Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo only needed one minute to get ready, quickly grabbed himself a taxi, and headed off to the meeting point.

Nine people were already there, waiting for his arrival.

The man who looked like the leader of the group waved his hand at Jin-Woo.

“Heyyy! Over here.”

It was a bearded man with a fairly big physique. He smiled softly and walked closer while speaking to Jin-Woo.

“Are you Mister Sung Jin-Woo?”

“That’s correct.”

“It’s a relief that you found the right place so quickly. I guess this is fate, so how about we greet each other before we get started?”

The bearded man briefly introduced the members of his team.

The eight of them, including himself, were regular teammates who worked together all the time.

Jin-Woo greeted other team members and studied their countenance carefully. Thanks to his enhanced Perception Stat, he was able to more or less sense everyone’s capabilities.

There was a regulation when attempting to clear a gate rated C. The minimum number of a party had to be ten Hunters, and more than half had to be at least ranked C or higher. Only then did the Association issue a permit.

It seemed that them claiming to do all the hunting and he only needed to be there to make up the numbers didn’t sound like an empty boasting after all.

“Now that we’re done with introductions. Let me briefly explain the important points to remember.”

The bearded man introduced himself as Hwang Dong-Seok, a Tanker rated C. He displayed a relaxed atmosphere as if he possessed plenty of experience raiding dungeons.

As he began describing the situations one had to keep an eye out for in the middle of a raid, someone came closer to Jin-Woo.

“Excuse me. Looks like we’re both pieces of fluff in this party, huh?”

Jin-Woo turned.

"I'm Yoo Jinho. But you can call me Jinho. I'm twenty-two and a D rank Hunter." 

The girl was none other than the other Hunter Hwang Dong-Seok had brought along in order to fill up the numbers.

She was a young woman with a bright expression. 

But her charming smile wasn't the only thing that attracted attention.

In disbelief and shock, Jin-Woo thought, 'This girl...! What's with the flashy equipment?! are you the daughter of a millionaire?!'

Indeed, the girl's equipment looked beyond expensive. 

Jin-Woo lightly nodded his head as Jinho greeted him before shifting his gaze away.

It appeared that Jinho wanted to continue the conversation but found herself awkward, scratching the back of her head.

She mused internally, 'This guy isn't much of a talker, huh? But there's something different about him... He certainly doesn't look like an E-rank..'

As she studied his physical appearance, a rosy hue appeared on her cheeks.

Jinho's daydreaming persisted. 'He looks so muscular... and tall... and quite handsome... perhaps more than just quite... I wonder if he has a girlfriend...'

Alarmed, she suddenly snapped out of her thoughts as she blushed, scolding herself, 'W-what am I thinking?! I just met the guy!!'

Jin-Woo suddenly interrupted her thoughts, querying, "Is something wrong?"

Jinho tensed up, momentarily startled as she recalled that the object of her daydreaming was standing right beside her.

With a nervous stutter, she responded, "H-huh ... uh, no ... no.."

“Hyung-nim, let’s stop here and go in already.” 

“We’ll be the ones to kill them all, so what’s the point of explaining it in detail like that?”

“Right, my ears might get blocked up with wax at this rate.”

When the original team members all raised their voices, Hwang Dong-Seok laughed jovially and clapped his hands.

“Alright, then. Enough with the explanations, let’s get going.”

Everyone got ready to enter the gate.

“Ah, before we enter, you two, take a look at these.”

Hwang Dong-Seok pushed forward a page of a document to Jin-Woo and Jinho each. It turned out to be a simple contract.

“Write your names on the bottom and sign it, and we’re good to go.”

The contents said, he’d not participate in any hunting, he’d not participate in sharing of the loot, and when the raid was over, he’d be paid 2 million won right away.

The terms were the same as what Jin-Woo heard over the phone. However, they were not the ones to catch his attention.

‘I have to promise not to question them regardless of whatever incident happens inside the dungeon….?’ 

Unlike the raids organised by the Association, one would not be able to claim compensation if something happened during a raid organised by the freelancers. One of the reasons why Hunters couldn’t get a life insurance, either.

One had to look after one’s own neck, in other words.

Only now did it feel real that Jin-Woo had entered an assault team.

While confirming the clauses, Jin-Woo sneaked a glance at Jinho’s contract. As expected, she was different; besides the promised 2 million, she was also going to share in the loot, as well.

Before signing the document, Jin-Woo asked Hwang Dong-Seok. “What am I supposed to do when we’re inside?”

“Nothing too particular. Just follow us and help us carry the luggage, that’s all.”

“Your luggage….?”

Hwang Dong-Seok pointed at the huge backpack one of his ‘dongsaengs’ pulled out from the minivan. 

“You’ll be carrying around lunch boxes to eat when inside, several sets of clothing and equipment, first-aid kits, and some other stuff.”

‘Wait, first-aid kits when entering a dungeon?’

Jin-Woo couldn’t help but question this. “You are not entering with a healer?”

“I’m sure you already know that it’s not easy to hire a healer if you’re running your own assault party. Well, we’ve been doing things this way until now, so it’ll be fine.”

Hwang Dong-Seok smiled awkwardly.

To think, this team just barely met the required minimum number of hunters, and the composition of the assault team only happened to feature a tanker and damage dealers, and not one Healer…

Even after hearing that there was no healer present, that oblivious additional member didn’t seem too bothered by the revelation. It was the sure proof that she was a newbie.

Jin-Woo smirked inwardly. ‘They are a bunch of wannabes.’

However, he still signed on the contract. Not because he needed that 2 million, but because he knew very well that he could protect himself now.

“Here it is.”

“I’m done, too!”

Hwang Dong-Seok confirmed the signatures of both of them and shouted out in a loud voice as if he was feeling really pleased today.

“Okay!! Let’s get going, everyone!” 

Just as Jin-Woo was preparing to move forward, Jinho extended her hand in front of him. 

With a beaming grin, she reassured him. "Stop worrying so much. You mentioned you're an E-rank, right? I'll protect you." 

Jin-Woo responded somewhat flatly with a 'hahah...' his tone dry and lacking enthusiasm.

The party headed straight to the location of the gate.

It was in the middle of the halted construction site for an apartment complex.

“The economy nowadays isn’t so good, but still….”

Hwang Dong-Seok clicked his tongue.

Like large tombstones, unfinished apartment buildings stood still sporadically, imparting a certain sense of foreboding to all who looked at them. 

“Did you know," Jinho had walked closer to Jin-Woo and whispered softly.

“…. That, while the employees and the investors are going through a hard time at the moment, the CEO of the project ran off to overseas two months ago along with ₩900,000,000,000?”

“...…”

Jin-Woo gave the girl plenty of hints, but it seemed like Yoo Jinho didn’t want to leave his side at all.

Well, with the exception of Jin-Woo here, all eight of them originally belonged to one team. So it’d be hard to get along with them that easily.

“Sung-kun, are you always this quiet?”

Before anyone had noticed it, the honorific had become ‘Kun’. The most informal honorifics.

Indicating a level of closeness. Usually used among family, friends, and other close relationships.

Jin-Woo couldn’t ignore this girl anymore.

“…..I think it's just you who talks a bit too much...” 

“Did i bother you by talking too much? Ehehe.” Jinho chuckled softly. "People never really took notice of me. Being a hunter is my hobby." 

Being a hunter is my hobby.

Is my hobby.

Hobby.

Okay, that was enough for Jin-Woo. 

Luckily for him, it looked like they had arrived. 

“It’s over here.” Hwang Dong-Seok’s steps came to an end.

“Oh….” The Hunters all let out a surprised gasp.

“Hwang hyung, is this really a Gate rated C? But, isn’t it too big?”

“You think the Association was lying to us? They said that investigators had come around here twice already.”

A hole in the air floating like a black hole. People took to calling it a gate.

Its rank was assigned according to the waves of magical energy emission coming from inside. Folks from the Association would stop by first to assign a rank to each one.

After that, individuals or Guilds, wanting to clear the Gate, could follow the procedure and apply for a permit.

Gates ranked A or B were, most of the time, left to the big Guilds. Well, they were too difficult for freelancers to clear, after all.

So, assault parties formed by freelancers took care of the Gates ranked lower than that. Which meant that a Gate ranked C was effectively the hardest one for Hunters not affiliated with anyone to clear.

Hwang Dong-Seok stood in front of the Gate and looked back at his team.

“I’ll be entering first. Do your best to keep up, everyone.”

The Tanker entered first, and the other Hunters began entering one by one.

‘You never know, so….’ Jin-Woo lightly stretched himself just in case.

Next to him, Jinho began pulling out her own equipment from her bag. The sword and the shield coming out from her bag gleamed attractively under the light.

Even a casual glance could tell that they were very expensive. They were definitely not something a newbie Hunter could organise on his own.

‘Normally D and E-ranks like me don't make much money, so they can barely scrape together weapons and can't even consider shields...’

Jin-Woo formed a surprised expression.

'Why does this D-rank have such good equipment?!' 

Perhaps sensing Jin-Woo’s gaze on her, Jinho confidently and bravely stood in front.

“Sung-kun, just stick close by me. Like I said, I’ll protect you.”

Jin-Woo scratched the back of his head.

Just who would protect who?

“…Okay. Thanks for the sentiment.” Jin-Woo replied.

“Let’s go in as well!" Jinho said 

"Ok.. but let’s not walk side by side."

Regardless of how Jin-Woo felt, they still followed in afterward and safely entered the Gate.

The team came into a dark tunnel where they faced insect-type magic beasts. 

“Sung-kun~ did you see it? You saw it, right? With this, I kicked some serious monster a*s today, didn’t I?”

Jinho smiled brightly and approached closer to Jin-Woo.

The girl swung the sword around in the air. 

Seeing this, Jin-Woo quietly asked her. “Hey, that sword and the shield, they are really expensive, right?”

“Pardon? Ahh, when I told my dad that I’d be participating in my first raid, he got them for me.”

“I'm not sure but... you should be wary.”

Jin-Woo lightly patted Jinho on her shoulder and followed after the other Hunters walking deeper inside the dungeon.

“What is he talking about now, out of the blue?” Jinho tilted her head in confusion before chasing after the departing group.

The team then entered deeper into the cave system, which was a maze, coming to a webbed area, which indicated that they were in the boss's lair. 

Though close to the lair was a chamber containing a wealth of Mana Crystals. Seeing that the existence of the crystals changed everything, Jinho offered Jinwoo to take a look at his contract. 

After taking a look at the E-Rank Hunter's contract, Jinho showed Dongsuk and his team that while the contract stated that only Essence Stones gained in the dungeon would be divided there was nothing stating about other goods.

She then inquired why the language was worded that way, with the exception of Mana Crystals.

Dongsuk though put on a warm smile to Jinho, assuring her that they would evenly split the Mana Crystals once the boss, Giant Arachnid Buryura, was taken care of, which was hanging in an overhead cavern asleep. 

Dongsuk stated that their priority would be to first mine the crystals before taking care of the boss. 

Lee Chul-Jin though stated that they would need to get their equipment to mine the crystals.

“Are you telling me and Sung-kun to remain in the boss room?”

Hwang Dong-Seok smiled with his eyes and replied.

“The b*stard is yet to wake up even though we’ve been talking loudly for a while now. So, I’m sure nothing’s going to happen here. Well, there are some things I wanna speak to my boys, too, so we’ll take a short smoke break as well. But, don’t worry, it won’t take long.”

Jin-Woo listened to Hwang Dong-Seok’s rather detailed explanations and smirked inwardly.

‘You’ve finally revealed your true colors, huh. But all of you are leaving at the same time? Aren’t you fools taking us way too lightly?’

They were looking down on him because of his low rank, of course.

As Jin-Woo expected him to, Hwang Dong-Seok finally began to move. It was slightly different from the youth’s expectation, though.

It had been four years since he became a Hunter. During that time, he had met many Hunters. One of them was an ahjussi named Mister Oh.

He had retired from the life of a freelancer but still showed up now and then to help out with the Association’s work.

“Be careful of geckos.”

Mister Oh used to say that rather often.

When one participated in raids, one would inevitably encounter a dangerous situation.

When such an event happened, some crooked, immoral Hunters would try to sacrifice someone who had been fighting alongside them until then, with some flimsy pretext of them not being in the same team, to begin with, or that the other party was simply weaker than they were.

All just to buy themselves some time for their safe escape.

It was exactly like a gecko cutting off its own tail and running away.

‘Cutting its tail off….’

Mister Oh took to calling those types of Hunters ‘geckos’, and such actions as cutting off one’s tail.

The regulation stated that in order to enter a gate ranked C, the minimum number of participants had to be ten. Yet, Hwang Dong-Seok’s team only had eight members.

“I’m sure you already know that it’s not easy to hire a healer if you’re running your own assault party. Well, we’ve been doing things this way until now, so it’ll be fine.”

Indeed, he stuck to only eight members, even though his team had entered countless Gates ranked C – so much so that he could say ‘this way until now’.

‘They obviously have no reason to fill the last two spots.’

They needed a tail that they could cut off at any given moment, after all. There was a reason why they were willing to accept anyone, whether it was a Hunter ranked E or a newbie.

And now….

Hwang Dong-Seok had decided to abandon both Sung Jin-Woo and Yoo Jinho for a slightly different reason than usual.

‘But, it’s a good thing for me.’

Jin-Woo had figured out Hwang Dong-Seok’s intentions pretty early on, but chose to say nothing. This was what he wanted, actually.

However, unlike Jin-Woo, who was full of confidence, Yoo Jinho was quite different as she only started her work as a Hunter today.

“No, wait a minute." Jinho spoke with a voice full of worries. "That is just…. Why don’t we leave together?”

It was then that Jin-Woo spotted one of the Hunters at the back, raising his hand towards his hips.

So, Jin-Woo placed his hand on Jinho’s shoulder and spoke.

“It’ll be fine. We’ll guard this place.”

The Hunter’s hand heading towards his waist stopped.

“Sung-kun….?”

Jinho was quite surprised and confused, but Jin-Woo simply kept his mouth shut and lightly shook his head.

Sure, the girl was noisy and got on his nerves just a tad, but Jin-Woo wasn’t planning to let her die here.

After all, didn’t she try to get the fair share for Jin-Woo just now, although that would have ultimately put her in a disadvantageous position?

________________

Jinho’s gaze was fixed on the sleeping spider. Even her breathing was cautious. She then asked, her expression rigid with fear.

“That spider b*stard, it’s not gonna suddenly wake up on us, right?”

“Who knows.”

Jin-Woo remained economical with his words. He had more or less figured out what would happen next, but if he said out aloud his thoughts in full, then Jinho might faint from fear.

‘Now that I think about it….’

Those words were the first to come out from Jinho’s mouth in the past five minutes or so. It seemed that she was really scared right now. And she used to be so talkative, too.

Then, ‘it’ happened.

Kabooom!!!

With a loud explosion, the entrance of the boss room suddenly caved in.

“Uh, uh?! Huh!! Ahhh!!” Jinho hurriedly ran towards the entrance.

Unfortunately for her, the entrance was completely blocked up by the fallen rocks. She pushed on with all her might, but not a single stone budged.

Jin-Woo slowly walked over there in the meantime.

“Ugh! Sung-kun, help me push this!”

Jinho was still giving her all to push the blockade of stones away.

‘He said his name was Joh Gyu-Hwan, huh.’

Before the explosion, there was a flash of light. A Sorcerer ranked C that controlled ‘light’. This was no doubt that b*stard’s handiwork.

Jin-Woo placed his hand on the fallen rocks. ‘If I want to, I can get out of here at any time.’

He could sense the weight of the stones through his hands. They weren’t as heavy as they looked. When he was very slightly pushed, he felt the wall tremble gently.

Of course, he wasn’t thinking of leaving at all, anyway.

“Ah!”

Jinho stopped pushing at the stones and cried out as if she had finally figured out the truth. Her face now reddened in fury, and the girl shifted her gaze over to Jin-Woo.

“Those sons of b*tches are trying to kill us!! They don’t want to share the mana stones, so they blocked the exit and let the spider devour us!”

Well, at least she figured it out. 

“Looks that way. This is troublesome.” Jin-Woo replied simply.

“Heok!”

Suddenly, Jinho’s reddened complexion paled in an instant. Would that be the look of someone whose blood had gone cold?

No need to ask her what happened, there – the silhouette of the giant monster was oh-so-clearly reflected in Jinho’s eyes.

Jin-Woo turned around.

“Keurruuuk. Keururuk.”

The spider’s sleep had been interrupted by that loud explosion, and it was slowly raising its massive body up.

The body was the size of a house.

Dozens upon dozens of eyes.

That horrifying mouth.

Eight long, long legs.

Now that it had begun moving for real, it looked far more terrifying than when it was actually in a deep slumber.

“Euh….” Jinho leaked out a fearful gasp. Her body had frozen stiff like a statue.

On the other hand, Jin-Woo kept his sight firmly locked on the spider as he calmly summoned the ‘Poison Fang of Kasaka’ from his inventory.

‘You’re mine.’

This was the perfect opportunity to test out his enhanced stats.

The Poison Fang of Kasaka appeared in his right hand….

Swiish.

….As if it had always been there.

Jin-Woo gripped the dagger’s hilt tightly.

The reason why a Hunter was called a Hunter! From this moment on was when the true hunt would begin.

“H-hang on a second, Sung-kun!!”

However, Jinho swiftly snatched up Jin-Woo’s sleeve just as the latter took a couple of steps towards the spider.

“Wha, what are you trying to do?!”

Jinho’s hands were shaking pretty badly.

Jin-Woo used his left thumb to point over his shoulder. “Obviously, I’m going to hunt that.”

Jin-Woo had been following around Hwang Dong-Seok’s group until now for that purpose.

….In order to monopolise the remaining monsters in the dungeon as soon as Hwang Dong-Seok cut the tail and ran away. This was a splendid opportunity to swallow whole all the experience points and magic crystals.

‘Well, only if the boss hadn’t devoured every monster in this dungeon, that is.’

If that hadn’t been the case, then he would’ve profited a lot more, though. What a missed opportunity that was.

However, Jinho’s facial expression clearly displayed her disbelief, as she had no idea about Jin-Woo’s special constitution.

‘What is this Sung Jinwoo rambling on about?!’

There was something she’d heard from someone somewhere before.

A person would stop thinking rationally the moment he or she received a mental shock beyond their capability to deal with.

The Hunter ranked E standing right in front, said that he’d hunt the boss of a C-rank dungeon. If this was not an act of irrationality, that what else could it be?

Jinho asked again, this time looking rather dumbfounded. “Sung-kun, you want to hunt that thing? For real?”

Jin-Woo scratched the top of his head, looking somewhat troubled, before replying back with a question of his own. “What, you want to hunt it, then?”

Jin-Woo turned around even before Jinho had the chance to respond. There was no need to listen to her reply, anyway.

Even now, Jinho was barely managing to stand up straight as her legs continued to shudder.

From the get-go, he didn’t expect anything from Jinho.

Rather, he was relieved that the girl didn’t follow after him while saying she’d lend him aid or some such.

‘She’ll just get in my way, anyway.’

Jin-Woo slowly approached the spider.

The spider must’ve discovered the humans’ presence as well, as it was changing its direction towards them while shuffling on its eight legs.

It was coming closer.

As if it found the never-before-seen prey rather strange, the spider didn’t immediately rush out. Using its thick and long legs to push down on the ground, it inched closer and closer.

“Fuu-woo.”

As that giant monster slowly filled up his entire view, Jin-Woo’s breathing became heavy. His heart began thumping faster and faster, too.

Thump-thump, thump-thump.

Jin-Woo controlled his wayward breathing and did his absolute best to calm himself down. He had to remain focused and steady here.

He recalled the exact feelings he felt when he stood at the end of the second floor of the Hapjeong station’s instant dungeon.

He then recalled seeing the Poison-Fanged Blue Kasaka for the first time.

However, this giant spider in front of him didn’t emit as much pressure as that snake did. Meaning, he could definitely do this.

From the get-go, if he thought that this boss was impossible to clear alone, he wouldn’t even have stayed here.

“Keurururuk.”

They had gotten close enough that his face was now reflecting rather clearly on those smooth, jet-black eyes of the spider.

Jin-Woo’s own eyes narrowed to a slit.

________________

Jin-Woo evaded the spider’s attacks one by one and got closer and closer to the monster.

Meanwhile, Jinho couldn’t quite believe her own eyes.

“Wha-what the hell is up with this guy?!”

Even though she was watching from afar, those attacks were so ferocious that all the hair on the back of her head was standing up.

“And he’s supposed to be an E rank?!”

There was no freaking way.

If it was her standing there and not Sung Jin-Woo, then she’d be torn into a rag by now. She didn’t have any confidence whatsoever to dodge those attacks even once.

However, Jin-Woo was evading them without making a single mistake.

An E rank doing something that a D rank Hunter such as herself couldn’t even dream of doing?

There could only be one explanation for this.

‘……He is a fake registrant!!’

Jinho’s expression hardened.

Out of those highly talented hunters, there were a few who could freely control his or her magical energy. If they felt like it, they could easily fake the results and get a lower ranking.

Hunters who got assigned lower ranks than what they should’ve got in the first place simply by hiding a portion of their magic energy – such people were labeled as ‘fake registrants’.

And perhaps more alarmingly, most of those fake registrants carried around rather sinister motives for doing so.

‘Such as, that serial killer whose hobby was to enter low ranked dungeons and murder all the other lower ranked Hunters….’

As only those who were present knew what happened inside a dungeon, there was no better place to commit crimes than the world behind the Gates.

Jinho nervously swallowed her saliva. Suddenly, Jin-Woo seemed far scarier than the spider.

'And just why did I have to insist on coming to this place….?’

Swish! Swish! Swish!

In the meantime, the spider’s attacks poured down without a break.

Jin-Woo dodged all of those attacks and grew confident of his victory. Having decreased the distance between them little by little, the head of the spider was almost within his reach now.

The attack pattern of the spider was rather simple, so he could get close to it pretty easily.

‘For now, I’ll aim for its eyes.’

It was the basics of all basic rules to attack the monster’s weak points. So, he decided to attack the eyes of the spider, which looked to be the weakest point in its defences.

‘As soon as I stab my dagger in those eyes….!’

As the fight continued, Jinho was worried that despite Jinwoo's speed, he would run out of stamina before the boss.

But to her shock, she witnessed Jinwoo slay the giant spider singlehandedly.

From level 18, Jin-Woo had jumped up to reach 21 in one go. And that wasn’t even the end. Besides the level up messages, something else also popped up as well.

[‘Store: Buy’ function is now available with your level having reached 20.]

‘Oh, so I can finally spend those gold things now, eh?’

That was a nice message, for sure. However, now wasn’t the right time to relaxedly browse through the store.

RUMBLE…..

The cave began to shake just a little.

[With the death of the dungeon’s owner, the entrance of the dungeon will be destroyed in one hour.]

[Remaining time: 59 minutes 58 seconds.]

Indeed, he had to get out of this place before the Gate closed on him, after all. Browsing through the store could be done once he was somewhere safe.

Just as Jin-Woo was about to climb down, he spotted something gleaming brightly in the middle of the spider’s head.

‘Is that an item?’

However, unlike the monsters from the instant dungeon, there was no message about recovered items, nor could he automatically claim them.

What could it be, then?

Jin-Woo pondered briefly before realising what it was.

‘Ah, these things have magic crystals, don’t they?’

No matter how busy he was, how could he forget something so valuable like that?

Jin-Woo extracted the magic crystal hidden deep inside the head of the dead spider. This was a C-rank magic crystal extracted from the boss monster, so it should at least go for around ten million Won, easy.

As the trophy for his glamorous victory, this would do very nicely.

Jin-Woo lightly jumped down from the dead spider’s head.

Tap.

He landed lightly on the ground and turned around, and well, he discovered more gleaming lights, this time coming from the spider’s belly.

Not only that, but several of them, even!

Jin-Woo was now feeling rather surprised.

He heard stories of some monsters possessing two, three magic crystals, but there were simply too many lights to say those could all be magic crystals.

‘What could they be, then?’

He used the dagger to slice open the belly and continued on to its stomach, which resulted in half-digested remains of the insect-type monsters to pour out to the ground. And the lights were coming from those.

“No way….?!”

Jin-Woo rummaged through the dead insects one at the time.

And just as he suspected, they all possessed their magic crystals. Sure, a few of them had melted down and become smaller than before, but quite a lot of them had survived and remained as good as new.

When he collected the intact ones, he counted over ten.

“I really hit the jackpot this time!”

He came to earn this month’s rent, but at this rate, he’d be earning way more than that.

“S-Sung-sama.”

When Jin-Woo looked back, he saw Jinho there.

“P-please, put them in here.”

Jinho then proceeded to carefully tuck in the magic crystals belonging to Jin-Woo inside her equipment bag.

Next, she reached inside the corner of the same bag and pulled out a Thermos before pouring the flask’s content on its lid.

“Sung-sama, you must be feeling thirsty. Please, drink this. It’s water.”

Indeed, it was a cold, refreshing cup of water filled right up to the edge.

‘Why is this girl doing something no one asked her to?’

Since Jin-Woo was feeling thirsty anyway, he took the Thermos lid to drink the water. But, his head never stopped tilting in the meantime.

Gulp, gulp.

The water slid down his throat and refreshed him quite nicely.

“Sung-sama, did you enjoy it?”

Before he had noticed it, the honorific had changed to ‘Sama’, too.

A highly respectful honorific. Used to show great respect to individuals who are older or higher ranking than you.

“Mm…. Yeah, it’s refreshing.” Jin-Woo spoke his earnest opinion and handed the lid over to Jinho.

“And, the things you saw in here-”

Even before Jin-Woo could finish his sentence, Jinho quickly cut in as if to say that there’s nothing to worry about.

“Of course! I won’t say anything to anyone and take this secret with me to my grave!”

“No, hang on. No need to take it to your grave….”

“B-but, of course, I will. It’ll be a promise between Sung-sama and I, after all.”

“Well, in that case….. Okay. If you say so.”

“You don’t have to worry about a thing, Sung-sama.”

It wasn’t as if anyone would believe the claim that a rank E solo’ed the boss of a rank C Gate anyway.

Still, the girl was saying she’d voluntarily keep her mouth shut, and that would certainly make his life a bit easier.

‘I thought she didn’t know how to take a hint, but she’s pretty quick on the uptake on things like this, eh?’

“Is there anything else you’d like to tell me, Sung-sama?”

“….No, not particularly.”

Well, that sounded a bit suspect there. Jin-Woo studied the overly-polite mannerism of Jinho and inwardly questioned her motives before coming to a conclusion of his own.

‘Well, yeah. From Jinho’s perspective, I did save her life and all.’

Wasn’t it the most obvious thing in the world that you’d become really courteous and humble towards a person who saved your life?

When looked at that way, her attitude made more sense. The reality of the situation was slightly different from that, though.

Rumble….

The dungeon shook around for a bit again before its tremors stopped. That tremor was the reminder that the Gate would close in a little while.

The tremors would progressively get worse as time went by, and just before the Gate closed, it’d morph into a full-blown earthquake.

“Let’s get out of here.”

“Y-Yes, Sung-sama.”

Jin-Woo began walking towards the entrance.

Before they reached it, though, there was a sudden flash of light, and the rocks blocking up the entrance collapsed.

Boom!

Afterward, Hwang Dong-Seok and his goons rushed into the boss room. As soon as spotting the dead spider behind Jin-Woo, their expressions became dumbfounded.

“What the hell?! It’s really dead?!”

“Did those two hunt it?”

“That spider must’ve been nothing much, even with that big body and all.”

“Well, if a rank D and a rank E managed to kill it, then….”

“Hwang hyung, what should we do now?”

Hwang Dong-Seok scratched his chin while gazing at Jin-Woo and Jinho.

With the spider dead, the Gate would soon close. It’d be too late to start mining the mana stones now. They hadn’t even finished getting ready, yet the remaining time was now less than an hour.

It was time for the ‘plan b’. So, he loudly called out to Jinho.

“Yoo Jinho!!”

The girl flinched and took a step back. Her face was full of nervous tension.

An oily smile floated up on Hwang Dong-Seok’s face.

“I thought your gear looked real eye-catching, so we did a background check on ya, and it turns out that you’re a daughter of a real big shot. The daughter of the Yujin Construction’s owner, Yu Myung-Han, no less.”

“S-so what?”

“We’ll give you a chance. I’ve got some stuff to discuss with your old man, you see. However, it’d get really troublesome for us if the matters of this place get out. So, if you wish to live, you better become our accomplice.”

“An accomplice?...”

Hwang Dong-Seok pointed at Jin-Woo with his chin.

Being on the receiving end of that disgusting stare, Jin-Woo’s forehead creased for a second.

“Kill Seong Jin-Woo.”

“W-What?!” Jinho freaked out.

Hwang Dong-Seok chuckled as if he found that expression rather funny.

The thing was, he used his phone to do an online search and found out that Jinho’s father was the owner of the top construction company in the country. Seeing that, a sinister scheme formed in his head.

He’d film the scene of Jinho killing Sung Jin-Woo and then, under the pretext of keeping his mouth shut, blackmail Yu Myung-Han.

‘The known wealth of Yu Myung-Han is supposedly around 10 trillion Won, wasn’t it?'

He might be able to reel in several times more money than mining these mana stones if he played his cards right.

“That’s the only way you’ll leave this place alive. As long as you kill Sung Jin-Woo with your own hands, we’ll let you live. If not, we kill both of you.”

Hwang Dong-Seok’s eyes became very hostile right away.

“What are you hesitating for? No one will know what happens inside a dungeon, anyway. Wait, could it be that you’re scared of a rank E, even though you’re a rank D?”

Jinho turned her head to her side.

"It's fine." Jin-Woo calmly responded.

He pondered his previous thought.

'Well, yeah. From Jinho's perspective, I did save her life, after all.'

It only made sense that one would naturally become more respectful and meek towards someone who had saved their life.

Now, upon reflecting further, it dawned on him how foolish these thoughts actually were.

"I'm weak, so it's expected that I'll be betrayed." Jin-Woo stated to her.

● ● ●

Jinho clenched her teeth in frustration. She loathed herself for being a coward. Self-disgust filled her heart.

Wasn't she the one who had boldly declared to protect him?

But when it really mattered, she froze.

Meanwhile, the person perceived as the weakest had triumphed over the boss.

How pathetic.

She was pathetic.

With a determined expression, Jinho unsheathed the sword on her hips.

‘Finally, she made up her mind, huh.’ A smile formed on Hwang Dong-Seok’s mouth.

Unfortunately for him, his expectation was not met. Still holding that sword, Jinho stood alongside Jin-Woo.

She glared at them as she unleashed her magic. 

Jin-Woo looked at her in complete surprise.

“Ho-oh? So, you wanna team up with that guy and fight us, is that right?” Hwang Dong-Seok muttered softly.

A scion of a well-to-do family got lucky and killed a rank C boss, and it looked like her ego had become bloated somewhat as a result.

“Hyung, what should we do now?” Joh Gyu-Hwan whispered from the side.

Hwang Dong-Seok lowered his voice so both Jin-Woo and Jinho wouldn’t be able to hear him.

“For now, take care of Sung Jin-Woo first. We gotta hold onto that potential moneybag. Our losses today are pretty substantial, after all.”

“Okay, will do.”

Joh Guy-Hwan’s hands began emitting bright light next.

Seeing this, Jin-Woo’s eyes narrowed to a slit.

‘In the end, they want to have a go, huh.’

This would be his very first time fighting against other hunters. However, he wasn’t planning to go easy on these b*stards that have aimed for his life several times already.

…But then, this happened.

Tti-ring.

There was that mechanical beep again.

[An Emergency Quest has been generated]

‘An Emergency Quest?!’

Jin-Woo raised his head.

He didn’t even say anything about wanting to look at the contents, yet the quest window spread out before his eyes without his consent.

Now, that was a first.

[Emergency Quest: Kill all the enemies!]

There are lifeforms holding murderous intentions towards the ‘Player’. Kill them all in order to secure your own safety. If you do not follow this instruction, a corresponding penalty will be given.

The number of enemies left to kill: 8

The number of killed enemies: 0

Jin-Woo’s eyes opened wider.

‘In order to complete the quest, Hwang Dong-Seok and his teammates must all die?!’

It was then, a beam of light flashed right before his eyes. The light beams left Joh Gyu-Hwan’s hands and flew straight at Jin-Woo.

Boom!!

Flung away by the explosion, Jin-Woo’s figure flew at a frightening speed and slammed into the cave wall.

Slam!!

A portion of the wall collapsed and fell on top of Jin-Woo.

Tumble…

“Sung-sama!!”

Jinho froze on the spot from surprise.

“Don’t sweat over the dead guy, and why don’t you come over here?” Hwang Dong-Seok beckoned with his fingers.

Jinho stared at the spot where Jin-Woo was. Just like what Hwang Dong-Seok had implied, Jin-Woo wasn’t moving an inch as he remained buried under the debris.

“You…. you murderers….” Tears pooled around Jinho’s eyes.

Hwang Dong-Seok and his dongsaengs simply giggled at the label of ‘murderers’ thrown at their way.

Well, that was the truth, to begin with, anyway. Just how many died by their hands inside many other dungeons?

Jinho couldn't stand the sound of their laughter; it made her boil with anger. 

How could they laugh after taking someone's life? 

Jinho clenched her hand into a tight fist, her face filled with anger and frustration.

The fear that had once consumed her vanished like a gust of wind, replaced entirely by anger and frustration. 

With icy eyes, Jinho declared firmly, "You guys are monsters. And as a Hunter, it's my duty to hunt you down."

The laughter from the Hunters gradually subsided, and they peered at her with a hushed look of surprise, as if they had momentarily forgotten about her presence. 

Jinho swiftly refused to give them the chance to grasp the situation, shouting, "Enchant physical ability!" 

Before they could react, her body was wrapped in a golden flame-like aura, signifying the enhancement of her physical abilities.

Filled with fury, Jinho let out a cry of battle, charging at one of the hunters she knew was D-rank, similar to her. 

Caught off guard, the man failed to respond, and Jinho's sword stabbed into his abdomen, causing him to crumple to the ground.

With no intention to take their lives, she merely aimed to inflict severe injuries to satisfy her vengeance and buy time for her escape.

Jinho successfully took down two Hunters of D rank, capitalizing on the element of surprise.

However, the battle was far from over, as she found herself surrounded by six hunters of higher ranks.

The odds were against her, but she couldn't back down now.

The fight must continue!

X

Chapter Text

The battle was decidedly not in Jinho's favor.

Engaging in combat against six hunters who surpassed her in rank was a mission that seemed destined for failure from the outset. 

Even the two hunters she had previously wounded somehow managed to regain their footing.

Despite the overwhelming challenge, Jinho stubbornly refused to give up. 

She was still standing. 

Wounded, but not defeated. 

Hwang Dong-Seok mockingly chuckled, questioning her determination. "What's with this pointless stubbornness? Are you really begging us to kill you?"

"S-shut up..." Jinho weakly retorted, then suddenly coughed up blood.

The Sorcerer ranked C sneered, addressing his boss, "Hwang hyung, shouldn't we wrap this up already?"

Hwang Dong-Seok laughed menacingly, declaring, "You're correct. Seems we have no choice but to take her expensive equipment and eliminate her." 

Jinho's eyes widened in horror, her thoughts racing frantically. 'H-How did things come to this?...'

'No... this can't be happening... no...!'

Summoning the last bit of her strength, Jinho charged towards the leader, but he effortlessly anticipated her move from a distance away.

Hwang Dong-Seok seized her by the throat, lifting her off the ground with ease.

With a glare filled with menace, Hwang Dong-Seok coldly stated, "You dare attack me? What a foolish mistake." 

His grip around her throat tightened as he continued in a mocking tone, "If you're so heartbroken about your lover, why don't you just go and join him?" 

Hwang Dong-Seok then flung her away with monstrous strength, her body hurtling at an alarming speed until she slammed against the cave wall.

The hunters standing nearby all erupted in laughter. 

One of them chimed in, "Hey, boss, can I be the one to strip her of her equipment?" 

"No way! I want to be the one to do that!" Another jumped in.

"You guys are perverts."

"Hahaha... don't act like you don't want a peek too!" 

While they were laughing out loud, Jin-Woo was under the pile of rubble, doubting his own eyes at the moment.

The contents of the quest were slowly changing, that was why.

[Emergency Quest: Kill all the enemies!]

There are lifeforms holding murderous intentions towards the ‘&*@##’. Kill them all in order to secure your own safety. If you do not follow this instruction, #$%^%$#$%^!&*#$%^$.

The number of enemies left to kill: 8

The number of killed enemies: 0

A few words suddenly became illegible before changing their shapes.

[Emergency Quest: Kill all the enemies!]

There are lifeforms holding murderous intentions towards you. Kill them all in order to secure your own safety. If you do not follow this instruction, your heart will cease functioning.

The number of enemies left to kill: 8

The number of killed enemies: 0

What a clear-cut threat that was.

If he didn’t finish the quest as intended, ‘it’ would kill him instead.

‘Kill if I don’t want to be killed, is that it?’

The contents were pretty shocking, but Jin-Woo’s fluster didn’t remain for long.

No, his flustered mind rapidly morphed into one of relief. Even he found it hard to believe, but that was the truth.

There was this fear that always lingered in his mind, starting from the day these quests popped up in front of his eyes alongside Stat values and such.

‘What would happen to me if this mysterious phenomenon suddenly stopped?'

What if all these things only happened as a coincidence, and they could end at any given moment?

Such fear always accompanied him.

However, through this Emergency Quest, the truth became clear.

Things happening to him were not a coincidence, nor were they some weird goodwill from someone.

If the quest was generated by something holding some form of goodwill, then it should’ve just said “Overcome this danger”, and not threatened him to kill him as a penalty.

The system had a clear purpose.

It was either ‘Make Sung Jin-Woo strong’ or ‘Need a strong Sung Jin-Woo’.

‘And, depending on the situation, me who could kill other Hunters at the drop of a hat, even….’

He could glean such intentions from the system now. Jin-Woo felt reassured by that revelation.

‘What a relief that….’

….That, it was not a coincidence.

….That, it definitely had a goal.

Whenever he found himself in danger, he yearned to be stronger. He so dearly wished to stop living the life where it was no different from dangling precariously on the edge of a cliff.

But, on that fateful day, during the most dangerous moments of his life, his opportunity came.

The goal of this system and Jin-Woo’s wishes lined up perfectly.

‘The System is using me, and I’m using the System.’

That was all there was to it.

As long as there was an end goal, a purpose, this phenomenon would never suddenly vanish from his eyes.

Jin-Woo slowly got up from the rubble.

[HP: 1360/2600]

As expected of a magic spell shot by a rank C Hunter; it was only a single hit, yet his HP had almost halved. There was no more room left to take it easy now.

Intense malice filled up Jin-Woo’s eyes.

He began walking towards Hwang Dong-Seok.

“What the heck?”

Hwang Dong-Seok and his goons had been surrounding the unconscious Jinho, so they ended up discovering Jin-Woo rather belatedly.

“What’s going on here? He’s still alive.”

“But, Gyu-Hwan hyung looks like a dead fish, though?”

“What an embarrassment this is. He’s a measly rank E, you know.”

Hwang Dong-Seok scratched his chin.

“Hey, Gyu-Hwan-ah, why didn’t you finish him properly the first time?”

Joh Gyu-Hwan’s face reddened somewhat. “Yeah…. I should’ve.”

But, this wasn’t right. He really did pour his all with that shot.

He had spent over a third of his overall magical energy, yet how could this kid stand back up? Could the attack not connect properly? But then, there wouldn’t have been such a loud explosion if that was the case.

Lots of questions formed in his head, but there was no time to ask them.

Because Jin-Woo opened his mouth first. “The weak always lose, no matter what. That's the way it is."

"Somebody get this guy a medal. The weakest hunter of all mankind understands."

Jinho slowly regained consciousness, her eyes weakly wandering around. 'Is that... Sung-sama?... he's still alive? W-what a relief..' She let out a soft groan.

"I do. Your crew must understand how it works, too, if you're saying that." Jin-Woo spoke with a dry voice.

"You hunt and hunt. So now I want to know if the hunters are ready to be preyed upon."

Hwang Dong-Seok let off a snort after hearing that. “What the hell is this fool even saying?”

“Hyung-nim, let me handle this kid.” A Hunter with tiny little eyes approached Jin-Woo and placed his arms around the latter’s neck.

"Okay, listen up, pal. You need a reality check. Are we ready to be preyed upon? And just what can a jumped-up little E-rank like you even do? I mean, you're the weakest hunter of---Eh...?"

It happened then.

Slice.

The head of the tiny eyes fell to the ground.

Thud.

Jinho'e eyes widened in shock and horror at the sight. 'Did.. did.. I see that right?..'

Tti-ring.

[The number of enemies left to kill: 7]

[The number of killed enemies: 1]

"That’s one down." Jin-Woo declared coldly.

“J-Joon-Tae!!”

Hwang Dong-Seok’s eyes trembled like an earthquake.

“Wha-what the hell?!”

“That knife, just when did he?!”

“Where did he get that?!”

Hwang Dong-Seok and his goons quickly took several steps back and yanked their weapons out.

Jin-Woo swept his gaze at the body on the ground. 'I just killed somebody. A person. Even if I say the system made me do it. I still ended a man's life.'

Blood dripped from the tip of the blade.

'But it's either their lives or mine. So I can't back down now.'

Jin-Woo swept his gaze at Hwang Dong-Seok and his group like a predator eyeing his prey.

'Because it's only the strong who survive!'

Hwang Dong-Seok swallowed his saliva. He was already pretty surprised by the dagger appearing in that man’s hands, but more importantly, Park Joon-Tae’s death shook him to the core rather greatly.

‘How did an E-rank Hunter kill a D rank in one hit?!’

He had no idea what kind of a trick the other guy used, but from now on, underestimating his opponent was definitely forbidden. 

No, he had to be very meticulous here. Hwang Dong-Seok gave a signal with his eyes to his side.

‘Gyu-Hwan-ah, hit him one more time.’

Joh Gyu-Hwan lightly nodded his head.

This time, he wouldn’t make the same mistake again!

Joh Gyu-Hwan told himself such as lights began gathering in his hands again. But, even before the arrows of light could leave his fingertips, Jin-Woo appeared right in front of Joh Gyu-Hwan first.

“Uh? Huh?!”

Joh Gyu-Hwan’s jaw hit the floor.

The light in Jin-Woo’s eyes gleamed coldly.

Jinho watched in disbelief as Jin-Woo slaughtered the corrupt hunters. 

'H-he's.. so strong. And he seems even more powerful than when he fought the dungeon boss.'

Tti-ring.

[The number of enemies left to kill: 1]

[The number of killed enemies: 7]

Jin-Woo shifted his gaze over to the last remaining survivor.

And that was none other the big bearded man, Hwang Dong-Seok. He discarded his shield as an expression of determination formed on his face.

He then loudly roared out.

“Uuuhhhhhhhaaaa!!”

Hwang Dong-Seok kicked the ground and rushed forward.

Thump, thump, thump, thump!!!

His mind raced as he ran forward. He was a Tanker, and was considered one of the top even within the C rank.

His opponent most likely was a damage dealer.

Although that man seemed to be very agile, judged from his quick movements, there was no way he’d possess enough power to penetrate past Hwang Dong-Seok’s ‘Reinforcement’ skill.

‘You can’t fatally wound me with a measly little dagger!’

The one to be crushed when they collide would be Sung Jin-Woo, instead!

Their distance closed up in the blink of an eye.

SLAM!!

Hwang's brain shook hard, and a strong impact force was transmitted into his entire body.

Cough!!

He coughed out a mouthful of blood.

‘Did he… Did he throw me down to the floor?!’

Did Hwang Dong-Seok really lose in the contest of strength?

In a battle of physical strength?!

“How can a measly rank E….”

He was now so sure that something had gone terribly awry somewhere.

Five rank Cs and three rank Ds were knocked down in the blink of an eye. There was no way this b*stard was a rank E.

Jin-Woo stood next to Hwang Dong-Seok.

The bearded man couldn’t even properly move his body. His fate was quite obvious now.

If this was a sports match or a spar, then this battle would’ve ended right here. Too bad for the bearded man, though, Jin-Woo wasn’t planning to stop there.

“W-wait a minute.” Hwang Dong-Seok raised his hand first. “Le-let me go! If you, you want m-money, I’ll give it to you. As long as you spare me….”

“Three times.” Jin-Woo’s voice remained cold.

“Aren’t you a bit shameless, asking to be spared by someone you tried to kill three times already?”

"Yes, but for yourself! You'll never get away with it if you k*ll me here!" 

"What happens in a dungeon stays in a dungeon. Your words, not mine."

"BASTARD! If you had any idea who's my younger bro-"

Shatter!

Hwang Dong-Seok could no longer continue with his words after his neck was broken.

“Keok.”

The whites of the bearded man’s eyes were showing now.

Tti-ring.

[The number of enemies left to kill: 0]

[The number of killed enemies: 8]

Finally, this quest had come to an end.

After Jin-Woo killed Dongsuk, Jinho, unable to bear so much death, vomited.

When she finished, she could only stare at Jinwoo in fear.

'I'm not n-next... right?..' 

RUMBLE…..

The cave shook around once more. 

The tremor had become stronger than before. It was now the time to get out of the dungeon. 

But, before Jin-Woo could do that, there was something else he needed to take care of first.

And that happened to be Jinho. 

Jin-Woo’s gaze drifted toward her.

The girl had been pitifully frozen solid in her spot until then and flinched rather grandly before hurriedly lowering her gaze to the ground.

‘Now, what should I do with this girl….?’

Of course, he wasn’t thinking of harming Jinho.

Hurting girls wasn't his thing. 

However, if the events of this place got leaked out to the rest of the world, then there was a good chance that his life would become inconvenienced in a variety of ways.

‘So, I guess I should make sure she doesn’t talk, huh.’

Just as he thought that course of action would be for the best, Jinho fainted. 

“..….”

Looks like the 'talk' will have to wait. 

X

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo let out a sigh, his gaze fixed on the unconscious girl before him. 

Of all the times to lose consciousness, she had to do it when the cave was starting to crumble. 

He walked over to the spot where Jinho had placed her equipment bag filled with magic crystals.

With the bag now on his back, he looked down at her again and let out another heavy sigh.

Carefully, Jin-Woo leaned down and picked her up in a bridal carry, beginning his journey to escape the collapsing cave.

X

Jinho's consciousness returned, she sensed the cool air on her face and felt her body lying on hard ground. 

As her eyes slowly opened, she muttered softly, "Is this the afterlife?" 

"Not yet.” A cold male voice piped up next to her.

Jinho's eyes flew open as she recognized the voice, and she quickly sat up, turning her head to see Jin-Woo. 

She noticed that they were no longer within the dungeon but outside, precisely at the entrance of the gate.

However, the gate was already closed. 

As Jinho's gaze met Jin-Woo's, all the fear she had felt before washed over her once more. 

"S-sung-sama... um, w-what happened?.. I-If I may ask!"

With a blank expression, Jin-Woo responded bluntly, "You passed out and left me to handle everything."

Jinho flinched at his words, then realized, "Wait a moment... if I passed out, how did I end up here outside?" 

Jin-Woo continued in his cold, blunt manner, saying, "I'll let you figure that part out."

Jinho exclaimed, "Eh?" It then dawned on her, and her cheeks reddened as she gasped, "No way! Did you carry me out here?"

Jin-Woo stayed silent, his cold eyes looking at her with a blank expression.

Jinho's mind raced, thinking to herself, 'He could have left me behind... but he chose to save me again.'

With eyes slightly wide open, and a blush on her cheeks, she believed, 'Could it be that he's starting to like me...'

In a soft voice, she then expressed her gratitude, saying, "T-Thank you for sparing me..."

"Who said I spared you?" Jin-Woo's tone remained cold as he stated.

Jinho felt as if she had been jolted out of a daydream. Her eyes widened in a dumbfounded way, exclaiming, "E-Eh?"

Jin-Woo maintained his emotionless expression, continuing with his cold demeanor, "What if I did all this just to finish you off here? After all, wouldn't it make things more entertaining that way?"

Jinho's eyes closed tightly with a forced nervous smile. 'Yep... just as I thought. HE'S A COMPLETE PSYCHOPATH!!!'

'W-What should I do? W-What should I do?!!!' 

The girl trembled like a wet dog, and her complexion also significantly paler. 

She found herself in a state of complete panic under the weight of his intimidating presence.

One of the most crucial tools when dealing with people was fear, and Jin- Woo understood that. Therefore, he decided to use the situation to his advantage. 

"So, why should I spare you?" He coldly inquired.

Jinho's heart skipped a beat as she let out a startled 'Hiiick!!'

Jin-Woo thought he heard the sound of her heart dropping to the ground just then.

Jin-Woo briefly considered his guilty conscience, questioning, 'Was that a bit too much?'

But the thought quickly faded.

“If, if you want money, I can speak to my father, and….”

“Who do you think I am?!” Jin-Woo’s expression crumpled unpleasantly.

Sure, he did grow up impoverished, but that didn’t mean he was corrupt enough to hold a person’s life hostage and extort money that way.

Wouldn’t he be no different from Hwang Dong-Seok if he did that?

“I-I’m truly sorry.”

If it weren’t for Jinho’s current state being absolutely terrified, Jin-Woo would have smacked the back of the kid’s head or something by now. 

He was holding back only because it looked like Jinho might keel over from a heart attack if he really did that.

Confirming how displeased Jin-Woo’s expression was, Jinho nervously swallowed some dried saliva. 

‘Now that I think about it, even back when Hwang Dong-Seok offered him money….. Could he have abandoned all material desires and now only walk the path of bloodshed and murder?!’

Jin-Woo’s image inside Jinho’s head was being solidified in an even weirder direction.

However, it was too early to draw a conclusion yet.

‘If that was the case, then why did Sung-sama extract those magic crystals?’

Not too long ago, Jin-Woo personally went and extracted all those magic stones, even going so far to dig through the spider’s entrails.

Sure, it was used in a variety of ways, such as a source of high-density energy, as a raw material in manufacturing magic tools, etc. – but, to a Hunter, a magic crystal was simply another word for ‘money’.

Jinho’s mind spun at a quicker pace.

‘So, that’s how it was!’

Those crystals were the ‘prize of blood’.

They were the deserved prize he earned through staining his hands with blood, and that was why he didn’t mind digging through the stomach of a dead monster.

He’d not show a hint of mercy to those enemies who tried to harm him, but he was also the practitioner of the way of the blood. Meaning, he did not want anything to do with the monetary gain that he hadn’t earned with his own hands.

‘And I tried to buy his benevolence with money, so of course, he’d get p*ssed off at me….’

In that case, what Jinho needed here wasn’t ‘father’s money’, but the ‘deserved profit’.

When she sneaked a glance, Jin-Woo’s expression was still distorted somewhat.

Jinho quickly continued on with her words. “Sung-sama, if you spare me, then I’ll hand over all the profit earned in that dungeon to you.”

“Mm?”

As expected, Jin-Woo immediately displayed his interest.

“Please, think about it, Sung-sama. If you monopolise the profit meant for ten people after nine others are killed, others would definitely start questioning you.”

From Jinho’s perspective, Jin-Woo was, without a doubt, a fake registrant. Not only that, a highly-skilled fake registrant who enjoyed murdering people!

Obviously, he’d not want the attention of other folks landing on him.

“So what?”

“We both managed to walk out of there alive, then according to the contract, all the magic crystals from this dungeon belong to me. Even if all the other teammates had died, since you don’t get a share in the first place, no one would suspect you.”

Of course, there’s was no way that Jinho would be suspected of foul play here. Well, her father owned one of the country’s top-ranked companies, after all.

The potential profit Jin-Woo will earn from selling off the magic crystals would be like a pocket change to him.

“This money is something Sung-sama totally deserves. I mean, this is your deserved reward for saving me and getting rid of Hwang Dong-Seok and his lackeys, wouldn’t you agree?”

Jinho empathised the words ‘deserved reward’ for some reason.

‘Yeah, for sure…..’

Certainly, that method was the safest way to dispose of the magic crystals.

These crystals no longer had any owners. No matter how avaricious Hwang Dong-Seok was, he still couldn’t take them to his grave.

That left just one person, Jinho, as the sole claimant to the rights of these crystals.

However, such a girl was saying that she’d voluntarily offer them up.

Jin-Woo didn’t want anything to do with them if they were to be taken away forcibly, but…..

‘But, there’s no reason for me to refuse things that are willingly entering my pockets, no?’

Without his help, Jinho would either have been killed by now or get dragged around as a hostage instead. When looked at that way, the claims of them being ‘deserved reward’ made some sense.

Seeing that Jin-Woo’s expression lightened up, Jinho was now sure of her guesses being on the money.

‘As I thought, the magic crystals are the deserved reward of blood for hunting down Hwang Dong-Seok and his gang, so he’s not going to say no here.’ 

“Okay.”

As soon as Jin-Woo agreed, Jinho’s face brightened up in an instant.

She was even feeling a bit awestruck by how steadfast Jin-Woo was with his personal beliefs.

However, Jin-Woo’s face became emotionless next.

“However, how do I trust you?”

Jin-Woo had recalled his initial goal once more.

He wasn’t trying to scare the girl so he could line his pockets in the first place.

No, he started this intimidation antics so he could avoid being inconvenienced later down the line.

“How can I betray you, Sung-sama, who saved my neck multiple times already?”

“You could ignore our promise and just yap on to anyone you meet, no?”

Actually, it wouldn’t be too big of a hassle if the girl did that. Killing Hwang Dong-Seok and his goons were 100% acts of self-defence, after all.

There were eight of them, not to mention they were fully armed as well. Heck, they even attacked first with a powerful magic spell, too.

Laws had changed ever since the emergence of the Hunters, so Jin-Woo knew that he’d walk away scot-free only with that much justification.

Jin-Woo wanted to let things die down quietly in this manner. And Jinho’s help would be needed to facilitate that.

There might be a slight ‘problem’ with how he went about asking for that help, but as far as the end result was concerned, this was the best method available.

“So? Speak up.” Jin-Woo stared at the girl with eyes that demanded answers.

Jinho formed a determined, dignified expression.

“I will never do something so cowardly, Sung-sama. Especially for someone who has saved my life.”

