He Scolded an S-Rank Boss
The Situation Room of the Awakening Management Bureau descended into chaos.
"F-Rank Gate — reclassifying to S-Rank!"
"Gate exit confirmed sealed!"
"Seventeen people trapped inside — collection team, trainees, and standby hunters included!"
"Boss entity confirmed!"
Dozens of monitors blazed with red warning lights all at once. And at the very center of it all stood the Head of Team 1 at the Korea Awakening Management Bureau — the first S-Rank in the nation's history, and still its strongest hunter — Baek Kang-hyun, already cinching his scabbard to his belt.
"What kind of boss?"
"A griffin."
"Its rank?"
"S-Rank."
"Condition of the survivors inside?"
"Communications are unstable. We were picking up life signals until just moments ago."
"Is a strike team being assembled?"
"Three C-Rank hunters on standby nearby were already inside, but against an S-Rank, engagement is out of the question."
Baek Kang-hyun nodded. "I'm going in."
"Branch Chief, entering alone is dangerous."
The situation room officer hammered at his keyboard, pulling up charts and graphs. "The gate's mana is unstable — there's no telling what could happen. We've prepared recovery items for you, but they may not be enough."
"If the mana's unstable, regular monsters could pour out along with the boss. If they swarm us and it turns into a war of attrition—"
"Irrelevant. An S-Rank gate just materialized — and it opened inside an F-Rank gate that had already been cleared."
Clack.
"If people trapped inside die while you're busy assembling a strike team, how exactly will you take responsibility for that?"
"Still... the support team could be ready in thirty minutes..."
"And nothing guarantees the people inside can hold out for those thirty minutes."
Baek Kang-hyun kept it brief. "Send the support team the moment it's ready. I'm going ahead."
Every staff member in the room fell silent at once. There weren't many S-Rank hunters in South Korea, and among them, Baek Kang-hyun was a combat-type in a league of his own.
All-Weapon.
Sword, spear, bow, axe, shield, greatsword — even the whip. A unique combat trait that allowed him to wield any weapon he could hold at a master's level of proficiency. Since the first gates had appeared, he had served under the Bureau's banner and shut down countless emergencies. It was only natural he'd be the first one called in a situation like this.
"Understood, Branch Chief... Clear a landing route!"
"Landing route opening now!"
A path through the sky tore open, stretching in a straight line from the Bureau's Situation Room all the way to the gate.
Baek Kang-hyun calmly gathered teal mana at the tips of his toes. "Once inside, I'll assess the situation and engage only if necessary. Keep analyzing the cause of the sealed exit in the meantime."
"Understood!"
WHOOM—!
Stepping on a platform of condensed mana, Baek Kang-hyun shot through the open air. He reached the gate entrance in the blink of an eye, where the crowd recognized him and erupted into cheers, shouting things he had no time to answer one by one.
"Hunter Baek Kang-hyun! The gate's already been clear—"
"Yes, thank you."
He brushed straight past them and dove into the gate.
"...Something feels off."
Damp air filled his lungs. The mana concentration inside was unmistakably S-Rank — a pressure like needles dragging across his skin. For an ordinary hunter, even breathing would have been a struggle at this density.
Baek Kang-hyun drew his sword. The boss room is that way.
He broke into a run. The deeper he went, the wilder the mana grew. The walls were shattered, and work equipment and collection bags lay scattered across the floor. Near the entrance, a crowd of people had gathered.
"Is everyone all right?"
As he approached, the on-site supervisor seized him with a face on the verge of tears. "H-Hunter Baek Kang-hyun!"
"Situation report, please."
"Well... it's been cleared."
I'm sorry — what?
"What exactly do you mean by that?"
"Right before you came in... it was cleared."
"By whom?"
"Th-that is..."
"Are there any injuries? Any casualties?"
"No, sir. Everyone's completely fine."
An S-Rank gate had been cleared — and not a single person was hurt? The gate itself wasn't even damaged? No craters in the ground, no shattered stone, no scorched or splintered trees anywhere.
Baek Kang-hyun's eyes narrowed. "The boss never attacked the people?"
The supervisor opened his mouth, then closed it again. "Well, you see..."
"Speak quickly."
"It tried to attack, but..."
"But?"
"An F-Rank trainee stopped it."
"......"
For a moment, Baek Kang-hyun was certain he had misheard. "Say that again."
"An F-Rank trainee stopped the boss."
"How?"
"With words."
A long silence followed. Baek Kang-hyun simply stared at the supervisor, who threw both hands up as though protesting his own innocence.
