Copying Runes to Become the World's Strongest - Chapter 24

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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 24
Baek Jejung hadn’t come alone.
Hunters and Awakened Police, not to mention paramedics.
“Are you all right?”
“Ah, yes. I’m fine.”
Having confirmed Hyeonjun was unhurt, the paramedic immediately moved toward the woman who had collapsed nearby.
Her face was a bloody mess, but she seemed conscious, exchanging words with the paramedic.
Soon the paramedics loaded her onto a stretcher.
The boy stood beside them, clutching his mother’s hand tightly.
‘Thank goodness.’
The paramedics passed in front of Hyeonjun.
Then a hand shot out and caught the arm of Hyeonjun, who had been looking down at her with relief.
The paramedics faltered and stopped in confusion.
“Ma’am?”
“I just… wanted to say thank you…”
Her voice was so weak that the pauses between her words stretched long.
The paramedic hesitated, then nodded.
The woman looked up at Hyeonjun through swollen eyes.
“Really… truly, thank you.”
It was a short sentence, yet it carried a sincerity deeper than any words dressed up in fine phrases.
“Thank you…”
The boy beside her bowed deeply as well.
Hyeonjun smiled faintly and nodded.
And so the mother and son drifted away.
Hyeonjun stared vacantly at their retreating backs.
‘So this is what it feels like.’
Saving someone.
Receiving a thank-you that comes straight from the heart.
A strange, subtle warmth rippled through his chest, as if something had been gently struck.
‘It’s different from when I saved Jejung.’
I suppose that’s because the situation and the place are different.
“Everyone, spread out and count the casualties!”
Once the Awakened Police had secured the basement, the paramedics’ rescue operation finally got underway in earnest.
People moved with perfect coordination.
Perhaps because the tension had finally let go, a sudden wave of fatigue washed over Hyeonjun.
“Hyung!”
Baek Jejung, who had been helping the police over there, came rushing back to Hyeonjun.
He bent low, almost as if he were about to drop to his knees.
“You got here fast.”
“Y-you’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
“I’m fine.”
If he’d landed even a single blow from that guy, he wouldn’t just have been injured. He would have died.
“W-wait, that’s not… surely…”
Baek Jejung stammered, looking at Kim Donggeun lying on the floor.
“He’s dead.”
“Wow… I knew it. You really are something, Hyung…”
Someone who would dare carry out a terror attack in a place like this should have been pretty strong.
And to have won against a man like that.
Baek Jejung couldn’t hold back his admiration.
-Jejung-ah!
Another voice echoed through the basement.
Hyeonjun asked, bewildered.
“Who’s that?”
“Probably my older brother. He found us after all.”
“Your brother?”
Soon, Baek Jehyeok revealed himself.
After running around frantically in every direction, he looked an absolute wreck.
“Hah, hah. Finally found you.”
He had known only that it was a restaurant, not its exact location, which is why Baek Jehyeok had been searching so desperately.
He had tried to track the location of his smartphone through the dark passages, but communications across the Gwanghwamun area had been knocked out, and even that had failed him.
In the end, there was nothing for it but to make the rounds of every restaurant that might still be worth visiting.
“Oh, it’s the second brother?”
“The big brother’s here too.”
Baek Jehyeok, catching his breath, spotted Hyeonjun and lifted a hand in an easygoing wave.
“Yo~”
Hyeonjun was taken aback by the appearance of someone he hadn’t expected, but he quickly bowed his head.
“Nice to see you again.”
“Right. Did you take this one down, Hyeonjun?”
Baek Jehyeok nudged the body with his foot.
Then, as if he’d only just realized what it was, his brow twisted.
“He’s dead, huh?”
“I had no choice.”
“I’m not blaming you. I just find it impressive you won. Anyone who comes to bomb a place like this isn’t going to be on your level, is he?”
Hyeonjun started to say the man had been D-Grade, then stopped short.
That was only something he’d learned through Discernment.
