The Man Who Came Calling
“The association president came to see you?” I stared at the nurse, dumbfounded. Who? Unless I’d heard wrong.
“The association president……?”
If I’d heard correctly, that was exactly what she’d said.
The association president I’m thinking of…?
But if that was true, then it was even more of a problem. If she meant the association president, she was probably talking about the president of the Hunter Association.
……The S-class superhuman who represents Korea.
Technically, the strongest superhuman Korea possessed right now was SS-class, but that was beside the point.
The president of the Hunter Association was an S-class superhuman who had been active in Korea for decades.
Strong, influential, and firmly established.
He was the very image of a superhuman who represented the nation.
For me, he was someone I’d only ever seen on television.
And he’d come to see me……?
No, he said he was coming.
I had already heard that much, but I hadn’t expected him to show up at dawn.
I was so flustered that this might have been even more shocking than the SS-class artifact I’d just captured.
Then—
“Superhuman Lee Jinwoo.”
A voice came from beyond the door. It was so heavy that my body tensed on its own.
“I’m sorry to bother you so early in the morning. I heard you were awake…… Would you have a moment to spare?”
“……Ah, yes. Please, come in.”
I stammered out my permission, and the door opened as if it had been waiting for that exact answer.
And then—
……Wow.
The remarkable figure I’d only ever seen from far away stepped into view. A giant of a man with an enormous frame. I knew he was over sixty, but he stood there as a white-haired gentleman with muscles so immense they looked ready to burst through his suit.
“I truly am sorry for the late hour. I know it’s impolite, but I came in a rush.”
The president of the Korean Hunter Association.
An S-class superhuman and a former knight-order commander.
……Baek Hyeonho, the Magic Spearman.
Baek Hyeonho, an S-class reincarnator and Magic Spearman, was standing right in front of me.
“A-ah, no. What could possibly bring the association president here for someone like me……?”
“How could I not come? You’re the most famous superhuman in Korea right now.”
He smiled warmly. Most famous superhuman…… It was a phrase I’d never once heard before.
“A young hero who saved civilians from terrorists. When I heard the story, my heart leapt. I simply couldn’t stay still.”
“Oh, no…… That’s not—”
“……The only thing the Association could offer you immediately was this hospital room and treatment. I also apologize for being delayed by a day because I had to rush back from China.”
“W-wait, please don’t do that!”
The association president bowed his head. Seeing that, I hurriedly stopped him.
My God. An S-class superhuman bowing to me…… Was that even a thing that could happen?
Even more—
This hospital room was from the Association too?
No wonder it looked so high-end.
“Thank you. Because of Superhuman Lee Jinwoo, many people survived.”
“……No. I just…… I just got a little lucky.”
“Luck? That isn’t something you can do with luck alone.”
The association president spoke to me with a firm expression.
“It was Superhuman Lee Jinwoo’s courage and spirit. It was something no one else there could have done.”
“…….”
My ears were starting to turn red. That was a lot of praise to take at once.
“And from someone who had only awakened a few days ago, no less. Truly remarkable.”
“……No, really…….”
“I had no choice but to review a little of your file. Your rank hadn’t been registered yet.”
“……Ah, yes.”
I froze.
“But setting aside rank, I know better than anyone how hard it is for someone who hasn’t even been awakened a week to find the courage to stand up in a situation like that. You did well. Very well.”
The president’s large hand covered mine.
“You’ve had a hard time.”
“……Ah……. No…….”
My chest felt a little warmer. It had been a long time since anyone had acknowledged me like this. And for that acknowledgment to come from the president of the Hunter Association himself…… How could I not feel good?
Smiling awkwardly, I sat there quietly, and that was when the president spoke again.
“……So, Jinwoo.”
“Yes?”
“This is just my own idea, my own stubbornness, so think of it as a proposal.”
“……A proposal?”
“Yes.”
The association president had a proposal for me? My ears perked right up.
“We haven’t held a meeting about it or reached a consensus yet, but if you don’t mind……”
He paused briefly, then said to me,
“Would you like to become a knight?”
“……Pardon?”
My eyes widened at those words.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The door shut with a click.
Baek Hyeonho, the white-haired old man and Magic Spearman, closed the hospital room door behind him. He’d come out wearing that gentle smile, but the moment he stepped into the hallway, he wiped it clean from his face.
In an instant, his expression was blank.
Someone approached him from the side.
“Did the conversation go well?”
It was Jeon Yuseon, an A-class superhuman of the Association and the Green Lotus Sword.
“Yes.”
“You’ve worked hard. You must be exhausted.”
He had come straight back to Korea from China. And not just from any ordinary trip.
He’d been on the way back after dealing with that mad dog.
He had finished speaking with the Chinese SS-class superhuman and returned immediately to Korea. No matter how much of a steel man Baek Hyeonho was said to be, it would have been strange if he weren’t tired.
“I have to do what needs doing. Haven’t there been enough incidents already?”
Baek Hyeonho looked perfectly calm. At least on the surface. But Jeon Yuseon knew better. He knew the president’s mood was far from good right now.
“Tsk.”
A sharp click of the tongue followed.
“Those damned terrorists.”
His voice was thick with feeling.
“……They pulled something completely pointless. This has become a real nuisance.”
The incident from just yesterday. Thanks to the terrorist attack, the Association—and the public at large—had been thrown into turmoil.
Jeon Yuseon answered at that.
“No matter how I look at it, they were targeting us.”
“Yes. That seems likely.”
What those bastards had aimed for wasn’t just a building.
What the terrorists had wanted was—
“They seem to want the Association shaken.”
The Association. The knights made up of superhumans.
They wanted the very system to wobble.
The proof was clear.
“They must have used something to keep the rescue teams from reaching the building until it exploded.”
There were traces showing that sound had been cut off around the building from the moment before the blast.
There were also signs that the radio signals had been tampered with to prevent contact with rescue teams.
There was only one conclusion.
“Those pathetic little worms…… they were trying to stir up the media.”
It was media play.
When the building was blown apart and the explosions tore through everything, what had the Association been doing?
Why hadn’t rescue teams moved? Why had the superhumans been nowhere to be found while civilians were dying?
That was the sort of story they intended to push. In fact, several previous terror attacks had followed the same pattern.
“They wanted to shake the system, that’s all.”
This attack had even involved an artifact, which meant it had been planned with great care. The very fact that they had timed it for when he, the association president, was in China said as much.
If they’d made one mistake, this might have become the starting point for something much worse.
“If not for that young man, this would have become a real mess.”
The president let out a breath of relief.
Yes, their plan had failed. There had been an unexpected variable at the center of the terror attack.
Lee Jinwoo, was it?
The young superhuman who had driven the terrorists out of the building and saved the civilians.
And he only awakened yesterday.
He was a rookie who had only just awakened a day or two ago.
How in the world did someone like that—
At minimum, he had stopped a terrorist likely to be A-class and rescued civilians from the flames. Baek Hyeonho genuinely couldn’t understand it.
And more than that—
The report was blurry, but from the video he’d seen, there had been a tremendous impact.
Still—
It looked like the devices around him were swept up in the flames and blew apart.
It hadn’t been a victory achieved entirely by his own strength. That was how the footage had been recorded.
What was it?
From the president’s perspective, the boy didn’t look that strong. Was he hiding his power? No, that seemed unlikely. It wouldn’t have been enough to fool his eyes.
It was nonsensical.
Which meant—
Most likely.
One word flickered through Baek Hyeonho’s mind.
Irregular.
Those whose strength exceeded what the Box measured.
Or rather—
Those who could become such beings.
It was something that occasionally manifested among people with martial-world past lives in particular.
Irregulars with power greater than the rank measured by the Box and the System.
Lee Jinwoo. Could that boy be one of them?
It was vague. Too vague to be certain.
Could someone else have interfered? That was possible too.
“What happened to that terrorist?”
“……We believe he escaped. No traces were found.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
It would have been nice if they had caught him for certain, so that was quite a disappointment.
“In any case, make sure the public opinion is set. I want the papers plastered with that young superhuman.”
