Without even imagining what was happening behind him, Kanghyun checked the hologram window floating in the air.
Clear Reward: Guardian’s Shield (A-rank)
“……”
Kanghyun’s face crumpled. A shield? Of all things, a shield. Remembering the situation just moments ago made him feel even more disgusted.
‘Don’t need it, something like this.’
He irritably waved his hand to dismiss the window. Today’s ‘Fragment of Truth’ was also a bust. He trudged toward the Gate exit.
Coming out of the Gate, the day was already growing dim.
He wanted to hurry home, cover himself with a blanket, and sleep.
But he couldn’t.
Today’s schedule was murderous. He had to clear two Gates in one day.
‘Isn’t this crazy? I should report this to the labor office.’
Where were the human rights of S-rank Hunters? Did Hunters not even receive protection under labor standards law?
Still, thanks to that, he could rest tomorrow. It was a break after a long time.
Tomorrow, he’d really do nothing and just sleep.
Kanghyun firmly resolved as he headed toward the parked van. His legs felt like a thousand pounds. Bothersome. Want to sleep. Those were the only thoughts he had.
He was the first to open the back seat door and wedged himself into a corner. Soon after, the team members hesitantly got in the car. Kanghyun didn’t pay attention to them, crossed his arms, and closed his eyes.
‘It should be quiet now.’
Since he’d threatened them so viciously earlier, if they were people with their heads screwed on right, they’d clearly be too scared to even open their mouths. The ideal business relationship he’d wanted had finally been formed. Only saying necessary things, no small talk.
Should have done this from the start.
He felt a bit empty, but immediately shook it off. Just as he was thinking he should take a nap during the remaining travel time.
Rustle. Rustle.
A bustling sound came from the seat next to him. At the grating sound of rummaging through plastic, Kanghyun’s brow twitched.
Let’s ignore it. It’ll stop soon.
However, contrary to his thoughts, the sound continued. Then finally when it became quiet, this time a cautious touch tapped his elbow.
Tap, tap.
When he stealthily opened his eyes and turned his head to look to the side, he saw a supporter looking at him while completely hunched over.
“What.”
Despite Kanghyun’s cold attitude, the other person didn’t shrink back and carefully took out something from their chest and held it out.
“Hunter-nim. This….”
“……?”
What he held in his hand was a sausage sold at convenience stores.
Kanghyun’s thought process stopped. What was this? A bribe? Or was he going to hit him with this?
Why was he giving this? Did he lace it with drugs? Revenge for making him hit his head earlier?
However, contrary to Kanghyun’s thoughts, he seemed to have no ulterior motives. Rather, he smiled shyly and added.
“You didn’t get to eat and are moving right away, so I thought you might be hungry.”
“……”
“It’s cheese flavor. I think this one tastes the best.”
Kanghyun blankly looked back and forth between the sausage and his face.
He was confused. He’d clearly hurled all kinds of harsh words and abuse earlier, saying he looked disgusting and would kill him.
Could it be this guy had brain problems? Did he have frontal lobe damage so he couldn’t feel fear?
“Please eat it. It’s hard when your blood sugar drops.”
Even another guy sitting in the back rummaged through his bag and started piling chocolate and candy and such on Kanghyun’s lap.
“Eat this too!”
“There’s water here too!”
In an instant, Kanghyun’s lap was piled full of snacks. He was dumbfounded.
What was this situation right now? What went wrong and from where?
Why on earth weren’t these guys afraid of him?
Looking at the sparkling eyes staring at him, he instinctively knew something was seriously twisted.
***
Current location: Near Gyeonggi-do, inside a B-rank Gate.
Slash—!
Kanghyun’s hand cut through the air. Then the giant head of the charging monster dropped to the floor with a thud. Even though he slashed the air without direct contact, he easily felled the monster.
Two runs in one day. Honestly, physically there was no problem, but mentally he was already at his limit.
‘It’s quiet.’
It was definitely different from earlier. No cheers, no strange fawning comments could be heard. It was the perfect silence he’d wanted.
But it was strange. Somehow his back felt prickly.
Kanghyun glanced back to check behind him.
