Studying to Be a Hunter
The sweltering summer heat finally broke, and even the crisp, clear autumn days were drawing to a close. I had been living a thoroughly lazy life. Before, when money was tight, I had at least looked for a job... but now that I had some cash, I'd grown decadent and spendthrift. I ordered delivery food I didn't even need, and constantly snacked on chips and sodas...
A major factor was that the guilt I felt toward my sister had eased. At first, carrying that heavy burden of debt to her, I had been careful with my actions and tried to exercise self-restraint in everything. But after healing her acquaintance, that guilt had lessened. Knowing that I had actually helped my sister put my mind at ease. And once my mind was at ease, I completely let myself go.
My sister, utterly disappointed by my lazy and pathetic behavior...
"Sis! What is wrong with the state of this house?!" she screamed the moment she got home from work.
I was so flustered that the words caught in my throat, and my body froze. "O-Oh? You're home?" I was so startled that even as she was scolding me, I couldn't even think to move.
"You have all these abilities, and you're just going to rot inside the house? How long are you planning to freeload off me?!"
She had told me before that I could stay as long as I wanted, but it seemed I was being a nuisance after all. This only fueled my anxiety. Even if I had money, I didn't want to live alone. I wanted to live with my sister, my family. I wanted someone I could lean on. Having lost my Hero's party... the only person I could rely on now was my sister...
"I-I'll be careful... Just please don't kick me out."
My sister let out a deep sigh and pulled something out of her handbag.
"Take this. Go get some training here, okay?"
I took the paper and looked at it.
"Ah...!"
My sister was pushing me to become a hunter.
"Sis?"
"Y-Yeah..."
"Look, I know you went through a lot in the past. But how long are you going to stay cooped up inside? If a person just stays home all day, they rot. You need to go outside, meet people, talk, and live a healthy life."
Concern practically dripped from her voice and expression. Unable to offer any rebuttal, I listened in silence.
"Who knows what will happen to me in the future..."
Hearing those words, my mind began to conjure various scenarios. The most prominent one was... marriage, perhaps? My sister was still in her mid-twenties. But she was at the age for marriage... Or was that an outdated concept? Regardless, one day she would meet someone she liked, and if they were compatible, they would get married. What would happen then? She would live with her husband... Would I still be able to stay by her side? Never... absolutely not. A married man wouldn't want his wife's attention divided, and he certainly wouldn't want another woman lingering around. Naturally, they'd want to distance themselves from me. That was a very real possibility for the future. Which meant...
"There's still some time left before it starts, so prepare for it..."
"Yeah, so let's take it slow. Let's adapt step by step." My sister truly seemed worried about me.
"Okay..."
What right did I have to argue? All I could do was try... Right, not every man in the world is a sex-crazed lunatic. The ones I had encountered just happened to be crazy by sheer coincidence... Come to think of it, the officer I met during my protective supervision wasn't like that. Even when I was wandering around like a lost soul, I hadn't run into anyone like that, which was why I made it back to my old house safely. Yes... I had just been unlucky. So... let's step outside with a little hope.
The **Short-term Intensive Hunter Academy** was a three-month course that began in late autumn and ended before spring, with classes held twice a week. The reason it was only twice a week was likely so they could run two separate classes during the weekdays. From what I gathered, they taught basic knowledge about **Gates**, monster biology, and other essentials for hunters. For someone like me, whose knowledge in these areas was vague at best, it was an excellent opportunity.
But why was this kind of education offered as a short-term course? When I asked my sister, she replied, "Because the hunter population is small."
The number of awakened individuals and hunters was too small to justify integrating it into the regular school curriculum. Besides, it seemed basic knowledge was already being taught to some extent...
"You won't need to preview anything."
"Really...?" I listened quietly to her explanation.
"Yeah, it's not hard at all... It's basically just common sense."
But that was only "common sense" to people who had lived on Earth their entire lives. A Gate-missing person like me lacked that basic common sense, so I couldn't just brush it off. Since it's come to this, I should study properly... I hadn't studied seriously in nearly fifteen years, so I wasn't sure if I could do well. Regardless, I registered for the classes. It felt like a bit of a waste of money since the tuition was quite expensive.
After that, while waiting for the classes to start, I pondered how to hide my face and body. In the end, a mask and a cap were a given, and I decided to wear baggy clothes to conceal my figure. As the weather grew colder, clothes naturally became thicker, and by the time it was cold enough to wear heavy coats, my body was naturally hidden. Of course, since my figure was still prominent enough to stand out, I had to use a few minor tricks.
Time flew by, and soon, the first day of the academy arrived.
"Ugh, I really have to go out..."
"You'll be fine, right?"
"I-I think so...?" My sister still looked worried.
"Now that you're actually leaving, I'm starting to worry..."
And yet you were the one trying to kick me out... I was also worried that some incident might occur, just like before. Still, her concern warmed my heart.
"I'll be fine. Even if a problem arises, I can pretty much handle it."
I steeled my resolve as I got ready to leave. I was no longer the helpless person I used to be. I could solve most problems with my fists now. After all, I had mastered the art of beating people up without leaving a single mark. What if some guy tried to hit on me? I'd just beat him up. I had already learned how to strike someone using **Holy Power** without leaving any physical wounds. Now, I would use that to teach them a proper lesson. Why should I be the one to suffer? Unlike before, my situation was stable now, so I decided to take it easy and do whatever I pleased.
