WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

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◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈

Chapter 2: Kim Geuk - [1]

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The day that damn Gate opened, my younger sister and I awakened. In other words, my younger sister and I, her older brother, both became superpowered people.

It might sound great, but it wasn't exactly good for our lives.

A few months after it was discovered that I was a Body Enhancement awakened person, I got kicked out of the UFC. Awakened people like me couldn't compete as athletes. The fact that that damn awakening wasn't something I chose didn't matter much. Damn it.

And my younger sister went to prison. More precisely, she was locked up in the juvenile wing of a women's prison.

"That's why I'm here, crying my eyes out at a human rights organization. Want me to keep explaining?"

The human rights lady nodded seriously as I poured my heart out. I think she said her name was Park Mihyeong.

"Please, continue. So, at your sister's school..."

"Five bullies at my sister's school died. Those fucking bitches had apparently been regularly bullying my sister half to death."

"Your sister was a victim of bullying, right?"

"Yeah. In the end, my sister was named a suspect... and found guilty. Without any physical evidence. Does that make sense? Whatever happened to the presumption of innocence?"

I hadn't been expecting an answer. Park Mihyeong slowly closed and opened her eyes before speaking.

"There are cases where the so-called presumption of guilt is applied."

"You're saying it makes sense to find someone guilty without physical evidence?"

"It doesn't make sense, but it happens in reality. I'm absolutely not trying to argue that it's right, but look at sexual assault trials. You know people can be convicted without physical evidence as long as the victim's statements are consistent, right?"

"Yeah. I hear plenty of people end up in prison for crimes they didn't commit because of that."

"There are a lot of problems with it, but there is a reason for it. Due to the nature of sex crimes, it's difficult to obtain evidence. So if the circumstances make someone seem guilty, they're convicted. And the reason I'm bringing this up is because awakened people... you know."

"Know what?"

Park Mihyeong sighed.

"Awakened people can far too easily commit perfect crimes that current investigative methods have no way of uncovering."

I roughly understood what she was getting at.

So-called awakened people, us superpowered people, could easily make fools of the National Forensic Service even if we'd never read a single detective comic in our lives. How many awakened people were there in South Korea who could freeze someone's cerebral blood vessels or crush their heart just by staring at someone they hated? There was a reason supernatural powers were taboo in detective novels.

And my sister was the type who could freeze cerebral blood vessels with a glance. Yet some bitches had gathered around and bullied her without a shred of fear? Guess those vermin bitches hadn't expected to die.

"Cases like this are far from rare lately. Every ruling related to awakened people is like this."

While I seethed inwardly, Park Mihyeong explained something along those lines.

It was difficult to secure physical evidence in paranormal crimes, so convictions were handed down based on suspicion alone. It was far too common for someone near a crime scene to be named a suspect simply because they were an awakened person.

If someone died and one of their relatives was an awakened person, that relative was almost always suspected of murder, and so on.

"I'll say it again, I don't think this is right either. That's why I'm listening to your story and trying to help."

Park Mihyeong also told me that she was an awakened person. As a fellow awakened person, she said she'd do everything she could to help my sister, who had been placed in such an unfair situation.

After that, most of my days were spent with the human rights organization.

I did all kinds of shit. I held my first-ever press conference in front of cameras gathered by the organization, squeezed out tears, shouted with everyone at group protests, and threw attackers who stormed into the office back out the door...

There were no results at all. It was pointless crap we did because sitting around doing nothing felt wrong.

The pointless crap I had been doing lately was a one-man protest. A one-man protest in front of the court that had found my sister guilty.

For days on end, I stood alone before the court's rear entrance. I held two placards the human rights organization had prepared for me and stayed there without sleeping.

Now that I'd been doing this shit for over a week, this was how I felt about it.

It was fucking miserable.

My legs didn't go numb, as you'd expect from someone with Body Enhancement, but I was bored out of my mind. I could barely stand the situation.

Why the hell was I even doing this?

Like I said, all of this was just meaningless bullshit meant to show I was doing something. Something I could point to when my sister got out and say that her brother hadn't spent the whole time cooped up in his room, playing League of Legends and snickering to himself.

I'd searched for it myself, so I knew my protest had never appeared on a major network's news. It had only been mentioned in a few lines in an internet article plastered with adult ads.

I'd also seen that the only comment on the article was, "How much is that hired thug bastard getting paid to do that?"

I wasn't even close to that bitch, my sister, in the first place. Anyway, none of this was rewarding or useful. All that remained was venom, and sheer defiance kept me going.

