Down He Goes
The Hunter Training Institute of the Awakening Administration Agency.
A facility built to put high-rank hunters of A-Rank and above through intensive, specialized training.
Inside the operations room prepared to supervise the Returnee Training Camp, a certain guild master was laughing himself half to death.
“Ah, I'm telling you, that's what he did! PWAHAHAHA!”
Yoon Do-ha, Guild Master of Eden, kept erupting into fresh fits of laughter.
“No— *koff*— you're kidding— *koff koff*— the audacity to just LIE DOWN— OHHOHOHOHAHA!”
And down he goes.
And down he goes.
And down he goes.
On the screen, footage of Ji-hoon sprawled flat on his back in the middle of the maze played on an endless loop.
“Is it really that funny?”
When Jin Seo-yoon sighed, Yoon Do-ha wiped the tears from his eyes.
“How can you not laugh, Guild Master Seo-yoon? Look at it! Look at it! Is that ANY kind of posture for an F-Rank to strike?!”
“Fair point.”
Lee Ji-hoon.
Who exactly was this man? The kind of guy who never backed down even in front of S-Rank hunters, who sauntered through S-Rank gates bullying them alongside Baek Kang-hyun, and who kept impossibly close ties with unidentified S-Rank boss monsters.
“I didn't know he had it in him to go that far, either.”
Think about it, and his way of solving the maze was almost insultingly simple. Hold a strategy meeting, and everyone naturally stays put in their spots — and that, in itself, opens the maze.
“They say hunters have no patience, but this is pushing it.”
Baek Kang-hyun grumbled as he strode into the operations room.
“You've been working hard, Branch Director Baek.”
Baek Kang-hyun shot a glance at Jin Seo-yoon's bright smile, then turned to Yoon Do-ha.
“So. Did you find anything?”
“One thing's for certain — there's a lunatic among them. Heh heh.”
“Besides that.”
His eyes went cold.
Yoon Do-ha seemed to decide the joking hour was over, and squared his shoulders.
“Nothing remarkable yet. We've gone through all the confiscated cameras, and honestly… they just look like kids genuinely obsessed with being on TV.”
“Is that the truth?”
Yoon Do-ha spun his chair in a lazy circle, then drew his knees up and curled himself into a ball.
“Which is exactly why I can't say for sure.”
“No one with anomalous mana flow either?”
Yoon Do-ha shook his head, then paused.
“There is.”
“I knew it!”
“The problem is, it's not just one or two of them.”
Jin Seo-yoon held out a sheet of paper.
“These are the ones our guild flagged. We were thinking about recruiting them, actually.”
As Baek Kang-hyun scanned the list, his brow furrowed.
“…You only looked at people within a year of their return?”
“Right, that's it. Want to know why we checked that?”
Lee Ji-hoon was on the list too.
“Don't tell me you're blackmailing them again—!”
“Ugh, I told you I'm not doing that anymore. It's not that — look at this.”
Jin Seo-yoon pointed to one corner of the paper. At the same moment, Yoon Do-ha pulled up another video.
“There are returnees among the Agency's own supervisors?”
Baek Kang-hyun's eyebrows twitched.
“Someone has infiltrated the Agency?”
“Infiltrated it… or been converted. Corrupted, even?”
“By whom?”
“That, we'll find out in due time.”
He tapped the screen lightly.
And down he goes.
And down he goes.
And down he goes.
“That unshakable mentality… nerves of pure steel…”
Yoon Do-ha murmured, the corner of his mouth curling upward.
“…I want him.”
“…You're joking, right?”
Jin Seo-yoon scowled.
“Of course.”
Yoon Do-ha answered with a grin.
“Ideally, though — the whole package.”
“Ah, but seriously, this is hilarious. Pure variety-show gold, AHAHAHA!”
Ji-hoon's clip played on repeat, and Yoon Do-ha never once took his eyes off the screen.
After a rollicking company dinner, the next day arrived.
Ji-hoon was exchanging morning greetings with his teammates at the center of the training grounds.
“Good morning, everyone!”
Starting with Kim Ji-eun's cheerful greeting.
“Did you rest well, Ji-hoon?”
“Ahem. Looking forward to today as well.”
“Likewise.”
Kim Jin-woo, Kang Gi-tae, and Lee Min-jae all offered their greetings in turn.
The atmosphere was noticeably different from yesterday, and Ji-hoon was a little taken aback.
So this is the power of a company dinner?
Well, mostly it's thanks to my brilliant performance, I'd say.
Ji-hoon lifted his head with that thought.
