WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈

Chapter 3: Academy Student Kim Geuk - [1]

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For nearly four years now, South Korea has been practically ruined.

It couldn't be helped. What country could stay intact when Monsters had raided residential areas, turning most cities into slums, while man-eating elementals crippled maritime shipping?

The rise of all those patriotic-hype TV channels wasn't simply because people needed something, anything, to take comfort in.

Korea really was doing better than other countries. In other words, while Korea had nearly gone under, many other countries had gone under completely.

That seemed to make Koreans damn happy and proud.

I wished Korea had gone completely under too.

What a shame.

* * *

Everywhere I looked, there were either Civil-service exam academies or Hunter academies.

There were a few clothing stores and nail salons, but they all seemed to have gone out of business, their lights off. Every restaurant had its shutters down. One convenience store was all that remained, stocking nothing but mountains of rice and ramyeon. It was hard to believe this was Incheon, Korea's spiritual capital. Fuck.

I entered the shabbiest-looking Hunter academy.

A young woman sat behind the reception desk. She flinched when I approached, probably scared by my size. Cute bitch.

"Are you here to enroll?"

She forced a smile, but I didn't smile back.

"Yeah. How much is it per month?"

She explained that tuition couldn't be set until after a consultation, then fled to fetch the director.

A little later, a man who seemed to be the director came over and acted overly familiar.

"Are you a bodybuilder? You're built like a beast! You must've been preparing to become a Hunter for a long time. Did you complete military service?"

"No."

"Then you'll need extra training in shooting and things like that... You haven't awakened, right?"

"I have."

I answered briefly, and the director seemed surprised. He stared at me with wide eyes, then asked in confusion.

"You're an awakened person?"

"What, you don't take awakened-person students?"

"No, it's not that. We don't have many awakened people among our students. Um, hold on. If you could write down exactly what abilities you have on this application form..."

I did as instructed. The director took my application and narrowed his eyes.

"Body Enhancement and Spatial Teleportation? You're not messing with me, are you...?"

"I don't have much time."

Even though I snapped at him, the director didn't look offended. He adjusted his glasses, glanced back and forth between me and the paper, then turned on his phone.

"Your name?"

"Kim Geuk."

At my answer, the director seemed to be tapping on his phone. Then he looked at the screen and muttered.

"That's right. Your face comes up when I search Naver. Oh, you were a UFC fighter? Two fights, two wins, then you awakened once, and then awakened again while working with the Korean Awakened Solidarity?"

"All that's online?"

"It is. Anyway, you're quite the remarkable person. So... is there a reason you want to attend this academy? Did someone recommend us?"

"It just looked cheap."

I wondered if that had been rude, but the director didn't seem bothered this time either.

"Ah, right. We are cheap. So you really want to enroll?"

I asked if he thought I'd come here just to pretend to enroll, and though the director seemed pleased with my answer, he also looked uneasy.

I had no idea why he kept acting like that. He said there weren't many awakened-person students, so maybe they were difficult to teach? Did he hesitate to take awakened-person students?

"So how much is tuition?"

When I asked bluntly, he gave me an unexpected answer.

"Awakened people like you attend for free, Mr. Kim. Textbooks and gym access are free too. The academy will cover shooting-range fees and ammunition. If we see that you're attending consistently, we'll even help with food and transportation expenses."

I blinked a few times, then asked.

"Why?"

"We'd like to use you in our advertisements, saying our academy helped launch an awakened Hunter. It'd help our instructors' careers, and it would help our students make connections too. If you'll just agree to let us use your name and likeness..."

It was a privilege I hadn't expected. I couldn't think of a reason to refuse, so I agreed. The director smiled.

Then I froze in embarrassment.

The director suddenly stood up and tightly clasped my hand in both of his.

What the hell was this guy doing? Before I could shove him away, he said,

"Thank you. I'm so glad you came. Maybe my luck's finally turning around. I knew that dream was a good sign, but for such an honored guest to come here..."

* * *

The embarrassment didn't end there.

"Instructors! Come over here for a moment. See this impressive gentleman? You all need to give him special attention from now on. This gentleman, you see..."

After the director introduced me, the academy instructor stared blankly at me for a while, then suddenly offered me a handshake, leaving me flustered.

Once class started, it didn't seem like the students were especially interested in socializing, but the instructor still went out of his way to introduce me to everyone.

"Everyone, look over here. This is Mr. Kim Geuk. You should all get close to him. Because he..."

When they heard that I had been a UFC fighter, the students only gave a brief, impressed "Oh."

