Stirring(蠢動) (1)
I quietly held my breath and moved downward.
Normally, stepping off a mountain trail could make you get lost or end up in danger, but I wasn't concerned.
The cameras set up everywhere served as rough signposts.
'Besides, we've even got hunters acting as safety personnel.'
Especially with Shin Ah-yeon and Ji Yeon-hwa, these were mages who could respond immediately if any dangerous situations arose.
'Still, I'm probably the only one doing something like this.'
Maybe the PD Do or the mentor hunters, who were probably watching me right now, were bewildered.
No one would have guessed that the manager, who was supposed to be under special protection, would go hiking alone.
"Damn, I'm sure it's around here somewhere......"
Watching the hunters searching for me, grinding their teeth, made me recall when I first arrived at 'that place'.
At that time, not only did I not know how to survive in that foreign world, but since everyone there came at me trying to kill me, I was forced to move around in hiding like this.
Of course, in the end, I ended up getting caught by some strange folks anyway.
If I hadn't met her there, my life might have ended then and there.
【That's impressive. How did you manage to survive, anyway?】
Suddenly, I remembered the first words she said to me when she saw me.
"...... Yeah."
Even now, I still didn't know how I'd survived.
Surviving the rift, wandering lost through a strange world.
The image of the white-haired woman I'd encountered in a dark underground space was still vividly clear to me.
Ssshhh!!
Just then, I sensed a presence behind me and smoothly shifted one step to the side.
At that moment, I saw a hand narrowly miss the bell hanging from my waist.
"What the......?!"
I couldn't recall the guy's name, but he was one of the hunters who'd been roaming around, searching just for me.
Judging by his surprised reaction, he clearly hadn't expected me to dodge his hand.
"Whoops."
Taking advantage of his off-balance posture, I lightly kicked his left ankle.
He dropped to one knee and tumbled down the slope, rolling head over heels.
"Uaaaah!!"
He probably never even dreamed a normal person like me would fight back, and he'd happened to step onto a particularly steep section of the slope—so he'd lost his balance and went tumbling down.
Granted, since he was a hunter, he wouldn't have been seriously injured by something like that, but he'd definitely be feeling the pain.
"Uh......."
Turning my head, I saw a man standing there awkwardly—presumably the body he was supposed to protect, and the one the fallen hunter was assigned to escort. He looked between the hunter who'd just rolled away and me in blank confusion.
Apparently, he just couldn't wrap his head around what he had just witnessed.
"Thank you for your hard work."
"Ah, uh, y-yes!"
When I greeted him lightly, he snapped back to his senses and stumbled back in surprise.
"By the way, is it allowed for one protected target to take the bell from another protected target?"
"Uh, I'm not sure?"
"From what Hunter Baek Hojun said earlier, there aren't any rules specifically forbidding it."
Well, it wasn't something that needed an explicit explanation anyway.
After all, when would two protected targets ever run into each other like this?
"Hm."
After glancing around, I flashed him a bright smile.
"You can only take one bell per person, right?"
"......"
The man's face drained of color as he clutched at the bell hanging from his own waist.
There was only one thing I could mean by that.
***
"What is that supposed to be."
Cameras had been installed all over Mount Seorak to film the hunters, and sometimes the safety-hunter on standby was directly handed a camera to capture important scenes.
And one scene captured by a camera was enough to throw the filming crew into chaos.
"Isn't that Park Jung-woo, the manager for Unique?"
"Yeah, but I don't see Hunter Lee Soo-ah anywhere?"
"She moved off on her own, leaving manager Park Jung-woo behind by himself a while ago."
"Isn't that dangerous? What if he falls down the mountain or something......?"
"We've got hunters on standby around him who can use magic at any moment, just in case...... though honestly, most people would never do that."
No one had predicted this kind of situation.
Who would have thought Lee Soo-ah would leave her protected target alone and vanish herself?
Sure, footage of her successfully taking possession of a bell had appeared on another camera, but the real shock was Jung-woo's behavior.
"Was he some kind of ex-special forces?"
"Uh, I don't know? PD Do-nim, do you know anything?"
At a staff member's question, PD Do's face stiffened.
Of course, it was something he had never even heard of.
'At first, I had no idea what he was trying to do.'
When Soo-ah split away from Jung-woo, PD Do had secretly sneered.
Pull a stunt like that and there was no way Jung-woo would hang on to any of his bells.
Especially since this was a 'protection mission'—if the protected target lost all their bells at the start, it would mean a penalty.
On the other hand, not losing a single one would mean bonus points.
In other words, racking up bells wasn't the only way to win.
'So why isn't he losing them?'
On camera, Jung-woo moved as discreetly as possible, making sure no hunter spotted him.
Frankly, it made no sense.
An awakener's senses were dozens of times more acute than a normal human's.
There was no way you could pull this off just by being quiet.
But watching the hunters walk right past where Jung-woo was hiding, there was no sign they noticed anything.
To be honest, PD Do started suspecting that the hunters were in cahoots and setting this up.
"Whoa! What the hell was that?!"
"He just shook off a hunter, right?"
Footage of Jung-woo tripping up a hunter and sending them tumbling down the mountain appeared on screen.
It wasn't enough just to hide—he had actively counterattacked and shaken off a hunter.
And even went so far as to take the bell from the protected target belonging to that hunter.
"Isn't this amazing? Park Jung-woo's not an awakened, is he?"
"No, when we checked before shooting, he didn't have a trace of magic power."
"This is going to get a big reaction when it airs, isn't it?"
It almost seemed like the manager might get more attention than the hunters.
"Has everyone forgotten this is supposed to be a hunter audition program?"
