Damn Hunter Life Chapter 120
* * *
Korean Hunter Association Headquarters Building 1.
It had already been a year since Park Yoon-seok started working here.
This was exactly the same number as the period he had known Gyeon Gang-hyeon, no, the person called Cheon Gang-hyeon.
Park Yoon-seok, who had originally worked as a professional secretary, changed jobs to the Hunter Association, which had good prospects after the Gate Break occurred. And he was selected as a manager for the initial successors, when five were needed at the time, becoming in charge of ‘Cheon Gang-hyeon.’
The work wasn’t very different from before. Considering the peculiarities that his direct superior was very young and had to be performed only remotely.
After that, the Hunter School system inside the gates was established, and Woo Sae-geon rose to become student council president and leader.
During this time, only Park Yoon-seok experienced a gradually widening gap with the other four department heads.
He suffered subtle disregard, such as cleverly passing off his earth attribute department’s work to others because his assigned successor wasn’t active, or having his opinions brushed off.
“How much could Department Head Park know about hunter combat? You’ve never even done monitoring.”
Everyone said Park Yoon-seok’s assigned successor was useless. The association also neglected Gyeon Gang-hyeon. The aftereffects naturally flowed to Park Yoon-seok as well.
Since there were no affiliated hunters to share power with, there was nothing to do and virtually no achievements.
Nevertheless, Park Yoon-seok was someone who faithfully carried out his assigned duties. He did his best for Gyeon Gang-hyeon.
‘He’s exactly one year older than our kids…’
No matter what tantrums the young successor threw, he persistently asked about his well-being and worried about him.
‘To be able to endure pain like that, he’s sufficiently mature. If only he hadn’t been suspicious and distant toward me, I would have treated him like my own son.’
A child suffering secretly from awakening failure aftereffects, with no family or friends. Park Yoon-seok pitied Gyeon Gang-hyeon and sincerely cared for and served him.
However, just one thing.
He didn’t tell his family that he was in charge of successor management. His wife and twin son and daughter think he’s a department head of the general hunter division.
He did this because he was afraid they might find out that dad was bowing his head to serve someone young enough to be his son, moreover that ‘troublemaker.’ Even if dad himself was proud, he didn’t know what his family would think…
Park Yoon-seok blinked several times and awakened from his thoughts.
His phone was ringing. A call from Gyeon Gang-hyeon. Park Yoon-seok, who quickly came to his senses, answered the phone.
And he heard an unexpected request.
[“I’m thinking of accepting hunters too. From today, please open ‘Gyeon Gang-hyeon’ in the affiliation application office for students dropping into the school.”]
Park Yoon-seok opened his mouth and stayed silent for a while.
Perhaps because he had just been thinking of old times, this moment when Gyeon Gang-hyeon declared he would build his own force felt particularly heavy.
The fact that he had finally succeeded in awakening, that he fought as a proper successor on stage, that he was the first to create a top-grade skill called the Four Guardian Deities skill, that he reached 3rd place in rankings despite his poor health… The scenes Park Yoon-seok had witnessed so far passed by like a panorama.
Park Yoon-seok barely composed himself and cleared his throat.
“Thank you for making such a big decision… But will your body be alright?”
[“Shouldn’t I have done this long ago? The fusion skill has also stabilized somewhat.”]
Gyeon Gang-hyeon himself was indifferent. He brushed it off with a bothersome tone, avoiding explanation.
But in reality, his nature wasn’t that harsh, so when Park Yoon-seok showed he didn’t understand, he would eventually explain.
[“There are too many existing hunters who will be left floating when Woo Sae-geon retires, so I need to accept at least five people.”]
To reduce Jin Seol-woon and Yang Pyo’s burden by at least five people.
When a successor they follow loses power, ordinary hunters’ attribute energy also stops. Then they need to match with another successor to restore that power, but since they’re already accustomed to earth attribute combat, they can’t be told to go to other attributes—
[“The existing people won’t want to come to me. So I have to entice newly awakened kids. Among the newcomers, at least some will think like me, wanting to take it easy, right? Then they’ll come to me.”]
Of the things Gyeon Gang-hyeon said matter-of-factly as if he had no regrets, the first part he could understand to some degree as a manager.
But the latter part he absolutely couldn’t accept…
‘Are the things Gang-hyeon-nim has done so far… really “taking it easy” in other people’s eyes?’
When Park Yoon-seok returned home after work, his daughter, who had gone on a European trip right after the semester ended, was back.
Since she had left immediately without even stopping by home, Park Yoon-seok was seeing his daughter’s face after a very long time.
“Park Ho-jeong, you should come out and greet dad when he comes home!”
“I was just going!”
Park Ho-jeong ran out saying “Welcome home, dad!” Park Yoon-seok smiled brightly.
After washing up, they sat side by side on the sofa in front of the TV. When Park Yoon-seok confirmed that Park Ho-jeong wasn’t interested in TV because she was looking at her phone, he snatched the remote control next to her.
