“Y-You…! Hic! If there is anything you need, please feel free to tell us!”
A Special Division Hunter shouted with the rigid discipline of a soldier standing at attention.
“…….”
Kim Si-hyeon merely stared at the Special Division Hunter without even answering.
“Eek…….”
He had definitely taken Death’s Illusion.
It was a forbidden narcotic powerful enough to keep a Hunter smiling even while facing an S-rank monster.
And yet, right now—
GURK.
Death’s Illusion had no effect whatsoever.
“Min-su!”
“He fainted….”
“Take him to the infirmary immediately! No. I’ll carry him myself.”
“No, Director! You need to stay here! I’ll take him.”
“How can a Hunter who abandons a comrade call himself a true Hunter?! I will lead by example!”
“Director! Directoooor!”
Park Min-ho quickly grabbed the collapsed Hunter and escaped the building.
Silence descended once again.
“…….”
Even then, Kim Si-hyeon simply walked over to the sofa and sat down as though none of this had anything to do with him.
HUSH.
The silence was suffocating.
“Would you like me to bring you something?”
It was Choi Ji-woong who finally broke it.
“…I want to look around.”
“Look around? Would you like a tour of the Association building?”
Nod.
Kim Si-hyeon nodded.
“Most of the regular Hunters have already gone home, so it should be fine. Let’s go.”
At Choi Ji-woong’s guidance, Kim Si-hyeon slowly stood, glanced at the Special Division Hunters, and then left the building.
And the instant he disappeared—
“Haaah! Haaah!”
Every Special Division Hunter collapsed to the floor and began gasping for breath.
“Crazy. This is crazy….”
“He’s insane!”
“Did you see his eyes? Are those the eyes of someone looking at another human being?”
“It felt like he was measuring where to stab us to kill us in one blow…!”
“Damn it! I would rather go into an S-rank Gate!”
Their shocked cries filled the room.
“It feels like the effect of Death’s Illusion disappeared completely.”
“How can someone possess that much killing intent?”
The Special Division Hunters had been through countless ordeals.
“What the hell… kind of person is he? Even for a Returnee…….”
One Hunter spoke, unable to hide even his trembling pupils.
“Just… how many has he killed…?”
A Hunter’s killing intent was not simply related to how strong the Hunter was.
Blood and souls accumulated on a person.
As they piled higher and higher, they eventually formed a killing intent that could no longer be concealed.
“You know I met Jack the Ripper once.”
One Hunter, who had only barely collected himself after downing a glass of ice water, spoke.
“Ah.”
Jack the Ripper.
It was the alias of a legendary Red Hunter.
His estimated rank was S-rank.
He was considered one of the worst and most vicious Hunters alive, and he had never once been captured.
The Korea Hunter Association had even dispatched several Special Division Hunters to an operation to arrest Jack the Ripper.
“They said the number he killed was over two thousand.”
The number of lives Jack the Ripper had taken exceeded two thousand.
“Right. The estimate was closer to three thousand.”
“My fingertips trembled, and my heart pounded. Normal people probably would have fainted on the spot, but we’re Special Division Hunters, remember?”
They lived close to death and were willing to risk their lives.
To people like them—
“Honestly, his killing intent was only about the level of a powerful monster.”
“Then….”
Jack the Ripper’s killing intent had been nothing more than an unpleasant sensation they could overcome.
But the Slaughterer, Kim Si-hyeon—
“…Tens of thousands.”
The Hunter who had met Jack the Ripper spoke cautiously.
“Maybe even more than a hundred thousand.”
“…….”
That was his estimate of how many lives the Slaughterer had taken, judging purely from the sheer weight of his killing intent.
“Maybe, just maybe….”
The Hunter quietly swallowed the words that perhaps the number had surpassed a million.
“Even if he is a Returnee, does it make sense for us to accept a monster like that?”
“I’m more amazed by Choi Ji-woong. How can that bastard act completely fine around him?”
“…Do not try to find out.”
“Why?”
“I asked him….”
“And?”
With a deep sigh filled with concern and respect, the Hunter answered.
“He said he took five doses of Death’s Illusion.”
“……? Isn’t that a lethal dose?”
“That bastard has Poison Resistance. That is how he made it into the Special Division in the first place.”
“Even so…!”
Perhaps enough time had passed since Kim Si-hyeon left, because they were gradually beginning to calm down.
“I don’t think I can get along with that Returnee……. How am I supposed to work on the same team as a mass murderer?”
“Same.”
“Me too.”
That was when—
CREEEAK.
The door quietly opened, and Choi Ji-woong and Kim Si-hyeon stepped inside.
“Hunter Kim Si-hyeon, did you enjoy your tour~?”
Every Special Division Hunter waved both hands and greeted him enthusiastically.
Maybe it was because this world had not been destroyed.
The Special Division Hunters were kind.
There was one disappointing thing, though.
‘I wanted to talk to them a little.’
They were people.
Living people who were not zombies.
Meeting that many people at once felt like something that had happened several decades ago.
“…Is something making you uncomfortable?”
Choi Ji-woong asked.
“…A little.”
“A little…? What exactly is bothering you? J-Just a moment!”
Choi Ji-woong hurriedly pulled a small medicine bottle from inside his clothes and gulped it down.
He had been doing that since the lessons before.
His health must have been quite poor.
“Whew. If you tell me what the problem is, I’ll correct it.”
Choi Ji-woong asked with a somewhat dazed expression.
“That’s not it.”
