Chapter 1096 - 178 - 182

Chapter 178: Chapter 178

A certain village located in Ishikawa Prefecture.

The entrance of the village had been bustling with so many people since early morning that there wasn't enough space to walk through.

"What's going on? What is everyone out here for?"

One of the villagers, who hadn't heard of the news yet, looked around and asked his neighbours.

They should be quite busy with rebuilding their village right now, but for all these people to come out here like this? For this villager who had been working hard to remove the debris of a collapsed building, he couldn't help but be flustered by this new development.

"You see, the thing is…."

A kind auntie was about to explain the matter to this man and parted her lips. However, she spotted a vehicle revealing itself at the far end of the road that led to the village and pointed to it instead.

"Oh, my goodness!! There they are! They're coming!"

Noisy, noisy….

The villagers discovered the vehicle and began raising a fuss.

Seeing the light of excitement gleaming brightly within their eyes, the whole atmosphere of the place came across as if they were here to welcome a long-lost relative living in a faraway land or some such to the confused male villager.

'But then again, there's no way that this many people would share the same relative, so….'

The man used the towel around his neck to wipe the sweat away and looked on with a puzzled expression.

"I'm asking you, just who is coming here today?"

An uncle on the side couldn't endure it any longer and spoke in clear frustration.

"The Hunter-nim is coming today."

"Hunter-nim? Which Hunter-nim are you talking about?"

"Which Hunter-nim do you think I'm talking about here?"

When the vehicle got closer, the villagers raised their hands and welcomed it with all of their hearts. Their expressions all contained genuine happiness and gratitude.

'Could it be….?'

Only then did this villager realise just who was coming to pay a visit to this village. His head reflexively swivelled behind him.

And that was where he saw the wretched state of his village, currently half destroyed at the hands of the Giant monsters. He could also see resting tools and unmoving construction equipment brought on to rebuild the village here and there as well.

If no one stepped up to stop those Giant monsters, would any traces of his dear hometown have even survived like this? His home, filled with countless memories of his life, could have been wiped out without a trace.

'The schools I went to, the roads I walked on, and even the place I work for.'

When he thought like that, a certain emotion surged up from the deepest part of his heart. The end of his nose stung, too.

'That person is really coming here?'

Swish-!

His head swivelled back to the road.

The villagers gathering like this to welcome the Hunter was not something the higher-ups had organised, nor were they putting up a facade for the sake of others to see.

No, they were here because their hearts told them to do so. It was the thoughts of gratitude that made their legs move.

Before long, the male villager had taken the towel off his neck and swung it around in the air as he yelled out a loud cheer at the approaching vehicle.

"Waaaaah-!!"

Even though the top-end black van driving on the empty road was definitely brand-new, it looked as if it had gone through hellish terrain from the way it was covered in a thick layer of dust and mud. It now looked like it had been in use for at least ten years or so.

The words 'Japanese Hunter's Association' written on the number plate instead of the actual numbers were covered in so much mud that they became almost impossible to read.

The van's rough condition seemed to tell the story of the bitter, bloody battles it had witnessed in the last few days, and that in turn warmed and softened the hearts of the villagers. Those overflowing with rich emotions even began shedding tears, as well.

A short while later, the van driven with expert skill came to a stop in front of the crowd.

Screech.

"Waaaah!!"

"Hunter-nim!"

As he received the adulations of the crowd, the sunglasses-wearing Yu Jin-Ho exited from the driver's side of the van.

Tap.

Yu Jin-Ho made sure to wave his hands at each of the villagers rushing in to greet him. It was around then.

"Hunter-nim!"

An employee of the Japanese Hunter's Association waiting for Jin-Woo's group to arrive somehow managed to push through the throngs of people and stood before Yu Jin-Ho.

Pant, pant.

He bent over and panted heavily to catch his breath before standing upright to ask a question.

"Are you Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim?"

The Association employee was speaking in Japanese, but thankfully, Yu Jin-Ho could recognise a few of the words spoken just now.

"No."

He leisurely shook his head, before raising his finger and pointed at the sky.

��De-eol." (TL note at the end)

When he did…

Kiiaaahak!

….The Sky Dragon Kaisel screeched out a cheerful roar as if responding to his calling.

"W-what on earth is that?!"

"What? What??"

Didn't the old saying go 'once bitten, twice shy'? The villagers who had been living in fear of the Giant-type monsters saw the large black lifeform flying in the air and their shoulders all flinched greatly.

Fortunately for them, Kaisel simply remained circling above their heads and did nothing else.

Kiiiaaahhk!

The villagers finally recognised that Kaisel didn't mean any harm. They continued to look up with mystified eyes, although their expressions still displayed how scared they were.

It was then – a dark humanoid shape jumped off from the back of Kaisel.

Boom!

The villagers watched Jin-Woo land lightly on the ground by using his 'Ruler's Authority' skill and their collective eyes nearly fell out of their sockets.

"…."

Especially for the Association employee closest to Jin-Woo – he stood motionless while tightly holding the ends of his glasses, utterly unable to mutter a single thing out right now. So, Yu Jin-Ho spoke to Jin-Woo on his behalf, instead.

"Hyung-nim, this gentleman here was looking for you just now."

"Oh, really?"

Jin-Woo turned around and stood before the Association employee.

The latter belatedly regained his wits after seeing Jin-Woo approach him and quickly shook his head left and right. The higher-ups told him in no uncertain terms that he must never make a 'mistake' with this Hunter-nim.

The employee managed to shake off all distracting thoughts and formed a sombre expression before bowing his head.

"It's an honour, Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim. My name is Tanaka Hiroshi from the Japanese Hunter's Association, Kanazawa branch."

He raised his head and explained the purpose of him coming to greet the Korean duo like this.

"I am tasked with guiding you, Hunter-nim, during your visit here today. I'll be in your care."

Of course, every single word he spoke was in Japanese. Jin-Woo glanced at Yu Jin-Ho. The latter stared right back at the former without a word.

"…"

"…"

Jin-Woo saw the bright, happy-go-lucky smile on Yu Jin-Ho's face and spat out a long groan. He just realised that the kid had not one thought of wanting to understand a lick of Japanese.

Left with little choice, Jin-Woo summoned a Shadow Soldier who could act as a trusty Japanese interpreter.

'Oh, my king….'

Beru emerged out from the shadow and politely bowed his head. He finished greeting his Sovereign and turned around to face the Association employee.

'I shall take care of this man.'

'No, hang on. When you say that, it almost sounds like you meant something else and that kinda worries me….'

Jin-Woo must not be the only one thinking along that line, because not only the Association employee, even the gathered villagers saw Beru's imposing figure and their expressions were frozen solid right away.

"Human."

Beru walked over to the Association employee and addressed him while opening up his chest wide.

"What is it that you wish to convey to my liege?"

Gasps of astonishment simultaneously leaked out from the villagers watching on. Even Yu Jin-Ho was taken greatly by surprise as he also had never seen a Shadow Soldier talk before.

"Hyung-nim?? That guy could speak all along?!"

"Yeah."

Jin-Woo nodded his head.

The Japanese he spoke was so fluent that it wouldn't be a problem to think of Beru as a native speaker. As long as one discounted the monster-like, loud, ringing voice coming from him, that was.

'But, then again….'

Jin-Woo's head was suddenly filled with a thought that, as far as the number of people Beru had eaten was concerned, he had digested more Japanese than Koreans, so perhaps this should be seen as an inevitable result. For some reason, though, he felt a dull pulsing ache develop in his head and began slowly massaging his forehead.

Meanwhile, Beru exchanged a few words with the Association employee and turned around to address Jin-Woo next.

"Oh, my king. This human has been tasked with guiding you through this village. He swears to sincerely serve you to the best of his abilities, my liege."

"Okay, fine. By the way, just what did you tell him that the poor guy's face ended up completely white like that?"

"I warned him that, if he dares to resort to any underhanded schemes, I shall devour him in his entirety, from the tip of his toes all the way up to the ends of his hairs, oh, my king."

"…..Oh. I see."

What did it matter, anyway? As long as the intent had been communicated, it was fine.

The Association employee fearfully observed Beru now standing behind Jin-Woo and cautiously raised his voice.

"This way, please."

Jin-Woo found it rather unfortunate that the employee's complexion had paled to such a pitiable degree, and nodded his head.

"Alright."

Jin-Woo's group was led to an abandoned storage facility located somewhere within the village with the guidance of the employee.

There was no need for an entrance, as one of the walls in the storage facility had been blown cleanly away. The corpse of a Giant-type monster lying on its back could be seen within the ruined structure.

"It's over here."

The employee pointed to the corpse and stepped aside.

Jin-Woo walked closer and confirmed the status of the monster's remains.

The corpse was filled with clear signs of the bitter, harsh battle it went through with… And there were a countless number of bite marks which resulted in various wounds indicative of the monster having been eaten.

'Your boys…. Did they chow down on this thing?'

Jin-Woo looked back at Beru as his glare became a level sharper. The former ant king had bent his waist well before Jin-Woo even started looking back at him, his gaze firmly fixed to the ground.

Why was this? Why did Yu Jin-Ho picture a section chief stuck in his job seemingly forever kowtowing and currying favours with his department head when looking at the relationship between his hyung-nim and the ant creature?

