Chapter 62 ….
Choi Han-gyeol of Team 1, Class 204.
Until just a few months ago, he had been a promising hunter trainee, swelling with dreams that once he passed the Hunter Exam, he would become a famous figure following in Joshua’s footsteps.
But then!
‘That ruined everything!’
He had aimed to become the most eye-catching examinee in the Hunter Exam—but those crazy siblings suddenly appeared, flying around on people and closing gates, completely stealing the spotlight.
He had barely managed to complete the fastest official promotion of his class and joined Ability, the No. 8 guild in the country, just when he thought he might finally get some attention. Then he was humiliated at Gyeongbokgung—and as if that weren’t enough, not long after, news broke on the portal front page that Kwon A-sol was coming and going from the Baekyeom headquarters.
In the end, determined to see who would win, he even cleared his first dungeon yesterday—
And even that got buried today when Kwon A-sol entered a dungeon together with Baekgyeon!
Every single moment when he was supposed to shine, Kwon A-sol—that woman he was starting to fear would appear in his nightmares—kept showing up and stealing his spotlight.
‘Th-this can’t go on.’
Choi Han-gyeol felt a serious sense of crisis. At this rate, he would be buried under Kwon A-sol and remain just another mediocre Hunter forever.
That was something he hated more than death.
‘Public opinion hasn’t completely turned yet. Plenty of people still hate Kwon A-sol. I just have to take her down before she gets any more famous!’
He clicked on the article about Kwon A-sol’s official promotion and checked the comments.
—People only stayed quiet until now because she was just a trainee… Honestly, how many people thought she’d actually become official? Everyone figured she’d just stir things up as a trainee and the team would collapse on its own, so they let it be.
—Huh?? lol; Team 4 already did enough. Clinging to it more is just pathetic. They followed the official process—how much more do you want before you 인정 them?
—lol people thought she’d fail the promotion
—Are we really okay with making that person an official hunter?
↳ The stuff she does to people… seriously…
—Please just leave Team 4 alone.
‘As expected.’
Thanks to Team 4’s recent performance, the mood had softened compared to before—but for those who had opposed Kwon A-sol’s hunter qualification from the start, this promotion news had only become fresh fuel.
With emotions already running high, stirring things up looked easy. That was when a brilliant idea struck Choi Han-gyeol.
‘Baekgyeon definitely said he dislikes Kwon A-sol.’
Among hunters, it was already common knowledge.
But right now the two of them were inside the same dungeon, and reporters had swarmed the entrance to film Baekgyeon.
In that situation—
If an attack were made on Kwon A-sol…
And Baekgyeon was broadcast live doing nothing to stop it!
‘This is it!’
Choi Han-gyeol—whose brain worked frighteningly fast only in situations like this—immediately began typing.
[[Discussion] Writing this out of frustration. Why the Hwaseong Dungeon is crucial if we want to stop Kwon A-sol’s hunter activities]
There’s been a lot of talk about Kwon A-sol lately. At times like this, someone needs to take direct action.
For citizens’ safety, people like us who are awake need to unite—but everyone’s just busy tearing each other apart with no real coordination… I’ve been watching and finally got too frustrated.
Right now it may feel like our opinions don’t matter since they’re only being mentioned online, but if opposition to Kwon A-sol’s activities grows in real life, the Association won’t be able to ignore public opinion forever.
And the most important opportunity for that is this Hwaseong dungeon.
Imagine this: Kwon A-sol finishes the dungeon and comes out—and the first thing she sees is citizens protesting for her expulsion.
She might keep a straight face for now. But if this keeps happening, she’ll start getting scared and become conscious of public opinion.
And if it still doesn’t stop?
Either the Association will take action, or Kwon A-sol—realizing how scary public opinion is—will retire on her own. In other words, things will go exactly the way we want.
More realistically, we could demand ability restrictions (like how demi-humans get punished for using attack skills recklessly). Or put her under restrictions and only call her when a major gate breaks out so she uses her abilities under Association supervision. At least then accidents won’t happen.
Whatever the case, protests are necessary. Kwon A-sol needs to know what ordinary citizens think.
Anyway, I’m packing up and heading straight to Hwaseong now. Anyone coming with me, leave a comment.
