How an A-rank Hunter Lives - Chapter 44

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈

Chapter 44: A-Rank Hunter Nguyen - [2]

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You only had to pick up a few bits of trivia online to understand why giant Monsters couldn't exist in reality.

I vaguely remembered the reason too. As living creatures grew larger, the load on their bodies increased drastically, while the strength of their muscles, proportional to their cross-sectional area, didn't increase by much.

They said movie-style giant Monsters wouldn't even be able to bear their own weight. They'd burst apart and die, like a whale that washed ashore and had its internal organs crushed beneath its own weight.

Real creatures couldn't grow too large, and if they did, problems arose. Yet the large Monsters that emerged from Gates didn't seem affected at all.

Unlike Earth's original lifeforms, Monsters grew stronger the larger they became. Their strength increased in proportion to their enlarged bodies, making them faster and tougher.

You could tell just by looking at that boar-shaped monstrosity.

From the rooftop of the building I'd teleported onto, I watched the large Monster slam into where I'd been standing moments ago.

It sounded like a shell exploding, and the ground shook.

‘Rumble...’

Not just the section it hit, but the entire exterior wall on one side of the building collapsed.

A thick cloud of concrete dust rose into the air.

The boar didn't stop until it smashed through the opposite wall and burst out of the building.

It sniffed at the spot where it had stopped, as if checking whether I'd really been smashed to pieces by its charge.

Then it seemed to realize I was still alive.

The boar turned and glared at me, and I unleashed autocannon rounds at its ugly face.

It looked like it meant to ram the building I was standing on and bring it down. It charged straight at the building I was standing on.

I gifted its back with an uninterrupted stream of 30mm golden streaks, but it refused to die and crashed into the building I was on anyway.

Another shell-like explosion rang out, along with that damned rumbling sound.

The entire building shook violently, but I held on by gripping the railing. I stopped firing for a moment to keep my balance, then pulled the trigger again and shredded its back even further.

After taking that much fire, it still hadn't died. The bleeding from the places I'd shot had already stopped, so it seemed to have Super-Regeneration. It had clearly awakened Body Enhancement as well. To maintain a body that enormous, it would need supernatural improvements in either bone density or muscle strength to begin with.

It was obviously a terrifying Monster. It had probably gone on a horrible rampage in Australia too, destroying countless buildings and eating as many people as it pleased in that unlucky land.

Still, I never thought I couldn't kill it. It was hard for it to attack me, while I could attack it all I wanted.

What I had to worry about instead was it avoiding me and fleeing toward the city center.

Sure enough, unable to withstand my one-sided barrage any longer, the boar turned around. It looked like it was trying to escape between the buildings.

To keep it focused on me, I teleported in front of it. The moment I fired from right in front of it, the wounded thing flew into a rage and charged at me again.

It was absurdly fast, but compared to a Deathclaw's speed at the instant it leaped, it was slow. With my enhanced dynamic vision alone, I easily dodged the charge, then kept firing into its rear as it passed me.

I was a Body Enhancement user myself, so I knew Super-Regeneration had limits. Just as I became certain it would eventually die if I kept shooting like this...

A shrill scream rang out.

“Inside the building! Get inside the building!”

It hadn't come from nearby. It came from farther away, but why?

The radio on my chest blared.

「An Ogre has appeared! One, around four meters tall!」

There was no need to tell me that over the radio. The next moment, I saw it clearly myself.

Far away, I saw a giant climbing up the wall of a building.

It was easily scaling a ten-story building, jamming its fingers and toes into the windows as it climbed.

An Ogre.

In other words, a Goblin that had awakened Gigantification.

Giantification was supposedly an awakened ability that manifested when someone was dissatisfied with their size. Perhaps Goblins as a species were particularly unhappy with their bodies, since they became gigantic so often that those individuals even had their own name.

There were people gathered on the rooftop of the building the Ogre was climbing. Their combined screams reached me even from this far away.

“Don't push! Don't push...!”

It was obvious they were in trouble. I immediately teleported onto that building's rooftop.

I stared ahead.

The Ogre's huge fingers had just grabbed hold of the roof's edge.

I immediately pulled the trigger on the Hunter Rifle that was already aimed in that direction.

After I fired a few rounds in rapid succession, the Ogre seemed unable to endure the sudden pain. It screamed and released its grip on the building.

