The First Hunter Chapter 15: Accompanied (1)

< Chapter 15. Accompanied (1). >

1.

At the high rise empty site.

“Move this flesh away! It’s blocking the way!”

The place which had been occupied by silence and tranquility was now filled with the noise of a construction site.

“I need 2 more people here!”

“3 more here! Hurry!”

It was a giant snake’s body that was in the middle of all the noise.

Black snake. The thing that had only given people despair and fear was now paying its price.

People were stuck to its body like ants and nibbling down its body little by little.

They had various methods.

“The chainsaw stopped! Gas! I need more gas!”

There were people who were using the chainsaw to cut the skin and there were others who were trying to pry out the flesh using shovels and pickaxes.

“Careful, careful! Careful of the forklift!"

There was also a forklift driver who was moving the piles of flesh people managed to cut out.

It was definitely a hard work.

"Whoa, this is harder than working on a construction site."

"I'd rather work for the distribution. What kind of dead body...."

But on the contrary, the atmosphere was lively.

"Although it's better to be tired working for this."

"It's been a while since I sweated like this but it's refreshing."

Because they realized how precious it was to work hard for something.

"Snack, snacks!"

Their spirit was fueled up.

"The menu is rice cake ramen noodles, ramen!"

Everyone's mouths started to water as soon as they saw the giant pot that they had taken from a nearby restaurant and the hot noodle soup and rice cakes inside of it.

"Let's eat, eat!"

Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and enjoyed their snack.

The steam coming from everyone eating the hot ramen continuously soared into the sky.

It was a warm scene to watch. But Jang Sunghoon who was watching them eat did not have a smile on his face.

"Hyung, Did you want some?"

Bhang Hyunwook talked to Jang Sunghoon but he did not answer back. Jang Sunghoon was just looking at the dead snake's body with a firm face.

"Sunghoon!"

"You eat if you want to eat."

"Don't say anything later! I won't give you a bite of it."

Bhang Hyunwook ran towards the line that people were forming in front of the giant pot. Jang Sunghoon once again had a rigid face.

He looked at the black snake's body once again. He was thinking about just one thing.

'Where to go?'

There were lots of things to do now. They needed to make items out of the dead snake's body. They had to turn Maek Clan into a Maek guild, allow people to create clans under it, and pick a representative for the civilians.

And there were more important things that needed to be done later on.

One of the most urgent matter was to have a system that could be self-sufficient. Meaning, secure land for agriculture. Since it would need lots of labor force, they should recruit more survivors.

Just doing all these things would make this winter fly by.

The real problem was the next item.

If Lee Jinsung, the head of Messiah, was telling the truth, there would be lots of monsters around the city of Bucheon stronger than the black snake

According to the information gathered up till now, the color of the monster's eyes showed their ranks. The lowest would be red, orange would be next, followed by yellow.

There was a large possibility that the colors were following the seven colors of the rainbow and ranked the monsters accordingly.

Based on that, the black snake that horrified Bucheon was in the third rank from the bottom.

‘That one was just in the third rank from the bottom.’

The dragon that had appeared a while ago for a very short time in Bucheon, the same dragon that appeared on Kim Taehoon’s dream, had navy blue eyes.

‘He wouldn’t die stepping on a yellow one but it would be game over as soon as he steps on a green.’

The level of the monster that Kim Taehoon could dispatch now was yellow. And yellow was hard enough for him, there’s nothing they could do if they lost Kim Taehoon to a green-eyed monster.

‘It would also be a game over if we just stay here.’

But they cannot stay in Bucheon forever. They would eventually get attacked by a monster that was headed towards Bucheon.

If they get trapped in Bucheon, it would become like a food farm to a monster.

‘We must move.’

They had to make their moves. They had to move forward to survive.

But like it was said before, nobody knew what kind of danger would be lying around or where. It was like walking in a minefield without any clues or information on how to avoid the mines.

“This is f*cking sh*t.”

Jang Sunghoon cussed.

If it was a hard question, he would try to find an answer for it. But this was not such question. There was no answer to it.

“Hyung!”

Bahng Hyunwook walked towards Jang Sunghoon holding a bowl.

“I said I’m not going to eat.”

Jang Sunghoon said in a rather annoyed voice.

“Hyungnim is here.”

“What?”

Jang Sunghoon couldn’t help but make a surprised face at that.

“Already?”

Jang Sunghoon could see people who eating stand up and bow or nod.

The Return of the King.

Kim Taehoon stopped right in front of Jang Sunghoon and said, “We will leave immediately after having a cup of coffee.”

3.

“Gosh.”

“No way. This alone….”

Two guys wearing plastic aprons and rubber gloves while holding butcher tools could not hold themselves together in front of the scene they were facing.

In front of them was a road of dead bodies. They were lying all over the road. Not human corpses but monster corpses. It wasn’t just one kind of monster but a variety of monsters.

More surprising was the condition of the dead bodies.

“They look…”

“Is this even possible?”

They either had holes in their heads or their heads were chopped off. It was one of those two. No corpse looked like there was any other choice.

It would have been more believable if the dead bodies looked like they were bombed or had been shot by guns and were filled with holes.

So the guys who came to take care of the dead monster bodies forgot what to do for a moment and just stood there for a while.

