<Episode 77>
Upon spotting me, Lee Hyunwoo Hunter raised an eyebrow with a look that clearly said he had a lot to say.
“Didn’t we agree that you would only come in after I gave the signal?”
Hangyeol, who had been standing beside me, shrank back and hid behind me to avoid Lee Hyunwoo Hunter’s gaze.
“Please tell him it wasn’t my fault, noona….”
I nodded as if to reassure him not to worry. No matter how scary Lee Hyunwoo Hunter was, I couldn’t throw a kid younger than me under the bus.
“Well… Hanyang barged in on his own, so we didn’t really have a choice.”
Sorry, Hanyang. But you did go in on your own, didn’t you? I hurriedly picked up the quietly resting Hanyang from my shoulder and held him out toward Lee Hyunwoo Hunter. Hanyang let out an unimpressed “Wenh” and snorted.
“There is nowhere this body cannot go, nya.”
Faced with Hanyang’s utterly confident attitude, even Lee Hyunwoo Hunter couldn’t find anything to say in rebuttal and simply sighed.
“Fortunately, I’ve already dealt with what appeared to be the leader of the nest. However, there may still be baby Arachne remaining, so stay alert.”
We nodded and carefully moved farther inward. The deeper we went, the more gigantic cocoons hanging from the ceiling filled our view. My stomach churned, and I instinctively covered my mouth.
“…Surely not everything inside those is human, right?”
“It would be best to confirm after the support team arrives. Let’s hope that isn’t the case.”
The cave interior was completely covered in white spiderwebs, giving it an eerie, grotesque appearance. The foul, fishy stench stabbing at my nose seemed to come from something decaying inside the cocoons.
The hanging cocoons appeared to twitch faintly, and I desperately fixed my gaze on the ground while hurrying my steps.
“Even I have never seen an Arachne nest of this scale before.”
Even Lee Hyunwoo Hunter clicked his tongue in disbelief. At that moment, Hangyeol, who had been following behind us, suddenly shouted,
“There! Those are my teammates! Hyung! Noona!!”
Hangyeol ran toward the cocoons ahead. People wrapped tightly in sticky spiderwebs came into view. Fortunately, they hadn’t been inside the cocoons long enough to fall completely comatose, but they were unconscious with all four limbs restrained.
“Hyung Suhwan, wake up! It’s me, Hangyeol!”
“…Seo… Hangyeol?”
Hearing the familiar voice, the man bound in the webbing slowly opened his eyes. Hangyeol tried tearing the webs apart with his bare hands, but when that failed, he hurriedly pulled out a sharp knife from his inventory.
“Argh! Why won’t this cut?! Please!”
I tried helping him cut through the webs, too, but they were so tough that it wasn’t easy. At that moment, Hanyang, who was in my arms, snorted and stepped forward.
“Move aside, nya. Watching this is too frustrating, nya.”
A cold blue glow wrapped around Hanyang’s fluffy paw, and sharp claws extended outward. Slash—! With one casual swipe of his front paw, the webbing that couldn’t be cut even with a knife sliced apart like tofu.
“Whoa! You’re super strong?”
“This body is stronger than anyone else, nya.”
While Hangyeol stared with his mouth hanging open, Lee Hyunwoo Hunter also joined in and quickly rescued the trapped hunters.
Hangyeol’s team had four members in total. Fortunately, they were all still breathing, but they were in critical condition due to exhaustion and poisoning.
“Wa… water….”
“I’m hungry….”
The cocoons had drained them of vitality, leaving them gaunt like people who hadn’t eaten in days. Not only their mana, but even their life force seemed depleted, as though they could stop breathing at any moment. What they desperately needed was warm, nourishing energy that their bodies could absorb immediately.
Without hesitation, I pulled food out of my inventory. The sotteok-sotteok and warm fish cake soup I had prepared for the picnic.
“Please eat at least this. It should still be warm.”
Supporting the collapsed hunters, I carefully poured the fish cake broth into paper cups and helped them drink it. The hot, salty soup slid down their throats, warming their frozen insides, while the hearty carbohydrates and protein from the sotteok-sotteok breathed life into their empty bodies.
“Ah… this tastes amazing!”
“Did I die and go to heaven? Why can I actually taste food?”
The hunters who regained consciousness began devouring the food hungrily. This wasn’t simply about satisfying hunger. Life visibly returned to the eyes of the dying hunters.
“Haa, I finally feel alive again.”
“Maybe it’s because I ate, but I feel energy surging through me!”
One hunter who couldn’t even move a finger just moments ago stood up and rolled his shoulders around. The recovery speed was truly astonishing.
“Hangyeol, you should eat too. You’ve been tense this whole time.”
“…Thank you.”
Only after seeing his teammates regain consciousness did Hangyeol finally let out a sigh of relief, and I handed him food as well.
If I’d known something like this would happen, I would’ve prepared more. It was a shame seeing my inventory gradually empty. Holding the cup of fish cake soup, Hangyeol bowed his head deeply.
“Thank you so much for helping us. But… are you a hunter too, noona? What’s your name?”
