The Duel Goes Public
A day in the life of a newsroom was, to any outsider, indistinguishable from a war zone.
Phones rang without pause. Reporters darted back and forth in a ceaseless hunt for the next exclusive. People streamed in and out in such a constant tide that the whole place felt scattered and frantic — yet the staff inside paid their surroundings no mind at all, throwing themselves into their assigned roles with fierce, unrelenting intensity. This was life at the front lines.
"Hey, Park! Where'd that kid go?"
"One second, Chief! Let me just finish this."
Park Jeongsik, a rookie reporter who'd only been with the paper a few months, was pulling the headline for the article he'd been writing.
Having gotten that far, Jeongsik rose from his desk and went over to the editor-in-chief.
"What did you need, sir?"
"There you are. Listen — that piece you covered a while back. Earth's Strongest Hunter. You remember?"
"Of course I remember. That was the highest-traffic article I've ever written."
The editor nodded.
"Right, that one. You saw the mess Cheon Woohyeok's been blasting to every outlet in the country."
"I heard. He's calling for a one-on-one duel, isn't he?"
"He is. An S-rank opening a one-on-one hasn't happened in a long time, so the whole industry went haywire. Seongwolhoe's running it as a closed event, though, so there's nothing for us to actually cover."
"Why keep it private? The broadcasting rights alone would print money."
The editor rolled up a newspaper and gave Jeongsik a light rap on the head.
"You dense moron. Because they might lose, that's why. If an S-rank Hunter is stepping into the spotlight, whoever's on the other side has to be a monster."
"Hey — why are you hitting me again? So who is it, then?"
"No idea. None of the known S-ranks or above have so much as twitched, so everyone else figures the opponent's a mystery." He paused, then added, "That's what everyone else thinks, anyway."
"What are you getting at?"
The editor clicked his tongue.
"For someone who wants to be a reporter, your instincts are terrible. And here I thought you had a knack for headlines. Look: this is a Hunter strong enough that an S-rank would call him out one-on-one, and yet not a single name among the known powerhouses has been linked to this fight. Not even the gossip rags. There's no reason to hide the opponent — which leaves exactly one person, doesn't it?"
"Wait…"
Jeongsik sank into thought. Then something clicked.
"You don't mean that guy from back then?"
"That's the one!"
The editor slammed his desk, his expression turning deadly serious. He was a hard worker on any given day, but he had a flair for the overdramatic.
"He's actually fighting that Hunter? That guy was no joke…"
Jeongsik was one of the handful of people in the country who had witnessed Earth's Strongest Hunter in actual combat with his own two eyes.
A single punch had detonated a wyvern — a giant monster. There was no metaphor in that. It had literally gone pop.
The shock of watching that fight, even from a distance, was still burned into him as vividly as if it had happened yesterday.
"Far as I'm concerned, it's ninety-nine percent. No — a hundred. The opponent is Earth's Strongest Hunter. Think you can take point and run it?"
"You're just laying the groundwork so you can blame me if this blows up, aren't you?"
Jeongsik's teasing earned him a look of pure disbelief from the editor. It was the kind of remark that could have been considered insubordinate coming from a rookie, but the man wasn't the type to chew someone out over a thing like that — not as long as the clicks kept rolling in. He let it slide.
"Fine, don't do it then! But if it lands, you walk away with plenty too, don't you? If I were still a reporter I'd have run it already. Nobody's named the opponent yet, right?"
"Not that I've seen."
"Then give it a shot. I'll take responsibility and protect your neck… well, I might not be able to, but anyway — just do it! If you don't want to, I'll hand it to Lee or Hwang."
Jeongsik answered with an easy, good-natured smile.
"Did I ever say I wouldn't? I'll run it as an exclusive. Cheon Woohyeok's opponent is Earth's Strongest Hunter. That's the line, right?"
"That's the one. Going all-in like this is a rookie reporter's privilege, isn't it?"
It was, of course, a strategy in which the editor himself assumed none of the risk. Jeongsik knew that perfectly well. He was playing along because it served him too.
"I'll have it up right away."
With that, Jeongsik returned to his desk and wrote the piece. He hadn't reported it. He was swinging on instinct. But as the editor had said — wasn't that a rookie reporter's privilege?
Hyun Jisu nearly choked when he saw it. There it was again, sitting on the trending searches: Earth's Strongest Hunter. The name was a nickname a single reporter had coined after watching him fight.
