Chapter 102

‘What am I supposed to do?’

I still didn’t fully understand the structure of the human body, which only made the situation more frightening. I couldn’t tell how serious Kang Changho’s condition was, even with him lying right in front of me.

‘Surely an Earthling wouldn’t die from something like this!’

His sudden loss of consciousness threw me into a panic, and I hurried to act.

More precisely, I tried to pull the S-class hunter out from beneath the wreckage.

.

.

.

However, as everyone knows...

The strength of an F-class hunter was barely greater than that of a passing grasshopper.

‘Heeeup!’

This was maddening.

Infuriating.

I couldn’t push the debris aside. I couldn’t lift it either. How was an F-class weakling like me supposed to move a rock this heavy?

‘So this is what it feels like to be the one receiving help from an Earthling...’

There were no visible injuries, but the massive slab pressing down on his chest seemed to be restricting his breathing. Each breath had been shallow from the start.

‘Isn’t this becoming genuinely dangerous?’

The sound of Kang Changho’s laboured breathing frightened me, and I tried everything I could think of.

I even attempted to drag him out from beneath the rubble by force.

“Keeeugh!”

But my final effort proved just as useless as the rest.

No matter how hard I pulled on the arm protruding from beneath the debris, Kang Changho did not move an inch.

“Please, come out...!”

In the end, I screamed and poured every last bit of strength into my body.

“Come out already!”

But an F-class hunter did not suddenly become stronger simply because he displayed some fighting spirit.

Heuk, heuk.

I stood with one foot braced against the slab pinning Changho down, gasping for breath.

Damn it.

Ordinary methods were never going to work.

‘Should I dig into the ground and make some space beneath him...?’

Boom!

‘Damn it! What collapsed this time?’

Fortunately, the noise did not seem to have come from anywhere near me.

Click!

Still, I couldn’t ignore it.

The sound of a camera shutter meant another Earthling was nearby.

‘Huh?’

But hadn’t that sounded a little...

Too close?

I whipped my head towards the sound coming from my left.

Several startled Earthlings were staring back at me.

“What happened?”

“Was there a fight?”

“Heuk! There’s someone trapped under there!”

Murmur, murmur.

They appeared to be ordinary citizens in the middle of evacuating, all of them non-Awakened.

‘Why are you standing around instead of running?’

For some reason, they kept glancing in my direction with hesitant expressions.

One of them even raised his phone while muttering something too quietly for me to hear.

I paused to listen.

Tak! Tak!

“Aaaah!”

“Tsk, they’re coming this way too!”

“Run!”

The sound that followed cut my attention short.

Those were footsteps.

The arrival of another monster.

‘This...!’

This time, it was a group of small turtles summoned by the Giant Turtle.

Despite their size, they were not creatures one could afford to underestimate.

They were B-class monsters.

I immediately fled to avoid them.

‘Sorry!’

It might have looked as though I had abandoned Kang Changho in the middle of the road, but I had no other choice.

Those who were still alive had to stay alive, didn’t they?

“H-Heuk...”

A short while later, I leaned against the wall of an alleyway, trying to catch my breath after escaping the turtles.

It felt as though I had brushed against death itself.

What was the point of carrying a speed-enhancement item if a short sprint left me half-dead?

My stamina was truly appalling.

‘Phew, honestly...’

Once I had recovered enough to breathe properly, I immediately took out my phone.

Kang Changho, still unconscious, should have been lying at the intersection.

“I-I should at least report it...!”

I decided to inform the emergency services of his condition.

“Hello? Is this 119?”

Fortunately, despite the chaos consuming the city, the call went through.

The operator listened to my report and assured me that emergency responders would be dispatched to Kang Chang-ho’s location.

The only problem was how long it would take them to arrive.

“What? You’re saying we have to wait because there’s a backlog of emergency calls?”

Still, the situation was not completely hopeless.

Aside from the Imoogi, all the escaped boss monsters were B-class or lower.

‘Phew.’

The chances of an S-class hunter like Kang Changho being seriously injured by such monsters were extremely low.

In the end, the only real concern was the black serpent.

‘Then should I start heading back to Changho?’

Whoo.

I waited until I had recovered enough stamina to run again, then set off.

However, I kept my phone in hand.

I still had something else to do with it.

‘Let’s see. Come to think of it, Esther appeared on the screen earlier...’

Tap, tap, tap.

My fingers moved across the display as I opened a familiar website.

[(Live Broadcast) The Hunt for ‘Inevitable Malice’!]

A live broadcast of the disaster soon appeared on-screen.

‘Oh!’

At a time like this, gathering information was essential.

Without hesitation, I opened the stream.

‘Where is Esther fighting right now?’

But the scene shown in the video was...

—Keuugh!

—CEO!

—Ahh! What do we do?

