#11
When Do-hyeok approached threateningly, Ha-seong clenched his fists tight, ready to throw a punch at any moment. Surely he wouldn’t hit me just for saying “no,” right? If he does hit me, I’ll post everything online. That the Guild Leader of the #1 guild goes around beating up innocent people.
“Name.”
Do-hyeok bent his waist slightly to meet his eyes.
“What?”
Ha-seong, who had been avoiding eye contact the whole time, furrowed his brow as if he had misheard.
“What’s your name?”
“Why should I tell you?”
“You know my name, don’t you?”
Ha-seong was momentarily speechless. He was about to ask if his name was on the same level as Do-hyeok’s, since even passing ants knew how famous Do-hyeok was, but when he thought about it, that wasn’t entirely wrong either, so he hesitated.
“……Do……”
“Oh! Ha-seong-ssi!”
Just as he was about to say that, the very person who had called Ha-seong to this scene came walking out from inside with a bright face.
“Ah, so it’s Do Ha-seong.”
Even as the group approached, Do-hyeok kept muttering that name while his gaze remained fixed on Ha-seong. Was it just his imagination that those two eyes looked even deeper and bluer than before?
“Yes, hello. Kang Hyun-jun-ssi.”
Ha-seong walked past Do-hyeok and approached Hyun-jun. Now he couldn’t judge how the situation was unfolding or how he should properly respond. He even began to think whether Ha-seong really needed to avoid Do-hyeok to this extent in the first place. He hadn’t done anything wrong, had he? Of course, he had no idea why that guy had been looking for him, but what could he do about it? He was just a powerless freelance Purifier, an honest citizen who made a daily wage at best.
“Ah, this is Do Ha-seong-ssi, the Purifier we requested for today.”
Hyun-jun was smiling brightly, apparently happy about his successful strategy. However, Ha-seong couldn’t help but find that expression annoying, perhaps wanting to blame Hyun-jun for this situation. Moreover, he wanted to ask why Nameless Guild was here, but that would be an inappropriate question for a Purifier to ask.
“Purifier?”
Do-hyeok tilted his head at an angle. Then he approached Ha-seong’s side once more.
“You were a Purifier?”
“Yeah.”
When Ha-seong suddenly spoke informally, Lee Hyeon-seok’s face turned pale. No, does that Purifier have a death wish or something? How dare he suddenly speak informally to Cha Do-hyeok, who’s notorious for being crazy.
“You said you were a civilian back then.”
But unlike the Nameless Hunter who had turned ashen, Do-hyeok seemed unfazed. If anything, they looked like they knew each other.
“Purifiers are technically civilians too.”
Ha-seong voiced somewhat absurd logic. Between a Purifier claiming to be a Hunter and claiming to be a civilian, wasn’t it obvious which one wouldn’t go against social norms?
“Oh, do you two know each other?”
“No.”
Ha-seong answered curtly and approached the gate. Then he activated his skill.
[Trait: Energy Absorption and Elimination skill is activated.]
Do-hyeok’s expression changed slightly as he watched Ha-seong stretch out his hand to purify the energy.
“It’s done.”
Ha-seong quickly eliminated the gate’s energy. He had worried that Kang Hyun-jun might ask, “Aren’t you going to watch this time?” but fortunately he seemed to have some sense. He couldn’t say such suspicious words in front of a major guild like Nameless.
“Yes, Ha-seong-ssi. Would it be alright if we transfer your payment to your account?”
“Do whatever you want. Then I’ll be going now.”
Ha-seong wanted to get away from this place as quickly as possible. He took steps while trying his best not to make eye contact with Cha Do-hyeok.
“Wait a moment.”
While the other team members were sharing stories about what they experienced during the dungeon strategy behind them, Do-hyeok, as expected, stopped Ha-seong who was about to leave.
“What.”
“My business isn’t finished yet.”
“I told you I don’t accept requests.”
“Haven’t we met somewhere before?”
That guy, seriously. I told him I don’t accept requests. And what’s with that comment? Haven’t we met somewhere before? It was a line that didn’t fit this situation at all, like something from a weekday drama.
“I’ve seen you before. Your story comes up whenever I turn on the TV.”
Of course, he hadn’t been interested before so he didn’t know, but ever since encountering him in that dungeon last time, he kept feeling like that guy, who had never been recognized in his life before, kept flickering in his field of vision.
“Not that kind of thing. Have you really never seen me before?”
“No.”
Ha-seong answered firmly. There was no way he could have seen him before. Ha-seong wasn’t even originally from this world, and he hadn’t been here for very long. Since coming here, he had lived as quietly as possible and only accepted purification requests from small guilds that wouldn’t attract attention. So there was no way he could have seen that guy.
“Then I’m leaving.”
Do-hyeok, whose eyes had returned to black at some point, stroked his chin as if pondering something deeply. But Ha-seong turned around without any lingering attachment, regardless.
“Ah, right.”
Ha-seong stopped his departing steps and looked back at Do-hyeok, who was standing still.
“If your business with me is finished, I earnestly request that you take down that earthworm drawing.”
Ha-seong left those words behind and leisurely exited the park.
“It’s not an earthworm.”
Do-hyeok muttered quietly with a strange expression, watching Ha-seong’s retreating figure in the distance.
