Chapter 14

Chapter 14

There, 200ml milk cartons with yellow Post-it notes bearing the clumsy words “Stay strong!” were lined up neatly. Their expiration dates had long since passed, but not a single speck of dust had settled on those milk cartons. As if they were wiped down every day, that space alone was clean like a sanctuary.

“…There is.”

His voice was as small as a mosquito. But that tiny sound was enough to cut through the heavy air inside the room.

---

It had not been long since he moved here as if fleeing.

One day, a knock came from beyond the firmly shut front door.

Knock. Knock.

No one knew he was here. He held his breath. He thought the nightmare had come looking for him. But the next day, and the day after that, the knocking came without fail. It was strange to call it a visit. Just two knocks, then silence.

At the continued strange visits, he finally gathered his courage and opened the door. There was no one outside. Instead, a single 200ml carton of milk with a yellow Post-it note stuck to it sat there by itself.

When he first saw the milk, he was seized by fear. The fact that someone had discovered his hiding place. The anxiety that reporters, or the people cursing him, might come rushing in at any moment made him pull the blanket over himself and tremble.

But then three days, four days, a week, and a month passed that way.

Every morning, the sound of knocking came, but no one ever opened his door and came in. Only silence and the milk, freshly bought and beaded with droplets, with a yellow Post-it note attached, came to visit him.

By the time fear turned into familiarity, and familiarity into a strange sense of relief, Kwon Do-geun brought the milk from the door into the house for the first time. Then, without realizing it, he found the cleanest place in the room, wiped away the dust, and carefully set the milk down. From that day on, one by one, quiet comforts began piling up in his small sanctuary every day.

After hearing Kwon Do-geun’s confession, a warm smile spread across Lee Seong-ha’s lips. It was a smile that seemed to fully understand the meaning contained in his small sanctuary.

“But we didn’t come here to endure with you.”

At those words, Kwon Do-geun lifted his head with a puzzled face. Was it not comfort and sympathy? As if seeing through his thoughts, Lee Seong-ha continued.

“We came here to fight with you. My friend’s motto is, ‘When trials come, tear them apart.’”

It was not a funny phrase at all. If anything, it was almost savage. And yet, a dry laugh slipped from Kwon Do-geun’s lips. Perhaps it was because of the unfamiliarity of the word resistance, which he had forgotten for far too long.

Lee Seong-ha did not miss that small change and continued speaking.

“How about listening to what he has to say? He may look like that, but he’s pretty smart. Smart enough that he never reaches for anything he isn’t certain of.”

The “that guy” he spoke of was Go Gyeol, outside the door. Kwon Do-geun briefly recalled Go Gyeol’s face. Cold, sharp, with eyes that seemed to see through everything. Whether Lee Seong-ha knew what Kwon Do-geun was thinking or not, he added his own evaluation of Go Gyeol.

“That bastard is beyond simply good at studying. If that brilliant mind of his had gone even one handspan off course, he might have put the Republic of Korea under his own dictatorship.”

Lee Seong-ha thought that inwardly and shook his head. Go Gyeol’s strategy and judgment surpassed imagination to that extent. That was why Lee Seong-ha had been able to immediately accept the fact that Go Gyeol had been a Hunter Manager in his previous life.

If he himself had been a Hunter, he would have been a Hunter who ate the world alive.

“That bastard should’ve Awakened instead of me.”

After briefly drifting into other thoughts, Lee Seong-ha gave Kwon Do-geun, who was staring blankly at him, the smile that had made old ladies go wild when he was a priest.

“It doesn’t hurt to listen, does it?”

Lee Seong-ha drove in the final wedge.

“And… aren’t you curious how that bastard knew about your situation? Honestly, I’m incredibly curious.”

Those words once again sent ripples through Kwon Do-geun’s heart. That was right. How? The man outside the door had declared the unfair circumstances that Kwon Do-geun had thought no one would ever know, as if he had seen everything himself. It was the most fundamental question, one he had forgotten after being swallowed by despair.

Curiosity began to push fear away. It was a very small spark, but inside him, where everything had been dying out, something began to burn again.

Kwon Do-geun nodded very slowly, but clearly.

He was curious too. How that man knew the truth of the hellish incident that had taken everything from him. And perhaps, just a little, he wanted to know what the “fight” that man spoke of was.

“Come in.”

The old front door opened with a friction sound. Lee Seong-ha peeked his head through the crack in the door, wearing a triumphant smile. Seeing that sight, Go Gyeol’s brow furrowed mercilessly.

“Tsk.”

Go Gyeol clicked his tongue lightly and stepped inside. As soon as he entered, he kicked the grinning Lee Seong-ha lightly in the rear.

“Ah! You crazy bastard! I help you, and this is how you treat me!!”

“Shut up and finish cleaning the room.”

Crossing the living room that was not yet fully cleared, Go Gyeol snapped curtly.

Go Gyeol sat down across from him.

“Shall we talk now?”

At the calm question, the man still lowered his head and gave a small nod. A silent signal that he was finally ready to talk.

