Surrounded by reporters, Jin-Woo was thoroughly flustered.
'Why are these people swarming me when they should be filming Lee Min-Sung?'
He briefly glanced back to see if Lee Min-Sung was behind him, but only Baek Yoon-Ho and Choi Jong-In were there. Just then, his thigh started buzzing. Buzz buzz — buzz buzz. It was the phone in his pocket.
'Jin-Ah is calling at this hour?'
The moment he pressed the call button, his sister's frantic voice burst through.
—Oppa! You're on TV!
Of course he was. There were dozens of broadcasting cameras right here. It wouldn't matter which channel she flipped to. Jin-Woo had been briefly tense hearing his sister's call from school, but he let out a breath of relief.
"So… nothing serious, right?" —Nothing serious? How can you say that right now? What's this about re-awakening? And what's this about S-rank?
Her voice did sound pretty shaken. But given the circumstances, he couldn't sit down and calmly explain everything.
"I'm a little busy right now… I'll tell you when I get home." —Oppa? Oppa?
Despite his sister's desperate voice calling for him, Jin-Woo hung up. Beep. And then he learned why this whole situation had erupted.
'…There was a message.'
The Hunter's Association delivers information in real time through its app. Normally it notifies about A-rank and above Dungeon locations or Dungeon Break occurrences, but today was different.
'Huh.'
After checking the message, Jin-Woo quickly accessed the Association website. Sure enough. The ink on his S-rank license hadn't even dried yet, and the top-tier Hunter list had already been updated.
[Sung Jin-Woo, S-rank, Mage-type]
Exactly as written in the Hunter registry.
'…This part sure is uselessly fast.'
He crumpled the phone back into his pocket and looked ahead.
"Mr. Sung Jin-Woo! You were an E-rank Hunter registered with the Association, is that correct?" "You've become a rare re-awakened Hunter! How do you feel right now?"
The reporters fought desperately to capture as much of Jin-Woo's image and voice on camera as possible. But the reporters' explosive interest was nothing but a nuisance to Jin-Woo.
'I need to get out of here somehow.'
Politely asking them to move aside didn't seem like it would work. Jin-Woo's brow twitched. Should he just summon the Shadow soldiers and blast a path through?
"Over here! Mr. Sung Jin-Woo, please look this way too!" "Mr. Sung Jin-Woo! The whole nation is watching — give us a smile at least!"
In front of the ever-approaching camera lenses and microphones, Jin-Woo seriously considered for about two seconds whether to summon literal "Tank" or "Fangs" Shadow beast-soldiers. Behind Jin-Woo. Choi Jong-In watched as Jin-Woo was blocked by reporters, unable to move an inch. He approached Baek Yoon-Ho.
"It seems our new Hunter is rather troubled by the excessive attention." "Who gave you permission to call Sung Jin-Woo Hunter 'your' new Hunter?" "Can't you take a joke? A joke."
The two locked eyes once again. In the end, Choi Jong-In backed down a step. He let out a sigh and spoke.
"Either way, if we drag this out here, we'll just be giving other guilds an opportunity."
Baek Yoon-Ho agreed. There was the Death guild master Im Tae-Gyu, who had happened to end up here because of Lee Min-Sung, and the remaining two major guilds would be dying to make contact with Hunter Sung Jin-Woo as well. Baek Yoon-Ho turned toward the reporters.
"So what Mr. Choi is saying is…" "Before the flies smell something and start swarming, we two should escort Mr. Sung Jin-Woo home safely. We can chat along the way."
No need to create unnecessary rivals — the two should work together. Regardless of what abilities Hunter Sung Jin-Woo possessed, he would definitely need a guild to tackle upper-level Dungeons, and if things went well today, either Baek-Ho or Hunters could gain a new S-rank member. Choi Jong-In was confident in the Hunters guild he led.
"Very well."
Baek Yoon-Ho had no objections either. Baek-Ho might not be as large as Hunters, but it was plenty promising.
'Manager Ahn and Deputy Head Hyun have known Mr. Sung Jin-Woo for much longer than anyone at Hunters.'
