The shocking news that their son had become a Hunter.
Then, after the even more shocking statement that he had gathered eight hundred million won in just a few days, Kim Gyeong-ae and Yoo Jung-wan silently showed that they agreed with their son Seonghyeon’s decision.
It was not because they had learned that the ginseng they had eaten with the pork belly was “Thousand-Year Ginseng” worth three thousand Magic Stones.
It was because they trusted their son, who must have already made his judgment after facing things directly.
“Whew, the most important thing is done for now…….”
Contrary to his worries, seeing his parents readily accept it made Seonghyeon feel relieved.
He also felt a sense of pride, wondering whether it was because the Thousand-Year Ginseng had taken proper effect.
He would have to offer them tributes from time to time.
Then Seonghyeon turned on his computer.
There were still a few more things he needed to handle in order to begin working as a Hunter in earnest.
“This time, I should not waste time for no reason…….”
After spending hours waiting when he went to apply for his return to university,
he had clearly learned that most ordinary university tasks could be handled on a computer.
No, that was what he thought.
[Error]
-You have already completed your return-to-university application.
‘……?’
Every time he clicked the leave-of-absence application, the same error message appeared repeatedly.
At the development that differed from what he had expected, Seonghyeon looked around.
“What is this…… Some kind of hidden-camera prank?”
It felt as though the world was watching in order to unfairly torment him.
Without realizing it, he naturally checked whether there was something like a camera around.
Fortunately, no one appeared holding a camera, and Seonghyeon tried applying for leave a few more times.
Only then was he able to find one sentence among the densely packed text beneath the error message.
※ If you are applying for leave after submitting a return-to-university application, please attend an interview with your professor or visit the department office.
‘Damn it, seriously…….’
No matter how he checked, the conclusion this time was that he had to visit the university.
What a needlessly complicated system they had made. Seonghyeon now knew for certain.
Return-to-university applications were online, but leave-of-absence applications had to be done in person…… Damn it.
***
When he arrived at the university, this time he was able to handle his business immediately without waiting long.
However, in order to take leave, he had to have an interview with his professor.
He did not know what kind of interview it would be, but since they said he had to do it, he entered the professor’s office first.
“Hello, Professor.”
“Oh, yes. Student Seonghyeon, please sit over here.”
Seonghyeon saw the professor looking at him with delight, yet also with some kind of expectation.
“You submitted your return-to-university application on time last week, correct?”
“Yes, that is right.”
“Then is there a reason you are applying for leave again like this? Something significant enough to change your mind so suddenly?”
“Ah, that is…….”
Just as he was about to state the reason he had prepared in advance, the professor’s expression became full of interest.
It felt as though he was waiting for the answer he wanted.
“Something suddenly came up that I need to do.”
“Ohoho, is that so? For example, perhaps an enormous change happened…… an Awakening?”
Had they said that, very rarely, an awakened student among the student body helped the university’s image?
Perhaps a method for recognizing awakened students was circulating among professors.
The professor guessed Seonghyeon’s reason for taking leave in one try.
“Yes, well. It seems that is what happened.”
“Oh my, that is wonderful. What excellent news. Now that you are becoming a Hunter, you will be very busy, so you may rest for as long as you want.”
The professor’s affection for awakened students was tremendous.
Of course, it was only natural, since Awakened people were not easy to see anywhere.
“I would appreciate it if you allowed that.”
“This year has very good energy. Among our enrolled students, we even had one who got a job at a Hunter Guild.”
Oh…… Judging by the professor’s words, the energy really did seem good.
Although that person had not awakened, for a Non-Awakened person to get a job at a Guild was also like plucking a star from the sky.
That meant that senior must have been someone who had polished himself tremendously.
In a way, Seonghyeon felt that was even more impressive than awakening.
Thinking such thoughts, the leave-of-absence process was completed.
Then, near the university district’s eating alley,
Seonghyeon sat in a small restaurant that he and his friends had used as their hideout before he went to the military.
Across from him were two university classmates, Bae Gyu-seong and Kim Jae-woo, both extremely excited as they kept talking to him.
“Hey, what did it feel like when you awakened?”
“Was it not scary inside the dungeon?”
“Then do you earn as much as a big company employee in one day?”
“What skill do you use?”
“Whew…….”
“Wow, this bastard. You hid that you awakened, and now you are acting all high and mighty because you are a Hunter.”
Exactly.
It was not as though he had deliberately tried to hide it, but he had not gone out of his way to talk about it either.
How had they found out that he had awakened……?
If he had to guess, the teaching assistant had probably confirmed it while finishing his leave process, and the news had begun spreading from there.
And of all people, Bae Gyu-seong was close with the teaching assistant.
That guy had contacted him the fastest……. Thanks to that, Seonghyeon had been caught and seated on his way home.
“At least give me time to answer, you bastards.”
“I do not care. This is your fault, so you are paying for everything here today.”
“Owner, please lay out all the most expensive dishes you have.”
“If you do not eat everything, you are dead.”
“Wow! A Hunter is hitting people here! Someone please report him!”
Contrary to the somewhat rough conversation, the atmosphere was pleasant.
In truth, Seonghyeon felt grateful among them.
If these guys had called him out with bad intentions, they would not have brought him to this hideout, but to an expensive restaurant he had never been to before.
And even now, they were treating him no differently from usual.
Like that, the conversation continued as he answered each of their endless questions one by one.
Except he hid the fact that the skill he had awakened was Meteor…….
“But according to the professor, some senior seemed even more impressive?”
“A senior? Who?”
“I do not know the details, but he said someone got a job at a Guild even though he was not awakened.”
“Ah, that senior…….”
“Do you know him?”
“You know him well too. Kim Jin-ho…….”
Ah, that bastard?
