Chapter 34
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: A New Encounter (1)
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Ji-han pressed his hand to his forehead.
He’d had a bad dream and was already in a foul mood, but this guy, Lee Chan, was about to make him explode.
“If this isn't interesting, I'll kill you.”
A genuine killing intent laced his voice.
“I-It was Choi Soo-hyun who recommended Kang Han-gyeol to the Aria Guild!”
He didn't know if it was interesting, but it was certainly unexpected.
Choi Soo-hyun was the youngest S-rank Hunter in South Korea and the poster boy for the Hunter Association.
He'd been working independently for about three or four years and was famous for being quite the eccentric.
Even if it was just a fleeting whim, the relationship between Choi Soo-hyun and Kang Han-gyeol looked suspicious to anyone.
Even Ji-han didn't know much about Choi Soo-hyun.
“So, about Kang Han-gyeol's info. The security is too tight; I can't get in. Tee-hee.”
The only available information on Kang Han-gyeol was through the Hunter Association, and even that was suspiciously clean, as if Choi Soo-hyun had pulled some strings.
*That guy…*
Ji-han couldn't forget what had happened in the dungeon.
*Geometry and vectors, my ass.*
That was undoubtedly the power of the God Soter.
Moreover, the skill Kang Han-gyeol had used was one Ji-han had learned directly from Soter.
There were far too many suspicious things.
“Dig into Choi Soo-hyun.”
“What? Are you crazy? Do you know who he is?! I don't want to get myself killed by messing with him! If you want to know, look him up on Woodwiki! I'm not doing it!”
Lee Chan vehemently refused, but Yoo Ji-han's only response was silence.
A silence that was more like unspoken pressure.
As the silence stretched on, an anxious Lee Chan spoke up.
“Uh…?”
“...”
“You're kidding, right?”
“Just do it.”
As Ji-han spoke with a warning tone, Lee Chan caught his breath.
“I-In exchange, if something happens, you have to save me, okay? It's not my fault, right?”
“Yeah.”
Ji-han thought Lee Chan was being overly dramatic.
He hadn't asked for anything major, just a simple background check. He couldn't understand why it warranted such anxiety.
*It's not like he ever leaves his room, anyway.*
Only after shifting the responsibility to Ji-han several times did Lee Chan agree to look into it.
Even if Lee Chan was a shut-in, he was still useful.
Just as he was about to end the call, Lee Chan hesitated as if he had something more to say.
“Hey.”
“What?”
“So, how long do I have to keep investigating this God Soter or whatever? Huh? I'm not finding anything.”
After starting to work with Ji-han, the very first request Lee Chan received was to find out about a god who went by the name Soter.
Lee Chan had found it absurd from the very beginning.
After dungeons and monsters began appearing all over the world, Awakened Ones with special abilities emerged.
Gods granted their followers even stronger powers.
But these gods were so numerous and varied.
It was so bad that Hunters would joke among themselves that there were as many gods as there were Hunters.
Although a ranking system called ‘Babylon’ existed, the God Soter was not included in it.
Unless a god was particularly famous, finding one by name alone was like finding a needle in a desert.
When he first heard about the God Soter, Lee Chan thought Ji-han had made up the name.
Now that he knew Ji-han’s skills and personality, he understood it wasn't a joke.
To Lee Chan’s question, Ji-han replied as if the answer was obvious.
“Keep going.”
Ji-han had only ever chased after Soter, so Lee Chan had hoped his newfound interest in someone else meant a change, but it was not to be.
Ji-han's obsession with the God Soter was somewhat pathological.
Sometimes, it was even a little scary.
“What are you even going to do when you find that third-rate god? Were you mortal enemies in a past life or something?”
“You catch on quick.”
“Pfft—what? Hey! You made me spit out my coffee!”
“Don't report every little thing like that to me.”
“So you two are really enemies? For real?”
“None of your business.”
Ji-han clenched his fist.
In the past, he had been saved by the God Soter.
