How to Live as a Fencing Genius Hunter - Chapter 17

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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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How a Fencing Genius Lives as a Hunter
Episode 17
Novice Hunter Jeong Jae-ha (3)
I asked Lee Hae-il’s permission and postponed my outing.
[Yes, sir. I’ll just get some sleep and review the database today.]
Lee Hae-il seemed relieved by my suggestion—he looked tired himself.
“Got it.”
Soo Seong-min stepped into the back seat of a luxury sedan with a driver.
“Take the military road. I’ll call ahead.”

She uttered a word I’d never heard in my twenty-five years of life.
Military road.
I couldn’t help thinking how much the world had changed.
“Where exactly are we going, ma’am?”
“Sejong. All the top ten guild headquarters are there.”
She’d mentioned that Saetbyeol’s headquarters was in Sejong City.
I wondered how much that place had transformed.
A few days ago, when I’d driven past it on the way to the Tutorial Gate, the streets had looked terribly unsettled.
Makeshift structures, dirty roads. It felt like the life had drained from the place entirely.
“Wow…….”
Sejong had changed—dramatically.
“Impressive, right? It’s a defense dome against flying Magical Beasts.”
“It’s like something out of a science fiction film. I can hardly believe it.”
A translucent blue energy dome enveloped the entire city, which bristled with skyscrapers.
“That’s why Mana Stones are so expensive.”
Saetbyeol had made the tallest skyscraper in that very city its headquarters.
We stopped by a shop in the nearby commercial district to drop off a Forensics job.
The shop owner said work wouldn’t be possible for two months due to a backlog, but the moment Soo Seong-min transformed his hot americano into an iced americano, he told us to come back that evening.
We waited in a café in front of the Saetbyeol Headquarters, sipping our coffee.
“Hm?”
That’s when Soo Seong-min frowned, looking out the window.
“Damn it. What’s that bastard doing here when he should be in the Demonic Realm?”
“The Demonic Realm?”
“That’s the name of the Gate. But that’s not the point. Do you see that guy over there?”
“Yes.”
“That’s Team Leader Choi Jong-hyeok. He’s absolutely insane. Looks like he came here to cause trouble again after his executive promotion fell through.”
Following the direction of her finger, I spotted a man just entering the Saetbyeol Headquarters.
[Name: Choi Jong-hyeok]
[Body Enhancement (C+), Earth Arts (A)]
He had the impression of solid rock, weathered by years of wind and rain, and he was the tallest person I’d ever seen.
That included the basketball and volleyball players I’d seen at the athlete’s village back then.
“What do you mean by insane?”
Soo Seong-min had called him crazy.
“If that bastard’s a criminal, I’d gnash my teeth at him.”
“Wouldn’t you say he’s just a man with strong sense of justice?”
“No. He lived in Seoul with blood and dirt on his hands, same as anyone, but acts all clean by himself. Even if there were unavoidable reasons, if he’s done anything wrong at all, he grinds his teeth about it. I’m telling you.”
…….
“Some of your seniors—Rehabilitation Type Hunter generations one and two—he’s beaten to death before. You’re a bit of a special case, but……if you get assigned to the same area as that bastard, be careful, all right?”
I looked at his face once more, carefully.
His thick brows, his nose and jaw carved like stone—he reminded me of a senior from the fencing club.
A senior who was strict with others but even stricter with himself.
“If we end up on the same team, contact me. I’m not going to let that lunatic beat my promising prospect to death.”
Going by his face alone, he didn’t seem like a bad person.
“Yes.”
Of course, my responses to Soo Seong-min were limited to “yes” and “thank you.”
Athletes are supposed to be gracious to their sponsors, after all.
Ding.
“It’s done. Let’s go.”
Just then, a message came through that the Forensics work was finished.
* * *
“I’ve transferred everything for you.”
All the data from my old phone had been moved to the new one I’d received at the training center.
I was rummaging through the gallery app for a while to show her the photos when Soo Seong-min snatched my phone away.
“This is driving me crazy. Come on, give it here!”
She quickly found the gallery app, added it to the home screen, and opened it.
“Look for your brother. The most recent ones you can find.”
There were photos from the last time I’d gone to Seoul and played around.
“Here it is.”
Soo Seong-min zoomed in on Chae-ha’s face and covered the area below his eyes.
……
A silence stretched out that felt like an hour compressed into a second.
It was like waiting for the slow-motion camera verdict in a championship final.
“I think I’ve seen this before. No. Yeah, I have.”
This time too, the victory was mine.
There was no way Chae-ha would lie to me.
“Are you certain?”
“The eyes, the eyebrows, the mole position—they’re all identical. I saw him a few times back when I was doing field work. I didn’t know his name, but everyone called him Manager Jeong.”
“Then my brother is currently working for Saetbyeol, is that what you’re saying?”
“Yeah. Unofficially.”
But this time it wasn’t a clean sweep on my part—it looked more like a decision victory accompanied by countless murmured objections.
“Unofficially? What do you mean by that?”
Working unofficially for Saetbyeol.
I couldn’t make sense of it.
I wondered if Chae-ha had committed some crime too and joined through the Rehabilitation Type program like me.
“Well… there were a lot of things that happened during the Era of Collapse, you know? Things that could absolutely never be made public. Nuclear war crises and such.”
“I see.”
“Everything Manager Jeong’s kids do is classified work like that.”
Hearing it, the reality seemed closer to the opposite.
“They work with the government to steal North Korean nuclear weapons, or they’ll dump foreign spies who came to steal Awakener recipes into the Geumgang, stuff like that.”
“But you’re still the head of HR, aren’t you?”
I met Soo Seong-min’s gaze.
Her eyes were transparent as ice, and I could see straight through to her heart.
“These people don’t even exist on the company org chart. They’re beyond even National Intelligence Service black operatives. I only saw them a handful of times back before our guild was systemized.”
She looked deeply embarrassed.

