9. Hidden Effects
Whoosh!
Han Su-yeon bit into the potato in one enormous bite.
Happiness came flooding in through her stuffed mouth.
She'd eaten potatoes this way just yesterday, and yet not an ounce of it had grown tiresome.
Eating with such gusto, she polished off the potato in her hand in an instant.
"Good, isn't it?"
Only then did shame catch up with her, and Han Su-yeon's cheeks flushed red.
What was she, a dog? Getting completely carried away over a bit of food like that.
She'd at least had the presence of mind to send the siblings inside first, which made it slightly less mortifying, but still — she experienced a moment of profound introspection as she tidied herself up.
"So, what's this favor you need?"
"You see the fields stretching up the hill behind my house? I'd like you to put up a barrier to keep people out."
"A barrier... here?"
"Yeah. If I'm going to do it, I wanted a barrier that's had hands like yours at that level all over it."
Han Su-yeon was one of the finest barrier masters in the world.
It was a field where her rare constitution could truly shine, and above all, her innate talent was simply absolute.
Even though her main strength lay elsewhere, she held an overwhelming standing in this one field alone.
"I understand what you're asking. It's about the eyes around here, isn't it?"
"Right. If it were just the little kitchen garden in the yard, it wouldn't matter, but once I start expanding into the fields out there, things could get complicated."
The farming Oh Hyeon-seong did was a different beast entirely from ordinary agriculture.
And if an outsider witnessed it, there was no way they wouldn't find it strange.
Crops transforming overnight, their condition shifting dramatically within a single day.
Or fruits hanging heavy on the branch in complete defiance of the season.
A plot that had been a potato field yesterday somehow turning into a wheat field — all of it would be laid bare for anyone to see.
Granted, this was a remote spot even by the standards of a village tucked away in the countryside.
It wasn't a place where strangers' eyes would easily fall. But live somewhere long enough, and coincidences have a way of happening more often than you'd expect.
Neighbors and guests had been dropping by unannounced quite frequently lately, after all.
"Well... fine. The potatoes were worth it."
Han Su-yeon nodded readily.
It showed on her face not at all, and she herself hadn't even noticed, but that satisfied potato tasting just now had put her in a remarkably good mood.
Tsssss!
Mana gathered above her lightly outstretched left palm.
For an ordinary hunter to raise a barrier, they had to hammer their mana into every square inch of the area according to a structure they'd personally designed.
But Han Su-yeon, a Mana Resonator, needed no such thing. She drew out mana like fine white thread and spread it around her.
Then the air nearby seemed to shiver, ever so slightly.
As expected, her scale hasn't diminished a bit.
A subtle tremor imperceptible to ordinary people.
But conversely, any high-level hunter attuned enough to feel that tremor would realize, with a shiver down their spine, just how exquisitely and densely the mana was being deployed.
The threads of mana wove themselves into the skeleton of the barrier and settled into place.
Of course, on its own this was still just a half-finished shell, riddled with holes.
The mana in the resonating atmosphere flowed in to complete the structure.
Vmmm.
The space rippled in one great swell.
The vision of Oh Hyeon-seong, watching from the side, warped dramatically before snapping back to normal.
"To create a barrier of this size in a single pass — imagine how aggrieved those hunters must feel, the ones who have to rebuild their formations dozens of times just to cover one building."
"Thank you for the compliment."
Pat!
Han Su-yeon retrieved her mana with a simple gesture.
The roiling resonance of the mana subsided, and with it the faint sense of wrongness that had hung over the entire surroundings vanished.
"All done. This should be enough, right?"
At her question, Oh Hyeon-seong nodded.
A large barrier covering the entire private property above the house had unfolded flawlessly.
It encircled precisely the area he'd requested, to the exact boundary.
"The security level is sufficient, right? If hunters come sniffing around, I don't want anything noticed."
"Don't worry. Even if National Security Bureau agents came at this in earnest, they wouldn't find a thing inside."
"I appreciate it."
If Han Su-yeon went this far, there was nothing to worry about.
Her skill admitted no doubt.
Stepping outside the barrier's bounds, they saw only the original empty fields and clear sky.
Not a trace of the strange distortion that had been visible from the inside looking at the barrier's surface — an utterly seamless disguise.
"I used the textbook Double Distortion Barrier. Anyone other than you, Sunbae, will see exactly the same scenery from inside the barrier as what shows from outside. It's a method I used plenty back on operations... I just never imagined I'd be using it for something like this."
"Yeah, neither did I. Never thought I'd end up farming for a living."
Oh Hyeon-seong gave a hollow laugh.
Something he always felt, but life truly was the kind of thing you only understood by living it out.
In any case, with the barrier work finished, they headed back to the house.
"Oh, you're back!"
"Are you done with the work?"
"Nah, that's it for today."
Oh Hyeon-seong set down his hoe.
The land clearing — his original purpose — had fallen short of his target, but he'd never planned to finish it all in one day anyway.
Besides, even that target, less than a tenth of the total warded land up the hill, was already a considerable stretch.
It would take time to source seeds and seedlings regardless, so there was no reason to rush.
So the group gathered once more on the wooden porch, chatting away in easy comfort.
Ring!
"Huh?"
Yoo Seung-su, phone in hand, jolted upright in alarm.
"What's wrong? Something happen?"
"There's a malfunction in the temperature controller at our facility. I need to head over right now."
"No, you can't! Stay a little longer!"
Yoo Eun-ha shook her head frantically.
She'd been deep in conversation with Han Su-yeon, in her element.
It was the kind of opportunity that might never come twice in a lifetime — there was no way she could cut it short now.
"From what I can see, it's not some trivial glitch. We have to get there fast before the whole system shuts down."