With his Trait itself still hidden, he couldn’t reveal that the skill existed.
“I got lucky.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
Baek Jehyeok narrowed his eyes.
Whatever the reason, it didn’t seem like he believed that luck alone had won the fight.
‘Maybe I should just tie him down with a contract, like my brother said.’
They say you should strike while the iron is hot.
Baek Jehyeok wasted no time getting to the point.
“Since everyone seems to be okay, why don’t we find some quiet place and talk?”
“Hey, you idiot.”
Smack!
Someone appeared and smacked the back of Baek Jehyeok’s head.
“Ow, damn it.”
Baek Jehyeok turned around, irritation written all over his face.
Baek Jegeon stood there with his fist raised.
“I told you to contact me right away if you found Jejung.”
“The phone wasn’t working.”
“I gave you a signal beacon and you already forgot?”
Baek Jegeon shoved Baek Jehyeok aside, the moment Jehyeok realized his mistake, and turned to check on Baek Jejung.
“You’re not hurt anywhere?”
“I’m fine. Hyung came to help again, so it’s all good.”
Only then did Baek Jegeon turn to look at Hyeonjun.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“B-b-Baek Jegeon, the Hunter…!”
Baek Jegeon, A-Grade Hunter.
As the one leading Michuhol, a major Guild, he was a Hunter with considerable fame.
“Wow, I got a pretty lukewarm reaction when I met you before.”
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“N-no, I’m fine.”
Baek Jegeon bowed his head respectfully to Hyeonjun, who insisted he was fine.
“I’m sorry for being late to greet you. Thank you for saving my brother, both last time and this time.”
“I was only doing what needed to be done. You don’t have to go so far.”
“Shall we step outside and talk, rather than standing around here?”
“I think we should clean up things here first, before anything else.”
A rescue team had arrived, but their manpower alone couldn’t cover everything.
“You don’t need to worry, Hyeonjun. Everyone is already gathering at the scene.”
At the government’s request, Baek Jegeon issued a blanket summons to the Guild’s Hunters.
Not just Michuhol, but Hunters from other Guilds were surely streaming toward the bombing site as well.
“Let’s head out.”
Hyeonjun followed Baek Jegeon through the emergency stairwell and out of the building.
Debris from the buildings, shattered by the blast, lay scattered everywhere.
The streets were as chaotic as the underground had been, yet they were not without order.
“Please move outside the line!”
Access-restriction tape surrounded the entire building.
Beyond it, regular police were guiding the citizens’ passage.
“This way, please.”
The four of them left the immediate area of the building and moved to a quieter spot.
Waiting there was the luxury sedan Baek Jegeon and Baek Jehyeok had arrived in.
“Jehyeok, take Jejung back home. Stop by the hospital just in case.”
“Got it.”
“What? Why?”
Baek Jehyeok steered a bewildered Baek Jejung away and disappeared with him.
Baek Jegeon opened the rear door of the car.
“Please, get in. I’ll see you home.”
“You didn’t have to go to all this trouble…”
“There are a few things I’d like to discuss with you, too.”
Hyeonjun tilted his head in puzzlement and climbed into the car.
Not long after, Baek Jejung took the seat on the opposite side.
The car pulled away smoothly.
Baek Jegeon was the first to speak.
“I’ll need to look into it further, but it looks like a diversion attack to me. They’re hitting several places at once to hide the real target.”
“Ah… so there were attacks elsewhere too, then.”
“It’s a sizable one. Thank goodness there were so many people on hand for the crackdown period. Otherwise, it could have gotten really bad.”
“Hah. I wonder when these villains will finally disappear for good…”
“Tell me about it.”
A silence settled over the car.
Just as Hyeonjun began to feel uneasy in the quiet,
Baek Jegeon pulled a folder from the storage pocket on the back of the front seat.
“Would you care to take a look at this?”
“What’s this?”
Hyeonjun opened the folder and checked the documents tucked inside.
