Chapter 226

Click, click!

A barrage of camera flashes blinded me. You’d think I would have gotten used to it by now, but apparently I really was a caterpillar that had to eat pine needles.¹

“Mr. Jin Taekyung! Did you clear the Gate?”

“If not, why did you come out so quickly?”

Questions rained down from the reporters. If the Gate security guards hadn’t been there, they looked ready to jam their microphones into my mouth already.

But the initial frenzy soon died down, and confused voices rose to fill the void.

“But… why is Jin Taekyung covered in blood like that?”

“The numbers don’t add up, either. The people behind him are Star Guild members.”

“They’re even tied up.”

“Where’s Won Myunghoon? I don’t see him, either!”

I could more or less imagine how we looked on camera.

There was me, drenched in the blood of monsters and Won Myunghoon. A dozen or so Star Guild members tied together in a line. And Butler Kim holding the rope as though he were walking a dog.

I can’t blame them for reacting like that.

I licked my dry lips, then shook my head at Butler Kim as he started to step forward on my behalf.

He had tried to stop me, and I had refused. This had happened because of my choice, so it was only right that I deal with the aftermath myself.

“Mr. Jin Taekyung! What happened?”

“Please, just give us one comment!”

The confused murmuring didn’t last long. The moment the reporters caught the scent of a scoop, they went wild.

I calmly watched the frenzied press corps before asking the young reporter at the front a question. He wore thick, horn-rimmed glasses.

“Who do you work for?”

The young man flinched.

“Pardon? M-Me?”

“Yes. You.”

“Uh, well, I…”

He had been shouting the loudest from the front, but apparently hadn’t expected anything like this to happen.

After a brief panic, he finally managed to answer.

“H-HunterTV.”

“Oh. Them.”

HunterTV was a channel that focused on Hunter-related issues and information.

It was a cable channel, but it was also a major broadcaster whose ratings surpassed those of terrestrial networks.

Since it was connected to what I was about to say, both the reporter and I were lucky.

“I’ll take your questions.”

“Pardon?”

“There are too many microphones. I’d rather focus on one.”

“So… an exclusive?”

“Call it whatever you want. Shall we begin?”

He looked like a greenhorn, but a reporter was still a reporter.

The bewilderment vanished from his face, and his eyes gleamed behind his glasses.

“How about broadcasting it live?”

“Live?”

“Yes. Like at the Association last time. We can stream it in real time.”

A live stream.

After a moment’s thought, I nodded.

“Let’s do that.”

iTube was the number-one video-sharing website.

Countless channels, belonging to everyone from individuals to major organizations, were registered on the platform. Among them, HunterTV was a massive channel with several million subscribers in Korea alone.

At the same moment, the phones of HunterTV subscribers going about their daily lives all buzzed with the same notification.

Bzzzz.

[HunterTV has started a live stream.]

[“Jin Taekyung Exclusive Live Broadcast.”]

The view count hit 100,000 in no time.

The sudden influx of viewers had left the screen black, but the chat was already blazing like a furnace packed with firewood.

└ What is this? Why is there suddenly an exclusive Jin Taekyung live broadcast?

└ No idea. Feels like it hasn’t even been a day since Lord Fuck entered the Gate.

└ It’s an A-Rank Gate. He’s already out?

└ This buffering is absolute garbage.

└ Now I want some Butter Rings.²

└ Oh, the picture’s up.

└ Everyone shut up and welcome Lord Fuck with the proper reverence.

Pop.

The brief but seemingly endless buffering finally ended, and the video began to play.

The moment the viewers saw the enormous Gate and the young man standing before it, their fingers flew across their screens.

└ It’s Lord Fuck!

└ Oh my god, fuck.

└ Please insult me!

└ Smack my ass, too!

└ Cut it out, you lunatics.

Jin Taekyung’s popularity was through the roof.

He had saved countless lives by suppressing a B-Rank Gate. His approachable, down-to-earth demeanor, unexpected from an A-Rank Hunter, and even the bizarre spectacle of him accidentally swearing during an official press conference had kept him at the center of attention day after day.

