Chapter 41

The Hunter Manpower Office.

They called it an office, but it was a building. This six-story building sat on prime real estate right by the station, and hundreds of Hunters came through it every day.

It’s been a while.

Even at dawn, the lobby was packed.

After making my way through the long line, I reached the counter. The woman there 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 almost nowhere 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 amounted to highway robbery.

So I’d found this place. The region had been different, 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 all by itself. The first floor took E- and F-ranks. You needed 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 endured every kind of shitty treatment there was. I’d long since passed the point of being picky.

I had just started walking with that thought when—

“Hey, look who it is!”

I turned at 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 always the same. How about you?”

“Don’t call me uncle.”

Im Kkeokjeong gave me an easy smile.

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

How many years apart were we again? It was hazy.

“Hyung, how old are you?”

“Forty-five.”

“…”

What’s with that confidence?

But the people skills I’d honed over the years paid off. I somehow managed to force a smile.

“Right. I’ll just call you hyung.”

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

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

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

In a way, it was a shallow connection. We’d run into each other every day for about half a year at the Ilsan office, and sometimes worked together. That was about it.

He’s a good guy, but…

Sometimes having him next to me was embarrassing.

Like now.

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

Im Kkeokjeong knocked back his yulmu tea² in one gulp and tipped his chair as far as it would go.

From the way he did it, 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.”

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

“What’s so great 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 lived to that age first.

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 saw you, you were completely frozen. You could barely even talk.”

“Of course. I’ve got seven years in.”

“So you’ve just been bouncing around manpower offices ever since? Didn’t you sign with a small or midsize Guild on fairly decent terms? So, So… what was the name 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, too. What the hell is Sopung? It’s not like you’re going on a picnic to a Gate.”

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

“Oh…”

The conversation that followed was pretty useful. Im Kkeokjeong was a regular at the manpower office, after all, and a veteran Hunter with decent information and his own hard-earned know-how.

“The office takes a ten percent commission. That’s standard. But the batting average here is pretty good.”

Batting average was slang in this business for the 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. And my turn would only come after all the E-rank Hunters had left.

“E-ranks first, as expected… Hyung, 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 gave a sheepish laugh.

No wonder his expression looked off.

The man had clearly worked himself to the bone while we were out of touch.

It was only one step up, but rising even that far with an F-rank’s potential was no easy feat.

“See you around.”

“Yes. See you.”

Him walking out of the hall was the start. The speakers began pouring out names like they meant it.

E-rank this person, E-rank that person, 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 preamble, he held out a contract with a blank face.

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

This guy’s way of talking 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 are distributed fairly according to contribution. We take twenty percent of the amount you receive.”

“And the base pay?”

“Thirty.”

“Thir…ty?”

Did this guy’s tongue get cut in half?

“Gate rank.”

“E-rank.”

“Rejected.”

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

The corner of my eye twitched.

What the hell did this guy just say?

“Por-ter?”

“Is there a problem?”

“Obviously.”

The shirt guy 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, and the settlement split was generous too.

I’d flinched at the mention of an E-rank Gate, but I was only going as a porter, so it didn’t matter. I’d skin a few monsters, carry a pack for a while, and then we’d part ways 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 signed.”

“…”

“So where are we going now? We taking a van?”

“There’s a van waiting outside.”

“Oh, that one? Looks nice. Bet the AC’s blasting too.”

“…”

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

“Huh? Taekyung!”

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

“You’re coming too. Great!”

“Right? I guess I really do have a connection with you, hyung.”

“Hahahaha!”

“Ahahaha!”

“…Let’s get going.”

Maybe it was the heat, but the shirt guy’s face 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 brother I know.”

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

“Hello. I’m Jin Taekyung.”

“Oh, nice to meet you.”

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

There were three new people in all, men in their late thirties or early forties. In that warm atmosphere, Im Kkeokjeong explained.

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

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

Meaning they all had at least ten years in. I had enough experience that nobody was going to call me a rookie wherever I went, but these guys were on another level entirely.

Old-timer party.

People like them pulled their weight wherever they went. In a pinch, they were much better than a middling D-rank.

“So what’s the young guy’s rank?”

Here it came. The rank check.

I answered carefully.

“F-rank.”

“Ah. That so? How many years?”

“Seven.”

“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 at all. I’m joining as a porter, so you don’t have to worry…”

The three men stared at me blankly.

“Why the extra explanation? We gonna eat you?”

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

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

Recommended? Team Leader Choi?

I didn’t know the exact details, but I could more or less see how this had gone.

Im Kkeokjeong had recommended me. To the shirt guy—Team Leader Choi.

“W-what are you talking about?”

Im Kkeokjeong waved his hands, his face bright red.

The three men snickered.

“It’s written all over him. How did that hyung ever get married?”

“Good deeds are supposed to come to light. Why go through life hiding them?”

“Right. 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 many people I’d crossed paths with for a moment and moved on from. Meeting him again, he was more guileless and warmhearted than I’d expected.

So that’s why the terms were so generous.

The way they kept saying Team Leader Choi, 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 shirt guy had opened his eyes at some point. No—Team Leader Choi. He spoke to us.

“We’re almost there.”

I turned my head. A four-meter-high Gate was drawing closer. At its center, a vortex of mana churned, ready to suck us in.

An E-rank Gate.

My first raid since coming back.