Chapter 20

Chapter 20

[Community: Hunter House - Awakened Chat Room]

Title: Is it true I just saw Kang Ji-hyun at the entrance of [Bucheon Abandoned Warehouse Dungeon]? (Photo)

Author: RoseQueenJiHyun | Views: 38,201 | Likes: 245

Wow, shit... looks like our Ji-hyun-unnie finally came back!!! ㅠㅠㅠ

She disappeared for a while, then suddenly showed up and started swinging a staff around. Her presence is still insane.

But who are the men and the kid beside her? They’re all faces I’ve never seen before...

They don’t have any guild marks, and not a single article came out, so I’m way too curious.

[412 comments]

Anon1: That really is Kang Ji-hyun? Wow, it’s been so long ㅠㅠ But what’s with the visuals of the men beside her?

Anon2: That tall guy over there is wearing a mask, but his physique and aura are no joke... Handsome energy is coming through the mask.

Anon3: ㄴFor real, based on the masked guy’s aura alone, he’s at least actor-level. He looked insanely cool shooting water in a suit.

Anon4: The guy beside him who somehow feels like a priest is crazy too lol. He uses gravity, but his face is seriously holy itself.

Title: Guys, does seriously no one know the affiliation of that “Kang Ji-hyun party” spotted today?

Author: Hunter Appraiser | Views: 25,302 | Likes: 30

Does anyone know why Kang Ji-hyun is going around with rookies?

The combination is seriously unusual.

Kang Ji-hyun: First-generation top-class Witch. Needs no explanation.

Masked guy: Can’t see his face because he’s wearing a mask, but his aura is practically celebrity-level. Seems to be a Water-Attribute Hunter.

Priest-style guy: A Gravity Caster, but his vibe is way too clean and holy.

Kid: A Curse-line kid Hunter.

The four of them always move around stuck together, but I don’t see any guild or Manager handling this team.

[124 comments]

Anon1: I saw them at the Dungeon entrance today too, but I didn’t see anyone like a CEO or Manager. They were only moving by themselves.

Anon2: There’s no way Kang Ji-hyun joined a new company... Don’t tell me Kang Ji-hyun founded a guild?

Anon3: I’m seriously curious about the masked guy’s identity lol. Just his eyes are enough to make me stan, so why is he covering his face?

Anon4: The biggest mystery is that not a single article comes out about this team. Is it a mystique concept?

Title: Is the “masked guy” beside Ji-hyun-unnie possibly a rookie Hunter? (Aura summary)

Author: Hunterfan Convert | Views: 31,481 | Likes: 110

Ji-hyun-unnie’s team was spotted again today near [Underground Shopping District Dungeon]!

When everyone else was focused on Kang Ji-hyun and that priest-like person, I was looking only at the masked guy lol.

His face is completely covered, so I don’t know who he is, but the way he stands and his aura are seriously cool.

Should I say he feels like a protagonist with a story? The way he swings streams of water around isn’t ordinary.

Did Ji-hyun-unnie really create this team?

[82 comments]

Anon1: Kang Ji-hyun didn’t create it. But seriously, there’s not even a single piece of info about that team lol. I heard it’s Management Gyeol, but nobody knows who the CEO is or where the office is.

Anon2: Maybe the CEO doesn’t come to the field at all? Usually, with a team like this, the CEO would follow them around and promote them.

Anon3: I seriously wonder why the masked guy keeps covering his face... Later, he even wore a hat. It’s too covered up to call it mystique.

Anon4: That team’s little Kang Hoon is cute too ㅠㅠ Ji-hyun-unnie really takes care of the baby lol

Title: The biggest mystery in the current Hunter scene: Kang Ji-hyun’s agency

Author: FactChecker | Views: 21,302 | Likes: 65

They took in a huge name like Kang Ji-hyun.

They put together a combination of intense-aura masked guy + holy gravity handsome man + Curse kid.

But they don’t publish even a single promotional article.

The CEO doesn’t show his nose, and the kids just keep running Dungeons by themselves.

Either this agency has a ton of money, or the CEO has ridiculous confidence.

[45 comments]

Anon1: I’ll bet my entire fortune on the masked guy’s identity. He’s definitely a handsome rookie.

Anon2: I heard the CEO’s name is “Go Gyeol”? I want to see his face once lol. How did he gather a team like that?

Anon3: Looks like they won’t publish a single article until the Tower opens lol. They’re really doing mystique marketing properly.

Anon4: What is the CEO doing! Row when the water comes in!!

After the first Dungeon clear successfully ended, the reward paid by the System was more substantial than expected.

[Main Mission: Arcadia Shopping Mall Clear Reward]

Reward: 20 Gold

Current Gold: 100 Gold

He had finally broken into three digits. But Go Gyeol could not simply be happy.

“Fewer Missions are appearing than I expected.”

Unlike the tutorial Missions that had poured in immediately after his Regression, after finishing the first real battle, the System maintained a strange silence. Go Gyeol tried calling the System by knocking on the depths of his consciousness, but unlike usual, there was not even an answer.

