Chapter 45
Chapter 45
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Demonic Beast Subjugation (1)
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After completing three months of secluded training, the first place I headed to was the Association.
“Huh? Isn’t that person…”
“Isn’t that Thunder Wolf?”
“What? I thought he died in a gate.”
It seemed a rumor had spread that I’d died in a gate during my three-month absence.
I walked past the Awakened gathered in a cluster in front of the Association and entered the main building.
Knock, knock.
“Yes, come in.”
I knocked on the office door and went inside.
I saw a middle-aged man with a build so large it made the spacious desk feel cramped.
“Oh, Mr. Oh-jin?!”
Thud!
Team Leader Han shot up from his seat.
“It’s been a while, Team Leader Han.”
Seeing him after three months, even those bulging muscles felt strangely welcoming.
“Haha. I’m not a team leader anymore.”
“Pardon?”
He grinned and handed me a business card.
Next to the name Han Jun-man was the proud title of ‘General Manager of the Disaster Response Headquarters.’
“Wow, when did you get promoted?”
“It’s all thanks to you, Mr. Oh-jin.”
Team Leader Han—no, General Manager Han—grinned and gave me a thumbs-up.
‘Well, Han Jun-man was the one who recruited me into the Association, after all.’
Such a rapid promotion was understandable.
“Hehe. Does this mean you owe me a treat?”
“Anything you want. Ah, it’s just about lunchtime. Shall we go grab a bite?”
“Sounds good.”
No reason to refuse a free meal.
“Let’s go. I know a great place.”
And so, I left the Association with the General Manager.
The place he led me to was a luxurious Hanok-style building.
A quick glance at the sign revealed it was a restaurant specializing in Hanwoo, premium Korean beef.
‘Hanwoo!’
Oh-jin’s eyes gleamed with greed.
Although I now had some financial leeway, the habits ingrained over a lifetime were a scary thing.
My heart pounded at the thought of eating expensive food for free.
“Haha! Well then! Order whatever you like, Mr. Oh-jin!”
General Manager Han exclaimed with a hearty laugh.
“Then I won’t hold back.”
Oh-jin called over a waiter.
“Yes~ What would you like to order?”
“I’ll have everything from here to here.”
I said, tracing a line from the far-left end of the menu to the far-right.
Flinch.
General Manager Han’s shoulders twitched.
“Uh… all of this?”
“Yes.”
Beaming.
Oh-jin nodded with a bright smile.
“Ahem. Even so, isn’t that a bit much?”
“Come on, considering your generosity, this is the least I should order.”
“Ugh.”
General Manager Han swallowed hard, his face twisting into a grimace.
I did think I might have gone a little too far, but.
‘He got a promotion thanks to me. This should be fine.’
Mhm.
I nodded and waited for the food to arrive.
“Did you have any success with your training?”
“Yes. It wasn’t bad.”
In the past three months of training, I had reached 4-Star and even pioneered a new realm of skill synthesis.
I wasn’t a hundred percent satisfied, but it was a sufficient outcome.
“If you say it wasn’t bad, to what extent…”
“I’ve reached 4-Star.”
“Pardon?”
General Manager Han’s eyes widened.
His jaw dropped as if he had seen a ghost.
“F-Four-Star? Are you saying you reached 4-Star in just three months?”
“Yes.”
“Hah…”
He pressed a hand to his forehead as if he couldn’t believe it.
An Awakened who hadn’t even been active for half a year had reached 4-Star.
“…Even the Seven Stars probably weren’t that fast.”
Considering that the more powerful the Stigma, the harder it is to raise one’s ‘Star,’ it was an unbelievable speed.
“A rookie who’s getting attention from all over the world has to be at least this good to hold his own anywhere.”
“Haha! Recruiting you to the Association was truly a stroke of genius, Mr. Oh-jin.”
“By the way, did anything particular happen over the last three months?”
Sizzle!
I asked as I placed the meat on the grill.
“Something happen… Yes, something big did happen.”
General Manager Han’s expression hardened slightly.
“What was it…?”
“There was a gate rampage near Sokcho.”
A gate rampage.
A phenomenon where the monsters living inside a gate pour out into the world.
“What made it an even bigger problem was that the monsters that came out weren’t ordinary monsters, but demonic beasts.”
“Demonic beasts?”
Demonic beasts.
It was a term I’d never heard before.
“Ah. You were inside the Sanctuary, so you wouldn’t know. I mentioned before that there’s been a global surge in mutant monsters, right?”
“Yes, you did.”
In fact, I had encountered quite a few mutant monsters myself.
“The number of mutant monsters has increased so much that a separate designation has been created for them.”
“Is that ‘demonic beast’?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Demonic beasts.
Considering that mutant monsters were several times more ferocious and powerful than ordinary ones, it was a fitting name.
“In any case. The situation in Sokcho is quite serious, with demonic beasts currently running rampant even in the city center.”
Monsters running wild in a city wasn’t anything special from a global perspective, but for South Korea, which was considered a relatively ‘safe country’ when it came to monsters, it was certainly a rare occurrence.
“What’s the scale of it?”
“Well. Most of them are hiding in the mountains outside the city, so it’s hard to get an accurate count. But we estimate there are at least a thousand.”
“…That’s a huge number.”
A horde of over a thousand demonic beasts.
Just imagining it was dizzying.
“As it happens, a subjugation team has been organized.”
A subjugation team.
‘Hmm… should I give it a try?’
If I had to go alone into a place swarming with over a thousand demonic beasts, I would have found a way to get out of it, but that wasn’t the case here.
‘Not bad.’
A demonic beast horde strong enough to warrant a subjugation team would be helpful for gaining real combat experience, and it was also a good opportunity to test the power of my newly 4-Star Stigma.
“Is there separate compensation?”