‘Hang on a minute….’

Jin-Woo thought that he had seen those determined eyes from somewhere, before realising that they were rather similar to back when Jinho refused the ‘suggestion’ of Hwang Dong-Seok to become their accomplice not too long ago.

‘This girl…. she's being serious’

The ‘Give and Take’.

When her life was hanging in the balance, Jinho chose to stand with Jin-Woo. She trusted Jin-Woo and tried to go up against eight other hunters.

That was why Jin-Woo decided to trust Jinho at least once.

________________

The agent from the Association’s Investigation Department swiftly arrived at the location of the Gate.

The procedure to follow when there were casualties during a raid was rather simple. The remaining survivors only had to report the matter to the association and let the investigators do their job. That was all.

The investigator for today was a strict-looking aunty.

“And your names are?”

“It’s Sung Jin-Woo.”

“My name is Yoo Jinho, ma’am.”

Hunters dying inside dungeons happened pretty much every single day, so this procedure was more like a formality at this point. To be more precise, it was now more to do with record keeping, actually.

That was if there was nothing to be suspicious about.

“…So, every rank C Hunter in the raid team was killed, yet how did one rank D and one rank E manage to escape unhurt?”

The investigator questioned the duo while adjusting her glasses. Her glaring eyes narrowed to a slit.

‘Now normally, it’d be the weakest Hunter in the team to die first, most of the time. Yet….’

She intensely scrutinised the two hunters before discovering something particular and raised her voice.

“Oh my!!” Her eyes began sparkling as she approached closer.

“Isn’t this the longsword ‘Kalion’ that’s been launched recently by the Maya Company? Oh myyyy, isn’t this one of the Royal Series shields crafted by the one and only master craftsman Gredos?”

Jinho’s face brightened immediately. “You seemed to be well versed in weapons, ma’am!”

“Eii, it’s nothing to feel proud about, really. No, it’s only on the level of browsing through the catalogs every now and then. Ohohohohoho!”

The price of the longsword was around ₩700,000,000, while the shield was around ₩500,000,000. 

These powerful armaments were crafted with magic crystals costing well over hundreds of millions of Won, as well as other expensive materials, and they were capable of boosting the abilities of a rank D Hunter past that of a rank C.

With this revelation, the agent began imagining the events that had taken place inside the dungeon.

‘With these types of armaments….’

A lone rank D Hunter managing to hunt down the boss monster seemed rather feasible now, even when considering that all the rank C Hunters had been annihilated along the way.

'And that rank E probably hid in a corner somewhere and barely saved his life.’

Of course, the reality was opposite of that, but….

In any case, she came to a conclusion.

The odds of a woman with enough financial wherewithal to purchase such armaments stabbing her comrades in the back for a handful of magic crystals were low at best.

On top of that, it was also impossible for a rank E to do anything to several rank C Hunters too, so the deaths of Hwang Dong-Seok and seven others could only be chalked up to an unfortunate accident.

“I understand what happened now.” The investigator closed the case file with a satisfied face.

“The investigation will conclude with this, so you may go home now. I’m sure it had been a difficult day so far, so thank you for taking the time out to aid us with the investigation.”

“Thank you for your hard work.” Jin-Woo said goodbyes on behalf of both of them.

The investigator and her car left just as quickly as they had arrived.

“You also worked hard, Sung-sama.” Jinho gave him a respectful bow.

Even after they had exited the Gate, Jinho’s overly polite attitude didn’t change.

She must’ve been pretty darn scared, even now.

Jin-Woo inwardly clicked his tongue. “Yeah, you too.”

“Well, I haven’t done much anyway. You did most of the work, Sung-sama . Oh, here are your magic crystals.”

Jinho very courteously handed the bag over to Jin-Woo with two hands. Indeed, the bag was filled to the brim with magic crystals.

The highest price a magic crystal from a rank C Gate could fetch was around ten million Won. Even the smallest ones fetched several millions.

Jin-Woo’s eyes scanned the number of crystals, and he inwardly cried out in elation.

‘Just how much will these….?’

He tried so hard to suppress a grin from breaking out on his face.

It was then that a drop of water suddenly fell inside the bag.

Splash, splosh.

Jin-Woo raised his head.

They were raindrops falling from the sky that had been gradually getting darker as the afternoon rolled by.

‘It was a good thing… sending her off with an umbrella.’ Jin-Woo formed a subtle smile while thinking about his little sister.

________________

Later in the evening, Jinho sat on her bed, replaying the events of the day in her mind. 

'I can't believe I survived!' Her inner voice exclaimed. She had never experienced anything quite as traumatic as today. 

9 hunters had attempted to take her life within 24 hours.

It had been a day full of emotional ups and downs.

Her thoughts then shifted to a particular person—Jin-Woo. He was undoubtedly a fake registrant, and not only that, but a highly skilled one who found pleasure in murdering people! 

"But he did save my life..." 

Jinho felt conflicted, her cheeks tinged with a faint blush as she contemplated whether she should give this guy another chance.

Jinho began to doubt herself, wondering why Jin-Woo would save her life if he truly was as malevolent as her mind tried to convince her.

With a weary sigh, Jinho flopped onto her back on the bed, admitting, "I'm still a bit shaken up by everything that's happened today. I'm not sure I'll be able to get a good night's rest.."

Not even an hour later... 

_______________

Three days passed by since the incident of the C-ranked Gate. 

In her luxurious kitchen, Jinho prepared herself a strong drink to summon the courage to do something absolutely insane. 

The taste was disgusting, but it did the job. 

With her phone in hand, Jinho nervously dialed a number. 

As the ringing began, she chuckled to herself nervously, "Ahah... no turning back now... I hope he's a morning person..."

X

Meanwhile, In another neighborhood.

“Oppa? Do you know a woman called Yoo Jinho? She’s looking for you.”

“No way, she can’t be the same Jinho….”

Jin-Woo quickly went to the living room and snatched the phone’s receiver off his little sister.

“Hello?”

“Sung-sama~ it’s me. Yoo Jinho.”

Really now?

The voice coming from the other side sounded way too familiar.

“….How did you get this number?”

“There was a person I know working for the Association, you see. You didn’t want to answer your smartphone, so I had no choice but to call you at home like this.”

“Details only.”

“Ahh! Oops, my bad, Sung-sama. But, it’s not something we can discuss over the phone… May we meet up somewhere so I can tell you in person?”

Jin-Woo tilted his head slightly.

‘She still wants to meet me after going through such an ordeal?’

“Sung-sama, I really, really gotta ask you for this favor. Please.”

What a weird kid this girl was.

X

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo eventually agreed to spare one hour after Jinho earnestly pleaded with him.

The meeting place was a franchise cafe located not too far from Jin-Woo’s home.

Even though it was a weekday, there were quite a few people inside the cafe, perhaps because they chose to meet right after lunch hour.

“Sung-sama, over here!” Jinho greeted him rather enthusiastically.

Before entering the cafe, Jin-Woo focused his perception on the max, but he couldn’t sense any other hunters inside the shop.

At the bare minimum, this meeting wasn’t for the purpose of revenge, it seemed.

Although Jin-Woo couldn’t really remember doing anything that warranted such an ill will towards him and requiring a swift retribution.

Jin-Woo sat down on the other side of the table. “Didn’t think we’d meet again.”

There was a half-eaten ice cream on top of the table belonging to Jinho.

The girl spoke as she stood up. “What would you like to order? Should I go and get you some coffee?”

“No, it’s fine.”

Jinho looked a bit crestfallen for some reason as she sat back down.

Jin-Woo opened his mouth first. “So, what do you want?”

It was then.

“I’m telling you, this guy did it for real back then! It was so crazy, really!!”

Jin-Woo shifted his gaze over to his side.

The table next to his was occupied by three burly students with rather thuggish faces hailing from some local athletic club or the other, and they were busy chatting to three girls.

Jin-Woo tried to get back to his own conversation. “As I was saying, what do you-”

“And when did I ever do that?! Will you listen to this b*stard, busy inventing rubbish because we’re in front of girls?!”

“…Want from me….”

“But, you said it, didn’t you?! Wow, should I show you the pics, man? Should I like, release the evidence to the rest of the world or something?!”

The voices of the male students got louder and louder, and the laughter of the girls was just as loud as well.

“…..”

When the noise became too loud to carry on his own conversation, Jin-Woo was left with no choice but to stand up and silently walk over to the table next to his.

The eyes of the male students all focused on Jin-Woo.

“Will you please keep it down? There are other people in here, too.”

One of the male students scratched the back of his head and pretended to apologise a couple of times.

“Yes, yes. We’ll keep it down. Very sorry about this.”

Girls began giggling hoarsely from that sight.

“…..”

Jin-Woo quietly stared at them for a while before turning around. But when he did, something flew in and tapped him in the back of his head.

A rolled-up paper serviette fell to the floor.

“Puhahahahaha!”

“Kekeke!!”

“Hey, you shouldn’t do that.”

Male students began guffawing real hard, while girls pretended to scold the boys, even though mocking grins formed on their faces.

Witnessing this scene, Jinho’s expression gradually froze up. “Sun... Sung-sama...."

Jin-Woo picked up one of the unused spoons next to Jinho's ice cream and walked over to the counter.

“Ohh, look, look. He’s going to tell on his mommy.”

“Mommy, they are making noise. Stop them ple~ase. Fuhut!”

In the meantime, those kids kept running their mouths off.

“How much for this spoon?” Jin-Woo asked the nervous-looking female employee behind the counter with a deadpan face.

“M-my apologies, dear customer. We don’t sell spoons separately, you see….”

“It’s not more than ten thousand Won, yes?”

“Pardon? Ah, uh, uhm, I guess so…..?”

Jin-Woo placed a ten thousand Won bill on the counter and turned around.

“Dear customer? E-excuse me, customer?”

Jin-Woo ignored the calls of the female employee and headed straight to the table where the male students from some athletic club were.

When they noticed that Jin-Woo was displaying suspicious behavior, the three students slowly stood up from their seats.

“What do you want now? What?”

The attention of everyone inside the cafe was now focused on this table.

Jin-Woo showed the students his spoon.

‘……?’

‘……??’

Just as question marks floated on the expressions of these hapless kids, Jin-Woo began squashing the spoon in his hand. And the poor thing easily lost its shape right in front of their eyes.

The complexions of the male students grew paler and paler.

Jin-Woo then placed the ‘spoon’ on their table.

But, what was left there could no longer be called a spoon anymore.

No, it was just a piece of folded metal, roughly shaped like a ball.

“Heok!”

The male students nervously swallowed their saliva.

‘That, that’s not a human’s strength.’

‘This guy, he’s a H-Hunter.’

The male students signaled to each other before the kid who threw the serviette at him bowed and apologised for real.

“I-I’m really sorry.”

The rest of his friends then started apologising as well.

“I’m sorry.”

“It was our fault. Forgive us.”

The male students bowed several times with pale complexions before making their hasty retreat from the cafe while dragging the girls out as well.

“Hooray-!!”

The customers surrounding that noisy table sent gazes filled with appreciation towards Jin-Woo.

Meanwhile, Jin-Woo returned to his seat and settled back down.

Jinho’s eyes sparkled as she spoke up. “As expected of you, Sung-sama~!”

“Enough.” Jin-Woo got back on topic at hand. “Why did you ask me for a meeting?”

“Well, that…. Sung-sama. I gave this matter a lot of thought. I mean, lots and lots of thought, you know? But, I think I really, seriously, must ask you.”

Jin-Woo tilted his head. “What are you talking about now?”

“Sung-sama, actually….”

Jinho’s face reddened as if she was embarrassed about something before she summoned up her courage and spoke up.

“Actually, I was thinking of forming my own tea-”

“I’m not interested.” Jin-Woo didn’t even hesitate one second, as he replied.

"I... I didn't even finish talking about it, though?!" Jinho wailed loudly.

Jin-Woo was quite decisive in saying no.

This wasn’t because he didn’t like Jinho or something like that.

Although she seemed a bit childish, her attitude remained kindly, and she came across as someone who’d always keep her word.

She was quite different from other wealthy owners often seen in mass media.

However, Jin-Woo was not interested in becoming a playmate of the daughter of a wealthy family during the girl’s ‘Hunter’ phase.

“If there’s nothing else, I’m leaving.”

“Sung, Sung-sama!!” Just as Jin-Woo got up to leave, Jinho hurriedly reached out and held onto him.

“Sung-sama, only for 20! No, wait, please partner up with me for the next 19 times!!”

“For what? To clear dungeons?”

“Yes!! I’ll definitely compensate you properly!!”

Jinho’s voice sounded rather desperate.

Jin-Woo tilted his head slightly.

There were two reasons why people became hunters. Either it was for money or for their sense of duty.

But, Jinho didn’t belong to either camp.

Maybe it was possible that she thought of being a Hunter was a slightly more dangerous form of extreme sports or some such.

That was what Jin-Woo had been believing until now.

True, he was taken aback slightly when the girl declared that she wanted to form her own private raid team, even after going through that ordeal the last time.

‘There are all sorts of people in this world, that’s for sure.’

It wouldn’t be too strange to find a scion of a wealthy family who had become numb to the safe environment he had grown up in. However, Jinho’s expression seemed far too serious and determined at the moment for that kind of explanation.

‘Could there be a different reason?’

Rather than the promise of ‘proper compensation’, Jin-Woo’s curiosity was being tugged by the idea of raiding dungeons ’19’ more times.

Jin-Woo’s brain quickly kicked into gear.

‘Hang on…. Let’s say that last time was her first raid. And when she completes 19 more raids, then….’

Could this girl be aiming for…..?

It didn’t take long for Jin-Woo to realise the truth. His expression became dumbfounded instead.

“You, are you perhaps thinking of getting the Guild Master license?”

“That’s correct, Sung-sama!!”

What a smart decision it was not to order coffee.

Otherwise, Jin-Woo might have sprayed the bitter liquid all over the table by now while trying to drink it.

“You wanna become a Guild Master?!”

“Well, uh, the story’s a bit complicated there, Sung-sama.”

Jinho’s face reddened considerably compared to before as she spoke. “Sung-sama. Please listen to my story.”

“….”

Jin-Woo was in a slight dilemma, wondering what he should do now, but in the end, he was defeated by his curiosity, so he sat back down.

“Fine, I’ll listen.”

Well, the promised hour had not ended yet, so there was that, too. It wouldn’t be a problem to listen to the girl's story anyway.

Jinho hurriedly took her place as well.

“As you’ve correctly guessed, I want to acquire the Guild Master license.”

Acquiring that license was not that difficult, actually. You had to be a hunter who participated in at least 20 raids. As long as you met this base requirement, all you had to do was to pass a written test and you’d get the license.

Of course, nobody would join the Guild created by a rubbish Hunter, and if a Guild failed to maintain the minimum number of members, it’d be disbanded as well.

Jinho continued on. “It’s not public knowledge yet, but actually, my father is trying to establish a Guild of his own.”

“A Guild created by Yujin Construction?”

“Yes.”

Yujin Construction was one of the biggest corporations in South Korea.

It had expanded its business well beyond the fields of construction and into other sectors and had been making a killing there. Jin-Woo had heard that recently, they reaped huge profit after jumping into the Hunter-related businesses as well.

‘And they want to form a Guild of their own?’

When Jin-Woo displayed a hint of interest, Jinho became excited and added more explanations.

“He’d scout strong Hunters and build a massive Guild, and place all our Hunter-related business interests under it. That’s his plan.”

If a corporation wished to partake in Hunter-related businesses, then it was a necessity to work together with a Guild.

Well, you’d need the strength of a large Guild if you ever wanted to get your hands on magic crystals and remains of the monsters, or treasures such as mana stones found in Gates ranked A or B.

“And so, you wish to become a self-sustaining entity. Is that it?”

“That is absolutely correct, Sung-sama!”

With the financial wherewithal of Yujin Construction, creating a Guild wouldn’t even pose a problem. No, the real issue would be with just who gets to run it.

“My father is thinking of hiring an S-ranked Hunter as the Guild Master and placing my older brother as the Vice-Master, and run the Guild that way, but….”

Jin-Woo immediately caught on to what Jinho was implying here. If things were done that way, then a source of worry would be created along the way.

The power of authority the Guild Master wielded was simply far too great. Even if it was the Vice-Master who had hired the Master, in case of a conflict arising between the two, there was a very good chance that the latter would end up completely overtaking the entire Guild.

In order to prevent that, there was only one way. All you had to do was hire a Master who’d never ever betray the one who hired him or her.

For instance, brothers – or even a daughter.

And the chairman of Yujin Construction, Yu Myung-Hwan, had a daughter called Jinho.

“However, my older brother’s business experience is far too good for me to simply take over the position of the Guild Master. It was his idea to enter the field of Hunter-related business, you see. We gained huge profit in that sector because of him.”

Her older brother had become a successful entrepreneur by the age of 31.

And she, well... she was just a 22-year-old university student, even if she possessed a unique plus point of being a rank D Hunter.

Naturally, the chairman was thinking of entrusting the Guild over to the eldest son.

The eldest couldn’t become a Master since he was not a Hunter, but he still knew a lot about the Hunter-related businesses and also managed to achieve great success in the sector, too.

Meaning, even if there was an element of a risk, the chairman would still take the chance.

“And you wish to change your father’s mind by acquiring the Master license, yeah?”

“That’s right, Sung-sama.”

And so, Jin-Woo figured out why Jinho was here, trying desperately to reel him in.

Even if the girl hired a high-ranked Hunter and acquired the license that way, it’d be no different from buying it with cash.

However, what if the girl succeeded in 20 raids with low-ranked hunters, such as Jin-Woo, and acquired the license that way?

Jinho would be able to persuade her father.

Simply her being able to lead a group of hunters would be enough to get his approval. That was what Jinho was counting on.

If Jinho became the Guild Master, they would get an S rank as the Vice-Master and scout all the talented Hunters.

Well, others would only feel secure and join them if one or both Master and Vice-Master spots were filled by someone with powerful abilities.

If this plan were to come to fruition, then completing those 20 raids was an absolute must.

“Sung-sama, please help me! I have no one but you, Sung-sama!” Jinho bowed her head.

If it weren’t for Jin-Woo, the girl would’ve died during her very first raid. By the giant spider, or at the hands of Hwang Dong-Seok. Two times.

Jinho needed a trustworthy ally here.

‘I can definitely trust Sung-sama.’

He might be a cold-hearted person who would not bat an eyelid when killing his enemies, but he also happened to be a righteous man who’d not treat lightly the lives of those weaker than him, and just as important, he didn’t care about getting his hands on ill-gotten gains, as well.

Jin-Woo was the perfect candidate.

However, Jin-Woo didn’t need Jinho. That was why he asked the girl. “What would I get in return, then?”

Jinho raised her head, her expression one of joy, as she quickly produced an envelope she had prepared earlier on.

And a blueprint of a building came out from there. Jin-Woo took a look at it.

“This is the Guild office building we’re constructing at the moment. The expected retail price of the building is around ₩30 billion, but it’ll definitely rise up in the future.”

Although the Association was doing their best to manage them, there would always be that fear of monsters escaping from the dungeons.

That was why the land price near the Association headquarters or around large Guilds always rose up higher as time went by.

Well, there would be no more precious wealth than one’s own life, after all.

Even if it was a small Guild, being near one almost guaranteed your safety. However, if it was a building occupied by a large Guild?

There was no need to mention it.

“If I become the Master, then for exactly one year, I’ll use it until the Guild has been stabilised. And then, hand over the deeds to you, Sung-sama. Of course, I’ll make sure all the paperwork are in order so there wouldn’t be any unnecessary complications later down the line.”

A 30 billion building for raiding rank C Gates 19 more times….

Jin-Woo smirked slightly.

“As long as you become the Master, it’ll all be worth it, is that right?”

“That’s correct, Sung-sama.”

On that fateful day, Jinho got to learn the valuable lesson of “Anything goes inside a dungeon.”

Hiring any ol’ Hunters could lead to her getting killed.

On the flip side, hiring famous hunters would mean Jinho would lose the ability to persuade her father.

However, Jin-Woo was different.

He was nominally a rank E Hunter, yet he was strong enough to solo a C-ranked boss, as well as eight C-ranked Hunters without getting hurt.

‘Sung-sama could be at least a B-ranked…. Or, someone far stronger than that.’

With Jin-Woo was around, raiding 19 C-rank Gates would not pose any problems at all.

So, yes – if she could become the Guild Master, 30 billion sounded rather cheap in comparison.

The only thing remaining was Jin-Woo agreeing to do so.

‘He wouldn’t say no with this sort of terms on offer, right?’

Jinho nervously studied Jin-Woo’s reactions.

'What should I do?’ In the meantime, Jin-Woo was in a serious dilemma.

30 billion Won.

That was a huge amount of money.

If one considered the fact that the winning prize of the local lottery was 1.5 billion Won, he’d have to get lucky 20 times in a row to earn that amount.

Not only that, the value of the building would only continue to rise up.

If it were any other normal Hunter, they would jump in with both feet and sign up right away – that’s how tempting this offer was.

However, Jin-Woo was as far removed from being normal as anyone could ever hope to get.

He was the only Hunter who could grow stronger.

If he continued on with quests and leveled up over and over again, he’d reach the S rank sooner or later, or even something surpassing that.

‘If I can surpass the S rank, then 30 billion would be nothing.’

The contract fee for S rank Hunters went for several dozen billions already.

No matter how famous a celebrity or a sports star was, they would never even come close to the worth of an S-ranked Hunter.

This was the era where the number of high-ranked hunters signified the strength of a nation. As a result, the treatment S ranks received exceeded one’s imaginations.

Considering that, what Jin-Woo needed to prioritise here was not money, but his growth.

And in order to grow, it’d be more convenient to be alone.

‘Yeah, it’d be better to minimise the risks of unexpected events.’

If he hunted along with other people, the experience points received could decrease too, and because of all those eyes watching him, making a move would become rather cumbersome as well.

Not to forget, in order to avoid anything troublesome happening down the line, he had to threaten Jinho back then, something he didn’t want to do in the first place.

And, finally, he’d have to match his schedule to that of the assault team from now on. The efficiency of his growth would only decrease, one way or the other.

‘I can always make money later on.’

Although it was unfortunate, he had to decline this offer. Just as he thought like this….

‘Hang on a sec.’

Suddenly, he came up with a pretty good way to catch two birds called money and growth with a single stone.

‘If it’s in this manner….’

When he finally raised his head, he spotted Jinho and her nervous face.

Jin-Woo slowly opened his mouth. “I only have one condition.”

Jinho’s expression brightened up instantly.

“Whatever it is, please tell me, Sung-sama~!!"

‘I wonder, would you be able to smile even after I told you what it is?’

Jin-Woo smiled inwardly and spoke up.

“You and I. Only two of us will enter the dungeons.”

“P-Pardon?!” Jinho gasped out in pure shock.

“Sun-Sung-sama…. If I didn’t make a mistake here, then…. Are you saying that Sung-sama and I, just us two, will clear C-ranked Gates? Only us two?”

“That’s right.”

Jinho’s face was drained of all color, just then.

X

Chapter Text

Sure, Jin-Woo was able to defeat the spider boss all by himself, so he’d be able to do something similar to other bosses as well.

But, when imagining only the two of them against the horde of monsters, just like back in that dungeon’s entrance with those insects, Jinho suddenly found herself unable to breathe.

“…..”

Jinho became completely speechless, while Jin-Woo formed an expression that said, “I knew it.”

‘However, this is the best way.’

….The best in order to catch both birds.

It’d be very hard to enter any freelancer-run raid teams as a Hunter ranked E. From the very first day he made up his mind to start making money in this profession, he was constantly reminded of this harsh reality.

Either he had to give up entering dungeons with his qualifications, or he had to create his own raid team.

However, this girl was volunteering to form one for him. Wasn’t this a great opportunity, in other words?

“B-b-but, Sung-sama! You need at least ten people if we want to enter a C-ra-”

“I’m pretty sure you’d find plenty of willing people when you say you’d pay them just for showing up to fill up the head count.”

Time to put to good use what he had learned from Hwang Dong-Seok, then.

If there were Hunters who didn’t want to fight with their lives on the line but were in urgent need of cash, they would surely jump in with both feet at this golden opportunity.

Jinho’s expression became one of a scared cat, though.

“Wait…. Surely, you are not suggesting that we two will kill every single monster inside a dungeon, all the way up to the boss, are you?”

….In truth, it’d be only one person doing that, though.

“You got it.”

With this arrangement, Jin-Woo would be able to prevent the potential worst-case scenario of someone stealing his experience points, and the only person next to him would be Jinho, so he wouldn’t even need to worry about other people watching him all the time as well.

‘If it’s like that, then I’ll get to enjoy some serious power leveling, won’t I?’

On top of that, after all the raids were done and dusted, he’d get a nice little bonus of a wonderful building rolling right onto his lap.

The only thing remaining now was him persuading Jinho.

And as expected, Jinho was very, very scared at the moment.

“Is-isn’t that way too dangerous, Sung-sama?!”

“You’re only looking at it from one way and not the other.”

“Eh?”

Jin-Woo beckoned the girl to come closer, so Jinho leaned forward.

“If no one else participates in hunting besides us, doesn’t that also mean no one will get hurt, as long as we’re okay?”

“O-of course.”

“For the first raid, you were like a third wheel being dragged along, so you couldn’t do anything about the incident that had happened, but think about for the moment the ramifications of your own raid team finishing up all 19 raids without a single casualty.”

Jinho’s eyes shot open right up.

If that’s the case….!!

If that was the case, then persuading her father would become one level easier.

Not only she’d be a D-rank Hunter, but the record of being the leader of a team that successfully performed 19 raids without a single incident would be added on top as well.

It’d be the definite proof of her being qualified to become the Guild Master. Nothing would be a better advertisement for herself than this, wouldn’t it?

Jin-Woo studied Jinho’s expression and smiled in satisfaction.

‘This girl…. She’s convinced now.’

From the word go, the person in need was Jinho.

As for Jin-Woo, he didn’t really need to go on a raid with Jinho. He could still could enter dungeons via the Association giving him a call or through the random boxes.

Jinho’s was thinking now.

Although it was a bit scary, if she succeeded in pulling this off, then just as Jin-Woo had implied, there would be so much she’d get in return.

When recalling the sight of Jin-Woo displaying his absolutely overwhelming might in battles from last time, Jinho realised that maybe there wasn’t much to fret over at all.

Jinho finally made her mind up, albeit after some serious internal struggle.

“We’ll do it your way, Sung-sama. In that case, I’ll search for suitable teammates.”

“Very good.” Jin-Woo nodded his head.

They had come to an understanding.

Jinho stopped feeling nervous and tight-chested and displayed a bright smile.

‘I’ve managed to finally get Sung-sama on my side.’

For some reason, she was not feeling too scared of the upcoming raids.

A trustworthy comrade named Jin-Woo had joined her, and it’d be a bit easier to form a raid team now, too. As Jin-Woo had said, with the terms on offer, many would queue up in line just for a chance to participate.

‘With this, I’m one step closer to becoming the Master.’

Jin-Woo also smiled brightly as well.

‘Clean up as many C ranked dungeons by myself, and level up as quickly as possible.’

The two hunters shook hands with satisfied expressions. 

_______________

After going their separate ways, Jin-Woo ran back home.

Well, he didn’t know when the Association would give him a call, after all. It had been over ten days since he was discharged from the hospital, so it’d not be so strange to hear about a Gate opening up in the vicinity.

The Association normally summoned Hunters two, three times a month to clear dungeons that appeared within this area.

One of the main reason why he only gave one hour to Jinho was that the call from the Association could come at any time.

‘For the time being, I can’t afford to miss even a rank E dungeon….’

He wanted to kill lots of monsters and raise his levels quickly.

How inconvenient it was not to have his smartphone around. What a relief that the new one should arrive in a few days’ time….

Jin-Woo pushed open the front door and entered.

‘…….’

The apartment was quiet.

It was in the middle of the week, so his little sister was still at school.

After confirming that there was no one at home, Jin-Woo opened the window displaying the Daily Quest.

‘I should get today’s rewards.’

Before he went out to meet up with Jinho, he had finished the day’s Daily Quest already. But there were too many eyes watching, so he had no choice but to delay receiving his rewards.

Well, he couldn’t really show off the sight of a blue light wrapping around his body as well as a box suddenly popping out from nowhere in the middle of the street, now could he?

______________

A few days went by without any incident.

Jinho called Jin-Woo almost daily and reported on the progress. From the day after their meeting, she had called Jin-Woo precisely three times.

“Sung-sama~! It’s me, Jinho.”

“Details only.”

“R-Right.”

It seemed that the job of finding other teammates was going rather smoothly. Jinho repeatedly emphasized that the formation of the raid team would end soon and that Jin-Woo should wait just a little while longer.

‘Looks like she’s really scared of me dropping out, huh.’

However, Jin-Woo couldn’t just wait and do nothing while waiting for the team to form. So, he accessed the website for Hunters today as well.

He asked around all the time for the past few days, but no freelancer-run raid teams wanted to work together with an E-rank Hunter.

He simply had gotten lucky on that day. Sure, Hwang Dong-Seok had been scheming some nefarious things, but in any case, Jin-Woo still ended up being a part of a raid team, didn’t he?

‘Thanks to that, I made lots of money, my levels went up, and it even got me a new skill, too.’

Should he feel grateful to Hwang Dong-Seok, in that case?

Jin-Woo let off a smirk.

Well, as he was now, he wouldn’t mind meeting up with other selfish hunters acting like geckos at the moment.

No raid teams wanted him, the Association wasn’t calling him, and keys to instant dungeons didn’t want to show up, too.

Basically, he was doing nothing but suck on his fingers for the past couple of days.

His empty stomach then made itself heard.

‘Is it time to eat already?’

Jin-Woo felt hungry as he spent hours roaming the online job postings, so he headed to the kitchen.

But, when he opened the fridge’s door, it was completely empty inside.

‘……..’

This was the inevitable result of not going shopping for the past few days. His excuse was that his mind had been preoccupied with several urgent matters until now.

‘Should I go shopping, then?’

Jin-Woo yawned out slightly and closed the fridge’s door.

________________

A few days later.

In the cave depths of the D-Rank dungeon, Jinwoo reunited with his former Strike Team from the Double Dungeon incident.

After the battle, Song commented on how Jinwoo had really gotten stronger while Joohee noted his rare lack of injuries.

When Joohee and Jinwoo finally relaxed in a nearby park, she pulled an essence stone out of her bag and asked him, “Do you remember this?”

X

After sending Joohee home, Jin-Woo also returned to his place.

An old, decrepit apartment building, visible even from a distance – his place was on the third floor. 

As he walked past the parked cars to enter the building itself, the voice of an old man stopped him in his tracks.

“Young man from 102.”

It was coming from the old security guard ahjussi. He’d been around this place for a very long time; Jin-Woo was familiar with the older man, so he greeted without hesitation.

“You haven’t gone home yet, ahjussi?”

“I’m on the night watch duty today.”

“Aha.” Jin-Woo lightly nodded his head.

The old security guard immediately brought out a parcel from the guard post. “Jin-Woo, this came for you today.”

“Ahh. Thank you so much.”

The sender written on the slip was the Association.

‘Oh, so it was today, eh?’

The day that his replacement phone from the Association was supposed to arrive, that was.

Jin-Woo took out his brand new phone from the box; it glittered softly under the light.

He remembered hearing not too long ago that, due to the continued extreme level of interest towards everything related to Hunters, the number of non-Awakened people trying to get their hands on one of these phones was on the explosive rise.

‘Never mind those who wish to buy one, just what are those idiot Hunters thinking, trying to pilfer a few and selling them off?’

The old saying went that it’s not the country that lacked money, but that there were way too many crooks, instead.

Whether it was inside the Association or in the military or any place where people gathered in some numbers, corruption would always cause problems.

Because of corruption, money would leak out, and the promised financial support would decrease as much as the amount of leaked money, which would make the overall situation even worse.

This would eventually mean that those who were supposed to benefit from the system in a rightful manner got screwed royally in the a*s.

‘That was why I got worried, but….’

Fortunately enough, there were seemingly no problems with his new phone.

While waiting for the elevator to arrive, he had nothing else to do, so he switched the phone on.

And well, there was a mountain of unanswered messages and missed calls.

‘Will I even be able to check all these out??’

Funnily enough, two numbers kept popping up as he took a look at the screen. Both of them seemed unfamiliar to him. One called him a lot, while the other sent a ton of text messages.

‘But, I don’t know anybody who might call me this many times, though?’

Jin-Woo tilted his head slightly before deciding to check the text messages out first.

[Hello, I’m from that hospital….]

[If you have free time this week….]

[Was I bothering you? I just thought we could chat for a….]

He belatedly remembered a certain person’s face. Indeed, it was the face of that pretty nurse from the hospital, the one asking for his number back then.

‘Was her name Choi Yu-Rah?’

He couldn’t say that she was bothering him, but he got this feeling that the moment he replied back to her, his life might get really and unnecessarily complicated in a heartbeat.

‘Okay, so. I’ll pass….’

Next up, the number that called him repeatedly.

Jin-Woo pressed the call button. A fairly new and catchy pop song noisily greeted him as the ringtone.

Hearing that, Jin-Woo could more or less guess who this number belonged to.

The call was connected pretty quickly.

“Hello?”

Yup, indeed, it was her.

Jin-Woo leaked a wry chuckle after his guess was proven correct.

“It’s me. From today onwards, call me only on this number.”

 “Ah! You finally got your phone, Sung-sama!”

Of course, it was none other than Yoo Jinho.

Jin-Woo did write down the girl's contact number somewhere, but he had never called it before, so it was a little wonder why he failed to recognise it.

Jinho spoke with a rather excited tone of voice.

“I was actually thinking of giving you a call just now, Sung-sama. I’ve finished recruiting the team members, so I’ll be coming around tomorrow morning to fetch you!”

Just from hearing that voice, Jin-Woo could picture Jinho’s happy face.

Jin-Woo also chuckled lightly. “Alright. See you tomorrow, then.”

Click.

As Jin-Woo ended the call, the elevator arrived on the ground floor, and its doors slid open.

Tting.

Finally, the raid would start for real from tomorrow onwards.

His heart beat faster just from thinking about it.

‘Let’s level up as quickly as I can.’

He’d raise his levels, enhance all his Stats, and become stronger than everyone out there.

Once he became a truly powerful Hunter, he’d be able to get his hands on money, fame, and influence.

And, tomorrow would be his first step towards that goal.

________________

The East of the United States.

Late at night.

Hwang Dong-Su was the main Hunter of the Guild, ‘Scavenger’, one of the top Guilds in the entire USA. Not only that, but he was also an S-rank as well.

And just before he went to sleep, he received a phone call informing him of a shocking matter.

“…..My older brother is dead?? I want you to speak slowly and tell me everything in detail. Got that?”

The name of his older brother was Hwang Dong-Seok. Apparently, he entered a C-ranked Gate and lost his life.

“….My older brother and his eight teammates all died, and only two others escaped unhurt?”

And the two who survived were only a rank D and a bloody E??

Something smelled fishy here.

The older brother Hwang Dong-Su knew would never sacrifice his own life for a far weaker teammate. Also, what if that said teammate happened to be a temp?

There was no need to even mention it.

However, only the ranks D and E walked away alive, while his older brother and other C-ranked Hunters all perished in that dungeon.

‘There’s something going here….’

Hwang Dong-Su’s eyes became incredibly sharp.

Right now, he was in a far-off foreign nation after being scouted away by one of America’s top Guilds, but back when he was still in Korea, his brother did everything possible to look after him and be a good brother.

He might not have been a good human being, but he was a great, precious brother…..

‘I was planning to invite him here once I’ve secured my foothold, but now….’

To think, he’d meet an accident before that happened.

Hwang Dong-Su bit his lower lip.

“Fax me all the information on the two surviving members. My number is-….”

Hwang Dong-Su ended the phone call and then called his manager next. The call got through pretty quickly.

“Mister Hwang. You’re calling me quite late. What’s going on?”

“Laura. What would happen if I were to kill some people in Korea?”

“Do you really mean that?”

“Yes.”

There was a bout of silence before the woman’s voice continued on.

“….The States have yet to sign an agreement to exchange Hunter criminals with South Korea. Mister Hwang, you are now an American citizen, so you’ll get a hearing in a US court instead. If we have a chat with the relevant government officials, then your overall sentence should be pretty light.”

“Good to hear that. Looks like I’ll have to make a trip to Korea for a while. Something happened there. Can you clear up my schedule for a bit?”

“However, Mister Hwang, if you leave so suddenly like this, the operations in the Guild will grind to a halt. Can you inform me of the nature of this ‘something’?”

“It’s a personal matter. Of course, I’m not going to harm the Guild in any shape or form. Tell me just how far my schedule’s been booked for.”

“You’re fully booked out for the next two months.”

“Two months, is it… fine. After that, I will need some free time, so don’t schedule anything. I don’t need a long time, either. Just two weeks. I’ll only need two weeks to pop in and out of Korea.”

“…..Understood. What should I tell the upper management?”

“Tell them, I’m going to my brother’s funeral. Also, going on a trip to cheer myself up, as well.”

“Okay. Will do. By the way, Mister Hwang… If there is anything I can assist you with-.”

Click!

Hwang Dong-Su abruptly ended the call.

Didn’t matter whether it was some cheering up or an advice…. He was not in the mood to hear either of those at the moment.

Whirrrr-!!

It was then that the fax had arrived. Hwang Dong-Su took a look at the documents, arriving one by one.

On the white pages, photos of two Hunters, their names, and their brief bio could be seen.

“The rank D Hunter, Yoo Jinho, and a rank E, Sung Jin-Woo.”

Hwang Dong-Su alternated his gaze on the two hunters's photos and gritted his teeth in determination.

‘I’m sure I’ll get some answers from either one if I asked them personally.’

And, if he found anything even remotely suspicious, then….

“You will regret coming out of that place alive. I’ll make sure of it.”

The edges of Hwang Dong-Su’s eyes reddened slightly.

X

Chapter Text

Next morning.

Jin-Woo went downstairs after receiving the phone call, only to find a huge van parked outside.

“…..??”

Even before he could say, “Who the hell do you think you are to block someone else’s exit”, the driver’s window rolled down automatically.

And the brightly smiling face peeking out from behind belonged to… Jinho.

“Sung-sama, get in!”

Jinho stuck her hand out the open window and slapped the side of the van.

Since the girl was excitedly declaring her intentions to come and fetch him last night, Jin-Woo half-expected to see a Benz or something, but….

No matter how much he looked, it was a normal-looking passenger van.

Sure, it was on the biggish side, but still.

“Didn’t you say you’re the second born of a chaebol?”

*(chaebol=rich business family.)*

“I thought it’d be too eye-catching if we used my car. I bought this guy not too long ago to use during our raids.”

Only now did Jin-Woo understand the reason for all this shininess coming from the van itself.

‘It’s brand spanking new, that’s why.’

Jinho seemed doing her best to make sure that everything was going smoothly. From arriving at Jin-Woo’s place the first thing in the morning to her purchasing a new van just to avoid being too conspicuous.

It also demonstrated that her hopes and expectations riding on these upcoming raids were absolutely huge.

Jinho misunderstood the reason why Jin-Woo was taking his time to check out the new van and worriedly asked.

“By any chance, don’t you like this type of vehicle, Sung-sama?”

“Not at all.” Jin-Woo declared as so and climbed into the front passenger seat.

“Okay, we’re setting off now, Sung-sama.”

Jinho must’ve been feeling really excited because she kept humming to herself while twirling the steering wheel this way and that.

They drove for a while before coming to a stop in an empty lot.

Screech.

“Sung-sama, we’ve arrived.”

There were eight people waiting for the duo in this meeting place.

________________

The Gate, seen behind the waiting group, seemed a bit too small for a C rank.

After Jin-Woo and Jinho exited from the van, the waiting Hunters quickly gathered around them. For some reason, there was almost no ‘normal’ person in this group.

Most of them seemed to have some difficulty with their mobility. There was one person who looked to be suffering from an illness, while another was clearly an alcoholic.

Not only that, there was an underage girl too, someone that neither the Association nor the Guild would admit to their ranks. From a casual glance, she looked to be a high-schooler.

"Uh, Jinho?... Just one question. What am i looking at here?"

"Hm? I thought it was obvious. Like what else could it be? This is our strike team. When making my selections, I prioritize people who.. are registered hunters but have reasons they can't work. And people who are having trouble getting by."

"Be injured and drunk made the cut?"

"It really works better for us, so yeah. Can't raid C-Rank Gates without eight people, and these want the cash." Jinho said.

"You're joking...is that a kid?!"

"Minors can raid as long as they've awakened. And she has, so it's okay." Jinho explained.

"Excuse me." The said 'kid' approached them. "That's kind of rude. I'm a qualified hunter, not a kid."

"You're in high school, though, right?" Jin-Woo questioned.

"......."

"You raided before?"

"Well, no.."

"I'm guessing you're E-rank?"

"What's it matter what rank I am?" It seemed Jin-Woo had hit a nerve. 

"You're right it doesn't matter."

It seemed like the girl's eyes showed some hope, but it quickly disappeared as Jin-Woo added, "Because you're staying here. Jinho and I will be the only ones who go through the gate." 

Indeed, these people were only here to make up the numbers. In order to get the permit to clear a C-rank Gate, one needed at least ten Hunters, after all. That was why eight extra people had to be recruited.

And sure enough, these eight understood very well why they were here, too.

These people all possessed the Hunter licence but couldn’t act as one due to their circumstances. Most who answered the call to gather were suffering from the hardships of life in various ways.

Jinho then took a step forward.

“My name is Yoo Jinho, and I’ll be taking the lead in this operation. And this gentleman beside me is Hunter Sung Jin-Woo, who will accompany me to the dungeons. Everyone, your role is to wait outside the Gates until we return.”

One of the Hunters cautiously raised his hand. “Excuse me… If we really do that, we can get 3 million Won?”

No need to participate in any huntings.

No actual need to even enter the dungeon itself.

3 million Won per raid.

For a payment of simply lending one’s name so they would be permitted to enter the Gates, it sounded just too good to be true.

This woman named Yoo Jinho didn’t even look like that Seon-Dal character who sold the Taedong River, but the terms on offer were so good that the gathered Hunters couldn’t help but be anxious. 

*(Kim Seon-Dal is a main character of an ancient Korean novel; he is a pro swindler and manages to ‘sell’ a river to the wealthiest man in Korea.)*

“I guarantee you that the terms offered are for real.” Jinho stood stiffly, looking rather serious now. Even her expression had become grave.

“However, you are not to discuss any facet of the events that’ll take place here with anyone. Do not forget that the moment you break the vow of secrecy, you’ll be forced to pay back ten times the money you were paid, as per the contract you all signed.”

Chatter, chatter….

Hunters murmured to each other in hushed whispers.

Just what were these two young Hunters planning to do inside the Gate that they offered up such enticing terms?

They were curious, but no one came out and asked.

That was also the part of the vow of secrecy clause within the contract.

– Absolutely no questioning what happens inside dungeons.

Jin-Woo didn’t want anyone to know of his special constitution, and Jinho wanted to become the Master of a Guild, so there was a serious need to make sure that none of their teammates blabbered their mouth to someone else.

‘……’

Instead of asking questions, the Hunters began whispering to each other now.

“Still, can those two survive a rank C Dungeon all by themselves?”

“But, they don’t look that strong, don’t they?”

“If these two are capable enough to clear a rank C dungeon, wouldn’t it be better to enter a large Guild and get access to higher ranked dungeons?”

“You’re so right about that.”

They all spoke in a suspicious tone of voice, but not one person said they were quitting.

That was par for the course, really – the terms were too good to give up from their perspective. Even Jin-Woo got hooked by the promise of the two million Won, after all.

The reason for the extra one million Won, compared to what Hwang Dong-Seok had offered, was because of the clause on the participants maintaining their secrecy.

While the explanations carried on, the time was being wasted somewhat.

Jin-Woo confirmed with his watch and spoke to Jinho. “We should get started.”

“Understood, Sung-sama.” Jinh answered right away and clapped her hands in order to draw the attention to herself.

“Well, that will be all for the explanations. I won’t force you to participate. So, is there anyone among you who’d like to quit now?”

“…..”

“…..”

Of course, no one raised their hands.

Just before the duo tried to enter the Gate….

“Ah! Sung-sama, hold on for a moment.”

Recalling something she had completely forgotten about until now, Jinho hurriedly ran back to the van.

She then put several things on the entirety of her body and walked back to the Gate in an unsteady and difficult fashion.

“What…. is that?”

“It’s a full-set of reinforced armor, crafted by a famous Guild of master craftsmen in Italy. Sung-sama, don’t you think we need at least this type of equipment if we were to clear a dungeon by ourselves?”

Jin-Woo slowly facepalmed.

“…”

Simply staring at that hunk of steel covering the girl from the tip of his toes all the way up to the crown of her head, Jin-Woo felt like his own breathing was getting all choked up and the like.

“What’s the matter, Sung-sama?”

Unable to watch on any longer, Jin-Woo reached out, yanked loose the longsword attached to Jinho’s waist, and dropped it on the ground.

“Uh, uh??” Jinho tried to bend down in order to pick up the sword only to lose her balance, and she toppled over ungainly.

Plop.

Jin-Woo did his best to suppress the rising tides of anger and spoke with great difficulty.

“While I’m still being civil, take them off.”

“…..Yes.”

However, after struggling for a bit to stand back up, Jinho called out to Jin-Woo.

“S-Sung-sama….”

“What now?”

“Please help me. I can’t stand up.”

Jin-Woo spat out a long sigh while looking at Jinho, reaching out to him.

X

“Will this be fine, Sung-sama?”

“Yeah.”

In the end, they agreed on the girl wearing the helmet from the full set of reinforced armor and nothing else.

With a satisfied face, Jinho jumped inside the Gate. Jin-Woo followed in right after without saying anything else.

As soon as the two hunters walked into the dungeon one by one, the remaining Hunters all slowly shuffled towards the Gate.

One of them piped up with a worried voice. “Judging from the way they acted, they looked like a couple of amateurs….”

“You’re right.” Another agreed while staring at the Gate’s surface.

The two people’s conversation opened the floodgate of words from the remaining Hunters. Everyone began speaking their minds now.

“What will happen if those two get killed inside the dungeon?”

“Well, we all got paid the contract signing fee already, so….”

“Yeah, well. That’s true, too.”

“Wait, what were the names of those two again?”

“Hold on. So, it was….”

A man whose leg was in a plaster quickly pulled his phone out and searched the two’s names online. “Yoo Jinho, Sung Jin-Woo….”

Another Hunter helped the man in crutches to stand straight while peeking into the phone as well. Whether he felt the ‘crutches’ needed help or was just too impatient to find out the result of the online search, no one could tell.

“What the hell? The raid leader is only a rank D??”

Hearing that, everyone else stiffened up from the shock. However, what shocked them even more was the following search result.

“The dude next to the rank D is only a measly E???”

“Isn’t it way too dangerous for a rank E to enter a rank C Gate?”

“One D and an E want to clear a rank C dungeon?!”

“How can that even be possible??”

“Also, the raid team leader has no record of leading a team before!”

“What the heck….? Why would these two young Hunters ….?”

Wasn’t this no different than committing suicide?

It was not for nothing that the Association had set a strict rule of one needing ten people, with five rank C Hunters, as the bare minimum if one wanted to enter a rank C Gate.

“Tsk, tsk…” A male Hunter, sporting a smattering of white hair, pulled a cigarette out and lit it up.

“The arrogance of youth tends to catch many young people unawares.”

The cigarette smoke slowly rose up.

“….”

“….”

The Hunters all fell silent. They couldn’t help but feel awkward and bad, thinking that they were now a part of someone else’s suicide attempt.

Even if they were total strangers, no one liked seeing another person getting killed right in front of their eyes, or in this case, inside the Gate right in front of them.

Was that all?

What about the rest of the money?

They may have received the contract fee upfront, but they would’ve made a lot more by following the two young Hunters around for the next 18 raids.

Regrettably, though – the odds of two young people coming back alive were simply too low.

“This…. Shouldn’t we report this to the Association, even if it’s now?”

“I wonder. Yeah, what if we get blamed for this?”

Then, this happened.

Buzz….

Jin-Woo and Jinho emerged from the Gate.

“Oh, ohh…”

“They managed to escape unhurt!”

“What a relief.”

Hunters welcomed the two with happy expressions.

They were all thinking that these two only roamed around the entrance of the dungeon like a pair of lost kids because the time between them entering and leaving was fairly short.

However, what was going on here?

The expressions of the Hunters gradually changed.

Because they all heard someone crying out in alarm, that was why. “The, the Gate is closing!!”

"What??!!"

Everyone hurriedly shifted their gaze over to the Gate.

“Oh my!”

“Look, look!!”

“They killed the b-boss??”

The Gate was turning blurry and illusory, just as it would when the boss of the dungeon was killed.

While the Hunters couldn’t hide their shocked disbelief, Jin-Woo utterly disregarded their gazes and quietly asked Jinho.

“Where is the next one?”

“It’s about an hour’s drive from here, Sung-sama.”

“Okay, let’s go.”

Jin-Woo and Jinho headed straight to the van.

Meanwhile, the eight Hunters stared at the duo’s backs with completely dumbfounded faces.

Realising that they weren’t following him, Jinho turned her head and called out to them.

“Let’s hurry up, everyone. We barely have enough time to go to two more Gates today.”

The jaws of the Hunters all dropped to the floor from that declaration.

Drop.

The middle-aged Hunter, with the smattering of white hair, Yun Gwi-Won, was so stunned that he failed to realise his cigarette slipping out from his lips and falling to the ground.

‘Those two managed to clear a rank C dungeon, and they are going for another raid, too??’

It wasn’t only Yun Gwi-Won, though.

Everyone present was thinking the exact same thing.

‘Just who are these people???’

________________

Grrroooar….

A group of zombies rushed at the duo.

“Sung-sama, they are coming!”

“Okay.”

Jin-Woo smoothly glided among the rushing zombies. Whenever he brushed past one, the head of an undead creature fell and rolled on the ground.

The number of zombies decreased quite rapidly.

Soon, only one remained.

Stab!

“Kkkroooarr!!”

When Jin-Woo stabbed his dagger deep into the last monster’s chest, a familiar mechanical beep rang inside his head.

Tti-ring!

[Level up!]

Jinho, who had been standing at the far back, gasped in admiration and clapped her hands enthusiastically.

“Sung-sama, you’re so cool!!!”

“Magic crystals.”

“R-Right!” Jinho quickly pulled the bag out and began collecting the magic crystals.

It was around at this point.

The mechanical beeps didn’t end with the level up message and continued on.

Tti-ring!

[You’ve acquired ‘Skill: High-Grade Dagger Technique Lv. 1’]

Tti-ring!

[You’ve acquired ‘Skill: Vital Points Targetting Lv. 1’]

_______________

The second day.

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

With the addition of an attack skill, the speed of hunting had increased rather noticeably.

[Level up!]

Jinho’s eyes could only grow wider and wider as she watched countless monsters fall one after the other when Jin-Woo accurately attacked their weak points.

‘Sung-sama has been hiding such a mad skill until now?!’

'Just how far did the set of Sung-sama's mysterious skills extend to?'

She couldn’t help but admire Jin-Woo even more.

'Seeing that he was able to easily defeat several rank C Hunters, he’s definitely a rank B or higher…..’

Jinho could only spectate from the sidelines, her jaw slack, since she couldn’t guarantee her own fate if she unwisely tried to probe Jin-Woo for answers.

However, there was a distinct disadvantage associated with the increase in the hunting speed, as it turned out.

[You can’t use your skills because of a lack of Mana.]

[You can’t use your skills because of a lack of Mana.]

Jin-Woo frowned quite deeply. ‘Again??’

In order to fill up his depleted MP, Jin-Woo summoned a vial of ‘potion’ he bought from the Store right away.

“What is that, Sung-sama?” Jinho expressed a great interest.

Being next to Jin-Woo meant that Jinho would get to experience many unbelievable things, of course.

And now, she became way too curious about the identity of the blue liquid Jin-Woo kept drinking every now and then.

“What, this?”

Jin-Woo delayed answering and read the information on the potion first.

[Item: MP Potion]

Rarity: E

Type: Consumable

A liquid medicine that will restore your Mana. Once consumed, it will restore 500 points of MP. Can be stored in your inventory, but it can’t be handed over to someone else.

The explanation said that the potion couldn’t be handed over to another person.

‘What will happen if I try to give it to someone else?’

It was now Jin-Woo’s turn to become curious.

So, he handed the vial of the MP potion over to Jinho.

But, the potion bottle quietly disappeared from the view when placed in Jinho’s hand, just like when it appeared the first time.

“Is, is this magic, Sung-sama??!”

‘So, this is why it can’t be handed over, huh.’

He learned something new today.

An item that could not be handed over would disappear when touched by someone else. If so, what would happen when no hands were involved?

Jin-Woo accessed the store and purchased a new potion.

However, it was not the same MP potion that he bought all the time, but a vial of HP potion containing reddish liquid.

As soon as he completed the transaction, the potion automatically appeared in Jin-Woo’s hand.

“S-Sung-sama!! That’s amazing! The liquid’s color changed to red!”

Jinho was thinking that the MP potion disappearing and being replaced by an HP potion was some kind of a fancy magic trick.

Actually, there was a good reason why Jin-Woo changed the type of potion.

‘Let’s find out if these potions have an effect on other people.’

Jin-Woo told Jinho’s to lower her posture. “Open your mouth and look up.”

“H-Huh..." Jinho was taken aback.

She still felt confused about everything, and Jin-Woo didn't answer any of her questions. And now he was asking her to do what exactly?

'B-But I trust him... S-Sung-sama won't do anything that will put me in danger.'

With that in mind, she did as he asked. 

“Alright, don’t move.”

Jin-Woo tilted the vial of HP potion. The reddish liquid slid down Jinho’s mouth.

Gulp.

Suddenly, Jinho opened her eyes wider.

“Uh? What’s going on, Sung-sama? Why do I feel reinvigorated again?”

After playing the role of the luggage carrier for a long time, Jinho had been looking rather fatigued, but now, her complexion improved in the blink of an eye.

Jin-Woo smiled in satisfaction.

‘So, giving it away in this manner works.’