Jin-Woo shifted his gaze back to the monster's corpse.

In all honesty, as long as some parts of the corpse remained intact, there was no problem with extracting the shadow.

'It's just that I feel a bit weird, that's all.'

Now that all living Giants within Japan had been eliminated, Jin-Woo was going around to find those remains of the monsters killed off by his soldiers so he could perform 'Shadow Extraction' on them.

As he immersed himself in this new task, he could easily tell which division had engaged which creature simply from the conditions of the monster corpses.

Pretty much all the monsters unlucky enough to run into the ant army couldn't avoid ending up in this pathetic sight.

"Fuu…"

Jin-Woo stared at the monster that probably had died while getting devoured by hundreds of ants and let a sigh leak out of his mouth. He then rolled his sleeves up.

He pointed towards the corpse. A dignified voice soon left Jin-Woo's lips.

"Rise up."

And then, this happened.

Didn't matter who it was, the tightly-packed gathering of villagers following after Jin-Woo gasped out in astonishment almost all at the same time.

Whoa-!!

Along with the distinctive scream, a Giant soldier, his body having recovered to full, emerged out from the shadow and knelt down on one knee before Jin-Woo.

Boom!

It was yet another success. As easy as they come. With this, he had gotten himself the 27th Giant soldier.

'I guess there are two left now, right?'

Jin-Woo looked up at the imposing-looking giant soldier and grinned brightly.

***

At the same time in South Korea.

Goh Gun-Hui was currently sifting through various TV channels with a remote inside his office, located in the Korean Hunter's Association.

No matter which broadcast he changed to, they were pretty much all dominated by the news of Jin-Woo's feat in Japan. However, this phenomenon wasn't happening only in Korea. It was the same story even with the international news channels, as well.

There was no doubt now that, through this incident, Hunter Seong had branded his name in the psyche of the entire world.

"Huhuh."

A bright smile remained etched on the face of the Association President Goh Gun-Hui as if he was the one experiencing this event.

What if he managed to dissuade Hunter Seong Jin-Woo that day when the young man declared his intentions of going to Japan….? Just thinking about that possibility made him shudder uncomfortably.

He almost ended up making the biggest mistake so late in his life.

The status of the Korean Hunter community had seen such a meteoric rise in fame through this incident that he simply had to thank Hunter Seong for willingly stepping forward like that.

All because of the actions of a single person, some are even openly saying that South Korea had become the new global Hunter superpower now.

That is why the Association President felt proud and happy at the feats Jin-Woo had achieved so far. However, there was one thing he felt quite worried about, and that would be….

"Association President, sir."

With good timing, Section Chief Woo Jin-Cheol knocked on the door and stepped into the president's office. He was a man who, by achieving back-to-back results early in his career, got to wear the title of the youngest-ever Section Chief.

He performed a light nod of his head as a greeting and made a report on the current situation.

"The monster has changed its course towards China, sir."

"Is that so?"

Now that was an unexpected change in the situation.

As Jin-Woo busied himself with killing the Giants in Japan, one of them escaped out into the sea. The creature had been heading into the Pacific, but the news of it completely changing course towards China was a bit of fresh shock to the Association President.

Goh Gun-Hui quickly asked.

"How are the Chinese responding to this situation?"

"We heard that Liu Zhigeng will personally step up, sir."

Goh Gun-Hui leaned his back against the couch.

"In that case, there should be no problems, then."

The Giant-type monster should be ripped to shreds even before setting a foot on the Chinese mainland now that Liu Zhigeng, one of the five most powerful Hunters in the world, had decided to get involved.

It was a big relief that the d*mn monster wasn't headed to South Korea when Hunter Seong was still absent from the country. Woo Jin-Cheol saw the relief in the Association President's face and also formed a smile as well, perhaps his own tense mind relaxing a little now.

His eyes then caught the TV screen.

The scenes of destroyed Japan, painfully sobbing and screaming Japanese people, as well as the ongoing rescue efforts and reconstruction work getting off the ground, were displayed one after the other.

"How unfortunate."

Woo Jin-Cheol clicked his tongue.

"Indeed, it is unfortunate….. Utterly so."

Goh Gun-Hui agreed with that simple but succinct assessment.

South Korea also had suffered similar pain four years ago back on Jeju Island. The wounds inflicted on that day still ran too deep to say that he had forgotten how painful it was. The reconstruction of Jeju Island was ongoing even as they spoke in this office, after all.

Goh Gun-Hui raised his voice again.

"However, someone's pain can also become someone else's ray of hope."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Do you know the reason why Japan, completely ruined after losing the war, had recovered to become the second most financially prosperous nation on Earth?"

"Wasn't that because of the Korean War?"

"That's right. Through wartime special procurement. And something similar is about to happen to our nation."

With a wry expression, Association President Goh Gun-Hui placed his hand on top of the thick pile of documents currently resting on the table.

"These are all quotation documents sent in by the local corporations wishing to get involved in Japan's restoration projects."

The Korean companies were quick to make their move. Some of them even sent in these documents as soon as Hunter Seong had left for Japan. All the other corporations should have finished with their preparations by now, as well.

'Someone's pain can become someone else's hope, is it….'

No, to be more correct, it'd be someone's profit, instead.

Having accurately understood what the Association President was implying just now, Woo Jin-Cheol also began forming a wry expression to mirror his boss.

Before long though, he quickly spoke as if he recalled something else just now.

"Ah, by the way, sir."

"Yeah?"

"The Japanese Association President Matsumoto has apparently handed himself over to police."

"He did what?"

Why would such a shameless man suddenly have a change of heart?

Goh Gun-Hui was about to discuss the details of that news, but then heard the ringing of the phone and reached out to it.

Ringgg… Ringgg…

He picked up the receiver only to be greeted by a rather urgent voice.

– "Association President, sir. It's me."

The voice belonged to his personal doctor. He should have been beyond busy dealing with patients rushing in at this time of the day, though.

Goh Gun-Hui could only tilt his head.

"My friend, what made you call me at this time of the day?"

– "I thought that the matter at hand was too important, so I was compelled to…."

"Too… important?"

Goh Gun-Hui's voice also became quite serious.

Several likely scenarios fleeted in and out of his head just then. However, his private doctor ended up mentioning a completely unexpected name, instead.

– "By any chance, were you aware of the condition Chairman Yu Myung-Han was in?"

Chairman Yu Myung-Han was one of the biggest contributors to the Korean Hunter's Association. He was even a personal acquaintance of Goh Gun-Hui, as well.

What had happened to him, then?

The Association President pressed for an answer, and the private doctor continued on with his explanation.

– "Chairman Yu Myung-Han has been admitted to our hospital earlier today, sir."

Goh Gun-Hui shot up from his seat.

"He's not in any critical danger, is he?"

– "It is truly unfortunate, but… there is not much we can do for him at this stage."

A heavy silence descended in the office.

The private doctor's voice, keeping silent for a moment or two, quietly continued on.

– "Chairman Yu Myung-Han, he has entered the 'final sleep' state."

Chapter 179: Chapter 179

The explosive flooding of phone calls from various TV stations and newspapers desperate for an interview with Hunter Seong Jin-Woo was so severe that it almost completely paralysed the Japanese Hunter's Association.

Ringgg…. ringgg…

"Hello, this is the Japanese Hunter's Associa…."

– "Excuse me, hi, I'm the guy who called you just now. How about this? Instead of an interview, just a couple of quick Q&A sessions with the Hunter?"

"Mister Director, that is the very definition of an interview!"

– "No, no, no! Hang on! How about, we don't show the face of the Hunter-nim and just the subtitles…."

"We already stated that the Hunter-nim has refused all filming and interview requests. I'm very sorry."

Click.

Ringgg…. ringgg…

"Yes, this is the Japanese Hunter's….."

– "This is the head of XX TV's news programming department speaking. I'm calling you about…."

"No means no, sir."

Click.

Such types of calls flooded in hundreds of times throughout the day, so it was only obvious that no normal work could get done under the circumstances.

The person in charge of the department tasked with answering calls began developing a migraine just from hearing the ringtones of a phone now.

However….

'This just goes to show that the interest of the mass media is focused on Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim currently.'

….It wasn't as if he couldn't understand their interest, either. Who'd not be interested in the story of one man solving a crisis that had destroyed almost 40% of the Japanese mainland?

Even he himself wanted to know more about who this Hunter Seong Jin-Woo was, and was also curious to hear what he had to say, too.

Still, that was that, and this was something else.

He was burdened with the immense weight of the duty that the title of employee of the Japanese Hunter's Association carried.

And currently, his duty was to respect and uphold the desire of Hunter Seong Jin-Woo who didn't want to do any interviews whatsoever, by shutting out in advance all forms of requests flooding in from the mass media companies.

'I can't let the saviour of my nation feel displeased, now can I?'

The manager nodded his head with a determined expression on his face. In the meantime, a hesitant newbie employee approached him to ask something.

"Excuse me…. Manager?"

Even before the newbie could say something, the man in charge cut him off right away.

"Just tell them no."

He didn't have to hear anything, really. Most likely, this newbie couldn't endure against the threats thrown around by some higher-ups in a TV station or a newspaper from somewhere and just wanted to get the manager's confirmation next.

