Chapter 210

Sometimes, a carelessly tossed spark can grow into a massive blaze.

A day passed, then two, then three… and after about a week, that tiny spark had spread into a forest fire—with me standing at its center.

[Korea Daily] The Rise of an F-Rank Hunter. “I Just Followed the Manual.”

[Goryeo Daily] The Birth of a New Hero. “Watch Out, S-Rank Hunters!”

[Happy Thoughts] Man in His Twenties Prevents Major Disaster. “I Only Did What Anyone Should Have Done.”

[Current Hot Topic] Two Gates Open in a Single Day… An Unprecedented Crisis, and a Fierce Clash Between the Ruling and Opposition Parties Over National Defense and Security

[Parliament’s Words of the Day] Freedom Patriot Party Chairman’s Outrageous Remark Draws Attention: “Jin Taekyung Has Thick Arms, So He’s Clearly Conservative. Conservatives Saved the Country.”

Daily newspapers, weekly papers, current-affairs magazines, lifestyle magazines, and more.

The newspapers and magazines piled high on the table all had one thing in common: my face and name were plastered across them.

Even looking at them was enough to make me feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume.

Why are there so many?

How many interviews had I given over the past week?

Every media outlet hungry for an exclusive had seized the opportunity and unleashed a flood of articles.

Reporters had staked out the Guild House and my home, while my personal information, past activities, and photographs circulated across the internet.

Jesus. These people are fucking insane.

I had thought I was somewhat used to fame after becoming fairly well-known in Murim, but compared to this, that had been nothing.

Korea had long been an internet powerhouse, and even those respectable, gray-haired people in their fifties had histories as keyboard warriors.

The saying that you could meet the entire country just by visiting a few major online communities wasn’t baseless nonsense.

“Why is everyone so interested in other people’s business?”

At my mutter, Jinho hyung¹ shrugged while eating bibimbap² from a large metal bowl.

“It’s a good thing. You’re famous for doing something good.”

“I don’t know about that. There are all kinds of lunatics out there.”

“Ah, right. What happened with your family…”

Jinho quietly shut his mouth when he saw my expression. I hadn’t looked in a mirror, but I was sure I looked downright murderous.

Of all the people they could’ve messed with, they went after my family?

The world really was a big place, and it was full of lunatics.

After I appeared on the KPS Nine O’Clock News, the public response exploded, and reporters hungry for a fresh scoop combed through everything connected to me with a fine-tooth comb.

The problem was that my family’s personal information had been exposed in the process.

“You know Hayeon called a few days ago, right? Reporters kept following her whenever she went out, so she ordered delivery—and the delivery guy turned out to be a reporter in disguise.”

“Yeah, that bastard really was a hack. I’d heard stories about reporters like that, but I never imagined they’d actually go that far.”

“Some of them even hired Familiar mages.”

If that wasn’t hack journalism and paparazzi behavior, I didn’t know what was.

I saw red when I first heard about it, but before I could personally go after the reporter and the media outlet, netizens rose up like wildfire.

Several massive online communities, each claiming more than a million registered members, were still blazing away with hack reporters as their firewood.

└ Top Comment: LOL, these fucking hack reporters are crossing the line again. How many people survived because of Taekyung the Lord,³ and they’re pulling this shit? I’m embarrassed for them.

└ They would’ve done the same thing even if their own families had been there. They’re just fucking crazy.

└ What company is it? Post the article link.

└ Hailey News. Reporter B.H.Y. The original’s been deleted, but it’s already too late, LOL.

└ Let’s turn it into Hell News.

└ It already is. The site’s been shut down.

└ Top Comment: I heard another media outlet used wiretapping magic and even hired a Familiar mage. What happened to them?

└ Everyone involved is having a reunion in the holding cells. Their lives are probably over.

└ The commenter above doesn’t know Hell Joseon.⁴ The ones who gave the orders will get suspended sentences at worst, LOL.

└ Nope. A national petition went up about it, and it passed three million signatures yesterday. The Blue House is supposedly preparing legislation. Looks like they’re going to overhaul the whole system this time.

└ We’ll have to wait and see, but I really hope they do.

