The Returned Hunter Has Awakened to a Hidden Class - Chapter 71
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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71
Chapter 71
Zombie Apocalypse (8)
A translucent window appeared before Kim Jun’s eyes.
[Survived 7 days in the Zombie Apocalypse!]
[Calculating rewards…]
‘The reward is late.’
Kim Jun swung his blood-stained sword to shake it clean.
Rewards had always appeared simultaneously with mission completion.
Something was different.
‘This is the first time I’ve seen a “calculating” message.’
Perhaps the zombie kill count was so high that it was taking time for the system to tally it up.
Just as he was thinking that and waiting.
Ding-!
[Clear reward granted!]
[Instant Level Up +2]
[Coins acquired: 10,000]
“…Is that all?”
Kim Jun’s brow furrowed.
Level up by 2 and ten thousand coins.
It was definitely too little for a 27th Floor clear reward.
‘No matter how I think about it, this is strange.’
Of course, during the past 7 days of slaughtering zombies, he had already swept up tremendous coins and experience.
His level alone had already risen by 3.
But that was one thing, and the final clear reward was a separate matter.
‘For this level of difficulty, shouldn’t it be at least double?’
Kim Jun searched through his memories from before regression.
27th Floor.
Zombie Apocalypse.
Surely when he cleared this place…
‘…I can’t remember.’
It was natural.
Before regression, Kim Jun had climbed not only to the 100th Floor, but even to the Hell Layer hidden in the Basement of the Tower.
He had also conquered countless special side towers like the ‘Golden Tower Eldorado’ and ‘Eternal Labyrinth’.
He couldn’t possibly remember all the thousands of rewards obtained from hundreds of floors.
‘What I do remember is that I nearly died here.’
Before regression, Kim Jun had desperately hidden and barely endured 7 days.
He couldn’t even dream of slaughtering zombies like now.
‘Still, something feels off…’
The reward was too small.
This feeling like something was missing.
Just as he was thinking that.
Ding-!
[Hidden condition achieved!]
‘That’s right.’
Kim Jun’s gaze fixed on the window.
Hidden condition.
A message that only appeared when hidden conditions were achieved in the Tower.
His heart began beating rapidly.
What condition had he completed?
What reward would it give?
[You have cleared the 27th Floor through ‘slaughter’ rather than ‘survival’!]
[An ordinary Hunter would have hidden and endured for 7 days!]
[But you were different!]
[Zombie kill count: 4,180,247]
‘4 million?’
Kim Jun checked the number again.
4.18 million.
The number of zombies he had slaughtered over 7 days.
‘With this number…’
He had essentially swept away almost all the zombies that existed in this world.
[You acquire a hidden reward!]
Kim Jun’s eyes sharpened.
[Skill 「Death Reprieve EX」 acquired!]
‘…!’
Kim Jun’s eyes widened.
EX grade.
The moment he saw those two letters, a thrill ran through his entire body.
‘EX grade on the 27th Floor?’
The rarest grade in the Tower.
The ‘final’ grade in the system, existing even above SSS grade.
Of course, he already possessed EX-grade skills, but…he hadn’t expected to obtain one here.
‘Death Reprieve…’
Kim Jun slowly repeated the skill name.
It was a skill name he’d never heard before.
A completely new skill that he’d never heard of, not from his pre-regression self or any other Hunter.
‘Could it be.’
With trembling hands, he checked the Skill Information.
—-
[Skill Information]
—-
– Grade: EX
– Effect: When suffering fatal wounds that lead to death, you can reprieve death once for 24 hours.
.
.
.
—-
‘Hmm.’
—-
As the name clearly indicated, it was a skill that temporarily ‘reprieved’ death.
It meant it wasn’t complete resurrection.
Then what happens after 24 hours?
‘Do I end up dying anyway?’
Or does it mean to find a way to heal during that time?
‘Either way, it definitely gives an opportunity.’
But there was something he didn’t quite understand.
‘「Phoenix Feather」is SS grade, but.’
But there was something I didn’t quite understand.
‘The “Phoenix Feather” is SS-rank.’
An item obtained from the Golden Tower Eldorado.
It was a one-time use item that completely revived you once when you died.
Its grade was SS.
‘If completely reversing death is SS grade.’
There was no reason for this skill that merely delays death by 24 hours to be a higher EX grade.