He got to learn something else just as good again.

He should be able to heal a nearby injured person, even if there were no healers present. This would certainly help him out a good deal in the future, no doubt.

“Just tell me if you’re feeling tired, okay? I can spare a ton of this drink, you see.”

Of course, Jin-Woo wasn’t doing this out of charity.

If the porter got too tired and his movement speed decreased, then that would mean the overall hunting speed would decrease as well, so basically, he’d be the one losing out in the end.

His actions were born out of such a chain of thoughts, but Jinho didn’t know that.

“S-Sung-sama ….” Jinho exclaimed softly. 

“Let’s go.” Jin-Woo started walking away. 

Jinho became very moved after being subjected to Jin-Woo caring about her. Not to mention, she was awed by Jin-Woo’s amazing abilities, too.

Wiping away her tears, Jinho hurriedly chased after the departing back of Jin-Woo.

X

Chapter Text

The third day.

“Oh, right. Take this, Sung-sama.”

Jinho rummaged through the equipment bag and then presented a bank balance book with a stamp sealed together.

“What’s this?”

“It’s the money from selling the magic crystals we got during the last two days.”

Jin-Woo got slightly irritated by the fact that Jinho had forgotten this and only decided to give it to him inside a dungeon full of dangerous monsters, but that irritation disappeared almost right away.

‘₩600,000,000?!’ 

When he took a look at the amount written on the book, Jin-Woo found quite a substantial amount staring back at him.

“Are you giving me every cent from the sales of the magic crystals?”

Jinho nodded her head.

“Yes, Sung-sama. I’m not doing these raids because I need the money, and besides, you’ve killed all of the monsters anyway. So, how can I ask you for a share like a shameless fool here?”

Jinho’s eyes were sparkling like a little kid waiting to be praised.

‘Ohh, really… Would you look at this girl now?’

Jin-Woo sensed the change in Jinho’s attitude after they spent the last couple of days together.

Not too long ago, the feeling of the girl forcing herself to come even though she was sh*t-scared was pretty strong, but now, she was acting more like a little sister who couldn’t stop worshipping a cool older brother or something.

‘She’s got a pretty adorable side to her, no?’

Jin-Woo smirked softly.

“Can I really have it, then?”

“Do I, the one and only Yoo Jinho, look like someone who’d go back on her word, Sung-sama?”

Jin-Woo smiled brightly and patted the bank balance book. “Okay, thanks. I’m really grateful for this.”

“No, thank you instead, Sung-sama!!” Jinho bow respectfully. 

This was one confusing sight where it was pretty difficult to tell just who was giving who money here.

X

At the same time, outside the dungeon….

The waiting ‘teammates’ also developed a routine of sorts to while away the time.

As soon as the raid leader Jinho and her assistant (?) Sung Jin-Woo entered the Gate, the remaining Hunters gathered around, placed a couple of picnic clothes on the ground, and proceeded to do their own things.

The most popular activity, of course, was gambling.

Five people were sitting around in one group, gambling and chatting away.

“How many raids did we ‘participate’ in so far?”

“Let’s see… The day before, it was three. Yesterday, it was two, and this is the second dungeon today, so it’s seven in total so far.”

“Will it be fine for those two to keep clearing dungeons at this breakneck pace? I mean, it’s normal to take a week off after clearing one dungeon, no?”

“Aigoo. Don’t you worry about those two now. Can’t you see that they literally haven’t even broken a sweat every time they come out of a Gate? Besides, we get 3 million every raid, so it’s simply an excellent bit of news for us. Oh, it’s your turn, my man. Hurry up and deal.”

“Ah, sure.”

Indeed, both Jin-Woo and Jinho displayed not one hint of getting fatigued from keeping up with this seemingly exhausting schedule.

Of course, these people had no idea, but such a feat was only possible thanks to the miraculous effects of the potions.

The duo got to clear over one-third of the planned 19 raids in such a short amount of time precisely because of the potions.

A short while later, the Gate’s black-ish surface wavered unsteadily, and two people emerged from there.

“Oh, the raid leader is out.”

“Okay, let’s pack this up.”

Hunters began getting ready to leave without being ordered to.

“Hey, there. Take care of that luggage over there.”

“Wake that person up. Please make sure we aren’t forgetting anything here.”

Hunters moved in perfect sync. Even the sleeping Hunter woke up and quickly finished getting ready to move to the new location.

“Okay, let’s get going!”

Everyone was getting more or less used to this rather insane manner of clearing dungeons.

______________

Inside the offices of the White Tiger Guild, located in the same district.

The Chief of the 2nd Division, Ahn Sahng-Min, found himself shouting at the top of his voice early in the morning.

“Mister Hyun!! What are you trying to do here?! Tomorrow’s the day for the new recruits to start training, yet how could you have failed to book a single Gate until now?! Answer me, Mister Vice Chief!!”

The Vice Chief Hyun Ki-Cheol lowered his head in embarrassment.

“M-My apologies, Chief. The thing is, there is a raid team that quickly bids for every Gate ranked C opening up in our jurisdiction.”

“What?! Well then, why don’t you just get them back with higher bids? Does our Guild lack funds or personnel? Just what’s the problem here?”

“I tried to do as you said, but…..”

“Uh-huh!! How dare you answer back as if you did something nice??”

From the thunderous roar of Ahn Sahng-Min, the entirety of the 2nd Division had fallen into silence.

It sure had been a long time since Ahn Sahng-Min blew his top to this extent.

Just what kind of a place was the White Tiger Guild?

It was called one of the top five Guilds in South Korea. For that reason alone, every single employee working within its halls was, without exception, excellent individuals.

The Vice Chief Hyun Ki-Cheol too was a talented, sharp individual who performed his role well and admirably, having never committed a single error ever since he was hired by the Guild.

But to think, he failed to book a single Gate when the new recruits were supposed to begin their training soon!

This no doubt qualified as a big error.

The 2nd Division that Ahn Sahng-Min was in charge of did the roles of recruiting new Hunters and training them, while the First Division took care of managing the schedules of the Guild’s main Hunters.

“P-Please! Take a look at this first, Chief!”

The near-tearful Hyun Ki-Cheol pushed forward a notebook PC to his superior officer.

“What the hell?!”

Ahn Sahng-Min was about to explode once more, only for his jaw to drop to the floor after checking out a certain number appearing on the notebook’s screen.

“T-Two hundred fifty million Won?!?! There is a crazy b*stard who spent 250 million Won on a single rank C Gate????”

Ahn Sahng-Min became utterly speechless.

The best anyone could hope for, in terms of financial return from a Gate ranked C, was only around 200 million Won.

Paying 250 million won was, simply put, being a hopeless moron who paid way too much.

“Originally, the bidding price of this Gate was only around 70 million. But, when I raised the bid to 100 million, these b*stards suddenly upped it all the way to 250 million, Chief.”

The upper limit for a single C-rank Gate set by the White Tiger Guild was 100 million Won. One could now clearly see why Hyun Ki-Cheol was feeling rather aggrieved at the moment.

‘Who are these b*stards?!’

Tap, tap, tap, tap….

Ahn Sahng-Min’s hands typed on the keyboard quite rapidly. Soon, the search results filled up the computer screen.

Just as Hyun Ki-Cheol had said, one raid team was snapping up all the rank C Gates appearing in this district with nonsensical speed while paying an equally gobsmacking amount of money.

“What the hell, who are these crazy b*stards….?”

This area was the White Tiger’s backyard, their jurisdiction.

At first, Ahn Sahng-Min thought of the possibility that other Guilds were possibly interfering with their work.

‘No, hang on. That’s not possible, is it?’

There was no large Guild stupid enough to start something with White Tiger openly in this fashion.

Even if it was one of the five top Guilds in South Korea, it would have to risk getting destroyed in return by clashing against the White Tiger.

‘So, it’s not a Guild, then…..’

In that case, who and why?

Ahn Sahng-Min swallowed his saliva and accessed the information on this strange raid team and its members.

The leader’s name was apparently ‘Yoo Jinho’.

“First time I hear that name.”

It was Ahn Sahng-Min’s job to scout new recruits for the Guild. That was why he had remembered the names of freelancer Hunters who had at least displayed a modicum of excellence in the past.

However, this ‘Yoo Jinho’ really was someone he didn’t know.

‘Okay, I’ll come back to you later.’

He then proceeded to slowly scroll down the list of the team’s members, hoping to spot any familiar names on it.

And then, there was one.

One name kind of stood out.

‘Sung Jin-Woo? Sung Jin-Woo….. Where have I heard this name before?’

________________

Outside the Gate….

“Sung-sama. Is there some other business you need to attend to later?”

“No, not really. Why do you ask?”

“I haven’t seen you hurrying up this much with hunting before.” Jinho was feeling truly astonished today.

She already knew very well that Jin-Woo was strong, but today, he seemed to be on another dimension altogether.

Jin-Woo inwardly laughed out. ‘Well, monsters in this dungeon were Werewolves, after all.’

[Title: Slaughterer of Wolves]

A Title given to a hunter skilled in hunting wolves. When facing animal-type monsters, all of your statss will increase by 40%.

The buff given by the title ‘Slaughterer of Wolves’ of course, came into effect against the Werewolves as well.

How could the monsters from a rank C dungeon contend with him when his level was already so high to begin with? Never mind the effect of that buff helping him out, too?

Thanks to that, Jinho had been kept real busy while trying to extract all those magic crystals from the dead monsters. She even had to drink five vials of the HP potion, too.

She shook her head several times, complaining that she wouldn’t be able to eat lunch now after the potions filled her up completely.

‘That’s that, but….’ Jin-Woo slowly raised his head.

He had been sensing someone’s gaze coming from somewhere.

‘I don’t sense any magical energy, so he can’t be a Hunter.’

He took a look around but couldn’t spot anyone suspicious.

If he got serious about discovering who it was, then he should be able to find the person; but then, as the target didn’t emit any killing intent or hostile intentions, it’d take a really long time to track the culprit down.

‘……’

It might be nothing, too.

Perhaps inevitably, the gaze disappeared before long.

“Sung-sama, is everything alright?”

“….It’s nothing. Let’s get going.”

There was no time to waste here.

Jin-Woo took one last look around and climbed into the van.

X

 Jin-Woo couldn’t sense anyone looking at him by the second Gate’s location.

….Both the times when he entered, and also when exiting the Gate.

‘Was I being overly cautious?’

What a relief it was, knowing that it wasn’t something serious.

Meanwhile, Jinho walked over and apologetically lowered her head.

“Sung-sama, I’m really sorry about this. This is the last Gate for the day. Other ones were just too far from here.”

“Don’t worry about it. That’s not something you should apologise for, anyway.”

The sun was still pretty high up in the sky, but thanks to the duo’s antics, just about every Gate that appeared in the district had been taken care of, so their day had to come to an end here.

“Thank you all for working hard, everyone.” Jinho said to her team. 

“What do you mean, working hard. It’s you, the raid leader, who worked hardest.”

“See you tomorrow.”

“Take it easy now.”

After sending everyone away, the remaining two hunters climbed aboard the driver’s and the passenger’s seats of the van.

“Let me take you home, Sung-sama.”

Before anyone had noticed it, Jinho had become a trusty chauffeur. Her sitting behind the wheel looked perfectly normal now.

Jin-Woo looked at Jinho with pitying eyes.

‘Just because she wants a shot at the position of the Guild Master, a scion of a wealthy family now has to work as a chauffeur….’

Jinho had been smiling brightly while pressing on the accelerator before realising that Jin-Woo was staring at her and asked with an equally bright voice.

“Eh? Is there something on my face, Sung-sama?”

“…..Nope. Never mind.”

Jin-Woo pretended to know nothing before suddenly recalling something else rather important, and he pulled out his phone to check the time.

‘Right now, it’s…. 16:46.’

Indeed, it was still too early to go home. How fortunate that he still had one thing he could do.

‘I’m sure it was around here, right?’

According to his memories, at least.

Jin-Woo spoke up quickly. “Hey, Jinho.”

“Yes, Sung-sama?”

Jinho replied while professionally turning the steering wheel. The van, the two of them were riding on smoothly went around the curve on the road.

“Head to the Mirae department store.”

“Mirae department store?” Jinho formed a confused expression.

“Yeah. Let’s go there.”

“Well, yes. It’s just around the corner from here, but…. I did notice it back during the hunting, so, like, is there really nothing going on, Sung-sama?”

“….For some reason, you’ve been talking a lot more than necessary lately.”

That prompted Jinho’s head to rigidly stare forward and nowhere else.

“I shall get us there at the speed of light, Sung-sama. Please hold on tight.”

Jinho quickly changed her attitude and drove the van like a stuntwoman, never once touching her brake pedal.

The distance to cover wasn’t a lot, so they arrived at the destination pretty quickly.

The van came to a screeching halt in front of the building. The overall vibe given off by the Mirae department store located smack dab in the city of Seoul’s CBD was quite something to behold.

When Jin-Woo climbed off the van, Jinho followed suit.

“Sung-sama, our Guild’s gotta use this kind of a building as our headquarters in the future. What do you think?” Jinho stared up at the department store building and threw half a joke.

However, there was no reply. Sensing that something was weird here, Jinho hurriedly took a look next to her.

“Ehh?!”

Jin-Woo was no longer standing there.

“Sung-sama?”

No matter how hard she looked around, Jin-Woo was gone without a trace.

“S-Sung-sama??”

________________

[With the death of the Boss, the interior of the dungeon will revert back to its original state.]

‘I leveled up again twice in the department store instant dungeon.’

The steps taking Jin-Woo home were light and cheery.

It had been a while, but the key to the instant dungeon had finally come out of the random box recently. And that key was supposed to be ‘used’ at the Mirae department store.

He was wondering when to go, but decided to visit the place today since he found himself with enough free time.

[“S-Sung-sama??”]

Jin-Woo recalled the dazed face of Jinho as the girl searched for him and couldn’t help but chuckle.

His phone suddenly went off, then.

Before answering it, he checked the number on the phone’s screen, but he couldn’t recognise it.

‘Who could it be?’

Back when he was still in high school, he was too busy trying to be a mother to his little sister, and after graduation, he started right away as a Hunter so one could say that Jin-Woo’s circle of acquaintances was fairly small.

‘I shouldn’t be getting calls from unknown numbers….’

He tilted his head only for a second or two. For the time being, he decided to answer it.

“Hello.”

“Hello. Is this Mister Sung Jin-Woo speaking?”

It was an open and friendly-sounding voice of a man.

Jin-Woo hung up the moment he heard that.

Click!

‘Well, from my experience, this kinda call is 99% someone trying to sell me stuff, or trying to entice me to get a loan, anyway.’

Just as he was about to put his phone back in the pocket, it rang again.

Buzz…

And it was the exact same number.

‘What the? It wasn’t someone selling stuff?’

Normally, these salespeople would call whoever just so they could meet their sales target, which meant that they would almost never call him back this quickly as soon as the connection was dropped.

Why? They were quick-witted enough to realise that this would be a waste of time, that’s why.

‘Which means.. the guy on the other side really has some kind of business with me….’

So, he answered the call properly this time.

“Hello, this is Sung Jin-Woo.”

“Ahh, so it was the right number. I thought I called the wrong one because the call got cut off so quickly. Ahaha.”

“..…”

Jin-Woo deliberated for the whole of 2 seconds on whether to apologise or not with an excuse of him thinking that the call was about selling insurance or some such, because the man’s voice sounded a bit…

But, in the end, he decided not to.

‘It feels like me apologising now would only make it worse.’

A short bout of silence later, the salesman, no, the man with a salesman’s voice, made his belated introduction.

“Ah, where are my manners. My bad for the late introduction. My name is Ahn Sahng-Min, and I work for the White Tiger Guild.”

Jin-Woo’s steps came to an abrupt halt.

‘Why is the White Tiger calling me?’

He couldn’t think of a reason why such a big Guild as the White Tiger would call him out of the blue.

The only thing he could think of, though, was that this Guild assisted him back in that dual dungeon incident, but….

‘But, I’m sure they aren’t calling me to investigate that day’s matters after so much time has passed by already.’

Well, he couldn’t stand not knowing, so before Ahn Sahng-Min had the chance to continue, Jin-Woo asked first.

“Why is the White Tiger Guild giving me a call?”

“The matter is a bit sensitive to discuss over the phone, so may I come to you and have a chat face to face?”

The man was saying that he’d come to see him, not asking Jin-Woo to show up, so there was no real reason to refuse here.

Besides, he had nothing much to do the day after tomorrow, anyway.

‘Didn’t Jinho say she had some kind of an event back home?’

Jinho ‘begged’ for his understanding while saying that there was a big family event happening on that day, and everyone simply had to show up, meaning she couldn’t go on any raids.

‘A big family event, eh….’

Just from thinking about a chaebol’s family event, Jin-Woo could only imagine luxurious, elaborate parties being held in a five-star hotel’s reception hall.

Should he blame TV dramas for that now?

In any case, it’d be easy to set a date for that day.

“I have some free time on Thursday.”

“Well, the thing is… Will it be fine if we meet right now?”

Right now?

Jin-Woo checked the time.

The time on the phone’s screen indicated eight in the evening.

“But, it’s already eight.”

“Don’t worry. I’m waiting for you nearby. I just wish to speak to you for a little while only.”

“Nearby, as in?”

“I’m in a cafe near you.”

Sahng-Min spoke the name of the cafe.

Jin-Woo was quite familiar with the place.

It was near his home, so he went past it often, and not only that, but he also used it as the meeting place with Jinho as well.

Jin-Woo’s eyes narrowed to a slit. ‘This guy knows where I live.’

One couldn’t find the addresses of Hunters on the Association’s website. The only things appearing there were the names of Hunters and their ranks.

A Hunter could provide the relevant information themselves, but Jin-Woo didn’t even leave behind his contact number there.

But, not only had this guy known his phone number, he was waiting near Jin-Woo’s home, so without a doubt, he must’ve gathered enough information before showing up here.

‘Ah, now that I think about it….’

He abruptly remembered something.

“I sensed a gaze on me earlier today, so I’m guessing that belonged to one of your people?”

Jin-Woo’s voice became a level colder.

The guy on the phone apologised with a polite tone of voice.

“Please accept my apologies if you were inconvenienced by that. We just wanted to confirm the situation for ourselves. We wouldn’t have called you like this if we were thinking of harming you in some shape or form. If you take some time out and listen to what I have to say, I guarantee that you won’t be disappointed.”

Jin-Woo pondered for a while, before speaking up.

“…..I’ll be there shortly.”

______________

“Can you hand over that building to me, then?”

“I beg your pardon?” Ahn Sahng-Min’s eyes opened up really wide.

He doubted his own hearing, so he asked back. “C-can you explain what you mean by that?”

Jin-Woo calmly explained himself.

“You see, Yujin has promised to hand over a building worth around 30 billion Won. If the White Tiger’s building is indeed around 50 billion, well, it’s not exactly the double the price, but I can overlook such things.”

“T-thirty billion??” Ahn Sahng-Min couldn’t close his slack jaw.

Sung Jin-Woo’s career spanned four years.

However, most of those were spent as a rank E.

And it hadn’t been long since he got noticed by someone. In other words, he must’ve gone through his Re-Awakening process not too long ago.

Yet, just how incredible was his ability that someone like Yu Myung-Hwan, famous for his wily business smarts, promised the huge amount of 30 billion Won?

Not only that, even before Sung Jin-Woo had gone through with the re-assignment test, too?!

‘W-wait. Could he be lying here because I won’t be able to confirm if this is true or not?’ Ahn Sahng-Min narrowed his eyes, feeling suspicious.

As if he had read Ahn Sahng-Min’s thoughts, Jin-Woo pulled out his phone and quickly dialed a number.

Ring…. ring….

Click.

“Yes, Sung-sama?” 

It was in the evenings, and the interior of the cafe was quiet. Still, Jin-Woo put the phone on speaker and raised the volume to the maximum.

“Hey, Jinho. I wanted to ask you about something.”

“Please ask anything, Sung-sama.”

Jinho? Was this Yoo Jinho?

Ahn Sahng-Min nervously swallowed his saliva.

‘Could he be thinking of telling Yoo Jinho what we’ve been discussing just now??’

Too bad, Ahn Sahng-Min’s expectation was a bit off the mark.

Jin-Woo spoke about something else. “That building you wanted to give to me, how much did you say it was?”

“Well, the appraised value is around 30 billion Won. But, once it’s finished and our Guild starts occupying it, the value should rise up even higher, hyung-nim. Ah, right! If you need those signed documents, should I fax them to you?”

“Hold on.”

Jin-Woo covered the mouthpiece of the phone with his hand and asked Ahn Sahng-Min.

“If you still can’t believe it, why don’t you speak to her personally?”

Ahn Sahng-Min wiped the cold sweat forming on his forehead and shook his head.

“Hey, Jinho? It’s fine. Thanks. I’m hanging up now.”

“Okay, Sung-sama. See you later.”

After ending the call, Jin-Woo noticed that the look on Ahn Sahng-Min’s face had changed completely now.

Indeed, Ahn Sahng-Min’s eyes were trembling non-stop.

‘Even before their Guild is established, Yujin has promised 30 billion as the contract signing fee?? And then, the daughter of Chairman Yu Myung-Hwan continues to use honorifics, too?’

Ahn Sahng-Min was now deeply mired in uncertainty and confusion.

Before getting ready to leave, Jin-Woo stopped to confront Ahn about prying into him. 

“How many people know about me?”

“It’s… It’s only me for the time being. I was too anxious to scout you, so I didn’t even stop to report to my superiors yet.”

Actually, there was one more person. Hyun Ki-Cheol, his subordinate, and also his right-hand man.

Ahn Sahng-Min concealed the presence of Hyun Ki-Cheol for the time being. He was worried that Jin-Woo might get really unhappy if he had learned that there were two people instead of one.

“For the sake of trust, let’s not lie to each other, shall we?” Jin-Woo voice became even colder and threatening than before. 

Ahn Sahng-Min began panicking visibly now.

‘What is this? Did he obtain some information on us before coming here?’

If that were the case, then things might get worse if he continued to argue that he was the only one. He didn’t even want to imagine what would happen next.

‘I gotta be honest here.’

“Actually, one of my subordinates also knows about this matter. I’m telling you the honest truth.”

Jin-Woo definitely didn’t want to complicate the matter any further than necessary. Two people were within his ability to control.

If he left them alone like this, no doubt they would continue to harass him down the line. That was why there was a definite need to warn the other party, back off him for good.

Jin-Woo opened his mouth. “Actually, I also refused Yujin’s offers.”

Jin-Woo’s explosive, unexpected revelation!!

Ahn Sahng-Min was even more shocked than before. “Pardon me?!”

It was right at this moment, Jin-Woo suddenly vanished from the spot.

“What?!” Ahn Sahng-Min hurriedly stood up from his chair. He quickly scanned the interior of the cafe but couldn’t spot Jin-Woo anywhere.

‘What was that?? Could he have moved faster than the eye can see?!’

Ahn Sahng-Min was too flustered and realised that someone had grabbed his shoulder from the side quite belatedly.

“Heok.” All the hair on his back stood up at once.

“Don’t turn around.” A cold voice came from his side.

Jin-Woo, who had been sitting across him until then, had vanished without making a sound and was now standing right next to him, still not visible to the naked eye.

‘S-Stealth??’ Cold sweat drops formed on Ahn Sahng-Min’s forehead. ‘Could…. could he be…. angry at me….?’

Hunters were, in general, monsters. He knew this well because he got to observe them from a close vantage point every single day.

That was why he was always super-respectful towards them.

“Sit down slowly. I don’t want to scare you.” Jin-Woo spoke, almost in a hushed whisper.

Ahn Sahng-Min slowly nodded his head. ‘But, you’re plenty scary enough already…’

He then slowly sat back down on his chair. Jin-Woo revealed himself and settled down right next to him.

‘Right…’

Jin-Woo’s words of not wanting to scare Ahn Sahng-Min sounded about right. His eyes when he said he wanted to ask something, were cold enough to chill the surrounding air.

If Ahn Sahng-Min had to stare into those eyes while listening to Jin-Woo’s words, then he might have experienced what his heart falling to the pit of his stomach felt like.

‘You’re being considerate towards me, is that it?’

Of course, he couldn’t get the thoughts of Jin-Woo being a very scary guy out of his head.

In the meantime, Jin-Woo opened his mouth.

“The reason why I refused Yujin’s offers is simple. I’m not planning to join any Guilds at the moment.”

Two men conversed while staring forward, never locking their eyes once.

“S-so that’s how it was.”

“Also….” Jin-Woo took a second before continuing on. “I don’t want to see the number of people who know about me increase.”

What he wanted here was rather simple.

He didn’t want to join a Guild, and he didn’t want anyone talking about him.

Ahn Sahng-Min quickly understood those points.

However, there was one thing he was still curious about.

“T-then, why are you still being accompanied by Lady Yoo Jinho?”

“She’s helping me out on some personal matters. She’s the only one who knows about my Re-Awakening. Also, I believe she’s a friend that I can trust. That’s why I asked her for a favor. And so….”

Jin-Woo’s voice became heavier still.

“So, if I start hearing things about me, can I assume that it came from you, Chief Ahn Sang-Min, or your subordinate?”

It’d been a while since Jin-Woo stopped grabbing his shoulder, yet Ahn Sahng-Min felt like he was being crushed by the younger man’s words.

‘He’s not putting on airs, either.’

Why did he feel this way?

Ahn Sahng-Min was so sure of the fact that Jin-Woo was fully capable of harming him.

‘My gut instinct when evaluating people is almost always right.’

Jin-Woo survived several devastating, horrifying incidents.

Wasn’t there a saying about burying the matters of the dungeon inside a dungeon? No one knew just what kind of things Jin-Woo did inside those dungeons.

“I-I’ll never talk about this matter ever again. I’ll make sure that Ki-Cheol… No, my subordinate will keep his mouth shut as well.”

“I’ll trust you, Chief Ahn.”

With those words, the presence beside Ahn Sahng-Min disappeared completely. He quickly took a look around.

It was as if Ahn Sahng-Min fell out of a different dimension, since the atmosphere inside the cafe was rather serene.

“Huh…..”

Ahn Sahng-Min remained speechless. He could only pat his pounding chest down.

X

Chapter Text

From 27 to 39. His level had jumped up by 12.

This would be the first time that his level saw such an explosive rise since he entered the Hapjeong instant dungeon back when he was still a level one. He came out of there as level 17.

Back then, his level was low, so the leveling speed was high. But now, that wasn’t strictly true.

This just went to show how many dungeons Jin-Woo cleared in a short space of time.

‘It’s been four days since I started clearing dungeons with Jinho. And we conquered nine of them in only four days….’

Not only that, they were nine C-ranked dungeons, too.

Rank C dungeons were the highest difficulty a freelancer team could clear on their own.

What a crazy clearing speed this was.

Jinho, the only witness to the proceedings, was getting more and more astonished by how fast Jin-Woo was clearing each dungeon.

Well, the higher his level was, the easier it got to clear a dungeon, after all.

Nine dungeons cleared and 12 level ups. Clearing one dungeon was almost as good as leveling up more than once.

And he still had 10 more raids to go.

By the time he finished all 19 raids, as he had agreed with Jinho, his level should shoot past 45.

He won against a rank B Hunter back when his level was in the mid-twenties. He couldn’t even begin to fathom just how strong he was now.

‘My heart… it’s beating really fast.’

Jin-Woo placed his hand on his chest, near his heart. He sensed it pounding real fast in excitement.

Thump, thump!

The sensation of getting stronger every day was one heck of an enjoyable ride.

He would’ve never imagined such a thing happening to him in the past.

….Things like entering the Gates and clearing the dungeons would be this much fun.

‘Well, I can sense myself getting stronger all the time, after all.’

As his level went up…

As his Stat values rose up….

He could directly feel how much he had changed through hunting monsters.

‘Hunting monsters, is it…..’

He felt like a real Hunter now. The word ‘hunting’ no longer sounded like a foreign concept to him.

It was then.

Jin-Woo’s senses picked up on the presence of a person climbing out from the elevator stopping at the end of the hallway, followed by the light footsteps of a female.

He was well familiar with them.

‘It’s Jin-Ah.’

Currently, it was 11 PM. About the time his little sister came home.

Jin-Woo got up from his seat and headed to the door before Jin-Ah could rummage through her pockets to find her keys.

Click.

“Oh~~” Jin-Ah playfully exclaimed out in admiration.

She used to get so surprised every time he opened the door without a warning, but now, she didn’t even pretend to get shocked anymore.

Well, a human was supposed to be a very adaptable creature, and here was the irrefutable proof.

“I’m home~” Jin-Ah greeted him with a bright smile and trotted to her room.

“Welcome back.”

Jin-Woo closed the door and locked it before turning around to hear….

“…Oppa.” Jin-Ah peeked her head out from the doorway to her room. “Do you have free time this week?”

“What’s up?”

“My homeroom teacher is doing one of those parent-teacher meeting things. If you can’t make it, well, it’s fine too.”

Jin-Ah looked kind of anxious, as if her homeroom teacher had ‘asked her nicely’ or some such.

‘The parent-teacher meeting, huh….’

Jin-Ah was already a high-school senior, meaning that school life should be getting pretty hectic right now.

Jin-Woo had half a mind to come up with an excuse and say he didn’t have time to go, but what an unfortunate timing this was, there was this one day where he had nothing scheduled.

‘Looks like Jinho made the decision for me…..’

Jin-Woo deliberated for a while before answering her. “Thursday.”

“Really? Thanks, oppa!” Jin-Ah’s expression brightened up in an instant.

She looked as if she’d run to him for a bear hug, so Jin-Woo hurriedly waved his hands around.

“Che.”

Jin-Ah glared cutely at him and closed the door behind her.

Soon, a soft groan escaped from Jin-Woo’s mouth.

“Fuu….”

From going on raids without a break to visiting the penalty zone, and now, a parent-teacher meeting the day after tomorrow, too.

It seemed that the rest of his week would remain quite busy.

____________

Jin-Woo left home early in the morning.

His schedule for the day was packed, to say the least.

Jinho had booked four Gates for the day, thinking that they should do tomorrow’s quota today instead.

‘Well, if we consider the speed of clearing a dungeon….’

….It’d not be too hard to clear four or five dungeons in a single day.

Of course, it was pretty rare to see that many rank C Gates opening up at the same time in the same district. So, they were rather fortunate today.

X

Lizardmen came out in this dungeon.

As their ‘name’ indicated, they were literally bipedal lizards. They walked on two legs, wielded weapons, and even resorted to flinging around magic attacks, too.

The number of Lizardman Mages was low, though. However, they were rather cumbersome to deal with in return.

For instance…

Two balls of flames erupted near the tips of the Lizardman Mage’s hands.

‘Magic?’

When Jin-Woo tried to get closer, the two Lizardmen protecting the Mage stabbed their spears at him.

Indeed, what quick reflexes befitting reptiles.

Jin-Woo jumped rearward and barely missed the speartips.

Right away, the balls of flame flew at him.

Swish-!

Swooosh!!

“Sung-sama, watch out!!” Jinho cried out from her position a lot of distance away.

Kwaboom!!!

Along with a huge explosion, the narrow cavern-like dungeon shook around noticeably.

The choking smoke filled up the interior of the dungeon.

Cough, cough.

Jinho covered her nose with the back of her wrist and loudly coughed out. However, she was far more worried about Jin-Woo at the moment. The firepower of the Lizardman Mage was that strong.

Fortunately, Jin-Woo rapidly emerged from the smoke completely unscathed, meaning there was no need to worry in the first place.

'As expected of Sung-sama!’ Jinho inwardly exclaimed out in admiration.

Jin-Woo was able to evade the attacks of the Lizardmen, reputedly the hardest monsters to deal with in dungeons ranked C, without getting a single hair disturbed. Not only that, from a Mage, too!

From Jinho’s perspective, it was as if Jin-Woo was getting faster every day. ‘…..I must be imagining things, right?’

X

[Name: Sung Jin-Woo]

[Level: 40]

[Class: None]

Indeed, that would the third column in his Status Window, the ‘Class’. And now, he was given an opportunity to replace that ‘None’ with another word.

He’d be given a Class.

In most video games, a character would receive many benefits after getting a Class. It’d be no different with the System, since it operated almost the same as a game.

Thump, thump.

His heart was beating harder and faster now.

When he realised that he’d be one step closer to the goal of being strong after going through with this quest, he simply could not calm himself down anymore.

[Will you take on the Class Change Quest now?] 

‘Yes’ and ‘No’ continued to flicker in front of his eyes.

‘Of course, I would….’

What kind of an idiot would refuse such an opportunity??

Jin-Woo was about to choose yes and take on the quest to change his Class. However, he stopped almost instinctively.

‘No. Hang on a sec.’

Who knew just what kind of a quest might show up here?

Following right after the notice from his instincts, the warning bells from his brain rang true and clear inside his head.

‘I’m inside a dungeon.’

A dungeon was one of the most dangerous places in the world. Even though he was fully accustomed to the rank C dungeons by now, a dungeon was still a dungeon after all. There was no reason for him to increase the risk even more.

Besides, Jinho was standing next to him as well.

It wasn’t as if he didn’t trust the girl, no. 

Still, he didn’t have any particular reason to let her in on the existence of the System, or explain the weird phenomenon that might occur when he changed his Class.

Things would get too complicated in this way.

‘And also, the content of the quest might end up hurting Jinho, too.’

What if strong monsters suddenly appeared out of thin air?

‘Well, that would be more preferable, actually.’

Because, he’d only have to kill those monsters and that would be the end.

But, a quest asking for something more than that could show up. For instance, something similar to those two emergency quests he had to complete in the past.

‘Yeah, the goal of the quest could be to eliminate the nearest Hunters.’

It was a distinct possibility. Sure, it was nothing but speculation at this point in time, but still.

Possessing an excellent sense of timing, Jinho walked over and called out to him.

“Sung-sama!”

The magic the Lizardman Mage flung about must’ve landed pretty close to her because she was covered from top to bottom in dust.

“Just how did you do that? Disappearing and reappearing again?? Did you have a skill like that before?”

Jinho’s eyes sparkled brightly as she spoke. She looked really pumped up, too. She must’ve found the rare skill ‘Stealth’ really mystifying or some such.

‘Well, I find your appearance far more mystifying, kid.’

Instead of a reply, Jin-Woo pulled out a handkerchief from his inventory. He got this as a reward from the Daily Quest.

“S-Sung-sama?”

Jin-Woo used that cloth to mercilessly rub Jinho’s face.

The previously-white handkerchief was now dyed jet black. Jinho took a look at the fabric and only then realised what the state of her face was like.

She embarrassedly retreated to a corner and carefully wiped her face clean.

“Hey, Jinho?”

“Hm?”

“Something urgent just came up.”

Jinho quickly raised her head. “Are you planning to leave now?”

“After we finish up here.”

“Okay, understood. Then, I’ll cancel our bookings for the remaining Gates.”

Jinho couldn’t show it in front of Jin-Woo, but she was feeling rather pained about the three Gates that had been booked by her.

‘My funds are running out quickly, too.’

Jinho didn’t have any method to earn money, so the allowances she got were basically everything she had. She was doing this without her father’s knowledge, so the amount of cash she could shift around was limited.

If she had to cancel the bookings, then she wouldn’t get refunds on the booking fees she paid in advance. It was the same as her throwing money away.

So, how could she not feel pained about this?

Also, because of this ‘unusual’ method of clearing Gates, she ended up spending more than usual for today’s raids.

But now, she had to throw away her investment, just like that. Jinho’s shoulders couldn’t help but droop real low, almost instinctively.

However, Jin-Woo replied with an unmoved expression.

“Why are you canceling our bookings and wasting money like that?”

Jinho tilted her head. “Pardon? If we don’t enter a Gate within two days of booking it, our permit will be automatically rescinded, Sung-sama.”

Of course, Jin-Woo already knew something like that.

“Leave them to me. I’ll sort them out.”

Did Jin-Woo think of a good way to resolve this?

Jinho was curious, but at the same time, she felt relieved as well.

_______________

‘Why is this coffee so bitter?!’

Jin-Woo frowned deeply.

He was thinking of the vending machine coffee’s taste when ordering a cup of Espresso at the cafe. But hell, rather than calling this coffee, it was much more fitting to label it as a really bitter traditional medicine, instead.

And it cost way too much for what it was.

‘Man, ₩6,000 can buy me several canned coffee, you know….’

He began wondering just how many sticks of sugar he needed to pour into this bitter b*stard in order to make it taste about the same as the canned coffee. But then…

Cling.

The door to the cafe opened, and the duo of Ahn Sahng-Min and Hyun Ki-Cheol rushed inside.

“Over here.” Jin-Woo raised his hand.

“We honestly didn’t expect to see you again so soon.”

Ahn Sahng-Min greeted like so and sat opposite to Jin-Woo, while Hyun Ki-Cheol made a quick greeting with a nod and settled down next to his superior officer.

Jin-Woo also nodded his head lightly as his greeting.

The old saying went ‘make hay while the sun still shines’. So, Ahn Sahng-Min pulled out the contract as soon as settling down.

“For the terms we can offer you, we can negotiate…..”

His ardent desire to get the contract signed quickly was quite easy to see.

Unfortunately for him, Jin-Woo cut him off rather decisively.

“I didn’t come here today to talk about signing with you folks.”

Ahn Sahng-Min’s hands froze in mid-action of pulling out the contract. Hyun Ki-Cheol also looked quite confused as well.

“Well then, what brings you to our White Tiger Guild….?” Ahn Sahng-Min asked in the frozen position as if someone had pressed the pause of the button.

His expectation had been great, and so was the ensuing disappointment.

The biggest find of the year walked into the Guild with his own two feet, but he refused to sign the contract the moment he clapped his eyes on it.

Could he have changed his mind in the meantime?

As the duo’s confusion grew, Jin-Woo calmly spoke to them.

“I came here to help you two.”

“Pardon me?”

“Excuse me?”

The reactions of Ahn Sahng-Min and Hyun Ki-Cheol were roughly the same. Two men exchanged glances before shifting their gaze over to Jin-Woo. In a complete contrast to their flustered state, Jin-Woo remained utterly calm.

“I remember you mentioning your troubles regarding the training of your new recruits because my raid team swept away all the available rank C dungeons in the area.”

“T-that’s correct. Well, we can’t really take the newbies to a high ranked dungeon just because we couldn’t book a rank C Gate, after all.”

“That’s why I’m here today.”

Ahn Sahng-Min tilted his head slightly. “Forgive me, but I can’t seem to….”

Jin-Woo thought this was enough of him beating around the bush, so he got to the main topic.

“I want to sell the raid permits for three of the rank C gates my raid team acquired.”

“Ah.” Hyun Ki-Cheol let off a short gasp.

The two men from the White Tiger Guild finally figured out what Jin-Woo really wanted from them.

_______________

After he got to a far enough distance away from Ahn Sahng-Min and Hyun Ki-Cheol, Jin-Woo gave Jinho a call.

A short bout of poppy music ringtone later….

Jinho’s clearly excited voice came out from the speaker. “Sung-sama, the money came through. It’s really 600 million Won!”

“….”

Jin-Woo quietly smiled in satisfaction.

This transaction was a resounding success.

He managed to sell off raid permits at double the price of what they paid for before they became useless junk. This was a huge profit for them.

“Sung-sama, just what did you do? Where did you manage to sell the rank C Gate permits?” Jinho asked him in a mystified voice.

“That’s my trade secret.”

“E-Eh??”

“Enjoy your break, and see you in two days’ time.”

While Jinho was getting flustered on the other side, Jin-Woo simply ended the call.

Click.

X

Later, on the same day.

The Second Division’s office.

Hyun Ki-Cheol was urgently seeking out Ahn Sahng-Min. “Chief! Chief!!”

“What’s wrong?”

Ahn Sahng-Min tore his eyes away from his computer monitor. Hyun Ki-Cheol pointed to his phone’s screen with an urgent expression on his face.

“You gotta take a look at this, Chief!”

“What’s going on now?”

Ahn Sahng-Min looked at the screen, and his eyes narrowed to a slit.

‘Isn’t this…..?’

The screen showed the section of the Hunter Association’s website that only the Hunters had access to.

To be more precise, the screen showed the page that notified everyone of where the reported Gates were located at, as well as allowing anyone to buy the raid permits for those Gates.

“What’s this?! Why are there so many rank C dungeons in our district?!”

“Not only that, each one is going for less than 10 million Won at the moment, as well!”

“No way…..”

Ahn Sahng-Min realised that something was terribly awry here.

“….Yoo Jinho's team hasn’t booked a single Gate for tomorrow.”

Hearing Hyun Ki-Cheol’s words, Ahn Sahng-Min immediately recalled what Seong Jin-Woo told him over the phone.

[“I have some free time on Thursday.”]

And tomorrow was Thursday. Yoo Jinho's team had no plans to go on a raid tomorrow. He didn’t even know that and bought those permits at a huge premium.

“Ahah…" An amused chuckle leaked out from Ahn Sahng-Min’s mouth.

There were enough hints, but it was too late by the time he had pieced them together. This was his mistake. Well, he did succeed in cooling the anger of the CEO in the end, so it wasn’t all bad.

“Looks like we’ve been had, Chief.”

It was then that a text message arrived in Ahn Sahng-Min’s phone.

Ding-dong.

It was from Seong Jin-Woo.

[With this, we’re even now. I will consider your people spying on me as something that never happened.]

‘I can’t take this fellow lightly, can I?’ Ahn Sahng-Min inwardly chuckled.

If the sole sticking point between Jin-Woo and the White Tiger could be resolved in this manner, as implied by the youth, then this wouldn’t necessarily be a bad trade for the Guild at the end of the day.

Their final aim was to scout Jin-Woo, after all.

Besides, the amount they spent today wasn’t all that much, anyway.

“Let’s think of it as us investing in Sung Jin-Woo.”

It’d be nice if they were able to earn back as much as they have invested, though.

Ahn Sahng-Min stopped looking at his phone and, with a smile on his face, closed the mailbox.

________________

Jin-Woo slept until late in the day. But, that couldn’t be helped. By the time he got back home, the sun had risen up pretty high already.

Ring~ ring~

Jin-Woo’s sweet slumber was eventually disrupted by the ringtone from his smartphone. His hand fumbled around near his head and with some difficulty, located his phone.

“H-Hello?” His voice cracked up from his dry throat.

“…. Oppa, you were still asleep?? You know what time it is?” Jin-Ah’s shocked voice came out from the speaker.

So, he asked her back. “Okay, what time is it now?”

“It’s two in the afternoon!”

“Eh?! What?”

He glanced at the time on the phone’s screen with half-open eyes. She was telling the truth.

“…..Oppa, you haven’t forgotten that you’re supposed to come to my school today, have you?” Her voice sounded anxious.

Jin-Woo finally raised his upper body, albeit very slowly. “What time should I get there at the latest?”

“Before five!”

“I won’t be late, so don’t worry.”

“As expected of my orabeo-nim! When you’re near the school, gimme a call first, okay?”

(orabeo-nim = a higher form of honorific than ‘oppa’.)

Jin-Ah switched on her charm attack and ended the call soon afterward.

Scratch, scratch….

Jin-Woo scratched his unkempt hair for a bit before slowly getting up from the bed. He didn’t have a lot of time left if he were to get ready.

‘Well, I’m going to meet my sister’s homeroom teacher after all.’

Not only that, this teacher would be in charge of her third year in high school, one of the most important periods in a person’s life.

‘So, I can’t just wear whatever now, right?’

He opened the closet and rummaged through the clothes in there. However, he was greeted by a rather dusty, moldy odor.

Of course, it was not something pleasant to smell at all.

Jin-Woo’s frown deepened.

He continued to dig around, but all he could find was an old business suit he wore once during his own high school graduation.

‘Will it even fit me now?’

He was hoping against hoping but well, as expected – the clothes were too snug and he couldn’t even move his arms.

‘Yup, my body has grown much bigger lately.’

Putting on the old clothes painted a stark picture of his current reality.

The suit was nearly bursting at the seams, literally.

….What should he do now?

Jin-Woo was pondering what to do, but then he spotted the bank book that Jinho gave him a day before.

It was for the account filled with the proceeds from selling off all those magic crystals.

He alternated his gaze between his nearly-torn clothes and the bank book with its new stamp still sealed together before a smile formed on his lips.

‘Been a while, but should I go on a shopping spree, then?’

Before that, though, there was this small thing he had to confirm first.

Actually, it was a bit bigger than that, but still.

Jin-Woo took off the old business suit and, while sitting on the edge of the bed, summoned his Status Window.

‘Stats.’

With that, a long board full of letters and numbers appeared before his eyes.

Tti-ring.

[Name: Sung Jin-Woo]

[Level: 51]

[Class: Shadow Sovereign]

[Title: Slaughterer of Wolves (extra 1)]

[HP: 11035]

[MP: 1022]

[Tiredness: 0]

[Stats]

.........

..........

........

“Haha.…”

Jin-Woo could only chuckle wryly as his Status Window seemed to go on forever and ever.

‘It was only a short while ago that there was nothing on this section over here.’

Indeed, there had been a time like that once. But now, just from looking at his skills and equipped items, his head grew fuzzy.

Even then, his class still managed to snag his attention for sure.

[Class: Shadow Sovereign]

This column used to be ‘None’ only yesterday.

To be honest, he was kind of bothered by that word whenever he had to look at his status window. The reason for that was, naturally, the word that came before that ‘None’ being his ‘Class’.

If a Hunter was not participating in a raid, he’d be no different than a jobless bum. That’s what most others would think, anyway.

But then, he had to keep looking at the ‘No job’ in the Status Window where his Stat values were recorded, so how could he not feel bothered by it? 

They said that once you got shocked by a turtle, you’d keep getting frightened by the pot lids; whenever he took a look at his Class column in the past, he couldn’t help but feel a bit frustrated.

He knew that it didn’t really mean his job status, but he still felt quite bothered by it. However, from today onwards, he didn’t have to mind such things anymore.

“Hahaha!”

Jin-Woo chuckled out uncontrollably.

‘Yup, this must be what they call an inferiority complex, isn’t it?’

If he made lots of money like other Hunters, he wouldn’t have really cared about what others thought of his life outside of raiding dungeons.

But he couldn’t do that.

He couldn’t confidently reveal his status as a Hunter to anyone. Because he was a measly rank E who could barely protect his own life, that was why.

‘I’m a rank E Hunter.’

Whenever he said those words….

Anyone with some knowledge of Hunters would always say that he was doing something very difficult for everyone’s sakes, but they would start mocking him when his back was turned.

That was why he ended up minding it even more than necessary.

But now, he was the possessor of a really cool job – no, a really special trait. His job still remained as a Hunter, of course.

If he were to describe it, then…. well, it’d be more correct to say that he now possessed a special trait of ‘Shadow Sovereign’.

‘Although this wasn’t the career path I was looking for….’

But, he had no regrets. No, rather than regrets, he was completely and utterly satisfied by how things had turned out.

If this wasn’t his room, he’d have summoned Igris and the other soldiers right away. He really wanted to confirm the combat capabilities of his summons with his own eyes.

What if these guys were able to display 100% of their combat prowess while they were still alive?

‘I’m sure that won’t be the case, though.’

Still, just imagining it made his heart race.

Thump, thump…

Jin-Woo felt his heart beating roughly as he ran several simulations of future raids in his head.

Suddenly, he became really curious about how Jinho would react.

Smirk.

When Jin-Woo imagined seeing Jinho’s round, stunned eyes and her slack jaw falling to the floor, a chuckle automatically leaked out of his mouth.

‘Wait, now that I think about it….’

If he could transform any dead lifeforms into his soldiers, and if the targets weren’t restricted to only monsters, then….

‘Does that mean I can extract shadows from the dead Hunters, too?’

It was quite obvious, but he didn’t want to picture such a situation since he was talking about another human being here.

An undead soldier, emerging from the shadow of a dead person after hearing his call….

Just thinking about it gave him chills.

Even then… even still….

‘What if I extract the shadow of an A or an S rank Hunter?’

The combat potential of the resulting shadow soldier would simply be out of this world.

Even if a shadow soldier could only exhibit 50% of its original strength, it’d be eminently possible to solo high-ranked dungeons, as long as he had his shadows to back him up.

His beating heart picked up its pace really quick.

Thump, thump, thump!!

Still, Jin-Woo shook his head.

‘Even if that’s the case, turning a person into an undead is a bit…’

….Now that was something only a villain would do.

His combat potential might improve that way, but he didn’t want to go that far. Unless a really evil b*stard showed up that was worthy of such a treatment, he’d definitely not go down that route.

‘However, it’s not like opportunities to fight other dirty Hunters would come around every day, right?’

And, even if he did find that elusive opportunity, there would be many hurdles to overcome first. Well, a human wasn’t a monster, to begin with, after all.

Indeed.

For the time being, he had to be satisfied with the current soldiers.

‘Besides, I have Igris and he used to be a boss, so that’s something.’

The level 7 knight-grade shadow soldier.

Just how good would its abilities be?

Jin-Woo couldn’t wait for the next raid.

X

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo closed the Status Window. With that done, he pretty much had confirmed every change that occurred to him.

‘Wait a sec. What’s the time now?’

While he was doing his thing, 20 minutes had flown by. Jin-Woo scratched the side of his head.

‘I guess I should hurry up, huh.’ The corners of Jin-Woo’s lips arched up.

The power of his enhanced Stats didn’t prove to be effective only when fighting against monsters.

When he concentrated, time slowed down. To be more precise, it was Jin-Woo who had gotten quicker, however.

He opened the door and left his room.

He entered the bathroom and took a quick shower.

He swiftly wiped the water off of him.

He put on whatever clothing he could find and stood before the mirror.

All this, and he only needed three minutes.

He could’ve moved faster, but he figured that this old, decrepit apartment would fall apart if he did.

‘My hair hasn’t completely dried out yet, but….’

The end result was him saving over 20 minutes, so there was no need to rush now.

Time to leave, then.

Jin-Woo was about to step out of his room but discovered something and stopped in his tracks. He found the key for the apartment. It was sitting on top of his desk.

In the past, he’d have felt a bit lazy and unwilling but still turned back to grab the key; however, he simply extended his hand instead of walking over there.

‘I mean, if I don’t use it in times like this, just when will I ever get to use this skill?’

The Ruler’s Reach!

The key crept forward bit by bit before flying into his open palm as if a strong magnet was reeling it in.

Grab!

Jin-Woo snatched the key and grinned refreshingly.

Having gotten ready to leave in the proverbial blink of an eye, Jin-Woo closed the door to his room, a whistle escaping from his lips.

__________________

Jin-Woo’s first stop was at the bank.

He was wondering just how much cash from the sales of the magic crystals had accumulated in his new bank account.

‘I couldn’t come earlier because I’ve been so busy until now.’

As the raid team leader, Jinho was in charge of managing the magic crystals.

From what she told Jin-Woo, she had been selling all the magic crystals at the end of each day and deposited every single cent into this account.

She didn’t mention in detail how much the money would be, though.

‘That Jinho. She reports to me every little thing that happens, but she doesn’t really mention much about money issues.’

Was it because she wasn’t really interested all that much? Perhaps because she grew up lacking nothing, Jinho’s interests were quite far removed from the matters involving money.

No, they tended to be along the lines of celebrity gossip, stories of raids, songs, or movies she liked – those kinds of things.

Even if it was nominally a conversation, it’d be Jinho who yapped on and on all by herself, though. And, Jin-Woo would simply listen quietly on the side and provide appropriate responses every now and then.

‘Ah, now that I think about it…’

A chatterbox girl like her also didn’t say anything about her family situation until now.

Now, that was pretty strange.

Jin-Woo combed through his memories starting from when they met for the first time, but he couldn’t remember a single instance of her mentioning her family.

While thinking that it was pretty bizarre, he had arrived at the bank.

‘Well now, that’s some crappy timing, isn’t it?’

All of the ATMs were currently under maintenance.

He was left with little choice, so Jin-Woo walked inside the bank branch.

He got his number in the queue and waited for his turn before eventually sitting down in front of a bank teller.

“Hello there.”

A female teller with a bob-cut hair reaching just below her ears and a refreshing smile asked him politely, “How may I be of service today?”

“I’d like to see the amount currently in the bank account, please.”

“I understand.”

With a smile, the female teller took the bank book Jin-Woo presented to her.

While waiting for her to do her thing, Jin-Woo scanned the inside of the bank. It was a normal Thursday afternoon, yet there were quite a large number of people inside.

As he continued to look at the crowd, the female teller got to confirm the amount resting in Jin-Woo’s account, and her eyes shot open super-wide.

'Huhh!!'

[Remaining amount: ₩1,482,920,000]

She checked the number of digits again, but without a doubt, it started from a billion.

Not only that, he hadn’t even accumulated this amount over a long period of time.

For the past week or so, the records showed that over 100 million Won had been deposited every single day.

‘He looks so young, so how could he?’

The female teller initially took Jin-Woo as a university student who came to the local bank to get the bank book newly printed on because his mother asked him to. But, her expression had changed quite a bit now.

“Oh, m-my... May I ask, what you do for a living?” The female teller asked him, her voice containing just a sliver of ulterior motive.

Perhaps she herself was embarrassed by her own ulterior motive. The female bank teller’s cheeks blushed softly as she cautiously studied Jin-Woo’s reactions.

“I’m a Hunter.” Jin-Woo replied as if it was nothing.

“Ah…..” The female teller slowly nodded her head almost instinctively.

The popular rumor she heard was indeed true.

‘I heard that Hunters made lots of money, but….’

But to think, it’d be on this level….

All of a sudden, her life as a normal working-class employee came across as rather pathetic.

Only until a minute ago, this man was a regular customer, just like everyone else. But now, Jin-Woo looked like a person from another galaxy altogether.

‘He must be a pretty high ranked Hunter, right?’

This amount wasn’t something an average Hunter with average skills could ever hope to touch.

This would be her first time meeting a truly high-ranked Hunter, then.

The unexpectedness of this situation caused her heart to palpitate just a bit faster.

Thump, thump….

Her heart was indeed beating a bit quicker now.

A young customer possessing well over a billion Won in cash would certainly be a VIP in the eyes of the bank. And well, that customer was a Hunter, so he should be treated as a VVIP instead.

And so, in order to ensure that this VVIP wouldn’t slip through the bank’s fingers, the female employee began advertising several of the bank’s financial products.

