Chapter 20
Chapter 20
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: Penalty and Self-Defense
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“Uh, buddy. Think you’ve got the wrong guy? I don’t know anyone like that.”
I tried denying it first, but of course that wasn’t going to fly.
“Wrong guy my ass! Then what’s that squirrel on your shoulder?!”
“Squirrel? …Ugh, what the—! When did a squirrel get on my shoulder!?”
“Chit!? Chit-chit?”
“You little shit, you messing with us?!”
I put on a bit of an act… but yeah, no way that was gonna work.
I let out a sigh and activated old-man mode.
“Kids. You can’t just believe everything floating around online. The world’s a harsh place. You’ll end up getting used by bad uncles.”
“What the hell… Did we ask for a lecture? You’re only 23, right? Think you can tattle like that just ‘cause you’re older?”
No, you guys started with the informal talk first.
“Pathetic old fart, scraping by with day jobs!”
What’s wrong with day jobs? Doing nothing’s the real pathetic part.
“And yet you call yourself awakened!? If a loser like you lucked into awakening, you should climb the tower responsibly instead of parking your ass in the low floors ‘cause you’re scared!”
No, that’s all fabricated news. I’ve been climbing hard lately…
—Explaining that? Too boring and preachy.
They wouldn’t listen anyway. Not these booze-soaked punks.
Die then! …I wanted to say it, but they’d just rage harder.
“Fine. Believe whatever you want. Do you.”
So my choice was to leave the drunks alone and go my own way.
I didn’t care what these idiots thought of me or what they called me.
It wasn’t causing me any real harm anyway.
So it would’ve been best for everyone if we’d parted amicably… right?
“This asshole thinks he can just slink away? Don’t you know what you did wrong? No remorse? It’s rotten hunters like you stealing our spots as awakeners!”
“Dude, even without me, with your personalities, I doubt you’d awaken anyway.”
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me…”
A big guy shoved his face right up to mine, like he’d completely lost it.
He was the only one in the group about my height, so probably the leader.
One timid guy in the back piped up cautiously.
“H-Hey… Even so, is it okay to mess with a hunter like this?”
“Fuck off, what’s there to worry about! Hunters get penalties or whatever if they hit civilians! He lifts a finger at us, he’s fucked!”
The guy grinned sleazily and jabbed a finger at my face.
‘Well, half right, half wrong.’
Sure, just like he said, if hunters lay hands on civilians, they get penalties from the tower’s rules.
This tower was suspiciously friendly to human civilization.
It popped up in our society one day and felt like it was saying, “We’ll steal souls and bring disasters, but we wanna get along with you! We’ll preserve your social order as much as possible!”
One of those rules was the Awakener Rules.
Posted publicly in the Tower Climbing Gallery that anyone awakened could access, it limited personal and property damage to others.
A rule to prevent superhumans empowered by the tower from causing chaos in society.
For malicious assault, the penalty was a full level down for the awakener.
For hunters, where levels meant power, that was devastating.
And that was just the baseline; depending on the damage, they could lose their powers entirely.
No need for jail—based on crime severity, they’d get locked in a blank white room for a set period.
For extreme crimes like murder… even soul seizure, like a death penalty.
Without those limits, how could civilians live safely in a world with hunter monsters?
But…
Does that mean civilians can just hassle hunters freely because of penalties?
Why did the tower awaken hunters in the first place?
Obviously to make them climb it. That’s the tower’s ultimate goal.
No way would it let its most important assets—hunters—suffer from outside stress and quit climbing.
If they snapped from it, who’d conquer the tower?
There were reasonable exceptions for conflicts between hunters and civilians.
The drunk leader, bragging I couldn’t touch him, cackled and added,
“Why even bother with a loser like this? He’s so weak, he’s stuck on the low floors.”
“Y-Yeah, true…”
Even the hesitant ones chuckled in relief.
Low-rank hunters scraping low floors couldn’t be that strong, right?
And I was the bottom-feeder doing day jobs ‘cause I couldn’t even farm magic stones properly.
Outnumbered too, so I got why they looked down on me.
Emboldened by the group, the leader puffed up.
“Losers like him are hogging awakener spots, that’s why we can’t awaken! If I did, I’d climb way higher than this shit!”
The guy had no clue, but confidence was nice.
As his voice rose and he closed in, the system beeped bzzzt-bzzzt.
Here we go.
“Right or not!? Speak up, you trash hunter!”
The leader poked my chest hard with his finger.
And at that moment, the system popped up a message.
“Oh, there it is.”
“What? There what—GYAAAAH!!!”
A piercing shriek erupted immediately.
Oops, twisted too hard by accident.
I’d casually wrenched the drunk’s poking finger—wrist and all—and he screamed like a little girl.
He flailed, trying to punch, so I squeezed a bit more, and another scream burst out.
“FUUUCK!! It hurts! Hurts! It fucking HURTS!!”
“Huh? Still talking smack?”
“NYAAAAAGH!!”
A bit more pressure, and now the drunk was bawling like a baby.
Tears streaming, he wailed to his friends.
“You fuckers, do something! Don’t just watch—beat his ass! Do something about this shit!”
The rest stood dumbfounded, but one brave soul charged, and they all scrambled after.
But they were just civilians.
Sloppy punches, sluggish kicks.
To me, it was like toddlers flailing.
No real damage even if they hit, so I dodged everything and shoved the off-balance ones flying with kicks.
Thunder on my shoulder spun his arms like he wanted in.
“Chit-chit!”
“Nah, stand down. You don’t use a cattle knife for chickens.”
Trash like this gets cleared by Hua Xiong without Lu Bu stepping in. Guan Yu maybe, but no.
