Chapter 11
Chapter 11
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: Crisis (1)
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Seo Dae-hyun's parents readily gave their permission for both him and Kim Hyun-jun to become hunters.
It was the result of discussions that had stretched late into the previous evening.
They felt they could trust their son with him.
Their faith in him ran that deep.
Seo Dae-hyun double-checked one more time if it was really okay.
The image of a necromancer wasn't exactly a positive one.
Even he thought it was a creepy power.
But thanks to that power, he'd been able to bring Kim Hyun-jun back to life.
There were restrictions, sure, but wasn't there a saying that even rolling in fertilizer fields, this world is better than the next?
"It's all thanks to you that Hyun-jun can live, Dae-hyun."
If Kim Hyun-jun died, he could bring him back.
But if Seo Dae-hyun died, neither of them would make it.
Kim Hyun-jun's parents had much to be grateful to Seo Dae-hyun for.
Before enlisting, he'd hated farm work and lived selfishly, but after discharge, he'd straightened up.
After dying on the battlefield and coming back, Kim Hyun-jun no longer lived recklessly like before.
It was the first time they'd heard such high praise for someone from their son's mouth.
They were dying to know who had saved him.
Frontline units banned visits, so they couldn't even go see him.
His father had been swamped at the time too, so their schedules never aligned.
Their son's change hadn't come from military life—it was due to one person.
That person was Seo Dae-hyun.
They'd waited for his discharge to thank him in person.
When they finally heard about his situation, they spared no support.
It wasn't nearly enough repayment for giving their son a new life, but they'd made arrangements for him to live in America.
Learning his parents had passed and he'd been alone since childhood only deepened their affection.
Seo Dae-hyun looked at Kim Hyun-jun and asked.
"Hyun-jun. You okay with this?"
[Yeah. Haha. I won't die anyway.]
Kim Hyun-jun had his share of mental trauma too.
Not joining a guild was partly to inherit his father's farm, but also due to his monster phobia.
It was a chronic issue among discharged hunter-soldiers.
After dying once and becoming a soldier, he'd overcome both his physical and mental flaws.
[Look. Look. My athlete's foot is completely gone.]
The foot fungus he'd gotten from wearing combat boots 18 hours a day had vanished.
Thanks to the passive skill Corpse Explosion, parts of his body had burst and regrown fresh.
"Got it, so put your foot away."
At Seo Dae-hyun's 'command,' Kim Hyun-jun immediately lowered his foot.
His father headed off to the farm.
"Have a safe trip."
[Have a safe trip.]
Since Seo Dae-hyun and Kim Hyun-jun had quit their jobs, only his father rode in the car today.
[He's seriously diligent.]
[Watching him, you'd think our dad is an Awakened too.]
Kim Hyun-jun joked about his superhuman stamina and mental fortitude.
Heading to work like nothing happened after yesterday's ordeal.
Seo Dae-hyun nodded, unable to disagree.
'Could it be?' The suspicion crossed his mind.
Seo Dae-hyun shook his head.
Awakened could instinctively sense others like them.
He felt no mana from Kim Hyun-jun's father.
It had to just be incredible mental strength.
"Hyun-jun. Let's go."
He called to Kim Hyun-jun and started the car.
Their destination was the Hunter Association.
They needed association permission to enter a gate.
Joining a guild was an option, but neither wanted to affiliate anywhere.
A quick search showed no suitable guilds in Iowa anyway.
Seo Dae-hyun wasn't going to become an agent.
He just needed clearance to raid dungeons.
He drove Kim Hyun-jun's sports car toward the Iowa branch.
Vrooom—
With a crisp exhaust note, it tore down the road at full speed.
They arrived at the association in the blink of an eye.
Kyle was waiting at the entrance.
Hunter association agents stood in a neat line behind him.
The same agents from the cornfield yesterday.
"Kyle."
"Hunter Seo Dae-hyun!"
He'd contacted Kyle before leaving home.
At Kyle's request.
He'd asked for a heads-up before arriving.
It wasn't a big deal, so he'd obliged on a whim.
Kyle bowed politely.
"Hunter Association Agent Kyle here. Pleased to meet you. Hunter Kim Hyun-jun."
"Uh... sure."
Kim Hyun-jun replied blankly, then shot Seo Dae-hyun a bewildered look.
And for good reason—the agents stood at rigid attention like privates greeting a division commander.
[What happened yesterday to make the agents act like this?]
"...No idea."
He really didn't. All he'd requested was protection for Kim Hyun-jun and Michael.
"Is someone else coming besides me?"
"No, sir. We prepared this ourselves to welcome you, Hunter Seo Dae-hyun."
Seo Dae-hyun's brow furrowed.
"Who's the one behind this?"
Kyle glanced nervously.
"Uh. You don't like it?"
"Yeah. Don't do this again."
He appreciated the welcome, but as the saying went, too much of a good thing was worse than none.
Overkill.
The agents ushered them inside, leaving only Kyle and May to guide them.
"The branch chief stepped out briefly."
David had figured Seo Dae-hyun, who came in late last night, would visit in the afternoon, so he'd deliberately left on an early morning errand.
"If I'd known you'd come this early, I wouldn't have gone. Timing's off."
To enter a dungeon, Seo Dae-hyun registered with the association.
Rules varied by state, but Iowa's generated dungeons were managed by the branch.
Association approval was mandatory for raids.
A bit different from Korea.
There, guilds bid at auctions for exclusive rights.
Iowa only produced low-grade dungeons even when gates appeared.
That regional trait made it a safe city, but local hunters migrated to big cities.
Low-level dungeons didn't pay off no matter how you cleared them.
The branch's agents were the only high-rank hunters left.
Seo Dae-hyun got approval without hassle.
"Takes a while, huh?"
