Chapter 211

I stared silently at the man who had suddenly blocked the car.

He’s definitely a Hunter, but…

The reason I found myself thinking that despite sensing his extraordinary energy was his flashy appearance.

Starting with the semi-formal suit covered in complicated patterns, he was wrapped head to toe in all kinds of luxury brands.

On top of that, he had smooth, taut, blemish-free skin and teeth so white they seemed almost unnatural.

No matter how I looked at him, he seemed more like a celebrity than a Hunter.

Maybe that was why he seemed strangely familiar.

He’s even more over the top than Team Leader Choi.

They both liked luxury brands, but the man in front of us took it a little too far.

That included the enormous sunglasses he was wearing on such a gloomy day.

“Can’t you hear me? Is this thing under a noise spell or something?”

At the man’s mutter, Team Leader Choi lowered the window.

“What can I do for you?”

“Oh, you can hear me. Then why didn’t you answer?”

“We’re short on time. If you have nothing else to say, please step aside.”

“You must be pretty busy.”

“Yes. Very.”

The man studied Team Leader Choi’s calm response with a strange look before turning toward me.

“You’re Jin Taekyung, right? You’re even better-looking in person than on-screen. No wonder the female-dominated online communities went wild.”

“Whoa, really…? Wait, who are you?”

“As you’ve probably noticed, I’m not a reporter trying to get an interview. I run a Guild in Incheon.”

“Oh.”

I could more or less guess what he wanted without asking.

Another recruitment offer, probably.

I was used to it by now.

Ever since I started becoming famous, more than one or two Guilds had approached me.

I had proven my ability by taking down a group of ogres single-handedly, and since I had appeared in all kinds of media, I had plenty of buzz as well.

To them, I was a tempting “product” in more ways than one.

“Here. This is my business card.”

I had become a master at turning people down.

Taking the card, I put on the most natural smile I could manage.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not thinking about changing Guilds yet.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’m quite satisfied with my current Guild. They were also the first to reach out to me.”

At my immediate answer, a faint smile passed over Team Leader Choi’s lips in the rearview mirror.

The man looked back and forth between Team Leader Choi and me, then rubbed his chin.

“That’s a shame.”

“I’ll contact you another time.”

“Still, there’s no harm in having a cup of coffee together, right? I’m a fan.”

“Pardon?”

“Thirty minutes. No, fifteen should be enough. I’m a busy man myself, so I can’t come around often.”

What the hell was this guy talking about?

Making a recruitment offer in front of Team Leader Choi was already incredibly rude, but now he was acting entirely on his own terms.

He’s crossing the line.

That was the look I was giving the man as I wondered how to deal with him when—

“Strange. Did I read the interview wrong?”

“…?”

“You said that in Weekly Hunters. You said your favorite Hunter was me.”

I blinked. Only then did I realize who the man was.

And why he had seemed familiar.

“C-could you be…?”

The man grinned at my reaction.

“That hurts. I went to the trouble of giving you my business card, and you didn’t even look at it properly.”

I hurriedly lowered my gaze to the card.

The metal business card gleamed gold, as though it had been plated, and clear letters were engraved across it.

Star Guild CEO Won Myunghoon

“W-whoa!”

Seeing me splutter like Mute Samryong,¹ the man—no, the A-rank Hunter Won Myunghoon—reached through the half-open window and offered me his hand.

“Nice to meet you, Taekyung.”

Won Myunghoon.

He was thirty-nine years old, and his birthday was April 1. He stood 185 centimeters tall, weighed eighty kilograms, and had a well-balanced physique.

While preparing for college entrance exams in physical education, he awakened as an A-rank Hunter on his twentieth birthday. With his exceptional ability and good looks, he earned a reputation as a man who had it all.

“Do you think that’s all? He has an amazing personality, too. He donates often, and there are countless heartwarming stories about him. He even runs a scholarship foundation…”

Team Leader Choi, who had been listening to my endless stream of information, asked with an incredulous expression,

“How do you know all that? Why have you memorized his physical stats and even his birthday?”

“I told you. He’s my favorite Hunter.”

It was something I said at least once in every interview.

The people I respected most were my parents. My favorite Hunter was Won Myunghoon.

“…Even so. At this point, isn’t it practically love?”

“What a horrifying thing to say. He’s more of a role model. The Won Myunghoon Syndrome. Haven’t you heard of it?”

“I haven’t.”

