CH 42

Hara scanned the system window. The system window was still frozen at a ‘Now Loading’ screen.

Readjusting skills, readjusting stats.

That sounds nice and all but when will it end? Additionally, there was even mention of things like ‘principle of causality’.

The system window briefly explained that.

[The stat, ‘Luck’, will only activate under special circumstances] 

Luck was mostly taken as an uncertain item by hunters.

Although there were rumours that hunters with high luck value would gain more dungeon byproducts than others, it was just groundless hearsay.

Was it because of that that everything was locked?

Hara wondered if the balance had to be adjusted because the S-class was too fraudulent. 

However, the constellation ran away, so there was no response. There couldn’t have been any progress with the conversation with Seheon. 

As such, after a series of discussions, the both of them set off again.

There wasn’t much conversation between them. The both of them had a lot on their minds.

By the time they reached the East Seoul Terminal, Seheon finally opened his mouth.

“Where do you live?”

“Oh, you can drop me off anywhere, I’ll go home on my own.”

At Hara’s words, Seheon glanced at the clock. It was already past midnight. Public transportation already stopped their service. 

“I’ll drop you off near your house.” 

“Uh, it’s alright, really. You can just drop me off anywhere in Gangnam……”

“Which man would drop their partner off ‘anywhere in Gangnam’ after midnight on their first day of being a couple?”

Hara’s face flushed as soon as she heard his words. However, Seheon’s expression remained indifferent.

Hara faltered before finally opening her mouth.

“But Anchor Yoon also has to return home…”

“Do you know where my house is? It’s more annoying to stop by Gangnam than to go to my house.”

“Uh……”

Hara’s eyes widened.

“Isn’t your house in Gangnam?”

Seheon snorted.

Since Rep. Yoon’s constituency is there, people that knew of Seheon’s background would often think that Seheon lived there. Of course, that could be the case. 

But in the first place, wasn’t it worse for a man that’s over thirty to be living with his parents? But he didn’t say such a thing.

“Isn’t my workplace in Yeouido?”

“Oh, then……”

“It means that my house is also in Yeouido.”

It was an apartment near the broadcasting station, to be exact.

Hara spoke awkwardly again. 

“Then I’ll go to Yeouido…”

“Do you live in Yeouido?”

“That’s not it……”

In the end, Hara lost. There was no way she could win. He’d insisted that there wasn’t a man that didn’t even know the location of his lover’s house, so she had no choice.

Yeah, we’re in a relationship… As Hara muttered things like that, she entered the location of her house into the car’s navigation system.

Yonggang-dong, Mapo-gu

Seheon gave it a glance and opened his mouth.

“It’d be rather convenient to go on dates.”

That man spoke without any self-interest, but Kang Hara didn’t know why she was so embarrassed. It’s already November, so why was it so hot?

When she fanned herself embarrassedly, Seheon had even opened the window on Hara’s side. 

It was late, so the residential alleyway was filled with parked cars. As such, Seheon didn’t stop the car in the alleyway but on the outer road.   

He stopped Hara, who got out of the car quickly and thanked him through the window.

“What time do you get off work tomorrow?”

“I’m not too sure…… I don’t know if I’ll be training tomorrow. What’s wrong?”

“Training?”

Oh, right, he doesn’t know.…. Hara spoke about how she’d been going to work in Team K’s office these days and was undergoing special training with Raeyoung. But from Raeyoung’s exhausted appearance today, she wasn’t sure what the schedule for tomorrow would be like. 

“Then are you working at Sangam-dong? And not at the Mapo branch office?

“Yes, but is something the matter?”

Seheon sighed quietly and shook his head.

“Let’s have dinner together.”

Only then did Hara mumble quietly, “Oh, right.” They have to go on dates.

Wait, but you don’t have to make that face. How many times in my life do you think I’ve been on a date?

Once? Twice? Wrong! I’ve never done it before! Let’s not talk about that…

“I—I’ll do my best…?”

