The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low Chapter 1

“Thank you. Please come again!”

Along with the employee’s cheerful voice, the supermarket’s automatic doors opened. A young man wearing a gray hood pulled low over his head, carrying a strawberry-patterned shopping basket filled with all sorts of ingredients, headed toward the bus stop.

“Currently, a gate has occurred at the intersection, and traffic is being controlled. We ask for your cooperation.”

At the unfamiliar sight unfolding on his usual route, the young man craned his neck. Someone wearing a fluorescent yellow-green safety vest over a suit, and a yellow hard hat as well, was waving a red flashing warning baton, blocking the passage. Beyond the figure’s head, he could see the entrance of a gate shimmering with a bluish light.

And beneath it, Hunters were desperately fighting monsters that had squeezed out through the gap.

“Kyaaah!”

“Grrk! Not yet?”

“Just a little more…!”

A lizard the size of a car swung its vicious, spiked tail with a grotesque screech. A Hunter with a shield blocked the attack, but the lizard, thoroughly agitated, thrashed its tail through the air as if it would sweep away the entire area. Thud! Thud! The Hunter barely managed to defend against the ceaseless barrage of attacks and spat out a curse.

“Damn it, die! Fireball!”

Scarlet flames engulfed the lizard. Seizing the moment it faltered, arrows flew at it from the other side. The lizard, its eye pierced, let out a shriek and twisted its body.

“Keeeek!”

“Whoa, that’s insane…”

“Don’t approach the barricade!”

“Let me film a quick clip for YouTube Shorts.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m already doing that.”

People were watching and filming from a short distance away from the barricade. Without joining the commotion, the young man quickened his pace. The strawberry-patterned shopping basket in his hand dangled and swayed.

Just as he set foot into a sparsely populated alley, he encountered a massive form blocking the narrow lane. A purple toad, rummaging through a pile of trash, sensed the presence of a person and whipped its head around to look at the young man. A long, green tongue slid out of its mouth and then flicked an empty PET bottle into its maw. It was clearly a monster that had slipped out from a rift.

“Ah, those crack management jerks. Can’t they do their jobs properly…?”

The young man muttered irritably and rummaged through his shopping basket, drawing out something long like drawing a sword. From the gentle curve of its tip to the straight stem extending downward, and the sturdy roots settled at the base.

What he held in his hand was… a fresh, crisp green onion.

The toad let out a croak and turned its body toward the young man. Every time its heavy legs stomped the ground, the entire alley shook as if hit by an earthquake. The young man carefully set down his basket, spun the green onion expertly once in his hand, and gripped it firmly. Then—

He stepped on a trash can lid, leaping up like a butterfly—

And slammed the green onion down onto the toad’s head!

Pwak!!

A clear, crisp sound of impact resounded loudly through the alley. The toad, unable even to utter a death cry, rolled its eyes back and trembled violently. Unfortunately, the exact center of its head was now caved in, shaped exactly like a green onion.

The young man let out a hoo as he caught his breath and clapped his hands together. The recoil had knocked his hood back, revealing his cool, sharp features beneath.

“Green onions are expensive…. What a waste.”

The young man crouched in front of the toad, roughly shoved the remnants of the green onion into its mouth with his bare hands, and pulled out his phone. After a while, when the other person seemed to have answered, the young man spoke.

“Uh, hello…. There’s a dead monster in an alley here? I think some Hunter caught it and just left….”

The end of the young man’s voice trembled. He even sounded a bit tearful, like someone thoroughly frightened. But unlike his voice, which sounded like it might faint from a light tap, his hands were casual.

“This is, uh, the alley leading to the Two-Ro Mart, you know…. The monster? It looks kind of like a toad, but it’s so, so big and gross I can’t really look closely. Could you please do something about this? Yes, you don’t need to contact me separately… Oh, you’ll be here within 5 minutes? Thank you. No problem. Yes, thank you….”

The young man sniffled and hung up. Even after the call ended, he sat still, pushing the green onion pieces into the huge mouth with its tongue sticking out inelegantly. The young man, who claimed the monster was too gross to look at closely, was staring straight at the toad with both eyes wide open.

Five minutes until the Hunters arrived.

‘If I run into them, it’ll be troublesome.’

The young man stood up and wiped away his footprints left on the trash can lid. Apart from the green-onion-shaped dent in the middle of its head, the toad seemed to have died instantly with no other external injuries. At this level, it would be impossible to trace the person who dealt with the monster from the remaining evidence.

With the evidence disposed of, it was time to escape. Picking up the shopping basket again, the young man lightly bounced a couple of times in place, replaying the previous phone call in his head.

‘…Should I have sounded more surprised when reporting it?’

Well, it was too late for regrets now. The young man easily leaped over a wall taller than he was.

∞ ∞ ∞

“Is this the alley?”

“Yes, it is!”

Several minutes after the young man had leisurely disappeared, two people—a man and a woman wearing fluorescent vests over their shirts—arrived at the scene. But the urgency that had been plain on their faces melted away like snow the moment they saw the toad’s corpse.

The woman who entered the alley first, Yang Hyejin, an A-rank Hunter affiliated with the Crack Management Agency, looked at the dead toad with its tongue sticking out and let out a sigh.