└ They’ll probably clean house while they’re at it. Blinded by their hunger for an exclusive, they messed with someone they never should have touched.

└ Me. A man in his twenties. Everyone my age. Loves Jin Taekyung.

The response left me more bewildered than anything else. I was happy, but it also felt like a burden.

I really only did what anyone should have done.

It had been an accident no one could have predicted.

The news kept calling me a hero who had prevented a major disaster, but every now and then, I found myself wondering whether there might have been one fewer casualty if I had been just a little faster.

“What’s with that expression?”

“Huh? Nothing.”

“Someone with nothing wrong doesn’t pick at his food like that.”

“I’ve already eaten three bowls.”

“You normally eat at least five.”

“…That’s true.”

“Hey, Taekyung. I’m not really qualified to give you advice, but let me say one thing.”

It had been a while since I’d heard Jinho sound so serious. He set down his spoon, still smeared with red pepper paste, and continued slowly.

“Don’t try to be a hero.”

“…”

“You’re not a god. How can you save everyone? Even gods can’t do that.”

He was right.

I wasn’t denying the existence or power of a god, but that didn’t mean I could reconcile myself to it, either.

The only things I knew for certain were that hundreds of millions of people had died during the Great Cataclysm, that my father had died in an accident, and that my family had lived a poor, desperate life.

“What was your dream again?”

“To let my family live without envying anyone else. To protect the people I care about.”

“Sum it up in one word.”

A quiet laugh escaped me.

Instead of landlord, the word I’d parroted day in and day out, something unexpected came to mind.

The greatest under heaven… no, the greatest of all time?

I briefly lost myself in thought, then hurriedly answered when I saw Jinho’s puzzled expression.

“Hmm. A strong Hunter landlord?”

“Exactly. That’s enough. You’ve practically achieved your dream already, so don’t torment yourself with pointless greed and guilt.”

“Pointless greed…”

“Let me ask you one thing. Taekyung, did you fight those monsters because you wanted all this?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Then that’s enough.”

Jinho grinned and picked up his spoon again.

“Just enjoy it. Think of it as a reward for all the hardship you’ve endured and the good you’ve done. Wouldn’t that make things easier?”

A reward.

I had already received plenty of rewards through the System, but the reward Jinho was talking about meant something completely different.

It wasn’t something material or some kind of power. It was an emotional reward.

He was telling me to find some contentment and room to breathe.

Contentment and room to breathe.

The words felt unfamiliar as I repeated them silently.

Back when I was an F-rank Hunter, I fought monsters for money. Now, I was working even harder to become stronger.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized what a greedy bastard I was.

“Hyung.¹”

“Yeah? What is it?”

“Nothing. Just… thanks.”

Jinho froze with a heaping spoonful of bibimbap² halfway to his mouth.

“Really?”

“I mean it.”

“Then lend me a hundred thousand won.⁵”

“Don’t start talking about money just because things got awkward.”

“I mean it, too.”

“…”

What the hell was with this guy?

As I stared at him in disbelief, the phone on the table buzzed, and a text message appeared.

Team Leader Choi

Team Leader Choi

I’ve arrived. Come down to the underground parking garage right away.

Just as his message said, Team Leader Choi was waiting for me in the underground parking garage.

The problem was that he wasn’t alone.

“I’m from Oh My God News! Could you say a few words about the current situation?”

“Mr. Jin Taekyung, I’m Reporter Hong from Housewives’ Daily. You were voted the number-one ideal man among married women in their forties this week…”

“This is Vivid Current-Affairs Talk! What do you think about the comment in Parliament regarding the size of your arms?”

“Where are you going right now? What did you eat?”

More than twenty people thrust cameras and microphones at me. It was utter chaos.

While I let out a deep sigh, Team Leader Choi calmly pushed back the enemy forces.

“Please step aside.”

“Just a moment. It’ll only take a second.”

“Mr. Jin Taekyung is a member of the Peace Guild. Please submit interview requests through the Guild’s official website.”

When had they even made an official website?

They had posted a massive recruitment notice for new Guild members not long ago, too. It seemed they intended to make the most of this opportunity.

But despite Team Leader Choi’s efforts to stop them, the reporters clung to us stubbornly. Apparently, not getting a single interview over the past few days had eaten away at them.

