Chapter 145 – SSS-Rank Hunter (20)
Should I… say thank you for this?
If the humans of this world hadn’t turned me into a monster, I never would’ve been able to block Park Hyo-man’s ambush.
The Sword Demon’s hand— Able to cut through anything.
An absurdly fast Acceleration ability.
And my moment of carelessness.
It was the perfect combination to assassinate me.
With the Sword Demon’s arm, even an SSS-rank monster like the Infinity Blade could be sliced apart with ease.
Acceleration nullified my world.
And as a patient, he was someone I was supposed to save.
“Ha…!”
He was fast—but not so fast that I couldn’t react.
After all, I’d already blocked a surprise attack from Natalia, another S-rank Acceleration ability user.
I raised my left arm to shield my head.
“Hmph!”
As if I were laughable, Park Hyo-man curled his lips into a bloody grin.
Utter confidence.
The certainty that no matter what defensive measure I used, he could slice through it like tofu.
That was the Sword Demon’s hand.
But I was just as confident.
Thud!
“Huh…?”
Park Hyo-man’s right arm dug into the clothing wrapped around my left arm, cutting halfway through both fabric and flesh—
Then stopped.
Drip.
Blood flowed from the wound, but it wasn’t enough to take my life.
The clothing made from my own flesh was built on the setting “extremely durable”—
And on top of that, I’d made it physically thick in preparation for fighting the Sword Demon.
“Surprised?”
Slash!
The Infinity Blade carved through Park Hyo-man’s shoulder, severing his right arm completely.
“Aaaaargh?!”
Unused to pain, he screamed and staggered backward—then, without hesitation, attempted to escape.
Crash!
Using Acceleration, he ran along the wall as if it were flat ground, shattered a window designed too high for women to escape through, and leapt outside.
Was he that strong?
The iron bars installed on the window bent like soft taffy.
“…Quick judgment. Probably thanks to Acceleration.”
Blink?
The eyeball tentacle looked at me with concern.
“I’m fine. Just a scratch.”
Drip… drip…
I said I was fine, but the bleeding showed no sign of stopping.
Just like with the Sword Demon.
From my experience in the historical drama world <Palace Maid Deok-chun>, wounds inflicted by the Sword Demon could interfere with my world, noticeably slowing regeneration.
But the reverse was also true—
The Sword Demon’s hand was affected by my world, canceling out its setting of “can cut anything.”
You gain something, you lose something.
The conditions were equal.
(Amolang-nim. I’m terribly sorry to interrupt, but we just heard the sound of glass breaking. Are you alright?)
“Hm. Perfectly fine. Don’t call a healing ability user—get an ordinary doctor. Abilities don’t work on me.”
(Are you badly injured?!)
I am the strongest being in this world.
So overwhelmingly dominant that other hunters can’t even be compared.
Which also means—
If I’m injured or killed, humanity’s overall combat power takes a massive hit.
Of course my aides were anxious about my safety.
“Just stop the bleeding. Put a bounty on Park Hyo-man and issue a wanted notice. Charge: attempted murder.”
(Yes! And, Amolang-nim.)
“Go ahead.”
(May we add additional charges?)
“What kind?”
(Everything that qualifies as a sexual offense.)
Hunter society.
Even when hunters commit crimes, there’s often no one capable of stopping them—so most offenses are ignored or offset by hunting achievements.
But Park Hyo-man?
The moment he attacked me, forgiveness ceased to be an option.
That’s why they were adding charges without restraint.
“Do as you see fit.”
(Thank you!)
“And announce immediately: anyone who helps or hides him will be executed along with their family—no exceptions. Make it clear that ‘I didn’t know’ won’t be accepted.”
(Yes! Amolang-nim!)
Click.
After ending the call, I leaned back comfortably against the sofa and focused.
That regeneration really is incredible…
Park Hyo-man—who had already regenerated the right arm severed by the Infinity Blade—was resting in an empty alley.
That was the effect of the Revival ability.
