WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B.

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 4: 004

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Back in my adolescent years.

I was a middle school student then, completely absorbed in genre fiction.

Fantasy and martial arts novels. Stories with knights and wizards, martial artists and martial arts techniques.

Back then, I wondered.

‘Could I be seeing mana?’

Well, I was going through puberty.

It was that age when self-awareness overflowed, when you searched for something that made you special.

Since I could see Blue Motes that no one else could see, it was only natural for me to think that way.

So I tried all sorts of things.

Climbing the hill behind my house to meditate, claiming I was resonating with mana.

Copying martial arts moves from novels, claiming I was learning martial arts.

Trying to touch the Blue Motes.

Naturally, I couldn't interfere with the Blue Motes in any way.

I couldn't touch them or move them.

I couldn't absorb them into my body, either.

All I could do was look at them.

But as I grew older, I came to accept reality.

‘Magic? Martial arts? There's no way that stuff exists. It's all fiction.’

‘The Blue Motes are probably some kind of hallucination that only I can see.’

‘If I don't want people to think I'm crazy, I should keep quiet about the Blue Motes.’

The childish longing that had driven me to seek magic and martial arts gradually faded.

I lived in reality.

I studied like everyone else, made friends, went to college...

Then, at some point, I began ignoring the Blue Motes that only I could see.

It was an unremarkable memory from my teenage years.

* * *

"...Ah."

Blink.

I opened my eyes.

The familiar sight of my room came into view.

"Afternoon... No. Is it evening?"

How long had I slept? The setting sun poured through the small window of our semi-basement apartment.

I crawled out of my creaky bed and headed into the living room.

My older sister was there.

"You're awake? Are you feeling all right?"

"Yeah... Sis, can I have some water?"

"Here."

Gulp.

I took the cold water she offered and drank it.

My foggy mind cleared right up.

My older sister looked at me with concern.

"Are you hurt anywhere? Are you mentally shaken up?"

"I'm fine. Not a hair on my head was harmed. That tutorial thing wasn't a big deal."

"But still..."

"Don't worry about me. You should be the one getting some rest, sis."

As I set down the glass, I looked her over.

Her worried expression was full of exhaustion.

Dark circles hung beneath her eyes, and her hair was greasy, as though she hadn't even had time to wash it.

For the past few days, she'd been so busy that she only came home to sleep for a little while before leaving again.

When she heard I'd been through the tutorial, she must have forced herself to make time and rushed over.

"You might feel all right now, but you need to be careful. Mental trauma isn't something you can ignore... Let's go to a counseling center and talk to someone."

"I told you, I'm really fine. What's with the counseling? You're worrying too much."

"The period right after a tutorial is when you need to be most careful. Do you know how many Hunters suffer because of trauma they got during this time?"

"Do I look like the kind of pathetic guy who cries after killing a few monsters?"

I had teared up a little during the tutorial, but that wasn't crying.

I was yawning.

Anyway, let's go with that.

"If you're okay, that's a relief... So, what difficulty was it? Easy, right?"

"No."

"...Don't tell me. Normal-rank?! Oh my god!"

My older sister's eyes went wide.

Heh. She shouldn't be so shocked over something as minor as Normal-rank.

I squared my shoulders and declared proudly.

"Extreme."

"Quit joking around."

"If not Extreme, then Lunatic. Or Hell."

"Seeing you make such pointless jokes, I guess you really are all right."

"I'm serious."

If the difficulty was harder than Hard-rank, didn't everyone call it one of those three, Extreme, Lunatic, or Hell?

There had never been a difficulty like mine before, so I gave every possible answer. It was unfair that she didn't believe me.

Then again, I still couldn't believe it either.

How had a scrawny weakling like me survived a difficulty above Hard-rank?

"Anyway, I'm really glad. You came back in one piece... Let's grill some pork belly to celebrate your safe return. What do you think?"

"Oh! Pork belly! Meat really is perfect for a day like..."

Meat.

Suddenly, bits of Goblin flesh flying through the air came to mind.

My appetite vanished.

"...But my stomach doesn't feel great. Let's just have something simple. Make soybean paste soup or something."

