Chapter 106: Episode 106 – A Hunter from a Foreign Country, Part II
Chapter 37. A Hunter from a Foreign Country, Part II
Translator: Khan
Editor: RED
3.
Kitakyushu City, located in Fukuoka Prefecture, was the first city you met upon entering Kyushu Province in the Japanese islands. The Kitakyushu City Hall was a six-sided building with glass walls instead of cement. For this reason, the building was impressive in its own way, as it exuded a sophisticated office building image, rather than a sense of the city hall. Of course, that was the old story.
Now, the Kitakyushu City Hall has become a horrid, skeleton-like building where it was hard to find a glass window after of the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that had buried men and monsters.
The Kyushu branch of the Imperial Hunting Unit was currently using the Kitakyushu City Hall as its headquarter. It was a far from a convenient choice.
‘That’s Kokura Castle.’
The reason why the members of the local Imperial Hunting Unit, which could be called a precious force, used the Kitakyushu City Hall as a headquarter was not a because it had a few good spaces to avoid the night wind. It was because of the ancient castle, Kokura Castle, located just in front of the Kitakyushu City Hall building.
‘They take sacrifices to protect something that is not a relic.’
That did not mean that Kokura Castle was a relic. Of course, the old objects kept in Kokura Castle became relics, and it was not strange to guard Kokura Castle because there was still a high possibility that there were still unfound relics in Kokura Castle.
But it was certainly not reasonable for an Imperial Hunting Unit, who normally risked their lives monster hunting, to take bitter sacrifices instead of sweet rest to protect Kokura Castle.
‘Then why do you keep Kokura Castle? They’re going to make a legend, not a history.’
It was because of the command of Musashi, who had established the Japanese Empire. He had an uncommon obsession with keeping this ancient castle intact. He made a lot of sacrifices to recapture the area where the castle was located from the monsters, and he invested a lot to protect the castle that he had secured.
Musashi was not a man with a perverted taste for height.
‘The Sengoku period, he wants to reproduce it.’
The ancient castles, which were located in various parts of Japan’s islands, were the most obvious symbols of Japan’s Sengoku period.
Japan’s Sengoku period was absolutely true to the maxims of ‘The weak are the prey of the strong,’ and ‘Winner takes all’.
By recreating that era, Musashi wanted to make all he enjoyed and everything he did true. The current behavior of Musashi to democratic Japan was nothing more than violence, but the current behavior of Musashi in the Japan of the Sengoku period would be a legend or a myth.
‘That’s so funny.’
Anyway, the residence of Kim So-hoon, a hunter from a foreign country, was also set up in the Kitakyushu City Hall. On the 11th floor, the elevator did not work, so he had to take a bit of trouble to walk up. The only good thing was the scenery where he could look at Kokura Castle if he ventured out a little.
However, Kim did not like the scenery of Kokura Castle. There was only one thing he liked.
‘Nothing I like except coffee beans.’ The smell from the coffee mug in his hand Kim was better than he thought.
Kim grabbed a mug in his right hand and pulled out a smartphone from his pocket with the other. With a few manipulations, he turned on a picture on the liquid crystal that he had showed in front of Hiyoshi, the head of the Kyushu branch, several hours ago.
Kim pressed the picture with the thumb holding the smartphone. An application that was not visible on the background screen was executed.
[Strength: Enter the number you want]
[Health: Enter the number you want]
Kim wrote a few numbers as indicated, and then switched to photography mode again. After that, he lifted his mug with his TK, and he took a picture of his right hand with the smartphone held with his left.
Snap! The picture was taken with the typical sound of photographing.
[Basic Abilities]
– Strength: 111
– Health: 111
Kim laughed thinly as he looked at the picture.
‘The application is better than I thought.’
Kim put his smartphone in his pocket immediately and scratched his right hand with his left hand. Something black, covering the mark, began to peel off like dead skin. It looked like a picture was hidden under a picture.
Kim looked at the real mark that was revealed with his black Eyes.
======
[Basic Abilities]
– Strength: 749
– Health: 733
[Special Abilities]
– Energy: A- Rank
– Mana: B+ Rank
– Telekinesis: A+ Rank
– Defense: B+ Rank
– Mana Resistance: B+ Rank
[Achieved Abilities]
– Golden Web (Grade 3): With the power of the Golden Horn Spider, it creates a spider web with Energy.
The higher the Energy rank, the stronger the spider web is.
The higher the Mana rank, the more adhesive the spider web is.
The higher the Telekinesis rank, the greater the ability to feel and control with the spider web is.
