Chapter 223

A shiver.

That was what everyone watching the battle felt.

They had known for some time that Jin Taekyung was extraordinarily skilled. They also knew that what they had seen of him so far was not everything he was capable of.

But who would have thought he was this strong?

Team Leader Choi—or rather, Choi Minwoo—swallowed dryly.

Though it had only been a few months, he was the person who had watched Jin Taekyung from the closest distance during that time.

Yet in this moment, Choi Minwoo realized that every judgment he had made about Jin Taekyung had been wrong.

What… exactly is this man?

Everything he had seen until now had been no more than the tip of the iceberg.

A few months ago, when they had first met at the Hunter manpower office, Taekyung had volunteered to work as a porter for a few hundred thousand won a day.

Now, he had hunted a Named Monster all by himself.

And it had been an overwhelming victory.

Puhk!

A spearhead infused with Aura pierced through the monster’s brow.

It was the moment that an immensely powerful Named Monster had been killed by a single person.

It was also the moment a new legend was born.

“Young Master.”

“……Ah.”

Choi Minwoo had been dazed for a moment, but Butler Kim’s call finally brought him back to his senses.

When he looked around, everyone had a similar expression.

Shock. More shock.

Trembling with an indescribable shiver, they rushed toward Jin Taekyung as if they had planned it together.

“Mr. Jin Taekyung!”

“Taekyung!”

Jin Taekyung smiled at them. It was a relieved smile, as if he had finally cast off even the slightest trace of regret.

Choi Minwoo let out a hollow laugh.

“Are you really in the mood to smile right now?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t really know what else to do.”

“You should shout, at least. It’s not like anyone else is here.”

“Something like, ‘I killed a Named Monster!’?”

“Yes. Now it’s finally starting to feel real.”

Choi Minwoo stared at Jin Taekyung, who was scratching the back of his head, then suddenly extended his hand.

A sentence he had momentarily forgotten had come back to him.

There was something he had wanted to say if—just if—Taekyung won.

“Thank you for all your hard work.”

“…….”

“You’ve truly been through so much all this time.”

For an instant, Jin Taekyung’s eyelids trembled.

An indescribable emotion passed through his clear, deep-black eyes. Then he firmly clasped Choi Minwoo’s hand.

“Thank you. And everyone else, too.”

For a while, I couldn’t come to my senses amid the barrage of questions and congratulations flying at me from every direction.

“So that was already thirty years ago. The Great Cataclysm was still in full swing at the time…”

“Ah, yes.”

Butler Kim, who rarely showed his emotions, excitedly listed one event after another that had taken place during the Great Cataclysm.

“My goodness. This isn’t a dream, is it? No, it isn’t, right?”

“Uh, no.”

Song Song stared at me, still looking as though she couldn’t tell whether this was a dream or reality.

“Sniff. Taekyung! You bastard! Sniff, sob!”

“……Why are you crying again, Uncle?”

“Because I’m proud of you, you punk. I’m proud. Sniff!”

Im Kkeokjeong burst into tears as if his own child had made it back alive.

In a situation like this, I didn’t have time to check the System messages that had piled up.

In the end, Team Leader Choi was the one who brought order to the chaos.

“All right, everyone, calm down. Let’s start with the cleanup.”

“That’s a good idea, but…”

I cautiously asked the most important question.

“How are we supposed to clean up?”

“……Oh. Well, that is…”

Even Team Leader Choi, who was never at a loss in any situation, looked flustered.

Cleanup after a raid was something we always did, and it was usually similar every time.

Check and treat the casualties, then sort through and collect the byproducts. If there was anything else, it was usually just inspecting the Equipment.

But this time was different.

This thing’s body alone is over fifty meters long.

And that was only counting its length. Its enormous girth, wings, tail, and everything else were separate problems.

Just thinking about how to deal with it was giving me a headache.

But we can’t just leave it behind and go.

Processing byproducts meant separating the hide, bones, and flesh.

