Chapter 131
Chapter 131
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 131
Chapter Title: Part 2) Prelude to the Age of Predation (5)
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13.
“……What?”
It was gone. Nothing was there. In the spot where the demon had vanished, nothing at all.
The soulstone…… was gone?
Not even a belated [Hunt Success] notification appeared.
Not a subordinate.
Not a Hunter from another world.
Which could only mean…… a Hunter’s summoning-type unique skill……?
“Kim Baek-jun!”
Choi Uk’s voice rang out then.
Something was off. His tone was far too frantic, unlike him.
Thud.
The next moment, my body was rolling hard across the pavement.
Choi Uk?
Why did he suddenly…… yank me back?
There was no time to ask.
Frost bullets.
With a ripping whoosh of air.
The bullets streaked through the air, trailing long wakes of frost.
A surprise sniper shot.
No time to dodge or block.
By the time I looked up.
The bullet had already burrowed into the Crow Hunter’s heart.
What the hell…… is that?
In the instant Choi Uk’s body swayed as if about to collapse.
It froze solid.
More precisely…… frost crystals began enveloping his entire body.
“No, no, no.”
From the impact point on his chest.
To his shoulder…… his knee…… higher up, lower down.
In the split second his heart managed one final beat.
Choi Uk…… became a frozen corpse in his Crow Hunter gear.
“Choi Ukkkkkkk!”
Then came the heavy thud……
Did he toss it at the last moment?
RinRin tumbled across the ground, its light flickering silently.
「Daddy. Daddy. Daddy. Daddy. Daddy. Daddy. Daddy.」
Calm down, calm the hell down.
I barely reined in my heart, which was bucking wildly in panic.
No time for screaming.
Think of a way to survive here with the Hunters.
[Unique skill, 《Second Liberation: Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword》 activated!]
First, apply time dilation.
I whipped my head around wildly. Amid the blizzard frozen in midair, I searched for the sniper.
Where are you, where, where.
Found you. Someone’s standing on the elevated road above Samilgyo.
A human silhouette.
Probably…… the Hunter directing this ambush, the one who sniped Choi Uk.
I focused my mind.
Right now…… I’ll hunt you down.
14.
“……A Hunter?”
Cognitive dissonance hit hard.
The bastard in the silver mask wasn’t…… human-shaped.
Clad in pure white priestly robes, its height was about two meters.
How the hell…… is that a Hunter.
Its upper body was even bulkier and more brutish than Im Yong-gon’s. But its lower body was relatively small and skinny.
“……A Hunter?”
“……Look at the weapon it’s holding. It’s as big as me?”
“……Hey! There’s another Hunter over here! Hey!”
Right then.
The chaos of blood and death erupted in an instant.
“Heeheehehehehehehehe!”
Jeong Ha-kyeong saw a massive hand erupt from beneath Samilgyo.
A hand gripping the railing, crushing it.
The next moment, a grotesque monster leaped up and landed with a boom on Samilgyo.
A morningstar?
The monster clutched an iron ball studded with jagged spikes.
“Bl──”
The instant Jeong Ha-kyeong reacted.
The head of a Hunter standing before the monster exploded in a spray of blood and bone shards.
“──ood!”
Too late.
The headless body staggered and crumpled to the ground.
No time to use 《Super Acceleration》…… no…… it was a Hunter who didn’t even need it.
One of the Association’s elite Hunters?
Jeong Ha-kyeong tore her gaze from the corpse.
There it was.
The morningstar gleaming with fresh blood.
The monster gripping it wore pure white priestly robes and a silver mask……
Its weapon……?
Jeong Ha-kyeong gasped for breath.
You crazy fuck, calling that getup a Hunter?
……And above its head, [Lv: 117] was displayed.
“Heeheeheeheeheeheehee!”
“Ahahahahahahahahaha!”
The third, fourth, fifth.
Five unidentified Hunters leaped down from the elevated road.
