Copying Runes to Become the World's Strongest - Chapter 33

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 33
Entering the building to gather their weapons, the Hunters scattered across the streets, where wrecked cars and collapsed buildings lay everywhere.
Hyeonjun entered the building a beat late.
He reached into the weapon storage to grab the dagger he usually used.
‘…Huh?’
Every other weapon was there, but the dagger was nowhere to be found.
‘Was it really that popular?’
Hyeonjun clicked his tongue.
The dagger was the only weapon he’d used all this time, and now he couldn’t use it.
‘Surely no one took all of them.’
Seong Sohui crossed his mind, but he dismissed the thought.
‘There’s no way she’d know I use daggers.’
Of course, if she’d seen the orientation application, that would be a different story.
‘Well, there’s no help for it. I’ll just have to use a different weapon.’
Looking at it another way, it wasn’t entirely bad.
The opponent was a robot made of iron.
Could a dagger even deal proper damage to it?
‘As far as I know, any weapon is designed to register damage, but…’
The robot’s body was fitted with delicate sensors.
Through those sensors, it recognized the degree of an attack and registered it as damage.
Put simply, it was the same structure as a monster in a game with set HP.
Even with no visible damage to its exterior, the damage would build up, and once its HP ran out, it would collapse.
‘A dagger would be best, but it’s not as if I have to insist on one, is that it?’
Hyeonjun’s gaze drifted to the side.
There, a heavy War Hammer sat on its rack.
‘That’ll be more efficient than a dagger.’
A War Hammer whose power was so great that wherever it struck, it could turn the spot into a weak point.
There was no need to cling to a dagger or any similar class of weapon.
‘Unless my Strength were low, but it isn’t.’
He judged that he could make full use of a War Hammer.
The only thing bothering him was that it wasn’t a weapon he was familiar with.
Choosing a completely new kind of weapon in a situation like this was a kind of gamble.
‘But the dagger wasn’t a familiar weapon to begin with, was it?’
He had chosen the kitchen knife simply because it was useful for both hunting and harvesting loot.
Then he’d gotten the dagger, so he’d just kept using it up to now.
Wouldn’t I get used to a War Hammer just as quickly?
‘Let me swing it once.’
If it feels right, I’ll go with the War Hammer.
If it doesn’t feel right, I’ll try something else.
[You can analyze the target.]
The moment Hyeonjun picked up the Iron Hammer.
A message like that appeared.
‘So I can analyze weapons too?’
Would another headache hit me, like before?
Hyeonjun, harboring a trace of fear, activated the skill.
[Activating .]
For an instant, the War Hammer turned gray, then slowly returned to its original color.
It lasted only a few seconds.
But in that brief moment, something changed within Hyeonjun.
“Gah… !”
The headache struck again.
It was more painful than before, and it dragged on much longer.
Hyeonjun couldn’t hold out and dropped to one knee.
He waited, brow furrowed, for a while.
Gradually, the pain began to fade.
“Haah…”
Hyeonjun let out a long breath.
Analysis skill.
It seemed like a good skill, but the penalty was steep. He couldn’t guarantee what would happen if he overused it.
‘What’s different this time?’
A headache shouldn’t have come on for no reason.
I half expected another skill to appear, like before, but that wasn’t it either.
“…Huh?”
Hyeonjun suddenly looked down at the War Hammer.
It was a weapon he’d only just picked up, yet.
It settled into his grip with an uncanny fit.
‘I think I know how to handle this weapon.’
Where the weight of the War Hammer sat, and how it ought to be swung.
Knowledge that should have been beyond anyone short of a veteran was lodged in his mind, as though built up through experience.
Whoosh!
Hyeonjun steadied his breathing in an instant and stepped forward.
The next motion followed on its own, as naturally as breath.
He wasn’t deciding how to move; his body was moving by itself.
‘It feels like experience has piled up and been etched into instinct.’
Hyeonjun moved a few more times, trying to feel that sensation more fully.
‘Is a skill about to show up at this rate?’
Thinking that, he had repeated the same motion about five times when.
An unexpected message appeared.
[You have acquired .]
“…Why did that actually come through.”
Was it really this easy to get a skill?
‘Should I try getting another weapon skill while I’m at it?’
A Weapon Skill makes it possible to handle the corresponding weapon with far greater skill.
As a bonus, your physical abilities rise whenever you use that weapon.
Hyeonjun hesitated over the various weapons and shook his head.
‘Every time I use Analysis my head splits like that. I’m not confident I could endure it.’
