The Girl I Saved Came Back As An S-rank Hunter

66 – Stranger

At that moment, goose bumps ran through my body. It was a proper fear that I hadn’t felt in a long time since the first time I faced Kang So-young’s sincere attack.

‘I didn’t even notice that I was approaching this close!’

Because it is near the generator, there could be attacks from monsters, including doppelgangers, so I stayed alert and kept all my senses open while listening to the story.

Nevertheless, I easily let that man go behind me, not even detecting his presence or magical power.

If Soyoung Kang had been the enemy she talked about throughout her training, she would have lost her life already.

“Whoa.”

Unlike me, who is nervous and vigilant, a man who calmly inhales a cigarette deeply and exhales it.

It’s not a beautiful style, but the manly appearance and the slightly crooked posture with a gun on his side matched very well.

“What are you looking at? Do you have something to do with me?”

After dropping the cigarette on the sandy ground and rubbing the embers with his foot, he said to me.

“Who are you? Why did you shoot all of a sudden?”

In response to my question, the man frowned and answered with a sense of energy.

“What bullsh*t. Just by looking at him, he looks like a hunter. You took care of the monsters instead, but are you saying that there is a problem?”

“The bullsh*t is what you do. That guy just looked like a human. If you were a human, what would you do?”

“I know someone as an idiot. Take a good look.”

The man took out a radar in the form of a round compass from his chest and held it out to me.

It was a tool I had seen before at the Hunter Science and Technology Fair. A discriminator made for monsters that change their appearance like a doppelganger.

I remember seeing that it was very expensive because it was a machine that had no reason to use it often and the manufacturing process was complicated, so it was a product that did not come out very often.

“If you ask me what this is….”

“I know it’s a machine that can distinguish monsters that transform into different shapes like doppelgangers.”

“Oh, you seem to have more knowledge than you look to recognize this expensive thing.”

The man smiles contentedly at the thought of having saved himself the trouble of explaining.

‘No matter how you look at it, he’s not a hunter.’

It’s not conceited, but I think it’s on a level where it can’t be defeated by anyone when it comes to detecting magical power.

Because even Kang Hyeon-seok acknowledged that he was similar to him or a little better.

There is no nameless person in the world of hunters who can calmly catch up with me.

In the end, he must be an individual like Kang So-yeong who lives by hiding his skills on purpose, or a mercenary who works by hiding his identity and is driven by money.

Listening to the radio conversation earlier, there is a high probability that it is the latter.

“… Who is your employer?”

“Oh, I wondered if I was an idiot when I saw him get angry at me for killing a monster instead, but seeing that he quickly guessed my identity, I guess I’m just an idiot.”

A man looking down at his messy, untidy beard as if he were having fun.

I didn’t like that gaze, so I raised my voice slightly and asked.

“So who are you!”

“I heard your head said the gate was open and told you to go here?”

“Head?”

When asked again, not knowing who he was talking about, he answered while drawing an exaggerated curve with his stomach.

“Don’t you know the old man at the top of the Hunter Association?”

Only then did I realize who I was talking about.

It was a story that he came under the direction of Ma Dong-sik, the president of the association. I immediately understood the reason why I was holding that expensive discrimination tool that there were only a few.

However, it is not without doubt.

‘How did you get here so quickly?’

Even if Sujeongi requested support, it arrived too early.

Originally, if you move a large number of people, it may take a little longer, but if you have a small number of people move quickly first like now, you can shorten the departure time much.

But even with that said, the arrival time is too fast.

In addition, it is also suspicious that this happened during a conversation with the doppelganger by coincidence.

In addition, the meticulousness of sending a detection tool as if he knew the existence of a doppelganger.

I can’t help but have reasonable doubts.

While I had those thoughts in my head, the man turned his back to me as if his business was over.

“Are your doubts gone now? I don’t know if you heard it just now, but I have to go to the place where the gate was created, so let’s go. You said you wouldn’t pay if you were late, that old man.”

At the words of a man who reaffirms that money moves him, I grabbed the man’s arm.

“Do you know what you just did? Maybe I’ve gotten rid of the clues that will get rid of the daily life that these loathsome monsters invade.”

At that, the man put on a bewildered expression, shook his arm, and snorted.

“Ha! Do hunters these days work by exchanging opinions with monsters? Uh?”

Then he strode over and grabbed my collar with one hand.

“Because there are hunters with a complacent heart like you, those who should be protected are harmed. Know? Listening to the bullsh*t the monsters are talking about, looking for ideals like floating clouds.”

A man who stares at me in the eyes and talks to me with a cold tone, without any careless attitude from before.

