Chapter 203. The Beast
Monday has returned once more.
First off, here’s some good news.
“Congratulations, Hunter Kang Chang-ho.”
Finally, the S-Class Hunter trapped in the holding cell has been released.
As an alien, I couldn’t quite grasp how it all happened, but anyway, everything was handled well, so there should be no problems moving forward.
Strangely enough, the media has gone suspiciously silent despite the fact that an Awakened person had harmed a civilian.
‘Did they perhaps reach some sort of settlement with the reporters using money?’
Well, anyway.
I went to the police station with a gift in hand to congratulate the newly released hunter.
I searched for the keyword “holding cell” online, and it seemed many suggested that this would make a good present.
“Here, take this.”
“Is this tofu?”
However, the reaction wasn’t exactly what I expected.
The Earthling who received the soft tofu looked down at it, briefly contemplating if this was some sort of mockery before considering an act of violence.
Fortunately, given the location, nothing escalated into a new incident.
Moreover, judging by Kang Chang-ho’s reaction, it seemed my plan to suppress my magic energy to conceal the repairs on the building worked pretty well.
With that primary concern out of the way, there was no reason to hesitate any longer.
I returned home and began planning my future schedule.
“Hm.”
The most urgent issue was to prepare a device to deceive the [Dragon’s Eye].
-You do know your magic energy is always quite shaky, right?
To counter Kang Chang-ho’s scrutiny, I needed to mimic the “shakiness” reflected in his eyes, while also suppressing the main body’s magic energy to nearly zero to carry out the corpse concealment.
That meant substantial effort was required.
I knew the ritual to block the leakage of magic energy, so the latter part seemed manageable.
However, the issue at hand was the fluctuation Kang Chang-ho had mentioned.
To be honest, I still didn’t understand why that after-image appeared, nor did I know its frequency or intensity, making it all quite vague…
‘Maybe I can copy the biological information closely and make it work somehow.’
For the first time in a while, I began to think like a Magic Scholar.
The conclusion of my initial concerns led to the prediction that I would need about two [Infinite Power Cores] for my plans.
So, as soon as afternoon rolled around, I dashed to the auction house and bought two cores.
‘I’d rather not go through the hassle of running out of stock again.’
Technically, I had made the purchases with cash on the spot.
“Thanks to getting the building repairs for free, my bank balance is all surplus cash now.”
With most materials in hand, all that was left was to complete a rather convincing façade through research.
Thus, I entered another phase of seclusion.
Despite my initial resolve in my past life to simply relax and clear my mind, every day now felt like a mix of experiments and labor…
But still, I felt more at ease now.
Achieving my ultimate initial goal of fixing the building meant I wasn’t feeling pressured.
“Hmm.”
From now on, my plan was to casually live my daily life while occasionally keeping an eye on the top-ranked Hunter’s progress.
*
Bubbling…
Soon, Saturday arrived.
In the cramped cupboard of my studio, the tea leaves I had obtained from Hadong were still lingering.
As the weather began to get warmer, I intended to chill them and try drinking them cold.
Crack.
As I magically froze the cup in my hand, a familiar word echoed through my mobile phone screen that I had left on.
[A ‘Beast’ has once again re-emerged at a gate in Europe, causing controversy…]
The Beast.
It had been a name bouncing around the news almost daily for five whole days.
.
.
.
A massive mask made from elk bones, adorned with tattered black leather resembling a worn-out tire.
This grotesque appearance was distinctly characteristic of an S-Class Hunter on Earth.
However, the peculiar thing about the Beast wasn’t just its looks.
It was an unregistered Awakened, treated as a serious crime in certain Oriental countries.
In other words, it was an ‘assumed’ S-Class Hunter without ever undergoing formal examination.
“Ahhh!”
“It’s a devil… that’s a devil!”
This mysterious Hunter first came to light during the first S-Class Dungeon Break several years ago.
The incident involving the Nuckelavee at the Sea Demon Gate.
The boss monster Nuckelavee appeared in a half-human, half-horse form, moving like a gigantic maw of a mollusk, with a burnt human (likely operating as a bioluminescent lure) dangling above it.
When that maw roared, a formerly famous S-Class Hunter met a gruesome fate.
That moment plunged the citizens of Hawaii into immediate terror.
However.
Amidst this despair, a new savior suddenly appeared.
Dressed in all black leather, this unknown beast strode onto the shores of Hawaii and single-handedly tore apart the Sea Demon harassing American hunters.
“My gosh!”
Which skill it used was unknown.
Where it came from was unclear.
Nevertheless, people, in unison, started referring to the Awakened who vanished so suddenly with a singular regard.
“It’s like a reptilian from a conspiracy theory. We feel that person is some sort of unacknowledged absolute existence in the Hunter world.”
The public had always been more favorable towards wild strength over fighters adhering to the rules in the ring.
Thus, the Beast became the unofficial strongest.
Since the Nuckelavee incident, the Beast had been spotted across the globe.
[Castle of Giants], [Nest of Fire], and A-Class [Dimension’s Treasure Vault – Subspecies], where golem-like monsters frequently appeared.
Before long, people jokingly began to wonder if the troublesome Beast was even a spirit rather than a person.
A little being that exchanges children’s lost teeth for coins.