"Have a good day." My sister was seeing me off, even though she had to get ready for work herself.
"Yeah, I'm off."
I left the house with a light heart. Though I felt a bit anxious, honestly, I was also looking forward to it. I had no real intention of active duty as a hunter, but my steps felt surprisingly light. I'll just think of it as getting a simple certification...
In any case, I took the bus to the academy. Perhaps because of the mask, cap, and thick coat, barely anyone spared me a glance. As expected, no one approached me. I felt a bit more at ease. I had visited the academy once before when registering, but it was incredibly ordinary. So ordinary, in fact, that it was almost disappointing. There was a field that looked like a playground, but nothing was set up there; it was just a plain academy. Looking at the curriculum, there were no practical training sessions—it was almost entirely theory-based.
I entered the building and headed to the classroom. Quite a few people had arrived before me. As expected, the vast majority were male. There were only about three women. Since there was still plenty of time left, more might show up. For now, I took a seat in an empty corner and quietly observed my surroundings. The others... wait, did they bring notebooks? Should I have brought one too? How was I supposed to know on my first day?
As class time approached, more students arrived, and the classroom filled up. There were about forty students in total, and the number of women, including myself, was extremely small—only about five. The age range was wider than I expected; some looked to be in their forties or fifties, a few looked like teenagers, but the majority were in their twenties and thirties. Since my registered age on paper was twenty-seven... I suppose I fell into the majority.
Right on time, the instructor walked in.
"Good morning, everyone."
The instructor was also a man. I had heard that the hunter industry was heavily male-dominated, but seeing it in person... the disparity was massive. Perhaps even if one gained power through the **Status Window**, it was still difficult to overcome the physical differences between genders. The instructor called attendance first, and once that was done, he dove straight into the lecture without any further preamble. The first topic was the history of the Gate incident.
"In the final year of the twentieth century, the world faced an unprecedented disaster."
That disaster was the Gates... Listening to the lecture, it truly had been a catastrophe. Gates had suddenly opened simultaneously all over the globe. The only saving grace was...
"Fortunately, monsters did not pour out of the Gates immediately, and the initial Gates lacked any gravitational pull."
When the Gates first appeared, nations mobilized their militaries to guard and investigate them. Apparently, they didn't just watch from the outside; they actually sent personnel inside to scout. "What was highly fortunate was that the initial Gates were at a level that could be handled by conventional militaries, almost as if someone had planned it that way." The monsters inside the Gates weren't very strong, so they could be dealt with using firearms.
"As time passed, however, monsters did begin to pour out of the Gates, causing casualties."
Although they were able to respond because the military was already stationed, it wasn't without damage. "It was an unprecedented disaster. Fortunately, the military was able to hold the line, but even with military might, there were limits." Those limits... were resource depletion and undiscovered Gates.
Using guns to kill monsters was all well and good. But what about the resources consumed in the process? If the Gates couldn't be closed permanently, it meant a constant drain on resources. Furthermore, Gates didn't just appear in densely populated cities. They opened in remote areas, and even in completely uninhabited regions. Every nation fought desperately to cope...
"Countless efforts were made as scientists scrambled to study the Gates and find solutions. In the midst of this, the world underwent another massive shift: the emergence of Awakened individuals."
So chronologically, Awakened individuals appeared before the Gate Breaks...
"The appearance of Awakened individuals—beings possessing extraordinary power—sparked immense controversy, but it was also an opportunity. Their powers were perfectly suited for fighting monsters. Yet, a new problem arose."
Who would risk their lives to enter the Gates?
"Some stepped forward as heroes out of a sense of justice... while others offered money to protect their own assets. These individuals became the ancestors of modern hunters and guilds."
The instructor went on to explain the details of what followed. Young people filled with a sense of justice used the power of the Status Window—the power of an Awakened—to hunt down the monsters that escaped the Gates. Sometimes, they formed groups to venture inside the Gates and clear them out. The other type involved wealthy individuals placing bounties to protect their factories or farms. They would commission Awakened to kill any monsters that emerged in exchange for a reward.
On top of that, larger corporations began searching for Awakened among their own employees, offering hefty bonuses to deploy them into Gates. This laid the foundation for today's corporate guilds. It was a fascinating story to listen to. It was fun to get a deeper, more detailed understanding of the things I had only vaguely gathered from TV broadcasts or conversations with my sister. However, the other students didn't seem to share my enthusiasm; most looked bored, and many were distracted. Well, I suppose while this was all news to me, it was common knowledge to anyone who had lived on Earth all this time.
Still, the fact that the Gates were manageable at first was intriguing. The sudden appearance of the Gates was suspicious enough, but they were at a level Earth could actually handle? And the power of the Status Window was equally fishy. Didn't it all fit together a little too perfectly, as if someone had meticulously planned it? When the Gates first appeared, Earth was given time to adapt... and then, suddenly, Awakened individuals with Status Windows appeared to clear them...? The only explanation that came to my mind was a god...
Come to think of it, didn't someone mention a new religion that worships the Status Window as a god? In any case, having personally met a divine being, the concept of a god was the first thing that occurred to me. Could it be... that Earth has its own god as well? If so, it would certainly make a lot of sense.