The First Hunter Chapter 17: This is My Territory (1)

< Chapter 17. This is My Territory (1). >

1.

After a while, in the Bucheon City Council building, located next to Bucheon city hall, one of the budget conference rooms had people in it.

However, the atmosphere was different than normal. The six men and women who were seated there and the man in front of a board with the map of Bucheon on it, their faces were not for something like what was found in a budget meeting.

“According to the Daedongyeojido, the green level monsters that were based in Gwangmyeong, which is to the east of Bucheon, moved about 2km.”

Then the guy who was in front of the board, Jang Suhghoon, pointed to Gwangmyeong on the map with his green laser pointer.

The people who were gathered there, Kim Suji, Ahn Sunmi, Bahng Hyunwook and the clan masters under Maek Guild, Lee Sooyoung, and Yang Junghwan, made the stiffest faces they could make.

It was natural for them to be like that.

“The green level would be the upper predators who could easily devour the yellow level that we had fought against.”

It was only a few days ago they got out from under the fear of the black snake. But a green level monster, which was stronger than that black snake, was approaching Bucheon?

“Of course we don’t know if the green monster is headed towards Bucheon. But the problem is the other monsters were also pushed towards Bucheon with the green one moving. We could detect the monsters in Gwangmyeong coming into Bucheon through Daedongyeojido.”

The green level monster was also a threat and cause for despair to the weaker monsters. Of course, they had to flee.

“We detected one yellow level monster among the monsters that are headed towards Bucheon. The orange level and below monsters would also flee towards here as soon as the yellow one moves. Since the number of monsters in Bucheon has decreased significantly after the constant monster hunting it would look like a paradise to other monsters.”

That was the end of the briefing.

There were no questions.

‘I thought it was just calm, but it was only the silence before the coming storm.’

There were lots of questions they wanted to ask, but no one had the mental or psychological capability to speak them out loud.

The only one with the ability to do so, Kim Taehoon was holding coffee inside his mouth.

But he wasn’t just simply enjoying his coffee.

To him, coffee was not the evidence of relaxation but a tool to seek for peace of mind.

Gulp.

Kim Taehoon opened his mouth after swallowing the coffee.

“What choices do we have?”

“Run, or fight. One out of two.”

There were only two choices for the Maek Guild. But there was only one choice they could make in order to survive.

“We have to fight against them to survive together.”

The guy with a healthy body, looking in his 30s, also knew the facts so he could make the choice without any trouble. The man’s name was Yang Junghwan. He was the master of the Starfish Clan under Maek Guild.

“A defensive battle is only a war of attrition. We cannot hold the defenses for very long with the firearms we have now. We need more ammunition and additional weapons as soon as possible.” Kim Suji added as soon as Yang Junghwan started the discussion.

“Speaking as a doctor, if anyone gets injured to the point that they would need a surgery, it would be better to let 9 out of 10 die. No electricity, no transfusions, the survival rate is meaningless. The flesh of the mud troll is almost gone as well.”

Ahn Sunmi presented her opinion as well.

“Then do we have somewhere else to get supplies? You mean weapon supplies?”

The other clan master, Lee Sooyoung asked the question.

“South, I mean Siheung and Incheon have Division 17 so that place would have some weapons that we might be able to use.”

Jang Sunghoon answered that question. At the same time, he cleared some things up.

“Eventually in order for us to fight against them, we have to fight and get supplies at the same time. The boss only can do one thing at a time.”

The crowd became silent again.

Kim Taehoon took another sip coffee again as well.

This was the key part. Until now, the hard stuff was for Kim Taehoon to deal with and he had been able to solve those problems.

That was the reason everyone put their fate with him whether they liked him or not.

But this time it was different.

Kim Taehoon could only do one thing. He could leave Bucheon to bring back supplies, or he could stay and fight against the monsters that would be flooding in. He couldn’t do both at the same time.

They needed someone instead of Kim Taehoon to take care of either the battle part or the supply part.

“Division 17 is good but there’s also the 3rd logistics support command in Incheon.”

It was Yang Junghwan who made the choice first in this situation.

“I don’t know if they have anything special but there’s no way they don’t have the supply storage at the logistic support command. I have two people from Samma camp in my clan, one of them is from the ammunition unit located in Gyeyang-gu.”

