Chapter 38
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 038
Chapter Title: S-rank Hunter Kang Jun-chi - [1]
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Baby Mushroom's Sky Castle construction has finally started-nyang!
We're finally building Baby Mushroom's cozy nest-nyang! Up until now, I've been crashing at Incheon Councilor Park Mi-hyeong's place (she's gunning for Incheon mayor in the next election, so everyone in Incheon, please cast your precious vote for her if you get the chance. Number 2, office 032-XXX-XXXX), but now I'm finally independent-nyang!
Am I independent now, and has Baby Mushroom grown into a big lady-nyang? Should I stop wearing my cherished teddy bear panties and switch to something sexier-nyang?!? Baby Mushroom is so embarrassed //∇//
But even after changing panties, Baby Mushroom is still so small and young that I have no idea how to build a house even if I want to-nyang!
Baby Mushroom was frustrated and crying her eyes out-nyang! Then the Incheon mayor uncle came, wiped away Baby Mushroom's baby tears, and said he'd have his civil servant uncles look into everything possible, so stop crying right now-nyang!
Only then did good Baby Mushroom stop, but boo-hoo I've already cried so much... This year, I won't get any presents from Santa grandpa-nyang...!
In the end, poor Baby Mushroom is sad and crying again-nyang. Big sisters, please pat me and tell me to stop crying quick-nyang! Boo-hoo-hoo
Councilor Park Mi-hyeong, please let that poor guy go. Hasn't he done enough for Incheon and you already?
Why write such horrific stuff even about this heartwarming project...? Can't you stop for the sake of the poor suckers paying attention to it?
I'd posted an update on HuntWeb about recent events, but the over-the-top reactions have died down. Most people are reading my post seriously now.
So basically, the Incheon mayor himself is pushing through that skyscraper apartment construction plan? I was worried it'd just be a money pit, but this is turning out great.
Kim Geuk Ham, who selflessly pours his precious wealth into helping the socially weak, is truly admirable. Praise to the great Kim Geuk Ham forever!!
I thought an apartment for suckers would get treated like a nuisance facility, but surprisingly not. Seems like Incheon City views it positively?
He's dumping hundreds of billions earned right back into Incheon City, even building the houses there, basically declaring he'll live and die in Incheon. No reason to hate that. Local residents seem to approve too.
The situation is actually better than I thought. After I announced that skyscraper apartment construction plan, the protests in front of the Awakener reception facility stopped.
A popular Hunter investing his entire fortune of hundreds of billions into a serious business venture, with the city openly backing it—they must have judged it would turn out fine. Maybe they also expect that having me, a famously untouchable Hunter, around full-time will neutralize any risks from Ice Awakeners.
I heard Incheon City officials are personally overseeing the construction site, with inspections more thorough than ever. They say no one dares skimp even on a single rebar. For someone like me who threw money at it without knowing the first thing, it's just a relief.
But not everything has been smooth sailing.
After starting as a Hunter, my team went five months without a single death. Then the first casualty happened.
Kim Jin-jun.
One of the three who formed the thug trio with Seong Mun-yeong and Lee Jong-ho in our team. Not that they were the type to shirk duties and slack off just because they were thugs—he was the guy with confidence in his stamina who always jumped in first for any heavy lifting.
That guy died. Killed by an ugly lion monster.
We were in the middle of a sweep operation again. I'd relayed the intel from my mental web to all the Hunters gathered here.
"Manticore."
Seong Mun-yeong immediately acted like he knew.
"Manticore's that knockoff lion, right?"
"Yeah. Seven of them clustered together—looks like the whole pride's resting."
The mythical Manticore was said to be a monster with a lion's body plus a human head, bat wings, and all sorts of weird crap.
But the Manticores coming out of Gates have a far plainer appearance. They just look like lions born from inbreeding. Ugly as hell aside, they're not much different from Earth's lions—even genetically similar enough to interbreed.
The main difference between Manticores and regular lions is their tails. Real lions have hidden spines under their tail fur too, but Manticore tail spines are hidden the same way.
Unlike a lion's useless tail spines, though, Manticore spines launch at 80 m/s. And they're loaded with potent neurotoxin—get hit anywhere on the body, and your survival's not guaranteed. The 30m max range makes them threatening, but that's it.
Anyway, those spines aren't more impressive than Hunter assault rifles. They're slower than they sound, so if we pull the trigger first, they're easy prey.
