The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low

What do you mean an experimental body? I frowned slightly at the first story I heard. I don’t know how suspicious the plan was, but I wondered why they selected an awakened person as a subject.

It is so natural that it is difficult for awakeners to attract or forcibly kidnap compared to ordinary people. In that case, it means that there is something that can only be obtained from the awakened, so they were using them as an experiment. I could only think of it as an overly sophisticated experiment. What are they trying to get at all costs?

Observing the pensive face, Saeyoung asked in a soft voice.

“Do you know how to awaken?”

“…to be chosen by the system, no?”

I thought back to the day the system appeared. Each time I recalls a scene, it’s accompanied by another sensation: a sound I heard, a smell I smelled, or a touch I felt. For me, the day of the rift was a memory that held them all.

Amid the chaos where everything was broken and collapsed, I was hugging my parents’ bodies, crouched in the cracks in the collapsed building. A stench of acrid burning and bloody odors. A cold body temperature. The sound of a monster’s footsteps scratching through the road rings in the ears.

Sa-young nodded.

“Right, so what does the system look at to choose an awakener.”

When Sa-young touched the glass with his finger, the black blood that had been stagnant after melting the glass was mushy and gathered among themselves, forming the form of a man and a monster. A black monster rushed at a small black person.

“The system,”

A square window appeared over the head of a small black man.

“Respond to desperate wishes…”

‘I want to live.’

‘I don’t want to die.’

The black man also rushed at the monster without avoiding it. Of the two figures that had been tossing and turning for a long time, the monster returned with black blood.

“When a man has a desperate wish, the system is attracted by that energy and finds him.”

“…….”

“It’s common knowledge. That’s why people who are swept away by rifts are more likely to awaken than ordinary people. It is also a kind of wish to pray that you don’t want to die.”

I stared at the figure of a black person standing alone. When Sa-young moved his finger, the black person also became a small puddle.

“But… There are people who are dissatisfied with that fact.”

I slowly raised my head and faced Sa-young.

“I mean, do you know what I mean?”

For now, the system is absolute and omnipotent. Most people live in compliance, but those who feel that the system’s choice is unfair are different. Perhaps people should be able to awaken their abilities on their own.

Sa-young, who read Ui-jae’s more serious expression, asked with him chin on his hand.

“…Is it possible that the people you mentioned are the same as the drug dealers?”

“Hmm, think about it.”

Sa-young spoke in a voice with a hint of mischief.

“Did I tell you all this just to ask you that…”

At the moment, I lifted the table next to me and thought for three seconds whether to plant the table instead of the hair that he didn’t have, but I held it in as much as the situation was. Even though Sa-young asked back like that, I didn’t seem frustrated, so I was able to think hard.

“You said they were unhappy with the system’s choice.”

If, as I suspect, the drug is being sold by mysterious individuals who want to awaken their abilities. And if they’re using it as bait to collect awakened people to use as guinea pigs, then….

“Are you saying they’re doing this to artificially create an awakening person?”

“Correct.”

This time, Sa-young replied coolly without beating around the bush. I felt as if my whole body was slowly bristling from my fingertips.

It was a plausible argument on the surface, but he had a hunch that there must be another purpose behind it.

It’s a drug. Once addicted, they explode in aggression, lose their minds, and finally die with their dignity tarnished. There was no way they were feeding them to the awakened as an experiment.

“Let’s say they artificially created an awakened person. What then?”

What are they going to do with the awakeners. When I crossed my arms and hinted at it, Sa-young pulled out his clenched hand and shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t remember, but I think they said something about stopping the apocalypse.”

“The apocalypse?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t listen closely enough to the bullshit.”

The apocalypse. Right after the Rift Day, there were quite a few humans who cried out that the apocalypse had come. But that was already 11 years ago. In an age where we can know in advance when and where the rifts will open, are there still people like that?

Sa-young seemed to have a sour attitude, whether he meant it or not.

“Anyway, I don’t have a favor to ask of my hyung right now.”

He shoved the dagger and the empty bottle of nectar into his inventory. Then he got up from his seat, touched his clothes, and added with a nuance that he would go now.

“Let’s take care of the hunter registration first, and I’ll send someone over here tomorrow.”

“Okay. Oh, and one more thing.”

As one eyebrow was raised as if there was more business left, I pointed to the black-melted table.

“Take care of the table.”

“…….”

It would not do to seat guests at a table that had been poisoned. Sa-young’s purple eyes looked this way with the meaning of ‘Are you serious?’ but I firmly pointed my finger at the table with an expression of indecision.

It is said that the place where a beautiful person stayed is also beautiful, but your temper is far from beautiful, so it was a silent pressure to do something about it.

Eventually, Sa-young was able to leave, but only after putting the broken table in his inventory.

Even after Lee Sa-young came and went, the early morning at the haejangguk was bustling as usual with customers having breakfast before work. Of course, Bae Won-woo was among them.

Yawning, Bae Won-woo arrived at the haejangguk house, and stood still by the door for a moment, squinting. For some reason, the restaurant seemed more crowded than usual.

“Huh? Did the table decrease?”

“What? That’s true.”

The other hunter, who had walked past him, glanced inside and nodded that it was indeed the case. He also did not forget to give thumbs up and admire Bae Won-woo’s sharp eyes.

“No wonder it looked a little empty. Part-timer, where’s the table that was here?”

“…….”

‘You’re quick-witted only at times like this. Why don’t you do this on a normal basis?’

The hunter was blind when he needed to be, but he was quick to notice the smallest things. After a long, wistful glance at the empty center of the shop, I replied.

“I thought the table leg was going to break… I put it away for now.”

Working at haejangguk house was all about lying, but the hunters knew there was more to it than that when they saw his sweet face. As they all wondered what was going on, one of the hunters cautiously said,

“No way… what kind of bloody hunter broke the table?”

Yes, I’m number one. I did not answer, but my face filled with excellence was nothing short of a positive meaning. The brash hunter tried to slam the table, but he nimbly angled and hit his thigh. He couldn’t be on par with the guy who was supposed to have broken the table.

“Shit, this is why hunter bashing is a social problem.”

“What kind of motherfucker do you think you are? Do you know how fragile our haejangguk house tables are?”

“We’re already running out of seats!”

“Just tell us who you are, and we’ll take care of him for you.”

Repeated criticism poured out at someone who touched the small and precious haejangguk house of the hunters. The main character of the last sentence was Bae Won-woo.

‘You can’t take care of Lee Sa-young.’

I’m not a seer, but I can see his future being stripped down to a speck of dust by Lee Sae-young, which makes my face even more pained. Bae Won-woo, the man of loyalty among the guys, would have said that to be reliable, but it was rather counterproductive. The sadness on his face doubled because he spit out a piece of blood at dawn and his face looked pale today.

Hunters who were buzzing began to console Ui-jae.

“Don’t be sad, part-timer.”

“I’m going to have our guild craftsman make us a damn sturdy table.”

“Why don’t you change the table and chairs while you’re at it, and we’ll collect the money.”

They were really worried about haejangguk house, or maybe it was a sense of urgency that the fight for seats at mealtime would become more intense. I laughed off the hunters’ offer, a mixture of genuine concern and private anger at the lack of seating.

“Ha ha… I don’t need it.”