Chapter 495. Financial Difficulties (6)

The Hunter of the Other World Who Is Being Misunderstood

The famous hunter on TV overlapped strangely with a worker he knew, their silhouettes aligning in an odd way. Of course, the Westerner who had come out to the gathering site had gentle, almost burdeningly kind eyes, while the Korean man now being broadcast had eyes filled with the sharpness befitting a hunter—completely opposite in nature. Still, anyway.

Their features are clearly different when you examine them one by one, but they’re strangely similar.

How many times in his life had he watched a video featuring a man with such intensity? A certain gatherer in his 30s scrutinized the screen, thought the crossing this mind unbidden.

I don’t know why, but why do they feel so alike?

Furthermore, it didn’t take long for him to realize a new fact. The reason he kept watching a common news report was actually due to a specific feeling.

Is it because... their Awakening attributes overlap?

The culprit was a powerful sense of longing. Crushed by the hardships of life and driven to envy every capable person around him, he hadn’t felt this kind of emotion in a long time. Longing. Watching the psychic fighter on screen stirred things inside him for no clear reason. Before he knew it, the gatherer in his thirties found himself rooting for the psychic on screen.

At the same time, he also recognized that Kim Goryeo’s skill usage resembled that of the foreigner, but this fact didn’t strike him as particularly problematic.

Did the two of them maybe attend the same superpower training academy?

After all, this country truly did have certain private training institutions thriving in reality.

***

Shaashhhh.

A flowing noise from somewhere. It sounds like water falling from a drainage pipe. However, the roar currently hitting the ears was actually born from a heavy mass of water sweeping across the ground as it moved.

Kileeeek!

A day where lips chapped even after applying moisturizer and sweat just poured down if you stood in the middle of the street, and suddenly, a surge of water.

Kaaash!

Kileee!

Everyone, I am currently at the dungeon break suppression site in front of Jongno District. As you can see, the monsters are being rapidly neutralized by the skills deployed by an S-rank hunter.

When a human finger pointed into the air, the moisture occupying the asphalt road moved all at once. The clear water masses that had appeared in the city darted around as if alive.

Missss.

This time, the enemies were wisp-like creatures, their entire bodies engulfed in flames, which only amplified the effectiveness of the skill.

Miiissss.

Monsters whose right to burn was forcibly taken away, their body temperatures dropping until they soon froze to death. However, regardless of the speed of annihilating the enemy, the water that appeared in this city was actually not that heavy in weight.

At most, it is an amount that couldn’t even fill my swimming pool?

I was merely controlling a small quantity of water.

Kyaaah!

Aaagh!

Oh my, there were pitiful office workers inside over there...

For reference, the newly discovered monsters were clinging to a transparent bridge connecting two buildings. And since that bridge stood several meters higher than a human’s height, I merely blocked the body blasts.

Shaak!

I created a strong upward flow of water from below. Using the force pushed by the moisture, I leaped up onto the sky bridge for the time being.

Gasp!

Hunter-nim!

Thud.

Like a person floating in zero gravity, I gently grabbed the glass railing and climbed onto the bridge.

Tak, tak, tak-tak.

Now that I’ve come this far, all that’s left is to kill the monsters in front of me.

A strange sound is coming out... is that the movement seen right before a flamethrower attack?

Whoosh!

I called up several hundred liters of water that had been waiting on the ground and smashed it into the enemies one by one, eliminating the beasts. Really, how environmentally friendly could hunting possibly get?

After rolling it around the streets, it’s already turned into filthy water.

I felt this when I caught the [Nuckelavee] in America, but the attack method of spraying water at high pressure seemed uncommon on Earth, as the mammals were surprised every time they saw it.

Thanks, Zhan from China! I learned a lot from your tournament footage.

So I changed my strategy. Using a minimum amount of water to float my body. And when dealing with monsters, killing them by blocking their breathing as much as possible. The battle shown just now was the textbook way of working for a water attribute skill owner. Because I had figured out the range of normalcy through experience, I played the part of 'pretending to be an Earthling' even more perfectly today.

Hmm.

