"Hey, Little Savior. Are you trying to sleep now?"
It was just as they had entered the swamp. Yoon Seo, who had just finished a fierce battle with the monsters and was resting with his friend, was suddenly accosted by a scruffy-looking man. Before Yoon Seo could respond, his friend stepped in.
"Ahjussi, aren't you Hunter Kim Hyung-tae? Leave Chaeyoon alone. He's tired."
"There you go again. Are you his manager or something?"
"And stop calling him 'Little Savior'. You know he hates that nickname."
"Can't he speak for himself? Why do you always have to be his spokesperson? And when are you going to take off that mask? Are you glaring at us from behind it or what, huh?"
Though the words were confrontational, the tone and the glint in his eyes were playful. If it had been a real fight, Yoon Seo would have responded, but since it wasn't, he just ignored the man and turned his back to him. The blatant disregard made the man shout in frustration, and Yoon Seo's friend quickly stepped in front of him.
"Kim-seonsaengnim, leave the ace alone and come help with the cleanup."
"Why are you always picking on me? The little savior and Lee Do-min are both sleeping."
"Chaeyoon and Do-min worked hard both above and below the swamp. If you have any decency, let them sleep."
"Yah, Kim Hyung-tae. Are you coming or not?"
"If you wake our ace, you're dead, old man."
"Ugh, everyone's always on my case."
Grumbling, the man walked away. Yoon Seo's friend sighed and sat down beside him. Yoon Seo fell asleep, the scent of blood still in his nose.
The man died much later.
Kim Hyung-tae, with his lower body completely burned and black blood pouring from his mouth, grabbed Yoon Seo's hand.
"Cha...eyoon."
At that time, Yoon Seo's mask had broken, forcing him to show his face, but he hadn't revealed his real name. Since his friend had died, there was no one left to call him by his real name.
"Old man."
Yoon Seo held the man, who was now more bones than flesh. The once bear-like body was now emaciated, and his eyes were so clouded that he seemed to see nothing.
"You... kid, while others were dealing with the small fry... cough, you were just sleeping... and that mask... huh? If you're going to throw it away, give it to me... heh. I was going to sell it for a good price..."
The man struggled to lift his hand. Yoon Seo quickly grasped it.
"You were just a kid... cough."
The man could barely keep his eyes open. Yoon Seo swallowed the lump rising in his throat again and again. He didn't cry, fearing he wouldn't be able to witness the man's final moments clearly.
"I'm going to die soon, right? Chaeyoon..."
"....."
"I have a wish. Can you fulfill it for me?"
"....."
"Chaeyoon, when you get out..."
The man left his final words.
Eat 100 bowls of gukbap with pepper for me.
It was such an absurd last request that it made Yoon Seo's tears retreat.
"Old man, I even kept that ridiculous last request of yours. I ate so much gukbap with pepper that I got sick of it. So please, stop haunting my thoughts."
Muttering like the old man once did, Yoon Seo got out of the car. The sun was still blazing, so he raised his hand to shade his eyes.
"Are you from Nakyup?"
An employee from Daejeong Securities, who had been waiting, approached Yoon Seo immediately. Yoon Seo quickly bowed and composed his expression.
Even from a distance, it was clear that the Rainbow Guild's shield trap was in a dire state.
Unlike the lengthy installation process, maintaining a shield trap usually took about an hour for one person. However, despite two people working on it for two hours, they had only managed to restore 30% of it. Park Young-beom and Go Hee-won, who were nearly dead from exhaustion and depleted mana, rushed to Yoon Seo with tears in their eyes as soon as he arrived.
"You're here, our team's ace. I thought I wouldn't be able to go home today."
"Oppa, why are you so late?"
"I came as quickly as I could."
Yoon Seo deftly dodged the two rushing at him and immediately inspected the trap. In truth, there was no need to inspect it. The trap was large, as it was for a fifty-story building, but Yoon Seo had already identified the problem the moment he parked his car.
"The mana injection stage for the components was done incorrectly. At this rate, it won't last a month."
"As expected, you figured it out at a glance. They probably planned to sell replacements under the guise of poor maintenance. Those bastards from the fifth-ranked guild in the Republic of Korea, damn them."
"Those Rainbow bastards need to get stoned to death someday. Their thuggish behavior has gone too far. Instead of keeping quiet, we should report them somewhere."
"Exactly. Where have all the brave Awakened in the Republic of Korea gone?"
"Reporting it to the media won't help, but it would be great if a video of it got posted on HunterNet."
"How about we become the brave whistleblowers? I don't have a HunterNet ID, so let's use Hee-won's."
"Boss, signing up for HunterNet is super easy. I'll sign you up. You'll go down in history as a brave whistleblower."
"Oh, I forgot. Look, Hee-won, my phone's camera lens is broken, so we'll have to use yours."
"Oh, boss, what should we do? My screen is completely broken."
Yoon Seo looked at the two, who were using their skill to break their phone lenses and screens, with disdain. Even in this situation, they seemed to have saved some mana for fighting. Clicking his tongue, Yoon Seo turned his attention back to the trap.
