How an A-rank Hunter Lives - Chapter 65

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈

Chapter 65: Veteran Sergeant Kim Yo-han - [2]

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Before the operation began, I spent some time browsing the web.

I looked into what people thought about awakened Hunters being mobilized for the Special Forces. The reactions from ordinary people were different from the ones on Huntweb, and that difference angered me.

After reading an online article about awakened Hunters complaining about the policy, I checked the comments below it.

Yok1974: While everyone else is barely scraping by, these guys make tens or hundreds of billions of won. Is it really so awful that the country wants them to do some work?

↳ HowLongSinceIAtePork: Seriously. You have to pay awakened people a fortune at international market rates or they'll leave for another country, so fine. But if they're taking that money, they should at least do the bare minimum for the public.

↳ Yok1974: They don't even want to do that much. They're obviously spoiled. Look at these privileged elites.

LongLiveIncheonChantDaily: So why the hell are they taking Kim Geuk? He needs to be here so we can respond properly when something happens. If a Gate opens while Kim Geuk's been called away, at least dozens more people will die. Does that make any sense?

↳ ManisanHiker: It's ridiculous that Seoul's Special Forces can just take Hunters hired by Incheon whenever they want. Can they really do that without Incheon's consent?

↳ Dok: Look at these Incheon idiots talking nonsense. You'd think Incheon alone paid to hire Kim Geuk. Incheon's been running a budget deficit forever and couldn't afford it. The government gave them subsidies, so of course it can borrow him whenever it wants. Why are they making such a fuss?

The reaction was quite different from when I got hit with a 9th-Grade Call.

Was it because that had been illegal, while this was legal? About half the people accepted Hunters being used like labor, and another quarter actively supported it.

Not many people opposed the situation. Even those who did were mocked in the comments.

Seeing those reactions made my anger flare up even more, despite already being furious.

It made me want to thoroughly slack off during this operation, or just cause trouble outright.

* * *

With the Special Forces members and outside personnel all gathered, the operational briefing began.

One Special Forces member took the microphone.

“The operation has become more difficult than expected. Thanks to a certain person who leaked the operation plan before it even began... Since that person caused trouble, I hope they'll work even harder during this operation. You need to make up for your mistakes with results, don't you?”

It was clearly meant for Huntweb user SeoulTobagi, whose real name was Kim Yohan. Yohan himself, though, was too busy fiddling with his phone to pay any attention to the briefing.

“Originally, Kim Seokhee's group operated in dangerous parts of Bucheon, places where everyone had already left. But once it became known that the Special Forces intended to arrest them, they hid in the commercial district of Sang-dong, Wonmi-gu, Bucheon. Since they've blended in among so many residents, we're facing difficulties on several fronts...”

Yohan was still completely absorbed in his phone. What was he doing, playing a mobile game?

When I glanced over, I saw that he was on Huntweb.

He was busily typing messages, and seeing that gave me an immediate sense of kinship as a fellow Huntweb user.

The Special Forces member giving the briefing didn't seem pleased, though. He suddenly shouted.

“Yohan, at least pretend you're listening! If you keep being this uncooperative, we'll consider you absent, send you back, and fine you!”

“Did I come here for reservist training? Getting threatened with forced dismissal...”

Yohan seemed unwilling to pay a fine, so he obediently put his phone in his pants pocket. That was all he did.

He openly adopted a lazy posture, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed as he stared at the ceiling. It was obvious that even if someone asked him about the plan after the operation began, he wouldn't remember any of it.

In the middle of his explanation, the Special Forces member asked me a question.

“Hunter Kim Geuk? I heard you have something called a mental net that lets you detect objects within a certain range.”

“That’s right. So?”

“Could you use it to find Kim Seokhee's group? We already know where their hideout is. If you could just confirm whether Kim Seokhee is there...”

Without hesitation, I answered.

“That'll be difficult. I can identify objects within its range, but not well enough to distinguish people's faces.”

“Oh, is that so? Then our agents will handle that...”

It was a lie. It was true that distinguishing faces with my mental net was difficult, but it wasn't impossible if I concentrated. I just had no intention of concentrating.

Then, only thirty minutes after the operation began, a radio message came in saying Kim Seokhee had been found.

A Special Forces member urgently spoke to me.

“Special Forces members have already been dispatched to the scene! If Kim Geuk could immediately use Spatial Teleportation...”

“Spatial Teleportation? How?”

“Pardon? You just need to move to the location marked on this map!”

“What, are Spatial Teleportation coordinates written on the map? I've never been there before. How am I supposed to use Spatial Teleportation by looking at a map?”

I spoke as if I found it frustrating, but this was why it was useful to have an unusual ability. I was the only person who knew the details of my ability, so they had no way to tell when I lied.

As the Special Forces member stood there flustered, the radio went off again.

A Special Forces member reported the situation.

“Kim Seokhee noticed our members approaching! He attacked before they could leave the scene...”

Everyone listened to the radio tensely. Before long, we learned the outcome of that clash.

“All five awakened members have gone down!”

“All five? Didn't they say Kim Seokhee was the only one there?”

“They were all taken down by Kim Seokhee alone...”

As the Special Forces members whispered among themselves, Yohan grinned and spoke up.

“What are you so surprised about? Kim Seokhee's incredibly strong. Even when he was a Hunter, he kept rising through the ranks while taking down loads of Monsters. What did you think would happen when Special Forces rookies who have never killed a Monster tried to take him on...?”

Ah, there it was. That unique Huntweb-user habit of looking down on the Special Forces.

Huntweb's position was that Hunters grew familiar with their abilities through repeated Monster hunts, and because their abilities grew as they defeated Monsters, awakened Hunters' combat power couldn't even be compared to that of Special Forces members.