It was embarrassing to admit that I simply found dealing with people difficult.
The Special Division Hunters had even prepared a welcome ceremony for me.
It would be rude to show them that I felt uncomfortable around them.
“…I’ll handle it myself.”
“Handle it… yourself?”
Choi Ji-woong suddenly clenched his fist.
Meanwhile, the two of us arrived at another Association building.
There were two things I had to do on my first day.
The first was introducing myself to the Special Division Hunters.
And the second—
“I’ll ask you one more time. Are you truly all right with this?”
“I’m fine.”
“Hunters tend to be quite sensitive about having their abilities and mana measured. The higher their rank, the more sensitive they become.”
Choi Ji-woong repeated what he had explained before.
“That is why promotion evaluations are usually conducted through Gate clears, with only a basic mana measurement otherwise….”
“Didn’t you say Association Hunters are different?”
“That is true. But you are an exception, Hunter Kim Si-hyeon.”
An exception.
“Forget it.”
I did not need special treatment like that.
‘This isn’t the world I came from, but…’
It was the world I would have to live in from now on.
‘I can’t keep acting like a burden forever.’
I already knew that Choi Ji-woong and the Association were doing a great deal for me.
A comfortable home.
Cold water.
Clean clothes.
And, most importantly, an unlimited supply of instant cup noodles.
In my old world, that level of consideration would have been no different from giving someone everything you owned.
“We sincerely appreciate your consideration, Hunter Kim Si-hyeon. Could you please stand in the center of the training ground?”
Following Choi Ji-woong’s instructions, I entered the training ground and stood in the middle.
-Ah, ah. Microphone test. Can you hear me clearly?
I nodded at Choi Ji-woong’s voice.
-You said the world you were in was filled with zombies, or rather, Undead Monsters, correct? It must have been truly horrific.
Horrific.
I had forgotten emotions like that a long time ago.
-What weapon did you mainly use?
My memories of the day I first fell into this world and met the Hunters were hazy.
-There are several types of weapons on the rack beside you. Please choose the weapon you used most often, or whichever weapon you find most comfortable for hunting.
So this process was necessary for me as well.
This was a world where superhumans called Hunters existed.
A world where monsters existed.
By contrast—
‘There was nothing special about me in my world.’
If anything, I had merely been an ordinary person.
“It wasn’t hunting.”
Just—
“Survival.”
An ordinary person who had survived for a very long time.
Kim Si-hyeon stood before the weapon rack.
“…Did it start?”
Park Min-ho approached Choi Ji-woong as they watched him.
“You’re here?”
“Min-su still couldn’t properly regain consciousness. He looked too serious for the infirmary, so I dropped him off at a nearby major hospital. You know I wasn’t deliberately running away or anything, right?”
Park Min-ho was unusually talkative today.
“Still, I’m impressed you got him to agree to the test. Even A-rank Hunters hate this kind of thing.”
Park Min-ho was normally a man of very few words, but perhaps because of how unusual the situation was, he simply would not stop talking.
“Did he agree to being recorded too?”
“Ah, right.”
The walls of the training ground were covered in cameras.
Association President Kim Jin-cheol had pushed for it, saying an opportunity like this was rare.
However—
“I’ll tell him right now.”
Choi Ji-woong had forgotten about it after overdosing on Death’s Illusion.
“…Hey, don’t.”
“Pardon?”
Was Park Min-ho actually suggesting they deceive Kim Si-hyeon just to collect data?
The moment Choi Ji-woong bit his lip—
“Just… turn off all the recording equipment. What if you mention it and he gets uncomfortable? My knees are shaking right now.”
Ah.
“How much Poison Resistance do you need to take three doses of Death’s Illusion? Think I could manage it…?”
Now Choi Ji-woong understood why Park Min-ho was acting so differently from usual.
Death’s Illusion had severe side effects.
Unless someone possessed considerable Poison Resistance, even two doses could paralyze their reason.
Park Min-ho’s resistance seemed to be around that level.
“But… what is Hunter Kim Si-hyeon doing?”
Kim Si-hyeon had been standing in front of the weapon rack for quite some time.
“Could it be that none of them suit him?”
What could he possibly be dissatisfied with?
There were more than thirty types of weapons available, including spears, swords, shields, bows, and guns.
Hunters had different levels of compatibility with different weapons depending on their Awakening Abilities, so the Association had prepared as wide a selection as possible.
Even weapons that could be considered specialized equipment were included.
-Hunter Kim Si-hyeon, is there perhaps a problem with the weapons?
He was an SS-rank Hunter.
And a Returnee on top of that.
Knowing that his common sense could differ from that of ordinary people, Choi Ji-woong carefully asked through the microphone.
SWISH.
Kim Si-hyeon’s gaze turned toward Choi Ji-woong and Park Min-ho.
THUMP, THUMP.
Even after taking six doses of Death’s Illusion, Choi Ji-woong’s heart was still pounding.
Park Min-ho, whose limit was two doses, seemed to feel even greater pressure.
“Urgh… Ji-woong, hurry up and say something!”
Park Min-ho clutched his chest under the pressure of the killing intent.
Then—
“Do I have to use only one?”
Kim Si-hyeon’s quiet voice came through.
-Pardon?
“All of them.”
-……?
What was he talking about?
“I know how to use all of them.”
More than thirty different types of weapons.
He knew how to use every single one?
“What the hell is Hunter Kim Si-hyeon talking about?”
Park Min-ho was so dumbfounded that he managed to overcome even the killing intent for a moment.