A village in Ishikawa Prefecture. The village entrance had been packed with people since morning, with no room to even place a foot down.
"What's going on? Why is everyone out here?" a villager who hadn't heard the news yet asked, looking around in confusion. The village was right in the middle of reconstruction work, yet this many people were gathered outside. As a man who'd been busy clearing rubble from collapsed buildings, the scene was bewildering.
"Well, you see—" A kind-looking woman opened her mouth to explain, then spotted a car appearing at the end of the road and pointed in that direction. "Oh my! It's coming! It's coming!"
Murmuring spread through the crowd. As soon as they spotted the car, the villagers began to stir with excitement. The way their eyes lit up, it looked as though they were welcoming a beloved relative from far away.
'But there's no way all these people share the same relative…' The man wiped the sweat from his neck with the towel hanging around it and shot a puzzled look.
"So who's coming?" he pressed. Unable to stand it any longer, a man sitting next to him spoke up with an exasperated tone.
"A Hunter is coming."
"A Hunter? What Hunter?"
"What other Hunter could it be?"
As the car drew closer, the villagers raised their hands in enthusiastic welcome. The expressions on their faces were genuine joy and gratitude.
'No way…' Only then did the man finally realize who was visiting the village. His head turned backward almost on its own. Before him, the devastation wrought by the giants came into full view — the village half-destroyed. Reconstruction equipment and machinery stood idle everywhere. If someone hadn't stopped the giant-type magical beasts, would even this much of the village still be standing? His hometown, filled with countless memories, had nearly been wiped off the face of the earth without a trace. The school he'd attended, the roads he'd walked, even the workplace where he'd spent his days — all of it. As he thought about it, an emotion surged up from deep within his chest. The tip of his nose stung with tears.
'Is that person really coming?'
Whoosh — his head whipped back toward the road. The villagers were welcoming this Hunter not because someone ordered them to, not as a facade for others to see. They moved from the gratitude welling up inside their hearts. It was gratitude that moved their legs. Before long, the man himself was waving the towel from around his neck in the air and letting out a cheer toward the approaching car.
"Whooooo—!"
A sleek black van was barreling down the open road toward them. Though the vehicle was brand-new, the layer of dust caked over it — as though it had been through ten years of hellish terrain — told the story of the fierce battles it had endured. The letters on the license plate reading "Japan Hunter's Association" were so buried under dust they were nearly illegible. The van's battered condition spoke volumes about the intensity of the fighting, and the villagers' hearts swelled even tighter in their chests. The more emotional among them even shed tears.
A short while later, the van pulled up neatly before them with practiced ease. Screech.
"Whooooo—!"
"Mr. Hunter!"
Yoo Jin-Ho, wearing sunglasses, stepped out of the driver's seat to a rapturous welcome.
Click. Yoo Jin-Ho waved to every single villager who had gathered around. Just then—
"Mr. Hunter!"
A staff member of the Japan Hunter's Association who had been waiting for Jin-Woo's group finally squeezed through the crowd. Panting heavily, he straightened his posture and spoke.
"Are you Hunter Sung Jin-Woo?"
The staff member spoke in Japanese, but fortunately one recognizable word was tucked in there.
"Nope." Yoo Jin-Ho shook his head leisurely and raised an index finger toward the sky. "They're there."
And then—
Screeee—! Kaisell, the frost dragon, let out a pleased cry.
"Wh-what is that thing?!"
"What the—!"
As the saying goes, you're startled by a chick after being frightened by a hawk. The villagers, who had been terrorized by the giant-type magical beasts for so long, flinched and pulled their shoulders in at the sight of the black creature soaring overhead. But Kaisell simply circled above their heads.
Screeaaak—!
Realizing the dragon meant no harm, the villagers stared upward with expressions that were still a bit fearful but also tinged with wonder.
At that moment, a dark figure leaped from atop Kaisell. Boom! Jin-Woo, landing lightly thanks to the Ruler's Authority, made the villagers' eyes go wide.
"…"
The staff member standing closest to Jin-Woo gripped the frame of his glasses and stood frozen, unable to utter a word. In his place, Yoo Jin-Ho relayed the message to Jin-Woo.
"Brother, this gentleman was looking for you."
"Oh?" Jin-Woo turned and stood before the staff member. Seeing Jin-Woo right in front of him, the staff member finally snapped out of it and quickly shook his head. This was the Hunter his superiors had warned him again and again not to mess up in front of. Gathering himself, the staff member composed his expression into a solemn one and bowed deeply.
