The Stranger (1)
On the train to Busan, I’d only meant to close my eyes for a moment, but I ended up getting a surprisingly good sleep. When I opened them and stretched with all my might, I felt completely refreshed.
That’s a relief.
Outside the window, the scenery whipped past in a blur. It was a superconducting maglev train built for long-distance travel, using superconducting electromagnets to minimize friction. Its top speed was a ridiculous 603 kilometers per hour, and the trip from Seoul to Busan took less than an hour.
At this rate, I’ll be there in twenty minutes.
I checked my watch and looked around. Someone was sitting beside me.
He looked like he might’ve been in middle school. With his buzz cut and mischievous face, the kid was completely absorbed in a mobile game.
Sensing my gaze, he looked up and met my eyes.
"Mister."
"…"
Kids these days really had no fear. He’d looked at me once and immediately called me mister.
"You were snoring like a freight train. I thought I was gonna die from the noise."
"…"
And they had no manners, either.
"What’s your name?"
"Seunghoon. Lee Seunghoon."
"Alright, Seunghoon. Your big brother here’s tired because he’s been busy training to wipe out the forces of evil. It’s a rough life."
I’d killed the Shincheonji cult leader, then learned swordsmanship from Na Sang-min and Simon. After that, I’d kept my body moving nonstop, so collapsing in the train was only natural.
"Ah. Yeah."
Seunghoon answered absentmindedly and went right back to his game.
Kids these days were pretty cold, huh.
"You’re alone? What about your parents?"
"They’re in Busan. I came up to Seoul for a drawing contest and I’m heading back alone."
Kids these days were really independent…
I didn’t have anything else to do, so I watched the game he was playing.
Ding. Ding.
His phone kept chiming with alerts that looked a lot like a hero skill window.
The game itself was simple. The protagonist moved from left to right, defeating enemies along the way, and the story was basically about clearing stages by killing the final boss monster and collecting rewards.
What was interesting was that the in-game characters were modeled after real Korean hunters.
The spiky-haired man, the stocky one swinging a huge hammer, was Bongseon Heo Jin-o.
He mentioned an S-class hunter from the Jincheon Guild, and only then did Seunghoon show any real interest in me.
"Oh. You play this game too, Mister?"
"No. But even I can tell that’s Bongseon."
High-ranking hunters enjoyed celebrity-level popularity. Game companies competed to sign them and build products around them.
And it wasn’t just games. Snacks, drinks, ramen, figures, insurance—anything with a hunter’s star power on it could sell.
"Man, seriously, when I think about how much money I’ve spent trying to pull Bongseon… my allowance is completely wrecked."
So gacha was basically mandatory if you wanted to draw an S-class hunter.
"How much are we talking?"
"One pull ticket is ten thousand won. Twelve tickets are a hundred thousand. Thirty-five tickets are two hundred thousand… stuff like that. The more expensive the pack, the better your odds of pulling an S-class."
According to Seunghoon, some people spent a few hundred thousand won a month, while others poured in millions—sometimes tens of millions.
The game company’s business model is vicious.
No wonder the owner of some random mobile game startup could become rich overnight. Launch just one real hit, and you could make money most ordinary people would never even dream of in their entire lives.
Being the miser I was, I had absolutely no interest in games.
Not like I want to play one anyway.
But the moment money came up, my curiosity was piqued.
"Can you pick other hunters too?"
"Of course."
Seunghoon’s fingers flew over the screen. With smooth, practiced motions, he tapped the buttons over and over. Hunters who fired guns, cast magic, and used all sorts of special abilities appeared one after another.
Among them, there were some familiar faces too.
"Hey, isn’t that Superior Guild’s Vulkan Shin Hyunseung?"
"Yeah. Vulkan’s great because his bow fire rate is crazy fast. He gets critical damage too."
Most of them were hunters I’d seen during the Gangnam Station multi-gate incident.
"Look at this. Pretty sick, right?"
Seunghoon displayed the Vulkan character he owned.
Vulkan was wearing a golden bow and a red cone-shaped hat. Around his waist, he had a Rudolph balloon accessory.
