Chapter 41
Act 4
<Tutorial: The Monster Attack> begins
The whole world was turned upside down.
The sudden appearance of five monsters near Honolulu drew everyone’s attention.
Up until then, all the buzz had been about the newly emerged S-rank Hunter in Korea.
Japan and China even suspected that Korea had tampered with the measuring devices until they broke, claiming it was all fabricated.
But before Korea could even explain properly, the monsters showed up, and all that talk disappeared.
The news played endless loops of the five monsters’ footage, 24 hours straight. Every talk show, every local paper, even gaming forums unrelated to the matter—everywhere, it was nothing but talk of the five monsters.
Analysis posts poured out.
The one that caught the most attention in Korea was a post by a subscriber on the popular HunterTuber “Awakening World” community site.
“Summary of the Five Monsters (with pics)”
Posted by: AnalystRaccoon
“Writing this in blunt speech. Don’t like it, get out.
You’ve all seen the news about the five monsters.
Yeah, we’re doomed.
We’re all gonna die.
But before dying, I did some analysis.”
1. Kraken
“Does anyone even need me to explain this? I’ll just drop pics.
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From the first reports, its tentacles reached the helicopters. That means one tentacle alone is at least 300 meters long.
For reference, the L Tower you all know is 555 meters tall.
Add its squid head to the length, and it’s bigger than the L Tower.
F*ck.
Thankfully, it seems to like warm waters. Headed southeast. Looks like Peru/Chile are its targets.
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Brazil has six S-ranks, so they’ll probably be called in for help.”
2. Stökkul
“Never heard of it? Me neither.
This is the one that swallowed that reporter’s helicopter.
I looked it up.
It’s a man-eating whale from Icelandic legend.
Ugly as hell.
(jpg)(jpg)
^ Comparison with a U.S. warship.
Yeah, massive.
Since it’s from Iceland, it probably likes the cold. It’s heading north.
Russia’s already mobilizing.
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Sexy Yelena-noona is on standby again.
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Zoomed in for eye-candy purposes. Don’t thank me.”
3. Jörmungandr
“Most of you probably know this one. The sea serpent from Norse mythology.
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Has two heads, no tail.
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Looks cool in comics, but in real life it’s gross as hell.
This one’s heading for America.
Not sure if it’ll land in Canada or the U.S. yet.
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American S-ranks are fighting each other over who gets to handle it—two are already seriously injured, lol.
So they set up a tournament to decide who goes first, lol.
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↑ Current standings.
Hilarious. Watch it if you’ve got time.”
4. Umibōzu
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“Honestly, this one’s the creepiest.
It never surfaces, so all you see is a giant shadow moving underwater. But every fish along its path dies.
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Pure horror.
It’s a famous Japanese yokai.
Suspected to be a darkness-type monster.
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But no idea why it skipped Japan, where its legend originates, and is heading south instead.
Anyway, it’s on its way to New Zealand.
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New Zealand doesn’t have a single divine-type S-rank, so they’re panicking.
Out of nowhere, the UK volunteered to help. But you know they’re gonna milk money out of it.
Currently in negotiations with New Zealand.”
5. Black Tortoise (Genbu)!!!!
“Honestly, I wrote all the above just to talk about this.
This is what you’re here for, right? lol
(jpg)(jpg)(jpg)
Ahhh! Four Guardians of the Directions! Why are you here?!
Even though it’s a monster, seeing a legend from Eastern mythology appear gets me hyped.
It’s heading for Japan.
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Too bad Japan’s in the way or we could see it firsthand.
I thought about flying over to Japan just to watch.
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Guess I wasn’t the only one. Japan tickets are insanely expensive now, lol.
(jpg)(jpg)(jpg)(jpg)
Will we see Vermilion Bird, White Tiger, Azure Dragon too?
Maybe we should ask Hwang Taesan to paint a black dragon blue, lol. He’d beat me up, lol.”
“Anyway, WHU has officially classified these as the first S-rank monsters in history.
S-rank monsters versus S-rank humanity.
Just imagining it makes my chest swell.
This is gonna be some epic battles, so keep watching the news.”
↓ If you’re curious, WHU has live tracking links for all five monsters ↓
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That post spread everywhere—even the news—and became the de facto reference guide for the five monsters.
“Are you sure about this?”
“Ah, I said I’m fine! How many times are you going to ask me?”
The one pestering Saebyeok with the same question since morning was none other than Hwang Taesan.
-“We can postpone the request and have you return to the country immediately—”
“No! What if they slip away while we’re gone?”
-“But still…”
“They’re heading for Japan anyway.”
