Chapter 44

Chapter 44

Avant-garde Guild Master Lee Chantae.

Fifty-two years old this year.

His hair was slicked back, his face angular with not a trace of softness, and his cold, sunken eyes stood out.

A man with a cold heart, who pursued his guild's interests relentlessly and discarded anything unprofitable without a second thought.

Even in my past life, after the Grand Compromise was struck, he wrapped himself around his guild's forces and never let go. That was why I'd never met him face-to-face.

Lee Chantae, who had exchanged greetings with Cheon Myeongguk first, looked at me and spoke.

"I came because I want to hear what you know about Nuri."

"Talking down to me the moment we meet?"

"……."

The mood sank at my flat reply. But I'd already been plenty patient with a man who'd talked behind my back. What was it he'd said? That a brat's beginner's luck wouldn't last long? That I was a prime candidate for dropping dead on the side of the road?

If the Avant-garde Guild hadn't held the first hunt order, I would've dealt with him first.

If I got angry and went at him now, that'd be fine by me. But what choice would this man make?

"I was rude. I came because I want to know about Nuri. Would you tell me?"

His stance flipped fast. I smiled to hide my disappointment. Now he's using polite speech too.

"I'm curious why you're asking a brat about that."

"…I believe there may be traces Nuri left on the Black Wyvern."

A sharp one. He'd figured out that the Black Wyvern had been driven off by Nuri, and guessed there might be traces left behind.

That was correct.

"You're right. There are traces on the Black Wyvern."

"What kind?"

"There's a scorch mark on the tip of its tail."

It was a mark I'd seen while dismantling it, visible because the hide was black.

"So it's fire-attribute."

"And there are slash marks, too."

"Couldn't those have been left by the hunting team that fought the Black Wyvern?"

"Possibly. But there are other possibilities."

"What?"

"Nuri's gift."

Lee Chantae's expression twisted at my words. Did it really sound that absurd to him?

"…Nonsense!"

"Think whatever you like. I've told you what I know."

"No useful information, then. Still, I got what I needed, so I'll be heading back."

He switched right back to casual speech. Maybe I really should send him back in time. But with Cheon Myeongguk watching from the side looking like he was about to cough up blood, I decided to let it slide. He'd suffer plenty during the hunt anyway.

Rather than stopping Lee Chantae as he walked out, I spoke to Cheon Myeongguk.

"Avant-garde won't have it easy."

"Do you truly believe Nuri has a gift?"

"Think about what happened with Daon."

Daon was the 7th Monster—a Level 8 monster in turtle form that rampaged between sea and land, devastating the Yellow Sea.

The moment it took its last breath, Daon triggered a massive tidal wave, and that sparked debate over whether monsters could use gifts.

The conclusion was that it was a coincidence piled on coincidence, but the incident left a bad taste in many mouths.

"Monsters can use gifts."

It was simply a matter of how skilled they were. Whether you accepted that or not made an enormous difference.

The level of monsters was rising higher and higher, and the gap between the Harmful-class Level 8 that appeared first and the Level 8s that would appear ten years later was like heaven and earth. That was because monsters, too, survived the era of infinite competition and clawed their way up to Level 8.

Some even said Nuri might be Harmful-class Level 9, though back when I wasn't in my right mind, I never got that far.

"I hope not. Just this once, I hope the Transcendent is wrong."

"Watch and see."

Even if my prediction was off and the Avant-garde Guild succeeded, it wouldn't cost me anything.

But they wouldn't succeed.

*

"Master, how was your trip to the Blue House……."

Vice Guild Master Ha Seonghun, who had come to greet Lee Chantae upon his return from gathering information on Nuri, trailed off when he saw the Master's thoroughly rigid expression.

"That brat. I don't like him."

"You mean Choi Junho?"

"He spoke down to me the moment we met."

Ha Seonghun burst out laughing.

"So that blacklist really was true, then."

"Director Cheon. Using a talented man like that to become Choi Junho's dog. What a disappointment. Back in the Reaper Guild, he handled everything flawlessly."

"What can you do? Choi Junho is a mad dog. If you want to calm one down, you have to coo at it. Anyway—how did the Blue House trip go?"

"……."

Lee Chantae sank briefly into thought.

Monsters using gifts? The theory of monsters using gifts was nothing but sophistry that had been briefly mentioned back during the Daon incident.

Preparing for it wasn't a bad thing. But if they let themselves be distracted by a gift that had a slim chance of existing and something went wrong during the hunt, they could lose the prey they already had in the bag.

This was a hunt that would mobilize the guild's full strength. If they succeeded, they'd earn astronomical sums of money, and the guild's honor would stand proudly at the very top of South Korea.

