Chapter 41

The Hunter Manpower Office.

They called it an office, but it occupied an entire six-story building on prime real estate right by the station. Hundreds of Hunters passed through its doors every day.

It’s been a while.

Even at dawn, the lobby was packed.

After waiting through the long line, I reached the counter. The woman behind it asked in a businesslike tone,

“Is this your first time at the manpower office?”

“No. I’m already registered.”

“Your name?”

“Jin Taekyung.”

Back when I was a rookie, I’d graduated from the Hunter Training Center with excellent scores. But hardly anyone needed an F-rank Hunter like me, and the contracts a few small and midsize Guilds offered as if they were doing me a favor were highway robbery.

So I’d come here instead. To a different branch, though.

“There’s a record at the Ilsan branch. I’ve put you on the list, so please wait in the hall on the first floor.”

“Yes.”

This six-story building was a pyramid unto itself. The first floor took E- and F-ranks. You needed to be at least D-rank to set foot on the second.

Some people got angry and asked if that wasn’t blatant discrimination.

It was.

Not like this was the first or second time.

I’d lasted seven years in this business and seen every ugly side of it. I’d long since passed the point where I could afford to be picky.

I had just started walking when—

“Hey, look who it is!”

I turned toward the gravelly voice. Some hairy guy was grinning at me.

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

“Uncle Kkeokjeong?”

This guy’s still alive?

His surname was Im. I’d forgotten his given name. I was pretty sure I’d heard it once, when he introduced himself seven years ago, but I couldn’t remember it.

He looked so much like a bandit that everyone called him Im Kkeokjeong.¹

“How’ve you been all this time?”

“Life as an F-rank Hunter is pretty much the same for all of us. How about you?”

“Don’t call me uncle.”

Im Kkeokjeong gave me an easy smile.

“Call me hyung.² We’re not even that far apart in age.”

How many years apart were we again? I couldn’t quite remember.

“Hyung,² how old are you?”

“Forty-five.”

“…”

What’s with that confidence?

But the social skills I’d honed over the years came through for me. I somehow managed to force a smile.

“You’re right. I’ll just call you hyung.²”

“That’s it, little brother. Hahahaha!”

His hearty laughter rang through the hall. Nearly a hundred people looked over, then turned away.

I should’ve just pretended I didn’t hear him and kept walking.

Ours wasn’t exactly a deep connection. We’d seen each other almost every day for about half a year at the Ilsan office and worked together a few times. That was about it.

He’s a good guy, but…

Sometimes it was embarrassing to be around him.

Like now.

“The yulmu tea³ here is incredible. The chairs in the hall are nice and soft too.”

Im Kkeokjeong tossed back his yulmu tea³ in one gulp and leaned his chair as far back as it would go.

Judging by how comfortable he looked, this clearly wasn’t his first or second visit.

“You come here often?”

“Not every day. I drop by now and then. Once I got married and had kids, I started being more careful. Heh heh.”

Apparently, he’d started a family while we were out of touch. When I congratulated him, Im Kkeokjeong scratched his head.

“What’s so special about that?”

He was being modest, but a big deal was a big deal. He’d worked as a Hunter—an F-rank Hunter—for more than twenty years and still managed to build a family.

I wondered if the Im Kkeokjeong in front of me might be my future self.

Assuming I live to that age.

Being a Hunter wasn’t a career you could keep up for long. Plenty of people retired the moment they completed the ten years needed to qualify for a pension.

“Anyway, you’re starting to look the part. When I first met you, you were so nervous you could barely talk.”

“Of course. I’ve got seven years under my belt now.”

“So you’ve been bouncing around manpower offices ever since? Didn’t you sign a fairly decent contract with some small or midsize Guild? So, So… what was it called again?”

“Sopung Guild. They fired me the day before yesterday.”

Im Kkeokjeong forced a laugh.

“Hahaha! Good for you. The Guild’s name was lousy anyway. Sopung? What kind of name is that? It’s not like you’re going on a picnic to a Gate.”

“No, not that kind of sopung. It’s a place name. They’re near Bucheon Sopung Terminal, so they’re called Sopung Guild.”

“Oh…”

The conversation that followed was surprisingly useful. Im Kkeokjeong was a regular at the manpower office, after all, and a veteran Hunter with good information and plenty of hard-earned tricks of the trade.

“The office takes a ten percent commission. That’s standard. But this branch has a pretty good batting average.”

Batting average was industry slang for your odds of getting hired. For someone whose immediate goal was a day’s pay, that was good news.

“Even for F-rank Hunters like us?”

“Huh? Yeah. That’s right.”

What’s with that awkward look?

Before I could ask anything else, a voice came through the speakers in the hall.

“E-rank Hunter Im Hyeokjun. Im Hyeokjun, please come to the lobby.”

Six thirty in the morning.

At last, the first batter was up. My turn would come only after all the E-rank Hunters had gone.

“E-ranks first, as expected… Hyung,² where are you going?”

“I’ll go on ahead.”

Im Kkeokjeong—or rather, Im Hyeokjun—slung a large bag of armor and weapons over his shoulder and chuckled.

No wonder his expression looked off.

He must have worked himself to the bone while we were out of touch.

It was only a single step up, but advancing beyond F-rank despite an F-rank’s potential was no easy feat.

“See you around.”

