'Gasp!' After seeing the changed level with his own two eyes, Jin-Woo swallowed a groan. Ever since he'd hit level 100 after catching the ants, his level had stagnated in the 100s for a while—whether it was due to the level gap with the other magical beasts. Even after seizing the upper-level Dungeons with the other guilds' concessions, the highest he'd reached was 103. But now? He had shot past 120 in one leap. It was all thanks to the giant-type magical beasts, every one of which carried boss-level experience, and the King of Giants, who had gifted a staggering eight levels' worth of experience. 'Good.' Jin-Woo nodded. Killing the King had been the right call. Jumping eight full levels at once was no coincidence. This was a creature that had exerted enough pressure to make it hard to breathe, even with its power sealed by those special chains. If it had ever been fully released and allowed to roam free outside… Jin-Woo shook his head. He'd been incredibly lucky to uncover its true nature before that happened. Just then, the King's corpse cracked apart like a dried-up riverbed, then crumbled away into fine sand. A line of what the King had said flashed through his mind.
—A spiritual body is destroyed upon death and cannot become a shadow. In other words, I cannot become your soldier.
The death of a spiritual body. Jin-Woo had witnessed it for the first time. The King had been right. There was no black smoke rising from the sand that used to be his body, nor did a message about extraction appear. Jin-Woo picked up the black mana crystal half-buried in the sand and brushed off its surface. 'It's a shame I didn't get a shadow soldier, but… I'll have to be satisfied with this for now.' Jin-Woo gazed at the mana crystal. His face was reflected on its mirror-clear surface. The more he stared, the more a tingling sensation shot through his fingertips from the powerful energy contained within. 'So these Rulers are the ones sending this…' Why was it? There was a scene that had played automatically in his mind the moment he'd heard the word Ruler. Four angels descending from the sky. Even though he knew they weren't the real thing, the sight of them had chilled him to the bone. Thump. He felt his heart sink. 'What if those guys are the Rulers?' If beings like that showed up, his current strength wouldn't be enough. His grip on the mana crystal tightened. 'I need to get stronger.' In that sense, gaining the power of the Shadow Monarch had been a stroke of fortune. He had obtained an unimaginable power, and there was still room to climb further. What would have happened if his score had been too low during the job change exam and he hadn't been chosen by the System? Jin-Woo spoke quietly toward the status window that was still open. "Hey… say something, anything." But the System still gave no response. "…" Silently vowing that if he ever had to write a bucket list, he would absolutely include "conversation with the System" on it, Jin-Woo stood up. But as he turned, something touched the back of his foot. Tap. 'Hm?' When he looked down, it was one of the black chains that had bound the King of Giants. Curiosity flickered across Jin-Woo's face. That curiosity quickly turned into interest. 'Maybe this… could be useful?' His outstretched hand grasped one of the chains connected to the wall. Sure enough, he felt energy being drained from him. 'Oh.' The chain was absorbing mana. A single one was manageable, but if a person were surrounded by layer upon layer of chains like this, even a being of tremendous power wouldn't be able to escape easily. Jin-Woo grinned as he watched his mana gradually decrease. 'An unexpected haul?' With a pleased expression, he summoned the 'Demon King's Dagger' and began cutting the chains one by one. But the severed chains gave off no magical effect whatsoever. "Huh?" Not a single one did. 'What's going on?' Jin-Woo turned his gaze toward the wall. He grabbed a chain still connected to the wall. Just like before, the sealing effect manifested. But the chains he had cut were useless. He vaguely grasped the principle behind it. '…So that's how it was.' The chains weren't artifacts. Everything had been the power of the Dungeon. That meant even if he carried these chains outside, they'd just turn into junk. 'These are no good.' Jin-Woo set the now-ordinary chains down on the floor. He couldn't say he wasn't a little disappointed, but all things considered, he'd gained more than he'd expected. Through this expedition, the giant shadows had joined his Shadow Army, and after defeating the giants and their King, his level had rocketed up to 122. That alone far exceeded his original expectations. As Jin-Woo set the chains aside with a clean conscience and turned with a smile, Beru bowed his head. He then lifted it and pointed a finger toward the entrance, and the soldiers standing in front of Jin-Woo parted in unison, creating a massive path. Jin-Woo gave the filth-free shoulder of Beru a casual pat and headed for the entrance. Beru, still emotional from his master's touch, hurried after him. Behind Jin-Woo, the one thousand shadow soldiers who had contributed greatly in the battle against the giants filed out in formation. Clack, clack, clack, clack. The Dungeon's interior was filled with the heavy footsteps of the shadow soldiers. Far ahead, the entrance of the Dungeon was visible. Seeing the sunlight streaming in through the entrance, Jin-Woo smiled. The long giant hunt was finally drawing to a close.
