ushernet Chapter 404: Rainbow (1)
Chapter 404: Rainbow (1)
“Why?”
“Life in Japan hasn’t been fun anymore...... and traveling abroad felt a bit burdensome if I went alone.”
“Was it because you’d become too famous in Japan?”
“Well, that was part of it. It seemed chopping off Kikuchi Jiro’s head had caused quite a stir.......”
Seeing Ayane shaking her head, Kang-hoo figured she had been getting plenty of offers from all over Japan.
That was only natural.
Guilds hostile to the Hayabusa Guild—or mercenary corps that had set them as a target—would be the first to take interest.
And beyond that, the fact that she had pierced the guild’s tight defensive lines and ultimately taken the guild master’s head meant her showcase was basically over.
A sniper who could go after a target’s life from long range—or even beyond that—was an alluring asset.
“Did Korea seem like it’d be fun?”“First of all...... you were there, Kang-hoo. And North Korea wasn’t something only I cared about—most hunters were interested in it, too.”
“That was kind of like how I was interested in places like Western Australia or Egypt.”
“Yeah. If you could just shake off the fear, a spot like North Korea was a land of promises and opportunities.”
“At the same time, it was a land of death.”
“There wasn’t anywhere truly safe in this world. There were only dangerous places and less dangerous places.”
“I agreed.”
Ayane’s words made Kang-hoo nod without thinking. The idea that no safe place existed.
Civilians crowded into Seoul not because Seoul was safe, but because it was less dangerous.
All of a sudden, Kang-hoo wondered if this might be the moment to form a team.
Park Dong-jae, who was training intensely in Kang-hoo’s privately owned underground gym, was effectively unemployed right now.
Until recently, he had practically been an honorary Myeongga Guild member, moving with them—but when the base changed, their points of contact had thinned out.
Even if Kang-hoo formed a team with just himself, Park Dong-jae, and Ayane, they would already cover the trio of melee, ranged, and buffs.
Depending on the situation, Kang-hoo could also handle monster tanking and holding, so there was no need for Ayane to worry about being forced to solo-carry everything.
‘And if I added Jung Yuri as the mage position, and An Yeong-ho as the healer position.......’
It would be a dream combination.
If he raised Mumyeong’s level further and reinforced their tanking, it would be fair to say there were no gaps.
‘But if I didn’t operate in North Korea myself, Ayane might end up rotting away domestically.’
It was hard to think about it casually, because Ayane’s usefulness would be limited.
For her continued growth, it was better that she kept rotating overseas with him, the way she did now.
Even as a duo, they could split melee and ranged roles. It was the most efficient combination, even with minimal headcount.
When he truly set out to explore North Korea in earnest, he decided he would definitely call Ayane in.
With her there, they could preemptively strike danger factors from much farther away. The risk could be drastically reduced.
“Shall we head out? It felt like we’d rested and caught our breath enough.”
“Yeah. I was ready.”
“Let’s go. This time, we were going all the way to the front of the main boss. From what I could tell, that place looked like the end.”
“That was going to take quite a while, wasn’t it?”
“You wouldn’t even have time to feel the passage of time. It looked like some of them had already caught our scent.”
Kang-hoo pointed at the pack of monsters below the slope, baring their fangs with thick drool, and spoke.
Bang!
What followed Kang-hoo’s words was Ayane’s clear answer: a gunshot.
The battle began again.Because the actual travel distance had been quite long compared to what it looked like.
Kang-hoo and Ayane could only arrive in front of the main boss monster after the day had turned over.
Including the time they had slept in between, the journey had taken more than a day and a half.
Since they also needed to keep tracing the main route and mapping it out, it had taken even longer.
Their level was 413.
Because they had to fight multiple large-group battles with dense monster encounters, the experience gain had been good.
The two of them hadn’t pushed themselves.
They only dealt with monsters that approached them, and they never let themselves get sucked into areas where the monsters wanted to fight.
They prioritized fighting in open ground where visibility was wide, and that stubborn discipline had paid off.
“Haaam...... huaargh!”
Ayane, who had just woken up, yawned and stretched at the same time, then lightly lifted herself up.
With the final battle ahead, she had needed to replenish her stamina, so she had slept.
Meanwhile, Kang-hoo had been checking the condition of the Solarkium and Mad Solarkium he had stored, as well as Muaje and Gaksinhwan.
Before entering the main boss fight, he had been making his final decision about what to take.
For now, the use of one Gaksinhwan was already decided. And that very “use” had just arrived.
“Ayane.”
“Yeah?”
“This. Eat it when you need short, intense focus. It lasted about ten seconds, but the focus effect was sure.”
“Was it a drug?”
“Even if it looked like something a junkie would carry, I was someone who didn’t touch drugs. You knew that.”
“What was it called?”
“It didn’t have a name. It was a prototype. There were no side effects, so don’t worry. I’d already taken it a few times.”
“Thanks.”
Ayane took the Gaksinhwan and tucked it into a pocket position her hand could reach the fastest.
It was the optimal spot where she could instantly pull it out and toss it into her mouth whenever she needed it during combat.
20 Solarkium. 21 Mad Solarkium. 7 Muaje. And Gaksinhwan was now down by one to 7.
They had plenty of auxiliary drugs they could use in an emergency. It didn’t seem like they needed to worry about resupplying for a while.
“It’s hot.”
There had been a patch of jungle along their route, and from the point they passed it, the climate had changed sharply.
With the increased humidity and temperature, Ayane’s long-sleeve shirt looked unbearably hot.
Sssht. Sssht. Tuuug!
