S-Rank Healer Gets Kidnapped First Chapter 32

I casually blurted out whatever came to mind, only to regret it almost immediately.

‘What if Cha Seohae doesn’t even have an automatic reload buff for bullets?’

It was the most essential buff for a shooter.

If the bullets could reload automatically, he could reduce the time spent reloading and deal more damage.

So there was a good chance it was already included among the S-rank privileges attached to his skills.

“But isn’t automatic reload too obvious? I guess I should think of a different buff?”

“No. If that buff is possible, I’d like that one too.”

“Huh?”

I had been smiling awkwardly, but at Cha Seohae’s urgent response, I quickly gathered my thoughts.

“If you need this buff… Don’t tell me you don’t have an automatic reload buff?”

“Somehow, it turned out that way.”

“You have so many attack skills as a damage dealer. Not even one of them?”

“Unfortunately.”

Cha Seohae remained completely calm, as if he had expected me to be surprised.

Whether that was a good thing or not, his unperturbed reaction helped me regain my composure quickly.

He was probably even more dumbfounded about it than I was. It would be rude to keep acting surprised in front of someone like that.

“Wait a moment. Divine Blessing.”

Yellow symbols floated up in a circle around me.

There were too many to check individually, but I wasn’t worried about finding what I needed.

“For damage dealers.”

Skills were activated through the power contained in words, known as Word Power.

As soon as I finished speaking, only the buffs suitable for damage dealers remained, while all the other symbols disappeared.

“Weapon Enhancement, Deadly Accuracy, Increased Damage Against Specific Targets…”

I slowly examined the remaining symbols and rubbed my chin at their effects, which were more general than I had expected.

What I wanted was a more specialized buff.

Something that, for example, would have better synergy when applied specifically to a shooter.

“You usually use that pistol, right?”

“Yeah. I’m not a sniper.”

“Exclude buffs exclusive to ranged damage dealers and snipers.”

The symbols were filtered once more.

As I waved my hand through the air, checking each symbol, I spotted the ‘Automatic Reload’ buff.

I set that buff aside for the moment and continued looking through the others.

‘It needs to compensate for the short range.’

A buff was a skill that allowed a healer to actively influence the battlefield.

That was why the S-rank privilege of Divine Blessing was so overpowered.

By stacking multiple buffs, I could practically modify an ally into my own custom character, as though I were changing their class.

I carefully scanned the buffs and then suddenly spotted one I liked. I picked it out immediately.

“How about a Recoil Reduction buff?”

Since I had already registered Cha Seohae as an ally, he could see the same symbols I was seeing.

Cha Seohae carefully examined the ‘Recoil Reduction’ buff.

For shooters, bullet spread became worse the farther away the target was.

Automatic pistols, machine guns, shotguns, and so on. Of course, depending on the gun, such as a semi-automatic rifle, some could be effective at medium range. But considering that there was a separate sniper class, it probably wasn’t the best option for Cha Seohae.

Keeping his eyes fixed on the buff symbol, Cha Seohae spoke.

“I stopped training to extend my effective range after reaching a certain level. Given my class, there were people more suited to it than me. Besides, it was more reliable to have Han Seongwoo go deal with enemy snipers.”

So having an S-rank assassin affected their battle strategy like that.

I made a mental note that Han Seongwoo occupied a useful position in many ways.

“There are a lot of damage dealers in Baekyang who specialize in close-range combat, so I decided it would be better to make use of that strength.”

Cha Seohae continued.

There was nothing wrong with his judgment.

The reason was—

“Baekyang does have sniper and archer classes, but…”

“The Association has Jang Jeong-in.”

While I hesitated, worried that he might misunderstand me as disparaging Baekyang, Cha Seohae picked up where I left off and neatly finished my thought.

He was someone I had been thinking of as well, so I nodded.

