GM Ch11

There was only one way to escape the hunter’s obsession. Rather than running away, it would be better if he let himself be caught, then the attention would quickly fade. One option was to join the June Guild, keep a low profile, and quit when Soohyuk became disinterested.

“I’ll think about it positively.”

“Really?”

“I’d have to get a license first.”

“That’s a good idea. You have good posture, so I think the guild uniform will look good on you. Aren’t our guild uniforms cool?”

Minjun glanced at Soohyuk’s white guild uniform. The guild uniform was created as a result of a lawmaker’s claim that there was a need to distinguish between the general public and hunters. Hunters attending official events were required to wear guild uniforms. The same was true for one-man guilds.

The large guilds commissioned famous designers to make their guild clothes, so the June Guild’s uniforms were very well-designed. They were perfect for Soohyuk, who had a good figure, but the problem was the color of the guild clothes.

Efficiency-minded Minjun didn’t like the idea of wearing white clothes that got dirty easily. The white color would get dirty quickly if he wasn’t careful.

“That’s cool, but…”

“But?”

“White gets dirty very easily. If you wear this and go out, won’t it get dirty quickly? Black is better for activities.”

As soon as Minjun finished speaking, someone cleared their throat loudly. The sound continued for quite a while, but Minjun didn’t pay much attention. Instead, he stared at Soohyuk, who had a strange look on his face, and briefly wondered when he should tell him that he was going back.

“You can take your guild clothes to the dry cleaners, our guild pays a lot of money to keep up appearances.”

“Okay.”

“It’s true. Shall I show you the standard contract?”

“That’s alright. Well then, I will not disturb you longer, I only have a 10-minute break, goodbye.”

Having already been targeted by Soohyuk, Minjun decided to leave. Instead of waiting for him to respond, he waved goodbye and left the seminar room.

As the door closed and Minjun’s figure disappeared, the silent hunters of the June Guild let out a collective murmur of admiration.

“Heyy, he’s something.”

“Are all hunters like that these days?”

“Why are you looking at me? I’m 30 years old.”

“White gets dirty easily. Pfft.”

“The fact bombing1 is too great.”

The guild members snickered and chatted. Team 1 who was accompanying Soohyuk today were mostly the early members of the June Guild, so they had no qualms about joking around with him.

On their first day back from vacation, the date of the hunter’s license practical test overlapped, so they were enlisted as supervisors, and were delighted to witness an unexpected sight.

There was no one in the guild who didn’t know that white guild clothes were Soohyuk’s favorite color. There were several suggestions to change the color of the guild uniforms, but they were all rejected. A charismatic leader, Soohyuk was also self-willed. He was uncompromising, especially when it came to the guild uniforms.

However, Minjun said that he didn’t like the white color because it got dirty a lot, and that he preferred the black one, right in Soohyuk’s face. Everyone couldn’t help but be amused by the bravery of the young hunter, who was like a day-old puppy who did not know how to be afraid of a tiger.

Choi Yohan, the leader of Team 1, grinned and walked over to Soohyuk.

“Guild leader. Is that kid joining our guild?”

“He will be coming in.”

Soohyuk didn’t care what the Team 1 hunters said. He couldn’t forgive the incompetence of not doing his job properly and making mistakes repeatedly, but there was nothing wrong with openly criticizing his boss.

More than that, Soohyuk decided that if Minjun joined the guild, he should be given five more sets of guild clothes so that he could change them frequently as they got dirty.

“But what did you mean when you said you were dumped earlier? You didn’t mean he didn’t want to join the guild?”

“I was rejected.”

“Really?”

“I lured him with food without giving up. I think the Korean beef worked well.”

“He’s still a kid.”

Soohyuk nodded, then frowned slightly. Ever since he’d gotten the text from Minjun, he’d intuited that the gift had worked. Honestly, it was so easy that it was a little embarrassing.

It was the moment when Soohyuk’s interest could be cut off, as Minjun had hoped. On the contrary, Soohyuk didn’t, reminding himself that verbal promises didn’t count for anything. This was a valuable hunter with a skill that could boost stats by 55%. He couldn’t let his guard down until the contract was signed.

