F-Rank Secretly Becomes Stronger - Chapter 41

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

41

Walls so old and worn that the paint was peeling off.

A light bulb dangling precariously from the ceiling.

A place still vividly remembered when he closed his eyes.

Even though he had burned it down so thoroughly and destroyed it beyond any possibility of reconstruction, it still lived and breathed in his memory.

[Draw up the emotions you’re feeling right now!]

[Feel with your entire skin what’s tormenting you and what emotions it stirs!]

The Research Director always shouted passionately.

Looking at the passion in his eyes alone, who could have imagined such a terrible person.

Sometimes he almost brainwashed himself into thinking he was a sacrifice to such passion and the worthless excuse called a greater cause.

‘Bullshit.’

If that had happened, he would have lived broken like a doll, but now Yeonho lived freely.

Awakening through endless rage and resentment.

The research laboratory turned to ash because of four awakened children, and all the humans connected to it met miserable ends.

Except for the wicked adults who cut their tails and fled after the laboratory burned down.

“Voice confirmed.”

“Right.”

Yeonho rolled the candy in his mouth before crushing it with his teeth.

He stood up with a crunching sound.

‘I never expected an S-rank to tag along.’

S-rank Hunter Park Hanseong who had followed them to the A-rank Gate they opened.

He had planned to observe his skills and find the right timing to approach and scout him again, but this made it difficult to move according to plan.

“Let’s just continue wiretapping. It’s hard to approach while Park Hanseong is with him.”

“We have to.”

She focused intently, desperately typing the conversation between the two inside the Gate on her laptop.

Moving her fingers without rest, she asked Yeonho without turning her head.

“Do you really think we can bring him over?”

Could they really recruit Jung Juhyeok.

No matter how you looked at it, he was someone who had lived a life far removed from orphans like themselves.

Even though he lost his father at a young age, he was someone who grew up receiving warm love under his mother’s care.

Judging by his skills, he would certainly be helpful if he joined.

“Even if we bring him over, I don’t know if he’s someone we can trust.”

The problem was whether he had enough dissatisfaction with the world to join an Illegal Hunter Organization.

If he was already at a level to enter A-rank Gates, his wallet would be plenty full, so there was even less motivation.

Even if he had received poor treatment during his Academy days due to bad grades, that alone wasn’t enough.

“Does this guy have a story worth killing people over?”

“Everyone has such stories, humans commit murder over a single noise.”

“I’m saying he doesn’t seem like the type to commit murder over a single noise.”

Suspicion.

For Illegal Hunter Organizations, maintaining secrecy was a matter of life and death.

If he happened to infiltrate them as a disguise to extract information, nothing could be more dangerous.

Bringing in a new recruit without a story into a company that had survived with only a small family felt even more dangerous.

Yeonho didn’t immediately answer her anxiety.

“We’ll have to see.”

Jung Juhyeok had many labels attached to him.

F-rank Irregular, unprecedented rookie, talent the world couldn’t understand.

At just twenty years old, he was illuminated under such powerful spotlight.

‘Probably won’t be long before bugs start clinging to him.’

As someone who knew how rotten South Korea’s Hunter World was, he was certain.

He would surely grow tired of humans and feel disillusioned before long.

‘If that upright personality breaks, it’ll come back as tremendous upheaval.’

He just had to wait quietly.

If I stand by consistently and wait, eventually an opportunity to slip through the gaps will arise.

Of course, I had no intention of just watching idly until that gap appeared.

“Don’t miss anything by chattering—focus and write it down. You never know how it might be useful.”

“Yes~ I understand.”

Despite the half-hearted response, the pages filled rapidly.

Only the sound of typing and the cigarette burning in her mouth stretched on.

When her cigarette reached the filter, Yeonho personally took out a new one and put it in her mouth.

*

[F-rank Irregular Jung Juhyeok. Declares he will create his own guild…!]

“….”

News travels fast in this world.

How did what I said yesterday end up spreading on Hunter News in just one day?

‘I thought it was just brushed off like a joke.’

Of course, I had seriously considered that creating a guild might actually be good, but it was a bit bewildering to see content I hadn’t spoken aloud appear in the news.

“So are you really thinking of making a guild?”

Yena showed me the news on her cell phone, then put it back in her pocket.

She had rushed to my home early in the morning to get to the bottom of the spreading rumors.

Since there was no particular need to hide it anyway, I answered honestly.

“I’m seriously considering it.”

“Don’t you know how difficult it is to create a guild?”

She listed things off, counting on her fingers one by one.

“The money involved aside, there’s personnel management and gate deployment… You’re still learning how the field operates, so how can you think of establishing a guild?”

“I don’t need such a grand guild.”

As she said, creating a guild requires quite a lot of resources and manpower.

However, that’s only for guilds that operate with dozens of hunters.

“I’m thinking of making it with a small elite group.”

