How an A-rank Hunter Lives - Chapter 49

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈

Chapter 49: Former Hunter Kim Seok-hee - [1]

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Kim Seokhee chewed on his cigarette as he glared at the TV.

The nine o'clock news was on, but there wasn't anything particularly sensational about it. He looked at the ticker.

- ‘Hunter Kim Geuk’ Incheon Recovery Project, Now Moving to Gyeyang-gu

The ticker wasn't shocking either, but Kim Seokhee stared hard at it.

He couldn't just brush off that bland little line. To him, it might as well have said the United States had declared war on Korea.

Kim Seokhee muttered without realizing it.

“That bastard Kim Geuk is really coming here...”

Soon, the TV showed the people at the center of the news.

First was some middle-aged woman with a nameplate in front of her that read, ‘Incheon City Councilor Park Mihyeong’...

The man sitting beside her especially caught his eye.

He was more heavily muscled than most bodybuilders. His shoulders were absurdly broad, and the face sitting on top of them was just as fierce. He looked like the kind of man who'd beaten several people to death.

The nameplate in front of him read:

‘Incheon City Hunter Kim Geuk.’

The screen was also filled with the crowd that had gathered to hear the two of them speak.

Even that got on Kim Seokhee's nerves.

“Why are there so many people there? Does it make any sense for some city councilor to gather that many people?”

An answer came right away.

“That old lady Park Mihyeong is popular too, but that bastard Kim Geuk is on a whole different level.”

“What is it with that bastard?”

“You used to be a Hunter. How do you not know? That bastard's insanely popular!”

“How long has it been since I quit? How would I know? Explain it.”

“That old lady Park Mihyeong is treated like the fries in a combo meal, so her popularity shot up along with his. They say she's running for mayor of Incheon, and unless something big happens, she'll definitely get elected. People go around chanting her name like it's some meme... It's all because Kim Geuk acted like a fucking lunatic in every interview. There are probably tons of fans and reporters there right now...”

Kim Geuk shouted from the TV.

“I will clean up Gyeyang-gu just as I did the other areas of Incheon. I will hunt down every last scrap of Monster filth that set foot in sacred Incheon! Long live Incheon!”

As the crowd on screen shouted, “Long live Incheon!” Kim Seokhee cursed.

“Long live Incheon, my ass... I'm gonna smash that bastard Kim Geuk's mom's head in and kill her.”

Only then did his gang members, or cigarette sellers as Kim Seokhee called them, seem to notice their boss's foul mood.

The gang members gathered there began jeering.

“Smash Kim Geuk's mom's head in and kill her!”

“Smash that bastard Kim Geuk's head in too!”

For a while, the cries of “Long live Incheon!” from the TV mixed with the gang members shouting, “Kill Kim Geuk!” throughout the room.

Kim Seokhee kept frowning as he watched the crowd that had gathered to see Kim Geuk.

It was really, really bad. If that bastard was so well-known, wouldn't there be a huge uproar if they laid a hand on him...?

After the commotion died down, one gang member looked at Kim Seokhee and asked,

“So if that bastard Kim Geuk comes to Gyeyang-gu, we throw him out right away, yeah? This is our turf, so we'll tell him to fuck off!”

To maintain his charisma as their boss, Kim Seokhee deliberately spoke in a calm voice.

“Well, this is going to be a pain.”

Then he thought to himself, This is going to be fucking hard.

He had to fight that muscle monster from now on? What the fuck.

Kim Seokhee went into his room and secretly turned on his smartphone.

He searched for “Kim Geuk.”

A photo of the muscular man from the news came up first, along with countless internet articles and videos about him.

The more information he looked up, the tighter Kim Seokhee's brow became.

Hunter Kim Geuk. He looked strong just from his build and face, and apparently he fought exactly how he looked.

When Kim Seokhee watched videos of him hunting, he found that Kim Geuk was even more of a monster than he had seemed at first glance.

Kim Seokhee himself was a former Hunter. That was why he knew just how astonishing and shocking the things in those videos were.

Back when he was a Hunter, Kim Seokhee had received an A++ rating right at his debut. As a powerful force-field exoskeleton user, he had been able to trust in his sturdy force field and hunt more aggressively than other awakened Hunters. Even so, he couldn't slaughter Monsters like Kim Geuk did in those videos.

More precisely, he hadn't possessed the miraculous marksmanship to kill a Monster with every bullet like Kim Geuk did on screen. Nor had he wielded melee weapons and fought enormous Monsters in close combat that bordered on acrobatics. He hadn't fought and defeated one powerful Monster after another, along with awakened Soweol people.

The hunting videos of Kim Geuk uploaded to YouTube had all surpassed several million views. Back when he was a Hunter, Kim Seokhee's videos would've struggled to reach even a thousand views...

It was embarrassing to even compare Kim Geuk to his former self. Unless Kim Geuk had staged all those fights with the Monsters in his videos, the bastard was a genuine monster.

Kim Seokhee had deliberately avoided any news from the industry after quitting Hunter work, so he had no idea such a monster had appeared in the meantime. He only found out after one of his gang members watched the news and warned him.

That monster was trying to invade Gyeyang-gu, his territory. He had to stop him, but it wouldn't be easy.

To stop himself from growing weak, Kim Seokhee recited inwardly.