"I don't know why I'm saying this either!"
At that point, one of the C-Rank hunters nearby cut in. "It's true. We attacked and nothing landed. And the instant the boss was about to go berserk, that trainee stepped in front of it."
"An F-Rank?"
"Yes."
"In front of an S-Rank boss — a griffin?"
"Yes."
"Is he alive?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"If we knew the answer to that, would we be standing around out here?"
Baek Kang-hyun's brow creased slightly. Mind control.
The possibility existed. Certain high-grade monsters possessed abilities that clouded human minds — and for a boss entity of S-Rank or above, puppeting a single F-Rank hunter would hardly be difficult. The reason could be nothing more than a boss's idle amusement. Undead-type monsters that brainwashed humans purely to play with them like toys were a documented fact.
If it truly was mind control, he needed to extract the man fast.
"What's the trainee's name?"
"Lee Ji-hoon."
"He is a tamer, technically — but he's only F-Rank, so..."
The hunter's voice trailed off vaguely, and Baek Kang-hyun nodded as though he understood exactly what that meant. An F-Rank tamer. For a fraction of a second, the thought flickered through his mind that perhaps the man had tamed the boss — and just as quickly, he dismissed it. Impossible.
Steeling himself, Baek Kang-hyun walked slowly toward the boss room, gathering mana at the tip of his blade. If his opponent was the king of the skies, the griffin, then his very first strike had to target the wings. Nothing was harder to bring down than a flying monster once it seized the advantage of mobility.
That was the calculation running through his head as he rounded the corner —
"So this redness in your eye — that's poison, isn't it? It's poison, right?"
[I... cannot say for certain whether it is poison or merely some impurity, Master...]
"Potato, po-tah-to. Either way — who fed it to you?"
[I do not know.... When I came to my senses, I was already here...]
A man who looked like one of the F-Rank trainees was standing in front of the griffin. And not just standing there. Arms crossed, nagging.
The S-Rank boss monster had its head hung low. Wings drawn in tight against its body, it was glancing around meekly, gauging the man's mood.
What am I looking at?
In all the gates he had ever cleared, Baek Kang-hyun had never once witnessed a scene like this. An S-Rank boss and an F-Rank hunter. Predator and prey. Catastrophe and civilian. When those two came face to face, only one picture was normal: flight, screaming, death.
Ten years ago, when the first gates had appeared — when they had collapsed — how many people had been sacrificed? His own younger sister, back then...
And that was precisely why Baek Kang-hyun couldn't believe his own eyes. It looked, for all the world, like a massive dog that had gotten into trouble and its exasperated owner.
Baek Kang-hyun approached slowly. "Lee Ji-hoon, I presume?"
Ji-hoon turned his head. "Ah, looks like the cavalry's here."
"Baek Kang-hyun, of the Awakening Management Bureau."
"Oh! The S-Rank hunter, Baek Kang-hyun?"
"The same."
A faint light sparked in Ji-hoon's eyes. "Whoa. First time seeing a real S-Rank."
"Step back."
"Sorry?"
"Get away from that monster."
Baek Kang-hyun's blade leveled at the griffin — and in that instant, Poppi's eyes narrowed to slits. Mana began to seep slowly from beneath his wings.
Ji-hoon's hand shot up. "Hey. Stay."
[But, Master...]
"Stay. We're not causing trouble, are we, Poppi?"
[That is... yes... understood.]
Poppi lowered his head again — and Baek Kang-hyun did not miss it.
It responds to commands?
A real taming? No — it couldn't be viewed that simply.
"Lee Ji-hoon. I need to verify that you are in your right mind."
"Me?"
"That monster is the boss of an S-Rank gate. There is a possibility you've been brainwashed."
"Oh, I'm not brainwashed."
"That is what nearly all brainwashed people say."
"I mean, fair point..."
"So step aside. I will confirm it myself."
Baek Kang-hyun took one step forward. Poppi's beak parted a fraction of an inch.
Grrrrr.
Blue mana coalesced along Baek Kang-hyun's sword. "Consider this your warning. Move, and I cut."
[Do not threaten my Master.]
Poppi channeled mana into his beak and thrust it out, menace radiating from every golden feather. And in that instant — Baek Kang-hyun moved.
BOOM!
His teal blade-light slammed into the massive mana-laden beak. Then the shockwave detonated outward — KWA-KWA-KWA-KWAAM—!!!!
