Aggro Hunter 16

Disappointment is an emotion that arises because of expectations. Just as he wasn’t his first priority, if he didn’t make him his first priority either, there would be nothing to get hurt about.

‘Why did I even try to tell Dad about Dohae?’

He was an indifferent father who didn’t even know his own son had been holed up at home for over a year. If the school hadn’t called with the expulsion notice, he wouldn’t have even known about the expulsion.

He already knew he was always like that, so why……

Bzz- bzz-. The phone on the dining table kept vibrating with short bursts. His father would probably leave the house soon, saying he had an appointment. Like always.

‘Ah…… I almost made a mistake.’

He was old enough to know better, yet he’d almost done something stupid. Pyeonghwa peeled off the bandage stuck firmly to the sole of his foot and got up from the sofa.

He threw the gauze stained with a small amount of blood into the trash can and strode toward his room. Before closing the door, Pyeonghwa glanced at Noh Baram, who was putting the broken glass pieces into a bag.

Bang!

Soon the door slammed shut with a loud noise.

*

Pyeonghwa glared at the sparkling man inside the monitor.

S-rank Hunter Do Dohae. His other identity: Gate thief. Who could possibly guess that the man called an angel without wings was a person with a rotten personality?

For years, Do Dohae had been ranked number one in both broadcaster favorability and Hunter favorability. Even searching through related articles or videos, there were barely one or two negative comments, if any.

His acting was that perfect. If he hadn’t known his true nature, he would have been fooled too.

“You said you had no friends in the Gate…… Liar.”

Not only did Do Dohae monopolize the public’s attention and love, he also seemed to have many people he was personally close with.

There were more than a few celebrities he’d become friends with after meeting them on broadcasts, and there were Hunter colleagues showing off their closeness with Do Dohae on SNS.

Above all, his grandfather, S-rank Hunter and national hero Do Jeongwang, was famous for his exceptional love for his grandson.

‘But I have no one.’

The more he learned about him, the more miserable he felt in contrast to his own situation. He’d thought of him as a lonely criminal living in the shadows, but in reality, he was someone who had everything!

An urge welled up to expose Do Dohae’s true nature completely and make him alone like himself. Pyeonghwa ground his teeth and placed his hands on the keyboard.

—Don’t cause trouble. I memorized everything you wrote on the wall earlier. Hyung is going to monitor what you do from now on. Got it?

But remembering that day’s threat, he couldn’t bring himself to move his hands. If he wrote down exactly what he’d experienced, it seemed like it would reveal that 404NotPax was him.

Do Dohae must absolutely not be able to deduce 404NotPax’s identity.

“In that case……”

Pyeonghwa analyzed Do Dohae’s videos of pretty smiles and pretty words down to the nano level.

Do Dohae was frequently displeased. Especially when someone approached him closely or touched his body, he showed strong aversion.

Even with Pyeonghwa’s exceptional observation skills, these were extremely subtle changes he wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t known Do Dohae’s actual personality was prickly and sensitive.

‘It would be nice if it showed just a bit more.’

Pyeonghwa’s lips curled up in a smirk. If the problem was that it didn’t show, then he just had to make it show. Pyeonghwa rapidly struck the keyboard.

Tak-tak-tak-tak!

[404NotPax: I heard rescue signals are still coming from Seoraksan lololol Seeing how he only does TV appearances, he’s become a total show Hunter tsk tsk]

Ta-ta-ta-ta-tak!

[404NotPax: This bastard got fat lol Not going into Gates and hanging out with celebrities on broadcasts, so he’s getting pudgy with entertainment fat lololol?]

Tak-tak-tak-tak-tak-tak!

[404NotPax: People who say they’re not interested in money are the ones most crazy about it lol Looking at how he wears luxury clothes and drives foreign cars, you can tell his size]

Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-tak-tak-tak!

[404NotPax: He gets hit on by female celebrities a lot but somehow has zero scandals? Why do you think that is ㅠㅠ Because he likes men mmph Your Honor I didn’t say anything]

Pyeonghwa wrote hateful comments without context under every article and video about Do Dohae with high view counts.

It was the first time he’d made things up out of thin air. With this, he’d become neither a dark hero nor anything else, but he didn’t care anymore.

In truth, Pyeonghwa knew that malicious comments couldn’t be justified by any words. A dark hero who only bullies villains? What a joke. A hater is just a hater.

The reason he had no choice but to cling to the facade of being a dark hero even while knowing this was…… because of fear. It felt like his very existence would disappear like foam if he didn’t receive even that shallow attention.

The emotion of loneliness had been eating away at Pyeonghwa’s psyche for a very long time.

A birth mother who abandoned her newborn baby, a birth father who was more like a stranger than strangers. Born between them, with his primary caregiver changing every few months, there was no way the child’s emotional state could be stable.

