Chapter 223

A thrill.

That was what everyone who had witnessed the battle felt.

They had known for some time that Jin Taekyung was extraordinarily skilled. They had also known that what they had seen so far wasn’t the full extent of his abilities.

But who knew he was this strong?

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

Though it had only been a few months, no one had observed Jin Taekyung more closely than he had.

Yet at that 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 a Hunter staffing agency, Taekyung had volunteered to work as a porter for a few hundred thousand won¹ a day.

Now, he had hunted a Named Monster alone.

And utterly overwhelmed it.

Puhk!

The spearhead infused with Aura pierced the monster between the eyes.

It was the moment an immensely powerful Named Monster died at the hands of 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. And more shock.

Trembling with an indescribable thrill, they rushed toward Jin Taekyung as if by prior agreement.

“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.

“You can smile at a time like this?”

“I don’t know. I can’t think of anything else to do.”

“Then shout, at least. We’re the only ones here anyway.”

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

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

Choi Minwoo stared at Jin Taekyung as he scratched the back of his head, then abruptly held out his hand.

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

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.”

For an instant, Jin Taekyung’s eyelids trembled.

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

“Thank you. All of you.”

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 much emotion, excitedly rattled off one incident after another from the Great Cataclysm.

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

“Uh, no.”

Song Song stared at me as if she still couldn’t tell whether she was dreaming or awake.

“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.

With all that going on, I didn’t have a chance to check the backlog of System messages.

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

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

“That’s a good idea, but…”

I cautiously asked the most important question.

“How are we supposed to clean this up?”

“……Oh. Well, you see…”

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

Cleaning up after a raid was routine, and the work was generally the same 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 bastard’s torso alone is over fifty meters² 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 here.

Processing the 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 supposed to do with the scales?

They weren’t fish scales we could scrape 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.

There was one method left.

It was both extremely easy and extremely difficult.

Inventory.

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

It was worth a try.

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.

Reporters are camped out at the Gate entrance, so how did he secretly carry all of it outside? Things like that.

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 Blasts Hunter Association: “Fuck, if You Don’t Like It, 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.”

That could never be allowed to happen. Absolutely not.

In the end, after everyone put their heads together, we settled on one solution.

Team Leader Choi announced the verdict with the solemnity of a judge.

“Let’s bring in outside personnel.”

Gates weren’t immutable spaces, unchanging as 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.”

We would bring in outside personnel as quickly as possible to 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.

Now that we had beaten the Named Monster to death, the exit should have opened. Yet even after several dozen minutes, it still showed no sign of appearing.

Im Kkeokjeong also looked around anxiously.

“Yeah, why hasn’t it opened? Is the Gate broken?”

“…….”

What a horrifying thing to say.

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

Just as an ominous feeling began creeping over me, Butler Kim spoke.

“It appears the boss monster is still alive.”

“Alive? The boss monster?”

I pointed at Carus’s corpse, which lay facedown in a pool of blood, but Butler Kim shook his head.

“Named Monsters and boss monsters are different. To put it simply…the former is an uninvited guest, while the latter is the original homeowner.”

“The homeowner?”

“Yes. This may be easier to understand. If an armed intruder broke into your home, Hunter Jin Taekyung, 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’d die before I could escape, I’d fight back.”

“The boss monster was no different. A powerful foe it could never hope to defeat appeared, so it fled in 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.

It might have been different for monsters that lived in tribes, but Wyverns were known to be solitary and ferocious. Carus wouldn’t have stopped after giving the boss monster a few knocks on the head and evicting it.

From the boss monster’s perspective, running away had been a fairly wise decision.

Unfortunately, that just made things more troublesome for us.

There was no way the thing had fled for its life only to hang around nearby grooming 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’ll have to go back to the entrance we came through.”

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, Mr. Jin?”

“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. 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 have someone cast healing magic on me before I leave.”

“As you know, it’s a considerable distance to the entrance.”

“As you know, I’m pretty fast.”

It had taken us quite a while to reach this place the first time, but it would be different if I went alone. I wouldn’t have to stay on guard against monsters or match the pace of 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. You and Butler Kim can go together.”

“Butler Kim, too?”

Butler Kim stroked his impressively full beard as he answered.

“We need to bring in outside personnel.”

Processing the byproducts of a Named Monster required Hunters who were at least B-Rank, if not A-Rank.

“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 exercises³ while loudly repeating orders.

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

Knowing Butler Kim’s spectacular track record, I could only nod. We needed him if we wanted to bring in outside personnel.

“So it’ll just be Butler Kim and me?”

“Yes.”

Butler Kim nodded and stepped behind me.

“All right. I’m ready.”

“Pardon?”

“Would you bend over a little?”

“……Why do you need me to bend over?”

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

A terrible suspicion crossed 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 raced forward without slowing down.

We ran into a pack of Orcs wandering through the wasteland, but that was the only interruption.

“Fire Rain.”

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 mobile turret.

This isn’t bad.

Just as I was thinking about how much more efficient raids would be if I did them this way, we crossed the barren wasteland and spotted a dense jungle ahead.

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

“I’m going to slow down from here. With all this vegetation, we could get lost.”

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

The jungle was nothing but trees and undergrowth, making it a maze where one could easily lose their way.

We slowed down and continued along our bearings.

That was when it happened.

“……Huh.”

I suddenly stopped, letting out a hollow laugh.

Puzzled by my abrupt halt, Butler Kim asked,

“What is it?”

“It’s nothing. Just…”

How was I supposed to explain this?

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

“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 emerged one by one.

But my eyes were fixed on only one person.

System

Lv. 80 Won Myunghoon

“Would you look at this insolent bastard.”

The leader of the hyenas bared his teeth and growled.