How To Survive as a Class a Hunter

50. Baron of Gyeyang-gu, Kim Seok-hee – [1]

I still have that dream. The tiresome dream that always ends with a nuclear explosion.

There has been a part of that dream that has become clearer recently.

It is the part where I travel in the Sword World.

In the dream, I wander around Sowol and mingle with the Awakened Lords I meet. I observe how the Awakened Lords take care of their sheep and how they govern them.

Of course, the content of the dream tends to evaporate quickly, so I don’t remember exactly what I saw and heard.

But there is one thing I remember clearly.

I was greatly impressed by the lives and ways of the Awakened Lords there…

I don’t know why. Was it because the conversation I had with the Awakened Lord Usori last time was impressive? Or was it because I spent a long time in Sowol after crossing the gate to save Baek Dambi in the hallucination?

Or is it really because the way the rulers of Sowol govern is far superior to that of the rulers of Earth?

*

Before boarding the official car, I said to my fan holding a camera.

“Don’t bother other hunters with your camera. When the broadcasting station films, they control passersby and cause inconvenience, so you shouldn’t ask anyone to move or interfere during the hunt.”

My fan, who had previously uploaded my hunting videos on YouTube, wanted to follow and film this hunt as well. He answered loudly.

“Got it!”

“Do you see the cameraman following Naito-san around? Just do it like that person. Then you won’t get scolded.”

My fan nodded vigorously. I gave him a thumbs up and smiled.

Then I boarded the official car with my hunter team.

The official car carrying us started.

Inside the moving car, Seong Mun-yeong glanced at my fan fiddling with the camera in the back and muttered.

“That guy is really annoying. He keeps following us… Isn’t he doing that because you keep accepting him?”

“What are you so dissatisfied with?”

“Even if he films the video, it only increases his YouTube income, so we have no reason to accommodate him, right? But he keeps bothering us… Last time, he kept asking for explanations while you were resting. After catching a few Deathclaws, he asked for poses. Isn’t it really annoying?”

For me, just the fact that videos of my activities are being filmed is satisfying enough, so I didn’t bother to say that I could gladly endure that level of annoyance.

I just answered like a gentleman.

“But he doesn’t bother other hunters, so what’s the big deal?”

“Maybe he’s not doing it because he’s your fan, but because he wants YouTube income?”

“If that’s the case, he’s doing it to make a living, so let’s just leave him be.”

When I said it firmly, Seong Mun-yeong kept grumbling.

“Anyway, you have a great personality. Come to think of it, it’s really strange?”

“What’s strange?”

“Didn’t you act like you had anger management issues in your previous interviews? Didn’t you say you beat up the school principal and the training camp instructor and made them disabled?”

“Yeah, so what?”

“You seem to have a lot of patience for someone who did an interview like that. Now, you even seem to have a better personality than me.”

I almost shouted, “Is there anyone with a worse personality than you?” but stopped myself. It was a rather sensitive question to brush off with annoyance.

After choosing my words carefully, I answered.

“Back then, I thought it was cool to act like that.”

“Not holding back and just hitting when you’re angry?”

“Yeah. I thought holding back was for losers. I believed that directly beating someone up would solve the problem properly.”

“But now you’ve turned over a new leaf?”

“It’s not that. It’s just that no one dares to mess with me anymore. So, there’s no need to swing my fists.”

“So, if something makes you angry again, will you beat people up and go to jail like before?”

“Well…?”

I guess my vague answer made him uneasy. Mr. Im Hyung-taek, who always liked to act like an adult, intervened.

“Not ‘well,’ but definitely! Even if you’re angry, you have to control your temper! How many people are looking up to you, Kim Geuk?”

With that, Mr. Im Hyung-taek started lecturing. He said that the lives and hopes of many people, including himself, were riding on the shoulders of Kim Geuk, the guardian of Incheon. If I caused trouble and ended up in jail, how disappointed would those people be, and so on.

Even in this situation, Mr. Im Hyung-taek didn’t miss the chance to flatter me. He mixed praise into his lecture to make it pleasant for me to hear.