Poppi spread his wings, and golden feathers scattered into dozens of blades. Baek Kang-hyun didn't retreat. The sword in his hand became a spear in the space of a heartbeat, and he spun the shaft, batting the incoming feathers out of the air.
KAGAGAGAGAK!
A rapid-fire chorus of metal shrieked through the chamber. Having recalled the spear — now a shield in his grip — Baek Kang-hyun raised the teal bulwark just as another volley of Poppi's feathers came screaming toward him. KAANG— KAKAANG—!
Sweeping his shield to fling the last feathers aside, Baek Kang-hyun kicked off the ground and bored in toward Poppi's right wing. Poppi twisted his body, raised his left leg, extended his talons — and caught the blade on them.
KWAAAM—!!!!
A shockwave erupted. The boss room shuddered. An ornament ripped free of the ceiling and slammed into the floor. KA-KUKUWOONG, KWANG!
"Hey, hold on, hold on!!"
Ji-hoon pressed a hand to his forehead. "Hunter Baek Kang-hyun!"
Baek Kang-hyun answered without slowing in the slightest. "Speak!"
"People tell you you've got a bad temper a lot, don't they?"
"..."
Baek Kang-hyun's movements stalled for the briefest instant. KAANG—!
"What are you saying?!"
"Stubborn too, always acting on your own judgment — no wonder you've got no friends!"
By now Baek Kang-hyun had simply settled into his stance and turned his head toward Ji-hoon entirely. "Is any of that helping resolve the situation?"
"It's helping plenty! You think a brainwashed man would pick a fight with an S-Rank hunter?"
"..."
Baek Kang-hyun's eyebrow twitched, and Ji-hoon seized the opening without mercy. "And look — I know you came in here to save people, so how about actually listening to one? If I were really brainwashed, I'd have told that griffin 'kill them all,' not 'stay put,' wouldn't I?"
"For all we know, the order was to act like—"
"There it is. See? Stubborn."
"..."
Sword still raised, Baek Kang-hyun turned to look at Poppi. "Poppi. I told you not to fight."
[I feared harm would come to you, Master... My apologies.]
Baek Kang-hyun asked, "It speaks, too."
"Well, yes. Obviously."
"A taming skill?"
"Uh... let's just go with that, sure."
An F-Rank tamer. An S-Rank boss monster. If this were brainwashing, Ji-hoon's words and actions were far too unrestrained. He didn't look like a man paralyzed by fear. He looked, if anything, too natural — unafraid even in the middle of a clash between S-Rank-tier powers, as though none of this were unusual at all.
And above all —
That griffin is holding back its attacks.
The brief exchange just now had settled it. The griffin had only been trying to shield Ji-hoon.
Baek Kang-hyun slowly lowered his sword. "It seems you're not brainwashed, at any rate."
"See?"
"However, I do not consent to your earlier remarks about my personality."
"Oh. That hurt your feelings, huh."
"I have feelings too, you know."
"I'll be more careful next time."
"Yes, well... some of it was not entirely inaccurate."
Baek Kang-hyun let out a long sigh. Then he looked at Poppi again.
"An S-Rank boss monster... obeying a human's word."
Had anything like this ever happened before? Of course it hadn't.
"Report this to the Bureau and it's going to get very, very loud."
"Let's get everyone out first. They're all still locked in here."
He'd already received the gate-clear notification a moment ago, after all. Now they just needed to head out, check the clear rewards...
"One moment."
Baek Kang-hyun stopped him. "Lee Ji-hoon. Do you understand what it means to walk out of here with that griffin?"
"What it means?"
"That is an S-Rank boss monster."
"It is, isn't it."
Ji-hoon looked up at Poppi, who was still sitting there obediently — golden wings folded, head tilted slightly down, watching him.
To Ji-hoon, Poppi was the eldest of Hell Farm. Poppi, who had wailed with his food bowl knocked clean over. Poppi, who would go sheepish for days whenever he got caught sneaking snacks. Poppi, who was always the first to plant himself in front of any monster foolish enough to bully his younger siblings.
Loyal. Dependable. A comrade and family member of one hundred years.
But to everyone else?
"Ah."
And with a slightly awkward expression, he muttered, "Now that you mention it... he's a boss monster, isn't he?"
Well, this was a problem.
"Hmm, could you maybe put some perception-blocking magic or something on—"
"I'm not a mage-type hunter, so..."
"Aren't S-Rank hunters supposed to be able to do pretty much everything?"
"That's prejudice. There's plenty I can't do either."
This was genuinely a problem.