Damn Hunter Life 73

Damn Hunter Life Chapter 73

At first, I remember how I didn’t want to receive healing from Ja Hyeong-woo because my pride was hurt.

I was foolish then. What did mere pride matter anyway?

‘If I think about it differently, sacrificing just a little of my pride could definitely strengthen Ja Hyeong-woo’s power.’

Some time after that, it became easier to accept when I concluded that I had to depend on Ja Hyeong-woo anyway to maintain an awakened body.

I was hopelessly weak, and if I used even one skill wrong, my entire body would be damaged. In stage spaces where others were fine, I was affected just by breathing.

So it was ridiculously simple. Creating situations where Ja Hyeong-woo would heal me during raids.

As for who this was for, it wasn’t for me, at least.

‘I hate being in pain too. I’m already sick often enough without doing it on purpose.’

I did it to help Ja Hyeong-woo. Also for the people whose lives Ja Hyeong-woo had to save.

“Gyeon Gang-hyeon, answer me properly. Is it true?”

But I was completely wrong. Just mistaken.

The moment I faced the sight of Ja Hyeong-woo unable to control his emotions and trembling, I realized with my whole body.

That I had crossed a line I shouldn’t have crossed.

“That you think nothing of self-harm, and trained me to that extent… just tell me it’s baseless speculation, that it’s not true.”

A voice that couldn’t hide its trembling, breaking up messily, grinding teeth while swallowing down surging emotions again and again.

My whole body went cold. Cold enough to feel nothing.

My brain automatically sought the easy path.

‘If I act nonchalantly and say it’s not true, like Ja Hyeong-woo is pleading… could I get through this moment?’

I opened my mouth and took a deep breath. The air hurt going down my throat.

I tried to say that several times…

But I only felt powerlessness equivalent to kneeling, and just spat out empty air again.

I couldn’t lie.

To insist it wasn’t true and escape from here would feel like doing something I really shouldn’t do.

I definitely had guilt too. It wasn’t that I felt only joy in deceiving you.

I just…

“Since when.”

Ja Hyeong-woo understood what the lengthening silence meant.

Even though he was speaking much more quietly than before, veins bulged in Ja Hyeong-woo’s neck. Everything visible about Ja Hyeong-woo expressed betrayal.

Would it feel better if he just grabbed me by the collar instead?

It was harder to watch him suppress his anger without moving a single step from that spot. Even while clenching his fists as if he’d crush his hands, Ja Hyeong-woo still hadn’t exploded.

That made it more frightening. Because I could feel that even in this moment, Ja Hyeong-woo was gradually losing his reason.

Completely losing composure, his vision narrowing extremely to focus only on fragments.

“After battles, becoming cold like a dead person… was that on purpose too?”

“What? No! That has nothing to do with previous matters!”

I was the one who couldn’t step back and think. Fighting off dizziness that made my head shake, I desperately shook my head.

“When you first awakened and coughed up blood, was all of that planned too?”

The blood drained completely from my face. If I didn’t keep trying to hold onto my consciousness, I felt like I’d forget to breathe and become dazed.

If I said I wanted to escape Ja Hyeong-woo’s gaze even by turning back time, that would be an irresponsible thought, wouldn’t it?

“I swear it’s not. Before that, I was really in pain from everything.”

“How can I believe that? You don’t treasure me at all! Don’t I know that my worry has no value to you?”

My lips automatically bit down at the thunderous shout.

I squeezed my eyes shut forcefully a couple times before opening them, then glanced down at the front of my sobok.

‘Hey, hey! Squeaky, you. You bastard, aren’t you coming out right now? No matter how wrong I was, this isn’t right! That was a misunderstanding! Come out and properly explain what needs explaining!’

{……}

I ended up getting angry too. Even though I wasn’t in a position to.

“Come out!”

To others’ eyes, I probably looked like I’d suddenly gone crazy and was talking to myself like a madman. Even knowing that, I didn’t care at all. The problem was that this crazy rat bastard was ignoring me and staying buried.

I saw Ja Hyeong-woo moving at the edge of my vision and snapped my head up. He had only moved his arm from the same spot, but because I was too sensitive, I visibly flinched far too much for anyone watching.

While staring directly at me like that, Ja Hyeong-woo held his skill item, the gourd, in his hand.

Crash! I startled for the second time at the sharp shattering sound.

When I opened my tightly closed eyes, the gourd was shattered to pieces below the wall, and Ja Hyeong-woo was holding one large glass shard.

Still confirming that I was watching him… he stabbed the shard into the center of his chest.

Thump!

