Auto Hunting

Episode 54

“What happened just now?” one of the rush team members managed to blurt out. The others were frozen in place.

They were the Red Dragon Society: one of the strongest and most elite teams, under the direct control of their CEO’s successor, Yang Biyeon. However, the other person who signed up to be with them inside the crack, a foreigner whom they laughed at…

He had leapt through falling chunks of Festival meat.

He even used the beast’s horns to be catapulted into the crack, and as he passed by the lift, he waved his hands at them.

It was unacceptable. No one knew what to say. Even Yang Biyeon was stunned.

In a way, it was a result of their arrogance.

If this had happened in Korea, the hunters would not have been surprised. It was to be expected of Oh Yoo-seong. Everyone, even beyond the hunting industry, had seen his videos.

However, the Chinese hunters were unfamiliar with it. As they prided themselves on being the best, they didn’t care about what had been happening overseas. It was definitely a shock for them to see something like it.

Luckily, Yang Biyeon soon found her words.

“Everyone, prepare for entry,” she yelled firmly, waking the members from their trance. “Do not forget who we are!”

Her words were effective, and struck fire in the members’ hearts.

“Yeah!” they responded fiercely.

“Just being a little faster or stronger is not enough to overshadow our tradition!”

Their pride, which wobbled for a moment, stood stiff and upright once again. “Let’s show the cheeky guy our skills!”

“Exactly!”

Yang Biyeon nodded as she finished her speech.

‘They were just like fighting cocks being given medicine before the battle’, she thought. Their elevated emotions led to an increase of Aura simmering over their bodies.

‘Good’, she thought.

The rush team hacked away on each Festival going within their range as the lift ascended. Soon, they too had reached the rift.

“Charge!” one of the team members yelled as he jumped in.

“Go, go, go!” the others behind urged those in front, as if they could not wait for their turn.

Everyone was pumped up for action. However, they were not prepared to see what was waiting for them inside.

“Huh?”

“Oh…”

It was bigger than they imagined.

One of the first ones who ran into the crack had been met by a running Festival.

Although he was quick to defend himself by raising his sword, there was a huge difference between deflecting a Festival’s horn and being ran over its massive body.

“Damn it!” the member cursed as he was thrown in the air.

Upon crashing back to the ground, he rolled several times before he was able to control his body. Unlike the cracks in the Korean Peninsula, where the world beyond were mostly subtropical jungles, the cracks in China were mostly open fields. As such, monsters as huge as a Festival could run at full speed.

There was nothing to block their path; only yellow wild grass and clouds of dust from their hooves.

The rush team could not see the horizon from where they stood. Instead, they saw a view full of countless Festivals, each running as if they were insane.

In Korea, a team leader would have notified the control area of the unexpected threat and order a retreat immediately. It was another situation where the difference in culture was obvious.

“What the hell is this?” one team member pulled out his sword. The others also had their weapons out, swinging wildly.

Certainly, the individual skills of the rush team members could have been a factor.

Each was confident that they could take on a four-star beast charging towards them.

Besides, it was an unexpectedly good situation for them. The abundance of Festivals meant a surplus of prey.

“Everyone, hold your positions!” Yang Biyeon yelled out as thick clouds of dust began to engulf them.

From beyond the dust, she heard the members respond. Even in her judgment, this was not reason enough to order a retreat.

The Red Dragon Society members were strong enough.

“Yell out every thirty seconds to confirm the situation!” she ordered blindly.

They could slaughter as many Festivals as possible until the herd quieted down. Yang Biyeon began swinging the Twin Swords.

Thirty seconds.

One minute.

One minute and thirty seconds.

Even though she couldn’t see them, she heard each member through the mass of large beasts and the thick dust.

-Clear!

-Clear!

-Clear!

Every time she heard their call, Yang Biyeon felt relieved.

‘They are elite hunters who can handle it’, she assured herself. ‘The more they kill, the more we would profit.’

Being a four-star beast, the Festival had considerable value.

When the fuss died down, they could throw out the corpses out of the crack while charging the circuit breaker. There may even be some Festivals that could be captured alive.

Suddenly, Yang Biyeon felt something coming from behind her. She immediately turned and raised her swords.

“What is this?” she said, as she saw a familiar expressionless face.

Oh Yoo-seong.

The foreigner had a Gellar gun in his hand aimed at her. Then, he fired.

Caang-!

Yang Biyeon acted in time and blocked it with her sword.

“You’re crazy!” she screamed.

She had thought about it in passing. Why would Yoo-seong insist to join them inside the crack?

Maybe he wanted to avenge the act of terrorism that a Chinese company did to him, she thought. Now, she was convinced.

‘I shouldn’t have trusted him’, she thought, as she activated her genetically inherited Psy.

Ignition.

A fierce flame burst forth from the engraved dragons in her twin swords. She steadied herself for battle. However…

Pop-!

The ground beneath her shook, catching her unaware. The bullet she blocked was a Parasitic Bee that lodged near her feet.

Before she could regain her balance, she felt an incoming mass.

‘Festivals’, she thought as she fell. At her current state, she would surely be crushed.

Suddenly, Yoo-seong was upon her, catching her arm.

Tuk-!

