WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

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◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈

Chapter 47: A-Rank Hunter Nguyen - [5]

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I gave a thumbs-up. As the host made an excited fuss, I looked at Naito-san.

That non-awakened piece of trash, much as I hated to admit it, had made quite a contribution again. He'd been the first to arrive at the scene, killed about three Deathclaws running wild on the road, and lured away that boar Monster. He'd probably reduced the casualties by quite a bit.

They were only giving him a certificate for risking his life like that, yet he was smiling from ear to ear. Naito-san's attitude alone showed just how professional he was. Or maybe he was happy because he was already thinking about bragging about it on his show later.

Unlike the Hunters who were enjoying the event in their own way, another Hunter attending the commendation ceremony looked thoroughly bored.

“It's so hot...”

That was Nguyen.

Even while the ceremony was in full swing, Nguyen had kept muttering to himself. Then he sidled up to me and asked in a voice that wasn't particularly quiet.

“Kim Geuk, want to get drinks after this boring thing ends?”

I didn't like him acting like that at Incheon's sacred event, but what could I do?

I'd just heard that the local government had put him through a lot. It was understandable that even being called here annoyed him.

I simply nodded politely to show my agreement.

Nguyen apparently hadn't been lying when he said he liked me. He immediately flashed a grin that showed off his shining teeth.

Once the commendations were over, merchandise sales began alongside a fundraiser.

Since it was an event for Hunters, Incheon City had made character merchandise for the Hunters and put it up for sale.

There were acrylic stands of the two most famous Hunters present, me and Naito-san. Honestly, the quality wasn't that great. They would've been better off selling shirts with BabyMushroom printed on them.

Still, everyone in the crowd had come to see Naito-san and me, so all the prepared merchandise sold out in an instant.

Baek Dambi seemed incredibly jealous of that. She quietly approached and spoke to me.

“You really are popular...?”

I answered as if comforting her.

“It's because I'm cute.”

Mm, that was the first time I'd seen my ring girl look like she wanted to hit someone.

Baek Dambi closed and opened her eyes as if holding back an impulse, then said,

“I'm really jealous that you're cute...”

“If you're jealous, how about adding nya to the end of every sentence? You'll definitely become a thousand times cuter that way, nya!”

That was also the first time I'd seen Baek Dambi look like she wanted to kill someone. Her lips trembled as she spoke.

“I'd rather die...!”

I gave her a pleasant smile and said goodbye to my ring girl.

I was just about to go drinking with Nguyen as promised.

Then some civil servant stopped me.

“Excuse me, Hunter Kim Geuk? I heard during the commendation ceremony that you were planning to have a drink with Nguyen later. Is that right?”

“Ah, sorry for responding to him during the ceremony. It would've felt a little rude to ignore him.”

“That isn't it. I have a separate favor to ask. I know it's a bother, but while you're drinking with Nguyen and talking to him... could you ask him what exactly is wrong with him?”

I raised an eyebrow.

“What do you mean, ask him what's wrong?”

The civil servant explained.

* * *

Forty minutes after the commendation ceremony ended, Nguyen and I were drinking together as promised.

As I poured him a drink, I said,

“You saved us in a lot of ways this time. I really felt like I came back from the dead.”

Nguyen downed the drink I'd poured him and said heartily,

“Why are you being so formal? Awakened people should help each other!”

“You're right.”

“Kim Geuk looked like he was in trouble. How could I ignore that? You know I really like you, Kim Geuk!”

“Yes. Your team members said the same thing.”

Nguyen gave his usual smile.

“You know, I've met a lot of awakened people! I saw tons in Vietnam and quite a few in Japan, but I never found a hero as great as Kim Geuk!”

“I am pretty impressive, aren't I?”

When I humbly replied, Nguyen continued praising me.

“Yeah, you really are! I've seen plenty of awakened people boast about how strong they are, but I've never seen anyone with enough guts to pick up a hammer and personally beat Monsters to death like Kim Geuk! I've seen people reckless enough to charge at Monsters because they had some courage, but I've never seen anyone with the skill and brains to get results on Kim Geuk's level...!”

