WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 35: Vampire Hunt (2)

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I felt the same thing when we were tracking urban legends, but they surprisingly held their gatherings in public places.

Maybe it was because they could put up barriers that kept people away. There were quite a few exorcists gathered at Boramae Park.

And of course, someone was looking to cash in on the special occasion.

"All right, all right, anyone need equipment for hunting vampires? I've brought some seriously good stuff!"

It was the hairy man who had arrived in a huge pickup truck.

He wore a cross necklace that didn't suit his hulking, unruly frame at all.

I knew that face.

"Galilee Exorcism Society?"

It was the foreign shopkeeper uncle I'd seen at the Ghost Market.

Apparently, the other exorcists knew him too.

"I've seen him a few times at the Ghost Market. He's greedy for money, but his goods are reliable."

"Vampire hunting has been the Church's specialty since ancient times, after all."

Vampire hunters flocked toward the Galilee Exorcism Society shopkeeper's truck.

Vampire-hunting equipment, huh.

Curious, I walked over too.

"Isn't this under the Association's jurisdiction? Can an arms dealer just come in like this?"

"Haha, I got all the proper permits, you lot."

His Korean was as smooth as ever.

The Galilee Exorcism Society shopkeeper opened the truck bed and pulled out a whole stack of sports bags.

The bags revealed an intimidating collection of weapons.

There were M16 rifles, M4 carbines, and even K2C1s, all weapons I was familiar with from the army.

There were also twelve-gauge shotguns, all kinds of handguns, even heavy machine guns.

Was this really South Korea?

And how the hell had he gotten his hands on K2s?

The exorcism society shopkeeper had brought enough weapons to arm an entire platoon and then some.

"Damn, these look nice. They've even got proper optics."

"It's not easy to get weapons like these in Korea."

The exorcists inspected the weapons with satisfied looks.

Then again, how could civilians get their hands on standard-issue firearms like those?

Even if they smuggled them in, they would probably only get cheap homemade guns or Chinese-made firearms.

This wasn't America. Getting hold of an automatic rifle wouldn't be easy.

"Obviously, only use them for monster hunting. You know it'll be a pain in the ass if you kill a person, right?"

"So what? The Association will handle it."

"Will they stop the police tactical unit from putting a lead round through your forehead too?"

The shopkeeper shot the exorcist a fierce look, and the man immediately surrendered.

"I was joking, joking. We specialize in hunting monsters. We don't hunt people."

"You'd better not. Believe it or not, I'm a servant of God."

"You're excommunicated. What kind of priest are you supposed to be?"

The joking transaction continued.

After the exorcists chose their firearms, the shopkeeper set down boxes of ammunition in front of them.

"All right, you know ammunition is more important than the gun itself, right? These are silver rounds specialized for fighting monsters. Lead rounds won't do much against vampires."

"How much are these?"

The exorcists rummaged through the ammunition, then froze when they heard the price.

"Fifteen million won for one box of thirty."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"That's five hundred thousand won a round? That's fucking expensive!"

"Come on, man. They're made with silver. Even a .45 ACP pistol round has over ten grams of silver in it! The silver alone costs eighty thousand won!"

Rifle rounds were inevitably even more expensive, and if an archbishop's blessing was added, the price rose further still.

It wasn't completely unreasonable, so nobody had much of a rebuttal.

"If that's too expensive, I've got silver rounds blessed by an ordinary priest. They're less effective, but they're better value for money."

"Tch. If I can't kill a vampire with these, I'm completely screwed."

"Still, if we kill a vampire, we'll hit the jackpot."

Everyone complained, but they still bought the silver rounds by the box.

As business boomed, the shopkeeper noticed me watching.

"And you are?"

"Ah, good to see you again."

"Come over here! Hurry!"

Unlike usual, the shopkeeper beamed as he pulled me over.

"Looks like you're joining the vampire hunt too? I thought you were an exorcist, but you do hunter work as well!"

"What's the difference?"

"They mean the same thing, really. But for convenience, those who exorcise ghosts and spirits are classified as exorcists, while those who hunt monsters are hunters. It's rare for someone to do both."

Physical beings and spiritual beings.

Apparently, people who could hunt both were uncommon.

"So? Looking to gear up this time?"

"I was wondering if you had anything that could help with vampire hunting."

Silver rounds, in particular, seemed like they would help.

"Did you serve in the military?"

"Yes. I completed my service as an Army sergeant."

"I knew it! Koreans are great for this. They've all got experience shooting guns!"

The shopkeeper rummaged through the prepared firearms, then brought out a few familiar guns.

"M16A4 and K2C1. The M16 is a legendary rifle, no question, but it's a little heavy. There aren't many attachment options either."

"I barely used one even during reserve forces training."

I'd been a K2 rifleman in the army, so that one suited me better.

The K2 I'd used had been the original model, though, without any attachments.

"Then the K2C1 would be better. You can mount decent accessories on the Picatinny rail. It has a red-dot sight, and I've replaced the SureFire Scout Light with ultraviolet light, which vampires hate. You can add a suppressor too. What do you think?"

"I'll take it as it is for now."

I picked up the K2C1 with its finalized setup.

"Whoa."

Having an optic really did make a huge difference.

The clear sight picture and the sturdy vertical grip were nothing like the K2 I'd used in the military.

"Our unit never got issued the C1. This is a really nice rifle."

"There's nothing better for a Korean to use."

How had he even gotten something like this?

"Um, I am going to buy it, but there's a problem."

"What problem?"

"I can't shoot."

"Ah."

I was famous in my unit for being a terrible shot.

I'd never once gotten a perfect score, and usually missed about half my shots.

"Hmm, even skilled marksmen have a hard time hitting vampires... Then how about this?"

