The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low Chapter 4

The world was turned completely upside down on one ordinary day eleven years ago, when thunder crashed as if the sky itself were about to collapse.

People who had woken up that day to the unusually loud thunder all looked up at the same time to see a gigantic black hole torn open in the sky. As if waiting for the gaze of many to gather, or as if waiting for everyone to rise, the moment people looked up at the sky, the thunder ceased like a lie.

Monsters never before seen poured out of the black hole.

The Rift sucked in everything around it in an instant, and from the opened dungeon entrance, monsters crawled out without pause like a swarm of ants. They, who had abruptly invaded daily life, collapsed buildings and tore up the ground. Countless people were injured, went missing, and died. Humanity’s weapons, products of scientific civilization, were useless against the monsters.

People despaired before supernatural phenomena they could not overcome. Even if the world ended, they had thought it would be by nuclear war—who would have imagined destruction by monsters from fantasy novels! Faced with a disaster that arrived without warning, humanity was powerless.

Yet, as if it were not meant to perish without any action, a being appeared that briefly halted the extinction—namely, a mysterious white window resembling the status screen in games, commonly called the “System.”

The System appeared before a few individuals and awakened unknown powers within them. Those who came into contact with the System awakened new abilities and began to fight against the monsters. They were the signal flare of humanity’s counterattack, and the first generation of Awakened. It was the moment when beings later called Hunters came into existence.

True to the saying that humans are animals of adaptation, they began to quickly adjust to the new era, rebuilding their collapsed civilization. The country leading the charge was the United States, and surprisingly, the next was Korea. Korea was one of the few nations whose government and public order had not been paralyzed on the day of the Rift, and that was largely thanks to the S-class Awakened J, who appeared like a comet.

The only public information was the Hunter name “J” and his gender. A mystery Hunter who concealed his name, face, age, and everything else, J made a spectacular debut by tearing a Grade-2 monster, a Sasquatch, in two while covering his face with a white scarf. From then on, he threw himself into Rifts and dungeons alike, saving countless people. He was truly a hero in troubled times—Captain Korea himself.

“J Tears Sasquatch Apart (Physical)”

Later, after communication networks were restored, a video that someone uploaded to YouTube recorded views in the billions, making J a global celebrity.

Indeed, even if the world ended and monsters danced with swords, the smartphone camera survived—a fitting move for the hero of Korea, an information and communications powerhouse. Anyway, with J’s activities, the world seemed to gradually find stability.

But the hard-won peace did not last long.

Three years later, a Grade-5 Rift occurred in the West Sea. Personnel dispatched by the Awakened Management Agency and nearby Hunters entered, but all contact was lost, and the Rift greedily sucked in everything around it as time passed. Predictions emerged that if left alone, the Rift would swallow not only the islands of the West Sea but even Incheon.

The government upgraded the danger level of the West Sea Rift from Grade 5 to Grade 1 and made a decision.

“We will deploy S-class Hunter J, 14 A-class Hunters, and 30 B-class Hunters to prevent the expansion of the Rift.”

The dispatched Hunters entered the Rift amid the cheers of the people. Shortly after their entry, the Rift gradually stopped expanding, and a month later, it completely disappeared. People cheered and awaited only the return of their heroes. But they did not come back.

Three months later, after investigation, the Awakened Management Agency concluded that they had perished together with the Rift. And they officially announced the deaths of all personnel, conveying the tragic news. The government erected a memorial to honor the Hunters who had bravely entered the Rift. J’s name was inscribed at the very top of the memorial.

Eight years passed from then.

Now, eleven years after the first day of the Rift, active research was underway at the government level to use monster carcasses and dungeon byproducts as alternative resources. Naturally, guilds had shifted their operating methods from immediately eliminating dungeons to closing Gates after extracting what could be recouped. With luck, they could obtain byproducts worth processing.

The era of great Hunters, which arrived instead of the Fifth Industrial Revolution. Step aside, metaverse! The center of the present era was none other than the Hunters.

Korea had a long history of blockbuster superhero movie franchises. So it was only natural that the popularity of Hunters—who fought like heroes right before your eyes without CGI, practically real-life heroes—would explode. Their popularity hit new highs every day.

Birthday congratulatory electronic billboards went up just like for idols, love calls poured in from the advertising industry, and there were so many movies and dramas featuring Hunters as protagonists that one could not count them all. Some Hunters even had side gigs as models, like honeybees splitting their time between hunting and modeling—that said it all.

