Chapter 40
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 040
Chapter Title: S-rank Hunter Kang Jun-chi - [3]
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Kang Jun-chi, 28 years old. He's the kind of guy whose face pops up without his consent on all those patriotic YouTube channels, but in reality, Kang Jun-chi himself is openly anti-Korean.
To be precise, Kang Jun-chi despises all three—Korea, China, and Japan—but Korea tops his hate list.
In his own words, the Japanese are monkeys not even worthy of being considered human, based on their history and social culture. Korea and China, having lost to those monkeys, are insects not even worth classifying as mammals. The Chinese are cockroaches just by their numbers alone, and Koreans are on the same level as the Chinese but fewer in number, so something like pill bugs at best.
All these statements came straight from Kang Jun-chi's mouth after he became famous, a clear sign of his deep resentment toward Korea.
Kang Jun-chi hadn't always hated Korea like this.
Back in high school, his internet history showed him frequently posting rants against Japan and China in strongly nationalist communities. At the time, he was just your average Korean badmouthing the neighboring countries.
Korea got added to his hate list after he finished his military service.
He'd once revealed in an old online post that his mother had run off when he was young, and his father died when he was 15.
Having considered himself an orphan, Kang Jun-chi never expected to be drafted for active duty.
After graduating high school, he'd been working and learning welding when the news hit that he had to enlist as active duty. He freaked out, paying two months' extra rent to cancel his studio apartment lease mid-term. He had to dump all his furniture and belongings with distant relatives he barely knew before heading off to the barracks.
And during his service, his back got wrecked. Discharged with a broken body, he flew into a rage upon learning his relatives had thrown out everything he'd left with them—on top of being unable to go back to welding because his back hurt so much, and getting zero compensation from the state despite it all.
So Kang Jun-chi started posting not just his usual China and Japan bashing, but Korea hate too in his regular online communities.
After getting booted from those communities, he scraped together his savings to study for the civil service exam and passed in just one year to make ends meet somehow.
But civil service life was nothing like the idyllic routine he'd imagined—strictly regular hours, rational, clocking out on time every day.
Tormented by the typical public sector abuses and overwork, he took to posting daily suicide-related rants in communities (especially complaints about how even after telling his seniors his back was bad, they kept making him the only one to haul stuff around). Then the Gates opened, and Kang Jun-chi awakened.
At that moment, what he'd planned to do wasn't become a Hunter or stick with civil service—it was loading and unloading delivery trucks. He figured his force field ability would let him earn steady, safe income.
But with the national emergency, reserves got called up. Kang Jun-chi had to tote a rifle again, and in the midst of that, a fellow civil servant reported him, alerting the state to his combat-suitable awakening.
In the end, he became a special management subject and got dragged around on all sorts of operations.
And up until then, neither the state nor Kang Jun-chi himself knew the truth: his supernatural power was on the level of a natural disaster.
As they went through operation after operation and both sides realized it, their positions flipped.
Kang Jun-chi, who'd been getting screwed over by Korea until then, started screwing Korea over in turn. He began sadistically venting all the stress he'd built up.
Legends circulated of real-life feats like barging into the home of the senior civil servant who'd reported his awakening and mistreated him during service—forcing him to lay out feasts, summon his parents for massages, tormenting the guy into a suicide attempt that landed him in intensive care. Or storming the Veterans Affairs office to harass his assigned official into attempting suicide too.
Rumor had it that Korea giving Awakeners Hunter licenses and big money to work as Hunters instead of conscripting them was all thanks to Kang Jun-chi. Amid pushes for an Awakener draft law, he'd reportedly snarled that if they tried it, he'd flip the whole country upside down—and that swayed national policy.
Because of all this, I felt tremendous affinity for Kang Jun-chi, even though I'd never met him in person.
He'd grown up in a rough family environment just like me, with the same anti-patriotic rebel streak. Watching his videos gave me vicarious satisfaction.
And as an Awakener, he was top-tier. It wasn't weird that I'd idolized him.
But the Kang Jun-chi I met face-to-face seemed different from what I'd imagined.
I'd expected him armored in rebel spirit against the state and society, but he was more ordinary than I'd thought.
Too ordinary, even. Whining that he might die after getting done in by a mere Deathclaw? It was a far cry from the dignity of the Awakener king I'd pictured. That disappointment was sinking in.
"Hold on, let me find the nearest hospital..."
Kang Jun-chi shook his head at my words.
"Nearest hospital? No way!"
"No way?"
"If I wanted the closest one fast, I'd have called an ambulance. Why do you think I called the one in Incheon?"
"Come to think of it, why didn't you call an ambulance?"
"Because if I go to a hospital in Seoul, I'm dead!"
I stopped listening with half an ear and raised one eyebrow.
"Dead?"
"The doctors will kill me. On orders from the government...!"
I demanded details. Kang Jun-chi explained.
