The First Hunter

Chapter 47. New Year, Part II

Translator: Khan

Editor: RED

4.

Vladivostok…

It is the easternmost city of Russia, the largest country in the world, and the center of the Far East, and one of the most developed cities in Russia.

“Boss, do you know what Vladivostok means?”

It was also a city with an arrogant name.

“Dominate the East!”

The ruler of the East was the meaning of the name Vladivostok. It was evidence of what Russia had in mind when building the city of Vladivostok, and what kind of country Russia was at that time.

“Well, there is nothing strange about it. The founding of Vladivostok was during the Russian Empire, and from then until the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia was one of the strongest nations in the world. Who would say that Russia is a load of bullshit when naming the city in order to dominate the East?”

Now it was evidence of Russia’s reality. The world’s greatest power, which was willing to use aggressive and provocative words to dominate the East in the city name, was no longer present.

“But now it’s different. There’s no more Eastern ruler in this city.”

At the end of the words, Jang, looking up at Vladivostok, gave a long sigh. The sigh spread around like an epidemic.

“Hoo-oo.” Everyone stopped for a moment and sighed at the scenery.

The landscape of Vladivostok was terrible. The city, which was economically, politically and culturally prosperous enough to be called the third capital of Russia, had now become a city that had no traces of people.

The buildings that filled the city were crushed by the struggles of monsters whose size could not even be guessed; decent roads were hard to find, and the cars that had become scrap iron were crumpled like dead bodies all over the roads.

What was even more creepy was that this sight was familiar to Kim Tae-hoon and the men who visited here now.

‘I feel like I’ve gone back a year.’

This was the view of the Republic of Korea a year ago. By that time, all the cities in Korea were this terrible. The difference was the flow of time, but the gruesomeness and despair dominating the city were not much different.

‘If there had been no Master Kim, Seoul would have looked like this.’

If there had been no man named Kim Tae-hoon, the appearance of Seoul would not have been much different from Vladivostok. Everyone stopped sighing and looked at Kim. They felt renewed.

Even though Russia was a toothless tiger, its military power was far greater than Korea’s military power. Not to mention, Vladivostok was also a military strategic point of Russia, and important when it came to the world situation. It was a military city where the Russian Pacific Fleet was crucially located. It was a city that Russia had built up to deal with Japan and even the United States.

Nevertheless, Vladivostok did not last a year in the monster era. Far from a year, the wreckage of the car bodies everywhere told them that Vladivostok had been out of function for months, and that Vladivostok had not survived even three months before collapsing.

‘We were so lucky.’

By comparison, the Republic of Korea was willing to welcome the new year of 2018 without collapsing, because of a single man with no peer.

Under the eyes of those surrounding him, Kim Tae-hoon said briefly, “Don’t get sentimental. There’s no lesson to learn here.”

The short words changed their eyes. Kim Tae-hoon was right. There were no more lessons to be learned in front of these scenes, to those who had seen the same scene a year ago.

The lesson was meaningful when they got it before and deeply engraved it.

It was meaningless to recall the same lesson every time they saw the same scene. The eyes of the men who had escaped from their recollections were immediately turned into the eyes of veteran hunters.

‘Master is right, we are not here to learn a lesson.’

They held their breath and stifled their spirit. Wearing the Black Lion furs which became hot on their own, their presence was like a dark shadow.

‘That’s great.’

Maria, the only outsider among them, was nervous. She had to be nervous.

‘Kim Tae-hoon is Kim Tae-hoon, but his men are not ordinary, either.’

The level of these people, who had been selected to help with Kim Tae-hoon’s sudden trip to Moscow, was so intense that it could easily exceed Maria’s common sense.

‘How on earth did he nurture these soldiers? In just one year?’

And that was natural. They were not just soldiers or hunters, but elite agents who had been tested several times in the absurd typhoon that had driven the Republic of Korea for a year, and Colonel Lim Hyun-joon had strategically nurtured them under the support of the Mac Guild.

An agent who was fostered not only for monster hunting but also for special purposes!

Even the adviser to the process of fostering these agents was Kim Tae-hoon, not just anyone.

‘Korea may become a game maker who will move the world from now on.’

Even though they did not show such a battle yet, Maria felt her spine creeping in the winter of Vladivostok, where even the sea was frozen, at the presence of Kim Tae-hoon’s men. Of course, the chill was not comparable to the one that she felt when she faced the man.

Kim Tae-hoon said while looking at Maria who did not show her chill, “We’ll move to our next destination, guide us.”

