For now, Song Ji-hu began writing a list for the first step.
What mattered for his future activities was having operational backing, and power that could not be pushed around.
“Hmm… The most important thing right now is.”
[Secured Resources]
– Guild
– Funds
– Information network
– Weapon (Ryu Jin commission in progress)
The first blade Song Ji-hu could wield was his ability to heal mental contamination, and the second blade was Eun Seo-jin.
“I wonder how many people I can heal with this. Heal as many as possible….”
His finger stopped in midair, and Song Ji-hu’s ash-gray eyes sank coldly.
‘No. Don’t misunderstand. I’m not a philanthropist. I’m even less of a saint.’
Across the world, there were tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Hunters suffering from mental contamination. Among them, there would be people with unjust stories, and there would be good people.
‘I’ll save the most important people first.’
There was one thing more than 100 years had taught him.
If he was swayed only by emotion, he would die. If he tried to save everyone, he would end up saving no one.
And in the first place, once he killed the Abyssal Monarch, everything would be solved.
Song Ji-hu drew a red circle around the top line of the list, the [Guild] item.
A fence for legally growing his own forces. A minimum foothold for minimizing the Association’s interference and freely swinging his blade.
In his previous lives, founding a guild had been a continuous series of hardships from the very beginning.
Enormous funds, strict examinations, and above all, the condition of having “at least five Awakened, including one A-rank or higher Hunter.”
Starting from the bottom, it had taken him more than two full years just to put up a proper guild sign.
But this life?
Song Ji-hu’s eyes gleamed sharply.
‘There’s Eun Seo-jin.’
[If an S-rank Hunter serves as the core member, guild establishment is immediately approved without separate personnel or capital requirements.]
Since the existence of an S-rank Hunter itself was a walking conglomerate and a free pass ticket, the benefits were tremendous as well.
Besides, tomorrow, he had a meeting scheduled with the Association President, the highest authority in South Korea’s Hunter industry.
‘Luck is following me. Tomorrow, I need to make sure guild approval is firmly nailed down.’
The initiative was on his side. Now, and all the way forward.
Song Ji-hu set down his phone, lay on the bed, and stared blankly up at the yellowed wallpaper on the ceiling.
The black mist that had brushed past him in the mental imagery world. The blood-red eyes flashing within it. The mocking voice that had rung out as if engraved directly into his soul.
“How amusing, my little farmer. I shall look forward to this life.”
He clenched his teeth. Hard enough for a grinding sound to rasp through them.
‘You’re watching, aren’t you? The sight of the toy you broke standing back up again.’
Song Ji-hu clenched his fist until it turned white.
This life would certainly be different. Certainly.
***
At the same time, in a VIP hospital room.
Eun Seo-jin stood by the window and stared blankly outside the hospital room.
Seoul’s nightscape spread out widely beyond the window.
It was a view similar to three years ago, but the world Eun Seo-jin felt was completely different from back then.
‘I’m… still alive without dying.’
Because until only a few hours ago, he had been no different from dead.
“Because I need your sword.”
That man had surely said such a thing because he truly needed his sword. To cut something, or to bring something down.
Eun Seo-jin recalled, without order, the emotions he had felt in the mental imagery world.
‘What on earth is his goal… that he didn’t collapse even while feeling that deep pain, frustration, and despair?’
There was one thing he felt he clearly understood about the destination those emotions were aimed toward. Revenge.
But it was not unfamiliar. Because it resembled the emotion he himself had failed to let go of even as he had been consumed by contamination for three years.
‘Except his was so deep it can’t even be compared to mine….’
Knock, knock-
At the sound of someone knocking on the door, Eun Seo-jin turned his head.
“Hunter Eun Seo-jin, it is time for your final examination.”
It was a nurse’s voice.
“Come in.”
The door opened, and the medical staff came in, dragging in a heap of machines.
“The mental contamination level measurement is finished, and we just need to run a few final tests.”
“What was… the final number?”
“From 98 to 12.3. It really makes no sense, right? The professor is already in an uproar. He says this is paper-worthy. That it is a medical revolution that has to be announced to the whole world.”
Listening to the unnecessary extra information, Eun Seo-jin entrusted his body to the medical staff. All sorts of devices were attached to his body, and blood was drawn from his arm and put into a machine.
“It will take about an hour for the results to come out. Should we tell you tomorrow morning? Or should we tell you right away?”
“Tell me right away, please.”
“Yes, I will relay that to the professor.”
When the medical staff bowed and left the hospital room, Eun Seo-jin turned on the tablet screen to check what had happened over the past three years while he had been imprisoned.
.
.
.
.
.
“This is astonishing.”
The attending doctor, who had come in less than an hour later, checked the tablet and marveled.
“Your contamination level has fallen further from 12%. It is currently 9.7%. Practically at the level of a complete cure.”
“…Is that so?”
“Yes. This is unprecedented. I have no idea what the method was, but… this is a result that could turn the whole world upside down with its announcement alone.”
Even at the doctor’s highly excited voice, Eun Seo-jin answered calmly.
“Are there any cases of mental contamination being healed other than me?”
“As far as revealed cases go, you are the first, Mr. Eun Seo-jin. The first in the entire world. If the rumor gets out… it will be no joke. People will probably flock here from all over the world.”
Eun Seo-jin only nodded slightly without answering and murmured.
“I’m… the first….”
