Chapter 23: Human Hunter
by fnovelpia
There were a few utterly vile boss monsters seared into my mind like scars.
And among them, the absolute worst of the worst was this thing.
“Here… you go. Here… you go.”
Its speech was slightly off—unnatural pauses, a bizarre rhythm.
But back then, I didn’t have the luxury to dwell on such details.
“Huh? An NPC? Thank god. Maybe I can ask for the bonfire location.”
So I initiated dialogue.
Moments later, my character was one-shot killed.
[WARNING!]
[WARNING!]
“…”
‘What kind of game was this?’
‘Sure, Souls-likes were known for their brutal difficulty, but spawning a full-blown eldritch horror just for talking to an NPC?’
That was crossing a line.
And not just any monster—a Queen-class boss, complete with a system-generated crimson warning screen.
To make it worse, it took me two hours to get back to that spot.
A literal newbie’s nightmare.
And now, that nightmare had resurrected—in real life.
Right before my eyes, it waved its hand.
The motion was uncannily slow, mechanical, repetitive.
There was no mistaking it.
A parasitic aberration.
“Everyone, prepare for battle!”
“Chanwoo? What are you talking about?”
“Why the sudden alert?”
“That’s not an android. To be precise, it’s a Queen-class aberration using an android as its shell!”
The moment I said it—
[WARNING!]
[WARNING!]
A red alert split the screen as a health bar and name appeared in my vision.
The waving stopped.
The voice cut off.
Instead, something emerged from the shadows.
At first glance, it resembled an android in a bodysuit.
But the closer it got, the clearer it became—this was no android.
One eye glowed an eerie pink, while half its face had been torn open, overrun by writhing black tendrils.
Like something had burrowed inside and was hollowing it out.
Its shoulders and arms sprouted grotesque appendages—a fusion of flesh and metal, twitching unnaturally.
Its entire body swayed as if barely held together.
It looked like it had been modeled after Levi’s frame.
But that was impossible… ‘or was it?’
“…I am possible.”
“Huh? What did you just say, Chanwoo?”
“N-Nothing! Anyway, what the hell is that?!”
“An aberration. Most likely parasitic.”
“Parasitic?”
“It uses dead androids as hosts, puppeteering their bodies. The more cores it consumes, the stronger it gets.”
To backtrack: When first spawned, it’s just a Rook or Pawn-class—a shambling, barely functional grunt.
But after absorbing five hosts, it evolves to Knight-class, devouring combat data and core energy to grow stronger.
‘At ten hosts?’ It becomes uncontrollable.
That’s when it transcends classification.
A Queen-class—a boss so catastrophic the system gives up trying to quantify it.
An entity capable of locking down an entire battlefield.
And now, one stood before us.
“I… am…”
“Huh?”
“Hu… man.”
The creature’s jaw moved at a sickening angle, its voice a broken mimicry.
Parasitic aberrations that absorb memories no longer recognize themselves as androids.
They collect data with terrifying precision but fail to comprehend its meaning.
So they convince themselves they’re human.
The beings they envy, emulate, and yet can never understand.
Humans—strong, emotional, alive.
The more memories they consume, the deeper the delusion grows.
That they, too, are no different.
No—that they are human.
It’s an error born of instinct.
And that twisted belief is what forged this monstrosity.
“1…R…4…S.”
“That’s…?”
“The distress signal. It matches the code we’ve been tracking.”
It must have absorbed the memories of the android that sent the signal.
“And they used that memory as ‘bait’ to lure us here. There was never any distress signal. This was a carefully calculated trap from the start. Someone’s final scream, the signal of the dead—they twisted it into nothing more than a device to lure prey.”
***
Perhaps because its scheme had been exposed, the grotesque hand gestures around the corner suddenly stopped.
Then, in the next moment—
“Over… here!!”
Before the words even finished, the thing lunged toward us as if flying.
Its movements were neither human nor android—unnervingly fast, with joints bending in wrong places, emitting a sickening, clattering noise.
Tentacle-like legs stomped against the floor, and its entire body twisted into a shape that blurred the line between machine and living thing.
Its pink eyes had no focus, and its torn lips curled into an impossible smile.
No scent of blood.
No warning.
Only the pure instinct to ‘kill’ radiated from its entire being.
“…!”
My heart sank, but there was no time to hesitate.
Before I could even steady my breath, I reached for my Joypad.
