How To Survive as a Class a Hunter

13. Incheon Hunter Kim Geuk – [1]

There are countless internet articles that come up when you search my name on Google.

The latest article was about my hunter contract.

“4 years, 180 billion won” Chongqing City, China, offers a mega-contract to Hunter Kim Geuk

It seems that this article came out because I made public the offer from China, thinking that using a foreign contract offer as leverage would be advantageous for domestic contracts.

I read the article title again and again. No matter how many times I read it, I couldn’t believe it.

It’s really an amount that feels unreal. How much is 180 billion won?

I can hardly grasp it. All I can barely feel is that I won’t have to bother with the lottery for the rest of my life.

Grinning, I clicked on the article and scrolled down with the mouse wheel. Since the content was already fully covered in the title, I went straight to the comments.

Taeguk0823: Anyway, these awakened b*stards, every time they shamelessly talk nonsense about how hard life is, they should be beaten with an aluminum bat.

ㄴ Chaksil Construction: Every time they babble about the human rights of the awakened, it makes me want to shoot up the place where the awakened gather, just like when conglomerates complain about how hard life is because of taxes.

I stopped laughing and stared at those comments with a serious expression for a while. How dare these non-awakened scum.

I immediately used my experience from working with the Korean Awakening Association to write a long rebuttal comment.

I wrote that only about 18% of awakened people succeed like the handsome Kim Geuk, about 32% live just as ordinarily as they did before awakening, and the remaining 50% live almost like criminals.

Then I immediately bit my lip.

It felt like such a waste of time. Just as my activities with the Korean Awakening Association were useless, I knew that my actions here would also be useless.

From my time working with the Korean Awakening Association, I had long realized that about 80% of the awakened hardly ever appear on public news.

The only awakened people who appear on the news are the lucky few like me. Because of that, every time the Korean Awakening Association appealed for the human rights of the awakened, we had to endure ridicule like those comments.

Each time, I had to suppress the urge to beat up those who pretended to be so worldly-wise and cynical…

Damn it.

*

It’s already been a month since the contract proposals started piling up. It’s about time to decide on a contract, so there were numerous interview requests. Since I’ve always enjoyed receiving attention, I accepted all the interview requests without much hesitation.

Q. Where did you train and receive your education?

“At Bupyeong Hunting Academy, you know, the one that’s about a five-minute walk from Bupyeong Station? The director there has a really good impression, and the prices are very reasonable, so even though my financial situation wasn’t great, I could attend without any burden. Just because it’s cheap doesn’t mean the classes are bad. The instructors are very capable, and among them, there’s a particularly awakened trainer named Yang Tae-ja? I learned a lot from him…”

Q. Congratulations on receiving a lot of attention even before starting your hunter activities. Your future looks very bright. Is there anyone you would like to thank?

“Mrs. Park Mi-hyung. Oh, is it rude to just call her Mrs. when she’s a city council member? Anyway, I’d like to thank Park Mi-hyung, who is active as a city council member in Incheon. I’ve been indebted to her in many ways since my time with the Korean Awakening Association…”

As I kindly answered various questions, indeed, a surprise bomb-like question was also thrown.

Q. I heard you were in a juvenile detention center and prison. Do you have any explanations or apologies?

At this point, I slightly frowned but wasn’t flustered.

It was just a question I expected. Those who try to make people feel small by finding faults.

The person who asked the question probably hoped I would get angry or embarrassed. But I had nothing to be ashamed of. Not at all.

I answered confidently.

“Well, I did spend quite a long time eating prison food. Do you want me to explain why I ate that prison food?”

Q. I heard it was related to assault charges. Can you explain the juvenile detention center incident first?

“It was self-defense. On the first day of high school, the bus didn’t come, so I was about a minute late, and the school disciplinarian picked a fight with me. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but I think he told me to lie down on the floor. He had a wooden stick in his hand, and it seemed like he was going to hit me with it.

Well, I mean, he was shorter and had narrower shoulders than me, so I ignored him and tried to pass by. Then that guy, not knowing his place, tapped the back of my head with the stick. Isn’t that a first strike? So I gave him a straight punch to the face. He couldn’t take even one hit and collapsed. I was so disgusted that I stomped on his face a bit. Pathetic b*stard.”

The reporter seemed a bit taken aback by my answer. After hesitating for a moment, he continued with the questions.

Q. As a result, the teacher lost sight in one eye. Do you have anything to say about that?

“That guy started the fight and didn’t even take off his glasses. It’s his fault, not mine. Oh, I did hold a bit of a grudge because I ended up in juvenile detention because of that. That guy and his family better hope they don’t run into me on the street.”

Q. And the prison…

“That was also self-defense. When I entered the training center as a public service worker, they made the trainees do the dishes after meals without giving us rubber gloves. They said the rubber gloves were only for the cooks. That evening, they gave us a survey asking for suggestions for improvement during training, so I wrote down the rubber gloves issue. Then the instructor came and cursed at us, asking who wrote such nonsense.

Do I have anything to be ashamed of? I said I wrote it. Then that guy came up to me and cursed at me again. Of course, I was angry. When I stood up, he provoked me, saying if I was so upset, I should hit him. Isn’t that a challenge to a duel? So I beat him up.”

Q. I heard the instructor at the training center ended up with a permanent disability in his leg.

“That guy should be grateful to me. When I hit him once, he fell to the ground and started trembling. He was such a weakling that I figured if I stomped on his chest, he might break something and die. So I just stomped on his leg instead, saving his life. Plus, thanks to the disability, he got discharged, right? The Veterans Affairs Office must have compensated him, so he should consider me his lifelong benefactor.”

Silence filled the room, and I sat there calmly.

After answering a few more trivial questions, the interview ended.

Several internet articles were written about it, and it seems our dear Park Mi-hyung saw them. She called me right away.

“Mr. Kim Geuk?”

“Oh, Ms. Park Mi-hyung? I mentioned your name on purpose during the interview. Did I do well?”

“That’s nice, but that’s not the point right now! Why did you answer like that in the interview?”

Are you blaming me for being too honest in the interview? I smiled and replied.

“Don’t worry.”

“How can I not worry? You can’t mess up right before the contract!”

“Don’t worry. This won’t cause any problems.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I looked into it in various ways, and it turns out that morality isn’t a criterion for reducing the value of an awakened person. Whether you killed someone in a drunk driving accident or bullied someone in school, those things don’t reduce your value. I saw that even in the past, there was an ice ability user who got caught up in a bullying scandal, but there was no problem.”

“Are you talking about Baek Dambi?”

“I don’t know the name, but it was a female ice ability user. Do you know her?”

“During the Daehan Awakening Association days, there was a girl I supported who had ice abilities. At that time, ice abilities were undervalued, so Incheon City signed a long-term contract with her at a high price without knowing anything, and later tried to cancel the contract with some shoddy tricks…”

“That must be it. Anyway, just like that ice ability girl had no problems, I’m sure I won’t have any problems either. That’s what they all say.”

“Then what kind of issues would cause problems?”

“If an awakened person participated in a hunt and then left the operation area without permission, or if they have mental issues and frequently visit a psychiatrist, or if they have asthma, or if they had surgery and there’s a risk of injury recurrence in some part of their body, only these kinds of mental or physical issues cause problems with the contract. It’s okay if they committed some crimes in the past, but if they can’t properly participate in hunts due to mental or physical issues, that’s not acceptable.”

I listed the cases I investigated on HuntWeb, such as awakened people who were exposed for their Ilbe activities or those who were sued for s*xual harassment. All of them had no problems with their contracts afterward.