WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

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◈ I Became a Generation Zero Hunter ◈

Chapter 6

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Generation Gap (2)

The truth about the hunter promotion exam was truly shocking, but Ian pulled himself together.

'Right. If it's easy, that's a good thing. If I get promoted that same day, I might even be able to head straight into an E-rank Gate.'

In fact, Ian still hadn't given up on his plan of charging the Jade Necklace with monster blood. Goblin blood hadn't been able to charge the necklace, but other monsters might turn out to be compatible.

Promotion to E-rank was good news no matter how you looked at it. All the more so if it could be done easily. Thinking that, Ian waited for the day of the exam with a calm heart.

'...No, but even so, is this really right?'

In fact, he wasn't all that calm.

* * *

Tuesday morning. Ian was walking through the Hunter Support Agency building.

The Rank Measurement Room was so vast that the first floor of the Agency main building had a separate section for it, designated the "Measurement Wing."

That was because of special facilities like the elemental focus rooms, built to test the elemental manipulation abilities of magic and spirits. The higher the rank, the more the total amount of force a hunter projected increased exponentially, so the rooms also had to be built large in many respects, safety distances included.

Ian headed for the E-rank examination room in the Measurement Wing. He held his Hunter Registration Card up to the room's door lock.

[Identity verified.]

With a businesslike synthesized voice, the door opened, and beyond it...

'Nobody's here?'

Ian tilted his head. He'd come with plenty of time to spare, so it made sense that the examiner wasn't there yet, but what was with there being no other promotion candidates either?

'Am I the only one taking the E-rank exam today?'

Ian read a book he'd borrowed from the library while he waited for the examiner. About ten minutes after he opened the book, the synthesized voice rang out from the door.

[Identity verified.]

* * *

Former B-rank hunter, current Hunter Support Agency employee Bronte Cozy was quite nervous.

The current E-rank promotion exam was a very simple affair that ended once you played a safety training video and recited some accident cases. Most examinees stayed well-behaved until the training was over, even if they found it a little boring.

But there were cases where that common sense didn't hold. The class of hunters commonly called Generation Zero.

Every so often, for truly absurd reasons, they attacked the examiner or tried to escape the examination room.

That was also why Cozy, who held B-rank qualifications, was doing the job of a mere E-rank examiner.

Subduing a rampaging hunter without taking a single injury and without killing anyone took at least that rank.

The exam site had also been prepared somewhere different from the ordinary hunters' rooms, in case one of them grabbed another regular hunter and took them hostage.

'Ryu Fei did say he's a very gentlemanly person.'

But Cozy was someone who'd already been burned plenty by Generation Zero hunters.

Having once run into a lunatic hunter who'd deliberately brought aqua regia and splashed it everywhere, he hadn't let his guard down since stepping into the examination room, tense about what unpredictable thing might happen.

[Identity verified.]

But the Generation Zero hunter he faced this time showed him something unexpected, in a good way.

First of all, the sight of him quietly reading a book, waiting peacefully.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Ian."

And then the social skills to greet him first.

'This person's sociability is ten to twelve times that of other Generation Zero hunters...!'

As expected, there was a reason the fellow receptionist had called him gentlemanly!

Feeling a light touch of emotion, Cozy began preparing the safety training.

* * *

"Special equipment, that is, magic tools, are basically divided into 'classes.' Class 1 special equipment is gear that only affects the user, like strength enhancement or agility enhancement, and Class 2 special equipment is magic tools that affect things outside the user, like ones that fire fireballs."

Ian was, rarely for a hunter, someone who listened to safety training with real sincerity. Watching the Generation Zero hunter take notes on the lesson, Cozy felt a slightly heavier wave of emotion.

'His fashion sense is a little old-fashioned, but! What an enthusiastic attitude toward learning!'

He resolved to finish the safety training as diligently as he could and get him home quickly.

