Chapter 29: Concealed Hideousness

“Concealed?”

I was shocked by Han Yu Ri’s words.

Concealed?

Why?

“Look at this monster here.”

Han Yu Ri showed me a specific monster inside the Gate.

That monster was one I had never seen before.

In terms of being scary-looking, it was the same as other monsters.

But its posture was much more stable compared to other monsters.

It resembled a human physique so much that you might think a human was standing if you just glanced at it.

“What is this? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so human-like.”

“We suspect this is a 1st-class monster.”

“1st-class?!”

1st-class, she said?

Did such a thing really exist?

Globally, the highest-class monster humanity had encountered within a Gate so far was 2nd-class.

A 2nd-class monster is an existence that boasts overwhelming power, to the point where it takes 3 to 4 S-class Hunters to barely defeat it.

The Hunter Association conducted research using the bodies of 2nd-class monsters defeated within Gates.

As a result of that research, analyzing the monsters’ body structure, they announced a research finding that 1st-class monsters, surpassing 2nd-class monsters, might exist.

But even now, four years after that announcement, a 1st-class monster has yet to be discovered.

And Han Yu Ri discovered such a 1st-class monster?

How was it discovered?

And why did the large guilds conceal it?

With this shocking story, many questions arose in my mind simultaneously.

But the most important thing for now was, was that definitely a 1st-class monster?

I wanted to confirm that first.

“Could you tell me for what reason you suspect this is a 1st-class monster?”

“When fighting that monster, 10 S-class and SA-class Hunters from our allied guilds (Hunters with power almost equal to S-class.  They can be seen as quasi-S-class Hunters. Although slightly weaker than S-class Hunters, they are overwhelmingly stronger than A-class Hunters, to the point where comparison is impossible.) attacked that monster simultaneously.”

Han Yu Ri’s voice trembled slightly.

Han Yu Ri took a breath and continued speaking.

“As a result, more than 8 people were seriously injured, and among them, two SA-class Hunters died.

In the end, we failed to kill that monster as well.”

Han Yu Ri’s voice and expression became somber.

Two SA-class Hunters…

died?

Although not quite S-class, SA-class Hunters are monsters almost comparable to S-class.

And those monsters died even after receiving Han Yu Ri’s buff and fighting?

It wasn’t completely unheard of for S-class and SA-class Hunters to die.

There were cases where they died fighting 2nd~3rd-class monsters with too few numbers.

There were also cases where they died because the number of enemy monsters inside the Gate was too overwhelming for even S-class and SA-class Hunters to handle.

But for two people to die out of 10 S-class and SA-class Hunters who challenged just one monster.

If Han Yu Ri’s words were true, that monster is definitely much stronger than a 2nd-class monster.

It is reasonable to suspect it is a 1st-class monster.

For now, I comforted the somber-looking Han Yu Ri.

If I could, I wanted to pat her on the shoulder and comfort her.

But we weren’t that close.

So I offered comfort through my words and expression.

“Why wasn’t the news of such deaths reported in the media? Why did the large guilds conceal this?”

The appearance of a monster presumed to be 1st-class, which they failed to capture even with the simultaneous attack of top-class Hunters.

However, none of the news has ever reported on this incident.

They said the large guilds also concealed this fact.

I was starting to understand the relationship between the media and the large guilds.

Nevertheless, I still had several questions remaining.

Why did they conceal it?

What’s good for the large guilds if they conceal it?

“That is…”

Han Yu Ri seemed to hesitate for a moment.

“Since Mr. Geon is my savior, I will tell you everything honestly. But you might not want to believe it. Because it’s different from what’s known through the media. If you don’t believe it, I won’t force you to.”

She said with a resolute expression.

I nodded my head to her, signifying that I understood.

“Currently, the large guilds kill Hunters inside Gates. They make it look as if the Hunters died because of monsters inside the Gates.

That’s how they have accumulated overwhelming wealth for themselves. That’s the reason why the large guilds have grown so big now.”