▶Post
[New comments have been added.]
[New comments have been added.]
The moment he hit submit, comments poured in.
Of course, Choi Han-gyeol had zero intention of actually participating in any protest—but from here on, the idiots would handle the rest themselves.
Watching the notifications pile up, he burst into laughter.
“Hoho, hahaha! Goodbye, Kwon A-sol! Hahaha!”
“What was that just now?”
“No idea. Looks like Han-gyeol hyung is up to something weird again… Sigh. Leave him. It’s not like this is new.”
Though the public didn’t know it, his specialty was keyboard battles and public opinion manipulation.
In other words—online agitation.
A few minutes after I started walking through the maze with Baekgyeon, I found myself clapping enthusiastically and shouting:
“Wow! As expected of you, sunbae! You’re incredible! To overturn a dungeon all by yourself—truly the greatest hunter of this era!”
“Hm.”
…What the hell am I doing?
A brief wave of self-reflection hit me, but this was the best survival reaction I had. Every time arrows suddenly flew at us in the maze, Baekgyeon was snatching every single one out of the air.
At this point, a circus would probably want him more than the Hunter Association.
“Wait… why does it feel like I’m the only one doing this?”
“Waaah! Sunbae who can do everything without help from juniors like me! You’re seriously the best! This is the nation’s top hunter! Wow, amazing~!”
Clap clap clap!
Naturally, Baekgyeon wasn’t clueless, so whenever he started to come to his senses and look suspicious, I desperately clapped to distract him.
My hands kind of hurt, but other than that this is sweet. I’ll just keep hyping him up and let him catch arrows.
By the time my Baekgyeon-exclusive applause show brought us fairly close to the center—
“Right. You really think that?”
“Huh? Of course. Haha! There’s no hunter in Korea greater than you, sunbae!”
“Right? Yet knowing that, there are rookie hunters who take support from other people instead of me.”
“….”
And there it was.
I quietly stopped clapping and lowered my hands.
Damn. I thought we might get through peacefully for once…
The smile faded quickly from my face.
My heart was already pounding. What kind of personality test was waiting for me this time?
“What are you doing?”
“Huh? Getting ready to block if you attack, sunbae.”
“…Why would I attack you?”
“Wasn’t that the vibe?”
“What do you even think I am… And if I really attacked you, do you think you could block it with your arm?”
…Fair point.
I slowly lowered my defensive arm.
“….”
For a brief moment, Baekgyeon looked like he had a lot to say, but his face soon returned to its usual blank expression. When he spoke again, his tone was more restrained than I expected.
“Kwon Seo-woo isn’t officially part of Baekyeom, so I don’t care if he gets support from them or wherever. The problem is that he’s accepting their support while avoiding my training. Whatever Baekyeom is giving him—I can give the same.”
“…Pardon?”
“Send Kwon Seo-woo to me. I guarantee Han Je-hyun can’t raise him properly.”
Contrary to my expectations, the reasonable response made my mouth move on reflex.
“Uh, well… Guildmaster Han Je-hyun didn’t seem like a bad person though.”
“But he’s weak.”
The line was drawn sharply. Man, it’s tough being small fry.
“What’s needed to grow stronger isn’t flashy gear or items—it’s one proper hunter who can train you.”
Annoying, but he’s not wrong.
I actually agreed. I desperately wanted Seo-woo to learn from Baekgyeon.
…But why are you telling me instead of Seo-woo?
Was I supposed to fix their relationship again?
“I’d like that too, but even if I try to help… as you know, Seo-woo doesn’t listen for crap— I mean! He can be a bit slippery, but once he commits he does well! He’s just being especially stubborn this time! Haha!”
“Is that so?”
What am I even doing right now…
As annoying as it was, I couldn’t bad-mouth Seo-woo in front of Baekgyeon. Right now the priority was making Baekgyeon willing to teach him.
Just then, Baekgyeon glanced at me, fell briefly silent, and muttered:
“Well… he does look like the type who wouldn’t listen.”
…Why does this feel weirdly unpleasant even though he agreed?
