Chapter 6: A Fresh Perspective (1)

On my way to work, I gazed out the bus window, my thoughts drifting as the scenery flashed by.

I was contemplating my next move.

Naturally, I had no intention of remaining a porter on a basic salary of 180. But renewing my contract as a full-fledged hunter with the Guild was also a precarious option.

Even though my stats had surged to exceed the C-rank average in a single day, I was still just a porter with no track record to speak of.

There was no guarantee that the Guild Master would assign me proper work immediately, even if I renewed.

What if I explained my upgraded Status Window and skills?

It might earn me recognition for my potential. Perhaps the Guild would even grant me special privileges alongside Choi Jinho.

But for now, there’s no need to reveal the full extent of my abilities to anyone.

I was far from being able to fully utilize the upgraded functions of my Status Window.

I wasn’t foolish enough to brag about my abilities in such a situation.

Lost in these thoughts…

Screech!

The bus suddenly braked hard.

“What the heck was that?!”

“Driver, couldn’t you be more careful…?”

Grumbling erupted from all sides, but it quickly died down.

“Uh, th-that!”

Instead, terrified screams filled the bus.

“It’s a Gate!”

A Gate.

A rift that could summon monsters at random times and locations.

Following the crowd’s gaze, I turned my head to look through the windshield.

About 300 meters ahead, in the middle of the eight-lane highway, a massive elliptical rift, seventy meters in diameter, shimmered violently.

Civilians in the area had already abandoned their cars, fleeing and screaming.

“Hey, call the police!”

“Nah, someone must have already reported it! But what the hell is that? Why is the gate so huge?”

“Holy shit, it’s still a Class 3 gate, though. The border’s green, see?”

“Who cares about the class? Whether it’s a Class 3 or Class 1, it’s the same damn thing to us.”

Inside the chaotic bus, the driver shook his smartphone and shouted:

“Passengers! Calm down! An extermination team will arrive in 15 minutes!”

15 minutes.

Can they really handle it in 15 minutes?

We were on a circular highway connected to Yanghwa Bridge—one of Seoul’s busiest areas. When a gate activates in such a place, a mobile unit from the Hunter Defense Command and guild hunters are dispatched immediately to conduct a coordinated extermination operation.

“And in this situation, the most likely cooperating guild is…”

Bicheon, the guild I belong to.

In fact, our headquarters is just a five-minute drive from the Yanghwa Bridge.

That’s why I could conclude with certainty:

“Fifteen minutes? What a joke. Just look at the usual state of our guild members. It’ll take far longer.”

Our headquarters might be nearby, but the guild’s key members couldn’t possibly have arrived at work yet.

Naturally, the guild leader wouldn’t have rejected the cooperation request, not if he valued results.

He’d likely dispatch B-rank or higher members like Choi Jinho directly to the scene from their homes.

Tap, tap, tap!

Suddenly, individuals in black special suits surged past the bus and raced forward.

“What? They’re already here?”

“They’re just a riot control unit. They’re here to buy time until the extermination team arrives.”

They were riot control officers sent to secure the area until the hunters arrived to exterminate the gate—personnel dispatched by the Hunter Defense Command. They were likely trained soldiers rather than awakened ones.

Wooooooong—

Soon after they moved forward, a semi-transparent blue artificial dome erupted around the gate, its radiant glow illuminating the surrounding area.

A magic barrier designed to contain the monsters.

Against monsters emerging from a Class 3 gate,

it could hold for a full hour, depending on the species, with adequate durability.

Kugu-gugu-gugu-gugung!

But then, a deafening roar shook the air as the first monster emerged from the gate.

That looks dangerous.

I scowled as I stared at the monster beneath the dome.

It was a plant-type creature, resembling a giant tulip.

Its body stretched well over 60 meters, and the yellow flower bud perched atop it twitched ominously.

Below the bud, thorny stalks writhed like tentacles.

Thud!

The road buckled precariously under the colossal beast’s immense weight.

Several passengers clung to the swaying bus handrails, shouting in alarm.

“Isn’t that a Venom Spore?”

“No way! Do Venom Spores usually get that big? Wasn’t it supposed to be a C-rank?”

Right. That C-rank monster was the one that had burned my thigh with its poison.

But its proper name was Venom Spore ‘Junior’.

And that massive flower-like monstrosity was the mother of all those Juniors.

“Can we hold out until the extermination team arrives?”

“O-of course. It’s just a C-rank monster, no matter how big it is. That barrier should be enough.”

The passengers exchanged these worried words, their faces pale with anxiety.

Meanwhile, I stared at the colossal, grotesque flower writhing beneath the blue dome.

If it were just the Venom Spore Mother, the protective dome alone would hold.

For all its size, it was still fundamentally just a creature that moved and spewed poison.

But the problem was…

Each stem of the Venom Spore Mother was infested with countless Venom Spore Juniors.

These C-rank monsters possessed a potent poison capable of dissolving not only hardened steel plates but also magic-reinforced barriers.

And then, without warning…

Screeeeeech!

The worst had come to pass.

The flower bud of the Venom Spore had split open like a grotesque mouth, emitting a metallic shriek that reverberated through the air. Small buds began to sprout from the thorns along its stem.

If the barrier were breached before the extermination team arrived, everyone would be in danger—the mobile unit members, as well as any civilians trapped in the bus who hadn’t managed to evacuate.

In that case…

“Sir, I’ll get off here.”

I rose from my seat and pressed the bell.

Ah, if only this bus weren’t so crowded, I would have acted sooner.

The bus driver, who had been frantically making a call, turned his head.

“You’re getting off? You’d be better off waiting here. There’s no way out at the front or back…”

“It’s alright, you can let me off here.”

