Chapter 87
Chapter 87
Jeju Hunter Association, Situation Management Team.
“How am I supposed to write this up for leadership?”
Long past the end of his official working hours, Assistant Manager Lee Mingyu of the Situation Management Team remained glued to his seat, breathing out a weary sigh as he stared at the glowing display.
His desktop was crowded with chat logs from conversations with Hunters earlier that day, a half-finished incident brief, and a tangled pile of news articles and research papers.
“Every single one insisted a Gate Break occurred.”
Beginning with an alert from an ordinary citizen who witnessed a rift manifesting right before their eyes, roughly ten Hunters had independently reported detecting the distinct mana surge typical of a Gate Break along a certain shoreline.
Up to that stage, events had unfolded according to the standard pattern. Shortly after, however, the operatives dispatched to inspect the location contacted headquarters with an unexpected update.
‘Excuse me? Not a single trace of the Gate Break remains?’
‘I’m serious, there’s nothing here at all. We caught the mana surge without question and rushed straight over, but… the area is completely clear.’
‘It wasn’t just a single person hallucinating, either. Every Hunter gathered here confirms feeling the exact same wave of mana.’
The vicinity they were inspecting was entirely too peaceful to have just hosted an emergency rift collapse.
According to the field personnel, the ambient magical signatures had been surging with immense intensity only moments prior, yet the second boots hit the ground, every whisper of energy had vanished as though it had never been there.
It was impossible to brush off as a simple error in judgment. Beyond the operatives who filed official dispatches, numerous other Hunters throughout the sector had registered that precise mana wave at the exact same second.
Consequently, the likelihood that this entire affair stemmed from an identical, synchronized blunder across multiple licensed Hunters was practically zero.
“What kind of baffling mess is this?”
The entire incident had become an utter enigma because standard administrative logic offered no plausible explanation.
Clearing a gate estimated between A-rank and B-rank with such unbelievable speed was astounding on its own, but having the scene wiped clean so thoroughly that not even residual energy lingered defied all comprehension.
The deployed Hunters had touched down at the coordinate within ten minutes of the initial mana surge. There was simply no realistic mechanism for any party to suppress an emerging Gate Break with such perfection and conclude a comprehensive cleanup within that razor-thin interval.
Even if an exceptionally powerful Hunter happened to be nearby and miraculously resolved the crisis in under ten minutes, there was no obvious reason for such a powerhouse to scrub every trace of the aftermath and vanish without logging their identity.
‘Could the rift have naturally collapsed on its own during that brief span?’
Mingyu entertained another theory, but that hypothesis sounded just as far-fetched as the first.
“…Come to think of it.”
Hadn’t a similar bizarre anomaly involving a sudden Gate Break taken place in Seoul not long ago?
An unidentified combatant had materialized alone, annihilated a massive swarm of wyverns pouring out of a rift in roughly five minutes flat, and then melted away into thin air.
According to a colleague stationed at Hunter Association headquarters, numerous investigators had scrambled to track down that mysterious figure, yet not a single lead had yielded a name to this day.
Mingyu had initially found those enigmatic rumors quite thrilling. The bitter irony was that the instant he realized those exact same oddities were forcing him into endless overtime, sheer exhaustion took over.
No matter how intensely he racked his brains, he could not formulate a sensible way to explain this to the department heads, nor could he determine how the Association ought to categorize it.
Predictably, the standard operational procedures of the Hunter Association contained no guidelines for such an event.
With his thoughts knotted beyond untangling, Mingyu stepped onto the rooftop terrace to catch the night breeze and clear his head.
“AAAAAAARGH!”
He let out an unhinged roar, venting all the pent-up exasperation that had gathered in his chest.
His desk had already been buried under extra paperwork thanks to a Hunter named Yoon Minjun, who had recently returned from another dimension, and now an impossible mystery had been dumped right into his lap.
What Mingyu remained completely unaware of was that the very same Yoon Minjun who had been driving up his overtime for days was the root cause of this incident as well.
Taking a stroll in the open air had helped organize my thoughts, and Sia’s recovery had progressed far quicker than I had initially worried. For that reason, I wrapped up my getaway ahead of schedule and headed back home.
‘That journey is definitely going to stick in my memory for the rest of my days, for all sorts of reasons.’
