#1
In the mountains near Jongno, Seoul. Three men paced restlessly in front of a gate that gaped wide open. This gate had just been cleared anyway, and as proof, the gate’s energy was gradually growing faint.
So the reason the men were restless wasn’t because of the gate.
“Hey, what do you think happened inside?”
“Don’t say such unlucky things.”
“That’s why I said we should hire a proper purifier! Why did we accept such a weird deal…”
“Hey, where can you find a purifier who works for such cheap rates these days? And that person is pretty famous among hunters. Let’s just wait a bit.”
The men were hunters belonging to a small guild whose name wasn’t even known. They were busy raising their voices, passing blame to each other. Before long, a silhouette emerged from within the gate that had been growing fainter and fainter.
“Oh? Someone’s coming out.”
“Ah, did you wait long?”
Unlike the restless hunters, Do Ha-seong’s expression was calm as could be.
“Ah, not at all.”
“Yes. Then I’ll begin the purification work.”
Ha-seong wore a business smile as he turned his back to the hunters and faced the gate. Ha-seong reached out his hand toward the entrance that was slowly beginning to close. And a familiar status window appeared before his eyes.
[Trait ‘Energy Absorption and Annihilation Skill’ is activated.]
The gate closed simultaneously with using the skill. The mountains regained their peaceful tranquility as if nothing had happened.
“The work is finished.”
“Thank you. Here’s the payment we promised.”
One of the hunters handed over a white envelope. Ha-seong expressed his gratitude while immediately taking the envelope and putting it in his inventory.
“But… what exactly did you do inside? It was a dungeon that had already been cleared…”
One of the hunters couldn’t hold back his itching mouth and spoke up. He’d been looking curious like a puppy needing to poop from earlier, so he must have been looking for the right timing to ask this question.
“Ah…”
Ha-seong scratched his head as if troubled. Then the man who had handed over the money envelope poked the questioning man’s side.
“Hey, not asking the purifier anything was part of the contract conditions.”
“That’s true, but…”
“Haha, just ignore him. This guy is always too curious. Well then, we’ll be going now.”
“Ah, wait a moment.”
Ha-seong caught the feet of the hunters who were turning to leave. Then he took out a small piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to them.
“Please call me again if you need purification work.”
<C-rank Purifier Do Ha-seong>
It was his business card. The hunters who received the business card said they understood and slowly walked away.
“That purifier seems like a really diligent person.”
“Right. It’s originally a job that doesn’t get proper treatment, but seeing him work so hard like that.”
“But are C-ranks this skilled these days?”
Ha-seong watched the hunters who were talking about him slowly disappear from view, then completely wiped away the business smile he’d been wearing all along.
“Ugh, my shoulders.”
Since he’d climbed a mountain after a long time, his body felt quite heavy. Well, compared to his ‘previous life,’ he exercised less, so it was inevitable.
“Should I exercise separately…”
Ha-seong muttered quietly as he opened his inventory.
‘But… what exactly did you do inside? It was a dungeon that had already been cleared…’
What did I do? I’m trying to live easy and carefree, obviously.
Ha-seong grinned as he looked at his well-stocked inventory. There were magic stones and weapons that weren’t well known yet lined up there. Of course, these were items that needed to go through professional crafting work to show their true value, but for him who had already maxed out his crafting skill, it wasn’t a problem at all.
“I didn’t expect much from a C-rank dungeon, but this much is pretty lucky.”
Well then, shall I go make some real money now? Ha-seong looked up at the crystal-clear sky and grinned. It was a completely different laugh from the business smile he’d shown the hunters earlier. How should I put it… yes, like the scheming laugh you make when you get to eat two chicken drumsticks all by yourself.
Well, it would be stranger if he didn’t make such a laugh while getting one step closer to a wealthy unemployed life.
* * *
‘Purifier.’
One of the newly derived occupations in the Great Hunter Era.
When a dungeon beyond a gate is cleared, the gate closes and disappears within a few minutes, and during this process, the energy of byproducts remaining in the dungeon is released outside the gate. People called it ‘poison.’
The poison harmed both living beings and nature, and those with the ability to purify and eliminate this poison were purifiers. However, unlike ordinary hunters, these people were treated as mediocre because their abilities couldn’t be properly utilized, and their treatment wasn’t very good either. Most purifiers worked individually, and when occasionally called by guilds, they would go do the assigned work and receive payment per job.
Of course, among them, the outstanding few percent in the upper ranks sometimes made long-term contracts with various guilds.
But Ha-seong belonged to the former category. While purifiers generally wanted to make stable contracts with guilds, Ha-seong was not like that at all. How could he die from overwork again in this life he had somehow obtained? He chose the purifier profession for that reason. ‘Those with mediocre abilities who can’t properly perform.’ This was the image of purifiers, and while purifiers found it unfair, Ha-seong needed exactly that title.
Ha-seong came down from the mountain and headed to a nearby bus stop. As if his luck wanted to continue to the end today, the bus he wanted to take arrived in less than three minutes. After finding a suitable seat, the bus departed immediately.
<Yes, then after listening to the advertisement, let’s continue with the rest of the story.>
The sound of the radio that the driver had turned on was echoing quite loudly inside the bus.
<Mom, I want to become a hunter too!>
At the confident voice of a child in the flowing advertisement, Ha-seong slowly opened his eyes that he had closed.
<Hunter, ranked 1st in teenagers’ dream job rankings, anyone who has awakened can become one. Awakened individuals, jump into the spectacular world of hunters right now! Hunter Management Bureau.>
‘Fuck, spectacular my ass. That advertisement never gets familiar no matter how many times I hear it.’
Ha-seong clicked his tongue. Having jumped boldly into the hunter world as the advertisement said and nearly died before coming back to life, he could never get used to such advertisements even if he died and woke up again.
Then the bus slowly stopped, perhaps caught at a traffic light. An electronic billboard at the top of a high-rise building. A famous hunter’s advertisement was playing there. Just by turning his gaze slightly, he could see banners promoting guilds everywhere and flyers with the title ‘101 Ways to Become a Competent Hunter’ scattered on the ground.
It was a scene where you could easily tell what kind of treatment hunters received in this world. When Ha-seong was blankly gazing outside, the bus slowly started following the green light.
Ha-seong, who was looking at the scenery changing moment by moment through the window, naturally recalled a certain day.
‘What? Where is this place?’
The day he suddenly dropped into this place. The completely different scenery and atmosphere from his ‘previous world.’ It took quite a while to realize that he had dimensionally traveled to another world.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