The car carrying the hunters ahead of us stopped. Then, the cars following it also stopped one by one.

The official car I was in also stopped, so I got out of the car.

“What’s going on?”

I asked, and a hunter answered.

“Some guys are blocking the road. They occupied the road and won’t let us pass.”

At those words, I looked ahead.

As the hunter said, a group of people was blocking the road, preventing our hunters from passing. They all looked like a bunch of thugs.

I could roughly guess what kind of people they were.

Sung Moon-young, who had gotten out of the car behind me, muttered.

“Those guys, they look like the lackeys of that Baron of Gyeyang-gu, don’t they?”

I nodded.

I wasn’t particularly surprised. I had already anticipated their appearance.

Hunterweb user “Thickheaded Youth,” a hunter named Seok Jang-sil who operates in Seoul, had sent me a message warning me.

He said there was an awakened gang in Gyeyang-gu, and the boss of that gang, Kim Seok-hee, didn’t seem to welcome my arrival. It seemed they didn’t want me stepping into their territory and were trying to drive me away.

What was the reason again? Gyeyang-gu had long been abandoned by people due to the rampant monsters, and despite its excellent transportation, the residential area had turned into a slum. Kim Seok-hee’s gang had taken advantage of the resulting power vacuum to settle in Gyeyang-gu, and they wanted it to remain a slum without people.

Due to the Incheon recapture project I am leading, when the residents of Gyeyang-gu return, the police will also return, and various public authorities will pay attention. It would become troublesome to continue pretending to be the lord of Gyeyang-gu as I have been doing.

So, it seems that Kim Seok-hee’s gang is trying to stop me from hunting in Gyeyang-gu.

Of course, I didn’t groan and try to solve it alone after hearing that. I immediately called Mr. Park Mi-hyung, and Mr. Park Mi-hyung contacted the mayor, the police chief, and others to take action.

Thus, in this operation, not only hunters but also the police accompanied us, so I expected that I wouldn’t have to step forward and swing my fists in this scuffle.

If a fight broke out, it would be a legal problem for us hunters, but the police would handle everything on their end.

However, my expectations were completely wrong.

“Police officers?”

I asked the police who came with us to deal with the gang members who seemed to have appeared, but the police hesitated and didn’t step forward.

“What are you all doing just standing there?”

Only after I urged them did the police approach the gang members blocking the road.

And seeing what the police were doing, it was hard to tell whether they were trying to drive away the thugs or bowing to their masters.

In other words, even the apartment security guard would have more spirit in driving out a peddler.

In the end, the police talked with the gang members for a while and then returned to where the hunters were.

Meanwhile, the gang members were still blocking the road, and I looked at the police in astonishment.

“Aren’t you going to clear them off the road?”

The police mumbled in response to my question.

“That’s difficult…”

“Is that guy the son of a congressman or something? Are you afraid something troublesome will happen if you touch him?”

“He’s scarier than a congressman’s son. He’s a body enhancer.”

The police pointed to one of the gang members blocking the road and said, but I frowned, not understanding.

“You all have guns, don’t you? Just point them and tell them to get lost.”

“Do you think bullets will penetrate a body enhancer’s muscles?”

“It depends on who the body enhancer is, but usually, they would.”

The police tried to say something but then closed their mouth. They seemed to want to argue that bullets wouldn’t penetrate a body enhancer, but since I was a body enhancer myself, they couldn’t help but keep quiet.

Of course, winning the argument didn’t change anything. The gang members were still blocking the road, and the police were just standing back and watching the situation.

It was frustrating. Why were these people acting like this?

I had no choice. I stepped forward and asked Baek Dambi quietly.

“Which one of them is the awakened one?”

Baek Dambi closed her eyes and then answered.

“That one, on the far left.”

I looked at the man Baek Dambi pointed at. Is that guy a body enhancer?

At first glance, he didn’t look like it. While I had bulked up as much as possible at the expense of my flexibility, he had a sleek build like a leopard.

