I Just Subscribed and It’s the Best Hunter of All Time - Chapter 71
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
#Chapter 71.
Jung Han-sung blinked.
After endless walking and climbing what felt like countless steps on the Staircase.
He finally held a book in his hands.
All the books he had seen before displayed characters, yet their meaning remained impenetrable. But this one was different.
‘Celestial Extreme Thunder Qi Divine Art.’
I could understand it.
No—beyond that, a powerful pull emanated from this very book.
Without anyone telling me, I knew. This was it. This was what I had been searching for all this time, wandering through this place.
[The Heavenly Demon nods in approval]
A message from the Heavenly Demon appeared, as if affirming that I had made the right choice.
My heart grew all the more at ease.
But Jung Han-sung did not know.
The moment he picked up the Celestial Extreme Thunder Qi Divine Art, the Heavenly Demon had sprung to his feet.
In any case, Jung Han-sung carefully lifted the tome inscribed with Celestial Extreme Thunder Qi Divine Art and cradled it against his chest.
Something told him that was the right thing to do.
Then, the very next instant.
A brilliant flash erupted!
Light poured from the book, and it began to crumble into dust. Before I could do anything, it was drawn into my body.
I felt strange knowledge flowing into my mind.
Much like when I used my ability to subscribe to a channel.
So I stood frozen for a long while.
“Haah.”
I regained consciousness only after all the knowledge had been inscribed in my mind.
Jung Han-sung belatedly checked the message that appeared before him.
[Skill ‘Celestial Extreme Thunder Qi Divine Art (S)’ has been registered]
The tome I had chosen had been registered directly as a skill.
Rumble!
But immediately after confirming the message, the ground around me began to shake violently.
Jung Han-sung looked around in alarm, and saw the library shelves surrounding him beginning to collapse from far away.
The collapse was swift, leaving me no time to react, and it swallowed me whole in an instant.
Crash!
And so Jung Han-sung was pulled into the Darkness.
…And when I opened my eyes again, I found myself in a familiar place.
A small cabin within the Territory.
Jung Han-sung, who had been standing in an awkward posture, straightened his back fully.
“…How much time has passed?”
Jung Han-sung immediately checked the time. His eyes widened in surprise.
‘One minute?’
That’s right. Only one minute had elapsed in the Territory.
‘How long was I in there? It feels like I wandered for hours, maybe even days?’
Jung Han-sung entertained this thought before sensing something amiss.
Hours to days.
Wasn’t that range far too broad?
“Hmm?”
Yet when he tried to recall exactly how long he’d been there, the memory wouldn’t surface clearly.
It was like that peculiar sensation upon waking from a dream—trying to remember how much time you’d spent within it.
But it couldn’t have been a dream.
Even as these thoughts crossed his mind, Jung Han-sung decided to verify the most crucial detail just to be certain.
‘Status window.’
He would check what he’d obtained there. Immediately, his status window materialized before his eyes.
Jung Han-sung’s gaze fell upon the Skills section.
[Skills: Divine Sword Rodos Summoning (S), Heavenly Extreme Thunder Divine Art (S), Indra’s Lightning (A), Kaleha Swordsmanship (A), Soul-Shattering Blade (A), Soul-Shattering Step (B)]
The Heavenly Extreme Thunder Divine Art was properly registered in his Skills section.
Only then did Jung Han-sung release a breath of relief and examined the skill more carefully.
‘It’s S-rank. The proficiency level is….’
The moment he focused on the name Heavenly Extreme Thunder Divine Art, a small window materialized above it.
[Heavenly Extreme Thunder Divine Art]
[Rank: S]
[Proficiency: Lowest]
Proficiency at the lowest level.
It was only natural, if anything.
‘So, roughly at the first stage, then.’
Typically, martial arts were divided into proficiency levels ranging from the first stage to the twelfth stage.
The first stage meant one had just begun. The twelfth stage meant complete mastery of the technique.
‘Soul-Shattering Blade is at the third stage now, and Soul-Shattering Step is at the second stage.’
For reference, Divine Sword Rodos Summoning was at the lowest level, Indra’s Lightning at the middle level, and Kaleha Swordsmanship at the upper-middle level.
