The Chicken Legend's Game Becomes Reality - Chapter 49
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 49
* * *
That evening’s incident at the Convenience Store flooded the front pages of countless domestic websites and popular forums.
[Convenience Store Video Explodes 10 Minutes Later]
[I was there and watched this huge part-timer flying around]
Hwang Beom-young is shocked.
[Baek Hee-an’s woman?.jpg]
[Minor Hunter regulations are so pathetically loose that stuff like this just happens]
[Explaining why Hwang Beom-young lost it]
[They’re at our school, so they must have been in trouble after getting beat up in a strong match haha]
[Increase punishment severity for Mi-ja’s Hunters]
[Avoid that neighborhood if you can, it’s seriously dangerous]
[Baek Hee-an looks insane in person]
[Summarizing the situation]
Eyewitness accounts and photos posted across the internet spread through various websites and social media, igniting a brief firestorm.
[(Notice) The Guild has filed a report. Please remove photos and speculative posts.]
Just when the incident seemed to be dying down due to the Guild’s intervention, it flared up again late that night.
[Isn’t the Convenience Store part-timer the same person as today’s Gate survivor?]
(Anonymous) /10:17/Views 179
(Photo 1—Baek Hee-an carrying someone out of the Gate and rushing toward an ambulance, rear view)
I pulled this photo from a news article
The face isn’t visible, but isn’t it obviously the same person?
【Comments 18】
—Wait?
—Wait??
—Yeah, it matches
—That’s not a common silhouette
—Since it’s a news photo, the Guild probably can’t sue
—If it’s true, it’s not true ㅠㅠ In the evening, the hunter Mijas make a fuss at the convenience store where I work, and at night, my house where I live gets caught up in the gate and I’m taken in an ambulance ㅠㅠ
└Wow..
└That’s some seriously bad luck
—So Baek Hee-an went to rescue them again? What’s their relationship?
—Baek Hee-an’s woman?
“Are you sure she’s a woman? lol”
└The silhouette looks like a guy to me
—I thought maybe they were a Hunter, but seeing them carried out of the Gate makes me wonder if they aren’t
└Could still be a Hunter
└Maybe they went in to rescue people and got hurt
└Why would a Hunter work at a Convenience Store?
└Plenty of lower-ranked Hunters do side jobs when their income isn’t enough
└ㅇㅎ
It was just a brief incident that burned for a few days before fizzling out, but the silhouette of that massive figure left a deep impression in people’s minds.
* * *
Unconsciousness brought on by simple exhaustion.
CT and MRI scans revealed a mild concussion, and X-rays showed no fractures or casts needed anywhere on my body.
Followed by an unawakened judgment from a Hunter assessment skill holder.
“Yes, boss. Thank you for understanding. I’m being discharged today, so of course I’ll be back to work tomorrow. Yes. Yes. Please tell Jung-yeon thanks for stepping in on short notice.”
The morning after I’d collapsed into deep sleep the previous night and finished all the medical tests.
Fortunately, Baek Hee-an had apparently contacted the Convenience Store Owner yesterday to give him a heads-up.
That was a relief, at least.
“Why are you two loitering here? If you fight like last time, I’m calling the police. Especially you, Hwang Beom-young—aren’t you supposed to be at school? Now that you’ve confirmed I’m a regular person, why don’t you get lost?”
Hwang Beom-young was sitting on the sofa in the premium hospital room, glaring at me.
This bastard hadn’t even followed me when I took the ambulance to the hospital yesterday, but this morning he’d shown up with a Hunter assessor dispatched from the Hwanghae Guild.
And ever since the assessment, he’d been staring at me like that.
Hwang Beom-young spoke irritably.
“Something’s wrong. Go to the Hunter Center and get your awakening status measured again.”
“I’ll think about it for a hundred million won.”
“Money-obsessed bastard.”
“If you know, then pay.”
As you can see, Hwang Beom-young refused to accept that I wasn’t a Hunter and had claimed the hospital room sofa, glaring at me the whole time.
I turned my gaze away from Hwang Beom-young, who showed no signs of leaving, and looked to the side.
Baek Hee-an.
“Why don’t you go home?”
