Hunter Kindergarten, Dolphin Class! - Chapter 136

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 136

 

An Param clenched his fist tightly.

 

‘It’s different, it’s different…!’

 

The monster that fell off the rooftop with just one gesture of his hand.

 

Wait, it was a scene so unbelievable that his thoughts stopped for a moment.

 

However, since the sensation of that ability spreading from his fingertips still remained, he had no choice but to believe it in the end.

 

He did it.

 

He had done it himself.

 

When that single sentence came to mind, he felt a thrilling sensation from his toes.

 

The feeling that spread up his throat was enough to make his hair stand on end.

 

‘I can be helpful too…!’

 

Perhaps his grade might have even changed!

 

At most, he could only lift trash cans and crumple them in mid-air…

 

But if he could blow away a refrigerator-sized monster with just one gesture, wouldn’t that change everything?

 

Click.

 

Just as he was about to get emotional thinking that the hopeful circuits he usually drew might become reality one by one.

 

When he turned his head at the heavy weight placed on his shoulder, a face darkly tanned by sunlight appeared.

 

“Hey!! An Param, you crazy bastard! How did you do that?!”

 

The friend he had just saved… his colleague.

 

Even though he had almost died, he ran over to him immediately as if that wasn’t important at all.

 

This bastard noticed it too.

 

That he had finally done it.

 

An Param quickly wiped away the tears he had shed and instead raised his voice at the person who approached with a genuinely happy face.

 

“Hey! I, I did it! Did you see? I did it!!”

 

Bumping shoulders, at his friend’s words to do it again, he faced another remaining monster while hiding his nervousness.

 

And the result was unchanged – ‘success’.

 

“An Param, you did it! You’re confirmed as our colleague!”

 

“…Damn! Hey! So you didn’t consider me a colleague before?!”

 

“…Well, regardless of your confidence, ability stats are important too…”

 

“Wow, the sense of betrayal is incredible?!”

 

“Anyway, isn’t it good that it worked out? Let’s forget the past, friend.”

 

“Forget it!”

 

Before he knew it, his anxiety had completely disappeared, leaving only pride and relief.

 

Enough to completely forget the sorrow of past nights that had been gnawed away by unconscious self-doubt.

 

“An Param.”

 

“…Yes?”

 

“Well done. See, you can do it.”

 

To think he would receive such embarrassing praise even from that person.

 

…He remembered Na Hwi-yeon who had shouted at his hesitating self.

 

-“An Param!! Just do it!!”

 

-“Trust yourself and go for it! You can do it!!”

 

In fact, even until that moment, An Param didn’t believe in himself.

 

The only reason he moved his body was…

 

Apart from the urgent situation where his friend’s life was at stake.

 

‘Because it was a face that… believed in me more than I believed in myself.’

 

Na Hwi-yeon’s confident face.

 

The fact that someone believed in him when he couldn’t even believe in himself gave him baseless courage.

 

So An Param believed.

 

Not in himself, but in the person who believed in him.

 

Watching Na Hwi-yeon turn around after just throwing praise and approaching the fallen woman, he belatedly had this thought.

 

‘But why was he so obsessed with making me bow?’

 

-“Put both hands together at your belly, bow your waist ninety degrees, then slowly raise it. And repeat this at least twice.”

 

Throughout the argument with that crazy woman, instead of taking his side, that hyung kept asking him to bow whenever there was a chance.

 

But what felt disgusting was that after doing it… it felt exactly like giving a polite bow.

 

‘I’m not a little kid, why make me do a Belly Bow?’

 

Really, if Belly Bow was his hidden Ritual Condition, he might have to do it while swallowing tears of blood… but maybe?

 

…No, no, wait a minute.

 

After doing that polite Belly Bow as that hyung instructed, hadn’t he become suspiciously stronger?

 

Could it be that Belly Bow really is my hidden Ritual Condition…?

 

Only then did Na Hwi-yeon’s statements start fitting together in his head one by one.

 

-“Hey, Param. Want me to tell you how to get stronger all at once?”

 

-“I really wasn’t going to tell you this, but since we met once and I’ve grown fond of you, I’ll tell you specially. It’s… when you see adults, do a Belly Bow. You know what a Belly Bow is, right? Just doing that well will make you really strong.”

