Chapter 37: Reactions Around the World, Yu Myung-Han: The Person & Prepping for A Raid.
A/N :
" " : Dialogue,
' ' : Thought,
[ ] : System, Akasha, Minerva,
"Italicized text" : Telepathy,
« » : Artificial Intelligence,
| | : Sung Jin-Woo's System Panels, Sung Jin-Woo's System Messages,
"Bold text" : Shadows & Deathborns.
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Narrator POV
It has been a day since Sung Jin-Woo cleared the Demon Castle, and was named Korea's first National Rank Hunter. The world at large now knew of the incident, and to say that such a thing was impactful would be a serious understatement.
In the United States of America, Thomas Andre looked at the news with amusement and intrigue, wondering like most others that knew of Sung Jin-Woo's background, how exactly he had gone from an E Rank Hunter, to an S Rank that is now the world's newest National Rank Hunter.
Christopher Reed looked at the news with uncaring and conceited gaze, as he felt that there would be no one capable of surpassing him in power, regardless of their origins.
Hwang Dong-Su saw the news and began to fear for his life, and started wondering if his anger was truly worth it. Before this, he may have claimed that he had a chance to hurt the S Rank Sung Jin-Woo, but now, hearing that he cleared an S Rank Red Gate, with Red Gates being notoriously known for being much more difficult than their normal counterparts, all by himself had made Hwang Dong-Su move towards having a change of heart.
China's National Rank Hunter, Liu Zhigang, looked at this news and smiled. He was happy that another Asian had gotten such strength, and at the same time, he wanted to face Sung Jin-Woo in a one-on-one fight, even if just once.
In India, Siddharth Bachchan looked at this news with relief, as he felt that a person like Sung Jin-Woo having such strength would be better for the safety of people around the world.
Many of the world's governments were trying to make plans to bring Sung Jin-Woo over to their country permanently, and some felt that if they should succeed in bringing him in, they would get the Dominion Guild as part of sone package deal, as they felt that the guild would follow its strongest registered Hunter.
In Japan however, sentiments weren't as jovial, as the presence of a bonafide National Rank Hunter capable of clearing S Rank Gates solo put a massive wrench in the plans of the government officials in charge of Japan's Hunter system.
One of Japan's S Rank Hunters in particular, Goto Ryuji, looked at this news with loathing, as he felt that if Sung Jin-Woo hadn't succeeded in clearing the dungeon and becoming a National Rank Hunter, Korea would have had no choice but to cooperate with Japan's S Rank Hunters to clear the Jeju Island S Rank Gate, giving him the chance to become a National Rank Hunter himself.
Back in Korea, many of the people were in a celebratory mood, as their country had gotten a National Rank Hunter, which also increased the feeling of safety for all of them. For those that knew him since his E Rank days, there was an inexplicable feeling of pride, seeing as the person that used to be the Weakest Hunter had now become Korea's strongest.
Of course, there were some naysayers claiming that such a thing was being faked by Korea's Hunter Association and government, but they were quickly shut down by Korea's own S Ranks and other governments.
As for Sung Jin-Woo himself, he was put under house arrest, as Park Kyung-Hye said, as punishment for worrying the family. Sung Il-Hwan held no worry for his son's battle, but he didn't dare to say that. Meanwhile, Sung Jin-Ah laughed at the absurdity of the situation, as her brother, the world's most powerful Hunter sans Dante and Shiraori, was basically grounded by his unawakened mother.
But despite the comedic situation he found himself in, Sung Jin-Woo understood that there was still much to prepare for, as Dante had informed him of the situation with the ant monsters on Jeju Island. So even while grounded, Sung Jin-Woo continued to train himself, especially on the most recently gained power he had, his Lightning attribute.
He was currently being trained by one of Dante's clones, and so far, it has taught him a few lightning based skills to the point of mastery. He even created stronger variants of some of his skills.
He created a lightning charged version of Quicksilver called Mercurial Boost that gave him a 70% boost to all facets of his speed at the small cost of 2 Mana per minute, and the cost for activation being a small 20 Mana. It was definitely more costly than Quicksilver, but its performance was over two times greater.
It even granted extra speed to his processing speed on top of his Thought Acceleration and Parallel Processing. It did the same to his reaction speed and movement speed as well.
Another skill that he had learned was the skill Lightning Channeling, which allowed him to apply lightning to all of his physical attacks, and unlike the other skills that he had, this one worked passively, while also having a more powerful effect when used actively.
He had tried to use the lightning in a similar fashion to Baran's use, but he had a rough time getting that to work. So he settled for a less powerful alternative in the form of the skill, Lightning Bomb. An active skill that gathered a sizable amount of lightning in the form of a compressed ball the size of a baseball, then exploded on command into a massive outburst of lightning that would also stun its targets. Its cost wasn't too high, at only 200 mana per bomb.
However, Dante's clone told him something strange. "Don't worry, I'm sure we can find a few runestones that have lightning based skills." With Dante's capabilities as he knows them, he felt that such a thing would be easy, too easy in fact. So much so that he wondered why Dante didn't just make Runestones to give to him. But at the same time, he felt that Dante's decisions weren't his to scrutinize.
