Surviving as a B-Rank Hunter - Chapter 12

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Oblivious

◈ Surviving as a B-Rank Hunter ◈

Chapter 12

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Moonlight was faint above the dazzling night streets.

Even when I raised my head high and looked up, the hazy moonlight only seemed lonely.

I tried to remember even the scent of that pale moonlight, sniffing at the air, when a strangely unpleasant stink brushed the tip of my nose.

The scent of malice. Who is it?

Gripping the balcony railing, I stretched my head out. The scent was coming from far away.

I kicked off the railing and leapt.

The cold night air brushed through the fur covering my body, pleasantly cool.

A large imported car parked in the lot drew closer and closer.

I crushed it beneath me.

Kraash!

The imported car flattened beneath my feet.

I leapt again from atop the car I had already crushed to pieces.

My vision, which had fallen all the way to the ground, rose high enough to see clearly again.

The leaps and falls repeated several times.

After leaving the parking lot, I grabbed a streetlamp before falling again and climbed to its top.

Sniff. I can smell it.

The middle-aged convenience store manager came out through the door. He was complaining to someone on the phone.

“Good grief, that’s what I’m saying. I don’t know what those police bastards are doing. Fuckers, makes me hate paying taxes... I’m scared too, so I’m gonna close up and hurry home...”

The manager was not the source of the scent.

It came from inside the convenience store where he had been.

The faint scent of sweat and malice. And the faint lingering scent of a victim’s blood.

“Huh? W-what’s that? A-a monster...?”

The manager looked up at me and fell backward. A fearful person.

I had memorized the scent, so there was nothing else to do here. I kicked off the streetlamp and leapt again.

I left the apartment complex and entered the commercial district. As I flew between buildings, the lights of the dazzling night streets looked like the Milky Way. A Milky Way fallen from the sky, beneath a moonlit night that still watched over me.

The streets overflowed with every kind of pollution and countless scents. Trying to distinguish every single one would make my head explode.

But none of them were as disgusting as the scent I was tracking.

Even streets like the Milky Way had dark alleys.

Several motorcycles were parked on one side of an alley. Farther inside stood the only working streetlamp in the alley, and those bastards were gathered beneath it.

Those bastards. It’s them.

The scent of malice targeting me. My enemies. Creatures I must tear apart and kill.

I could hear the gathered men snickering.

“Hey, Gyucheol-hyung says we should hang out later.”

“Who’s coming?”

“Hye-yeon, apparently.”

“That slut?”

“Idiot. You couldn’t even fuck that slut, and you’re talking big?”

One familiar face stood among the bastards laughing as they spat filth.

My enemy. The coward who could not face me alone, so he led a group to attack the convenience store.

A cowardly enemy could not be left alive. I did not know what disgusting, filthy trick he might try from behind my back.

“Ah, what a waste.”

“What is?”

“That part-timer earlier. She was pretty.”

“Idiot. You got hard for some Southeast Asian half-breed bitch?”

“Hey, you fucking asshole, Jo Cheol. So where’s that pathetic hunter? You went to catch that bastard and only cracked some cute girl’s head open. If you’d sweet-talked her, we could’ve had fun tonight.”

“How the fuck should I know? We can go back later and...”

The bastard, who had been listlessly replying with an e-cigarette in his mouth, stopped speaking.

His gaze turned this way.

The other three followed his gaze and looked at me. They all looked confused.

I slowly approached them.

I could feel the streetlamp shining on the bridge of my nose.

“Oh. Is that a Halloween costume?”

“...Idiot. Halloween’s a month away.”

“Then what the hell is that...?”

Grrrrr.

My teeth bared.

I felt their fear when they heard my teeth and growl. Confusion and terror bloomed in their eyes.

I did not need to hold back any longer.

I lunged at the bastard crouching on the ground and tore into the back of his neck.

“Aaagh!”

“What the fuck! What is it? What is it, fuck!”

“R-run!”

I would not let them escape.

I struck the bastard trying to run with my fur-covered hand.

Part of his upper body was torn away by the claws on that hand, spraying blood and entrails everywhere.

Another bastard, startled, pulled a knife from his waist.

Whirr.

A gear-like sound came from both his arms.

The scent of rubber and oil. Mechanical arms.

It was admirable that he still had the courage to fight.

Of course, it made no difference.

I struck him too.

“You monster...!”

His body split open along with those mechanical arms, and he died.

“Uh... Ugh...”

The final bastard could not even think of running. He merely sat back on the ground, trembling.

The two torn apart by my claws had already stopped breathing and lay sprawled across the ground. The first one, whose neck I had bitten, was still convulsing as blood poured from his half-torn neck.

He would stop breathing soon as well.

Leaving the three corpses behind, I turned my gaze to the last bastard.

The arm I had crushed before looked perfectly repaired.

But he did not seem to have the slightest intention of raising that arm and attacking.

“W-what is this? What the hell is this? Why, why...?”

Unable to understand what was happening, the bastard babbled nonsense with a vacant expression.

You little maggot. You liked cracking other people’s heads open, didn’t you?

Now it’s your turn.

