Hunter Kindergarten, Dolphin Class! - Chapter 48

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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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Episode 048

 

The Sensor Light went out, then turned back on.

 

I Called the Butterfly at that exact moment.

 

“Nabi, want to come out?”

 

[ Yeah. ]

 

As soon as I called, the Bag I was carrying on my back settled down and I felt weight on my shoulder.

 

When I looked up, I could see Nabi waving her hand from above my head. Gently swaying.

 

I smiled softly and spoke to Nabi.

 

“Thank you.”

 

The Male Student was looking up at Nabi with eyes that seemed ready to pop out at any moment.

 

“Uh, uh… Huh? Uh… What? Eh?”

 

And when enough time passed for him to comprehend the situation, he began spouting strange alien language. His blue eyes wandered around under the Sensor Light.

 

“…Is, is this real?”

 

This is insane! Hup! He covered his mouth with his hands and staggered as if he might collapse at any moment. I nodded satisfactorily watching that sight.

 

‘I knew this would work.’

 

I had judged that anyone who saw Nabi’s true form would think of a demon.

 

A festival of unreadable characters above a giant black hand.

 

The more you try to read them, the more headaches and nausea surge up… Doesn’t that really suit the name demon?

 

Nabi waved her hand around and finally grabbed and pulled up the hair of the Male Student who had slumped to the floor.

 

‘Good. Now there’s no chance he’ll mistake this for a hallucination.’

 

I grabbed the forearm of the Male Student who was about to fall backward with a face close to fainting.

 

“What’s your name?”

 

There was no trace of mockery left on the Male Student’s face now.

 

“…An, Param.”

 

“An Param… Right, from now on you’re one of my Believers. I’m the Cult Leader.”

 

“…”

 

“You have a Baseball, right? Give it to me.”

 

An Param took out the Baseball from his Jersey pocket with trembling hands and handed it to me.

 

“Is it precious to you?”

 

“…I picked it… up.”

 

I handed the Baseball to Nabi. The Baseball that carefully settled on the black hand disappeared when Nabi made a fist.

 

-Crack

 

What was that sound? When I tapped Nabi’s hand again, the Baseball was torn into ten pieces on the black palm.

 

[ Oh? It tore. ]

 

“…”

 

I heard Nabi’s embarrassed voice. I looked at the Baseball’s remains and then looked at An Param with a deliberately calm face.

 

An Param was trembling while staring fixedly at the Baseball.

 

‘I didn’t intend to create this much fear.’

 

I just planned to hold the Baseball for a while and return it when we safely left this place…

 

I just wanted to make my request and warning a bit more impactful.

 

…Can’t help it. I swallowed a sigh and spoke.

 

“Let’s go quietly. Answer well when asked and just cooperate properly. When this demon friend gets angry… even I have trouble stopping her.”

 

“…”

 

“Answer me.”

 

His blue eyes swayed like waves. Beside us, Nabi was gently placing the ten-piece Baseball remains on the floor.

 

An Param swallowed hard once and answered.

 

“…Yes, Cult Leader…!”

 

***

 

An Param followed behind me with both hands politely clasped. Yu Jin-chae, who had been waiting for us to emerge from the darkness again, was looking this way with narrowed eyes.

 

“I resolved it well. Let’s go again now.”

 

“…You talked to me about non-violence and ethics, but surely not.”

 

“I didn’t hit him. I persuaded him well with words.”

 

“He didn’t seem like the type who could be persuaded with words.”

 

“He was more docile than I thought.”

 

Though her eyes still looked unconvinced, Yu Jin-chae seemed to judge that there was no more time and nodded her head for now.

 

I pointed forward toward An Param, who had been quietly waiting behind us.

 

“Param, could you guide us to the exit now?”

 

“Of course!”

 

“…How exactly did you sweet-talk this kid?”

 

An Param walked out between me and Yu Jin-chae respectfully and politely, pointing forward with both hands.

 

“If you go straight this way, there’s another emergency staircase. You can go down from there!”

 

And so currently, the two of us are crossing the dark hallway as quickly as possible under An Param’s guidance.

 

“So?”

 

Even while walking at a fast pace, Yu Jin-chae asked with an unwavering voice.

 

“Ah, I don’t know. I really~ don’t know. I came here for the first time today! Someone from the Occult Group just called me here!”

 

Yu Jin-chae seemed intent on extracting every bit of information about this place’s true nature and An Param’s personal details, pouring out questions without pause while walking.

 

Even while answering in whispers as much as possible, An Param let out a metallic voice, seeming very wronged.

 

“Does that make sense? Do you want to die? When an ordinary Occult Group says they need an Awakener like you, you should at least be suspicious!”

 

…Come to think of it, a baseball staying in the air for about 5 seconds didn’t make sense.

 

So he was an Awakener.

 

“Ack! Lady? Ah, no, sister! Don’t hit me…! They only said I was absolutely necessary for the summoning ritual of Astaroth, the demon of hell!”

 

“Asta… What? Fine, that’s you, but why did they kidnap us!”

