How To Survive as a Class a Hunter

25. B-Class Hunter Naito-san – [2]

Maybe because I was too shocked, my heartbeat still hadn’t calmed down.

I thought we could continue the monster massacre without any problems with so many hunters, but that wasn’t the case. Someone almost died already.

If we hadn’t deliberately placed Baek Dambi in the most exposed part of the encirclement, a hunter would have been bleeding profusely from the neck and died from the start. I knew the hunter’s job was dangerous, but I realized it anew.

It’s impossible to just stand around acting as a radar like this. For the sake of those fragile non-awakened ones, and for my mental health.

“Alright, did you load all the bodies onto the truck? Then let’s move again!”

After moving together and locating another group of monsters, the hunters once again formed an encirclement around a villa.

And this time, I didn’t just watch from behind.

I observed the situation from the rooftop of the building across the street.

“Throw!”

Once again, smoke billowed from inside the building. And once again, Deathclaws emerged from unexpected locations to ambush the hunters.

There was one with exceptional jumping ability here as well. It burst through the third-floor wall and leaped towards a hunter. The speed of its leap was so fast that even I, a former martial artist, struggled to react.

If I hadn’t spread a mental net in advance, if that net hadn’t sensitively detected its movement, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything.

“Uh…”

Before its claws could reach the unfortunate hunter’s neck, my hunter rifle roared. ‘Bang!’

And the Deathclaw that was about to pounce on the hunter shattered in mid-air and was flung far away. Amidst the splattering blood and flesh in the air, I also shot another Deathclaw that had emerged.

Another area was cleared.

“Wow, I almost died…”

The hunter who had just escaped death made a casual remark, while Naito’s reaction was even more intense.

“Wow, did you get that on camera? Did you? Great. Everyone? Did you see those two Deathclaws getting shredded one after another? They were killed by the machine gun bullets of the hunter rifle! So, Mr. Kim Geuk shot and hit them!

Hunter Kim Geuk, can you see him waiting on the rooftop of the four-story villa over there? He was originally supposed to just play a backup role from behind, but he was so passionate. He took position saying he’d provide support fire and immediately showed his skills!

Do you all know that during the large-scale gate incident in Incheon, nearly a hundred Deathclaws poured out, and Mr. Kim Geuk single-handedly shot and killed almost seventy percent of them? Considering there were over three hundred hunters on the scene, that’s an unbelievable number, but seeing his skills now, it makes perfect sense!”

I couldn’t help but think how thick-skinned he was. Even though I had yelled at him to get lost earlier, he kept saying nice things about me on the broadcast.

The sweep operation continued like this. After hunting another group of Deathclaws, we were moving to the next area.

“Hunter Kim Geuk? Where are you now? Does it seem like there are no monsters nearby? Then please stop there for a moment…”

At the sudden call from a government official, all the hunters stopped. While I was waiting, not knowing what was going on, two vans approached and stopped.

The people who got out of the vans were government officials. They brought something with them, and the hunters exclaimed when they saw it.

“Chicken and pizza!”

Five years ago, you could eat as much as you wanted if you felt like it, but nowadays, you can only eat it on special occasions. Even pizza was so rare that I didn’t even know you could still get it in Incheon.

You could tell how precious the food was just by the intense reactions of the high-income hunters. They were all asking if it was for us to eat, if they could eat it now, making a lot of noise.

“I heard meal time was at 1 PM? It’s still 12 PM, so why did they bring the food already?”

When I asked, one of the officials explained.

“The originally prepared meal is separate, but this is from the nearby residents.”

“From the nearby residents?”

“While we were preparing the meal, a representative of the residents came and said they had prepared it for the hunters conducting the operation. Everyone can gather for a photo and then eat!”

This project had already been promoted in various ways, so it seemed the nearby residents had been eagerly awaiting this operation. Many residents were looking forward to the operation, and upon hearing that it was going smoothly, they excitedly prepared this gift.

