Chapter 104
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: Famous Hunter Kim Geuk - [2]
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"Sister-in-law? I have no idea how to offer words of comfort."
When I spoke up, Seong Mi-ran, Im Hyeong-taek's wife, turned her head.
Her eyes were as puffy as her daughter's, signs of heavy crying.
Seeing her like that, I wasn't sure if it was surprising or a relief.
According to Im Hyeong-taek, the old man had seduced her back in his glory days as an executive at a major trading company, relying solely on his wealth and targeting her because she seemed like an easy mark—an easy convenience store part-timer.
They hadn't even had some sweet, passionate romance. From what I'd heard, it was a one-night stand that accidentally led to pregnancy and a shotgun wedding.
It was the kind of story that would get torn apart online if it ever surfaced.
Hard to believe there was any real love in a setup like that.
Still, seeing her cry like this now... maybe some affection had grown over time? I hoped so.
After chatting with her a bit, I asked,
"I heard you wanted me to pull some strings to get your daughter into the Hunter Academy. Is that still the plan...?"
And Seong Mi-ran replied.
"Why would I send Saerom there?"
"Oh, so no Hunter Academy after all?"
"Of course not! Seoul's a total wreck right now, gates popping up everywhere like crazy. Better to stay put in our Incheon apartment."
This woman sure had a foul mouth, even with someone she barely knew.
That thought crossed my mind, but on the other hand, it was a relief. If she'd stubbornly insisted on sending the kid to that damn academy, I wouldn't have known how to handle it.
After that, I stuck around to help her through the all-nighter at the funeral.
I'd done the same at Jang Byeong-gon's funeral.
Then, for a moment, I caught up with my Hunter team, chatting about this and that.
We needed to discuss future plans. When I asked what everyone intended to do next, Seong Mun-yeong said he planned to keep Hunter-ing as usual.
And Lee Jong-ho spoke up.
"I'm... thinking of retiring."
After what he'd been through, it made sense...
I nodded slowly.
"Send me your account number for the severance pay. You did good work. Thanks for everything, all around."
"No, thank you. Honestly, if it weren't for you, Kim Geuk hyung, no one would've bought my act about mental trauma. Any other team would've just called me a pussy and kicked me out..."
I patted Lee Jong-ho's shoulder, told him to let me know anytime if he changed his mind, then finally turned to Jeong Jin-yeong.
Jeong Jin-yeong had lost his right arm and left leg, but it wasn't obvious at first glance. He was wearing long sleeves and pants, and he'd even gloved up his right arm, now replaced by a force field exoskeleton. He said a transparent force field hand without a glove confused even him sometimes.
"So, Jin-yeong hyung? What's your plan now?"
"Me? Well, why...?"
"You Awakened this time around. What would be the point of sticking with my team? You need to sign an A-rank contract now too. If you need help with the process..."
When I said that, Jeong Jin-yeong mumbled vaguely.
"I... I don't really know..."
"Don't know?"
"I've made enough money already. Do I really need to keep Hunter-ing just to make more...?"
Jeong Jin-yeong seemed ready to pass up the massive paychecks an A-rank Hunter could pull in.
Not that it was weird, considering all the half-assed Special Forces wannabes out there, but I wanted to talk him out of it.
I said,
"Might be meddling, but I think you should at least sign a one-year contract and bank as much as you can."
"Why...?"
"The country's only gonna get tougher. Inflation's gonna spike, and your savings might not cut it. Better to max out now while you can, right...?"
I didn't say it outright, but with nearly half of Korea's A-rank Hunters dead, Awakener market values were about to skyrocket. And since we'd dragged in foreign Awakeners only to get a bunch killed, import costs would soar too.
Plus, letting your abilities rot in times like these would be a waste.
I gave him the gist of my thoughts, and Jeong Jin-yeong nodded.
"I'll think about it..."
After that, I attended more funerals for Hunters I'd gotten to know.
At Kim Hyeong-man's funeral, I found myself thinking.
Kim Hyeong-man had been set to take over as Hunter Association Chairman in just one more month.
