Chapter 31. The Hunt (3)
Thud!
Psssss—!
The bear collapsed with a heavy thud, crashing into a nearby tree. The thick trunk shuddered at the impact, sending a flurry of leaves cascading to the ground.
Startled, little Yul flinched and instinctively pressed herself against her father’s leg.
[You have defeated the Hungry Brown Bear!]
[You have earned 33 Welfare Points.]
“Yul! Did your points go up?” Eun-Ho asked.
“Yeah!”
“How about you, Han-Wool?”
“They’re going up quite fast, thanks to you, ” Han-Wool replied with a grin, yanking his sword from the bear’s neck.
With practiced hands, he loaded a pebble into the slingshot he had bought from the shop.
“Do you think the others are doing okay?” Han-Wool asked.
“Yeah, their team is well-balanced,” Eun-Ho replied.
Ji-Eun distracted monsters with psychokinesis, Jae-Hyuk struck them down, and if anyone got hurt, Sol-Ah was there to heal them.
“If they were in real trouble, they would have called for help. But I haven’t heard a peep, haha.”
“No news is good news, right?”
Han-Wool had a point. On the map, Ji-Eun’s group was steadily gaining points too. However, that wasn’t the real problem.
“Han-Wool, what’s Yul’s total point right now?”
“It’s 900 points.”
“She started at 500 when we came out to hunt, right?”
That meant they had only taken down maybe ten monsters in the past hour and a half.
“This isn’t looking too good.”
“We’re moving way too slow, right? We’re just deadweight out here...”
“Oh no, it’s not that. I can handle the hunting on my own.”
“The problem is that there just aren’t enough monsters out here.”
It was as if the prey had dried up to set the stage for survivors to kill each other.
[The Crow from the Bureau of Management suggests that saving the child means killing off the others.]
[The Prince from the Bureau of Investigation insists they cannot save everyone. They are saying to make a choice.]
[Multiple observers are eagerly awaiting a bloody brawl!]
The observers had been in a frenzy for a while now with messages like “fight,” “kill,” and "wipe them out!”
They were probably getting antsy, desperate for entertainment after such a slow trickle of conflict.
“What should we do, sir?”
“This won’t work. We need a plan.”
“A plan...? Wait, do you mean—”
Han-Wool raised a finger and made a slashing motion across his throat with a pale face.
“No. Not that kind of plan.”
Eun-Ho couldn’t let Yul see that so he quickly dismissed that suggestion. No matter how desperate they got, he wasn’t going to dance for the crowd. There had to be something else.
There’s only one way left.
He gazed at the sky through the swaying leaves, staring at the empty air as if a solution would descend from above. Then, a soft chime rang in his ears.
Ding!
“Found it,” Eun-Ho muttered.
It was a message from Ji-Eun, his lifeline.
- To: Lee Eun-Ho
- From: Kim Ji-Eun
- Message: We found it. It’s 800 meters from the tower, at 2 o'clock direction. 2175.
Ji-Eun messaged him about the last resort they had been searching for.
Fwoosh—
The envelope fluttered open, its four corners spreading like butterfly wings, urging them to follow.
“Let’s go.”
“Huh? Go where?” Han-Wool turned to Eun-Ho, puzzled as he changed direction.
Would my explanation work? Eun-Ho wondered.
“To do some grunt work.”
“Sorry?”
***
“Eun-Ho!”
Through the trees in the distance, Ji-Eun waved, catching Eun-Ho’s eye. She looked exhausted, but her face was still lit with energy.
“Hyungnim! How’ve you been holding up?”
“It’s only been a few hours since we split. You alright?”
“No! I’ve been banged up, rolled down hills. It was brutal!”
“Hm... Sol-Ah looks worse than you do, honestly.”
Jae-Hyuk was being dramatic as usual, playing up how close he came to dying. Meanwhile, Sol-Ah looked like she had been run through a meat grinder, probably from overusing her healing skills.
“Sir, then the number 2175 was...”
“Yeah. That’s Ji-Eun’s point. 2,175 points.”
Before the hunt began, Eun-Ho had asked her a favor: find a zone where monsters kept respawning. After all, Ji-Eun could use her psychokinesis to fly and scout from the air. With a bird’s-eye view, she could spot something across the forest.
“Ji-Eun! Does that mean you actually used the skill to fly?” Eun-Ho asked.
“Uh, not exactly. I just kind of stumbled onto the place while walking.”
Guess that kind of precision was still out of reach.Still, the result was what mattered for now. They could think about the rest later.
“I guess we were lucky then.”
“You were right, Eun-Ho. It was a place covered in black smoke, just like you guessed.”
