154. I Will Follow Your Cause.
The bomb spore flower parent smashed through the building. Screams echoed from within. Spores leaped into the crumbling walls. People burst out from the structure.
The parent ignored the fleeing creatures. It waited patiently, as if spectating its offspring's hunt.
Soon, an eerie silence blanketed the area. The spores latched onto people's faces, greedily draining their life force.
The hosts' skin crumbled visibly before their eyes. Impatient spores sucked up moisture too, causing some hosts to die before their vitality was fully depleted.
Dislodged from their lifeless prey, the spores sought new hosts. They eyed those already claimed by neighbors, but with every inch of skin sealed by tendrils, they had no choice but to retreat in frustration.
That's when a group burst from an alley, slicing through the spores' bodies.
Led by massive greatswords, the humans' counterattack brought even the parent within range—but the spores clung to their ankles, forcing them to miss.
The raid party scanned the collapsed building. No survivors. They abandoned the search and pressed on to their target location.
En route, persistent swarms of spores slowed their advance, forcing constant fights.
"Secure point 7! Reinforcing hunters, temporary attachment to command party! All units, move to point 2! Guides hold with party 2, Moi Il-ju leads!"
At Kang Moo-hyuk's command, Hwang Dong-soo fell back. The hunters syncing with him followed suit.
No Song-rin's party took the lead. The guide was Moi Il-ju, self-proclaimed local expert of Da Hong Dan County. One of three survivors who'd made it to the county office alive. Using his message skill, he'd relayed the positions of 71 isolated hunters to Kang Moo-hyuk, now charting the raid party's path.
Moi Il-ju pulled out his smartphone to check point 2 as Kang Moo-hyuk had indicated. He had a photo of the ops room map, marked with numbered points.
Kang Moo-hyuk snapped at the sight.
"Eyes front! Hong Dan multi-street intersection! Real estate office!"
"Yes, sir!"
Memorizing geography and strategic points was raid basics, but with everything rushed, recalling all twenty-one points was no easy feat.
For the raid-inexperienced Moi Il-ju, the flood of on-site info was overwhelming enough.
How the hell am I supposed to memorize all that? Anyone who does is insane.
Moi Il-ju felt unjustly aggrieved, his face crumpling. No Song-rin, backing him up and clearing the path, patted his back.
"He gets it. Man's eyes glaze over when lives are on the line. Whoa! These vine bastards are persistent."
As No Song-rin slashed spores while advancing, Kang Moo-hyuk gathered the new arrivals for intel.
"Name, rank, position, main weapon, specialty. Hunting style. Right to left, brief."
The first hunter to catch on spoke up.
"Jeon Seung-jo. B-. Ranged DPS. Bow. Rapid fire and quick shots. Stance dealing style."
Starting with Jeon Seung-jo, the other three introduced themselves amid the hunt.
Grasping the four new hunters' profiles, Kang Moo-hyuk swiftly reorganized parties.
All DPS. Two archers. 'Stance dealing' sounds fancy—it's just pile driving. Mindless arrow spam, huh?
Archers fixing stance might seem obvious, but for hunters who maintained form on the move, committing to stationary fire meant lacking diligence or mobile shooting sense.
A style common among freelancers devoid of tactics. In short, the 'brainless DPS' raid recruiters dreaded most.
Hunters shunned even in peer-level hunts, now on the frontlines of Da Hong Dan. Absurd.
No. Hold judgment. Watch their hunting first. In mobile combat, sloppy shooting could leave them stranded rearward—pair 'em with Hyeon Jeong-geon to whip 'em into shape.
Points secured so far: three. Total personnel: 13. Two tanks, eleven DPS. Seven ranged. Few wielded proper skills or mainstream styles.
Small mercy: both tanks were northern locals. Seasoned frontliners, they intuitively filled roles as parties 4 and 5 mains, plus raid sub-tanks.
The other DPS, being locals too, had decent instincts.
"Jeon Seung-jo, Kim Nam-hoon, Lee Byung-gi hunters. Join Hyeon Jeong-geon's party 3 on the right. Follow party lead. Chae Chi-woon hunter, party 4 rear-left."
Assigning them thus, evaluating skills and styles through skirmishes, then reallocating—the raid party gradually took shape.
But Kang Moo-hyuk knew precisely how precariously this patchwork force balanced.
Tank line too thin without Hwang Dong-soo—even as subs, inadequate.
Best case, small-party peer-level hunts. Clear limits for boss raids.
Skill gaps demanded gear compensation, but freelancers' armor? 'Croc-jaw hippo' leather or mass-produced alloy from SMEs—low-purity gate minerals, machine-stamped junk that clanked on every move.
"Why not just hunt down the parents one by one?"
Yi Suk-young asked, worried about delayed reinforcements.
"Parents flee airborne when threatened. No aerial magic, no ranged to ground 'em—once gone, recapture's tough."
