The Unexpected Intruder
The journey across the vast forest that stretched out endlessly. Yet with two S-class hunters personally carving a highway through it for us, plus the monsters that charged at us turning into shredded meat along the way, the subjugation was proceeding with absurd comfort.
It felt like the genre had suddenly changed… Well, I guess it’s fine.
“Hey, Manager?”
“What.”
“So where the hell is the one carrying the magic stone?”
After pushing forward for nearly three straight hours, we had stopped briefly to fill our rumbling stomachs. In the middle of a forest that had been brutally turned into a straight highway, I was boiling ramen when Calathea pouted her lips and grumbled.
“How should I know? For all I know, we might not even be heading in the right direction.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to just destroy the entire forest?”
“Yeah, yeah. Honestly, this isn’t rehabilitation training. It’s just manual labor, right? It’s not even fun. Complete waste of time.”
Certainly, judging by the scale inside, this was a gate that would normally require at least three parties and several days to clear. Even among A-class gates, there were quick ones and ones that dragged on forever, and it looked like we’d drawn the latter.
“I get it, so just eat the ramen for now.”
“Yeees~♪”
“I shall savor the gourmet meal the manager has prepared for us.”
“…You only behave when it’s time to eat.”
Maybe because they had been working their bodies hard, the two quickly squatted in front of the pot, blowing on the noodles and digging in. Leaving them to it, I stood alone in the center of the clearing.
‘Alright. Like this…’
Both hands hanging loosely downward. From my fingertips, I drew out countless threads of mana and slowly extended them outward.
Passing over the rustling black soil, across the mushy chunks of monster flesh, dodging the sharply splintered pieces of wood, farther and farther….
“………”
Each mana thread transmitted real-time information about the surrounding mana back to me. I sorted, compiled, and analyzed the flood of data pouring in, mapping out the environment. It was an extreme multitasking technique that only someone with a Special Ability like mine could pull off, and the farther the threads went, the more the scope expanded exponentially, making it exhausting. Still, it was better than wandering around this place in circles with those two.
‘So where is the boss monster…?’
While focusing all my attention on the countless mana threads and extending them, some of the ones heading in the nine o’clock direction began detecting traces of battle.
‘…Battle?’
Monsters only turned hostile toward living creatures from the present world. They didn’t fight among themselves even if they were different species. Therefore, if a battle was happening right now… it meant the opponents were humans like us.
But this gate had definitely been commissioned exclusively to the prisoner unit by the Hunter Administration Bureau.
After standing there pondering for a moment and slowly retracting my mana, all the scattered threads returned and seeped back into my fingertips.
“You two stay here, eat your ramen, and rest. I’ll go take care of something real quick.”
“Hmm~ Want me to help? Like this, and like this…♬”
“…I don’t know what kind of help you’re offering, but I don’t need it.”
I easily ignored Calathea’s prank of waving her hands dramatically through the air and was about to head toward the direction where I had sensed the presence when—
“You’ll come back soon, right, Manager?”
Audrey, who had been eating with Calathea, suddenly came over and grabbed my collar.
“Yeah. I’ll handle it quickly and come right back.”
“…It’s a promise.”
“Promise.”
She clung to me tightly like a child who didn’t want her father to leave for work. I was already somewhat used to it, so I didn’t panic. I simply stroked her head as she buried her face in my neck and took a deep breath, reassuring her, then left the two behind and headed out to scout.
‘It can’t be bandits… can it?’
The government and Hunter Association’s strict surveillance and control over ability users. The recommended six-member parties formed inside trustworthy safety nets called guilds. The guild personnel dispatched to thoroughly record and monitor any additional entries once a party entered a gate.
Thanks to these multiple layers of safety measures, bandits had essentially gone extinct within Korea.
So who the hell were these intruders? My best guess was that they were agents from the Hunter Administration Bureau sent to protect and monitor us.
‘It would be awkward to show those two to government personnel.’
Calathea forcibly grabbing my face, licking her tongue against mine in a kiss. Audrey clinging to me like a child, refusing to let go no matter what.
If the Bureau agents saw them behaving like that, it would definitely raise questions about how I was managing the prisoner unit or the nature of our activities. In that case, going alone was a hundred times better.
Following the mana threads I had left as guides, what I found when I reached the intruders was—
“…Who the hell are you people?”
A campsite where three parties of six—eighteen hunters in total—had set up camp.
Normally, a “party” consisted of the highest-ranking member suited to the gate’s level, two next-highest, and three lower-ranking members. Applying that formula to this A-class gate, it would be one A-class, two B-class, and three C-class.
Three such standard six-member parties had gathered here in front of me. Usually two parties entered for safe subjugation, so these people either belonged to a guild that placed extreme importance on safety, or…
“You’re Seong Yohan? Hmph. You actually noticed and came looking. Not bad.”
…They were hostile forces.
“That’s correct. And you are?”