 

“Huh? Kidnap? What are you talking about?”

 

“Does this kid know nothing? Think carefully! Don’t you know why they kidnapped us?”

 

“No, I just found out now that you guys were kidnapped! Geez! You expect too much from a high schooler!”

 

“Hey!”

 

“What!”

 

I gently pressed down on the shoulder of An Param, who was excited with veins bulging in his neck.

 

“Let’s not raise our voices. And you should behave politely toward adults.”

 

Then, An Param glanced behind me and nodded like a gentle lamb again.

 

“Yes, Cult Leader.”

 

“…Cult Leader? Teacher, did you establish a religion?”

 

Yu Jin-chae asked me with an expression like she was chewing stones.

 

Establishing a religion… When An Param suddenly said he would follow me like a believer, I unconsciously ended up calling myself a cult leader.

 

“It was hastily established, but there’s one believer, the cult leader is a kindergarten teacher, and the object of faith is a demon.”

 

“That’s quite displeasing. What’s the name of this demon? Don’t tell me it’s another weird pasta name like Arabiata?”

 

“Ah! Really! It’s Astaroth!”

 

“Yeah, yeah, I got it, kid.”

 

Yu Jin-chae halfheartedly ignored An Param’s correction.

 

“It’s a demon named ‘Nabi’ who believes that death is rest.”

 

“Wow, quite cute… Good. Then I’ll join that religion too. Let’s make it 2 believers as of today.”

 

“You don’t need to join.”

 

“In this situation, I think it would be more comforting to think of myself as part of a religious group rather than being alone. Having allies in this shitty situation is also consoling.”

 

Is she serious? I inadvertently looked at Yu Jin-chae and saw her laughing quietly.

 

…Since you’re smiling, that’s fine.

 

“However, as a listener, the title ‘Cult Leader’ is quite unpleasant, so just call me Teacher. You too, An Param.”

 

Yu Jin-chae gave a thumbs up with a ‘snap’ and An Param turned around and nodded.

 

As we got closer to the end of the hallway, Yu Jin-chae suddenly opened her mouth with a short exclamation as if something occurred to her.

 

“Come to think of it, how did you use your ability earlier? Mine still doesn’t work well… Wasn’t there some skill cast on the building to prevent abilities from being used?”

 

“Ah, that? People were talking about how they cast a skill that suppresses abilities throughout the entire building because they’re doing some special ritual today.”

 

“Then how did you use it earlier?”

 

“It’s not that I can’t use it at all. Like I said, it’s suppression, not nullification. I can use abilities to that extent, you know? It’s just incredibly difficult and harder than usual.”

 

He looks proud as if he made some great discovery. And don’t look at me, look ahead. Ahead.

 

“Here it is.”

 

Before we knew it, the three of us were standing in front of an old door. Unlike the door An Param had come out of, this one looked considerably worn.

 

As Yu Jin-chae looked at the emergency exit door with a reluctant expression, An Param grabbed the door handle and opened it without hesitation.

 

“You’ve really been deceived your whole life. The emergency exit I came from has people constantly passing through preparing for the summoning ritual. This place… it’s in such a secluded corner that hardly anyone uses it. They said something about escaping or whatever.”

 

After a quick exchange of glances with Yu Jin-chae, I nodded. We had no intention of using the elevator we saw on our way here anyway.

 

But the emergency exit An Param came from was said to have people constantly passing through…

 

‘Practically, this is our only option.’

 

-Creak.

 

As the door opened, a dusty space appeared, showing off its eerie atmosphere.

 

“What floor is this?”

 

“The top floor. 8th floor.”

 

Keeping people confined on the 8th floor, that’s quite unusual. Yu Jin-chae entered through the open door first, followed by An Param, then me.

 

I carefully closed the door last and looked around.

 

‘It’s dark here too.’

 

As An Param said, this emergency staircase seemed to have no foot traffic. Just to be safe, we stayed in place silently for about 5 minutes, but there were no signs of people.

 

“Let’s go.”

 

We felt along the wall with our hands and carefully stepped down the stairs.

 

Looking at the faintly visible back of An Param’s head in front of me, I said.

 

“What’s your ability?”

 

My voice echoed throughout the staircase and came back.

 

I saw An Param, who was walking ahead, flinch, but he soon continued down nonchalantly and answered.

 

“Gravity Manipulation.”

 

Gravity Manipulation? That’s an ability I’ve never heard of before.

 

“That’s a rare ability.”

 

Yu Jin-chae admired with a nasal tone.

 

“…The grade is too low anyway, so I can’t even become a Hunter.”

 

I could feel his voice strangely sinking. Instead of asking An Param, I asked Yu Jin-chae, who was going down at the front.

 

“But what’s the difference between telekinesis and gravity manipulation?”

 

Hearing about this guy’s ability reminded me of Seo-ro. Just from the names, I can’t really tell the difference.

 

“Telekinesis is affected by gravity, so there’s no weight change. But gravity manipulation temporarily controls the gravity surrounding the target, so the weight changes too. Of course, speed can also be accelerated or decelerated.”

 

“…Oh.”