In truth, it would only take him ten seconds to fix it...
He glanced at his watch. 4:12 PM. Quitting time was at six.
I guess I'll have to stretch it out for two hours.
Yoon Seo began to channel his mana and moved his fingers.
He failed. He couldn't match the target time.
Yoon Seo finished the trap repair at 5:30 PM. Dragging out the time was indeed a difficult task for a worker with only thirty minutes left until quitting time.
"Even with the two of us working for two hours, we only managed to get 30% done. Ugh."
"He's always been unusually fast, hasn't he? Hmm."
As a result, Yoon Seo received piercing glares from Park Young-beom and Go Hee-won all the way to the guild dinner at the barbeque restaurant.
"It's really amazing. There are hardly any A/S requests for the jobs Yoon Seo Oppa handles. The Seokyeong Guild's installation team has a 20% repair rate, but Oppa's is barely 2%."
"I'm still amazed that Yoon Seo, with all his skills, keeps turning down promotions. He joined the guild just a month after it was founded, so he's practically a founding member. He's got the experience and the skills. Honestly, if it weren't for him turning down the Team Leader position, I wouldn't have gotten it. Even now, if he wants it, I'd gladly give it up."
"He says he doesn't want the position because it involves meetings with other guilds and entertaining clients. Yoon Seo Oppa would never be able to stand that. Oh, not that he's antisocial or anything. It's just that the more you get to know him, the more you grow fond of him. Anyway, the important thing is that Yoon Seo Oppa is a genius."
"More like a hidden powerhouse nerd, if you ask me."
"A nerd? Team Leader, have you ever seen a nerd this handsome?"
"If you call him a hidden beauty, it doesn't sound like he's hiding anything."
"Let's just call him a hidden Hunter."
From experience, Yoon Seo knew that responding would only encourage them to spin more conspiracy theories, so he silently flipped the meat. After all, they weren't seriously doubting his identity; they were just teasing him.
"What are you all talking about?"
The sudden interjection came from Park Soo-bin, who had just returned from clearing a C-rank dungeon the previous day. Despite having joined the Nakyup Guild only a year ago, he had quickly became friends with everyone due to his excellent social skills.
"Oh, Lasbin Oppa."
"Just call me Soo-bin. We're off-duty."
Hunter name Lasbin, real name Park Soo-bin, smiled brightly.
Combat Hunters often use Hunter names. Some Hunters dislike being called by their real names and tend to look down on non-combat Hunters, referring to them dismissively as 'office Awakened'.
Park Soo-bin wasn't one of those types. The Nakyup Guild might not have the most skilled members, but it was full of good-hearted people. Yoon Seo always wondered where the Guild Master found such individuals.
"Oppa, sit here."
"Thanks."
Go Hee-won moved aside to make room for Park Soo-bin. With his bright brown curly hair bouncing, Park Soo-bin sat next to Yoon Seo and smiled warmly at him.
"Hello, Yoon Seo."
"Hello."
"You're still using formal speech. That hurts."
Park Soo-bin playfully squinted his eyes.
Ever since he joined the guild, Park Soo-bin had been oddly affectionate towards Yoon Seo. Recently, he even suggested, "Should we drop the formalities?" Yoon Seo firmly declined, saying he preferred formal speech, but Park Soo-bin was persistent. Despite his playful nature, he couldn't bring himself to speak informally to Yoon Seo, who always maintained a respectful tone. So, they ended up speaking formally to each other.
"So, what were you guys talking about?"
"Oh, it's just that our Yoon Seo Oppa finished repairing the traps in just an hour again today."
"He did it quickly last time too. It's so amazing that it's almost suspicious."
Go Hee-won and Park Young-beom eagerly boasted about Yoon Seo's achievements once more.
"I don't really get it. I've never repaired traps before. Can you explain it in terms of dungeon raids?"
"We've never done dungeon raids either, so we can't really compare."
"You two have never been inside a dungeon?"
"We did it in our early days of Awakening, but we couldn't contribute much... We went in twice and failed both times, so we switched to office work."
"I went in three times and then quit. It's been five years since I last entered a dungeon, and I'm still scared. I really respect the Dungeon Raid team."
Go Hee-won gave a thumbs up to the Dungeon Raid team members sitting diagonally across from him. They laughed and waved it off. Except for the raid team, the rest of the Nakyup Guild members were non-combat Hunters. Those who had both fear and curiosity about dungeons soon started asking various questions.
"Is it true that time doesn't pass inside a dungeon?"
"That's the oldest misconception. Time flows normally."
"What about the rumor that there are treasure chests with amazing items?"
"Oh, that's true. Finding one is like winning the lottery. You can get S-rank items from B-rank dungeons."
"Have you ever found one?"
"None of us have."
"If we had, we wouldn't be sitting here."
Everyone burst into laughter at one Hunter's lament. Yoon Seo was relieved that the topic had shifted and took a sip of his drink.
"What about you, Yoon Seo?"
Oh, right, Park Soo-bin was still next to him. Yoon Seo asked him back.
"What about me?"
"You've been to a dungeon too, right? Was it not your thing?"