Chapter 42

Through the radio they had threatened as if they would open fire at any moment, but just as I had expected, nothing happened and the helicopter I was on rattled forward toward Hamburg little by little.

It seemed they also knew there was no point in further threats, because no more radio messages came to us.

"By now Hamburg is probably in chaos."

— Uh, Hunter sir, we will be arriving in Hamburg soon. But what about my safety?

The pilot fellow of the helicopter asked me in an uneasy voice.

"You will be fine. There is no need to be too afraid."

— Understood.

To be honest, I wondered for a moment if I should protect him. After all, this pilot was also part of Mazurka, and just like the others, he fed off the blood of others through thuggish acts.

'But who am I to decide?'

But that did not mean it was fine to let him die. It was still a fact that he risked his life to pilot the helicopter all the way here.

And I was no omnipotent god. I had no right to decide whether another person deserved to die or not.

As the pilot had said, soon we arrived over the skies of Hamburg. I picked up the radio, tuned the channel, and spoke.

"How about giving me a landing guide? I came all this way."

— ...Alright. Look for the flare.

Then, a red flare shot up into the sky. The helicopter headed toward where the flare had gone up. Below was a helipad with blinking lights.

"Huh."

I saw countless people surrounding the helipad.

— A-Are you really sure it’s fine?

"Just land. If you try to turn back now, I will simply jump out here."

That meant I would not care what happened to this helicopter afterward. The pilot seemed to understand what I meant.

Helplessly, the pilot set the helicopter down on the landing pad.

"Hello."

Holding my spear, I got off the helicopter and gave a casual wave. Immediately, one of the people standing there fired a crossbow at me.

I caught the flying bolt with my hand and instantly threw it back at the one who had fired it. With a whooshing sound, the bolt struck his shoulder.

"What do you think you’re doing when we just met?"

I deliberately planted my spear point into the ground and dragged it as I walked slowly. The sound of the spear tip scraping the asphalt rang out.

Of the gathered people, twenty of them were Hunters. The rest were armed civilians.

"Are you Hunter Yoo Chan-seok?"

"That’s right. And you are?"

At my words, the men with guns stiffened, but those who seemed to be Hunters showed no change in expression. This man was probably the leader of the warlord group called Kaiser.

He was wearing a fairly sharp-looking military uniform, and on his chest he had something like medals, though who knew what he had done to earn them.

"I am Daniel Royce of Kaiser."

The man introducing himself did not look pleased.

"State the purpose of trespassing on our land."

"I sent an official request to let the train crossing Siberia pass through, but there was no answer."

To my words, he put his hand on his holster and spoke.

"We have our own circumstances. I don’t want to see blood, so turn back."

I smirked in reply.

"By whose permission? I did not come all the way here on a helicopter just to go back empty-handed."

"I heard you made quite an impression in Korea. Seems like early success has become the seed of excessive arrogance for you."

When Daniel slightly moved his head as a signal, the waiting Hunters slowly approached me.

"You are not the only Hunter in this world. Walk away while I am still being nice."

"Of course I am not the only Hunter. But there aren’t that many who are better than me."

And among the few who were, none of them were here now.

"You seem to be better at running your mouth than fighting."

"People always say that before they see me fight."

Using the mana circulating through my body, I kicked off the ground. In an instant, I arrived right in front of the man who had been mouthing off.

"Kha... ack?!"

In the blink of an eye, I slammed three punches into his stomach. Just as his knees buckled, I kneed him in the jaw.

One down. Immediately, the other Hunters backed away and shouted,

"We will make an official complaint to the Korean Hunters Association about this!"

"Go ahead."

Until now I had tried to play the role of a model citizen, but after seeing the mess in Warsaw, I adjusted my goals and mindset.

I would not care whether others saw me as a thug or a gentleman. I would do what I thought needed to be done.

"But I wonder how many of you will still be able to run your mouths after this is over."

Was it Robco and Veramin? The Hunters gathered here were definitely not the elite of those companies, nor had they brought every Hunter they could mobilize.

To the south of Kaiser’s territory was Ristorante, one of the Great Eight. They could not have called in all their Hunters just to block me.

"Come."

I had already decided from the helicopter ride that today was the day to cause some trouble.

* * *

The Hunters were baffled by Yoo Chan-seok’s brazen attitude. This Korean rookie or whatever had to face twenty Hunters.

If he was this confident, he must have something up his sleeve, or else he simply was not thinking.

The Hunters exchanged glances quietly.

It was true that Yoo Chan-seok was more skilled than anyone here. The rumor that he had taken down a class 2 Erosion Zone alone had spread far among Hunters. But that did not mean they had no chance.