With Acceleration added on top—an ability that let him slip through any encirclement in an instant—capturing him would be extremely difficult.
Huff… huff… He’s not chasing me, right?
Damn it! This shouldn’t be happening!
My plan’s completely fallen apart.
Park Hyo-man seemed deeply shaken by the realization that the gift he’d received from the witch didn’t work on me.
Kill me in a surprise attack, then rise once more as the strongest SSS-rank hunter.
He must’ve calculated that even a grave crime like murder could be smoothed over as a “necessary evil.”
After all, without me, humanity would suffer such a massive power vacuum that they’d have no choice but to rely on Park Hyo-man.
But he failed.
“I’ve already gotten all the information I need…”
The reason I entered Park Hyo-man’s dream in the first place was to uncover Witch Ranuvela’s plan.
That objective had been achieved.
There might still be things he hadn’t told me—but I didn’t expect anything more from someone who’d already been fed false information by the witch.
Kill me and your lifespan increases? Hah! What a joke.
It was the exact opposite.
If I had died at the hands of a Ranuvela patient—
The moment I returned to reality, Vice Director Seo Hye-joo would declare Park Hyo-man a lost cause. With no one to pay his hospital bills, he’d be euthanized immediately.
Blink—
The eyeball tentacle wrapped around my right arm stared intently at the wound on my left arm.
“Hm. Should I give that insolent bastard a little scare?”
Blink!
This entire city lay within my perception.
Before, when I didn’t know which of the countless citizens was Park Hyo-man, tracking him had been troublesome.
But now that I’d pinpointed him?
Park Hyo-man stood out like a white ant mixed in with a swarm of black ants.
Gah! Damn it!
Park Hyo-man flinched as blade-tentacles suddenly erupted beneath his feet.
He dodged with Acceleration, then slashed through the bamboo-shoot-like blades with his right arm and relocated.
“Oho~”
Even when I’d first discovered him, Park Hyo-man’s body had been well trained.
I’d assumed the muscles were from drifting between construction sites—but his movements belonged to someone who had formally trained in swordsmanship.
(Don’t spout nonsense. Does standing shoulder to shoulder with you make everyone a swordsman?)
“Ahem!”
You were there?
(I’ve been here from the start. I was just quietly watching how you’d handle things, since you’re so frustrating.)
Ah!
(But I couldn’t stand your idiotic commentary about swordsmanship. An ambush? That bastard had been lining up the angle to stab you with his right arm long before that. You were the only one who didn’t notice. And why block with your left arm? Are your legs just decorative? If you’re going to sit around until you die, get yourself a wheelchair.)
“……”
With every bout of nagging, it felt like my mental stamina was being chipped away.
“Amolang-nim!”
“Hurry and stop the bleeding…!”
Aides and attendants rushed down from upstairs, making a fuss over my injury.
“You’re hurt.”
Only Natalia remained calm.
“Why? Surprised I got injured?”
“You weren’t injured even when fighting an SS-rank monster. You were fine on land contaminated with radiation and biochemical agents. I even heard you came out completely unscathed against SSS-rank opponents.”
“Haha! I get hurt too, you know.”
She hadn’t seen me right after the missile bombardment.
Compared to that, this injury wasn’t even worth mentioning.
Right now, it was nothing more than a slowly healing wound.
“Amolang-nim, your arm—”
“Ah, thanks.”
An aide brought bandages from somewhere, knelt before me, and carefully wrapped the wound on my left arm.
(I’ll let you know that you’re currently staring straight between the lovely aide’s white thighs as her green miniskirt rides up.)
“Gah?!”
“I-I’m sorry! Did I hurt you?”
“No. Something just slipped my mind. Keep going.”
I closed my eyes and waited quietly until the doctor arrived.
***
(SSS-rank Hunter Park Hyo-man was presumed dead during the subjugation of the SSS-rank monster Ancient Black Elephant.)
(However, as a multi-ability user, he survived using a D-rank Revival ability he had kept secret.)
