WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ How an A-Rank Hunter Lives ◈
Chapter 83: Australia's Calamity, Phoenix - [4]
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Q. It was an incident of unprecedented scale, yet the overall damage was surprisingly limited. Hunter Kim Geuk's support is considered the foremost reason the damage was so slight.
A considerable number of Monsters were dealt with by Hunter Kim Geuk, and countless citizens who might have died that day survived because of him. Is there a secret to this remarkable performance?
“I trained at Bupyeong Hunting Academy, five minutes from Bupyeong Station. Shouldn't this much be expected?”
Q. Thank you for stepping forward despite it not being your assigned area. It could not have been an easy decision. Was there a reason you acted without hesitation?
“I stepped in because I could. Why would I sit around doing nothing? It's not like I'm a Special Forces member.”
Q. We understand you may hold negative feelings toward the Special Forces because of what happened that day. Hearing you speak, it seems those feelings remain.
“If anything, my disgust has only grown. Isn't it ridiculous that they still didn't step in during a situation like this? I used to think Special Forces members were paid too little despite being awakened people, but after this, it seems like even what they get now is far too much. What a bunch of freeloaders.”
Q. Well, Hunter Kim Geuk worked hard enough that day to say something like that.
There are a surprising number of people who testified that Hunter Kim Geuk rescued them that day.
Whether they were citizens rescued that day or soldiers who stepped in to suppress the incident, nearly everyone at the scene testified that they received Hunter Kim Geuk's help. Yet don't you normally say there is no need to save Seoul people?
“Sadly, I had to consider the possibility that there were Incheon people among that vile Seoul scum.”
Q. After the Flame Elemental, you have now succeeded in killing the Phoenix. You continue to set astonishing records. This Phoenix was especially notorious, so it has drawn attention overseas as well. How do you feel about it? (······)
* * *
“Wow... Look at that!”
After airing my interview for quite a while, the TV news showed a scene that looked impressive even to me.
A desperate battle against a steaming firebird in the middle of a blizzard...
The footage ended with my final blow sweeping away both the Monster and the entire floor.
The shock wave must have destroyed the building's CCTV, because there was no footage after that. That was actually fortunate. It meant they hadn't broadcast the part where I was staggering around in exhaustion.
Ah, they did show me escaping the building, since an external CCTV camera must have caught it.
It was a truly fantastical sight. As they watched footage of an ice kite carrying me through the air, my team members each shared their thoughts.
“That's Elsa?”
“Isn't it Aokiji? I think I saw that technique in a comic book...”
Representing the entire hunter team, I asked my ring girl.
“Where did that new technique come from?”
Baek Dambi seemed unwilling to show how delighted she was that everyone was paying attention to her.
She forced down the corners of her mouth that kept trying to rise, something only I, with the superhuman eyesight of a Body Enhancement user, could probably see. Then, with a calm expression and voice, she explained.
“Elementals... can temporarily absorb the memories of enemies they defeat, right?”
“Right, so?”
“After the Phoenix was defeated, that bird's memories were absorbed into me too. I looked through them right away to see if there was anything useful, but there wasn't really anything...”
“And?”
“But the memories of how the Phoenix normally flew and moved stayed very clear in my head. Then I saw that Kim Geuk's situation looked urgent... I was about to use my ability to lower the temperature there as quickly as possible, but the memory of the Phoenix flapping its wings was filling my head, so without realizing it...”
“Ah, so you copied the Phoenix's movements from the memories you absorbed and shaped ice into it, and it actually flew? That's how you helped me?”
“Yes...”
This woman wasn't dragging out her words because she lacked energy. It was obviously the opposite. She was pretending to be listless so no one would notice how excited she was.
“So, can you still do that now?”
Baek Dambi nodded, then shifted her eyes beneath her sunglasses. Only after confirming that everyone on the team was watching her did she raise her index finger.
Moisture from the air gathered at its tip, forming the shape of a small kite.
“Wow!”
The transparent kite flapped its wings and floated into the air, drawing exclamations from everyone there. The corners of Baek Dambi's mouth began twitching so much that I wondered if even ordinary people could see it now.
That cute bitch, I thought, though I was impressed too.
They said memories absorbed by an elemental faded easily, so you had to make an effort if you didn't want to forget them. Seeing her reproduce it this easily, she must have kept going over the memories from that day and worked hard at it in all sorts of ways.
Was this how she normally worked to develop her ability? I thought this woman spent all her time at home posting crap on Huntweb, but this was admirable.
The TV continued to talk about me.
「Something bright red shot past, and everything there caught fire! Things around me caught fire too, and the flames spread everywhere. I was flailing around in the fire, and then that Kim Geuk guy suddenly appeared...」
“It's practically a Kim Geuk special.”
Seong Munyeong muttered that, but the news wasn't only about me.
