Against the Clock: The Team Leader’s Pursuit of Glory

Kang Mu-hyuk had to get a grip on the situation.

'Hunters can be selfish, but this is way too strange.'

There was a reason only three of them had shown up.

"Everyone's scattered in small groups. They're having a hard time getting through those damn plant monsters. There are just too many of them. Luckily, some Hunters with messaging skills managed to get in touch with us, and since we were the closest to the county office, we came here to ask for help..."

"When you say 'we,' you sound like there's a group. So why are you here alone?"

"Well... we ran into the mother of those plant monsters on the way, so..."

Kang Mu-hyuk immediately got the picture.

"How many of you were there?"

"Four..."

"We had five people."

"You too?"

A nearby Hunter, who had been quietly watching, cautiously chimed in. Seeing how he didn't seem to be grieving that much over his lost comrades, they probably weren't that close.

Kang Mu-hyuk massaged his throbbing forehead.

Nine of them in total.

Seven dead, and two barely escaped. They were really lucky. Taking on a mother creature with just four or five people and having two survivors was nothing short of a miracle. But someone was even luckier.

"And what about you? How many in your group died hunting?"

"M-me? I came alone. I hid myself and snuck in..."

"..."

"..."

The other two Hunters were stunned, their mouths gaping like fish. They nearly died getting there, while he just strolled in unharmed.

Kang Mu-hyuk couldn't wrap his head around it. Monsters were swarming like ants near the county office. Only someone seriously skilled could break through that without a scratch. But Wang Gicheol, in Kang Mu-hyuk's eyes, didn't seem like a top-tier Hunter. At best, he might be a B-rank. And that was being generous. His mana level was more like a C+.

"Out of nowhere, there was this big explosion, and all the monsters swarmed towards it. I slipped in during the chaos."

High-ranking Hunters like No Song-rin had already cleared the area near the county office, so he made it through without a hitch. In other words, the other two Hunters' party had been fighting on the front lines, allowing him to slip in safely.

"You're lucky."

"Yeah. I guess I've always been a bit lucky."

Shitty intuition, though.

Wang Gicheol was the poster child for a Hunter who lived off pure luck. Despite his terrible intuition often leading him into monster-filled zones, he somehow always walked away unscathed.

This time was no different. He'd blindly wandered into a monster-infested area, only to find himself at the county office without a scratch, thanks to another party drawing all the attention while they fought the mother creature.

Sure, they said a Hunter's life was seventy percent luck and thirty percent skill, but in his case, it might as well be ninety percent luck and ten percent skill.

'Haaa, I didn't think they were this reckless.'

Kang Mu-hyuk couldn't help but feel disappointed in their choices. Just by following the basic combat protocols, their party could've made it out safely. He even had No Song-rin's group clear the area to help them get in safely. But instead, they charged straight into the lion's den.

Kang Mu-hyuk suddenly realized that these guys were freelancers and couldn't help but sigh.

'I've heard freelancers don't get the best training... but it must be even worse up north.'

Plus, even seasoned Hunters didn't run into bomb-spore flowers every day. They probably figured the mother creature would be just as weak as her spore seeds. That was why they agreed so easily to contact the county office for others.

It wasn't necessarily a bad call. Usually, the strength of a monster's spore seeds mirrors that of the mother. It was not a hard rule, but it was true for most monsters. These Hunters judged the situation based on the basics.

Kang Mu-hyuk realized he'd have to make some serious changes to his plan. He needed to think on the go with time running out.

"Follow me. Let's talk while we check out the situation room map."

The walls of the situation room were lined with large maps. One showed the entire Korean Peninsula and the area around the Tumen River. The other was a detailed map of Daehongdan County. The Daehongdan map took up an entire wall, showing every alley, house, and even the tiniest corner shops.

Kang Mu-hyuk handed a marker to the two surviving Hunters.