As he stared out the window, wondering what the reason could be, the office door opened roughly.

-CREEEAK!

When Go Gyeol lifted his head, some black shadow was standing at the entrance. It was Lee Seong-ha, dressed in a long, trailing black cassock. He slammed the large leather bag he was carrying onto the table with a bang, then threw himself onto the sofa.

“……What’s with the sudden cosplay? Are you going back to the church or something?”

When Go Gyeol asked with a crooked smile, Lee Seong-ha roughly mussed his hair with a deeply distorted face.

“Don’t even get me started. Those old men at the Vatican are stubborn beyond belief. They say I can’t leave the priesthood even if I die, or something like that.”

“So?”

“I got conditional permission for Hunter activities. But only if I wear priestly robes whenever I’m active. And I have to maintain the title ‘Hunter of the Vatican.’ Does this fucking make sense? I’m supposed to roll around in dirt inside Dungeons wearing this long, trailing outfit?”

Go Gyeol chuckled as he looked at the hem of Lee Seong-ha’s clothing sprawled across the sofa.

“It’s for promotion. A handsome young priest beating monsters to death. I can hear the donations from believers rolling in from here.”

“……Shut up. I’m already embarrassed enough to die.”

Lee Seong-ha muttered while covering his face with both hands. Seeing that he could not deny it, it seemed he had already grasped the situation himself. Go Gyeol propped his chin up and pointed at the bag on the table.

“Still, if they’re making you the promotional face, they must have handed you something. What’s in that bag?”

Lee Seong-ha waved his hand as if annoyed.

“Take it and look. Carrying that thing around is work too.”

Curious, Go Gyeol approached and undid the buckle of the heavy leather bag. The moment the bag opened, a faint white mana filled the office.

Inside the bag, finely crafted sacred implements were arranged neatly.

The first thing that entered his eyes was “Benedict’s Silver Thurible(Thurible).” The thurible, cast from pure-white platinum, was engraved with an intricate relief of Saint Michael the Archangel trampling Satan, and the transparent jewels embedded between them gave off a sacred gleam.

Beside it lay the “Cross Staff of the Seven Stigmata.” The upper part was shaped like a cross decorated with brilliant gold leaf, but the lower part had a sharp, solid steel tip more than enough to pierce a monster’s heart. It was bizarre yet sublime equipment where merciful salvation and merciless judgment coexisted.

“……This isn’t a simple promotional ornament.”

Go Gyeol’s eyes narrowed. Even without artifact appraisal eyes, he could feel it. These items were steeped heavily in the “sacred blessing” the Vatican had accumulated over hundreds of years.

“They told me to carry that around and recite prayers. People will go wild, won’t they? At the sight of a holy priest swinging an incense burner and purifying demons.”

Lee Seong-ha muttered while staring at the ceiling as if he had given up on everything.

“But, Go Gyeol.”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t know how to use this. Am I just supposed to smash heads with it?”

Looking at Lee Seong-ha, who was trying to solve things with muscle by swinging a holy thurible, Go Gyeol frowned slightly.

“Didn’t the head priest who gave that to you tell you how to use it? It’s a sacred implement, at least in name.”

At Go Gyeol’s question, Lee Seong-ha stared at the silver thurible inside the bag as if looking at something disgusting and answered.

“Tell me? He just threw it into my arms like he was handing over a plague-ridden rat bastard, then said he was busy and sprinted away.”

“…….”

Go Gyeol fell silent for a moment. He could clearly see that even a high-ranking priest of the Vatican had run away because he did not know how to use it. It was clearly “passing the bomb.” Go Gyeol clicked his tongue and put the sacred implements back into the bag.

Lee Seong-ha suddenly lifted his head with a serious expression and asked in a voice filled with despair.

“Hey, Go Gyeol. I’m asking because I’m genuinely curious…… Was what you said last time true? That once we enter the Tower, everything we do, fighting and resting, gets broadcast outside through a broadcasting system?”

“Yeah. Once a ‘Channel’ opens, viewers around the world watch in real time. They send donations too.”

“Ughhhhh……!”

Lee Seong-ha let out a beastlike groan and clutched his head.

“Then I’m screwed! Fuck, I’m screwed! Inside the Tower, whether I’m eating, sleeping, or cracking a monster’s head, I have to act like a benevolent priest? All twenty-four hours? Calling everyone sister and brother?”

“Your concept is clear. That’s good. Your viewer ratings will be huge.”

“You bastard worse than Satan!”

Lee Seong-ha exploded, sprang up from the sofa like a coil, and grabbed Go Gyeol by the collar. Then he began shaking Go Gyeol’s body back and forth.

“This is all your fault! If it weren’t for you! If you hadn’t come to find me that day and filled my head with nonsense, I would be quietly drinking Mass wine in the church basement right now! Give me back my peaceful unemployed life!”

Even while being held by the collar, Go Gyeol did not change expression and smiled faintly. He lightly tapped the hand shaking him and said,

“Why worry so much? If the benevolent priest concept doesn’t suit you and feels hard, just change it.”