Damn Hunter Life 40

Damn Hunter Life Chapter 40

Successor communication is a contact method provided by the status window. There’s text chatting and voice calls, with chat having no member limit and calls allowing up to 5 people simultaneously.

Theoretically it can be used anywhere without particular restrictions. It works even inside gates.

‘The fact that they haven’t invited me despite being a successor means one of two things.’

Either they don’t acknowledge me as a successor. Or they thought communication wasn’t necessary since I don’t participate in conquests.

Until now, I belonged to both categories.

Currently, an invitation notification is blinking before my eyes. Now they can’t exclude me since the Busan gate incident is firmly standing there.

‘It’s been so long since I awakened. Did they invite Won Ha-ri first and watch me for a while?’

It was a reasonable suspicion, but looking at the chat room, Won Ha-ri had just been invited too. Won Ha-ri’s inviter was Ma Cheon-ah, and the person who invited me was Sa Ye-ho.

Snake Successor: Gang-mouse hi

Me: Why invite me now?

Snake Successor: Not my decision

And um, I expected this but.

Clearly there are 10 kids gathered who are an average age of 20.2, at the perfect age for spouting nonsense, but the chat room is complete silence itself.

Pig Successor: Welcome, hyung!

Dragon Successor: Hello, Gyeon Gang-hyeon-ssi.

Even Hae Mi-jun, who would normally attach at least 10 exclamation marks at times like this, timidly added just one.

That made sense since this place was nothing more than a solemn announcement room.

‘That’s what happens where Woo Sae-geon is.’

Since it’s used as a communication network during stage conquests, plus you can’t arbitrarily change those stiff successor nicknames, it hardened into an official room.

Sa Ye-ho could chatter away single-handedly, but even that guy somehow hides his true self and keeps his mouth shut in this atmosphere.

I wondered why he invited me, then as soon as I entered, one of Woo Sae-geon’s announcements came up.

This guy would never do one-on-one chatting or anything like that.

Ox Successor: As of now, when Korean gates open D-rank, I’ve received one for successor practice.

Just as Sa Ye-ho tipped me off in advance.

I don’t need to hear it to know. He’ll say I’m the person going into this practice.

Then aside from me who plans to freeload, what other personnel will cover for the scoundrel?

Ox Successor: Roster—Ja Hyeong-woo, Yang Pyo, Ma Cheon-ah, Gyeon Gang-hyeon

Ja Hyeong-woo again… Right, a healer is essential so it can’t be helped.

I felt like it would be better to take Hae Mi-jun along, but Hae Mi-jun doesn’t have that kind of experience yet.

‘And Yang Pyo and Ma Cheon-ah.’

Both are Twelve Zodiac members I’ve never had a conversation with yet.

I’m more concerned about Yang Pyo among them.

‘He said he’d leave Won Ha-ri out and send only me, but turns out he was planning to include Yang Pyo?’

Yang Pyo was also treated almost like a newcomer at this point.

Among the four earth attribute users, I stood out so much that he was relatively overshadowed, but aside from me, there’s another guy who can’t pull his weight.

Ox Successor: Reply.

Here, when the leader delivers an announcement, you have to leave a chat confirming you saw it.

Sheep Successor: Understood.

Horse Successor: Yes

Me: Confirmed

Then an unexpected guy popped up.

Monkey Successor: Yes! I confirmed!

Ox Successor: Only those on the roster.

Monkey Successor: Sorry

Horse Successor: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Cute

After Ma Cheon-ah’s chat, nothing came up for a while.

Even people unrelated to the practice checked the chat, so the number of unread people next to messages quickly decreased, but it stopped at 1.

The last guy on the roster was silent.

Ox Successor: Ja Hyeong-woo

Ox Successor: Look

Ox Successor: Ja Hyeong-woo

Snake Successor: Hyung give up, our room’s 1 will never disappear…

Ox Successor: Should rip out Ja Hyeong-woo’s eyeballs and remodel them into eyeballs that read chat.

“Keke.”

Why is this funny? The chat room with only Woo Sae-geon’s echoes is hilarious. For the first time, I liked what Ja Hyeong-woo was doing.

No one can deliver business to Ja Hyeong-woo via text. The only means of conveying something to Ja Hyeong-woo is phone calls.

Ja Hyeong-woo is a rare sight in this era, a 100% pure computer illiterate who hates looking at screens. I know he uses ‘audio listening’ even when checking skills.

It’s also because of his stubbornness to never look elsewhere during training.

The fact that others have been dying of frustration from him checking chats late for months means he has no intention of fixing it himself, right?

Hahaha! Ha… I was laughing then suddenly felt cold.

‘Wait, why does Ja Hyeong-woo read my texts right away?’