“He probably won’t show his face in front of you either. He’ll be under constant surveillance by someone.”
There was nothing more humiliating for someone from an agency than to show an athlete the limits of their own authority.
“Then how far up would I need to go to make contact with that department?”
But I decided to make her just a little bit more uncomfortable.
“Executive level at headquarters? At that point, you can disregard all the classified stuff and surveillance and whatever else.”
“How would I become an executive at headquarters?”
“You’d have to catch a hell of a lot of Magical Beasts. Catch and catch until you hit A-Rank, then we’ll slap an executive title on you.”
“I see. Understood.”
Every athlete has their own contract conditions and self-satisfying goals that matter more than money.
My objective for joining had just been decided: to become an executive at Saetbyeol.
It was a difficult goal, but not a complicated one.
In fact, it was quite an enjoyable one.
Isn’t a Hunter a brilliant profession where you can swing a fine blade to your heart’s content?
Wealth and reputation follow, just like before, and on top of that comes the power to mock the gun that once took both from me.
I was always aiming for the top.
That goal had simply become more precise.
“Wait, you’re not saying you want us to make you an executive just so you can meet your brother?”
Soo Seong-min was astonished when she understood my conditions and objectives.
“Yes.”
“That’s insane, Jeong. Just forget about it and live your life. That’ll be easier on your mind.”
Her eyes were transparent as ice, and every emotion was laid bare.
She was worried that I wasn’t accepting the current situation, that my emotional turmoil might drive me to do something reckless.
“You’re talented, sure, but A-Rank isn’t something you can achieve through effort alone.”
“I understand.”
“Even among us naturally Awakened, hardly anyone has broken through the B+ wall. Among Artificially Awakened like you, no one has even crossed the C+ barrier yet.”
“Understood.”
“That Team Leader Choi is A-Rank, but he never made executive. So you—”
“But no matter how difficult becoming an executive is, it can’t be harder than becoming world champion, can it?”
I hadn’t meant it that way.
“You’re not listening to a word I’m saying, are you?!”
Truth be told, I was in quite a good mood.
“Team Leader. If Chae-ha is doing that kind of work right now, then Chae-ha must be quite a powerful Awakener, wouldn’t you say?”
“Well, I suppose so?”
“That’s a relief.”
A nuclear theft. Combat with foreign spies.
Of course I was deeply worried, but I was truly proud of him as well.
My younger brother had grown so strong, and he was doing such remarkable things.
“A relief?”
“Yes.”
Above all, there was a sense of security.
“If that boy is such a remarkable Awakener, then he won’t get shot once and lose the use of his legs, or fall victim to neighborhood thugs who break down doors, will he?”
“…….”
At the very least, Chae-ha would never again become the protagonist of some dreary, common tragedy.
His bright dreams, treasured like a star hidden in a closet, wouldn’t be shattered into pieces by worthless rabble.
In other words, we wouldn’t have to endure that kind of thing twice.
“Player Jeong. No, Jeong Jae-ha—”
“Even so, I can’t let my younger brother do such difficult work alone. I need to grow stronger quickly as well.”
That much was certainly a good thing.
“Thank you for helping today. It was a truly wonderful day.”
The player offered his gratitude to the tournament organizers and agency representatives as naturally as breathing.
This time he bowed deeply with genuine sincerity.
“Among Awakeners, there are quite a few like you.”
Soo Seong-min spoke, exhaling a long sigh.
“The type who interprets everything solely as they wish. The type who truly loves their own power. The type who believes they can do anything with that strength.”
From her lips flowed characteristics of people she’d seen countless times in the arts and entertainment industry.
That was unavoidable.
If someone were that optimistic but didn’t love their own talent, they could never think to pursue anything in the arts and entertainment world.
Without believing I could do anything, I could never have challenged for the world championship.
“You know me far too well, don’t you? According to your status window, you don’t have Mind Reading ability.”
“Most of it died.”
“I figured as much.”
Of course, having such a mindset doesn’t mean everyone can become a champion.
For every one victor, there are tens of thousands of losers, and no one remembers anyone below third place.
Yet all champions share that same mindset.
“Among the people I know, there was one whose mindset was the strongest of all.”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what she’s doing now?”
Soo Seong-min narrowed her eyes.
I gazed at the Saetbyeol Headquarters building reflected in one of her eyes.
I had an idea what the answer was, but I let her speak.
“Our company chairman.”
That’s what I’d thought.
“Ban Hae-jin the Savior. The strongest Awakener. A reincarnation of Saetbyeol that will never be born again, one loved by the stars themselves.”
“…….”
“That’s simply how it is.”
Hope and anxiety flickered simultaneously in Soo Seong-min’s eyes.
There was a light in them that wanted to see me truly become an A-Rank Hunter and earn an executive position, yet feared being disappointed after having raised her hopes.
A long silence fell between us.
The kind of silence that only time and effort could break.
Across the street, Team Leader Choi Jong-hyeok emerged from the headquarters building he’d entered earlier.
“What are you saying to a new hire fresh out of orientation?”
Soo Seong-min seemed to come to her senses when she saw him, and she opened her mouth.
“Forget the executive position—just don’t get yourself killed standing next to that bastard. Watch yourself. You understand?”
“Yes.”
I bowed deeply once more.
* * *
The middle floor of the Unfinished Apartment.
The silver-haired woman laughed, wearing a bondage-style mask studded with studs.
The man in the business suit standing behind her spoke up.

