WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
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◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈
Chapter 41: S-Rank Hunter Kang Junchi - [4]
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Then Kang Jun-chi made a demand.
“Take me to a doctor practicing without a license.”
“What?”
“I said take me to an unlicensed doctor. Someone the government doesn't even know exists... Only then can I be sure they aren't working for the government, right?”
I'd just decided I'd grant this guy any favor he asked, but... Mm. Even so, this was a difficult request to fulfill.
“Didn't you say one of your internal organs got cut? Your lung or heart or something?”
“Yeah.”
“You're obviously in horrific shape. How's some unlicensed doctor supposed to fix that? Even at a major hospital, there'd be no guarantee the surgery would succeed.”
“Then find a Healing Ability user... Someone who practices in secret...”
I barely managed to hold back a sigh.
“Awakened people with abilities that profitable never hide them or work in secret. They all joined major hospitals ages ago.”
“Still... I can't go to a major hospital. If I do, my treatment records will get sent to the government, won't they? Then everyone will find out that force-field blades can easily pierce my force field...”
“You can't let your weakness get out?”
“Right. I heard the government is gathering awakened people to form some kind of special unit, a special task force or whatever. If they start training users who can produce force-field blades for a unit meant to deal with me...”
“It's already well known that force-field blades can cut through even the sturdiest force field. Is there really any reason to hide it?”
“Still, they can't find out mine is vulnerable too!”
Even after that, I kept trying to convince him that finding an unlicensed doctor or a hidden Healing Ability user made no sense, and that he needed to go to the biggest hospital possible. It didn't work.
Kang Jun-chi just kept insisting that he absolutely couldn't go to a major hospital.
“The second I go to a hospital, the injury's too serious for them not to call the police and find out what happened. The police will identify me and report it to their superiors. Then who knows what the government might do!”
That stubbornness probably came from his damn paranoia too. I held back another sigh and spoke.
“Whatever the government does, whatever the police do, I'll stop them.”
“What?”
“I'll stand guard at the operating room entrance and kill anyone who tries anything funny.”
Maybe he thought I was bluffing. Kang Jun-chi asked suspiciously, “Have you ever killed someone?”
“I killed someone recently. He was a Soweol person with a force-field exoskeleton ability. I kicked him once and blew his body apart.”
“Ah, the guy who cut your neck halfway through...”
After muttering that, Kang Jun-chi fell silent for a while. Maybe he was trying to believe me.
Or maybe he was thinking, Come to think of it, this guy has killed someone. And I'm a person too...
He didn't have time to think for long.
My mental net detected something moving.
It was a Deathclaw. When I'd checked Kang Jun-chi's location, I'd already sensed several of them on the mountain, so I'd kept my mental net spread out throughout our conversation.
Then a Deathclaw leaped from the bushes.
It seemed to be aiming for the injured Kang Jun-chi. It sprang forward as fast as an arrow... Damn it. I'd gotten fairly used to their speed, but they were still the Monsters I found both the most difficult to handle and the most unpleasant to face. The pressure of knowing that one moment of carelessness or one mistake could send someone's head flying was still hard to bear.
I didn't let it show. I swung down the hammer I'd been holding, and the hammerhead struck the Deathclaw's back just as it reached the space right in front of Kang Jun-chi's nose.
Its hide and spine were crushed together. The Deathclaw died without even managing a scream.
Only then did Kang Jun-chi grasp what had happened. His eyes widened as he looked back and forth between me and the Deathclaw.
Trying to look as confident as possible, I deliberately kept my expression and tone indifferent.
“Good. Did you see that?”
“See what...”
“If some fucking bastard tries anything funny, I'll kill him on the spot just like that Monster. And this time, I definitely saved your life, right?”
I was implying that if I'd wanted him dead, I'd just had a chance to kill him without dirtying my hands, and that I truly intended to save him. He seemed to get the point.
“Yeah, I really do owe you my life. Fuck, look at that huge build. Seeing the veins bulging in your forearms from using all that strength is scary enough to make me piss myself...”
“I'll protect you at the hospital too, so let's hurry up and go. Stop dragging this out when you said it was an emergency.”
Kang Jun-chi finally gave in to my persuasion. He closed his eyes, then opened them and muttered with a conflicted expression.
“Fine. Let's go to the hospital.”
“Can you walk? If not, I'll use Spatial Teleportation, so deactivate your force field.”
“Why do I have to deactivate it?”
