Don't Get Any Weird Ideas
The moment morning lectures ended, I found myself yanked along by Senior Arang’s grip, hauled off somewhere without so much as a word of explanation.
She’d grabbed the back of my collar the second I stepped out of the classroom, tossed me into her car, loaded all my gear into the trunk, and started driving. Being treated like luggage and essentially kidnapped left me too stunned to speak for a good ten minutes. Only when we were stopped at a traffic light did I finally raise a hand and ask, quietly,
“Senior… where are we going?”
“You remember what I said? That if you only looked at raw power, you’d already be around C-class.”
“Yeah.”
“So is it really okay for a C-class-level hunter to keep hanging around Eunma Apartment forever? Time to graduate. You’ve already filled every quota there. Just bring the attendance sheet to the Hunter Bureau and they’ll promote you to C-class on the spot, right?”
“Uh… so we’re heading to the Hunter Bureau?”
“No. Guro. Specifically, the Guro Train Depot.”
“Huh?”
The Guro Train Depot? Out of nowhere?
I tilted my head. Senior Arang kept her eyes on the road and answered casually.
“The place where all the subway cars are stored. You know— the rail yard.”
“Yeah, that’s the one. Word is dungeonification signs started showing up a few days ago.”
“Ah… I’d heard about that. So that’s where we’re going right now?”
Guro Train Depot.
I’d never been there myself, but the rumors said it triggered dungeonification more often than any other yard, which meant hunters were constantly being dispatched.
A rail yard full of Line 1 trains… the ones people say only the strong survive… turning into a dungeon?
Eunma Apartment was already a complete nightmare. What kind of hell would a place packed with those infamous Line 1 cars actually be?
Just imagining it made me want to turn around.
“Anyway, since we’re heading there, I figured I’d let my cute junior get a real taste of C- to B-class hunting.”
“Ahh… but is that actually safe?”
“It’s fine. Those things usually shut up once you beat them enough.”
“That’s not what I meant…”
Clearing a rail yard was work for average C- to B-class hunters. Was a D-class like me really supposed to be tagging along?
The tension must have shown on my face, because Senior Arang burst out laughing.
“Heheheh, look at this little chicken. Relax. You’re more than enough. Just do everything the way I’ve taught you and you’ll survive. Don’t worry.”
“…”
Hearing her say that only made me more nervous.
I wanted to push back, but the words wouldn’t come out.
Seeing my expression, she casually patted her own hip as if to say everything would be fine.
“Other hunters might show up or they might not. Either way, I’ll tell those bastards and the depot staff that you’re my assistant, so stick close to me. Got it? Depending on how things go I might change my mind, but for today just think of it as a field trip. Don’t go running off and doing anything stupid.”
“Yes… haah…”
That, at least, was a relief.
Knowing Senior Arang’s personality, I’d half-expected her to throw me into the middle of the yard and say, “If you live, great. If you die, you were never cut out for this anyway.” Apparently she wasn’t quite that cold.
I was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when she suddenly whipped her head toward me, as if she absolutely had to get one more thing off her chest.
“Just so you know— if this were the usual me, I wouldn’t have cut you any slack! Normally I’d have tossed you in first and called it ‘experience’! I’m going easy on you today, got it?!”
“I know. But why bring that up all of a sudden? Feeling a little self-conscious, Senior? Or maybe… heh heh.”
Even a tomboy like her wasn’t completely without feelings, I figured.
I tapped my lips with a finger and gave her the most suggestive grin I could manage. Her face instantly flushed the same deep red I’d seen in the bathroom earlier, and she glared daggers at me.
“Hey… what the hell is that filthy smile?”
“Nothing… it’s just, I always thought of you as pure tomboy, but you’re actually kind of girlish about this sort of thing, huh?”
“Wh-whaaaaaat?!”
The moment the smooth answer left my mouth, her ears turned scarlet and she started sputtering.
“Y-you! Don’t go getting any weird ideas! The k-kiss in the bathroom was just repayment! You said you’d keep helping me find that bastard, so I was grateful, that’s all! I absolutely, positively do not have any weird feelings for you! So don’t you go thinking anything weird either!”
“Yes.”
Delicious.
Watching the usually unflappable senior scramble to explain herself made the urge to tease her even stronger. I grinned wider and asked,
“So what exactly counts as a ‘weird idea’?”
“Huh? A w-weird idea is a weird idea!”
“Yeah, but what specifically is weird? For example… hmm…”
“Y-you shut that mouth…!”
“For example… that Senior Arang gave me her first kiss, or something— wait, aaaaaah?!”
Vrrrrroooom—!!!
This car could hit zero-to-sixty in under four seconds!
“Hey, this isn’t exactly a place where you can just floor it!”
