Auto Hunting

Episode 152

The footage on the screen was such a shock that the people in the control center forgot about Oh Yoo-seong’s voice for an instant.

Hawaiian Salamanders.

The beasts were being hunted right that very moment.

“What?!”

It would be fair to assume that Milo’s reaction represented everyone’s surprise. The Kowala Company warriors were capturing the Salamanders right before their eyes.

Everyone was alive.

Although they could not hear any sound from their communicators, it was obvious from the hunters’ movements that they had not suffered any major injuries.

“Then, why did the communication get cut off…?”

Milo couldn’t explain why, but it was clear that, during the blackout, the situation had been reversed.

Most of the Salamanders on the screen were dead. Not only that but with the rift remaining unclosed, there should have been an influx of beasts from time to time. However, the number of Salamanders on screen didn’t seem to have changed.

And, as the Kowala warriors’ hunt continued, their numbers rapidly decreased. Now, there were more Salamander corpses than living beasts onscreen.

‘What is going on?!’

From the context, it was clear that the hunters had deliberately blocked their action cams from transmitting footage.

They had also cut off their communicators, making it impossible for them to be seen or heard from the control room.

‘But why did they do that?’

No one in the room had a clue, not even Ali.

Just then…

“…….!!”

“What!?”

One of the action cams’ angles changed as if someone were trying to move its lens.

Then, through the monitor… The people in the control room found themselves staring back at Oh Yoo-seong.

***

The Kowala Company hunters in the field felt like they should stop him.

He was a foreign hunter. More than that, he was an uninvited guest who was intruding on their operation area. However…

“…….”

“…….”

They didn’t rush to overpower Yoo-seong, not even to threaten him into leaving the area.

No, it would be more accurate to say that they couldn’t.

Yoo-seong was not interfering with their hunt. He wasn’t touching the Salamanders because those beasts were not his targets.

The prey that Yoo-seong was silently hunting was a completely different creature.

Still, something had to be done about the Salamanders spreading out beyond the operation area.

There was a reason Yoo-seong had walked into the temporary control center to provoke Ali, and that was because he’d wanted to check the operation area’s layout.

Using a map displayed in the control center, he’d taken note of the Kowala Company teams’ positions. These warriors were Oh Yoo-seong’s targets.

As the operation began, Yoo-seong had moved to the highlands of Mauna Kea and watched it from there.

He’d studied the flow of the Kowala Company hunting style.

Oh Yoo-seong had not moved until the first crack was blocked.

However, once the crack had re-opened a second and a third time, the number of Hawaiian Salamanders began to increase overwhelmingly.

It had been time for Yoo-seong’s entrance.

Taang-!

With Explosive Acceleration, Yoo-seong had sped down to the lowlands. His destination was those teams who were close to reaching their limits. These teams had been positioned in the path of an endless crowd of Salamanders and, although they were doing their best to hold the monsters off, they would be overwhelmed soon. The warriors seemed to have accepted their fate and prepared themselves for death.

However…

Bang-!

“Something” had promptly landed behind them.

The warriors had turned to look, but all they felt was pressure on top of their heads, where their action cams were located.

Almost at the same time, the communicator mouthpieces they had were crushed.

Hoop-!

The last thing they had felt was a tremendous force throwing them backward. That was what the foreign hunter did to them; he saved them.

“You, you…!”

The hunters had been embarrassed by the fact that they’d had to be saved, but Yoo-seong was not done.

He’d approached them one by one, pressing an index finger to their foreheads for a quick second. With their communicators smashed, the teams had needed a new means of communicating with each other.

However, it needed to be a way that would not reach the control center. After he was done…

Paang-!

Yoo-seong had used Explosive Acceleration once more and disappeared.

Now there were questions in the heads of the warriors he’d just encountered.

‘Why did Yoo-seong save us?’

‘Where is he going?’

‘Why did he touch our foreheads?’

Although the first question was difficult to answer, the second and the third were soon made clear.

“Wait a minute! Where are these voices coming from…”

“It sounds like our team members? Hello? Can you hear me?”

They began to hear the voices of their colleagues in their heads. And it seemed that when they spoke, their colleagues could hear them, too.

It was thanks to the Spider Thread that Yoo-seong had connected to them. As he’d moved from point to point, Yoo-seong had attached every warrior he met to the web. Over time, the number of hunters connected to this “invisible line” increased, and even though their communicators were broken, they were still able to communicate.

Then the warriors near the center of the rift noticed something strange.

They had their eyes on where Yoo-seong was, but now it looked like Yoo-seong wasn’t alone anymore.

“Oh my God…”

Of course, they had noticed that, despite the crack remaining open, the number of Salamanders was only increasing slowly. It seemed as if there were no more monster waves pouring out.