“I didn’t know for sure, so I’m glad I was right.”
Sssss—!
That same dark haze they had seen when they clashed with the three guys was here too—only denser, heavier, and much more ominous.
“You feel it too, right? That creepy, weird energy?” Ji-Eun asked.
Ji-Eun wasn’t wrong.
Normally, dark colors soaked up the sun’s heat. However, this mist—whatever it was, gas or liquid—seemed to defy that rule.
Instead of warming them, it drained their body heat like a black hole devouring light. The cold it brought wasn’t sharp, but damp and creeping, like the clammy chill of an abandoned basement.
“Daddy, I’m cold.” Little Yul whimpered and buried herself in Han-Wool’s arms.
He picked her up, glancing around nervously, scanning for threats. “I really didn’t want to bring her in there, but there’s no other way.”
“Oh no, please. We’re the ones dragging you into this. So don’t worry about the points distribution.”
No one wanted to bring a five-year-old into a blood-soaked hunting ground. However, the rules were cruel. Only the person who delivered the blow got the points. Besides, if one waited too long between kills, the system wouldn’t even count it.
“Ji-Eun! This smoke, you said it didn’t disappear even after killing a monster?” Eun-Ho asked.
“Right. I checked it myself. It stays.”
“And if someone steps into the area, another one spawns?”
“Exactly. I couldn’t stay long because it was too risky. But yeah that’s what’s happening.”
This was the place. The source and the spot that kept unleashing beasts without end. Could this be the heart of the mountain’s threat? There was a reason why he dragged everyone all this way with him.
Until now, they were probably producing one creature at a time, at their leisure.
However, now, they were pushing the system because they were desperate.
Crunch.
Eun-Ho stepped forward, straight into the eerie mist. The ground rippled like dark water beneath his feet.
Ssss—
The moment the black haze touched his skin, he felt a chill like he had stepped into a walk-in freezer. It crawled up from his feet to his knees, then his waist.
“Stay sharp, everyone!”
“We don’t know what’s gonna jump out of—”
Someone swallowed hard. However, before the spit even went down, a monster jumped out.
“Kraaaagh!”
[Defeat the Venomous Sky Tiger!]
Just like that, the tiger landed right next to tiny Yul.
“Yul...!”
“Acceleration! Summon!”
The tiger barreled in, drooling and snapping its jaws, but Eun-Ho met it head-on.
Swoosh—!
His sword struck out smoothly, cutting deeper each time he grew more accustomed to its weight.
[You have defeated the Venomous Sky Tiger!]
[You have earned 50 Welfare Points.]
[The proficiency of the skill Basic Swordsmanship (Lv.2) has increased!]
[+1%]
The series of notification sounds faded, and time seemed to settle back into place.
Tick!
“Yul!” Eun-Ho gently lifted the confused little girl. He placed her up on a thick wisteria vine nearby, high enough and hidden well among the foliage. “This is safer. Stay up here and just throw stones, okay?”
“Okay! Got it.”
Meanwhile, the rest of the group turned, tense and alert, each gripping their weapons tightly.
“Everyone else, get ready!”
“Got it!”
“Understood!”
[Defeat the Hungry Brown Bear!]
Just like that, the ongoing battle began.
[Defeat the Hungry Brown Bear!]
[Defeat the Hungry Brown Bear!]
[Defeat the Hungry Brown Bear!]
...
Swoosh—!
Thud!
“Kaaaargh!”
Swoosh—!
Thud!
One by one, they defeated the Hungry Brown Bears.
The pile of corpses grew steadily, and by now, their sense of smell had dulled. So much blood had spilled that the dark red afterimages seemed to dance behind their eyes.
[An anonymous observer smiles warmly at their smooth progress.]
They slashed, cut, then sliced. Quickly, their swords felt less like weapons and more like extensions of themselves.
[The Crow from the Bureau of Management taps a foot to the satisfying action.]
Is it the swordsmanship skill or the title of Human Whetstone? Eun-Ho thought.
Either way, amid the strange sensation, occasional commentary from observers and system notifications were the only things snapping them back to reality.
[You have earned 33 Welfare Points.]
[The proficiency of the skill Basic Swordsmanship (Lv.2) has increased!]
[You have earned 25 Welfare Points.]
[The proficiency of the skill Basic Swordsmanship (Lv.2) has increased!]
[You have earned 20 Welfare Points.]
[The proficiency of the skill Basic Swordsmanship (Lv.2) has increased!]
...
When even the messages they used to welcome had become tiresome and almost unheard, the system decided to shake things up.
Ding!
[Congratulations!]
[You have fulfilled the upgrade conditions in Sector 13 for the first time.]