He praised me for quite a while, so I did the same.

“Nguyen, you were incredible too, weren't you? You were so fast I couldn't even see you running! Your specs must be amazing if your signing bonus was that huge, right? Ah, you've already finished your drink. Here, have another...”

When I poured him another glass, Nguyen emptied it with such gusto that it made anyone watching feel good.

As we traded drinks, I stayed perfectly fine while Nguyen's face turned red from the alcohol.

Nguyen asked in a tipsy voice,

“Come to think of it, Kim Geuk, you're a Body Enhancement user. Do you even feel anything when you drink? Isn't your liver so strong that you can't get drunk?”

“That's true, but people don't drink just to get drunk. Sometimes you drink for the atmosphere.”

“Is that so? Then I'll get drunk by myself!”

Nguyen practically shouted it, then kept drinking and drinking despite his face already being bright red.

Watching that heroic, boisterous figure, I thought to myself.

This was the man people called a thief of Incheon City's budget because he acted timid during hunts? He didn't look like it at first glance.

According to the civil servant's complaint, the A-rank Hunter Nguyen sitting before me was notorious for slacking off in Incheon City.

I recalled the conversation we'd had.

“He does respond when Gates open because he has to meet the number of dispatches listed in his contract! But once he gets there, he won't do the proper work an A-Rank is supposed to do!”

“You mean things like personally handling Force-Field Creatures?”

“Yes, exactly! But Nguyen only pretends to step up for difficult and dangerous jobs, fires a few rounds from a Hunter Rifle, then goes home saying he participated in the hunt! He's got the mindset of a soldier counting down to discharge. It's driving us insane. He still has over two years left on his contract...”

I could understand why they took it so seriously.

It was bad enough when an expensive athlete only wanted to coast through games and collect money. It was even worse when an A-Rank Hunter the local government had scraped together money it didn't have to hire acted that way. An athlete lacking motivation might only ruin a few game results, but an A-Rank Hunter's performance was directly tied to the lives of that area's citizens.

“But Nguyen didn't seem like that this time. He even got a ride on a bike, arrived quickly, and lured away the giant Monster. He took a real risk doing it.”

“That's right. We heard over the radio that he was trying to take the lead for once. It was so unusual that we grabbed Nguyen's team members and asked why he was so proactive this time. It seems he only acted that way because he personally likes you, Kim Geuk. So...”

Since Nguyen seemed to like me so much, the civil servant had asked me to find out what exactly was wrong with him.

They wanted me to ask why Nguyen slacked off so much, and what they should do to make him work hard like he had this time.

Honestly, I wasn't particularly motivated. The problem seemed obvious to me.

“Didn't he lose the motivation to work hard because you overworked him in all sorts of ways, with 9th-Grade Calls and making him the first to deploy at scenes?”

When I pointed out what Nguyen's team members had told me, the civil servant tried to change the subject awkwardly.

“What's already happened can't be helped... We want to see if there are any other problems.”

In other words, they planned to ignore the real issue anyone could see and force themselves to look for some other problem.

What was I supposed to do about that? Even if I had astonishing conversational skills, I couldn't improve this situation.

Still, since they'd asked me, I didn't plan to ignore it completely.

I looked at Nguyen.

He seemed to have always liked alcohol. He drank and drank some more. He was starting to look like he could barely hold himself up, so it seemed like it would be easy to pry out his true feelings now that he was this drunk.

So I asked,

“You're very dissatisfied with your current treatment, aren't you?”

An answer immediately came back. Nguyen smacked the table with his fist and shouted,

“Very dissatisfied!”

“Why are you so dissatisfied?”

“Because these bastards see me as some foreign laborer they can use up and throw away!”

It was the answer I'd expected, so I wasn't particularly surprised.

As I was about to comfort him, Nguyen continued.

“They shouldn't treat me like that... Do you know what I used to do? Do you know what I did in Vietnam before becoming a Hunter?”

