novelraw Chapter 104
Chapter 104
Chapter 104
A thunderous roar shattered the arena floor.
— Impressive, Yoo Chan-seok!
— Wow, wrecking the entire arena! He is strong, really strong!
Then what, you thought I was weak? I swept my spear through the air, then smiled at the opponent standing in front of me.
“If you are scared, forfeit.”
If he was a wise man who could tell whether it was filth or soybean paste without tasting it, I was ready to admire that wise decision and gladly not fight.
“You think I’ll back down here?”
“Jeez, who cares about that damned reputation.”
Reputation and honor were monsters that kept a person from stepping back even when he knew he stood in a place of death.
There were crises you faced even though you knew you would die, yet that was when you protected parents or children, and I did not think you needed to do that just to protect an image.
— He is not stopping. There is no explanation needed here. It is a difference in skill.
— A one sided match continues. I do not see any room for the opponent to try anything.
— Judging by this performance, we might really see a new name on the list this time!
While the commentators chattered with excitement, I fought a man who did not need to be my enemy inside a small arena.
The others sat safe in the stands and watched the sight. It felt like a dolphin trapped in a zoo.
This was a kind of entertainment I did not like.
“With this…!”
My opponent rushed in. I had no intention of dragging out this ridiculous show on purpose. Watching him charge, I spun my spear, then cracked him under the chin.
That settled it. The match ended in seconds. It was such a bland fight, and the blander it was, the louder the broadcast team raised their voices.
— It happened in an instant again!
— Truly overwhelming. There is nothing to analyze, it is an electrifying level of skill!
The casters surely knew this match was boring. That was why they shouted more and pretended to be thrilled, otherwise the mood would turn ice cold.
Well, it was their fault for putting a man who was not a clown on stage and hoping the circus went well.
If they wanted to make money, they should work to make a hit on their own.
I checked my smartphone and frowned. It was the Association President.
“Hello, this is Yoo Chan-seok.”
— Hunter Yoo Chan-seok. I just watched your match, and I’m thinking it’s better for you to take a little more time.
What was he talking about?
“If the opponent has anything that lets me drag time, I will try to drag it.”
I was not using some great ultimate technique, I was simply swinging with some mana, and if they crumpled from that, it was hardly my fault.
“People who want tension while a tiger plays tug of war with an ant are in the wrong.”
Everyone probably knew what the conclusion would be anyway.
— You will still find real experts in the main event.
“I really hope so.”
But it would likely be hard though. Right now I could trade blows with Lee Se-eun for hours on even terms.
If it turned into a war of attrition, I even beat Lee Se-eun by a margin. Even if they were Hunters who cleared the preliminaries, they would not stand against me.
That was the gap between me and the Hunters desperate to put their names on the so-called List of Hope.
“Oh, by the way, good timing on your call. I heard something interesting from Sang-ah and Oh-hoon recently.”
— What was it?
Leaning against the wall, I answered in a passing tone.
“They said the referees sided with the other contestant one way in the match.”
— That cannot be. The matches are conducted fairly under the Association’s control.
I laughed once.
“You are half right. It is true they are conducted under the Association’s control.”
I had no intention of believing the word fair. These bastards lied the moment they opened their mouths.
— Listen, Yoo Chan-seok. In tournaments the participants are tense, so they may feel victimized. It is a kind of stress. So those two probably…
“Don’t talk bullshit in front of me.”
When the President tried to continue, I cut him off.
— Pardon?
“President, do I still look like a dime a dozen Hunter who could not refuse the ridiculous assignments you slapped on right after I cleared the Gyodong Erosion Core a few months ago?”
The President fell silent.
— Hunter Yoo Chan-seok. Even if you have a bit of fame and popularity right now, your tongue is a little rough. Popularity and fame are mirages.
I agreed with that. Fuzzy things like fame and popularity shattered the moment you made a small mistake.
“But they are razor sharp while you can use them.”
Before they shattered, they were sharp enough to slice through just about anything. Like a glass monomolecular cutter.
What I meant was this.
“Right now, there isn’t anyone to say anything even if I mouth off to you.”
— How long do you think that lasts, and there are many who can break your paltry fame and popularity.
I burst out laughing.
“If there are such gentlemen, what are they doing while I mouth off like this. Shall I give you the answer?”
I brought my lips close to the speaker and spoke softly.
“There is nothing to gain from touching me now.”
It was the same in every field. People who let emotions run wild did not climb to high places. They crashed before that.
If the statement was true, then its contrapositive was true.
Those who climbed high did not run wild with emotion. They weighed profit and loss, and only moved once they were sure it benefited them.
I returned to a polite tone and honorifics.
“I would like to stop this useless talk. In any case, there are claims of strange judging, so please take special care, President. I do not wish to sour things with the Association over this.”