“Yeah. See you.”

His departure from the hall opened the floodgates. The speakers began rattling off names one after another.

E-rank so-and-so, E-rank somebody else, E-rank…

Goddamn it, am I the only F-rank here?

Just as I was starting to get anxious—

“F-rank Hunter Jin Taekyung. Jin Taekyung, please come to the lobby.”

There it is!

“Mr. Jin Taekyung?”

A man in a white linen shirt was waiting in the lobby. Without so much as a greeting, he held out a contract, his expression flat.

“I’m from the Peace Guild. Read it and sign.”

This guy’s tone is seriously irritating.

I glared from the contract to the man’s face and back.

“The settlement split is eight to two.”

“After the raid, the proceeds will be distributed fairly according to contribution. We’ll take twenty percent of your share.”

“And the base pay?”

“Thirty.”

“Thir…ty?”

Did this guy lose half his tongue?

“Gate rank?”

“E-rank.”

“Rejected.”

“The combat positions are full. You’ll be a porter.”

The corner of my eye twitched.

What the hell did this guy just say?

“A por-ter?”

“Is there a problem?”

“Obviously.”

The man in the linen shirt glared down his nose at me.

“What is it?”

“I don’t have a pen.”

“…”

After a brief silence, I took the pen he handed me and scrawled my signature. The base pay was 300,000 won,⁴ and the settlement split was generous too.

I’d flinched when I heard it was an E-rank Gate, but I was only going as a porter, so it didn’t matter. I’d skin a few monsters, haul a pack around, then part ways with everyone in a good mood.

Peace Guild. I like the name already.

I’d been itching to sign so badly my fingers had almost cramped.

“All done.”

“…”

“So where are we going? Are we taking a van?”

“There’s one waiting outside.”

“Oh, that one? Looks nice. Bet the AC works great too.”

“…”

“Guess I was the last one. There are already a few people here… Huh? Kkeokjeong hyung!²”

“Huh? Taekyung!”

Im Kkeokjeong was waiting to load his bags into the bus’s trunk. He grinned wide.

“You’re coming too. That’s great!”

“Looks like you and I really do have a connection, hyung.²”

“Hahahaha!”

“Ahahaha!”

“…Let’s get going.”

Maybe it was the heat, but the man in the linen shirt suddenly looked years older.

The bus pulled out. From the passenger seat, the shirt guy said we’d arrive within twenty minutes, then closed his eyes.

Im Kkeokjeong introduced me to the others who’d been hired with us.

“All right, everyone, say hello. This is a younger friend of mine.”

Now that I looked, they all knew each other. I dipped my head.

“Hello. I’m Jin Taekyung.”

“Oh, nice to meet you.”

“Tall, handsome young fellow. Looks like he can fight.”

There were three new faces, all men in their late thirties or early forties. As the warm introductions continued, Im Kkeokjeong explained.

“These guys are all E-rank. I’ve known them for a long time. More than ten years now.”

“Yeah, about that long. Time sure flies.”

That meant every one of them had at least ten years of experience. I’d been around long enough that nobody would call me a rookie, but these guys were on another level.

A whole party of old-timers.

People like them pulled their weight wherever they went. In an emergency, they were far more dependable than some half-baked D-rank.

“So what rank are you, young man?”

Here it came. The rank check.

I answered carefully.

“F-rank.”

“Ah. That so? How long have you been at it?”

“Seven years.”

“Hmm. That so?”

The mood went lukewarm. If my first raid started like this, that would be a problem.

I ran my mouth before it could settle.

“I won’t be taking part in combat. I’m joining as a porter, so you don’t need to worry…”

The three men stared blankly at me.

“Why the long explanation? You think we’re going to eat you?”

“Drop it. If he’s been knocking around for seven years, he knows enough.”

“If Kkeokjeong hyung² recommended him, that’s good enough. Team Leader Choi must’ve thought he was all right too, or he wouldn’t have agreed.”

Recommended? Team Leader Choi?

I didn’t know the exact details, but I could more or less piece together what had happened.

Im Kkeokjeong had recommended me to the man in the linen shirt—Team Leader Choi.

“W-what are you talking about?”

Im Kkeokjeong waved his hands, his face turning bright red.

The three men snickered.

“It’s written all over your face. How did this hyung² ever manage to get married?”

“Good deeds are supposed to come to light. Why hide them?”

“Exactly. You think so too, don’t you?”

I nodded at once.

“Of course. Thank you for looking out for me.”

“Ahem. I just put in a word. Team Leader Choi made the decision.”

Well, then…

I’d thought of Im Kkeokjeong as one of the countless people I’d briefly crossed paths with and then moved on from. Meeting him again, I realized he was far more guileless and warmhearted than I’d expected.

So that’s why the terms were so generous.

Judging by the way they kept mentioning Team Leader Choi, I figured their friendship had played a part in my contract too.

“I’ll work hard.”

“I told you, Team Leader Choi made the decision!”

The man in question answered Im Kkeokjeong’s awkward excuse.

“Then let’s say I made the decision.”

The man in the linen shirt had opened his eyes at some point. No—Team Leader Choi. He addressed us.

“We’re here.”

I turned my head. A four-meter-high⁵ Gate loomed closer. At its center, a vortex of magical power churned, ready to suck us in.

An E-rank Gate.

My first raid since coming back.