Chapter 29

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Translator: Ace

Chapter: 029

Chapter Title: Good-for-Nothings [3]

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Seong Mun-yeong's face crumpled into a scowl as I kept making him fire at me.

And I tried catching the incoming bullets with my hand or dodging them, but it didn't go so well. On the last attempt, I stuck my finger out first and ended up losing just one segment of it.

"Ah, fuck, seriously!"

Even more distraught than me with my severed finger, Seong Mun-yeong wailed in agony. Watching him scream like he was dying of pain cracked me up so hard I couldn't stop laughing.

In the end, since Seong Mun-yeong declared he couldn't take it anymore, my training wrapped up earlier than planned.

An hour after he bolted, claiming he needed to work out, we reunited at the academy gym, and his face turned pale as a ghost.

"What, why are you back at the academy?"

"To work out. What, you think I came to play DFO?"

"You lost a finger and you're working out? It looks like it's only half regenerated... are you insane...?"

I ignored his freak-out and got to my routine. With help from Instructor Yang, who was no longer charging me extra, I started strength training. I repeatedly lowered a barbell so heavy that four regular people couldn't lift it...

"Whoa, that's insanely tough..."

The number of onlookers gawking or filming me on their phones had quadrupled compared to a few months ago, as I pushed my body to the brink.

I'd been hustling to promote this place, and word got out that even as a full-fledged hunter, I came here every day to train. Despite the pricey tuition, enrollment had skyrocketed tenfold, or so I'd heard.

The director had told me in a thrilled voice that they now had to split classes into morning and afternoon sessions because of the surge.

During a break from exhausting myself with workouts, Seong Mun-yeong handed me a bottle of water, which I chugged down. Once it was empty, he spoke up.

"Hyung, you're already taking down spirits and force field bodies single-handedly, right? Especially that force field body from the big gate last time—even veteran A-rank hunters couldn't handle it. They said if you hadn't gotten it then, no one knew how they would've priced out the job."

"Praise coming out of that rude mouth of yours sounds pretty nice. Keep going."

"No, I'm not trying to praise you... Hyung, didn't you say after taking down that flame spirit, your sexual function seemed to come back a bit?"

"Yeah. The hospital tests showed it's basically azoospermia, so no kids, but they said I could still enjoy it. So?"

"Then go have fun with some girls when you have time. You're basically max level as an A-rank hunter at this point. Why keep training like a masochist?"

I had no idea where he got that nonsense.

"I'm not max level yet."

"How do you know?"

Instead of answering, I recalled the vision I'd seen before. Baek Dam-bi getting captured by those otherworlders and dragged into the gate. And my own pathetic state with my legs hacked off by them.

Just like in that vision, Baek Dam-bi was still neck-and-neck with Jeong Jin-yeong for the title of quietest in the team.

Still, there were some subtle changes since then.

She'd occasionally start a conversation with me first, which was rare before. Nowadays, when team members got stuck on something due to ignorance, she stepped up to teach them without being asked.

Probably, to Baek Dam-bi, our team felt way better than her old one.

Of course, things between her and me were still awkward. We weren't dating, or even close friends, really.

But since her attitude had softened a tad, my feelings toward her had shifted a bit too. If that vision came true, it'd feel utterly horrific. No doubt about it.

Afterward, with the onlookers' gasps and Seong Mun-yeong's nagging as my soundtrack, I was taking another break mid-workout.

Fiddling with his smartphone, Seong Mun-yeong muttered.

"Oh, a post went up on HuntWeb."

"Knighto?"

"Yeah, that guy. Looks like something happened today; he posted about it.

Comments were already piling up. I added a few lines of my own.

I was enjoying the comments and reactions when Seong Mun-yeong muttered in disgust.

"Hyung, why do you even..."

I looked up and met his eyes. Bewilderment crossed his face, and he asked,

"No way, do you always write in Baby Mushroom voice with such a stern, serious face?"

"What does my face look like right now?"

"You look pretty pissed, like it's scary to even talk to you? Unbelievable, seriously..."

Was my face like that?

Yeah, my mood was off at the moment. I knew why.

Reading Knighto's post, I thought,

This punk, why didn't he upload the video?

If he'd attached footage of me heroically shielding him, it would've been perfect. The reactions would've been even better, and I could've rewatched my feat over and over.

I remembered a cameraman being there, but no video of me blocking for him showed up. I checked his YouTube channel just in case—no upload today either.

Go figure why Knighto kept doing these petty annoying things. I furrowed my brow once and refocused on training.

Then my phone rang. It was someone I knew.

"Kim Geuk? Got a minute?"

"Yeah, Choi Se-hee? I'm good. What's up?"

"Councilor Park is in a tough spot right now? We ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠already called the police, but just in case, I thought of you too..."

