Chapter 15
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: The Man Who Tamed the EX-Grade Final Boss
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Waaah!
The hearty sobs of a burly man filled the Hunter Association lobby.
And he wasn't just any man.
190 centimeters tall.
Muscles bulging like they could wrestle a wild bear barehanded.
A fearsome otherworlder draped in savage beast hide, a massive bone axe the size of a utility pole tossed aside nearby.
The very barbarian who had just moments ago swatted A-rank hunters like flies was now sprawled on the floor, bawling his eyes out.
"Aigoo! My lettuce patch! My veggie garden!"
His thick forearms clutched at Han Jaewoo's pant leg like it was a lifeline.
The hundreds of people in the lobby stood dumbfounded at the bizarre, surreal spectacle.
The frozen association staff and executives from major guilds edged closer bit by bit.
"Um, excuse me, Returnee sir? Please calm down a little."
"Aigoo, all your hard work farming went up in flames. Must hurt. There, there."
They patted Kang Taesan's broad back as if soothing a lost, crying child.
Seizing the chaos, Han Jaewoo slipped his leg free and stepped back.
He shook off the damp hem of his pants and inwardly let out a sigh of relief.
'I'm alive. If he'd grabbed my collar, my neck would've been dust by now.'
Thank heavens.
The reason that muscle monster resented him yet couldn't attack?
It was pure terror of one madwoman from beyond the dimension.
Finally calming under the people's comfort, Kang Taesan sniffled and rose.
He roughly wiped his reddened eyes with a handkerchief handed by a staffer.
Watching this, a Guardian Guild scout cautiously spoke up.
He was an A-rank tanker who'd been flung back by a single backhand from Kang Taesan moments ago.
"Just what did Hunter Han Jaewoo do in that other world to make a powerhouse like you tremble like that?"
It was the question everyone burned with curiosity over.
Hundreds of eyes locked onto Kang Taesan's lips in unison.
Kang Taesan thumped his chest as if deeply wronged.
"What did he do? I had no idea this guy was a Returnee! Then one day he up and vanishes, and our whole dimension's falling apart!"
Kang Taesan's blood-boiling shout echoed through the lobby.
"This guy was the only one holding the leash of our dimension's ruler—the mad tyrant empress with no blood or tears in her veins!"
Silence descended.
Empress. Tyrant. Ruler. And leash.
"Without him around, that crazy woman's lost all reason and is ripping the world to shreds! That's why I'm begging you to tame her again!"
The lobby air turned ice-cold.
It was a bombshell statement.
Taming the ruler by holding her leash.
People's pupils dilated massively as they turned to Han Jaewoo in unison.
Han Jaewoo ignored the cold sweat trickling down his spine.
'You lunatic! It wasn't taming—I was the one flattering her desperately just to stay alive! I'd just gotten proposed to and was about to enjoy some sweet newlywed life when the system dragged me back. What leash?!'
Inwardly, he wailed bloody tears.
He was just a victim who'd survived ten years with survival-flirting tactics, finally landing a cushy emperor-husband gig, only to get booted out right then.
His fiancée vanishing before her eyes? No doubt that possessive empress had misunderstood him as a betrayer and was going berserk. It was obvious without seeing.
Right then.
A mechanical beep rang from the portable mana scanner a staffer brought for Kang Taesan's Returnee registration.
Origin Dimension: Rosenstein
Stay Duration: 32 years
Dimension Difficulty: EX (Impossible to Clear)
A massive hologram screen materialized in the air.
It was the official system window displaying the world a Returnee survived, along with its difficulty and details.
Protagonist Han Jaewoo had kept his info private, unknown to the world, but Kang Taesan's freshly registered dimension data was fully exposed in the lobby center.
Red text appeared on the hologram like typewriter keys striking.
The association staffer's mouth gaped in a gasp.
"W-what is this? EX-grade?"
The entire lobby erupted.
Guild execs, hunters, reporters—all doubted their own eyes.
EX-grade difficulty.
Since humanity gained the Hunter system, not once had it been cleared—an unknown realm.
The martial world conquered by the Heavenly Demon was SSS-grade.
The demon realm saved by the Hero was SS-grade.
EX-grade: Even the system declared it impossible to clear—an absolute dimension of doom.
0% survival rate.
A hell of hells where entering meant soul annihilation.
"He survived 32 years in a hellhole like that?!"
Kang Taesan scratched his head at the staffer's shocked cry.
