Life Is Sometimes Hazy
"Do you come here often?" Mina asked, noticing how familiar the pair seemed with the place.
"More or less. I've been coming here since I was a child."
"That long? But this area..." She glanced out the window, yet all she saw was an empty alley. It was rare to spot anyone passing through.
"It may look tucked away now, but this used to be a thriving shopping district. A dungeon break happened nearby, and a lot of people moved away."
"Ah." A dungeon break occurred when a gate wasn't closed in time and the monsters inside came pouring out. In the early days, people had no idea what to do when gates appeared, so leaving them alone was common. She'd heard that quite a few cities and towns were still left in ruins because of it, but she hadn't expected to find one so close.
Her somber mood lasted only a moment.
"Two combo meals, ready."
"Whoa."
Mina marveled at the pork cutlets set before her. Two golden cutlets, a fried shrimp perched proudly in the center, cabbage salad and macaroni on the side, rich tonkatsu sauce, and even a small bowl of udon. The exact same spread sat in front of him. It was hard to believe this was a single serving.
"Isn't fried shrimp insanely expensive these days?" Especially considering that while most seafood was farmed, the monster-infested oceans made it a luxury in reality.
"If you're not eating it, I'll take it off your hands."
"Who said I wasn't eating it?!" Afraid he might actually steal it, Mina quickly dipped the shrimp in sauce and bit into it from the head down.
"It's delicious!" The tartar sauce drizzled in a neat line across the shrimp added an extra crunch. It was hard to believe this came from an ordinary tonkatsu shop.
"If it wasn't good, I wouldn't keep coming back."
The man watched her for a moment before sipping the clear broth from his small udon bowl. Curiosity stirred in her, so she copied him, lifting the bowl to her lips. The clean liquid cut through the lingering oil from the fried food, and Mina gave a satisfied nod.
"Wow, I definitely need to come here more often. We can't just abandon a place like this because of a dungeon break!"
"You think so?"
She sneaked a glance at his expression before speaking again.
"More importantly, there's something I've been wondering. Are you really a B-rank hunter?"
She had waited for him under the pretext of repaying him, partly out of genuine gratitude, but mostly because she was dying to know if he truly was only B-rank.
"Honestly, couldn't you have beaten him? Gu Gang-woo, I mean."
Gu Gang-woo might have been rotten to the core, but he was still an A-rank hunter—one of the stronger ones, at that. That was why even top guilds kept him in an executive position despite his scandals. In the end, power was everything to hunters.
Yet the man sitting across from her had driven that same Gu Gang-woo into a corner, conditions or not.
"Aren't you overestimating me a bit?"
He spoke as if it were nothing, casually forking a neatly cut piece of tonkatsu, dipping it in sauce, and eating it. The satisfying crunch and scattering breadcrumbs briefly stole her attention, but she pressed on.
"Even then, it's impossible for a B-rank hunter's resistance to shrug off an A-rank attack like that."
Resistance was exactly what it sounded like—the power to withstand external mana. Simply put, it was a form of defense. The more mana a hunter possessed, the stronger it became. For a B-rank, it should have been negligible at best.
"Consider it a trait of my mana."
"Now that you mention it, you did call it Rule Zero..."
Mana was both the proof of awakening and the bare minimum requirement for any hunter. Its quantity and nature varied wildly from person to person, so prying into someone's mana characteristics was considered rude.
"Mmmph! Then I guess I shouldn't ask."
Mina ultimately decided to drop the subject. No matter how curious she was, she couldn't be rude to her savior before properly repaying him. Relaxing, she dipped the other tonkatsu—the sirloin one—in sauce just as he had.
"This really is the best tonkatsu I've ever tasted!"
The crispy batter shattered delightfully, giving way to thin, tender loin that was somehow both firm and melt-in-your-mouth soft. The sauce wasn't merely sweet; its subtle tang complemented the cutlet perfectly. She couldn't help stomping her feet under the table in glee.
"That good, huh?"
"Yes! I've tried tons of places, but none have been this clean and perfect."
For Mina, eating out was one of the few pleasures that helped melt away the stress of her brutal corporate life. Back when she was a B-rank hunter, she frequently traveled to clean up after A-ranks, so hunting for good local restaurants had become a personal hobby.
