Chapter 47
“Huff… huff….”
His breath came out in harsh bursts.
The metallic taste rising from his throat and the crushing fatigue weighing down his muscles gnawed away at his mind.
Clinging desperately to the shoulder of Juhyuk, who ran ahead, Hyunsoo gasped out:
“P-Please… spare me.”
“Let’s rest after running just 5 more kilometers.”
They had already run 15 kilometers.
And that was in just one hour.
That kind of distance in that amount of time was what you’d expect from a bicycle, not human legs.
Of course, an awakened Hunter’s body was faster and stronger than a normal person’s.
But still—running 15 kilometers within an hour was difficult even for a B-rank Hunter.
‘What kind of ridiculous body does he have?’
He was only F-rank. His body should’ve been far less enhanced.
Yet he was displaying endurance on a completely different level.
Hyunsoo had expected an irregular to be different, but this was far beyond anything he imagined.
“We’ll finish the remaining distance within 30 minutes, then rest.”
“Hah… what do you mean…!”
Even with Hyunsoo’s half-dead protest, Juhyuk wouldn’t budge and kept running.
In the end, Hyunsoo somehow pushed himself with every last scrap of strength to finish the run within 30 minutes. The moment they reached the target point, he collapsed onto a bench and wheezed for air.
“Hah… huff… I really think I’m going to die….”
“But you still managed to run the whole thing.”
Juhyuk handed him a bottle of water with a bright smile.
“If you try, you can do anything, right?”
“‘Right’ my ass… ha….”
He was too exhausted for his lips to function properly.
He wanted to reply, but he was too busy sucking in oxygen to speak.
‘Shouldn’t have agreed to train with him…’
After receiving a guild invitation from Juhyuk—and nearly getting forced by his grandfather into joining—Hyunsoo barely escaped by saying:
[How can I work with someone I’ve only known for less than a week?]
He did like Juhyuk as a person—no doubt about that.
But handling something as big as guild management together? Absolutely not.
The Hunter industry demanded trust, and even his grandfather acknowledged that.
So Hyunsoo chose to flip the crisis into an opportunity.
[Let’s train together for a while and get to know each other first.]
Under that excuse, he created the perfect chance to train with the famous F-rank irregular.
Trust was important, yes—
but the biggest prize was getting to see how Juhyuk trained.
‘I’ve always wondered what kind of training made him so strong….’
So he arrived at Juhyuk’s house early in the morning, ate freshly baked bread from Juhyuk’s mother, and began warming up.
He never imagined that warm-up meant running 20 kilometers.
Not even two hours had passed before they had run 20 kilometers.
Juhyuk called it a warm-up, but Hyunsoo’s legs were shaking like jelly.
He was sure he wouldn’t be able to move for the rest of the day.
‘No wonder he’s strong….’
A monster who grew purely through training and experience—without shortcuts.
If an F-rank could slaughter A-ranks, then maybe running 20+ kilometers a day was simply the minimum.
Still panting as he took the water bottle, Hyunsoo asked with a broken voice:
“Do you run like this every day?”
“No. Not every day.”
Well, of course.
No human could run 15 km in an hour every—
“Since you were with me today, I reduced it by 10 kilometers.”
“….”
So this was the reduced distance.
Hyunsoo gave up on trying to understand him.
‘He’s just a monster.’
They say hard work is a talent—and this guy was a genius of effort.
Hyunsoo suddenly felt like an idiot for whining about not awakening again.
‘No, I’m not stupid.’
Who the hell runs 25 kilometers as a warm-up in the morning?
It wasn’t that Hyunsoo was weak—
Juhyuk’s mindset was simply insane.
“Are we training again after this?”
“Yep. We rest for 30 minutes, then I go train with a friend.”
“I heard you don’t belong to a guild yet, so where do you even train…?”
“I use my friend’s guild.”
A friend’s guild?
Most guilds didn’t allow outsiders to use their facilities.
‘Is it because he’s famous?’
They rested a bit before walking to the guild “nearby.”
It turned out to be a massive, well-known guild.
“Your friend is a member here?”
“Yeah, her name’s Sui.”
“Sui…?”
The name sounded familiar.
Hyunsoo hesitated, then asked:
“Wait. You mean… Han Sui?”
There was only one person with such a unique name in a major guild.
Juhyuk nodded casually.
“Yeah, Han Sui. Do you know her?”
“What Hunter doesn’t know her?”
A legendary talent—
top of her academy class every single year—
a monster with no rival in her age group—
Korea’s greatest prodigy.
Even if Juhyuk had surpassed her now, hearing that he trained with her daily was unreal.
“How are you two close?”
“We were academy classmates. We only got close after graduating, though.”
Juhyuk spoke as if it were nothing.
Then he suddenly gestured across the road.
“She’s over there.”
“….”
Hyunsoo turned.
A small girl stood across the street.
Even from afar, he recognized her from photos—
it was really her.
“You train with her every day?”
“Yep.”
“…Wow.”
To train with Korea’s greatest prodigy…
The warm-up had been hell, but training with Han Sui would be priceless.
“Today, you’ll be sparring with Hunter Hyunsoo.”
