After receiving my sword from the blacksmith, I left the outpost for the Hunter qualification test Dante had suggested.
My destination was west—the place I had passed through when I first came to the outpost.
‘They called it the Boundary Forest, didn’t they?’
I’d heard that, rich as it was in resources, the forest supported all kinds of ecosystems.
Of course, my source of information was Reina.
And at present,
she was still staying at the outpost.
At first, she had strongly insisted on following me.
“You’ll only get in my way if you come.”
For a moment, she was at a loss for words. Then she swallowed the end of her sentence like a sigh and nodded as if she had no choice.
‘Well, that’s just an excuse, though.’
I had originally considered using her as a monster spawner, but I felt like I wouldn’t be able to fully enjoy the fight if she was beside me for no reason, so I decided to move alone.
After hesitating for a moment, she handed me a container from her breast pocket with insects inside.
“These are guide insects. Show them traces of the monster you’re looking for, and they’ll lead the way. Also, hunting monsters recklessly without a special reason is illegal, so be careful.”
Back then, I had nodded and said I understood, but now—
“Sigh...”
I couldn’t stop a sigh from leaking out from a corner of my heart.
- Why’s the streamer sighing?
- Is it because Uggo 2 isn’t here?
- No way lolololol
“No matter what, that’s not it.”
- So firm lmaoooo
- Uggo 2 is crying lolololol
- Walking through the forest is kinda uncomfortable, yeah
When the viewers reacted to my sigh as I pushed through the forest, I ended up voicing what was really on my mind.
“Why can’t you kill monsters recklessly? Shouldn’t I just catch everything I see?”
- ?
- ??
- Excuse me?
- Wait, that’s why you sighed? lololololol
- As far as the worldbuilding goes, I think it’s for ecosystem preservation
“Sigh... Why do something so pointless...”
- lololololololol
- lolololol This is my first time watching this guy. Is he always this battle-crazed? Why does he only think about smashing everything?
- Dunno?
- Today’s only day two of the stream, so we don’t know either
- It’s to stop people like you from hunting indiscriminately lololol
For me, who had gone around killing every monster in sight in my previous world, it was an incomprehensible rule.
I couldn’t even fight as I pleased.
Just then, a flash of inspiration crossed my mind.
Reina had definitely said this:
Hunting was impossible if there was no special reason.
Then, if there was a special reason, that meant hunting was allowed, didn’t it?
When I conveyed this genius idea to the viewers, all I got back were dumbfounded reactions.
- No, that’s not what it means lololol
- This is ridiculous lolol
They couldn’t understand this?
I had no choice but to shake my head at the viewers’ foolishness.
----
[King of Clubs donated 1,000 won.]
That line doesn’t actually mean much
----
“What do you mean, it doesn’t mean much?”
----
[King of Clubs donated 1,000 won.]
Like the streamer said, you can just hunt it and say you had a special reason. Assuming you can, of course lolol
----
- He’s right lololol
- Ahem, anything beyond that is a revelation of heavenly secrets
- As long as you can hunt it, it doesn’t matter lololol
The viewers’ reactions were strange.
It felt as if they were hiding something.
“Assuming I can? What does that mean?”
----
[King of Clubs donated 1,000 won.]
It’s kind of long to explain, but if I have to...
----
“Ah, so that’s what it was?”
After hearing the viewer’s explanation, I nodded as if I understood.
To roughly summarize the explanation—
The condition that “hunting is prohibited without a special reason” was simply a setting that had existed in the game for a long time.
A device the developers had created to convey a deeper, richer story to the players.
However, once virtual reality became commercialized, that setting began to take on a slightly different meaning.
It started being used as an “excuse” for the players to protect themselves.
To understand the background, one first had to look at when the Wild Hunter series was first introduced to virtual reality.
Unlike the old days, when people played on computers while clicking a mouse, players now actually had to move their bodies to hunt monsters, and the difficulty skyrocketed exponentially.
A game that had already been difficult became absurdly difficult.
Thanks to that, players trapped by their old memories who walked around hitting any monster they came across ended up being beaten half to death by the monsters instead.
Eventually, it reached the point where players started avoiding monsters altogether.
Because they couldn’t win!
Thus, most players began moving around while hiding as much as possible, hunting only the designated target monsters.
And then,
around that time, a one-line post appeared on the gallery that perfectly justified the reality they were facing.
------ Wild Hunter Gallery ------
Title) You’re saying I’m avoiding monsters because I’m scared of them?
No? I’m simply following the ecosystem protection law designated by the Guild. I am absolutely not scared.
I am an exemplary citizen.
---
Everyone who saw that post cheered.
The poster began being called “the first one to open his eyes” and “the prophet of the blind” among the gallery users.
: Ah, my eyes have been opened, O Prophet
: (You have opened your eyes.gif)
: Enlightenment complete
: Thank you for enlightening this foolish one
: I must worship!!
: (A meme of someone pointing at the knights’ emblem and saying, “I merely followed Guild law”)
: Guys... this is the law. From now on, we just can’t hunt because of the Guildㅠㅠ
And from that day onward,
the words “I got scared” disappeared, leaving only the words “I had no choice because of Guild law.”
But that.
“So in the end, you were scared.”
- KRAAAAH!!!
- Do not speak the truth to me!!!!
- I only followed Guild law!!
- Take that back...!!
