The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low Chapter 4

The day the world was turned upside down was an ordinary day 11 years ago when thunder roared as if the sky would collapse.

People who woke to the unusually loud thunder that day all at once looked up at the massive black hole pierced through the sky. As if waiting for many people’s gazes to gather, or as if waiting for everyone to rise, the moment people looked at the sky, the thunder stopped as if it were a lie.

From the black hole, monsters never seen before in their lives poured out.

The Rift instantly sucked in everything around it, and from the opened dungeon entrance, monsters crawled out ceaselessly like a swarm of ants. They, who had suddenly invaded life, toppled buildings and recklessly destroyed the ground. Countless people were injured, went missing, and died. Humanity’s weapons, the products of scientific civilization, were useless before the monsters.

People despaired before the supernatural phenomenon they could not overcome. They thought the Earth would be destroyed by nuclear war even if it were to end, but to think it would be destroyed because of monsters from fantasy novels! Before the sudden calamity, humanity was helpless.

However, as if there was no law saying they had to do nothing and perish, a being appeared that temporarily halted the destruction…

It was an unknown white window that looked like a status window from a game, commonly known as the ‘System.’

The System appeared before certain people and awakened unknown powers. Those who came into contact with the System awakened new powers and began fighting against the monsters. It was the signal flare for humanity’s counterattack and the moment the 1st generation of Awakened, later called Hunters, appeared.

Humanity, as befitting the saying that they are creatures of adaptation, rebuilt the collapsed civilization and began quickly adapting to the new era. The country leading the way was the United States, and next was, surprisingly, Korea. Korea was one of the few countries whose government and public order had not been paralyzed on the Day of the Rift, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that was thanks to the S-rank Awakened J who appeared like a comet.

The only information disclosed was the hunter name ‘J’ and their gender. The mysterious hunter J, who hid their name, face, age, and everything else, made a spectacular entrance by cutting a Grade 2 monster Sasquatch in two while covering their face with a white scarf. Afterwards, he threw himself into Rifts and dungeons alike, saving countless people. He was truly the hero of a troubled era, Captain Korea incarnate.

“J tears apart (physically) a Sasquatch”

Later, after communication networks were restored, a video someone uploaded to YouTube recorded billions of views, and J became a world-famous celebrity.

Truly, it was a move befitting the hero of Korea, an information and communication powerhouse, where even if the world ends and monsters dance with swords, phone cameras alone survive. Anyway, with J’s activities, the world seemed to be gradually finding stability.

But the hard-won peace did not last long.

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

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

“We will additionally deploy S-rank Hunter J, 14 A-rank Hunters, and 30 B-rank Hunters to prevent the Rift’s expansion.”

The dispatched hunters entered the Rift receiving people’s support. Not long after entry, the Rift gradually stopped expanding, and a month later, it completely disappeared. People cheered and waited only for the heroes’ return. However, they did not return.

Three months later, the Awakened Management Agency concluded after investigation that they had perished together with the Rift. And officially announced that all were dead, delivering the regrettable news. The government erected a memorial to honor the hunters who bravely threw themselves into the Rift. J’s name was written at the top of the memorial.

8 years since then.

Currently, 11 years after the first Day of the Rift, at the government level, research was actively underway to use monster corpses and dungeon byproducts as alternative resources. Naturally, guilds shifted their working methods from annihilating dungeons at once to closing gates after extracting what would recoup their costs. If lucky, they could obtain byproducts worth processing and using.

Instead of the 5th Industrial Revolution, the Great Hunter Era has arrived. Step aside, metaverse! The center of the present era was none other than hunters.

Korea has a long history of hero movie series being huge hits. So it was only natural that hunters, who fight like heroes before your eyes without CG, real-life heroes in essence, would explode in popularity. Their popularity hit the upper limit every day.

Birthday celebration billboards going up as if they were idols was a given, love calls pouring from the advertising industry were natural, and movies or dramas starring hunters were too many to even count. There even existed hunters doing double jobs as hunters and models, like Honeybee. So it was needless to say.