-“Japan can’t stop them. You’d need a dragon at least…”
“I know. But they’ll buy us time.”
Saebyeok was surprised at the sharp analysis.
Most global experts were claiming Japan would stop the giant turtle. After all, they had an S-rank swordsman who could supposedly even cut through stone.
They predicted he’d be able to break the turtle’s shell.
But he couldn’t.
Genbu’s shell wasn’t stone. Even diamonds would break before scratching it.
“That’s why you just focus on the request I gave you.”
Saebyeok knew this already, but he hung up before Taesan could protest further.
From the start, he’d calculated that the turtle fight would happen without Hwang Taesan, which is why he’d given him a different request.
“Seriously, he worries too much.”
“That’s just how he is. Looks like a bandit on the outside, but inside he’s tofu.”
The old man, hammering away at something on his anvil, spoke up after hearing Saebyeok grumble.
The very next day after the monsters appeared, Saebyeok had gone down to the underground of Dragon’s Den to meet the old man.
“Didn’t you break the measuring device?”
“Yeah. I just touched it and it broke.”
Saebyeok scratched his head awkwardly while crouched in front of him.
“You’re the one who has to fix it, right?”
“Who else in Korea could fix that but me?”
“Gonna cost much?”
“Money isn’t the problem. It’s the materials.”
“What do you need?”
“High-purity magic stones.”
“Can’t we just buy some? Are they that expensive lately?”
“The ones on the market won’t cut it. We need ones straight from a monster’s core. And not just any monster—a high-rank one.”
Saebyeok narrowed his eyes at the old man.
“So you’re basically telling me to kill that turtle and fetch its core, huh?”
“What are you waiting for?”
The old man’s shameless reply made Saebyeok let out a hollow laugh. He added,
“You broke it, so you should take responsibility.”
“If I fly over now, it’ll turn into a diplomatic incident. And you know it.”
Japan was already brimming with excitement, hoping to single-handedly deal with the monster and show off.
The sudden emergence of a new Korean S-rank had already given many Japanese politicians headaches.
An equal to the Sword Emperor himself, no less.
And Japan… had a painful history.
Their pride and strongest S-rank, Nakamura Ryosuke, had once challenged the Sword Emperor and been utterly defeated.
He was the one who picked the fight, made it public, even drew the media in.
“That arrogant bastard who dared call himself ‘Sword Emperor’? I’ll teach him a lesson myself!”
He’d declared boldly, but when he came to Korea, he’d been crushed.
To make matters worse, he’d staked the A-rank sword Muramasa as a wager, and lost it too.
Muramasa and Masamune were Japan’s pride.
Neither was strong enough to be classified as a “treasure,” but they were legends brought to life, and they stirred people’s blood.
The government had gifted them to Nakamura, since he was the strongest S-rank and had the perfect “samurai” image that the public adored.
But his arrogance cost him dearly. He’d wagered one in a duel with Korea—and lost.
From that day, he was branded a “traitor to the Empire of Japan,” “disgrace of the sword,” unable to show his face.
So when Genbu appeared, imagine how desperately he wanted revenge.
He must be dreaming of slaying one of the Four Guardians alone and making a glorious comeback.
Not that the Masamune sword he still has could even scratch Genbu.
Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t headed for redemption. Only for another disgrace he could never wash away.
“I’ll find a way to get the magic stone.”
Saebyeok promised the old man. Since Genbu was going to come to Busan anyway, there was no need to go all the way to Japan.
“But while we wait, make me an orb.”
“An orb?”
“One that amplifies skill power.”
Though he’d told Hwang Taesan not to worry, Saebyeok did have a concern of his own.
1. Temporary Compression of Abilities due to Authority Settlement (▽Details)
Due to abrupt changes in the system, the settlement of <Server Administrator> authority has been delayed. A portion of mana is forcibly allocated to Title updates, and the rest of the stats are temporarily compressed.
It was the same issue he’d run into during his regression—still unresolved.
Honestly, when he first saw the problem, he thought it would be solved quickly. After all, there were still two months left before the <Scenario> began.
<Title: Spearmaster of Dawn (S)>
Unique Active Skills:
Lightning (S → B)
Ignite (S → B)
Droplet (A → C)
Blow (A → C)
Sprout (A → C)
Glimmer (C → E)
But over a month had passed, and now there was less than two weeks before the monster reached Busan. Yet his <Spearmaster of Dawn> active skills were still stuck where they were.
“If only Kang Suho awakens, it won’t be too big a problem… But still…”
He was growing uneasy.
Because no matter how many buffs he stacked, there was no way B-rank skills would be enough to defeat that turtle monster.
