Chapter 68 – Dungeon [Truth of History]

“Ook-eek!”

Black-Toothed Monkey.

This small, cute-looking monkey with teeth as black as if it had cavities all over is, contrary to its appearance, a ferocious, cruel, and carnivorous B-Rank monster.

“Ook-eek!”

“Kee-ak! Kee-ak!”

Also commonly called Black Monkeys, these vicious creatures typically travel in groups of 5 to 6.

They usually flit between trees as if flying and throw tiny feces plucked from their anuses from a distance.

“Ook-ee!”

“Ook-ee-kee!”

It was filthy, but their attacks were also threatening.

Because they were powerful enough to shatter a C-Rank Tanker’s shield in a single hit.

Five such Black Monkeys were sitting in the trees, exchanging signals amongst themselves and looking down below.

“P, please……. K, kill me now……. P, please…….”

Mark Williams, with both eyes gouged out, one ear and both arms severed, was pleading with Lee Siguk in a barely audible voice.

Siguk, covered in blood, just stared at him with a hardened expression, silent.

“P, please…….”

Siguk sheathed his sword.

He stood up from his spot.

“…….”

Siguk looked up at the trees.

“Kee-eeng…….”

The Black Monkeys that met his gaze all groaned and averted their eyes.

Siguk slowly left the area just like that.

The Black Monkeys in the trees, who had been deliberately looking elsewhere and pretending not to notice, quickly descended to the ground once they confirmed Siguk was completely gone.

“P, please……. Kill me now……. Kill…….”

“Ook-ee!”

“Kee-ee-eek!”

“Kee-ah! Kee-ah! Kee-ah!”

Mark Williams, who kept begging to be killed, began to scream as the excited cries of the Black Monkeys struck his ears from close by.

“Oh no! You damn yellow mon…….”

“Kee-aaak!”

But his screams were eventually drowned out by the cries of the Black Monkeys rushing to tear at his flesh and the sound of his flesh being ripped away.

“Son of a……bitch…….”

Yang Seungjun spat out a curse, panting.

His face was pale as a sheet of paper.

It looked even paler than the Polish female Hunter, who was keeping her distance and helping a Japanese Hunter drink a potion while vigilantly watching their surroundings.

‘This is insane. I need to get out.’

Just moments ago, while dealing with an excited Giant Mantis, Yang Seungjun had glimpsed a Black-Toothed Monkey watching them from a tree.

It was a fleeting moment, but it was definitely a Black-Toothed Monkey.

‘We can’t catch those bastards. How are we supposed to catch them?!’

Large monsters like Big Tigers, Mega Bears, or Giant Mantises, or medium-sized monsters like Flaming Boars, Trolls, and Ogres, while formidable, were at least huntable.

But not Black-Toothed Monkeys.

High Attack Power, speed flitting between trees, and pack mentality on top of that.

An Assault Team consisting of one B-Rank Tanker and two C-Rank Dealers could never take them down.

Knowing this well, the fear Yang Seungjun felt was beyond imagination.

‘In that B-Rank Dungeon that appeared in Hangzhou, China, just 10 of those bastards killed 155 Hunters. And that was even when they were all gathered together.’

Yang Seungjun subtly checked the reactions of the Japanese and Polish Hunters.

The Japanese Hunter was too busy drinking potions to recover Life Force and Mana, and the Polish Hunter was too focused on perimeter watch to pay attention to Yang Seungjun.

‘Right……. I can always call for a white horse once I get out anyway.’

Yang Seungjun, who had licked his lips while sneaking a glance at the sweat-drenched thighs of the Polish Hunter, began to slowly back away.

And when he reached a suitably dense thicket of trees, he suddenly took off running in the opposite direction of their original path.

“Kurwa!”

Only then did the Polish Hunter notice Yang Seungjun fleeing and curse.

“Leave him.”

The Japanese Hunter, with clumsy English pronunciation, stopped the Polish Hunter who was about to chase after Yang Seungjun.

“It’s better to join another team.”

At the Japanese Hunter’s words, the Polish Hunter spat on the ground and resumed her perimeter watch stance.

And Siguk, who had been quietly watching this from the trees, followed the fleeing Yang Seungjun, leaving them behind.

‘First, Yang Seungjun…….’

Shaking off the somewhat mind-boggling story he had just heard from Mark Williams, Siguk pursued the first reason that had brought him here, leaping between trees.

“Ggoo-ee-eek!”

Blocking Yang Seungjun’s escape path was a Flaming Boar.

The wild boar with its splendid, fiery-looking fur and mane, which appears as a Boss Monster in C-Rank Dungeons, snorted and stared at Yang Seungjun.

‘Damn…….’

With a bewildered expression, Yang Seungjun engaged in a staring contest with the Flaming Boar.

The Flaming Boar snorted dismissively and began scraping the ground with its front hooves.