I grabbed him and lifted him up, opening my jaws wide.

“N-no! Stop! Spare me!”

Crunch.

I felt his head and face, the flesh and bones, shatter inside my jaws.

His scent of malice was revolting, so I only chewed him before spitting him out.

Then I threw the chunk of meat that remained below his neck toward the entrance of the alley and kicked off the ground.

The higher I climbed along the walls of the dark alley, the closer the moonlight became.

That hazy moonlight seemed to softly embrace me.

Mother of the Night. Goddess of Warriors.

Please watch over this body.

* * *

Anonymous1: Did you guys see the news today?

They found a body torn to pieces in Yucheon-dong. Why’s the news so scary these days?

Anonymous2: Scary my ass. Bodies show up every damn day. More than ten bodies floated up in the Han River yesterday, dumbass.

Anonymous3: They went in themselves to measure the water temperature in the Han River~ Water’s nice and cool these days, so lots of people are going in~

EyeOfHorus: There were eyewitness accounts, though. They said they were torn apart by some kind of bear.

⤷Anonymous4: Are your eyes broken? Why would there be a bear in the middle of the city?

⤷⤷EyeOfHorus: If it were only one witness, I’d wonder if they were schizophrenic too, but apparently several people saw it at the same time from different places. They said a huge black bear was flying around that alley and the rooftops.

⤷⤷⤷Anonymous5: Then it was obviously a hunter, fuck lol What kind of insane A-rank wears a fursuit to hunt punks? hahahahahaha

Anonymous4: Seriously, what a fucking lunatic. Thinks he’s Batman. Since he’s a bear, is he Bearman?

EyeOfHorus: I don’t think it was a hunter. No, I think it’s far more likely that it wasn’t. It was probably a monster a corporation made in a lab, or a dungeon monster that escaped into reality.

⤷Anonymous4: Bullshit. Even kindergarteners know dungeon monsters can’t come out into reality.

⤷⤷EyeOfHorus: You haven’t been in this business long. Keep living that way, then.

⤷⤷⤷Anonymous4: Fucking old man who only spreads corporate conspiracy theories.

BigBroArigato: Brothers, this newbie who read the post above has a question.

Since people are saying the hunter committed that murder above, it got me wondering. Hunters can beat up ordinary people, sure, but what about hunter versus hunter? To put it bluntly, can a solo beat a team?

Ppakdori: If the solo is A-rank, it happens often enough. Of course, ordinary people usually die if they see that and try to copy it.

⤷BigBroArigato: What if he’s B-rank?

⤷⤷Ppakdori: These days, that’s suicide. Just think of it as one versus three. Even unarmed, there’s no answer. If they have blades, there’s even less of one. Being a hunter doesn’t mean knives won’t cut you. You don’t have eyes in the back of your head.

⤷⤷⤷BigBroArigato: If he fought and won, does that mean he definitely wasn’t B-rank?

⤷⤷⤷⤷Ppakdori: When lives are on the line, what’s ever absolute? Real fights aren’t games where an A-rank always beats a B-rank. Even a tank gets wrecked if infantry hit it with an anti-tank missile, but does that make infantry stronger than a tank? An experienced, exceptional hunter can use a dungeon environment to hunt a team. If teams were a guaranteed winning strategy, wouldn’t every hunter be on one?

Anonymous1: Sounds like you saw a solo wipe out a team and leave a dungeon. What kind of hunter was it? So we can be careful if we meet him.

⤷BigBroArigato: He just looked like an ordinary hunter. His eyes were a little fierce, and he was quiet... Nothing about him particularly stood out.

⤷⤷EyeOfHorus: Hearing that he had no standout traits actually makes someone come to mind.

⤷⤷⤷BigBroArigato: Who?

⤷⤷⤷⤷EyeOfHorus: A B-rank with ten years of dungeon experience. A lunatic who’s been entering dungeons continuously since the National Hunter days.

⤷⤷⤷⤷BigBroArigato: Someone like that exists?

⤷⤷⤷⤷Anonymous2: That bastard just spreads corporate conspiracy theories. Don’t believe him. A hunter has only two paths after ten years. Die or retire.

* * *

“...”

Dohyeon’s eyes snapped open.

Slowly moving his eyes, Dohyeon saw the familiar ceiling and bedroom.

After lying there for a while, moving only his eyes, Dohyeon slowly rose and approached the window.

When he pulled aside the curtains covering it, a gloomy sky and the view outside came into sight all at once. There was no sunlight, only a dark, melancholy sky that looked as though it might rain, but Dohyeon’s whole body felt refreshed and his mind as clear as water while looking at it.

“Hmm...”

He felt excellent. It was so rare that he felt slightly dazed instead.

During his life as a hunter, being bruised, cut, or injured somewhere had always been normal. The same went for his mind.

There was the extreme tension of life-or-death situations, incomprehensible abnormalities, monsters giving chase, and the dungeon itself, which might try to deceive him at any time and in any way.

It was a continuous series of circumstances where staying sane was stranger.

Childlike monsters or faceless freaks chased after him. Flowers bloomed through human bodies. He heard endless hallucinated whispers, or the world suddenly flipped upside down and sent him flying into the ceiling.