After the betrayal of a friend he’d trusted, high school expulsion, college admission failure, the Gate incident, and more, Pyeonghwa’s loneliness, now completely alone, deepened day by day.

Recently, Pyeonghwa would lie motionless under his blanket, but then suddenly regain vitality and pound the keyboard without eating or sleeping. Yet even then, he didn’t recognize that something was wrong with himself.

To protect his ego in this crisis situation, Pyeonghwa’s brain unconsciously projected the cause of his life’s destruction outward. In other words, he started blaming others.

“If you made me like this, you should take responsibility. If you’re an adult, act like one.”

Putting all the blame on him was a stretch, but it wasn’t like he had no fault at all.

At the time, Pyeonghwa had already been exhausted by consecutive misfortunes. The person who pulled out the last block of that precarious Jenga tower and made it collapse was none other than Do Dohae.

“My butt!”

A vivid scar remained on the buttocks he had mercilessly assaulted. Not only that, but on rainy days it burned so much he had to keep an ice pack on it.

Despite making someone else’s skin like that, Do Dohae’s skin was smooth as a peeled egg. His butt was probably white and soft like baby skin too! Pyeonghwa fumed as he posted comments like ‘nose hairs sticking out,’ ‘eye boogers,’ ‘sebum showing,’ ‘neck wrinkles amazing.’

“Crazy, he even took photos for the Board of Education promotion. Conscience gone to the Middle East?”

Now, after experiencing late growth spurts, he’d grown to nearly 180cm, but at the time Pyeonghwa met Do Dohae in the Gate, he was just over 160cm. He hadn’t gone through secondary sexual characteristics yet, so some people mistook him for an elementary school student.

Do Dohae was equally huge then as now. Searching his profile showed he was 197cm. Despite such a size difference, he’d used violence against him. If an S-rank Hunter, each individual being nuclear-weapon-grade, hit a non-Awakener minor, wasn’t that worthy of the death penalty?

Pyeonghwa fumed as he left a comment under the Board of Education promotional photo of Do Dohae with children: ‘The way he looks at the kids is impure.. Looks like he wants to touch them?’

[404NotPax is a famous hater from gaming communities but why did he suddenly latch onto Do Dohae?

Author: Anonymous1

He analyzes gamers’ plays and ruins them beyond recovery

There were also bootlickers who praised him for only beating up people with controversies like assault, affairs, two-timing, etc.

But why is he suddenly going around leaving malicious comments on Do Dohae? Do Dohae doesn’t even game]

└[Anonymous2: That person left so many weird comments that I compiled a PDF and sent it to the Association and Guild ㅜㅜ When will he get caught…]

└[Anonymous1 (Author): You can’t catch Pax, just better to give up]

└[Anonymous3: It’s like he’s running some AI program;; I see that ID no matter which site I go to]

└[Anonymous4: lololol ah he’s famous? He only left such ridiculous comments that I just ignored them]

└[Anonymous5: Oh so it was the same person, interesting]

└[Anonymous6: The malicious comment level is insane but the fact that everyone unanimously ignores him is the killing point ㅠㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

└[Anonymous7: Who would believe that nonsense? He’s not even a moron]

└[Anonymous8: There are people…shit There are bastards who sympathize saying there’s a reason for every Pax pick…;;]

└[Anonymous7: Even if there are, it’s Do Dohae of all people so zero impact]

404NotPax, who had been famous in gaming communities, was now established as S-rank Hunter Do Dohae’s notorious hater.

For the first few months, he was ignored for only spouting absurd nonsense, but after steadily leaving comments for half a year, cracks began to form in Do Dohae’s solid image.

Photos of him that had been consumed as boyfriend pics or purification pics began to circulate at some point as memes of someone whose outside and inside were different. It was in the style of combining Do Dohae’s angelic face with curses or rough speech.

Do Dohae inside the monitor looked as perfect as always, but Pyeonghwa could tell.

That he was shaken.

“Ehehehehe!”

Pyeonghwa left comments even more diligently, looking forward to the day when Do Dohae’s mask would be completely stripped off.

He wanted to see him contort his pretty face in front of the camera and rage furiously, or cry bitterly.

Then one day…….

[DdoHae: Fuuuuucking shiiiit stooop it alreadyyyy]

[DdoHae: I’ll killlll youuu]

[DdoHae: Ah my unnie got too drunk ㅠㅠ! She’s a Do Dohae fan so I guess she was upset..! She said unnie used to like Pax-nim too.. Please understand~ㅠㅠ!♡]

[DdoHae: Do you wanna have your neeeeck and bodyyy separated]

“……?”

To Pyeonghwa, who had been living a life stained with obsession and madness, a new connection arrived.