“Spatial Teleportation won't take someone else along if they're covered in a force field. I need physical contact to teleport with someone, but I don't know if it's because my hand touches the force field instead of their body, or because the force field has too much mass. Either way, it's difficult to teleport force-field exoskeleton ability users with me. Turn off your force field if you want to come with me.”
Kang Jun-chi looked extremely reluctant, but eventually did as I said. It probably helped that he'd just confirmed, by owing me his life, that I had no intention of killing him.
“Ah, fuck. I've never even put my force field away while sleeping...”
I grabbed Kang Jun-chi's forearm, and we used Spatial Teleportation.
I put Kang Jun-chi in the taxi I'd called in advance and headed to the hospital. Still looking uneasy, he asked, “Where are we going?”
“Incheon St. Mary's Hospital.”
“Why Incheon? Ah, I suppose... The government probably hasn't gotten its hands into Incheon's hospitals in advance. Even if they had, they would've only approached hospitals in Seoul or Busan...”
“Probably. So say, ‘Long live Incheon,’ in advance.”
“You crazy bastard. I heard you force everyone you meet to say crazy shit like that, but it wasn't a lie...”
“Long live Incheon. Hurry.”
“Fine, fuck... Long live Incheon.”
Kang Jun-chi ultimately underwent surgery at the hospital. As promised, I stood guard outside the emergency room, occasionally peeking in to see how the operation was going.
As the surgeon gave various instructions, a woman reached out in response.
She placed her hand on Kang Jun-chi's severed organs. Green smoke flowed from her hand, pouring some unknown energy into his organs.
It was a Healing Ability. I knew this hospital had an awakened person with that ability, which was why I'd brought him here.
When people hear that awakened people can't use their abilities directly on another awakened person's body, they think abilities don't work on awakened people at all. That wasn't true.
An awakened person simply couldn't set the point where their ability manifested on another awakened person's body. Once an ability had already been activated, it could be applied to another awakened person's body without much trouble.
For example, force-field blades could cut through another awakened person's body just fine, and my Spatial Teleportation could move another awakened person's body. That was because force-field blades manifested from the user's blade or claws, while my Spatial Teleportation manifested through my body.
Likewise, the healing energy originated from that awakened person's hand, so it was clearly affecting Kang Jun-chi despite him being an awakened person too.
I could see the severed sections the doctor had temporarily joined with forceps reconnecting in an instant.
Once the surgery was over, Kang Jun-chi left the hospital the moment the anesthesia wore off. He stormed out without even properly completing the discharge process.
“Shouldn't you rest after a major surgery?”
Kang Jun-chi looked sick of it when I asked.
“Forget it. How am I supposed to trust hospital food enough to eat it?”
“What’s wrong with hospital food?”
Kang Jun-chi wasn't saying he didn't want to eat bland health food. He spoke in an unnecessarily solemn voice.
“I never accept food from anyone. I avoid ordering delivery as much as possible too.”
“Then how do you eat? Do you prepare every meal yourself?”
“No. I wander around the streets and go into a shop I happen to find. That way, no one can predict which place I'll enter.”
“You're worried someone might poison your food to kill you?”
“Of course.”
I'd already confirmed it several times, but now it was certain.
Kang Jun-chi's paranoia was serious. He wouldn't even eat as he pleased?
Kang Jun-chi said, “Anyway, you saved my life. I will definitely repay this favor... No, forget that. Debts should be paid immediately.”
“Immediately? What do you mean?”
“I heard you spent your entire fortune building a high-rise apartment building for ice ability users. You're broke now and need a loan because you don't have enough money to build it, right?”
“That is true, but are you going to give me money?”
“I should. I have more money than I know what to do with.”
I almost asked for something other than money, but stopped myself. After sorting through my thoughts for a moment, I nodded.
“Sure, I'd appreciate that.”
“Fine, wait... I can't transfer as much as I want through a bank account. I'll go to the bank once it's daylight and transfer it then, so wait, all right? Anyway, thank you. You helped me out in a lot of ways...”
* * *
The day after I parted ways with Kang Jun-chi, I was mentally shaken by the amount he sent.
I conveyed my shock through a Huntweb message.
Ⓐ BabyBerserker : Mister Jun-chi sent sooooo much money, nya?!? BabyMushroom isn't a cheap girl who's swayed by money, but this is just so moving, so moving, hoeeeee♥♡♥!!
Ⓢ Kang : (thumbs-up)
Ⓢ Kang : But you crazy bastard, you saw my face in person yesterday and still feel like pulling this shit? Gives me chills.
Ⓢ Kang : I can still vividly remember your huge muscular build, and seeing you act like this, I really can't take it anymore.
