The next morning, Eun Seo-jin completed his discharge procedures and left the hospital.
“You must not enter a dungeon before permission from the Association is granted.”
“Yes.”
The outside world, facing him for the first time in three years. The sunlight was dazzling. The cold spring wind brushed his cheeks. The noise of people coming and going on the street rang in his ears.
Everything felt unfamiliar, but at the same time, everything felt vividly alive.
Eun Seo-jin took out his phone and called Song Ji-hu. The dial tone rang twice, and the call connected.
“This is Eun Seo-jin.”
– Yeah.
Even though it was morning, there was no trace of sleepiness in his voice. He had probably been awake since dawn.
“Where are you right now?”
– Home. Why?
“I will come to see you.”
– …All right.
Song Ji-hu gave him the address. Eun Seo-jin wrote it in his phone’s notes and furrowed his brow.
The outskirts of Seoul.
A neighborhood whose name he had never even heard of. An area close to a slum, dense with studio apartment buildings.
‘Why would someone with that kind of ability be in a place like that…?’
His doubts deepened.
An ability that could treat mental contamination. A talent every guild would send offers to while proposing several billion won. Why would someone like that live in an old studio apartment district?
Was he uninterested in money? Or did he not even have the room to care about something like money?
‘It must mean that person’s goal is that desperate.’
Eun Seo-jin hailed a taxi.
“Please go here.”
When he showed the driver the address, the driver’s expression turned strange.
“Pardon? Here? This place is a bit….”
“Please go quickly. Even just nearby.”
At Eun Seo-jin’s cold gaze, the driver could not continue speaking.
The taxi set off, and Seoul’s scenery swept past outside the window. As they left the busy district, the buildings gradually grew older. Instead of high-rises, shabby shops and old residential neighborhoods appeared.
Eun Seo-jin looked out the window and thought.
‘That person is not someone who wants honor or wealth.’
That much was certain. The emotions he had felt in the mental imagery world. There had not been even a single gram of greed or vanity in them.
A person running toward only one goal.
‘I will know when the day comes that I am qualified.’
And he intended to do his best to earn that qualification.
“You need to get out here! Cars can’t enter there at all because it’s an alley!”
The taxi stopped.
Eun Seo-jin looked out the window. The entrance to an old studio apartment district. Exterior walls with peeling paint, rusted stairs, faded curtains hanging in the windows.
It was worlds apart from the apartment where he had lived.
Eun Seo-jin got out of the car and entered the building.
He went up the stairs to the third floor and stood before the door at the end of the hallway.
He pressed the doorbell, but there was no response. When he knocked, only then did the door open.
Song Ji-hu was standing there. The same calm expression as the night before. But there were faint dark circles beneath his eyes. It seemed he had been doing something all night.
“Come in.”
Song Ji-hu stepped aside.
The moment Eun Seo-jin entered the room.
His steps stopped.
One bed. One small desk. That was all. Even the light coming through the window was faint. Mold stains blotched the walls, and the air was damp and musty.
The ability to treat mental contamination. The power to dive into an S-rank Hunter’s mental imagery and end his nightmare.
A person with such an ability. Living in a place like this. Eun Seo-jin’s face hardened.
“…What is this?”
A low and cold voice. Song Ji-hu shrugged.
“It’s my room. Why? Is something wrong?”
“Why are you staying in a place like this when you have that kind of ability?”
“It’s just a place to sleep. I spend more time outside anyway.”
At that answer, Eun Seo-jin’s eyes grew even sharper.
“I absolutely cannot accept this.”
Eun Seo-jin shook his head and took out his phone.
“I will resolve it. The matter of your residence….”
Song Ji-hu looked at Eun Seo-jin. Silence flowed for a moment.
“No need. It’s something that’ll be resolved on its own anyway. Today, at that.”
“Today…? Your residence?”
At Song Ji-hu’s words, Eun Seo-jin tilted his head.
“The Association President meeting.”
“Ah. What do you intend to discuss with him?”
Was the Association President going to give him a house or something?
“First, guild establishment.”
Eun Seo-jin’s eyes widened.
“A guild? Already?”
“It’s basic. There’s nothing I can do alone. In any case, I’m also a C-rank Hunter.”
Song Ji-hu looked out the window. The cloudy sky showed through the narrow pane.