As for Dante and Shiraori, they were making plans for the Jeju Island raid with Go Gun-Hee. Seeing as the Dominion Guild's active Hunters were easily the strongest in Korea, Dante had suggested that they be the vanguards for the raid, while the rest of the S Ranks stay at the coast of the island to take out any of the ants that may try to escape off the island.
Go Gun-Hee agreed to this quite easily, but had some skepticism on whether the other Hunters would agree to such a strategy. Dante simply smiled and told him not to worry about their agreement.
Meanwhile with Yu Myung-Han, an unexpected emergency had reared its head. He had been diagnosed with Eternal Slumber, which had so far only seen one person that had been cured from it, that person being Park Kyung-Hye, Sung Jin-Woo's mother.
The news made Yu Myung-Han feel as if he had fallen behind the rest of the world, and even his children, as being diagnosed with the disease meant that one could literally not adapt to the presence of Mana, which had pervaded into the entirety of Earth.
He considered asking his son, Yu Jin-Ho to help him by using his connections with Dante, Shiraori and Sung Jin-Woo, but immediately discarded the thought. He couldn't bring himself to stoop so low as to use his son for such a thing.
But much to his surprise, while he was in his home office, a drone came to his window. He walked toward it with a great deal of caution, which only increased when he saw the Dominion Guild's logo. The drone was carrying a small box with a fingerprint scanner on it.
He looked around it, trying to see if there was another one, but he saw nothing. Feeling that he had no real reason to be cautious of the Dominion Guild, as after all, his own son was their guild leader, he took the box from the drone and closed the window.
As he placed the box on his table, he wondered what exactly could have been within the box. Still feeling a tiny bit of paranoia, he cautiously moved his hand to the fingerprint scanner and placed his index finger on it.
«Identity confirmed. Enjoy your product, Me Yu Myung-Han.» A virtual voice came from the box, and suddenly the box seems to dissipate like a gas. He immediately covered his nose and mouth, but made sure to keep an eye on the table.
As the gas cleared, he saw two bottles, one with a green liquid that had a golden dlow, and the other holding a red liquid that had a purple glow. Right behind the bottles was what seemed to be a card. He picked it up and inspected it, but he didn't see anything strange about it. It just looked like a black card with the Dominion Guild's logo on it.
He tossed the card back onto the table, and suddenly a small hologram is projected from it. The hologram shows a beautiful woman, and she begins speaking. «Hello, it seems that you've been given the Rejuvenation Package, which holds two of our most powerful potions, the Panacea and the Elixir.» Although her voice was soothing and smooth, Yu Myung-Han's attention was on the bottles, specifically the ones that had been projected, showing which one was the Panacea and which one was the Elixir.
The hologram described the two potions, telling him their capabilities and the way they should be taken to maximize their effects. When it had finished talking to him he chose to ask a question. "Why hasn't this been released to the public yet?" He felt that such powerful potions would be revolutionary in this world.
«Yu Myung-Han, sometimes it's better to not give such things to the public. After all, just the health potions had caused a great enough quake to run through the entire world's economy. Now imagine if a true cure-all was released to the public.» He jolted as he noticed it talking to him specifically, not unlike a person having an actual conversation.
"You. Who are you? What are you?" He asked the woman, who was clearly Aurora. «I am an intelligence lifeform. I advise you not to ask anymore questions and just use the product. And as for the Eternal Slumber, my master is probably the only one that can cure it, so don't worry yourself about his plans.» And as she said that, the hologram fizzled out, and the card dissipated, same as the box.
Although he was surprised by the card dissipating, he calmed down and looked at the potions in front of him with hope. He took the Panacea, then the Elixir, just like instructed, and he immediately felt like his body had been renewed.
The exhaustion that he was feeling, being the prelude to entering the comatose state of Eternal Slumber, seemed to have been wiped away. The different parts of his body that had gotten micro tears had fully healed, pushing his physical condition to its prime.
As he was savoring the effects of the potions, he suddenly heard a voice in his head. "I only chose to help you because you actually faced your responsibilities as a father when it came to Jin-Ho. So you can take this as the results of your positive karma." He would have been shocked to hear anyone's voice, but knowing that it was Dante Invictus that had talked directly into his mind left him speechless.
After a few minutes of silence, Yu Myung-Han spoke with a tear falling from his left eye. "Thank you. I don't know if I could ever repay you for this." He looked at the bottles and noticed that a great amount of it still remained. "Thank the gods that I did right by you, Jin-Ho." He said, then took the remainder of the potions to his wife.
Another day passed, and all of the Dominion Guild's registered Hunters that were S Rank and above were in the Hunter Association building with Go Gun-Hee. Despite her wishes for her son and husband to stay home away from danger, Park Kyung-Hye also knew that she couldn't truly stop them if they decided to leave, so she just asked that they come back in one piece.
...
Dante POV
"We've gone over the plan enough times. So the only thing that's remaining to be done is getting all the other S Ranks ready to move out. They are all coming, right?" Il-Hwan says as he paces about.
