Chapter 27
“Haa…”
Ju-hyuk sat quietly in front of his desk.
He pressed the power button on his phone lightly — a faint vibration ran through his hand.
“Is it okay to turn it on now?”
After barely managing to calm his mother down, he finally made it home.
By the next day, his phone was filled with dozens of missed calls and unread messages.
‘Where the hell did they even get my number from?’
He hadn’t realized it earlier since it had been on silent mode.
With the constant incoming calls, using the phone normally had become impossible. He figured enough days had passed that things might have calmed down, so he turned it on again.
‘How can there be a call the moment I turn it on…’
Not even five minutes after rebooting, an unknown number was already calling him.
He didn’t need to guess. Reporters or self-proclaimed “content creators.”
“…I’ll just change my number today.”
He switched the phone off again.
It was obvious he wouldn’t be able to function normally like this. He decided to visit a phone store later—
Knock, knock.
Someone was at the door.
‘No way… it can’t be, right?’
Had a reporter tracked down his home address already?
That thought flashed across his mind, but he quickly dismissed it. He wasn’t famous enough to be stalked to that level.
“I’m coming~”
He rose from his bed and strolled casually to the door.
Standing outside were a man and woman in their twenties, both dressed in suits.
When the man saw Ju-hyuk’s face, he spoke.
“Are you Mr. Jung Ju-hyuk?”
“Yes, that’s me… may I ask where you’re from?”
They already knew his name.
At least they weren’t some cult recruiters.
The man pulled out his wallet and showed his ID.
“We’re from the Hunter Association’s Hunter Management Department. We’ve been trying to contact you, but since your phone was off, we came directly.”
“….”
“Was there a reason you couldn’t receive our calls?”
The man’s tone was already a bit forceful.
He clearly thought Ju-hyuk had been deliberately avoiding contact.
‘They must’ve come because of that video.’
Ju-hyuk wasn’t surprised. He knew this day would come sooner or later.
Maybe it was his calm reaction that made the two officials look at him with subtle hostility.
“There were just too many calls from reporters and huntubers, so I turned my phone off.”
“I see…”
A reasonable enough excuse.
They probably didn’t buy it completely — but he couldn’t blame them.
‘An F-rank taking down a B-rank in one hit… they’re bound to be suspicious.’
At best, they probably thought it was fabricated.
At worst, they might suspect he was pretending to be low-rank — a disguised high-rank hunter using false registration data.
‘There was that case where an E-rank pretended to be F-rank, entered a low-level gate, and kidnapped another hunter…’
Accidents caused not by monsters — but by people.
There were many reasons someone might want to fake their rank.
“Would you mind accompanying us to the Association for a bit?”
That explained why both of them looked so tense.
“I don’t mind.”
If he refused, it would only make him look guiltier.
He couldn’t let them discover the artifact engraved on his arm, but they wouldn’t strip-search him.
‘They’ll probably just run a reawakening test and be done.’
Once they confirmed his mana level was still F-rank, the suspicion would vanish.
So he followed the two quietly, got into a heavily tinted car, and soon arrived at the Association.
“Ju-hyuk, you came too?”
“…Ms. Yena? What are you doing here?”
The person waiting at the Association was none other than Yena.
His puzzled expression made her laugh.
“Our guild conducted your reawakening test, remember? They called me in to verify there wasn’t any tampering.”
“Ah.”
That made sense — his reawakening test had been at the Mir Guild.
They probably wanted to make sure she hadn’t been bribed to falsify the results.
“I told them nothing was off, but they just won’t believe me.”
“We can’t afford to take chances,” one of the staff replied dryly.
Yena gave a playful sigh, but the staff remained stern.
The man who had brought Ju-hyuk here crossed his arms and said,
“Tell me, what kind of F-rank can kill a B-rank? Not even a D-rank — a B-rank.”
“True. It doesn’t make sense,” said another.
Everyone nodded.
Even though she’d been practically dragged here, Yena didn’t seem intimidated.
If anything, she looked amused — like she’d been itching to talk about this.
“Well, it’s not impossible, is it?”
She pointed at Ju-hyuk sitting across the table.
“Someone who’s strong purely through physical ability, not mana.”
Her claim was simple.
He wasn’t blessed with mana — but his physical prowess was extraordinary enough to make up for it.
“Sometimes, even normal people outperform F-rank hunters.”
