Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 048
Chapter Title: Kang Ha-neul (7)
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‘……Am I seeing things right now?’
Ahn Su-ho couldn’t think of anything else. In the original story, Kang Ha-neul had sky-high pride—would anyone have ever imagined she’d be fawning over viewers she didn’t even know, putting on a streamer act like that?
‘What the fuck…….’
He knew this world wasn’t exactly like the original, but he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what chain of events had turned the character Kang Ha-neul into that.
Meanwhile, Kang Ha-neul was just as baffled.
‘What? Why’s that guy in our house…….’
Her panicked eyes darted wildly around the room.
Ahn Su-ho’s dazed face. The front door, half-busted open. The vicious stun blade in one of his hands, and in the other, the metal door handle from her studio apartment’s original front door, gripped tight.
‘What the hell is going on here?’
Still clueless about the situation, Kang Ha-neul started to ask Ahn Su-ho something when she suddenly whipped her head toward the monitor, as if remembering something.
💬 Chat — Anonymous Lololololololol — Viewer123 What’s the situation? Who’s that guy? — NobleFan NobleSky lives alone as a single girl, right? Then why’s a dude suddenly popping up? — BoyfriendHunter Is that her boyfriend??? Is that her boyfriend??? (spam spam spam) — ExplainNow Explain! Explain! — WhoDat Who’s that guy? Who’s that guy? (spam) — SpamMaster Kick out the spammer ffs — Detective Isn’t that the front door all busted up? “……Ah.”
The chat window witnessing Ahn Su-ho’s sudden appearance was updating several times faster than before. Kang Ha-neul’s panicked eyes spun in circles.
The situation was utterly bewildering for her, but to the thrill-hungry viewers, this was just more entertainment. As her flustered face filled the screen, the excited audience ramped up the chat even more.
“Y-Yes? Oh, n-no! Viewers, he’s not my boyfriend! He’s, um, from my school—no, my job…… That is, well…… Uh……”
She couldn’t even grasp the situation herself, so a proper explanation was out of the question. Glancing at the flood of question marks in chat, she shouted as if fleeing.
“A-Anyway, that’s it for today’s stream!”
Ignoring the outraged demands for clarification, she ended the broadcast. Clutching her pounding chest, she let out a deep sigh.
Then her gaze turned back to Ahn Su-ho, her eyes shooting daggers with clear displeasure.
“……Hey.”
Kang Ha-neul strode toward him. With each step, the avatar overlaying her body began to fade, and by the time she reached him, her true appearance was fully revealed.
“What. Is. This. Shit.”
She smacked her lips in frustration. She was so flustered she didn’t even know where to start criticizing.
“You, uh, contact.”
Brushing past her confusion, Ahn Su-ho spoke first, his face equally thrown.
“You weren’t answering, so I thought you were in danger.”
“D-Danger? Me? Why?”
To Kang Ha-neul, who knew nothing of the circumstances, it sounded like nonsense. He roughly shut the half-open front door while pondering how to explain.
“But……”
He needed time to sort his thoughts.
That’s when his eyes landed on her streaming setup.
The next moment, he voiced the question that had bugged him since entering the studio.
“……You said you wanted to do something besides being a hunter, but internet broadcasting? Really?”
“What? Got a problem with that?”
“No, no problem. It’s just…… surprising. Most superhumans pick jobs that suit their talents……”
“Superhumans aren’t forced to fight! And this is using my talents!”
With a snap of her fingers, her body shifted back to the sky-blue-haired beauty from moments ago. It was her default avatar for streaming as ‘NovelSky007’ online.
Transformation complete, she spread her arms wide and asked Ahn Su-ho.
“Well? What do you think?”
“……Think of what?”
“This look—it’s a custom preset I poured my heart into. Pretty? Cute? Eye-catching?”
To her confident question, Ahn Su-ho nodded awkwardly.
