When I Returned to Farming, National-level Big Juniors Flock - Chapter 88



Only Krnovel

88. White Believer

The sight of Joo Ji-hye hugging him tightly.

Oh Hyun-seong dropped her, slightly flustered.

“…Why are you here?”

“That’s what I’m going to say.”

Joo Ji-hye still has a smiling expression.

It was because I ran into him unexpectedly.

“I’ve been busy lately trying to catch up on the filming that’s piled up. I was already planning to clear my schedule and come down soon, but who would’ve thought you’d show up in person at a place like this! Did you come to see me?”

“… No? I came up for a bit on personal business.”

“What business do you have here?”

Joo Ji-hye glanced behind him.

Oh Hyeon-seong is teaming up with hunters he has never seen before.

No one seemed to find it that great that they could only sense vague signs, and Joo Ji-hye nodded, having roughly figured out the situation.

I don’t know why they came up here, but it seemed like those hunters didn’t really know anything about Oh Hyeonseong.

I guess we’ll just move together to fill the quota.

But the hunters were already quite surprised by what they had just seen.

‘Why those two…?’

‘Master? Master?’

I doubted my ears, thinking I had misheard, but watching the two of them conversing affectionately, I realized it wasn’t an illusion.

It would be surprising if an 8th-grade hunter working in a mercenary office without any affiliation were on friendly terms with a top-tier hunter like Joo Ji-hye, but the word “teacher” was enough to cause cognitive dissonance.

Of course, the Aegis Hunters who were with her were also confused.

Since not all of the Aegis Hunters are close, it is possible that they do not know each other’s personal relationships, but since they are the masters of Jihye, they are completely unfamiliar faces.

Any high-ranking hunter with the skills to teach her would have to be well-known.

“Then what were you doing here? From what I saw earlier, it looks like you didn’t come here simply to punish them.”

“At first, I came here to clean up the area where there were a bunch of S-rank monsters. However, things changed a bit when I discovered something unusual in the northern area.”

“significant?”

“That’s… It’s a bit difficult to talk about here.”

Joo Ji-hye said, conscious of other people’s gaze.

Not only the mercenaries, but also the eyes of their own teammates.

It seemed like it was contractual information that could not be divulged without permission.

Oh Hyun-seong shook his head, thinking that although he was curious, there was no need to force himself to listen.

“Let’s talk again later.”

“… Yes. I know I don’t have to worry, but be careful anyway, there are suspicious guys walking around.”

‘… He’s a suspicious guy.’

Oh Hyun-seong nodded and stepped back.

The mercenaries also turned around in bewilderment at his gesture of turning back.

Of course, the Aegis Hunters, who had no intention of letting them go easily, stopped them.

“Step back, I will skip the investigation.”

“Senior? Are you going to just send the unidentified person away without even checking his identity?”

“Okay, back off. If anything goes wrong, I’ll take responsibility.”

Joo Ji-hye said, frowning slightly.

Then the man stepped aside quietly with a short sigh.

If you think about it, Joo Ji-hye’s career within Aegis was quite long.

In fact, it was obvious, but to some people, she, who was busy whining in Changyeong-ri, was a charismatic senior.

I just forgot about it because of its usual appearance.

‘See you later.’

Joo Ji-hye opens her mouth with one hand covering it.

Oh Hyun-seong turned around, smiling at her appearance.

*

They resumed their movement again.

It was impossible to guess why the Aegis Hunters, who were not even members of the Management Bureau, were going around checking identities, but in any case, the job they had to do had not changed.

Go to the assigned area, kill the assigned number of monsters, and then return.

However, as they were moving through the ruins, they suddenly stopped dead in their tracks.

“Hey, what is that?”

Mercenaries staring blankly ahead.

There was one store that was torn vertically and half-lying, but that wasn’t all.

From there, a giant claw mark continued, passing through several buildings.

“Crazy, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“It’s definitely a sign of a monster… Is there one around here?”

The hunters muttered anxiously.

A monster completely out of the norm.

