Copying Runes to Become the World's Strongest - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 10
Hyeonjun arrived at the nearest Exchange.
The clerk at the window paused when she saw the size of the bag, then wheeled over a purchasing cart and loaded the whole thing onto it.
“That’s quite a haul. Must have been a big party.”
“I hunted alone, actually.”
“…All of this?”
“Yes. How long will the appraisal take?”
“Uh, well…”
Inside the clerk’s head, a heated debate was already underway over whether his words could possibly be true.
Calculating how much time the review would require took a little while.
“I’d estimate about three hours.”
“Just transfer the money to me as soon as it’s done.”
Hyeonjun left the Exchange.
The clerk’s eyes darted back and forth between his retreating back and the load on the cart.
“No way… wait, seriously?”
***
Hyeonjun, having left the Exchange, didn’t head home. He went to the Awakening Management Bureau.
Among the high-rise forest of Gwanghwamun, one skyscraper held its ground with unmistakable confidence.
It was the building of the Awakening Management Bureau, the agency that oversaw everything related to Awakening.
‘Same as four years ago.’
The very place he had come to register as a Hunter, bursting with dreams and hope.
Back then, he hadn’t known he would suffer for four years, nor that the suffering would ever come undone like this.
Hyeonjun gazed up at the building, lost in sentiment, then walked inside.
He checked the directory and boarded the elevator.
He arrived at the Customer Support Office on the fifth floor, part of the Special Support Department.
When he opened the door, the interior looked much like the windows at the Exchange.
“What brings you in today?”
The staff member standing at the entrance asked.
“I’d like to change my Soul Trace.”
The staff member tapped a touch screen a few times, then pulled a numbered ticket and handed it to him personally.
“Just wait here.”
Hyeonjun sat in the waiting area and waited.
Before long, his number was called, and he went to the designated window.
“You want to change your Soul Trace?”
“Yes.”
“Please fill out these forms.”
A few sheets of paper were pushed toward him.
He had to fill in every detail: the applicant’s personal information, when, where, and how the Soul Trace was obtained, and so on.
‘Since it’s an item that might be tied to a crime.’
It wasn’t that kind of case, so Hyeonjun filled in the boxes quickly.
“I’ve finished.”
“Just a moment.”
The clerk checked the forms and nodded.
“Confirmed. We’ll review what you’ve written and then proceed with the process.”
“How long will that take?”
“Two hours at the fastest, two weeks at the slowest.”
“That’s longer than I expected.”
“Since we have to cross-verify your statement, it takes time. If you have your ID Card, it’s two weeks; without it, it would take much longer. And if you’re short on cash, we also offer collateral-based loans.”
“A loan? You have something like that?”
It wasn’t that he was interested in borrowing money itself.
He was simply curious about a new system he hadn’t heard of before.
“We get a lot of complaints about waiting periods, so we recently started this program. It’s closer to an advance than a loan. There’s no interest. Instead, the limit is only up to 90% of the estimated settlement amount.”
Hyeonjun nodded without hesitation.
He would normally recoil at the word ‘loan,’ but precisely because of that, he had no hesitation at all.
‘A loan with no interest? Why wouldn’t I take it?’
It’s basically free money being offered.
There was no reason to recoil from it just because it was called a loan.
“Here are the forms. Just check the marked sections and sign.”
Hyeonjun went over the documents carefully.
Just in case the clerk had said something wrong.
But there was nothing odd about it.
Everything went exactly as the staff member had said.
Hyeonjun filled out the paperwork and handed it over.
“Your application is complete. The payment will be deposited within an hour once the Soul Trace inspection is finished. You don’t need to repay anything separately. It’s structured so that the repayment happens automatically when the settlement goes through. The amount equal to 10% will be deposited separately. The amount you receive may vary depending on fluctuations in the market price.”
“Thank you.”
Hyeonjun submitted his Soul Trace and left the customer support office.
‘Since I’m here anyway, should I just sign up for the exam?’
The E-Rank Hunter Qualification Exam, one of the gateways to becoming an E-Rank Hunter.
It was held once every two weeks, and about ten days remained until the next one.
He could apply online, but since he was already here, he headed down to the basement where the Hunter Education Institute was, partly to get a feel for the testing grounds in advance.
