Chapter 26
“…Wow, damn. So we really have an S-rank in our house now?”
Even Han Sejin froze, his hand stopping mid-slice as he was cutting the pork belly.
But he recovered quickly.
As if shaking off a heavy thought, he gave his head a brisk shake and resumed cutting the meat.
Meanwhile, Park Woojun and Saebyeok’s eyes were still locked together.
His gaze was so sharp, steady, and almost burning that Saebyeok’s heart was about to pound loudly—when suddenly something cold brushed against her arm, snapping her concentration.
She turned her head to see Kang Suho nudging her with a can of beer. He lifted it slightly, raising his brows as if asking if she wanted some.
“Ah, thank you.”
When Saebyeok accepted it, little Sihu tugged at her clothes.
She lowered her head, only to have him push a neatly wrapped lettuce wrap into her mouth with his tiny hands, grinning widely.
Saebyeok laughed softly and ruffled the boy’s hair.
The brothers’ care and affection, slipping into the crack of her broken focus, steadied her again.
“It’s true, I am S-rank. That’s why I can’t just make a promise to go to the Association.”
Her calm words drew a slight twitch from Woojun’s brows, his gaze flickering challengingly toward Suho.
But as soon as Saebyeok lifted her head, his expression softened.
“I get it. If it’s an S-rank, then even the Association President would have to personally—wait a second.”
In the middle of talking, realization struck him. His eyes went wide as he suddenly remembered where the Association President was right now.
“Hey, your electricity—! Hold on! No way…!”
He hurriedly pulled out his phone.
It didn’t take long to find what he was looking for. The news was plastered across every portal site and video platform front page.
“This!”
He thrust a video toward her face.
The clip was the latest upload from Awakening World, a HunterTube channel with over a million subscribers and already close to four million.
Awakening World was a hunter-creator channel covering the latest news on Awakeners, monsters, and gates, mixing analysis with humor.
Its witty commentary and high-quality editing made it popular among both Awakened and non-Awakened viewers alike.
【(Video): Boom! Crash!】
【Awakening World: Whoa~! Folks, do you see this? Look at that clean strike of lightning hitting the same spot twice in a row.】
【(Video): Boom! Crash!】
【Awakening World: Some people are claiming this is just a natural phenomenon, but come on—when has natural lightning ever come down that neatly in a single streak? And twice, consecutively?】
He began debunking the fake information spreading online with logical arguments.
【Hiker: Man, I thought it was the end of the world!】
【Awakening World: Didn’t you try getting closer?】
【Hiker: What, you think I’ve got a death wish? I bolted outta there!】
They even showed an interview with a hiker who had gone to Bukhansan for the sunrise and happened to witness the lightning strike up close.
The studio came back into frame, full of Hunter-related posters and merchandise, with a giant Korean flag on the wall.
【Awakening World: Some folks in Japan or China are saying this is staged, but seriously—what, ten million people in Seoul all conspired to fake it? Does that make any sense?】
To add spice, he leaned on some national pride, then pulled up an interview with Glory Guild’s Kim Ihan.
【Awakening World: Just look at Kim Ihan holding back with that sly little smile. That tells you everything.】
【Awakening World: He’s obviously trying to shift attention from that ‘mysterious helper’ to himself.】
【Awakening World: What do I mean? Simple. If that helper was just B-rank or A-rank, they’d be spilling info left and right, doing interviews everywhere.】
【Awakening World: Why? Because at that level, it’s not even a big enough news story. People would lose interest quickly.】
Wearing a neat suit, the channel’s host explained like a lecturer, doodling arrows and circles on a drawing board.
【Awakening World: Of course, A-rank is still special. A unique title is good news. But it’s not something that gets people’s hearts racing.】
【Awakening World: So if that lightning belonged to just a B or A rank, people would’ve gone, ‘Oh, neat skill,’ and that would’ve been the end of it.】
Excitement made his speech slip between formal and casual tones.
This blunt, amped-up voice was another reason his channel was so popular.
【Awakening World: In that case, no one would care about the helper. Everyone would focus on how they caught those villain bastards! Then Kim Ihan could milk the spotlight with his stories. And what does that mean? All the attention would be his.】
Since the video was spliced from a livestream, the chat window on the side was scrolling like crazy.
【Awakening World: But Kim Ihan’s keeping his mouth shut, huh?】
Meanwhile, the live viewership count was skyrocketing.
