Chapter 310

According to Ahn Yoonseung, the Beast—who had disappeared for a while—had reappeared in parts of Europe and started causing havoc again.

However, the report Yoonseung’s SNS acquaintance claimed to have seen made no sense from the very beginning.

In other words, it should have been completely impossible.

‘What the hell? How did the Beast, who’s already dead, end up in the news?’

But there was no way I could let it show that I knew the truth.

I did my best to finish dinner without making anything seem strange, then headed straight back to my temporary residence.

To the apartment of Korea’s Rank #1, which might very well be the safest place in the entire country.

And when I looked into the situation Ahn Yoonseung had mentioned in more detail, what I found was even more shocking...

***

I really can’t make sense of it.

[Breaking news. Once again today, “Beasts” have caused chaos in Pays de la Loire, France...]

About three hours later, a news report played across a 6.8-inch screen.

I had returned to Jung Haseong’s residence, where I was temporarily staying.

And as you can see, I was now watching the evening news on my phone—but there wasn’t even time to admire how refreshingly wide the display looked on this brand-new model thanks to its slim bezels.

“Oh my.”

Because what YTV was reporting was far stranger than I had imagined.

‘Not just one, but several?’

First, let’s start with the basics.

A Beast had appeared somewhere overseas.

And there was more than one of them.

[This time, there were three individuals claiming to be the ‘Beast.’ Their race and age remain unknown, and they recklessly seized Gates that already had assigned conquerors.]

Judging by footage captured by one reporter’s camera, the person standing at the center of the group did indeed have a build somewhat similar to the real Beast.

‘Though the group also seems to include one who’s absurdly bulky and another who’s barely half the usual size.’

The more I looked at it, the more obvious it became.

They were all Beast impersonators.

‘Then that makes sense.’

If I considered the possibility of impersonation and fraud, the whole situation suddenly became much easier to understand.

The original owner of the name “Beast” was Brooklyn Morgan.

However, the signature bone mask she had worn as part of her double identity wasn’t some specially commissioned object.

Now commonly known as the [Beast’s Mask], that large ornament was simply an item.

And since its rarity was only Common, it wasn’t even particularly difficult to acquire if someone seriously wanted one.

‘I think I once read somewhere that countries like the U.S. even banned trading that mask because of concerns about copycat terrorism or something.’

A Common-grade bone mask.

Pitch-black rags, their material impossible to identify as any known animal hide.

Pack hunting.

Naturally, once these people appeared dressed like that, most mammals on Earth assumed the spatial-rift criminal they already knew had simply recruited accomplices.

But I knew the truth.

There wasn’t a single genuine Beast among them.

‘That dual-attribute user, Brooklyn Morgan—I definitely killed her in that cave.’

My eyes shifted slightly.

‘Of course, I borrowed the power of a fully charged Legendary item, but that doesn’t alter the causal chain of what already happened.’

Wrapped in that thick hide, I let my gaze wander as I sank into thought.

But even after considering it for quite some time, no answer came.

Since the mask was a mass-produced item, and a separate illusion skill could take care of the rest, imitating the Beast probably wasn’t that difficult.

‘Then why?’

Why?

That was the part I couldn’t grasp. ℯ

The Beast was publicly known as a body thief who had been caught transporting the corpses of foreign Hunters.

So if someone carelessly pretended to be that sort of person, they would also end up inheriting the blame for every crime she had committed in the past.

What could they possibly gain from doing something like that?

[Anonymous Bulletin Board]

[👈: 180-1 popped up again. Whoa, what if that’s actually Hunter KGR though?]

[👉: When the breaking news came out this evening, somebody posted on social media that he was having chicken and beer in Seoul. Wouldn’t the distance and timing make that impossible?]

[👈: Dude, the Beast literally uses teleportation though;;]

[👉: Oh, right.]

The newly emerged Beasts, much like Brooklyn before them, were primarily causing incidents in Western Europe.

Because the damage in Korea remained relatively minor, there had yet to be any serious public discussion of the matter here.

