WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈

Chapter 43: A-Rank Hunter Nguyen - [1]

──────

We hadn't been able to carry out the Incheon Recovery Project this month.

It wasn't like I'd been slacking off. Gates had been opening far too frequently lately, so we'd been on standby twenty-four hours a day, dispatched whenever something happened.

I already knew the culprit behind this exhausting situation. That damn Behemoth.

Seong Munyeong spoke irritably inside the helicopter carrying us.

"When the hell is that Behemoth bastard going to go back?"

Behemoth had approached Seoul long ago, and Kang Jun-chi's trip to Seoul had stopped the giant Monster's advance.

Still, Behemoth hadn't turned back the way it came or changed direction toward somewhere else.

It remained stopped at that spot near Seoul. Maybe the giant Monster was hoping Kang Jun-chi would eventually leave if it waited there long enough.

If Kang Jun-chi kept holding out like this, Behemoth would eventually leave, but nobody knew when that would be.

The problem was that Behemoth didn't travel alone.

Behemoth's movements always came with herds of tens of thousands of Monsters. More accurately, the Monsters followed Behemoth of their own accord, because simply sticking close to it brought them enormous benefits.

That was why whenever Behemoth, a 400-meter-long Rock Elemental, appeared in reality, a tide of Monsters looking to hunt amid the chaos created by that giant Monster followed from the massive Gate it generated.

Monsters that had broken away from that tide were attacking Korea. They probably had no patience at all, so they couldn't resist rushing out when there were so many humans nearby to hunt. The resulting damage was severe.

Not just Seoul, but nearby Incheon was suffering because of it too.

Gates kept opening in Seoul and Incheon, leaving us no time to rest.

Lately, Gates had opened for four days straight, so we'd been dispatched for four days straight. I'd even been sent out that morning, only for another Gate to open that evening. That was why we were heading to the scene now.

"We've been deployed for four days straight, haven't we? Nobody would've blamed you if you'd sat this one out..."

I answered Seong Munyeong.

"No. I need to keep hunting without resting so I can add more floors to the apartment building.”

"But you already saved up all the money..."

I was about to say something to the guy who kept complaining, but stopped. You couldn't expect a non-awakened person to keep pace with an awakened person.

"Is it that hard for you? If so, I do feel a little bad."

"It's not that it's hard for me. That isn't the problem. The problem is you wearing yourself out. Every time we're dispatched, you have to kill more than half the Monsters by yourself..."

As Seong Munyeong trailed off awkwardly, I heard Lee Jongho groan.

"Ah, I think we're here..."

I could tell as well. All kinds of emotions flowing from the Gate began to muddle my mind.

Unlike the first time I'd experienced this, though, it was bearable now. Maybe I'd grown significantly on a spiritual level after hunting so many Monsters since then.

That let me spread my mental net inside the helicopter and take in the situation below.

Everything happening within a radius of around two kilometers reached my mind. My head throbbed as I desperately tried to absorb the information...

After managing to sort through it all, I spoke.

"I'm going ahead."

Everyone was used to me acting alone by now, so nobody protested. Jang Byeonggon spoke quickly.

"We'll report our position once we land and get set up!"

I nodded and prepared to hunt.

Standing aboard the helicopter, I took a firing stance with the Hunter Rifle. I set the fire selector to automatic and put my finger on the trigger.

The instant I pulled the trigger, I used Spatial Teleportation. To where?

To the side of the Deathclaws about to pounce on a family, the most urgent location I'd identified earlier.

My vision changed. Two Deathclaws and a trembling family came into view.

"Argh!"

Since I'd already pulled the trigger before teleporting, the bullets fired the instant I finished using Spatial Teleportation.

The 30mm autocannon rounds pouring from the muzzle tore apart the two Deathclaws in quick succession.

The rifle was set to automatic, so bullets kept pouring from the muzzle, but I didn't lift my finger from the trigger. There was no need to.

I had no intention of wasting ammunition either.

"Uh, ah? Hunter Kim Geuk..."

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to shout "Long live Incheon!" to the man who recognized me.

I used Spatial Teleportation again to a location I'd identified beforehand.

As my vision changed, I saw a group of Manticores. The bullets already streaming from my rifle flew toward those lion Monsters as they slowly closed in on a group of police officers.

A series of wet explosions rang out ahead.

Before I could even confirm the deaths of those fake lions, I was already looking for my next teleportation point.

"Uh? Ah!"

The police officers who had narrowly escaped death looked horrified, but I didn't have time to wave at them either.

About four seconds later, I lowered the muzzle and used Spatial Teleportation once more.

My feet landed on the roof of an eight-story building.

Bullets were still pouring from the muzzle I'd pointed downward beforehand, letting me immediately shower the Deathclaws climbing the building's walls with autocannon rounds.

As the Deathclaws' mangled corpses fell, I teleported again to another urgent location I'd checked earlier.

I gave the Monsters I encountered there no time to resist either, pouring bullets into them...

Like that, I used Spatial Teleportation eleven times in less than a minute. I killed every Monster caught in my net and saved the people who had nearly become their meals.

It was a trick I'd become capable of after experiencing Kang Jun-chi's hallucination. Repeatedly teleporting short distances outside my field of vision, accurately and in rapid succession.

