Monday had come around again. First, let me share another piece of good news.
"Hunter Kang Changho, congratulations."
At long last, the S-rank Hunter who had been held in detention was released.
As an outsider, I had no idea how he'd managed it, but apparently everything had been handled perfectly, and there would be no further repercussions. An Awakened had assaulted an ordinary person, yet strangely enough, the media had fallen silent once again.
"Did he pay off the reporters or something?"
Anyway, I went to the police station to congratulate him on his release, bringing a gift with me. When I searched the keyword 'detention center' online, there were plenty of posts recommending this as the ideal gift.
"Here."
"Tofu, huh."
Unfortunately, the recipient didn't seem particularly pleased.
The Earthling stared down at the soft block of tofu in his hands and briefly seemed to wonder whether I was making fun of him—seriously enough that violence apparently crossed his mind.
Fortunately, considering where we were, it didn't turn into another incident.
And judging by Kang Changho's reaction, my attempt to suppress and regulate my mana so that he wouldn't realize my lung had been restored seemed to have worked rather well.
Since my immediate concerns had been resolved, there was no reason to hesitate any longer.
I returned home and began planning out the days ahead.
"Hmm."
First and foremost, the most urgent matter was creating a device capable of deceiving [Dragon's Eye], just in case something unexpected happened.
"-Do you know that your own magic is constantly fluctuating?"
However, if I wanted to counter Kang Changho's surveillance, it wouldn't be enough merely to reproduce the "fluctuations" he had seen.
I would also need to suppress the mana of my actual body—the one concealed inside the corpse—until it was nearly undetectable.
In other words, I had a considerable amount of work ahead of me.
As for the latter problem, I knew a technique for preventing magical traces from leaking out, so I figured I could somehow manage that.
The real problem was still the fluctuation phenomenon Kang Changho had mentioned.
To be honest, I still had no idea why those afterimages appeared in the first place, nor did I know their frequency or intensity, which made the whole thing rather uncertain...
"Maybe it'll work if I can somehow reproduce the biological information."
It had been a long time since I'd last thought like a proper wizard.
After some consideration, my first conclusion was that I would need roughly two [Infinite Power Cores] for what I had in mind.
So, as soon as afternoon came, I hurried to the auction house and bought two of them.
"I'd rather not go through the trouble of finding them out of stock again."
More precisely, I paid cash and bought them on the spot.
"Besides, I got my lung for free anyway. Anything left in my bank account is basically extra."
I had gathered most of the necessary materials.
Now all that remained was to conduct the research and complete a convincing dummy.
And so, I entered yet another period of seclusion.
Despite the resolution I'd made before reincarnating—to live a carefree, leisurely life—my days somehow kept getting swallowed up by experiments and labor...
Still, I felt much more at ease now.
After all, I had finally achieved my original, ultimate goal of repairing my lung.
For the first time, I no longer felt as though something were constantly chasing me from behind.
"Hmm."
From now on, I intended to take things easy and only occasionally pay attention to whatever the rank 1 Hunter had to say.
***
Bubble, bubble...
Saturday soon arrived.
There were still some tea leaves from Hadong tucked away in the small cupboard of my one-room apartment.
Since the weather had begun to warm up, I decided to cool the tea quickly and enjoy it chilled.
Crack.
Around the time I froze the cup in my hand with magic, a familiar word drifted from the phone I'd left playing nearby.
[A 'Beast' has appeared once again at a gate in Europe, causing further controversy...]
BEAST.
It was a name that had been appearing on the news every day for the past five days.
A bizarre figure wearing an enormous mask fashioned from elk bones, its body wrapped in ragged black leather reminiscent of old tires.
That was the distinctive appearance of one particular S-rank Hunter known throughout the world.
But Beast's peculiarities weren't limited to appearance alone.
Beast was also an unregistered Awakener—something that would be considered a serious crime in certain Eastern countries.
