Chapter 5
‘Wow, they’re horrifyingly ugly.’
Seoya stared in awe at the herd of Crimson Buffaloes.
Even with their bodies split open like that, they could still walk around just fine. It was seriously fascinating. Did they not feel pain?
‘They don’t even look that strong.’
Curious to see the monsters more clearly, Seoya climbed into the front seat, curling up with her feet on the passenger side.
“Aaaargh! I’m going to die!”
“Don’t kill me! No—just tear me to pieces and end it quickly…”
“What the…?”
From the rear, panicked voices were screaming disturbingly. What was their problem?
Seoya glanced at Baek Yena and Lee Gayun, who stood nearby, preparing something, eyes fixed on the ground, avoiding eye contact with the monsters.
How strange. Why couldn’t they even look the monsters in the eye?
‘Why are they so scared of those things?’
Tilting her head, Seoya looked at the herd of Crimson Buffaloes with a slanted gaze.
Whenever she prepared to use magic, Seoya’s dark blue eyes glowed with a vivid yellow hue. Her bright yellow irises locked directly onto the buffaloes.
It was a clear warning: If you come any closer, you’ll be the ones with your heads and bodies torn apart.
The herd trembled. One of the buffaloes that met Seoya’s eyes lowered its head completely and tucked its tail between its legs.
‘Yup. Weaklings.’
Seoya felt deflated. She had thought monsters would be more formidable than regular animals, but to her, they didn’t seem special at all. Animals usually fled the moment they locked eyes with her anyway.
She pouted slightly, then locked eyes with Baek Yena and Lee Gayun, who were staring at her.
“Unnie!”
As soon as Seoya opened the car door and stepped out, their expressions turned to panic.
“No! Get back in!”
Seoya looked calmly at Baek Yena, who was trying to push her back into the car.
“Unnie.”
“W-what?”
“If those monsters just keep backing up like that… would they end up going back into that hole?”
“…No. That gate only allows things to come out. Nothing can go back in.”
“I see.”
Hmm. So if the Crimson Buffaloes just fled in this direction, they’d eventually encounter people—and people would get hurt.
‘In that case…’
Seoya dodged Baek Yena’s hands and began walking forward.
Her small steps made no sound, yet the pressure in the air was unmistakable.
The hunt had begun.
***
‘This can’t be real.’
Lee Gayun stared at Seoya and the Crimson Buffaloes, eyes wide, hand clamped over her mouth.
With every step Seoya took forward, the buffaloes retreated two steps back.
‘She’s doing this with just her eyes?’
But the most shocking part was that Seoya, staring straight at the monsters, seemed completely unaffected—mentally and emotionally.
Could she have extremely high mental resistance? No, it was more like—
‘It’s as if she doesn’t even have a mental resistance stat.’
Seoya’s eyes glowed bright yellow, and blue mana swirled around her hands. Snapping out of it, Lee Gayun shouted.
“No! Stop!”
She rushed forward, grabbing Seoya’s arm and pointing at her hand. The blue mana faded away.
Seoya looked at her, puzzled, as if asking, Why did you stop me?
“Can’t I just kill them?”
“It’s not about whether you can…”
Seoya’s face remained cheerfully innocent, as if she hadn’t considered the consequences at all.
‘She’s clearly incredibly powerful…’
But still, asking a child this young to wipe out a bunch of monsters felt… wrong. Sure, there were Hunters the same age as Seoya active in this world, but—
‘Why does she look so much younger than them?’
It wasn’t just her appearance. Even accounting for looks, she felt younger. Why did it feel so wrong to ask her to fight?
‘Is it because she’s from another world—so fundamentally different from Earthlings?’
“Unnie, I told you I’m super strong!”
‘…And she really doesn’t think anything through.’
Lee Gayun should’ve known from the moment Seoya impulsively grabbed the steering wheel earlier.
She sighed and looked around—dashcams in the cars, scattered CCTV cameras, maybe even journalists watching from buildings with zoom lenses.
If Seoya really was that powerful, revealing her strength would be a problem.
She wasn’t registered in the Hunter ranking system. People would demand to know who she was.
“You can’t just use your power so freely in this world.”
“Why not?”