After doing that once, though, I usually ended up feeling like I was about to collapse and die.

It was the same this time. The dizziness was so terrible that I could barely make out anything around me.

I leaned my back against a wall and struggled to catch my breath.

Then Seong Munyeong's voice came through the radio on my chest.

「Kim Geuk, we're set up! We're currently at...」

I was in no state to use Spatial Teleportation, but I somehow tried to teleport there anyway.

After failing twice, I barely succeeded on the third attempt.

I teleported into the middle of my hunter team.

The moment I finished teleporting, my body swayed and I nearly fell. I desperately tried to hold on to my senses.

I couldn't collapse like this. The hunt was still ongoing.

Yet mental strength meant nothing when my whole body was burning horribly hot.

It was the fever caused by overusing my ability and overloading my nervous system, something I'd experienced only once a few days ago.

Even Super-Regeneration didn't work in this state. At this rate, I really would die.

With even the weather so hot that I felt like I might collapse, I looked at my ring girl. I wasn't sure whether I was actually looking at her, since she seemed to have multiplied into four people. My lips moved.

I wanted to say, Hurry, that thing...

But no words came out.

Fortunately, Baek Dambi understood what I meant and was already prepared. She hurried over and placed her palm on my back.

Then, ah...

Something cold flowed from her palm, ran down my spine, and spread through my entire body. My body temperature, which had risen high enough to denature my proteins, began to drop rapidly.

I might live after all.

Once my overheated nervous system returned to a normal temperature, Super-Regeneration finally recovered too. As my cooked brain cells regenerated one by one, I finally came back to my senses.

I could barely understand Baek Dambi's voice, which I hadn't even been able to hear properly until then. She asked worriedly.

"Are you okay?"

My voice returned too.

"Thanks to you. Also, I just used up my magazine..."

When I muttered that and glanced to the side, everyone already knew what to do. Before I could say anything, Lee Jongho and Seong Munyeong had lifted my 55-kilogram Hunter Rifle while Jeong Jinyeong replaced the magazine.

When I lifted the reloaded Hunter Rifle one-handed, Lee Jongho let out an impressed sound, as though he were amazed all over again.

"Oh..."

Im Hyeongtaek asked.

"Kim Geuk? You looked like you were about to die, so it seems like you pushed yourself too hard again, like a few days ago... So, how was it? Did you kill them all?"

I nodded.

"All the ones that had come out so far."

Im Hyeongtaek's eyes widened in surprise despite being the one who'd asked.

Seong Munyeong clicked his tongue.

"Fuck, that's insane... Hurry up and tell Incheon City to renew your contract. Everyone on Huntweb is making a fuss, saying they got you way too cheap, aren't they?"

I enjoyed my teammates' reactions and praise for my accomplishments, but tried to think as little as possible.

I tried to rest my brain and nervous system.

I was resting to prepare for the next battle.

According to the report, this was a large Gate. And large Monsters came bursting out of large Gates.

That thing hadn't appeared yet. When it did, I had to hunt it.

I couldn't rest for long. A familiar voice rang out from the radio.

「It's a large Monster! It's as big as a bus! I'm luring it toward the main road, but it's so fast that it's hard to give an exact location!」

It was Naito. He had reached the scene at almost the same speed as us in the helicopter, so it seemed he'd been searching for the Gate's location alone. Then he must've run into that large Monster.

I endured my pounding headache and spread my mental net again.

When I teleported, I was surprised all over again, even though I'd already grasped the situation through my net.

A motorcycle engine roared. The ground rumbled as well.

The earth shook as though there had been an earthquake, and heavy pounding sounds rang out at a pace that didn't suit their weight.

I saw two fast-moving figures racing along the road ahead.

Naito was riding that silver motorcycle, seemingly at nearly top speed. He was trying to lure the pursuing Monster toward a main road with as few people as possible...

Behind him was a Monster the size of a house, fiercely chasing that absurdly fast motorcycle.

That wasn't just a figure of speech. It really was the size of a house. A large bus would be about that big.

I couldn't tell exactly what the large Monster looked like because it was running far too fast.

I almost doubted my own eyes. Something that huge was moving fast enough to leave an afterimage?

Still, I had to do my job first.

When I pulled the trigger, it made a rattling sound.

The golden streak pouring from my Hunter Rifle struck the massive target's body without missing a single shot, despite its excessive speed.

Blood and flesh sprayed from the thing's rear in the distance.

Only then did the large Monster stop. A huge cloud of dust rose as it came to an abrupt halt, and Naito's voice rang out beyond it. He sounded like he'd met a savior.

"Kim Geuk!"

I had no time to care about the reaction of that non-awakened piece of trash.

The large Monster's head emerged from the thick cloud of dust.

How should I describe it? A boar with its ears, nose, and tusks torn off, its face smashed in?

It was an enormous four-legged Monster, horribly ugly and vicious-looking. It had no fur anywhere on its body, making every muscle plainly visible as it looked at me.

The large Monster kicked off the ground and charged at me.

It was so fast. So horribly, almost surrealistically fast.

I had no choice but to use Spatial Teleportation.

* * *

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried