The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low

A pioneer of the conceptual hunter era. South Korea’s No. 5 ranked hunter, Honeybee, is the advertising model for CyC, a hunter-specific hair dye made from dungeon byproducts. She flaunted her shiny blonde bleached hair at a long-established Haejang-guk house, where she engaged in fanservice.

As Ui-jae, who is possessed by an ordinary person who met a star hunter, responded sincerely, other hunters who were watching the scene clapped along with him.

Honeybee bowed politely with a fierce swagger.

“I see you’re a fan of mine, I’m so sorry, you must have been quite startled by my sudden entrance.”

“No, I’m fine.”

“No, I’m really sorry, I just lost my temper for a second….”

There was definitely a graceful smile on her face as she turned to face Ui-jae, but the hunters’ spooning was slowly picking up speed. A familiar voice pierced through the creaking of the moon.

“Some bastard parked his motorbike like this, whoops.”

All eyes turned to the newcomer. Bae Won-woo was holding Honeybee’s motorcycle above his head. Honeybee was appalled.

“Crazy, you put that thing down quickly!”

“Honeybee, what are you doing here?”

“Just put my kid down and tell me.”

“Is that your baby? If you’re going to park it, do it well, what if it blocks the door?”

Bae Won-woo grumbled and gently set the motorbike aside. Honeybee, who had sighed with relief, looked up.

“Hey, Shield guy. Are you here alone? Lee Sa-young.”

Bae Won-woo, a shield man who once misnamed the hunter and became the man of the man and the man of the man, shuddered.

“Oh, don’t call me by my hunter name, please call me by my name.”

“Where’s Lee Sa-young, didn’t he come with you?”

“Huh? Sa-young? I don’t know. Why are you looking for him?”

Bae Won-woo asked with a puzzled expression. Instead of answering, Honeybee glanced around. It wasn’t often that they were able to intuit the dialogue of a top-ten hunter, so the other hunters strained their ears to pick up on the conversation. But when Honeybee shot them a fierce glare, they began to drift away.

Just then, a thunderous growl echoed through the shop. Bae Won-woo rubbed his stomach and muttered pitifully.

“I’m curious about your story too, but can we talk about it after I order?”

“…Ha, okay. I think I need to cool off first.”

Honeybee waved her hand, and just then, the two hunters, who had inhaled the haejang-guk, threw the 30,000 won on the counter and ran off in a huff. Bae Won-woo deftly grabbed a dish towel from the car and waved it at Ui-jae.

“I’ll clean up and sit down. I’ll have haejang-guk with lots of cheongyang chilli. Honey Bee, what do you want?”

“What’s here?”

“Haejang-guk.”

“…Is there nothing but Haejang-guk?”

“Yeah. But it’s delicious.”

Bae Won-woo smiled cheekily and gave a thumbs-up. Honeybee, who shook her head with her brow, replied as if she had no choice.

“Then I’ll have haejangguk.”

“Okay.”

Bae Won-woo drew a V toward Uijae. Ui-jae made an okay sign with his hand, then added kimchi and kkakdugi to the empty bowl. Bae Won-woo, who had diligently placed the cutlery and scooped up the water on his own, clapped his hands together.

“Now tell me something. Why are you looking for Sa-young? What else did he do?”

Honeybee looked around once more and gestured for Bae Won-woo to come closer. He leaned forward and pricked up his ears. Honeybee clasped her hands together and whispered.

“You know about the mana stone at the tomato market, right?”

Of course, Ui-jae could hear it all. Another mana stone. Everyone who came by was talking about mana stones and it was getting to be a bit much. Ui-jae lit the pot on fire. Bae Won-woo also whispered in a low voice.

“I know. I know.”

“Because I really, really need that stone.”

“Huh? That much?”

“If I take it, Hong Ye-sungwill make me a weapon. I really need an S-class weapon.”

“Ah… Correct. Your old weapon is broken, right?”

“Yeah. Besides, the system rankings will be renewed soon, so I’ll have Hong Ye-sung find the magic stones, have him craft my exclusive S-class weapon and beat Gyu-gyu when the rankings are renewed. It’s a perfect plan.”

Gyu-gyu is a ranker just above her. She also visited this haejang-guk house with great ambition, just like others. Ui-jae decided to hit Hong Ye-sung one day on the day he met him in person. For reference, Hong Ye-sung was still uploading a message on Inha once a day, saying that he missed mana stone.

Bae Won-woo nodded nervously.

“Well, that’s all well and good. But why are you looking for Lee Sa-young?”

“Because that lunatic has cut off every possible source of information!”

With a bang, Honeybee slammed her fist down. Fortunately, just before her hand slammed down on the table, Bae Won-woo nimbly reached out his palm and caught her fist instead. After hearing the bang, Ui-jae looked out and saw that Bae Won-woo had saved the table. Bae Won-woo gave him a thumbs-up.

