Chapter 20
Chapter 20
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 020
Chapter Title: Mad Hunter: ??? (4)
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6.
Something was off.
We were marching straight through the pitch-black tunnel.
The formation had the experienced assault team at the vanguard. Me, Jeong Ha-kyeong, and Park Ji-won brought up the rear.
What the hell was it?
We'd already traversed half the tunnel.
So why hadn't a single Heteromorph shown up?
“I hate when it's like this...”
I wiped the cold sweat from my hands onto my clothes, and Jeong Ha-kyeong grumbled too.
“Same here. Ever since those wheel bastards, nothing showing up feels even more fucked.”
You couldn't let your guard down in a Hunting Zone.
High level didn't mean bullets and blades bounced off you, and one wrong hit from a Hunting Zone Heteromorph could easily kill you.
“Ji-won.”
I quietly asked Park Ji-won, who had been following without a word.
“Are there no underground types here at all?”
“Underground types? There were. They all got eaten by those things.”
“Those things...?”
The terror plain in Park Ji-won's eyes made chills creep up my spine unbidden.
“Obviously, the Otherworlders.”
Otherworlders?
The Stalker up ahead shuddered at the name, as if it were a curse.
“Otherworlders... you mean like people?”
“They don't show up in the Nightmare Zone?”
“Nope.”
“Earthlings they are not. You'll know at a glance.”
A tense silence followed.
How long had we walked when the tunnel ended, opening into a vast platform?
It was nothing like DMC Station.
World Cup Stadium Station was an underground tomb of a dead world. A tomb filled only with gloomy silence and revolting stench.
“I'll go first. Wait quietly.”
Baek Hyun-jong climbed onto the platform with practiced ease.
All the screen doors were shut, but the one he approached cautiously slid open on both sides.
Surprisingly, it was a disguised door.
They must have attached a broken screen door like a makeshift barrier. Moments later, a voice called out.
“Area clear.”
“Confirmed.”
“Come on up.”
I was the last to step onto the platform.
That's when I tried to catch up to the rear of the formation. A rustling came from the darkness beyond.
Enemy...?
My heart dropped as I shone the Dawn Sword that way.
Far off, two corpses came into view.
One slumped lifelessly against a bench. The other sprawled haphazardly on the floor.
What?
I examined them carefully for a moment, but felt no trace of life.
They were unusually tall... but definitely corpses.
“Just bodies...”
My mutter under my breath halted the assault team. Baek Hyun-jong came rushing back in a panic, no time for surprise.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing much. Thought it was an enemy, but it was just bodies...”
“Where? Where is it? There are no bodies.”
Why was he acting like this?
Baek Hyun-jong looked consumed by pathological fear.
“What are you talking about?”
“Bodies shouldn't be here. That's normal. They devour everything down to the bones.”
I shone the Dawn Sword back on where the bodies had been, and there...
...nothing.
Chills raced over my skin.
What the hell... where did the bodies go?
Baek Hyun-jong barked urgently.
“A few have come down. Detection formation.”
The assault team clustered in a circle, scanning all directions. Flashlights swept every corner of the platform.
It didn't take long for one Stalker to let out a stifled scream.
“St, stairs to the exit. Fuck, three of them.”
Gray figures stood sporadically on the stairs.
I instantly understood why they were called Otherworlders.
...How could they look so much like people?
Worn clothes, gripping tools like farm implements as weapons. But on closer look, plenty of differences from us.
Ears pointed.
Mouths torn up to the ears.
Builds long and gaunt like chopsticks.
Otherworlders.
They really seemed like humans from another world.
Were those bodies I just saw... these guys?
“Otherworlders.”
The moment Park Ji-won murmured in a trembling voice, one bellowed at us.
“Pagagaga, ЖКжЮЧ......! LeGaeRimaa!”
Rat-tat-tat, Baek Hyun-jong's gun spat fire.
“Go! Go! Shoot on the move!”
That order lasted less than three seconds.
Screams full of hatred erupted from all sides.
“No way. What the hell?”
“Th, there are too many!”
Where did they come from...?
The hairs on my neck stood on end.
Before I knew it, both left and right stairs were swarming with gray figures.
“Tunnel behind is crawling with them too!”