I glared at the judges going in and out of the courthouse. I also had staring contests with the court security guards, who kept an eye on me in case I did something.

Once my sister got out, I'd take that bitch overseas. Plenty of countries needed powerful awakened people, so if I wanted to, we'd probably live well anywhere. If I looked hard enough, there had to be countries that didn't care about criminal records...

...I was deep in my fantasy when it suddenly stopped. Not by my own will, but because of something external.

Hallucinations...

It was like someone forcibly ejected the videotape that had been playing and inserted a new one. Sounds and images that weren't my own thoughts began filling my mind.

A bird escaping its cage and flying out a window. A bondservant who had successfully fled in the night. A Black slave breaking their shackles and escaping. An immigrant ship cutting through the sea to escape war. An ancient warrior reaching the exit of a massive maze.

Scenes of escape and movement. All sorts of abstract symbols.

I was startled by the visions filling my head so completely they made me dizzy, but I understood what was happening. Hallucinations from fatigue and stress? No.

This was an awakening. My second awakening.

I'd experienced a similar moment before. When I got my final victory in the Octagon and raised my fist high, I'd had visions like these. That was when I awakened as a Body Enhancement awakened person...

But, huh?

"Mister! When did you get in there? Get out now!"

When I came to my senses, I was inside the courthouse grounds. The security guard, apparently terrified by the sudden action of someone they considered dangerous, was shouting and waving at me.

It took me several hours to realize that I'd awakened Spatial Teleportation.

There were only a few people besides me who had awakened this power. Since I belonged to an exceedingly rare type of awakened person, it took some time to identify it correctly.

* * *

Half a year later, I had to quit the protests, the solidarity movement, all of it.

There were two main reasons. First, my savings had run out. The money I'd earned as a fighter and trainer couldn't keep me going anymore.

A bag of chips that cost twenty thousand won two months ago cost thirty thousand now and would cost fifty thousand next month. In this world of hyperinflation straight out of a children's economics comic, my savings kept losing value even when I didn't spend a single won.

The other reason was that the Korean Awakened Solidarity, the human rights organization I belonged to, had dissolved in this terrible economic situation.

If the government had considered us a thorn in its side and pressured us into disbanding, there might've at least been some grim poignancy to it. That wasn't the reason. Just as my savings had run out, the organization's donations and operating funds had run dry.

Banks and companies everywhere had gone bankrupt. It seemed civic groups and their members couldn't endure this dreadful economic crisis either.

Anyway, damn Gate. Damn Monsters.

"You've worked hard, Kim Geuk. I'll pray your sister gets released soon."

Like me, the individual human rights activists weren't doing well financially either. Everyone scattered to find a way to survive.

I was about to leave the empty office myself.

「Kim Geuk? Would you like to have a meal together and talk?」

Park Mihyeong, the human rights lady, asked to meet me.

When I met up with her, Park Mihyeong was neatly dressed and looked well put together. Unlike the other human rights activists, who had to worry about making a living right away, she looked like she was doing just fine. Then again, maybe she'd always been rich.

"I heard you got elected as a city councilor. Congratulations."

Park Mihyeong smiled awkwardly at that and asked how I'd been.

"So, Kim Geuk, how have you been lately?"

"How do you think? It's been shitty."

"Yeah. Things are hard for everyone these days."

I didn't sarcastically point out that she seemed to be living just fine. I owed this lady a lot. Even the villa where I ate and slept for free these days belonged to her, so it was hard to say anything.

As I listened quietly, Park Mihyeong spoke.

"So, Kim Geuk. Do you have any work right now?"

"Not really. Why?"

"I was wondering if you had any interest in becoming a Hunter."

That made me frown.

"You know I can't become a Hunter because of my criminal record, right? If you have a record, you can't get a Hunter's license. That's why I'm planning to move abroad once my sister gets out."

"That law is going to be amended."

Park Mihyeong said the requirements for obtaining a Hunter's license would be greatly relaxed. Under the old law, anyone who had received a sentence within the last five years was prohibited from possessing firearms and couldn't receive a Hunter's license, but all of that would be revised.

"There's a shortage of Hunters compared to demand, and an even greater shortage of awakened Hunters. They're planning to change things so as many people as possible can work as Hunters, criminal records or not. I heard it'll be changed by this July at the latest, so I asked you here to let you know. What do you think? Want to give it a try?"

I didn't know how to thank her. Even if my mother were alive, she wouldn't have looked after me better than this lady had. I was sure of it.

I chose my words for a moment, then spoke.

"All right. I'll do it. I'll become a Hunter."

Footnotes:

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