S- Rank Tanker Kim Jinhyeop

The team leader was a professional.

"I apologize, Mr. Kim Suhyun. Ordinarily, issuing a Hunter registration card is a simple matter for the Association. We confirm the Status Window and issue a card matched to the rank of the abilities listed on it. In your case, however..."

"I see."

"Your Status Window contains a few irregularities, so we would like to conduct one brief verification. Would that be acceptable?"

"Do I have to?"

"That the window came straight out of a game called Farming World is understandable enough, given the other abilities and the Farming Points. What we have determined ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠we must confirm is whether those abilities are actually taking effect as displayed."

He laid the situation out with a professional's calm and walked me straight into seeing his point.

"The Association issues registration cards to prevent accidents caused by Hunters entering dungeons they have no business entering. Until now there has never been a case in which the rank registered on a Status Window was wrong, so we simply verify and issue the card. This time, however..."

"So it could be a bug?"

"Calling ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it a bug is an amusing way to put it. This is not a game. Even so, I have personally judged that it is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠possible only the Status Window is presenting itself in a game's format. Allow us one simple check, and I will issue your registration card immediately."

He wasn't wrong.

A Status Window was the proof that established a Hunter—an unreal existence planted in the real world—and in ten years it had never once been mistaken. The Hunter Association ran no tests at all. They looked at a Hunter's Status Window and wrote out a certificate confirming that yes, this person possessed abilities of that rank.

My case was different. I was carrying a Farming Window, something similar to a Status Window and yet not the same, and written across it was a rank no one had ever seen: SSS+. Who was going to take that on faith?

The system that produced a Status Window resembled what Hunters had shown all along. But what if there was a separate ability that only mimicked one? It was a sharp read. I could see the logic, so I accepted without a fight.

"All right. How does the test work?"

A minor hassle. That was all. I knew better than anyone that there was nothing wrong with my abilities themselves, so a test or anything else made no difference to me.

"Thank you for your cooperation. The test is simple. We only need to confirm that your stats and abilities actually exist, so it will be conducted in the Association's training hall inside this building. As a melee-weapon ability user, please take up the close-range weapon you use and either activate a skill you possess or attack me."

"That's all?"

"Yes. We only need to confirm whether your stats are truly S-rank, and whether an SSS+ melee-weapon ability actually exists. Your level is low, so if you have no skills, a simple attack will suffice."

"I do have skills, though. Are ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you sure you'll be all right?"

I'd always thought fairly well of the Hunter Association. Even before I awakened, I hadn't pictured them as the incompetent, worthless government office that shows up in every fantasy novel. I'd taken them for a genuinely capable, cutting-edge organization—one that had rapidly linked itself across the world, built real power, kept Hunters from causing disasters, and driven accident rates sharply down. There was even a saying that Hunter resources went to the Association first, and in the greatest volume. And the test a place like that ran was this old-fashioned?

It wasn't that the method itself was bad. I was just worried.

"Hahaha. You needn't worry. I may not look it, but I am an S- rank tanker."

"...Sorry? For real? I heard there aren't even ten S-rank Hunters in all of Korea."

"I am one of them. To hold a team leader's post at the Korean Hunter Association headquarters at my age, one must be at least that much. Well then. Shall we?"

It was only a verification. Maybe it would be fine. If he really was an S- rank tanker, this approach might actually be the more efficient one, and the more certain.

We went up another floor and came to the Hunter Association training hall. The entire floor had the feel of one enormous gymnasium, walled in by something solid enough to take whatever was thrown at it, with training equipment scattered about and a separate conditioning room set aside. Team Leader Kim Jinhyeop and I stepped through a door beneath a sign.

Solid glass showed the interior here and there. Beyond it lay space sealed off completely from the outside.

Kim Jinhyeop drew a shield. It was a large one. He stood well over six feet, and the moment he raised it, he vanished behind it entirely.

A perfect tanker.

Most people who carried a shield paired it with a sword—one hand to stop the enemy's attack, the other to answer it. That was why so many of them used a simple hand shield. Kim Jinhyeop looked built for pure tanking and nothing else. Or perhaps, since the test itself was only about blocking, he had simply committed himself to defense alone.

"Whenever you are ready."