Even so, I couldn’t stop wondering about one thing.

Perhaps it was because, even after coming to this foreign land, the temperament of a scholar embedded in my soul simply refused to disappear.

‘What is actually driving that group of fake Beasts?’

But sitting alone in a guest room and wracking my brain wasn’t going to solve anything.

More importantly, I had absolutely no desire to involve myself with dangerous individuals like that.

‘Is this just some kind of performance staged by violent awakened people?’

Tuk.

After thinking for quite a while, I turned off my phone screen.

As I had just reminded myself, the appearance of a new Beast wasn’t something I could understand through pure contemplation.

‘For now, I should stay close to my temporary landlord.’

If necessary, I’ll just beg the national hero to save me!

I decided not to torment myself over a problem that had no immediate answer and simply put it aside.

For reference, the Ranking No. 1 I had just thought of—who had been somewhat distant since the Tower of a Hundred People incident—had recently started asking me, albeit only occasionally, what I was doing whenever I left the house for long periods.

Naturally, I hadn’t given him a proper answer to that either.

I had put that off as well.

And not for some trivial reason.

Unfortunately, if a disciple starts becoming dependent on their instructor, it’s better to correct that habit before it becomes entrenched.

‘Once Esther takes over and starts paying tuition, my finances should improve. Then I’ll be able to save up quickly enough to buy that eight-billion-won house I’ve had my eye on, maintenance fees included.’

Still, it seemed the task of “making a certain black-haired primitive sorcerer stronger” was progressing toward a fairly successful conclusion.

Soon, I rose from my seat and roughly began preparing to end the day.

At this point, I still intended to take things slowly and carefully gather information as the situation developed.

[Chat room]

[P: I checked the message.]

[P: Let’s start.]

[SPECTRUM: Is it really me next? Even now?]

[SPECTRUM: By the way, with this incident, all of Korea’s S-rank Hunters are definitely going to mobilize. I’m not sure they’ll actually be able to stop it, though.]

[P: It took considerable effort just to separate even one.]

[P: So, as a personal request, I sincerely hope you succeed in taking control of the remaining three.]

***

Weekday, 7 a.m.

Once again, the busy sounds of people heading to work echoed outside the window.

Chirp, chirp, chirp.

I absentmindedly fiddled with the object in my hand while watching the mammals on their way to work through the living room window.

It was a newly released analyzer from the U.S., and I had bought the latest model mostly out of curiosity.

Apparently, it came with several noticeable upgrades compared to the previous version.

“Let’s see. Does this mean the update is finished?”

And the identity of the new feature the manufacturer had advertised so confidently was...

[PIXY: The powerful analyzer, the fifth series from another dimension revealed]

[O Dungeon Completion Alert Feature]

Alright.

The promotional language was unnecessarily grand, but the feature itself was simple enough.

Once a Gate had been fully cleared, the device would send challengers a separate, unmistakable signal.

‘Oh~’

After looking into it more closely, I learned how it worked.

The device detected a certain element that appeared when a new “exit” formed in another realm, or when a dungeon began collapsing and activated an automatic escape function—like what happened in the White Pagoda.

And as for why hunters even needed such a feature...

It all traced back to gradual changes taking place inside dungeons.

Especially recently, with ‘mining’ becoming a newly popular way to make money on Earth.

Mining.

This referred to extracting resources from cleared Gates after every monster inside had already been defeated.

For reference, F- and E-rank Hunters were currently taking the lead in that line of work.

Since dungeon interiors were often structured in ways that made it difficult for heavy machinery to enter, the fastest option was simply to send people in to dig up the materials by hand.

‘This had been a news topic I was following closely lately, so I knew quite a bit about it.’

Unfortunately, my Plan B in life—switching careers and becoming a miner—was no longer viable.

That was because so-called “dead Gates,” where both the boss and all minor monsters had been completely exterminated and no respawning occurred, were being occupied by the hosts as though they were living rooms.

