Hunter License (1)
I had already told my parents I meant to become a hunter, and I had their permission. Everything else that needed doing was finished. All that remained was to earn my hunter license and become a real hunter. Whatever came after the license would be the true problem, but that was for the future me to handle.
"Hello. I'm Kim Haseong. I had an appointment to come in today..."
"Ah, Mr. Kim Haseong. We've been expecting you. Take the elevator over there up to the third floor. When you get off, Room 3 will be on your right. Please head that way."
"Yes. Thank you."
Yesterday I had called the Hunter Association to report that I had awakened as a hunter and to say I wanted a license. I had assumed the tangle of procedures would drag on, but here I was the very next day, already walking into the process of getting one.
"...Room 3. Is this it?"
I opened the door and stepped inside, and a wide room greeted me. The strange part was that the space was fitted out for cooking—practically a full kitchen.
A kitchen? Why?
It was odd, but they must have had a reason for preparing it. Probably.
Just then the door opened.
"Hello. You are Mr. Kim Haseong, correct?"
"Ah, yes."
"A pleasure to meet you. My name is Lee Muo. I've been assigned as your instructor and exam proctor, to explain what it means to be a hunter."
I shook hands with Lee Muo as he introduced himself as both instructor and proctor.
"Ah, yes. Hello."
"First, let's confirm a simple procedure. Please sit wherever you like and check off the items written here."
"Yes."
Instructor Lee... proctor? Either way, I took the paper and pen he handed me, sat down somewhere reasonable, and looked the sheet over.
What is this?
All sorts of things were written on it. Could I cook? Could I drive? Could I pitch a tent? Search as I might, I could not find a single line that had anything to do with hunters.
While I was reading and checking boxes, the instructor brought something over and set it on the desk.
"I'm sorry to interrupt while you're going through that, Mr. Kim, but please place your hand on this stone first."
"Ah, yes."
I set my hand on the stone he had brought, and it began to glow like an LED.
"This confirms that you are a hunter, Mr. Kim Haseong."
"Yes."
I had to wonder whether a check like this was even necessary. Then again, maybe there were people who lied about having awakened as hunters, enough of them that a test like this was required.
"I'd like to speak a little more seriously. Do you know what a hunter actually does, Mr. Kim?"
It came out of nowhere. If he wanted an answer, all I really had was what I had seen online recently.
"You go into the dungeons that appear in the Tower and fight monsters... something like that?"
"Correct. To be more precise, portals appear at random inside the Tower. You enter a dungeon through a portal and fight the monsters, and once every monster is slain, the dungeon is cleared."
"...Yes."
"But that isn't all. A hunter's work is killing living beings. They may not be creatures of Earth, but they are still alive."
"...Living beings."
I had never seen that explanation online. A moment's thought made it obvious, though. Hunters enter dungeons and kill monsters. You hear it on the news and online easily enough, and the wording is softened. Say it without the euphemism, and it becomes this: hunters enter dungeons and slaughter monsters. Brutal.
"Yes. A hunter kills living creatures called monsters. And those monsters attack the hunters who come for them, because they want to survive."
The world goes wild for hunters. Hunters are strong, and they look impressive. But seen from a hunter's own place? A hunter walks into a dungeon and kills living things called monsters.
"Can you do it, Mr. Kim Haseong? Kill a monster. Kill a life. Can you?"
He pressed hard. He had to, if this hunter was ever going to find his place.
As far as anyone knew, fewer than 0.1 percent of humanity awakened as hunters, and of that fraction, only half ever actually worked as hunters. Would an ordinary person, just because they had awakened, suddenly walk into the Tower and kill monsters? It almost never happened. Hunters were people in the end, which was why the newly awakened man standing in front of him had to be told what a hunter was, and what the work really meant.
"...I don't know. But I can do it."
He could say he could. It was the sort of thing every newly awakened hunter said when they came looking for a license, swearing they would make something of the awakening. Reality, more often than not, told a different story.
