How were they supposed to take this?
Once Jin-Woo"s lengthy explanation came to an end, an uncontrollable fl.u.s.ter floated up on the faces of representatives. Even the carefully-chosen contingent of reporters forgot their jobs and were too busy looking at each other"s reactions.
Noisy, noisy….
The auditorium that used to be draped in eerie silence was now filled up with loud chatter in an instant.
Eventually, someone unable to beat back his fear-filled curiosity and shouted at Jin-Woo.
"Y-you, you expect us to believe that story?!"
How could anyone believe the story of horrifying creatures capable of destroying everything on this land creeping every closer to this planet?
That voice of an elderly man was now filled with a palpable sense of desperation.
"Evidence…. Show me the evidence! Without that, I won"t ever believe you!!"
"T-that"s right!"
"Aren"t your claims far too absurd to be believable?!"
"Out of the blue, you tell us that hundreds of creatures similar to Kamish will show up, but how can that even make sense?!"
Humans, when facing a reality that they couldn"t deal with, would automatically resort to denying it or get angry as their defence mechanism. These representatives from various nations wilfully forgot about the many miracles Jin-Woo had shown them so far, and directed their furious words of denial towards him standing on the rostrum.
Too bad for them, just one swish of his hands was enough to silence them immediately.
"Heok!!"
".....!!"
Dozens of Gates suddenly appeared right behind Jin-Woo.
Using the powers of the Sovereign, he generated several tens of Gates, which were basically a doorway connecting different dimensions.
"I don"t need to create Gates since travelling through shadows is faster for me, but still...."
There should be nothing more efficient for making these people understand than this method. He could generate Gates the size of a person without breaking a sweat.
Jin-Woo stopped looking at the Gates and s.h.i.+fted his gaze to his audience.
Sure enough, not a single person out of the gathered representatives, reporters, and even the staff members of the Korean Hunter"s a.s.sociation, who trusted in Jin-Woo"s words implicitly, could close their slack jaws shut, never mind averting their gazes elsewhere.
"Those…. Aren"t those all Gates?"
"B-b-but, how can such a thing even be....??"
"Hunter Seong Jin-Woo can create Gates, and not only that, several of them at the same time in front of all these people?"
The eyes of everyone present began trembling powerfully, as if there was an earthquake happening right now.
The director of the Hunter Bureau, David Brennan, continued to rub his eyes in utter disbelief. He was someone who personally witnessed the Dragon "Kamish" take its first step in this world as the dungeon break unfolded, but even then, he just couldn"t believe this.
"As I thought, it"s working."
Jin-Woo was satisfied by their reactions after witnessing the powers of the Sovereign and closed the Gates behind him.As if what happened only a second ago had been a hallucination, every single Gate simply vanished without a trace, faster than the witnesses could blink.
"Ah, no!!"
At the same time, a reporter was. .h.i.t with a sensation of his heart tumbling to the pit of his stomach. He quickly asked the other reporters next to him.
"H-has anyone taken pictures of those Gates?? Doesn"t matter if it"s a camera or a phone, did anyone record that phenomenon??"
"....Ah!!!"
Reporters began despairing right there and then, some hugging their heads while some spat out painful groans. It happened too fast, and they were all too stunned out of their minds, so they had momentarily forgotten to take the visual proof of what happened here.
As if the unrest unfolding within the ranks of the reporters was the signal flare, voices of shock and fl.u.s.ter exploded out from all corners of the auditorium next.
Noisy, noisy….
Loud noises shaking one"s eardrums filled up this huge open interior. But, then...
"Hunter Seong Jin-Woo!!!!"
The British representative suddenly shot up from his seat and managed to attract everyone"s attention via his shrill cry.
"Could it be that you"re one of them?! The creatures that appeared from the first super-ma.s.sive Gate, weren"t they summoned here to kill us all, to begin with?!"
His utterances caused pretty much everyone here to freeze up instantly. They unwittingly ended up imagining the worst possible situation, that was why.
A vague, formless fear of Hunter Seong Jin-Woo being on the enemy"s side began spreading among the hearts of these people like an infection. Well, didn"t he just display the power to create Gates that drove so many humans to their deaths and grips of terror right before their eyes?
