Inside the empty hangover soup restaurant after business hours. Cha Eui-jae was deep in thought, staring intently at his cell phone while sitting at a clean table. On the screen was a series of questions and answers on JisikON, filled with numerous replies and comments.
"If it's a well-known hunter and there's solid evidence, the Bureau's hunter will come directly."
Cha Eui-jae slumped onto the table. Damn it, the problem was that South Korean public officials worked too diligently. It seemed impossible to handle this quietly once reported. Reporting Lee Sa-young for business disruption might even bring the head of the Awakened Management Bureau directly.
With a deeply furrowed brow, Cha Eui-jae scrolled down the screen with his finger. The frivolous comments below the helpful answer he had just read were mostly impractical. What? Reveal his initials? Sorry, but if I recklessly expose him, South Korea could be split in half.
That's the nature of being ranked number one. His every move sparked endless debates between those who criticize and those who defend him. Cha Eui-jae knew this well from past experience. No matter how obnoxious Lee Sa-young was, causing an internet eruption just to make himself comfortable was out of the question.
A magic stone recorder was too expensive, and he would never do an interview unless he was crazy. As Cha Eui-jae scrolled down further, he unconsciously banged his head on the table. Startled by the noise, he checked the table, relieved that it wasn't cracked. Rubbing the spot on his forehead where it had hit, he flipped his phone over and slumped back down.
'Damned if you do, damned if you don't…'
The reason for Cha Eui-jae's dilemma…
Was none other than a certain pesky bastard who had stormed into his peaceful life as a part-time worker at a hangover soup restaurant.
***
As a famous hunter eatery, the hangover soup restaurant had quite a few guilds that pre-paid for their meals. Many hunters found carrying cards cumbersome and often had to dash out without even putting down their spoons when sudden calls came. It was a common practice.
When Cha Eui-jae first started working, he was taught about the pre-payment ledger. So, pre-payments were nothing new. But he could guarantee that no one had ever crazily offered to pre-pay 15 million won on the spot like Lee Sa-young did. Who on earth considers 15 million won a trivial amount?
Cha Eui-jae glared daggers at Bae Won-woo, who had brought along this troublemaker.
'Stop this crazy bastard.'
That's the gist of his glare.
Bae Won-woo jumped 0.5 cm in place, and— or maybe it was just in Cha Eui-jae's thoughts— seemed to catch the meaning behind his sharp look like an upgraded artificial intelligence and earnestly tried to dissuade Lee Sa-young.
"Let's pay and get back to the guild. Didn't you say you were super busy?"
"Not really."
"Don't you have to go to the Awakened Management Bureau? Aren't you meeting Jung Bin?"
"I can postpone it."
Even facing an interview with the Awakened Management Bureau, which others would dread, Lee Sa-young remained unperturbed. Bae Won-woo, feeling desperate, changed his approach and spoke with a hint of personal desire.
"Hey, instead of pre-paying 15 million won, buy me new armor. There'll be an equipment auction in Songdo by Hong Ye-seong."
"How can you buy equipment with just 15 million won? Are you a beggar?"
Wow… so obnoxious.
Every word out of his annoying mouth was a work of art. Not only Cha Eui-jae, but all the hunters who heard the conversation likely thought the same. Cha Eui-jae hoped that Lee Sa-young's card would melt away that night, just like the precious 6,900 won ladle that melted gloriously… Cha Eui-jae was standing firm, refusing to take the card when Bae Won-woo shouted bravely.
"…5 million!"
"Huh?"
"Just swipe for 5 million. We'll come here often for meals with the team. 15 million is too much."
"Hmm."
"With 15 million, you could eat hangover soup three times a day for 333 days!"
'I could manage that. You already do that anyway.' As Lee Sa-young stared at Bae Won-woo incredulously, he glanced at Cha Eui-jae. As their eyes met, Cha Eui-jae quickly flashed the smile of a weary part-timer. Hurry up and swipe. That's the gist.
Pretending to contemplate for a moment, Lee Sa-young nodded.
"Alright…"
He slammed his card into the machine, maintaining eye contact with Cha Eui-jae, adding,
"Let me know when you finish it. I'll pre-pay again."
Just leave already.
Lee Sa-young swiped 5 million won and left surprisingly easily, almost as if paying for the day's ruined business. It was an anticlimactic departure compared to the intense encounter. Would he come back at night? Just in case, Cha Eui-jae stood by all night in his small room with a ladle. He was ready to confront him if he saw a single hair of his head.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Lee Sa-young did not return that night. Instead,
"Mmm… sth, sth…"
"Sorry, what?"