The first page was a guild contract.
“I heard you put on a remarkable performance during the Entrance Test.”
“Ah…”
“I also heard you were reluctant to join a guild. Do you still feel the same way?”
Hyeonjun hesitated.
The situation was different from before.
He needed to earn a large sum of money as quickly as possible, raise his rank, and use Discernment to find a cure for the illness his mother was suffering from.
‘If I join a guild, I’ll get to go into dungeons, so my income should go up on its own.’
Joining might put him in danger, but things had reached this point, and he couldn’t keep running from it forever.
“You still seem hesitant, so why don’t you read through the rest as well?”
Baek Jegeon took Hyeonjun’s prolonged silence as a no.
Hyeonjun turned over one more page.
There was another contract there too, but its contents were entirely different from the entrance agreement.
Hyeonjun’s eyes, which had been skimming casually at first, slowly began to widen.
“W-what is this…?”
“A bit unusual, isn’t it? You might not like it. But I want to stop you from drifting over to a rival guild, even if it takes something like this.”
The terms of the contract were simple.
Do not join any guild, and do not enter into any kind of contract.
And if you ever feel the urge to join a guild or sign a contract,
Michuhol Guild must be your first consideration.
“Please, accept this first.”
Baek Jegeon pulled a heavy bag from the floor.
Inside were stacks of 50,000-won bills, packed tight.
“!”
“This has nothing to do with the contract. It’s simply a token of thanks for saving Jejung.”
Hyeonjun was torn by a deep conflict.
He hadn’t acted for any reward, but he couldn’t bring himself to refuse outright.
Regardless of the amount, given his current circumstances, he wasn’t in a position to turn down such a large sum of money.
‘But still…’
If he took this money, the sentiment he’d held in that moment and the gratitude he received afterward would feel tainted by greed.
After much deliberation, Hyeonjun finally shook his head.
“I didn’t act in order to receive something like this.”
“It’s five hundred million.”
Five hundred million.
Even as a Hunter, it’s money he could earn well enough through his work, yet to Hyeonjun it was an enormous sum all the same.
“If you’d still rather not accept, I’ll double the signing bonus from what’s written here.”
“…Excuse me?”
“If you sign, I’ll give you two billion won.”
Hyeonjun’s gaze drifted down to the signature line on the contract.
Simply not joining a guild.
That alone would put two billion won in his hands.
“I know this contract restricts your freedom, so I imagine you won’t be keen on it, but it’s only for one year. Two billion for doing nothing for a single year, isn’t that fair enough?”
To an individual it was a staggering sum, but for Michuhol Guild it was hardly a large amount of money.
Baek Jegeon reasoned that if two billion could keep another guild from snatching up a promising prospect, the price was a bargain.
‘If I see any real promise in him over that year, we’ll bring him into our guild one way or another.’
Part of him wished he could recruit him even on the condition that he never set foot in a Dungeon.
But with so many eyes watching from both inside and outside the guild, and the risk of running afoul of the law, he couldn’t bring himself to push for it.
“So as long as I stay out of guilds, that’s the only condition?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Hyeonjun read the contract over several times, scrutinizing every line. There wasn’t a single poison clause in it.
‘With two billion, I wouldn’t even have to challenge Dungeons.’
After paying off my debts, what was left could fill a good portion of my Soul Circuit.
Even just grinding Hunting Grounds without pushing myself would shorten the time it takes to reach D-Grade considerably.
‘I could steer clear of the dangerous options.’
Still, he couldn’t make the choice on impulse.
Two billion.
It was certainly a large sum.
But was it enough to erase a single option for an entire year?
‘If I were the Hyeonjun from the early days of being a Hunter, I’d have taken the two billion without a second thought.’
Not anymore.
Today is always the weakest I’ll ever be.
In ten days I can absorb 110 runes, and in a month, 330.
Going by simple arithmetic, raising my Soul Circuit rank by one step won’t take even two months.
