Episode 46
It was easy enough to talk the two of them around.
Who was the senior they had seen most often since joining Baek Uncheon?
Who was the one who had comforted them, as new recruits in an A-rank guild, when they were going through a rough patch?
That was me.
Once I started coaxing them with that whole I know exactly how you feel routine, they folded without much resistance.
That wasn’t all.
The moment the owner of the barbecue place set down the soju, Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol knocked back two or three shots at once. Then they let out long sighs and started unloading their grievances.
“Waaaah! Do-hee noona is too scary!”
“Haaah, that white-haired witch....”
“She is scary, isn’t she? That’s why I saved her name in my phone as ‘Don’t Answer.’”
That was right.
We’d bonded instantly as comrades who shared a common enemy(?).
What was funny was that once the alcohol went in, their personalities flipped.
Lee Jae-wook, who had spoken with a serious tone, grew soft. Kim Sang-cheol, who had been mild-mannered, turned heavy.
“C-come on. If you only drink soju, your stomach’ll get wrecked. Eat this too.”
I used the tongs to pick up a few pieces of meat at a time and set them in their plates.
It was Fire Boar belly, made from a D-rank monster, and the chewy texture was excellent.
About half a year ago, a mid-sized Korean guild had figured out how to process it so people could actually eat it, and after that it spread like wildfire. Now it was one of the most popular menu items in Korea.
I knew Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol both loved it, so I’d brought them here.
I still remembered how they’d followed me once to a dinner with the dismantlers and ended up raving about how delicious it was.
The two of them sat with their shoulders drooping, chewing away at the meat.
Even if they were exhausted, their appetites were alive and well. They kept grabbing piece after piece.
At that rate, they’d probably need at least six more servings.
“Auntie, six more servings of Fire Boar belly, please!”
“Huh? No, we already have plenty....”
When I ordered more meat, the two of them widened their eyes.
I brushed aside their attempt to refuse it with the argument that I’d already ordered it, so they might as well eat.
The two of them bowed their heads and said they’d gratefully enjoy it.
They should swallow the saliva pooling in their mouths and say they were full before I believed that.
Seeing them like this, they didn’t seem like B-rank hunters so much as kids.
“It’s fine even if you eat a lot, so order more.”
“Thank you....”
I poured them more soju while glancing around the room.
The people who had been looking over at our table quickly turned their heads away.
“....”
Ever since a little while ago, people had been stealing glances at us now and then.
Were Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol really famous enough for people to stare like this?
The two of them were B-rank hunters, and there were only so many of those in Korea.
And aside from Lee Yeon-ji, they were the only new recruits in the Baek Uncheon Guild, so their names were better known than most B-rank hunters’.
But popular enough for people to recognize them and keep glancing over?
If you asked me that, I could say with certainty, no.
Even among A-rank hunters, the ones people actually paid attention to numbered in the thousands.
Unless you were gorgeous or had some huge background, there was no reason for ordinary people to care about a regular B-rank hunter.
So why the hell were they all staring at us?
Buzz.
Right on cue, my smartphone vibrated.
Kim Jae-sik appeared above Saessak.
“I’m eating. Let me take this call.”
“Yes, sir! We’ll keep eating deliciously!”
“If it’s not enough, order more.”
“Yes, sir! Thank you!”
As I stood up, the two of them snapped to attention and saluted me with a loud “At ease!”
Well, I’d never actually done military service either.
Instead, I had to spend two years doing alternative service as a state-affiliated E-rank hunter.
I took the phone to my ear and walked out of the restaurant.
“Hello?”
- Hyung, no. Brother! Are you busy right now?
“Not really. I’m eating with some acquaintances. Why?”
- I thought so. You didn’t know, did you?
“Know what?”
- A Tower of Trials test video got uploaded this morning.
“Tower of Trials?”
Unlike other gates, the cameras at the Tower of Trials didn’t get weathered away and disappear.
