"I'll handle them."
Choi Jong-In, the team's only magic-type Hunter, stepped forward. Skill: *Flame Spear*. When the casting finished, seven balls of fire appeared and shot like javelins with long, flaming tails, striking the ants. *Kwa-kwang—!* It was difficult to kill the ant monsters with the dispersed firepower. But it was enough to burn their wings. *Kieek— Kyak—* The ants whose wings had burned fell from the sky. Choi Jong-In watched them drop and clenched his fist. But now was not the time to savor the thrill of victory. He turned and asked Ma Dong-Woo.
"What about the Japanese side?"
The ants had sensed their approach and begun to move. That meant there was no more time to dawdle. *Cheeik—* Ma Dong-Woo listened to the receiver plugged into his ear. As the Tanker, he was leading this Korean assault team.
"They're going in now."
*Purrooong—!* No sooner had he spoken than a loud explosion was heard. *Kwa-kwang! Kwang!* As if that was the signal, explosions erupted one after another across the island, and acrid smoke began to billow. It was the start of the fourth extermination operation. The Master of Reaper Guild, Lim Tae-Gyu, looked down at the ground from his helicopter and furrowed his brow. Several thousand ants had poured out of the ant nest all at once and were scattering in four directions, heading for the island's north, south, east, and west.
"Disgusting, really disgusting." "It looks like they're all out." "...So it seems."
The long stream of ants ended quickly, and all that remained was a single huge hole in the ground. It was the entrance to the ant nest. The nest was so enormous that the entrance alone was the size of a highway tunnel. The queen ant would be at the deepest part of that nest. The assault team's goal was singular: eliminate the queen.
"Everyone."
Just before infiltrating the ant nest, Ma Dong-Woo used hand signals to gather all the team members. He even beckoned to the hesitant cameraman. Everyone involved in this operation pressed their foreheads together.
"From hundreds of simulations, the longest the Japanese Hunters held out was roughly one hour. We must kill the queen within that one hour."
He deliberately did not say words like "if we fail." Unlike the first, second, and third extermination operations, there was no escape in this one. They would be isolated inside the ant nest. As Ma Dong-Woo swept his gaze over each member's face, they all nodded with determined expressions.
*'They're the best team members.'*
Unless such a tragedy happened again, he would likely never have the chance to work with a team this capable. Ma Dong-Woo considered leading the team an honor. After their brief, silent resolutions.
"Let's go."
From the helicopter, six assault team members and one cameraman. Seven Hunters in total jumped down.
***
"How long has it been since the Koreans went in?"
Goto asked.
"Wait a moment."
Usually, contacting the control center was the leader Goto's job, but he disliked having cumbersome things attached to his body, so another Hunter had taken over communications. That Hunter answered.
"It's been just under ten minutes." "Ten minutes."
It was about time to start preparing for withdrawal. Before making preparations to leave Jeju Island, Goto briefly surveyed his surroundings. The carcasses of slaughtered ants were piled high. The Japanese team's stated objective in this raid was to divert attention. They had focused on buying time rather than exterminating ants, repeating fighting retreats, and they had still achieved this much.
*'Maybe it's a tough opponent for Korea, but for us Japanese, that doesn't apply.'*
Confident, one corner of Goto's mouth lifted. He kicked an ant carcass that was in his way and issued the order to prepare for retreat. The moment had come to act for the Japanese team's true objective. However.
"Um, Goto-san." "Hm?"
The expression of the Hunter handling communications was not right.
"I haven't been able to contact Team 3 for a while now." *'Equipment malfunction...?'*
No matter how many times they checked, machines that were working fine breaking down right before or during an important mission was not an uncommon occurrence. Team 3's landing point was the south. His own Team 1 had landed in the west and continued moving downward, so they wouldn't be that far away in terms of distance.
"How far is the point where Team 3's communications were cut from our current position?" "At our current speed, we can arrive in ten minutes."
As expected, it wasn't far. If left like this, Team 3, not having heard the withdrawal order, might be left alone on the island and meet a terrible end.
'...'
Even thinking about Japan's next independent extermination operation, they couldn't afford to have five S-rank Hunters become stragglers. Especially Team 3, having landed closest to the ant nest in the south, had been formed as the most elite. Losing them would be a painful loss for Japan.
'Well, probably nothing is wrong, but...'
There must have been some slight error. After pondering for a moment, Goto reached a conclusion.