Considering the frequency with which he’d used them so far, the levels were precisely appropriate.
“Good.”
Jung Han-sung nodded and closed the Skills window.
He intended to examine the Heavenly Extreme Thunder Divine Art in greater detail.
First, the nature of the Heavenly Extreme Thunder Divine Art itself was perfectly imprinted in his mind.
‘Thunder that pierces the heavens. The supreme martial art that embodies its principles. That is the Heavenly Extreme Thunder Divine Art.’
Lightning is but an instant, yet within that moment dwell ten thousand births and deaths.
The Heavenly Extreme Thunder Divine Art captures the essence of that fleeting instant, infusing the body and meridians with Heavenly Thunder.
By wrapping one’s entire body in thunder essence, one gains instantaneous overwhelming power and explosive speed.
As one’s mastery deepens, each individual meridian becomes a conduit for lightning, allowing the body to be hurled like a thunderbolt itself, and every strike one delivers carries the essence of thunder.
‘Truly, it deserves to be called a Divine Art.’
As he slowly traced through his memories, he discovered one additional fact.
The reason why, among so many texts, he had been drawn to the Heavenly Extreme Thunder Divine Art.
Jung Han-sung raised one hand.
Crack—!
Lightning crackled at the tips of his fingers.
Ordinary people cannot wield lightning. But Jung Han-sung was different.
He possessed Indra’s lightning, and within it dwelt the very seed of lightning itself.
In his current state, Jung Han-sung had become exceptionally skilled at manipulating lightning—not quite as naturally as breathing, but close enough.
And the Heavenly Extreme Lightning Divine Art was precisely a divine technique that utilized such lightning.
“It truly feels like a divine art prepared specifically for me.”
This much was certain just from seeing the skill embedded in his skill window.
The reason being that the foundational stage of this divine art required the ability to handle lightning to even the slightest degree.
Had Jung Han-sung not already been familiar with lightning, the skill would never have registered, regardless of the knowledge imprinted in his mind.
“I want to try it once.”
Jung Han-sung rose to his feet.
Or rather, he attempted to.
“Ugh…”
He collapsed to the ground in the very posture he had been rising from.
He barely managed to raise his arm to avoid landing headfirst, but his body refused to obey him.
As unbearable exhaustion and drowsiness overwhelmed him, Jung Han-sung’s body convulsed before he lost consciousness entirely.
* * *
When he opened his eyes again.
Jung Han-sung realized he had been unconscious for nearly five hours.
“Mmm…”
Rising slowly, Jung Han-sung blinked his eyes in measured succession.
For now, both body and mind felt refreshed. It was as though he had slept deeply for over a dozen hours.
‘The exhaustion was worse than I thought.’
Jung Han-sung scratched his cheek.
When he had first emerged from the Demon Heart Pavilion, he had been too caught up in excitement to notice, but it seemed considerable mental fatigue had accumulated.
Still, he was grateful that his condition was sound now.
Rising fully, Jung Han-sung stretched thoroughly before stepping outside his home.
“Master!”
Upon spotting him, Baek-seol rushed over immediately.
Jung Han-sung spoke to her.
“Nothing happened while I was out?”
“No! Everyone is learning their work under the people you hired before!”
Now that she mentioned it, the village was indeed noticeably less crowded than before.
It seemed everyone had gone out to learn their trades.
Jung Han-sung nodded and spoke to Baek-seol.
“Then I have something to check, so I’ll visit The Tower for a bit.”
“Understood!”
Since there were no urgent matters in the Territory at the moment, Jung Han-sung entered The Tower without hesitation—specifically, the 45th floor.
Whoosh!
After passing through the familiar spatial transition, a different landscape unfolded before me.
A dimly lit space. Yet somehow, it felt familiar.
‘This place…’
I had been here before. Quite often, in fact.
Jung Han-sung sensed what this floor’s objective would be.
[Objective: Defeat 2 Ogres]
[Time Limit: 2 Hours]
‘As expected.’
The moment the objective materialized before my eyes, a massive emerald form revealed itself ahead.
This was no grand mission—simply a location that appeared when one needed to slay specific monsters.
‘In the beginning, it was almost entirely missions like this.’
But back then, I faced mere goblins and orcs, whereas now my opponent was an ogre.