Levels displayed above all their heads.
“You human scum, worse than bugs……”
Jeong Ha-kyeong let out a sigh.
She tossed aside the grenade launcher, drew her shotgun, and crushed a fallen cigarette butt under her boot.
“……Guess you fucks need to get beaten half to death before you wise up, huh?”
15.
“Ha…… haa…… haa…….”
The sudden ambush.
The search team’s combat response had dulled considerably. Shin Tae-yeop thought.
The problem…… is that snow?
A hole punched through the flame barrier.
Monster rats pouring in endlessly with the blizzard.
But the rats weren’t the only issue.
Five entities displaying levels like Hunters.
“……Crazy, what kind of strength!”
“……Fall back for now! I’ll put up a barrier with 《Lotus Cloud》!”
The Association’s veteran Hunters retreated, sprayed blood, and collapsed.
An unstoppable foe……?
That thought crossed his mind.
Then Jeong Ha-kyeong blasted a shotgun shell into one’s skull. Bang, bang, bang.
“Don’t lose your nerve! These fuckers look freaky strong, but──”
An iron flail came crashing down on Jeong Ha-kyeong then.
Everyone held their breath…… but when the flail passed, she stood unharmed.
Mystical mist enveloped her body.
《Lotus Cloud》……!
Turning, Lee Seong-mi was indeed aiming her three swords—[Lotus Swords]—at Jeong Ha-kyeong with graceful poise.
Lee Seong-mi’s awakened second unique skill.
Like the Dawn Sword, 《Lotus Cloud》 was a unique weapon that allowed swift, versatile control.
“──they’re total pussies!”
In a flash, Jeong Ha-kyeong vanished.
She reappeared on the monster’s back.
Muzzle trained on its occiput. She squeezed the trigger with a fierce yell.
“Dieeee!”
“Let’s goooo!”
The enraged Association members surged forward.
In an instant, Hunter vs. Hunter hell broke loose.
But the tide hadn’t turned.
The blizzard raging from all sides.
Monster rat swarms breaching the flame barrier nonstop.
If the barrier falls…… it’s total annihilation.
Shin Tae-yeop thought.
But how long could they hold the barrier……?
His mental state was at its worst.
「A vast forest soaked in drizzle.」
「A young man lifting a severed arm from the muddy ground.」
- Impossible.
Was it the reunion with Ikilras?
Shin Tae-yeop was lost in headache-inducing fragments of old memories.
- Rishar no longer needs the Book of Prophecy.
Focus…… try to focus.
“Shyrak.”
“Shi?”
His condition was abysmal…… but amid the flooding memories, he found ‘that skill’.
“Let’s go with Operation [GodSpring Improv 77]…… cover me.”
“Shishishishishi!”
Shyrak gaped its maw wide.
[Flying Dragon, Serates, activates Dragon Tongue: 《Frost Storm》!]
Frost breath poured out.
It swirled into a vortex, soon wrapping around Shin Tae-yeop like a shield.
“Everyone, huddle up! I’m dropping the barrier for a bit!”
He formed the release hand seals.
The rosary beads that had formed the flame barrier returned to drape around his neck.
Focus…… like back then.
Shin Tae-yeop took a deep breath, then began forming the hand seals for ‘that skill’ in sequence.
One, two, three, four.
[Magic is the mathematical formula decoding miracles.]
Five, six, seven, eight, nine.
[Miracles reshape the world.]
The reshaping element: flame.
The reshaping form: outburst.
Six pillars of scorching heat unfurling a field to incinerate all within range.
[Forming hand seals is like writing out that formula.]
Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen.
“Keeekeeeeek!”
“Kieeeekkk!”
While he formed them.
A few monster rats lunged at Shin Tae-yeop but were blocked by the 《Frost Storm》 vortex.
“Come forth!”
A 6th-circle spell that even burned Ikilras’s power to nothing.
《Blazing Flower Feast》.