-One, two, three, four!
A booming shout greeted him as he stepped into the institute.
A class seemed to be in full swing.
“Welcome.”
The staff member at the desk noticed Hyeonjun and greeted him.
Hyeonjun walked up to the desk.
“Hi. I’d like to register for the E-Rank Hunter Promotion Exam.”
“Please submit your ID card and fill out the application form.”
Hyeonjun quickly filled out the application and handed it in.
“Your application is complete. Here’s your ID card.”
“Would it be possible to take a look at the testing grounds beforehand?”
“Oh, yes. Of course.”
Leaving the desk behind, Hyeonjun headed toward the back of the institute.
The first place he reached was the computer room where the Written Exam was administered.
It was an ordinary computer room, with one computer on each desk.
‘So this is where the Written Exam is taken first, once you arrive.’
This was the first hurdle.
If you failed to clear the set score here, you wouldn’t even be allowed to sit for the practical exam.
‘As long as I pass sixty points.’
Hyeonjun was confident when it came to theory.
Still, he had no intention of getting complacent, so he’d started reviewing here and there over the past few days.
He was sure he could pass the written part with ease.
‘Is this the practical testing room?’
Next, he headed to the simulation room where the practical exam was held.
The exam worked by having the candidate take down targets that appeared as augmented reality projections, earning points for each one.
‘The distance is random. Since they’re AR targets, I can’t go hitting them too lightly.’
The strength of each attack was also recorded, and according to what he’d heard, a target taken down with an overly weak strike wouldn’t be recorded as points at all.
‘It’s pretty spacious.’
Hyeonjun stood in the center and gauged the distances.
He pictured targets appearing at both ends at the same time and sketched the scene out in his head.
“It’d take a while to go from one end to the other. I guess I’ll have to give up on a high score.”
Deep down, he felt a pang of regret.
That’s because a high score that placed him among the top rankings would earn one of the E-Rank Runes as a reward.
“It’d be nice to get it, but it’s not the end of the world if I don’t.”
Once he’d finished looking around, Hyeonjun left the Management Bureau and boarded the bus heading home.
A bus with hardly any passengers.
He sat in an empty seat and gazed out the window.
‘Ten days until the exam.’
If he could, he wanted to become an E-Grade Hunter as soon as he finished the exam.
To do that, he first had to clear three F-Rank Closed Gates.
‘But first, there’s something else I should try.’
That was party hunting.
A Closed Gate, or “dungeon” as it’s commonly called, can’t be exited once you enter until you defeat the boss.
It means you have to fight in sync with others for a long stretch of time.
So he planned to practice party hunting at a hunting ground beforehand.
‘I’ve watched plenty of videos, but I should experience it firsthand. Whether my combat style gets in the way, how others fight, everything.’
Hyeonjun logged into the job board on Hunternet using his smartphone.
[<D-Grade> Gangnam Station Ant Cave] – Recruiting.
[Guild] Haetae Guild is looking for members. – Recruiting.
[E-Rank] Low-level dungeon, clearing easily. 5 million won deposit upfront. Rewards split 50/50. – Recruiting.
[Part-Time] Need help gathering at the D-Grade hunting ground? – Closed.
[C-Rank] Anyone going to the Ilsan KINTEX Dungeon? – Closed.
Posts with all kinds of tags.
Hyeonjun filtered the listings so that only F-Grade posts showed up.
His Soul Circuit was E-Rank, but his Hunter rank was F.
For now, only F-Grade listings were open to him.
[F-Grade] Looking for a party for Rune Rabbit hunting in the Grassland Field] – Closed.
[F-Grade] Looking for like-minded teammates. Let’s hunt together as a party and aim for E-Rank! – Recruiting.
[F-Grade] Anyone want to take on a Golem~ – Closed.
Hyeonjun checked the post asking for teammates.
[F-Rank] Looking for like-minded teammates. Let’s hunt together as a party and aim for E-Rank!
Author: Hunter Dream Tree A
Hello. I’m an F-Rank close-range Dealer, awakened six months ago.
Until now I’ve been running hunting grounds alone, or finding parties on the board every time and joining them.
But finding people and syncing up every single time is no small task, as it turns out.
“Why’s this so long?”
