The Imperial Hunter

Half an hour passed, and the road, which had risen to an altitude of 5,000 feet, now had weathered asphalt that looked almost white in its pale gray. Speed limit signs and cautionary road signs flickered past the roadside. The latter displayed warnings to install snow chains. Although other vehicles were seen stopping to install chains, the vehicle prepared by the headquarters field support team had a four-wheel drive with snow tires, so there was no need to delay.

As the ancient Sequoia Grove drew nearer, my heart rate quickened. The flow of magic power that came into view was unusual. There was also an unrefined trace of magic. Evidence that there was at least one Awakened being nearby.

Awakened beings had circuits that absorbed the surrounding magic power, and the absorbed power was called control strength. The range in which this control strength was exerted was called the circuit field or magical field.

I felt my lips dry.

‘An Awakened being who deploys a field to such a distance…’

It was unexpected. The trees in this Sequoia National Park were indeed giant and ancient, but I didn’t think they would already be opening circuits. I thought it might be possible only for trees like Oregon’s mushrooms, which had expanded their territory through symbiosis for 8,700 years, or Utah’s golden aspen, estimated to have existed for at least 80,000 years.

The reason I came to this Sequoia forest was simply to observe the early precursors before Awakening, but it seems I had underestimated the potential arising from their gigantism. Perhaps the quality of souls that had endured for so long had become another variable.

The magical knowledge I possessed was fundamentally the result of digesting the soul of that arrogant bastard, my Master, that was embedded in my mind. That arrogant bastard knew a lot, but that didn’t mean he was a master of all things magical. So, my judgments based on that knowledge could have errors.

Well, that bastard of Master was also steeped in religious bias and human supremacism.

“I’ll stop the car here.”

As Kyung-tae’s subordinate turned the wheel and slowed down, I got out of the car and immediately began to search for a southern path. Kyung-tae, who had been closely following with his security detail, spoke with a bewildered expression.

“Uh, Hyungnim. The biggest tree around here, ‘General Sherman,’ is supposed to be in the opposite direction.”

“I know, but what I need to see isn’t that guy.”

“Have you already found something?”

“…You can’t even imagine what I’m looking at.”

I felt my control field contracting, as if squeezing each other out, a pure contest of control strength that occurred when different fields clashed. My control strength over the surrounding magic power was now barely significant compared to the formidable strength of the behemoth I could only now barely see.

‘What will happen when my circuits are completely normalized?’

I roughly estimated and inwardly shook my head. It was still far behind. There was a significant gap in class that the density and intricacy of circuits alone couldn’t overcome. As time passed, even the circuits of this behemoth would go through its own natural optimization.

How efficiently you used the drawn-in magic power was a separate issue, but in any case, within this behemoth’s territory, no mage or primitive ability user could fully demonstrate their abilities. They couldn’t draw in the surrounding magic power at maximum efficiency unless they destroyed the tree itself.

Finally, I stopped in my tracks. Somewhere, I could hear the sound of flowing water.

Perhaps it was because this wasn’t the most famous tree in the park, or maybe it was because it was off-season, but I didn’t see anyone else except for our group. Naturally, there were no surveillance personnel I had been concerned about either. The security team, pretending to be tourists, was standing at a distance, guarding the outer perimeter. Kyung-tae, who had come with me, was reading the plaque in front of the tree.

“[The President]… The name sounds grand, doesn’t it? Is this the one you’ve been looking for, Hyungnim?”

Without turning my head, I replied. 

“Yes. This might be the first awakened being of this era.”

“Awakened? Are you saying that thing has already opened its magic power circuits or something?”

Kyung-tae tilted his head up to look at the tall and massive trunk. 

“Oh my. This ‘President’ guy is really huge. It must be taller than most apartments… It’s like looking at a cliff, not a tree.”

His amazement, which was almost mumbling, became more evident as he moved backward.

Approaching the overwhelming mass of the ‘President,’ I reached out my palm to touch its rugged surface. Inside the bark, I could feel the currents of magic power and mana as if they were tangible. It was a sensation different from mere observation. The internal circuitry resembled rapids and waterfalls, chaotic and inefficient yet beautiful.

The magic power and mana I could perceive had waves-like patterns of different colored spots of light. Therefore, the ‘President’ was a tree of light with various colors, from its deep roots deep in the ground to its high canopy. The magic power escaping from incomplete circuits became a light cluster resembling an aurora and flowed out like a galaxy.

With a sigh mixed with admiration, I warned Kyung-tae.

“Kyung-tae.”

“Yes.”

“Stay within roughly 5 meters of me as a center, and tell the guys over there to make way to the left and right. That’s where magic power is flowing.”

“Oh.”

Without Kyung-tae’s order, the other guys quickly sent a message through the radio. Glancing back, I saw the security personnel in that direction dispersing. I turned my gaze back to the front.

Roughly within a 5-meter radius was the maximum range where I could exert my control here. The control that drew in magic power could technically push back magic power or mana if used skillfully. To avoid being exposed to the violent and unrefined mana, one could either stay close to me or completely leave the area.

Still, it was only 5 meters. I felt small and insignificant in my current state.

But this wasn’t entirely a negative emotion. It was more of amazement than self-pity. This tree was much more beautiful than anything I had seen before.

On the other hand, interpreting the ‘President’s’ circuits didn’t take much time. The complexity of the circuits was still low, and there were only a few circuits performing meaningful functions.

However, there was a clear difference from human circuits. This difference would become even more pronounced in the future. The hypothesis that different abilities would manifest differently in different species gained even more weight.

“Hyungnim.”