【Awakening World: You know what that means? It means there’s something that would completely steal the spotlight the moment he says it.】
【Awakening World: Right now, everyone’s watching Kim Ihan’s every move, hoping to learn more about that helper. But will he say anything? No way. The second he does, he loses the main stage.】
After his fiery rant, the host let out a dramatic sigh and slumped back in his chair.
【Awakening World: You all get it now, right?】
He flashed the lightning photo again on the board, then scrawled a single big letter in the middle.
S.
【Awakening World: That helper is strong enough to snatch away Kim Ihan’s entire spotlight.】
Pointing straight at the camera with his finger, he added provocatively:
【Awakening World: Bookmark this video, folks. I guarantee you, this’ll be a pilgrimage site later.】
Snapping his phone shut, Park Woojun stared directly at Han Saebyeok.
“This was you, wasn’t it?”
Caught, Saebyeok gave a sheepish smile and nodded.
Woojun slapped his forehead and collapsed into a chair.
“Damn! I kept wondering why Kim Ihan was acting so annoyingly smug—turns out it was because you’re actually S-rank?!”
As the Association’s raid leader, Woojun had of course been dispatched the moment the report came in.
But by the time he arrived, everything was already over.
The Scavenger guild members were tied up neatly by the Glory Guild, and all the hostages were rescued and safe.
The media had swarmed the site too, so the Association just earned yet another “too late again” label.
“The guild members claim they don’t know anything, and the only one on-site, Kim Ihan, just kept smirking silently….”
The Scavenger guild members were handed over to the Association’s Villain Management Department for interrogation. But they didn’t breathe a word about the helper, only ranting about how wicked their cult leader was.
Even the victims hadn’t seen anything, leaving the Association pulling their hair out in frustration—especially since among those victims was the daughter of Lee Pado.
Woojun himself had been stuck all day at that site dealing with the fallout.
“And now I find out all that hell I went through today was thanks to Han Saebyeok.”
“How is that my fault? It’s the fault of that psycho villain.”
“You know the real headache? The most important guy—the cult leader bastard—is dead. The Villain Department is tearing their hair out.”
“…I didn’t expect the lightning to fall twice.”
“What?”
“I wasn’t even using my weapon. I just grabbed whatever was lying around. And then… Ugh, never mind. Point is, it wasn’t intentional.”
“I’m not saying it’s bad you took him down. Dead or alive, catching him is what matters.”
Villains with active bounties could be legally killed under International Hunter Association regulations.
Because if you tried to hold back and arrest them, the risk of greater civilian casualties skyrocketed.
“I just feel sorry for the poor guys in that department now.”
Woojun let out a long sigh.
“Why didn’t you call me right away? Why’d you run from the scene? And wait—when exactly did you even Awaken? How’d you even know where their hideout was?”
“One question at a time.”
“Fine. Why didn’t you report to the Association and instead went in recklessly yourself?”
“If I had reported it, the investigation alone would’ve taken forever. Meanwhile, the number of victims would’ve just increased.”
At her words, little Sihu, munching meat beside her, flinched.
Haunted by a terrible memory, he put his chopsticks down and hugged Saebyeok’s arm tightly.
“I decided it was better to just act and then handle the mess afterward.”
Saebyeok pulled Sihu onto her lap, wrapped a lettuce wrap for him, and kept explaining.
“How’d you even find their hideout?”
“Wanted villain Jo Cheolsoo. I happened to spot him in the city. I tailed him, and by chance… yeah.”
Mixing truth with lies, she gave a plausible answer. She couldn’t exactly talk about regression.
“And since I wasn’t registered yet, I needed someone to cover for me. So I asked Kim Ihan. That guy would leap at any chance for a scoop like that.”
In truth, she’d initially planned to ask Hwang Taesan, through a detective agency job.
But when she coincidentally ran into Kim Ihan at Gwanaksan, she realized it was the perfect excuse to build a connection and used it.
“Alright then. So explain this registration issue too.”
Woojun, picking up a nicely grilled piece of pork belly, put it down again instead.
“Why haven’t you registered?”
“That’s… complicated.”
“Complicated how?”
“It just is.”
“What’s so complicated you can’t tell me?”
He urged her to hurry up and explain.
But unable to tell him the truth, Saebyeok gave a strained smile, fumbling for an excuse.
Before she could reply, Woojun suddenly shouted as if struck by a thought.
“Wait a sec—then that Seoul Station….”
He dropped his chopsticks with a clatter, his face twisting in shock.
“When I ran into you at Seoul Station, don’t tell me—you were already Awakened then?!”
