Survival Training and a Stalker's Return
"Ooooh…."
Ji-hoon looked around the moment he stepped into the simulation and let out a low whistle of admiration.
"Wow, this place is seriously luxurious."
Kim Ji-eun stood beside him with her jaw hanging open, equally spellbound by the scenery. The other hunters were busy trading impressions with one another when—
"Alright, everyone gather round over here! Eyes front!"
Baek Kang-hyun climbed the central platform together with the Administration Bureau's supervising officer.
"Today, we are going to survive in this place."
"Survive?"
The hunters exchanged puzzled looks.
"That's correct. A gate is, even now, an unknown quantity. In fact, during my last A-Rank gate raid, I found myself unable to use any of my equipment the moment we entered."
Back when Baek Kang-hyun had cleared an A-Rank gate, their communications gear had gone dead the instant they crossed the threshold, cutting the strike team off from all support from the situation room.
"Since then, we've known that mana can interfere with communication devices."
In other words, an emergency like that could strike at any time. Something unexpected had happened in the last gate too, but because it hadn't been something the Bureau had planned, they'd found it awkward to grade the performance — or so the Bureau's official position went.
So that's why they never announced the rankings for the last mission.
Honestly, if they'd published the results as they stood, Team C would have swept it again, and Ji-hoon's name would have been called out on the spot. Better to stay under the radar than earn everyone's envy and resentment, he figured, and waited for Baek Kang-hyun to continue.
"For this mission, you will simply survive, using whatever equipment and items you can find inside the gate, along with your own skills. Think of it as gate survival."
Stay alive, by any means necessary.
How would you handle meeting a monster stronger than you? How would you handle a weaker one? Would you eat bugs when hunger gnawed at you? Would you pick up a tree branch when your gear ran out?
"What a hunter needs is not a mere brawler. That's nothing but a warmonger."
What this era demanded was hunters who could improvise under pressure and keep their nerve when everything went sideways. And thanks to yesterday's mutant gate incident, every single one of them had learned that lesson down to the bone.
"Each team will begin in its assigned room. Team A starts in Room A, Team B in Room B, and so on. Those rooms serve as your safe zones — keep that in mind!"
When Baek Kang-hyun finished and stepped down, the supervising officer took his place, and everyone moved with crisp, military precision at his direction.
"Whoa…."
Walking into their safe zone, Ji-hoon's team went wide-eyed at everything stocked inside the room. One-handed swords, two-handed swords, blunt weapons, battle axes, shields, tower shields, whips, arrows, throwing weapons, daggers — every kind of weapon imaginable was on display.
"Look at this! They even have Supreme-Grade Potions (A)!"
Not even C-Rank hunters could buy a Supreme-Grade potion on a whim, let alone E-Ranks. At ten million won apiece, they were strictly for emergencies — no one actually used them freely.
But here, the Supreme-Grade potions were stacked by the box.
"Excellent. I didn't expect them to be this generous with supplies."
Kim Jin-woo picked up his weapon of choice, a mace — an ordinary piece he could have grabbed off the Hunter Market. The others took their picks as well: Kang Ki-tae chose gauntlets, Lee Min-jae a one-handed sword and shield, Kim Ji-eun a wand.
And Ji-hoon…
"…I don't actually know how to use any of this."
Come to think of it, he'd handed everything off to his pets. He'd never once fought with his own two hands.
"Well, I'm a tamer, so it's backline support for me, not frontline brawling."
So he naturally reached for a bow — and then put it right back down.
"…Since when do I shoot a bow?"
Descendant of Korean archery or not, the man had never so much as played the archery game at an arcade.
Ji-hoon set the bow aside and picked up a dagger instead.
"You use daggers, Mr. Ji-hoon?"
"Not really. It's just… you know, emergency use?"
Genuinely just an emergency tool. The pets couldn't come along today, after all.
I hope they're resting well, at least.
It nagged at him a little, leaving them behind when he went off to his meetings with Yoon Do-ha and Jin Seo-yoon. Nothing would go wrong, of course. Probably.
Some time later, Ji-hoon was exploring the gate with his teammates.
"Hmm… the water quality's not bad."
Kim Ji-eun said, communing with her spirit. The pale-green spirit sat beaming on her open palm.
"The spirit says it's clean water. Should be safe to drink."
"Thank goodness!"
SPLASH-SPLASH!
Kang Ki-tae scrambled down to the stream and started gulping water in a panic.
"You know that's spirit water… the raw material for mana recovery potions…"
"Eh, you don't drink something that precious, kid! It's potion stock! This is fine!"
Kang Ki-tae cackled, his mouth smeared with water. Beside him, Kim Jin-woo let his mana ripple outward as he murmured to himself.
"A stream inside a gate…"
Simulation or not, the place was remarkably realistic. The Bureau had clearly poured serious resources into it.
"You know, doesn't this feel more like a hiking trail?"