Unfortunately, he was a bit off the mark this time.

"No, sir. It's not that, but we just got a call from South Korea."

"From Korea?"

"Yes, sir. A person calling himself Goh Gun-Hui from the Korean Hunter's Association wishes to speak to a person in charge."

The manager had been listening to the newbie with some amount of disinterest, but now, an expression of fluster quickly filled up his face.

"You sure it's Goh Gun-Hui?"

"Yes, sir."

There couldn't have been two different people with the name 'Goh Gun-Hui' in South Korea's Hunter's Association.

The whole world knew about the cordial cooperative relationship between Hunter Seong Jin-Woo and the Korean Hunter's Association. And wasn't it Goh Gun-Hui who announced Hunter Seong Jin-Woo's expedition to Japan live on TV?

The manager's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, before he hurriedly ran back to his desk while shouting at the top of his voice, thick veins now visibly bulging out on his neck.

"Let the call through!! Hurry up!"

"Ah, yes, sir."

"You're now speaking to the person in charge, Association President Goh Gun-Hui, sir."

The manager picked the receiver up half in doubt, but his expression gradually hardened as he listened to the fluent Japanese coming from the speaker.

"Yes, yes. I understand. Yes, I shall get in contact with them right away."

***

He'd never get tired of this sight no matter how many times he saw it.

"Hee-ya…."

Yu Jin-Ho was letting out yet another gasp of admiration today.

He felt deeply moved whenever he saw the scene of the giant black creature standing up from the Giant's corpse before kneeling down to swear his allegiance to his hyung-nim. It was like watching a scene from a movie or something.

'This is so cool, hyung-nim!'

Yu Jin-Ho's eyes sparkled in respect and admiration, but then, his ears picked up on the commotion raised by the shocked voices coming from behind.

"Whoa-!!"

"What the heck, how can something like that….?!"

"W-what's going on? What's this?"

Noisy, noisy….

He had seen this sight many times now and still couldn't get fully used to it, so how would these Japanese villagers seeing hyung-nim's ability for the first time feel right now?

He might not understand what they were talking about, but he could more or less guess the contents of their conversation. Yu Jin-Ho felt deeply flattered as if he was the one being talked about here.

"Ehem."

Yu Jin-Ho was standing around with a bit of a swollen ego for some reason, but then, an employee from the Japanese Association searching for the two Koreans approached closer and engaged him in a conversation.

"By any chance, are you Hunter-nim?"

"Ah, if you're looking for hyung-nim, he's over….."

When Yu Jin-Ho heard the word 'Hunter', he immediately pointed to Jin-Woo over yonder, but the employee quickly shook his head and pointed to the younger Korean man, instead.

"No, no. You."

Yu Jin-Ho blinked his eyes several times.

"Me?"

"Yes."

Yu Jin-Ho utilised his meagre English skills to reconfirm that it was indeed him the Japanese wanted, and quickly received a smartphone from the latter.

And then…. His expression gradually hardened as he listened to the call.

Until the call came to an end, Yu Jin-Ho simply repeated "Yes, yes" over and over again.

Jin-Woo finished up with storing the giant soldier in his shadow and left the damaged storage facility. Yu Jin-Ho quickly approached him as if waiting for this moment and lowered his head.

"I'm sorry, hyung-nim. Looks like I'll have to go back to Korea right away."

Seeing how serious Yu Jin-Ho's expression was, Jin-Woo couldn't help but ask.

"What happened?"

"I'm not too sure myself. It's just that, I've been told there's been an emergency at home and I need to go back immediately."

"…."

Jin-Woo shut his mouth. He could think of a reason already.

'Chairman Yu's illness….'

If his suspicion proved to be correct, then it was understandable why the caller was unable to provide much clarification over the phone to Yu Jin-Ho. How could anyone say to a son in another country that his father had fallen into a comatose state over a phone call?

So, Jin-Woo didn't inquire any further.

"Okay, got it. You worked hard until now."

"No, not at all, hyung-nim. I'm sorry about not sticking around until the end of this thing."

Yu Jin-Ho respectfully apologised one more time before climbing aboard the car the Japanese Association had provided. The driver turned the car around and set off towards the airport.

'...'

Jin-Woo wordlessly stared at the back of the departing car.

*

Yu Jin-Ho did his best to sound assured and relaxed in front of his hyung-nim, but in reality, he could barely keep his worries in check.

He could still recall his mom's voice on the phone. It was the first time that her warm and kind voice sounded so shaken like that.

'Just what had happened?'

His heart was pounding away madly right now.

Could it be, his father got really angry that his son hadn't asked for permission and blindly followed his hyung-nim to Japan, seemingly without a plan? Surely, no parent out there would welcome a foolish child willingly walking into a lion's den, now would there?

Yu Jin-Ho dazedly stared outside the car's window before shaking his head hard as if to clear out all the unnecessary stuff from his mind.

'No, I should not think about anything for the time being.'

He had no idea what was going on, so if he kept worrying about it right now, it'd only make his thoughts more complicated. As a matter of fact, it could be nothing serious, as well.

Until he landed back on the Incheon International Airport, he continued to carry such a hopeful thought, however tiny, in his heart.

Unfortunately for him…

"Yu Jin-Ho-gun." (TL note at the end)

….The moment he discovered the swollen eyes of Secretary Kim ahjussi coming to fetch him, he realised immediately that something really bad had happened.

"Ahjussi…."

"A car is waiting for you. For the time being, please come with me."

'….What's going on….'

Yu Jin-Ho so desperately wanted to ask that question. However, he was scared of the potential answer and couldn't mouth those three words.

"Please, hurry."

Secretary Kim pointed at the outside of the airport.

"Ah…."

For some reason, though, Yu Jin-Ho's feet didn't want to move from the spot. Perhaps understanding what was going through the young man's head, Secretary Kim placed his hand on Yu Jin-Ho's shoulder.

"Jin-Ho-gun…. You need to stay strong in times like these. I shall explain everything on our way."

Yu Jin-Ho's tears welled up from those words.

Secretary Kim explained Chairman Yu Myung-Han's current condition to Yu Jin-Ho as they rode on the car.

But, that couldn't be; Yu Jin-Ho desperately tried to reject Secretary Kim's explanations.

No, he didn't want to believe it.

Unfortunately, after arriving in the hospital – he had no choice but to believe when he saw his sleeping father's face through the glass wall partition. He remained still as if he was dead.

At the same time, it felt like something in his heart had shattered to pieces.

Seeing his father, who looked so mighty and imposing, lying there on the hospital bed looking so wane and weak, something hard and powerful welled up from deep within.

"Dad!!"

Yu Jin-Ho tried to rush into the hospital room, but the doctors quickly blocked his way.

The approach of a Hunter who couldn't control his magic energy leakage would only worsen the patient's condition. Hearing that explanation from the doctors, Yu Jin-Ho's expression became a person whose soul had abandoned him.

"So, that's how it was…."

He was a son who always disappointed his father. And now, he couldn't even hold his father's hand for one last time, too. Faced with such a fitting end for himself, he couldn't even shed a tear anymore.

"I see. I've been a completely useless son, even till the end."

Yu Jin-Ho turned on his heels in dejection. But then, Secretary Kim approached him and handed over a black leather-bound case file.

"What… is this?"

Yu Jin-Ho weakly raised his head up after receiving this unknown file. Secretary Kim calmly explained himself.

"This is the item the Chairman was working on before he collapsed, actually. I've kept it with me in case he searched for it after waking up, but…. But, I thought that you might need it more than I do, Jin-Ho-gun."

"This…. you think so?"

Yu Jin-Ho alternated his gaze between Secretary Kim and the file. Eventually, he cautiously opened it.

It was a scrapbook filled with newspaper clippings.

Every single page was packed full of articles from various newspapers containing either his older brother Yu Jin-Seong or his older sister Yu Jin-Hui.

'From father to son.'

Yu Jin-Ho wondered just from where he got this habit of cutting out and keeping the newspaper articles he liked, but it seemed that he got it from his father.

'To think, he had this kind of a hobby….'

Even when stewing in sorrow, a grin still managed to squeak out as he looked at his brother and sister when they were young kids.

Both of them were the pride of his father.

In all sorts of academic competitions, talent contests and concours – they were geniuses that made their names known throughout the country in their favourite subjects.

It was rather obvious that this scrapbook would be filled with articles related to the two of them. As he flipped through the pages, Yu Jin-Ho grew more and more embarrassed by the fact that not a single photo of him could be found within.

However, just as he flipped to the last page, his hands came to an abrupt stop.

[The Vice Chair of Ah-Jin Guild: Who is Yu Jin-Ho?]

[Two Hunters heading off to Japan.]

[The choice of a rank D Hunter: Is it bravery or foolhardiness?]

There were articles containing his name. Even those meaningless gossip pieces didn't escape his father's attention and found themselves cut out and pasted carefully within the page.

"Uh….."

No words wanted to come out of Yu Jin-Ho's mouth.

While he stood there like that, a newspaper article that hadn't been fully cropped out fell to the floor. He hurriedly bent down to the floor and picked it up, only for the tears to stream down from his eyes.

It was an article containing the photo of himself beaming brightly to the camera. That was taken when, after Jin-Woo killed the boss-level Giant monster, he refused all filming and interview requests from the countless reporters flooding into the location, so Yu Jin-Ho stepped up as the stand-in, instead.