Her avatar exuded feminine charm. Her features were based on her real face with minor tweaks, but since the original wasn’t bad, it easily ranked as beautiful.
The youthful yet subtly mature face blended girlish cuteness with womanly allure. Her clear water-blue hair and eyes added a mystical, intellectual vibe.
It was a universally appealing beauty that most men would like, infused with her unique personality—a testament to how much care she’d put into customizing it.
“In a world where streamers with nothing but pretty faces rack up hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and faceless 3D avatar antics pull millions of views, why not? My superpower lets me shift into any beautiful form in human shape. Slap on a cute face, play some games, and money multiplies. No reason to say no—keeps my real identity safe too.”
Ahn Su-ho found her proud real-virtual tuber boasting utterly alien.
This wasn’t Kang Ha-neul’s character.
Even as a minor villain, her drive as a superhuman was genuine. Twisted by warped thinking and inferiority, she still truly aspired to be a top hunter.
But what was this reality before him?
Gone was her self-assured demeanor. Now she’d dropped out of the academy, pessimistic about her meager talents, selling her superhuman pride for pocket change, seeing her power as mere income.
No matter the differences from the original novel, this was a change too radical to accept lightly.
“Sure, I could make more as a hunter. Fame too. But I’m not risking my life for that crap.”
“Not every hunter dies fighting on the front lines.”
“Most don’t live to old age, though. The job stats list mortality rates upfront—that’s a hard pass.”
Ahn Su-ho had no rebuttal. If he’d had a choice, he wouldn’t have picked a risky gig like Academy Guard either.
“Dropping out of Green House was the same logic. That place gets raided by terrorist groups like Dawn Corps every other day. You’d need extra lives to survive there.”
“That’s why guards like me exist—to stop those attacks.”
In the original, Green House was a constant target for crime and terror. But with the new Academy Security Force in this world, things were different—or so Ahn Su-ho hoped. Kang Ha-neul just snorted derisively.
“Security Force…… Fancy name, but I don’t trust it. They’ll probably get breached without doing jack.”
Her tone brimmed with certainty, as if she’d seen the future herself.
“What makes you say that?”
“The basis is……”
She fumbled for an answer, then ruffled her hair in exasperation, glaring at him irritably.
“That’s not the point! What gives you the right to barge into my home? You even wrecked the door! I told you I’m done with the academy and hunters—why track me down here?!”
“I told you. No contact, so I thought you were in danger, Kang Ha-neul.”
“What danger?!”
“It’s a long story. Basically, the scholarship foundation that approached you is actually—”
-Knock knock.
Someone rapped on the front door.
Their eyes turned toward it. A calm voice followed.
-Kang Ha-neul? You in there?
“Ugh, this is so annoying!”
Recognizing the polite tone, she stomped to the door to shoo away the pesky visitor.
That instant.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Time remaining until incident: 00 hours 00 minutes 03 seconds] ‘What?’
The sudden system message popped up.
At the same time, Kang Ha-neul irritably flung open the door.
“……Huh?”
“Yo!”
Kang Ha-neul blankly looked up at the visitor.
Standing there wasn’t a mild-mannered suited scholarship officer, but a boisterous blond hunk. His tank top highlighted thick shoulder muscles bulging with prominent veins.
“Nice to meet ya!”
The man grinned. Then his hand shot toward her throat with ferocious speed—
-Zzzt!
At the same moment, Ahn Su-ho’s swung stun blade spat blue electricity.
“Gah, hot damn?!”
The man recoiled in shock. Ahn Su-ho scooped up Kang Ha-neul and retreated into the room.
“Ow ow ow, that stings! Who’s this punk? Didn’t they say it was just a lone girl?”
Shaking his charred right hand, the man stepped inside. A calm, dark-haired man followed, a stark contrast.
“The client mentioned a guard might be attached. Using a standard stun blade suggests a hired bodyguard from a security firm……”
“Kidnapping ain’t the same rate as combat! The rate! Jin-su, make that suit cough up hazard pay! Got it?”