"A limited skin from last year’s Christmas event! Awesome, right? You can’t even buy this anymore."
Then a thought occurred to me.
"Is Na Sang-min not in here?"
"Who?"
"You know. Taros from Dio Guild."
Recently, Na Sang-min had been given a new call sign. Dio Guild gave its hunters epithets based on the gods of Greek mythology, matching their image and achievements.
Na Sang-min became Taros.
It was an abbreviation of Tartaros, the underworld’s deepest pit in Greek myth. It also meant his combat ability was something even the gods would fear.
Of course, Na Sang-min hated it.
After all, shortened to two Hangul syllables, Taros also meant “abyss.”
Once the call sign was announced, the internet was flooded with mocking posts aimed at him.
Na Sang-min drew plenty of hate, but that only made him more talked about.
"Ah, Abyss? We don’t have him."
Seunghoon called him Abyss instead of Taros.
"Why not?"
"He asked the game company for a hundred billion won in signing fees. Said if they wanted to use him as a character, they should pay at least that much."
"…"
Somehow, that made perfect sense.
Na Sang-min, the mad dog of Dio Guild. If he were the one saying that, he absolutely would do it.
"Um… actually."
I cleared my throat and asked,
"What about Choi Yongki?"
I still didn’t have a call sign.
I didn’t have enough achievements yet, and the guild was still gathering information to figure out what kind of image suited me.
"Who?"
"You know the Gangnam Station hero? Hunter Choi Yongki. He made a huge splash on the news a while back."
I was honestly expecting him to know. It had only been a few months ago, but I’d still made a decent name for myself.
"I don’t know. I don’t watch the news."
"…"
Seunghoon stopped the game and switched back to the home screen.
"What was the name again?"
"Dio Guild’s Choi. Yong. Ki."
I said it slowly, one syllable at a time.
"Hang on."
Every time Seunghoon moved the directional pad, a different hunter appeared. If they were wearing protective gear and standing there like mannequins, the hunter would slowly rotate a full 360 degrees.
And then I spotted a familiar face.
A burly, bald man. The god of wine, Dionysus.
…Seo Gwang-pal is in here too.
He was even available as a paid cash item.
1,500 won.
Without realizing it, I clenched my teeth.
This is weirdly getting me fired up.
Seunghoon looked up.
"He’s not here."
"What do you mean he’s not? Did you even look properly?"
I snapped at him without meaning to.
"What rank is this guy anyway?"
"Well… D-class."
"Oh. Then of course he’s not here. The shop list only starts at C-class. D-class hunters…"
Seunghoon pressed the home button.
"You can pick them from here."
After a few more taps, there he was at last.
There he is!
A tall man with narrow, slanted eyes.
- Dikaiosyne Choi Yongki
Since there was no official license, they’d just changed my name slightly from the original.
Fine. That much I could understand.
But still.
- Dikaiosyne Choi Yongki.
Free.
I forced a bitter smile, but my lips twisted anyway.
"This is free?"
"D-class ones get handed out during the tutorial."
So that was it. In society’s eyes, this was still where I stood.
Lower than Seo Gwang-pal.
Damn it. This pisses me off.
I had a new reason to work harder once I got to Busan.
I already knew what my goal was.
To become the strongest hero.
And now, I’d added one more small goal to the list.
S-class! No, I’ll go beyond SS-class and become an SSS-class hunter!
Just then, the speaker crackled to life.
- We will be arriving at Busan Station shortly.
Seunghoon pouted and stuffed his phone into his pocket.
"Ugh. I couldn’t even play because of you, Mister."
"Seunghoon."
I looked at him and fired him a burning glare.
"Buy Choi Yongki for sure. He’s gonna end up being the rarest item in the whole game someday."
"Take care!"
Seunghoon waved as he drifted away from me.
"Yeah. You bought Choi Yongki, right? Take good care of him."
"I’ll think about it."
It had only been a brief encounter, but thanks to him, I’d found a powerful new motivation for coming to Busan.
Burning with resolve, I walked toward the main exit. That was when I noticed someone standing near the flowerbed.