The instant Shin Tae-yeop clapped his hands together.
The rosary ignited like flame and scattered in all directions.
Whoosh…… whoosh…… whoosh…… whoosh…… whoosh…… whoosh……
Six pillars of fire.
The elegant yet ferocious flames encircled Samilgyo.
Flames extended from each pillar, drawing a massive hexagram on the ground, linking them.
This hexagram was the effect radius.
Countless monster rats were all inside it…… so Shin Tae-yeop immediately chanted the incantation.
“Eidel, Dursiela!”
In that instant.
Over five hundred monster rats were engulfed in fierce flames.
“KIIIIIEKKKKKKKKKKK!”
“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
The piercing shrieks unique to rodents.
But the next moment, they crumbled to the ground as charred husks.
“The monster rats are all dying?”
“Take out those thrashing freaks while we can!”
Shyrak flapped its wings, bellowing a victory cry.
Good…… we did it……
He tried to say it, but his head throbbed.
- Ah…… Rishar…… you bastard……
Overused mana……?
His consciousness faded endlessly. His body grew unbearably heavy.
───Thud.
The moment Shin Tae-yeop collapsed…… his mind was sucked into the blizzard.
This chill…… why does it feel so familiar…… and ominous……?
16.
I focused my mind.
For an instant, the world lost its order.
The space I stared at warped grotesquely, then rushed right before my eyes.
《Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword》’s signature ability, [Spacetime Control].
Let’s go.
The moment I stepped forward, the world before me transformed.
Now.
I stood on the Samilgyo elevated road.
Below, the hellish chaos on Samilgyo.
And thirty meters ahead.
A woman eyeing me with intrigued eyes.
“Oh my.”
Pure white priestly robes with a hood.
Neat black her-cut hair. Eyes big and innocent, contrasting her voluptuous, feminine figure.
[Lv: 189].
As expected…… my ominous hunch was right, a Hunter…… insanely high level…… but why?
“You’re really fast on your feet! Hmm…… ahhhhh!”
What caught my eye, though, was her weapon.
A wheel of reincarnation……?
A wooden ship’s wheel evoking Buddhism’s Wheel of Rebirth. She gripped it like a gun.
“You must be Kim Baek-jun! The Lead Hunter of Seodaemun-gu!”
She beamed like a girl, genuinely delighted.
My brow furrowed on its own.
I sensed a hint of madness there.
“You know me?”
“Of course! How could I not? You’re only the second man I’ve desperately wanted to kill!”
Hehehe, her flushed face gleamed with fervor.
I approached cautiously.
A trap…… no trap? No way she’s this full of openings.
“Who are you?”
“Oh dear! I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Ga-hee. Im Ga-hee!”
With my Dawn Sword’s tip, I pointed toward Samilgyo.
“You the one who made that mess?”
“Yup~ That’s me!”
Proudly, without hesitation.
Damn. My head’s spinning.
A mad world…… no point asking why.
“Just one question.”
“Yup~?”
“If you do that…… what happens……? Is he dead……?”
I pointed toward Choi Uk.
Im Ga-hee smirked slyly.
“Who knows. Want to find out?”
Her smile vanished in a flash as she licked her upper lip.
“Then we’ll get along just fine. Kill me.”
“What?”
“Then I’ll tell you!”
What the hell?
Did I hear that wrong?
“Ah…… really…… really…… exciting! Don’t you think? I’ve been waiting for a Hunter like you!”
“…………?”
“Just locking eyes feels like death closing in—that killing intent!”
Im Ga-hee’s face flushed as she writhed in ecstasy.
“Aaahhh! I want to roll around with a man like you, killing and dying over and over!”
She’s insane.
This woman’s completely lost it.
“No talking sense with you……”
My philosophy is.
When dealing with someone this pathologically deranged…… beat them first.
Only then can conversation happen.
And I had no mercy to spare for a murderer like this.