The First Hunter Chapter 13: Territory Dispute (3)

< Chapter 13. Territory Dispute (3). >

7.

Under the pedestrian overpass.

“Stab! Stab!”

A place where only cars were once allowed had now become a bloody battle zone.

Kwaaaa!

A battle zone between three orcs and nine humans.

“F*ck, why is it so strong..”

“Spear! I need one more spear!”

The battle was rather barbaric since the humans were using sh*tty spears made out of metal pipes and shields made out of car doors.

It was also very desperate.

“Spray! Spray them!! Now!”

Out of desperation, the people who were fighting against the orcs were trying everything they could.

The guy with a car-door shield distracted the orcs by bumping into them like a lineman from football. Guys with helmets sprayed the orcs’ eyes and mouths yellow or black.

“AHHHHH!”

The guy with a spear pulled back and with his full strength struck the spear into the orc’s body. The victory was near for the humans.

Kwa! KWAAAA!

The orc covered with blood had lots of spears stuck in its body like a hedgehog, screamed its pain and loudly struggled against death.

“Almost done!”

The humans were smiling and getting confident that they would win.

Khwa!

Until another orc, this one about a head taller than the others appeared on the overpass.

“On the overpass! On the overpass!”

The sudden appearance of the bigger orc, which was clearly the leader of the orc pack, instantly changed the whole vibe.

The head orc opened up its chest as much as it could then spat out a roar as if it wanted to flip the battle to the other side.

KWAAAAAAA!

Horror instantly swept under the overpass.

“Argg….”

Some people’s legs started to tremble right away.

KWAA!

At the same time, the other orcs, covered with blood, started to fire up their spirits.

The situation changed.

“Get your mind straight!”

“Stay as you are! They are almost dead!”

The humans started to scream out of desperation, but the orc leader on the overpass moved towards the guardrail as if it were laughing at them.

The orc leader was about to throw its gigantic body right into the battle zone.

“HEY!”

With a short shout, something with great speed approached the orc leader from its left.

Kwa?

When the orc leader turned its head, it could only see the head of a large industrial hammer.

BANG!

The hammer smashed the nose of the leader orc then went straight into the orc’s face and skull.

PWAT!

The leader orc’s head was smashed red like a watermelon.

The guy who finished the orc in next to no time, Bhang Hyunwook, told the guys underneath the overpass as he put one leg on the guardrail.

“I’m taking this one.”

Rather than getting mad, the people under the bridge started to regain their fighting spirit.

“Woooa!”

“Get’em! It’s just these left!”

The orcs that were now leaderless started to lose their hostility in their eyes.

The rest of the battle was a piece of cake. The three orcs became dead bodies, and the survivors of the battle let out deep breaths.

That wasn’t enough for few of them, so they took out a cigarette from their pockets and started to smoke.

Bhang Hyunwook turned his head after watching them for a while. He could see Jang Sunghoon looking around the nearby buildings with a map in his hand.

“Hyung.[1]*”

“What’s up.”

“Isn’t it bit dangerous? The buildings around here are not clear yet.”

Bhang Hyunwook looked around as he was speaking. He couldn’t see any white flags on any of the buildings.

“That’s why I brought you.”

“No, I mean… I can put you on my back and run away if anything happens but them under there…”

Jang Sunghoon folded the map he was holding and looked at the people under the overpass who were starting to collect the monster stones.

“You gotta take risks to survive.”

“What if they die?”

“It’s better than doing nothing and dying. They are doing this to survive, right?”

Jang Sunghoon let out a small sigh while looking at the people who were trying their best to survive.

‘The party is growing.’

Party.

That word was used to describe a group of people within the Maek Clan’s territory that hunted the monsters.

‘As I expected.’

Some of the survivors decided to be more proactive in hunting after Kim Taehoon required 40% of their earnings from hunting. They were even more active than when Lee Jinsung was their leader.

There were a few reasons for that.

‘They have to at least show themselves trying after all the information provided.’

Through the Maek Clan, Kim Taehoon taught them his know-how on hunting monsters.

It was the reason why they used sprays, made toxic bombs out of perfume, petroleum, and pesticides, and also were taught what the monsters’ weaknesses were.

On top of that, the Maek Clan was dealing with the orange-eyed monsters, which were stronger than red-eyed ones, and was also dealing with monsters that formed packs.

The remaining monsters in the places where Maek Clan had already passed—where the white flags were—were monsters fleeing from stronger monsters or monsters who were lost and didn’t know where to go. It was a safer hunting environment for the hunting dogs.

Of course, the biggest reason, out of everything, was the 40% rental fee.

‘Anyways, is the armor they are wearing made out of orc leather? It looks well made. I heard that an old leather craftsman makes those leather items for monster stones… I should meet the guy soon.’

After paying the 40% fee, everything else was for the hunting dogs. That included monster stones and corpses. It was up to them to do what they want out of them.

But they wouldn’t waste the remaining booty. They wouldn’t have started the hunt if they were going to.

They hunted because they wanted something out of it. Meaning, they had to connect it with something productive, not just for simple hunting.

‘They do use their brains to survive in this ecosystem made for them.’

As a result, lots of methods had been tried to make the most out of the monster corpses.

An old man who used to make leather dress shoes was now making defensive armor out of monster skins, the labor worker who used to work at factories was forging spears out of construction materials, someone who worked at a car factory was renovating cars into a combat car used to smash monsters.

‘Now it feels more like a human-living place.’

It was also the way humans were able to survive so far.

Bringing out creativity for something better and continuously improving the technology to turn that creativity into reality made humans the ones on top of the food chain.

The same applied to the era of the monsters. For humanity to survive in this era, they had to use the old method they used before to survive as well.

