Chapter 24 (2/2)
At least ten stories high, the buildings were a little taller than the Whipper’s head.
“Throw!” Yoong-cheol commanded.
Three of the pairs standing on the same row of buildings each held on to a rope. Focusing Aura on their arms, they threw one end of the rope at their partners on the other rows of buildings.
Their aims were accurate. Their training was paying off.
As soon as their partners at the other end caught the rope, they all pulled down hard. Then, they slid down the walls of the building.
The Whipper screamed as the three ropes tore through its flesh. The rope was designed to vibrate and dig into the flesh of monsters.
Meanwhile, work was also taking place below.
“Go, go, go!”
With the first hunter who had been blowing the whistle, three hunters hiding on the ground appeared. Together with the six hunters holding ropes, they trapped the legs of the captured Whipper.
The Whipper tried to swing its tentacles as it screamed, but it was too late. The Alpha Team members were elites that had been carefully nurtured by QR.
Soon, they were done with subduing the Whipper.
Then, Yoong-cheol climbed to the Giant Whipper’s vital spot and sunk his sword in.
“Okay, that’s it!” he yelled and raised his hand in excitement.
“We’ve got the first one, guys. Let’s go for more. We can do this!” he said as he turned to his teammates.
That was when he noticed the weird expression on everyone’s face. Someone motioned for him to turn around, and he slowly did so.
That was when he noticed the shadow looming over him. He jumped off the first Whipper just as a tentacle landed where he had been.
Another Whipper, quite larger than the first, was behind them.
Jang landed hard on the ground and groaned in pain. He wondered how he had missed the massive Whipper.
The briefing had revealed the locations of the three Whippers.
They had gotten so immersed in the first Whipper that they hadn’t heard the arrival of another.
He groaned again as he watched the Whipper swing its tentacles.
“Jang Yoong-cheol!” a female hunter cried out.
He rolled out of the way before the tentacle reached the ground where he was.
“Run, guys,” he said as he stood up.
“Aren’t we supposed to go to get it?” the lady asked.
“Just run!”
If they had been calm enough to think things through, they would have been able to capture it.
There were still enough ropes. But their minds didn’t work that way. They began to panic.
The Whipper had appeared unexpectedly, and their team leader had worsened things by acting in a frenzy.
They ran towards the bus. The Whipper got to them in no time, using its tentacles to flip the car over before they could even get in.
The hunters changed directions towards an empty building. As they ran, Yoong-cheol tripped and fell.
A hunter turned back to help his leader, but when he saw the Whipper get close, he realized it was too late and ran back to the building, screaming.
Sure enough, the Whipper’s tentacles were already wrapped around Jang Yoong-cheol’s ankle. Anxiety filled Yoong-cheol. Only one thought filled his head.
A Whipper’s mouth was smaller than the size of a human adult.
Therefore, if Whipper wanted to eat him, it wouldn’t end with one bite.
The Whipper slowly lifted him.
Upside-down, he watched the distance between him and the ground increase. He felt his life leaving him already.
Suddenly, he caught the silhouette of a person from the corner of his eye.
In-yung, a hunter, soared through the air and landed on the Whipper’s body.
He gave the Whipper a heavy punch.
The next second, Yoong-cheol’s ankle was released, and he felt himself falling through the air. At the same time, he spotted Yoo-seong, too, soaring through the air and landing on the Whipper.
In-Yung and Yoo-seong each cut off a tentacle of the Whipper.
The Whipper let out a scream as Yoo-seong leaped off it to catch Yoong-cheol.
He came in contact with Yoong-cheol’s body just as his feet touched the ground.
Yoong-cheol, who couldn’t believe that he would live through the ordeal, almost threw up the moment he realized he was safe.
Before he could, though, he saw something that made his eyes widen.
The places where Yoo-seong and In-Yung had cut grew again in two-folds, releasing four new tentacles.
He wanted to warn Yoo-seong about what he saw, but he couldn’t get his lips to move coherently.
Thankfully, Yoo-seong noticed his motions and turned to see what he was pointing at.
He saw the tentacles coming at them, grabbed Yoong-cheol, and leaped towards the tentacles.
