How To Survive as a Class a Hunter

4. Academy Student Kim Geuk – [2]

“You must come again tomorrow. If you don’t, I’ll cry. Okay?”

As I was about to go home, the director personally came out to see me off. The director handed me 20,000 won for transportation and saw me off, which was beyond burdensome and even funny.

And on the way home, I thought about it, and none of this particularly bothered me.

No, to be honest, I was excited. Why? Because I received all kinds of special treatment just for being an awakened one?

That’s right. I never expected to be treated like this.

The reason I didn’t know this in advance wasn’t because I didn’t know that awakened ones are considered nobles and gods in the hunter industry. It was because I originally planned to work as a hunter abroad, knowing that I was the perfect fit for the job.

Even though I knew it in my head, the reason all this treatment felt surprisingly new was different.

It’s because I had been involved in human rights activities for too long. I had only seen the pitiful awakened ones.

When I was active in the Awakened Human Rights Organization, the Korean Awakened Alliance, I encountered ‘pitiful’ awakened ones.

Not all awakened ones are the same. There are those who receive everyone’s attention and envy, and those who are treated like lepers in the past.

The latter’s lives are truly pitiful. They are suspected of crimes just for being awakened, denied monthly and yearly housing leases, and even if they have money, they are refused apartment purchases and have to live in special facilities. The awakened ones I mainly saw at the Korean Awakened Alliance were those kinds of people.

The former, the awakened ones who live well like major leaguers while working as hunters?

That’s people like me. Awakened ones who have gained obviously powerful and useful abilities.

And because I had only seen the pitiful awakened ones while being active, I had come to view all awakened ones as socially oppressed. Even I, being an awakened one, had come to identify myself with those pitiful people.

Because of that, my pride as an awakened one had unknowingly lowered, and today, being treated like a VIP, I felt elated.

Or should I say I finally realized reality? Or maybe after being ignored by passersby during my human rights activism days, my self-esteem was fulfilled today.

Anyway, I’m happy. I feel fantastic. Really.

*

I turned on the computer for a moment before going to the academy.

Was the site recommended by the student called HuntWeb? I accessed that site, wondering if there was anything to gain.

Ⓑ GoodHunter: Hunter license acquisition standards have been relaxed. Be prepared for the water to get muddy if ex-convicts enter the hunter industry.

Ⓐ syberMagneto: All non-awakened people should be sent to the gas chamber.

After briefly observing the atmosphere of the site, I quickly signed up.

I wrote a post imitating the speech patterns of a specific user group in the game I play.

BabyBerserker: Hey guys, I have a question!

A new awakened oppa came to our academy! The academy guys are being super friendly to the awakened oppa!

It seems like the awakened oppa’s tuition is completely free! If you don’t know what to do during class, not only the instructor but also the students kindly help you out!

Is there a reason for this? The academy is only attended by non-awakened people, so are they being nice because the awakened person is interesting?

I was surprised by the number of comments that were updated every time I refreshed.

There are so many users. Are there really this many hunters in Korea?

Anonymous: Your speech is confusing…

Ⓐ syberMagneto: Is the newly arrived awakened person an ice user? If they are, they might be trying to bully them out.

BabyBerserker: What’s an ice user?

Ⓐ syberMagneto: An ice ability user.

I frowned for a moment. My younger sister is treated like an untouchable even on the internet. Poor girl.

BabyBerserker: No! They have body enhancement and some other amazing abilities!!

Anonymous: Oh… An A-rank. Then occasionally offer them drinks or coffee.

BabyBerserker: I have no money ㅠ

Anonymous: Then occasionally kiss their ass. Anyway, if you are serious about being a hunter, you must get on their good side.

BabyBerserker: Why? What’s good about getting close to an awakened person?

ㅁㅁ: You die much less. You earn much more money.

There were several more comments giving advice to the cute newbie, and they were roughly like this.

1. A hunter team with an awakened person earns tens of times more than a team composed only of non-awakened people. The awakened person has the authority to select team members, so you must get on their good side.

2. The awakened person at the hunter academy is the most important connection of that academy.

The academy contacts the awakened person, who was once their student, and recommends that they recruit ace-level students from the academy as team members.

This way, the awakened person can regularly secure good team members, which is beneficial, and the academy can place their students in the awakened person’s hunter team, which is also beneficial in many ways.

Anyway, the main point was that whether it’s a hunter academy or a hunter aspirant, you must get close to the awakened person. Now I understand the attitude the academy students showed me.

Overall, I am satisfied.

*

The days of a satisfied student continued.

I never thought I would look forward to the time to go to the academy in the morning.