If it’s a guild organized with few people, there’s no need for so much manpower.

The minimum number of people needed to create a guild is ten.

The other conditions aren’t that demanding.

Even if they were demanding, if I can casually go in and out of A-rank Gates, I’m financially well-off.

“I’m thinking of hiring one person to meet the conditions and create it just for formality.”

“…Then you’d be spending billions of won, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

Probably billions of won would be easily spent.

Even if it’s just for formality, a guild would need at least a 3-story building and some hunter welfare facilities, however meager, to meet the approval conditions.

I’ve fully anticipated that an enormous amount of money would be spent.

“No, seriously.”

Of course, it’s a method that’s hard to understand with ordinary human thinking.

For Yena, who doesn’t know Jung Juhyeok’s inner circumstances, it was completely incomprehensible.

“Is there really a need to go that far to create a guild…?”

“Yes, there is.”

“….”

A firm answer.

She wore a blank expression for a moment, then her face became quite serious as she asked in a slightly smaller voice.

“Is this another secret you can’t tell me?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Sigh, I figured as much.”

One sigh after another.

As always, the name “secret” only made her inner frustration grow.

She must be full of questions.

Jung Juhyeok disappearing without leaving a trace from time to time.

Then, not long after, he becomes so strong that comparing him to before seems ridiculous.

That alone feels sufficiently unrealistic, but now he says he’s considering creating a guild because of some unspeakable secret—a twenty-year-old newcomer to society.

As a working adult watching from the side, her worries only deepened.

She wanted to say something, but it was hard to open her mouth further, fearing it might seem like she was meddling too deeply.

“I’m always worried sick because of you, Juhyeok.”

“There’s nothing to worry about. It’s not like I’m entering a Gate or anything, I’m just creating a guild.”

“That’s what worries me more than you entering a Gate.”

Sometimes society is scarier than inside a Gate.

Seeing him trying to clash head-on with such a society naturally made her worry.

Even when she tried not to nag, every word she spoke ended up provoking Yena.

It was while Yena was continuously pouring out her heartfelt advice to him like this.

Buzz—!

Juhyeok’s cell phone on the desk rang.

Judging by the long vibration that it seemed like a phone call, she asked Juhyeok as he picked up the phone.

“Who is it? Sui?”

“No. It’s an unknown number.”

Juhyeok thought about not answering, but since it was a number starting with 010, he decided to take it.

Then a familiar middle-aged man’s voice came from the other end.

[Hello? Hunter Juhyeok?]

“Who is this.”

[This is Hunter Park Hanseong.]

The very person who made him decorate today’s news front page.

He didn’t know where he got his number from again, but since this wasn’t the first or second time this happened, he didn’t think much of it.

“Yes, what are you calling about.”

[Actually, I’m calling about the articles that came out today.]

“I saw them too.”

News filled with stories that never happened.

The comments were full of all kinds of speculation, and there were quite a few posts criticizing Juhyeok.

Since Juhyeok didn’t particularly care about others’ opinions, he wasn’t angry or hurt.

Hanseong spoke to such a blunt attitude.

[You might not believe me, but I didn’t spread it.]

“You didn’t spread it, Hunter Park Hanseong?”

[No, it’s been less than a day since we returned from the Gate, and I’m not close with reporters either.]

Hunter Park Hanseong had shown scenes of arguing with reporters several times.

There was absolutely no reason for him to leak conversations with a promising recruit he needed to recruit somewhere.

‘No, there is one reason.’

To make other guild scouts clinging to the promising recruit he needed to recruit give up by feeding them false information.

Actually, this was the first reason that came to mind.

‘I wasn’t particularly angry though.’

Rather, thanks to the news, the guilds’ interest in Juhyeok would die down from now on.

Even if it wasn’t the way he wanted, it was a fairly good result.

“Honestly, it’s hard to believe whatever you say right now.”

Hanseong was the only one he had conversations about guilds with.

In that situation, if he excluded him, then who leaked the information?

Common sense dictated that Hunter Park Hanseong was the one who leaked it.

“But since I wasn’t really bothered by it anyway, I don’t care who spread it.”

[…Is that so?]

“Yes, I had talked about guilds here and there too, so it probably spread naturally.”

Juhyeok reassured him with a lie.

If he didn’t respond that way, he would somehow try to prove his innocence and it would become even more troublesome, so he brushed it off with a blatant lie to get past it and hung up the phone.

‘He didn’t seem like the type to use such methods though.’

His thoughts deepened again after hanging up the phone.

The Hunter Park Hanseong he had seen certainly didn’t seem like someone who would easily go around blabbing other people’s secrets.

The type who didn’t particularly welcome media itself.

If an article spread in just one day, there must have been a direct tip to a reporter.

‘If it really wasn’t Hunter Park Hanseong…’

An answer that didn’t come easily.

Before long, Juhyeok realized it was a useless worry and quickly brushed it off.

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