Ch.1515. Hunter

Hunter. A term commonly used to refer to professional monster hunters in modern fantasy, particularly in web novels of the “gate genre,” and it’s no different in Project Monster.

Their main job is, naturally, hunting monsters. Since most players enjoy the game as hunters, their activities are depicted close to those of a traditional RPG.

It’s a structure where they join NPC guilds or player guilds, receive quests, complete them, and get rewarded with money and monster corpses to strengthen themselves.

So it’s not particularly strange that those two who look like hunters have come to this remote place. This forest is especially inhabited by many animal-type monsters, making it good hunting ground.

‘A close-range psycher and a modified human shooter combination?’

The woman carries a massive greatsword on her back and wears a black bodysuit with a short black coat. At her waist, she has a thin sword, possibly a secondary weapon, and a pistol that appears to be an energy weapon.

Meanwhile, the man is wearing full-body power armor that looks solid even at a glance, equipped with a force field, and carrying a laser heavy machine gun—from this, I deduced their professions.

Particularly, that power armor is sold in some major corporation’s shop, and I used similar armor when I was a mid-tier hunter with enhanced military capabilities, so I could predict they were approximately mid-tier hunters.

‘Mid-tier… I definitely can’t let them spot me.’

Hunter ranks are divided into the same tiers as the monsters they can handle. So those two can hunt at least mid-tier monsters alone, which is comparable to being able to take down an armored vehicle single-handedly.

Just as I concluded that I absolutely must not be discovered, suddenly the connection to the Hive Scout that had alerted me to the hunters’ appearance was cut off.

‘…I’m fucked.’

Checking the Hive Mind records to see who killed it, the scout had, predictably, been detected and killed by those hunters.

Unlike other monsters, Hive Scouts unfortunately have an appearance typical of Hive Mind species—resembling crustaceans, insects, or arachnids.

Of course, there are plenty of animal-type monsters that look like arthropods, so there’s a possibility they didn’t think a Hive Mind was present, but…

Either way, they’ve discovered a suspicious creature—a new species—so it’s almost certain the hunters will report the suspicious specimen to the Association or Guild for the reward.

And once the report goes up, they’ll search this area regardless, and if my existence is discovered during that search, I’ll meet my end at the hands of the human army that comes flooding in.

Although this is a worst-case scenario, as long as there’s even a slight possibility, I must prevent it.

This means, in other words, I need to kill those two hunters for certain.

Since they’re likely just members of a small or medium-sized guild or individual hunters rather than some conglomerate’s heir or a promising talent from a major guild, silencing them would greatly reduce the probability of a search party coming.

‘Alright, let’s prepare…’

However, just as I decided to kill and silence them, suddenly the Hive Scouts that were patrolling at regular intervals began dying one after another.

‘…It’s them.’

Checking the Hive Mind records confirmed they were being killed by those two, and moreover, the order of the kills allowed me to roughly deduce their location.

Now all that remains is the hunt.

‘Move, Hive.’

I dispatched Hive Raptors and a large number of monsters to drive them into a trap.

※ ※ ※

“Miss, I think we should retreat and report…”

“Sejun, shut up and keep shooting! Is this really the time for that?”

At the same time, the two hunters were saying this while methodically dealing with the arthropod monsters they could see.

It was an impulsive action born from the female hunter’s anger at the fact that monsters, which normally harbor hostility toward humans, were quietly hiding and observing them, which she found creepy.

If they were ordinary hunters, such deviation from protocol would get them expelled from their guild and blacklisted, but well, what could be done?

That female hunter was the youngest daughter of the chairman of Seonggwang Group, one of South Korea’s top 10 conglomerates, and simultaneously a member of Seonggwang Guild, directly under the Seonggwang Group.

For this reason, the male hunter—Sejun—was quietly supporting her without being able to do anything about it. Even as Seonggwang Guild’s most promising talent and bodyguard, he could be fired if he got on the wrong side of her difficult personality.

“Behind you, incoming!”

“Thanks—hah!”