“I’m your guardian, so I need to stay by your side. Do you have any out-of-pocket insurance or coverage?”
“…I don’t.”
“I’ll pay for the hospital bills. Between the MRI and CT scans, the costs add up. I’ve left the second floor of my place empty, so if you have nowhere else to go, you can move back in.”
“….”
Damn.
I’d been happy to have escaped Baek Hee-an’s place so quickly, but who knew the new house would be destroyed in a single day.
Shit, shit, shit.
I really didn’t want to go, but I was in no position to show my reluctance.
“Yeah… thanks. I’ll pay back the hospital bills as soon as I have the money—put them under my name. I’ve already been looking at new places, so I’ll just stay for a bit like last time.”
….”
Baek Hee-an’s expression stiffened slightly.
Hwang Beom-young, who’d been glaring at me the whole time, let out a crooked laugh and muttered something.
“Ha. What’s with the awkward atmosphere?”
“?”
What was he talking about?
Was this bastard still clinging to that ridiculous misunderstanding?
Hwang Beom-young continued speaking.
“But you shouldn’t go to Baek Hee-an’s house. Come to my place instead. We have plenty of rooms, so I’ll lend you one as a charitable deed.”
It was irritating, but for a moment I was tempted.
Unlike Baek Hee-an’s house, which was quite far from the convenience store where I worked, Hwang Beom-young’s house was relatively close to it.
Baek Hee-an, sitting in the guardian’s seat next to the hospital bed, responded harshly.
“I asked the Director. He said Joo Hyun-soo was hospitalized because of you. Apparently it was a severe fracture, so they had to call a Hunter to heal it.”
Right, that’s what happened.
I’d taken 100 million and completely forgotten about it.
Hwang Beom-young leaned back deeply into the hospital room sofa, twisting his mouth savagely.
“I didn’t hit him one-sidedly, and you didn’t even see it, so what do you know? Men can fight sometimes, or well, women too—it happens. Anyway, you’ll regret going to Baek Hee-an’s house. I’m warning you clearly.”
“…You still haven’t come to your senses.”
“Why don’t you come to yours? Who was trying to destroy the hotel?”
Hwang Beom-young, looking thoroughly offended, opened his eyes wide, and Baek Hee-an also glared at him intently as the two Hunters growled silently at each other.
I issued a simple warning.
“Right. If you two fight, I’m calling the cops immediately. If I get hit a few times while stopping you from using skills, I’m squeezing settlement money out of you like it’s nothing. Remember that.”
That bastard Hwang Beom-young was already famous in the Hunter community for having no respect for hierarchy, but even so, he had the audacity to defy Baek Hee-an, who’s a top-ranked Hunter.
‘But what was that about?’
Why was he warning me not to go to Baek Hee-an’s house?
Even after hearing Hwang Beom-young’s warning, I couldn’t pinpoint anything specific.
Knock, knock.
Just as I was about to ask directly, someone knocked on the door and entered the hospital room.
“Hunter!”
It was that woman.
The woman who’d grabbed my leg in the Gate and almost pulled my pants off.
“Are you feeling alright?!”
“Yes, well…”
I felt a bit awkward about why this woman had come looking for me.
Moreover, she hadn’t come alone—her younger sister, who had been trapped on the first floor, and what appeared to be the two of them’s parents, a middle-aged couple, were with her.
“Hunter, thank you so much for saving our children.”
“We don’t know how to repay this debt.”
The man and woman who appeared to be the parents of the sisters who had been trapped behind the security bars on the first floor repeatedly bowed to me and held my hand.
Both of them had tears glistening in their eyes, which made me quite uncomfortable.
“Oh, no, it’s nothing.”
I had simply been trying to escape on my own when this woman grabbed my ankle and I fought her desperately for my life.
The woman asked me.
“Hunter, do you have somewhere to go right now? What if you stayed with us while you look for another place? We’re planning to go to a real estate agency today and find a rental room near where we used to live.”
Honestly, I could use it.
Before I could even open my mouth, Baek Hee-an interjected.
“No, that’s not necessary. Hyun-su has already decided to stay at our house for a while, so please don’t worry.”
His expression was polite yet carried a strong sense of caution—dry and distant.
