WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Oblivious
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving as a B-Rank Hunter ◈
Chapter 20
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Dohyeon’s sedan glided out of the apartment parking lot.
With one hand on the wheel, Dohyeon connected the old terminal to his smartphone with the other. The base station’s location had been confirmed. Now he had a broad circular search area centered on it.
[Can this find someone a thousand ri away?]
“A thousand ri? Gyohyeon-dong is only twenty minutes away by car.”
Dohyeon said this while glancing at the rearview mirror. The red-haired woman in a winged helmet was staring at the terminal on the passenger seat, her green eyes glowing.
As he drove, Dohyeon worked the terminal and smartphone whenever he had the chance. Valkyrie seemed interested in that as well and spoke again.
[According to that map, the area you must search is enormous. Though it is remarkable that you can confirm the person you seek is within it...]
“Observers do not use ordinary equipment. They have to hack closed-circuit surveillance systems with various CCTV cameras and other cameras, and sometimes drones. They need high-performance computers, of course, as well as drones and infrared and night-vision equipment for those drones. Expensive equipment that consumes a lot of power.”
Dohyeon smoothly turned right as he continued.
“Vanaskelium has reduced their size, but they still use plenty of electricity. You cannot maintain equipment like that in some cabin deep in the mountains. A city would be better, both for an internet connection and for flying drones outside. That alone cuts the search area down to a third.”
[Ho...]
“Someone with any sense would hide among other people and draw a lot of power. Somewhere that does not pay much attention to its tenants would be ideal. There were two old mixed-use apartment buildings in the remaining third of the area. They are the first places we should search.”
[And if they are not in those apartments?]
“Then I continue the search another way. Until I find the target.”
[Until you find the target...]
Dohyeon, who had been driving while looking forward, flinched slightly. It felt as though fingers had brushed through his hair. Startled, he looked into the rearview mirror, but Valkyrie was merely buried deep in the back seat, watching him.
[Seeing the persistence and skill with which you track prey, you are an excellent hunter as well, warrior.]
“...”
Dohyeon did not answer. Those skills had been difficult to learn at first, and he had wondered what they were even for.
He clearly remembered wondering whether he was training to enter dungeons or to become a black operative deployed overseas. Thanks to that, he had barely managed average grades.
But now, he only missed those days.
After driving a little farther, Dohyeon saw streets lined with winding narrow alleys. Once he passed through them, a large road and the old mixed-use apartment building he sought came into view.
“Hmm...”
After confirming the building from afar, Dohyeon did not stop in front of it and kept driving.
[Was this not the building?]
“There is someone at the entrance to the shops.”
A rough-looking, bulky man sat at the entrance leading into the center of the shopping area, having brought over a small metal chair.
He was fiddling with a smartphone in his right hand, while his other hand repeatedly clenched and unclenched. It was a mechanical prosthetic arm with no outer casing, its metal framework completely exposed.
Dohyeon naturally passed the building, turned the corner, and parked. Then he tap, tap, drummed his fingers on the steering wheel.
Organized thugs, also called gangsters. South Korea still had no shortage of people whose lives had gone off the rails.
As conglomerates completed full automation in the wake of the Odin Shock, Korea’s middle class was melting away like ice dropped onto summer asphalt.
And hired thugs were growing larger, using the Vanaskelium industry and hunter business, which had absorbed that collapsing workforce, to transform into more sophisticated criminal organizations.
On the surface, they ran businesses connecting dungeons and hunters. Behind the scenes, they sold drugs and dealt in stolen dungeon artifacts. They also ran loan-sharking operations, gambling, and entertainment establishments.
Many were run by retired hunters, and many hunters simply joined as gang members. They had grown stronger from entering dungeons but did not want to risk their lives any further, so they entered the underworld. Of course, plenty still got shot, but anyway.
Dohyeon immediately realized that building was the den of such an organization. If so, was a113 affiliated with a gang?
[Will you not go inside?]
Valkyrie whispered as Dohyeon sat lost in thought, tapping the steering wheel. He stopped his fingers.
