Auto Hunting

No. 147

Hawaii.

A small kiosk on the beach of Honolulu Island.

“Woo.”

Connie, a clerk who had just finished installing parasols and arranging the shelves, wiped her sweaty forehead.

It was a good morning, with great weather. The beach was still quiet except for a few surfers who were enjoying the dawn waves.

It was Connie’s favorite time of the day. The brightness of the morning hadn’t fully enveloped the island yet, and the sky was still dark.

However, as she looked at the horizon, it seemed there was something falling from the sky.

“Huh?”

Connie tried to recognize the shape as tension filled her.

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“Is it a bird?”

Like the natives who had spent many generations at sea, she had excellent eyesight.

Poof-!

She heard a loud splash, and spray proceeded to explode in all directions. It seemed something had fallen from the sky.

Judging by the impact, it was too heavy to be a bird.

‘An airplane, perhaps, or an artificial satellite?’

She put her hand over her eyebrows, trying to see clearer. She doubted what she saw.

The thing that had just fallen from the sky was now rapidly approaching the island. After a few seconds, the figure arrived on the white sand. It wasn’t a bird, of course. It wasn’t a part of an airplane or a satellite, either.

“What… a person?!”

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He looked to be in his late twenties, an Asian male with a perfectly proportioned body.

Instantly, a strange thought entered Connie’s brain.

‘An alien?’

The height from which he had fallen wasn’t one from which a human could be fine, even if the water had cushioned his fall. It was impossible that the figure standing on the beach was human. Connie grabbed her phone in a panic.

‘Where should I report it? The police? FBI?’

However, she was frozen in fear. The man was walking directly toward her store. There were a handful of people on the beach, but no one was as alarmed as Connie. Probably because they hadn’t seen how he dropped from the sky.

“Ugh…”

She felt her hand weaken its grasp on the phone as the man stepped up in front of her. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem like an alien at all. Aside from being soaked with water, nothing was strange about the man. He was the same as any Asian man one could find in Hawaii.

However, he didn’t look too good.

‘Was he hurt by the fall?’

She looked him up and down.

There didn’t seem to be any injury on him. However, the man looked exhausted, and his legs were trembling as if he had just finished a marathon.

“…….”

The man raised his hand.

Connie flinched for a moment, but she realized he was pointing at the menu board on the counter. The board had beverages drawn with chalk and their prices written beside them.

“Oh, would you like a non-alcoholic piña colada? The price will be the same as with rum mixed.” Her customer-service personality took over and set her in motion.

With a slight pause, the man nodded his head.

“It’s four dollars. Do you need anything else?”

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“…….”

“Excuse me?”

“Wait a minute.”

Hearing his accent made Connie realize that the man couldn’t speak English well.

He pulled out his cell phone, and Connie recognized it as a terminal, a model that hunters usually used.

‘Ah, he’s a hunter…’

Even for a hunter, dropping from that altitude and walking away uninjured wasn’t normal. However, to the general public, hunters were associated with many impossible things.

The tension in Connie’s heart melted like snow. Instead, she felt a different kind of excitement. Although there were hunters in Hawaii, she had never seen one up close. As the man showed her his Visa card’s QR code to pay for the beverage, she saw his name.

Oh Yoo-seong.

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It sounded familiar to Connie, but she couldn’t quite place it.

‘Oh Yoo-seong. Oh Yoo-seong. Oh Yoo-seong.’

As she prepared his drink, she repeated it several times in her head.

***

He didn’t need a straw.

As soon as she placed the glass in front of him, Yoo-seong took it and gulped it down.

In the blink of an eye, the tall mug was emptied out. A refreshing sensation cooled Yoo-seong’s throat and filled his stomach.

“Pa-ha…!”

After releasing a deep breath, Yoo-seong even took the ice from the glass and chewed on it. Even now, as he thought about it, it sounded ridiculous.

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‘Crossing the Pacific with Explosive Acceleration.’

He wanted to laugh. It wasn’t an act he’d just committed on impulse.

By absorbing the Habaek’s energy, his CE had increased again. Although he hadn’t got the chance to remeasure his numbers, he certainly felt his core had changed.

He felt a throbbing in his temples.

Yoo-seong was going to need to practice a lot on how to handle his CE without using Auto-Hunt.

As he adjusted his position in the chair, he felt severe pain through his entire lower body. He hadn’t expected this to be the case but apparently, using Explosive Acceleration for that distance put a strain on his muscles and veins.

After taking the Golden Pill, his veins had been strengthened enough not to be damaged even by excessive CE use. However, due to his doubled capacity and the regeneration ability he’d acquired, even his enforced veins couldn’t help but be strained as he released large amounts of CE for a long period of time.

