Chapter 77: A story about a hunter (1).

The ride in the transport vehicle, which recklessly sped along the poorly maintained road, was anything but comfortable, to put it mildly.

She didn’t expect soft cushions, but it would have been better if at least a blanket was laid down, but wishing for such luxury in these times was extravagant.

Euichan gazed intently at the woman sitting across from him, dozing off.

The young woman with reddish-brown pigtails and flawless, pale skin was managing to stay in dreamland amidst this brutal shaking.

“Hey, wake up.”

“Koo…uhm…”

“Hey!”

“Hiyah! I-Is it an enemy attack?!”

Only after Euichan raised his voice did his junior and rookie hunter, Choi Sangah, startle awake and lift her head.

“We’re almost there. Loosen up your body.”

“Ah, yes sir!”

“Good grief, what a carefree one.”

Euichan lowered his voice, but Sangah just avoided his gaze and whistled.

How did he end up being dispatched with this woman?

No, in the first place, why did this woman apply to the search team?

“It’s finally our first mission!”

“It’s not something to be excited about. Be vigilant. If you only trust your abilities and become careless, your head can get chopped off without you even knowing it.”

“Yes sir!”

She saluted and answered energetically, but her face was still relaxed.

At this rate, it’s a big problem.

“Hey, you two seem friendly. Are you lovers? Or a married couple?”

Joseph, an American with a hooked nose sitting in the innermost seat, spoke up.

He was the most talkative and sociable of the eight hunters in this transport vehicle.

“We’re just colleagues belonging to the same Korean branch.”

“Really? Hmm, my intuition is usually right about these things, though.”

Joseph said that with a meaningful smile, but unfortunately, his boasted intuition was completely wrong this time.

Euichan and Sangah were far from being lovers; they weren’t even quite comrades yet.

That’s because it had only been 10 days since he had met Choi Sangah.

10 days ago, at the Korean Hunter Incheon Branch.

Euichan was resting with his weary body lying down.

He had recently returned from supporting the demon search and extermination operation in Jeju Island, so he was still exhausted.

It was a tough mission.

Jeju Island is a particularly dangerous place in Korea, and many areas are still not cleared, so demons are teeming everywhere.

The fierce battle with the A-class demon he encountered there.

If it weren’t for the support of Euichan, a veteran, the search team would have been wiped out.

Not that Euichan himself was boasting, but his contribution in the last mission was recognized by everyone.

Already 5 years.

It had already been 5 years since that day when his daily life suddenly collapsed and everything changed.

At the time, Euichan had heard the news that he had passed the job interview, and as he suppressed his excited heart and headed home, what he encountered were the corpses of his family, including his parents.

Immediately after, monsters of unknown origin poured out, and Euichan barely escaped and joined the survivors.

A few days later, an unknown hologram appeared before his eyes, and Euichan awakened his unique skill.

He had been using the points he collected only to upgrade his unique skill instead of buying minor skills.

He had two unique skills, one of which was ‘Laser Handgun,’ which was a powerful attack skill that allowed him to create a gun shape with his hand and shoot lasers.

The other was called ‘Grasp,’ which was the number one contributor to making Euichan a veteran hunter.

‘Grasp’ was a skill that roughly grasped the opponent’s ability and level.

When he used the skill on a demon, he could know the grade according to the demon’s strength, and when he used it on a person, he could know whether that person was a hunter or not, what skills they had, and how excellent their ability was, as well as their grade.

Thanks to this skill, Euichan could easily gauge the strength of his opponent, which was directly related to his survival rate.

‘An A-class demon.’

He could handle an A5 grade demon without much difficulty.

Even within the A grade, there were grades ranging from A6 to A1, and he could handle up to A5 alone, but from A4, it was difficult to deal with alone, and if it went up to A2 or A1, they were enemies he should never encounter alone.

Euichan was a veteran, so that was his level, but generally, even a B grade demon required a team to face it.

‘S grades are really absurd, but fortunately there aren’t many of them.’

While he was lost in thought, someone knocked.

“Who is it?”

“Hunter Kang Euichan, the branch manager is calling for you.”

“Hmm?”

At those words, he put on his coat and came out, and a man working as an assistant at the Incheon branch bowed his head.

Euichan was also familiar with his face.

“The branch manager is calling for me? What’s going on?”

“I have not received any information about that.”

“I see.”

After the apocalypse, power became strength.

Those who had awakened their abilities as hunters received polite treatment from assistants or ordinary people like this.

As Euichan headed to the branch manager’s office, the door was wide open as if waiting for him.

“What’s going on?”

Euichan stepped inside and closed the sliding door.

A middle-aged man with slicked-back hair, the branch manager of this Incheon branch, was sitting leaning back in his chair.

“Oh, Euichan, you’ve come.”

“I heard you were calling for me.”

“That’s right, that’s right. Ahem.”

For some reason, the branch manager greeted Euichan with a more friendly voice than usual.

‘This isn’t going to be good news.’

“Euichan, how’s your body? Your performance in Jeju Island this time was truly amazing…”

“Please get to the point.”

When Euichan cut him off, the branch manager coughed awkwardly a few more times and handed him a piece of paper.

-Request for Support in Zhezqazghan Search.

Euichan’s expression hardened at the title.

“Branch manager, are you telling me to go to Russia, when I’ve only been back for three days?”

“Hahaha… I’m sorry about this. You know how we’re always suffering from a shortage of manpower. It’s a tough time.”