And the greatest stress of all was the other humans they met inside.

People like shadows at twilight, impossible to tell whether they were enemies or allies.

“...”

After standing with a hand on his waist and staring thoughtfully out at the gloomy window for a while, Dohyeon suddenly realized he was naked.

He had definitely worn a cotton T-shirt and shorts to bed, but they were gone.

Even his underwear was gone.

“...?”

He looked around the bedroom, wondering where he might have thrown them off, but could not find them. When he approached the bathroom, it was damp with water, as if someone had just showered.

As Dohyeon looked around the wet bathroom, he met someone’s eyes.

“...”

[...]

The Valkyrie appeared in the bathroom mirror. Her green eyes, which had been watching Dohyeon, curved softly.

[You are full of confidence from the morning. Excellent.]

“...”

As Dohyeon looked at her winged helmet and green eyes, certain images passed through his mind.

A hazy moon. A Milky Way flowing across the ground. A revolting scent.

And rage and blood.

[It is good to be full of confidence, but will you not catch a cold if you walk around naked like that?]

Dohyeon came to his senses and faced the Valkyrie reflected in the mirror.

“This is my home. Whether I’m naked or not is up to me.”

[It is good to see you so proud. Then again, it is your home, so it is up to you.]

Even as she said that, the Valkyrie quietly watched Dohyeon with a faint smile. Dohyeon somehow felt that her gaze was directed slightly lower.

“...”

Dohyeon turned around, left the bathroom, and quickly opened the wardrobe to put on underwear and clothes.

As he pulled on a T-shirt, he spoke.

“Why was I naked? And what’s with the water in the bathroom?”

[Why ask me that?]

“Who else am I supposed to ask? Who else is in this home?”

[Then you must have done it yourself, warrior.]

Dohyeon frowned.

“I got up in my sleep, stripped naked, and showered?”

[I can do nothing but watch from within this mirror. Of course, warrior, if you wish it, I can attempt to remove your clothes and wash your body. Even if I am only an illusory mirage beyond the mirror, if my Helisbyorn desires it, I will gladly...]

At that moment, the phone rang. The only person likely to contact Dohyeon right now was Lee Seongbaek from management. He had left a text yesterday.

But when Dohyeon picked up the smartphone and checked the screen, he did not answer immediately.

Instead, he looked at the screen with slightly narrowed eyes.

It was not Lee Seongbaek.

It was an unfamiliar number.

“...”

After glaring at the small screen for a moment, Dohyeon pressed the call button.

A voice came from the phone.

As expected, it was an unfamiliar woman’s voice.

[Hello? Is this Kang Dohyeon’s number?]

“...Who is this?”

Dohyeon’s voice lowered. Very few people knew this number.

[Nice to meet you. I’m Yoo Ahyeon, assistant manager of the Field Talent Procurement Team at Cartain Energy’s Korean branch. To get straight to the point, could we meet in person? I have a good offer for Kang Dohyeon as well.]

Cartain Energy. An energy, resources, and trade conglomerate that began in the United States.

A transnational giant corporation that had grown rapidly over the last ten years on the back of the Odin Shock.

Dohyeon’s gaze, which had only narrowed slightly, turned as cold as a blade drawn from ice.

[Kang Dohyeon? Are you listening?]

“How did you get my number? No, how did you learn about me?”

Perhaps sensing the chill in his voice, a strange tension came through the phone.

But it lasted only a moment. Soon, a voice carrying polished composure and a faint sneer came through.

[The Dungeon Integrated Board. In Korea, people usually shorten it to Duntong, don’t they? Everyone who knows already knows about you there. The lunatic who has been entering dungeons for ten years. They even called you Scrap Iron, apparently?]

Dohyeon gave a bitter smile. Those internet sewer rats really were useless.

“I don’t know what you mean. I have nothing to say. Don’t contact me again.”

[Excuse me? No, wait-]

He hung up and immediately blocked the number.

Then Dohyeon checked Lee Seongbaek’s message. It said to bring the items he wanted to sell and come to the office.

There was also a note that, after hearing about the battery, a buyer had immediately appeared who would purchase it once they verified its Vanaskelium reactivity.

Dohyeon promptly gathered an outer coat, a bag, and the items. He grabbed his car keys as well and went out through the front door.

From hanging up to walking out the front door, every movement was clean and without a wasted motion.

* * *

“...”

“Hello? I’m Yoo Ahyeon from Cartain Energy. We spoke on the phone earlier.”

Dohyeon looked expressionlessly at the hand she held out.

After looking at her pale hand, Dohyeon slowly shifted his gaze. Lee Seongbaek, sitting in an office chair, subtly avoided that gaze.

“The buyer?”

“You said it wasn’t an ordinary item. If it’s enough to make you fuss, only a major corporation would be able to buy it.”

“...”

At Lee Seongbaek’s inability to meet his eyes, Dohyeon’s gaze returned to Yoo Ahyeon.

When Yoo Ahyeon’s eyes met Dohyeon’s, she held out her hand again.