Damn Hunter Life Chapter 109
* * *
The fanfare announcing the Successors’ final victory rang out.
Woo Sae-geon turned away from Sa Ye-ho, who was hugging him while shouting cheers loud enough to make his ears ring.
A conversation they’d had some time ago suddenly came to mind.
“Cheer up. Do I look disgusting because I’m excited?”
It was quite a while ago now, when Sa Ye-ho had grinned after securing his name as the fifth and final spot on the friendly match roster, then belatedly tried to gauge Woo Sae-geon’s mood.
In cases like this, he would usually act cute in various ways, desperately trying to make Woo Sae-geon look at him even once more, but for some reason Sa Ye-ho had acted quite seriously that day.
“I don’t think the Hunter Olympics are just ‘mindless entertainment for show’ like you say, hyung. It’ll be a chance to improve teamwork and overcome our own weaknesses.”
They’d been fighting gate monsters all this time, but monsters and people are different. They’ve never tried to persistently exploit hunters’ weaknesses until now, so this was also a new training method… that was Sa Ye-ho’s argument.
Next, what Woo Sae-geon recalled was the broadcast coverage of the 4th set match he’d confirmed through video last night.
[“「Sa used a fake to shake off Quiche! Very impressive」!”]
[“「Ma was standing exactly where Clyte was going to attack just now. Most of FirstCall’s skills are being predicted! Who’s giving commands? Is it Woo? Or Sa」?”]
Having organized his thoughts, Woo Sae-geon’s gaze caught his subordinates standing here and there around the arena.
“「Congratulations. You were fucking awesome」.”
Clyte extended her hand to Ma Cheon-ah, who she’d just been competing against.
“You too.”
Ma Cheon-ah firmly grasped her hand. Then, without either taking the lead, they pulled each other close and bumped shoulders.
“Ah!”
But the one with the greatest joy of victory was undoubtedly Gyeon Gang-hyeon, who could only let out exclamations while trembling all over.
He felt Ja Hyeong-woo’s chest touching his back and unconsciously spun around to grab and hug him.
“Eek!”
But he was immediately horrified.
As soon as Gyeon Gang-hyeon regained his senses, he stopped bouncing around and kicked Ja Hyeong-woo’s shin with all his might.
In the spot where Gyeon Gang-hyeon had escaped from, only Ja Hyeong-woo’s two hands remained forlornly, having had his waist stolen away again before he could even properly hold it.
“Are those two doing a comedy routine?”
Woo Sae-geon glanced down. Sa Ye-ho was watching the two and giggling without removing his arms from around his neck.
Woo Sae-geon turned his gaze forward again and thought:
The Successors would keep rolling even if I left.
For someone who had been very skeptical about the friendly matches…
He had given it his all. In other words, he had fulfilled his responsibility.
Led by Woo Sae-geon’s combat cuts, videos of the Korean Successors spread around the world.
In every scene, their flowing hanbok sleeves fluttered and flipped. It was such a spectacular sight that it silenced all the viewers who had been commenting that such long clothing wouldn’t interfere with their movements.
Woo Sae-geon standing alone, fighting all five members of FirstCall at once.
Even though it was an unfavorable situation, whenever you looked up to see his face, you got the illusion that he was relaxed.
Sometimes stirring up the battlefield alone, Woo Sae-geon also knew how to support his teammates like a proper tanker. In the capture battle, he showed the appearance of a support-type tanker, reducing his direct attacks slightly and physically blocking damage coming toward his teammates.
Woo Sae-geon fought separately in most situations and didn’t need his teammates’ cooperation, but he occasionally performed combination moves with Sa Ye-ho.
Like the moment when Sa Ye-ho stepped on Woo Sae-geon’s supporting hand and charged at Buster with his strength added.
The moment when Sa Ye-ho’s foot lightly landed on the sword blade Woo Sae-geon aimed, then leaped up.
Ja Hyeong-woo, who despite being a healer had his name inscribed at world rank 15, also showed performance worthy of that reputation. He was unbelievably skilled in combat for a healer. The scene where FirstCall came to target the healer first and got their noses bloodied was truly a highlight.
It goes without saying that the female warrior Ma Cheon-ah fluttering her jet-black martial robes was tremendously gallant.
Except for the decisive scene he showed at the end, Gyeon Gang-hyeon was essentially beaten by Agni dozens of times. Of course, there were some irregular scenes in between.
At one point in the 5th set, Gyeon Gang-hyeon collapsed into the arms of Agni, whom he’d encountered one-on-one.
Huh? The flustered Agni tried to check on Gyeon Gang-hyeon, who seemed to have fainted as he fell into his arms. And then.
Thunk—! An arrow shaft pierced Agni’s neck. It seemed like pretending to faint and confusing the opponent might be a decent trick to try at least once.
Of course, most of the time he died helplessly to Agni. So would Gyeon Gang-hyeon be cursed as the Successors’ only blemish, the so-called ‘dog troll,’ today as well?
====
‘No, someone please take care of Gang-hyeon ㅠㅠㅠ’
‘He’s just getting toyed with, fucking hell’
====
Not necessarily. Koreans now knew he was a skill-focused hunter.