*Sigh… I'm done for.*
He'd only joined this event planning to keep a low profile and bring the Hell Farm kids along once they showed up.
And he'd taken first place.
And Baek Kang-hyun personally handed me the card, ugh.
Sure enough, the way people from other teams looked at him had changed. Not quite he's F-Rank, but maybe there's something to him? — where yesterday it had been what could a trash F-Rank possibly do?
“Those were the good old days…”
“What's the matter?”
“Nothing at all.”
As they exchanged small talk, a woman in a business suit stepped up onto the stage.
“I-it's Jin Seo-yoon! The hunter!”
“It's Jin Seo-yoon!”
Waaah—!
A roar of cheers erupted from the hunters.
Jin Seo-yoon took the mic, tapped it a couple of times, and flashed a radiant smile.
“Hello, everyone! I'll be guiding you through day two. Pleasure to work with you all!”
The moment Jin Seo-yoon — the celebrity of the hunter world — appeared, the mood caught fire.
“Did you all have fun yesterday? From the operations room, we watched every single one of your performances with great care.”
Jin Seo-yoon raised a finger and pointed at a few people in the crowd.
“There were even a few we'd love to have in our guilds.”
“From Orpheus?!”
“You were really watching!”
“Today I'm taking first place for sure.”
At her words, the participants' competitive spirits blazed even hotter.
Jin Seo-yoon gazed at them with satisfaction, then lifted a finger.
“Gates come in all shapes and sizes to begin with. Even at the same rank, you had a maze type yesterday, but there are prison types too. Some have traps, some spawn natural disasters.”
Those who had tried to brute-force everything with raw power yesterday hung their heads slightly.
In truth, that was nearly everyone except Ji-hoon.
“Which is why Group C yesterday was so entertaining.”
Wink—
She blew a wink straight at Ji-hoon.
Ji-hoon scowled and growled under his breath.
“So everything up to yesterday was just the tutorial. Today, you'll be entering a brand-new dungeon.”
Vrooom— vroom—
The growl of engines revving in unison.
Curtains rolled back to reveal dozens of idling trucks.
“Today's team mission will be conducted off-site. The location is Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do.”
Jin Seo-yoon tapped the screen unfurled before them.
“There have been twenty-five gates recorded here in total. You'll each be assigned one at random, and your job is to harvest its byproducts.”
“We have to farm the byproducts ourselves?”
A rough-looking man from another team asked.
“Yes, yourselves. Were you planning to hire help?”
“It's not that, but normally this kind of work goes to porter laborers, isn't that right? We wouldn't even know where to start with something like this.”
The man declared, loud and proud, that such menial work was simply beneath him.
Jin Seo-yoon gave him a sidelong glance.
“If you don't want to, you're free not to. But tell me — when you're fighting a boss, what do you do without a porter?”
“That's…”
“You'd have to solo a boss before we could even have this conversation, *tsk*.”
Her murmured aside, delivered straight into the microphone, drew a bulging vein across the man's forehead.
“You half-and-half-faced celebrity—!”
FWOOOOM—!
The man swelled his muscles, growing larger.
A textbook reinforcement-type close-combat hunter.
“I'm A-Rank too. Just because you're S-Rank doesn't mean you can look down on…!”
Whoosh—
The man's body lifted off the ground.
Caught in the mana coiled around Jin Seo-yoon's two hands.
“Uh, uh…?”
And then.
“Waltz of Death.”
BAM BAM BAM BAM!
CRASH! WHAM! CRASH-CRASH!
His body was slammed down and up, over and over, hurled left and right, his face ground into the floor.
Only when his features had been crushed nearly beyond recognition did it stop.
“Whew… my apologies. I got a little carried away?”
Jin Seo-yoon withdrew her hands with a bright, easy smile.
“Now — where was I in the explanation?”
“…”
“…”
Silence.
They'd all known she was S-Rank, but Jin Seo-yoon was a celebrity first — the one with the half-and-half face. If anything, everyone had taken her lightly.
And now, confronted with her skill and her sheer mana output—
Gulp—
Haaaa—
—nobody could do anything but stay quiet.
“You have to solo a boss before words mean anything, sir.”
One man alone raised his hand and spoke.
Ji-hoon.
“That's our Lee Ji-hoon, everyone.”
Jin Seo-yoon gave him a thumbs-up for his nerves of steel and pressed on with the briefing.
“Just like the maze yesterday — you have to be able to overcome any situation on your own, which is why you'll be harvesting the byproducts yourselves. Understood?”
“YES, MA'AM!!! UNDERSTOOD!!!!!!”
Unlike moments ago, a thunderous roar shook the hall.