I immediately asked for the location.

Then I teleported there.

The place I teleported to looked familiar.

A rundown low-rise apartment complex. It was surrounded by sturdy walls as thick and tall as castle battlements. Guard posts dotted the perimeter, manned not by security guards but soldiers with rifles up top.

A sign at the entrance read: 'Incheon Awakener New Nest.' Of course, no one called it that.

This was an awakener containment facility, colloquially known as the 'freezer.'

I knew it well from frequent visits during the Korean Awakener Alliance's human rights campaigns.

In principle, it wasn't just for ice awakeners, but that's why they called it the freezer. It was usually packed with them anyway.

As is widely known, weak and easy targets like ice awakeners become top priority for monsters inside gates.

Gates open frequently near ice awakeners, so what happens when a bunch live together?

It turns into a gate hotspot, a danger zone requiring permanent military garrison.

That's why these containment ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠facilities are prime hate sites in the area. This one even housed ice awakeners from Seoul, not just Incheon.

Looking around, the usual scene in front of such hate facilities was unfolding here too.

A hate facility protest, that is.

"Get the freezer out of Incheon! Get those Seoul ice blocks out of Incheon!"

"We wanna live well for once too!"

"No Seoul ice, no Incheon storage!"

Park Mi-hyeong stood opposite the chanters shouting slogans. Choi Se-hee, whom she'd dragged around since Alliance days, fidgeted beside her. I approached and spoke up.

"What the hell's going on?"

The protesters encircling the two women flinched. They parted like the Red Sea, making way for me.

Understandably—I was famous now. Eyes widened in recognition, and one immature-looking guy yelled,

"Park Mi-hyeong's secret weapon! So the brainwashing rumors are true..."

I stared at him blankly in disbelief, and he faltered, backing off.

Even shock flickered in his gaze toward me. Why?

Oh, right—my body was still splattered with the blood from earlier training. I'd planned to shower after sweating it out during the workout, so I hadn't cleaned up.

With me showing up blood-soaked and missing a finger, the protesters started edging away in fear.

Park Mi-hyeong turned to me, her face paling too.

"Why are you here? I heard you took a bullet today... Oh god, a critical patient just walked in!"

"A bullet's nothing. This'll heal by morning, so don't worry."

"No, doesn't matter if it heals tomorrow—it's bad form to lean on someone who just dodged death today! And you're worse off than I thought. Why'd you come? Did Choi Se-hee call you?"

"No? She just told me the situation as a friend, so I checked it out. Anyway, what's the deal?"

Park Mi-hyeong stopped her fussing and clicked her tongue.

"Obvious, isn't it? They want hate facilities like the freezer moved somewhere else."

Not surprising. I'd seen it plenty during human rights work.

What was odd was something else.

"Protests like this never happened here before, right?"

It was one of countless proofs that Incheon folks were morally superior to outsiders—but Park Mi-hyeong denied it.

"That's because with or without the hate facility, land prices here were already tanked, so no point protesting. But Incheon's land values are recovering now? Not blaming anyone... but thanks to whom...

"Even this area's seeing price hikes on the horizon. So they think this facility'll drag it down, and they're swarming."

She stressed it wasn't my fault, and I sized up the situation.

Not hard to get.

After Manwol Mountain, our ops zone had been around here. Meaning land prices here would rise too. So the formerly desperate landowners and slumlords were now rallying to protect their gains.

I eyed the protesters. I wanted to bark, 'Keep this up and I'll cut this area from the ops zone,' but held back.

"This makes me uncomfortable. We're all pulling together to revive the region, and weird side effects like this just bum me out."

I spoke calmly, drawing their gazes. One hemmed and hawed before shouting,

"Why would you be bummed? What does clearing the freezer have to do with you?!"

Instead of a long explanation, I pulled a Korean Awakener Alliance business card from my wallet.

"Know the Korean Awakener Alliance? It disbanded recently, but I worked there for ages helping oppressed awakeners..."

"You're not even an ice awakener—why bother with that?"

"My little sister's one. A colleague too."

The more I answered, the more embarrassed he looked, his voice softening.

"Uh... damn, does your sister live in one of these facilities?"

"Nah, prison. They threw her in for killing four people with no evidence, claiming she was an awakener. I was so pissed I did human rights work till I became a hunter."

"Still, uh..., having one of these in Incheon... wouldn't your sister hate that? Neighbors might pressure her to live here 'cause of it. She'd despise that..."

"Who knows? Our relationship's so bad. She might like living apart from me, even in a place like this. Gotta wait till she gets out to ask where she wants to stay. Thinking about our last visit almost made me tear up..."

I stared at him with a woeful expression.

Already flustered, he avoided my eyes, mumbling "Well, uh, you see..." before finally saying,

"So, uh... sorry..."