Free Web NovelThe Hunter Rankings, which lined Hunters up from top to bottom across the entire world. There had always been a steady stream of criticism over why people felt the need to rank Hunters in the first place when this wasn’t the BillXrd charts or the Olympics. Even so, there was a reason the Hunter Rankings were still going strong.
Because they were fun.
Of course, they couldn’t put that reason right out front, so there were all kinds of excuses instead. Things like needing to know Hunters’ rankings so priority assignments could be made when a high-risk Gate erupted somewhere in the world, or needing an intuitive way to indicate mana volume, or even that if people judged celebrities by brand reputation, why shouldn’t Hunters get the same treatment?
At this point, when everyone was already used to it, reconsidering the reason the Hunter Rankings existed didn’t mean much. In the first place, they weren’t divided up in meticulous detail based on mana volume alone. Rankings were assigned with things like the number and Rank of Gates a Hunter had cleared, plus the actual danger level of their Skills, all taken into account.
In other words, once you got past a certain tier of ranker, the Hunter Rankings themselves stopped meaning much. But at the same time, that also meant there was definite significance in separating out those “above a certain tier.”
Chase Holt, who had never once been pushed below third place in the Hunter Rankings and was, by any standard, the strongest fire-type Hunter alive, was—borrowing his father’s words—“a born degenerate.”
From the time he was young, Chase had pursued entertainment to an absurd degree, and if something seemed fun, he never hesitated to hurt other people for it. His family had some money, so paying settlements and bail and going in and out of holding cells had been an ordinary part of life.
Eventually, of course, his parents announced they were cutting ties with him. But Chase Holt had unbelievably good timing and luck.
Right when he lost his solid backing, he awakened as an S-rank Hunter.
There was no longer any excuse to lock up one of the tiny handful of S-rank Hunters capable of handling high-rank Gates. Even though his crimes increased compared to before, people started praising him for no reason other than the fact that he was an S-rank Hunter.
To someone who had never found killing particularly unpleasant to begin with, Dungeons were nothing more than a source of dopamine and adrenaline. He could rampage and slaughter to his heart’s content in there, then come back outside and do nothing but enjoy the power that came with being a high-rank Hunter....
'Easy.'
It couldn’t have been simpler.
But maybe because of that, Chase Holt got sick of Hunter work far too fast. The details changed, sure, but in the end it was the same Gates exploding day after day, the same unchanged companions, Dungeon rewards that at best could be converted into money. None of it excited him anymore.
And so, he ended up developing a slightly nasty hobby.
Not hunting Gates, but... putting Hunters down.
Strong Hunters were good because they were strong, and weaker Hunters were fun because they were weak. Just because someone developed a taste for hunting bears didn’t mean stomping ants to death lost its appeal.
If they even had the nerve to carry some pride in being Hunters themselves, all the better. The pleasure of grinding down that pride and making them fully realize the overwhelming gap in strength, then crushing them flat with it.
On top of that, the inside of a Dungeon was a kind of lawless zone.
Even if he killed someone in there, there was no way for the outside world to know. Even if he came under suspicion, there was no way to verify it, so punishment was anyone’s guess. Besides, no matter who he killed, wouldn’t that person still be worth less than “Chase Holt”?
Chase let the other search team members drift away and moved on by himself.
When he heard that an S-rank Gate had erupted in Australia, competitive excitement had surged up in him for the first time in a while. Not just because an S-rank Gate was dangerous, but because high-rank Hunters from all over would come swarming in to clear it.
Chase had given his little hobby a joking name.
“Hunting Hunters.”
And this place... was the perfect stage for a hunt like that.
'Would’ve been fun if that fire-type S-rank Hunter had come.'
He had been curious already when he heard that Korea had finally produced a fire-type S-rank Hunter. He’d thought that if he got the chance to fight that Hunter here, he’d be able to settle who stood above whom among fire-types.
But the support Korea actually sent turned out, absurdly enough, to be some... pathetic B-rank Hunters.
'Petty.'
He didn’t know much about that country’s circumstances, but he did know they’d taken a major hit from an S-rank Gate not long ago. So obviously they’d sent bastards like these to minimize their losses.
That was why, when he first met them, the whole thing had felt deflating.
He’d expected an S-rank, or at least an A-rank Hunter... and instead they’d sent nobodies like this.
But once he started talking to one of them, that impression began to shift little by little.
The attitude that made it seem like the bastard didn’t care about him at all even though, as a Hunter, there was no way he wouldn’t know who Chase was. The way he boldly, shamelessly cursed him out through a translator. Even the way he rejected him without hesitation in a meeting full of lawmakers. All of it grated on him.
He’d never seen a bastard look quite so openly determined to get under his skin. But Chase didn’t feel offended at that point. He simply shifted the direction of his thoughts.
'I’ll beat that attitude right out of him.'