He could've gone full tilt against the government with all the activism he loved. Now that was off the table. His bright future, wiped out entirely.
The other fallen kept flashing through my mind too.
Im Hyeong-taek would've attended his daughter's elementary school entrance ceremony in a few months.
Now that irresponsible woman had to raise the kid alone. He had savings, and I'd thrown in a hefty condolence payment, so money wouldn't be an issue, but still... worrisome.
Come to think of it, had Im Hyeong-taek ever asked me to look after his family if he died on a hunt? I'd have to keep an eye out from now on.
Park Ju-hun—I hadn't realized he was serious about being a Hunter Academy instructor. He probably would've been great at it. Not anymore.
He'd even been the academy's only confirmed Hunter hire. With him gone, excluding me, there wasn't a single Hunter-born instructor left at the academy. Horrifying on every level.
Attending funerals non-stop for days, pulling all-nighters every night, had left me utterly exhausted.
I crashed the second I got home.
And as always, I dreamed. The mushroom cloud over Seoul, ending in my death—that damn dream.
When I woke, I realized I felt remarkably at peace.
Normally, I'd wake up drenched in sweat, gasping from the shock of that horrific "life." Not this time.
Even after that dream again, my mind and body were serene. Why?
Was reality now so much worse that the dream didn't faze me anymore? Or had I merged so deeply with my hallucinated self that the dream's horrors no longer registered?
I didn't know. And I had no time for shrinks anyway.
I was busy. So much to do right away.
Early next morning, I got summoned by the National Security Bureau.
"Oh, Kim Geuk. You're here...?"
Baek Dam-bi, catching my eye, bowed her head tiredly in greeting. As a vital Awakener who could open gates, she'd been tied up cooperating with the bureau and missed all her colleagues' funerals.
Looking as wiped out as my round girl, a bureau official from Incheon (so I decided not to ignore him) started briefing me.
"Behemoth's still regenerating its lost tail. Inside the gate."
He was relaying observations from inside the gate so far. He continued,
"And it hasn't left Seoul either. The bastard hasn't budged an inch from that spot. So it looks like... once the tail's done, it'll come back to Seoul."
"With densely populated Japan and China right next door, it's coming back here? Why?"
The official answered my question.
"Behemoth knows about Korea's power vacuum right now. It's a spirit—it absorbs memories from the people it kills. It knows Kang Jun-chi's gone, that the air force is basically wiped out."
In other words, Behemoth figured that once it finished regenerating, Korea's current state would let it feast freely.
As I listened silently, the official went on.
"Or maybe it got badly hurt this time and wants revenge."
"It invaded us and now it's mad?"
"Think about it: humans go to slaughter a pig, pig bites back and draws blood. You gonna just accept it as karma? Nah, you'd rage, 'That fucking pig needs to die slow and painful.' Behemoth's probably the same."
Monster psychology wasn't the priority now, though. I asked,
"So, when do you think its tail will finish regenerating? When will it crawl out of the gate again?"
"Based on gate observations, about three to four months..."
I raised one eyebrow. That soon?
"Metabolism inside gates is basically halted, right? And it's regenerating in months?"
"We don't know exactly why... but it has super regeneration, and as a spirit, maybe that's why it's so fast. That's our guess..."
The official trailed off, adding that even the three-month estimate wasn't solid. Just speculation from observations—no way to pin down an exact date.
Made sense. Who could precisely gauge a monster's regeneration speed?
And Behemoth was a rock spirit to boot, so it might scavenge rocks for its outer shell during regeneration. Its tail could regrow even sooner.
We needed to bring back Kang Jun-chi before then.
"You know some team's already crossed to Somwol looking for him. And like you mentioned last time..."
"Yeah, I'll have to head out soon too."
Seok Jang-sil had branded Kang Jun-chi a spy. Now I was his closest ally.
I was best positioned to convince him, and with teleportation, I could cover wide areas in the search. No one more suited to drag him back from Somwol.
I'd held off going straight there because of funerals, severance and condolence payouts, and keeping tabs on the government's compensation for the fallen.