In other words, Beast was merely an 'assumed' S-rank Hunter, someone who had never undergone an official ranking examination.
"Kyaah!"
"Devil... That thing is a devil."
This mysterious Hunter had first appeared during the world's first S-rank dungeon break—the Nuckelavee incident at the S-ea Gate.
The boss monster that emerged at the time, the Nuckelavee, had a grotesque half-human, half-horse form.
Its lower body moved like an enormous cephalopod dominated by a gaping maw, while a charred humanoid figure protruded from above—probably serving a function similar to an anglerfish's lure, since it showed virtually no signs of independent life.
When the enormous mouth in its lower body unleashed a roar, a certain former wrestling star turned S-rank Hunter was gruesomely torn apart.
That single moment plunged the people of Hawaii into {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} absolute terror.
Yet in the midst of that desperate situation, a new savior appeared.
A mysterious beast clad from head to toe in black leather strode onto the shores of Hawaii.
And all alone, it tore apart the sea demon that had overwhelmed the American Hunters, killing it with astonishing ease.
"Oh my goodness!"
No one knew what skill had been used.
No one knew where the mysterious figure had come from.
But everyone seemed to share the same impression of the Awakener who vanished as suddenly as they had appeared.
"It's like one of those reptilians from conspiracy theories. It feels like that person is some absolute, unseen existence lurking behind the entire Hunter world."
People had always tended to admire wild, untamed powerhouses roaming outside the system more than warriors who fought according to the rules of the ring.
And that was how Beast became known as the unofficial strongest.
After the Nuckelavee incident, Beast began appearing in various places around the world.
[Giant's Castle].
[Fire Nest].
And the A-class [Dimension Treasure Vault-Subspecies], which was filled with golem-like demons.
Before long, people started joking that Beast—who was rarely seen anywhere except high-difficulty gates—might not actually be human at all, but some kind of spirit.
Something like those tiny creatures said to exchange children's fallen teeth for coins.
After all, Beast had occasionally shown small acts of kindness toward people.
...But this month, Beast revealed a shocking side no one had expected.
As usual, Beast was spotted near a high-level A-rank gate.
The Spanish Hunters who encountered the legendary unidentified powerhouse were thrilled and followed Beast inside without hesitation.
Or rather, they simply accepted Beast's presence as part of the raid.
Beast had a habit of intruding on expeditions without permission, but had never harmed the Hunters entering alongside them.
"Huh? What's going on?"
This time, however, something was different.
Several hours later, only one person emerged from the exit of the newly formed A-rank gate.
The moment Beast stepped outside, the gate's light faded and the passage rapidly collapsed.
That alone made one thing painfully clear.
There were no survivors left inside.
But then the question became unavoidable.
How had so many high-ranking Hunters been wiped out at once?
"Hello? What happened to the Hunters who went inside with you?"
Beast was notoriously silent and never responded to interviews, so at that point no one knew the truth.
People merely assumed the Hunters had been killed by monsters during the raid.
Everyone was confused, but there was still no reason to suspect anything else.
Then, only a few hours later, the same thing happened in another European country.
Beast suddenly appeared among Hunters from a different nation who were preparing to enter a gate and joined their raid.
And when the exit finally appeared—
Beast was once again the only one who came out.
On both occasions, for reasons no one understood, Beast emerged from the gate carrying a large sack over one shoulder, as though something heavy had been stuffed inside.
Then came the shocking discovery.
After French authorities investigated Beast's movements, they revealed that the blood dripping from the sack matched the DNA of a particular Hunter who had gone missing during the dungeon raid.
"Lord!"
The revelation sent media outlets around the world into an uproar.
Beast had been carrying the bodies of Hunters!
Whatever the reason might have been, one horrifying possibility naturally began creeping into people's minds.
"Could it be that the reason those Hunter teams were wiped out all this time...?"
It was nothing short of a global emergency.
