The Pioneer Who Dies
“Hoo. This is going to be a pain….”
Gong Woo-jae muttered under his breath.
In front of him stood his subordinates, who had stepped in to block Lee Jeong-geun.
But Lee Jeong-geun didn’t spare them a glance.
His cold eyes, carrying nothing but indifference toward other people, were fixed only on Gong Woo-jae.
“Gong Woo-jae of Dazol... Let’s talk.”
“...I’ve got nothing to say to you.”
“Then say it anyway. I’m here.”
Lee Jeong-geun’s voice was icy.
The two men stared each other down.
“……”
“……”
In the end, it was Gong Woo-jae who broke the silence. He gave a snort of a laugh and nodded twice.
Then he waved a hand and said, “Fine. If you want to talk to me that badly, go ahead.”
At that, Gong Woo-jae’s subordinates stepped back.
Lee Jeong-geun immediately clenched his fist.
“Let’s decide on a king.”
“What...?”
At the abrupt statement, Gong Woo-jae tilted his head.
No, the meaning of Lee Jeong-geun’s words was already something he had expected.
To decide the single strongest man in Chudo Hunter Prison....
What struck him as strange was the phrasing.
King.
Even if they were choosing the strongest man, this was still a prison.
Could the strongest human in a place like this really be called a king?
As Gong Woo-jae was thinking that, Lee Jeong-geun went on with something entirely different.
“Didn’t catch that?”
He added a polite explanation.
“I’m saying let’s choose a kingpin. The king of this prison.”
“...I’m not interested in that. Why don’t you do it? Be the king, or whatever.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Hmm?”
“Guys who act all enlightened like you always stab you in the back later.”
“Fair enough....”
Gong Woo-jae nodded readily.
Lee Jeong-geun was right.
He had no intention of obeying Lee Jeong-geun’s orders.
Lee Jeong-geun shrugged as if it were no big deal.
“Guys like you are obvious.”
“So? How are you planning to decide this kingpin?”
“Obviously by force.”
“By force...? The wardens will be watching, won’t they?”
Even now, Gong Woo-jae thought to himself as he jerked his chin.
Not far from them stood five wardens.
In the wardens’ hands, fixed on this spot, were mana stun guns.
Their mouths were shut tight, their eyes sharp and watchful; they looked ready to suppress any sign that something was off the moment it appeared.
But....
“They’ll just watch.”
An unexpected answer came from Lee Jeong-geun’s mouth.
“Just watch?”
“Yeah. Exactly like that. I guarantee it.”
Was he saying all that was an act?
Ha. Then those guys should have become actors instead of wardens.
Gong Woo-jae snorted and shook his head.
Still, that was less important than the man in front of him.
Prisoners were going to make a racket about choosing a kingpin, and the wardens would just stand there and watch?
How could that be?
The first thing that came to his mind was a management issue.
Once the prisoners had a leader, it would be easier for the wardens to control them.
But that alone wasn’t enough reason for Lee Jeong-geun to say, “I guarantee it.”
If he was so sure the wardens wouldn’t step in just because they were prisoners, then he must have had some basis for it.
“...You’re pretty capable.”
Gong Woo-jae offered the praise without resistance.
He had realized that Lee Jeong-geun had gotten something into the wardens’ heads.
The goal was obvious. He intended to become the kingpin of Chudo Prison himself.
Which also meant he was confident he could become the kingpin.
“Well, people everywhere are all the same.”
Lee Jeong-geun said with a shrug, as if it were nothing special.
“Even if it’s a hunter prison.”
“Yeah, that part’s true.”
Even the military, which was responsible for defending an entire nation, had corruption.
Officers slapped on absurd terms like “subsistence corruption” and took bribes, or ran defense-industry scams.
If even the officers in the military, who bore the heaviest responsibility of all, were like that, then what could you expect from prison wardens?
There was no way it was any different.
“...But I’m not the only one here.”