"Then go by yourself!"
"Hey, are you kidding me right now? You're the software manager — how can you tell me to go alone? Want to lose everything we own?"
At his scolding, Yoo Eun-ha pulled a face like a child on the verge of tears.
But there was nothing to be done.
If something critical went wrong with the temperature control, every crop planted in the facility would be finished.
And on top of that, they grew premium varieties — even the seedlings were expensive.
Should anything be lost, the damage would be enormous.
Dragging her feet, sulking and protesting to the last, Yoo Eun-ha finally managed to wrangle a single photo with Han Su-yeon before trudging home.
"And she's gone."
"It's nothing serious, I hope?"
"Hard to believe looking at her, but they say she's run that facility for two years without a single accident. No need to worry."
At Oh Hyeon-seong's words, Han Su-yeon nodded.
With two people gone, the house felt much quieter.
But as soon as the siblings vanished, the spirits that had been hiding emerged one by one to fill the empty yard.
Especially the spirit of life, sprawled out beside her — at the sight of it, Han Su-yeon let out a soft laugh.
"It's nice and quiet here."
Following the spirits' lead, Han Su-yeon flopped down onto the wooden porch.
Something she would never have done under normal circumstances — she stretched her arms out and lay flat on her back.
The rough grain of the wood pressed against her spine.
And yet it was far more comfortable than the million-won leather chairs furnished in her office.
"I don't want to go back up today."
Birds chirped.
Clouds drifted across the clear sky.
No blaring horns, no camera flashes from swarming reporters.
At least for now, she could forget every worry and stray thought she'd left behind in the city.
"Rest well. Don't think about a thing while you're here."
"Thank you. Just a little longer... let me stay like this just a little longer."
Han Su-yeon gently closed her eyes.
It felt as though the moment might freeze forever — but as desperately as she'd wanted it, time flowed swiftly on.
"Heading out already?"
Oh Hyeon-seong asked, watching Han Su-yeon put on her shoes.
"Yeah, I got a call. I need to head straight up."
"You could've rested a whole day, you know."
"No, I rested plenty, thanks to you. More than I thought possible, honestly."
Han Su-yeon broke into a relieved smile.
Not a polite formality, but a smile that carried genuine feeling.
To see her off, he walked out through the gate with her.
"By the way, it's a shame — I'd wanted to try the other crops you're growing too, Sunbae."
"If there's surplus, I'll send some over. Or come visit again sometime. I'll cook you a proper meal next time."
"I'd love that but... I probably won't be able to come for a while. Something's coming up that'll keep me busy."
"Really? Then take this with you."
"Oh, this is..."
"That's what last night's whiskey cost. Squeeze one in whenever work gets rough."
Oh Hyeon-seong loaded a whole box of potatoes into the back of her car.
Han Su-yeon looked up at him in surprise, held his gaze for a long moment, and then spoke.
"...Thank you. For everything."
Slam!
Han Su-yeon stepped out of her car and shut the door.
Then she approached the scene, cordoned off with police tape.
The moment she appeared, the surrounding citizens erupted in cheers, and the reporters scrambled to hammer their shutters.
The officers who bowed their heads parted the way for her of their own accord.
"You've arrived, Deputy Director."
Some distance inside, a hunter in a black coat emerged to meet her.
His clothes were smeared thick with blood, and the roads around them had already been wrecked beyond recognition.
"Looks like you've already had a round of it?"
"Yes, ma'am. We dealt with all the small fry that came out in the preliminary wave."
"Could I get the data?"
"Right here."
Accepting the report, Han Su-yeon read through it as she walked.
The man trailing behind her continued.
"You've probably heard already — it's a gate we can't enter preemptively. So we have to intercept the monsters as they emerge, and the problem is the last remaining boss. On paper it's an A-Rank gate, but this one's exceptionally nasty."
"A Drowler... wasn't that the thing that ran rampant through India a while back?"
"Correct, ma'am. It boasts monstrous vitality — if you can't kill it in a single blow, the difficulty of the subjugation skyrockets, which makes it all the trickier. We could assemble a team suited to it, but the real problem is that the gate happened to open right in the middle of a major downtown district."
A gate that couldn't be raided in advance.
If a boss monster loose in the city started rampaging unchecked, the damage would balloon beyond all control.
Worse still, critical facilities including a data center stood nearby — the situation demanded the damage be kept to an absolute minimum.
"I've got the gist. Won't be too hard. Let's wrap this up quick and go home."
Han Su-yeon said it with a smile.
Something about her aura was different from usual, and the man's head turned slightly.
Normally she was perpetually sunk in a chill that bordered on terrifying — but today, both her expression and her voice were bright with life.
Did something good happen? No — asking that would be overstepping, wouldn't it.
The man shook his head and let it go.
Tsssss!
At the appointed hour, the gate began to stir.
Prying open the rift in space, a colossal monster revealed itself.
The grotesque beast, its body steeped in deepest black, made the earth sag heavily beneath its weight — and soon it bared its hostility at the two humans standing in its path...
KWAAAAAANG!
A blinding flash swallowed the space whole.
A cataclysmic explosion burst forth, and the beast's body, caught in its embrace, was torn to shreds within it.
Not even scraps of flesh tumbled to the ground — the thing simply evaporated on the spot.
Kugugugu!
"Wh-what in the...!"
The man, shielding his face with both arms, barely steadied himself.
Merely the aftershock of that single blow was enough to blur his consciousness.
He had long known the Deputy Director's strength — but this was destruction in a category entirely of its own.
Truly... the living legend of the hunter world.
The man gazed at her with reverent awe in his eyes.
But there stood Han Su-yeon, wearing a look of bewilderment greater than anyone else's on the scene.
"...Huh?"