GM Ch92

Experienced hunters did not let their guard down until the very end. A monster was a target of vigilance until it disappeared into dust.

At the same time as Park Gyuyoung fell, a golden barrier wrapped around him in several layers. It was the moment when people were bewildered, wondering what was going on. Unlike when he turned into a monster, Park Gyuyoung, who had shrunk miserably and fallen to the floor, exploded without warning.

Minjun, who had been preparing in advance, covered his face and heart with his arms and tightly closed and opened his eyes. The three-layered barrier that Soohyuk had created was shattered. Fortunately, Seo Wooju’s barrier was holding firm.

The problem was the sharp and long line that looked as if it had been cut towards the sky. And something popped out from beyond the black line.

“Oh my god!”

“What is that?!”

“It looks like a tentacle?!”

“Monster information isn’t showing up.”

“It’s not just one or two!”

What popped out from the gap was a long tentacle with fluorescent green flames rising from it. And it wasn’t just one or two. As several tentacles resembling squid legs popped out and thrashed around, people were amazed.

However, experienced hunters reacted differently. They couldn’t know the rank because the monster information wasn’t showing up, but judging by the length of the tentacles, they could guess that the size was not ordinary.

There were various types of tentacle monsters, and their natures varied widely. However, the longer the tentacles, the more difficult they were to deal with was a common trait.

Minjun clicked his tongue inwardly. He also couldn’t see the monster information, but he immediately recognized the identity of the tentacles with fluorescent green flames burning. It was an undead monster called a Corpse Snail.

The Corpse Snail’s tentacles inflicted wounds not only on the body but also on the soul, making treatment difficult. Its defense was weak, but it had many weakening skills. Fear, confusion, and weakness. It was a monster that had all the conditions that hunters hated.

The gap in the dimension was too narrow, so the Corpse Snail’s body couldn’t cross over, and only the tentacles were stretching out, but Minjun was not relieved. First of all, those legs had to be cut off.

“Cut them off!”

Seo Wooju was faster than Minjun. At Seo Wooju’s shout, Yoon Soohyuk swung the sword in his hand greatly. The thrashing tentacles were cut off with ‘One Slash,’ which could be said to be a common skill for hunters. The long tentacles turned into dust and disappeared before they even fell to the floor. People cheered as the powerful attack worked.

It was at that moment. A bundle of tentacles popped out again from the long gap. This time, they didn’t sway. They were swung towards Yoon Soohyuk with definite hostility.

Yoon Soohyuk, who was on guard, cut off the tentacles with his sword. But he wasn’t the only one who was attacked.

Among the countless bundles of tentacles, some were aimed at the S-class hunters, some slammed into the ground, and some struck Seo Wooju’s barrier.

Bang! Clang! Bang!

The sound of breaking echoed from all directions. The bricks of the sidewalk, the asphalt of the road, the roadside trees, and the concrete were shattered.

Minjun and the other S-class hunters easily blocked or cut off the tentacles. But the problem was Seo Wooju’s barrier.

Thick cracks appeared in the silver citadel, which was being attacked most intensively.

“Durability 63. It won’t last long!”

While the frightened people were wavering, Seo Wooju shouted loudly. Yoon Soohyuk immediately grasped the situation. Seo Wooju’s defense skill, ‘Silver Citadel,’ was considered the strongest barrier. The fact that the durability had been greatly reduced after only a few hits meant that the tentacles’ attack power was that strong.

The biggest weakness of Seo Wooju’s defense skill was that it only defended one side, like a shield. There were limits to its height and length. If the tentacles, which could not be known how far they would extend, went over the barrier and struck the people, it would be the end.

Soohyuk and the other S-class hunters moved quickly. Fortunately, it wasn’t difficult to cut off the tentacles because the gap was fixed in place. But at some point, the tentacles began to shoot out like missiles.

The location where the gap in space was created was not good. If the angle was slightly off, it would be easy to go over Seo Wooju’s barrier. Kwak Jonghoon and Lee Hana blocked the tentacles that were trying to hit the people directly. But as the number of tentacles being fired increased, the S-class hunters became frantically busy.

“Damn! What the hell is that?!”

Kwak Jonghoon shouted loudly. Yoon Soohyuk felt the same way. He didn’t like the idea of just being on the receiving end. He used a skill to attack the main body of the tentacles. The golden sword was shot into the gap, but nothing changed.

Just as he was thinking about whether he should buy time until the gap closed, Minjun’s movement caught his eye. Minjun, who had been silently fending off the tentacles, used his flight skill to fly high into the sky.