Maria opened her frozen mouth and said, “I’ll have to check the map once I’ve moved to Vladivostok Station. There is something you need to keep in mind, even though it is too late to say.”

“Let’s talk on the move.” Their trip began again, and the story with it.

“I don’t know what orders would have been given to the letter, but if there were no specifics, the next destination will be Khabarovsk, because the Russian Far East is located in Khabarovsk. It will take five days to get there if we walk along the Siberian railway.”

“Who is the head of the place?”

“I think it’s a name you know. Major General Vladimir Duprinski.”

“A big shot.”

“Yes, he was a big shot.”

Jang Sung-hoon, who was listening to the conversation, interrupted, “Who is it?”

“He is the former chief of presidential security.”

“He is quite experienced and not fit for being in the Far East, far from safety?”

“He was the top of the influential men.”

“He was the top of the influential men, but the monsters came along and now he is in charge of the dangerous place… I’m thinking of Lieutenant Colonel Yoo.”

Maria, who did not know Lieutenant Colonel Yoo, cocked her head, but on the other hand, at the explanation of Jang, the agents were able to gauge the position of the man named Vladimir in the present country of Russia.

‘He is exiled from power.’

He was a man of power who has been forced out because he did not adapt himself to the new power and order after the monsters appeared.

‘But he’s not giving up his power.’ But he was still ambitious and looking for an opportunity.

Of course, Jang suddenly intervened in the conversation to naturally inform the surroundings of such facts.

Maria had noticed that, too. She did not miss the sudden disappearance of the vigilance and doubt that had been dimly in the eyes of the agents, after this short conversation.

“… and if I continue to talk, the main task of the Far East is to focus on materials search and monster searches, but there’s something more important than this.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a new rule you must remember, as you have stepped into Russian territory from now on.”

Before she could speak, Maria turned her head north. “We are going to follow the Siberian railway. Of course, we will visit the city where the station is located, and we will resupply there. The visit to the city and moving will be made mostly at night. This is the first rule to remember.”

The crowd cocked their heads at the words.

Moving at night was dangerous in many ways. The night in Russia was cold, and even if they traveled the same distance, they would be more exhausted than if they were moving during the day. The ability to prepare for a monster’s attack and the ability to fight also decreased. There was no reason to move at night unless there is a special reason.

“Why?”

Of course, there was a reason. “When the sun rises, the dead move.”

At that reason, everyone’s face stiffened. Jang was also the same.

“Isn’t that the opposite? You know, Zombies are weak during the day and they move at night?” In the end, Jang once again intervened in the conversation.

“There’s no such thing as day and night for a Zombie. There are only warm enough to move and cold enough to not move. It’s not exact, but the standard is minus fifteen degrees. If it’s higher than this temperature, we can’t avoid fighting Zombies.”

Maria’s explanation continued, “I’ll tell you the second rule here. From now on, what you are dealing with is literally a Zombie. They can live without eating, they don’t die even though you cut off their heads, they don’t die if they’re shot with holes like cheese, and they don’t die if their hearts are destroyed.”

In front of the second rule, the faces of some people hardened.

“I’m not underestimating your abilities. You’re the best specialists in monster hunting. But the monster you’re dealing with is not the one you’ve been dealing with. There’s only one thing that can stop them, the cold of Siberia.”

The explanation made the crowd understand. From now on, the enemy they had to face was a completely different kind of monster than the enemies they had faced before. Of course, everyone was nervous.

‘It’s not going to be easy, I’m sure.’

‘A Zombie monster… a world that is not even funny.’

“Is that the end of the explanation?”

“Yes? Yes.”

Only one person was not nervous about it.

“We’ll step into Khabarovsk on January 4th, remember.”

5.

Khabarovsk…

The New Year here was always harsh.

What further explanation did they need, since the average temperature in January was minus 20 degrees Celsius, minus 30 degrees Celsius at night, and sometimes minus 40 degrees Celsius in a crazy cold.

But surprisingly, it was much warmer than usual in Khabarovsk on January 4th: Five degrees below zero! It was a warm New Year, hard to find in the long history of Khabarovsk.

“Goddamn it!”

At the same time, Khabarovsk was facing the worst nightmare since.

“Major General Vladimir, a bunch of Zombies are coming!”

Once proud of its beautiful scenery, Khabarovsk was now a city dominated by humans and monsters with frozen, rotten flesh. It was a nightmare brought about by a warm New Year. In front of the nightmare, Vladimir, the head of the Russian Far East branch in Khabarovsk, had no choice but to feel despair.