Jang Jeong-in was an S-rank Divine Archer. Since Divine Archer was essentially an upgraded version of the Archer class, there was no way an A-rank Divine Archer or B-rank sniper could compare to her.

Cha Seohae stared at me for a moment before asking,

“So the idea is that since S-ranks have better learning rates, I should receive buffs and train to adapt to them? To create variables on the battlefield.”

“Exactly. It’s meant to compensate for Baekyang’s current weakness in long-range combat. And the existing snipers can push their skills to the maximum through training and focus more on support rather than direct sniper battles.”

Even as I said this, I expected Cha Seohae might object.

Close-range combat made it difficult to maintain a broad field of vision.

It was practically impossible to fight on the front line while simultaneously keeping track of ranged damage dealers far away.

The hunters fighting on the front lines were the ones who read the ever-changing flow of battle, while the ranged damage dealers and healers in the back were generally the ones who saw the bigger picture.

But Cha Seohae didn’t frown or say that it was impossible.

Instead, I became anxious about my own proposal and asked him,

“Do you think you can do it?”

“Are you worried?”

The way he answered my question with another question made my worries disappear almost immediately.

Cha Seohae stared at me quietly, refusing to play along with my joke, before speaking.

“Even if I can’t, what am I supposed to do? I’ll have to make it work.”

“Be honest. If it doesn’t work, we need to change the plan.”

“If you’ve decided to give orders, you shouldn’t ask whether I can do it. You should just tell me to do it.”

Cha Seohae leaned against the wall of the training room.

“Besides, I’m probably the only one who can keep the Association fed anyway.”

Arrogance could lead to complacency. Even if it was an act intended to earn trust, it was still something that shouldn’t be encouraged.

But for some reason, seeing Cha Seohae act so smug made me feel at ease.

‘Maybe because I just saw him training.’

It was rare for me to witness his skills firsthand, so rare that I could probably count the number of times on one hand.

Still, I shouldn’t make careless assumptions based solely on training rather than actual combat.

So I hid my true feelings and said something I didn’t actually mean.

“That remains to be seen. I’ve only heard about your abilities through rumors, and rumors tend to be exaggerated.”

“That’s true.”

Surprisingly, Cha Seohae accepted my words without seeming offended.

“Proving that the rumors are true isn’t a problem. I just have to show you, right?”

“Right…?”

“Then shall we run the simulator?”

The conversation naturally flowed into training.

As I watched Cha Seohae enter the control room, I straightened my posture as well.

I was wondering what else I should add to the symbols I had already selected when a loud mechanical noise suddenly filled the room.

Vrrrrr—

“Huh…?”

When I realized what the sound was, I froze.

The training room itself was changing.

The scale of the transformation was so enormous that for a moment, I didn’t know where I was supposed to go and stood there stiffly.

The walls that had originally surrounded us moved backward, while translucent walls descended from the ceiling in front of them.

Once the translucent walls descended from all sides and settled into place on the floor, the noise abruptly stopped.

“What is this…?”

I stared blankly for a moment before coming to my senses and approaching one of the translucent walls.

I tapped it with the back of my hand.

Knock, knock.

It was much sturdier than it looked.

Creak.

Just then, the door to the control room opened, and Cha Seohae appeared again.

I looked at him suspiciously and asked,

“What is this?”

“A device for simulator training.”

Even after hearing his answer, it still felt unfamiliar.

I had seen simulator training at the Association before.

The Association had a separate training facility dedicated solely to simulations. But there had been nothing like these walls there.

Cha Seohae looked at me as though he found my sudden silence strange.

Then, perhaps realizing what my silence meant, he added an explanation.

“You wouldn’t have seen this at the Association. Baekyang developed it. It requires Na Ye-ri, so only we can use it.”

“Does it require Ye-ri?”

“We’ve condensed some of Na Ye-ri’s power into these walls.”

I turned to look at the translucent wall.

Of course, I couldn’t see anything resembling energy just by looking at it.