“Our bank has launched brand new products and services especially catered for VIP customers such as yourself.”

Her smile was no longer the business one, but a real one, too. The female bank teller’s gaze was now firmly fixed on Jin-Woo.

‘Oh, my. He’s….’

Seeing his current appearance, the one where he must have thrown on some clothes lying around, and that slightly disheveled hair, her heart began beating faster than ever before.

She realised that he must’ve been a very busy man who managed to find some free time to stop by the bank today.

“This product has proven really popular with our customers lately, so how about taking a closer look at the benefits it offers, sir?”

Too bad for her, Jin-Woo refused right away.

“No, thank you. I’m fine.”

“Ah…. is that so?” The female bank teller’s voice was thickly laden with regrets over missed chances.

Sensing that this chat might get drawn out if he said something wrong here, Jin-Woo quickly took the bank book and stood up from the seat.

“Thank you for your help. Have a nice day.”

He made his quick getaway from the bank as the hot stares from the female bank teller continued to bear down on his back.

As soon as the bank’s door closed behind him…

“Fuu….”

Jin-Woo spat out a sigh of relief.

He picked up on the change in the bank teller’s expression the moment he revealed his job as a Hunter.

Attentions of strangers and their interests.

It would probably be something normal for other hunters, but it was still something new to Jin-Woo.

‘Well, I better get used to it now.’

The attention on him would get even worse than this once he’s gone through with the re-assignment test and gets a super-high rank.

He heard that there were quite a few reporters and fans following around particular Hunters as well.

He raised his head slightly and saw a large electronic billboard displaying a cold drink advert featuring a famous Hunter, attached to the side of a skyscraper.

Before Gates appeared in the world, one would’ve found top sports stars or popular idols occupying that position.

That’s right.

This was the age where a Hunter would be at the receiving end of more attention and adulation than a celebrity. Even Jin-Woo wouldn’t be an exception now.

The only people who didn’t like hunters nowadays were probably employees of various insurance companies.

‘Besides all that.’

Only after he made his escape from the bank did he get to confirm the amount in the account.

And his eyes grew real wide afterwards.

‘1.48 billion….?!’

The total amount of money he earned after participating in nine raids was almost 1.5 billion Won. Meaning, each rank C dungeon netted him almost 160 million Won.

He got around 180 million from the dungeon he raided with Hwang Dong-Seok and Co. So, the average amount per rank C Gate he got was somewhere between 150 and 200 million each raid.

‘Yup, that’s why that bank teller was so shocked, wasn’t it….’

Now that he was done confirming his financial status….

Jin-Woo splurged on a nice-looking business suit at a department store.

He still found himself with more than enough free time, so he stopped by a hair salon nearby and got a much-needed haircut as well.

“Hmm.”

He had transformed into someone completely different compared to when leaving the apartment.

‘This is why having money is way better than not having any.’

And they said that good clothes would become one’s wings, too

Jin-Woo stopped by the front of a shop’s window on the street and checked out his reflection for a bit before shrugging his shoulders.

His preparation was as perfect as it could get.

‘I’m sure I won’t leave behind a bad first impression.’

He adjusted his clothes for a bit before confirming the time through his phone.

It said 16:20.

‘I’m supposed to get there before five, right?’

If he got going now, he should arrive on time.

“Taxi!”

______________

Jin-Woo grabbed a taxi and arrived in front of Jin-Ah’s school, with enough time to spare.

And as luck would have it, he spotted Jin-Ah standing by the school’s front gate.

“Sung Jin-Ah-!”

Discovering her older brother belatedly, she gasped out in pure shock. “OPPA??”

Jin-Ah’s eyes became extra round like a rabbit’s as she asked cautiously. “Are…. are you really Mister Sung Jin-Woo?”

“Can’t you recognise your own brother?!”

Jin-Ah swept her gaze all over Jin-Woo with a stunned expression still etched on her face, her voice naturally rising higher.

“It’s because you’ve changed so much, you know!”

“What, so you wanted me to show up in my tracksuit and slippers when meeting your new homeroom teacher?”

“Wow….” Jin-Ah still couldn’t close her slack jaw.

“Hey, your chin might fall off at this rate. Anyways, I’m going ahead. Okay?”

Since his sister didn’t show any sign of guiding the way, Jin-Woo simply took the lead.

Five years ago, Jin-Woo, too, was a student in this very school. He already knew its layout like the back of his hand.

Now, normally, if teachers want to speak to the parents, then the meeting place will either be the staff room or at the counseling office. But today’s matter involved Jin-Ah’s future career path, so he should head to the counseling office.

And so, Jin-Woo’s steps quickened.

“O-Oppa! Wait for me!” Jin-Ah hurriedly ran after her older brother.

“Hello there, teacher-nim.”

“Yes? Oh, uh, hello to you too.”

While on his way, Jin-Woo greeted several teachers he ran into. All of them stopped in their tracks without exception and took a look behind them at the departing back of Jin-Woo.

‘Who was that?’

‘Is he a graduate from this school? But, there’s no way I’d have forgotten about such an eye-catching student like that.’

‘Is he a new teacher?’

It wasn’t only the teachers who were looking at him, though.

“Wow, he’s good-looking, isn’t he?”

“Who is he?”

“Wait, isn’t that Jin-Ah next to him?”

“He must be Jin-Ah’s oppa. Wow, he’s pretty cool.”

A well-built frame and a stylish business suit – although his facial features were on the plain side, the synergy between those two points was powerful enough to attract the attention of the female students.

Too bad, the guy in question wasn’t interested at all, though.

‘…….’

Jin-Woo simply let the girls’ whisperings slip in one ear and slide right out the other.

The one to get really psyched up was Jin-Ah, actually.

She perked her ears up and listened to the assessment of her brother coming from the surroundings in a fit of happy giggles.

She then sneaked closer to Jin-Woo’s side and lightly poked him on his waist with her elbow.

“Hiya~, oppa, you’re proving to be really popular today, wouldn’t you agree?”

He ignored this.

“Wait, now that I think about it, oppa, you still haven’t found a girlfriend yet, right?”

He also ignored this one.

“Should I, your trusty little sister, introduce you to a cute high school girl?”

And with that, Jin-Woo began pinching her cheeks with an emotionless face. “Shut upp.”

“I’m… I’m sowwy….”

Jin-Woo eventually released her cheeks.

Jin-Ah rubbed her reddened cheeks and pouted unhappily. “Che. I know you also like the attention, though….”

Walking while lightly bickering amongst each other, they had arrived at the destination already.

Jin-Ah ran past Jin-Woo and spun around in front of the counseling office. “Oppa, we’re here.”

Just before entering the office, Jin-Woo looked at his sister. She wasn’t budging from her spot.

“What about you?”

“Today’s the teacher and parents only. I’m going back to my class as soon as you go inside.”

“Oh.”

Listening to Jin-Ah, he remembered something similar happening back when he was still a high-school senior. Back then, no one came, though.

‘It was around the time when it got harder and harder for mom to move around, right?’

His mother began to frequent the hospital right around then.

He feared that she might push herself too hard, so he didn’t tell her about the teacher-parent meeting. And he got to suffer from his homeroom teacher’s lectures for quite a while because of that.

When recalling those moments, he could understand the reason for Jin-Ah being so anxious today.

Jin-Woo smiled gently and asked her. “You having the night class today as well?”

“Oppa, don’t wait for me and go home first.”

“Okay.”

Jin-Woo sneak attacked her and rubbed her hair all out of shape.

“Study hard, okay? I’ll see you later.”

“Ah! Stop it!”

“See you later at home.” Jin-Woo grinned and disappeared into the counseling office.

Jin-Ah’s cheeks puffed up as she smoothed her hair. “Still treating me like a little kid….”

Of course, she didn’t display any hint of disliking that.

Maybe someone saw the whole thing?

Jin-Ah quickly scanned her surroundings and confirmed that there was no one around her. She sighed in relief and trotted away to her class.

______________

At the same time.

The private residence of Yu Myung-Hwan, the owner of Yujin Construction.

From early in the morning, countless expensive luxury vehicles continued to stream in.

There was only one reason for that.

It was for the ancestral rites ceremony for the first president of the Yujin Group, Yu Byung-Cheol, to be held later in the evening.

Yu Myung-Hwan was the number one in Korea’s financial sector. And Yu Byung-Cheol was his father.

The eldest son, Yu Myung-Hwan, made sure to perform the ceremony every single year, no matter how busy he was.

And what with his influence being so great, every single relative found in the Yu family register had to gather in this place without fail.

CEO of XX Investment.

Chairman of XX Pharmaceuticals.

CEO of XX department store.

Every single guest happened to be a heavy hitter. And their children all happened to be the elites of the elite, too.

With the sole exception of one.

And that exception had excused herself to the quiet and far removed corner of the proceedings, even though no one asked her to.

And she was none other than Yu Jinho.

Wearing an outfit that could pay a few years' rent for an average person.

‘I’m bored.’

She wished that time would move faster.

Going around raiding dungeons with her ‘Sung-sama ’ was a hundred times, a thousand times more enjoyable than this.

'What would Sung-sama be doing right about now?'

Now that she thought about it for a second, she couldn’t even begin to imagine just what would Jin-Woo do during his off days.

And so… while thinking about useless stuff in a corner, out of everyone’s gazes and throwing back blameless refreshments all the time….

….She heard a voice she didn’t particularly want to hear today.

“Oii.”

Well, sure enough.

A perfect model of how an upper-class elite of society should behave was standing behind Jinho.

Anyone could see that he was utterly capable of pretty much anything, too.

A pair of expensive glasses; a tall, manly physique.

He was none other than Jinho’s older brother, Jin-Seong.

The heir apparent who’d inherit Yujin Construction after Yu Myung-Hwan decides to step down in the future.

Jin-Seong walked real close to Jinho and looked down on his younger sister.

“Relatives have come, so you should be out there greeting them. How long are you planning to act like a little kid?”

“….Whatever.”

“Do remember that your childish actions only paint our father’s reputation with dishonor.”

Jin-Seong’s tone of voice did not contain a single trace of brotherly affection.

No, it was rather openly dismissive.

Of course, Jinho didn’t like her older brother, but still, she lacked any courage to retort back here.

“...….”

It couldn’t be helped, really.

Jin-Seong was a genius among geniuses who managed to stand on the top of every subject he took on back in school. And it wasn’t just his excellent grades, either.

After graduating from school, he helped Yu Myung-Hwan in various business ventures and achieved incredible success in everything he touched.

Compared to him, Jinho didn’t have anything to show for. 

Whenever her older brother stood next to her, Jinho naturally grew small and insignificant.

“....…”

“Still as pathetic as you can get. Tsk, tsk.”

Jin-Seong frowned deeply while staring at Jinho’s lowered head before changing his expression and walking away in hurried steps.

“Uncle!”

“Oh, Jin-Seong, is that you?”

Only after Jin-Seong had gone away did Jinho raise her head back up.

This was one of the reasons why she didn’t want to come home.

Only if there was no stupid ancestral rites ceremony thing….

Jinho spat out a lengthy groan, and that was when she heard a sexy but also rather sharp voice coming from right behind her.

“What a jerk. Sucks the fun out of this place, that guy.”

Jinho looked behind her.

And she found her cousin, Soo-Hyun, standing there.

“Did you hear what he just said? What a total jerk-face.” Soo-Hyun approached closer before Jinho could react and lightly tapped her on the shoulder.

Soo-Hyun’s forehead creased up rather prettily. “Look at you. C’mon now. Seriously? Tsk, tsk. Still so pathetic. Tsk, tsk.”

Jinho couldn’t suppress her laughter after seeing Soo-Hyun imitate her older brother.

“Hehehe...S-Stop that. I don’t feel like cracking jokes with you right now, you know.”

“Still so~~ pathetic. Tsk, tsk.”

“Hmhehe….enough...”

Their ages were almost the same, so their relationship was more like that of really close friends.

Soo-Hyun stood right in front of Jinho. “Why do you keep acting like this, though?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, c’mon. You’re an Awakened now, right? Don’t tell me, you still can’t win against a regular person?”

“So what if I am? Do you think I’m gonna start throwing punches at my older brother or something?”

“Well, not really, no. But….” Soo-Hyun bit on her rather shapely lower lip.

Imagining the kind of punishment the patriarch of the family might saddle the poor Jinho with, if the latter did throw a knuckle sandwich to her much more successful older brother….

The prospect of that alone was quite terrifying, to say the least.

It wasn’t as if she didn’t understand Jinho’s inner thoughts while she had to remain on the receiving end of the ridicule.

Soo-Hyun narrowed her eyes and glared in the direction that Jin-Seong had disappeared to. “Whatever. He’s still a stuck-up, no fun jerkoff, that guy.”

She, too, disliked Jin-Seong as much as Jinho did. She just so happened to be one of the few people who knew what Jin-Seong’s real personality was like, hidden beneath that fakey, smiley facade.

However, Jinho didn’t agree with her. It wasn’t because that guy was her older brother, no.

No, she simply wanted to win against her older brother in an upfront manner, not badmouth him from behind like this.

When Jinho kept her mouth shut, Soo-Hyun cautiously asked her. “Hey, so… that plan, is it still ongoing?”

“Mm?”

“You know, you said you’d become a Guild Master. At that guy’s expense.”

Instead of a reply, Jinho simply smiled.

Who’d believe her even if she said that out loud? It’d be a relief if no one mocked her or something.

Her and her brother battling like that?

However, now that she held the huge ace called ‘Sung-sama ’, the odds of her victory had risen up by quite a lot.

‘If I manage to get the Master licence….’

It’d be possible to duke it out with her older brother, then.

She might even win.

Soo-Hyun saw the determination burning in Jinho’s eyes and spoke in no uncertain terms while placing her hands on her hips.

“I’d rather kill myself instead of working for that man. So, you do everything you can, okay? Cuz I don’t wanna fight your old man over this.”

“….Thanks.”

This was how Soo-Hyun would usually cheer Jinho on.

She was actually a rank A Hunter who started her career as a famous child actor.

Even with her background of being a lady or a chaebol was not taken into account, many Guilds still tried their darnedest to scout her because of her rank and fame.

For some reason, though, she had refused all of their offers and continued to act as a model every now and then.

However, a new offer that she couldn’t really refuse had arrived at her doorstep recently.

And that was to become one of the founding members of the soon-to-launch Yujin Guild. It was a direct order from the chairman himself, Yu Myung-Hwan.

She couldn’t outright ignore the orders of the family patriarch, but she also didn’t want to work for Jin-Seong, either.

Soo-Hyun herself had a lot to worry about now.

Although the kid was not all that trustworthy, she had little choice but to place her faith in Jinho.

Brrrr…. Brrr….

Hearing the sound of a phone vibrating coming from Jinho’s handbag, Soo-Hyun asked her. “Aren’t you going to answer that?”

“…Oh.”

She was daydreaming about something else just then; she hurriedly pulled her phone out after it had been ringing for a while. The number appearing on the phone’s screen was a familiar one.

[Sung-sama❤️]

Jinho’s expression brightened up immediately after realising who it was.

“Hello, Sung-sama~!” She answered the call with an energetic voice.

“Yes? Yes, Sung-sama. No, I can be there, no problem. Yes. I’ll be there shortly.”

Jinho ended the call there.

Soo-Hyun displayed her interest after sensing Jinho’s moods doing a 180.

“What the heck? Who was that?”

Too bad for her, this was absolutely not the time for Jinho to stand around leisurely explaining the situation to her.

After all, didn’t Jin-Woo ask her for a favor just now?

And with the desire to escape from this place added on top, Jinho's mind could only think about leaving as soon as possible, even if it was only a second faster.

“Let’s talk later!”

Watching Jinho hurriedly run away, Soo-Hyun’s head tilted from side to side.

“And why is she so pumped up like that now?”

Every time Jinho participated in a family meeting of some sort, she always walked around with slumped shoulders, but it was a different story today.

“….How odd.”

Soo-Hyun told herself to definitely interrogate the kid later.

While that was happening, Jinho was searching for her father.

It’d soon be dinner time. And Jinho couldn’t be excused from the family gathering without her father’s approval, especially when every single family member and relatives were present.

Jinho scanned her surroundings. And eventually, spotted her father over in the distance, conversing with some people.

He had a countenance of a tiger. His personality was just as strict, him never cracking a smile with matters he thought were insignificant.

For someone like Jinho, her father was a very difficult person to talk to.

‘And I haven’t even started yet….’

Yet, she was already getting nervous. But, she needed to be courageous here.

‘Yeah, well. I made a promise.’

Jinho took a couple of deep breaths and slowly walked to where her father was.

She almost turned around several times on her way, though. However, she held the urges back.

And finally, Jinho managed to arrive before her father, Yu Myung-Hwan.

“Father….?”

Their distance was a bit too far for a relationship between a father and a daughter, though.

Yu Myung-Hwan shifted his gaze over to Jinho. “What’s the matter?”

Sensing the uncertain air, the people around Yu Myung-Hwan distanced themselves all at the same time as if they had a prior agreement.

“Father, will it be okay if I went out for a little while?” Jinho’s voice lacked any discernible energy as she spoke to her father.

“I, I will return before dinner.”

“…..”

Yu Myung-Hwan stood there with an expression of someone getting ready to scold his disappointing daughter, but then, he let off a sigh and gave his permission, albeit quite unwillingly so.

“…..Fine. Go, but return on time.”

Jinho’s expression brightened and bowed her head. "Thank you, Father!"

She then ran out of there like a streak of lightning.

Yu Myung-Hwan stood there and looked at the back of Jinho with a stiff face. Meanwhile, his wife walked closer to him.

“Dear? I just got a call from Vienna.”

That was one of the messages he’d been eagerly waiting for. Yu Myung-Hwan immediately shifted his attention over to his wife.

“And the results of the concours are?”

“She won, of course. She’s our daughter, so it’s expected, really.”

A subtle smile formed on Yu Myung-Hwan’s face. But it disappeared without a trace before anyone had the chance to see it.

“Hmm. When will she be returning to Korea, then?”

“She says that she’s far too busy during the semester but will come around once it ends.”

Yu Myung-Hwan frowned deeply.

“I told her to attend her grandfather’s ancestral ceremony regardless of how busy she was.”

“Dear. Children nowadays don’t place much importance on such matters anymore.”

“Tsk, tsk.”

The madam of the Yu family carefully fixed Yu Myung-Hwan’s slightly out of shape tie and spoke to him intimately.

“Also, dear…. how about paying more attention to Jinho?”

“You’re speaking about that again… A tiger is supposed to rear tiger cubs, not kittens.”

“Whether she’s a tiger or a kitten, she’s still my child. And your child, too.”

“Hmm…..”

“Did you notice? After her graduation from middle school, it was Jinho’s first time smiling in front of you.”

Did she do that?

Yu Myung-Hwan fixed his gaze in the direction Jinho had disappeared to, his expression showing just the slightest hint of puzzlement.

But that lasted only for a brief second.

Yu Myung-Hwan spoke dismissively. “Maybe she found herself a boyfriend. Anyway, others must be waiting for us now. Let us go back inside.”

X

Chapter Text

The private residence of the Chief of the White Tiger Guild’s Second Division, Ahn Sahng-Min.

He stopped cutting the spring onion and straightened his back, and his bones issued a loud complaint.

Suddenly, his phone issued a loud ring.

‘Argh! Who the heck is it this time??’

Ahn Sahng-Min inwardly complained and picked up the smartphone.

But he hurriedly answered the phone after discovering who was calling him.

“Hello, this is Ahn Sahng-Min speaking.”

The one calling him was, of course, Sung Jin-Woo.

Ahn Sahng-Min’s expression was bright as he answered the call.

However…

While listening to Jin-Woo’s story, Ahn Sahng-Min’s expression progressively became puzzled.

“Pardon me? You were wondering if you could tag along during the training of our new recruits?”

________________

‘It’s done.’

Jin-Woo ended the call.

Initially, Chief Ahn Sahng-Min was confused by the sudden request, but once he heard Jin-Woo’s reasons, he gave his okay rather easily.

And now, Jin-Woo would be able to check out White Tiger’s method of training their new recruits.

‘And I also managed to borrow the van, too.’

Even though the girl was busy, Jinho still showed up.

Jin-Woo couldn’t help but think that the kid should be praised wholeheartedly; Jinho came running even though she was tied up with something and didn’t even forget to greet him properly, too.

And so, the preparations were complete.

Right now, Jin-Woo was standing in front of the apartment building that the problematic female student lived in.

‘It’s really close to my own place, isn’t it?’

It only took two minutes of walking to get here. It was the proverbial stone’s throw away.

Jin-Woo took a look around his vicinity. And he was still in the familiar district, too tiny and cramped, with lots of old apartment buildings standing close to one another.

Meaning, this girl’s family circumstances weren’t that good, just how his used to be not too long ago.

He could understand where she was coming from now that she was nominally a Hunter. Well, Jin-Woo was also like that once upon a time.

‘Too bad, those people die the quickest.’

Didn’t he get injured every single time?

Just how many times did he come close to getting killed? If it weren’t for his mom suffering from the d*mn rare illness, he’d have quit this crap a long time ago.

For a rank E Hunter, a dungeon was a horrible place to be in.

If left alone, this girl would definitely grow to regret ever being a Hunter.

No, it’d be more likely that she’d die long before she had the chance to regret making that decision.

‘Of course, that happens all the time, unfortunately.’

The incidents of Hunters dying or getting gravely injured happened dozens of times in a single day, after all.

It was impossible to talk all these people out of going on a raid, nor was there any reason to do so. Well, they made their choices, so they had to bear the responsibilities of their decisions accordingly.

‘However….’

If he didn’t know the girl in question, he wouldn’t have cared.

But now that he knew who she was, he couldn’t just ignore this one.

Indeed, Jin-Woo was rather familiar with this girl.

He sensed the presence of a person and raised his head, and spotted the problem child walking towards him.

Her hair rolled up into a bun above her head; slightly rough and tired eyes – she was definitely someone he knew.

“Uh?” The female student discovered Jin-Woo there and tilted her head. “What's going on here?”

Just as Jin-Woo did, the female student also recognised him right away.

‘Yup, this world is indeed too dang small.’

Jin-Woo scratched the side of his head.

The female student who declared that she’d become a Hunter; she was none other than the underage kid, the lone female in the ‘raiding team’ Jinho had assembled. The one that briefly caused Jin-Woo to worry slightly since she was still so young and all.

______________

There was no need to persuade her to accompany him to a dungeon.

She said “Okay, I’m coming!” As soon as he told her that she now had an indelible opportunity to witness how the White Tiger Guild conducted its new recruit training exercise.

She didn’t even suspect that Jin-Woo had any ulterior motives.

As they walked to the van, Hahn Song-Yi asked him how he knew her teacher, and he simply showed her the photo of him and Jin-Ah stored on the phone.

“Mister, you were Jin-Ah’s oppa??”

“..….”

“Get in.”

“Thanks!”

Jin-Woo drove Hahn Song-Yi to the location where the White Tiger Guild was holding its evening training. Since he was told that the training exercise would only commence at 9 PM, there was still plenty of time left.

Vrroom….

The van that was clearly too big for only two people glided across the road.

Was this because both his Agility and Perception had been enhanced a great deal? He had never driven a car after getting his driver’s license some time ago, yet the actual driving proved to be rather easy.

When he concentrated a bit harder, all the other cars on the road looked as slow as worms to him.

‘Yup, Stats really come in handy in all sorts of things, don’t they?’

Meanwhile, Hahn Song-Yi asked him from the passenger seat.

“Does Jin-Ah really study the whole day even back home? I mean, I heard rumours that she actually plastered pages of a dictionary on her walls so she can memorise them even when she falls asleep.”

There was a such a rumor about Jin-Ah?

But, she was such a fried chicken-loving sleepyhead when she was at home….

“Jin-Ah’s just like you, you know. When she’s home, all she does is play games, eat, and sleep.”

Well, it was mostly sleeping, but still.

“Eii…. That must be a lie. How come her grades are so amazing, then?”

“I can hardly believe it myself. She used to frequent arcades with me back when she was still in middle school, you know?”

They chatted about this and that, and eventually arrived near the vicinity of the Gate. Jin-Woo stopped the van.

_______________

It was now 3 AM.

The facial expressions of four men waiting around the Red Gate were, as expected, not so good.

Unable to endure any longer, Hyun Ki-Cheol finally opened his mouth.

“Guild Master, we’ll remain here and wait, so how about going home first, sir?”

“My Guild members are trapped in there, so how can I even think about going home to relax now?”

Baek Yun-Ho was resolute in his decision. Indeed, that wasn’t something the leader of a large Guild, not to mention as a currently-active rank S Hunter, should entertain under this sort of situation.

It was here that Ahn Sahng-Min’s eyes widened. “Huh? Look, the Red Gate!!”

Hyun Ki-Cheol and Joo Sung-Chan also discovered an oddity with the Red Gate.

“The, the Red Gate is opening up!!”

“The dungeon’s been cleared!”

“There are… there are people coming out!!”

Baek Yun-Ho clenched his fists tightly. ‘That Kim Cheol!! Did he manage to pull it off?’

Everyone waiting there hurriedly rushed towards the front of the Gate.

Baek Yun-Ho, unable to hide his excitement, began searching for the leader of this team, Kim Cheol.

However…. even though all of the survivors came out, the big guy couldn’t be seen.

‘Uh? Huh? This can’t be right.’

“Excuse me. Wait.”

Slap!

Jin-Woo fiercely shook off that hand.

Baek Yun-Ho’s eyes sharpened immediately. “We need to talk for a second here.”

Jin-Woo turned around. “I’m too tired. If you have questions, you should ask your own Guild members.”

Baek Yun-Ho couldn’t hold back and revealed his identity. “I’m Baek Yun-Ho, the Guild Master of the White Tiger.”

Jin-Woo’s eyes remained cold, however. “So what?”

Being on the receiving end of Jin-Woo cold response, Beak Yun-Ho’s eyes suddenly transformed to that of a monster’s.

No, they completely resembled a beast now, instead.

“We lost nine Guild members through this incident. As the Master, I have the right to ask you a couple of questions regarding this matter.”

This was no longer a request.

It was an order.

Or, even a threat.

Didn’t matter what anyone thought of his words, he was not planning to let Jin-Woo go that easily here.

But then, Jin-Wo, too, angrily glared back.

He was not being cowered by the intense hostile aura oozing out in full force from the rank S Hunter, Baek Yun-Ho.

“I rescued three of your people. If you’re really their leader, shouldn’t you be saying thanks to me first?”

It was Baek Yun-Ho who had to withdraw his threatening aura first, as he was bombarded with this incredible pressure emanating from Jin-Woo.

Besides that, what he said was logical, as well. Baek Yun-Ho couldn’t argue against the point raised.

“….I apologise.” Baek Yun-Ho lowered his head.

Seeing this, Jin-Woo turned around once more to leave.

“Hahn Song-Yi, let’s get going.”

“O-Okay.”

Hahn Song-Yi carefully studied the mood of this place and followed after Jin-Woo. The two of them got on the van and not too long after, left the location.

_______________

On the way home.

Vroom….

Jin-Woo was busy licking his lips in unhappiness as he drove the van.

‘Tsk….’

Was it because the gap between his Stat values and the extraction target’s were too great? What a disappointment it was, but his extraction attempts ended in failure.

‘What a waste, but there’s nothing I can do now.’

He’d still be able to kill a boss from a high-ranking dungeon in the future. What’s important now was to quickly raise his skill levels high enough so that he’d not miss out on another chance.

Leveling up. Now, that was something Jin-Woo excelled in.

While he was mulling over the things that happened inside the Red Gate, they had arrived before Hahn Song-Yi’s home.

Screech.

She had been sitting in the passenger seat without saying a word as if she wasn’t even there in the first place.

As soon as the van came to a stop, she climbed out of the seat and bowed her head. “Drive safely.”

“I will. Good night.”

Hahn Song-Yi turned around to leave.

Seeing her slumped shoulders and powerless gait, it seemed that the original goal of this trip had been met, one way or the other.

‘Well, although things did get a lot complicated, I was trying to change her mind anyway….’

It was rather likely that she wouldn’t try to become a Hunter in the future.

It’d be the same story for anybody if their first dungeon experience just so happened to be a Red Gate.

He nodded his head in satisfaction and was about to start the van again, but then, the passenger side door was abruptly opened from the outside.

‘……?’

Jin-Woo shifted his gaze. Hahn Song-Yi had returned to the van and was holding on to the door.

‘What’s the matter with her?’

His curiosity only lasted for a little while.

Hahn Song-Yi bowed her head deeply again, this time looking much calmer than before. “Thank you for everything, oppa.”

He only now realised that, from some time ago, the honorific she used to address him changed from ‘mister’ to ‘oppa’.

“Uh, sure thing. Don’t mention it.”

“Uhm, excuse me….”

“Mm?”

“Tomorrow…. No, see you later.”

Later?

Before he could ask her for clarification, Hahn Song-Yi hurriedly ran away.

After her back disappeared from his view did he realised what she was talking about.

‘Aha.’

From today onwards, he’d be teaming up with Jinho again to mop up the rest of the raids. Hahn Song-Yi was a raid team member, so of course, they’d see each other again later on.

‘Ah, so she meant that, huh.’

What a relief that was, though.

His plan would’ve been affected pretty badly if Hahn Song-Yi refused to come out of her house because of the trauma from this incident.

‘This worked out for the best.’

And now, he would use his shadow soldiers to clear out the rank C dungeons even faster than before. He felt utterly confident of clearing up the remaining raids in the shortest time possible.

Also, he couldn’t wait to see how Jinho would react after witnessing his shadow soldiers in action, too.

Jin-Woo chuckled softly and leisurely turned the steering wheel.

______________

The next morning.

“Yawn~.”

Jin-Woo yawned grandly as he stepped out of the apartment’s foyer. He only closed his eyes for a bit, but damm, it was time to meet up with Jinho already.

“Sung-sama, good morning~!”

He heard the familiar energetic voice greeting him. Jinho was already here, waiting.

“You don’t even have a car, so how did you get here?”

The raid team’s favorite ride, ‘Mister Van’ had been commandeered by Jin-Woo last night and was currently parked neatly in the apartment’s parking lot nearby.

“I caught a taxi, Sung-sama.”

“Ah, a taxi.”

And here he was, thinking of going to fetch the kid instead….

“Oh no, it’s fine, Sung-sama. I’m the one asking for your help, so it’s only right that I’m the one driving you around, at least.” Jinho grinned happily and replied.

This morning started like any other.

However….

“Uh?” Jinho discovered something new.

And that was a cylindrical something held in Jin-Woo’s hand.

Yu Jin-Ho’s curiosity peeked in an instant. “Sung-sama, what is that?”

“Ah, this?” Jin-Woo grinned mysteriously. “I’m going to use it inside the dungeon today.”

“Heok!”

Suddenly, the chill invaded Jinho’s back.

‘Is it a weapon he’s going to use inside the dungeon?’

'Sung-sama had already displayed many extraordinary things before; just what kind of a horrifying weapon was he bringing to a dungeon today, then?'

Jinho was getting pretty psyched up already.

Gulp.

Jinho swallowed her dry saliva and raised her head after finally settling her mind.

“Sung-sama, let’s get going.”

“Hold on.”

Jin-Woo pulled out his phone and dialed someone.

“There’s someone we should take along, as well.”

“Excuse me? Who?”

“Hey, Song-Yi. It’s me. Meet us at the parking lot. We’ll go to the Gate together.”

'Song-Yi…. Could it be that Song-Yi?'

As soon as Jin-Woo ended the call, Jinho asked him. “Sung-sama, the person you want to take with us, is she that high-schooler in our team?”

Jin-Woo nodded his head.

Hahn Song-Yi lived near here, and their destination was the same, so there wasn’t any reason to go there separately. Now, was there?

Unfortunately, Jinho didn’t see it that way...

'Hahn Song-Yi….'

The rather-cute high school girl with her hair tied up in a bun.

‘He already knows her number and can talk to her in such a friendly manner, too…. Could Sung-sama and her have formed a much deeper relationship than meets the eye?’

'For sure, Sung-sama he's a cool and handsome guy...'

‘Especially when he uses nothing but a dagger to totally rip apart a monster….’

'I mean... how could anyone not fall for a man like that...Ahh!! n-no--wait---nahh, I am, of course, speaking generally!....'

'And g-generally... it’d not be a strange thing for an impressionable school girl to fall for a man like that.'

Jinho's face resembled a ripe tomato.

Her thoughts raced.

'G-Generally speaking... that high school girl is trying to steal my Sung-sama!! g-generally.. he is my Sung-sama.'

'A-anyway, does that mean I'll soon have to call her Miss Hahn sister-in-law¿¿'

'N-No! Over my dead body!! I'll never share my Sung-sama with her! I--I----mean, he's my Sung-sama.... g-generally!!'

It seemed that the girl had already lost the meaning of 'in general'.

"Please, Sung-sama! don't make me call Miss Hahn my sister-in-law!! It already hurts enough knowing you have a girlfriend.....You don't need to add salt to my wounds!"Jinho impulsively blurted out.

‘….Did this kid fall off the bed and hit her head or something?...’

Jin-Woo’s crumpled expression was implicitly implying that. Even if Jinho was not too quick on the uptake, she should still be able to figure that one out pretty easily.

"What nonsense are you talking about now? She's a friend of my little sister."

Jinho's eyes widened as her imagination shattered.

With a dumbfounded expression, she inquired, "HUH?? You two aren't... dating?..."

Jin-Woo sighed, and Jinho's face lit up with realization.

"Oh.OHHH..." The girl exclaimed.

Jinho then let out a sigh and said, "What a relief..."

Jin-Woo couldn't help but exclaim, "Hm?"

Jinho flinched, realizing she had voiced her thoughts out loud once again. Her face turned scarlet with embarrassment.

She then scratched the back of her head, and laughed it off, "O-oh, n---nothing! hahaha..."

So, that’s what happened. Jinho finally understood the situation. She didn’t even know what was going on, yet she was already afraid about that girl turning into her sister-in-law….

Her face reddened up considerably.

Soon enough, Hahn Song-Yi came to the parking lot.

Not only that, she was noticeably better dressed than how she was usually.

Seeing this, Jinho grinned slightly. ‘Yup, she’s definitely a teen girl, wanting to look nice in front of the brother of her friend and all.’

As the leader of the raid team, she was thinking of praising the fellow raid team member’s choice of wardrobe, but then, Jin-Woo greeted her first.

“Did you get some sleep?”

In that instant, Jinho’s expression froze stiff.

‘…….’

Hahn Song-Yi smiled and shook her head. “I couldn’t catch a wink.”

“I’m sure you’re still exhausted, so get some rest in the van.”

Listening to the two young people’s conversation, the thought process of Jinho became more and more messed up.

‘Uh? Uhhh?? w--what..w--what!!!’

Hahn Song-Yi asked Jin-Woo this time. “What about you, oppa? Did you get some sleep?”

“Well, only for a little bit. It was already 4 AM by the time I got back home, anyway.”

“Well, true that….”

Night?

Couldn’t catch a wink?

Still exhausted?

4 AM by the time he got back home????

Just as Jinho’s panicked state was morphing into a full-blown freak-out, Jin-Woo stopped walking towards the van and looked back at her.

“What are you doing, Jinho?”

“Uhm….. Well, uh, Sung-sama?”

“…..?”

“Well, the thing is…. Miss Hahn Song-Yi is still a minor, Sung-sama.”

“Okay. And?”

Hearing his nonchalant response, Jinho felt as if she was breaking apart inside, despite putting on a forced smile.

She silently wondered, 'Please....don't tell me... Sung-sama... don't tell me that the type of girls he likes are HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS!!'

Her body seemed to move on its own, propelling her to the driver's seat while she remained in a dazed state, muttering under her breath, "Sung-sama...high school girl...type.."

Jin-Woo observed her with a dumbfounded expression, contemplating, "What's wrong with her today?..."

???

________________

Chapter Text

[You have entered a dungeon.]

As soon as he stepped foot inside the dungeon, Jin-Woo took in a deep breath.

‘Hmm.’

After being ‘confined’ to an open-field type dungeon for a few days, the air inside the cavern-type dungeon felt new and refreshing.

Jinho followed him into the dungeon soon afterward. “Sung-sama, I wonder just what kind of monsters would come out in this dungeon.”

“Yeah, me too.”

‘I can sense their presence close by, though.’

Indeed, they were quite close, but they couldn’t spot any.

But, when Jin-Woo took one step forward…

The floor of the cave began rising up here, there, and everywhere.

Crumble…

Rumble….

Humanoid monsters with skins made out of rocks appeared. Jinho quickly recalled their name.

“Sung-sama, it’s the Stonemen.”

Jin-Woo nodded his head.

These b*stards were known to possess the toughest exterior out of all the monsters that appeared within lower ranked dungeons. Common sense was to use magic when one was to hunt down a Stoneman, but….

“Hold this for me, will ya?”

Jin-Woo entrusted the cylindrical vinyl package to Jinho and walked towards the monsters.

‘Heok!!’

Jinho flinched grandly, thinking that the content was a weapon, but nothing particularly noteworthy happened.

‘It wasn’t a weapon?’

Meanwhile, Jin-Woo stood before the Stonemen and summoned both the ‘Baruka’s dagger’ and ‘Knight Killer’.

Slice!

In the blink of an eye, the head of the Stoneman in front of the pack rolled to the ground.

Jin-Woo looked at the ‘Baruka’s dagger’ and smiled in satisfaction.

‘It’s pretty good.’

Then, suddenly, the smiling Jin-Woo disappeared from the spot.

Tab.

Just as Jin-Woo reappeared past the group of the Stonemen, all ten-plus of them collapsed to the ground.

Rumble – crash!

‘My body has gotten a step lighter and faster after the Red Gate thing, hasn’t it?’

But, of course, it would have.

His current level was 60. His level had risen up by nine from 51 after killing all those Ice Bears and White Phantoms. And now, the rank C monsters felt like those Goblins from the rank E dungeon to him.

‘At this rate, I don’t even need to use my weapons.’

Now that he had warmed up nicely….

‘Should I increase the hunting speed, then?’

Time to summon his shadow soldiers.

With excellent timing, another group of Stonemen was slowly lumbering towards his position from the deeper part of the cave.

‘Arise.’

As soon as he issued an order, the soldiers confined to Jin-Woo’s shadow rapidly revealed themselves behind him.

And sure enough, there was a loud scream accompanying that, too.

“Uwaaaak!!”

Oopsie.

Jin-Woo facepalmed and turned around.

‘I forgot she was here with me.’

He got way too excited and completely forgot about Jinho for a moment there.

“S-Sun-g-Sung-sama!!”

While being absolutely terrified, Jinho pointed her trembling finger at the shadow soldiers standing right in front of her.

“W-w-what are these??”

“It’s a bit complicated to explain… Well, it’s my skill.”

“Y-You, you can summon these things as your, your s-skill?”

Jin-Woo nodded his head.

Jinho’s jaw remained slack and didn’t want to close.

“Ahh…”

She and Jin-Woo had entered dungeons together eleven times already. Jinho thought that she wouldn’t get shocked anymore, but she was proven wrong once more.

Gulp.

Jinho laboriously swallowed her saliva as her eyes took on the black-armoured soldiers emitting a blood-chilling aura.

Meanwhile, Jin-Woo shifted his gaze away. The lumbering Stonemen had already arrived near their vicinity.

Jin-Woo pointed at them with his chin.

“Go.”

As if they were waiting for that, the soldiers silently rushed forward.

Rumble!!

The floor of the cave shook hard as the forty-odd armoured soldiers all ran at the same time. For sure, with the addition of Iron and the beast soldiers, the overall weight of the group had increased by a lot.

‘It’s like I’m looking at a fleet of tanks, isn’t it?’

Jin-Woo formed a very satisfied expression.

What with the shadow soldiers sweeping through everything, the dungeon got cleared in the proverbial blink of an eye.

The only things remaining on the floor were the scattered and broken bits of Stonemen that resembled cookies made out of dirt.

A rank C dungeon was destroyed in no time at all, in other words.

“Hoh…”

Jin-Woo exclaimed in admiration.

‘At this rate, we might get to mop up the rest of the raids pretty quickly, no?’

It seemed that the remaining eight raids would not take that long to finish up.

As soon as the battle ended, the shadow soldiers retrieved the magic crystals and stood before Jin-Woo in orderly columns. Igris and Iron stood in front of them.

The two knights stepped to the front and knelt down.

Once the soldiers stopped moving, Jinho finally sneaked in closer to Jin-Woo’s side.

“Sung-sama, here….”

She returned the mystery vinyl package back to Jin-Woo.

Jin-Woo wordlessly took out the tumbler contained with the vinyl pack and began sucking on the straw.

“Sung-sama, what is that?”

“It’s veggie juice.”

“Oh….”

“I kinda like its taste, actually.”

Slurp, slurp….

After he almost completely drained the tumbler, Jin-Woo asked Jinho.

“Hey, Jinho. How many Gates did you book today?”

The girl was in the middle of cautiously reaching out to touch the fur of one of the beast soldiers, but she quickly pulled her hand back and turned back to Jin-Woo.

“Four Gates, Sung-sama.”

With four today, only five would remain. He didn’t see any reason to waste any more time on this.

“In that case, let’s finish up everything by tomorrow. It doesn’t matter if a Gate is a bit far away, anyway.”

“T-Tomorrow?”

Inexplicably, Jinho took a look around her. Seeing all the broken wreckage of Stonemen littering the floor, she couldn’t help but slowly nod her head.

‘For sure, with this kind of speed….’

“Understood, Sung-sama. By the way….”

Jinho hesitated slightly before opening her mouth with some difficulty.

“Can, can I be the one to retrieve the magic stones?”

“….Why?”

“I’m kinda upset... because it feels like my role’s been stolen by these guys, Sung-sama!"

Jin-Woo burst out into a soft chuckle.

'She really is amusing.' He thought.

And a day later….

Jin-Woo finished the 19 raids he had promised Jinho.

______________

“Sung-sama, now that the raids are over, how about we... celebrate with a hearty meal?”

As they were driving back home, Jinho cautiously asked.

“Celebrate? But, there’s no one with us, though?”

The raid team was disbanded as soon as the last raid was completed.

Even Hahn Song-Yi said that she had someplace she had to stop by, so there were only Jin-Woo and Jinho in the van.

“I’ve been receiving your help all this time, Sung-sama, so like, I just wanted to treat you to a good meal, at least.” Jinho spoke as if she was embarrassed by something.

Why was she having so much trouble saying the words “Let’s have a meal together”?

Jin-Woo chuckled wryly.

Since the girl was implying that she wanted to splurge on a grand feast, there was no reason for Jin-Woo to refuse the invitation, now was there?

“Alright.”

Jinho’s expression brightened considerably as soon as Jin-Woo said okay.

“Sung-sama! Should I take you to this restaurant in a certain hotel that I know? They know how to make a mean steak, you see.”

“No, not something like that.”

Unless such dishes came out in public engagements he simply had to attend, Jin-Woo would rather prefer to eat a simpler meal in peace with Jinho in an easy-going, relaxed atmosphere.

What a good timing it was, since he spotted one such place that fit the criteria.

The tip of Jin-Woo’s pointing finger pressed on the van’s window. “How about that place over there?”

“Ahh, you wanted to enjoy ‘han-wu’, Sung-sama?”

(han-wu – Korean beef. Much more expensive than imported beef.)

“No, the place next to that one.”

Jinho’s eyes narrowed to a slit.

A restaurant next to that one…. She could only see a common diner there.

[Day of Flower Blooming on Pork Belly – thinly-sliced pork belly specialists]

“By any chance, are you talking about that pork belly place, Sung-sama?”

“What, you don’t like pork?”

Jinho grinned refreshingly. “Not at all. I also love pork belly, Sung-sama.”

They parked the van in the nearby parking lot and went inside the diner, only to find the place was packed to the brim with patrons, as well as part-time workers busy moving around without a moment of rest.

Right now, it was seven in the evening. No wonder the diner was so full.

“Welcome. How may I help you?”

One of the part-time workers walked over with a smile and engaged the two hunters.

“How many customers will we be serving this evening?”

“Us two.”

“Please follow me.”

After hearing Jinho’s answer, the part-time worker guided the two hunters to a spot in a secluded corner.

However…

“Hold on for a second.”

Jinho took a look around and pointed towards the empty table by the windows. “Can’t we sit over there?”

“I’m sorry, Miss. That table has been booked already….”

A large group must’ve made a booking, because several tables had been brought together. Currently, they were all empty.

Jinho stared at the empty tables with a rueful expression and shook her head. In the end, the two of them had to occupy the most secluded, out of the way spot in the diner.

Jinho lowered her head in shame. “I’m sorry, Sung-sama.”

“There’s nothing for you to apologise for. I was the one who suggested that we come here, anyway.”

“Even still, I should’ve taken you to a bit better spot than this one.”

Jin-Woo smirked and lightly patted Jinho on the head. “Don’t sweat over such things and enjoy the food, kay?”

Actually, Jin-Woo was inwardly worried about a scion of a chaebol finding the taste of such cheap meat to her liking or not.

*(chaebol=rich business family.)*

‘Also, even though I didn’t say anything, but well….’ Jin-Woo scanned his surroundings.

He could see people, and then, more people.

He spent quite a lot of his time in a silent apartment with no one in it, so he kind of enjoyed this hustle and bustle.

“Here are your orders of three portions of pork belly and two bottles of soju.”

Soon, the part-time worker brought out their orders.

Sizzle—

The thinly-sliced portions of pork sizzled enticingly on the heating plate. And sure enough, pieces of meat began disappearing real fast. Fortunately enough, Jinho seemed to like it.

“Well, the thing is, me and my friends frequent pork belly diners whenever we have the chance, Sung-sama.”

“Oh, really? Friends from the university?”

“Yeah. It’s just that I seem to mix better with friends from my university rather than the classmates from the expensive private schools I went to.”

Jin-Woo smirked slightly and nodded his head. If it was Jinho, then that sounded about right.

“Here, let me pour you a glass, Sung-sama.”

“Yeah, you too.”

Gulp, gulp, gulp.

They filled their glasses with soju, clinked them a little, and one-shotted them.

“Kyaha.”

Unlike Jinho, who was immensely enjoying the bitter taste of soju, Jin-Woo could only frown deeply in unhappiness.

“Mm? Sung-sama, is something wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing….”

Jin-Woo could only stare at the empty glass with a bitter expression on his face. He had forgotten one crucial fact about his body, what with him being so busy lately and all.

Tti-ring.

[Harmful substances have been detected.]

[Effects of ‘Buff: Detox’ will now commence.]

[3, 2, 1…. Detoxification has been completed.]

‘I forgot that I can’t get drunk anymore. D*mn….’

It was the same story regardless of how many glasses he knocked back.

Tti-ring, tti-ring, tti-ring…..

As long as the buff ‘Good health and Long Life’ was in effect, soju would remain as only slightly bitter-tasting water and nothing more. 

"......."

Rather than drinking bitter water like an idiot, Jin-Woo decided that it’d be infinitely better to order a soda instead.

“Excuse me.”

A part-time worker hurriedly came over to their table.

“I want to order two more portions of pork belly, as well as a bottle of Sprite, please.”

“Okay, please wait for a moment.”

After the waiter left, Jinho began tilting her head. “Sung-sama? Why didn’t you order more alcohol?”

“I’m not that good with alcohol, you see.”

Jin-Woo replied, his expression not even changing slightly, but as usual, Jinho didn’t quite catch that. Instead, a loose smile crept up on her alcohol-tinged reddened face.

‘Sung-sama still has a humane side, like this one….’

Jinho kept on giving him a strange but meaningful look, but Jin-Woo simply ignored her outright.

‘It’s not as if she started acting strange all of a sudden just today or anything….’

Actually, he was getting curious about something else here.

“What are you planning to do from now on?”

When Jin-Woo asked in a serious voice, Jinho sat upright like a job seeker waiting for her job interview to start.

“As soon as I complete a simple written test at the Hunter’s Association, they should issue my Guild Master license right away, Sung-sama. I’m planning to negotiate with my father with that license in hand.”

Determination flooded in Jinho’s eyes. She had invested a lot of her own moolah for this purpose, and there was no room to retreat now.

‘Besides, I also made a promise with Sung-sama, too.’

The Guild building she promised to Jin-Woo.

That part of the bargain could be upheld only after Jinho successfully persuades her father, Yu Myung-Hwan, to install her as the new Guild Master.

On the other hand, Jin-Woo was feeling rather liberated.

‘Sure, it’d be nice to get my hands on that 30 billion Won building.’

But well, that would only be an added bonus to him.

His real purpose had always been leveling up. While entering all those rank C Gates, he had reached a far higher level than he initially bargained for.

In other words, he had achieved his goal.

And the results of his frantic leveling up spree?

One punch from him, and the rank A Hunter with a guaranteed annual salary of billions of Won, Kim Cheol, lost his consciousness. Just like that.

‘At the bare minimum, I can make more money than that guy now.’

If one possessed excellent abilities, wealth was sure to follow. There was no need to feel nervous at all. And, his relaxed mindset could clearly be seen on his demeanor.

Jin-Woo began reminiscing about the last few days and smiled to himself.

It was at this moment that Jinho asked him a question.

“What are your own plans now, Sung-sama?”

“Oh, me?”

'Did I ask something that I shouldn’t?' Jinho thought like this.

But she soon realized that was for nothing after spotting Jin-Woo’s relaxed expression.

“I’ll be out of reach for a while, actually. There’s this place I have to go to, you see.”

That one sentence caused Jinho’s face to harden visibly.

After forming an expression of an abandoned puppy, Jinho emptied the soju glass in one go.

Tap.

She then placed the empty glass on the table, filling it up back to the brim. After knocking back another glass, she began to open her mouth with some difficulty.

“S-Sung-sama... Please tell me straight if I’ve been bothering you. If that’s been the case... I shall make sure never to bother you again in the future.”

‘This idiot….’

The moment Jin-Woo said that he’d be out of reach, this idiot must’ve misunderstood his words AGAIN. 

Jin-Woo scratched the side of his head and asked a question instead of a proper reply.

“Hey, Jinho.”

“Yes, Sung-sama?”

“What do you think of me as?”

Jinho, with a dazed and drunken look, was surprised by the sudden question. 

She looked down to find her words, feeling dizzy and struggling to provide an answer. 

After a brief moment, she began to reveal, "Sung-sama, I have a brother who’s over ten years older than me."

Jin-Woo remembered hearing that from somewhere.

The firstborn son of Yu Myung-Hwan, Jin-Seong.

"I also have an older sister." Jinho continued, her voice tinged with vulnerability. "She's pretty.. and successful, naturally." She let out a pitiful chuckle at the end. 

"All my life.... I've felt like I've lived in the shadows of my older siblings. They were always superior to me... in academics, in business, in basically... everything."

"I've always felt as if my existence was merely to make them shine even brighter in the eyes of everyone else. It's as if I were just a pitiful flower, merely a decorative ornament."

Jinho's voice wavered as she recounted her family dynamics.

"My brother doesn't particularly care for me." She revealed.

"As for my sister, I'm uncertain... probably not either. I can't even remember the last time she bothered to call me. She's studying abroad, you see."

Jin-Woo nodded.

"As for my parents, well, they aren't much better. I'm the youngest in my family, so nobody expects anything big from me. Honestly, they don’t expect anything from me at all."

Jinho continued, her words carrying a hint of hurt. 

"It's always felt like my sole function in this performance called family is to not interfere with the success of my older siblings. I'm just the flower decoration, meant to be used when they need me, and discarded when I'm no longer useful."

Jin-Woo's eyes sharpened and irritation washed over him. 

"I've always felt that way. Well... until I met you." Jinho confessed, her voice filled with vulnerability.

Jin-Woo's expression showed genuine surprise at her words.

Jinho's eyes softened as she remembered their shared moments. 

"You made me feel, for the first time in my life, that I wasn't a pitiful flower merely used for decoration, but a genuine flower. One that could grow... bloom, and become.... truly beautiful."

Jin-Woo, noticing a tear fall silently from Jinho's eyes, couldn't help but gently exclaim, "J-Jinho..."

Jinho raised her head, meeting his eyes with a teary, soft expression. "So, to answer your question, to me, Sung-sama... is my precious friend. My greatest inspiration... My.. my source of pride and joy." 

Jinho's voice was filled with tenderness as she spoke with a gentle, loving tone. 

"To me, Sung-sama..." She confessed, "Is the person I long to cherish with all my heart."

She was still a bit scared of Jin-Woo, though.

Still, she’d never, ever forget these past few days following around Jin-Woo for the rest of her life. Indeed, her admiration was far greater than fear of Jin-Woo at this point.

“If you see me in that way, then….”

Jin-Woo smiled deeply.

“I’ll think of you as my precious friend as well.”

“Sun.... Sung-sama….”

The tip of Jinho’s nose reddened, and she began to get more teary-eyed all of a sudden.

If that was all, it’d have been fine, but then, she tried to get closer to Jin-Woo out of nowhere.

“Sung-sama! I want to give you a big hug! It’s fine, right?”

“Hey, hey!! You’re drunk!! Stop it!”

“N-No, that’s not true! Sung-sama, I’ve never been more sober in my life! Sung-sama~”

“Say that with your eyes open, will ya?!”

“Waaaail~~!”

Either she was far too moved by her emotions, or she just was a bad drunk, Jinho collapsed over the table and began crying her eyes out, prompting Jin-Woo to pat her on the head.

Soon enough, Jinho fell asleep, and the table had quietened down now.

“Hah-ah… what a helpless kid….”

Jin-Woo leaned back on his seat and lightly clicked his tongue.

Jinho.

She was a troublesome girl in many ways, but for some reason, Jin-Woo didn’t find her dislikeable at all.

"Next up on the bulletin."

Jin-Woo heard that voice and shifted his gaze over to its source.

A TV mounted on the wall of the diner was showing a news bulletin.

‘Is it nine in the evening already?’

He thought like that and stared the screen, only to spot someone rather familiar appearing there.

‘Huh?’ Jin-Woo’s eyes widened.

It was none other than Baek Yun-Ho, and he was being bombarded with an unending stream of questions from the reporters as he exited from the White Tiger’s headquarters.

“Is it true that there was a huge incident during the training of your new recruits?”

