Chapter 240
Choi Yeonseung wasn’t an expert in the SSL, given that he had only fought alongside the angels in preparation for the constellation battle. However, he was still able to assess how well those hunters were fighting.
The Six-Eyed Turtle hunters weren’t fighting well. More exactly, they looked like they were playing separately, not as a team. The hunter in the top lane, the one in the middle lane, the one in the bottom lane, and even the free-roaming hunter, were all fighting on their own to kill monsters.
The angels serving the goddess of balance were different. They moved as one despite being so far apart from each other. Choi Yeonseung admired the way in which the angels moved in perfect order under Adaquaniel’s commands.
Thanks to their coordination, Choi Yeonseung was able to stay composed and effortlessly defeat any enemies that got in his way. He killed the monsters when they emerged and smashed the opponent’s turret...
‘Is it okay for them to fight like this?’
“Do you really think they don’t suck??” asked Illeya once again. She really seemed to think that their fighting was terrible.
“It’s because the Six-Eyed Turtle clan doesn’t participate in the SSL directly,” explained Kwon Yeongseung from behind them.
Kwon Yeongseung came straight down when he heard that Choi Yeonseung, who had just arrived, hadn’t met the clan leader yet and was touring the training facility.
“You don’t participate in the competition directly? Then why train for it?”
“We’re training the hunters that have potential for it and then we sell them to other clans.”
“... You mean trafficking? Are you a slave trader?” asked Illeya with a look of disbelief.
Kwon Yeongseung shook his head in an embarrassed manner. “What... No!”
“I guess he’s a slave trader,” Illeya whispered in Choi Yeonseung’s ear.
Choi Yeonseung nodded with a serious expression.
“... Are you making fun of me right now?” Kwon Yeongseun wondered.
“You’re quick-witted.”
Not all the clans competed, as the SSL was a sport where failure meant many losses. The Six-Eyed Turtle clan had participated in the SSL in the early days, but they had the bitter experience of setting one of the worst records among the Korean clans, which had already been evaluated as weak. Afterwards, the clan leader made a decision.
-Let’s stay away from this competition. We will only raise hunters who want to play and sell them to other clans!
The Six-Eyed Turtle clan had a large number of hunters, given that they were considered a super-large clan, and some of them stood out.
Having a transfer fee when handing over the talented hunters to another clan was indeed good business.
“How bad were your results?”
“Well, it’s been ten years since...”
“So what if you haven’t won the championship in ten years? There are teams that have been playing for thirty years and still haven’t won it.”
Even in the case of Hwang Gyeongryong, wasn’t he still cheering for the Giants?
“... We were last place.”
“Okay, I think disbanding the team is the right call,” said Choi Yeonseung, changing his mind about the team.
At this point, it was rather strange. Since the clan was quite large, they definitely didn’t lack money like other clans. How did they manage to get such bad results despite having the resources?
‘The team is hopeless. There must be many reasons behind it.’
It was possible that the opposing clans had been stronger, or that the hunters had been fighting among themselves, or the coach had been incompetent...
In any case, even though they didn’t participate in competitions themselves, the Six-Eyed Turtle clan was still a fairly attractive place.
For low-level hunters, it didn’t matter if they joined and participated in the SSL or anything else. Other clans could easily find and recruit various talents.
“By the way, why is everyone saying that the Korean team is so weak when you have developed so many talents?”
“...”
Kwon Yeongseung was one of those talents who didn’t perform well when playing for the national team, so he absolutely couldn’t say anything in regards to that. Perhaps if he had done a better job, Director Lee Changsik wouldn’t have been criticized so much.
The staff member next to him made excuses for him. “Well, the reasons are complicated.”
“Can you give me a summary then?”
***
“It’s noisy over there.”
“It looks like someone from another clan.”
“Isn’t the Six-Eyed Turtle clan deliberately creating a competition?”
“No way... The Six-Eyed Turtle isn’t that dirty.”
“How many people have sacrificed their reputation for money?”
The scouts from Ambitus, a US clan, scanned the hunters in the training facility with keen eyes. In the early days of the SSL, many clubs tried to create teams by only selecting the hunters with the highest ratings. Due to their high ratings, the clans thought the hunters would do well. Their assumptions weren’t entirely wrong, but they had overlooked many things.
There were various situations in which even the top-rated hunters died. Given that the price for recruiting high-ranking hunters was incredibly high, nowadays they looked at the skill and the potential of a hunter, rather than their rating.
“That hunter fights very well. What skill is that?”
“They say it’s the Double Acceleration skill.”
“Double Acceleration? I think it’s too slow to be that skill. Isn’t he deceiving you?”
“What hunter would deceive someone with something like this?”
“How many times do I have to tell you not to trust hunters? When money is involved, they’ll lie as much as they need to. Um... You should take that into consideration.”
“Korean hunters are good at fighting.”
“Well, they all have a lot of potential. It’s just that they’re sloppy in actual fights.”
It wasn’t a proven fact, but many people believed that the hunters from areas with many monsters were talented. By that logic, South Korea had to have excellent hunters. Since the country was between China and Japan, they had to deal with all the incoming monsters. On top of that, they even had to deal with monsters coming from the area that had once been North Korea. Such harsh conditions meant that the hunters had to be strong.
“What do you mean by being ‘sloppy’...?”
“You don’t know? They take too much to kill monsters, they waste movements, they don’t get along with each other, and they can't win in one-on-one fights… All these problems accumulate and their fighting becomes messy.”
In fact, during raids, killing monsters as fast as possible wasn’t the priority. It was better to kill them safely.
