Team leader Han’s team came to be known as “Crazy” among other Awakened, thanks to Yonghoon’s participation. The team members were annoyed, but the name had already spread too widely, so they had no choice but to accept it.
On the day they caught the E-Rank monster, news of the monster they had defeated spread online as breaking news.
It was the first time in Korea that a civilian Awakened team had taken down an E-Rank monster.
People had already started to think of company-affiliated Awakened as being almost like government agents. Since they were the strongest Awakened who stood at the front lines against monsters, it was a natural assumption.
That’s why Team Crazy’s E-Rank monster hunt drew even more attention.
Online, there were photos of the monster after the hunt and even pictures of team leader Han, along with interviews with the soldiers.
But there was another team whose success was overshadowed by their praise. A company-affiliated Awakened team that had taken down an E-Rank monster just a few hours later.
That team had been created by Suseong Corporation, the biggest company in Korea, with a massive budget to rival Link System Company.
They had been preparing for a major event-taking down an E-Rank monster-but ended up being completely overshadowed by Team Crazy.
The next day, Yonghoon lay in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. All Awakened with Dimensional Power had strong regenerative abilities. The wounds he received yesterday had completely healed in just one day.
But once again, he had used his spatial ability to the limit, so he was stuck in bed.
Yonghoon recalled what had happened the day before.
He had succeeded in creating a hole in space with his ability to transport himself and Sunhee.
Of course, it was only a few meters, and he had completely drained his Dimensional Power afterward, but compared to when he could only make a hole big enough for a spear, it was a massive improvement.
‘The problem is using them at the same time……’
His spatial ability had improved dramatically, but he still hadn’t figured out how to use it simultaneously with his Strike-type ability.
If he could use them together, it would definitely become a powerful offensive tool.
‘In the end, training is the only way.’
Yonghoon reaffirmed his resolve.
He jumped out of bed after just one day. Unlike last time, he had moved around after using his ability, so it hadn’t developed into full-blown fatigue.
He stretched to loosen up and began packing his gear.
He was planning to go hunting.
Yonghoon was quite satisfied with the team he was currently in. Everyone had decent personalities, used their abilities well, and were motivated.
But that was it. They were still people who hunted to make a living.
It wasn’t like he could tell them all his secrets or force them to follow him. He needed to act independently.
Since they had agreed to take a week off after yesterday’s hunt, he planned to go on solo hunts during that time.
‘A solo E-Rank monster hunt by an E-Rank Strike-type Awakened.’
Yonghoon’s expression hardened. Even in the other world, this wasn’t an easy hunt.
But if he did things like everyone else, he’d never get ahead.
He checked his smart watch.
Level E
Dimensional Power 24/50
He was just barely in the mid-tier of E-Rank now.
He packed all his gear and stepped out the door.
Yonghoon immediately leased a car and headed to Gangwon Province.
These days, cars were no longer covered by insurance. Insurance companies had been devastated by lawsuits and bankruptcies due to the monster outbreaks.
Now, if a leased car was damaged, the lessee had to pay the full cost.
As a result, ordinary people had to deposit massive sums, and leasing was nearly impossible unless you were a company.
Of course, things were different for the Awakened. With their high incomes, they were the last lifeline for the automobile industry.
Yonghoon drove for several hours into the deep mountain ranges of Gangwon Province. After some time on the highway, he parked at the base of a mountain trail.
He got out of the car and looked up at the mountain. A prominent “No Entry” sign stood before him.
Like many other mountains, this one was also restricted.
Carrying a heavy-looking hiking backpack, Yonghoon passed by the sign.
Then he began climbing the mountain. It didn’t look like he’d be coming back down today.
He moved carefully along the mountain trail. The summer mountain was scorching hot.
His smart watch was showing red dots scattered across the area. Luckily, the monsters were staying within their own territories.
The red dots were spaced apart, scattered here and there.
Thanks to that, Yonghoon was able to climb the mountain while avoiding the monsters.
‘This is the limit of E-Rank.’
Only up to E-Rank did monsters still show strong traces of normal animal behavior. Anything above that, trying to predict their movement based on appearance was a good way to get killed. Their special abilities changed their entire ecology.
If a D-Rank or higher monster appeared in this world, wandering alone in the mountains like this would be suicide.
No matter how carefully Yonghoon moved, he eventually had to face a monster. He ended up fighting a squirrel monster for quite a while.
Its tree-climbing movements gave him a hard time, but in the end, he used a spear attack powered by Dimensional Power to knock it down.
And that monster became Yonghoon’s F-Rank Dimensional Core.
After that, Yonghoon moved even more cautiously.
After a long trek, he heard the sound of water flowing in a valley beyond a hill. He carefully made his way to the hill and climbed a nearby rock.
Lying on the rock, he looked through his binoculars at the valley.
A massive boulder-like lump sat on the rocky bank beside the stream.
It was an E-Rank toad-type monster.
This was the monster he had come for.
Yonghoon had come all the way here to hunt it.
His smart watch showed a yellow dot. It was still quite a distance away. But the toad monster was extremely sensitive. Careless approach would get him killed.