"Class 1 special equipment can be purchased without any special qualification, but Class 2 special equipment is from E-rank hunters up..."

In fact, from Ian's standpoint, the E-rank hunter safety training was truly fascinating.

It let him learn about the dangers unique to this era, unlike those of the Common Era.

Injuries from looking down on one's comrades after being promoted to a higher rank, for instance, or cases of being carried in with mana exhaustion after equipping more artifacts than one could handle. There were a lot of stories that would have been hard to imagine in the Common Era.

Safety training that discussed how to prevent and respond to such accidents was worth more than the time put into it.

"Would you like to take a moment here to watch the collection of magic tool misuse cases before..."

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeep!

Cutting off Cozy's words, an alarm rang out.

[Attention, hunters. This is a real emergency. I repeat. This is a real emergency...]

'Don't tell me!'

A scene from a constellation novel surfaced in Ian's mind. Evil organizations attacking the Hunter Management Bureau.

A large-scale assault in which people who had decided, for some reason, to bring down the nation rose up to bring the Bureau, the symbol of social order, to its knees.

Just as Ian was looking around in a hurry to grasp the situation.

"Ahh, jeez. They're using this one again. These days hunters all read about it on BloodWeb before they come."

"Pardon?"

The examiner spoke in a thoroughly annoyed tone.

Cozy answered with a shrug.

"Oh. It's an open secret. You know the practical exam they have from C-rank, right? They're supposed to assess 'the ability to respond to unexpected situations' there, so they set up scenarios like a Gate Break or a rare monster escaping during transport and throw them at you."

Revealing the inner workings of these exam regulations wasn't something that was recommended.

But Generation Zero hunters, faced with these fake situations, would shout things like 'I knew it! The world was still on the brink of destruction! Alright, hold on, I'm coming! I can do this! It's me!' and end up creating a real unexpected situation.

As an unofficial Agency guideline, the recommendation was to simply tell a Generation Zero complainant the truth before they started acting out.

"The reception desk is on the same first floor as this room, but the actual distance is quite far, wasn't it? Inconvenient layout, I know. That's so alarm broadcasts like that can only be heard inside the rank measurement rooms."

Cozy added that today was a day when the C-rank through E-rank exams overlapped, so it would be the broadcast for the C-rank practical exam.

Ah. Ian gave a small murmur of admiration and nodded.

And then he sank, just a little.

He'd roughly realized what it meant that they would tell him something like this.

'Well. The hunters of my generation were often a bit hasty.'

"Then let's wait a moment until the broadcast ends, and then resume the training-"

[I repeat. This is a real emergency. The Followers of the Comet have attacked! All hunters B-rank and above, report to the main building! C-rank and below, proceed to the shelter!]

Cozy's expression stiffened at once. No matter how realistically the Agency set up a scenario, there were events it never, ever put into words.

The Followers of the Comet. The collective name for those who had contracted with a constellation they should never have contracted with.

Cozy lamented that the attack had to come on this very day. If it had been the A-rank promotion exam day, or even the B-rank one, there would have been manpower...!

'No.'

The attackers must have chosen today after careful thought. The intent was to use the staging of fake unexpected situations at the C-rank promotion exam as a smokescreen to hide their real assault.

It was a judgment that could only be made by someone who knew the Agency's internal affairs.

This very cunning hinted that behind today's attack were people who had once been human and had turned traitor. As a B-rank hunter, Cozy had to step up.

"Please wait here. The examination room doubles as a panic room. If anyone asks you to open up, never open the door, and..."

"Should I stay away from the door so as to hide any sign of presence?"

Ian picked up the rest of the sentence naturally. Cozy made a briefly bewildered face, then nodded.

"You know your stuff. I'm going to go take a look at the situation!"

After Cozy hurried off, the look in Ian's eyes settled calmly.

Truly.

It was a truly familiar name.

The Followers of the Comet, was it.

The corners of Ian's mouth twisted.