A heavy thud followed. It must've fallen.

It probably wasn't dead, though. I was certain of it.

Its four-meter body alone told me plenty. Its muscle density had to be incredible for it to climb walls like a monkey with such a heavy body, and its physical durability would be just as absurd...

The people on the rooftop were still shoving one another around at the narrow entrance, trying to flee inside. Unable to watch any longer, I roared.

“Go in calmly, calmly! We've gotten past the immediate danger, so you don't have to rush! Go in calmly!”

My fame was useful at times like this. The people who had been frantically pushing each other to get inside all looked at me and widened their eyes in surprise. Once they realized the Ogre was gone, they seemed to decide to follow my instructions.

As everyone finally evacuated in an orderly manner, one person even recognized me and had enough composure to cheer.

“Keep it up, Hunter Kim Geuk! Long live Incheon!”

They chanted the victory spell, so I did too.

“Long live Incheon!”

At that moment, I truly needed that damned spell. Even I could see this wasn't an easy situation.

Looking down past the railing, I saw that the Ogre was perfectly alive and getting back to its feet.

Then, far away, I saw the boar Monster I'd abandoned.

The boar was sniffing around again, seemingly confused that I had suddenly vanished from its sight.

Once it confirmed I was gone, it looked like it was about to focus on hunting prey.

It turned toward the deepest part of the city, where there would likely be the most people. I'd deliberately shown myself to it earlier to stop that from happening, but all that effort was about to go to waste.

At the same time, the Ogre noticed me. When I tried to shoot it, it seemed to have some idea what a gun was. It raised a massive palm to cover its face. As a result, my autocannon rounds pierced only its palm instead of hitting its face.

Then the Ogre counterattacked through my continued fire. It picked up a compact car beside it and hurled it at me, forcing me to stop firing and dodge.

The boar kept moving toward the city center. It had apparently grown tired after charging several times and slowed down a little, but even that was horribly fast.

It would've been nice if Naito could lure the boar away like he had earlier, so I could deal with this crazy monkey Monster first. That didn't seem likely.

Naito had apparently already grasped the situation and was trying to lure the boar again himself.

“Come on! Come on!”

With the music on his bike turned all the way up, Naito desperately fired his shotgun over and over to draw the boar's attention. It was useless. Unlike before, it completely ignored Naito riding close behind it.

It must have learned something after getting a taste of my autocannon rounds. Compared to my shooting, which had made it bleed heavily, Naito's shots were loud but didn't hurt. It had decided there was no reason to care about them.

The boar continued running toward the city, ignoring Naito.

The Ogre was dangerous, but I couldn't ignore that thing either. When I spread my mental net, I sensed several passenger cars farther down the road trying to escape the city. If I left it alone, they would be trampled beneath that boar's hooves.

The Ogre kept throwing things at me in the meantime. A tree was about to fall on a man standing beside me. I quickly kicked it away and shouted at him.

“Why aren't you getting out of here?”

The man answered awkwardly.

“I was trying to film...”

“Film what, in a situation like this?”

“I'm a fan of Hunter Kim Geuk...!”

I was about to yell at him, but I had no choice but to nod. If he was a fan, there was nothing I could do.

The man smiled awkwardly, then asked anxiously.

“But... what are you going to do? You can't leave that side alone either, but if you go deal with that thing, everyone here will die...”

My answer was short.

“I have to deal with both, obviously.”

As the man let out an impressed “Oh,” I jumped over the railing.

Thud.

I dropped to the ground without even using Spatial Teleportation. I appeared in front of the Ogre, which had been about to throw another roadside tree, and roared.

“Follow me, you bastard!”

It did as I said. The Ogre charged at me like an enraged gorilla, and I ran too.

But it was much, much faster than me. Just as it was about to catch me, I teleported farther away and shouted again.

“Come on, you bastard!”

The Ogre obeyed that too. I teleported away from the thing that had caught up to me again in an instant, and saw the boar ahead.

The Ogre running behind me came to an abrupt stop.

That left me between two gigantic Monsters. The two stopped for a moment, seemingly aware of each other.

A thought came to me. I decided to make them fight each other, so I fired my Hunter Rifle at the boar's face.

Just as I expected, the enraged boar couldn't take it and charged forward. The Ogre stood in its path...

Damn it.