“Guild Leader-nim, is he someone you know?”
At that moment, Lee Hyeon-seok, whose lifespan had been cut in half by Ha-seong’s bold informal speech, cautiously approached Do-hyeok’s side.
“No.”
“Then why did you ask if he’d seen you before?”
That was clearly the nuance of asking “I’ve seen you, but you haven’t seen me?”
“He’s someone I’ve never seen before either, but he just feels familiar.”
“What does?”
“I don’t know.”
From a distance, anyone watching Lee Hyeon-seok and Do-hyeok would have seen them as Dumb and Dumber having a strange conversation. But Hyeon-seok just accepted it as Do-hyeok being Do-hyeok. His strange behavior wasn’t particularly “strange” after all.
“By the way, that Purifier is C-rank but his skills are really good. His work is fast too.”
He muttered while looking toward where Ha-seong, who had disappeared at some point, had walked. Purifiers are also divided into ranks like Hunters. Early Purifiers didn’t bother with rankings, but after various complaints about discrimination, they belatedly started rank assessments.
However, since they didn’t conduct measurements as accurately and meticulously as they did for Hunters, there were people with mediocre skills among those with high ranks, and many people with excellent skills among those with low ranks. In other words, the credibility of the rankings was somewhat lacking.
“Right. He’s competent.”
Hearing his guild member’s words, Do-hyeok still showed a subtle expression.
“A Hunter who also does Purifier work.”
“What? What did you say?”
“Nothing. Let’s withdraw now.”
Do-hyeok gazed at where Ha-seong had disappeared, then walked toward where his team members were. Engraving the name Do Ha-seong in his mind.
* * *
Yoon Woo-bin of the Hunter Management Bureau’s core department, which manages all guilds existing in South Korea and handles dungeon and gate-related affairs, was the Team 1 leader and an 8th-ranked Hunter. Having made his name widely known as a Hunter immediately upon awakening, he had become a kind of mascot representing the Management Bureau thanks to his fame and skills even after joining the bureau.
“Team Leader Yoon, hello.”
“Yes, hello.”
Moreover, he had a good reputation within the Management Bureau for his excellent character.
Woo-bin walked down the corridor holding a file, maintaining a smile as he exchanged greetings with everyone he encountered. He arrived at the very last room on the floor where the conference rooms were gathered, in front of a door marked “Authorized Personnel Only,” and without hesitation, he swiped his ID card on the access authentication panel.
“Did you wait long?”
Do-hyeok, who had been spinning around in his chair as if bored, let out a deep sigh after confirming who had entered.
“Why is the security so thorough for just a conference room?”
“It’s a conference room dedicated to security maintenance agenda items. I told you before.”
Woo-bin sat across from Do-hyeok and put down the file he was holding. The document cover read “Security Level 1.”
“How’s the guild these days? The Hunters were in an uproar because of that weird picture you posted.”
As the team leader of the department that manages guilds and Hunters, Woo-bin was well aware of what kind of talk was going around among Hunters, and he had to be. Recently, while browsing Hunter-related cafes for information gathering, he had almost spit out his coffee when he saw that terrible drawing posted as a request from Nameless Guild.
“Ah, right. I didn’t take that down.”
Do-hyeok recalled what Ha-seong had asked him earlier.
‘If your business with me is finished, I earnestly request that you take down that earthworm drawing.’
“What exactly is that drawing?”
“Found him. The person I was looking for.”
“Looking for? You found him? With that drawing?”
Do-hyeok nodded. He thought he’d feel relieved once he found him, but after meeting and talking with him once more, his chest felt even more stuffy somehow. Was it because he was surprised by the sudden request to speak formally, or because Ha-seong spoke to Do-hyeok so casually? There had never been anyone who treated Do-hyeok like that before. And naturally, Do-hyeok recalled the scene of Ha-seong doing purification work.
“Shall we get to the main point now?”
Woo-bin woke Do-hyeok from his reverie.
“To conclude first, your hunch was right. We’ve concluded that the sudden rank increase of that Jongno 3-ga gate that opened last time was due to artificial influence.”
Do-hyeok stared intently at the materials Woo-bin showed him.
The dungeon he had rushed to because he was bored waiting for the meeting time had definitely suddenly increased in rank. That dungeon was originally A-rank and wasn’t a place where an S-rank monster like a Blind Sword Demon should exist. Perhaps it was natural that Do-hyeok, unaware of this fact and thus letting his guard down, was struck by the sword demon’s attack and collapsed. So he immediately noticed the change in dungeon rank and reported it to Woo-bin.
“And do you remember what I told you before? The gate that occurred in Busan Seomyeon two months ago, the gate in Gangneung, Gangwon-do a month ago, and the two gates that opened in Seoul a week ago and three days ago – all of them were opened by artificial force.”
The smile Woo-bin had shown to his staff on the way here had completely disappeared from his face.
“And this Jongno 3-ga gate was also manipulated by someone.”
While listening to Woo-bin’s story, Do-hyeok tapped the desk silently for a moment.
“A total of 5 gates due to someone’s intervention.”
Do-hyeok’s expression, which had been bored the whole time, also turned cold.
“I guess we have to admit it now. That he’s appeared again.”
A blue gleam began to ripple slowly in his eyes.