The sight before my eyes became horror that burrowed into my brain nerves, and the heavy sound made nausea rise.

Blood droplets splattered from the glass shard he lifted as if showing me. His torn clothes were instantly stained red. Thwack! A new wound was created next to the already existing wound.

“What are you doing, stop!”

Ja Hyeong-woo glared at me as if to kill me, as if it was my fault.

“I want to shock you too.”

Words wouldn’t work. I lunged at the arm holding the shard.

But even though I desperately clung on, I absolutely couldn’t stop him with strength alone. Thump! That terrible sound came once more.

“I get it, I was wrong! I’ll never do such things again!”

“Do you know what you should be apologizing for?”

“Deceiving you, treating my body carelessly…”

“No. You don’t look like you’re reflecting at all right now. Don’t just string together nice-sounding words.”

The arm I thought had stopped moved again. I was sick of it now. Ja Hyeong-woo’s gaze looking down at me with hatred. Even the blood that had splattered on my face, everything.

“I told you to stop!”

I shouted with the feeling that I didn’t care if my throat tore.

Gasp, the next moment I couldn’t breathe. My lungs and throat hurt so I couldn’t cough loudly and just barely took in and spat out small breaths.

Even during this, I didn’t let go of Ja Hyeong-woo’s wrist, so my arm shook violently amid the fierce coughing.

‘Will this also look like acting? It’s not though…’

He probably wouldn’t believe me even if I said so. Since what little trust there was had fallen to rock bottom.

The glass shard fell from Ja Hyeong-woo’s hand. The blood-stained shard fell to the floor and broke into smaller fragments.

Ja Hyeong-woo’s other hand removed my fingers one by one from his arm. Soon after completely separating, Ja Hyeong-woo’s shoes disappeared from my downcast field of vision.

I shuffled home. I made it to the front of my bed.

Buzz. My phone vibrated gently.

Startled, I pulled my phone from my pocket. I checked the message sender.

But soon my hand lost strength as before.

It was Hae Mi-jun. At a glance, it seemed like a message saying good work on the raid.

‘I might not know if I hadn’t seen it at all, but I’ve never delayed answering Hae Mi-jun’s messages after seeing them…’

No strength went into it at all. I threw the phone away.

I buried my face in the bed like that.

* * *

During the day I called Sa Ye-ho saying I’d come visit his house. The homeowner readily said to come over.

The afternoon of the day after Stage 34. Sa Ye-ho was sitting in front of the TV gaming, his face particularly shiny from sleeping a lot. Since his short hair wasn’t tied up, instead of tying his hair he used a beaded hair tie to gather all his bangs into an apple head.

“I’m here.”

Sa Ye-ho didn’t take his eyes off the character running through the ruined city on screen. Only his mouth moved.

“Why does your voice sound like that?”

“I strained my voice yesterday.”

Sa Ye-ho made a small tsk sound.

Even with such an abbreviated answer, Sa Ye-ho understood the context.

When I was fighting with Ja Hyeong-woo, I couldn’t see anything around me so I didn’t know… but it seems Sa Ye-ho, Woo Sae-geon, and Yang Pyo who had raided the stage together were watching.

“I want to play too.”

I unilaterally took Sa Ye-ho’s game pad. After saving the current game and going to the title screen, I connected another pad and started a new 2-player game.

Sa Ye-ho looked at me as if dumbfounded.

“Can you even swallow games in the midst of all this?”

“Don’t people usually ask if you can swallow food?”

“You have to eat food.”

The screen split in half for 2-player perspective. It was an FPS game where you cooperated with a partner to shoot zombies in a ruined city and complete missions.

However, even after holding the pad, I couldn’t immerse myself in the game.

[YOU DIED]

The same message kept appearing only on my side of the screen. I didn’t even think about how I died and just pressed respawn. I could hear Sa Ye-ho briefly muttering “What is this spaced-out troll bastard…”

“…Did he come to the gym?”

“Yeah.”

Actually, this was the real purpose of coming to Sa Ye-ho’s house.

Because I didn’t want to see Ja Hyeong-woo directly, I sent Sa Ye-ho as a spy.

“Did he treat his injuries or not?”

“He didn’t.”

At that moment my character stood upright in the middle of zombies.

Waaah―! Even the sound effect of the character being devoured and dying didn’t move me at all. I put down the pad.

Sa Ye-ho watched me like that with pity, not even laughing.

“Since it’s covered by clothes, strangers wouldn’t know if they saw him. But he skipped chest workouts and barely did upper body. Since you and I are close, I think he deliberately showed it to me.”