My Assigned Hunters Climb the Tower - Chapter 16

========== CHAPTER 16 ==========

“What?!”

“The main body of that swamp is a slime-type monster! If you pull it off the floor, it can’t maintain its form! Hurry!”

There was no time to hesitate. At Go Gyeol’s confident voice, Lee Seong-ha instinctively manipulated gravity, grabbed Kang Ji-hyun’s waist, and soared into the air.

“Ugh!”

The black swamp that had been gripping Kang Ji-hyun’s ankles was pulled up along with her. And in mid-air, it finally revealed its true form. A slime monster with a horrific shape, a mixture of black tar, tangled clothes, and mannequin limbs, let out a bizarre scream.

Go Gyeol’s eyes flashed. Everything was moving according to his data.

“Now! The shiny mannequin head in the center of that mass is the core! Kang Ji-hyun, shoot your bow!”

Even amidst the chaos, Go Gyeol’s instructions were as clear as a lighthouse. He was no longer just a simple management agency president. He was the only strategist who could see through everything in this hellish dungeon.

Pure magic swirled in Kang Ji-hyun’s hands, creating dazzling particles of light. The light soon condensed into the shape of a bow, drawing a beautiful curve. Her long, slender fingers slowly pulled back the thin, light-string that looked like it might snap at any moment.

Zzziiing-!

In the empty air, an arrow of light formed on its own and burned fiercely.

The moment she released the string, the arrow of light sliced through the space without a sound and flew toward the slime monster hanging in the air.

-Kwakwakwakwang!!

Along with a thunderous explosion, a flash of light that could blind the eyes covered the entire store. The mannequin head, which had been the slime monster’s core, vanished without a trace, and the filth that had made up its body poured down like rain.

Floating in the air, with her waist still held in Lee Seong-ha’s arms, Kang Ji-hyun exhaled as if satisfied.

“Hoo…. Hey, put me down now.”

“What? Hey? Who are you calling ‘hey’ to….”

“Don’t whine and put me down. You smell.”

“This little…!”

Lee Seong-ha was incensed, but while grumbling, he obediently adjusted the gravity and set her down on the floor. Once she landed, Kang Ji-hyun smoothed out her clothes as if nothing had happened. Watching her, Lee Seong-ha clicked his tongue and muttered.

“Your power is as foul and strong as your shitty personality.”

However, unlike the two who were bathed in the relief of victory, Go Gyeol’s gaze didn’t waver in the slightest. Instead, he scanned his surroundings even more sharply and said in a low voice.

“Don’t let your guard down. It’s not over yet.”

“What?”

It was the moment Lee Seong-ha asked back.

Kkiiik… Kkigigigik….

A chilling sound, like rusty hinges turning, began to echo throughout the store.

“……!”

Everyone’s gaze turned toward the source of the sound.

There, dozens of mannequins stood, perfectly posed and motionless.

Click. Click-click.

The mannequins’ joints began to bend unnaturally, like living humans. With the artificial smiles painted on their smooth plastic faces remaining unchanged, their necks turned 180 degrees to face the group. Inside their hollow eye sockets, eerie red lights began to burn.

“Dear customers….”

From the mouth of one mannequin, a voice like a broken speaker flowed out.

“…It is time for… shopping.”

The next moment, dozens of mannequins simultaneously broke off their own limbs to create sharp weapons and began to rush at them with terrifying speed.

“Fuck! What is this now!”

Just as Lee Seong-ha was about to spit out an oath and deploy a gravity field, Go Gyeol’s cold voice stopped him.

“Lee Seong-ha, focus on covering Kang Ji-hyun. Kang Ji-hyun. Don’t use magic from now on. Those things, they get stronger by reacting to magic.”

His words were not mere speculation. It was a command filled with conviction, as if he could see through everything. Go Gyeol had anticipated this entire situation.

He tapped the shoulder of Kang Hun, who was at a loss behind him.

“Kang Hun.”

“Y-yes?!”

“It’s your turn.”

Go Gyeol pointed his chin at the closest of the rushing mannequins.

“Those bastards, their joints are their weak point. Use your ability to bind their movements, even if just for a moment. Can you do it?”

“Th-that? Me?”

Kang Hun’s face turned deathly pale. But Go Gyeol’s gaze allowed for no excuses.

“The curse you have isn’t just for harming opponents. It’s optimized for weakening and binding. Do as you learned in training. You have ‘Weakening’!”

“But you said they get stronger with magic?”

“Curses and magic are different. Even if they look like the same type, they’re different.”

This was not a simple field deployment. It was Go Gyeol’s calculated education, intended to make Kang Hun, who had loathed his own ability, realize the new possibilities of that power through his own body.

“If you don’t do it, we all die.”

At Go Gyeol’s final words, Kang Hun gritted his teeth. He stretched his trembling hands forward, and for the first time in his life, he began to draw out his cursed power to protect someone.

