Chapter 22

“What is this!”

“This crazy bastard?!”

F3 lunged to snatch away the contract . I stretched my leg out and kicked his ankle, and then grabbed his body that was falling forward and,

Bam!

I slammed him onto the table . Wow, the glass was strong .

“Yoo-Yoojin!”

Extremely shocked, Yoo Myeongwoo faltered and rose from his seat . D also kicked the sofa and put on a menacing frown .

“So this bastard isn’t an F-Rank! Looks like level 1, probably E-Rank? Fuck, I’ll cut off your finger and make you sign your thumbprint!”

D spit out in savage voice . Thanks to my items, I was higher than him, but I didn’t want to get rid of corpses so I used less strength .

I stood up as if to protect Yoo Myeongwoo from behind and took out my cell phone . D and the other guys sneered at me .

“Even if you reported it now, it’d be too la- . ”

“Come in . ”

Bam-!

With a loud noise, the locked iron door crumpled in half and fell .

I wasn’t making a call, but rather ending one . I pressed the end button for the call to Kim Sunghan and smiled, going toward him, who was standing in front of the door .

“Can I ask for a favor?”

It wouldn’t be a problem for me alone, but there was someone who could protect me .

So before I rung the bell, I called Kim Sunghan . Even if the opponents were normal people, to please come in if it became dangerous . Rather than something going wrong with Yoo Myeongwoo, it would be better to risk a little danger and hushing them up with destruction of evidence .

But since all of them were Hunters, it was a thankful thing .

“You had a companion!”

D yelled as if to stimulate the spirit .

“I might seem like a reasonable guy but I-!”

“That face! I-isn’t that Kim Sunghan? Haeyeon Guild’s shield!”

Cutting off D’s words, F1 pointed with a frightened expression .

“A-Rank, that guy, I mean, that person is an A-Rank!”

A-Rank . At that one sentence, the atmosphere became chilly . From the D-Rank, the E, F, F, F, were all taken aback and looked around .

Kim Sunghan, who had completely controlled the atmosphere with his certified face, twitched his eyebrows[1] .

“Kneel . ”

Thump, thump .

Five pairs of knees hit the floor simultaneously . They listened well .

“How should I deal with them?”

Kim Sunghan asked me . Why did he ask? He had a much higher rank than me so he could figure out how to deal with them on his own . Did he only get orders from being directly under Yoohyun, so that was what he was used to?

“Hm, usually in these cases, you’d go with tooth for a tooth, eye for an eye . We can just give the same treatment back to them, right?”

If we left things as is, they were guys who would swallow up innocent F-Ranks’ lives like Venus flytraps . There was no point in leniently letting things go .

I took out my one remaining S-Rank-use contract from the inventory . It was as much as over 20 million won, so it felt like a waste, but I didn’t buy it with my own money and I could say it was to cover Yoo Myeongwoo’s debt .

“So… D-Rank over there, what’s your name?”

I used Seed-Leaf so I knew, but I couldn’t show that I did .

“…It is Kim Duksoo . ”

That guy answered bitterly . He immediately kneeled in front of an A-Rank, but it seemed like he didn’t like an F-Rank speaking informally to him . I was the one who took action[2], he really didn’t have any sense .

“Kim Duksoo . You have to reply truthfully to what I ask . If you lie, I’ll cut off one finger each time . There’s no need to sign with a thumbprint, so should I shove them down your throat?”

I said, shoving the contract and pen in front of that guy’s eyes .

“Write down your skills and sign . ”

“Th-this is…”

“It’s a S-Rank-use contract . Write down your skills with effects that can be definitely be seen by eye . If you lie and your skills get sealed, I’ll cut off your fingers and you’ll sign the next contract . I have enough, with all sorts of types, that your toes can be cut off too, so don’t worry . ”

In reality, I only had one, but how could that guy know my inventory’s matters?

Kim Duksoo swallowed dryly and wrote down his skills and signed . I should get some cheaper contracts . Did it make sense to use this as a lie detector? Of course, having no cause to use it would be best .

“How many guild members are there? Count only the official guild members . ”

“…There are eleven . ”

Even as a guild with a C-Rank guild leader, there wasn’t a lot . Then again, it was a trash guild that took advantage of F-Ranks, so there was no reason for the size to be big .

“One is the C-Rank guild leader, what about the other five?”

“They are D-Rank . ”

“Call out their phone numbers . ”

If I let them directly call, they could pull some crap so I used that guy’s cell phone to call them . After throwing the bait that I was a newly contracted F-Rank and that Kim Duksoo and company were having a hard time holding onto a skill C-Rank healer that they hooked with good luck, the answer that they would come quickly came .