As if he had been waiting, Go Gyeol took a business card from his pocket and slid it across the table.

A name printed on a simple black card.

[Hunter Management ‘Gyeol(結)’ CEO Go Gyeol]

“…I am.”

The moment Kwon Do-geun opened his mouth to say something, Go Gyeol’s low but firm voice cut him off.

“Listen to what I have to say first.”

His gaze pierced sharply through Kwon Do-geun.

“I won’t say sweet things like I’ll clear the disgrace you’re carrying right this instant, or return you beneath the dazzling spotlight. But give me exactly two years. Within two years, I’ll wash away every last disgrace that has bound you, without leaving even ashes behind. After that, whether you return as an actor or live as a Hunter, that will be up to you.”

Only then did Kwon Do-geun slowly raise his head. In the eyes revealed between his shaggy hair, there was not hope, but deep doubt. How could he clear the disgrace from his days as an actor by living as a Hunter? It was not something common sense could understand.

But Go Gyeol had no intention of explaining further. Even if he spoke a hundred words now, to this man driven to the edge of a cliff, they would only sound like an empty dream.

“The road is already laid. All you have to do is walk it.”

After the message telling him to recruit Kwon Do-geun appeared, Go Gyeol had carefully arranged the board because he did not want disgrace splashed onto the team he had built.

On the board Go Gyeol had laid, the future where Kwon Do-geun shook off every stain of disgrace and rose again had no variables.

And once Kwon Do-geun himself actually walked that road, his distrust would naturally turn into conviction.

“…Are you… scouting me as a Hunter?”

At last, Kwon Do-geun’s locked voice flowed out.

“Yes.”

Go Gyeol answered without hesitation. At his firmness, Kwon Do-geun’s eyes shook uneasily.

“But I… have never done Hunter work….”

Of course, he had Awakened. However, his true profession was actor.

Showing his ability in broadcasting station interviews or variety programs for people’s interest had been the entirety of it. He had never once entered a real Dungeon where monsters swarmed.

“You don’t have to worry about that.”

Go Gyeol’s smiling eyes gleamed faintly. For some reason, a chill ran through Kwon Do-geun, and he tilted his head.

“What do you think? Will you sign a contract with me?”

---

A blue, translucent message window appeared in the air.

[Mission 8: Recruit ‘Kwon Do-geun’ - Success!]

[Mission success reward granted.]

[5 Gold granted.]

As Go Gyeol looked at it numbly, a low sigh slipped from his mouth. With this, the first Hunter recruitment Mission was complete. He did not know when another troublesome recruitment Mission would drop, but for now, he felt relieved that he had gotten over one hurdle.

“Four Hunters in a company with nothing else. Is your bank balance safe?”

Lee Seong-ha, holding the wheel, glanced at Go Gyeol through the rearview mirror and asked. His voice was half worry and half mockery.

“You’re the same, but those two don’t have signing bonuses, so it’s fine.”

Just like entertainment agencies in the entertainment industry, Hunter management agencies also needed massive signing bonuses to recruit skilled Hunters. However, Kang Ji-hyun and Kwon Do-geun, whom he had recruited this time, had stamped their contracts without signing bonuses due to their respective circumstances, so Go Gyeol’s hefty bank account could remain safe.

Go Gyeol, who had answered without thinking, suddenly narrowed his eyes.

“Why four? Isn’t it three?”

“Wow, look at this bastard’s character. Are you leaving out our tiny little Kang Hoon? Poor Kang Hoon, meeting the wrong owner like this.”

“Ah, I forgot.”

At Lee Seong-ha’s exaggerated grumbling, Go Gyeol answered briefly, as though only then remembering.

He had certainly scouted Kang Hoon, but because Kang Hoon was still young and impossible to deploy in real combat immediately, Go Gyeol had not considered him part of their immediate fighting force and had completely forgotten him. He leaned deep into the seat.

Lee Seong-ha glanced at the comfortably sprawled Go Gyeol and opened his mouth again.

“So scouting is all done now, right?”

“For the time being. Unless the System demands it, I won’t scout anyone else. If the number of people increases, managing them becomes a pain.”

“System.” It was a secret known only to Go Gyeol and Lee Seong-ha. Before everything had been reversed, in the life before his Regression, the Hunters in the management agency Go Gyeol led numbered six in total.

“How many were there before the Regression?”

“Six.”

Three S-Grades and three A-Grades. Among them, two of the S-Grades were talents Go Gyeol had personally discovered when they were A-Grades and raised with blood and sweat. But in the end, they had driven daggers into his back. The bitter memory of that betrayal remained vivid even now after his Regression, stabbing into his heart.

“Then are there two empty slots left?”

“Who knows? It depends on how many more people the System tells me to bring in.”

That was when it happened.

The very moment Go Gyeol finished answering, a new message window flashed into existence before his eyes.

[Mission 9. Train your Hunters.]

Train your Hunters in the designated Dungeon.

Location: Shindorim Station S-Grade Dungeon.

Time Limit : 2 days 23 hours 59 seconds