How To Survive as a Class a Hunter

43. A-rank Hunter Nguyen – [1]

This month, they couldn’t proceed with the Incheon recapture project.

It wasn’t because they were lazy. Recently, gates had been opening too frequently, so they had to be on standby 24 hours a day and dispatch whenever something happened.

They already knew the culprit behind this tiring situation. That damn Behemoth.

Sung Moon-young grumbled inside the helicopter carrying them.

“When is that Behemoth b*stard going to leave?”

Behemoth had approached close to Seoul early on, and its advance was halted due to Kang Joon-chi’s move to Seoul.

However, Behemoth had not yet returned the way it came or changed direction to head elsewhere.

Behemoth remained stationary at that point near Seoul. Perhaps the giant monster was hoping that if it waited, Kang Joon-chi might leave that spot.

If Kang Joon-chi held out like this, Behemoth would eventually leave, but no one knew when that would be.

And the problem was, Behemoth wasn’t traveling alone.

The movement of Behemoth is always accompanied by tens of thousands of monsters. To be precise, the monsters follow Behemoth on their own accord, as they can gain immense benefits just by sticking close to it.

So, when Behemoth, a rock spirit with a body length of 400 meters, appears in reality, a tidal wave of monsters follows, taking advantage of the chaos created by the giant monster through the massive gate it generates.

The monsters that break away from this tidal wave are attacking Korea. They probably have no patience and can’t resist the sight of humans to hunt nearby, causing massive damage.

In the midst of this, not only Seoul but also Incheon, which is close to Seoul, was suffering damage.

In both Seoul and Incheon, gates opened frequently, leaving no time to rest.

Recently, gates have been opening for four consecutive days, requiring deployment for four consecutive days. Even though we had already been deployed in the morning, another gate opened in the evening. So, we are heading to the scene.

“We’ve been deployed for four days straight, right? No one would have blamed you if you had taken a break this time…”

At Seong Mun-yeong’s words, I said,

“No. I need to keep hunting without rest to raise the floor of my apartment.”

“But you said you already saved up all the money…”

I almost scolded the guy who kept complaining. After all, it’s unreasonable to expect a non-awakened person to keep up with the pace of an awakened one.

“Is it that hard? If so, I feel a bit sorry.”

“No, it’s not that I’m having a hard time. The problem is that you’re the one suffering. Every time we deploy, you have to take down more than half of the monsters by yourself…”

While Seong Mun-yeong mumbled, I heard Lee Jong-ho’s groan.

“Ah, we must be there…”

I could also tell. The various emotions flowing from the gate started to cloud my mind.

However, unlike the first time I experienced this phenomenon, it was bearable this time. Probably because I had grown significantly spiritually by hunting many monsters since that day.

Thanks to that, I had the leisure to grasp the situation below while spreading my mental net from inside the helicopter.

The situations unfolding within a radius of about 2 km were transmitted to my mind. With my head throbbing, I desperately tried to absorb the information…

Having successfully organized all the information in my mind, I opened my mouth.

“I’ll go first.”

By now, everyone was accustomed to my solo actions, and no one protested. Jang Byeong-gon quickly said,

“I’ll report our position once we land and settle!”

I nodded and prepared for the hunt.

I took a shooting stance with my hunter rifle on top of the helicopter. I set the control lever to burst fire and placed my finger on the trigger.

And as I pulled the trigger, I teleported. To where?

To the most urgent place I had identified earlier, the side of the Deathclaw that was about to attack a family.

My view changed. I saw the Deathclaw and a trembling family.

“Ah—”

Since I had already pulled the trigger before teleporting, the bullet was fired as soon as I finished teleporting.

The 30mm autocannon shells spewed from the muzzle, tearing apart two Deathclaws in quick succession.

Since it was set to automatic fire, the bullets continued to pour out of the muzzle, but I didn’t release the pressure on the trigger. There was no need to.

I had no intention of wasting bullets either.

“Oh, ah? Kim Geuk Heon—”

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the luxury to shout “Incheon Manse” to the man who recognized me.

I teleported to the location I had pre-identified.

As my view changed, I saw a group of Manticores closing in on some police officers, narrowing the distance stealthily. The bullets that were already being fired flew towards those lion-like monsters.

The sound of flesh bursting echoed ahead.

Before I could confirm the death of those fake lions, I was already scouting the next location to teleport to.

“Oh? Oh!”

The police officers, who had narrowly escaped death, seemed terrified, but I didn’t have the luxury to wave at them either.

After about four seconds, I lowered the muzzle and teleported again.

I landed on the rooftop of an eight-story building.

Bullets were still pouring out of the muzzle that was previously aimed downward, allowing me to immediately shower the Deathclaws climbing the building walls with autocannon shells without any delay.

As the shattered bodies of the Deathclaws fell, I teleported again to another critical location I had previously identified.

I didn’t give the monsters I encountered there any chance to resist and showered them with bullets…

In this manner, I teleported eleven times in less than a minute. I eliminated all the monsters caught in my net and saved the people who were about to become their meals.

It was a skill I had acquired after experiencing Kang Joon-chi’s hallucination. The ability to teleport repeatedly and accurately to locations outside my line of sight.