The zone Team C had entered was a forest-type gate within the simulation. Other teams got the open sea, others a jungle, others a desert — each environment designed to test how they'd cope.
"There was an urban one too, right?"
"Yeah. Team A got lucky. Or wait — did they pull strings with Hunter Baek Kang-hyun to get the city?"
Kang Ki-tae grumbled under his breath.
"Don't be ridiculous. The Branch Director isn't the type to do that."
"Oh-ho, what's this, what's this? Our little Ji-hoon defending Baek because he's chummy with him?"
"You sly little—! Come here, come here!"
Kang Ki-tae jabbed playfully at Ji-hoon's ribs.
Ha… I should've stopped playing friendly ages ago….
Well, better than being on bad terms, he supposed, and sighed inwardly before turning to Kim Jin-woo.
"Anything else showing up on your detection?"
Whooosh—
Kim Jin-woo finished his Mana Scanning and nodded.
"Nothing out of the ordinary. Honestly, what are we even supposed to be doing here…"
"Maybe it's like the maze last time — we're just supposed to survive without doing anything at all?"
Kang Ki-tae had somehow already fetched a bucket. He dipped his arm into the stream with practiced ease, caught a fish, and plopped it in.
"Don't worry about survival, hyung! Camping is my hobby."
"Isn't camping and survival two different things?"
"Aw, come on, hyung. Go camping with no gear at all, and that IS survival. Anyway, dinner's on me tonight."
Kang Ki-tae thrust his fist into the air with confidence.
He had a point, though. There was nothing visible in this space, nothing like the maze mission. Nothing registered on Kim Jin-woo's scan either — at most, the area held a few very weak slimes.
"Haah!"
Slimes were so feeble that Kim Ji-eun could kill one with a careless flick of her wand. They weren't even F-Rank — F-minus would be generous.
Still, just in case, Ji-hoon had gone ahead and tamed the slimes too.
Not that they'll ever be useful.
An F-Rank taming F-Rank monsters — THIS was what reality looked like, he thought. Everything until now had been pure fantasy, thanks to the Poppi crew. He was mulling over that thought when Kim Jin-woo spoke up.
"Hold on. Something's appeared."
"Oh, there we go! THIS is the kind of event we need!"
Kang Ki-tae set down his bucket and cracked his knuckles with a satisfying pop-pop.
"Come at me, all of you! Feast your eyes on the new and improved me, forged through training with Hunter Baek Kang-hyun…!"
"It's getting closer. But… it's a person?"
"A person?"
Everyone blinked.
"A Bureau employee? Those look like Bureau shirts…"
"There you all areee."
That languid, dragging voice. The classic drawl of a corporate drone who'd rather be anywhere but work.
"Honestlyyy, hiding in a place this hard to find, you're giving ME a hard time tooo."
Rustle—
As the figure pushed through the underbrush—
"Right, everyoneee?"
"Whoa, she's gorgeous…"
"Focus, Kang Ki-tae. It's a mission."
CLANG—
Lee Min-jae re-settled his sword and shield. A beat behind, Kang Ki-tae activated his reinforcement skill.
"…A Bureau employee, confirmed."
Kim Jin-woo checked her name tag and drew his mace.
"Uh-oh. Don't tell me this is a 'defeat the supervisor' kind of thing?"
Kim Ji-eun summoned her spirit onto her shoulder.
And then—
"Ha… it's you, Stalker."
"S-stal—ahem, no need to put it THAT way."
Shhk—
Two daggers materialized out of thin air.
"Even I have feelings, you knooow."
"…So you ARE a tsundere?"
CRACK—
For a moment, Ji-hoon could have sworn he heard something snap — like a thread of her sanity coming loose. And the instant he thought it—
KA-KA-KRANG!
CLANG!
"Mr. Ji-hoon, get back!"
Lee Min-jae deflected the daggers and shielded Ji-hoon with his body.
"…Still not a shred of tension in you, I see, Hunter Lee Ji-hoooon?"
"Bae Yu-na. What are YOU doing here?"
"Why, you ask?"
Bae Yu-na re-gripped her daggers and ran her tongue along a blade.
"Even if I hate it, I've still gotta make money. It's work, that's all."
HUMM—
Two mana-laden daggers, and a volley of throwing blades, all hurling themselves at Team C at once.
"Everyone, careful! She's the type who pulls daggers out of thin air!"
Kim Jin-woo reacted fastest to Ji-hoon's intel.
Mana Scanning (A)!
KEEEEING—!
Kim Jin-woo's mana washed over Bae Yu-na's body — and small ripples flickered into view above her head and off to her right.
"Mr. Min-jae!"
"Haah!"
KAANG!
KANG!
Lee Min-jae swung sword and shield through the shimmering spots, and the daggers hiding in spatial folds went spinning away.
"Not bad…!"
"Hitting a pretty girl isn't my style — but!"