“Because if your power is discovered, it could bring trouble.”
“Hmm…”
Seoya tilted her eyes upward and groaned thoughtfully. Then she said with sudden clarity:
“Then we just need to make sure nobody knows I did it.”
She turned her back to the monsters, as if what was about to happen to them had nothing to do with her.
“What are you doing now?”
“I don’t know. I’m just standing here.”
“…What?”
“You guys are just standing here too.”
Her eyes suddenly glowed a piercing yellow.
“Ah…”
Lee Gayun looked up at the sky in awe.
Floating above the monsters were countless blue spears—easily over a thousand of them.
They had seen many surreal abilities since becoming Hunters, but this scale of power? It was practically unheard of.
“Now.”
As the tiny lips moved—
KRAKABOOM—
Thunderous roars erupted as a downpour of blue spears rained from the sky.
The Crimson Buffaloes were powerless against the overwhelming magical assault.
They let out strangled screams before a crimson lake of blood spread across the asphalt.
It was over in a flash.
So simple, so sudden, it made the scene feel even more unreal.
“See? All done.”
Seoya’s cheerful voice snapped Lee Gayun out of her daze.
The monsters lay sprawled across the ground, blood leaking from fatal wounds pierced precisely by blue spears. Gradually, the spears vanished along with the swirling blue gate in the distance, which began to spin and close.
Still stunned, Lee Gayun finally whispered:
“…Clear.”
B-rank Monster Wave: cleared in one minute by a single person.
***
“…Are you mentally okay?”
Lee Gayun asked cautiously as Seoya stood proudly, clearly expecting praise. But Seoya just tilted her head.
“Mental? What mental?”
“Did your mental strength not drop?”
“Why would it drop?”
She answered so casually, as if the question didn’t even make sense.
Normally, a person with under 100 mental resistance would go insane and die after killing that many monsters.
Yet Seoya…
When Lee Gayun looked at Baek Yena, she wore the same shocked expression.
‘She’s overwhelming.’
This wasn’t just a powerful Hunter. She was something beyond the scale Earth’s Hunters could compare to.
Maybe—just maybe—
‘She might be able to solo-clear an S-rank dungeon.’
The realization dawned on Lee Gayun, and she set her expression.
They had to keep this a secret.
“…So who should we say used that skill?”
“Do we have to come up with that too? Can’t we just say we didn’t do it?”
Seeing Seoya’s innocent face, Lee Gayun groaned and slapped her forehead.
She really didn’t think ahead…
Alright. Too late to back out now.
They had to protect her. Hide her.
That clueless, vulnerable look—if they left her alone, she would absolutely be exploited or put in danger.
Governments would start tracking whoever caused this. Not just Korea—the world might get involved.
And the one responsible for this absurd display of power was just a kid from another world?
They didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if that truth came out. With CCTV footage showing Seoya using her powers, there was only one option left.
Lee Gayun sighed again as she looked at Seoya, who beamed as if waiting for praise.
‘Yeah… if I let anything happen to her, I’d be garbage.’
As a responsible adult—and especially as a Hunter who protects others—she had a duty to protect Seoya.
“Yena, got any ideas how to explain this?”
Lee Gayun asked weakly.
Baek Yena scratched her short black hair in frustration.
So now they had to claim that something—something stronger than the top-ranked Hunters, with insane mental resistance—wiped out all these monsters… and they didn’t know what caused it?
And conveniently, the CCTV didn’t catch what actually created those blue spears.
What could they even say to the government or the press?
System error?
‘Actually… the best method might be…’
Blame it on someone else.
Even if they made up some excuse about rewards or system quirks, the authorities would still suspect the three people present.
But if they could redirect suspicion to someone else, they might get away.
“How do we even do that? There’s no one else on the CCTV. Who would we even—ah.”
Baek Yena’s mouth suddenly dropped open as she thought of a completely ridiculous idea.
Suppose there was a Hunter with absurdly high mental strength, who defeated the monsters.
What they needed was a fictional person to take the fall.
Someone who wasn’t caught on camera. Like… someone with an invisibility skill.
Yes…
“A Hunter with an invisibility skill.”
“…What?”
“An in… in… Invisible Hunter!”
