The Numbers Keep Climbing

"If that's more comfortable for you."

The man nodded. With Strength stats like that, he could certainly fight just fine barehanded — if anything, they were itching to watch him do it with their own eyes.

Jisu drew a deep breath, closed his eyes once, then opened them. Carefully, he walked forward.

Ever since his talent had awakened, he'd somehow absorbed the knowledge of how to enter a raid into his very body. He couldn't explain it. He just knew.

The instant the message appeared, a massive creature materialized before Jisu's eyes — a thing lurking among the wreckage of collapsed buildings. It had a grotesque face that looked like a fly's head stretched to monstrous proportions, stood upright on two legs, and sported four additional hands that were identical to those feet. In short, it was an extremely unpleasant-looking bastard.

But that thing's virtual too, right?

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

No need to be scared. Jisu tried a light run first. It was nothing like his usual jogging — it felt like he was leaping across the earth itself.

Whoa. It feels like my body's flying.

So it was true that becoming a hunter granted you abilities according to your status numbers. He could feel it in his bones: his physical capabilities had completely changed. So this is how hunters all run, huh. Of course, he had no way of knowing yet that hunters with ordinary stats couldn't leap around anywhere near this fast.

"That speed..."

"Looks like the Agility number on the display wasn't an error after all."

The two men watched Jisu's movements with open awe. They had seen SS-rank hunters with their own eyes. The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠memory of trembling before those hunters' abilities and unique talents was still vivid. But even compared to them, the speed of the man before them looked extraordinary.

Then Jisu freely scaled the outer walls of the buildings — another feat possible only because his Agility stat was absurdly high.

Shall I give it a try?

Jisu gathered power into his fist. For reasons he couldn't name, he felt something tremendous slowly collecting at the tip of his knuckles. Was this what they meant in manga when they talked about gathering ki?

"Hah!"

He threw his fist with everything he had at the creature in front of him.

BOOM!

A massive roar split the air, and the monster let out a pained cry as it was blasted far backward. Even Jisu — the one who'd thrown the punch — was stunned by the overwhelming force of it.

What the hell?

Watching the monster get blown away like a sheet of paper, he himself was the most shocked of anyone.

I'm this strong?

Was this the power of an SS++-rank? Just as he was wearing an expression of utter disbelief at his own punch, the monster groaned and vanished. There had been a tremendous boom, but it was all virtual anyway.

On the other side of the glass, they were measuring his stats through his attacks and movements.

"The Strength number seems right too."

"Incredible. He's really SS++-rank?"

"Seeing it in person, I guess the status-checking machine isn't broken after all."

"To actually witness an SS++-rank with our own eyes..."

The two men gazed at Jisu in wonder.

"What was that guy's Strength again?"

"1,392."

"To witness power of that magnitude with our own eyes... I don't think I'll ever forget this day."

"We should report this to the Director, right?"

"Obviously. Contact the Association President immediately. Depending on the situation, we might even need to inform the President of the country."

"At that level, even those arrogant hunter superpower nations will be sweating. Hell, he could probably be deployed to an operation zone right now."

They chatted like that as they checked the numbers on the machine.

Right. With numbers like this, he could definitely become a talent who shakes the entire nation of Korea... wait?

A strange sense of déjà vu washed over the Section Chief, and a cold sweat suddenly trickled down his spine. What was this? Something was definitely off.

"H-hey."

"What's wrong, Chief?"

"What was that man's Strength stat?"

"1,392. An incredible number — the first of its kind to appear in Korea..."

"Come over here."

The young man approached the Section Chief's side, puzzled. Then he confirmed the number written clearly on the display.

"...?"

The Section Chief stood there blankly for a moment, then quickly attempted to communicate with the hunter fighting inside.

"Ah, yes."

The voice reached Jisu just as he was still standing there, dumbfounded by his own power after taking down ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the monster.

"Huh? Ah... understood."

So they needed more samples for the test, apparently. That's what Jisu figured, and he looked at the monster that appeared a moment later. This time it was a creature that looked like a giant grasshopper. It was making an extremely unpleasant noise, and he really didn't want to go near it — but what choice did he have?

Hunters really have nerves of steel.

