Damn Hunter Life 107

Damn Hunter Life Chapter 107

Ja Hyeong-woo kept looking around the forest. He seemed reluctant to show his back to Agni and run like this.

“Should we just stop and catch him?”

“No, forget it. How are we supposed to catch someone in the jungle? Just run faster.”

“Jungle? Is there a reason you’re specifically using English?”

“This is gaming terminology…”

I got annoyed halfway through explaining and just let out a sigh with an exasperated expression. I hoped this would put Ja Hyeong-woo in a bad mood.

“Anyway, whatever, he won’t attack anymore. How could he attack in this situation?”

If I were alone, it would be a different story… but right now.

“You’re with me.”

If Ja Hyeong-woo’s here, he’ll block bullets and heal me. He can’t send a teammate he just carried out back to the respawn point.

With my words as the final say, Ja Hyeong-woo carried me on his back and ran again. Neither of us spoke until we arrived. Except for me nagging him to run faster.

It seemed like Ja Hyeong-woo was deliberately going slow.

* * *

The capture was right around the corner. The gauge had filled up to 94%.

If they won just one more engagement, it would be enough to fill it completely.

If only the healer hadn’t died at this crucial moment, the game would already be over!

Ma Cheon-ah gritted her teeth but still retreated according to Woo Sae-geon’s instructions. FirstCall desperately pushed them out of the stronghold and all the way to the back road where the payload had come, as if this were their last chance.

Sa Ye-ho noticed Ma Cheon-ah, who was gradually unable to bear being slowly pushed back and was on the verge of exploding.

Snake Successor: Cheon-ah please don’t charge out please ㅈㅂㅈㅂ I’m begging you

Snake Successor: If you go out and die the respawn will get messed up ㅠㅠ

Snake Successor: Let’s wait for the healer

Sa Ye-ho made a reasonable judgment as a gamer, based on his experience built up from PC gaming.

Even if time was precious, it was safer to wait for the healer and attack the stronghold together.

Ma Cheon-ah knew this too. However, her competitive spirit that didn’t want to do that sprouted in her heart.

‘I just won’t die…! Those bastards keep pissing people off! How can I hold back?’

Unable to properly assess her own skills, she became increasingly clumsy with her sword as she rushed impatiently, and charged forward emotionally.

Even after being caught off-guard by Clyte several times.

Ma Cheon-ah’s insides turned gloomy with a sense of defeat. Like an addict who couldn’t give up despite taking heavy losses, she lost her judgment and understanding of the situation.

Her grip tightened on the greatsword. Her legs too.

Just as she was about to charge out alone at Buster, who was chasing them at a certain distance—

But at that moment, someone poked Ma Cheon-ah in her head.

With a small, pale face wearing a shameless smile.

‘Hold back, you fool. I’m holding back even though I’m getting beaten like a dog. Can’t you even hold back over something like that?’

Ma Cheon-ah had been the type to burst into tears from frustration since she was learning to walk, if her dad ran faster than her.

For such a Ma Cheon-ah to kill her competitive emotions through willpower alone was impossible. Even more so because she was still young.

Gyeon Gang-hyeon understood Ma Cheon-ah’s tendencies better than anyone, through his personal knowledge of the original work and through direct experience meeting her.

And he came up with a method to control even someone like this right now.

‘If even a dog can hold back, why can’t I? I’m better than a dog!’

If it was impossible to suppress her competitive spirit itself,

The only way was to suppress it with another new competitive spirit.

Ma Cheon-ah’s feet were used to retreat to a slightly safer place rather than charge forward.

And.

At that moment, the long-awaited healer Ja Hyeong-woo appeared, carrying the not-particularly-awaited combatant Gyeon Gang-hyeon on his back.

“Pffft! Hey, you two came like that?”

Sa Ye-ho burst out laughing as soon as he saw them, shaking his body back and forth with laughter. Gyeon Gang-hyeon jumped down from Ja Hyeong-woo’s back with a truly annoyed expression, his face slightly flushed.

“Hyung!”

Sa Ye-ho, who had been grinning, turned to look at Woo Sae-geon and shouted.

He was already gone from that spot. Because he had charged toward the stronghold, toward the FirstCall group.

Finally, all five Successors had assembled. They bet the end of the 4th set on this assault.

Clang—! Clyte’s Western-style sword clashed with Ma Cheon-ah’s curved butcher’s blade.

For a moment, the eyes of the two teenage girls met through the scattered fragments of clashing blade light.

Clyte’s fair and square gaze mixed with Ma Cheon-ah’s burning competitive spirit. Ma Cheon-ah slowly came to a realization, as if responding.

‘I just need to do my best right now, and enjoy both victory and defeat, right?’

‘Because neither victory nor defeat lasts forever.’

Ma Cheon-ah struck Clyte back hard. Clyte’s health bar dropped significantly. Ma Cheon-ah cheered internally.

For the first time today, a smile appeared on Ma Cheon-ah’s face.

The sense of defeat from the 3rd set. That disappeared thanks to the fun of competing with rivals ‘together’ with her teammates.

She could enjoy it again.

