I'm not sure where he heard that story, but anyway, Jung Haseong once mentioned that he had started cutting back on his internet use and getting his information through analog media instead as a way to manage his stress. So it's highly likely that he knows nothing about the current situation.
Tuk.
An anonymous community for Hunters. Before the page had even finished loading, I frowned, turned my head away, and switched off my phone.
It was an unexpected turn of events. A single Hunter from South Korea had managed to accomplish a history-making subjugation in just two days without classes.
***
Singapore Chinatown. A figure in familiar attire arrived on a motorcycle. As though the tastes of his ancestors, once known as the 'Korean people,' had left their mark on his very genes, the awakened one was draped in an immaculate white outer garment without so much as a speck of dust on it.
Jung Haseong of Korea.
[The Cloak of the Underworld] or [White Bird], etc. Artifacts used for travel generally came with numerous restrictions on frequency of use or distance. Yet modern Hunters were often required to make urgent deployments in order to pursue enemies hiding in complicated, hard-to-reach locations. Therefore, it was hardly unusual for a Hunter to have a motorcycle license.
Dudududu... Tuk.
The black-haired young man finally shut off the motorcycle and entered a nearby restaurant alley. After walking for a while, a glowing blue portal to another world came into view. He waited there briefly, until the East Asian man who had ridden behind him on the motorcycle spoke from beside him...
[Lastly, I will recheck the grade and confirm whether there are any abnormal mutations. Please enter once the inspection is complete.]
[Yes.]
The exchange was conducted through Pox's translator. Immediately afterward, the Singaporean, clad in full protective gear, inspected the inside of the dungeon. Once the procedure was complete, Jung Haseong strode swiftly into the deep-blue corridor, as though he had been waiting for this very moment.
He had come [N O V E L I G H T] at the government's request to assist in dealing with a particular gate.
[Ice Palace].
For Singapore, a country with a hot and humid climate throughout the year, it was an exceptionally harsh environment—a world utterly unlike its own.
If it had merely been ordinary winter cold, it might still have been manageable. But the blizzard raging inside that dungeon was not simply cold enough to bite into exposed skin. It was powerful enough to freeze a person to death, encasing their entire body in ice in an instant.
However, around the time of the terrifying return of the [Ice Palace], perhaps the appearance of [The Nest of Grass] in Korea had acted as some kind of trigger. East Asia, already notorious for the frequent appearance of dragon nests, was once again flooded with otherworldly reptiles.
Yet from the Singaporeans' perspective, this was hardly good news.
Dragons were monsters that combined the sheer bulk of a mammoth with the viciousness of an orca. Naturally, they were dangerous enemies that required considerable manpower and effort to subjugate.
[What should we do?]
[We have no personnel left to spare.]
Singapore was a country without a single S-rank Hunter. And with the sudden emergence of Dragon Nests, even its comparatively high number of A-rank Hunters quickly proved insufficient.
Which would inflict greater damage on the country—the dragons or the frost monsters?
In the end, the Singaporean government decided to prioritize the dragon subjugations, gathering a large number of high-ranking Awakened for the task. But this approach could not prevent the worst-case scenario: while their forces were occupied hunting dragons, the lower-priority high-grade gates might erupt.
If that happened, an assault by frost monsters would be unavoidable.
'But they can't exactly send B-rank Hunters to risk their lives fighting A-ranks either...'
The simultaneous emergence of multiple high-difficulty enemies had left the situation hopelessly tangled.
However, just as Singapore was struggling with its manpower shortage, help finally arrived.
Strangely enough, there was a magical phrase in this world capable of calming people's anxiety the moment they heard it.
At that very moment, the plane carrying Jung Haseong landed at the airport.
It was the result of years of diplomacy. South Korea, as a nation on friendly terms with Singapore, accepted its urgent request for assistance and dispatched Jung Haseong, its representative Hunter, to resolve the crisis.
That was how the events of the past two days had unfolded.
"I love you! Korea!"
"Wooow!"
To put it simply, the twenty-seven-year-old Korean carried out the association's orders with remarkable efficiency.
He swiftly took responsibility for conquering the [Ice Palace], a dungeon the Singaporean Hunters had been unable to tackle themselves.
Of course, his assistance had not been voluntary charity. As expected, both the dispatched individual and his country had been promised appropriate compensation.
