The F-Rank Hunter Defies Fate Chapter 4.2

“Is this also a status window? Do you think you’ll be able to see it if I materialize it?”

Having quickly grasped the situation, Harang pointed at the status window that only he could see. His fingertip touched it slightly, but the translucent window had no physical form, so his finger just passed right through it.

To Yoogeom’s eyes, it just looked like he was pointing at empty air. Guessing that it must be a status window from his many years as a hunter, he nodded.

[Are you insane? I have never seen anyone in any universe reveal their essence!]

Mingming jumped in fright and stopped Harang. What essence? It was just showing a bit of a conversation. Feeling awkward, Harang grumbled under his breath. As he then lowered the hand that had been covering the status window, Mingming made a fuss.

[That mortal looks like he has a bad aura just by looking at him. What do you think will happen if someone like that learns everything about you, Mr. Harang? It could be dangerous!]

At the intense rejection, Harang, who had been about to readily materialize it, hesitated. It was not because Yoogeom truly looked dangerous, but because he remembered that even Clearance Team 1 hid their true abilities.

“Mr. Baek Hunter.”

Just in case, he called out to Baek Yoogeom, and the number 1 ranker confidently lifted his chin.

“Are you not supposed to just reveal your status window or skills to others?”

Baek Yoogeom was still confident, but he said nothing. As the old saying goes, silence is affirmation. Harang let out a deep sigh. As long as Baek Yoogeom was a lucky bastard, he would not bring any harm to him. However, as Mingming had said, he could not show him everything. Even if he was already caught up in fate, he wanted to leave at least one corner to escape through.

“So, according to this thing.”

Postponing the materialization, Harang tried to read aloud what Mingming had said. At that, the quiet status window began to shake violently.

[I am the guide, ‘Mingming.’]

“…According to Mingming, you need to increase your climbing speed. Otherwise, the Earth will disappear without a trace.”

Surprisingly, Yoogeom listened to the absurd story very seriously.

“How much faster? Is there a goal?”

He did not just listen; he even pinpointed the most important core of the issue. Harang, thinking he did not want to know any more, obediently relayed the question.

“You heard him?”

[In the flow of Planet E-3800, there are 14,328 hours left. The tutorial process is currently completed up to the 79th floor, with 21 floors remaining.]

“F-fourteen thousand what?”

Harang haltingly read the time Mingming had given him and then blinked his eyes rapidly. It was the same when he was given a penalty; anything related to the status window was just too inefficient.

‘A day is 24 hours, so if I divide 14,328 by 24….’

“How many hours is it?”

Yoogeom, who had lived as a hunter, seemed to have noticed why Harang was hesitating. Harang immediately gave up on the troublesome calculation and reported the fourteen-thousand-something hours as if he were tattling. At that, Yoogeom fell silent in thought.

“One year and eight months. That would make it exactly 10 years since the Tower was erected.”

As he said, in about two years, it would be exactly 10 years since the Tower appeared. Harang was more surprised by Yoogeom’s quick mental arithmetic and his mouth fell open.

“Mr. Baek Yoogeom, you must have been good at your studies too.”

A hint of envy was laced in his unconscious words. Although he had not quit by his own choice, his education level of only having finished middle school was one of Harang’s complexes.

“I was not.”

Yoogeom responded seriously even to a comment that could have been easily ignored. Harang, who had expected to be ignored, let out a small laugh. Unlike Harang, who was ashamed of his own specs, Yoogeom seemed truly confident. Feeling embarrassed, he ended up rubbing the floor with the toe of his shoe.

[That is not what’s important right now. The Tower’s gate is about to close. If you leave here, my connection with you will be severed too!]

Mingming brought Harang back, who had been about to get sidetracked. Pulled back to reality, Harang asked in a flurry.

“It says the Tower’s gate is going to close. Is that true?”

“The lower the floor, the faster it closes.”

Yoogeom glanced at his wristwatch. About 7 minutes left. Only Harang, who was listening, felt frustrated; Yoogeom’s attitude was relaxed.

“Why are you telling me that now! It says that if I leave, my connection with the skill, no, with Mingming will be cut off.”

Only then did Yoogeom seem to realize the gravity of the situation, and a crack appeared on his face. Baek Yoogeom, rumbling low in his throat, looked Harang straight in the eye.

What he then asked were things that no one had been able to uncover for a long time.

“You’re listening, right? From now on, answer my questions properly.”

His eyes met Harang’s, but the questions were directed at Mingming.

Why was the Tower built, and does it have an end? If the world is going to end, how much time is left?

Lastly, if the Tower is merely a tutorial, what comes after it?

The first and second questions had already been somewhat answered by Mingming. However, when asked what comes after the tutorial, the sentences floating in the status window began to change their form erratically. There were some recognizable words here and there, but they were not enough to understand the meaning.

[It is because Mr. Min Harang’s vessel is far too small.]

There were cases where only a single character was visible, and when Harang was flustered, Mingming explained as if it were obvious. Harang, who was briefly offended, immediately accepted it when he heard that rankers had three-digit levels.

“Then what are you? An alien?”

Harang, who had been silent for a moment, asked as if to pick a fight. In his heart, the scales were already tipping toward a spiritual being.