“Is it also true that only the lower ranked Hunters returned alive while all the higher ranked ones had perished?”

“What do you think about the rumor of a mystery person allegedly aiding the survivors during this incident?”

Baek Yun-Ho was doing his best to ignore the reporters, but in the end, he had no choice but to respond.

“This incident has been investigated by the Association already. It was true that there was an incident, but there was no mystery helper at the scene. No, the White Tiger Guild’s proud Hunters combined their powers and managed to clear the upper-rank dungeon. And, many Hunters lost their lives or got injured during the process. That is all.”

Another reporter quickly fired in a follow-up question.

“If that’s the case, why are you forbidding us from interviewing the survivors?”

“Those folks managed to avoid death’s doorstep by a hair’s breadth. So, why do you wish to speak to those people regarding this deeply traumatic event? That’s as far as I’m prepared to answer you people.”

Baek Yun-Ho made a quick getaway from there after climbing into a car.

Jin-Woo’s eyes remained wide-open. ‘They were talking about me, right?’

The TV was still talking about the Red Gate incident.

Jin-Woo scratched the back of his head. ‘This thing is getting out of hand.’

Still, he didn’t feel all that troubled. It was like, he felt a bit weird, instead?

He found it rather odd that some people who didn’t even know anything him were trying their darnedest to find more about him. Especially when he wasn’t even there….

But, what if they find out about him?

Didn’t matter, really.

‘Well, I’ve already leveled up to the point I was aiming for, anyway.’

The reason why he decided to keep his abilities hidden in the beginning was that he had a lingering fear that he might end up being used by some unscrupulous b*stards.

But now, the story was different.

Even when the Guild Master of the White Tiger, as well as a rank S Hunter, Baek Yun-Ho had grabbed his arm, Jin-Woo could yank his arm free without a problem.

He wouldn’t have even dreamed of achieving such a feat in the past.

‘Surely, I’d have wet myself just from meeting eyes with that man.’

An imperceptible smile formed on Jin-Woo’s lips. In times like this, he should’ve been enjoying the drunken bliss, with reminiscence serving as the perfect side dish, but then….

Tti-ring.

[Harmful substances have been detected.]

[Effects of ‘Buff: Detox’ will now commence.]

[3, 2, 1…. Detoxification has been completed.]

What a regretful thing it was. His wish couldn’t be granted.

Jin-Woo smiled rather ruefully. But, his facial expression became serious and determined, more than ever before, as he put the soju glass down.

‘I don’t have any plans to stop here, though.’

Jin-Woo summoned his status window.

Tti-ring.

[Name: Seong Jin-Woo]

[Level: 61]

[Class: Shadow Sovereign]

.........

.........

His level was 61.

Thanks to investing all of the points he earned via Daily Quests in Intelligence, that stat was getting ever closer to the ‘100’ mark.

‘I’ve got a long road ahead of me, though….’

But, he knew he could climb even higher. To an even higher place.

To a place that possibly no one else could get to. That possibility made his heart palpitate.

And the beginning of this climb would be at the Demon’s Castle.

‘The system definitely said that’s the one item I wanted more than anything else.’

He recalled the time he got the blessed random box.

[Blessed random box]

Presents the player with the item he wants.

And he got the key to the instant dungeon, Demon’s Castle, from it.

The monster he ran into had a high level, and the rewards were top-notch, too. He had confirmed these two facts before exiting from there.

He had no idea what might come out on the higher floors, but it’d not deviate too much.

And so, it was now the time to go and reap his rewards. He was planning to enter there and spend a good few days inside.

Jin-Woo’s only worry was…

‘Once I’m inside, I won’t be able to contact the outside.’

What should he tell his little sister, then?

Deciding to come up with a suitable excuse on his way back home, Jin-Woo got up from his seat.

Tap, tap.

“Hey, Jinho.”

Tap, tap.

“Yoo Jinho.”

“Slurrrp~.”

Jin-Woo shook and lightly tapped Jinho, but the girl had completely blacked out.

What should he do now?

‘And she’s supposed to go to the Association tomorrow to take the written test, too….’

Well, taking a test was one thing, but the most urgent thing to worry about right now was sending her home safely from here.

Jin-Woo pulled out Jinho’s phone.

“Obviously, I can’t call either the Chairman Yu Myung-Hwan or Jin-Seong….”

Just who should he call here that would inflict the least amount of harm on Jinho?

Jin-Woo pondered his choices before spotting a name on the contact list.

‘Soo-Hyun?’

Unlike with her father or her older brother, Jinho had exchanged quite a few messages with this person.

It had to be a woman, judging from the name….

Jin-Woo deliberated for a while on whether to call this woman or not before putting the phone down.

Jin-Woo sighed heavily. "It's too risky." He spoke his thoughts aloud. 

Deciding on a course of action, Jin-Woo took Jinho's bag, returned her phone, and slung it over his shoulder. 

Then, in one swift motion, he carefully lifted her into a bride's embrace, gently cradling her in his arms.

As they made their way out of the common diner, Jin-Woo could feel the gazes of passersby upon them, mostly from women. 

Some gasped in admiration, whispering comments such as,

"Oh, my... what a gentleman."

"How cute of him to take care of his girlfriend like that."

"Moments like these really make me realize how single I am..."

The women who observed them couldn't help but feel a mix of admiration and envy, watching as Jin-Woo carefully carried Jinho away.

Jin-Woo simply let the girls’ whisperings slip in one ear and slide right out the other.

Once they reached the parking lot, Jin-Woo carefully opened the van door and gently settled Jinho in the passenger seat. 

Jin-Woo then slid into the driver's seat, ready to head to his home. 

A thought crossed his mind then, and he spoke aloud, "This feels like a kidnapping, somehow..." 

A sigh escaped him as he turned on the engine and began to drive away from the scene.

X

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo parked the van in his neighborhood and began walking towards his building, gently carrying Jinho in his arms, bridal style. 

He carefully exited the elevator, retrieved his key from his pocket, and silently opened the door. 

Jin-Woo was hoping his sister was already tucked in and fast asleep so he could avoid any awkward encounters. 

The last thing he wanted was for his sister to spot him carrying a woman in his arms like this, as he knew she would never let him live it down, even if it was just Jinho to him and he didn’t think it was a big deal.

A sense of relief washed over Jin-Woo as he observed the silent and darkened house, muttering to himself, "Good, Jinah's asleep."

He proceeded to enter his room, gently laying Jinho on the bed. 

"Looks like it's the couch for me tonight, huh..." 

Jin-Woo then carefully took off her shoes and pulled the blanket over her, ensuring she was comfortably tucked in.

Jin-Woo ran his hand through his hair, sighing and mumbling, "How on earth did things end up like this..." 

Feeling exhausted, he let out a yawn and was about to leave the room to find refuge on the couch that would be his bed for the night. 

However, a hand suddenly grabbed his wrist, stopping his progress.

Jin-Woo spun around, surprised at the unexpected touch on his wrist. 

He found Jinho still laying on the bed, her eyes closed, crying silently while mumbling in her sleep. 

The words, "Don't leave," and "Please don't leave me alone again," reached his ears. 

His eyes widened as he watched her, witnessing her hand slowly lose grip and fall back onto the bed.

Confused, Jin-Woo wondered aloud, "What could possibly be causing her to cry in her sleep like this?" 

He then climbed onto the bed, leaning over Jinho, his hands placed gently on either side of her head. 

With great care, he reached out a hand and wiped away her tears, speaking in a soothing tone, "A bad dream, huh?"

Jin-Woo noticed Jinho starting to calm down as he gently caressed her cheek and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. 

With a soft chuckle, he teased, "You're such a crybaby, you know?"

Jinho breathed gently, her head subconsciously moved closer to his touch, seeking the comfort and security his presence brought.

Settling onto the bed beside her, Jin-Woo's hand gently began caressing her hair. His voice filled with a mixture of gentle reassurance and amusement as he declared, "Alright, I'll stay here until you stop crying in your sleep."

With a sleepy movement, Jinho shifted in bed, drawing closer to his body, seeking the warmth and comfort of his presence.

_______________

The morning arrived, and Jinah was all set to head to school.

She closed her bedroom door and stepped out into the hallway, musing to herself, "I wonder what time Oppa came back home last night..." 

Yesterday, when she returned home after her night lesson, her brother wasn't there yet. This late returnee behavior had become more frequent as of late.

Jinah stopped in front of her older brother's room, thinking, 'Let's check if he's home.'

She opened the door and was about to yell, "Oppa~" But the words died in her throat as she took in the sight before her.

Her brother was lying on the bed, with a woman nestled in his arms, her head resting on his chest. 

Jinah's eyes widened in a total shock at the unexpected scene unfolding before her.

The girl stood there in utter shock, unable to even utter a scream. 

After a moment of stunned silence, she slowly closed the door, feeling utterly dumbfounded.

"This must be a dream... there's no way my brother has a woman in his bed... right?" She muttered to herself.

Jinho, her eyes wide open, stared at the closed door, speechless.

With a sense of disbelief, Jinah slowly opened the door again, peeking inside once more as if trying to confirm that what she had seen was real. 

Sure enough, the scene remained, proving her initial observation. 

She quietly shut the door again, her hand covering her mouth as a wide smile spread across her face. 

Her cheeks took on a rosy hue as she processed the unexpectedness of what she had just witnessed.

Pressing her back against the closed door, Jinah's eyes lowered to the ground, her cheeks still flushed as she tried to process the unexpected revelation. 

Her thoughts raced through her mind, a mix of disbelief and excitement.

She couldn't believe her brother had kept this secret from her.

A whirlwind of emotions overwhelmed her. 

A part of her wanted to strangle her brother for hiding this from her, but at the same time, she wanted to jump on him happily and shower him with hugs for finally getting a girlfriend. 

As Jinah grappled with her feelings, her phone chimed with a message. 

Reading it, she let out a long groan; It was a reminder from their teacher not to be late for class today, as they wouldn't be allowed to take the exam. 

Irritated, she grumbled, "Dammit! What terrible timing!"

She wished she could stay home to greet her brother's girlfriend, but unfortunately, she couldn't afford to skip school or be late due to the impending test.

Jinah couldn't resist peeking into the room once more, her smile widening as she admired her brother's peaceful, sleeping expression. The woman next to him wore a similar blissful expression.

Jinho squeezed her eyes shut, overjoyed, and let out a soft, excited scream. She then quietly closed the door, preparing to make her way to school.

X

As Jinho slowly awakened, a throbbing headache struck her fiercely. 

She groaned internally, musing, 'I think I went a bit overboard last night...'

As she rested her head against something incredibly comfortable, she couldn't help but notice how pleasant and inviting it felt. 

"Has my pillow always been this comfortable?.." She remarked to herself.

"And why does it smell so good...?" Her cheeks glowed with a soft blush as she savored the scent.

Her thoughts then took a curious turn as she murmured aloud, "This scent... It's strangely reminiscent of Sung-sama..."

The mere thought of Jin-Woo sent her heart racing, her cheeks flushing a deeper shade as her emotions soared. 

Jinho snuggled deeper into the cozy object she assumed was her pillow, sighing dreamy, "Sung-sama~..." 

Her eyes then shot open in surprise as she suddenly felt something that was unmistakably someone's chin pressed against her skin.

Jinho gingerly raised her head, her eyes growing as wide as she discovered Jin-Woo's face mere inches away from her own. 

Shock paralyzed her, and her mind went blank, leaving her unable to do anything but gaze at that familiar face, stunned.

Time seemed to stretch endlessly as Jinho remained frozen, her lips moving silently, the words refusing to form.

Suddenly, Jin-Woo exhaled a soft, warm breath that grazed her face, jolting her mind back to reality.

Startled, Jinho let out a piercing scream and flailed backward, abruptly slipping off the bed and landing with a thud on her back on the floor.

Lying on the floor, Jhinoh found herself staring at the ceiling with her face flushed tomato red, her eyes widening in shock.  

"S-sun... Sung-sama... and... me... bed... together...?" She stuttered, her voice trembling.

The noise seemed to rouse Jin-Woo from his slumber, and he rubbed his eyes, groggily muttering, "What's all this noise about...?"

As she heard him awaken, Jinho's heart skipped a beat, and panic consumed her thoughts. 

Sitting there on the floor, she freaked out internally, repeating in disbelief, 'Sung-sama... us... together.. bed... all night!!!'

As visions of the possible events that transpired the previous night flooded her mind, Jinho blushed furiously. 

In a horrified whisper, she muttered to herself, "No... I didn't... Did I actually get drunk and throw myself at Sung-sama?! This can't be happening..."

"Oh, you're awake. Why are you down on the floor?" Jinho suddenly heard Jin-Woo's voice, and her heart skipped a beat.

She slowly turned her head at him, meeting his expression, a mixture of casual yet puzzled.

Jin-Woo was lying on his stomach, peering down at Jinho on the floor. 

A moment of silence hung in the air before Jinho impulsively bowed so low that her face was hidden. 

In a remorseful voice, she exclaimed, "I'm so, so sorry, Sung-sama! I'm extremely ashamed of myself for making you endure such awkwardness. I can't believe I placed you in this difficult position!"

With nonchalance, Jin-Woo responded, "Yeah, you did make my night rather challenging."

Jinho's eyes widened, confirming her fears, thinking, 'So... it did truly happen.' 

Her shame intensified as she deeply bowed her head, exclaiming, "I'm so sorry!! You must have endured these actions out of pity."

Jin-Woo brushed his hand through his hair, followed by a soft sigh. With nonchalance, he remarked, "Yeah, you could say you left me with no other option but to go along with it."

Jinho clenched her eyes shut, feeling the immense embarrassment and the urge to cry.

Her thoughts raced, 'I must have drunkenly confessed my feelings to him, and he slept with me out of pity. Even though I knew it was out of pity, I didn't want him to confirm it...'

Rising from the bed, Jin-Woo started stretching his body as he spoke casually, "Why are you still on the floor, though? And stop apologizing already, it wasn't such a big deal."

Jinho lifted her head and bit her lips, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to fall.

With his back towards her, Jin-Woo continued stretching as he spoke casually, "Besides, I should be the one apologizing. I didn't intend to sleep in the bed with you. I was planning to-"

Unable to hold back her emotions any longer, Jinho cut him off, her eyes squeezed shut as she shouted, "I already know, alright?!! You don't have to make me feel even more embarrassed and hurt!..... I'm..I'm sorry you had to endure sleeping with me!!"

Jin-Woo's eyes widened, confusion crossing his face as he gazed at Jinho's tear-stained expression. 

"Eh? what are you talking about?... I was going to apologize for sharing the bed with you. I was originally planning to sleep on the couch after bringing you here since you were drunk and wouldn’t wake up. Obviously, I couldn’t contact your father or brother to come get you."

"So, given the circumstances, I had no choice but to bring you here with me. However, as I was about to leave you alone in my room, you started crying in your sleep and pleaded with me not to leave you. So I stayed with you for a while, but I must have fallen asleep."

Jinho was left stunned, unable to believe her ears.

Had she misunderstood the situation entirely?

"Alright, you can kill me now." She exclaimed despairingly.

Jin-Woo raised an eyebrow, saying, "Don't tell me you've misunderstood my words...."

'AGAIN?!'

Jinho wailed loudly, prompting Jin-Woo to let out a heavy sigh.

_______________

Jinho stood in the hallway of Jin-Woo's apartment building, facing him as he stood by the open door. 

"You could have stayed for breakfast, you know. If you feel like you've crossed the line, it's far too late now."

Jinho cringed at his words, her eyes falling to the ground as she apologized again, "I'm so sorry for causing you so much trouble, Sung-sama."

Jin-Woo let out a gentle sigh, then a small smile played at the corners of his lips. "Don't worry. It's behind us." 

Jinho looked up with a cheerful expression, exclaiming, "Sung-sama~" 

Jin-Woo's expression turned serious as he scolded her, "But don't get too drunk again and make me do that again." 

Jinho cringed and nodded vigorously to show she understood. 

Jin-Woo then inquired, “So, you have to go to the Association today for your written exam, right?”

Jinho ran her hand through her hair, saying, "Yeah.. I'll go home to rest a bit before heading there. I still feel quite dizzy." 

As she spoke, Jin-Woo's eyes flickered with a tinge of guilt. He felt like he should have kept a closer eye on her last night and prevented her from getting so drunk.

Then, a realization struck him. 'Wait a minute...'

Jin-Woo turned his back on Jinho.

Then quickly confirmed his store.

And sure enough, there was a certain item he was thinking of.

He found it!

[Item: Status recovery potion]

Rarity: E

Type: Consumable

A liquid potion that can recover one’s status. Once consumed, undesirable status ailments will be cured. Can be stored in your inventory, but it can’t be handed over to someone else.

As soon as he confirmed the purchase, a yellow potion vial suddenly materialised into his hand. It was of a noticeably brighter color than the healing potion’s deep red color or the blue of the MP recovery potion.

"Jinho, open your mouth and look up for a moment.”

“W-what..." Jinho was taken aback. She then noticed what he was holding in his hand and said, "S-Sung-sama, what's this all about?" 

“Just trust me on this.”

Jin-Woo poured the status recovery potion down the girl's throat.

Gulp.

Suddenly, Jinho opened her eyes wider. “U-Uh, I feel so refreshed...”

Jin-Woo smiled contentedly and said, "Alright, you can go now. You don't want to waste too much time, do you?" 

Jinho was still a bit dumbfounded but nodded in acknowledgment.

As Jin-Woo was about to close the door, Jinho suddenly called out, "Sung-sama!" 

He looked back at her and replied with a casual "Hm?" 

"Thanks... thanks again, Sung-sama." 

Jin-Woo smiled and responded, "Sure thing. And you can drop the overly polite formalities now. It feels odd." 

Jinho exclaimed, "Huh?" In surprise. 

Jin-Woo smirked softly and said, "We're precious friends, aren't we? Those were your words. So, just call me Jin-Woo for now."

Jinho blushed, feeling more confused and shocked, exclaiming, "Wh-whattt..." 

Jin-Woo chuckled softly as he closed the door.

Jinho stood there, her mind in a daze, mumbling to herself, "J-Just.. Just what in the world happened yesterday?!!" 

She was still trying to process the unexpected developments between her and Sung-sama...er, Jin-Woo.

________________

Second floor, third, fourth…. and eventually, the 27th floor. That was the result of grinding for two days straight.

He told Jin-Ah, his little sister, that he’d be on a week-long trip.

‘I have five more days.’

Considering his gradually-increasing clearing speed, he began to think that it might be doable to get to what he assumed to be the last floor, the 100th floor, within the next five days. Maybe even sooner than that.

Jin-Woo took a look at his surroundings. It was still a ruined city.

‘I can’t tell which city this floor is based on anymore.’

Every floor was modelled off on a different city.

However, the higher he climbed, the state of destruction the city was in got worse and worse, and on this 27th floor, he found it hard to tell whether this place used to be a city or not.

Would a city look like this after having experienced a concentrated carpet bombing?

Jin-Woo quickly threw away useless thoughts and shook his head.

‘I shouldn’t be wasting time like this.’

He checked the time with his wristwatch, and it was already 11 in the evening.

There was no daytime or night inside this dungeon. So he needed to rely on his watch to keep time. 11 would be a good time to get some shut-eye if he wanted to continue clearing this dungeon tomorrow with a refreshed body and mind.

But before that….

‘Should I check the result of my hard work first?’

Jin-Woo shifted his gaze over to the quest progress window.

........

...........

[The level of the skill, ‘Ruler’s Reach’ has increased!]

‘Nice!’

Jin-Woo grinned brightly and leaned against a wall. He felt safer and more content as he became stronger bit by bit.

His eyelids slowly closed.

‘Now that I think about it, the Guild Master license must’ve been issued by now.’

Was Jinho doing well?

Perhaps because it had been a while since he acted alone, he couldn’t help but recall the mug of Jinho, who used to follow him around.

The successful first-born who had become an excellent entrepreneur, and the second born with the qualification to become a Master, but who was still a university student. The fight between them would not be easy.

‘Do your best, Jinho.’

After cheering the girl on in his mind, Jin-Woo slowly drifted off to a deep slumber.

_______________

Jinho entered a luxurious traditional Korean restaurant with a determined face. She chose this place after taking into account her father’s taste.

“Has the Chairman arrived yet?”

“Yes, he’s waiting for you.”

Jinho swallowed her saliva after hearing the maître d’hôtel.

“Please, this way.”

She was guided to the private room where her father, Yu Myung-Han, was waiting for her.

The traditional sliding paper door was opened, and immediately, Jinho’s nervousness increased by several folds after seeing her father’s face.

She wondered if she was getting weak-kneed again, but Jinho hardened her resolve and settled down on the opposite side of her father.

“What’s the occasion? You even called me first for this meeting.”

“Father, before I begin, I’d like you to take a look at this first.”

“And this is….?”

“This is my Guild Master license, as well as the records of the raids I’ve been in so far.”

“Your Master…. licence? Yours?”

When Yu Myung-Han formed a disbelieving face, Jinho nodded her head with a smile.

“Yes, Father.”

Yu Myung-Han wordlessly took a look at the documents his daughter had handed over. And then, a certain light began gleaming in his eyes.

“…..”

While her father maintained a weighty silence, Jinho’s heart was beating so madly that she found it hard to even breathe properly.

“And so….” Yu Myung-Han carefully placed the documents on the table and continued on. “….You wish to run the Yujin Guild, is that right?”

“That’s correct.”

“H-mm….”

It was at this point that a hint of a dilemma, alongside the emotion of shock, appeared on Yu Myung-Han’s face.

‘To think that father is pondering between me and my older brother….’

Jinho was genuinely moved inside.

The fact that her father was thinking about this matter was a big win for Jinho.

If it was in the past, she’d be satisfied with this much. However, she had no desire whatsoever to back off now.

“As you know already, Father, giving the position of the Guild Master to an outsider carries too much risk….”

“Enough.” Yu Myung-Han raised his hand.

At the same time, Jinho’s mouth stopped moving.

Father’s ‘Enough’ was one of the most absolute commands that no one in the Yu household could go against.

“There is someone I want you to meet.”

“Pardon me?”

Jinho’s eyes went round at that. She was the one who called and asked for this meeting, yet her father wanted to introduce her to someone?

Who could it be?

Just as Jinho’s curiosity peaked, the door opposite to the one she used to enter the room slid open.

“Ah…. Hello, there.”

Was he in the late twenties? Or early thirties? A man around that age group awkwardly greeted Jinho as he entered the room.

Who was this man?

Jinho couldn’t recognise this man at all.

When Yu Myung-Han signaled with his chin, this unknown man settled down next to him.

“This here is… Hunter Goh Myung-Hwan.”

‘Goh Myung-Hwan?’

Jinho tilted her head.

She had never heard of this name before.

Father nodded his head as if he had expected this already and continued on.

“He is one of the survivors from the White Tiger Guild’s Red Gate incident, the one that’s been making so much noise lately.”

Jinho was taken by surprise.

‘….The Red Gate?’

Why was the story of the Red Gate brought up here, out of the blue?

Since the incident had been talked about non-stop in mass media, even Jinho knew what had happened. But, this timing was suspiciously coincidental, and so, she found it difficult to figure out where her father was going with this.

‘And this man here…’

A man who was supposed to be a survivor of that incident.

Why did the survivor that the media was madly scrambling over to find appear here? Jinho’s curiosity continued to balloon greatly.

After staring at his daughter for a little while, Yu Myung-Han slowly opened his mouth.

“Looks like you haven’t heard of it yet.”

“Pardon me?”

Yu Myung-Han disregarded the still-confused Jinho for the time being and shifted his gaze over to Goh Myung-Hwan, sitting there in nervousness.

“Mister Hunter.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

“Please inform my daughter who was there besides the White Tiger Guild’s new recruits on that day.”

“Understood.”

Goh Myung-Hwan’s stare now was directed to Jinho.

Unintentionally, Jinho met Goh Myung-Hwan’s gaze, and a question mark floated up on her face.

Goh Myung-Hwan opened his mouth.

“There was a young female Hunter who looked to be a high schooler, and…..”

‘A young female Hunter?’

Even then, Jinho couldn’t imagine just whose name would pop out from Goh Myung-Hwan’s lips.

“….And, Mister Sung Jin-Woo.”

Tumble.

Jinho thought that she could hear her own heart fall to the pit of her stomach.

‘S-Sung-sama..er.. Jin-Woo... was there at the Red Gate incident?!’

What was going on here?

She was already feeling quite confused, but now, her thought process devolved into an even more complicated mess.

In the middle of her confusion, she suddenly remembered something.

‘Wait. Now that I think about it.. a few days ago….’

'….S-Sung-sama..er.. Jin-Woo.. was conversing with such familiarity with Hahn Song-Yi, someone whom he didn’t even share a casual greeting before that day.'

“Do you still remember the name of that female Hunter, by any chance?”

“It was Miss Hahn Song-Yi.”

How can this be?

Jinho’s jaw dropped to the floor.

To think, there was such a secret to the mysterious relationship between those two people…..

‘Wait, if that’s the case, then…?’

Then, the identity of the potential helper the news outlets were talking about was….

As if he knew what Jinho was about to ask, Goh Myung-Hwan quickly confirmed the truth.

“We, the members of the White Tiger Guild and Miss Hahn Song-Yi, could escape from the Red Gate all safe and sound thanks to Mister Sung Jin-Woo.”

‘Hah, haha, ha…’

'….Jin-Woo, just what did you do in there?'

Jinho formed an expression comprised of half surprise and half joy. She even forgot that she was in front of her father and asked out loud.

“What happened inside the Red Gate?”

Goh Myung-Hwan glanced to his side, to the head of the dining table.

Yu Myung-Han nodded his head.

Goh Myung-Hwan carried the face of a man dying to open his mouth until then, and as soon as the permission was given, he began to tell his story with great relish.

“So, what happened was….”

Jinho’s eyes twinkled as she listened.

“At first, everyone was taken back somewhat after learning that a pair of rank E Hunters were coming to observe the new recruit training process. But then….”

Goh Myung-Hwan began describing what happened that day with a hyped-up voice reminiscent of a little kid proudly showing off to a friend the brand new toy he got as a gift.

However….

“He did what to a rank A Hunter??”

Goh Myung-Hwan wasn’t the only over-excited person in the room.

“Exactly!! With his palm, he went like, Pah!! He smacked the back of Kim Cheol’s head, and….”

“Huh….”

As she listened to the exploits of Jin-Woo, Jinho’s heart beat faster as if she was there, experiencing everything personally.

‘As expected of my Jin-Woo ….’

To him, hunting down high-ranked monsters was nothing. Well, he could knock out a rank A Hunter with a single slap, after all.

Jinho felt so moved and proud at the same time after realising that such an incredible person had been standing by her side until now.

Meanwhile, Goh Myung-Hwan continued on with his story.

“….I really thought that we’d die for sure when dozens of Ice Elves showed up. But then again….”

Was she paying too close an attention to the story? Time flew by really quickly.

The definitely-not-short story of that day’s events was finally coming to its end.

The excited Goh Myung-Hwan’s voice became louder.

“So, what I’m saying is, this whole thing is just too unfair. Mister Sung Jin-Woo saved our a*ses back there. He’s my life’s savior.”

Jinho unconsciously nodded her head in agreement. She could understand where Goh Myung-Hwan was coming from. She also had received similar help before, too.

“But then, I’m not supposed to reveal the existence of Mister Sung Jin-Woo? I find it difficult to accept the decision of the White Tiger Guild. However, Chairman Yu has given me a call out of the blue, and so, here I am.”

It was at this point that Yu Myung-Han stopped Goh Myung-Hwan in a dignified manner.

“Goh Myung-Hwan Hunter-nim.”

“Yes?”

“I believe that should be sufficient.”

“Ah. My apologies, sir. I got carried away.” Goh Myung-Hwan embarrassedly lowered his head.

Yu Myung-Han’s stare then shifted over to his daughter, Jinho.

“In the process of investigating more about Hunter Sung Jin-Woo, a name that I never expected to hear popped up.”

At the ends of Yu Myung-Han’s pointing finger….

His index finger pointed to a piece of paper with Jinho’s name written on it. And it was none other than the raid records Jinho handed over to her father.

His index finger pointed lower and stopped at the three words ‘Sung Jin-Woo’ next.

The raid leader, Jinho. The raid member, Sung Jin-Woo.

This was irrefutable evidence.

‘….I’m busted.’

The truth about Jin-Woo helping her out during the process of acquiring her Guild Master license was now out in the open.

Jinho’s expression hardened.

“Hunter Sung Jin-Woo aided you greatly during your attempt to earn the Guild Master license. Do you acknowledge this fact?”

“…..Yes, Father.”

“Is there anything else you want to add?”

“..…”

Jinho’s vision darkened.

Now that the matter of Jin-Woo lending aid was out in the open, it was impossible to convince her father that she was the right person to take on the position of the Yujin Guild’s new Master.

‘……..’

She sensed her father’s strict eyes bearing down on her. In the past, being subjected to that withering glare, Jinho would lose all strength in her legs.

‘However!’

She couldn’t give up like this. For the first time ever, Jinho summoned her courage in front of her father.

She lowered her head and raised her voice. “Can you entrust the Yujin Guild to me, Father?”

“I will.”

“E-Eh?”

At that refreshingly simple answer, Jinho hurriedly raised her head.

“I shall entrust the Yujin Guild to you.”

“B-But, why….?”

“Didn’t you say it yourself? It is too risky to entrust the Guild to an outsider. With you here, is there a reason to take on that risk now?”

“B-but, I tried to deceive you, father.”

“You thought I’d scold you and kick you out because of that?”

'YES?!'

What was going on here?

Jinho thought that her father was smiling, for some reason. But, Yu Myung-Han’s lips would always remain in a straight line, no matter what the occasion was.

So, how come??

“If you entered the dungeons without any plans whatsoever, then I’d have done just that. Because I don’t remember raising an idiot daughter like that.”

Jinho’s face became hot at that moment.

‘If I hadn’t met Jin-Woo, then I’d be getting scolded by father right about now….’

No, wait – she’d be dead long before that.

Jinho spat out a sigh of relief inwardly.

“However, I have a condition.”

“Y-Yes, Father.”

“This Hunter Sung Jin-Woo… can you bring him over to Yujin?”

Jinho’s eyes opened wider. “You mean, Jin-Woo??”

‘….Jin-Woo?’  The light within Yu Myung-Han’s eyes flickered a little just then. But that didn’t last for long.

“That’s correct.”

Jinho became speechless, then.

‘Groan…’

Even a snot-nosed brat would know that now was the right time to confidently say something in order to leave behind a positive impression.

However, the one they were talking about was none other than Jin-Woo.

Jinho could ask, sure, but she wasn’t confident of anything else besides.

So, she replied honestly.

“I can’t be certain.”

“Very good. There is no meaning if the challenge is too easy for you.”

The Chairman Yu Myung-Han took a sip of water and lightly wiped the corners of his lips with a handkerchief.

“If you fail, I shall hand over the Guild to your brother. So, how about it? Will you accept?”

Jinho’s expression became grave.

‘This is the shot I struggled so hard to get….’

If she backed out now, then she wouldn’t be able to show herself in front of Jin-Woo, who helped her right until the end for this opportunity.

Jinho became deeply earnest as she replied.

“I accept, Father.”

“Good.”

With that reply, the negotiation between a father and a daughter had come to a conclusion. Yu Myung-Han wordlessly nodded his head, and Jinho stood up, bowed her waist, and left the room.

Yu Myung-Han took the handkerchief away from his lips. It was getting harder to suppress the smile trying to form on his lips.

‘This kid….’

This girl wanted Yujin Guild.

He suspected something was up when they agreed to meet today, but he didn’t expect his daughter to be this daring.

‘Indeed, a tiger’s cub is still a tiger at the end of the day.’

The smile finally began to spread on Yu Myung-Han’s lips.

‘….That famous Chairman Yu Myung-Han is actually smiling!!’ Goh Myung-Hwan’s eyes were growing large as he witnessed everything.

The widely-known nickname of Chairman Yu Myung-Han was ‘Pokerface’. He was famed for never showing any emotion whatsoever, whether it be a joyful occasion or a sorrowful one.

When Goh Myung-Hwan continued to stare utterly mystified, Chairman Yu Myung-Han turned to him and asked.

“Hunter-nim. Was there anything you wanted to add?”

Suddenly finding himself on the receiving end of that stare, Goh Myung-Hwan got flustered and hurriedly shook his head.

“N-no. Not at all!”

X

Chapter Text

Upon exiting the Demon’s Castle, Jin-Woo headed home right away.

He just wanted to take a shower and clean himself.

While he was stuck inside the dungeon, he didn’t even get to wash his face once. He could buy all the water he needed from the store, sure, but there was no space or time to wash inside the dungeon.

‘I mean, there are monsters everywhere in that place, so just where would I find the leeway to take a shower….?’

Pshuoooosh…..

Arriving home, he immediately entrusted himself to the cascading warm water. Only then did the fact that he left the dungeon feel like reality.

‘Yup, being home is the best.’

Changing to a new set of clothes, Jin-Woo left the towel on his wet hair and settled down on the edge of his bed. It was now time to get some things organised.

First of all, he summoned his Stat window.

‘Status.’

Tti-ring.

A long, long wall of text that managed to almost disorient him popped up in front of his view. 

Jin-Woo stared at his level that had climbed up to 77 and smiled in content.

‘I leveled up 16 times inside a week.’

Such a leveling up speed was unthinkable when entering rank C dungeons. He had definitely extracted suitable compensation for going through all this pain for seven days.

He still had some unfinished matters there, but well, this week’s conquest of the Demon’s Castle should be called a roaring success, regardless of what.

‘Just that….’

Except for one – there was one thing he couldn’t really figure out yet.

Jin-Woo let the light from the lamp fall on the object that came out of the cursed random box.

‘Just what the hell is this thing?’

It was a pitch-black key that seemed to absorb all light. No information popped up in his view, either.

‘This is the first time seeing an item with absolutely no information….’

The keys to instant dungeons could be seen as pretty common since he got them from random boxes every now and then. But this guy here, he had never seen anything quite like it.

‘Where am I supposed to use this?’

Perhaps because it came out of a box named Cursed random this-and-that, he couldn’t help but think that there was this ominous aura circling around the key.

He acquired this key through so much hard work, so he couldn’t even throw it away.

‘Well, I’m sure I’ll get to use it sooner or later.’

The Cursed random box was supposed to give him something that he needed, after all.

Jin-Woo stored the mystery key back inside his inventory and got up from the bed.

He needed to purchase a few artifacts if he wanted to completely conquer the Demon’s Castle.

‘And, I’ve got something to sell, too.’

However, there was a problem. And that was – things would become quite complicated if a rank E Hunter wanted to buy and sell high-ranked artifacts.

Who wouldn’t suspect something was off when a low-ranked Hunter – no, someone right at the bottom – tried to sell an item that even the top Hunters found hard to acquire?

It was the same story if he wanted to buy something.

As long as the title of rank E followed him around, there would always be questions regarding the sources of his income.

‘And, it’ll be hard to answer when someone asks me about what I’m planning to do with expensive artifacts, too.’

Several troublesome situations would unfold at this rate.

“Which means I should….”

It's time to stop pretending to be a rank E, then.

Time… to get the rank reassignment test.

It was now time to get the rank that matched his current set of abilities.

Jin-Woo’s expression became serious.

‘With my current level, surely I won’t get jerked around by someone else.’

That was his original aim to begin with.

In order to avoid situations where he was being under the thumb of someone stronger, he continued to act as a rank E while taking on all the inconvenience that came along with it.

However, what about now?

He didn’t even falter slightly when Baek Yun-Ho, the Guild Master of the White Tiger, stood in front of him.

Scratch that.

He was pretty confident of not cowering no matter who stood in front of him now, be that Baek Yun-Ho or anyone else.

He saw no reason to hide his powers anymore.

Thump, thump, thump….

When he made up his mind to finally get rid of that irksome rank E tag for good, his heart began beating faster and faster.

‘….But, before that….’

There was something he had to confirm first.

Jin-Woo switched on his Hunter-only smartphone.

It was his first time powering the device on in a week, so naturally, there were quite a lot of missed calls and messages waiting for him.

The majority of those numbers he failed to recognise. It was an unfortunate thing for those callers, but well, he didn’t have the time to check each and every one out manually.

‘If they are in a hurry, I’m sure they’ll contact me again.’

Thinking coolly like that, Jin-Woo scrolled down the list of contacts and eventually located the number he wanted.

He dialed this number.

[Lalala~♩♪]

The bright, energetic pop song didn’t even get to play for a second longer before the other side hurriedly answered the call.

“Sun...Jin-Woo!!”

….Maybe, Jin-Woo stayed inside the dungeon for far too long?

Because he was surprised by how nice it felt to hear the girl's voice again.

A smile spread on Jin-Woo’s lips as he spoke. “Did the talk with your father go well?”

“Yes, Jin-Woo! It went very well!”

‘Oho?’

Now, that was a good piece of news to hear.

Jin-Woo made this call to confirm because he couldn’t go ahead and do the rank reassignment test if Jinho hadn’t made a deal with her father yet.

However, if the matters of that side were taken care of, then there really was nothing holding him back at this point.

He guessed the good news just from hearing the girl's excited tone of voice, but now that he got the confirmation from the horse’s mouth, Jin-Woo was feeling really happy as well.

“Jin-Woo! Actually, I wanted to come and speak to y-”

Click.

‘….What was that?’

The phone call abruptly came to an end, and when he checked, the battery in his phone was flat.

‘Oh, right….. Even before entering the Demon’s Castle, it didn’t have much charge left, didn’t it?’

Well, at least he got to confirm what he wanted to confirm, so that was a relief.

Jin-Woo fixed his clothes and prepared to leave.

The main building of the Hunter’s Association wasn’t too far from here. He should be able to go through the reassignment test pretty quickly.

“Oh, hang on a second….”

Jin-Woo was just about to leave the apartment, but he hurriedly came back inside. He had forgotten all about his little sister.

Since she might get worried if her oppa left home again without saying anything, he scribbled a simple memo and placed it on the dining table.

Well, he only came back home after a whole week of absence, after all.

"I came home, but I need to go out again. Sorry."

With a satisfied smile on his face, Jin-Woo turned around to leave.

________________

It really had been a while since Jin-Woo last came to the Awakened rank evaluation application kiosk.

‘Has it been four years already?’

Or, maybe it was close to five now?

Jin-Woo’s expression was full of reminiscence as he stood in front of the employee manning the reception kiosk.

The employee didn’t even bother to look at him and spoke.

“Please jot down your identification and contact details, and give them to me.”

Jin-Woo still remembered most of the process, so he had prepared them before coming here. He readily presented both his identification and the contact details.

‘Mm?’

The employee’s head tilted this way and that after taking one look at Jin-Woo’s choice of identification.

“Isn’t this a Hunter license?”

“It is.”

Employee formed a confused expression.

“If you are unhappy with your assigned rank, you should head over to another depar….”

“No, it’s not that. I wish to take the reassignment test.”

“Ehhh?”

The employee continued to alternate his gaze between the Hunter license and Jin-Woo’s face before raising a trembling finger in the air.

“P-please, wait for me here.”

The employee then quickly ran over to a middle-aged man with a scowl on his face sitting somewhere behind him.

“Manager? A Hunter-nim wishes to take a reassignment test.”

“A reassignment test? What’s that person’s rank?”

“It’s an E.”

The manager craned his neck out and took a look at the waiting Jin-Woo’s face over by the reception desk.

He then reverted back to his previous posture.

“There are guys like that every now and then. Hunters who are not satisfied by the reality of their situation and swim inside daydreams before coming back here hoping against hope.”

“So, is that guy also….?”

The manager nodded his head.

“Reawakened, my foot…. Others are busy raking in the dough as Hunters, getting famous and all that, but well, he drew the short straw, and he ended up as a nobody. So, he’s just trying to escape from reality.”

“Aha.”

“Dealing with guys like that will only tire you out. So, just tell him that he’ll be paying the fee for the test and send him on his way to the measurement room.”

“Roger that.”

The employee no longer looked like he was suffering from abdominal pain and returned to his seat.

Meanwhile, the manager alternated his gaze between the employee and Jin-Woo, clicked his tongue, before shifting his attention back to the computer monitor in front of him.

However….

The fingers of the manager stopped typing on the keyboard.

The name written on the Hunter licence… Why did it feel like he had heard of that name before from somewhere?

‘Where was it?’

Once the young Hunter left for the building with the measurement room in it, the manager sneaked in closer to the employee and asked him.

“That rank E Hunter just now. What was his name again?”

“It’s Sung Jin-Woo. Do you know who he is?”

“No, it’s not that. But….”

But, he just couldn’t get over this feeling that he had heard of that name before, for sure.

The manager did his absolute best to jog his memories, and then, his eyes widened as something did enter his mind.

‘….Ahh!!’

‘That man’ asked for a favor, didn’t he?

‘That man’ asked the manager to give him a call if a Hunter named Sung Jin-Woo ever showed up here. Why couldn’t he remember that sooner?

The manager sought out a deserted corner and hurriedly pulled out his phone.

Ring…. ring….

“Hello, it’s Baek Yun-Ho speaking.”

“Ah, hello there, Chairman Baek. I’m calling you because of the Hunter you spoke about the last time, the man named Sung Jin-Woo. He really came here today. But, how did you know that he might appear here?”

“Did you just say that Mister Sung Jin-Woo came there?”

“Yes. He was here just now, applying to get a reassignment test.”

“…..”

The conversation came to an abrupt halt, and an awkward silence pervaded the line.

However, only a short while later, an urgent voice came out from the phone’s speaker.

“Even if it’s only for a short while, can you somehow delay the measurement process? I’m on my way over there right now.”

The manager began tilting his head.

Did he just mishear that?

The Master of the one-and-only White Tiger Guild was speaking with an anxious voice?

‘Well, I’ll be.’

Besides all that, though – the evaluation process was out of his hands already.

The manager could only sheepishly reply while scratching the side of his head.

“That man must’ve entered the measurement building by now.”

_______________

“What is your name?”

“It’s Sung Jin-Woo.”

“Mister Sung Jin-Woo…. Right. Please place your hand on the black-coloured panel over there and wait for a little while.”

Following the instruction, Jin-Woo walked over to the measuring device and placed his hand on the black panel.

‘….Uh? This guy’s already been evaluated as an Awakened ranked E?’

The employee took a look at the documentation and glanced at Jin-Woo with a mystified expression.

Just why were almost all the Hunters coming here to retake tests all rank E?

The employee’s expression changed to that of apathy, as he activated the measuring device.

  Bzzzz…..

The magic energy measuring device buzzed noisily, and a short while later, it stopped its operation. The results appeared on the display monitor.

Error

‘Huh? What’s going on here?’

The employee tilted his head this way and that, before speaking to Jin-Woo, as the latter was about to take his hand off the panel.

“Hold up, please.”

“Yes?”

“I’d like to run the test one more time.”

“Okay.” Jin-Woo placed his hand back on the panel.

Error

‘HUH?’

But, something like this never happened before?

The expression of the employee gradually hardened. Why was the measuring device malfunctioning all of a sudden?

The employee asked for Jin-Woo’s cooperation once more.

“I’m truly sorry. But, one more time, please.”

“…..”

Even before he was asked to take the test again, Jin-Woo had already decided to wait and thus didn’t bother to lift his hand away from the panel.

Error

‘W-why is the device behaving like this?!’

Cold sweat drops formed on the employee’s forehead.

Murmur, murmur….

People observing from the waiting room gradually grew aware of the fact that something weird was going down right now.

‘What’s going on? Did something happen?’

‘How many times did he activate the measuring device just now?’

‘Kinda looks like there’s a problem here, doesn’t it?’

When everyone’s gazes focused on him, the employee became completely soaked in cold sweat.

Error

‘Argh, c’mon now!! What do you want from me?’

Just as the employee was becoming a nervous wreck….

“What now? Where is Chang-Sik? Why are you alone here?”

The employee quickly looked behind him. And, he found Manager Jeong Ki-Soo from the rank evaluation application department standing there.

“Manager Jeong!!”

Relief formed on the employee’s face after an unexpected reinforcement made his entrance.

“The senior officer went to the bathroom just now.”

“That fool, how dare he vacate his position in the middle of office hou….?”

Jeong Ki-Soo couldn’t bring himself to finish that sentence.

‘….Huh, I’m the same, isn’t it?’

Hmm, hmm.

Whatever the case may have been, he did arrive at the perfect time. The poor newbie employee was sweating out buckets while the senior was nowhere to be seen. Perfect, indeed.

Time for a veteran to step forward, then.

“Okay, so what’s going on?”

Jeong Ki-Soo displayed a bit of interest and took a step forward.

“The measuring device is acting a little weird.”

“The device is what now?”

“Please, take a look. This error message keeps popping up.”

Once the employee took a step back, Jeong Ki-Soo stood in his stead in front of the monitor that displayed the result of Jin-Woo’s measurement.

And right away, Jeong Ki-Soo’s expression froze up.

“…..How long have you been working here?”

“It’s been around six months, sir. Did I press the wrong button?”

“Nope. Just call Chang-Sik and tell him to get over here right now.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m saying, his toilet break or whatever isn’t important anymore, so tell him to get his a*s over here right away!”

Jeong Ki-Soo raised his voice.

The employee flinched and asked. “W-what’s the matter, Manager?”

“This isn’t an error message, but it’s saying ‘impossible to measure’! Don’t you understand what that means?”

“Ehhhh?! But that wasn’t an error message?”

Why was every single newbie employee such a dumba*s?

Jeong Ki-Soo’s gaze left the employee and landed on the person taking the evaluation test.

‘How can such a thing….’

Sung Jin-Woo.

The Master of the White Tiger Guild wanted to know about this man’s reassignment evaluation results.

Jeong Ki-Soo’s gaze remained locked on Sung Jin-Woo as he opened his mouth to speak to the newbie employee.

“You idiot! This message means that this device can’t measure that person’s magic power.”

“Excuse me? B-b-but, but, doesn’t that mean….?”

Did this newbie say it had been around six months since he started working here?

Forget about six months, something like this had not happened in the past two years, so of course, it wasn’t surprising at all to see a newbie employee being completely oblivious.

Jeong Ki-Soo’s voice trembled as he replied. “Right…. He’s a rank S.”

Rank ‘S’ – ‘Special’.

This rank had been in wide use, so people mistook it for an actual official rank, but in reality, this rank simply existed to group those Awakened who couldn’t be measured by any device.

“That’s why, call Chang-Sik right away. Hurry.”

“I’ll call him immediately!”

A short while later, Kim Chang-Sik ran over in a fluster after receiving the call. His breathing was heavy and fast, and he was even trying to fix his falling pants.

“....O-Okay, let me see.”

After confirming the monitor, Kim Chang-Sik’s complexion paled immediately. And then, when he looked at Jin-Woo, Kim Chang-Sik’s eyes quaked powerfully.

‘This man is South Korea's 10th!….’

Kim Chang-Sik quickly walked over to Jin-Woo.

It was only at this point that Jin-Woo withdrew his hand away from the black penal.

“Excuse me…. Mister Sung Jin-Woo, with the current device…..”

Kim Chang-Sik immediately remembered that Jin-Woo was already a Hunter, so he changed the way he addressed the youth.

“No, wait. Allow me to start over. It’s impossible to measure your magical energy output with this device, Sung Jin-Woo Hunter-nim. We need to ask for permission from the higher-ups if we want to use the precision measuring device, so would you mind if you come and visit us again in three days’ time?”

Kim Chang-Sik followed protocol and spoke the official line. He couldn’t even remember properly the last time he said those words.

Jin-Woo was an experienced Hunter himself, too, and he immediately figured out what those words meant.

‘Fine.’

Postponing the evaluation.

Or, in other words, once the test result of ‘impossible to measure’ also pops up in the precision device three days later, then he’d definitely be ranked as an ‘S’.

‘This is for the better.’

If he was judged to be a rank A now, then he’d have to raise his Stats again and come back here again.

However, being a Re-Awakened was already an incredibly rare thing, so what would happen if he were to say that he awakened once more on top of that?

People would see his ‘Re-Awakening’ as luck, but if something like that were to happen again, he’d no doubt receive gazes of suspicion.

He definitely wanted to avoid getting mired in annoying complications and waste his valuable time.

‘Whew….’

Jin-Woo sighed in relief inwardly after seeing this rather fortunate turn of events.

And then, when he turned around to leave….

“….Huh?”

Everyone present inside the building was looking at him weirdly.

________________

Jin-Woo was breathing a sigh of relief at the grand entrance of Choi Jong-In.

'What a relief.'

He was pondering what to do next after being stared at by so many pairs of eyes.

But what a wonderful timing it was, that man walking in and dividing the attention.

Jin-Woo inwardly thanked Choi Jong-In for providing some unexpected help, and simply walked past the latter.

And Choi jong-In's eyes widened in surprise.

'Huh? This can't be right.'

Choi Jong-In hurriedly called out to Jin-Woo. "Excuse me, can you stop for a second?"

Jin-Woo stopped walking away and turned around to look.

".....?"

Choi Jong-In's eyes gleamed brightly as he stared into Jin-Woo's face.

'This man's the tenth....'

Choi Jong-In beat around the bush with Chief Park about checking out the situation together or some such, but the truth was, he already had sensed what was happening before coming here.

'I mean, they've been yapping on so loudly about impossible to measure this and device error that, so how can I not hear them?'

Thanks to that, though, he was given a huge opportunity here.

This guy was a rank S. A rank S!!

By signing this man, the Hunters Guild would then boast the services of three S ranks, and be able to brush shoulders with the best Guilds in the world, never mind those found in South Korea.

How could he not salivate over that prospect?

'There's no need to borrow a measuring device, either.'

Just a short meeting of their gazes and he immediately sensed the depths of the youth's strength.

Without a doubt, this guy was the highest-grade Hunter there was. Choi Jong-In saw absolutely no reason to wait for three, four days at all.

"Hmm, hmm." Choi Jong-In cleared his throat and formed his trademark smile.

"I'm Choi Jong-In, the leader of the Hunters Guild."

Of course, Jin-Woo knew that already. Well, that man's face could be seen frequently enough whenever a TV was turned on, after all.

Jin-Woo wondered briefly why such a famous man was trying to talk to him after coming all the way to the Association, but well, he didn't have the leeway to ask for the clarification.

Jin-Woo sneaked a glance at the clock mounted on one of the walls.

'It's already ten to six....'

If he thought about the time he needed to go 'there', then he was cutting it pretty close.

When Jin-Woo formed an expression that implied 'Okay, you're done with your introduction, so hurry up with what you want to say', Choi Jong-In became a bit flustered as he continued on.

"Ah, well, actually.... I'm aware that you just had your Awakened rank evaluation."

"Yes."

"By any chance, have you thought of a Guild to join?"

"No."

A bright smile formed on Choi Jong-In's face when he heard that reply.

'Yup, it's done.'

One of the top three Guilds in the world – 'Hunters'.

What a sweet title that was. From today onwards, it'd not be a simple daydream anymore.

'You're mine.'

Choi Jong-In's chest puffed up from happiness and spoke the line that might be recorded in the annals of history.

"I'd like to speak to you regarding that issue, so can you spare a minute to talk, please?"

"Sorry, but don't have the time."

Jin-Woo quickly voiced his refusal and hurriedly left the Block B building.

"......"

It happened so fast that Choi Jong-In didn't even have the chance to think about stopping the youth from leaving.

Meanwhile, the Association employees and the scouts from other Guilds belatedly realised what had transpired and began freaking out.

"What the-??"

"Wait, did Choi Jong-In get kicked to the curve?!"

"No matter who sees it, he was ignored!"

Mutter, mutter.....

The waiting room became very noisy all of a sudden. Choi Jong-In did his best to maintain his calm and looked to his side.

'I'm the only one who knows about the appearance of the new rank S.'

The re-measurement was scheduled for three days later. There was still some time left until the official announcement.

'Before that, though, I gotta find another opportunity to talk to him, no matter what....'

Wasn't there a good way?

While Choi Jong-In began pondering his options, he spotted someone else hurriedly running towards the building.

'…..Wait, isn't he...?

Now, that was definitely a familiar face.

When that man pushed open the glass door and entered, Choi Jong-In spoke up with a surprised expression on his face.

"Chairman Baek? What are you.....?"

Baek Yun-Ho's eyes also widened after recognising Choi Jong-In.

"Master Choi?"

Choi Jong-In quickly deciphered Baek Yun-Ho's expression.

'It's like, he knows he's been busted....'

It was not very likely that he came running after an informant rang him up just now. No, the time of his arrival didn't make sense if that was the case.

'I mean, the distance between the White Tiger Guild offices and the Hunter Association is great, so....'

That's right – Baek Yun-Ho knew from the get-go.

….He had prior knowledge regarding what would happen here.

'Meaning, he knows about the existence of that man already?'

Baek Yun-Ho scratched the back of his head and muttered to himself.

"Things just got complicated...."

______________

“I came running because you said you’d buy me a meal, but it’s just some measly pork belly??”

“Huh?! Are you looking down on the mighty pork belly now??”

“…….”

“This place is where my great memory of me and my Sung-sama was created, you know!!”

Jinho and her deeply-reddened face put the empty shot glass of alcohol down on the table and snorted out in drunkenness.

“Okay, so why did you bring me to this place of such a ‘wonderful’ memory?”

Soo-Hyun formed a flabbergasted expression.

She was getting ready to sleep, but then, Jinho called her out of the blue.

“Noona, please console me. Please.”

“….Why ‘noona’ all of a sudden?”

“Noooooonaaaa~~.”

She found Jinho's tearful whimpering rather desperate and pitiful, so she hurriedly came out to meet her, but to think, the place Jinho brought her to was a diner….

It was only obvious for Soo-Hyun to be less than impressed by her current situation, when considering the fact that she grew up as a refined lady of a chaebol’s family, and also from the fact that she was working as a top model nowadays.

Glance, glance….

Because she was in a hurry, she threw on whatever and even wore a baseball cap on top of that too, yet the glances from the surrounding men were still flying towards her non-stop.

“What’s going on? Will you just speak up?”

Soo-Hyun asked while pouring more soju in Jinho’s empty shot glass.

“Look, look at this. This is the phone number of my dear Sung-sama. Right?”

Still sounding tearful, Jinho pushed forward her smartphone. On the screen, one could see the lengthy list of calls.

