Chapter 4: Monster and Monsters (1)

Excited, Baek-Goo kept on yapping.

“What other monster would make solitary Giant Wolves form a pack? The only monster that can make a group of beasts form into a pack is a devil. I’m certain about this. I’m sure that the devil brought the pack of Giant Wolves to Zado City, and wiped it out.”

“… you sure know some random things.”

Zin was speechless to the point of amazement.. It was surprising how a guard from the boonies could be so misinformed about the devil.

Zin thought it was problematic that Baek-Goo believed that the Giant Wolves had formed a pack because the devil was involved.

“I always ask around whenever a stranger visit, and I’ve learned quite a bit after listening to others. Don’t you think that my theory makes sense?

Looking at Baek-Goo who firmly believed that the devil was behind it all, Zin shook his head.

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“Hey, Baek-Goo, do you even know what a devil is?”

“Devil? A devil is a devil is a devil?”

“What you described is just one type of a devil.”

Since Zin was going to stay the night anyway, he thought that it would be okay to tell the naive Baek-Goo some stories.

“The term ‘devil’ refers to all seven groups of monsters.”

“Seven groups? Aren’t all devils the same?”

“Yes.”

Baek-Goo was way too engaged in the topic, and Zin felt uncomfortable. But Zin continued. In the past, bringing up that name was a curse, but now it was just a thing of the past.

“Dragon, Demon, Vampire, Phantom, Immortal, Alien, and Witch.”

Baek-Goo was perplexed after hearing about the seven devils.

“I don’t know what’s what, and I don’t think I’ve heard about some of those before.”

“Of course.”

Zin whispered in a low voice.

“None of them exist in this world anymore.”

“They don’t exist anymore?”

“Yeah.”

Zin was whispering the world’s secrets to the attentive listener while he ate.

“Dragons were put to sleep, Demons were exorcised, Vampires were burnt to death, Phantoms were cleansed, Immortals were sealed, Aliens were exiled, and Witches were hunted.”

Zin decided to tell him this in order to explain the current status of this world. Baek-Goo wasn’t smart enough to understand the meaning of Zin’s words. Zin stared at Baek-Goo and said:

“Therefore, it cannot be the devil’s deeds.”

Zin wasn’t joking around, and Baek-Goo slowly nodded.

“Then what do you think destroyed the city of Zado?”

“I’ll have to go there to figure it out. But there’s no chance that a devil is behind it.”

Baek-Goo nodded.

“You’re not an ordinary hunter. My instincts are pretty accurate.”

“Well, I don’t think you’re an ordinary guard, either.”

“Hah, I’m just a fool.”

“One who calls himself a fool is usually not a fool.”

“Hah, whatever. Anyway, what were the special hunters called? What was it…”

Baek-Goo thought that the hunter in front of him might be the hunter that he kept on hearing about. It didn’t take long for him to remember the name.

“That’s right! I just remembered! Devil hunter. You’re a devil hunter!”

Baek-Goo started getting excited. Zin thought that this naive man didn’t even understand what a devil hunter was about. If one knew about it, one would not be happy to meet one face-to-face. Zin didn’t answer, and Baek-Goo, after talking for a while, asked again.

“You know what?”

“What?”

“You said that there are no more devils.”

“That’s right.”

“Then why do we need a devil hunter? Hmm… well, why do we need a harvesting tool like a scythe, when there’s no grain to harvest?”

Zin was amused at Baek-Goo’s analogy—why need a devil hunter in a devil-free world? There were scythes, but no grain to harvest. What was the use for that scythe in this world? The analogy was cheesy, but to the point.

“Well,” Zin answered and added:

“I’m curious about that myself.”

“What are you talking about…”

Baek-Goo sighed at this nonsense, and Zin smiled, amused.

“Then why are you wandering around?”

“I’m trying to hunt down the devil,” Zin answered.

“But you told me that there are no more devils?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“You’re sure that there aren’t anymore devils, but why are you looking for one?”

“Hmm…”

Zin pondered for a while, and answered calmly.

“I haven’t really thought about it.”

