Chapter 373: Chapter 373

“...I’ve heard that a lot of household members came here? Having this many hunters in one place isn’t necessarily good.”

It wasn’t necessarily beneficial to have many hunters all participate in one operation just because they were A-grade. They sometimes clashed with each other and made the situation ten times worse.

The constellations gathered in order to capture Illingars, which meant that there had to be several A and B-grade hunters involved. Choi Yeonseung wondered if there was even a point in going there.

‘From my experience, the hunters will lose their minds if there’s too many of them in one place.’

Choi Yeonseung had already developed an intuition suitable for a chairman. It was the art of pulling out of a situation that would be troublesome later on. If Hwang Gyeongryong had seen it, he would’ve exclaimed, “Yes, this is enough!”

[The ‘Six-Winged Angel Who Hunts Dragons’ asks you for a favor.]

‘...?’

Choi Yeonseung was puzzled by the angel constellation’s request.

‘Since when does this constellation ask for favors?’

Compared to the others, the angel constellation was quite stubborn and uncompromising. Choi Yeonseung would’ve expected him to say dismissively, “Fine, go away, mortal.”

[The ‘Six-Winged Angel Who Hunts Dragons’ says that his household members aren’t around now, but it is difficult to trust the household members of other constellations.]

[The ‘Monk Pursuing Glory’ is perplexed.]

[The ‘Iron-Blooded General Who Shakes the Battlefield’ is dumbfounded.]

[The ‘Humble One-Eyed Archer’ wonders if this is too much...]

The good god constellations were all stunned after hearing the true intentions of the angel constellation. Of course, that human over there was one of the most remarkable humans they had seen in recent memory, but even so, it wasn’t like Choi Yeonseung’s absence compromised this mission.

What made the angel constellation say such things about the household members of other constellations?

“...I-I see,” Choi Yeonseung stuttered. He was also a bit perplexed by the attitude of the angel constellation. “I understand. I’ll wait for now. I’ll see how things go...”

As he spoke, Choi Yeonseung saw a familiar face on the other side and waved.

“Hunter Jeong Wonuk? It’s been a while.”

“...Tsk.”

The hunters of the Golden Blood Fish, who were following behind Jeong Wonuk, cocked their heads. Did the clan leader just click his tongue upon seeing Choi Yeonseung?

‘I must’ve heard it wrong.’

“...Wh-what brings you here?”

“What brings me here? The fact that Peleza’s screw-up has led to chaos spreading throughout the Abyss.”

The Golden Blood Fish hunters were visibly moved by Choi Yeonseung’s answer. One of them exclaimed, “Wow! Even though you’re from a competing company, you came to offer humanitarian aid?”

“Amazing!”

“We’re not close, so no need to praise me.”

Choi Yeonseung brushed it off like it wasn’t a big deal. However, his indifferent attitude seemed to impress the hunters even more.

...Of course, Jeong Wonuk wasn’t pleased with this at all.

‘You idiots... Is this the time to be impressed by other hunters?!’

Choi Yeonseung couldn’t care less if Peleza went bankrupt, but the Golden Blood Fish had received money from Peleza. If they didn’t manage to defend the city, they could be slammed with a lawsuit later on.

“Are you planning to go in now?” asked Choi Yeonseung.

Jeong Wonuk shook his head. “We can’t go in yet.”

“Why?”

“...Because not everyone is on the same page,” replied Jeong Wonuk before averting his gaze slightly. He seemed rather embarrassed.

The Mount Hua Sect hunters behind Choi Yeonseung frowned in confusion. One of them asked, “What do you mean? Shouldn’t we go in right now?”

“Regardless of the number of hostages, what sense does it make to not intervene?” added another Mount Hua Sect hunter.

In response to her colleagues’ reactions, Iris, who acted as the clan leader, carefully explained, “So, uhm... a lot of hunters have gathered. And, uh... There will be disputes... over who’s in charge.”

“What? That’s insane!”

“Yeah, it's just like how the executives from the party used to quarrel with each other...”

“Ah!”

“So that’s how it is!”