Ayane tied the shirt around her waist and slung her mana-shot rifle back onto her shoulder.
She was now wearing only a bra-top tank, but that also meant there was no longer the irritation of sweat-soaked fabric clinging to her.
Kang-hoo, for his part, took out the Mad Solarkium and Muaje he would consume right before the fight.
In a place where they had to face a high-level main boss monster, an all-out battle was mandatory.
Stamina management? Holding back strategy?
What a joke. To win, they had to pour out everything they could from the start.
And if they still couldn’t win?
Then they weren’t supposed to grit their teeth and keep fighting—they were supposed to run. It meant the air of defeat had settled in.
“Let’s go.”
“I’ll keep my distance.”
“Yeah. Mumyeong will serve as a shield at least once. Use him as a bullet sponge. Even if he died, we could just bring him back.”
Fwoosh.
A Corrupted—Mumyeong—was summoned in front of Ayane. Kang-hoo issued him an order.
“Protect this person with your life, not me. But if you don’t want a hole in the back of your head, don’t block her front.”
“Yes.”
“Never come toward my side. That’s an order.”
“Yes.”
Ayane examined Mumyeong’s features with a curious expression.
She remembered seeing a guardian that had flown around the sky like a vengeful spirit before, but now he looked fully human.
It seemed Kang-hoo had upgraded his skill without her knowing. He gave off a strong martial-artist vibe.
Fwap. Fwap.
Using Leap repeatedly, Kang-hoo put ample distance between himself and Ayane.
The main boss monster, named “Arcus,” had stood in the same spot the entire time.
‘Arcus...... That should mean “rainbow” in Latin. Ah, now I get it. That was why they named it that.’
After observing Arcus, Kang-hoo could accept why it was called “rainbow.”
The gauntlet Arcus wore kept shining as it changed through seven different colors.
It reminded him of “Deseo.”
That one: the red fist meant instant death, the yellow fist evaporated mana, and the green fist stacked experience.
If Arcus had seven colors, it was certain to be even more troublesome than Deseo.
Click!
Right then.
Arcus’s gauntlet, which had been constantly shifting within the spectrum, stopped on purple.
“......!”
Both Kang-hoo and Ayane focused.
This was the kind of situation you could only understand by experiencing it. You couldn’t know an unseen future.
Whoooosh!
“Ugh!”
The result appeared.
From empty air that had shown no sign at all until a moment ago, something felt like it seized his entire body.
As if struck by a kidnapping skill, Kang-hoo’s body was forcibly dragged toward Arcus.
Even though the distance had been considerable, he got caught so fast it might as well have been instant activation.
As Kang-hoo tried to respond with his clone technique, a gunshot cracked by his ear—BANG!
Ayane had fired a Full-Load Single Strike immediately. It was a shot aimed precisely at Arcus’s gauntlet.
Clang!
“Kh—!”
Sparks burst from the gauntlet, and Arcus’s focus broke.
Kang-hoo, who had been getting pulled by the forced summon, could stop midair.
He had planned to deploy his clone technique while being dragged and use the clone as a substitute sacrifice.
But without needing any complicated process, Ayane’s Full-Load Single Strike support cleaned up the situation neatly.
‘Purple. Kidnapping.’
Post-event learning was complete.
Now that he understood one of the seven patterns, there was no way their response would break on that point again.
Perhaps Arcus thought the failure was simply Kang-hoo’s lucky evasion caused by Ayane’s interference.
It stretched out its gauntlet again and tried to kidnap him once more. And Ayane’s Full-Load Single Strike needed time to reload.
【Bait】
So Kang-hoo produced a calculated response.
Bait.
It was a skill that created countless mini Kang-hoo decoys to die in his place.
They weren’t just small imitations of his appearance—each one also released mana, making it easy to mistake them for a human body.
Kang-hoo realized Arcus’s forced summon wasn’t a precise designated-target summon, but a conditional summon.
For example, a structure like: “Summon only entities that are leaking mana.”
He was confident it wasn’t a targeted summon largely because it had been close to instant.
A method that summoned only the desired subject typically required a bit more time than this—like a kidnapping skill.
“Tch!”
Crshhh!
The bait that got dragged between Arcus’s heavy gauntlets shattered into pieces and scattered.
If Kang-hoo mentally replaced the bait with himself, he could predict what kind of fate awaited him if he got caught.
Arcus tried forced summoning several more times in a row, but each attempt came to nothing due to Bait and the clone technique.
Maybe because of that.
As if it had concluded Kang-hoo had more cards to play, Arcus began changing the gauntlet’s color.
Crunch. Gulp gulp.
Using the brief lull, Kang-hoo consumed Mad Solarkium and Muaje.
No matter what Arcus chose, this was a situation that demanded tension from this point on.
Since it knew one of its gauntlet options could be nullified, it would have no choice but to choose a more decisive offensive option.
Sssing!
The color changed again.
‘Yellow.’
Kang-hoo fixed his gaze on the gauntlet.
He judged it still wasn’t time to approach Arcus openly.
The gauntlet variables were still completely unpredictable. He needed to read the creature’s intent a bit more.
Ayane had already finished recharging her Full-Load Single Strike. She could aim anywhere the moment she pulled the trigger.
Arcus seemed aware of that, too, because it kept tracking Ayane’s position.
It looked ready to raise a protective barrier using the arm opposite the gauntlet at any time. It was already on standby.
In the next moment.
A reddish-pink flash flared from Arcus’s gauntlet as it took aim at Kang-hoo again with a fingertip.
‘Damn it.’
A crimson beam came screaming straight in from the front! The signs were anything but ordinary.