“I don't. Now I'm curious. What did you do?”

I hadn't asked because I was actually curious. Wasn't “Do you know what I used to do?” just a drunk person's favorite line?

But the answer that came from Nguyen's mouth was completely beyond my expectations.

“My comrades and I ruled an entire province!”

I blinked. That was something I'd never heard before.

“You ruled a province?”

Nguyen shouted in a thoroughly drunken tone.

“Exactly what it sounds like! We occupied the entire province and acted as its lords!”

“How did you...”

“One day, a bunch of Monsters poured out of a Gate, and all the cops ran away! With the police gone, people needed new protectors to survive, right? A few awakened soldiers, including me, gathered the survivors and ruled over the weak people living there. Ruled them, mm! Ruled them! Doesn't that word sound impressive?”

I suddenly remembered an article I'd read before. Vietnamese awakened people who had occupied Cà Mau Province during a gap in public security.

I also remembered the article saying that after taking over Cà Mau Province, those awakened people had committed all sorts of crimes against its residents. They extorted property and received sexual favors as tribute.

It seemed Nguyen before me had been one of them.

I could roughly guess what happened afterward, but I pretended not to know and asked,

“Then why are you a Hunter now?”

“The government ordered us to disband, but we ignored them. Then they brought in the military to retake the area... and our idiot leader got scared after hearing a few artillery blasts and surrendered!”

It must've been an incredibly infuriating event for him. Nguyen kept shouting.

“That idiot bastard! We had nine people with force-field exoskeletons there. What was so scary about a few mortars? We were tough and fast. We could've taken one or two shells, rushed straight in, and killed all the soldiers. Why the hell was he scared?”

“I guess there weren't many people against surrendering?”

“There were people saying we shouldn't surrender! But while we were arguing, the government said that if we surrendered peacefully, they'd give us a lot of money and send us overseas to work as Hunters. Those idiots fell for that trick too... Those fucking idiots!”

“If it was just a trick, it seems they did keep their promise. You're working as a Hunter now, after all.”

“The fact that they kept that promise proves we shouldn't have surrendered! The government wasn't confident they could subdue us, so instead of capturing all of us and executing us or using us like slave soldiers, they just drove us overseas to get rid of dangerous people. Isn't that it?”

I looked around.

Fortunately, this was a VIP room, so only the two of us were here. There was nobody eavesdropping within the range of my mental net either.

That was fortunate. It would've been a serious problem if anyone heard what was coming out of his mouth.

Nguyen was completely drunk and continued spilling secrets he never should've told anyone while sober.

After going on for a while, he said tearfully,

“If Kim Geuk had been there back then... I wouldn't be treated like this now!”

“Why not?”

“If Kim Geuk had been there, who would've been afraid of some bombardment? Even an idiot could've figured out that they just needed to use Spatial Teleportation to escape the danger for a moment!

“If only Kim Geuk had been there, we never would've surrendered... If a man like Kim Geuk had led the group from the start, we never would've gotten scared and surrendered just because a bunch of non-awakened pieces of trash came at us!”

Now thoroughly drunk, Nguyen was starting to cry.

Nguyen repeatedly said I should've been there back then. Then he sobbed that he had met a Vietnamese person in Korea who knew about his crimes and had been blackmailed into giving up a considerable portion of his signing bonus. They'd threatened to report his past crimes to a Korean local government and have his Hunter contract canceled if he didn't pay.

Nguyen cried like that for a while before suddenly looking at me and saying,

“Kim Geuk? If you ever commit a serious crime and can't work as a Hunter anymore, contact me. Okay? Or if you decide Hunter work is bullshit and hunting is too dangerous and hard to keep doing, contact me no matter what!”

“Are you saying we should quit being Hunters, go back to Vietnam together, and occupy another province?”

Nguyen nodded at my question. He nodded several times, then continued sniffling.

“Those days were really great. They were so much better than now, you can't even compare them... You have no idea how many women I slept with back then...”

Footnotes:

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