“…Huh?”
He snapped his head toward Juhyuk.
“You and Hunter Hyunsoo will spar today.”
“Me? With her?”
Han Sui—who could probably survive an A-rank gate alone?
It sounded too absurd, so Hyunsoo asked again.
Juhyuk tilted his head.
“Is it too much for you?”
“N-No! I’d love to!”
Sparring with the greatest prodigy in Korea?
You couldn’t buy that kind of experience.
Overjoyed, Hyunsoo shook his head desperately.
‘Sparring with Han Sui… today was really the right day to come.’
Maybe he’d even… reawaken today!
His mind spun with delusions.
Right then, the crosswalk turned green and Han Sui approached.
She crossed, greeted Juhyuk, and Hyunsoo bowed with a beaming smile.
“Hello! Hunter Han Sui!”
“PLEASE! SPARE ME, HAN SUI!”
Hyunsoo shrieked as he fled.
Despite his desperate wailing, Sui chased him down and beat him mercilessly.
“Ack! Ack! Wait, time out!”
“You already used your time-outs.”
Her cold voice cut like a knife as she struck the curled-up Hyunsoo again.
Juhyuk finally intervened, unable to watch any longer.
“Sui, let’s stop there.”
“It’s not over yet.”
“He already surrendered.”
Even when he begged for his life, she showed no mercy.
Yes, Hyunsoo had told her to not hold back—but he didn’t expect to be beaten into the ground literally.
“The rest, spar with me. Hyunsoo, take a break.”
“…Yes.”
Hyunsoo staggered away, battered and bruised.
Juhyuk took a wooden sword and stood before Sui.
‘The wall of A-rank is too high…’
Hyunsoo assumed he’d at least be able to exchange a few blows as a B-rank.
But the moment sparring began, he couldn’t even block a single strike.
He collapsed against the wall almost immediately.
Sitting on the ground, spirits crushed, he sighed deeply.
Soon, the real spar—between Juhyuk and Sui—began.
Clang!
It was simple yet dazzling.
The scene he used to imagine—
now with Juhyuk as the protagonist.
He was equal to Han Sui—
no, it even felt like he was holding back.
‘Can I ever be like that?’
An F-rank reaching S-rank heights.
If Juhyuk could do it, could he?
‘…I don’t know.’
Maybe if he trained as obsessively as Juhyuk every day.
But could he really live like that?
Doubt crept in—
But alongside it:
‘I want to.’
Desire.
He wanted to make a name for himself as a Hunter.
He wanted strength—to stand proudly before his grandfather who demanded him to inherit.
So what should he do?
‘I need to follow Juhyuk’s example.’
Work harder.
If an F-rank did it, then a B-rank had no excuse.
If he trained next to Juhyuk every day, maybe—one day—he might even surpass him.
‘I’ll watch him closely and try it myself.’
The guild would be small anyway—
so if he handled management and trained with Juhyuk daily, he might get close to S-rank.
He would need to absorb everything he could from Juhyuk.
‘Ugh… I really hate management work…’
But this was the only way to stay close to him.
He had no choice.
‘I’ll do it.’
He would study again—even if he hated it—to stay connected to Juhyuk.
It was annoying, but he accepted it with a bitter heart.
‘Everything worked out well.’
After training, Hyunsoo agreed to handle guild management.
In return, he would train with Juhyuk every day.
There was no reason for Juhyuk to refuse.
‘Now all I need is money.’
A manager—secured.
Money—earned by running gates.
Opening a guild alone was only a matter of time.
‘Just a few more runs into the artifact, then I’ll find Garitos and detach the artifact—perfect.’
Satisfied with how smoothly everything was going, Juhyuk walked home through a dim alleyway lit by streetlights.
Suddenly—
“Jung Juhyuk?”
Someone called his name.
He turned and saw a woman he’d never seen before approaching.
“Are you Jung Juhyuk?”
Her tone was friendly—as if she already knew him.
“Wow~ long time no see. You got super famous lately.”
“….”
He had no idea who she was.
Her face, coming closer with a cloud of cigarette smell, stirred no memory whatsoever.
“What’s with that face… don’t tell me you don’t remember me?”
“Well… uh…”
Was she someone he knew?
Her expression looked genuinely happy to see him, making it hard to deny.
“To be honest… I don’t?”
“That’s harsh. I used to hang out at your mom’s bakery all the time in elementary school.”
She came to their bakery?
‘There were… way too many of those.’
During his childhood, he had tons of friends and often brought them to his mom’s bakery.
He was friendly with everyone back then.
“Now that you’re famous, you don’t even remember your classmates?”
“It’s not like that.”
“Sure it isn’t.”
She laughed it off, not seeming particularly bothered.
She didn’t look like she wanted anything from him, either—
after a short chat, she waved and turned away.
“Say hi if you see me again later.”
“…Okay.”
Then she vanished quickly into the night.
Juhyuk wondered:
Was she trying to get something out of him by pretending to be close?
…but she didn’t cling or push for anything.
Which meant probably not.
‘Who was that… Hana? Sumin?’
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t recall the name.
He returned home full of unanswered questions.