It’s already been a few weeks since I started attending the academy, but the students are still friendly to me. Even though I am not a sociable person, they greet me or start conversations first.

Some students have become really close to me because they acted so friendly, and even though there are many students I am not close to yet, there are none who annoy me. Hmm, isn’t this a perfect human relationship?

Of course, I didn’t just come to the academy to make friends. I participated in all the curriculums the academy offered, learning how to deal with all kinds of monsters and how to use military equipment.

Most importantly, I started training as an awakened one in earnest.

“Hello, Mr. Kim Geuk? Let’s have a chat between fellow body enhancers.”

I vaguely remember hearing that only fellow body enhancers can help with the training of body enhancers.

It’s hard for ordinary people to help with the barbell when a body enhancer is doing bench presses. Ordinary people can’t handle the weight of the equipment used by body enhancers.

And there was one awakened instructor among the teachers. He was a body enhancer, and you could tell just by looking at his build.

“My name is Yang Taeja. It sounds like an old-fashioned name, right? I don’t like my name either, so just call me Yang Saem.”

“Yes, Yang Saem.”

“You might feel a bit burdened because I’m acting friendly already, but just bear with it. We need to get close quickly. It looks like I’ll be your dedicated trainer until you stop attending the academy.”

“Dedicated trainer?”

“Thanks to you, my salary increased!”

Yang Taeja laughed and then asked me to lift the dumbbells, so I did.

I held a dumbbell in each hand, lifting 500kg very lightly and 1T easily, and Yang Taeja watched in amazement.

“Wow, have you been working out steadily since you awakened? Well, you did say you were a UFC fighter.”

Yang Taeja said that I would easily get an A grade in the awakened hunter evaluation, and as long as I didn’t get seriously injured by the evaluation day, I would be fine.

And then I interrupted.

“It’s okay if I get injured. I have super regeneration ability.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. It’s not like in the movies where severed body parts heal instantly like Wolverine, but injuries that would take months to heal after surgery can naturally heal in a day. If I get injured while working out, I’ll be fine after a night’s sleep.”

“Oh, wow. Well, not all body enhancers are the same, right? I don’t have that ability. The world is really unfair.”

After that, I did bench presses under Yang Taeja’s guidance, and it was definitely more efficient than doing it alone. Having someone watch from behind allowed me to lift weights that I wouldn’t normally dare to lift for fear of being crushed.

Feeling full of satisfaction from a proper workout after a long time, I went to the shooting range in the afternoon and even fired a gun.

It was a hunter rifle that an instructor said he would borrow. Seeing it in person, it was definitely not a weight that an ordinary person could handle.

I stared blankly at the rifle, which seemed heavier than an elementary school student.

“Is this a hunter rifle?”

It seems he has used this weapon before as a body enhancer. Yang Tae-ja demonstrated how to change the magazine and load it.

“Yes. It’s disgustingly big and fat, right? It’s modified to use heavy weapons like assault rifles. It’s so ugly that military enthusiasts hate it, but that’s not important… Anyway, it’s a weapon that only body enhancers or force field exoskeleton users can use. Now, try shooting it!”

“It’s not hitting well.”

“Because the recoil is strong. Now you have to shoot while controlling your breathing. The ammunition is expensive, so don’t shoot too recklessly… This time, try aiming… Wow. You missed spectacularly? You need a lot of practice.”

On the way back to the academy from the shooting range, Yang Tae-ja suddenly made an unexpected request.

“Aren’t you tired of walking? How about teleporting in one go?”

“Teleport to the academy together?”

“Yes. Is it a bit far? It’s about three hundred meters.”

“I can go if I want to, but I don’t usually use it. Teleportation.”

“Come on, don’t be like that! You said last time that you could teleport with someone else if you grabbed them. Are you saying you don’t want to hold my hand?”

“It’s not that I’m showing off, I really don’t use it often. But since you mentioned it, I’ll try it once.”

I grabbed Yang Tae-ja’s shoulder and focused my mind.

Together with him, an imaginary web spreads out in all directions. It’s a dense and regular web that only I can perceive.

The web extends to a radius of 360 meters, the maximum distance of my teleportation, completely covering that range.

The world covered by the web is divided into pieces like a chessboard. The divided information is transmitted three-dimensionally to my brain.

I examine the three-dimensional map that has formed in my brain.

Damn… my head hurts.

Every time a pigeon or a person is caught in the web, my head throbs. I struggled to endure the headache and tried to find the location of the academy as quickly as possible, but it wasn’t easy.

It feels like moving a map with a dirty gamepad and clicking on specific objects…

“Oh!”

As the surrounding background changed, I heard an exclamation.

I had succeeded in teleporting.