However, the words that came out her throat didn’t appear to be that smart.

Seheon smirked. 

“Yes, if it can be solved just like that, I’ll work hard, too. Well then.”

With a vroom, the car drove off. Hara stared blankly at the tail end of the sedan as it left the alley. 

* * *

Chief Jung and Kwon Wook’s time were tied up by the Ulsan branch office until after midnight.

The person responsible for the Eonyang dungeon had a terrible expression, because it was a rare, stabilised dungeon that supplied a steady stream of mana stones.

“Why on earth are you doing this to me…”

“Hey, it’s not like we would’ve known about it?”

“Even if it weren’t for that, I’m screwed because a dungeon surfaced today.”

Even though mana stones were definitely used, an E-class dungeon surfaced in a village adjacent to the sea, and so everyone in today’s Eonyang branch were going out of their minds.

“Really? Were the mana stones expired?”

“We’re in the midst of investigations, and the results should be coming out soon. Please write a letter of explanation as soon as possible…”

In consideration of the tired person-in-charge’s mood, Chief Jung hurriedly scrawled a letter of explanation to submit to the Ulsan regional office. After hearing the news, the head of the Ulsan branch office, who had gone to another province for a family matter, went wild over the phone.

— Do you know how huge of a national loss this is?! You can block my future, but you should’ve done it within proper limits!

It wasn’t as though she hadn’t expected it, because he was famous as someone that paid attention to his health since his days as a Hunter. However, it was rather bitter to hear him say things like blocking his future sincerely, while talking about national losses in the same breath.

In the end, they were only released after they’d finished writing their letter of explanation. 

“Chief Jung, did you bring your car?”

“No.”

“Oh, then we have to take a taxi. I was criticised for my high transportation expenditure not too long ago.”

Kwon Wook grinned impishly. Chief Jung glanced at Kwon Wook and clicked her tongue.

“Do they mention transportation expenses to even an S-class?”

“What are you talking about? Do you know that they’d call me over just to nag at me if the taxi fare exceeds 10,000 won by a single won?”

After saying that, Kwon Wook knocked on the taxi window that had been waiting in front of the Ulsan branch just in time and began bargaining with the taxi driver about the price to go to Seoul.

“Wait, isn’t this Kwon Wook? It’s an honour, but it’s a little expensive to go to Seoul……”

It seemed like it was kind of burdensome to head to Seoul after midnight. As the driver welcomed Kwon Wook, he immediately raised the price. 

Chief Jung watched Kwon Wook’s back quietly from behind.

She didn’t think much when going into the cave to look for Kwon Wook. She wanted to ask Kwon Wook, “How much longer are you going to film this?”, and add another line, “No matter how it is, can you really work on this scale,” and finally say, “But you did a good job.” She just wanted to say a line of compliment.

However, Chief Jung was rendered speechless when she spotted the insane werewolf, who’d suddenly appeared with heavy sounding steps. 

“Keuargh!”

The werewolf would’ve scratched Chief Jung if she’d acted a little later. But she bent down with the agility of an A-class hunter, and the werewolf howled as it used Chief Jung as a stepping stone to leap into the air. 

Thud, although she fell due to the hindleg that kicked her, she immediately came to her senses and quickly jumped to her feet.

“Kwon Wook, you crazy b*stard!”

The next moment, she heard Raeyoung’s voice. Zip, by the time she heard that sound, she only caught sight of Raeyoung hot on the heels of the werewolf. 

Chief Jung turned to glance behind her. She spotted Kwon Wook there.

“Oh, this is bad.”

“What’s going on?”

When Chief Jung asked bewilderedly, Kwon Wook picked up the mana stone that fell onto the floor and stuffed it into his pocket as he said, “Oh, I made a mistake.”

“What the hell is going—” Chief Jung was about to question Kwon Wook, but the moment she realised that this wasn’t the time to ask such things, she rushed towards the entrance while yelling, “Why aren’t you running?”