And because Agni was more hateful, he was relatively overshadowed. The people criticized Agni instead of Gyeon Gang-hyeon.
* * *
“Ma Cheon-ah!”
The heat of the comeback victory had also faded, and everyone was about to go rest. Gyeon Gang-hyeon called out to Ma Cheon-ah.
“Your score is 4:2, my score is 4:0. Right?”
Only then did Ma Cheon-ah remember. The score bet she’d made with Gyeon Gang-hyeon before the match started.
The final score was 4:1.
Looking at Gyeon Gang-hyeon’s grinning face, Ma Cheon-ah finally realized his intention.
Gyeon Gang-hyeon’s goal from the beginning had been to create a score that was neither 4:0 nor 4:2, invalidating the bet itself.
And he’d succeeded!
Ma Cheon-ah scrunched up her face and somewhat desperately grasped at straws.
“Th-then since we both lost, we should both do the dance challenge.”
Gyeon Gang-hyeon shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t want to? There was no such rule?”
Ma Cheon-ah returned to her lodging gritting her teeth and rolled around on her bed in frustration.
‘After just trolling the whole time, he finally acts human at the last minute!’
That refreshing and bright smile somehow lingered in Ma Cheon-ah’s mind for a long time.
‘I should have gotten that dancing video!’
She regretted not being able to make Gyeon Gang-hyeon do the dance challenge. If she could get her hands on that video, Ma Cheon-ah could have endured having to film it together herself.
However, she might not have had any plans to upload it online from the start. Even so, she had wanted to have that video.
If she had that video… she would have played it sometimes when she thought of it. Whether he danced shyly or acted confidently, she would have gazed at that face, and might have left this kind of monologue at the end of each viewing.
‘…if only his personality was a bit better.’
Bored, Ma Cheon-ah turned on her phone.
Ma Cheon-ah’s hobby was searching for her own name on communities. She enjoyed reading posts that started with ‘Cheon-ah unni,’ ‘Cheon-ah hyung,’ and so on.
When Ma Cheon-ah pressed the search bar, a list of recent search terms appeared below it.
They were search terms she could never show to anyone else, even if it killed her.
====
‘Gyeon Gang-hyeon memes’
‘ㄱㄱㅎ’
‘Dog Successor’
‘Hyeong-woo Gang-hyeon’
‘Seol-woon Gang-hyeon’
‘Ye-ho Gang-hyeon’
====
* * *
The Korean Successors were guests, and the host of this place was the American Association.
So we tried to return quickly as soon as the match ended, but an official hurriedly stopped us.
“「Could you please stay until this evening? If awakeners with great abilities all leave at once, the hunter who created the space could suffer significant physical damage. Please. We’ll prepare meals and pay compensation as well」.”
In the end, we were forced to stay and rest for one more day.
Ma Cheon-ah was walking around outside taking selfies with Clyte. She’d made a new friend outside school for the first time in six months, so she’d want to enjoy it.
Ja Hyeong-woo was probably sleeping. Sa Ye-ho was also quiet, so he was either sleeping too, or with Woo Sae-geon – one of the two.
“I’m sleepy.”
Not wanting to get out of bed, I said it out loud, then hugged my puppy plushie and rolled around for a while.
But soon, I steeled myself and got up with a start.
Now when no one was paying attention to me, there was something I had to do here.
[<Boundary Between Life and Death (Earth Attribute)> is activated.]
The semi-awakened skill I hadn’t used since gathering evidence on those delinquent bastards. I turned it on for the first time in a while. I briefly felt the sensation of the earth attribute skill as my body temperature rose slightly, my feet became a bit heavier, and I gained arm strength.
I slipped out of the lodging.
My destination was the core building at the center of the arena. The officials there.
‘The audience uncles who came for the match are actually people from the World Hunter Association.’
Then I couldn’t miss this opportunity.
I didn’t read the latter half of the original work, so I don’t perfectly know what major crisis might be at the end. There might be the possibility of large gates appearing on a world scale beyond individual countries.
‘Just in case… let me approach with stealth skill and eavesdrop on whatever they’re talking about. Maybe I can pick up at least one useful clue for the current situation?’
I saw one American bodyguard in front of our lodging.
Sneaking over (even though I knew my footsteps wouldn’t make sound in ghost state), I tried moving my head back and forth or waving my hands in front of that person.
‘I’m really invisible, right?’
Actually, ever since I learned that this skill didn’t work on Ja Hyeong-woo back then, I had been growing suspicious of the stealth skill I’d been trusting.
‘What the hell is it. From how Woo Sae-geon couldn’t see me before either, it doesn’t seem like strength is the criterion.’
Fortunately, the bodyguard couldn’t see me at all either. It seems this skill works on foreign hunters too.
The building at the center was also shaped like a hanok. I hopped inside when no one was at the entrance.
Walking a bit down the corridor, I heard unfamiliar voices softly from a nearby room.
‘Did I find something?’
The door was closed so I couldn’t peek in to see who it was. I stuck close to the wall and turned on the translator on my phone.
When I recorded the sounds coming through, translated content immediately appeared on the screen. As soon as I read the top line, my eyes widened.
Inside, they were talking about our Successors.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