“Oh, dear…”

“What’s with that pitying look?”

Because I feel sorry for you for not knowing how cool Won Myunghoon is.

Things were very different now, but even when I was in school, Won Myunghoon’s influence had been tremendous.

Being an A-rank Hunter was impressive enough, but he also had enormous star power. Whenever you turned on the television, his face was there.

At the time, he was an all-around entertainer in every sense of the word.

“Movies, dramas, commercials. He could sing, too, so he even released albums.”

“You mean he was a singer as well? A Hunter?”

“Team Leader, you’d recognize them if you heard them. Go, Coward, I Don’t Know Hunters, Escape… He has tons of great songs. He even crushed Japan’s Unicorn chart.”

He was the role model of countless aspiring Hunters and one of the few male singers welcomed at military morale-boosting performances.

I hummed a few lines as a demonstration, and Team Leader Choi showed a flicker of recognition.

“Oh, I think I’ve heard I Don’t Know Hunters before.”

“Right? It’s still on the popular karaoke charts. Anyway, that’s how famous Myunghoon hyung is. There’s even a saying that any Korean man who doesn’t know Won Myunghoon is either a spy or a monster.”

“Is living abroad for a long time really enough to call me a monster?”

“Who called you a monster? You’re overreacting.”

“Hoo.”

Team Leader Choi shook his head, then suddenly looked puzzled.

“But even taking all that into account, the name Won Myunghoon feels strangely unfamiliar.”

“When did you return to Korea, Team Leader?”

“Three years ago.”

“Ah, then you might not know about that incident. It was pretty shocking, so everyone in the media has been keeping quiet about it.”

“An incident?”

“Yes. Though I suppose it’s already been eight years. What happened was…”

Just then, Won Myunghoon, who had briefly left to use the restroom, came walking back from a distance, waving his hand.

“Team Leader, Myunghoon hyung is calling me. I’ll get going.”

“…Go ahead. I have about thirty minutes to spare anyway, so I’ll look at some clothes in the department store nearby.”

“Yes, yes.”

I answered vaguely and ran toward Won Myunghoon.

He let out a quiet laugh at the sight of me. He looked so young that it was hard to believe he would turn forty in just a few months.

“What about Team Leader?”

“He went to take care of something. More importantly, hyung, you can speak casually with me.”

“Hyung? The age gap between us is too large for that.”

“Oh, come on. In this day and age, twelve years means we’re practically the same age.”

“Should I, then?”

“Yes.”

“Haha. It feels good to have a good younger brother like you, Taekyung.”

“…!”

I trembled with emotion.

Good heavens. I had become hyung and dongsaeng with Won Myunghoon himself.

If Jinho hyung, who had even once been the manager of Won Myunghoon’s fan café, found out about this, he would grab me by the trouser leg and refuse to let go. He would insist that the three of us swear a Peach Garden Oath together.

Not a chance.

A pleased smile came naturally to my face.

Drunk on happiness, I followed Won Myunghoon into a nearby café. A male part-time worker in his early twenties was looking at a book behind the counter. He looked up with a mechanical customer-service smile.

“Welcome. May I take your or—”

A brief silence followed.

Then a breathy gasp escaped from the employee’s mouth.

Of course.

He was a hardcore Won Myunghoon fanboy, too. I nudged Won Myunghoon in the side with my elbow and whispered,

“As expected of you, Myunghoon hyung. You’re still incredibly popular.”

“Haha, this is embarrassing. It’s been a while since I gave an autograph.”

Won Myunghoon laughed awkwardly.

I felt proud for no reason and puffed out my chest.

That was when—

“Jin Taekyung? You’re Jin Taekyung, right?”

“…Huh?”

“From the Outer Ring Road a little while ago! The B-rank Gate!”

“I-I am, yes.”

“Wow. That’s fucking awesome.”

The employee muttered his admiration, then hurriedly pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and held them out to me.

“Could you give me your autograph?”

What on earth was going on?

Not Myunghoon hyung… me?

I turned around in bewilderment, and Won Myunghoon’s face came into view.

His eyes were dry, and his expression was stiff.

I had never seen that unfamiliar look on his face anywhere before. The next moment, however, it vanished like a mirage beneath his warm voice.

“What are you waiting for? You should give him your autograph.”

“Pardon? Oh, yes.”

The café lights must have been too bright. I must have seen wrong.

With a strange sense of déjà vu, I took the pen.