Yang Je-gyeom shouted from the rear, and Park Ji-won muttered.
“Never seen this many before... Never this many down here...”
Trapped front and back by Otherworlders, no way forward or back.
Hesitate, and we'd be wiped out in seconds. The only way out was to break through.
“Ha-kyeong.”
I exchanged a glance with Jeong Ha-kyeong.
As if reading each other's minds, the next instant we kicked off the ground and charged to the front.
“We'll clear a path! Follow us!”
Time to hunt.
The moment I finished speaking, one Otherworlder leaped at me.
Jeong Ha-kyeong swiftly pulled her shotgun trigger. It rolled on the floor, half its body blasted apart with a scream.
──Cha-a-a-a-ang!
I slashed the first one charging with the Dawn Sword.
Shifted trajectory to cleave upward into the second, then pierced straight through the third's skull.
Target: right stairs.
Slashed, stabbed, swung as I advanced.
Any I missed were shredded by the shotgun soon after.
We probably could've broken through smoothly. By my tactical math.
“What the fuck... Why's the bulkhead shut?”
If not for the variable.
How?
The stair exit was blocked by a bulkhead.
Not a heavy anti-nuclear one, but a thin fire bulkhead... Damn, not the time to think about that.
“Ha-kyeong, somehow make it happen.”
Had to cover the rear.
Otherworlders pouring from the opposite stairs and tunnel. I leaped straight down to the base of the stairs. Right then.
“Ji-won!”
A breathless moment unfolded.
One Otherworlder grabbed Park Ji-won's ankle as she climbed the stairs.
“Argh!”
Park Ji-won tumbled onto the stairs, and it raised a sickle.
“Don't shoot! You'll hit Ji-won!”
In that instant, a flash of dawnlight sliced straight through the dark.
“Kiiiiiieeeek!”
The Otherworlder was impaled by the lightning-fast Dawn Sword and fell backward.
I hurriedly lifted Park Ji-won and handed her to the Stalkers, then yanked the Dawn Sword from its chest and raised it high.
“Grr... Garfa...... ЖКЮ?!”
I swung against the wave of Otherworlders murmuring unintelligible gibberish.
Nineteen. Twenty-three.
Twenty-nine... Thirty-seven? Wait, is this the forty-second one?
No time to look back.
Could only guess from fragmented reports.
“Baek-jun, cover. Just keep shining that light on the bottom of the stairs. Yeah.”
“Shoot. Shoot.”
Rat-tat-tat, suppressed gunfire erupted in unison.
“Three. Five climbing the stair walls.”
“Got one, mercy, aaagh!”
“Mount the machine gun.”
“Mounted.”
“Mow them all down!”
Ta-ta-ta-ta! The machine gun's sharp roar rang out, and the hit ones screamed as they fell.
“Found the manual override.”
“Why aren't you turning it?”
“Uh... It jammed midway! It's broken!”
“Fuck, get out of the way. Let me try.”
The shotgun's dull booms rang out several times. Then rebar crumpling. Debris flying everywhere.
“Kid. Backpack. Grab ammo from my pack.”
“What ammo? Which one?”
“Silver jacketed. The round ones. 5cm diameter iron balls.”
Pushing my limits now.
Breath up to my chin.
Muscles screaming all over.
“Grrrararak!”
Swoosh, a spear tip flashed before my eyes.
A half-beat too slow to dodge—my cheek burned, blood trickling down.
Fed it my blade right away... but as it fell, another filled the gap.
“Haa, haa, haa.”
The World Cup Stadium Station platform stairs were narrow.
Awkward for swinging a greatsword, but perfect for holding off hordes alone.
But there was a limit.
These guys outnumbered even the human wheels. Do Hunting Zones deploy by quantity over quality?
“Hurry the fuck up!”
“This one?”
“Yeah, hand it over.”
Thung. Thung. Thung.
Consecutive shots boomed. Next instant, a thud shook the ground as something crashed down. Jeong Ha-kyeong yelled.
“Kim Baek-jun!”
I carefully fell back.
Glanced back: a hole punched through the bulkhead. Big enough to crawl through sitting. Shotgun blasts, probably.
Baek Hyun-jong ordered.
“Covering fire in sequence! Empty mag, get out!”