If they happened to fail, the next hunt order belonged to Choi Junho. Lee Chantae, who had staked the guild's fate on this hunt, judged it to be a deception meant to throw him into confusion.

He could prepare on his own, by himself.

"There were no results. We proceed as planned."

"Yes!"

Three days later, Nuri appeared in Goesan County, North Chungcheong Province.

*

The 8th Monster came to be named Nuri, an idea that began with the member nations of the Typhoon Committee naming storms in their own languages.

They gave the monster a name in their own language, without considering the monster's attributes or characteristics.

Most of the names attached carried positive meanings, partly to avoid stirring up an atmosphere of fear when they appeared on the news, and partly for the sake of the Hunters' morale and their safe return.

There were criticisms that it had no real effect, but even those faded into oblivion as the response to monsters took the form of all-out war.

From the moment Nuri's emergence was predicted, the Awakened Security Office and the National Guild Association had picked three likely locations for Nuri to appear.

Cheongju, Eumseong County, and Goesan County, all in North Chungcheong Province.

At the emergency strategy meeting held at the Blue House, Cheon Myeongguk explained the situation.

"Nuri's appearance closely matches that of a goshawk. It's about twelve meters in size, and its defining traits are that its entire body is tinted red and gives off intense heat. This means the traces left on the Black Wyvern's tail were in fact Nuri's doing."

Nuri would emit flames hot enough to burn the Black Wyvern's hide. A moment when what had been a hypothesis was revealed as fact.

"Nuri has attacked a civilian settlement in Eumseong County."

"Casualties?"

The President's voice dropped low.

"Despite the evacuation, there were heavy casualties among civilians and the monster response team."

Monsters instinctively harbor hostility toward humanity.

That tendency grew more pronounced the higher their level, and Nuri, having appeared in Goesan County, struck Eumseong County directly above it.

The government did its best to guide people to evacuate, but there are always those who won't listen. The civilian casualties this time were that same type.

The President let out a low sigh.

"How is the Avant-garde Guild moving?"

"They're preparing to enter Eumseong County from Icheon. They plan to face it in open ground with no obstructions."

"Is their strength sufficient?"

"All of Avant-garde's core fighting force has been mobilized."

"If they kill it, they'll gain great honor, but if they fail, one pillar of the major guilds will be shaken."

No matter how much the major guilds coveted state power, the benefits the nation reaped from them couldn't be ignored. It was important not to be pushed around by the major guilds, but maintaining and developing the Awakened fighting force was also the President's job.

"What do you think will happen with the hunt, Transcendent Choi Junho?"

"It will fail."

"……."

They ask my opinion and then react like this?

"Can you tell me why?"

"The most important thing in hunting a monster is grasping its capabilities. Mr. President, when you look at a monster's strength, which part do you think matters most?"

"Its size, wouldn't it be?"

Absolutely not. By that logic, Nuri should have been calling the Black Wyvern its big brother.

"A monster's strength lies in its purity."

"Purity?"

"I mean the original form it was born with. Nuri's form closely resembles a goshawk, and that means it's a monster born with powerful strength from the start."

The more monsters devour other monsters and undergo complex transformations, the more unstable their output becomes and the more unnatural their Force emission grows.

"So when you say it's dangerous that it reached Level 8 with that purity, that's what you mean. But why do you think it will fail?"

"Lack of fighting strength. And the hunting team includes far too many people it doesn't need."

From what I could see, to take on Nuri, you'd need two Level 8s, five or more Level 7s, and twenty Level 6s backing them up to make it winnable.

If the Level 8's gift were a long-range attack, it would be even easier. But Avant-garde's fighting strength fell short of that, and Lee Chantae himself was the classic bullheaded general who trusted only his own ability.

Succeed and he's a charismatic boss; fail and he's a stubborn fool.

In this case, the latter was far more likely.

Of course, when I do the hunting, it's a different story.

"……."

The mood turned chilly.

"Don't worry. He's a man who cares terribly about his guild's people, so he won't throw their lives away recklessly."

"Dealing with the Monster is the problem."

"Why worry about that? I'll go."

I said it with confidence, so why are they all looking at me like that? The ones with disrespectful eyes—I'll remember them for now.

After a quick glance around at the gazes on me, I asked the President.

"But if I kill it alone, does all of it become mine?"

I understood the price of a Harmful-class Level 8 monster was at least 1.5 trillion won.

And if I handled the heart processing myself, its value would go even higher.

If a bowl of soybean paste stew is 6,000 won, that's 250 million bowls.