 

-“Oh… it’s real though.”

 

Wow, wow… this hyung.

 

He’s crazy?

 

How Na Hwi-yeon figured out his Ritual Condition wasn’t important to An Param.

 

All that remained was inexplicable shame and anger toward Na Hwi-yeon.

 

‘This hyung really!!!’

 

***

 

Meanwhile, I left the remaining monster cleanup to the future hunters and the former Field Team leader and approached the woman collapsed on the floor.

 

“Teacher? Please get up. The floor is cold.”

 

Flinch.

 

At those words, eyes that opened only halfway while looking up at me sparkled for a moment.

 

‘What’s this.’

 

Still, the situation had somewhat come to an end.

 

No one was hurt, and most importantly, I had found Nabi, which was the original purpose.

 

I relaxed and crouched down to help the fallen person up.

 

“Teacher, if you want to pretend to faint properly, you shouldn’t move. You seem to have managed to move to the corner avoiding the monsters somehow.”

 

…Good heavens, there are too many surprising things today.

 

How did she move here avoiding monsters without anyone noticing?

 

‘I should keep her safe and hand her over to Yu Jin-chae.’

 

“For now, stay here quietly with me-”

 

“Ah, now I remember.”

 

“…Yes?”

 

The woman who had been looking up at me with both eyes wide open smiled brightly.

 

“Don’t you remember me?”

 

“…”

 

What kind of new approach method is this?

 

Even cults don’t use such obvious tactics these days.

 

Instead of letting out a sigh, I smiled bitterly and opened my mouth again.

 

“There’s no way I would know who you are, Teacher. Someone else who’s curious about your identity will come later, so until then-”

 

“You’ve grown a lot. Your name was, let’s see… Hwi-eon… no, was it Hwiyeon?”

 

“…”

 

“You look exactly like you did as a child. I almost didn’t recognize you! But you’re the spitting image of your dad~!”

 

“…Who are you.”

 

My name came out of a stranger’s mouth.

 

‘And she remembers my childhood face?’

 

All childhood connections were severed after my parents passed away.

 

…This is confusing.

 

At the BOND Branch, and in an unprecedented situation where monsters suddenly appeared in the building, someone who looks suspicious by anyone’s standards recognized me.

 

“More importantly, that black hand from earlier? Is that yours? It’s too similar to what I’m researching, so could you just show me one more time…?”

 

Eyes filled with madness now roughly grabbed my jumper with both hands.

 

“That eye too, that hand took it earlier, right? Ah, you can take it! But if you could just show me that thing one more time…!”

 

“…Excuse me, let go of this…”

 

“Please! Just show me once!”

 

Damn, what kind of situation is this.

 

It was a series of rapidly changing situations.

 

She was throwing around my personal information without telling me how she knew it, and the woman was pushing with force, demanding to see my hand.

 

‘I can’t push back because she might get hurt!’

 

I tried to remove the woman’s hands, but since my head was close to panic, my hands were sweaty and kept slipping.

 

And just then, I saw Yu Jin-chae walking toward us.

 

“…Sen-!”

 

“When someone’s talking, you should look them in the eye.”

 

A small marble rolled out of the woman’s hand with a clatter.

 

“…!”

 

But that wasn’t a marble.

 

As soon as it hit the floor, it cracked and began to grow in size.

 

“I kept one just in case this happened.”

 

In a situation where we had barely subdued the monsters, when everyone was catching their breath.

 

No one would have expected another monster to appear.

 

“What have you done!”

 

“So, will you show me?”

 

“Let go of this-!”

 

“If you knew how long I’ve been researching, you would-!”

 

The woman gripping my jumper with superhuman strength was already insane.

 

While this struggle was going on, Yu Jin-chae was approaching us and… An.

 

“An Param!!!”

 

When did he get all the way here?

 

I definitely confirmed he was with his friends?

 

I could see the monster approaching them without hesitation.

 

And An Param, who was relatively closer to the monster than Yu Jin-chae, discovered the monster first and panicked.

 

An Param, unable to cope with the unexpected situation, was helplessly knocked away by the monster’s attack.

