Chapter 211

I stared at the man who had suddenly stepped in front of the car.

He’s definitely a Hunter, but…

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

From his intricately patterned semi-formal suit to the designer labels covering him from head to toe, everything about him screamed luxury.

Then there was his smooth, taut, blemish-free skin and teeth so white they looked almost unnatural.

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

Maybe that was why he looked 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.

The huge sunglasses he was wearing on such a gloomy day certainly didn’t help.

“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 an odd look, then turned to me.

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

“Whoa, really…? Wait, who are you?”

“As you’ve probably guessed, 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 became famous, Guild after Guild had approached me.

Taking down a group of ogres single-handedly had proven my ability, and all the media exposure had given me plenty of publicity.

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

“Here. My business card.”

By now, I had become a master at turning people down.

I accepted the card and put on the most natural smile I could manage.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not considering changing Guilds at the moment.”

“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 flickered across 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 get in touch 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 by 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 simply doing whatever he pleased.

He’s crossing the line.

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

“That’s strange. Did I misread the interview?”

“…?”

“You said it in Weekly Hunters. You said I was your favorite Hunter.”

I blinked.

Only then did I realize who he was—and why he had seemed so 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 its surface.

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 centimeters² tall, weighed eighty kilograms,³ and had a well-proportioned physique.

While preparing for the physical education college entrance exams, 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 like 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 up through my school days, Won Myunghoon’s influence had been tremendous.

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

Back then, he had been the very definition of an all-around entertainer.

“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 the songs if you heard them. Go, Coward, I Don’t Know Hunters, Escape… He had tons of hits. He even demolished Japan’s Unicorn chart.”

He had been 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 hyung⁴ 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 get me called 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 keeps quiet about it.”

“An incident?”

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

Just then, Won Myunghoon, who had briefly stepped away to use the restroom, came walking toward us from a distance, waving.

“Team Leader, Myunghoon hyung⁴ 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. His smile looked so youthful that it was hard to believe he would turn forty in just a few months.

“What about your Team Leader?”

“He went to take care of something. More importantly, hyung,⁴ you can speak casually with me.”

“Hyung?⁴ The age gap between us is too large for that.”

“Oh, come on. These days, twelve years practically makes us the same age.”

“Should I, then?”

“Yes.”

“Haha. I’m glad to have a good younger brother like you, Taekyung.”

“…!”

I trembled with emotion.

Good heavens. Won Myunghoon and I were now hyung⁴ and dongsaeng.⁵

If Jinho hyung,⁴ who had once even managed Won Myunghoon’s fan café, found out about this, he would cling to my trouser leg and refuse to let go. He would insist that the three of us swear a Peach Garden Oath⁶ together.

Not a chance.

A pleased smile spread across my face.

Drunk on happiness, I followed Won Myunghoon into a nearby café. A male part-time employee in his early twenties was reading 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 his lips.

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.⁴ You’re still incredibly popular.”

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

Won Myunghoon laughed awkwardly.

Feeling proud for no reason, I 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.”

Muttering in amazement, the employee hurriedly pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and held them toward me.

“Could you give me your autograph?”

What on earth was going on?

Not Myunghoon hyung⁴… me?

I turned around in bewilderment and found myself looking at Won Myunghoon’s face.

His gaze was cold, his expression stiff.

It was a side of him I had never seen anywhere before. But the next moment, 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 eagerly.

“Please write, ‘Hye-gyeong, I hope you and Jinwoo have a beautiful relationship.’”

“…”

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

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,⁴ there aren’t that many A-rank Hunters who use spears.”

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

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

Their reach gave you an advantage, but the problem was that you couldn’t always maintain that advantage.

Spears worked well enough in low- and mid-level Gates, but high-level Gates were full of dangers no one could anticipate.

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

“But you stuck with the spear all the way. You even wrote 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 skill among Peak masters, there were differences among A-rank Hunters.

Of the roughly one hundred thousand Hunters in Korea, the hundred strongest were known as rankers.

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

“Really? I don’t know if it was actually helpful.”

“Of course it was. It helped me a ton.”

“If that’s true, then I’m glad.”

Of course, the manual had only worked up through low-level Gates.

That went without saying in the Murim, where martial arts had developed to a level the modern world couldn’t begin to compare with.

But it helped me a lot 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.”

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

“…Hmm.”

Was this 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 for it earlier.

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

“Yeah. A few lines 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 just then. For the past several years, I had repeated the same routine day after day.

Raids, goshiwon,⁷ raids.

At the end of the day, I went home to sleep and eat, then headed back out to fight monsters.

Even if I had heard the news, I would have forgotten it soon enough. To me, Won Myunghoon was already a fond memory, 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. I suppose that was simply the limit of what I could achieve.”

A flash in the pan.

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 some albums, Won Myunghoon was first and foremost a Hunter.

He had beaten the incredibly low odds of awakening, and thanks to that, he had seized tremendous wealth and fame.

Even though he had gone through an unfortunate incident…

Maybe this is him returning to his original self.

Despite my lingering unease, 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?⁴”

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.”