Kyung-tae cautiously asked in a voice filled with the unfamiliar.

“So, what ability does this guy have?”

“Ability?”

“Yes.”

“He’ll probably grow better than anything we’ve seen so far. He’ll also become sturdier.”

“…Is that the answer?”

“Isn’t that the essence of the basic desire of life?”

Though simply expressed, it was indeed a remarkable ability. Since some of the energy needed for growth would be replaced by mana.

I was quite looking forward to how much bigger this behemoth would become in the future. Plants that had started to replace energy with mana due to biotic enhancements, no matter how their changes manifested, would likely cause tremendous upheaval in human civilization.

Hearing my answer, Kyung-tae wore an awkward expression.

“It’s true, but the term ‘desire’ doesn’t quite fit plants.”

“Why?”

“Plants don’t have intelligence.”

“Who says that?”

“Huh? Isn’t that obvious?”

“Nothing in this world is obvious.”

“Well…”

“Sometimes, doubt common sense. Plants have intelligence and even cognitive abilities. They’re just different in principles and forms from human intelligence.”

If I were to watch those who mockingly underestimated plants, believing that only human intelligence was true intelligence, I couldn’t help but think they resembled the imperialists who claimed their civilization was the only true one and colonized the world.

I disliked imperialism. Regardless of right or wrong, I disliked it simply because it was imperialism.

“Doesn’t it make sense?”

Kyung-tae chuckled in response to my question.

“Of course not. To Kim Kyung-tae, your words are always right. It’s just that the content is completely opposite to what I’ve known so far, so it doesn’t feel real. Haha.”

“Hmm.”

This kind of conversation was becoming tiring with repetition, but what could I do? The knowledge to prepare for the future was unique to me alone. Looking ahead, this guy needed to keep his wits about him.

With 99.5% of the Earth’s existing biomass being plants, it foreshadowed that most of the awakening entities that would appear in the future would be plants.

“Let me give you a simple example.”

I spoke up.

“Many trees recognize their relatives.”

“Wow.”

“Genetically close relatives don’t compete with each other, or if they do, they don’t take it to the death.”

In other words, plants have a lineage too. Just like in human society, it was a natural strategy to preserve and spread genes.

“However, even among the same species, there’s fierce competition between trees with different ‘lineages.’ It’s a war where they spread their roots antagonistically to occupy a bit more territory. So, in dense forests, you can see the family relationships of the trees that have rooted in that area by looking underground.”

“That’s amazing. They don’t have brains, so how do they make such judgments…”

Answering up to here, there was already too much information. Feeling it was becoming tedious, I condensed the words I had to say into one sentence.

“Plants’ roots are their brains.”

“…”

Kyung-tae, who had closed his mouth, now curiously examined the ground beneath his feet. Even so, there was no way the naked eye could see below the surface.

In truth, even though I condensed my explanation, the knowledge I had provided was still too much. Plant intelligence was distributed beyond just the roots.

However, it was true that the roots played an overwhelmingly significant role.

At the foundation of it all were the root tips. Root-tip cells formed a network functionally similar to an animal’s brain by sending electrical and chemical signals to each other.

Even roadside wildflowers had tens of millions of root-tip cells. What about a behemoth like the ‘President’? It would be faster to weigh than to count. Even without such behemoths, the cognitive network mass of trees of a certain size was much heavier than the human brain. There were differences in how cognition was achieved, and the difference was significant enough to make mutual communication almost impossible.

That’s why I thought people who babbled that animals were pitiful, so let’s only eat plants, were stupid.

‘To value life, you should just starve to death.’

The morality these savage people professed reminded me of the nauseating sense of superiority displayed by my master and those London fellows.

Interrupting my train of thought, I turned away from the “President.”

“That’s enough for this one. Let’s go check out the others.”

Kyung-tae looked surprised.

“Have you seen enough already?”

“It’s just the beginning of the awakening process, so there’s nothing more to see right now. Maybe we’ll come back another time.”

I’d love to observe the development of the circuit for a longer period, but realistically, it was impossible. Moving this entire tree to plant elsewhere was out of the question.

At least I had glimpsed the starting point of biotic enhancement circuits, which were fundamentally different from those of humans. If I were to compare it to programming, I had collected some code. By increasing my library of code like this, I would eventually find it useful.

I hoped that these efforts would surpass the knowledge and artifacts possessed by imperialists.

Afterward, I went to see “The Senate,” “McKinley,” “Lincoln,” and finally stood in front of “General Sherman,” which was said to be the largest tree in this national park, at least by conventional tree standards.

Kyung-tae, while keeping an eye on nearby tourists, asked me. 

“How is it?”

“It’s developing a bit slower than the others.”

“Well, can’t expect much from this one, huh?”

While larger biomass increased the chances of awakening, the probability was still a probability. I could see that the flow of magic power was penetrating “General Sherman” like rifts of light, but it had not yet formed a significant circuit.

“Chairman.”

Hong Young-sik, the deputy director, who had been on the phone with someone, turned to me.

“A call from Diamond Casino.”

I took the phone from Deputy Director Hong.

Disclaimer:

This novel is a work of fiction! While it may incorporate elements inspired by our "real" historical world, including historical events, settings, and cultures, it is important to note that the story and characters are entirely products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to real persons, living or deceased, or actual events is purely coincidental. This work should be enjoyed and interpreted as a work of fiction and not as a representation of historical facts or reality.

Also, if you find some error in translation please do let me know by tagging me (@_dawn24) in our Discord server. Since this series is kinda hard to translate. But I'll try my best to make it at least readable :)

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