"Mmmph… mmm… sth, sth…"
"Yeah, that's right."
Since that day, he started coming regularly like clockwork to eat hangover soup!
Ignoring Bae Won-woo's whispered curses and only responding to Cha Eui-jae's grinding teeth, Lee Sa-young took out a disposable cutlery set from thin air. He even brought his own utensils to avoid deducting the cost from his pre-paid amount. Couldn't he also bring a clay pot? Damn it. How does his inventory hold up?
Okay, let's assume his inventory holds up and he had spare disposable cutlery. Maybe he genuinely developed a taste for hangover soup.
However, the empty tables surrounding Lee Sa-young every time he appeared were intolerable. The notoriously self-centered and uncooperative hunters were diligently practicing social distancing without being told! Cha Eui-jae chuckled bitterly.
'Damn it, this is clearly business interference.'
The pride of the hangover soup restaurant was its high turnover rate and low prices, but every time Lee Sa-young showed up, an "Exclusion Zone" appeared, turning it into a disaster. Forget turnover, even sales plummeted. Thanks to die-hard hangover soup fans, the restaurant was barely scraping by… But at this rate, they might lose even their regulars.
As a result, Cha Eui-jae had been researching online about hunter abuse, hunter crime reporting laws, and the Awakened Special Law, and had finally concluded.
'To resolve this… I either need to become a hunter again or get some money!'
It might seem like a sudden outburst, but Cha Eui-jae had his reasons.
To expose Lee Sa-young's misdeeds, solid evidence was required. Vague testimony alone might backfire, accusing him of falsely smearing the top-ranked hunter in Korea.
The most reliable way was to release a recording of Lee Sa-young's misdeeds. But, as a JisikON answerer pointed out, a regular recorder wouldn't even come close to capturing evidence against an S-grade hunter. S-grade hunters could easily detect and destroy a recorder or camera.
So, he needed a recorder made from dungeon materials or one that couldn't be detected… But these items were not only hard to find,
'They're damn expensive.'
When he was Hunter J, he didn't realize it, but items made from dungeon materials were ridiculously pricey. For a modest hangover soup restaurant part-timer, they were impossible to afford!
He was content receiving a modest portion of the restaurant's profits as his wage, which was more than enough. He didn't need much— just a few sets of clothes and a pair of sneakers to rotate. If Lee Sa-young hadn't barged into his second life, he wouldn't be worrying about this.
…Should he register as a hunter?
Going to the Awakened Center to measure his abilities and get ranked was all it took, but… what if the data of J, which he didn't know about, still existed? And what if he couldn't control his power during the measurement? What if he accidentally broke the measuring device?
His peaceful life would be over. For someone hiding their strength, that was too much. The only relief was that when he awakened, the Awakened Management Bureau didn't exist, and when he did register, he received special treatment as J, skipping the identification process, so there was no need for fake IDs.
"If it weren't for that bastard Lee Sa-young…"
Lately, Cha Eui-jae had been gradually understanding why other hunters avoided getting close to Lee Sa-young. He was like a snake, circling its prey and slowly constricting it.
Even though he could have outright threatened him after that night, he kept coming back, subtly pressuring him. What was he thinking? Since his first visit, Lee Sa-young hadn't asked Cha Eui-jae's name again. Did he already know his identity or not?
Lee Sa-young's actions were like poking still water with a finger. The previously calm water would ripple greatly with just a small movement. Even without major damage, this constant probing was…
Annoying.
It felt like his territory was being invaded. Staring blankly, his face contorted, Cha Eui-jae unconsciously reached into his inventory.
The inventory was filled with empty potion bottles. They were all from the West Sea rift. He should have thrown them away, but he kept putting it off. There were also items he had picked up from the rift: a black longsword and a Basilisk's Fang. Gaze lingering on the Basilisk's Fang, Cha Eui-jae shifted his attention to something else. Among the potion bottles, something shiny caught his eye.
A golden gem, about half the size of his thumb.
It was a magic stone.
In the past, he had neither used nor sold the magic stones, leaving them somewhere in his inventory or tucked away at home. But these days, magic stones seem to be widely used, don't they? From what he had overheard from regulars at the hangover soup restaurant, quite a few pieces of equipment were made by processing magic stones.
"…Should I sell one?"
If he sold this, he could probably buy a decent recorder.
Cha Eui-jae stealthily took out a magic stone from his inventory and started polishing it with his apron.