The cost of construction materials had risen so much that I didn't have enough money to build the high-rise apartment building to the standard I wanted.
I'd planned to take out a loan and put in money I'd earn next year to complete it, but Kang Jun-chi had sent me a massive sum, enough to buy all the construction materials before their prices rose further.
One of my worries had disappeared, which made me happy. At the same time, I wondered.
Had I done right not to ask Kang Jun-chi for help with my younger sister when he said he'd repay me?
At the time, I'd felt an urge to ask Kang Jun-chi to get my younger sister out of prison.
If Kang Jun-chi strode into the prison and took her out, it might not even be treated as an escape.
The government and media wouldn't want to publicly reveal that the existence of a certain awakened person made a complete mockery of the principle that everyone was equal before the law. That was why none of Kang Jun-chi's outrageous acts made the news.
So even if Kang Jun-chi took my younger sister out, there might not even be an article about it online...
Still, I hadn't made that request for two reasons.
First, my younger sister would be getting out of prison soon.
She had less than two years left on her sentence.
That was quite an early release for someone who'd killed five people, but I'd heard they shortened prisoners' sentences for all kinds of reasons to clear cells because the prisons were overcrowded.
Maybe the judge had given her a short sentence from the beginning because there was no evidence, yet government policy demanded a guilty verdict. Or perhaps it was because she'd been a victim of bullying.
Either way, I decided there was no need to ask a S-rank awakened person to get my sister out when she'd be released soon anyway.
The other reason was that Kang Jun-chi might take such a request very poorly.
After meeting him in person yesterday, he wasn't the complete lawless man I'd expected, nor was he an invincible superhuman who treated the government as a joke.
He seemed to see the government as quite threatening. He'd nearly died once and survived, so his wariness of the government must have grown even stronger.
In those circumstances, Kang Jun-chi might be reluctant to commit the conspicuous crime of breaking into a prison and helping a woman escape. He'd think it would make the government's threat assessment of him even higher.
Anyway, the Kang Jun-chi I met in person was different from the man I'd imagined in many ways.
That didn't change the fact that I felt human affection and kinship with him, but it was certainly disappointing.
Just as powerful awakened people had overthrown the existing order in the Third World and Indonesia, I thought Kang Jun-chi would fill that role in Korea. I'd expected that when awakened people someday became dissatisfied with the current system and rose up together, Kang Jun-chi would stand at the front as everyone's representative.
It looked like that had been a pointless expectation.
Kang Jun-chi was too ordinary, too much of an ordinary citizen. He was far from a revolutionary or usurper capable of overturning a country.
Look at what he did because he worried someone might poison his meals. Instead of choosing to crush the government he believed might be trying to kill him, he chose the extremely passive form of resistance of walking into random restaurants and ordering food.
I could roughly guess why Kang Jun-chi was so much like an ordinary citizen. He was probably fully satisfied with his current situation.
He'd spent a long time in miserable, wretched circumstances. The reason he passed the civil service exam after only one year was likely the desperation to find some way to survive.
Compared to those desperate days, what was it like now, when he could send over a hundred billion won because someone had saved his life as an S-rank Hunter?
From Kang Jun-chi's perspective, his circumstances must have reached a state so perfect that they couldn't improve any further.
That was why he might not feel any need to gain more by going so far as to overthrow the country.
No matter how anti-Korean he was or how much he called Koreans sea roaches, perhaps the life he enjoyed in Korea was already enough for him. Maybe he had no intention of leaving for a foreign country where he couldn't even communicate properly.
Still, I hadn't given up all hope for Kang Jun-chi.
The hallucination I saw... In that hallucination, which seemed to show the future another me had reached, Kang Jun-chi was alive and well.
Had the Kang Jun-chi in that hallucination also gone into the mountains to abuse Deathclaws and nearly gotten himself killed? He probably had.
And judging from how the Kang Jun-chi in the hallucination and I had been strangers, he would have struggled to find anyone who could help him. There weren't many awakened people anti-government enough for him to trust.
If so, the Kang Jun-chi in that hallucination, with his life in danger, had likely been forced to call 119. He would have been taken to a hospital in an ambulance, undergone surgery while trembling with anxiety, and survived safely. As a result, his distrust of the government would have faded considerably.
But in this world, not the hallucination, Kang Jun-chi believed that I, a fellow awakened person, had saved and protected him. That was why his paranoia that the government was trying to kill him remained intact.
So someday, if he found himself in a situation where that paranoia was provoked even further...
* * *
Footnotes:
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