Chapter 5
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Let's Go! Chomper Great!
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Let's go! Chomper Great!
Emergency Gate Disaster Alert
Emergency Gate occurred in Jongno-gu, Sejong-daero.
All within 500m radius evacuate immediately.
Estimated processing time: 90 minutes.
Nearby shelters: City Hall Main Building, City Hall Station.
A shrill beep followed soon after, and an alert text arrived on both Officer Seonhwa's phone and mine.
"Tch. Of all times..."
Officer Seonhwa checked her message and clicked her tongue.
She wore an utterly fed-up expression, as if being from the Hunter Management Bureau had made her all too familiar with this.
"We have to evacuate, right?"
I'd had to evacuate mid-shift before, so it was familiar yet still a huge hassle.
You just get unlucky and end up caught in an emergency gate.
"That's right. Let's get out first."
"Chomper, we gotta evacuate for a bit."
Nod, nod.
I hugged the nodding Chomper tight to my chest.
But this guy was still drooling, staring up at the sky like it had holes in it.
No eyes, and yet... what does he even see?
Who knows.
—Clunk.
As we stepped out of the car, we ran into people evacuating on the street.
"Citizens, this way! Follow us over here!"
At the center was a man in special forces gear directing the crowd.
His uniform read Hunter Management Bureau agent.
I remembered them helping with evacuations in these emergencies.
"This is Officer Bong Seonhwa from Personnel Management. I'll assist."
"Whoa... Senior Officer! Thank you for the support!"
"...Calling me that is a bit much."
Eh?
Officer Seonhwa handed the man her business card, and he called her "Senior Officer"?
I wondered why.
Maybe Officer Seonhwa's some secret super agent?
I'd seen that in movies.
Office worker by day, secret agent in crises.
"Miss Chorok, I'll help escort the evacuees to the shelter. That okay with you?"
"Sure. We're heading to the shelter anyway, right?"
"Then follow along with us."
No need to split up, so we joined the evacuation line.
I was more curious about Officer Seonhwa volunteering to help the agent.
Is she a secret ultra-mega-super commander agent protecting people?
"But I want to help too. I'm an awakener, after all."
"My protection detail right now is strictly you, Miss Chorok. Cooperating with the agents is the safest call."
Is this because of the Awakener Protection Program?
That had to be it; nothing else made sense.
"So I can't fight?"
"Sigh... If it comes to fighting, treat it as a last resort."
She doesn't want me battling, huh.
With Chomper's massive power, he'd probably chomp down monsters to live up to his name...
"I can't throw an unregistered awakener—not even a formal hunter yet—into danger. Preventing that is the Bureau's job too."
Ooh, that was kinda cool.
Officer Seonhwa really is a secret overdrive accelerator agent.
"Alright, keep moving this way!"
.
.
.
"...Can you relay the situation?"
"Gate core's right by the government buildings—total emergency. All the higher-ups have HQ swarming that way, so this area's been sidelined."
"I can guess the situation. What's the deployment here?"
"Me included, four B-rank hunters."
"Estimated gate threat level?"
"Radio says B-rank or higher right now."
While leading the throng of evacuees toward the shelter, I overheard Officer Seonhwa talking to the agent.
But her expression as she got the update looked grim.
Doesn't take a genius to know things are bad.
"How far to the shelter?"
"One block left. Sorry it's taking so long with all these people."
"No worries. Let's pick up the pace. At least the shelter has monster barriers."
"Um... if I may ask, what brought you out here, Officer?"
"Registering a fresh awakener at HQ. Seemed like she could use some backup in this mess."
Officer Seonhwa glanced my way.
The man followed her gaze to me.
"Eek..."
Two sets of pitying eyes made me blurt out something weird from the pressure.
"I get why you're helping us now. Hang in there, little miss."
"I'm an adult, though..."
"I see. Sure, at that age you wanna be grown-up."
I tried correcting his misunderstanding, but he just looked at me with more sympathy.
I'm not a little miss...
I'm an adult!