“Understood.”
The reason the media and public opinion were already overflowing with Lee Jinwoo’s name was because the Association had worked the angle.
They had shifted the spotlight to a young hero to keep people from talking about the Association’s incompetence.
Ordinary citizens were already interested in a new face, after all.
Especially if it was—
An underdog reversal, even more so.
The president’s eyes gleamed.
“It’s good bait. Awakening at the very moment everyone thought he wouldn’t. And on top of that……”
He rustled through the folder in his arms and drew out a file.
“It would be even better if he had an unfortunate family history.”
It was Lee Jinwoo’s personal record. As the president read it, his eyes shone brighter.
“……Not bad.”
So that was who he was. Their son. And on top of that—
“Top of the Hunter School’s written exam, huh.”
Lee Jinwoo’s profile was astonishingly lopsided.
He’d scored perfectly on the written exam. And in the other categories, the ones that didn’t require superhuman abilities, nearly everything was at or close to perfect.
If he had only awakened, he would have been one of the greatest top scorers in history.
“A hero with a tragic past and a blazing spirit, but no talent to blossom…… That’s a perfect title.”
It was exactly the sort of background needed for media manipulation.
And he was young, too. Used properly, he’d be ideal.
Watching him, Jeon Yuseon asked,
“So that’s why you proposed that he become a knight? But even so, he’s still……”
Jeon Yuseon searched for the right words.
“I know. But it was necessary. That’s why I made the proposal, though……”
Baek Hyeonho’s eyes narrowed as he recalled the moment before.
More than I expected.
I’ll think about it.
He may not be easy to handle.
The young man had looked at him with admiration in his eyes.
He’d just awakened, so he shouldn’t have known much about the world.
Those eyes.
The instant he suggested becoming a knight, those eyes had gone cold.
So he isn’t just some young fool, is he?
It had been brief, but unmistakably, the boy had noticed something.
Well, whatever.
At most, he was sharper than average for his age. In the end, Baek Hyeonho still believed he would accept the role of a knight.
“So make sure the rest of the interview is ready. Don’t let anything unnecessary slip out.”
“Understood.”
Jeon Yuseon nodded and was just about to prepare the next schedule when—
Ring ring.
The phone rang. Jeon Yuseon answered.
“Yes, this is Jeon Yuseon of the Association. What is it…… Yes?”
His brows twitched at whatever he heard.
“……Association president.”
“What is it?”
“You should turn on the internet.”
“Hmm?”
At Jeon Yuseon’s words, the president opened the internet on his phone.
And at that moment—
“……What?”
Baek Hyeonho’s brow furrowed.
……Musin?
The world had been painted over with a name he had never heard before.
News articles began to spread like wildfire.
A woman with blond hair that swayed gently under the screen looked over the flood of reports.
Kuaaaaaa---!!!
It was footage brought out from inside the gate by the “informants.”
The video showed overwhelming destruction and bursts of light as monsters and rifts vanished.
The quality wasn’t great. It was only a D-class Anomaly Gate, so interest in it had been low. There had only been around a hundred invited participants, at most.
In other words, it had been a small-scale gate. Who could have imagined something like this would happen?
Who could have guessed that someone wearing a black mask would sweep the monsters away in an instant?
After watching that power, the woman opened another video.
It was a recording she had obtained in secret.
The terrorist attack near Yeouido.
The explosion that had erupted there.
Kwaaaaaa---!!!
The video showed energy bursting from a building and dark power shooting up into the sky. The footage was saturated with noise and difficult to make out, but the woman’s eyes pierced through even that.
“…….”
She compared it to the footage she had just taken from the gate.
The size and strength were so drastically different that anyone would have been tempted to dismiss them as entirely separate kinds of power.
But if it was anyone else, maybe. She would know.
“Hmm.”
Her blue eyes swept over the video.
“Looks like…….”
The woman made her decision.
“I’ll have to go to Korea.”
Even with another SS-class superhuman there, it had just been a small country she’d paid no attention to.
Now, there was a reason she had to go.
……Musin.
She had to find him.
No matter what it took.