“Wow, that’s crazy.”

“What’s wrong? Oh my… gasp.”

The rookie who followed behind was startled and clung to their senior, whispering in a small voice.

“Wow…. Is it even possible to take down a Swamp Toad this cleanly, Senior?”

“No, it’s not. This is clearly a one-hit kill. If the timing was even slightly off, this bastard sprays a strong acidic solution everywhere. It melts buildings and people alike, a real headache….”

“Really incredible.”

The rookie, who had fixed their crooked yellow hard hat while rushing over, admired once more. Hyejin scanned the surroundings with sharp eyes and gave instructions.

“Check if there are any traces left. Someone with this level of skill is no ordinary person.”

“Understood!”

The rookie rummaged through the trash can and the garbage piled up nearby, saying,

“I don’t know who it is… but they took it down so cleanly that the cleanup won’t be difficult.”

“Right. It’s so clean we could donate this to the monster research team. I wonder why someone that skilled would leave the corpse behind without disposing of it.”

Hyejin said with a hint of sarcasm, put on white gloves, and opened the toad’s thick mouth. Toad-type monsters were troublesome creatures that indiscriminately swallowed anything that touched their tongues and spat venom or highly acidic saliva everywhere. The kind toad that gives a new house when you give it an old one is a unicorn that only exists in nursery rhymes.

Anyway, since the toad could have eaten people while coming from the gate to here, a thorough check was necessary. Hyejin produced a flashlight from thin air and illuminated every corner of the toad’s mouth. Fortunately, instead of human remains, she only saw a few half-melted things like PET bottles. She let out a sigh of relief only after finishing the inspection.

“It looks like it didn’t eat anyone….”

Meanwhile, the rookie, who had been holding a radar-equipped device around various parts of the alley, made a troubled face and called out to Hyejin.

“Senior, the person who caught this toad must be a real pro. There’s absolutely nothing left.”

Hyejin, standing up and clapping her hands, tilted her head.

“They must have used an ability, right? No traces of ability use either? Look carefully.”

“I am looking! But there’s not a single trace on the detector, let alone any ability usage. There’s truly nothing.”

“What, did they catch something this big with their bare hands or something?”

She had inadvertently come close to the truth, but having no way of knowing that, she simply shook her head.

“Ugh, it’s probably another one of those power-hiding types who took care of it. Why are there so many Hunters hiding their strength in this world? Comics and novels and all that useless stuff have ruined the kids.”

She turned off the flashlight and stood up, and the rookie put the device back into thin air. Hyejin stretched her arms wide, loosening her tired body.

“Anyway, if a Rank 4 monster got out and didn’t eat anyone or destroy any buildings, we should be thankful. Let’s pack up the toad and head back. You write today’s report.”

“Yes, sir. What should I put for the monster handler?”

“Unknown identity, obviously.”

“Got it. But, Senior….”

“Yeah. What?”

The rookie asked with an awkward expression.

“Doesn’t it smell like green onion around here?”

“…Now that you mention it?”

After sniffing the air for a while, Hyejin eventually shrugged.

“The toad probably picked up some green onion that fell on the ground. Anyway, we’re having dinner together after work later, right?”

“Understood. The usual place?”

“Yeah, the hangover stew place.”

∞ ∞ ∞

At that same time, at an old, decrepit hangover stew restaurant that looked decades old.

—I am against this marriage!

—Father! How could you do this!

—The truth is… you two are siblings!

“Oh, my….”

On the old CRT TV, a rerun of “Marriage Clinic: Love or War” was playing on a faulty cable channel. Someone was sitting in the prime spot with a clear view of the screen, peeling garlic while keeping their eyes fixed on it.

—Husband! Don’t talk to the kids like that! You haven’t done anything right yourself!

—Mother-in-law, please don’t stop me! This is my child’s marriage!

—I was going to keep this a secret from you my whole life. But since it’s come to this, I have no choice but to tell you. The truth is… we’re siblings too!

“The mother-in-law and the son-in-law are siblings?”

The busy hands dropped the garlic they were holding. Before they could even pay attention to the next scene, when they came to their senses, a balding lawyer was declaring a mediation period, saying, “We’ll reconvene in four weeks.” The hands that had been frozen like stone began rustling again only after a few commercials had passed. When a fair amount of garlic peels had piled up, the body sitting in the seat rose.

“Goin’ tuh~ throw away the trash~”

The humming voice searching for a trash can was a pleasantly low tone. A figure much taller than average strode lazily across the hall, but their head didn’t quite graze the ceiling, so movement wasn’t an issue.

The young man, who had dusted the peels into the trash can, glanced at the clock. There was still a little time left until the dinner service opened. Shifting his gaze to one corner of the restaurant, he stared blankly for a moment, then suddenly frowned.

“Ah, I should have hit it with something else….”

With a sigh, the young man tidied the area around where he had been sitting and headed toward the door. Then he took down the break time sign attached to the sliding door and tossed it over to the place where his gaze had been directed moments before.

‘From 2 PM to 5 PM: Ingredient Preparation Time.’

Beneath the carelessly discarded sign lay the empty, crumpled strawberry-patterned shopping basket.