If Thunder went wild here, it’d be chaos about a rabid monster squirrel.
I handled them solo, then made the fallen drunks kneel with hands up.
One even sobbed for his mom, thinking I’d kill them.
I addressed the trembling leader, hands raised promptly.
“Buddy.”
“Y-Yes… Yes! Hunter sir!”
“Hunters can counterattack too. There’s a self-defense system. Teachers teach it in school these days… Gotta listen to them.”
“S-Sorry!”
“Don’t drink here, quit smoking. Bad for you. Wanna awaken? Live diligently. Got it?”
“Y-Yes…! No more booze or smokes… Uh, study my ass off! And, uh… volunteer too…”
“No, I didn’t mean all that…”
Hmm. Got a bit carried away… okay, pretty old-man-ish.
But I’m 23 now. Allowed.
Thunder was lecturing the rest chit-chit with paws behind back.
No one understood, but they nodded scared shitless.
Hilarious sight. Time to go.
As we left, the drunks bowed 90 degrees, yelling “Take care!”
Of course, once I was far, I heard mutters of asshole and such.
Not my problem if they reform or not. Ignored it.
“Hyah!”
“Shrieeek—!”
Crunch crunch.
Boom!
Thud!
Crash!
Today was the start of my long-awaited 11th-floor climb. Floors 11 to 15 featured plant-type monsters.
The 11th floor’s foes were Man Traps, plant monsters from dense forests—like human-sized pitcher plants.
Big jaws with sharp spines and digestive juices… but useless against alloy-clad Franc.
Franc tanked upfront, and the three of us smashed them quick.
Our clear time was half the previous record.
“Having one more teammate really makes a difference.”
At this rate, we could skip about ten floors and park there.
Of course, decide based on clear times… but we’ve got margin.
After that drunk scuffle, I figured speed-climbing the Challenge Tower was best.
Can’t hide my identity forever.
I fiddled with magic stone cash-ins, posted proofs at random times… crude stuff, but don’t underestimate the government or corps.
That journalist Lee Wan-yong ran my story.
Choi the uncle bowed deep apologizing… surprisingly, my article got pulled fast.
I’d suggested it, but didn’t think they’d actually do it.
Still, it spread across communities, and the drunks proved people recognize me.
Conclusion: climb the Challenge Tower faster.
“Up to 15th first… That’ll complete a Star Fragment wish cycle. Hit 20, and we can add more teammates.”
Each new teammate doubles our power.
We’ll climb way faster than I thought.
After that, smooth sailing.
How dare the government control a hunter who speedran the whole Challenge Tower.
But life doesn’t always go to plan, huh.
—Agh, why not?!
“Like I said, that’s not our jurisdiction.”
This was the Trial Tower’s 0th-floor office.
Today brought a ridiculous complaint call.
Claiming assault by a hunter.
Complainant: a high schooler.
Already pissed from stalled work…
Rookie civil servant Park Min-ah responded with a hint of irritation.
“Sorry, but all hunters are restricted from assaulting civilians by the penalty system. Only explanation is you did something major to trigger no penalty.”
—We didn’t do shit, that asshole beat us! Why do the cops and Hunter Department say the same crap?!
Hunters didn’t even need criminal trials anymore.
The tower handled punishment more objectively than human judges.
Hunters rarely started with civilians anyway.
Why risk losing levels—their lifeline?
Complaints like this were obvious self-inflicted.
Ignoring her, the punk raised his voice.
—So you’re just letting that squirrel hunter roam free!? He’s not climbing higher! Hogging an awakener spot, farming scraps on low floors!
“...Sir. What exactly should we do?”
—Huh…?
Min-ah’s voice turned icy.
The punk shrank.
“Force that hunter up higher? You vouching for his life? Tell an underpowered guy struggling to die? Frankly. Squirrel Hunter or not, he brings magic stones— powering your lights, heat. Right? Everyone’s grinding.”
—B-But still…
“Sorry, busy. Hanging up. Same complaint again? We’ll treat it as interference. Tower violations? Hefty fines.”
Click.
“Haa…”
Min-ah rubbed her throbbing forehead after rapid-firing.
With zero leads on 3026 amid stalled work, handling childish complaints sincerely was tough.
Department baby with tons of tasks—daily street patrols timing Squirrel Enthusiast’s posts to watch hunters? Brutal.
Posts were random anyway. Can’t camp 24/7.
Magic stone queries narrowed suspects, but no 3026 match…
“Haa… Why no leads? Avoiding tracking on purpose?”
Doubtful.
Not broadcasting as 3026 was fine, but why hide identity thoroughly?
That prospect would gain more benefits revealing.
But this elusive…
“Tch. Squirrel Hunter, huh.”
That brief online buzz: bottom hunter juggling day jobs.
Unique… no, one-of-a-kind trait.
Shoulder squirrel was weird too.
But…
“Nah, if he were real Squirrel Enthusiast, why day-job?”
Keyword overlap with Squirrel Enthusiast, but that’s it.
This squirrel hunter farmed low floors for years, barely.
Squirrel Enthusiast climbed Trial Tower Floor 1 for 1000 days straight.
Trial Tower monsters didn’t drop stones, as far as Min-ah knew.
Rare Mountain Squirrel drop rumors got buried quick.
Who’d grind 1000 for verification? Insane.
Min-ah and most ignored the 0.1% drop rate.
Thus, no linking this odd hunter to Squirrel Enthusiast.
But why…
“...Why does this squirrel hunter stick in my head?”
Min-ah couldn’t shake the ‘Squirrel Hunter’ nagging her.