WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Returned as a God ◈

Chapter 67: The Boy Dreams (1)

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"Notice from HN. Hunter Song Eunyoung, please report to the front of Lotte World Adventure in Jamsil, Songpa-gu, Seoul by 9:00 AM on Wednesday the 23rd. Please do not be late."

"Ugh."

Fresh out of the shower, Eunyoung sat on the couch and checked the message on her phone.

This was about a week before Hangyeol went into the dungeon.

The guild had warned her that if she didn't clear her backlog of reports, she wouldn't be allowed into any dungeons for a while, so she'd had no choice but to hole up in the cafeteria and work.

"What am I even doing with my life on a nice day like this!"

A hotelier's job wasn't just about service.

Eunyoung hadn't started out in F&B.

Her first department had been the front desk.

HR hadn't understood it at all when Eunyoung, their top pick for promotion, transferred departments.

She had zero interest in climbing the ladder, and desk work just never suited her by nature, so she'd switched departments despite everyone around her trying to talk her out of it.

Eunyoung could run office software with her eyes closed at this point.

All thanks to a supervisor who used to look down on her back when she was new at the front desk, mocking her for not even knowing the basics.

Furious, Eunyoung had gritted her teeth and mastered every program the company used, Opera included, cover to cover.

Like most things in office life, the terrible supervisor had never actually cared whether she was competent. The guy just hadn't liked her.

Years of grinding through office work had left Eunyoung with a genuinely sharp memory.

But being good at something and liking it were two entirely different matters.

Who would've imagined that finally becoming a hunter would mean sitting in a cafe typing on a laptop?

"You could've just done it earlier, you know."

"Does it look like I'm not doing it right n... "

Eunyoung, typing away at her report on her laptop, looked up and glanced sideways.

Wow, handsome... wait, Park Siyu?

Startled, Eunyoung blinked.

A few guild members in the cafeteria kept sneaking glances at Park Siyu, but none of them dared actually speak to him.

Coffee in hand, Siyu glanced at the empty seat across from Eunyoung.

"Anyone with you?"

"No."

Siyu set his coffee down and sat across from her.

Saying she was alone wasn't the same as inviting him to sit.

While Eunyoung hesitated over what to say, Siyu pointed at a sheet of paper taped to the wall.

Printed on laminated A4 paper, in bold brush-style font, it read:

"PLEASE!! Do not work on reports alone at a table for four!! We're begging you!"

"Ah. Hahahaha."

Eunyoung sipped her already-empty coffee cup, laughing awkwardly.

Park Siyu.

If you asked anyone to name Korea's most famous hunter, his name always came up without fail.

His public image and name recognition were both about as good as it got.

His title as guild master, his S-Rank status, a career that outpaced his age, and his good looks all played their part.

Since Hangyeol got along well with Park Siyu, and Choi Suhyun (temp member or not) counted him as a friend, it wasn't like Eunyoung had zero connection to him.

She'd crossed paths with him a few times passing through the guild, but this was the first time they'd actually sat down and talked face to face.

Siyu pointed at the coffee cup still against Eunyoung's lips.

He'd clearly noticed it was empty a while ago.

"If you're done, let me buy you another."

Before she could even say she was fine, Siyu had already raised his hand.

A secretary appeared out of nowhere.

Siyu looked at Eunyoung.

Given the mood, refusing felt almost impossible, so Eunyoung sighed.

"A hot peppermint tea, please."

If she drank another coffee in this state, her nonexistent gastritis was going to make a very real appearance.

Song Eunyoung didn't actually know the person Park Siyu was.

She'd seen him on the news and in the press countless times, but that was nowhere near the same as knowing him.

While the secretary went to place the order, Siyu spoke up.

"Seems like you've been running around the dungeons pretty hard."

"Ah, that's, well... I started late."

Eunyoung drank the tea the secretary brought over.

She was well aware that starting later than everyone else meant she needed to work at least twice as hard, if not more.

"Even so, not submitting a single report on time seems a little much."

"Ugh, hahahaha. I'm working on it right now, see?"

"Sounds like a college student's excuse for late homework."

"What do you even know about college and homework!"

"I happen to be in a master's program, believe it or not."

"What? Seriously? What's your major?"

"Physics."

Eunyoung frowned.

A guild representative majoring in physics, of all things?

"You look exactly like someone who'd be in business or economics."

"And what exactly does a business major face look like? Not that it matters, I can't even graduate because I haven't finished my thesis. Anyway, that's not the point. Either you talk casually or you don't, pick one."

"Then I'll go casual."

His tone was a bit stiff, but from watching how he talked to Hangyeol on the phone, he didn't seem like someone who stood on ceremony much.

Eunyoung preferred that too, over the alternative of stiff formality.

If he was the same age as Choi Suhyun, the age gap between them wasn't even that big.

Eunyoung closed her laptop halfway and glanced at Siyu.

"So, um..."

"I haven't even said anything yet, you know."

"Talking casually and your reports are two completely separate issues. I have no particular reason to cut you any slack."

Siyu's blunt reply made Eunyoung pout.

She was about to open her laptop back up when she suddenly shoved it into her bag instead.

"Does that mean if there was a reason, you might cut me some slack?"

Instead of answering, Siyu pulled out his phone.

A moment later, Eunyoung's phone buzzed.

Siyu stared at her phone, studded with rhinestones.

Eunyoung looked back and forth between her phone and Siyu.

"What's this?"

"A program HN's pushing forward."

Hunter trainees were required to clear a D-Rank dungeon under the Association's supervision.

There'd always been plenty of debate around that last requirement.