"Understood. Then set the paperwork aside for now and follow me. There's something more important we need to confirm."
"Ah, yes."
He led the newly awakened Kim Haseong down to the second basement floor. For most people who had resolved to become hunters, B2 was the end of the road, the place where they gave it up.
"That room over there. Let's go in together."
"Yes."
They opened the door, and a pig prepared for today was wandering around the room.
"Um... what is this?"
"Can't you tell by looking? It's a pig."
"Ah, yes. But why is there a pig in here?"
"Simple. A moment ago you said you could do it, Mr. Kim. So prove it."
"Prove it?"
"Yes. Kill the pig, and prove that you can kill a monster. There's a sword beside you that will do the job."
"......"
The silence was understandable. This was where most hunters split down two paths. One picked up the sword and killed the pig. The other never managed to lift it, and turned back. Here, the road of the Kim Haseong standing in this room would fork—the hunter's path, or the ordinary life he had lived before.
"...I'll do it."
"Then please do."
Proving it with words was not enough. It had to be shown in action. He had considered pressing harder, but Kim Haseong drew the sword at his side.
Oh.
A quick decision, and the resolve to make it. Of all the people he had watched set foot on a hunter's path, he had never seen anyone decide this fast. But would holding a sword mean he could kill the pig right away?
"...Hah. Do I just swing and kill it?"
"The method doesn't matter. Just be certain you cut off the pig's breath."
"...Yes."
He held the sword, but his hand was shaking, and the blade shook with it. All of it was plain to see. Too much for him after all?
"You don't have to force yourself. If it's too much, there's always the option of walking out that door."
"...No."
Kim Haseong raised the sword and stepped toward the pig. Time to offer him one last chance.
"I'll step outside and wait, whatever you decide."
With that he opened the door and went out. It was the same choice as before, drawn out a little further. Hunter, or an ordinary person again.
Will a hunter be born, or not? I'm looking forward to this.
Moments like this were always fascinating. They had to be. He was someone who went wild for hunters himself, and that was why he had chosen this job—so he could witness, up close, the instant a hunter was born. Most of the time it came to nothing. But if it didn't?
A pig's scream burst from inside the room. With that, he could be certain. It had not come to nothing.
"The birth of a hunter."
No thrill in the world compared to that moment.
Killing one life for my parents, and for my own future. No. Killing one life was only the beginning. From here on I would kill many more with my own hands. That was the work I had chosen. The work called hunter.
"...Ah."
But the hand I had braced against the wall was trembling. It was a feeling I had never known.
I was washing in the showers on the second basement floor of the Hunter Association. Blood had sprayed all over my clothes and body when I brought the blade down and killed the pig. The instructor had said he would have clothes ready in my size right away.
No. That wasn't the point.
"...Am I still sane?"
Pig or not, I had killed a life, and it was driving me mad—terrifying beyond anything I could stand. The thought crossed my mind that I might already be crazy.
"...Ha. Shit. Okay. Calm down. Kim Haseong, you're fine."
The first thing the instructor had said to me after I killed the pig and came out was this.
The pig I had killed had been raised for the table from the start. In other words, it had been destined to die all along. That was the only thing that steadied me.
After that I managed, somehow, to wash everything off and step outside. The clothes were already waiting, so I could dress and come out.
"...You look quite pale. I think we should stop for today."
Those were the first words the instructor offered once I came out dressed.
"...Come on. Taking a break already, just because I killed one pig..."
"Rest is the right call right now. You don't have to force yourself."
".........Yes."
I wanted to rest, just as he said. But I had the feeling that if I rested even once, my resolve would break. I didn't think I could hold on at all, which was exactly why I wanted to stay at the Hunter Association.
"All right. I've called a taxi, so please take it home. Ah—I'll see you out."
I couldn't even answer. I only nodded.
Guided out like that, I got into the taxi and went home.