If a113 was a gang member, the problem could become much worse. Dohyeon’s information could be spread around the Black Market like a public resource.
He first had to confirm whether these were the right people. To do that, he needed to search the building.
Having made up his mind, Dohyeon gathered his smartphone and terminal, then opened the car door.
After locking the car, he shoved both hands into his coat pockets and walked steadily toward the mixed-use apartment building.
Most of the first-floor shops were closed. Only a convenience store and a Gimbap Heaven were open. The lights in every other store were off.
As Dohyeon passed the shops, the bulky man looked away from his smartphone and gave him a brief glance before returning his attention to the little world in his hand.
Dohyeon turned the corner and checked the side where the bulky man could not see him. The entrance there was blocked. The glass doors were locked, and furniture had been piled behind them. The building’s other entrances had probably all been blocked or concealed the same way.
Dohyeon casually checked his surroundings. No one was watching.
He immediately grabbed a gas pipe on the building and began climbing. Gripping ventilation ducts, window ledges, signboards, and anything else he could use, Dohyeon looked like a rock climber.
It took him barely twenty seconds to scale the wall of the five-story building and reach the rooftop.
Before climbing onto it, Dohyeon only raised his eyes above the edge to survey the situation. Plastic chairs and furniture were scattered around, but there was no one there.
Once he confirmed that, Dohyeon climbed onto the roof and took out his equipment. He walked toward an antenna relay standing at one side of the rooftop like a badly grown tree.
The terminal, smartphone, and antenna relay were connected by separate cables. The terminal gave off old beep, beep sounds, while information on the terminal and relay rapidly scrolled across the smartphone.
“I am lucky.”
It was the data he had been looking for. The connection had been routed and redirected several times, but the computer belonging to a113, the person who had exchanged messages with Dohyeon, was ultimately inside this building.
No, perhaps that made him unlucky. It meant a113 really was working with this gang.
So, what now?
He did not know the building’s layout or how many gangsters were inside. He could not simply charge in. If he opened the door and went downstairs only to come face-to-face with someone, it was obvious how they would react.
The unit he had identified through the relay was 303. If the first digit indicated the floor, it would be on the third floor. After thinking for a moment, Dohyeon walked back toward the rooftop railing.
Perhaps because of the gloomy sky, it was not very bright, so Dohyeon did not stand out much when he leaned over the rooftop edge.
After briefly checking the building wall, Dohyeon stepped over the railing.
A moment ago, he had climbed toward the roof. This time, he lightly descended. Gripping the ledges in the wall, Dohyeon came down and peeked toward windows he had deliberately avoided earlier.
Privacy film covered the windows, making it difficult to see inside. He pressed his face against a frayed edge where the film had peeled away and saw a dim interior. There were only old desks and furniture inside, with no people in sight.
He lightly pushed the window, but it was locked, as expected. Moving sideways, he tried several more. Fortunately, one window had been left open, perhaps for ventilation.
Dohyeon’s body slipped through the window as though drawn inside.
After smoothly climbing in, Dohyeon naturally crouched on one knee and closed his eyes.
He could hear sounds. Steady footsteps, muffled television noise, and a microwave running. The loudest sound was the hum of fan blades spinning, and he could also hear someone sniffling.
He could hear conversation as well. Not clearly enough to make out the words, but clearly enough to know two people were talking.
After standing still and listening for a while, Dohyeon opened his eyes.
“There are barely any people here.”
Most of the everyday noise came from the floors above and below. The floor he was on was almost empty, apart from the sound of servers running. Dohyeon rose and approached the door.
It had already been confirmed that the hacker’s computer was here. Therefore, destroying that computer was his first priority.
Dohyeon opened the door and quickly checked the unit numbers. He was in 301. Moving left, he saw 302. He continued on and immediately found 303. His sensitive ears caught the sound of chatter from inside.
Dohyeon knocked on the door.
The noise inside fell silent. But holding their breath would not be enough to evade Dohyeon’s ears. Someone was approaching the door.
Dohyeon shifted slightly to the side, out of the peephole’s field of view. A shadow moved inside.