In an S-rank Gate, the loss of one or two Hunters was unavoidable. All the more so if it wasn’t an S-rank Hunter like himself, but merely a B-rank Hunter who’d been let in with search duty in mind at best.
So this, too, would end up disguised as nothing more than an “unfortunate accident.”
Putting Dungeon clear duties aside, Chase searched all over the place looking for that bastard. Counting his companion, there were two of them, but against people at that level, he could deal with not just two, but ten at once.
And then it happened.
A familiar signal sounded to Chase, who had been strolling along while humming to himself as though he were out for a walk.
Beep beep beep beep—
'The pager.'
Chase checked the pager number and location, then crooked one corner of his mouth upward. As it happened, it was that Hunter.
The bastard had probably called thinking he was asking for help. If he realized what Chase was thinking right now, would that shameless face finally crack? Chase pretended to wonder, though inwardly he was already sure of it.
So Chase followed where the pager led with light steps and... at last arrived at the location it indicated.
And there, a huge tower stood by itself.
'This is....'
It was the tower visible even from far away. The kind of place that made you instinctively certain that if this Dungeon had once been a city that built a brilliant civilization, this had been its very center.
Staring blankly up at the spire towering so high its top couldn’t even be seen, Chase checked the pager once more.
It was still pointing toward the inside of that spire.
'Well, does it matter?'
It was a place he’d meant to search eventually anyway.
So Chase stepped into the tower.
Hummm—
A strange resonance wrapped around the inside of the tower. Feeling a vague sense of unpleasantness, Chase grabbed the stair railing to head upward.
That was when—
“It’s here.”
A familiar voice reached his ears. He turned his head on reflex, and there stood that Korean Hunter on the stairs, calling to him.
'What was his name again?'
He was sure he’d heard it, but maybe because it wasn’t a familiar name, he’d gone and forgotten it.
But Chase didn’t dwell on trying to remember. He hadn’t judged the name worth that much effort.
Instead, he sauntered over toward the Hunter and addressed him casually.
There was no particular reason to bother remembering the name of someone like this anyway.
“I gave that to you so you could call for help if you were in danger, but you look pretty damn peaceful.”
Chase tossed out the words lightly as he walked over.
And just as he said, the Korean Hunter didn’t look serious in the slightest for someone who had called another person in on a pager.
The bastard waited calmly for him with eyes that looked a little bored, but at the same time held a strange kind of interest.
Only Chase’s footsteps echoed hollowly through the empty tower.
“What about the others? You came with your friend, didn’t you?”
“Ah.”
When Chase mentioned the other Hunter, the bastard only then acknowledged it.
“I sent them somewhere else for a while. They’re a little scared of places like this.”
“Ha ha! A Hunter....”
It was ridiculous, if true. One bastard didn’t even realize the danger right in front of him, and the other was afraid of Dungeons.
At last arriving in front of him, Chase asked casually,
“So why exactly did you call me?”
“I found something out. You said I should at least find something.”
“You found something out?”
“You said you were looking forward to it.... It’d be a problem if I disappointed you, wouldn’t it?”
The bastard answered lightly and smiled.
Chase stared at him for a moment, then suddenly felt something off.
'...He’s way too calm.'
For a mere B-rank Hunter to be reacting like this while facing an S-rank Hunter inside an S-rank Gate....
That sense of wrongness instantly changed into a strange irritation. Chase slowly lowered the corner of his mouth, which had been raised in amusement, and answered in a cold voice.
“Disappoint me.... Fine. So what exactly did you figure out?”
“Where the Dungeon boss is.”
“.......”
“I thought you might be curious.”
The bastard was still perfectly calm. Chase no longer cared about the Dungeon boss in the slightest. In his head, there was only his nasty hobby and the urge to put this arrogantly clueless Hunter in front of him in his place.
Lifting his chin slightly, Chase looked at him and asked in a lowered voice,
“Does it not occur to you that calling me to a place like this... might have been a mistake? I’m not kind to Hunters.”
At that, the bastard stayed still for a moment as if turning Chase’s words over, then slowly raised his head.
“Hm?”
Was he finally starting to feel some danger now?
Still smiling, the bastard answered,
“I’m fairly kind myself.”
The bastard spouted something that sounded like nonsense, then smiled broadly. Broadly enough to look genuinely “kind.”
'What?'
And right after that, a noise rang out from above on the stairs.
Bang!
'What the hell?'
The instant Chase looked up on reflex, someone was coming down.
'No, someone?'
“Fuck—”
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
Looking back up at the stairs, Chase saw several dolls that looked like people spilling down toward them in a heap without the slightest hesitation. The clattering sound of their joints knocking together echoed grotesquely through the tower.
At that grotesque sight, Chase unconsciously took a step back, and into his ear came that same calm voice.
“This is bad.”
“.......”
“So now... should we run? I know the way.”