Han Yu Ri said with an expression filled with anger.

For a moment, my head went blank.

And at that moment, what Kim Joon Hyuk had said at the cafe flashed through my mind.

‘What makes you challenge me when I can kill you inside the Gate?’

At that time, I just thought he said that out of anger.

But Kim Joon Hyuk is the representative of the number one super-large guild among the large guilds.

The BM Guild.

And if Han Yu Ri’s words were true, it meant that he also rose to that position by killing countless Hunters until now.

Of course, I couldn’t yet definitively believe, based solely on Han Yu Ri’s words, that the large guilds, including Kim Joon Hyuk, had been committing such evil deeds.

The Han Yu Ri I knew wasn’t someone who would tell such lies.

But I couldn’t immediately believe such immense evil deeds just because she seemed like a good person on the surface.

Kim Joon Hyuk is like an enemy to me.

Just by looking at his unpleasant face, he looks like he would be a bad guy, and it’s true that rumors, whether true or false, about large guilds operating maliciously are circulating implicitly.

But I couldn’t immediately conclude, based only on such things, subjectively saying ‘It’s certain they are murdering good Hunters!’.

That would be an unobjective judgment.

So I needed more evidence.

“Look at this.”

Han Yu Ri showed me another video.

“Why, why are you doing this!!”

“Aaah!!”

On the screen, I saw a video of Hunters being brutally murdered by other Hunters.

At that regrettable and anger-inducing scene, my brows automatically furrowed.

“They acted as if they would cooperate with Hunters not affiliated with the Hunter Association inside the Gates.

Then, after clearing the Gates, they would kill all the Hunters not affiliated with their association and monopolize the profits.

And they’ve been disguising it as if the dead Hunters died because of monsters.”

Han Yu Ri covered her face with both hands and continued speaking.

“No one knows what happened inside the Gates, do they? In the early days of Hunters, the system wasn’t fully developed, so we couldn’t even figure out which guild entered each Gate individually.

So we also genuinely thought at first that our people were just being killed by monsters.”

“How were you able to record this video?”

“Since they cleanly dealt with all the Hunters inside the Gates, they couldn’t leave any videos behind.

They couldn’t even inform people that there were forces doing such things inside the Gates! Because no one who went into a Gate where this happened came out alive!”

Han Yu Ri started to get greatly angry.

“They didn’t touch us in Gates where S-class Hunters like me were deployed. So we couldn’t tell at all.

But very fortunately, there was a Hunter on our side who was very fast, and they made a mistake and missed that person.

And this is the video that person recorded.”

I watched the video again.

The shaky screen from a hand trembling as if in a hurry, Hunters dying while experiencing absurd fear at the attack of fellow Hunters they hadn’t expected.

“Thanks to this video, we finally became aware of what was happening inside the Gates. The person who recorded this video suffered from a mental illness due to fear and retired from being a Hunter that very day.”

“Did you try anything like reporting this video to the government, or exposing it to the public?”

“Yes. Of course, we tried everything. But as you know, the government has no power now. All the high-ranking officials of the government are already in the clutches of those vicious large guilds.

They tried to frame us as ‘forces trying to damage the dignity of the large guilds with manipulated videos’.”

Han Yu Ri continued speaking.

“You are a Hunter, so you know well, don’t you, Mr. Geon? Can the magic power exploding in this video be manipulated with current human technology?

With current human CG technology, this unique aura of magic power cannot be replicated at all. Just by watching the video, it feels like magic power no matter what. How could they manipulate and create this?”

From the moment I started watching the video, I naturally thought it was real magic power.

How could this be manipulated?

If they could create these effects, Hunter movies realized with this level of CG would have been released one after another long ago, wouldn’t they?

I had also heard many times that it was extremely difficult to replicate the visual effects of the magic power used by Hunters with movie or animation technology.

This video is definitely not manipulated.

I can be sufficiently certain even with my senses as a Hunter.

I was increasingly feeling that something incredibly serious, something I hadn’t known, had been hidden.