Chapter 457: The Pain That Could Not Kill Me (2)

Choi Kanghyuk, who entered the gate first, looked around and spoke.

“It is a desert.”

It was not familiar, but neither was it a sight he had never seen before.

Xinjiang, where the Demon Cult’s main headquarters was located, and Tibet, where the Potala Palace stood.

He had experience traveling through the Taklamakan Desert that divided those two places.

While Choi Kanghyuk looked around at the desolate desert landscape. For some reason, Park Gyuchul looked at Kim Jicheol with a complicated expression.

The moment Kim Jicheol confirmed that it was a desert, his expression stiffened.

“Hoo.”

Kim Jicheol took a deep breath as though shaking something off, then opened his mouth.

“Gyuchul.”

“Yes. Brother.”

“If it is a desert, we do not know what might jump out from beneath the ground, so let us stay alert.”

“Yes. I will pay a little more attention.”

After finishing their brief conversation, Park Gyuchul turned his head toward Choi Kanghyuk.

“Director. I will take the lead here.”

It was not that he disregarded Choi Kanghyuk’s ability.

However, separate from his outstanding combat skills, Choi Kanghyuk had only been a hunter for three months.

He judged that this kind of unusual terrain could be dangerous.

Of course, until now, whether it was traps or monsters, Choi Kanghyuk had simply pushed forward while taking everything with his body.

But this time, the circumstances were a little different.

“I know about your ability, Director Choi, but this is still an A-rank gate, so we need to be careful.”

Choi Kanghyuk looked at Park Gyuchul for a moment, then shrugged once.

'It would be more convenient to just take everything with my body.'

Was there any need to take a difficult detour when there was an easy path?

'Still, he looks so serious about it, so there is no need to ignore him.'

For smooth teamwork, he decided to yield for now.

“Then take the lead.”

Park Gyuchul nodded and stepped forward.

As Choi Kanghyuk walked behind Park Gyuchul, he felt something strange.

'Hmm. Come to think of it, I have always been at the very front, have I not?'

Now that he had fallen back, he could properly observe his companions.

'Hm?'

Then Kim Jicheol caught his eye.

For some reason, he looked extremely tense.

'Oh dear. It seems he forgot to do his warm-up exercises today.'

Choi Kanghyuk hurriedly opened his mouth.

“Wait a moment. There is something we need to do before we set out.”

“Yes? Is there some problem?”

“It is a very important problem.”

“An important problem?”

Choi Kanghyuk nodded gravely and spoke.

“We have not done our warm-up exercises yet.”

Warming up before the main exercise was the most basic of basics.

Immature teenagers might be able to endure suddenly running without warming up, but people in their forties could not.

Was that not the age when a single full sprint could tear a hamstring, and if one was unlucky, merely bending down to pick something up from the ground could cause a muscle spasm in the shoulder or neck?

“Think about it. What if a monster or trap suddenly jumps out, and while trying to avoid it, you get a cramp or a muscle spasm? Is that not horrifying just to imagine?”

If one even died because of that, could there be a more pointless death?

Of course, this was merely Choi Kanghyuk’s own opinion.

The other two A-rank hunters, who had come with him for the first time today, let out hollow laughs.

“Excuse me. Did you perhaps come here to have fun?”

“You seem not to know because you have only been playing around in B-rank gates, but this is an A-rank gate. Try to stay alert.”

They knew a certain amount about Choi Kanghyuk.

It was not only because Choi Kanghyuk had appeared on the news several times.

To begin with, there were not that many A-rank hunters even in Korea.

After visiting A-rank gates several times, one inevitably kept meeting the same people.

Especially after excluding the A-rank hunters belonging to several large guilds that only entered gates among themselves, very few remained.

When an unfamiliar A-rank hunter suddenly appeared during the gate-clearing application process, A-rank hunters often investigated that person in advance.

Because their lives were at stake.

'Did he rise to A-rank in only a few months and start taking it too lightly?'

'Tsk. This is why I did not want to come with a beginner. Had he not been a tank.'

A-rank hunters were already few in number.

Among them, A-rank hunters who filled the role of a tank were even rarer.

Even among S-rank hunters, there was only one tank in all of South Korea.

There were already few people with tank-type abilities, but many also retired or applied for lower-level gates.

Although it was a job where everyone risked their lives, tanks faced the greatest danger among them.