If there were monsters around here that could wreak havoc like that, they would have reason to leave immediately.

“Don’t worry, that’s a trace from more than 10 years ago.”

Oh Hyeon-seong spoke to them, who were feeling anxious.

Chattergil, a named monster that appeared in the distant past.

He is the main culprit who completely eroded this place, which was once a city with a population of 400,000.

Among S-rank monsters, a monster worthy of the ‘Named’ label had to be a single entity, not a species, that had survived for a long time and had caused incredible damage to humanity.

Chattergil also took over the entire city, causing massive casualties in Korea at the time.

After months of fighting and successfully recapturing the city, Chattergil was finally defeated.

But even if he were to take his life, he would not be able to revive the city that had already been pickled and died.

That’s why the area around here became an abandoned ruined city and a huge restricted area.

‘Anyway, Chattergil definitely doesn’t exist.’

The reason he was so confident was simple.

Because he died by the hand of none other than Oh Hyeon-seong himself.

Since I was at the forefront of the recapture battle at the time and had personally killed the bastard, I was certain that he was dead.

“Chatgil? Was there a named monster like that? It’s the first time I’ve heard of that name.”

“It would be understandable if I didn’t know. There are almost no records left from that time.”

“How do you know when there are hardly any records left?”

“It’s just my personal hobby.”

Oh Hyun-seong answered roughly.

It was a questionable statement, but the two men looked at him in awe.

“Somehow, you’re a brainiac? I thought so from the moment I first saw you.”

“I thought so too.”

Lee Young-jae and Kim Jin-su kept spouting off nonsense.

Joo Ji-hye was a skilled hunter who attracted attention in the past, but is now known as a true big-time hunter.

I don’t know the exact details about her teacher, but I could tell that they were not on average terms.

Perhaps that’s why, ever since the conversation just now, they’ve been looking at Oh Hyeon-seong with a sense of awe.

“But how did you meet Joo Ji-hye?”

“Privacy, don’t ask.”

“Oh, I see.”

“… those idiots.”

Jeong Tae-woon looks at them with disapproving eyes.

It was extremely pathetic that he was begging for help with just one connection, without even facing the big shot himself.

Of course, the name value was too great for just one person, but the team members who had been hanging out with me all day today just looked mean.

Anyway, they were able to arrive at the area safely and now began to subdue the monsters in earnest.

They diligently cleared out the area by defeating the monster hordes one by one.

Oh Hyun-seong also joined their fight as a member of the team.

Of course, I didn’t use all my power, but rather I took down the monsters in small portions.

However, the mercenaries, who had expected that he would only hold them back, were surprised by his propaganda.

I was surprised that it was more effective than I expected. No, it was even more effective than I expected.

However, Oh Hyeon-seong was actually fighting mechanically with completely different thoughts in his head.

‘It’s not uncommon for a nest and monsters of that size to burst out of a restricted area, though.’

At first, I came to this scene with a light heart, intending to return with the corpse of a useful monster.

Anyway, it was a site controlled by the management office, and the nest, which was the biggest risk factor, had already been eliminated.

I was just trying to collect materials for artifacts to use as farming tools without having to go out and do anything myself.

But after hearing Joo Ji-hye’s words, I could tell that another variable had appeared on the scene.

In the process of inferring him, a question suddenly arose as to why a nest was created.

Of course, the restricted area was relatively poorly managed.

Because it is an area where people cannot live, it is not discovered naturally and is not reported.

Relying solely on the country’s detection network,

So, if the gate was directly opened, it wouldn’t be a problem, but if monsters came in from somewhere and made a nest, the system that detects the wavelength wouldn’t detect them at all.

However, it is not common for a nest to grow to this size without being detected in advance.

The government is no fool, and they regularly patrol and manage large restricted areas where large nests could form.

But the fact that the monster wasn’t discovered until it had grown so large at this site means that either a fatal mistake was made by the staff or an extremely unusual variable occurred.

‘There hasn’t been any announcement from the management yet. They haven’t given any notice to the hunters who are entering either.’

