novelraw Chapter 87
Chapter 87
Chapter 87
The next day, after pushing to move, we stopped before the bounds of Jaun Valley.
“This isn’t fog.”
It is on the level of a curtain. True to the name Jaun, the mist was a deep violet.
There is that cliché about fog so thick you can’t see an inch ahead, but what lay before our eyes made it hard to think of any expression beyond that cliché.
“I heard it doesn’t settle even when it rains.”
Ordinarily fog disappears when rain falls. But this fog wasn’t natural, so that didn’t apply.
“For now, this is the first-phase investigation.”
We still didn’t even know where the Erosion Core sat within this Erosion Zone. So the purpose of this investigation was, of course, to focus on identifying the Core.
“At least what Mr. Jung gathered helps a bit.”
Routes used by people slipping across borders were fundamentally limited, but they let us get a hazy grasp of the terrain around Jaun Valley.
At my words, Jung Oh-hoon grinned and made a circle with his thumb and middle finger.
“Then do I get paid a little more?”
“If things go well, sure.”
I couldn’t give a definitive answer yet. Credit and reward came after a job was finished. There was no point thinking about how to slice up a pie we hadn’t baked.
While we were talking, a group of Hunters came up to me.
“Hunter Yoo Chan-seok?”
They were extremely wary of me. With what they had heard and what they had seen, the other Hunters had naturally grown polite.
If you want to lead people, there’s nothing complicated about it, brute strength works best.
“Yes, what is it?”
He hesitated, then answered.
“We will succeed in taking Jaun Valley, right?”
You only know that after you try, you punk. Do you think I am some kind of prophet? Did you want me to suck down opium, roll my eyes white, and say, “Heh heh heh! Three will come.”
But with an easy smile I answered,
“We’ve done well so far, and everything is under control. There are no variables. We will return to Korea with results as good as what we prepared.”
The answer you give to a question like this doesn’t have to be the literal truth. As Han Sang-ah looked ready to say something, Jung Oh-hoon cleverly stepped in front of her. Good.
Han Sang-ah would have wanted to take issue with my words.
“We will place our trust in Hunter Yoo Chan-seok and the Headhunter team.”
“Yes, we will do our best to meet your expectations.”
Whether you are still alive after that, I honestly can’t say. Grinning, Jung Oh-hoon slung an arm around the man’s shoulders and laughed big.
“It’s easy. Not even hard, friends. Just follow the operators’ instructions and wipe out every monster that moves in front of you. It’s what we always do, and what we’ll keep doing, right?”
Still smiling, Jung patted their shoulders.
“So just do that again this time.”
After the other Hunters left, Han Sang-ah spoke.
“You’re both liars.”
“Yep.”
I agreed without protest. Han Sang-ah let out a small sigh.
“That’s a promise we can’t keep.”
“Right, and they came to us with a question we can’t handle.”
Whose fault is it? If you ask me, those who ask that kind of question bear more blame. They asked because they didn’t know? As if.
They knew we couldn’t handle it and looked away while they asked anyway.
We were Hunters entering an Erosion Zone to hunt monsters. No rookie, and even the veterans here, could be unaware of the danger.
I pressed the in-ear button and said,
“In fifteen minutes, we will be ready to enter. Please handle the operation.”
— Understood, we will relay that. Good luck.
The Seagull operators replied. My words spread to the Hunters at once.
Then, as planned, the operators quickly arranged personnel and relayed each Hunter’s assigned tasks and objectives.
— If you discover the Erosion Core, do not approach. Report immediately. Beginning movement now.
The Hunters moved. Han Sang-ah, Jung Oh-hoon, and I also moved, following the busy orders coming through our in-ears.
“We have arrived at Dehui.”
— Confirmed. Headhunter 1544 and seventy-five at Dehui. From this point the interior of the Erosion Zone begins.
I didn’t need the Seagull’s report to know. We were already wrapped in violet mist after all.
“If anyone feels unwell, report at once.”
Some had prepared their own measures to endure the fog, and some wore masks made from sulfur willow. As for me, Han Sang-ah, and Jung Oh-hoon, the Paradoxical Flame clung to our faces.
For now, it seemed no one had issues. We kept riding the truck.
“Hey, just now.”
One of the Hunters spoke up.
“Yes, there are a few.”
A few ghosts circled us. Even if they were undead, they didn’t have rotting flesh.
“Eight of them.”
That was the exact number. Undead that hadn’t taken a body were adept at masking their presence. From how well they hid, they were strong.
It seemed they hesitated to approach because of the protective sigils carved into our truck.
But they would come in the end.
“Brace yourselves.”
They didn’t attack physically. They wore down the mind, tormented you, sank you into despair, and then tore and shattered the soul.
Jung Oh-hoon answered,
“I do have experience fighting ghosts. Spirit possession is charming and all, but it’s not something I crave.”
