How To Survive as a Class a Hunter

5. Academy Student Kim Geuk – [3]

As soon as I confirmed that we had arrived in front of the academy, I retracted the web that had spread out around us. Amidst the light dizziness, I heard Yang Tae-ja’s voice.

“That was amazing… Why do you look so unhappy?”

“Every time I teleport, it puts a strain on my nervous system. I get tired and lose concentration.”

“Like after masturbating?”

“You’re still not used to using your abilities, are you? Shall we find a way to help you practice?”

“Is it necessary? From what I’ve heard, even the advanced centers in Seoul have no idea how to train these special superpowers. They just make you do weird religious-like practices like meditation.”

“Isn’t it a waste though? It’s such a precious ability, it seems a bit wasteful not to use it just because it makes you tired.”

“Well, they say the more you use it, the better you get. I’m just thinking it’ll naturally improve over time.”

“But you said you don’t use it often?”

“I use it a few times before bed to practice. It’s okay to get tired before bed.”

“Can you really practice that way?”

“I think I’m getting a little better. I live as if I don’t have this ability in my daily life, but…”

Teleporting within my line of sight is much easier and less tiring, but I still prefer to walk or run whenever possible. Yang Taeja still seemed dissatisfied.

“Well, just having physical enhancement guarantees an A-rank…”

Even as he said that, he looked uneasy. Was he feeling regretful, thinking it was a waste to let such an ability go unused?

Well, it can’t be helped. I’ve looked into other teleporters besides myself, and it’s the same. That foreigner also decided it was impractical to use this ability and continued working as an accountant.

In my case, I have another ability that grows with training. So, I focus on training that ability.

“Kim Geuk, you’re really diligent. Are you going to work out with full power again?”

“I’m a super-regenerator. If I don’t work out and build muscle every time, it would be a waste, right?”

I returned to the academy with Yang Taeja and continued strength training without rest. I worked out with full power, just enough not to get injured, until I was completely exhausted. Only then did I feel like I had spent the day productively.

On the way home, of course, I didn’t teleport but walked. Then I received a call.

It was Ms. Park Mihyung. A very kind lady in many ways.

“How’s it going? Are you managing?”

When I asked why she called, she responded warmly.

“I just wanted to check if you have enough for tuition and living expenses! If you need help, I can assist you.”

“Thanks, but I’m fine.”

“Are you really fine? I remember you complaining that you were running out of living expenses.”

This lady doesn’t seem to know how capable I am.

I proudly told her that my tuition was fully waived, and today I even had a personal trainer for free. At this rate, my path to becoming an A-rank hunter is assured.

And then I added proudly,

“Wouldn’t it be great if her brother came to pick her up in a Porsche when she gets out?”

The plan to get my sister out early was abandoned long ago when I was involved in human rights activism.

Now, my new plan is to become an A-rank hunter, earning an income that even doctors and lawyers would envy, and support my sister.

That pathetic girl, crying in her cell thinking her life is ruined because of her murder record. When she gets out of prison with a devastated look, I’ll gift her a fat bank account and a sports car in her name. Then, wouldn’t a big smile bloom on her ugly face?

It seems so. It’s clear.

And this plan was excellent in that it seemed to be realized just by eating, going to the academy, and training as it is.

「Surely, it would be reassuring if my brother did that」

“Right?”

「Of course! It will definitely work out, Mr. Kim Geuk」

Everything was going perfectly. I could be sure of it.

*

That night, I had a dream.

I don’t remember exactly what kind of dream it was. But I felt it was a very long dream.

I also vaguely remember that I cried, got angry, and screamed like a roar in the dream.

And the most clearly remembered scene at the end of the dream…

A mushroom cloud.

In the dream, I detonated a nuclear bomb. Right in the middle of Seoul, killing hundreds of thousands of people.

Is it a good omen? I shook my head at the thought.

Sometimes the emotions felt in a dream linger even after waking up. This is one of those times.

And the remnants of this dream… are terrible.

Damn, I feel like throwing up.

Something was even running down my cheeks, and when I wiped my face, I found tears flowing without me realizing it.

I took a deep breath, waiting for all the negative emotions swirling in my head to subside.

Really, damn it…

This is the first time I’ve had such a rough dream. Things have been good lately, so why is this happening?

Suddenly, I feel ominous.

*

The first sign of something strange was when I just entered the academy.

I made eye contact with the director who was getting water in a paper cup. The director greeted me with a big smile as soon as he saw me.

“Oh, you’re early? Mr. Kim Geuk, you’re very diligent!”

And I was about to smile back when I opened my eyes wide.

For a moment, I felt my consciousness being sucked somewhere…

It’s creepy.

The director, who had been grinning until just now, was now staring at me blankly with a face that seemed like he would never smile again. It could be described as crying expressionlessly.

Also, just a moment ago, there were people coming and going from the academy, but now, except for the director, no one is visible. It’s just the director and me in the empty academy. Why?

