Episode 34: The Demon’s Follower

[Leaf of the Former World Tree (Conifer Version)]

Seeing that thing pop out of my smartphone, my mind went blank.

I just vaguely assumed it would be a broadleaf.

Never once did I think a conifer would come out.

Did the former World Tree live in the polar regions?

No, as the pinnacle of all trees, maybe the World Tree’s habitat doesn’t matter.

Maybe it switches freely—sometimes conifer version, sometimes broadleaf version.

Still, it wouldn’t turn into a cactus.

…It wouldn’t, right?

“Leaf? Where did that giant leaf even come from?”

“More importantly, what’s with the sprout above your head? Did that sprout just wipe out all the poison?”

“Yes, I think so. They said it’s Mr. Do-woon’s skill.”

“That’s a skill?”

Hearing the conversation between Woo Yeon-hoo and Yoo Jae-yi from behind snapped my drifting mind back to reality.

This was no time to be leisurely examining the leaf.

The leader-mask guy was still up in the sky.

I stretched out my left hand and picked up the leaf that appeared above my smartphone.

I could feel the energy of the World Tree warmly wrapping around my body.

Just as I expected.

As long as I had this, I could block that bastard’s poison like a talisman.

I turned right away to hand it to them.

Woo Yeon-hoo was staring at the leaf in my hand, and Yoo Jae-yi was eyeing the sprout above my head.

“…….”

A man holding a giant leaf with a sprout on his head.

Imagining myself from a third person’s perspective, there was no way I could look like a normal person.

I could understand why they were looking at me in disbelief.

Even I couldn’t stop my eyes from drifting to the leaf over and over.

With countless spines like a hedgehog’s quills, it seemed I could pluck each one and throw it like a spear.

The spear in Woo Yeon-hoo’s hand was about the same length and thickness as this leaf.

“Mr. Do-woon, are you alright?”

“I just thought of something interesting.”

“Huh?”

Ignoring his question, I looked up at the sky.

Maybe because the sprout was summoned above its head, the guy still looked in bad shape.

Trying to snap out of it, he shook his head wildly, causing his body to drift back and forth in the air.

He looked exactly like a mosquito that got hit with household insecticide.

Centipede, my foot. He’s a mosquito, all right.

“Ugh! You wretched brat! What have you done?! What’s this disgusting smell?!”

Looking at him, I felt like I could guess what would happen next…

Growing confident, I instinctively put my smartphone back in my pocket and plucked a leaf from the giant leaf.

The long leaf in my hand felt sturdy and springy, as if I was really holding a spear.

If a tree branch shaped like a log made for a perfect weapon, maybe this leaf would be just as perfect.

“Hold still, would you!”

I pulled my body to the right and threw the leaf like a javelin.

Whoosh!

The leaf left my hand and soared into the sky.

At that moment, the mosquito guy snapped out of it and glared at me.

He could recover his senses because the sprout on his crown had disappeared.

“What trick is this now…!”

He shouted as he swung his arm to bat the leaf away.

Thud!

“…What?”

But what got knocked away wasn’t the leaf—it was his arm.

The leaf easily pierced right through his arm.

A leaf that pierces an arm…

Now that I knew my attack worked, what I needed to do was simple.

While he was flustered by the leaf impaling his arm, I would just keep throwing more.

“Wait, what is—stop…!”

One shot, two shots.

Every time a leaf struck his body, he yelled at me to stop.

Asking for mercy in that tone wasn’t going to make me stop.

He couldn’t dodge any of the leaves I hurled in rapid succession.

“Gaaaaah…!”

With several leaves embedded in him, he crashed down to the ground.

Looking at him, I felt the satisfaction of having caught every mosquito that kept me up on a summer night.

I felt completely refreshed.

Even with five leaves stuck in him, he still wasn’t dead.

Struggling, he shouted at me.

“Ugh… The Crowd will hunt you down!”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be waiting.”

I muttered half-heartedly as I walked over to him.

He glared at me like he wanted to kill me, ranting about how I “won’t die peacefully” and that “my comrades will surely avenge me.”

Despite the black blood gushing out—he was clearly the one about to die—his mouth never stopped.

“We who serve His will are etern—!”

He never finished his sentence, his eyes losing all light.

He died with his eyes open, so full of resentment he couldn’t even close them.

“Jeez, what a nasty guy.”

Just like with Kim Jung-chul, the corpse returned to a human appearance.

If he’d died in that transformed state, I could’ve taken him to the government or the Association to prove the existence of the demon’s followers, but no luck.

No matter how you looked at it, it was just a human corpse—I couldn’t exactly carry it around.

Maybe if I dissected it I could find something different…

But as is, it would only be evidence of a murder.

[You have defeated a Demon’s Follower. (2/10)]

[Current Completion Reward – Leaf of the Former World Tree.]

Looks like this quest can be completed in stages.

For every two I defeat, I get another reward: a leaf from the former World Tree.

“Is it going to be another conifer version?”

I muttered briefly, then closed the message window without claiming the reward.

The more of them I catch, the better the reward gets.

I’ll finish the quest when I can get the best reward.

With that decision in mind, I pulled the leaves out of the guy’s body.

“What are you, really?”

Yoo Jae-yi came over and asked as I searched the corpse after removing the leaves.

