The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low

”Hey, can I use your phone?”

“Oya, take it.”

“Thank you.”

He turned to the counter in the shop, afraid to finish his sentence. He grabbed the worn receiver and dialled the number that only he knew, the direct line to the Director of the Awakeners Administration. His hand trembled as he dialled the number, but,

-The number you have dialled does not exist, and after the beep, please dial….

Just in case, he dialled it again, but the result was still the same. Ui-jae slowly put down the receiver he was holding. His heart was beating faster and faster as if it had been doused in ice water, and before he knew it, he was in a cold sweat.

Did I really fall eight years into the future? No, more than that, did I… Am I really dead?

But he couldn’t be sure of anything. It could just be that the director had changed the number, and he didn’t want to look at the situation in a negative light. As he turned to leave the store in a hurry, he remembered one important fact.

He didn’t have any money on him. No wonder, he’d only packed supplies like potions before entering the rift. Even the potions had been used up, and he had nothing left. He was completely penniless. He doesn’t even have enough money to pay for food….

Ui-jae glanced over at his grandmother and spoke up cautiously.

“Hey, Grandma.”

“Un.”

“I… that.”

As he stammered, rubbing at his sleeve, the grandmother glanced at him, then slowly walked over to him. A gnarled hand grasped his unhealed one.

“It’s okay, ma.”

“Yes?”

“He comes to eat again last week.”

Two crumpled 10,000 won bills were on Ui-jae’s hands. After a long pause, Ui-jae shut his mouth tightly and bowed his head, unable to speak. The old woman opened a door next to the kitchen and entered, soon coming out with a worn ultramarine blue jacket and a black hat.

“Put it on.”

“No, it’s okay, I’m really fine.”

“You’re going to get cold with that light clothes. Put it on.”

The grandmother wasn’t wrong. As she peeled off my tattered ash kit, she noticed the cold silver watch on my left wrist. It had been there since the moment of his awakening. This is it! Ui-jae hastily unwrapped the watch and held it out to the old woman.

“Grandma, this is for you.”

“What?”

”It’s a watch, it’s all I have.”

“Mandako, I don’t need it.”

“No, please take it. Or I’ll leave it to you, I’ll come back for it later.”

Forcing the watch into the grandmother’s hand, Ui-jae pushed his hat down low on his head and ran out of the shop. The grandmother called after him in a hurry, but he ignored her and took off running.

After running for a while, he looked up and saw that the day was already dawning. There were long queues at bus stops, cars filling the roads, people walking on wet sidewalk blocks with tired faces, and many people going their separate ways.

It was a peaceful scene, but it was unfamiliar to him. The Korea of today, supposedly eight years later, was so different from his memories. Ui-jae looked at the peaceful moment of everyday life with vacant eyes.

It was then.

Beep, beep, beep – a loud buzzing sound began to echo around them. Everyone took out their mobile phones to check something. Two people in school uniforms chattered.

“Miss, the rift will open in half an hour.”

“Can you see the hunters? When hunter comes, let’s take a video and post it on YouTube.”

“Okay. I should have brought a drone.”

…The rift is opening? Ui-jae looked around nervously, but the people seemed calm at the announcement of the rift opening. There was no sign of surprise, as if the rift announcement was a regular occurrence. Puzzled, Ui-jae grabbed a woman walking next to me and spoke to her.

“Excuse me, is the rift about to open?”

“What? Yes. I just got a disaster text, didn’t you see it?”

“Oh… Yeah. I forgot my phone.”

“Oh, I see. Here it is….”

The woman holds out her mobile phone to show a text.

[Crack Management Agency]

At 7:42 a.m. on 14 November, a rift will appear in the eastbound direction of Wirye-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul. Residents to evacuate to designated evacuation centres, contact Awakening Management Bureau if pre-evacuation is not possible.

A rift is simply an ‘unusually open dungeon entrance’. Unlike a normal dungeon, which has a specific location where you can enter, a rift appears in a random area, opens the entrance, and unleashes a torrent of monsters if you don’t take them down quickly. But can you know in advance where and when a rift will occur?

The woman asked cautiously as Ui-jae fidgeted.

“Um, are you okay…?”

“Oh, yes…. It’s nothing, thanks for showing me.”

The woman gave him a worried glance, then shook her head and walked away. After a few moments of watching their backs, Ui-jae followed suit.

Over the roar of car exhausts on the road, visions he’d tried so hard to ignore assaulted his ears. Bones breaking, flesh piercing, throats snapping, voices begging for help…. The familiar screams and noises overwhelmed the peaceful cityscape, and the foreign sensation made him stop walking and stand still, and he thought.