"It's an honor to meet you, Hunter Sung Jin-Woo. I'm Tanaka Hiroshi of the Japan Hunter's Association's Kanazawa branch."
Lifting his head, he explained the reason he had come.
"I've been assigned to be your guide today. I look forward to working with you." All of it was, of course, in Japanese.
Jin-Woo looked at Yoo Jin-Ho. Yoo Jin-Ho looked back at Jin-Woo. "…" "…" Seeing Yoo Jin-Ho's beaming smile, Jin-Woo realized the man had absolutely zero desire to understand what a Japanese person was saying. He let out a long, heavy sigh.
Left with no choice, Jin-Woo summoned a Shadow Soldier capable of Japanese translation. 'My King.' Beru rose from the shadows and bowed respectfully to Jin-Woo. After the greeting, Beru turned to face the staff member. 'I will handle this one.'
'No — the way you put it makes me anxious in a completely different way…'
Jin-Woo wasn't the only one who thought so. The staff member was a given, but even the villagers' faces went stiff and hard the moment they saw Beru.
"Human." Beru approached the staff member, puffed out his chest, and spoke. "What is it you wish to relay to my lord?"
The villagers standing nearby all gasped in unison. Even Yoo Jin-Ho, who had never heard a Shadow Soldier speak before, was startled.
"Brother, that thing could talk too?"
"Yeah." Jin-Woo nodded. Apart from the thunderously resonant voice, like something a monster would produce, his Japanese was fluent enough to pass for a native speaker.
'Well…' When you counted by sheer numbers, the Japanese had been the largest group — so it made sense, if you thought about it. The moment Jin-Woo arrived at that realization, he suddenly felt a dull headache and pressed his forehead with one hand.
After a brief exchange with the staff member, Beru turned back to Jin-Woo. "My King. This one says he has been assigned to guide the village and pledges to serve you with utmost sincerity."
"Then why is that guy's face gone white as a sheet?"
"I informed him that if he tried any tricks, I would devour him from the tips of his toes to the last strand of hair on his head, My King."
"…Figures." What did it matter? As long as the message got across.
The staff member crept behind Jin-Woo, casting nervous glances at Beru standing there, and spoke carefully. "Shall we head this way?"
Feeling a twinge of pity for the staff member's pitifully pale face, Jin-Woo nodded. "Sure."
Jin-Woo's group followed the staff member's guidance toward a derelict warehouse deeper in the village. One side of the warehouse — where a wall and door had once been — had been blown clean off. Inside, the carcass of a giant-type magical beast lay neatly on its back.
"This is it." The staff member gestured toward the carcass and stepped aside.
Jin-Woo approached and examined it. The monstrous body bore unmistakable traces of a brutal fight — countless bite marks and torn-open wounds where flesh had been ripped away covered every surface.
'Did you guys… eat this?' Jin-Woo's gaze cut toward Beru, sharp as a blade.
Before Jin-Woo even looked, Beru had already bent at a ninety-degree bow, fixing his eyes to the ground. Something about the dynamic made Yoo Jin-Ho think of a lifelong middle manager groveling before a department head — the way a certain ant once treated its superior.
Jin-Woo's gaze returned to the carcass. As long as the body was intact enough, Shadow Extraction wouldn't be a problem.
'Just a bad feeling, that's all.' After finishing off every giant in Japan, Jin-Woo had been having his soldiers scour the area for magical beast carcasses he'd missed during Shadow Extraction. As a result, he could tell at a glance which unit had fought which beast just by looking at the state of the remains. Almost without exception, the beasts that had clashed with the ant legion ended up looking like this.
"Hah…" Jin-Woo let out a quiet sigh as he gazed at the beast that must have died being torn apart, then rolled up his sleeves. His fingertips reached toward the carcass. From Jin-Woo's lips came a voice carrying a faint murmur.
"Rise."
At that moment — the villagers, who had been crowding in behind Jin-Woo with barely any room to stand, all let out a collective gasp. With a roar of awe, a giant soldier emerged from the shadows in pristine condition and knelt on one knee before Jin-Woo. Boom!
A light success. That made the twenty-seventh giant soldier complete.
'Two more left, I think?' Jin-Woo looked up at the imposing giant soldier and smiled.
* * *
At the same time, back in Korea. In the president's office at the Hunter's Association, Ko Geon-Hee was flicking the remote control back and forth through channels. But every single one was plastered with news about Jin-Woo's activities in Japan. Korea wasn't the only place — any news channel in the world was running the same stories. The Sung Hunter had firmly stamped his three-character name into the consciousness of the entire globe with this feat.