“You’re the Team Leader of the Peace Guild, right? We weren’t asking you, so move!”

“Yeah, get out of the way! Your website is garbage, too. How long are we supposed to wait after submitting an inquiry before we get an interview?”

“It’s just one word. Why are you acting so precious?”

“Are you looking down on us because we’re a tiny second-rate media outlet?”

“Mr. Jin Taekyung is my team member, and I am currently the Guild’s spokesperson, so I have every right to intervene. The website is functioning normally, I have never played hard to get, and I ignored you because you failed to follow the proper procedure.”

Team Leader Choi answered without so much as blinking as he smoothly pushed the reporters and cameramen aside.

He looked slender, but an incredible amount of strength was packed into that body. He was only using one arm, yet the people blocking our path were pushed back one after another.

“Whoa!”

“Hey, he’s using force now?”

“A Hunter! The Hunter is beating people up!”

Go on, make a whole fucking scene…

I swallowed the words that had risen to my throat.

Just by looking at them, I could tell the reporters in front of us were low quality.

Team Leader Choi had arranged dozens of interviews over the past week as the Guild’s spokesperson. If he was filtering these people out, it didn’t take a taste test to tell whether they were soybean paste or shit.

Why are their questions such garbage in the first place?

They weren’t worth answering. Anything I said would obviously be twisted maliciously before publication.

“We’re coming through.”

Team Leader Choi ignored them and continued clearing a path.

“Whoops!”

Crack!

A camera slipped from someone’s hand, struck the parking-garage floor, and shattered.

The problem was that the entire sequence felt blatantly deliberate.

“My camera! Oh, no!”

His voice was full of anguish, but his eyes gleamed as if he had finally caught us.

Team Leader Choi stared at the cameraman’s terrible acting, then bent down and reached for the broken device.

The cameraman irritably slapped his arm away.

“Don’t touch it! Everything you did was recorded, so you’d better be ready—”

Smack! Crack.

Everyone’s eyes dropped to the floor.

The wristwatch that had fallen from Team Leader Choi’s wrist rolled across the parking-garage floor.

More than ten watch hands. Jewels set densely across its surface. And a face cracked like a spiderweb.

“…”

“…”

Gulp.

The sound of the cameraman swallowing echoed through the parking garage.

Then Team Leader Choi’s quiet voice pierced everyone’s ears.

“The Universe-302, the final masterpiece personally crafted in his later years by Peter Philip, Switzerland’s greatest watchmaker. How tragic that this beautiful pinnacle of automatic mechanical watchmaking, which survived even the Great Cataclysm, should be destroyed so senselessly.”

“…”

Team Leader Choi picked up the watch—Universe, School Bus, or whatever it was—with sorrowful eyes and delivered the final blow.

“I’m suing you.”

At Choi Moses’s miracle, the crowd parted in two.

Vroom.

The luxury sedan glided smoothly over the asphalt.

Team Leader Choi glanced at the rearview mirror and spoke.

“They aren’t following us anymore.”

“…I wouldn’t follow us, either. How much is that watch worth?”

“More than you can imagine. Assuming it’s genuine, of course.”

“Oh, it’s an imitation? No wonder. I thought it was strange that you’d throw away such a valuable luxury watch so easily.”

“You noticed?”

“It would’ve been even stranger if a wristwatch came loose that easily.”

“I only scared them a little. I wore it in case something like this happened. It was a good choice.”

Wasn’t this guy basically Zhuge Liang?⁶

As I admired Team Leader Choi’s clever trick, something suddenly darted in front of the sedan just as we were leaving the officetel⁷ neighborhood.

“Team Leader Choi!”

Screeeeeech!

Team Leader Choi hit the brakes half a beat before I shouted. Staring through the windshield at the person in front of us, he muttered,

“He doesn’t look like a reporter.”

I agreed.

An ordinary person could not wear such a relaxed smile in a situation like this.

And…

Even without activating Qi Sense, I could feel the considerable energy coiled within the man smiling at us.

A Hunter. A pretty high-level one, too.

The uninvited guest, a man in his early thirties wearing a suit, tapped on the window.

“Let’s talk.”