‘Why the hell is this happening?’

On December 31, 2016, when the monsters appeared, Khabarovsk had won the war with the monsters. But in the summer and warmer temperatures, Russia had no choice but to give up Khabarovsk in front of the Zombies coming down from the north. They took a rain check.

The next was the New Year 2018. During this winter, when the bitter cold raged, it was the role of the Far East to collect military supplies and relics in neighboring cities, based out of Khabarovsk. It was a very important role.

Nuclear warheads were included in the munitions to collect here. Of course, there was a lot of investment in Khabarovsk for this work. Russia, which was already suffering from a shortage of goods, made the maximum investment that they could.

But now the investment was on the verge of going out of business even before it really paid off.

‘We must keep it somehow. If Khabarovsk is taken again, it is over. There is no next year.’ Major General Vladimir had no intention of accepting it.

‘But how?’

There was no way for Vladimir to do anything about the Zombies who had already begun to occupy Khabarovsk. Most of all, there were too many of them. The number of Zombies coming into Khabarovsk was too high, but the biggest problem was that there were also many Zombies hiding in Khabarovsk.

It was virtually impossible to fight a proper battle against Zombies that popped out from all over the place, and from unexpected places. Moreover, their opponents were not just weak Zombie that would not die, from an old Zombie movie.

In the cold winter of Siberia, the flesh that could only be wiped out by rotting away had frozen hard like steel, and their movements were not slow at all.

Even as their reason had disappeared, pain and fear had gone away too, and there was only ferocity left. Above all, the Zombies were not human beings, the weakest animals. They were beings who had become monsters.

“Major General Vladimir, please give us an order!”

“… how many flame-throwers are ready?”

“All are ready, sir. Will you attack?”

Of course, they have prepared. Instead of guns and swords, they prepared gasoline and flame-throwers as their weapons, and they also brought special armored cars made to crush Zombies beneath their treads.

“A serious thing happened.” However, this preparation was not that meaningful to Zombie monsters.

“What’s going on?”

“It’s an Ogre. Ogre Zombies have appeared.”

In front of a monster that had already crossed the category of common sense, such preparations had no meaning.

“Oh, my God, an Ogre Zombie—”

“Do you really want to order an attack, Major General?”

Their preparations had no meaning for an Ogre Zombie. Fighting with a flame-thrower or special armored car against an Ogre Zombie was no different than stopping a running wagon with a mantis.

“Do we have a procedure for hunting Ogre Zombies?”

“Yes, we do.”

“What is it?”

“A Napalm Bomb…”

At the word, Napalm Bomb, the expressions of everyone including Major General Vladimir hardened. It wasn’t that there was no Napalm Bomb. Nor were they ignorant of the power of the Napalm Bomb. That was why his face was so firm.

‘We will have to use a Napalm Bomb in the city ourselves? The manual is practically telling us to burn Khabarovsk with our own hands, isn’t it?’

A Napalm Bomb was a very good weapon to destroy a city, after all. The fact had already been confirmed during World War II. Of course, if they used the Napalm Bomb in Khabarovsk, the city was done.

‘Does it fall into the hands of the monsters, or burn it with my own hands?’

Of course, Major General Vladimir was anguished. But at this moment, he knew what he had to choose.

‘It’s obvious. If I have to lose the city anyway, it is better to burn it all with the Zombies.’

It was the second option to avoid the worst by using Napalm Bomb rather than just retreating. There was no need to weigh. The only problem was one.

‘Is my life over here?’

As soon as he made the choice, all the achievements made by Major General Vladimir disappeared, and he became a normal person.

That was why General Vladimir could not easily speak out the obvious option. But the time given to him was not long. There was no other way, except to lower the temperature of Khabarovsk to minus 15 degrees.

“Napalm Bomb—” Finally, Major General Vladimir spoke.

“It’s, it’s breaking news!” A new guy ran into the operating room.

After swallowing the words he was about to say, Major General Vladimir looked at the soldier who had emerged and asked, “What’s going on?”

“The Ogre Zombie is dead.”

Everyone was surprised at the fact, and they questioned it.

‘It is a Zombie because it is not dead, but that Ogre Zombie is dead?’

But that was the beginning of a story that they could not understand, since the sight they would face from now on was one they had never seen before.

“A-a man from heaven burned all the Ogre Zombies with blue lightning, and… now the golden-smoke beasts are hunting Zombies.”