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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Scrap-grade Helper (2)
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Su-ho's grip tightened on the walkie-talkie.
He had been agonizing over it. Should he just head into the Teleport Zone like this, or steel himself for death and rush in to provide support?
Staring at the walkie-talkie spilling out the voice of Team Leader Kang—who had always despised him so much—Su-ho muttered to himself.
"...What's the point of me going?"
It would be a miracle if he didn't get an earful of abuse. If Su-ho showed up for support, Team Leader Kang would just glare at him like, Why the hell are you here?
Su-ho was an F-grade Helper. Even if he performed a Clean, it would barely be enough to make a Hunter's finger twitch. There was no point in going just to get chewed out for being useless.
With resolve etched on his face, Su-ho stepped toward the Teleport Zone but suddenly halted.
The Helper badge hanging around his neck swayed in the wind. Su-ho stared at the badge bearing his own face and stopped in his tracks.
His mind flashed back to the day he first received it—the naive days when he dreamed of becoming a cool hero, fighting mutated monsters alongside Hunters.
Well, those dreams had crumbled the very next day after he scored an F in the ranking test.
Rank-ups did happen sometimes. Just one person worldwide had gone from D to C. But with odds that abysmal for just one rank up, F or E made no difference to Su-ho. He harbored no hopes.
He was doomed to endure contemptuous stares as an F-grade for life.
He didn't care if Team Leader Kang lived or died, but after finally reaching the field he'd longed for, turning back without doing a thing felt wrong. And maybe there was a Hunter who actually needed his help.
This might be a chance that wouldn't come again. Even as an F-grade, if he could offer even a little assistance, he'd be satisfied.
Su-ho pulled a palm-sized red vial from his bag. Inside was a drug that maximized Hunter Clean efficiency.
Without hesitation, he downed it. Bitter medicine slid down his throat, and heat surged through his body.
Su-ho slowly lifted his head, his eyes sharpening with feral intensity.
This was his chance to remember he was a Helper, not some guard dog protecting the house.
"I can't just chicken out and run."
It was time to show the world the potential of a so-called scrap-grade Helper.
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The site was a bloodbath. Hunters, Helpers, and monsters lay tangled indiscriminately on the ground.
"Fuck!! Clean properly!"
"I'm trying! You just... block properly... ugh... aaarrgh!"
A scream made the A-grade Hunter whip his head around. The Helper who'd been Cleaning him moments ago had lost her head. In its place, a moth-like monster the size of an adult torso gnashed its grotesque maw.
"Y-you psycho...!!"
The Hunter spread his palm toward the monster. A flash erupted from his hand, instantly punching a hole through the beast that had devoured the Helper's head.
He thought he'd killed it, but something squirmed around the hole in its mouth. Maggot-like things writhed, devouring the corpse and growing at terrifying speed.
It was a horrifying, spine-chilling sight.
"Burn it! Burn it all!!!"
But the fire-wielding Hunter was already dead.
There was no hope.
"At this rate... we'll all... die like dogs."
The survivors were two A-grade Hunters and Team Leader Kang, the B-grade Helper. Every time a mutated monster died, its corpse decomposed, spawning more like multiplying pests.
No matter how many support requests they sent, the Hunters and Helpers scattered across other zones were in no position to respond. No one answered.
It was endless. Escaping through the horde already surrounding the three of them was impossible.
They were rats in a trap.
"Fuck, I don't wanna die!!"
Terror of imminent death drove one Hunter to scream hysterically, only agitating the mutated monsters further.
Kiriririk. Kkigigik.
The grotesque monsters emitted eerie cries as they advanced on the trio.
Su-ho, who had just arrived at the scene, froze in despair. The shock hit him like it had upon first arrival.
Could he really make a difference? Or would he just be a burden?
Overwhelming helplessness and fear crushed his shoulders. He could do nothing. This wasn't something an F-grade Helper could fix.
Not even A-grade Hunters and B-grade Helpers could handle it.
"Aaarrgh!!!"
With a scream, the Hunter in front of Team Leader Kang floated into the air—then split cleanly in half. Su-ho's face drained to ashen gray as the bisected body thudded to the ground.
Now only one A-grade Hunter, Team Leader Kang, and Su-ho watching from afar remained.
The lone Hunter spat curses, plunging into panic. He hurled telekinetic blasts, flinging everything around—monster corpses, comrades' bodies, rocks, trees—at the beasts. But his aimless frenzy in panic yielded little effect, wasting energy instead.
"...Fuck."
