Chapter 813 – Declaration of War
『Thanks to the seeker’s help, the small town is almost finished. However, the large city has a fairly large population, and the skills of the hunters defending the city are quite high, so we have only succeeded in securing citizens living in the outskirts.』
“Hmm…”
Seong-il is overcome by the desire to secure all the remaining citizens while he is in Busan.
“… I have a bad feeling.”
However, as soon as he thinks that, Seong-il feels a strong ominous feeling hitting his head. Therefore, trusting his own senses, he orders the hunters to finish the work to this point rather than pushing the work forward unreasonably.
『I will follow your orders!』
When Seongil’s order was given, the hunters quickly returned to Eden using the emergency return device without the slightest hesitation.
‘I should go too.’
Since Seong-il achieved quite an enormous result and even warned him, Seong-il did not bother to be more greedy and moved to Eden again.
***
“It’s a great success!! Seeker!!”
Thanks to the elixir, Seong-il was physically fine, but he was mentally exhausted, so he stayed up in his dorm until noon the next day as soon as he arrived in Eden. Seong-il wakes up late and arrives at the appointed meeting location, where he receives a report in an angry tone from an executive-level hunter.
“… I haven’t received the detailed report yet.”
“Ah… I’m sorry.”
The executive reports to Seong-il that he cleared as many as 200 dungeons the previous day and rescued as many as 1.2 million citizens nationwide.
“…1.2 million? I must have heard wrong, right?”
As numbers beyond imagination appear, Seong-il questions the psychic who gave the report in an absurd tone.
“It’s true!! Most of our Eden Hunters are triple level and high-ranking hunters with abilities ranging from A to S, so they were able to capture citizens like crazy… No, rescue them.”
When Seong-il hears that an unimaginable number of people have been secured by just over 1,000 hunters, Seong-il feels his mind go blank. Perhaps because he felt that Seong-il’s silence meant that he should report the method, the executives explained the reasons why they were able to rescue him.
“First… Most of our hunters are triple hunters with telekinesis, physical strength, and unique abilities, and they also have magic imprints and various artifacts, so they have overwhelming combat power compared to ordinary association hunters, so they can easily overpower them. That’s the first reason.”
“… What’s the second?”
Since it was quite an interesting story, Seong-il did not bother to correct his misunderstanding and began to calmly ask about the reason.
“Secondly, it is because we possess a variety of supernatural powers. The weapons of the old human civilization could not cause any damage to our Eden Hunter’s telekinesis and force field shield, so we thoroughly suppressed the opponent’s resistance and only used lead… No, “I was able to focus only on rescue.”
Hunter ultimately explains that all of this was possible because Seong-il supported him with various special benefits. A force field created by analyzing the Chronoshield, a swarm drone that allows you to grasp enormous amounts of information in a short period of time, and a combat ability that can crush enemy attacks overwhelmingly, etc.
In the meantime, perception, response, foresight, etc. Eden Hunter, who was able to engage in overwhelming information warfare with the combat ability of those who would not have dared to operate in the field in the past, reports that he was able to block and capture ordinary citizens very easily, no matter how they hid or escaped.
“When citizens tried to flee far out of the city, hunters with teleportation abilities simultaneously destroyed roads to destroy the citizens’ escape routes, while those with cognitive, sensitive, and precognitive abilities quickly collected the necessary information and entered the secret base in advance. We handed over the information collected through the installed dimensional information device, and the Gaia system and intelligence unit analyzed the information and quickly created a report that was distributed to the combat troops.”
‘You’re crazy.’
Seong-il is thrilled to realize that he has truly created a monstrous fighting army with insane abilities. Seong-il, who heard the details of the activities of the ideal hunter army with literally everything perfect, did not show it on the outside, but inside he felt his blood boiling.
“… In the case of a bunker or panic room, a person with 2D conversion ability or destruction ability can easily destroy the room…”
“Stop.”
Seong-il has already heard enough, so he interrupts the executive who is hesitating to report and looks at him.
