Chapter 64
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: End-of-Service Sergeant Kim Yo-han [1]
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After visiting my little sister for the first time in ages, she hit me with this out of nowhere.
"Oppa, can't you get me out of here?"
What the hell was this all about?
"How?"
"With teleportation... You don't even have to buy me a Porsche, okay?"
My facial muscles froze. My sister was straight-up asking me to break her out of prison.
What a selfish brat, making such a ridiculous demand while lounging around.
I barely swallowed the curse that nearly escaped my lips and chose my words carefully.
"If you were serving a life sentence or on death row, I might've actually done it. But since that's not the case, breaking you out just feels a bit much. You've only got like a year left, right? A few months, even?"
"Still..."
"Plus, your lawyer said you got another reduction recently. Sounds like you're behaving yourself in there. Right?"
"That's just 'cause the prison's overcrowded. They're clearing out cells."
"So what? Getting out sooner is what matters."
I flashed a smile, but she didn't smile back.
"Oppa, this place is too hard."
She whined, and I let out a deep sigh.
"Even if I did get you out, then what? Live as a fugitive on the run forever?"
"We could go abroad? Apply for asylum as a wrongful convict..."
Another curse nearly slipped out. Asylum in this day and age? What bullshit.
Locked up in prison, she had no clue how the world worked anymore. Thinking some foreign country would actually protect her rights?
There was such a thing as being too naive—it was just frustrating at this point.
"No country, Korea included, accepts Ice Awakeners as immigrants. You'd have to hide forever abroad anyway. Why ruin your life over a year and a few months you can't endure?"
I told her to hang in there just a little longer, that a life of luxury awaited after a year or so, but she didn't look convinced.
She clearly resented me for not granting her request.
As I left after the visit, she didn't even say goodbye.
Some things never changed—she was as self-centered as ever. She'd conveniently forgotten her own crimes and cast herself as the perfect victim. Held back years in middle school, rotting in prison for a few more—she was basically an adult now, yet her mindset was still that of a bratty middle schooler...
I swallowed my anger and thought it over.
Why had she made such a request? Had she seen the news about me beating down over a dozen people without ending up in jail and decided her big bro was above the law?
If so, she was dead wrong. I had no intention of being branded a complete outlaw just to spring her a year or so early.
For me, who wanted my current life to continue, her request was far too burdensome.
My chest felt tight.
It hit me that I was ultimately just a Jew trapped by Nazi laws. Beating up Kim Seok-hee and a few gang punks, then celebrating my "victory" over the authorities—it was embarrassing now.
I hadn't escaped the law or society yet.
To truly break free, I needed to become far stronger. Like Kang Jun-chi, a true superhuman who could ignore the law entirely.
The rapid growth my once-worthless round girl had shown gave me hope.
Over the past few months, just as Baek Dam-bi had grown massively as an Awakener, so had I. If I kept slaying monsters, it would continue...
And in the midst of all this, the Special Task Force summoning me only pissed me off more.
They were calling me there when I barely had time to hunt?
I was seething. It was getting hard to just let this slide.
When I boarded the official vehicle, screams erupted from the crowd of ajummas and ajushis behind me.
"Don't take Kim Geuk, you bastards!"
"He's not some freeloading Hunter—why drag him off like this?!"
These were Incheon citizens.
The protest signs they held explained why they were there.
'Oppose Kim Geuk's Special Task Force Summons'
Incheon locals had gathered to protest my summons to the Special Task Force.
And they had every right to be angry. I was hired with their tax money to work for Incheon, yet suddenly Seoul's special unit wanted to borrow me?
It wasn't just absurd for me—it was outrageous for Incheon's people too.
Not to brag, but wasn't I Incheon's busiest and most vital Hunter?
I was always first on scene for emergencies, and even normally, I was swamped with the Incheon Reclamation Project.
Me being dragged away for even a few days was a huge loss for Incheon. And if I got seriously hurt or killed while away? It'd be a disaster.
The moment my summons hit the internet (after I subtly hinted at it on HuntWeb), Incheon City Hall and the people went nuts. Totally understandable.
Of course, the Special Task Force ignored Incheon's protests.
The official car finally reached its destination with me inside.
As I stepped out, a Special Task Force member who had come to greet me bowed. A young guy with a sword at his waist.
"Kim Geuk, right? Whew, you look even scarier in person. Nice to meet you!"
If he'd been some non-Awakener punk acting all high and mighty, I'd have ignored him. But this guy was clearly an Awakener from the sword alone, and polite to boot—hard to brush off.
"Yeah, nice to meet you too. And you are?"
"Special Task Force newbie Kang Jun-man... Or better yet, introduce me as your HuntWeb comrade. You know Justice 1994?"
"Oh, yeah. That's you, Kang Jun-man?"
"Yep! That's me!"
