Volume 1, Episode 4
004
Thud. Thud.
I Seojun entered the Hunter Association building.
Tap-tap-tap!
The interior of the Hunter Association was utter chaos.
"We have to hurry!"
"Yes! Understood!"
People hurriedly running about with sweat pouring down their foreheads, faces frazzled.
Clack. Clack.
People traversing the corridors fully armed.
"Just one word, please. What are the Association Chairman's thoughts regarding this incident…."
Click. Click.
People shoving microphones at someone while camera flashes burst in succession.
Bustle. Bustle.
Countless people were busily moving about, each occupied with different tasks.
The sound of commotion could be heard from everywhere.
"……."
Not a single person paid any attention to him, who had just opened the door and walked in.
None of them so much as glanced at him.
Thud.
I Seojun naturally walked through the chaotic interior of the Association.
He silently directed his steps toward a certain place.
Thud.
The place he was heading.
'Hunter Registration Office.'
That was precisely the Hunter Registration Office.
Tap.
I Seojun arrived in front of the Hunter Registration Office.
Rustle. Rustle rustle rustle.
A young woman was sitting at the desk of the Hunter Registration Office.
The woman was looking only at her desk, frantically writing something in a notebook.
Then.
Tap.
As if sensing I Seojun's presence in front of the desk, the young woman paused her writing for a moment.
She placed the ballpoint pen she had been holding down on the desk.
"What business do you have?"
Then, as if making it obvious that she was busy.
Without even making eye contact with I Seojun, she spoke to him in a curt voice.
Swish.
The woman soon raised her head as if annoyed.
The moment she saw I Seojun's face.
"……!"
She flinched in surprise and her attitude changed drastically.
I Seojun's finely sculpted, statue-like appearance.
She was completely taken aback by his perfect, sculpture-like face, unlike anything she had ever seen before.
"I came to register as a Hunter."
At I Seojun's words.
"……."
She didn't answer at all.
No, she couldn't even muster the thought to answer.
'He's really… handsome.'
That thought filled her head entirely.
Because of that, she simply stared blankly at I Seojun's face, lost in a daze.
* * *
Hunter registration ended more easily than expected.
"With this, all Hunter registration procedures are complete. Please wait a moment in the waiting room."
The time he had spent on the planet Lumer.
A world no different from a new one, a world changed beyond recognition.
A new body he had gained, one he didn't possess before.
Because of these things, his existence naturally did not exist in this world.
So Hunter registration should naturally have been difficult, but.
"Can you register information for a new person?"
At the Troubleshooter Office he had found through Gim Juwon's guidance, I Seojun had asked.
"Y-yes, we can."
Fortunately, he had found the answer when there were only two of them left out of the original six.
"How long will it take?"
"A-a month, and it will be done!"
To his question, the man had answered with a frightened expression.
His body trembling violently.
"There have been cases of people who went missing during the previous Great Disaster suddenly appearing, so we can process it that way…."
"Then do it."
I Seojun spoke to them with an expressionless face.
"One day. I'll give you one day."
"What? That's impossible…."
"Then find someone else."
"N-no! We can do it!"
The man had answered immediately as soon as I Seojun finished speaking.
Like prey thrashing desperately to survive, fearful of being devoured by a predator.
"I know a hacker! If it's him…!"
As they say, hardship and adversity give humans opportunities to grow.
What had been said to take a whole month.
"Please! The deposit is in!"
It was accomplished in less than a single day.
The man, with a deranged expression, had busily moved about making phone calls, processing the task I Seojun gave him with lightning speed.
In return, I Seojun granted them peaceful deaths.
And thus, now.
"Hunter I Seojun, your registration is complete."
Having even finished a simple examination, the Hunter registration was over.
"Congratulations on your Hunter Awakening."
The female employee he had met at the desk for Hunter registration offered her congratulations.
A bright smile hung thickly at the corners of her mouth.
"Your Awakening rank is D-rank. Congratulations on becoming a D-rank Hunter."
Her voice dripping with favor.
"……."
To that, I Seojun gave no answer whatsoever.
He merely fixed his gaze on her silently with an expressionless face.
'It was good to hold back appropriately.'
D-rank.
It was a rank he received because he had taken the examination while completely holding back his strength.
'A high rank isn't necessarily helpful right now.'
What he needed right now was the status of a Hunter, not the status of a high-rank Hunter.
Rather, obtaining a high-ranking position immediately would draw unwanted attention.
That was why.
That was the reason he had completely held back during the exam.
'This body is abysmally weak right now.'
Trash that couldn't even be compared to himself on the planet Lumer or Aion.
That was his honest evaluation of himself.
And…
'If I met them now…'
A world where much had changed over twenty years.
He wasn't certain if they existed now, but I Seojun could feel it.
'They are there.'
Because even back then, they had been lurking behind the scenes of the world, exerting massive influence.
'I'll reel them in slowly.'
However, it couldn't be done abruptly.
Swish.
All business here was finished.
Had he not completed the Hunter registration he needed?
The moment he turned away from the desk and tried to move his steps toward the exit.
"E-excuse me!"
The urgent voice of the female employee at the desk came from behind.
"If it's alright, could I get your number…."
Then, the continued voice of the employee.