Kim Jin-ho, a senior who was only one year above them.
From what he had heard, Kim Jin-ho had been born early in the year.
He was a lunatic who had been unusually sensitive about hierarchy and etiquette.
But now Seonghyeon had a question.
“How did a bastard like that get a job at a Guild?”
“Agreed. He was the guy who went out of contact every time there was a group project.”
As his friends all agreed, Kim Jin-ho had not been a diligent senior either.
He pushed all group projects onto his juniors and was the most active person only at drinking parties.
Hearing that someone like that had gotten a job at a Guild made Seonghyeon feel as though the world was turning incorrectly.
“……I heard recently that it does not seem to be a proper Guild.”
“Really? What is it like?”
“He thought it was a normal Guild, but suddenly they said it was a one-person Guild. He thought he would be doing administrative work, but apparently he is collecting Magic Stones?”
“Well, if that is the case, that could happen, could it not?”
“But he has been working there for three months now? He still has not been paid properly.”
Oho.
In one way, Seonghyeon thought it served him right.
A person who had tormented his juniors so much in university could hardly have gotten a job at a proper company.
As the saying went, you reaped what you sowed. That was exactly his situation.
“Not paying wages is serious, though. Why does he keep working there?”
“From what I heard, the president is a Hunter, and his skill duplicates Magic Stones or something…….”
“……What?”
A line he had heard many times before.
Seonghyeon searched his pocket and pulled out the business card he had received the previous day.
『[Brada Company]
Magic Stone Duplication, Appraisal, Loans.
“I am the person who came to help you.”
-Director Gong Yeong-beom』
Gong Yeong-beom.
The man who claimed he made money by duplicating Magic Stones…….
He had definitely said something like that too.
Perhaps Senior Kim Jin-ho was being used for a scam.
If it were just a slightly strange company, Seonghyeon could feel satisfied and leave it at that.
But if he was being used in a scam, the situation became serious…….
“Why? What is it? Who is this person?”
As expected, he was quick-witted.
Gyu-seong noticed Seonghyeon’s subtly changed reaction.
“It seems Senior Kim Jin-ho got tangled up with a scammer.”
“A scam? What do you mean?”
“I need to hear more to know for sure, but do you happen to have Senior Kim Jin-ho’s contact information?”
When Seonghyeon asked, Gyu-seong immediately searched through his contacts and found a phone number.
He was an unlikable senior, but now that something felt strange, they had to check.
Even if he had caused trouble, he was not someone who deserved to be scammed.
***
Seonghyeon moved to a café with his friends.
They needed to understand the situation properly…….
Then, twenty minutes later, a familiar-looking man entered the café.
“Oh, hello. Hello. It has been a long time, all of you.”
It was Kim Jin-ho, who had come running immediately after receiving Gyu-seong’s call.
“Hello. Have you been…… doing well?”
Seonghyeon was flustered when he saw Kim Jin-ho after so long.
He remembered him as rather plump, fitting his lazy personality and love of drinking.
But Kim Jin-ho, whom he faced now, was noticeably thin.
“Yes, I have been well. I heard from Gyu-seong that you became a Hunter? Congratulations.”
“Yes. Thank you, for now.”
“Ah, you already ordered drinks first? I should have bought them for you. Sorry, haha.”
This time, not only Seonghyeon but also his friends were flustered.
He was not someone who should be speaking like this.
While Kim Jin-ho went to order his coffee, everyone shared the same feeling.
“By the way, what made you all contact me? In truth, I was not exactly a good person.”
“While taking leave, I heard you had gotten a job at a Guild. But apparently, you have not been paid…….”
“Ah, ah, ah. That. I asked the president about it too, and he said that is just how the Guild system works.”
“…….”
“And because he is duplicating Magic Stones and increasing them before giving them to me. They are apparently continuing to multiply through his skill!”
Kim Jin-ho answered as though he was almost certain.
However, on his face was an ambiguous expression mixed with frustration and resentment.
Was it that when someone was in the middle of being scammed, they wanted to believe it even more?
To Seonghyeon, that seemed to be the situation.
“Have you confirmed it? That duplication skill.”
“The president said his skill can only be used in a certain place.”
“……I do not know every skill, but I have never heard of a skill with that kind of condition.”
When Seonghyeon said that, his friends’ atmosphere turned solemn, and Kim Jin-ho looked as if he was about to cry.
Seonghyeon carefully held out Gong Yeong-beom’s business card.
“Is it perhaps this company?”
“Brada? No, our Guild uses the initials ‘BRD.’”
What? Had he made too much of an assumption?
The situations had been so similar that he had thought it was certain.
Kim Jin-ho flipped the business card over and continued speaking.
“But the director’s name here is the same as the president’s. Gong Yeong-beom.”
Ah, it was right after all. This scammer.
When the situation lined up once again, Seonghyeon got chills at the fact that the uneasiness he had felt from Gong Yeong-beom had been real.
Only a little later did he realize that “BRD” was simply Brada written in English initials.
“Seonghyeon, do you not know anyone at the Hunter Association? Can you not report him somehow?”
Once it became almost certain that this was a scam, Kim Jin-ho looked as though he had given up, and Jae-woo stepped forward to ask.
“I do know someone at the Association, but reporting it now is dangerous.”
“……?”
“If we report him without knowing the scammer’s base and he runs away, Senior Jin-ho might end up taking the blame instead.”
“Huh…….”
“Whatever the case, you did help with the work…….”
In other words, now was the time to use a plan in reverse.
If they handed Magic Stones over to Gong Yeong-beom and followed him afterward, would they not be able to find the storage site for the Magic Stones stolen from Hunters?
“Senior, if you want to clear yourself of fraud suspicion, will you do as I say?”