He still remembered those days, being summoned to the tower's lobby and thrown onto the first floor with nothing to his name.
He met him there.
For a brief moment, he'd even deluded himself into thinking he might be able to change the world.
Ji-han reached the top of the tower, only to be betrayed by the God Soter.
Essentially kicked out of the Tower of Trials, Ji-han had strived to prevent Soter's birth in a completely different dimension.
He failed.
Ji-han, who thought he had died, woke up in a third dimension.
In this world, similar to the modern era but slightly different, Ji-han realized that the same events from the Tower of Trials he had experienced in the past were unfolding once more.
Ji-han was certain that man had become a god.
*He's somewhere out there.*
He had a feeling.
“Next time I see him, I'll kill him.”
That was all Ji-han said about the God Soter.
“Ahem, a-hem hem.”
Hearing the killing intent in his voice, Lee Chan cleared his throat on the other end of the line.
He’d sensed it a few times before, but Ji-han's feelings toward the God Soter were twisted somehow.
“By the way, how was that disguise I recommended?”
“Bring me clothes like that one more time and I'll bury you.”
“Wh-Why?! That was my masterpiece! Especially that trapper hat!”
“Die.”
When Ahn Ju-hye had recognized him instantly, Ji-han had genuinely wanted to find and kill Lee Chan.
Ji-han let out a sigh.
Deciding that talking any further was pointless, he ended the call abruptly.
***
A pharmacist in a white coat placed the medicine on the counter.
“That'll be 65,200 won.”
*Did I hear that right?*
*How can cold medicine cost over 60,000 won?*
I was so genuinely shocked that my eyes went wide.
All I’d done was go to a nearby clinic because I wasn't feeling well this morning, then came downstairs to pick up my prescription.
The doctor had told me it was just a light cold and body aches.
I couldn't even remember the last time I'd caught a cold.
It seemed even Hunters weren't immune to the common cold virus.
Still, this was too much.
*Isn't Korea a country with National Health Insurance?*
*Or did the health insurance system collapse without me knowing?*
“Mr. Kang Han-gyeol, you're a Hunter, right? Hunters aren't covered by the National Health Insurance.”
The pharmacist urged me to hurry up and give her my card, mentioning there were other patients behind me.
*So that's what it was?*
No wonder the consultation fee seemed strangely high, too.
I reluctantly took out my card and handed it to the pharmacist.
After grabbing the receipt and the bag of medicine, I stepped outside.
On the way home, I got a call from Choi Soo-hyun.
“Hey, is Song Eun-young hurt?”
“What kind of nonsense are you spouting first thing in the morning?”
*Has he lost his mind?*
*Song Eun-young, my foot.*
I hadn't even seen her since that day.
“A hospital charge showed up on the card. I thought maybe something bad had happened.”
“Excuse me. Did it not occur to you that *I* might have gone to the hospital?”
I was speechless.
While on the phone, I stopped by the convenience store right in front of my building, grabbed a bottle of orange juice, a few bags of chips, and a bento box from the display, then paid for them.
“What did you just buy at the convenience store?”
“A bento box. A man's gotta eat, you know.”
“You little shit, I lent you that card to bring Song Eun-young, not to pay for your hospital bills and meals! That's embezzlement, you hear me? And why the hell is a perfectly healthy bastard like you going to the hospital?!”
“I went because I have body aches, so what!”
“So what? Getting a little informal there, are we?”
“I'm sick, so I'm allowed to g-go to the hospital, aren't I?”
I returned home and slumped onto the floor of my studio apartment.
As if not having health insurance wasn't miserable enough.
“So, what's up?”
He probably didn't call just because of the hospital bill.
I unwrapped the bento box and put it in the microwave.
Choi Soo-hyun's voice came through the speakerphone.
“You have that thing, right?”
“What thing?”
“You know. That.”
“I'm asking what 'that' is!... sir.”
“The thing that looks like a shard of glass.”
