WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

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◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈

Chapter 76: Spatial Ability User Kim Geuk - [5]

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And, ah...

I felt a little dizzy, but when I came to my senses, I could feel several changes.

First, my body felt much lighter. It wasn't as if I'd actually lost weight. The hard outer shell covering my body must have distributed the weight.

I also could no longer feel the disgusting sensation of gripping the bear's jaws with my bare hands.

It was certain. I had awakened to a force-field exoskeleton.

The visions I saw seemed quite different from the ones other force-field exoskeleton users said they experienced upon awakening, which I'd read about on Huntweb, but that wasn't important right now.

I glared at the bear in front of me.

Give me back one of my own, you animal bastard.

I tensed my arms and forced open that disgusting bear's mouth. Until just now, its jaw strength had exceeded my arm strength, but not anymore.

The bear's jaws finally snapped open.

Shin Mirae's head was freed. Then I shoved the bear away with all my strength, and Mirae was finally free.

“Ah!”

The situation was still precarious, of course. If either the bear or I moved even a little, we could step on that tiny body.

Her mother must have been worried, because her voice rang out.

“Mirae!”

There was no need to worry, though. Before she could even call out, Naito rushed over, picked Shin Mirae up from the ground, and retreated to a safe place far away.

Naito really was useful in all kinds of ways. Maybe I should consider giving that irreverent non-awakened scrap a slave contract so Naito could continue serving the citizens of Incheon.

Having had its emergency rations taken from its mouth and then been shoved onto its ass, the bear finally seemed to understand what was going on.

It got to its feet. That was when I saw it was about as tall as I was. It was a little taller, but still.

Perhaps it had decided I wasn't an easy opponent just from my height. The bear roared. “Krrrroooar!” I didn't want to listen to that filthy sound.

Shut up, you animal bastard.

Instead of saying it, I made it obey through my actions.

With a whoosh, I drove my fist into the bear's open mouth as it roared.

A few teeth broke, and my fist drove into its mouth and struck its palate. Its mouth must have torn open, because blood splattered across my face.

The bear staggered from the blow but reacted on instinct.

It bit down on my fist. It bit so hard I couldn't pull my hand free, yet I felt no pain. Only then did it truly sink in that I had awakened to a new ability.

“Geuk!”

Seong Munyeong shouted anxiously from behind me, but I didn't care. It was now harder for me to create distance, but wasn't that equally true for the animal bastard that had to keep biting me?

And by my judgment, I was stronger than this animal.

Much stronger.

I decided to trade blows with it freely.

With my fist still trapped in the bear's mouth, I threw a punch with my free hand.

It felt far faster and lighter than before, yet carried much more power.

I could no longer feel any air resistance when I swung my fists. The awkward sensation I had felt with every punch because I'd built up my muscles excessively to carry the heavier Hunter Rifle was gone too.

It felt as if not just my muscles, but even my skin, had the same strength as muscle and were helping every movement I made.

With strength coming from both inside and outside, I repeatedly hammered the animal's thick body.

“Bang!” Every punch sounded like an artillery shell exploding as it struck something hard.

I dodged the bear's swinging paw, then landed another punch. My fist tore through its hide. Blood sprayed from its body.

At the same time, camera flashes went off. Cameras aimed at me... that wasn't bad either. A fighter's stage was supposed to be filled with brilliant spotlights.

I put my weight behind my blow and struck the bear's bulging stomach, making it stagger.

By then, people seemed to realize I wasn't in any danger at all, and cheers erupted from every direction.

“Oh!”

Gunshots rang out one after another as well.

They weren't just loud, but thunderous. Everyone knew firing assault rifles at a Monster like this would only lodge bullets in its skin, so they had brought the strongest weapons they could.

Baek Dambi had somehow gotten hold of a .50-caliber anti-materiel sniper rifle and was firing it. She seemed to have already landed several shots.

But this wasn't a Monster that would die from a few bullets. It wasn't such a weak Monster.

The bear was bleeding profusely from all over its body, yet it didn't loosen its bite on my fist. Even then, its vicious gaze remained fixed on my face.