The Carus I had brought down was a Named Monster, so its rarity and the difficulty of processing it were beyond imagination.

Fuck, what are we going to do with the scales?

They weren’t fish scales that could be scraped off with a kitchen knife.

Aside from me, someone would have to be at least as capable as Butler Kim or Team Leader Choi to handle the job. Of course, there was one possible solution.

One extremely easy—and simultaneously extremely difficult—method remained.

Inventory.

Based on everything I had experienced so far, the Inventory’s capacity was practically infinite. Besides, this was the corpse of a monster, not a living creature.

It was worth trying.

The problem comes afterward.

I could already picture everyone’s reaction if I put Carus’s corpse into my Inventory.

Even if I came clean to the guild members, suspicions would arise unless I intended to keep the byproducts forever.

The reporters are camped out at the Gate entrance. So how exactly did he secretly carry all that out? And so on.

If that happened, it might not be long before the entire country learned my secret.

The front pages of the daily newspapers and every news headline would be decorated with my name.

Breaking News: A-Rank Hunter Jin Taekyung Revealed to Be a System User.

Interview with Jin Taekyung: “Martial arts were the easiest part.”

Hunter Association: “Jin Taekyung’s Hunter license must be revoked.”

Jin Taekyung Denounces the Hunter Association: “Fuck, if it pisses you off, use the System yourselves.”

NASA Official Statement: “We will capture him at all costs and subject him to experiments.”

“…….”

“Mr. Jin Taekyung? Is something wrong?”

“No. Just thinking about it made me dizzy.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s nothing.”

It was something that absolutely must never happen. Obviously.

In the end, after everyone put their heads together, one opinion was finally chosen.

Team Leader Choi declared it in a solemn voice, like a judge delivering a verdict.

“Let’s bring in outside personnel.”

Gates were not unchanging spaces like evergreen trees.

After a certain amount of time, their destroyed environments and monsters were restored. This phenomenon was called Regen, and the time it took for a Gate to undergo Regen varied according to its Grade.

“As far as I know, A-Rank Gates usually undergo Regen once a week. Today is only the first day, so we have plenty of time.”

The plan was to bring in outside personnel as quickly as possible and speed up the work. For now, it was the most reasonable and feasible option.

There was, however, one small problem with the plan.

“The exit Gate hasn’t opened.”

That was exactly what had happened.

After killing a Named Monster, the exit should have opened as a matter of course. Yet for some reason, even after several dozen minutes had passed, it remained silent.

Im Kkeokjeong also looked around anxiously.

“Come to think of it, why hasn’t it opened? Is the Gate broken?”

“…….”

What a horrible thing to say.

As if Login Murim wasn’t enough, now we had Login Gate? If that was what was happening, I’d rather bite my tongue and die.

Just as I was getting an ominous feeling, Butler Kim spoke.

“It appears that the boss monster is still alive.”

“Alive? The boss monster?”

When I pointed toward Carus’s corpse, which lay with its head buried in a pool of blood, Butler Kim shook his head.

“Named Monsters and boss monsters are different. To explain simply…the former is an uninvited guest, while the latter is the homeowner who was here originally.”

“The homeowner?”

“Yes. It may be easier to understand this way. If an armed intruder broke into Hunter Jin Taekyung’s home, what would you do?”

“I’d beat him until he begged me to kill him.”

“……I forgot. I meant if you were an ordinary person.”

“Oh. Then I’d run. If I thought I was going to die before I could escape, I’d fight back.”

“The boss monster is the same. A powerful being it could never hope to fight appeared, so it fled out of fear.”

The inside of a Gate was ultimately a world ruled by the law of the jungle.

The strong reigned, and the weak were trampled.

Maybe it would have been different with a monster that lived in a tribe, but Wyverns were known to be solitary and ferocious. It probably hadn’t ended with the boss monster merely taking a few knocks to the head and moving out.

From the boss monster’s perspective, it had made a fairly wise decision.