* * *
Japan's Hunter's Association Operations Room. Inside, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop—not a single sound disturbed the silence. It would not have been an exaggeration to say the staff had all forgotten how to breathe. Every ounce of their attention was fixed on the large screen at the front of the room. Gul… Gul… The only sounds that occasionally broke the silence were the dry swallows of throats. The image on the screen showed a satellite feed from a mana detection camera, looking down on Shinjuku. Mana detection cameras rendered mana as light. Strong mana appeared as bright lights. Weak mana, as dim lights. There was not a single person in the operations room who didn't understand what that massive blob of light sitting smack in the middle of Tokyo meant. And standing before that colossal light were roughly a thousand smaller points of light. The Association officials were struck speechless by that staggering number. "D-does all of that belong to Hunter Sung Jin-Woo's summons?" "Good heavens…" "Just glancing at it, there have to be over five hundred…" Chairman Matsumoto quietly tilted his head toward the analyst seated beside him. "Do we have any estimate on how many summons he has?" "It's hard to be precise since many points overlap, but we estimate at least over eight hundred." Eight hundred. When the analysis team used the word "at least," that number had to be taken as the minimum. Even so, it was more than double what they had seen on Jeju Island. Matsumoto was stunned. 'And this was from when? His summons have doubled?' No—the very fact that he could increase the number of his summons at all was abnormal to begin with. He ran a trembling hand across his mouth. If he'd considered Jin-Woo an enemy, his world would have gone dark right then. But because he was an ally, he felt a relief he could hardly contain. How fortunate it was that Hunter Sung Jin-Woo had shown mercy to Japan. Just barely recovering from the shock, Chairman Matsumoto turned back to the screen. The points of light were charging toward the massive light. The battle between Hunter Sung Jin-Woo's summons and the giants guarding the Gate was about to begin. Everyone watched with bated breath as the points of light tangled and clashed in an endless fray. And then, at last—the flickering pillar of light vanished. "WAAAH—!" As if they had been waiting for this exact moment, deafening cheers erupted, shaking the entire operations room. Staff embraced one another, crying and laughing, savoring their joy. At long last, the Japanese archipelago was being freed from the terror of the giant-type magical beasts. And a single Korean Hunter had accomplished it all. "…" Chairman Matsumoto, who had kept his mouth shut tight and stared silently at the screen, nodded his head slowly to himself. When Jin-Woo had thrown a wrench into his plans, he had cursed heaven for allowing such a Hunter to be born in Korea instead of Japan. But now, he thanked heaven that Jin-Woo had appeared in Korea. 'If it weren't for him, Japan by now would be…' Shuddering at the terrible mental image, Chairman Matsumoto picked up the receiver to do the one last thing he needed to do. The call connected quickly. —How did it go? The tense voice of Japan's Prime Minister came through the receiver. Chairman Matsumoto delivered the result in a calm, steady voice that sounded slightly choked. "Japan… Japan's crisis has been lifted." Joyful shouts erupted from the other end of the line. But the Prime Minister, composed, continued speaking while doing his best to contain his elation. —Well done, Chairman Matsumoto. However, that does not mean you will be relieved of your responsibilities. "Of course." He had accepted this long ago. A general who failed to slay the enemy commander must offer his own head. And what if that enemy commander had just saved his country? Before a total defeat, Matsumoto could not bring a single excuse to his lips. He spoke quietly. "I will accept any and all consequences. That… would be the last thing I must do."