“One of Na Ye-ri’s S-rank privileges is ‘Spatial Manipulation.’ She periodically injects her energy into the control room so we can utilize that privilege. We use it for simulator training or operate it as the building’s shield.”

“Her S-rank privilege still applies even when her ability is extracted and used like this?”

“Apparently.”

Extracting a hunter’s energy and using it was a rare technology.

Because it consumed a considerable amount of a hunter’s power, it was difficult to use unless the hunter was S-rank.

Even so, the invention of this technology meant that hunters could become a source of national power.

As long as a hunter’s body remained healthy, they could potentially become a new energy resource.

I had heard that research was being accelerated in the hope that further technological development might eventually allow hunters below S-rank to be used as well.

‘I didn’t know S-rank privileges could still be applied like this.’

The Association had also been conducting related research for a long time.

But for some reason, the only test subject they had been using was Hunter Do Ju-yeon.

There were plenty of other S-rank hunters, so why they had chosen the busiest one of all, Do Ju-yeon, was something I never managed to understand.

‘Maybe because she has the strongest power.’

No matter how much I thought about it, I simply couldn’t understand what was going on in the Association President’s head.

Just as I was thinking that Na Ye-ri should probably undergo regular checkups since her energy was being extracted periodically—

[Training Start]

[Participants: 2]
[Difficulty: S]
[Time Limit: 1:00:00]

The system window announced the beginning of the training, and the surroundings darkened.

Even though there had definitely been walls beside me, the scenery before my eyes had transformed into an endless jungle.

“This is simulator training using Spatial Manipulation…?”

It was like playing a VR game.

The scenery was so vivid yet so unbelievable that I could only stare in bewilderment.

“Is it really okay to attack here? What if we accidentally destroy the building?”

“Don’t worry. That won’t happen.”

The person who would actually be doing the attacking said it so confidently that I had no excuse left to stop him.

—GRAAAAH!

Besides, we were in a situation where we couldn’t afford not to attack.

Once the training began, the simulator wouldn’t end until either we cleared the scenario or the time limit expired.

Click.

As I stared at the jungle, the chilling sound of a gun being loaded made me turn toward Cha Seohae.

He was already holding a gun, looking completely unconcerned.

It wasn’t the pistol I had seen earlier.

This was a Winchester intended for medium-to-long-range training.

Its smooth wooden stock and dark, aged-wood color suited Cha Seohae’s cold image perfectly.

He already looked like he had decided to go hunting.

I didn’t argue and cast the buff on him.

After all, as the owner of this building, he probably wanted it to remain intact even more than I did as an ordinary guild member.

 

***

 

[Training End]

[Time Taken: 37 minutes]
[Time Remaining: 23 minutes]

[New Record Achieved for 2-Person Entry.]
[New Record: 37 minutes]

“Cough!”

Once we cleared the scenario, my vision darkened again, just as it had when the training began.

‘Amazing.’

That was the thought that had filled my mind throughout the entire training session.

Actual combat and simulation training weren’t the same, but simulator training was designed to imitate real combat as closely as possible. The number of hunters who had adapted to actual battlefields through this training alone proved how effective it was.

Cha Seohae, who rarely used medium-to-long-range firearms, had set a new record after just one training session.

‘Once he gets used to the gun and adds more techniques, he’ll break this record in no time.’

The rumors hadn’t been exaggerated.

If anything, they had failed to describe him adequately.

‘More than anything, the speed at which he activated his skills… It was so fast, almost as though he had skipped the manifestation process entirely….’

As I recalled what had just happened, I sensed someone approaching and raised my head.

It was Cha Seohae, who had returned after setting the simulator to exit.

“Cha Seohae…”

“Master! Master!”

I was about to call out to him when I heard the urgent voice of a guild member and fell silent.

Cha Seohae also turned his gaze away from me and toward the opposite side.

“A guest has arrived! And it’s Hunter Jang Jeong-in!”