There was something else the news wanted to emphasize, namely how outstanding Seoul's Gate response capability was.
The news wanted to explain at length how Seoul had overcome this unprecedented crisis with so little damage, and how amazing that was compared to overseas cases.
Ah, they even made some patriotic comment about how this incident was drawing overseas attention. Damn it.
Those remarks annoyed me, but I couldn't ignore the parts where they praised me either, so I kept watching the news closely.
「Each district in Seoul has its own awakened Hunter, contracted at great expense. Yet...」
The TV, which had been passionately praising the response to the incident, suddenly began running a critical report.
「The awakened Hunter responsible for the incident area reportedly arrived more than seven minutes later than usual, shocking the public. (······)
He explained that he was delayed after spending time responding to a call from the Association. Experts warn that if awakened Hunters responsible for protecting their assigned areas frequently leave their posts like this, incidents like this one...」
They seemed to be criticizing the fact that Seok Jangsil had been slightly late because he attended an Association meeting. It was absurd.
“What is this? Just now they were praising the response as unprecedented and saying the damage was at a record low. Why are they suddenly tearing it down?”
“Who knows? Maybe different people were in charge of the news reports?”
For a while, I couldn't understand what they were thinking. They praised it, then criticized it. What were they trying to say?
Even after I parted ways with my hunter team and went home, the question remained unanswered.
I called Kim Hyeongman and asked what he thought. He scoffed before giving his opinion.
「Weren't they so eager to praise the perfect response because they were worried about Seoul real estate prices? They need to advertise Seoul as a place that won't be shaken even when a crisis like this hits, so property prices stay up...」
“But then why suddenly criticize the responsible A-rank Hunter for being late and say they're worried about future responses?”
「The government probably just hates awakened people gathering together. It's funny how they're trying to find fault with us somehow and put us in our place.」
What he said was pretty similar to my own interpretation.
I also felt that the government didn't want to see us awakened people organized into a single group through the Association, and that they had made the media sound the trumpet to interfere with that. Apparently, it was obvious to anyone looking at it.
When I asked how we should respond to this media campaign, Kim Hyeongman answered in a completely calm voice.
「What's there to worry about? It's not like we're politicians who need votes. We just have to do our jobs properly.」
“Doesn't it still piss you off?”
「Of course it pisses me off! They're being so blatant about it... Anyway, there's no end to the things the government does that I dislike. This time, you know they're setting up a Hunter Academy in Seoul, right? Instead of spending money on that, they should be pouring money into training active Hunters...」
I raised one eyebrow as I listened.
“A Hunter Academy?”
「Yes, a Hunter Academy. They say they're recruiting people now and opening it at the beginning of next year. Is this your first time hearing about it?」
“Yes, it is. Is it like a government-run Hunter academy? Teaching people how to shoot guns and about Monsters...”
「No, it seems different from a Hunter academy.」
“How?”
「A Hunter academy takes adults and trains them so they can immediately work as Hunters, right? But the Hunter Academy will apparently gather children from eight to seventeen and educate them.」
That was absurd too. They were going to gather minors and train them to become Hunters?
“They provide such poor training for active Hunters, yet they want to gather kids who'll become Hunters and educate them in advance?”
「Exactly! I've always been very displeased with how inadequate Hunter education is. I looked into whether there was a way to extend residential training periods and make the curriculum more thorough, but the budget and support funds are unbelievably low, so there's nothing we can do. With that budget, no matter how hard we try, the training can only remain as inadequate as reservist training.
And now they want to build a school for children. What the hell are they thinking? Are they really gathering kids who want to become Hunters? Looking at the admissions guidelines, it seems like they're mainly gathering awakened children. I wonder if they have some other ulterior motive...」
Even after the call ended, I kept thinking over what I had just heard.
A Hunter Academy. One that mainly recruited awakened children?
What did the government intend to do by gathering young awakened people? It wasn't something I could look on kindly.
It was bound to be something worthless, and there was a chance it would go beyond worthless and become something infuriating.
Everything I had experienced the government doing so far had been like that.
* * *
Han Hee sat on the sofa beside his father and watched TV.
「I was flailing around in the fire, and then that Kim Geuk guy suddenly appeared...」
The news mentioned the name Kim Geuk.
His father, Han Heeseok, muttered.
“We can't just let that bastard Kim Geuk keep carrying on like this...!”
Han Hee knew that when his father muttered to himself like this, he could not simply ignore it as his father talking to himself. If he did, his father would get angry at being ignored and say, “Am I talking to myself?”
It was certain. His father did that all the time, both at home and at work.
To show that he always listened to every word his father said, Han Hee deliberately responded as if he were interested in the subject.
“What do you mean...?”
“Look, we let that bastard keep being a Hunter, and now there's no end to it... Leveling up? In game terms, something like that. They say ordinary awakened people stop growing after killing a certain number of Monsters, but who knows when that bastard Kim Geuk will stop growing. We should have stopped him from being a Hunter long ago...”