Some internet broadcasters took advantage of that and filmed hunters taking the test.
They wanted to ride public interest in hunters and rack up views easily.
Well, if you counted lugging a camera around and filming as effort, then sure, it was effort.
But because they filmed without permission, they got criticized for it from every direction.
Even though it caused problems every single time, the people who did it never disappeared, probably because the punishment was just a slap on the wrist.
Still, there were some who liked being filmed without permission.
Ji Sang-wook was exactly that type.
“So what?”
- Uh, well....
It wasn’t the kind of thing worth calling about.
Videos like that always went up the day after a Tower of Trials test was held.
This time, it was probably a video of Woo Chae-yeon.
She was famous as the daughter of a conglomerate chairman, and even though she was still young, she was so pretty people couldn’t help saying she was beautiful....
Ah, you idiot.
- You were filmed, Brother.
“I knew it....”
I let out a long sigh and scratched my forehead.
I could hear Jae-sik laughing awkwardly on the other end of the line.
Hoo. Why hadn’t I thought of that?
Of course Woo Chae-yeon’s video would have been uploaded.
And naturally, I’d have been filmed alongside her.
“I didn’t feel anyone filming us....”
- Geez, they were filming from 500 meters away. How were you supposed to feel that?
“How many meters?”
- 500.
“They got me from that far away?”
- You think people lug around telephoto lenses for no reason?
Fair enough.
At 500 meters, it was only natural not to notice it.
Unless you had some sort of tracking skill, there’d be no way to tell.
There was a reason celebrities had their private lives snapped by paparazzi all the time.
- It’s all over the trending searches right now, and you didn’t even know?
“Trending searches? Me?”
- Yes. Hang on, I’ll send you the link.
The moment he finished speaking, a message arrived.
I clicked the link, and a video popped up immediately.
The video uploaded this morning already had millions of views.
[Why is Cyclops hunting hard? Then just use a good weapon!]
The thumbnail for a video with that title showed my face, blurred beyond recognition.
Now I understood why people could still identify me so easily even through the mosaic.
That hair, shaped like the tail of a fish, stood out too much. It wasn’t hard to tell it was me.
When I hit play, a greeting came on: “Hello, subscribers of ‘C-Tower TV’!”
As was often the case with videos posing as information content, it was carried by a stiff, monotonous female AI voice.
Now, let’s watch the controversial hunter video.
- Brother? Are you watching?
“Yeah, I’m watching. Hold on.”
- Ah, yes sir.
Jae-sik quieted down so I could watch the video.
In it, I was fighting a Cyclops with Arca, which was spewing a huge blue blade of energy.
Of course I’d stood out. I’d been charging around with a thing like that, stabbing and slashing away at it.
I probably would have stood out even if Woo Chae-yeon hadn’t been there.
“Oh?”
The video had been edited.
It didn’t show the battle from start to finish.
Most of it focused on me being pushed back by the Cyclops’ strength or blocking its attacks.
It made me look like some guy with mediocre skills who had only managed to hunt the Cyclops because of weapon advantage.
Without the passive skill that enhanced my physical ability, I really wouldn’t have been able to bring it down....
Still, this was too malicious.
“Did I do something to them or what?”
- Have you finished watching?
“Yeah. Just now.”
- Are you okay?
“What, I don’t really care.”
- ....
From the silence, it seemed he didn’t buy that.
He probably thought I was pretending to be fine because I wasn’t fine at all.
But I really didn’t care all that much.
Because,
“What do you think?”
- Obviously I think it was malicious editing! You were only defending in the video, and the Cyclops was already injured. I know how strong you are, too!
“Yeah, exactly.”
- Huh?
“If that’s what you think, why should I care what some random bastards think?”
- Ah....
That was also why I didn’t actively object to being called by slurs.
The people around me didn’t think that way.
Managing my image for strangers whose faces I didn’t even know was a pain in the ass.
It was better to spend that energy tapping my smartphone screen one more time.