That ogre, commonly called the tyrant of the forest.
“Grrrrgh.”
“Grrgh?”
The ogre that soon revealed itself was not quite as massive as the giants I had faced before, yet it was tremendously large, wielding an enormous club in its hands.
The ogres looked around before spotting me, and they grinned wickedly.
Their eyes gleamed like a predator that had found prey.
Or should I say, perhaps even more fearsome than a mere beast?
I returned their gaze with a smile of my own.
“A simple and clear objective—how excellent.”
Wasn’t this the perfect condition to test the performance of my newly acquired divine technique?
“Graaaaaagh!”
“Graaagh!”
The ogres interpreted my smile as provocation and immediately began charging forward with horrific roars.
Seeing their menacing forms, I remained unflustered and began channeling the divine technique.
‘Thunder energy…’
As I concentrated my consciousness, the qi that arose from my Qi Sea instantly transformed into a rough and destructive nature.
Crackle—!
A sound that should have been inaudible echoed throughout my body.
Like lightning, it surged through my meridians and swiftly spread across my entire frame.
Crack, crackle—!
At some point, the electrical force I could not contain within my body began leaking outward.
This was not the original effect of the divine technique, but rather a side effect arising from the overwhelming power of the thunder energy relative to my current proficiency level.
Yet it posed no particular problem.
The divine technique was already beginning to take effect.
“Graaaaaagh!”
The moment the ogre that had drawn near unleashed its club.
A crackling sound erupted from beneath my feet—!
Boom!
In the next instant, my body shot forward like an arrow released from a bow.
Crunch, crunch, crunch!
“Gaaahhhhh!”
The ogre, unable to react to that speed, let out a scream as it raised its club.
The ogre’s ankle was shredded as if a massive beast had torn into it.
But I did not stop.
Crash!
Arriving at the opposite wall in an instant, instead of stopping, I kicked off and rushed back the other way.
A blue afterimage trailed along the path of my movement.
To be precise, all the ogre could see was that afterimage.
Boom!
The ogre, which had bent forward from the pain in its ankle, was now sent flying in the opposite direction.
“Wh-what?”
The other ogre, still unharmed, wore a bewildered expression at the sight.
Its companion had suddenly cried out in agony and then been sent flying backward—confusion was only natural.
But that confusion quickly gave way to another emotion.
A blue flash suddenly appeared in its field of vision, hurtling toward it.
Crash—!
“Ugh!”
The ogre let out a final cry, its body trembling before it collapsed.
No matter how tenacious its vitality, there was nothing to be done when a blade pierced through the space between its brows.
“Not bad at all.”
The time it took to dispatch two ogres was merely a few minutes.
That alone was remarkable, but what was even more remarkable was that my energy consumption was far less than I had anticipated.
‘This is far superior to when I forcibly awakened my body using Indra’s lightning.’
That had been less like properly utilizing lightning and more like forcing it—a borrowed ability, after all.
By contrast, this felt as comfortable as wearing clothes tailored perfectly to fit.
Moreover, when I felled the first one, I had used the First Form of the Soul-Shattering Sword that the Heavenly Demon had taught me, and its destructive power far exceeded my expectations.
It seemed the compatibility between the Soul-Shattering Sword and my divine technique was exceptionally good.
My eyes sparkled with exhilaration.
[Floor 45 objective completed]
So when the objective completion message appeared before me, I spoke without hesitation.
“Next floor.”
This excitement was far too great to be satisfied by merely ascending one floor.
I pressed forward without pause.
[Floor 46 objective completed]
[Floor 47 objective completed]
[Floor 48 objective completed]
[Floor 49…]
Without pause, onward.
Meanwhile, a Community on Earth was struggling under the sudden surge of traffic flowing in at a staggering rate.
The cause was unmistakable.
―Am I seeing things right now?
―What’s with the ranking update??? Floors 45 through 48 have been completely overturned?
―Floor 49’s ranking is flipped too lol
―What’s this Floor 45 clear rank SSS grade??? Clear time is 1 minute 20 seconds??
―What is this? What is this? What is this?
―Is this Anonymous’s doing? Where did all those guys who called him washed up go?
The rankings were being overwritten in real time. Again.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————