Bersok, a man from the Buandurk dimension, told Yoo Seodam;
‘There are more otherworlders.’
Those words were a pretty big hint for Yoo Seodam. If Bersok hadn’t told him that, perhaps Yoo Seodam would have treated him with respect rather than being rude and perhaps, he might have even given him some money to live well.
However, as the result of the energy detection, Yoo Seodam found out that Bersok and the other dimensional travelers were nothing special, so there was no need for him to play along with Bersok’s tricks.
– Master. I will now report the results of tracking Bersok’s destination.
“Put it on the screen.”
Rather, it was better to use him like this.
[Location: Afghanistan → Iran]
“Hmm… it’s a strange place to pass by.”
Since Bersok did not have any ID, it was obvious that he must have entered the country illegally. However, from what Yoo Seodam knew, it was nearly impossible to cross Afghanistan to travel to Iran. But then he thought, maybe it was possible for Bersok was able to do that because of some sort of special skills that he possessed.
“Iran. What a headache…”
Yekaterina murmured next to Yoo Seodam. It was natural for her to sigh like that. After all, their current goal, which was to uncover the hiding place of the otherworlders, turned out to be in a problematic location like Iran.
“It’s one of the most dangerous places in the world.”
Since the outbreak of the Great War more than thirty years ago, Iran had continuously waged wars against its neighboring countries. However, they didn’t start a war for supremacy or something like that. The war was waged to escape the monsters which ravaged their nation… But that was not important, the important thing was that Iran is a dangerous country which destroys anything in its surroundings/anything it touches.
And even after all that, they still failed. Their nation is still being devoured by monsters. Ever since this disaster befell upon them, people following the same faith of Islam gathered together to take control of the situation. Even after all their attempts to stay united and defeat all the monsters, there were still a total of five uncleared SSS+ class dungeons situated there. It was because of this, Iran was classified as the world’s most dangerous country.
Well, apart from this, Iran was also a significant place in its own right because it was the first place where the hunters emerged from.
After the Great War, there were only a few ‘Hunter Training Centre’ in the world. Unlike the General Hunter School found everywhere else around the world, Iran did not give their ‘students’ any theoretical knowledge. Children who were barely ten years old were handed a special modified gun and directly thrown into the harsh and real world.
It went without saying, the graduation rate of these Training Centres was around 1%. Most of the kids were expelled because they either died or were crippled. And even the 1% who graduated would immediately escape from Iran at the first chance they got.
“It’s a terrible place…”
“Don’t be too harsh. I graduated from there.”
“What!?!?” Yekaterina yelped as she stared at Yoo Seodam with her eyes bulged out.
“Did I not tell you? I was raised in an orphanage after I lost my foster parent. And then somehow, I ended up in Iran.”
“I…I didn’t know…” Yekaterina said with a look of genuine surprise. She never knew that Yoo Seodam was raised in the most dangerous country in the world.
Well, back then, even Yoo Seodam didn’t know that he was going to be sold to a distant land. When he recalled that distant past, a familiar face passed his mind.
‘Yoo Haram…’
The guild master of Lost Day, and the man who Yoo Seodam once thought of as his own family member because they grew up together in the same orphanage.
Yet, that very man was the one who sold him to Iran.
“Still, it’s not really a bad place.”
It was true that Iran was a place where blood was spilled every day. However, ironically, because of the same reason, Yoo Seodam had managed to form bonds with people he could trust his back to. Taylor Nine was one of them. And although that woman is no longer in this world, he had also found Reina Ju there, the person who was like a real parent to him.
“It makes sense for otherworlders to hide there. You can easily live there without any ID.”
“Then… are you still planning to meet them?”
“I should.”
Only by meeting them would he be able to know more about the ‘End’ of the worlds.
However,
“Seodam-nim… you know that Iran has always been hostile towards Korea, right?”
* * *
17 years ago, when I first became a hunter, I wandered around Iran freely. Well, freely was not the most correct word to use since there was no such thing as peace here. Every single day was akin to hell/ filled with pain and anguish.
Back then, Iran’s power was pitiful. Just for one mere E rank monster, dozens of people would have to be gathered. And even after that, more bullets would be found buried in the flesh of their fellow hunters rather than the monster.