***

In its urgency to cope with the unexplained events of 12 years ago, humanity slowly began to adapt over time. A standard was created to record, quantify, and define everything new that emerged after the cataclysm.

The new dimension of space, commonly referred to as dungeons, had not yet been defined. However, classifications based on patterns of occurrence were becoming commonplace around the world.

Dungeon ranks were categorized from S to F based on the difficulty of the dungeon raid, just like hunter classes. Also, if the crack continued to appear in the same place after the boss was defeated and the gate was closed, it was categorized as fixed, and if it disappeared, it was non-fixed. In the case of fixed type, it was subdivided into fixed-recurring and fixed-single, depending on whether the new dungeon was the same as before or new after the gate was closed.

The hunter’s license practical exam was held in a red temporary building at the west end of the Hunter Association. To be precise, it was a gate within the standard defenses built to keep people out and prepare for any monsters that might jump out of the dungeon brakes.

The difficulty level was D, fixed-recurring, and the dungeon, which occurred six years ago, had long been a practice test location, so a lot of information was known. No examinee was unaware that there was a swampy area where poisonous plants grew as soon as you entered the dungeon. They also knew that the proctors wouldn’t give them an antidote right away.

But what they knew in their head was not what they experienced. Some examinees, wearing knee-length waterproof plastic covers in preparation for the swampy conditions they encountered as soon as they walked through the gate, turned pale, trembled, and ended up in tears.

‘Unfit for combat.’

Soohyuk, the special proctor for the hunter license practical examination, watched the milling about and thought coldly. This time, the number of combatants was unusually low. There was not a single A-class hunter, and the majority of the hunters with the highest rank of B had abilities related to crafting.

Not everyone who awakened as a hunter was suited for combat, especially in the crafting category, where the skills themselves were often not combat-related.

Of course, even combat hunters had different showings. Some might have no combat sense at all, others might be too cowardly to use their skills to their full potential, and still others might excel right from the start. However, most would earn their keep after their foolish beginner days.

In that sense, Minjun was certainly special. In the seminar room, Soohyuk had adjusted his power for the safety of the students, but it was absurd that a prospective hunter who wasn’t even licensed yet would react so immediately to his attacks.

And that was what he was like now too. Standing in the middle of an ankle-deep swamp, Minjun didn’t panic, but instead looked around and studied the terrain. His demeanor was relaxed, but his eyes were sharp. He looked like a seasoned hunter who had been through the wringer.

It wasn’t what you’d expect from a C-class hunter who was barely twenty years old. He wanted to do some background research to find out how he lived, but somehow Minjun had lost his memory.

‘Is he a member of the Special Forces?’

Soohyuk laughed as he imagined Minjun’s past. It would be interesting if he was a special forces soldier or secret agent with that face.

“Do not panic. You can escape the dungeon whenever you want, and as I said before, the poison will wear off once you’re out of the swamp. Before then, those of you who are resistant or tolerant to the poison, please gather this way!”

The older proctor leading the test takers shouted out, and only one person followed his gesture to move.

Soohyuk swallowed a sigh as he realized it was Minjun.

“Are there any hunters who can detoxify others?”

Park Jungwoon, a supervisor from the National Security Agency, was looking for a hunter with special abilities.

Any status abnormalities that occurred during a dungeon raid could be tricky to deal with, especially if the dungeon was filled with poisonous monsters. Compared to the early days of the cataclysm, they now had a number of items that could resist or dispel status abnormalities, but they were not a cure-all.

There was a C-class dungeon in South Korea called “Poison Jar.” It was known for being filled with poisonous herbs and monsters whose blood and flesh were all poisonous.

Five years ago, when the dungeon gate was opened and word spread that it was filled with poison, not a single guild wanted to bid for management rights. This was because there were many cases of major loss in similar dungeons abroad.

All dungeons in Korea were managed by the National Security Agency, with hunter guilds bidding for the right to manage each dungeon. If a dungeon was very unprofitable or risky, the guilds would often drop out of the bidding, and the agency would assign it to the guilds.

But it was different when it was a classified building, especially when it was in the underground parking garage of the Capital Defense Command building.