Even at D-Rank, a dungeon was still a dungeon, and fatal accidents happened, rarely but they happened.

Dungeons being what they were didn't change the fact that a high accident rate meant losses for the Association too.

Talk of needing better safety measures had been circulating internally for a while.

"The final straw was the fake dungeon incident from last time."

Out of the five trainees, Kang Hangyeol had been the only one who made it back alive.

Just because it never hit the press and got quietly buried didn't mean it stopped being a problem.

The gist of the program was simple.

Whenever a trainee entered a D-Rank dungeon, an active hunter would go in alongside them to evaluate their performance.

Evaluation in name only, really. Half of it was just monitoring and accident prevention.

"There's a lot to sort out, cooperation requests to guilds, setting up evaluation criteria, that kind of thing. But we've decided to run it first with the high-risk group."

"So you're saying you want me to play babysitter?"

"I'll give you a contact number. From now on, C-Rank dungeons and below just need a simple report sent to that person. And I'll lift the dungeon restriction currently on your file. Not a bad deal, if I say so mys..."

"I'll, I'll do it!!"

Eunyoung would do just about anything if it meant not having to write reports.

Watching her light up with excitement, Siyu had to calm her down and tell her to relax.

Eunyoung stepped out of her closet, getting ready to head out.

Lotte World, Jamsil, Seoul.

Even this early in the morning, a long line had already formed.

Showing her HN ID let Eunyoung slip into the amusement park before it opened.

She couldn't even remember the last time she'd been to an amusement park, and the place before opening felt strange somehow.

Eunyoung arrived near the Adventure entrance.

Choi Suhyun spotted her and waved.

"You made it?"

"Wha, what? Why are you here?"

Eunyoung strode straight toward Suhyun.

"A hunter smoking cigarettes, of all things."

Suhyun rolled a lollipop around in his mouth and clicked his tongue.

"Don't act tough. You round-eyebrow freak!"

"Eyebrows like that don't exist in nature! It's candy, candy!"

"Feh, it all looks the same with a mosaic over it anyway."

"What... never mind."

Suhyun chewed up the candy and tossed the stick into a nearby trash can.

"What are you even doing here?"

"I'm technically part of the Hunter Education Division, you know?"

"Oh, is that so? You've got way more than one or two trainees to keep track of, and you're telling me it's just coincidence you showed up here specifically? Or did you use some shadow clone jutsu and leave a duplicate somewhere else?"

"Argh! You're way too nosy about this! Isn't it obvious just by looking?"

At Eunyoung's relentless prying, Suhyun pulled out a second lollipop from his pocket and popped it in his mouth.

"Slacking off."

"Ugh, this is exactly why field workers keep dying out there, thanks to salary-leeches like you. Go rot in a dungeon somewhere."

"Oh please, that's nothing. So when's your funeral again?"

Eunyoung never let a single line go unanswered, and Suhyun just shook his head at her.

Their brief moment of acting like they wanted to strangle each other passed just as fast as it came, and the two of them sat down on a nearby bench, chatting away like nothing had happened.

"Heheh, I heard you told Park Siyu straight to his face he looked like he was born to run a business."

"I didn't say he was born to run a business. I said business or econ would suit him. Anyway, how do you even know about that?"

"That guy's weirdly petty about it, pfft... hahahaha. He asked me dead serious if he should switch majors now. I told him to shut up and finish his thesis. The guy's basically done with his master's, when's he even supposed to switch majors at this point?"

Suhyun wiped a tear from the corner of his eye.

She'd known the two of them were close, but hearing it laid out like this really drove home just how different their friendship was.

Their personalities were total opposites, watching them together made it almost strange how they'd ever gotten close in the first place.

Once he stopped laughing, Suhyun held his hand out toward Eunyoung.

"Phone. Hand it over."

Suhyun tapped his phone against hers and fiddled with something.

When Eunyoung got her phone back, she found a bunch of files had been added to it.

"Can't send this over email, security reasons. It disappears ten minutes after you open it, so if your brain isn't made of rock, that shouldn't be too hard to remember."

"Who do you think I am, an idiot?"

Eunyoung opened the file.

After a brief contract prohibiting external leaks and a fingerprint scan on her phone, the file appeared along with a countdown of remaining time.

"Basic personal info on the hunters going in today. After the dungeon wraps, you'll need to submit an evaluation report within a week. Well, it's just a trial run for now, so the report won't actually affect anything yet."

"Another report? Ugh."

Eunyoung dropped her head onto the desk.

She'd only agreed to this to avoid writing reports, and now she still had to write one at the end.

"Feels like I got tricked somehow."

"Weren't you sitting on over ten unfinished dungeon reports, banned from entering dungeons for the time being? And in exchange for getting all that lifted, all you have to do is write one decent report, and you're still complaining this much? Someone's gotten spoiled."

"I'm built for fighting in dungeons, not for typing away on a keyboard!"

"Anyone listening would think you'd been a hunter for ten years."

"Yeah, yeah. What would a fancy elite like you even understand? The only one who gets me is our cute little Hangyeol."

"How old are you again?"

"Shut up. Halfway to sixty."

"You owe every thirty-something on the planet an apology! Thirty's basically still your prime!"

Ignoring Suhyun, Eunyoung scrolled through the hunter profiles on her phone.

It barely felt real that just a few months ago she'd been unaffiliated and treated like she didn't exist, and now here she was supervising other trainee hunters.

"Huh? This one..."

"Ah, him? Unaffiliated."

"So is that why this team got picked for the program, because of him?"

Suhyun nodded, confirming it.

Eunyoung looked down at her phone.

Jung Hyeonseong. Unaffiliated.

Footnotes:

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