NOTICE: Many of the novels have been removed because they might cause violations, which we were not aware of earlier.
Episode 53. Tired Heart
After leaving the association.
The first thing I did was to call Hunter Ahn Yoon-seung.
“Brother! What’s going on?”
“Oh, it’s nothing special. Let’s eat together.”
The next place we arrived at was a restaurant.
Perhaps because it was still an ambiguous time to call it dinner time, there weren’t many people around.
“Do you like pork? Eat a lot… … .”
“Oh my! Thank you.”
Now that the bribe is ready, it’s time to start talking.
Sneak.
I pushed the well-cooked meat dish towards Yunseung and said in a subtle way.
“But Seungah Yoon.”
“yes!”
“I have a concern these days.”
“yes yes.”
“I didn’t mean to, but somehow I ended up getting killed by Jeong Ha-seong.”
Clang!
Hearing those words, Ahn Yoon-seung dropped the chopsticks he was holding.
I quietly took out a new pair of chopsticks from the cutlery holder and continued speaking.
“Just listen. I’m not dead yet.”
The tone was calm, but honestly, it was crazy and mind-boggling.
Who knew that an encounter at an EX-class gate would develop into this?
Anyway, trying to bury a person in an unknown gate. Jeong Ha-seong is really going too far.
What did I do!
‘At best, he was just committing perjury, trying to shift some of the monster aggro, and using the gate reward that Jeong Ha-seong worked hard to clear.’
Uh. Is the reason more than I thought?
“anyway.”
First, back to the main topic.
“I need advice. You’re a top hunter. Don’t you know anything about Jeong Ha-seong?”
“Even if you say that all of a sudden.”
“I just want to resolve this amicably.”
After being dumbfounded for a while, Ahn Yoon-seung finally opened his mouth.
“It’s hard to imagine in the first place. Not another hunter… That Jeong Ha-seong?”
“what do you mean?”
“I haven’t even tried talking to you yet. I’m a very dry person by nature. In some ways, I’m similar to you, hyung.”
Hmm. He cleared his throat for a moment.
“Rather than having a private argument with anyone, I just occasionally get heated about gate conquest.”
Yunseung muttered to himself and then spoke carefully.
“Isn’t there a misunderstanding between us?”
“hmm.”
“It doesn’t make sense that Jeong Ha-seong would be angry enough to kill someone, and it doesn’t make sense that a respectful person like my brother would have such a big grudge… … .”
Finally, there is the intervention of an objective perspective.
It was only after hearing those words that my thoughts returned to normal.
“Is that so?”
Now that I think about it calmly, I wonder if I misunderstood Jeong Ha-seong’s suggestion a bit.
‘Have I been needlessly sensitive to mistrust of humanity?’
I came to my senses.
And I slowly began to realize that my worries had been unfounded.
“Listening to what you say, that makes sense. Well, there’s no way that Korea’s number one ranking person would show emotions to an F-rank like me.”
Then Ahn Yoon-seung laughs lightly.
ha ha ha.
“Well, brother. Anyway, you won’t have to worry about that in the future.”
While I was handling the chopsticks skillfully, I glanced up and looked at Yunseung.
“It would be burdensome for Hunter Jeong Ha-seong to start a fight so rashly.”
“what?”
“There was an incident at Baekui Maze before. There was something like that. I think they’ll be wary of you too, hyung.”
I quietly focused on what he was saying.
“That’s because hunters usually fight each other. People are different from monsters, so they often hide their abilities.”
“Oh.”
Yun Seung shrugged his shoulders and said as if it was obvious.
“This Awakened One is hiding something… …. As long as the other person thinks so, friction won’t easily arise.”
It’s a very plausible story.
Come to think of it, even in the park incident a while ago, the assassin mistook the target for a strong man and a fight didn’t break out.
“I see.”
Beep.
——————
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And at this moment, a notification sound came from Kim Ki-ryeo’s cell phone.
“What is it? A text?”
“Uh, yeah. Reply a minute.”