I started hunting at a relatively late age compared to other kids. It was around when I could be considered to be in middle school. Since I started so late, I had no choice but to be pushed back by other hunters who were of the same age as me. Because of that, I had to work hard and endure every misfortune that came my way with help of my eight most precious comrades.
Then, one day.
All my comrades begin to leave one by one.
They began to chase their own dreams, goals and ideal futures.
At that time, I was still only an F rank hunter. There were very few places I could go with that status.
However, one person reached out to me.
Ironically, it was Yoo Haram, the same person who threw me into this hellhole.
‘You have hardened your bones as a hunter. You would be useful.’
He offered me a way back home, a place where I would no longer have to worry about getting killed by monsters in my sleep. A place where I could eat good meals in good facilities. The place where I was born, Korea.
When I heard that I could go back to that place, I happily shook his hand and became his dog.
“That was already a few years ago…”
After that day, I never even thought of going back to Iran. And now, Iran has become a place where one could no longer go just because they wished to. It was a place embroiled with dangers from both monsters and humans. The intricacies of politics between high-ranking officials were too complex for anyone to casually intervene.
I wonder what will Iran do if they come to know that the Guild Master of Another League, the most famous person in Korea, wants to enter their country? It would be nice if my plane didn’t explode before landing.
I spent several days thinking about how I could set foot in Iran once more. At the same time, Smiling Shadow was wandering around Iran and digging up the tracks of all otherworlders, including Bersok.
It was possible for them to silently enter Iran because of their skill, but it was impossible for me to do the same. This was because of Iran’s Supreme Leader Rahvar. Even an SS rank hunter cannot escape his gaze because of his detection ability, which was the most powerful superhuman ability on this planet.
According to word on the street, the capital of Iran, Tehran, was tightly wrapped in Rahvar’s aura. With his aura, he was able to monitor everything and anything that happened in Tehran. On top of this, he has also set up detection systems for hunters in several places. The moment he would sense the energy of an unfamiliar hunter within his range of aura, he would immediately dispatch Iran soldiers to subdue the said hunter.
Although his ability sounded powerful, in exchange for this power, Rahvar had to give up on his mobility.
‘There must be a way…….’
The moment I felt completely helpless because of the lack of solutions, my smartphone started vibrating violently.
[Korea’s Hunter Association’s Branch Manager, Kim Soo-jong]
Hunter Association? Why are they calling me all of a sudden?
“Hello? This is Yoo Seodam of Another League.”
-Hello Hunter Yoo Seodam, this is Kim Soo-jong from Korea’s Hunter Association. I’m really sorry for calling you all of a sudden. But, if you have some time to spare, could we meet you?
If he’s someone from Korea’s Hunter Association, he must have considerable power in his hands, Yoo Seodam thought. Even though Yoo Seodam didn’t know why the man called him, he still quickly said to the man,
“I have time, when should we meet?”
* * *
The meeting with Kim Soo-jong was decided right away since I did not have anything to do at the guild. We decided to meet at a cafe in Gangnam.
“We recently identified a group of people with suspicious abilities. I came here to ask Hunter Yoo Seodam about it since we believe that you are a specialist in this matter.”
Kim Soo-jong simply skipped all of the pleasantries and went straight to the main problem.
“Suspicious abilities? What kind of abilities specifically?”
“It’s hard to classify it into one thing. Some of them transformed their bodies into beast-like creatures, while some had extremely pointy ears and could control plants…”
“Oh….”
After saying those words, Kim Soo-jong pulled out a tablet from his bag and showed me a hologram of the ‘Special Abilities’ they found. In one video, I could see people using magic which was different from the magic I knew while in other videos, people were using mugong-like techniques which were different from the mugong I knew. And the most troublesome of them all were those who used superpower-like abilities which were far more ferocious and destructive than the ones I knew.
“They used some kind of an unknown energy, as it was neither ether nor essence. There is no way to find out what these are with only the skills of the Hunter Association…” Kim Soo-jong said with a sigh.
