Chapter 164 : The Hunter

With one hand in his pocket, Ho-cheol looked at the hunter holding the toy arrow.

The atmosphere, the gaze, the posture, even the breathing.

Everything exuded the characteristic aura of a strong person.

Except that the weapon he was holding was a toy bow, which completely broke the mood.

Of course, he was still an S-rank.

But since it was the first time he had met such a strong person who was a hunter, not a hero or a villain, he was quite intrigued.

“Well, the so-called S-rank. No, that’s not it. Hunters are classified by numbers, they said. Is he a 1st-class hunter? It's my first time seeing one in person.”

Outside, a 1st-class hunter was rarer than an S-rank hero.

Ho-cheol muttered, feeling as if he had seen a rare animal on the street.

“Well, at least he looks like a normal person.”

I thought they would all be monsters from fighting monsters all the time.

Well, Se-ah was also a semi-1st-class, she said.

Whether he was naturally taciturn, or if he had a principle of not talking to his prey, the hunter did not answer the taunt.

Instead, he raised the toy arrow and aimed it at Ho-cheol.

The series of movements, from raising the bow, nocking the arrow on the string, aiming, and firing, was so fast and natural.

The linkage that followed in that fleeting moment was so quick that even Ho-cheol was slow to react.

Sweeeek—

In a short gap that couldn't even be called an opening, the arrow flew at Ho-cheol's forehead.

And that attack had a power that was unbecoming of the expression ‘toy.’

Ho-cheol hurriedly swung his sword and cut down the fired toy arrow.

But the arrow, split in half, did not lose its power and pierced through the lobby wall, creating two large holes.

Ho-cheol let out a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded.

“He's better than most S-ranks.”

He wasn't just impressed by the power of the arrow.

That much power could be shown by an S-rank hero or villain who specialized in bows.

But the purity of his strength, so to speak, its density was clearly different from that of the heroes or villains outside.

By receiving the opponent's attack, he could gauge their essence to some extent.

Was it a level built up through overwhelming talent and power like Eclipse?

Or was it an achievement built up through an effort that an ordinary person could not even imagine, like the Sword Demon?

Or was it a fraudulent strength, achieved through impure methods like Ji-an?

The archer in front of him was the same case as the Sword Demon.

He pursued only pure strength.

The title of hunter was just a byproduct that followed that strength.

This kind of opponent is tricky to fight.

“This is a problem.”

Of course, the hunter from Black Oskopf was more surprised than Ho-cheol.

No, he was flustered.

“To think he could block that. He's not just a simple prey.”

The reason he had brought a toy bow was not particularly to look down on Ho-cheol.

The regulations within the Battleground were like that.

Within a certain range of the five major corporations' headquarters, the armaments of 1st-class hunters and above were strictly prohibited.

Because if they unleashed their full power, it would be no problem for them to destroy a couple of buildings.

And since the five major corporations had also made the rule, they couldn't just act as they pleased.

“This won’t be enough. From now on, I will not see you as prey, but as an equal enemy.”

The archer ignored the regulation and threw away the toy bow.

The mechanical device on his wrist unfolded and transformed into a large bow.

It was not a situation that could be resolved with a toy weapon.

Of course, he would have to bear a considerable penalty for violating the regulation, but not being able to defeat the intruder here was a bigger problem.

He didn't need an arrow.

The moment he drew the bowstring, things like threads gathered from the bow to his fingertips and soon took the shape of an arrow.

He shot an arrow at Ho-cheol again.

Ho-cheol lightly parried the incoming arrow and asked.

“It looks much weaker than before. Is this right?”

“Yes. I focused on rotation, not speed.”

At the same time, the parried arrow spun like a top and flew at Ho-cheol again.

“What the hell.”

For a moment, Ho-cheol was flustered and ducked his body low.

The arrow narrowly grazed his hair.

He was dumbfounded that it wasn't a Manipulation-type Trait, but pure rotation.

To think an arrow would fly back just because he gave it some spin.

Ho-cheol clicked his tongue and grumbled.

