I Just Subscribed and It’s the Best Hunter of All Time - Chapter 32

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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 32.
Escaping the Desolate Land proved surprisingly effortless.
When I first entered, no exit had been visible anywhere, but the moment I broke free from the sphere, the exit revealed itself—mere meters away.
So all I had to do was walk a few steps, push open the door, and leave.
Clearing the mission was just as straightforward.
The moment I passed through the door after the brutal battle, a completion message materialized—that final chamber had been the last room.
I’d succeeded in setting a new record this time, and the rewards were substantial.
The mana stones alone were enough to cover the cost of the ticket I’d used.
I also obtained two artifacts of no particular use to me, but valuable enough to sell for cash.
“Phew.”
With the floor conquered, Cho Cheon-woong and I made our way back to Earth.
“Are you feeling alright, sir?”
Immediately after our return, Cho Cheon-woong asked cautiously.
I nodded.
“Well enough. Let’s talk about the details after I rest a bit.”
“Of course, sir!”
I wasn’t in the right state for lengthy conversation at the moment.
Beyond the combat itself, the time I’d spent in that Darkness had been genuinely exhausting.
When Cho Cheon-woong told me less than ten minutes had passed, I could hardly believe it.
‘Either my sense of time has become distorted, or the flow of time itself was different in there.’
Either way, it didn’t matter. I’d escaped safely.
Simultaneously, my assessment of Sargon’s threat level rose considerably.
That twisted spirit alone had been a formidable adversary. But what of the Darkness that had engulfed me immediately after I defeated it?
Though I’d managed to escape, I remembered vividly the moment that Darkness first consumed me.
The moment my consciousness of my own existence began to blur and fade, transcending mere memory loss.
‘If I’d lost my mind then, it would have been the end.’
A truly chilling experience.
Moreover, that was merely a fraction of Sargon’s true power.
Divine beings of that caliber cannot project their full strength into The Tower.
However, as one ascends to progressively higher floors, the power they can manifest grows exponentially.
In other words, as long as Sargon maintains his obsession with me, the threat will only intensify.
There was only one solution.
‘Grow stronger.’
There was no answer but to cultivate the power necessary to overcome an ever-escalating threat.
I had no intention of submitting to him.
What had initially been mere unease had now become absolute revulsion.
Emerging from my thoughts, I noticed Cho Cheon-woong still watching me carefully. I gestured toward a corner with my eyes and spoke.
“Rest here for now.”
“Yes, sir!”
I had no plans to linger here indefinitely, but I needed to recover first before we could wrap things up.
After watching Cho Cheon-woong settle himself in a corner, I decided to rest as well.
* * *
After resting for about three hours, the fatigue had subsided considerably. It was all thanks to the artifact and my strengthened body.
‘Before awakening, I would have needed a full day’s rest to recover from this.’
I rose from the bed, did some light stretching, and headed outside.
“Cho Cheon-woong.”
I called out his name.
“Yes!”
As if he’d been waiting, Cho Cheon-woong sprang to his feet immediately.
“Let’s talk for a moment.”
“Of course!”
I took a seat at the kitchen table first. He then sat across from me, his expression tense.
I spoke to him.
“First, your information was accurate. Thank you.”
“Huh? Ah, yes!”
Cho Cheon-woong’s expression grew flustered before he bowed his head respectfully.
Regardless of everything else, his information had been invaluable.
I didn’t typically prepare haphazardly when ascending The Tower, but thanks to him, I was able to prepare far more thoroughly.
Had I entered the next floor without any precautions and encountered a trap, I would have faced considerable hardship.
“Originally, you were planning to request protection from the Korean Hunter Association or move to another country, correct?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Cho Cheon-woong nodded as he answered.
What would have happened if he’d made contact with the Association and discussed it with them?
Cho Cheon-woong is quite an exceptional hunter. That’s likely why China was pushing for him so hard.
But he remains on the lower floors now. He wasn’t at an exceptional level like me.
However, accepting him would mean being prepared to antagonize China.
Probably… they’d be quite uncomfortable about it. Though as an outsider, it was difficult for me to gauge exactly how much.
That’s likely why Cho Cheon-woong was considering other countries as well.
There are several nations willing to antagonize China to recruit an exceptionally talented hunter. Some have already done so.
I organized my thoughts briefly and spoke.
“I’ll also pass along a message to the Association on your behalf.”
“Really?”
“Yes. In exchange, you’ll need to come under my command.”
At the mention of coming under my command, Cho Cheon-woong’s expression brightened considerably.
“That’s exactly what I was hoping for! Are you forming a Guild?”
“I don’t intend to call it a Guild, but I am considering something similar.”
A Guild. The term varies slightly, but the concept exists in most countries.
The maximum number of people who can enter The Tower at once is five. That’s the limit. So typically, those five are grouped together and called a team.
Then what is a Guild?
It’s an organization formed by multiple Awakeners gathering together, independent of Tower conquest.
Guilds exist not merely for the interests of Awakeners, but for reasons directly tied to The Tower.
“The 40th Floor isn’t far off now.”
From the 40th Floor onward, there’s a significant change comparable to the Neutral Zone.
It’s the addition of “Unclaimed Territory.” And this Unclaimed Territory is far, far more important than the Neutral Zone.
To what extent? One could say that 90 percent of the reason nations seek to recruit exceptional Awakeners stems from this Unclaimed Territory.
A detailed explanation would be quite lengthy, but the core consists of three points.
The Unclaimed Territory contains abundant precious resources.