"You really should get counseling..."

"I told you, I'm fine. Forget it and make me a hot bowl of soybean paste soup. I just want some warm broth."

* * *

After eating, I lay on my bed and rolled around.

I organized the things I needed to do next.

‘First, I need to quit my convenience store job right away. If I tell them I've become a Hunter, I can probably get back all the wages they withheld below minimum wage. Then I need to register as a Hunter. Exchange my Points for cash...’

There was a lot to do now that I was a Hunter.

First, I would quit that goddamn convenience store job immediately.

The owner paid me less than minimum wage, and though I hated it, I had no choice but to put up with it.

There were more than enough people willing to work, even for less than minimum wage.

These days, countless companies in South Korea had either collapsed or been sold overseas.

Workers were everywhere.

That was why society had become the kind of place where people worked simple part-time jobs for less than minimum wage.

Report it to the labor office?

Even if I did, nothing would be handled properly.

Society was in chaos, and there were gaping holes in the administration. Unless it was a serious matter, they wouldn't respond properly.

But who was I now?

A Hunter. One who had cleared Extreme Lunatic Hell difficulty.

Hunters were generally bad-tempered.

They were rough people who killed monsters every day and lived with the scent of blood.

On top of that, they possessed physical abilities beyond those of ordinary people.

Regular people hated getting on a Hunter's bad side.

So if I, now a Hunter, demanded the wages they'd withheld, the owner would probably turn pale and return it with extra on top.

‘I should register as a Hunter and exchange my Points tomorrow.’

Now that I was a Hunter, I needed to register.

I just had to visit a nearby Climber Branch, show them my status window, and hand over my Points. They would exchange them for cash.

Thinking of it, I opened my status window.

[Baek Jiho (Republic of Korea: Floor 1)]

[110 Points]

The status window was simple.

My name, affiliated country, current floor, and Points. That was all the information it contained.

Those 110 Points were everything I had.

Ten Points for killing a Goblin Warrior.

One hundred Points for killing a Goblin Shaman.

One hundred and ten Points total.

One Point exchanged for ten thousand won, so that came to 1.1 million won.

‘If I collect the wages they stole and exchange the Points... I should have around five million won.’

That should be enough to buy some starting equipment.

Simple leather armor, a sword, a shield, that sort of thing.

There were government-issued basic supplies, but they were garbage in every sense of the word.

I'd heard it was better to buy your own gear.

Still, equipment...

‘I use a staff, not a sword. Can I buy something like that too?’

Glance.

I turned my gaze toward the staff propped in one corner of my room.

An old, flimsy wooden staff.

If not for the fingernail-sized crystal attached to its tip, it would have looked like an ordinary stick.

I reached out and gripped it.

Bzzzz.

A strange sense of unity flowed through me.

My soul seemed connected to the staff, making it feel like part of my body.

Was this that unity of spirit and sword people talked about?

"Unity of spirit and sword is outdated. These days, it's unity of spirit and staff!"

I acted ridiculous for a moment.

Then I gripped the staff tightly and focused.

I tried to bring back the feeling from the tutorial.

Bzzzz...

Faintly, Blue Motes gathered around me.

Just like during the tutorial, I could control them however I wished.

There just weren't many of them.

‘Maybe because this is Seoul. There are barely any Blue Motes.’

The amount of Blue Motes floating through the air was incredibly scarce.

During the tutorial, using them had felt like drawing water from a vast ocean.

Now, it felt like squeezing every last drop from a dry desert.

Well, this was Seoul.

A huge city far from nature, where Blue Motes were extremely sparse.

It seemed difficult to use the magic from the tutorial here in the real world.

But...

‘Maybe because I became a Climber, I can feel something inside my body. If I draw it out, I think I can use magic even in reality...’

Some kind of energy rested within me.

I instinctively knew that if I drew on it, I would be able to use supernatural abilities in reality.

I also knew I could replenish it by visiting a place rich in Blue Motes or eating food infused with Blue Motes.

That was enough.

If I could use magic even where Blue Motes were scarce, it would be more than enough to protect myself in the real world.

