Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Men Go Straight
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“Shouldn't we stop them? That Kang Seong-chan is infamous for his foul temper.”
Min Ha-na, standing beside him, asked, but Lee Jeong-jin just shook his head.
“It would be pointless to intervene.”
“You mean his temper is just as bad?”
“That's not it. It's because Hunter Bae is right. That's why we can't stop him. You'll see if you watch. By the way, Hunter Min, what brings you here?”
“Oh, I'm here for an internship. I've always been interested in the Hunter Management Bureau.”
“Pardon?”
While they were talking, Wang-sik stood face-to-face with Kang Seong-chan, a man with a slender build and a perpetually irritated gaze.
“What do you want?”
“I'm an agent of the Hunter Management Bureau. The Bureau will commence its operation immediately. We'll hand over command to you in an hour.”
“Are you joking?”
“Didn't you say the operation commences in an hour? You can take command then.”
“This is our operation. No one interferes.”
Wang-sik stopped talking and stared intently at Kang Seong-chan. Kang Seong-chan didn't back down, meeting his gaze with that characteristically irritable look.
“Do you really think the likes of the Hunter Management Bureau can handle this? We're facing twenty A-rank and fifty B-rank monsters.”
“I'm not interested in the ranking games of weaklings.”
All traces of respect had vanished from Wang-sik's voice.
“What did you just say?”
“Thousands will die in that hour. People who will perish while you lot drag your feet.”
Wang-sik cut off Kang Seong-chan before he could retort.
“I'm going out there to save as many people as I can.”
Wang-sik turned. He was met with the hostile glares of the Hero Guild members.
In contrast, the Bureau hunters, who had been sitting with slumped shoulders, began to smile.
“'Heroes'? You should change your guild's name.”
His words enraged the guild members, while the Bureau agents shook their heads as if they'd expected nothing less.
Wang-sik walked past the furious Hero Guild members. The Bureau hunters followed him out in a single file.
“Tell the team leader to proceed as I instructed.”
“Understood. I'll handle things here.”
Wang-sik exited the outpost, where twenty hunters stood in formation, awaiting his command.
“Melee hunters, you're on rescue. Ranged hunters, you're with me to hunt the monsters. In an hour, there won't be anything left for those guys to do.”
The hunters drew their weapons, their resolve hardening.
“We're out of time. We move out now. Our goal is to save every last person we can.”
As Wang-sik turned to leave, Min Ha-na, her expression anxious, posed a question.
“We're going in just like this?”
Min Ha-na was accustomed to the way guilds operated. They believed it was better to prepare thoroughly and ensure success than to fail with a half-baked plan.
Wang-sik answered her question as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“Men go straight.”
“And women?”
“Charge.”
Wang-sik broke into a run toward the operation zone. The hunters followed, and Min Ha-na was quickly left standing alone.
Though she thought it was reckless, a fire ignited within her.
“Shit. I’m going to fall for him.”
She, too, ran after the hunters.
A child stepped out of the front gate, bursting into tears.
“Mommy!”
Yejin was scared of the sirens. She had been huddled in her room, just waiting for her mother to come home.
Normally, after an hour, her mom would finish her shift at the restaurant, come home, and hold her tight.
But today, more time passed, and her mother still hadn't come. So she worked up her courage.
*I should go to the restaurant where Mommy works.*
It wasn't far from her house.
The owner was a nice lady who always smiled and patted her on the head.
*Maybe this scary feeling will go away if I get to the restaurant.*
The girl, who had mustered courage she didn't have to overcome her fear, stepped through the gate and into a living nightmare.
Monsters over ten meters tall were trampling everything in sight.
The quaint little houses were collapsing, and people caught in the monsters' grasp were being broken like toys, spilling blood everywhere.
Yejin was frozen.
Just then, she heard a threatening sound, like grinding teeth.
Slowly, Yejin turned. Before her stood a giant wolf, its fangs jutting out from its mouth.
A massive wolf with blood-red, spiky fur.
The wolf let out a vicious snarl and lunged at her.
Too terrified to even shut her eyes, Yejin could only stare.
The wolf's maw, fangs bared, filled her vision, leaving only the terror of what was about to happen.
That was when it happened.
CRASH!
With a deafening roar, the wolf was sent flying into an alley wall. A glowing shield now stood before Yejin.
“What's your name?”
A voice came from the light.
“Ye-Yejin.”
“Yejin. We're going to play a game of hide-and-seek. I'll be 'it.' You have to hide until the sirens stop, okay?”
“Huh? But my mommy...”
“You have to be a really good hider so that I can go save your mommy.”
“Oh. You're not a mister, you're a big brother...”
The light flickered.
Thankfully, the light regained its former warmth as the voice continued.
“Alright, let's start. If you don't hide right now, I'm going to find you.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Yejin darted back into her house.
Once he confirmed she was safe, Wang-sik slammed his shield down on the fallen wolf's neck. A volley of arrows and magic spells rained down on its body immediately after.
A Hell Wolf.
Having dealt with the B-rank monster, Wang-sik turned toward a giant that was smashing its way through the residential district.
A Giant Munk.
It was a classic A-rank, giant-type monster.
“Do I really seem like an old man?”
Hearing a chuckle from behind, Wang-sik scowled.
“Hmph!”
He took his frustration out on the Munk.
Wooooong!
A heart materialized in the sky, and a pulse that agitated the monsters reverberated through the ground.
“Let's go!”
And so, the real operation began.
Watching Wang-sik and the Bureau hunters fight, Min Ha-na realized that while their strategy was dangerous, it wasn't reckless.