“Anyway, Seo-woo definitely didn’t avoid you on purpose. Please be generous and teach that flower-headed— I mean, Kwon Seo-woo well.”
“You really want Kwon Seo-woo to learn from me?”
“Of course!”
Why even ask? I nodded quickly.
If I want Seo-woo to look good to Baekgyeon, I need to keep the mood up here.
And strangely enough, things were going pretty well so far!
Just as I was smiling brightly—
Baekgyeon’s expression turned subtle.
“I thought you’d feel the opposite. That’s unexpected.”
“Huh?”
“In your situation, I thought you’d naturally avoid me. Since I’m wary of you.”
“….”
Honestly, splashing cold water on a hard-won good mood should be illegal.
The warm atmosphere instantly turned gloomy. I shut my mouth.
…Well, he’s not wrong.
After what happened at the Association HQ and Shinyongsan, Baekgyeon wasn’t exactly comfortable for me either. And I knew he didn’t particularly like me.
But still—
Did he really have to bring that up right now?
As expected of the No. 1 ranked hunter, he truly didn’t care about the surrounding mood.
Or maybe Najin suddenly came to mind again.
“….”
Second time.
When I glanced sideways, sure enough, Baekgyeon’s face had gone cold again—like he’d thought of Najin.
A new question surfaced.
…Why is Baekgyeon this furious about Najin?
Sure, it’s natural to be angry when your friend becomes a terrorist. At first I thought it was that simple.
But…
Isn’t this excessive?
The longer time passed, the more the discomfort grew.
Najin betrayed the team four years ago.
Though he’d resumed activity now, until a few months ago Najin had been on the run from the Association for four years.
During that time he didn’t commit additional terror attacks, but he continuously fought the Association pursuing him. Enough time had passed for hunters to become used to the terrorist Najin.
So Baekgyeon should’ve dulled at least a little…
His anger was understandable—but reacting this strongly to every small mention even after four years was not normal.
Even if he’s monitoring me because I’m a gate-type ability user, isn’t he paying way too much attention to just one A-rank? Shouldn’t the No. 1 ranker have bigger things to worry about?
Baekgyeon was overly sensitive, bristling at anything related to Najin.
It was as if the emotional maturity that should have naturally developed over four years had carefully bypassed him alone.
As if…
The Gangbuk Gate Terror happened just yesterday.
Which led me to another suspicion.
Is there something more between them than what I know?
I knew bringing up Najin in front of Baekgyeon was a gamble—but if not now, when?
After making up my mind, I smiled brightly.
“Haha! I mean, getting to learn directly from you is such a great opportunity, sunbae! Missing that chance over something trivial would be stupid. Seriously dumb.”
“….”
“If someone ignores the obvious good option right next to them and picks something weird instead, it makes the people watching uncomfortable too. Like—it just feels like such a waste and kind of irritating.”
Since my first plan of fixing Baekgyeon and Seo-woo’s relationship had already failed, I needed to get at least one small piece of information.
Watching Baekgyeon’s still-cold reaction, I spoke.
Please take the bait!
“…Is that why you’re extra sensitive about anything related to Najin, sunbae?”
“…What?”
In that instant, Baekgyeon’s face twisted.
I realized my question had hit the mark.
“…You think I’m trying to catch that Najin bastard for something as soft as friendship?”
After the Hunter Exam… after the Shinyongsan Gate… I had never seen Baekgyeon this angry.
But…
…Did I just mess up?
I suddenly feel like my life is in danger too?
“After the Gangbuk incident, idiots started pouring out committing copycat crimes inspired by Najin. You know that, right? Ever met any of them yourself?”
“N-no. I’ve only heard about them.”
“You will soon. There are more morons drunk on Najin’s pathetic ideology than you think—and the things they’re willing to do.”
His voice was restrained with fury, but it didn’t hide his emotions at all.
“Two weeks after the Gangbuk terror was suppressed, the first attack by Najin worshippers happened. The people mobilized that day were all of Najin’s former teammates, including me. Since the attackers had announced they would imitate Najin, everyone expected another indiscriminate terror like Gangbuk…”
Baekgyeon’s eyes sank heavily.
“But that wasn’t it.”
“The first place those bastards attacked… was a kindergarten full of children.”
