Strongest had returned.
The news spread through the Hunter community in an instant.
-Breaking news! Strongest just updated the Floor 14 record with SSS-rank!!!!!!!
└Do not feed the troll.
└He is doing this again.
└? No, Strongest really did set an SSS-rank record on Floor 14.
└? It is real.
Even those who had initially been skeptical had no choice but to change their reactions once they checked the Floor 14 clear records themselves.
[Tower Floor 14 Records]
1st: Strongest
2nd: Jeff
3rd: Bai Long
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.
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Strongest’s nickname stood proudly at the top of the Floor 14 rankings.
Since everyone had been waiting for news about him, it did not take long before discussions about Strongest flooded not only the Hunter community, but every kind of social media platform as well.
-Incredible.
-I knew he would come back.
-The great Strongest.
-Seeing as he achieved SSS-rank on Floor 14 too, maybe he was poisoned or injured on Floor 13?
-That is possible.
-? Are you serious? I could not even earn a B-rank record, and I still cleared Floor 13 effortlessly. How could someone setting SSS-rank records get injured on a floor that low?
-Exactly. Are all of you Scavengers? Taking damage from monsters severely lowers your rank in the first place. Injury makes no sense.
With less than two months estimated to remain before the deadline for advancing beyond Floor 46, all of South Korea had been watching the situation closely.
Naturally, the media covered Strongest’s return extensively.
-[Breaking News] The vanished Strongest returns with another SSS-rank record on Floor 14!
-Strongest is still alive.
-What was Strongest doing all this time?
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[Breaking News] The Missing Hunter ‘Strongest’ Makes a Spectacular Return with an SSS-Rank Record on Tower Floor 14
Seoul Hunter News | Reporter Kim Do-yoon
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The Hunter known by the nickname ‘Strongest,’ who was believed to have vanished after clearing Floor 13 one week ago, has made a sudden return by achieving SSS-rank on Tower Floor 14, sending shockwaves throughout the Hunter community.
“An impossible record has appeared.”
Those were the first words of an official from the Hunter Association. Until now, no Hunter had ever achieved SSS-rank on Tower Floor 14, and most experts had considered such a result theoretically impossible.
The previous record holder for Floor 14 was reportedly the legendary American Hunter Jeff, who had achieved S-rank.
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(Rest omitted)
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The world was in an uproar, but Kim Ja-young had little interest in any of it.
At the moment, the only thing she cared about was the B-rank Promotion Exam of her new boyfriend, Kim Chang-su.
‘Once Chang-su becomes B-rank, he should finally be able to relax a little, right?’
Her new boyfriend, Kim Chang-su, had recently been rather preoccupied with preparing for the B-rank Promotion Exam and had consequently paid less attention to her.
But Kim Ja-young did not mind.
She was the sort of woman who knew how to be patient and wait for her man.
More importantly, once Kim Chang-su passed the B-rank Promotion Exam and had a little room to breathe, would he not begin thinking about settling down?
‘Once that happens, Chang-su will probably want to establish himself properly.’
How much humiliation had she endured at social gatherings simply because she had been the wife of an F-rank Hunter?
But if she became the wife of a B-rank Hunter, she would finally be able to repay all that contempt.
‘Why are all these articles about some strange Hunter anyway? They should write about Chang-su too.’
As Kim Ja-young skimmed through the articles about Strongest, she suddenly realized that the nickname sounded strangely familiar.
‘Come to think of it, I think his Hunter nickname was similar to Strongest.’
Her ex-husband, Choi Kang Hyuk, had used the nickname Strongest, derived from his own name.
Of course, it had been an outrageously arrogant nickname for a mere F-rank Hunter, but there had once been a time when even that had seemed impressive to Kim Ja-young.
Looking back on it now, the thought was almost laughable.
‘No. Surely not.’
The Hunter had appeared out of nowhere, setting SSS-rank records starting from Floor 6.
But had her ex-husband not spent all his time lingering around Floor 5 as a Scavenger?
There was absolutely no possibility that her ex-husband was the Strongest everyone was talking about.
If he had been that capable, he would have demonstrated it long ago.
