Catching Them All in One Net (1)
Hunters are, in principle, required to report their gate entries and exits to the Hunter Bureau.
Of course, since the Bureau doesn't know the location of every gate in existence, it's not strictly mandatory.
Reporting your gate records comes with a number of benefits, though. The big one is a tax reduction when selling items obtained from that gate. The small one is that a cleared gate gets registered on your personal profile, serving as proof of experience.
Hunters with plenty of gate experience earn a reputation as veterans, and an impressive clear record early in one's awakening career is enough to attract offers from major guilds.
That's why so many hunters make regular visits to the Hunter Bureau to register their gate records.
"……"
Tokyo, Japan.
The entrance of the Hunter Bureau building.
People in impeccably tailored suits jittered their legs and fidgeted as they waited for someone. They would sip their coffee, glance sharply at the door whenever anyone walked in, and then return to staring straight ahead with eyes gone cold.
"We've been waiting here for days already."
"Two days... damn it, is he actually coming or not?"
Every one of them was a guild scout.
Tasked with bringing promising, unaffiliated hunters into their respective guilds.
Right now, the scouts of nearly every guild in Japan had been handed down the same order.
Yamamoto Shuya.
Secure that B-rank hunter at all costs. Make contact with the man who had appeared like a comet and been on a wildly unconventional run lately.
"How many gates did he even clear in that short a span of time...?"
One scout, flipping through Yamamoto's profile, went pale and clicked his tongue.
Gates that would normally require several teams from a single guild rotating in shifts without rest — this man had wiped them all out in one go.
Alone. As a mere B-rank, no less.
If he were S-rank or A-rank, I suppose we wouldn't even get this far.
At that level, unless you belonged to a guild of considerable size, approaching him at all would be difficult.
But this time, he was only B-rank. Weaker guilds still had room to squeeze their foot in the door with pitches like, "At a major guild, you'd struggle to get top treatment as a B-rank."
"And on top of that — Yamamoto, of all names."
"Oh, come on... you can't seriously mean—"
After all, the internet had been buzzing lately over rumors that he was Ayase Karin's hidden lover.
Yamamoto was a common enough surname, but the circumstances lined up in a way that was almost too perfect.
Sign him now, and his value wouldn't just be his raw skill — the potential returns from media and press exposure were astronomical. He was, without a doubt, prime merchandise that made every guild's mouth water.
"Goddamn it."
Watching the scouts fawn over the mere thought of Yamamoto, one man exhaled hot air through his nose.
A hulking hunter, an iron shield strapped to one arm and a massive longsword gripped in the other hand.
He was a newly awakened A-rank.
In the early days after his awakening, he'd dreamed of joining a major guild and swallowing wealth and glory in a single gulp. But then some random freak had popped out of nowhere and stolen everything that should have been his.
Offers had poured in from mid-sized and small guilds, but he had deliberately stalled and turned them all down. Keep playing it this way, he'd figured, and soon enough a major guild would scoop him up with a hefty price tag attached.
Instead, there they were — clutching every last yen they might have offered him, while fidgeting impatiently over that hunter called Yamamoto.
"Mr. Watabe, your gate registration is complete. Here's your license— kyaaah?!"
"Give it here!"
He snatched the license out of the clerk's hands with barely contained irritation.
Another minute in this place and he was going to die of anger. He'd go out and get a drink, he decided — and the moment he turned around—
"...!"
Someone was standing right behind him.
A man in a black hood pulled low, wearing some kind of wolf mask over his face, an old iron spear clutched tightly in his hand.
"Wh-what the hell?! Don't sneak up on people!"
"...If your business here is finished, step aside."
The hooded man brushed past him and approached the counter.
"Ah — w-welcome. What brings you in today?"
"I'm here to register a gate clearance."
With those words, the man handed over his license.
"Yes, of course, Mr. Yamamoto Shuya. I'll process your gate registration right away."
"Y-Yamamoto?!"
So this was the man all those scouts had been panting after.
How the hell did he get in here?
Slipping past the eyes of that many scouts and closing the distance to stand directly behind him — it was fast and silent enough to raise goosebumps.
For a moment, sweat beaded at Watabe's temples.
But he's still just B-rank.
There was no way he outranked an A-rank like himself. And staring at that wolf mask, an unpleasant memory came crawling back.
His nose must be in pieces by now. My bad about that.
Just remembering it still made his own nose sting. Carrying that feeling with him, Watabe shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Hey! Yamamoto!"
"Yamamoto? He's here?"
"I don't think I ever saw him come in—"
In an instant, every gaze in the building swung toward one spot.
"Ah."
Yamamoto glanced around, then let out an irritated sigh.
"Haah... this is why I wear the mask."
"You — how dare you cut in line! It was my turn!"
"What kind of garbage is that? If you'd just finished your business like you claimed, you'd already be—"
"I don't need your answers! Guys like you only climb up when you're knocked down a peg."
He readied himself for a fight.
At the same time, he gauged the scouts' reactions.
They're all looking this way!
The heads that had been so hard to turn were now all pointed squarely at him.
Break Yamamoto in front of all these witnesses, and that popularity would flow straight to him. And if that happened, entangling himself with that Ayase Karin woman was no longer just a fantasy.
"Kihihit!"
A grin split his face at the mere thought.