In fact, on the way here, Yoo-seong had dropped several times into the sea due to the intense pain in his legs. He would float on the sea for about an hour to recover, and when the pain felt manageable, he continued on.

‘I need a break,’ he realized. ‘This ideal is not a matter of will. If I exert more pressure, there will be unnecessary damage to my body.’

Even Auto-Hunt would have stopped him at this point.

‘I need rehydration and nutrition, as well as at least a day of sleep.’

Still, he had made enough time to narrow the distance. He was still ahead of schedule, unlike if he had arranged his papers and waited for a flight.

‘If I take a nap at the beach for a short time…’

Unfortunately, he wasn’t in a state where he could easily fall asleep. More than the pain he felt at the moment, his mind was also restless. He felt anxious as he operations he had been through recently.

It seemed as if his body had reached its full potential and was no longer improving. This was a dilemma that most hunters faced after years of polishing and training their physical strength. While he could continue to strengthen himself by adding more CE and acquiring new skills, his physical condition needed to be able to handle more power.

Then he realized something.

There was pain in his muscles. It was evidence of an opportunity to grow.

As long as his muscles still hurt, he had room for further growth. It was clear to him what he had to do. He needed to train his body through constant repetition of CE release until it didn’t hurt anymore. Then, as his core continued to expand, the burden on his muscles would also increase proportionally.

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‘It’s not just the legs. I also have to release tremendous amounts of CE through my arms and the rest of my body.’

His heart was filled with excitement at the possibilities. Suddenly…

“Here’s your order!” A sweet voice disrupted his thoughts.

The woman placed his meal and drink in front of him.

As Yoo-seong raised his gaze, he saw the face of a shy female clerk.

“You… EpicSexyHunterGuy, right? I saw you on Twitter.”

“…….”

She spoke slowly, perhaps because she was aware that Yoo-seong didn’t speak her language well. Only then did Yoo-seong realize the meaning of the marker she had brought with his meal.

“Where?” he asked as he took the pen.

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“Here!”

The woman stretched the bottom of her white T-shirt toward Yoo-seong. As she did, the neckline of her shirt was pulled down, showing him her cleavage. As the sight unfolded before him, Yoo-seong felt embarrassed and turned his head slightly as he wrote his signature on her shirt.

“Thank you! Is it okay to ask you for a photo?”

“…Yes.”

The woman seemed to be very excited, and Yoo-seong couldn’t help but feel nervous as he posed beside her.

Even though he was a celebrity, he still didn’t feel comfortable being treated like a star.

It was all the more embarrassing for him to be treated this way by a foreigner abroad.

After taking a photo with him, the woman walked back to her stall with a giddy expression. She wanted to stay with Yoo-seong for a little more time, but there was already a line forming in front of the stall. Seeing this, Yoo-seong peeled his eyes away from her and picked up his fork.

As soon as he tried to start eating, he realized something. There was already a line in front of the stall. The sun was up, and people were already crowding the beach and the shops.

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They were beginning to recognize him.

“That, isn’t he that guy?”

“Right?! He was in the Tokyo Disaster!”

“Even in China…”

“My cousin is a big fan of his…”

In the blink of an eye, the kiosk was full. Everyone wanted to talk with him or ask him for a photo.

Yoo-seong obliged at first but soon felt overwhelmed at the number of autographs he’d had to sign and photos he’d had to take. He raised his palms to the crowd as if asking for space.

The crowd was polite and understood his gesture, but one man entered the shop and walked straight to his table before pulling up a chair opposite Yoo-seong and sitting on it without asking for permission.

The look the man gave seemed as if he was challenging Yoo-seong.

“I, that’s…!”

People who were watching the scene raised their voices.

“It’s Ali!”

“Oh, isn’t he the CEO of Kohala Company?”

Whether they were tourists or native Hawaiians, they recognized the man in front of Yoo-seong. The man they called Ali had brown skin filled with tattoos and a large body with ripped muscles.

‘Those tattoos…’

Oddly enough, Yoo-seong felt a small amount of CE on them as his eyes followed their shape.

‘Like a hunter’s core; does his tattoo act as some kind of CE storage?’

“I know who you are.”

Ali opened his mouth, and the crowd held their breath.

“You’re an excellent hunter, but we don’t need you here.”

The crowd oohed and aahed, feeling excited at Ali’s confident words.

He was a respected hunter admired throughout the island. The crowd turned to Yoo-seong, waiting for his response with great expectation. However…

“I…”

Yoo-seong looked a little embarrassed as he spoke,

“English. I’m not good. Sorry.”

The next moment…

Ali’s face turned red as the crowd erupted with laughter.