Chapter 4
Chapter 4
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 004
Chapter Title: End of Childhood, Start of the Hunt (4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
6.
The thing that immediately rebelled against my judgment was the information window.
[Warning: The selected successor lags behind other successors in achievement level.]
So that’s why it was there.
But.
“I don’t care.”
I wouldn’t withdraw this choice, nor would I regret it.
[Warning: The selected successor is registered under the <Exception> category.]
The monster charged right up to me before I could even finish reading the warning message.
Shrrrip!
My uniform shirt and the flesh beneath it were torn away by its pincer.
If I’d retreated even a fraction slower, my ribcage would’ve been crushed outright. My voice grew urgent without me realizing it.
“I said I don’t care. Do it now!”
[Holy Flame Succession: Beginning Holy Flame Succession for the selected being.]
Maybe, just maybe.
The <Regular> successor list might contain incomparably powerful beings compared to the one I chose.
But there was a more important criterion for my selection.
The one who lent strength when saving the children’s mother.
The one who awakened my guiding principle in life when I wanted to give up at the end.
The one who encouraged me to the very end when the Holy Apostles mocked me.
Sometimes, you can glimpse a person’s humanity from mere fragments of their actions. The being I chose now was exactly like that. Exactly.
[You have selected a failed successor,
the broken master of the dawn.]
Shieeek!
In that moment, the squid head extended its tentacles.
It hurts… The searing pain of flesh ripping apart. It merely grazed my shoulder, yet blood poured out in streams.
“Hup!”
In the end, I raised my revolver and fired my final flare round straight into its head—
—Ting!
Crazy.
Its pincer swatted the speeding flare away.
The crimson flare plummeted into the distant fog, the monster let out a wicked chuckle, and both pincers and tentacles came flying at me.
[Holy Flame Succession: Activating unique weapon.]
I would’ve died.
If not for the orb of light that appeared at that moment.
Fist-sized.
It floated in the space between me and the monster.
While the monster recoiled with a scream of astonishment, a calm voice emanated from the orb.
“Grab it.”
I hesitated for a moment.
The instant I reached out as if entranced and grasped the orb, I couldn’t help but shudder.
—Chaaaaaaaang!
A brilliant flash.
That radiance whipped into a fierce whirlwind.
Not ordinary white light, but the golden hue of life itself. As it spread in all directions, the yellowish fog began to evaporate.
At some point, the whirlwind of light converged in my hand, taking on a new form.
The form of a sword.
A mystical greatsword.
No scabbard, its blade shattered pitifully midway.
Yet it was a sword so breathtakingly beautiful that it left me entranced just looking at it.
[Unique Weapon Equipped: Dawn Sword]
True to its name, the blade seemed etched with the dawn.
Crimson and gold swirled in wave patterns, and it even carried the dawn’s heat.
“BARISHYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
That’s when the monster thrust its pincer ferociously, and I hurriedly gripped the sword hilt.
In that instant, something bizarre happened.
My body “automatically” retreated, dodging the monster’s ferocious assault.
Shiiiiiiek!
The tentacles that followed in quick succession were evaded with a graceful spin. At the same time, a sharp whoosh tore through the air.
Chaaang!
This time, the monster bellowed in rage.
Not anger at losing prey it had all but caught… but a scream born of pain.
Plop, plop.
Half of its twenty-odd tentacles lay severed on the ground.
The dazzling dawn light flickered from the writhing cross-sections, hot enough to scorch the tentacles and fill the air with a foul stench.
What… This is absurd.
The sensation of swinging the sword lingered vividly in my fingers around the hilt.
My body hadn’t just dodged an attack I shouldn’t have been able to react to—it had even counterattacked.
[Holy Flame Succession: Succession Progress (2%)]
- Combat Memory Synchronization. (2%)
- Physical Ability Synchronization. (2%)
The notification window appeared in the corner of my vision.
I see. So that’s how it is. It started to make sense.
Even at just 2%, that combat memory had truly been inherited.
Could I… win this?
The moment that realization hit, blood surged vigorously through my entire body.
With the tentacles severed as the turning point, the situation had reached a stalemate. I advanced more boldly, while
“Come at me like before, you bastard.”
The monster, now cautious, refused to close the distance.
“Won’t rush in agai—”
My words cut off there.
The Dawn Sword had cleared the fog, revealing a horrific sight behind the monster.
Corpses blanketed the road in blood. A sea of death stretching beyond sight.
Some torn to shreds.
Others crushed flat.
The methods of slaughter were varied indeed, yet not a single reason justified such miserable ends.
In my grip, the Dawn Sword trembled.
I couldn’t tell if my fingers shook or the blade did.
But at that moment.
One thought alone throbbed in my mind, and that’s all I remember.
Exterminate… Exterminate.
No matter their purpose, everything that committed such acts for sport had to die.
I had to soothe their souls. That’s what I thought then.
And so.
I was the one who broke the stalemate and charged first.
“KERASHIKKKKKKKKK!”
The monster was an intelligent hunter.
It had been waiting for me, empowered anew, to grow careless and rush in.
The instant it read my approach path, it unleashed a pincer attack.
Whiiiiiish!
A bundle of white tentacles aimed at my face.
In linked assault, a pincer dove from above on the left.
I would’ve been done for.
If it were the me from before.
With near-divine movement, I twisted my body every which way.
After barely dodging the tentacles, I twisted my waist and swung the Dawn Sword.
The blade cloaked in dawn’s radiance.