“Don’t worry. It’s already settled.”
“Sweet!”
“W-Who are you guys?”
Kang Ha-neul, clutched in Ahn Su-ho’s arms, asked in terror. The blond flashed a bright smile.
“Hey! I’m Heo Seong-chan! This is my partner, Yoo Jin-su! We’re contractors out of the Uijeongbu slums!”
“Hold up! Why spill all that?!”
“You know me—I’m nice to girls! Plus, she’s totally my type! Hey, you Kang Ha-neul? Come quietly, yeah? Nobody wants to get hurt.”
“Y-Yeah? Uh……”
As Kang Ha-neul floundered, Ahn Su-ho aimed his stun blade, quickly assessing.
‘Contractors hired by Na Ju-yong.’
He recalled Iliana mentioning Na’s subordinate researcher heading to Uijeongbu slums yesterday.
‘Suspected it, but they really hired slum contractors to kidnap Kang Ha-neul…….’
Uijeongbu slums, ruined by dungeon crises, were a crime hub where contractors took any job for cash. Heo Seong-chan and Yoo Jin-su were among them.
‘Min Chae-ryeong’s interference pushed them to extremes.’
Ahn Su-ho’s heart sank. If he’d been even a bit slower, she’d have been snatched before reacting.
He pulled the pen-shaped receiver from his right pocket, displaying it prominently and demonstratively pressing the lid button.
“No way……”
Grinning at the alert Yoo Jin-su, Ahn Su-ho reported lowly.
“Pen receiver with comms. Hit the button, and cops dispatch to my location. Five minutes, this place’ll be swarming with patrol cars.”
It was a bluff. Iliana would call police on press, but they’d take 10-15 minutes to arrive.
He hoped they’d buy it and back off……
“Is that so? Guess we take you down and bolt in five.”
“Time attack? Heart’s racing!”
Lips grinding at their unyielding stance, Ahn Su-ho worried.
‘Can I win?’
Slum contractors ranged from street punks to ex-hunters, skills varying wildly. These two were top-tier, selected for kidnapping a strong superhuman like Kang Ha-neul.
Ahn Su-ho knew it, but his face wasn’t all grim.
Because he had a solid ally: Kang Ha-neul.
“Kang Ha-neul. Fight with me.”
“W-What?”
“They’re contractors here to kidnap you. Tough ones, sure. But they didn’t expect me. 2v2, we can handle it.”
She’d lost to Han Gyeo-wol and Ryu Tae-hyun, but objectively, Kang Ha-neul was strong. Lacking skill or sense, her raw physical power matched frontline hunters.
Thus, Ahn Su-ho figured they had a shot.
Or so he thought.
“……I can’t.”
“Pardon?”
“I said I can’t fight. I suck at it.”
“What do you mean? If it’s legal worries, don’t. Self-defense covers this—”
“No, I can’t fight! I suck at fighting period!”
Kang Ha-neul cried out, terrified, even tearing up.
“Can’t fight at all…… I get being rusty without experience, but we have to now.”
“That’s what I can’t do! I’m super weak!”
Tilting his head, Ahn Su-ho asked uneasily.
“Super weak? Aren’t you in Class 1-A?”
“Class 1-A, yeah! I was strong, but…… anyway, now I’m weak! No fire or acceleration powers, avatar just boosts strength a bit……”
Her desperate shout sparked keywords in Ahn Su-ho’s mind: original, changes, Blissful Heavenly Demon.
‘That fucker Blissful Heavenly Demon……!’
He got it instantly. Original Kang Ha-neul was strong. This one was weak. Another twist courtesy of the author’s meddling blocking his path.
“Weakened?”
Meanwhile, overhearing, Heo Seong-chan grinned and crouched.
“Music to my ears!”
The next instant, his figure vanished.