"Eh, well. The difficulty was so insane that right after I dropped in, the system gave me this Environmental Adaptation thing. Used that to dodge monsters, farm a bit, and grill up some barbecue."
A monster.
People gazed at Kang Taesan with awe.
An S-grade physique savage who'd endured an EX-grade dimension's environment by farming.
But eyes soon shifted past him to Han Jaewoo standing aloof beyond.
Massive logical circuits whirred furiously in their heads.
The muscle monster said he'd just hidden out farming in the EX-grade dimension.
Yet moments ago, Kang Taesan had clearly stated Han Jaewoo held the leash of that EX-grade dimension's ruler, the mad tyrant empress.
The conclusion was singular.
'This guy perfectly controlled an unclearable hell's final boss?!'
'He kept a calamity even the system abandoned at his feet?'
'That's how he Returned in record time after 10 years. No need to clear it—he tamed the world's ruler!'
Hundreds of breaths grew ragged.
To them, Han Jaewoo was no mere human now.
Decadent looks forged by overwhelming plausibility.
Inapproachable noble grace and chilling silence.
He was the ultimate beast tamer, the true dark sovereign, who treated even an absolute calamity capable of world destruction like a pet at his feet.
"Whoaaa."
"Insane. Isn't this a god descending?"
Groan-like exclamations burst from lobby corners.
A flood of reverent, worshipful gazes.
At the center, Han Jaewoo inwardly shed tears.
'Nooo! Stop it! I'm not the tamer—I was the one tamed!'
Right now, no one feared more than Han Jaewoo himself.
From the moment he heard that mad empress was ripping dimensions apart to find him, his heart had shrunk to a pea.
If they kept blabbing about him taming the empress, and she actually showed up on Earth later?
Just imagining it chilled his nape.
Seized by her, who'd branded him a betrayer for vanishing, bound limb to limb and eternally imprisoned in the imperial palace's underground dungeon—a horrific future.
He had to shut this topic down somehow.
Draw a clear line: no relation to that woman.
Han Jaewoo desperately hid his cold sweat.
Drawing on ten years' worth of soul-deep savvy, he donned the most languid, bored Northern Grand Duke expression.
He slowly opened his mouth.
"...A matter of the past."
His voice was cold and dry as midwinter's gale.
"No need to dredge it up. That world has already left my hands."
But that single line pierced people's eardrums with wholly different meaning.
The lobby fell pin-drop silent.
Only gulps of swallowed spit broke the hush.
Despite one dimension perishing because he vanished.
Despite its ruler—who once wagged her tail at his feet—now rampaging mad.
That overwhelming absolute being's nonchalance in calling it "left my hands."
His ruthless cruelty, unflinching at a world's doom.
Hunters shivered.
Kang Taesan slumped to the floor in despair, reporters madly snapped shutters in a trance.
The massive misunderstanding about Han Jaewoo solidified harder than diamond.
Breaking the suffocating silence were the major guild scouts, who hadn't dared approach Han Jaewoo.
They switched targets en masse, swarming the slumped Kang Taesan like bees.
"Returnee Kang Taesan! Contract with Taesung Guild! 10 billion signing bonus, top-grade Hanwoo for every meal!"
"Come to Guardian Guild! We'll equip you with premium weapons to smash monster skulls on the frontlines!"
An S-grade physique survivor who'd endured EX-grade hell bare-bodied.
Guilds coveting that firepower had bloodshot eyes.
But Kang Taesan freaked, waving them off.
He snatched his fallen bone axe and shooed them away.
"Argh, everyone back off! Frontlines? Screw that frontline! I hate seeing blood more than anything!"
The spit-flying scouts faltered in confusion.
"I hate fighting, don't need money! I'll just tend my garden, hunt slimes in safe F-rank dungeons, grill meat, and live! No guilds ever—solo life forever, so don't bother me!"
Temptations of immense wealth and glory.
Kang Taesan kicked them all aside with firm renunciation of worldly desires.
Scouts were struck dumb.
What did these dimension Returnees go through to all scorn wealth and power?
To them, Kang Taesan now seemed a true hermit master transcending shallow mortal cravings.
And watching that farce quietly, a thick sense of kinship welled in Han Jaewoo's chest.
'Huh? This guy's mindset is exactly like mine.'
After surviving hellish torment, craving only safe, humble honey-sucking bliss—a perfect everyman mentality.
Though Hulk-physiqued, Han Jaewoo intuited he was just another ordinary, pitiful thirty-year-old inside.