And after doing this, I would almost always reach a state where I felt like I was about to collapse and die.

This time was no different. The dizziness was so severe that I could barely distinguish objects.

I was gasping for breath, leaning against a wall.

I heard Seong Moon-young’s voice from the walkie-talkie on my chest.

“Hyung, we’ve secured our position! We’re currently at—”

Although it was not a situation where I could teleport, I struggled to teleport there somehow.

After failing twice, I finally succeeded on the third attempt.

I teleported into the midst of my hunter team.

As soon as I finished this teleportation, my body wobbled, and I almost collapsed. I struggled to hold onto my consciousness.

I couldn’t afford to collapse like this. The hunt was still ongoing.

However, despite my mental strength, my whole body was unbearably hot.

It was the rise in body temperature due to the overuse of my abilities and the resulting nervous system overload, something I had experienced just once a few days ago.

In this state, even my super-regeneration ability won’t work. If this continues, I will truly die.

Even the day was so hot that I felt like I might collapse at any moment. I looked at my round girl (I couldn’t be sure if I was looking at her correctly, as she seemed to have multiplied into four) and mouthed words.

“I need that… quickly…” I wanted to say, but no words came out of my mouth.

Fortunately, Baek Dambi understood what I meant and was already prepared. She hurriedly approached and placed her palm on my back.

And then, ah…

Something cold flowed from her palm, down my spine, and spread throughout my body. My body temperature, which had risen to the point where all my proteins were denaturing, began to drop rapidly.

I think I might survive.

As my overheated nervous system returned to a normal temperature, my super-regeneration ability was also restored. As my cooked brain cells began to regenerate one by one, I finally regained my senses.

I could barely make out Baek Dambi’s voice, which I hadn’t been able to hear properly until now. She was asking worriedly.

“Are you okay?”

My voice also returned.

“Thanks to you. And I just used up all my ammo…”

As I mumbled and glanced to the side, everyone was already on the same page. Before I even said anything, Lee Jong-ho and Sung Moon-young were lifting my 55kg hunter rifle while Jung Jin-young was changing the magazine.

As I lifted the hunter rifle with one hand after the magazine was replaced, Lee Jong-ho let out an exclamation of amazement.

“Oh…”

Im Hyung-taek asked.

“Mr. Kim Geuk? You looked like you were in bad shape, almost dying a few days ago. So, how is it? Did you kill them all?”

I nodded.

“All the ones that were out here.”

Im Hyung-taek widened his eyes in surprise at his own question.

Sung Moon-young clicked his tongue.

“Wow, that’s amazing… Hyung, quickly renew the contract with Incheon City. Everyone on HuntWeb is saying you contracted too cheaply.”

While enjoying the reactions and praises of my team members for my performance, I tried my best not to think about anything.

I was trying to rest my brain and nervous system.

It was a rest in preparation for the next battle.

According to the previous report, what had just occurred was a large gate. And from a large gate, a giant monster usually emerges.

That thing hadn’t shown itself yet. When it does, I have to hunt it.

I didn’t get to rest for long. A familiar voice echoed from the radio.

“It’s a giant monster! It’s as big as a bus! We’re luring it towards the main road, but it’s moving too fast to pinpoint its exact location!”

It was Naito-san. He had arrived at the scene almost at the same time as us by helicopter and seemed to have been searching for the gate’s location alone. It looked like he had encountered the giant monster.

I still endured the throbbing headache and spread out my mental net.

And when I teleported, despite having already grasped the situation through the net, I was surprised again.

The bike’s exhaust noise roared loudly. And the sound of the ground shaking.

The ground shook as if there was an earthquake, and the heavy thumping sound echoed in a fast rhythm that didn’t match the sound.

I saw two fast things running on the road ahead.

Naito-san was riding his usual silver bike. It seemed to be running at almost maximum speed. To lure the chasing monster, he was heading towards the road with the least people…

Following behind Naito-san, I saw a house-sized monster fiercely chasing the unbelievably fast bike.

It wasn’t just a common expression; it was really the size of a house. It would be about the size of a large bus.

I couldn’t see exactly what the large monster looked like because it was running too fast.

I doubted my eyes. How could such an unbelievably huge thing run at a speed that only left afterimages?

Of course, I had to do my job first.

When I pulled the trigger, there was a rattling sound.

The golden line that burst out from my hunter rifle hit the giant body of the monster without missing a single shot, despite its incredibly fast speed.

Far beyond, I saw blood and flesh splattering from the monster’s rear.

Only then did the large monster stop. The sudden stop caused a huge cloud of dust to rise, and beyond the dust, Naito-san’s voice echoed. It was a reaction as if he had met a savior.

“Kim Geuk-ssi!”

But I had no time to care about the reaction of that non-awakened trash.

From within the thick cloud of dust, the large monster’s head emerged.

How should I describe that thing? A boar with its ears, nose, and tusks all torn off, its face crushed?

It just looked horribly ugly and ferocious, and in the meantime, it had no fur on its body, so its entire muscular body was clearly visible. The giant quadrupedal monster looked at me.

The large monster kicked the ground and ran towards me.

Its speed was incredibly fast. It was just chillingly, almost surreally fast.

I had no choice but to teleport.

*