Chapter 83
Chapter 83
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 83
Chapter Title: Foresight - 2
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Not even a minute had passed since Kim Seo-hyun finished her foresight.
Yet a gate had already appeared.
All three scenarios she had foreseen earlier were wrong.
"Get back! Hurry!"
"Y-Yes, sir!"
At Kim Min-jun's shout, Kim Seo-hyun quickly distanced herself from the gate.
On Earth, where demonic energy was practically nonexistent, Kim Min-jun was the only black mage capable of wielding powerful magic.
She had no strength left to fight monsters right now.
Pssshhhh.
The gate rippled for a moment before it began emitting red gas.
"Red toxic gas!"
The instant Kim Min-jun identified the gas's color, he launched himself toward the people passing nearby.
There were three types of gas emitted from gates.
Red was the most lethal to the human body.
It was so dangerous that even a slight whiff could knock someone unconscious.
"Wh-What? Soldier guy? What's the big idea all of a sudden!"
The students passing near the school yelped in confusion as the hunter soldier suddenly charged at them.
"Hold your breath as long as you can from now on! A gate just spawned here!"
"A g-gate? You mean monsters... Mmph!"
Kim Min-jun clamped his hand over the boy's mouth and hoisted up every person in sight.
"Wh-What's going on?"
"What do you think you're doing? I need to get back to the office right now..."
The civilians had no clue how serious the situation was.
Of course not.
How could they notice invisible gas leaking out?
Most people passed out before they even realized.
"Don't inhale! Toxic gas is leaking from the gate! If you breathe it in by mistake, the worst case is death."
"H-Huh?!"
At the word "death," the civilians hurriedly covered their mouths.
'Damn. And now monsters are gonna come out too, huh.'
As he rushed the civilians to safety, monsters began emerging from the gate one by one.
They were Lycan Slopes—wolf-type monsters that walked upright on two legs like humans.
"Kuaaaah!"
They bristled their gray fur and let out menacing howls.
'I can't just leave those things alone.'
Lycan Slopes ranked among the stronger mid-tier monsters.
True to their beastly nature, they boasted agile movements and razor-sharp claws—taking even one hit meant suffering severe injuries.
'If casualties happen right here, the Hunter Corps is gonna take all the heat, deserved or not.'
On top of that, the beasts had voracious appetites and saw living people as prey.
In the past, when a gate had opened in the middle of the city, they'd devoured nearly 30 people.
All that blame had naturally fallen on the Hunter Corps.
'Not that they did anything wrong.'
Gates rarely popped up in the city with Hunter Corps arriving on scene within five minutes.
The bases themselves were kept a safe distance from urban areas to begin with.
'As long as I'm here, I won't let anyone get hurt.'
The Lycan Slopes had already lowered their stances, sniffing for the scent of humans.
Kim Min-jun unleashed Grasp of Demonic Energy on them.
Ssssh.
Gigantic hands formed from intangible energy wrapped around the monsters' bodies.
"Grk?!"
"Graaak!"
Bound by the invisible force, the monsters let out panicked yelps.
'Good thing I practiced this a ton in the training room before.'
His upgraded Grasp of Demonic Energy held all six Lycan Slopes without letting a single one slip.
'Can't hold it forever, though.'
He could feel the skill's power weakening as the distance grew.
"Alright, you'll be safe once we get this far. Just in case, head to the nearest shelter! Go!"
"Y-Yes, sir!"
"Soldier guy! You're heading back there?"
After dropping off the civilians and turning around, the students tried to stop him, insisting it was too dangerous alone.
"Mister! You don't even have a gun or any weapons! How are you supposed to beat those monsters barehanded? Run away too!"
"Run? My job is to protect the people and fight monsters like those."
Kim Min-jun reassured the worried students not to fret, then sprinted back toward the gate.
With the gas spreading, he needed to take out the monsters as fast as possible—even one second counted.
"A gate with both gas and monsters. The other Hunter Corps guys would faint if they saw this."
Gates rarely released both gas and monsters at once.
Even when they did, the monsters suffered from the gas too.
More than half would die or weaken after inhaling red gas like this.
"But these six look perfectly fine to me."
"Grrrrowl..."
"Kraaah!"
Spotting him closing in, the Lycan Slopes howled threateningly.
"Shut up, you wolf pups."
Seeing them extend their claws and struggle against the Grasp of Demonic Energy made him chuckle despite himself.
Ah.
These pathetic bastards.
"Whew, this stuff's spicy."
Inhaling the toxic gas made the inside of his nose burn.
Obviously, no poison gas—no matter how potent—could harm Kim Min-jun's body.
His internal demonic energy purified it all automatically.
"Base probably got the report by now, so I gotta mop this up before the Hunter Corps arrives."
