The SSS-Class Hunter’s Garden Log - Chapter 93

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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 93

“Hm? What’s wrong? Ah. Is it because I responded to being called senior earlier?”

“When did you start using guns as weapons?”

“Guns?”

Crunch.

Hana, who had bitten into the chewy hotbar, tilted his head as if calculating something.

“Since my weapon… upgraded? Originally it was a toy gun.”

Kang Hyeon’s eyes narrowed.

After pausing for a moment, he asked in a low voice.

“Can you still bring it out now?”

“Huh? Oh, this?”

Hana nodded without much thought.

As he lightly raised his hand—

Tss tss tss.

With a faint sound, blue light seeped into the air.

Then it instantly took shape, becoming a small pistol that looked like a toy.

“How is it? It’s amazing to see again. Ah. I guess it’s not that amazing to you, Seo Ganghyeon?”

“Don’t tell me this is a soul-bound weapon?”

“Huh? Yes! How did you know?”

Kang Hyeon’s gaze darkened as he watched the weapon change form, connected to the energy extending from Hana’s hand.

Ordinary weapons, no matter how high their grade, wouldn’t automatically upgrade unless enhanced with magic stones.

Except for one thing—soul-bound weapons.

Soul-bound.

A type of weapon completely connected to its user.

It wasn’t something just anyone could handle.

As far as Kang Hyeon knew, hunters who wielded soul-bound weapons could be counted on one hand worldwide.

One of them was himself, and another was his senior.

Yet Yun Hana, supposedly an F-rank production-type, was casually holding such a weapon.

“Why?”

Hana tilted his head.

His face still showed he knew nothing.

There was no sign of deliberately hiding anything or lying.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

With those words, Kang Hyeon sent his energy toward Hana’s weapon.

Then crack! Sparks flew up.

At that reaction, Kang Hyeon’s eyelids slowly lowered and rose again.

Soul-bound weapons had another characteristic.

Since they were connected to their user, the energy wavelength flowing through the weapon itself carried that hunter’s attributes.

Therefore, the reactions shown when meeting other energies were all different.

And the reaction Yun Hana’s weapon had just shown…

It was similar to the reaction ‘1’s weapon had shown to Kang Hyeon’s energy wavelength.

Of course, it wasn’t exactly the same reaction.

The reason could be that the weapon forms were different, or perhaps Yun Hana’s energy wavelength was similar to his senior’s but they weren’t the same person.

Kang Hyeon’s fingertips trembled slightly.

Could Yun Hana really be his senior?

“Seo Ganghyeon? Is there some problem with my weapon?”

“Do you know what kind of weapon this is?”

“I don’t know? Is it very expensive?”

Expensive?

Well.

Soul-bound weapons choose their own masters in the first place, so you can’t buy them with money, and it would be meaningless even if you tried.

But if he had to put a price on it, it would probably be around this much.

Kang Hyeon silently held up three fingers.

“It’s expensive. Very expensive.”

“Three? Three hundred?”

At that moment.

A faint red energy flickered in his pupils.

Haechi’s eyes.

The skill that discerns truth quietly activated.

However, Hana noticed nothing and took a big bite after tearing open the rice ball packaging.

“No? Then three thousand?”

“…”

“…Don’t tell me it’s in the hundreds of millions?”

When Kang Hyeon showed no reaction at all, Hana hurriedly waved his hands.

“Ah, no. It’s better not to know. Ugh… If I knew, I’d be too burdened to use it, wouldn’t I?”

Even while grumbling and pouring out words, Hana’s cheeks kept moving up and down without rest.

“If this was going to happen, they should have just made me a combat-type. It’s not like they’re boosting production-types, so I don’t know why they gave me an expensive weapon.”

It was a casual complaint.

But there wasn’t a single grain of falsehood mixed in those words.

Haechi’s eyes were saying so. That it was all truth.

Yun Hana really didn’t know.

Neither the value nor the meaning of soul-bound weapons.

Kang Hyeon’s expression gradually hardened. His senior wouldn’t be like this.

Was he just having pointless delusions after all? Indeed, logically speaking, wasn’t the possibility that Yun Hana wasn’t his senior higher than the possibility that he was?

‘But then why do I keep getting the conviction that you’re my senior?’

Kang Hyeon unconsciously rubbed his forehead where Hana’s hand had touched earlier.

The same habit. An uncommon weapon. And an inexplicable familiarity.

There were too many things that matched up to dismiss it as mere coincidence.

