Hunter Awakens!
Hunter Awakens!
[WillTreatChickenIfAwakened : Heading to work to protect South Korea again today]
It's a gate debris removal site.
Basically no different from a Hunter.
ㅇㅇ : That's not a Hunter, that's manual labor.
ㅇㅇ : Line up.
ㄴ WillTreatChickenIfAwakened : I haven't awakened yet, what are you lining up for?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : Lining up in advance.
Resign-When-Awakened : How much is the daily wage today?
ㄴ WillTreatChickenIfAwakened : 17.
ㄴ Resign-When-Awakened : 170,000 won? You make more than me. Blocked.
Active F-Rank : I'll acknowledge it if you verify with a photo wearing a hard hat.
ㄴ WillTreatChickenIfAwakened : Why would an active Hunter verify to a civilian?
ㄴ Active F-Rank : You're an unawakened person.
ㄴ WillTreatChickenIfAwakened : I'm S-Rank in terms of settings.
ㅇㅇ : "In terms of settings" lol
"In terms of settings, my ass."
I turned off the comment notification that rang before my alarm and sat up.
Five-ten in the morning.
It was still dark outside the window, and the floor was as cold as the inside of a refrigerator. It was a problem that could be solved by turning on the boiler, but there are many problems in the world that are cheaper to endure than to solve.
I opened the fridge with the blanket wrapped around my shoulders.
Half a bottle of water.
Leftover pickled radish.
Mayonnaise I don't even remember when I bought.
'It's a feast.'
There was no rice to eat with the pickled radish as a side dish.
My dignity as a human being stopped me before I could use the mayonnaise as a side dish.
In the end, I just drank a mouthful of water and closed the fridge door.
"They'll give me lunch when I get there."
If they don't, I can just eat a cup of instant noodles.
It wasn't that I didn't have money to buy cup noodles. It was just that my bank balance wouldn't even be 10,000 won until today's daily wage came in.
Still, I'm rich by this standard.
I can buy over five triangle kimbaps at the convenience store.
'The problem is that rent is due in three days.'
I decided to stop thinking.
People get depressed if they think about unsolvable problems for too long. I was better suited to being a thoughtless day laborer than a depressed one.
I finished washing my face and put on my work clothes.
Pants with faded white knees, a black hoodie, and safety shoes with steel-capped toes.
In the mirror stood a twenty-seven-year-old man with a tired face.
His name was Han Siwoo.
His job changed from day to day.
Yesterday he was a logistics warehouse worker, and the day before he was a moving center employee. Today he was a gate debris removal crew member.
He didn't know about tomorrow.
Isn't this the very definition of a job with infinite possibilities?
'Or, as they say, unemployed.'
Hmm. Even I thought that was too negative an expression.
I put my phone in my pocket and left the house.
People were already gathered in front of the labor agency. Everyone was wearing similar work clothes and drinking instant coffee from paper cups.
As I opened the door, Foreman Park Bong-sik, who was sitting in front of the heater, spotted me.
"Han Siwoo. You came again today?"
"You told me to come out tomorrow yesterday."
"I didn't think you'd actually come."
"Well, I have to come to earn money."
"Is it money every time you open your mouth?"
"It's not like you give me anything other than money, Foreman."
Min-seok, who was drinking coffee next to him, burst into laughter.
The foreman tapped my shoulder with the work roster.
"The site is a bit dangerous today. Don't mess around and just do what you're told."
"When have I ever messed around?"
"Who was the guy who hung a doll on his safety hook last week?"
"So I wouldn't be lonely when I fall."
"Don't worry, if you fall, I'll bury you with the doll."
"The benefits are great as always."
"This bastard."
We boarded the van prepared by the agency.
Today's site was a closed gate on the outskirts of Seoul.
Two months ago, a D-rank gate closed earlier than scheduled. The raid team returned safely, but some of the buildings around the gate collapsed after being caught in a mana surge.
