"Please don't worry, Hunter Sung is more than capable of handling these insect swarms."
Castorice's smile didn't waver as she made this rather astounding statement with a light, casual tone.
As her words fell, without her needing to offer any proof herself, everyone could feel a surge of immense magical power igniting in the distance.
Birds and magical beasts of the underworld, greatswords dropped from the slain Demon King unleashing arcs of blue sword energy, the Ruler's Authority—all sorts of abilities layered upon each other.
Under this combined might, Sung Jinwoo's efficiency in clearing the trash mobs was exceptionally impressive.
Especially since he didn't need to expend his own mana; he could directly use the rights of the Monarch of Shadows to summon fallen beasts from the underworld to fight for him.
This convenience allowed him to devote his entire mana pool to the battle, and with the consumption of potions, he displayed an almost limitless barrage of firepower, plowing through everything in his path.
This display made the S-Rank hunter who had just shouted at Sung Jinwoo swallow hard, thinking to himself that since the other man hadn't even glanced his way, he probably hadn't paid any mind to what was said.
Watching the swarms of magical beasts rapidly converging on Sung Jinwoo in the distance, Ryuji Goto, though amazed by his power, was more focused on another matter…
With Jinwoo acting as bait in the sky, their own side could safely land on the island.
While the numbers on the island were surely higher than predicted, simply holding them off shouldn't be too big a problem.
Thinking this, he spoke directly, "Bring the helicopter closer. We're landing on the island. The operation proceeds as planned."
"This…"
Choi Jong-In hesitated for a moment, glancing at Castorice's unchanged expression before nodding in agreement.
Seeing this, the other Korean hunters didn't say anything more.
Though they were in competition, they still trusted Choi Jong-In's reliability.
With no objections, the nervous pilot flew the helicopter straight toward the island, setting everyone down, along with the A-Rank hunter who was following them to film the scene live. (Just like in the original story, there was live filming.)
As the hunters checked their equipment and steeled their resolve, the cameraman finished adjusting his gear and began broadcasting the live feed to households across Korea and the Hunter's Association.
Cha Hae-in's expression was grave.
The moment she set foot on the island, she immediately sensed an incredibly powerful magical presence—far stronger than Ryuji Goto's, even slightly surpassing Sung Jinwoo's, and roughly on par with her own in terms of pure mana.
She was about to issue a warning when she heard Castorice's voice beside her. "Mr. Goto."
Ryuji Goto, who had been about to give orders, stopped and turned to listen.
Japanese policy had already decided to win Castorice over. As long as she didn't say or do anything too extreme, Goto would try his best to give a satisfactory response.
"There are three extremely powerful magical signatures on this island, and all three are currently gathered together."
Castorice's expression suggested she was choosing her words carefully.
"Even for someone of your caliber, Mr. Goto, facing three enemies of this level at once would likely mean an unavoidable embrace with death."
Goto furrowed his brows.
Unlike the reaction to Sung Jinwoo's earlier comment, with her established strength as backing, Castorice's words didn't provoke displeasure from the Japanese.
Instead, everyone's expressions grew solemn. After all, these were beings even Castorice described as 'extremely powerful.'
Was this the intensity of an S-Rank Gate?
A sense of dread crept into everyone's hearts.
"These three signatures you mentioned… are they all inside the insect nest?" Goto asked.
"Yes," Castorice nodded.
"If I were to face them alone, what are my chances of winning?"
"Even in a battle of attrition, there is no chance of victory."
This was not good news. No one doubted Castorice was speaking nonsense.
That meant the three entities in the nest possessed power at least comparable to Ryuji Goto's? Hmm… Wait, thinking about it that way, it didn't seem so terrifying?
After all, everyone knew Castorice was stronger than Goto, and Cha Hae-in, while weaker than Goto, was a cut above the other S-Ranks.
In that case, if Castorice and Goto each handled one, and the others combined forces against the third, they still had a fighting chance.
"Then, we need to reconsider who enters the nest," Choi Jong-In stated.
Although their confidence in confronting the three powerful entities had been somewhat restored, it didn't mean they had a guaranteed victory.
If there were too many lesser monsters, the fight would be disrupted. Therefore, they still needed someone outside to draw the swarms' attention.
At the same time, because they needed to bring in their two primary combatants—Castorice and Cha Hae-in—who were originally meant for external suppression, the suppression team would face even greater danger.
The hunters' discussion was transmitted through the cameras into Korean homes.
On forums and in group chats, countless people were exchanging comments about the live broadcast.
[The hunters don't look as confident as I imagined they'd be?]
[S-Rank hunters are invincible, what's there to worry about?]
['What's to worry about?' Buddy, do you know how many times they've tried to retake Jeju Island? Why didn't they succeed before? Because they didn't want to?]
[Success or not, as long as no one dies, it's a success.]
[With Hunter Castorice and Hunter Cha here, this time will definitely be different.]
[Saying that is no better than saying it'll succeed because Japan is helping this time. But look, after all this time, there are even more insects, several times more than last time. Can the hunters Japan sent offset that several-fold increase?]
[You have no idea how strong Goto is. He's an un-decorated National-Level Hunter!]
[Give me a break. If we're talking strength, it's our Castorice. Can't you read the room? That Goto guy is taking his cues from our Castorice now.]
[Since when is she 'our' Castorice? Isn't Castorice frothe United States Y?]
[Comments in Country Y language]
While most netizens had limited understanding of the actual situation, some among them could read the circumstances clearly.
[From what the S-Rank hunters are implying, they plan to split up. One group lures the main swarm outside while another carries out a decapitation strike. But after reaching the target zone, they found this 'head' a bit hard to chop off. So the operation has hit a snag.]
Just as this netizen said, the group now had to face the problem of personnel allocation.
And what made it difficult wasn't balancing combat power—that was actually the simplest part.
The real difficulty lay in… the Korean hunters finding it hard to trust that the two hunters Japan was offering in exchange for Castorice and Cha Hae-in wouldn't pull some underhanded trick at a critical moment.
After all, Japan had a history of shady dealings against Korea, even if that particular plan hadn't succeeded.
Ryuji Goto's face darkened.
He hadn't expected to be tripped up by such an abstract reason, and worse, the origin of this abstract reason was DFN's initially inhumane planning.
He wanted to say that in the current situation, neither DFN nor he himself had any intention of playing dirty, but saying that now would only confirm they'd had such intentions before.
Left with no choice, he could only turn his gaze to Castorice.
"Hunter Castorice, what are your thoughts on this matter?"
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.