“You know, Seo Ganghyeon. But why did you call me senior? Did you mistake me for someone again like in the Simulation Room?”

Kang Hyeon raised his gaze to look at Hana.

“You’re similar.”

Hana, who had been taking a big bite of his rice ball, frowned as if he didn’t like Kang Hyeon’s answer.

Then he slyly pushed the chocolate milk toward Kang Hyeon. As if secretly offering some kind of bribe.

“Then who is this senior you mistook me for?”

But Kang Hyeon, seeing through Hana’s clumsy intentions, pushed the chocolate milk back toward Hana.

“If you’re curious, answer first, Yun Hana. You still haven’t answered. Why you turned around when I called.”

Hana’s lips jutted out.

“I really want to tell you, but I can’t.”

It was the same thing he’d said before.

But it definitely wasn’t just a casual excuse.

This time too, Yun Hana seen through Haechi’s eyes was telling the truth.

Though he couldn’t understand why Hana said he couldn’t speak, Kang Hyeon decided to try a different question.

“Then what were you doing before you registered as a hunter?”

“Just lying around. I was in the hospital the whole time.”

“Hospital?”

“Yes. You came there too because of my garden, Seo Ganghyeon. Yangpyeong Nursing Hospital.”

Hana’s eyes, which had been diligently working on his rice ball while answering, suddenly sparkled.

“This works?”

With those cryptic words, Hana let out an “Oh!” of admiration and leaned his upper body closer to Kang Hyeon.

Then he chattered away, adding supplementary explanations.

“I was there for about 3 years.”

“3 years…?”

“Yes. And I only woke up a few months ago. I was severely injured, you see.”

Kang Hyeon drew in a trembling breath.

It overlapped exactly with the time his senior had disappeared.

It was too perfect a match.

But nothing more noteworthy came from Yun Hana.

So Kang Hyeon rested his arms on the convenience store table and observed Hana.

Looking again, they resembled each other.

Until now, he had consciously tried to separate them from his senior, deliberately not paying attention to finding similarities.

But beyond that.

The round eyes, the mischievously upturned delicate lips. Everything was identical to his senior without exception.

Though 3 years had already passed, his senior’s face was still vivid when he closed his eyes.

It was by chance that Kang Hyeon knew the bare face of ‘1’, who always covered their face with skills.

The first chance was when his senior, who wasn’t yet an official Hunter, had saved him from being swept up in an outbreak ten years ago.

And the second chance was when, after becoming a Hunter, while he was growing weary from searching the entire country for that small girl who had saved him, he accidentally witnessed ‘1’s bare face with the ‘Shadow in Smoke’ skill deactivated.

The feeling when he learned that the lifesaver he had searched for so desperately was ‘1’.

After that, he tried his best to somehow get promoted to the Central Headquarters where ‘1’ was, and stayed by their side.

Though ‘1’ seemed not to remember their connection from ten years ago, that was fine. Just being able to stay together was enough.

How could he forget the face of such a person?

After the day he lost his family, she had become Kang Hyeon’s life goal and reason for living.

The longer he spent looking at Yun Hana, the less room there was to deny the resemblance to his senior.

At first, he had firmly decided it wasn’t her.

The checkered shirt, the soft way of speaking that didn’t draw lines with others. He had thought everything was different from his senior.

But.

‘…There are too many things that match up to say it’s not her.’

Kang Hyeon’s gaze lingered on Hana’s face.

His puffed-up cheeks were moving slowly, filled with a mouthful of food.

“….”

‘He eats so well with that small mouth.’

His gaze wouldn’t leave that spot.

Objectivity had already flown away long ago.

Kang Hyeon was just staring blankly, swept up in emotions he couldn’t understand himself.

He really wondered how such a person could exist.

Yun Hana bounced around unpredictably in all directions.

But then when he came to his senses, he found himself being drawn along, which was even more absurd.

‘Even this resembles my senior.’

Kang Hyeon unconsciously extended his index finger.

And without thinking, he poked Hana’s puffed-up cheek.

A soft sensation touched his fingertip.

At that moment.

Hana’s jaw, which had been diligently chewing, stopped completely.

Light brown eyes slowly rolled upward and fixed directly on Kang Hyeon.

It was a gaze mixed with bewilderment and disbelief.

“What are you doing?”

“…?”

Kang Hyeon realized what he had done a beat too late.

Following Hana’s rolling eyes with his gaze, Kang Hyeon saw his own finger poking Hana’s cheek and froze completely.

‘What did I just do?’

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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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