Everyone exclaimed in admiration and started devouring the prepared food. The officials captured them in photos with smiles on their faces.

“Alright, Hunter Kim Geuk, you get the drumstick! Pick the best-looking one for the photo…”

“Got it. But looking at this, it must have cost a lot, so we should stop this from tomorrow. Otherwise, it might become a bad habit for the residents near the hunters’ operations to provide meals.”

I muttered arrogantly while closing and opening my eyes slowly.

A corner of my heart was itching like crazy. My goodness, such a surprise attack?

Contrary to what I originally thought, I couldn’t massacre the monsters alone. With the annoying foreign non-awakened ones mixed in, I didn’t expect such an event to happen when I was already in a bad mood.

Although it’s all about making money, in such situations, I naturally feel a sense of duty and get emotional. This feeling filling up inside me was really hard to bear.

Really, long live Incheon.

*

The operation resumed after the meal.

Even I, boasting perfect shooting skills from the safest place, couldn’t let my guard down. The tension that if I missed, someone would die to the monster, dominated my thoughts.

I understood why the academy instructor repeatedly emphasized not to spend time aiming, and why they taught to shoot as soon as you spot the enemy, whether aiming or shooting from the hip.

I’ve never hunted bears or deer myself, but you shouldn’t try to kill monsters with the feeling of hunting such animals.

If you let the monsters approach thinking, ‘I can hit them better if they get closer,’ you’ll die. They can close the distance in the blink of an eye and slash your neck or abdomen with their long hook-like claws.

“Still, the ones we saw today, their athletic abilities are too superior, right? I’ve seen a few Deathclaws, but the ones we hunted today seemed particularly crazy. They were all too fast and jumped too far.”

“That’s because they’ve already eaten several people and grown. In RPG terms, they’ve leveled up quite a bit.”

“Do we get more money for catching such ones?”

“Who knows? Anyway, it’s not just these guys that are special. You know all the monsters have been steadily getting stronger since the gate opened, right? The monsters from a year ago and the ones now are on a completely different level…”

While the hunters were discussing, Jang Byung-gon, who was considered a veteran, claimed that some of the ones we hunted today seemed to have awakened the exoskeleton barrier ability.

Although the barrier’s sturdiness was only at a level that could be pierced by a rifle, not enough to be classified as a barrier type, there were a few individuals whose athletic ability and jumping power were noticeably superior. Most of the ones I felt were dangerous and shot to death seemed to be those kinds.

“Anyway, everyone is indebted. Here, have some Pocari…”

“Thank you.”

As I handed over the drink, Jang Byung-gon waved his hand.

“Oh, don’t say thank you. I’d die of embarrassment if I didn’t do at least this.”

“Die of embarrassment?”

“Kim Geuk, do you know what they call non-awakened hunters who follow awakened ones on Huntweb?”

“Well…”

“Porters. Self-proclaimed awakened ones call non-awakened hunters porters. Basically, hunters who follow awakened ones are all called porters. It means they do nothing but carry luggage. What we’re doing today is exactly at that level.”

“So, do you feel self-loathing and bad?”

“No, it’s great. I didn’t know when I would die working in Seoul either, but this is so good and I’m grateful. Thank you so much for taking us along, Kim Geuk!”

Meanwhile, it seemed that all the non-awakened members of our team felt guilty for doing nothing.

Not only me, but Baek Dambi, who also played her part in today’s encirclement, became the subject of praise.

“Dambi noona, you were amazing today! Even after getting your neck cut, you were so calm…”

It was surprising to see even Sung Moon-young, who initially disliked Baek Dambi, flattering her like that.

I also added a word casually.

“Well, guiding the Deathclaw attack today was almost like saving a life.”

At our praise, Baek Dambi nodded slowly with an expressionless face, but I saw her cheek twitch slightly.

I thought about teasing her for it but decided against it.