“Refrain from cheating, will you?”

“It’s not cheating, it’s a skill.”

“Of course it is.”

The archer replied lightly.

When he drew the bowstring again, this time, three arrows were created simultaneously.

Pisyuk—

“You think I’ll fall for it again?”

Ho-cheol nervously re-gripped his sword.

If it was an arrow that would fly back even if he parried it, he just had to completely erase it from the beginning.

If it could fly back even if he turned it to dust, then let it try.

But he could not swing his sword.

Because the three arrows that had been flying halfway had disappeared simultaneously.

What is this now?

The bewilderment was fleeting, and Ho-cheol quickly focused his senses and looked for the arrow.

If it was simple invisibility, it wouldn't be hard to find…

“It really disappeared.”

It wasn't just visually gone.

He couldn't even feel the characteristic sound of an arrow cutting through the air or the slight tremor of the air.

Sight, hearing, touch.

An absurd stealth that hid all the most important senses in battle.

And a few seconds later, the disappeared arrow aimed for Ho-cheol's shoulder.

No matter how perfectly it hid, at the moment of attack, it was impossible to hide even the sensation of it touching the body.

Ho-cheol, feeling the arrow on his shoulder, twisted his body and dodged it.

His clothes were torn, but he had perfectly dodged the other two arrows as well.

“This won’t do. That skill is dangerous.”

His voice contained a seriousness that had not been there until just now.

In any case, his goal wasn't to beat them all up, and the key was to cause a rampage and buy time, but still, that was not it.

The archer didn't know what was important, but if he were to aim only for the mask, it would be difficult for even Ho-cheol to protect it perfectly.

“Shall we wrap this up now?”

Ho-cheol lowered his body and flew at the archer.

The archer did not panic and stepped back, simultaneously firing an arrow.

The arrow, meant to block Ho-cheol's rush, was loaded with great power, but a linear attack was not enough to stop Ho-cheol.

He clicked his tongue and this time, fired four arrows simultaneously.

The arrows that flew in from the four directions of up, down, left, and right, were slightly out of sync.

It was a fatal opening that Ho-cheol could easily parry, and while parrying it, he would have been able to grab the archer at the same time.

However.

Kwaaang—

Instead of swinging his sword, Ho-cheol stomped his foot hard and stopped his body.

At the same time, he turned his body back and swung his sword at the empty air.

The sword that had cut through the empty air.

A strong gust of wind swirled around him.

And just one metre outside the trajectory of his sword, a person appeared.

The transparent film disappeared, and a man appeared.

“No, how did he know?”

As he swept his blue hair back with a gloved hand, his hair momentarily turned transparent and then returned to normal.

“I had completely erased my presence.”

He muttered with a displeased expression.

Honestly, it was beyond flustering.

He was a 1st-class hunter from Black Oskopf, just like the archer, and a hunter specializing in surprise attacks.

It was a surprise attack that would have worked even on a monster with senses that were incomparable to a human's, and even a sixth sense.

Yet Ho-cheol nonchalantly placed his purple sword on his shoulder and answered.

“A gut feeling.”

Of course, it wasn't 100% a gut feeling.

It was just that the guy who had been shooting his bow perfectly until now had shown a clumsy mistake with an opening that was so obviously easy to block, which was suspicious.

And his attacks had always been in a form that blatantly excluded the back.

His intention must have been to focus his attacks only on the front to induce carelessness in the back.

Unless it was a detection type, a mediocre S-rank hero or villain would have no choice but to allow a fatal blow.

No, in the first place, if detection was his main, would he have been pushed back in output by the archer?

“Are you 1st-class too? Your fighting style is definitely of a kind that is specialized in catching strong beasts rather than people. I can understand why you introduce yourself as a hunter.”

At that answer, the young man, who had a dumbfounded expression for a moment, turned his head to the side and said to the archer.

“……This guy, he’s more of a beast than the monsters in the gates. Hyung-nim, I think we bit off more than we can chew. Can’t we just run?”

But the archer still said calmly.