‘It is not as though that bear of a man deliberately waited until after the divorce.’
As the saying went, people tended to see only what was already on their minds.
The thought briefly crossed Kim Ja-young’s mind, but she quickly shook her head.
‘What a ridiculous thought.’
That worthless old car was already gone.
No.
She had scrapped it herself.
Now she had Kim Chang-su, a luxury sedan.
There was no reason to feel any lingering attachment to an old wreck she had already discarded.
And Kim Chang-su was no ordinary luxury sedan.
Did he not have the powerful White Tiger Guild behind him?
He was practically a top-of-the-line luxury car.
That was also why Kim Ja-young was so certain that Kim Chang-su would be promoted to B-rank.
He was said to be a promising Hunter receiving the full support of a guild as powerful as the White Tiger Guild.
How could something as minor as promotion to B-rank possibly be a problem?
‘Maybe he could even become A-rank… or higher!’
Kim Ja-young’s mind filled with hope.
It felt as though a dreamlike future was waiting for her.
At least, that was what Kim Ja-young believed.
***
Baek Dae-hwan, the guild master of the White Tiger Guild, was famous as both an A-rank Hunter and the leader of the White Tiger Guild.
However, aside from his impressive background, there was one other thing for which he was particularly well known.
His fiery temper.
Flame Tiger.
As though proving worthy of the name Flame Tiger, his explosive temper was currently raging through the guild headquarters.
“You still have not found him?!”
BANG!!
The carbon-fiber desk shattered beneath Baek Dae-hwan’s rage.
The secretary had deliberately chosen something sturdy because incidents like this were hardly uncommon, but even that meant nothing before the fury of an A-rank Hunter.
“You have mouths, so use them! Do you have any idea how much you people are paid? And you still cannot find one person!”
A furious shout from an A-rank Hunter was enough to make a weak-willed person faint.
Fortunately, this was the White Tiger Guild, one of the largest guilds in Korea.
Someone that fainthearted would never have become a guild member in the first place.
“Remember this. If you do not find him by the end of today, I will not simply let this slide. Find him and bring him before me today!”
Strongest, the SSS-rank record holder.
Several weeks had already passed since Baek Dae-hwan personally ordered his people to find Strongest by any means necessary.
Yet the White Tiger Guild had not only failed to recruit him, they had not even properly identified who he was.
Considering the White Tiger Guild’s intelligence network, it was difficult to understand.
At this point, it almost seemed as though someone outside the guild was actively obstructing them or conducting an information operation.
Then Strongest successfully cleared Floor 14 and updated the SSS-rank record yet again.
Unable to endure it any longer, Baek Dae-hwan finally exploded.
The Four Great Guilds of South Korea had remained locked in a stalemate for quite some time, with none managing to pull decisively ahead of the others.
But what if Strongest, the super rookie setting SSS-rank records, joined one particular guild under these circumstances?
The balance would collapse completely.
The guild that recruited Strongest would become, both in name and in fact, the greatest guild in Korea.
That was why Baek Dae-hwan had no choice but to be completely serious about identifying the SSS-rank record holder.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the fate of the guild depended on whether they managed to recruit Strongest.
“Guild Master, there is something I need to tell you.”
Realizing that several corpses might have to be carried out of the office if this continued, Kim Beom-gu, the manager in charge of personnel, stepped forward before Baek Dae-hwan.
“Speak.”
“It has not been confirmed yet, but while investigating Hunters who were recently promoted from F-rank to D-rank, we found one person who may be the SSS-rank record holder.”
“You are reporting something to me when it has not even been confirmed?”
Kim Beom-gu knew perfectly well how miserable the consequences could be if he gave Baek Dae-hwan an incorrect report.
Under normal circumstances, he would have taken more time to verify the information and reported it only after exercising the utmost caution.
But given the current situation, he had no choice.
“H-he is suspicious enough that the possibility is quite reasonable.”
Kim Beom-gu held out a tablet before Baek Dae-hwan.
Information regarding one Hunter’s photograph and career history was displayed across the screen.