Unlike Deathclaws, Manticores aren't Awakeners either, so Ice Awakeners like Baek Dam-bi can wipe them out with a glance. If there were as many Manticores as Deathclaws, Ice Abilities never would've gotten flagged as unfit for Hunter duty.
So Baek Dam-bi stepped up coolly—probably thrilled inside at finally getting a chance to shine.
"I'll handle it."
Then Kim Jin-jun chimed in.
"Don't leave me out. I'll provide fire support!"
"You sure?"
"Nah, we can't get complacent. Manticores stand out too much in urban areas to hide well and get wiped out fast, right? The fact they're surviving anyway means they're no ordinary ones, don't you think?"
Kim Jin-jun must've been itching to do something.
Normally, aside from me and Baek Dam-bi, my team members rarely get action.
As everyone knows, non-Awakener Hunter teammates are basically escorts for Awakener Hunters. Physical Enhancers or Force Field users treat their teams like infantry tagging along with a tank.
But as a Teleporter, I often break off for solo action, freeing myself from team protection. They rarely even get to guard me. During sweeps, my non-Awakeners end up waiting safely in the rear.
That's why my non-Awakeners hardly fire their guns on the regular. Baek Dam-bi, with her near-invincibility, is the only one up front shooting. I once overheard them catching flak for "sucking too much honey."
Hot-blooded Kim Jin-jun must've hated that.
"Jong-ho, Mun-yeong, you too! C'mon! Porter or whatever, you gotta shoot sometimes..."
With Baek Dam-bi leading, the thug trio followed.
No need to risk it on trash mobs like that, so I hung back. I kept my mental web up, ready to jump in for emergencies.
"Jin-jun!"
A scream echoed.
I teleported over instantly, but it was already over.
Bodies filled my view. Ugly lions riddled with bullets, dead Manticores...
And Kim Jin-jun collapsed with a charred hole burned through his chest like something—not even a stinger—had pierced him. Baek Dam-bi had a much larger hole but was alive and well unlike him.
I asked what happened, and Seong Mun-yeong explained through sobs.
"From the Manticore's tail... heat ray..."
Heat ray—like Superman's eye beams. Ultra-hot light that punches through steel plates.
Lee Jong-ho explained more calmly.
"One Manticore must've Awakened to heat ray powers. It fired something like a laser before we could shoot... Fuck."
If Baek Dam-bi hadn't spotted the Awakener and tanked the heat ray with her body, everyone might've died.
But even so, the beam pierced her torso and hit Kim Jin-jun, killing him.
Extremely rare, but not impossible. Just like you can't tell an Awakener's type from looks unless it's a Spirit, same with monsters. Ordinary-looking ones sometimes Awaken to unexpected powers.
And here, it was heat ray—too fast for even my mental web to detect short of light speed.
Hard to blame anyone or call it a mistake. Just bad luck.
Still, it depressed me terribly.
Horribly, to the point I wanted to quit everything.
The hunt ended immediately that day. The funeral that followed had not just my team but every Hunter from the op.
"Our deepest condolences."
I was so down that even Naito the merchant didn't grate on me today.
I looked at Kim Jin-jun's family bowing before me—his parents and siblings.
I bowed back, then returned to my team. After pulling an all-nighter with the bereaved, a few days passed before reuniting with my team.
Another wake-drinking session mourning his death. Im Hyeong-taek downed a shot of soju and asked.
"Speaking of, Kim Geuk, I heard you donated a ton to the condolence fund again..."
"A bit."
"How much...?"
"1.4 billion."
I answered, and Im Hyeong-taek blinked.
Seong Mun-yeong muttered.
"That's a lot... You're building apartments too..."
"So I couldn't donate as much as I'd like."
"You must be short on cash now. Is it okay to blow that much?"
"I won't starve, but his family might without it. Gave what I could."
"You'd do the same if I died?"
"Yeah."
"Fuck, that's reassuring as hell."
"Don't actually die to get it."
With everyone buzzed, guys being guys, talk shifted from politics to bashing the country.
"Shouldn't the country handle bereaved families instead of you paying out of pocket? Why don't Hunters get a dime even dying in the line of duty? I get they created a separate Hunter Association to treat us like mercenaries and skimp on payouts, but why go that far?"
Im Hyeong-taek responded to Lee Jong-ho's rant.
"I looked into it—they're pinching pennies to save money."