"I'm a threat to the democratic system—a loose cannon with legion-level power who can taxi right into the capital. You think the country has no money, so why give Awakeners big bucks to be Hunters instead of forcing them into service during national crises?"
"I heard you chewed them out for it."
"Nah, it's because if powerful guys go hungry and full of grudges against society, they won't just sit quiet at home—they might plot to overthrow the state. They keep them satisfied with wealth and fame so they don't know what they'd do otherwise."
Kang Jun-chi claimed that any country failing to lavish Awakeners with wealth and honor had been devoured by them. In those places, Awakeners ran everything from generals to presidents.
He said even China, infamous for oppressive Awakener policies, lavished Hunter Awakeners with money and fame to prevent such upheavals. The elite fattened them up out of fear of regime-toppling attempts.
Kang Jun-chi kept going.
"You know how Awakeners are running the show in a lot of countries these days, right?"
"Mostly in the third world, I heard."
"Not just there—even in well-known places. Remember that Indonesia coup last time? It got spun as a general pulling it off, but it was one S-rank Awakener and a bunch of others who made it happen, and now Awakeners pull strings from behind. Know why North Korea's churning out tactical nukes lately? Regular firepower can't reliably take out force field exoskeleton types, so they nuke 'em for sure kills. Think Korean politicians feel safe?"
"They must be on edge."
"And here I am, constantly bitching about Korea and the government. If they get a shot to safely take me out, you think the higher-ups would pass it up...?"
That was why he couldn't call an ambulance—word of his severe injuries would leak to government agencies, and who knows what they'd do mid-surgery. No way he could risk it.
So he needed someone he knew personally. Curious, I asked.
"Weren't you tight with that blockhead kid on HuntWeb? The rock ability guy named Seok Jang-sil or something? I heard you two were like bros. Why not call him...?"
"Jang-sil's no good. Can't trust him."
"Why not?"
"The country already knows we're tight. Who knows what deals he's made behind my back?"
At this level, it was paranoia. And this guy, supposedly in agony on the verge of death, wouldn't shut up. I was starting to doubt if it was even that urgent.
More than anything, it was hard to buy that the government wanted him gone.
As I'd confirmed in the illusion, wasn't Kang Jun-chi Korea's mighty shield, even driving off colossal sea beasts?
Plus, his feats keeping Korea's container ships safe from sea monsters and ocean spirits—letting them sail the world unhindered—more than qualified him for those patriotic YouTube spots. Some even argued Korea's better situation compared to others wasn't due to successful inflation controls, but solely Kang Jun-chi's contributions.
And yet the government would try to kill him? That didn't add up.
To me, Kang Jun-chi was just deep in victim delusions right now.
All the crimes he committed to "relieve stress" were felonies, and he knew he was off the rails. No doubt he felt preemptively guilty, convincing himself the state hated him. When danger hit, he panicked naturally.
"Then why should I believe you?"
Irritation creeping in, that's when I snapped.
Kang Jun-chi's response shocked me.
"You... I can trust."
"Why?"
"I've watched every single one of your interviews. You said Incheon can't be abandoned, but the country could be sold off, right? No patriotism whatsoever—just my type. After that, I kept tabs on your news, reading every interview religiously...
Even when you admitted to a record for beating up the academy head and training instructor—that hit home. Back in basic, I fantasized about beating those instructor bastards into wheelchairs. I only dreamed it, but someone actually did it? Instant kinship."
I flinched. He felt close to me for damn near the exact same reasons I'd felt close to him.
It felt weird too. While I'd binged his videos, he'd been devouring my interviews? Like I was his fan, and he was mine...
I asked.
"So you trust me because you feel this kinship?"
"Nah, you're straight-up antisocial with a criminal record—a real deal. Even if the state recruits Awakeners, they wouldn't touch a psycho rebel like you."
"I'm not antisocial by choice. Bad upbringing. Mom and dad were both pieces of shit."
"Same here."
Kang Jun-chi grinned through the pain and asked.
"Know what kind of fish 'Jun-chi' is?"
"They say even rotten, it's still bonito, so maybe..."
"Nah, it's a shitty fish. Stinks, no flavor, full of bones you can't eat, and no fight when you reel it in—anglers hate hooking it. Total dud."
Kang Jun-chi cackled. He went on.
"And my dad was a fishing nut who'd shut the shop and run off angling all the time. Easy to guess how a trash like that felt when I popped out of mom's belly to slap that name on me, right?"
It's hard to explain the intimacy I felt from his unhesitating "trash" label for his own father—parricidal attitude and all.
Put simply, that initial closeness from learning his backstory flooded my chest again. Kang Jun-chi asked.
"By the way, how old are you?"
"28."
"Same age. You're helping me out, so half-titles feel weird from my end only... Cool, friends? Say it again: help me out."
By now, I'd inwardly promoted this guy from stranger to decade-long bestie. I asked.
"Exactly how do you want me to help?"