WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈

Chapter 23: Younger Sister Kim Seon - [3]

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I played the uploaded videos one by one. After watching nearly all of them, I trembled for a long time, as though I'd just watched a masterpiece that would stay with me for the rest of my life.

This was incredible. Truly.

Kang Jun-chi, was he a god?

He really did look like one. Like some great being beyond comparison with a successful politician.

Kang Jun-chi's videos showed him thoroughly punishing ordinary people who had committed minor crimes.

Every part of them was provocative, but one highlight caught my attention above all else.

The scenes where police officers who'd arrived after receiving reports could do nothing, then backed away in confusion or simply stood there blankly watching the situation unfold...

Those scenes gave me an astonishing level of vicarious satisfaction.

As far as I could tell, these videos didn't merely offer the satisfying thrill of vigilante justice, of making an example out of someone.

They were a display. A display that he stood above the law, that the individual known as Kang Jun-chi stood above a society governed by law.

A display that even if he grabbed a passing citizen, beat and tortured them, neither the police, the state, nor the law could do anything to him...

Not even the president or a member of the National Assembly could do this. Legislators had immunity from arrest, but they couldn't grab a random passerby, beat them up, record evidence of their crime, and show it off.

Yet that awakened person was doing exactly that.

In other words, Kang Jun-chi stood above National Assembly members, living constitutional institutions, and even above a president elected with the support of the majority. That meant this one awakened person stood above the Constitution, above the majority of the people...

Yok1974: Why the hell does he never get punished no matter what he does? If the police can't handle it, shouldn't they send special forces to arrest him?

└ 2014Korea: How exactly...? Since Kim Jong-un killed his uncle by marriage, can Korean police go out and arrest him for murder? No. The police and even the military can't just go after Kim Jong-un. If they can't punish Kim Jong-un, they can't punish that guy either.

└ Yok1974: Is that bastard Kim Jong-un? Is he in North Korea?

└ 2014Korea: He's more dangerous than Kim Jong-un, and the problem is that he's in South Korea, not North Korea. It's like Kim Jong-un merged with his own legion and started wandering around Busan. How are you supposed to touch him?

The comments were shocking too. So that was how people treated an S-rank.

For a while, I searched the internet for keywords like Kang Jun-chi and S-rank. After learning this and that, I sank into thought.

I thought of the school discipline teacher, the drill instructor... and my younger sister, whom I'd just parted with. Thinking of myself, who'd been unjustly locked in prison, and my relative who was still locked away, fury naturally rose inside me.

The law was unreasonable yet powerful, but it couldn't suppress Kang Jun-chi.

Because he was a powerful awakened person.

And awakened abilities grew. Every awakened person grew at a different pace and had different limits, and since only a few years had passed since the Gates opened, there wasn't enough data to make an accurate prediction...

Could I become S-rank too?

I wanted to become like that. Like the Mexican cartels that slaughtered Mexico's police and military, like the Mongol and Qing armies that scorched the Korean Peninsula yet could not be punished by this land's laws, I wanted to become someone beyond the law of this land.

And I knew one way for an awakened person to grow. First, kill more monsters.

Of course, it was absurd to hope that more monsters would appear on the sacred soil of Incheon. So what could I do?

After thinking for a moment, I came up with an idea.

It would be good for both Incheon and me. I called Park Mihyeong and told her my idea.

“Park Mihyeong? I have a proposal for you...”

* * *

Reporters followed famous athletes around. It was much the same for awakened Hunters who commanded high fees.

I looked over the reporters and public officials in front of me with satisfaction. There were several elected officials who had to be considered nobler than the president, including the chair of the Incheon City Council and the mayor of Incheon. There were even four Incheon city councilors.

It was astonishing all over again that they'd gathered because of one phone call from me.

I picked up the microphone.

“Ah, ah, long live Incheon, long live Incheon. To everyone from Incheon gathered here, and those from the other insignificant regions...”

While I was speaking, Park Mihyeong confiscated my microphone.

I could've kept it if I wanted to, but I let her take it as we'd agreed beforehand. It seemed better to give an aspiring politician the chance to be on camera.

“...I'll just speak. Is everyone okay with that?”

The reporters didn't seem okay with it. They sighed and protested, saying, “Can't you just let Hunter Kim Geuk speak? The article will be more popular that way!”

Park Mihyeong ignored them. Like the shameless politician she was, she continued saying what she wanted to say.

“As you know, Monsters are around us too. In the mountains, in the sewers, underground, in the countryside, on streets people have abandoned... and inside deserted buildings. Nowhere is safe, and Incheon is no exception.”