The Hunter's mutter came low. His breathing grew ragged, eyes clouding over. Danger signs.
A signal of overexertion, teetering on rampage.
Everyone knew rampaging Hunters lost their minds and self-destructed.
Team Leader Kang pressed his hand to the Hunter's back, squeezing out his last dregs of power for a Clean. He knew if this final Hunter died, he was next.
"Snap out of it! Forget fighting—focus on escaping first...!"
"Shut up!"
The Hunter's eyes reddened, his mind eroding under the power's encroachment. He thrashed wildly.
With physical contact the only way to Clean, Team Leader Kang—hands on the Hunter—was in agony.
"If this keeps up, we're both done for!"
Team Leader Kang was at his limit too, drained from Cleaning.
A Hunter on the brink of rampage. Monsters eyeing them like fresh meat.
Team Leader Kang slumped to the ground, abandoning the Clean with a face sensing doom.
Su-ho clenched his fists.
Helplessness bore down. Even in a kill-or-be-killed moment, he was powerless. Would an A-grade Helper have fared better? Or if he'd been a Hunter? Were monsters always this strong?
No—it was him who was weak. F-grade, no better than a civilian. His gripped fists trembled faintly.
"Helpers... what the hell. No different from civilians!"
Still, he couldn't just stand by. Even if Team Leader Kang was a bastard, Su-ho's conscience wasn't that rotten. And as an F-grade, he was still a Helper. He couldn't ignore a Hunter on the verge of rampage.
He snatched the sturdiest branch rolling on the ground. It felt solid, filling his hand nicely. Gripping it, Su-ho raised his head.
He knew it was reckless, but he'd buy time somehow. Until reinforcements from the Center arrived.
Right then, a grotesque monster opened its maw toward the Hunter, who seemed ready to explode.
No more hesitation. Su-ho raised the branch high.
"Hey, you fucking bastards!!!"
His voice echoed. Monsters, the red-eyed Hunter, even Team Leader Kang—all eyes locked on him.
"Come at me! I'll take you all on. Bring it!"
Team Leader Kang scowled at the unexpected intruder—the scrap-grade guard dog Su-ho.
What gave him the confidence? He scoffed bitterly and looked away, expecting nothing.
But Su-ho didn't give up. He screamed and taunted the halted monsters. And it worked.
"Come on already?! You mutant shits!!"
Sensitive to noise, perhaps—the monsters' feet turned toward Su-ho one by one. Even the last one eyeing the Hunter pivoted to him. Su-ho bolted.
As he ran, the monsters surged after him en masse.
Kiiiiiik. Kiriririk.
Emitting bizarre shrieks like they'd rip him limb from limb, they pursued.
Much later, left alone with the Hunter, Team Leader Kang stared blankly into the forest where Su-ho and the monsters had vanished, wondering what the hell he'd just witnessed.
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When his lungs burned at the brink, Su-ho skidded to a halt. The monsters, waiting for it, closed in like a noose.
Red liquid—who knew whose blood—mixed with slimy saliva dripped from their maws. They bared fangs, ready to devour him.
As Su-ho squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for death, the approaching monsters slunk backward.
From killers chasing him to retreaters—he sensed something off.
A foul stench assaulted his nose in the chill air. Worse than the corpse reek from the Teleport Zone descent.
Overpowered by the indescribable rot, Su-ho slowly turned toward the source.
"Ha... I'm screwed."
Now he understood why the grotesque monsters had stopped.
If hell had a devil, it'd look like this. On another level from the others. Its sheer size and menace choked the breath from him—a five-story building equivalent.
Skin melted with flowing gore. Beneath split flesh, crimson eyes roved, scanning him up and down.
Probably a boss-grade mutated monster. Why else would the others back off?
Just eye contact sent chills racking his body.
Enter the tiger's den alert, and you'd be fine? Bullshit.
Better to lose his mind than stay conscious while being torn apart—Su-ho debated passing out.
Staring at the approaching boss, he shut his eyes in dazed resignation.
If he was dying anyway, he wanted to take at least one monster with him. So they'd remember the scrap-grade Helper felled a beast.
Su-ho opened his eyes and gripped the branch, charging at the boss—
Whoosh—
Scorching heat rippled as flaming chains unfurled in the air.
Red chains. Familiar from somewhere, but he couldn't place it. Su-ho just gawked upward blankly.
Writhing like serpents, the chains swept a circle around him in an instant.
It happened in a flash.
The heads of the retreating mutated monsters thudded to the ground, one by one.