“You little shit, I told you not to think weird things! You looking to die for real?!”
“I got it! I got it already, so slow down— Senior, the car in front of us?! We’re actually going to die!”
Whoever said the mouth is the hole that invites disaster was right on the money.
Cursing my own greed for poking the bear, I clung to the passenger-side grab handle and screamed.
A little while later we arrived at the Guro Train Depot. After gearing up, Senior and I hurried into the yard where the dungeonification signs had been reported.
“Whoa… we’re supposed to cover this whole place?”
“Yeah. Normally we’d be patrolling with a bunch of other hunters, but for some reason nobody else showed up today.”
“That’s why the maintenance staff let me in so easily, huh.”
I could still feel the employee’s doubtful stare when I mentioned I was only D-class. The look had basically said, “We’re short-handed so we’ll use you, and since Senior Arang brought you as her assistant we’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.” It left a bitter taste, but I’d already decided to do my best. I looked around the yard like a country kid seeing Seoul for the first time.
Senior Arang walked up beside me.
“What are you rubbernecking for like a meerkat? Did you think a yard full of Line 1 trains would literally look like hell?”
“Yeah… it’s way quieter and more peaceful than I imagined. Completely unexpected…”
“Right? I thought the same thing the first time I came.”
“You did?”
“Yep. I ran in all excited, picturing the Line 1 cars wriggling around like giant centipedes. Then the only thing moving was one single rail on the ground twitching like a worm. Total letdown.”
She gazed at the tracks with a nostalgic look.
I stretched and let her have her little memory moment. A short while later she clapped her hands sharply to get my attention.
“Alright. Stick right behind me. I’ll explain the rest as we go.”
“Yes.”
I glued myself to her back.
Senior Arang raised the massive double-bladed axe in one hand and the greatsword in the other, pointing them around the yard like arrow markers.
“Continuing from earlier— unlike Eunma Apartment where you used to clock in, this place rarely turns into the kind of chaos you’re imagining. No skeleton spiders. No exploding cockroaches.”
“And no giant kestrels aiming for my head.”
“Exactly. The reason they still demand C- to B-class hunters is because the rare incidents that do happen are way too much for D-class, and because this place asks for a lot of things D-class hunters usually lack.”
“Things D-class usually lack?”
It couldn’t just be raw stats.
I hummed, trying to figure it out, but nothing clear came to mind. Instinct? Gut feeling, maybe?
“Well? Figured it out yet?”
“Nope. Not a single thing.”
“Hey! I waited patiently because you looked so serious, and this is how you repay me?!”
She hopped in place out of sheer frustration.
Apparently she’d actually expected me to land on the right answer. The way she looked at me said she was one second away from giving me a solid knuckle to the skull. I laughed awkwardly. She sighed.
“Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much either.”
“Then why the jumping just now…”
“Quiet. Anyway… you were probably thinking something like sharp senses, intuition, instinct, right?”
“Hah…?!”
How did she know?
Seeing my shocked face, she spun the double-bladed axe in her hand with a mischievous grin.
“Not completely wrong. A hunter absolutely needs sharp senses and intuition. Instinct goes without saying. But that’s not the full answer.”
If this had been a ten-point essay question, she’d have given me a seven or eight, she added. I swallowed and asked,
“Then what’s the real answer?”
“I’ll give you a hint. Try again!”
With that, she suddenly hurled the axe somewhere into the distance.
A hint? Why throw the axe? And where the hell did it go?
Thud—!!
-Grrrrr….!!
The wet, brutal sound of flesh and bone being crushed, followed by a pained groan, made my eyes fly open.
It wasn’t the sound of blood and meat flying that shocked me.
We’d come here precisely because dungeonification signs had been found— to locate and eliminate trains or facilities that were turning into monsters.
But I hadn’t seen a single strange creature the whole way here…!
That was the real reason I was stunned.
How had Senior Arang spotted it when I hadn’t seen anything at all?
I turned toward the source of the noise and was forced to be surprised all over again.
“Whoa…?!”
-Giaaaaaaaa….!!
A train wheel was screaming and writhing.
It wasn’t some weird bug bursting out like at Eunma Apartment. One perfectly ordinary-looking wheel now had Senior’s axe buried in what passed for its head. It howled in agony and belched black smoke.
“It was camouflaged as a normal wheel…?!”
“So. Do you roughly get what D-class hunters tend to lack?”
I nodded.
“Insight. The eye to tell ordinary objects from monsters that are disguising themselves as ordinary objects.”
“Heh. ‘Seeing is believing’ exists for moments exactly like this!”
Slash—!!
Grinning like a predator who’d just heard the correct answer, Senior Arang ripped the axe free from the wheel with a savage yank.