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Chapter 3: Incident at the Prison (2)

“Alright, I see him coming.”

The leader was an elderly man, and although his face was full of liver spots, his voice was firm, and he did not appear feeble. The elder scanned Zin slowly, as if he was trying to get a sense of Zin’s past life.

He’d met five hunters, and rejected them all. It might have been for no reason, or perhaps he was justified in doing so.

As soon as the elder finished scanning Zin, he nodded slowly.

“Mm… Yes. He is the one. Well done, Baek-Goo.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. You are dismissed.”

“Yes, sir.”

Baek-Goo wondered what the elder could have possibly found after a quick glance. He didn’t quite get it, but he followed the elder’s order. He walked down, and Zin, standing still, watched the elder.

“It’s good to meet a great person in such unfortunate times.”

Zin shrugged at his words.

“It doesn’t look that unfortunate around here.”

“The greatest misfortunes are hidden behind the shadows.”

“Hmm. I agree. Anyway, first off, I’d like you to tell me how I’m different from the first five hunters.”

The first five were not chosen, but Zin was chosen. The elder started laughing.

“The five hunters were all fakes. They were wannabe losers. However, you are the real deal.”

“How can you be so sure of that?”

The elder raised his hand, and pointed at Zin’s black trench coat.

“The real hunters wear outfits that can hide a lot of stuff inside.”

“Interesting observation.”

“The sound of steel meeting steel. The faint smell of gunpowder. This is a proof that you’re the real deal.”

Zin’s trench coat had plenty of space to hide things like a sharpened sword or gun.

In a short period of time, the elder had picked up clues from Zin’s appearance, and knew that Zin carried a gun. The elder was no ordinary client. And it was impressive that he identified the gunpowder smell so quickly.

Zin asked.

“Were you a hunter before?”

“I was in a Hunter’s Nest for quite a bit. I have good instincts.”

“Looks like I ran into a tricky client.”

“I will take that as a compliment.”

A client who understood the physiology of a hunter was a tough client. The elder laughed as Zin asked again:

“Shall we talk about your request?”

As soon as Zin asked, the elder’s face hardened, and he started to speak.

“Towards the sun-setting west, there is a city that’s a four-day walk away. Do you know about it?

“Hmm… If I remember correctly, it’s the city of Zado, isn’t it?”

“Correct. So, you know about it.”

“As the leader of Ard Point, what do you have to do with the city?”

“Some time ago, Zado City was destroyed. Our merchant told me about the news.”

Zin grimaced. The average number of residents in a city could be as small as three hundred, and sometimes as many as a thousand. It was unusual for a city to be so easily destroyed. There were two cases when a city would get destroyed—either from the beasts’ attacks or a Reaver’s raid.

“Was there a raid from a massive Slaughterhouse?

“No, it was caused by the beasts. He said that it couldn’t have been done by humans.”

“There are no beasts capable of destroying such a city in the region of ancient Korea.”

“Yes, that’s what I’m thinking.”

Ancient-Korea — The Korean peninsula was on the outskirt of outskirts, and there was no group of beasts or elite beasts capable of taking down a city. From that perspective, Ancient-Korea was a good region to live in. The elder knew about that fact, and was perplexed.

“If there’s a beast capable of destroying a city, this place is no longer safe.”

“True.”

“However, without knowing exactly what’s going on, we can’t migrate so easily.”

“Obviously, wandering outside is not a smart thing to do.”

For that reason, the elder had waited for a hunter. The village’s guard was just a guard, and didn’t have the same skill sets as a professional hunter.

Guards simply fought. However, hunters observed, listened, laid low, fought, and pursued. A hunter was best suited for this type of task.

“I would like you to investigate what beast attacked the city of Zado, and whether it’s dangerous enough that we’ll need to migrate. If you can bring some convincing proof, that will be even better.”

The elder did not expect a single hunter to defeat a beast that had taken down a whole city. Therefore, the hunter was given a surveillance request, not a hunt request. There were many hunters who failed to fulfill this type of requests with diligence. For that reason, the elder had looked for a trustworthy hunter—not a fake, but a true hunter.

If Zin confirmed that the group of beasts that destroyed Zado City was dangerous, then the residents of Ard Point would have to leave for a new place.

The request might have been a simple one, but it came with great risk. However, Zin thought that the request was worth accepting. It was a simple, yet strange one. This type of request usually netted Zin with great returns. It was worth it, especially if it involved a fallen city. If a city had been destroyed, the city’s blue chips would have no owners. Even without a hunter request, it was worth going to the city, and the reward from completing the request would just be a bonus.

