Chapter 105
Chapter 105
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 105
Chapter Title: Relentless Training
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“You don’t have to be hunters if you don’t want to.”
Hyungbin said to the younger siblings running beside him. They all had mud caked on their faces after rolling in the mud pit several times.
“Hyungnim, are you abandoning us?”
“Sihwan, what kind of talk is that? That’s not it. You guys look exhausted.”
“What about you, hyungnim?”
“I’m exhausted too... but it’s manageable.”
Hyungbin glanced back at Yesul, who was running behind them. Even when he felt like giving up, seeing her made it impossible. She was going to keep being a hunter no matter what.
“We’re managing too. It feels rewarding following Instructor Lee.”
Jinwoo answered first, and Sihwan nodded. Jinwoo quietly followed behind as well.
“Then... let’s push harder. We’ll do exactly what those guys are doing. What makes us think we can’t?”
Hyungbin nodded toward the five criminals.
“Let’s do it.”
Sihwan sped up, grabbed the rope on the obstacle wall in front, and started climbing.
* * *
“I’ll add some incentives to make you work harder. The first team to complete 100 laps gets a full dinner. The losing team gets the bare minimum meal and an extra 100 laps until nightfall.”
I announced from atop the container.
“Run!!! Anyone who lags behind gets killed!”
The criminals’ eyes blazed as they started running, and Hyungbin’s team followed suit.
Sanghun climbed onto the container and watched beside me.
“Hyeya... they’re going hard...”
“Sanghun.”
“Yeah?”
“You seem pretty relaxed?”
Sanghun met my gaze. We stared silently for three seconds.
“...I’ll go run too.”
Sanghun bowed his head deeply.
“Sanghun, you’re the only B-Rank. You should come in first, right?”
“No, haven’t we already done about 50 laps ahead? What if I don’t finish first?”
I smiled softly at Sanghun. He sighed, dropped his head to the ground, and let out a deep breath.
“Why did I even come here...”
Leaving words of regret behind, he threw himself into the mud pit.
Hyungbin extended a hand to Yesul, who was catching her breath at the base of the obstacle wall. She looked at it for a moment before grabbing it, and they climbed over together.
“Oppa Hyungbin.”
Yesul called out to Hyungbin after descending the obstacle.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t help me.”
Hyungbin froze at Yesul’s words telling him not to help. He’d grown close enough to be used to her expressionless face, but hearing that in her flat tone made his own face stiffen.
“...Did I upset you? I’m sorry.”
“No. No. It’s not that. I know you’re trying to protect me, oppa. I’m really grateful for that. But I’m a hunter too. I won’t survive if I don’t get stronger. I need to be able to protect myself so that you and everyone around me can be safe.”
“Got it. But tell me anytime if you need help.”
“Okay. Go on ahead.”
Yesul pushed Hyungbin’s back. He lingered, looking back, before starting off first. Yesul began running again too.
“Huff... huff...”
Hyungbin’s team all finished, leaving only Yesul. Her natural stamina was lower than a warrior’s, but she gritted her teeth and kept going until her face paled.
On the opposing team, only Shin Muyeol hadn’t finished yet. Sweat poured off his bloated body like rain as he ran. He was technically a warrior class, but neglect of training made him even slower than healer Yesul. If not for skipping training the past week, he wouldn’t have stood a chance.
“Hurry up! You’re dead if you’re late!”
Yang Deoksu snarled, but Shin Muyeol couldn’t even hear him anymore. His eyes had lost focus.
Splash.
Yesul crossed the finish line first, and Shin Muyeol collapsed to the ground just meters short.
“Done. Hyungbin’s team wins. Go wash up and eat dinner. You losers get 100 extra laps.”
* * *
It was midnight by the time the criminals finally completed their quota and returned to the barracks. They looked more wrecked than prisoners held captive for years.
“You pig bastard!”
Jeon Donggun kicked mercilessly at Shin Muyeol.
“Guh... ugh... sorry...”
“Because of you, how many times! Huh?! Gotta run more?! Rest a bit, you dog! Bastard!”
Each word was punctuated by a kick slamming into Shin Muyeol’s body. To ordinary people, all criminals looked the same, but even among them, there were hierarchies. Child sex offenders like him were at the very bottom, beaten daily just for existing. And since they’d suffered extra hours because of him, the violence was harsher than usual.
“Huff... huff...”
Jeon Donggun collapsed backward, exhausted from kicking.
“My turn?”
Choi Miran approached Shin Muyeol. It was her chance to vent stress.
Shin Muyeol’s face was battered and bones broken, but within the World Tree’s influence, he’d heal anyway, so the other criminals beat him more brutally than usual.
That night, Shin Muyeol was beaten nonstop.
* * *
Click!
“Starting today, we’re adding attacks to the obstacle course. Dodge or block as you go.”
I racked the shotgun.
Rat-tat-tat!!!
“You crazy bastard!”
Even the criminals, who’d started behaving a bit, cursed at this. But complaints didn’t stop bullets, so they used their abilities to dodge.
All D-Rank or higher hunters, they wouldn’t die from hits, but the pain of bullets tearing flesh was no joke.
