At Seo Jihun’s words, Lee Kanghyun frowned as if he had no idea what he was talking about. Watching him stay silent as though he knew absolutely nothing made Seo Jihun feel so frustrated that he instinctively pounded his chest.
That stupid bastard. If it weren’t for the mana stone worth hundreds of millions of won, I would have kicked him out immediately.
But as a slave to capitalism, he could not bring himself to throw out a client. Instead, he let out a deep sigh and turned on the computer.
“Ha… fine. I’m the one who’s guilty because I took the money. Sit down. I’ll run a sketch program.”
Lee Kanghyun slowly dragged over the chair beside Seo Jihun and sat down. A program for configuring a person’s facial features appeared on the monitor.
“Okay, let’s start with the face shape. Is it narrow? Angular? Or round?”
Lee Kanghyun searched through his memories.
What did that bastard feel like when I hit him?
“He was hard.”
Deep wrinkles formed between Seo Jihun’s brows.
Seriously, this hopeless bastard…
He took a deep breath to keep himself from getting angry.
Hold it in. Right now, he’s the one in control. That bastard is my customer.
“…I’m not asking about bone strength. I’m asking what shape it was.”
“I don’t know. I didn’t have time to look carefully.”
Seo Jihun used mental control to maintain his patience and moved on to the next question.
“Fine. We’ll roughly skip the face shape for now. Hair style. You said yellow hair. Was it long or short?”
“Short.”
“Okay. Short cut.”
Seo Jihun clicked the mouse, and a yellow wig appeared on the egg-shaped placeholder face on the screen.
He did not ask what specific style it was.
There was no point. He was certain that whatever strange answer came back would only make him lose his mind.
“Now, the most important part. The eyes. Were they sharp and narrow? Or did he look gentle?”
Lee Kanghyun frowned and thought hard.
“I don’t know. He just had the eyes of a crazy bastard.”
“Hey!”
Seo Jihun finally exploded.
“Are you kidding me right now? There’s no option called ‘crazy bastard eyes’ here! Describe what he looked like! His appearance!”
“I mean, what am I supposed to do if I don’t remember?”
“Double eyelids! Did he have double eyelids or not?”
Lee Kanghyun stared at Seo Jihun with a blank expression.
“Men can have double eyelids?”
Seo Jihun took off his glasses and rubbed his face dryly.
“Kanghyun. Do you not look in mirrors? You have inner double eyelids too.”
“I do?”
“…Yeah. What did I even expect from you?”
Seo Jihun pointed at his own eyes.
“Look at me. If there’s a line like mine, it’s double eyelids. If there isn’t, it’s single eyelids. Did that bastard have a line on his eyes or not?”
Lee Kanghyun stared intently at Seo Jihun’s eyes before turning away.
“It’s uncomfortable. Move.”
“Ah, seriously! Try to remember! You said he smiled at you! What happened to his eyes when he did that?!”
Lee Kanghyun forcibly pulled up the memory.
When that bastard smiled, it seemed like the corners of his eyes had curved.
“When he smiled, his eyes disappeared.”
“Oh, smiling eyes? Then does he have a puppy-like face with slightly drooping eyes?”
Seo Jihun, as if he had found hope, brought up a sample with lowered eye corners on the screen.
“Something like this?”
“No. He’s more unpleasant-looking than that. Make them narrower.”
“Like this?”
“No. More.”
“Hey, this is an alien now.”
“Ah, I don’t know. It just feels like that. His irises were black. No, maybe brown? Anyway, his eyes looked a little crazy. Like his pupils were unfocused.”
Seo Jihun desperately tried to visualize Lee Kanghyun’s abstract descriptions.
Thirty minutes later.
A bizarre creature had been completed on the monitor.
Bright yellow hair. Eyes strangely stretched narrow while still making a smiling expression. A sharp chin shaped like a comb-patterned earthenware vessel.
“……”
Seo Jihun asked in a trembling voice.
“Lee Kanghyun. You… you didn’t fight a person, did you? Did you maybe fight a monster?”
Lee Kanghyun had nothing to say either.
He had combined everything he himself described, but the result was so grotesque that even he could not deny it.
“How am I supposed to find a person with this? If I put this picture on a wanted poster, people will think there’s an alien invasion!”
Seo Jihun slammed his desk.
“You’re an S-rank! Your dynamic vision is good! Can’t you see even individual hairs? How can you not remember his face?!”
“I wasn’t interested.”
Lee Kanghyun answered, slightly losing confidence.
“What mattered more to me than what he looked like was how I was going to punch through his solar plexus. Why would I memorize the face of someone who was going to die soon anyway?”
“You didn’t kill him and you let him get away, idiot!”
“That’s the problem.”
Lee Kanghyun let out a deep sigh.
Even he knew it.
His current attitude was hopeless.
But what was he supposed to do?
He genuinely did not remember.
That did not mean he could just give up and stop looking for him either.
“Forget it. Just remember this much. Yellow hair and a surprisingly gentle-looking face. Try finding someone roughly similar. Someone with yellow hair who walks around grinning like an idiot. His build was similar to mine too. His height as well.”
Seo Jihun leaned back heavily in his chair.
