WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈

Chapter 33: The Eolregis - [7]

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This incident had also drawn a lot of public attention for several reasons. The people who had come out of the Gate were simply that extraordinary.

First, the Soweol person with the force-field exoskeleton ability had slaughtered all twenty-four soldiers guarding the awakened-person containment facility in two minutes. The automatic cannons and anti-tank rockets deployed there in preparation for an attack by a Force-Field Creature had only extended the soldiers' lives by around thirty seconds.

According to the captured Soweol person, that one had been the strongest awakened lord in the area.

The large Soweol person I had brought down after our brawl had apparently been the second strongest awakened lord in the area. He was dragged away unconscious and ultimately taken prisoner.

The non-awakened Soweol people taken with him ended up in the same situation. They were all prisoners being interrogated. The news reported that Korea had captured Soweol prisoners for the first time in a long while.

I read my interview about those events, which had been posted on Huntweb.

As expected, it had over ten thousand views. I looked through the hundreds of comments beneath it.

Anonymous: BabyMushroom is way too scary in person. If I ever met him, I seriously wouldn't even be able to look him in the eyes. I'd be seriously shaking.

Ⓐ Stonehead Youth: Seeing that gentleman makes me scared shitless too. His neck had been cut halfway through and blood was pouring out, but he immediately used Spatial Teleportation and started throwing punches at another Body Enhancement user. What the hell was that? I'm terrified someone will tell me to follow his example;;

There were compliments that made me happy just to read, but not every internet comment could be satisfying. There were plenty that made me frown.

Anonymous: Kim Geuk hasn't even been active for a year, so what the hell is with all his opponents? A Force-Field Creature that won't die even after you empty a whole 30 mm magazine into it, a Flame Elemental no one's ever killed in Korea, and two insane awakened Soweol people...

Ⓐ ElmayaKaeyo: Even for an A-rank Hunter, fighting monsters that tough is the kind of thing that only happens once or twice in an entire career. Even I think his signing bonus was far too low.

Anonymous: So why does every article about BabyMushroom say he took down another Monster like that? Is he seriously a berserker in real life?

Anonymous: It's partly because Kim Geuk is a crazy bastard with anger-management problems who charges in whenever he sees an enemy, no matter how strong they look. But it's also because of Incheon's particular situation.

Anonymous: What's up with Incheon?

I bit my lip when I spotted Mr. Naito among the comments.

Ⓑ GoodHunter: Korea's largest awakened-person containment facility is in Incheon. The Monsters headed for Seoul from inside the Gate all end up going to Incheon on the way, don't they?

I cursed even as I tried to calm myself down. This fucking bastard?

That guy probably didn't even realize saying something like that was discrimination against awakened people. Given his personality, he probably just wanted to show off what he knew while playing the senior Hunter. Even understanding that didn't make me any less pissed off.

I kept scrolling.

Anonymous: Come to think of it, did the Soweol people caught this time say they were targeting the Freezer too?

Anonymous: Yeah. They came to capture ice ability users to bring into the awakened lords' palaces. Apparently, they were mainly after young, pretty women if possible.

Anonymous: Why take ice ability users?

Ⓑ GoodHunter: Apparently, ice ability users are considered valuable in Sword World. Their status there is supposed to be court mages serving awakened monarchs, or top-class slaves.

Anonymous: ? Why though

Ⓑ GoodHunter: Sword World doesn't have refrigerators or air conditioners. Ice ability users can chill drinks, cool people down when it's hot, and preserve meat for a long time, so they're useful in all kinds of ways. Besides, ice ability users aren't a threat to powerful awakened people on the level of lords, right? So they can keep them around without worrying about getting attacked and killed.

Ⓑ GoodHunter: Also, once ice ability users grow spiritually and become Elementals, they can open Gates. At that point, their status rises, and they're treated like court mages from fantasy novels.

Anonymous: So basically, a whole bunch of them are going to keep invading Incheon to target ice ability users?