Currently, on Earth, there are two energies that are used by superhumans to utilize their superpowers. First is ether, which is utilized after being injected into one’s body, and the other is essence, or mana, a power of nature itself. But just because there were only two energies present on Earth, it does not mean that the same was the case for the whole universe. There are countless worlds out there, with countless different races and technologies. Some worlds might specialize in science and technology based on gravity, while others might deal with dark matter, which is hailed as the origin of the universe. It is similar to how Earth specialized with electrical energy before the formation of ether.
In other words, it might be a fairly mysterious technology from the Earth’s point of view but could be the norm on their home dimension.
‘Well… It’s strange to me too, to be honest…’
<…>
Though, I was familiar with their identities as dimensional travelers.
For that reason, I decided to use this situation to my advantage…
I relaxed my posture and spoke as clearly as possible, just like a specialist, while holding a useless black ballpoint pen in one hand.
“They are ‘Sub-humans’”
“…Sub-humans?”
“Yes. They are like humans but not humans.”
“That….”
“Do you see that beast? That’s a werewolf. That’s an elf, and that one there is a dwarf.”
“Huh? That can’t be…”
“Branch Manager, trust me, I know them.”
I was quite unsure about my theory too to be honest. But it doesn’t matter. What matters the most right now is sounding like a specialist.
“When were they first discovered?”
“The first case was several years ago, but… At that time, I simply chose to ignore it. However, there has been an increase in their numbers recently.”
“Hm…”
Especially recently… It was such an ominous thing to hear.
“And most of them are spotted on the borders between Iran and Afghanistan. It is not affecting the society right now, but who knows what will happen if they run wild with powerful abilities and intelligence.”
Saying so, Kim Soo-jong dragged his tablet and showed me the scene of a horrific massacre.
“This was taken in Iran.”
The scene showed catastrophic damage to the surroundings. Looking at the picture of corpses, I concluded that the victims were bounty hunters. If they could do that much damage, it was clear that their powers were significantly strong.
‘Well, it’s only natural since they are existences that managed to travel between dimensions by themselves.’
Even Aracelli, who lost all her power while crossing dimensions, had achieved an amazing feat of attaining 9 circles as a mage.
Of course, not all otherworlders studied dimensions like Aracelli. Like in Lee Dong-jun’s case, the only reason he could travel between dimensions was because he discovered an object related to dimensional movement. Or in Bersok’s case, he was able to travel between dimensions even though he is weak, as he possessed a device from his home dimension which allowed him to do so.
Or…
<It is possible that, through sheer luck, they were sucked into a dimensional rift and transported here.>
Even though the chances of it happening were extremely low, it would not be strange to find someone who experienced it on Earth since there were so many dimensions in this universe.
<Maybe, most of them came here unintentionally…>
And if that is the case, it means that they have no control over their destination or passengers. In such cases, they are more likely to run wild compared to Bersok who come here voluntarily.
“This issue is greatly troubling Iran. It is to the point where Rahvar has personally asked the Hunter Association for help.”
“Well, they used to do that often.”
Iran was a place with a good defensive capability. But, that was offset by the countless incidents that often took place there. This was an expected outcome for a place where five SSS+ rank dungeons had been left unattended.
“That’s why, the Hunter Association will send some agents to secretly infiltrate Iran. Rahvar had also given us his permission.”
At his words, my eyes lit up.
‘This is it!’
However, without knowing my thoughts, Kim Soo-jong exhaled a deep sigh filled with disappointment.
“Of course, we can’t send Hunter Yoo Seodam there since we know you are a busy person…”
But I’m not…
“But, can you spare us some time to brief the agents we’re going to send?”
I have a lot of time.
“Kuhum!” I coughed. Then, I put on a determined expression on my face and looked at him.
“The situation is serious. So many casualties… If we leave it like this, we don’t know what they will do again in the future.”
“Yes. We must uncover the identity of that mysterious group.”
“Hunters are people who cut down monsters for the general populace, sacrificing their own flesh and blood. Seeing this with my own two eyes makes me feel very uncomfortable.”
“That means…”
“I will participate in this mission myself.”
Then, Kim Soo-jong grabbed my hands with bright eyes as if he was moved. This is a very burdensome thing to experience since he is an uncle who looks ten years older than me.
“As expected of Hunter Yoo Seodam!!!”