The hunters immediately understood the situation thanks to Iris’ analogy.

Choi Yeonseung looked at the hunters as though they were pitiful and said to Jeong Wonuk, “You’re an A-grade hunter, so can’t you speak more assertively to them? Why don’t you take control and tell them what to do?”

“...”

Jeong Wonuk was once again baffled by Choi Yeonseung’s words.

‘To think that he’s in charge of a company...’

Seeing Jeong Wonuk’s reaction, the Mount Hua Sect hunters started whispering to each other.

“I don’t know who that guy is, but isn’t he looking down on the chairman?”

Jeong Wonuk overheard them and faked a cough before saying, “N-no, it’s a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding, that’s all.”

“Your jumpy reaction suggests otherwise.”

***

Whenever many people gathered, no matter the place, there were always conflicting opinions. Of course, it was ridiculous to have such quarrels in the middle of a crisis, with monsters having invaded the center of a city, but the parties involved were serious.

“The Gabrovo clan is responsible for this! They were in charge of that part of the city!”

“Bah! You're an artist when it comes to spewing bullshit! You think the monster just fell from the sky? It must’ve come in because you didn’t protect the outskirts properly! The Tokat clan must take responsibility for failing to defend the outskirts!”

The hunter clans at the scene argued furiously over who was to blame. The person in charge from Peleza was getting nervous and tried to calm them down.

“Everyone, calm down... The current situation...”

“Ah, please wait a little bit! Aren’t these guys being unreasonable?”

“Everyone! The other hunters out there are coming to help. Please join us so we can solve this issue!” yelled Garner, the general manager, as he was running toward the crowd.

The hunters stopped arguing the moment Peleza’s executive came in.

“Now, let’s go in.”

Armas Garcia, the A-grade hunter from Cuba.

Joseph Grant, the A-grade hunter and household member of the Iron-Blooded General Who Shakes the Battlefield.

Jeong Wonuk, the A-grade hunter and leader of Golden Blood Fish, one of the three major clans in South Korea.

In addition to them, many other B-grade hunters came to help.

This lineup of hunters was similar in numbers to the one from the last great disaster in Western China.

‘Why have so many people come?’

‘Hunter Jeong Wonuk has signed a contract, but the others probably haven’t. Did Peleza pay the other hunters at the last minute to show up?”

‘These crazy bastards... They’ve spent their money on everything but the city’s defense.’

Jeong Wonuk faked a cough embarrassingly. He was the only A-grade hunter here who had directly signed a contract with Peleza, so he had to say something.

“If it’s okay, can I be the one in charge?”

“I’m sorry, Hunter Jeong Wonuk. The shareholders will get pissed off if I listen to the leaders of other clans.”

“Our hunters are nasty and selfish enough as it is, so the leaders of other clans are even...”

‘I shouldn’t have expected anything from these bastards.’

Jeong Wonuk was exasperated. The moment he tried to take some initiative, the other hunters dismissed him, basically saying “Why should I listen to you?”

Armas and Joseph clicked their tongues as though they felt sorry for Jeong Wonuk.

‘There’s no way the other clans will listen.’

‘We should assume that the hunters are dead. If there are no hostages, we can just go in and kill that Illingars monster.’

The hunters hadn’t come here to help because of the citizens or the executives. They had all received orders from their constellations to prevent Illingars from being taken away by the evil god constellations.

Therefore, the other hunters had different approaches to this situation than the hunters working for Peleza, like Jeong Wonuk.

Regardless if they retreated or not...

“Why don’t we at least divide up the areas and share our plans with each other?”

“Uh, it’s not a bad idea, but how should we go about it?”

“Let’s pick randomly.”

“I don’t know... Peleza might hold us accountable later...”

The representatives of each clan were blatantly trying to avoid any work or responsibility. They didn’t want to let others take charge, but they had no intention of actively working to resolve the situation either!

If they did something that resulted in the death of a hostage or more damage to the city, Peleza would hold them accountable. Thus, they figured that the best way to stay off the hook was to not take any meaningful action and blame others.

‘I’m about to lose my mind.’