"Why skimp on people who died for the country!"
True to his trading company background, Im Hyeong-taek launched into an economics lecture.
Prices didn't skyrocket every time the government printed money before because trade partners swapped currencies, absorbing excess from overprinting nations.
But post-Gates, trade's in the toilet. Ocean monsters and Water Spirits sink one in thirty container ships. Ships detour around Spirit-infested seas, jacking up routes, transport costs, and insurance sky-high.
Some countries have collapsed outright, so nations can't absorb each other's currencies flexibly anymore.
Plus, goods are scarce as hell. Now printing money risks instant inflation.
To prevent that, the government's minimizing printing and spending.
"If they spent like before, it'd be disaster. Rice and ramen prices the government barely holds down could jump not double but two hundred times..."
Explaining no payouts to fallen Hunters as cost-saving, Seong Mun-yeong recoiled.
"Who asked you to defend the government? So you're saying never give them money no matter what?"
"Ah, sorry. Booze's making me blurt everything."
I sat out the chat, gloomily listening.
Still depressed. Knowing it wasn't my fault didn't help—it felt like it was.
I recalled U Sori's words, that moon-marked Awakener I'd met.
Arming non-Awakeners is cruel. Combat's for Awakeners; non-Awakeners should stay meek as sheep.
Maybe I should've listened.
Poor Kim Jin-jun. If I'd left him cheering from the back and gone myself, he'd be alive. Maybe even I'd survive a heat ray...
As the session dragged, only Im Hyeong-taek and I remained.
Wondering why he wasn't leaving, I saw his flushed face. Time to teleport him home.
"Kim Geuk's a good guy."
I reacted to Im Hyeong-taek's out-of-nowhere comment.
"What?"
"You're a really good person... When I first saw you at the academy, I thought some gangster punk was trying to be a Hunter—made me nervous. But the more I saw, the better you seemed... You know the director praises you to high heaven whenever we drink?"
"Why say this suddenly...?"
"You look too down. Feeling responsible? As team leader."
I nodded silently, and he continued.
"I'm pretty bummed too. Feeling guilty."
"Why guilty?"
"I'm in my forties? Lived twice as long as Jin-jun, but I played it safe and let the young guy die first..."
"You have a family to protect."
"Yeah, wife and daughter. But my wife's too young. I seduced a high school grad convenience store clerk, kept her as a housewife ever since—no real social experience besides that."
As I wondered why brag about his young wife now, he went on.
"Sure, I'm crazy for snagging a girl young enough to be my daughter, but living with her feels more like raising an extra kid than with a life partner. And I worry if those two could survive without me... So I couldn't die..."
I recalled that hallucination: him urging others to safety first instead of himself from the Rock Spirit. That made his guilt over surviving instead of the young ones ring true.
Im Hyeong-taek said.
"If it comes to... sacrificing someone later, don't hesitate—sacrifice me boldly."
"What?"
"Better than letting kids half my age die. And seeing you care for the dead like this eases my 'I can't die' thoughts. Feels reassuring knowing you'd look after fallen comrades..."
His family talk was leading to entrusting his kin to me if he died. That's why he was so interested in my condolence donation too.
I said nothing, teleported him home, and returned.
I woke up the next day still in a funk.
To shake it off, I rewatched that Kang Jun-chi video from HuntWeb yesterday.
This time, the guy actually caught a proper villain. His Force Field flexed like telekinesis, levitating a pickpocket mid-bike steal for punishment.
Aiming to ensure no more pickpocketing? Kang Jun-chi shattered the guy's fingers and limbs nonstop, screams pouring out. Ended with the thief a twitching mess, injuries severe enough weeks wouldn't cover it.
And the highlight: where public authority crumbles...
Cops arrived, barking orders curtly like they'd take control.
But spotting Kang Jun-chi flipped their attitudes. Polite honorifics flowed.
The two cops ignored the writhing thief. Video ended with them bowing as he left.
I was looping that part to soothe myself when a HuntWeb message pinged.
Someone messaged me. If some rando acting buddy-buddy, ignore.
But clicking the notification, my eyes widened.
Ⓢ Kang: Baby Mushroom, you there?? Reply quick if you are, please!
The video's star, Kang Jun-chi, had messaged me. I replied instantly.
Ⓐ BabyBerserker: ?
Kang Jun-chi's next message followed fast.
Ⓢ Kang: Can you help me out? It's urgent, for real, please!
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