For a moment, the air in the interrogation room seemed to freeze.
It was because of the extraordinary proposal Kang Ho-cheol had just made.
“Become a Special Hunter.”
Not only Siul, who had received the offer, but even Baek Ga-hyeon standing beside him was utterly stunned.
“…Pardon?”
Baek Ga-hyeon spoke before Siul could.
Her normally calm and aloof expression had twisted into something almost comical.
“Senior, what are you suddenly talking about…?”
Baek Ga-hyeon stopped mid-sentence.
It was because she had looked into Kang Ho-cheol’s eyes and found something completely different there.
They were not his usual eyes, perpetually tinged with mischief.
‘……He’s serious.’
Realizing Kang Ho-cheol’s true intentions, Baek Ga-hyeon closed her mouth.
Her senior was being that serious, so she decided it would be inappropriate to interrupt him carelessly.
Even so, she could not hide her confusion.
‘Why? Why would he….’
Siul was a witness to the Black Gate and someone currently under government protection for the sake of their investigation.
And Kang Ho-cheol was offering someone like that a position as a Special Hunter?
By any conventional standard, it made no sense.
Yet Kang Ho-cheol seemed convinced of something.
“If you join the Special Hunters, Mr. Kim Siul, you’ll be able to grow stronger at an astonishing rate. A well-developed training system, top-grade equipment provided free of charge, practical combat experience through missions—they’ll inevitably push you toward greater strength.”
Kang Ho-cheol shrugged as if asking what Siul thought of the offer.
“For someone dreaming of clearing an SSS-Rank Dungeon, I would imagine that sounds rather tempting?”
Siul had initially thought it was a joke.
But the more Kang Ho-cheol spoke, the clearer it became that he was not simply saying this on a whim.
“I don’t know what you saw in me to make you say that… and how could someone like me possibly become a Special Hunter?”
Siul went beyond denying the possibility and openly belittled himself.
And understandably so.
Becoming a Special Hunter was not something a person could simply decide to do.
Only high-ranking Hunters of A-Rank or above were even eligible to apply, and there were countless tests beyond that.
“My rank alone disqualifies me.”
Siul furrowed his brow as though telling Kang Ho-cheol to stop joking.
Of course, he knew Kang Ho-cheol was making the offer seriously, which was precisely why he gave a serious answer explaining why it was impossible.
‘People at their level must already know what my current rank is.’
Just as Siul expected, Kang Ho-cheol and Baek Ga-hyeon currently estimated his actual combat ability to be around B-Rank.
However, there was one additional anomaly that weighed far more heavily in Kang Ho-cheol’s judgment.
“Your Trait was valuable enough to be rated S-Rank or higher. Normally, the rarity of a Trait corresponds to the person’s Awakening Rank. Considering that, I believe there’s a good chance you’ll Reawaken as an S-Rank Hunter before long, Mr. Kim Siul.”
Even Baek Ga-hyeon, his colleague, was hearing that theory for the first time.
Yet it sounded surprisingly plausible.
‘He has a Trait comparable to the best Healers in the country, yet his Awakening Rank is only B-Rank. There is a contradiction there.’
“Sorry, but you’ve got the wrong person.”
The person in question, however, did not respond very positively.
“I appreciate you thinking so highly of my potential, but I have no interest in such a dangerous profession in the first place.”
It was a flat refusal.
Siul was resolute.
“Special Hunter or whatever else, just hearing the name sounds exhausting. I’d have to undertake life-threatening missions all the time while being monitored on top of that.”
Siul clicked his tongue with a faint sneer.
“More importantly, I don’t have that kind of time to spare.”
Silence settled over the interrogation room once more.
Baek Ga-hyeon glanced at Kang Ho-cheol’s expression.
After such an unequivocal rejection, she had expected him to say at least one more thing.
But Kang Ho-cheol neither smiled nor frowned.
“If you don’t want to, then it can’t be helped.”
Kang Ho-cheol spoke calmly and turned away.
“I merely wanted to inform you that there was an arrangement that could benefit both sides. The choice is yours, Mr. Kim Siul, and I respect that.”
Having ended the conversation, Kang Ho-cheol walked out of the interrogation room.
