Damn Hunter Life Chapter 18
Honestly, an S-grade weapon was too precious for me. Plus it had a weird name.
So I couldn’t immediately accept it.
The idea that when Jin Seol-woon made my weapon, he thought about giving back what he’d received and made it for me.
For me, who had been nothing but trouble.
Suddenly I heard sounds from beyond Jin Seol-woon’s front yard, so I couldn’t think about it any further.
Someone came.
It wasn’t Jin Seol-woon who had just left. Since it’s a guest, they wouldn’t stride right inside and would just pace around out front.
Dark blue bangs covering his forehead fluttered in the breeze. The hair tied up with a handkerchief and the wide Hwarang clothing along with it.
Why is the original protagonist showing up here?
“He’s probably already at the training ground. I should have given it to him there.”
Ja Hyeong-woo, muttering to himself, took something out of his inventory and set it down in a visible spot.
It was a magic stone from a gate. Already proven worldwide as a new material being traded at high prices, while also being used as expensive point exchange vouchers within Hunter School.
He probably stopped by to give Jin Seol-woon physical points. Like a good colleague, with good intentions.
If Ja Hyeong-woo just turned his head sideways, he’d inevitably discover me, but it’s fine.
[<Boundary Between Life and Death (Water Attribute)> skill activates.]
I’d already turned on the stealth skill long ago.
‘Anyway, nice weapon. I’ll use it well, homeowner.’
Having received the weapon and having no business with Ja Hyeong-woo, I immediately used the return function.
The next moment I was in my house.
* * *
‘Gyeon Gang-hyeon……?’
The other person seemed to have no thought that Ja Hyeong-woo would see him, looking comfortably elsewhere.
The reason Ja Hyeong-woo couldn’t immediately call out to him was because he was making a face he’d never seen before.
He looked happy. That Gyeon Gang-hyeon – with his small, pale face that looked like it would break at any moment, who always colored his face with irritation whenever he saw Ja Hyeong-woo – was smiling.
Grinning as if he’d received some big gift, Ja Hyeong-woo had no way of knowing it was because of the weapon Jin Seol-woon had given him.
He really hadn’t smiled like that in front of him since they were very young. Seeing that smile again as adults, it felt different from the old days somehow.
So Ja Hyeong-woo perceived Gyeon Gang-hyeon as pretty.
It was the first time saliva had pooled under his tongue from looking at a person rather than food.
And that was from looking at a man, an old friend, and furthermore someone he’d been doing nothing but growling at recently.
In that instant, Ja Hyeong-woo was strongly bound to the other person. Nothing came to mind except the desire to preserve that smiling face in his memory. As if paralyzed, he couldn’t move for a moment.
That’s why he came to his senses late.
‘Wait… why are you here?’
He took a few loud steps forward trying to catch Gyeon Gang-hyeon. But Gyeon Gang-hyeon’s form blurring came first.
His outstretched hand stopped uselessly in midair. Only Ja Hyeong-woo remained alone in the front yard.
‘Must be the return function.’
The only skill usable even by non-awakened.
Then Gyeon Gang-hyeon would be at his house.
In his anger, he almost used teleportation on Gyeon Gang-hyeon like last time but barely regained his reason. Going to the training ground had somehow become an afterthought. He needed to find out why Gyeon Gang-hyeon had been at the Dragon successor’s house.
‘He was smiling.’
Why did he smile? What made him happy? That question relentlessly tormented Ja Hyeong-woo. What was there to smile about at Jin Seol-woon’s house?
Making an expression he’d never made in front of me.
To say he’d been secretly there to cause trouble for Jin Seol-woon…
Recently, hadn’t there only been beneficial things for Jin Seol-woon?
The fact that he’d finally posted a simple letter to fans and a song video since becoming a hunter, the fans’ enthusiastic support for this, even positive reactions from the general public. Even Ja Hyeong-woo, who didn’t look at the internet directly, knew about it from hearing it through the grapevine – Jin Seol-woon’s story had been that famous recently.
Jin Seol-woon’s change for the better. And Gyeon Gang-hyeon smiling while holding an unfamiliar sword.
