Chapter 50
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: Blue Sky
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Mom, Dad, and my little sister. We were just an ordinary family, no different from anyone else. We got along harmoniously in an everyday sort of way. And that day, I went to school like always.
The sky was exceptionally blue that day. We happened to have PE class. Without a second thought, I headed down to the field with my friends to play soccer during what was basically free time. But there, on the field, was a massive flower I’d never seen before.
After that… I awakened and became a hunter. Even before the concept of hunters was fully understood, I was already one. I was sixteen at the time.
It was a pretty big company, one where just the name alone made people go, “Oh, that place.” They said they were gathering hunters to expand the business. Honestly, I was a little excited at the thought of making money.
There were other kids besides me. Mostly people who’d just turned twenty or hadn’t yet.
A little time passed.
“Useless!”
A few of the sparse group died. Looking back now, they were probably low ranks, F to C. That left only me at seventeen and an eighteen-year-old B-Rank guy.
Wages were minimum hourly. Benefits were practically nonexistent. All the items and magic stones we got went straight into the boss’s pockets.
The association was unstable back then. No, the whole world was.
Then guilds started forming, and the boss was always pissed about Korea’s first guild. I think it had an S-Rank as guild master. The name was… On-yeon, right?
“You guys doing this right? You can’t even bring back this much? Put in some effort!”
A dungeon break hit, and bad luck caused the factory to collapse, killing most of the employees. Even so, the boss kept squeezing the few survivors—including us—to barely keep the company’s reputation afloat.
I probably slept two hours a day, if that. Who has black companies like this in modern times? I wondered. But the world was still unstable, and no one had the capacity to help me.
Or maybe hunters were seen as people who had to work for the world’s stability, so they were ignored. Above all, rampaging hunters were a bigger problem than these black companies.
When a hunter tried to report the company’s abuses, they killed him right in front of everyone, so I couldn’t do anything. I just worked like a puppet.
“Ha-neul, you okay, right?”
“Yeah? Of course.”
“…Really? I haven’t seen you sleep lately.”
“Oh, no time to come and go! I sleep outside and head back.”
I’d never worried my parents before, and I didn’t want to start now. With an A-Rank body, I wouldn’t collapse from a little sleep deprivation.
The first one to notice how hard things really were for me was my close friend—the one I’d saved on the day the first gate appeared.
“Why couldn’t you swallow your food earlier?”
“Huh? Oh. Must’ve choked.”
“……”
“What?”
“Lie better than that.”
“…What?”
“You never dozed off in school before, but now you sleep through it every day, then vanish after like you’re busy. We barely talk anymore. You know that? These days, I hear about you faster from the internet than from you.”
“……”
“…And aren’t you going into gates way too often? Out and in, out and in.”
“No, there are just a lot of gates… for safety—”
“Even the S-Rank guild master from that On-yeon Guild or whatever doesn’t go in that much. What safety are you talking about? This is bad. I’m reporting it. You sleeping properly?”
“……”
To be honest, I was secretly glad back then. Could this mean I could stop? Hope welled up deep inside. Maybe I could be a normal hunter like those in other guilds.
Was I too exhausted? I was too naive.
‘Why isn’t he texting?’
One day, my friend went silent. I was running gates on unexcused absences. He always texted when I came out, but suddenly, nothing. When I finally squeezed in time to go to school…
“…What’s that?”
“Huh? Oh… You didn’t know ’cause you haven’t been coming.”
White chrysanthemums sat in his usual spot. And they were old—the edges wilted.
“There… were some nasty rumors going around big time. Better not to know what. The misunderstanding’s cleared up now, but he took his life right before…”
Rumors? Took his life?
“When? When did the rumors start?”
“Huh? About a month ago?”
A month ago. The day he said he’d report it.
It had to be coincidence. Just bad luck. Talking to me wouldn’t have changed anything.
I didn’t even have time to grieve—I kept running gates. A few more months passed like that.
