The F-Rank Hunter Defies Fate Chapter 1.2

“Hah, fine. Do whatever you want, whatever.”

“Really? Then I should call you boss.”

It was sarcasm that anyone could hear, but Hyemin took it at face value. Cheolmin, looking at the beaming face, momentarily recalled his ex-wife who was probably living her life diligently somewhere.

He himself had never heard the words that he lacked tact, so where did something like that come from. Now he did not even have the energy to sigh.

“Hyemin.”

Grinding. Cheolmin, who put so much strength into his jaw that his teeth ground together, murmured his son’s name lowly.

“Yes, Father.”

Hyemin, who seemed utterly uninterested whether his father was suffering from a fit of anger or not, replied with a bright smile.

“Go out right now and find Baek Yoogeom! That guy is definitely up to something. It makes no sense that the one who never missed a raid is late by four days.”

Cheolmin had turned a blind eye to Yoogeom’s arrogant actions because Yoogeom was not negligent about his duties at least. Because Baek Yoogeom was the guy who would disappear like the wind and then return like a ghost right on the day of the raid.

However, this time was different. The guy who had been postponing the climb to the 79th floor had already not shown up for four days. Considering his abilities, one might think there could not possibly be anyone who could harm him, but on the other hand, a pitch-black anxiety slowly crept up.

Baek Yoogeom, the number one hunter in Korea

The power held by those three letters of his name was immense. If something happened to the guy who had been protecting the country right after awakening as a hunter, this country would shake from its roots.

“Come to think of it, the boss said he was bringing the tarot master.”

“Wh-what master?”

While a picture of world destruction was drawing in Cheolmin’s mind, Hyemin clapped his hands as if he had just remembered.

“Taro master. The reason he’s not entering the tower is probably because he doesn’t know what the lucky item is.”

Cheolmin grabbed the back of his neck at the feeling of his blood pressure rising sharply. What kind of absurd nonsense was this now.

“That kind of thing is the reason for postponing the climb?”

“Yes!”

“Aaah. Let go of this. Let go!”

It was just as Hyemin was nodding his head with a bright smile. A portal that all hunters would know formed, and someone dropped out of thin air.

The attire of the suddenly appeared young man was disheveled, even considering that it was summer. Moreover, with his neck stretched long to one side, he looked even more pitiful. The one mercilessly gripping someone else’s clothes was, as expected, Baek Yoogeom. If that had been all, one might think an innocent ordinary person had been caught up in it again, but this time it was a bit different.

“Don’t fall, so stay still.”

Baek Yoogeom, who had been holding the collar, caught the young man in a princess carry position. Because his neck was being strangled, the limbs that had been tightly shut eyes and flailing wildly quieted down for a moment. Cheolmin, startled to the point of gaping his mouth wide, took in the sight of what they were doing.

“I told you to let go. Send me home!”

The young man, who had stopped flailing and squinted his eyes, confirmed his own appearance and yelled loudly again.

“Calm down first. Calm down and talk.”

Baek Yoogeom, who was said to speak only three words a day, carefully placed the young man on the sofa. His eccentricity did not end there. He even opened his inventory and handed over that expensive elixir like water.

“Do I look like I’m in a state to calm down right now?”

Unlike his refined appearance, a voice full of anger leaked out intermittently. While obediently accepting and drinking the elixir as it was given, he did not kill his temper, which was exactly like looking at a small dog.

“Who… are you?”

Cheolmin, whose patience had run out, asked about the young man’s identity.

“Me? Then who are you?”

The young man, who had lifted his head at Cheolmin’s call, startled and flinched. Cheolmin, who had never heard anywhere that he lacked presence, thought that the young man was really insensitive and spread his shoulders wide.

“I am Baek Cheolmin, the guild master of Saeguk Guild. And the one over there, Baek Yoogeom, is also my son.”

“Ah, hello.”

He was not as rude as expected, as right after the proper introduction, the young man bowed his head politely. The anxiety he could not hide was revealed in the cautious glancing eyes. Cheolmin, who had been dealing only with guild members who had deviated from the ordinary in recent years, returned the greeting with a benevolent smile.

“How did you come here?”

It looked to anyone like Baek Yoogeom had kidnapped the young man, but the quick-witted Cheolmin organized the situation advantageously. Because the young man seemed timid inside as he appeared, rolling his eyes and scanning the office.

“So… I am.”

“You must be the master? I was planning to visit you soon anyway. It’s an honor that you came first.”

While Cheolmin secretly swallowed hard and waited for the answer, Hyemin interjected.

“You were coming to see me?”

“Yes! The boss… no, I mean, my brother said he couldn’t climb because he didn’t have a lucky item. So I was diligently looking for it!”

The bottom line was exposed in an instant. Cheolmin let out a groan and pressed his palm to his forehead. Looking at the unfolding situation, it seemed Baek Yoogeom had fallen deeply into superstition. He felt that the first button had been buttoned wrong.

“Are you crazy? You postponed the tower raid for something like that?”

“I had no choice. The fortune hasn’t been good for two weeks.”

“Even so, that’s too much. In the world, what hunter postpones a raid because of some fortune. Aren’t you the number one in our country? I heard rankers have enormous annual salaries, but at least they should fulfill their duties.”

Cheolmin slyly lowered the hand that had been on his forehead and gauged the atmosphere. He had thought it was the end when his son was thoughtlessly spilling the bottom line. The young man was a properly sane person, which was rare to see.

Baek Yoogeom was also silently listening to the nagging that he would have immediately ridden a portal and disappeared if he had said it. Suddenly, his mind cleared, and a breakthrough came to mind.

“Ahem. That tar… master?”

Having finished the calculations in his head, Cheolmin organized the title in a small voice. He could not bring himself to spit out the word tarot from his own mouth, so the words blurred in the middle.

