Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: [Reality] Local Hunters
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Soon, someone appeared on the street where the gate had opened.
Takdak.
"Hoo, hoo... Am I too late?"
The man who had dashed out in training clothes was Park Cheol-woo, a D-rank hunter living in a nearby goshiwon.
He'd been lounging at home when he rushed out, but in one hand, he gripped a longsword emanating a chill aura.
He'd come sprinting the moment he saw the disaster alert, but the road was a total mess.
"Aigoo, what a disaster this is."
Soon after, a muscular man came running from an alley on the opposite side.
He was drenched in sweat, as if he'd bolted straight from a workout.
Kang Min-su, also a D-rank hunter.
"Huh? Isn't that Cheol-woo hyung?"
"Min-su? You got the alert too?"
"Yeah. I was bench-pressing at the training center near my place when the alarm went off, so I dropped everything and came. A mutant gate, right?"
D-rank hunter Kang Min-su pulled a set of knuckles from his pocket and slipped them on.
Not proper gear, but he'd at least brought a weapon.
One by one, more hunters gathered—locals who lived nearby or happened to be passing by.
A female healer who'd run from the mart still clutching her shopping basket, a young hunter who'd dashed out from a PC bang in slippers, and so on.
Hunters from the neighborhood, all different affiliations and ranks.
Sudden disasters were usually like this.
Unless there happened to be a party nearby heading out to raid a gate, it was everyday hunters living their lives who came rushing in, not properly organized teams.
"Min-ji's here too?"
"Hello! Min-su, and Senior Cheol-woo too. Any injured? Monsters?"
B-rank healer Kim Min-ji scanned the surroundings as she asked.
As neighborhood hunters, they all knew each other.
"No idea. I just got here... But it's kinda weird."
Park Cheol-woo glanced around.
A sudden mutant gate should mean a massacre had taken place.
Yet there were no bodies, no screams of people fleeing, no monster roars... no sounds of things breaking. It felt like a standoff.
"Look at that."
Kang Min-su pointed, where the corpse of a house-sized wolf-like monster lay sprawled.
"It's dead?"
"This side too. And here."
As the hunters approached the corpses to inspect them, Park Cheol-woo nudged the exploded wolf's head with his foot.
"Its skull's completely smashed. Blunt weapon?"
"Yeah, looks like it got smashed down with a hammer or something."
"Any hunters around here who use blunts?"
"Dunno. We're not exactly memorized the association's database. But the skill's legit. One-shot kill."
"Hey, save the chit-chat. Fan out for now. Find survivors first. There might be people hiding."
"Over here! Injured people!"
Healer Kim Min-ji shouted.
She'd found a family huddled in the corner of the convenience store.
A wife collapsed with blood trickling from her head, and her husband and daughter massaging her hands and feet.
"Are you okay? Any injuries?"
"Hu, hunters... Thank you. Thank you for saving us..."
"No major trauma besides a concussion, luckily. Do you know what happened to the monsters? Who saved you?"
"Yeah, mister. Explain the situation. What happened to the monsters? Did a support team come?"
"Some guy... He beat them all with something like an iron club and saved us. Alone."
"Alone?"
"Looked like about ten of them."
The hunters exchanged glances.
From the corpses, they seemed like C-rank wolf monsters taken down in one blow, and a pack of them handled solo in short order.
"Everyone's accounts match up."
Hunters who'd checked other areas returned and reported.
A lone man had taken out all the wolf monsters.
Speculation flew: at least mid-to-high C-rank... maybe even a B-rank hunter got involved.
Then the little girl piped up.
"Unnie, unnie. But there was something even scarier."
"Huh? Something scarier?"
Healer Kim Min-ji asked back.
"Yeah. A red cow! A huge one with two heads. Oppa lured it and went up to that building!"
The hunters' faces hardened at her words.
"Kiddo. How many arms did it have?"
"Four! And it had tons of weapons!"
"...Fuck."
"Siu, watch your mouth in front of a kid, fuck. Mind your language?"
"Ah, sorry. I was shocked. Sorry, kiddo."
"It's okay."
"Red skin, two heads, four arms—that's a Twin-Headed Minotaur."
"Isn't that a C-rank raid boss?"
"This is insane... I mean, it came out here?"
Park Cheol-woo let out a hollow laugh.
Twin-Headed Minotaurs only appeared as bosses in C-rank raid gates.
Even with a proper raid team, casualties were inevitable.
The group here might barely take it down if they partied up.
Most hadn't grabbed proper armor in their rush, and excluding healer Kim Min-ji, the highest rank was C.
With a mismatched setup, it was no wonder.
And this guy lured it solo?
"He might be dead already..."
Even if B-rank, no way solo.
That's why they call it a raid boss.
It's a whole different league from regular bosses.
"Where did that oppa lure the monster?"
"That way! That building!"
"That one?"
The girl pointed to a half-wrecked commercial building.
It didn't look structurally sound.
"Ha... We've gotta go."
Someone muttered.
Most hunters were lightly armored from rushing over.
Too risky against that monster.
But.
"Still, we have to check. He's fighting alone."
"Yeah. He's probably buying time somehow. We should help. Numbers might make it work."
"Ah, damn. Why's my luck so shit today."
