The Imperial Hunter

A pack of dogs barked loudly in the mountain outskirts late at night. The scrawny beasts fled from humans. They were starved enough to be vicious, but circuits had opened to detect the magical field, so they didn’t dare attack me and my men.

In short, they were abandoned dogs who had awakened as primitive magic casters.

The first reason owners discarded such animals was fear – their empowered pets could no longer be as affectionate.

But even more often, those still attached to their pets abandoned them – or more precisely, set them free. Flee. Flee the government’s reach. Awakened animals held value as experimental subjects, and the Chinese government was in the midst of seizing empowered pets without any compensation, under the pretext of public safety.

With rumors spreading that the seized animals suffered cruel experiments or became the high officials’ exotic pets, not many readily surrendered their beloved companions. Thus, countless dogs, cats, and other pets gained unwanted freedom from their loving masters.

Mount Baiyun in Guangzhou, famed as the city’s number one scenic beauty, was the ideal habitat for such abandoned creatures to take refuge in. It was a 5A National Park where hunting was restricted.

Thanks to that, tonight’s surveillance was slightly easier. The security dogs barked so frequently that the guards found it hard to discern whether a dog was reacting to human scent or the scent of feral outcasts. So I could survey the mansion I needed to raid without minding the wind carrying my scent.

This mansion was the target Gao Shusen had relayed yesterday afternoon.

Lying prone and sketching out floor plans of the mansion despite the near-pitch darkness, Kyung-tae in winter camo spoke in frozen breaths beside me.

“This is practically a stone’s throw from the famous ‘Pinyunzuo’, isn’t it? Who’d expect the municipal party secretary to build an underground vault around here?”

“There are always blind spots right under the lamp.”

“I guess, but still, weird he wasn’t spooked considering his predecessor got decapitated nearby. Fengshui matters a lot to the Chinese, especially for real estate.”

“Just because the former secretary was corrupt and beheaded doesn’t mean this was his private land. Pinyunzuo bears no guilt.”

“Right, that makes sense….”

Kyung-tae nodded along.

As Kyung-tae mentioned, Mount Baiyun was home to Pinyunzuo, an ultra-luxury social club. Completely cut off from public access paths, the club practically operated as a facility for high-ranking Communist Party officials.

This Pinyunzuo was where Guangzhou’s former municipal secretary Wan Qingliang had been arrested for embezzlement and corruption.

But in truth, he was a relatively clean official. His illicit assets totaled a mere 100 million yuan (approx. 1.7 billion won). Laughable by other nations’ standards, but considered borderline pristine in China’s corruption capital.

Thus, Wan Qingliang’s downfall was simply defeat in a factional power struggle. The fact that he amassed only that much wealth and received a life sentence made that abundantly clear.

Snorting, Kyung-tae watched me work and asked.

“How much money and gold do you reckon is inside?”

“Not curious about the number of people?”

“Ah, well, you’ll be overseeing everything personally and commanding us anyway. I’m more curious about the haul. Massive jackpot?”

“No, just decent. Even if we took everything, it wouldn’t fill more than five trucks.”

“Five trucks is…really just that? Did they split up the caches?”

While five trucks of valuables was objectively an astronomical fortune, it fell slightly short of expectations for a high Communist Party official. In this country where corruption was the status quo, just one exposed embezzler typically had military trucks cart off at minimum ten loads worth of ill-gotten gains.

On the underground floor plan, I separately marked the locations of riches and treasures. Despite being called an underground vault, the mansion’s extensive basement contained various hidden passages and gaps where assorted precious metals, cash, and more were secreted in a distributed fashion.

Next, I annotated the details on the security personnel deployed throughout the floors, exterior included – headcount and gear, patrol routes, shift changes, and timed check-ins.

‘He said hunters were hired for security.’

Hunter meant someone who hunted. As in the United States, the field with the greatest demand for civilians with abilities on this continent remained hunting and capturing awakened wildlife. With no clear criteria yet to incorporate excellent casters into public service during this transitional period, many mainstream nations encouraged civilian hunting to make the people with abilities voluntarily surface on their own.

Thus, the use of hunter as a synonym for people with abilities had become a universal trend and fashion not limited to any one region – arguably policy convergence. Probably not a few nations were taking a “wait and see” approach, following the early adopters’ lead.

Gao Shusen had informed me the current municipal party secretary employed a hunter group as private security. Surely some of the mansion guards were from that group as well, he warned. While directly assessing them revealed no major threats, still…

Soon after, I completed the plans for every floor.

“Done.”

“Great work as always, Hyungnim.”

“Save the praise until everything’s finished. Gather the kids.”

Reviewing the interior layout and coordinating routes per team were basic steps before breaching. Things could be streamlined in an urgent situation, but this wasn’t one such case.

As my subordinates gathered with their tactical smartphones under the camo tent, I sketched out the floor plans which streamed to their screens in real-time. No lengthy briefing was needed with this information-sharing system. I left the task of coordinating routes to Kyung-tae. He had superb instincts for such matters.

Kyung-tae said.

“Okay, let’s designate this spot as Point A and start from there.”

As if he had prepared beforehand, Kyung-tae briskly drew lines without hesitation. Yet not a single minor flaw appeared in the routes and briefing.

After smoothly relaying contingency plans for emergencies and individual team roles, Kyung-tae finally confirmed with me:

“This will work, right Hyungnim?”

“Yeah.”

I nodded and snapped my fingers.

“My bag.”

A subordinate brought over the long hard case. Inside the heavy case was a semi-auto anti-materiel rifle plus accessories, suppressor, scope, laser rangefinder, and ballistics calculator – unnecessary for me with the visual cognition granted by the Eye of the Golden Age, but still a complete kit I or my men may need to utilize depending on circumstances.