“He didn’t suspect a thing. Not for a moment.”
“It was all his choice. What’s there to suspect?”
“Become a Hunter and fix his legs. Go to Saetbyeol and meet his family. Become an executive and truly meet his family. To anyone’s eye, isn’t that just bait?”
“That only looks like bait because we’re doing the dirtiest work of the dirtiest era since the Cold War ended.”
“But it’s too easy, isn’t it? Contrived.”
“Brother’s life was always like that.”
The silver-haired woman raised both hands slowly as she answered.
The reel at the Gauntlet’s wrist rotated, and thin wires were drawn back in.
“Pardon?”
“I played guitar pretty well too, you know? Could sing decently?”
“Yes.”
“But whenever pure practice time went over seven or eight hours a day, it got so hard I wanted to quit.”
“Your voice must have been shot.”
“It was. Anyway, but he was different.”
The man raised an eyebrow, curious about how.
“From before sunrise to after sunset, he’d just practice—and he’d keep smiling the whole time.”
……
“He didn’t quit kendo and start fencing for any grand reason either. His fencing instructor just coaxed him by saying, ‘Let’s win Olympic gold!’ and he went, ‘Wow!’ and just did it. And he actually won.”
“How does a person like that even exist?”
“So for him, a situation where you can get everything by just doing what you love? That’s nothing special. It’s the norm for him.”
“Though I recall he didn’t pull off any elaborate schemes.”
The black-haired woman nodded lightly.
She inspected the equipment by flexing and extending the Gauntlet’s fingers one by one now that the wires were fully retracted, then stretched like a cat.
“Call in the Disposal Team. I’m exhausted.”
“Yes.”
What remained in her wake was nothing but the severed corpse of a Magical Beast, countless human limbs sprouting from its grotesque form.

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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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