"A lot of so-called famous restaurants end up disappointing me."
"Same here."
"Right? That's why finding a hidden gem like this feels so rewarding. Oh, this one's the sirloin."
Besides, for roughly ten thousand won, getting two different cutlets, fried shrimp, and even small portions of rice and udon—how many places offered that kind of value? She munched happily on her salad, beaming.
"Whew, it's been ages since I've eaten until I was this full."
By the time they finished, the only thing left on the plates was a bit of decorative parsley.
"I'll take care of the bill."
Seeing him stand and head for the counter, she jumped up in a hurry.
"Wait! This is on me. You saved my life, remember?"
She didn't think this would fully settle her debt, but she felt she should at least cover the meal.
"If you really want to, let's go Dutch."
"Huh? But still... this is..."
"You're not thinking this makes us even, are you?"
"Who said that?!"
Once they stepped outside, the crisp air pleasantly cleared the heaviness in her stomach. Mina turned to him again.
"Anyway, tell me what you want! I'll do whatever I can."
"You were still thinking about that?"
"We literally just talked about it?!"
The man studied her quietly, stroking his chin, then spoke.
"In that case, how about I buy you for the day?"
"Wh-what?!"
His completely unexpected words made her face flush. She instinctively covered her chest.
"Nothing perverted! I'll call you a creep!"
"Hmm. Didn't you say you'd do anything?"
"I clearly said whatever I can!"
Mina grumbled as she followed him deeper into the alley. The steady thud of his leather boots and the click of her heels echoed across the worn pavement, bouncing off the plastic awning that blocked the sunlight and filling the empty spaces.
"For a place that suffered a dungeon break, it looks surprisingly intact."
From what she remembered, dungeon break sites usually became uninhabitable ruins. This area was quiet, but the buildings themselves were still standing.
Many shops had their gray shutters pulled down, offering only glimpses of dark interiors, but if you looked closely, a few small stores still appeared to be operating.
"It's been ten years since the dungeon break here."
She caught herself and fell silent, scanning their surroundings. A dungeon break wasn't something to speak of lightly. For one to occur, the gate must have been left uncleared for a long time.
"What rank was the gate that nobody could clear?"
Such an incident would normally point to an S-rank gate or something close.
But his answer was completely unexpected.
"It wasn't that the rank was too high to clear."
"Then why..."
"No one even knew a gate had appeared here. That's why the break happened. The gate was only about E-rank."
E-rank was the lowest grade of gate. Still, the monsters that emerged from even an E-rank gate were catastrophic for most B-rank hunters and ordinary people alike.
"Fortunately there was almost no structural damage, but very few people ever come back."
"...I can understand why."
The fear that monsters might suddenly burst out and take your life—or your family's—anytime, anywhere, wasn't something that faded easily.
They continued walking silently until he stopped in front of a particular building. It had no sign, only large glass windows protected by cold iron bars that looked like streaks of rain. At first glance it resembled an antique shop, but what lay beyond the bars was—
"Guns?!"
The space was filled with all kinds of firearms on display.
"W-wait a second! Is a place like this even legal in South Korea? No matter what, if this is connected to crime—"
When Mina stared at him in flustered panic, he simply shook his head.
"A hunter like you is far more dangerous than hundreds of those guns combined."
It was common knowledge that modern firearms had little effect on hunters or the monsters beyond gates.
"Still, gun ownership is illegal in our country, isn't it?"
Even if they weren't very effective against monsters, guns remained a threat to ordinary people, so the law stood.
"They're permitted with the proper license."
Now that he mentioned it, she vaguely recalled old news about legislation allowing hunters to carry firearms as equipment.
"Even so, is it really okay..."
"They say a single high-school girl is worth three tanks. Are you really going to be scared of a few guns?"
"What kind of nonsense is that?! And why is it so oddly specific?!"
A high-school girl equivalent to three tanks was something she'd never heard in her life.
"If you're that uncomfortable, I'll go in alone."
"Hey, wait!"
Confirming the street was still deserted, Mina hurried after him into the shop.