‘A year from now, I might well be an S-Grade.’
Along the way, there’s bound to be a better offer.
One that makes two billion look like pocket change.
‘Sure, those offers will carry some risk, but…’
Standing in his mother’s hospital room and steeling his resolve, his aversion to dangerous choices like Dungeons had faded to a considerable degree.
Moreover, his confidence had grown considerably too.
He felt he could perform better than most in any ordinary Dungeon.
“I’m sorry.”
“…Excuse me?”
“The money is needed, that’s true, but I’m not so desperate that I have to mortgage my future for it.”
Baek Jegeon felt a deep pang of disappointment, but he nodded without a fuss.
“If that’s how you feel, Hyeonjun, I can’t force you.”
“I’m sorry. After you thought so highly of me.”
“It’s I who should apologize. I couldn’t repay your kindness, and instead I shove this unreasonable contract at you.”
Baek Jegeon took the contract back from Hyeonjun.
Then he pressed a new bag into Hyeonjun’s hands.
“Please at least accept this.”
“….”
“Being refused twice would embarrass me. Let me at least repay you for saving my little brother. Please.”
“If you’re going to insist that much…”
After some hesitation, Hyeonjun took the bag.
For some reason, the bag felt far heavier than it had a moment ago.
“What is this? It’s really heavy.”
“One billion won. That was the signing fee I’d originally had in mind.”
Hyeonjun’s eyes went wide.
“W-that’s far too much.”
“If you think of it as the price of Jejung’s life, it’s rather cheap. Surely you don’t think my precious younger brother is worth less than that?”
“No, it’s not that, but…”
As Hyeonjun trailed off, looking awkward, Baek Jegeon chuckled.
“Just joking. Looks like we’ve arrived at your home.”
“Oh, already…?”
“Leave the bag here. I’ll deposit the money into your account so you can use it cleanly.”
“Thank you.”
Even for a Hunter, trying to deposit a billion won at a bank in one go would have caused all sorts of trouble.
Hyeonjun set the bag down and stepped out of the vehicle.
Baek Jegeon thanked him once more for saving Jejung, then drove away.
“…Hmph.”
Hyeonjun watched the receding car.
‘I did the right thing, didn’t I?’
It would be a lie to say I have no regrets about the two billion.
Still, I don’t regret my choice.
Besides, I did end up with a billion.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
His smartphone vibrated in his pocket, one buzz after another.
He took it out and saw a bank deposit notification.
A hundred million won had been deposited ten times over.
“It’s going through this fast?”
Is this some kind of perk of being in a major guild?
Still unable to believe it, Hyeonjun checked his account.
Sure enough, a staggering one billion won was sitting there in black and white.
“Ha.”
A smile spread across Hyeonjun’s face.
Instead of heading home, he turned around and ran.
Where he ended up was a bank.
“I’m here to pay off my loan!”
He made the rounds of several more banks like that.
When he walked out of the last one, his face carried a complicated expression, somewhere between sorrow and joy.
“Haa…”
Hyeonjun pressed his hands to his waist and looked up at the sky.
On such a good day, the sky was overcast.
It looked like rain could pour down any moment.
“Nice weather, huh.”
Hyeonjun wrinkled his nose.
His eyes had grown unexpectedly misty, and it felt like emotion might spill over at any moment.
“Is it really over…”
Even though he had no debts left to repay, Hyeonjun couldn’t quite accept it.
Maybe it was because he’d been relentlessly tormented for the past several years.
It still felt as though the debt was hanging over him.
“If paying off bank debt feels like this, I wonder what people repaying loan sharks feel like.”
Hyeonjun gave a crooked grin.
Before he knew it, tears had overflowed and were running down his cheeks.
Only then did it slowly begin to sink in.
The crushing mountain of debt.
That he had finally broken free from the shackles he’d thought he could never escape.
“Haha.”
Hyeonjun clenched both fists tight.
Then he thrust them up with all his strength.
“Hahaha!”

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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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