WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Oblivious
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving as a B-Rank Hunter ◈
Chapter 19
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* * *
Anonymous Beginner: What’s an Observer?
I suddenly got a message. It says they’ll send dungeon information if I reply and send money by a certain time. They say they can tell me when and where a dungeon will open.
⤷Anonymous1: If an Observer contacted you first, you can take off that beginner badge now.
⤷⤷Anonymous Beginner: They really tell you where dungeons will open in advance? No lie?
⤷⤷⤷Anonymous2: Obviously a scammer. If that could be predicted, they would’ve trained an AI on the data and built a response system long ago. It’s all lies to bait you, so ignore them.
⤷Ppakdori: Another competitor joins the ranks. Anyway, welcome. Like the comment above says, you can take off that beginner badge now.
Anonymous Intermediate: One person says they’re scammers, and another says I’ve become a real hunter now.
I don’t know who’s right. I’ll contact them for now.
⤷Anonymous1: Now they’ll steal all your personal info and empty your bank account. Hahaha, another pauper is born. Then you’ll recklessly enter dungeons to earn back what you lost and die. Hahahahaha.
⤷EyeOfHorus: Both are right. There are scammers, and there are real ones. Real Observers gather dungeon information in areas of intuition that AI cannot learn, then sell it to hunters. Naturally, scammers just want to fleece people by copying how those Observers operate.
⤷⤷Anonymous Intermediate: Then what should I do? They still haven’t replied. Should I send the money?
⤷⤷⤷EyeOfHorus: Who the hell sends money first? Get a grip and use your own eyes and ability to determine whether they’re real. That’s how you take off the beginner badge.
⤷⤷⤷Anonymous Intermediate: Ah, okay.
⤷⤷⤷Anonymous Beginner: Must have been a scammer. They aren’t replying either. T_T Why are there so many scammers on the Dungeon Forum? I guess I should keep wearing the beginner badge.
...
Ppakdori: These bastards are putting on such a pathetic act to hide how they’re profiting off it. Hahahahaha.
* * *
After returning home, Dohyeon washed up, applied medicine to his torn wounds, and wrapped them in bandages.
Then he lay down on his bed and fell asleep.
Meeting an A-rank had been both impressive and exhausting. They had not actually fought in the end, but merely facing them had placed considerable pressure on him. Fighting the Ohwa hunters had also been a problem.
This time, he had escaped relatively easily because they were a pack of riffraff who trusted only in their numbers.
But he could not act on the assumption that he would have such luck next time. He needed to be more careful next time, just as he had been for the past ten years.
When Dohyeon woke the next day, he brewed himself a cup of coffee in the kitchen. Holding it, he stood blankly in the middle of the living room and stared out through the gloomy balcony window.
Beyond it lay a world as indifferent as the dreary sky.
Countless people moved between buildings, worn down by their own work as they slowly suffocated.
Some said unemployment caused by the Odin Shock and advances in AI, the emergence of transnational corporations, and the resulting collapse of the middle class had made the world even darker. But perhaps the world had already been sinking into an abyss long before that.
The world and society kept growing larger and more complex, while the individual worlds of those living within them kept growing narrower.
Advances in networks had brought those individuals closer together than ever, but at the same time, each person’s world had become even narrower. Looking at the world through nothing but the knotholes attached to their eyes, people were becoming unable to accept that there were worlds beyond their own surroundings.
Compared to the bloated, highly developed society, humans were far too small.
Society as it existed today must surely have been made for people to live in. Yet now it felt as though that society was strangling them.
As though everyone was subjected to an extremely slow hanging from the moment they were born. A hanging that lasted from birth until death. In that sense, they were all prisoners on death row.
Then a loud thump came from beyond the wall, followed by raised voices.
“...”
It sounded as though the couple next door was fighting again. Dohyeon had been staring vacantly outside, but the sound brought him back to himself. He drained the rest of his coffee in one gulp and turned around.
Dohyeon began inspecting the equipment he had put off checking the day before. His coat and innerwear, bag, crossbow, long sword, the daggers hidden all over his body, even his shoes and socks.
He checked the damaged parts and whether he could use them on his next expedition. He noted what needed repairing and fixed whatever he could himself.
He replaced the crossbow parts that needed replacing. He also took out the long sword and inspected its blade. It was badly chipped in several places, leaving it jagged. He brought out a whetstone and smoothed the blade as well.
After finishing the inspection, he brought over the bag he had taken into the dungeon the day before. One by one, he laid out its contents across the table.
Most of the items were miscellaneous junk, but among them was a heavy gear that seemed to be an artifact. He had yet to check for a Vanaskelium reaction, but he had earned more than enough for the day.
“...”
