How to Seduce S-Class Hunters with Bungeoppang - Chapter 7

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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 7
I tore at my hair and let out a desperate cry.
I awakened as an F-rank, and now suddenly a Gate appears! This is basically asking me to walk in and die, isn’t it?
“Points or whatever—I can’t do this!”
The Shop? Sure, it matters. Fish-shaped pastries? Great.
But what truly mattered was my life. I had no intention of dying crushed beneath some monster while searching for an unknown herb.
“There is no need to worry, meow. You have received my protection.”
Ha-nyang explained that the monsters within the Gate would perceive me as part of nature—like a rock or grass.
If I made loud noises or attacked, they might sense something amiss, but otherwise there should be no major problems.
“So as long as I stay quiet, I won’t die?”
“That is correct, meow.”
“Well, that’s certainly a relief…”
There was another reason I dreaded entering the Gate.
My parents had died in a Gate accident.
‘More precisely, the initial suppression of the Gate had failed.’
Now, with advanced technology, we could predict when and where Gates would open, and even enter them preemptively to eliminate threats.
But just a few years ago, it was taken for granted that Hunters would seal Gates only after they appeared.
Consequently, whenever a Gate opened, hundreds of casualties often resulted.
‘My parents were one such case.’
A Gate had suddenly opened on the way home from the Shop. Hunters responded immediately, but the scale exceeded predictions, and the initial suppression failed.
And there, my mother and father met a meaningless death at the hands of monsters.
“…No matter how I think about it, entering a Gate doesn’t seem right.”
I bit my lip as the vivid memory of my parents’ death surfaced. Ha-nyang’s protection had reduced the danger, but I couldn’t help but feel afraid.
Abandoning the mission meant forgoing the reward. If only I had points…
“It would be nice to receive points for running the Shop… but is there another way?”
“Do not worry, meow. When the Shop upgrades, the equipment will naturally change as well, meow.”
“Upgrade? Is that what this is?”
I checked the remaining count until the next menu unlock.
438 out of 500 now. Just fifty more and I could obtain a new menu.
“Indeed, meow. So if you dislike it, there is no need to force yourself to enter and obtain points, meow.”
“If you’re fine with it… could I think about this mission a bit longer?”
“If you dislike it, there is nothing I can compel you to do, meow.”
Ha-nyang approached me and rubbed against my body in comfort.
Perhaps there was another way to resolve Lia’s problem. After a moment of deliberation, I closed the mission window.
* * *
Beep beep beep—
A piercing tinnitus rang out. The serene woman’s brow furrowed irritably, like crumpled paper.
Outside, winter rain pattered softly against the windows.
“…3:07.”
She checked the clock and sighed. After tossing and turning for a while, she had only managed ten minutes of sleep.
‘Ugh, I’m exhausted….’
My name is Lia Minogue. I was an A-rank Hunter—among the elite five percent of Hunters worldwide. And I was suffering from a terrible awakening side effect: sensory overload.
After tossing and turning in bed for what felt like an eternity, I finally forced myself up.
My head felt heavy, my eyes throbbing with fatigue. I desperately wanted to rest, but the moment I closed my eyes, every sound around me tormented me into wakefulness.
“The rain just keeps falling….”
After staring blankly at the downpour for a while, I changed my clothes.
Sleep still wouldn’t come, and my mind felt submerged in fog. In moments like these, moving my body was better than lying still.
I gathered my gear with practiced efficiency, pulled my hair back into a tight knot, and stepped outside. The cool predawn air carried the briny scent of rain.
“It feels like the day I first awakened.”
Four years ago, when I first awakened, I was showered with expectations from everyone around me. The Prime Minister of Australia had even visited my home to offer encouragement.
Remembering that day, I smiled bitterly at myself.
‘What good did it do? I was useless in the Gate.’
Contrary to expectations, I had frozen solid like a wooden plank during my first Gate assignment.
Inside that Gate were hundreds of yellow spiders, each larger than an adult man. They spewed venom-laced webs from their mouths and shrieked with horrifying shrieks that echoed through the darkness.
‘Ahhh! Help me!’
‘G-get away! Leave me alone!’
No matter how many times we cut them down, the spiders kept coming. I watched my teammates get bitten, their flesh torn away, their skin melting from the venom.
Among them was a friend who had awakened alongside me.
‘L-Lia! Help me!’
As the monster approached, my friend cried out to me in terror. But my legs were rigid as if encased in wax—I couldn’t move.
‘Come to think of it, I haven’t slept since that day.’
Whenever I closed my eyes, I felt hundreds of spiders crawling across my entire body. Simultaneously, I heard my teammates’ agonized screams ringing in my ears. Even my friend’s desperate pleas for help.
On the rare occasions I did drift into light sleep, I’d wake within minutes, drenched in cold sweat. Eventually, I decided to find a new way forward.
I resolved to grow strong enough that remembering those monsters would no longer shake me.
‘Are you really leaving?’
‘Yes. I’ll come back stronger, I promise.’
My decision to leave Australia and come to Korea was an extension of that resolve. My friend, who had barely survived the Gate and came to see me off at the Airport, hugged me as I departed.
‘I’ll work hard here too, so come back whenever things get tough!’
I nodded, but in my heart, I swore I could never return until I became strong.
My goal was to surpass Lee Hyun-woo, Korea’s S-rank Hunter. Even if I couldn’t beat him due to our rank difference, I wanted to reach at least comparable strength.
‘But all I’m doing is dragging him down.’
Watching his S-rank abilities from the sidelines gave me chills.
His reflexes were unbelievable, his boldness in charging between monsters breathtaking, his raw strength terrifying.
I desperately tried to keep up with even half of what he could do, but he showed me no interest whatsoever.
‘…He seems annoyed, actually.’
