Chapter 659
Thududuk!
The Giant Wolf Spider’s remains and blood poured down like hail.
Its blood dyed the desert red.
Having lost its head, the Giant Wolf Spider swayed like a drunken man before finally collapsing.
Boom!
The sight of a twenty-meter-long giant monster falling was so surreal that it did not feel real.
The man who had blown apart the Giant Wolf Spider’s head with a single strike shook his hand, flicking away the blood.
“Crazy!”
“How is that even possible?”
The monster hunting teams denied reality at the unbelievable sight.
Not a single one among them could kill an A-rank monster with a single blow.
Not even the hunting team leaders.
Moreover, the man had used neither aura nor a weapon in the process of killing the Giant Wolf Spider.
He had slain the A-rank monster known as the Giant Wolf Spider purely with the speed and strength of his body.
It was a sight they would never have believed if they had not seen it with their own eyes.
If they told Neo Seoul’s Awakened what they had witnessed, they would surely be treated like lunatics.
The Numbers were just as shocked.
“A martial-type Awakened?”
“Even so, that level of power is...”
Even by their standards, the man’s attack power was incomprehensible.
Old Man Go spoke in a low voice.
“Everyone, be careful. He seems to be a powerhouse.”
“Yes!”
“Don’t worry. We won’t let our guard down.”
Grain and Oh Mujin answered with stiff expressions.
They had not become S-rank powerhouses for nothing.
They had reached their current level by overcoming countless experiences and numerous crises.
Naturally, they were excellent judges of people.
The same was true for the monster hunting teams.
They too had realized that the man was an unimaginably powerful being.
But this time, greed clouded their judgment.
Before them lay a pristine monster corpse, missing only its head and bearing no other damage.
It was a monster corpse worth a fortune.
The organs that produced venom and webs, the shell, and the various internal organs—there was no telling how much money they could make by selling them.
The West District hunting team leader approached the man.
“Hey! Which district are you from?”
“District?”
“If you came from Neo Seoul, you must belong to a district. Tell us which district.”
“Neo Seoul?”
“What? You don’t know Neo Seoul?”
The West District hunting team leader’s eyes flashed.
The man stared directly at the hunting team leader’s face.
His face was hidden beneath the hood of his robe, but the gleam in his eyes shining from the darkness made the West District hunting team leader feel as if his heart had dropped.
What kind of eyes are those...?
They felt even more ferocious than the A-rank monster Giant Wolf Spider.
If he could, he wanted to retreat right now.
But there were too many people watching.
Suppressing his fear, he raised his voice.
“Then you’re not even a resident of Neo Seoul? Where the hell did you come from, barging into someone else’s hunt? Do you know that’s a serious violation of the rules?”
“Interfering in another hunting team’s hunt is absolutely forbidden in Neo Seoul.”
Sensing the atmosphere, even the East District hunting team leader jumped in.
The two exchanged glances for a moment and understood each other’s intentions.
As people who had spent years doing dangerous work, they grasped the situation instantly and joined hands.
Their goal was to seize the monster corpse from the man.
If he were from Neo Seoul, they could never attempt such a thing.
But because he was an outsider, they could.
The other hunting team members also realized their leaders’ intentions.
“That monster originally belonged to us!”
“How dare an outsider interfere in our hunt?”
“What are you so afraid of that you’re hiding your face under a hood? Reveal your identity and step back immediately!”
Even ants raise their voices when dozens or hundreds gather together.
And these were humans.
Awakened humans at that.
When dozens of Awakened gathered together, they lost their sense of fear.
No matter how capable he was of killing an A-rank monster instantly, facing this many people at once would inevitably be burdensome.
Moreover, they had the powerful backing of Neo Seoul behind them.
Naturally, they thought the man would back down.
But the man’s response was far from what they hoped for.
“That monster corpse is nothing but worthless trash to me. But that doesn’t mean I’m willing to hand it over because of your threats. Perhaps if I completely destroyed it.”
“You bastard...!”
“Are you not afraid of Neo Seoul?”
The East District hunting team leader pressured the man by invoking Neo Seoul.
The man’s gaze naturally shifted to him.
“Tell me about Neo Seoul.”
“What?”
“Tell me about this Neo Seoul you keep boasting about. I want to know.”
At the man’s cold words, the hunting team leaders felt the blood in their bodies turn icy cold.
It felt as though their hearts were shrinking.
They wanted to back down right there.
But too many people were watching them.
Setting the Numbers aside, even their own team members were watching with expectant eyes.
If they disappointed them here, their standing would be in danger.
The best option was to quickly secure the rights to the monster and wrap this up.
They raised their voices.
“This bastard doesn’t even know Neo Seoul. He might be one of El Harun’s remnants.”
“Subdue him and escort him to Neo Seoul.”
At Steel Fortress, the name El Harun was considered practically taboo and was the target of intense hostility.