Jeong Wonuk wanted to take the sword from the scabbard at his waist and swing it at these imbeciles. However, he had been trained as a hunter in South Korea in the first generation, so he was the most patient out of everyone there when it came to such predicaments.

‘I don’t care where you’re all from... Don’t you look down on me!’

Jeong Wonuk persisted and tried to persuade the hunters to take action. Compared to the public officials and politicians he had dealt with a long time ago, these clan leaders were more like children. They were scared that the narrow-minded bastards at Peleza would unreasonably punish them later, and they figured that it was best to come up with an excuse to not participate before the operation actually started.

Jeong Wonuk argued with them fervently, and eventually, the clan leaders reluctantly acquiesced one by one. However, the hunters who were household members of constellations widened their eyes suddenly.

“What? Hunter Choi Yeonseung has rushed inside?!” exclaimed one of them.

“...?!”

***

I told you to give me Bonnefant!

“I-I don’t know! He’s not here! He’s on Earth!”

Don’t lie!

“He really isn’t here! Ugh!”

Even though Illingars’ form was that of a giant tiger, his ferocity and killing surpassed that of a tiger by tenfold.

As other monsters invaded the city from underground, destroying buildings and wreaking havoc around them, Illingars cleverly targeted Peleza’s employees.

Don’t look down on me. I’m holding back because I don’t want to spill the blood of someone who isn’t my enemy... But I will lose my patience if you keep provoking me. Bring him here if you don’t want to die!

“N-no matter what we do, he won’t come! Please listen!”

Peleza’s brilliant staff member managed to convince Illingars with a desperate explanation.

If so, there must be someone else in charge. Tell me! Who is the highest-ranking person here?

Illingars wasn’t gullible. These were the people who had trampled on his land, polluting it and hunting monsters at will. A high-ranking human had to have given those orders.

“...Uh, D-Director Omori is here... He’s a Raiden executive.”

“H-hey!”

“There’s also Director Beyer here!”

“This wasn’t the plan...”

Grrrung!

Illingars opened his mouth wide, revealing his ferocious fangs. The sight horrified the executives.

***

“It’s bad,” muttered Choi Yeonseung.

The Mount Hua Sect hunters following him were confused as to what he was talking about and asked, “Aish, aren’t you an expert when it comes to situations like this?”

“What expert...? Wait, are you saying this because of the situation with the dwarves back then?”

Choi Yeonseung was momentarily taken aback, wondering what these hunters were talking about. Looking at his expression, the hunters realized that he was being serious.

“You stopped the angry dwarves and rescued the citizens back then, right?”

“...That was different. In addition, those dwarves were surprisingly easy to talk to.”

Choi Yeonseung thought that the dwarves of the Skyhammer Tribe were easier to talk to than most humans. They were good-natured creatures. The reason they had gone on a rampage was because Alland Company had manipulated them into signing an exploitative contract.

In comparison, monsters like Illingars were much more violent. In addition, Choi Yeonseung had easily overpowered the dwarves because he was much stronger than them.

-Hunter Choi Yeonseung?

-What’s going on?

Just then, Choi Yeonseung received a call from Jeong Wonuk. He thought it was good news, so he listened carefully.

-It’s dangerous to go in first without saying a word! The blame might be thrown on you if something bad happens...

-Did you contact me to tell me that?

-N-no. I called you because I received a call from Peleza.

-Oh.

Choi Yeonseung was glad to hear that. He didn’t know just how much Peleza would concede, but it was good as long as it could appease the monster.

-No negotiations... Please suppress the monster regardless of how many casualties there are...

-Have you lost your mind?

-...I ... Don’t get me wrong, I’m just passing the message.

Jeong Wonuk flushed with embarrassment, and Choi Yeonseung thought this was absurd.

-I get it, so hang up.

-The hunters want to enter now. Is it okay?

-If anyone goes in before I give permission, I’ll throw them to the monster as prey.

Choi Yeonseung hung up before he called out to the monster.

“Illingars!”

...What?!

Illingars looked up in a frightened manner. This intruder had come all the way into the city, but he hadn’t noticed his presence at all.