How To Survive as a Class a Hunter

11. Rock Spirit – [4]

There are several internet articles covering this incident. It’s only natural since nearly twenty people, including association staff, died in this incident.

However, in my view, the content of those internet articles is not at all natural.

‘What is this? One of the awakened candidates survived by escaping the scene through teleportation… Why do all the articles end like this?’

When I question it, Ms. Park Mi-hyung looks troubled.

‘Mr. Kim Geuk, calm down.’

‘Do I look calm right now? From the articles, it seems like everyone died because I escaped alone through teleportation!’

Every time I see the articles posted on the internet, my whole body trembles.

Those articles do not mention that I rescued two people together while teleporting. There is no mention that I tried to get a weapon to fight that monster through teleportation, and even less mention that I returned to the scene.

In the internet articles, I am not even a survivor but a runaway. A cowardly runaway who abandoned his comrades. The articles are written with the nuance that the awakened one, who could have fought back with superhuman strength, ran away alone, leaving the others to be annihilated.

I feel malice beyond the level of misinformation. Malice directed solely at me.

Moreover, the fact that ‘teleportation’ is mentioned in the articles is particularly malicious. I am the only one in the country with teleportation abilities. Although my name is not mentioned, it is excessively clear who the cowardly awakened one mentioned in the articles is.

‘How many people heard me shouting “Hunter Rifle, Hunter Rifle!” in the association building, and yet such articles come out? I even saved two people, but there is no testimony from those b*stards at all!’

As I shout at the top of my lungs, Ms. Park Mi-hyung struggles to calm me down.

After a long time, when I finally calm down on my own, Ms. Park Mi-hyung barely manages to soothe me. She promises to request a correction report using the city councilor’s name and to definitely protest.

Of course, this alone is not enough to reassure me. As soon as I return home, I turn on Huntweb.

With the feeling of losing something precious inside, I write a post, abandoning even the settings I had cherished for over four months.

Ⓐ BabyBerserker: I am wronged. Please, everyone, help me.

The post with the above title quickly becomes a hot topic on the site.

Users who learn about what happened that day, what I went through, and how unfair my current situation is, leave comments.

Fortunately, although there are many mocking comments, there are even more comments that sympathize or try to help.

Even the guy who used to consider me crazy tries to help.

Ⓐ syberMagneto: Isn’t this a trick to lower your value?

Ⓐ BabyBerserker: What do you mean…

Ⓐ syberMagneto: If you have a rare special ability and physical enhancement, shouldn’t you be treated twice as well as ordinary awakened ones? Whether it’s the international or domestic market price, they would have to pay an astronomical amount to contract you. Isn’t this a trick because they don’t want to pay the proper price?

CyberMagneto, this crazy guy, claims this.

My ability as an awakened one is obviously powerful and useful, so even government agencies find it burdensome to hire me at my proper value. It is also difficult to price me too cheaply compared to the international market price, as Chinese or Japanese brokers might snatch me away.

So, they must have tried to disguise me, who is clearly a top-grade product, as a defective one to lower my value.

Ⓑ GoodHunter: No matter how much, would a government agency do such a childish thing, not a private company?

Ⓐ syberMagneto: You, a non-awakened trash, wouldn’t know, but local governments do everything they can to save money on awakened ones. Don’t you know that all local governments except Seoul are financially dried up?

Ⓐ syberMagneto: They do all sorts of childish and petty things.

Anonymous: Specifically what?

Ⓐ syberMagneto: When the gate first opened, everyone thought that all awakened ones would be strong. Back then, Incheon City signed a four-year employment contract with an ice ability user, but later wanted to break the contract and fabricated a bullying perpetrator rumor.

Ⓐ syberMagneto: And in this case, it’s hard for foreign brokers to know the details, right? If you copy and spread some internet rumors, it can serve as a smokescreen for foreigners. By making foreign brokers hesitant to approach, they aim to contract domestically at a low price.

The speculation is too absurd to believe outright.

However, there are several comments agreeing below, and their awakened badges add credibility to those statements. They all say they’ve been nitpicked for various strange reasons before contracting with local governments.

Meanwhile, I’ve been feeling dizzy since earlier. My heart keeps pounding.

Is the country really determined to slander me? Are they really dragging my honor through the mud just because they want to pay me less?

