WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

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◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈

Chapter 31: The Eolregis - [5]

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I almost smiled, then flinched. Fuck.

Wasn't this disgusting when I thought about it rationally? I was happy because some pitiful man I had no grudge against was bowing to me. I wasn't Cyber Magneto, so what the hell was this?

Before I knew it, I was thinking like some completely deranged sadist. Was it because I'd recently kept thinking of non-awakened people as trash and shit like that?

Keeping a straight face, I looked at Seong Munyeong and the Soweol person pinned beneath him. Munyeong was pulling on the rope to finish tying the Soweol person up, so I spoke to him.

"That must hurt. Doesn't look like they'll suddenly pull out a sword and start swinging it, so take it easy."

"Okay."

Maybe because we were on a mission, even that ill-mannered bastard was being obedient today.

I pushed aside the idiotic thought that non-awakened people ought to behave obediently like that. If I didn't want to hate myself like I had just now, I'd have to consciously stop myself from thinking this way.

We had enough breathing room for that kind of self-reflection. No other Soweol people registered on my mental net, and all the Deathclaws were already dead.

Just when I started hoping the situation was over, the radio clipped to my chest blared.

「Incheon Awakened Persons New Home, requesting support! Incheon Awakened Persons New Home, requesting support!」

The awakened-person containment facility was requesting support. It seemed an enemy had appeared that even the soldiers at the guard posts behind its sturdy walls couldn't handle.

There wasn't a second to spare. As I prepared to use Spatial Teleportation, the radio identified the enemy.

「An awakened person, an awakened Soweol person! Force-field exoskeleton and force-field blades...」

I used Spatial Teleportation twice in a row, as far as I could manage, and reached the place in question.

Using it twice in such a hurry, beyond my line of sight, left me dizzy. Instead of teleporting again, I ran toward my destination.

The containment facility's main gate came into view. That iron gate was notorious for being strong enough to keep ice ability users from leaving without permission, but it apparently hadn't held back the attacker for even a moment.

I stepped on the fallen gate and entered the facility. Then I saw the scene before me and closed my eyes for a moment before opening them again.

The stench of blood was thick. It came from a soldier bisected at the waist and another split in two from head to crotch. It was the kind of filthy end that belonged in a B-grade gore movie, too grotesque for any human being.

The other soldiers were dead too, all of them decapitated or missing some other body part. Even at a glance, there were at least twenty. The soldier who must have radioed me lay there with their guts spilled out. The attacker seemed to have massacred them all in less than five minutes.

My body went stiff when I saw the arms and legs scattered across the floor.

The sight of myself in that vision, legs severed, flashed through my mind again.

A chill ran down my spine, and every hair on my body stood on end.

Did the pain from those visions carry over too, just like the emotions did? It wasn't something I'd actually experienced, yet I could feel a burning pain in my legs.

I hesitated slightly, but not for long.

I ran deeper into the facility and saw them.

A Soweol person.

An awakened person, most likely.

They were nearly 190 centimeters tall, but skinny overall. So was the sword clutched in their hand.

What kind of bullshit sword was that?

The blade had to be at least three meters long. It didn't look heavy, though. It was long, but narrow and thin.

Even if I brought my hammer down on it, that oversized sword wouldn't break. Force-field blades would be covering its edge without a single gap.

That awakened Soweol person had already cut someone to death in this facility with that fancy sword.

A middle-aged woman's head lay separated from her body nearby.

Beyond her, ice ability users stood gathered in front of the Soweol person... They were trembling, terrified that they would end up like that woman.

I looked once more at the decapitated woman. She seemed around the same age as Ms. Park. She probably had less money than her and had ended up living in a containment facility like this, but still.

Our eyes met. The moment I saw those dead fish eyes, the tension and fear disappeared.

"Hey."

The Soweol person turned around as I growled.

The face I'd seen earlier in my vision looked at me. Their mouth opened, and they started spitting out words I couldn't understand.

"What the fuck are you saying, you piece of shit?"

I pulled the trigger on my Hunter Rifle while they kept talking. Bang!

The selector was set to semi-auto. I wanted to spray them down on full auto, but there were ice ability users behind them, so I fired only once.

The autocannon round struck their force-field exoskeleton dead on.

That was the signal to begin the fight.

There was no real advantage to the ambush. Even after taking an autocannon round, the Soweol person kicked off the ground as if nothing had happened.

Force-field exoskeleton. Like I'd experienced before, that fucking ability turned awakened people into bosses from a video game. Taking one autocannon round didn't even get a reaction like they'd been hit with a jab.

Just as one Deathclaw had reached helicopter height with a single leap, this one's jumping power was enough to make my mind go blank.

They kicked off the ground once, and in the next moment, they were in front of me, swinging their sword. It didn't even feel like a leap. It felt almost like Spatial Teleportation.

The version of me in that vision must have failed to react to that absurd speed and lost both legs.

I was far superior to the me in that vision, whether it came to reflexes or the speed of my Spatial Teleportation.

Unlike them, I actually teleported.

The Soweol person's back came into view. While their sword cut through the space where I'd been standing and the walls on either side, I switched the selector to full auto.

When I pulled the trigger, golden lines poured from the muzzle. Autocannon rounds struck their force-field exoskeleton one after another.

They didn't keep standing there and taking them.

After a few shots hit, the Soweol person spun around and kicked off the ground.

