Damn Hunter Life Chapter 65
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That night after Gyeon Gang-hyeon’s visit, at Hunter School.
“Why don’t you get some proper sleep? Hyung.”
Woo Sae-geon recalled someone’s voice while trapped in the dark room’s air.
Even though it was the dead of night when everyone was resting, he hadn’t taken off his scholar’s attire.
‘What a comfortable life.’
Soon he opened the window and slid down the high-rise exterior wall, borrowing the night’s silence to go out.
A student ran frantically through the alley of the earth district student building.
His school uniform indicating he was a regular hunter student, his hanbok-style daily wear, was completely wrinkled. The way he kept looking back suggested he was being chased by someone.
He didn’t have the leisure to check angles that wouldn’t be caught by surveillance cameras. His breathing was ragged with a sense of crisis, exactly like running from a monster.
However, the escape didn’t last long.
“Finally caught you.”
Whether he had been looking down from atop the wall, someone jumped down onto his head.
Even the scream that burst out disappeared between the palm that covered his mouth. The assailant easily captured the male student. The captured student barely managed to confirm his opponent’s face.
‘Hunter Choi Jung-do?’
Though not famous to the general public, he was someone no Hunter School student could not know. An A-rank or higher hunter, and above all, known as the right-hand man of successor Woo Sae-geon who dominated the earth attribute.
“Your name is… Jung Ah-ram, wood attribute hunter?”
Choi Jung-do recited the student Jung Ah-ram’s identity. Jung Ah-ram’s hands trembled at the heavy voice.
“Why did you torment students younger than you? You even threatened to push them inside gates if they didn’t listen?”
“I, I didn’t—”
“You should make an excuse worth listening to. You just got caught red-handed by me. The kid you were tormenting is still trembling under the dormitory wall.”
“……”
Jung Ah-ram couldn’t deny it anymore. Choi Jung-do’s words sounded as if he had been watching and investigating his actions for a long time.
“Why are you already scared? This is just the beginning. The leader will handle your punishment.”
The moment he finished speaking, the area became impossibly quiet in an instant.
Choi Jung-do released the student and stepped back several paces. Jung Ah-ram looked across the alley and was horrified.
“Huk…!”
Woo Sae-geon approached, kicking the hem of his dopo, and immediately gripped Jung Ah-ram’s throat in his grasp.
His breath was blocked by the grip strength. Also because of Woo Sae-geon’s gaze that didn’t see him as a student of this school, or perhaps didn’t even see him as the same kind of person.
“According to the secret survey results, thirteen students complained of being harmed by you, Jung Ah-ram. Evidence materials investigated by my subordinate also confirmed circumstances of disrupting students’ training and damaging the academic atmosphere. I’m drawing a red line through your name on the Hunter Association roster and reducing your hunter salary.”
Though it was a monotonous tone with little variation, it was as if a blade had been embedded in each syllable.
The student trembled at this, then looked up at Woo Sae-geon with a feeble smile.
“That’s not really a red line, is it…?”
For a brainless thug, he was smarter than expected. The student quickly caught on. There was no police disciplinary action included in Woo Sae-geon’s words.
Perhaps gaining some strength from seeing Woo Sae-geon’s silence, the student deliberately wheezed more. He pointed to his gripped throat.
“I’m nine, nineteen years old, a mi-minor, but you’re being too… excessive in suppression…”
“Want me to be gentler?”
Woo Sae-geon gripped the student’s neck tightly and slammed his body against the wall. A choking sound naturally came out.
“If I’m gentle, will that bug-like brain of yours understand?”
In a situation that would make anyone angry, there wasn’t a trace of emotion in Woo Sae-geon’s eyes. That made it even more chilling.
Choi Jung-do watched his superior directly punish the student from behind the corner, then when the situation was about to wrap up, he put Jung Ah-ram in the dormitory and went up to his own room.
It had been half a year since Hunter School was established.
Woo Sae-geon, the one and only leader, didn’t throw hunters who caused trouble within the school to public condemnation under the reason of ‘image management.’
Instead, he roamed around without sleeping and caught them himself.
Choi Jung-do himself had been the one acting as Woo Sae-geon’s hands and feet, collecting ‘evidence to hand over to the association,’ so he knew better than anyone.
That Woo Sae-geon was responsible for not only the bright parts of the school but all the dark parts as well.
So deeply that the school wouldn’t function without him.
‘But honestly, it seems like Woo Sae-geon-nim doesn’t consider his own retirement.’
Setting aside doing all that work alone, he doesn’t seem to see any talent since he hasn’t even designated a next leader…
Just like today, when another successor tried to take over one of his tasks, he was in a low mood all day.
The one who touched Woo Sae-geon’s nerves was Gyeon Gang-hyeon, the Dog successor who had recently succeeded in awakening. He brought school violence incidents that even Choi Jung-do hadn’t discovered and insisted on making them public.
Even when Woo Sae-geon said he would handle personal punishment himself, Gang-hyeon showed no signs of backing down.
“That’s not enough. They need to experience social burial and contempt too.”
Anyway, he did obediently hand over his materials to Woo Sae-geon…
But his leader didn’t seem to believe for a moment that Gyeon Gang-hyeon would stay quiet like this.
“The school is going to become a mess.”
Because he had muttered this to Choi Jung-do.