Yoong-cheol barely felt the impact of Yoo-seong’s landing on the tentacles. Before he could wonder what Yoo-seong was doing, something more surprising occurred,
Yoo-seong was running on the tentacles like a spider running on a wall.
After running for a while, he leaped off the Whipper’s body and landed on a power pole.
Then, he continued running up the pole.
The moment they reached the top of the pole, Yoo-seong leaped off it again, just as the Whipper’s tail crashed against them.
Yoo-seong landed on another tentacle and kept running.
His next leap took them towards a window on the seventh floor of a building. There almost made it, but a tentacle hit them, sending them flying through a window on the 6th floor instead.
Yoong-cheol was wounded in a couple of areas, but that was all.
Yoo-seong was still okay.
As they were trying to catch a breath, a tentacle came through the window, groping around the room. The Whipper was trying to find them.
Yoo-seong grabbed Yoong-cheol and led him out of the room.
They stopped at the corridor of the fifth floor, away from the Whipper’s tentacles.
“Stay calm. Inhale, exhale. Are you okay?” Yoo-seong said.
Only then was Jang Yoong-cheol able to speak.
“Thank… you…”
“Do you have any major injury? Sorry. I couldn’t completely avoid the Whipper.”
Yoo-seong took off his helmet. His face was full of sweat.
“I just… how the hell did you…”
“I learned it somewhere,” Yoo-seong said concisely.
Yoong-cheol wasn’t satisfied with the answer, but he let it go. There were bigger things to deal with.
“Team leader, are you okay?” The voice came from the communicator.
“Yes, I am. What about you, guys?”
“We’re safe too. We’re in a building. The Whipper can’t find us. But what are we going to do? The mission has gone awry. We didn’t even secure the first one properly. I fear the hunt is now over.”
“And I fear you’re correct. Now that there are two of them, we have no hope of defeating them.”
The sound of tentacles groping inside the building echoed in the hallway.
The first Whipper had broken free.
Now, the two of them were demolishing buildings, searching for their prey. The Alpha Team’s time was running out. Unless support came, they were going to die soon.
Jang Yoong-cheol groaned in frustration.
He knew how much their CEO, Yoon Kang-Cheol, had looked forward to them hunting in the central region.
His attention was drawn back by the sound from Yoo-seong’s helmet.
Yoo-seong had put it back on. He stood up and went towards the window.
“Hold on, rookie. Where are you going?”
“Outside.”
“Are you crazy?!”
“Yes. But I’m not about to give up like your team. I am an outsider. So, it’s different for me.”
Jang Yoong-cheol stared at him, confused. He hadn’t seen Yoo-seong’s video.
He had just heard that some impressive rookie had emerged. The rumors were everywhere in the industry.
He had thought the reason everyone was so impressed by Yoo-seong were the skills he had just shown.
Yoo-seong had saved his life, and that was great, indeed. However, there was no way a beginner would be able to catch the monsters outside.
He hadn’t been able to avoid the tentacle completely during their escape.
‘How could he face two of them?’
Yoong-cheol gripped the rookie’s shoulder.
“No, you can’t just-” he began, but Yoo-seong shrugged his hands off and continued walking towards a window.
“Hey, hey!” Jang Yoong-cheol shouted as he went after Yoo-seong.
The operation was already ruined – that was clear.
However, if the rookie got killed on his watch, he’d be on a whole new level of trouble.
Yoo-seong faced the window. He could see Whipper’s tentacles outside.
“Come back here! What are you doing? You were hit the last time. You’ll just get yourself killed!” Jang said from the door. He couldn’t get himself to move any further.
“You’re hiding well,” Yoo-seong said as he smiled at Jang Yoong-cheol.
The reason he had been hit by the Whipper the last time was simple: he hadn’t turned on Auto-Hunt.
He had wanted to fight with his abilities. He had saved Yoong-cheol and escaped the Whippers by himself.
He had been training in sweat and blood for the past two months for this moment.
He wanted to know how far he could go without the button.
He had gotten a great armor for the job.
Of course, he could always press the button when he needed to.
With a slight smile on his lips, Yoo-seong cracked his neck.
“When you do, you have to be sure,” Jang Yoong-cheol warned him.
For Yoo-seong, the tour was now over.
It was time for full-scale hunting.
-Press the button to auto-hunt.-