Go Gyeol’s final words were like a death sentence. Kang Hun gritted his teeth. He could feel the presence of his companions behind him. He had lived loathing himself, but he didn’t want to watch them die right in front of his eyes.

He stretched his trembling hands forward.

He desperately recalled the sensations he had learned while rolling around during training. Not hatred or anger, but pure focus.

“….”

Along with the whispered incantation, a damp, black haze rose from Kang Hun’s fingertips. It slithered across the floor like a living snake and instantly wrapped around the leading mannequins that were rushing in like madmen.

Kkigigik-!

The effect was immediate. The fierce movements of the mannequins became dull and creaky, as if invisible shackles had been placed on their bodies. A discordant sound, as if sand had been poured into their joints instead of lubricant, burst out from every articulation.

“There’s an opening!”

Go Gyeol’s shout cut through the battlefield.

“Don’t use magic! Those things get stronger by reacting to pure magic! Break their joints physically!”

At that warning, Lee Seong-ha and Kang Ji-hyun, who had momentarily forgotten the ban on magic use in the heat of battle, instinctively suppressed their magic output. The red whip wrapped around Kang Ji-hyun’s wrist came alive like a snake, coiled around the neck of the nearest mannequin, and shattered it on the spot. Lee Seong-ha also swung a heavy steel pipe he had picked up from somewhere, smashing the leg joints of a mannequin.

However, Go Gyeol’s gaze was not on the battlefield. Amidst the vortex of the battle, he turned toward the one person who was standing still.

Kwon Do-geun.

He was trembling like an aspen tree in place. His face was deathly pale, his pupils dilated with fear. He was frozen, staring at the hellscape before him, unable to control the sphere of water he had summoned without realizing it.

Go Gyeol strode over to him and blocked his view. As the horrific sight disappeared from his field of vision, Kwon Do-geun’s unfocused eyes finally turned toward Go Gyeol.

“Kwon Do-geun.”

Kwon Do-geun’s shoulders flinched at the cold voice.

“Are you scared?”

There was no answer. Go Gyeol looked down at him for a moment and then asked a completely unexpected question.

“Think of this as a movie.”

“……Yes?”

“The protagonist is a hunter like you, and this is a very cool climax scene where you smash all those mannequins and save your colleagues.”

Kwon Do-geun looked at Go Gyeol with a blank expression. In this hellish situation, he couldn’t understand what on earth he was talking about.

Go Gyeol grabbed his chin and forced him to look at the battlefield.

“But if the protagonist is trembling like you, would the audience pay money to watch that movie?”

It was neither comfort nor encouragement.

It was a brutally realistic question that twisted the essence of fear.

“But… I don’t know anything…”

This time, Go Gyeol tapped Kwon Do-geun’s chest.

“Everything depends on you. Didn’t you shoot a similar movie in the past?”

“Movies and reality are different!”

“No, they’re the same. You’re a hunter and you have power.”

“But, I don’t know how to use the power…”

“Power does nothing but obey me. A famous quote from a 1st-generation hunter.”

【Power does nothing but obey me.】

(힘은 오직 나에게 복종할 뿐이다.)

That arrogant sentence struck Kwon Do-geun’s mind hard.

In an instant, a memory he had forgotten flashed through Kwon Do-geun’s mind.

It was a scene from a fantasy movie he had filmed before becoming a hunter.

Back then, even though he knew there was nothing in the air, he had waved his hands, imagining that flashy CG would be added later.

The director had explained, ‘A stream of water will shoot out from here to bind the enemy,’ and Kwon Do-geun had acted while believing that imaginary image was real.

‘That’s right, this is acting. Those water droplets are CG that I need to control.’

The magic he hadn’t been able to perceive finally began to take shape through the framework of ‘imagery.’ The energy he had been wandering with, not knowing how to use, began to follow the familiar flow of direction, just like memorizing a script in the past. Power was not a tool that watched its master’s mood, but a tool that had to obey its master’s imagination.

Kwon Do-geun’s eyes changed, just like an actor’s. He no longer trembled. Instead, he reached out toward the mannequins with the most confident pose he had ever used in front of a camera in the past. The scattered water droplets aligned along his fingertips.

“!”

The streams of water floating in the air condensed in an instant, then stretched out like a fierce whip. It flew with precision, as if it were a pre-arranged special effect, and firmly wrapped around the mannequins’ ankles, pinning them to the floor.

“……!”

The mannequins, with their vision blocked and feet bound, faltered for a moment. The predator of the battlefield, Kang Ji-hyun, would not miss that fleeting opening.

Shooo-! Crack!

Kang Ji-hyun’s red whip flew in with a chilling sound of tearing air, shattering the mannequins’ heads. It was perfect timing, a perfect combo.

Kwon Do-geun, who had been staring blankly at the stream of water that had burst from his fingertips, let out a rough breath. It was the moment he realized for the first time that he was a hunter and used his power.

Watching that scene, Go Gyeol wore a satisfied smile and muttered.

“Now the party is finally running properly.”