"Let's go take a look."
***
*Step.* As Jin-Woo came to a stop, a familiar mechanical sound rang out. *Ting.*
[Distance covered so far: 10Km] [You have completed running 10Km.]
Completely different from when he first encountered the Daily Quest, Jin-Woo's breathing was not at all disrupted. Having repeated the Daily Quest almost every day, it now felt like just a part of life. Soon, along with the completion message, the completion reward arrived.
*'Stats.'*
Jin-Woo assigned 2 of the ability points he received as a reward to Agility, and the remaining 1 back to Strength.
[Stats] Strength: 219 Stamina: 200 Agility: 230 Intelligence: 250 Perception: 200 (Available ability points: 0) Physical Damage Reduction: 46%
Looking at the stats approaching round numbers, Jin-Woo smiled with satisfaction.
*'If only I had 10,000 more points...'*
It was a shame, but he couldn't create points out of thin air. Still, seeing his stats rise evenly made him smile involuntarily.
*'Good.'*
After raising Intelligence to 250, he had been balancing all his stats so that none fell behind.
*'None of the five stats is to be discarded.'*
That was the conclusion he had reached after spending a long time raising his levels and stats. No matter how high a stat's value became, it never disappointed him.
*'Therefore...'*
As long as nothing unusual happened, he intended to continue balancing his stats for a while. Jin-Woo closed the stat window with a satisfied look. Then he looked around. It was already a quiet neighborhood, but today it was completely deserted. The reason could be easily guessed. Jin-Woo took out his phone and checked the time.
*'As expected.'*
By now, the joint Korean-Japanese team's raid would be well underway. The whole nation probably couldn't take their eyes off their TVs. Jin-Woo changed direction. The quest was already finished, but his steps home were quicker than usual.
***
The operation was proceeding smoothly. Ma Dong-Woo's team had reached the deep interior of the ant nest without any interference, just as Japan had foretold. The inside of the ant nest had a structure similar to a cave-type Dungeon. The only difference was the absence of luminescent ore, so the Hunters who entered had to light their own way.
'...'
*Gulp.* Despite thinking he had ample Dungeon experience, the cameraman swallowed his dry saliva from the tension. His position was at the very rear. Choi Jong-In was at the front, lighting the way, and the other Hunters followed closely behind. A light for filming was attached to the cameraman's forehead too. But in the pitch-black darkness infused with mana, it was not as helpful as an S-rank Hunter's magic; it could barely illuminate the area right in front of him.
"It's quiet."
Choi Jong-In made a casual remark, and Ma Dong-Woo, who was right beside him, nodded in agreement.
"Mm."
As the leader and Tanker, he had a duty to protect Choi Jong-In, the magic-type at the forefront. Perhaps that was why? Ma Dong-Woo kept scanning his surroundings with a sharp gaze. None of his usual hearty demeanor was visible. Baek Yoon-Ho was also different from usual. From the start, he had entered the ant nest with his 'Beast's Eyes' open, straining not to miss even the smallest flow of mana, not saying a single word. Min Byung-Gu and the cameraman also showed signs of great tension. Only Cha Hae-In walked silently, her hand resting on her sword's hilt with the same expressionless face as always. Just then.
"Um..."
As if he had spotted something, Choi Jong-In raised his voice.
"Huh." "Hn..."
The Hunters made low sounds of surprise. Ant eggs, densely packed and lining the walls and ceiling as far as the eye could see. Inside the semi-transparent, cloudy shells, dark, wriggling larvae could be seen. Before the breeding ground where a gloomy atmosphere and a musty stench mingled, the only emotion one could feel was a single one: disgust.
"Should we just burn this all up?"
Choi Jong-In said, frowning. Ma Dong-Woo smiled for the first time since entering the ant nest.
"I'd like nothing more, but there's no time, so let's leave it."
Even if all these things hatched, their lifespan was only one year. If they could kill their mother, they were beings that didn't need to be worried about.
"They're coming."
Baek Yoon-Ho pointed into the darkness and gave a warning. And before he even finished speaking, Cha Hae-In had already drawn her sword. Ma Dong-Woo raised his massive shield, as big as his own body, to his chin and guarded the front. *Sa-sa-sa-sak.* About ten ants appeared all at once. They seemed to be mutated ones born on Jeju Island, all with degenerated eyes.
"The queen's guards?"