“Yes, but normal people aren’t the issue here.”
Her reasoning wasn’t wrong.
Occasionally, an unawakened human did show absurd strength — stronger than some hunters.
Even among hunters, F-ranks could include weak supporters, while unawakened humans might include trained fighters like world-class boxers.
But those cases were extremely rare.
In this situation, her argument sounded more like a stretch than logic.
The staff clearly thought so too; their expressions screamed nonsense.
“If you want to confess, now’s your last chance. Answer before the reawakening test starts.”
“….”
The glare directed at him felt as if he’d already been declared guilty.
‘I get it, but this is still irritating.’
So much for “innocent until proven guilty.”
The female staffer behind him even had her hand resting on her sword hilt “just in case.”
Ju-hyuk frowned slightly.
“What if the test proves I’ve done nothing wrong?”
“…What?”
“I asked — what will you do then?”
His cold gaze shifted to the woman gripping her sword.
“You’ve wasted my time, and even tried to intimidate me. I won’t just let that slide.”
The woman flinched.
Ju-hyuk turned toward Yena.
“Don’t you agree, Ms. Yena?”
“…Yeah, you’re right.”
Her eyes widened — clearly not expecting him to turn the tables — but she quickly composed herself and backed him up.
“If the reawakening test clears him, how will you take responsibility?”
“Ha…”
The staffer sighed deeply, muttering under his breath before sneering,
“Fine. I’ll take full responsibility. Now come with me.”
“Good. I’ll hold you to that.”
With that, they left the office.
Ju-hyuk underwent the reawakening test — the same procedure as before at Mir Guild.
“…That can’t be right.”
As expected, there was no issue.
“Fourth time’s the charm. Ready to admit it yet?”
“….”
They had already run the mana test four times.
Each time, the staff claimed a machine error — until they finally gave up.
At last, one of them muttered in disbelief,
“So it’s true… your mana really is F-rank?”
“Yes. I’ve never reawakened even once.”
“Then was the video fake? Experts swore it wasn’t edited…”
The staffer frowned in confusion.
“It’s not fake,” Ju-hyuk said calmly. “There was even an S-rank hunter there.”
“Yes, I heard about that. The S-rank confirmed you took down the monster alone.”
They’d taken the S-rank’s word as proof that Ju-hyuk was at least A-rank or higher.
But seeing his actual mana level barely above F-rank averages — the staffer’s mind went blank.
“How did you kill it, then?”
“The frogkin’s hide is tough, so I aimed for the unarmored eye socket and pierced its brain.”
“That’s not what I meant!”
Even with that clinical explanation, the staffer couldn’t accept it.
“How could an F-rank possibly do that?”
“….”
Yena had already given them the answer earlier.
Ju-hyuk didn’t like boasting, but he decided to make it clear.
“I’m strong.”
That was all.
He was strong — not because of his mana rank, but because of endless training.
Countless hours spent in the training chamber, grinding his body beyond limits.
He’d endured, learned, and grown stronger.
It was a simple statement — yet the most frustrating answer they could get.
Still, it was the truth.
“Anyway, we’re done here, right?”
He rose to leave.
If he stayed any longer, he’d miss his scheduled training with Sui.
“You said you’d take full responsibility, so let me know later how you plan to do that.”
“….”
Silence.
As he reached for the door—
“Wait.”
The staffer’s voice stopped him.
He turned around.
The man raised a finger.
“One last test.”
“We already did four—”
“It’s not another mana test.”
So not about magic this time.
All the machines had confirmed it — no errors, no anomalies.
He truly was an F-rank.
But still, they couldn’t just leave it at that.
“As the Hunter Management Department, we need to see you fight with our own eyes.”
“….”
“I’ll take full responsibility. But please — cooperate with us on this one. It’s standard procedure.”
This time, his tone was polite — professional, even.
‘…No reason to antagonize the Association.’
He was asking nicely. Refusing now would just make things worse.
Ju-hyuk glanced at the clock.
“Fine. But finish within an hour.”
“Thank you.”
A small smile of relief crossed the staffer’s face.
Ju-hyuk accepted the test — thinking of it as a warm-up before training anyway.
‘Maybe I’ll ask for a mana stone as a reward.’
While everyone else focused on preparing for the test, Ju-hyuk’s eyes drifted toward the mana stones embedded inside the testing equipment — gleaming faintly with stored power.