One of the Special Forces members seemed irritated by that.

“If you're so impressive, why don't you go out there and show us?”

“Why would I?”

Yohan grinned again, and the faces of the Special Forces members plainly said, Why the hell did we bring this bastard here?

Unfortunately for them, that was probably the exact reaction Yohan had been trying to provoke.

In the end, the Special Forces members began discussing things among themselves.

“How many of the members who got taken down this time were blade wielders?”

“One.”

“From now on, we'll gather only blade wielders and have them attack.”

I wondered what a blade wielder was, but it seemed to mean someone with force-field blades. A little later, I saw that every Special Forces member who left for the scene had a sword at their side.

I asked Kang Junman, who had remained at headquarters.

“There are a lot of force-field blade users in the Special Forces. Aren't force-field blade users relatively rare?”

“We mainly recruit Body Enhancement users and force-field exoskeleton users. Once they're recruited, though, we make them spend a considerable amount of their workday training with swords.”

“Sword training?”

“Swinging a sword is an awakening trigger for force-field blades, isn't it? We train them so they can gain an additional ability. As you can see, it has produced some results. A number of our members have awakened force-field blades.”

That surprised me quite a bit. I had heard that the awakened people in the Special Forces weren't mobilized for Monster extermination and focused only on training. It turned out that was true.

It also made me realize the Special Forces were more vicious than I expected.

They trained specifically to gain force-field blades?

In the Hunter market, force-field blades weren't considered a particularly valuable ability. Being able to obtain blades that cut through anything and fight enemies above your weight class was certainly appealing, but wasn't fighting Monsters in close combat nonsense to begin with?

Awakened Hunters' primary weapon wasn't a sword but a Hunter Rifle. The main tactic of typical A-rank Hunters was to pour out powerful firepower with Hunter Rifles while their teammates provided covering fire, taking down powerful enemies that way.

If some awakened person charged in alone because they wanted to swing force-field blades around, their teammates wouldn't even be able to provide proper covering fire for fear of shooting them in the back.

That was why someone with only force-field blades had a hard time being recognized as an A-rank Hunter. Even a Body Enhancement user who gained force-field blades as an additional ability would normally fire a Hunter Rifle and draw a sword only in certain situations. They shouldn't start swinging a sword right away. Unless they also had an acceleration ability, they'd eventually get themselves killed, no matter how many lives they had.

I had heard that quite a few people trained in an effort to awaken, but they usually practiced martial arts to become Body Enhancement users or performed other trigger actions. It was rare for them to swing swords.

There was only one reason to train specifically to obtain force-field blades.

To fight other people, especially awakened people...

Awakened people would usually be inside buildings, and when fighting in confined spaces, a melee weapon covered in force-field blades would be plenty useful.

If they found an awakened person they needed to take down, they could also walk past them pretending to be an ordinary passerby, pull out a knife covered in force-field blades, and stab them.

They were supposed to be an organization meant to deal with awakened people. At least they seemed thorough in preparing for that.

As I looked over the Special Forces members one by one, the radio went off again.

「Kim Seokhee is resisting with a Hunter Rifle... All three members who entered have been hit!」

“They were hit by a Hunter Rifle?”

The Special Forces members panicked at that report, which was only natural. It meant they had been hit by heavy weaponry. Their lives would be in danger.

Even I couldn't keep standing around at that point. I immediately used Spatial Teleportation to move to the location marked on the map earlier.

I arrived inside an apartment building.

Kim Seokhee was holding a Hunter Rifle, and three Special Forces members were bleeding heavily in front of me.

They were all either Body Enhancement users or force-field exoskeleton users, so being struck by autocannon rounds hadn't immediately torn their bodies to pieces. One person had lost an entire leg, but they were all still alive.

“Kim Geuk?”

Kim Seokhee's eyes widened when he saw me, but I handled my business first.

I grabbed the bleeding Special Forces members and used Spatial Teleportation.

I took them to a hospital. Since it was a large hospital, there would be a Healing Ability user there. They would all survive.

Then I used Spatial Teleportation again and returned to where I had just been.

Kim Seokhee was still there. I greeted him belatedly.

“Long time no see, Baron of Bucheon.”

Kim Seokhee's face twisted.

“You crazy bastard. You wrecked my organization, and now you've come to arrest me too?”

“It isn't like that...”

Kim Seokhee cut me off.

“Did you tell me to carry a Hunter Rifle back then? Fine. I'm carrying one now, just like you wanted. It's too late, but I'll shoot you dead now, you piece of shit.”

Before Kim Seokhee could pull the trigger, I spoke first.

“I didn't come to arrest you.”

“Then did you come to have a chat?”

“No. I came to help you escape.”

Kim Seokhee raised one eyebrow at my words.

“What?”

“I'll teleport you somewhere far away. You can't get out because there might be Special Forces members at the apartment entrance, right? I'll send you as far away as possible. But I can't teleport with you if your force field is active, so turn off your force-field exoskeleton for a moment.”

I expected him to immediately accept this generous offer, but he didn't.

Kim Seokhee didn't pull the trigger, but he didn't move the barrel away from me either.

“Shut up. If you don't want to fight, get lost.”

“You don't believe me? Do you think I'm trying to pull something?”

“Yeah. I don't believe you, and even if I did, I wouldn't take your help.”

“Why? You don't want help from someone who beat the shit out of you because it hurts your pride?”

Kim Seokhee's expression twisted, but he didn't deny it. It seemed I was right.

I kept pressing him.

“You idiot. Why do you keep trying to protect that kind of pride? Didn't I tell you it was all useless?”

“Fuck off.”

“Hey, asshole!”

“If you're not going to protect your pride, then why the hell are you even alive?”