“I heard that Alex returned a week ago.”

“He’s down in Daejeon now. A new rift has opened up, so they’ve requested support there too.”

“Where is Hunter Hongi?”

“You seem to have forgotten. She’s currently… on maternity leave.”

That’s right.

I guess people still have babies even in wartime.

There’s no mistaking the old sayings.

“Please, I’m begging you. Do it for my sake.”

“…Haa.”

“The pay will be generous. The guys in Russia have a lot of money.”

The branch manager said with a beaming smile.

Euichan knew well how hard he was working to lead the Incheon branch, so he couldn’t refuse when he came at him like this.

“I understand. When do I depart?”

“Thank you. They’ll come to pick you up in a week. The briefing will be held there.”

“That’s tight. Alright.”

The branch manager stopped Euichan, who was nodding and about to leave.

“Wait a moment.”

“Is there something more you want to say?”

“You’re not going alone. You have a colleague. I’ve called her, so she should be here soon.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than a knock was heard, and the door opened.

A woman with reddish-brown pigtails came in and gave a brief salute.

“Greetings! Hunter Choi Sangah, reporting in response to the summons.”

There was no need to use ‘Grasp.’

He could tell as soon as he saw her.

Bang!

Euichan couldn’t hold back and slammed the branch manager’s desk.

The branch manager and the woman both flinched in surprise.

Although there was a difference in title between the branch manager and his member, Euichan’s experience and performance were higher than the branch manager’s, so this action was possible.

“Are you out of your mind? Sending a rookie abroad?”

“C-Calm down, Euichan. I told you, there’s a severe shortage of manpower.”

“Even if we’re short on manpower!”

The branch manager was sweating profusely and waving his hands.

It was an unexpected person who stopped Euichan.

“J-Junior!”

“Excuse me, senior!”

“…Excuse me?”

Euichan’s eyebrows twitched.

“Ah, sorry. Ahem, anyway, senior! It’s true that I’m a rookie, but I think Branch Manager made the right decision to dispatch me on this mission!”

“…Good grief, another unique rookie has joined us. What’s your basis for saying that?”

“Because…”

Saying only that much, Euichan used ‘Grasp’ to examine the woman.

Euichan’s eyes widened slightly.

I see.

So that’s why she’s so confident.

“…Target Explosion, huh? That’s considerable.”

The woman’s ability was Explosion.

Her grade was S. It was an ability and destructive power that only a very small portion of hunters possessed.

But,

“Tsk.”

Euichan clicked his tongue.

He had seen countless hunters who died because they only trusted their abilities.

There was a high possibility that this woman would become like that too.

“Branch manager, you’re not thinking of backing out, are you?”

“Haha, we’re short on manpower, you know.”

“I have no choice then. Hey, you.”

The woman, who had been flustered when her ability was revealed before she even spoke, was startled by Euichan’s call and answered ‘Yes sir!’

“Follow me. I’ll teach you the basic mindset of a hunter.”

And so, Euichan spent a week trying to teach the pigtail woman, Choi Sangah, the mindset and basics of a hunter.

To put it bluntly, it was useless.

Despite being pushed hard all week, Choi Sangah was the same as the day he first met her.

“Did you say you two were Korean?”

Euichan’s thoughts were cut off by Joseph’s question.

Instead of Euichan, Sangah answered “Yes!”

Her pronunciation was fluent.

Well, it’s rare to find a hunter who can’t speak English these days.

“When I think of Koreans, that rumor comes to mind.”

“Rumor?”

“The Black Fox, I mean.”

Joseph said that and smiled.

The Black Fox.

A rumor of unknown origin that had been circulating for several months.

The story was that an unidentified human who wasn’t registered as a hunter would appear in various countries and slaughter powerful demons with a single sword.

Moreover, judging by her appearance, she was presumed to be a young girl.

She always wore a black fox mask and spoke Korean, so she was called the Black Fox of Korea.

Of course,

“It’s just a rumor.”

It couldn’t be real.

Just hearing the rumors, she doesn’t even wear protective gear, and the demons all split apart and die just by waving her sword around, but even though it’s just a rumor, it’s so absurd that no one believes it.

There were some who claimed to have witnessed it, or who genuinely believed it, but that was probably a kind of religion.

In a desperate situation, it was a fantasy and urban legend created by the desire to believe that some divine being had sided with humanity.

The Black Fox is nothing more than a superstition.

“Well, I think so too. But these stories are fun, right?”

“Not at all.”

“Oh, brother. Don’t live life so harshly.”

When Euichan didn’t answer, Joseph soon closed his mouth.

After a moment of silence, the car arrived at its destination.

As they took out their equipment and got out of the car one by one, they saw a majestic iron wall, barbed wire, and a ‘barrier’ right in front of them.

Beyond that, a lowland plain spread out.

An unknown area where unknown dangers might be lurking.

Joseph approached the barrier between the walls and the hunters guarding the entrance to undergo identification procedures.

Currently, Joseph was the nominal leader of the team.

“Let’s go in as a group. Always keep the radio on. If you find anything suspicious during the search, report it. Well, take care of the appropriate ones on your own.”

A burst of laughter erupted as Joseph shrugged his shoulders.

Everyone gathered here, except for Choi Sangah, was a veteran among veterans.

“Let’s go.”

As they scattered in different directions, Joseph lightly said goodbye.

Euichan and Sangah lightly reciprocated and headed towards the inside of Zhezqazghan, an unexplored area where extermination had not yet been completed.