Also, Yang Junghwan showed the card he was hiding up until now.

Samma camp, the nickname of the 3rd logistic support command. The logistic support command literally supported the other troops by providing the military supplies. From the general daily goods to ammunition and bombs!

If the person was from the Samma camp and was a munitions soldier, the person would at least know the location of the munitions storage.

Yang Junghwan, himself said that. One of his people was from the ammunition unit located in Gyeyang-gu.

“Gyeyang-gu…”

“It’s about 6 km straight from here but unfortunately we can’t fly, so it would be about 20 km there and back.”

Gyeyang-gu, Incheon is located about 6 km away from Bucheon. There was no reason they couldn’t walk there. That was why he was hiding it.

Yang Junghwan’s plan was to get the firearm support from the Maek Guild, use the force to get to Gyeyang-gu and occupy the ammunition unit to secure the ammo.

It wasn’t just for going against Kim Taehoon. Securing the ammunition in this world where the ammo could replace money was something you would do without any certain purpose.

To be clear, the ammo unit was the treasure island and Yang Junghwan had the map to reach the treasure island. But he shared the information now.

The hidden card that might hold the destiny of Yang Junghwan and his clan, in front of Kim Taehoon.

“The reason why I did not mention it so far, as you would all suspect, was to hide it but I will open it since the situation is urgent.”

It meant that Yang Junghwan saw the situation as serious.

“The hidden card would not mean anything after death. Anyway, Division 17 is not a bad idea but Gyeyang-gu would be much closer. On top of that, the guy I mentioned was dismissed from the military a little over a year ago. He would definitely know someone over there if they had any survivors.”

“Then should we raid Division 17?”

Lee Sooyoung immediately accepted her part of the role.

Raiding Division 17 and getting the military supplies was also a dangerous thing to do, but she was not hesitant at all. If she was to about to weigh the things and calculate everything, she wouldn’t have offered her finger when Kim Taehoon asked for it.

Two clans chose to get supplies.

“So we got some things settled.”

So the other part of the choice was for the Maek Guild to do.

Battle, from now on Maek Guild had to fight the monsters that would be rushing toward them.

It was time to prepare.

“Now then let’s get the items straight.”

2.

Most of the people had lost almost everything they had since the monsters appeared.

But not everyone.

Park Gabsoo, the man who turned 70 with the year 2017, he had devoted 50 years of his life to making leather shoes. A meister who perfected his skills for almost half a century.

But he was never treated as a meister in his life. He was exploited from the moment he started. He worked for free under the name of getting trained for the skills for years and when he finally had enough skill to do his job, he could count the number of times he was paid properly on both hands.

The end of his career was also like that. The owner of the shoe factory he worked at ran away without paying him the 2 years worth of salary he was owed.

At sixty-five, Park Gabsoo was thrown into society without any severance nor savings and lived his life like a beggar.  The best meal he could get was from a soup kitchen.

Ironically it was only after the monsters’ appearance that he started to get treated as a meister.

“Meister! They are here.”

Park Gabsoo looked at the man in his early 30s who was calling him.

Surprisingly, the man was a lawyer before the monsters appeared. He was young but also competent enough to drive expensive foreign brand cars.

If it was like the old times Park Gabsoo wouldn’t be able to even look the man in the eyes.

But he was one of the students Park Gabsoo had now.

It wasn’t by force. It only showed how smart the man was.

The guy knew that his experience as a lawyer was meaningless compared to the skills that could process monster skins to survive in this new world.

It was not just a few of them to think like that. When Park Gabsoo said he was looking to have some students with the support of the Maek Guild, too many people applied so he had to give out tests to them.

It was like a change of seas to Park Gabsoo since he had never had any students or apprentices before.

“Get the thing ready.”

“Yes, sir.”

It didn’t feel real at first. But as time went by, Park Gabsoo realized that it was real, and was able to feel confident as a meister for the first time in his life.

That was why.

“Welcome.”

“Sorry about showing up without notice.”

“Don’t worry. We have increased the production as you asked before. Now we have 20 sets of armor made out of the black snake’s skin.”

“That fast?”

That he was doing his best with his whole heart and body when it wouldn’t be strange for him to leave this world at his age even without the monsters.