—Beep-boop.
As I pouted, about to argue more, a strange noise cut in.
City Hall Station Search Team, emergency! Escort Team, respond!
It came from the radio on the agent's belt.
"This is Escort Team. What's the situation?"
Monsters swarming! Requesting backup!
"Location and scale?"
Location is... Graaaah!
A scream blasted from the radio.
"Search Team! Respond! Search Team!"
Whirr!
No response on the radio.
Instead, the sound of flapping wings came through.
Like a fly's wings buzzing.
"Ow, Chomper, cut it out."
Look around. Look around.
Chomper, in my arms, started thrashing at the noise.
What's gotten into him all of a sudden?
"Be good. It'll be fine."
—Whirrr!
But against my words, the wingbeats rang out again.
Not from the radio this time.
Right nearby.
"Wha—what's that?!"
"A monster?"
"Damn it, run!"
Evacuees pointed at the black sky, drawing my eyes there too.
Hold on. Why's the sky rippling like that?
"Eek... gross."
Looking closer, it wasn't the sky.
...Giant, ugly flies.
Why are there so many?
Spewing gas like a fart truck. Following that'd reek of poison.
"...Miss Chorok, danger!"
—Whirrr!
Before I could react to Officer Seonhwa's warning...
One ugly fly dove at us from the sky.
"Officer...?"
By the time I processed it, Officer Seonhwa had shielded me.
Drip. Drip.
Blood dripped from her body.
"Officer? You okay?"
I asked her amid my pupil earthquake.
Even I couldn't think straight right now.
"I'm fine. This much..."
Doesn't look fine.
Her wincing face said it all.
"Because of me..."
"Don't think that way. Priority is rejoining the group now."
Looking around, Officer Seonhwa and I had been separated from the evacuees.
Foggy gas from the flies clouded everything.
"We need to get to the shelter qui—"
—Whirrrrr!
No time to flee—another fly.
No, a swarm of flies charged us.
"Damn... I wasn't this fragile back in the day."
Officer Seonhwa stepped in front of me, despite her injuries.
To protect me, like she said.
Even after getting hurt for it.
I hate this.
Just think good thoughts. Have a good day.
...Meet good people.
A bit embarrassing, but that's what I wanted.
This is too much.
Full positivity.
I hate my full positivity getting shattered.
Plant Empathy Lv.01
Did someone hear my wish?
A thought flowed into my mind.
"Let me fight...? How?"
It came from Chomper in my arms.
His thoughts flooded my head now.
"Just give orders? Whatever I want?"
Nod, nod.
Chomper nodded like always.
"Alright then..."
I reached out to Chomper.
And gave my command with utter seriousness.
"Let's fight together. Chomper."
—Grrrrowl! Kee-eeek!
Tiny Chomper roared monstrously, slowly reverting to his original form.
Scary and huge like when we met, but now he just looked like my trusty best friend.
"Miss Chorok? No, it's dangerous!"
"It's fine. Chomper and I will handle it."
I shook my head at the worried Officer Seonhwa and stepped forward.
Did I look kinda cool?
I said it with full confidence.
Now I could sense it through empathy.
This was Chomper's specialty!
"Let's go! Chomper Great! Body slam!"
—Splat.
Not a body slam—Chomper spread his leaves wide.
Pink gas gushed from his mouth like crazy.
It spread everywhere, sweeping away the flies' fart gas and filling the air with pink sweetness.
"Sweet. Like cotton candy. Now I want some."
The scent hit me as sweet.
Flytrap plants lured with sugary smells, I remembered.
"Punish 'em, Chomper. You look hungry—chew 'em good."
—Whirrr!
The swarm caught the fluffy sweet scent and swarmed Chomper.
Idiots. All of you. You're done for.
Chomper grew even bigger than I remembered, mouth agape and ready.
—Crunch crunch!
In the pink gas, Chomper's shadow mukbanged live.
Seonhwa could only gape at the sky.
Muttering to herself without realizing.
"What... in the world is this?"