It was indeed funny how the Beast had been unexpectedly kind to us thus far.
…But now, this very Beast shocked everyone by revealing its true colors this month.
Once again spotted before a high-difficulty A-Class gate.
The Spanish hunters who encountered it joyfully followed the enigmatic strongman, unaware of the rampant rumors. More accurately, they accompanied it into the gate.
In the past, the Beast had caused issues by barging in without permission, but at least it hadn’t harmed accompanying hunters up until now.
“Hey? What’s this?”
However, this time, something felt different.
A few hours later.
Only one person emerged from the exit that had formed in the A-Class gate.
As the Beast stepped out, the light faded, and the passage rapidly collapsed.
It was then that people easily realized there were no survivors inside the gate.
But how had the high-ranking hunters suddenly been wiped out?
“Hey! What happened to the hunters who entered together?”
The Beast had been tight-lipped and uncooperative in every interview, so until this point, the truth remained hidden from everyone.
They merely speculated that the hunters were taken down by monsters during the hunt.
Everyone was still scratching their heads, confused.
But just a few hours later.
The same phenomenon began again in a European country.
Suddenly appearing, the Beast mixed with foreign hunters trying to enter a gate and, once again, emerged alone from the newly created exit.
Just like before, this time as well.
For reasons unknown, every time the exit appeared, the Beast was seen carrying a large bag filled with something on its shoulder.
However, here’s the kicker.
As the French authorities began to look into the Beast’s suspicious activities, they discovered that the blood found spilling from that bag perfectly matched the DNA of a specific hunter.
“Oh my!”
With that revelation, the world’s media flipped upside down.
The Beast was carrying the bodies of the slain hunters!
What reasons lay behind such an act mattered little compared to the fear now swelling in people’s minds.
-Could it be that this is the reason why hunter teams have been disappearing until now…?
It was truly a worldwide emergency.
If the Beast, a powerful S-Class Hunter often listed among the top, turned out to be a murderer, it meant bad news for humanity.
Consequently, people scrambled to pursue the Beast.
However, why had this remarkable figure who resolved the great disaster in Hawaii remained nameless for so long?
In the end, they could not catch the Nuckelavee Killer’s tail.
Because of this.
[…]
Experts concluded that the Beast’s awakening powers were of the kind that interfered with “space.”
This explained why the Nuckelavee had been so easily cleaved.
So far, the powers over space had only manifested in the form of convenience abilities like teleportation, but if those unknown powers were used offensively, it might just be possible to slice through the monster’s density.
How could one not be afraid?
What kind of impossible powers did a suspect capable of possibly killing every hunter they entered a gate with possess?
That was why the Beast had been able to keep its face hidden behind that mask all along.
Given its already monstrous physical abilities from being S-Class, even if one chased it, it could easily flee across continents using spatial mages’ techniques should it wish to.
The weak were overwhelmed with fear.
And even at this moment, various media outlets were continuously mentioning the name “Beast”…
*
The Beast.
That uncooperative mystique surely had a face behind it.
“Hm.”
While sipping my chilled green tea, I finally focused on my mobile phone once more.
The breaking news had shifted to an interview with a foreign individual.
‘Brooklyn Morgan.’
On the screen sat a short hunter with a sleek bob.
She turned to the talk show host and began to speak.
-The identity of the Beast? Well… it could very well be among us in the Spectrum Guild! Honestly, when with Enzo, I often see him acting like a lazy “beast.”
Enzo. The name rang a bell, though I’m not quite sure why…
Anyway.
Brooklyn Morgan, as a representative of high-ranking Awakened, was responding to a question about her views on the Beast.
But Brooklyn simply twirled her eyes for a moment, then responded with something really interesting.
-Enough of the jokes. Have you asked who you think the Nuckelavee Killer might be? I actually have a theory about that.
-Really?
-If you look at the footage of the Beast, you’ll notice that rather than being simply quiet, it acts as though it doesn’t understand English at all. There was a time when another hunter warned him against touching a pillar which was clearly dangerous, and he got burned!
-The Lava Giant incident, right?
-Now we have translation devices coming out from Pixy, so I can’t understand why he continues to refuse communication.
Slurp.
I sipped the tea with excitement, glued to the screen.
-No matter how much he’s called the Beast, would he really be rolling around with impalas in the middle of the savanna? The Beast is ultimately a modern person living in our age. Right now, somewhere, he’s probably tapping away on his smartphone, chatting with friends through messenger.
Ha ha ha.
-But thinking like this brings up one more suspicion.
-What is it?
-Is there really a need for the Beast to be an unregistered person? Perhaps… he’s been cleverly blending in among civilians while hiding his awakening powers?
An S-Class hiding their abilities yet distinctly of non-English speaking origin.
Brooklyn’s deductions began to seem plausible as I nodded along.
But when I pondered over it quietly, those conditions started to feel eerily familiar.
Wow, that’s just a plot you see in movies often! So, Miss Brooklyn’s implication is that, for instance, a sophisticated Asian person from South Korea might secretly enjoy a double life every night?
Ha ha! If that man turns out to be the Beast, it will indeed be an intriguing twist!
I held my cup filled with green tea and tilted my head to the side.
Meanwhile, cheerful American voices continued to flow from the speakers.