Anonymous: Incheon's guardian, Kim Geuk, is seriously going to have it rough from now on.

Ⓐ syberMagneto: Those damn iceheads are going to make a 50-billion-won awakened person work himself to the bone lol

My eyes widened when I saw Cyber Magneto.

That woman...

Gritting my teeth, I remembered what had happened yesterday.

After my fight with the big guy ended, I remembered what happened after I entered the Gate.

* * *

The world that filled my vision after I stepped into the Gate was completely purple.

There were no objects around me. Countless glowing silhouettes simply shimmered against the purple background.

The sight didn't look like Earth, or even seem real. It finally hit me that I had really entered a Gate.

I looked at Baek Dambi, who had entered before me, and asked her.

「How is it? Can you figure anything out? I'm getting dizzy just looking at this.」

I couldn't even tell whether I was looking at her front or back. She appeared as nothing more than a glowing silhouette.

Inside the Gate, in this space called the Astral Plane, we existed as spiritual bodies rather than matter.

「Me too. I think I'll need more time to get used to it.」

My words and Baek Dambi's words were being conveyed directly into each other's minds.

As I said before, our bodies didn't exist as matter inside the Gate. We had no vocal cords, so we couldn't make sounds either. Our thoughts and emotions spread through the surroundings like waves.

I slowly looked around. The inside of a Gate was known as the place where Monsters waited before heading out to hunt, wasn't it?

Sure enough, all kinds of Monsters were resting around us in the form of silhouettes.

They were probably resting before heading out to hunt. While existing here as spiritual bodies, they could wait indefinitely for prey without worrying about starving to death.

We could observe not only the Monsters inside the Gate, but also the world outside it.

I looked at the glowing blue lights in the distance.

Just seeing those blue lights directly filled my mind with images of cold, winter, and everything else icy. They had to be the ice ability users in the awakened-person containment facility. I'd heard that you could tell what awakened people were outside from inside a Gate, and it was true.

I continued looking around.

There was an awakened person nearby whose ability I couldn't identify at a glance... Then I looked farther away, and I was stunned.

Something blazing like the rising sun was shining brilliantly in the distance.

Just looking at that blazing sun gave me a terrible feeling. Pressure and stress were transmitted straight into my mind. There was also a closed-off will to protect itself from that pressure and stress.

As I kept watching, Baek Dambi spoke to me.

「Pressure and stress are the awakening triggers for force-field exoskeleton users, right?」

「Probably.」

「Then that's... probably Kang Jun-chi. Earth's strongest force-field ability user.」

「I guess so. They said he looks like the sun from inside a Gate, but that wasn't just flowery language. He's supposed to be in Busan, yet he looks huge even from here in Incheon...」

「They say he'd be unharmed even inside a nuclear explosion, at least in theory. Seriously, I'm jealous. How easy must that person's life be?」

Seeing Baek Dambi mutter that made me feel proud without even realizing it.

It reminded me once again of what a great accomplishment I had achieved.

Look. In the hallucination, she had been dragged into a Gate. Yet now that I had changed that future, she was beside me.

She was even making small talk after speaking to me first when we were alone. She was a woman who normally wouldn't say a word outside of work.

What an incredible thing. My heart was practically swelling with emotion. I no longer had to worry about my round girl leaving my side.

I was still thinking when Baek Dambi turned around. That was how I realized I had been looking at her back the whole time.

Even in silhouette form, I met her eyes.

「Oh, that...」

Baek Dambi seemed startled. She had noticed something behind me and was about to tell me, but I couldn't pay attention to that.

Dizziness suddenly washed over me. I also felt as though I were being sucked somewhere, and I thought to myself.

This again. I'm used to it by now.

I knew another hallucination was about to overtake me...

* * *

As I continued reading the comments, I muttered inwardly.

Disgusting non-awakened scraps. Trash that would only become useful after being sent to gas chambers and turned into soap...