‘As soon as the boss kills that devil snake, the number of parties will explode. Some of them that have some power and are smart enough will try to make their own clans like us.’

But of course, if Kim Taehoon failed to kill that devil snake then everything they had prepared so far would disappear like a mirage.

“Anyway, you keep looking at the map. Are you looking for something?”

“I need to check the monster territories. There’s a higher possibility of a strong monster existing near apartment complexes or residential areas.”

“Brilliant. Only thing I can think about is if Hyungnim can get that devil snake or not.”

If Kim Taehoon failed to kill the devil snake and was killed, only despair would remain in Bucheon. It would only turn into people hurting each other in front of monsters and giving up on hope.

The surviving humans in Bucheon would become self-destructive.

But at this point, Jang Sunghoon did not any doubts, not even a little, that Kim Taehoon would fail the hunt.

“That’s not our worry and we need to get answers.”

That’s why he was here today.

“What we should worry about is what’s going to happen after the boss takes down that monster.”

‘It should definitely be here. The secret storage of Baek Sungtaek. The storage for his smuggled art should be around here.’

It was Jang Sunghoon’s job to prepare for what was next after Kim Taehoon killed that devil snake.

‘Anyway, I can’t see through this map so I can’t do anything. Why isn’t there any map relics? Like a map hack?’

8.

Gulp!

Kim Taehoon took a picture of his right hand after consuming the monster stone.

[Basic ability]

Finally, Strength was at 100.

It was surprising.

‘It’s as fast as when I was taking all the stones by myself.’

‘Jang Sunghoon was right.’

It was thanks to Jang Sunghoon. The system he created made the survivors into hunters.

The hunters hunted the monsters and the more they hunted the stones Kim Taehoon could consume increased. But it wasn’t free, of course.

Kim Taehoon lifted his head.

Circling around Kim Taehoon like a satellite was that terrifying sword, the Sword of the Great General. The movement was very smooth as if the sword were alive and moving on its own accord.

It was the achievement of practicing hard.

‘It’s up to a satisfying state now.’

The potential of telekinesis was limitless. But it didn’t mean that the person who possessed the ability could perform everything it was possible to do.

Like how a Formula One race car was useless to an ordinary person. Like it would not make a child a doctor even if a surgical knife and scissors were given to the child.

The same applied to Kim Taehoon. The value of telekinesis he possessed was limitless but Kim Taehoon’s capability wasn’t.

Although, with training, practice, and actual combat it would open the doors for his potentially limitless ability.

But for now, Kim Taehoon had only a limited amount of time so he did not have time to learn something new.

Instead, he tried to get better at what he was already doing.

Faster, stronger, more accurate!

He practiced being faster and more precise in the movements of the sword that he wanted to utilize with his telekinesis.

‘Cut.’

The moment Kim Taehoon thought about it the Sword of the Great General moved very quickly.

Like an arrow shot from a bow.

The Sword of the Great General was directed toward the tire behind Kim Taehoon and it passed along the top of the tire.

Swish!

With the swishing sound, a piece of the tire was cut and fell on top of a mound of other pieces of tire. The ones on the bottom where thicker than a thumbs and the pieces became thinner as it stacked.

The slice of tire sitting on the top of the little mountain made out of tire pieces was as thin as paper.

Kim Taehoon let out a deep sigh.

Like a steamboat ready to set off.

9.

The devil snake wasn’t very pleased recently.  For a while, it only had cold corpses to eat. It was like torture to have a cold meal under the cold weather. The devil snake had no choice but to deal with it since it didn’t want to move somewhere colder.

Shhshh! Shhshh!

But the devil snake did not want to hold on to it anymore.

It was planning to fill its stomach with something alive today. It wasn’t going to lay its eyes on the pile of the cold dead bodies.

But before that, it crawled to the food table that used to be prepared for it just to check.

And as always, there was a dead body. Alone, just one body.

Chrrrrr!!

The devil snake was furious. Just one body could not make it satisfied!

Chrrr, Chrrrr!

And the corpse smelled disgusting.

Shaaaaa!

The devil snake could easily realize the body was not offered to him as a sacrifice but as a bait with poison in it.

Kyaaaa, kyaaaa!

The devil snake became even more furious, and it seemed like it did not want to keep it to itself.

This was its territory and it was going to show its might. The coldness coming down the stairs was not able to stop the furious devil snake.

The devil snake revealed itself on the subway exit.

KYAAA!

It hadn’t seen the sun for a while, but it was displaying its gigantic figure under the sunlight.

BRRRRR!

At the same time, a giant bus rushed towards the devil snake as if it were welcoming the snake.

Bang!

The bus hit the devil snake, but the bus was smashed like a piece of paper towel with a loud noise.

The devil snake still stood its ground and was only shaken a little bit, but didn’t collapse.

Shhhhh!

Instead, the hostility started to spread into its yellow eyes.

The devil snake smacked its tail straight down onto the bus that had just hit it.

BANG!

The bus was split in half as easily as splitting tofu with chopsticks.

Apparently, that wasn’t enough, the tail also smashed the grounds around it without any mercy.

The ground was badly scarred.

Everything was silent as if everyone was scared by that display. A terrifying silence filled the surroundings of the devil snake.

AROOOOOO!

It was a howl that broke the silence. The howl shook the body of the devil snake and its pupils narrowed.

Those eyes were the proof of its excessive fury. Because of the absurdity of the smelly werewolf howling in its territory. The devil snake never wanted to allow that to happen.

AROOOOO!

The devil snake rushed to where the howling was coming from.

It reached an empty lot that was getting prepared for a highrise to be built.

What welcomed the devil snake was a human, standing alone on that empty ground.

The end.

[1] Hyung - a friendly term from a younger male to older male.

Chapter end