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
The assault team laid down cover as I reached intervals, one by one slipping through the hole.
When I finally reached the bulkhead, only Jeong Ha-kyeong remained.
“Go first. I'll follow right away.”
I nodded and rolled through the hole.
All the while, Jeong Ha-kyeong hosed the area with shotgun blasts. Then she pulled something from her pocket.
“Grenade.”
She shouted that and rolled through after me. Two, three seconds later.
──Kwaaaang!
The roar tore at my eardrums.
The shockwave rocked the station, dust and pebbles raining from the ceiling. Then silence fell.
Grenade underground... Tough as nails.
I jumped up and ran to Jeong Ha-kyeong. She took my hand and stood.
“Ceiling's completely collapsed.”
“They won't get through without clearing all the rubble.”
“Bingo. Opposite stairs were blocked too.”
“Impressive as always. That call to blast the hole with the shotgun too.”
No one hates praise—they say. Jeong Ha-kyeong awkwardly looked away.
“Who're you calling impressive? You're the impressive one, uncle. Slicing down over a hundred by yourself.”
Ex-police special forces and field officer, maybe. Oddly, our rhythms synced perfectly with Jeong Ha-kyeong.
“All thanks to you, Ha-kyeong.”
I flashed a weary smile and looked around.
This was the World Cup Stadium Station concourse.
Pitch black, but empty, no signs of life.
Never thought reaching the first waypoint would be this hard...
Around then, assault team members trickled in one by one. They'd secured and scouted the area after entering first.
“That was insane. First time seeing anything like that.”
“Reminded me of some phone game back in the day. One of those Warriors All-Stars or whatever...”
“As expected of a Nightmare Hunter. Something else.”
I shook my head, dismissing the near-worshipful praise.
“Not time to relax. We're still in enemy territory. Remember our urgent mission.”
The assault team let out “ah”s and shook their heads.
The first to snap to and summarize was Baek Hyun-jong.
“Anyway...”
Hearing it, yeah, no time to relax.
Ammo more than half gone.
Worst, one Stalker killed in the fight just now. A brief, sad silence fell.
“What about our Seong-chan...”
A female Stalker sniffled, others patting her shoulder. I let out a heavy sigh.
“Any other peculiarities?”
“Ah, concourse is empty. Totally empty. Weird? Or lucky? Not sure...”
Something ominous stirred at Baek Hyun-jong's uneasy tone.
“Weird? Explain in detail.”
“Otherworlders usually don't come down to the platform. They should be lurking around the concourse or exits...”
Doubts swirled wildly.
So they were waiting for us?
No.
No tactical ambush feel like Cha-Ratevil. Just reacting to intruders.
“Do they have the intelligence to close a bulkhead?”
“We called them zombies at first.”
“No intelligence?”
“Yes.”
Then who closed the bulkhead...? No way.
A shiver ran down my spine, the back of my neck throbbing.
That thing?
“Before we move again, something to check.”
I inspected the fire bulkhead manual override on the wall.
Not electric.
Press the button, heavy iron door drops down. One-way.
We needed to hurry, but caution mattered more.
“Ji-won.”
Park Ji-won, who had been staring blankly at me.
“Ji-won.”
She finally snapped to after two calls, mouth agape.
“Yes?”
“Can you use 《Bloodline Tracking》 here?”
“Uh... from 12 hours ago?”
“No. From 7 hours ago.”
7 hours ago.
When Park Ji-yeon went missing.
“Any way to speed it up?”
“Yes.”
“Then max speed.”
The blood replay began.
Didn't take long to breathe relief.
Unlike my worry, the 'past' at 5-6x speed showed only shambling zombie-like Otherworlders.
“This is good. Let's move—”
“W-wait. Caught something else.”
《Bloodline Tracking》 changed right then.
...No way.
Cold sweat beaded on my forehead instantly.
The assault team froze, mouths shut.
Only Park Ji-won panted in rage.
“You bastard...!”
A figure approached the override with calm strides.
About 170cm tall, slender build. And... a creepy smiling mask.
Never seen before.
Yet I knew instantly. The moment the DMC Station commune's tragedy appeared before my eyes.
The Mad Hunter.
The last hook of 《Bloodline Tracking》 had snagged, worst of all, him.