Return of the Legendary Hunter

On their way to Vladivostok, Woojin called Thoth and gave an explanation about the Meteruls that he had fought.

[Quick speed, tentacles, summoning monsters, and teleportation?]

“Yes. Can you guess what power the last Meterul might have?”

[That is not possible. But I think those powers are what Meterul acquired while amassing them. I think he will gain more powers as he grows.]

“That is terrible news.”

[Do you have enough manpower? I can send more help if you need it.]

“No. I need only the best.”

The weak ones would only hinder them. It was even to the point that Woojin was considering taking out Bihyung from the team.

[I see. I will do my best to track him down also. Let’s hope we get him soon.]

“Oh, have you looked into the future recently?”

[Yes. I can only see up to a year now.]

Woojin’s face grimaced. He didn’t think the situation was that bad.

“Is it that terrible?”

[Yes. I think that the copies eating Avatars and humans shortened the amount of time left.]

“I see. So, if we don’t get him now, we’ll be doomed in a year.”

[It seems so.]

Woojin sighed.

When they got to the airport, there were about thirty Were-families waiting for them. A man with a long scar on his left eye came up to them.

“Mr. Sun. Long time no see.”

“Pollotz. Are you leading this group?”

“Yes. We are with you.”

“Good.”

Sun Wukong then glanced back at Woojin. Pollotz met eyes with Woojin and Omikami.

“Omikami is here too.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Pollotz then turned back to Woojin.

“Are you Ko Woojin?”

“Yes. Nice to meet you.”

“I have heard about you.”

Woojin had killed many Werewolves and Werebears. However, Pollotz didn’t seem to blame Woojin for it.

“I don’t plan on bringing up what happened in the past. Those lives you took were going to die soon anyway as they sold their spirits to money.”

Pollotz continued, “I heard you are the leader of the group.”

“I am no such thing. I just want to save our lives.”

“Then we’ll start right away.”

“Now?”

It didn’t seem like it was a good place to start since they were still at a lounge in an airport, but Pollotz answered, “No need to waste time. We will start tracking him down from here. Everyone here will be on the move.”

There were thirty people. Woojin showed the Meterul pieces and Pollotz and the thirty Were-people all shapeshifted. They took turns to memorize Meterul’s scent and got up.

“We will do the tracking, but just in case we get caught and are killed, we’ve made it so that our traces will be left on this device.”

Pollotz gave Woojin a tablet that showed thirty dots.

“We will call right away once we find him. You wait here. Take the chopper that’s ready outside and come over.”

Woojin nodded and the Were-families all left. Woojin then glanced at the tablet. If any of the dots were to disappear, it was likely that Meterul appeared. And after waiting for a while, he got a call.

[We got the scent. We’ll be on the move.]

Woojin looked back and saw that everyone was ready again. He then shifted his eyes back at the tablet and saw all scattered dots gathering in one place. Woojin then flew over to the location and it was not expected in the least.

“Where is this place?”

“I think it’s a private airfield.”

There were thirty Were-families waiting. Pollotz said to Woojin, “Our trace went cold here.”

“Meaning…”

“He fled by jet.”

“Can we guess where he might’ve gone off to?”

“No.”

Woojin then called Ryota.

“Ryota. Can you track any airplanes that have departed from my location?”

[Wait a sec. Let me check.]

Ryota used Eagle Eye to track it down.

[Uhh, this is bad.]

“What is it?”

[It’s been four hours since the jet flew off.]

Woojin frowned, “Can we still track him?”

[He didn’t even make a report. I can’t track him with the satellite that flew over at the time.]

“Keep looking.”

[I’ll let you know when I find the plane.]

Woojin then finished talking with Ryota and turned back to his team.

“He ran away four hours ago.”

Luckily, they at least found that out. Woojin looked at Pollotz.

“We will track down the plane that he fled with. Once we know where the plane went, we’ll find him.”

“But four hours…?”

“He probably made that move the moment we killed him in Busan.”

Sun Wukong puffed on the pipe with a sigh and Bihyung said, “But if he boarded a plane here, we can get a picture of him.”

“Let’s search for him while we look for a plane. We’ll move back to the airport and be ready to fly anytime.”

“Yeah.”

When they all returned to the airport, Ryota called them.

[The plane went to China, but it was taken in as it flew over in Chinese air without permission.]

“Taken in?”

[Yes. However, they only caught the pilots, not the passenger. One of the pilots said that he’s not sure why he flew over China.]

“And where is this at?”

[Harbin.]

Harbin was a place that Haemosu had strong ties with. Woojin explained that fact and Sun Wukong commented, “He must’ve jumped off on the way.”

“It seems so.”

“We’ll need to meet this pilot anyway.”

“Yes. We need to read his memory and see what Meterul looks like.”

Woojin then called Ryota to track down any missing cases while they flew down to Harbin.

The pilot wasn’t making sense when they got to him. Bihyung sighed, “Has he been hypnotized or something?”

“Miho will have to see it.”

“Let’s hope we get something.”

Miho smiled at the pilot and placed her hand over the pilot’s head. Soon, she drew a picture of the target.

“This looks exactly like the woman we met in Busan.”

“Yeah.”

Miho frowned, “Maybe this is a mistake.”

“Why?”

“I know it was a woman, but I have a feeling that this face was just the same face that keeps popping up in my memory.”

“So, we can’t identify his face then?’

“No.”

The last Meterul seemed to be the hardest to track down. Woojin began thinking and Sun Wukong turned to Haemosu.

“Why don’t we call all the Avatars in the region?”

“Everyone in Manchuria?”

“Meterul becomes much more powerful if he consumes Avatars. We can’t let that happen.”

“I’ll give them a call.”

Haemosu then began making calls and Sun Wukong turned to Pollotz.

“Can you see if you can sense the smell from Vladivostok here? If he jumped off on the way, we should be able to track him down somewhere.”

“Okay.”

Sun Wukong then turned to Woojin.

“What are you going to do now?”

Everyone turned to Woojin and he answered, “We’re doing everything we can at the moment. The only lead we have is that he has taken the form of a woman, and we recognize his scent. And with the Avatars pulled back, at least we will stop him from growing in power.”

Sun Wukong also agreed.

“He will try not to draw attention from now on. This won’t be easy.”

“We’ll need help from every Avatar who has a good sense of smell. We need to finish him once and for all.”

They couldn’t let Meterul travel over into central China as that would make it even harder to find him.

“We have only a year. We need to get him before then.”

Sun Wukong asked, “Did Thoth say that?”

“Yes. He can only see up to a year into the future.”