* * *
The news that all the giants had been eliminated was immediately broadcast to the whole world. From the neighboring country of South Korea all the way to Brazil in South America, on the opposite side of the globe—the world heard of Jin-Woo's exploits.
—A single Hunter saves an entire nation!
On social media, people buzzed with talk of whether a new nation-level Hunter had appeared. The difference from the Jeju Island incident was that it wasn't just Koreans saying it. In the U.S. state of Maryland on the East Coast, American Hunters who had successfully completed a raid on an S-rank Gate were about to attend a government-hosted celebration. But instead of heading into the banquet hall, the Hunters stood rooted in front of a TV in the hotel lobby, mouths agape, as news from Japan poured out. "What?" "No… that's just… logically impossible." It made no sense. Yuri Orloff, the most famous S-rank support-type Hunter in the world, had been killed in the blink of an eye without being able to do a thing. The movements of the colossal giant captured on camera—combined with its size and speed, the word "monster" wasn't even enough to describe it. And a single S-rank Hunter had simply taken that thing down?
[…Hunter Sung Jin-Woo arrived in Japan the same day alongside D-rank Hunter Yoo Jin-Ho…]
No—wouldn't it have been better if he were alone? He'd also brought a D-rank Hunter along and still defeated all of those monsters? It was unbelievable. But it was equally impossible to deny, because the cameras kept showing Japanese citizens tearfully voicing their joy. Zoom in. The screen switched to the lifeless body of the super-colossal giant-type magical beast, sprawled across the ground. "Guh!" The three S-rank Hunters let out involuntary groans. Only now were they beginning to truly grasp the fact that the monster was dead. Just then. "There you three are." A voice came from beside them, and all three turned their heads. The three Hunters' eyes widened. "Thomas…" Thomas Andre had walked up, grinning, and held out a sheet of paper. "W-what is that?" "A signed agreement to accept the results of our bet." "Eh—?" Paying no attention to their reactions, Thomas began listing the items they had wagered, writing each one by hand. "You had the yacht, you had the house, and you had…" He stared at the third Hunter for a long moment, then scratched the side of his head with the tip of his ballpoint pen. "What was it you bet again?" The pointed-at man gulped, swallowed hard, and blurted out in a panic. "I didn't bet anything!" "That's a nice tie you're wearing." "I didn't bet anything." "The tie." "No, I—" Thomas slid his sunglasses down slightly and glanced at the man. The man couldn't say another word. He had seen the power of 'Goliath,' who tore apart S-rank magical beasts with his bare hands. Not a shred of the desire to stand up to someone who casually strolled through S-rank Dungeons like they were lower-level ones stirred within him. "The tie." The man, voice trembling, untied his necktie. A short while later, Thomas was humming a tune on his way to the dining room when he spotted a familiar face and stopped. It was Laura, the manager in charge of the top-tier Hunters of the Scavenger Guild. When she approached, Thomas held up his tie and asked, "How's my tie?" "It looks expensive, but it doesn't really go with a Hawaiian shirt." "No?" Thomas untied the tie and stuffed it into a nearby trash can as he replied. "I thought so too." Laura, who had witnessed Thomas's eccentricities up close for a long time, showed no particular reaction and simply got to the point. "We have a problem." "A problem?" Thomas lifted his head. If it was a problem serious enough for her to come tell him in person instead of calling, it was something far from trivial—Thomas knew this from long experience. "What kind of problem?" Laura spoke in an anxious voice. "The list of guilds invited by the Hunter Administration Bureau to the upcoming International Guild Conference has been released, and Korea's Ahjin Guild is on it." "Ahjin… Guild?" His gut told him this was bad news. Thomas's voice grew heavy. Laura nodded. "Yes. The guild created by Hunter Sung Jin-Woo." Just as he'd suspected. How was it that his bad feelings never once missed the mark? Thomas furrowed his brow and spoke. "He's going to come to America, isn't he."