“Ordinary people might not know, but being a hunter, especially high-rank ability users like Baek Yoogeom Hunter, are very sensitive to even the smallest changes. It’s not for nothing that they pay attention to things like lucky col, colors and such. Everything that happens in the tower is directly connected to life.”

Cheolmin did not really think that lucky something actually influenced it. However, the world was wide, and there were many hunters. Just the One Hunt Guild, which held second place, had a guy who measured the length of his hair down to the 1 cm unit before entering the tower.

“Is that… so?”

“Yes, that’s right. As Baek Yoogeom Hunter is rightfully number one, he is bound to be sensitive to even the smallest things.”

The young man, who looked boyish, nodded his head vigorously and showed an attitude that seemed already half convinced. When his two sons had awakened, Cheolmin had risen from the bottom. This level of eloquence could be done without even wetting his lips with saliva.

“So that’s why we were coming to fetch you. We instructed to bring you as respectfully as possible. Baek Yoogeom, this guy awakened at such a young age that he has no experience dealing with people. If there was any coercive part, I will apologize on his behalf.”

Like oil had been applied, Cheolmin’s eloquence continued endlessly. Hyemin, with his eyes wide round, mouthed ‘Really?’ but Cheolmin simply pressed it down with his palm and ignored it simply.

“It was coercive, that’s true… but it’s okay. You don’t need to apologize that much.”

When he deliberately showed a low posture, the young man waved his hand and mumbled his lips. Watching that, Cheolmin drove in the wedge.

“No. It’s something I should rightfully apologize for. Could you wait a moment?”

Cheolmin stood up without giving a chance to reply. At the same time, using the chat window visible only to guild members, he inputted ‘Come out right now,’ and Baek Yoogeom furrowed his brows.

If you come out now, I’ll let you have that friend.

As if that was a magic spell, Baek Yoogeom followed Cheolmin out of the conference room. Harang, who had only been waiting for a chance to say he wanted to go home, could only blankly watch their figures like a raccoon that had lost cotton candy.

The door of the conference room, one side of which was made of floor-to-ceiling glass windows, closed as quietly as its expensive appearance suggested. Suddenly left alone with a stranger for the first time, Harang narrowed his eyes and scanned the seat in front.

Hyemin, who had a larger build than Baek Yoogeom, looked quite innocent unlike his appearance. Judging from the conversation earlier and the face that resembled the guild master exactly, he seemed to be closely related to Baek Yoogeom.

“Do you know why I was dragged here?”

“Nep?”

After finishing a short calculation and throwing out the bait, Hyemin, who had been sightseeing out the window, replied innocently.

‘Good.’

Harang inwardly cheered at the dazed appearance and fiddled with his fingers while blinking his eyes. Because he fixed his gaze on the floor, he looked dejected no matter who saw it.

“I am really an ordinary person with absolutely no relation to hunters…. Earlier, Baek Yoogeom Hunter suddenly dragged me, so I was surprised. I was wondering if I had done something wrong.”

“No, no. It’s not that….”

As Harang’s head drooped like ripe rice, Hyemin’s gestures became more flustered. Thinking it was still not enough, Harang faced Hyemin with eyes soaked in melancholy.

“But there is one fortunate thing at least.”

“Wh-what is it?”

“I am alone… so even if I suddenly disappear, there is no one to worry about.”

At the self-deprecating voice, one hunter covered his mouth with his toad-like hand. After pondering for a moment, Hyemin clenched both fists as if he had made a decision.

“Absolutely! There is no problem or anything, we brought you. Our team boss, I mean, Yoogeom hyung is looking for a lucky item. From last time, the fortune hasn’t been good, so he couldn’t even enter the tower.”

“What kind of crazy….”

Harang forgot about acting as ‘Youth 1 with a sad backstory’ and muttered a curse in his usual personality. He had thought it was nonsense when said innocently, but it seemed that was really the truth.

“Yes?”

“No. I just thought it was really ridiculous.”

It was a reason like a real madman, but if he thought it was no different from what he usually did, it was a bit better. Yeah. There was no way there would be a sane guy among the hunters. Something like not being able to enter the tower because there was no lucky item could just be brushed off roughly.

“Then, can I just read the fortune and go?”

Harang, who wanted to leave the guild as soon as possible, widened his eyes as if to say, isn’t that right?

“I don’t know about that either. Originally, I was supposed to visit you. My brother must have been really urgent.”

Hyemin, whom he thought would immediately say he knew if he pushed a little, was not as easy as expected. Rather, the backstory he did not want to know popped out.

“I’ve never seen my brother so interested in something like this! So I’m excitedly feeling it too for no reason.”

Unlike the owner of the radiant face, Harang’s mood was sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss. Harang really did not feel excited at all. He did not want to believe that the number one ranked person was not entering the tower because of fortune, and he did not want to know that the first thing he was interested in was himself, no, tarot.

Having dragged Yoogeom into the guild master’s office inside the conference room, Cheolmin glanced sideways to check the movements of those left behind. From the outside, the inside would not be visible, but from here, he could see even the expressions of the tarot master or whatever and his own son in detail.

“Is it true?”

Cheolmin, who had spoken omitting both subject and object, sighed dramatically as Yoogeom cockily raised only one eyebrow.

“Is it true that you postponed the climb because of the lucky something.”

He could not outright say something like do you really believe in that. Even now, after people awakened as hunters post-pandemic and the game system became familiar, Cheolmin sometimes felt embarrassed by the words he uttered.

But tarot master, of all things. If it were not for Baek Yoogeom in front of him, it would have been a job he would not know existed until the moment he died. Whether Cheolmin’s insides were burning or not, Yoogeom was busy following the gaze of Harang soaked in melancholy.