Chapter 15
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: National Power-level Hunter (3)
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The incident in Anseong somehow blew over.
The Director of the Superhuman Management Bureau, who had received Lee Min-hyuk's report, promised to bury it without making an issue of it. So it was probably fine.
Lee Min-hyuk warned Kim Hyun with a grim expression.
"......This time, it somehow got swept under the rug, but if you keep killing people, even we can't cover for you, Ms. Kim Hyun."
Kim Hyun nodded carelessly at his words.
"Yeah, yeah. Next time I kill someone, I'll let you know."
"......"
It was an utterly bizarre response.
Lee Min-hyuk stared at her with a dumbfounded look for a moment.
He quickly came to his senses and raised his voice.
"Ms. Kim Hyun, that's not what I mean—you shouldn't kill anyone at all!"
Chae Seol-ah chimed in to back him up.
"Y-yeah!"
"Yeah, yeah. I'll hold back from now on."
It was an answer that didn't sound like she'd hold back at all. Besides, Kim Hyun had long since pawned off her mind to the smartwatch. No one knew what she was doing. What was that? Some community site?
Lee Min-hyuk squeezed his eyes shut.
"......Anyway, murder is absolutely off-limits."
"So as long as I don't kill them, it's fine?"
"Pardon?"
"Can I rip off their arms and legs?"
His shocking response left both Lee Min-hyuk and Chae Seol-ah pale as ghosts.
"No, you can't!"
"Th-that's basically the same as killing them!"
"Ah, just kidding, kidding."
Kim Hyun chuckled and polished off her stew bowl, scraping up even the last bits of broth left on the bottom. Watching her, Lee Min-hyuk swallowed hard.
'......That doesn't feel like a joke.'
Was her sense of humor always like this?
Still, it was a relief. Laughing generally meant she was in a good mood.
Of course, no one knew why Kim Hyun was in a good mood.
Was it the stew? Teasing the two of them? Or something else? Her true feelings were opaque, so they had no choice but to handle her like a ticking time bomb every time.
'But she seems to be in a good mood......'
Lee Min-hyuk swallowed again.
'......Maybe it's okay to bring up the test now?'
Earlier, while reporting to the Director, Lee Min-hyuk had received word of the decision from the State Councillors and the President.
Honestly, he wanted to tell them not to talk nonsense. Have her raid North Korea's S-Rank Gate? Wasn't that practically an order?
There was no need to provoke the currently docile Kim Hyun. Why poke the bear like that? Why?
Besides, Kim Hyun already had proven results.
She had cleared an A-Rank Gate solo—in just five minutes. A record even top S-Rank Hunters couldn't match.
Wasn't that proof enough?
But the higher-ups thought differently.
'They won't recognize her as National Power-level unless she clears that damned S-Rank in North Korea. Are the heads of this administration completely empty? What are they even thinking?'
Haah.
Lee Min-hyuk let out a deep sigh.
'Damn. No helping it.'
He wanted to pretend he hadn't heard and fudge the report, but as a public servant, he couldn't.
If they said jump, he jumped. What choice did he have?
Lee Min-hyuk took a deep breath and spoke up.
"Ms. Kim Hyun."
"Yeah?"
"About the National Power-level Hunter qualification."
Only then did Kim Hyun turn her head.
"Oh. What about it?"
"......The Korean government's stance has come in."
"Stance? I thought we just signed the treaty and called it done."
"Well......"
Lee Min-hyuk squeezed his eyes shut.
"......If you successfully raid the S-Rank Gate in North Korean territory, then they'll recognize you as a National Power-level Hunter and sign the treaty."
Kim Hyun furrowed her brow at his words.
Soon, the corner of her mouth twisted up.
"So, if I don't do what they say, they won't recognize me?"
"That's...... pretty much it."
Kim Hyun grinned.
"How amusing."
It was a chilling laugh.
"Hilarious that they're daring to order me around. Unbelievable."
Guys who would die with a flick of my finger.
She muttered that last part, then glanced back at Lee Min-hyuk.
"Should I just kill them all?"
Lee Min-hyuk's face went stark white.
The moment the flustered Lee Min-hyuk tried to calm her down—
"Kidding, kidding."
Kim Hyun buried her face back in the stew bowl.
"Wha, kidding......"
"Yeah, kidding."
Scrape, scrape.
After scraping up the very last of the broth, Kim Hyun clunked her spoon down on the table. Then she propped her chin on her right hand.
She shrugged.
"Whether they recognize me as National Power-level or not, tell them to do whatever they want. Who cares what the bugs say?"
"Bu-bugs......"
Well, in a way, it was true.