I noticed the gazes staring at me silently and said.
“Why? Are you curious?”
“Oh, no. That’s… … .”
“It’s nothing.”
What followed was a readily public text message box.
(7 days ago)
[Mr. Kiryeo, if you haven’t eaten yet, would you like to have lunch together today? I know a good Korean restaurant!]
[I’m sorry. I’m busy with the police investigation right now…]
(4 days ago)
[Hello! The weather is getting cooler. ^^ I suddenly thought of you, Kiryeo, so I contacted you. Have you eaten by any chance?]
[I just ate]
(1 minute ago)
[Hunter Kim Ki-ryeo! What are you doing today~~? You wouldn’t say you’ve already eaten dinner at this hour, would you? ㅎㅎㅎ]
[Yes, I’m eating pork ribs with a friend right now]
“Just checking in. You’ve been texting me often lately.”
After showing him my phone screen, I relaxed and focused on eating without thinking much, but for some reason, Ahn Yoon-seung was sweating profusely.
“The person who sent the text is…. It’s saved as Esther?”
What does that mean?
***
Towards the end of summer.
These days, the Korean hunter community is suffering from a small cold.
“The gate has been expanded again.”
Around the time the EX-class dungeon appeared.
This is because the frequency and difficulty of gate occurrences have increased rapidly nationwide.
“This time it’s A-class again? Is there a guild that can handle it?”
“Both Neo Sisters and Korea Tower have already sent out their main teams to attack.”
“Ah, then that hunter is the only one.”
But what kind of country is this?
Korea is a country with many S-class weapons compared to its small land mass. Therefore, it was able to deal with this situation to some extent.
“Contact number one!”
That means some hunter is active.
-Tiring♪
Then, a man covered in blood took out a cell phone from his bosom.
“A-class gate?”
Jeong Ha-seong muttered with a tired face.
I just finished clearing the gate and now they’re telling me to go out again.
“Sir, start the car.”
“Ah, sir. The blood… … .”
But he silently headed to his next destination.
Hunting monsters.
Because that was the job the Hunter had been given.
“I’ll just go since I’m going to bleed again anyway.”
In this way, Jeong Ha-seong’s state of overwork accumulated.
The next day.
Jeong Ha-seong poured the stamina recovery potion he had obtained from the auction house into his esophagus.
This was exactly 40 hours after he had not slept.
So, in that case, the S-class hunters are going to be divided like this.
What is the alien archmage doing?
“Whew!”
The story comes back again.
This is a studio apartment in Mapo-gu where Kim Ki-ryeo lives.
The blond man standing there shouted with a proud face.
“It’s finally over.”
Although he was no match for the hard-working Hunter, Kim Ki-ryeo had actually been busy with his work for the past few hours.
This serious flaw in the body needed to be corrected as soon as possible.
“Shall we check if the editing went well?”
Today’s results were as follows.
[1.2.2 Changes]
●Signal blocking when pain occurs above threshold
This is a pretty long sentence. So let me explain it more simply… … .
“Perfect!”
As of today, Kim Ki-ryeo has acquired ‘pain tolerance’.
If all pain is eliminated, problems will arise, so a mechanism was added to nullify it only when a certain level of pain occurs.
‘I’m getting pretty close to my past body.’
Now there is no need to fear pain!
In fact, I’ve known for a long time that this modification was necessary, but I kept putting it off because it was annoying.
But what the heck.
Because of this, once you get burned by Jeong Ha-seong, your senses come back to you.
I thought that if I put it off any longer, I would die of shock sooner or later.
“I never thought I’d know what a burning sensation feels like. I didn’t really want to collect this kind of data.”
He wiped the sweat off his forehead. He was quite tired, perhaps because he had been concentrating for a long time.
‘Phew, I guess I’ll take a break for today. I’ve saved up some money. It might not be a bad idea to try my hand at delivery cooking… … .’
But at that time.
Something flashed across his keen senses.
It felt like a dark, huge wave was rushing in the direction I was standing.
“uh.”