What this uncomfortable feeling, this irritating mood was. Even though it was his own heart, Ja Hyeong-woo couldn’t understand it at all.
His steps walking to the training ground weren’t straight but wavering. It was the kind of thing that would lead to several posts on the Twelve Zodiac community asking ‘Did something bad happen to Ja Hyeong-woo?’ but he himself didn’t care.
It seemed like he wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else until he heard it directly from the homeowner.
He entered the successor gym, a space with a maximum capacity of 12 people.
Woo Sae-geon, wearing workout clothes instead of his robe, gave a sharp hint with just his eyes. Meaning he was late.
Ja Hyeong-woo, ignoring even the leader’s reproach, looked around quickly. He gestured to Jin Seol-woon in his short-sleeved shirt to come out to the bathroom corridor.
Though they were close enough to have each other’s backs in combat for tactical reasons, these two men normally had absolutely no casual conversation.
Jin Seol-woon, who had felt an ominous feeling from his hardened face, wanted to hold his head when Ja Hyeong-woo said he’d seen Gyeon Gang-hyeon in front of his house just moments ago.
‘Maybe it’s fortunate. If I’d left even 5 minutes later, he would have seen the two of us together.’
Looking at Ja Hyeong-woo’s expression, he seemed to be thoroughly misunderstanding Gyeon Gang-hyeon as some kind of thief.
Jin Seol-woon had to clarify, if only due to slight guilt.
“I know what Ja Hyeong-woo-ssi is thinking, but it’s not like that. Gyeon Gang-hyeon-ssi helped me.”
Even though he said he’d been helped, when the other person’s face hardened further, Jin Seol-woon was inwardly flustered.
Being sensitive to human relationships and people’s emotions, if there was one thing he instinctively caught from looking at Ja Hyeong-woo in front of him, it was this:
Between this person and Gyeon Gang-hyeon-ssi, there are complex and subtle emotions that outsiders don’t know about.
“How about asking directly? It doesn’t seem like something I should be revealing.”
Jin Seol-woon, making a quick judgment, chose to step back. He didn’t forget to thank him for the gate magic stone.
Ja Hyeong-woo stood nailed to that spot without any movement for a long time.
Even though the vague answer allowed him to roughly guess the situation, he wasn’t any clearer than before knowing.
Only deep resentment remained.
I see. He helped Seol-woon. Your influence went into the Dragon successor starting to sing again recently.
And when it went well as he hoped, he was secretly smiling behind the scenes.
‘While telling me to just train to death.’
Why.
When he didn’t even know Seol-woon.
“Am I just someone who only needs to train for you?”
* * *
The Twelve Zodiac skill training ground was famous as a place where the lights never went out 24 hours a day. Despite being used by the fewest people among all training grounds.
Of course, even within that, the figures who kept the training ground from cooling down were limited to some.
Attribute training was usually explained as a battle with oneself. Other attribute awakened couldn’t teach you, and there was no other method besides personally stirring up the energy within your body, concentrating and devoting yourself – a realm of talent and sincerity.
Stage 26 was imminent. Ja Hyeong-woo had been in meditation for three days trying to increase his affinity with his attribute.
Someone’s footsteps approached, breaking the stillness that had settled in the quiet space. Ja Hyeong-woo didn’t open his eyes. While even the sensation of thick sweat drops flowing down his temples was distant, only the other person’s voice reached him.
“You’re confident you can manage your condition, right?”
The tone felt pressuring, as if saying he’d curse him to his face if he was damaging his body recklessly. Without changing his posture, Ja Hyeong-woo quietly replied “Yes.”
“There are interview requests that came for you. Send them all to me. I’ll write rejection responses.”
Woo Sae-geon directly managed all successors’ external activities except for the Dog successor. The association also had managers to handle successors, but Woo Sae-geon didn’t trust them.
And for good reason – outside was full of greedy hyenas. There were rumors that several entertainment companies were lying in wait to immediately offer modeling contracts or whatever the moment Ja Hyeong-woo and Myo Cho-hui retired.