In this case, two situations can be inferred.

If you haven’t properly identified the special features to the point of making an announcement, or if you have discovered something so special that it shouldn’t be made public.

However, judging from the fact that a significant number of the management bureau personnel withdrew after the nest raid and civilian hunters were brought in to wipe out the remaining forces, it is unlikely to be the latter.

At least the current Han Su-yeon would not have made such a choice.

‘… I guess I should look into it.’

After the battle, Oh Hyeon-seong approached Jeong Tae-woon.

“There are no major threats around here right now, right?”

“Yes, according to my detection ability, there are no other variables within our assigned area.”

“Then it’s inefficient to keep hanging out like this. Let’s move separately to be a little more efficient. Once we’ve met our quota, we’ll come back here again.”

“What? Hey, wait a minute…!”

Without giving me time to respond, Oh Hyeon-seong left the place.

*

In the heart of an abandoned, ruined city.

Joo Ji-hye, who had been chasing the traces, was finally able to catch the tail.

Boom!

“You little rascal, you were hiding here?”

Joo Ji-hye burst in, breaking down the loose door.

In her vision, she saw the silhouette of a man standing in the shadows.

Although it was difficult to see clearly because the room was pitch black without any lights, it was possible to tell at a glance that they were Awakened Ones.

Woof!

“Don’t even think about talking nonsense.”

As the man turned around, she stretched out her magically charged arm.

If you moved even a little bit, I was going to blow your head off.

“You guys are the ones who killed the Management Bureau Hunter and ran away, right?”

“… you’re right.”

“I didn’t know you would confess so easily.”

“Because it’s not something that needs to be hidden.”

A man who speaks very calmly.

It was a gentle voice, but at the same time, it was so insensitive that it gave me goosebumps.

“Why did you come into these ruins without permission and kill people? Why did you come in here?”

Joo Ji-hye asked with a frown.

This place was really just a ruin with nothing there.

A place where there should be no business unless you are a hunter called by the government.

It is a place that not only ordinary people but even terrorists have no intention of targeting.

If you simply wanted to kill the Bureau Hunters, there were a lot more Bureau agents out there.

“…”

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t answer. There are plenty of people to ask. And soon, your scattered friends will all be caught.”

“That would be impossible.”

“What? Wait, don’t move!”

The man who had turned around suddenly took a step forward.

A figure emerged from the shadows, and contrary to expectations, the face of a neat man in a pure white priest’s robe was revealed.

But she wasn’t one to be fooled by such outward appearances.

“Don’t think I’ll let a murderer off the hook.”

Kwajik!

Joo Ji-hye used her own supernatural ability, ‘telekinesis’.

She applied strong pressure to the man’s head, and with one gesture of her hand, his body was crushed in an instant.

A man kneeling in a grotesque position, with half of his head blown off and all of his joints broken.

“… Tsk.”

He is the culprit who murdered the employees of the management office without warning.

He was an opponent I had to deal with without hesitation, and I didn’t feel any feelings of pity.

But still, killing people felt strange.

Joo Ji-hye has killed countless monsters as a hunter, but she has never fought a human before.

Ugh.

“… uh?”

But at that moment.

To everyone’s surprise, the dead man got up from his seat.

It wasn’t something that suddenly came back to life or anything, but it was just a strangely twisted and burst corpse.

‘Wh…what?!’

Hunters are superhumans born with strong bodies.

But no matter how superhuman he was, in the end, he still had a human body.

Although he was capable of far superior damage control compared to ordinary people, even a single deep wound to a vital point could be fatal.

But moving like that with a half-crushed body was physically impossible, regardless of whether one had a supernatural ability or was a superhuman.

“Your power is amazing. I wonder if you are really that person’s disciple.”

“What… that guy?”

A man with half his head down and a faint smile approached us, walking slowly.

The moment when Joo Ji-hye, who had taken a step back without realizing it, tried to raise her magical power again.

Kookookookook!

The entire floor they were standing on collapsed, and she was sucked deep underground.

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