The world was busy enough already just seeing the cute things and the good ones.
- So you’re just going to leave it alone?
“Not a chance.”
- Then?
“I should at least teach them they picked the wrong person to mess with.”
Trash that clung to anything it could parasitize.
If you left bastards like that alone, they only got bolder.
And the end result wouldn’t hit me. It would spread to the people around me.
I could already picture how it would play out.
In time, I’d be made out to be a shameless fraud, strutting around with some powerful item despite having no actual skill.
Tae-cheon would become the insensitive idiot who kept such a man as his close friend, and Do-hee would end up as the pitiful, miserable little sister saddled with a pair of insensitive older brothers.
- Want me to help?
“You?”
- My hobby is watching livestreams, so I know a bit about this stuff. I’m active on a few communities too. You already felt it, didn’t you? The editing was loaded with malice.
“Yeah.”
All through the video, it had felt like they had some personal grudge against me.
Their intent to screw me over was blatantly obvious.
That was why I’d thought something was strange.
C-Tower TV?
No matter how famous it might be, to me it was just some random channel I’d never heard of or seen before.
Why would a bastard with nothing to do with me go out of his way to do something like this?
I was curious about that.
“Fine. I’ll leave it to you for now.”
- Oh, that’s the right call! If I find anything out, I’ll contact you right away!
“All right. Thanks.”
- Hey, no! I’m just glad I can help!
With that, Jae-sik hung up.
Glad he could help, huh. He really was a good kid.
Now I should go deal with two other good kids.
I tapped my smartphone screen and went back into the barbecue place.
The two of them were rubbing their bellies, apparently full.
Just as I’d expected, they had eaten exactly six servings of Fire Boar belly.
“Did you both eat well?”
“Yes, thanks to you, Team Leader.”
Now that the alcohol had worn off, Lee Jae-wook’s tone had gone back to normal.
“But are you really going to keep calling me Team Leader? I quit Baek Uncheon already.”
“Ah....”
“Now that the undercover work is over, shouldn’t you be active in Baek Uncheon again?”
“That’s right. We were really looking forward to it....”
As they spoke, both of them let their shoulders droop.
They still thought I was undercover?
“What are you talking about? We’re allies, aren’t we? We can just go to gates together without Do-hee knowing.”
“...Oh, that’s true?”
“You promised!”
Both of their shoulders shot up again at once.
Seeing how happy they looked, they really must have been hoping to do things together with me.
Either way, those two were going to keep following me around, so we’d have plenty of time together no matter what.
We could go into a gate together sometime.
“All right. Next time, let’s definitely clear a gate together.”
“Thank you!”
...Thank me, huh.
The whole thing was so absurd that a laugh slipped out of me awkwardly.
After making that awkward promise, we parted ways.
It was already getting late, close to midnight.
I’d handed the matter off to Jae-sik, but I planned to look into C-Tower TV myself too.
As I headed toward the barbecue place’s parking lot, the two of them called after me with bright, lively voices.
“Then we’ll see you tomorrow!”
“Get home safe!”
I waved gently and accepted their farewells.
They kept waving until they could no longer see each other.
I didn’t know why they were going that far when we were just going to see each other again in a few hours anyway.
Still, I was glad the sulky look they’d had when they came into the restaurant was gone.
After all, meat really was the best way to comfort people.
“All right, I should head home now—”
Just as I reached for the car door, a message window suddenly flashed into view.
[Special Event triggered!]
[Ten days have passed since World Tree Manager Baek Do-woon stroked the World Tree sprout with Warm Touch.]
[The Previous World Tree, filled with gratitude, is holding a special event!]
“Special event?”
[You will be automatically moved to the event space in 10 seconds!]
[10, 9, 8, 7, 6....]
Wait, whatever it was, at least give me time to prepare myself!
But the numbers in the message window kept shrinking without stopping.
[3, 2, 1.]
[Beginning transfer.]
A blanket of white light burst out from my smartphone.
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