There was also a company that tried to put PPL advertisements in stage battle videos but only got cursed out by Woo Sae-geon and gave up.
After roughly reviewing documents through the status window, Woo Sae-geon closed the window with increasingly irritated eyes.
“I’ll handle trash like this myself, so you just train properly.”
Ja Hyeong-woo didn’t particularly answer, but Woo Sae-geon knew it would be affirmative anyway.
In Woo Sae-geon’s case, the sunken, dark-looking eye sockets were supposedly just features he’d had since birth—
Looking at his eyes, Ja Hyeong-woo thought that at some point his own under-eyes had become darker than his.
Still, he didn’t rest from training. Believing he could hold out until Stage 26, he devoted himself to refining his attribute.
“Whew……”
But currently, Ja Hyeong-woo’s judgment was seriously unclear. His mind was in a state close to irrationality.
With continued sleep deprivation, the shock Gyeon Gang-hyeon had given him pulled the trigger on that judgment. He was so focused on training even more fiercely to avoid dwelling on Gyeon Gang-hyeon.
* * *
The morning of Stage 26 arrived.
Ja Hyeong-woo, who woke up after sleeping exactly 7 hours, fell into the delusion that his sleep was sufficient.
Inside Hunter School, in front of the gate leading to the stage, leader Woo Sae-geon looked back. At the 4-person raid team he was supposed to lead.
==
Ox Successor: You know without me saying.
Ox Successor: Today’s goal is to close Stage 26. But beyond that, we need to show a composed appearance. Our duty is weighty.
Ox Successor: Don’t forget.
==
Since the situation was broadcast live to citizens up to the entrance like other places, intimate talk was done through chat instead of speech.
Ja Hyeong-woo blinked several times.
The text appearing in his eyes was strangely blurry. Puzzled by this, he was raising his hand to rub his eyes—
Suddenly his shoulder hit the wall.
Before he could realize that was the floor, his vision went dark.
At the loud sound, all four people who had been standing in formation looked toward Ja Hyeong-woo.
Woo Sae-geon, finding Ja Hyeong-woo’s face on the floor rather than upright, shouted without knowing it.
“That idiot……!”
The moment the skill-created veil disappeared from the collapsed face, Woo Sae-geon instinctively gave orders before even grasping the situation.
“Cover him. With your back.”
So those dark circles don’t show on camera.
It was an order directed at Yang Pyo, the Sheep successor who wasn’t part of the raid team but had come to see them off. Yang Pyo, the largest among the successors, hurriedly crouched down and dragged Ja Hyeong-woo away while covering him.
Woo Sae-geon concentrated all his nerves on managing his expression while turning his head.
The plan was already half-ruined. Having collapsed right before the stage, there was no way to prevent controversy over Ja Hyeong-woo’s condition.
Then at minimum, they had to finish this stage smoothly.
But with the only healer out.
The original members Jin Seol-woon, Myo Cho-hui, and Ma Cheon-ah all looked at Woo Sae-geon simultaneously with widened eyes. Woo Sae-geon opened his mouth under the gaze of colleagues who were all younger than him.
“We’re modifying the raid team itself. Excluding the healer, with 2 tankers and 3 dealers from the original candidates.”
Then Snake successor Sa Ye-ho would have to come immediately, but Woo Sae-geon couldn’t think that guy would be ready for combat at all. But he couldn’t blame Sa Ye-ho’s leisureliness. Originally Sa Ye-ho had been excluded from the raid, and this situation itself was sudden—
==
‘Hae’ Successor has teleported.
==
At this time, a person Woo Sae-geon hadn’t expected appeared before them.
Whether he’d moved hastily after seeing the situation in real time, his light blue Nangdo robe was slightly wrinkled and the feather on his head was crooked. But it was clearly Hae Mi-jun properly dressed in hunter gear.
If Gyeon Gang-hyeon was the disgrace of successors, Hae Mi-jun was the sore finger.
The 17-year-old youngest, who until now had neither the skill nor confidence to participate in raids, looked up at Woo Sae-geon and spoke.
Steadying his trembling, in a quiet voice.
“I’ll substitute. Trust me and use me just this once.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