The article was dated today.

Secretary Kim squeezed Yu Jin-Ho's shoulder and spoke.

"It's not true that Chairman Yu never loved you, Jin-Ho-gun. As great as his love for you, he also held equally great expectations of you."

Yu Jin-Ho wordlessly sat there, his shoulders shuddering uncontrollably as he cried. He somehow managed to calm his aching heart and stood back up.

"Dad… Is there any way to wake my father up?"

Secretary Kim shook his head with a darkened complexion.

There was no officially known case of patients opening their eyes again after entering the 'final sleep' state. With the sole exception of one person, that was.

Secretary Kim's thoughts arrived there and spoke up with some difficulty.

"By any chance… Yu Jin-Ho-gun?"

"Yes?"

"…..No, it's nothing. Don't mind me."

However, Secretary Kim couldn't bring himself to say what was on his mind.

Planting a seed of hope when things were uncertain could prove to be even crueler in some cases. And now would be such a time.

Yu Jin-Ho continued to shed long, hard tears as he looked at his father through the glass wall, while Secretary Kim silently swallowed back what he initially wanted to say.

And the conversation they shared was silently listened in on by Yu Jin-Ho's shadow.

Chapter 180: Chapter 180

"For the time being, let me accompany you back to your home."

"…Alright."

Yu Jin-Ho left the hospital room of his father, Chairman Yu, with Secretary Kim a little while later.

But, just before the door to this special hospital room closed shut, a portion of the shadow beneath Yu Jin-Ho's feet separated away and slipped inside the room. No one witnessed this strange phenomenon happen.

Tak.

The door closed shut and the light within the room automatically switched off. And time continued to tick by like this.

When the hour became late and no more people came around to visit this room, a 'shadow' sneaked out from underneath Chairman Yu's bed.

Shururuk…

Then, an ant soldier emerged from this shadow. He quietly looked around the room and discovered the sleeping Chairman Yu.

What sort of delicious open buffet was this?

Kiieehk.

The ant soldier fixed his gaze on the Chairman Yu and began drooling avariciously, but too bad for him, he got rapidly sucked into the shadow and was replaced by Jin-Woo.

That was the effect of the skill 'Shadow Exchange'.

Jin-Woo already had cloaked himself with 'Stealth' even before activating the exchange. Now that he was here, he took a careful look around the hospital room.

There was no source of light to be found inside and, as a result, it was completely dark in the room, but with his Perception Stat having reached such an extreme peak, he could see just fine as if this was in the middle of the day.

Jin-Woo's eyes gleamed coldly in the darkness as he finished searching for the presence of security cameras in the room.

'Looks like it's clean.'

The only people nearby were four guards manning the door from the outside.

As long as there was no event of Chairman Yu Myung-Han suddenly waking up and start yelling at the top of his lungs, Jin-Woo's presence wouldn't be detected at all.

Feeling sure of this conclusion, he undid his 'Stealth'.

Shuuuk…

His once-transparent body revealed its faint outer line before gradually regaining its original colour.

There was a reason why Jin-Woo was being doubly, triply cautious like this. Because he should not carelessly reveal the existence of the item called 'Divine Water of Life' to anyone. That's what he thought.

Not too long ago, Chairman Yu presented him with a blank cheque. That was not all. He even promised to fulfil whatever Jin-Woo wished for as long as it was within his powers.

Did he offer all those juicy terms because he was a kind-hearted gentleman? Of course not.

No way such a thing was true.

He was a man who stood at the apex of the cutthroat corporate world where one could only survive by coldly calculating their gains and losses.

He was also a naturally-gifted businessman who even managed to turn a small corporation he inherited from his parents into one of the biggest conglomerates in the entire world.

He should be fully aware of the true worth of something that 'can heal the illness he's suffering from'. And that was his reason for offering up everything he could realistically put on the table.

However, not everyone in this world was as gentlemanly in conduct as Chairman Yu. Desperation could sometimes become a motive that caused one to make rash decisions.

Meaning, it was for the best not to create a potential source of trouble.

That was Jin-Woo's reason for concealing the existence of the 'Divine Water of Life' to the best of his abilities.

Even if he was the father of the kid he thought of as his little brother, Jin-Woo wasn't naïve enough to risk unknown dangers that may or may not occur in the future for the sake of Chairman Yu, someone whom he didn't know all that well, to begin with.

'Well, there wouldn't be that many naïve fools out there who bring out an item like 'Divine Water of Life' just because someone asked them to….'

So, he waited quietly for the best timing to make his move, and finally, that moment had arrived.

It wasn't as if Chairman Yu's life would negatively be affected or he'd suffer from some after-effects just because the treatment came about a little later.

If Jin-Woo were to think about those who might be getting a raw deal out of this, then it'd only be the shareholders who quickly got rid of all their shares related with Yujin Corporation after hearing about Chairman Yu's collapse.

'Is this why people say investing in stock markets is pretty much the case of 'all or nothing'?'

Jin-Woo smirked to himself and accessed his Inventory to retrieve one of the five remaining bottles of the 'Divine Water of Life'.

With the usage of this one bottle, he'd had four more left.

He knew exactly what it was like to lose one's parent through this illness. So, he felt that using this bottle for Yu Jin-Ho's sake was not a loss to him in the slightest.

'That kid, why did have to he go and cry like that? Making me feel all bad and stuff.'

Jin-Woo carefully raised the upper torso of Chairman Yu Myung-Han, opened his lips, and slowly poured in the 'Divine Water of Life'.

Very slowly, and only a small amount at a time.

However, Chairman Yu must've known that this item was the sole lifeline capable of saving him, because he gulped the Water down rather commendably well.

"Cough."

The bottle became empty in no time at all.

Jin-Woo lowered Chairman Yu's upper torso back on the bed and returned the empty bottle to his Inventory.

Just like how he remembered with his mother's case, the colour of vitality returned to Chairman Yu's complexion very quickly. Even his faint, weakly-beating heart gradually picked up pace, as well.

Jin-Woo nodded his head in satisfaction.

'It's done.'

The medicine was working perfectly.

The only remaining thing would be to escape from this room before Chairman Yu Myung-Han wakes up and leave not one trace of himself behind. Jin-Woo reactivated 'Stealth' and stood before the room's door.

Wuiiing…

"Huh?"

"What's this?"

The door could only be opened by pressing an electronic button either on the outside or inside, yet it automatically opened up by itself, so the guards quickly fell into a state of panic.

"Huh?!?!"

Before long, though, they spotted Chairman Yu through the glass wall.

An event dozens of times – no, make that hundreds and thousands of times – more shocking than the door opening up was unfolding inside the hospital room.

The guards all discovered Chairman Yu sitting upright on the bed and their eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

"Huh? Uh??"

"C-Chairman has… woken up?!"

Guards stood there completely frozen as if they had seen a ghost, before one of them regained his wits and loudly yelled out, veins on his neck visibly bulging in the process.

"Doctor!! Where is a doctorrrrr!!"

Excluding one guard who ran to elsewhere in search of a doctor, the rest quickly rushed inside the hospital room.

"Mister Chairman!"

"Are you alright?"

Yu Myung-Han formed a refreshed expression of someone just waking up from a good, long rest and took a look at the guards.

"Why are you people raising such a fuss here? Besides all that, who are you people, anyway?"

"S-sir, we're…."

"No, wait."

Yu Myung-Han cut into the guard's reply, and took a good look around his surroundings first. And he found himself in the VIP hospital room designed to accommodate a victim of the Eternal Sleep.

He easily recognised this place, because it was he who had prepared this room soon after learning of his own terminal condition.

'Which means, I….'

Could he really have?

"….Did I collapse, but somehow woke up again?"

Wuuiiing…

Chairman Yu Myung-Han's head quickly swivelled in the direction of that sound. He watched through the glass wall the electronic door slowly closing shut by itself.

***

Ting!

The elevator's door slid open.

Jin-Woo wordlessly stared at the cordon of doctors rushing in from the other end of the corridor as if they were gathering storm clouds before climbing into the empty elevator.

Now that he thought about it, wasn't Yu Jin-Ho's birthday at the end of this month?

'I know it's a bit early, but well, happy birthday, Jin-Ho.'

His father's full recovery – Jin-Woo thought that it might prove to be the best birthday gift for Yu Jin-Ho as he pressed the button for the ground floor.

Click.

An ahjussi belatedly climbed into the elevator and was about to press the same button as well, but he stopped after seeing the light come on all by itself.

"What the…? That's spooky."

Jin-Woo was still cloaked with 'Stealth' so the interior of the elevator looked empty. The ahjussi gruntled out 'Urgh, dang it' after taking a look around and quickly left the elevator altogether.

'My bad, ahjussi.'

Jin-Woo apologised from deep within his heart and pressed the 'close door' button.

Clunk…

As the elevator began climbing down, he confirmed his skill window.

'Skill information.'

[Skill: Shadow Exchange Lv.2]

Class-specific skill.

Mana required to activate: None.

The summoner can switch locations with the designated Shadow Soldier.

Once activated, you must wait two hours of 'cooldown' time before being able to use the skill again. The 'cooldown' period will change according to the Skill's level.

