WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

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◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈

Chapter 18: Ice Ability User Baek Dambi - [3]

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Ever since I saw that hallucination involving Baek Dambi a while back, using Spatial Teleportation outside my field of view had become much easier. Not long after spreading out my mental net, I found my teammates' positions.

Then I used Spatial Teleportation.

My hunter team was stationed on the road.

“Miss me?”

Seong Munyeong turned toward me.

“You can't just pull a reckless stunt like that!”

I didn't have time to point out that I had just saved over two hundred people. Monsters were attacking here too.

“Front! Fire!”

Four Deathclaws charged toward us.

They never ran in a straight line that made them easy targets. They came at us in strange zigzags, leaping several meters at irregular intervals with every bound. You didn't have to be a stormtrooper to miss every shot against them.

Our hunter team kept firing, trying to hit them somehow.

Who was holding the front line?

Baek Dambi.

She stood at the very front, firing a light machine gun. Anyone could tell it was her just from that damn crop top and her long hair falling to her waist.

The light machine gun in her hands continuously spat fire.

I'd heard during training that no matter how long she fired, she didn't need to replace the barrel or use coolant. She was an ice ability user who could lower an object's temperature through her gaze or physical contact alone.

With Baek Dambi and the rest of the team firing, three Deathclaws were finally hit and rolled across the ground.

All three looked dead. Only one remained.

“It's here, it's here!”

One Deathclaw had finally gotten close, but Baek Dambi showed no sign of panic. She didn't flinch or try to dodge.

A shrill Deathclaw scream pierced my ears.

An ice spike rose in front of the charging Deathclaw and stopped its advance. The spike was sliced apart in an instant by the Deathclaw's claws, which it swung in anger, but no one missed that brief delay. Everyone immediately opened fire and killed it.

Seeing that made one thing clear. Saying ice ability users were no different from ordinary people who hadn't awakened was bullshit. It was only that their strength wasn't enough to warrant contracts worth billions.

The other team members also seemed to recognize how much Baek Dambi had contributed. Seong Munyeong muttered in a tense voice.

“Nice one, Dambi……”

I'd finished changing my magazine and was about to join in, but every nearby Deathclaw had already fallen and lay sprawled on the ground.

Now that we could finally catch our breath, I checked on the team.

“Is everyone okay?”

“Y-Yes……”

No one seemed injured or dead. Then again, this area was toward the rear of the operation zone. It was relatively safe. Everyone's eyes were bloodshot from firing nonstop just to survive, even in this safe place, but still.

‘Bang, bang!’

Gunfire rang out everywhere. Hunters must have arrived late and begun forming an encirclement.

In the meantime, my team handed me my personal magazines, along with bottled water and energy bars for calories. I got ready to fight again.

Then I waited for a moment, catching my breath.

Even normal Hunters could shoot down small fry Monsters with guns. Unless things were as urgent as before, there was no reason for me to step in just to kill a few extra.

A person like me, an awakened Hunter, had another job.

Killing the real monsters.

Like the one I'd seen earlier, the thing that attacked the helicopter……

Among the Monsters that emerged from a Gate, there was always one that acted as the pack leader. That Monster was more than merely the pack's leader. It was exceptionally powerful.

A monster too fast to hit with rocket launchers or recoilless rifles, and too tough to kill with small arms.

My job was to deal with things like that. My hunter team's job was to attend to me or protect me as a kind of meat shield. Whether the Monster targeted them before me or they killed it first, their mission was accomplished if I survived.

Before long, my prey was identified.

A scream-like transmission blared over the radio.

「Force-Field Creature! Force-Field Creature spotted!」

I knew what a Force-Field Creature was. It was the thing I'd seen earlier.

When I spread out my mental net, I detected something moving especially fast.

“I'm going ahead, so move to the location they gave over the radio!”

I focused and used Spatial Teleportation outside my field of view.

Even though I'd literally crossed space, I was already too late.