“Where is the healer!”

Soon, the C-Rank guild leader, who ran in, was .

Bam!

“Kuk!”

Slumped over with one blow of Kim Sunghan’s fist . Stat definitely was a bully .

Then the five D-Ranks were added and the total eleven strong young men were kneeling in a row . The room became cramped .

“Do you think there will be a C-Rank dungeon we can throw these guys in?”

At my words, their faces became pale . With merely one C-Rank, even if they went into a low level C-Rank dungeon, several would die . But why would I care . Those guys did the same thing .

The number of contracts in the vault were over thirty . Among them, people with intact limbs didn’t even reach half . Crazy assholes .

“I will contact the guild and try to find out . ”

“I was thinking of an individually owned dungeon, is it okay for the guild to be involved?”

Instead of breaking away individually, if the guild moved directly, it could become a factor for receiving criticism . Since it was executing after judging on our own instead of punishing lawfully .

“This much can be cleanly handled . ”

“Even so, there’s no need for making a weakpoint over something that isn’t a big deal . Hm, it would be better to hand it over to the Association instead of the guild . ”

At my words, Kim Sunghan’s expression became subtle .

“If the writers insist that it was through a reasonable contract, at most they will finish with stripping them of their licenses . ”

“That is if we only report it, without taking any action . ”

I brought over empty contracts and modified the 10-year contracts into 50 years for the Hope Resources Guild to the Hunter Association . Beyond that, it was completely a slave contract so there was no need to deal with them .

No, I should change the ratio to 1:9 too . Just giving them nothing would be too transparent .

I friendlily put down the modified contracts in front of the kneeling guys one by one . They were taken aback and looked up at me . What are you looking at?

“Stamp your thumbprints . ”

I said, throwing over the stamp inkpad . Whether it was because of rage or because of feeling wronged, the C-Rank’s two cheeks trembled .

“This is a total scam!”

Are you cutting off your nose to spite your face?[3]

“I’m just trying to introduce an easy and comfortable job where all you have to do is pick and gather things that make money – saying that it’s a scam, isn’t that too much? At most, I changed the contract subject from C-Rank Guild to the Hunter Association, so the conditions changing to this shouldn’t be anything much . ”

I was letting them take 10%; they sure were greedy .

“And you never know? If your luck is good, you might get into a decent guild . ”

Of course, the probability of being sold off to a guild similar to theirs was a lot higher .

If these kinds of contracts were given to the Association, usually they became products for the shopping mall . Buying and selling people was obviously illegal, but buying and selling contracts had no problem as long as there was a mutual agreement . Of course, this was limited to Hunters .

Those guys were dejected but pressed their fingers into the ink .

“Not just the signature block, stamp the modified part too . ”

Storing that many contracts, they really seemed like amateurs .

“I’ll warn you ahead of time . ”

I continued, collecting the nicely thumbprint-stamped contracts .

“Don’t kick up a fuss by pointlessly objecting to the contract . When the Association contacts you, obediently say that you agreed . If you don’t, I really will find a C-Rank dungeon to shove you into . ”

I actually wanted to shove them in one, but I didn’t have the kind of money to do that . C-Rank dungeons were expensive . If it was private ownership, then it was even more expensive .

To prevent them from escaping, I took their ID numbers, Hunter license numbers, and their cell phone numbers . If they got away, I could contact Do Hamin and catch them .

Yoo Myeongwoo had a dazed expression up to going outside and getting into the car . With a face that showed he didn’t know what to say, he kept on opening and closing his mouth before finally letting out a small voice .

“…Thanks . ”

If you’re thankful, quickly get your skill and pay me back with your body .

“I, I don’t know how I can pay you back but… I probably don’t have a way to pay you back but……”

“Don’t worry too much about it . ”

Just contract with Haeyeon Guild later and give me my incentive .

“What do you mean ‘don’t worry about it’, I’m……”

Yoo Myeongwoo’s voice started to become teary . He wouldn’t be crying again, right? You can’t, don’t cry .

“It was just a coincidence! We just met accidentally! There’s really nothing to be concerned about! And half of it was Kim Sunghan-ssi . ”

Yoo Myeongwoo was on the verge of tears but smiled .

“You’re really bad at lying . ”

What, I thought I was good at it .

“I’m thankful towards that person too, but if it weren’t for you, he wouldn’t have stepped in . Right?”