For this reason, they had accompanied Choi Kanghyuk despite knowing that he had only just become an A-rank hunter.

Because tanks were nobles.

And now. That beginner noble was spouting strange nonsense.

“I am speaking seriously. Athletes warm up before competitions as well, do they not? Now, I will teach you, so all you need to do is follow along.”

In the middle of the desert.

A man wearing nothing but a single pair of leather pants short enough to resemble hot pants suddenly began stretching.

Kim Jicheol, who had been quietly watching the sight, suddenly burst into laughter.

“Pfft.”

Thanks to Choi Kanghyuk’s attitude, as though he had merely come out for a stroll around the neighborhood, his tension eased.

'Bad memories came back to me, but thanks to Director Choi, I can breathe a little easier.'

An A-rank gate. A desert-like landscape.

For Kim Jicheol, it was tied to very bad memories.

Because the place where he had suffered the injury that nearly killed him had been a desert-type A-rank gate.

Kim Jicheol, who had laughed, began stretching along with Choi Kanghyuk.

Then Park Gyuchul also followed the two and warmed up.

“Are you two not going to do it?”

At Choi Kanghyuk’s question, the remaining two hunters eventually sighed and roughly imitated the movements.

“Hey now. Your bodies will not loosen up if you do it like that. If you are going to do it, do it properly!”

In the middle of a desert beneath the blazing sun.

An unwanted personal training session began.

***

After warming up for around twenty minutes. Choi Kanghyuk spoke with a refreshed expression.

“Whew. That feels refreshing.”

“I am glad we stretched. I feel as though my body has loosened up a little.”

Kim Jicheol looked quite satisfied.

Of course, the expressions of the two hunters who had unexpectedly received personal training were rotting away.

Not that Choi Kanghyuk cared.

“Let us set out now.”

“Yes. Director!”

Park Gyuchul once again moved forward with much lighter steps.

After walking behind him for a while. Park Gyuchul suddenly stopped.

“There is something up ahead.”

His finger pointed straight forward.

But all that could be seen before them was still the desolate desert landscape.

At that moment. Choi Kanghyuk suddenly dashed forward.

Thud! Thud!

The sound of his rough footsteps echoed as his massive body advanced at tremendous speed.

“Wait!!”

“There might be a trap there!!”

The two hunters shouted in alarm.

Sink.

The ground beneath Choi Kanghyuk’s foot collapsed, and his leg was sucked into the sand as though he had fallen into a swamp.

At the same time, some kind of white spike shot out.

Swoooooosh.

Amid all that, the tank was acting clueless and was not even attempting to defend himself.

It seemed that the tank would be injured from the very beginning.

No. A person might die.

Curses escaped the two hunters’ mouths on their own.

“Ha. Fuck.”

“We are fucked.”

Immediately afterward, the spike collided with the tank’s thick pectoral muscle.

Then a satisfying metallic sound rang out.

Clang!!

“Ah?”

While the two hunters stared blankly. Choi Kanghyuk, who had completely ignored defense, slammed his fist into the ground.

Booooom!!!

Along with a noise like an exploding shell, the desert sand surged upward.

Only after the sand that had risen into the air settled did the hunters properly grasp the situation.

Beneath Choi Kanghyuk’s feet lay a white scorpion larger than a person.

Its head had been smashed apart.

It was an A-rank monster commonly known as a White Scorpion.

It hid beneath the desert sand, and above all, its tail was the problem.

It possessed enough force to pierce steel plates. On top of that, it carried a deadly poison dangerous enough to threaten one’s life with even the slightest graze.

It was notorious for being an exceptionally troublesome monster.

However.

“There are three more.”

Crush!!!

Its head burst apart with absurd ease beneath Choi Kanghyuk’s fist.

Amid that, another White Scorpion thrust out its tail.

It was pointless resistance.

Clang!!

“Whew. That feels refreshing.”

Crush!!

Choi Kanghyuk smashed apart the scorpions with the attitude of someone receiving a massage.

“.......”

The two hunters wore vacant expressions.

“Is that not dangerous even if it only grazes you......?”

“Could it be a different scorpion from the White Scorpions reported to the Association?”

“That cannot be. I clearly heard this was an A-rank gate.”

The one who resolved their doubts was Park Gyuchul.

“Director Choi’s body is ridiculously sturdy. Well, I did not know it would be to that extent even among A-ranks.”

