WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈

Chapter 71: Veteran Sergeant Kim Yo-han - [8]

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We secured quite a few promises through this protest.

First, we got a promise that the head of the Hunter Association would be replaced. The new head would not be another former civil servant like the last one, and would be chosen from among the candidates put forward by us awakened Hunters.

We also received assurances about the Awakened-Person Anti-Discrimination Act I had proposed. It was not quite at the level of, "We'll definitely pass it," but it was far stronger than, "We'll think about it." More specifically, they said they would push for it in the upcoming session, or something like that.

There was a high chance that promise would be kept. Kang Jun-chi had seen the faces of the lawmakers who made it.

Finally, things also went the way we wanted with the Special Forces.

Special Forces Commander Han Heeseok would not just be dismissed. He would be punished. The important people who came out there spoke as though he might face trial and even end up in prison, not merely disciplinary action.

The Special Forces members involved in this incident would all be discharged regardless of how much mandatory service they had left. The law allowing the Special Forces to mobilize awakened Hunters would be abolished, and until it was abolished, the Special Forces would not mobilize awakened Hunters either.

"They agreed to all of that far too easily. The Special Forces are an important government organization meant to deal with awakened people, yet they promised to cut them down and strip their power right away. Even I found that strange."

Park Mihyeong snorted over the phone.

"Government agency or not, the people at the top probably see them as no different from any other awakened person."

"Why?"

"If powerful awakened Hunters are a threat that might stage a coup at any time, then the Special Forces, who try to play disciplinarian in Seoul, are just as much of a threat, aren't they?

"There's a reason the government gave the Special Forces such a small budget. They deliberately kept it low because if they poured money into it, they might recruit plenty of awakened people like you, Kim Geuk. Nothing good would come of them growing too powerful."

Because of that lack of funding, the Special Forces had barely filled half their recruitment quota. The people they recruited were not especially famous or powerful awakened people either.

It seemed Han Heeseok had been dissatisfied with that situation.

According to Park Mihyeong, Han Heeseok wanted the Special Forces to expand. He wanted them to operate not just in Seoul, but throughout the entire metropolitan area.

That was why the Special Forces had carried out an operation in Bucheon to catch Kim Seokhee. Park Mihyeong claimed their rush to Incheon, supposedly to catch a Spatial Teleportation ability user they had no chance of arresting, had been for the same purpose.

"If they failed to catch you, that wouldn't have been bad for Han Heeseok, would it? He could've scattered Special Forces members all over Incheon under the pretext of searching for you, since you would've been hiding somewhere there with a fugitive. If the organization's operating area expanded like that, he probably expected it would naturally lead to the organization expanding too...

"The president was Han Heeseok's college senior, and the president had personally put him in that position, so everyone probably let it slide. Still, they couldn't have liked watching his little schemes forever."

"So he got on their bad side, caused an incident, and got cut loose. Is that it?"

"That's roughly how I see it. Anyway, good work, Kim Geuk! I always knew I had a good eye for people. Someone from the Korean Awakened Solidarity actually pulled it off! I can hardly believe it..."

Park Mihyeong was an awakened person too. She seemed quite satisfied with what we had demanded this time, especially the Awakened-Person Anti-Discrimination Act I had proposed.

I enjoyed her praise for a while, then ended the call and answered another one that came in.

"Yes, Kang Junman?"

"Yes, this is Kang Junman! Thank you so much, Kim Geuk!"

Kang Junman, Huntweb's Justice1994 and a former police officer, had also benefited from this.

More precisely, Kang Junman had become a free man. He had left the Special Forces despite having six years of mandatory service remaining.

A large number of Special Forces members who had participated in the operation were fired, and Kang Junman had been discharged along with them.

At the time, Kang Junman had only been kept on as reserve personnel and had not actively participated in the operation, so he was not a target for punishment. Still, this man called me and asked me to name him as someone who should be fired too.

I did, so he was discharged from the Special Forces. In his words, he had been "liberated."

"You don't need to thank me. So are you going to work as a Hunter now?"

"I should, shouldn't I? If possible, I'd like to work in Gyeongsang Province! There are plenty of Monsters there, and plenty I need to deal with. I went all the way to Seoul and spent the whole day swinging a sword instead of hunting Monsters, and I ended up feeling guilty. Now I need to earn money properly while taking care of them..."

I was satisfied to hear that another one of my kind had benefited.

Smiling, I casually asked, "By the way, there's still a rock ability user in the Special Forces, right?"

"Pardon? Who?"

"The Special Forces rock ability user. I heard Han Heeseok had that person hide a listening device inside a marble wall. It's a shame that person wasn't fired this time."

