Carnivorous Hunter - Chapter 1

Prologue

In September 2018, the first inter-Korean and North Korea–United States summits were held. In October 2018, the Hanwha Eagles entered the autumn baseball league for the first time in 11 years. In November 2018, the girl group ‘NOAH’ that hit the entertainment industry in South Korea disbanded. At that time, there were only trivial and boring news stories like these.

Then came December 2018. There were holes in the sky, sea, and ground around the world, and from there, all kinds of monsters that could not exist in the world came out. It was as hard and unrealistic as Hanwha went up in the Korean baseball Series that year. The storm of war hit the earth. Tens of millions of people were killed or injured worldwide, and there were countless refugees and separated families. Some countries with strong military power quickly suppressed the situation by using powerful modern firepower but eventually fell to their knees before the increasingly scarce supplies and powerful enemies. Nuclear weapons were just useless. If they treat monsters in the world with nuclear weapons, there will be no place for humanity anywhere else in the world. Human beings were chased and forced to hide. Where people lived, famine, fear, and pseudo-religion were rampant. Eschatology gradually emerged. People felt like the end of the world was taking place.

In January 2022, the first awakener appeared. The counterattack of humanity has begun. They have started to knock down special-rated monsters, to whom modern firearms did not have any effect. Some called them superpowers, others called them awakeners, and the rest called them saviors. Their numbers increased gradually. In 2025, many awakeners joined forces to create a safe zone. When the safe area was declared, competent technical awakeners gradually invented new objects. Like a fantasy world, humanity began to adapt, and the world was divided into safe and non-safe zones.

Safety zones began to be called ‘Cities,’ and non-safety zones began to be called ‘Wilderness.’ People of the city began to enjoy the life of modern society like the aristocrats. In contrast, the wilderness people lived by the fear of anarchy, violence, and death by monsters. The reality was not as easy as the fantasy world, and the apocalypse was still impending.

Life in the wilderness (1)

October 2030. Seoul, the wilderness. Eight men were climbing the low ridge. On the side of the mountain path, ruined buildings were spread out. The man who was walking at the forefront paused and wiped his sweat. Their appearance was as hideous as that of a beggar. They were hunters who made a living by hunting for the beasts.

Kang Se-hyuk, the attack team leader and a person commonly called the awakener, looked back and asked.

“Are we still far away?”

“We’ll arrive soon,”

The man who was asked by Se-hyuk answered without hesitation.

“You said you were a regular, weren’t you?”

“Yes,”

“What’s your name?”

“I’m Sunwoo. Park Sunwoo,”

“Gosh. I’m trying to make a living, but it must be hard for you to risk your life every time,”

There was no answer this time. Sehyuk glanced at Sunwoo once and turned his head away. He was a young man with a strange atmosphere around him. Most of the wilderness life is like that, but his expressions and gestures seemed to lack vitality. His face appeared to possess the possibility of death, which gave him goosebumps. It was strange and unpleasant at the same time. Sunwoo is a lower-class awakener, but he is still an awakener. Ordinary people do not want to meet the awakeners. Even if they meet, ordinary people don’t irritate awakeners or try to get involved as much as they can, especially in this damn wilderness.

But why?

This man wasn’t uncomfortable with him, plus he didn’t care about his opinions. As if he wanted to do his job silently. Sehyuk complained about Sunwoo’s calmness.

“I’m nervous because the guide is an incompetent ordinary person,”

But unlike his tone of voice, he didn’t provoke Sunwoo more than that. He is a guide at a fairly high price. Certainly, it is better not to touch him because Sehyuk brought him here as a guide. Sehyuk walked and mumbled. An unthoughtful member of the team spoke to him.

“Brother, this is the guide recommended by the Node,”

“I know, son. That’s why I brought him here. Who do you treat like an idiot?”

“But it’s fascinating. It’s very rare for ordinary people to be a guide,”

“That is why I said I am nervous. Are you playing around with me now?”

Slap!

The team member grabbed the back of his head, which Sehyuk had struck with his hand. It was a team that worked together for several months. It was not a group with any such grand purpose. It was for hunting or training; It was to survive. It was a team to supply food for a village. It was natural for Sehyuk, the only awakener of the town, to come forward, and the team was in charge of the village’s livelihood. Their failure meant dozens of deaths. That is why Sehyuk participated even at a very young age.

“If you cross this bridge for about two kilometers, you’ll find the habitat of the yellow spider,”

“What? It’s not far from where we are trying to go. Then why are you going around?”

“Except for this road, it’s all a habitat for the beast. Uglyworms live, especially in ruins down there,”

“Oh, is that so?”

Sehyuk’s body stiffened at the word Uglyworm: a beast with a 13th level rating at a dangerous level. Uglyworm is almost like a reaper in the wilderness, living mainly in soft soil and hunting humans by making giant worm burrows underground. After his words, the conversation reduced considerably because no one wanted to die. Uglyworm was considered a medium-grade beast, but it even was particularly difficult to hunt for high-grade hunters.