It hadn’t been a standard tour across Jeju. Major disruptions had cascaded one after another along the route, more than enough to make the excursion unforgettable.
I had even been pulled into a gate midway through and ended up taking an unexpected detour into an alternate dimension. There was zero chance I could ever wipe a memory like that from my mind.
Regardless, the built-up fatigue came crashing down the moment I stepped inside my front door, and I collapsed flat onto the mattress.
The following morning, I unlocked my phone absentmindedly and froze when an unexpected notification caught my eye.
A sum of several million won had landed in my bank account completely out of nowhere.
Checking the sender details, I saw it had come straight from Sia. Today wasn’t an anniversary or any special celebration, so why in the world had she transferred such a substantial amount of cash?
Still thoroughly bewildered, I dialed her up on video call right away.
“Hey.”
[Oppa! Did you get a good night’s rest?]
“Yeah. How about you?”
[I slept really well too.]
Once the usual pleasantries were out of the way, I cut straight to the core of the issue.
“Sia, I just looked at my bank balance and noticed you sent over roughly eight million won. You didn’t make a mistake with the transfer details and send that to me by accident, did you?”
[Nope! I wired it to you completely on purpose.]
“…You gave me a shock when I first checked it. What is all this money supposed to be for?”
Seeing my clear confusion, Sia flashed a radiant grin.
[You remember that Gate Break during our date? That’s the payout from selling off the monster remains you brought down. You were the one who took them out, Oppa, so obviously that money belongs in your pocket!]
Now that she brought it up, I really had slaughtered a huge pack of beasts during that clash. But my attention had been entirely locked onto combat, and more to the point, there hadn’t been an opportunity to harvest the spoils afterward, so the thought had slipped my mind entirely.
[I guessed you probably overlooked it, so I gathered up all the materials and cashed them in for you. Didn’t I handle that well?]
Sia looked into the camera with a proud, bright beam.
“Yeah. Thank you, Sia.”
She had already gone through the trouble of casting a containment barrier and scrubbing the site clean just for my peace of mind, and on top of that, she had systematically collected the carcasses, sold them off, and deposited every single cent into my account.
I would certainly need to bring her a wonderful present the next time we hung out. Then another detail crossed my mind.
“By the way, Sia, did that parcel I sent make it to you?”
While traveling through Jeju, I had stumbled across a peculiar treat that seemed right up her alley and shipped it over as a small gift.
[Yes! Tangerine tteokbokki, of all things! Seriously, who even comes up with that kind of combination? I don’t know who invented it, but that person is an absolute genius.]
The present I had dispatched to Sia was, as bizarre as it sounded, tangerine-flavored tteokbokki.
Anyone encountering the concept for the first time would immediately wonder, ‘Is that even a real dish?’ And yet, it truly existed.
During my stay at a local guesthouse, another guest sharing the quarters happened to mention the dish in conversation. The very instant the words left their mouth, Sia came straight to mind.
Sia adored tteokbokki more than practically anything else, so I knew she would find it utterly fascinating. I ended up ordering an entire case for delivery right then and there.
“Right? I couldn’t believe it either when someone first told me about it. So, did you actually try some?”
[I ripped a package open the second it arrived at the door. At first I was a bit suspicious it might taste bizarre, but it turned out way tastier than I anticipated! You definitely need to try a bowl yourself, Oppa.]
“I’ll make sure to do that.”
When the undisputed tteokbokki connoisseur offers a glowing recommendation, naturally I had to take her word for it.
We spent a while longer chatting about everyday trivialities. Just as I was getting ready to hang up and scrounge up some breakfast, Sia steered the conversation in an entirely new direction.
[Oh, Oppa. Aren’t your combat capabilities pretty much on par with an A-rank Hunter right now? Shouldn’t you head over to the testing center for another rank reevaluation?]
“I was actually planning to. It’s definitely going to feel surreal if the Hunter Association hands me an official A-rank designation.”
Even though I was no longer obsessed with the ranking system itself and was prioritizing mastering my draconic abilities, that didn’t mean I had grown completely indifferent toward Hunter ranks.
While I couldn’t rattle off every single slight from memory, I had endured more than my fair share of condescension and unequal treatment compared to high-ranking operatives.
The number of indignities I had swallowed during my years as a lowly D-rank Hunter was beyond counting. And now, almost unbelievably, I was standing on the threshold of securing an A-rank license.