Choi Jong-In shook his head.
"No. They're probably the ones guarding the breeding ground." "Then it shouldn't be difficult."
If they weren't the boss's guards but ordinary monsters, they wouldn't be able to withstand the firepower of an entire assault team made up of S-ranks! Knowing they had little time left, Ma Dong-Woo charged first.
"Let's go!"
The Hunters followed him in. Then, flames flashed several times from Choi Jong-In's fingertips, and the arrow Lim Tae-Gyu fired tore through the air. Just as Ma Dong-Woo had guessed, the battle ended quickly. *Kieek!* The last ant's head fell off. Cha Hae-In flicked the fluid off her sword. Ma Dong-Woo spoke.
"The fact that the breeding ground is here means..."
Choi Jong-In provided the answer.
"The queen's chamber must be close."
While they briefly took a moment to regroup before the upcoming decisive battle with the queen, the cameraman who had been looking around suddenly shouted.
"Huh!"
The Hunters' gazes all converged there.
"S-sorry."
Having forgotten that everyone in the nation was watching through the camera on his head, the cameraman bowed deeply to the Hunters. Baek Yoon-Ho, intrigued, approached.
"What is it?" "Ah, it's nothing else... over there."
The cameraman smiled awkwardly and pointed to a corner.
"Among the huge piles of hatched eggs, there's one that is exceptionally enormous." '...!'
Baek Yoon-Ho's eyes widened. It was literally as he said. While the other ants' eggs were only the size of bicycle wheels, the one he pointed to was human-sized...
'No.'
It was long and oval, large enough that it wouldn't be surprising if an adult ant emerged from it.
'Could this also be an ant egg?' "What on earth was born from this?"
Min Byung-Gu, who had approached unnoticed, also wore a shocked expression. Baek Yoon-Ho, whose face had been frozen for a moment, completely changed his expression, grinned, and lightly slapped Min Byung-Gu on the back.
"We just have to kill the queen. We don't need to worry about anything else." "...Right."
Min Byung-Gu turned and walked back to where the other Hunters were, his expression still uneasy. But Baek Yoon-Ho looked back at the egg once more.
*'Impossible...'*
***
*'Impossible...'*
Goto's eyes deceived him.
"Huh!" "Hn...!"
The other Hunters were either convulsing or swallowing hard. Goto looked around, his brow furrowed. The Team 3 Hunters were right where communication had been lost. All five of them, headless. The sight of five fellow Hunters turned into corpses rolling on the ground was a shock even for Hunters.
'...'
Silently rubbing his temples, Goto approached and examined the bodies of the Hunters.
*'They weren't cut by a bladed weapon.'*
All the Hunters had their necks torn apart.
*'How much force was needed to bite and tear their necks like this?'*
As Goto stood horrified, one Hunter who had approached closely spoke with rage.
"Those ant bastards..."
Goto shook his head.
"It wasn't them." "What?" "Whether it was an ant or whatever, there was only one enemy." "Th-that can't be?"
Goto swallowed hard. No matter how closely he looked, there were no traces of a fight around. If Team 3 had been overwhelmed by sheer numbers, there should have been dead ants or other traces left behind. But there was absolutely nothing to be found. Moreover, the Hunters' wounds. Judging from where they were attacked, it seemed they had been taken out by a single entity.
*'How could a single monster take out Japan's elite Hunters...'*
If there was anything in existence capable of such a feat, it would be the boss of an S-rank Dungeon. Goto snatched the transceiver from the Hunter beside him and spoke with force.
"This is Goto." —*Go ahead.* "Where is the queen ant? Has she left the nest?" —*I'll check.*
A mana detection camera attached to a satellite. It was a technology possessed only by the US, Japan, and China in the entire world. Even China, one of those three, had only hacked and copied US technology, so the countries that could claim original ownership of the tech were just the US and Japan. The queen's location, being monitored in real-time with that technology Japan proudly presented to the world, came through the transceiver.
—*No. The queen has remained in her chamber the entire time. Ah, currently, Korean Hunters are infiltrating the chamber.* "What?"
Goto shot to his feet. He felt his heart plummet.
*'It wasn't the queen's doing?'*
Goto's breathing quickened. Things were going terribly wrong. He hurriedly spoke.
"Issue a retreat order... Tell every Japanese Hunter to leave the island immediately, without a moment's delay." —*Understood.*