“Right. I’m planning to tell the others to come play too. You were first.”
In truth, Chudo Prison was like the calm before a storm.
Three criminals who had once ruled the underworld like kings had recently been imprisoned there.
And men like that wanted to keep ruling like kings even in prison.
Even if they had become no more than frogs trapped at the bottom of a cramped well.
For that reason, Chudo Prison was currently split into four factions.
Gong Woo-jae’s faction.
Lee Jeong-geun’s faction.
Seong Jun-hyeon’s faction.
And the faction of the man who had originally been the kingpin of Chudo Prison.
“When are you thinking of doing it?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yeah. Something’s going to happen that’ll draw everyone’s attention.”
“Ah.”
Gong Woo-jae lowered his head.
The front page of the newspaper in his hand came into view.
It was a headline printed in bold letters.
S-Class Hunters, All Gather at Last Tomorrow!
“I see. No one will pay attention to this kind of back-alley brawl....”
On the night when all the S-class hunters gathered,
four dogs would fight in the mud.
Baekwooncheon had more than ten A-class hunters.
But would they teach me Sword Qi?
Guys like Han Jae-im 1, 2, and 3?
Of course they wouldn’t.
They’d just mock me and laugh, asking if I still couldn’t use Sword Qi.
As for Tae-cheon....
Ugh, he was out.
If I asked him to teach me Sword Qi, he’d just say something like, “You do it like this. Hm? It’s not working? Why isn’t it working?”
People called geniuses were always like that.
Do-hee was different from Tae-cheon, but in the sense that she wouldn’t make a good teacher, she was the same.
She’d probably start listing off theories and papers about Sword Qi while teaching me....
And I’d just end up nodding off while listening.
Then she’d probably flick my forehead and ask what I’d do if I fell asleep.
“...It is tasty.”
Unable to refuse the sweet-sounding offer, I had followed Han Jin-hwan.
The place he’d called a good bar turned out to be a high-end lounge in a skyscraper.
Its name was “Tender.”
I’d wondered what it meant, but once I read it as “high-end bar,” it clicked.
High-end bar Tender.
“......”
I seriously doubted the owner’s naming sense.
Still... it was definitely a place that deserved the word “high-end.”
One entire wall was made of glass, and the night view beyond it was so beautiful that you could have stared at it while drinking and not needed anything else.
And the liquor Han Jin-hwan had ordered for me was excellent too.
What was it called again....
Macallan, maybe?
The bartender had described it as a drink “with the deep aroma and rich, full-bodied flavor characteristic of European sherry casks.”
To be honest, I didn’t understand a single word of that.
European sherry casks... what the hell even was that?
It just sounded like a pile of English words.
Still, it definitely tasted like it was worth the price.
The fragrance was deep, and the flavor had a rich density to it that was genuinely impressive.
“You know that?”
The question came out of nowhere, and his voice was unusually serious.
For a second, I wondered if this was really the same man who had been laughing like a second-rate villain and had just made me a shady, sweet offer I couldn’t refuse.
“Of course I don’t.”
How was I supposed to know if he hadn’t told me?
“There was no one who seriously tried to catch up to me.”
“Oh, really? Didn’t a lot of people say you were their goal? Stuff like, ‘I’ll become the second Han Jin-hwan’ or ‘I’ll be a hunter on Han Jin-hwan’s level’... I feel like there were plenty of guys saying that.”
“Yeah. Like you said, there were plenty of people who said that. But there was no one who truly tried to catch up to me. Until today.”
“Until today...?”
“Jo Joo-hyun.”
“Ah.”
“That kid is seriously trying to catch up to me.”
Hmm.
Trying to catch up to Han Jin-hwan....
But what was I supposed to do about that?
Whether Jo Joo-hyun wanted to catch up or not?
“I see...?”
“...At least pretend you care, you punk. This is your senior talking.”
Damn, he caught me.
“Should I pay for the drinks? I mean, you dragged me here to learn Sword Qi anyway, so it’s not like you have to cover it, right?”
