Hae-na (3)
Cradled against the huge, soft expanse of Hae-na's flesh, I found myself thinking of my mother's embrace from childhood, a cozy warmth settling over me.
Her gaze met mine.
"Ah, seriously! What do you think you're doing!"
Hae-na shoved me away, pressing her palm over the nipple that had slipped into view.
"...I'm sorry."
While the two of us had been tangled up together, the crowd—having confirmed the orc was gone—had trickled back in and begun to cluster around Hae-na and me.
A low buzz of murmurs rippled through them.
"Oh! Over there!"
Just then, I saw a squad's worth of hunters filing into the pool area.
Each one carried a lethal blade slung over a shoulder, eyes glittering—an imposing sight, to say the least.
A pursuit team?
At the head of the pack, a middle-aged man radiating by far the most powerful aura came toward me.
The mouth of the canvas sack slung over his shoulder gaped open just enough for me to glimpse its contents: the severed head of the orc that had bolted earlier.
His piercing gaze swept from me to Hae-na and back again.
"Were the two of you the ones who stopped the orc?"
The man's booming voice echoed through the pool like a bell.
In answer to his question, Hae-na rose from her spot without a word and walked straight into the locker room.
With her ties to the underworld, the whole situation was an awkward one for her.
With Hae-na gone, every remaining pair of eyes swung toward me.
Left with no choice, I faced the middle-aged man myself.
"By the way, who are you?"
"Ah, forgive my late introduction. I'm Park Hyun-taek of the Invincible Guild. Please, feel free to call me Eagle."
Short-haired and hard-featured, Park Hyun-taek exuded the crisp discipline of a man who'd spent years in uniform.
"A pleasure. I'm Maeng Su-ho. To answer your question—yes, I was the one who dealt with the orc."
Park Hyun-taek offered his thanks with a slight nod.
"The pack scattered as they fled, so we let a few slip through our net. It's fortunate you happened to be here, Hunter Maeng. No other civilian casualties, I trust?"
"Fortunately, it doesn't look like it."
At my words, he let out a breath of relief.
"Whew... if you hadn't been here, this truly would have been a disaster."
That rang true for the civilians—and just as true for the Invincible Guild.
The pursuit team's hunters, by contrast, seemed to have grown curious about the man who'd tangled with an orc without so much as a scratch, their eyes traveling back and forth between me and the corpse.
Definitely a high-tier hunter. Snapped the orc's neck in one move—without a weapon.
Taking on two adult orcs required strength on the level of B-Class at minimum.
In truth, Hae-na had handled one of them, but they had no way of knowing that.
"That said, I know every B-Class hunter and above by sight, and yours is a new face to me."
Park Hyun-taek asked on behalf of the curious hunters. He wasn't a man who beat around the bush.
"Naturally. I'm a C-Class hunter."
"Come now. Bringing down two adult orcs takes at least B-Class strength. You should be sitting for the promotion exam before long."
At the same time, a hungry light turned in Park Hyun-taek's eyes—the look of a hawk that had scented its quarry.
"Tell me, Hunter Maeng Su-ho—do you belong to a guild?"
"I'm still unaffiliated, actually."
Park Hyun-taek produced a business card from his breast pocket and held it out.
"This is abrupt, I know, but the truth is I handle talent recruitment for the Invincible Guild."
The card read: Park Hyun-taek, Director, Invincible Guild.
"A mid-tier guild like ours is always starving for new talent. And having witnessed your skills with my own eyes, I find myself wanting you all the more. Haha."
The man who'd seemed like a stoic army officer had turned salesman in the space of a breath.
"We'll match the best treatment in the industry, so..."
I cut him off.
"Well... I haven't given guilds any thought yet."
The Invincible Guild. I'd heard of it.
A mid-tier guild with roughly 150 hunters under its banner.
In my previous life, even small-time guilds wouldn't spare me a glance; now a director of a mid-tier guild was bowing low to court me.
The change struck me as novel all over again.
But my current value couldn't be satisfied with settling for this much.
Joining a mid-tier guild and shackling myself to a contract would be a fool's choice.
Blissfully unaware of my thoughts, Park Hyun-taek kept staring at me with shining eyes.
A hunter that young, with at least B-Class strength... I've found a genuine gem.
Unnerved by the weight of his stare, I took a small step back.
"Ah, and as for the rights to the two orc carcasses—shall I have them appraised and wire the payment to your Association-registered account?"
In truth, the one that had run was caught by Park Hyun-taek himself, but he offered it out of gratitude for the bloodshed I'd prevented.
It was bait, too—groundwork for luring Maeng Su-ho into the Invincible Guild.
I nodded.
"I'd appreciate that."
An orc corpse fetched 30 million won apiece.
Two of them meant an effortless 60 million won in my pocket.
Maeng Su-ho didn't have a single won saved up, and that had been a problem—this couldn't have worked out better.
Perhaps because he burned through money, Maeng Su-ho owned a top-of-the-line foreign car and an apartment, yet his account held no cash whatsoever.
"Think nothing of it. We're the ones who should be thanking you."
Had there been so much as one casualty, the Invincible Guild—guilty of letting the orcs slip away—might well have faced disciplinary action.
Su-ho was, without question, the guild's benefactor.
"Oh dear, look at the time already... We really must be getting back. A shame—but you simply must join me for a drink next time."