The next gun the shopkeeper recommended was a shotgun.

"Remington 870. An American classic. If it comes down to it, you can cut it down and use it as a sawed-off shotgun for easier carrying."

Even someone as bad at shooting as me should be able to hit with a shotgun.

"What about ammunition?"

Clunk!

The shopkeeper set down an ammunition box.

"Twelve-gauge silver buckshot. Slugs, buckshot, just say the word."

When I asked about the ammunition price, it was even more expensive than the silver rifle rounds from earlier.

"Can't be helped. Every pellet in silver buckshot has to be blessed individually."

"Um... Even so, one million won per shell is pretty expensive."

"Then use rounds blessed by an ordinary priest."

"Do you have plain silver rounds?"

"Plain silver rounds? Their effect will be a lot weaker."

"Uh... I think that'll be fine."

Plain silver rounds only cost one hundred fifty thousand won each.

Not that one hundred fifty thousand won was cheap, but labor clearly cost a lot.

I also bought the K2C1 and an M249 light machine gun.

Honestly, I didn't think I'd be able to use them well, but if I sprayed full-auto, wouldn't at least one round hit?

I could perform the blessing sacrament myself.

I'd learned that from making holy water last time. When it came to things like this, making them myself was far more effective and much cheaper.

"That'll be eighty-six million won."

Surprisingly, the guns themselves only cost thirty million won.

No, forty million won for three guns was still incredibly expensive, but I had to account for the fact that they were smuggled goods.

That meant everything else was ammunition costs.

I'd bought plenty, but the extras cost more than the main purchase.

"Why are people spending so much money to hunt vampires anyway? They seem pretty powerful."

"Because of the blood."

Blood?

Did he mean vampire blood?

"Vampire blood can be turned into a powerful elixir. If it's refined properly, it can temporarily give you strength comparable to a vampire's."

Was it like a stim pack?

"The problem is that vampires have nearly died out in Korea. You see them now and then in China or Japan, but Korea barely has any. That's why vampire blood is worth its weight in gold."

"Drawing blood to use as an elixir... That feels a little disturbing."

"If you can make three hundred million won from one ordinary vampire, isn't it worth it?"

That was why they were treating the vampire's arrival in Korea as an opportunity.

Apparently, the vampire who had come this time had the blood of a lord from a famous Chinese vampire clan.

It was even more valuable blood, so everyone seemed to have lost their minds over it.

Around the time I finished gathering my guns and ammunition, Team Leader Kang Gihan from the Association arrived.

"All right, quite a crowd. You're all really greedy for vampire blood, aren't you? It's getting late, so I'll start the briefing right away."

Kang Gihan unfolded a map.

It was an old-fashioned map of Seoul, but unlike an ordinary map, it marked the sewer lines.

"These are the locations where Dang Hoyeon, a former member of the Crimson Moon Clan who illegally entered from Shanghai, China, attacked people."

Photos of the missing people were laid out.

Men, women, elderly people, young adults. Their occupations varied too.

"The number of victims from his indiscriminate attacks has surpassed fifty. Most of them have turned into ghouls, and there are at least three confirmed draculs."

"Yeah, this is going to be rough."

"That blood thief really did steal something good."

"It was hard enough to find a pureblood vampire on the level of the Crimson Moon Clan's lord anywhere in Asia."

I'd wondered what it meant when they said he'd stolen blood. Apparently, he'd taken it by sucking the blood of a dying lord.

People coveted vampire blood because it could be taken again by drinking it from a vampire, or by drawing it out.

And vampires felt the same way.

"The problem is the Crimson Moon Clan's trackers. Lu Xincheng and Xiaolan. Both were considered likely successors to the lord."

"The successors came personally?"

"Didn't they get completely wrecked by Lincoln? He probably hunted down and killed most of their high-ranking vampires."

"All right, please focus."

As the chatter died down, Kang Gihan continued.

"We believe his current goal is to build up his forces and repel the trackers. That's why he's increasing the number of his underlings all over the place."

"The Association has therefore issued a Level 1 extermination order. We are ordering the swift extermination of the vampires."

"What about the reward?"

"Separate performance bonuses will be paid for exterminating ghouls and draculs as well."

Five million won per ghoul corpse.

A dracul was worth a full one hundred million won.

Dang Hoyeon himself had a bounty of one billion won.

But he hadn't mentioned the most important part.

"Any byproducts obtained during the vampire extermination operation will be yours to keep, tax-free."

"Nice!"

"That's incredible!"

No taxes.

That was a bigger benefit than it sounded.

Once you made money in the hundreds of millions, taxes alone took fifty percent.

I did have to pay taxes, but if there were no taxes at all, I would've made one and a half times as much.

Besides, the byproducts were apparently the most important part of this vampire hunt.

The shopkeeper had casually mentioned that if someone secured the blood intact, it could be worth nearly ten billion won.

Of course, he added that securing the blood intact while fighting a vampire was close to impossible.

"You'd better hurry. If the trackers take him first, you'll get nothing!"

The Association seemed desperate to end this situation as quickly as possible.

"Hey, Mr. Park! You've got a pickup truck, right? How about moving together with us?"

"You want to cooperate and split the reward?"

"Not a bad offer, is it? Finding him will be work on its own."

"I'll think about it if you share some silver rounds."

The hunters gathered there began forming teams one after another.

I wondered if I should find a reliable group too, but...

Come to think of it, there was no need.

With Gari and Eight-Foot Sister, we had more than enough combat power. As for searching...

"Kids, time to work."

Chirp chirp!!

Gugu!!

Hoot!!

The next moment, hundreds of birds flew in all at once.

Footnotes:

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