That was not an option.
Since this was a high-end bar in a skyscraper, the prices were outrageous.
If Do-hee found out I’d blown that kind of money on drinking....
“Wow...! You really did that? That must’ve been upsetting. No, wait, if you’ve got a junior like that, that’s a good thing, so you must’ve been happy?”
“......Ha!”
“But how did you figure out whether he was serious or not? Truly amazing insight. Wow, I’d really like to learn from you?”
“......”
Han Jin-hwan stared at me, dumbfounded.
Seeing his bewildered face made me feel a little better.
“Shall I keep going?”
“Enough. Cut it out. Even being made to bow and pray has its limits.”
Then he drank the liquor in front of him.
He knocked back that expensive stuff in one go like it was soju, then ordered another Macallan from the bartender.
“...What do you want?”
“Pardon?”
“Why are you even a hunter?”
This old man was acting weird from the start.
Was he the type to get serious when he drank?
How unlike him.
But I wasn’t that type of person.
“As a hunter, I’m working hard to fulfill my duty of protecting the public from monsters. And I also want to become Korea’s first S-class hunter. As the second Han Jin-hwan. Haha!”
“......”
Han Jin-hwan, who had just received another Macallan from the bartender, made a stunned face.
Then, a few seconds later, he let out a snort of laughter.
“That’s a load of crap. I haven’t known you long, but I know damn well you’re not that exemplary.”
“Haha....”
“Well, if you don’t want to say it, fine.”
Fine?
So the answer wasn’t really important after all.
Then what had he bothered asking for?
“I need a favor.”
“A favor?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm.”
So he had been talking serious all this time....
There was something else he really wanted to say.
A favor, huh....
What on earth could an A+ class hunter be asking me to do because he couldn’t do it himself?
It was probably some unbelievably annoying task that I couldn’t have guessed.
The more negative the situation felt, the more my instincts screamed at me not to take the favor.
So....
“No thanks.”
Han Jin-hwan laughed as if he’d expected that.
He downed the Macallan again like soju.
“You’re rejecting it before even hearing me out?”
“It sounds like a pain.”
“Well? I’m not sure about that.”
“You’re not sure?”
“It’s something I can’t do. But whether it’s hard or a pain in the ass....”
Han Jin-hwan grinned.
“I’m not so sure.”
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
My warning bells were going off like crazy.
My instincts were screaming at me not to take it.
An A+ class hunter couldn’t do it himself.
How could that not be hard? How could it not be a pain?
That was nonsense.
“I’m declining.”
“Haha.”
Han Jin-hwan laughed as if he’d expected that too.
He didn’t even look bothered that his favor had been rejected outright.
He asked the bartender for another Macallan.
Then he said, “Still, I feel like you’re the one who could do it.”
He was about to tell me what he wanted.
“No, I said I don’t want to.”
“Was it ten years ago? I met a fortune-telling girl then. She gave me a prophecy.”
“Hey, are you listening to me?”
“Was it because she was giving a prophecy with a completely blank face? I still can’t forget the atmosphere that day, or her voice.”
Han Jin-hwan kept talking as if he couldn’t hear me at all.
Even though he’d clearly seen the expression on my face that said I was dead set on refusing.
Should I run back to Sanctuary right now?
As that thought crossed my mind, Han Jin-hwan flashed a crooked grin.
As if he could read it.
“...What did she say?”
I gave up and decided to play along.
I could hear him out, then refuse afterward. Simple enough.
“She said I’d become a pioneer.”
“A pioneer?”
“Yeah.”
“Isn’t that... a good thing?”
Pioneer.
Someone who runs ahead.
Usually used for people pursuing noble goals or some kind of advancement....
What was this, bragging disguised as a favor?
“The problem starts now.”
“What is it?”
“Being a pioneer is fine....”
“Fine?”
“She said I’d become one after I die.”
...What?
Die?