Even so, setting aside such practical considerations, Jung Haseong's immediate response to the proposal and the actions that followed were genuinely moving.
As a result, the overseas fans who had gathered to watch the interview wore expressions as though they might propose to him at any moment.
The Singaporean Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs standing beside them did not look much different.
[Thank you for everything you've done!]
[Please say a few words!]
Click, click, click.
As usual, Haseong began a press conference commemorating the successful resolution of the disaster.
Familiar correspondents from Korea who had accompanied him could be seen in the front row.
Now standing before the microphone at the podium, he seemed ready to deliver one of his usual formal reports.
Something along the lines of, "A total of n gates appeared near the city center, but after forty-eight hours of operations, they have all been completely cleared."
"Huh..."
But then something unusual happened.
What came out of the hero's mouth was quite different from his usual dry reports.
"30 minutes and 16 seconds."
He straightened his posture and began making a curious declaration.
"According to the records, 30 minutes and 16 seconds was the average time it took me to clear each Ice Palace during this operation. I sincerely hope this comes as good news to Korea's Hunter Kim Giryeo."
"Yes?"
The reporters reacted with visible surprise at Haseong's statement.
There were two reasons for that reaction.
The first was the time.
A record of 30 minutes and 16 seconds was an astonishing six times faster than the previous Ice Palace clearing record set earlier that year.
"Six times" might sound simple enough when spoken aloud, but how could a world record be shattered by such an absurd margin overnight?
No matter how hard anyone had tried, the Ice Palace had always been regarded as a dungeon that simply could not be cleared in under three hours.
Moreover, the Korean standing before them was famous for being a solo specialist who worked without a team.
"Impossible!"
To someone in the same profession, that was the natural reaction.
If the clearing time had been reduced by such an enormous margin, the most plausible explanation would have been some kind of 'speedrun' strategy—killing the boss and escaping while ignoring everything else...
However, the Ice Palace was a dungeon with a complicated structure resembling a maze of mirrors. Guardians were hidden throughout its interior, and they had to be defeated before passage to the next room would open.
It was not a dungeon where someone could simply ignore the intermediate monsters and rush straight through.
Then what exactly had Jung Haseong done inside to produce such a result?
"No way..."
"Still, considering he's fire attribute..."
"Did he melt it?"
"Did he melt all those solid ice walls and force his way straight through?"
The room erupted into murmurs.
And that was not the end of it.
Haseong once again brought up the name of the Hunter he had mentioned earlier and added another remark.
He knew that no matter what he did, it would still seem inadequate in that person's eyes.
Nevertheless, all he could do was try his best.
Because...
"My goal this year is to be recognized by all of you as the Hunter with the best hunting skills in Korea."
Haseong stood at the podium with an unusually resolute expression.
It was as though he had finally made up his mind about something.
"As that person said, a lack of skill is something that can always be improved. But personally, I'm worried that if I take too long, I may lose the opportunity itself..."
"What do you..."
"Actually, Hunter Kim Giryeo told me that after watching what I do for about three months, he would officially form a team with me. So today, I wanted to accomplish something meaningful that I could show him, even if only a little—as a kind of mid-term report."
Clunk.
At that moment, even the interpreter translating the interview into sign language nearly let their shock show on their face.
"Anyway, I've talked for too long. I'll start wrapping things up now."
Haseong calmly brought the shocking interview to a close, his voice as composed as ever.
"I will continue working hard every day until I reach the level I'm aiming for. I hope that the next time I meet you, I'll be able to bring good news regarding the team."
The misfortune lurking beneath the ground the alien had been walking across finally began to take shape.
***
Clink.
Today was Thursday.
We finished our morning classes as usual and arrived at the restaurant we had reserved just in time for lunch.
However, as I watched Jung Haseong set a pair of metal chopsticks in front of me, one thought refused to leave my mind.
"Is he crazy?"
As expected, the actions of that modest-looking Hunter had caused an enormous incident.
Just a few hours earlier, the interview broadcast by Earth's YTV had already begun making headlines around the world, starting with the United States.
Moreover, this was practically a declaration of war.
The sole and entire reason Jung Haseong had shattered the previous Ice Palace record by such a ridiculous margin was to prove that he was, in fact, a fairly 'decent' superhuman.