It was like that in real life, but the hatred for ice ability users was just as severe on Huntweb. My interview post had suddenly turned into an anti-ice-ability-user rally.

Anonymous: If I were Kim Geuk, I'd want to shoot all those iceheads dead T_T

Anonymous: Seriously. He agreed to work in Incheon for less money because he cared about his hometown, so why the hell does he have to suffer through all this?

Those two weren't the only fanatics. There were heaps of similar comments below them, saying I was suffering because of ice ability users and should obviously hate them.

Anyone who searched Kim Geuk online would find my history with Korean Awakened Solidarity, yet no one seemed to know. Then again, nobody probably knew what Korean Awakened Solidarity did. There weren't many articles about it online.

A few comments particularly caught my eye.

Anonymous: Isn't there an icehead on Kim Geuk's team too?

Ⓐ syberMagneto: Baek Dambi?

Anonymous: Yeah, that crazy bitch. Huntweb used to have tons of posts cursing her out a year ago, but how come there's no news about her lately?

Ⓐ syberMagneto: She's secretly leeching off Kim Geuk's successful team now lol

Unable to bear it any longer, I left a comment.

Ⓐ BabyBerserker: Don't say mean thingsies, okayyy!

All kinds of comments immediately poured in at the appearance of a Huntweb star, but I didn't care. Even while angry, I tried to keep up my cute way of speaking as I wrote a long comment.

Ⓐ BabyBerserker: Big Sis Baek Dambi is secretly leeching off BabyMushroomie's team? That's crazy talkies! Ice Princess Big Sis has a fucking huge presence on the team, okayyy!

Without Ice Princess Big Sis, BabyMushroomie couldn't have defeated the Flame Elemental and would've burned to deathies! And if Ice Princess Big Sis hadn't tanked at the very front after that, several of the boys hunting with BabyMushroomie would've died, and BabyMushroomie would've been bawling his eyes outies!

I went on and on about Baek Dambi's contributions and achievements within the team, and all kinds of comments appeared there too. There was everything from random flattery praising my latest accomplishments to mockery asking whether BabyMushroom had been bewitched by a former idol's looks.

One nickname and the comment she posted stood out in particular.

Ⓐ syberMagneto: It's nice to see you looking after a teammate, but I'm begging you sincerely, please stop with that way of speaking and the Ice Princess nonsense. I seriously can't stand reading it...

* * *

I prepared myself for the awful situation I was about to experience.

I was about to have another hallucination, wasn't I? And hallucinations had always shown me nothing but unpleasant situations.

Yet I felt confused when I looked around this place within the hallucination.

Was I really inside a hallucination? Nothing seemed different...

It looked like I was inside the Gate here too. The purple background all around was enough to tell me that.

Baek Dambi was in front of me as well. Nothing was different from reality, so I wasn't sure whether I was hallucinating or just dizzy from losing too much blood.

The next moment made it clear that this was a hallucination.

My mouth opened on its own. The me inside the hallucination shouted at Baek Dambi.

‘Baek Dambi, stop messing around and stay still...!’

Maybe because the me in the hallucination was still me, I naturally understood what was happening.

I had come here to catch Baek Dambi, to persuade her not to leave our world and go to another one.

Baek Dambi, on the other hand, seemed surprised that I had chased her all the way to this place. I could feel her asking, ‘How did you get here?’ I couldn't see her expression, but I clearly felt her flustered emotions.

My anger washed over her like a wave too.

I shouted furiously.

‘Why are you leaving Earth? If anyone's leaving, it should be the non-awakened scraps, not you!’

‘A monk who dislikes the temple should leave.’

‘If you don't like the temple, you burn it down! Make every one of those fucking sham monks choke to death!’

‘Even if you burn the temple, I still have to leave in the end, don't I? I might as well skip the middle part.’