That animal bastard probably had adrenaline pumping through it right now.

So did I.

The moment I landed another punch, the bear counterattacked. Its forepaw came at me like a jet wing, cutting through the air and filling my vision.

It was difficult to dodge while trapped like this, so I didn't. I knocked it away with my elbow, then struck its exposed chest.

I felt something break. It must have been a few ribs.

The bear couldn't move for a moment, as if breathing had become difficult. Since the referee hadn't called for the match to stop, I didn't go easy on it.

I struck its stomach hard, where its flesh had surely softened from all the blows I'd dealt it.

My fist cut through the air and sank into its stomach.

Deep into its stomach.

The moment I felt its intestines against my hand, I was grateful I'd awakened to a force-field exoskeleton. I grabbed the disgusting things and pulled them out.

I didn't know whether this bear had Super-Regeneration, but even it couldn't endure that. Gunshots continued to ring out, and blood sprayed from its back.

Bleeding from the front and back, the bear finally collapsed.

Only then did I pull hard on the fist trapped in its mouth. I didn't care about any wounds that might result. I just yanked it out roughly and brutally.

A few more of the bear's teeth broke as my fist came free. The animal bastard must have been coughing up blood too, because even my freed hand was covered in it.

I shook both hands, which were covered in all kinds of filth. Blood had splattered on me, but there was no need to frown. The bear's blood hadn't hit my body. It had only hit the force field.

I stared blankly at my hands, which had become clean in an instant, then raised one high.

An animal had just died. I savored the cheers that began ringing in my head along with it.

“Kim Geuk! Kim Geuk!”

Camera flashes went off again.

Under the brilliant spotlights of this Octagon, I stood still as the victor, drawing everyone's attention.

Then my ring girl approached and whispered.

“It isn't over yet, is it? There's still one left inside the Gate.”

Ah, that was right. There was still another bear inside that Gate.

It had awakened to Ice Crystal, but Ice Elementals were the weakest of all elementals, so dealing with it wouldn't be difficult.

When I entered the Gate, I saw the silhouette of the bear scrambling to flee. Had it awakened from its shallow sleep after witnessing the end of its own kind? As expected of a four-legged animal, it ran quite fast, but not fast enough to escape me.

I used Spatial Teleportation. Then I brought it out of the Gate and dealt with it without much difficulty. Only then did people gather around me.

“Geuk? Your clothes didn't get stained with blood just now. It came right off when you shook it. Was that...?”

Surrounded by other Hunters and reporters, I saw Shin Mirae, who had barely opened her eyes, and her mother holding that tiny body tightly.

Inside the Gate, they had probably seen each other only as silhouettes. It must have been a long time since they'd properly seen each other's faces.

Mirae whined, “Mom,” before bursting into tears, and her mother began crying after her.

I had barely any memories of receiving love from my mother as a child, so situations like this gave me a kind of secondhand satisfaction.

Feeling immense pride that I had made this happen, I smiled.

* * *

Even after dealing with the two bears, I couldn't rest.

I'd had to endure a barrage of questions from reporters for a while, and it was no different now as we rode home in the car.

“So you really did awaken to a force-field exoskeleton?”

“I told you I did.”

“Body Enhancement, teleportation, and now a force-field exoskeleton too... This is insane.”

As Lee Jongho muttered, Seong Munyeong said,

“Geuk, does that make you A+++ rank now?”

“That's right. Why?”

“No reason. It's just insane. Didn't you beat the hell out of Kim Seokhee, who had both a force field and Body Enhancement, with only your Body Enhancement?”

“I did.”

“Now that you've added a force-field exoskeleton, doesn't that make you about twice as strong in terms of physical strength alone? Isn't it hard to call you A-rank at this point...?”

Their praise didn't feel awkward in the slightest. Without putting on any false modesty, I enjoyed every bit of it.

I deserved it now.

There was something I had become certain of again through this awakening. Awakened people were born to rule over ordinary people.