======
The real mark, hidden below the specially designed Henna tattoo, revealed the real numbers. The revealed numbers were the clearest evidence of his identity.
‘They were deceived by this simple trick.’
It was the clearest evidence that the man looking at Kokura Castle out of the Kitakyushu City Hall was Kim Tae-hoon. A week ago, he had made Tsushima Island an uninhabited island in exactly forty-nine minutes. It was not an accidental move, of course.
‘I appreciate it from my point of view.’
Kim, through his death-dreams, has already figured out how Japan would be going forward, and what was in Japan. There, he picked out what he needed. There were three major needs: navy power, relics, and the monster stones of monsters in the Japanese archipelago.
======
It will not be easy to steal them. In the case of the power of the navy, I will have to steal a warship, but a warship is not a toy for children, and even if I took a few technicians, I cannot take dozens or hundreds of warships.
The same is true of relics. Most of the important relics already in Japan have already found their owners, and it is not a matter of stealing one or two, but stealing all of them is not something I can do right away.
But the most troublesome of these is the monster stone. The relics and battleships remain in place unless they are stolen. But the monster stones end the moment they enter a person’s stomach. They can’t be stolen then even if I want to. If I want to steal them, I have to steal them before someone eats them.
======
So, Kim made it his top priority. ‘On October 15, I will eat the heart of the Eight-tailed Fox.’ That was why he was here now.
‘Before that, I need to kill the core fellows of the head of the Kyushu branch, Hiyoshi.’
And it was also the reason why Kim, who had coffee, did not smile, even a little. It was for the war that he came here in the end, so he never intended to give any mercy here. Above all, he was not the one who had started this war.
‘It’s a war where the blood of an ally is reduced as much as the blood of the enemy.’
Kim swallowed his coffee and turned his head in the direction Tokyo was.
4.
Kyushu, called the second hell of the Japanese archipelago, was a land of opportunity for some. It was a contradictory analogy. There were a few features that applied only to the Kyushu region that made such contradiction a reality.
There were no survivors in Kyushu. The absence of survivors was because Kyushu Province had no room for long-term food to be grown without a lot of problems versus the food remaining in the wide land.
In addition to the preserved food, alcohol and cigarettes remained like treasures, and even the Self-Defense Force’s guns and ammunition left behind in Kyushu remained like jewels.
The second reason was that there were a lot of monsters here. Monsters were threatening, but the value of monster stones had become a real jewel that could not be replaced by anything. There were real jewels that could not be compared to the diamonds and sapphires that were now so useless!
In such a situation, the Kyushu region, which was full of monsters, had to look like a land of opportunity for someone searching for a place full of jewels.
Crucially, everything was done without any clear plans in the Kyushu region. There was no condition to monitor or punish someone’s corruption or illegal activities.
“Goddamn it.”
That was why Samurai Nakagawa Genji was willing to come down to Kyushu.
The Samurai was an important group in the Japanese Empire, and along with the Imperial Hunting Unit, were a group of elite Awakeners. Of course, no one could easily enter such an elite group.
The sum of Strength and Health had to exceed 400 points, and the Energy and Defense rank had to be above C+ or one of them B- or above to be qualified for Samurai.
Those which just preconditions for the test, and after that, they had to prove their ability against monsters and people, and then they became a Samurai.
The treatment of Samurai was better than any other group. If it was not an important matter, they were not bothered by it.
The reason why the Samurai were born in the first place was to carry out operations against monsters which normal Awakeners could not perform properly because of the fear, such as the monsters of the green-grade or higher.
There was no reason to use such a knife to kill chickens. In addition, a certain amount of monster stones was always paid to the Samurai to improve their abilities.
Finally, a few Named Swords in Japan were given to them. No, a Named Sword was the most obvious proof that he was a Samurai.
‘It’s all messed up because of that Zainichi!’
The problem was that the number of Samurai increased, and the number of Named Swords was limited. Therefore, there were more people who did not receive a Named Sword than those who received them among the current Samurai.
‘Fucking bastard.’
In the end, it was necessary to prove their value among the Samurai to receive a Named Sword.
‘I can’t gather the monster stones because of that fucking bastard, Zainichi.’
It was the reason why Nakagawa Genji came down to Kyushu Province by himself. He collected monster stones in Kyushu, trying to gather a bribe to achieve what he wanted. His plan was going very smoothly until a few days ago.
A branch manager of Kyushu, Hiyoshi, who had been in short supply of monster stones and recently been transferred from Tsushima Island, had been urged to meet his demands rather than to interfere with the work of Nakagawa Genji.
