The Twenty-Third Floor
"Um... is this the Hunter Association plaza?"
The person who had appeared was a woman with long hair. Her looks were decent enough, but the color of her presence clashed so violently with everyone else in the room that she might as well have stepped out of another world.
The answer came from a man who, only moments ago, had been trading light barbs with the woman in luxurious black — the same woman who had been discussing Seongwolhoe Guild. He, too, wore a suit that looked ruinously expensive, gold accessories glittering at every possible point of emphasis across his body.
"Ah, if you're looking for the plaza the hunter kids always talk about, you'll want the third floor. But how the hell did you even find your way up here?"
The casual, familiar tone came so naturally it barely registered as rude, but the woman couldn't manage a reply. How could she? Every single person standing in front of her was a face she knew.
"Oh my, what a cute little thing. What's going on? How'd you end up all the way up here?"
Isn't that Jeong Siyun — guildmaster of Seongwolhoe?
The woman calling her cute. There was no mistaking her. Jeong Siyun, head of the most successful hunter guild in South Korea — a hunter of near-legendary achievement, widely credited with raising the entire Korean hunter scene by a full tier. A celebrity.
"What are the security guards even doing?"
The man beside her was familiar too. Hunter Shin Jihoon. A genius of aerial combat. She had known he had a somewhat high-handed streak, but she hadn't expected it to be this bad. Famous people really were different on the inside than they appeared, weren't they?
Anyway, this is clearly not a place I should have come to...!
She'd come to the wrong place. How was she supposed to insert herself among people this famous? The long-haired woman ducked her head in a hurried bow.
"I-I'm... I'm so sorry. I think I came to the wrong place."
"It's fine. More importantly, why don't you come over here for a second? Young, pretty face... looks like your looks at least are S-rank. Heh."
The blonde with earrings, looking every bit the thug, opened his mouth. He wasn't a stranger either. Cheon Woohyeok of Seongwolhoe Guild. In a hunter world where skill came first, it had never quite blown up into a scandal — but his coercive attitude and wandering eye had kept him tangled in one controversy after another. His atmosphere didn't quite match the others in the room, and yet a certain ease of the strong sat plainly on his face.
"Ah, I, um."
"What are you doing with a kid? Come on, little one. Go on back. You don't look like an S-rank at a glance, right? This isn't a place for you."
A woman with striking red hair waved her off. She was another familiar face, but there was no mental energy left in the long-haired woman to spend another second in this room. She bent at the waist in a rushed bow and fled.
"Ah... I-I'm sorry! Th-then!"
They said to come this way!
Han Gaeul. She had awakened to a hunter's talent at twenty-three. The ability she'd been given, however, was of no great use in combat, and her stats weren't particularly impressive either, so the rank assigned to her was D-rank. Still, D-rank wasn't a disaster. She could take various requests, and depending on her own performance she might even find her way into a company or a guild.
The Knowledge Pack definitely said to go to the twenty-third floor!
Gaeul recalled the post she had put up yesterday on Coinler's Knowledge Pack board.
They were all famous people! What if they laughed at me? God, this is so humiliating...!
Thanking her stars that she hadn't actually shouted Accept a D-rank hunter, Gaeul bolted down the hall — and a man caught her in a hurry.
"Ah, excuse me. Sorry, but could I ask you something?"
"...Yes?"
Gaeul, who had been tearing along at a dead run, stopped and looked him over. Clothes that didn't look expensive. An expression that said this place was as foreign to him as it had been to her. In other words, if you took her own situation and flipped the gender, this was the person who would come out.
"Um, where's the plaza? I saw online it was the twenty-third floor, but it's so big I can't find which room."
"Ah, about that."
As I thought. This person is just like me.
He must have seen the Knowledge Pack post she'd written and come looking, same as she had. What a mess, all because of that commenter. Gaeul opened her mouth carefully.
"Ah, well... I don't think it's here. The plaza on this floor is only for S-rank and above hunters..."
"Oh, is that so?"
The man nodded. So now they were supposed to go down to the third floor together? After the humiliation she'd just been through, she didn't even know what to say — though maybe walking down talking with someone would be less mortifying than going alone. She was still turning that over when his voice cut in.
"Found it, then. That way?"
He pointed toward the place she had just come running from.
"Huh? Ah... yes."
"Thank you so much. Take care, then."
Without thinking, she had pointed him right back the way she'd come. The man bowed deeply at the waist, the same way she had, and started walking toward the very place where she'd been humiliated.
"Huh? Wait a second. That's for S-rank and above... huh?"
Looks like the twenty-third floor was the right call after all.
The floor had so many rooms that Jisu had spent a good while wandering, trying to figure out which auditorium was supposed to be the plaza. He'd finally asked for directions, and now he was heading to the right place.
"This way?"
A door stood slightly ajar, for reasons he couldn't guess. He peered carefully inside. A handful of people in obviously expensive clothes were gathered there. Jisu opened the door and walked in.
"...?"
The moment he stepped through, every gaze in the room locked onto him. Then the man in the expensive suit let out a heavy sigh.