“How...?”
“When we clashed that day, we should have put him under disciplinary restriction or suspended his Hunter activities! Instead, we let him keep killing Monsters, and now look at this. He has even awakened a force-field exoskeleton. If that bastard uses Spatial Teleportation to carry out a terrorist attack, I can't even begin to imagine how we'd stop him. Who's going to take responsibility for that?”
His father was saying that an awakened person too powerful to control was naturally a threat to the country. It was his usual belief, so there was no reason to be surprised.
Still, since his father had gone on such a passionate rant, Han Hee had to offer his own opinion as proof that he had listened.
“Still, Kim Geuk seems very exemplary. I looked into him myself, and they say there's no Hunter in Korea or overseas who works as hard as he does whenever an incident happens, without sparing himself. Incheon has already benefited greatly from him, and Seoul too this time...”
“It is only natural for those awakened bastards to work hard when the country is in trouble! More importantly, they need to obey the country's orders! Look at China. Who was it… Huo Shen?”
“The Chinese Fire Elemental ability user? The S-rank?”
“Yes, Huo Shen is much stronger than Kim Geuk, but he obeys the Communist Party well, doesn't he? Well, maybe it's natural since he's a model citizen who awakened while working as a firefighter. His mindset is different from that bastard Kim Geuk, who used to brawl in some UFC fighting ring...”
He never imagined he would have to listen to praise for the Communist Party and the awakened people under it.
His expression must have slipped while he was inwardly dumbfounded. His father looked at his face and asked.
“Why's your expression like that while I'm talking? You don't like what I said?”
“What? No...”
“Come to think of it, did you say you helped that bastard Kim Geuk this time?”
“What? Yes...”
It had been a real ordeal. The acceleration ability overworked the nervous system, so after running all over the place and becoming completely exhausted, Han Hee had to collapse the moment the situation ended.
His father's assessment of that effort was this.
His father stared at him for a moment, then his expression suddenly softened.
“Well done.”
Han Hee felt relieved and a little happy for a moment. That man praised his son for working hard to save people.
That wasn't it. His father continued.
“That bastard Kim Geuk's family are all dead or in prison, and he has no especially close friends either, so it's been very difficult to attach someone to watch him... You can take that role.”
“What?”
“What do you mean, what, you idiot? Take this chance to get close to that bastard Kim Geuk. Find out what he usually thinks about, what complaints he has, what plans he has. Understand?”
Han Hee sat there blankly in shock as his father continued.
“So keep in touch with him from now on... Got it?”
Han Hee's answer was already decided. Who could say no in front of that man?
“Yes...”
“You need to become friends with him, but don't get too attached! You might have to cut him off someday. Since he has Spatial Teleportation, there'd be no way to catch him once he became wary. If we're going to get rid of him, we have to assume there'll be no second chance and eliminate him on the first attempt...”
After that, Han Hee had to listen to his father's beliefs about managing awakened people, in other words, how he viewed and thought about awakened people back when he was the Special Forces commander.
Judging by how his father talked about all those beliefs at home even after being removed from the position, he seemed to believe that he would one day return as Special Forces commander. He appeared to be preparing his son mentally for that day.
He was stuck there for a good while before finally returning to his room.
Han Hee let out a long sigh and looked at his smartphone. He had received a KakaoTalk message.
It was from a senior in the Special Forces. The moment Han Hee saw the first sentence, he thought:
I'm screwed.
[Kim Chang-sik]
What is this photo? How are you going to explain it?
The attached picture showed Han Hee stepping on a Deathclaw's corpse. It seemed that a citizen hiding in the shelter had secretly taken it at the time. It had spread online, and apparently the Special Forces members had found out about it too.
It was obvious what humiliation awaited him when he went to work. Han Hee stared blankly for a moment.
He didn't want to go to work.
Home was better than work, but he didn't want to be home either.
He felt imprisoned wherever he went.
Feeling terrible, Han Hee recalled that day almost dreamily.
The day a Gate opened in Seoul, and he ran all over the place.
That day, Han Hee swung his sword against Monsters to protect citizens.
Unlike his Special Forces seniors and his father, Hunter Kim Geuk had told him that he had done well.
Kim Geuk said Han Hee's performance and skill were impressive. He had treated Han Hee as though he were his equal, despite Kim Geuk receiving so much recognition and praise.
Before that, what had Kim Geuk said at the hotel restaurant? He had said that Han Hee, with abilities like his, was more valuable than anyone else.
Perhaps because everyone around him was like this, he didn't often have opportunities to be recognized like that.
The words he heard that day seemed to sink into his heart all over again.
He missed that day.
That day when Monsters ran wild, and he too moved desperately...
* * *
Footnotes:
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