A world overflowing with people who admire hunters and dream of awakening. A time when if you ask children what they want to be when they grow up, over 80% shout “hunter,” dungeon slime ASMR videos are trending, and idle hunters do unboxing broadcasts of deliveries with A-rank longswords. That was the Korea of today.

∞ ∞ ∞

‘Is this… right?’

However, to Cha Wijae, a person from 8 years ago who was going through the adaptation period of the Great Hunter Era, all these situations just… seemed like a lie. Wijae, who had been glaring at the books displayed in the bookstore’s bestseller corner, scowled fiercely.

1st place, “Hunters Are Also First-Timers at Being Hunters”

2nd place, “The Secret Method of a Star Instructor at Noryangjin Hunter Civil Service Exam Academy! Finishing the Exam in Half a Year!”

3rd place, “It Hurts, So It’s a Hunter”

:

:

What on earth does “It Hurts, So It’s a Hunter” mean, if it hurts you’re a patient. Wijae made a dubious expression and slowly moved his gaze to the lower rankings. Of course, his expression furrowed even more after seeing the titles of the books below. Attaching “hunter” to every useless thing… That’s kind of cringeworthy.

As he subtly turned his gaze away pretending not to have seen, this time his eyes met a man with a gentle impression wearing a suit and giving a thumbs up in a public service advertisement on the wall.

‘For awakened registration inquiries, hotline 777. For reporting unregistered individuals and awakened crimes, 555!’

Even after taking his gaze off the bestseller list, Wijae’s crumpled expression showed no sign of smoothing out.

9 years ago, around the time dungeons and Rifts became relatively stable, the government, troubled by increasing crimes committed by idle awakened individuals, was preparing to establish a government agency to manage awakened individuals. Just then, news reached the officials that a police academy cadet had awakened as S-rank.

Ah! This was surely an opportunity sent from heaven. The government did not miss the opportunity and immediately established the Awakened Management Agency, pushing the newly awakened police academy student into the management agency as a special hire.

That person was the man in the advertisement board, S-rank civil servant hunter Jeongbin.

Cha Wijae had also encountered Jeongbin a few times during his days as J. They weren’t personally close, but they were on greeting terms. At the time, there were only two S-rank hunters in the entire country, so there was a certain inner closeness. However.

‘How did you end up like this.’

What on earth have you been through for 8 years? Wijae’s eyes now even held pity.

With slight exaggeration, Jeongbin appeared in every existing public service advertisement. In Wijae’s opinion, since he was a civil servant, it was easy to exploit him cheaply, so the management agency seemed to send him out everywhere.

Just the day before yesterday, he was promoting smoking cessation in a TV commercial, and in a bus advertisement he saw recently, he was promoting the 333 brushing rule, and here he was again promoting awakened registration. He was probably the most famous hunter in Korea, at least face-wise.

While Wijae was mourning his former colleague’s trajectory, a bright-eyed girl with her hair tied in one bunch approached with quick, short steps. A star-shaped name tag hanging from her backpack zipper swung.

Park Haeun, Saetbyeol Elementary School, 2nd Grade, Class 2. Below the crooked but firmly pressed handwriting, the hangover soup restaurant’s phone number and address were written in tiny letters.

“Uncle, I’ve finished picking my book.”

At the title “uncle,” Wijae naturally turned his head that way. Of course, they weren’t actually uncle and niece. Haeun was the only granddaughter of the hangover soup restaurant’s owner grandmother, and Wijae’s family had all died on the Day of the Rift.

However, at some point, Haeun called Wijae “uncle,” and Wijae didn’t bother correcting it. Just like the relationship between his aunt and himself in the past.

“What did you pick?”

“This.”

“What? The Day of the Rift”

On the cover of the comic book Haeun held out, several cutely beautified monsters and a masked young man were drawn. It was a children’s educational comic series Wijae was also familiar with.

Even though the world almost ended, this educational comic is still being published. As Wijae inwardly admired, 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 the face was excessively familiar. And rightly so…

‘Isn’t this a portrait rights infringement?’

…Because it was the mask Cha Wijae had worn to hide his identity during his days as J.