WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈

Chapter 45: A-Rank Hunter Nguyen - [3]

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It rang out with a clang, as if I’d struck metal.

When my feet hit the ground, the Ogre staggered. Its brain must’ve been violently shaken inside its skull by that hammer blow. It was obvious it could barely stay upright.

I brought the hammer down on the back of its head once more, and the Ogre finally collapsed.

I was happy to have a chance to finish it off, but only for a moment. Just as I was about to swing my hammer down on the fallen Ogre again, my eyes widened.

The Ogre was lying there with both hands wrapped around its head.

That was shocking.

It had already come to its senses? After getting ambushed and smashed in the head like that?

I knew Super-Regeneration made its users recover quickly from shock, but even so...

The Ogre started forcing itself back up despite taking blow after blow from my hammer. It hadn’t wrapped itself in any kind of force field. That toughness came from nothing but flesh and muscle.

Before long, the Ogre was completely upright again. Its beastly eyes fixed directly on me.

As I faced that gigantic Monster, one powerful emotion welled up inside me.

Boredom? No.

Fear? Not that either.

It was awe.

Even though I was a Body Enhancement user, my body looked like it’d get blown to pieces by a few autocannon rounds. Yet this thing had taken a barrage of my autocannon rounds, was still alive and well, and even had enough strength left to show this much after being caught off guard.

Maybe Gigantification and Body Enhancement were actually the same type of ability. I desperately hoped I could become like that someday.

I already knew how.

I had to kill it and take its power.

This Monster had probably followed Behemoth around and eaten plenty of people. Like that boar I’d seen earlier, it must’ve rampaged through Australia to its heart’s content. How many people had it killed to gain such overwhelming strength?

I wanted that power for myself.

So hand over your strength and your life, you ugly gorilla bastard.

The desire rising inside me gave fresh energy to my already exhausted body. As I stared the Ogre down, an angry infrasound rumble flowed from its mouth.

“Uooooooooh!”

The Ogre roared at me. Was it warning me not to come closer? Or declaring that it would kill me no matter what?

Either way, I didn’t care.

I rushed in without warning and smashed my hammer into the Ogre’s open mouth as it roared.

Crack!

Its jaw and teeth broke at once, spraying blood everywhere.

The enraged Ogre screamed in pain and brought down its fist, but I was already gone after using Spatial Teleportation.

I teleported just far enough to the side to avoid its punch, then swung my hammer again. I struck the Ogre’s fingers where its hand had hit the ground, so the impact went straight into them.

My hammer made a crunching sound like concrete breaking. A terrible sound followed from the Ogre’s fingers, as though its finger bones had been pulverized.

The Ogre screamed again. Its hands had already taken plenty of hits from my hammer when it’d covered its head earlier. One more hammer blow to those fingers, whose bones had probably all been cracked already, nearly made it die of agony.

The Ogre hid its thoroughly mangled hand. Then it swung its intact hand at me, so I decided to make that one look the same.

I swung the hammer wide.

The target was its fist.

The Ogre’s fist and my hammer cut through the air toward each other.

They collided in midair. The shockwave raked painfully across my face. My hammer vibrated, and a thrilling impact ran up my arm.

What about the Ogre?

It let out a miserable scream and leaped backward to put distance between us. The rage disappeared from its eyes, replaced by fear.

Seeing it hide both hands between its legs, it looked like both had been completely ruined.

The Ogre didn’t try to buy time until its broken finger bones recovered, nor did it attempt a kick.

Like beasts often did when they realized they were losing a fight, the Ogre leaped backward and...

“Hey, don’t run!”

I shouted at the Ogre as it turned around and began fleeing. Of course, it just kept running farther away.

Should I chase it down and hammer it some more? No. It was faster than me, so catching it would be difficult. I’d probably have to use Spatial Teleportation several times while swinging my hammer, and that would be a terrible waste.

I immediately teleported.

When I returned to my hunter team, they’d already changed the magazine. Cute little guys. They really knew how to serve an awakened person.

“Where’s Dambi? I don’t see her...”

“Dambi went to look for the Gate!”

After that brief exchange, I lifted my Hunter Rifle. Just as I was about to teleport again, Jeong Jinyeong’s voice cut in.

“Good luck!”

Thanks to that, I could grin despite my exhaustion as I teleported.

My view changed again. Up ahead, I saw the Ogre’s back as it ran for its life.

I pulled the trigger of my Hunter Rifle at its back.

Like those archers who perform the trick of splitting one arrow with another, I did the same.

I connected the golden line fired from my Hunter Rifle to the Ogre’s exposed back, right along its spine.

Autocannon rounds fired in bursts began tearing fiercely into its back.

None of the bullets missed or struck anywhere else. I kept firing at the exact same spot, and the Ogre couldn’t endure any longer.

It ran a few more steps before collapsing face-first onto the ground. I approached and gave it a few more shots, finally finishing it off.

With the death of a powerful enemy, the hallucination of people chanting my name began inside my head.

“Kim Geuk! Kim Geuk! Kim Geuk!”

This cheer was louder and longer than usual, and the power newly flowing through my body was greater than ever before.

So was the exhilaration...

The joy I felt now was far greater than anything I’d experienced after defeating an enemy before. Why?

My guess was that the ogre belonged to the same category of awakened being as a Body Enhancement user. They said spiritual absorption worked much better when you defeated an awakened being from the same category. Maybe I’d achieved greater spiritual growth than ever before...