“What should I write?”

The employee answered in an excited voice.

“Please write, ‘Hye-gyeong, wishing you and Jinwoo a beautiful life together.’”

“…”

Goddammit.

The initial awkwardness soon faded, and the moment I sat down, I spent more than twenty minutes enthusiastically showing off my fanboy devotion.

“As you know, hyung, there aren’t that many A-rank Hunters who use spears.”

“Hmm. That’s true. Quite a few people started with spears and switched to swords later.”

Although spears looked easy to use, they were actually very tricky weapons.

Having an advantage in range was useful, but you couldn’t always maintain that advantage.

Spears were highly effective in low- and mid-level Gates, but high-level Gates were filled with dangers you couldn’t anticipate.

There had even been a time when I considered using a one-handed sword with a shield.

“But you stuck with it. You even made your own manual.”

“That was a long time ago. It must have been… ten years by now.”

“Yes. Exactly ten years ago. I was in my first year of high school, and you were already a ranker.”

Just as there were differences in ability among Peak masters, there were differences among A-rank Hunters as well.

Among the roughly one hundred thousand Hunters in Korea, the term ranker referred to the one hundred most skilled.

“I used that manual a lot later, when I was at the training center.”

“Really? I’m not sure if it was actually helpful.”

“It was incredibly helpful, of course.”

“If that’s true, then I’m glad.”

Of course, the manual had only been useful up to low-level Gates.

That went without saying in the Murim, where martial arts had advanced to a level that could not even be compared with the modern world.

But it was a huge help back then.

The easiest way to explain it was that the manual had been written at the level of a novice.

You couldn’t teach an ant how a tiger moved.

After I finished praising him from every possible angle, Won Myunghoon tilted his lukewarm coffee cup.

“That’s all in the past.”

“You’re still in your prime and actively working, though.”

“No. It’s been a long time since I lost my ranker status, and people have mostly forgotten about me.”

“…Hmm.”

Was it because of that incident?

It was unfortunate, but I couldn’t deny it completely. Over the past eight years, countless star Hunters had emerged who could match or surpass Won Myunghoon, and the public had cheered for brighter lights.

“It wasn’t until last year that I finally thought about starting again. As it happened, I also took over a Guild from an acquaintance who was about to retire.”

“The Star Guild?”

I had discreetly searched it earlier.

The Star Guild was the new name Won Myunghoon had given it after taking it over. Before that, it had been a sizable, established Guild that ranked among the top three in Incheon.

“Yeah. A few lines about it appeared in the news, but that was the end of it. Did you know about it?”

“Last year… I’m sorry. I was a little busy back then.”

It wasn’t only then that I had been busy. For the past several years, I had repeated the same day over and over.

Raids, goshiwon, raids.

When the day ended, I went home to sleep and eat, then went back out to fight monsters.

Even if I had heard about it, I would have forgotten it soon enough. Won Myunghoon was already a good memory to me, not someone who belonged to the present.

“There’s no reason to apologize.”

Won Myunghoon smiled bitterly and continued.

“It’s not like I’m the only flash-in-the-pan star around. I suppose this was simply the extent of my limits.”

A flash-in-the-pan star.

It might have been true because his active career had been so short, but in another sense, it was wrong.

A star?

Even if he had appeared in a few movies, dramas, and commercials and released albums, Won Myunghoon’s true nature was that of a Hunter.

He had been lucky enough to awaken despite the incredibly low odds, and thanks to that, he had seized enormous wealth and fame.

Even though he had gone through an unfortunate incident…

Maybe this is him returning to his original self.

Despite the uneasiness I felt inside, I nodded.

It wasn’t that my thought was wrong. It was simply different. I had no desire to bring it up and make the atmosphere uncomfortable.

“I see.”

“Then I heard about you. You were incredible. It felt like I was looking at my old self.”

“M-me?”

“Yeah. I searched for and read your interviews. I was happy and grateful to hear that you were such an enthusiastic fan of mine. Thanks to you, I even received offers to appear on television from several places.”

“Oh.”

Had my interview actually helped Won Myunghoon?

I was scratching my chin with an awkward smile when—

A hand clamped around mine.

“Taekyung. Can I make you an offer?”

“…Hyung?”

Won Myunghoon gripped my hand tightly and spoke with a serious expression.

“Transfer to our Guild. I’ll take responsibility for you, Taekyung. I’ll turn you into a star Hunter.”