One successful call, and four failed attempts.

Even then, the first one that got through was apparently cut short in the middle, too.

“Wait. Did you call me out here because you couldn’t reach someone you know on the phone?!”

Nod, nod.

Jinho’s head bobbed up and down.

“Ha-ah…”

Soo-Hyun could hardly believe this crap.

She snatched Jinho’s phone away.

“Gimme that!”

She quickly tapped on the ‘Call’ icon.

Ringgg….

The ringtone got cut off a short while later. When that happened, Soo-Hyun began glaring at Jinho.

“Hey, you dumba*s.”

“Eh?” Jinho raised her head from the table.

“The ringtone cuts out after 15 seconds. That guy’s not avoiding answering you! It’s just that his phone’s been switched off. And if the call got cut out in the middle, his battery must’ve run out.”

“…Really?”

“If you don’t believe me, call again.”

Ringgg….

Just as she said, the signal got cut off after 15 seconds.

“Hey, it’s for real?!” Jinho’s expression brightened instantly.

“It’s sorted now, right? I’m going home.”

Soo-Hyun was about to leave without a shred of hesitation, but Jinho hurriedly latched onto her sleeve.

“Noooona~ Please hang around until I finish this bottle, at least!”

“Am I 'noona' only on occasions like this one, ah?”

And this fool usually called her ‘You’ this and ‘Hey you’ that all the time, too!

In the end, though, Soo-Hyun settled back down on the chair.

“Huh? Noona, you also want a drink?”

“You wanted me to wait until you finish the bottle, right? It’s going to take a long time before you solo that bottle, and I can’t wait around until you manage that.”

“As expected, there can only be one noona!”

“Stop it, please?”

Even though she replied like that, they began emptying the shot glasses in a fun, relaxed atmosphere.

“By the way, just who is this ‘Sung-sama ’ guy?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

After signing up with the Yujin Guild, that is.

Jinho was about to say those words out loud, but then, her eyes widened slightly after seeing the footage being shown on the TV mounted high up on the diner’s wall.

“Uh? Isn’t that guy….?”

Soo-Hyun also turned her gaze towards the TV.

The screen showed a news broadcast, and it carried the news regarding a top celebrity named Rhee Min-Seong, who had gone through the Awakening process recently.

Standing in front of the huge throngs of reporters, Rhee Min-Seong spoke as if he was abashed by the attention.

"Well, my filming schedule hasn’t been cleared yet….. Will only know after my evaluation result comes out…..”

The ticker tape on the bottom of the screen said that Rhee Min-Seong was planning to stop by the Hunters Association soon and take his rank assignment test.

“Wowsers. As expected of the star of the Korean Wave, Rhee Min-Seong! Look at the number of reporters there. Aren’t those guys from the Chinese media?”

Jinho sighed in admiration.

However, Soo-Hyun simply frowned.

“How can that guy lie so boldly in front of so many people?!”

“Eh?”

“Everyone who’s in the know all know it already. That’s all just a show. He already has been ranked A, you know? He’s just playing it up for the cameras because he wants to be the talk of the town!”

“He’s putting on an act? But, that symbol of modesty Rhee Min-Seong is?!”

Soo-Hyun clicked her tongue in annoyance.

Tsk, tsk.

‘How come no one has got any clue?’

This kinda felt like she was badmouthing someone behind his back, but within the circle of those who knew Rhee Min-Seong personally, that man’s reputation was the absolute worst.

The difference in his personality between when the cameras were around and when they were not was, as the kids liked to say nowadays, the 4th dimensional wall that no one could cross. 

That was the type of person Soo-Hyun detested the most.

If he was just two-faced, then she might have overlooked his faults, but then again, that b*stard was notorious for his flirtatious ways, too.

Not too long ago, he called her up totally out of the blue and started his shtick while saying something about being a Hunter like her. She had to go through a wringer trying to end that call.

‘What an unpleasant b*stard….’

Even before he had Awakened, he was infamous for his incredible arrogance, but now that he was about to become a rank A Hunter, how bad would it get now?

Not only that, it looked like that the occasion of him being labeled as a rank A would be broadcast live nationwide, too.

‘He’s really good at using his head for stuff like this, isn’t he?’

Soo-Hyun shook her head and slammed back the remaining soju in her shot glass.

X

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo leaned against the back of the chair.

Two days. It was a bit too short to do anything substantial, and maybe a bit too long to do nothing but lounge around at home.

‘Should I just take a look anyway?’

Feeling half-interested, Jin-Woo moved the mouse cursor to the recruitment noticeboard in the Hunter forums.

Click.

One click later, and countless recruitment notices filled up his monitor. He quickly noticed a flood of requests from various freelancer raid teams searching for temps near this area.

‘…….’

The reason for this was simple. When he and Jinho monopolised every rank C Gate nearby for a little while, many raid teams temporarily lost their livelihood.

Perhaps as a rebound, the raid teams that had been sitting idle during that time suddenly went into an energetic overdrive in the last few days.

Jin-Woo smiled wryly and changed the page.

‘Well, I won’t level up anymore in rank C dungeons, anyway.’

It took him one full day to level up once in the very last rank C dungeon he entered. No, never mind one day. He actually needed nearly two days for that single level up. And, his current level was higher than that time by 15.

If there was a gauge for the experience points, then the needle wouldn’t even budge.

‘Rank C Gates have no meaning to me anymore….’

Unfortunately, he couldn’t find a single recruitment offer for raiding higher ranked dungeons. Freelancer raid teams trying to clear high ranked dungeons were akin to them killing themselves.

And the large Guilds wouldn’t really recruit temporary members like this, either.

Still, one would never know.

‘Should I change the search parameters?’

Jin-Woo changed the search condition and had it display only the results with ‘high-ranked dungeons’.

Click.

Even though he was hoping, he wasn’t expecting much at all.

However…

‘…..Huh?’

Something did pop up.

________________

“You’re a rank E?”

“Yes.”

“You’ve never done anything like this before?”

“No, never.”

“Well, uh… your specialty is?”

“I’m a close-quarter combat type.”

‘Well, at least that’s a relief.’ The foreman wearing a hard hat swept his gaze up and down over Jin-Woo.

‘For a rank E, he’s got a pretty impressive physique, doesn’t he? His eyes look okay, too.’

Jin-Woo patiently waited for the answer from the foreman.

The foreman returned Jin-Woo’s Hunter license and smiled jovially.

“Hahaha. There are quite a few people similar to you here, Mister Jin-Woo. Don’t be too nervous, and let’s get along well.”

The foreman ahjussi was over forty years old, yet he was overflowing with energy. As an added bonus, he even sported a cool mustache, too.

“You can wait here until everyone shows up, Then, you can go inside. And don’t forget your equipment, too.”

“My equipment….?”

“You can pick up any one of those lying on the ground over there.”

“…..Okay, got it.”

Jin-Woo nodded his head while looking at the pile of pickaxes on the ground.

X

“Okay, okay. Everyone, let’s get going.”

Hunters in the mining team checked their equipment and slowly shuffled towards their destination. Jin-Woo blended in and went along with them.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“Thank you.”

“You all worked hard, everyone!”

The Hunters Guild employees stood in front of the Gate and welcomed the raid team members as they made their exit one by one.

The term raid team, as used in the field seemed to refer to the members belonging to the Guild’s main assault force.

‘So, these people are…. the country’s best assault force.’

Studying the faces of each and every upper rank – no, the very highest ranked – Hunters walking by, Jin-Woo’s eyes sharpened considerably.

He spotted a familiar face among them.

‘….Choi Jong-In.’

The leader of the Hunters Guild, and a rank S mage-type Hunter.

Jin-Woo pulled the hard hat lower to hide his face, figuring that things might get complicated if Choi Jong-In recognised him here.

Thankfully, there were many Hunters wearing a similar get-up as him nearby. So, Jin-Woo was able to blend in just fine.

And so, as he stood amidst the miners and silently studied the members of the country’s very best assault force, Jin-Woo began thinking that…

‘…..Are they really the true elites of the Hunters Guild?’

He was feeling quite incredulous inwardly.

Quite contrary to his initial expectations, it was hard to find a single Hunter with a really powerful aura.

As befitting of the nickname ‘Ultimate Weapon’, Jin-Woo could sense an enormous amount of magical energy from Choi Jong-In, but besides that guy, not one was worthy of mention.

‘Could they be the weak ones, instead?’

But, that simply made no sense.

Jin-Woo softly shook his head.

These were the members of the no.1 raid team selected from the cream of the crop found in the country’s top Guild.

‘I mean, the Guild Master himself has participated in the raid, so there’s just no way that some nobodies would be chosen as team members.’

The word most ill-suited to describe these people would be ‘Weak’. Then, there could be only one conclusion.

‘No, it’s me who has gotten stronger.’

A thin smile crept up on Jin-Woo’s lips. Strength was relative, wasn’t it?

The efforts of the last couple of months definitely did not betray his expectations. His Stats had increased by so much that he could think of the raid team that managed to conquer a rank A dungeon as weaklings.

By using the difference between himself and them, he could sense his own strength.

Thump, thump, thump….

His heart began beating faster from this realisation.

But, then….

No one told him to do so, and there was no sound attracting him, yet Jin-Woo’s head instinctively swiveled back towards the Gate.

And then, he gasped out in surprise.

‘How can this be….?’

There was a woman with a short hairstyle relaxedly walking out from the Gate.

The very first things that caught his attention on her makeup-less face were a pair of large and clear eyes.

Next up, her clean and pale skin, as well as her smoothly flowing neckline, also managed to attract his gaze.

If there were 100 men, 99 of them would unhesitatingly praise her looks and call it beautiful.

However, besides all that, what attracted Jin-Woo’s attention the most was not her looks but what was inside her.

The power that was hidden inside her.

From that expressionless woman, an incredible amount of magic energy was leaking out non-stop.

‘At a bare minimum, she’s on the same level as Choi Jong-In.’

Or maybe, even more than that.

She possessed an aura that easily overwhelmed her surroundings.

By the time his shock wore off and cold reasoning succeeded in driving his emotions out of his head, Jin-Woo recalled this woman’s name.

‘She must be….’

The only female rank S, Cha Hae-In.

The top-ranked Hunter who formed, along with Choi Jong-In, one of the core pillars of the Hunters Guild.

‘I can’t think of anyone else.’

Just how many women possessing such an aura existed in South Korea?

Compared to her ‘rarity’ though, Cha Hae-In’s face wasn’t all that well known. It was because she didn’t enjoy being exposed to the cameras. And, that was also why Jin-Woo saw Cha Hae-In’s face for the first time today as well.

‘Wait, her face doesn’t even look weird like in some rumors, so how come she hates being in front of a camera?’

Indeed, pretty much all ladies in their early twenties loved taking photos. Sure, all those happened to be selfies, but still.

Perhaps his stare was too direct, Cha Hae-in’s own gaze began shifting in Jin-Woo’s direction.

‘Stealth… shouldn’t be necessary here, right?’

Jin-Woo easily hid his presence. Cha Hae-In continued to scan the area Jin-Woo used to stand before tilting her head slightly.

‘What was that? I thought I felt a really strong presence just now.’

Was she mistaken?

Initially, she thought that the Association President Goh Gun-Hui had stopped by at the operations area. However, that powerful presence disappeared completely as if it were a lie.

‘Well, someone as busy as the Association President wouldn’t come unannounced, now would he?’

Too bad for her, the cost of her misunderstanding was rather great.

Because she was searching after the hint of that strong presence, she had to focus her senses, and that meant the heavy odor several times worse than normal assaulted her nose.

“Euk.”

As usual, Cha Hae-In pulled out a handkerchief to cover her nose and, while tottering around somewhat uneasily, escaped from the cordon of Hunters.

‘Her perception is better than I thought.’

Jin-Woo let out a sigh of relief while watching Cha Hae-In’s distancing back.

With her exit, all the raid team members had come out of the Gate.

Having been waiting with bated breath for this moment, the foreman of the mining team Bae Yun-Seok turned around to face his boys. He clapped his hands loudly and spoke up with a bright voice.

“Well, it’s our turn now, so let’s all do our best!”

The unique nature of the job meant that the retrieval team would have to enter first, followed by the mining team.

Jin-Woo stood in front of the Gate.

‘…….’

As he stood there while silently admiring the splendor of the rank A Gate, something he hadn’t experienced before, Bae Yun-Seok approached him.

“Mister Sung, what are you doing? We should go inside.”

“Alright.”

Jin-Woo replied briefly and stepped through the Gate, just like other Hunters did before him.

And then, a familiar message popped up before his eyes.

[You have entered a dungeon.]

________________

“Everyone, let’s take a break and have lunch.”

“Yes!!”

Everyone dropped their tools and dusted their hands.

While the miners were walking towards the exit in pairs and groups, Jin-Woo showed no hint of moving from the spot.

Foreman Bae got closer and asked him. “Mister Sung? Aren’t you going, too?”

“I’m not feeling all that hungry at the moment.”

“Even then, you should eat something if you plan to continue working in the afternoon.”

“Nah, I’m fine. I did eat my breakfast a bit later than usual, anyway.”

“Really? ….Well, nothing I can do about that, then.”

Bae was planning to talk about the future together with this young man during the lunch break, but that didn’t mean he should forcibly drag the kid away, no?

Foreman Bae ruefully turned around towards the Gate’s exit.

It was at this point that the corners of Jin-Woo’s lips arched up. Watching the distancing backs of the miners, he formed a deep smile.

‘I can’t miss such a wonderful opportunity, right?’

Finally, he was left all alone. Both the mining team and the retrieval team had left the dungeon. For about one hour, he was free to do whatever he wanted.

Meaning, this was the best chance for him to seek out the boss hiding in the deepest part of the dungeon.

Jin-Woo put the pickaxe down and slowly shifted his gaze to the direction of the boss room. He could still sense the thick aura of the monster.

‘I’ll just go and take a quick look.’

He wasn’t thinking of doing anything at all. No, he just wanted to see what the boss looked like.

Thump, thump, thump…

Just from imagining him seeing the boss, his heart was pounding faster.

Jin-Woo forcibly controlled his wildly-beating heart and walked forward. He moved deeper into the cave, following after the aura of the boss.

And so, just how long did he have to walk?

A long stroll later, he finally arrived at the entrance of a huge chamber. It was the boss room. The cavern itself was already pretty huge, but the boss room was even bigger.

Was every high-ranking dungeon as huge as this one? Just as he began wondering like that….

He discovered the boss and automatically accepted that this dungeon simply had to be this big.

‘If a monster like that gets outside….’

His eyes spotted the lone humanoid monster standing still at the far end of the boss room. Jin-Woo’s eyes began gleaming brightly like a young kid who got his hands on a toy he wanted so much as a gift.

‘A giant-type monster.’

He heard a few things about this type of monster before, but this would be his first time looking at one. Because a giant-type monster’s corpse was so huge, it was practically impossible to retrieve it in time, so most people would hardly ever get to see one outside of dungeon breaks.

Such a creature was right over there, and that was causing his heart to palpitate faster and faster.

‘That thing’s really strong.’

The hair on his body was standing up. But, for some reason, he didn’t think for once that hunting that thing down was impossible for him.

‘The current me can…..’

He’d be more than enough. The moment he thought like this, he reflexively swallowed his saliva.

Gulp.

Just how much experience points would he earn by hunting that guy down? By working his a*s off inside the Demon’s Castle, he leveled up 15 times in a week. But, if he could kill one boss and raise his level by 2, 3 times….

‘No, I shouldn’t be doing this.’

Even though he was telling himself he shouldn’t, both the ‘Baruka’s Dagger’ and the ‘Knight Killer’ were summoned into his hands already.

More importantly, his expression wasn’t of someone stuck in a dilemma, wondering whether he should do something or not.

Should I just go ahead and do this thing?

A soft but excited grin formed on his lips.

However….

While Jin-Woo stood there deliberating with a smile on his face, a certain woman’s incredibly sharp voice flew at him from his behind.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Right then, Jin-Woo felt his heart crash down to the pit of his stomach.

‘When did she….?’

He was paying too much attention to the boss and failed to notice that someone had come closer.

‘I’m busted….’

Jin-Woo could only smack his lips in regret.

Tsk.

However, with an eyewitness around, it was no longer possible to stare avariciously at the boss.

The Hunters Guild had purchased the raid permit for his particular dungeon, so naturally, the boss of this place was also a part of their investment.

And, if the boss was killed off, the Gate would close down. The potential losses the Hunters Guild might incur would be a lot, then.

‘I nearly messed up.’

He got too carried away and nearly put his hands on someone else’s property. Jin-Woo regained his bearings and spat out a sigh of relief; meanwhile, the owner of the voice had walked closer.

“I asked you what you were doing.”

Jin-Woo formed an embarrassed smile and turned around to face her. “I got lost and ended up here.”

“You got lost?!”

She sounded flabbergasted. Only then did Jin-Woo confirm who the owner of the voice was.

‘Huh? Isn’t she….?’

He saw that face just before entering the dungeon, didn’t he?

It was none other than the rank S Hunter Cha Hae-In. As Cha Hae-In slowly closed the distance, she carefully scanned both of Jin-Woo’s hands.

‘I definitely saw him holding weapons just now, though?’

Was she mistaken?

Whatever the case might have been, they had disappeared without a trace.

Cha Hae-In’s gaze scanned the entirety of Jin-Woo, up and down.

‘A hard hat and a worker’s overall….. Is he from our mining team?’

She honestly believed him about getting lost here. She didn’t know how he got this far, but well, the boss room was a very dangerous place to hang around.

Discovering the ‘reason’ was secondary. For now, Cha Hae-In figured that the priority should be on helping this man to leave this place.

“That chamber is where the boss is.”

Cha Hae-In covered her nose with her handkerchief as usual and stood before Jin-Woo.

“Please exit from the dungeon as soon as possible. If you manage to attract its aggro, people inside this dungeon could all die.”

“Ah. I’m sorry.”

It seemed that his acting worked. Jin-Woo formed a satisfied expression and walked past Cha Hae-In. It was then.

‘….Uh? ’

Cha Hae-In’s head snapped towards Jin-Woo.

Something impossible just happened.

Cha Hae-In’s eyes opened wide, and even before she realised it, she was calling out to him.

“Excuse me. Wait!”

“Yes?”

“Can you take a look at me for a sec?”

What’s gotten into her?

And they said that thieves knew what they did wrong; Jin-Woo was not looking forward to Cha Hae-In coming in close to him.

Too bad, she was already standing right in front of his nose.

“What…. what’s the matter?” He asked with a troubled look on his face, but she didn’t answer and simply proceeded to lightly breathe in the air near him.

She had already put away the handkerchief covering her nose.

‘What’s going on here?’

Jin-Woo failed to understand why she was doing this.

‘Wait, why is she suddenly smelling me?’

Jin-Woo began panicking inwardly.

However, the state of confusion Cha Hae-In was going through at the moment was several times greater than his.

‘There is no…. stink coming from him!’

This would be her first time meeting another Hunter that didn’t stink.

Cha Hae-In’s surprised eyes stared at Jin-Woo. And a question mark floated above Jin-Woo’s head as his reply.

“Is there some kind of a problem?”

“You… Are you a Hunter for real?”

Was there a need for words here? Jin-Woo pushed forward the Hunter licence hanging on his neck.

Cha Hae-In took the licence and her gaze quickly alternated between Jin-Woo’s face and the ID photo.

‘Rank E…. Sung Jin-Woo….’

Was this because his rank was too low?

She could not pick up any type of smell coming from this man named Jin-Woo.

No, wait. Actually, a pleasant odour was gently wafting out of him, instead.

Jin-Woo sneakily extracted his licence out of Cha Hae-In’s hand.

“Can I go now?”

“Uhm, well, I….”

Cha Hae-In did call out to Jin-Woo, but then, realised that she had nothing else to say nor had a reason to keep him here.

“…..It’s nothing. Please be careful on your way out. This dungeon is rather large, you see.”

“Ah, of course.”

Jin-Woo lightly nodded his head and turned towards the location of the mining operation. His back soon disappeared around the corner of the cavern.

However, Cha Hae-In’s lingering gaze didn’t shift away from the path Jin-Woo had walked down on.

‘He smelled really nice.’

_______________

Hunters of the mining team were returning to the mining operations area one by one after finishing their lunch.

Foreman Bae was walking with a toothpick stuck in between his teeth. Once he saw Jin-Woo appearing from the deeper parts of the dungeon, though, he flinched greatly in shock.

“Uh? Huh?? Mister Sung, why are you coming from there??”

“Oh, that….” Jin-Woo sneakily shifted his gaze over in the direction of the boss.

‘….I can’t tell him about me stopping by the boss to see what it looks like out of curiosity, right?’

Jin-Woo’s gaze returned to Foreman Bae. “I got lost while searching for the bathroom, actually.”

“Aigoo! You need to be more careful, young man. Interiors of these dungeons all look the same, so if you get lost inside, it won’t be easy finding your way around! But still, how did you find your way back to here?”

“Oh, I ran into Cha Hae-In Hunter-nim on my way back, so….”

“Ahh, Cha Hunter-nim, was it? She’s probably gone to stand guard by the boss room just in case the boss decides to take a stroll. That lady also worries a lot, maybe as much as you, Mister Sung.”

Foreman Bae guffawed vigorously. It seemed that Jin-Woo, being worried about the boss not too long ago, had left a deep impression in his mind.

Jin-Woo could only smile wryly.

‘The foreman can laugh like this only because he has no idea how terrifying the boss actually is.’

This was the difference between the Hunters doing these sorts of jobs and the Hunters working in the assault team.

Cha Hae-In understood very well how dangerous and scary an existence the monsters could be, so she was just being meticulous in those areas that no one else was paying much attention to.

‘I didn’t know there was such a side to her, what with that expressionless face of hers and all.’

If the boss decided to come out of the boss room, the assault team wouldn’t be the ones in danger. No, it would be the workers doing their job, as the raid team would be taking a break outside the dungeon.

And she was sacrificing the allure of sweet rest to stand guard in front of the boss room, just for the sake of total strangers.

‘…..She’s an amazing woman.’

That was Jin-Woo’s honest impression of Cha Hae-In.

It was at this point that he suddenly recalled her odd habit.

‘Why was she covering her nose with a handkerchief?’

Thinking back, she never let go of the handkerchief not even once, except for their meeting a few moments ago.

“Foreman?”

“Yeah?”

Foreman Bae remained very friendly whenever Jin-Woo asked him a question, even though it’d be quite reasonable for him to get a bit annoyed by now.

‘Right, the responses were pretty good back when I was doing my job, wasn’t it?’

Indeed, one should strive to do their best in their jobs.

Thanks to his efforts, Jin-Woo could ask about this and that without holding back now. Heck, it was Foreman Bae who urged Jin-Woo to speak instead.

“Mister Sung? You called for me, so how come you ain’t saying a thing?”

“Oh, well, it’s nothing important, but…. By any chance, do you know why Cha Hae-In Hunter-nim walks around with a handkerchief?”

“Oh, that? Well, it’s cuz Hunter Cha is a bit peculiar, you see.”

“A bit peculiar?”

What did he mean by that?

Jin-Woo didn’t have to ask because Foreman Bae helpfully explained himself first.

“Hunter Cha can supposedly smell a kind of body odor coming from other Hunters. And I hear she finds them pretty horrible.”

“She can smell other hunters?!”

“I heard something or other about her special constitutions and stuff.”

Her special constitutions, he said.

Jin-Woo also possessed something similar to that – his excellent sense of hearing.

Even from his early years, his hearing could be considered better than average, but once he Awakened, it developed even further.

‘Probably, Cha Hae-In’s sense of smell also got enhanced like mine.’

So, he could more or less understand where she was coming from.

“Well, wouldn’t you agree that she is peculiar?”

Perhaps he enjoyed the sight of Jin-Woo focusing on his words more than he should, because Foreman Bae continued on with his explanations without any prompt from the youth.

“I heard that she finds it really hard to breathe near other Hunters because of the stink.”

“...…”

Was that why?

‘….Asking me if I was a Hunter.’

Was it because, unlike other Hunters, he didn’t smell at all?

Back in the Red Gate, the leader of the White Phantoms said something similar.

Every one of us can hear a certain voice repeating itself in our heads. It tells us to kill humans. However, I can’t hear that voice when I’m looking at you.

Wasn’t this a bit similar in context with what that creature told him? He didn’t have the Hunter-specific stink, and they couldn’t hear the voice telling them to kill him.

‘Because, I’m a Player…..’

A unique existence who had received the advantages of the System.

Just what was this ‘Player’?

The question of his own identity rose up in Jin-Woo’s head, but he shook his head eventually.

‘This isn’t a problem I can figure out now, anyway.’

Jin-Woo emptied his mind. Problems that couldn’t be solved by thinking too hard would only tire him out if he continued to dwell on it.

Crack! Kwack!

It was then, he heard his colleagues getting back to work. So, Jin-Woo also lifted the pickaxe.

‘The rank A boss… I wish I could hunt it down.’

What would he have done if Cha Hae-In didn’t show up in time?

He couldn’t help but wonder.

_______________

“Mister Sung, you made the right choice!”

Foreman Bae’s moustache quivered as he formed a blindingly brilliant smile.

And then, to make sure that Jin-Woo’s mind wouldn’t change overnight, he even came up with an unprecedented offer, too.

“I’ll have a good chat with the person in charge, and make sure that you get double the normal daily wages tomorrow.”

“Will that be okay?”

“Of course. You think I won’t be able to do that much for you, Mister Sung?”

Foreman Bae confidently pounded on his chest.

“Mister Sung, don’t you worry about a thing and just come to work tomorrow.”

Quite obviously, who would sweat over paying twice as much in daily wages to a guy capable of doing the work of 4-5 people?

If Bae was the Chairman, never mind double, he’d triple – no, maybe even more with an eye towards the future.

‘Didn’t expect myself to rue the day that I’m not the Chairman of the Hunters….’

Foreman Bae could only swallow back his laughter.

Jin-Woo asked him a question, then. “Ahh, right. I promised to meet someone tomorrow evening, so will I be able to make that in time?”

Earlier this morning, Jinho gave him a call.

“Jin-Woo, can I come and speak to you?”

For some reason, she sounded worn out.

‘That kid was on the top of the world yesterday, saying that everything had worked out alright, yet today…..’

Jin-Woo was taken by surprise, but unfortunately, the call came only after he had already applied to become a miner.

He had no choice but to delay the meeting until tomorrow evening.

Foreman Bae chuckled out loudly. “From what I hear, tomorrow’s dungeon should be much smaller in scale than today’s one. So, we should be finished well before 6 o’clock.”

Weren’t they able to finish today’s work around five PM today? They should be even faster tomorrow, not the other way around.

Jin-Woo nodded his head. That would be fine for him, too. “In that case, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Alright. Take care.”

________________

Late at night.

Cha Hae-In was tossing and turning in her bed.

‘Why is he different from others?’

Occupied by various thoughts regarding the man she met back in the boss room, she couldn’t fall asleep at all.

After awakening her abilities roughly two years ago, she ran into many, many Hunters, but there had never been an exception.

Whenever she approached Hunters, or to be more specific, the Awakened, a deeply unpleasant stink assaulted her nose.

At first, she thought she was sick, so she went to see various doctors. However, she made no progress in that regard.

One of the doctors she went to see cautiously told her of his hypothesis.

Could it be possible that you, Cha Hunter-nim, can sense other’s magic energy through your olfactory senses?

That guess certainly held some merit; the stink would get worse the higher the rank of a Hunter was. And sure enough, the lower the rank, the more tolerable the stink was, too.

Of course, regular people didn’t emit any stink whatsoever.

However…..

‘….This is the first time meeting someone with a pleasant smell.’

Recalling the events of earlier, her heart began beating a bit faster.

She became quite curious about who that man could be, so as soon as the raid ended, she connected to the Association’s website and searched for his details.

Rank E.

Sung Jin-Woo.

The information on the man, as seen on the Hunter license, could be seen on the screen.

‘There are no contact details….’

But then again, what would she even do after finding out about his contact info?

Realising that there was nothing more she could glean from the Association’s website, she then ended up calling the phone number of Joh Myoung-Ki, the manager of the recruitment department.

She didn’t even mean to do that, though.

“What’s going on? Cha Hunter-nim, did something happen at this late hour?”

It was already well past one AM by the time she called him.

He wouldn’t have answered the phone if it wasn’t from South Korea’s sole female rank S Hunter, who also happened to be the Vice Chairman of the Hunters Guild.

She couldn’t help but think that she made a mistake after hearing the still-sleepy voice of Joh Myoung-Ki, but that lasted only for a short while.

Cha Hae-In opened her mouth with some difficulty. “Can you find some information on a Hunter named Sung Jin-Woo?”

“I beg your pardon? Wait, are you talking about the rank E Hunter currently working for the Association?”

Cha Hae-In was taken in by a huge surprise.

Joh Myoung-Ki was none other than the man in charge of recruiting in South Korea’s best Guild. So, why did a man like that remember the name of a rank E Hunter?

“Do you know who he is?”

“Ah, the thing is…. Actually, Chairman Choi requested me yesterday to do the same thing as you have, you see. He asked me to uncover more information on that person.”

“Chairman did that?”

“Yes, miss.”

“Do you know what’s going on?”

“Well, even I don’t…..”

“…So, what did you find out?”

A voice that was thick with a helpless sigh came out of the phone’s speaker.

“I did my best to uncover more, but the Association has placed a lockdown on his information. It’s my first time encountering a situation like this, them blocking the flow of all information on a regular Hunter. He’s not even a top-ranked Hunter, either….”

“Ah…..”

“But, why are you looking for him, Cha Hunter-nim? Is there something I should assist you with?”

“No, it’s fine. I’m sorry for calling you so late. Good night.”

Click.

….Those were the contents of the phone call she made three hours ago.

She worked up her courage to find out more about a guy, only for more questions to bubble up in her mind.

A mystery Hunter whose identity was being sought after by the leader of the Hunters Guild, while the Association was doing their best to hide it.

‘There’s definitely something going on here.’

No, wait. There simply had to be something….

She earnestly prayed for it.

He could very well be the person to unravel the mysterious and special constitution that continued to torment her ever since she turned 21 – two years ago, when she had Awakened her powers.

‘That man, can I meet him again?’

Could it be that she’d never get to see him again?

She was beset with worry all of a sudden.

Thankfully, Cha Hae-In recalled Sung Jin-Woo’s hard hat. She remembered that the hard hat and the overall he was wearing both spotted the emblem of the Hunters Guild.

‘I remember now. He was in the mining team, wasn’t he?’

Unlike her, who was the part of the raid team A, the mining team would be working later today as well.

If Sung Jin-Woo hadn’t left the mining team, then there was a chance that she could meet him again.

‘Let’s go and take a look.’

Since she was the Vice Chairman of the Guild, it’d not be a strange thing for her to stop by at the raid location.

‘Right, I’ll just show up there as if nothing’s wrong, and see whether that man came to work or not.’

….But, why? As soon as she thought about the possibility of seeing that suspicious Hunter again, she felt much more relaxed.

‘If I want to do that, I gotta get some sleep first.’

For the sake of today’s schedule, Cha Hae-In forced her unwilling eyes to close.

X

Chapter Text

Cha Hae-In finally arrived at the location of the second rank A Gate.

She had her baseball cap pushed down low, and as a result, only a few passersby recognised her.

The first thing she did was to seek out the mining team.

A few Hunters walked past her and sneaked a couple of glances, but they were all working for the Guild anyway and none of them paid her any great attention after that.

Eventually, she could see Foreman Bae in the distance – as well as the mining team around him.

Thump, thump!

Her heart began beating faster.

Standing a little bit of distance away from them, she scanned the faces of each miner present.

‘Where is he…?’

She couldn’t see Jin-Woo among them.

How should she say this? It felt like all of her energy was abandoning her at once.

‘Did he give up on being a miner?’

Why don’t I wait for another minute? He could have left the spot for only a moment and is coming back soon.

Three minutes more.

No, maybe five.

….And so, she waited for another 15 minutes, but Jin-Woo didn’t show up in the end.

“Fuu….”

After spitting out a long sigh, Cha Hae-In turned around to leave. But, only after taking a couple of steps, she turned around again and returned to her original spot.

She yanked her cap off and took in several deep breaths, before walking towards Foreman Bae.

The gazes of the mining team members were directed to her now.

Thankfully, the stink wasn’t so bad, perhaps due to the ranks of Hunters in the mining team being low.

“Uh? Uhhh?” Recognising Cha Hae-In, Foreman Bae quickly ran over to her.

“Cha Hunter-nim? I thought you were taking a break today?”

“Hello there.”

Cha Hae-In shared a simple greeting with Foreman Bae, and after making sure that no one was eavesdropping on her, she cautiously asked him a question.

“By any chance… Is there a Hunter named Sung Jin-Woo working for you?”

“Mister Sung?”

Hearing an unexpected name being mentioned out of the blue, Foreman Bae formed a surprised expression.

“If you’re looking for Mister Sung, he subbed for a porter’s job….”

“A porter?!” Cha Hae-In gasped out in shock. “Are you saying he actually went inside the Gate?!”

Foreman Bae nodded his head vigorously as if to show that he, too, couldn’t believe it.

“Yes, miss. That’s what happened.”

A rank E Hunter volunteered as a porter and entered a rank A dungeon? And he didn’t even have dozens of lives or anything, too.

‘What was he thinking?’

But, when Cha Hae-In thought about it, didn’t she find that man loitering around the boss room yesterday with weapons in his hands? Indeed, she did not see wrong back then.

One more thing to be suspicious of, then.

Even though she ended up letting go of yesterday’s event as a coincidence, when she really thought about it in detail, it was a rather strange thing for a Hunter with four years of experience getting lost inside a dungeon like that.

‘I need to find out.’

She began thinking that she simply had to confirm what this Hunter named Sung Jin-Woo wanted from her Guild.

And, in order to do so, she had to enter the dungeon.

Not only was she the Vice Chairman of the Hunters Guild, but she was also a rank S Hunter as well.

No one would try to stop her if she wanted to enter a dungeon where the Hunters Guild was performing a raid.

Cha Hae-In lightly bit into her thumb while pondering her choices before swiftly making her decision.

“I’ll have to enter the Gate myself.”

Foreman Bae’s eyes went extra-round.

“Heok….? Was there some kind of an accident? Should we ask the Guild for additional personnel?”

“No, no need. It’s a personal matter. I just wanted to talk to him about something private, so you don’t have to worry.”

“Oh… I see.”

Cha Hae-In spun towards the Gate.

However, her side felt rather empty, then.

‘Ah. My weapon…..’

She felt around her waist, only to belatedly remember that she had left her sword back home. Since she never imagined that she’d be entering a dungeon on her off day like this, well…..

Cha Hae-In’s forehead beautifully creased up.

‘As a leader, Mister Ki-Hoon is someone totally trustworthy, and the rest of the team are made up of capable Hunters. But….’

But, it was still unimaginable to enter a dungeon without a weapon in hand. A short deliberation later, she turned around to face Foreman Bae once more.

“Is there something else, Miss….?” Foreman Bae looked at her with confused eyes.

“Mister Foreman, can I borrow a weapon from you?”

“Pardon me?”

Foreman Bae hesitated somewhat before calling out to a Hunter passing by.

“Hey, over here, Mister Seok. Please bring me one of our equipment.”

“Yes, boss.”

The ‘equipment’ Mister Seok rapidly brought over was a pickaxe, as used by the mining team.

“…….”

Cha Hae-In’s expression stiffened. “Excuse me…. Don’t you have anything else?”

“Uhm, such as….?”

“For instance, swords or spears.”

“But, if you ask us for such things, well…..”

“…...”

Cha Hae-In sighed out under her breath.

“I understand.”

She then carefully rejected the pickaxe Foreman Bae tried to hand over and quickly walked towards the Gate.

“Cha Hunter-nim, will it be fine for you to be empty-handed in there?” He anxiously asked her as he watched her distancing back.

Cha Hae-In came to an abrupt halt and stood there for a moment before hurriedly walking back to take the pickaxe from Foreman Bae. He guffawed out in a genial manner.

“I think that’s for the best, miss. I mean, it’ll be dangerous to be weaponless inside a dungeon, regardless of what.”

“Well, then….”

As she turned around to hurriedly leave, Foreman Bae unluckily didn’t get to see her ears dyed in deep shades of crimson.

______________

“Mister Sung Jin-Woo.”

“Sung Jin-Woo Hunter-nim.”

“Mister Porter?!”

Everyone called out to him at the same time, then they took glances at each other.

Well, it was all fine and dandy that he got to fight to his heart’s content since he no longer had any reason to hide his powers, but…..

‘….How am I supposed to get out of this now?’

Jin-Woo looked at all these people surrounding him and scratched the back of his head.

Woo Jin-Cheol was the first to react.

While everyone else was busy eyeing others around them, he quickly walked right up to Jin-Woo’s side, pulled out his identification card, and displayed it proudly for all to see.

“We’re from the Association’s Monitoring Division.”

Didn’t matter whether you were a high ranked Hunter or a low ranked one, you’d inevitably tense up after hearing the name of the Monitoring Division. And, this tactic was the right one.

It was only for a brief moment, but a hint of nervousness flashed past the expressions of the Hunters Guild members, with the sole exception of Cha Hae-In.

Woo Jin-Cheol seized upon this chance and carried on with what he wanted to say.

“The identity of Sung Jin-Woo Hunter-nim is being strictly guarded by the Association. It is highly classified information that can not be revealed publicly.”

Jin-Woo could only stand back in dumbfounded admiration at Woo Jin-Cheol’s skillful bullsh*tting.

Heck, his expression and words looked and sounded so natural that one couldn’t help but wonder if he practiced it every morning while looking in the mirror or some such.

Whatever the case may be, his intentions definitely got through to the other party.

At the same time, Woo Jin-Cheol sent the slightest hint of a signal to Jin-Woo with his eyes.

‘We will assist you with avoiding unnecessary fuss when exiting from this place.’

Jin-Woo had no idea why the Monitoring Division were helping him, but since they were volunteering to take care of the aftermath, was there a reason for him to refuse now?

Jin-Woo nodded his head.

That’s what he wanted, anyway.

The quick-witted subordinates of Woo Jin-Cheol quickly surrounded Jin-Woo like bodyguards.

“If you have any questions, please send them to the Association. We shall escort Sung Jin-Woo Hunter now.”

Not-so-subtle implication of ‘We won’t hear any of your objections’ was apparent in his voice.

All thanks to Woo Jin-Cheol’s hardened attitude, hard enough to shatter a rock even, the members of the Hunters Guild had no choice but to rein in their questions and stay silent.

“Shall we go?”

Around this time, a female Hunter walked over to Cha Hae-In. “Excuse me…. Vice Chair?”

“Yes?”

When Cha Hae-In turned around to look, the female Hunter pointed to her hand.

“Why are you carrying a pickaxe?”

Cha Hae-In’s gaze drifted towards the head of the pickaxe, and her face began blushing rather quickly.

She hurriedly lowered the pickaxe and cautiously asked.

“You think he found me weird?”

The female Hunter, a mage, tilted her head and asked back. “Who did?”

And that caused not just Cha Hae-In’s face but even her neck to blush in the deep shade of crimson.

X

When they came out of the Gate…

Woo Jin-Cheol took a look at his wristwatch and asked Jin-Woo.

“We’re planning to return to the Association but, well…. If it’s okay with you, why don’t you ride along with us and join the Association President for dinner?”

“What time is it now?”

“It’s quarter past five. PM.”

‘Mm….’

Although he was cutting it close, he should be able to arrive at the promised location in time.

Jin-Woo politely rejected Woo Jin-Cheol’s invitation.

“I’m sorry. I’ve already made a prior engagement.”

______________

Shu, shu, fuu, fuu….

Jinho did her very best to maintain her calm by breathing in deeply several times, just like how she saw it in one of the movies.

‘My fated hour is approaching.’

Indeed, Jin-Woo's choice would decide Jinho’s fate.

Her heart was palpitating faster, and she felt even more nervous compared to a few days ago when she was negotiating with her father for the right to become the Yujin Guild Master.

‘Let’s go back to my original purpose. My original purpose….’

It was no coincidence that she chose the exact same cafe as the first time she met Jin-Woo back when to propose her plan.

‘Without Jin-Woo's help, I wouldn’t even be here right now.’

She began looking around the interior of the cafe while thinking as such, and she was able to see this place in a new light.

Quite coincidentally, the table she chose was the exact same one as the last time, too.

Ringgg….

Along with the doorbell, Jin-Woo entered the cafe.

“Jin-Woo!”

Jinho discovered Jin-Woo and shot up from her seat with a welcoming smile on her face.

Jin-Woo performed a simple little greeting with a nod and settled down on the opposite side of Jinho. The latter sat down after that.

“So, what did you call me here for?”

Jinho raised her head, only for her eyes to widen. “J-Jin-Woo, your clothes…..?”

“Oh, this?”

Jin-Woo came running here right after killing the High Orcs, so his clothing was understandably dirty. His shirt even sported bloodstains from the dying High Orcs, too. 

“I was coming straight from a dungeon, that’s why.” He spoke as if there was nothing to worry about.

‘Heok!’

Jinho was taken by surprise once more.

She was nothing compared to someone like Jin-Woo; after getting her Guild Master license, all Jinho did was waste time by drinking and partying.

But what did Jin-Woo do in the meantime? He possessed incredible power, yet he still found time to enter dungeons to further hone his crafts.

Suddenly, Jinho felt ashamed of herself.

‘As expected of Jin-Woo ….’

And, at the same time, she held Jin-Woo in an even higher reverence now.

The reason why Jin-Woo didn’t bother to wipe away the blood on his clothes was probably because he was confident and forthright enough not to feel the need to hide his training process.

‘Well, the evidence of battle would be more like a medal of honor that he earned through his own two hands, after all.’

Jinho’s expression hardened. She was ready to follow Jin-Woo’s decision, regardless of which direction he’d take.

So, she should come clean and don’t hold anything back.

“Jin-Woo, actually….”

Jinho didn’t leave anything out and reported everything that happened during the negotiation with her father to Jin-Woo – even the event of Goh Myoung-Hwan’s testimony revealing the truth of who saved the Hunters of the White Tiger Guild from the Red Gate incident, too.

‘That guy, doing something unnecessary….’

Still, that man did that for Jin-Woo’s benefit, so he couldn’t get angry at that.

Perhaps that was the reason for Jinho’s expression to be a bit more glowing than usual when she was talking about the Red Gate incident.

In any case….

Jin-Woo knew what Jinho was trying to say here.

“So, in order for you to become the Yujin Guild’s new Master, you need my help, is that about right?”

Finishing all she had to say, Jinho calmly waited for Jin-Woo’s reply. She didn’t grow restless or try to sweet talk like how she would do normally.

‘Well, I’m talking to Jin-Woo here, after all.’

Jinho was definitely thinking of leaving everything to Jin-Woo’s decision.

Remaining silent as long as Jinho’s worries were deep, Jin-Woo finally raised his gaze.

“Hey, Jinho. I am….”

Gulp.

The girl swallowed her drying saliva.

_________________

Jin-Woo had finally arrived at the front of the Association.

‘……??’

Just like he’d been told, he was stopping by the Association three days later.

‘Why is it so noisy here?’

However, it didn’t look like he’d be able to enter the Association at all under the current circumstances.

Of course, there were plenty of ways to go around these people, such as using ‘Stealth’, or jumping over the reporters, or even by finding a back entrance.

But then again, his re-evaluation test had been reserved in advance three days ago, so he didn’t feel like going through the back entrance just to avoid this wall of reporters.

‘It’s not like I committed a crime or something anyways.’

He had no reason not to use the front door at all. Jin-Woo then proceeded to push away the tightly-packed throngs of reporters and made a path for himself.

________________

Jin-Woo held the newly-issued Hunter license in his hand.

It said, ‘Sung Jin-Woo, rank S, Mage-type’.

Even though his face was plastered on the photo box, he still found it hard to believe.

‘Very good. It’s been smooth sailing until now.’

Jin-Woo quickly shoved his new Hunter license inside his wallet.

When he got to the end of the corridor, the waiting duo of Baek Yun-Ho and Choi Jong-In approached him.

“Mister Sung Jin-Woo, can we have a chat?”

“Sung Jin-Woo Hunter-nim, I…..”

“I’m sorry. I’m pressed for time at the moment.” Jin-Woo ignored them both and quickly walked towards the glass door.

“Uh? Uh?!”

Baek Yun-Ho raised his worried voice. “If it was me, I wouldn’t use that exit.”

‘Is he trying to imply that the sweet deals he prepared for this occasion will make me regret walking out of this door or something?’

Jin-Woo wasn’t interested regardless of what was being offered, so he continued to ignore Baek Yun-Ho’s dissuasion and pushed the glass door wide open.

When that happened….

Click, click, click, click, click, click….!!

The reporters that had managed to climb up the steps to push and shove against the Monitoring Division’s agents began clicking their cameras non-stop, with flashes exploding brightly all around him.

‘What the heck is this?’

Jin-Woo became utterly speechless at this blinding explosion of lights.

X

As usual, Sung Jin-Ah stopped by the school tuck shop after the third period ended and bought herself a pack of banana milk.

There was still around one hour to go to lunch. If she didn’t fill herself up temporarily with something like milk, for instance, she’d be unable to concentrate during the class.

And sure enough….

Rumble…

Already, her remorseless stomach was noisily demanding for more fuel to be put in there.

Jin-Ah rubbed her hungry tummy and was about to enter her classroom, but then, one of her friends grabbed her wrist, a shocked expression clearly visible on that girl’s face.

“J-Jin-Ah!!”

“Wha-what?!”

With her friend shocked like this, even Jin-Ah got shocked alongside her for no reason.

“It’s your oppa! He’s on TV right now!!”

“What?? Why is my oppa…??”

Jin-Woo felt her heart tumble to the pit of her stomach.

'Did he get injured again? If not, could it be even worse….??'

The friend dragged Jin-Ah by her wrist inside the classroom as if she didn’t want to waste time explaining anymore.

Jin-Ah’s eyes immediately shifted over to the large TV located next to the blackboard.

And there was….

“O…. oppa?!”

The moment Jin-Ah saw the TV screen, the banana milk in her hand fell to the floor.

The camera lenses captured in full Jin-Woo standing in front of the entrance, and behind him, Baek Yun-Ho with a rueful expression.

________________

In front of the private office of Yujin Construction’s chairman.

Standing in front of the door, Jinho let out a short sigh.

“Fuu….”

She opened the door, and as it smoothly glided inward, she also raised her head to spot her father busy going through several documents, not bothering to even turn his head this way.

“Come inside.”

Even though he made his ‘reply’, Yu Myung-Hwan continued to scribble his signatures on the documents.

Jinho stood next to Yu Myung-Hwan. The father briefly raised his head to confirm the daughter's visage before continuing on with his work.

‘Dad’s still the same, I see.’

In the past, Jinho would’ve been suppressed by her father being like this and ran off, utterly unable to say what she wanted to say. However, it was different now.

“I’d like to speak to you about something, Father.”

“Is it regarding Hunter Sung Jin-Woo?”

“Yes.”

Yu Myung-Hwan finally raised his head up. “Alright. So, what happe….”

It was then.

Yu Myung-Hwan’s phone suddenly went off.

Vrrrr…

“Hold on.”

Yu Myung-Hwan raised his hand and stopped Jinho’s words.

Checking the message on the phone’s screen, Yu Myung-Hwan’s eyes grew wide just a little.

‘My dad can get surprised too?’ Jinho tilted her head slightly.

“…There’s something you should see.”

“Pardon?”

Rather than providing an answer, Yu Myung-Hwan operated the remote and switched the giant TV mounted on one of the walls instead.

A breaking news piece immediately came up on the screen.

[Yes, it has been confirmed just now. The Hunter, who was evaluated as rank S earlier today, is a Re-Awakened, someone who has gone through the secondary awakening process after his initial one. His name is Mister Sung Jin-Woo, who used to work for the Association as a rank E previously.]

The reporter’s excited voice easily conveyed the current atmosphere of the location. Jinho had been listening disinterestedly, but when she heard the name ‘Sung Jin-Woo’, she was taken greatly by surprise.

‘Heok!'

The screen changed after that. It was now showing the emotionless face of someone she was quite familiar with, busy surveying the immediate surroundings.

It was none other than her Jin-Woo.

‘I’m sure of it. Jin-Woo is feeling irritated right now.’

Thanks to Jinho sticking around Jin-Woo for a while, it became pretty easy to tell what he was thinking about simply through his expressions. But, besides all that – he was a rank S?

Jinho was well aware of her Jin-Woo being great, but that greatness had far exceeded her own imagination.

At the same time….

‘Even though he possesses such incredible power, he enters dungeons every day to train himself even further?’

A sense of awe rushed in fast. As a person who used to guard his side, Jinho’s heart swelled with pride as Jin-Woo’s name was continuously mentioned on the TV.

Beep….

The TV was switched off, and Jin-Woo’s face also disappeared from the view. Jinho formed a wistful expression.

“Okay, continue.”

Father was telling Jinho to continue with what she wanted to say.

As she had practiced beforehand, Jinho bowed down hard and spoke.

“My apologies, Father. I couldn’t change Jin-Woo’s mind.”

Yu Myung-Hwan’s expression hardened.

“…..Okay, what did Hunter Sung Jin-Woo say while rejecting your offer?”

“Well, Jin-Woo said…..”

Jinho hesitated slightly, but she slightly raised her head and spoke.

“He wants to make his own Guild, so if I was interested in the Vice Master spot, I should come over, instead…..”

Jinho thought that father would get angry or ignore that suggestion altogether, but instead, his expression was solidly frozen up.

And then….

Grin.

Yu Myung-Hwan chuckled without making a sound.

Someone widely known for his poker face, Chairman Yu Myung-Hwan had actually revealed a change of expression in front of his own daughter.

‘What is my dad doing?’

Jinho couldn’t dare to ask what was happening, so all she could do was to avert her gaze this way and that.

Yu Myung-Hwan spoke, that smile now erased from his lips. “Do you know why I’m trying to establish the Yujin Guild?”

“Isn’t it because…. there’s money to be made in the Hunter business?”

“No, it’s not.” Yu Myung-Hwan’s tone of voice was resolute, unwavering.

“We have more than enough money right now. Do you think I’ll try something that could put us at odds with other large Guilds just for the sake of chasing after a couple more bucks?”

Was he trying to imply that money wasn’t the reason?

Jinho’s eyes widened.

“But, if not that, then….?”

Yu Myung-Hwan carefully put the pen down.

“It’s in order to protect ourselves.”

Yu Myung-Hwan’s serious, dignified eyes caused Jinho to swallow her dry saliva in nervousness.

“Hunters are growing in power every day. And it’s not uncommon to see a single person possessing enough power to rival a country’s military might.”

For instance, the world’s most powerful Hunters, seen as already on the level of exercising power equal to that of a country’s government.

Yu Myung-Hwan was talking about those people.

“I hear that some Hunters already rule smaller nations like kings. How long do you think that the rule of law and governmental authority will keep us safe under the current situation?”

Yu Myung-Hwan’s voice was getting heavier.

However, as Jinho was listening to this explanation, it suddenly dawned on her that she was actually feeling happy at the moment.

Why was that?

‘….Ah.’

That was because her father included her too and said ‘We’, instead.

Indeed, Jinho felt happy because she thought she got to glimpse for the first time another side of her father.

Yu Myung-Hwan’s explanation continued on.

“I wished to establish a Guild and gather trustworthy Hunters to our side. Not because I needed more money or that I am searching for talented individuals, but it’s all to find those Hunters who we can trust as fellow human beings, as well as for us to rely on their strength.”

And then, a nearly imperceptible smile formed on Yu Myung-Hwan’s face again.

“Looks like you already found someone like that, haven’t you?”

“Yes, Father.”

Jinho replied right away. It was a bit hard to tell where her father was going with this, but well, it was true regardless that Jinho could trust and rely on her Jin-Woo.

Yu Myung-Hwan nodded his head. “Very good.”

“Yes?”

“You pass.”

What did she pass just now? Jinho belatedly raised her bowed head.

“I shall entrust the Yujin Guild to you.”

“Pardon me?”

“Do your best to develop the Yujin Guild. Make those trustworthy and reliable Hunters ‘your’ people. In the future, they will no doubt become even more valuable assets than any form of wealth.”

Yu Myung-Hwan spoke with abundant certainty in his voice. And, just as his certainty was great, so was Jinho’s delight.

Would this be the first time since her birth that Jinho was acknowledged by her father?

“Thank you very much, Father!”

With an ample smile blooming on her face, Jinho bent her back forward 90 degrees. Yu Myung-Hwan looked on at that sight with a content expression.

Unfortunately, what Jinho said next went completely against Yu Myung-Hwan’s expectations.

“However, Father, I don’t think I can accept your offer.”

“Mm?”

Yu Myung-Hwan’s brows quivered slightly.

The financial wherewithal of the Yujin Construction was more than enough to put the soon-to-be-established Yujin Guild on the fast track.

Already talks with a few rank S Hunters had advanced into a more concrete stage, as well.

The Yujin Guild becoming South Korea’s best, biggest Guild was already a foregone conclusion.

Jinho must’ve known this, too.

‘That’s why my daughter wanted to become the Master, wasn’t it?’

However, now that he was about to hand the Guild over, why was his girl declining it? Did she get scared in the meantime?

Yu Myung-Hwan did his best to suppress his disappointment and rage towards Jinho and managed to say something.

“….What is your reason?”

Jinho raised her head at that prompt, and while still carrying a happy-looking face, she spoke without holding anything back.

“I’ve decided to work for Jin-Woo’s Guild.”

X

Chapter Text

Finding himself surrounded by a wall of reporters, Jin-Woo became quite flustered.

‘Why aren’t these people taking pictures of Rhee Min-Seong like they were supposed to, instead of blocking my way??’

Wondering if Rhee Min-Seong was standing behind him, he took a quick glance, but he could only see Baek Yun-Ho and Choi Jong-In there.

It was then that his thigh began vibrating.

Vrrrr…. Vrrrr….

It was his mobile phone inside the pocket.

‘Why would Jin-Ah call me at this time of the day?’

As soon as he tapped on the ‘Answer’ icon, his little sister’s urgent voice exploded out from the speaker.