Before he knew it, he was in front of the dormitory. Choi Jung-do checked if the cigarette smell from before coming up to the dormitory had disappeared.
Choi Jung-do was just about to change clothes to go to bed.
Whispers like auditory hallucinations came from the window side.
“So this is what the student dormitory looks like. Pretty nice, right?”
“Don’t blow air into my ear. I’m going to drop you!”
What kind of sound is this?
“When did I blow air?”
“Right now!”
“Be quiet, man. We’ll get caught if you make noise.”
“Whose fault is that…!”
The sound flowed in through the slightly open window gap. Choi Jung-do stuck his neck out and looked down below the window.
His gaze met directly face-to-face with someone hanging on the wall.
Black hair fluttering in the wind and white sobok. If the face hadn’t been too handsome, he would have definitely mistaken it for a ghost. Choi Jung-do barely swallowed his scream.
Moreover, looking closely, it was also a face Choi Jung-do knew.
And there were two of them. Gyeon Gang-hyeon was clinging to Yang Pyo’s back, and Yang Pyo was stuck to the wall.
Choi Jung-do was momentarily stunned. How should he accept the sight of two earth attribute successors climbing the wall with their own hands without using skills or familiars, apparently worried about waking the students?
“Hey, I made eye contact with the room’s owner.”
Gyeon Gang-hyeon spoke without taking his eyes off Choi Jung-do. Yang Pyo, who had been climbing the wall, looked up and was horrified.
“That won’t work…!”
“What won’t work? You can just knock him out.”
“Ugh, hyung really did this. I don’t know anything!”
“…!”
Choi Jung-do’s vision blurred.
His eyes closed with the last sight of Yang Pyo carrying Gyeon Gang-hyeon, fully climbing up to the window frame and catching him as he collapsed.
Choi Jung-do woke up firmly tied up.
The place he was in was the small bathroom attached to his room.
“He’s awake.”
Behind Yang Pyo, who stood stiffly as if extremely anxious about this situation, the snow-white face he had seen earlier entered Choi Jung-do’s field of vision.
“We’ve met before, right? Is your name Choi Jung-do?”
Choi Jung-do quietly nodded to confirm.
This successor in front of him had absurdly tied up a person. Still, he didn’t think he would be harmed, so he relaxed his arms and legs…
“We came looking for you specifically. You’re Woo Sae-geon’s number one subordinate, right? To get straight to the point, I’ve been investigating things like factional fights or bullying among regular hunters for the past few days.”
At the purpose Gyeon Gang-hyeon quickly revealed, he immediately tensed his whole body.
“Now I just need to report it to the association and police, but I want to get past records too and report those guys together, you know? You have the past records, right?”
Then he smiled brightly with utmost innocence.
“Give them to me. I’ll put them to good use.”
Gyeon Gang-hyeon planned to obtain materials on violence incidents from before his awakening, and even before he realized his possession.
But since Woo Sae-geon wouldn’t hand them over nicely, he had reached out to his subordinate.
Choi Jung-do recalled the fact that he didn’t have a cell phone at hand to contact Woo Sae-geon. He tried to maintain a calm expression as he faced Gyeon Gang-hyeon.
“That’s not possible. Please make a formal request through proper procedures to Woo Sae-geon-nim.”
Gyeon Gang-hyeon adjusted his posture and positioned himself between Choi Jung-do’s legs.
He pressed against the wall to fill his field of vision completely, then grabbed Choi Jung-do’s chin with his leather-gloved hand and lifted it.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-four.”
Even while cold sweat dripped down his temples, Choi Jung-do responded faithfully as if humoring a child.
“Retirement age. You’re all grown up, so you should handle stimulation well.”
Gyeon Gang-hyeon muttered something ominously incomprehensible and smoothly removed his gloves.
“Ugh!”
Gyeon Gang-hyeon’s fingertips touched his tied left arm. Immediately Choi Jung-do let out a groan.
Electricity rose from his arm and his breath was suddenly blocked. There was also a dizzying sensation as if heat was rising all the way to his heart.
“Huh…”
Choi Jung-do tried to straighten his whitening vision. While barely regaining his reason, he recalled successor Gyeon Gang-hyeon’s stats that he had seen on the association’s official website.
Everything was a mess, but only his attribute affinity was comparable to normal level.
So when successor Gyeon Gang-hyeon made contact with a hunter of the same attribute, the tingling stimulation from energy rushing together would be particularly strong.
‘But to think there would be a scoundrel who would deliberately use this—!’
He had once been rude trying to find out about Gyeon Gang-hyeon’s awakening status before.
At that time, because he hadn’t awakened yet, it was lamentable that he hadn’t felt anything.
Gyeon Gang-hyeon’s finger pressed the inside of his wrist. Choi Jung-do gritted his teeth and held back his voice.
‘Huh? There’s a part with a bigger reaction? Are there other places too?’
Curiosity arose. With a puzzled face, Gyeon Gang-hyeon touched skin in various places, limited to areas exposed outside clothing.
When his hand touched the skin between fingers, the opponent’s tied body convulsed greatly.
“Heuak!”
Is it like a vital spot? But it’s different from ordinary vital spots. Anyway, the effect is certain. Gyeon Gang-hyeon’s eyes lit up as he leaned down toward Choi Jung-do.
“Will you give me the materials, or not?”