But I Seojun didn't even turn his head.
Thud. Thud.
Leaving the voice behind, I Seojun went on his way.
There was no need to waste any more time.
At that moment.
Pat-pat-pat!
Disorderly footsteps echoed through the hall.
And those footsteps were drawing nearer.
It was the same female employee from before.
"Ah, excuse me!"
The female employee who had stopped him again as he was leaving.
It was the moment I Seojun was about to frown in annoyance.
"I-it's not about that…."
The female employee, with a flustered expression, held out a set of documents.
Swish.
As if asking what these documents were, I Seojun looked at the female employee with a gaze demanding explanation.
"I forgot to give you the things you need to take with you."
The documents she handed over were a temporary Hunter's license and some explanatory notes.
I Seojun roughly skimmed through the documents with a glance.
"You know that after your first Hunter registration, you must receive the Tutorial, right? There is a Tutorial in three days, so…."
The female employee spoke the basic guidance in a tone full of sincerity.
"Is there anything else?"
But I Seojun had no interest whatsoever in her words.
The moment she finished speaking, he spoke to her with an indifferent expression.
"Ah, no."
The female employee answered with a bewildered face.
Thud. Thud.
Having heard her voice, I Seojun immediately turned and walked away.
"Tsk. He was really my type."
The female employee could only watch I Seojun's retreating back, forgetting even her busy work.
* * *
To obtain Hunter status, one had to undergo the Tutorial.
Until then, as a provisional Hunter, he could neither receive proper qualifications nor enjoy those privileges.
"O-oh, you're here?"
The youngest member of the Samil Troubleshooter Office.
Gim Juwon hurriedly welcomed I Seojun.
The office that had been covered in blood and flesh just a few days ago was now spotless, as if by a lie.
"I registered as a Hunter."
At I Seojun's words, Gim Juwon's eyes went wide.
"Did you receive a rank?"
Gim Juwon asked in a cautious tone.
'What on earth…'
But even as he did, Gim Juwon actually couldn't understand.
The man before his eyes, I Seojun, was literally a mystery in and of himself.
'What is he?'
Just moments ago, he had torn apart the C-rank Hunter employees of the Samil Troubleshooter Office before his eyes, and afterward had asked questions as if he knew nothing, like a missing person from the Great Disaster.
And then he immediately attacked another troubleshooter office, only now registering as a Hunter—showing actions far removed from common sense.
Thus, Gim Juwon was confused about what exactly I Seojun's true nature was.
Gulp.
Gim Juwon swallowed dryly and tensed.
What rank could this man have received?
Having witnessed and directly felt I Seojun's overwhelming power right before his eyes, curiosity had welled up within him.
"D."
But an utterly unexpected answer flowed from I Seojun's mouth.
"D…."
Gim Juwon had been about to nod with an expression saying he had expected as much.
"Eh… ye-yeees?"
He let out a loud exclamation of surprise, as if he couldn't believe it.
'…This is absurd.'
He couldn't believe it.
D-rank.
This was clearly wrong.
Or clearly, I Seojun was lying to him.
"D… you say?"
Was this not the same I Seojun who had single-handedly, and effortlessly at that, taken down the C-rank Hunter employees of the Samil Troubleshooter Office?
"Why?"
Unable to endure his curiosity in this incomprehensible situation, Gim Juwon asked.
"……."
But I Seojun did not answer him.
He merely directed his gaze at Gim Juwon with an expressionless face.
"Why is it D-rank…."
Gim Juwon, who had been about to ask again, read I Seojun's mood and firmly shut his mouth.
He couldn't muster the courage to ask further at that gaze directed at him.
"They told me to take the Tutorial."
I Seojun opened his mouth toward such a Gim Juwon.
"Ah… yes."
Gim Juwon's reaction was that there was nothing unusual about it.
He was actually a Hunter himself.
Therefore, he naturally knew that upon registering as a Hunter, one had to receive the Tutorial.
'Because it's obvious.'
Most of those working at troubleshooter offices were Hunters.
Though high-ranking Hunters among them were few enough to count on one hand, it wasn't strange that they, who made violence and crime their trade, were Hunters called superhumans.
"When is it scheduled for?"
Gim Juwon asked.
"In three days."
"I see."
A quiet silence.
"That brings me to my point."
I Seojun rose from his seat as if he had rested enough.
"There's something I need to check before the Tutorial."
"This time, what kind of…."
At I Seojun's words, Gim Juwon's face was colored with tension.
"That hacker, did you look into him as I said?"
The hacker who had registered I Seojun's information in the Association and government systems.
"Yes, he's known to be quite famous in this field, so he wasn't difficult to find."
I Seojun had ordered him to find information on that hacker.
Fortunately, the safes of the two illegal Troubleshooter Offices had been full of cash.
"It's urgent. Please find out as quickly as possible."
"Finding a person isn't easy. We do good work compared to other places, but even so, you'll need to give us at least a week…."
"I'll pay double."
Gim Juwon had gone to another Troubleshooter Office with that and found out.
"Let's go."
I Seojun spoke to Gim Juwon with an expressionless face.
"………."
A brief moment of silence.
"Yes?"
Gim Juwon said with a distressed expression.
The greatest villain of all time had returned.