I am a lord. The Baron of Gyeyang-gu.

I have to protect my domain. As the new owner of this land, I must.

There is nothing I cannot do. Nothing I cannot bring myself to do now.

Haven't I already killed people?

Even when he attended that shitty high school, when he wandered around at night smashing shop windows for fun, he never imagined that his future self would become a man this cruel...

After watching enough videos, he logged onto Huntweb. Using the account he had used as a Hunter, he made a post.

Ⓐ GangStar☆ : I heard Incheon City Hunter Kim Geuk is active on this site. Is that true?

Just as before, wearing an A badge made it easy to draw attention on this site.

Someone recognized him in an instant and left a comment.

Ⓐ Stonehead Youth : Is that really Kim Seokhee? You're back?

Kim Seokhee remembered that user too. Seok Jangsil, probably the guy who was on brotherly terms with Kang Jun-chi.

Ⓐ GangStar☆ : Looks like you remember me?

Ⓐ Stonehead Youth : Of course I remember. Did they lift the warrant? Are you going to work as a Hunter again?

Ⓐ GangStar☆ : That's not it. Kim Geuk? I want that bastard's account.

Ⓐ Stonehead Youth : Why?

Ⓐ GangStar☆ : I need to contact him. Don't ask why, just hurry up.

Ⓐ Stonehead Youth : Search the nickname BabyBerserker.

Ⓐ Stonehead Youth : Searching BabyMushroom should bring it up too.

Kim Seokhee did as he was told.

He searched as instructed and clicked the first post that appeared.

He read it with a serious expression for only a moment before realizing he had been tricked, and his face twisted.

What the hell was this? It was babbling about briefs, then saying an Ogre had fallen for Kim Geuk and proposed to him.

It was like when he clicked the wrong post while active on DC Inside and had to see some horrifying picture. This time too, he had stupidly fallen for a trick and laid eyes on something utterly horrible.

It was the first time in his life a post had made him feel this terrible. Seok Jangsil, that stoneheaded bastard?

Ⓐ GangStar☆ : Are you fucking kidding me? I'm busy as hell, and you motherless bastard baited me?

Ⓐ Stonehead Youth : I gave you the right answer. Why are you getting mad?

Ⓐ GangStar☆ : You still think I'm the sucker who kept calling you 'sir,' huh? Keep it up, and you're really going to die.

Ⓐ Stonehead Youth : Why are you suddenly flying off the handle? Scary. And I'm active in Seoul. As if a wanted criminal like you would ever come to Seoul.

Ⓐ GangStar☆ : You think I can't?

Ⓐ Stonehead Youth : Come on over if you want a taste of watashi's spicy stone fist lol.

Ⓐ GangStar☆ : Fuck you.

The comments that followed were all the same.

When he asked for Kim Geuk's account, everyone joined in and gave him the same answer. They all told him to search BabyMushroom on the board, trying to bait him into looking at that horrible post, and Kim Seokhee frowned again.

I may be a criminal bastard who lost my Hunter license for killing someone, but even so, I used to be an active user of this site as a Hunter. They're really going to bully me this much?

He sat there breathing heavily in anger and humiliation. It wasn't until more than ten minutes later that he realized his former Huntweb comrades hadn't collectively been trying to trick him.

* * *

Ⓐ Stonehead Youth : BabyMushroom is in danger. Scary.

Ⓐ BabyBerserker : Hoeeeee? BabyMushroom is in danger, nya? Are they filming a new theatrical animated movie starring magical girl BabyMushroom, nya? The director didn't mention anything beforehand, so this is sudden, nya!

Ⓐ Stonehead Youth : Not that. Kim Geuk, aren't you going to Gyeyang-gu this time? To hunt wild Monsters for the Incheon Recovery Project.

Ⓐ BabyBerserker : That's right, nya! Is there a problem, nya?

Ⓐ Stonehead Youth : There's a moron in Gyeyang-gu. That idiot says he's the Baron of Gyeyang-gu, a lord, and all that...

I was wondering about the sudden message.

Then another user's message arrived.

It was from a user I'd never seen before, but I couldn't ignore it. The A badge in front of the nickname told me that this person was also an awakened person.

Ⓐ GangStar☆ : Hey, friend. You're Kim Geuk, right?

Ⓐ BabyBerserker : I'm not Kim Geuk, I'm BabyMushroom, nya! Tiny and cute BabyMushroom doesn't know a mister with such a cool name, nya!

Ⓐ GangStar☆ : lol

Ⓐ GangStar☆ : Fine, BabyMushroom. I heard you're coming to Gyeyang-gu soon to hunt. Is that right?

Ⓐ BabyBerserker : That's right, nya! Tiny and cute BabyMushroom will bravely defeat the bad Monsters of Gyeyang Mountain and Gyeyang-gu, nya!

Ⓐ BabyBerserker : Is big bro GangStar going to support BabyMushroom's magical girl activities too, nya?

Ⓐ GangStar☆ : No.

Ⓐ GangStar☆ : Don't come.

Ⓐ GangStar☆ : You’ll have a hard time. Seriously.

Ⓐ GangStar☆ : Go somewhere else.

Ⓐ BabyBerserker : ??

Ⓐ GangStar☆ : I warned you.