Remaining cooldown time: 01:54:11

'Still one hour and 54 minutes left….'

Even if he disregarded the 11 seconds, he still had roughly two hours left to kill.

He hadn't finished with the task of extracting shadows yet. Meaning, he still needed to go back to Japan one more time if he were to seek out the remaining dead Giants and turn them into Shadow Soldiers.

He did leave a shadow on standby there, so the issue of travelling back would be resolved as soon as Shadow Exchange's cooldown time had elapsed. But his current problem would be with how he'd go about spending the next two hours of waiting.

'Going home…. is out of the question.'

Her son came back home after over a week spent in another country, so what kind of expression would his mom make if he had to leave again only a couple of hours later?

He didn't have to be there to know.

Ting!

The elevator stopped on the ground floor and opened its door.

Even as he stepped out of the Seoul Ilsin Hospital's front entrance, Jin-Woo continued to agonise over what he should next, but then, a rather nice idea popped up in his head.

'Okay, should I search for an ownerless dungeon or something?'

Jin-Woo undid 'Stealth' and greatly extended out his sensory perception.

His senses picked up four or five Gates near his location. He pulled out his Hunter-issued smartphone and accessed the Association's app to confirm the details on those Gates.

'….Found you.'

Jin-Woo found out that two of those Gates weren't reported to the Association yet. A meaningful smile formed on Jin-Woo's face right away.

***

"Miss. We've arrived."

"Thank you, driver."

Chairman Yu Myung-Han's eldest daughter, Yu Jin-Hui, was returning to the hospital after escorting her nearly-fainted mother back home. She stepped out from the chauffeur-driven car's back seat.

She felt as if the heavens were crashing down on her the day she learned of her father slowly dying from that illness.

Even then, she unreservedly believed her father's words.

["I'm still searching through all avenues for a cure. I seemed to have found a strand of hope, so do not worry about me too much."]

If someone else declared oh-so-proudly that he'd cure this incurable illness, Yu Jin-Hui would flat out not believe that man.

However, just who was her father?

Was he not the one and only Chairman Yu Myung-Han, the man who could legitimately be called the top dog in South Korea's financial world?

That was why she held on to that slim strand of hope, but in the end, things had become like this. If only she knew things would end up this way. She'd have thrown away all notions of studying abroad and spent more time with her father, instead.

She recalled him doing his best to hide his loneliness when she told him about her plans to study abroad and quietly wiped her tears away.

It was around then.

As she raised her head, her eyes briefly caught the sight of a rather familiar face walking past her.

'…Uh? This man….'

Hadn't she seen that face often before?

As she began wondering where she had seen him, the man also must've sensed her gaze, because he pulled the hood down even further and rapidly distanced himself from her.

She stared at the man's back and tilted her head just a little, before resuming her walk. The identity of that man was not an important issue to her, anyway.

Yu Jin-Hui anxiously waited for the elevator's door to open up. But then, her phone suddenly issued out loud ringtones.

Ringggg, ringgg…

With the hour being so late already, the corridors of the hospital were mostly empty now and the ringtone sounded especially loud to her ears.

She didn't recognise the number shown on the screen. She usually wouldn't answer a call from an unfamiliar number like this, but now….

'Who could this be….?'

Perhaps because she had been experiencing a storm of events for the whole day, she got this feeling that she should answer this call no matter what.

Yu Jin-Hui tapped the 'Answer' icon and pressed the phone to her ear.

"Hello?"

– "Yes, hello. I'm calling from Seoul Ilsin Hospital, miss. I couldn't get in touch with your mother and had no choice but to contact you first."

Her mother had taken a shot of sedative and had fallen asleep at home, so she wouldn't be able to wake up and answer the phone now.

But, why was the hospital calling her like this? Yu Jin-Hui instantly became scared by this call made by the doctor in charge.

That was why she was extra cautious when asking back.

"Did something happen?"

– "Actually, Chairman Yu Myung-Han has…."

As she heard the ensuing explanation, her eyes grew as large and round as a rabbit's.

This had to be a lie.

'You, you expect me to believe that?!'

Her eyes were getting wetter and wetter but she still managed to ask that one last question.

"You… are you telling me the truth??"

– "We also would not have believed it's real if it weren't for confirming the fact with our own eyes. It's pretty much impossible to find any patient waking up from the 'final sleep' state, you see. In any case, please hurry and come to the hospital, miss. We do not know when the Chairman might fall back asleep again."

"H-hang on! I'm already there!"

Ting!

With excellent timing, the elevator opened its door and Yu Jin-Hui practically threw herself inside.

Oh my god.

'Really…. Truly??'

These few minutes the elevator took to climb up felt like the longest moments in her entire life so far.

Ting.

The moment the door opened, she rushed out and entered the hospital room – and was greeted by the sight of her father's face shifting towards her.

From the top of his head right down to the tip of his toes, he was definitely her father and there was no need to even suspect otherwise.

"Dad!!"

Yu Myung-Han, currently surrounded by a cordon of doctors, turned his head towards his little girl.

"Jin-Hui….?"

"Dad!"

She jumped into his embrace and as Yu Myung-Han gently patted her back, he finally realised that he had returned from death's doorstep somehow.

'I'm alive.'

However, could he really describe this as a coincidence?

While the cordon of doctors in charge responded with whispers of "It's a miracle", and with his daughter sobbing her eyes out as she clung to her dad, Yu Myung-Han began focusing on the sounds of his own beating heart.

'B-but…. How could this be??'

Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump!!

He was already well past his fifties, yet his heart was pounding away vigorously as if he was still in his twenties, instead.

Chapter 181: Chapter 181

Sure enough….

One of the doctors in charge, who proceeded to check and observe Yu Myung-Han's condition throughout the night, continued to tilt his head this way and that while staring into the medical chart containing the good Chairman's test results.

"How can any of this make sense….."

Yu Myung-Han saw the expression on the doctor's face and cautiously asked.

"Are my results that bad?"

The doctor hurriedly waved his hand around.

"Ahh, no, it's not that, sir. It's the complete opposite, in fact."

He resumed staring back at the results as if to bore a hole through the paper and carefully asked his question some time later.

"Chairman, by any chance, have you taken your high blood pressure medication before taking these tests?"

Only up until last night, he was hanging precariously on the edge of death. He might be awake now, but that didn't mean Yu Myung-Han had the spare mental capacity to take his meds on time.

"No, I haven't."

Yu Myung-Han shook his head.

The doctor nodded his as if he knew that answer was coming. Then, he formed a troubled expression as he made his reply.

"Even without the medication, your blood pressure seems to have completely stabilised to a healthy level. No, wait. With your current level, you could even confidently say that you're even healthier than a regular person, sir."

Chairman Yu Myung-Han's eyes grew really large then.

'What on earth is he talking about??'

He thought that only death awaited him after entering the 'final sleep' state, but after waking up, even the chronic high blood pressure he'd been suffering from for a long time had all been cured away??

The doctor in charge continued to read the medical chart.

"And also, the rest of your bodily functions have reverted back to being perfectly healthy as well. Chairman, if I were to forget about your current age, then I'd have believed that I was looking at a test result from a young man in his early twenties."

How could such a thing even happen?

As great was Chairman Yu Myung-Han's surprise, the doctor's own astonishment was even greater and he struggled to hide that fact from showing up on his expression. His own two eyes definitely saw the results, yet he could hardly believe them even then.

Chairman Yu collapsed for the first time a few weeks ago and was brought to this hospital back then. The results of tests taken on that day were printed on a separate medical chart, and the ink on that thing barely had the chance to dry properly yet.

So, how could anyone go about explaining this completely befuddling test result coming out only a few weeks later?

Did he drastically change his lifestyle or some such during that time period? Not to forget, he was wasting away from an incurable illness only a night before, too.

The doctor in charge confessed what was in his mind without holding back.

"I've been a doctor for 30 years or so, but this would be my very first time something like this has happened. This… this can only be described as a miracle and nothing else."

A patient woke up from the 'final sleep' state of the Eternal Sleep disorder, and on top of that, his body had become even healthier than when he went to sleep, too.

Didn't the word 'miracle' exist precisely to describe a situation such as this one right here?

The doctor couldn't hide his astonishment anymore and let a soft gasp of admiration escape from his mouth before a bright smile bloomed on his face.

"Congratulations, Chairman Yu. Your Eternal Sleep disorder has been cured completely."

He then added that the Chairman was healthy enough to start running the length of a full marathon course right now if he wanted to.

However…

'.….'

Instead of celebrating, Yu Myung-Han pondered something for a while before raising his head to look at the doctor.

"By any chance, are there cameras installed near the hospital room I've been staying at?"

"Pardon? I don't understand what….."

"There is something I'd like to confirm first. Are there any cameras installed inside the room or around the entrance itself?"

"There are none within the room, but there should be one by its entrance."

'Very good.'

Yu Myung-Han nodded his head.

'Something like this can not be a coincidence.'

Indeed, this matter had gone far beyond treating it as pure coincidence now. There was little doubt that someone possessing an unfathomable ability had intervened in this matter somehow.

And he had a fairly good hunch who that someone might be.

'I've ended up owing him a great deal.'

Yu Myung-Han had lived without owing anyone in his entire life. And he wasn't planning to start now. But then again, how was he supposed to go about paying the debt of saving his life?