“I’ll leave the rest of the questions and paperwork to you.”
He gave Baek Ga-hyeon those instructions at the door, then closed it behind him without another glance back.
He was so detached that it was difficult to believe this was the same man who had enthusiastically offered Siul a position as a Special Hunter only moments ago.
Baek Ga-hyeon, however, understood Kang Ho-cheol’s feelings.
‘He must be really disappointed.’
She recognized the particular silence Kang Ho-cheol fell into whenever things failed to go the way he wanted.
Baek Ga-hyeon studied Siul’s face with curious eyes.
‘Does he really want this man that badly?’
She wondered why.
Her senior appeared to have noticed something she herself could not see.
And from experience, whenever this happened, Kang Ho-cheol’s judgment was usually correct.
‘I wonder what he saw in him this time.’
Baek Ga-hyeon let out a faint laugh and resumed the remaining interrogation in place of her sulking senior.
* * *
“I’m completely exhausted…. And I have to go through this interrogation once every week from now on?”
It was almost midnight.
Siul trudged home through the deserted streets.
‘My legs feel heavier than they did after that Dungeon raid earlier today….’
His calves felt stiff, as though he had spent hours sprinting at full speed.
‘I must’ve been pretty tense, huh?’
When he had first left home, his mind had gone completely blank.
The moment he followed Kang Ho-cheol and Baek Ga-hyeon into the black vehicle, there had been only one thought in Siul’s head.
‘I’m screwed….’
Scenes that belonged in movies had flashed rapidly through his mind.
He imagined being subjected to all kinds of torture until he finally revealed information about the Black Gate, only for his remaining lifespan to be completely stripped away, killing him on the spot….
‘I seriously thought I was going to piss myself when I walked into that interrogation room.’
But looking back after it was all over, reality had been the complete opposite of what he had imagined.
If anything, he had been impressed by how quickly they noticed his circumstances and tried to help him.
For that much, at least, he was extremely grateful.
‘But that man….’
Kang Ho-cheol’s face surfaced in his mind.
‘Did he really want to recruit me as a Special Hunter?’
No matter how many times Siul thought about it, he still found it difficult to believe.
It was true that he had grown considerably stronger, but the Special Hunters were still impossibly far beyond him.
They were the strongest fighting force in South Korea.
‘Yeah, I’m not even in the same league.’
Yet even as he thought that, another strange feeling passed through him.
‘He thought my Trait was just some kind of high-speed healing ability, and he still rated it that highly?’
The corners of Siul’s lips rose slightly.
‘Just how shocked would he be if he found out this Trait actually makes me immortal?’
Siul chuckled inwardly as he indulged in the pointless fantasy.
‘To be fair, I was tempted for a moment.’
Becoming a Special Hunter would grant him access to the government’s intelligence network as well as much easier access to information regarding SSS-Rank Dungeons.
It would undoubtedly be an enormous help in finding the Judgment Dragon.
But there was one decisive reason Siul had no choice but to refuse the offer.
‘I don’t have time.’
There were only five months left until his notified death date.
Siul had no time to spare tying himself down to any organization.
‘I might not even make it if I devote every second to my own goal.’
That was why he had refused both the Special Hunters and the guild executive position Park Jung-gi had offered him.
Accepting either position would grant him power he could use to obtain information about the Judgment Dragon much more quickly.
‘But they wouldn’t let me focus exclusively on that. What organization would ever operate entirely around me?’
For Siul, the freedom to act independently was his highest priority.
Even if he ended up dying five months from now, he would rather spend that time freely doing everything he wanted to do.
“Sorry, but a man on borrowed time prefers a life without responsibilities, Baldy.”
Siul muttered to himself with a laugh.
But then the word responsibilities lingered in his mind, and his feet suddenly stopped.
“Ah!”
Siul cried out sharply.
He had suddenly remembered one responsibility he had completely forgotten about.
“Z-Zero!”
‘How long have I been out of the house?’
Siul checked the time on his phone.
The display changed to exactly 00:00.
Midnight.
An entire day had passed.
He had spent well over seven hours in the interrogation room alone.
That was far too long to leave a newly hatched baby dragon at home by itself.
