Normally, I did not answer calls from unfamiliar numbers, but for some reason, I pressed the answer button.
I had a strange feeling that this was a call I should take.
“Hello?”
[“Senior, it’s been a long time. I’m not sure if you remember me. This is Park Gi-yong.”]
“Park Gi-yong? I’m sorry, but I’m not quite sure who……”
[“Ah, forgive me. I got carried away because I was so glad to speak with you. I’m Park Gi-yong from the Korean Awakened Management Agency, Senior.”]
Only then did I think I knew who Park Gi-yong was.
I had seen his name in passing in news articles several times.
“Ah… You mean the current Deputy Commissioner?”
[“Ha ha, so you do know me. Yes, that’s me. Are you available to talk right now? Actually, if possible, I’d like to come see you in person.”]
Out of nowhere, I had received a call from someone important.
For someone of his stature, with whom I had no particular relationship, to suddenly contact me like this, it had to be because of that.
“What is this about?”
Even so, I deliberately pretended not to know and asked what he wanted.
[“Well… since I’m asking to meet you, I’d rather not discuss it over the phone. I’ll come see you personally.”]
“There’s really no need to go that far……”
[“Not at all, Senior. Are you at home?”]
“Yes. I’m home.”
[“Understood. I’ll head over immediately.”]
Somehow, the conversation ended in a way that made it awkward for me to tell him not to come.
Then again, how was I supposed to object when the Deputy Commissioner of the Korean Awakened Management Agency kept addressing me so respectfully as his senior?
“Hmm……”
The reason was obvious.
It was probably because of my transaction history at the Government Official Market.
That was the only place where evidence that I had cleared floors above the fifth could have been exposed.
‘And if they reached me this quickly, it must be because of my nickname.’
The nickname registered with the Management Agency was already Strongest.
Even if there were others using the same nickname, there could not have been many among them who satisfied the specific conditions they were looking for.
‘What should I do……?’
If I told the Agency that I was the SSS-rank record holder, many things would change.
Naturally, the attention of the entire world would begin turning toward me as well.
I did not want that yet.
There would certainly be benefits, but right now, I lacked power.
I did not mean strength as a Hunter.
I knew far too well what people with authority were capable of doing when they wanted to protect what they possessed.
What if some guild threatened me by taking my family hostage?
Could I protect my family all by myself?
Obviously, the answer was no.
More importantly, could I completely trust the Management Agency or Deputy Commissioner Park Gi-yong?
The answer to that was also no.
I did not trust the state or the government.
My experiences on the front lines long ago had made me that way.
‘I’ll know more once I meet Park Gi-yong.’
Just as I was about to wait for him, I suddenly remembered something important and hurried out through the front door.
I did not have any tea at home to serve a guest.
***
Throughout the drive to Choi Kang Hyuk’s residence, Park Gi-yong remained lost in thought.
Was Choi Kang Hyuk really the person who had achieved the SSS-rank records?
Was it even possible for an F-rank Hunter who had awakened twenty-five years ago to suddenly become powerful now?
Truthfully, the possibility seemed extremely low.
Even though Choi Kang Hyuk was an F-rank Hunter, he had consistently entered the Tower all these years.
It was not as though he had retired from active duty.
Could a Hunter like that suddenly begin displaying extraordinary potential after twenty-five years?
Realistically, it seemed impossible.
Even so, Park Gi-yong had personally chosen to visit Choi Kang Hyuk.
Perhaps it was because he still harbored certain expectations toward the Hunters of that old generation.
‘Still, he really didn’t remember me……’
When Park Gi-yong first called him, Choi Kang Hyuk had clearly seemed unable to remember who he was.
In a way, that was only natural.
Back then, Park Gi-yong had effectively been part of a reserve unit stationed behind the front lines, while Choi Kang Hyuk had been one of the Hunters fighting at the very front.
The faint disappointment he felt was probably because those memories had remained especially vivid for him.