No, more than that. Putting aside the idea of paying or not paying the debt, wouldn't it be a common sense to at least find out the name of his saviour first?

Yu Myung-Han wished to confirm that personally.

"I'd like to view the footage from the CCTV cameras taken last night."

***

Quite obviously, the cameras failed to capture anything.

"Right here. This is the only odd thing that happened, the doorway malfunctioning this one time."

The guard pointed at the screen and explained what happened back then. The windows were confirmed to be locked from the inside, so the sole exit left in that hospital room was the doorway.

However, all four guards manning the door said the same thing. They said that not even a single ant had entered the room during their watch. And since these guys were professionals hired from a dedicated security company, they wouldn't make mistakes regarding such things.

"H-mm…."

Yu Myung-Han couldn't have imagined that Jin-Woo possessed the skill 'Stealth' and so, his thoughts had become quite complicated as a result.

Around this time, Secretary Kim hurriedly entered the security room as well to bring some news.

"Chairman. I've found out what you asked for."

"Alright. What's the news?"

"That is…."

Secretary Kim became extra mindful of the surrounding eyes and ears, leaned in closer and cupped his hand on Yu Myung-Han's ear to whisper his findings.

"I lodged an inquiry to the Association, and they say Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim was in Japan the whole time. He's only scheduled to return to the country around tomorrow or so."

"….."

Here he was, thinking that no one else would be capable of making this event happen unless it was Hunter Seong Jin-Woo himself.

Yu Myung-Han finally admitted to making a wrong guess. He now realised that it couldn't have been that young rank S Hunter.

'If so, then why….'

Even though he had confirmed through all this evidence, why did a certain amount of suspicion remain rooted in the corner of his heart?

He just couldn't understand it at all.

However, there was one thing Chairman Yu Myung-Han and Jin-Woo had in common. And that would be – they were rather decisive in moving on when stuck with a quandary they couldn't solve just yet.

"I see."

Yu Myung-Han carried on.

"The doctor says I'm healthy enough to even run a marathon right now. I shall return to the company tomorrow so make the appropriate arrangements, please."

One could say that this was more like him.

Having realised that the attitude of Yu Myung-Han was still the same as before, Secretary Kim barely held back his laughter and replied.

"Sir. Do you know what the mass media is calling you right now?"

It was obvious that there would be quite a bit of chaos unfolding outside right about now, since a guy who was as good as dead only yesterday had gotten back up on his feet perfectly fine.

However, why would such a thing be treated as something big?

Yu Myung-Han asked without a single noticeable change in his expression.

"What are they calling me this time?"

"The Invincible, sir. They are calling you the Invincible."

"The Invincible, is it?"

Yu Myung-Han wouldn't break out into a smile that easily over anything but even then, the corners of his lips arched up ever so slightly after he heard that nickname.

'Invincible'.

Mass media had been calling him with useless labels like 'Hand of Midas' or even 'Pokerface' but rather surprisingly, they managed to cook up a somewhat okay-sounding nickname this time.

"Huhuh."

Yu Myung-Han slowly chewed on this new nickname and formed a satisfied smile.

"The Invincible, is it. The Invincible…."

Didn't this nickname suit him perfectly, when he had never bowed down regardless of the obstacle blocking his path and even managed to survive the threat of a deadly illness?

Yu Myung-Han gratefully accepted this second chance at life and smiled contentedly.

"I really like that one."

***

While Korea was set abuzz with the news of Chairman Yu Myung-Han…

Jin-Woo had sneaked back into Japan and eventually, succeeded in gathering all 29 Giant Shadow Soldiers.

'Finally….'

Feeling legit emotional right now, Jin-Woo made the giant soldiers line up starting from No.1 to No.29.

The process of searching for the remains of the giants to extract new soldiers reminded him of a certain video game. But the fruit of his hard labour so far was monumentally tastier than any video game's quests and he even kind of felt apologetic for thinking of comparing the two in the first place.

The Giant Shadow Soldier No.29.

Looking at the imposing figures of twenty-nine giants with black smokes constantly rising up from their bodies standing tall before him, Jin-Woo felt as if he had gained a whole new army of thousand troops and warhorses.

'It's a bit of a shame that one of them escaped from my grasp, but….'

Excluding the one guarding the Gate, the total of the Giant-type monsters emerging from there was thirty. One of them had escaped to the ocean and it was not possible to extract its shadow anymore.

Still, the sense of accomplishment welled up from deep within his heart now that he had successfully gathered up all 29 of them. And with them standing tall and proud in a single location like this, the ruined cityscape suddenly felt rather full all of a sudden.

Of course, Jin-Woo didn't summon all of his giant soldiers out just so he could decorate this empty city, nor was he admiring his new Giant soldier collection, either.

He scanned the Giant soldiers and addressed them.

"Who among you are the strongest?"

There was a need to find the one soldier among the giants that could serve as the leader to control the others, just like how Beru did with the ant battalion, Igrit with the elite soldier battalion, and Fangs with the High Orc battalion.

The Giant soldiers busily looked around at each other and didn't want to step up. Beru standing by the side couldn't endure this sight any longer, so he stepped forward and screeched out loudly.

Kiiiiiieeeehk-!!

The shoulders of the Giants all flinched greatly at that powerful screech seemingly vicious enough to rip the atmosphere in shreds.

But then again, there were a few of them who got killed by Beru, and even if others were lucky enough to avoid that fate, they should still sense the clear gap in power between him and them. It was quite understandable why they would be scared of him.

Kiieehk!

Only after receiving that hot, harsh scolding from Beru did one of the Giant soldiers hesitantly raise his hand.

Beru turned around and bowed to his Sovereign. Jin-Woo raised his thumb up high, feeling quite impressed.

"Nice work."

But then, this happened. Something both Jin-Woo and Beru didn't expect unfolded next.

Another Giant soldier watched the hand of his compatriot raise up and quickly raised his own, as well. The glint in his eyes even said, "Regardless of what, I'm better than that guy".

"Ohhh."

As it turned out, the soldiers weren't hesitating and waiting for others to make a move first but simply that, they didn't know who was the strongest among them until now.

Jin-Woo smirked a little at this unexpected situation and called those two out to the front.

"No.22 and No.6, to the front."

No.6 and his unusually large fists, and No.22 with an overall sturdier-looking frame strode forward valiantly.

Jin-Woo's eyes narrowed to a slit.

'H-mm…."

Just like the assertions of these two soldiers, their individual quantities of magic energy were quite similar to each other. Even Jin-Woo's excellent sensory perception had a hard time telling them apart.

Now that the matter had come to this, there was only one way to solve it. Jin-Woo grinned brightly.

"I'm sure both of you are ready, right?"

No.6 and No.22 stood facing each other. Their eyes were practically shooting out flames born from their powerful desires not to yield, no matter what.

"Start!"

As soon as Jin-Woo gave his signal, the two giant soldiers entered into a messy dogfight.

Boom! Thud!! Bang!!

At the end of a lengthy fight, No.6 and his big fist managed to beat No.22 down by a paper-thin margin of victory.

"Nice work. From here on, No.6 will be appointed as the leader of the Giant soldier battalion."

The big-fist Giant raised both of his fists high up in the air, prompting the other Shadow Soldiers watching to cheer on loudly as well.

'So, that's the issue of the Giants' leader all sorted out.'

With this, Jin-Woo had finally concluded all the business he had in Japan. He then summoned out his Status Window next.

'Stat Window.'

Along with the familiar mechanical beep of "Tti-ring", walls of texts and numbers rose up to fill his view.

Name: Seong Jin-Woo

Level: 122

Class: Shadow Sovereign

Title: Demon Hunter (extra 2)

HP: 65,230

MP: 115,160

Tiredness: 0

[Stat]

Strength: 292

Stamina: 281

Agility: 305

Intelligence: 310

Perception: 277

(Available points to distribute: 0)

Reduction in physical damage: 65%

[Skills]

Passive Skills

– (Unknown) Lv. MAX

– Tenacity Lv. 1

– Master of Shortsword Lv. MAX (TL: Changing this one from "Master of Dagger to Master of Shortsword)

Active Skills

– Quicksilver Lv. MAX

– Intimidation Lv. 2

– Violent Slash Lv. MAX

– Dagger Rush Lv. MAX

– Stealth Lv. 2

– Ruler's Authority Lv. MAX

[Class-specific Skills]

Active Skills

– Shadow Extraction Lv. 2

– Shadow Storage Lv. 2

– Sovereign's Territory Lv. 2

– Shadow Exchange Lv. 2

[Equipped Items]

Red Knight's Helm (S)

Demon Sovereign's Earrings (S)

Demon Sovereign's Necklace (S)

Demon Sovereign's Ring (S)

Truth Seeker's Shirt (A)

Truth Seeker's Gloves (A)

Truth Seeker's Pants (A)

Truth Seeker's Shoes (A)

The outcome of his Japanese expedition was all too easy to see. His Stat values that had gone through the roof like crazy were the first things to catch his gaze.

Every one of his Stats was now hovering near the 300 mark, while the Intelligence Stat had shot past that number a while ago after receiving his concerted investment for arguably the longest time out of the lot.