“Kim Geuk! Kim Geuk!”

Ah, it looked like I had a real audience this time. A voice from reality stirred my nerves, which had been drowning in exhilaration.

“That was completely one-sided! Just like I thought, that Monster was a fucking pushover once it was alone!”

I turned toward the voice and saw that man who said he was my fan.

He was holding a smartphone toward me. It seemed he’d been filming the whole time. He asked me a question.

“Can I upload what I just filmed to YouTube?”

When I nodded, the man thanked me repeatedly before continuing.

“Now you’re going after that earless boar? That thing, right?”

“I have to.”

“Then, could you maybe take me along too...?”

What a clueless bastard.

I twisted my face into a scowl and barked at him.

“What kind of question is that?”

“Ah, sorry...”

“Of course I can.”

His face brightened immediately. I grabbed his wrist and teleported. After dropping him off on the rooftop of some building, I looked over the railing.

The boar Monster and Nguyen were down there.

There was no dazzling action scene unfolding between them.

From the look of it, both the boar and Nguyen were exhausted.

The boar was covered in obvious signs of being hit by autocannon rounds. Blisters had formed all over its body, and it stood still.

It scraped its hooves against the ground as if it might charge at any moment, but it looked like nothing more than a threat. It didn’t actually charge. Maybe it had lost all the strength in its body after charging several times and failing to get much out of it?

Nguyen, who was hiding inside a commercial building, was in much the same state. He seemed low on both ammunition and stamina. His T-shirt was soaked in sweat, and he only kept his Hunter Rifle aimed at the boar without firing it.

I wasn’t in good shape either. I’d already used Spatial Teleportation too freely, and I’d just spent plenty of energy beating some gorilla with a sledgehammer.

So I came to one conclusion.

I had to end this as quickly as possible.

I spoke into my radio.

“Nguyen? I don’t know how much ammunition you have left, but can you fire all of it at that thing’s forehead?”

“Kim Geuk? Okay, okay...”

Nguyen sprang up and pulled the trigger. As I’d requested, the bullets from his rifle’s muzzle struck the boar between the eyes. Its skull was so hard that they didn’t do much damage, only barely leaving a wound between its eyes.

That was enough for me.

“Make sure you film this properly!”

I shouted, then teleported.

I landed on top of the furious boar’s head.

Then I stomped down with all my strength.

I drove my foot into the wound that had just formed between its eyes.

The boar’s Super-Regeneration was already activating. Fresh flesh filled in around the wound where I’d shoved my foot, gripping it tightly so I couldn’t pull it free.

Even from what I could feel, its regeneration was terrifying. My foot hurt so badly it felt like it was being crushed, but I endured it.

That pig bastard had to be hurting even more.

Sure enough, the boar started thrashing as it felt something foreign inside it. Its squeals were painfully loud.

It slammed its jaw against the ground, trying to shake me off, but my foot was wedged inside its wound, so I didn’t fall off.

Even while being violently shaken around, I raised my Hunter Rifle. I pulled the trigger at what was surely the softest part of that disgustingly hard body.

Its eyeball.

Drrrk!

Gunfire roared, and the boar screamed loudly enough to drown it out.

My bullets pierced its eyeball and burrowed deep inside. The boar started running wildly.

It was probably trying to smash its head into a suitable building and crush me.

I suddenly remembered the fight with Kang Jun-chi in the hallucination. In that hallucination, hadn’t I failed to use Spatial Teleportation because my foot was buried in concrete?

If so, I couldn’t escape this danger with Spatial Teleportation either. That was fine. I didn’t have the strength to teleport again anyway.

I didn’t take my finger off the trigger as the boar ran wildly, and autocannon rounds poured endlessly from the muzzle. The rounds steadily tore through its eyelid and eyeball.

Once its eye burst, that stupid pig bastard seemed unable to get its bearings. It couldn’t run straight and veered all over the place.

I kept firing through it all. The continuously fired autocannon rounds must’ve eventually reached its brain. Even its brain couldn’t be that tough, so it must’ve turned to mush.

Sure enough, something burst, and the death run stopped.

The boar dropped to its knees, its huge body falling onto its side. At the same time, people began chanting my name inside my head again.

Ah, ah...

This thing must’ve been a stronger Monster than that gorilla earlier. The exhilaration and new power flowing through my body were far greater than when I defeated the Ogre...

When I pulled my foot free with all my strength, the boar’s flesh and muscle, now that its Super-Regeneration had disappeared, couldn’t hold onto it any longer.

With my bloodied foot, I stepped on the gigantic Monster and climbed onto its body. From my high position, I looked at my fan.

His mouth hung wide open as he aimed his smartphone camera at me. It wouldn’t hurt to strike a pose in front of a cameraman.

Looking at the octagon spread beneath the brilliant lights before me, I raised one hand high and declared my victory.

My pose had been worth it, because he shouted that I was awesome and incredible. Then Nguyen’s voice reached me.

“You’re as crazy as I’ve heard, aren’t you? You’re seriously half out of your mind, man...”

I glanced over and met Nguyen’s eyes. He grinned at me, showing his white teeth. He’d smiled like that when I first saw him too. I had no idea what made him so happy that he kept smiling.

Of course, I didn’t care. I was too busy enjoying the exhilaration and sense of victory of that moment, posing for a full five minutes.

Not long afterward, helicopters and tanks appeared in the city, but everything was already over.

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Footnotes:

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