From the perspective of Gisimche, that was naturally intolerable.

And now, on a global scale, there were reportedly more and more cases of Gates automatically activating their exit spell immediately after being cleared.

‘Come to think of it, I’ve seen something similar before. Wasn’t [Imitation City] exactly that kind of dungeon?’

That was why Pixy had developed this feature.

For reference, I had looked into the mechanism, and apparently it didn’t directly detect the automatic escape spell embedded inside the dungeon.

Instead, it sensed the mana around the user’s body becoming unstable when exposed to that effect, then displayed the message:

‘You will exit the dungeon in 10 seconds.’

‘Dungeon Clear Alarm.’

Of course, I was already wondering how often fake Hunters—people who had completely fabricated their rank—would end up relying on this feature.

Aside from that, repeated research had also made this newest model lighter, more portable, and sturdier.

So perhaps owning one wasn’t a bad idea.

‘It’s so plain. I truly don’t understand Earthlings’ sense of design.’

Sparkle.

I stared at the new analyzer made from dungeon materials, then turned around.

Incidentally, today I was the only one left to look after this enormous house.

The so-called national hero had finally achieved his lifelong dream of owning a home, yet apparently even that wasn’t enough.

Early that very morning, he had already left again at dawn for another raid.

‘Well, I did make up an excuse about resting for a while because of recent overwork and fatigue, but apparently being a complete loafer is even more conspicuous than I expected.’

Should I at least clean the bathroom today?

But if I used a high-grade miracle like 『Clean』 in a place I shared with Earthlings, it would probably look suspicious.

I stretched, loosening my body as I thought it over.

Then I reached a conclusion.

Yes.

I’ll clean it the normal Earthling way.

So a few minutes later, I sprayed mold remover around the hallway bathroom and decided to kill time browsing the web while waiting for the recommended amount of time listed in the instructions.

“Hmm?”

By now, I had used the video-streaming app so often that I had practically memorized its entire layout.

Normally, I would have ignored the flood of entertainment content on the home screen and gone straight to the news, consuming only the information I actually cared about.

But this time, my eyes stopped on a thumbnail.

And as though under a spell, I tapped it without thinking.

Normally, I would have hesitated dozens of times before opening an unofficial video like that.

But the image captured in that tiny frame was something I simply couldn’t ignore.

‘Purple, long hair.’

They say that if you see enough zebras, you eventually learn to tell them apart.

And even among the mammals living in this world, she had a particularly distinctive appearance.

The video began playing quietly.

And soon, what appeared on the screen was...

– This f*cking... xx...!... craz....

Judging by the architectural style of the buildings visible in the footage, it seemed to have been filmed on a street somewhere in Korea.

And there, a familiar figure was shouting furiously.

It was Esther.

And she looked genuinely enraged.

She repeatedly screamed at the top of her lungs while pointing toward something off-screen.

Her normally pale neck had turned so red it looked sunburned, making it easy to imagine just how furious she was.

But I couldn’t bring myself to care about her emotions.

Not even when those emotions belonged to a curse mage.

Right now, I had no attention to spare for things like facial expressions or shouting.

“Huh?”

Because the woman in that newly uploaded video...

had a deep wound across her face.

Could the injury have reached her eye as well?

That thought flashed through my mind as Esther clutched one side of her face in obvious agony.

The video ended on a final shot of her running off into the distance.

‘What did I just see?’

I was speechless.

A video of South Korea’s second-ranked S-Class Hunter, her shoulder drenched in blood, furiously screaming at someone?

More importantly...

Did that mean there was currently a Gate somewhere in this world capable of injuring the leader of a major guild in broad daylight?

‘At the beginning of the video, she was clearly running from the direction of that Gate.’

I hadn’t heard any warnings about an S-rank beast appearing.

For a moment, my thoughts spun in confusion.

In fact, the anomaly I had just witnessed was still unfolding.

Wuuung.

Only a few seconds later.

[☎ Seo Esther]

The name I had saved in my new phone appeared on the screen.