"....."
Jin-Woo wordlessly stared at the British representative for a while. Only then did the Briton finally realise the mistake he just made.
If Hunter Seong indeed was on humanity"s side, then this man sure made an a*s of himself due to his fear, but if the opposite turned out to be true, then didn"t that mean it"d be really difficult for him to keep his life now?
"Ah, uh, well…. Of course, I, uh, unreservedly believe in you, Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim...."
The complexion of the British representative paled in an instant and the ends of his sentence progressively got smaller and smaller. Jin-Woo spat out a sigh as if he found this whole thing idiotic.
"Fuu."
He did what he came here to do. Jin-Woo didn"t particularly feel the need to plead with these people, asking them to believe him.
"Whether you believe my words or not, whether you accept my words or not…. That"s your choice. I"ve finished saying my piece, so everyone, make up your own minds now."
Reporters sensed that the announcement had come to an end, and that allowed them to finally free themselves from the stupefaction they were trapped in due to the continuous a.s.sault of one shock after another. Soon, camera flashes urgently exploded forth.
Click, click, click, click, click!!
Jin-Woo took one last sweeping look at the audience members and just as he was about to turn around....
….David Brennan, the director of the American Hunter Bureau, finally decided to break the silence he had been maintaining until then and raised his hand up high.
Jin-Woo recognised him, of course, since they met each other before. He pointed the American out.
"Director Brennan?"
With a hardened expression on his face, the director slowly stood up from his seat. There was no one present here who didn"t know the name of the leader of the Hunter Bureau, so almost immediately, another bout of silence descended on the auditorium.
"It"s been a while, Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim."
He politely bowed his head, and Jin-Woo reciprocated that gesture with a bow of his own. The director continued on from there.
"I understand now what will come out those Gates."
The hundred thousand-plus black monsters that poured out from the first super-ma.s.sive Gate. Thankfully, they turned out to be the subordinates of Hunter Seong Jin-Woo who had "coincidentally" inherited the powers of a Sovereign. And he immediately had them submit to him.
And now, today in this place, the truth about other creatures scheduled to make their entrance not being friends of humanity had been revealed in full. In that case, how was mankind supposed to respond to this?
The director tried to calm his shuddering heart and cautiously asked his question.
"What should we do next?"
Jin-Woo quietly studied the director for a little while, before slowly s.h.i.+fting his gaze to take in the faces of every single person present within the auditorium.
Through his eyes, he could feel their worries, anxiety, nervousness, fear, shock, confusion, etc. Indeed, his sensory perception that had far surpa.s.sed the limits of a human didn"t always prove to be helpful, especially in a situation like this one.
A short while later.
"…...."
Jin-Woo made up his mind and gave them the best advice he could think of.
"I pray that you get as far away from those Gates as humanly possible. As far as you can. I hope that you evacuate to the furthest location you can find, even if it"s only by a little."
***
The ripples caused by the information Jin-Woo provided were enormous.
It was none other than Jin-Woo who provided the info. A man who created an unbelievable spectacle with the first super-ma.s.sive Gate and shocked the entire world, had provided them with this knowledge.
People heard the warning about the invasion of huge monster armies that humanity would never be able to fight against, and struck by fear, they began doing whatever they could to distance themselves as far away from the Gates as possible.
Every road was clogged up by evacuating vehicles. Every avenue was filled with ear-bleeding honkings of car horns.
Didn"t matter which newspaper one clapped their eyes on, Jin-Woo"s visage and the three accompanying words below dominated every single front page.
- Evacuate far away!
Those words were enough to mobilise the entire world.
The thing was, though, when the movement of people become huge in scale, it was only natural that the opposition to that movement would also gain following, as well.
It wasn"t as if everyone believed in Jin-Woo"s words. Especially so for someone like this Canadian Hunter named Jay Mills, who confidently declared his objections. Incidentally, Canada"s Gate was observed to be the largest of the eight super-ma.s.sive Gates.
"Tell him that he can take his horsesh*t story and shove it."
Invited to say his piece on a program on "Hunter Channel", the Canadian Hunter began bad-mouthing Jin-Woo in front of the esteemed panel of experts sitting in the studio.