“……”
They were following exactly 3 meters away as Kanghyun had ordered. He hadn’t measured with a tape measure, but Kanghyun was certain this distance would be exactly 3 meters. Not 3 meters and 10 centimeters, not 2 meters and 90 centimeters, but exactly 3 meters.
That really grated on him. When Kanghyun told them to walk 3 meters away, it meant not to stick close, not to maintain exactly that distance. Their obsessive adherence to it was rather irritating.
And what were those looks supposed to be?
Their mouths were clearly shut, but they were talking with their eyes. Like well-trained retrievers waiting for their owner. Their eyes were sparkling unbearably brightly.
It was such a heavy and sticky gaze that he thought chattering might actually be better.
Kanghyun shook his head and looked forward again.
‘These bastards, their frontal lobes must be melted.’
If not that, there was no explanation. It made no sense to be following like this someone who had hurled curses and death threats at them earlier.
Or were they all masochists?
He got goosebumps and rubbed his arms. Monsters seemed more normal in comparison.
Just then, a monster jumped out from the bushes. Kanghyun kicked its belly with annoyance.
Thwack!
The monster burst.
“Gasp!”
At that moment, the sound of holding breath came from behind. When he turned around, the team members were covering their mouths, moved to tears and patting each other’s shoulders.
Kanghyun let out a deep sigh.
I want to go home….
It was a day when he realized to the bone that the scariest thing in the world wasn’t ghosts or monsters, but crazy bastards you couldn’t communicate with.
Come to think of it, Yujun was also incomprehensible like that. Did Yunseul Guild have a condition that you had to be crazy to join?
Lost in useless thoughts, he’d already reached the boss room. This Gate was exceptionally short in length compared to other Gates. For a moment, Kanghyun was swept with emotion.
But that emotion was brutally shattered to pieces the moment he opened the boss room door.
“Kuaaaah—!”
A monster with seven giant heads was raising its heads and spewing poisonous fog.
The room was filled with green poisonous gas. The floor bubbled, melted by the deadly poison.
‘Ah….’
It was the worst. That thing wasn’t just spitting poison, it was contaminating the entire space with poison.
To catch this properly the orthodox way….
Draw aggro, detoxify, wait until the poison fog clears, deal damage, retreat again.
Running a simulation in his head, it would take at least three hours. It could take even longer.
Can’t do it. Absolutely can’t do it. Kanghyun recoiled.
Current time: 6 PM. Even if he left work right now, he’d be late because of traffic, and three hours on top of that?
Kanghyun’s eyes naturally rolled back. He absolutely couldn’t tolerate overtime.
“Hey.”
He showed his palm to the team members trying to follow him in.
“Stop.”
“Hunter-nim, aren’t you going in? The antidote is ready!”
“No. I’m going in alone.”
The team members were shocked.
“What do you mean? That poison fog melts even A-rank protective gear! Alone is too reckless—”
“Don’t come in.”
Kanghyun cut them off without even listening.
“Wait outside. If you come in, I’ll kill you. Got it?”
“But!”
Kanghyun didn’t even listen to their answer and went in alone. He even slammed the door shut.
Now inside the boss room, there was only him and the monster.
Hisss—
As his skin touched the poison fog, it emitted white smoke and slowly melted. It regenerated immediately, but it hurt like hell.
Every time he breathed, pain rushed in as if his lungs were burning. His airway heated up and his esophagus felt like it was being scraped. No, it actually was scraped.
Melting, regenerating, melting again. It was nothing short of a living hell.
‘It hurts like hell, but it’s better than running around for three hours.’
With only that one thought, Kanghyun moved forward. Leave work! I have to leave work! That was the only thought he had.
He coughed up a dark red blood clot and ran madly toward the monster.
“Kuaaak?!”
The flustered monster hesitated. It was the first time it had seen a creature rushing at it undaunted by its poison fog.
Kanghyun didn’t miss that gap. His breathing was completely blocked, but he didn’t stop.
It hurts like I’m dying. Ah, I should have done it the orthodox way even if leaving work was a bit late. Why did I step up? I could have left it to the team members and slept in the back.
Kanghyun regretted it. But it was already done. He inhaled the poison, continued coughing up blood, and charged at the monster.