- Seething
- (Angry.gif)
- Ahem, scared? We were merely following the Guild’s regulations
- Laws and regs, laws and regs
Leaving the chat, which was thrashing like a vampire exposed to sunlight, alone,
I quietly finished organizing my thoughts.
“Anyway, as long as I can catch them, it doesn’t matter, right?”
- Yep
- That’s right
“Then I’ll catch every one I see.”
- Sir, do not cross that river
Having reached my conclusion, I continued moving after the guide insects—
Boom!
Boooom!!
“Graaah...”
and “normalized” every monster I saw.
Unfortunately, only Domagirius, a monster I had already hunted before, appeared,
but I decided to be satisfied with the pleasure of using my new greatsword.
“This is what a real Hunter is. You’re all fakes.”
- The one who normalizes Hunters is Haehwang
- You violated the Guild’s regulations!!
- Criminal bastard
- I’m telling Uggo 2 everything!!
“Go ahead, if you can. Assuming it’s possible, of course.”
- Kyaaaah!!
- I’m gonna turn dark!!
While I was teasing the viewers, who were seething like that,
there was a clear sound, and the guide insects stopped.
As if we had reached the destination, the insects circled around in front of a huge tree.
Kukuridyaa was supposed to be around here,
but there were only traces of uprooted trees nearby, and the creature itself was nowhere to be seen.
“They say it’s here, but I don’t see it.”
- Did the guide insects break?
- Usually, hitting things fixes them, so let’s hit them!
Just then, I heard a faint sound brush past my ears.
Its source was directly above.
The moment I pulled the greatsword from my back, I jumped backward.
BOOOOOOM!!!!!
At that instant, something massive slammed into the spot where I had been standing.
Dust obscured my vision.
And within it, something slowly raised itself up.
When the wind that soon blew through cleared the dust—
“Kiooooooot!!”
Just as Reina had shown me, Kukuridyaa, resembling a chicken, appeared while screeching.
Its feathers were bright yellow at the base, with slightly reddish tips.
A large beak, and a massive tree held in its hand as if declaring that it was the culprit who had uprooted it.
With pitch-black eyes, the creature tilted its head like a chicken and stared at me.
“What a flashy entrance.”
- Whoa, I was doing something else and got scared as hell
- That startled me
- No, but how did you dodge that?
- Fr lol
With the greatsword resting on my shoulder, I continued looking at the creature while kindly answering the viewer’s question.
“I heard it.”
- You heard it?
- I didn’t hear anything
- I did hear it a little
- Don’t lie
“It’d be stranger not to hear something that huge flying at you.”
- That’s true lolol
[Capybara has requested a 100,000 mission.]
Clear Kukuridyaa without getting hit even once. You said you were a real Hunter, so this much should be easy, right?
Time remaining: 59:58
- lolololololol Death to the criminal!
- The crime of not following Guild law!! Pay dearly for it!!
- Bro Kukuridyaa!! I’m counting on you
- lololol I should put up a mission too
The mission pot climbed in an instant.
When I soon saw that the mission money had reached one million won, I smiled gently.
“There are a lot of donors today. The mission money you’ve all put up will be used for my personal greed.”
The moment I finished speaking, Kukuridyaa charged.
It swung the tree in its hand horizontally.
I lowered my upper body until it almost touched the ground, and at the same time brought the greatsword to my back, lightly letting the tree that brushed past my body slide by.
Whooong!
As the sound of wind being split rang out behind me, I slightly twisted my wrist.
In response, the greatsword tilted slightly—
Thuk!
With the sound of something catching, my body moved in an instant.
The scenery rushed past accordingly.
Using the snap of my wrist, I had hooked the scales on the greatsword onto the tree.
Since I had already aligned my center of gravity with the direction the tree was moving, I was able to move along with the swing without suffering much impact.
When I disappeared from right in front of it along with the tree, the creature began tilting its head as if puzzled.
In that gap, I moved my wrist to pull free the scales that had been caught, and lightly stepped onto the tree the creature was holding.
“Kiaat?”
Had it noticed that the weight of the tree had changed?
The creature’s gaze swiftly turned toward the tree, but
by then, I had already rotated my body and swung the greatsword.
BOOM!!!
“Kiaaaaak!!”
As if it had taken a heavy impact, the creature’s head snapped in the direction I had swung.
It began screaming in pain.
Leaving my body to inertia, I timed the moment its head swung back and rotated my body again, swinging the greatsword once more.
BOOOOM!!
A sound even louder than before echoed through the forest.
Stagger, stagger.
Its body, which looked like it easily weighed several hundred kilograms, swayed on the spot.
Thud.
Leaving the creature staggering in a groggy state, I landed on the ground and glanced at the chat.
The chat had been continuously scrolling until right before I started fighting.
The intensity of the chat, which had seemed like it would never die down, had stopped the moment I began the fight.
But soon,
- lolololololololol
- Fuck, what did I just watch? lololololol
- How are you moving with a greatsword like you’re using ODM gear? lololololol
- lolololololol
- I’m quitting greatsword lololololol
- What? Be careful of a single Hunter?
- Who normalizes monsters? Haehwang!!
- This is seriously legendary lololololol
it began exploding upward.
----
[King of Clubs donated 10,000 won.]
From this moment on, the king of the greatsword is Haerang!! Sign here!!
----