However, separate from the satisfaction of mimicking a primitive man well, my head is currently complicated with several concerns.

Now that the hunt’s over, I should dump the summoned water near the sewer.

First of all, I have currently failed to achieve my original goal of creating a new weapon, which is a letdown. I searched the local F-rank Gate thoroughly over two days, but in the end, the substance I wanted was not discovered.

I thought it was that plant I knew, but maybe because I’ve always observed living things underwater. It’s hard to identify the exact same thing by eye alone compared to Alphraun.

Still, I felt that reporting the industry practices that could endanger civilians was a good thing I did.

Hunter Kim Goryeo—

But hearing a particular human’s reaction made that sense of satisfaction evaporate instantly.

I already reported the locations of the corpse piles to the authorities.

Awakened Kang Changho.

They say the cleanup crew is busy, so they won’t arrive for another two hours. Until then, we should gather the debris in one place—

I stared vacantly at the man approaching me.

He’s wearing contact lenses over his eyes today.

Kang Changho. For some reason, he, who has blatantly increased his activity since returning to the country, is right next to me.

Do you dislike receiving this kind of help?

When had he ever cared about good deeds? Now he was even brazenly making suggestions.

If that’s the case, should I put out an article saying Kim Goryeo rolled up his sleeves and fixed the rampant lack of safety management in the gathering industry?

No.

There’s nothing to gain from hiding good deeds.

I’m fine, so please don’t run any articles...

I barely held back the mana in my left hand that almost went wild on its own. But this much I couldn’t hold back, so I spat out words instead of a fist.

More importantly, could you stop blatantly talking hunters like this?

That’s a request I haven’t heard in a while.

I wasn’t planning to say this, but do you know what kind of comments pop up online when I go to sites with an awakened like you, Kang Chang-ho? People immediately point fingers, slapping the phrase ‘birds of a feather’ on us.

Ah—

When I explained that pushing out image-management press releases wouldn’t benefit anything, Kang Changho responded without hesitation.

But since you have a personality that doesn’t care about the world’s eyes anyway, that much insulting should be fine, right?

What a cruel evaluation for an alien who breaks into a cold sweat every day trying to act like a mammal.

I may be dull to public opinion, but I don’t ignore the feelings of people I know.

What?

The conversation continued.

Actually, on the day Kang Changho-ssi returned to the country, I called Hunter Choi Jin separately.

Hm.

The moment Choi Jin heard your name, she visibly recoiled. She even said, ‘When I see Director who frequently collaborates with a criminal who’s been to prison for assault, I can’t help but doubt the character of both parties.’

Birds of a feather. Guess opinions still end up there in the end.

But then Kang Changho followed up with something unexpected.

Then should I go kneel in front of her later or something?

Oh dear. If he acted that shamelessly again like he did in front of the Archmage, even a Buddha would lose his temper.

Why is Choi Jin... why is she still angry at me?

What exactly do you mean by that?

When I handed over a bundle of cash as assault compensation, she clearly seemed to accept it calmly.

Wasn’t that just fear forcing her into settling after seeing a terrifying S-rank hunter? A plausible hypothesis bloomed in my mind, but I kept my mouth shut for now. Then the familiar body-awakener-awakener continued.

Furthermore, I choose my words to be as honest as possible when talking to fellow Awakened, but thinking about it, people have strangely hated me too much even when I treat them well.

Pardon?

Why is that? Sometimes I even give them really good treatment...—

...

Young people these days. Why do they only remember negative things all the time?

Those were statements I couldn’t let slide.

If someone knocks people out with stun potions, goofs off alone when the entire industry is busy, and constantly complains rudeness under the banner of ‘honesty,’ then of course people would hate them no matter what they do, wouldn’t they?

I opened my eyes wide enough that even more of the whites showed. People suspected me of being a psychopath just because I had a scary face, but judging from those statements, wasn’t it more likely that the one with frontal lobe issues was the man in front of me?

First of all, most lies and pretenses that ordinary people commit are social manners.

Hm.

But unlike that, you always act exactly as you please, so of course you attract resentment.