“I mean, that’s true . ”

From his position, what I did was definitely something to be thankful towards but it wasn’t pure kindness so my conscience pricked a little .

If I didn’t have the Seed-Leaf skill and Yoo Myeongwoo didn’t have the aptitude for the SS-Rank skill, we would’ve just passed each other by . Without knowing each other’s names or faces .

“I was really thankful when we met at the Association, and was very happy with your words . But, today I was really surprised and touched . Yoojin, you really…”

Wait . Wait just a moment . I don’t think I can listen to what you’re going to say nex…

“Are my hero . ”

……Goosebumps shot up along my spine . Wow, how could he say things like that out loud? I was so embarrassed! You take the My Brat skill!

He would be able to say things like ‘I love you’ without a shade of hesitation, and use it well .

“…I mean, that not exactly . That’s not it……”

Please don’t stare at me with those eyes filled with yearning . Inside the car, there was no place to hide . Hero, what kind of embarrassing crap[4], I was mortified to death . Save me . Should I open the door and run away? I was still wearing the gloves so I probably wouldn’t die .

“You were really cool . Tearing the contract and slamming the guys coming at you into the table, and making those guys sign the contract too . ”

…The man who broke an iron door with one kick was sitting in the driver’s seat right in front of you, so why were you being like that to me? Usually, shouldn’t it be ‘wow, Kim Sunghan-ssi, you’re so cool, definitely an A-Rank!’?

“A-anyways, I get it, so . ”

Before I could die of shame, I quickly changed the subject .

“That, newbie Hunter training! It’s going to start on Tuesday . ”

“Are you really going to let me receive that? Truthfully, I don’t really have much confidence . ”

Yoo Myeongwoo said, gloomily . His state was already bad but after those guys tried to make him sign the contract, his self-esteem seemed to have dropped even more .

“What do you mean you don’t have confidence? Hey, I’m F-Rank too . ”

Of course, if I included my skills, I couldn’t say that I was an F-Rank, but Yoo Myeongwoo would soon get an SS-Rank skill, so we could say we were similar .

“…I’m completely different from you though . ”

“What do you mean different? See these gloves? These are an A-Rank item that increases your Stamina and Strength stats . If you wear these, you can crush those guys’ heads too . ”

That is, if you had the courage to fight . Maybe if you got your Mental state revised to high, it might be okay, but usually, lower rank Hunters fell into chaos without being able to swing their weapon even once during their first battle . That was why newbie training was necessary .

“Still, I… don’t think I can act like you do . ”

His voice was dwindling and dying away[5] . Like this, he wouldn’t say he won’t take the training, right? You needed a license to go into dungeons, and you had to go into dungeons for growth to be possible .

While I was wondering what to do, I took off the manticore leather gloves . Then I tossed them at Yoo Myeongwoo .

“Huh?”

Looking at the gloves that landed in his lap, his eyes widened into circles .

“For now, you wear them . I’m not giving them to you, just lending, okay?”

“B-but you said these are an A-Rank item? Weren’t they really expensive?”

“I said before that I would lend some to you . ”

“I definitely thought it would be D or lower! They said you could get by with D-Rank and lower equipment… I-I definitely can’t!”

I forced the gloves into the refusing Yoo Myeongwoo’s hands .

“What do you mean you can’t? Anyways I don’t really use it . It’s been hot lately . So at least until the newbie training ends, you use it . ”

During Hunter training, you had to deal with monsters too, so it felt like he would get scared and get into trouble if I left it at that . As for me, I had experience, so it didn’t matter if I didn’t have things like items .

And truthfully, it was hot so I didn’t want to use it either . I’d just use the belt .

“You’re really…”

Clenching the leather gloves tightly, Yoo Myeonwoo had his eyes brimming with tears . The deeply moved gaze was extremely uncomfortable .

“Yoojin!”

“Wait, don’t cling!”

…Fuck, I really should have run away .

[1] this is used to express anger, intimidation, other such negative emotions, but I wasn’t sure if it came across that way in eng

[2] lit . ‘grasp the gunstock’ . Normally, it’s ‘wear the gunstock’ or ‘carry the gunstock (on your back)’ which means to ‘(take responsibility) and do sth’ or ‘bite the bullet’ so I’m not sure if the author is just playing around w the normal expression or if he means something different .

[3] lit . ‘lying down and spitting’

[4] lit . ‘hero, what kind of freezing to death, hero’ or something like that . It doesn’t really tl lit . well…

[5] lit . ‘his voice was all dying (away) as if crawling on the ground’