Sunwoo opened his seat by saying, “Let’s take a break,” and hit a rotten tree with the sword he was holding. The tree crunched and broke, and he began to pull out something white, and that started to wriggle.

“It’s a broad-legged stag beetle caterpillar. Just put it in your mouth and chew it,”

“I’ve tried it before. You don’t have to explain everything,”

Even with the food, one never knows how long the journey will take. The team modestly accepted the caterpillar Sunwoo handed. After a bite, the texture felt wriggling and crunchy. When they frowned and bit hard, something popped out of their mouth, and the odor spread throughout. Jesus Christ. When Sehyuk turned to Sunwoo, he was mumbling something to himself with no expression. Sehyuk hinted at him.

“You eat well. Is it good?”

“Goblin’s poop will taste better,”

What a silly question. On Sunwoo’s face, Sehyuk grinned and picked up one again.

“Hey, you talk like you’ve tried it. Don’t say things that spoil your appetite. It tastes like a dog,”

“Yes, I’ve tried it,”

At that one word, the faces of all the party crumpled up as tough papers.

“It made me wonder if I had to live like this,”

It was a lame joke. Sehyuk put the caterpillar behind his neck with a look of boredom and then put another one in his mouth. Sehyuk, who filled his stomach and frowned, pulled out the larvae’s shell from his teeth with branches and glanced at the concrete mountain. There was deep sorrow in his eyes.

“The world has changed a lot. Hey, guide. Do you know what was down there?”

“…”

“If an adult asks, answer him. Down there was originally a big city with broadcasting stations,”

“It was a Digital Media City, but now there are only concrete mountains and debris left; it used to be quite a sight in the old days, though…”

The older man’s memories tasted as bitter as the larvae in his mouth. It was all the more so because it was a memory that he had no way to go back. When Sunwoo was 12 years old, great chaos broke out. He lived half his age before the chaos and the other half after the chaos. However, memories of the peaceful days already faded faintly. The beasts from all over the place, dying people, a living hell with no survivors among family, relatives, and everyone around him. Four years before the appearance of awakener was a continuation of the miserable life that he didn’t even want to recall.

“Let’s move,”

Sunwoo got up, and the party followed him. After about 30 more minutes of walking, a dense forest path appeared.

“Here we are. Don’t go deep. We have to hunt the one that sticks out,”

People began to prepare after they heard Sunwoo. Each held the weapons tightly in his hands and put strength on his eyes and body. Most weapons were wooden shields and hand axes. The party moved slowly. If it went too deep and two or more animals attacked together, then it would have been an end game. Sunwoo began his role as a guide in front of the hunting ground. The role of the guide is simple. Ensure that the attacking team is alive and able to hunt. And somehow bring the team back to where the team was. A good guide is a guide with a high rate of return.

“For the 19th-class bronze spider, you must first cut off its eight legs. Then you have to behead it and only take the body. The attacking method of the spider is the white thread coming out of the mouth and the two long front legs,”

“Understood,”

“Your head will fall off if it gets hit by a thread. Thread attack is the one that requires carefulness. And sometimes, when it is angry or shocked, it foams poison in the mouth, but it’s not a deadly poison, so you don’t have to worry about it,”

The 19th-class bronze spider. It had a spider’s name and characteristics, but its flesh tasted like a crab uniquely. Its upper body was tremendously large like a truck, and because its entire body was flesh, it was a main food source of the wilderness. Usually, it is up to urban researchers to distinguish the dangers of the beasts. Class 19 beast was the maximum that ordinary people could hunt, including the lowest class 20 for skilled adult men to hunt alone.

Since 20th-class beasts live in groups, it is easier to hunt them. Above that class, it was the domain of the awakeners.

Pschhh!

The slowly advancing party heard a sharp sound. At that instant, Sunwoo’s body moved quickly and pushed the body of the man standing still.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Sunwoo and the man who was pushed rolled on the floor, screaming. A ball of white thread was stuck like an arrow at where he was.

“It’s him!”

The 19th-class beast made its appearance. The body size of a 2.5-ton truck the spider was a very old one among the matured ones. Sunwoo rolled on the floor a few times and maintained a low position. A battle against the beast is something that is never acceptable, even after multiple times of battle. Even participating as a guide seemed scary. It was staring at the intruders with a ferocious aura surrounding it.

“Up, to position!”

At Sehyuk’s command, men surrounded the bronze spider. The majesty of a giant spider with black fur raised on the other end was enormous. Even the wilderness hunters who have been hunting for the beast were frightened about their survival.

“That is class 19…”

“…”

“You said you’d caught a Bead Salamander,”

“That’s…”

“It’s rather a gentleman compared to Bead Salamander,”

Curl-Curl-Curl

A strange noise came from the mouth of the bronze spider. It was almost at the same time that it opened its mouth, and Sunwoo shouted.

“Stay away!”

A glistening thread popped out of his mouth. At that moment, the standing man’s neck in the position of the thread exploded.