A world overflowing with people who admired Hunters and dreamed of awakening. When children were asked about their future hopes, over 80% shouted “Hunter,” dungeon slime ASMR videos were trending, and idle Hunters did unboxing livestreams with A-class longswords for packages. That was the Republic of Korea today.

∞ ∞ ∞

‘Is this… right?’

Yet to Cha Wijae, a person from eight years ago who was still going through the adjustment period to the great Hunter era, all of this just seemed… like a lie. Wijae glared at the books displayed in the bookstore’s bestseller corner and scowled.

No. 1, Hunters Are New to Being Hunters Too

No. 2, Secrets from a Star Instructor at the Noryangjin Hunter Civil Service Academy! Pass the Exam in Half a Year!

No. 3, Because It Hurts, I’m a Hunter

:

:

What the hell does “because it hurts, I’m a Hunter” even mean—if it hurts, you’re a patient. Wijae wore a dubious expression and slowly moved his gaze down the rankings. Of course, after seeing the titles of the books below as well, his expression became even more wrinkled. They stuck “Hunter” onto everything, even the most useless things… it was a bit much.

He glanced briefly and then pretended not to see, turning his gaze away, only to meet eyes with a gentle-faced man in a suit on a public service ad on the wall, giving a thumbs-up.

‘Inquiries about Awakened registration, hotline 777! Report unregistered individuals and Awakened crimes, 555!’

Even after looking away from the bestseller list, Wijae’s deeply furrowed brow showed no sign of relaxing.

Nine years ago, when dungeons and Rifts had become relatively stable, the government, troubled by the rise in crimes committed by idle Awakened individuals, was determined to establish a government agency to manage them. Just then, news reached the ears of relevant officials that a current police university student had awakened as S-class.

Ah! This was surely an opportunity sent by heaven. The government did not miss the chance and immediately established the Awakened Management Agency, pushing the freshly awakened police university student into the agency through special recruitment.

That man was the one on the billboard—S-class civil servant Hunter Jeongbin.

Cha Wijae had also crossed paths with Jeongbin a few times during his days active as J. They had no personal friendship, but they were at least on greeting terms. At the time, there were only two S-class Hunters in the entire country, so there was a certain sense of kinship. But.

‘How did you end up like this.’

What on earth had he gone through over those eight years? A hint of pity had already crept into Wijae’s gaze.

To put it with a slight exaggeration, Jeongbin had appeared on every existing public service advertisement. In Wijae’s opinion, he was probably cheap to use as a civil servant, so the Agency plastered him wherever they could.

Just the other day, he was on a TV commercial promoting smoking cessation; on a bus ad he saw recently, he was promoting the 3-3-3 toothbrushing rule; and here, he was promoting Awakened registration. He was probably Korea’s most famous Hunter in terms of face recognition alone.

Just as Wijae was offering his condolences for his former colleague’s career trajectory, a bright-eyed young girl with her hair tied up in one ponytail approached with quick, short steps. A star-shaped name tag dangling from her backpack zipper read:

Park Ha-eun, Saetbyeol Elementary School, Grade 2, Class 2. Below the crooked but firmly pressed handwriting, the hangover stew restaurant’s phone number and address were written in tiny script.

“Uncle, I picked all my books.”

At the address “Uncle,” Wijae naturally turned his head in that direction. Of course, they were not actually uncle and niece. Ha-eun was the only granddaughter of the grandmother who ran the hangover stew restaurant, and Wijae’s family had all died on the day of the Rift.

But at some point, Ha-eun had started calling Wijae “Uncle,” and Wijae did not bother correcting her. Much like his relationship with his aunt in the past.

“What did you pick?”

“This.”

What? The Day of the Rift

On the cover of the comic book Ha-eun held up were several cute, sanitized monsters and a masked young man. It was a children’s educational comic series that Wijae knew well.

Even though the world had nearly ended, these educational comics are still being published. As Wijae inwardly admired this, his eyes suddenly caught the face of the young man drawn in the illustration. Setting aside the black hair and white scarf, the mask worn over his face was far too familiar. And no wonder, because…

‘Isn’t this a violation of portrait rights?’

…it was the very mask that Cha Wijae had used to hide his identity during his active days as J.