Chapter 442: Juicer (2)

The outskirts of Gyeonggi Province.

Wooooooong.

A gate radiating an ominous energy.

It had originally been a D-rank gate, but an abnormal gate phenomenon had transformed it into a B-rank gate.

Several hunters were pacing anxiously in front of it.

“Wasn’t it already four hours ago that the D-rank hunters entered?”

“Yes, Team Leader.”

“And the gate still won’t let anyone in? You’re saying D-rank hunters have lasted for more than four hours in there? Does that make any sense?”

At the abnormal gate response team leader’s criticism, one hunter cautiously spoke.

“Th-the gate probably didn’t change into a B-rank gate immediately after they entered. We only received the report about two hours ago.”

“And D-rank hunters surviving for two hours inside a B-rank gate makes sense?”

“.......”

No matter who thought about it, it made no sense.

Silence descended once again, and the abnormal gate response team hunters paced around the gate with anxious expressions.

At that moment, a black sedan approached the gate.

An elderly man stepped out of the sedan.

The response team leader’s eyes widened when he saw the old man.

“Association President!?”

Kang Youngchan, president of the Hunter Association.

He asked the response team leader who had been waiting there.

“Has the entrance still not opened?”

“No, Association President.”

“Then that means there are still people inside.”

“....... Yes, Association President.”

The Association President turned his head and looked at the abnormal gate.

His expression contained complicated emotions.

'If only we had taken more active measures.......'

More than two hours had passed since it changed into a B-rank gate.

The fact that D-rank hunters alone had endured for that long was already astonishing.

Put another way, however, were they not reaching their limit by now?

The Association President thought.

Realistically, it would be difficult for the hunters to return alive.

“Enter as soon as the entrance opens. We should retrieve them before the monsters damage the hunters’ bodies any further, shouldn’t we?”

Even if only their corpses remained, they had to return them to their bereaved families.

The Association President believed that was the very least they could do.

“Yes. We’ll remain on standby, Association President.”

The Association President and his secretaries, along with the abnormal gate response team hunters, remained near the gate for several dozen minutes.

Then several more vehicles approached the area.

“Hmm?”

Everyone watched the approaching vehicles with puzzled expressions.

Before long, all their faces twisted at once.

It was because of the microphones and cameras held by the people getting out of the vehicles.

“We’re from the Korea Newspaper!”

“We heard an abnormal gate phenomenon occurred! Is that true?”

“Please say a few words about the abnormal gate phenomenon that has begun spreading worldwide!”

“Why hasn’t the Association taken more active measures regarding abnormal gates!?”

No one knew where the information had leaked from, but reporters had swarmed in to cover the incident.

And they were not the end of it.

Vroooom.

Several more vehicles continued approaching from far away.

Reporters who had caught the scent of a story rushed in like a pack of jackals.

Questions continued as though they were interrogating criminals, while camera shutters flashed without rest.

There was not much the Association President could tell them.

“It was originally a D-rank gate, and it changed into a B-rank gate approximately two hours after the hunters entered.”

“The hunters who entered first are still holding out inside the gate.”

“As soon as the gate entrance opens, we will dispatch a rescue team and save them.”

The Association President could only repeat the same words.

Before long, articles poured onto the internet like a storm.

[Abnormal Gate Phenomenon Occurs in Korea.]

[Five Hunters Missing. Is the Association Truly Blameless?]

.......

It was not limited to internet articles.

Various television channels also scheduled breaking-news coverage and broadcast the scene in front of the gate.

Naturally, the news spread throughout online communities.

- Wow. Things were quiet for a few years, too.

- The Association is fucking useless. I looked it up online, and abnormal gate phenomena had already happened overseas.

- Yeah, communities have been going crazy about it for ages.

- I just feel sorry for the hunters.

Public sympathy for the hunters who had entered the gate.

And public opinion demanding that the Association take responsibility began to boil over.

Of course, not everyone felt that way.

There were plenty of people who hated seeing others doing well.

- What’s there to feel sorry for? This isn’t the old days. Hunters nowadays all enter gates to make money anyway, don’t they?

- Hahaha, serves them right. I was already pissed off watching dumb fucks who had never studied in their lives suddenly awaken and start making money like they’d won the lottery.

