Chapter 462. Cruising? (3)

The Hunter of the Other World Who Is Being Misunderstood

Chapter 462. Cruising? (3)

The overseas expedition ended smoothly in the end.

‘Wandering around empty-handed like a backpacker is troublesome in many ways. At least I was using a young body, so physically there wasn't much discomfort, but still...’

Drrrrrrrrk.

Beep.

The sound of the conveyor belt turning echoed.

‘If I ever have to go abroad again, I should bring a proper suitcase. I was already booking accommodations each time anyway to hide my movements.’

For reference, this place was an airport in South Korea. A familiar sight was reflected in the clean, polished windows.

Dry, bristly body hair. Single-eyelids that looked swollen, as if he had just woken up. And eyes so dark they seemed utterly unfit for any kind of photosynthesis.

“What’s wrong?”

Yes, that’s right. This body.

I was on my way home, safely returning with the information I had gathered overseas carefully stored in my mind. Of course, there were no issues during the subsequent quarantine or immigration screening either.

‘The smell of soft tofu stew.’

The LCD TV displays the departure times for various routes. The baggage conveyor system that ran smoothly on electricity alone, even without magic. Even though I had come here quite a few times, I always felt there were many interesting things to see in a place like this. But to make it home without collapsing, I should probably get something to eat first.

“Yeah. As expected, for my first meal, I’ll go with soft tofu stew.”

I had eaten something on the plane, but that in-flight meal wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy me.

So I headed toward a restaurant in the passenger terminal.

‘Which pocket did I put my cash in again?’

Since I had completely changed my clothes to hide my identity, it took a bit of time to find my belongings—but anyway.

‘Here it is.’

Tak.

I safely pulled out the old, worn-out wallet. And holding this earthly item in my hand, I quietly counted the tasks I had left.

‘What I need to do now is quickly eat a piping hot bowl of soft tofu stew, then go over the mirror-making process once more.’

Mirror. Telescope. And in a slightly different expression, it’s also called a “scope”—a lens exclusively for space creatures.

I had decided to somehow speed up its production.

‘By the way, the Giamche really did something I can’t understand.’

What I learned overseas was information I never could have imagined. It wasn’t the result of careful work by human scientists. A dungeon, of all things, was actually accelerating the evolution of mammals?

‘They even left a letter so politely, doing everything properly.’

Moreover, the Giamche on Earth willingly handed over a dungeon controller as a reward, something I had never seen in Alphan. All of this was shocking news to the Archmage, who had thoroughly studied that species.

‘What on earth could have changed within that species?’

Of course, the blue planet Earth does have a few environmental peculiarities.

① Mana is incredibly abundant.

② On the other hand, the mana adaptability of the resident creatures is poor, so only a tiny number dare to challenge the food boxes.

③ Therefore, is it the result of the EX-grade creation entity putting in a lot of effort to increase the influx of hunters who would stimulate the boxes?

In the end, this is just a flimsy hypothesis.

‘I’ll just shut up and quickly finish the magic tool...’

He slowly rolled his sambaegan eyes.

I finished my thoughts in this state.

‘Anyway, I need to quickly check whether Giamche’s weakness is still the same, so there’s no need to delay the work.’

I set about speeding up the lens production. With the schedule neatly organized like this, all that was left now was to decide where to sit in the restaurant.

“Hello.”

“Gah! Ut-uh-uh! Hello! Hunter!”

“Can I order the soft tofu stew?”

“Ah! No! Not here—you can choose your menu and pay over at the kiosk over there.”

I decided to take back what I had just thought. Even though I’d been on Earth for quite some time, I still hadn’t mastered that machine, which only added to my worries.

‘Why do I have to touch an object that countless other people have already poked with their tentacles? What if some non-law-abiding citizen secretly smeared poison on it...?’

However, the stranger had no choice in the matter.

Ssshk.

First, I took out my phone. Originally, I had planned to use this tricky invention called the “internet” to solve the problem in front of me.

[Ding.]

But when a sound like this comes out—

[Ding.]

[Ding.]

[Ding.]

[Dir-]

[Diring.]

“Tsk.”

And of course, when it goes off many times, it’s naturally annoying for people.

“What the?”

I had just quietly muttered to myself, but the airport staff nearby all flinched at once.

[23 missed messages]

[4 missed calls]

But now was not the time to gauge the reactions of the mammalian crowd.

‘Damn it. What is this time?’

Until just now, the wireless device had been completely turned off. As a result, messages from Earthlings had piled up due to the long flight.

‘Isn’t turning off your phone on airplanes... some kind of transportation law? But if this happens every time I follow the law, how is an alien like me supposed to live without feeling wronged?’

I hurriedly checked the messages. But since so many people had sent them all at once, I couldn’t immediately figure out what the situation was.

‘My beloved second homeland... What kind of trouble has broken out this time?’

After some deliberation, I went with a backup plan. I tapped the top name on the missed contact list.

[☎ Connecting... Seo Esther]

And as soon as the new call connected, I asked the Korean curse sorcerer.

“Hello...!”

“Hello, Hunter Esther. Sorry, but could you quickly explain the situation? I noticed a huge pile of missed messages.”

To this, Seo Esther replied.

“So you’ve finally arrived in the country?”

The fact that I had left the country wasn’t exactly a secret, after all.

“Yes, yes.”

I didn’t hesitate to reveal that I had returned to Korea, and the person on the other end of the line began explaining in a loud voice.

“First, stay calm and listen carefully. Just as the plane carrying Hunter Kim Giryeo took off, a Red Gate appeared in Seoul.”

The first thing that came out was nothing too surprising.

“Moreover, the boss monster of that gate was rated S-rank. That’s probably why so many people in the country were contacting you all at once.”

But I didn’t expect the story to unfold this way.