It clashed midair with the jade pincer, sparking flames.
It was astonishing.
Though broken, the blade didn’t yield an inch against the pincer that could shatter the ground.
Amid the grating screech of metal on metal, I unleashed a surging kiai.
“Haaaaaaaap!”
The blade sank deep into the pincer, tracing a path of dawn.
As thick blood erupted, tentacles flew at my face in retaliation.
I spun sideways, twisting the blade free.
As the tentacles grazed my cheek in a flash, a heavy thud echoed. One pincer had been severed, crashing to the ground.
“Garak, Garakak, Gaaraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak.”
The monster’s gasping groans.
It looked in agony, but we’d barely begun.
“Does it hurt?”
Before I finished asking, the opposite pincer rushed at my face.
I barely spun away, and the pincer sliced empty air.
A beat too late.
A sharp whoosh grazed my eardrum.
That was it. It couldn’t retract that pincer.
I’d slashed the Dawn Sword vertically, severing its upper arm.
“Answer me, you fucker!”
It was ridiculous.
Terror floated in the squid’s eye.
Even more ridiculous: it began stumbling backward.
“So it hurts.”
As I approached cautiously, a desperate flurry of tentacles lashed out.
I ducked my head to evade lightly, then snatched one midair.
“You knew pain so well, yet still did that shit.”
I yanked the tentacle viciously. A shrill scream pierced my eardrum.
Now… time to finish it.
That’s when a ferocious earthquake swept through.
I used the Dawn Sword as a staff to barely keep my balance, but the retreating monster toppled over.
Did the invasion trigger the quake? Or…
An ominous premonition stirred, but by the time the shaking stopped, the scene I desired was complete.
Fallen prey, approaching hunter.
I slowly neared the monster.
I wanted to tell it. Make it feel it.
The terror of approaching death.
The despair the dead had felt. The rage at helplessness.
One step.
Another.
The monster thrashed, gurgling as it tried to rise.
But the blood-slick ground made it slip repeatedly.
“Guarbas, Karrasis, Garakak, Gaaraaaaa.”
In a final spasm, a few tentacles lashed out.
Those once-threatening tentacles now seemed feeble. Roaring, I batted them away with the Dawn Sword again and again.
As I deflected, I kept walking.
When I finally reached its feet, I severed one leg from each side.
“SSSIASSSSSSSSSSSSS!”
A pitiful death cry.
Nothing remained for it now. No fighting, no fleeing. Only awaiting death.
I raised the Dawn Sword overhead.
I held it there, letting it savor the fear and despair, and the squid head began to quiver.
In the darkness, the radiant dawn blade gleamed.
The blade flashed down, splitting the head, cleaving the torso, slicing deep to the pelvis.
The next instant, the flesh parted in two. Thick, foul, hot blood drenched me.
Even then, bloody light rippled from the cross-section.
This blade seemed imbued with mystical power to incinerate monster flesh.
As I stared blankly at the monster crumbling to ash,
[You have successfully hunted the ancient one, ‘Haneubarak.’]
[Notice: The yellowish fog temporarily weakens by 1 stage.]
[Warning: Nearby Heteromorphs lose control and go berserk.]
As if congratulating me, the notification windows appeared at will.
[Legendary Achievement Unlocked: Lead Hunters of Twelve (7 / 12)]
[The world pays respects to the lead hunters who felled the first ancient one!]
- All physical stats receive (+2) correction.
A heavy silence descended.
I wiped the blood from my face and surveyed the ruined city.
Collapsed buildings in wreckage.
Corpses strewn everywhere.
Smoke rising here and there.
Beyond lay fog-shrouded obscurity, but it was obvious: the heart of Korea, Seoul, was falling.
My gaze shot skyward.
The pitch-black torn sky bore the words [Holy Apostles’ Selection].
A Guider resembling an angel gleefully overlooking humanity’s “struggle.”
Struggle… Transcendence…?
All that fancy talk, but they’d just turned the world into a game.
No thrill of victory filled me.
Only rage—empty, futile rage—surged in my chest.
Rage at those who twisted the world’s order. Rage at the deaths of the powerless and innocent.
I quietly closed my eyes.
The day the world became a game.
I was chosen as a hunter in the Holy Apostles’ playground.
But they wouldn’t know.
That on that same day, they too were chosen as prey.
“Are you… one of them too?”
I asked, gazing at the Dawn Sword.
A brief silence, then the blade’s glow began to fade, as if refuting my question.
“I’ll believe you’re not.”
No proof, but I chose to believe.
With no hope in sight, I had to cling to this.
I fashioned a scabbard for the Dawn Sword.
Using the dead’s jackets and belts. I wrapped the blade with the jackets and wove the belts into a sword baldric to strap it to my back.
…Looks decent enough.
I decided to move swiftly while quickly assessing the situation. It sucked, but like in a game.
Weapon: broken sword.
Unique skill: Holy Flame Succession.
The former could deal effective damage to monsters, the latter guaranteed victory against at least one foe.
A whole area… still too much for now.
As I hurried toward S-042, something caught my eye. I muttered unwittingly.
“…Item?”
At the spot where the monster’s corpse had incinerated.
A stone lay there, scattering faint sparkles.
The effect distinguishing simple objects from items in any game.
[Rare Material Acquired: Soulstone of the ancient one, ‘Haneubarak.’]
It was ridiculous.
The moment I picked up the stone, the information window popped up as if it were natural.