The words ‘shard of glass’ made me realize what he was talking about.
He could have just said that from the start.
That day at the restaurant, I had given Choi Soo-hyun a rough account of what happened in the dungeon.
*But I don't think I ever mentioned the shard…*
I had told Choi Soo-hyun some things, but not everything.
*How did he know?*
As soon as I took the bento box out and placed it on the table, Choi Soo-hyun's voice rang out.
“Didn't I tell you not to hold out on me?”
“How did you know? I thought that Park Si-woo guy was keeping his mouth shut.”
“Seems that way. The bastard. Hey, you think he's my only friend?”
“Who else is your friend?”
At my question, Choi Soo-hyun fell silent, seeming genuinely flustered.
*What? He has lots of friends?*
Both Yoo Ji-han and Choi Soo-hyun... I have no idea where they get their pointless confidence from.
*They don't even have friends.*
Choi Soo-hyun quickly changed the subject in his fluster.
“Whatever, hand it over. I want to see it, too.”
“Are you telling me to 'hand it over' or 'let you see it'?”
“I'm asking nicely, so bring it.”
“Some big brother. You're no different from a robber. I'm telling you, it's really dangerous.”
“Which do you think is more dangerous? You having it, or me having it?”
*Wow, where does this guy get his confidence?*
*And he's an independent, too.*
Still, he was an S-rank Hunter.
I chewed the hot rice thoroughly and swallowed.
When I told him the story back then, Choi Soo-hyun really hadn't known what happened in the dungeon.
Part of it was because he was in a different department, but there was also a fundamental problem with the reporting system between guilds and the Hunter Association.
Dungeon reports were ultimately submitted by guilds to the association, and if a guild decided to fabricate information in the process, the association had few ways of finding out.
To be precise, it wasn't the association's problem.
The association only cared about whether a dungeon was successfully cleared or not, and about Dungeon Breaks, also known as rifts.
What happened inside the dungeon was not their concern.
Since they had little interest, there was an unspoken custom of letting it slide if guilds conveniently hid certain details.
Therefore, guilds had no reason to submit a report that was obviously suspicious, like, "The monsters mutated strangely."
From the guild's perspective, it was much better to say, "There were a few injuries, but we cleared it just fine," and move on, rather than getting a headache over a problem in a low-rank dungeon.
It was a complicated issue in many ways.
“Fine. How should I get it to you?”
“I'll call you again, so don't lose it and keep it safe. Oh, and they say honey is good for a cold.”
Having said his piece, Choi Soo-hyun hung up.
For a while, I stared blankly at the disconnected call screen on my phone.
“Honey, my ass.”
*If it's so great, buy me some yourself!*
***
Once I felt a bit better, I headed back to the hotel where Song Eun-young worked.
I got off at Gangnam Station and walked.
*No matter how I look at it, that guy really seemed like Yoo Ji-han.*
Ever since clearing the 3rd floor, I couldn't get the thought of Kim Yoo-han out of my head.
I regretted not trying to knock off his mask or glasses, pretending it was an accident, during our fight.
Not that the situation really allowed for it.
Anyway, I'd already told Yoo Ji-han everything I could about the 3rd floor.
The 3rd floor's difficulty wasn't that high.
All he had to do was meet Major Dechant, receive the dagger, get into the first-class cabin, and kill the target.
Honestly, it was so easy that it took me less than a day to clear.
*The problem is if he fails.*
If he hesitates because of her appearance or fails the assassination, things will get complicated.
*He'll manage on his own.*
Thinking about Yoo Ji-han made me feel like a player in an idle game.
I walked through the hotel lobby and headed for the buffet.
Even though it wasn't quite lunchtime yet, the buffet was already quite crowded.
I easily spotted Song Eun-young working.
I waved at Song Eun-young, pretending to be friendly.
Song Eun-young saw me and quickly turned her head away.
*Did she just ignore me on purpose?*
*Did I do something wrong?*