“There’s a mountain of things to do. To do all of them, I need a foundation that lets me move freely.”
“And that is a guild?”
“Yeah.”
Song Ji-hu turned his head and looked at Eun Seo-jin.
“And to establish that guild immediately, I need an S-rank Hunter.”
Eun Seo-jin immediately understood what those words meant.
“…Are you referring to me?”
“Is there another S-rank here?”
Song Ji-hu gave a faint laugh.
“It’s possible because you’re here.”
Eun Seo-jin slowly lowered his head.
“Understood. If you need me.”
Song Ji-hu checked his phone and rose from his seat.
“They say the car has arrived. Let’s go.”
Eun Seo-jin followed behind Song Ji-hu and thought.
‘This person calculated everything from the very beginning.’
Saving him, drawing the Association’s attention. Perhaps he was even calculating what came after this.
If so, the role given to him was clear. To become this person’s sword.
“Please get in.”
When they descended to the first floor, Yoon Yeong-su was waiting with the car door open.
Perhaps because a luxury car had appeared in such an old studio apartment district, gazes could be felt from here and there.
Once Song Ji-hu and Eun Seo-jin got in, the car door closed, and the vehicle smoothly set off.
Song Ji-hu looked at the scenery sweeping past outside the window and slightly lifted the corner of his mouth.
‘Everything is step by step.’
He had obtained the finest sword called Eun Seo-jin, and he had also captured the Association’s attention. Based on that, he intended to obtain exactly what he wanted.
First of all, Korea lacked the power to protect him fully in the international community.
‘That’s exactly why it becomes the best stage for my activities.’
In a word, he was like a chicken rib—awkward to swallow, too precious to throw away. If any specific country tried to eat him, there would be far too much it had to endure.
That was why Korea, which was taking a pragmatic stance within the balance of power, ironically became the best gray zone.
The current Association President was also a very transparent person in some ways, which would make things easier.
***
The forty-story building standing tall in the middle of Gangnam was the heart of South Korea’s Hunter administration.
At the same time, it showed where the country’s power structure had shifted after the Great Cataclysm.
When they got out of the sedan that glided into the underground parking garage, the elevator was waiting.
There were still about ten minutes left until the appointed time of three o’clock. Eun Seo-jin glanced at Song Ji-hu standing beside him.
Even though they were right before meeting the Association President, his expression was relaxed, as if he were going into his own living room, with no tension whatsoever.
‘Truly… I can’t figure out what’s inside him.’
Ding-
The doors opened with a cheerful chime.
The first thing they saw was a long corridor, and the various conference rooms and offices arranged on both sides. At the end of the corridor was the Association President’s office.
But the secretary’s steps headed not to the office, but to a small conference room beside it.
“This way.”
Opening the door, the secretary showed an awkward expression.
“I apologize, but the Association President’s previous meeting has not ended yet, so he may be a little late.”
The secretary bowed politely.
“Is that so? How long will it take?”
“I do not know the details. However, it should not take long.”
Song Ji-hu nodded, pulled out a conference room chair, dropped into it, and leaned the chair as far back as it would go.
“Wake me when it’s over.”
“Pardon…?”
The secretary asked back in confusion at the sight of Song Ji-hu leaning the chair back and closing his eyes as if he were in his own living room, but his eyes were already closed.
The secretary looked at Eun Seo-jin as if flustered, but he only shrugged.
***
It was fifteen minutes past three in the afternoon.
An Association employee carefully woke Song Ji-hu.
“The meeting is over. The Association President is waiting.”
“Mm… Fifteen minutes.”
Song Ji-hu, now awake, let out a long yawn, rose from his seat, and headed to the conference room.
“This way.”
Song Ji-hu and Eun Seo-jin entered the open Association President’s office.
Though the space was quite large, it gave the feeling of being full. Various documents and books, and even a screen filling one wall.
Song Ji-hu lightly clasped the hand of the man who had risen from his seat and extended it to him.
‘Park Jeong-ho.’
The South Korean Hunter Association President, a former A-rank Hunter. Though he was in his early sixties, he was a man who maintained a straight posture and sharp eyes.
“Sit.”
Park Jeong-ho gestured toward the sofa. Once Song Ji-hu and Eun Seo-jin sat, he also sat across from them.
Sunlight flickered faintly from the floor-to-ceiling window behind Park Jeong-ho, its blinds drawn.