Many Monsters escaped through Gates and never returned to them.

The Monsters inside the Gates originally lived in barren, ruined worlds. To them, our world was a fertile, blessed land. Even the wooded hills behind Korean neighborhoods, where it was hard to spot a single wild animal, looked like lush paradises to the monsters from the Gates.

“When Monsters settle in an area of Incheon, the residents can't endure it and leave. When the residents leave, even more Monsters settle there. This vicious cycle continues on Incheon's beautiful soil. To break that cycle, Incheon's proud son, Hunter Kim Geuk, has stepped forward...”

Park Mihyeong went on with words that sounded professional, but the point was simple.

“So you're saying you'll search for and wipe out the Monsters already settled in Incheon?”

Park Mihyeong answered the reporter.

“Yes, exactly.”

“The state has already tried several times, but it only suffered disastrous defeats. Considering the loss of life...”

“That is true. When the Gates first opened, reserve forces were mobilized. Many of them died or went missing. The results weren't much different when active-duty soldiers stepped in...

“I don't have military experience, so I can't pretend to know, but I heard it was similar to urban warfare or guerrilla-suppression operations. Simply throwing in more troops doesn't produce results. Hunters have also been mobilized several times, but apparently they haven't achieved much considering the effort and casualties involved.”

“Will it be different this time?”

Park Mihyeong smiled.

“Mm, I think it'll be faster to show you than explain... Do you see that bucket over there? Reporters, any of you can put a few objects inside. Turn around so we can't see inside... Are you done? Good, Kim Geuk?”

I concentrated and spread out my mental net. When the net reached the bucket where the reporters had hidden the objects, I could sense its contents as well. I listed what I detected.

“An 80 x 170 mm notebook, a 15.5 cm ballpoint pen, a 163.4 x 78.1 x 8.9 mm smartphone...”

Each time I identified another object, the people gathered there exclaimed in surprise.

“It isn't a magic trick, so is it a supernatural ability?”

“Something like that.”

I explained that my Spatial Teleportation came with a mental net, and that the net could detect objects within its range with extreme precision.

I also told them that living creatures were even easier to detect, since anything that moved even slightly could be identified more accurately.

“I can search a radius of 1 kilometer and 263 meters like this. The range was much shorter before, but after a few hunts, it expanded dramatically. Now that it's this wide, I believe it'll be highly useful for Monster search operations.

“I thought a long-term extermination operation might be possible based on this supernatural ability, so I proposed it to Councilor Park Mihyeong. Incheon City then established a budget and plans at a speed that surprised even me.”

Exclamations erupted from all around us again.

Perhaps wanting to hold the microphone a little longer, Park Mihyeong made a joke.

“Seriously, life's so unfair. Why does Spatial Teleportation come with so many extra abilities? The best use I get out of my ice ability is putting ice in my coffee.

“One ice ability user I know said that even when they use their ability well, all they can do is fire sharp icicles, so they might as well shoot a gun. Looking at that, our Hunter Kim Geuk really was born gifted.”

“There's a rumor that Councilor Park Mihyeong is controlling Hunter Kim Geuk with hypnosis. Is that true?”

“Come on, seriously...”

Wasn't this video being filmed now supposed to go up on Incheon City's official YouTube channel? After Park Mihyeong had already secured plenty of screen time, the councilors, the mayor, and the other titled officials all said a few words, ending the press conference.

“Oh my, you're a real blessing. Honestly, Kim Geuk, you were so popular that I didn't expect you to come to Incheon. I only told them to raise the offer a little and offer you a contract, but I never thought it would turn out this well...”

The event seemed satisfying for them as well as me. I shook hands with the mayor of Incheon, took pictures, and on my way home, bought a 400,000 won frame to carefully preserve one of those photos.

The news also reached my hunter team.

I gathered the team to train for the operation in advance, and Seong Munyeong spoke up.

“This Incheon Recovery Project? You said you proposed it and got it started, right?”

“So?”

“Incheon City is really backing you hard, huh? You said one thing and they immediately allocated a huge budget...”

Seong Munyeong clicked his tongue as if he were fed up. I answered calmly to hide my pride.

“How do you know how much budget they allocated?”

“I don't know the exact amount, but I can guess, right? Naito-san is on one of the teams participating in this operation. Considering how much that Jap costs...”

His nationality wasn't important, but I frowned.

Naito-san. Wasn't that the guy?

That scrap of humanity who, despite being a non-awakened person, earned nearly as much as an awakened person.

That fool who didn't know his place was going to be working with us from now on?

Incheon's precious budget was going to be spent on trash like that?

It was disgustingly unpleasant.

Footnotes:

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