The toad monster’s entire body was filled with poison. The boils on its back held venom, and it could release poison through its whole body when needed. Unlike normal toads, even its tongue was poisonous.
Despite its appearance, it preferred to live in deep mountain valleys.
That made it a rare find even in the other world, and hunting it was uncommon. It wasn’t easy to hunt, and coming to places like this was difficult.
But Yonghoon had no choice but to hunt alone.
For now, it was hard to find a better monster than this one.
Yonghoon took out a mask and goggles from his bag, put them on, and pulled on gloves with one hand.
Sweat dripped inside his clothes as he gripped his spear barehanded. Then he wrapped both the spear and his hand with a towel.
He checked his body.
No skin was exposed.
He was ready.
Yonghoon placed his bag on the rock and stood up. He jumped down from the rock and began walking toward the toad monster.
He hadn’t even walked 10 meters when the toad-like boulder in the distance began to move.
The toad monster rose from its sitting position and turned its body toward Yonghoon.
The distance between them was 40 meters.
Yonghoon was still walking casually with his spear in hand.
The toad monster stared at him as he approached, then took a step or two toward him.
Then, like lightning, the monster shot its tongue at Yonghoon.
The toad monster’s tongue stretched endlessly.
Through his goggles, Yonghoon saw the red tongue flying at him. It was as thick as a rope and came at him with lightning speed.
Even as he saw the tongue flying at him, Yonghoon didn’t dodge. He didn’t even consider dodging, unsure if he could.
The monster’s tongue passed by his side and wrapped tightly around his waist. Then it began pulling him back into the monster’s mouth.
Yonghoon’s body was dragged toward the monster.
He clenched his teeth as he felt his waist being crushed. Losing consciousness would be the end. This was a battle of endurance. If he lost focus, he’d just become the creature’s meal.
Then the toad monster opened its mouth wide and swallowed Yonghoon whole.
The toad paused for a moment. Then it moved its throat to swallow the prey.
“Gah! Gah!”
The toad began to writhe in pain, as if something sharp had stabbed its mouth.
Blood began to pour from the toad’s eyes.
It twisted its entire body and rolled around by the valley, desperately trying to vomit the prey, but in the end, it failed.
Time passed.
Eventually, the toad monster collapsed to the ground. Red blood dripped from its mouth.
And then–
A black figure burst out of the toad’s mouth, spewing white smoke.
It was Yonghoon.
He tore off his hood like a madman and sprinted toward the stream. The hood that fell to the ground was melting from the poison.
Splash!
Yonghoon jumped into the water and tore off the clothes he was wearing. The discarded clothes, now in tatters, began to drift downstream.
He managed to strip off his outerwear just in time.
A moment later, he lay in the water, staring blankly at the sky. His body, clad only in underwear, was stained red in several places.
‘Did it work?’
Yonghoon checked his injuries. They looked like first-degree burns. The toad’s poison had created burn-like wounds on his body.
Fortunately, thanks to the Awakened’s healing ability, his wounds would heal within a day.
Yonghoon looked up at the sky and gave a bitter smile. It had been a reckless move. While feeling his clothes melt inside the monster’s mouth, he had stabbed upward toward the roof of its mouth like a madman.
If he had been even a little late, or if he had failed to drive the spear into its skull in time, he would undoubtedly have melted on the spot.
It was the only way for a Strike-type Awakened to take down a poisonous toad monster.
The fastest hunt, but also the most dangerous one. No sane person would ever attempt it.
‘But still.’
Yonghoon brushed his shoulder. He felt smooth, unblemished skin.
In the other world, that shoulder had been badly scarred by poison.
It had been the spot where he’d first been seriously wounded by the toad’s poison.
Of course, in the other world, there were many items made from monster byproducts that could heal such wounds. But the war made even acquiring those difficult. For a C-Rank Awakened, they were as unreachable as the stars.
Sometimes, she would look at his shoulder with a sorrowful gaze in bed, then kiss the scar. Afterward, she would cradle his head and hum softly.
Yonghoon recalled her face, humming a low tune with an expressionless gaze toward the sky.
Yonghoon got to his feet.
Just one left now.
If he caught three more, he could begin E-Rank Dimensional Power training.
Yonghoon returned to the rock where he had stashed his spare clothes and put them on. Then he picked up his bag and approached the toad monster’s corpse.
He opened the bag and took out a thermos. Carefully, he approached the monster and began extracting poison from the boils on its back. The green-glowing liquid began to collect in the thermos.
To injure a monster, one needed either an Awakened’s Dimensional Power or an object from the same dimension. If one wanted to poison a monster, the toad’s venom was necessary.
But a monster’s corpse, without a Dimensional Core, would gradually transform into a being of this world over time.
The same applied to the monster’s poison.
Yonghoon began searching for the toad monster’s Dimensional Core.
After a long search, he dug into the monster’s chest and finally managed to retrieve the core. Carefully, he placed the Dimensional Core into the thermos containing the venom.
With that, the poison could now be preserved as an object from the other dimension for a long time.
Yonghoon closed the thermos and stood up.
It was time to head out for the next hunt.