“Not shooting?”
“S-sorry!”
Sanghun, beside me, was shooting at Hyungbin’s team too.
“Sanghun hyung! Aren’t we friends?!”
Sihwan yelled.
“I’ll die if I don’t!”
I heard the budding friendship between Sanghun and the Oh brothers crack, but training came first. Reconciliation could wait.
Compared to how mercilessly I shot the criminals, this was downright gentle. Discrimination? Sure, but those vile criminals deserved it.
Everyone maximized their skills to evade and run. Shooting didn’t deplete mana. Late teams got 100 extra laps as penalty.
* * *
“Huff... huff...”
Jinwoo didn’t like moving his body much. He hadn’t wanted to do this either. When Hyungbin hyung said they could quit, he’d planned to agree, but Sihwan and Minwoo answered first, missing his chance.
Knowing Jinwoo’s passive nature, Hyungbin asked again after training several times.
Hyungbin waited patiently, so Jinwoo could’ve quit then, but he didn’t want to disappoint the Hyungshinso family, including Hyungbin. Nor did he want to be left alone.
From childhood, Jinwoo had been indecisive and slow. He knew he should speak up, but his large frame matched his sluggish reactions—always late with answers. Before he knew it, he’d get swept along. It was routine.
Jinwoo’s big build came from his father, a notorious gangster lieutenant nearby.
Jinwoo’s mother had been just a bedwarmer for his father. The gangster never brought Jinwoo or his mother home, and stopped visiting once Jinwoo grew a bit.
His mother treated it like a passing wind and moved on. No greed, no illnesses—she lived modestly without starving.
When Jinwoo was in early elementary school, he bumped into friends playing. Towering a head or two taller, the other kid bounced off limply.
“Waaah!!”
He should apologize when the friend cried, but Jinwoo froze stiff, mouth locked.
“Hey! Aren’t you gonna apologize?!”
“Jinwoo, you did that on purpose, right?”
Even yelled at, Jinwoo just stared silently at the hurt kid. The others grew scared and avoided him. He hadn’t meant to; he’d just frozen.
After a few incidents, only bad kids approached. Similar to Sihwan’s case, but Jinwoo couldn’t refuse and got dragged along.
His toughness and strength put him at the front in brawls. He took punches from all sides while knocking others down.
“You monster! Die!”
Mid-fight, someone swung a bat at Jinwoo’s head from behind.
The bat splintered, blood bursting from his scalp. Jinwoo grabbed the guy’s head and slammed it into the ground.
Jinwoo had just been swept along as always, but after a few brawls, no high schoolers in the neighborhood defied Jinwoo’s gang.
Jinwoo knew full well the kids clinging to him as “friends” saw him as a tool. For him, neighborhood friends were just the neighbor’s dog or stray cats.
Jinwoo’s mother wasn’t kind or gentle. It worsened as he grew. Seeing Jinwoo, the spitting image of the man who abandoned her, depressed her—she stopped even talking to him. Later, working and meeting men, she left Jinwoo home alone more often.
Hating the empty house, Jinwoo went to the deserted back-mountain park. Sitting quietly on a bench, nibbling bread crumbs, birds came for scraps.
“What? You trying to use me too?”
He picked a fight with innocent birds, naturally getting no reply.
One pretty bird with red breast feathers came right to his feet. Unlike others who feared and avoided Jinwoo, this one didn’t.
“You’ve got no fear? What if I eat you?”
The bird tilted its head, then pecked crumbs near his feet.
“You got no friends? I’ll be your friend.”
Talking to the silent bird, words flowed strangely easy—Jinwoo chattered on.
Days later, feeding it at the back mountain, he befriended the red bird. Now it even perched on his hand when offered.
Neighborhood dogs and cats followed him well; birds did too.
“Hey. Some punk’s been mouthing off lately. Beat him down—come out today.”
Jinu-k, leader of the thugs using Jinwoo daily, said.
“Huh? Can’t today...”
Jinwoo, usually compliant, balked. Jinu-k got annoyed but tolerated it, needing Jinwoo’s strength.
“Hey! What’s a friend for? Just this once. Dinner after—I’ll buy meat.”
Jinu-k was peak thug: extorting kids under gangsters, buying Jinwoo meals for show. Jinwoo knew, but didn’t care for money.
“Don’t call me anymore.”
* * *
“Fuck! Isn’t it that bastard’s fault for not showing?!”
Without Jinwoo, the gang got pummeled. They barely won later by recklessly swinging bats, but everyone was battered.
“Jinu-k, after all he’s eaten from us, you gonna let him bail?”
“Can’t let him go easy. Gotta spit back what he took.”
“How? Even if we gang up, that guy... he’s insanely tough?”
They’d won several thanks to Jinwoo. Having seen him fight, they knew they couldn’t win.
Jinu-k thought briefly.
“That punk’s been going to the back mountain lately? Why?”
“Something about feeding birds?”
“Birds?”
“Yeah. Saw him in the neighborhood—bird even on his shoulder. Tamed it, I guess.”
“Hmm... really?”
Jinu-k’s mind always turned to the worst ideas first.