The Hunter of the Other World Who Is Being Misunderstood – Chapter 36

Ch 36: Terrorism （3）

‘This is totally just shuffling people around.’

A few minutes later.

Having safely joined up with Seon Uyeon, I greeted her as she waited at the scene.

“Hello.”

“Ah, Hunter Kim Giryeo.”

Well, let’s get to the point.

“I came out because you called, but I don’t know if there’s anything I can actually help with. If it’s a missing person search, isn’t Seon Uyeon-ssi’s ability enough?”

I raised the question I had been pondering the entire way to Eunpyeong-gu.

Then, the B-rank hunter answered.

“I was just about to tell you. It’s just that, I activated my skill on the missing people earlier.”

“Yes.”

“Their locations are a bit strange.”

Seon Uyeon placed a hand on her chin, wearing a serious expression.

“The first two I tried failed to be tracked at all, and it wasn’t until the last one that my skill activated normally…”

And after pondering for a while, she finally opened her mouth with difficulty.

“They’re coming from underground. Their locations.”

“What did you say?”

“I can only assume the missing people are located at a very low position, as if they were buried.”

Considering Seon Uyeon’s past actions, it seemed that the margin of error for her searcher skill was quite small.

After all, she had accurately found the place where Kim Giryeo lived among all the rooms in the one-room building.

‘So, does that mean one of the missing people is actually buried?’

It already smelled like a violent crime, but Seon Uyeon’s questions didn’t end there.

“Moreover, this isn’t a simple case of secret burial.”

“Yes?”

“As long as I have a proper grasp of the target’s identity, my skill can track their location even if they’re dead.”

“…!”

“But the previous two cases failed to even find coordinates. There’s definitely interference from the culprit.”

It was certainly strange.

If they were going to hide the victims, they should have hidden them all. Why hide some and let others be found?

“That’s why we called Kim Giryeo-ssi.”

Ahem, Seon Uyeon cleared her throat once and continued the conversation.

“We’re planning to move to the missing people’s coordinates now, but it seems like it’s a trap set by the culprit. A dangerous situation could arise.”

Having come this far, the reason is clear.

The next words were easily predictable.

‘They called me to use me for exploring a possible trap.’

As I rolled my eyes in the air, Seon Uyeon spoke cautiously with a stiff face.

“W-well, it’s certainly not a situation where you’d normally call an appraiser. Maybe that’s why you’re uncomfortable…”

Uh.

This person is misunderstanding something, but I’m currently in a state of having no thoughts.

When the word “uncomfortable” came up, my head automatically tilted.

However, seeing this action, Seon Uyeon became even more tense and began to speak.

“I just thought that having even one more active hunter would make the search safer…”

I almost burst out laughing when I heard that.

“Active? What active hunter is there in this washed-up state?”

Look at my state.

I’m a former Great Magician who had all my mana stolen.

But for the word “active” to suddenly pop out, how absurd must it be?

“Huh? What did you say?”

“…….”

Sigh, never mind.

What’s the point of complaining to her?

Seon Uyeon looked puzzled after hearing my nonsense, but I naturally changed the subject.

“It’s nothing. Anyway, when will the search start?”

“….As soon as Team 2 is ready. We’ll be sweeping up from here towards the Jingwansa Valley.”

Seon Uyeon and I were thus assigned to Search Team 1, which included two police officers, and we began the search for the missing people.

Rustle, rustle.

The damp soil, heavy with moisture, touched the soles of my shoes.

I followed Seon Uyeon, who was leading the way, and surveyed the surroundings.

‘Let’s see.’

Even for someone like me, being trapped in a trash F-rank body like Kim Giryeo’s would dull my senses.

Right now, I had to focus my senses and concentrate on one element to barely conduct a proper search.

And after searching this mountain for dangerous materials…

‘There are no grand traps, at least.’

There were no major anomalies.

With a lighter heart, I walked forward, using Seon Uyeon’s swaying black hair as a landmark.

“Everyone.”

Not long after, Seon Uyeon stopped abruptly.

“This is the location. The missing person is beneath the ground we’re standing on.”

Seon Uyeon, who turned around, had the same businesslike look as always, but a moment of hesitation lingered on her lips.

“I don’t feel any movement.”

If the missing person buried deep underground isn’t even showing any movement, it means one thing.

A brief silence fell among the search team.

It was none other than an awakened one from Team 2 who broke the heavy silence.

“We’ll start digging now, so please step back.”

“Team 1, please search the surrounding area!”

Perhaps there might be some clues left on this mountain as well.

Seon Uyeon moved, saying she would look around the vicinity. I closely followed behind Seon Uyeon.

“Weren’t you in charge of directing the scene?”

“My job is already done. I’ve used up all the uses of my searcher skill for today.”

She explained the situation in a calm voice, then gave a bitter smile.

“After tracking three times, I’m pretty much just an empty shell.”

“….”

“Because that’s all I can do.”

I didn’t respond to this.

Nevertheless, the conversation continued.

“Oh, if you happen to see any dangerous items installed nearby, please let me know right away?”

I was already conducting the detection on my own, even without her saying so.

Without showing it, I scanned the surroundings once more as she suggested. Especially the area where Team 2 was digging.

‘If the culprit was trying to lure the police using the missing people, they might have planted explosives there.’

But in the end, no anomalies were found.

At least, there were no traps using mana in this vicinity.

“Hmm.”

I was briefly focused on searching for dangerous materials, then looked up when I heard Seon Uyeon’s voice.

“Hunter Kim Giryeo, just a moment. Do you see over there?”

“Yes?”

“Next to that tree in the distance. Doesn’t it look like someone’s standing there?”