Tower climbers can establish their own territory within the Unclaimed Territory, but its area is limited.
To expand the Unclaimed Territory, one must either seize another’s territory or develop unexplored land.
Well, it’s obvious in a sense, but managing such territory alone is impossible.
This means I must recruit personnel in advance if I don’t intend to simply abandon my Unclaimed Territory.
In that regard, Cho Cheon-woong seemed quite promising. Though I’ll need to conduct additional verification later.
Meanwhile, Cho Cheon-woong wore a puzzled expression at my words.
“There’s still more than 10 Floors remaining until we reach the 40th Floor, isn’t there?”
“14 Floors left. That’s nothing, right?”
“Ah….”
At my words, Cho Cheon-woong nodded. He seemed to think it would be possible if it were me.
“Then, let’s accept the proposal. While contacting the Association, have them prepare a contract containing the terms we discussed earlier.”
“Ah, yes!”
Thus I immediately contacted the Association. After several rings, the call connected.
―Hello. This is Baek Jin-woo.
I responded with a calm voice.
“Hello. This is Jung Han-sung. I’m calling because I have a few matters to request.”
―Ah, yes! Please feel free to tell me anything!
At Baek Jin-woo’s response, I relayed the matters I had discussed and organized with Cho Cheon-woong.
When I first mentioned that Cho Cheon-woong had come to my home, Baek Jin-woo seemed quite flustered.
Understandably so.
Though I hadn’t mentioned it explicitly, I suspected the Association had stationed people around my residence.
It’s hardly surprising. Most nations practice this, not just Korea.
Awakeners cannot exert their abilities at full capacity outside The Tower.
This is because mana, ether, or what some call qi, is extremely scarce outside.
Thus, in the early days, promising Awakeners were sometimes assassinated outside The Tower.
‘Back then, we called that “pruning.”‘
Though the frequency has decreased now, it hasn’t disappeared entirely, so the Association attempts to protect important Awakeners as much as possible.
And I am currently one of the important Awakeners in Korea.
Yet that surveillance network had been breached.
‘But was it truly breached?’
I glanced subtly at Cho Cheon-woong before me.
No matter how exceptional, could he really have penetrated all surveillance and reached here through his own strength alone?
Wasn’t there perhaps a collaborator within the Association itself?
After all, Cho Cheon-woong himself had said he escaped China with ‘help’, hadn’t he?
‘Then those connections must be higher up than Baek Jin-woo.’
The thought crossed my mind briefly, but it wasn’t particularly important.
I could always ask Cho Cheon-woong directly later.
Jung Han-sung briefly summarized his conversation with Cho Cheon-woong and relayed it to Baek Jin-woo.
After hearing everything, Baek Jin-woo answered simply.
―Understood. I’ll have the contract you mentioned delivered to you shortly. There are no issues with the contract with Cho Cheon-woong.
A refreshingly straightforward response.
“Yes. Thank you. Then.”
Jung Han-sung hung up the phone.
Everything proceeded exactly as I had anticipated.
I formally brought Cho Cheon-woong under my command using the contract from the Association, and he signed a contract with the Korean Hunter Association.
Then he departed for the lodging the Association had prepared.
“I’ll be waiting for your contact.”
“Got it.”
After seeing off the Association staff member and Cho Cheon-woong, I returned to the dining table.
By then, evening had already turned to night.
An awkward hour for doing anything productive.
Normally, I would have climbed The Tower even at such an hour, but instead I slumped back in my chair.
“I should rest a bit more.”
I decided I needed more recovery time.
* * *
The next day.
I had recovered completely. And I realized my condition the previous day had been worse than I’d thought.
‘I assumed it was just lingering fatigue.’
A sense of inexplicable lethargy, dragging me down persistently.
I’d thought it was simply incomplete recovery, but comparing it to now—fully restored—it had been quite severe.
‘Did what happened in the Darkness have such a significant impact?’
Perhaps it did.
I still didn’t know exactly how that Darkness affected the body.
But now that I was fully recovered, it didn’t matter. And having recovered, there was something I needed to do.
‘I need to go to The Tower.’
To climb it again immediately.
More precisely, the tasks I needed to accomplish were only possible in The Tower—first and foremost, I needed to finish charging the Divine Sword Rodos.
‘If Rodos had been usable, I could have escaped much faster.’
Well, I had to test its power anyway, so it was unavoidable.
From now on, I planned to use it far more carefully.
Having a powerful weapon but being unable to use it when needed was the most frustrating situation imaginable.
Beyond that, there was one more crucial matter.
It was to organize and internalize the insights I had gained while escaping the Darkness.
Back then, I had created that technique solely for the purpose of escaping that place, but its power was undeniable.
If I properly internalized it and wielded it with skill, it would certainly become another formidable weapon in my arsenal.
“Good.”
After organizing my thoughts briefly, I headed straight to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.
Since I was planning intense activity, I ate my fill and immediately entered The Tower.
―In 10 minutes, you will be transported to Floor 27.
The familiar voice greeted me.
I drew my sword from my inventory and warmed up my body casually.
The ten minutes passed in a flash.
With a familiar sensation, my vision shimmered and shifted.
I narrowed my brows at the new landscape before me. Something felt different this time.
‘A mansion?’
The place I had arrived at was an extremely dilapidated Western-style mansion.
[Objective: Escape from the Feigel Mansion]
[Evade the serial killer and traps within the mansion and escape.]
[Time Limit: Six hours]
And there, the objective was presented before me.

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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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