I couldn’t just admit I was the World Tree’s caretaker, so I pretended not to hear and kept rummaging in my pocket.

She tapped me on the shoulder and squatted next to me.

“Don’t pretend you didn’t hear me.”

Then she looked at me.

A few strands of hair slipped down her neck, following its gentle curve.

“Haha…”

“Don’t try to brush it off with a laugh.”

Even as she said that, Yoo Jae-yi didn’t press any further.

She decided to let it go, having figured out my intentions.

She searched the corpse with me.

From a pocket on the opposite side, one I hadn’t checked, she pulled out a wallet.

“A terrorist carrying a wallet? Oh, there’s even an ID.”

“Probably a fake.”

“Still, let’s check it out.”

Woo Yeon-hoo, sitting across from us, reached out his hand.

She handed over the ID and wallet, and he examined the ID.

His eyes widened as he checked it.

“It’s real.”

“Huh? Why would it be real?”

He took out a Hunter license from the wallet and examined it.

“This one’s real, too.”

“What kind of terrorist has a real ID?”

“Pride. Or arrogance, maybe.”

“Are they just idiots?”

“How can you tell?”

“Ah… I once made a fake license for someone. That’s how I learned to spot the difference.”

As he said this, Woo Yeon-hoo glanced at me.

Yoo Jae-yi caught the look and grinned, realizing who “someone” was.

She didn’t ask why or for what the fake was made.

She probably already knew.

A D-rank Hunter hunting monsters in an A-rank Gate for materials—anyone could guess what happened.

Woo Yeon-hoo handed me the ID and license.

“The name is Yong Du-sik. B-rank Hunter.”

“B-rank?”

A B-rank Hunter producing poison strong enough to overwhelm an A-rank Hunter?

It was hard to believe, so I checked the license myself.

It really said “B-rank Hunter.”

Thud…

My fingers lost strength and I dropped the ID and license I’d been holding.

It wasn’t because the poison had finally affected me.

It was something else—an instinctive suspicion that came to mind.

“No way, it can’t be…”

Kim Jung-chul, a C-rank Hunter, used aura blades, which are supposedly the domain of A-ranks.

Since he was just imitating, he was really B-rank.

After transforming, he’d be A-rank.

Same for Yong Du-sik.

A B-rank Hunter, after transforming, displayed power greater than an A-rank.

That means it all comes down to one thing.

They gain at least one tier of power.

“Mr. Do-woon?”

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

So what would happen if an A-rank Hunter follower transformed?

Wouldn’t that put them at A+-rank or even S-rank?

It’s insane, but…

Even so, my gut screamed that this was right.

There are only four S-rank Hunters in the entire world.

Two in the US, one in China, one in Russia.

Truly, they’re beings on another level.

Korea’s top Hunter, Han Jin-hwan, considered closest to S-rank, is only an A+-rank.

“…I need to find out more about the Crowd.”

“Why?”

“These guys, it’s like they get stronger when they transform, like some kind of robot.”

“So?”

“What happens if someone with A-rank skills transforms?”

“Oh…!”

“Wouldn’t they gain power equivalent to S-rank?”

When I shared my intuition, both of them looked at me with wide, incredulous eyes.

They couldn’t believe it.

I get it.

Even I couldn’t believe what I was saying.

The problem was, my gut feeling is usually right when it’s about something bad.

“That’s impossible!”

“Yeah, you’re overestimating the Crowd!”

“S-rank power? That’s just absurd.”

“Okay, let’s say they really are that strong. Then why didn’t they just drag me off instead of trying to persuade me?”

That’s a good point.

If they were that formidable, why bother visiting multiple times to persuade her instead of just kidnapping her?

And why did it have to be Yoo Jae-yi in the first place?

“Did this guy ever say why they wanted you?”

“Yeah. He wanted me to make some kind of key.”

“A key?”

“Yeah. He said he’d tell me about my dad if I made it.”

“Did he say what kind of key?”

“No. When I pressed about trusting them, they just said they’d give me time to think and locked me up in the basement.”

That’s pretty random.

I figured, since it’s a terrorist group with demon followers, they’d want me to make some kind of weapon.

Something highly lethal and hard to defend against, like a mana bomb.

But instead of a weapon, they wanted a key made?

What kind of key is this?

“Did they show you a blueprint or something for the key?”

As I was pondering the key, Woo Yeon-hoo spoke up.

If they wanted something made, they might have a blueprint.

If they wanted it made from scratch, maybe not.

Yoo Jae-yi frowned, lost in thought.

“A blueprint… Oh! He did wave something around while talking. Was that it?”

“So, even though they have a blueprint, it has to be you.”

“I didn’t check, so I’m not sure it was a blueprint.”

“It’s not on the body, though.”

Just in case, I searched, but there was nothing like a blueprint.

All I found on Yong Du-sik’s corpse was a wallet.

“In that case…”

Woo Yeon-hoo turned his head toward where the hideout had been.

The hideout was completely gone, with only patches of the first floor wall left standing forlornly.

If the blueprint had been there, it must’ve gotten swept away when I wielded the World Tree.

“…….”

“…….”

“Um, sorry?”

For some reason, I felt I had to apologize, so I did, from the heart.