The First Hunter

Chapter 40. The World After Death, Part III

Translator: Khan

Editor: RED

8.

Asagiri Jamboree Golf Club…

‘It is a golf course located on the east side of Mt. Fuji, the Divine Mountain of Japan, and it has many advantages. Famously, it is one of the few golf courses where someone can see his own ball flying toward the top of Mt. Fuji. It is also a place where many golfers want to play a round once.’

Of course, all of this was before 2017. As it entered the fall of 2017, it was not possible to find an image of a golf course anywhere in the Asagiri Jamboree Golf Club. The lawns, which had always been neatly trimmed, were dead, and the place was occupied by swathes of hearty weeds, and the landscaped trees were now showing a wildness belying the hands of man.

The finishing stroke was taken by two guests who had visited this golf course about a year ago. Kim Tae-hoon appeared in the black military uniform of the special forces, and Musashi was wearing a colorful kimono. There was no room for the words ‘golf course’ to intervene in the presence of those two.

“Kim Tae-hoon.”

They were facing each other, ten meters away.

“I heard you speak Japanese.”

It was a distance where they only needed to raise their voices a little to talk to each other.

“So I’ll speak Japanese.” The voice spitting out the words was loud, and the emotions in the voice were also strong and explicit. He was angry, wary at the same time, and yet confident on the other hand.

“You touched something you shouldn’t have touched.”

On the contrary, there was no sign of fear.

“Now, you will pay for it. Starting with your death, everything will be ravaged. Everything you want to protect and everything on the Korean Peninsula will be wiped out. I promise!”

However, the words of Musashi, which were blocked by nothing, did not continue. “Why don’t you speak?”

Kim kept silent! It was not so good to see Musashi talking to Kim, who was not answering.

Kim finally answered at the question of Musashi. “Ten seconds. I’ll attack in ten seconds. This is the last of my courtesy.” After finishing his speech, he shouted “TEN!” in Japanese. Then, he began to lower the number in turn.

‘How dare you…!’ Musashi’s face was firm. It was the first time he had ever been ignored since he had become an Awakener after the monsters appeared. He had never been ignored, even by monsters. He was always a threat to monsters. It would be strange if he was not angry. But he did not leave himself in anger at this moment.

‘Yes, this is the end of your bluff.’

The opponent in front of him was such a monster that he could not guarantee his victory. No matter how much they promised to fight without the help of any relics under the understanding, he was the monster of the monsters who ate a dark blue-grade monster stone.

‘I’m the one who will win.’

Of course, Musashi could not guarantee victory, but he did not doubt his victory. He would be hurt, but there was no doubt that God would choose him in the end. He thought this moment was one of the great hardships and adversity that God gave him, and the page he had to go through before he moved on to a new chapter.

“いち.”

When Musashi was preparing for his decision, the moment the number 1 was spoken, the number made Musashi charge ahead like a Formula Racing car.

‘Jerk!’ He injected the power God had given him to his powerful body, his A Rank Energy. His body was an iron horse moving at a dead run. It became a monster that nothing could stop. It was at the level that just bumping into it was enough to crush someone. Even few monsters could avoid him physically.

‘Don’t ask for mercy!’

There was nothing wrong with his action. His choice was right, his body and Energy synergized wonderfully. The only problem was one… the man in front of him was Kim Tae-hoon.

‘Huck!’ His rush stopped. The chains of an enormously powerful Telekinesis had tied his whole body in a moment. He stopped and stiffened up.

‘Oh, no way!’ He struggled to tear away this oppressive power, but it was not easy. No, if he was given time, Musashi was confident of being able to shake off this power. But he didn’t have a long time. He needed just a second. He was confident that he would be able to shake off the chain if he was given about a second, frankly.

On the other hand, a second was all the time Kim needed to kill Musashi, who had come too close to him.

‘Ah!’ Only then did Musashi actually see Kim Tae-hoon. ‘It was all his aim,’ he thought, ‘and the countdown was a trap…’

Musashi could see the hair that had turned white, like the fur of the Eight-tailed Fox, and the eyes of the Fox that reminded him of it, and the image of Kim’s black fist coming at him.

Ppaak! And that was the last thing he saw.

9.

Kim Tae-hoon and Musashi promised three things ahead of the battle.

One, only two fight.

Two, they don’t get the help of relics.

Three, defeat is accepted as a defeat of the nation.

The reason why the wide golf course became the stage of the duel was due to the first promise.

‘If they see something, if a lot of power moves, there are not many stages where they can notice it.’