The stench of blood was thick in the air. Among several scattered corpses, I saw a muscular body with its guts spilled out and its head severed.

Fuck.

The Hunter Rifle still clutched in their hand showed they had been a Body Enhancement user. Muscles capable of stopping bullets below a certain caliber had been cleanly sliced apart.

Their skin was brown. Where were they originally from? Laos? Cambodia?

Either way, they seemed to be an awakened person brought in from overseas for money. Judging by the cuts to both their stomach and neck, they had kept firing their Hunter Rifle to the very end even after sustaining fatal wounds.

Despite that desperate struggle, their neck had eventually been severed and their life snuffed out.

The bodies of the hunter team Incheon City had assigned to them were scattered nearby too.

I offered a brief moment of silence in my heart for the warrior who died fighting to protect the city.

Then I looked at the Monster responsible for all this.

It was the one I'd seen earlier. The thing that had leaped up to attack a helicopter in midair and come through the crash unharmed.

Animals and Monsters could awaken just like humans. Deathclaws as a species were innately awakened to force-field blades, and a select few among them awakened an additional force-field ability besides those innate blades.

Force-field exoskeleton.

For humans, it was an awakened ability so specialized for combat that simply awakening it got you rated A-rank without any training.

Once someone awakened to that ability, a nearly invisible force field covered their entire body. If one part of the field took a concentrated impact, that part alone wasn't pierced. The field redistributed from other areas to cover the damaged portion. Until the force field was completely destroyed, no damage could be dealt to the body beneath it.

Much like a powered exoskeleton, the force field itself had power. It didn't just offer incredible defense. It could produce strength beyond a living creature's muscles. That absurd jumping power must have come from the force-field exoskeleton too.

They called things like that Force-Field Creatures. It was a monster said to have raised the value of awakened people like me by a hundredfold.

“Hello.”

It seemed the thing recognized me too. It didn't greet me back or howl to threaten me.

Every movement it made was absurdly fast.

My vision blurred for a moment, and it was already swinging its hooked claws right in front of my face.

If I hadn't instinctively used Spatial Teleportation, my head would have been cut off.

Gritting my teeth, I pulled the trigger at its exposed back.

Thirty-millimeter autocannon rounds fired in bursts hammered its force field. Each round was as long as three of my palms laid end to end. A living thing hit by one didn't die with a hole in its body. It was blown to pieces or torn in half.

For this thing, it was like getting hit by BB pellets.

It spun around and tried to attack me again, leaping as fast as an arrow. There was no guarantee I could evade by simply moving my body.

I used Spatial Teleportation to reach the rooftop of the building across the road.

The thing passed through the space where I'd been.

Had it gotten angry after missing twice? It raised its head and howled.

‘Awooooo……’

It seemed to be some kind of call for support. Deathclaws with blood around their mouths came out from low-rise apartments everywhere and stared at me all at once.

They began climbing the building I was on.

There were more than ten of them, but I didn't think I'd need to fight them all at once. My mental net, still spread out, told me my team was approaching.

“Fire!”

My teammates reached their assigned location and began firing for me. As the Deathclaws climbing the walls fell, my one-on-one duel with the Force-Field Creature resumed.

From the rooftop of the building beyond, the Force-Field Creature leaped toward me.

The building I was on was taller, and there was quite a distance between us. That let me empty the entire Hunter Rifle magazine while it was still in the air.

It was evening. Darkness was beginning to settle over the city.

Thirty-millimeter autocannon rounds burst from the muzzle, drawing a thick golden line through the darkness. Since it was already suspended in midair and unable to dodge, that golden line struck the Monster's body dead-on.

How much kinetic energy did that golden line carry? If even I got hit by it, wouldn't I immediately turn into a lump of meat?

The Monster broke through that terrifying golden line and landed on the rooftop.