But then—
“Wind stabilization. Air density matched. …Noise coefficient, eliminated.”
A faint glow flickered at Serika’s fingertips.
A sniper rifle materialized from the air, and without hesitation, she pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The gunshot echoed.
The monster’s head snapped back, losing balance, and Levi seized the opening.
Her blade plunged deep into its abdomen, piercing through its organs in one fluid motion.
“See? You’d have been in big trouble without me.”
“…Incorrect. I could have handled it alone.”
They were still bickering, but their positions remained flawless.
Gun and sword, cold precision and relentless assault—their styles couldn’t have been more different, yet their coordination was seamless.
Serika fired, Levi stabbed.
Levi charged, and Serika was already preparing her next shot.
Watching them, I couldn’t help but be impressed.
Arguing nonstop, yet moving without a single wasted motion.
‘Was this the ‘chemistry’ of combat units born to protect humanity?’
‘…No, as someone with over 20,000 hours in Star Children, I could confidently say this level of synergy was rare.’
A pairing that flowed like water—opposites in personality, yet unexpectedly lethal in battle.
‘Which was exactly why we couldn’t let our guard down.’
“Over… here.”
“…What?”
Crunch.
Levi’s embedded blade was sucked inward, disappearing as if swallowed.
The monster’s body rippled like liquid, its torn abdomen splitting open to reveal something glowing red inside.
I knew instantly.
‘This is where the real fight begins.’
Just as we’d shown our teamwork, now it was their turn.
This thing was a Queen-class.
Everything up until now had just been a warm-up.
“Over… here.”
“?!”
“We pierced its core, didn’t we?”
“Over… here!”
The monster’s shattered arm began regenerating, black metal bubbling forth like unshaped feathers.
From its shoulder, a massive wing unfurled—a grotesque fusion of blood and machinery.
The wings of an angel with no light, only terror.
This was Phase 2.
The arrival of the impossible, where even the strongest hunters had to step back.
<Queen-Class Aberration – Human Hunter>
[Threat Level: A+]
[Key Traits: Parasitic, Rapid Regeneration, Core Absorption, Nanofiber Tendril Assassination]
“Levi! Serika! Watch those wings!”
“Wings…?”
“Yeah! Remember the androids scattered in the hallway? All of them had needle-sized holes in their necks. That’s from those wings—their tendrils expand at a nano-scale to pierce cores and drain memories and energy!”
Serika gulped.
Peering through her scope, she shuddered as she realized the truth.
“…H-Huh?! That’s… that’s a wing?”
It was a writhing mass of hair-thin tendrils, moving in unison—pure horror.
And those tendrils were…
“…It’s absorbing my weapon.”
Levi’s blade was being slowly drawn into the monster’s arm, as if it had always belonged there.
“Can you resummon it?”
“Impossible. The link’s completely severed. Maybe if we take it down, but…”
As Levi’s words faded, silence fell over us.
Our current forces: one ranged attacker and one disarmed tank.
By this world’s rules, two alone could never defeat a Queen-class.
A gun was just support—it could deal damage, but it couldn’t hold the frontline.
A Soul-type party without a close-range fighter was like a chef without a knife.
So then—
“Guess it’s… my turn now.”
Slowly, I raised my Joypad.
Serika turned to me, her eyes narrowing.
Her voice trembled slightly.
“Chanwoo…? What are you planning?”
Her expression screamed ‘This doesn’t make sense.’
“Our weapons are gone, and that thing’s completely changed form. In this situation… running is the only option.”
One hand still gripped her rifle, but her finger wasn’t on the trigger.
She was already overwhelmed.
“We have no frontline fighters left. Levi’s disarmed, and I’m only good for long-range support. If we clash head-on now… our survival chances are practically zero!”
But I just smiled and looked at Levi.
“Levi.”
Through the screen, her eyes met mine.
“Trust me?”
She didn’t hesitate.
“Of course.”
The control mode connected, and my vision shifted.
Serika still stared at me, confused, but it didn’t matter anymore.
This was a game.
And I was a veteran who knew its rules better than anyone.
“If the enemy’s stronger, running won’t help. They’ll catch you.”
“…!”
“And if they’re weaker? Then you crush them. That’s all.”
‘No weapons?’
Fine.
Losing a weapon didn’t mean losing the fight.
From here on out, we’d hunt with our bare fists.
0 Comments