The Reincarnated Hunter Sweeps Up All Fortunes - Chapter 46

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

Episode 46
46
Im Gang found himself pausing mid-thought.
Wasn’t this an Opportunity? They said a Guest received all manner of privileges, lavishing gift upon gift—if this wasn’t an Opportunity, what possibly could be?
The privileges were so abundant it felt dizzying. Small wonder doubt crept in like a whisper. Yet each time he verified the details, nothing appeared amiss.
Being no fool who’d refuse a feast, he accepted the position of Guest.
“Thank you for accepting our invitation as a Guest.”
Cho Hong withdrew a black coin from her sleeve.
“One final thing.”
“This is…?”
“A Black Coin, they call it—proof of your standing as a Guest.”
The Black Coin felt altogether different from ordinary currency, whether coins or silver ingots. It held a subtle weightiness, its surface flowing with a dark luster that caught the light with a faint blue-green shimmer depending on the angle.
‘What in the world is it made from?’
He tucked the Black Coin safely away and asked Cho Hong to exchange his silver for Promissory Notes.
“I anticipated this and came prepared.”
“Indeed.”
Cho Hong produced five Promissory Notes worth one hundred silver taels each and three worth ten taels, then laid an additional bundle atop the pile.
A single Promissory Note worth one thousand silver taels—a Guest’s privilege.
In other words, a finder’s fee.
Electricity crackled through him from heel to crown. The sensation was exquisite, like a sharp shock of lightning. In his past life too, he’d been unable to retire because of this very feeling. He’d died while still chasing it.
In any case.
Im Gang pressed his advantage and asked Cho Hong directly.
“May I take on a commission from Hao Wen now?”
“Right now… you mean?”
“Yes. Right now.”
……
Cho Hong’s tongue went slack before his formidable momentum, and she regarded him with bewildered eyes. Had she misspoken about the Guest’s privileges?
No—searching her memory, she’d explained it correctly. A Guest, unlike a Retainer, held no obligation to accept Hao Wen’s commissions.
“Ah, well… with no work of late, my body’s grown restless, you understand.”
The confession made him self-conscious, and he scratched his head. It wasn’t an excuse but the truth. Over a month without work, and at his age, with blood still hot, sitting idle felt like madness.
And surprisingly.
Cho Hong accepted the explanation. She tapped the table lightly with one finger—tap, tap-tap, tap—in a steady rhythm.
Before long, someone appeared carrying several thick ledgers.
Each one held a commission from Hao Wen.
As Cho Hong explained them, he narrowed his search to the region surrounding Hangzhou.
After eliminating what didn’t fit, one entry caught his eye.
“…This one.”
“Yes?”
“May I take this commission?”
Im Gang pointed to something on the page. Cho Hong’s brow creased, and when she glimpsed the commission he’d selected, her expression hardened.
—Investigation of the Secret Cave within Kuaiji Mountain, located in the southeast of Shaoxing Prefecture, Zhejiang Province.
“This… carries considerable danger.”
The Secret Cave was believed to have been constructed by some unknown person or faction. Twelve investigations had been conducted thus far, and not a soul who’d ventured inside had ever returned.
Whether they lived or died remained unknowable.
Because none had come back.
“Some collectors of curiosities claim its creator was an ancient emperor, while others insist it was King Goujian of Yue. Yet neither theory has gained acceptance as established fact.”
“I see.”
Nothing definitive had emerged, which explained the uncertainty.
Im Gang sketched the geography in his mind.
Kuaiji Mountain lay a few days’ journey southeast of Hangzhou.
Not far from the city, the roads were well maintained.
Once the snow cleared, the journey itself wouldn’t prove particularly treacherous.
In terms of distance, the burden seemed light.
‘The complete absence of information troubles me, though.’
The reason neither the ancient-emperor theory nor Goujian’s authorship had gained credence lay in a temporal gap of at least sixteen hundred years.
A Secret Cave built in those times could scarcely have survived intact to the present day.
Without constant maintenance, such structures couldn’t endure across centuries.
Weathering, moisture, fractures, moss, animals—nature labors patiently to dismantle what humanity builds.
For a Secret Cave from sixteen hundred years past to remain whole was near impossible.
‘It must have been built within the last century or two, at most—or mere decades, at minimum.’
Then who had made the Secret Cave? An utterly unknown realm. Which was precisely why Im Gang felt so drawn to it. And if he could pocket some treasure besides, it would be exhilarating.
To get straight to the point: it was exhilarating.
Just not in the way he’d expected.
“Intruder!”
“…What the—?”
Im Gang found himself playing tag with dozens of Demonic Beings.
Truly exhilarating.
…This had happened days later.
* * *
Let’s wind back the clock.
The moment the snow stopped, Im Gang set out for Kuaiji Mountain.
It was his first Dungeon in a long time, and anticipation thrummed through him.
Had he been a prophet or someone who possessed the future sight, he would have felt regret instead—but unfortunately, he lacked that particular ability.
The journey to Kuaiji Mountain proved uneventful. Though unmelted snow lay thick in places, the roads were well-maintained, and travel posed no great difficulty.
By carriage, heading steadily southeast, he arrived in a week.
When he reached the entrance to the Secret Cave, situated halfway up Kuaiji Mountain, the Hao Wen disciple who had served as his guide turned back.
“I wish you safe passage.”
“My thanks.”
Left alone, Im Gang surveyed his surroundings.
The terrain around the Secret Cave was steep.
One misplaced footfall meant tumbling down the slope with broken bones as a likely outcome.
No sign of human interference was visible. Yet there were countless ways to erase such traces.
And Cho Hong’s warning had been sobering.
—Without exception, none have returned.
Hao Wen alone had investigated the Secret Cave twelve times.
