How To Survive as a Class a Hunter

28. Non-Awakened Ones – [2]

The hunt in Manwolsan was also smooth.

There were hidden tunnels dug by monsters all over the mountain, and if the troops advanced recklessly, the casualties would have been severe, but that was just the limit of non-awakened ones.

The hunters I led simply repeated the same process.

When the monster was idly outdoors, all I had to do was inform the others of its location, and they would take care of it with a sniper.

If the monster was hiding in some burrow, we just had to throw in a grenade or something and wait.

In that case, the monsters would rush out of the burrow entrance on their own, and I would always spread a mental net in front of it to prepare for any unforeseen situations.

The mental net identified any entity moving fast enough to be annoying within its range. When such an entity was detected, I stepped in. I dealt with it using a machine gun shell that even the force field couldn’t withstand…

After repeating the above process several times, both the others and I became accustomed to it.

I can’t even tell you how accustomed I became to observing their movements through the net. Now, it’s as comfortable to detect and judge with the net as it is to see and judge with my eyes.

After hunting all morning, we climbed the mountain again after finishing the meal the residents had prepared for us (they kept doing it even when we told them not to).

As I walked, I reported the results of my search.

“There are nine goblins in that bush.”

No hunter looked tense at those words. After all, goblins were just fodder for Deathclaws.

Except for the Deathclaw, which became an exception to the rules that emerged later because it appeared first from the gate, we try to name the monsters after famous fictional monsters from various countries. Naming them something like “Abnormal Entity-183” might be dignified, but the dumb hunters would have a hard time memorizing it, and it wouldn’t be easily used between countries, would it?

And the goblins that come out of the gate don’t particularly look like RPG goblins; they just look like hairless gray monkeys, but their status is similar to RPG goblins.

They have enough intelligence to start a fire, but that’s it. They’re smaller than humans, so they’re not much of a threat. They’re strong for their size, so they can attack children or women, and if left to breed, even the Deathclaws that feed on them can breed, so they must be dealt with whenever seen.

Click. Naito-san loaded his shotgun. He said,

“We’ll handle this!”

It was a tone like saying he’d take out the trash. I nodded without much thought, and Naito-san and a few hunters moved in the direction I pointed.

With a bit of paranoid worry, I spread the mental net to prepare for any unforeseen situations, but that was it. As soon as they disappeared from sight, I lost interest.

In the meantime, something happened.

While I wasn’t even closely monitoring the goblin hunt through the net, I detected a fierce moving object that tore through the net.

A bullet fired from this side? No.

A bullet flying from the opposite direction.

The moment I sensed the danger, my whole body’s nerves reacted. What was happening outside my sight was instantly transmitted to my brain.

As I identified the outline through the mental net, I saw a goblin holding a K-2 rifle. The fierce moving object came from its muzzle. It was definitely a bullet.

What’s in the direction the bullet is heading?

Naito-san. No doubt. Being a foreigner, he couldn’t use an automatic weapon that could fire continuously in this country, so the fact that he was carrying that shotgun was obvious.

And now, it didn’t matter whether it was Naito-san or anyone else. As soon as I made the judgment, I teleported. Into the space between the goblin and Naito-san.

As I extended my arms forward as if to guard, the incoming bullet lodged precisely in my forearm.

The sound of the gunshot came after, as the speed of sound is slower than the bullet. ‘Bang!’

Since I wasn’t running on adrenaline, I felt the pain fully, but I didn’t need to do anything. The hunters next to me weren’t fools, so they each fired their guns.

After a few gunshots, the goblins were all lying dead.

The hunters, with their eyes wide open, looked at me.

“Mr. Kim Geuk? How did you get here… No, I’m not asking because I didn’t know you teleported, but how did you know about the situation…”

Instead of answering, I groaned, “Damn.”

It seemed they only understood the situation after seeing the blood flowing from my arm. The hunters around me started to panic.

“Shit, what do we do? It’s stuck!”

*

“So, as soon as Mr. Naito sensed the danger, you teleported and took the bullet for him?”

In response to Seong Mun-yeong’s question, I answered modestly.

“You don’t need to hold back your praise for my self-sacrifice.”

“Praise, my ass! What kind of crazy act is that!”

“Saving a life is a crazy act?”

“No, if a big guy suddenly appears through teleportation in front of you, wouldn’t you be startled and shoot first, thinking he’s there to protect you in a moment of crisis?”

“Is that so?”

“To begin with! In a situation where a goblin is aiming a gun, you have to shoot quickly, so isn’t it possible that you could have been shot instead of the goblin?”

I scolded him, saying how could I have calculated all that in such a hurry, but I thought about it. It was indeed a dangerous situation.

Come to think of it, it was a moment where I could have been shot from both the front and the back. And if I had been shot in the back instead of the arm, who knows what would have happened.

Luckily, Mr. Naito behind me didn’t shoot at me, so I only got hurt in the arm.

No, thinking about it again, it’s strange why he didn’t shoot in that situation.

Why didn’t Mr. Naito shoot?

The goblin shot first, but by then Mr. Naito must have recognized the deadly enemy in front of him. In the next beat, Mr. Naito should have shot.

So why didn’t he shoot? Did the usually calm guy freeze in a life-threatening situation?

