How To Survive as a Class a Hunter

48. A-Class Hunter Nguyen – [6]

The next morning, I received a call from an unknown number.

When I answered, it was, as expected, Nguyen.

“Kim Geuk? Do you have time?”

“Yes, Nguyen. What’s on your mind?”

Nguyen’s voice was different from usual. He spoke cautiously, lacking the usual boisterousness, his tone drooping.

“I was really drunk yesterday, right? So I might have said some things carelessly, and I was wondering if…”

“You should really cut back on the drinking from now on. You were so drunk that you couldn’t keep your mouth shut. You were saying things you shouldn’t have!”

A moment of silence passed.

After a long pause, Nguyen spoke.

“If you think I’m hoping to pay you to keep quiet…”

“That’s not necessary. I have plenty of money myself.”

At my quick response, Nguyen’s voice brightened.

“Right? But still…”

“I won’t tell anyone even if they beat me to death, so don’t worry.”

“Really? You promised! But if there’s anything you want me to do, tell me in advance, okay? So I can feel at ease!”

“Don’t worry… If you’re really anxious, you could work hard when we go hunting together like last time. I won’t reveal that you didn’t participate actively in the hunt, but it wouldn’t hurt to get closer to me, right?”

Nguyen finally seemed relieved. Over the phone, Nguyen spoke in his usual hearty voice.

“I knew I judged you right! There’s no way a man like Kim Geuk would threaten to reveal someone’s secrets and act so slyly!”

“So, will you work hard when we go hunting together?”

“Of course! I’ll work really hard, so look forward to it, Kim Geuk!”

Just hearing his voice, I could imagine his excited expression. He was probably smiling with his characteristic white teeth.

I was deceived by that good-natured smile when we first met, damn it.

After ending the call, I sighed. Then I cursed the person I had just spoken to in my mind.

That b*stard. That lowly scum.

I couldn’t report his actions to Incheon City. It wouldn’t benefit Incheon City anyway.

Even though I kept feeding him drinks yesterday to extract information, more than half of the contract money Nguyen received from Incheon City had already been converted to Bitcoin, and a significant amount had been spent on hush money. So even if the contract was terminated, there seemed to be no way to get the full amount back.

Moreover, hasn’t Korea changed the law to issue hunter licenses even to those with criminal records? According to my research, it is now difficult to cancel a contract due to past actions.

So there’s no choice. I had to appease him so that he would participate properly in the hunt while I was there. That was the only way to make him worth the money already paid.

Anyway, I had mixed feelings.

I personally liked Kang Joon-chi, but his petty actions didn’t sit well with me, while Nguyen was the exact opposite.

My personal liking for Nguyen disappeared when he bragged about raping women yesterday, but I liked his actions.

I mean, his rebel actions.

Vietnam, like many countries that are not wealthy enough, does not recognize the hunter system. In Vietnam, they conscript awakened individuals as soldiers, paying them several times the salary of regular soldiers, but it was still far below the international market rate, causing significant dissatisfaction among the awakened.

In the midst of this, the awakened soldiers dispatched to suppress the gate incident in Ca Mau Province broke away from military control and occupied Ca Mau Province.

It was a rebellion by the awakened who were not properly treated. And as a result of the rebellion, the awakened were able to earn big money abroad, so it could be seen as a partially successful rebellion.

As an awakened individual, I feel that the rebellion was necessary. Ignoring the dirty deeds like plundering people’s property that occurred in the process, it was something the awakened, who were not properly treated, had to do to reclaim their rights.

And my new twisted way of thinking, caused by repeated hallucinations, makes me think that I should get close to that Vietnamese awakened as a future comrade.

Crazy b*stard.

Of course, it’s impossible. It’s something I shouldn’t even fantasize about.

I’ve already seen the end of a fool who seemed to put such delusions into practice.

The hallucinated me. That terrorist fool…

I won’t become like him.

I have too many things to do to meet the same end as that guy. I have to protect Incheon, help Ms. Park Mi-hyung with her election campaign, and gift my sister a Porsche and an apartment when she gets out of prison. And if possible, I need to make my ring girl keep saying “yes, yes” at the end of every sentence.

These are things I can’t do if I commit a bomb terror attack.

After organizing my thoughts, I contacted the civil servant I met last time.

I told the civil servant the story I had appropriately edited.

“Yes, I had a long conversation with Nguyen… It seems the problem was treating him roughly just because he’s a foreign worker. So he’s full of complaints, but at least he seems to like me. When I coaxed him well, Nguyen promised to work hard when hunting with me.”

“Ah… It’s a relief that he will work hard if he’s with Mr. Kim Geuk. That means we can request dispatch mainly when Mr. Kim Geuk is on duty…”

“That’s right. You can praise him without holding back.”

“I’m not joking, I really want to bow deeply! Actually, you didn’t have to grant my request, but you did it again. Thank you so much!”

I said to the civil servant who repeatedly expressed gratitude.

“So, since I granted your request, can I ask you for a favor too?”

When the civil servant asked what it was, I conveyed my requirements. The answer of approval came back immediately.

“Oh, that’s nothing. I feel sorry that it’s not a big deal. I’ll proceed right away. Thank you again, Mr. Kim Geuk!”

*

So the next afternoon, I sat next to Ms. Park Mi-hyung.