At PD Do's icy remark, the noisy filming site fell instantly silent.
Everyone knew that PD Do was none too fond of Unique.
And as PD Do implied, it wasn't a great look for a regular manager to get so much attention on a hunter audition show.
'This isn't good. If this keeps up.......'
If Lee Soo-ah kept collecting bells like this and then linked up with Park Jung-woo later, they might rack up a huge amount of points in an instant. That was absolutely not the kind of outcome PD Do wanted.
The 'villain' should remain the villain.
It would look best if they got eliminated before the live broadcast.
***
'Why is it so quiet?'
While PD Do was lost in thought, Shin Ah-yeon kept casting sidelong glances at Ji Yeon-hwa where the mentors were gathered. She'd been checking if anyone was acting suspicious as Jung-woo suggested, but at present, no one stood out.
Even Ji Yeon-hwa was simply observing today's mission without causing a stir.
'Normally, she'd be picking a fight with me right now.'
But today, she hadn't shown any such signs.
Even though Soo-ah and Jung-woo were performing brilliantly and Ju Ji-sang's group was strangely struggling, which surely displeased her.
After a brief interview with the filming team regarding Ju Ji-sang's current condition, she seemed strangely preoccupied by something else.
'Ugh, it's bothering me. Should I just ask her?'
She thought about it, but Shin Ah-yeon wasn't comfortable talking to people she wasn't close with.
She recalled that she used to be much more sociable, but lately, it had become difficult for her.
"Oppa, I'll be back. Need to take care of something."
"Oh, sure. Be careful."
At that moment, Ji Yeon-hwa stood up after saying something to Director Jo Chang-woo from Upstream, who'd been sitting next to her.
She was supposed to be watching over things as a mentor, so it was unusual for her to leave her spot.
"Shin Ah-yeon-ssi. Do you know where Ji Yeon-hwa is going?"
"I don't, actually."
Sung-hwan, who was sitting next to Ah-yeon, watching the situation, seemed bothered by Ji Yeon-hwa's actions as well.
"She didn't even start an argument with you today."
"......"
Sung-hwan used to find Shin Ah-yeon intimidating, but lately, they'd grown a lot closer.
Thanks to Jung-woo's influence—when he spoke so easily with Shin Ah-yeon, Sung-hwan acting distant would be awkward.
"Should I follow her?"
"Huh? You don't really have to......."
Zzzzt!
Just then, Shin Ah-yeon felt a tingling at the nape of her neck.
She sensed the temporary barrier she'd set up nearby shattering.
'Is this... a gate?'
There were two main types of current-day monster disasters: dungeons and gates.
Gate appearances were less frequent, but when they occurred, they could result in massive casualties.
'No, this feels different.'
Shin Ah-yeon jerked upright and scanned her surroundings.
Few others noticed, but to her magic-sensitive eyes, it was clear.
Right now, the ecology of Mount Seorak was changing little by little.
"An erosive-type dungeon......!"
As long as a dungeon break didn't occur, 'dungeons' were relatively easy to handle.
But there was one exception.
That was when a certain area was temporarily overtaken by an 'erosive' dungeon ecosystem.
A dungeon that appeared this way could turn into a 'Demonic Zone' if left unattended, which made it extremely dangerous. In fact, five of the modern world's major devil's domains were formed like this.
"Shin Ah-yeon-nim, what's wrong?"
Hearing Shin Ah-yeon suddenly stand up and shout, Hojun approached.
He'd acted overly friendly before, making him awkward company for her, but right now, he was an incredibly reassuring ally.
He was, after all, the only other hunter here who had actually experienced a 'Demonic Zone' with her.
"Well, an erosive-type dungeon just opened here at Mount Seorak."
"What? Seriously?"
"I'm certain."
"Do you have any evidence?"
"Pardon? Er, well......."
Evidence?
How was she supposed to explain something she could just see?
But Shin Ah-yeon was at least aware that 'I just see it' wouldn't persuade the other party. It was a situation similar to when she hadn't been able to properly advise Soo-ah and had to ask Jung-woo for help.
'Ah, right.'
After a moment's thought, Shin Ah-yeon carefully offered the best rationale she could think of.
"Don't you feel something strange about the flow of magic around us?"
"The flow of magic is strange?"
"Since you're an S-rank hunter, Baek Hojun-ssi, I thought you'd notice."
At that, Hojun narrowed his eyes and scanned the area.
"...... I don't sense anything, actually."
"What?"
How could he not? Shin Ah-yeon had assumed that Hojun would sense the erosion process at work. After all, he was an S-rank hunter. Just like how Jung-woo had pegged Soo-ah as an S-rank; S-rank hunters were usually considered exceptionally talented.
He was in his early thirties, an S-rank hunter, a Blade Master with the title 'Thousand Swords(千劍)'—that was Baek Hojun.
"Anyway, you're asserting that something bad is happening here, right, Shin Ah-yeon-nim?"
"Yes, that's right. Right now, an erosive-type dungeon is encroaching on the Mount Seorak area. In a little while, monsters will start appearing."
"Understood. I'll inform PD Do right away."
Hojun nodded after a brief pause.
"If it's coming from me, PD Do will be persuaded."
"...... Wait, you believe me?"
Shin Ah-yeon couldn't help but marvel that Hojun acted on her word even without concrete evidence. She'd noticed it before—Hojun treated her with a strange familiarity.
"We're comrades who cleared a Demonic Zone together, aren't we? And also......"
With a wry smile, Hojun continued,
"I still haven't forgotten the Shin Ah-yeon I saw in the Demonic Zone."
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
I hope Blade master don't try fighting Jun-woo for no reason.
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】