Park Hyun-taek smacked his lips in regret, his eyes fixed on me to the very last.
Hunter Maeng Su-ho... I'll be remembering that name.
Park Hyun-taek was resolved to reel him into the guild, whatever it took.
I'd left the pool area ahead of her, and now I kept sneaking glances toward the entrance of the women's changing room, waiting to catch Hae-na on her way out.
While I waited, boredom got the better of me and I opened my status window.
Click.
◈ Effect: Attack Power +2
I'd picked up the orc's dagger earlier and stowed it away in my inventory.
Click.
Resell to Shop: 2 EXP
Huh... only 2 EXP?
Anything stored in my inventory could be resold to the shop.
It's no high-grade dagger, but rather than sell it for a measly 2 EXP, I might as well just keep it.
I needed a weapon anyway.
Cancel it. Cancel.
Around then, I spotted Hae-na stepping outside.
Changed out of her swimsuit and into casual everyday clothes, she looked absolutely adorable.
She wore a boxy tee with a cartoon character stamped across the chest and a pair of ripped jeans—but the denim strained so hard against her massive hips and thick thighs that it looked ready to burst at the seams.
However snugly she bundled herself up, that voluptuous figure simply refused to be hidden, still radiating its shameless allure.
By contrast, the small head with its sharp, clean jawline didn't quite seem to belong to the rest of her oversized frame.
Her hair pulled back and her forehead bared with easy confidence, she was pretty.
Those clear, limpid eyes looked purer and more untouched than anything else in the world.
Why on earth would a woman like that join the Yisu Gang?
Her golden hair, washed in the glow of the setting sun, took on an even more mystical air.
"...You're pretty."
I'd meant it as a private thought, but it slipped out loud before I could stop it.
Judging by her expression, she'd heard me—and she didn't seem to mind one bit.
I strode up to her and held out a can of coffee, still sweating with cold.
"Coffee? Want it? It's cold."
I added with a shrug,
"It was buy-one-get-one."
She snorted a laugh and took the can.
"Well then, don't mind if I do."
Glug. Glug.
"Ahhh!"
She drained the can in one go, let out a groan of bliss like a middle-aged man fresh out of the bathhouse, and swiped her lips clean.
Those vivid red, neatly-shaped lips made it sheer agony to hold back the urge to kiss her on the spot.
"That hit the spot."
She extended her long white fingers and passed me the empty can.
Click. Click.
I stared blankly after her retreating figure in those low-heeled shoes.
Tch. And here I'd been hoping to get by without using it...
Click.
I pulled the item from my inventory and let it drop over the back of her head.
Charm Powder used.
The target's sexual attraction toward the user is amplified tenfold.
This was my second time using Charm Powder—the first had been on Lim Yeon-hee.
With a resounding whooosh, an effect of swirling violet powder blossomed into the air.
Tap.
The woman walking away from me stopped dead in her tracks.
Did it work?
Or was it just my imagination?
For a second, she looked ready to whirl around and come running straight at me.
Huh?
But contrary to my hopes, she simply picked her steps back up.
Click, click.
She pushed through the revolving door at the exit and was gone.
The moment she stepped outside, a big black sedan—apparently waiting for her—glided up and stopped at her side.
Watching her vanish into the car without a backward glance, I murmured under my breath.
"So much for getting close to Hae-na."
My plan—befriend Hae-na, Jang Yi-soo's confidante, then siphon out the Yisu Gang's internal secrets—had burst, cleanly and completely, like a soap bubble.
Then again... this is the first time I've been shot down even after using Charm Powder, isn't it?
I'd shared my bed with a good number of women by now.
Tumbling them into it had never been particularly difficult, item or no item.
And yet Hae-na had become the first woman I couldn't reel in even with the item.
From the looks of it, I hadn't shaken her so much as a hair.
So what now?
My avenues for approaching Jang Yi-soo, a man of the underworld, were limited as it was.
I'll have to redraw the revenge plan. But before that...
The memory of her plush, bare skin against mine from earlier still bloomed vividly behind my closed eyes.
And it set my lust boiling all over again.
"That guy—isn't that the hunter from before?"
I was still standing there at the pool entrance.
"Kyaa! Up close he's even more gorgeous! Oh my, oh my, what do I do!"
The women who'd spotted me slapped at their friends' arms, squealing and fussing.
"Wow... look at those proportions! Is he a model?"
Breaking past level 7 had pushed both my looks and charm stats well beyond 30.
Unless a woman was a special case like Hae-na, there wasn't one I couldn't seduce.
Hmm... I'm in the mood for sex. Time to pick one of these girls and take her to a motel.
As luck would have it, most of the women streaming out of the pool right now were pretty, with bodies to match.
I singled out the one who caught my eye and spoke up.
"Excuse me."
She was petite, but her trim, well-maintained figure turned heads.
"Hm? Me?"
With a face pretty enough that, a few years younger, she could have debuted front and center in an idol group, she turned to me with a delighted look.
"Yes, you. If you're not busy, how about a cup of coffee—"
Before I could even finish, she answered at full volume.
"Yes! Love to!"
Thud.
The door of my red sports car swung shut.
In the passenger seat sat the woman, cheeks flushed pink with shyness.
Her tiny frame meant the seat had to be slid all the way forward.
The navigation system's robotic voice filled the car.
"Estimated travel time: seven minutes. Destination: Jaja Motel."