Kim Giryeo doesn’t have particularly good eyesight.

It’s better than in my past life when I lived in the deep sea and my eyes were almost atrophied, but anyway.

I couldn’t see who Seon Uyeon was pointing at, so I simply scanned the mana in the northern area.

“There’s an awakened one there.”

“Really?”

Then, what I felt was someone’s faint mana.

“Could that be someone related to the case…”

Seon Uyeon called the awakened one in charge of apprehending the culprit, and the police officer immediately took action.

As we sent a police officer from our side, the mysterious onlooker also peeked out from behind the tree.

He was a middle-aged man who was munching on something. His appearance was ordinary, and he was wearing full hiking gear, so at first, I thought he was just a hiker.

But at that moment.

An anomaly occurred.

As he swallowed what he had in his mouth, his mana level, which had been only E-rank, suddenly jumped up.

“Step back!”

I urgently shouted to the police officer who was heading north.

However, this short time was not enough to deal with the situation, and in the end, the awakened one’s magic was cast.

That hiker activated a skill towards us.

“……!”

But wait a moment.

Could it be that everyone here didn’t notice?

The target of that awakened one’s skill wasn’t the police officer from the suppression team, but…

“Hunter Seon Uyeon!”

I reflexively reached out my hand towards Seon Uyeon.

Originally, I was going to push her out of the range of the attack.

“Oh dear.”

“Wh-why are you doing that?”

Too late.

My head recognized all the situations, but my sluggish body wouldn’t follow.

“We’re already falling.”

Immediately, a chilling sensation of falling was transmitted through my veins.

Because a huge gate had appeared on the ground we were standing on, centered around Seon Uyeon…

“Kyaaah!”

Soil, rocks, even trees.

Then, the blue portal, which opened its mouth like a beast’s jaws, instantly swallowed everything in the place where Seon Uyeon was standing.

Whoosh, splash.

“Ugh!”

The long fall ended.

I opened my eyes wide at the intense pain I felt in my back.

What I saw was the dimly lit cave walls and the huge lake we had fallen into.

An unfamiliar landscape. It’s a dungeon.

‘D*mn it.’

Whether Kim Giryeo learned to swim or not, it didn’t matter.

Because I was an aquatic creature in my past life. Swimming through the water to exit the lake was easy.

“Cough, cough.”

Anyway, those Earthlings are really funny creatures.

Why do these guys have a culture of enjoying water activities when they can’t even breathe in the water? Are they crazy?

“Huck.”

I got onto the land for now.

After catching my breath for a while, the others also swam out of the lake one by one.

“W-what is this? Hunter-nim. Are we in a gate now?”

There were a total of three people caught up in this situation.

Seon Uyeon, a D-rank police officer, and me.

‘Did the police officer from the suppression team barely miss it?’

At that moment, the blue light that had been pouring down from above disappeared all at once.

The gate entrance closed.

‘That terrorist!’

Now the outline of the Eunpyeong-gu missing person case is taking shape.

“Hoo.”

My head is too complicated, let’s figure out the situation first.

“H-hunter… are you?”

“Uh! Police…?”

But sadly, I wasn’t given any time to organize my thoughts.

There was a constant murmuring sound from somewhere, and I thought I had misheard it.

“M-missing people?”

Not long after, two young people came out from behind a nearby jagged rock, looking hesitant.

The police officer was shocked to see them.

“N-no way! It’s them! These people are the missing high school students!”

So the missing people were found like this!

But everyone’s appearance was terrible.

Their bodies were injured here and there, and their faces were gaunt as if they hadn’t eaten properly.

“P-please get us out of here. Huhu, you, you came to save us, right? Right?”

The police officer was momentarily flustered as they clung to him, but quickly regained his composure and showed a trustworthy face.

“Don’t worry, please wait for a moment!”

Then, the police officer took out a rectangular object from his pocket. It was a supply analyzer.

━Beep.

『Gate Name: Istanbul’s Winter』

『Description: Enemies that use ice-attribute attacks appear. Be careful of the small number of flying monsters.』

『Rank: B』

“Huh! A B-rank gate?”

That’s quite high.

“Th-there were many people who were captured here. There were six of us. They all died. Only, only we. Only we are left.”

The high school student, who was one of the missing people, couldn’t continue speaking and sobbed.

But the situation wasn’t that bleak.

Because there was an awakened one here who could fight against monsters on equal terms.

“It seems like the number of monsters here is very small. One B-rank should be enough to aim for a clear.”

“Ah! Appraiser-nim! Is that so?”

I approached the woman in the corner.

“Seon Uyeon-ssi, let’s at least start hunting. Maybe a new exit will appear…”

However, the moment I saw her face, my mouth snapped shut.

“…….”

That Association employee, who always showed a calm and upright attitude.

Was panting erratically, her eyes wide and bloodshot.

“Seon Uyeon-ssi?”

She didn’t seem to hear me, and after hyperventilating for a while, she suddenly yelled.

“Please let me out!”

“Yes?”

“Let me out…! I can’t stay here! I can’t bear it! Please, just let me out of here…”

It was impossible to have a conversation with her in this state.

The opponent was now even scratching her own arm with her fingernails.

A clear panic.

Seeing this reaction, I was finally able to realize.

‘We’re screwed?’

The only awakened one here who can fight against monsters…

Has a gate phobia?

“Huuuuh.”

Why didn’t I realize this sooner?

It’s only been 7 years since the Dungeon Shock.

In the meantime, countless people have died. Of course, the strong humans who have overcome this past deserve praise.

If there are those who have overcome it, there are naturally those who have lost.

“Ugh, ugh, ugh…”

Let me say it again, I think we’re screwed.