Just then, he glimpsed his daughter’s phone screen—
Park Yoon-seok’s expression became strange.
His daughter, sensing his gaze, startled, then realizing dad had already seen the screen, grinned sheepishly.
“Oops, I was trying to keep it secret. My current favorite! Dad knows him too, right?”
The pretty young master’s face in his daughter’s photo album was too familiar.
Park Yoon-seok smiled awkwardly and pretended not to know.
“These days he’s actively working and fighting, and he’s so cute I could die. I hope he doesn’t get hurt.”
She didn’t seem particularly interested in hunters before. Why is she constantly talking about ‘our Gang-hyeon’ since I last saw her…?
The TV screen no longer caught his eye. Park Yoon-seok seriously let his imagination run wild. Enough to create a wrinkle on his forehead.
‘What should I do if Ho-jeong says she wants to marry Gang-hyeon-nim? Should I give permission? But honestly, Gang-hyeon-nim as a man, no, as a son-in-law, hmm…’
It was ridiculous speculation. Although it put Park Yoon-seok in an absurd dilemma, it was at least much better than what his son thought about ‘Gyeon Gang-hyeon.’
His son’s name was ‘Park Ho-gyeong,’ and he lived alone near a university in another region. That kid had been deeply into hunters from early on, and these days his situation was shouting “Why is Gyeon Gang-hyeon 31st place?” I really want to smack his head.
Park Yoon-seok slightly turned his head. He could see his daughter still giggling while looking at the screen. He soon let out a deflated laugh.
Actually, if he mentioned that dad was Gyeon Gang-hyeon’s direct secretary department head, would at least one family member surprisingly welcome it?
* * *
Fifteen years old this year, fifteen-year-old boy Kwak Ji-hong, who had been an ordinary middle school student until just the day before, woke up staring at an unfamiliar room ceiling.
He sat up in surprise, then soon patted his chest.
‘Right. I fell into Hunter School…’
Hadn’t he had a two-hour video call with his parents last night because of that? He had briefly forgotten while half-asleep.
The image of his dad showing tears of worry and his mom’s dark complexion was still vivid in his memory.
Kwak Ji-hong sat there dazed without even wiping the sleep from his eyes. His soliloquy echoed hollowly in the room.
“Am I… really becoming a hunter?”
It wasn’t related to Kwak Ji-hong’s will in the first place anyway. Awakening occurs suddenly and randomly like a natural disaster. As long as you meet the condition of being a Korean youth between 15-24 years old.
What Kwak Ji-hong could do according to his will was roughly choosing his desired combat attribute and selecting which successor to follow.
The auditorium of the start dormitory that gathered new students without affiliation was noisy with the voices of about twenty people.
Among them, Kwak Ji-hong looked down at the ‘Successor Affiliation Application’ in his hands.
====
[Wood Attribute] Myo Cho-hui (Support Dealer)
[Fire Attribute] Sa Ye-ho, Ma Cheon-ah (Support/Attack Dealer)
[Earth Attribute] Woo Sae-geon, Jin Seol-woon, Yang Pyo, Gyeon Gang-hyeon (Tank)
[Metal Attribute] Won Ha-ri (Attack Dealer)
[Water Attribute] Ja Hyeong-woo, Hae Mi-jun (Healer)
====
Now he just needed to fill out this application and submit it.
Looking at the application made it feel real. He was now a hunter. The combat that he had only watched in videos and admired with “wow…” he would now have to do directly.
Successors with crossed-out names were currently at capacity. He had to choose someone to receive power from among the remaining successors.
‘I don’t think I can fight, so a healer who helps people after all…’
It was just when Kwak Ji-hong was about to sign ‘Hae Mi-jun’s’ name.
He could hear the murmuring words of people around him, people who had awakened overnight like himself.
“Gyeon Gang-hyeon is accepting hunters?”
“He’s taking 10 people. Total landmine. It’s the same as being assigned to the countryside.”
“What if we become weak like Gyeon Gang-hyeon?”
It seems the others have all become friendly already… Originally timid, Kwak Ji-hong shrank his body more at the sound of people chattering among themselves around him. He saw the people around him as high school students or adults who were all at least a head taller than him, so he couldn’t join the conversation.
“That’s not right. We need to wait and see for now. What if regular students can also use fusion with other attributes?”
“Then someone should try it as an experiment, right? Depending on the results, there might be good points to being affiliated with Gyeon Gang-hyeon too…”
But once you receive power from a successor, you can’t change affiliation until either the successor or yourself retires.
You could end up being permanently tied to the weakling Gyeon Gang-hyeon just from trying one experiment.
So when everyone was hesitating, unable to choose someone to experiment, suddenly someone stood up and shouted.
“Who’s the youngest person here? Fifteen years old? Is there a fifteen-year-old here?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