There’s something more.
There must be something missing from the description.
‘Let me scroll down more.’
Kim Jun slowly scrolled down the skill window.
—-
.
.
.
– Skill Description : This skill was directly created by ▲▲▲(▲▲).
—-
‘▲▲▲?’
Another hidden phrase he hadn’t seen before his regression.
But what he’d seen before was squares (■■■), and this time it was triangles (▲▲▲).
‘That means it refers to a different entity.’
Kim Jun’s gaze deepened.
An entity that Kim Jun couldn’t yet perceive.
If it was a skill directly created by such an entity.
‘Perhaps the reason this skill is EX grade.’
Must be related to that hidden entity.
‘I should ask Adelaine first.’
Though her personality was a bit rough, there was no one in the Tower better at skill analysis than her.
Surely she would at least find some clues.
‘I should ask her once.’
Kim Jun closed the status window.
Only then did he notice his surroundings.
His companions were watching him from a short distance away.
They all looked exhausted from fighting together for 7 days.
‘We need to rest first.’
The “Undying Flower,” the final ingredient for the status ailment immunity potion, was on the 30th Floor.
Just 3 floors above from here.
They could get there quickly, but going in their current state would be pushing it.
The moment Kim Jun stepped forward to approach his companions.
“Ugh…”
Ryu Ji-a frowned and stepped backward.
“…?”
“Oppa, sorry but… the smell…”
Only then did he realize.
The terrible stench emanating from his body.
The smell of zombie blood and entrails accumulated over 7 days was soaked into his armor and skin.
Kim Jun looked down at himself.
Black blood had dried and hardened like armor.
Pieces of entrails were stuck here and there.
‘Was it this bad.’
He hadn’t noticed during combat.
“Haha…”
Lee Seo-yeon laughed awkwardly and turned her head away.
“Whew, hyung is even worse than me. Keueu. As expected, even your smell is on a different level! Hahahaha!”
Park Min-soo laughed while wrinkling his nose.
But seeing him also subtly step back, he seemed sincere.
Only Han Su-in was looking at Kim Jun with an expressionless face.
“….”
But she too was maintaining a slightly distant position.
‘…This is a bit hurtful.’
Kim Jun smiled bitterly.
His companions had also fought for 7 days, so they did smell.
But not as much as Kim Jun.
4.18 million zombies.
It was Kim Jun who had directly torn, slashed, and massacred most of them.
Though all the corpses had been burned away.
‘Somehow it seems the smell couldn’t be burned away.’
The stench soaked into his clothes and skin remained.
“Let’s go back.”
Kim Jun spoke up.
He needed to wash properly and maintain his equipment too.
And he had something to ask Adelaine about.
“Okay! Let’s go quickly!”
Ryu Ji-a cheered and shouted.
“Bifrost-Artemis.”
Park Min-soo used Bifrost first.
Blue light enveloped him and he disappeared instantly.
Following him, Ryu Ji-a and Lee Seo-yeon also activated Bifrost in turn and vanished.
Kim Jun hadn’t moved yet.
He slowly looked around.
The ruined city.
The Unknown Entity that had been smiling.
The 7-day battlefield.
And the EX-grade skill obtained here.
“…?”
Han Su-in looked at Kim Jun as if asking what he was doing.
An expression wondering why he was standing there instead of leaving.
“What are you looking at…?”
“Nothing, it’s nothing.”
Kim Jun shook his head.
‘Death Postponement…’
Though it was still a skill whose true nature he couldn’t understand.
Surely something important was hidden within it.
“I’ll go… first.”
“Alright.”
Han Su-in was also enveloped in light and disappeared.
Left alone, Kim Jun gazed around once more.
“Return-Artemis.”
Flash-!
returned to Artemis.
*
Western outskirts of Tebe.
Deep within a mine shrouded in darkness.
“Ugh… urgh…”
Faint groans could be heard.
In the darkness without a single candle.
But there was light.
Lunarium embedded in the mine walls was emitting a soft blue glow.
A rare ore used as enhancement material.
Recently, new tunnels were discovered here, and many hunters flocked to this mine.
But.
There were no hunters here now.
To be precise.
There were no living hunters.
Except for one who was about to die.
“P-please… spare me… please…”
A man crawling on the ground.
One of his arms had already been cleanly severed from the shoulder.
Blood had formed a puddle on the floor.