This large firearm was not selected from the standard Chinese armory Gao Shusen provided, but my personal collection stashed in a Macau casino’s secret safe my subordinates had retrieved. Personal collection meant a piece customized to my preferences down to the stock, trigger, magazines, and barrel.

After inspecting the rifle’s functionality, I snapped my fingers again.

“Ammo.”

The same subordinate passed me a small ammo box. He was one of the men assigned to provide sniper support with me outside. The others set to breach the interior reviewed their routes and roles while sporadically conversing.

I would not enter the mansion interior until the enemy was completely contained. Overseeing everything and providing penetrating sniper support through walls were roles only I could fulfill. It also prepared for any escapes given the mansion’s expansive grounds.

Crackle-

I levitated a cartridge with mana, separated the bullet from the casing, and then rubbed the entire cartridge with a specific mana friction pattern. The armor-piercing round screeched as it carved apart. Visually – that was, to normal vision – no difference could be seen before and after, but my eyes made out minute grooves newly etched. The sort of traces left from casting the slug in a handcrafted mold, then manually filing and finishing with abrasive cloth.

In short, I was currently forging the hallmarks of Al-Qassim. While close inspection would reveal discrepancies, police examiners overwhelmed by the rapidly changing times and backlogged tasks were unlikely to devote excessive effort to analyzing each and every bullet.

I didn’t need to process all of today’s ammunition this way. That would actually seem unnatural. Only my anti-materiel rifle required a bit of a cover story at present since the Black Children’s Party had not used such heavy weaponry yet.

Upon completing this series of steps and mating the machined slug to its casing, I proceeded to load multiple magazines without ever touching the rounds. The dull cartridges clicked and clacked into place. Focused on their tabletop drills and assignments, Kyung-tae and the others paid me no heed. With the magazines inserted into the rifle, I told my subordinates.

“I’ll observe the situation. Report when ready.”

At this, Kyung-tae grinned.

“We can go right away. Just let me know when you see the right moment while observing the situation.”

“Okay.”

I silently move out of the camouflage and take up a sniping position.

‘Once it starts, I’ll destroy the external relay stations and communication terminals first…’

From what I observed, the rotation of the external security team at the mansion was conducted every 15 minutes. Personnel stationed at each checkpoint would patrol and move to the next location every 15 minutes, providing a timely report upon reaching a new checkpoint.

Right after the report was transmitted was the most suitable time to infiltrate.

The mansion of the City Secretary was nestled against the rugged folds of the mountains, with mountains at the back and water in front. While it might be favorable in terms of feng shui, it was a challenging location for Jeonpa to reach. Therefore, the mansion was equipped with a separate means of communication relay.

The sniper team led by me would destroy them first. Once the external relay stations were demolished, the phones of those outside would become useless. Following that, knocking down communication terminals one by one would disrupt the internet and the various femtocells (communication relay devices via the internet) scattered throughout the mansion. This would leave them with only satellite phones for external communication, which wouldn’t pose a threat as they would need relay stations to use them indoors.

Holding a gun and quietly observing the enemy, I decided to attack when I saw those occupying the situation room blatantly lying down.

“We will commence the attack at 02:00. Everyone to your designated positions.”

After giving the command, Kyung-tae, wearing a flipped balaclava, synchronized his watch with the team leaders. Following that, he swiftly issued the signal to the entire infiltration team and descended with the team leaders. Though the mansion’s dogs were barking louder than before, the guards standing watch were simply annoyed. Apparently, there were no snipers among the guards with abilities; their limitations were evident.

“Infiltration team, wait at your current positions for a moment.”

Having sent the message through the radio, I waited for the rooftop guards to finish their shift. At 2:02 AM, as the newcomers ascended to the rooftop, there were four of them. Four targets for killing; it only took a moment to distribute the targets since I had more barrels than targets. I aimed the sniper rifle at the relay station from the start.

“Engage three of them. Three, two, one.”

Bang! Tatang!

Some of the gunfire from the subordinates was drowned out by the thunderous roar of the anti-material sniper rifle I fired. This weapon was designed to penetrate the armor plates of military vehicles. At intervals of 0.5 seconds, the heads of four individuals and one communication relay station exploded or were torn apart.

“Next, the 2 o’clock direction guard post. Three, two, one.”

Bang, bang, bang!

Guiding the sniper team, I systematically silenced the remaining guard posts one by one. By the time I exhausted five rounds and three magazines, there was nothing left to shoot outside the building.

Even after all the shots, there was no echo bouncing back from the valley. The efficiency of the sound-absorbing barrier continued to improve steadily, both in terms of circuit occupancy and technique effectiveness.

Now, I aimed at the guards patrolling the outer corridor of the building. This required me to handle the shooting beyond the wall alone, but even so, the targets were only in pairs, easily manageable even if one or two shots were missed.

Bullet holes pierced the walls wherever I aimed. Human bodies exploded in unison along the same straight line. Stomachs were torn apart, necks and spines severed, eyeballs popped out. The distant corridors were painted with a colorful flow of blood. The large-caliber armor-piercing rounds provided a satisfying visual impact. I generously consumed the prepared rounds, sometimes putting additional shots into already exploded bodies or wasting several rounds in inappropriate places.

There were two reasons for this.

First, even if the sniper of the Black Children’s Party was exceptionally skilled, it seemed strange. Second, the sniper rifle of Al-Qassim was excessively precise, which also didn’t make sense.

Some of the enemies in places my bullets didn’t reach started to notice something was amiss. While the gunshots were contained by the sound-absorbing barrier, the noise of armor-piercing rounds piercing through the walls echoed clearly.

However, they realized it too late.

“Infiltration team, go in.”

I released the leashes of the hunting dogs that had been waiting for this moment.

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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