Retire 491

491 Aerial Aquarium (3)

A black SUV sped down the road stretching from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

Let us turn our attention to the city in question—Las Vegas.

Of course, with a gigantic fish floating above the city, the mood could hardly be described as pleasant. The moment the monster appeared, evacuation efforts began swiftly, but with a population numbering in the hundreds of thousands, it was impossible for everyone to leave the city at once. Moreover, Las Vegas was teeming with tourists. In reality, the number of people who needed to evacuate was far greater than the city’s own population, and not everyone spoke English well. There were communication issues, panic, people refusing to evacuate, and, taking advantage of the chaos, gangs looting the shopping districts…

Yet, even amid this turmoil, the hunters managed to gather, somehow.

“What should we do?”

Just because they had gathered didn’t mean a solution would magically appear. Even with an actual magician present.

Hong Seok-young scratched his head awkwardly as he met the expectant gazes directed at him.

If this were a dungeon they’d been specifically asked to clear, that would be one thing. But the current situation… Although no one knew where that fish had come from, if one had to classify it, it would be a dungeon break. Even so, Hong Seok-young was not the type to try to take the lead in another country’s dungeon break. After all, every country had its own circumstances, and the ones who understood them best were the local guilds.

He had rushed over at the call to assemble the hunters staying in the city, but Hong Seok-young had intended only to cooperate as an outside hunter. He hadn’t anticipated everyone waiting on his opinion like this.

“Even if you ask me…”

“But you’re Hunter Hong, aren’t you?”

That was not something an overly confident American hunter should be saying.

Hong Seok-young eyed the Las Vegas hunters with suspicion. Surely, they weren’t trying to pin the blame for any collateral damage during the monster’s subjugation on the foreign hunters, were they?

He knew the U.S. government would never allow such a thing, but still—one could never be certain. What Hong Seok-young had learned after years of fighting monsters abroad was that humans could be just as untrustworthy as monsters.

But the hunters before him… Well. Their faces were far younger than he had expected.

“…Are you all guild masters?”

“Pardon? Oh, no. I mean, it’s not that there aren’t any guild masters…”

A few young hunters sitting in the corner of the makeshift conference room raised their hands.

Still so young.

“They’re away, clearing a dungeon in the desert.”

“…All of them?”

“Not all, but… For now, those who could fill the seats came first.”

This was a mess.

Hong Seok-young let out a deep sigh. He couldn’t tell if this was the current state of humanity or just this city. He hoped it was the latter.

There was nothing he could do with hunters who looked younger than his own son. Still, perhaps the claim that others were on their way wasn’t a lie—after waiting a little longer, some faces appeared who looked as though they might actually be able to hold a conversation.

All of them looked utterly exhausted. Only then did another possibility occur to Hong Seok-young.

Recently, the guilds in Las Vegas had suffered greatly because of the Cactus Mirage incident. And “recently” meant only within the past few days. Guilds not involved with Atlas might feel wronged, but how could anyone know for sure?

When they said the guild masters were away, perhaps it didn’t mean they were actually clearing dungeons, but rather that they were detained somewhere for questioning.

So Hong Seok-young said nothing about that matter. Sometimes, it was best to feign ignorance. His ill-tempered son would have insisted on bringing it up and stirring the pot… Hm. He himself wasn’t quite so difficult.

“So then.”

Hong Seok-young returned the question he had been asked just moments earlier.

“What do you all plan to do?”

It was a roundabout way of saying, “It’s your city, so put your heads together and come up with something.”

But even so, there was no solution. Hong Seok-young knew that. If there had been any plan worth attempting, they wouldn’t be sitting here—they’d be out there, weapons in hand.

“Well…”

“With the monster up there like that…”

“Do you have any good ideas…?”

In the end, the question came back to him.

If a dungeon had erupted in the middle of the city, as in San Francisco, there would have been damage, but at least they wouldn’t be wracking their brains over what to do. They could simply kill the monsters as they appeared.

Even if a dungeon had broken in the desert and monsters were pouring in, it would be the same. That would be easier. If they held the line, the city might escape unscathed.

But that fish was the worst.

The fact that it was a massive monster with no immediate intent to attack made it truly the worst.

If he was willing to accept a certain amount of damage, Hong Seok-young was confident he could drive that fish into the ground. If the casualties were limited to minor injuries among the hunters, he would have accepted that.

But if the damage was to the city, that was a different story.

No matter how thorough they were, evacuating every person in the city was impossible.

Hong Seok-young understood reality. He knew the ideal of saving everyone was impossible.

But at the same time, he knew that there was no monster worth destroying a city full of people for.

Because then, he would not be a hero. The hero who would save the world, as he had promised his son.

Just killing the monster didn’t mean everything would be fine. Monsters were monsters, and people had to go on living their lives. If all that remained after defeating the monster was a ruined city, what was the point?

Why, then, did the hunters remain in the city, discussing ways to eliminate the monster?

Money. Honor. Altruism. Whatever the reason, it was because they wanted to protect this place.

If someone suggested accepting damage to the city and just getting it over with, the people sitting at this table would be the first to object.

“How much do you want to protect the city?”