‘So I personally went and rescued you when you were kidnapped, and now you're going back to where you were kidnapped on your own two feet? Are you seriously out of your mind?’

‘Sorry...’

Even while talking to me, Baek Dambi didn't stop what she was doing.

She was opening a Gate. Creating a passage that led not to Earth, but to another world.

In other words, she was about to leave for Sword World.

I tried to stop her, but it was impossible. No matter how hard I shoved her, I couldn't move her at all. Reconstructed as spiritual bodies in this world, we couldn't harm one another or physically affect each other.

At last, the Gate opened.

We saw the world spread out beyond it. A desert-like landscape from Sword World made my head spin.

I was so angry I felt like crying. My closest friend was going to live in a place like that? This couldn't happen. It couldn't...

I tightly grabbed her wrist, but it was useless again. My hand simply slipped through her wrist. I couldn't restrain her.

Behind her, the Gate continued growing. The landscape of Sword World grew with it.

She gave a mental smile. It was forced this time too.

I felt a little excitement and anticipation spreading from her spiritual body, but far greater nervousness and fear as well.

Other ice ability users were lined up behind Baek Dambi.

They were the ice ability users from the Incheon awakened-person containment facility. They had decided to follow Baek Dambi to Sword World too.

I grabbed one of them and demanded an answer.

‘Are you really going to live in Sword World?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why the hell would you do that!’

‘Because ice ability users are at least considered useful in Sword World, aren't they? Awakened lords came here themselves to take us.’

‘You're still slaves!’

‘Slave or not, we should be grateful that anyone needs us at all...’

Were all the ice ability users gathered here leaving with the same thoughts? Did Baek Dambi feel the same way?

Before long, the Gate swallowed them one at a time. I tried to catch them too, but it was useless.

In the end, only Baek Dambi and I remained inside.

After blankly watching my futile attempts for a while, Baek Dambi spoke awkwardly.

‘Can I ask one last favor?’

‘What favor...?’

‘There's a computer in my house. Could you destroy the hard drive? It's not like I downloaded a bunch of porn or anything, but Huntweb is set to auto-login. I can't let anyone see the stupid things I said on that site.’

I snapped at that.

‘Are you ashamed of Cyber Magneto?’

Then Baek Dambi muttered.

‘Yeah, it is embarrassing...’

Baek Dambi mentally smiled. As that awkwardness spread to me like a wave, she approached me.

The next moment, we overlapped. We came together.

Our lips touched, but there was no sensation because we made contact without bodies. Still, I suddenly came to my senses.

She murmured, ‘Yeah, it really is embarrassing...’ and stepped back. Then she turned around.

Without turning back, she took two steps and entered the Gate. The Gate that swallowed her instantly shrank and disappeared.

Frozen for a moment by the shock of my first kiss, I regretted it too late. I should have followed her inside.

I stood alone in that spot for a long time before deciding to grant her final request.

She wanted me to destroy her hard drive. It was an unbelievably trivial request from my only companion of over four years.

When I used Spatial Teleportation, the inside of her home appeared before me. It was shabby enough to make it hard to believe she had received a 16-billion-won signing bonus.

The interior was dark and cramped. The light didn't turn on even when I flipped the switch. Come to think of it, hadn't she complained recently that her electricity and water had been cut off?

After being repeatedly turned down whenever she tried to buy an apartment for over four years, she had lived alone without neighbors in a neighborhood everyone else had abandoned. Then, not long ago, both her water and electricity had been cut off.

When she protested, the local government recommended that she move into the containment facility for ice ability users. She couldn't accept that recommendation.

Rather than live in a containment facility, she decided to leave Korea, leave Earth entirely, and cross into another world, a place where she would at least be considered valuable as a slave.

I looked at the computer of Baek Dambi, whose Huntweb nickname was Cyber Magneto.

I raised a hammer and brought it down with all my strength.

The impact rang through my eardrums, and I was expelled from the hallucination.

* * *

Footnotes:

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