There’s no way Mr. Naito recognized my teleportation and stopped pulling the trigger. The goblin’s bullet had already been fired, and I intervened in the middle of it, which is not something human reflexes can respond to.

Unless he’s someone special like me or a special type of awakened person…

I couldn’t dwell on this thought for long.

“To begin with, you shouldn’t have taken the hit for that guy. Why the hell did you try to save that b*stard…”

Baek Dambi was nagging while applying ice to my gunshot wound, but it didn’t feel bad to be worried about.

No, it felt incredibly pleasant. Not just because the ring girl was taking care of me.

The whole situation, the previous situation itself, was pleasant.

I mean the situation where I saved Mr. Naito.

Indeed, whether the contract money was given to an awakened person or not, no matter how skilled they are, non-awakened people need the protection of awakened ones. Otherwise, they would die helplessly.

I feel good, as if I have proven that fact once again.

Along with that, I could properly realize why I hated that guy Naito so much.

It bothered me that he acted like such a great hunter despite being a non-awakened. His existence destroyed my theory that non-awakened people are of no help and should just quietly praise the awakened ones who defeat monsters. And by saving him this time, my theory was proven once again, so I felt good.

Hmm, it was a reason I couldn’t tell anyone…

“Mr. Kim Geuk, you got shot, so let’s call it a day?”

At Mr. Im Hyung-taek’s words, I nodded. Then, Sung Moon-young and Lee Jong-ho also shouted “Shimai, Shimai,” but unlike usual, there was no enthusiastic cheer. Everyone just hesitated and watched my reaction.

This feeling of being the center of attention, it’s thrilling.

Of course, Mr. Naito also approached me hesitantly and spoke.

“Uh, I don’t know how to thank you. You saved my life twice, but how can I…”

I was in such a good mood that I could smile at him.

“It’s okay. We’re fighting for our lives, so it’s natural to help if we can.”

“But still…”

“If you’re really grateful, post a praise about me on HuntWeb. I’ll leave a nice comment this time.”

Mr. Naito kept expressing his gratitude for a while before stepping back.

And a moment later, something popped out of my arm. It was a bullet rolling on the ground.

The bullet had been pushed out by the regenerating flesh. Seeing that, I opened my eyes wide.

It was supposed to be extracted at the hospital. My super-regeneration ability wasn’t originally this strong. Just as the range of my teleportation had expanded, my regeneration ability seemed to have noticeably improved too.

“A real monster…”

With a smack on Sung Moon-young’s head, today’s hunt was over.

On the way home with the team, I regretted finishing the hunt early. The wound healed faster than I thought. I felt it was a waste of time to just let it pass.

I thought about going to the gym for some strength training, but my trainer, Mr. Yang, would be busy with other things at this time. What should I do?

“Moon-young, do you want to do a part-time job?”

“What kind of part-time job? Thanks to you, I’ve been making a lot of money lately. I don’t need another job.”

“It’s a part-time job where I’m the employer, so the pay is good. If you want to make more money, come with me, okay?”

I coaxed Sung Moon-young to come home with me and handed him the K-2 rifle I had.

Pointing the muzzle at me, I instructed him.

“Alright, shoot me with that.”

“Are you crazy?”

“No, it’s for training, man.”

“What kind of training?”

“I reacted to the bullet fired today, didn’t I? I even succeeded in detecting the danger and saved a life just because it came from the opposite direction.”

“I know you’re amazing, so stop bragging…”

“So my nervous system reacted to the speed of the bullet. Do you have any idea how incredible that is? It’s more amazing than hitting a 180km/h knuckleball for a home run!”

“Now that you mention it, it is amazing, but so what…”

I explained that such an amazing thing shouldn’t happen just once, it should be possible in the future as well.

To do that, we shouldn’t just hope for a lucky punch to repeat, but we should train properly. And to train, we need to recreate the same situation as before.

“Then with BB bullets…”

“Can BB bullets reach the speed of real bullets?”

“Even so, there’s no need to shoot at you, right? Can’t you just react to shooting at another target?”

“Of course. My brain needs to recognize that it’s a dangerous situation for my nerves to accelerate.”

“Still, why do you have to make me do this?”

“Because you’re a sociopath who hurts people with words at the drop of a hat, so wouldn’t you feel comfortable hurting people with bullets too?”

“No, you’re the one hurting people with words right now…”

“Don’t worry. I won’t die.”

“That’s the number one last word…”

After a long time of complaining, Seong Mun-yeong finally fired a shot at me.

And I felt the bullet that left the muzzle fiercely crossing the mental net I had spread out, stimulating my nerves, and I could even vaguely see the movement of the bullet with my naked eyes, which thrilled me.

Over the past three months, I felt it was becoming increasingly easier to capture the movements of the Deathclaws that often eluded human dynamic vision.

It wasn’t simply a result of getting used to the enemies’ movements, but a result of my nervous system reaching a superhuman realm.

I guessed that my nervous system was developing beyond human limits due to the consistent use of teleportation and mental nets that stimulated my nervous system.

Among those with nerve acceleration abilities, are there really cases where they react to and deal with the speed of bullets? At this rate, I might reach that realm too. No, since I already dealt with the speed of a bullet once, from now on…

Only then did the gunshot ring out. ‘Bang!’ Seong Mun-yeong’s voice followed, piercing my ears.

“Doesn’t it hurt? Why are you laughing? This is driving me crazy…”