"Mark where your party started and the spots where you've made contact with other Hunters. Write down the number of Hunters you know about. The communication tower is down, so smartphones are useless. If there's any place you can reach with your messaging skill, link us up."

"Uh, the guy with the messaging skill died..."

"I can do it. I've got it."

With that, they managed to map out the Hunters who were stranded. Kang Mu-hyuk couldn't help but frown.

"They got themselves trapped while running around like headless chickens."

There were many of them. They'd identified 71 Hunters. The problem was, they were scattered all over the place in groups of two or three, sometimes five or six.

'I can see exactly how this happened.'

They kept breaking up while trying to dodge danger, and got stuck. It was the kind of mess one would sometimes see when they give new recruits in a guild a surprise test.

In cases like this, big guilds would cut all the Hunters loose unless they had some rare talent. A Hunter who was destined to make it big would display signs even as a rookie. If they couldn't handle low-level situations, their future wasn't bright.

Of course, guilds didn't expect perfection. They just wanted the basics. But these Hunters showed a complete failure to grasp even the basics. The map was the proof. It was a clear example of why they were freelancers.

Kang Mu-hyuk pointed to the numbers marked for each party and asked, "Over here at number 3. This is the largest group with seven people. Why are they trapped in that tiny store?"

"Uh, h-hold on. Let me check."

Moe Ilju, the Hunter with the messaging skill, spent a while sending and receiving messages. To be exact, he was waiting for a reply since the messaging skill had to be relayed. The messaging skill only worked between Hunters who had met and registered by touching palms. These freelancers didn't see each other much or only hunted together once or twice, so it took one or two connections to get any news from other parties.

"Oh? Yeah. Got it. Ah, that makes sense... Guild Leader, group number 3 says they got trapped while trying to run from the monsters."

"..."

After checking in on a few parties, Kang Mu-hyuk got a pretty good grasp of the situation.

'Points 3, 6, and 11. These spots have the most spore seed clusters, and there are a lot of mother creatures nearby. Phase 3 will probably kick off in one of these areas.'

Kang Mu-hyuk cleared his thoughts and glanced over at Lee Sookyoung.

"Get all the Hunters who are clearing the monsters outside to come back. We're going to start the strategy briefing."

"So? You're going to do it personally?"

"Yeah," Kang Mu-hyuk nodded at No Song-rin.

"But Guild Leader, you're not a Hunter. You should stay here in the command room and give orders. Why are you heading out on a hunt?"

"With more Hunters, I'd do that. But right now... We just have three so..."

Kang Mu-hyuk had a solid reason for insisting on joining the raid.

'Once those bomb-spore flowers hit phase 3, it's going to be like a boss fight. We can't even win based on our headcount because of the spore seeds. The gap between our ranks is too big. We need to optimize our party composition to deal with this.'

They didn't have enough intel on the 71 Hunters. Trying to connect with them one by one using the messaging skill was taking too long. By the time everyone got together, Daehongdan would be a wasteland.

In other words, they had to put together the best possible party right here and now and adjust it as more Hunters joined, to make the raid as effective as possible.

"I get why you're doing this... But anything could happen out there. We can't guarantee your safety."

"Maybe if we had gear from Warehouse C, it'd be different, but we don't, so we have to make do with what we've got. At this rate, if we don't do anything, it's not just the Hunters---everyone here will be annihilated. The mother creatures are already on the move, probably tearing down buildings and attacking people."

"I've dealt with these things before, so I know that... But this just isn't right," No Song-rin said, pounding his chest in frustration. He knew Kang Mu-hyuk wasn't going to back down. Even he knew this plan was their best shot.

'Damn it, if I only had experience as a raid leader.'

Kang Mu-hyuk had no other choice because none of the Hunters here had ever led a raid.

Usually, a seasoned raid leader would be on the front lines, but the Hunters here were at best at the level of party leaders.