It was the same as before. They were in front of me before I even had time to blink, and their force-field blade flashed before my eyes.

I could roughly track all their movements, but this time I didn't use Spatial Teleportation.

The ice ability users were still standing behind me. At this rate, we'd all be cut down together.

I held my ground and kept pouring out autocannon rounds.

Then, just as their force-field blade dug halfway into my neck, my kick slammed into their abdomen. It was a clean front kick, good enough to put in a textbook.

A front kick carrying the strength of a Body Enhancement user. An ordinary person's stomach would've been punched through, but the Soweol person, protected by their force field, was sent flying away from me.

I aimed the Hunter Rifle at their body as it flew through the air. Autocannon rounds kept striking them as they flew backward.

Not long after, their body burst apart in midair.

The Soweol person's blood and flesh scattered before my eyes.

Ah...

It was technically the first time I'd killed a person, but it didn't feel particularly significant. I'd heard that even in war, killing an enemy with a clear justification often caused less psychological shock. Maybe this was something like that.

Either way, I'd won. Perhaps because they had been such a powerful awakened person, an enormous thrill flooded my head. In the stands inside my mind, people chanted my name...

I shook my head and drove the thrill from my thoughts.

My head flopped around as I did. Blood sprayed from my neck, and in the window's reflection, I saw that my neck had been cut halfway through.

The sudden blood loss made me dizzy, but it didn't matter. It would heal soon enough.

I pressed a hand to my neck to forcibly stop the bleeding and asked the ice ability users,

"Is everyone okay?"

Maybe it was shocking to hear that from a guy with his neck cut halfway through. The ice ability users gathered here didn't answer. They just trembled and groaned.

Still covering my neck with my palm, I pressed them for an answer.

"Is everyone here accounted for? Besides the dead woman, no one was taken, right?"

Once I asked more specifically, one woman answered.

"Three people! They took three people!"

"Where?"

I extended my mental net in the direction she pointed.

A group registered on the net, and I used Spatial Teleportation to go there. Then I saw the people I'd detected.

One large figure who appeared to be a Soweol person and two underlings. There were also three ice ability users they were dragging away.

"You beggar bastards, stop."

The three Soweol people turned to look at me. The two apparent underlings flinched. The large one seemed a little surprised, but that was all.

Soon, the large figure's assessing gaze settled on me.

They showed no sign of shrinking back, so they had to be an awakened person too.

Unlike the skinny bastard from earlier, they were muscular. My own muscles had been bulked up beyond those of a bodybuilder, but theirs were the lean muscles unique to an athlete. They were still muscles you didn't see just anywhere. They clearly belonged to a Body Enhancement user.

They were carrying a three-meter sword too. The haze unique to force-field blades shimmered around it.

A Body Enhancement user with force-field blades too.

That was the most common combination of abilities among awakened monarchs in Sword World. I remembered reading that in a textbook for awakened Hunters...

"Please save us!" "Help us!"

As the female ice ability users being held by the Soweol people screamed, the large awakened person opened their mouth too.

"Ak o Seath?"

They seemed to be saying something, but I still couldn't understand them. I looked past them.

A purple, shimmering Gate stood in the distance. I had to finish everything here... But damn it, when I checked, I'd apparently emptied the magazine earlier. There wasn't a single round left.

By the time I changed magazines and came back, they might have entered that Gate.

But if I hurriedly fetched my hammer and swung it, there was no way it could withstand those absurd force-field blades...

While I was concerned about their sword, the large figure seemed concerned about the weapon in my hands.

From the glances they kept shooting at it, they'd been watching my Hunter Rifle for a while.

It had been some time since they first connected with our world. They knew roughly what weapons were dangerous. They knew this Hunter Rifle could tear apart the body of a Body Enhancement user in an instant.

I decided to act like I was making a generous offer.

With a loud thud, I dropped the Hunter Rifle onto the ground.

As the large figure kept saying something, their eyes widened, and I raised both hands to eye level.

I took a basic fighting stance, stretched only my right hand forward, and beckoned them with my fingers.

"Come on."

They must have understood what I said. Even if they didn't understand the words, they could get the idea from my gesture.

I also didn't think they would reject my "generous" offer and swing their sword at me. Look at me. I'd been treated like some great awakened person for less than a year, and I was already arrogant enough to think of non-awakened people as trash.

Then how arrogant would they be, after ruling as an awakened monarch?

Of course, I planned to use Spatial Teleportation to escape if things got dangerous, but I didn't need to.

Clang.

Metal struck stone.

Just as I'd set down my Hunter Rifle, the large figure placed their sword on the floor.

Then they took a stance similar to mine, probably a fighting stance from their side of the world.

They seemed to know how to fight too, but that wasn't surprising. According to the Hunter textbooks, just as medieval knights trained in wrestling and swordsmanship, those who wished to awaken in Sword World trained in martial arts and swordsmanship. Those two activities were the awakening triggers for Body Enhancement and force-field blades.

The large figure began to move lightly on their feet. I did the same as we sized each other up, but they moved first.

With a sound like a drum bursting, their fist tore through the air toward me.

The moment their shoulder twitched, I was already preparing to sway my upper body to the side. I moved left, letting their fist pass by. My own fist brushed past their outstretched arm and slammed into their face.

And the fight began. It was my first fight since leaving the octagon four years ago.

Footnotes:

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