Of course, this promise had a blind spot. For the Iga ninjas who could hide themselves in the shadows, it was not difficult to hide in the golf course and approach them without being seen by the target, with the power of the relics.

Matsumoto Kanyo secretly called the ninjas and ordered them, “When the Lord and Kim Tae-hoon attack together, when the battle begins, and when the gap is seen, all of you attack Kim Tae-hoon. Don’t worry about the Lord’s anger. Kill Kim Tae-hoon with enough determination to crush your own bones.”

It wasn’t over there. Since then, the disciplined ninjas began training with a number of scenarios in mind. They made a manual for all situations.

‘Huh?’

‘What?’

But there was no such thing in their manual, after the battle began, a single punch shattered the sun they were supposed to protect and serve. It was a shock that didn’t even allow for embarrassment.

And that was what Kim Tae-hoon aimed for. He had already anticipated that there was no reason for Musashi to come alone, and there was already ninjas everywhere. So, he intentionally provoked Musashi to end the duel in one punch.

He knew that if the battle against him was prolonged, it would be dangerous for himself. Of course, having achieved what he wanted, he moved on to the next step.

A ring of flame began to hover around his body.

Anger Soaring! The skill that had already worked against the ninjas hidden in the shadows once again appeared.

The explosion that burst out with thunder and fire blew away the ninjas as they were quietly breathing around him.

“Aaaaaaargh!”

“Khuck!”

Screams began to rage all over the place. But even those screams didn’t last long.

Kim, whose hair had turned white, lifted his palms and showed a lump of basketball-sized bundle of translucent spheres.

They were Telekinetic Beads.

The beads were the power achieved after, eating the crystal of the Eight-tailed Fox. He gave his power to the Telekinetic Beads that he created.

‘I did not expect that the power of Ghost Turtle is used like this!’

As he injected the power of the Ghost Turtle, the Devil Shield, into it, the shape of the Telekinetic Beads changed to the devil face on the back of the Ghost Turtle.

“Ugh…”

“Huck!”

The Devil Shield that terrorized everything it faced made them mannequins as those who survived in the explosion regained consciousness, and attempted to attack him. The battlefield began to tingle with fear.

Kim moved in the fear.

10.

A man was walking on the golf course, now reddish with blood. The man was Matsumoto Khan, who had to lead the battlefield from a safe distance. But now he was on the battlefield himself. There was only one reason: to declare surrender.

‘It was my misjudgment. I dared to misjudge the monster Kim Tae-hoon, and I ruined everything.’

‘I have to surrender unconditionally.’ It was an inevitable choice.

‘The result of a war of attrition is destruction.’

Japan has lost Musashi. He was hope. He was the sun that rose in Japan, and he was the only sun. His sun could brighten the nightmare world dominated by the two dark blue-grade monsters still in Hokkaido, and a monster called the King of the Sea ranging the East Sea.

But now there was no Musashi. There was no way to stop one of the monsters of Hokkaido coming down to Tokyo right now. That was the first reason for surrendering. “I will surrender unconditionally, and I will hand over all the rights of the Japanese Empire to Korea.”

“I will also humbly accept any punishment for this.” And the second reason for surrender was to plan the following.

‘I will give you everything. I will dedicate you everything. I will plan the following in return.’

‘There is nothing perfect in this world, nothing eternal. The same is true of defeat. There is no perfect defeat, no eternal obedience.’

‘I’ll bow my head right now, but one day I’ll look up and see the sun again.’

There was no way that Japan could not do that. Joseon was independent only until the Japanese colonial period. At least that was what Matsumoto Kanyo thought. So, he came here to survive, and then he knelt down to make life somehow in exchange for the unspeakable humiliation, and to get Kim Tae-hoon’s sympathy and mercy by showing the most depressing appearance that could be shown.

“Please accept our surrender.” Matsumoto Kanyo’s attempts and thoughts were not wrong.

“If you survive, you can do anything.” The only problem was that the man in front of him was Kim Tae-hoon.

“Betrayal, revenge, retaliation, reversal… those are the things you can do when you are alive. Nothing is possible if you die.”

Kim Tae-hoon blackened his fist with his words. “Matsumoto Kanyo, so will you. If you want to survive, you’ll do anything, and wait for a crack.”

Matsumoto Kanyo shouted with some embarrassed eyes at the words. “Show me mercy! If you do not, you will be criticized internationally!” In such a situation, Matsumoto Kanyo made his last vocalization.

“An international criticism?”

“Yes, yes! In this way, the world will think of you as an enemy! Will you turn the world against you?”