Especially in a situation where a yellow-grade monster should be killed, hunting was not done without the help of Nakagawa Genji. The relationship between Hiyoshi, the branch manager of Kyushu, and Nakagawa Genji was close to the relation between a servant and a master.
But the strange man who suddenly appeared broke the relationship. He hunted monsters at a tremendous pace and began to relieve the biggest worry of Hiyoshi.
‘If it weren’t for the branch manager of Kyushu, Hiyoshi, he could not stand a single stroke of my Sword…’
His skills were not great. To be exact, they were not great at all. It was not a trivial level, but it was not comparable to Nakagawa Genji. But he was smart and competent.
He shot the arrows using a relic, Horn Bow, and he never missed the target; the arrows penetrated only the hearts and heads of the monsters. He was predicting the monster’s habits and behavior patterns more accurately than anyone else, and he was coming up with the right numbers. He was hunting monsters like a real hunter.
That made it even more difficult. If Kim was a strong man who Nakagawa Genji could not do anything about, Nakagawa Genji would not have worried about it. Genji must have told the homeland all about Kim.
‘If I take this kind of job and let the headquarter know about him…’
Kim said that he was a Korean-Japanese citizen, but there was no reason for Genji to let a strong person who was not clearly identified hunt around.
‘… I will have totally lost my face.’
But now the man, Kim So-hoon, was not a man with such strength. In such a situation, if Genji informed the headquarter about Kim So-hoon, it was clear that they would ridicule him, with the evaluation that he was a useless person who could not even handle such things with his own strength, and was trying to borrow their power to cover his weakness. That was why Nakagawa Genji was worried about his troubles at the same time.
‘And sooner or later, if he succeeds in hunting a White Snake…’
Moreover, sooner or later, the Kyushu branch of the Imperial Hunting Unit was planning to hunt a yellow-grade monster, the White Snake, that had settled in Mount Umami in Asakura City. The branch manager of the Kyushu Hiyoshi had not yet said anything to Nakagawa Genji about when the hunt would start.
That meant that Hiyoshi recognized the ability of the Korean, and would go on the White Snake hunt centered around the man.
‘My position is over. The White Snake is a monster as worthy of the yellow-grade as the Black Snake.’
If Kim So-hoon succeeded in hunting the White Snake, there was no reason for Hiyoshi to humor Nakagawa Genji and ask him for anything. In the case of killing the White Snake, the ability acquired from the White Snake was one of the most valuable abilities.
The ability to see distant objects was extremely good!
‘I have to take it.’
In fact, it was a monster Nakagawa Genji was after. So, he was able to decide one thing.
‘I have to get rid of him somehow, before he goes hunting for the White Snake, without letting Hiyoshi know…’
It was none other than Kim So-hoon that gave him the solution to his problem.
5.
If the Japanese archipelago was compared to a long coal mine, Kitakyushu City, the entrance of the Kyushu region, was like the blind end of a mine tunnel. It was one of the ends where someone could escape from the Japanese island, where the sea was blocked everything.
There were several places in Kitakyushu City where evil and ugly humans would show up. Among them, the Yakuza, even if a nuclear bomb once again exploded in Japan, would survive with the cockroaches to the end. The businesses they ran were the worst places.
Drugs were a joke, human trafficking was basic, and if someone paid the price, even assassinating people or killing for pleasure was provided. Monsters with human faces… no, they showed the cruelty that only humans could show.
The underground bar which Kim Tae-hoon was now heading to was one of the worst places. It was originally a building where an illegal Yakuza bar was located, and it was now a place where illegal activities which would never have been dreamt of in the past were carried out.
When Kim stepped in, drug users were on the floor of the bar, and there were dirty sexual activities going on everywhere. He stood there looking for a seat. A man in a neat attire appeared in this atmosphere.
“What do you want?”
“The strongest drink.”
With the order, Kim immediately took five red jewels out of his pocket and put them on the table.
“How much strong drink do you want?”
“I want the fire to go on blazing.”
“Such a stiff drink needs a monster stone per bottle.”
“Five bottles.”
The waiter nodded and immediately opened the menu in front of Kim. There was a variety of things on the menu: a jewel for a bottle of wine, a jewel for a methamphetamine, a jewel for a woman, five jewels for murder, ten jewels for rape and murder… It was a menu filled with the cruelty that would be hard to find in hell.
Kim did not cover the menu. He read the menu slowly from the beginning.
‘This is a Yakuza bar protected by Nakagawa Genji.’
And he waited.
‘It’ll take about 16 minutes for him to come.’
After thinking about it, he set the timer on his wrist.