‘Damn…….’

Panicking, Yang Seungjun gathered Mana in both hands.

“Ggoo-ee-eek!”

The Flaming Boar finally let out a roar and charged straight at Yang Seungjun.

The sight of a wild boar the size of a village bus charging was terror incarnate.

“You pig bastard!”

The moment the Flaming Boar charged, Yang Seungjun materialized magic with the Mana he had gathered.

Two round fireballs formed in his hands.

He accurately fired the two fireballs at the Flaming Boar’s face with a slight delay between them.

Boom-!

The first one hit.

Boom-!

The second one hit too.

“Kkhung!”

However, the Flaming Boar was only slightly singed; its charge didn’t slow down at all.

“Ggoo-ee-eek!”

If anything, Yang Seungjun’s attack only provoked its ferocity.

‘Damn it!’

Yang Seungjun immediately used Flight Magic to rise into the air.

‘This should be enough……. Huh?’

Just as he was about to feel relieved, the Flaming Boar, having closed the distance to within 10 meters, leaped into the air.

‘Huh?!’

The Flaming Boar grew larger as it approached.

‘Oh, shi……’

Thud-!

Yang Seungjun and the Flaming Boar collided head-on.

“Ggah-ak!”

Yang Seungjun vomited blood and flew backward, crashing into a tree.

“Ggoo-eek!”

The Flaming Boar was also knocked back, fell to the ground, and rolled, breaking several trees.

“Kkul-leuk!”

Thanks to the shield he hastily deployed at the last moment, he barely survived, but since a Magic Type Hunter’s shield isn’t as sturdy as a Tanker’s, he couldn’t avoid serious internal injuries.

“Ggrr-rrung!”

The problem was the Flaming Boar.

The creature, which had been shaking its head and snorting for a moment, regained its senses and glared at Yang Seungjun again.

“Ggoo-ee-eek!”

It charged at Yang Seungjun again.

Yang Seungjun no longer had the strength to face it.

It closed in right in front of him.

Yang Seungjun tightly shut his eyes.

At that moment, what flashed before his eyes were the Polish Hunter he hadn’t managed to embrace, Yeo Jeongyeon, and the other trainees he had marked as candidates.

“Ggoo-wee-ee-eek!”

The sound of a pig being slaughtered.

Stab-! Chop-!

The sound of sharp metal piercing and chopping flesh.

“Master Yang Seungjun? Are you alright?”

And then, a truly welcome voice.

Yang Seungjun opened his eyes again.

Siguk, covered in the Flaming Boar’s blood, was looking at him.

“Ahh…….”

Yang Seungjun couldn’t speak.

“Your internal injuries look severe. Please use this for emergency treatment first.”

Siguk took out a comprehensive potion from the small bag tied at his waist and handed it over.

Receiving it and gulping it down shakily, Yang Seungjun shed tears.

After finishing the bottle, Yang Seungjun wept quietly on the spot for a while.

Siguk silently watched him.

After a while, Yang Seungjun grabbed a tree and stood up.

“Thank you. For helping me time and again…….”

In response to Yang Seungjun’s thanks, Siguk smiled and replied.

“Not at all. Aren’t we both Korean Hunters? And my role itself is that of a Ranger. Helping fellow Hunters in trouble is my job.”

At Siguk’s words, Yang Seungjun also smiled weakly.

“But where are the other Hunters? How did you end up alone like this?”

However, at Siguk’s following question, the smile vanished completely from Yang Seungjun’s face.

“Ah, well, that, you see…… uh…… that…… we got separated…….”

Facing the flustered, stammering Yang Seungjun, Siguk said.

“Ah, you were left behind?”

For a moment, Yang Seungjun’s expression slightly twisted.

‘This bastard always has to phrase it like that.’

Noticing Yang Seungjun’s expression but pretending not to, Siguk continued.

“Coincidentally, I confirmed that Master Yang’s teammates are nearby. Let’s go back.”

For a moment, Yang Seungjun failed to control his expression, and his face openly soured.

“……. Yes……. Let’s do that.”

But no words of refusal came from his mouth.

‘You bastard with no lineage…….’

Staring at the back of Siguk leading the way, Yang Seungjun inwardly cursed him.

“Ah, Master Lee Siguk.”

After walking for quite a while, Siguk and Yang Seungjun finally encountered the Japanese and Polish Hunter team.

The Polish Hunter’s face soured the moment she saw Yang Seungjun following behind Siguk, and the Japanese Hunter beside her patted the Polish Hunter’s arm to calm her down.

“I found Master Yang Seungjun left behind, so I brought him. Well then, I’ll be off to support other teams again.”

Handing Yang Seungjun over to the two, Siguk climbed back into the trees.

“Kurwa!”

The Polish Hunter spat a curse while looking at Yang Seungjun.

The Japanese Hunter beside her let out a light sigh and then spoke to both of them in English.