After the Hunter Administration cleared out the dangerous monsters and mana contamination, people like us cleaned up the remaining debris.
The world is saved by Hunters.
And we clean up the trash of the world saved by Hunters.
Of course, it almost never appears on the news.
'A hidden hero wiping the backsides of heroes.'
Thinking about it that way, it felt kind of cool.
"Are you on the gallery again?"
Min-seok, who was sitting next to me, peered at my screen.
"Stop looking at other people's phones."
"It's the Hunter Gallery. Are you still pretending to be an Awakened there?"
"It's not pretending, I'm a potential Awakened, so watch your mouth."
"Then I'm a potential conglomerate heir."
"You can't, hyung, because of your face."
"Do conglomerate heirs have to be handsome these days?"
"It seems like everyone is these days."
Min-seok poked my side with his elbow.
I twisted my body to avoid it and posted a new thread on the gallery.
[WillTreatChickenIfAwakened : Heading to D-rank gate for work today]
Can't say details because it's classified.
ㅇㅇ : Morning roll call for day laborers over?
ㅇㅇ : Line up.
ㄴ WillTreatChickenIfAwakened : Why are you lining up on a post about me going to work?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : You might awaken today.
ㄴ WillTreatChickenIfAwakened : That's true.
Active F-Rank : You're picking up trash outside the gate, aren't you?
ㄴ WillTreatChickenIfAwakened : It's an external perimeter mission.
ㄴ Active F-Rank : With a broom?
ㄴ WillTreatChickenIfAwakened : It's a holy sword.
Please-Give-Me-Allowance : Hyung-nim, please take care of South Korea today.
ㄴ WillTreatChickenIfAwakened : Leave it to me.
Min-seok clicked his tongue after seeing the post.
"You're going to get hit if you actually meet a Hunter like that."
"There is no one on the internet who can beat me."
"What about in reality?"
"Why talk about reality on the internet?"
"That's true, I guess."
I wanted to awaken.
It was fun playing around on the Hunter Gallery pretending to be an Awakened, but in truth, I had been waiting quite a long time for the day it would stop being a pretense.
Awakening comes without warning.
A ten-year-old child might awaken while sleeping, or an elderly person over sixty might awaken while dozing off on a bus.
A person who was ordinary until yesterday might breathe fire, walk through walls, or swing a giant sword today.
And the awakened person receives a grade test from the Administration.
From F-rank to S-rank.
Life changes depending on the result.
I thought such a thing could happen to me at least once.
No, to be honest, I thought about it every day.
Wouldn't a status window pop up when I wake up?
Wouldn't I gain a strength-type ability while carrying heavy loads?
Wouldn't the cat I met on the street actually be a divine beast that chose me?
All I had discovered so far were muscle aches and the fact that stray cat claws hurt.
"Siwoo-ya."
"What."
"What do you want to do if you awaken?"
Min-seok asked, looking out the window.
"I have to get a grade test first."
"And after that?"
"Verify on the gallery."
"You crazy bastard. You should be thinking about making money."
"I have to reply to the guys who looked down on me one by one. It'll take at least three days."
"A life of gallery-scrolling even after awakening, huh."
"Still, if I get B-rank, I'll buy you a meal, hyung."
"What if it's A-rank?"
"I'll have to change my number."
"Why?"
"Because people like you will keep contacting me."
Min-seok kicked my shin without a word.
The van arrived at the site a little past seven in the morning.
Yellow control lines were wrapped around the half-collapsed logistics center. Even from a distance, one side of the building looked like it had been gouged out by a giant beast.
Two Administration employees were standing at the entrance.
A woman with glasses among them stopped us.
"Do not go outside the designated area under any circumstances. The residual mana levels have fallen below safety standards, but the center of the gate has not yet been closed."
The foreman answered for us.
"Yes. I'll educate the kids and then we'll go in."
"Especially if you find black crystals, do not touch them and report it immediately."
"Crystals?"