Bhang Hyunwook was with them as well. He was on a mission to protect the guys from any possible monster attacks.

Bhang Hyunwook was looking at the scene that Kim Taehoon created in front of him in silence.

“Tsk.”

And made a small clicking noise with his tongue.

‘I’m not even his right arm, I'm less than a right toe now.’

Bhang Hyunwook’s eyes had a rather mixed emotion after he swallowed the things that he wanted to say out loud.

He recalled the memory from December 31st, that night’s memory. The memory where he answered Kim Taehoon right away after he asked Bhang Hyunwook to follow him if he wanted to live. After that, Bhang Hyunwook thought he was the only awakened that could help Kim Taehoon.

He couldn’t substitute for Kim Taehoon, but he thought he’d be the only one to take his place when he was gone.

‘What was I doing so far?’

But now he figured out that everything he was expecting was wrong.

‘So far…’

Bhang Hyunwook looked at the back of his right hand. A few kinds of emotions were fluctuating inside of his chest.

And at the same time.

“Holy sh*t.”

There was a guy who had the same emotions going through his chest as Bhang Hyunwook.

3.

“How much did this whale guy have?”

It was a common house, at least from the outside. A house with 2 floors and a garden.

But all sorts of artworks filled the inside of the house.

To Jang Sunghoon, it was a paradise.

“I heard the whale collected everything he could but I had no idea it would be this much. It seems like he had a good habit of stealing by the looks of his collection. No one could collect this much unless they were more interested in stealing than in art.”

Jang Sunghoon made a bitter smile on his face while taking a look at the artworks.

“It’s funny that I’m saying this, but I don’t think it’d be weird to have the world collapse when these kind of people were on top of society.”

But his complaining stopped there. Jang Sunghoon did not forget what he came here for and immediately pulled out his smartphone.

“It’s going to be a chore since there are so many of them.”

The only reason they came here was to find a relic that could help them in the future war they’d be having against the monsters.

That was all.

Instead of responding to Jang Sunghoon, Kim Taehoon picked up a small liquor bottle and handed it over to Jang Sunghoon. Jang Sunghoon took it reflectively and became confused.

Why was Kim Taehoon giving it to him?

Kim Taehoon answered Jang Sunghoon’s suspicion.

“It’s a relic.”

“Huh?”

Kim Taehoon started to look around instead of repeating what he said to Jang Sunghoon.

While shining his black eyes. He had activated his back eyes. The eyes that allowed Kim Taehoon to see the place here as a different type of paradise.

Kim Taehoon could see the relics. It was as if he were wearing smart glasses, as soon as he saw a relic he could see the ability it had.

The picture Kim Taehoon was looking at right now showed the same.

It was a typical portrait of a beauty from the Chosun dynasty if you looked at it with bare eyes. The painter was unknown.

But it was different in Kim Taehoon’s eyes.

[ The Beauty’s Portrait of Blessings ]

Relic rank: 5Relic value: rareRelic effect: It can create a blessing that could consume one’s Magic to increase Strength.

The dark eyes could see the hidden value of the portrait.

Meanwhile, Jang Sunghoon was able to figure out what was going on after taking the picture of the liquor bottle.

“Can you see the relics with your eyes?”

Kim Taehoon looked around instead of answering back and pointed at some of the artworks with his finger.  

Jang Sunghoon did not ask anymore questions. He took pictures of the things that Kim Taehoon pointed to, and carefully took them.

The relic-finding mission proceeded rather quicker than they expected.

Now it was Jang Sunghoon’s turn after taking all the relics they could see.

“This cannot be all. He would have hidden the real stuff here and there. The most classic spot would be in the wardrobe.”

Jang Sunghoon was able to find the places that the owner of the place, Baek Sungtaek, hid his art. Starting with the wardrobe, inside the thick door and even some hidden inside the dirt in the flower pots on the balcony!

The jackpot of the day was the wallpaper.

“You never put your real treasure in the safe.”

Jang Sunghoon went through all the places that could hide things then started to tear off the wallpaper.

Over the wallpaper, they could see the sleeping writing revealing itself.

Dae Poong Moo Ae (大風無碍)[1]

There’s nothing to be blocked in front of a giant wind.

There were a name and seal of the person who wrote it on that simple writing.

“..... Oh my god.”

Jang Sunghoon made the most surprised face he ever made in the name of the writer.

“No way. This cannot be real… A smuggler would not have the private piece of Choosa(秋史)...”

Choosa Kim Junghee[2]**.

That name held such a significant weight that Jang Sunghoon couldn’t help but be surprised.

But Kim Taehoon wasn’t. Instead, he warned.

“Take the thing and step back.”

“Huh? What are you talking about…”

Kim Taehoon’s hand turned dark while he waved it back and forth for Jang Sunghoon to back off.

‘Dark skin’, the strong ability that was now able to cover his entire arm, and part of the shoulder, black. Kim Taehoon activated it and used it against that wall.

BANG!

With just one punch, the solid wall had a giant hole in it. Splatter! The debris started to fall to the floor, and the things hidden inside the wall were revealed.

< Chapter 15. Accompanied (1). > The end.

[1] Looks something like https://goo.gl/RCf2JW

[2] Famous Korean practitioner of Calligraphy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gim_Jeong-hui

Chapter end