Heading down to North Chungcheong, Kang-hyeok clicked his tongue at the various constraints.
He had to keep the destruction of buildings and facilities to a minimum.
Loose off slashes recklessly, and it would cause staggering property damage.
They might well try to pin the responsibility on him later.
"When it comes to taking down the Cyclops, a few collapsed buildings won't matter."
To bring down a Cyclops with no damage at all was asking far too much.
The government and the Association surely understood that.
Kang-hyeok kept monitoring the situation on the ground through his smartphone.
Hunters were working to keep the Cyclops from pushing into the town center.
[KABOOM—!]
The camera filming from the news helicopter shook violently.
Amid a tremendous roar, countless Hunters were crushed.
Terrified Hunters scrambled into vehicles and began to flee, but—
[Kwoooooor!]
The Cyclops let out a booming roar and trampled through the fields, chasing after the vehicles.
Then it snatched up a container-style field hut from the ground and hurled it at the vehicles.
The container hut and the vehicles collided, setting off an explosion.
[KABOOM!]
It was like watching a monster movie.
"Master, we're told we'll reach the destination soon."
The buses couldn't go all the way in.
So they'd have to transfer to military vehicles stationed in Eumseong.
With the soldiers' help, GH Guild's buses reached the vicinity of the Eumseong County Office in one hour and twenty minutes.
"The GH Guild members have arrived!"
A military officer in dress uniform hurried over to Kang-hyeok.
"First, let me brief you on the situation."
The area where the Gate ruptured was near Bogwangsan, situated between Jeungpyeong, Eumseong, and Goesan.
The Hunters were focused on blocking the monsters' advance as best they could, or luring them off in other directions.
"Hunter Park Kang-hyeok, we'd ask you to move toward Goesan and bring down the Cyclops. As for the rest of your guild members, please focus on cutting down the large monster legion advancing into Eumseong."
"And on the Jeungpyeong side......"
"Teinen, Goguryeo, and the massive guilds have been deployed there. Of course, Hunters are being committed to the Eumseong and Goesan sides as well."
It seemed the military would be committed to the scene alongside the Hunters.
Young soldiers, barely into their early twenties, gripped their rifles with tense faces.
At an age when they should have been out enjoying life, what was all this......
"I'll head out at once."
At Kang-hyeok's answer, the officer nodded.
Then the military vehicles pulled up.
The GH Guild members were committed to a defensive line just ten minutes away, while Kang-hyeok headed for a national highway seventeen minutes out.
"Association Hunters are currently luring the Cyclops. The residents of the nearby villages have all been evacuated. Since the surroundings are mountainous, even if there's damage, the property loss won't be too great."
"In other words...... you're saying I can respond with full force?"
"Yes, that's correct."
Kang-hyeok nodded.
"Understood."
The vehicle stopped in the middle of a two-lane road.
"Here's my contact number. Once you've slain the Cyclops, call me and I'll come get you right away."
Kang-hyeok took his contact info, then drew a blade from his waist.
"If you'd rather your face not be leaked, you could at least use this mask......"
"It's fine. I can't hide my face forever."
"Understood. Then, fortune in battle......"
As the vehicle made a U-turn and pulled away, a tremendous roar came from the south.
Thoom! Thoom! Thoom!
A Cyclops walking along the sloped road.
Its upper body slowly came into view.
A calamity-class monster that destroyed everything was drawing near.
And yet, not a trace of tension could be found on Kang-hyeok's face.
"It's quite large, but......"
Compared to the Dragon King he'd faced in his past life, it felt somewhat lacking.
And the aura and destructive force it gave off fell short even of an ordinary Dragon.
Asking him to feel fear toward a monster like that was a tall order.
More to the point......
"It'll be faster if I go to it."
Kang-hyeok slowly worked his legs and began to run toward the Cyclops.
A few hundred meters ahead, he could see the Hunters' vehicles.
The Hunters stared at Kang-hyeok, flustered.
"Wh-What the......!"
Fwip!
Kang-hyeok lightly kicked off the ground and leapt over a vehicle.
The sight was caught by the news helicopter's camera.
"Huh......?"
The cameraman let out a small gasp.
A black-haired young man who'd bounded over a vehicle.
He vanished from the screen.
"......?!"
Splurrrch—!
By the time the young man appeared on camera again, blood was already gushing from the Cyclops's severed limbs.
Splurrrsh—!
-Kwoo......
Even the Cyclops seemed not to grasp the situation, staring blankly ahead.
And as it pitched forward, Kang-hyeok rained down countless sword strikes, opening wound after wound.
Splurch! Slash!
-Kwoo...... kwoooor!
As it let out a scream full of agony and thrashed, Kang-hyeok swung his blade and severed the tendons of its neck.
Slash—!
-Kh...... khhh......
Kang-hyeok climbed onto the Cyclops's back and summoned a skeleton.
Then he carved a huge wound over the area of its heart.
Splurrrch—!
-Khhhk......!
The Cyclops's body twitched.
"There you go."
Ignoring the Cyclops's reaction, Kang-hyeok handed his blade to the skeleton.
The skeleton took the blade and slowly approached the wound.
Then it began earnestly driving the blade down into the wounded area.
Squelch.
"Harder! Keep stabbing!"