“Of course. There’s a bounty of one to three million won per demonic beast, depending on its grade. And that’s not including the Sacred Stones you collect, of course.”
If there was a hefty bounty, there was even less reason to refuse.
‘Now that I’ve fixed my sister’s eyes.’
Sizzle!
Oh-jin picked up two pieces of deliciously cooked beef and placed them on a lettuce leaf.
One wrap, two pieces of meat.
It was an insane luxury I couldn’t have even imagined in the past.
‘I’m going to eat all the delicious food I want from now on.’
Both myself and Ha-eun.
Haven’t we lived such desperately hard lives for so long?
“Can I join the subjugation team too?”
“Hahaha. I was just about to suggest it myself, but I missed my timing.”
General Manager Han grinned and nodded as if he’d known I would ask.
“When does the subjugation team depart?”
“Probably the day after tomorrow at the latest.”
“Perfect.”
That was enough time to prepare the necessary equipment.
“Things are going to get crazy again with Thunder Wolf joining the subjugation team.”
“The crazier, the better.”
Fame is money.
It might be a problem if I couldn’t handle the fame, but right now, there was no reason to refuse it.
“Well then.”
Oh-jin smiled brightly and lifted a bowl that was now empty.
“Hehehe. Since I’m heading out for a subjugation, I should eat a bit more to be well-fed.”
“Ugh.”
General Manager Han counted the numbers on the bill and let out a deep sigh.
“Oh, right. The assembly point for this subjugation mission is in Sokcho. Do you have a car, Mr. Oh-jin?”
“I don’t.”
There was no way I could have afforded a car when I had to scrape together every penny.
Anyway, the assembly point was in Sokcho.
‘Should I take a train?’
But with demonic beasts running rampant in the city, would the trains even be operating normally?
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
General Manager Han took a car key out of his pocket and held it out.
“This is…”
“It’s a car provided by the Association. It’s a pretty high-end model, so you shouldn’t have any discomfort driving it.”
“Ooh.”
First beef, and now a car.
‘See, fame really is money.’
They just give you things without you having to do anything.
It was a perk I could never have dreamed of before I Awakened.
“By the way, Mr. Oh-jin, do you know how to drive?”
“I’ll have to learn starting now.”
Two days until the subjugation.
It was more than enough time to learn how to drive.
***
After parting with the team leader.
Oh-jin returned home.
“This place is just as depressing as ever, no matter how long I’m away.”
I looked at the shabby outer wall and clicked my tongue.
Creek.
I opened the door and went inside.
“Hm?”
Ha-eun was nowhere to be seen.
“Where did she go?”
My sister wouldn’t have any reason to go out.
Tilting my head in confusion, I went up to the rooftop.
There.
“—Hsss.”
Ha-eun was standing with her right arm stretched forward, her eyes closed in deep concentration.
‘Was she training?’
Oh-jin stood still, watching her train.
“Hoo.”
She slowly exhaled a breath she had drawn in deeply.
Woooong!
The Stigma on her left chest emitted a glow.
And then.
Fwoosh!
Red flames erupted from her hand.
“Chahat!”
With a short cry, Ha-eun swung her hand.
Flames like a nimble beast shot out fiercely.
‘Wow.’
A short gasp escaped Oh-jin’s lips.
When I saw her back when I wasn’t an Awakened, I just thought it looked ‘flashy,’ but now that I had reached a certain level, I could clearly tell.
‘My sister was that strong.’
Well, of course.
She was an Awakened who had reached 7-Star.
And among the 7-Star Awakened, she was considered one of the strongest.
There was no way she could be weak.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The red flames spread out like a net, dominating the surroundings.
Even from a considerable distance, the intense heat made my skin tingle.
But.
‘…It’s not as much as I saw before.’
I could definitely feel that her body hadn’t fully recovered.
“Huh? O-Oh-jin?”
As I was watching her train.
Ha-eun, who had spotted me, was startled and quickly retracted the flames that had been dominating the area.
“Why are you just standing there watching when you’re back, you brat?”
Was she embarrassed about being caught training?
Ha-eun approached, her face slightly flushed.
“You seem much better.”
“Well… I’m not fully recovered yet.”
Ha-eun shrugged.
“Heehee. Your training is over, so you wanna go out and eat with your big sister for the first time in a while?”
“I just ate.”
“Ah?”
Snap. Ha-eun’s expression soured.
“Hehe. I was treated to some Hanwoo.”
“Ack! You little brat, eating alone!”
Ha-eun grabbed me by the collar and shook me.
Oh-jin burst out laughing.
“Let’s go eat together after this job is done.”
“Huh? What job?”
“You heard about Sokcho, right?”
“…The thing with the demonic beasts or whatever?”
“Yup.”
I nodded.
“I decided to join the subjugation team for it. So I’ll be away from home for a few more days.”
“……”
Ha-eun’s eyes narrowed.
She strode up to Oh-jin.
Her reddish-brown hair swayed like a flame.
“I’m going with you.”
“What?”
Oh-jin narrowed his eyes.
“You haven’t fully recovered yet.”
“I’ve recovered enough to take down a few of those monster bastards.”
“Still.”
“Recovering is faster when I move around a little instead of just sitting still, right?”
“Hmm.”
She wasn’t wrong.
Just as the fastest way to increase proficiency with a Stigma was through real combat, a Stigma becomes more active in urgent situations.
“Alright. Let’s go together then.”
For the first time.
I would be moving with her as a fellow ‘Awakened.’
“Heeheehee.”
Ha-eun twisted her body, looking ever so pleased.
Grab.
She took Oh-jin’s hand and grinned.
“You have to hold Nunna’s hand tight so you don’t get lost, okay?”
“Oh, brother.”
“Give me a break.”
This is ridiculous.