The First Hunter Chapter 11: The Lawless City (1)

< Chapter 11. The Lawless City (1). >

1.

It was Jang Sunghoon’s idea.

“The new people would already know what your character is like. They can’t be unaware. It takes a long time to see if a person has a good personality, but it doesn’t take more than ten seconds to see a bad temper, right?”

He said they needed to show the new members of the clan something.

“But the new people do not know what kind of person you are. To them, being an awakened is something vague. Even the expression ‘awakened’ was invented by you.”

The new world was only allowing the ones to live who won the fight against the monsters.

He needed to show the others what kind of people the awakened were since they were the ones fighting the monsters with their bare hands.

“So you have to show them. What a great monster you are.”

That they needed to know how terrifying Kim Taehoon could be as an awakened.

“If they see you as an awakened, they will finish their calculation inside their brains. How to act in front of a bad-tempered monster boss. They wouldn’t act out, at least in front of you.”

Kim Taehoon accepted Jang Sunghoon’s idea, so he decided to stand in front of the monsters with only a knife, nothing else.

And then show them.

What the battle was like between one monster and another.

How terrifying a monster he is.

2.

When Kim Taehoon and Bhang Hyunwook approached the monsters, the original members of the Maek Clan got hyped. For the colleagues, the fellow soldiers, the boss was willing to fight against a monster!

On the other hand, the new members of the clan had a lot of fear in their eyes.

‘Jesus, what is that crazy shit?’

‘The monsters are still alive! But why?’

To the new members who had already seen many people get eaten by the monsters, the behavior of Bhang Hyunwook and Kim Taehoon was suicidal.

But to Kim Taehoon and Bhang Hyunwook, those horned boars were just little pricks.

‘Got a show all of sudden.’

The boars had multiple bullet wounds in their bodies and were already injured from the crash with the SUVs. They were only standing on their feet because they were monsters, but it couldn’t be denied that they had critical injuries.

The boars were not much different from corpses anyway since they would die as time went on.

Compared to the other monsters that were completely insane when full of energy, the boars were rather a joke.

Above everything else, Kim Taehoon’s abilities were already pretty overwhelming.

[Basic abilities]

- Strength: 76

- Stamina: 51

[Special abilities]

- Energy:  E+

- Magic: E+

- Telekinesis: A

- Defense: E

- Magic resistance: E+

[Acquired abilities]

Howling (level 6): The ability of the Werewolf. Makes the enemies frightened with the howling, and makes your allies braver.

His Strength stat was already at 76 points by consuming all the monopolized monster stones.

He was above humanity’s strength level.  Well over an Olympic medalists’ level and their maximum physical abilities even with doping.

Literally a superhuman.

Kim Taehoon also possessed the four abilities of the monsters starting with [Dark Skin] to [Howling].

It was already decided who was going to be the predator in this battle.

Kwwwwaaaaak!

So Kim Taehoon did not take very long against this squeaky-sounding horned boar.

The moment a grunting boar rushed towards Kim Taehoon with its horn lowered, Kim Taehoon also ran towards it.

The distance between the boar and Kim Taehoon narrowed instantly until Kim Taehoon could grab its horn and use it as a handle to hop onto the back of the boar as if he were in a rodeo.

Kim Taehoon used the butcher knife he was holding and stabbed it in at the base of the boar’s head.

Stab!

The thick skin and the fat of the boar which was not damaged by bullets were pierced by the butcher knife.

It wasn’t because the knife was a great sword or a relic. The secret was definitely ‘energy’.

Kim Taehoon also figured out how to control his Energy like Bhang Hyunwook.

Not only to enhance the physical ability with the Energy but also to put the power onto the weapon.

But even with that, Kim Taehoon’s knife only penetrated about two inches since his Energy rank wasn’t high enough.

Kwweeek, Kweeeee!

It was enough to annoy the horned boar but wasn’t enough to critically injure the boar.

Kim Taehoon moved to his next action. He focused his power into his right hand, the Black Orc’s power.

His right hand turned black and the color started to spread further up as well. It had only been up to the wrist before but now it was all the way up to the elbow.

Kim Taehoon smashed the handle of the knife with the black fist.

Bang!

Like a hammer to a nail.

Bang!

Every time he hammered his fist the knife went it deeper

Kweeek!

The horned boar’s screaming became more horrifying. It was also resisting and struggling more. It was acting like an angry bull in a rodeo, as the horned boar struggled with the pain.

But the struggle did not affect Kim Taehoon much since he grabbed the horn tight and was well-settled on its back. Whenever the boar tried to resist, Kim Taehoon hammered his fist down.

Bang!

The handle of the knife went it deeper.

Bang!

The blade couldn’t be seen anymore.

Bang!

Now the handle started to disappear.

Kweeeee!

The horrible scream came out of the boar’s mouth as if it felt its death was near.

But Kim Taehoon did not stop. Now he started to punch his fist where the handle of the knife used to be.

Thunk!

The knife went it deeper.

It was then…

Thud!

The horned boar that was struggling so much collapsed on the ground like a puppet without strings.

“Whoa!”

“Huh!”

The crowd who were watching the scene made gasping sounds.

“Haaa! How do you like the metal pipe of the Bucheon high’s Barry Bonds! It’s the same swing that made two home runs in a row!”

People could not focus on Bhang Hyunwook who was just swinging his metal pipe aggressively towards the boars.

They were only focused on Kim Taehoon.

Kim Taehoon plucked out the butcher knife from the boar’s neck while all the other people were watching.

Pssssst!

The warm blood splashed all over the place like a fountain and steam came out like soaring butterflies.

Kim Taehoon put his ears close to the boar’s body in that horrible, yet warm scene.

Pound!

