Chapter 404

“Whew.”

Night had fallen, pitch-black.

The moment he returned, the young man threw off his equipment and dropped heavily into a seat. As he struggled to catch his breath, a middle-aged man approached and handed him a drink.

“You look exhausted. Drink this.”

The two men had bonded somewhat on the way here over their shared status as Hunters drafted from Shanxi Province.

The young man recognized the familiar face and eyed the can in the middle-aged man’s hand, then muttered dubiously.

“Did this come from the supplies? I don’t think I’ve seen this drink before.”

“It came in with the foreign relief supplies. It’s not from our country.”

“Hmm. Got anything carbonated?”

“If you don’t want it, forget it.”

The middle-aged man began to withdraw his hand, but the young man quickly grabbed it and spoke with a solemn expression.

“Sir. Have I ever told you that canned ration drinks are my favorite thing in the world?”

“No.”

“Then you’re about to learn.”

“Good. That’s the spirit.”

“I’ll enjoy it.”

Click.

The young man opened the can and took a sip. His expression changed subtly, but before he could say anything, the middle-aged man asked him a question.

“You’re coming back from searching Sector Three, aren’t you?”

“……Urk. Yes.”

“Must’ve been rough.”

The young man answered with a shrug. His bare upper body was drenched in cold sweat that had yet to dry, and green blood was splattered across his cheek.

“Monster blood. Did you get into a fight?”

“No. I was passing a building when a damn Gargoyle corpse fell. Must’ve been caught on the roof.”

“That must’ve caused quite a commotion.”

“Do you even have to ask? The rookies with only a year or two under their belts started puking and pissing themselves the moment they got covered in blood.”

“And you?”

“I may not look it, but I’ve been a Hunter for seven years. I didn’t even blink.”

The middle-aged man’s gaze slowly drifted toward a particular part of the young man’s body. He stared at the faint stain on his navy-blue pants, then nodded.

“Hmm. I see.”

“……It’s sweat.”

“I didn’t say anything. But looking at you is somehow making my eyes sweat.”

“……Actually, I did piss a little. Is it obvious?”

“Yep.”

“Damn it.”

The middle-aged man silently watched him swear and tip back the can, then abruptly asked, “Did you find any survivors?”

“……!”

“So it was the same on your side.”

The young man’s expression stiffened the instant the words left the man’s mouth. The middle-aged man let out a sigh.

He had already taken part in one search himself.

It had been a truly nightmarish experience.

Everywhere he looked, bodies torn apart by monsters lay piled high, and the horrific stench made his head feel as if it would split open.

Neither of them would ever forget what they had seen that day.

“……I can’t even imagine how fierce the battle must’ve been.”

“You don’t need to. Whatever you imagine, it was worse.”

The four thousand Hunters who had come here with Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghu had been divided according to their units and sent to search the small city. Every piece of search equipment they used kept producing the same result.

No survivors.

Aside from the three thousand People’s Liberation Army soldiers who had fled in terror at the start of the battle, everyone lay cold and dead. No one yet knew how many of the cowardly deserters scattered across the region had survived.

“At this rate, we can’t even call it a casualty count. A death toll would be more accurate……”

“Watch what you say. We don’t know that yet.”

“Mm. I’m sorry. I spoke carelessly.”

“As long as you understand. And……”

The middle-aged man cut off the young man’s thoughtless remark and continued.

“Casualty count is the right term. There are survivors.”

“……Oh.”

The young man remembered the three people he had momentarily forgotten—the three who had survived this gruesome hell.

“You mean the regimental commander of the Public Security Armed Forces Department? That young fellow?”

“That’s right. The young man from Korea survived too.”

“And then there’s……”

The first two had certainly acted heroically, but compared to the last survivor, they were no more than fireflies before the sun.

The young man swallowed hard, and the middle-aged man finished for him.

“Yes, that man. No—that person survived too.”

Unmistakable awe filled his voice. He felt no discomfort referring to someone far younger than himself as “that person,” because he knew just how extraordinary the man’s achievements had been.

“Can you believe it? That a single Hunter could be that strong?”

He was a seasoned Hunter himself. That meant he could at least vaguely imagine what sort of monsters S-rank Hunters were.

But Jin Taekyung’s feats had been so incredible that it was hard to believe they were the work of a Hunter—or even a human being.

“It was a monster army nearly ten thousand strong. There were two Death Knights, and even a Death Knight Lord said to be as strong as an S-rank Hunter, if not stronger.”

The middle-aged man rattled on, his voice brimming with excitement.

“And how many allied Hunters were there? A mere thousand. The People’s Liberation Army was there too, but even they……”

“Nearly half of them fled when the front line collapsed. The rest fought bravely, but the monsters slaughtered them. I heard about it too.”

“How many Hunters do you think were left when Jin Taekyung arrived? A thousand? No, I’d stake my life that fewer than half were still alive!”

Had he witnessed the situation when Jin Taekyung arrived, the shock might have sent him into cardiac arrest.

Even this man, who revered Jin so deeply, had never imagined that Jin Taekyung had faced the monster army alone.

“He led hundreds of exhausted, wounded Hunters and annihilated a monster army more than ten times their size! Do you think that makes any sense?”

The young man gave him a deeply skeptical look.

“I don’t think it does.”

“Exactly. But that person did it!”

“Uh, sir. Sorry to rain on your parade, but none of that has actually been confirmed yet, has it?”

“What?”

“I think Jin Taekyung……”

“Not Jin Taekyung. Mr. Jin!”

The middle-aged man’s eyes bulged as he barked the correction. The young man flinched and cleared his throat.