He was certain they had a closer relationship than Hunters at least. Their interests aligned. The two exchanged a subtle glance, then turned and approached Jin-Woo. Baek Yoon-Ho spoke first.
"Hunter-nim."
Jin-Woo turned around.
"Yes?"
Choi Jong-In, who had been beaten to the punch, clicked his tongue inwardly, but he kept to their agreement not to interfere. Baek Yoon-Ho put on the brightest smile he could manage and continued.
"It must be tough with all these reporters swarming you. We'll escort you home comfortably, so come with us. This kind of thing happens to be our specialty."
There was some exaggeration in his tone, but it wasn't empty words. Every S-rank Hunter had dealt with this at least once, and running a major guild had taught him how to handle public attention. Choi Jong-In chimed in as well.
"Please come with us. We also have things we'd like to discuss along the way."
But Jin-Woo smiled and declined their kindness.
"I'm fine."
Then he pulled the hood's cap down snugly over his head.
"I have a place to stop by." "What? Reporters are swarming all around — how are you going to get—"
Choi Jong-In couldn't finish his sentence. Whoosh! Jin-Woo had already turned toward the reporters, leaped dozens of meters into the air, and landed on the other side of the crowd.
"W-what?"
Before the flustered reporters could react, Jin-Woo melted into the throng and vanished. Choi Jong-In was at a loss for words. Even he, an S-rank Hunter himself, hadn't been able to properly react to that movement. It was only natural that the ordinary reporters' eyes couldn't track it. Choi Jong-In let out a dry laugh.
'So as soon as he registers as an S-rank Hunter, he starts playing Superman?'
That kind of physical ability, and he was a mage-type Hunter. It was infuriating as a fellow mage-type. So what must that display have looked like to a combat-type S-rank's eyes?
"Just now—"
As Choi Jong-In turned to ask Baek Yoon-Ho, he froze and instinctively stepped back.
"Mr. Baek, your eyes—?"
He was so startled he forgot formalities.
"Ah…! S-sorry."
Baek Yoon-Ho hastily covered one eye with his hand and turned away. When he opened his eyes again a moment later, they had returned to normal human pupils, not the monstrous ones from before. But returning to normal didn't mean the shock had subsided.
'How is this even possible…'
Baek Yoon-Ho's body trembled. When Jin-Woo had tensed his legs to jump just now, the mana he'd been hiding had briefly revealed itself. No matter how outstanding a Hunter might be, catching that split-second glimpse was nearly impossible. But the surge of powerful mana had instinctively triggered Baek Yoon-Ho's own ability — the eyes of a predator — and those eyes had succeeded in detecting Jin-Woo's power.
'He's strong.'
He'd already known Jin-Woo was strong. But.
'That's not the point.'
Once before, when he'd crossed paths with Jin-Woo in front of a Red Gate, he had unintentionally activated his predator's eyes. At that time, Baek Yoon-Ho had seared Jin-Woo's strength into his memory. It was certainly strong. Even he himself would struggle to win without sacrificing an arm. But that was all. With enough sacrifice, it was a level he could beat anytime. But now. What was this gap in strength? The mana he felt now was incomparable to before. Jin-Woo had grown stronger. Far more than before. If it was re-awakening, that should have been finished long ago. Why? Suddenly, an absurd hypothesis surfaced in Baek Yoon-Ho's mind.
'Could it be that he… can grow?'
Perhaps it wasn't re-awakening but growth that had brought him this far… Just as that thought reached its conclusion—
"Hey, Mr. Baek. Are you alright? Your complexion…"
Choi Jong-In asked with concern. Baek Yoon-Ho swept both hands down his face and shook his head vigorously.
"My head just got a little dizzy all of a sudden. I'm fine now." "You're still young… You need to take care of yourself."
Even while continuing his conversation with Choi Jong-In, Baek Yoon-Ho kept his gaze fixed on the direction Jin-Woo had disappeared.
'If he's already surpassed an ordinary S-rank and can still grow stronger from here…'
Shudder. Baek Yoon-Ho's body trembled with a chill.