They were also memories of regret.
Regret that while the first Hunters died on the front lines, he had been able to do nothing but watch.
As Park Gi-yong briefly sank into those sentiments, his smartphone rang.
It was the subordinate assigned exclusively to investigate the SSS-rank record holder.
“Yeah. What is it?”
[“Deputy Commissioner, the SSS-rank record holder has cleared the eleventh floor. He broke the SSS-rank record there as well.”]
“…Is that so?”
After the mysterious Hunter had already cleared through the tenth floor with SSS-rank, the fact that he had cleared the eleventh itself was not particularly surprising.
Still, the important thing was that he had done it.
“Keep watching. Report immediately if anything unusual happens.”
[“Understood.”]
Now that the Hunter had established SSS-rank records through the eleventh floor, interest would likely begin spreading beyond the Hunter industry and into the general public.
Up through the tenth floor might have been one thing, but starting from the eleventh, the Tower’s difficulty increased markedly.
‘We have to recruit him, no matter what.’
Greater public attention also meant that the various problems accompanying that attention would increase as well.
If only to protect the SSS-rank record holder, the Management Agency absolutely had to identify him.
As Park Gi-yong reached the neighborhood where Choi Kang Hyuk lived, his expression gradually darkened.
At a glance, the area was far too run-down for someone with a Hunter’s relatively high income.
‘He was living somewhere like this?’
It was strange.
According to the records he had reviewed, Choi Kang Hyuk had worked steadily as a Hunter for twenty-five years.
Even as an F-rank, he should have earned a respectable income if he had entered the Tower that consistently.
‘Maybe it really isn’t him.’
Whatever circumstances had brought Choi Kang Hyuk here, the neighborhood felt far too incongruous as the home of the Hunter who had been breaking SSS-rank records.
Park Gi-yong felt the hope he had carried with him gradually fading.
He arrived in front of the small villa where Choi Kang Hyuk lived and stepped out of the car.
The building did not even have an elevator.
As he climbed the stairs, Park Gi-yong could not suppress the confusion filling his mind.
KNOCK KNOCK—
Some time passed after he knocked on the front door.
When there was no sign of anyone inside, Park Gi-yong could not hide his bewilderment.
‘…What?’
Was he not home?
No, he had definitely said he was at home earlier……
“Ah, you’re here. I stepped out for a moment.”
At the voice suddenly coming from behind him, Park Gi-yong nearly unleashed a skill out of reflex.
‘When did he get there?’
Park Gi-yong was a former Hunter who had climbed as high as the twenty-ninth floor.
Although it had been several years since he had retired from active duty, the stats he had accumulated while climbing the Tower did not simply disappear.
And yet even Park Gi-yong had failed to sense Choi Kang Hyuk approaching him at all.
“Are you Senior Choi Kang Hyuk?”
“Ah, yes. That’s me.”
The moment Park Gi-yong saw Choi Kang Hyuk’s face, he became convinced.
Choi Kang Hyuk was the SSS-rank record holder.
He did not need any elaborate evidence.
Choi Kang Hyuk was a veteran among veterans, now in his twenty-fifth year as a Hunter.
He was forty-five years old.
And yet Choi Kang Hyuk’s face looked as young as it had twenty years ago.
No, if anything, he looked healthier now than he had back then, when years of fighting had worn heavily upon him.
It was common knowledge that Hunters who reached a certain level became physically younger and stronger.
The same thing had clearly happened to Choi Kang Hyuk.
“Come inside first.”
“Ah, yes……”
Overwhelmed by Choi Kang Hyuk’s presence without even realizing it, Park Gi-yong followed behind him like a duckling trailing after its mother.
“Sit wherever you’re comfortable.”
The villa was not particularly spacious, but the living room was hardly so small that two people could not sit there.
It had more or less everything one needed.