Park Cheol-woo grumbled but took the lead.
Hunters who rush out to disaster alerts like this were the type who cared about helping others.
Those who didn't wouldn't come.
Naturally, the rest gripped their gear and followed.
Tension hung thick among the hunters as they entered the wrecked building.
But inside was eerily quiet.
"He already got taken out?"
"Don't jinx it."
"Shh, quiet. Kill the noise. If it ambushes us first, we're screwed."
Having swept the building and climbed the stairs, the hunters reached the dented iron door to the rooftop.
Park Cheol-woo and Kang Min-su exchanged glances.
"One, two, three!"
Bam!
They kicked the door open and rushed onto the rooftop.
"...Huh?"
"What? Is it there?"
"What's up?"
"What the hell."
The first thing that caught the hunters' eyes was the massive hunk of meat strewn across the rooftop.
The Twin-Headed Minotaur's corpse.
Its enormous body was split perfectly vertically in half, the halves splayed left and right. The cut was so smooth, you could believe it was born that way.
"There's a person over there."
And right beside it, a woman cradling a blood-soaked collapsed man, sobbing.
"Hic... Lee Jun-nim... Please..."
Her long, straight hair was like the night sky itself.
Her skin glowed translucently white, large eyes brimming with tears.
Even splattered with blood and guts, her beauty shone ethereally, almost otherworldly.
The hunters, men and women alike, froze in awe for a moment before snapping out of it and murmuring.
"Whoa..."
"That woman... a hunter? A beauty like that around here?"
"No clue. First time seeing her."
Then, sensing their presence, the woman snapped her head up.
She snatched the cherry blossom-patterned katana beside her and, still holding the man, growled from her throat.
Her voice was cutely mismatched with the hostility, but the enmity was real.
"Whoa, whoa! Calm down! We're not enemies!"
Park Cheol-woo raised his hands and tried to approach.
But.
Shing!
The woman swung her sword through the air, carving a deep gash between the hunters and herself.
"Eek."
"What the? That woman's sword split the floor in one swing?"
"No way she took down the boss?"
The hunters buzzed.
"Don't come closer!"
The woman shouted something.
A sharp, agitated voice.
But no one there could understand.
"Foreigner?"
"What'd she say? Not English."
"Sounds kinda like Japanese from the accent..."
Naturally.
She was Erika, summoned from [Abyss Miner] via Lee Jun's trait, speaking that world's language.
No way it'd match with Koreans.
"She doesn't understand... What do we do?"
As the standoff dragged, healer Kim Min-ji looked troubled.
The bloodied man in the woman's arms... seemed like the hunter they'd heard about, but his wounds looked severe.
Shoulder crudely bandaged with cloth torn from her clothes.
But soaked in blood—if left like this, he'd bleed out for sure.
She took a deep breath and set her gear on the ground.
Then slowly approached.
Erika raised her sword threateningly at the closing woman.
No swing yet, but the posture screamed danger.
Kim Min-ji flinched at the sight.
That slash that cleaved the rooftop floor.
If it came her way, she'd die.
But she couldn't let the hunter who'd fought alone die like this.
"Hey. We're not bad people."
Language barrier or not, she kept talking with open hands, gesturing no threat.
Even conjured healing light at her fingertips.
Pointed it at her own chest, then the fallen man, repeating: body language for "I'll heal."
"Heal. Healer. Treatment. Get it?"
Universal lingo worked—Erika understood.
Strange world, strange people.
She was just a weakling who'd been handed a strong weapon by Lee Jun's concession.
If they betrayed her, she'd be helpless.
But Lee Jun-nim was dying.
And the light from that woman felt devoid of malice.
Even as she threatened to slash anyone approaching despite the language gap.
The woman's resolute face showed no ill intent.
Only a desire to save a life.
"..."
Erika bit her lip, then slowly lowered her sword tip.
"You only! Others no!"
She still glared sharply at the rest, grip tight on the hilt—her intent clear.
"Phew."
Kim Min-ji crept forward, checking glances, reached Lee Jun.
Removed the blood-soaked cloth from Erika's torn clothes and examined the wound.
"Oh my god... He's a mess. Shoulder bone's crushed, muscles shredded. Lost way too much blood."
"Can you save him?"
Someone asked from afar.
"Yes. Emergency care's already done—probably her. He'd be gone before we arrived otherwise."
The second effect of [Royal Physician]: [Healer’s Touch].
It kept him breathing on death's door—that's how Kim Min-ji saw it.
Soon, healing light bloomed in her hands.
As Kim Min-ji poured heals into Lee Jun.
The other hunters poked around the Minotaur corpse.
"Hey, check this."
Park Cheol-woo clicked his tongue.
No pulverized bones or muscles from head to groin—just a clean cross-section.
He'd felt it at first glance, but ghostly swordsmanship.
"Unreal... One slash did this?"
"How's a sword cut so clean?"
"That guy didn't fight alone. Had a monster of an ally."
"Someone that skilled should be famous. Why's she new?"
"Idiot. Foreigner. You know all foreign hunters?"
"No, but... Fair. Even most S-ranks are unknowns."
As they murmured.
Lee Jun's eyelashes fluttered under the healing.