“Song Ji-hu.”
Park Jeong-ho’s gaze swept over Song Ji-hu.
“Yes.”
“A C-rank mental-type Hunter. Holder of the Mental Barrier skill.”
“That is correct.”
“And.”
Park Jeong-ho leaned forward.
“The one who recovered a late-stage mental contamination patient.”
The air in the office grew heavy.
“So, how were the Association chairs? Comfortable to sleep in?”
“They were uncomfortable for a nap.”
“Right. They are not comfortable.”
Park Jeong-ho let out a “Pfft-” of laughter.
“So how did you do it? Mental contamination treatment.”
This was how Park Jeong-ho handled people.
Using his position to seize and release the atmosphere, unsettle others, and obtain the answers he wanted.
But given the nature of the matter, Park Jeong-ho’s response was a little hasty.
“You are asking me to reveal a trade secret?”
Song Ji-hu answered calmly. Did everyone in the world not know? That no one revealed everything related to their skills.
“There is a method. That is all you need to know.”
“What? Haha… Well, now.”
Park Jeong-ho laughed as if he had taken a blow. And from, outwardly, merely a C-rank Hunter in his mid-to-late twenties at that.
“In regard to this matter, the question of how is not important.”
Song Ji-hu placed a hand on Eun Seo-jin’s shoulder.
“What matters is the result. Is there any proof more certain than this?”
“That is true.”
Park Jeong-ho’s gaze turned to Eun Seo-jin. He looked so normal that it was hard to believe he had reached the brink of going berserk.
“…Hunter Eun Seo-jin.”
“Yes, Mr. President.”
“How is your condition?”
After thinking for a moment, Eun Seo-jin answered.
“…Clear.”
“Clear?”
“My head is clear. Mr. President, you know as well, do you not? What things happen the moment mental contamination begins.”
Park Jeong-ho leaned back against the backrest and let out a sigh.
Olfactory hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, distortions, compulsions, nightmares.
All of these appeared from the early stage.
And from that point on, it became an endless fight against oneself. There were more than a few Hunters who could not endure that fight, whose symptoms worsened until they died.
“But… a method has appeared to solve a problem the entire world could not solve for twenty years. Is that it…? And in Korea, no less.”
He looked at Song Ji-hu’s face, which was still watching him with calm eyes.
“It is a revolution, quite literally.”
Park Jeong-ho exhaled a sigh mixed with many meanings.
Sometimes, possessing a power one could not protect was worse than not possessing it at all. Like the man right in front of him, or Korea’s current situation.
But… what if that power was the only one?
“What do you want?”
“Please approve guild establishment.”
Song Ji-hu also answered directly.
“…A guild?”
“Yes.”
“Guild establishment… As expected, that is what you brought out.”
Park Jeong-ho’s eyebrows rose.
“Hunter Eun Seo-jin, an S-rank, will be joining me.”
Song Ji-hu shrugged.
“Is that true? Even though once it becomes known that you have recovered, every guild in the world will come running?”
“Yes.”
Park Jeong-ho tapped the armrest of his chair and looked back and forth between the two of them.
“If you create an independent guild, it cannot serve as a fence that protects you from predators all over the world. Even so, do you intend to create a guild on your own?”
Park Jeong-ho leaned forward and looked at Song Ji-hu.
“Would it not be better to become a state-affiliated Hunter, since that would give us a clear justification to protect you? In that case, I think we could handle it well enough.”
Although he had retired, the heavy presence unique to an A-rank Hunter flowed from him, but Song Ji-hu merely stared at him indifferently.
“I refuse.”
“…Good.”
Even as Park Jeong-ho withdrew his pressure, he could not take his eyes off Song Ji-hu’s.
No confusion, no strain, no arrogance. They were terribly dry eyes, containing nothing at all.
“There are conditions.”
Park Jeong-ho raised a finger.
“One. The priority order of treatment targets will be announced according to the Association’s guidelines. Two. A person dispatched by the Association will be appointed as an executive officer of the guild. Three. You will not act against the Association, and you will actively cooperate during national emergencies.”
Park Jeong-ho’s eyes flashed greedily as he held out documents he had prepared in advance.
‘Yes. Now this is like Park Jeong-ho.’
Song Ji-hu looked into Park Jeong-ho’s eyes and grinned.