 

Behind him, Yu Jin-chae and his friends came running in surprise.

 

I barely managed to shake off the woman. And at that moment when Nabi, who had been quietly waiting, quickly knocked the woman unconscious.

 

“Huh?”

 

With a short death cry, An Param, who had been knocked away, missed his footing beyond the fence and fell backward.

 

“An Param!!”

 

***

 

While dealing with the situation, I belatedly realized that this place was a rooftop.

 

Yu Jin-chae was breaking out in cold sweat, but seeing the situation being resolved, she felt relieved and was approaching Na Hwi-yeon.

 

‘What? Are they fighting?’

 

Seeing the woman and Na Hwi-yeon who seemed to be struggling, she sensed the seriousness of the situation and quickened her pace.

 

Meanwhile, a monster that appeared as if it had suddenly sprouted from the floor attacked An Param, who was ahead of her.

 

Having experience, her response was quick.

 

In the blink of an eye, Yu Jin-chae dealt with the monster and gasped for breath.

 

But it was a close call.

 

“Huh?”

 

Beyond the flimsy steel fence, she witnessed An Param falling backward.

 

Her heart pounded.

 

Over that, past scenes overlapped like photographs.

 

-Huh? Team leader?

 

-Haha…! You were alive?

 

The scene of a small body throwing itself beyond the railing.

 

Her legs gave out, and she staggered for a moment.

 

Yu Jin-chae gasped at the suffocating sensation.

 

Her head, her head became hazy as if covered in fog, and she couldn’t breathe well.

 

“Gasp! Gasp, urgh…”

 

Damn trauma.

 

Fucking acrophobia.

 

She remembered that day when black hair tied up high fluttered like a flag and disappeared beyond the railing.

 

She remembered herself stupidly just watching it blankly…

 

In her consciousness that was fading like a flickering light bulb about to go out.

 

A piercing voice that seemed to tear through her eardrums struck her ear like lightning through the haze.

 

“Yu Jin-chae!”

 

“…”

 

…Na Hwi-yeon.

 

“This isn’t inside a hallucination!!”

 

“…!”

 

“Don’t regret it!”

 

…That’s right, this place isn’t a hallucination.

 

‘It’s reality.’

 

Not an A-Grade Chaos Dungeon.

 

Not the ruined landscape of Seoul.

 

That’s not K…

 

And as she recognized these facts, her legs moved like a ghost.

 

When she opened her eyes, Yu Jin-chae was tightly embracing the falling An Param.

 

Rather, with the resolve to die herself.

 

Night after night, she did exactly what she had wanted to do for the falling K.

 

She tightly embraced his head and patted his back. She blocked the wind with her whole body and endured.

 

As she willingly accepted the approaching death…

 

“…Sister! Are you crazy??!”

 

“…?”

 

In mid-air, barely not touching the ground, they who had been falling suddenly stopped.

 

“Damn it, I have Gravity Manipulation! There’s a limit to ignoring me! Someone like me can survive falling from here-”

 

Ah.

 

“…”

 

“So annoying, really! Sister, you knew all along, right? That my Ritual Condition is the Belly Bow? That all comes out when they test you, right?!!”

 

She stared blankly at An Param chattering away.

 

There wouldn’t be a corpse that talks this much, right…?

 

“Are you… alive?”

 

“Of course I’m alive! Ah, Sister, let go of this!!”

 

That’s right.

 

He’s alive…

 

She finally realized.

 

What she regretted was closer to not having the courage to die together, rather than the guilt of not being able to save K.

 

The trauma she happened to face left a simple impression instead of the realization she had been thinking about.

 

‘She must have been very scared.’

 

The method to completely break a hallucination is clear.

 

Either completely kill the one who cast the hallucination, or disappear together with the one who cast the hallucination, consumed by it.

 

Yu Jin-chae, only today, broke the hallucination that had been consuming her by herself.

 

Only after finally doing what he had repeated countless times in his mind.

 

He realized he wasn’t afraid of heights, but rather feared repeating the actions his past self had taken.

 

‘This time, I didn’t run away.’

 

He savored that fact as he squeezed his eyes shut.

 

K’s image vividly appeared in his mind before fading away.

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