The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low Chapter 3

“Um, could I use the phone for a moment?”

“Oh yeah, go ahead and use it.”

“Thank you.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Wijae headed to the counter inside the shop. Then, grabbing the old receiver, he entered the direct line number to the Awakened Management Agency Director that only he knew. The hand pressing the numbers trembled endlessly. However,

—The number you have entered is not in service, and after the beep…

He tried calling once more just in case, but the result was still the same. Wijae slowly lowered the receiver he was holding. His heart, which had been quiet as if doused with ice water, gradually beat faster, and before he knew it, he was breaking out in a cold sweat.

Did I really fall into the future 8 years from now? No, more than that… did I really die?

But he couldn’t be certain of anything. It was possible the Director had just changed the number. Wijae didn’t want to view the situation only negatively. Just as he turned his body to hurry out of the shop, Wijae recalled one important fact.

He didn’t have a single penny on him. Before entering the Rift, he had only packed consumables like potions, so it was natural. He had even used up all the potions, leaving nothing behind. He was truly a complete penniless bum. He didn’t even have money to pay for the meal…

Wijae subtly glanced at the grandmother and carefully opened his mouth.

“Um, Grandmother.”

“What.”

“I… well.”

As he merely rubbed his innocent sleeve and couldn’t continue, the grandmother stared blankly at Wijae. Then she slowly walked over to him. Her wrinkled hand grasped his hand, which still had unhealed wounds.

“It’s fine, enough.”

“Yes?”

“Come back to eat again next week.”

In Wijae’s hand were two crumpled ten-thousand won bills placed there. After gaping for a while, Wijae couldn’t bring himself to open his mouth, so he firmly closed it and bowed his head. The elderly person opened the door next to the kitchen and went in, then soon came out with an old navy blue jacket and a black hat.

“Wear this and go.”

“No, it’s okay. I’m really okay.”

“If you wander around in that state when daylight comes, you’ll get caught. Wear it.”

Not a single word the grandmother said was wrong. As Wijae took off his tattered jacket, he suddenly noticed a silver watch on his left wrist. It was an item he had possessed since the moment he awakened. This is it! Wijae hurriedly unfastened the watch and held it out to the elderly person.

“Grandmother, this.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a watch. This is all I have right now.”

“What do you mean, I don’t need it.”

“No, please take it. Or consider it as me leaving it in your care. I’ll come back to retrieve it later.”

Wijae forced the watch into the grandmother’s hand, pulled the hat down deep, and repeatedly bowing his head, left the shop. The grandmother, who had hurriedly followed him out, called after him, but he deliberately ignored her and ran as if fleeing.

After running for a while and looking up at the sky, dawn was breaking. A long line at the bus stop, cars filling the roads, people walking on wet sidewalk blocks with tired faces. Many people were going their separate ways.

It was a peaceful scene, but to Wijae, it was merely unfamiliar. The Korea of what he presumed was 8 years later was far too different from his memories. Wijae watched the moments of peaceful daily life with eyes that seemed somehow emptied.

That was when it happened.

Beeeeep— A loud noise began ringing from the surroundings. Everyone was taking out their phones and checking something. Two men in school uniforms chattered.

“Ah, damn, a gate opens in 30 minutes.”

“Will we be able to see hunters? If a ranker comes, let’s film a video and upload it to YouTube.”

“Yeah. Ah damn, if I’d known this would happen, I would’ve brought a drone.”

…A gate is opening? Wijae looked around as if bewildered. However, despite the notification that a gate would open, people seemed calm. As if gate notifications were everyday occurrences, there was no sign of surprise. The flustered Wijae grabbed a woman passing by him and spoke.

“Excuse me, sorry. Is a gate opening soon?”

“Huh? Yes. A disaster text just came in, didn’t you see it?”

“Ah… yes. I left my phone behind.”

“Ah, I see. Here, if you look…”

The woman held out her phone and showed the message.

[Crack Management Agency]

November 14, 7:42 AM, a gate is scheduled to appear in the eastern direction of Wirye-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul. Residents should evacuate to designated shelters; if prior evacuation is not possible, contact the Awakened Management Agency.

A gate, simply put, is a ‘dungeon entrance that opens suddenly.’ While regular dungeons have fixed entry locations, gates appear in random spaces without warning and open their entrances, and if not suppressed quickly, they pour out monsters in droves. But the location and time of a gate’s occurrence can be identified in advance?

As Wijae was lost in thought without moving, the woman carefully asked.

“Um, are you okay…?”

“Ah, yes… It’s nothing. Thank you for showing me.”

The woman examined his complexion once with worried eyes, then bowed her head and walked away. Wijae, who had been blankly watching people’s backs for a while, also moved his feet.

Between the car exhaust sounds roaring as they cut through the road, auditory hallucinations he had tried to ignore buzzed in his ears. The sounds of bones breaking, flesh being pierced, necks being snapped, voices begging for help… Familiar screams and noises overlay the peaceful cityscape. At that jarring sensation, Wijae stopped walking and stood frozen in place. And he thought.