‘Crazy, tankers protect property these days.’

Ui-jae added another meaty bone to Bae Won-woo’s stew.

Honeybee interrupted with a grunt.

“Did the table break?”

“No, I blocked it well.”

“Good. Anyway, it was all over the place a few days ago, wasn’t it?”

The rest of Honeybee’s rambling went something like this.

EZ accidentally posted a gem on the Tomato Market, deleted it, and bounced. It would have been a simple incident, but when the top craftsman, Hong Ye-sung, offered a bounty for the equipment, it turned into a mountain.

Hong Ye-sung’s right to request equipment manufacturing! It’s a non-sale item that you can’t get for tens of billions of dollars.

The hunters swarmed like ants to track down EZ and Honeybee, who had recently lost her prized weapon, joined the hunt anonymously, hoping for a commission. They formed a tracking team, sharing information and working together as a team.

Honeybee ruffled her golden hair.

“We zoomed in on the gem, calibrated it to see if it reflected anything, had it analysed to find out what type of phone it was, checked it against the newspaper in the background to see what kind of newspaper it was, we were really picking apart that one photo, nanoscopically and following it every which way.”

‘…That far?’

Ui-jae, who had been listening quietly, broke out in a cold sweat. It was the first time that the dazzling advancement of technology was so frightening, and the obsession of the hunters was also terrifying. Bae Won-woo also looked a little fed up.

“…That far?”

He spoke the words for her. Honeybee let out a yelp and fell flat on the table. This time, before her head could hit the table, Bae Won-woo quickly reached out to support her head. Not to protect her head, but to protect the table.

Ui-jae decided to serve Bae Won-woo a bowl of fried rice.

“By the way, they stopped talking about it a few days ago. It’s not like they went into the dungeon in a group and the tracking team went quiet. So I asked them, did something happen recently?”

“Yeah.”

“Guess what? They’re backing out of this, and they were so enthusiastic about it!”

“Yikes.”

“So I pestered them about what was going on, and they finally said, ‘Well, we got a call from Pado Guild’s legal department. They want you off the EZ Tracker’.”

“What? Our guild?”

Bae Won-woo had never heard of it before. Honeybee ran her hands through her hair and muttered gloomily.

“I kept poking him, but that’s all he said. I don’t know if he was just being silent or what…. But I don’t think you would have done it, so that leaves Lee Sa-young.”

“That’s… true.”

“He doesn’t usually see people…. so I can’t ask him.”

I wanted to get more information out of their story, but if I waited any longer, the haejang-guk soup would be gone. Ui-jae brought out a tray with two hot tteokbokki, two gonggimbap, kimchi, kkakdugi, and chopped cheongyang chilli.

By this time, Honeybee was banging her head, and Bae Won-woo was staring into space with a dumbfounded look on his face.

“No, what the hell does EZ have to do with our guild?”

In response to Bae Won-woo’s mutterings, Ui-jae replied inwardly. I don’t have anything to do with the guild, but I do have something to do with Lee Sa-young…. Ui-jae coldly put down the haejang-guk to stop Bae Wonwoo’s thoughts from going any further.

“Here’s your haejang-guk.”

“Ah! Thank you …Huh? We didn’t order gonggimbap.”

Bae Won-woo looked at Ui-jae with a stupid look on his face. Ui-jae put the tray to his side and replied nonchalantly.

“It’s a service.”

His face was filled with emotion, excitement, or something else. Honeybee, who had been suffering from a headache, also raised her head coldly. Ui-jae coolly turned and returned to the kitchen.

After serving the haejang-guk, all that could be heard was the sound of small talk. Information and peace through a small service. It’s so easy. Ui-jae washed the backlog of dishes and deftly fulfilled Bae Won-woo and Honeybee’s additional orders.

After a while, Bae Won-woo waved from the counter.

“Part-timer! Calculations!”

“Yes. Ninety thousand won.”

When he finished paying and handed back the card, Honeybee held out something curled up in a ball.

“This is… What is it?”

“Unfold it.”

Ui-jae unfolded the paper, careful not to crumple it. It was a poster of Honeybee. An autographed poster with a large signature in the corner of one ear. It would be the ultimate merchandise for her fans, but his expression suddenly changed.

“Why are you giving me this?”

And where did she get this poster from out of nowhere? It certainly wasn’t from her entrance into the world with all the bells and whistles. She coughed in disbelief.

“I mean, you know, did you see that everyone had a sign on the wall?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“It’s a gift, you should put mine up.”

Ui-jae almost stared at Honeybee with a quizzical look on his face, but then he realized that he wasn’t wearing poker face trait right now and he had to force the corners of his mouth up into a smile.