- When you make money, it’s thanks to your own ability. When something goes wrong, it’s the country’s fault. A time-honored tradition, yeah.

Some of what they said was true.

But anyone who blurted out facts regardless of the situation was socially maladjusted.

Attention seekers. People steeped in resentment toward society. Or trolls.

Thanks to the things such people posted, the netizens’ interest climbed even higher.

Was it because of that soaring interest?

Around the abnormal gate.

After the reporters, new figures began arriving one by one.

“Yes! This is the very location where that abnormal gate supposedly appeared!”

“Brothers! I’ll try approaching the area around the gate entrance!”

“Thank you for the one hundred water balloons!”

People who made their living from attention.

Online broadcasters such as YouTubers and streamers.

Among them were the most malicious sort of all: professional outrage-chasing streamers.

After being tormented by the reporters, the Association President realized something far too late.

Compared to these people, the press had been gentlemen.

Thanks to the outrage streamers appearing, the scene was now only one step away from becoming complete chaos.

“You cannot come any closer!!!”

“It’s dangerous!! Step back!!”

The Hunter Association employees were overwhelmed trying to restrain them.

“Huh? Did you just push me?”

“Wow! Brothers, did you see that? A Hun! Ter! just assaulted a civilian!”

Watching that spectacle, the Association President could not stop a sigh from escaping.

'....... At least it was fortunate that I called the employees in advance.'

He had summoned them when the reporters first began gathering.

But even that no longer seemed sufficient.

The Association President hurriedly instructed his secretary.

“Call in additional employees. Ah, and since so many people have gathered, request support from the police as well.”

“Yes, Association President.”

Perhaps the chaos would settle down a little once additional police officers and Association personnel arrived.

The moment he began to hope so, another blow struck.

“Taeseok!! Taeseok!!!”

“Oh, my son!! My poor son!!!”

No one knew where they had obtained the information, but the families of the hunters who had entered the gate arrived.

The cameras of the reporters and outrage streamers all turned toward them at once.

They were already being treated no differently from bereaved families.

One parent immediately charged toward the Association President.

“My daughter!! What are you going to do about my daughter!! What the hell are you going to do about my daughter, you son of a bitch!!!”

She looked ready to grab him by the collar and shake him on the spot.

The Association President could only lower his head.

One disturbance after another.

People continued pouring in.

Before anyone realized it, hundreds had gathered around the gate.

Then, once the commotion had settled down even slightly.

Several people noticed something strange.

“Time really flies. Is it already eight?”

“Senior, shouldn’t we eat something while we cover this? It doesn’t look like this will end anytime soon.”

The sky had already turned black.

“Huh? But why hasn’t the gate opened yet? According to the Association, more than eight hours have already passed.”

The D-rank hunters had entered the gate in the morning.

The abnormal gate phenomenon had been discovered around noon.

Those who sensed something was strange came up with two major theories.

“D-rank hunters have been holding out in a B-rank gate for more than eight hours?”

“No way. Ah, maybe it’s one of those gates where entry remains blocked until the gate goes berserk? Since it’s an abnormal gate, it wouldn’t be strange no matter what happened, would it?”

Either the D-rank hunters were still holding out.

Or there was something abnormal about the gate itself.

Far more people believed the latter.

The only ones who believed the former were the tiny handful of people desperate to cling to even the faintest hope.

“P-please hurry and go inside!! M-my child is still holding out in there!!”

The hunters from the Association felt miserable.

If it were up to them, they would have entered and helped.

But the entrance would not open, so there was no way to get inside.

Even after that, time continued to pass.

There was still no change at the entrance.

Time passed until midnight.

Then, just as even those who believed the hunters were still holding out began to give up.

The gate changed.

Wheeeeeeng.

“Huh?”

Everyone’s gaze turned toward the gate at once.

The same was true of the cameras held by the cameramen and online broadcasters.

A moment later, people began emerging one by one through the gate entrance.

“Th-the hunters!”

“They’re definitely the hunters who entered this morning!!”

The moment the Hunter Association personnel shouted, camera shutters began flashing like mad.

The dark night sky seemed to brighten for an instant.

