I Just Subscribed and It’s the Best Hunter of All Time - Chapter 223

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

#Chapter 223
Jung Han-sung witnessed the devastation unfolding around him.
Debris cascaded from above, while walls and ceilings fractured with audible cracks before collapsing entirely.
Even the ground beneath his feet trembled as though it might crumble at any moment.
“This is a mess.”
I muttered my assessment tersely, then swept my gaze across the surroundings with practiced urgency.
No matter how resilient I was, being buried under rubble would inevitably inflict wounds. I had to escape before that happened.
Though everything around me was collapsing, I remained composed, my eyes darting methodically across the chaos.
‘That way, then.’
Tap!
I pushed off the ground and sprinted toward my chosen destination.
Tap!
I leaped high, planting my feet against a wall that still held firm.
Of course, that alone wasn’t enough. I kicked off the wall and continued ascending, bounding from debris to debris in a relentless climb.
After repeating this several times, the landscape around me came into sharper focus.
‘A castle?’
What was collapsing was none other than a castle—one with a distinctly antiquated aesthetic.
However, with the structure actively crumbling in real time, I had no leisure to observe the scenery at my ease.
“Hmm.”
After a moment’s consideration, I identified the direction where collapse was least severe and bolted toward it.
Tap, tap, tap!
Moving with acrobatic prowess that would be unimaginable to an ordinary person, I navigated through the debris and soon reached the Eastern End of Castle.
Crumble, crumble, crumble!
Even here, the sound of the castle’s collapse echoed clearly.
But for now, this area seemed unlikely to collapse immediately. And I needed to pause and verify something.
A message.
[Objective: Destroy the Sun Orb within Forgotten Sun Castle]
[Time Limit: 60 minutes]
Destroy the Sun Orb. A straightforward objective. However, there was a time constraint attached.
‘Sixty minutes.’
Compared to recent missions, this was notably brief. Previous assignments typically allowed at least a full day, sometimes extending beyond a week.
‘Then again, looking at the castle’s condition, such a tight deadline makes sense.’
I glanced at the crumbling structure as the thought crossed my mind.
The castle was collapsing in real time. The sixty-minute limit likely meant I had to locate and destroy the orb before the entire structure reduced to rubble.
“There’s no choice.”
Given such a mission, I quickly abandoned any notion of relying solely on my existing abilities.
I immediately opened the subscription window and subscribed to all channels related to exploration in one sweep.
Ping!
Golden light materialized before my eyes first—a channel that revealed precious objects.
Followed immediately by an intense intuition that seized my attention.
This is the power of Cassandra’s Channel—her refined instinct.
Layered over the surrounding landscape, colors of blue and red overlay the scenery.
Simply put, it shows which areas are dangerous and which are safe.
The closer to blue, the safer; the closer to red, the more perilous.
“Good.”
This is more than enough to find something.
Jung Han-sung didn’t hesitate long—he simply began moving according to his instinct.
The other Channels were merely supplementary, after all.
Whoosh—
Golden light flickered once, pointing toward something.
But Jung Han-sung ignored it unless the path overlapped with his route.
While collecting items was nice, he had no intention of losing focus and failing the mission.
‘Missions like this can be retried even if failed.’
But Jung Han-sung had one reason he couldn’t afford to fail.
It was the Challenge.
[Platinum] Clear every mission with S-rank or higher all the way to the 100th Floor without a single failure.
A Platinum-tier Challenge, no less. Completing it would literally grant a Platinum Ticket.
It had appeared when the Subscription ability was overhauled last time, but fortunately it posed no great problem for Jung Han-sung.
He had never failed once reaching the 100th Floor, and he had cleared every mission with S-rank or higher.
‘And there were three more Challenges that would be completed just by clearing the 100th Floor.’
Clearing the 100th Floor was probably Gold-tier, and there would be one Silver-tier and one Bronze-tier Challenge as well.
In other words, if he successfully completed this mission, he would obtain one ticket of each grade.
‘So I absolutely must clear it in one go.’
With that thought, Jung Han-sung swept his eyes across the surroundings.
Tap!
Even running at nearly full speed, Jung Han-sung never slowed his pace.
It was all thanks to the power of instinct.
There were many Channels specialized in pathfinding, but in terms of pure speed alone, none matched instinct.
Of course, it wasn’t without drawbacks.
This instinct didn’t reveal specific locations or such details. Sometimes it pointed toward something entirely different.
But in urgent situations like this, with such a simple objective, those drawbacks had little impact.
―Roooaaarrr!
While thinking such thoughts—
Suddenly, something statue-like appeared ahead.
Jung Han-sung immediately recognized its identity.
‘A gargoyle.’
A monster that frequently appeared in places like castles.
To be precise, it was closer to an artificial lifeform created by mages, but that wasn’t immediately relevant.
“Hah!”
Jung Han-sung instantly gathered his full power and swung his blade.
Crash!
The gargoyle exploded without managing to do anything.
In the current situation, I couldn’t afford to hold back. Even a moment’s hesitation could mean being crushed beneath the collapsing structure.
―Screech!