Unfortunately, that just made things more troublesome for us.

There was no way the thing had run away to survive, only to stay nearby and trim its claws.

It would have hidden as far away and as secretly as possible. And with only five people, searching this vast wasteland was impossible.

“Then…”

“We need to return to the entrance we used to enter.”

It was the obvious conclusion. And the right person for the job had already been decided.

Without giving it much thought, I shot my hand into the air.

“I’ll go.”

Team Leader Choi asked with concern in his eyes.

“You?”

“That seems like the fastest option. Doesn’t it?”

“That’s true, but you must be exhausted after the battle.”

I just leveled up, damn it. Just let me go.

I swallowed the words that had risen to my throat and answered instead.

“I’m still full of energy. If you’re worried, I can receive some healing magic before I leave.”

“As you know, the distance to the entrance is considerable.”

“As you know, I’m pretty fast.”

It had taken quite a while to reach this place the first time, but it was different if I went alone. I wouldn’t need to worry about monsters, and I wouldn’t be traveling in a group.

If I ran at full speed, I could reach the Gate entrance within an hour or two.

“Hmm. In that case, I’ll leave it to you. Mr. Taekyung and Butler Kim can go together.”

“Butler Kim, too?”

Butler Kim stroked his impressively grown beard as he answered.

“We need to bring in outside personnel.”

Processing the byproducts of a Named Monster required at least a B-Rank Hunter, or preferably an A-Rank Hunter.

“I know a few people. If I go personally, they’ll probably drop everything and come running.”

“…….”

That sounded about right.

I still couldn’t forget the sight of the Sangdong Guild Master doing PT exercises while loudly echoing commands.

It was something I could hardly believe even after seeing it.

Knowing Butler Kim’s spectacular track record, I could only nod at the decision. We needed him to bring in outside personnel.

“So it’ll just be the two of us, Butler Kim and me?”

“Yes.”

Butler Kim nodded and stepped behind me.

“All right. I’m ready.”

“Pardon?”

“Would you bend your back a little?”

“……Why do you need my back?”

No, what exactly was he ready for? Why did I need to bend my back?

I spoke, a terrible suspicion forming in my mind.

“You don’t mean… soap?”

“Please carry me on your back.”

“Oh. Sure.”

Thank goodness. He wasn’t a centaur.

I let out a sigh of relief and willingly offered my back to Butler Kim.

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!

With Butler Kim on my back, I ran without slowing down.

We encountered a group of Orcs wandering through the wasteland once along the way, but that was all.

“Fire Rain.”

It was the magic of an A-Rank mage.

One-third of the Orcs died beneath the downpour of fire, and the rest scattered in every direction.

I felt like a walking mobile turret.

This isn’t bad.

Just as I was thinking about how efficient raids could become if I did them this way, we passed through the barren wasteland and saw a dense jungle ahead.

“You’re astonishingly fast. We’re already at the jungle.”

“I’m going to slow down from here. Given the surroundings, we could get lost.”

“I’ll follow your lead, Hunter Jin Taekyung.”

The jungle, filled entirely with trees and undergrowth, was practically a maze, making it easy to lose one’s way.

We slowed down and continued along the route.

That was when it happened.

“……Huh.”

I suddenly stopped, letting out a hollow laugh.

Butler Kim asked in puzzlement at my abrupt behavior.

“What is it?”

“It’s nothing. Just…”

How was I supposed to explain this?

At last, I found the right word and added gently,

“There are hyenas.”

“Hyenas?”

“Yes.”

Stupid, persistent hyenas that kept baring their teeth even after I had let them go once.

I crooked my finger toward the dense undergrowth in the distance.

“Come out, you fucking bastards.”

Rustle.

The undergrowth shook, and the hyenas began emerging one by one.

But my eyes were fixed on only one person.

System

Lv. 80 Won Myunghoon

“What an ill-mannered bastard.”

The leader of the hyenas bared his teeth and growled.