Though there were other Hunters with outstanding abilities besides him, Song Ji-hu had saved his life first.
‘I owe him my life.’
A debt that had to be repaid.
‘Yes. If what he wants is my sword.’
He clenched his fist.
‘I’ll gladly offer it.’
Eun Seo-jin looked at his own hands. Shame washed over him at the hands of a swordsman that had rusted over three years.
‘I’ll have to work tirelessly. So I won’t be ashamed.’
For now, the start was rehabilitation. No matter how much of an S-rank Hunter he was, three years was quite a long time.
***
At dawn that day, the Hunter community was turned upside down.
[[Emergency] Rumor Going Around That Eun Seo-jin’s Mental Contamination Was Treated]
[Author : Anonymous Hunter / Views : 1,146,950]
[Is this real? This is a photo supposedly taken at the Hunter hospital, and Eun Seo-jin, who became late-stage mental contamination three years ago, is walking around fine. The photo is a little shaky, but that silver hair is definitely Eun Seo-jin.]
↳ Lol, why would Eun Seo-jin be walking around? He’s late-stage mental contamination anyway, so he’ll be disposed of soon.
↳ Isn’t it edited? lol
↳ Edited? In this day and age?
↳ Lol, mental contamination was healed? It’d be more believable if I said I got promoted to S-rank tomorrow.
Because the subject was what it was, comments from community users began exploding.
↳ Someone fact-check this. Mental contamination has never been treated once since the Gates opened.
↳ lol Emilia Jones’s limit is only delaying it, too.
↳ The money poured into trying to cure this around the world over the past ten-plus years must be in the quadrillions of won, right? And suddenly it happens in Korea?
↳ This is attention-seeking troll bait. What are the admins doing? Report this bastard.
Most of the comments were full of mockery and cynicism. It was a natural reaction.
Mental contamination was a curse no Hunter in the world could avoid.
But it had been treated in Korea? And a late-stage patient could walk around fine on top of that?
↳ But the man in the photo does look like Eun Seo-jin. Looking at that unique silver hair and build.
↳ That means it’s fake. Korean bastards got a lethal dose of national pride from a doctored photo.
Just as that spark was about to die out, one photo reignited the community in an instant. On a scale incomparable to before.
[[Verification] I Work at the Hunter Hospital. This Is Real.]
[Author : Anonymous Hunter / Views : 4,540,451]
[I saw it myself this afternoon. It’s Eun Seo-jin, and it’s true that his mental contamination level dropped. All medical staff at our hospital were called in for an emergency. The director personally ordered a retest, and the result was the same. It even dropped from 98 to 9.7. Believe it or don’t. The rumor is going to spread soon anyway.]
The atmosphere began to change because the post had even verified the writer’s employee ID.
↳ That employee ID is legit, though? If you forge that employee ID hologram, you get punished immediately.
↳ Wow. Holy shit… then it’s real? He really fixed it?
↳ But won’t that insider get fired for leaking information?
↳ Is getting fired the problem right now? History is about to change.
Once the floodgates opened, other testimonies began pouring in.
[You know the C-rank Hunter with Mental Barrier who appeared recently, right? That Hunter treated him.]
↳ lol A C-rank fixed an S-rank? Go write a novel.
↳ Reading this suddenly makes the credibility plummet.
↳ Mental Barrier is for delay or protection, not healing.
↳ Of course he hid his skill, lol. Do you reveal all your skills?
↳ lol Exactly. If this is actually true, he’s basically a god now. The whole world will come running at him with blank checks.
Mental contamination treatment was already hard to believe, but the one who had done it was a C-rank. Wasn’t the material too unrealistic?
As believable and unbelievable testimonies poured out and Korea’s communities burned fiercely, the incident eventually spread to communities in other countries.
From America and Japan to Europe and China. Hunter communities across the world began boiling over.
Posts in all kinds of languages poured in. Is it real? Was it really treated? What happened? Or had the Korean Hunter Association announced anything?
[For reference, that C-rank Hunter’s name is Song Ji-hu. He’s the guy who was briefly mentioned not long ago.]
[Author : Anonymous Hunter / Views : 2,540,451]
↳ I don’t know about mental contamination treatment, but either way, Mental Barrier alone is huge.
↳ If he has that skill, would mental contamination rise more slowly?
↳ Wouldn’t it? Finally, Korea has a Hunter like Emilia Jones!
↳ The Hunter Association needs to grab him no matter what, even if they have to tear out their foundation pillars.
↳ Yeah, exactly. Think about the treatment Emilia Jones receives just for having a mental contamination delay skill. Every Hunter practically crawls at her feet.
↳ True. Honestly, Mental Barrier alone makes him Emilia Jones-level.
Because of mental contamination treatment, Song Ji-hu’s name began being engraved into Hunter communities around the world.
[I’m curious. Did Song Ji-hu really fix Eun Seo-jin, and what kind of skill is Mental Barrier? He hasn’t entered a Gate yet, right?]
↳ Right. Looks like he hasn’t gone in yet. Maybe rumors will spread once he does?
↳ Definitely. Someone hurry up and post about it. I’d seriously be willing to pay a fortune to be healed.
↳ lol Get in line first. If it’s real, people from all over the world are going to line up.
The gazes of Hunter Associations and nations all over the world began turning toward Korea.
Because even if only one of the rumors circulating through the communities was true, it was reason enough to make contact with that Hunter named Song Ji-hu.