Hwang Dongsu was a brawler who relied on experience over tactics, Hyun Junggeon was a former assassin who dabbled in strategy, and Lee Sookyoung was just a freelance Hunter. No Song-rin did establish a small group back in the days of the Taesung Guild, but the guild's situation at the time meant they never got involved in any major raids.

Since he was from Ujungdo, he was better at scuffles rather than systematic raids. The Orc Tribe incident was his only experience with raid parties, and even then, he just followed Kang Mu-hyuk's plan to the letter.

"So, No Song-rin, can you put together a raid party?"

"That's... I'm not confident. You can't just throw people together and call it a raid party. It's not that simple."

"Hoeryong City won't send reinforcements for a while. We've got to work with what we have here. And right now, I'm the only one who can put together the best raid party and give the right orders."

"Kang Mu-hyuk's right, No. He's got a real talent for this kind of thing," Hyun Junggeon said with a smirk, backing up Kang Mu-hyuk.

"Don't laugh. I can see right through you."

"Oh? Was I too obvious? But what can I say? It's never boring around the Guild Leader."

Despite their short time together, No Song-rin could tell that Hyun Junggeon was almost as sneaky as someone from Ujungdo's 'Heart.' No Song-rin once was close to being like that himself, but seeing Kim Myungjun, he felt he wasn't so bad. Hyun Junggeon, on the other hand, was even more devious than Kim Myungjun. It was exhausting just thinking about what kind of villain he might've become if he hadn't been working with Kang Mu-hyuk.

'Why am I worrying about him? Acting like a justice warrior? I must be losing it.'

Kang Mu-hyuk made his final point clear.

"I'll hang back during the final battle. Let's decide on the rest of the decisions as the situation unfolds."

"Haaa, there's no point talking to him. He won't listen. Fine, let's do this. Gotta jump when the higher-ups say jump."

Hunter roles were generally split into two big categories: Tanks and dealers. And within those, there were more specific roles. Take dealers, for example. They were divided into ranged and melee.

Then, there were archers, often called "bowmen," and swordsmen, referred to as "swordsmen." Archers might branch into rangers depending on their scouting and survival skills, or snipers if they focus on long-range precision or quick, decisive hits.

There were plenty of other smaller roles, too. Tanks were the same. One was "pure tanks," who focused on defense, and "hybrid tanks," who could juggle multiple roles. Pure tanks could be further broken down into "defenders," who prioritized defense, and "attackers," who focused on dishing out damage.

Defenders with shields could be categorized into "armor knights," who had single-target defensive skills, and "paladins," who provided buffs to the whole party or raid. Individual combat styles formed even more sub-roles, but their list was endless.

That was why the media usually just called them all "tanks." Even among Hunters, unless they were putting together a party or raid, they didn't get too caught up in the details.

'Hunter Hwang Dongsu isn't the most reliable choice for a main tank, but given his high rank, we don't have another option. Still, he's tougher than a B-rank tank.'

Kang Mu-hyuk assigned Hwang Dongsu as the main tank and formed the first party around him. Broadly looking, Hwang Dongsu was a tank, but more specifically, he was an attacker who wielded a greatsword rather than weapons in both hands.

While dual-hand weapons specialized in securing the party's safety by quickly gathering the attention of nearby monsters with continuous strikes, the greatsword style's strength lay in its toughness, delivering powerful hits that kept a single foe locked in battle.

'That's why a greatsword warrior needs to be tough as nails and needs proper armor to match that.'

But Hwang Dongsu, having come from the Sinuiju prison village, had never once worn full gear in his time as a Hunter. Quite ironically, the fact that he'd managed to hunt with almost no protection, without ever getting seriously injured, meant he was incredibly strong.

'Imagine what he could do with the right gear.'

And that vision was now playing out before their eyes.

"Screech!"

"Screech!"

"Screech screech!"

He charged forward, slicing through monsters with his massive greatsword.

"A berserker."

He was shredding them all, not just the spore seeds, but even the mother creatures.

"I expected this when I planned this armor, but after seeing it live... This is like hitting the jackpot."