Then Kang Junman said, "I don't know who told you that, but there isn't a rock ability user in the Special Forces."

"Uh... really?"

"Probably? The Special Forces didn't have that many people, so I wouldn't have forgotten someone that unusual. Maybe someone left before I joined?"

After ending the call, I sighed. Leaning back against the taxi seat, I thought for a while.

Overall, I was satisfied with how things had gone, but there was one thing I regretted.

That day, we had been on the bus and could have done far more, yet we did not.

We could have taken the lawmakers who came out there hostage and made grander demands. We could have even attempted to overthrow the government. But we did not.

Because Kang Jun-chi did not want that.

Even without Kang Jun-chi, we had been powerful enough at the time. The rest of us had more than enough strength to stage a show of force, yet we had ultimately been forced to settle for those modest demands.

In the end, the existing order itself had not changed. Every awakened person gathered there had to watch Kang Jun-chi's reaction.

As that showed, Kang Jun-chi was not only the king of us awakened people, but also the guardian of the existing system.

Even if an awakened person wanted to overthrow the government, seeing Kang Jun-chi stay quiet would make them think, That guy's staying still, so who the hell am I to... and give up on the idea.

Maybe that was why I, the terrorist in my hallucination, had targeted Kang Jun-chi. No matter how much Kang Jun-chi hated Korea, I might have acted after deciding that his existence was what kept this entire order in place...

Well, it couldn't be helped. There was a limit to borrowing a tiger's authority. I had acted with Kang Jun-chi backing me, so there was no way I could accomplish something he did not want.

If I really wanted to change something properly, I would have to do it myself.

So once I kept hunting and reached the S-rank level, once I became an awakened person on equal footing with Kang Jun-chi, then I would finally be able to change something for real. This incident reminded me that changing anything before then would be difficult.

The taxi carrying me stopped.

After getting out, I entered a prison.

It was the prison where my younger sister was locked up.

I had not come to see her. Today, I wanted to meet the prison warden.

The warden agreed and let me into his office.

"It's an honor to meet you like this, Kim Geuk! What did you wish to see me about...?"

I did not know how he usually treated prisoners, but he greeted me with a broad smile.

I knew why he was acting so kindly. He must have seen me on TV or in the news.

Through Huntweb, I knew that some foreign media outlets had covered me more closely than Kang Jun-chi as one of the key figures behind this incident.

The non-awakened scum sitting in front of me was probably very aware of that fact too.

Without smiling, I said, "You have someone named Kim Seon here, right? She used to be fat, but now she's a scrawny little bitch."

"Ah, you mean your younger sister, Kim Geuk? Of course I know her!"

Naturally, he must have checked before agreeing to meet me.

How could he not? Foreign media had described me as one of the dangerous figures behind this incident.

"I'd like you to take special care of her. I also brought this as a small token of my appreciation..."

The warden opened the bag I held out just slightly, and his eyes widened. He quickly closed it and gave me a servile smile.

"You really didn't need to do this, but..."

Seeing him promise that I had nothing to worry about and that he would grant her every convenience made some of my guilt fade. If I was dealing with a civil servant who took bribes, it felt like I could be as cruel as I wanted.

I said, "By the way, Warden? I looked into you before coming here, and I hear you're raising two sons."

The warden's smile turned awkward, perhaps because the question came out of nowhere.

"Yes..."

"Kim Seon keeps whining lately. She says prison life is fucking awful, that it's horrible, and begs me to get her out soon... Every time that bitch whines again, one of your sons disappears."

"What?"

"You know the police don't investigate missing-person cases these days. Someone disappears, and maybe they're found decades later in an underground cavity eight hundred meters below the ground. Something like that will probably happen to your sons too."

The warden's smile vanished. He kept his mouth shut while I continued.

"You understand, right? Don't even think about censoring that bitch's letters. I'll keep coming to visit, and if a visit gets denied, I'll use Spatial Teleportation to enter her cell if I have to and find out what's going on."

The warden froze as I stood up.

Walking out of the prison left me feeling humiliated.

Damn it. Nausea welled up on its own. I had to ask a piece of non-awakened scum for a favor? I had even needed to spend precious money...

It was truly awful. Normally, I would never have considered making that kind of request. This incident had changed my thinking a little.

After seeing how they treated awakened fugitives, I had become even more worried about my younger sister being locked up in prison. Even if it meant bowing my head to non-awakened scum like that, I decided to pay more attention to her.

And if the important people kept their promise, if the law I proposed passed, ice ability users who had been unfairly imprisoned would get another chance at trial. Ice ability users who had been convicted without physical evidence would be released, and my younger sister would become a free woman too.

Until that day came, all I could hope was that her life in prison would be more comfortable than it was now.

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Footnotes:

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