By the time I noticed the flow of magic, it was already too late.
Soon, an ear-piercing roar echoed through the one-room apartment.
Kwakwang—!!
Kurururur… … .
Beep, beep, beep… … .
Kim Ki-ryeo froze and stared straight ahead.
What is the situation now?
‘The sound was so close?’
Fortunately, the room was fine, but for some reason, an indescribable sense of anxiety began to rise.
Kim Ki-ryeo put on his slippers and ran hurriedly down the hallway.
Then, the first thing you see is…
“her.”
The building.
The building was blown away.
“Heh heh.”
Kim Ki-ryeo laughed as he looked at the right side of the building that had been cut down as if it had been bombed.
You can see the steel frame and the broken cement. Well, that’s because the line next to it completely collapsed, except for unit 304 where he lives.
“What the f*ck… … .”
There was more than one resident who came out after hearing the sound.
Then a loud voice echoed through the hallway.
Get out of here now before the unstable building collapses. Run away.
Everyone was shouting like that.
“There are so many planets that look like stars.”
Occurred around late August.
It was the beginning of a dungeon break terror that would cause countless casualties.
***
Preparing for evacuation was not difficult.
After all, these are all the valuable items I have.
‘Let’s just take our magic tools.’
I hugged the incense burner carefully and set out on my way.
In addition, I brought along recovery potions, a protection bracelet, and reflectors, but none of them were very bulky.
“hmm.”
But the problem is where to evacuate from now on.
“What, why is my phone not working?”
My first thought was to ask Ahn Yoon-seung for help, but my phone was acting up.
Groan, groan.
“The phone isn’t working.”
“Is it because everyone is on the phone?”
“oh my god…….”
Listening to what these pedestrians are saying, it seems I’m not the only one experiencing this inconvenience.
‘Should we try following where the people are running away?’
There was no time to sit around blankly.
Even at this moment, monsters were running wild all over the streets, so I wonder what kind of accident had happened.
“Gyaaaaaaah!”
“Run away!”
“Isn’t there anyone who has awakened?”
Monsters in the form of pterosaurs that roar and shoot around. Or people.
Scattered debris. Blood. Smoke.
When monsters appeared, the peaceful modern landscape instantly became like a battlefield.
Everyone is too busy running away to worry about anyone else.
I ran like crazy in that kind of chaos.
Thanks to that, I was barely able to find shelter.
It seems that Earthlings use subway stations as bunkers in times of emergency.
‘Everyone is gathering in the subway?’
but…….
‘Huh!’
The train station we arrived at was already full of people evacuating.
Moreover, the hunters at the entrance block the entrance, saying that they can no longer accommodate people.
“Rotten!”
I would be so grateful if Kim Ki-ryeo’s damn brain could come up with some evacuation tips for Earth even now.
Unfortunately, I have no clue whatsoever.
‘If I stay here any longer, I’ll get hit by someone and die.’
I had no choice but to look for another solution.
When I stand still and focus my senses, I feel various types of mana.
Mana in the bodies of the Awakened.
External magical power rising from the ground.
And, the movement of the gate creatures.
‘In the end, I have no choice but to run away alone.’
I took a deep breath and started moving.
Originally, I was planning to choose a place where there were no monsters until the situation calmed down.
“hmm?”
But after I regained some composure, a better idea occurred to me.
“That guy over there… … Could that be him?”
An alley we arrived at within a few minutes.
I turned my head north along the quiet street.
The situation is not clearly visible to the naked eye, but now that I sense the magic, it is clear.
There is a Jeongha Castle beyond that building.
“In a situation where demons are running wild, an S-class hunter appears before my eyes.”
At this busy time, I almost felt guilty for a moment when I thought about pestering a very busy gentleman, but for an alien who was on the verge of death, conscience was unnecessary.
Well, anyway, the one clinging to Kim Ki-ryeo’s body is a kind of parasite… … .
“I’m an expert at parasitic things.”
I followed Jeong Ha-seong’s energy with shining eyes.