Naturally, the hunters emerging from the gate hurriedly covered their eyes with their hands.

“Ugh.”

“W-what is going on all of a sudden?”

The hunters had been trapped inside the gate for more than twelve hours, so they had no idea what was happening.

At that moment, someone hurriedly ran toward them.

“Taeseok!!”

“Oh, my son!!!”

The hunters’ families.

When the relatives they had believed dead returned, the area instantly became a sea of tears.

Just then, one tactless reporter asked them a question.

“How did you manage to come back alive?”

It was almost as if he had been hoping they would die.

The families glared fiercely at him.

But to the reporters, the story mattered more.

Once one reporter opened the floodgates, questions poured out.

“We understand that it changed into a B-rank gate!! What was the situation inside the gate like!?”

The flustered hunters all looked in the same direction.

“W-we survived thanks to Hunter Choi Kanghyuk.”

“Yes. Hunter Choi Kanghyuk hunted all the monsters for us.”

Naturally, the reporters’ gazes followed theirs.

A single man stood there proudly.

He possessed a physique that went beyond sturdy and into outright hulking.

On top of that, he presented the bizarre sight of standing there in nothing but his underwear.

Even in such an outfit, he had not attracted much attention at first.

After all, he had survived a dangerous place.

They assumed his leather suit had been completely torn apart during battle.

His body was indeed stained with blood in several places, and several wounds that looked like cuts could be seen.

The other surviving hunters also had damaged leather suits or sections that had been torn away.

Their condition was merely less severe than that of the hunter named Choi Kanghyuk, whose entire leather suit had been shredded.

The reporters, having spotted their prey, began asking questions.

“How were you able to survive inside a B-rank gate?”

“Were you originally a B-rank hunter?”

Choi Kanghyuk shook his head.

“I was a D-rank hunter.”

“Then how did you hunt B-rank monsters?”

The reason he had been able to hunt B-rank monsters.

Naturally, it had been thanks to drugs.

No, thanks to magic stones.

However, Choi Kanghyuk decided to conceal that fact.

Consuming magic stones was an act forbidden by the WHA.

Of course, the fact that the WHA had forbidden it did not necessarily mean he had to hide it.

The problem was why the WHA had forbidden it.

No one had succeeded in the past several years.

That meant he was the perfect specimen for experimentation.

Choi Kanghyuk did not want to become the subject of biological experiments.

Moreover.

'I don’t want people calling me a druggie.'

Just as juiced gym addicts insisted until the bitter end that they were natural, Choi Kanghyuk intended to conceal the truth as well.

And for that purpose, he had already prepared a plausible story.

“My awakened ability is Iron Shirt, an ability that continually hardens my skin and muscles the more powerful the blows I receive.”

In other words, it had initially been a D-rank ability, but had grown stronger as he worked as a hunter.

“The gate was inhabited by D-rank monsters called Silverfangs. However, when night fell, the Silverfangs evolved into Lycanthropes.”

“By Lycanthropes, do you mean the B-rank monster Lycanthrope?”

“Yes. And perhaps as a side effect of the evolution, unfortunately, no magic stones remained inside the bodies of either the Lycanthropes or Silverfangs.”

That was the story he had prepared.

It sounded like an absurd lie, but under the present circumstances, it was plausible.

“Perhaps this was also part of the abnormal gate phenomenon.”

Abnormal gates had never existed before.

No matter what happened, it would not be strange.

After finishing his answer, Choi Kanghyuk looked toward the hunters who had accompanied him.

The hunters hurriedly nodded.

“Yes. Th-that’s right!”

“There were no magic stones.”

Naturally, Choi Kanghyuk had coordinated their stories in advance.

Meanwhile.

As the interview continued, the cameras remained focused on Choi Kanghyuk.

His appearance was repeatedly shown on streams and news broadcasts.

Naturally, people who recognized him began to appear.

- Holy shit hahaha, isn’t that the Barbarian?

└ It is! No wonder he’s standing there in his underwear!

└ Ahahahahaha, so his clothes weren’t torn apart while fighting? He went in wearing nothing but underwear from the start?

It was the moment the Barbarian, who had only been well known among D-rank hunters, became famous nationwide.