Clash (1)

I took Jenny and returned to my room.

"Eep!"

Pattering footsteps receded at a sprint. As if she remembered the house rules perfectly, Jenny put as much distance between us as the walls would allow — then planted herself flush against one of them, facing the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠plaster.

A soft smack as her palms and forehead met the wall.

She's going that far?

I'd had a feeling that explaining it properly would get complicated, so I'd glossed over the whole HP 1 situation. Something along the lines of: my body was extremely frail, so if anything went wrong, I could die?

"Hah! You must not die! You absolutely must not die!"

That look of sheer horror on her face. Ever since, she seemed to be constantly drilling it into herself: not even a single hair of hers was allowed to touch me.

What is a sniper's lifeline?

Being a good shot matters, of course. But more than that —

No risk.

Not getting caught is what matters most.

And in that sense, I — a man who lived one breath from death at all times — had no choice but to think about it even more sharply than most.

I'd been blasting away from the corner of my room when the thought hit me out of nowhere.

Fuck. If I only ever shoot from here, aren't I screwed later?

There was no guarantee that I, holed up in this one corner of this one room, would be safe forever. Because ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the real problem was pinpointing Unregistered's location.

In some manga, there was an S-rank assassin who could kill people remotely just by writing their names in a pitch-black notebook. And even he ran into a crisis when an EX-rank genius roughly locked down where he was.

Youuu…? So you're around here, are you…?

This broadcast… it only airs in Tokyo, doesn't it…? (smirk)

It had been possible because a pattern had been established — that the killings were being carried out from a specific location.

And I was pouring fire from a confined space: my bedroom. I would have to keep doing it that way, too.

The Shelter being discovered is absolutely unacceptable. I don't even want to imagine it.

Sooner or later, I'd be so afraid of being found that I wouldn't even be able to take a single shot out the window.

The part I'd designed around Jenny joining the team was meant to put that anxiety to rest.

Our operation wasn't complicated. Jenny opens the spatial link. Kim Yu-hee takes the peek shot. That's it.

The two things essential to that were Stealth and target location intel.

Stealth was my own skill, so I could control it, and it even grew stronger as I leveled up. Pass.

The problem was pinpointing the target's location…

"Jenny. If you only know one or the other — the location or the image — then Spatial Magic might not land accurately. That's what you mean, right?"

"Yes… I'm sorry. I'll try even harder."

"No, that's not it."

That was the issue. The best-case scenario was having both the image and the location locked in clearly.

Honestly, a rough location could be handled with Google Earth.

"Haaaah! You can really see every place this vividly?! This is more amazing than magic!"

"No. Not quite that far. It's not real-time, so it's more like… this is roughly the location, and this is what it looks like."

Once I explained it, Jenny said, "Even just this much is an enormous help!"

Even if it isn't perfectly accurate, this is more than enough. It'll help plenty.

Jenny's growth in magical ability also looked like it would become a welcome variable going forward.

That was when it happened.

"Hah! Something dangerous is happening!"

Jenny, who had been waiting beside me for orders, startled so hard she nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Haaaah."

Terror attacks had been breaking out like crazy lately. Necrophilia, from the looks of it. I dismissed the feeling that those bastards were doing this to catch me. The scale was way too excessive for that, and rather than the sense that they were specifically hunting for me, they were just raising hell all across Seoul.

Wait.

The villains' movements, shared in real time through Hunter Universe. A place a long, long way from my Shelter.

"Jenny. That rooftop way over there — the one we tried in the Training Ground earlier. Think you can do it?"

"Over th-there, you mean? Ah! Yes! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I can do it!"

It was a location we'd already practiced in the Training Ground, and now that she could see it with her own eyes in the real world, she seemed to gain even more confidence.

I'm a little more confident myself, since I trained at that location too. If I use Stealth on the rooftop, I could try putting this into practice for real — just once.

Just my gun, of course. I was absolutely not going out there.

Jenny dropped to her knees, closed her eyes, and focused. A low hum filled the air, and sure enough, a Spatial Distortion bloomed inside my studio apartment.

Without a word to her, I eased forward, just a fraction.

Don't tense up. I'm only sticking the gun out anyway. Just the gun…

With Stealth running, I pushed only my sniper rifle and the telescopic scope through the distortion point. And then —

A roar of noise I could never have heard from inside the Shelter came flooding into my ears, vivid and close. From a distortion point formed with precision at the very edge of the rooftop, I was genuinely looking through the scope.

Damn. It actually works. Should I pull back in?

It was terrifying. Even if it was an empty rooftop, and even if I'd only stuck the gun out…

That was when I heard it. A guttural, rolling groan from the far. A villain herding three undead orcs. He had the look of an officer-class, even at a glance. In the distance, forces that looked like Certified Hunters were rushing in to engage.

The problem was —

This… people are going to die right in front of me.

Civilians pinned in a corner between buildings — five of them, at a glance, if not more. The undead orcs looked like they were going to kill those people, no question. It was too close a race against time. The Certified Hunters wouldn't be able to prevent casualties.

In that instant, I confirmed there was nothing around me.

A metallic clack as I chambered.

This is also a chance to try shooting for real.

And I couldn't just watch people die right in front of me.

Hold on.

I rolled the magnification up to about 3.5x. The people huddled in the corner, shaking with terror, snapped into focus — and so did the undead orcs, now closing to point-blank range.