'Damn it! I kept using his lack of skill as an excuse, and now he's come up with a countermeasure for that too!'
If he continued producing achievements like those at the Ice Palace, the monster sitting in front of me would soon have an ironclad argument on his side.
As someone who had personally trained him, I could say with confidence that if things continued like this, Jung Haseong would quickly come to be recognized as one of the finest Hunters in the world.
Especially now that Brooklyn Morgan, who had possessed the highest magic power value, was dead, that outcome seemed all the more certain.
But if I continued belittling such a powerful Hunter—someone who would keep breaking dungeon records whenever the opportunity arose—simply because I claimed his achievements weren't good enough...
'From that point on, everyone will start treating me like the crazy one.'
My escape route had been blocked.
However, unlike many Alphauri, Jung Haseong did not have a gloomy or calculating disposition, so it did not seem as though he had deliberately planned all of this and given that interview with such an intention.
Even now, wearing that absurdly kind expression of his, he had taken it upon himself to adjust the heat beneath the budae jigae.
So, it was simply...
"Ha."
It really was nothing more than anxiety.
He was afraid that one day, the collaborator he had chosen might replace him with another Hunter when forming a regular team.
"Hunter Kim. What's wrong?"
"No..."
"Is it because I publicly mentioned our promise about forming a team?"
Bubbling.
By the time the budae jigae in the middle of the table began to boil, the young hero was watching me carefully, his eyes utterly devoid of malice as he studied my expression.
"But when Hunter Esther came to question me before, she didn't really say anything about me letting that information slip."
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry. I only mentioned it without thinking, as a way of reminding myself..."
I couldn't hear a word he was saying.
Because thanks to that recent interview in Singapore, this alien had suddenly found himself backed into a very tight corner.
If Jung Haseong continued breaking new records like this, public opinion would gradually turn against me.
I could no longer use his lack of skill as an excuse.
Damn it, then how the hell was I supposed to get out of my promise to form a team with Jung Haseong...
"Right."
Then, suddenly, a devious idea occurred to me.
"Hey."
Without the slightest hesitation, I put the newly conceived plan into action.
Now that I thought about it, aside from the dangerous method of criticizing his strength, there was still one gentler, more peaceful solution left.
"Hunter Jung Haseong. First of all, I personally appreciate how hard you're working just for the chance to work with someone like me."
"Haha."
"But, you know... what if one day I told you that I might not be able to keep that promise? Would you be very disappointed?"
He froze.
At those words, Jung Haseong stopped what he was doing and stared directly at the person sitting across from him.
"Well, rather than disappointed, I'd be curious."
"..."
"I'm sorry, but... are my qualifications really that inadequate? Even with all the time you gave me, am I simply incapable of reaching a level where I could work alongside you, Hunter?"
At that, I shook my head.
"No. You're misunderstanding something. The problem isn't on your side right now."
I continued speaking as I pressed a hand to the upper part of my chest, where I had so often suffered from chronic pain in the past.
"To be honest, I've been thinking about retiring lately."
"Retiring?"
Why keep torturing myself over this?
Fortunately, there was an extremely straightforward and powerful excuse available in this world.
The very reason a Hunter would be most likely to give if they suddenly announced their retirement.
"It's just... health issues, one way or another..."
I cleared my dry throat for no particular reason.
If someone was sick, surely a kindhearted young man known as the nation's hero would not heartlessly force them to continue working?
"Ahem."
He couldn't.
At least, judging from everything I had observed about Jung Haseong's personality so far, he wouldn't.
"Of course, you don't need to worry about the team issue. Even if I do decide to retire, I plan to pass my know-how on to someone like Hunter Esther beforehand. So just wait, and I'll make sure you get a chance to work with another S-rank."
I brought up the name of the cursed sorcerer and continued the conversation with a much lighter heart.
The leader of the Garon guild, as could be inferred from the guild's recruitment requirements, had long been searching for comrades capable of enduring his own flames.
So whether their name happened to be Kim or Seo, Haseong probably only needed someone dependable enough to trust with his back.
"Huh."
It was around then.
I suddenly stopped moving when I sensed someone's magical energy fluctuate sharply within the range of my perception.
Crack!
Then a thunderous crash rang through the restaurant.
An S-rank Hunter had reflexively slammed his hand down on the table, causing it to collapse inward at the center.
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