Should I just tell him to take the mana stone and leave?
He did not want to do this kind of work.
No matter how much he liked money, he still had some dignity.
But he immediately shook that thought away.
One hundred million.
Two hundred million if successful.
It was too much money to refuse.
“Fine, fine. I’ll try my best instead of your severely lacking brain cells.”
Seo Jihun irritably shut down the sketch program.
“Leave. If you stay any longer, I think my lifespan will decrease. I’ll contact you when I find him.”
Lee Kanghyun stood up without hesitation.
“Oh, and.”
Seo Jihun stopped Lee Kanghyun as he was about to leave.
“Quit the medicine. If you come next time, I’m seriously not giving you any more.”
Lee Kanghyun pulled his hat down deeply.
“I’m trying.”
“You say that after coming here and looking for medicine the second you walk in.”
Lee Kanghyun ignored him, opened the door, and left.
After he disappeared, Seo Jihun clicked his tongue.
“That stubborn bastard. How long is he going to live like that?”
Seo Jihun picked up the massive mana stone sitting on the table. He could feel its heavy weight.
“I need to earn what I was paid.”
His fingers began moving rapidly across the keyboard.
***
After that day, a major change occurred in Lee Kanghyun’s daily routine.
The shut-in Lee Kanghyun, who never even stepped outside his home, finally started going out.
Of course, his destination was not a gate.
It was not the Hunter Association either, nor was it Kang Yujun’s home.
It was Seo Jihun’s hideout.
“Seo Jihun.”
“……”
“Did you find him?”
Seo Jihun irritably threw off the glasses he was wearing.
“You crazy bastard. You haven’t even been here for thirty minutes! If you’re going to ask every thirty minutes, just leave!”
“I’m asking because I’m curious. I was worried you might have taken my money and run.”
Lee Kanghyun replied while lying on an old sofa in one corner of the laboratory and flipping through a comic book.
He was genuinely no help at all.
The only things he did after coming there were steal cup noodles Seo Jihun had saved, occupy the sofa and take naps, and constantly bother him by asking, “Did you find the yellow-haired guy?” and “Do some work.”
“I can’t do research because of you! My entire new medicine development schedule has been pushed back!”
“What are you even going to use it for? It’s all illegal anyway.”
“I’m making it for you, you bastard!”
Seo Jihun huffed and turned back to the monitor.
“Hey, Seo Jihun. I’m hungry. Do you have ramen?”
“You just ate all of it.”
“Then go buy some. I gave you a mana stone.”
“Did I give you that so you could buy ramen?! That’s your commission fee!”
Lee Kanghyun shamelessly threw the empty cup noodle container into the trash.
Seo Jihun grabbed the back of his neck.
Is that really an S-rank Hunter, or just some unemployed neighborhood thug?
“Does Kang Yujun know you’re acting like this?”
“How would he know? If he did, he would’ve already barged in here and put both you and me in prison together.”
“Please let him find out. Honestly, dealing with you is so exhausting that I think I’d be happier if Kang Yujun threw me in prison.”
Despite Seo Jihun’s sincere curse, Lee Kanghyun only snorted.
Then it happened.
Tap, tap.
Seo Jihun’s fingers stopped moving on the keyboard.
“Huh?”
“Did you find him?”
Lee Kanghyun immediately sat up. His eyes lit up.
“No. I didn’t find that alien… Hey, Lee Kanghyun. Come here.”
Seo Jihun’s voice sounded unusual.
“Why? What is it?”
“You said someone broke into your house recently, right?”
“Yeah.”
“He died, didn’t he?”
“He did. He took medicine and killed himself.”
Lee Kanghyun got off the sofa and approached Seo Jihun from behind.
“But why?”
“Look at this.”
Seo Jihun pointed at the monitor.
A news page from a portal site was displayed on the screen. Below it, articles with sensational headlines were ranked one after another.
[S-rank Hunter Lee Kanghyun, Excessive Force Controversy Over Home Intruder… Death During Restraint Process]
[Autopsy Results Reveal Cervical Fracture and Organ Rupture. Restraint or Assault?]
[‘Murder’ Beyond ‘Self-Defense’? Lee Kanghyun Hunter’s Rampage—How Far Will It Go?]
Lee Kanghyun narrowed his eyes.
“What the fuck is this?”
“Read the article. It gets even worse.”
The article portrayed Lee Kanghyun as the ultimate murderer.
On the 23rd, an unidentified intruder infiltrated Hunter Lee Kanghyun’s residence.
(Omitted)
However, the issue lies in the process of restraint. The condition of the discovered corpse was horrific. The arm bones had been crushed, and severe damage to the spine was also discovered.
Experts stated, “If an S-rank Hunter uses an Ability while restraining an ordinary person, this is not self-defense but murder.”
Some have raised suspicions that even after the intruder had lost the will to resist, Hunter Lee Kanghyun may have been unable to control his emotions and used excessive violence.
The Association currently claims that the intruder committed ‘suicide.’
Comments
Lee Kanghyun scrolled down with an expressionless face.
Surprisingly, he felt nothing.
Maybe because not a single thing they said was true.
He did not even have enough energy to get angry.
It was simply too absurd.