“Ah!” Yang Biyeon wanted to scream as soon as she felt it.

She felt her blood harden, and her limbs go stiff, as if they were petrified.

‘This… This is…’

A technique that sealed the movement of another person by solidifying their blood.

It was the stuff of legends, her father told her. Even he, who was a leader in the Ship Zone, had never seen it.

Yoo-seong’s Automatic Hunting copied it from Jin Wei-baek.

She felt helpless as Yoo-seong carried her away, before the stampede crushed her. As she looked up at Yoo-seong’s expressionless face, she felt ashamed.

She struggled to move her body somehow, but it was not possible. Tears of frustration spilled from her eyes.

She hoped he would kill her immediately, as he set her down away from the Festivals.

However, he simply stared at her. She felt as if she was being looked down upon. A few seconds passed. No move to finish her off came.

Instead, she heard him say something in Korean.

She didn’t know the language, but his gesture was universal:

‘Wait.’

Then, he disappeared into the dust.

After a minute, he was back with another team member in his arms. Like her, the team member was rigid as a rock.

He settled the team member down beside her, then he disappeared again.

Again and again he went, until eight petrified bodies, including Yang Biyeon’s, were side by side away from the Festival rush.

“Woo!” Yoo-seong sighed heavily.

The Red Dragon members could not speak, but what they wanted to say was obvious from their hateful gaze towards Yoo-seong. It was as if they were blaming him for ruining the hunt.

Yang Biyeon’s thoughts were different.

Including her, there were seventeen Red Dragon members who participated as the rush team. Because of the situation, they wouldn’t have known that their leader and other teammates had been captured helplessly.

‘Would Yoo-seong leave the other nine alone?’

Tension and fear were in everyone’s eyes as Yoo-seong approached them.

“Listen carefully,” he said, pointing at his ears. “Listen, okay?”

He kept repeating the words.

“Listen, listen.”

Even though they didn’t understand the word or his intention, the Red Dragon members had nothing else to do in this situation.

Their ears naturally focused.

The cries of the Festivals.

The sound of their hooves.

And after thirty second, the roll-call.

They were glad to hear that the other nine members were okay, but what was strange was that, there were still seventeen shouts in total.

-Clear!

-Clear!

-Clear!

‘How could it be, they all thought, when half of the group are lying here helplessly, unable to speak?’

Yang Biyeon’s eyes widened as she heard her own voice from beyond the clouds of dust.

“I hope they understand,” Yoo-seong sighed heavily.

He was the first one inside the crack, and witnessed the Festivals running senselessly.

Yoo-seong had then hidden himself in a safe position and observed calmly. He had collected information about monsters appearing in China.

Festivals were rated 4-stars due to their size, not because of their intelligence. They had no organized command system. They were dull monsters that lived in groups.

They would not act this way unless something had disturbed the herd.

‘A predator’, his intuition told him.

As soon as he switched Auto-Hunt on, he was led to Yang Biyeon. And as he stood in front of her, he heard her voice from beyond the dust right away.

‘A monster that imitates the voice of its prey.’

It was horrifying.

He had goosebumps on his arms as he listened to the roll-call along with the captured rush team members.

With Auto-Hunt, he was able to find all the members who were still alive.

It meant that the group in front of him were the only ones that survived. The other nine members were already dead.

Yoo-seong switched the Auto-Hunt button off and sat beside Yang Biyeon.

He would wait until the dust settled so he could find the predator. It would be difficult to locate it if it was hiding in the midst of the large Festivals.

He looked at Yang Biyeon and wondered if he should release her blood.

After contemplating about it, he picked up the Twin Swords instead. They seem as if they would be more helpful than another person to worry about.

Yang Biyeon stared at him with a resigned look on her face.

She lost half of her elite members, and now, the symbol of the family was on a foreigner’s hands. What was worse was that there was nothing she could do about it.

Time passed slowly.

Eventually, the clouds gradually faded, exposing several Festival carcasses on the ground. Soon, the rush team members saw them – The predators feasting on the corpses.

They were also four-legged beasts, slightly smaller than that of the Festival. Their huge mouths worked nonstop, biting off chunks off flesh, while mimicking Festival cries and human voices from time to time.

‘Maybe it was a joke between them’, Yoo-seong thought. ‘Mimicking the voice of their prey while feasting on them.’

It was creepy.

Behind him, the Red Dragon members were shivering. No one had ever seen these monsters face-to-face. At least, no one has survived to tell the tale.

Despite that, they were familiar with its appearance and notoriety. One of the creatures landed near the others, carrying a familiar figure on its huge claws.

Yang Biyeon closed her eyes tightly. ‘One of my men…’

It was a human body, its face torn beyond recognition.

‘Damn it, damn it’, she cursed. This would surely go down as one of the worst failures in the history of hunting in China.

No rush team could have prepared for this. One of the four species of Perils was right in front of them.

Yang Biyeon knew she would die that day. Everyone was thinking the same thing.

Everyone, except Yoo-seong.

-Blink your eyes…-

He did not have any notions about the brutality of the monsters in front of him.

All he could think about was the great opportunity to make use of his new strength. It had been ten days since he consumed the Golden Pill.

Now, it had been completely absorbed by his body.

And the effect was…

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