As it zigzagged toward me, I backed away and fired my Hunter Rifle. My shooting skill was literally superhuman. My Point Shooting struck its body over and over, but it still closed the distance without shedding a single drop of blood.

Die, please.

I was getting anxious. They said a few of these thirty-millimeter rounds could blow an ordinary Force-Field Creature to pieces, so what the hell was this thing? The toughness of force fields varied wildly by individual, and this one must have been an exceptionally powerful monster.

It felt like fighting an RPG boss. No matter how much my attacks reduced the boss's HP, there were no visible injuries or damage. As long as its HP wasn't zero, there wasn't even any change in its physical ability, and the fact that I couldn't see how much HP it had left filled me with despair.

No. That wasn't it. My shots so far must have done considerable damage to its force field. I just didn't know how much more I needed to destroy.

“Come on, you bastard.”

Then it came.

With a sharp snap, it leaped. It shot toward me from close range.

It was too fast, and this time I couldn't dodge with Spatial Teleportation at the right moment. So what could I do?

I put down the Hunter Rifle and leaned aside as if dodging a straight punch.

Ah……

Pain spread across one side of my face. Its hooked claws had cut off part of my ear and cheek.

But that was all.

As the Deathclaw passed beside me through the air, I grabbed its front paw.

Then I slammed it into the ground. ‘Boom!’

I brought it down with the superhuman strength of a Body Enhancement user. The rooftop's concrete floor shattered and stone dust flew everywhere, but it still didn't shed a drop of blood.

When I tried to lift it and slam it down again, it swung its other front paw even while being swung around.

That scything strike hit the hand gripping it. Three plump grubs trailed red shit as they flew through the air.

My middle, ring, and little fingers had been cut off, but it didn't matter. My thumb and index finger were enough to hold it.

I slammed it into the ground again. ‘Thump!’

This time it was ‘Thump!’ instead of ‘Boom!’ I caught a sign of change.

Cracks like a shattered window appeared over its body. They spread outward in every direction as if exploding.

At last, its force field broke.

I drove the thing, still struggling desperately one last time, into the ground. Without its force field, its body, which had seemed completely unharmed even under that autocannon barrage, couldn't withstand the strength in my forearm. The moment it touched the ground, it was crushed into mush.

I panted for a moment in front of its remains. Then I laughed.

I'd won. Again.

“Ah.”

Once again, the cheers of a crowd began ringing in my head. And once again, victory gave me strength.

Everything it had, its soul, seeped into me.

They said every awakened person had different limits and growth rates. It felt like mine was on the faster side. The new strength filling my body let me sense just how much soul I'd taken in this time.

Trying to ignore the feeling of omnipotence ruling my entire body, I shouted into the radio.

“I killed the Force-Field Creature!”

Cheers and praise came back. They said the situation seemed mostly under control now, that I'd worked really hard, and that I could rest now.

「You really worked hard. You aren't hurt anywhere, right? The Hunters gathered here will handle the rest, so Kim Geuk, go get some rest!」

Then something exploded.

Turning toward the sound, I saw the tenth floor of an apartment building erupt, spewing flames and various other things.

Right, a gas explosion. But I couldn't say for sure that it hadn't happened by chance in this situation.

I could guess what kind of thing had done it.

An elemental……

Monsters poured out of Gates, but couldn't open them themselves.

Opening Gates was an elemental's ability.

Elementals and Monster packs lived in symbiosis. When an elemental opened a Gate, the waiting Monsters came through and caused a massive disturbance.

In the middle of that chaos, the elemental slipped out too and began hunting. That was how it hunted humans and safely fattened its soul.

I looked at the rooftop of the apartment building where the explosion had happened. People who hadn't been rescued yet were gathered there.

I imagined the burning elemental enjoying itself on the floor below.

I got to my feet. The hammer I'd dropped earlier lay on the rooftop of an apartment building beyond. I used Spatial Teleportation to reach it and reassured myself.

The hunt wasn't over yet.

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Footnotes:

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