“The contract also includes a treaty of maintaining faith. Here, we must do our best to eliminate the enemies of Black Oskopf.”

“Good grief, I'm going to die because of faith.”

Even as he said that, the young man clenched his fists as if to fight Ho-cheol right away.

At that sight, Ho-cheol let out a sigh.

In fact, for Ho-cheol, it was especially difficult to fight against guys who were ambiguously strong like them.

The line is stronger than them, the young dean, Eclipse or the Sword Demon.

If it were these people, they would survive well on their own even if he fought them with all his might, using his Trait.

But these guys might actually die if he attacked them with all his might, so that was what was difficult.

He shouldn't kill them, of course, and this time, unlike usual, there was the added condition that the mask should not fall off.

If he were to approach and aim only for the archer like before, the invisible man wouldn't just stand by.

“The difficulty is considerable. Good grief. Being a terrorist isn't easy either.”

Even as he grumbled, Ho-cheol under the mask was strangely smiling.

“Let's give it a try.”

While Ho-cheol was fighting with the two hunters in the lobby, the dark hero who had been commissioned by Ho-cheol was busy making a map of the inside of Black Oskopf.

The strict surveillance and guards at the entrance had been mostly neutralized by Ho-cheol, and none of the surveillance facilities inside were working properly due to the earthquake.

The earthquake had not caused a major shock to the building itself, but it had destroyed all the delicate electrical facilities and circuits.

Most importantly, with two 1st-class hunters fighting in the lobby right now, who would care about the basement?

Thanks to that, she was able to wander around the inside leisurely like an employee even without her Trait.

As she was making the map, she activated her Trait again and hid behind a wall.

In an office, she found the traitor Ho-cheol had mentioned, the ‘Doctor.’

He was 10 years older than the composite sketch Ho-cheol had given her, but the traces were clearly there.

She carefully moved and entered the office.

Separate from the fact that her presence was erased by her Trait, the Doctor was so completely engrossed in something else that he didn't even notice the door had opened.

“Damn it! Damn it! Why did things turn out like this!”

Cursing repeatedly, the Doctor opened a suitcase.

He was stuffing important luggage into it indiscriminately.

He was the only one in Black Oskopf who understood the full story of the series of events that had occurred today.

The terrorist's appearance, a plain white mask with no features.

And on his chest, a crumpled chrysanthemum-shaped brooch.

There was no way he wouldn't know it.

Because it was the organization he had infiltrated under the mission given by the New World Trait Liberation Society in the past.

In the first place, the Society had always planted a spy in any villain organization that dabbled in the monster industry.

He had just been one of the many spies who had infiltrated numerous villain organizations.

It just happened to be Ho-cheol's organization.

Of course, he knew that there were strict sanctions against traitors.

But the organization had been destroyed, and Ho-cheol had disappeared.

He had never even thought of revenge, but now, after almost 10 years, the organization had returned.

He didn't know if the terrorist who had rampaged in the lobby today was the boss, Jeong Ho-cheol, or one of his subordinates, but it didn't matter.

And even if the terrorists were caught by Black Oskopf, this was not the end.

He had seen it several times in Ho-cheol's organization.

A traitor must be punished, no matter what sacrifices and losses are incurred.

Even if the organization were to falter due to that revenge, that too was just part of the process of revenge.

The organization did not forgive traitors that much.

And the only traitor they would be looking for in Black Oskopf was him.

Transcendence was good, and success was good, but the most important thing was his own life.

And in a situation where he would surely die if he stayed with Black Oskopf, he had no intention of staying here.

Let’s run.

He had decided from the moment he had heard about the first terror attack.

He had only come to Black Oskopf because he had some information, but if he went out of the Battleground and hid in a foreign country, even the organization wouldn't be able to find him.

After he had finished packing his suitcase, he put on a brown overcoat instead of a white doctor's coat.

The Doctor, with a bucket hat pulled down deep, left the office.

But he had no idea that someone who had been standing behind him while he was packing had secretly placed a tracking device in his bag.