Before we came in he had asked whether I'd brought a weapon, so I'd asked him for a wooden sword if he had one. The Sewer Sword was always tucked into my belt, but I had a feeling that if I drew that, shield or no shield, it would be cut clean through. Even I found it hard to gauge my own damage. Knowing roughly what I put out made hunting easier, but this was something else. Attack power at 1,150 percent, and another 300 percent damage stacked on top of that—the result shot straight past anything I could calculate.

Even so, an S- rank ought to be able to take a skill swung with a wooden sword. With that thought, I stepped up in front of him. The shield looked like a mountain. Before I swung, I asked one more time.

"Should I use a skill?"

"Yes. If you can use a skill, please do. It is better still if you come at full power. Only then can I make an accurate judgment."

"Ah... this is awkward."

Even with a straight answer, it still sat wrong. I might be a socially stunted, twenty-six-year-old unemployed little shit with a trash personality, but I didn't exactly have a hobby of hurting people who'd done nothing to me. Of course, I might also have been underestimating an S- rank tanker. The wooden sword in my hand was only +1 attack, so even with a skill the damage might not land as hard as I was picturing. Still, there was always that one-in-a-million chance.

"Then block with everything you've got."

"...Yes. Don't worry. Come at me full force."

"Here I come, then?"

"Yes."

I swung with Leap Slash, and in the same instant I triggered Two-Fold Strike. A sharp crack rang out. Sword met shield, and for the first time the feeling of being blocked traveled up through my hand. It wasn't that the damage had failed to land. It had landed, and there was a weight to it—a sensation I had never felt before, not since awakening and putting Master of Melee Weapons to use.

A wooden sword with +1 attack, and an S- rank tanker on the other side of it. Had all my worrying been nothing but fuss? I felt a little easier. I'd meant to swing once and stop, but I followed through with the rest of the blade. An SSS+ rank ability blocked that easily would drain the test of any meaning. And louder than that thought was another.

I need to show them, beyond any doubt, that this is SSS+.

It might not have been intentional. But the look in his eyes—Is this real? More likely, it isn't. He'd been polite enough, and still I wanted to correct the glance I could see between the courtesies. Maybe it was just a young man's pride. Whatever. He was an S- rank tanker.

The remaining four slashes drove straight into the shield. Less than a tenth of a second between them.

And then—

The effect of Two-Fold Strike burst open right behind them. A splitting crack. The shield came apart in fragments, and Team Leader Kim Jinhyeop was blasted clear into the wall.

"Guhk!"

Team Leader Kim Jinhyeop was an S- rank tanker, a Hunter, and head of the Hunter Management Team at the Korean headquarters of the Hunter Association. In an emergency that team deployed to guarantee a Hunter's safety, and when monsters poured out of a dungeon—the phenomenon commonly called a dungeon break—they were the first to move, securing the civilians. That was why high-rank Hunters were chosen for it, why level was weighed heavily among them, and why the Association poured so much into their growth. If a Hunter's rank was high enough, they would even build a team for the sole purpose of raising them, low level or not.

The shield in Team Leader Kim Jinhyeop's hands was nothing less than A+ rank. Alongside that shield, which might as well have been his mascot, he had never once been breached—not across a full hour of holding the line. He wasn't particularly worried this time either. It was a case he had never seen, but even if the SSS+ rank was genuine, the man's level was low. He had judged he could hold. More than that, if he was honest, he didn't really believe it.

"I awakened while I was playing a game."

If that were true, then were all the countless people around the world who did nothing but play games SSS+ rank Hunters? Something like a Status Window had appeared, so the man was a Hunter. That much was certain. But the truth was, Kim Jinhyeop was about eighty percent convinced this was a Hunter whose ability forged Status Windows. Far more realistic than an SSS+ rank Hunter—something that had not appeared even once in ten years—showing up behind some strange window.

"Is it really all right if I go all out?"

"Yes. I will meet you at full power as well. Come as you like."

Even if the man was lying, a one percent chance could not be ignored. He was cooperative with the test anyway, and running it would cost Kim Jinhyeop nothing but time. Nothing else would change. Any defensive skill would do. Something casual. That was what he was thinking as he watched from behind the shield.

"...Huh?"

The opponent who had been five meters away was already swinging a sword right in front of the shield.

No.

Had he been swinging?

In the instant Kim Jinhyeop registered it, a tremendous impact slammed through the shield in his hands. His body was already beyond his control, hurled back, crashing into the wall.

"Khak!"

The words that had been sitting in Kim Jinhyeop's head—chronic gaming delusion—were wiped clean away.