"Come here, and I'll fix that attitude of—"
Just as he unfurled his fists, mana pouring off his body—
A portion of the Demonic Spear's aura has been drawn forth.
Something distant and terrible pressed down on his entire body, as if to crush him from the inside out.
"Hah... haaagh...!"
He couldn't breathe.
As if he'd forgotten how — his lungs refused to take in air.
What was squeezing his throat shut was none other than fear.
The primal terror of a living creature blared alarms through his body, screaming a single piece of advice: run. Right now. Get out of here.
The Demonic Spear's aura continues to grow stronger.
"K-kuhk... ngh...!"
"My apologies. I'm rather busy at the moment."
How could such pressure radiate from a single person?
Watabe collapsed to the floor, retching for breath.
Stomach acid and bile had been crawling back up his throat for a while now.
Only after confirming that the man's will to resist had withered away did I withdraw the Demonic Spear's aura.
"Ah — thank you for the license."
With my gate registration complete, I tucked the license away and strolled calmly out of the Hunter Bureau building.
"Wh-what was that just now...?"
"I couldn't even breathe from across the room..."
And yet not a single person moved to stop him.
No — none of them even dared to think of it.
Of all the moments for my name to come up, it had to happen within earshot.
All that effort into a mask, and it hadn't done a thing.
Well, I've thrown out every decent-sized guild by now.
At this point, anyone worth knowing probably knew this face.
Every time I entered the Hunter Bureau, guild representatives swarmed me with conversation. It was becoming a real problem. Hence the mask I'd gone to the trouble of making.
"Ugh, seriously."
Why was it that wherever I went, there was always someone spoiling for a fight? Was my fate just tangled up with idiots like that?
Provoked at every turn, no matter where I went — what kind of fate was that? Where in the world did you find a destiny with this much rebel in it?
"Hah."
I sighed and tucked the license safely into my pocket.
It should be about time for the guild the Advent Cult is hiding behind to come to me.
I'd heard pitches from plenty of guilds by now. But they'd all been the same tired drivel — guaranteed top-tier treatment in the industry — so I'd brushed them off.
From their perspective, they'd want to be careful.
The more a man has to hide, the heavier he sits on his hands. But the heavier he sits, the more certain he is to reach out and grab me in the end.
Right now, I was doing nothing less than fishing — using myself as the bait.
To land a big one, there was nothing to do but hold your breath and wait for the moment.
"There you are."
Just then, a voice approached from behind.
I turned immediately, widening the distance by a step.
"Who are you?"
"Oh, no need to be so tense."
A woman in a crisp white blouse and a neat skirt raised both hands with a beaming smile.
"That outfit... so you've left your guild?"
"Correct. As expected of the hottest hunter around — sharp eyes, too."
"……"
I fell silent for a moment, studying the woman.
...Strange.
I'd met plenty of scouts by now, but this woman gave off an oddly disquieting air.
Not the overwhelming presence of the strong, nor the mystique of a mage.
Nothing.
It was like looking at a mirage. As if she existed and yet did not exist at the same time — how else could I put it?
"First, allow me to introduce myself."
Tilting her head slightly, the woman offered her name.
"My name is Miwa Yutsuki. I'm the guild master of New World."
"The guild master herself comes out to recruit?"
"You're worth the trouble."
Miwa Yutsuki narrowed her eyes ever so slightly as she spoke.
"I don't need an introduction. I know you quite well already — Yamamoto Shuya. These days, nobody in this industry couldn't know that name."
"Then we can skip the pleasantries."
If a guild was approaching me, the objective was obvious.
"Our guild wants you. That power of yours will become a tremendous asset to us in the days to come."
"Anyone watching would think I'd already signed."
"Kuhufu! I heard all about it — how you've flat-out rejected offers from countless guilds. Which is exactly why I'd like to offer you something a little more special."
"Something special?"
Miwa Yutsuki.
She ran her tongue slowly across her lips.
"Tell me — don't you want to become even stronger?"
Guild: New World
'If you're interested, come to the address on this card. I'll be waiting, any time.'
With those parting words, the woman had vanished like smoke.
"...Found it."
The Japanese branch of the Advent Cult.
Guild New World.
That place was the hidden nest of those insect-like vermin.
"Now that I know where it is—"
I immediately pulled out my phone and made a call.
To the ally who would be most useful to me at this moment.
"Time to exterminate every last one of them."
Ri-ri-ring— click!
As if they'd been waiting, the other side picked up right away.
— Hello? Tae-hyun?
"Found them."
— Al... already?
This matter couldn't be solved by me simply crushing their branch.
Unless I tore them out by the root, the cult would simply start moving again before long. The Moon Fragments would flow into Korea once more, and the whole nightmare would repeat itself.
To prevent that—
I had to make the problem far, far bigger.
Big enough that no one would ever be able to conveniently forget it.
— Everything is prepared on our end. And they've graciously accepted our request for cooperation, as well.
"Good."
This wasn't a simple fishing trip.
Because what I'd be casting wasn't a rod — it was an enormously vast net.
A net wide enough to drag vermin like you out of the water all at once.
It was almost time to bring this affair to a close.
All that remained was the thing I did best.
"I'll take responsibility and crush every last one of them."
The moment of catching them all in one net had arrived.