As they watched Yoo-seong, they finally understood why.

Hundreds, no, thousands of Salamanders had fallen out of the crack, but they were all squeezed up against the side of the cliff.

Something was holding them back, preventing them from spreading to the island. Or, more accurately, they couldn’t move forward.

Meanwhile, Oh Yoo-seong was standing before them, holding a strange item in his hand. Upon closer inspection, it looked like a large monster eyeball.

Go-oh-oh-oh-!

No one knew what it was. Not even the people watching from the control center recognized what Yoo-seong was holding.

It was a red ball, slightly larger than a human head, continuously glowing with ominous energy. However, it seemed to be frightening the Salamanders, and that fear was the reason they couldn’t seem to get out of the rift.

“This is even more amazing than I thought,” Yoo-seong remarked, sweating all over as he kept the ball outstretched.

When he’d obtained the first treasure and combined the eye of the Turtle Dragon with the Queen’s Hug, he’d also followed the Turtle Dragon down the cliff to see if there was anything else he could salvage from its corpse.

However, he’d been disappointed by what he found.

It seemed as if all of the Turtle Dragon’s energy had been taken when Yoo-seong synthesized it with his armor. The colossal corpse before him had just looked like an empty husk.

However, something had caught his attention: the Baxia’s other eyeball was still attached.

Although it didn’t seem to have any energy left on it, he had taken it with him, intending to make it some sort of a trophy. However, as he’d journeyed on to the world beyond the cracks, he’d discovered something about the item.

If he used Aura while holding the eyeball, his Aura would get sucked into it, and it would glow with an ominous light.

Since it was using Yoo-seong’s Aura, it did not emit heat, unlike when the Turtle Dragon used it, but its effect toward lesser beasts was the same.

Simply lifting the glowing eyeball had been enough to threaten some species of monsters. It didn’t work against all types of beasts, but Yoo-seong had been sure of one thing: it did not fail to work against lizard-type monsters.

Perhaps the lesser creatures had instinctive reverence towards dragons since they were the apex of their kind.

The eyeball had certainly helped Yoo-seong spend a comfortable night from time to time without worrying about getting attacked.

And now…

It was the perfect weapon to stop the Hawaiian Salamander wave.

“Good.”

The Salamanders panicked even more as Yoo-seong infused the eyeball with more Aura and settled it in front of him.

The beasts were crushing each other, trying to get away.

Yoo-seong, using a communicator he’d taken from a warrior, spoke to the control center via Danny’s translation.

“Hey. Are you watching?”

With the warriors’ action cameras serving as his broadcast…

Taang-!

Yoo-seong sped up to the crack and pulled out the Sky Needle.

Pot-!

His cellphone appeared in his other hand, and he dialed the most recent number.

Tuk-!

Yoo-seong was met with a cheerful greeting.

-You damn bastard! I told you not to-!

“Hello. Are you watching?”

-… You’re completely out of your mind.

“I think it’s too bad to swear at me like that for just a ‘misdemeanor.'”

At best, what Yoo-seong had done was “entering without permission.” The action cams of the Kowala Company hunters would prove it.

Although the transmission to the control center was blocked, the cameras had clearly recorded the whole process. It would prove that Yoo-seong had not hunted any monsters in the area. However…

-Closing cracks is a completely separate matter. You know that, right?

There was no way Yoo-seong could do that without permission.

“I know it very well.”

With the phone close to his ear, Yoo-seong leaped.

Taang-!!

His distance from the crack quickly narrowed.

Go-oh-oh-!

The end of the Sky Needle was already filled with thick, rope-like Aura.

Fuwook-!

With sharp and sure movements, Yoo-seong poked its end through the top of the crack and began stitching. At this, profanity broke out over the handset.

-No way! You’re letting your emotions control you. This…

“Not really.” And with that, Yoo-seong allowed himself to fall back. He landed on the cliff safely.

“I am rational enough. Now look.”

The crack in the sky had changed.

It was not closed, but from being a Storm-class rift, it had been reduced to something very small, just big enough for a single Salamander to squeeze through. However, it was still technically open.

“Check it out. It’s not closed.”

-Damnit! Do you think this is a joke?

“Is that crack open enough for you? Is that enough for your invested capital not to be completely wiped out?

-………!!

“But it’s not too late, you know. If I can close that crack that much… I can close it entirely.”

-…….

Silence.

However, from his previous experiences, Yoo-seong could guess what the other person was thinking.

-What do you want…?

Yoo-seong laughed silently.

The other person was offering to pay him to do something they had been threatening him not to do a few minutes ago. Of course, Yoo-seong had no intention of enjoying the “payment” on his own.

He briefly covered his phone’s mouthpiece and spoke through his communicator.

“Danny.”

“Yes?”

“Tell your boss to come here right now.”