Chapter 195 – Boring Days (4)

“I found them.”

Olivier, who had insisted on coming with me, said.

“You were right, Hero.”

Olivier bit her lip in frustration.

It made sense. She possessed the best search abilities out there.

Those with search abilities release their mana into their surroundings, extracting information from whatever the mana data touches.

While a typical scan supporter might release a single data packet, Olivier could send out double-digit packets in all directions at once.

That’s how she held an overwhelming advantage in information warfare.

Of course, it wasn’t impossible to bypass this.

In essence, you could cancel out the opponent’s scan energy with your own.

That was why Olivier hadn’t been able to detect the Villain.

It was Olivier’s mistake, having never expected someone in the modern era to operate this way.

“The situation doesn’t look good.”

Olivier’s expression was grim.

“One Hunter who was trying to hunt the Villain is dead, and two others are in danger!”

The Villain was roaming free, hacking every Awakened he came across to pieces.

I stopped the motorcycle.

“Hero?”

“It’ll be too late by the time we get there.”

I took out Sword No. 5 from my inventory. It was a new weapon I’d just received, but to be precise, it wasn’t a sword, but a bow.

Recently, the dwarf Graham had offered to make me a gun, since I was vulnerable at long range.

My attack style was almost entirely close-quarters, so having a weapon capable of mid-to-long-range attacks wouldn’t hurt.

The only downside was that due to domestic legal issues, firearms weren’t permitted for individuals.

No, honestly, in a world where Awakened beings more dangerous than guns roamed around like ordinary people…

It was just like a country that selected its Hunters through a certification exam.

“A bow? You know how to shoot a bow, Hero?”

Did I know how to use a bow?

-Weapon Master LV Max has been activated.

Damn right I did.

“Just be my operator.”

“How far do you think it is from here to there?”

“No time.”

“Wait, I’ll transfer the location directly to you!”

Olivier manipulated her scan energy, then pressed herself tightly against my back.

“What are you doing?”

“You think I like being this close?”

It was a full-on back hug.

“I have to link up with your system, Hero. I can’t just give you the coordinates verbally.”

I didn’t really have anything to say about it.

It felt better than I expected… No, it didn’t.

Just as Olivier said, my vision began to sync with a heads-up display.

It felt like I was in an FPS game. Or maybe a flight simulator?

Olivier might be weak in combat, but she was amazing at this stuff.

Automatic wind and angle adjustments. It even supported lock-on.

One Hunter was already down, and the other was moments from death.

I drew the bowstring.

35%.

*Creeak.*

The custom bow, which no one but me could even draw, stretched taut.

64%

I poured a generous amount of mana into the arrow.

The brilliantly glowing arrowhead aimed precisely at the Villain’s head.

78%

I held my breath.

100%

The lock-on completed as the surrounding obstacles, displayed via Olivier, were calculated.

I released.

*Shwiiiiish!*

With a sound that tore through the air, the arrow shot toward the Villain’s back in an instant.

I could see the startled Villain hastily dodging.

He had search abilities, so his senses were sharp.

I nocked another arrow as I dashed forward.

The Villain, unable to grasp the situation, could be seen scanning his surroundings.

I nocked another arrow. Then, steadying my breath, I fired again the moment the lock-on was complete.

*Paaaaa!*

The arrow, scattering light, weaved through the gaps between passing cars and buildings, targeting the Villain.

*Kwaaang!*

Unfortunately, this arrow also failed to hit the Villain.

The Villain hid behind cover, seemingly startled by the arrow’s power.

He was probably hiding to escape the danger, but it didn’t matter.

It would be great if I could finish the Villain with the bow, but if not, pinning him down would be enough.

I continued to close the distance to the Villain.

Olivier’s navigation ability was definitely top-notch.

The distance, which had been about 400 meters, rapidly shrank to around 200 meters.

“Kyaaaaah!”

Ah, right. I still had Olivier on my back.

Olivier clung to my back like a cicada, her arms wrapped tightly around my neck.

Honestly, it felt like riding a roller coaster. It was fun.

“It’s not fun! I hate it!”

A strong denial is basically an affirmation.

The Villain wasn’t moving.

He was probably assessing the situation. And now it was time to move.

This time, I relied purely on instinct.

“No way. D-don’t tell me!”

Ignoring Olivier’s screams from behind me, I kicked off a wall and scaled it like I was doing parkour.

A skill effect scattered from the sword the Villain was holding.

He lowered his body like a cheetah and started running to kill the Hunter in front of him.

His opponent, unable to escape in time, shot an arrow.

The Villain knocked the arrow aside with his blackened sword and closed the distance even faster.

Seeing that, the Hunter who shot the arrow froze.

It was a life-or-death crisis, after all.

But in the end, it wasn’t.

If he’d just stood there, he might have been killed by the Villain.

But by buying that little bit of time, he created an opening for me to attack.

The angle was perfect.

I shot the arrow.

*Paaaaa!*

The arrow, streaking with a flash of light, shot toward the space in front of the Villain.

A predictive shot.

As if expecting it, he took a step back.

*Kwang!*

This attack also missed.

I could see the Villain’s pupils dilate.

*Paaaat!*

I’d anticipated that and fired another arrow in rapid succession.