After briefly explaining, Park Gyuchul approached Kim Jicheol.

“Brother. Are you all right?”

“Ah. Ahh. Y-yes, do not worry. I am fine.”

It was not a reaction that looked very fine.

Park Gyuchul knew the reason.

'As though the desert was not enough, it had to be White Scorpions. Are we truly cursed?'

It was far too similar to the situation in which Kim Jicheol had suffered his severe injury.

That did not mean Kim Jicheol had been injured by a White Scorpion.

His injury had come from the boss monster known as the gatekeeper.

'Surely that bastard will not appear too?'

Park Gyuchul shook his head sharply after entertaining the pointless worry.

Then, as usual, he forcibly raised the energy and shouted.

“This A-rank gate is totally Lot○! All right! Let us keep going exactly like this!”

“Yes? Why are you suddenly talking about Lot○?”

“Do you like baseball?”

At the two hunters’ questions, Park Gyuchul grinned.

“When it comes to gum, it has to be Lot○, does it not! This A-rank gate is totally a piece of gum! Wahahahaha!”

At Park Gyuchul’s laughter, filled with middle-aged-man energy, Choi Kanghyuk spoke with an awkward expression.

“Member Park Gyuchul, were you not thirty-four? How in the world do you know that advertisement?”

***

Regardless of Park Gyuchul’s rotten old joke, the gate-clearing operation proceeded smoothly.

“There seems to be another White Scorpion hiding up ahe—”

Booooom!!!!

Before Park Gyuchul could even finish speaking, Choi Kanghyuk charged forward.

That did not mean everyone else was merely riding the bus.

Now, the other hunters no longer panicked and supported him while freely displaying their abilities.

Thanks to that, the speed at which they hunted monsters was tremendous.

“With Hunter Park ?? (Original source) Gyuchul and Hunter Choi Kanghyuk here, dealing with White Scorpions is really easy.”

“As expected, a tank and a detection-type hunter are essential. Absolutely essential.”

To begin with, the most troublesome things about White Scorpions were their stealth and poison.

Once their stealth was countered and even their poison was blocked, fighting them felt like dealing with B-rank monsters.

Other monsters that lived in the desert appeared from time to time, but none posed a major problem.

In that way, half a day passed after they entered the gate.

“It seems there are almost no monsters left now.”

“Hmm. It seems this gate is simply a complete-clearing type, and there is no gatekeeper.”

Had it not been said that words became seeds?

The moment the two hunters finished chatting, Park Gyuchul stopped walking.

'Fuck.'

He could feel an enormous presence up ahead.

His ability was warning him.

That it was dangerous ahead.

Even so, he had no intention of blaming the two hunters who had raised the flag.

Because he himself had done the same thing.

'Of all things, it had to be that bastard.'

He could tell merely from the presence he felt.

Because he could clearly sense the body of an absurdly enormous monster.

Then Park Gyuchul remembered something and hurriedly turned his head.

“Director Choi! You must not run forward this time!”

But unexpectedly.

Choi Kanghyuk’s attitude was also a little different from usual.

Instead of charging forward alone, he simply took a few steps forward and stopped.

As though he intended to protect everyone as the tank.

Choi Kanghyuk had already sensed it through his energy perception as well.

The presence of an enormous monster.

“It looks like I will get a proper workout today.”

Perhaps it had sensed Choi Kanghyuk’s presence as he stepped forward.

The enormous body that had remained still began to move.

Then the desert began to heave.

Something cut through the desert and approached at tremendous speed, as though a mole were plowing through a field.

However, its size could not be compared to something like a mole.

The desert floor twisted as it approached, as though a tsunami were surging toward them.

And the moment it drew completely near. A sandstorm scattered in every direction along with a noise like an exploding shell.

Booooom!!!!

Beyond the surging sandstorm, the monster’s body finally revealed itself.

It had the shape of an earthworm enlarged hundreds or thousands of times.

But unlike a docile earthworm, hundreds of enormous teeth were densely embedded inside its gaping maw.

The gatekeeper of an A-rank gate and a monster also classified as S-rank. A Sandworm.

It was also the monster that had crippled Kim Jicheol’s body in the past.

That absurdly enormous maw filled with teeth came crashing down toward Choi Kanghyuk.

As though intending to swallow him in a single bite.