"They are condensed mana stones that form when a gate collapses. It can be dangerous if an unawakened person touches them directly."
I raised my hand slightly.
The employee looked at me.
"Do you have a question?"
"Is there a case where you awaken if you touch it?"
"No."
The answer was too fast.
"Not even a little bit of a chance?"
"There is a high chance of being taken to the hospital."
"What about the hospital bills?"
"They are at your own expense."
"I will absolutely not touch it."
Behind me, Min-seok held back a laugh and coughed.
The employee, perhaps having seen people like this once or twice, handed us access vests without a word.
The work was simple.
Put small broken debris into hemp sacks, and clear the area so equipment can move the large concrete chunks.
Except for the fact that there was a lot of dust and my back hurt, there was nothing special about it.
I shoveled all morning.
I really just held a shovel and scooped up dirt and rocks.
"Siwoo-ya. Straighten your back."
"If I straighten it, I have to bend it again."
"You'll get a herniated disc like that."
"I'll recover if I awaken."
"What if you don't?"
"I'll have to file for industrial accident compensation."
"Say that in front of the boss too."
"I want to work for a long time, too."
Lunch was a packed meal distributed at the site.
It was labeled as spicy stir-fried pork, but there were only three pieces of meat. Min-seok took one, and I protected the other two.
"Just one more piece."
"Step over my dead body."
"You said you'd buy me beef if you awakened."
"That was a promise made by the future me."
"And the current you has no responsibility?"
"We're separate people."
I said that, but when Min-seok reached out with his chopsticks, I handed over the lunch box as if I had no choice.
While working after lunch, around three in the afternoon.
I was pulling out a metal plate from inside a collapsed wall.
I saw a black light through a gap in the crumbled concrete.
A crystal a little bigger than a fingernail.
It was exactly what the Administration employee had mentioned in the morning.
'Touch it and it's a hospital trip at my own expense.'
I immediately took my hand off.
I didn't have money, so it would be troublesome if I even had to pay for hospital bills.
"Foreman!"
There was no answer.
The sound of an excavator was ringing loudly in the distance.
I stepped back to look for the radio.
At that moment, I heard something cracking under my feet.
Jjeojeok.
Red cracks spread across the black crystal.
'I didn't even touch it.'
It was true.
I only looked at it with my eyes.
I did think it looked a bit tempting, but if the contact judgment applied just by thinking about it, the world was too strict.
Jjeojeojeok.
The cracks spread rapidly.
"Min-seok hyung."
"Why?"
"This is supposed to glow, right?"
Min-seok approached me, then his expression stiffened.
"......Run."
"What?"
"I said run!"
At the same time, the crystal exploded.
I couldn't hear any sound.
Black light filled my vision, and my whole body was lifted up.
I couldn't breathe.
Even after falling to the ground, I couldn't move a finger for a while.
An alarm sounded.
I could hear people shouting, too.
But everything was distant, as if I were listening from underwater.
'Am I dying?'
I hadn't even received today's daily wage yet.
I hadn't paid rent either.
The pickled radish left in the fridge was a waste, too.
Most of all, the last post I made on the gallery was 'Heading to D-rank gate for work today'.
'They'll really think I died in the gate.'
Well, was it true that I died in the gate anyway?
The moment I was thinking that, blue letters appeared before my eyes.
[Awakening conditions have been met.]
The pain was forgotten for a moment.
"......Really?"
My voice wouldn't come out, so I only moved my lips.
It was the awakening I had waited for so long.
The opportunity I had longed for, saying I didn't want to live an ordinary life and die an ordinary death.
'I survived.'
An Awakened person has higher recovery capabilities than an ordinary person.
Whatever the ability is, it wouldn't let me die in this state.
[Checking for a profession suitable for your soul.]
[Synchronization rate between the target and the profession is below the threshold.]
"......?"
A strange sentence intruded into the good atmosphere.
[Optimizing the body for the full manifestation of professional abilities.]
'Wait.'
Where is the agree button?