Dohyeon picked up the gear and examined it. Between Yggdrasil’s description and its unusual weight, it did seem to be an artifact. But what exactly did it do?
Most artifacts had obvious functions, but many, like this gear, were difficult to figure out. In such cases, many hunters simply checked for a Vanaskelium reaction and sold them to corporations.
Dohyeon was no different. Investigating an unknown artifact required a great deal of time and resources. Dohyeon did not have time for that. He preferred entering a dungeon even one more time instead.
[Will you sell that one too? Just as you sold that heart of fire and lightning last time?]
As he stared at the black gear, the Valkyrie’s voice sounded beside his ear. Dohyeon dropped the gear onto the table with a thud.
“Yeah. I hope it has a strong Vanaskelium reaction.”
[Why not use it yourself instead?]
“What?”
Dohyeon frowned slightly as the Valkyrie continued.
[I cannot help but feel sorry when I recall the warrior you faced yesterday. They faced their enemies bravely in well-made armor, while you had to focus every bit of your attention on avoiding a single arrow. That is the difference equipment makes.]
That made Dohyeon recall what he had done yesterday. It was not enough that he had dodged the crossbow bolt. He had caught it in his teeth.
It had been incredibly dangerous and stupid. If he had broken a tooth, it would have been a disaster. A hunter who entered dungeons would have needed even the material covering that tooth to be made from dungeon materials.
Dohyeon picked up the black gear again.
“What kind of artifact is this? Does it turn into armor or something?”
[Unfortunately, it does not. It is a knot of sorrow and regret. Take up your will and set it within the gear’s ring. Your will shall become as tenacious and hard as your regret.]
“What are you talking about? I don’t want to interpret Yggdrasil nonsense even outside a dungeon. Explain it so I can understand.”
[...Place the gear on top of your sword.]
Dohyeon brought over the sword whose blade he had just finished smoothing and placed it on the table. Then, as the Valkyrie instructed, he set the gear on the blade.
“Wha...?”
The gear resting atop the blade began turning on its own with a strange Tick, tick, tick, sound. At the same time, the long blade began to darken.
As the blade’s silver changed to black, the rotating gear gradually grew smaller. At last, when the long sword’s blade had turned completely black, the gear resting upon it vanished as well.
Dohyeon picked up the blackened sword. The blade had become extremely heavy. It was as though the black gear’s weight had been transferred directly into it.
“How am I supposed to use a sword like this?”
An ordinary long sword weighed around one or two kilograms. Hunter equipment could be a little heavier to account for the user’s strength, but even then, it was only around three or four kilograms.
A blade heavier than that was difficult even to swing properly, let alone use practically. Yet this black blade seemed to weigh more than ten kilograms.
[Is it heavy?]
“Yeah. I can barely swing a sword like...”
Dohyeon had been lightly swinging the sword as he answered the Valkyrie, but he stopped speaking. Despite the weight he felt, it was not as difficult to hold and swing as he had expected.
[Regret cannot belong to another. It is yours, and so your arm may wield it.]
“Hmm...”
Dohyeon quietly gripped the sword with both hands and took a middle guard stance. It was a strange feeling. It was clearly too heavy to hold and swing easily, yet when he decided to cut something, it felt as though he could wield it like a switch.
“If it is just an artifact that feels heavier, I’m not sure why I should use it.”
[Could that truly be all? When you face an enemy, you will feel the black blade’s true power.]
Dohyeon fell silent and looked at the black blade. Then he picked up its sheath and slid the sword inside. He did not want to find out what it did only after facing an enemy, as the Valkyrie suggested.
Who knew what kind of ability it had? Before entering another dungeon, he planned to set up a straw dummy somewhere and test the blade’s performance.
As he began putting away the equipment and loot he had spread out, the Valkyrie spoke again.
[Seeing you put away your equipment, it seems you intend to rest today. A wise choice. Even steel will break if it is struck without rest.]
“Comparing me to steel. My old comrades would laugh.”
Dohyeon gave the meaningless reply as he packed away his things. Soon afterward, he brewed another cup of coffee in the kitchen and sat before his computer.
He turned it on, did several things, then crossed his arms and stared at the monitor with an unhappy expression.
After he sat silently for a while, he vaguely sensed a presence beside him. The presence of something invisible. It was probably the Valkyrie.
[What are you looking at so seriously?]
Without taking his eyes off the monitor, Dohyeon thought that this voice did not seem to be a delusion in his head. It was not a delusion because it knew the location and use of artifacts he himself did not know about.
“...I demanded a refund from a113.”
[A refund? Did you buy something from them?]
“I bought information. a113 was an Observer I did business with. Observers are people who sell information on locations where dungeons might open.”