'Right. If there are constellations that care for humans, there are also constellations that hate them.'

Wasn't that how constellation novels always went?

He recalled the power of Nibiru, recorded in the prophecy. A fearsome meteor that cast the shadow of the end of the world surely had the strength to seize the title of a constellation.

'Now I understand why Gates keep opening even though the Great Cataclysm is over.'

Nibiru, and its followers, hadn't yet given up on the fulfillment of the prophecy.

A low sound escaped Ian's throat. It was a strange sound, as if he were holding back laughter, or trying to suppress a howl.

But he was a seasoned hunter, so the unnecessary sound subsided in an instant.

Ian unfastened an epaulette. Not the left one, with the Star of David engraved on its lining, but the right one.

* * *

Thud, thud...

A Dragonkin with a body so huge it filled the corridor was prowling around the E-rank examination room. The newest of today's attackers, the Dragonkin had been given the role of securing low-rank hunters to use as hostages during the retreat.

But that wasn't all. The Bishop had permitted as much bloodshed as the Dragonkin needed.

Today, a step closer to the great Dragon!

Tap.

A sound came from beyond the examination room wall.

The Dragonkin grinned fiercely. Now that this power and this body were theirs, the world looked new.

Just as the Dragonkin had once feared monsters as a human, someone beyond that wall now feared what the Dragonkin had become.

That reversal of positions brought the Dragonkin a strange thrill. At first the Dragonkin only pretended to pass the E-rank examination room by. Then the footsteps pacing inside went calm as well.

This was the moment.

The Dragonkin unleashed the Blessing of Phasing, the very reason for being chosen for the mission of securing low-rank hunters.

Swoosh. The Dragonkin's face seeped through the examination room wall.

"The throne to the Old Dragon! Death to the false dragons! I can hear your trembling footsteps!"

Hoping for the hunter's fear, for awe and despair directed at the Dragonkin, the head turned, searching for a sacrifice whose heart could be torn out and flesh taken.

The wall the Dragonkin's huge frame had seeped into rippled strangely. Half emerged from the wall and showing off the ability, the Dragonkin realized there was no one in the room where the sound had been coming from.

'A dummy?'

Had the Agency worked some trick to lure attackers to the wrong place? The Dragonkin clicked a tongue and was about to pull out of the wall when...

A single iron spike flew in without warning and bored into the Dragonkin's eyeball.

It should have been impossible for a piece of junk thrown by some E-rank hunter to wound the Dragonkin.

The Dragonkin didn't know.

That spike had been made by melting down a statue of Saint George, the slayer of dragons. In the Common Era, it was one of the lore weapons the Vatican forged by sacrificing cultural heritage that had lasted over a thousand years.

The Dragonkin was bewildered by the impossible. The body stiffened.

This was a blunder. The phasing ability tangled and the freedom of the body was stripped away. That brought an even greater bewilderment.

A vicious cycle.

A vicious cycle the hunter had been aiming for from the start.

Ian reflected on the past.

Even a vampire with very little combat experience knows that after breaking through a wall by means like turning to mist, you have to get your body out as quickly as possible.

Seeing it so drunk on its own power, it must have been a freshly blessed one.

'Young.'

It hadn't been properly taught how to hunt.

In dry thought, he readied another spike. Seeing the lore take effect, this Dragonkin, unlike the goblins in the Gate, seemed to have some kind of continuity with the Night Folk.

The Dragonkin howled amid two kinds of "unseen" terror.

The first terror came from the sight that was steadily darkening and vanishing.

And the second terror came from never, to the very end, being able to see the hunter.

The Dragonkin shouted at the unseen enemy.

"Who are you?! Show yourself! You coward...!"

The old hunter did not listen to the dying words of a green prey.

Whizz. The sound of cutting through air.

The Dragonkin's vision, already half closed, went completely dark.

Only then did Ian untie the mangeon headband from around his head.

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