Still, Hong Seok-young asked. There might be someone among them who thought differently.

Or perhaps someone had information about the fish. If not dealing with it immediately would bring an even greater disaster, then some damage might have to be accepted.

“Leaving it intact would be best, of course.”

“As safely as possible…”

Well, it seemed there was no useful information to be had.

Hong Seok-young shrugged.

“Then let’s try luring it into the desert. It’ll be a problem if it goes any higher, though…”

“If it goes to the desert, wouldn’t it be hard to attack? No matter what, it’s still up high, and with magic, it’s difficult for us to engage the monster freely.”

At least now, they were beginning to discuss actual strategies.

But there was still no progress. If only it were half its current size, they wouldn’t be worrying like this.

The only consolation was that, even after several hours of revealing itself, the monster still showed no intent to attack.

With the meeting dragging on, and certain that they would only keep repeating the same things, Hong Seok-young addressed the anxious hunters. He glanced at his phone and saw a message that his son had arrived at the airport and met up with Daniel. There were a few missed calls, but since he hadn’t answered, they hadn’t called again. His son probably understood better than anyone how hectic things were here.

“Let’s take a short break. Check on the situation. For now, we don’t have any other options…”

“I’ll go see how the evacuation is progressing.”

It took quite some time to get here from Los Angeles. In the meantime, hopefully, the fish would remain calm… Or better yet, from now on as well… If only it would just stop moving and dry up where it was…

Hong Seok-young glared at the white fish visible beyond the window. Though its form was partially obscured by buildings, the fish floating in the sky could surely be seen from anywhere in the city.

‘…With Mr. Kim here, should I try the method we used in the Siren Dungeon again?’

If there were sturdy platforms connecting the buildings, things would be much easier.

Normally, he would use vines to restrict movement, but against something that size, even Kim Chae-min wouldn’t be able to manage that. So, as in the Siren Dungeon, if they used vines to create platforms and fought from there…

The city would not remain unscathed.

He must not even consider using the buildings as supports for the vines.

That meant they really did have to lure it into the desert.

But who knew if the thing would follow them so obediently… If it ran away instead, that would be an even bigger problem…

It had been a long time since the name Hong Seok-young seemed so meaningless in the face of such a hopeless situation.

“……!”

Then suddenly, Hong Seok-young realized that he was not alone here.

He hadn’t thought it strange to be working with Kim Chae-min, since they’d teamed up before, but even as he read his son’s message from America, he hadn’t thought of it. Why hadn’t it occurred to him?

It must be the habit of working alone for so long.

Reflecting on this, Hong Seok-young turned around. It was a habit he needed to break. A guild master who worked alone—what a pitiful phrase.

“Hey, guild members.”

The two hunters who had sat quietly in the corner throughout the meeting, not saying a word, blinked in surprise.

“What’s got you so quiet?”

“Oh, were we allowed to speak?”

“You’re hunters summoned here, too, aren’t you? What were you doing, staying silent?”

“Well, you all looked so serious, and we’re just rookie hunters… It felt a bit out of place for us to butt in.”

Hong Seok-young snorted as he looked at Han Tae-kyung, who gave a sheepish smile. He couldn’t believe that scatterbrained kid had been intimidated by the atmosphere or lost his nerve.

Seeing the boy beside him yawn indifferently only confirmed it.

“Did you find anything out?”

After making sure no one was listening in, Hong Seok-young lowered his voice.

The boy, still wearing his hat and mask even indoors, looked up, his eyes flashing.

“Master. If you could make a deal with the monster, could you capture it?”

“……”

“Ah, no, that’s not what I meant. What he’s trying to say is, well, we want to check if that fish is willing to communicate or not, that’s all.”

Han Tae-kyung pressed down on Hope’s head, hurriedly explaining.

So, the two of them had been talking things over during the meeting?

According to what his son and Kim Chae-min had said, the two hadn’t gotten along at first. Of course, it was better for them to be on good terms, but seeing them mesh so well was oddly unsettling. He could almost hear the voice of the researcher back in Korea, working late into the night.

‘Don’t teach the kid weird things!’

Well, he wasn’t exactly a kid, so it wasn’t his concern…

“Whether we make a deal or not depends on what it wants, right? Can it talk?”

“If it can speak?”

A theoretical answer. Right. If it could talk, then maybe…

“So you want to check that first?”

“It looks old enough, so it should be able to. The one I fought in Boston didn’t want to talk, though…”

Hope frowned.

“Looking back, maybe it couldn’t talk. It acted too much like a beast. Was that Henry’s doing? Maybe.”

Boston?

Hong Seok-young frowned as well. The fish’s feathers looked like scales, which was why it had taken him a moment to remember. Right. Those feathers belonged to a monster as troublesome as a talking fairy.

“Well, anyway, it’s not ramming its body into anything right now…”

“That’s true.”

“No harm in giving it a try.”

“You’re asking me because you need something, aren’t you?”

“Well, I mean, we are guild members, after all. We can’t act without the master’s permission… Though, yes, there is something we need.”

Hong Seok-young stroked his chin and nodded. There was no other way, anyway.

“Go ahead and try.”