There is no time to think deeply. In the uncomfortable silence, I stood blankly for a moment, overwhelmed by a sudden wave of melancholy.

Meanwhile, the director is still staring at me. Blankly. Expressionlessly. As if he has something to say but lacks the energy to do so, he just stares at me.

I closed my eyes and opened them again, blinking a few times.

The director, who was looking at me, was smiling as he did earlier. And the academy was bustling with instructors drinking coffee and students chatting, just like before.

What on earth is this?

“Just now…”

As I barely opened my mouth, the director asked with a sly smile.

“What just now?”

I was about to ask what expression he had just made but stopped.

Was that just now, an illusion?

It could be. I trained quite hard yesterday. Even those with super-regenerative abilities might experience such things if they suddenly overexert themselves. The restless sleep I had might also have been due to that.

“It’s nothing.”

“Nonsense!”

I forced a smile and entered the classroom.

This time, a few students greeted me. I made eye contact with one of them. He is the oldest student here.

“Hey, Mr. Kim Geuk, you’re here? Come over here and sit down!”

The moment his voice reached my ears, I felt my consciousness being sucked into somewhere again.

And I couldn’t breathe for a moment.

That skinny student is Mr. Im Hyung-taek.

He’s in his forties, but due to his thinning hair, he looks like he’s in his fifties. When the world turned into this state, like many others, he lost his job and developed alopecia areata due to the stress at that time.

That frail man, who clearly doesn’t fit in a hunter academy, came here to support his family. To feed his wife, daughter, and son.

A white-collar intellectual who had never done any physical work in his life, he mingled with the young people to exchange the blood and flesh of monsters for his family’s living expenses.

The reason I know all this in detail is that he acts particularly friendly towards me.

It’s clear that he is trying to use his connections to become acquainted with the awakened ones by gathering industry information in advance. Seeing how he tried to instill sympathy in me with his unsolicited tales of woe.

Despite his efforts to flatter and act pitiful to someone more than ten years younger than him, it seems to have been in vain.

Im Hyung-taek, that miserable head of the family, is lying on the concrete floor with his neck broken.

It’s truly horrifying just to look at.

His neck, stretched like a deer’s, is twisted like a pretzel, and the skin that wrapped around his neck is snapped here and there like an overly stretched rubber band. Because of that, his bones and tendons are exposed.

It seems unlikely that he will return to his family.

At that moment, the reason I didn’t scream was not because I was calm, but because I was so shocked that my body froze. Damn it, what now?

When I blinked, Mr. Im Hyung-taek was still gesturing at me.

“What are you doing? Sit down!”

It seemed he wasn’t dead. His neck wasn’t stretched or broken.

It must have been another hallucination.

I sat next to Mr. Im Hyung-taek, cursing inwardly.

Damn it, really damn it. I’m going to go crazy at this rate.

With my mind filled with an unknown rage, probably stemming from the hallucination, I tried to accept this situation as normal.

Even during my athlete days, I had experienced hallucinations a few times when I was extremely tired. It’s something that can happen.

Although it’s the first time I’ve seen such vivid and clear hallucinations multiple times…

With my heart still pounding, the class began.

“When you were in the military, you all practiced aiming and shooting, right? Prone shooting, standing shooting, sitting shooting. You were given plenty of time to calm your breath and focus on shooting… You can’t shoot like that when you’re out hunting. When you see monsters, you have to shoot immediately, whether you aim quickly or shoot from the hip.”

That instructor is a former hunter. He retired after about nine months, and I wondered what kind of instructor he could be with just nine months of experience, but I guess he’s a veteran in his own way.

“If you hesitate to aim accurately, you’ll die. You’ll definitely die! If you think the monster looks big and slow, so you aim leisurely, you’ll still die! I once saw a monster the size of a bus, and I’m not exaggerating, that thing was as fast as a Sonata. You can’t think of them as Earth creatures. Strangely, the bigger they are, the faster they are…”

The class content was ordinary. But, why?

I was engulfed in a strange feeling that I didn’t know how to describe, a feeling that should be called déjà vu.

It felt like I had already taken this class. If I had experienced it, when?

In a dream last night…

Of course, feeling like something that just happened occurred in a dream is a common phenomenon of déjà vu. It’s not particularly strange to feel déjà vu when you’re tired.

But I was tormented by that déjà vu throughout the entire class.

Even during the next criminal law class, and when I went home, even when I washed and lay in bed, that déjà vu continued.

*

And then I had that dream again.

The end of the dream was the same with a nuclear explosion, but this time, the middle part was slightly clearer in my mind.

In this dream, the director and Mr. Im Hyung-taek appeared. No, actually, they appeared in the previous dream too, but I just didn’t remember.

Their appearances were exactly as I had seen in the hallucination. Mr. Im Hyung-taek had his neck broken and died, and the director looked at me with a blank expression as if he would shed tears of blood.

Even though it was the second time seeing them, I felt nauseous immediately.

I didn’t know I could feel nauseous even in a dream.

*