(After concealing this critical fact and going into hiding, he abandoned his duties as a hunter and sustained himself through theft using his S-rank Acceleration ability.)
(He committed numerous crimes, including the abduction, confinement, assault, and intimidation of multiple women—and attacked GGG-rank Hunter Amolang-nim.)
(According to medical specialists, Amolang-nim has been transferred to a hospital for treatment. Though the bleeding was severe, he has already entered a rapid recovery phase.)
(Mr. Park Hyo-man will be placed on the wanted list starting today at 18:00. A live capture will yield double the reward…)
Beep!
I turned off the television.
“Beautiful.”
Every form of mass media in this hunter world had been mobilized to broadcast Park Hyo-man’s crimes and bounty.
With Acceleration, he could still slip away like a loach—but that didn’t solve the bigger problem:
There would be nowhere he could lie down, stretch out, and rest in peace.
More importantly—
Damn it, already…!
Should I flee overseas? But how?
I need to eat something first.
I hadn’t moved a single step, yet I knew exactly where Park Hyo-man was and what he was doing.
Flee abroad?
Impossible. Spatial-jump ability users were under strict surveillance.
If he tried to escape on foot, I was more than willing to follow him all day, harassing him with blade tentacles.
(What are you, a pervert?)
“Haha!”
Sounds like someone’s a little irritated.
“…Judging by your expression, Amolang-nim, it seems you already know where he is.”
Natalia—pardoned as promised—observed me with half-lidded eyes.
“You’re still here?”
“Amolang-nim, don’t be so cold to a neighbor.”
“You’ve got some nerve.”
“That’s a trait of Acceleration ability users. Commit a few crimes without getting caught, and your conscience dulls.”
“That sounds like an excessive generalization that insults all Acceleration ability users.”
“But it’s true. Abilities shape people. Aren’t you the same, Amolang-nim?”
“I suppose…”
“You agreed immediately?”
“Of course. I’m very different from who I was before I met this thing.”
Blink—
The Super Grand Galaxy General Infinity Blade.
Before meeting it, I was someone who caused problems but couldn’t solve them—
To borrow my senior’s words, an infuriatingly useless rookie.
And now?
I cause incidents and clean them up simultaneously, without worrying about anyone’s opinion.
On top of that, I have confidence even I can’t see the end of.
I’ve changed.
(You like this world, don’t you?)
“……”
Stop testing me.
Reality—where I have a girlfriend with beautiful legs who looks only at me—is infinitely better.
(Oh? You’ve grown just a little closer to adulthood.)
“Is there a reason you’re letting him roam free instead of capturing him? If the goal is torment, imprisoning and torturing him would be more effective. Thanks to his Revival ability, even grotesque torture wouldn’t kill him.”
“Torture… Natalia, have you ever tortured someone?”
“No.”
“That’s why you can say that so easily. Torture takes far more courage—and madness—than killing.”
“…I was told you had amnesia. You seem to know a lot.”
“Ah! It’s coming back.”
“……”
When it’s inconvenient, I have amnesia.
When it’s convenient, my memories return.
What a handy setting.
“Don’t look at me like that. After getting hit by a missile barrage and absorbing some radiation, my memories started coming back little by little.”
“A primitive shock therapy.”
“Haha! Exactly.”
“Haa…”
Knowing full well she couldn’t demand the truth from me, she let out a deep sigh.
“Natalia.”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what the most painful form of torture is?”
“I’ve heard waterboarding is the worst.”
“For stripping someone’s soul in a short time, water torture is unmatched. But there’s something people absolutely can’t endure.”
“What is it?”
This was something I learned in the romance fantasy novel I Became the Youngest Daughter of a Count’s Family set in the medieval era—the so-called golden age of torture.
According to an interrogator who turned rebels into skewers for defying the new emperor—
“Sleep deprivation.”
“…Ah.”
“The torture has already begun.”
Can a person go insane just by being unable to sleep in a dream?
Let’s find out this time.
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TL Note:
The novel is fully completed (231 chapters)
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