“Hmph, pretending not to know. How pathetic. If I have to introduce myself… I am A-class hunter, Magic Fist Kwon Taeho.”
Honestly, the name didn’t ring any bells, but the burly, muscular man in front of me clearly had an enormous ego. The type who would definitely take mirror selfies of his body at the gym.
“So, Mr. Magic Fist Kwon Taeho, what business do you have in the gate we were commissioned to clear?”
“Ha, what business? The Iron Fist Guild personally came all the way here to wipe your prisoner unit’s ass. I spelled it out that clearly, so even an idiot should understand.”
“‘Iron Fist’… you mean Iron Fist Gu Sangcheol’s guild?”
“Yeah. You know it well.”
…Good. Let’s organize the information this arrogant muscle-brain just gave me.
Other guild members had joined a gate that the Hunter Administration Bureau had commissioned exclusively to us without any prior discussion. They also knew my name and about the prisoner unit. This situation absolutely could not be a coincidence. So who had orchestrated it?
‘Gu Sangcheol?’
The association meeting where the prisoner unit’s creation was first brought up. Gu Sangcheol had openly shown his displeasure with me and the unit and protested strongly. But he didn’t seem like the type to scheme behind the scenes like this—just like the muscle-brain Kwon Taeho standing in front of me. If I didn’t deliberately get in his face, he was the type to just huff and puff by himself.
Then the reasonable suspicion was that a third party had provided information and incited them… Should I dig a little more?
“Hey. You got the nerve to space out with someone standing right in front of you?”
“More like an animal than a person, I’d say.”
“…What did you just say?”
In front of Kwon Taeho, whose thick caterpillar-like eyebrows twitched, I casually ran my mouth while quietly extending mana threads behind my back.
“It’s common sense and basic manners in the hunter industry that once a hunter has entered a gate to subjugate it, no other hunter interferes. Isn’t that right?”
“That’s—”
“Furthermore, what exactly are the people standing in front of me who dug up information about an unofficially commissioned request through illegal back channels?”
“Watch your mouth, you brat.”
Kwon Taeho bared his teeth and growled.
“Does our Iron Fist look like the kind of place that obtains information illegally? The association officially requested our guild master to assist your prisoner unit!”
“You people—with only three A-class hunters—are going to help a party that has two S-class hunters? Please stop with the unfunny jokes.”
To draw out more information, I provoked them while scanning the surroundings. The muscular gym rats all frowned and began inching closer. And the one raising his voice the loudest at the front was, of course, Magic Fist Kwon Taeho.
“Two S-class hunters? Those bitches aren’t real hunters! They’re just disposable goods pulled out of prison because the country has no choice. And after rotting away in there for years… what? S-class? Hunters?”
“You’d better not think our Iron Fist’s elite party is weaker than some bitches who spent years digging in prison. A party thrown together just by looking at pretty faces in the first place.”
“Haha, our Changho hyung spoke well. Seong Yohan, you picked those girls based on their faces and killer bodies from the start, didn’t you? Not that the hunters are S-class, but the other parts are S-class, so you built yourself a harem… As a fellow man, I’m honestly so jealous.”
Kwon Taeho exaggeratedly traced the curves of breasts and hips with both hands and cackled. His colleagues around him did the same.
“So, do their faces and bodies deliver at night? Huh? Come on, tell us some fun stories.”
“……It looks like you guys have been having plenty of fun among yourselves already.”
“What did you just say…?”
It wasn’t even me being insulted. They were the two who constantly gave me headaches. So why was rage boiling up inside me like this?
To suppress the anger that felt like it would burn my insides to ash, I clenched my fists so hard my nails dug into my palms.
“You’ve only been inside the gate for a short while and you’ve already set up camp. You even pitched the tents generously. Did you all enjoy a nice train ride in there? Look at you, sweating buckets. It can’t be because of this ridiculously easy gate, right?”
No. Was I even holding back anymore? I couldn’t tell. The words seemed to be bypassing my brain entirely at this point.
“It’s fine, I understand. After gathering a bunch of well-built guys, you should enjoy yourselves. Right? In a gate where no one can see you, there’s no better place to let loose, is there?”
“You… you little…”
“I’m curious about one thing. Between you, Kwon Taeho, and that Changho hyung over there—who’s the bottom? Ah, do I need to go inside the tent to find out?”
Thick veins like earthworms bulged on Kwon Taeho’s forehead. Foam gathered at the corners of his snarling mouth.
Was an attack coming soon? I kept mocking him without stopping while moving the mana threads I had prepared earlier, ready to counter.
“You son of a bitch!”
Kwon Taeho’s massive hand, big as a pot lid, rose and swung down toward my face.
“Kyaaaack——!!”
“Please refrain from touching the manager with such unaesthetic hands.”
Before I could even react, an ice spear flew in from behind and pierced straight through the center of Kwon Taeho’s palm.