The hunting team members became enraged at the suggestion that he might be one of El Harun’s remnants and charged at the man all at once.
“Get him!”
“You son of a bitch!”
“Waaaah!”
They rushed him without even remembering that he had just killed an A-rank monster.
Watching them, one of the twin sisters said,
“Shouldn’t we stop this?”
“No, let’s watch for a moment.”
Old Man Go stopped them.
He too knew the hunting teams were in the wrong.
But he wanted to see the man’s true abilities, so he prevented any intervention.
The price was horrific.
Kwaaaa!
A terrifying aura swirled around the man’s body like a storm.
Then he slammed his fist into the ground.
Kwakwakwakwang!
In an instant, the earth exploded in a chain reaction centered on him.
“Kyaaaak!”
“Kuheok!”
The Awakened caught in the explosion were blasted away in all directions with screams.
It was like a volcano erupting.
Before such a massive natural disaster, human Awakened were no more than leaves.
Swept away and burned.
“Keuk!”
“Hup!”
The Awakened all crashed into the ground in miserable condition.
Their arms and legs were twisted at grotesque angles.
Among them, the hunting team leaders who had pressured the man looked especially horrifying.
Broken bones protruded through their flesh in multiple places, and their chests were caved in, making them resemble minced meat crushed by a cooking hammer.
“My God!”
“This is...!”
Only then did Grain and Oh Mujin cry out in alarm.
They had never imagined the man could crush dozens of Awakened into minced flesh with a single punch.
“Guhhh!”
“S-save us!”
The monster hunting team leaders, now in a horrific state, groaned and begged.
The man stared silently at the hunting team leaders and members before speaking.
“I like that too.”
“Keuk! W-what... do you mean?”
“Acting before talking.”
“You crazy... bastard!”
“I’ve heard that so many times it doesn’t even feel new anymore. Now, will you tell me? What kind of place is Neo Seoul?”
“You make people like this and then ask us to tell you? Are you even human?”
The West District hunting team leader trembled violently.
At that moment—
“Young man, are you curious about Neo Seoul?”
At the sudden voice, the man turned his head.
An old man was walking toward him after stepping off the bus.
It was Old Man Go.
Grain, Oh Mujin, and the twin sisters stood beside him, but the man’s attention was focused solely on Old Man Go.
“You know about it?”
“Of course! I came from Neo Seoul too.”
“Are you with them?”
“Neo Seoul is quite a large place. A tremendous city where twenty million people live. It’s not possible to know all twenty million people, is it?”
“Twenty million? That many people live together in one city?”
“That’s right! Twenty million in Neo Seoul, and hundreds of thousands in Steel Fortress not far from here.”
“Then Neo Seoul is the most advanced city on Earth?”
“That’s what I know.”
“I see.”
The man nodded.
Old Man Go asked him,
“Now, will you reveal your identity? Where did you come from, and what is your name? Are you even human?”
“I’m human. Just not from around here.”
“Not from around here? Then did you come from Kurayan?”
“Kurayan? I don’t know what place you’re talking about.”
“Then not Kurayan either.”
Old Man Go frowned.
The monster hunting teams were clearly at fault.
Trying to threaten the man and take the monster corpse from him had been wrong.
The problem was that the losses suffered by the hunting teams were too great.
No matter who started the trouble or who was wrong, this many casualties had occurred.
They could not simply pretend nothing had happened.
Old Man Go apologized first.
“My apologies.”
“For what?”
“For standing by and watching until things turned out like this.”
“So you could have stopped it.”
“That’s right. But my desire to learn your identity and abilities led to this result.”
“So?”
“I’ll have to subdue you and bring you to Neo Seoul.”
“How ugly.”
“My apologies.”
Old Man Go smiled bitterly.
He felt self-loathing, but there was no choice.
So many people had been injured.
If he let it slide, the rulers of the West and East Districts would certainly raise a huge uproar.
Grain slowly began increasing gravity, while Oh Mujin threw a steel sphere and summoned a steel golem.
The twin sisters also prepared a mental attack, their expressions tense.
After briefly looking over them, the man suddenly asked,
“Before that, let me ask one thing. Do you know what this is?”
He pulled something out from inside his robe.
What he showed Old Man Go was a glossy black stone.
Old Man Go recognized it instantly.
“It looks like a chunk of diamond. Where did you get that?”
“My question comes first. Do you know where this came from?”
“That is...”
“So you do know?”
“It looks like the product of a skill used by someone I know.”
“Created by a skill?”
“That’s right. Diamond Spear. It looks like part of one of those crystals.”
“Is that so?”
The man nodded.
Old Man Go spoke.
“Now make your choice. Will you submit peacefully, or will you fight with your life on the line?”
The man raised both arms and said,
“I surrender.”
“What? Just like that?”
Old Man Go looked at him in disbelief.
The man added a condition.
“On one condition. Let me meet the person who created this diamond.”
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