“First, let’s talk about payment.”

“Advanced payment of 100. I’ll pay up 100 after completion. Depending on how trustworthy you are, I will pay an additional 100.”

“That’s pretty generous.”

“I am asking for that much diligence in return.”

300 blue chips was a large amount, enough to maintain the Point’s energy level for about a month. It was not an amount that a small town’s leader or the fool would have in possession.

Considering that most beast-hunting requests paid one to three chips per beast, it was a large amount.

As a surveillance request, the pay was high, and the elder considered the request as an important deal.

“Alright, I’ll do it.”

Zin nodded as it was a very good request that wouldn’t need further negotiation. The elder gave him the advanced payment, and Zin accepted it. More often than not, people who faked being hunters would receive the advanced payment and run away. It was pretty common to see requests without a prepayment.

Those who did advanced payments of 100 chips were divided into two groups—the dumb ones or the ones with great instincts.

Zin thought that he was the latter.

“You told me that you were in a Hunter’s Nest before. Where is that?”

“A nest called ‘Lightning Bird’.”

“Hmm, I see.”

Zin nodded and then stood up.

“Okay, I’ll leave tomorrow. You’ll have to wait about a week.”

“It probably a dangerous beast, so don’t think about fighting it.”

“That’s for me, a hunter, to decide.”

“Haha… Well, probably.”

As Zin walked out of the elder’s room, he tried to remember a nest named ‘Lightning Bird’. He tried to imagine how the elder would have looked as a young hunter. Images popped up and faded away.

“I’ve been through a lot.”

Zin grimaced yet again.

Zin moved in to one of the prison cells after getting guidance from Baek-Goo. It was a small cell, but it was hard to get a safer place than this.

“Are you okay with potatoes as a meal?”

“Thanks.”

Baek-Goo walked away somewhere, and brought back three steamed potatoes.

“Surprisingly, hunters can get picky. I remember some of them used to ask for meat.”

Baek-Goo grumbling as if referring to the five hunters who’d come previously. Zin smiled.

“I think we have a misunderstanding here.”

“Misunderstanding?”

“Hunters who seek meat are not hunters.”

“Hmm… some people hate meat?”

For the residents, meat was hard to come by.

But hunters ate too much meat. Since hunters wandered outside for a long period time, they would usually get sick of eating meat. Baek-Goo nodded slowly as if he’d realized something.

“Now that I’ve listened to you, it makes sense. Does that mean that those who seek meat are fakers?”

“Very possible.”

“Good. I’m learning something good today. I’ll remember this.”

Baek-Goo murmured the phrase, “Meat-seeking hunters are fake.” Zin felt amused by Baek-Goo’s actions. Some people still tried to learn and memorize new things. Baek-Goo seemed to have nothing to do in particular and sat next to Zin who was eating the potatoes.

“Hey. About that Zado City…”

“Anything you want to tell me?”

“I think the wolves did it.”

Zin’s face hardened.

“Wolves?”

“The most fearsome beast is probably the Giant Wolf. I think those beasts formed packs and attacked Zado City. I asked about the merchant, and he said that the corpses were ripped apart as if something had gnawed on them.”

“Sorry to interrupt you, but Giant Wolves act solo, and they don’t form packs.”

For that reason, Baek-Goo’s assumption was incorrect. However, Baek-Goo shook his head.

“I know. I hunted a Giant Wolf myself before. I did it by using a trick.”

Zin was surprised at Baek-Goo’s comment. A Giant Wolf was a beast over ten feet in size; not quite a large-sized beast, but big enough to be categorized as a mid-sized beast. To Zin, it was surprising to hear a guard say that he’d hunted a Giant Wolf before. And Baek-Goo wasn’t bluffing either. Zin asked:

“A trick?”

“Ah… It’s a hunting trick that I developed. You know that Giant Wolves protect their own territory, right? If I provoked a wolf into following me to another wolf’s territory, the one whose territory got invaded will rush out to fight off the invader. Both wolves will fight until one dies. And at that moment, I’ll have to finish off the one that’s exhausted. Once, when we were short of food, I desperately pulled off this trick to get meat.”

“Wow…”

Zin nodded slowly. He was surprised that Baek-Goo had come up with such a hunting method himself. The method was not that of a guard or a warrior. It was a hunter’s method. It was surprising that he’d thought about it without learning how to hunt. Hunting without getting injured was the best hunting method, and Baek-Goo had figured it out. Zin thought that Baek-Goo should be proud of himself.

“But anyway, here’s the important part.”

“What is it?”

“I think this is the devil’s deed.”

Zin felt deflated by his never-ending talk.