"As long as you can hunt it, it's all yours."

"Good."

*

In the room where only he and Cheon Myeongguk remained, the President recalled what had just been said and asked.

"What did you make of Choi Junho's analysis?"

"I thought it was absurd."

"That's how it sounded to me too. But it was strangely convincing."

There was a peculiar charm to Choi Junho's words. A powerful self-assurance, even about unverified facts. It struck hard enough to shake one's trust in the data accumulated so far.

"Transcendent Choi Junho's words are mostly things that have never been analyzed before. They must not be believed, and they must not be acted upon. However……."

Cheon Myeongguk, meeting the President's eyes, said,

"There has never been a single time his words were wrong."

"That's the problem."

"Yes."

"Then do you think it will go his way again this time?"

"…The odds are high."

There was only Choi Junho's word, but if forced to choose between the data and Choi Junho's words, it would be the former.

The problem was what happened if those words became reality.

"If Avant-garde is broken through, we'll make our stand at Gwangju or Yongin. If we can't stop it there either, Seoul is right around the corner. Contact the Reaper Guild. Have them prepare their forces just in case."

Cheon Myeongguk was a former vice-master of the Reaper Guild. Even if he requested somewhat early preparations, he could count on being understood.

"Understood."

"I hope what we're worried about doesn't come to pass."

But what they worried about became reality.

*

When I first faced Nuri, I thought it would be more than possible to hunt it.

For a Harmful-class Level 8, its bulk wasn't large, and the aura it gave off wasn't great either.

But the moment the battle began, everything changed. Nuri possessed a strength on a different plane from any Level 8 monster I'd seen before.

Not even five minutes into the fight, hell unfolded. The acrid smoke from winter's dry trees and grass clouded the vision.

"This is my failure."

Lee Chantae ground his teeth as he looked up at the sky. The creature that had created this hell was gazing down at the world with utter indifference, as if not even he was worth noticing.

Nuri was nimble and fierce, and it fired off breaths so intense they melted even the armaments the Hunters wore.

Above all, the "gift" Choi Junho had warned about proved decisive. The blade storm stirred up by its wingbeats was an inescapable calamity.

When the gift's blade storm activated, Force blades whirled through a fifty-meter radius. Each one was powerful enough to rival a Level 7 Force blade.

More than ten guild Hunters caught in the first blade storm were shredded to pieces. They were minced into scraps of flesh, with not a trace of their original forms left.

Trying to face it in an open area had been a mistake. There was nowhere to run from the breath or the blade storm.

The creature was toying with the guild members who had spent their lives bleeding and sweating for the guild, from a distance its gift could reach but their attacks could not.

At this rate, it was annihilation.

Lee Chantae admitted that his choice had been the worst possible one.

"Everyone retreat! I'll cover the rear."

"Master!"

"I'm the only one who can draw its attention. Listen to me! Ha Seonghun! Take the others and get out, now!"

"…You must survive."

Leaving those words behind, Ha Seonghun rallied the surviving forces and retreated.

Left alone, Lee Chantae drew Nuri's aggro and fought it, but it wasn't enough.

To deal with a flying monster, you had to drag it down, but because he'd sent the guild's entire fighting force away, his attacks couldn't reach.

"Is this the end."

He could see Nuri looking down at him from the sky. He'd thought it an easy opponent because it wasn't that large, but in this moment it looked like a monster that could destroy the world.

Kiiieee!

Its cry sounded like it was mocking him.

To have boasted so much and then meet such a futile end. The world would laugh at him.

Avant-garde's standing would plummet, and it would never rise to its current position again.

"……."

Feeling everything he'd built over a lifetime crumble in real time, Lee Chantae clenched his teeth hard.

That was when it happened.

Behind him, a figure was approaching at ferocious speed. The figure, moving as if stepping on the air itself, shot straight up into the sky and slammed its fist into Nuri's head.

Kiiieeeeeek!

Nuri shrieked and belched a breath, but the figure dodged it with ease and struck its head once more.

"Fall back."

"Choi Junho……!"

Lee Chantae's eyes flew wide at the sudden appearance of his rescuer, and he hurriedly retreated. In the meantime, Choi Junho pushed through the blade storm spread by Nuri's wingbeats, closed in, and struck Nuri's head.

Boom!

A tremendous explosion rang out.

Nuri staggered, then radiated heat from its entire body along with a chilling killing intent as it flew higher. It was trying to escape Choi Junho's attack range.

"It doesn't break."

If Choi Junho was marveling at the hardness of Nuri's skull,

then Lee Chantae hadn't missed how oddly fixated he was on its head.

"Head Breaker."