Usually, doesn't something like this show the terms and conditions first?
At least show me things like side effects—
[Starting physical reconstruction.]
"N, no."
Sensations started to twist from my fingertips.
My hands and feet shrank, and my work clothes became baggy in an instant. As my field of vision lowered, my short hair poured down past my shoulders to below my waist.
"Ugh......."
The pain of my bones compressing inward continued.
Even the moan flowing from my throat was high and thin.
'Something is wrong.'
This wasn't the awakening I knew.
[Physical reconstruction complete.]
The pain disappeared as if it were a lie.
I couldn't move for a while, buried in my oversized work clothes.
Alarms were ringing in the surroundings, but I couldn't see the other people.
It seemed they had all scattered due to the impact of the explosion.
I barely managed to pull my hands out from inside the sleeves.
They were small, white hands.
"......Status window."
The status window where you can check your profession and skills when you awaken.
If I hadn't heard auditory hallucinations and had really awakened, it should appear before my eyes.
As soon as I finished speaking, a blue window popped up as if it had been waiting.
[Status Window]
Name : Han Seorin
Age : 13
Gender : Female
Profession : Dragon Master
Skills : Soul Contract(EX), Communion(S), Come Back(B), Immature Knowledge(F)
"......Dragon Master?"
My eyes stopped for a moment at the name and gender, but I pretended not to notice for now.
The content of the status window was more important than that right now.
Every profession related to dragons was rare.
Dragon Knight, Half Dragon.
All known Awakened were at least high-ranking A-rank.
But I was a Dragon Master, not just a dragon.
'It sounds strong just from the name.'
If things went well, it might not be just a simple A-rank.
I pressed the first skill with trembling hands.
[Soul Contract(EX)]
Form a soul contract with the one and only dragon connected by fate.
The contractor receives the dragon's cooperation, and the contract target will have an extremely favorable disposition toward the contractor.
"EX-rank......."
There wasn't even proper information about EX-rank skills on the internet.
Opinions were divided on whether they even existed.
But one was given to me from the start.
My heart was beating fast.
'Isn't this a real life reversal?'
I checked the next skill.
[Communion(S)]
Sense the emotions and intentions of the contract target.
As the synchronization rate increases, more accurate communication becomes possible.
It seemed to be a skill for talking to dragons.
The rank was also S-rank.
[Come Back(B)]
Summon the contract target to your side regardless of distance.
However, activation may fail in situations that cannot be handled with current mana.
"I can even summon it?"
It was a necessary skill since I couldn't take a dragon on public transportation.
The last one left was the only F-rank skill.
[Immature Knowledge(F)]
Acquire basic knowledge about dragons according to the user's level.
Currently acquired knowledge
-Dragons are strong.
-Dragons are really, really super strong.
-An angry dragon is very scary.
"......."
I read the three lines again.
No matter how I looked at it, it was content I already knew.
'It just says they're super strong.'
It wasn't F-rank for nothing.
Still, the rest of the skills looked strong enough.
EX-rank contract skill. S-rank communion.
And a summoning ability that can call a dragon at any time.
If it was this much, there was a high possibility of getting a high result in the grade test as well.
I calmed my excited heart and picked up the phone that had fallen to the floor.
Inside the cracked screen was a strange young girl.
Silver hair falling below her waist.
Clear turquoise eyes.
A small face that looked like a middle school student at best.
When I blinked, the girl blinked along with me.
"......Ha."
The gender written on the status window came to mind again.
I pretended not to notice earlier, but now I couldn't avoid it anymore.
I had awakened.
I had also obtained the opportunity to become the Hunter I had wanted so much.
I had even become a Dragon Master, a profession name that sounded strong from the start.
But I wanted to become a Hunter, I didn't want to become a young girl.
But who am I?
A Dragon Master.
And an EX-rank skill holder at that.
The corners of my mouth went up on their own.
Wait for me, Hunter Gallery.
Hunter-Bro is awakening.