I looked at the people gathered in front of me.

Nearby merchants and landlords… People gathered with hopeful faces and reporters, Ms. Park Mi-hyung spoke.

“Here and now… I declare the resumption of the Incheon Recapture Project!”

The reason for gathering so many people and making an announcement is obvious. It’s a policy promotion to restore Incheon’s land prices and a chance for politicians to make their voices heard.

And Ms. Park Mi-hyung seemed to no longer need to make her voice heard in such a place.

“Hail to the brainwasher Park Mi-hyung!”

“Please continue to maintain the brainwashing of Hunter Kim Geuk!”

Thunderous applause erupted, and I stood up. I raised one arm towards the sky.

Since I had been doing it for five minutes in the video, it had become my signature pose, my victory stance, and the response came back immediately.

“Kim Geuk! Kim Geuk! Kim Geuk!”

Amidst the cheers I heard every time I defeated a monster, I closed and opened my eyes. And I reconfirmed a fact I already knew well.

I like being a hunter.

I feel immense pride in protecting Incheon and its citizens as a hunter. I feel this is a sacred duty that only the awakened can do.

That’s why I get angry when I see Naito, who is just a non-awakened scum, performing better than most awakened ones, and one of the reasons I personally dislike Nguyen is also related to being a hunter.

Despite being an awakened optimized for combat, Nguyen shunned the hunter job, calling it dangerous and tough. Compared to his days as a lord, this hunter job was nothing but a hard and lowly foreign worker’s job.

An awakened who wants to reign as a lord should never think like that.

Just like Sowol, even if you consider non-awakened people as mere livestock, it’s the same. A shepherd has a duty to protect the sheep from bears and wolves. Whether you see non-awakened people as sheep or humans, if you don’t intend to protect them, you don’t deserve to rule.

Nguyen is mentally wrong in wanting to rule while abandoning that sacred duty. Someday, if given the chance, I should take him to Sowol and fix that rotten mind of his…

After the press conference, just like at the last award ceremony, we sold character merchandise of Incheon hunters.

And there were two new products added this time. One was a T-shirt with a baby mushroom that I ordered (a black T-shirt with a red-haired girl wearing a colorful mushroom. I plan to wear it often from now on)…

Baek Dambi couldn’t take her eyes off the other product.

Of course, it’s hard to ignore an acrylic stand with your own image on it.

“What is this?”

When Baek Dambi asked, I answered.

“What do you mean, it’s your character merchandise, Ms. Dambi. Can’t you see because you’re wearing sunglasses?”

“No, I can see it well. But it wasn’t sold after the award ceremony the day before yesterday…”

“Wasn’t it because the product wasn’t ready the day before yesterday?”

In fact, it was a product that was just prepared yesterday because I requested it.

Yesterday, I demanded the civil servant to sell my round girl’s character merchandise. It was the price for getting Nguyen to promise to work under certain conditions.

It didn’t make sense to sell the character merchandise of the non-awakened scum Naito without having my round girl’s merchandise, and last time, didn’t Baek Dambi envy my character merchandise being sold?

So I insisted on it, and seeing her reaction, I knew it was the right thing to do.

To properly see her merchandise, Baek Dambi even took off her sunglasses, which she almost always wore unless she was hunting.

With slightly trembling hands, she picked up the acrylic stand with her image on it.

“Ah…”

She stared at the item for a long time and then quickly put her sunglasses back on, clearly to hide the slight moisture in her eyes.

I barely resisted the urge to shout “Long live Incheon.”

*

When I got home, I weighed myself. And seeing my weight had doubled since the last time I weighed myself, I opened my eyes wide.

Why did my weight increase so much? Because my muscles increased significantly? No, my muscles had already increased to the point where joint movement was uncomfortable. Physically, it was a structure that couldn’t increase any more.

This must be the effect of my development as a body enhancer.

Even if it’s the same volume of forearm, the bones inside have become much thicker and stronger, and the muscle density has also increased significantly, and even the composition has changed.

This meant that my strength as a body enhancer must have increased significantly more than the increased weight.

When I checked at the academy gym, it was indeed the case.

When I lifted a barbell five times the weight I usually lifted (though it was quite a strain), all the students’ eyes were on me. Yang Taeja, who was helping with my workout, was astonished.

“Now, bullets won’t even penetrate those muscles, will they? What is this…”

“Mr. Yang, do you think I’ve gotten incredibly strong?”

“That’s right. Even if you catch the same monster, the degree of ability improvement and the limit are different for each awakened person. Mr. Kim Geuk seems to be amazing in both aspects, seeing how his abilities keep improving rapidly…”

“Isn’t it because I only catch particularly strong monsters?”

“That might be an important reason, but I think Mr. Kim Geuk’s talent is different from the start. As far as I know, most physical enhancers can’t improve beyond the level you reached last time, no matter how many more monsters they catch. At this rate, won’t Mr. Kim Geuk really get an S-rank badge? That would be awesome…”

Hearing that pure admiration made me feel good.

Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind: to increase my strength to the point where I could survive a missile and then kill the president and all the congressmen. But I immediately shook my head to dispel the thought.

Even if I were to overthrow the government, with whom would I join hands to do so? Nguyen? That’s nonsense.

How could I trust that guy who spills secrets and collapses after drinking to overthrow the country?

*