The next day, the government's fallen Heroes compensation plan dropped.
It hit HuntWeb too.
Not quite what I'd hoped for, but it seemed generous enough to the public.
Did the government finally get its act together? Actually giving proper compensation to the fallen for once?
This is still peanuts compared to what dead Awakeners are worth.
I figured they'd toss us crumbs and call it a day. This ain't bad...
As you can see, everyone was glued to this. They never knew when they'd be the ones leaving family behind.
Thanks to Kim Geuk growling at them? He straight-up threatened to machine-gun the National Assembly and Blue House if they skimped.
Did the government actually get scared and agree to proper comp?
Kim Geuk's track record is scary enough. Guy's got anger issues too—if he snaps, he might actually do it.
After that, it turned into a Kim Geuk hero-worship fest for a bit.
Only Kim Geuk cares about us Hunters at a time like this... Thanks for stepping up...
I almost felt good reading it, but then I stopped. My usual commenters like ElmaYaChaeyo and RockHeadYouth were MIA.
ElmaYaChaeyo, who always left polite cheers on my posts, was gone.
Seok Jang-sil, who left nice comments on everything I posted—whether to cozy up or whatever—was off HuntWeb now too.
Depressing. I nearly closed the app.
But then some posts caught my eye.
If the government's taking Kim Geuk's threats that seriously, that's bad... That interview was way too extreme.
Who else but Kim Geuk Ham could stand up to the nation like that?
Ah, OhMyJesus. I'd known he was on my team, but yeah, that was Jeong Jin-yeong hyung. Fresh A-rank badge confirmed it.
Good he stood up for Hunters, but terror threats? Overkill.
Kim Geuk's basically Korea's savior now. They wouldn't ignore polite words... Did he have to go that hard?
Politely with the Joseon government? You'd have to be nuts.
Why the Joseon slur tho;;
If Kim Geuk Ham hadn't gone full threat mode? Joseon gov would've skimped like always, no question.
But Hunters were huge this time. And with Behemoth possibly back, we'll need them again—
More precisely, Awakeners. Dragging in everyone outside Seoul? You're not an Awakener, so no skin off your back.
Non-Awakener trash like you has no right talking Behemoth—shut it.
Reading Jeong Jin-yeong's comments, I couldn't believe my eyes. What got into him?
Why steal my schtick all of a sudden? Looks bad, cut it out;;;
Even my round girl seemed thrown, and I reread Jeong Jin-yeong's posts in shock.
Hyung was mild-mannered in real life, but on HuntWeb too, right? These aggressive posts didn't sound like the guy who only ever praised me...
The "Joseon government" digs, trash-talking the nation, reminded me of Kang Jun-chi ranting about Gaetgang-gu.
And "non-Awakener trash"? Newly Awakened and already like this?
Well... a little thought, and it clicked why.
This mess hit him hard.
Guess: he blamed the government for summoning Awakener Hunter teams, dragging us Incheon folks to Seoul—which he saw as the real cause of our team deaths.
Should I jump in and talk him down? I was debating when—
A message hit my HuntWeb account.
Kim Geuk hyung, can you help me out right now?
It was Hanhee.
No clue what she needed, but I didn't have to ask.
Anything. Just say the word!
If you're helping, can you come to the spot I mention...?
Hanhee begged me to come as fast as possible if I could, and to arrive at the meetup without being seen by anyone.
Why the stealth? Worried Special Forces seniors would hassle her for hanging with me, the guy who trashed the whole unit?
Weird, but I obliged.
Teleportation hadn't leveled up as fast as my Physical Enhancement or force field exoskeleton, so pure teleports to her spot were dicey. But a quick taxi ride, then spamming teleports till my head spun, got me there fast.
A lone container warehouse sat at the location Hanhee named.
As she'd stressed, I teleported straight inside.
Then I froze. What the hell?
First thing I saw: five corpses. In Special Forces uniforms.
Hanhee stood dazed among them.
Only when she saw me did emotion flicker across her face, turning tearful as she asked,
"Wh-what do I do now...?"