Chapter 64
Chapter 64
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: Is This What You Like, Team Leader? (2)
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📰 Breaking News S-Rank Hunter Baek Cheon-ho, President of the Hunter Association: "I'll make sure nothing like this ever happens again." 📰 Breaking News Shocking Embezzlement of Mid-to-Small Guild Support Funds by Association Support Division Head! 📰 Breaking News Former Support Division Head Jin Kwon-cheol: "These claims are baseless." "Man, the Korean media sure works fast."
Articles related to Jin Kwon-cheol keep pouring in.
Even in the position of Hunter Association Support Division Head, it wasn't some position of immense power.
He couldn't intervene in legislation, couldn't pass judicial judgments—he could just barely look down on other hunters from a slightly higher perch. That was it.
Jin Kwon-cheol was done for.
Just skimming the atmosphere over the past few hours, it felt like he was about to get the full "execute swiftly and mercilessly" treatment.
'They'll probably just use him as an example and kick him to the curb.'
Jin Yu-han was dead.
Essentially, I'd killed him.
Yet no one cared about that fact.
Not even his father, Jin Kwon-cheol, would have time to worry about his son's funeral.
Perfect.
Thanks to the 'Unknown Document' gifted by the Taming App, I'd wrapped everything up nice and sweet.
'And Hwang Deok-su too...'
In our Korea, among power-driven crimes, sexual offenses are the most reviled.
Wouldn't crushing someone with power and raping them be treated as a graver sin than a chaebol heir ordering a murder?
Hwang Deok-su, a mere mid-to-small guild master, had tormented female hunters.
Starting with the 'Milky Way Guild' secretary who came forward claiming she'd been toyed with by him, countless women added their testimonies, saying they'd suffered the same.
Now, it didn't matter if it was true or not.
Tied together with Jin Kwon-cheol's scandal, Hwang Deok-su didn't even get a chance to defend himself.
He was just finished.
📰 Breaking News Guild Master Who Bullied F-Rank Female Hunters: The Reality of Women's Rights... 📰 Breaking News Twenty Confirmed Victims Already... "The guild support system made it hard to refuse." 📰 Breaking News Is It the 'Milky Way Guild' Training Team's Fault? Or the Association's Unfair Target Selection System? 📰 Breaking News Blue House: "We will strive to improve women's rights and build a fair system." 📰 Breaking News Hunter Association S-Rank Hunter Baek Cheon-ho: "'Milky Way Guild,' which received unfair support, will be immediately disbanded by the president's authority." "No better side dish than this, right?"
After sending Jin Kwon-cheol and Hwang Deok-su packing, Training Team 4 headed to their after-work drinks as planned.
It was the first team gathering since the team was formed.
The fact that there hadn't been a single one in half a year was the creepy part.
"Kuh, hits the spot."
Choi Da-eun downed her soju with a somewhat dazed look on her face.
Whatever she was deep in thought about, she wasn't listening even when spoken to.
"Then what's the point."
Lee Eun-seo grumbled from the side.
Her nasally voice grated on the ears.
Maybe I should rip her nose off.
"Hwang Deok-su's gone, and the 'Milky Way Guild' blew up too..."
At Lee Eun-seo's mumble, the mood in Training Team 4 sank heavily.
"We finally got some recognition from the guild, and now the guild's gone."
"What can we do? It just means our guild was trash."
"Still..."
They shared their thoughts, but each voice was thick with regret.
"Honestly, it was a sweet gig."
"..."
The Training Team 4 hunters couldn't deny it.
With the 'Milky Way Guild' blown apart, they'd been kicked out.
Just thinking about having to shop around for new guilds from now on made my head throb.
'...Come to think of it, I've already got a guild I'm joining?'
Han A-ra had already extended an offer from the guild she made.
We'd agreed that after finishing the 10th-floor raid, I'd transfer over.
Couldn't help it, thanks to Choi Da-eun's earnest pleading...
"Team Leader, what's up with you since earlier?"
"Huh?"
I had to call out to Choi Da-eun directly for her to even respond.
Otherwise, she'd ignore everyone and just sip her drink.
"Isn't this a happy day for you, Team Leader? You seem down."
"...It's personal stuff. Mind your own business."
Choi Da-eun still snapped back sharply.
"Then why suggest drinks in the first place?"
A week ago, Choi Da-eun had said it herself.
Let's have drinks if we make it back alive.
The drinks hadn't saved her life.
No one wants to die, so she survived somehow.
'She's sitting there all sulky the whole time. Why even suggest drinks then?'
Drinks were supposed to boost the mood, share stories we couldn't before—wasn't that the point?
That's what drinks meant to me.
But this gathering felt off.
The air was awkward, and there was zero fun.
I kept thinking about heading home, firing up the Taming App, summoning Han So-ra, and having some fun.
Choi Da-eun glared at me.
She looked pissed at my blunt words.
"...Just. What's wrong with chilling like this at drinks? Fuck, did you write the manual on how to party?"
"Not that, but..."
"We survived without dying, so let's celebrate. Just eat and drink. Do I have to entertain you guys at drinks?"
"We're supposed to have fun together. That's what drinks are."
"...Ugh, whatever."
Choi Da-eun waved her hand dismissively and crossed her arms under her breasts.
Maybe because her shirt was thin, they seemed even bigger than usual.
Choi Da-eun, doing whatever the hell she wanted even at drinks.
"Choi Da-eun is such a bitch."