"*Sigh.* While most others agreed to come, one of the retired S Ranks, who is also a healer, Mr Min Byeong-Gu said that he wouldn't take part in the raid. Since I didn't want to pressure him, I respected his decision to desist from joining the raid on Jeju Island." Gun-Hee says calmly.
"Well, it's not like his presence or absence would really affect the result. With the 3 of us present, the others really won't be needed." Shiro says dryly. "That's true. In as much as they'd not like to hear that, it's an undeniable fact." Gun-Hee agreed with a nod.
"So we're clear on this, right? We go for the raid tomorrow with us 3 as the vanguard and everyone else works to box the rest of the ants in. The other Hunters that wish to participate in the raid will also stay at the rear." I say as I look at the hundreds of Hunters on the raid list for tomorrow, and everyone agrees.
"So are we going to do our big reveal in this raid, or are we going to let the reat of humanity think that we're still at the level of their understanding?" Shiro asks me and I think on it for a few seconds, seeing the multiple possibilities of letting the world see a much higher level of power than they had ever expected to be present in this world.
"We'll do it in this raid. The Monarchs are going to try and spread as much chaos as possible, be it through killing the National Rank Hunters of other countries, or through just mass murder. But with them knowing that we're around, they'll try to be more methodical and covert with their actions, except maybe Rakan. That'll give us more room to place different countermeasures for them, especially since they don't know that we know of their tendencies." I say, alluding to the fact that everyone here has trained against the deathborn versions of the Monarchs, even Gun-Hee.
"Okay. 'Cause I was getting tired of acting like I couldn't just clear out the gates with a single attack." Shiro says with a huff. "I believe that is all that we need to have done. Right?" Gun-Hee asks. "Yeah, we're done. Now, all that's left is for us to go there and clear it tomorrow." I get up as I say that, and we all bid each other farewell.
As Shiro and I exit the building, I quickly latch on to Jin-Woo's mind and show him the details of the ants that well face tomorrow, as well as the plan I have to strengthen the strongest of them, so that it'll be more useful for him as a shadow.
'From what you've shown me, this ant king is a bit stronger than Baran, after being strengthened, that is. And you're planning to get him to that level of strength by making clones of all the S Ranks that got killed by it in those other timelines. Am I right so far?' He asks me with his thoughts.
"Yep. Since we're not allowing anyone to die in this raid, that's the best alternative to make him strong. Not to mention, with this, no one else would know of his innate ability." I tell him as a matter of fact. 'I see. Alright then. Thanks for the help.' I disconnect from his mind.
I hear Shiro sighing from beside me. "What's up?" She looks at the rest of the city from behind her eyelids. "I guess I expected more from another world, you know. Earth was boring, Maera was plagued with a literal Armageddon that was brought on by its own people, and now we're on a different Earth, but it really doesn't feel all that different from where we've been." She says, exasperated by the world's condition.
"Well, if that's the case, just look on the bright side. We'll not be here for much longer. I'll say 2 more months at most. And when we do leave, the only thing we'd have to care about in relation to this world are the people close to us, and they're going to be the most powerful or most influential people on the planet, so there'd really be no reason to be worried." I tell her, hoping to give her some solace.
"So, wanna go and laze all day on the Domina, or are you going to keep sulking here?" I say with my hand out to her. "Hmph. Don't tempt me with a good time." She says as she grabs my hand with a smile. We head into the Domina, our minds off the issues of today or tomorrow.
...
Narrator POV
Meanwhile, in the Ant Nest on Jeju Island
"We must leave the island." A raspy inhuman voice comes from within. "There is nothing left to eat. The children are eating each other. There is no more food to support our empire." The voice says as it observes multiple ant monsters cannibalizing each other.
"We can't continue to stay like this." The source of the voice, the Ant Queen says, then looks at her clutch of eggs. "We need stronger soldiers. No... We need the ultimate soldier who will lead the empire." She says as she focuses on the egg with the strongest waves of mana coming from it.
"For the glory of the empire, strike fear into the enemies who try to stop us." As she speaks, the ant in the egg takes her words as its main directive for life, and begins to push against the shell. "You must become stronger than anyone else." As she says that, the shell breaks and a dense wave of mana erupts from the ant as it lets out a loud screech.
Suddenly, a few paralyzed human bodies drop beside this ant. If anyone in Korea or Japan saw these bodies, they'd be extremely alarmed as these were the bodies of Goto Ryuji, Reiji Sugimoto, Ippei Izawa, Mari Ishida, Ken Tanaka, Minoru Hoshino, Atsushi Kumamoto, Kanae Tawata, Tatsumi Fujishima, Akari Shimizu, Kei and Min Byeong-Gu, multiple S Rank Hunters that are now helpless in front of the newly birthed Ant King.
"Feast and continue to feast, and continue to grow stronger... My child." The Ant Queen says, not questioning the source of sustenance for her children. She had no idea that this was all coming from an unimaginably powerful enemy that only sees them as prey.
Chapter End.
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Word Count: 3,166