Auto Hunting

Crunch-!

Any teeth that had survived the pillar of fire were shattered, and, at that moment, Won Jeong-cheon had a weird thought. He’d had several media interviews scheduled for after the Dive. Now, all of that had scattered and disappeared like the fragments of teeth in his mouth.

Yoo-seong grabbed Won Jeong-cheon’s head and brought it down to meet his raised knee. The impact on Won Jeong-cheon’s chin was enough to knock him out.

“Hah!” Yoo-seong exhaled loudly.

Then he turned. He could not lose focus.

This was because, only a few meters, Lee Hwi-min and Ha Yuk-il stood, waiting like vultures.

Yoo-seong bent down to Biyeon’s body, then rose and stretched out his hand.

“That’s…?!” Lee Hwi-min’s eyebrows rose.

It was Biyeon’s action cam.

Pop-!

The action cam disappeared as quickly as it had come out.

Even without saying a word, what Yoo-seong was trying to convey was perfectly clear. If they didn’t clear Yoo-seong, the footage on that action cam would be leaked. Then, Lee Hwi-min would be done for.

However big the Goryong Company was, attacking the successor of an influential group such as the Red Dragon Society was a different matter than attacking a foreigner.

“Ha!” Lee Hwi-min laughed lightly. “It seems I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place: getting out of here and throwing away my company’s future… or staying here with a killer.”

The first part of his sentence was indeed true. The second part was intended to provoke Yoo-seong.

Lee Hwi-min was trying to read Yoo-seong.

‘This guy is… the type to feel guilty about murder.’

Lee Hwi-min was confident he could destroy Yoo-seong with only a few words. “Yes… I know you would kill me too-”

“No,” Yoo-seong cut him off. Short and concise, as his speech often was. “I didn’t kill this motherfucker.”

Won Jeong-cheon was unconscious, and his face was disfigured. But he was still breathing.

“Don’t try to fool yourself,” Lee Hwi-min smirked. “With his wounds, an infection is unavoidable.”

“I know.”

“Then you should know that you are now disqualified as a hunter. Because you are now a killer.”

‘Something strange is going on,’ Lee Hwi-min thought, though he maintained his calm appearance.

Yoo-seong did not appear to be shaken. He looked relaxed, even though, if left as he was, Won Jeong-cheon would surely die.

“You told me at the hotel,” Yoo-seong began, “that you and I are the same. That we could adapt according to our surroundings.”

“I believe so, yes.” Lee Hwi-min nodded.

“Then,” Yoo-seong’s hands closed into fists, “I will hunt you, too.”

Bang-!

Yoo-seong suddenly vanished.

“What… what happened?!” Ha Yuk-il was breathing rapidly.

“Don’t panic!” Lee Hwi-min was also flustered.

Yoo-seong could close the gap between them in an instant.

‘Is he running away, or will he fight?’

Lee Hwi-min’s eyes fell to the ground. It had been overturned several times by the dragon’s weight. There must be countless passages beneath the surface, underneath the collapsed rocks and soft soil.

“Listen,” he told Ha Yuk-il. “Can you hear that?”

Suddenly, the ground on which Ha Yuk-il was standing collapsed, and one of his legs fell through.

“Aaaah!”

Kaching-!

In a panic, Ha Yuk-il pulled out his sword and began plunging it into the ground.

‘He won’t stay there,’ Lee Hwi-min thought. ‘He can’t escape Ha Yuk-il’s sword.’

Lee Hwi-min turned and focused his attention on another area.

Kruug-!

His ears picked up a sound. It was as if something was coming up from behind him.

Lee Hwi-min immediately lit up an amulet. The Giant Fist. A powerful attack that simulated a giant’s fist crushing its target.

He spun and unleashed it.

Quazzik-!

The sound of breaking bones. His paranoia made him hit Ha Yuk-il’s leg, which was behind him.

As Lee Hwi-min had guessed, Yoo-seong was unable to escape Ha Yuk-il’s sword. However, he could bear it.

The Queen’s Hug.

In an instant, Ha Yuk-il’s leg was crushed.

Ha Yuk-il fell forward, groaning in pain. However, before his face could hit the ground, something rose from the rocks.

Yoo-seong’s uppercut rose as if aiming at heaven. It connected with Ha Yuk-il’s chin perfectly.

Yet, the moment Lee Hwi-min aimed for Yoo-seong’s forearm, it disappeared.

“Damn you!” Lee Hwi-min lost all of his control.

He pulled out several amulets and burned them one by one.

Kwanng-!