For a moment, I was utterly bewildered.
‘What is she even… No, wait. That woman’s house definitely won’t have a virtual reality game device like Heaven Station. I need a gaming device to participate in the upcoming tournament.’
My younger sister, who had been staring blankly at Baek Hee-an this whole time, suddenly widened her eyes and looked back and forth between us.
Her expression was screaming the question: what exactly is the relationship between these two?
‘We’re not in any kind of relationship.’
My older sister quickly interjected.
“Would it be alright if I stayed to care for you until you’re discharged from the hospital? You’ve saved my life twice—I really want to do something to repay you…”
Baek Hee-an, who had been sitting in the visitor’s chair, stood up and spoke in a defensive tone that cut off anything I might have said.
“That won’t be necessary. I’ll be discharged soon anyway.”
The woman glanced at Baek Hee-an’s expression, then pulled something from her pocket.
“Then, at least let me give you a reward…”
It was a white envelope.
It was inconsiderate, but at least she had some shame about it.
I quickly grabbed the envelope—which clearly contained money—before Baek Hee-an could reject it with his unnecessary meddling.
‘I should definitely take this.’
Baek Hee-an, watching us with a complicated expression, asked the woman a question.
“How did you injure your leg?”
“A monster bit me and dragged me away, but you helped me escape. Without you, I would have been eaten.”
Baek Hee-an’s eyes narrowed.
“So someone with perfectly healthy legs received help from someone with an injured leg? Hyun-su is not a Hunter—he’s an ordinary person.”
“Yes, yes?”
The hospital room fell silent.
“B-but you tore off the security bars with your bare hands…”
“He’s an ordinary person who happens to be strong.”
“No, wait, how is that even possible? Then how did you deal with the monster…?”
“He was lucky.”
Baek Hee-an’s voice was cold.
My younger sister, who had been quiet the entire time, finally spoke up.
“I’m truly sorry. The truth is, because of us, Joo Hyun-soo nearly died twice.”
“…”
Baek Hee-an’s expression hardened.
Hwang Beom-young, who exuded the dark presence of a beast, also chimed in from the sofa, cradling his head.
“Tsk. Figures. Last time too, you got dragged into trouble helping some random neighborhood hooligans. You’re supposed to be looking out for yourself, so what’s with all this meddling?”
Baek Hee-an also looked like he had plenty to say, but he simply bit his lip in silence.
‘Yeah, you survived back then because of my meddling, so shut it.’
All eyes turned to me.
At that point, I couldn’t help but say something.
“I wasn’t trying to help—it’s just that a person’s life was right in front of me… Anyway, forget about the security bars. When she grabbed my ankle and dragged me, I genuinely thought I was going to die.”
“I-I’m so sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t cut it. Either give me a reward of hundreds of millions of won, or never do something like that again.”
“Huh?! Y-yes!”
The moment a scream escaped my lips, the startled woman and her family bowed profusely before scrambling away in panic.
‘That’s how it should be.’
I smacked my lips in disappointment and looked at Hwang Beom-young.
“Beom-young.”
“What.”
“Man to man? Want to play one more round of real-world God Opal?”
“Get lost!”
My intentions were far too transparent—Hwang Beom-young snarled and growled in disgust.
‘Tch.’
There was probably no one else but him who could fight me with decent combat skills, let me have a blast, and then pay me while providing healing afterward.
Especially since Hunters’ healing abilities came at a premium when requested by ordinary people.
Strictly speaking, even if you wanted to pay, you couldn’t get it.
‘It was sweet.’
Baek Hee-an, who seemed to be enduring something while glancing between the ceiling and floor as if wondering what nonsense this was, finally opened his mouth.
“If you need money that badly, there’s a good way. You defeated the boss monster of this sudden Gate, after all.”
Somehow, that’s how it turned out.
“The Gate rank isn’t high, but there were quite a few crystals inside.”
“…Huh?”
I smelled money.
“Since you’re not a Hunter, I’ll have to claim it under my name. But if you’re okay with that, I’ll give you all the money the Guild deposits.”
“!!!”
Gate compensation rewards.
It was an enormous income I’d never even imagined as an ordinary person.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————