Webtoon Spotlight

Spotlight#166: Auto-Hunting With My Clones

Have you ever wanted to multiply your success rate in the game of life? If so, you might have fun in Opal and Mr.Cha's urban fantasy Auto Hunting With My Clones.

Summary

Sangwoo has been happy to sit back on the sidelines in a world filled with magic-infused humans who hunt monsters. That is until he's gifted with a special one-of-a-kind ability to make physical clones of himself. At first, Sangwoo does what any normal person would, as he lazily tries to find ways to earn some extra cash. However, as he realizes the true depths of his abilities, Sangwoo might have to put in much more work to turn his self-made dynamic duo into a one-person army!

Characters

Sangwoo Jeong: As a university student, Sangwoo initially lived his life on a lazy day-by-day basis. However, when his rare ability and status as a hunter bring in new dangers, we see a new side of him. One that is immensely overprotective, intimating, and resourceful. All while he maintains the goofy facade he's had for a while.

Kang Jumo: Sangwoo's main agent and foray into the Hunting world. he's not the most confident in his abilities, but he's always a helpful and loyal aid to his client.

Hayeon: A young girl with dreams of becoming a hunter, Hayeon has a very kind, playful, and brash personality. Unfortunately, her grades aren't as high as her aspirations, hence her reliance on Sangwoo as a teacher.

No.1: A clone of Sangwoo, they don't have a real personality, but they seem to like food and are loyal to a fault.

No.2: My favorite clone, he's easily the cutest, and I love it when he gets time to shine.

No.3: Least favorite clone. He's so bland, but I'd still smash.

No.4: This joke is already getting old as I write this.

Overview

I'm not going to say that Solo Leveling started the trend of wimpy MCs who get ridiculously gimmicky powers that help boost their stats in an RPG-like urban fantasy setting. But I will say that they made it popular. Because of those initial similarities, I was put off majorly from the beginning few chapters of Auto Hunting as they repeated information I've been hearing about.

However, as the chapters went on, I appreciated Auto Hunting for what it was doing different. Which I think is aided from the small start. Sangwoo isn't Naruto with this shit; while his clones operate under peak efficiency and share his Exp and vice versa, Sangwoo still has to go out of his way to strategize his summons, given how limited his amount of warrant can be.

A fact that leads to some pretty fun jokes about Sangwoo always forgetting to treat them properly. Still, the rules are simple enough to work around but complex enough to where we don't have to sit through dozens of chapters worth of grinding constantly. Sangwoo's simple dreams also mean we get plenty of time to sit back and enjoy him, build out the more expansive cast, and find new ways to make money.

When he starts takes hunting more seriously, we also get a lot to focus on the hunting association. What starts as seemingly a fun business quickly turns into a cutthroat dog-eat-dog world filled with people who'll stab others in the back or resort to criminal practices for a quick buck. Those who pay the price are often the lower-ranked hunters at the bottom. Through this dangerous society I feel like the fights get saucy.

Even though Sangwoo doesn't need to worry about getting killed or injured, most of his opponents get special skills or simply higher stats to make his fights much more challenging. Thus, straight-up slugfest can become dangerous raids that rely on Sangwoo using almost anything in his arsenal. Combined with the jokes, I'm intrigued to find what other messes Sangwoo enters.

Epilogue

For all my fantasy peeps, I think Auto Hunting is a good webtoon to sink your teeth into. It's a bit of a gimmick webtoon, but I feel it's better to focus on my mundane, day-to-day life, which makes it one of the more digestible reads. Hopefully, that trend continues for whatever the spotlight focuses on next.