“Ahem. I mean, I admit that Mr. Jin is incredibly strong, but I can’t help thinking the story might be a little exaggerated.”

“Exaggerated? You saw the marks left on the battlefield and you can still say that? If it wasn’t Mr. Jin, then who……”

“Come on, don’t get so worked up. Try looking at this objectively. If everything you’re saying is true, then Mr. Jin is stronger than Faye Chen or Wu Heixing.”

“I have no interest in ranking them, but judging by their accomplishments during this Monster Wave, Mr. Jin clearly comes first. So?”

“Faye Chen may be from Hong Kong, but she’s a hero who accomplished countless great feats during the Great Cataclysm. And for all the trouble Wu Heixing causes, he’s still a true genius born of Zhonghua.¹ Jin Taekyung surpassing both of them? That crosses the line.”

The middle-aged man stared at him with equal parts disbelief and contempt.

“You’re the one who crossed the line.”

“What?”

“Is that really all you have to say? You shout that Zhonghua is number one, then belittle the hero who won us a great victory and saved our people?”

The young man’s face twisted.

“Since you brought it up, Jin Taekyung only saved two people today. No, one of them was Korean, so he only saved one of our people. And that man was perfectly fine, without a single wound. He fought to protect his own countrymen, that’s all. You don’t seriously think he used a Top-Grade Potion, do you?”

“There’s no point talking to you. Instead of praising him, this is how you repay him? I wonder what Mr. Jin would say if he heard……”

The middle-aged man shook his head and rose from his seat.

At that moment, a voice spoke behind them.

“Maybe he would’ve said you were a fucking asshole who wasn’t worth helping.”

“……!”

“……!”

The two men spun around in shock at the voice that had approached without a sound.

Before them stood a man whose face they knew well from television and the media.

“Hic.”

The young man stared up at someone a full head taller than him and began to hiccup.

“J-J-J-J-J-Jin!”

The middle-aged man stuttered as though he were buffering.

Jin Taekyung regarded the two of them with a friendly smile.

“Young man, stop hiccupping unless you want to become a good Chinese person. And you, sir, stop the earthquake—unless you’re planning to bring down the Arch Lich with a massive one.”

“Hic—gulp.”

“A-Are you really him?”

Jin Taekyung nodded slightly.

“I was going to keep walking, but then I heard something particularly irritating.”

“……Th-That……”

Jin Taekyung turned to the source of that irritating noise, who had stopped hiccupping and begun trembling like a leaf.

“How old are you?”

“I-I’m twenty-nine.”

“You’re older than me. I’ll speak casually.”

“……What?”

“What?”

“N-Nothing.”

The young man had no grounds to complain even if Jin Taekyung cursed him out, let alone spoke casually to him.

He had only ever seen Jin Taekyung from a distance or in passing. Now that he realized Jin had heard everything he had said, his hands and feet began to tingle, and his vision went white.

“I-I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize. That’s how talking behind someone’s back works. I understand.”

“Th-Thank you.”

Just as Jin Taekyung’s gentle smile began to melt the young man’s heart, he continued.

“Nothing to thank me for. Talking shit is fun while you’re doing it, but when you get caught, you’re fucked.”

“……!”

“There should be someone behind me right now. See him?”

Slowly—very slowly—the young man shifted his gaze.

Sure enough, a little over ten meters² away, a middle-aged man with the face of a demon was radiating a terrifying aura in his direction.

“They say he’s an A-rank Hunter with the Central Military Commission. He must have found your story very interesting, because he keeps bowing to me. Run over and put a pain-relief patch on him.”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

The young man answered with a shriek and dashed over, only to let out a real scream when a mana-infused kick caught him in the shin.

Jin Taekyung laughed quietly at the sight and started to leave, then suddenly stopped.

“Ah, there’s one thing you’re mistaken about.”

“M-Me?”

The middle-aged man, still half-dazed, snapped back to his senses.

“I’m sorry, but what would that be?”

“I didn’t do it alone.”

“What?”

“Everyone fought like hell. By the time I got there, the battle was almost over. Make sure you tell the others that too.”

“Is that really true?”

“Of course. Oh, do you have a family?”

“Yes. Three daughters and five sons……”

“You’re quite the patriot. In a few years, you’ll have enough for a soccer team.”

Jin Taekyung thought for a moment, then abruptly asked, “You’re not assigned to a combat unit, are you?”

“……You could tell right away.”

The middle-aged man lowered his head in embarrassment.

“As you can see, I’m an E-rank Hunter, so I was excluded from combat. I’ll probably be assigned to tally the casualties.”

“Then could I ask you one favor?”

“It would be my honor, Mr. Jin.”

“Please add one person to the list of the dead. You won’t find his body, so I’m asking you to make a special exception.”

“What is his name?”

“Lei Fei. Lei Fei.”

Those were Jin Taekyung’s final words to him.

The middle-aged man remained rooted in place, staring after Jin for a long time before finally releasing the breath he had been holding.

He felt certain that Jin Taekyung’s expression the last time he saw him would remain etched in his memory for a long time.

What was that look in his eyes……?

The resolve to see something through, no matter what.

The middle-aged man, who had been singing Jin Taekyung’s praises moments before, picked up the can the young man had left behind and took a swallow to wet his throat.

Then he grimaced at its indescribable flavor.

“Ptooey!”

Burdian?

It seemed to be a Korean drink, but it tasted god-awful.

“You’re here, Mr. Jin.”

Wei Fenghu was not the only one waiting for me.

Five monitors stood inside the conference room, each displaying a seated S-rank Hunter.

I spoke calmly.

“Let’s go end this war.”

At long last, it was time to eliminate the culprit behind all of this.