I settled my aim on the villain driving them.

You die first.

That would be the most critical blow.

"Hoooo."

I let the tension drain out of me, fully, and settled my aim on the villain.

The shot whispered out.

Then a violent, wet burst.

Missed again. Son of a bitch.

After all that practice, it was the undead orc standing right next to the villain that came apart. The villain, though, startled so hard he nearly jumped, and started whipping his head around. The orcs stirred with him, agitated.

Okay. The hunters should be able to stop them now.

They were almost on top of it. I'd done nearly everything I needed to do — but I still had time.

As for you, take another one.

I fired again. This time it hit the villain, and he came apart.

Almost in the same breath, the hunters arrived. On one side, a team moved in to finish the undead orcs, which looked like they'd lost their strength. On the other, hunters were glancing around in confusion — some of them even backing up.

I helped you. Don't you forget it…

Time was almost gone. I pulled back through the distortion point into the corner of my room.

"Hah. Hah… hahh."

"What's the matter? Is there a problem?! Did I perhaps make a mistak—"

"No."

I was just nervous. Training and real combat felt completely different, no question. My body hadn't even gone outside, but just the fact that I'd been connected to the world beyond the Shelter was enough to rattle me… and on top of that, I'd ended up pouring live fire downrange without exactly meaning to.

Still, I'd gained one thing. Nothing beats real combat experience.

Operation: Don't Let Them Find the Shelter. This could actually work.

I'd fully gotten the hang of it.

Just now had been an enormous result. A sniping position on the rooftop of a building quite far from my apartment — and from that building, a shot into a place even farther away. So that even if someone tried to track my range of activity, they would never, ever be able to pinpoint me.

In the Training Ground, I'd already mapped out several peek-shot positions, including that rooftop. All so that my location could never be estimated.

But operating only in Seoul could become a problem in its own right.

From here on, I'll expand my operational range step by step. All the way to the provinces, until I can operate nationwide.

Google Earth, everything else — I'd use it all, and expand my range while keeping safety locked down. There was the added advantage of increasing my gate-clear count, too. The faster I leveled up, the more my odds of survival would grow.

Once that much had settled into place —

"Jenny! You did great!"

Her eyes went round. She froze solid.

? Why's she so surprised?

For the first time since my awakening, I'd felt a real sense of accomplishment, and I'd praised the person who'd made all of it possible.

That was when breaking news dropped across Hunter Universe.

"What is this?"

What the hell was it, that it would shove everything else aside and slap itself right across every hunter's status window?

A bad feeling creeping over me, I read the breaking news.

"???"

To put it simply: a pitch-black dragon was going to completely wreck Seoul. Unless they took down those so-called Apostles, and fast…

Please. What the hell is this bullshit now?

A few hours later.

Kim Chungyu had gone ahead and reported the Apostles' appearance himself. The rumors had already spread worldwide through every information network. Since it had come to this anyway, he'd decided there was no point in wrapping it up tight — he would go public. The egg's location was directly tied to the operation, so that much would remain classified.

We can do this.

Extermination of the Apostles. Suppression of the corruption. They had to achieve both at once.

The corruption was concentrated in Seoul, and it was growing worse by the hour in both scale and density. The bulk of Team 2's regular forces had been committed to suppressing it, focusing on the defense of the capital. The High Rankers were locked in for anti-Apostle operations. However —

"Second Apostle's location confirmed! The High Ranker in the vicinity…"

The Apostle had appeared in the provinces. Not Seoul.

Our main forces are about to get split up.

He could feel the intent. They wanted to draw the heavyweight hunters far away from Cartibes' Egg.

Strategic. Unpleasantly so.

And so Kim Chungyu assigned the High Rankers to the Apostles.

"Contact the High Rankers in order of proximity. We've already got prior cooperation agreements, so get in touch with the private guilds too!"

"Yes, sir!!!"

Unregistered had certainly helped them, but there was no guarantee he would continue to do so. They couldn't build a strategy here that assumed he would.

"I believe in them. I believe in them."

Kim Chungyu prayed. He prayed that the High Rankers would do their part.

At that same moment —

Kim Chigon — gangster tattoos, a clutch bag in one hand. Before his eyes stood the Apostle called Ombris.

It had already slaughtered five or six civilians in gruesome fashion. The noteworthy part: the corpses had no shadows.

And there was one more thing that pissed him off.

"Fuck. Why've I got two of 'em? I'm already worn to the bone."

The objective clearly said there was one Apostle to deal with — [0/1]. What he was looking at was two. What the hell was this.

One of them was as huge and solid as Kim Chigon's own frame — eyeless, a corpse-stench rolling off its ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠entire body, a victim's thigh gripped in its hand like a blunt weapon. The other was perched on that bulk's shoulder: a cowardly little shit about the size of a basketball, studded with too many eyes, drool pouring from its mouth like a fountain.

"Don't care. Come at me, the lot of you. You sons of bitches."

Kim Chigon rolled his dress-shirt sleeves back up. There was nothing on his face but rage.

At that same moment — far enough that neither Kim Chigon nor the Apostle of Shadows would ever spare it a thought, at a place so trivial and ordinary it barely existed… the base of a tree, deep in the mountains.

A low, gathering hum.

At a position from which the two beings locked in combat could be looked down upon, quite vividly, a distortion began to take shape — as eerie and wavering as Hazy Heat.