“Ha-neul! What is this?”
“……”
I was clumsily wrapping a bandage without a potion when my parents burst into the room.
“If you had a wound like this, go to the hospital… No, what’s the company doing? How could they neglect a kid like this!”
They’d already sensed something off and exploded that day, driving to the company. On the way back, they died in a hit-and-run.
“……”
Coincidence… No, it couldn’t be.
“Oppa, what… what do we do?”
My little sister clutched white chrysanthemums and sobbed. I’d barely made time for the funeral that day.
It couldn’t be coincidence. Everything was tied to the company.
Fed up, I confronted the boss. How could he do this to people? Why me?
But I shouldn’t have. I forgot what I had left. I shouldn’t have.
“……”
Beep. Beep. The steady machine tone filled the room.
My pale sister lay in the white bed. The doctor said a dungeon poison too potent for a civilian had spread through her body. She needed a rare high-grade antidote for treatment. For now, a low-grade one was barely keeping her alive.
But I didn’t have that kind of money. It all went to living expenses and her hospital bills. Parents’ insurance? Society hadn’t recovered enough to pay out yet.
I went to the company and begged. Please save my sister.
The boss smirked and said he’d cover the bills—as long as I didn’t act out and kept performing like I was.
I worked hard enough to satisfy him. I raided dungeons until my body broke, dropped out of high school at eighteen to not fall behind others. I just kept raiding dungeons.
But new hunters kept appearing, and I inevitably fell behind.
“Useless bastard! You’re A-Rank and still lagging? At least show some effort to grow to S-Rank! Try harder, damn it!”
Standing silently before the boss, I suddenly felt empty.
‘Come to think of it, haven’t seen that brother guy lately.’
We’d bonded quick over our shared plight. Maybe ’cause I was always in dungeons—I hadn’t seen him.
That day too, I teamed up with others to avoid falling behind and raided a dungeon.
The famous On-yeon Guild master was there for the money dungeon. Watching him fight was depressing. Just one rank difference, but the power gap was huge.
After clearing, as I headed to the company with our meager magic stones and items like always, the On-yeon Guild master called out.
“Im Ha-neul?”
“…Yes?”
“You look like hell.”
“…What do you want.”
“Don’t you want out of there?”
I flinched.
“What are you…”
“Looks like the boss was periodically injecting poison into your sister.”
“…Yes?”
Clatter. No inventory, so the items I’d been clutching fell and rolled across the floor.
“You didn’t know, huh.”
“……”
Dungeon break nearby, they said. At least the hospital wouldn’t lie, I thought.
My breathing grew ragged. My mind wouldn’t turn.
…I’d begged like that. To make her even a little better, to let her live one more day. But I’d bowed to the cause itself.
“I’ll help, so—”
“Please help.”
“……”
“I’ll do anything, anything. Please, my sister…”
That day, I burst into the tears I’d held back. My breath caught. Vision blurred, and my body hit the floor. Fatigue had piled up—I passed out.
When I woke, a day had passed, and it was all over. The news called the company an evil corporation overnight. Labor exploitation, illegal guild ops, drug trafficking—the usual.
Later, I learned the brother a year older than me was already dead. …Again.
“Been dead a while.”
Next came word that my sister had died long ago. They’d made me raid gates like mad, then tossed her aside like annoying baggage.
“…I see.”
Nothing was left for me. No mom, no dad, no sister, no friend. By the time I addressed the cause, it was far too late. Because I was worthless. Because I was stupid. Everything around me was gone.
“……”
No tears came. No reason. They just didn’t.
My world had crumbled entirely.
After that, I went out into the world and raided dungeons like nothing was wrong. I didn’t end my own life. I was too precious, too pitiful for that. I raided hoping the world would know me.
So no one would notice the emptiness around me, I pretended to be fine, acted normal, and raided like a machine. Everyone thought I was obsessed with money. All I wanted was to protect anyone who appeared near me, to get stronger for that.
