Damn Hunter Life 70

Damn Hunter Life Chapter 70

However, the person in question, Gyeon Gang-hyeon, seems not to have grasped the implication of the proposal.

“I don’t want to? You can do it at your house. Come to think of it, why are you here today?”

Ja Hyeong-woo, leaning against the wall, quietly swallowed a sigh. At the words he heard, the strength naturally drained from his fists, yet he was disgusted with himself for feeling relieved.

Jin Seol-woon subtly avoided Gyeon Gang-hyeon’s eyes.

“…I also sometimes do it here.”

Ja Hyeong-woo was going crazy.

If it were up to his heart, he had more than enough to make such proposals like Jin Seol-woon. But this relationship, where he couldn’t do so because he had to act cold, was resentful.

He had been receiving reports from the Mouse Familiar about things other than Gyeon Gang-hyeon’s physical condition.

He had ordered it to inform him whenever Gyeon Gang-hyeon made contact with other successors.

Therefore, Ja Hyeong-woo could know in real time when and with whom Gyeon Gang-hyeon had been. If he wanted, he could go and butt in. He’d actually done it several times.

‘He seems to go anywhere as long as I’m not there.’

He even goes to Yang Pyo’s house to sleep.

Just hearing that Gyeon Gang-hyeon is with someone else only makes him feel bad, but he also can’t stand not knowing at all…

Since Gyeon Gang-hyeon’s awakening, Ja Hyeong-woo wasn’t even aware that he couldn’t focus on training like before. He swept up the hair on his forehead while exhaling a frustrated breath.

* * *

‘Hot. It’s hot…’

For me, whose body is cool enough to live comfortably without air conditioning even in midsummer, the sensation of heat is truly rare. Maybe my body is sick. Do I have a fever?

When I opened my eyes, an unfamiliar scene spread before me.

White smoke poured out from collapsed buildings here and there. Red colors stabbed my eyes painfully throughout my field of vision. They were bloodstains from fallen people.

My body moved with great difficulty. It creaked and felt heavy as if invisible strings were tangled all around. I desperately looked around to see if there were any living people. My vision shook wildly.

Then I discovered it.

A black gate. A high-grade gate. In front of it, Ja Hyeong-woo stood dazed, his hair disheveled and fluttering.

Empty hands. His staff had fallen below.

Couldn’t you heal people with that? A sharp metallic sound burst from my throat. Then I soon realized.

Korea’s top healer’s S-grade weapon had lost its light and was broken in half like a rotten tree branch.

My heart pounded. Only after groping with my eyes several times did I understand the context.

That wasn’t broken due to a monster attack or external shock. An S-grade weapon shouldn’t break from such things.

…It seemed the weapon had broken first on behalf of its owner’s overexerted body, because the weapon’s owner had drawn out abilities at too high an intensity.

Ja Hyeong-woo lifted his wounded face to the sky. He didn’t notice me. Though his expression was surprisingly dry, he seemed to have lost everything, making the observer’s mind feel numb.

“Ugh… mmm.”

I woke from the dream with a groaning sound.

My arms and legs, which wouldn’t move no matter how much I struggled, could finally be felt. My breathing was too rapid, so I couldn’t lift my head and panted for a while.

Small blue hands were patting my shoulder, then stopped when they confirmed I was awake.

Squeaky’s faint face was looking at me from beside my pillow. It seemed like it had tried to shake me awake directly. Its hand swept back my hair that was damp with sweat.

Soon a brown-haired boy scurried over to the bedside. He carefully floated a water cup above his two hands and handed it to me. Even though I couldn’t see his face clearly, I could feel that the puppy was sniffling.

“Thanks, guys.”

The time was around 7 AM. I was still sleepy, but my head was too complicated to want to sleep more. I covered myself with the blanket and leaned against the wall to think.

In the original work, there were occasional scenes of successors including Ja Hyeong-woo having such dreams. And now the same thing had happened to me.

Whether it was a prophetic dream or not wasn’t revealed until the middle part I had read…

There’s no such thing as 0 percent in this world, and anything has the possibility of being realized. This dream is no different.

‘Ja Hyeong-woo’s skill report that he submitted this time, I saw it too…’

The most recent stage was Stage 33. Comparing to the original work based on this, the current Ja Hyeong-woo had fewer skills and lower maximums than in the original. Most importantly, one advanced healing skill hadn’t manifested.

‘Is that why I had such a dream? Because I’m anxious?’

The current Ja Hyeong-woo is more sluggish than in the original work.

I provoked him hard saying his training was insufficient, but was that still not enough? Honestly, at that level he’s working so hard he has no personal life… Is his mind slack? It did seem that way.

