Press Conference (Part 2)
The swarm of reporters shoved past the Hunter Association staff trying to hold them back and bombarded Park Jihun and Shin Jiyeon with a barrage of frantic questions.
“W-what the hell happened in there?! How did you make it out alive?!”
“Did Hunter Shin Jiyeon clear the gate?!”
“I heard the Special Gate was at least B-rank. Was that true?!”
“What exactly happened inside?!”
It was only natural they had so many questions. Most people had assumed the two were already dead. The plan had been simple: wait for the gate to reopen, then deliver the sad news of their deaths. No one had expected them to clear the gate and stroll out alive and well.
What’s more, neither Park Jihun nor Shin Jiyeon looked seriously injured. They seemed a little tired, sure, but there wasn’t a single visible wound on them. Did that mean they had completely dominated the gate without taking a scratch? If so, what was with the four full days it took? Had the Association’s information that it was at least B-rank been wrong? Or…
The flood of questions was overwhelming. And it wasn’t just the reporters. The other hunters and Association employees waiting nearby were just as stunned.
Team Leader Lee, the Association representative in charge of the scene, instinctively realized he couldn’t let this spiral out of control.
‘Hunter Park Jihun is the Association’s highest-priority matter…! I need to contact Branch Manager Lee Hyeondong right away.’
Team Leader Lee wasn’t a high-ranking executive, so he didn’t know every detail about Jihun. But he did know that the young man was currently the most important figure in the entire Korean Hunter Association, and that Branch Manager Lee Hyeondong was the one personally handling him. That was enough.
So he made a very wise decision: inform the branch manager of Jihun’s survival immediately.
(Right now! Bring him here immediately! No excuses!!)
The moment he reported Jihun’s survival, an incredibly urgent voice exploded through the phone.
“Y-yes, sir!”
Team Leader Lee nodded frantically, then pushed his way through the crowd of reporters swarming around Jihun and Jiyeon.
“Ah, let me explain what’s going on…”
“H-Hunter Park Jihun!”
Just as Jihun was about to respond to the onslaught of questions, Team Leader Lee jumped in at the perfect moment.
“B-Branch Manager Lee Hyeondong requests your immediate presence!”
“Ah! Got it.”
At the mention of Branch Manager Lee Hyeondong, Jihun nodded as if he’d just realized something and took the man’s hand.
‘Come to think of it, I should probably throw the Association a proper bone too.’
He remembered the original agreement: when he finally revealed his true power, he would also boost the Association’s image and elevate its prestige.
“Then, ladies and gentlemen of the press, we’ll schedule an official press conference through the Association. Please come then.”
Leaving only those words behind, Jihun followed Team Leader Lee and left the area.
“H-hey?! Hunter Park Jihun! What happened in there?!”
“Just one comment! Please, just one word!”
The reporters shouted desperately, trying to get anything they could, but neither Jihun nor Jiyeon said another word. They simply climbed into Team Leader Lee’s car.
“Fuck… Just follow them!”
“Huh? They’re announcing the press conference date later anyway. Won’t we just end up fighting with the Association if we chase them?”
“Since when have we ever cared about that?!”
Even though the leaked information had turned out to be fake, these were the same tenacious reporters who always dug up the Association’s secrets. Their eyes burned with determination as they tailed Team Leader Lee’s car with Jihun inside.
But once they reached the Bupyeong branch, Association staff blocked them. They ended up waiting there for nearly an hour.
“The official press conference will be held next Monday, April 3rd. Please proceed to the designated location at that time.”
That was all they got for their trouble. With utterly dejected expressions, the reporters had no choice but to leave.
“…Excuse me? What did you just say…?”
Branch Manager Lee Hyeondong seriously doubted what he had just heard. He asked again to make sure.
“You heard correctly. I think I’m around B-rank now. And Jiyeon says her stats reached A-rank.”
“………”
Even after hearing it a second time, Lee Hyeondong shook his head in disbelief.
“No, wait… just a second…”
He quickly fetched the rank-measuring crystal from his office. There were more precise magical tools outside that could measure exact stats, but he didn’t have the mental bandwidth to go get them right now.
Using the rank-measuring crystal, the results were clear.
“Huk…”
Just as Jihun had said, his rank was B. Shin Jiyeon’s rank had climbed all the way to A. Lee Hyeondong was at a complete loss for words.
He had known about it. He knew Jihun had a skill that raised stats. But he never imagined it would be this ridiculous.
Not only had he survived a B-rank Special Gate, he had raised his rank from D to B inside it? With an average stat increase of 100 and a total increase of over 400? On top of that, he had elevated Shin Jiyeon—who had been stuck at B-rank for years—straight into A-rank.
‘I heard that familiars also get stat boosts, but…’
To think he could raise someone from B-rank to A-rank in such a short time. On paper it was just one rank up, but in terms of average stats, B-rank usually fell between 180 and 300, while A-rank sat between 301 and 500. That meant an increase of over 100 in average stats. Even considering that Jiyeon had been in the upper-middle range of B-rank, this was only possible with at least a 50-point boost.
And all of this had happened in just fifteen days. Was this even possible?
‘And then there are the other familiars…’
Below them was one high-tier B-rank monster, over fifty low-tier B-rank monsters, and four newly added C-rank familiars that continued to grow.