He looked about 175 cm tall, and at first glance, he seemed several weight classes below me, but I couldn’t be complacent. Even considering that he might not have enhanced his abilities by killing monsters as a hunter, it was the same.

Kang Junchi was already S-class the moment he awakened. The strength of an awakened one varies greatly from the start, so even if he looked weak at first glance, it wouldn’t be strange if he could knock me down with one punch.

So, without letting my guard down, I put down the hunter rifle, which was useless in this situation, and approached the gang members with my bare hands.

“Ah, it’s that b*stard Kim Geuk!”

The gang members who recognized me smirked. Their faces clearly showed they were here to pick a fight, and I felt the urge to punch them.

But I couldn’t just swing my fist, so I silently stared at them.

“Are you here for a staring contest?”

One of them taunted, and I replied.

“Not a staring contest, but do you want to wrestle for real?”

“No? I don’t even want to touch a b*stard like you because you stink!”

And then they laughed again, as if something was funny.

While holding back my anger, I tried to figure out their intentions.

It was obvious. Their goal was to provoke me. If I swung my fist, they might immediately complain to the police watching from behind, claiming their bones were broken.

Even understanding the situation, I was still angry and took a deep breath.

The guy Baek Dambi pointed out as an awakened one, the body enhancer, approached me.

He poked my chest and said.

“Hey, you look like a bodybuilder?”

“Yeah, thanks for the compliment.”

“It’s not a compliment, you idiot.”

Laughter erupted again among the gang members.

The body enhancer said.

“Bodybuilder idiots think they’re strong and act tough, only to get knocked out by a boxer in one punch. Have you ever experienced martial arts in your life, you b*stard?”

I wasn’t angry at this provocation because it was more absurd than infuriating. My UFC career is on Naver if you just search my name. Does this guy not have a computer or smartphone at home?

While I was thinking, he suddenly threw a punch. An uppercut aimed at my chin.

He probably thought it was a lightning-fast surprise attack. The speed of his punch cutting through the air was indeed impressive.

But compared to the speed of a bullet or a Deathclaw’s leap, it was nothing, so it wasn’t hard for me, who reacts to both, to catch his punch.

I leisurely, but swiftly, brought my left hand under my chin to protect it.

The next moment, his flying fist was wrapped in my palm and stopped.

Just like that, my palm caught his fist.

The giggling among the gang members stopped.

The expression of the body-enhanced guy who punched me also hardened. He tried to retrieve his fist, but it couldn’t escape my hand.

Hmm, with this, the assessment of strength was over. Without any twists, I was strong and he was weak.

Knowing that, I could also make a relaxed judgment of the situation. If I kicked his shin and broke it, it would be troublesome, right?

There were police watching from behind in this situation, so there was no need to use direct violence.

“Let go, you b*stard! Right now—”

I teleported with him still in my grasp.

We moved to a room in an abandoned building about 2.3 km away, where no one was around. The body-enhanced guy I was holding was also dragged along.

He might have been flustered by the sudden change in scenery, but since he was an awakened one, he must have been a superior human in mind and body. He tried to punch me again with his free hand, but that too was blocked by my right hand, and he growled.

“If you don’t let go in five seconds, I’ll blow your mother’s head off.”

Since he was a gang member, should I take that as a threat to harm my family?

Of course, it wasn’t very threatening.

“Kill my mom and give me her bones. I’ll cremate them nicely and flush the ashes down the toilet.”

He seemed flustered by my self-deprecating joke. He opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it without a word.

He stayed like that for over ten seconds, but in the end, he couldn’t escape my hand.

Eventually, I let him go and laughed.

“Five seconds are up, right? I trust you’ll send my mom’s bones cash on delivery.”

“Crazy b*stard…”

“But friend, is it okay to speak so harshly? It’s just the two of us here.”

As I said that, I briefly stared into his eyes. Here, where there was clearly no one watching and no CCTV, I conveyed with my gaze that it would be okay to blow your head off instead of my mom’s.

Fortunately, he understood the meaning and shut his mouth, and I was satisfied.