“Minjun!”

He called his name, but Minjun didn’t look this way. A dark blue membrane fluttered around Minjun’s body like a cloak after he looked at a distant place once. And the end of the cloak spread out with the momentum of flames swept by a fierce wind. It even went over Seo Wooju’s Silver Citadel in an instant.

“Oh my goodness.”

Soohyuk was impressed even while fending off the tentacles by the overwhelming sight. It was as if the Milky Way had become a splendid curtain and landed on the ground.

The range was also enormous. It covered not only the people gathered behind Seo Wooju’s barrier but also the entire flea market area.

Just then, one of the tentacles that popped out of the gap in space went over Seo Wooju’s barrier and pierced Minjun’s curtain. There was no destructive impact. The tentacle that pierced the starlight-filled curtain turned into dust and scattered.

Now it was not an eagle, it was a dinosaur.

He almost laughed at the amazing sight. The sturdy seedling chick was not an eagle but the sprout of a dinosaur.

“I’ll block them, so attack.”

Minjun, who had risen high into the sky, pointed to the ground. Small, snail-like monsters were flowing down from below the cracked gap in the sky.

With a strong barrier in place, the S-class hunters began to rampage as much as they wanted. Even Seo Wooju withdrew his silver citadel and went on the attack. Even if the people were safe, it was another problem for the tentacles to destroy buildings, roads, and parked cars.

While the wildly flying tentacles and the cheetah-like snails were being cleaned up, the gap in space began to shrink.

Minjun, who was floating in the air and fending off the tentacles flying towards him, quietly swallowed a sigh of relief.

It’s going to get noisy again.

Minjun roughly predicted what would happen when he saw the cell phones in the hands of the people looking up at him.

He was glad that no one was hurt and that the accident could be cleaned up. But he had inadvertently attracted attention because he used a skill that was too large in scale.

The defense skill ‘Shroud of Stars’ was originally meant to wrap around and protect oneself like a cloak. Then, while rolling around in the other world, he found out that he could increase the size of the curtain as he wanted. Theoretically, it increased infinitely as long as the magic power allowed it.

Besides, it was a great advantage to be able to attack the enemy while being protected by wrapping the barrier around the body.

The downside was that it consumed a lot of mana for its size, and it was so noisy that anyone who didn’t know better might mistake it for an attack skill.

He had intended to use it carefully, but the situation didn’t allow for it.

“Well, it’ll work out somehow.”

Minjun didn’t worry about it beforehand. He hadn’t used an perception-blocking item, and his baseball cap had fallen off, so he couldn’t hide anyway.

He figured he might as well use this opportunity to announce that he had become an S-class and get a lot of attention. If things went south, the guild would take care of it. He was glad he had decided to stay in the guild.

Minjun decided to calmly accept the future that lay ahead.

***

The accident at the Hunter Market’s regular auction event was being broadcast live. This was because there were WeTubers who couldn’t get into the auction house but were visiting the free market, and broadcasting station cameras that had come to film the news.

Thanks to the efforts of all the S-class hunters except for Hwang Sujin hunter, who was waiting in the auction house, the number of real-time viewers exploded, and it goes without saying that the viewership ratings soared.

The problem was cleaning up after the accident.

Since the entire situation was broadcast live to the entire nation, and then to the world, it was impossible to conceal or even downplay it.

Park Gyuyoung’s identity, the cause of the incident, was revealed first.

The fact that Park Gyuyoung was a civil servant belonging to the National Security Agency and a B-class hunter who was caught pickpocketing didn’t attract much attention. People wanted to know why he, who had been chased and caught by the Red Flame Guild’s hunters, had suddenly turned into a monster.

From this point on, the government began to carefully leak information. They didn’t disclose all the information they had received from the S-class hunters regarding ‘Whispering Poison’ and its detoxify agent.

They only said that Park Gyuyoung seemed to be addicted to a very dangerous illegal drug. They vaguely said that they were investigating whether it was related to the hunter explosion accident that had occurred overseas. They also backed away, saying that nothing had been confirmed yet regarding the space rift caused by the explosion.

It didn’t take long for public opinion to boil over with just a short announcement. All sorts of conspiracy theories ran rampant. However, within hours of the government’s official announcement, rumors began to circulate that a new S-class hunter had appeared, and all attention was focused on that.

It started with a post on an anonymous community site where job titles were open. Someone from the National Security Agency wrote that there was an S-class hunter who had reawakened, and that it was the person who had become famous this time, and then deleted the post, but it was captured and circulated everywhere.