Kang Ki-tae, both arms bulging with enhancement, threw a haymaker.
"I've still gotta pass this exam!"
BOOM! CRASH! BOOM-BOOM!
The underbrush collapsed, and craters pockmarked the ground. As Bae Yu-na weaved desperately between Kang Ki-tae's crushing blows—
"Spirit, go!"
Kim Ji-eun channeled her spirit's power, scattering water in time with Bae Yu-na's footwork.
SPLASH!
"Huh…?"
Bae Yu-na's steps slipped and slowed on the wet ground.
"Ki-tae!"
"URRAAAH!"
KWA-BOOOM!!!
Kang Ki-tae's fist came down. A dull, bone-deep impact — and a great cloud of dust erupted.
But—
"Kgh… hee-hee!"
Bae Yu-na, three daggers drawn in the blink of an eye, grinned through the dust — blocking Kang Ki-tae's fist.
"Whaaat, this isn't what the intel said at alll."
KAANG—!
She smacked his fist away with a dagger's flat—
Whish—
—and drove a full-power kick into his now defenseless gut.
WHAM—!
"KAGH…!"
WHOOSH—
RATATAT!
KA-BOOM!
"You okay, Ki-tae?!"
"Kgh… thanks, man."
He'd been flung through the air, a heartbeat from smashing into the rocks, but Lee Min-jae rushed in and caught him. As the dust slowly settled, Bae Yu-na wiped the blood trickling from the corner of her mouth with a dagger's handle.
"This wooon't do, you knooow."
Bae Yu-na chewed on a dagger between her teeth.
"You were supposed to be weakkk. So why is everyone linking up so weeel?"
"Because we trained."
Kim Jin-woo raised his mace with a measured motion.
"Our combat ranks are only B and C, and I'm detection-class. Ji-eun and Ji-hoon are E and F. But when we can coordinate as one, that changes everything."
"We're the promising ones, baby! Trained by an actual S-Rank hunter, no less!"
As she listened to them, the corners of Bae Yu-na's mouth curled upward.
"Ohhh, I seeee. So that's how it iiiis."
Then she drew fresh daggers from the air, one after another — shk, shk.
"Baek Kang-hyun agaaain, is it?"
She was already holding six daggers.
"S-Ranks are the real problem, honestly. If you're not an S-Rank, why struggle so hard to get strong, to MAKE yourselves strong… just live the way you were born and be done with it."
Bae Yu-na flicked her wrist in a lazy arc.
"Mr. Ji-hoon!"
One of the daggers screaming past Kim Jin-woo tore through the air toward the bridge of Ji-hoon's nose like a bullet.
THUNK—!
"Kgh!"
Kang Ki-tae lunged and caught the dagger barehanded inches from Ji-hoon's face.
"Ohhhh my? Now we've got friendship toooo?"
"Ki-tae, here!"
Kim Ji-eun pulled a Supreme-Grade potion from her bag and poured it over his hand.
"Thanks!"
The moment his wound closed, Kang Ki-tae was back to cracking his joints — pop-pop-pop-pop — and squaring up for round two. Beside him, Lee Min-jae reinforced his shield while Kim Jin-woo readied another Mana Scanning.
Watching them all, Bae Yu-na let out a hollow laugh.
"So that's it… why, WHY! Why do you struggle to get strong… why do you delude yourselves into thinking you've gotten stronger!"
Haha, AHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Bae Yu-na laughed like a madwoman, and everyone facing her swallowed hard.
"This… won't do, you knooow."
Watching her mutter to herself, Ji-hoon called out to the others.
"She's about to do something. We need to stop her NOW—!"
FWIP—
Bae Yu-na's silhouette vanished.
Then she reappeared at the complete opposite end of the clearing.
"Getting strong only ends in sorrow, you know."
In Bae Yu-na's hand was a shattered test tube — something unidentifiable glistening inside the broken glass.
AAAAAAAAGH!!!!
Bae Yu-na's mana began to rage out of control.
"A mana rampage?!"
"Wait— KGH!"
KWAANG—!
Her kick slammed into Lee Min-jae's shield, and he went flying, shield and all.
"Mr. Min-jae!"
"Getting strong is useless, you know."
She drew daggers into the empty air and left them hanging there, suspended in midair.
"It only ends in sorrow."
Shk, shk-shk—
"Which is why—"
Dozens upon dozens of daggers came pouring out of thin air.
"—I'm the only one who can maintain this balance!"
Her eyes had gone bloodshot. Her mana surged upward like an explosion. She moved like a creature driven by nothing but a single raw instinct.
No way….
A possibility flashing through his mind, Ji-hoon hurriedly checked the list of monsters he'd tamed just earlier.
Slime (F-Rank)
A fragile monster, ideal for building combat fundamentals. Weak in both offense and defense. Note: the slime's mucus is dangerous if swallowed — do not eat.