WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

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◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈

Chapter 74: Spatial Ability User Kim Geuk - [3]

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Of course, I didn't immediately come up with a way to solve the situation.

In the end, we called it a day again. I'd already achieved my goal of finding the missing child, and there was nothing more I could do there, so I had no choice but to go home.

At home, I searched online for information about Gates.

It was harder than I'd expected. There wasn't much information available.

Several countries had secured talented elemental ability users like Baek Dambi and conducted research on Gates, but none of those findings had been released to the public. I couldn't get the detailed information I wanted just by searching Google.

So I got the information from an unexpected person: Naito. Naito was nothing more than non-awakened trash, but still useful enough in Naito's own way.

“I heard that while it's difficult for things inside a Gate to physically affect each other, it's not completely impossible. They call them spiritual bodies, but they aren't truly souls that have transcended matter or anything, are they?”

Naito's current livestream episode was about finding the missing Shin Mirae, after all. Naito and the viewers seemed quite interested in the matter.

Naito posted an announcement on the YouTube channel asking for advice about the situation, then passed along the information received from the viewers. Most of them were Korean, but Naito had managed to attract viewers from other countries as well, which made it possible.

“It's true that your material state is preserved to some degree when you enter a Gate...”

“That's right. Entering a Gate and becoming a spiritual body doesn't make your clothes, wristwatch, bracelet, and everything else you're wearing fall off. Just like clothes that don't come off after you become a spiritual body, if the child and the Monster were firmly connected before entering the Gate, that connection would remain even after they both became spiritual bodies.”

I'd been inside a Gate myself, so it wasn't hard to understand.

“So if that bear bastard was already holding the child in its jaws before entering the Gate, they both became spiritual bodies in that state, and the bear's grip has remained in place?”

“That's right. Also, spiritual bodies can't pass through each other. If the bear is covering the child with its body, she won't be able to escape. They also said that if her limbs were broken and she couldn't move before becoming a spiritual body, she still won't be able to move afterward, so she can't get out on her own.”

Putting together everything Naito told me, the conclusion was simple. There was no known way to move that bear inside the Gate.

Well, if there had been a way for people to affect Monsters inside Gates, they would've done it long ago. If a dangerous Monster was nearby, they would've sent it far out to sea or something.

I'd only confirmed once again that there was no solution, but I still didn't feel like giving up right away. Why?

Because I was a spatial ability user.

That was exactly why I couldn't simply decide this was beyond my control and push it out of my mind.

Every awakened person's ability had an essence. An essence related to the trigger that led to their awakening.

The essence of a force-field exoskeleton ability, which awakened under stress, was a “wall of the mind.”

It created a solid wall between the user and the outside world, blocking all interference, whether physical shock, radiation, or other supernatural abilities. Maybe that was why I couldn't use Spatial Teleportation to teleport a force-field exoskeleton user along with me.

The essence of my Spatial Teleportation was “escaping.”

I'd awakened after resenting my younger sister's imprisonment and wishing to escape this land. That was probably a fair interpretation.

Then couldn't I use my ability to help that child, trapped in a kind of prison, escape as well?

The limits of my Spatial Teleportation had never been properly identified, so I'd been experimenting with it on my own.

I believed my Spatial Teleportation had more potential than I currently understood. That was why I suspected the future hallucinations I'd been seeing less often lately, but used to see all the time, were also an effect of Spatial Teleportation.

According to the elemental ability users, I had two abilities, not three.

That meant I didn't have some separate ability to see the future. Those future hallucinations weren't another supernatural ability, but an effect of the ability I already had.

Time and space were always mentioned together. The ability planting memories of the future into my mind was definitely...

* * *

For the time being, I wasn't hunting. It was a day off, which gave me time to try a few things.

“I'm going in...”

Baek Dambi opened a Gate again that day to observe the Behemoth's movements.

I followed her inside and began trying a few things.

I was trying to use Spatial Teleportation inside a Gate.

It wasn't easy. Using abilities inside a Gate was difficult to begin with. I'd heard that force fields, for example, couldn't even be generated inside a Gate. Considering how your body's composition and the laws of physics changed completely, it was only natural that things wouldn't work as they normally did.

Still, elemental ability users could open Gates even from inside Gates, so using abilities there couldn't be completely impossible.

Believing that, I used my ability.

I spread out my mental net. Then...

The motion sickness and dizziness that hit me almost made me collapse. Damn it. Even the chemical makeup of my brain had changed completely, so how could I still feel dizzy?

「Are you okay?」

Baek Dambi seemed worried, but I told her I was more or less fine and repeated the attempt.

Whether I felt motion sickness or dizziness, I kept spreading out the net again and again.

I kept trying with the attitude that I probably wouldn't die, and eventually got some results.

My mental net finally spread out inside the Gate.

Dizziness worse than anything I'd experienced before hit me, but I'd expected that. I somehow held onto my senses and tried to interpret the information coming in.

Spiritual bodies...

The moment I detected those things, which I couldn't even tell were matter or not, I felt a small thrill despite the intense dizziness.

If spiritual bodies were caught in my net, it meant my ability could affect them.

If I could go even further and use Spatial Teleportation here...

If I could use Spatial Teleportation as a spiritual body?

And if I could use Spatial Teleportation with another spiritual body, the way I normally teleported with other people, this whole situation would be solved immediately.