If there was a more plausible reason, maybe.
How ridiculous was it for referees in a reputable tournament to take pocket money and make biased calls. Of course the World Cup and the Olympics often saw controversies over biased judging.
“It feels like Wonder Club or Taebaek.”
The President stayed silent. Among the organizations in Korea that had enough sway to breathe on the Hunter Association, the ones likely to dislike me were basically Wonder Club or Taebaek.
— The Association is running this tournament fairly.
“Is that so? Understood. Oh, and one last thing.”
I paused and chose my words, then spoke in a relaxed voice.
“A considerable number of snakebites happen in the same situation. Do you know what it is?”
— …No?
Huh, it was not a difficult question, so why could he not answer?
“You can quietly back away once you find it, but people make a fuss and poke it with a stick, and that is how it happens.”
If you did not poke it, you were almost never bitten. Granted, you might step on a snake hidden from sight… yet once you realize there is a snake, if you leave it alone and keep still, you are rarely bitten.
“That is all.”
I will not bite if you don’t poke me. Yet there were always people who had to poke.
— Thank you for the interesting story. Also, congratulations on advancing to the main event.
That was how my call with the President ended.
“The main event huh.”
I should pack right away. I expected interference anyway. I did not think they would let us sail smoothly. Plenty of people disliked us after all.
“…The news all vanished.”
While this ridiculous clown show called a tournament ran, reports full of negative content almost disappeared.
“Things do not disappear just because you cannot see them though.”
Korea’s electricity and water supply time had dropped to a quarter of a day.
One third of the farmland in the United States was gone. The volume of goods shipped to Korea kept declining little by little.
Like poison spreading, every indicator ran toward the negative.
No matter what anyone said, the world was collapsing by the moment. The crises I saw while transporting shield generators and purging the Bratsk Refrigerator were only a tiny part.
Yet people refused to look. For the desire to keep a moment’s prosperity a little longer, they ignored the fact that the situation was breaking beyond repair.
“I know it, and I won’t look away.”
After I packed what I needed, I walked down the hall and looked out the window. The pitch black of a city plunged into darkness with power and water cut off looked like something a devil had swallowed.
In contrast, the sky glittered with countless stars.
“Jeez, the world sure is running nicely.”
What I wanted to see after I returned to Earth was not stars twinkling in the night sky.
I had seen that shabby sky enough in that other world.
The sight I wanted to see was…
A grandeur where the light of human civilization on the ground shone so brilliantly that the stars of the heavens did not even dare show themselves.
Blinding, unnatural artificial light that drove back the night and darkness that came by natural law was one of the pieces of Earth I longed to return to.
I brushed the glass with my hand once, then left the building to join the main event.
A red coupe blinked its high beams at me a few times. When I approached, the window rolled down and a familiar face appeared.
“Hello?”
“Owner Sa Seung-hee. What brings you all the way here?”
“It is only Incheon. It is not that far.”
I still thought it was not a distance a busy person needed to travel.
“Get in. You are heading to Seoul, right? I will give you a ride.”
I quietly sat in the passenger seat.
“Congratulations on making the main event.”
“Falling out would have been harder.”
Sa Seung-hee nodded.
“Even if they are Hunters from all over the country, they fall short compared to Hunter Yoo Chan-seok, who cleared two class one Erosion Cores.”
“Your help was significant, you know.”
She snorted after hearing my reply.
“Most Hunters cannot do it even when told. By the way, judging from what you say on air, you do not seem close to the word humble.”
“That is true.”
Silence settled in for some time, then she spoke while driving.
“I heard what happened to Hunter Han Sang-ah and Hunter Jung Oh-hoon.”
“The biased judging, yes. I am just glad it ended well.”
She let out a sigh.
“There is nothing I can do about what happens inside the Association. I have decent connections, yet even so…”
“It is fine. I never planned to overcome things by leaning on favors in the first place.”
It was enough that she shared what she knew about class one Erosion Cores.
“Still, I wanted to tell you a few traps slipped in this time.”
“Traps you say?”
She answered me.
“Do you know Taebaek keeps a special operations unit that reports directly to the head?”
“Yes, I believe I heard that before.”
The late Yoon Sung-hyun said it while trying to threaten me.
“But I heard a few of them entered this tournament.”
“Do you know exactly who?”
“Their identities are kept very secret. If the rumors of their skill are real, they probably passed the preliminaries.”
The purpose was obvious. Taebaek did not want to watch us do well, so they wanted to splash filth on us.
“I wonder how you hear these things.”
“You track snippets about class one Erosion Cores too.”
That was true. I suppose I will share what she told me when I meet up with Han Sang-ah and Jung Oh-hoon in Seoul.