She was a woman with a rabbit-like face.
Hoodie and padded coat on top, jeans and sneakers below. Nothing unusual about her clothes at all. She looked like a college student.
She was chewing on a half-eaten hot dog, tiny mouth working away, while one finger hooked through it as if it were a carrot.
And the reason I couldn’t look away was the mini banner she held in both hands.
Hunter Choi Yongki! We sincerely welcome you to Busan! Welcome!
What the hell was that?
For a send-off card, it was absurdly modest. The handwriting was crooked and uneven.
Pretty shabby, too.
She kept glancing around like a rabbit on alert, holding the banner up with both hands. Then she met my eyes.
"Ah!"
Her face lit up, and the rabbit immediately started sprinting toward me in a panic.
"Eek!!"
…But the rabbit barely got a few steps before she face-planted right onto the empty floor.
The half-eaten hot dog she’d been holding rolled away across the ground.
Well, that was something.
"Owowow."
She clutched her knee, got back up, and then came hopping toward me on one foot.
"Hello! You must be Hunter Choi Yongki, right?"
"That’s right. And you are?"
She bowed at ninety degrees.
Her swaying hair perked up like rabbit ears.
"It’s a pleasure to meet you! I’m Heo Da-young from the PR team at the Dio Guild Busan branch!"
Heo Da-young. Somehow, the name suited her perfectly.
"Here’s my business card!"
I looked down at the card she handed me.
She had the kind of personality that was innocent and clumsy in equal measure.
A real space cadet.
"Oh. That’s actually kind of my nickname too."
Heo Da-young grinned brightly.
"Ms. Lee called me over, so I rushed right here. While you’re in Busan, Hunter Choi, I’ll do my best to take care of you."
So Lee Yu-seol had sent her to welcome me.
Right now, Lee Yu-seol was basically at the level of a department head. For a lowly employee like Heo Da-young, that kind of order was no different from a command from heaven.
"Hand me the suitcase. I’ll carry it for you."
A Heoksikdo was hanging from the suitcase handle.
Even that alone made it pretty heavy.
"Hngh!"
Heo Da-young struggled as she tried to lift it.
Man. This wasn’t going to be easy from the start.
I took the suitcase in one hand and slung it over my shoulder.
"Forget it. I’ve got it."
"Ah. Thank you."
Heo Da-young looked up at me, mouth hanging open.
"Do you want a hot dog? I bought two. Oh, right—have you eaten yet? Or is there something you want to eat?"
She pulled out her phone and started flipping through a bunch of saved photos.
"Sashimi, spicy seafood stew, milmyeon, pork soup… just say the word!"
There was time for sightseeing later. Right now, there was something more important to deal with.
To be honest, I’d heard that the Dio Guild hunters in Busan didn’t especially like people from headquarters.
Why?
The Dio Guild Busan branch had a reputation. Headquarters staff came down from Seoul all the time to issue heavy-handed orders or pull rank on people, and sending disgraced hunters to Busan as punishment was common enough to be routine.
Busan transfers were basically exile. Since most of them had been dumped there for some reason or another, there was no way they’d welcome someone from headquarters with open arms.
I looked down at Heo Da-young and asked,
"Is that true?"
"Is what true?"
"That the Busan hunters are famous for being rough."
It was a joke, but there was some truth to it too.
Seoul hunters were lively, but they also liked to nitpick and analyze things like snobs. People from Chungcheong were said to be laid-back and relaxed, while those from Jeolla were unfairly thought of as more nature-loving.
"Well… everyone here’s really nice."
Heo Da-young gave the kind of vague answer that came from years of professional survival.
We’d see for ourselves soon enough.
"Let’s meet the guild members first."
"Right now?"
I was curious. Would the hunters in Busan welcome me like Heo Da-young did?
As a stranger standing in unfamiliar territory, I stepped forward with a strangely excited feeling in my chest.
"Ah! I’ll come with you, Hunter Choi!"
The rabbit, hot dog still clamped between her teeth like a carrot, bounced after me with tiny hops.