At the last words, Kim punched with his fist instead of answering. Ppaak! A horrifying sound rang through the world.

11.

Kim knew the fact better than anyone else about what the group that the collapsed command team would face later. He had to know because it was the main mission he did during his military days to remove the head of a group, the leading members, and the command structure.

‘Surprisingly, the time for confusion when the command collapses is not very long, because they are human beings. When the head at the top is cut off, those who are below him start their own judgment. Now they start tapping the calculator without reading the countenances of their superiors.’

‘The confusion comes when the thoughts and judgments from a lot of heads are set to a controversy. In other words, the time they knock on the calculator is a golden time that can calm the confusion.’

“Hiyoshi, the Kyushu branch manager, I will now appoint him as governor of the Japanese Government-General.”

Kim had no intention of missing the golden time. At the same time, he knew who should be his agent at this moment.

“You mean the Kyushu branch manager, Hiyoshi?”

“Yes.”

Kim Tae-hoon was planning to put Hiyoshi as the new head in Japan when its old head disappeared.

“Can I ask you why?”

‘It is hard to understand, of course. The Kyushu branch manager Hiyoshi is not a man close to Korea, nor is he a man of respect and courtesy to Korea. He is not a faithful, loyal man. Rather, he is a man who is willing to give the profit of the organization to a dog for his own benefit. Is not that the reason why Kim Tae-hoon and his men were able to enter Japan without blood?’

“He’s already a traitor.” It was the basis for setting him up as a head of Japan.

“If I give him power, there will be a group of rebels against him and then he will want to crush them to live, because he is greedy. He’ll fight to keep what’s in his hands.”

“But he’s Japanese…”

“As we remember Ye Wanyong the traitor, who we should have killed more than Ito Hirobumi, most grudges will turn to him if Hiyoshi becomes the head.”

The men nodded at the explanation of Kim, who was so reasonable. At the same time, the men had their last question. “Hiyoshi, will he accept this offer?”

Kim answered the question calmly. “Do you think he’ll choose to kill himself?”

There were no more questions at the answer. In addition, Kim no longer filled his mind with worries about Japan.

‘Now, the Six Snakes won’t be still.’

As long as Japan had been attacked and had fallen, the Six Snakes would not let this fact go. So, Kim was worried.

‘What would I do if I were the Six Snakes? What will be the next step the Six Snakes take?’

At that moment, Kim’s gaze turned in the opposite direction of Mt. Fuji, where the largest island of the Republic of Korea was located.

‘They’ll use that method.’

After finishing his thought, Kim turned his head north.

‘Then I’d better clean up North Korea first.’

12.

It was a more luxurious room than anywhere else, a room filled with brilliant relics, powerful and unbelievable relics that emitted light on their own.

There was a young man, with a magnifying glass, staring at a globe. Then the man began to write something down on a sheet of paper, as if he had found something over the magnifying glass.

A woman entered the room where the man was. “Mr. Mao.”

As soon as she appeared, the man, who was still looking at the globe with a magnifying glass, said to the woman, who had knelt on the floor and bowed her head, “Tell me briefly.”

“Musashi has died.”

At that, the young man, Mao, turned his head and looked at the woman. “Send an Okjo to Major Chinshan, who entered North Korea.”

“What’s the contents to be sent?”

“We must withdraw the troops. What does it mean to hit Korea right now, when Japan is down?”

“Then what about Japan…”

Mao paused and began to worry at the question of the woman.

The woman spoke to him cautiously. “If Japan’s military and South Korea’s military forces are combined… it will not be easy to put pressure with military action. If you want to do so, you have to lead a lot of troops, and it will be easier to become a monster’s target.”

“I suppose so.”

“And the assassination of Kim Tae-hoon…”

“It’s not possible. According to the information of Major General Lee Ki-soo, he’s the best assassin in the world, and we appreciate him being a hunter.”

Mao, who was speaking, smiled lightly as if something had come to his mind. “Then we just have to give the hunter a suitable, serious problem. Send some people to Jeju Island.”

“Yes?”

“I’ll see if Kim Tae-hoon can stand in front of a real dark blue monster.”

“It can’t be…”

“Wake up the dragon.”

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“Readers, I will not be posting new chapters from tomorrow even though I’ve nearly finished translating the First Hunter. There’s some stuff going on behind the scenes at Qidian here, and I am going to wait for them to get resolved. It may be a few days before the story restarts… or never, if these things don’t get resolved. I thank you for your understanding, and I hope to get new chapters out to you as soon as possible!” – From Khan.