But when they heard that I was an awakened person with two abilities, when my superpowers like Body Enhancement and Spatial Teleportation were mentioned, exclamations burst from the students who had been listening blankly until then.

"Wow."

"I'm fucking jealous..."

It was a pretty fresh reaction. Being an awakened person apparently sounded far more impressive than being a fighter.

With everyone's eyes on me, class began.

It was shooting class. There was a separate shooting range near the academy, so everyone used live ammunition.

An instructor stayed glued to my side. After zeroing the sights, the instructor handed me a gun. When I couldn't understand a single shooting instruction, the instructor looked puzzled.

"Is this your first time firing a gun?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Are you so tall that the military wouldn't take you? Still, didn't you shoot one in boot camp?"

"I did go to boot camp."

"Well, it was so long ago that you probably don't remember."

I decided not to mention that after I assaulted a drill instructor on my first day of boot camp, I never fired a single shot. Now that I was older, I knew it wasn't something to brag about.

Even though the instructor had to explain everything from the beginning, there wasn't the slightest sign of annoyance or impatience. The instructor patiently taught me what to do, then told me to take a shot.

So I fired as instructed. Every shot hit the target. The instructor marvelled at first, then clicked his tongue.

"Ah, I thought it was strange that you're so accurate even though it's your first time. It's because you're a Body Enhancement type. Your strength is so ridiculous that recoil doesn't mean anything. There are guns made specifically for Body Enhancement types, so you'll need one of those to properly practice... Hang on. I'll get one somehow by the end of this week."

While the instructor was talking to me, a student nearby cut in.

"Instructor, are you going to borrow a Hunter Rifle? It only has rifle in the name. It's really a heavy weapon, so won't that be hard to borrow?"

"If I grease the cops' palms a little, they might lend us one..."

"Still, you can't just borrow any one. There are 17 kg ones, 22 kg ones, all kinds of different weights. He needs a physical ability test first..."

The instructor and students were discussing what firearm I should use. The attention they were giving me was excessive enough to make me uncomfortable.

And, just as awkwardly, the excessive kindness continued afterward.

All the other students seemed to have completed military service. They could load their weapons and swap magazines without trouble, while I struggled alone. Then what happened? Not only the instructor, but even the student beside me helped without a single complaint. I couldn't tell whether I'd come to a Hunter academy or kindergarten.

What puzzled me was the students' interest and kindness.

I could understand the academy instructor paying attention to me. The director had ordered them to. But why were the students doing it? That was hard to understand.

One look at my face in the bathroom mirror was enough to tell me I wasn't the kind of person people approached first, so why?

I couldn't even count how many students spoke to me during every break.

After quietly sitting through some criminal-law lecture, another student came up and acted friendly.

"Man, you don't really need to listen to criminal-law class."

"I'm broke. If I don't pass right away, I'll starve."

"You can pass without this class. Don't you know the Hunter written exam is way easier than the driver's license written test? You just pick whatever answer seems vaguely decent, like an elementary school ethics test, and you'll pass."

"Is it that easy?"

"Yeah. The Hunter exam itself is ridiculously easy. The country never has enough Hunters to kill Monsters, right? They say they'll pass any man or woman who's able-bodied."

"Then why attend an academy?"

"Because it's hard after you become a Hunter... We attend so we don't get shit from people or get killed while working as Hunters. But criminal law? You don't need it before or after becoming a Hunter, so you can skip it. Seriously. It's completely useless."

"If it's a class nobody needs, why is it on the course list?"

"To pad it out."

"The teacher said this class was really important."

"They're insisting because they don't want to get fired. They say the criminal-law instructor used to teach criminal law at a Civil-service exam academy, but police civil-service jobs aren't popular these days, right? No students came to their lectures, so they got fired from that academy. If they get fired here too, they'll starve to death, so they're working their ass off to keep their job. Just half-listen. What would that four-eyes know about Hunter work or the industry? They know less than I do. Seriously."

"You sound like you know the Hunter industry well."

"Not that I know a lot. I'm more of a fucking armchair expert. Something like that. I’m on a Hunter community site."

"A Hunter community? Online?"

"You don't know Huntweb?"

The student insisted that I had to check out that community. There were lots of active Hunters on the site, and it was better to ask them about how the industry worked and gather information than to ask academy instructors.

They also said, "You're an awakened person, man, so get verified and make sure you claim an awakened-person badge!"

I had no idea what that meant.

After taking a few more classes, my day at the Hunter academy came to an end.

Footnotes:

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