If They Won't Let Me, I'll Find My Own Way
"W-what the...?"
"That's enough."
As Oh Deokja released the troublemaker's wrist, the ice encasing him shattered instantly, freeing him from her freezing magic. He gasped for air, his lungs burning after being deprived of oxygen for so long. "Haaah... haaah...!" He even began to retch on the floor. Oh Deokja’s eyes widened as she glared at Kang Taesan.
"Are you with this guy?"
"No, I don't know him."
"Then why are you interfering? You should have just stayed quiet and waited for your evaluation."
"If I’d left him alone, it looked like you were going to kill him."
"How arrogant. You’ve barely even got the ink dry on your registration, and you’re already looking down on people?"
"I’m not looking down on anyone."
"Thinking I’d kill him just because I can’t control my strength—that is looking down on me!"
"Wasn't that your intention?"
Oh Deokja suddenly grabbed Kang Taesan’s wrist. "Want to check if that’s my intention or not?"
"Excuse me?"
"Ice Infection!"
In an instant, Kang Taesan’s wrist began to freeze. 'Ugh!' The ice raced up his arm in a heartbeat. "How is it? Refreshing, right?"
Freezing attack has been nullified.
Oh Deokja was stunned by the sudden turn of events. "W-what? What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything."
Oh Deokja gripped his wrist even harder. "Then try blocking this! Ice Infection Max!"
With her incantation, a much faster and more intense cold surged over Kang Taesan. The ice climbed up to his shoulder in a blink.
Freezing attack has been nullified.
Yet, the ice shattered into pieces just as before. Seeing her magic nullified twice, Oh Deokja let out a hollow laugh in disbelief. "Is your class ice-attribute?"
"I'm not sure."
"Then do you have some kind of ice-nullification passive skill?"
"I don't know that either."
"What kind of trick are you pulling?"
"I really don't know."
"Are you mocking me...?"
Furious at his indifferent answers, Oh Deokja grabbed his wrist one last time. "Let's see if you can block this. Ice Infection Absolute!"
As the Level 3 freezing magic was cast, Kang Taesan’s entire body turned into a massive block of ice within seconds. "Hahaha! That’s more like it! It worked this time, hahaha!"
But her joy was short-lived as she felt cold gazes from the people around them. Realizing she had caused a major incident, she muttered, "Oh no... even I can't undo an Absolute-class freezing spell..."
[Crack!]
With the sound of ice cracking, the wall of ice surrounding Kang Taesan began to crumble. It melted away in an instant, and Kang Taesan emerged from the center of the broken ice, looking perfectly calm.
"Whew..." Kang Taesan exhaled a long breath. "It’s definitely hard to breathe when you’re trapped in ice."
"Did you just nullify an Absolute-level freezing spell on your own?"
"I don't know about that, but you won't have to worry about your electricity bill in the summer, Officer."
"What?"
"Because your magic is very refreshing."
Oh Deokja grabbed his shoulder. Kang Taesan flinched, expecting another ice spell, but Oh Deokja’s eyes were filled with something closer to adoration than anger. "Come to our department immediately."
"Pardon?"
"I don't know what your class is, but to nullify my magic so easily... I can't let a talent like you be snatched up by a guild! Come to my department as soon as the evaluation is over."
"That... I appreciate the offer, but..."
"Come to think of it, we haven't even introduced ourselves. What’s your name?"
"My name? My name is..."
Kang Taesan stopped mid-sentence. His gaze shifted to the troublemaker, who was still struggling to move due to the aftereffects of the freezing spell. He pointed at the man and asked Oh Deokja, "What’s going to happen to that person now?"
"That guy? He can't become a hunter anyway. He has a criminal record for sexual assault."
"I heard it was an attempted assault. Can't people with attempted charges become hunters?"
"It’s not strictly defined by law, but... there’s no precedent for someone like that passing, so you should assume it’s impossible."
At those words, Kang Taesan’s heart sank. "I see..."
"Anyway, what’s your name? I’m Oh Deokja. A C-rank hunter and a 2nd-class officer in the Evaluation Department."