Did all those sacrifices have meaning?

The world 8 years later without J was exceedingly peaceful and perfect. In fact, this was also the scene he had so desperately wished for.

Cracked asphalt roads, buses crushed under monsters’ feet, collapsed buildings, burnt and broken street trees, and people holding their breath and trembling in fear of when monsters might appear. The past is so vivid it could be drawn at any moment, like yesterday’s events.

Wijae had sincerely wished. Please, let them live days without fear. Even if he himself wouldn’t be there. But now that such moments were unfolding before his eyes, the feeling was strange.

Even if J, who was thought dead for 8 years, returned, what would change? The moment J declared his return, the world’s peace would rather be shattered. Everyone would obviously flip their eyes and rush at him. They would dig into what happened inside the Rift, why he alone survived, why it took 8 years to come out of the Rift.

Wijae slowly wiped his cold sweat. Eventually, his stomach felt like it was twisting.

He should announce the deaths of his comrades who sacrificed themselves for the world—of course he thinks so. Their names and faces, naturally, and how they died—he remembers everything.

However…

“Wijae. Remember this.”

“The world has changed, and since you have power, everyone will try to lean on you. They’ll want you to save everyone.”

“But Wijae, you’re still young…”

“You don’t have to save everyone.”

“You can run away.”

Wijae suddenly recalled the words his aunt had said while grabbing his shoulders as if advising him.

His aunt was a hunter who awakened as B-rank after losing her two sons when Wijae was swept into a Rift and lost his family. She was also one of only two survivors in the hellish Rift. Though they weren’t actually aunt and nephew by blood, they relied on each other like family as the sole survivors. It was also her who advised him to hide his identity from J.

‘Now I understand, Aunt.’

Cha Wijae rubbed his eyes for no reason.

Hunter J was already dead, and no one knew the human Cha Wijae. They probably didn’t even know such a person existed. Even if 8 years had passed, twenty-year-old Cha Wijae was still twenty years old. The image of his aunt congratulating him on just becoming an adult was still vivid. But in this world, he was twenty-eight.

People carelessly pass him by. Wijae stood alone in the crowd for a long time. Silently, lonely.

And finally,

Wijae decided to run away for the first time.

∞ ∞ ∞

A few months after that… back at the hangover soup restaurant.

Wijae, who had been about to do the piled-up dishes in the kitchen for a moment, had to come back out to the hall due to endless orders and customers calling.

“Check please, here!”

“Yes, just a moment.”

While working at this shop, Wijae had realized one important fact. Though he had now changed jobs from hunter to hangover soup restaurant part-timer, this was not a place where one could live hiding their strength 100%.

“Please give us more kimchi and kkakdugi here!”

“Give us a bit more cheongyang peppers too!”

“Understood, please wait a moment.”

This shop has too many customers. To be precise, there were a hell of a lot of hunter customers who eat quickly and eat a lot. For that reason, Wijae was pretending to be an ordinary person slightly stronger and more agile than others, while using his awakened abilities little by little.

“Um, our table doesn’t have pepper, could you lend us some pepper…”

“Ah, yes yes.”

“Thank you.”

“If you’re done eating, hurry up and vacate your seats! We need to eat quickly and enter the dungeon!”

“We’ll wipe the table ourselves and leave. Can we use the dishcloth over there?”

“If you give us the peppers, we’ll chop them.”

“This bastard is a B-rank hunter. His main weapon is a sword, so his knife skills are amazing.”

In the brief moment Wijae went back into the kitchen, the customers began dividing roles among themselves as if accustomed. Wijae, who had barely escaped the hall buzzing like a just-opened gate, took out containers of kimchi and kkakdugi from the refrigerator and finally caught his breath for a moment. Wijae was now moving his body mechanically with emptied eyes.

‘I need to make a self-service bar for kimchi and cheongyang peppers as soon as possible.’

Having grabbed bowls of rice and two bags of cheongyang peppers, he nimbly came out of the kitchen and quickly scanned the hunters while thinking fast. The pepper chopping should probably be left to the B-rank hunter.

“You there, please chop the cheongyang peppers, and take the kimchi, kkakdugi, and rice. I’ll help with the payment.”

As soon as he gave the instructions, the hunters fell into their cooperative work like conducting a dungeon raid. The B-rank hunter chopped peppers with a dagger that looked like at least a C-rank weapon, and the C-rank hunter scooped out kimchi and kkakdugi with tongs. Other hunters lined up in a single file with their bowls, waiting for their portions. Wijae swiped cards on the card reader while watching that heartwarming sight.

Is this the peace I protected…?

Former 1st place in the Korean Hunter Rankings and Korea’s first S-rank Hunter, Hunter Name J. The national hero who died 8 years ago after closing the West Sea Grade 1 Rift. His real name, unknown to anyone, is Cha Wijae. He is…

“Thank you, goodbye. Welcome. How many people?”

A current hangover soup restaurant part-timer.