Of course!

Thanks to your whims, I ended up nullifying the [Knight’s Oath], which improved all my relationships—but if I’m being honest, my opinion of you wasn’t exactly positive either.

I decided it was best not to mention the specific negative number of minus ten. I finished speaking and watched his reaction.

Pretense, huh.

The Earthling turned his thick, muscular neck away slightly.

But living like that—hiding what you want to say and suppressing everything just to be considerate of others... isn’t that exhausting?

As expected, what came back was a kind of unfamiliarity I’d partially anticipated.

Especially if it’s a short life, that would be even more so.

A moment later, [Dragon’s Eye] stopped in my general direction. And something occurred to me then—I hadn’t exactly gone to get medical imaging done at Earth-based institutions after my lungs were fully healed.

After dealing with the angel-shaped monster, I stayed sharp and made sure mammals couldn’t approach.

Therefore, I thought the S-rank Hunter, who mainly checks records left by experts, might not know my health status.

Cancer recovery cases among ordinary people are everywhere thanks to advancing technology, but mine isn’t like that.

So the conclusion was simple. Leave Kang Changho’s misunderstanding as it was, and smoothly change the subject.

Oh, come to think of it, it’s already 2 p.m.

Click.

In an untuned tone that made me look nothing like a mage moving corpses, I urgently steered the conversation elsewhere.

For reference, I have an appointment today, so I don’t think I can stay to the very end of the disaster-site cleanup.

That’s only natural.

Could you help the cleanup crew in my place, Hunter Kang?

The man in front of me accepted the suggestion shortly afterward.

It’s suspiciously compliant.

When an uncooperative hunter suddenly becomes diligent, there are really only a few reasons that come to mind.

In that case, he’s probably in one of two states right now. Either he wants to keep a creature he’s deemed an enemy heaven closer, or he got hit on the head overseas and his personality changed.

In any case, since he was currently within the Archmage’s reach, I decided to maintain a delicate standoff.

***

Goryeo-ssi.

Inside a special gymnasium somewhere in South Korea. A woman with clear diction asked the first question.

But when you use the [Water] skill, you always make the same hand movement.

Yes.

Is that an unconscious habit?

No.

Furthermore, to explain this place more accurately, it was not just a public institution but a training space exclusively for psychics. As can be inferred from this background, I was in a state of having started [Supplementary Lessons] as soon as I resolved the Dungeon Break near the cultural assets.

It’s not unconscious?

And the one speaking now was, of course, Seo Esther, the person paying for these lessons.

Should I really explain this?

In the middle of a private tutoring session for the first time in a while, I hesitated briefly.

Q. A Mage’s special movements?

Because she watched my gestures closely and soon expressed a question.

Yeah. This much should be fine.

This wasn’t a rash decision made while desperately flattering a curse mage whose anger had been unleashed by the [Kim Goryeo Guild] incident. Absolutely not. Still, concerned that further negative emotions might build up in this mammalian body, I started explaining right away.

My hand movements are meant to align the mana around my body.

Oh?

Normally, when we use—no, S-skills! When we use skills—

I nearly slipped into familiar dual-star-system phrasing, but smoothly glossed over it.

Anyway, Hunter Esther has probably felt this sometimes too. The sensation that the trajectory of the skill you fired feels indescribable.

You mean when it feels vividly like your body has expanded and you can sense everything?

But that’s actually just a feeling, the mana in the air has really fluctuated wildly due to the skill’s influence. Awakened instinctively sense that wave.

I continued.

Since denser power usually flows through blood vessels, when we swing our arms, the surrounding atmosphere is often affected in the same way, drawn along by that mana.

Well, if you wave your arms around, you create wind immediately, so it made sense.

And based on that basic information—psychics can actually gain benefits by physically recreating in advance the mana disturbance around the body caused by the skill they’re about to manifest.

However, from here on, it wasn’t natural information. This is because it is content that has undergone research since the days when Al-Paurans were a primitive tribe.

And what kind of benefit, exactly?

Skills come out a bit faster, and the energy required to complete them is reduced.

That’s amazing!