It didn't play out like a game or comic. The Ogre kicked off the building beside it and leaped away from the boar's charge like it was doing parkour, then charged at me, the cause of this entire situation.

I hurriedly fired at it, but the Ogre knew how to use tools. It violently shoved a truck beside it, using it as a shield as it charged me. When I dodged to the side, it flung the truck at me, and I barely threw myself clear.

Both Monsters rushed at me as I lay on the ground. I was about to die, so I hurriedly teleported away, got back up, and ran again.

Someone shouted through the radio, which had been spouting things I couldn't understand for a while.

「I'm at the scene! I'm coming now, so hang in there!」

I didn't know who had said it, and I couldn't ask. I was too busy trying to survive.

Had those two damned Monsters gotten acquainted while following Behemoth around or something? Not only did they not fight each other, they even showed teamwork. The boar blocked the main road as if to prevent me from escaping, while the Ogre leaped at me.

The Ogre's house-sized arm swung toward me, ignoring all sense of perspective, and filled my vision.

I teleported away and felt dizzy. I'd already overused Spatial Teleportation earlier, which made it worse.

Still, I had to keep moving.

I stayed alert for the boar, which stood still over there as if waiting for an opening, while dodging the Ogre's constant charges and the things it kept throwing at me.

I moved as much as possible to avoid them, but whenever I truly couldn't dodge an attack, I had to use Spatial Teleportation. The dizziness grew worse and worse. I fought to endure it.

I also fought the temptation to teleport into a building and escape this situation. If I saved my own life that way, the two would get away from me and head in different directions. There was no telling what kind of hell would unfold in this city.

I endured, trusting that if I held on, reinforcements would come. Like someone had shouted over the radio, reinforcements would come, whether a tank or helicopter.

About five minutes passed while I fought to keep myself alive.

Then a peculiar Incheon accent rang in my ears.

“Didn't I tell you I'd definitely come!”

I turned toward the voice and widened my eyes.

Two Hunters had come as reinforcements.

First was Naito, who had been out of sight since earlier, riding the silver bike. He wasn't alone.

Naito had brought someone on the back of that huge bike.

The person was a brown-skinned man. When Naito stopped the bike, the man hurriedly got off.

He must've rushed here, because he first threw off the sunglasses he was still wearing. After looking over the situation, he let out something that was obviously a curse.

“điên!”

Then he raised the Hunter Rifle he had brought and aimed it. That alone told me who he was.

An awakened person, a Hunter from Vietnam. Nguyen.

What I knew about foreign awakened-person Hunters was that their skills might be lacking, but every single one had guts. It wasn't because they selectively recruited brave people. Foreign awakened people cost less than domestic awakened people, so whenever trouble arose, local governments threw them into the field first.

Nguyen was clearly an experienced Hunter. Rather than hesitate after seeing this chaotic situation, he smiled. He smiled wide enough to show every one of his white teeth.

I didn't know why he was smiling, but it was better than being scared and shrinking back. It meant he intended to do something.

I shouted at him.

“That pig bastard! Get that pig bastard away from here first!”

I didn't know whether Nguyen understood me or judged the situation for himself, but he did exactly that.

Nguyen aimed his gun at the boar and began firing.

‘Rattle...’

The Hunter Rifle he held looked like it weighed thirty-four kilograms. It was weaker than mine, but it still had to hurt like hell.

After taking several rounds, the boar squealed as if in pain, then turned and charged at him.

Nguyen ran in the opposite direction, dodging the boar.

As far as I knew, Nguyen had awakened an acceleration ability in addition to a force-field exoskeleton. The problem was that his nerves didn't accelerate, so he couldn't keep up with his own speed. Still, his running speed alone was enough to keep the boar from catching him.

Nguyen and the boar chasing him began to grow distant.

Then I looked at the Ogre. At last, it was just the two of us.

You fucking bastard. I'll kill you.

When the Ogre charged at me, I used Spatial Teleportation.

To where my hunter team was.

“Kim Geuk? I heard two large Monsters appeared and you were holding them both off alone. Is that true?”

Seong Munyeong seemed like he had something to ask, but I had no time to answer. I set down my Hunter Rifle with a thud and shouted.

“Change the magazine, now!”

Then I picked up the spare combat hammer that my hunter team always carried for me. I teleported again.

Onto the tallest building nearby.

From that high rooftop, I jumped down.

As gravity pulled me down, the ground rapidly drew closer.