And it’s not as if I need another weapon right now.
The War Hammer alone is enough for the moment.
‘Let me stop being greedy and focus again.’
Hyeonjun picked up the War Hammer and walked out of the building.
Instead of running off after robots like the other Hunters, he simply plopped down in front of the building.
“They should be showing up any time now.”
He had spent quite a while inside the building.
This was the moment the robots that had beaten back the Hunters who tried to take them on alone would start to show themselves near the building.
“They’ll come if I just wait.”
The order programmed into them was to destroy the building.
Hyeonjun set the War Hammer on the ground and waited at his leisure.
Until the prey came rolling right to his feet.

The Management Bureau conference room.
The image on the screen shifted in real time.
It was broadcasting, switching from one Hunter to the next.
“These kids are pretty useless, aren’t they?”
“Why did they even bother coming out if they can’t take one on by themselves?”
The Hunters received poor marks.
Hardly any of them could fight a robot properly.
“No good. Let’s just cut this one.”
“And people like this are mid-tier among E-Rank?”
They were so disgusted that some were ready to kick them off the monitor entirely.
But not everyone was like that.
“Whoa, who’s that?”
Seong Sohui fought the robot in a burst of flame.
A robot that others had struggled even to face was reduced to immobility in an instant.
Dazzling, and with a devastating force to match.
Even the executives, who already knew her record, clicked their tongues in admiration.
“That cute little girl is my disciple! Hohoho!”
At her student’s triumph, Yun Mihui’s face, stiff until just now, broke into a bright smile.
Kang Daewoong watched her and clicked his tongue.
‘Our Changdong needs to show up soon, too.’
They say talk of the tiger brings the tiger, don’t they.
Soon, the screen caught Kim Changdong, his disciple.
“Oh.”
Kim Changdong, gripping a longsword, attacked the robot without hesitation.
Sparks flew, and steel rang out.
The robot’s exterior had taken no serious damage, but its sensors judged the blow to be fatal.
Thud.
The robot lay toppled.
He was slower than Seong Sohui, but still several times faster than anyone else. He dropped it and was already moving on, searching for his next target.
“Hoo-hoo.”
“You look pleased.”
“Of course I’m pleased. My disciple is making his mark.”
“Where’s Hyeonjun, though? He should be coming up any minute now.”
Just then, the screen shifted.
The back of Hyeonjun’s head came into view.
At the same moment, the room fell into silence.
“…?”
Question marks appeared on the faces of many of the executives.
Everyone else was fighting, yet there he sat alone in front of the building, yawning. It was only natural they would react that way.
“Unbelievable.”
“He scored a few points up front and now he thinks he can take it easy?”
A few of them caught on to what Hyeonjun was doing.
“Looks like he’s waiting for the robots to come to him.”
“I suppose he figured Hunters couldn’t beat robots on their own anyway.”
“Ah, so that’s why he proposed cooperation from the very beginning.”
The executives couldn’t help but marvel at his judgment.
To read the big picture within the given conditions. It looked easy at a glance, but it was an ability that few possessed.
“He’s got a good head on his shoulders.”
“Still, I don’t think he can manage on his own…”
Baek Jehyeok trailed off mid-sentence.
Reading the situation coolly was all well and good.
The problem, however, was that the robots coming at them weren’t just one or two.
“Whoa, how many is that?”
The camera’s viewpoint changed.
Above the city.
Robots charging toward the building without any resistance at all.
The gap in numbers was so vast that Hyeonjun, sitting in front of the building, looked utterly insignificant.
“Hmm…”
Kang Daewoong stroked his chin, eyes clouded with worry.
He recalled the weapon that had been lying beside Hyeonjun just moments ago.
The last time he’d seen it, the weapon Hyeonjun used was a dagger.
Yet for some reason, this time he had brought an entirely different weapon.
‘A War Hammer.’
Other than being a melee weapon, it had nothing at all in common with a dagger.
It wasn’t a weapon that suited Hyeonjun, either.
‘Last time, too, I could see he lacked strength.’
That was why choosing a dagger, which could leave a fatal wound even with little force, had seemed like the right call.
And now a War Hammer?
For someone with Hyeonjun’s low Strength stat, it was hardly a good weapon.
‘He’s going to struggle with this.’
Kang Daewoong grew wistful at the thought that he wouldn’t get to see more of Hyeonjun and Changdong’s performance, and began bracing himself.
He wasn’t the only one.