“Oppa! Oppa, you’re on TV!!”

But that was obvious.

Just how many TV cameras were present here? You would still get roughly the same picture regardless of which TV station you tuned into.

Jin-Woo got momentarily tense after his sister, who was supposed to be still in school, suddenly called him up but was able to breathe a sigh in relief.

“Mm…. So, nothing in particular happened, right?”

“Nothing in particular?? How can you even say that?! What’s this about Re-Awakening? And this rank S thing, too???”

From her voice, it was quite obvious that the girl was feeling really shocked at the moment.

Unfortunately, his current circumstances meant that he couldn’t explain everything to her in detail.

“Right now, I’m a bit occupied so…. Okay, I’ll tell you everything once you get back home.”

“Oppa?! Oppa!”

Despite his sister’s anxious voice calling out to him, Jin-Woo ended the call.

Click.

And, at the same time, he got to figure out how the current situation came to be.

‘….There was a message, huh.’

The Hunters Association used a dedicated app to deliver important information in real time.

Most of the time, the app alerted the users to the locations of rank A or higher dungeons, or where dungeon breaks were about to occur, but it was a different story today.

‘….Huh.’

After confirming the contents of the message, Jin-Woo quickly accessed the Association’s website.

And sure enough….

The ink on his rank S Hunter license wasn’t even dry yet, but the list of the highest ranking hunters in South Korea had been updated already.

[Sung Jin-Woo, rank S, Mage-type]

It was as it was written on his license.

‘….They are unnecessarily fast on things like this.’

Shoving the phone back in his pocket, Jin-Woo redirected his gaze back to the front.

“Mister Sung Jin-Woo! Are you really the rank E Hunter once affiliated with the Association?”

“You are now a very rare Re-Awakened!! How are you feeling right now?”

Reporters writhed and struggled desperately in order to capture a bit more of Jin-Woo’s face or his voice with their cameras.

However, Jin-Woo found their explosive attention towards him simply annoying.

‘I gotta get out of this place first.’

Asking them politely to make way wouldn’t going to work.

Jin-Woo’s brows quivered. Should he just summon his Shadow Soldiers to carve out a path and leave?

“Over here! Mister Sung Jin-Woo, please look over this way!”

“Mister Sung Jin-Woo! The whole country is watching, so how about a smile for the viewers?”

While the camera lenses and mics were gradually inching closer, Jin-Woo spent the next two seconds earnestly pondering whether he should summon Shadow Soldiers like ‘Tank’ or ‘Fangs’ or not.

Meanwhile, behind Jin-Woo…

Choi Jong-In looked at Jin-Woo’s back as the youth stood there, unable to go anywhere thanks to the cordon of reporters blocking his way.

He approached Baek Yun-Ho and spoke.

“Looks like my new recruit Hunter-nim is feeling a bit troubled from the excessive attention, no?”

“And just who gave you the permission to call Sung Jin-Woo Hunter-nim ‘your’ new recruit now?”

“Can’t I even make a joke? It’s just a joke.”

Two men began their war of nerves once more.

In the end, though, Choi Jong-In took a step back first. He sighed before speaking up again.

“In any case, it’d be the same thing as giving other Guilds a chance if we waste any more time here.”

Baek Yun-Ho agreed with that assessment.

Not just the Reapers Guild’s Master Im Tae-Gyu, who just so coincidentally was present here today because of Rhee Min-Seong, but the other remaining super-large Guilds would be desperately trying to get in touch with Hunter Sung Jin-Woo right about now.

Baek Yun-Ho scanned the crowd of reporters. “So, Chairman Choi, what you’re suggesting is….”

“Before flies come rushing in from the smell, let us escort Sung Jin-Woo Hunter-nim to his residence. While we have a chat with him regarding this and that.”

Meaning, the two of them should pool their resources first and prevent more potential rivals from appearing.

Didn’t matter what kind of abilities Hunter Sung Jin-Woo possessed, he’d still need a Guild’s aid if he were to attack high-ranking dungeons.

So, if they played their cards right, then either the White Tiger or the Hunters Guild could find themselves with another rank S in the roster.

Choi Jong-In was utterly confident of the Guild he led, the Hunters, and….

“Alright.”

….Baek Yun-Ho too didn’t feel that this was a bad suggestion, either.

The White Tiger might not have been as big as the Hunters, but it still was a Guild with great future prospects.

‘Besides, our Section Chief Ahn and Deputy Hyun are familiar with Mister Sung Jin-Woo from a while ago, too.’

At a bare minimum, he knew for sure that they had a closer relationship than the Hunters Guild.

And so, the interests of these two men lined up rather nicely. They exchanged a few suspicious gazes at each other before turning around to approach Jin-Woo.

The first one to engage the young man in conversation was Baek Yun-Ho.

“Hunter-nim.”

Jin-Woo looked behind him. “Yes?”

Choi Jong-In inwardly clicked his tongue after losing the initiative, but since they made a tacit agreement to cooperate, he didn’t interfere.

Baek Yun-Ho formed the brightest smile he could manage and continued on.

“Are you feeling lost with all these reporters around? We can safely escort you back to your house, so how about going with us? We are pretty good at dealing with these sorts of situations, you see.”

Although a bit of exaggeration was mixed in there, what he said wasn’t an empty promise at all.

This event was something any rank S Hunter would experience at least once.

Not only that, these two men also learned how to deal with people’s attention while managing their respective large Guilds, too.

Choi Jong-In provided support fire from the side. “Let’s head out together. Also, there is something we’d like to discuss with you, as well.”

Too bad for them, Jin-Woo simply formed a polite-enough smile to reject them.

“I’ll be alright.”

He then pulled the hood attached to his top and hid his face. “I actually do have a place I need to stop by first.”

“Excuse me? But, how will you get out of here, what with all these repor-” Choi Jong-In couldn’t get to continue with the rest of his sentence.

Swish-!!

Because Jin-Woo turned to face the reporters and then jumped up tens of meters in the air before landing on the other side of the crowd, that’s why.

“Uh, uh???”

Even before the flustered reporters could respond, Jin-Woo blended into the crowd and disappeared from the view.

Choi Jong-In was left speechless.

Now that was a movement he couldn’t even react to in time, even though he was a rank S.

It was quite obvious that the reporters, who were all regular people, wouldn’t be able to follow that with their naked eyes.

Choi Jong-In let out a wry chuckle.

‘As soon as registering as a rank S, he’s already playing the part of Superman?’

How was he supposed to be a Mage-type with that sort of physical ability? As a fellow Mage-type, it sure riled him up a bit.

But, in that case, how would a rank S melee-type Hunter think of that?

“Just now, he….”

Choi Jong-In turned towards Baek Yun-Ho in order to ask a question, but he flinched and reflexively took a step back.

“Chairman Baek, your eyes??!”

He was so surprised that he even forgot to add the honorific title.

“Ah….! M-my apologies.” Baek Yun-Ho hurriedly covered his eyes with his hand and turned around.

When he opened his eyes again a short while later, they had reverted back from the monster-like irises to those of a normal human being.

However, just because his eyes changed back to normal, that didn’t mean his shock had worn off.

‘How can this be…..??’

Baek Yun-Ho trembled on the spot.

Just now, when Jin-Woo gathered strength on his legs to prepare for that jump, he very briefly released his magic energy he’d been concealing until then.

No matter how skilful a Hunter was, it was nearly impossible to detect anything in such a short period of time.

However, that incredible magic energy still caused Baek Yun-Ho to instinctively activate one of his abilities, the Eyes of the Beast, and those eyes successfully detected Jin-Woo’s hidden power.

‘He’s strong.’

Baek Yun-Ho already knew how strong the youth was. However….

‘No, that’s not important.’

Back when they had gotten into a bit of confrontation in front of the Red Gate, Baek Yun-Ho also activated the Eyes of the Beast inadvertently.

Jin-Woo’s strength was clearly imprinted in Baek Yun-Ho’s mind back then.

Back then, the youth was very strong. Even if it was Baek Yun-Ho himself, he would not have been able to win without sacrificing an arm.

However, that was all.

If he was willing to sacrifice that much, then he’d be able to win at any time.

But now….

What was the meaning of this difference in strength? He detected magic energy incomparably greater than before. That youth was so much stronger now.

So, so much stronger than back then.

His Re-Awakening process should’ve been over a long time ago. So, how could this be?

In that instant, an implausible theory popped up in Baek Yun-Ho’s head.

‘Could he… be able to grow stronger?’

Possibly, not through Re-Awakening process, but through growing stronger that he…..

Just as his thoughts arrived at this point,

“Excuse me, Chairman Baek? Are you alright? Your complexion is….”

….Choi Jong-In worriedly asked him.

Baek Yun-Ho rubbed his face and shook his head hard.

“I was suddenly feeling a bit dizzy just now. I’m okay.”

“You’re still young…. You should be more careful.”

While conversing with Choi Jong-In, Baek Yun-Ho continued to stare in the direction that Jin-Woo had disappeared to.

‘He’s already transcended the regular rank S, but if he could continue increasing his strength, then…’

Shudder.

Baek Yun-Ho’s entire body shuddered from goosebumps.

_______________

“E-hh! Oppa, those reporters are still outside the building!” Jin-Ah spoke while looking out of the window.

It was already late in the evening. Reporters who hadn’t given up yet were still gathered around in front of the apartment’s entrance like a storm cloud.

“Look!! Up there!”

After discovering the silhouette of a person by the window, they hurriedly operated their cameras, thinking that it was Jin-Woo.

Click, click, click!!

Seeing all those camera flashes suddenly exploding from here and there, Jin-Ah jumped up in fright and quickly shuttered the curtains.

She turned around and sighed softly like a timid little animal. “Whew….”

Having returned from the Hunter Auction, Jin-Woo was thinking of taking a bit of a well-deserved rest, but he was carrying a rather stiff expression at the moment.

“Should I go downstairs and say something?”

It was fine for those folks to disrupt his rest. However, he was more worried about them disrupting his sister’s studies.

Jin-Ah was a high school senior, about to take the most important test of her life.

Wasn’t this the time when some overly-sensitive kids would throw a tantrum just because of the faint footsteps outside their doors disrupting their studies?

‘Well, Jin-Ah isn’t the type to raise a fuss over stuff like this, but….’

But, still – could she even be able to concentrate with all these distracting noises coming from the outside?

Just as Jin-Woo was getting prepared to step forward….

“Nonono, don’t do it.”

….Jin-Ah quickly waved her hands about.

“Oppa, you’re already being slagged off in the internet, you know? So, can you imagine what they’ll say if you chase away the reporters?”

“Slagged off?”

‘Since when did I do something worthy of that treatment??’

As Jin-Woo tilted his head this way and that, Jin-Ah accessed one of the news articles online with her phone and pushed it forward.

So, he took it from her.

‘……’

On the screen, he could see the photo of him standing in front of the Association’s entrance, relaxedly answering his phone while being surrounded by a sea of reporters.

Maybe because a professional snapped that shot, even a plain guy like him came out looking pretty good, so he was happy about that.

However, when he took a look a bit lower down….

‘His attitude sucks.’

‘He already doesn’t care about the reporters.’

‘He’s way too cool for himself.’

Countless comments with similar nature were posted below the article, and the highest upvoted comment was ‘Mom, I’ve become a rank S!!’

Because the photo and the comment went so well along with each other, Jin-Woo ended up breaking out in a grin.

Jin-Ah, in turn, became flabbergasted from his reaction. “How can you smile from that?!”

“But, it is funny.”

“..….”

When Jin-Woo showed her the top upvoted comment, Jin-Ah too nearly broke out in laughter but somehow managed to suppress it.

And, perhaps as a rebound….

“No, wait a minute! That’s not important, is it?!”

With a slightly flushed face, Jin-Ah raised her voice. “Why did you have to answer your phone there?? I mean, there were so many reporters present, you know! Thanks to you, everyone now knows my name!”

“Do I really need to observe reporters and their moods when answering my little sister’s call?”

Jin-Woo replied confidently as if he couldn’t be fazed by anything.

“Euk!!”

Jin-Ah became speechless.

No matter how hard she thought about it, he wasn’t wrong, so she couldn’t readily come up with a suitable rebuttal.

‘….I simply can’t win against him in an argument.’

Jin-Woo handed the phone back to her. “Here.”

Jin-Ah took the phone back with a slightly testy face, and opened her mouth.

“In any case, I’ll be fine, so oppa, don’t mind the reporters, okay?”

“Okay. Got it.”

Jin-Woo nodded his head.

If the current situation persisted, then he might have done something, but then again, the Association did call him earlier to say that these reporters should all receive orders to stay far away from him in a day or two.

‘Well, I can endure that.’

And there was also Jin-Ah not wanting to inflate the situation any further, too.

“By the way, just what on earth happened here?”

Jin-Ah looked at her brother with a pair of mystified eyes.

“My own oppa became a rank S Hunter, and reporters are camping outside our house, too….”

Some said that it’d be difficult to run into a rank S Hunter even once in your entire life, yet there was one standing right in front of her.

Not only that, he was her older brother, no less.

Pretty much anyone would react the same way if they were in her shoes. Jin-Ah sounded as if she couldn’t quite believe it.

Too bad, she had no choice but to adjust to the new reality sooner rather than later.

‘Just like how I had to.’

Jin-Woo smirked softly.

And, in order to soothe his sister and her still-stunned heart, he lightly pinched Jin-Ah’s cheeks. Of course, she reacted in the same manner as in the past by kicking him, but….

“Ouch!!”

She instead grabbed her foot and jumped up and down in pain.

“Heeiing~”

Jin-Ah glared at him from the corners of her eyes as if this was just too much, while Jin-Woo could only shrug his shoulders.

It seemed that she’d need quite a lot of time to get used to the fact that her oppa was now a rank S Awakened.

“Oppa, I guess you’ll become a lot busier now, right?” Jin-Ah cautiously asked him.

“Mm.” Jin-Woo nodded his head.

There were lots of things he wanted to do, and plenty of work to get through, too – but for now, clearing the Demon’s Castle took priority.

He even resorted to buying a flame-resistance defensive artifact for the sole purpose of conquering the upper floors, after all.

His own funds came up ridiculously short so his heart nearly fell to the pit of his stomach, but thankfully, he was able to use one of the Store’s rarity ‘A’ items as collateral and got a loan from the Hunter Auction.

‘I’m in debt as soon as becoming a rank S….’

For some reason, a wry chuckle escaped from his lips.

Well, as long as the items from the Store could be sold off at high prices in auctions, that debt would be wiped clean in an instant, though.

“In that case, it’d get harder to see you, right?”

Hearing that he might get a lot busier in the future, Jin-Ah formed a slightly rueful expression. Indeed, being alone would be a lonesome task.

Without saying anything, Jin-Woo placed his hand on Jin-Ah’s head.

A few days from now….

Once he cleared the Demon’s Castle dungeon, there would never be another day when his sister would have to house-sit all alone.

‘I’ll make sure that happens for real.’

It was then.

Jin-Woo’s eyes narrowed to a slit. His gaze shifted toward the front door.

‘Someone’s coming this way.’

Jin-Ah also noticed her brother’s tense aura.

“Oppa?” She asked, sounding a little anxious.

“Stay in your room for a bit, okay?”

“What’s the matter?”

A presence climbing out of the elevator was walking straight to here now.

‘It’s a Hunter….?’

The suspicious presence emitted a thin and weak magic energy.

Jin-Woo couldn’t sense any hostile intentions from this presence, but still, he didn’t feel like humoring an uninvited guest.

Did a Guild send someone over? Or, was it a foolhardy reporter placing too much faith in his own Awakened powers?

Didn’t matter which was which – Jin-Woo wasn’t a gracious enough person to accept with a smile an uninvited guest trying to invade the privacy of his home, when the hour was already well past ten in the evening.

Jin-Woo stood before the door.

‘With that kind of power…’

He didn’t need to summon his weapons.

Jin-Woo lightly loosened his muscles. He tilted his head left and right, and his neck issued a cracking noise.

And, as he expected….

Thud, thud.

Someone ‘knocked’ on the door, causing Jin-Ah to run into her room in a bit of surprise.

Jin-Woo quietly opened the door.

Clang.

And from the slowly-widening gap of the door, a familiar face of a woman could be seen.

The female spoke.

“JinnnWoo ….”

She was even sniffling, too.

Jinho and her reddened nose were standing in front of the door, sniffling like a little kid.

“…..”

Jin-Woo was so dumbstruck that he stood there in a total daze, prompting Jinho to tearfully speak up.

“JinnnWoo. I got kicked out of the house. Dad kicked me out!”

“....…”

Now that Jin-Woo took another look, there was a backpack as big as Jinho slung on her back. She was even carrying quite a lot of luggage in both of her hands, too.

“…..Wait, didn’t you live alone already?”

“Well, that….”

Sniff.

“The villa I was living in was under father’s name, and he took it away. He even blocked all my bank accounts.”

A father blocking his daughter's bank accounts. All of them. What a movie-like situation that was, but well, this being the top businessman in South Korea, Chairman Yu Myung-Hwan, it sounded rather plausible.

Besides all that, though – what did this girl do to get on her father’s bad side like this?

When Jin-Woo stared with a pair of questioning gaze, Jinho spoke up, her voice trembling.

“So, like, I was wondering, Jin-Woo. Can I impose on you for the time being?”

Creaaak….

Clank.

Jin-Woo quietly closed the door and even proceeded to lock it.

Click.

Worried Jin-Ah had been observing the situation from her room, and once Jin-Woo turned away from the door, she quickly jogged next to him and asked.

“Oppa, who was that? Do you know them?”

Jin-Woo shook his head. “Nope. I've never seen this woman in my life."

Jin-Ah's eyes widened a little as a question crossed her mind, 'Wait, a woman...?' 

Then, a memory flashed through her mind, recalling the woman she had seen sharing a bed with her brother. 

Her shock grew as she wondered, 'No way! Could she be the same...?!'

As Jin-Ah was caught up in her realization, her brother gently but firmly pushed her back into her room, reassuring her, "Don't worry about it. I'm sure she got the wrong address." 

In that moment, Jinho's sorrowful voice echoed behind them, calling out, "Jinwooo....Jinwoo!!"

Hearing Jinho's sorrowful voice, Jin-Ah looked as though she had made up her mind. 

She swiftly turned and dashed towards the door. 

Jin-Woo was dazed and blurted out, "J-Jin-Ah?"

As the girl started unlocking the door, she stated firmly, "You can't deny it! I saw you together that day."

Jin-Woo stared at his sister, completely dumbfounded, until realization dawned upon him. 'No way... Is she talking about that day?'

He recalled thinking that his sister was asleep that night. However, perhaps that wasn't the case. Or, quite possibly...

"She saw us in the morning." He concluded aloud.

With a sigh, Jin-Woo rubbed his forehead and said, "It's not what it look like."

Jin-Ah smirked, raising her eyebrows teasingly as she said, "Now, now, Oppa. It's not good to lie to your little sister."

Jin-Woo looked at her, his eyes narrowing, thinking, 'She's never going to let it go, is she?...'

With the realization that his sister was being too stubborn, he decided to abandon his efforts to explain. 

He shifted his focus to the current situation, saying, "Jinho is fine. She's just acting overdramatic. As always...."

Jin-Ah's eyes sparkled, and she exclaimed, "Huh-ha!! So you do know her!"

Jin-Woo cringed, looking at her in disbelief as he asked, "W-wait, you were testing me?!"

Jin-Ah's smirk grew, and Jin-Woo grumbled to himself, "I totally fell for her trap... I really should know better."

Upon confirming that the girl outside was indeed the same one she had seen that morning, Jin-Ah's excitement grew, and she declared, "Alright, Oppa, I'm going to let unnie in!"

Jin-Woo's eyebrow raised in surprise, and he thought, 'Unnie?'

It was an honorific to address an older sister.

Jin-Ah smiled widely at him with her eyes closed.

Sighing softly, Jin-Woo responded with a hint of challenge in his voice, "Looks like she'll need a place to crash in for the next few days. Where are you even going to let her stay?"

"Well, I don't mind sharing my room. My bed is large enough for two." Jin-Ah cheerfully replied.

Jin-Woo crossed his arms and retorted, "Now, now. Are you just going to invite a stranger to your bed?"

Jin-Ah smirked back, saying, "Well, she's not a stranger now, is she?"

Jin-Woo couldn't help but let a light smile escape his lips.

His reason for not opening the door to Jinho and her dramatic behavior was solely due to his sister's presence. 

However, now that his sister appeared to be fine with sharing the space for the time being, heck! even more than eager to do so! Jin-Woo no longer had a valid excuse to turn Jinho away.

_______________

“Dear, don’t you think you were being too harsh on Jinho earlier today?”

“Hmph.”

Yu Myung-Hwan roughly yanked at his tie.

What an insolent little child.

She was about to be gifted with the Yujin Guild, which would no doubt become the Yujin Construction’s core business in the future, yet she dared to answer like that?

[“I’ve decided to work for Jin-Woo’s Guild.”]

What?

Follow ‘Jin-Woo’, was it?

“That fool deserved it.” Yu Myung-Han snorted derisively.

If the girl wished to stand on her two feet, then she should do so on her own power, too.

The father thought that he’d teach his daughter about every choice being accompanied by responsibilities and consequences.

Was it because he was far too agitated? For some reason, it felt like his d*mn tie just didn’t want to come undone.

His clumsy and hasty hands caused the tie to be tangled up even more instead, prompting the lady of the Yu family to reach out with her hands.

“Let me do it for you.”

Soon enough, the tie was easily loosened. Yu Myung-Han entrusted himself to his wife’s skillful hands.

However….

The wife began giggling while holding his tie.

“What’s the matter, dear?” Yu Myung-Han was confused.

She had been doing his ties for as long as they were together. So, she shouldn’t have found his tangled up tie all that funny by now.

“My dear. Are you sure you’re really angry?”

“Mm….??”

Did she eat something wrong? Why was she saying something so nonsensical?

Yu Myung-Han tilted his head slightly and took a look at his own reflection in the mirror.

‘What the….’

He was surprised by what he saw.

Why did he look so pleased in the reflection, even though his mouth was busy spewing out complaints only until a second ago?

Feeling embarrassed now, Yu Myung-Han began rubbing his cheeks and chin.

“Today was the first time, wasn’t it, dear?”

“What do you mean?”

“Jinho rebelling against you.”

“..….”

That was why he was angry.

Just like how water flowed from the top to bottom, a large corporation would not be able to sustain its massive self if the orders from the top didn’t get delivered to the rest.

He believed it was the same story for running a family, as well.

That was why he maintained the exact same type of attitude he’d have when at work while he was home with his family, and he did not accept anyone going against his decisions.

However….

Even though he was feeling angry today, why didn’t he feel bad about it, either?

‘I’m angry, but not unhappy at the same time?’

This situation made no sense when he thought about it.

“Jinho is trying to do something she feels passionate about for the first time in her life. So, how about cooling your anger a little and cheering her on from the side?”

The madam spoke gently like a mother pacifying a child, as if she had already read everything in her husband’s mind.

“…..”

Yu Myung-Han shut his mouth tight.

He found it a bit hard to decipher his own head at the moment.

“For the time being… I shall keep an eye on her.”

“Of course.” The madam formed a sweet smile and received his jacket as he took it off. However, something happened then.

Yu Myung-Han stared at his wife’s face. “But, this is quite strange.”

“What is strange, dear?”

“I can see two of your faces.”

“Pardon?”

Just as the madam’s eyes widened, Yu Myung-Han lost his balance and staggered unsteadily.

“Dear?!” The frightened madam hurriedly tried to support Yu Myung-Han.

He shook his head continuously, heavily gasps escaping from his mouth.

Pant, pant…..

The madam’s eyes opened wider.

‘Why is there so much cold sweat?!’ 

Yu Myung-Han tried to keep his eyes wide open to forcefully beat back the sudden feeling of sleepiness, but in the end, lost his consciousness.

_______________

"Mister Chairman, by any chance, do you have anyone near you who is a Hunter, or someone who’s not a Hunter yet but has been evaluated as an Awakened?"

The doctor suddenly asked about something rather strange.

Yu Myung-Han asked if there was something wrong with his body, yet why was he talking about Hunters now?

“What are you talking about? Why Hunters, all of a sudden?” Yu Myung-Han asked back, feeling puzzled now.

“Have you heard of Eternal Sleep?”

Hearing the term “Eternal Sleep”, Yu Myung-Han finally lost his cool, and his eyes trembled.

The Eternal Sleep Disorder. An endless slumber that no one could wake up from.

Not only was it impossible to wake up from its death-like slumber, but the lifeforce of the sufferer would also decline quite sharply, so it was a necessity to use life support machines that utilised magic energy.

Yu Myung-Han waited for the doctor to finish explaining before asking his question.

“How does that relate to Hunters?”

“The ‘Eternal Sleep’ is widely believed to be deeply related to magic energy.”

There were those people who, by nature, couldn’t endure magic energy all that well. One of the abnormalities displayed by these people after being exposed to surrounding magic energy for a long time was this Eternal Sleep Disorder.

“Wait, isn’t magic energy used to power the life support machines that supply lifeforce to the patients?”

“That is true, but….”

Just like how one could safely use the electricity generated by the dangerous material fuelling the nuclear reaction, the doctor explained, magical devices and magics utilising magic energy did not harm people.

“What you need to be careful with are the Magic Crystals, Mana Stones, as well as people possessing magic energy.”

‘People possessing magic energy…..’

Yu Myung-Han immediately recalled the sole Awakened in his family, Jinho.

Meanwhile, the doctor cautiously carried on. “I’ve heard that... your second daughter is a Hunter, sir.”

When Jinho was mentioned, Yu Myung-Han’s face visibly hardened.

“So, the gist of it is… you want me to never meet my own daughter? Is that it?”

“If it’s at all possible, that is indeed my recomm…..”

“Don’t make me laugh!!”

Yu Myung-Han abruptly cut the doctor off and empathised his point.

“Don’t speak of nonsense.”

And then, as if he was annoyed, he gestured the doctor to leave.

“Chairman….”

The doctor hesitated, not knowing what to do, but he soon left the room as if he were being chased away after being glared at by Yu Myung-Han’s furious eyes.

He continued to glare at the door the doctor used to escape with barely concealed fury in his eyes.

‘Distance oneself from one’s daughter just because one fears the illness getting worse? Is that something a father should even say??’

Sure, let’s say that did happen.

What if Jinho heard that news? What would that girl think of, then?

As a father, he could not bear to burden his daughter with something that heavy. At least, that’s what Yu Myung-Han believed.

‘Not only that….’

With each passing day, people found more and more practical applications for magic energy, and the number of people innately possessing magic energy was steadily increasing, as well.

So, if you couldn’t withstand magic energy when living in a world like this, didn’t that already mean you had been eliminated from the natural selection?

Yu Myung-Han harrumphed unhappily.

‘I, Yu Myung-Han, have failed to make the cut?’

Such a thing could never happen.

‘I will not submit.’

Even when everyone else ridiculed him and predicted his failure, he always managed to succeed so his detractors could take a good look at him.

He was the very person who, after inheriting the Yujin Construction that barely cracked the top 30 in the country, turned it into the number one corporation in South Korea.

‘So, you think I’ll kneel in defeat over a stupid illness like this?’

He wouldn’t give up.

Yu Myung-Han inwardly told himself this over and over again.

_______________

Before leaving, Jin-Woo carefully opened the door to his sister’s room.

As it was still in the early hours, Jin-Ah remained blissfully stuck in a slumber so deep that she’d not be any wiser if someone kidnapped her right now.

Jinho, who was sleeping beside her, didn't seem to be in a different state.

 • • • •

Jin-Woo was simply speechless at the sight. 

Anyway....

Jin-Woo already heard the most of what happened from the girl last night.

While listening to the tale, he was hoping against hoping, but to think, this girl would show up here after really rejecting the golden chance to become a Guild Master…..

When he heard that, Jin-Woo was so dumbfounded that he just had to ask,

[“You really came over just because I made an offer?!”]

And that prompted Jinho to reply while sounding like a victim.

[“But, Jin-Woo, you said I should come!!”]

Jin-Woo let out a soft sigh. 'I guess I can't mock the girl who left cause she liked me more.'

His eyes softened, and a light smile graced his lips.

Jin-Woo then reflected on the recent events. The two girls had been laughing nonstop for what felt like hours ever since they entered this room and shut the door. 

If someone who didn't know them had witnessed this, they would have easily mistaken them for friends who had known each other for years or even sisters.

Well, Jin-Woo surly didn’t mind.

He was genuinely happy that his sister had someone else to keep her company at home. 

There were times when he felt like Jin-Ah  didn't open up to him completely, and he understood it as a natural aspect. 

Sharing everything with an older brother can't be always comfortable. Sometimes, you simply need a female perspective.

Suddenly, he felt worried.

‘There might be a jacka*s or two who’ll try to get closer to her while I’m away.’

Of course, there should be no one stupid enough to harm the little sister of a rank S Hunter, but well, it was hard to tell what was in a human’s heart sometimes.

At least, he needed some sort of a contingency plan.

‘Wait a minute. I can hide my soldiers inside shadows, right?’

Jin-Woo recalled the time when he sent out his Shadow Soldiers on the patrol of the district, in case that serial killer decided to show up again.

Back then, soldiers moved by hiding in the various shades found in the surroundings. By utilising that, he might be able to protect his sister without anyone even noticing it.

Which was good, because he just so happened to possess the perfect candidates for this role.

‘Come out.’

Jin-Woo called out those monster soldiers that had been guarding ‘Fangs’ when they were still alive.

Shururu….

Three of the biggest, burliest High Orcs appeared simultaneously and ended up making the already-tiny room of his sister feel even more claustrophobic.

However….

‘Huh? Why are there only three?’

There definitely had been four guards, though?

Jin-Woo combed through his memories, only to spit out a soundless groan.

‘Ah.’

Only now did he remember that he ‘planted’ one of the guards in the ceiling of the boss room. And, naturally, he forgot to extract that guy’s shadow.

‘I guess I should pay closer attention next time.’

Jin-Woo smirked softly before shifting his gaze over to the three monster soldiers, who used to be High Orc guards while still alive. All of them were elite grade.

They were on another scale altogether when compared to the shadows extracted from the ‘regular’ High Orcs. With these three, they would still be fine even if their opponent was a rank A Hunter.

He wasn’t exaggerating here – the leader of the Hunters’ raid team, the rank A Sohn Ki-Hoon, was pushed to a corner while fighting off three regular High Orcs, after all.

So, there was no reason to worry about these guys.

Jin-Woo pointed with his chin towards the sleeping Jin-Ah. And when that happened…

Shururu….

The guards returned to ‘shadow’ forms and moved along the floor, and they assimilated into her shadow.

‘Very good.’

'Hide in there quietly, and when Jin-Ah finds herself in danger, get rid of the opponent, regardless of who it is.'

Jin-Woo gave that order to the guards before looking at the two sleeping girls, his gaze warm and affectionate.

"I'll be going now." He said softly.

Jin-Woo made sure to lock the front door properly and exited from the apartment.

X

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo quickly arrived in the hospital.

‘Let’s see…. It was room number 305, right?’

He wasn’t planning to enter the hospital through the front door to begin with. While still riding on Kaisel, he searched for the windows of his mother’s hospital room.

‘Ruler’s Reach.’

The curtains covering the windows silently parted sideways.

He saw the quietly-sleeping sight of his mother on the bed. She looked exactly the same as the last time he came to visit.

Jin-Woo used ‘Ruler’s Reach’ one more time to open the window and silently stepped into the hospital room. Kaisel had disappeared into his shadow by then.

He soon stood by the side of the bed. His heart was pounding madly now that the time he had been waiting for so long was here.

‘If something goes wrong, I won’t be able to do anything.’

His mother had been unconscious for a very long time. There was a chance that she might not even be able to swallow the Divine Water of Life, and even if she did, there was no guarantee that she’d be okay afterward.

‘However…’

Jin-Woo got to witness plenty of miracles the System caused so far.

If it happened to someone else, he’d never have believed a word of it. One didn’t even have to look far for tangible evidence, either. Wasn’t he the walking proof of those miracles?

‘I was a rank E, yet now look at me standing here.’

All of his achievements, they were due to the System’s powers.

Jin-Woo wordlessly stared at his two hands before raising his head.

His mother lay right in front of his eyes, looking as if she’d wake up at any moment if he called out to her.

Jin-Woo summoned the ‘Divine Water of Life’ from the inventory.

Shururu….

On top of his hand, a wooden bottle materialised out of the blue.

He read the item information over and over again, just in case he might have missed something important.

And so, by the time he had thoroughly memorised every word in the item information by repeatedly reading it over and over again, he managed to build up enough courage to pull the cork off of the wooden bottle.

Pop.

His hands that stayed steady during the life-or-death battle against the Demon King were trembling greatly now.

Jin-Woo took a deep, deep breath to calm his mind.

‘If I make a mistake here, my mother will bear the cost, instead.’

The moment he told himself there could not be any mistake whatsoever, he was able to regain the usual calmness right away. Even his hands stopped shaking.

‘….I’m fine now.’

Jin-Woo cautiously supported the back of his mother’s, Park Gyung-Hye’s, neck with his left hand.

He then brought the mouth of the wooden bottle closer to her lips.

Soon, the ‘Divine Water of Life’ slowly trickled into her slightly parted lips.

Jin-Woo didn’t rush it and made sure to let only a tiny strand enter her mouth.

‘This wound….’

He then noticed the burn marks on the side of his mom’s neck. The burns continued down the back of her neck, too.

Although he couldn’t see it from this angle, Jin-Woo knew only too well that the burn mark extended from the entirety of the back of her neck and her shoulders to some part of her head.

‘She got that because of me, after all.’

Back then, he only wanted to wash his mother’s hair.

The very hot water, hot enough to bubble up, filled up the plastic wash basin. The young Jin-Woo did his very best not to spill any of the hot water.

All he wanted to do was to help his mother. But in the end, he only hurt her. 

The young Jin-Woo dropped the plastic basin and began crying, but his mom tightly grasped his shoulders. And then, asked him.

“Jin-Woo? Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

The young Jin-Woo thought that he’d be scolded for sure. He could never forget the events of that day and those words his mother said to him. Not even now.

‘And here I am, thinking that I don’t owe anyone anything….’

After their father went missing, it was mom alone who raised the siblings Jin-Woo and Jin-Ah.

He hated owing someone, or someone owing him, so he made sure that such a thing never happened, but still….

He owed his mother a debt that he could never possibly repay.

It was then.

The very last drop entered his mother’s mouth.

Jin-Woo put the bottle down and carefully laid her on the bed again. He stood quietly to the side as if he were praying to someone while waiting for the result.

Thump, thump, thump!!

His heart pounded so much that his chest actually ached. Nervous saliva traveled down his throat, too.

‘…….’

However, there was no visible change.

Just as a drop of blood from Jin-Woo’s tightly clenched fist was about to fall….

“Heo-heok!!”

Her eyes still closed, mom sucked in a deep breath like a person getting rescued from drowning.

‘…..!!!’

Jin-Woo’s eyes widened.

A little bit of color was returning to mom’s once-slightly pale face. Like color spreading on the black and white TV screen, a healthy complexion was spreading over his mother’s skin.

Every passing second felt like an hour to him.

How much time did pass like that?

Jin-Woo’s mother slowly opened her eyes. Her gaze wandered around for a moment or two before stopping at Jin-Woo.

“Who…. No, wait, could you be… Jin-Woo?”

Jin-Woo’s heart nearly fell just then, but he managed to nod his head a little.

It was obvious that she didn’t recognise him right away. Four years had passed by already, and he had grown by a lot since then, too.

Jin-Woo didn’t rush things and quietly waited.

Like water slowly filling up an empty bowl, blurry memories of the past filled up the empty hole of the last four years in Jin-Woo’s mother, Park Gyung-Hye’s mind bit by bit.

It didn’t take her a long time to realise why she was lying on the hospital bed like this.

“How long have I been lying here, son?”

“It’s been four years, mom.”

He could’ve also added that it was four years and a few days, but he didn’t.

His mother currently needed as much calmness and a sense of stability, so he did his best to sound and look normal.

But, mom was still taken back by the revelation of four years, and she hurriedly asked him.

“What about Jin-Ah?? Is your sister alright??”

It was then that Jin-Woo felt something powerful welling up from deep within his heart.

She had been teetering on the edge of life and death for the last four years, yet the first thing she asked after waking up was the well-being of her daughter…..

If he hadn’t bitten down on his lower lip, he might have broken down right there and then.

‘It’s no time to worry about that girl, you know.’

He wanted to say that out loud. But, he suppressed his emotions and formed a thin smile instead.

“Yes, mom. She’s doing okay.”

His mother sighed, her expression one of genuine relief.

Jin-Woo was inwardly concerned, hoping that his mother would start worrying about herself soon, but at the same time, he began to relax somewhat as his mother seemingly hadn’t changed at all.

‘Things will go back to how it’s been, soon.’

Finally recognising that mom’s illness had been cured, his heart palpitated again.

But then, he was jolted out of his thoughts. Mom was holding his left hand even before he had noticed it.

“Mom?”

“Thank you, son. You kept your promise.”

Promise?

‘…Ah, I forgot.’

Then again, he had always thought it was the most obvious thing in the world, so it was possible that he didn’t consciously see it as a promise.

The so-called ‘Eternal Sleep’ disorder, where you’d fall deeper and deeper into slumber, until you’d never wake up again….

It became harder for mom to carry on with her daily life as drowsiness frequently assaulted her without warning with every passing day.

Out of the blue, though, she asked Jin-Woo for a favor.

“If I have to be away for a while, will you promise me to take good care of your little sister?”

She carried a smile of a mother asking her child for a simple errand back then.

That was why he had been enduring until now. He didn’t resent her at all. Because all he did was to take over the burden his mother had been carrying until then.

However, mom tightly squeezed his hand as if she knew everything.

“My son…. It must’ve been hard for you.”

Jin-Woo tried to smile like he had done before to assuage his mother’s worries. As if nothing of note had happened until then.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that.

All the tears he held back until then traveled down his face, and his lips parted all on their own.

“Yeah.”

______________

As soon as she got the call, Jin-Ah dropped everything and rushed to the hospital.

Jin-Woo had been sitting on a chair next to mom’s bed, and when he sensed his fast-approaching sister, he quickly stood up.

Right then, the door to his mom’s hospital room was flung open.

“Mom?? Mom!!”

She hadn’t even crossed the doorway yet, but Jin-Ah’s face was already a messy mixture of streaming tears and snot falling from her nose.

“Oh, my-My little girl, you’ve grown up so much.”

The last time their mom, Park Gyung-Hye, saw her daughter was when she was still in middle school.

She gazed at her grown-up daughter with a surprised expression, but shortly afterward, opened her arms wide to welcome Jin-Ah with a warm smile on her face.

When that happened….

“Mom!!” Jin-Ah tightly embraced her mother.

Jin-Woo hesitated slightly. That wasn’t something she should have done to a patient who regained her consciousness after four years of being in a coma.

But, seeing his sister crying her eyes out like that while locked in their mother’s embrace, he couldn’t bring himself to stop her.

“Mom, Mom…..”

She always acted all grown-up, but in the end, Jin-Ah was still a kid inside.

The energetic and brave everyday appearance of Jin-Ah overlapped with the current sobbing one.

As he looked on at his sister in his mom’s embrace, as well as his mom’s gentle and warm expression, a satisfied smile automatically formed on Jin-Woo’s lips.

‘My effort wasn’t in vain.’

It felt like he was being fully rewarded for all the hard work he had put in right at this moment.

Also, he felt as if something hard and stubborn stuck in the corner of his heart had finally melted down and was now flowing away, out of him.

In that case, should he leave the two of them alone for a while? At least, until his little sister found a way to get a hold of her overflowing emotions.

Since she was one smart girl, she’d know not to unnecessarily stress out mom. Only that, she needed a bit more time here.

Jin-Woo grinned a little and shifted his gaze outside the hospital window. As if to congratulate the reunion of his family, the weather outside was brilliantly sunny today.

All of a sudden, Jin-Woo sensed a familiar presence standing just a few steps behind the door.  

"Hm?"

His gaze shifted toward the door, and he pondered, "Could it be...?"

After realizing who it might be, Jin-Woo cast one last glance at his family before quietly slipping out the door.

Indeed, he was well acquainted with the person waiting outside the door. 

Jinho stood in the middle of the hospital's hallway.

The first thing Jin-Woo noticed was her teary eyes. The second was the large Bouquet of flowers clutched in her hands.

'Just when did she manage to get this?' Jin-Woo couldn't help but wonder to himself.

However, that wasn't the most important thing right now. 

No. 

What he truly needed to ask was why she was here? 

And why she looked like she had cried more than enough to fill a pool?

Jinho's trembling, hoarse voice, then echoed through the hospital hallway. "I...I heard. Jin-Ah told me everything..."

Jin-Woo's expression revealed his surprise. 

"I see..." He then responded softly.

Though he didn't know quite what to say.

It wasn't as though he had purposefully tried to keep it a secret; he simply hadn't seen a reason to share it with anyone outside his family.

Yet, despite his earlier nonchalance, Jin-Woo now found himself feeling quite uncomfortable, perhaps even guilty. 

He couldn't quite pinpoint the emotions coursing through him at the moment. 

Confused by the emotions swirling within him, he wondered to himself, 'Why do I feel like I should have told her a long time ago?'

Jin-Woo was the type of person who preferred not to disclose personal matters to those outside his family. 

He never believed that any of his acquaintances - be they friends, classmates, or coworkers - were close enough to gain access to his private life. 

His immediate family - his mother, sister, and, at one time, his father - were the only ones privy to his thoughts and feelings.

So why did he feel like he should have told Jinho about his mother? 

Why did he sense an obligation to let her in, to fully open up to her, to share his feelings, thoughts, desires? 

Why did he feel guilty as if he had shattered her trust, as if they had a silent agreement to support each other?

It wasn't as though it was her business to know about his mother, so why did he feel as if he had been lying to her for a while?  

Jin-Woo felt terribly confused. 

But then, Jinho's sobbing voice broke through his thoughts. "I-I'm....I'm so sorry....Jin-Woo..."

Jin-Woo's emotions quickly switched from surprise to being dumbfounded and finally speechless. 

Because, why was this girl crying her eyes out and apologizing as though it was her fault that his mother had endured so much?

"...I'm such a fool..." Jinho continued to sob.

Confusion washed over Jin-Woo as he tried to understand her. 

Jinho kept crying. "I-I...bothered you... with my troubles....as if... as if they were the end of the world. But all this time... all this time you've been enduring something so much heavier...."

Jinho continued sobbing uncontrollably, her voice thick with emotion. 

"...I-I... I can't even imagine how it was for you all this time.... carrying this responsibility....putting your life on the line every single day for the sake of your family...." 

Her eyes were red and blurry with tears.

Jin-Woo's expression twisted in pain, remembering all the trials he had endured.

He knew that any ordinary person would have crumbled under the pressure, but he had persevered.

He had actually managed to make it to the end.

A gentle smile graced his lips as he reflected on his journey. 

He had indeed come this far, and now, he could release the memories of pain and suffering. 

It was time to embrace this fresh start.

So, why was Jinho still crying and uttering these depressing words? 

Jin-Woo's gaze held a soft and affectionate tinge as he looked at her. He then let out a soft chuckle, murmuring, "What a crybaby..."

Jin-Woo didn't even notice when he had started walking towards her. 

But, now, they stood face to face. 

His hand tenderly reached out to caress her cheek. 

His fingers then gently wiped away her tears.

Jinho leaned into his touch, tears still streaming down her face. She was still overwhelmed with emotion. 

"I think the flowers got enough water for today." Jin-Woo gently teased her.

Jinho cringed and quickly looked down at the flowers in her hands. 

Sure enough, they were a bit wet.

"I'm so sorry!" She immediately blurted out.

"Alright, enough apologizing now." Jin-Woo's amused voice cut through her apologies.

He gently ran his fingers over her eyes again, Jinho closed one eye instinctively at the touch. 

Once he was finished, Jin-Woo suggested, "Now, how about we give these flowers to the person they're meant for?"

Jinho's cheeks turned a shade of red as she blurted out, "You want me to meet your mom?!" 

"Yeah." Jin-Woo replied with a casual tone. 

"Unless... those flowers were meant for the guy at the reception. And if that's the case, then.."

Jinho's laughter interrupted Jin-Woo's joke. 

Feeling amused, she shook her head and said, "Nope, I'm pretty sure these flowers are for your mom."

Their laughter filled the air, and their eyes locked, both unable to tear their gazes away from each other. 

Unintentionally, Jin-Woo's hand moved to caress her cheeks again.

He watched as she leaned into his touch, her expression peaceful and radiating a soft beauty.

He wasn't aware of when he began to pull her closer to him, his eyes drifting down to her lips.

They looked soft and inviting.

"Oppa~!"

Their moment was abruptly interrupted by Jin-Ah's cheerful voice. 

"Mom want-" She began but stopped when Jin-Woo turned and revealed Jinho's presence. 

Jin-Ah's eyes sparkled as she exclaimed, "Unnie! You made it."

Jinho appeared to compose herself before smiling at Jin-Ah.

"Y-Yeah...Of course." She nodded.

Jin-Ah glanced down at the bouquet of flowers in Jinho's hand and asked slightly with disbelief, "Is this for our mom?!"

Jinho shyly nodded, blushing.

Jin-Ah enthusiastically approached Jinho and wrapped her arms around her, saying, "Whoa, they're so beautiful! Thank you, unnie~"

Jinho chuckled at Jin-Ah's excitement.

When they separated, Jin-Ah took Jinho's hand and beamed excitedly, "Let's bring it to Mom! I'm sure she'll love it!"

As Jinho walked away with Jin-Ah, she briefly glanced back at Jin-Woo, her thoughts swirling. 

'Was I imagining things... or did he almost...?' 

Her mind replayed the moment they had just shared.

It had felt as if he was about to kiss her, but she quickly dismissed the thought, thinking it must have been her imagination.

Left alone in the hallway, Jin-Woo's thoughts swirled in chaos. 

'Was I...?'

His cheeks flushed with redness, and he leaned against the wall, covering his face with his hand. 

'Was I really about to kiss Jinho...?!'

Jin-Woo could feel the heat spreading within him, and it certainly wasn't due to the weather.

Embarrassed by his own thoughts, Jin-Woo quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

He needed to distract himself from the intense emotions he was experiencing.

‘……..’

There was a scary amount of missed calls and text messages left on his phone that he couldn’t even dare to attempt replying to a select few, never mind all of them.

Jin-Woo scrolled the list of the missed calls and texts before giving up and closing the window altogether.

‘Well, if it’s something urgent, I’m sure they’ll contact me again.’

He quickly gave up on replying and, instead, accessed the internet browser.

But then….

‘…Heok!!’

He clicked on the online news portal without thinking too much, only to perform a grand facepalm.

[A flying monster spotted over the skies of Seoul?]

[The potential destination of the flying monster?]

[Hunters Association fails to respond. What about the safety of citizens?]

Photos of Kaisel were plastered all over the various internet news sites.

From the vicinity of his house all the way to this hospital, the distance between the two points was rather considerable, but he figured nothing serious would happen because he was traveling at such a high speed.

But this….

‘….It was only a short flight, but we got photographed a lot, didn’t we?’

The only fortunate thing here was that the photos didn’t show him riding on the back of Kaisel.

He made up his mind to not care about what others thought of him when he summoned Kaisel near his house, but now that he was dominating the headlines, he sure felt conflicted now.

‘Oh, well.’

Anyone would have their hearts in their mouths, seeing a monster flying in the sky like that.

Jin-Woo scanned the news articles filled with a great deal of anxiety and told himself to be more careful in the future.

‘There’s no need to go out of my way to scare the public, anyway.’

While he was thinking of this and that….

Vrrr…. Vrrr….

His phone began vibrating.

‘Who’s this?’

He didn’t recognise the number.

“Hello?”

“Sung Jin-Woo Hunter-nim.”

A baritone yet still bright voice of an old man came out.

Jin-Woo immediately recalled the owner of that voice. “Association President?”

“Yes, this is the Association President Goh Gun-Hui speaking.”

‘Why is he giving me a call?’

What prompted the one-and-only Association President to give him a call like this?

Jin-Woo noticed that there were several people walking to and fro within the hospital’s corridor, so he quickly walked towards a more secluded area.

He continued to speak in the meantime. “What’s the matter, sir?”

“I’m sure you’ve heard of the news by now.”

‘…What news?’

Jin-Woo tilted his head a bit before realising that this wouldn’t do and asked again.

“I’m not sure what news you’re talking about….?”

“Wait, could it be… You haven’t seen the news lately?”

‘Wow. I guess the speed of news getting around these days is nothing to scoff at.’

Jin-Woo readily admitted to his wrongdoing.

“I’m sorry about that. But I’ll make sure to be more careful next time.”

“….Excuse me?”

Only after hearing the confused voice of Goh Gun-Hui did Jin-Woo realise that he was deeply mistaken about something here.

‘Wait, wasn’t he calling me about Kaisel?’

If not, what else could the news outlets be talking about, instead?

The dual dungeon, the Red Gate, clearing the rank A dungeons, the ‘Bead of Avarice’, etc….

Now that he thought about it, there were quite a few potential topics of contention, instead.

“…..Can you clarify what happened?”

“Looks like you really haven’t heard anything yet.”

“I’ve been spending some time in a location recently where contacting outside was difficult, actually.”

He wasn’t lying about that, technically speaking...

Goh Gun-Hui’s voice betrayed how surprised he was, but then, it became even graver than before.

“Hunter-nim.”

According to Jin-Woo’s experience, this could only mean that the reason for this call should be brought up now.

“I’d like to come and discuss something with you face-to-face. Would that be okay with you?”

Jin-Woo’s suspicion grew even larger compared to when he first answered the phone.

‘Calling me on the phone isn’t enough, so the Association President wishes to come here and see me personally?’

Just how much of an important matter was this to make someone as busy as him personally move?

Even then….

Jin-Woo glanced in the direction of mom’s hospital room.

‘I can’t ask the Association President to come here.’

He might have to come up with bullsh*t stories related to his mother if that happened.

“No, I’ll go over there, instead.”

“Will you do that for us, then?”

“Yes, I will.”

That was far simpler for him.

Quickly making the arrangement over the phone, and after telling his mom-sister-and Jinho that he had an errand to run and he’d be back a little later, Jin-Woo left the hospital.

Having spent way too long inside the Demon’s Castle where there was no sunlight, his eyes were feeling a bit itchy as the warm rays fell on him.

Jin-Woo furrowed his brows.

‘Man, this is so cumbersome. Should I just summon Kaisel?’

He deliberated for a moment or two before smirking to himself and walked towards a waiting taxi.

______________

The mass media was whipped into a frenzy.

To eradicate the monsters that turned the island of Jeju into a barren wasteland, the nations of South Korea and Japan form a united raid team!

Where would you find another story that could stimulate the interests of the country’s citizens even more than this news?

TV channels ran news segments related to this upcoming raid all day long, while every front page of newspapers was completely dominated by the topics of the United Raid team.

While two parties thought of two different things regarding the same upcoming event, time continued to tick down towards the date of the operation.

In the meantime, these past few days proved to be the happiest Jin-Woo had been since his mother was admitted to the hospital.

Many things went through a change.

First thing first – the Sung family returned to their home with their mom as soon as she was discharged from the hospital. Plus the company of their lovely guest.

Clank….

As he opened the front door, Jin-Woo's eyes widened at the sight of a remarkably tidy living room. 

The floors practically glistened.

"I... I don't think I've ever seen this house so clean before. What kind of magic potion did you girls use exactly?!" Jin-Woo exclaimed in awe.

Jinho laughed awkwardly. "Well, you guys have been kind enough to let me stick around. Cleaning the house is the least I can do in return." 

"It's really lovely of you, but you don't have to feel the need to pay us back. You're more than welcome to stay for as long as you need." Jin-Woo's mom spoke with warmth.

Jinho looked up with puppy eyes, exclaiming, "Eomeonim!~"

It was an honorific use to call a mother-in-law or referring to other people's mothers.

Jin-Woo's mother couldn't help but chuckle softly at her endearing demeanor.

Jin-Ah, ever the curious one, commented, "I'm more curious about the amazing smell here." She sniffed the air with palpable hunger.

"Oh, I ordered some food. It's already laid out on the dining table." Jinho answered.

Upon hearing the mention of food, Jin-Ah wasted no time dashing towards the kitchen. 

Once there, she gasped at the sight of a variety of dishes on the dining table.

Her gasp of surprise was loud enough to attract Jin-Woo and his mom to the kitchen as well, curious about the commotion.

The members of the Sung family stood in stunned silence, gazing at the extravagant spread of food laid out before them. 

This wasn't just a mere dinner; It was a royal feast! 

So many delectable options had been prepared - beef barbecue, dumplings, flavored noodles, tender pork belly, savory soups, delicious chicken and the list went on. 

If one had to enumerate all the dishes, it would surely take quite some time...

Jinho entered the kitchen, an awkward laugh escaping her lips as she explained, "I wasn't sure what eomeonim would prefer, so I decided to pick up a variety of dishes." 

Jin-Woo and Jin-Ah shared a shocked glance, thinking in unison, 'More like she picked up the entire restaurant!'

.....Jin-Woo's mother's laughter echoed through the kitchen, catching the attention of everyone. 

The kids couldn't help but feel surprised at first, but soon, they followed suit and started laughing as well. 

The situation was undeniably amusing. 

One could only wonder where they would even start with this extravagant feast before them. 

_______________

For the first time in a long while, Jin-Woo got to stretch his legs and go to bed without any worries in his mind.

And on the next morning, when he got to the living room….

He got to truly appreciated the fact that his mother had returned when he saw the breakfast neatly arranged on the dining table.

Park Gyung-Hye stopped cutting the spring onions, turned her head towards Jin-Woo, and asked.

“Did you sleep well, son?”

With still-sleepy eyes, he replied as a smile bloomed on his face.

“….Yes, Mom.”

_____________

‘The Korea-Japan united raid team.’

When that term came out of the TV’s speakers, Jin-Woo wordlessly switched the TV off.

In all honesty, he also didn’t want to miss out on this operation.

His heart began racing so fast after he thought of all the experience points he’d get to earn when Association President Goh Gun-Hui requested his participation in the raid.

