WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈
Chapter 57: Special Forces Commander Han Hee-seok - [1]
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The fallout from the Kim Seokhee assault case lasted longer than I expected because the news kept stoking the flames by covering it.
They dug into the incident in such detail that even I was puzzled watching it.
Even the two awakened people I had mercifully let go unharmed without beating up when I wiped out Kim Seokhee's gang ended up being interviewed, setting Huntweb on fire.
Anonymous: ‘Kim Geuk let them go unharmed on condition that they become a Hunter in Incheon, while forcing them to vote for Incheon City Councilor Park Mihyeong in the upcoming mayoral election... Is he seriously insane? Holy shit.’
Ⓐ Stonehead Youth: Ms. Park Mihyeong, please answer me just this one thing. When you finally stand at the peak of Incheon, will you at last free that poor friend of ours?
Ⓐ syberMagneto: I thought all that talk about Incheon was just his thing, but hearing that he actually acted like that in real life while he was all worked up over a teammate getting hurt is seriously shocking...
The awakened person I had forced to become an Incheon Hunter had actually taken the Hunter exam, and an article had come out about it.
It brought me even more attention, which made me secretly happy but also a little uneasy.
Why were they putting this incident under such a spotlight?
I had learned this well while working with the Korean Awakened Solidarity. The media was currently under heavy government control.
The stations probably were not continuing to report on this case because they wanted ratings. They were likely just broadcasting the topics assigned by the government.
That meant, just as Park Mihyeong had predicted, the government must have some purpose behind using this incident.
As I wondered what they were plotting, my phone rang.
It was an unfamiliar number.
When I answered, a cold voice spoke.
「Is this Kim Geuk?」
“It is. Who are you?”
「Special Forces Commander Han Hee-seok.」
It was the first time I had heard that name, but I had heard of the Special Forces.
“The Special Forces? That unit made up of awakened people?”
「You know your stuff. Then you know what we do too, right?」
As he spoke, I searched Han Hee-seok online.
That was how I learned Han Hee-seok was non-awakened trash and one of those Seoul bastards, so I decided how to deal with him.
“Don't know. I'm hanging up.”
He sounded flustered when I answered so shortly.
「No, wait. Why are you suddenly mad? Is it because I spoke casually?」
I could not explain that I disliked a non-awakened piece of trash from Seoul being in charge of an awakened unit, so I gave a vague answer.
“So? Can I hang up?”
「Sorry for speaking casually, but let me ask you one thing.」
“Hurry up and hang...”
「I heard you met Kang Jun-chi alone before. What did you talk about then?」
“Why are you prying into that?”
「You're not the one asking questions. I am. This concerns national security, and I'm asking seriously, so answer.」
He lowered his voice as if trying to make things serious, but it only looked pathetic. As if a non-awakened piece of trash could scare me.
“Yeah, Jun-chi and I did talk. Want to hear it?”
「Fine, what did you...」
“We decided to wipe out every sea roach acting arrogant like this and create a world for awakened people. Jun-chi said that from now on, any non-awakened person who didn't make a deep bow when an awakened person passed by would have three generations of their family wiped out.”
「What the hell are you talking... Hey!」
“Or was it nine generations?”
「Are you messing with me right now?」
“Jun-chi said that Han Hee-seok in particular was an especially irritating and annoying sea roach, so if he caught you, he'd chop off your limbs and slit your throat while you thrashed around. He also said he'd use your severed head as a soccer ball, but I specifically stopped him because it would make his feet dirty. Be grateful, okay?”
「You little bastard. Do you think this is a game? Didn't you just hear what I do?」
“Come to think of it, you said you were the Special Forces Commander?”
「That's right!」
“Then raise the salaries of the awakened people in the Special Forces, okay? Does it make any sense that awakened people only get twelve million won? Even non-awakened Hunters make more than that.”
「No...」
“Even in awakened communities, people keep saying they'd rather do construction work than ever join the Special Forces. You can barely fill half your recruitment quota because you pay them so little. Empty out your own salary if you have to and raise theirs. Got it?”
「Man, I didn't even say anything offensive, so why are you so angry...」
“I'm hanging up.”
I really did hang up. My phone kept ringing afterward, but I ignored it.
I set my phone to silent and kept browsing Huntweb.
Then I got a Huntweb system message. It was from someone I could never ignore.
Ⓢ Kang: You there? I called, but you didn't answer...
Ⓐ BabyBerserker: I'm hereee? Why??
Ⓢ Kang: I want you to come over now. Can you? It's urgent again.
How could I ignore that request? In my heart, he was second only to Park Mihyeong and just as important as my ring girl.
Ⓐ BabyBerserker: I'll be right thereee!
I immediately took a taxi to the address he gave me. It was a hotel.
It looked like a five-star hotel at a glance. It was probably the accommodation the country had arranged for Kang Jun-chi, who had come to Seoul to stop the Behemoth.
When I entered the VIP room, Kang Jun-chi was there.
He looked at me and spoke in a desperate voice.
“You came?”
Kang Jun-chi was not the only one there.
A short but solidly built man was with him, and he looked surprised to see me.
“Huh? Kim Geuk?”
“You are...”
“Oh, I'm Stonehead Youth! Seok Jangsil, you know? Man, I spoke casually on Huntweb, but it's hard to do that in real life. You look fucking terrifying. So this is the monster that goes around using cutesy talk on Huntweb...”
As Seok Jangsil spoke excitedly, Kang Jun-chi suddenly shouted.
“Save the small talk for later!”
His voice was anxious. I looked at Kang Jun-chi and asked, “Fine. Why did you call me here?”