“…It waited quietly for me, right?”
Siul murmured his hopeful wish, only to immediately SLAP! himself across the cheek.
‘There’s no way it waited quietly!!’
Siul’s face instantly turned pale.
At the same time, he began sprinting down the street with everything he had.
“Zero!! Daddy’s coming!!”
* * *
BANG!!
Siul burst through his front door with enough force to nearly break it down.
“Gasp… gasp…!”
Without even taking off his shoes, he stood there panting as he frantically scanned the apartment.
The living room.
The kitchen.
The top of the desk.
‘It’s not here?’
His heart sank.
“Zero…?”
He cautiously called its name.
Siul’s voice trembled badly.
Then the blanket on his bed shifted ever so slightly.
A moment later, it rose, and a tiny head peeked out from underneath.
Turquoise scales.
Round eyes.
And… enormous tears filling those eyes to the brim.
Zero remained beneath the blanket and simply stared at Siul.
“Woof…!”
It was an affirmative cry, but Siul could hear that Zero was desperately holding back its tears.
“Ah.”
A sharp pang struck Siul’s chest.
“You… stayed there because I told you not to come out from under the blanket?”
Zero stuck out its lower lip in a pout and nodded.
At last, a tear rolled down Zero’s cheek.
“Ah, hey….”
Siul kicked off his shoes and rushed toward the bed.
“You can come out now.”
Before he had even finished speaking, Siul personally scooped Zero up and pulled it out from beneath the blanket.
The baby dragon, smaller than a basketball, burrowed into his embrace.
“Woof…! Woof…!”
Zero buried its face against Siul’s chest and sobbed.
Its wings trembled, and its tail curled tightly around Siul’s wrist as though gripping him.
“I’m sorry. I really am….”
Siul gently stroked Zero’s back.
“From now on, I’ll never suddenly leave you alone like this again.”
Only then did Zero’s tears begin to subside.
“I couldn’t help it today….”
Siul added the words as though making an excuse.
“I wasn’t in a situation where I could take you outside with me. And if people saw what you look like, that would cause problems too.”
A brief silence followed.
Zero quietly listened to Siul’s explanation, then suddenly—
“Woof!”
It let out a short but forceful cry.
At that exact moment—
FLASH—!
Zero’s turquoise scales suddenly blazed with light.
“…!”
Startled, Siul narrowed his eyes and turned his head away.
When he looked back again, his arms were empty.
“Huh?”
Siul hurriedly looked around in confusion.
“…Where did you go?”
Then he suddenly felt a noticeable weight on his shoulder.
Confused by the strange sensation, Siul reached a hand toward it.
His fingertips bumped against something solid.
WHOOOSH!
The space above his shoulder seemed to distort, and Zero abruptly appeared there.
“Huh? How did you…?”
Zero rippled its scales.
The turquoise scales repeatedly turned transparent depending on the angle before returning to their original color.
“You don’t mean….”
Siul’s eyes widened.
“You can turn your scales transparent?”
“Woof!”
Zero barked brightly.
This time, its voice was filled with pride.
Siul was left speechless for a moment before his expression gradually became serious.
“With this ability, I could take you outside with me.”
Zero’s face lit up.
“Woof!”
Overjoyed at the prospect of being able to accompany Siul, Zero flapped its wings and flew excited circles through the air.
In truth, this was even better news for Siul than it was for Zero.
‘I was worried about how I was supposed to take care of it from now on, but if it can turn invisible, most of those problems disappear.’
And that was not all.
Zero was a monster—or, more precisely, a dragon from the Demon Realm.
It might only be a baby now, but before long, it would display tremendous power and join Siul in battle.
The fact that Zero possessed the ability to turn invisible significantly broadened the range of combat strategies Siul would be able to employ.
‘It was just born, and it already has this much potential….’
It was certainly worthy of being the reward for five consecutive Quest successes.
“I’ll be counting on you from now on.”
Siul caught Zero as it flew through the air and placed it on his lap.
Zero looked up at Siul with gleaming eyes.
Its gaze was pure and innocent.
And yet, unmistakable Mana from the Demon Realm flowed within them.
“Woof! Woof!”