However, his excitement cooled down in no time at all. And, he was able to objectively and coldly analyse the situation.

‘It hadn’t even been a week since Mom woke up.’

More than that, his mom didn’t know that her son was a Hunter yet.

He also recalled the sight of his mother staying up all night for several months after she heard the news of his father going missing inside the Gate all those years ago, too.

He couldn’t bring himself to tell mom that he was going to Jeju Island when she was already carrying around such a painful memory, to begin with.

His lips didn’t want to part and provide an answer. He wanted to spend some time with his family for a few days, at the least.

And he definitely didn’t want to delay the moment he’d been fighting for so long for some other matter.

“….I will….”

Jin-Woo barely made up his mind and spoke with great difficulty.

“….Not take part in the operation.”

The one thing far more precious than experience points, the reason why he gritted his teeth and endured everything in order to become stronger. He did not regret making this choice.

Except that, now….

[BTW, why is Sung Jin-Woo not on the Korean list?]

[Your disposition won’t change just because you’ve become a rank S, you know. Once a rank E, forever a rank E, dude. He Prolly ran off to hide, nearly wetting his pants in the process. Kek.]

[21 Jap rank S Hunters + even the retired Hunter is gonna represent for Korea, yet…. where is Sung Jin-Woo]

Except that, all these anonymous pointing fingers who didn’t even know of his situation were really getting on his nerves now.

Or, to be more specific, it was his sister’s stress level that got on his nerves, actually.

‘I don’t really give a d*mn about what others think of me, and mom doesn’t really go online, so it’s fine on that front, but….’

….But, Jin-Ah liked to search for stuff like this in her spare time.

‘Tsk’. Jin-Woo clicked his tongue and put his phone down. There was no helping it, what with the poor timing and all.

Mom had retired early for the day, and it was also still too early for Jin-Ah to come back from her studies. And, Jinho said she had a few things to take care of. 

So, Jin-Woo was kinda of left alone. He was thinking of taking a stroll to get some fresh air and change his spoiled mood, but his phone suddenly began ringing just then.

Jin-Woo checked the caller ID, and a grin formed on his face.

Click.

"Hey, Jin-Woo~" came the cheerful voice on the other end of the line.

"Hey, what's up?" He replied casually. 

Jin-Woo then realized that he didn't actually know where Jinho had gone off to. 

But he quickly reminded himself that it wasn't his place to pry. 

And, It was kind of hypocritical, considering he frequently disappeared without offering an explanation.

Jin-Woo chuckled awkwardly to himself before asking, "So, did you finish doing what you had to do?"

"Oh, yes! And you'll never believe who called me today. My mom! She finally came to my rescue-..."  

Hearing her giggling voice, Jin-Woo felt happy inwardly as well.

Jinho briefly updated Jin-Woo regarding the status of her life before hurriedly continuing on after remembering the reason for the call in the first place.

“Ah, right! Jin-Woo, I found some office space for us, so would you like to come over and take a look?”

What office space was she even talking about?

“What office?”

When Jin-Woo asked with a confused voice, Jinho confidently declared.

“Of course, it’s the office space for our Guild! If you want to establish a Guild, then you’ll need an office, at the very least.”

‘Oh.... this kid…..’

It seemed more than likely that Jinho was under the grand delusion of developing the Guild she’d preside over as its Vice Master, and make it as big as the Hunters or the White Tiger in the near future. 

Jin-Woo slowly scratched his chin.

‘If I tell her that the raid team will consist of only me and no one else, she might flip out in shock here….’

He only invited her to join him in passing, but now that it was time to explain to Jinho the future of the Guild, Jin-Woo didn’t even know how he should go about it.

______________

“What do you think~?”

Now that he was here, Jin-Woo could understand why Jinho sounded so confident on the phone. He scanned the empty office space and nodded his head.

Its location was pretty good.

“I specifically chose a place not too far from your place.”

It was also tidy, too.

“I deliberately went for the newly-developed office spaces. I believe that the old saying goes something like ‘put new wine in a new bottle’. Don’t you agree~?”

Perhaps most importantly, the place was freaking huge!

‘…….’

“I’ll do my best to grow this Guild so it’ll surpass the five large Guilds someday!”

Jinho was burning with unbridled passion, figuratively speaking.

‘It’s fine for you to burn with passion like that, but please, leave me out of it….’

Jin-Woo pondered seriously about this quandary: Should he tell Jinho to just go back to Yujin Guild now before it’s too late?

Well, he had this gut feeling that the Yujin’s Chairman, a guy who even froze his own daughter's bank account, wouldn’t be so keen on taking his daughter back at this point in time.

Seeing that Jin-Woo was in deep contemplation, Jinho formed an expression that cried out “Heok!”

“J-Jin-Woo …. You don’t like this place?”

“…..No, that’s not it.”

“Then, should I sign the lease contract?”

“….Sure, why not.”

Judging from the size of the place, the monthly rental must’ve been crazy steep, but when comparing to the potential revenue stream of a Guild, it’d be a chump change at the end of the day.

‘I guess it’ll be fine to let her dream a little bit longer.’

For now, Jin-Woo couldn’t tell the girl that it’d be only the two of them sharing this huge office space.

“Ah!” Jinho suddenly clapped her hands.

“By the way, Jin-Woo. Who do you have in mind for the remaining spot?”

“….The remaining spot?”

Did he make a promise to open up a spot for someone?

Since Jin-Woo wasn’t the type to forget his promises, he could only look at Jinho with a confused expression, prompting the latter to excitedly explain the situation.

“You need at least three people when creating a Guild.”

The Master, the Vice-Master, and an employee.

Indeed, that was the minimum required composition of a Guild’s founding members.

The rule of the minimum number for a team raiding the least dangerous Gate out there, a rank E, being three people seemed to be related to this, somehow.

‘Well, you will never find a Guild wanting to clear a rank E Gate, though….’

The founding members, was it?

Several familiar faces fleeted in and out of Jin-Woo’s head as he considered who could fill up the remaining vacant spot.

The only condition being, they had to be Hunters, too. If it was at all possible, someone who didn’t want to work as a Hunter ever again, and only there to make up the numbers.

‘Why do I keep picturing women’s faces….?’

He recalled the faces of the high school girl who decided to give up being a Hunter, as well as a certain female Healer who went back to her family home in the city of Busan, but they disappeared from his thoughts quickly enough. 

It was then.

“Ah, I almost forgot.” Jinho abruptly opened her mouth. 

“Did you suddenly remember someone suitable for the spot, then?”

“No, it’s not that. Actually, there was someone looking for you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah.”

Jin-Woo couldn’t help but get curious.

Seeing that this unknown person had indirectly contacted him through Jinho, he or she must’ve done their thorough research.

‘Jinho and I aren’t known as associates publicly, after all.’

Indeed, if anything, others should see their relationship simply as one being the previous raid leader while the other being the member of that raid team.

‘Even then, calling me through Jinho, is it?’

Jin-Woo’s eyes narrowed to a slit just a little. “Who was it?”

“I don’t know. That person was definitely an English-speaking foreigner. Hold on.”

Jinho rummaged through her pockets, pulled out her wallet, and extracted a piece of a memo from there.

“This person said that he’d be staying in Korea until the 17th, so he’d very much appreciate it if you give him a call.”

Jin-Woo took the memo and found a number for a mobile phone as well as a hotel room number. He took a look at the back of the memo, but nothing was written there.

’17th… that’s three days from now.’

An English-speaking foreigner – just who could it be? He couldn’t think of anyone he knew or fit the bill.

X

Chapter Text

‘Mm?’

Jin-Woo abruptly raised his head to see that the moon was now in the middle of the night sky.

‘Now that I think about it… it’s already tomorrow.’

The Korea-Japan united assault team’s raid. It was already here.

He wasn’t even on the team, yet his heart was pounding this much in anticipation.

So, what would the participating members be feeling right now?

Jin-Woo recalled the faces of the raid members he was acquainted with and prayed for their safety as well as their success in the mission.

_____________

Tang, tang!

Jin-Ah was studying in her bedroom, but she heard those loud noises and hurriedly came out to the living room.

What Jin-Ah saw took her by surprise: her mother and Jinho were messing with the TV.

“Mom?”

“I, I’m sorry. That was too loud, wasn’t it?”

Jin-Ah shook her head.

Mom had already lowered the volume of the TV until not much could be heard, so she’d not interrupt her daughter’s studies. 

Jin-Ah didn’t feel like unduly burdening her any more than that.

“Besides all that, what’s going on? Is the TV broken?” Jin-Ah asked.

“We are not sure. It just stopped working all of a sudden.” Jinho answered.

“Where’s oppa?”

“He’s right h….” Jin-Ah’s mother turned around to look, only to gasp out in surprise.

“Oh, my?? Where did he go? But, he was here only about a second ago??”

"What the-" Jinho was surprised as well, as she was absolutely certain that Jin-Woo had been here just moments ago. 

With a puzzled expression, Jinho proposed, "Maybe he went to his room for a moment?"

Jin-Ah tilted her head and opened Jin-Woo’s bedroom door.

“Oppa?”

He wasn’t even in the bathroom, either. 

Jin-Ah proceeded to scour the entirety of the apartment before turning around towards her mom.

“What were you watching together just now?”

“The Jeju Island raid.” Her mother replied. 

“…..”

Suddenly, Jin-Ah was overcome with a certain ominous foreboding. 

Now that she thought about it, the entire apartment building had been bustling with loud noises ever since a little while ago.

‘No way….?!’ Jin-Ah's eyes widened in realisation as she exchanged glances with Jinho. 

It seemed like they had both come to the same conclusion.

Without hesitation, they both rushed back to their shared room, eager to find out if their suspicion was correct.

 "You don't think that..." Jinho's voice trembled with panic as she spoke up.

Jin-Ah mirrored her friend's anxiety and fear, replying, "There's only one way to be sure." 

With a determined expression, Jin-Ah quickly turned on her phone.

When she did…..

Just as the vigorous, loud cheers exploded out from the floors above and below hers, Jin-Ah’s eyes opened wider as she finally confirmed the scene playing out within her phone’s screen.

“Oppa?!”

The same sense of shock and disbelief washed over Jinho as she exclaimed, "Jin-Woo?!"

The girls stood there, jaws dropped in disbelief at what was unfolding before their eyes.

_______________

After utterly massacring every single ant monster found inside the queen’s chamber, Jin-Woo stored his soldiers back inside his shadow.

Even now, ants that had been spread out to the rest of the island were scurrying back to the ant tunnel.

He judged that his priority should be placed on guiding the Hunters out of here to somewhere safe before more ants showed up.

‘We have the injured here to worry about, too.’

Jin-Woo strode towards the Hunters. Besides Baek Yun-Ho and the cameraman, the rest weren’t in good shape.

Cha Hae-In was still unconscious, and the three others had suffered some serious wounds, as well.

“What about Min Byung-Gu Hunter-nim?” Jin-Woo asked while looking around.

Baek Yun-Ho shook his head with a hardened expression.

“..…”

Not saying anything else, Jin-Woo brought out the potions and began treating the Hunters one by one.

Since the potions would become useless once they leave his hands, he had to personally feed each of the Hunters.

“M-mm….”

After drinking the potions, Hunters began regaining their consciousness.

“What’s this?”

Im Tae-Gyu quickly raised his upper torso up, touched all over his body, and spat out a gasp of amazement.

“What the….?”

Both Choi Jong-In and Mah Dong-Wook recovered from the numerous injuries on their bodies in no time.

“Hmm…”

Cough, cough.

Choi Jong-In had no clue on what had transpired here, so as soon as he laid his eyes on Jin-Woo, he was taken aback rather greatly.

“Mister Sung Jin-Woo? What are you doing here??”

“Let’s talk after getting out of this place first.”

“Oh….” Choi Jong-In took a look around and nodded his head.

They were still stuck inside the deepest part of the ant tunnel. This was no place to idly chat away, indeed.

“Instructor Sung!”

Having regained his eyesight, Mah Dong-Wook was able to reach out and grab Jin-Woo’s hands.

“Were you the one fighting off those ants? Thank you. Thank you so much!!”

“Let us get out of here first.” Jin-Woo replied in the same manner to him as well.

“Got it.”

Finally, Cha Hae-In.

Standing before her, a frown formed on Jin-Woo’s face.

‘Something’s not right… her aura’s far too weak.’

While feeling a sense of foreboding, Jin-Woo raised her head and cautiously poured the potion down her mouth.

Sure enough, a message quickly popped up in his view.

Tti-ring.

[When the remaining HP is less than 10%, it is impossible to recover HP with healing potions.]

Jin-Woo’s expression crumpled.

When he slowly pulled out his hand supporting her head, it was soaked in her blood.

‘……’

That ant b*stard.

That creature inflicted a fatal blow to the strongest person among the Korean Hunters, Cha Hae-In, with nothing but a single blow.

The sole reason why these Hunters were still alive wasn’t that they were strong.

On the contrary, that b*stard simply toyed with them for a little while, that was all.

Jin-Woo’s expression hardened.

‘In any case, I gotta….’

Cha Hae-In’s injuries took priority.

If her wounds couldn’t be healed by the potions, then she needed to get out of this island as soon as possible and get a Healer-type Hunter to heal her.

“Let’s hurry.”

Jin-Woo carefully picked her up and stood up to leave. Other Hunters also stood up.

As they were preparing to leave the ant queen’s chamber, Jin-Woo walking in front of the pack suddenly spat out a long sigh.

‘……’

Baek Yun-Ho could guess the reason why.

Jin-Woo entrusted Cha Hae-In over to Baek Yun-Ho.

Suddenly dumped with the responsibility of carrying her around, Baek Yun-Ho formed a flustered expression, and he hurriedly raised his voice.

“I would like to help.”

Jin-Woo looked at the Hunters present, including Baek Yun-Ho, and told them all in no uncertain terms.

“Do not ever step forward during the fight. It’ll be faster that way.”

“But, Mister Sung Jin-Woo, that means….”

Choi Jung-Hoon was still oblivious to what had transpired before, so he was about to speak up his opinion, but Mah Dong-Wook stopped him and shook his head.

He may not have seen the situation unfold with his own eyes, but through his perception, he was able to detect how Jin-Woo annihilated the swarm of ants from the beginning until the end.

Jin-Woo was right about this.

However, Baek Yun-Ho still butted in.

“Sung Jin-Woo Hunter-nim.”

Jin-Woo turned his head to look at him.

“I understand full well that you’re strong. I can confidently say that no one here knows that better than me. However…..” Baek Yun-Ho spoke with a serious expression on his face.

“However, you’ve already summoned far too many creatures by now.”

But why would that be a problem?

When Jin-Woo stared at him with a confused expression, Baek Yun-Ho got flustered and quickly added more explanation.

“You must’ve had exhausted a lot of your magical energy by now. What would happen if you completely spend them?”

‘Ahh… so that’s what he was talking about.’

Jin-Woo guessed from Baek Yun-Ho’s words that the other Hunters utilising the summoning magic had to be using a lot of magic energy to summon even a single creature.

‘I’m sure there aren’t any real reasons to reveal that my Shadow Soldiers don’t need any magic energy, right?’

Even without him saying anything, his soldiers wouldn’t look like ordinary summons to these people’s eyes, anyway.

So, Jin-Woo decided to change the story ever so slightly.

“My summons don’t require as much magic energy as you think. You don’t need to worry about me.”

“Excuse me?”

Both Baek Yun-Ho and the cameraman exclaimed out at the same time.

He controlled that many summoned creatures all at once, yet he was saying that the magic energy usage wasn’t high? Then, just what was his weak point, then?

‘……..’

Realising that explaining would take up too much time, Jin-Woo simply turned towards the cave up ahead, instead.

With excellent timing, the waves of ant monsters were rushing inside the chamber.

‘Wow, there are still so many of them.’

Their side had someone in a critical condition. So, he couldn’t afford to waste time here.

Jin-Woo activated the Sovereign’s Territory for maximum efficiency.

The ground beneath his feet was immediately dyed in black.

Just as he was done with preparations to call his soldiers back out again, an ominous, creepy air blew in from the other side of the cave.

‘……..?’

Jin-Woo shifted his gaze over to where that eerie aura was coming from.

There was this one individual among the masses of ants.

It looked similar to the others, but it was a completely different type of monster compared to the others.

‘Ah, so that’s the one.’

Jin-Woo instantly recognised the ‘ant king’. And likewise, the ant king recognised Jin-Woo as well.

Taking its time, the ant king slowly walked over to him.

“A human… you seem to possess a pretty strong aura.”

It even imitated Goto Ryuji’s speech pattern.

Hunters immediately recalled the nightmare of a few moments ago and flinched grandly as soon as spotting that ant monster.

On the other hand, Jin-Woo showed no outward ripples and simply stared at the creature without saying a word.

Eventually, the ant king stood before Jin-Woo.

“Are you the king of humans?”

“…..Huh, an insect that knows how to speak. Well, I’ll be.”

When Jin-Woo replied with a less than impressed expression on his face, the ant king’s own expression crumpled unsightly.

The power the queen bestowed it with, and the power it gathered through the ‘Gluttony’ skill – the moment the ant king unleashed all of its magic energy, its body suddenly ballooned up greatly in size.

Its height, which used to be around the same as Jin-Woo’s, grew by at least 1.5 times taller.

The ant king then screeched out loudly right in front of Jin-Woo’s nose.

Kiiiiiieeeeeehhhhhk-!!!

Jin-Woo didn’t even blink once, and instead, a smirk formed on his lips.

“Yup, now you’re acting properly like an insect.”

And then, he himself unleashed his own magical energy.

_____________

In the end, the ant king began crawling on the ground to get away from him.

That arrogant, dignified appearance it displayed back when it proceeded to toy around with the Korean Hunters – it was now long, long gone.

“Now you look like a proper insect.”

Jin-Woo closed in quickly, took aim at the back of the ant king, and activated his skill, ‘Vital Points Targetting’ – no, ‘Violent Slash’.

That brought up the message window.

Tti-ring!

[You have killed your enemy.]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

‘Niiice!’

Jin-Woo clenched his fist. But his celebrations lasted only for a short while.

“Sung Jin-Woo Hunter-nim!”

He quickly turned around after Baek Yun-Ho called out to him, and found the latter’s complexion to be extremely poor.

Jin-Woo quickly ran over to him.

Other Hunters rejoicing at the defeat of the ant king stopped and shifted their gazes over to Baek Yun-Ho, as well.

Meanwhile, Baek Yun-Ho continued to speak to Jin-Woo.

“Hunter Cha Hae-In is….”

Just as his unfinished sentence implied, Cha Hae-In’s vitality had declined so much that it was hard to even sense it now.

The situation had deteriorated even further than before.

Jin-Woo’s expression quickly hardened.

Time had almost run out.

Even if he rode on Kaisel, just when would he arrive at his destination, and just how long would he take to find a healer to heal her?

‘I need another way….’

After some brief pondering, Jin-Woo came up with a method to save Cha Hae-In.

He finished checking her complexion and stood back up.

He then turned towards the cameraman. “Can you switch off the camera for a minute or two?”

“Excuse me? The camera?”

“Yes.”

The cameraman looked at Jin-Woo with a flustered expression.

But, Jin-Woo’s face was solemn, deeply serious, and unmoving.

“But, why the camera, all of a sudden…?”

Jin-Woo remained silent at the flustered cameraman’s question.

“…..”

The cameraman couldn’t come to a decision here. Hunter Sung Jin-Woo was indeed his hero. He’d gladly heed that man’s request, especially when he was also saving the lives of others here, too.

‘However, to ask me to switch the camera off….’

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that every South Korean citizen must be watching this broadcast right now.

As a broadcaster, he found it hard to press the ‘off’ button on his camera under the current situation.

When he began hesitating like that, Jin-Woo chose not to waste any more time and spoke up.

“If you don’t, I’ll just break it.”

Hearing Jin-Woo’s icy tone of voice, the cameraman flinched grandly.

If Hunter Sung Jin-Woo decided to break the camera, then would the combined efforts of the Hunters present here even be enough to stop him?

The ‘why’ no longer mattered as he was left with no choice in the matter anymore.

“I-I understand. Hold on.”

The cameraman removed the head-mounted camera and switched the device off.

After confirming the ‘power’ light of the camera was gone, Jin-Woo took Cha Hae-In back from Baek Yun-Ho.

‘I didn’t want to scare the cameraman, but….’

It couldn’t be helped if he wanted to save Cha Hae-In.

While holding her, Jin-Woo quickly scanned his vicinity. He then took a couple of deep breaths and closed his eyes.

‘What is he trying to do now?’

The attention of the Hunters was all gathered on him now.

Soon, he opened his eyes. Finding the location of what he was searching for, Jin-Woo suddenly turned around and headed deeper into the ant tunnel.

His steps were brisk, but he never broke into a full-blown sprint in consideration of Cha Hae-In’s current condition.

Others dazedly stared at his back before quickly recovering their wits to run after him.

Finally, Jin-Woo came to a stop and cautiously put Cha Hae-In down.

He then began removing the pile of ant corpses from around her.

“Heok!!”

Discovering something rather unexpected, the cameraman was the first one to gasp out in surprise.

Other Hunters also let a stunned gasp leak out from their mouths. Because the cold, headless body of Min Byung-Gu was there.

It was a gruesome sight to behold, where there was literally nothing above his neck area.

Only then did they venture to guess why Hunter Sung Jin-Woo demanded for the camera to be cut off.

No one out there would want to witness that horrible scene, after all.

“Keuk.”

The closest person to Min Byung-Gu out of everyone present here, Baek Yun-Ho, squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away.

But then…

‘Wait a minute…’ He suddenly thought of something. ‘How did Hunter Sung Jin-Woo find where Byung-Gu was among all these dead monsters?’

‘Hunter Sung Jin-Woo…. Just what are you trying to do?’ Cold sweat drops formed on his forehead as he alternated his gaze between Jin-Woo, Min Byung-Gu, and Cha Hae-In.

In the meantime, Jin-Woo took a closer look at the status of Min Byung-Gu.

The black smokes were rising up from the corpse. Meaning, it was possible to perform the ‘Shadow Extraction’ on it.

And, sure enough….

Tti-ring.

[It is possible to perform Shadow Extraction on the selected target.]

The familiar mechanical beep and the System’s message informed him in such a ‘friendly’ way that what he wanted to do was, well, doable.

Of course, Jin-Woo was cognisant of the fact that Hunter Min Byung-Gu could be turned into a Shadow Soldier the moment he heard of the latter meeting an unfortunate fate.

Only that he didn’t feel like doing it.

To turn a blameless guy into an undead and use him as a soldier….

Even if the corpse belonged to a rank S Hunter, he’d still reject the idea outright. That was not something a human being should do.

However…

Jin-Woo stared at Cha Hae-In’s gradually paling face.

‘….This is the best way.’

What if, in a situation where every second counted, he could entrust the gravely injured to the best Healer in South Korea? What was there to even think about here?

If the decision was left up to Min Byung-Gu himself, he’d have made the same call 100 times out of 100.

Jin-Woo formed a solemn expression and issued an order to the shadow.

“Arise.”

______________

Jin-Woo patted the shoulder of Min Byung-Gu’s shadow. That was the gesture of appreciation for the job well done.

‘……’

Jin-Woo guessed what kind of person Min Byung-Gu must’ve been when he was still alive, from the gentle eyes of the Shadow Soldier looking back at him.

Jin-Woo slowly took his hand away from the shoulder, and then…

‘Extraction cancellation.’

With a slight smile on his lips, he let the shadow return to the abyss.

No matter what, he didn’t possess the right to lord over this man as one of his soldiers, when Min Byung-Gu even sacrificed his life to fight against the monster threats.

Indeed, he thought that such an act was not fitting for a fallen hero.

‘…Let’s get out of here.’

Putting aside the slight regret in his heart, Jin-Woo picked up Cha Hae-In from the ground.

After losing their two leaders – the queen and the king – the ant monsters scattered and fled to the ends of the island in order to hide from the Shadow Soldiers.

The ant tunnel, once filled to the brim with ants, was now completely empty.

Jin-Woo took several steps forward before looking behind him to speak to other Hunters.

“Let’s get going.”

Their bodies and physical fatigue might have been recovered to some extent from the potions they ingested, but their mental fatigue had almost reached a breaking point by now.

So, when they heard his suggestion, the expressions of the Hunters brightened up considerably.

It was now finally over.

Their smile-filled faces perfectly expressed their current emotions.

After they safely got out from the ant tunnel, they found a helicopter hovering in the air, having arrived in their location just now with an exquisite sense of timing.

“There they are! Hunters are coming out!”

“Yes!! Well done!”

The helicopter carefully descended and landed on the ground after its occupants discovered the exact location of the Hunters.

The tired Hunters entered the vehicle one by one until only two people remained.

They were Jin-Woo and Baek Yun-Ho.

Jin-Woo was standing closer to the helicopter. He carefully handed Cha Hae-In over to Baek Yun-Ho.

“What are you doing, Sung Jin-Woo Hunter-nim?”

“I still have some unfinished business to take care of on this island.”

Hearing that, Baek Yun-Ho could only smirk softly.

There were still plenty of ant monsters that had escaped death roaming around on the Jeju Island.

If some other people said that they wanted to remain here, then Baek Yun-Ho would’ve questioned their sanity, but the man in front of his eyes was definitely not included in that group.

To fight monsters, you needed a monster.

Baek Yun-Ho thought that he wouldn’t get surprised anymore regardless of what Jin-Woo was planning to do on this island.

“Excuse me.”

Before leaving the island, Baek Yun-Ho threw out one last question.

“Byung-Gu…. No, wait. What will happen to the summoned creature that came out from Byung-Gu? Will he… stay as your soldier and continue to fight on?”

Jin-Woo shook his head.

“I’ve canceled the summoning. It won’t be possible to see him again.”

Baek Yun-Ho nodded his head and formed a content smile. “That’s a relief.”

“Pardon?”

“That guy, he… really hated fighting, you know? I’m sure that he’s thanking you right now, wherever he is.”

And so, the six warriors and one cameraman who had bravely fought on finally left the island of Jeju.

Their fight was over.

However, it was merely another beginning for Jin-Woo.

‘I need only one more level up to hit 100.’

He’d get there no problem, considering the number of remaining monsters on this island.

And besides, there were plenty of shadows waiting to be extracted back inside the ant tunnel, as well.

So, then – should he get started now?

‘First of all, I should take care of the ants that had run away….’

Jin-Woo formed a deep smile and summoned Kaisel out.

______________

“She’s waking up!”

Everyone’s attention was focused on her in an instant.

Goh Gun-Hui carefully sat down near her head and asked her. “Cha Hunter-nim, can you hear me?”

Cha Hae-In slowly opened her eyes. “Where….?”

“You’re inside the helicopter. Currently, it’s landed on the Hunters Association, and we are planning to escort you to the hospital very soon.”

“A hospital….”

Cha Hae-In briefly looked around her before taking a deep breath.

The scent of Hunter Sung Jin-Woo had permeated throughout her body.

She stared at Goh Gun-Hui with unfocused eyes. “….Did Sung Jin-Woo Hunter-nim show up there?”

She was supposed to be unconscious all this time, so when she mentioned Sung Jin-Woo’s name, other Hunters were all inwardly taken by surprise.

Instead of a verbal answer, Goh Gun-Hui slowly nodded his head.

A thin smile formed on Cha Hae-In’s face.

‘I knew it… it wasn’t a dream.’ She thought softly as a blush formed on her cheeks. 

Cha Hae-In had briefly woken up, but she fell back into a deep slumber again.

After confirming that her breathing was stable, Goh Gun-Hui ordered his subordinates to take her to the hospital so she could get some much-needed rest.

____________

Kaisel flapped its wings and finished getting ready to fly in an instant.

Jin-Woo lightly jumped on his back and took one last look at the queen’s chamber.

The place once filled with unbridled chaos was now enveloped in this eerie silence.

‘…….’

The Jeju Island expedition was now over.

Jin-Woo’s gaze shifted away from the interior of the chamber and towards the exit.

“To home.”

And then, Kaisel powerfully flew up in the air.

______________

Inside a suite of South Korea’s top luxury hotel.

Although his presence had been buried under the huge news of the Jeju Island raid recently, it was still an undeniable fact that one of the world’s most powerful Hunters had taken up a temporary residence there.

Thomas switched off the monitor still playing the video of the raid. He had already seen that recorded video three times by now.

“What do you think, sir?” Laura, who stood next to him, asked him. She accompanied him to Korea as his sole subordinate.

“Well… it’s as you can see.”

He leaned against the couch and placed his legs on the coffee table.

Thomas had fair blonde hair and a high nose. A seemingly never-ending happy smile was deeply etched on his sunglasses-wearing face.

“So, are you sure that’s the Hunter Mister Hwang was investigating?”

“Yes.”

“And he asked you what would happen if he killed someone in Korea?”

“Yes.”

Thomas ordered the potential connection between Hwang Dong-Su and Sung Jin-Woo to be secretly investigated as soon as Laura made her report.

And, as it turned out, there was only one connection between the two.

That would be Hwang Dong-Su’s older brother, Hwang Dong-Seok.

He and Sung Jin-Woo entered the same dungeon together, but only the latter walked out alive, while the former went missing.

No one would question what happened inside a dungeon. That had become common sense throughout the world now.

“So, it’s revenge, is it?”

“Most likely.”

“And here I thought that he had no family. He hid it pretty well.”

“I heard that Mister Hwang’s brother was meticulous in hiding the family connection, sir.”

“Probably because he was involved in shady stuff, that’s why.”

So shady, in fact, it’d greatly affect his own younger brother if the word got out. Laura used her silence to indicate her agreement.

And then… the Jeju Island raid happened.

“I guess it will become far harder to meet Sung Jin-Woo now, what with an incident like that taking place.”

“I believe so.” Laura replied confidently.

There was only one reason why the Master of Scavenger Guild, as well as one of the most renowned Hunters in the world, Thomas, gave himself some time off and came to this small nation.

And that was to meet Sung Jin-Woo.

More specifically, he wanted to find out what might happen if Mister Hwang did get to have a go with Sung Jin-Woo for real.

He told the management of the Guild that he was coming here to scout yet another rank S South Korean Hunter.

“I really wanted to meet him, too. What a shame this is.” Thomas’s voice was thick with the emotion of wistfulness.

“As I thought… It’d be for the best to prevent Mister Hwang from encountering Hunter Sung Jin-Woo, yes?” Laura cautiously asked him from the side.

“Well…..” Thomas slowly scratched his chin before replying to her with a smirk.

“The South Korean government did save Mister Hwang’s life, that’s for sure.”

The Korean government immediately blocked Hwang Dong-Seok from entering the country. After all, he did abandon his mother nation to emigrate to the States as soon as he was evaluated to be a rank S, didn’t he?

The whole thing could’ve turned into an international incident, but Thomas was able to utilise the time earned that way to come and visit Korea first.

Too bad, Mister Hwang wasn’t someone who’d simply give up just because he was refused entry to a country. Especially so, if his purpose was revenge.

In all honesty, Thomas didn’t have a stuffy personality.

He had no thoughts of stopping Mister Hwang at the risk of being on the end of his hostility when the latter wanted to avenge the death of his family member.

But then, that man was an important asset to Scavenger Guild. And, that was precisely the reason why Thomas thought of finding out the exact skill level of Sung Jin-Woo, who was also ranked S.

Because, it’d prove to be troublesome if Mister Hwang ended up kicking the bucket instead.

However….

The impression Thomas got from seeing Sung Jin-Woo was that the American should be thanking the lucky stars right about now.

“No matter what, never let Mister Hwang step a foot inside South Korea. With that, hopefully, these two won’t run into each other.”

“Understood. I’ll also withdraw the legal procedures.”

“I should be the one to talk to Mister Hwang. That friend’s got a fiery personality, so I guess I’ll have to do my best on this one.”

Laura studiously jotted down everything her Guild Master said on a memo pad. But then, a question popped up in her head.

“What if… even after we did all this, the two of them end up fighting…. What will you do then, sir?”

“Laura. Don’t you know me?” Thomas grinned deeply.

“Mister Hwang is Scavenger Guild’s asset. And Scavenger is my property.”

His lips might be smiling, but the eyes hidden beneath the sunglasses certainly weren’t. He always wore a pair of sunglasses to hide his incredibly sharp eyes.

He sat back up straight and lowered his voice.

“I will never forgive anyone who dares to touch my property. Even if that’s the American government itself.”

One person’s power equaled that of an entire country.

His name was Thomas Andre.

One of only five in the entire world. This was the confidence that only a Special Authority-rank Hunter, an international powerhouse, could possess.

X

Chapter Text

Jinho’s glares became a level sharper.

Like the eyes of a hawk locking onto a prey, her glare scanning the computer monitor was filled to the brim with unbridled sharpness.

And then, proverbial flames erupted out of her eyes next.

‘I shall never forgive those trying to obstruct the path of Jin-Woo!!’

Jinho quickly screen-captured the offending online forum post in question, as well as the comments appearing below it, and then proceeded to write up a formal letter of complaint with lightning speed.

She moved so expertly and quickly that she must’ve had more than enough experience doing this thing.

And, in the blink of an eye, her work was done.

“Whew.”

Her hand departing from the computer’s keyboard lightly wiped away a single bead of sweat rolling down her forehead.

She had done it again.

Today, she was indeed successful in rooting out an insidious group trying to slander her Jin-Woo.

Jin-Woo was the face of their fledgling Guild, not to mention its guiding light.

The b*stards that tried to speak ill of Jin-Woo, or even spread false rumors about him, were unforgivable sinners that deserved to be put to death.

Of course, she also needed to be even more proactive in taking them down when she thought about the future of the Guild.

After all, wasn’t this the Guild where she’d become its Vice Master?

That’s why her personal feelings had nothing to do with what she was doing right now.

At least that's what she convinced herself...

It was all a part of the official business she had to perform for the sake of their Guild.

Unfortunately, Jinho was reminded of the sad truth that the Guild she’d be the Vice Master of still didn’t have an official name yet.

This was a serious problem requiring a speedy resolution.

Jin-Woo hadn’t said a word about this problem until now, so Jinho decided that it was her duty as the Guild’s Vice Master to come up with a suitable name.

‘Hmm….’

How about putting the ‘Sung’ of Sung Jin-Woo and ‘Yu’ of Yu Jinho together to name the Guild ‘Sung-yu’?

She quickly shook her head, though.

‘It’s got a nice meaning, but uh, it sounds a bit…’

If she were to consider how it sounded, then it was indeed better to flip the two words around to make ‘Yu-Sung’, but then again, she’d never be able to accept the fact that her own surname would come before her Jin-Woo’s.

‘I must discuss this with Jin-Woo when he stops by.’

It had been two whole days since they moved into this office.

Jin-Woo had become the centre of the world’s attention after his heroic feats during the Jeju Island raid got broadcast live, while Jinho found herself manning this big office all alone a lot more than she’d like to.

‘No, hang on a minute. What if I just take the last part of our names and name the Guild Woo-Ho?’

It was then.

“Hey, what are you so deeply worried about?”

“Heok?!”

Jinho jumped up like a scalded cat.

She quickly got up from the chair and looked behind her, only to discover Jin-Woo standing there.

“J-Jin-Woo?!”

Jin-Woo shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly as if he couldn’t understand why anyone would be that surprised.

Meanwhile, Jinho was busy patting her pounding chest down.

‘Seriously, if he doesn’t want you to know that he’s here, you wouldn’t even realise it….’

It sure felt like Jin-Woo’s penchant for suddenly appearing and then disappearing seemed to have gotten worse with every passing day.

Embarrassed by her own over-the-top reaction, Jinho sheepishly scratched the back of her head and asked Jin-Woo.

“S-So, When did you arrive here?”

“Just now.”

After making a simple reply, Jin-Woo leaned in and took a look at the computer monitor that captured Jinho’s attention until then, but before he got a proper look, the latter quickly covered up the screen with her entire body.

“J-Jin-Woo, you don’t have to worry about b*stards like them. I’ll take very good care of them, so you can rest easy!”

Jin-Woo looked at that determined face of Jinho, and an expression of dumbfoundedness formed on his.

“….So, it was you.”

Jin-Woo heard that there was someone out there that pounced on any negative comments or false articles about him online like a wild beast and, while relying on the threat of legal action, demanded them to be taken down immediately.

But to think, that person was someone so close by!

Jinho’s complexion reddened from embarrassment now that her secret activity had been inadvertently exposed to the open.

“Jin-Woo … I’m supposed to do things like this for you, you know!”

Jinho’s eyes sparkled like an expectant kid waiting for a praise, and Jin-Woo could only chuckle at that sight.

“Right. Thanks.”

Mistakenly thinking that the smile on Jin-Woo’s face was one of satisfaction, Jinho secretly made up her mind to become even more hands-on, all for the sake of her Jin-Woo.

But then….

“…Uh? Jin-Woo, are you going somewhere today?” Jinho asked after paying attention to his outfit.

“I have some business to attend to today.” 

“Aha….” Jinho was feeling really amazed at that moment.

She had only seen Jin-Woo wear clothes that were easy to move around in, so seeing her Jin-Woo kitted out in a black business suit from head to toe like this, she was struck by a sense of unfamiliarity and amazement at the same time. 

And let's not even start talking about how attractive he looked...

Too bad, Jin-Woo didn’t have enough free time to explain himself. He took another quick look at his watch.

‘I’m running way too tight….’

Jin-Woo lifted his head away from the watch and asked Jinho.

“Are there any other documents that I must bring with me when getting the Guild Master license?”

“Not at all! When you get to the Association, you’ll be asked to take a simple test. Your license will be issued right away afterward.”

“Okay.”

So, her Jin-Woo was headed off to the Association?

‘But, isn’t his attire a bit too much, considering he’s only going to the Association….?’

Jinho incorrectly guessed Jin-Woo’s destination and began tilting her head, but soon enough, she accepted it as a fact.

‘Well, Jin-Woo's a celebrity now, so I guess he’ll have to watch what he wears in public.’

There were good sides to being famous, but on the flip side, there was also a tiresome aspect to it, as well.

Jin-Woo then pointed to the car keys placed on a desk a bit of distance away from him.

“I’m going to borrow the van for a while.”

“Sure, use it as much as you want.”

Jinho reached out to pick the keys up.

However, she was taken greatly by surprise as the keys slipped out of her reach and flew into Jin-Woo’s hands.

“J-Jin-Woo, what was…-”

“It’s a skill.” Jin-Woo cut her off abruptly.

“…...”

Jinho was rendered speechless yet again.

Even if Jin-Woo declared that he could fly around using another one of his skills, Jinho was confident of not finding that strange at all.

‘Is there anything Jin-Woo can’t do??’

The guy was like an onion that had so many layers still left to peel. The more you knew about him, the more he’d surprise you.

‘Wait, now isn’t the time for this!’

Jinho abruptly woke up from her daydream, remembering that she still had a few things to ask Jin-Woo. Since he was in the office, now was the perfect opportunity to do exactly that

Jin-Woo stopped walking away after sensing that Jinho had something else to say from the way the girl was looking at him.

“Yeah?”

“Jin-Woo, it’s only been a day since we started advertising on the online job marketplace. But we’ve been swarmed by the applicants wanting to become our fellow founding members, so I went ahead and compiled a list for you to take a look.”

“Oh, that. Let’s talk about it after I come back.”

He was running short on time to begin with.

Jinho felt her own urgency kick in, having seen how badly Jin-Woo wanted to be on his way.

“Ah, J-Jin-Woo! Have you decided on the name of the Guild?”

Indeed, this was the most pressing issue of them all.

Because, you’d need a name of the Guild if you wanted to place job postings on the bulletin boards, or even when conducting other official businesses, now wouldn’t it?

‘Does he have something in mind for the name of the Guild?’

Jinho’s heart was pounding in anticipation for Jin-Woo’s answer.

She was fully prepared to suggest the names she had thought up if Jin-Woo was unable to come up with one.

Jin-Woo pondered for a bit while Jinho continued to gaze at him with eyes glinting with the light of expectation.

A smirk found its way to Jin-Woo’s lips, and he finally made his reply.

“How about Solo Play Guild?” 

“Eh?...” Jinho blinked her eyes several times.

● ● ●

Was she supposed to start laughing here? But, didn’t Jin-Woo’s expression look like he wasn’t joking at all?

Jin-Woo didn’t expect to see a reaction anyway, so he quickly turned towards the door to leave.

“See you later.”

Jinho fell into a train of thought while watching Jin-Woo make his exit from the office.

‘….So, there WAS something Jin-Woo couldn’t do, after all.’

As expected, her Jin-Woo was a human being, just like everyone else.

Although she was afraid that the ‘Solo Play’ would get stuck as the Guild’s name, Jinho also felt just a tiny bit more reassured after being reminded of Jin-Woo being a human like her.

_____________

The location of Hunter Min Byung-Gu’s funeral ceremony.

Originally, the plan was to hold a small private ceremony with only the close relatives invited to attend the event.

However, there were far too many people who wished to pay their respects, and so, the funeral had to be changed to a public one.

Countless people showed up to the funeral parlor to pay their respects and remember Hunter Min Byung-Gu’s valiant sacrifice.

Jin-Woo was among them.

‘Uh, uh? Isn’t that….?’

‘Heok! Isn’t he Hunter Sung Jin-Woo?’

‘It’s really him!’

The funeral goers soon discovered Jin-Woo’s presence and began whispering to each other as their excitement heated up.

Jin-Woo didn’t particularly mind the gazes of other people unless he was talking about some special circumstances.

As long as no one bothered him, it didn’t matter to him if he got famous, either.

That’s why he didn’t really care when the mourners discovered his presence and started whispering among themselves.

However….

‘At the very least, you all should know that now isn’t the time nor the place.’

Jin-Woo furrowed his brows unhappily.

Wasn’t this the place to remember and honor the valiant sacrifice of Hunter Min Byung-Gu?

Jin-Woo didn’t want this solemn occasion to fall into some noisy chaos because of him, so he briefly unleashed a portion of his magic energy – no, not even that, but an amount so tiny that it didn’t even qualify to be called a portion.

‘…..!!’

The desired effect took place right away.

The air suddenly became incomparably heavier, and oppressive silence descended to the place. Even the breathing of the mourners became incredibly cautious.

“….”

“….”

All those people noisily yapping to each other promptly shut their mouths up at once.

‘Alright.’

Jin-Woo succeeded in creating an acceptable atmosphere with nothing but a quiet display of power before he started walking forward again.

Coincidentally, Jin-Woo spotted Cha Hae-In in the distance as he quietly approached the black-and-white portrait of the deceased to lay down the flowers.

But when their gazes met, she suddenly flinched and fell into a panicked state.

‘Did they come together?’

The members of the Korean team around her sent him a silent greeting with a slight nod of their heads, but Cha Hae-In looked as if she had no clue which expression she was supposed to make right now.

‘Huh, so that woman can make a face like that, too?’

He couldn’t recall any other times when she didn’t carry that expressionless face of hers.

Indeed, one should get to know somebody for a longer time before passing judgment, that’s for sure.

Jin-Woo shifted his gaze away and stood before the portrait.

Hunter Min Byung-Gu within the black photo frame was smiling brightly without a care in the world.

Jin-Woo placed the flower in front of the portrait and closed his eyes for a brief moment.

‘I hope you find yourself in a better place.’

______________

The road suddenly became really clogged up.

Jin-Woo was in deep contemplation as he found himself stuck in the middle of an unmoving sea of traffic.

‘That lady, she definitely saw something.’

That woman called Madam Norma Selner. She must’ve faced countless powerful Hunters, yet she couldn’t even meet his gaze because she felt a crippling fear of him.

Just what did she ‘see’ in him?

Was it the traces of his System?

The System would make a few ridiculous demands from him every now and then, sure, but it was certainly not a scary existence.

‘Instead of being scary, that thing’s my greatest ally.’

However, how would it look like in other people’s views?

The deputy director asked him back then if it was fine to get in touch at a later time. The thing was, though, the woman regaining some calm behind him suddenly got startled again and began shuddering as soon as he asked that question.

Even if Jin-Woo wanted to see that woman again, she’d avoid him of her own volition. Her entire body displayed her unwillingness quite clearly. Jin-Woo then came to a realisation.

Maybe that woman’s power didn’t work on him. He was very different from normal Hunters, after all.

‘Well, I guess there’s no need to waste more of my time with those folks, then.’

That was why he already told the American deputy director that there wouldn’t be a need and tactfully declined their invite. The frozen-stiff expression of the deputy director was particularly memorable, to say the least.

‘Besides all that, what is up with this traffic, man?’

Jin-Woo furrowed his brows at the road ahead utterly mired in congestion as far as his eyes could see.

‘This is why taking the subway is so much more convenient.’

Just as he began wondering if there was an accident up ahead or something….

Vrrrr….

His phone stuck in the car charger vibrated rather noisily. Jin-Woo checked the ID of the caller.

‘…It’s the Association President?’

They saw each other in the funeral venue only a few hours ago, so what business did he have in calling him so soon?

Jin-Woo tapped the ‘Answer’ icon.

“Hunter-nim. It’s Goh Gun-Hui speaking.”

The Association President explained the situation taking place in the middle of Seoul in a calm voice.

“Excuse me? A Gate opened up in the middle of the road?”

He was beginning to think that this traffic jam was far too heavy to be normal, but there was a good reason behind it, as it turned out.

Hoping to turn the van around, Jin-Woo scanned around the vehicle. Unfortunately, there were simply too many cars tightly packed around him, and it was not possible to move an inch.

He helplessly shook his head and returned his gaze to the front of the road. It was then.

A welcoming piece of news capable of washing away the wave of dissatisfaction rising up from the traffic jam jumped out from his phone.

“Our agents have evaluated it as a rank B Gate. Would you like to take care of it for us, Hunter-nim?”

‘Heot!’

Jin-Woo struggled to suppress the giggles of joy this truly excellent news managed to awaken.

As a matter of fact, he shouldn’t be pleased about something that was greatly inconveniencing so many citizens like this. Yes.

Jin-Woo managed to straighten his voice and cautiously asked.

“I don’t have the raid permit, so can I just enter like that, sir?”

“Huhuh. Hunter-nim, who issues the raid permits?”

“It’s issued by the Association.”

“And who am I?”

Jin-Woo suppressed his laughter again and replied seriously.

“You’re the President of the Hunter’s Association.”

“Huhuhuh. That’s why, don’t worry about anything and please take care of it.”

“Well, in that case, thank you for the me…. No, I mean, thank you for the opportunity.”

Jin-Woo clenched his fist.

He climbed out of the van and began walking after the trace of the magic energy leaking out from the Gate. Because of the cars packed tightly on all sides, he didn’t even need to park the van somewhere else, too.

_______________

Around the same time.

The Vice-Master of the tentatively-named ‘Solo Play’ Guild, as well as its chief recruitment officer, its sole lawyer, and even its accountant, Jinho, was waiting boredly for Jin-Woo to return to their shared office. 

The sound of a knock echoed through the room, and Jinho practically leaped out of her seat, her smile growing brighter as she rushed to the door. 

Just as she was about to open it, a thought struck her: 'Wait... since when does Jin-Woo knock before entering anywhere?'

She was accustomed to his habit of appearing out of nowhere that the thought of him knocking seemed out of character.

With cautious eyes, Jinho carefully opened the door, only to let out a gasp at the unexpected sight before her. 

Recovering from her initial surprise, Jinho managed to ask, "W-What brings you here, Hunter-nim?" Her expression was one of confusion and disbelief.

"I came to... join hunter Sung Jin-Woo's Guild." Cha Hae-In replied.

Did she hear that, right? Jinho ended up doubting her own hearing, then.

Cha Hae-In was the Vice-Master of South Korea’s top Guild, and her skills were ranked to be among the very best, but she willingly walked into a Guild that hadn’t even taken its first baby step yet?

Unless she was being threatened into coming here, how could this situation make any sense? But then again….

‘Uh, well, just who’d be brave enough to threaten her?’

Jinho then decided to bring up the one person with enough clout to potentially threaten her in South Korea.

“D-Did... the Association President ordered you to do this?”

Cha Hae-In formed a confused expression, evidently not understanding why Goh Gun-Hui was being brought up in this discussion.

“Why would he….?”

It was Jinho who couldn’t understand what was going on here, so why was Cha Hae-In making that face even though she was the reason for all this confusion?

‘No, hang on. Let’s calm down.’

It was a situation where most people would’ve been left too stunned or got overexcited, but Jinho was able to stay calm as she invited Cha Hae-In inside their mostly-empty conference suite. 

After pulling out a chair to sit on Cha Hae-In’s opposite side, Jinho wordlessly stared at her.

‘She looks restless.’

She was doing her best to look composed, but there was no fooling Jinho's perception.

So, the question was – why was she forcing herself to this extent and trying to enter the tentatively-named ‘Solo Play’ Guild?

“Don’t you still have some time left in the duration of your contract with the Hunters Guild?” Jinho had to ask her.

Now, normally, the Guild would negotiate contracts with Hunters in five-year terms. 

Cha Hae-In joined the Hunters Guild two years ago when she was evaluated to be a rank S, so at a bare minimum, she should still have three years left in her contract.

“I have enough money to pay the penalty for breach of contract.”

Cha Hae-In’s collected answer only elicited Jinho's head-tilting.

Most of the time, such a penalty fee would be between two to three times the original signing fee.

Thinking about the exorbitant sum the Hunters Guild must’ve forked out in order to sign up a rank S Hunter like her, one didn’t need to be a genius to figure out that the breach of contract penalty fee would be absolutely horrendous, as well.

Since she was about to speak to Cha Hae-In about harsh reality, Jinho's attitude became very business-like.

“Our ‘Solo Play’ Guild simply can’t afford to pay the kind of signing fee your skill set warrants, Cha Hunter-nim.”

“T-The name of your Guild is ‘Solo Play’??”

“You have a problem with the name that the Guild Master himself came up with?” 

Jinho still thought it was a horrible name, but she was the only one allowed to complain about it. 

“…No, not really.” Cha Hae-In let a soft sigh escape from her and continued on.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s fine if you don’t pay me the contract signing fee.”

She didn’t mind signing a contract without any payment, even though she’d have to pay an enormous breach of contract fee to the Hunters Guild?

‘What is she scheming here?’ Jinho’s eyes narrowed to a slit.

When their eyes stayed locked for a while, Cha Hae-In could no longer endure the silent pressure and averted her gaze. Her heart was beating a step faster than before, too.

‘Is she hiding something?’

At this point, Jinho simply had to ask her.

“Why are you willing to go through such a wringer just to join our Guild?”

“….”

As expected, Cha Hae-In couldn’t easily answer her and kept her mouth resolutely shut.

And seeing her face redden like that, it became oh-so-obvious that she was hiding something from Jinho, too.

‘Why is she acting like this?...’

Jinho was more than confused as she waited for Cha Hae-In’s answer.

However, that woman kept her head lowered and, for a long while, didn’t say a single word.

‘….But, how can I even explain myself to her?'

'….That I sensed Hunter Sung Jin-Woo’s presence next to me even after I lost my consciousness from the attack of that mutated ant monster?'

'….That, I felt safe and warm after picking up on his scent as I sank deeper into an empty and endless dark void?’

There was no word in this world adequate enough to describe what Cha Hae-In felt back then.

‘Even if I explain it, she’d only think that I’ve gone mad.’

Cha Hae-In's heart began beating faster after she learned of Hunter Sung Jin-Woo really being there. She felt so relieved, knowing that she wasn’t imagining things.

'I can't say it. How do I say... I wish to stand by his side till the very end!'

How could she even attempt saying that when just thinking about it made her blush uncontrollably?

That was an impossible task for Cha Hae-In, who didn’t know anything about a normal girl’s sensibilities. 

That was why she finally spoke up an answer she cooked up before coming here.

“…To be more comfortable.”

Cha Hae-In raised her head to meet Jinho's gaze and continue on with the rest.

“I wish to be live more comfortably….”

Although it wasn’t exactly what she tried to say, it wasn’t a complete lie, either.

She couldn’t even lift her head properly from all the horrendous stink when high-ranked Hunters were standing next to her.

But, in contrast, she felt her mind getting peaceful in the presence of Jin-Woo.

The meaning of Cha Hae-In’s ‘comfortable’ was precisely that.

Jinho obviously didn’t interpret the meaning that way, but still, she could understand where Cha Hae-In was coming from.

Jinho slowly nodded her head from her answer.

Cha Hae-In apparently wanted to leave a big Guild like the Hunters and spend a more ‘comfortable’ time in a far smaller Guild like hers and Jin-Woo’s.

According to Jinho's knowledge, Cha Hae-In was either twenty-two or twenty-three years old.

‘I’m sure the burden that a rank S must carry would be pretty heavy for a woman in her early twenties.’

Especially more so after she felt the threat of death during the Jeju Island raid.

Unfortunately for her….

‘Although her plight is pitiable, but…..’

But, Jinho ouldn’t just accept her like that.

However…

‘If I reject a rank S Hunter who’s willing to waive the contract signing fee and join my Guild without a proper reason, it’s going to look pretty suspicious.’

That was why Jinho quickly came up with a plan.

“Actually, our Guild has an admittance test you need to go through.”

“Pardon? But-”

“T-This rule is pretty new.” Jinho quickly cut her off before she could ask anything that would only complicate things here. 

The glow in Cha Hae-In’s eyes became quite serious at the mention of a test.

“What kind of a test is it?”

Jinho was inwardly taken by surprise from her reaction. ‘T-This woman she was really serious?’

Because of Cha Hae-In's professional pride, Jinho's expected her to quit after being told about taking a test.

However, Cha Hae-In acted the exact opposite. No, she was actually burning up even hotter with the desire to win.

‘Is she the type to face any fight coming her way head on?’

Or was this the case of misplaced pride?

Whatever the case may have been, Jinho couldn’t back off now while staying it was all a misunderstanding.

“It’s to win against the summoned creature the Guild Master will pick.”

Crack.

Jinho was pretty sure that she heard the physical sound of a crack forming on Cha Hae-In's ego.

“..….”

‘Yu Jinho Hunter-nim, is that how low your assessment of me is?’

However, Cha Hae-In didn’t display any of her thoughts and said in her usual collected manner. “Alright, I agree. Let's do this.”

Cha Hae-In wasn’t backing down here.

And Jinho, well... she was screwed.

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