"Kuhek!! Hngh, haa, hha."
A little later, just like he’d worried, not even a hair different, Lee Gyumin was sprawled facedown up ahead, puking his guts out.
Feeling a little sorry, Sihyun slowly patted Gyumin’s back as he hacked and gagged.
"Sorry. I came out in a hurry, so I couldn’t control the speed…."
"Hhaa… ah, n-no! It was a very fascinating experience, sir. Kh. The world is like taffy, it just… stretches, uwek. It’s too…."
"Haa…. Stop talking already…."
Please.
Even in the middle of this, Lee Gyumin was still running his mouth, so Sihyun sighed shallowly and patted his back with a bit more force.
It was his first time dealing with a type this sunny and talkative, so he couldn’t get used to this reaction at all.
"Hooa. I’m a bit better now. Thank you. Sir! But I’m kind of an assassin-type, so I’m pretty okay with speed, and you’re seriously amazing, sir!! As expected, my life-saving benefactor!"
"An assassin…."
A guy that talkative being an assassin-type. Or does he assassinate people with that chatter….?
When the class part that hadn’t been visible when he checked with Insight earlier got revealed, it was such a combination that felt like the worst match in the world that Sihyun ended up letting out a short, incredulous laugh.
Then Lee Gyumin, not even knowing what Sihyun was thinking, just loosened up completely and went “hehe” with a bright grin.
"Anyway, don’t do that next time. And since it was your younger sister’s request, go take care of her a bit."
"Ah!! My god. I, Lee Gyumin, am deeply moved! Then that means you saved my sister too?!"
Sihyun had brought it up to wrap up this meeting, but the moment he saw signs it was about to become the start of another conversation, he grabbed his forehead and shook his head side to side.
Just then, the surging mana that had been whipping behind them faded, and the Gate started to close.
Sihyun checked the hair burning a vivid red through the blizzard that was rapidly disappearing, and smiled without making it obvious.
He’d come this way in the first place because he was worried about Hajung, and after confirming her condition, even that worry had vanished, so there was nothing left to do here.
"Sir! Please tell me your contact info!!! Oh, right, and here’s my business card!"
Sihyun stared for a long time at the eroded terrain and the Gate that were disappearing like a lie, then turned his head again at the bright voice coming from behind and looked at him.
"And you said you’re going to the Association because of your Hunter ID, right?! If you have to get tested, it’s better to go tomorrow!"
"Tomorrow?"
"Yes! The date lines up perfectly!"
As if it were sudden content handed to him like a quest, Sihyun tilted his head, puzzled, and asked back. But at Gyumin’s next words, he kept nodding and let out a quiet breath of relief inside.
Turns out you couldn’t take the Hunter Association test any day, any time. The test only happened about once a month, so if he hadn’t known that, he would’ve gone there for nothing and ended up waiting another month.
Up until a moment ago, he’d thought Lee Gyumin was a bit of a clueless guy, but that thought blurred out quickly before it could become prejudice.
"Thanks for telling me. Then I’m going."
"Uh—hey! Wait a second!"
But even if his impression had changed, the chatter that looked like it would keep going after this was still a bit much, so Sihyun quickly left a farewell and jumped down to a quiet spot under the building.
Outside the alley, he could feel Hunters running around frantically to handle the aftermath of the disappearing Gate.
"Uh!!! Here! There are about thirty people unconscious here!!! Please send support, hurry! Next to the pharmacy!"
In the middle of that commotion, a voice got mixed in faintly, yelling that someone had found people.
His steps felt a little lighter. Now it was time to go to the cafe—the meeting place.
***
Tadak.
A little later, Sihyun’s toes touched down on the roof of the building where the cafe was.
'Right. The rooftop door in that building was locked. Well, they must’ve managed somehow.'
And only when he was basically at the cafe did Sihyun remember he’d left Lee Gyumin on the rooftop.
It felt like he could hear Lee Gyumin’s resentful voice from somewhere, but Sihyun walked into the cafe with a perfectly calm face.
And, not forgetting, he picked up the coffee he’d ordered, found the seat he’d originally been at, and plopped down heavily.
Sihyun immediately began carefully scanning the inside, quickly grasping the situation. It was still bustling, but maybe incidents like this weren’t completely unfamiliar—under the staff’s direction, it was calming down fast.
"Gasp. It’s Hunter Lee Hajung!"
"Holy shit. The Fire Queen!"
"Kyaaah. What do I do, she’s insanely cool!"
But as if to mock the staff’s efforts, the cafe started getting loud again.
And Sihyun, hood pulled deep as he stared at his phone, flinched at the exclamations coming from all directions and hurriedly raised a hand to cover his mouth.
"You crazy bastard. I can totally see you holding back laughter."
At that moment, Lee Hajung flopped down on the sofa across from Sihyun and muttered roughly in a low voice.
"Kh. Quee-n. ma’am."
"Haa…. You ungrateful bastard. I should just kick you out of the house starting today. You know? I’m the one keeping that place going for now."
"Ah, sorry. Sorry. My bad."
Only then did Sihyun force the laughter that kept leaking out to stop, cleared his throat a few times, lifted his head, and met Hajung’s eyes. Aside from the earrings decorating her ears flamboyantly and the rings on all ten fingers, she looked so neat you couldn’t even think she was someone who’d just been fighting.
"No major damage here?"