An involuntary smile tugged at the corners of my mouth.
[Right? Everyone is going to be completely flabbergasted. Hehe, I’m already getting hyped just picturing it. Once you finish the testing, you have to ring me right away and give me every single detail!]
“Understood. I’ll dial your number the moment the official paperwork is finalized.”
[Promise, deal!]
After cutting the connection, I remained seated for a moment, letting the conversation settle in my thoughts.
“Another rank reevaluation…”
Rokan had already pointed it out, but discussing the reevaluation openly with Sia made the prospect feel tangible and immediate.
‘Me, holding an A-rank license.’
Setting everything else aside, reaching A-rank placed an operative directly on the scouting radar of premier guilds offering massive signing packages. And if my progression continued along this trajectory, stepping into the realm of S-rank was merely a matter of time.
I reminded myself not to let pride cloud my discipline, but preventing my grin from spreading across my face proved entirely impossible.
A quiet part of me was also eager to see the expressions on the Hunter Association staff members.
The sheer disbelief on everyone’s faces during my previous reassessment was still vivid in my mind. If anything, the circumstances surrounding this visit were ten times more ridiculous.
From their point of view, they would surely think, ‘Experiencing one miraculous surge is absurd enough, but how could lightning strike the exact same person twice in a row?’
Furthermore, leaping from B-rank to A-rank was not a threshold anyone crossed through ordinary means.
After putting together a light breakfast, I made my way toward the rank assessment facility as planned.
“I’m here to register for a rank reevaluation.”
The second I slid the pre-filled application forms across the counter, the face of the receptionist clicked in my memory. She was unmistakably the exact staff member who had handled my previous file.
It seemed my face had left an impression on her as well, because her eyes shot wide in utter disbelief.
“…Excuse me?”
Her posture froze stiff, her expression morphing into something resembling sheer dread.
“So… Mr. Yoon Minjun… you are submitting this paperwork because you believe your rank tier has shifted upward once again. Is that what you’re stating?”
“Yes, exactly.”
The receptionist accepted the sheets, staring down at the ink as though she were reading an impossible hallucination.
Had it been roughly a fortnight since my previous assessment? Had our roles been reversed, I probably would have looked at the applicant with the exact same skepticism.
“U-Um… since fewer than ninety days have elapsed since your last official reassessment, the administrative protocols require an upfront examination charge.”
“That comes out to 250,000 won, correct?”
“Yes, that is right.”
With so little time having passed since the last session, the exact figure was still fresh in my head. I handed my payment card across the counter, and the clerk completed the transaction while staring at me in a complete daze.
“In the event that the testing confirms an increase in your operational rank, this entire processing fee will be refunded back to your account.”
I was fairly certain she had delivered that exact identical disclaimer word-for-word during my last visit. At this rate, the entire sequence felt like living through an eerie bout of déjà vu.
After a brief spell in the waiting area, echoing the pattern from two weeks back, an attendant guided me down the corridor toward the testing chamber.
Naturally, it turned out to be the exact same testing hall where my previous evaluation had been conducted. As if providence were having a laugh at our expense, the proctor waiting inside was the very same evaluator who had presided over my last trial.
The instant I stepped through the doorway, the evaluator visibly recoiled, despite his obvious effort to maintain professional composure.
“Yoon… Minjun?”
“Present.”
“Don’t tell me… you’ve come back for another rank reevaluation?”
“That is indeed why I’m here.”
I responded with steady composure, offering the folder of paperwork toward him.
Evidently, the shock struck him just as hard, because his grip loosened and the documents tumbled straight to the floor tiles.
“A-Apologies.”
Carrying the exact same shell-shocked look as the clerk at the front desk, he stooped down, scooped up the scattered pages, and scrutinized the text three separate times to be certain of what he was reading.
“You likely recall the protocol, but the reassessment follows the standard procedure.”
Identical to my prior examination, the official extended the designated measuring ring utilized for mana and physical output grading.
Slipping the band onto my finger, I stepped into the barrier enclosure with seasoned ease. Just like before, my sole objective was to strike the calibrated target construct with full force throughout the designated testing window.
I executed the sequence just as I had on my prior visit, and within a very short span of time, the final evaluation data was compiled.
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