Chapter 3
By this point, the reaction of C-class hunters—whose only prior experience amounted to little more than gathering wild herbs—was as predictable as it gets. Faced with overwhelming terror, they either collapse as their legs give out or they run with every fiber of their being.
Fortunately, most chose the latter. Unfortunately, Kim Su-jin, the C-class hunter sitting right next to me, seemed to belong to the former.
“Run! Get out of here!”
Hunter Yoon Ju-young shouted desperately, throwing himself toward the unidentified monster that had just slaughtered two hunters in the blink of an eye. Despite the plea, Kim Su-jin remained paralyzed, unable to control her trembling legs.
She seemed to know intellectually that she needed to stand up and run immediately, attempting to haul herself up several times, but to no avail. Now, Kim Su-jin was sobbing as if she might hyperventilate, frantically striking her own legs.
“Please… hic… please, move… move, dammit…!!”
She wailed, past the point of caring about appearances or dignity. She simply wanted to live—and the despair of her own body refusing to follow her will to survive broke her.
So, I moved.
I immediately hoisted Kim Su-jin onto my back. Startled by the sudden contact, she thrashed momentarily in a fit of shock.
“Stay still,” I whispered sharply, trying to conserve energy. Fortunately, she caught on quickly, falling silent and clinging tightly to my back.
I stole a fleeting glance at where Yoon Ju-young was holding the line before sprinting toward the dungeon gate. Being an Awakened—even a lowly one—meant that carrying a person was far easier than it would have been before my awakening.
Su-jin buried her face in my shoulder, letting out stifled, hitching sobs. I figured her career as a hunter was likely over after today as I kept my legs pumping.
The thunderous sounds of combat faded behind us, replaced by the faint, shimmering blue light flickering in the distance.
The Dungeon Gate. The exit from this sudden nightmare.
“Th-thank… hic… thank you, Seo-hee… thank you so much…”
“We’re almost there, so stop crying like you’re already dead. And don’t thank me too much; I just didn’t want you dying and haunting my dreams. Now, go.”
Even if we were on different teams, we were both C-class hunters whose active areas overlapped. I’d run into her plenty of times. If I had left her behind to save my own skin, I’d probably be plagued by nightmares every night for the rest of my life.
The moment Su-jin slid off my back, she hobbled toward the gate with clumsy, unstable steps. Then, she faltered, stopping to look back tentatively.
“Seo-hee… aren’t you coming?”
“I’m coming. You go first. Hurry. Someone needs to get out there and report the situation inside.”
“But, Seo-hee—”
“Go on, it’s fine. Move!”
I half-forced, half-shoved Su-jin into the gate. She called my name desperately even as her body was sucked into the portal, but I pointedly ignored her.
To be honest, I wanted to jump through that gate more than anyone, but…
‘The gate capacity is full.’
Regrettably, these shimmering blue passageways had their own set of rules. First, no more than ten people could pass through at once. Second, only a specific number of people could use it within a set timeframe.
“The Administrator really loves these petty little hurdles.”
The culprit behind this global mess—an orange-haired woman known as the ‘Administrator’—was a person designed to get under your skin in every possible way. From ramping up the difficulty by unleashing monster parades worldwide to her mocking claim of being ‘merciful’ by imposing gate limits so ‘content wouldn’t be consumed too quickly’—everything about her was infuriating.
I let out a heavy sigh and scanned the terrain. Since I was stuck, my best bet was to hide somewhere secluded until the gate’s cooldown reset.
I spotted a massive boulder that looked perfect for hiding a single person. I decided to wedge myself into a crevice there, figuring no one would find me.
However, I have never been the type of person for whom things go smoothly.
CRACK.
The sound of a snapping branch echoed from behind. Operating on hunter instincts, I spun around. There, about five meters away, it stood.
The Red Chimera.
The very creature Yoon Ju-young was supposed to be fighting.
Ah.
The beast pulled something—a tentacle or an arm—from behind its back. I recognized it instantly as the weapon that had pierced Lee Ui-jeong and that nameless C-class hunter.
Mother, Father… I suppose I’m coming to join you, wherever you are.
Feeling the shadow of death looming over me, I squeezed my eyes shut. If I had to die, I hoped it wouldn’t hurt. I hoped it would be so fast I wouldn’t even feel it.
Then, a sharp sound sliced through the air, followed by the sickening thud of flesh being impaled.
But that sound, mercifully, did not come from me.
Generally speaking, I have a weakness for kind people. By ‘kind,’ I mean the sort of person who stops to ask a crying child what’s wrong, or someone who puts others before themselves in the face of imminent danger.
In other words, no matter how small the act, I tend to turn into a total pushover when I see someone acting out of genuine goodness.
It’s why I helped Hunter Ji-min, who works himself to the bone to pay for his sibling’s rare disease treatment, and why I helped Kim Su-jin, who always offered a piece of chocolate to rookies to calm their nerves.
And it’s why I was now huddled in a rocky crevice, cradling a man who had taken a lethal blow meant for someone he’d barely met five times in his life.
“Hey, Hunter Yoon Ju-young? Are you alive? Please tell me you’re alive. I won’t forgive you if you die.”
This was driving me crazy. Why on earth would a natural-born B-class hunter throw his life away to save a mere C-class? And beyond that, why use his own body as a shield for someone he barely knew?
Honestly, even if I had died there, no one would have blamed him.
From the looks of it, that ‘Red Salamander’—the Red Chimera—had undergone some kind of grade evolution. It was no longer something a B-class could handle alone. The fact that he’d held it off long enough for others to escape was already more than enough to earn him a medal.
“Yoon Ju-young, say something. Actually, don’t talk, just make a sound. An ‘ah’ or an ‘oh,’ anything.”
“Ugh…”
“Good, you’re alive. Thank God for that, you crazy man. And you even cast Stealth on us? How many lives do you think you have? To do this for someone you’ve only met a handful of times… Ugh, I’m so confused I’m rambling.”
I was currently dumping every potion I had in my inventory onto his abdomen, though I had no idea if it was doing anything. Let’s be real: a C-class hunter’s potions aren’t premium grade. They’re cheap stuff meant for minor cuts and bruises. I wasn’t sure if they could fix a literal hole through someone’s torso.
“Please, don’t die. I’ll hide you, somehow. Just stay alive until the gate limit resets. If you do that, I’ll make sure you live.”
My survival instincts were screaming at me to ditch him, but there’s a line a human shouldn’t cross, even at rock bottom.
I pulled him closer and popped the cap off another bottle. This was the fifth one.
The Red Salamander…
The Chimera was still prowling nearby. After it had impaled Yoon Ju-young, it had moved in for the kill, but…
Despite having his gut pierced, the man had used the last of his strength to cast Stealth on me. Because his skill was apparently B-class or higher, the invisibility extended to anyone he was in physical contact with.
“This is insane.”
I sighed again. What a man. I never thought I’d see a hunter with such a ridiculous sense of self-sacrifice. Usually, hunters are known for being the most arrogant people on the planet.
I let out a pained groan and opened a sixth potion bottle. I kept one eye on our surroundings, watching for any sign of the Red Chimera.
Ideally, I wanted to stay tucked in this crevice until it left, but reality rarely aligns with my desires.
That red lizard was circling this area with very clear, very deadly intent.