“Uh, whatever happens, I won’t take responsibility. Seriously, I have no idea what you’re doing.”

Hiss—

The bus doors opened. I scanned my transit card, then stepped off with a light spring in my step.

I immediately headed toward the shimmering gate.

The gazes of the bus passengers and driver quickly faded from my back as I walked away.

I passed by abandoned cars with their doors left ajar.

Before long, I reached the magic-dampening barrier erected by the Mobile Task Force.

“Halt! This is a civilian-restricted area. Turn back immediately!”

In front of the barrier of azure magic power, Mobile Task Force operatives wearing special helmets with visors blocked my path.

I immediately presented my Hunter License card—specifically, the version that omitted my rank and served only as proof of my hunter status.

“Hunter affiliated with the Bicheon Guild.”

“The Bicheon Guild? You mean the allied guild for this extermination team?”

Just as I suspected.

The operative who seemed to be in charge stepped forward, examining my card.

“Lieutenant So Yeonwoo, 13th Mobile Battalion, Hunter Defense Command.”

“Lee Taejun.”

“Command requested cooperation from the Bicheon Guild only a few minutes ago. There’s no way the extermination team could have arrived already.”

“Ah, it was just a coincidence. I happened to be on my way to work when I got the call from the guild leader and decided to join you first.”

“I see. Confirmed.”

Lieutenant So Yeonwoo nodded, handing back my Hunter license card. From his demeanor, he didn’t seem particularly suspicious. Or perhaps the situation wasn’t relaxed enough to scrutinize every detail.

“We’ve been preparing as best we can, but the situation is more challenging than we anticipated. Could you hold the line with us until the extermination team arrives?”

My gaze lingered on the precarious, trembling magic barrier, and the Venom Spore Mother, its tendrils coiling around the vehicles like vines, as it slowly moved forward.

“This magic dome alone won’t hold until the extermination team arrives,” I said.

“Even against Venom Spores, it can last fifteen minutes. That should be enough time for the team to…”

“The extermination team won’t make it in time.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Our key guild members haven’t even reported for duty yet.”

Lieutenant So Yeonwoo’s eyes wavered.

“Then we should report this to command and request assistance from another allied guild…”

“It’s too late to find another ally now.”

I stared at the swaying Venom Spore Mother through the barrier and continued,

“I’ll enter alone and buy us some time until the extermination team arrives.”

The Lieutenant looked startled and asked, “Alone?”

“Yes. I should be able to hold out for a while. I have the Poison Resistance skill.”

“No, but still, alone…”

The Lieutenant looked visibly troubled.

It was understandable.

While the Venom Spore Mother moved sluggishly and possessed no means of attack other than its Toxin, that single toxin was enough to make it lethally threatening.

“It’s fine. I’ll give it a try.”

I pulled a red cotton glove from my crossback, put it on, and asked,

“By the way, if I hunt this thing alone, how will the essence stones be divided?”

“Alone… you mean?”

“What if…”

The Lieutenant tilted his head, his eyes questioning why I would ask such a thing when survival itself seemed nearly impossible.

“If you handle this alone, eighty percent of the essence stones will be yours, after the twenty percent taken by the state…”

“Sweet deal,” I replied.

“Excuse me?”

“Never mind.”

I looked up at the colossal monster flower looming just inches from my nose.

Its bud roared at the sky, while spiky vines hung thick with Spore Juniors, each treated as an individual monster.

In other words…

It’s a living, breathing mass of essence stones.

How many essence stones would I get if I slaughtered all those Juniors?

How many Parsley Coins could I exchange those essence stones for?

As I stared up at the mother plant, my eyes grew dewy and moist, as if gazing at the Milky Way in the night sky.

The Status Window Manager, for some reason, displayed an expression of shock.

To be honest, Lieutenant So Yeonwoo couldn’t believe Lee Taejun.

“Taking on the Venom Spore Mother alone?”

He was just a soldier trained for anti-giant monster warfare.

Precisely because of that, he understood the immense danger lurking beneath the dome, where that massive, writhing plant monster resided.

Venom Spore Mother.

Rated C+ in terms of threat level—not an overwhelmingly strong monster.

Still, it was far from weak enough for a single hunter to casually defeat.

The Poison contained within the Venom Spore’s buds could melt through the thick armor plating of an armored vehicle.

And the pollen scattered from its pistils?

Even inhaling trace amounts was lethal enough to destroy the lungs of an ordinary person.

“He’s literally a living mass of potent toxin.”

That’s why even professional hunters typically equip themselves with various gas masks and detox items, or at the very least wear hunter suits with basic toxin resistance, before venturing out on an extermination mission.

Yet Taejun had been sent in because the situation was that dire.

Originally, they intended to send him in with a squad, but Taejun had vehemently refused, leaving them no choice.

Because of this, they hadn’t held high expectations from the start.

The only reassurance was that hunters, being non-ordinary individuals, possess inherent toxin immunity, and some even wield Resistance Skills.

They judged that buying time until the extermination team arrived would be sufficient.

Thirty minutes after Lee Taejun had been ushered behind the barrier, the scene unfolding before the Motorized Battalion defied all their earlier judgments.

What on earth is that…? Lieutenant So Yeonwoo stared blankly through the semi-transparent barrier, his gaze fixed on…

ROAR!

Under the blue dome, the Venom Spore Mother writhed, emitting grotesque metallic screeches.

“Hah, is this the 99th?”

And amidst the deluge of poison and poison powder it spewed forth, Taejun was methodically plucking essence stones from the flower buds on the stalks, as if harvesting fruit.

No,

So Yeonwoo and the other battalion members couldn’t help but wonder inwardly:

Didn’t he say he was just going to stall for time?