah, who was alone in the gap between the buildings.
Through my wavering vision, I saw someone small running toward me.
“Daddy!”
I saw Seol-ah, looking as though she might burst into tears at any moment.
She dropped down in front of me and buried her face against my chest.
She must have been terribly frightened, because her tiny body was trembling.
I barely managed to raise my hand and stroke Seol-ah's back.
And then I lost consciousness.
---
When Yoo Eun-hye received the phone call, she experienced for the first time what it felt like for her heart to sink.
She hurried to the hospital in a taxi.
Seol-ah, who had been waiting in the lobby, rushed into Eun-hye's arms.
Eun-hye hugged Seol-ah and gently stroked her back to reassure her.
“Seol-ah. Are you okay?”
“Yes. I'm okay……”
“What about Seo-jun?”
Seol-ah didn't answer.
Instead, with a solemn expression, she took Yoo Eun-hye's hand.
She led Eun-hye down the hallway and into a hospital room.
Lee Seo-jun was lying on the bed.
“S-Seo-jun.”
Yoo Eun-hye couldn't continue speaking.
His arms and legs were in casts, while his head and abdomen were wrapped in bandages.
An IV drip was slowly dripping from the bag hanging beside him.
Yoo Eun-hye's lips trembled as she stood before Lee Seo-jun, who appeared to be sleeping as though dead.
“Daddy was trying to protect Seol-ah……”
Seol-ah muttered in a dejected voice.
Yoo Eun-hye had already received a call from the Goryeo Sword Family and heard a rough account of what had happened.
An unpredicted rift had appeared, and Lee Seo-jun had fought alone to protect Seol-ah.
Yoo Eun-hye sank into the chair beside the bed and stared at Lee Seo-jun with a sorrowful expression.
At that moment, Lee Seo-jun suddenly opened his eyes.
“Wah!”
“Aaaaaah!”
Eun-hye's scream echoed through the hospital room.
Lee Seo-jun raised his upper body and grinned.
Startled out of her wits, Eun-hye stammered.
“You, you, you!”
“Surprise. Daughter. High five.”
“High five!”
Faced with Lee Seo-jun's completely nonchalant reaction, Yoo Eun-hye became emotional.
She had genuinely been worried about him.
Meanwhile, Lee Seo-jun was fooling around with Seol-ah, celebrating the success of their little operation.
Tears welled up in Yoo Eun-hye's eyes.
Now it was Lee Seo-jun who became flustered.
“Hey, are you crying?”
“Yes! You jerk!”
The sound of a slap against his back echoed through the hospital room.
It was a wonderfully solid smack.