However, sports competitions were different. In order to have an advantage over their opponent, they had to be the ones to kill monsters the fastest and move efficiently. These strategies had been established by accumulating a lot of information regarding the competition.
The Korean clans were struggling with those strategies.
“By the time our American clans shared this information, the Koreans were already far behind. The computer calculations were too late... Above all, China and Japan are next to them. Can’t information be shared? In any case, we’ve talked too much about useless things. Never mind it. Just look for martial artists right now.”
Martial arts had recently gained a lot of popularity among hunter clans. Of course, there were skeptical hunters who thought that it was just a trend that would soon disappear. However, during this monster wave, Choi Yeonseung’s act of taking on an A-grade monster with martial arts greatly decreased such views. Hunters who had been treated harshly because they were learning martial arts turned their lives around because of what Choi Yeonseung did.
Nevertheless, this didn’t mean that the scouts could just take any martial artists with them. It was their job to scout martial artists who had useful skills in order to stand above other clans.
“Wow. Who’s that? He seems pretty good at fighting, doesn’t he?”
“Why are you getting overly excited again?”
The Ambitus clan scout sighed at his subordinate’s words. He was supposed to have developed a discerning eye by now, but every time he saw a hunter, he was like ‘Wow, that’s great! Isn’t that hunter awesome?!’
A hunter’s magic looked impressive on the outside, but his actual strength was what mattered. They had to figure out how much the hunter was worth...
“...?!?!”
The scout who was spectating suddenly had a look of disbelief. That hunter was capable of fighting, but he seemed to be fighting a bit too well. He had entered the Otherworld and managed to hold his own against three other hunters. Those four hunters had the same rating, so how could one of them keep up with the others in a 1:3 fight?
It was more surprising that the hunter fighting on his own was a martial artist!
“I’ll be the reinforcement!”
“!”
An old man came from behind to help.
The three hunters were a bit confused when an older hunter joined the fight while young and energetic hunters were being eliminated, but… The old man’s skills were no joke. In an instant, he threw a series of spells at one of the hunters. They weren’t particularly powerful spells, but the old man’s ability to strike his opponent’s weak spots with impeccable timing was truly impressive.
“We need to bring these people back with us!”
***
“Ughhhh.”
Chen Xiezhi sighed when he came out of the Otherworld.
The hunters of the Six-Eyed Turtle were staring at Chen Xiezhi with admiration. At first, they thought he was just a crazy old man, but they found out he was amazing when he actually started fighting.
“What are you doing here?” asked Chen Xiezhi, not sure why those hunters were staring at him.
“I never thought you would fight so well.”
Choi Yeonseung answered for him, “He’s an S-grade hunter.”
“Hahaha. What a ridiculous joke...”
“Hunter Choi Yeonseung, you were also really amazing.”
The hunters thought he was joking and started laughing. Chen Xiezhi had been great, but Choi Yeonseung had been even more amazing. Even though they fought in the Otherworld, which restricted one’s power, Choi Yeonseung still managed to endure a 1:3 fight. It was an incredible feat of strength.
When they tried to cast magic from a distance, he dodged as if he had eyes in the back of his head. Fighting him from a close distance wasn’t much better either, as he managed to hold his own by deflecting all the attacks, and on top of that, he could have counterattacked right away if he had wanted to...
Choi Yeonseung revealed his true strength the more he persisted and the more he hunted monsters. Once he had gained enough strength and his magic power had been restored, he crushed the other hunters.
“I think that Hunter Choi Yeonseung should be the one to go to the SSL competition, not us.”
“What are you talking about…? I don’t even know the rules.” Choi Yeonseung disregarded the idea that he thought was ridiculous. He did a great job when he fought with the angels because of how excellent Adaquaniel’s ability was. However, there was no way he would do well in a competition. He was well aware of how complicated the SSL had become.
“Of course, you might be unfamiliar with the rules, but your ability to fight is the most important, right? In all honesty, your skills are more than enough.”
The Six-Eyed Turtle clan hunters didn’t back down and tried to persuade him. After all, Choi Yeonseung had fought amazingly well.
“Stop talking nonsense. Get ready to learn martial arts.”
“Thank you!”
At Choi Yeonseung’s words, the Six-Eyed Turtle clan members shouted emotionally. An opportunity to receive lessons from a martial artist, especially an A-grade hunter, didn’t come often.
Moreover, it was entirely free!
No hunter had ever shared the secrets of their skills like that.
[Strong faith is gathering in this spot.]
[The power of existence has risen!]
Choi Yeonseung evaluated the skills of the martial artists, evaluated their postures, and taught them simple ways to practice. The instructions of the master, who had undergone the same kind of training, were surprisingly effective.
These martial artists, who had always felt held back because of what they chose to learn, felt enlightened every time they heard an answer to their question.
“Hey, you!”
“?”
“I want to bring you to our Ambitus clan. How much money will it cost? I’ll give you whatever you want.”
“Will you give me all the shares in the Ambitus clan?”
“... That must be a joke. What nonsense... Wait.”
The dumbfounded scout was taken aback when he recognized Choi Yeonseung’s voice.
“Ah... No. What?”
Choi Yeonseung asked, “So why did you call me? Are you looking for a fight?”
“N-No. That’s not it... Why are you here?”
“I’m teaching some martial artists.”
Choi Yeonseung’s words surprised the scout even more. Why was an A-grade hunter giving lessons to these D and E-grade hunters? Did he have that much free time?
“Hunter Choi Yeonseung!”
“?”
“You’re being deceived by the Six-Eyed Turtle clan!”
“I see...!” said Illeya, who was next to them, in an admiring voice.
No wonder!
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