Hyeonjun skimmed it casually.
In short, it was a call to gather teammates who would go all the way to E-Rank together.
“There are conditions listed, too.”
– Rank: F only, please!
– Recruiting classes: Tanks and Healers would be welcomed with a bow, but honestly, anyone is fine for now.
– Rune count: 200 or fewer, 100 or more is good! Sorry to anyone who’s too weak or too strong!
– Item distribution will be based on contribution!
– Looking for polite people with good manners!
– Contact us and we’ll head out hunting right away! Our activity area is Seoul!
“A strong person is defined as having 200 runes? Isn’t that a bit low?”
Hyeonjun didn’t meet the conditions.
Regretfully, he moved on and skimmed the other posts, but every single one had already closed.
The only place with an open spot was the one he’d first seen.
“It’s just practice hunting as a party anyway. A little lie shouldn’t hurt.”
It’s not as if I’ll be sticking with them to the end.
And there’s no separate way to verify their rune count or Soul Circuit rank, so.
Hyeonjun sent a message to the contact listed in the post.
The reply arrived quickly.
-Hunter Dream Tree A: How many runes do you have??
The other party was checking whether the runes were 200 or fewer before anything else.
A faint tension crept into the space between Hyeonjun’s brows.
“No greeting, and they’re asking about rune count first?”
What kind of rude jerk is this?
“Tch. Still, I’m the one who needs this more.”
Hyeonjun began typing a message.
Just as he was about to type a rune count that fit the conditions, the moment he was about to send it—
the three words Rune Killing suddenly surfaced in his mind.
‘It’s a bit suspicious that they care this much about the rune count.’
Maybe they really did need teammates to grow with.
But if that were the case, wouldn’t it be better to greet people first and make a good impression?
There was a gap between what this post claimed it wanted and how it was actually behaving.
‘Oh, come on. No way.’
Severe penalties, tighter gate management, supervision of specialized technicians, and so on.
Rune Killing had gone underground under a web of laws.
The odds that this person was a Rune Killer hunting runes were low.
‘Unclear. Low odds don’t mean zero odds.’
When something’s unclear, the right move is to stay away.
Sooner or later, other F-Rank parties would be posted, so there was no need to cling to this suspicious one.
‘But what if this guy really is a Rune Killer?’
It meant someone who fell for this post could become a victim.
‘If not me, would anyone else notice this?’
Because it was a crime that once flourished, many people these days don’t even know it exists.
It’s included in the basic curriculum at the Hunter Education Institute, but how many people actually listen to that part?
‘Honestly, it’s not really my job to worry about that far.’
Even so, what is it that keeps me wavering until the very end over whether to send the message?
What’s the source of this uneasy feeling lodged deep in my chest?
Is it because of what I saw earlier, the dead people at the hunting ground?
Or is it…
“Um, excuse me? Are you alright?”
Hyeonjun lifted his head.
The man sitting beside him was staring at him.
“Hm? Sorry?”
“You’ve been shaking your hands pretty badly.”
Only then did Hyeonjun look down at his fist.
Without his realizing it, he had clenched it so hard that it trembled.
“Ah… I’m fine.”
Hyeonjun bowed his head quickly and shoved his hands into his pockets.
Only then did he understand why he couldn’t look away from this problem.
It was rage, aimed at the villains who meant to turn other people’s suffering into their own profit.
A feeling he had carried ever since his mother had been left teetering between life and death.
A feeling he had buried deep down and turned away from, too worn down by life to face it.
Now a spark had caught hold of it.
‘Let me just check.’
Whether they’re Rune Killers or not.
If they aren’t, then all the better.
But if they are Rune Killers…
Then I’ll teach them a lesson they won’t forget.
***
“A reply came in.”
“How many?”
“142.”
“Not bad.”
A narrow, shadowy alley.
Three men and women gathered there.
The bald man, logged in under the account Hunter Dream Tree A, sends a reply to the message that just arrived.
-Darak Mountain, Mountain Area. Come inside the dungeon, not outside it. Time: 12 p.m.
“Two people tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah. One at ten. The guy who just messaged is at twelve.”
“Together that’s about 340, so… just over 100 for us. Haven’t feasted like this in a while.”
Their laughter scattered through the narrow alley.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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