"What now? Is it security strike day or something? What the hell is going on?"
"For an Association, the way they handle things is just..."
"...?"
He had no idea what the problem was, but the looks they were giving him weren't friendly.
The hell are they glaring at me like that for?
Jisu had never taken the slightest interest in the hunter industry, so even the famous S-rank hunters standing in front of him were complete strangers. If anything, the way they were looking down on him put him in a foul mood.
"Hey, hunters below A-rank can't come in here. Sorry, but could you leave? Your friends will be on the third floor."
The red-haired woman spoke up, her tone careful.
What is going on right now?
Looking more closely, he realized his own appearance was the only shabby one in the room. Suits, dresses, gold accessories — they must have taken one look at his ordinary clothes and assumed he was a low-rank hunter.
He was about to say something when a face he actually knew stepped into view.
"Jisu. You've arrived."
"You are...?"
Kim Heeyeon. A former SSS-rank hunter, currently serving as director of the Hunter Association Examination Center. She had measured as SS-rank after retiring, of course, but the people around her still tacitly acknowledged the prowess she'd shown in her prime. Combined with the Association President's deep trust and the seniority she'd built over years of activity, she was one of the few people who could say whatever she wanted in front of hunters this formidable.
Of course, there were also people who would never take an order from her.
"What? Then that guy is...?"
"Yes. This is Hyun Jisu, the hunter who newly received SS-rank certification."
At Heeyeon's words, the gazes in the room changed.
"I've never seen him before in my life."
"Must not have been long since he awakened?"
"Which institution was training him?"
Jisu was still trying to figure out what on earth they were talking about — half of it barely sounded like Korean — when Heeyeon spoke up again, her tone careful.
"Jisu. As I mentioned at the testing center, hunters of S-rank and above are managed by the state. You're free to join a guild or a company, but ultimately you'll have to answer when the nation calls. Of course, we make sure the compensation isn't disappointing."
"Ah. Yes."
"Anyway, that means we need to draw up a contract. At the training center, however, we still hadn't fully grasped your abilities, so we're planning a sort of test this time. If you pass, we'll start assigning you missions as a hunter from that point on."
I already passed the status measurement at the testing center. Why are they being so picky?
Jisu grumbled inwardly, but what was he supposed to do? It had been a while since he'd last done part-time work, and he was broke.
"Understood."
"Good. Then from now, we'll verify Jisu's abilities at a facility prepared on the thirtieth floor. Would you all like to observe? He'll be a colleague going forward, after all."
"No complaints here."
"He looks pretty scrawny, though... I'd at least like to see what kind of ability he's got."
On the whole, they all seemed eager to get a look at Jisu's power. For Heeyeon, more eyes watching was better, not worse.
"Alright. Then we'll go to the thirtieth floor. I'll show you the way."
Everyone in the room began to follow Heeyeon. As they walked, she spoke to Siyun, who was moving along with a faintly complicated expression.
"It's been a while. Hard to even catch a glimpse of your face these days."
Siyun turned a smiling face toward her.
"You're giving me the creeps, so could you not pretend we're close? I'd appreciate it even more if you didn't acknowledge me at all."
"Geez. Still haven't fixed that filthy personality, I see. Now that you've climbed to that kind of position, shouldn't you show a little more courtesy?"
Siyun ignored her once she finished talking and turned her attention to Jisu, who was joining the group. Heeyeon shook her head and took the lead again.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Jeong Siyun. I'm Jeong Siyun, guildmaster of Seongwolhoe."
The woman in the black dress — the same one who had been speaking with the examination director a moment ago — greeted him as if she were delighted.
"Huh? Ah. Yes."
"Hmm? You're not surprised. You've heard of Seongwolhoe Guild, right?"
"Huh? No, I haven't."
At Jisu's answer she covered her mouth with her hand, as if genuinely startled.
"Oh my, is that so? Hmm. Well, I suppose you were secluded in some deep mountain, cutting off all news from the world while you trained..."
Depending on the person, it would have been a remarkably rude thing to say. It didn't land on Jisu at all. If they were talking about a lack of manners, the coarse swearing of Director Park Cheoljung from his construction-site days — a man who wouldn't tolerate even a minor mistake — had been far ruder.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Siyun lost interest in him after that.
A few others introduced themselves and tried to strike up a conversation, but nothing really went anywhere. First, the man in the suit said he was S+ rank hunter Shin Jihoon. Supposedly the most famous hunter in South Korea at the moment — but Jisu was seeing his face for the first time, so he didn't have much to say back. Before becoming a hunter, Jisu had done nothing but work. He barely even watched YouTube, the most common video site in the country. He didn't watch television either, so failing to recognize celebrities was only natural.
The blonde who looked like a thug was S-rank hunter Cheon Woohyeok. A member of Seongwolhoe Guild, currently taking requests under Siyun. He didn't have a long conversation with Jisu either.
The rest didn't even bother to greet him. Whether they were still wary or something else entirely, Jisu honestly didn't care one way or the other.
I'd like to just knock out this test or whatever and start making some money.