[Would you like to upgrade the low-tier shop, Mobile Stall for Newcomers?]
Huh?
[Accepting this offer will grant the First-Time Upgrade Bonus!]
[The First-Time Upgrade Bonus includes...]
A translucent window appeared floating before Eun-Ho’s eyes.
Okay, this is actually tempting.
***
“Upgrade,” Eun-Ho said.
Of course he would do it. With the shop stuffed mostly with useless junk, Eun-Ho had always suspected there might be some hidden function beneath the surface.
[Spend 10,000 Welfare Points to upgrade the shop—]
However, he didn’t expect it to cost points.
“Cancel! Cancel!”
[Shop upgrade has been canceled.]
Are you kidding? Ten thousand points? No way! Absolutely not!
He had to save at least five thousand points for his daily quota if he wanted to survive and clock out in three hours.
Unless five thousand points just fell from the sky, there was no way he could spare that much right now, especially with their self-sustaining setup. Time was too tight.
“Have you all earned your daily quotas?”
“Yup, almost there!”
“We should be good by six, Hyungnim!”
It was 2:50 PM, and there were three hours until clock-out.
[In 10 minutes, a safe zone will be generated.]
“Alright, it’s time to head bac—”
“Daddy! Waaah!”
Yul’s crying pierced the air, and looking up at the tree, a terrifying sight awaited.
Eun-Ho had been thinking that things were going surprisingly smoothly.
“Roaaar!”
“Yul, Yul!”
The little girl who was supposed to stay put had vanished, and all that filled their sight were the flapping, blood-red wings.
[Defeat the Venomous Sky Tiger!]
“Acceleration!”
[The skill on cooldown. 14 seconds, 13 seconds, 12 seconds...]
Damn it!
The small stones Yul had been clutching spilled from her tiny hands.
“Han-Wool, up here!”
Eun-Ho scrambled up the tree, nearly colliding with Han-Wool as they rushed upward together. A horrific scene flashed in his mind—a woman pierced in the abdomen by the Venomous Sky Tiger, and the pile of bodies stacked beside her before the project even began.
Crack! Snap!
They couldn’t bear to witness it again. They refused to let their mind return to thinking about the instant a fragile life was extinguished. The image haunted them: a little girl who once ran laughing through sunlit fields, now lying cold and still.
“Yul, please! Daddy is coming!” Han-Wool clawed at the tree trunk with bare hands, climbing like a man gone mad. Just then, something caught his eye. “What do we do?! I-It's about to fly away!”
The Venomous Sky Tiger spread its wings, preparing to take flight.
“No!”
Seven, six, five... Please, Eun-Ho thought.
At three seconds, the Venomous Sky Tiger flapped its wings and tried to launch into the air.
At two seconds, Han-Wool grabbed its tail mid-flight, throwing it off balance.
Then, lastly, at one second, the Venomous Sky Tiger slammed headfirst into the thick branches.
“Acceler—”
Huh?
The sky tiger wailed, jaws wide open and claws empty.
“Yul!”
“She’s gone?”
There was no one besides the Venomous Sky Tiger staring down the fearless puppy who had dared attack it.
“Huh? What’s going on? Where’s my Yul?”
“Han-Wool! Behind you!”
“Roaaaaar!”
At that moment, the Venomous Sky Tiger charged straight at Han-Wool’s back, more panicked than either of them. Then, just as it opened its massive jaws, Han-Wool vanished.
Huh? He vanished?
Eun-Ho couldn’t believe his eyes. It wasn’t like the smoke disappearing, but more like being instantly erased by the system.
“Grrr...?”
The Venomous Sky Tiger tilted its head, confused as if asking, “What just happened?”
It’s just like the Bermuda Triangle.
Amid the chaos, Eun-Ho barely had time to react before a tiny hand hurriedly grabbed his hand.
[You have entered the Hide and Seek domain of the Subject Kim Yul.]
[The skill effect will end the moment you move away from the caster.]
“Hide and Seek?!”
“What is th—”
“Mister! Daddy! Shh!”
“Grrr...!”
The Venomous Sky Tiger stood there, confused, right in front of Eun-Ho, Han-Wool, and Yul, unable to figure out what was going on.
Wow, so it can’t sense us! Eun-Ho thought.
Meanwhile, Yul calmly held both Eun-Ho’s and her father’s hands, swinging them back and forth. Clearly, she had used this skill many times before.
Ah! So that’s why you were able to hide so well on the train.
Eun-Ho remembered Yul telling him about hiding really well. Yul had told them she hid to avoid the ghost inside the cramped train car. It seemed strange at the time, but now it all made sense. It was all thanks to the skill.
Wait a minute. If this works out...