"If I knew Hunter Seong Jin-Woo"s personal contact number, I"d have said the exact same thing, eh. If, by any chance, someone who knows him personally is watching this show, I want you to repeat what I just said here. Okay?"
The emcee quickly a.s.sumed the standard broadcaster"s smile in order to cool down the heated atmosphere.
"Whoa, there. Let"s all take a breather, first. Even still, Seong Hunter-nim is one of the very best Hunters in the world, isn"t he? Should we really ignore the warning issued by a Hunter of his calibre?"
Jay Mills" Hunter ranking was only about 17th on the list. Even when considering the fact that he was a relative newbie who only started his Hunter career three years ago, there was no way he could be compared to Jin-Woo.
He himself already had acknowledged that difference of cla.s.s between them. Regardless….
"Yes, of course, Seong Jin-Woo is an incredible Hunter. He possesses enough power to destroy Thomas Andre, and then, all those summoned creatures, too…. However, just because he"s an incredible man, that doesn"t mean everything he says is credible, am I right?"
"In that case, do you have any evidence that contradicts what Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim has said?"
Jay Mills smirked derisively.
"Oh? What about Seong Jin-Woo, then? What evidence does he have?"
While the emcee was left searching for a suitable response, Jay Mills stared straight into the camera and spoke up.
"This is what I think. Seong Jin-Woo was standing right in the front of the Seoul Gate, wasn"t he? And that"s why all those scary black things knelt down after seeing him standing there. If it was a different Hunter and not him, who knows if those monsters would have submitted to that person, instead?"
Veins began bulging on the Canadian Hunter"s neck as he raised his voice – as if he was addressing Jin-Woo who should be at home watching the program.
"Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, you may have scared other people away with your bullsh*t, but let me tell you this. You won"t get to monopolise all these Gates. Why? Because, I am not scared by you. Not even by a little bit."
Beep.
The a.s.sociation President Woo Jin-Cheol switched the TV off.
He quietly put the remote down and s.h.i.+fted his gaze over to where Jin-Woo currently sat.
"Hunters are gathering around Jay Mills in Canada as we speak. It seems that the nations possessing strong Hunter systems, such as India, are preparing for their own raids."
Jin-Woo didn"t say anything and simply nodded his head.
The choice was theirs to make, to begin with. As for him, he now needed to focus on the upcoming battle against the rest of the Sovereigns.
"The United States government is keeping a close eye on your next move, Hunter-nim. No, hang on. I"m sure it"s not an exaggeration to say under the current circ.u.mstances that the entire world is watching your every move."
Woo Jin-Cheol got their conversation going like that and cautiously steered the topic to what he wished to talk about.
"What will you do now, Hunter-nim?"
He worked really hard to control his pounding heart while observing for any change in Jin-Woo"s reaction.
"I must not become a hindrance in Seong Hunter-nim"s decision-making process."
Actually, he had hidden something from Jin-Woo just now.
And that would be the fact that SOS requests towards Jin-Woo had been flooding in from all corners of the globe. The truth was, the a.s.sociation was finding it hard to function properly because of all the incoming calls right now.
Amidst of those, the Americans – who shared a border with Canada, which was an unfortunate event in this case – were desperately requesting for Jin-Woo"s aide, so much so that it even made outside observers feel pity for them.
The role of the Hunter"s a.s.sociation was to help with Hunters so they could focus their whole beings in hunting down monsters.
Woo Jin-Cheol didn"t say anything so as to not go against the principle the late a.s.sociation President Goh Gun-Hui always emphasized. He chose to wait for Jin-Woo"s decision, instead.
Too bad, Woo Jin-Cheol"s consideration as he anxiously waited for an answer had been betrayed somewhat, as Jin-Woo already made up his mind on what to do next a while ago.
"It"s simply impossible to fight against all eight armies at once."
In that case, he needed to get rid of the one that threatened South Korea first, where his family was staying. As for the remaining Sovereigns, he would deal with them later.
Because, the longer the fight dragged on, the better the odds of his victory would get, that was why.
"First of all...."
Jin-Woo raised his head and spoke to Woo Jin-Cheol.
"I"ll be heading off to China."
< chapter="" 234=""> Fin.