Their method was simple: Wang-sik would bind all the monsters with Pulse of Hatred and Finger Chain, allowing the ranged hunters to focus their fire and take them down one by one.
Their movements were perfectly synchronized, as if they had done this a hundred times. Though they were a team of B and C-rank hunters, their coordination was more than enough to take on A-rank monsters.
No matter how powerful the barrage, the monsters couldn't so much as turn their gaze toward the ranged attackers.
It was truly perfect tanking. In fact, it felt so stable they might as well have been practicing.
“How is he doing that?”
Even now, Wang-sik was diving alone into a sea of monsters, shattering the knee of a giant.
The giant staggered from the blow, but another brought its massive fist down on Wang-sik's head.
BOOM!
Wang-sik's shield blocked the attack. With a sickening crack, the descending fist shattered, and the giant screamed in agony. In that brief moment, opportunistic wolves lunged at Wang-sik.
He ended up with two wolves latched onto his thigh and shoulder.
While holding his large shield overhead, Wang-sik drew a hammer and smashed it into the head of the wolf biting his thigh.
Just then, the giant's foot found an opening and kicked Wang-sik squarely.
THUD!
It was a powerful impact, but Wang-sik maintained his balance, planting his feet firmly on the ground.
Screeeech!
He was pushed back ten meters, his boots carving two deep gouges in the pavement. Yet even as he slid, he did not fall.
“Hoo.”
Exhaling to absorb the last of the impact, Wang-sik dismissed his shield and stretched out both hands.
Chains shot from his hands, wrapping around the monsters that had turned their attention to the Bureau hunters.
“You're all mine. I tend to get a little obsessive.”
As he spoke, a massive fireball, on a completely different scale than anything before, plummeted from the sky.
The flame crashed down on the Giant Munk's head, erupting in an explosion that engulfed the surrounding monsters.
“Hello, seniors. The rookie has arrived.”
Min Ha-na had joined the fray.
She had made a spectacular entrance, but her seniors' next command was baffling.
“You want me to aim for Mr. Wang-sik, not the monsters?”
“Yes. It's the fastest way.”
“But that's dangerous for him!”
“He'll be fine. There's no time to explain, just get ready.”
It was an absurd command.
*Are they underestimating my magic?*
But one look at the expressions of the hunters around her told her that wasn't the case.
“I know it sounds crazy, but this happens all the time. Please, trust us.”
When the female archer reiterated the command, Min Ha-na found she couldn't refuse.
Just then, Wang-sik once again gathered the monsters into a single cluster and began to hold them off.
*This is insane. How does this make any sense?*
It was baffling, but now that she was part of the team, she had to trust her teammates.
*I don't know anymore.*
Min Ha-na immediately began gathering the power of flame high in the sky.
The casting time was long, but with Wang-sik holding the monsters' aggro, she had more than enough time.
The transparent energy coalesced, gradually turning red until it became a crimson flame.
The fireball, which heated the air around it, hurtled toward Wang-sik's head, her final hesitation cast aside.
There was no changing its trajectory now.
*Please, do something!*
Did her desperate plea work?
The shield dissolved into light, enveloping Wang-sik's body.
KRA-KA-THOOM!
At that moment, the flame exploded, creating a massive crater.
Torn remnants of monsters littered the deep crater, and the three giants that had somehow survived were mangled.
*He really withstood that?*
Min Ha-na saw it.
In the center of the crater that had obliterated everything, a small patch of ground remained untouched, like an island. And on it stood Bae Wang-sik.
The light coalesced back into a shield in Wang-sik's hand. He shot Min Ha-na a thumbs-up, as if to show off, then charged at the last remaining giants.
The three giants couldn't withstand the ensuing onslaught, and just like that, the battle in the city center was over.
“Where are the stragglers?”
Without taking a moment to rest, Wang-sik set off to hunt down the monsters they hadn't yet dealt with.
“We're splitting into two teams.”
As he spoke, Wang-sik looked at Min Ha-na.
“Think you can handle it?”
“Women charge.”
“So you remembered.”
“I liked it. You can count on me.”
Wang-sik and Min Ha-na each took a team and set out to mop up the remaining monsters.
As scheduled, the Hero Guild took command an hour later and began their operation.
“Guild Leader, what about the Bureau hunters?”
“Ignore them. They went in there to die, so I doubt they'll complain if we don't rescue them.”
As a smirking Kang Seong-chan entered the city, the sirens fell silent.
“Even city hall has collapsed.”
Just as Kang Seong-chan spoke, the guild member in charge of communications cried out urgently.
“The break has been cleared!”
“What?”
“The subjugation is complete!”
“That must be a mistake. We haven't even started.”
“I-It says... it was terminated by the Hunter Management Bureau.”
“What kind of bullshit is that?!”
As the echo of his furious shout faded, a group appeared, walking at a leisurely pace.
It was the Bureau hunters, with Wang-sik at their head.
Wang-sik approached with a placid expression and spoke to Kang Seong-chan, who was glaring daggers at him.
“Here for the cleanup? You really dressed up for the occasion.”
“You worthless Bureau agents...”
Wang-sik just chuckled at the insult. This only enraged Kang Seong-chan further, and he raised his voice.
“How dare you interfere with our operation! I'll make you regret this!”
“Do your worst.”
Wang-sik tapped Kang Seong-chan on the shoulder as he walked past.
As the humiliated Kang Seong-chan was about to speak again, a woman with red hair stepped forward.
“Watch your mouth when you talk to my seniors. Before I burn that tongue right out of your head.”
“Why are you...”
The Bureau hunters left the fuming Kang Seong-chan behind and departed the scene.