If the Awakened known as Beast—someone consistently regarded as one of the world's most powerful S-rank Hunters—turned out to be a murderer, it would be some of the worst possible news for humanity.
And so, people all over the world scrambled to track Beast down.
But there was a reason such a remarkable figure, someone who had personally resolved the catastrophe in Hawaii, had remained unidentified all this time.
In the end, no one could ever catch the trail of the Nuckelavee Killer.
The reason was...
[...According to expert analysis, Beast's awakening type has been identified as belonging to the category of abilities that interfere with 'space.']
That was why.
[So that's how the Nuckelavee was severed so easily. Until now, Beast's spatial abilities had only been observed in convenient forms such as teleportation. But if that unknown power can also be applied offensively, it may be possible to bypass a monster's physical durability entirely and cut through it cleanly.]
How could anyone not be terrified?
The prime suspect in the possible murders of the Hunters who had entered those gates possessed an ability that defied common sense.
That was also why Beast had managed to keep the face behind the mask hidden for so long.
Beast wasn't merely an S-rank with monstrous physical capabilities.
Even if someone managed to pursue them, Beast could simply manipulate space and escape across continents.
The weak were thrown into fear.
And even at that very moment, media outlets around the world continued repeating Beast's name...
***
Beast.
Just who was this mysterious, uncooperative figure?
"Hmm."
I had been sipping my chilled green tea when I finally turned my full attention to the phone.
The news broadcast had switched from breaking coverage to an interview with a foreigner.
"Brooklyn Morgan."
A tall Hunter with neatly cut bobbed hair sat on the screen.
The woman turned toward the talk show host and spoke.
The identity of Beast? Well, maybe it's someone from our Spectrum Guild! Honestly, whenever I'm with Enzo, he spends so much time lazing around that I sometimes wonder if he's secretly a 'beast' himself.
Enzo.
I feel like I've heard that name somewhere before...
Anyway, Brooklyn Morgan had been invited as a representative of the world's highest-ranking Awakened and was being asked for her thoughts on the Beast incident.
Brooklyn crossed her legs, rolled her eyes briefly, then answered.
...All right, jokes aside. You asked who I think the Nuckelavee Killer might be, right? Actually, there is one thing that stands out to me.
What is it?
I think the Nuckelavee Killer comes from a non-English-speaking country.
I see. Just as expected.
If you watch the footage of Beast carefully, you can tell they're not simply quiet. They actually behave as though they don't understand English at all. Remember when another Hunter clearly warned Beast not to touch that pillar, but Beast touched it anyway and got burned?
Ah, the Lava Giant incident.
Now that Pixy has released a translation device, though, I don't understand why Beast still refuses to communicate.
Slurp.
I took another sip of tea and watched the screen with growing interest.
No matter how appropriate the nickname Beast might be, it's not as though they're literally out there rolling around with impalas in the middle of the savannah. Beast is still a modern person living in the same era as the rest of us. Even now, they're probably somewhere looking completely ordinary, tapping away at a smartphone and chatting with friends on messenger.
Hahaha.
But once you look at it that way, there's something else that starts to seem suspicious.
What is it?
Does Beast really have to be an unregistered Awakener? Maybe... they're already living among ordinary citizens, cleverly hiding the fact that they even possess awakening abilities.
An S-rank from a non-English-speaking country who was concealing their awakening abilities.
I nodded.
Brooklyn's theory certainly sounded plausible.
But after thinking about it for a moment, the conditions began to feel strangely familiar.
Wow, this sounds like the kind of plot you'd see in a movie. So what you're suggesting, Brooklyn, is that perhaps some sophisticated Asian man in South Korea could secretly be living a double life every night?
Haha! Absolutely. It would certainly be an interesting twist if someone like that turned out to be Beast.
Still holding my cup of green tea, I tilted my head slightly.
Even then, the cheerful voices of the Americans continued pouring from the speakers.