But the excitement didn’t last long. The viewers soon noticed that something was wrong.

└ Why does he look like that?

└ Did Lord Fuck get hurt? He’s covered in blood.

└ Half the people are missing, too. And the ones there are tied up;;

└ What the hell is this? Something happened.

└ What’s HunterTV doing? If you started a broadcast, at least ask some questions.

Perhaps mindful of the chaos in the chat, the HunterTV reporter finally spoke.

“I’ll get straight to the point. What happened inside the Gate?”

“It would take too long to explain everything from beginning to end… Is it all right if I summarize?”

“Please do.”

Vrrrrr.

The camera zoomed in until Jin Taekyung’s face filled the screen.

His face was smeared with blood and dust, but his eyes shone calmly. Then a composed voice flowed between his parted lips.

“There was a Named Monster.”

“……!”

“It was a Mutated Gate.”

In an instant, the noise at the scene vanished as though someone had pressed the mute button.

The chat froze for a moment, then began racing upward.

└ ??

└ ???

└ Wait, why is there a Named Monster here;;;

└ They must all be dead. No wonder so many people are missing;;

└ Is Won Myunghoon dead, too? I haven’t seen him since earlier;

└ Holy shit…

A major incident.

The same words flashed through everyone’s minds.

Even the reporter holding the microphone out to Jin Taekyung forgot his job and stood there with his mouth hanging open.

A Named Monster.

Everyone knew the kind of destruction one could cause.

Five years earlier, a Named Monster that appeared in Central and South America had possessed enough power to destroy a small city by itself.

Although it had finally been defeated after several days of fighting, the damage had been enormous.

Hundreds of Hunters had died, along with ten times as many civilians.

The incident had drawn the attention of the entire world. There wasn’t a reporter or viewer who hadn’t heard of it.

└ If it really was a Named Monster, surviving was a miracle;

└ No. Wait a second.

└ Then that means there’s still a Named Monster inside the Gate;;;

└ So what? It’s inside the Gate. Isn’t it fine?

└ Did this bastard just get here from Mars? You idiot, don’t you know what happens when the mana level exceeds a Gate’s capacity? The monsters come pouring out.

└ That catastrophe in Central and South America a few years ago happened because the mana level exceeded the limit and the Gate opened;;

└ The Black Wyvern’s Nest? Does anyone know where that is?

└ Holy shit;; Get the reporters out of there first.

The reporters who had been staring back and forth between Jin Taekyung and the chat as if hypnotized suddenly snapped out of it.

“A Named Monster!”

“Hey, get out of here right now! Grab the cameras!”

No scoop was worth more than their lives.

Just as the reporters, sensing the threat of death, began wading into chaos, someone who had been watching the entire situation finally spoke.

“Ah, I already took down the raid monster, so you don’t have to worry too much.”

His clear voice rang in everyone’s ears.

The reporters who had been trying to flee in a panic and the viewers staring at their phone screens while swallowing nervously both wondered if they had heard correctly.

“Pardon?”

“……What did you say?”

└ ????

└ I think I heard that wrong.

└ What did Lord Fuck just say?

└ He says he killed a Named Monster…?

└ Who did?

└ Lord Fuck.

└ What did he kill?

└ A Named Monster.

└ Can he even do that?

└ I don’t know…

The camera, which had been shaking as though caught in an earthquake, steadied and refocused. Dozens of cameras turned toward the young man’s perfectly calm face.

The reporter in horn-rimmed glasses asked Jin Taekyung in a trembling voice,

“C-Could you say that one more time?”

“It’s just as I said.”

“Then you really killed the Named Monster…”

“Yes. I killed it.”

He killed it? A Named Monster?

Everyone’s jaws dropped at the unbelievable words that had come from Jin Taekyung’s mouth. One reporter finally recovered enough to blurt out a question.

“T-Then did the others die in the process?”

“Seven people died. The rest are safe…”

His voice trailed off. After thinking for a moment, he continued in the same unwavering tone.

“Oh, I should add Won Myunghoon to the death toll. That makes eight.”

“W-Won Myunghoon? Why did he…”

“Uh, well…”

Jin Taekyung hesitated briefly before adding,

“I got him.”