"Heh heh." Association President Ko Geon-Hee was beaming as though it were his own personal accomplishment, a grin that never seemed to leave his face. If he had stopped Hunter Sung Jin-Woo from going to Japan that day…
A chill ran down his spine. He had very nearly made the blunder of a lifetime in his final years. The Korean Hunter world's prestige had skyrocketed because of this, and he was grateful enough that the Sung Hunter had taken the initiative on his own. Thanks to one man, Korea was being mentioned as an emerging Hunter superpower. From the president's perspective, Jin-Woo's exploits were a source of both pride and joy.
The only thing troubling him was—
"Mr. President."
Just then, Department Head Woo Jin-Cheol knocked and entered the office. Thanks to a string of successes, he had earned the title of youngest-ever department head. After a light bow, Woo Jin-Cheol reported.
"He's reportedly changed course toward China."
"Oh?" That was unexpected. While Jin-Woo had been eliminating the giants one by one, one of them had plunged into the sea. News that the creature — which everyone assumed was heading for the Pacific — had suddenly reversed direction and was now headed for China came as a fresh shock.
Ko Geon-Hee asked, "How is China reacting?"
"Liu Zhikang is personally stepping in."
Ko Geon-Hee leaned back into the sofa. "Then there shouldn't be a problem." Liu Zhikang, one of the world's five strongest Hunters. If he was taking personal charge, the giant-type magical beast wouldn't even set foot on Chinese soil before being dismembered. With the Sung Hunter absent, the creature heading anywhere other than Korea was a relief.
Seeing the president's relieved expression, Woo Jin-Cheol let out a smile of his own. Then a TV screen caught his eye — scenes of Japan's destruction, screaming Japanese citizens, and the beginnings of rescue and reconstruction operations flickered by one after another.
"That's awful," Woo Jin-Cheol clicked his tongue.
"It is… It truly is," Ko Geon-Hee agreed. Korea knew that pain all too well — from what Jeju Island had endured four years ago. The scars ran far too deep to say they'd forgotten. Reconstruction on Jeju was still ongoing.
Ko Geon-Hee spoke. "But someone's suffering often becomes someone else's hope."
"Sir?"
"Did you know that post-war, defeated Japan rebuilt itself into the world's second-largest economy?"
"Wasn't that because of our war?"
"Exactly — the war stimulus. Something similar is about to happen to us." With a bittersweet expression, Ko Geon-Hee placed his hand on the towering stack of documents covering his desk. "These are all quotation proposals from our companies eager to participate in Japan's reconstruction projects."
Korean companies had moved fast. Some had sent in quotations the very moment the Sung Hunter flew to Japan. The rest had already finished making preparations to move.
'Someone's suffering becomes someone else's hope…' No — to be precise, it becomes profit. Woo Jin-Cheol, fully grasping the president's meaning, gave him the same bittersweet look. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he spoke up.
"Ah, Mr. President."
"Hmm?"
"I hear that Matsumoto, president of the Japan Hunter's Association, has turned himself in."
"He did?" The man who had been so brazenly defiant — what could have changed his attitude? Ko Geon-Hee was about to press for details when his phone rang. He reached out for it. Drrring — drrring. As soon as he lifted the receiver, a hurried voice came through the line.
—Mr. President, it's me. It was his personal physician. This was a time when the doctor should have been swamped with a flood of patients, too busy to even breathe. Ko Geon-Hee tilted his head.
"What brings you calling at this hour?"
—It's an important matter, so I had no choice but to reach out…
"Important… matter?" Ko Geon-Hee's voice grew cautious. Several plausible scenarios flashed through his mind, but the physician mentioned a name he hadn't expected at all.
—Were you aware of Chairman Yoo Myung-Han's condition? Chairman Yoo Myung-Han was one of the Korean Hunter Association's greatest supporters. He and Association President Ko Geon-Hee also shared a personal friendship. What had happened to him? As the president pressed for an answer, the physician continued.
—Chairman Yoo Myung-Han visited our hospital today.
Ko Geon-Hee shot to his feet. "He's not in a critical condition, is he?"
—Unfortunately… there was nothing more we could do. Silence fell, heavy and still. After a brief pause, the physician's voice resumed quietly.
—Chairman Yoo Myung-Han has entered the "Final Sleep" state.