Maybe there’s a bit less stimulation than when the original Gyeon Gang-hyeon died.

Then I need to plant new motivation.

Now that I’ve made up my mind, I need to convey my opinion to the leader as soon as possible. That human might already be on the verge of submitting the roster.

Me>Ox Successor: Are you sleeping?

Me>Ox Successor: I have something to say

7 AM is dawn for me, but wouldn’t Woo Sae-geon have woken up already? But does Woo Sae-geon even sleep? Isn’t he actually a ghost who doesn’t sleep?

As I was having reasonable doubts, an answer came quickly.

Ox Successor>Me: ㅗ

No, even if he was sleeping, he should maintain dignity, but this person just swore at me.

Me>Ox Successor: Should we talk by chat?

Me>Ox Successor: You hate talking about important things by chat, saying it’s rude

I wrote “stuffy scholar” in the window then deleted it again.

I should annoy him more. Anyway, since an answer came, it means Woo Sae-geon is awake, so I called for voice communication.

Since what I really needed to convey was serious, even if I didn’t do it, Woo Sae-geon would have called first out of frustration while talking.

He answered the communication. As soon as we connected, I gave a warm morning greeting.

“Were you really sleeping? I thought as a leader you’d naturally wake up sharp at 6 o’clock. I’m a bit disappointed.”

[“Show some manners. Do you want me to crush you?”]

Woo Sae-geon’s voice cracked for a moment. However, when he spoke next, Woo Sae-geon’s voice had completely returned to normal.

[“Business.”]

“Have you finalized the next stage deployment roster?”

[“Almost.”]

“You haven’t submitted it yet, right? Please put me in there.”

It doesn’t matter if Woo Sae-geon sees me as a newcomer who’s blinded by money and achievements and can’t know their place.

I was going to explain a reason he could understand afterwards.

“I have a newly created skill I want to try.”

[“Explain more.”]

This is the process that all successors have gone through. To Woo Sae-geon, offering all information and delegating overall authority for utilizing one’s abilities.

I had once tried to avoid this, but…

Now, there was no other way.

“I can become a vessel that receives other attribute successors. I’ve experimented with Won Ha-ri too.”

The result. The effect created by using abilities with me as a medium was this.

Namely, it became possible to mix other attributes into my attacks.

In other words, attacks where earth attribute and one other attribute are fused exist.

Though the limitation was clear in that others couldn’t mix among themselves, and it was only possible centered around me.

[“Can it actually be put to practical use?”]

“Yes. It’s usable right now, but I don’t know how much power it has.”

Woo Sae-geon left me alone while lost in thought for a while.

Soon he gave a halfhearted answer that he’d consider it, then cut off the communication without any notice.

‘He should give a definite answer instead of saying he’ll consider it.’

Though it feels like asking for trouble, with this I’ve gained a chance to enter the stage where Ja Hyeong-woo is.

So that the scene I saw in the nightmare doesn’t become reality.

I plan to forcibly raise Ja Hyeong-woo’s abilities from beside him.

First, since I nod off all day if I’m even an hour short of my 10 hours of sleep, I slept a bit more. Until my wake-up time of 8 o’clock.

Of course, since there was no way I could wake up after just one more hour of sleep, having to eat lunch instead of breakfast is a later story.

After gulping down the bone broth from the meal as if it were rice wine and setting down the empty bowl, I belatedly got pissed off.

‘That human is threatening me using Ja Hyeong-woo?’

Woo Sae-geon made essentially threatening remarks while spreading an unreasonable hypothesis about the original protagonist, saying that Ja Hyeong-woo only protects me but has no sense of responsibility toward citizens.

While giving off the nuance that he could spread that information anywhere.

So inevitably, I’m keeping my mouth shut for now and sharing all my body’s research results with Woo Sae-geon in detail… but I’m still not convinced. My insides are boiling.

‘Woo Sae-geon isn’t the type to try to bury me or anything, but… I’m just pissed off.’

Calling at 7 AM to wake him up wasn’t enough to vent my anger. I quickly called Sa Ye-ho.

“Starting today, please give me one Woo Sae-geon TMI per day.”

Let’s find that human’s weaknesses.

Something that could match Ja Hyeong-woo’s character controversy… like Woo Sae-geon actually having a big mole on his butt.

Won’t such top-secret information fall to me?

[“You don’t tell me…”]

Sa Ye-ho’s voice dropped low. It was seriousness for the first time in a million years. What? Does he know something?

[“Do you like Sae-geon hyung?”]

“Should I kill you?”