If I could use Spatial Teleportation here, there would be nothing left to worry about. I could just grab the bear crushing that child and teleport it somewhere else.

I tried to use Spatial Teleportation with that in mind, but failed.

I repeated the attempt, but got the same result.

Every time I tried to use Spatial Teleportation, the dizziness was so intense that my concentration drained away in an instant.

I had no choice but to leave the Gate.

* * *

Outside the Gate, I continued thinking of other ways.

I put together another rescue operation, gathered people, and set it in motion.

One of the people I gathered was a police officer I knew.

He was the middle-aged ice ability user who'd caused that suicide incident at the ice ability user containment facility when I got hit with a 9th-Grade Call and was summoned by the police.

That middle-aged man was also a police officer, so it seemed he'd continued working as one afterward. He ended up joining this operation.

“Are you really going to take part in this operation without getting paid?”

Sergeant Jin Beom, the ice ability user, nodded at my question.

“Yeah. I'm a cop. Does it make sense to take money for joining an operation to save a civilian?”

People being dragged away by Monsters and going missing was so common that nobody made a fuss about it anymore. Still, Shin Mirae's case was particularly unusual and especially horrible, so it had made the news.

With public attention focused on the case, Jin Beom had readily agreed to take part.

“Are you still living at that containment facility?”

“The Freezer? Yeah. It's not like I have anywhere else to go...”

“Are you okay there? Is it more bearable now?”

“Yeah, thanks to you. I've gotten used to it. They stopped doing roll call after that day, and you're building apartments right in front of the Freezer, aren't you? In a few years, I should be able to move there...”

“How's work been since then? I think the other cops came to interview you back then. Hasn't it gotten awkward?”

“Fuck... It's awkward. It sucks in every possible way.”

After some small talk, we began the operation.

It was another bait operation.

Baek Dambi had once tried acting as bait by wandering around near the Gate, but it failed because the Monsters didn't react. One explanation was that Baek Dambi was obviously a powerful awakened person, so despite being an ice ability user, she didn't look like easy prey to them.

That led to the idea of using another ice ability user as bait instead of Baek Dambi. It was dangerous, making it hard to find a volunteer, but Jin Beom had stepped forward.

So Jin Beom wandered around alone at a certain location while I waited two kilometers away with the others.

I kept my mental net spread out and watched Jin Beom's situation when he shouted over the radio.

「A Gate! A Gate is opening!」

Once the Gate had opened wide enough and the Monsters inside rushed out, I used Spatial Teleportation with the people under my command.

“Fire! Shoot them now!”

Baek Dambi, Naito, and several other Hunters who were good shots appeared in front of Jin Beom with me.

The bear Monsters that had emerged from the Gate were charging toward Jin Beom. I fired my Hunter Rifle on full-auto at them, and that was the end of it.

The bears fell without any desperate battle, and Jin Beom cracked a joke.

“Now I get why the higher-ups freaked out when you marched into Seoul with awakened people. If you teleported a bunch of awakened people into the National Assembly building like this, there really wouldn't be anything anyone could do about it...”

I couldn't celebrate with him.

There had been six bear Monsters inside the Gate, but only four had come out this time.

And the Monster crushing Shin Mirae beneath it?

It wasn't among them.

I let out a deep sigh and decided to accept the burden I had to bear as an awakened person.

Even this attempt had failed, so the Duke of Incheon would have to solve it after all.

* * *

That afternoon, I entered the Gate again with Baek Dambi.

Together with Baek Dambi, I stared at the child who was still trapped beneath the bear.

「Mom...」

For now, hearing her call for her mother made me feel sorry for her and gave me the urge to do something.

But how long would that last? If I kept facing this dreadful situation, maybe I'd eventually grow numb to it.

I also wasn't related to this child by blood, and rescuing her wasn't the only thing I had to do.

So I didn't even know how much effort I would devote to this while I was busy and suffering because of it.

To preserve this stubbornness and motivation, I thought of other reasons why I should keep struggling.

Rather than relying on an emotional reason like sympathy, which could disappear at any time, I tried to come up with a more practical reason.

What would I gain if I rescued that child?

If I succeeded in using Spatial Teleportation on that fucking bear on top of her...

First, the media would praise me. I knew the previous show of force had given me the image of an out-of-control lawbreaker. If I succeeded in this rescue, I could restore my public image.

And I could see far more benefits than just restoring my image.

If I could use Spatial Teleportation inside Gates, I'd be able to do many things.

First, I could go anywhere I wanted. I could travel safely without anyone noticing, whether to North Korea or China.

I could also pull Monsters that had been sitting safely inside Gates out into the world.

I could eliminate the Monsters inside Gates, invisible bombs that could rush out and harm people at any time, before they ever got the chance to emerge.

If I could teleport Monsters inside Gates wherever I wanted, I could throw Deathclaws in front of other Hunters before going hunting. I could remove the dangers lurking inside Gates in advance.

In other words, it would no longer be Monsters invading the world outside Gates. The opposite would become possible.

Hunters would be able to invade Gates.

And none other than I would be able to make that possible.

After organizing my thoughts, I started practicing again.

Inside the Gate, in this Astral Plane where purple stretched endlessly in every direction, I attempted Spatial Teleportation once more.

* * *

Footnotes:

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