Kang Jun-chi finally stopped fuming, let out a long sigh, and said, “As you can see, I've been staying at this hotel since I came to Seoul.”
He looked anxiously around the luxurious hotel VIP room and continued.
“But I can't trust the food the hotel gives me, so every time I wanted to eat, I had to go out for over an hour... I have to enter a random restaurant to avoid being poisoned...”
“Come on, you still do that? I told you that's a mental illness and you should get counseling!”
Seok Jangsil interrupted in disbelief, but Kang Jun-chi only shot him a glare before continuing.
“Anyway, I don't know what someone might do while I'm gone... So whenever I go out and come back, I always check the CCTV footage.”
As Seok Jangsil muttered, “Seriously, man...,” I said, “So did the CCTV catch something?”
“No. The CCTV wasn't recording while I was out eating. I asked the hotel what happened, and they said there had been a power outage at that time. Isn't that strange? There was a ten-minute blackout right when I happened to be gone. That's way too suspicious.”
“What the hell is suspicious about that?”
Seok Jangsil snapped. To be honest, I did not find it particularly suspicious either, but I kept listening.
Kang Jun-chi glared at the table in the middle of the room and continued in an even more anxious voice.
“I immediately searched the room. The slip of paper I always wedge into the doorframe to check whether someone sneaked in while I was out was still there, but I couldn't relax over that alone... So I felt over every piece of furniture with my force field to see if anything had changed. Do you know what I found?”
“What did you find?”
At my question, Kang Jun-chi pointed at the table. He picked up something that looked like a small ornament, then growled.
“These fucking bastards planted something like this in my room.”
I looked at it, then asked, “Is that a listening device?”
“That's right, a listening device! It looks like a wooden ornament at a glance, but I checked the internal structure with my force field. It's definitely a machine. It's definitely a listening device.”
Whoever had planted the listening device could never have imagined this situation.
Kang Jun-chi's ability output was so overwhelming that people could hardly imagine how precisely he could use it, but he was also among the best at using his ability precisely. You could tell from the fact that, when a Deathclaw cut him, he could not even tell whether it had cut his lung or heart, yet he stitched himself back together with his force field and kept talking at length.
“So those fucking government bastards snuck in while I was gone and planted a listening device...! How am I supposed to stay here like this?”
“If you can't stay here, then what are you going to do? Move somewhere else?”
Kang Jun-chi answered Seok Jangsil's question.
“I'm going back to Busan. I've left my home empty for too long. I need to search it for a whole month to see how many listening devices they planted there too...!”
It was an incredibly passive choice, just like Kang Jun-chi. Instead of storming into the government agency that had dared plant a listening device, he was just going to leave?
Seok Jangsil looked horrified. His eyes widened as he asked in a stunned voice.
“What about the Behemoth? The Behemoth that's staying still because it's scared of you?”
“Why should I care?”
“Come on, if you leave, everyone in Seoul will die!”
“I said I don't care! If those sea roaches get trampled to death or eaten by the Behemoth, why the hell should I care?”
As Kang Jun-chi shouted, Seok Jangsil looked at me.
It seemed like he wanted me to help persuade that crazy man, but I unconsciously answered.
“The day Incheon becomes Korea's new capital has finally come.”
“What kind of crazy bullshit is that...”
Seok Jangsil looked like he was about to get angry, so I had no choice but to take back what I had just said.
“Well, I was half joking. So, Kang Jun-chi? Are you really going back to Busan?”
“Yeah!”
“You understand how the government will react if you do that, right?”
“The government will get pissed! They'll nag at me to stay in Seoul, half threatening and half begging! But is worrying about how those bastards will react more important than keeping myself alive?”
“Alive?”
“If people who hide listening devices in my room want to kill me, do you think they couldn't hide some swordsman in here to cut off my head? Huh?”
Kang Jun-chi shouted, and Seok Jangsil said, “Jun-chi, say something that makes sense! What swordsman in the world could kill you? Why are you worrying about that?”
Seok Jangsil looked dumbfounded, but I understood what he meant.
He was afraid of someone with force-field blades. He was worried the government would send an assassin with that ability into his room.
After being cut by a Deathclaw last time, he seemed to have become just as wary of force-field blades as poison in his food. He had learned with his own body that they could pierce even his force field, so it was understandable.
Then I considered how I should act in this situation.
What should I say to Kang Jun-chi, who was so anxious?
Maybe this was my chance to create the world I wanted, a chance to reduce the disgusting government to ruins and create a world for awakened people.
In other words, a chance to turn Korea into a utopia closer to Soweol.
It would be impossible with someone like Nguyen, but with Kang Jun-chi, it could be done.
I would not even have to do anything remarkable. I just had to grab Kang Jun-chi's wrist and repeatedly use Spatial Teleportation until I collapsed from exhaustion.
If I moved Kang Jun-chi to Busan, the damn Behemoth would come out of the Gate.
Like Australia, Seoul would be reduced to ruins. Unless an awakened member of the National Assembly appeared who could rally the people and awakened people with astonishing skill even on their first day in office, Korea's disgusting democratic society would be finished from that day onward.
If I did not want to personally move Kang Jun-chi and make the government hate me, I could just call him a taxi to Busan instead.
If I encouraged this friend's paranoid anxiety and made him leave Seoul somehow...
The fact that I would not have to take any major risks made all of this especially tempting.
There was only one problem. Incheon was adjacent to Seoul, and there was no way the Behemoth and Monsters that appeared in Seoul would avoid Incheon on their own...
After much thought, I said, “Kang Jun-chi? I'm angry too, but calm down.”
“What?”
“Think rationally even if you're angry. Leaving Seoul now makes no sense.”
Footnotes:
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