One Man Army - Chapter 178

One Man Army 178

Hunters (1)
The Dark Jungle was amazing for hunting. Not only was the basic karma payout better than average for defeating monsters, but also, the dropped items were of high quality. Especially, since the drop rate of sunstones was quite high, it became easy to secure the stones Sang Hyuk needed to supply to the Dark Market.

Sang Hyuk used the “Using himself as Live Bait” method as he farmed sunstones,  rotating through four areas. The cycle started by hunting awakened Giant Spiders, then awakened Dire Wolves, next awakened Dark Ogres, and ended after hunting the most dangerous of them all, the Black Trolls. Since the cycle took at least an hour, the spiders had respawned when Sang Hyuk returned to their colony. He would then naturally start the rotation again, and he did so three times. He focused completely on hunting for twelve hours, and as a result, earned nearly one hundred lowest-class sunstones, forty low-class sunstones, and about three mid-class sunstones.

A simple calculation told him that he could meet the Dark Market’s necessary quota without help from the lower lands after a few days. What’s more, the best part of this hunting was the accumulated karma. Since Sang Hyuk was Quadra Soul, it had always been difficult for him to level up, despite his titles. Therefore, he worried the most about leveling up at this point.

However, Sang Hyuk thought for the first time that he did not need to worry about it as he hunted in the Dark Jungle. It might become different after leveling up, but he thought he would be able to level up faster than Double Soul users through his Rabbit method.

‘This is sweet!’

While Sang Hyuk looked tired after the twelfth hunt, his eyes were shining bright. If it had not been for the limit on access time, he would continue without eating or sleeping.

‘Today, I’ll stop here and come back to do this again.’

Even Sang Hyuk could not do anything about the mandatory limit on access time, so he had to give up today’s hunt at this point. He returned to Goren City and entered to sell unnecessary items at the shop, taking care of his routine post-hunting chores.

The only thing left to do was to log out and access again after at least four hours. There was no problem for Sang Hyuk at this point, but trouble always came from outside and not inside.

There were eyes stealthily observing Sang Hyuk after he entered Goren City and watched his every move, reporting them to someone unknown. Sang Hyuk had not noticed this and therefore had become vulnerable to the observers, which resulted in his movements being tracked.

***

“I can’t even say how bad it is. They’re irritating as hell.”

Sang Hyuk had slept and woke up and was now chatting with Leah as they did light morning exercises.

“The Sun People are quite sensitive, aren’t they?”

Sang Hyuk remembered his past life before smiling bitterly.

“Sensitive? I can bear that. This…I get this murderous urge a few times every day.”

Leah was fully experiencing the hard life with Gyebaek in a small village of the Sun People. The Sun People NPC Leah was working to increase likeability was an annoying weapon merchant, and the quest he gave Leah every day was only mundane and repetitive labor.

If Leah had tried any shortcuts, or made mistakes, the NPC would nag at her. Leah could bear it if that was the only effect, but as the likeability level she had already earned, decreased whenever the NPC nagged, the stress Leah felt could not help but increase every day.

“Hold on a bit longer. If he approves you after the likeability level increases to a certain point, he will then start to give you some decent quests.”

Sang Hyuk could somewhat understand Leah as he had gone through the experience with clenched teeth in his past life. However, there was no other way. With the very special exception of Sang Hyuk’s case, everyone had to go through this annoying experience. Leah and Gyebaek actually had been better off because of their title’s benefits, as Sang Hyuk in his past life had slaved for weeks just to enter a small village.

“Are you really doing better? Where are you, we can’t even see you?”

“I’m working in another place.”

Sang Hyuk could not tell the toiling Leah that he had attained a citizen license of a not a little village, but one of the largest cities in the Sun Lands, so he just glossed over the issue.

“Don’t do it alone and come to where we are. Having another person would help.”

“I have a few quests there…so I’ll come later. Go ahead before me and wait.”

“My head hurts thinking that I’ll be wiping rusted weapons again. I’m beginning to regret working so hard at the Sky Ocean just to do this.”

Leah’s Korean fluency increased with each day, and now she seemed almost like a native speaker. While she could not write and read as much as she could speak and listen, the latter was more important.

“There’s a Korean idiom that those who endure shall be rewarded. Endure a bit more, and I’m sure that there will be good news.”

That was the only thing Sang Hyuk could tell Leah.

“I desperately hope so. I’ll race you home!”