A moment later, the door opened with a click.
Dohyeon intended to force his way through the opening immediately. He had identified two people by sound. Subdue one right away, push inside, and finish off the other. He would not kill them, but if necessary, he would break an arm or two.
“W-what is it? Why are you suddenly knocking on the door? We agreed you would not bother us for a while.”
“...”
That plan vanished when he saw the girl, startled by the fully opened door and stepping back.
She stared at Dohyeon with wide eyes. She was short, and did not look older than fifteen at most. She wore a somewhat dirty T-shirt and sweatpants.
“...You are someone I have never seen before. Did Boss Choi hire a new employee? What is it? Did he tell you to come scare me? To tell me not to get any ideas now that all that remains is for him to squeeze us dry? I already know that! So...”
The girl’s startled expression changed. With angry brows, she glared at Dohyeon and fired the words at him.
But that scowl did not last long. Something about Dohyeon’s expressionless face as he silently stared straight at her seemed strange to her.
“Excuse me, you are not a new employee? How did you get in here...?”
At that moment, Dohyeon took a large step inside. The girl jerked back in surprise. She carefully examined Dohyeon with a grave expression, then slowly began to look afraid.
“...A hunter. You are a hunter, right?”
[Remarkable insight. What could she have seen to think so?]
It was not something she had seen. This girl had already imagined a moment like this. The moment someone harmed by information she had sold indiscriminately appeared before her.
The front door closed behind Dohyeon.
“So you sold it despite knowing it was dangerous.”
“Eek...!”
At Dohyeon’s words, the girl backed away farther. That confirmed it. The girl was a113. The Observer who had exchanged information with Dohyeon through Dungeon Forum and the Black Market messenger was this child. It was astonishing.
As the frightened girl slowly retreated, a new voice cut in.
“Sis?”
“!”
The startled girl turned around. A five- or six-year-old child in dirty clothes stood there, sniffing and staring blankly.
The moment she saw the child, the girl looked back at Dohyeon in alarm. Then she hurried over, pulled the child into her arms, and pointed one hand at Dohyeon.
That hand held a fruit knife.
“...Hmm.”
[Hahaha! How bold!]
Dohyeon gave a faint sigh, while Valkyrie laughed loudly. Amid that, the girl, her hand trembling as she pointed the knife at Dohyeon, spoke.
“I-I will scream! Then all of Boss Choi’s subordinates in this building will come running...!”
“Let us set aside the question of whether you can scream faster than I can break your neck. Put down the knife first. You will hurt the child.”
“...”
Though trembling, the girl did not lower the knife pointed at Dohyeon. She glanced at the child she held when he said the child could get hurt, but she still kept the knife aimed at him.
Dohyeon gave another small sigh. Then he stepped forward and whipped out his hand.
That hand snatched the blade of the fruit knife.
“Huh!”
The knife was caught in Dohyeon’s grip. The small blade spun around in his hand, then, swish, disappeared. Only Dohyeon’s right hand remained.
“Wow!”
The child in the girl’s arms suddenly exclaimed. The girl, who had been stunned after losing the knife, came to her senses at that sound. Holding the child, she staggered backward with a frightened expression.
Seeing that, Dohyeon slowly shook his head.
“I will not hurt you if you only answer my questions. You do not need to be so scared.”
Despite Dohyeon’s words, the girl did not let go of the suspicion in her eyes.
“...I know what hunters can do. With only the fruit knife you just took, you could split a person in half. And there are people who enjoy doing that.”
“What nonsense. Do you not know hunters receive harsher penalties for crimes? If you so much as draw a fruit knife outside, the police will immediately fire live rounds. Who would...”
Dohyeon stopped speaking. He had taken a closer look at the girl’s gaze as she watched him. Her trembling pupils and the dark, colorless light in her eyes.
“...I know. I know because I erase their traces. When I erase footage of them from cameras and CCTV, I... I find out everything.”
“...”
Rather than argue further, Dohyeon only silently faced her.
He did not know what words could prove himself to a girl terrified of people and weary of them.
All he could do now was quietly wait until she calmed down.
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