Then the chat window moved.

The 1 that had been decorating the end of all chats disappeared with a whoosh. At the very end, one really unfamiliar chat was added.

Mouse Successor: Yes.

Snake Successor: ?

Snake Successor: What heat

Snake Successor: Did you press wrong?

Starting from Sa Ye-ho’s chat, unread numbers appeared again. They all scattered instantly.

Anyway, the D-rank gate second practice was confirmed.

Above all, this time not being a first experience made me feel at ease. And crucially, there was no Won Ha-ri to break eggs.

‘Yang Pyo is a bit worrying, but… the team is a truly standard tank-DPS-heal combination. With earth, fire, and water, the attribute boundary is wide too. Isn’t it actually too good for a D-rank gate?’

I’m the only excess.

In that python gate, variables occurred so I had no choice but to overdo it, but this time will be different. I really just need to take care of my own survival.

I wasn’t thinking much about it. At least until I looked at my original notes once.

But one incident I had written on the ‘not serious stuff list’ suddenly caught my eye.

‘Huh, this incident doesn’t have much time left?’

Though the Busan gate changing from June to April mixed everything up, ‘this’ is an incident where the date is hard to change.

It’s not an urgent problem, but I thoughtfully propped my chin and drummed my fingers. I went into the status window to check my point balance.

“I think I’ll be short on points. I need to score big somewhere.”

/Reporting gambling is…

“Not gambling. You crazy bastard.”

/My apologies. You have that look.

There are so many things around me picking fights. I thought I’d just tamed Squeaky. The dog familiar… I somehow soothed the puppy who was shedding tears and snot, and carefully explained the reality that he had to share me with Squeaky.

Anyway, the big score I was thinking of was selling monster corpses or gems from the D-rank gate to the shop.

It’s the most reliable way to earn points. Except that conquest loot goes to leader Woo Sae-geon first.

There are two options.

Get it from that conservative bastard Woo Sae-geon through mutual irritation and hassle.
Embezzle it.

I unnecessarily stretched while turning my neck. Like someone about to do something big.

Should I try some light embezzlement?

For that, I’d need the skill to easily handle at least C~B rank monsters… abilities aside, this normal bow won’t work.

Ultimately, the weapon that suits successors best is one they craft themselves…

The time has come to step into the field I’ve been putting off. I’m already worried about how much stamina will be drained, but I can’t depend on others’ weapons forever.

I need to be able to make weapons to create my general hunter force that doesn’t have a single person yet, and get external recognition to receive pensions too.

‘Can I do it with my current physical condition?’

Fortunately, today is the morning after a self-imposed holiday. It was a day when my body was unusually fine. Plus I haven’t gone to training yet, so I have an advantage too.

[“Yes, oppa?”]

“Won Ha-ri, I’m skipping training today too. Tell the instructor.”

[“…”]

Next, I need a senior to help with weapon crafting. I have to choose from the same earth attribute, but the options are still narrow.

Since I don’t have a phone number, I use communication.

“Jin Seol-woon. I want to try making an earth weapon, can you teach me the knack of making it?”

Instead of an answer, rough breathing came through.

He must have been training, as I heard a thunk… sound like iron bars being put down. Soon the breathing calmed and Jin Seol-woon spoke.

[“Are you some kind of natural disaster, Gyeon Gang-hyeon-ssi? No warning, just business out of nowhere?”]

“Hey, honestly I’m not quite a disaster. So will you help or not?”

I got a bit anxious at the longer silence than expected.

Since it’s not a difficult task, I thought he’d just do it, but do I need to offer something? What do I have to give Jin Seol-woon?

[“Fine. But you have to come here.”]

This is the condition? Super cheap? Of course I’ll take it.

“Now?”

[“Yes. Now is fine too.”]

“Then I’ll teleport to you?”

[“Wait—”]

I heard him trying to stop me belatedly, but the movement command had already gone through.

“You said now was fine.”

So I grumbled face-to-face instead of through communication.

The place Jin Seol-woon was at was a personal gym inside his home. He, who had shouted “wait,” was hurriedly putting on a t-shirt. Well-defined abs disappeared under the clothes.

Jin Seol-woon, who regained composure as if he’d never been flustered, gestured for me to sit on the bench.

“Did you bring a weapon to use as a base?”

“Yeah.”

I put down the Korean bow I’d gotten familiar with through training together.

“Can you include a rest and sight too when crafting? So they’re detachable later.”

“Probably possible. Let me look first.”

Jin Seol-woon picked it up like he was examining it and fiddled with the bowstring. While I sat on the bench watching, I heard Jin Seol-woon’s voice.

“…You won’t use the sword I gave you anymore?”

I made notes so you guys wont get confused!