He wasn't normally the type to be scared of bugs, but even Jisu felt a little frightened facing an insect the size of a house. Of course, his fists didn't share that opinion at all.

Maybe I'll try a kick this time?

BANG!

Perhaps because of its large frame, Jisu's roundhouse kick landed cleanly. This time the creature didn't even get out a dying scream — its entire body exploded in all directions, vividly spraying red blood across the sky. It turned Jisu's stomach, but reminding himself it was virtual helped him recover some of his composure.

Let's see here.

The Section Chief immediately checked the status numbers measured through Jisu's most recent attack.

I knew it...!

"C-Ch-Chief. Wh-what on earth is this..."

The young man beside him, who'd been watching everything, spoke in a state of shock.

"Yes. That's right. I don't know why, but that man's Strength number...!"

The Section Chief's voice trembled.

"Hyun Jisu. I'll ask you one more time. What exactly is your ability?"

"I can't answer that."

Hah.

Heeyeon pressed a hand to her forehead, let out a deep sigh, and looked at Jisu's unyielding expression. She was decent-looking, nothing extraordinary — but that didn't mean he had any intention of answering her.

"Look, it's not like we're trying to find your weakness or anything..."

Seated for the final stage of the hunter exam — the issuance of his hunter license — Jisu was arguing with the Test Director, who had appeared out of nowhere. He had no intention of answering. Not a chance.

A hunter's ability is something you don't talk about unless you absolutely have to.

What kind of ability had a hunter been born with? It varied from person to person, of course, but the higher a hunter's rank, the more they treated keeping their abilities secret as an unwritten international rule. If someone knew what you could do, they could prepare a counter for it. There were hunters who had no choice but to reveal their abilities based on what they could actually use, and others whose powers were so obvious there was nothing to hide. But most hunters kept their core abilities to themselves.

I can never tell them.

Jisu made that vow to himself once more.

After the exam ended, they remeasured his stats. The results were staggering. His abilities had been inflated to roughly eighteen times their original values. And Jisu knew exactly why.

The coin went up again!

Why did coins get more expensive? Nobody could say. But one thing was certain: the coin had gotten more expensive. It had gone up when he bought it — just like those scam artists always claimed. In particular, the coin Jisu had purchased this time — though he himself had no idea — was riding a massive surge on the back of a collaboration with a famous company and an airdrop. And Heeyeon, sitting right in front of him, had no way of knowing any of that.

When she'd first been told he was SS++-rank, she'd assumed it was a machine error, or that he'd pulled some kind of trick. But after coming downstairs on the Section Chief's report, remeasuring him, and confirming the results with her own eyes, she was even more astonished.

SSS-rank.

An SSS-rank hunter had appeared in Korea exactly three times. One was the currently retired Test Director Heeyeon herself — though the reason was unknown, her rank at the time of retirement had been recorded as SS-rank. Another was the legendary figure who had built Korea's hunter industry from the ground up, currently active in the United States. And the last one had gone missing.

"Is it a talent where your abilities increase over time?"

"..."

"Is it an ability that amplifies your power through activity, then converts it into energy?"

"..."

Heeyeon probed him with one theory after another, but Jisu didn't so much as twitch his lips. She let out a long sigh, and a stretch of silence followed. Only then did Jisu carefully open his mouth.

"Well, if we're done here, I'd like my license already. I did pass the exam, right?"

This little shit!

Heeyeon seethed at Jisu's rude, uncooperative attitude — but if he really was SSS-rank, he was not a talent who should be left to rot in a place like this. He needed to be pulled up into the light immediately.

"...Understood. I'll issue the license for now. You can pick it up at the window where you registered when you came in."

"How long will that take?"

"About f...orty minutes."

It was a four-minute job. She'd stretched it out on purpose. A petty little act of revenge.

"Got it. Then."

With that, Jisu left his seat. There was a reason for this brazen attitude of his. Nobody knew his ability. That meant he had no reason to play humble. He already seemed impressive enough — so if he acted like he was hiding something even more extraordinary, wouldn't all sorts of things become surprisingly easy to handle?

No idea if I can pull it off, but what the hell. Let's try being the one holding all the cards.