Han Jaewoo sidled up to Kang Taesan.
As his shadow fell, the huffing man flinched, shoulders hunching.
Still haunted by visions of the mad empress looming behind Han Jaewoo.
Han Jaewoo drew a sleek black card-like premium business card from his pocket.
He placed it in Kang Taesan's pot-lid-sized hand.
His personal contact.
'Gotta buy him a meal later and shut that mouth. Since we vibe, hit some F-rank dungeons together safely, earn pork belly money—perfect.'
Harboring that utterly humble, pathetic inner thought.
Han Jaewoo turned indifferently, murmuring in the world's most languid, chilling voice.
"A beast lost and wandering without its domain... I shall gladly be your resting place."
He glanced back with an arrogant smile.
"Contact me. The pork belly feasts you crave? I'll provide them eternally, without end."
Kang Taesan blankly stared at the card in his hand.
Suddenly, a brilliant realization flashed through his mind.
'Wait... This guy's the real black curtain who held that mad empress's leash? Even if she invades Earth, sticking under him guarantees safety, right?'
Survival instinct nodded fiercely.
Unlike the guilds that'd treated him like a monster and pushed him to blood-splattered frontlines till now.
This man pierced straight to what he truly wanted—not riches or battle, but safe haven and humble pork belly—and pledged lifelong provision.
A deep camaraderie only comrades from that horrific hell dimension could share.
And the absolute one's mercy embracing even a rough savage.
In Kang Taesan's eyes, Han Jaewoo transformed perfectly from ruiner of his daily life to the sole savior restoring lost peace.
"B-bro...!"
Overwhelmed with emotion, thick tears streamed from Kang Taesan's eyes.
He clutched the card to his chest and bowed deeply toward Han Jaewoo's broad back.
A solemn knight pledging lifelong fealty.
Guild scouts and hunters watching dropped their jaws to the floor.
'That S-grade savage rejected 10-billion contracts outright.'
'One word of pork belly, and he's wagging his tail in absolute loyalty...!'
Even a transcendent hermit master instantly captivated by that man's overwhelming caliber.
Just where did the abyss of Han Jaewoo end?
People now gazed at his retreating figure with eyes bordering religious fanaticism beyond mere awe.
A legend unbreakable by any solidified once more.
Same time.
Seoul's priciest penthouse atop the city's tallest spire.
The living room, lit softly by a chandelier worth billions, lay shrouded in deep shadow.
Beyond floor-to-ceiling glass, glittering Seoul nightscape sprawled below.
At the heart of that luxurious gloom, a red velvet sofa.
A woman sat with legs crossed.
Blood-red silk dress blazed against her snow-white skin.
Silver hair cascading to her waist.
And features too alluring, too lethal to seem human.
Blood sovereign reigning in darkness.
Premium crystal wine glass spun between her slender fingers.
Sweet, fishy blood scent wafted as red liquid sloshed.
Her crimson eyes fixed on a massive hologram screen floating midair.
Exclusive: Han Jaewoo, the Man Who Tamed the EX-Grade Dimension's Final Boss. His True Identity?
On-Site: The Merciless Absolute One Declares, "That World Has Already Left My Hands."
Emergency news breaking live onscreen.
The title was sensational.
Han Jaewoo's indifferent chin-tilted declaration replayed on loop.
Cold-set blue eyes and arrogant poise.
The woman's blood-red lips curved alluringly.
"Tamed the final boss, hmm..."
Her voice was languid, sensual.
Like a predator whispering over web-trapped prey.
"Earth's men are all so dull and frail. Quite the intriguing talent this one has."
She was the night queen who'd reigned centuries in another world.
Countless heroes and saviors fell to her allure, offering blood and donning collars willingly.
To her, men were mere blood bags or boredom toys.
But the man onscreen was different.
The demonic charmer who'd shaken the Heavenly Demon's heart and tamed an EX-grade world's ruler.
Her predator instincts, dulled by eons of ennui, writhed fiercely.
She raised the glass, sipping crimson liquid.
Blood-wine slid down her throat.
She licked her lips with a red tongue, murmuring low.
"Let's see."
Her eyes flashed like nocturnal beasts.
"If you can hold this one's leash... I'll check myself."
Following the Heavenly Demon's pure obsession and the Hero's curiosity.
Now even the arrogant, lethal night kin took interest in him.
Another massive storm to shatter Han Jaewoo's quiet kangaroo life brewed over Seoul's night sky like thunderheads.