Regardless of personality or situation, both were veteran mid-tier hunters. They had hunted large 4th-tier monsters together and slaughtered various mid-tier monsters.

They had even participated in a 7th-tier Hive Mind subjugation operation when they were low-tier hunters, so they were fighting confidently even in this situation where the presence of a highly dangerous Hive Mind was half-confirmed.

Since the government and Association hadn’t confirmed any full-scale infestation or monster emergence yet, they thought the Hive Mind hadn’t properly deployed its forces and was likely a low-tier one.

Logically, there was no possibility that a Hive Mind with sufficient resources would show restraint, spawn its monsters, and not send attack forces against humans.

This is due to the monsters’ inherent aggression—even animal-type monsters, which are relatively calm and self-controlled, charge madly at humans on sight, so how could a Hive Mind with even greater aggression not do the same?

Therefore, they judged that they could subjugate a low-tier Hive Mind by themselves and were killing Hive Scouts while searching for the Hive Mind’s main body when they encountered them.

“Sejun, I was right, wasn’t I?”

“…Sigh. Yes, Miss.”

A group of low-tier monsters, questionably numbering 500 in total, a mix of unfamiliar new species and familiar monsters.

It was clear evidence of a Hive Mind’s presence, but the small number of forces—considering that even a low-tier Hive Mind can produce tens of thousands of monsters in just a few days—indicated it was definitely a Hive Mind that had only recently settled and begun its infestation.

“Should I go first?”

“No, I’ll handle it. There’s no need for you to bother yourself, Miss.”

So Sejun stepped forward with a sigh, acknowledging that the female hunter—Lee Sujin—was right. Normally such a casual relationship would be impossible, but it was thanks to the camaraderie they had developed as comrades fighting together on the battlefield.

Click. Thud.

Rumble—BOOM!

After suppressing the initial charge by throwing an energy grenade into the face of an approaching monster, he set his laser machine gun to “×10/single shot” mode and calmly began firing at the monsters.

As the laser, which momentarily appeared and disappeared from the muzzle, hit the monsters, it pierced holes through them, and they stopped moving due to damage to their central nervous systems.

Watching the laser penetrate at least 10 monsters at once with each shot, he mechanically continued the cleanup while wondering if these creatures were really this weak.

And just 20 seconds into the cleanup, all the monsters had become pieces of meat mixed with exoskeleton fragments scattered on the ground.

This was the result of low-tier monsters charging at a mid-tier hunter who was a modified human shooter specialized in mob control.

“No enemy reactions in the vicinity, Miss.”

“Good, let’s go find the Hive Mind’s main body then.”

Upon hearing Sejun’s report, which utilized the monster sensory organs implanted in his body, Sujin stood up, picked up the sword she had stuck in the ground, and spoke cheerfully.

As a psychic user, specifically a reinforcement-type psychic user specialized in physical enhancement, she was quite happy to be able to slice up monsters with good hand-feel after a long time, despite her somewhat battle-hungry tendencies.

“…I apologize. I need time to replace the magazine. Could you wait a moment?”

“Hm? Oh, no problem.”

“Thank you.”

After confirming that he had consumed quite a bit of power from his laser gun during the battle so far, he carefully asked, and Sujin readily granted permission.

So as he was detaching the laser gun’s battery magazine and about to take out a new battery from the charger connected to his powered suit’s battery—

“—!!”

Suddenly, laser beams began flying from the shadowy areas throughout the dense forest.

“Park Sejun!”

Of course, a few laser beams couldn’t penetrate the armor plates and force field of his powered suit, and while he was enduring those hits, Sujin deployed a psychic barrier that defended against the lasers.

“Reload quickly! Something’s wrong!”

“Yes, understood!”

As Sujin, who had been feeling uneasy about the unusually low aggression of the Hive Mind’s monsters, shouted this, Sejun, who was equally uneasy, attempted to reload quickly.

—SCREEEECH!

CRACK!

“Kuh, nngh…!”

He would have certainly done so if a medium-sized carnivorous dinosaur-like monster hadn’t suddenly appeared from their blind spot with force field-covered teeth and bitten into Sejun’s shoulder.