It was all because I was weak. Because I couldn’t protect my teammates, because I couldn’t earn my leader’s recognition.
‘To prove my existence, I have to work harder than this.’
Ignoring the sharp pain piercing my skull, I stepped into the cold predawn air. I refused to remain someone who could do nothing in a Gate.
* * *
“Hunter Lia was injured?”
A few days later, I received shocking news: Lia Minogue had been seriously injured in a Gate.
“Apparently, she suddenly lost her balance during combat and stumbled.”
“What should I do… I’m so worried.”
“They say it’s due to side effects from her awakening, but I had no idea the side effects were this severe.”
The Hunters who called themselves her fans all sighed with worried expressions on their faces.
Her stumble lasted only a moment. But in a Gate, even that single instant could mean the difference between life and death.
Fortunately, the nearby Hunters had noticed something was wrong with her and responded quickly, preventing a major accident, but it had undoubtedly been a dangerous situation.
“Side effects from her awakening?”
“Yes. Apparently, accumulated fatigue from not getting proper sleep has been a major factor.”
“I see…”
I bit my lip in sympathy.
The image of her stumbling in the Shop the other day came back to me.
“I thought she only had the side effect of losing her sense of taste…”
“That’s just the baseline. Actually, side effects differ from person to person.”
Lia Minogue’s side effect was sensory overload. Her heightened five senses kept her constantly on edge, they said.
‘And yet she was doing intense training every single day…’
The Lia Minogue I had seen was a body screaming out from lack of rest.
“We should get going…”
The Hunters, who would normally light up at the sight of fish-shaped pastries, today trudged away glumly, munching on them without enthusiasm. My mood sank along with theirs.
“Your expression isn’t good, meow.”
“Hearing that Lia Minogue was injured… it’s weighing on my mind.”
In the meantime, I had baked all 500 fish-shaped pastries and unlocked the new menu item ‘Cream Fish-Shaped Pastry,’ completing the Shop upgrade.
However, I couldn’t obtain the special effect, so I left that slot empty.
Which meant I had postponed entering a Gate, telling myself I would find a new solution instead.
“…Would things have been different if I had unlocked the special effect?”
The thought suddenly struck me.
If I had bravely entered a Gate and brought back the herb. If I had made fish-shaped pastries with a special effect… would she not have been injured?
“Don’t think like that, meow. This isn’t your fault, meow.”
“I know, I know… but I still didn’t do what I could have done.”
No matter how hard I tried not to worry, the worry persisted.
Especially every time the words ‘Special Effect Synthesis Available’ glimmered next to the Cream Fish-Shaped Pastry, my conscience pricked me.
Finally, the next day. When Lia Minogue, recovered from her injuries, visited our Shop, I made my decision.
“Hunter! Are you feeling better?”
“The rumors spread fast, didn’t they? I’m fine. I just lost focus for a moment…”
But despite her words, her face still bore the unmistakable marks of exhaustion.
I had heard she received treatment from the Management Bureau, but it seemed to have no effect on the side effects from her awakening.
I began to worry that if her condition continued to deteriorate like this, something truly serious might happen.
“Hunter, if… if, hypothetically speaking…”
Before handing her the bag of fish-shaped pastries, I broached the subject carefully.
“What would you think if a fish-shaped pastry with a deep sleep effect came out?”
“…A taiyaki with a deep sleep effect?”
She stared at the taiyaki in the paper bag.
Her gaze questioned whether I was referring to these very taiyaki. When I nodded, she fell silent in thought.
“I’ve tried every method imaginable for insomnia. Items too, of course.”
After a brief pause, she shook her head.
“…But none of it worked for me. So I’ve stopped hoping.”
Though she spoke matter-of-factly, I could sense how many methods she’d pinned her hopes on, only to face disappointment each time.
I pressed the bag of taiyaki into her hands and spoke.
“Would you be willing to trust me just one more time? I’ll prepare something special—taiyaki made just for you.”
“With these taiyaki?”
I nodded. Lia didn’t seem to believe that these taiyaki could suddenly possess such an effect.
But instead of voicing her skepticism, she simply nodded.
“Well, I appreciate the thought regardless.”
Lia checked her watch, mentioned she was running late for training, offered a light bow, and disappeared.
I watched the direction she’d gone for a moment, then spoke to Ha-nyang.
“Let’s go in. The Gate.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I can’t just sit idle when there’s a way forward.”
The Gate still frightened me, but I chose to trust in the blessing Ha-nyang had bestowed.
I’d slip in quickly, gather what I needed before drawing attention, and slip back out.
Tomorrow happened to be the weekend—perfect timing to close the Shop and make the trip.
“Clicking the entry button will transport me directly into the Gate, right?”
“That’s right. It works on the same principle as traveling to the Shop.”
Fortunately, I wouldn’t need to ask anyone for help entering the Gate—I could move quietly on my own.
Since I didn’t know what kind of Gate the “Red Plain” was, I prepared for entry from home first.
“Water, snacks, emergency medicine…”
I grabbed a hammer from home too, though I wasn’t sure if it would be useful inside the Gate.
Beyond that, spare clothes and a sleeping bag in case things took longer than expected. By the time I finished packing, it looked like I was preparing for an overseas trip.
Without an inventory, I might have actually needed a suitcase to carry everything.
“This should be enough. Ha-nyang, are you ready?”
“I’m always ready!”
“Good. Let’s go in.”
I pulled up the mission window I’d hidden away and clicked the ‘Entry’ button beside the Gate.
Do you wish to enter the Gate ‘Red Plain’?
Yes/No
‘…Alright. Let’s do this.’
I held Ha-nyang snugly in my arms and clicked ‘Yes’.
The ground beneath my feet seemed to give way, and my vision shifted abruptly.

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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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