I unconsciously check the comments on my post again.

Anonymous: Abandoned all your comrades and survived alone, now you’re making excuses. You should just die, you traitor.

Most of the mocking comments are from ‘Anonymous’. I guess they are all non-awakened hunters. They have nowhere to go, so they end up risking their lives, living as dregs.

They’re jealous of me, earning hundreds of times their income as an awakened one…

Ⓐ ElmayaKayo: What a nasty situation from the start of your debut. Stay strong. I want to buy you a drink as a senior, check your messages.

Ⓐ DolmoriYouth: Can we really blame him even if he did run away? Everyone knows that even with a hunter rifle, it’s tough to deal with a rock spirit for a body enhancer. Whether he returned to the scene or not, the fact that the article was written this way suggests some sinister intent, doesn’t it?

Ⓢ Kang: The level of these peninsula bugs, lol. Should I go and overturn it?

On the other hand, the special badge holders… that is, the awakened ones, all left comments understanding my feelings.

The contrast is so clear. The world seems to be divided into black and white.

I’m both angry and touched. It feels like I’ve found allies while being abandoned by the world…

I’m still dizzy, but I have to do what needs to be done.

After turning off the computer, I chew on some raw ramen and head to the academy. I need to inform the people there exactly what happened.

Since it’s a day off at the academy, there are hardly any people, but a few are working out. Their gazes turn to me, and I flinch, having come to explain myself. I’m afraid they might have seen the internet articles too.

I pass them quickly and head to the academy lobby, where I see a familiar face.

It’s the director. Even in these tough times, he has a face full of smiles.

It’s creepy.

The director doesn’t smile when he sees me. His gaze is cold, too cold.

My heart pounds again. Did he read the article? Does he think that several students died because I ran away?

The director’s expressionless face feels like it lasts for more than a minute, almost five minutes.

But it only felt long; in reality, he only made that face for about a second. The director’s face, which seemed like it would never smile again, is now filled with a pitiful smile.

‘Oh dear, Mr. Kim Geuk, I don’t know how to comfort you…’

To me, those words sound like a reproach for shamelessly being alive.

‘Anyway, you really went through a lot. It was tough, right?’

The director keeps comforting me with kind words, but it doesn’t help. It’s because I still can’t forget the expressionless face he made for that very brief moment.

I think I will never forget this for the rest of my life.

*

“Look, there are so many articles about it! ‘The Hammer that Breaks Rocks, Making a Loud Noise in Incheon’, ‘Stone Spirit Subdued by a Single Examinee’…”

Sung Moon-young exclaimed, waving his smartphone. He said that the internet was flooded with articles about this incident.

“There’s even an interview asking an awakened person working in the Hunter industry about this incident. Stone Spirit? Ah, it’s a rock spirit. So, rock spirits… It’s difficult for a body enhancer to handle them alone, so it was normal to run away in that situation without any weapons, but they said it was really brave and amazing to take it down with just a hammer. Wow, the interview was with Kim Seok-man? He seems to be a senior in the industry, so buy him a drink later.”

Lee Jong-ho also chimed in.

“Buy Jin-young hyung a nice meal too.”

They said that a video of Jin-young had been uploaded to YouTube and had recorded an astonishing number of views in just one day.

There are many videos on YouTube of body enhancers showing off their muscles or massacring monsters with ultra-heavy hunter rifles, but it was the first time a video of someone taking down a superior-class monster with a weapon that didn’t even look like a weapon had been released.

Moreover, the video shot at that time was used in a public broadcast news, so they said Jin-young’s contribution was truly commendable.

“Well, judging by the YouTube views, the revenue seems sweet.”

At my words, Sung Moon-young raised his voice in frustration.

“It’s not the revenue that’s important right now, it’s the fact that your value is going up!”

“What value?”

“Since you’ve become famous, your value will skyrocket!”

“Is there a difference between a hunter’s value and fame? Why, do soldiers or police officers get paid more because they’re famous?”

“It’s different from soldiers and police officers! Why, you have to contract with a famous hunter to restore the land value in that area, right?”

Sung Moon-young argued that there were so many people on HuntWeb because of real estate speculators who cared about land prices and ordinary people who wanted to fan over famous superhumans.

He said that there were more people than imagined who cared about which awakened person a local government contracted with, and that’s why the fame of the awakened was important.