—Everyone, stay away from the head! The head!

A petite woman was trapped between the jaws of a colossal serpent, as though caught inside a cavern.

She held its mouth open with both arms, desperately preventing it from closing, but it was obvious that she could not endure much longer.

Esther’s arms had begun to tremble violently.

She was reaching her limit.

—No, this is... Ha. Hahaha!

The curse mage on-screen, her face flushed bright red, let out a laugh of disbelief.

—This isn’t going to work!

The serpent’s fangs drove straight through her abdomen.

Sssk!

I was an alien, so perhaps I simply did not understand Earth customs, but there seemed to be something rather strange about this broadcast.

“Aha.”

I later discovered that the footage was not from an official news station, but from a civilian’s personal livestream.

That explained why it showed everything, including the graphic sight of blood.

Well, that was hardly important.

The footage ultimately conveyed only one thing.

‘The S-class hunter lost...?’

Shockingly, Esther had suffered a crushing defeat against the Imoogi.

***

[At present, S-class hunter Esther is leading a team of six high-ranking hunters equipped with curse-resistance gear in confronting the Imoogi. Residents in the surrounding area are advised to exercise caution and avoid becoming caught in the effects of the Awakened hunters’ skills...]

While the news anchor delivered the report in a calm, measured voice, the hunters on the scene were quite literally fighting for their lives.

“Where in the world is its weak point?”

“Burn it! Fire should be the fastest way!”

“Hey, this thing was practically made for Jung Haseong!”

Whoosh!

Blazing flames, streaks of lightning, and countless other skills erupted across the battlefield.

The attacks directed at Inevitable Malice were bright enough to illuminate the entire area.

Yet among all the hunters present, one person was clearly dealing the greatest damage.

“Hmm. At this rate, we might finish it off before Jung Haseong even gets here.”

Seo Esther.

One of Korea’s S-class hunters.

Her Awakening ability possessed truly terrifying power.

After being repeatedly subjected to her curses, the Imoogi already looked half-destroyed.

“Grrr...”

Blood and pus covered its body, and its eyes had begun to rot in their sockets.

Seeing the monster in such a battered state, the hunters briefly allowed themselves to believe that they might be able to end the disaster without further help.

Only briefly.

“Shaaaaa!”

“Huh?”

The Imoogi, which had been restrained with all manner of items and skills, suddenly raised its head and began thrashing violently.

The reason was simple.

It had chosen new prey.

“Ack!”

“No!”

A hunter bearing the mark above his head finally succumbed to the serpent’s relentless pursuit.

Its enormous jaws opened wide and swallowed him whole.

“No...!”

Perhaps it would have been wiser to accept the loss of a single guild member.

In a sense, Esther’s downfall began because she went to such extreme lengths to rescue the hunter who had been swallowed.

Srrrng.

Esther drew the [Cursed Sword], the unique item she had brought as a final precaution.

She paid its price without hesitation and raised the sharpened blade.

“Heuk!”

“Hurry! Take my hand and climb out!”

Slash!

Esther leapt straight into the beast’s maw and forced its jaws apart.

Then she dragged the trapped guild member free.

“Ugh!”

However, as mentioned before, this was a grave mistake on Esther’s part.

Compared to body-enhancement specialists such as Kang Changho, she lacked physical strength.

‘You insane snake!’

Tang!

Even with half its mouth torn open, the Imoogi showed no concern.

It simply forced its jaws shut once more.

As a result, Esther became trapped between its teeth.

This was the struggle that had appeared earlier on the Y-Tube livestream.

“Ugh!”

Moreover, Esther had already sacrificed a considerable portion of her magical power to the sword in order to save the others.

She had no strength left with which to turn the situation around.

The result was exactly what one would expect.

Krrrk.

Unable to withstand the monster’s overwhelming force, Esther was pierced through.

“CEO!”

“Ahh! What do we do?”

Fortunately for her, the Imoogi spat her out almost immediately.

Perhaps she simply did not taste very good.

“CEO, are you all right?”

Esther had been poisoned by an S-class monster and was no longer capable of continuing the fight.

The first battle ended in defeat.

“Phew. That hurts.”

“Just hold on a little longer! You drank a potion, so you’ll recover soon...!”

“As expected, beautiful women are destined to die young. The old sayings are never wrong.”

“Stop talking nonsense, especially at a time like this! Seriously!”

Those watching the broadcast fell into despair.

A woman regarded as one of the great symbols of Korea’s hunter community had been brought down without mercy.

[We have just received breaking news. Hunter Esther, head of the Korean Magic Tower Guild, is reportedly in critical condition after confronting an S-class monster...]

The citizens listening to the report fell silent for a moment.

Then the live chat exploded.

(Live Chat)

[What the hell is Jung Haseong doing?]