Chapter 4. A New World (3)
“I-If you need... hic! If you need anything at all, please don't hesitate to tell us!”
A Special Division Hunter shouted with the discipline of a soldier standing before his commander.
“...”
Kim Si-hyeon didn't answer.
He simply stared at the Hunter.
“Eek...”
The Hunter had definitely taken Illusion of Death.
A forbidden narcotic powerful enough to let someone smile even while facing an S-Rank monster.
But now...
Thud.
The drug had no effect at all.
“Min-su!”
“He fainted...”
“Take him to the infirmary immediately! No, I'll carry him.”
“No, Director! You need to stay here! I'll take him!”
“What kind of true Hunter abandons a comrade?! I'll lead by example!”
“Director! Directoooor!”
Park Min-ho quickly grabbed the unconscious Hunter and fled the building.
Silence fell again.
“...”
Even then, Kim Si-hyeon simply walked over and sat on the sofa as though none of it concerned him.
Rustle.
The silence became suffocating.
“Would you like us to bring you something?”
Choi Ji-woong was the one who finally broke it.
“...I'd like to... look around.”
“Look around? You mean the Association building?”
Kim Si-hyeon nodded.
“Most ordinary Hunters have already gone home, so it should be fine. Let's go.”
Guided by Choi Ji-woong, Kim Si-hyeon slowly stood up, glanced at the Special Division Hunters, and left the building.
The instant he disappeared...
“Haah! Haah!”
Every Hunter in the room collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily.
“Crazy... crazy...”
“He's insane!”
“Did you see his eyes? Is that how one human looks at another?”
“It felt like he was figuring out where to stab each of us to kill us in one strike...!”
“Damn it! I'd rather enter an S-Rank Gate!”
Their shocked voices filled the room.
“I think the Illusion of Death completely wore off.”
“How can anyone possess killing intent like that?”
These were Special Division Hunters with countless dangerous experiences behind them.
“What the hell... is that man? Even for a Returnee...”
One terrified Hunter couldn't hide the tremble in his pupils.
“Just how many people... has he killed?”
A Hunter's killing intent wasn't simply related to strength.
Bloodshed.
Souls.
The accumulated weight of death.
As it piled higher and higher, it became killing intent that could no longer be hidden.
“You remember how I met Jack the Ripper before, right?”
One Hunter finally regained his senses after downing an entire glass of ice water.
“Ah.”
Jack the Ripper.
The alias of a legendary Red Hunter.
Estimated S-Rank.
One of the most dangerous Hunters alive, and someone who had never been captured.
The Korean Hunter Association had once dispatched several Special Division Hunters to an operation to capture him.
“They said he'd killed over two thousand people.”
Jack the Ripper had taken more than two thousand lives.
“Right. The estimate was closer to three thousand.”
“My fingers trembled, and my heart pounded. Ordinary people probably would've fainted instantly, but we're Special Division Hunters.”
People who constantly lived close to death and were prepared to die.
Even to them...
“Honestly, his killing intent just felt like facing a strong monster.”
“Then...”
Jack the Ripper's killing intent had been no more than an unpleasant pressure they could endure.
But the Massacre, Kim Si-hyeon...
“...Tens of thousands.”
The Hunter who had once met Jack the Ripper spoke cautiously.
“Maybe even over a hundred thousand.”
“...”
Based solely on the density of killing intent, that was how many lives Kim Si-hyeon seemed to have taken.
“Maybe, just maybe...”
The Hunter swallowed the words that came next.
Perhaps over a million.
“Even if he's a Returnee, does it make sense to accept a monster like that?”
“I'm honestly more impressed by Choi Ji-woong. How can that bastard act so normal around him?”
“...Don't ask.”
“Why?”
“I already did.”
“And?”
The Hunter sighed deeply, his voice carrying worry and respect.
“Apparently he took five Illusions of Death.”
“...? Isn't that a lethal dose?”
“That bastard has Poison Resistance. That's the skill that got him into the Special Division in the first place.”
“Still...!”
Perhaps because some time had passed since Kim Si-hyeon left, everyone was beginning to calm down.
“I don't think I can ever get along with that Returnee... How are we supposed to work on the same team as a serial killer?”
“Same.”
“Me too.”
Then...
Creeeak.
The door quietly opened.
Choi Ji-woong and Kim Si-hyeon entered.
“Hunter Kim Si-hyeon! Did you enjoy your tour~?”
Every member of the Special Division immediately waved both hands and greeted him warmly.
Maybe it was because this world hadn't been destroyed.
The Special Division Hunters were kind.
Still, I was a little disappointed.
I wanted to talk with them.
They were people.
Not zombies.
Seeing that many living humans at once felt like something from decades ago.
“...Is something uncomfortable?”
Choi Ji-woong asked.
“...A little.”
“A little? What is it? W-Wait a moment!”
Choi Ji-woong hurriedly took out a small medicine bottle from inside his coat and drank it.
He had been doing that since our training sessions.
His health must have been quite poor.
“Whew. Tell me what the problem is and I'll fix it.”
Choi Ji-woong asked with a slightly dazed look.
“It's not that.”
It would be embarrassing to admit I simply wasn't good at dealing with people.