The process through which I awakened this new ability... It was embarrassing to say it myself, but even I thought it was heroic. It was enough to shatter the prejudice that force-field exoskeleton abilities were mostly awakened by socially vulnerable people.

A new power gained after overcoming hardship and trials? It wouldn't have been strange to sense some divinity in that.

Thinking back, every awakening I'd experienced was like that. I awakened after winning in the Octagon, protesting for my younger sister, and struggling to rescue a little girl. They were all the results of great deeds.

That showed awakening was a gift given to those with dignity. On the other hand, non-awakened people couldn't awaken because they lacked the qualifications.

It also showed why the difference between awakened and non-awakened people was a difference in status.

Even Baek Dambi, another awakened person, seemed envious and spoke to me.

“Last time, you said you wanted to awaken another ability, and you really did it... Are you satisfied?”

“Very. It's incredible.”

I wasn't just saying that. I was truly, deeply satisfied.

A force-field exoskeleton. This was the ability I had wanted.

An ability that would make me tougher and stronger. An ability that would make ordinary people fear me even more.

Last time, Baek Dambi said that if I, someone who could use Spatial Teleportation, awakened another ability, it might be better to gain force-field blades. I didn't think so.

The moment I awakened force-field blades, Kang Jun-chi would tremble and tread carefully around me, but that wasn't what I wanted.

I wasn't joining the Special Forces, so what was the point of scaring one friend?

Force-field blades were an ability the government liked in the first place. They were powerful enough to damage anyone regardless of weight class, but they didn't make the body tougher or faster. If even a police tactical unit came after you, you'd be helpless against their bullets. An ability completely useless against the violence of a group...

I didn't need an ability like that.

A force-field exoskeleton, on the other hand, was the ability the government viewed with the greatest unease.

Because force fields could easily ignore most personal firearms, no half-baked troop deployment could ever subdue a force-field exoskeleton user. On top of that, force-field exoskeleton users were among the fastest and strongest superhumans.

There was no better ability for one awakened person to go wild against a group. Awakened uprisings around the world had mostly been led by force-field exoskeleton users, and I had wanted that ability in preparation for a similar situation.

A voice rang out from the car's TV. If I'd been at the scene, I probably would've felt the infrasound in the Body Enhancement user's shout.

“Make America Great Again!”

I looked at Donald on TV.

Only a few years ago, I knew him as a famous businessman who had appeared in some movie. Now, he had become the most influential politician in America aside from the current president.

In other words, he was almost certain to become the next president of the United States. With many of the prominent politicians who had been presidential rivals assassinated, there was supposedly no one left who could overtake him.

The assassins who killed those politicians were clearly ice ability users based on the circumstances. Yet unlike most countries around the world, America wasn't currently oppressing ice ability users.

That was because Donald was a powerful and famous awakened person, representing the interests of other awakened people and blocking every attempt at oppression.

He was a superhuman with Body Enhancement, a force-field exoskeleton, and even Heat Ray. He claimed to be S-rank. He wasn't truly at the S-rank level, but was powerful enough that the claim couldn't be dismissed outright.

He had originally been an old man, but the Super-Regeneration that came with Body Enhancement had made him young again. The person on TV was a handsome young blond man. Perhaps the fact that his looks and abilities resembled Superman was the secret to his popularity in America.

Was it because I now had three abilities just like Donald? I felt a surprising sense of kinship with him. Just as he had done in America, I also felt a duty to protect my own kind in this country.

I had grown stronger this time, and I would grow even stronger in the future.

I would make the non-awakened scraps fear me.

I would make them tread carefully around me.

Looking at an online article that had just been posted about this incident, it seemed I had already half achieved my goal.

It was an article about how I had rescued Shin Mirae and awakened to a new ability in the process. One comment beneath it particularly caught my eye.

Guest122: That bastard who can use Spatial Teleportation is now tough enough that bullets won't even pierce him. How the hell are we supposed to stop him now?

It was one of the few negative comments amid mostly praise, but that one anxious reaction tasted sweeter to me than all the compliments.

With a broad grin and solemn resolve, I opened Huntweb.

* * *

Footnotes:

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