As soon as he found the pounding heart’s location in the boar’s body, Kim Taehoon did not hesitate to stick his knife around the area.

Ssssshhh!

He immediately cut through the flesh and stuck his black hand into the slit.

When he pulled out the hand from the boar’s body, he held a sparkling red gem in his hand.

Kim Taehoon put the gemstone in his mouth and swallowed it.

Gulp!

Everyone who was watching the scene had a dry mouth.

3.

Bucheon Public Wonmi Library.

“Move it carefully, careful! It’s grenades!”

“Yes, sir.”

“Where should we move the water to?”

“Second floor! Water to the second floor!”

Located between the Mountain Wonmi and Bucheon Sports Complex, the public library which should be pretty silent was going through the noisiest day since its founding day.

“We got it all moved, sir.”

“Let’s have a smoke break.”

“Yes.”

There were about fifty people amid the noise. The people of different shapes and sizes were moving the goods into the library from the truck and the cars that were parked in front.

Lieutenant Kim Suji asked a question to Kim Taehoon who was taking a break with his cup of coffee in the mess.

“Major, are you really going to take this place as the base?”

“Is there a problem with that?”

Lieutenant Kim Suji answered right away.

“No, sir.”

Kim Suji did not have any doubts about taking this Wonmi public library as the base.

Rather, in the current situation, this library was a perfect place to be a base.

It was surrounded by mountains and was some distance from the residential areas. It was in a pretty advantageous location.

On top of that, the area had a few factories near Wonmi-dong to get useful tools though it wasn’t like the industrial complex in Ojeong-dong. It wasn’t very hard to get the tools for forging the items they needed.

A library also had lots of advantages. The books and the furniture inside the library would work very well as fuel for the fire since it was wintertime. Not just that, since the internet, the essence of the human knowledge of modern times was gone, the library was the assemblage of the wisdom of humankind.

If humankind had to rebuild from the bottom, this place would have more importance than any gun or sword.

Ahn Sunmi and Jang Sunghoon were already in the process of collecting books that might help their future survival and activities.

Kim Suji had no other reason to oppose the idea of having this place as a base. But Kim Suji had suspicions.

‘Why is Major trying to get a base? I thought he wasn’t thinking about it at least until yesterday?’

Kim Taehoon really did not have a plan to have a base until yesterday. Not even a little bit.

If he had, he wouldn’t have had the whole clan waiting in the Bucheon Sports Complex but instead would have them move to the library and turn it into a base already.

They were not in a boot camp so they didn’t need to stay out in the cold inside the cars.

Kim Suji automatically thought that Kim Taehoon would go to the Bow Museum, get the relics he needed and move somewhere else. It was natural for her to have questions when Kim Taehoon suddenly decided to have a base camp.

But Kim Suji did not ask anything more than that.

She was a soldier, down to the core.

“Lieutenant Kim Suji, when everything gets organized, gather the people at one place. Put the awakened in the front row.”

Kim Taehoon gave her the new order.

“Yes, sir.”

Kim Taehoon took another sip while looking at Lieutenant Kim Suji leaving to implement his command. The strong aroma of the coffee filled his mouth. But Kim Taehoon couldn’t enjoy it at the moment.

The conversation he had last night with Jang Sunghoon lingered inside his mind.

Jang Sunghoon presented his opinion to Kim Taehoon without any hesitation.

“Boss, if you take all the monster stones you will be stronger, but Maek Clan will not. If that is your goal it wouldn’t matter… but you have to let go of something small to achieve something bigger.”

That Kim Taehoon’s actions would make him stronger but not Maek Clan.

“Also it wouldn’t matter if the clan maintains a small size but if it gets bigger, wouldn’t you need ranks? You’d know better since you are a military man. Of course, I’m not suggesting to follow the military rank. That mark on your hand will be the rank in this new world.”

And he would need a ranking system like the military to broaden the strength and influence of the Clan,

To sum up, for Kim Taehoon to have a bigger military influence and power, establishing a new system might be needed.

Kim Taehoon knew better than anyone else about it, actually. He was a secret soldier in third world countries where civil wars and rebels were constantly fighting against each other.

He knew better than any other person how the military was formed and what way was the most effective way to control it.

The reason why he decided to take actions like how he had so far despite all of the above reasons was simple. He didn’t intend to make a military clique.

That was the reason why he used the word Clan in the first place.

If he wanted to make a military system he would have used other words that would imply a bigger size.

The word Clan was not used to represent a group that was socially influential or even in a military.

‘This is not my way of things.’

On top of that, being in the leadership position in the military wasn’t something Kim Taehoon would do anyway.

The leaders of the military had been Kim Taehoon’s target so far.

The higher you went up the rank system the more easily you would be targeted.

But the situation was different now.

‘Since I know what my way would bring I have no choice but to change it.’

He learned that his way would not work. He learned that being a hunting dog would kill him.

There would be only one way left.

‘First, we need to build a base here and then the situation will settle a bit later....’

He wouldn’t be a hunting dog, but the hunter.

‘I should gather more awakened out there who could be my hunting dogs.’

Kim Taehoon could see Lieutenant Kim Suji in his sight. He finished his coffee and stood up.

The monster stones inside his inner pocket gently rubbed against his chest.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Kim Suji came up to Kim Taehoon and spoke to him in a strict proper posture.

“Major, everyone is here.”

Kim Taehoon nodded to her and checked the monster stones near his chest again.

‘It’s best to train the hunting dogs with the meat of the prey.’

Kim Taehoon’s did not have any doubts or worries in his eyes anymore.

But the only thing was, he had a glare in his eyes of a hunter who would do anything to achieve his new goal.

< Chapter 11. The Lawless City (1). > The end.

Chapter end