I didn’t want to hear it, but people’s words stuck in my ears.
「Im Ha-neul’s crazy for money.」
「Scary as hell every time I see him in a dungeon, seriously.」
「Must need cash bad or something. But he’s A-Rank—should make plenty quick. Why’s he like that?」
「Man, if I were A-Rank, I’d rake it in easy without trying. Why am I stuck low-rank?」
I ignored them. Plugged my ears and walked my path.
Potions were easy to get now, but I never used them even when hurt. Why? Who knows. Maybe I wanted to die. Probably.
Even raiding like a maniac, my rank didn’t rise. I blamed myself every time. Effort harder. Is this all you got?
Then the tower appeared, and there, I met Hunter Han Ji-eon.
“Losing to someone talented? So what. What matters is how hard you tried.”
It didn’t hit me at first. But it lingered. I wondered why, but brushed it off as exhaustion. His words had no thorns, after all.
By the time I reached 3F clear, my far-seeing vision caught a suspicious figure. I fought the blond guy casually, then slipped away. Approached the suspicious one alone.
“You were paired with Han Ji-eon, right.”
“…Ah, so his name really is Han Ji-eon.”
Pale gray-pink hair and tail. Given the enemy I’d just fought, this was clearly one too. He had a normal hunter aura, but I could tell. Faintly, but my piercing sight saw through.
“Heading that way, huh?”
“Yeah. Obviously?”
He seemed friendly. Maybe I could talk him around. As I scrambled my thoughts, he spoke first.
“Come to think of it, you.”
“Yeah?”
“Saw you earlier—pretty close.”
“…To who?”
“That Han Ji-eon! Listen, seems like he’s not trying hard at all.”
“…….”
“So, if I kill the people around him, maybe he’ll try? You’re close, right?”
He bared pointed teeth and swished his tail. Scratch the friendly part.
“……”
“Huh? What. Gonna fight? Fine, was gonna kill you anyway.”
Whoosh. He closed in instantly—I got hit and flew far, buried in debris.
“You’re no match. Why not accept it easy? Suffering’s not my thing.”
He loomed over me now.
“…Didn’t want to use this.”
“Huh?”
“…Hold the blood, pour it out to the last.”
“…What creepy shit is that?”
“Words echoing in my head nonstop. Never got what they meant—now I do.”
I brought the blood from my wound to my mouth. He looked at me like I was weird, but I didn’t care.
Thud. My body twisted. At the same time, the power I’d craved filled me. Problem was, my body crumbled too.
My ability.
Simply put, like a final strike.
“Trying hard, huh. Why choose suicide?”
“Kill you first—makes it a decent one.”
Boom! I closed in and attacked. Overwhelmed by the new power, saddened by my crumbling body.
Part of me thought this end wasn’t bad. Maybe those I’d randomly met had become precious. Familiar despite barely knowing them.
Or maybe those trying to save this rotten world seemed cool.
Didn’t know why. Just filled with stopping it now.
We traded blows repeatedly. He looked pretty hurt too.
Mid-struggle, squelch—hand and arm pierced my heart.
“Effort’s good, sorry. Time’s up. Better than sprawling, so I’ll leave you sitting.”
“……”
Strength drained from my body. The swishing tail vanished into the gate.
‘…Why’d I go this far?’
Han Ji-eon was plenty strong. If my ability wasn’t fake, he definitely was. Should’ve just gone to him. Why was I here?
‘…If I had, Hunter Park Woo-yun or Hunter Yun Si-a would’ve died.’
Good people. Too precious to die now. Unlike me, surrounded by bright light.
Nothing left for me anyway. Never knew what I’d wanted this whole time.
A death I’d hoped for, even.
As death neared, a kind phrase flickered in my heart’s corner.
「Losing to someone talented? So what. What matters is how hard you tried.」
It kept flickering. Still didn’t know why. But one thing I knew.
‘…I tried. So much.’