All these were the results of receiving the rewards from the Daily Quests he always made sure to complete every day, the level-ups he got after hunting down the Giant monsters, as well as from the defensive artefacts he bought from the Store after completely exhausting his stack of Gold.

'The Truth Seeker armament set.'

Up until now, he didn't care much for any of the available items in the Store. However, he had no clue how strong the other Sovereigns and the Rulers were – the ones the angel statue and the King of Giants mentioned.

And he figured that he might need some kind of tools to protect him in case he ran into them somewhere along the line.

'The King of Giants, almost half a corpse from his powers being sealed away like that, was already that powerful. So, it's more than likely others will also possess truly monstrous levels of strength.'

Jin-Woo recalled those six-winged angels he 'met' inside the memories of the Shadow Sovereign. If he were planning to fight them head-on as well, then he simply had to become much stronger.

His gaze shifted up from the list of equipped items back up to where his level was listed.

[Level: 122]

Just killing one Sovereign resulted in his level jumping up by eight in one go.

He couldn't even begin to imagine just how far he'd get to climb up once he started fighting against these Sovereigns or whatever they were called.

Ba-thump!

His chest was pounding.

It was from fear.

And hidden just beneath that fear – he also could pick up on the throbbing of his heart from excitement, too.

'I shall level up.'

And all the power earned through levelling up, it'd become the bedrock, the foundation, and the support in his effort to protect everything he held dear.

His heart pulsed powerfully once more.

Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump!

The symphony of two hearts powerfully beating at the same time was enough to cause a dull aching pain within his ear canals.

However, this pain felt pleasant to him, instead.

'Good.'

Jin-Woo sensed someone's approach and stored all of his Shadow Soldiers back into his shadow.

Tatatatatata-!!

In a spot not too far from where he was, the Japanese Association helicopter coming to fetch him was making its noisy landing.

For the time being, he'd go home first.

Feeling genuinely happy now, Jin-Woo climbed aboard the helicopter.

Chapter 182: Chapter 182

The Japanese government offered up a suite in a five-star luxury hotel for Jin-Woo so he could rest in comfort until his departure from the country.

He was planning to use 'Shadow Exchange' to go back rather than waste time waiting for a plane, so he was thinking of refusing their gesture of goodwill.

But then…

"Please, help us to avoid the fate of being labelled as people who had poorly received the saviour of their nation. We beg of you, Hunter-nim."

….But then, he ended up changing his mind after hearing the desperate plea of the Japanese government.

The very first impression he got after stepping into the hotel suite that reputedly cost over $3,500 per night was, 'Is it really okay for me to spend a night alone in such a huge and luxurious room?'

Jin-Woo studied the gleaming furniture that sparkled brightly as if they were purchased only yesterday, before walking over to the window to look outside.

This allowed him to take in the sight of the cityscape all at once.

He heard from somewhere that the better the view, the higher the real estate price would get. And as expected, the view of the city draped in the darkness of the night was as arresting as the exorbitant price the suite had alluded to.

'And to think, such a city was about to go up in flames by a bunch of monsters.'

Jin-Woo recalled the sight of the ruined city of Tokyo and tutted to himself. In fact, he felt relieved that he got here just in time before things could get even worse for Japan.

'….Let's just go to sleep.'

After a few nights spent camping outdoors, this one night spent in the hotel proved to be rather bloody fantastic.

***

Next morning.

His departure time neared and employees from the Japanese Hunter's Association came to escort him.

"Good day to you, Hunter-nim."

The Association employee tasked with guiding Jin-Woo greeted him using fluent Korean.

"We have readied the vehicle that will take you to the airport."

What excellent timing it was since he was beginning to feel bored, staying cooped up in the hotel room. Jin-Woo went and picked up his bag that had been discarded in the corner of the suite somewhere and returned to the door.

"Let's get going right away."

"Heok!"

Just as Jin-Woo was about to leave the suite, the employee saw the state he was in currently and formed a flustered expression.

"H-Hunter-nim…. By any chance, don't you have any other set of clothing with you?"

It wasn't as if Jin-Woo couldn't understand where this reaction of the employee was coming from. Blood and sweat stained both his shirts and pants, serving as clear evidence of the intense battles he had gone through during the last few days.

'I was trying to be as careful as possible, though….'

From the get-go, it was plainly impossible to evade every single drop of the massive quantity of blood spewing out from bodies of the Giants. Since the rest of his clothes were in a similarly sorry state, all he could do was to helplessly shrug his shoulders as his reply.

The employee suddenly broke out in a grin and politely made his inquiry.

"If it's alright with you, may we be permitted to prepare an extra set of clothing for you to wear?"

That was one of the better suggestions he heard the whole day.

There was no reason for him to walk around with blood-stained clothes like this, and also, he hadn't done anything wrong either so he was disinclined to sneak around like some kind of a criminal, too.

The employee figured out Jin-Woo's answer from his brightened expression and spoke up with a smile.

"We'll have them ready right away. Please wait here for a little while longer."

The extra clothing must've been prepared in advance, because it didn't even take ten minutes after the end of the employee's phone call for several men to hurriedly rush in to the suite carrying many business suits.

'Already?!'

Jin-Woo formed a bit of a suspicious expression, which prompted the employee to answer with a happy smile.

"We thought that something like this might happen, so we had them ready in advance."

Jin-Woo watched as the business suits were sorted into different colours and sizes in an instant, and somehow managed to keep the gasps of astonishment to himself.

For something that was prepared 'just in case', wasn't this just all too well organised?

"If you need anything else besides your clothes…."

Jin-Woo quickly shook his hands around.

"Nonono, it's alright."

The services he received so far had already been amply satisfactory. He could already see that the Japanese Hunter's Association was trying to do their utmost best here.

Jin-Woo scanned the displayed business suits before picking the one that seemed to fit his size. After swapping out his duds, he stood before the mirror to take a look.

Maybe because all the prepared suits were high-end items, he came across as a completely new person.

'Hey, don't I look pretty cool like this?'

A smile automatically bloomed on his face. He fixed the ends of the suit and turned around. The Association employee who panicked earlier about the lack of other apparels began gasping out in sighs of admiration.

"Those look very good on you, Hunter-nim."

"Let's be on our way now."

"Understood. Our staff members will carry your luggage for you, Hunter-nim."

Two burly Association employees strode in as if they were waiting for this moment and picked up Jin-Woo's stuff.

He could sense the Japanese Hunter's Association���s desire to make sure that he wouldn't even need to lift a finger from their extremely considerate treatment. He was still treated like royalty even when walking out from the front entrance of the 5-star luxury hotel.

And soon, the black sedan carrying Jin-Woo headed off towards the airport.

***

When he got near the airport's vicinity, Jin-Woo began realising why the Japanese Association was so particularly mindful of taking care of his appearance.

Because he could see throngs upon throngs of people outside the moving car's window. And there were even more people beyond them.

"…"

Jin-Woo became utterly speechless and silently stared outside, while the Association employee spoke to him in a clearly excited voice.

"Everyone gathered here today all wanted to see you at least once before you depart, Hunter-nim."

One couldn't even argue that this sea of people was forcibly organised either, as there were simply too many of them for that.

"Just how many people have shown up here today?"

"It's not an exact amount, but we estimate over one hundred thousand, Hunter-nim."

"That many….?"

The vehicle carrying Jin-Woo quietly glided along the road that had been cordoned off tightly. When they went around a corner, there was just as big a crowd of people, no, maybe even bigger than before, waiting to greet Jin-Woo's car.

"Seong Hunter-nim, you're a hero that saved Japan."

"…."

From Jin-Woo's perspective, he simply did what he was capable of doing. However, what he did was not something anyone else could do. No, only he was capable of doing it.

The Japanese people had no choice but to shiver in despair after seeing the Giant-type monsters through TV broadcasts, from social media, or even with their own eyes.

No one wanted to help out with the national-level crisis unfolding in Japan. Instead, they all opined in one voice that the country was now doomed.

But then, from their neighbouring nation, South Korea – the man who could possibly be more famous than the country's own president, the leader of the Korean Hunter's Association, Goh Gun-Hui, made an announcement which reached the ears of the despairing Japanese people.

["There is one such person. There is one Hunter who wishes to go to Japan and get rid of the Giant monsters."]

Countless Japanese watching the press conference live held their breaths and focused on their TV screens.

["Just who is this Hunter?"]

After the reporter asked that question, Association President Goh Gun-Hui pressed his lips as close to the microphone and made his reply.

["It's Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim."]

It was an already well-known fact that Jin-Woo had killed off every one of the rank S ant monsters occupying Jeju Island all by himself.

The three letters of 'Seong Jin-Woo' coming out from Association President Goh Gun-Hui's lips caused much upheaval within the entirety of Japan. For the Japanese people, Jin-Woo was their sole ray of hope.

And a week later.

Just as he promised before setting off from Korea, Jin-Woo had completely annihilated the Giant monsters from the Japanese mainland and was about to step on the road back home.

Perhaps it was inevitable that the countless Japanese had gathered to see him one last time.

The Association employee explained that, if it weren't for the country going through the chaos of cleaning up the affected areas, even more people would have turned up today.

He then added this bit at the end.

"Honestly speaking, our Prime Minister also dearly wishes to meet you to express his gratitude as well, Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim. May we impose on you for that small matter for a little while?"