‘…It’s basically a one-man guild.’
And not just any guild. It was a force on par with a medium-to-large guild, made up of roughly sixty elite members, every single one of them C-rank or higher.
The problem was that this entire medium-to-large guild’s worth of power belonged to a single person. And that one person could enter gates alone with that entire force.
‘An A-rank gate would be a breeze…’
An A-rank gate normally required at least five A-rank hunters. But with Jihun’s stat-multiplication ability, his actual combat power was close to S-rank. Add in A-rank Shin Jiyeon, fifty-seven B-ranks, and four C-rank supporters. They could handle not only regular A-rank gates, but even A-rank Special Gates.
And all of that power was monopolized by Park Jihun. Of course Shin Jiyeon was there too, but since she was also his familiar, it was fair to say he essentially cleared gates by himself.
‘Well… money isn’t really an issue anymore…’
The real issue was that Park Jihun would continue to grow. His stats would keep rising, and so would those of his familiars. And he could always add even more familiars.
‘A monster…’
What else could you call this being other than a monster? Lee Hyeondong was starting to think that maybe it was fine for Jihun to stop hiding his power and reveal it openly.
‘It would make moving around a lot easier too…’
While he was thinking that, Jihun spoke up with a bright smile.
“That’s exactly what I was planning to do now.”
Lee Hyeondong’s face went blank.
‘D-don’t tell me the press conference is…’
When he had first heard the report from Team Leader Lee, who had brought the two of them in, he had assumed Jihun would coordinate with the Association to create a well-crafted story. He thought they would hide the truth and present a polished lie at the press conference.
“You’re going to reveal everything…? Even that you just powered up and smashed through the gate?”
“Yes! Of course, I want to keep the part about humans becoming familiars—like Jiyeon here—a secret. You understand why… right?”
Jihun glanced at Shin Jiyeon sitting beside him. Lee Hyeondong immediately nodded.
“Y-yes, of course… I don’t think I’d enjoy watching hunters beg all day to be turned into familiars either.”
“Right? Haha.”
Watching Jihun laugh, Lee Hyeondong let out a long, deep sigh.
“Understood. We’ll go all out preparing this press conference. And please don’t forget to give our Association a nice boost in the process.”
“Don’t worry.”
They set the date for the press conference right there. After delivering the information to the reporters waiting outside, Jihun and Jiyeon’s long, exhausting four days finally came to an end.
“Hmm, Yongwang Guild is probably out. I already provoked them on purpose.”
Yang Siwu was currently debating whether to join an existing guild or create a new one under her own name.
Normally, an S-rank hunter would create a guild carrying their own name. Lee Jeonghyeon was a bit of a special case. And given her strong desire for attention, launching a new guild under her own name seemed like the better choice.
But—
“Being a guild master comes with a ton of paperwork. When would I have time to build up achievements and become a national hero?”
She had already considered becoming a guild master once, but she had thought further ahead. If she founded a guild as an S-rank hunter—especially one carrying the title of Korea’s strongest—she would attract an enormous number of people and instantly become a major guild.
The attention would be massive at the beginning. But that would be the end of it. Taking the number one spot in Korea away from the Yongwang Guild, which boasted two S-rank hunters and a long history, would be incredibly difficult.
‘In the end, any guild I make would just get buried under Yongwang’s name.’
In that case, it would be better to join an existing major guild, turn it into the new number one by defeating Yongwang, draw all the aggro, and then sweep through gates without any guild paperwork. She could become a national hero and gather popularity that way. That was her conclusion.
“Hmm… which guild is doing well these days…”
While searching through guild information, her eyes landed on a headline dominating the top of the internet.
[Hunter Park Jihun, Survives and Returns.]
“What? H-he’s alive?”
It was news that the Tamer Park Jihun—who had been sucked into a B-rank Special Gate and everyone was certain had died—had returned alive.
Recently, while traveling in Gapyeong, Hunter Park Jihun and Hunter Shin Jiyeon were caught in a Special Gate estimated to be at least B-rank. They have returned alive. They appeared slightly fatigued but, astonishingly, returned from the gate without any visible injuries.
People are reacting with comments such as, “Wasn’t the B-rank assessment by the Association a mistake?” and “How could an F-rank hunter and a B-rank hunter with only a few familiars survive a B-rank Special Gate unscathed?”
However, the Association has firmly denied any measurement error. They announced that an official press conference with Hunter Park Jihun and Hunter Shin Jiyeon will be held next Monday to provide detailed information about the incident. Hunter Park Jihun has…
“…N-no way.”
Could an F-rank hunter really survive a B-rank Special Gate? No, surviving was one thing, but clearing it? Even with a B-rank hunter and familiars, did that even make sense?
Countless thoughts raced through her head, but pushing everything else aside, only one emotion bloomed clearly.
‘This bastard… after I worked so hard to gather all that attention, he’s stealing every last bit of it?’
Rage.
With his survival, every single news article was flooded with Park Jihun’s name. Her own name—the one who had claimed the title of Korea’s strongest hunter and even earned the cool title of “Fist King”—was nowhere to be seen.
All the attention that should have been on her had shifted entirely to Park Jihun. She had been reduced to complete leftovers. Yang Siwu began to feel an overwhelming fury toward Park Jihun.