[In the language of Planet E-3800, ‘alien’ might be correct. We come from a great many dimensions. For instance, we are your □□.]

It was a cryptic answer. Moreover, the most important word was indecipherable.

[You cannot see this either?]

Perhaps it was just his imagination, but it seemed to contain a hint of pity and disappointment. The moment Harang was about to say something, Mingming urgently blinked the status window.

[Please remember just one thing, Mr. Harang. Right now, you are the only mortal on E-3800 with the right frequency. Please, return as soon as possible.]

While Mingming was speaking urgently, the ground shook. Yoogeom, who had been waiting quietly, swiftly lifted Harang up. Because of that, he could only catch a glimpse of the last sentence.

[For all of us.]

Rather than solving any mysteries, he felt like he had fallen into an even deeper swamp. As if knowing how he felt, Yoogeom, carrying Harang on his shoulder, expertly created a portal.

As Yoogeom stepped into the swirling portal, Harang too moved away from the Tower. Having returned to Earth, Harang took in the view of the slowly disappearing Tower.

Just as one entered through the 1st-floor entrance only on the first climb, there was no need to go through the Tower to exit. Harang soon found himself occupying a corner of Yoogeom’s penthouse.

Now used to being treated like luggage, Harang tapped Yoogeom’s shoulder. Yoogeom then slowly set him down so he could put his feet on the floor, and Harang blurted out the first thought that came to his mind without any filter.

“Shouldn’t we report this?”

Hiding the fact that he was a hunter was the biggest goal of Harang’s life, but when the Earth was said to be ending, what did that matter? Of course, if he had found out alone, he would have agonized over it for days before reporting it as an anonymous informant.

But the person in front of him right now was the number 1 ranker. He had a little bit of faith that Yoogeom would handle it himself, leaving Harang’s existence out of it.

Yoogeom did not answer rashly even after hearing Harang’s words. As the matter was what it was, Harang also waited quietly. In the silence, around the time Harang’s gulping sound echoed, Yoogeom shook his head.

“Still, isn’t it better to know about things like this? Two years isn’t exactly a super short time, either.”

Even Harang had felt relieved at the words that there were about two years left. The fact that the Tower was merely a tutorial was a new shock, but Harang, who had only been to the 3rd floor, took the situation quite optimistically.

“We still haven’t heard what comes after the Tower. If we reveal it rashly, it will only increase the chaos.”

At first, he wondered if Yoogeom wanted to monopolize the information, but hearing him out, he was right. Harang was an optimist by nature, but having overcome rough times, he had learned how diverse people were in the world.

There would be people like Harang who would take it optimistically, thinking, ‘There are still two years left,’ but someone else might despair, calling it a predetermined end. In fact, in the early days of the Tower’s appearance, there were people who gave up on their own lives.

That was how it was back then. The Tower, not cleared in time, spewed out demonic beasts every day, and humanity was mercilessly ravaged. Harang, who clearly remembered the past, did not want to be reunited with that living hell.

“In that case… we have to go in again, don’t we?”

Once the decision was made, one thing bothered him. It was said that he was the only one with the right frequency. That was why he had been told to return for sure. A sigh automatically escaped him at the foreseeable future.

“Isn’t that obvious? I believe I told you to participate starting from the next clearance.”

Harang screamed a silent scream. It meant he intended to drag him along even after seeing him suffer from mana depletion after just two skill uses. He was really going to do it!

Yoogeom, befitting the number 1 ranker, was truly good at keeping his word. He had Harang participate in dawn training starting the very next day.

He had resisted, being told to wake up before the sun rose, but it was useless. It seemed he had been shocked to see Harang suffer from mana depletion after only two skill uses. It was from then that Yoogeom, who had said nothing in the Tower, began to stand guard in front of Harang’s door.

“Ah, what is it!”

Naturally, Harang had to experience the feeling of his heart dropping every dawn. And for good reason, as Yoogeom would often stand stock-still in the middle of the hallway without even turning on the lights. In the pitch-black world, his eyes, the only things shining, looked exceptionally cold.

“Time for training.”

“It’s not like I improve even if I do it, you know? My mana is 13 to begin with, so what do you want me to do?”

Harang, who was not a morning person, grumbled, making this and that excuse. He rubbed his swollen eyes and pounded on the mattress, but Baek Yoogeom was unperturbed.

Realizing he could not change Yoogeom’s mind, Harang thought back on the past few days. Today was the fourth day that Baek Yoogeom had dragged him to dawn training. The change that had occurred in that time was… not even a speck.

Others said that their stats increased at least a little with training, but Harang’s small and precious mana pool remained the same. Thanks to his constitution that did not build muscle easily, his body, soft for a hunter, was also the same.

If there was one thing that had changed, it was that Harang’s irritability had increased? There was no way Harang, who had woken up whenever he pleased for years, could suddenly start waking up early.

So, his mood was low every time Yoogeom came to wake him up. After forcing his eyelids, which would not open properly, to lift, his favorability rating toward Yoogeom also steadily plummeted.

“Today will be different.”

Harang, who had suffered from mana depletion yesterday and the day before, narrowed his eyes. Yoogeom spoke plainly, but the person in question felt like he was dying.