"Hunt Hwang Dong-soo style... couldn't snatch 'em in one go?"
Yi Suk-young, using foreign 'hunter' over northern 'sang' phrasing, pressed. Kang Moo-hyuk shook his head.
"Luck. Alley corner ambush—no evasion. First strike shredded buoyancy lungs, no air intake. Intact flight organs? We'd have missed."
Why they couldn't pick off bomb spore flower parents individually.
Parents' sly escapes were issue, but root problem: raid party's skill deficit.
"Won't catch 'em in time."
"What time? Why rush like this—what's coming?"
"That's..."
Before Kang Moo-hyuk could answer, No Song-rin called.
"Boss! Offspring retreating!"
"Woo!"
"We win? We won, right?"
"We're alive!"
Hunters mistook No Song-rin's alert for victory cheers, but Kang Moo-hyuk read it differently.
"Which direction?"
"Point 3."
"One of the predicted spots. Yi Suk-young hunter."
"Yes."
"Ops map photo—you have it?"
"Yes. Snapped it just in case."
"Moi Il-ju! Wang Gi-cheol hunters!"
The two approached at his call.
"You two with Yi Suk-young—gather remaining hunters."
"Then you, boss?"
"Bomb spore flower wave, phase 3 incoming. Raid party: enter raid now."
The cheers died.
Kang Moo-hyuk deemed his luck poor.
Of all things, bomb spore flowers. Mass wave mode too. Phase 3's near-boss raid. And with freelancers? Casualties likely.
Yet fortunate too.
At least a known pattern—spore flower. Three A-ranks ease breathing room. Hunters sticking without fleeing? Grateful. Tricky, but raid level manageable.
Point 3: military rotary where roads converged.
Not vast, but circular enough for plaza status sans roads.
En route, they'd seen ruined buildings, faces vine-shrouded corpses spore-covered.
Hunters culled visible spores. Rescue too late. But maturing adults fleeing region? Unacceptable.
Growth took time—raid priority—but ignoring human devouring? Visceral revulsion.
Still, Kang Moo-hyuk ordered firmly.
"Ignore all. Can't cull 'em fully. Early spore victims? Untimely response seals fate. Focus raid. Breach here, no telling spread."
Hunters flinched at the cold call.
Leaving convulsing, vine-bound faces? Feet dragged, self-preservation or not—unease lingered.
"There. Rotary center. Merging already."
No Song-rin pointed: spore field. Parents swarming behind, tangling into one.
Growing bulkier per merger, fusing singular.
Spores extended thorny tendrils outward, linking kin into barricade—like barbed wire.
Monsters tensed, sensing raid party.
Kang Moo-hyuk confirmed, commanded.
"Party 1 breaches center. 2 and 3 flank wings, support 1 isolation-free. 4 and 5 left, 5 and 6 right—hold line. Advance full line per signal. Remaining two parties center standby: plug breaches, rotate fatigued."
Leaving one message-skilled hunter, he advanced all.
Each party had message users for instant orders.
Rare for freelancers, but Makyung edge-runners had surprisingly many.
Confirming positions, Kang Moo-hyuk signaled.
"Party 1—go!"
Hwang Dong-soo thrust greatsword ram-like. Iron Will gear for Makyung scouting turned his charge bulldozer. Spore wall shredded instantly.
Greatsword, awl-through-thick-paper, stalled midway—spores closed left-right.
Hwang Dong-soo mana-circuited body. Arms, shoulders, spine-to-legs core-line anchored iron-pile.
Instant: massive windmill swept vicinity. Spore field patched.
Hwang Dong-soo exhaled held breath.
Deep push, but thicker path ahead. Unwonted stamina math.
Overthinking slowed judgment, dulled response.
Kang Moo-hyuk spotted, messaged via hunter.
> Parties 2, 3 supporting. Don't stop—push.
Hwang Dong-soo snapped alert.
Right. What good my worrying? Boss handles that. I just...
Obey orders.
"Hup! Again?!"
Party members, catching breath post-chase, freaked screams.
"Again?!"
"B-breath... please."
"We'll die!"
Hwang Dong-soo mana-infused greatsword, blasted forward. Dozens spores incinerated.
"I die first. Stop here, I leave you."
Then charged.
Hunters cursed, followed. Lag = death.
"Fuck! High-rank all that?!"
"Suing!"
"Crazy bastard... ease up!"
"Tumen River front must be chaos by now."
"Worried we popped too early."
"Korea blocking wave? Fine. Plan succeeds distracting them. Real key: Russia."
"Won't end distraction-level. You know this gate boss. Botch lure, heads Dandong—city vaporized. Party won't like."
"People lives? Fly lives. Since when Party cares? Big picture over trivia. Success: Makyung ours. Russia, Korea dare not eye. Great People's Guild unification starts. Guan Hong. Just trust, follow."
"Yes, Vice Leader Bi. I will follow your cause."