Among the executives, skeptical opinions had taken over.
“At this rate, they’ll all be eliminated.”
“Is there anyone promising?”
“Promising? Hardly. They can’t even fight properly.”
“Apart from a few, E-Rank will always be E-Rank.”
Director Choi Jaeil, who had remained silent the whole time, simply watching, began to show a trace of impatience on his face.
‘It’s off to a bad start.’
This was a project he had pushed through despite objections from both the government and within the Management Bureau, who asked why anyone would bother cultivating Low-Rank Hunters.
Since the first step is what matters most, he had chosen the most outstanding of the Low-Rank Hunters as the subjects of the first Orientation.
They needed to show some promise, after all, or the projects that followed would lack momentum.
‘Of course, the results of the training will need to be watched over the long term…’
This project focused not just on fostering talent, but on discovering new talent as well.
At least from the standpoint of finding Rough Gems, it had to be admitted that it had failed so far.
‘The few hunters who stand out are already with Guilds.’
Just one.
Though there was one who wasn’t.
‘Honestly, I still can’t tell.’
Hyeonjun. He had undeniably outpaced everyone in the earlier training.
Yet in the combat training, which mattered most, he was the one who seemed the most at ease.
‘I hope that composure is justified…’
Bang!
That was when it happened.
A roar rang out through the speakers.
Dust clouded the screen.
A sudden silence settled over the room.
Kang Daewoong doubted his own eyes.
‘What did I just see?’
Hyeonjun, who had vanished a moment ago.
Right after, a robot that had been closing in lay embedded in the floor.
This dust was the aftermath of that impact.
‘Is he faster than last time?’
Even last time, I’d thought his speed was impressive for an E-Rank.
Now he was faster still.
‘And that strength. How on earth?’
A War Hammer demanded Strength.
Only moments ago, I’d figured a weapon like that didn’t suit Hyeonjun, who lacked power.
Yet there he was, flaunting tremendous destructive force with a War Hammer.
‘You can’t explain this away by saying his Strength Stat is simply high.’
Skill in handling the weapon.
The movement of his body.
This result could only come from squeezing the utmost efficiency out of both.
‘That’s an astonishing rate of growth.’
Kang Daewoong’s throat bobbed.
His eyes, fixed on the screen, burned with a sharper light than ever.
‘Talent…’
Seong Sohui and Kim Changdong.
Hyeonjun, too, belonged to the realm where those two stood.
No, he might even be operating on a higher plane than they were.
‘…To think I missed this.’
Kang Daewoong sank into deep regret for failing to see his talent.
Had he not rashly judged him to be a veteran.
He would have tried to recruit him.
Now there were far too many rivals.
“Oh, here it comes.”
As the dust settled, Hyeonjun’s full battle began to broadcast across the screen.
Whoosh!
Dropping low, Hyeonjun evaded the heavy blunt weapon the robot swung.
In the same motion, he twisted at the waist and counterattacked.
Clang!
The tremendous force carried by the War Hammer.
The robot’s body lifted off the ground and flew backward, smashing through everything in its path.
“Wow…”
“Where does that kind of strength come from?”
“Look at his movement.”
Two robots, stripped of all their HP in an instant, lay near death.
Hyeonjun didn’t even catch his breath before moving toward the next robot nearby.
His fighting was honest.
A continuous cycle of dodging and striking, without any tricks.
It was a fighting style befitting the weapon he held.
“Looks like he’s taking it in stride.”
“He’s outpacing the robots with pure physical ability alone.”
It was a battle that seemed to declare that tricks were unnecessary crutches for those who lacked real skill.
As the pile of scrap-metal corpses grew, one after another.
One of the executives raised a question.
“Doesn’t that guy use his Trait Skill?”
“I heard his Trait is Bird Hunter.”
“What’s that?”
“There are some strange Traits out there.”
One thing was certain.
The Bird Hunter Trait didn’t lend the slightest support to the fight they were watching.
“Doesn’t his listed main weapon say Dagger, anyway?”
“…Then what the hell am I looking at?”
“If you have to explain it, that’s just how rare the talent is.”
The executives still looked as though they couldn’t make sense of Hyeonjun’s performance.
Choi Jaeil was no different.
‘What on earth…’
His face showed confusion.
But that didn’t last long.
After watching Hyeonjun’s fight for a while, he took out his smartphone.
‘If he’s this good at Level 3, what will he be like beyond that?’
Perhaps…
It might be a talent descending from the heavens, far beyond every expectation.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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