Leah began to run faster. Sang Hyuk had always felt this, but morning exercise with Leah was both enjoyable and difficult at the same time. While he enjoyed stretching with her near, since Leah worked out like a top pro champion, it was difficult for Sang Hyuk to keep his gaze on  Leah’s face. However, he worked out with Leah as often as possible when given a chance since he enjoyed being with her too much, even compared to physical fatigue. Sang Hyuk came back after finishing the enjoyable and difficult morning workout to shower and access the game.

‘I’ll focus on hunting and skip lunch.’

Sang Hyuk had eaten a hearty breakfast so he could skip lunch. He was thinking of filling the quota for this week by hunting for eighteen hours straight. He came down to the first floor of his inn to eat another meal. It was for his game character and not the real him this time, mostly to listen to gossip and news.

Sang Hyuk came outside to prepare for the hunt, which basically meant buying a few consumable items. However, the stealthy eyes appeared again at the moment Sang Hyuk appeared in Goren City. They were the observers who had been waiting for him and started reporting his movements in minutes.

Sang Hyuk came out of Goren City to activate recall to the Dark Jungle, and everything had gone well up to this point. Nothing was the matter until he opened the Pegasus Marking Book. However, Sang Hyuk realized that something was wrong when he teleported to the Dark Jungle though the Pegasus Marking Book.

‘Teleport tracking!’

While normal users would simply notice something was different from the usual, Sang Hyuk knew exactly what this feeling meant. It was the sensation of a high-class special technique called ‘teleport tracking’ or ‘teleport interception.’

Sang Hyuk had not felt this feeling much in his past life but had heard stories. He had been interested in teleport tracking and researched it for strategic reasons as he worked as a coach. He even had asked players to feel what it was like, and that was why Sang Hyuk knew what was going on now.

Sang Hyuk took off from the point after arriving at the Dark Jungle and turned on his stealth skill. Teleport tracking meant that the enemies knew where Sang Hyuk had moved to and also copied his marking. Enemies would be after him now by nearly a hundred percent, and Sang Hyuk first had to prepare to meet them. Guessing who they would be in this situation did not mean anything.

There was a saying called ‘Good people do not come uninvited, but those who come uninvited are not good.’ Sang Hyuk prepared to fight as the idiom fitted the situation perfectly. Sang Hyuk had disappeared into the darkness, and a few seconds later, the enemy appeared, and there were fourteen of them.

“Hmm? We had followed him here immediately, and where had he gone to? Did…he recognize teleport tracking?”

“How can a mere dimension traveler know about that? It’s a skill that does not even exist in the lower lands. It must be a coincidence.”
“Is that so? Then he must not be far.”

Everyone who had followed Sang Hyuk looked to be the Sun People, and at that moment, a system message popped up in front of Sang Hyuk’s eyes.

A sudden quest ‘Human Hunters’ has been created. It is an important sub-quest for ‘The Riot of the Black Cat.’

The player receives a fifteen percent boost on all abilities for seven hours due to the ‘pioneer’ status.

‘Quest? That means they have something to do with my agreement with Black Cat.’

Sang Hyuk managed to guess who they were after fitting together the cause and effect of the situation. While he could not be certain, he was sure that he was right by over seventy percent.

‘If the pioneer status raised all of my abilities by fifteen percent, that means that this quest’s difficulty level must be tremendous.’

This kind of increase in stats was of the highest level quest buffs, and if it went on for seven hours, this quest had to be extremely difficult.

‘Fourteen Sun People who specialize in battle. Estimated level from 150 to 170. Damn, isn’t this too much for capturing a mere dimension traveler?’

Sang Hyuk was about to curse, because if the combat capabilities of the gathered Sun People were unleashed in the lower lands, there would be utter chaos in a few days.

‘Calm down. You can do this.’

Sang Hyuk shook his head to concentrate and stared forward, still hidden in the darkness. Since he did not know when he would be discovered, he could not go on hiding like this for long.

‘If they can use teleport tracking, they can use an area teleportation block. That means escape is futile.’

If Sang Hyuk could not run, there was only one thing he could do.

‘If I cannot run or hide…I can only fight!’

Sang Hyuk did not believe that he could win, but he could not give up. Sang Hyuk’s way was to die resisting even if there was only a one-percent possibility.

‘So damn…let’s get on with it!’

Sang Hyuk gathered his fighting spirit as he concentrated because he would not give up to the end.

Edited by Userunfriendly