In fact, their odds were actually good.

'We just have to use our numerical advantage to wear him down.'

In a war of attrition, this would be simple.

The amount of mana one person could draw out had limits.

No matter how skilled, if eighty people dragged the fight out, eventually their mana would be exhausted. And a Hunter without mana was no different from a car without fuel.

Besides, who knew if it was even true that he had drawn attention in Korea and taken down a class 2 Erosion Zone alone.

'His mana feels about the same as ours huh?'

The amount of mana in Yoo Chan-seok’s body was not extraordinary.

"I’m not really fond of ganging up on a fellow Hunter who makes his living the same way."

"Just don’t cry when you get beaten instead."

Before the other Hunters could make the first move, Yoo Chan-seok lunged forward with a sound of air bursting. Holding his spear in reverse grip like a baseball bat, he smashed it down on a Hunter’s shin.

With a sickening crack, the bone broke and pierced the skin.

"Ah… Aaaagggh!"

One down with the first strike. But that blow just now from Yoo Chan-seok had all of his mana poured into it.

No one expected him to go all-out from the start when there were still nineteen Hunters left to fight. Unless he wanted to take one out and then get beaten to death, it was a reckless move.

"No, this is actually good for us…!"

One Hunter was about to say it was good news, but the next moment silenced him.

With the same speed and power as that first strike, Yoo Chan-seok destroyed another Hunter’s leg. Such a thing should have been impossible.

"That first attack should have drained all his mana."

"His mana hasn’t gone down at all!"

One of the Hunters finally realized it and shouted in disbelief. The total amount of mana they felt from him had not decreased at all.

"All of you will be riding wheelchairs after today, seniors."

In his hands, the spear spun. Yoo Chan-seok’s trademark was well known. The black flames burning at the spear tip. But right now, there was not even a spark of flame on it.

"Charge! Overwhelm him with numbers!"

With that shout, the Hunters rushed him. But within minutes, they began to experience something bizarre.

'Why does it feel like...'

It didn’t feel like his spear was aiming for them. It instead felt like they themselves were running into his spear to get hit.

"Damn it, this is not even the first time we have fought someone this skilled!"

On the other hand, the way he avoided their attacks was strange too. They thought they had hit him, but they had not.

It was not that they failed to see his movements. They saw them, thought they had landed a hit, but only realized later that they had not. They had never experienced something like this.

The Hunters couldn’t understand what was happening in this fight.

* * *

They moved, and I moved my spear to match. Before they even realized their situation, my spear had already claimed the space they were about to enter.

And when they finally noticed, it felt to them as if they had thrown themselves into my spear, followed by being struck down and becoming disabled.

It was thanks to the nervous system rebuilt through mana from back then.

"Could it be a preemptive counterattack?"

"Don’t be stupid, he hasn’t been using mana that long. There’s no way he reached that level already."

"But he is not overpowering us with raw specs!"

They were spouting nonsense only they understood. This was like the difference in input lag in a game. Ping, I think it was called?

The others were playing FPS with 120ms ping, while I alone was playing with around 20ms.

Anyone who has played FPS and had the experience of shooting what looked like a hit but not killing the opponent knows how frustrating it is. That was the kind of situation unfolding here.

"I told you, you can’t win. I am well versed in civilian massacres."

Even if our total mana looked the same, I had no concept of mana depletion. For them to keep up with the output of my continuous attacks and movements, they would have to burn through all their mana.

"Hahahahaha! Whirl and pop!"

Weapons clashed. The ground was torn up, and those who couldn’t withstand the shock were sent flying.

I leaped, grabbed the head of one in midair, and slammed it into a building wall. Cracks spread across the wall, and the man foamed at the mouth and passed out.

"What are you doing, sleeping? Come at me, you bastards!"

Let’s see who dies today!

"Kill him, damn it! Kill that bastard!"

Lightning fell from the sky, and a man bathed in red light charged at me. A black energy-coated arrow targeted me, and telekinesis tried to crush my body.

A mist of white frost rolled in to block my vision, and an invisible man tried to stab me in the back with a dagger.

"See, that’s more like it."

Rolling across the ground, I dodged the lightning aimed for my head, caught the flying arrow, and hurled it at the Hunter using telekinesis. The arrow embedded itself in his shoulder.

"Ur…gh."

His telekinesis broke. I swung my spear wide at the oncoming mist, and the blast of air it produced blew the cold fog into the red man charging at me.

The sudden chill and obscured vision made him falter for a moment. At that moment, I reached him and uppercutted his stomach with my fist.

As he was lifted slightly into the air, I drove a flurry of kicks into his stomach again.

And after that, I continued to destroy them one after another.

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