Anyway.

It was amazing.

"I can really use magic..."

Memories of my adolescent years flashed through my mind.

All the stupid things I'd done while trying to use magic and martial arts.

They were the kind of memories that made me kick my blanket in embarrassment now.

Still, being able to use magic for real made me feel strangely moved.

"I can figure out my abilities little by little. First..."

I picked up my smartphone.

"I should make a post proving I'm a Hunter."

Without hesitation, I logged into Hunter Gallery.

Hunter Gallery.

It should have been renamed the Hunter-Bashing Gallery, but ironically, it was also the only place new climbers could get information.

Established Hunters had their own communities where they could get quality information.

Newbie Hunters who had just cleared their tutorials had nothing like that.

Because of that, it was normal to be active on Hunter Gallery after awakening, then get invited to an established Hunter community once you reached a certain floor.

I should follow that path, make a verification post, and keep participating.

So I logged into Hunter Gallery.

"Huh?"

I couldn't help but feel confused.

The atmosphere there was different from usual.

[Cleared the tutorial, review]

[Goblins were fucking easy. One-shot them lol]

[I'm a Hunter now, time to farm some cash]

[What, did a Hunter General Mobilization Order come down or something? Why are there so many newly selected Hunters?]

[Why there are so many new Hunters right now.txt]

[I cleared the tutorial.]

[I'm a new Hunter. Please be good to me.]...

There were so many verification posts from Hunters who had cleared their tutorials.

Just the ones visible on the page numbered in the dozens.

Even after changing pages, there were countless verification posts, so it looked like at least several hundred people had posted them.

‘Why are there so many new Hunters in such a short time?’

I found and read a post that seemed likely to explain the situation.

[Post Title: Why there are so many new Hunters right now.txt]

You know Korea's going under in three months, right?

Everyone's gotta immigrate.

But as you all know, no country takes low-floor farming Hunters.

Even Japan, the easiest option, only accepts Hunters who've reached at least Floor 11.

To go to the US or Europe, you need to be in the twenties.

Which means all those low-floor farming Hunters are gonna die in three months.

So those cash-farming bastards have a fire under their asses and are grinding their teeth while climbing the Tower lol

A ton of low-floor Hunters died in the process.

Thanks to that, Climber slots opened up, so there are a lot of new Hunters this time.

Those fuckers should've climbed higher earlier.

They're dying because they started forcing it after the fire reached their feet lol

Serves them right kekekekekekek

└Still, I'm jealous. If they can somehow just get past Floor 10, they can immigrate. We're all stuck here to die.

└└Getting past Floor 10 isn't easy. Out of fifty thousand Hunters in our country, only a few thousand are active above Floor 11.

└└Most of them are cash farmers messing around below Floor 5. You think they can reach the middle floors in a short time?

└They're Hunters, so they must've saved a lot of money. Can't they immigrate with money?

└└Nope. It doesn't matter how much money a Hunter has. If their climbing floor is low, immigration is an automatic rejection.

└└When a foreign Hunter immigrates, it takes up one of that country's Climber slots. It doesn't matter how much money they offer, no country will take a low-floor Hunter. Their own countries are already full of them.

└How do I get to Floor 11? I tried forcing my way through Floor 5 yesterday and almost died...

└└You fucking cash farmer, trying to flee Korea? Not a chance lol. Collapse with your homeland. Pay the price for chasing money and neglecting the Tower.

└└Don't run away. Let's die together~~

└└You liked acting superior when you made lots of money, didn't you? Now you're coming with us.

└Climb to Floor 11 within three months and immigrate to god-tier Japan VS spend the next three months partying with all the money you saved, then die. Which one do you choose?

└└Definitely the latter. If I'm going out, I'm spending every last cent first lol.

└└Society will obviously collapse in a month or two, and then you won't be able to spend money even if you have it. Climbing the Tower is the right choice.

└└Definitely the former. If I get to Floor 11, I can meet Japanese girls lol.

└└But isn't immigrating to Japan kind of questionable? They're not a Hunter powerhouse either, so they only have nine months' worth of Points left. Even if you immigrate, you'll only live another half year or so...