Hmm, since I was part of the production-type class, calling myself a hunter technically wasn’t a lie, right? I shrugged.
“I am a hunter, but… kind of an ambiguous one? I’m production-type.”
“Ah! Production-type? That’s so cool. Production-types usually don’t enter gates.”
“Right. I’m a pretty unusual case.”
There was no way production-types who wandered through gates alone, gathering ingredients, were common. Now that he had relaxed, Hangyeol chuckled mischievously.
“So what’s your name, noona? Don’t tell me it’s something like Jeong Haneul?”
“Huh? How did you know?”
“…What?”
Hangyeol blinked at me blankly.
“N-noona is J-J-Jung Haneul… noona?”
“Yeah. Wait, you didn’t already know?”
At that moment, a female hunter beside us who had been frantically inhaling sotteok-sotteok slowly turned her head. Her mouth dropped open, and then she shuffled toward me on her knees.
“…I thought you looked familiar! You really are Hunter Jung Haneul! Ahhh! I’m seriously such a huge fan!”
“A fan?”
“Yes! You’re from Haneul Bungeoppang Shop, right? Ahh, I really wanted to go there someday. Wait! Then the reason this food actually tastes good is…!”
Fortunately, it didn’t seem like she had seen the recent malicious articles. Feeling shy, I smiled awkwardly and shrugged.
“Yeah. It’s because they’re items I made.”
“No way. I thought it only tasted good because I nearly died and came back to life…!”
Feeling pleased, I pulled another sotteok-sotteok from my inventory and placed it into her hand. Before long, the hunters who had regained their strength each approached one by one to thank us.
“Thank you so much. Hunter Lee Hyunwoo, Hunter Haneul. You saved us! I don’t even know how to repay this debt….”
“I seriously thought I was going to die. Thank you so much for rescuing us.”
Seeing them bow repeatedly with sauce smeared around their mouths finally eased my mind. And then we received welcome news.
“Access route secured. All personnel, begin search operations!”
The support team we had requested had finally arrived.
The crack we entered through had already closed, so they explained that it took time to find another route inside. Upon seeing the enormous cocoon colony, they fell silent for a moment.
“…This is even worse than we anticipated.”
But there was no time to stand around stunned forever. True to their reputation as seasoned professionals, they immediately began dismantling the cocoons and checking inside.
“Target number one: no biological response. Internal dissolution already in progress.”
“Mark it and move to the next target. Don’t waste time!”
Vrrrr—!
A massive cutting device emitted a sharp mechanical whine as it split apart the cocoon shells. But even after dismantling over half the cocoons, no signs of life appeared. Just as hope began fading and a heavy silence settled over the site…
“Biological response detected! Weak heartbeat confirmed!”
A desperate shout shattered the silence.
“Securing location! Medical team, move to Zone 3 immediately!”
“Lower the cutter output! Peel off only the outer shell so we don’t injure the survivor inside!”
The instant survivors were confirmed, the atmosphere at the site completely changed. Warm urgency filled the hands of the team members who had previously been moving mechanically. Frantic reports flew from all directions.
“We have additional survivors here! Their breathing is unstable!”
“Bring oxygen respirators! Adjust the potion concentration before administering it!”
As the number of rescued survivors increased, the emergency kits the support team brought quickly began running low. Sweat dripping down his face, the team leader spoke urgently into his radio.
“Headquarters, this is Rescue Team 1. Multiple survivors confirmed! Additional medical personnel and transport gates are urgently needed. Repeat, requesting emergency support!”
From one corner of the chaotic site, I looked after the rescued people. I carefully fed warm fish cake broth little by little to those trembling in fear and massaged their stiffened limbs.
A woman so emaciated her bones nearly protruded, weakly grasped my hand while releasing shallow breaths.
“Thank you so much for saving me…. I thought I was going to die here, leaving my daughter behind….”
Tears of relief streamed down from her hollow eyes. I bit my lip tightly and gently stroked the back of her cold hand.
“Please don’t speak. Your strength is too weak right now, so you need to conserve your energy first.”
Even after that, the intense rescue operation continued. After dismantling every cocoon filling the cave and conducting precision scans, the total number of victims discovered was forty-seven.
Out of them, eighteen miraculously survived.
“Bring a stretcher over here! Hurry, hurry!”
“Requesting healing-skill support in Zone 8!”
Watching the support team move around frantically like a battlefield unit, Lee Hyunwoo Hunter approached my side.
“We should withdraw now. There are too many eyes on us.”
He was right. I could feel the glances from both the rescued hunters and the support team members. If we stayed longer, the site would only grow more chaotic. We exited the gate through the route the support team had entered from.
“I’m really glad we followed Hangyeol into the gate. We managed to save so many people.”
“You worked hard today. Let’s head home and get some proper rest. I’ll handle all necessary statements.”
Perhaps because the tension had finally left me, exhaustion crashed over me so heavily that I felt like I could collapse asleep immediately. Leaving the aftermath to him, I sank into the passenger seat and slowly closed my eyes.
And that night, a post appeared on the community forum.
<Thank you, Hunter Haneul, for saving my mother. (Comments: 1,156)>
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