 

That’s an easy explanation to understand. Then in terms of application, gravity manipulation would have a broader spectrum than telekinesis.

 

I was about to give an appropriate response to show I understood… when suddenly my mouth was forcibly covered by some palm.

 

“…?”

 

-Creeeak

 

It was the sound of an emergency exit door opening about one floor below us.

 

All three of us tensed up and rolled our eyes toward the direction of the sound.

 

Bright light briefly illuminated the staircase landing before disappearing with light footsteps.

 

But soon after, the voices of about three men with high and low tones began to exchange.

 

“But is it okay to use those kinds of people as sacrifices? Even though they do everything we tell them to…”

 

“What can we do? We received a revelation. A revelation. We have to follow what the person paying us says. Right, Jae-hong?”

 

Jae-hong? Is that the hyung An Param mentioned?

 

“Of course, you just need to capture and manage the sacrifices. After that, you can watch leisurely, get your daily wage, and go home.”

 

“Hey, I’m saying this because this is the first time with Awakener sacrifices! No matter how crazy we are about money, if this gets exposed, we’ll be cursed nationwide!”

 

“Whoa, whoa. Calm down. There’s meaning to it all. Besides, Jae-hong got us the Awakener we were supposed to find ourselves, and he’s still giving us money, so how grateful should we be? But you said that Awakener is a high schooler? What do we do after using them? That’ll be hard to silence.”

 

“We’ll have to see. They look innocent, so if we scare them a little, they’ll probably become a believer. They believed us when we said only occult people came here. If that doesn’t work… it wouldn’t be bad to use them as an additional sacrifice.”

 

Yu Jin-chae and I simultaneously looked back at An Param.

 

“Yeah, yeah, that’s not a bad idea either. Did you say that high schooler is needed for the performance when the Cult Leader performs the Summoning Ritual?”

 

“Yes, we have to be mindful of what the regular believers see too.”

 

 

“If we get caught, I don’t know anything! If the fact that we kidnapped those people gets exposed, it’s just over!”

 

“Why are you acting like this today, really? We’ve already handed over more than 50 sacrifices so far. We’re already finished with this, man. Now we’re practically family with these people.”

 

What? More than 50 sacrifices?

 

I pressed my back tightly against the wall and swallowed hard.

 

From the context of the conversation, it was certain that these two guys below the stairs were the kidnappers. Moreover, their purpose wasn’t human trafficking or organ harvesting, but really… for the insane act called a demon summoning ritual?

 

And they were planning to use Moon Chae-yeong and me as sacrifices.

 

It was obvious what the group that commissioned kidnappings to summon demons would do with the people they captured as sacrifices.

 

‘Even B-grade American horror movies don’t have this kind of scale.’

 

I could hear Yu Jin-chae grinding her teeth next to me.

 

However, the guys below still seemed to have more to talk about as they continued chattering away.

 

“I don’t even want to see that summoning ritual. After watching it, my stomach churns and I don’t want to eat anything for a while!”

 

“Alright, alright. How can you do this job with such a weak stomach?”

 

“What kind of revelation says we have to use the most famous and honorable person as a sacrifice based on the day the summoning ritual takes place?”

 

“Thanks to that, we’re getting paid a lot~ Even though we spent money on useless equipment, it’s still a completely profitable business.”

 

So that was the criteria for selecting sacrifices?

 

Moon Chae-yeong, who became a hero from the recent EX-grade Dungeon incident.

 

And me, who got caught up in that dungeon and almost made it big in the media.

 

‘Though Yu Jin-chae ended up coming instead of Moon Chae-yeong…’

 

Anyway, until last week, the most mentioned search term on the internet was articles titled ‘Hidden Heroes in the EX-grade Dungeon Crisis.’

 

‘Well, I can’t say the sacrifice selection was completely wrong.’

 

Still, I couldn’t help but not understand it. Whatever demon it was, it seemed to have very twisted tastes.

 

“Then, rest a bit and come down later. I have to go down now to help with the summoning ritual.”

 

With those words, I saw the person called Jae-hong open the emergency exit door and leave.

 

“Crazy…”

 

At that moment, An Param unconsciously let out a sound as his tension released, and I urgently reached out my hand.

 

I could feel a slight trembling beneath my palm.

 

‘This guy really didn’t know anything.’

 

I used my other hand to lower Yu Jin-chae’s palm that was covering my mouth and looked at An Param.

 

He looked ready to scream at any moment.

 

‘No good. If we get caught here, it’s over.’

 

I gently shook An Param’s shoulder and looked at him with eyes adjusted to the darkness.

 

I could feel him panting in confusion, then very slowly calming down.

 

I waited until An Param’s breathing stabilized, then patted his shoulder twice before removing my hand.

 

Just like this, please just stay quiet like a dead mouse until those guys leave, then we can move again…

 

And as soon as I had that complacent thought, I made eye contact with someone in the darkness.

 

“But you know…”

 

Vertically slit pupils like a snake glowed menacingly.

 

“It seems like there’s someone upstairs.”

 

We were caught.

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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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