“That’s all I do, isn’t it? There’s no reason to get lazy.”

Jang Sunghoon smirked a bit at Meister Park Gabsoo’s response.

Kim Taehoon who was standing behind Jang Sunghoon came in front of Park Gabsoo and bowed down.

“I’m Kim Taehoon.”

“Ah!”

Park Gabsoo looked at Kim Taehoon with surprised eyes.

“I am truly sorry, I should have come to see you before.”

“No, no.”

Kim Taehoon wasn’t just a man to the survivors. He was like the only light in a pitch-black darkness.

To Park Gabsoo, Kim Taehoon was the person who made himself a meister, making his whole life a great one and not a useless one.

“Forgive me for my rudeness but the situation is rather urgent. Do you mind if I look at the product straight away?”

“Sure, sure.”

The armors that were made out of the black snake’s skin were revealed under the command of Park Gabsoo.

The black snakeskin armor was pretty simple.

It wasn’t a lot. One vest that covered the upper body and guards that would cover arms and legs, elbow and knees, that was all.

But it wasn’t poor.

The black snake’s skin basically had a natural sheen on it, but Park Gabsoo’s constant polishing made the sheen even more prominent.

But it was not just the sheen that became surprising.

Everyone who came with Kim Taehoon took out their smartphone and took the picture of the armor that the mannequin was wearing.

Kim Taehoon also changed his eyes and turned them black.

[Black Snake’s Leather]

Defense: CMagic defense: DIncreases the recovery speed of EnergyEnhances EnergyDefensive ability increases if Energy is put into the armor

The specification of the black snake’s leather was shown.

They were amazing.

‘Brilliant.’

Even Kim Taehoon, who already got the reports about it, was amazed.

Lee Sooyoung and Yang Junghwan who never had the information about the black snake’s skin were amazed the most.

‘This… would not give us any reason to perform badly against the orange monsters anymore?’

‘Three sets. I could plan some good strategies if I had three sets of these.’

For them who were fighting against the monsters with close range weapons and not guns, it might seem even more valuable than the guns.

“We have 20 sets completed now and since we become faster recently we can make 3 sets a day. About 90 sets could be made out of the black snake’s leather we have in stock.”

However, the surprise did not stop there.

“We also made this into a powder as you requested.”

Meister Park Gabsoo took out a plastic bag. The plastic bag was sealed in multiple layers and was filled with a yellow powder.

[Black Snake’s eye]

When consumed, the ability of the black snake [black snake’s eye] can be used.

It was the powder made from the black snake’s eye.

It had the effect of being able to use the black snake’s eye ability for a short period of time.

Of course, it wasn’t like how Kim Taehoon was using the black snake’s eye. It was a downgraded version but it was enough to be utilized.

If they let a gunner consume the powder, their hit rate would increase incredibly.

It wasn’t just that.

The doping effect that this powder would bring in a battle was beyond imagination.

“And for the last…”

The last item that appeared was a set of 4 blades.

Each was about the length of an adult man’s arm.

But it looked a bit unique. It wasn’t exactly like a knife….

“The black snake’s fang.”

Fang.

It was more like a snake’s fang.

[The fang of the black snake]

Cutting force increases when the Energy is directed into it.

It was the black snake’s fang.

Only four of them could be made out of one black snake.

“Only the hilt is left to be made. But since it is what it is, I am going to make the hilt custom made to the person’s hand who’s going to use it with the black snake’s leather. It would be easier to get accustomed to it.”

It would become an even more powerful item with the hilt made.

Kim Taehoon turned his head at that and looked at Yang Junghwan and Lee Sooyoung.

“Price will be paid for the accomplished mission, as it was stated in the Clan Establishment contract.”

The two of them had their mouths watering as Kim Taehoon spoke.  

“The payment usually should be after the work is done, but since the situation is urgent we will give you advance payment. Take one fang each, and 3 sets of black snake’s armor.”

Swallow!

The two of them gulped. But Kim Taehoon wasn’t done yet.

“It’s not free. If the number of monsters you have caught is not satisfying even after the advanced payment, I will be ripping the contract up.”

The two of them just nodded without saying anything.

< Chapter 17. This is My Territory (1). > The end.

Chapter end