He dug a little deeper, and a breaking bulletin caught his eye.
"I mean, I was planning to take the duel anyway, but how the hell did they figure that out?"
The thought that a reporter had written the whole thing on gut instinct alone never even crossed his mind, so the whole thing left him rattled. Not that it mattered. The article wasn't wrong.
The story's already out. I should make the call first.
Jisu shot Jeong Seyeon a text saying he'd handle the contact himself, then immediately dialed Seongwolhoe.
"Hello, this is Kim Mina with Seongwolhoe Customer Service. We love you, valued customer! How may I help you today?"
The number from the text connected him to the kind of ordinary call-center agent you could have reached anywhere.
"This is Hyun Jisu. I received a challenge from Cheon Woohyeok."
The word challenge got an immediate reaction. Professional to the bone, even with a word that childish.
"Ah, yes — challenge-related inquiries aren't actually handled by our department… I'm sorry, did you just say Hunter Cheon Woohyeok?"
"That's right."
The voice on the other end turned urgent.
"I sincerely apologize, sir. I'll put you through to the relevant department right now. I'm so sorry!"
"Wait — hold on a second!"
Hold music filled his ear before he could get another word out. A clear, lovely melody. He wasn't sure how long it played.
"I've taken the call. This is Jisu, yes?"
That voice. He'd heard it somewhere before, though he couldn't quite place it.
"…Who is this?"
"Have you forgotten me already? It's me. Jeong Siyun."
"Jeong Siyun… ah. The guildmaster of Seongwolhoe?"
The woman in the expensive-looking dress, was it? He didn't actually remember her that clearly. He hadn't been particularly interested, and they hadn't crossed paths since. She was the kind of person a single search would pull up in an instant, but even as someone in the Hunter industry, Jisu had never paid much attention to others in the same field.
"Oh, you do remember! I'm delighted. Having a man as impressive as you remember me — that feels wonderful."
Was she always like this?
A strange sense of déjà vu prickled at him. He was fairly sure she'd found him more than a little distasteful when they first met. He didn't bother thinking too hard about it, though. As he'd already noted — he wasn't that interested.
"Anyway. So you'll take the duel? I did try to talk him out of it, but our Woohyeok really wanted another round."
"I'll take it. This isn't anything life-threatening, though, right? If it is, I'd rather sit it out."
Siyun giggled on the other end of the line.
"Oh my, how adorable. You'll be fine. You're strong enough that I doubt it'll ever come close to a matter of life and death. Those kinds of fights do happen, of course, but it's not as though we have some deep grudge piled up between us, is it? Just come by and treat it like a light warm-up. He seems rather eager to finish the fight we didn't get to complete last time."
"Alright. When and where should I be?"
Siyun's voice on the other end lifted, bright with pleasure. He could almost see her smiling.
"Wonderful! Next Monday, three in the afternoon — come to the fifty-fifth floor of Seongwolhoe's main guild hall. I'll text you the exact location, so just follow that!"
Sooner than I expected.
Jisu was checking the calendar when she continued.
"As I said, nothing particularly dangerous will happen, so just think of it as a sparring session and come on over! That's all!"
Click.
She hung up without warning, but Jisu had nothing more to say anyway, so he didn't particularly mind.
"So. He accepted right away. Awfully confident, isn't he."
Siyun set down the receiver and turned to the window behind her.
Beyond the vast wall of glass, Seoul lay spread out like a painting. Namsan Tower, the Han River, the 63 Building, a forest of skyscrapers, and the roads packed solid with cars. Very few people in this world were permitted a view like that. Jeong Siyun was one of them.
The gap in ability looked fairly wide, but he seemed to wear himself out badly after a single attack. And Woohyeok's that ability should be enough to surpass raw stats… We can win this.
A thin smile crept across her face.
If this goes well, we'll be able to bring him in on far better terms. When he's staring death in the face, will he still be able to refuse our offer?
She had no idea where that power of his came from, but judging by the way he fought, very few people had ever left an impact that strong. Strength, however, did not always solve everything. Siyun had believed that maxim for a very long time.
That's right. You will join our guild. Eventually.
She rose from her seat and started walking.
Yes. She was already building something greater than what that person had ever achieved. And if a Hunter of Jisu's caliber became part of their strength, raising an open rebellion and driving them out wouldn't even be a dream anymore.
Carefully, Jeong Siyun entertained a thought so outrageous it bordered on absurd.