Was all that sacrifice worth it?

The world after eight years without J was so peaceful and perfect. In fact, it was exactly what he had longed for.

Shattered asphalt roads, buses crushed by monsters’ feet, collapsed buildings, burned and twisted trees, and people holding their breath and trembling in fear, not knowing when a monster would appear. I could draw it in an instant and it would be as clear as if it were yesterday.

He sincerely hoped. Please let him live his life without fear. Even if he doesn’t feel confident there. But it was strange to see those moments unfold in front of him.

What difference would it make if J came back after being thought dead for eight years? The moment J announces his return, the calm of the world will be shattered. Everyone’s eyes would glaze over, and they’d run. They’ll want to know what happened in the rift, how he survived alone, and why it took him eight years to get out.

He slowly wiped away the cold sweat. He felt his stomach twist.

The deaths of his comrades who sacrificed themselves for the world should be known, of course I think so, I know their names and faces, and I remember how they died.

But….

“Remember, Ui-jae.”

”The world has changed, and because you have power, everyone will turn to you. They’ll want you to save them all.”

“But Ui-jae, you’re still young….”

“You don’t have to save everyone.”

“You can run away.”

Ui-jae suddenly remembered her aunt’s words of advice as she grabbed his shoulder.

She was a Hunter who had lost her two sons and awakened as a Class B, just as Ui-jae had awakened after losing his family in the rift. They were also the only two survivors of the hellish rift. They weren’t really aunt and nephew, but as sole survivors, they relied on each other like family. It was she who advised J to hide his identity.

‘I get it now, Auntie.’

Cha Ui-jae rubbed his eyes needlessly.

Hunter J is dead, and no one knows about Cha Ui-jae. Even if eight years had passed, the Ui-hae of twenty-year-old were still twenty. He could still see his aunt congratulating him on his newfound adulthood. But in this world, he is twenty-eight.

People walked past him nonchalantly. Ui-jae stood alone in the crowd for a long time. Silent, lonely.

And finally,

for the first time in his life, he decided to run away.

A few months later… Haejang-guk house again.

After a while of washing dishes in the kitchen, Ui-jae was forced to come out to the hall due to the constant stream of orders and customers.

“Calculations here!”

“Yes, wait a minute.”

In all the years he’d been working at the shop, he’d realized something important. Even though he was no longer a hunter, but a part-time worker at Haejang-guk house, this was not a place where he could hide his power 100% of the time.

“More kimchi and kakdugi, please!”

“And more cheongyang chilli, please!”

“Okay, give me a minute.”

This shop, even if there are many customers, there are too many. To be more precise, there were a lot of hunter customers who ate fast and ate a lot, which is why Ui-jae was using his awakened powers to pretend to be a normal person who was a little stronger and more agile than others.

“Excuse me, we don’t have any pepper on the table, can you lend us some….”

“Oh, sure.”

“Thank you.”

“If you’re done, please clear the table, we need to eat quickly and get back to the dungeon!”

“We’ll clean up the table. Can we use the dishcloths over there?”

“Give me the chilli and I’ll chop it up.”

“This guy’s a B-class Hunter, and he’s pretty good with a sword as his main weapon.”

In the short time since Ui-jae had reentered the kitchen, the guests had begun to assume their familiar roles. Having barely escaped the bustle of the hall, which had just opened like a rift, Ui-jae took a moment to catch his breath as he retrieved a container of kimchi and kakdugi from the fridge. He moved mechanically, his eyes vacant.

‘I need to make kimchi and cheongyang chilli self-bar as soon as possible.’

Quickly grabbing a bag of fried rice and two bags of Cheongyang chilli, he left the kitchen and quickly scanned the hunters with his eyes. Apparently, he should leave the chopping to the B-grade hunters.

“There, slice the cheongyang chilli for me, and take the kimchi, kakdugi, and gonggilbap. I’ll help you with the calculations.”

At my command, the Hunters gathered in unison as if they were about to raid a dungeon. A Class B Hunter sliced chillies with a dagger that appeared to be at least a Class C weapon, while a Class C Hunter scooped kimchi and kakdugi with tongs. The other Hunters lined up in front with their utensils and waited to be served. As Ui-jae swiped his card through the card reader, he watched the scene unfold.

Is this the peace I’ve been protecting?

The number one ranked Hunter in the former Republic of Korea and the country’s first S-class Hunter, Hunter Name J. A national hero who died eight years ago after closing the West Sea Class 1 Rift. His real name, which no one knows, is Cha Eui-jae. He said…

“Thank you, goodbye. Welcome, how many of you are here?”

Currently a part-time worker at Haejang-guk house.