The Special Division Hunters had even prepared a welcome ceremony for me.
It would be rude to show that I felt uncomfortable around them.
“...I'll handle it myself.”
“Handle it... yourself?”
Choi Ji-woong suddenly clenched his fist.
While that happened, we arrived at another Association building.
The first task of my first day had been greeting the Special Division Hunters.
And now...
“Let me ask one more time. Are you really okay with this?”
“I'm fine.”
“Hunters can be very sensitive about having their abilities and mana measured. Especially the higher their rank.”
Choi Ji-woong repeated what he'd already explained before.
“That's why rank-up evaluations usually happen during Gate raids, or we only measure mana...”
“Didn't you say Association Hunters are different?”
“That's true. But Hunter Kim Si-hyeon, you're an exception.”
An exception.
“It's fine.”
I didn't need special treatment like that.
This isn't the world I lived in.
But it was the world I would be living in from now on.
I can't keep acting like a burden forever.
I already understood how much Choi Ji-woong and the Association had done for me.
A comfortable house.
Cold water.
Clean clothes.
And, most importantly, an unlimited supply of cup noodles.
In my old world, giving someone all that was the same as offering them everything you had.
“We sincerely appreciate your consideration, Hunter Kim Si-hyeon. For now, please stand in the center of the training ground.”
Following Choi Ji-woong's instruction, I entered the training area and stood in the middle.
“Ah, microphone test. Can you hear me?”
I nodded.
“Hunter Kim Si-hyeon, you said the world you came from was filled with zombies, basically undead monsters, correct? That must have been horrible.”
Horrible.
It had been so long that I had forgotten what that emotion felt like.
“What weapon did you mainly use?”
My memories of the day I first fell into this world and met the Hunters were blurry.
“There are several kinds of weapons on the rack beside you. Please choose the one you're most familiar with, or whatever is easiest for you to hunt with.”
So this process was necessary for me too.
A world where superhumans called Hunters existed.
A world where creatures called monsters existed.
Compared to that...
There was nothing special about me in my world.
I had only been an ordinary person.
“It wasn't hunting.”
Just...
“It was survival.”
An ordinary person who survived for a very long time.
Kim Si-hyeon stood in front of the weapon rack.
“...Did it start?”
Park Min-ho approached Choi Ji-woong while watching him.
“You're back?”
“Min-su wouldn't wake up properly. He looked too serious for the infirmary, so I dropped him off at a nearby major hospital. You know I didn't run away on purpose or anything, right?”
Park Min-ho was unusually talkative today.
“Still, I'm surprised you got him to agree to testing. Even A-Rank Hunters hate this kind of thing.”
Normally, Park Min-ho was a quiet man.
Maybe because of the unusual circumstances, he couldn't stop talking.
“Did he agree to being filmed too?”
“Ah. Right.”
Cameras covered the walls of the training room.
Association President Kim Jin-cheol had insisted on installing them, saying opportunities like this were rare.
But...
“I'll tell him right now.”
Choi Ji-woong had forgotten because of the side effects of overdosing on Illusion of Death.
“...Hey. Don't.”
“What?”
Was Park Min-ho seriously suggesting they deceive Kim Si-hyeon just to collect data?
Choi Ji-woong bit his lip.
Then Park Min-ho continued.
“Just... turn off all the recording equipment. What if you tell him and he gets uncomfortable? My knees already feel weak.”
Ah.
“How much Poison Resistance do you need to take three Illusions of Death? Think I can handle it...?”
Now Choi Ji-woong understood why Park Min-ho was acting differently.
The side effect of Illusion of Death was severe.
Without strong Poison Resistance, even two doses could paralyze someone's mind.
Apparently, Park Min-ho's resistance was just barely enough to handle that much.
“But... what is Hunter Kim Si-hyeon doing?”
Kim Si-hyeon had been standing in front of the weapon rack for quite a while.
“Did none of the weapons suit him?”
What could possibly be wrong?
There were more than thirty different weapon types.
Spears.
Swords.
Shields.
Bows.
Firearms.
And even weapons that could be considered unusual.
Since different awakened abilities resonated with different weapons, the Association had prepared as many options as possible.
“Hunter Kim Si-hyeon, is there some problem with the weapons?”
He was an SS-Rank Hunter.
And a Returnee.
His common sense could differ from that of ordinary people, so Choi Ji-woong asked carefully through the microphone.
Kim Si-hyeon's gaze shifted toward Choi Ji-woong and Park Min-ho.
Thump. Thump.
Even after taking six Illusions of Death, Choi Ji-woong's heart still pounded.
Park Min-ho, who could only handle two, looked like he was under even greater pressure.
“Urgh... Ji-woong, ask him quickly!”
Park Min-ho clutched his chest under the pressure of Kim Si-hyeon's killing intent.
Then...
“Do I have to use only one?”
Kim Si-hyeon's quiet voice came through.
“What?”
“All of them.”
“...?”
What was he talking about?
“I know how to use all of them.”
More than thirty different types of weapons.
And he knew how to use every one?
“What the hell is Hunter Kim Si-hyeon talking about?”
Park Min-ho was so shocked that he momentarily forgot his fear.