The blood spread to the Lunarium on the walls, staining the blue light red.
“You want to be spared?”
A low, cold voice.
A man in a black robe looked down at the man.
“P-please… just don’t… kill me…”
The man’s eyes were filled only with terror.
He had lived as a hunter and fought countless monsters.
He had overcome the brink of death several times.
But.
By another human.
By another hunter.
He never imagined he would be massacred so one-sidedly.
No, that he would be betrayed.
“You want to live?”
“Any-anything… anything… just give me orders…”
“Hmm.”
The man in the black robe stroked his chin.
In his hand was an old book.
“Really? Then listen.”
The man crouched down.
Meeting the man’s eye level.
“Tell me first how I can spare you.”
“…What?”
“Hm? You want to be spared, right? Then tell me how to spare you.”
“Wh-what kind of…”
An expression asking what kind of sense that made.
But the man was serious.
“Don’t know? Then there’s nothing I can do.”
Thud-!
The man closed the book.
“Hiiiek!”
The man screamed at that small sound.
He was so terrified that even trivial movements felt like terror.
The man slowly stood up.
He looked around.
Corpses scattered on the floor.
There seemed to be at least twenty.
All hunters who had been mining Lunarium in this mine.
“Hmm… I wonder if this is enough.”
The man muttered.
His gaze turned back to the man on the floor.
“Thanks to you. Thanks for guiding me here.”
“Wh-what do you…”
“Thank you.”
The man’s hand slowly rose.
“Nooo…!”
Crack-
A limp corpse collapsed to the floor.
At the same time.
Something began to happen with the corpses scattered around.
Faint forms.
Something translucent and writhing emerged from the mouths and noses of the corpses.
“Ooh…”
The man was amazed.
Those were ‘souls.’
The souls of the dead hunters.
And the power contained within them.
Whoosh-
The souls were sucked toward the man.
They enveloped his body and seeped in.
“Krrgh…”
The man’s body swelled up.
No, to be precise, his muscles were writhing and reconstructing.
Power flowed in.
Tremendous power.
Twenty hunters.
The abilities they had accumulated over their lifetimes.
Levels, stats, experience.
Everything was now becoming the man’s.
“Haha… hahahaha!”
The man burst into laughter.
How ecstatic this was.
How simple this was.
‘Why did I only realize this now?’
Killing monsters to level up.
Clearing dungeons and receiving rewards.
He thought that was the only way to grow stronger, little by little, slowly.
But.
“There was such an easy method all along.”
Just devour the hunters.
Just absorb their souls.
Penalty?
‘Something like giving up humanity?’
The man sneered.
What was so great about being human anyway.
Rather than living as a weak human, wouldn’t it be better to become a strong monster.
Swoosh-
The man spread his hand.
A black book materialized in his palm.
An old and weathered cover.
The title written on it.
「Forbidden Advancement Tome – Hunter Devourer」
“I’ve obtained something good.”
It didn’t matter ‘who’ had told him about it.
What mattered was that this book had opened a new path for him.
A hunter who hunts hunters.
A devourer.
“With this power…”
The man’s eyes changed.
Madness-tinged obsession flickered in those eyes.
“I’ll be able to catch up soon.”
One person’s face came to mind.
Cold and calculating eyes.
That man who had trampled and humiliated him.
“Kim Jun…”
As he muttered the name, rage boiled throughout his body.
Along with fear at the same time.
But now it was different.
With this power.
“Next time we meet.”
The man clenched his fist.
The power of twenty hunters writhed throughout his body.
“I’ll pluck out those eyes that always looked down on me.”
Muttering this, the man looked at his own shadow reflected on the mine wall.
A shadow distorted by Lunarium’s blue light.
“Ah, but first…”
Suddenly other faces flashed through his mind.
Guild members.
Those who had once followed him.
But after he had fled.
‘Those condescending looks.’
Mockery.
Ridicule.
Contempt.
“Right.”
A twisted smile spread across the man’s lips.
“I should devour my little ones first.”
Those bastards who had acted so arrogantly.
Those bastards who had mocked him, their guild leader.
Now it was their turn to become his nourishment.
“Just wait.”
The man walked toward the mine entrance.
Each step overflowed with confidence.
What was left behind.
Only the blue-glowing Lunarium.
And the corpses that had stained that light red.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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