“An S-rank ‘Red Gate’!”

I almost raised my voice with a blank expression. Honestly, I had thought that the effects of the medicine I took around the [Sin Classification] stage could wear off at any time. But the special case that had just come up was so extreme that calling it a mere alert for difficulty recovery made me want to curse.

“No, are you saying that such a powerful monster appeared in the capital area?”

And it was at that moment. The instant I heard the letter S attached to the monster, a faint memory suddenly flashed through my mind.

“Hmm?”

Now that I think about it, before I went out... Didn’t I leave something on the soil of South Korea...?

“Hunter Kim, that’s not what we need to worry about. The gate boss that tore through the passage has already been dealt with.”

An inexplicable discomfort brushed just beneath the bridge of my nose.

“You might think this sounds really, really strange, but that leader creature was hunted by a ‘monster’ just like itself!”

A little goosebump appeared on my arm.

“First, I’ll just send you the main article directly, Hunter. Ah, it’s truly a confusing situation.

._.

“What’s more, the monster is so small that no one has even seen it properly. That’s why the searchers haven’t been able to step in.

With complete control over my sense of touch, my body shouldn’t have felt the cold, yet I experienced a shiver. At this moment, I was fully aware of the situation and utterly shocked, alone.

[Diring.]

But before I could even gather my composure,

‘Email app notification sound.’

A clear sound rang out. By now, a press release clipping had arrived on my phone.

[From: Korea Magic Tower 1]

[Content:

Article Title

• Territorial Dispute Among Dungeon Monsters

[Photo attached]

Early in the morning.

As S-rank Red Gate appeared on JLA Road in downtown Seoul. The sudden emergence of a top-tier dungeon, which had been quiet for some time, is unwelcome news for anyone...

[Omitted]

However, it is presumed that the boss of the Red Passage was defeated by none other than a creature of the same game.

In the YTV news footage, the situation wasn’t captured in detail due to the camera angle, but this report confirms that powerful optical attacks were unleashed from a specific point.

It is highly unusual for such a tiny monster, estimated to be only 15-30 cm long, to demonstrate this level of destructive power...]

After reading the full email, I quietly argued with it in my mind.

‘Looks like Earth’s filming equipment was disturbed by the light. In reality, it’s not just 30 cm. The “beast” that appeared on site is roughly the same size as my arm and height.’

But, as expected, this was information I couldn’t convey out loud. In the photo attached at the top of the email, something could be seen that had taken down an S-rank boss with a single laser shot.

[From: Korea Magic Tower 1]

[Content:

...It is highly unusual for such destructive power to be displayed. What’s even more concerning from a citizen’s perspective is that the unprecedented new species of monster, which killed an S-rank boss with a single attack, has escaped.

The Hunter Association is currently putting all its efforts into tracking the location of this monster.]

The twenty or so missed messages that had arrived on my phone suddenly made complete sense.

Tak!

I smacked my forehead with my right hand. Having been on Earth for quite some time now, I’d gotten fairly used to the peach-colored limbs instead of tentacles.

“F*ck—”

But I still wasn’t used to a fate where chaos erupted almost every single day.

***

As the one covered in peach-colored skin struck their forehead with the palm of their hand, a certain scene unfolded on a part of the planet where dawn had yet to break.

This place...it’s a cold room with no heating. Moreover, as if a strict environmentalist were living here, the lights hadn’t been turned on at all, even though the air was filled with a piercing chill.

Click.

Click.

In the pitch-dark room, only the clicking sound rang out steadily. But at the moment the faint clicks of the mouse repeated about three times...

The person sitting in the chair quietly shifted their posture. The owner of the room leaned toward the sleek steel desk, studying the screen in front of them.

The green-tinted gaze was fixed on none other than a 15-inch laptop.

[¤ News of Awakener ‘Kim’ Departing]

[¤ South Korea reacts to the arrival of the fourth S-rank Hunter...]

[¤ Seonhan Daily:: Main]

[¤ Browse Previous YTV Articles]

[¤ Reporter Newsroom Page]

[¤ Kim Giryeo | Status of Korean Hunters]

[¤ □ New Tab]

For reference, the top of this internet browser was lined with a large number of tab interfaces. The laptop user went through the various contents of these tabs one by one, and eventually paused the cursor on a certain website.

[¤ “Beasts” without Any Ability?... Shocking Remarks from a New S-Rank]

These words flashed over the item called the Dragon’s Eye.

A man in his thirties, whose hair was dyed blue due to the unique physical traits of a magic awakener, quietly followed the light streaming from the laptop screen and thought.

‘I’m not going to check every single news article in the world.’

It was a natural thought at first.

‘Especially the news that people treat lightly as entertainment—I haven’t really looked into those at all.’

However, as time passed, the man’s thoughts began to converge on a particular point.

Click.

He played a video attached to a certain website.

[¤ “Beasts” without Any Ability?... Shocking Remarks from a New S-Rank]

In fact, when this article first came out, he had deliberately ignored it, thinking the reporter had just used sensational words to boost views. It was only now, at this moment, that Kang Changho realized the reason behind the unusual headline.

To be precise, he finally understood the dry tone of someone who followed that statement.

Tak.

Kang Changho briefly manipulated the keyboard. The video he found wasn’t an official broadcast on terrestrial TV; it was amateurish, with poor recording. As a result, it was filled with all sorts of noise.

‘Why am I only seeing this now?’

Still, Kang Changho seemed to realize something from that crude, impromptu interview. Eventually, he expressed a hint of regret—and let out a sigh in the empty air for good measure.

._.

A little later, he rested the back of his head in his clasped hands, as if lost in deep thought. But, in any case, the most important thing was that he had finally confirmed this information.

Click.

The man in his thirties fast-forwarded the video.