Baek-Goo thought to himself ‘What sort of crazy man is this guy?’, and shook his head.

Night came, and Zin was lying down on a comfortable blanket, staring at the ceiling of the cell. Because of the thick prison walls, he didn’t have worry too much about potential threats. It was a great blessing not having to worry about staying alert all night long in the open wilderness.

Quite a smart guy.

Zin thought that Baek-Goo was a pretty sharp person. If he figured out a way to hunt effectively, he could become a skillful hunter later on.

However, a great hunter was not necessarily a great person. Becoming a hunter wasn’t a blessing. It was a hunter’s destiny to die in the wilderness.

It was probably much better living within the confinement of a wall. From the prison facility, the road to reach a Hunter’s Nest with some sort of education system was quite far, and Zin had no intention of taking Baek-Goo there.

After all, he was just another person that Zin had came across by chance. Zin knew that there was no point in clinging to such a relationship. Even though Baek-Goo’s talents were overqualified as a guard, as a hunter, he would perish while confronting a beast that couldn’t be hunted. More than anything, Zin was too fatigued to form a new relationship with another person. It was too much of a bother.

When working on annoying tasks, even more bothersome things happened. This was one of Zin’s adages that he lived by.

Zin woke up and left early at dawn the next day. Baek-Goo got him a couple more potatoes, and Zin went his way, feeling refreshed by the hospitality which was rarely displayed by the people in this world.

“What a strange village.”

Ard Point—a village built from a prison facility —was a calm, yet strange village. Unless it were a freely-traveling city, strangers were more likely to be ignored, but Zin did not get that impression during his stay at Ard Point. He wasn’t necessarily welcomed, but the people looked peaceful. The elder took care of the people, and the people respected the elder.

In Zin’s point of view, out of the numerous cities and villages that he’d come across, Ard Point was a pretty good place to dwell. However, Zin knew one fact. A village that was too hospitable would end up destroyed sooner or later. There was a reason why people got rid of their feelings of generosity. Generosity was a weakness, and weakness meant danger.

“I will give them at most ten years.”

Humans treated others cruelly not because they wanted to act that way, but because it was necessary in order to survive for a longer period of time. Humans used to search for ways to live longer, and it was no different these days. But, in order to survive in a world where civilization had disappeared, developing technologies was a thing of the past, and the only option left for humans was to be cruel.

That was the answer to longevity, as well as a survival plan.

—bang!—

Zin demonstrated this by sniping a stranger walking from far away.

Zin slowly walked towards the dead body with his rifle strapped on his shoulder. The corpse was still, a bullet stuck deep in its forehead.

There was not much difference between a hunter and a Reaver. To be exact, all wanderers were the same. Besides oneself, everything was an enemy. One always attacked first before getting attacked. It was difficult to determine whether the opponent was an enemy or not.

One would rather kill first and then think. If it was an innocent person, one would feel the bad aftertaste of killing someone innocent, but would be granted another day to live.

“Pretty lucky.”

Zin murmured as he looked at the cloudy, dark-red blood stains on the corpse. The wanderer had suffered from an addiction to Chaos Poison.

“Man… was this guy in the process of becoming a beast?”

Watching the blood start to boil, Zin took out the flint from his coat.

—pzzzt!—

Zin created a fire, dropped it on the pool of blood, and then ran away from the corpse.

—boom!!—

Soon, a blazing fire exploded loudly. Zin rolled a couple of times forward from the shock of the explosion, and then stood up. As Zin dusted off his coat, he walked away from the explosion behind him.

“Grrrrarrgghahhhhh!!”

A premature monster came out of the corpse, struggling and screaming, but Zin didn’t look its way. In any case, those wandering the wilderness were hunters, robbers, Reavers, vagabonds, and refugees. Aside from the refugees, the rest of them weren’t innocent, and even then the refugees were far from being virtuous.

Just now, the dead man had been a vagabond who could turn into a monster at any time, and Zin had kept himself safe by overpowering the opponent first.

Still, there were four more days until his destination—a long way to go.