So whenever a gargoyle appeared, I unleashed my full power and shattered it in an instant.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
But even as I crushed enemies smoothly, the situation was deteriorating rapidly.
With each passing moment, the castle’s collapse accelerated.
It was only natural.
The castle had been crumbling since the moment I first opened my eyes here.
‘But what’s causing the collapse?’
I narrowed my eyes.
The castle was nearly empty now. Gargoyles erupted periodically, but they weren’t truly living creatures in the strictest sense.
‘The problem is that the collapse seems to be originating from within.’
If it were being destroyed by external attacks, the collapse would look different.
But for a collapse originating from inside, there’s nothing particularly noticeable.
‘Unless… it’s starting from somewhere much deeper.’
As I ran, I glanced down at the floor. Now that I thought about it, the periodic vibrations were definitely unusual.
Whoosh!
Continuing to run while thinking this, the vibrations grew increasingly intense.
It seemed the source of the vibrations lay in the direction I was heading. And what that meant was simple.
Crumble, crumble, crumble!
I was entering areas where the collapse was becoming more severe.
I threw myself to the side, evading the ceiling that collapsed entirely.
Even while watching dangerous and safe areas in real-time through the Channel I subscribed to, it was difficult to avoid danger perfectly.
Because everything my eyes touched was beginning to glow red.
So I ran, choosing the areas with the faintest red glow whenever possible.
Crash!
But eventually, I reached my limit and had no choice but to move forward while destroying the falling debris.
―Shriek!
The one saving grace was that the gargoyles lurking inside the castle weren’t immune to the collapse either.
I passed by a gargoyle that had lunged at me but was crushed by the debris instead.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
And once again, a violent tremor swept through the surroundings.
I tried to evade the falling ceiling this time as well, but a problem arose.
Crumble!
The floor beneath my feet began to collapse entirely. I reflexively tried to jump upward.
But then my instinct spoke to me.
‘The Basement?’
I shouldn’t go up.
Jung Han-sung furrowed his brow, then decided to surrender himself to the collapse rather than climb upward.
Crash!
Soon, I plummeted downward alongside the debris.
The depth was unexpectedly vast. If there had been a floor directly below, I should have struck bottom long ago, yet my body fell endlessly into the abyss.
‘What kind of structure is this, exactly?’
This couldn’t possibly be an ordinary design.
If such an enormous cavern existed beneath a massive structure like a castle, it should have collapsed ages ago.
In fact, constructing a building atop it would have been impossible from the start.
While my mind raced with these thoughts.
Burst―!
Suddenly, brilliant light erupted from below.
I reflexively turned my gaze toward the radiance, and my eyes widened as I perceived something.
‘A sun?’
That thought crossed my mind briefly before I confirmed its true nature and clicked my tongue.
‘An artificial sun, then.’
It was far smaller than the actual sun. Yet the aura it radiated was tremendous.
It felt as though someone had miniaturized the sun itself and embedded it here intact.
“Is that the treasure orb?”
And there couldn’t possibly be two such objects within this castle.
This had to be the treasure orb the objective pointed toward.
Tap!
I began moving toward it, treading across the debris.
The objective clearly stated to destroy the sun’s treasure orb. So closing the distance was the priority.
But then.
Rumble―!
A powerful shockwave erupted from the sun’s center.
I quickly dashed toward a flat piece of debris and took shelter behind it.
The shockwave arrived in an instant, shattering the debris I’d hidden behind into fragments.
‘So that’s what’s causing the collapse.’
Both the vibrations that had been resonating continuously and the castle’s progressive destruction seemed to stem from this treasure orb.
I leaped toward another piece of debris, contemplating the situation.
‘A straightforward attack won’t work.’
Given the aura it possessed and that shockwave from before, it didn’t seem like something I could destroy easily.
After a moment of deliberation, I retrieved a spear from my inventory.
It was a type of artifact with properties that readily absorbed lightning energy.
Crackle!
I channeled lightning energy into it without restraint, then took my stance atop the debris and hurled it toward the sun’s treasure orb.
Boom!
Thunder roared as the spear tore through the air and struck the treasure orb directly.
“Hmm.”
I frowned at the sight before me.
It wasn’t that the strike had no effect—I could see the creature’s energy diminish slightly.
But it fell far short of what I’d anticipated.
If the Sun Orb’s HP was roughly 100, I’d dealt perhaps 0.5 damage at most.
‘An attack of this caliber won’t even faze it.’
I examined the flow around it, hoping to find an exploitable opening, but the results were disappointing.
The flow surrounding the Orb was impossibly intricate—far too complex to grasp in a single glance.
‘It seems I’ll need to unleash a more powerful attack to disrupt the flow somewhat.’
But as that thought crossed my mind—
Splorch!
Something suddenly burst forth from the Sun Orb.
I watched as those somethings took shape, coalescing sluggishly, and I couldn’t help but sigh.
“How resourceful.”
They were soldiers, each one radiating brilliant light.
The soldiers drew their weapons, fixed their gaze upon me, and charged forward in unison.
It appeared the Sun Orb had no intention of surrendering without a fight.

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