Including expeditions from other organizations, the number easily reached dozens.
Add in the vagrants seeking a fortune, and it had likely claimed hundreds. Yet Im Gang was confident.
Of course, that confidence was only possible because he didn’t know the future.
“Well then—let’s go in.”
A narrow gap between rocks.
An entrance so tight that a person with both arms outstretched could just barely touch either side.
Im Gang stepped through.
Fifteen minutes elapsed.
The interior of the Secret Cave was as beautiful as a natural grotto he’d once toured on some island in his past life, with not the slightest trace of artificial modification.
The moisture made it slippery, but spreading wet soil beneath his feet made it manageable.
‘…Sloping downward so gradually I can barely sense it with my senses.’
The passageway, continuous as a single thread, contained neither traps nor hidden corridors.
Thirty minutes elapsed.
Still nothing remarkable.
The natural cave was beautiful beyond compare.
Stalactites and stalagmites, born from water droplets falling from the ceiling due to moisture, dotted the passage, and mineral crystals that glimmered faintly when touched by the light of a Night Luminous Pearl sparkled in places.
‘This is far too natural a cave…’
Except for the gentle downward slope, it could easily have served as a tourist attraction.
Had Hao Wen not explicitly identified it as the Secret Cave, he would have doubted whether this was truly it.
A Secret Cave ought to bear some mark of artifice, after all.
One hour elapsed.
The passageway, which had been so narrow his outstretched arms could touch either wall, began to widen.
He walked at an easy, measured pace—neither fast nor slow. But as he was also refining his Movement Technique, his speed was that of a martial artist, not a common traveler.
He’d ventured quite deep by now.
Then, with one more step forward—
‘…An artificial trace.’
[You have entered the Dungeon ‘Labyrinth of No Return and No Retreat’.]
At the same moment, a notification appeared.
* * *
When Im Gang emerged from the Secret Cave, he found a suitable spot near the entrance to establish a campsite.
A place where a large boulder and trees shielded against the wind.
‘This will do nicely.’
He set down his pack and began in earnest to construct the camp. In his past life, he’d sustained himself inside Dungeons for as little as days or as long as months.
Any seasoned Awakened One could manage something as basic as camping.
He leveled the ground as much as possible, erected branches of suitable thickness into the earth, and spread cloth over them to create shelter. He weighed down the cloth’s edges with heavy stones to secure it, and laid dry leaves and grass across the ground beneath.
He built a campfire at the mouth of the completed tent.
“It’s been ages since I’ve camped in the middle of winter.”
He ate while staring into the flames. Having brought only preserved rations, the meal was bland—thin noodles would have tasted a hundred times better.
After attending to nature’s call and finishing his rest.
He was just about to re-enter the Secret Cave, thinking he should finish the investigation quickly and leave, when—
‘Hm?’
Im Gang’s feet came to an abrupt halt.
Someone was approaching this place. More than one. Easily a dozen or so.
It was strange.
According to Hao Wen’s intelligence, no one had been coming to investigate the Secret Cave lately.
Yet someone showed up today, of all times?
Of course.
It was possible.
If only these approaching figures hadn’t been radiating Demonic Energy.
‘Ah… the Demonic Cult again?’
Im Gang felt a deep sense of frustration wash over him.
Whether they’d followed him here because of the Exploding Demonic Army, or whether the Secret Cave itself was connected to the Demonic Cult, he couldn’t say—but either way, it wasn’t good news.
‘I need to get out of here first.’
Before he’d taken more than a few steps, he felt presences closing in from all directions.
It was as if some voice whispered: No, you won’t escape.
The hallucination—or was it?—seemed to drift from somewhere in the darkness.
A cold bead of sweat trickled down his spine.
Concealment… would be useless in this situation.
He’d made a campsite. Built a fire. Left smoke.
On a mountainside in the depths of winter, with everything wide open and snow blanketing the ground, it was even more pointless.
Every footstep left sound and traces in abundance.
There was only one answer.
To go deeper into the Secret Cave.
There was no time to gather his things. He left the campfire burning, the tent standing, and threw himself through the narrow opening at the cave entrance.
Using Divine Technique to accelerate, he nearly stumbled several times inside the cave.
His shoulder struck the tunnel wall. Water droplets falling from the ceiling struck his face. His feet slipped on the wet earth.
Yet somehow he kept his balance and kept running.
After passing through a Formation and running for some distance.
‘……?’
He arrived at a vast chamber—ceiling impossibly high, passages branching in all directions.
Several torches hung along the walls, their light spreading naturally and illuminating the entire cavern brightly. There was no need for a Night Luminous Pearl.
Im Gang stood stunned, looking around.
From one of the passages, a Demonic Being walked out leisurely.
“Haah… it’s about time for arrival…… what?”
“……?”
Their eyes met—Im Gang’s and the Demonic Being’s.
In an instant, the confused expression on the creature’s face brightened into a wide grin, and it screamed.
“…An intruder!”
“What? An intruder?”
“An intruder?! We have an intruder after all this time?!”
At that cry, one Demonic Being rushed out from one passage, two from another, three from the next—and they began pouring out in a steady stream.
One, two, three…
Im Gang tried to count them, then gave up.
Easily more than twenty were visible.
That was just what he could see.
How many more lurked deeper in those passages, he couldn’t say.
Eyes stained with blood-red light, wild with excitement, fixed upon him.
“……what?”
For a moment, Im Gang felt his mind go blank.
And that became the trigger.
“Heheheh! Get him!”
“A delicacy after so long!”
“Kekekeke……!”
The Demonic Beings rushed at Im Gang as one.

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