Lycan Slopes were immune to mana bullets.
Their tough hides minimized damage from mana rounds.
That was why they were classified as mid-to-upper tier monsters.
'For the Hunter Corps, immunity to mana bullets is like losing their main weapon.'
They mainly used military knives against them.
If there were ten or more, they'd deploy special weapons like flame or cooling grenades.
'No military knife here, so I'll make do with my body.'
The longer this dragged on, the riskier it got.
With that in mind, Kim Min-jun dropped into a sprinting stance facing the monsters.
'I could just use Corruption or Rain of Corruption and call it a day, but that might not count toward my record.'
If Hunter HQ asked, "How'd you kill these monsters?" he couldn't very well say, "Corruption skill. 'Cause I'm a black mage."
To rack up performance points, the most normal method possible was best.
"Kraaak! Krk!"
"Groooowl!"
As time passed, the monsters gradually broke free of the skill's restraint.
Kim Min-jun crouched low, powering up his legs.
"I'll finish you in five seconds."
He activated Vicious Charge.
He felt demonic energy envelop his body.
His already enhanced physique was even stronger now.
With the skill upgraded, the destructive power had risen too.
Shiiiik! Pffft!
He blasted through the monsters' bodies faster than a bullet.
They died without even screaming, spilling blood everywhere.
Their wide-open eyes suggested they hadn't even realized what hit them.
Sssss.
With all monsters down, the toxic gas leaking from the gate began getting sucked back in.
At this rate, the area would return to normal in about ten minutes.
"Ten minutes, huh. Too long."
Kim Min-jun took a deep breath and started vigorously inhaling the toxic gas.
"Ugh, so damn spicy. Makes me wanna cough."
He wanted to wrap this up as fast as possible.
**
"What the fuck! A gate in downtown Gangneung? And not just any gate—a gas-leaking one?"
The Hunter Corps platoon leader stationed near Gangneung spat curses as he led his platoon toward the scene.
"Of all the times for this to happen during standby duty!"
Gas alone would've been manageable, but somehow monsters had shown up too.
Lycan Slopes, mid-to-upper tier ones at that.
The more he thought about it, the dizzier he got.
"Everyone got their gas masks? Check your purifiers and make sure they're sealed tight—one more time! Execute!"
"Execute!"
At the platoon leader's order, the hunters covered the purifier intakes with their palms and inhaled.
Testing for a proper seal.
"No issues!"
"Recheck spare gas masks too!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Got it!"
The gas leaking from this gate was red.
The deadliest kind.
Safety first—times two.
"No flame grenades without my say-so! Civilian safety is priority one! Understood?"
"Yes, sir!"
"If you find unconscious civilians, report immediately and slap a spare gas mask on them!"
"Got it!"
They finished their rapid briefing inside the speeding vehicle.
'From here on, minimize noise and move out.'
'Yes, sir.'
The roughly fifty-strong force arrived at the gate site.
Throwing a whole platoon at six monsters might seem overkill.
'Toxic gas plus Lycan Slopes. Even a platoon's dicey.'
But the platoon leader felt even this force was insufficient.
Mana bullets didn't work on the wolf-like monsters.
Blades were needed for effective kills.
'Equip military shields and maintain formation! Prioritize protecting any downed civilians! Got it?'
'Yes, sir!'
Twenty hunters took the front line, raising their military shields.
They advanced slowly.
'Pl-Platoon leader? This the right spot for the gate?'
Three minutes in, with no smoke in sight and zero monster presence, the platoon members voiced their confusion.
'Lycan Slope howls are loud as hell. We'd hear them for sure by now.'
The platoon leader was just as baffled.
"Uh, what the...?"
"Platoon leader, look! The gate's vanishing!"
Upon reaching the target, the red-tinged gate was already fading.
That only happened after all monsters were cleared.
"No way... And these?"
The platoon leader checked the monster corpses strewn along the roadside and widened his eyes.
"One, two... three... Total six. Lycan Slope corpses, just like the report."
Their abdomens gaped empty, as if pierced clean through.
"Eyes wide open in death... Instant kills."
He whipped out a dungeon gas detector.
[0]
Gas levels at zero.
All clear.
"What the hell...?"
From report to arrival: ten minutes.
Six Lycan Slopes cleared in ten minutes?
By who?
How?
"Hold it, you there!"
The platoon leader's gaze locked on one spot.
Thirty meters ahead stood a lone Hunter Corps sergeant, brushing off his hands.
"Sir! Sergeant Kim Min-jun, 104th Division Invincible Hunter Battalion, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Company, 2nd Platoon!"
"104th Division? Did another unit beat us here?"
The platoon leader questioned the casually saluting Kim Min-jun, utterly baffled.
"I handled them solo."
Kim Min-jun grinned as he replied.