Weak.
Weak — far too weak.
Of course it couldn't pierce the hide.
But to struggle even at stabbing an open wound......
"......Should I just have it hunt A- and B-rank monsters instead?"
Kang-hyeok unleashed a burst of mana to pin the Cyclops in place.
Meanwhile, with dozens...... hundreds...... thousands of thrusts, the skeleton opened a deep wound in its back.
Kang-hyeok's own strikes had already left it barely short of the heart.
"It's not like it's mining......"
As Kang-hyeok shook his head, the skeleton finally pierced the heart of the near-dead Cyclops with the blade.
Squelch—!
"Now split it open while it's in there!"
The skeleton slowly cleaved the heart apart, and at last the Cyclops's breath was cut off.
"You're really something...... no, well done."
The skeleton wiped the blood from its face as if pleased with itself.
'......Does this thing have intelligence too?'
No, surely not.
There was no way a low-rank undead had intelligence.
In any case, thanks to the skeleton's toil, the skill level shot straight up to 7.
The Homunculus and undead summon skills differed slightly in their starting summon count, but from LV.5 on they were identical.
At LV.7, the number of skeletons he could summon was a full three thousand.
That many would be a great help even as porters.
Or he could throw them into restoring villages and cities, earning GH Guild a positive image in the bargain.
Meanwhile, over at the news helicopter, they let out cries of shock the instant the Cyclops's limbs were severed.
"I-It's Hunter Park Kang-hyeok! Korea's State-Power-Class Hunter, Park Kang-hyeok, has severed the Cyclops's limbs and——!"
The reporter sensed something odd.
Wouldn't it be better to just cut off its head?
Had he severed the limbs first because of the creature's height?
While they tilted their heads in confusion, enormous wounds opened all across the Cyclops's body.
And when Kang-hyeok, having climbed onto its back, summoned a skeleton, the reporter's eyes went wide.
"Don't tell me......"
The skeleton was driving a blade down toward the Cyclops's heart as if it were mining.
"Uh...... it seems Hunter Park Kang-hyeok is moving his skeleton to slay the Cyclops in order to raise his skill level. Come to think of it, Hunter Park Kang-hyeok possessed a skill to summon undead even back when he was an E-rank Hunter. We were told it was a skill that couldn't summon high-tier undead even as its level rose. Perhaps his Re-Awakening changed the skill......"
While the reporter voiced his conjectures, the camera kept its lens on Kang-hyeok and the skeleton.
Viewers watching the Cyclops hunt flooded the comments in real time, whipped into a frenzy.
-Fuck, if he'd wanted to, he'd have killed it in one blow.
└The Cyclops's limbs came off in the literal blink of an eye.
└Can't S1-rank Hunters do that much too?
└The ones called Semi-State-Power-Class might manage it. Lee Se-ra, at least, can't. I hear her sword-energy skill level is 11. Woo Seong-hyeon and the missing Kim Min-chan are 12.
└Is it a State-Power-Class Hunter from skill level 13 on?
└That depends on the skill too. The skill Park Kang-hyeok supposedly had was F-rank. Even maxed out, an F-rank skill can't kill a Cyclops.
-Can he really summon high-tier undead? Then isn't that seriously OP?
└Feed all the kills to the undead and eventually he could summon a Death Knight too.
└So he's leading an undead legion by himself?
└If he can even summon high-tier undead, maybe he could conquer the whole south and North Korea?
└Let's not count our chickens. He might just be trying to grow his skeleton numbers.
└Giving up Swordsman skill experience to grow skeleton numbers? Does that make sense?
└That's a fair point too. Who'd be insane enough to give up Swordsman skill experience?
But at the sight of Park Kang-hyeok stepping away from the scene to summon a mass of skeletons, the comments heated up all over again.
-The guy's actually insane lolllll
└Whoa...... he really is giving up Swordsman skill experience.
└Word is he's committing the undead to the field to support the soldiers. They can at least serve as shields.
└Even as skeletons, wouldn't they help with restoration work? The damage from this is pretty severe. In Jeungpyeong especially, monsters pushed into the town center and quite a few buildings collapsed.
└True, if it's for damage restoration, that's completely understandable.
└So he really did have a bigger plan.
└They'd be pretty useful as porters, too, right? Once summoned, they last permanently. Support the guild members and you'd never need to hire porters.
└Even F-rank skills all have their uses. Still, giving up Swordsman skill experience is honestly baffling.
Viewers reacted with bewilderment to Park Kang-hyeok's actions.
At that hour, the Hunters and soldiers were focused on cutting down the monsters advancing into Eumseong.
The skeletons that took the fall in place of soldier and Hunter alike.
Rat-tat-tat! Tat-tat!
Mana-coated rounds began to bury themselves in the monsters.
Kang-hyeok, for his part, summoned his skeletons and then headed straight for Bogwangsan, where the Gate was located.
Near Bogwangsan too, tens of thousands of monsters had settled in.
If they began to move somewhere, it would set off a massive commotion.
"This way! Fire!"
Countless soldiers and Hunters formed an encirclement on Bogwangsan and were committed to mopping up the smaller monster packs.
"Hraaah!"
The GH Guild members' combat, too, was relayed to the public through the news helicopters.