However, Ma Cheon-ah didn’t realize that the catalyst for her change had come through the guidance of that person who growled whenever their eyes met.

Quiche, seeing Clyte half-collapsed, sensed the team’s crisis. He brought out the strongest skill among those he was allowed to use.

Vines covered entirely in sharp thorns grew abundantly from his feet. As if they were living beings with their own consciousness.

“…!”

Just as he was about to attack Ma Cheon-ah with those vines, a fierce wind rushed at him.

For a moment, red hair doing aerial somersaults upside down in the sky brushed against his glasses.

“「Ugh」!”

Thud thud thud! Three daggers thrown by Sa Ye-ho struck the vines in succession instead of Quiche’s body.

Sa Ye-ho flew through the air as if bouncing off, landing on the ground with a sliding screech.

Fire attribute versus plant attribute. At first glance, it seemed like fire that burns plants would have the advantage, but Sa Ye-ho used throwing knives. They were somewhat disadvantageous for cutting through thick plant stems.

Moreover, what had been blocking Sa Ye-ho’s solo performance so far was Quiche. Using plants to block or capture and restrain Sa Ye-ho, whose mobility was his lifeline.

Sa Ye-ho thought for a moment. All moments had been fun, but this was the most fun moment.

Sa Ye-ho swept his hair up with one hand and provoked Quiche with a flick of his index finger.

“Hey you.”

The thorny vines moved stealthily beneath Quiche’s calm expression.

Blue flames bloomed from the large needle Sa Ye-ho held up.

The Successors’ fight was more stable than ever. This was working. They had caught the flow. Gyeon Gang-hyeon’s eyes lit up at the atmosphere he could feel on his skin.

Finally wiping out FirstCall and at last standing at the stronghold,

The gauge hit 100, and the victory emblem appeared before everyone’s eyes.

The 4th set was the Successors’ victory.

The elation carried over to the 5th set the next day. This time the Successors were the defending team.

If they won just one more match, the game would end right there. When we win 4 matches, FirstCall would only have taken 1 victory.

Everyone thought it would end like that.

If only they hadn’t been driven to the brink of losing the 5th set to FirstCall.

* * *

The flow was getting pretty intense.

FirstCall splitting in half to push top and bottom lanes now was faster than when we pushed the entire bottom lane yesterday and started pushing the top lane.

The problem was that there were two payloads but only one Woo Sae-geon.

And I was a sunfish who would die the moment I left the jungle without four people surrounding and protecting me.

‘It’s practically not five people on the defending team, but four…’

The reason I kept dying over and over again was this:

The defending team should be clinging to the attacking team, but I was being persistently hunted by Agni instead.

My early kills were a source of laughter for our team too.

Horse Successor: How many dog deaths is that now

Snake Successor: Gang-hyeon it’s fine if you die

Snake Successor: You look good getting beaten up

Me: ㅗㅗㅗㅗㅗㅗ

Mouse Successor: Don’t chat.

Snake Successor: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Hyeong-woo this is your first time chatting?

‘Of course they’d laugh when the worthless weakling dies.’

But laughing it off was only fine once or twice – as the same thing repeated, the atmosphere gradually became vicious. And gradually, everyone got swept up in that atmosphere.

[Agni ▷ Gyeon Gang-hyeon]

That’s how much Agni made people fucking furious.

“Ah…!”

Agni crushed me into the dirt floor. A groan burst out from the pressure.

On top of that, he instantly snatched away my bow. Before I could do anything about it.

“「How are you going to attack now? Huh? Huh」?”

Agni humiliated me, dangling the bow above me.

He even stole my arrows and used them to repeatedly stab my chest, dealing damage. I gritted my teeth as I bled from my own weapon.

“Hey! You bastard!”

Ma Cheon-ah’s rage at Agni’s dirty play created an opening.

“That fucking…”

Even Sa Ye-ho’s concentration wavered.

My health was already at rock bottom. When I judged I was about to die, I shouted loudly:

“Don’t look at me! Heal someone else!”

Because I caught on that Ja Hyeong-woo was about to pour all his heals into me.

Agni sometimes deliberately didn’t kill me and let me go. Then he’d hit me again from behind as I tried to crawl up, completely toying with me.

‘The other four FirstCall members display good sportsmanship even while fighting.’

Seeing that even the FirstCall side sometimes looked fed up with Agni, he was definitely a troublemaker muddying his own team’s waters too.

Nevertheless, they didn’t particularly stop Agni’s behavior. Agni was on the same team from the start, and what could they say when a teammate was killing the opposing team?

By the time FirstCall had pushed all the payloads and was attempting to capture the stronghold, I honestly admitted:

‘The flow is completely ruined.’

The Successors were all scattered because of me.

Except for the leader, of course. Even in this situation, Woo Sae-geon didn’t find any particular solution. He just focused on the fight in front of him.

Well, Woo Sae-geon probably couldn’t think of anything either.

‘Fighting people instead of monsters isn’t Woo Sae-geon’s forte.’

That’s why he had subtly passed command to Sa Ye-ho, but that Sa Ye-ho also ended up getting angry and caught up in it.

Then I had to take full responsibility and…

‘Come up with a move to reverse this flow.’