Struck by the delayed arrow, the Villain skipped across the ground like a stone on water before crashing into a fish market.

“Nice shot!”

“Sob, y-you’re crazy. Sob…”

Hearing Olivier, still clinging to my back, mutter in a limp voice, I felt like a switch was being flipped.

If she keeps this up, I might just start flying around even more.

“Hy-Hyunbin-ssi?”

“L-Lee Hyunbin?”

As I arrived on the scene, Go Ha-sol and Kim Chang-yeol, who had narrowly escaped death, called out.

The two of them glanced back and forth between the bow in my hand and the shattered pavement, then muttered softly.

“W-was that a bow that fired that shot?”

Go Ha-sol, whose main weapon was a bow, asked in disbelief.

“Guuuh, ugh…!”

The Villain let out a groan.

His right arm was completely shattered.

The blood-soaked Villain looked up at me and twisted his lips into a smirk.

He could still laugh with his body so broken?

But the Villain looked familiar somehow.

“Why is that person…”

Olivier’s fine brow furrowed. She knew him, too.

“Do Villains work two jobs these days?”

Hearing my words, the Villain started cackling as if he’d heard something hilarious.

“How strange. Why do you keep coming back to life, Min-jeong-ssi?”

The Villain, no, the Agency’s Operations Section Chief, asked Olivier.

***

I stuffed the Villain who had suddenly started killing people, Section Chief Tak Ji-woo, into my inventory.

In truth, Gaders had already arrived to capture him. But I asked for their understanding.

“I will transport him to the Agency myself.”

“I’ll report to my superiors that a Special-Grade Gader is handling the ‘transport’ personally.”

None of the Gaders objected to my words.

Even though I was a Hunter who operated out of a guild, I was also a special Hunter officially sanctioned by the Agency.

“Thank you so much. If it weren’t for you, Hyunbin-ssi, we would have…”

Go Ha-sol expressed her gratitude.

Even as he was being carried away to the hospital, Kim Chang-yeol gave me a slight nod, a minimal gesture of thanks.

The B-rank Hunter who had been with them had died instantly.

If you’re going to be a B-ranker, you shouldn’t let your guard down, at the very least.

No matter how confident you are in your skills, carelessness is forbidden.

“Are you going straight to the Agency?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“No reason. Who said anything?”

Seeing her face without any makeup, she looked really young.

It seemed her confidence vanished without her makeup—no, her disguise—as she kept pulling her hood down.

“Don’t get any funny ideas. Go straight home. And try not to get killed.”

“What are you talking about? I’m not going to die. If you must know, I am the beautiful Elder Succubus Olivi—who survived even against that atrocious Hero.”

I take back what I said about her lacking confidence.

Leaving behind Olivier, who was huffing proudly, I drove the motorcycle toward the Agency.

A massacre in broad daylight.

He had killed both the Awakened and the unawakened indiscriminately. But there were also many people he’d simply passed by without harming.

His pattern of killing was strange.

Or was he just crazy?

-He is a dangerous person.

The Holy Knight, Seol Ji-hoon, warned me.

Honestly, I didn’t think there was anyone out there who could be considered dangerous to me.

Did I just say carelessness was forbidden? Still, there was no need to waste mental energy by being wary of an opponent whose level was drastically different from my own.

I paused on my way to the Agency.

Something felt off.

Unsettling.

Villains were generally a bunch of psychos. But they still tended to have somewhat regular patterns.

This one, however, gave off a uniquely unsettling vibe.

-Commencing extraction.

I began to analyze the Villain inside my inventory.

He had blatantly targeted Olivier. It was obvious he’d realized she was an Awakened.

But it didn’t make sense that someone capable of blocking his own detection wouldn’t have known for a long time that Olivier was an Awakened.

Why target Olivier now?

-Acquired Memory Fragment 1 of Tak Ji-woo.

-Commencing farming.

-Acquired Memory Fragment 2 of Tak Ji-woo.

………

-Acquired Tak Ji-woo’s Secret Art of Assassination.

I’ll make good use of the extracted skill.

I read his memories.

The memories, like a series of snapshots, showed Olivier silently tapping away at a computer keyboard.

The next one, and the one after that.

What the, he was really interested in Olivier, wasn’t he?

I kept watching just in case, but it was all about Olivier.

A one-sided crush. Something like that.

I checked the next memory.

It was like a biography of his successful career after joining the Agency.

I checked the next scene.

The memory was ordinary, but that in itself felt alien.

This guy grew up normally and was living a normal working life.

The Villains I knew were all from other worlds.

-The Hero who devoured Dantalian and Gamigin.

Someone was speaking.

-An enemy worthy of being hunted.

A snake-like man sitting on a throne with an air of boredom smiled strangely.

-I shall go myself. To the Red Moon.

What the Villain was seeing through his own eyes was a Demon King with immense magical power.

The being with horns and membranous wings was making a declaration.

I’d heard that some Villains made contracts with Demon Kings and became demons.

Kei was one, and so was Kim Yeo-jin. And this guy was no different.

The one in the Villain’s memory was the third Demon King I had seen.

And.

-There will be no need for you to step in.

A woman’s voice echoed grimly.

-Because I will be the one to hunt the Hero.

A woman in red Justice Armor was speaking as if challenging the Demon King.

The Demon King and the Regressor had joined forces.