He was a Hunter who had tried a bit of everything. He had surely fought ghosts before. I looked at Han Sang-ah.
“What?”
“No reason.”
It was a nasty thought, but I was a little curious whether Han Sang-ah would fall to a ghost. She wasn’t exactly in normal mental shape.
At that moment, with a faint banshee wail, a pale shape whooshed down on me.
White smoke got sucked into my nose, ears, eyes, and mouth. A moment later—
— Kyaaaaaa!
With a scream even stronger than when it struck, white smoke rushed out of the holes in my face. The pale shape that had gone into me twisted in midair, shrieking for a long time, then shriveled.
It looked exactly like a mosquito doused with insecticide.
The ghost that had attacked me vanished without a trace.
“Jeez, that’s why you guys need to be careful when picking targets.”
The one that entered me was like someone wearing only a rash guard and diving to a depth of twenty-five kilometers. The instant it tried anything by entering my body, the weight of my soul crushed it.
“That was convenient.”
I didn’t have to do a thing. They came in on their own and died. How great it was, not needing to fight. Of course, the ghosts didn’t only go for me.
“…”
I quickly swept my eyes over the others.
“I figured this would happen.”
A few couldn’t withstand the ghosts and succumbed. They tried to rip off their masks or lunged at other Hunters.
“Goodbye.”
I drove my spear through their chests. The souls clinging to their bodies belatedly fled the holed corpses.
Then, in reverse, they rushed into me and, like the one just now, shrieked, crumpled, and vanished.
“Why…?”
It was hard to give a neat answer to that question. The first answer I could give was—
“I’m not a priest.”
When someone possessed is on the verge of death, the ghost flees. Otherwise, once it possesses a body, it doesn’t try to leave.
If you want to drive it out, you have to try exorcism, but—
I didn’t know how to do that, and I couldn’t leave a possessed person alone. A person whose body a ghost had seized was an enemy who would try to harm others.
And I killed enemies. The Hunters watching me were first filled with shock.
“There isn’t any other way.”
“But…!”
One of the Hunters shouted.
“You never know. We could restrain them and wait it out.”
“With Hunters who can use mana, what exactly are you going to restrain them with?”
You had to bind a Hunter with mana, or use restraints made from special materials.
That process consumed many hands, and some Hunters would be injured or even die.
“Even if you invest and succeed in restraining them, the end is the same.”
Once the possessed body is bound, the ghost pops out and tries to enter someone else.
We couldn’t let the damage spread.
“Everyone listen. If you fail to resist, you die. I am not going to let losses mount.”
At my cold, firm words, their faces went hard.
If you fail to resist a ghost, you die by my hand. That single line sharpened their minds.
“Do you want me to take your head?”
From behind, Han Sang-ah asked.
“What are you talking about?”
“If you fail to resist.”
I glanced at her. It was a pure question, with no special emotion.
“You should. If I get possessed, they won’t be able to use all my body’s strength right away anyway.”
“Then I’ll do it as fast as possible. Got it.”
As she spoke, a ghost whooshed into Han Sang-ah’s body and immediately popped back out.
— Whaaa— huhhh?!
Those that tried to enter me were crushed by the weight of my soul and vanished the instant they burst out again, but the ones that dove into Han Sang-ah popped back out making baffled noises.
Both with me and with Han Sang-ah, the ghosts failed to possess us, but for different reasons.
The ones that tried me fled and dissolved with a feeling of “Oh no, a monster!”
The ones that tried Han Sang-ah shot out with the vibe of “What is this crazy person?” and never tried her again.
Her headspace was definitely broken enough to make ghosts flee possession. In any case, it looked like I wouldn’t need to punch a hole in her chest.
“That’s what should happen.”
By contrast, Jung Oh-hoon was resisting the ghosts’ assaults in textbook fashion. Each time his body flinched, he drew up mana to resist, and the ghost popped out of him as if repelled.
The ghosts here proved that Jung was the most normal among us.
“But if you think about it, if you counter with mana, even ghosts can take damage.”
I answered,
“Sure. If you ramp it up to the force of a recoilless rifle, you can make it hit like a handgun.”
This was a prime reason fighting ghosts was garbage. You could harm them with mana, but the power dropped sharply.
“They can’t do much besides mental attacks anyway.”
If you could endure, you wouldn’t take heavy damage. At my words, Han Sang-ah said,
“Are you filtering people out?”
“We might have to wander here for days after all.”
We were going to roam for days through a space choked with violet mist, searching for the Erosion Core. Any Hunter so weak they were already wobbling from possession wouldn’t help.
“They say a company isn’t a school. Same here. This is the field, not an academy.”
If you overreach to do what’s beyond your ability, you die. You couldn’t emphasize it enough.
“This is Headhunter. We expect to move, so please guide us.”
Following the Seagulls’ guidance, we continued to sweep the Erosion Zone.