“Let’s go for now. I checked, and we’ve only come about 3 kilometers so far.”

And so, the three set off again, and when they had moved about 200 meters, they encountered two Flaming Boars.

While the Japanese Tanker tanked and the Polish melee dealer dealt damage, Yang Seungjun, using his internal injuries as an excuse, just stayed far away and did nothing.

“Kurwa!”

Stabbing her knife into the Flaming Boar’s eyeball, the Polish Hunter cursed.

And around the time the battle was ending, Yang Seungjun once again stealthily tried to break away from the group and flee.

Chasing after such Yang Seungjun from the trees again, Siguk began to organize the story he had heard from Mark Williams in his head.

『NAC!』

As soon as Siguk cut off one of his ears, Mark Williams immediately opened his mouth and began to spill everything.

『N, North Atlantic Club.』

After the Great Upheaval of 2020, Awakening as a Superhuman did not discriminate by class or race.

Because of that, even more so, Hunters from prestigious families created their own secret social clubs, built walls against Hunters from commoner or middle-class backgrounds, and strengthened their bonds by creating their own solid fortresses.

『NAC was an especially large organization among them. It was a union of the gatherings of American elite family Hunters and European elite family Hunters.』

Among them, NAC was the largest-scale social group.

From Hunters of Nordic noble chaebol families to Hunters of American financial chaebol families.

The gathering of Hunters from world-renowned elite families transcending individual nations was NAC.

『Nana and Thierry weren’t particularly prominent figures there. Their families were relatively modest.』

The very next day after those two were selected as representatives of France and America for the International Raid Party, the NAC Chairman’s secretary summoned them.

『The Chairman’s secretary made us a proposal. Saying it was the Chairman’s will.』

The Chairman’s secretary ordered the two to sabotage the Raid.

『The Chairman’s proposal was to plant seeds between the first rally point and the final rally point and disrupt the Raid as much as possible.』

In return, the Chairman promised Thierry Le Pont and Mark Williams the positions of Chairman of the French Guild Union Federation and Chairman of the American Hunter Association, respectively.

『The seeds handed over by the Chairman’s side. We planted those seeds as soon as we arrived here. I have an area-wide Stealth Skill, so I could go in secretly with Thierry and come back. We used a special pheromone perfume so we wouldn’t be attacked by monsters either.』

『The increase in Mana and Life Force was thanks to an amplification skill. It was a skill the Chairman handed over as collateral.』

『The seeds the Chairman gave turned into a vast tropical rainforest as soon as they were planted. In there, betraying Hunters split into minimal groups was child’s play.』

However, Siguk did not take his story at face value.

『I, it’s true! I really don’t know anything beyond that……. Ggaaah-aaah-ak!』

Siguk promptly gouged out one of Mark Williams’s eyes, and finally, truths he hadn’t yet spoken began to spill out.

『To, to overturn the board. Kkh-heuk……. To, to overturn the current board and set up a new one……. A new board where Hunters seize state power…….』

But even so, Siguk couldn’t shake the feeling that he was hiding something.

Finally, after his remaining eye and both arms were torn out, Mark Williams finally spilled everything.

『Su, Superhuman genes……. He said……, he said he would pass them on to his descendants. That experimental data had already been sufficiently gathered and they were in the final stages of completion…….』

That was all Mark Williams knew.

‘A planned Raid failure…….’

The A-Rank Dungeon Raid failure, the ensuing Dungeon Break, the worldwide Hunter general strike, the 2030 System…….

Events he had dismissed in his past life as mere coincidences.

The A-Rank Dungeon Raid failure, which he had only known failed due to terrorist sabotage and an impossibly strong Boss’s abilities.

The fact that it was all actually planned.

“Kee-aaah-aaah-!”

“You bastard! Try flying again! Try flying! Can’t you? Can’t you fly because you’re a dick-having mantis bastard! Damn it!”

Boom-!

“Kee-aaah-aaah-!”

Watching Yang Seungjun, who had encountered a male Giant Mantis less than five minutes after fleeing, toying with it while floating in the air, Siguk sank into thought.

‘What nonsense is this about passing on Superhuman genes?’

Siguk clenched his fist tightly.

‘Just what is going on, and how?’

Faced with an unintended encounter with a truth of history, Siguk’s expression gradually soured.

“Kee-eek!”

A Black-Toothed Monkey fell from a tree with a pitiful scream.

“…….”

A blonde Caucasian woman holding a magazine-less rifle from which purple smoke wafted looked down with indifferent eyes at the five dead Black Monkeys on the ground and the corpses of the two Hunters once called Mark Williams and Thierry Le Pont, left half-eaten by the creatures.

“Stupid bastards…….”

Having tossed those words of ‘remembrance’ at the two, the blonde Caucasian woman moved her steps into the tropical rainforest.