"Yeah. No big problems."
Of course, he couldn’t know if there really had been no big problems, but by the atmosphere it seemed like it, so Sihyun fumbled the words a little awkwardly.
But maybe she hadn’t asked out of intense curiosity—Hajung, who’d been tapping the table lightly with her fingertips without saying much, hesitated a bit, then opened her mouth.
"So… about the house, first."
"Ah, that—until when’s the grace period?"
"Huh?"
"The landlord raised the jeonse deposit like it’s insane. So that’s why you brought it up."
Hajung wasn’t the type to help and then demand credit for it. If she kept talking about the house, then there had to be circumstances she couldn’t avoid.
And even talking like she couldn’t handle it herself, with that pride. In the end, it became certain the landlord had unreasonably jacked up the jeonse amount.
Just three or four years ago—back when things were normal, with no Gates—this kind of shameless strong-arming was impossible.
But now, it felt like he couldn’t even gather the energy to check what the hell had happened. Of course, the stroke of fortune from earlier had an effect too. Yeah, that was a stroke of fortune.
"Haa…. I’m sorry."
"Why the hell are you sorry? Honestly, even if I got on my knees and begged, thanking you, it still wouldn’t be enough, so don’t say you’re sorry. It’s a house—we can just move, so what."
"Sure, but…. You’re going to leave Seoul completely?"
Without answering, Sihyun smiled faintly and took a sip of the coffee he’d ordered with blood money.
He didn’t trust Lee Gyumin one hundred percent yet. Still, the aura he felt from him wasn’t bad, and Sihyun trusted his instincts. And if Gyumin had been messing with him, Sihyun also had the power to get revenge.
'Still, the second son of LK Group, huh. He won’t stiff me over money just because it’s a waste, right.'
Sihyun recalled Lee Gyumin’s background he’d searched up as soon as he arrived.
LK Group. One of the companies that had two Hunter guilds under it and monopolized the Magic Stones and items spewed out from God’s Mine in Gangwon Province.
It was a background that made Lee Gyumin’s spotless personality and loose spending instantly understandable. That said, Sihyun didn’t particularly want to get close, and since he was planning to take the money and leave this place to go live out in the countryside anyway, he nodded at Hajung’s words without hesitation.
'Once I pay off all the debts, and add the jeonse deposit and whatever money’s left, I should be able to buy a small, modest house in the countryside.'
In the end, Sihyun wrapped up a meeting that had turned a bit different from its original purpose and went back home.
Then he brushed off the dust and ash tangled up inside his hair and looked around the terrifyingly quiet house once.
Even though it felt like things were going smoothly, his mood wasn’t all that pleasant. Sihyun neatly lined up the scattered items as he tidied and headed for the bathroom.
"All I have to do is find a place first. Then it’ll be fine."
A small voice slipped in between the loud crashing of the water. Sihyun stared blankly, then slapped both cheeks a couple times and quickly dried his slightly stiff body.
It felt unfamiliar that his body had gone limp like this, just because he’d used some strength for the first time in a while.
After showering, Sihyun slowly came out of the bathroom and, like he always did, circulated Inner Power and evaporated the water left on his body in an instant.
Then, remembering that husky voice that always nagged him like crazy for not wearing clothes, he snorted a quiet laugh, flopped onto the bed for the first time in a while, wriggled, and crawled under the blanket.
"Let’s check the notifications first."
A few hours ago.
From the moment Sihyun faced the Gate, translucent notification windows had started popping up like crazy in front of his eyes. Of course, he’d closed them right away because they were making a mess of his vision, and after that he’d completely forgotten what had happened.
[system: Stamina increases by 3.]
[system: You have learned Heavenly Mirror Bright King Step (A-rank).]
[system: You have learned Heavenly Escape Form (B-rank).]
[system: Agility increases by 2]
[system: You have learned Shura Heavenly Annihilation Fist (S-rank).]
[system: You have learned Heavenly Demon Blazing Flame Dance (S-rank).]
.
.
.
[system: The related martial arts fuse into Heavenly Demon Divine Art (SS-rank).]
"Wow…. This is kind of convenient."
Before, to register a skill, you either had to get it as a quest reward, or find a secret manual and read the contents—there was an annoying process you had to go through.
Of course, thanks to that, he could fill his head with all kinds of knowledge like he’d become a real murim master, but annoying was still annoying.
But now, maybe because back then he’d already stuffed those martial arts into his head, even forms he used without any special procedure registered as skills instantly, and it didn’t feel bad—like he was getting paid back a little for the hardship from before.
"Later, I should make time and fill up the skill window more."
Sihyun murmured softly as he swept his eyes over the window where the skills he used often were lined up.
Then, what had happened back then—when he’d suspected even Yeon Taewoon might be using something like the System—came to mind, and a small laugh slipped out.
About two years after he’d started living there. Back when he was still ordinary, when he was at the stage where just the fact that he could use martial arts made him puff his shoulders a little.
But that arrogance quietly vanished after he tried to act like he knew everything while teaching young Taewoon about martial arts, only to have every last bit of his foundation stripped clean in a week.
Back then, maybe it had felt so absurd that he’d fallen into deep frustration and even doubted a little kid—but of course, Taewoon had just been absurdly outstanding.
"Even though you probably knew I wasn’t that amazing, thanks for not running away and sticking around."