"So, my name is..."
Kang Taesan started to speak, then closed his mouth. 'He won't be able to become a hunter anyway, so what's the point of telling her my name?' He looked bitterly at the man being dragged away helplessly by the security guards.
"I asked what your name is!"
As Oh Deokja pressed him for his name, Kang Taesan suddenly clutched his stomach. "Oh, my stomach...!"
"What?"
Kang Taesan slumped over, pretending he had an urgent need to use the bathroom. "My stomach suddenly... where is the restroom?"
Oh Deokja’s face turned red. "The... the restroom is over there."
"Th-thank you!"
Kang Taesan clutched his belly and ran toward the restroom. Once he was gone, Oh Deokja muttered in bewilderment, "Don't tell me... did my magic give him diarrhea?"
Leaving the reception area, Kang Taesan immediately slipped out of the Hunter Bureau building. Only when he was a safe distance away did he finally catch his breath.
"Haaah... I almost ruined my life instead of turning it around."
Kang Taesan thought, 'I was too complacent. I should have researched awakening more thoroughly before coming here...' He left Yeouido and returned home. Once there, he began a serious investigation into hunters and awakening. He asked an AI and searched for information himself. But the more he learned, the more his fears became reality.
As expected, there was no precedent for a criminal with a record of violent crimes becoming a hunter. Even a history of psychiatric treatment was grounds for disqualification. For Kang Taesan, who had both, it was devastating news. Facing the truth, he grabbed his hair in despair.
"At this rate, awakening is worse than not awakening at all..."
He was deeply disappointed that his chance to turn his life around had turned into a disaster, but the opportunity of awakening was too precious to give up so easily. "But this is a chance I fought so hard to get..."
He began searching obsessively once more. He wanted to find a way to make money using his awakened powers, even if he couldn't become a hunter. Questions from people in similar situations were common on community forums and Q&A services.
There was even a question from someone in the exact same situation as him. Kang Taesan hurried to check the replies. There were quite a few, but the content was far from what he had hoped for.
Do you really think that's possible?
How socially inept do you have to be to ask this?
They should be catching this guy, not monsters.
Just get castrated, that's the only way.
I reported you to 1366.
What is the Ministry of Justice doing not locking these guys up?
The comments were filled with nothing but sarcasm and contempt; there wasn't a single post that kindly taught him how to make money or become a hunter. Even the AI answered coldly.
> There is no record of anyone with a criminal record for attempted rape becoming a hunter. It is wise to seek a path other than being a hunter.
A path other than being a hunter. Such a path did exist. It was the life of a "Villain." In other words, they were called "Night Wolves." Night Wolves referred to dark awakeners who used their powers for crime rather than hunting.
"I went through all the trouble of awakening, I can't live as a Night Wolf... There must be some other way."
Kang Taesan didn't give up and scoured the hidden corners of the awakener community. Finally, an unfamiliar keyword caught his eye: "Pumassi Party."
"Pumassi Party?"
Normally, unregistered awakeners cannot earn money even if they hunt in a dungeon. This is because they lack a "Hunter Band" to display their rank and record hunting results. Without a Hunter Band, there is no way to prove a hunt, and therefore no way to receive government compensation.
However, a "Pumassi Party" was a hybrid party system combining registered hunters and unregistered awakeners. This was possible due to a fatal flaw in the Hunter Band system. Every monster in a dungeon carries a "Magic Crystal" inside its body. The energy of the crystal changes drastically between when the monster is alive and when it is dead, and the Hunter Band records the hunting result by detecting this energy shift. In other words, it doesn't track the total accumulated damage, but only the energy change at the exact moment of the "last hit" when the monster dies.
Ultimately, the compensation was structured to be given only to the person who landed the final blow, not the person who dealt the most damage. Pumassi parties exploited this flaw. An unregistered awakener would bring a monster to the brink of death, and a registered hunter wearing a Hunter Band would land the final hit to claim the reward, which they would then distribute later.
Kang Taesan’s eyes lit up. "This is it...!"