The situation at that time was so urgent that she didn’t realise, but there were some strange things when she thought about it afterwards. 

Kwon Wook was an S-class hunter. His most famous equipment, the flame ring, was capable of long-range attacks, and it had a considerably large range. Everything would have ended if he’d just burned the runaway werewolf at once.

“Why did you do that, Wook?”

“What?”

After getting into the taxi, Chief Jung asked Kwon Wook, who was gazing outside the window.

“Don’t you have the flame ring? Wouldn’t everything have ended after you burned it?”

“Ah.”

Kwon Wook’s eyes widened and he soon smiled.

“Oh, about that, Chief. It’s not like I hadn’t thought about that either. But did you know? That the flame ring had a limited number of usages.”

“……There’s a limit?”

The chief frowned. And she glanced at the front of the car. 

The taxi driver, who had been glancing at their direction through the rearview mirror, looked forward with an “Whoops.”

However, Kwon Wook continued speaking without pause like he didn’t care about the taxi driver.

“That’s one of the skills that Hara-ssi possesses. She can recite another’s specs. Their status, skills, and equipment. If they have a higher class, she can’t see all of it……”

Chief Jung gave him a meaningful glance. “Ah,” Kwon Wook said as he shrugged. It meant, so what? Meanwhile, he emphasised how great Hara’s skills were. 

Of course, even if Kwon Wook didn’t elaborate, Chief Jung was also shocked. While there were a few hunters with skills that allowed them to peek into the opponent’s specs, being able to enumerate the number of times an equipment could be used was an amazing ability. 

“Even if she’s unable to become an S-class, with just that skill, other teams will line up to take her away. Isn’t it?”

“That’s right. If she knows about the skills, then……”

Chief Jung was engrossed in thought about it, and suddenly exclaimed, “Ah, seriously!” She didn’t even notice it when Kwon Wook had blatantly changed the subject. 

“Kwon Wook, are you changing the subject right now?”

“No, why would I change the subject? It’s not like I have a guilty conscience.” 

Kwon Wook spoke softly. Chief Jung glared at him.

“It’s not like there’s only one of that flame ring left. Civi—production crew were outside.”

She was about to say civilians, but she quickly changed her words because she was conscious of the taxi driver’s presence. However, Kwon Wook immediately rebutted.

“And the members of Team K were with them. Hara-ssi, too.”

“Their life could have been in danger.”

“It’s fine as long as everyone is safe.”

“This punk, have you gone mad?”

The taxi driver sensed the rising volume of their voices and hurriedly turned on the radio. He realised that he wasn’t meant to hear this conversation. 

The trot song travelled out of the radio, and the taxi driver turned up its volume. ‘For countless nights,’ he’d even hummed along it. 

“Chief-nim.”

Kwon Wook whispered lowly.

“Aren’t you the one that taught me that, Chief-nim?”

“When did I do that?”

“It can’t be helped that a few sacrifices are made for the sake of the bigger picture.”

“What’s the bigger picture that you’re trying to achieve?”

‘How much did I cry, as I’m tormented with the feeling of my heart being carved out.’ The song continued playing fluidly.

Kwon Wook shrugged. 

“It’s not something that I meant to do, but it just happened by coincidence, so it was difficult for me to make an instantaneous judgement then. I didn’t mean to let anyone get hurt.” 

“Why are you talking like that then?”

“I’m sorry. I haven’t slept well for a few days, so I’d probably become a little sharper. I keep spilling meaningless drivel.”

Kwon Wook said that and closed his mouth tightly. 

Chief Jung rubbed her forehead. When Kwon Wook acted like that, it meant that no matter what he asked, he would no longer give any answers. 

She felt uncomfortable.

At the same time, Chief Jun felt rather annoyed. 

She’d said that once. But it had already been ten years since then…… If he didn’t say that, that punk might have just ended his life like that in a psychiatric ward.

She felt suffocated. No one was hurt anyways, so it’s a relief. That was the only thought in her mind.