There were clear signs of everyday life throughout the place, so at the very least, it did not appear that Choi Kang Hyuk had falsified his address and rushed here from somewhere else.
Following Choi Kang Hyuk’s invitation, Park Gi-yong found a suitable place and sat down.
Choi Kang Hyuk rummaged through the plastic shopping bag he had brought with him.
“Would you like coffee, green tea, or orange juice?”
“Excuse me?”
“Coffee, green tea, or orange juice.”
“…Ah! Green tea, please, Senior.”
“Give me a moment.”
Park Gi-yong answered almost automatically, but he could not hide his bewilderment.
He had wondered where Choi Kang Hyuk had gone.
Had he really gone out just to buy those?
Of course, the position of Deputy Commissioner of the Korean Awakened Management Agency was important enough to warrant respectful treatment wherever he went.
Even so, this particular kind of hospitality was so unexpected that Park Gi-yong did not quite know how to react.
Before long, Choi Kang Hyuk returned with two cups of green tea and sat across from him.
“I’m sorry I don’t have anything better to offer when the Deputy Commissioner has come all this way.”
“Not at all. Please don’t say that, Senior. Thank you for the tea.”
It was nothing more than an ordinary green tea bag from a convenience store, but Park Gi-yong drank it with extraordinary care.
“So, what brings you here?”
“To get straight to the point, the Management Agency would like to recruit you. That’s why I came to see you personally.”
“Me? All of a sudden?”
“I’ll ask you directly. Senior, are you Strongest, the Hunter who achieved SSS-rank records from the sixth through eleventh floors?”
Choi Kang Hyuk shook his head.
“No. It’s true that my nickname is Strongest, but I haven’t achieved any SSS-rank records.”
“I see.”
“If you came to recruit me because you mistook me for the SSS-rank record holder, then I apologize. My nickname seems to have caused an unnecessary misunderstanding.”
Choi Kang Hyuk denied it, but Park Gi-yong had no intention of simply backing down.
From the moment he had seen Choi Kang Hyuk, he had been certain.
“Senior, even if you aren’t the SSS-rank record holder, that does not change the fact that I want to recruit you.”
“Why? I’m only an F-rank Hunter.”
It was an entirely reasonable question.
Park Gi-yong smoothly delivered the answer he had already prepared.
“The Management Agency places great value on the experience possessed by veteran Hunters. Not only experience inside the Tower, but experience outside it as well. In that sense, your experience is something the country genuinely needs.”
Park Gi-yong meant every word of it.
Even if F-rank Hunters did not know much about the higher reaches of the Tower, the experience of someone who had fought on the battlefields outside it was more than valuable enough.
Despite the false peace visible on the surface, the world was still at war with the otherworld.
Yet despite Park Gi-yong’s determination, Choi Kang Hyuk shook his head without even a moment’s hesitation.
It was as though he had decided on his answer from the very beginning.
“I appreciate the offer, but I’ll have to decline. I don’t possess enough ability to justify taking on the obligations that come with belonging to an organization.”
“Senior, please reconsider. We can promise you a salary and benefits that will leave you wanting for nothing.”
“I don’t want to become someone who fails to protect what he should protect ever again.”
“What do you mean by that……?”
The moment Choi Kang Hyuk looked directly at him, Park Gi-yong inexplicably felt overwhelmed.
“Deputy Commissioner.”
“You can speak casually with me, Senior.”
“No, I’d feel uncomfortable doing that. More importantly, do you remember the incident from eleven years ago?”
“Eleven years ago……”
An incident immediately surfaced in Park Gi-yong’s mind.
There had been only one major event eleven years ago that Choi Kang Hyuk could possibly mean.
“…I remember.”
How could he ever forget?
It was the incident that had laid bare exactly what Hunters possessing overwhelming power were capable of doing to preserve their interests and positions.
And it was also the humiliation that had exposed the government’s complete helplessness, unable to do anything despite knowing what had happened.