[Hmm. Did you not return safely from the dungeon? Your harvest was not small, either. Must you still reclaim the payment?]
Dohyeon took a sip of coffee before answering.
“If they simply sold low-quality information, I could just stop dealing with them. There would be no need to demand a refund. It is not an industry that does that in the first place. But...”
Dohyeon’s eyes narrowed as he watched the monitor.
“...Not long ago, an employee of Cartain Energy found information about me very quickly. Finding that an artifact had been listed on the black market is one thing, but learning that I had some ridiculous nickname like Scrap Iron on the Dungeon Forum, along with the phone number I used exclusively for the black market, was another matter.”
[You suspect they sold your information to someone else.]
Dohyeon tapped his fingers against the desk.
“It is not suspicion. I’m certain of it. The problem is how much this bastard knows about me, and where they intend to sell it.”
For a long time afterward, Dohyeon glared at the monitor. There was no reply from a113, either on the Dungeon Integrated Board or through the black-market messenger.
Dohyeon knew a113 was ignoring his messages. That meant they had known just how dangerous yesterday’s dungeon would be.
Another hunter would have had no other options in this situation. Dungeon information was traded through the black market, an underground market with neither taxes nor identity verification.
Naturally, there was no police protection, either. These days, reports like that were treated as minor digital fraud and barely investigated.
All one could do was treat it as having stepped in shit and move on. Distinguishing scammers from real Observers was also part of what separated an experienced hunter from someone who was not.
The problem was that Dohyeon could track a113.
Then the Valkyrie whispered.
[What do you fear?]
“...”
Dohyeon’s pupils suddenly constricted as he stared at the monitor.
What did he fear? More precisely, it was not fear but disgust. The thought that his information was drifting through the vast digital world without his knowledge, being sold to someone. The fact that his past was being judged and defined at someone else’s whim.
At some point, Dohyeon, who had kept his gaze fixed on the monitor, began to move.
He rose and entered his bedroom, where he pulled an old terminal from deep within a drawer beneath his bed.
After finding a cable that fit the terminal, he returned to the monitor. He connected the cable and turned on the screen, and an OS as old as the display began booting up.
As he turned on the terminal, he picked up his smartphone and called someone. After a brief ringing tone, the other person answered.
[Hey, Dohyeon. Selling Vana?]
“Different business today, sir.”
[What is it?]
“I need to use Goshawk.”
[...Why all of a sudden?]
“I have a use for it.”
There was a brief silence over the phone, followed by a soft sigh.
[You punk... If you get caught using that, at best it is a violation of the Unauthorized Access Act. If military law applies, it is a violation of the Military Secrets Protection Act, you punk.]
“Is it still open?”
[...The nearest window is 11:13. It will be open for about two minutes. You know that old terminal of yours can only make queries, right?]
“Yes. That will be enough. Thank you, sir.”
[So what is this about?]
“I’m trying to get a refund.”
[I have no idea what kind of nonsense you are up to, but do not get caught... So, no Vana to trade?]
“I have some. I will come by tomorrow or the day after.”
[All right. Good work. See you then.]
While the old terminal booted up, Dohyeon typed at his computer and manipulated the screen. The smartphone through which he had exchanged messages with a113 was connected to the computer as well.
[Oh! I thought you were merely brave, but you are talented at using your head as well, warrior!]
“...What did you think I was?”
The presence he had felt nearby moved away. Dohyeon frowned but did not stop moving his hands.
A short while later, the time reached 11:13. The old terminal, whose boot sequence had finished, began exchanging data with a satellite with a Beep. Beep.
The time was short, but it was enough. Using the call and message logs connected to his black-market phone, he quickly identified the locations of his previous contacts.
Naturally, every number showed up overseas. They had been routed through relay stations. Dohyeon did not stop there and made several more adjustments. Then every other location disappeared, leaving only the number belonging to a113, whom he was trying to track.
For the brief time that followed, the tracking location rapidly shifted as it followed a113’s routing path.
They were all techniques he had learned long ago. Techniques he had studied and mastered during the days when he had belonged somewhere. Back when there were people who had tried to train superhuman agents called Hunters.
The two minutes passed in an instant. The terminal screen closed, and only a single dot remained on the monitor.
[Did you find them?]
“Only the base station. That is enough.”
There was still complicated data left, such as response latency patterns and packet round-trip times, but Dohyeon himself did not understand enough of it to explain it all to the Valkyrie.
Rather than understand the meaning of that data, Dohyeon was someone who used a machine that produced the answer once the data was fed into it.
That was how soldiers were.
After checking the terminal’s information, Dohyeon stood. The approximate location had been confirmed. All that remained was to go there and find the person with his own eyes.
Dohyeon put on his coat and left home.
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