I didn’t respond to the sudden rough treatment.

From noble mtl dot com

There is nothing wrong with what the man said. Blindly believing and accepting the information provided by the monsters was obviously not a thing.

‘Still, if what the doppelganger said is true… ?’

According to what the doppelganger said a while ago, the truths we knew could actually be lies, and someone is covering up the truth.

It was a piece of information obtained in a short time, but there was also a shocking content that a person could open the gate, so if it is true, the repercussions of what will happen will never be small.

It was absolutely not a story worth just denying and letting go of.

“Tsk, are you trying to insist that you are right until the end when you had to save your doppelganger? I think I used my hair a bit.”

After silently staring at each other, the man clicked his tongue and loosened his grip on his collar.

I wondered if most of the mercenaries would use their strength if they were wrong, but it doesn’t seem like they’re going that far.

“You are right. That you can’t believe it all the time. But they weren’t just stories to pass on.”

“So what are you going to do by finding out the truth you are hiding? Do you want to reveal that and become a hero?”

At those words, the thoughts that I had been harboring in my heart since childhood and even after becoming a hunter came out on their own.

“… I don’t want the powerless to see the sad sight of losing a family member. I want to break the vicious cycle of being forced to suffer.”

I don’t know why you’re saying strange things to someone you’ve never seen before, but I felt like I had to say something.

A reality that many people, like me in childhood, can suddenly face at any time.

I am stronger than normal people now, but I will never forget the terrible experience of having to watch my family being trampled in front of me before I woke up.

I’ve been trying since I became a hunter to prevent that, but no matter how quickly I arrived at the scene, there were no victims.

By the way, information came out that humans could open the gate. That means that closing may also be possible.

In other words, it also meant that the damage caused by the gate could be prevented in advance.

“Whoops, was this guy with childlike thoughts? I didn’t know there would be another guy like this Hogu among Hunters.”

A man who doesn’t really react to my words, but later smiles lightly. But he wasn’t particularly mocking or anything like that. It was a mixture of bitterness and joy.

“… As we approach the truth, we’ll see how far that thought goes. What is your name?”

“Lee Won-woo.”

“Ah, he must have been on the Internet a lot lately. Then you know the secretary next to the guild man who has a smooth face but is not mean?”

Anyway, he seemed to be referring to Kang So-young, so he nodded his head to mean that he knew.

“Teacher tell me to live happily so that I don’t wail in the basement. If you tell me this, they will understand.”

“Yes. But what is your name?”

A man who smiles at my question. And said softly.

“We will meet again anyway. Let me know then Until then, please don’t die and stay alive.”

A man who lightly punches my chest like that, then turns around and walks away.

I wanted to hold on to it because it was a nuance that seemed to know something, but strangely I don’t feel like it.

It was because I could vaguely understand that the meaning of telling me at the end did not mean that I would simply tell you the name.

*

After that, I returned to the dorm and explained what had happened to Sujeongi and Kang Soyoung.

The more they explained, the more their expressions hardened, and they seemed to have a lot to think about.

“… So, it feels like the mercenaries dispatched by the association have already arrived, right?”

“Uh, no matter how much you think about it, don’t you think it’s too fast?”

In response to my question, Sujeongi brushed his hair and said.

“Yes…. That’s right. I asked for help from other guilds, but they all said they couldn’t afford it, so I contacted the association at the end, but it means that they came as if they had prepared in advance.”

“Even by hiring mercenaries.”

Sujeong-i wrinkles her forehead as if she found a troublesome problem at Kang So-yeong’s added words. And then he asked me

“So what happened to that man?”

“I let it go to the power plant. At first, he caught on because he was a little hot-tempered, but he was a formidable opponent, so I couldn’t rush into it.”

“Good job. If Wonwoo is at a level where it is difficult to detect, you have to be careful. In particular, the mercenary side is a place where you don’t know what kind of unusual people there are, so it’s right to be careful.”

“So what are we going to do?”

It is certain that the gate occurred, and the association had already formed a gate handling team through mercenaries, so there was no reason for us to step forward.

Of course, in terms of power, there are only two S-class members, so it will be a great help.

“Leave it to the association and let us stand by. I’ll contact you anyway.”

As I was agreeing with Sujeongi’s words, I suddenly remembered what the man had said and looked at Soyeong Kang and said,

“Come to think of it, it seems like he knows Secretary Kang? I see he is asking me to tell him the story.”

“… I don’t know any of the mercenaries.”

“I want Master to tell me to live happily and not to cry?”

At those words, Kang So-yeong dropped the ‘fox rain’ she was holding in her hand to the ground for the first time in front of my eyes.