“His name is Choi Kang Hyuk, and we confirmed that he uses the nickname Strongest, derived from his name. He spent an astonishing twenty-five years as an F-rank Hunter before recently being promoted to D-rank. One unusual detail is that he was apparently one of the first Hunters.”
“One of the first Hunters?”
“Yes. Do you happen to know him?”
Baek Dae-hwan was not one of the very first Hunters himself, but he had still been active for a long time.
Kim Beom-gu thought there was a possibility that he might have known Choi Kang Hyuk personally.
Baek Dae-hwan shook his head.
“No. I have never heard that name.”
That was precisely what Baek Dae-hwan found strange.
Choi Kang Hyuk was a veteran among veterans who had consistently entered the Tower for twenty-five years.
Yet Baek Dae-hwan, who was famous for having extensive connections throughout the Hunter industry, had never even heard his name.
‘And someone like that only now gets promoted to D-rank?’
Even to Baek Dae-hwan, there was something highly suspicious about Choi Kang Hyuk.
Especially because Baek Dae-hwan knew better than most just how difficult it was for a Hunter to escape the fate that had been decided for them after Awakening.
“Good. Manager Kim, take responsibility for investigating this man.”
“Understood.”
“You may go.”
After Manager Kim Beom-gu practically fled the guild office, Baek Dae-hwan remained seated amid the wreckage and stared at Choi Kang Hyuk’s face on the tablet for a long time.
“One of the first Hunters…….”
Those words carried tremendous meaning for Baek Dae-hwan.
Of course, it was something from the distant past, and even Baek Dae-hwan himself had begun to forget about it by now.
“We will know once we watch him.”
Who Strongest really was.
And whether Choi Kang Hyuk truly was Strongest.
***
After clearing Tower Floor 14, I looked around as the familiar scenery of my room appeared once again.
Since the Clone was always handling the household chores, the state of the house was incomparably cleaner than it had been before.
“Hmm.”
Contrary to what I had expected, I was extremely satisfied with the performance of Magic Sword, the Skill I had recently acquired.
Of course, it was closer to my overwhelming Stats forcibly elevating the Skill’s performance, but if something worked well, did the reason truly matter?
If C-rank Magic Sword and B-rank Clone performed this well when I used them, what would happen if I obtained an A-rank or S-rank Skill, the sort supposedly used by A-rank Hunters?
I could not know for certain, but surely something extraordinary would happen.
‘Should I just invest every Experience Point I earn from now on into Random Skills?’
Who knew?
If I managed to draw even one A-rank or S-rank Skill, it would be an enormous success.
“…Maybe not.”
After thinking about it for a moment, I realized it was not merely a questionable idea.
It was a terrible one.
Continuously purchasing Random Skills in the hope of obtaining an A-rank or S-rank Skill carried far too much risk.
Unlike Traits, there was no guarantee that simply possessing more Skills would necessarily be beneficial.
‘The more Traits you have, the better, but acquiring them is far more difficult than acquiring Skills…….’
It seemed I needed to think more carefully about Random Skills.
That was especially true now that I had personally experienced just how dramatically powerful Stats could transform an otherwise mediocre Skill.
‘For now, I should clear Floor 15 tomorrow.’
Among Hunters, Tower Floor 15 was commonly called the second crossroads.
The first crossroads was Awakening.
The second was Floor 15.
The reason was simple.
Floor 15 was difficult in its own right, but Hunters who cleared it for the first time were also said to receive a special reward.
The reward differed drastically from one Hunter to another.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the reward received there could determine a Hunter’s future.
I had no idea what kind of reward I would receive.
But once tomorrow came, I would naturally find out.
And then…….
The next day arrived.
“Enter the Tower.”
[Entering <Tower Floor 15>.]
After I entered the Tower, the mission overview appeared before me.
[Floor 15 Mission Overview]
-Defeat 4 Desert King’s Royal Guards.
-Defeat 1 Desert Gravekeeper.
-Completion Condition: Defeat the Desert King’s Royal Guards and Desert Gravekeeper Arkan
-Failure Condition: Death
-Failure Condition: Desert Gravekeeper Arkan completes the Grave-Opening Ritual