└└At least you get another half year. Have a drink.

└└Japan still has plenty left. If they liquidate everything like Korea did, they could probably secure enough Points to last one or two years.

"Hmm. Is that how it is?"

It looked like there were a lot of lower-ranked Hunters forcing themselves to climb the Tower.

Well, Korea would collapse in three months. They had to immigrate somehow before then.

Hunters who had only operated on the lower floors had challenged higher floors and died in large numbers.

As a result, many new Climbers, including me, had been selected.

For reference, the number of Climbers was fixed at 0.1 percent of each country's population. When an existing Hunter died, a new one was selected to replace them.

‘So that's why my older sister was so busy.’

The low-floor Hunter team my older sister managed had apparently been attempting intense climbs lately.

They had tried reckless raids day after day to immigrate, and that must have kept my older sister, their manager, busy as well.

I was scrolling through the posts when...

Bang bang.

"Ms. Jiye! Ms. Jiye! You're here, aren't you?"

A voice came from outside.

I'd never heard it before.

‘What? Who's looking for my sister?’

Jiye was my older sister's name.

I got up and headed into the living room.

"Sis. Who is it?"

"...He's the leader of the Hunter team I manage. I sent him a message saying I was leaving work because of an urgent family matter... I didn't think he'd come all the way here."

"Ah."

The voice outside apparently belonged to the leader of my older sister's Hunter team, her employer.

My older sister looked troubled.

"Go back to your room first. I'll send him away and come back."

"Okay."

I obediently returned to my room.

Then I cracked open the window.

‘I can see the front gate from here.’

My bedroom window was positioned so I could barely see the front gate of the villa.

Usually, I could only see people's ankles. Sometimes drunks even pissed there, so I often wished the window didn't exist.

But everything had its use.

Standing on tiptoe, I looked through the window and saw a middle-aged man with a fierce face.

‘Is that my older sister's Hunter team leader? He looks like a gangster.’

He had the rough impression of a bad-tempered Hunter.

His patchy beard wasn't properly trimmed, his eyes were vicious, and his face looked downright intimidating.

It made me respect my older sister all over again.

How had she managed to work with someone so scary as her employer?

As I watched, my older sister came outside.

"Team Leader Kwak Hyeokjun. It's difficult when you come all the way to my home like this."

"I'm the one in a difficult position. Ms. Jiye, do you have any awareness of your responsibilities as a manager? You leave work at such an important time to go home?"

"I told you. My younger brother was taken into a tutorial. How can I work when my family member almost died?"

"You think I never went through a tutorial? Enough. Go back to work right now. There's a lot of loot to process."

"I'm planning to stay by my brother's side for at least today."

"Haah... Fuck. Ms. Jiye, is this work a joke to you? Do you think this job is easy enough to take every little family matter into account? Do you want to get fired as a manager? You usually do well, so what's gotten into you? Huh?"

"..."

It looked like my older sister had left work without permission because she was worried about me.

I felt sorry.

Seeing her get cursed at by her employer because of me filled me with guilt.

That was when it happened.

"Hoo... Fine. Putting that aside, Ms. Jiye. Have you thought about my offer?"

The middle-aged man spoke in a suggestive tone.

An offer?

I had a bad feeling about this.

"Our team has already reached Floor 8. We can easily reach Floor 11 in the remaining three months. If things go well, we might even make it to Japan."

"..."

"You want to live too, don't you? So be my woman."

‘What the fuck?’

Who the hell did that crazy bastard think he was coming after?

But it was too early to be shocked.

"You have a wife and even a son. Do you really want to say something like that?"

"My wife and brat can survive on their own. We're about to reach the middle floors, so shouldn't I start a new life too? So..."

"How disgraceful. Don't ever say something like that again. If you say it one more time, I'll really quit."

"Tch. You're standing tall now. But once the end of the world is right in front of you, you'll spread your legs too..."

He was married and even had a kid?

That son of a bitch.

I couldn't take it anymore.

I grabbed my staff and rushed outside.

Footnotes:

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