He hadn't realized entering a dungeon gate involved so much wait time.
Hunters filled parties, got association clearance, then raided.
"No need to worry about that."
Kyle said confidently.
"We can prepare dungeons suitable for you, Hunter Seo Dae-hyun!"
He was anxious Seo might head to a big city like other hunters.
Recent sudden gates had been a headache, but this was a silver lining.
"Hunter Seo Dae-hyun. The branch chief will be back soon—care for some tea while—"
That was when it happened.
—Wheeeeeng!!!
A warning siren blared across the association.
CODE BLACK!
Code Black signaled monsters emerging from a gate.
Same as yesterday.
Kyle grimaced.
"Damn it!"
Emergency—he needed to prep for dispatch immediately.
"Sorry about this."
Kyle apologized for failing to host his guests.
"No problem. We'd like to help if we can."
At Seo Dae-hyun's words, Kyle's eyebrows shot up in hopeful relief.
With a healer, more people could be saved.
Seo Dae-hyun wasn't a healer, but he had recovery skills.
Exactly who they needed on-site.
"If it's not too much, could you help just this once?!"
Kyle bowed 90 degrees in plea.
"Sure."
He'd planned to anyway—no need for such formality.
To save people and lift his limit release, he needed soldier numbers.
Kim Tae-seok gazed over the fertile land he'd cultivated from his youth to now, lost in thought.
Thirty years had passed since coming here.
Starting from scratch with no help, he'd achieved the American Dream.
The farm issues were resolved—no more worries, or so he'd thought.
But lately, a new concern had arisen.
His child.
Children were a parent's greatest weakness.
When he heard of Kim Hyun-jun's death, he'd accepted it calmly.
He hadn't been unshaken or unpanicked.
He was a father.
When the family pillar crumbles, the home teeters.
For his distraught wife, he'd swallowed his grief.
He'd thought it a prank at first, but with association agents in tow and the state of Dae-hyun and Hyun-jun, he'd accepted it.
He mulled over his son's death.
The only one he could trust now was Seo Dae-hyun.
He didn't know the hunter world well, but he grasped how impressive that power was.
S-Rank healers reviving near-dead patients had made news a few times.
Kim Tae-seok trusted him like an adopted son.
He'd taken a liking from their first meeting.
As his wife said, he'd planned to retire and hand things to Kim Hyun-jun and Seo Dae-hyun.
'Looks like I can't rest for a while.'
Kim Tae-seok gave a wry smile.
Children never went as planned, as they said.
And it was true.
"Monsters might show, so stay sharp. Wrap up early today."
Not far from where his son had been attacked yesterday, he warned the farmhands.
"Aw, boss. Monsters around here?"
Yesterday's incident hadn't hit the news yet.
"Gates have dried up..."
The farmhand brushed it off and returned to work—when a dark gray mass prowled through the cornfield.
The farmhand blinked and tilted his head.
It looked just like ashes left from a fire.
Had it moved a bit?
His imagination?
Turning his back to the gray lump, the farmhand said.
"Hey! Who threw this—"
Kwachak!
The farmhand's upper body vanished in an instant.
It crunched into the wolf's maw.
Witnesses fell into panic.
"H-how's there a monster?"
"Aaaah!"
A monster in this remote spot?!
Iowa was a safe city where monsters rarely appeared.
"Boss!?"
Kim Tae-seok was nowhere in sight.
Had he run already?
Without their mental anchor, they could do nothing.
The golden cornfield turned to a blood-soaked hellscape.
The monsters, turning the scene to chaos in seconds, grew more frenzied at the screams.
Vroooom!
Then a truck slammed into the wolf's side.
Kwang!
The wolf tumbled.
At 120 km/h, the truck's front bumper crumpled instead.
Kim Tae-seok was driving that truck.
Beep! Beeeep!
More trucks followed, honking to intimidate the wolves.
Kim Tae-seok could've fled alone but hadn't.
He'd rallied his trusted employees to save people.
A man had to protect his own.
"Everyone, on the trucks!"
Kim Tae-seok kept his cool, directing the farmhands with charisma amid the chaos.
But they lacked his mental steel.
The monsters' aura overwhelmed non-Awakened.
Like rabbits frozen by a tiger's roar, they couldn't move.
Helplessly becoming monster fodder—
Bang!
A gunshot rang out.
Kim Tae-seok, leaning from the truck window, had nailed a wolf's head with his shotgun.
He too was a full-term discharged sergeant from the ROK Army.
The buckshot hit home, but the wolf survived, pellets crumpled.
"Wanna live? Get in back now!"
Wanna live.
Those words worked wonders.
Terror-weighted legs moved.
While he menaced wolves with gunfire buying time.
People boarded the trucks.
"Go!"
Bang!
With shots firing, the trucks fled the magical beasts.
Ryu Jin received word from the Iowa branch of a sudden contract cancellation.
"That hick branch chief dares reject me?!"
His personal assistant Yang Wei eyed him warily and spoke carefully.
"Uh, it seems like they're pushing back once to negotiate terms."
"Acting like they'd give me their kidneys before, and now this—Yankees can't be trusted."
Ryu Jin turned to his assistant.
"What's the reason?"
The assistant trembled like a mouse before a cat. One wrong word could mean serious pain.
"Looks like negotiation to lower your rate, sir."
Ryu Jin stood.
The assistant flinched, squeezing his eyes shut.
"Book a flight to that backwater."
"Yes, sir!"
Ryu Jin shared the same thought.
David was bluffing pre-contract to cut his fee.
He'd demanded triple raises thrice, knowing he was the only certified S-Rank for Iowa.
Far above other states' S-Ranks.
'Hmph. Time to teach him.'
He'd planned to squeeze more from David upon meeting, unaware he was off his radar, and boarded the plane.