***
"Taxi."
Having shaken off the reporters, Jin-Woo flagged down a taxi on a quiet road. He had obtained the S-rank license just as he'd wanted. Leveling up was good, Dungeons were good, but what was most urgent right now was his mother's treatment.
'The Elixir of Life…'
He didn't know if the "Elixir of Life" item could truly cure his mother.
'But even if there's a one-in-a-thousand chance, no, one-in-ten-thousand…'
He wanted to clear the Demon Castle Dungeon as quickly as possible, gather the ingredients, and craft the Elixir of Life. To do that, he needed an artifact that would shield him from the Demon Castle's searing heat. Jin-Woo slid into the back seat and gave his destination.
"The Korean Hunter Auction."
The taxi driver glanced at Jin-Woo through the rearview mirror and smiled.
"Looks like you're going to sell something good. I hear the minimum price for items traded at the Hunter Auction is in the thousands?"
Instead of answering, Jin-Woo offered a faint smile. Gulped. The driver swallowed hard. Being told someone was going to the Hunter Auction to sell something meant that person was a Hunter, and you especially had to be careful dealing with Hunters. Among Hunters, there were many whose temperaments were as volatile as the power they wielded. A wrong word could lead to serious trouble.
'That young man doesn't look like it, but better to be safe.'
The driver kept his mouth shut, reading Jin-Woo's mood, and thankfully the taxi fell quiet. Jin-Woo used the ride to the Hunter Auction to browse the internet. News articles, social media, portal communities — every single one was flooded with talk of the new S-rank Hunter. Until that morning, Lee Min-Sung had held the number one search ranking, but now he couldn't even be found in the top ten. Tsk. Jin-Woo clicked his tongue.
'I didn't expect it to go this far.'
He'd anticipated some degree of attention, but he hadn't thought it would be this intense. Then again — Korea had exactly ten. Including those who had died or left the country, only eight. And all of that for a single S-rank. How could the reaction not be explosive?
'But why was it so quiet when Cha Hae-In awakened?'
Cha Hae-In, the ninth S-rank, had been barely exposed to the media, so Jin-Woo had assumed he'd slip by just as quietly. But after searching around, it turned out Cha Hae-In had requested information protection from the Association after becoming S-rank.
'If you just request it from the Association, the media and guilds are legally barred from accessing your information.'
If such a convenient method existed, why hadn't the Association president told him? Ah. Jin-Woo recalled a question asked while heading to the prosecutor's office. The Association president had asked.
"Have you considered any guild in particular?" "Not yet."
Was that why he'd asked? If he filed for information protection, guilds wouldn't be able to approach either, so the Association president likely hadn't mentioned it separately.
'Well, that takes care of that.'
Jin-Woo filed an information protection request with the Association online, then called the Korean Hunter Auction. Beep.
—Korean Hunter Auction. "I'd like to have an artifact appraised. I'm on my way to the Auction now — would that be alright?" —Of course. What type of artifact are you looking to have appraised? "It's a orb with an amplification effect on magic." —Ah, a magic orb with an amplification effect… It seems you already know its exact properties, so has it been appraised elsewhere before? "It has, but it was done at an unaccredited place, so I'd like to get an evaluation from the Hunter Auction." —Haha, a wise decision. There's no one better suited to assess an artifact's true value than us.
A brief pause, as if the other end was writing something down, and the conversation resumed.
—What amplification percentage did the previous appraisal show? "One hundred percent." —I'm sorry? "The amplification effect came out to one hundred percent." —…
A moment of silence passed before the voice came through again.
—Forgive me, but are you, the seller, by any chance a Hunter? "Yes." —For a smooth appraisal, we need the seller's identity. What is your rank and name?
Jin-Woo's lips curved upward.
'Knew this was coming.'
If an E-rank Hunter claimed to be selling such an outrageous artifact, would the Hunter Auction have even bothered dealing with him? Getting the re-examination done had been precisely for this moment. Jin-Woo spoke calmly.
"S-rank. Sung Jin-Woo."