The expression of the Association employee was much more serious than ever before. Jin-Woo could easily guess the amount of pressure from the higher-ups this guy must be under.

Unfortunately, what he didn't want to do initially, he still wasn't interested in doing it, even now. Jin-Woo answered in the same way as he did when he was asked the first time.

"I don't want to waste my time doing something unnecessary."

The Association employee ended up laughing out after witnessing Jin-Woo's direct attitude and nodded his head in understanding.

"Haha… I understand."

As they continued to make small talk over this and that, the vehicle carrying them had eventually arrived at the airport's entrance. As usual, Jin-Woo calmly exited from the car and stepped on to the pavement.

But, in that exact moment, he was showered by the outpouring of passionate hand claps coming from everywhere.

Jin-Woo looked around at the gathered crowd.

"Hunter-nim!"

"Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim!"

He couldn't understand anything they were saying to him, but then again, every one of the lights gleaming in their eyes, their voices, and their gestures helped him to overcome the language barrier altogether.

Their bottomless gratitude and respect were transmitted in the air and he could sense them all.

Beru, watching this spectacle from within his shadow, quickly engaged him in a chat.

'Oh, my king. Your loyal subjects are expressing their genuine adulation and awe towards you, my liege.'

'It's not like that.'

'Oh my king, perhaps it is for the best that you wave your hand and acknowledge your subjects….'

'Hey. I said it's not like that.'

Where did this guy see and learn all this weird stuff from?

Jin-Woo was about to ignore Beru's advice and turn around, but then, he stopped in his treks to ask his ant soldier a question.

'By the way, do other ants enjoy it when you, you know, acknowledge them, as you said?'

Beru replied in a very proud voice. As a matter of fact, if he was standing outside the shadow right now, he'd definitely have formed a commanding, imposing expression, too.

'But, of course, my king.'

That was to be expected, though. Beru did possess a skill that raised up the morale of the ant soldiers with nothing but his screech, after all.

Jin-Woo nodded his head. All these people came to see him off, so was there a reason not to greet them back, which was something even an ant could do?

Jin-Woo stopped and turned around towards the crowd again. He hesitated and awkwardly raised his left hand, before waving it around at the people watching him.

The sounds of clapping became even more energetic and they were soon accompanied by the loud cheers, as well.

Clap, clap, clap, clap!

Only then did he notice that the Association employee tasked with guiding him vigorously clapping hands as well. The edges of the man's eyes were even reddening up with emotions, too.

"Thank you!"

"Thank you very much, Hunter-nim!"

"We're grateful for everything!"

The Association employee's nose had reddened by this point as well, and he addressed Jin-Woo as he wiped the edges of his eyes with the sleeves of his shirt.

"Let us get going, Hunter-nim. The plane should be leaving soon."

Jin-Woo slowly lowered his hand.

Even then, the sound of clapping didn't cease. They continued on and on, even as his back disappeared from the view of the gathered crowd.

The plane carrying Jin-Woo taxied off amidst the sending-off of over hundred thousand people.

Next day.

A certain well-known Japanese columnist wrote and published these words.

If the top leader of their nation were chosen through nothing but the support from its citizens, then they would have seen their very first non-native Prime Minister elected on that day.

***

In the opulent mansion owned by one of the five Special Authority-rank Hunters, Christopher Reid.

He suddenly woke up in the middle of the night.

The cause? The noises from the surroundings.

As one of the very best Hunters acknowledged by the world, he'd not be able to fall asleep even for a single day if he were to mind every little noise he could hear.

And that was precisely it. He didn't wake up because it was too noisy around him. No, it was the exact opposite.

'Why is it so quiet around here?'

All sorts of ambient noises he could hear if he concentrated just a little were gone as if they were all a lie, to begin with.

He kicked off from his bed and opened the bedroom door. He couldn't pick up on the presence of several hired help who should've been located in various spots of the mansion.

As if he had entered an abandoned house, there was this deeply creepy and eerie atmosphere permeating in the air.

Christopher Reid wordlessly stared at the empty corridor, before walking over to grab a wine glass left on the table and came back to the doorway. And then, he threw it in the corridor.

The wine glass left his hand and drew a gentle arc in the air, before hitting the floor to shatter into bits and pieces.

However, there were no sounds still. Not even one.

At that moment, a powerful chill crawled up his spine. He realised that something that could not happen had happened.

His sharpened senses were sending out warning bells. They were warning him that he was now facing the kind of danger he had never experienced before. His instincts strongly advised him to make a certain action, right now.

He quickly moved away from the doorway. He ran to the bedside bureau to pick up his mobile phone resting on top, and at the same time, he yanked open one of its drawers. There was a piece of crumpled paper resting silently within.

These words were written on its surface.

– If you need help, please call this number. The President of the Korean Hunter's Association Goh Gun-Hui will connect you to that man.

The deputy director of the Hunter Bureau left behind that note with the steward before leaving.

Christopher Reid learned of this fact a bit later and flew directly into a rage. He was thinking of disposing of the note right away, but then, he couldn't bring himself to do so after the worried face of Madam Selner kept lingering on in his mind for some reason.

'Did the Madam actually predict a moment like this would come?!'

He didn't know the answer to that. But, if he wanted to find out, he needed to survive first.

Christopher Reid quickly flipped the note over. The Association President Goh Gun-Hui's phone number was written on the back. Apparently, the Korean man was fluent in English. So, there shouldn't be an issue with the language barrier here.

As soon as Christopher Reid made this call, he'd get the help from Mister Seong.

'....'

He was rather certain of reading the obituary of that Korean Hunter a couple of days after the fool flew to Japan. After all, it did seem like the boy had overestimated himself a bit there.

However, Christopher Reid's thoughts went through a very quick change after watching the feats of the summoned creatures that guy controlled. The skillset possessed by Mister Seong was indeed all real.

Madam Selner did tell him this before.

["Hunter Seong Jin-Woo. If it's him, he might be able to protect you."]

Since she said those words, there could be some substance behind them, too.

Christopher Reid quickly dialled the number.

No, he tried to.

Unfortunately, his fingers had to stop moving once he felt the presence of people behind him.

"…."

It was too late now to ask for help or let someone else know of his situation. Christopher Reid put the phone and the note down and quietly stood back up again.

The first person he saw after slowly turning around was a blonde man with a bright smile etched on his face. One of this man's hands was even tucked in his pocket – a display of utter leisure.

Such a relaxed demeanour would be rather impossible to find from a normal person invading the residence of a rank S Hunter, and not only that, a Hunter boasting one of the highest levels in the entire world.

Christopher Reid asked.

"Who are you people?"

The blondie in front of his eyes, and two more behind this one. There were a total of three intruders.

It was already unknown whether he'd be able to fight off just the one in front, and to think, there were two enemies of similar calibre present, too.

A drop of cold sweat trickled down Christopher Reid's forehead. And just as this drop slid past his brow, past his temple, and all the way down his cheek until it reached the point of his chin….

The blondie began speaking up.

"If you keep trying to accommodate these humans during your struggles, you won't be able to save a single thing, oh Fragment of the Brilliant Light."

And worse still, his voice sounded truly bizarre as if it didn't even belong to this world in the first place.

'….Monster language?!'

Christopher Reid's brows shot up real high.

"Just what the f*ck are you saying here??"

The blondie watched the agitated Christopher Reid react and raised his finger to press it against his lips.

"Shh. I wasn't talking to you."

The blonde's fluent English this time caused the eyes of Christopher Reid to grow wider still.

A being that could speak both the language of man as well as the language of monsters as freely as he willed it – as far as Christopher Reid knew, no such person existed in this world.

The finger leaving the blondie's lips then pointed to the heavens above.

"Up there. I was talking to the dude up there connected to you."

Of course, Christopher Reid couldn't make heads nor tails of what this blonde man was talking about. But he was sure of one thing.

He was sure that this blonde was completely looking down on him right now. Christopher Reid's angry voice powerfully reverberated outward.

"Do I look like a d*mn pushover to you?!"

Crimson light exploded forth from his eyes and soon, vicious flames began whipping around all over his body. In fact, his figure became crimson in colour as well as he grew larger and larger in size. The furniture caught by his expansion were all knocked and shoved away.

Rumble-!!

His new appearance as the angry flames enveloped his entire body was that of the God of Fire! Now easily four metres tall, real flames were spitting out from the creature's eyes.

"At the bare minimum, I will take down one of you with me!"

Christopher Reid's punch collided with the wall and caused a massive explosion.

Ka-boom!!

The two men behind the blondie stepped aside to avoid the debris from the exploding wall and revealed themselves in full.

"Spiritual Body Manifestation….?"

"A human can manifest a Spiritual Body?"

They looked on at Christopher Reid's new appearance with some amount of interest. Meanwhile, the floor Christopher Reid stood on began boiling and melting down.

For the first time since the worst calamity ever to befall humanity, the 'Kamish raid', he prepared himself to die today.

Rumble-!!

The flames wrapped around him became even more violent as if they were about to explode and began swallowing up everything surrounding him.

And as the vicinity was being swept away by his vicious flames, he stood in the middle of this storm of destruction and roared out loudly enough to shake the earth itself.

"Die, you f*cking monster b*stards-!!"