To Kim Hyun, the President and National Assembly members were all the same. No different from bugs in the end.
"Does their yapping change anything about me?"
"N-no, it doesn't."
"So what's it to me?"
A utterly indifferent attitude.
Lee Min-hyuk nodded blankly.
"......Al-right, I'll report it that way."
Even as he did, he inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.
'This is......!'
Good job!
'At least she didn't say she'd blow the President's head off?'
The worst-case scenario in Lee Min-hyuk's mind was Kim Hyun deciding to kill the head of state of South Korea.
She had the power for it, and the temper too. If her mood soured even a little, the national leadership might really get wiped out.
So this outcome was a huge relief.
Of course, Lee Min-hyuk hadn't expected Kim Hyun to reject National Power-level status either.
Normally, everyone would jump at the chance to leverage it for favorable treaty terms.
'Well, maybe it's for the best.'
A new National Power-level Hunter emerging in Korea?
It would instantly draw massive aggro.
The media would dig into Kim Hyun's every move, and since nothing stayed secret forever, they'd uncover her murders and tear her apart.
The public would naturally turn against her too.
No one knew how Kim Hyun would react. She might destroy broadcast stations or newspapers, or massacre civilians.
'So this might actually be the better outcome.'
Lee Min-hyuk comforted himself that way.
"What? She refused?"
The Foreign Minister scowled at his secretary's report.
"What nonsense is that? Explain in detail."
"Well, the Returnee Kim Hyun refused to raid the North Korean S-Rank Gate."
The hesitant secretary avoided the minister's gaze as he finished.
"She said she'd rather not than follow orders......"
"Hah. Unbelievable."
The Foreign Minister laughed in disbelief.
"Doesn't she know what becoming National Power-level means? How could she throw away such an opportunity?"
He made no effort to hide his displeasure.
"And what? She doesn't want to follow orders? Just because she has some power, she thinks she's above the nation."
The secretary gave an awkward smile.
"Y-yes, Minister."
"Haah."
The Foreign Minister sighed and rose from his seat. He walked to the window of his office and gazed outside.
'What a mess.'
The plan had gone awry.
'We just wanted some modest results......'
In truth, signing a treaty with a Hunter might seem impressive on the surface, but diplomatically, it was borderline failure.
No matter how they dressed it up with flowery language, the core was that the state couldn't control an individual's power and had to negotiate.
'Just do what you're told, you damned bitch.'
It wasn't for nothing that the Foreign Minister had set the North Korean S-Rank Gate as the condition.
That 'S-Rank' in the North was a major headache for South Korea. Clearing it in exchange for the treaty would rack up big points for the ministry.
'And she goes and throws mud in the works.'
Not just mud—shit.
'Refusing it outright?'
Instead of building achievements, he'd thoroughly embarrassed himself.
No, it wasn't just face. Since the North Korean S-Rank raid was his pet project, the failed negotiations would fall squarely on him.
If problems arose from this, he'd take all the blame.
Of course, as a key power player in the administration, he'd dodge major fallout, but still.
"Back in the day, failures like this wouldn't have dared make noise. What a degenerate age. End times, end times."
Well, nothing to be done.
Even the Auditor of Pyongyang would say if you don't like it, so be it. No need to force a treaty she didn't want.
A National Power-level Hunter in Korea might boost national prestige or regime support ratings, but in practice, treaties would just bleed concessions and losses.
'Still pisses me off......'
The Foreign Minister cleared his throat affectedly and turned to the secretary.
"What was that name again?"
"Pardon?"
"That thing Hunters band together for, like a company or whatever."
"Ah...... You mean guilds, sir?"
"Yes, yes. Guilds."
Step, step.
Returning to his desk, the minister asked casually.
"Who oversees guild creation?"
"The Ministry of SMEs and Startups, as far as I know."
"Mm. So the Returnee Kim Hyun would set up her guild through them too."
The secretary, catching on, straightened up.
The Foreign Minister spoke as if it were no big deal.
"The Ministry of SMEs and Startups has been awfully busy lately. If Kim Hyun's guild application gets delayed somehow, that'd be a disaster, right? These things happen occasionally, don't they?"
"......!"
"Now go."
At the order-disguised-as-suggestion, the secretary nodded briskly and left the office.
Only then did the Foreign Minister scoff.
"National Power-level, my ass."
This was real power.
"......"
For a fleeting moment, the horrific CCTV footage from the annex meeting room that day flashed in his mind, but the Foreign Minister soon shrugged it off and erased the thought.
So what if the Returnee Kim Hyun was violent?
'I'm the Foreign Minister of this country.'
Surely she wouldn't harm a minister?
The next day.
Three ministers of the Republic of Korea died.