“……Pardon?”

“Ah, not got. I killed—no, that sounds strange, too. Give me a moment.”

Before the aftershock of the Named Monster bomb had even faded, a second bomb went off.

The dozens of reporters at the scene and the 100,000 viewers watching the screen were left half dazed.

What the hell is he talking about?

At the exact moment the same thought crossed everyone’s mind, Jin Taekyung finally found what he considered the most appropriate expression.

“This is probably the best way to put it. I ‘disposed of him.’”

“…….”

“…….”

At the end of the heavy silence, a single new line appeared in the frozen chat.

└ Did this guy just come back from sorting recyclables at home?

Everything moved swiftly from there. The emergency investigation team dug into the truth of the incident with speed and precision.

Countless eyes were on the case. If they missed even a single detail, they might receive a lifetime’s worth of abuse.

“Handle this properly. Miss even one thing and you’re finished—finished!”

“This has already been reported all the way to the Blue House.³ If we slip up, we’re all going over the cliff together.”

Both the government and the Hunter Association’s leadership were on edge.

Contrary to their fears, however, it didn’t take long for the whole truth to come to light.

“Holy shit… He killed this thing by himself?”

“He actually killed it.”

The investigators were stunned when they confirmed that the enormous Named Monster lay gruesomely dead.

By then, every Star Guild member who had participated in the raid was tied to a cold metal chair in an interrogation room.

“I don’t know anything.”

“Look, Hunter. The truth will come out soon enough. Why make this difficult?”

“I’m telling you, I don’t know anything.”

“Ha, you bastard… You’d spill everything with one mental spell, but you still have to be annoying.”

“Did you just swear at me? You think being a prosecutor means you can do whatever you want? And don’t you know mental magic is illegal?”

Their lives were on the line. They couldn’t give up the comfortable lives they had enjoyed as B-Rank Hunters and rot in prison for the rest of their days.

The prosecutors were racking their brains over the Star Guild members’ stubborn denials when an unexpected savior appeared.

“I-I’ll tell you everything.”

Kim Jonghun, Team 1 Leader of the Star Guild, was still mentally shaken when he confessed to everything that had happened.

It was a perfect testimony. On top of that, an anonymous informant had sent a USB drive and a note.

The Hapsburphon family, a long-established German family of equipment makers, has produced rare and highly practical items. One of their representative products is the PSV-96K camera, which cannot be detected by any detection magic and functions normally even in Gates with unstable mana…

The prosecutor in charge stared incredulously at the note before asking the investigator,

“What is this supposed to mean?”

“They filmed the entire raid. There’s footage on the USB. Open it and you’ll see. That bastard Won Myunghoon was a real piece of shit.”

“Filming is illegal, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

“It was the Peace Guild, right?”

“Wouldn’t you say so?”

“…….”

“Let that much slide. Every Guild with enough clout does it. They didn’t leak it to civilians, and thanks to them, we secured conclusive physical evidence. We both benefit from this…”

Bang!

An employee burst through the door and thrust out his phone.

“H-Have you seen this?”

The number-one real-time search term was boldly displayed across the screen:

“Won Myunghoon Raid Footage Leaked.”

As the ugly side of a former star people remembered fondly was revealed, the internet boiled like a cauldron over hot coals.

└ What a fucking bastard.

└ My head is ringing. Is this really true? It’s not staged, is it?

└ Good riddance. Taekyung was right to kill him.

└ Still, it was clearly murder. Did he really have to kill Won Myunghoon…?

└ Myunghoon, is that you?

└ Does Wi-Fi reach hell?

└ Did Yama⁴ turn on his hotspot for you?

└ You’re calling this murder? Have you never heard of self-defense?

Only two days had passed since the incident. Yet the backlash was fiercer than anything people could remember.

Each time another long-buried suspicion about Won Myunghoon came to light, public fury boiled over anew.

And after every wave of still-smoldering rage had swept through, the discussion always ended with the same question.

└ So what is Jin Taekyung doing?

└ At this hour? Probably sleeping.

└ Probably sorting recyclables.