"...!"
The Training Team 4 members' eyes went wide.
You'd think I'd uttered some unspeakable name, like Voldemort.
Choi Da-eun fixed me with a fierce glare.
I brushed off her stare and said it again.
"You said enjoy yourselves."
"...!"
The Training Team 4 members gaped and tried to stop me.
Knowing her temper, they were reacting extra sensitively.
"Why?"
I was baffled.
"Can't I call her Choi Da-eun?"
"She's the team leader, Sun-woo."
"She was precisely the Training Team 4 Team Leader of the 'Milky Way Guild.' But now?"
Lee Eun-seo, who'd been calling me out, fell into self-contradiction.
Thinking about it, Choi Da-eun wasn't the team leader anymore.
The 'Milky Way Guild' had been forcibly disbanded.
"...You're not wrong."
Lee Jin-seong nodded along to my words.
His eyes sparkled.
Choi Da-eun let out a heavy sigh and warned me.
"Even if I'm not team leader anymore, that doesn't mean you can drop the honorifics and talk casually."
"Da-eun noona."
"...Argh, fuck!"
Choi Da-eun rubbed her arms like they were crawling with goosebumps.
She spat curses and grabbed the soju bottle nearby, blowing into it like a trumpet.
"S-Slow down! Drink with us, Da-eun unnie."
"...Hah."
Lee Eun-seo subtly called her "unnie" to hold her back.
Choi Da-eun shot Lee Eun-seo a glance and let out a hollow laugh.
Then, as if giving up entirely, she started cackling.
"Fine, the 'Milky Way Guild' is done for anyway."
Training Team 4 treated Choi Da-eun casually now.
Which meant the positions the guild had given them were gone.
For Choi Da-eun, who'd despised Hwang Deok-su, this should have been welcome.
"Good. Call me whatever. Da-eun noona, Da-eun unnie..."
Choi Da-eun scanned the Training Team 4 members one by one.
A team she'd led for half a year.
A bunch of losers, sure, but each had done their best in their roles.
Finally, Choi Da-eun's gaze lingered on me.
She stared at me intently and spat out one line.
Her face flushed red, maybe from the booze she'd been nursing alone...
"...You're not getting away with it. You don't drop the honorifics."
"Why?"
"Fuck, just looking at your face pisses me off."
"Then you don't drop them either."
"Fuck off."
"Noona, a shot?"
"You little shit, I said don't."
"Everyone, fill up? Looks like Da-eun's finally ready to enjoy the drinks."
"Ah. This guy's fucking insane."
Grumbling all the while, Choi Da-eun didn't refuse the toast.
Clink!
Training Team 4's first—and last—team drinks finally kicked off.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 'Why the hell did that bastard have that document?'
One nagging question had stuck with her ever since receiving the 'Unknown Document' from Masked Trash.
Choi Da-eun couldn't make sense of it.
What kind of guy was Masked Trash?
A worm who'd lucked into an S-rank or higher skill and couldn't handle the power.
That's how Choi Da-eun had seen him.
But after checking the 'Unknown Document,' her view changed.
Why did Masked Trash have this file?
How did he have this dagger proving the collusion between Jin Kwon-cheol and Hwang Deok-su?
'...And why give it to me...'
Everything had aligned too perfectly.
A little thought would reveal how suspicious it was.
Right when she needed to build up Training Team 4, he showed up with that ridiculous 'sex game.'
She hadn't believed it at first.
He'd gifted her a free 'Lowest All-Stats Boost Potion' to prove the game's rewards were real.
Planting certainty in her, luring her into playing.
Midway through trading stat potions, an out-of-nowhere reward dropped.
The 'Unknown Document.'
And it was the exact reward Choi Da-eun needed most.
Masked Trash handed over the 'Unknown Document' without hesitation.
For a trash who resorted to blackmail with some 'sex game'...
Choi Da-eun had accepted his help.
She couldn't deny it.
Training Team 4 surviving, burying Hwang Deok-su—it was honestly thanks to Masked Trash.
But he was the man who'd raped her.
No matter how you dressed it up, that fact didn't change.
Her resolve to hunt him down and kill him remained unshaken.
Using everything she'd pieced together so far, she'd find him somehow...
"Cheers!"
"Da-eun noona, kanpai!"
Because of Masked Trash, she couldn't focus on the drinks.
The team kept whining.
Park Sun-woo was especially annoying.
'Fine, without this guy, we'd have been in deep shit.'
He wasn't just crossing lines—he was trampling them—but she'd let it slide for today.
It was a celebratory day, as Park Sun-woo said.
From what the former 'Milky Way Guild' probationaries said, he'd worked hard to save his fellow hunters.
She downed her glass.
In the now rowdy atmosphere, Choi Da-eun flashed a satisfied smile.
One person watched her closely.
'There's definitely something there.'
Lee Eun-seo.
She'd always been praised for her sharp intuition.
Especially at reading the vibe between men and women—enough to earn her the nickname Cupid.
In her eyes, there was something between Choi Da-eun and Park Sun-woo.
She'd known for ages that Park Sun-woo liked Choi Da-eun.
But with Choi Da-eun's iron walls, she'd figured no chance.
'Let's get her drunk.'
Alcohol was a magic potion that drew out the truth.
If the hunter interface listed it, it'd probably be 'Truth Serum' or something.
Get her blackout drunk, and even Choi Da-eun's guard would drop.
Then she'd hear the real feelings.