“I am proud of you today.”
“…”
When the always solemn and weighty seeker gives them an affectionate compliment for the first time, the hunters feel their hearts warming up.
“Although there were quite a few serious injuries, there were no deaths. That makes me even happier.”
In the case of large cities, there were quite a few S-class hunters waiting among the enemies, so unlike small cities, hunters who entered the large cities not only did not achieve great results, but also saw a series of serious injuries.
However, that did not mean that they were incompetent, so Seong-il did not at all criticize the high-ranking hunters who fought fierce battles in the big city.
“Although there was a limitation in that we only fought fierce battles in big cities and did not achieve any great results.”
“…”
“But! Still, we at least succeeded in rescuing all the citizens living in small local towns. I think that’s even more amazing.”
The fact that they quickly rescued citizens in a wide-spread place symbolized how hard the Eden Hunters had trained so far, so Seong-il does not care at all about failure in the big city.
“A big city? We can attack anything like that if we get new hunters from the citizens we rescued and recruit more people.”
“That’s right!!”
Among the more than 1 million citizens, there would be quite a few people with non-combat abilities or low-level abilities with ordinary physical enhancement abilities, so Seong-il was confident that in half a year, he would be able to have more than twice the power he had before.
“And based on this experience, you will definitely be able to be promoted to S-class hunters. Then we will be able to hit them harder than before!! Am I wrong?”
“That’s right!!”
At Seong-il’s appealing shout, all the young hunters express their agreement with his words in an angry tone, as if their blood is boiling.
“You may need some rest, but I would like you to help with civil affairs operations for the time being.”
In his heart, Seong-il wanted to immediately give a sweet vacation to the hunters who accomplished great things today. However, the people who were suddenly kidnapped by the monstrous Hunter today will be trembling in fear, surrounded by an army of terrifying machines, so Seong-il tried to borrow the power of the Eden Hunter to prevent the agitation of the citizens he rescued.
“Of course it has to be done.”
They knew very well how much great things hunters like themselves could do in the ‘civil operation’ that Eden Hunter Seong-il spoke of, so they did not try to be swayed even by Seong-il’s words.
“I will work to the death until the citizens I rescued stop shaking!!”
“Don’t die.”
“Puhaha!!”
As he tells a light joke, unlike the always cynical seeker, laughter starts to bloom in the hall as if it had never been like that before.
“Please help me only until the rescued citizens stop agitating and obey G.E.C.R. After that, I swear on my name that I will guarantee you three months of vacation.”
“Wow!!”
When Seong-il offers an amazing reward, the hunters roar in unison. Seong-il, who was enjoying watching them, turned his body and started to leave the hall.
***
“What is the situation?”
『It’s smooth. At first, there was a lot of commotion, and some psychics attacked G.E.C.R. It caused unrest, but as hunters dedicated themselves to civil operations and promoted the cause of Eden, the unrest has almost subsided.』
One month later. Seong-il sits in his office and listens to the financial statements report from Edward. Fortunately, Seong-il is relieved to hear that the citizens he rescued are gradually becoming more stable.
As a huge number of people were rescued through event opportunities, citizens quarantined in each area often caused unrest, even though there were as many as 100,000 G.E.C.R.S controlling them.
In particular, in the case of psychics, they were able to cause some damage to G.E.C.R., So sometimes the situation could become serious.
However, in that case, the Eden Hunter would quickly appear, subdue the person of interest, imprison them in a place where dangerous people are isolated, and then ‘rehabilitate’ them.
At first, the citizens who were rescued by Eden’s strong control were strongly dissatisfied or afraid, but as Eden provided them with a quality life and constantly promoted to the citizens why they rescued them, which was tantamount to kidnapping, they eventually realized the truth. After realizing this, he began to gradually become more cooperative with Eden.
“I heard there are some people who don’t believe it?”
『Yes… Well, people with anarchist tendencies always exist in society. They were sent to a completely different dimension, the Inner Plane. At least now we won’t spread unrest to society.』
“Good.”