Thud-!

Almost all of the offensive tools available to him slammed into the ground, unsettling and disturbing it.

It wasn’t enough.

However strong Lee Hwi-min’s destructive power was, the Queen’s Hug, enforced with the Bi Xi’s attributes, was greater.

Yoo-seong could stay standing for a long time.

In desperation, Lee Hwi-min pulled out another amulet. This time, it was the Chukji: the teleportation amulet.

However, Lee Hwi-min did not intend to run away.

He was going to use it to reach Yang Biyeon. It was the key, the only sure way to victory.

Papat-!

The space around him distorted, and then in an instant, he reappeared beside Biyeon, who was lying helplessly on the ground.

However, at the exact same moment, something rose behind him.

His appearance and Yoo-seong’s emergence had occurred simultaneously, so Lee Hwi-min hadn’t heard the sound of him rising from the rubble.

“Hey.”

Short and concise vocabulary.

Yoo-seong kicked Lee Hwi-min’s head, smashing his jaw. Then he kicked his arms, breaking them.

Crunch-!

From the beginning, Yoo-seong’s intuition had driven him to move underground toward Biyeon. He had known how Lee Hwi-min would think.

“Hunting success,” he murmured.

Lee Hwi-min’s eyes pleaded with him. Perhaps that gaze would have worked on Yoo-seong an hour ago.

However, Yoo-seong was different now. He had adapted to his surroundings.

He strode casually towards Lee Hwi-min and crushed his legs.

“Eup!”

‘I won’t kill them,’ Yoo-seong reasoned. ‘However, it would be possible to put them in a condition where they could not survive.’

As Lee Hwi-min had said, it was pure sophistry. It was only to allow Yoo-seong to claim that their blood wasn’t on his hands.

As he had declared before the fight, Yoo-seong had adapted. He never did accept a compromise.

“As I said, I didn’t kill you guys.”

He could have subdued the three without disabling them and pulled them out of the rift. Then, they could have been judged under the law.

However, they had made a mistake.

It wasn’t only Yoo-seong who was bleeding now. Biyeon, who had nothing to do with this problem, was also hurt.

That had been enough for Yoo-seong.

“You all have a chance to survive.”

Even though their legs were broken, they could crawl on the ground toward the exit rift.

Of course, they would have to overcome the environment and any monsters that they encountered, without being able to utilize Tech.

Not to mention that, even if they survived that, the real punishment awaited them outside.

The truth would be conveyed to the world through Biyeon’s action cam.

To die in an alien world, or to crawl desperately toward punishment; that was the deal Yoo-seong had given them.

Yoo-seong carefully lifted Biyeon’s body. Then, he walked away without looking back.

***

Jin Wei-baek kept his promise.

Tenz’s rush team waited at the exit rift.

It was led by Chuyeop; the first Chinese hunter Yoo-seong had encountered.

“Tell your boss,” Yoo-seong said as he pulled Biyeon’s action cam from his slot.

A team member served as their interpreter.

“Tell your boss, thank you for accepting my request. Apart from that, tell him I’ll do what I’ve been asked to do,” Yoo-seong said.

Chuyeop was a young hunter too. He had been watching Yoo-seong’s progress, which was heating up the Chinese industry.

Chuyeop’s eyes widened as he checked what Yoo-seong had placed in his hands. It was an action cam, containing footage of the Dive.

Any hunter could guess its value.

“This is…”

“It’s not for you to watch,” Yoo-seong said firmly.

“The only reason I am leaving it to you is that I respect and trust your boss’ promise. Not you.”

Chuyeop looked down.

“When I come out again…” Yoo-seong added matter-of-factly, as if it were something that was certain and would never change. “If it turns out that you made a joke out of me and Jin Wei-baek’s trust, you’ll pay the price.”

It was unheard of, someone saying Jin Wei-baek’s name casually.

However, Chuyeop and the other Tenz hunters around him couldn’t be upset about it.

Yoo-seong didn’t wait for an answer. He turned around and stepped inside the rift once more. Before he walked in completely, he faced the Earth and took a deep breath.

There was a slight look of regret in his eyes.

“I wish the air inside was this fresh, without yellow dust,” he murmured.

Then he looked at Biyeon, who was being cared for by the attending medical staff.

“Sorry. I owe you.”

He would definitely pay her back.

Then he stepped in and disappeared. The hunters who watched him trembled with a belated thrill.

With that, Yoo-seong officially became listed as one who had never returned from beyond the rift.

However, a few months later, in a place no one expected…

Yoo-seong appeared.