Ah, no wonder he was so chummy.
We were both A-rank badge holders. HuntWeb celebrities.
Justice1994. When everyone on HuntWeb was stunned by the cops' inaction against Kim Seok-hee's gang rampage, this guy showed up.
He'd introduced himself as an Awakener specially recruited into the police, then claimed he'd lost all motivation due to the shitty pay.
I think he said that even on reports of a Deathclaw sighting, he'd just take a casual stroll and head back.
That pissed off everyone on HuntWeb so much they doxxed him.
Once they found out where he worked and what he did, sympathy kicked in. Turns out he was all talk—the guy had slain more monsters than most Hunters.
Taking down small-scale monsters was part of police duties now, and his precinct dumped every monster call on him because he was an Awakener.
So he'd been risking his life daily for a measly four million won a month.
"HuntWeb said you were police—transferred to the Special Task Force?"
Kang Jun-man gave an awkward smile and nodded at my question.
"Yeah. I wanted to quit and go full Hunter, but I've got too much mandatory service left... Then they offered a transfer to the Task Force recently? And the pay's triple what I got as a special recruit cop, so I swallowed my pride..."
Guess he had no choice then.
I followed his lead to where the Task Force members were gathered.
I scanned the group for familiar faces and asked.
"Where's Han Hee?"
"Oh, you know Han Hee? He sat this mission out."
"Why? Guy's skills looked top-notch."
"Even so. This is a mission where people could get hurt or die. Han Hee-seok isn't throwing his own son into that."
"Protecting his boy?"
Kang Jun-man snorted at my question.
"Who knows? Maybe. Or like a king keeping his elite guards by his side even in wartime. Something like that. Probably doesn't want his planted loyalist in the Task Force getting hurt or killed..."
Looks like he didn't respect their commander much. Made me like the guy even more.
"So why'd they call me? I'm swamped just hunting."
"Well, this op's critical for the Task Force, so they called up the best available firepower. You're the one who took down Kim Seok-hee's whole crew, right? Honestly, with just you, success is guaranteed... Plus, the brass figured you're the most suitable outsider to bring in."
"Why me?"
"Dunno. But the officers seem to think you're pretty cooperative."
"Are they insane?"
"They've got their reasons. Didn't you cooperate with the police during that emergency call, then later ask why they summoned you? They might've seen that record and figured you'd play ball..."
I had gone along without resistance back then. But I was exhausted, couldn't think straight, and they were Incheon cops anyway.
Now? My mind was sharper than ever, and these were Seoul non-Awakeners summoning me.
Big difference. Huge.
"Guess I need to prove them wrong."
Kang Jun-man didn't seem displeased by my rebellious tone.
"Damn right you should! I'm rooting for you for real..."
He grinned and suddenly asked.
"But Kim Geuk, you look pretty pissed, huh?"
"You think I'd be happy?"
"Fair. But you showed up? Thought you'd skip if you were that mad."
"Ignoring the summons means a fine."
"Figured you'd pay that off easy. You got over 50 billion in signing bonus alone, right? Next year's contract's supposed to be massive..."
He said it enviously, and he was right.
I could've ignored the summons entirely, but I didn't. Why?
This time, the Task Force was mobilizing Hunters to target Kim Seok-hee—the former Gyeang Baron.
The so-called Kim Seok-hee incident was what granted the Task Force its absurd authority in the first place.
So wiping out Kim Seok-hee and his crew was probably a key campaign promise for their commander. Han Hee-seok wanted to prove that giving the Task Force such power was the right call by crushing an Awakener gang the regular police couldn't touch.
And I wanted to sabotage that proof.
No matter what authority they got, I wanted to show everyone that public power couldn't control Awakeners.
Besides, Kim Seok-hee was now Bucheon's baron, my vassal whom I'd installed in my fiefdom. Protecting him as Incheon's duke was only natural.
With those thoughts, I'd come here to disrupt the operation.
Han Hee-seok probably saw me as convenient firepower to exploit, but I'd betray that expectation completely.
Of course I'd slack off the whole op—and if needed, do even more...
And there was one other Awakener who seemed to share my mindset.
"Yo-han, where's your Hunter rifle?"
A middle-aged woman from the Task Force asked, and a man in his forties replied in a voice dripping with apathy.
"Didn't bring it. Why?"
"You said on the phone you'd packed everything!"
"I packed what I needed. Got three phone batteries here."
"What, you planning to play on your phone the whole op?"
"Yeah."
I knew exactly who this guy was.
Had to be HuntWeb's "Seoul Tobagi." The guy who'd declared he'd never obey if they drafted a burned-out end-of-service sergeant like him.
As Seoul Tobagi argued with the woman, our eyes met. I smiled warmly, and he grinned back.
Definitely a kindred spirit. Confirmed.