Jin Seo-yoon smiled in satisfaction and stepped down from the stage.
“Dungeon maintenance?”
Ji-hoon was getting the lowdown from Kim Ji-eun on why they were heading to a gate today at all.
“That's right, probably. S-Rank gates have been bursting open one after another lately, and they said maintenance personnel are spread too thin.”
“Monitoring for monster resurgence, clearing out anything that appears, then farming again — that's what gate management rights are.”
As Kang Gi-tae nodded along to Kim Jin-woo's explanation, he added his two cents.
“That's why guilds holding lots of management rights have so much clout. Orpheus and Baekryeon, for example.”
“Ahh… so we're getting dumped with the grunt work under the guise of 'training camp.'”
“Grunt work, kehaha! You might not be wrong there!”
Kang Gi-tae slung an arm around Ji-hoon's shoulder with forced familiarity.
“Still, something new might turn up, eh? I'm looking forward to it, little brother.”
“Ah, yeah, sure…”
What's an F-Rank supposed to do anyway.
As Ji-hoon muttered to himself, Poppi and Choco stood beside him, chests puffed out, preening.
Please don't…
Ji-hoon muttered under his breath.
“We'll be arriving shortly.”
With a rattling jolt, the trucks rolled to a stop.
“It's real countryside out here.”
“A rural gate, so I guess it's even less maintained. I heard even the Agency considers places like this a real headache…”
“You know a lot about this stuff, Ji-eun. Very well-read.”
At the unassuming compliment, Kim Ji-eun scratched the back of her head, embarrassed.
“Well… my dad's a civil servant at the Agency, you see.”
Didn't know that one.
Though honestly, I could live without the TMI.
“Anyway, that's how I've picked up bits and pieces. Oh, let's hurry and go!”
“The gate is just ahead.”
The Agency employee who'd driven them rattled off the instructions like a machine.
And as the others filed through the gate—
“Hmm.”
Ji-hoon alone lingered outside, studying the gate a little longer.
“Aren't you going in?”
Pressed by the Agency employee—
“Oh dear, my apologies! I was spacing out!”
Bowing his head repeatedly, he stepped through the gate.
And at the very moment he crossed—
Tap—
—he dropped a small white feather.
Not long after Group C entered the gate—
“…Just as I thought.”
Baek Kang-hyun, blade of mana in hand, picked up the feather Poppi had shed — the one Ji-hoon had left behind.
The staff assigned to oversee and monitor the site were nowhere to be found.
Baek Kang-hyun raised a hand to his ear.
“It's me. Find out who the assigned employee for the Geumbok-ri Gate in Hwaseong-si is — the one Group C just entered.”
—Understood, Branch Director.
The sound of typing came through, then—
—…Branch Director.
“Speak.”
—Team Leader Oh Geun-taek is the assigned officer, but…
The voice of the Agency staffer on the other end trembled.
—He was supposed to be on a completely different schedule…
“Team Leader Oh went to the Commissioner's office for the meeting with the Commissioner earlier, didn't he.”
—Yes, it may have been omitted from the roster. One moment, please.
“Forget it.”
Grip—
“I'm entering Group C's gate myself.”
—What?! Branch Director, wait! Then what about Group A?
“They got their bus ride yesterday. Am I supposed to play chauffeur for them again today? Right now, Group C comes first.”
If things go even slightly wrong, Hunter Lee Ji-hoon is in danger.
The instant that gate mutated into an S-Rank, it would be over.
Just then, Poppi's feather gave off a faint, flickering light.
“Poppi…?”
Sensing that mana, Baek Kang-hyun let out a short, dry laugh.
“Honestly. Wonder who's worried about whom here.”
He released the mana gathered on his blade and gazed past the gate.
“I'll join you shortly.”
Meanwhile, inside the gate, Group C—
“…What is this?”
“Are gates supposed to be like this?”
“Well, I'll be. First time seeing anything like this.”
“Does this… even make sense…?”
“This is insane, for real.”
Stretched out before them stood Groups A, B, D, E… all the way down to Group N at the very end.
“Why are YOU coming out of there?!”
“Why are YOU in there?!”
“What are you all doing here?!”
“Why are YOU here?!”
Only the entrances had been different — and now everyone found themselves gathered in one shared space, shouting at each other in disbelief.
But Ji-hoon simply looked up, quietly, at the gate's sky.
And then his expression hardened.
“Hah…”
A short sigh escaped him, half exasperation, half resignation.
“Some 'test' this is not.”
At the same moment, Poppi's feather and Choco's quill-spikes began to tremble.