The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low Chapter 6

Wijae swung the stainless steel ladle he had brought with him when he came outside, cutting it through the air. It was naturally more durable than a spring onion, so it was not a bad piece of equipment for emergencies. Wijae continued twirling the ladle as he ran through the places Haeun might have gone.

There had been no emergency Rift alert, so she could not have gone to evacuate and left Grandmother behind…. Had she gone to the playground at this hour? Or maybe, after eating one ice cream, she had sneaked out to buy more. Wijae’s mind raced as he headed toward the main road.

He had to find Park Haeun and take her home before it was too late. Wijae resolved and closed his eyes.

<Eyes of the Tracker!>

When he opened his eyes again, both pupils shimmered with a blue glow. The landscape before him simplified into lines and planes like a building’s structural diagram, and soon he could see through to the inside of buildings as well. ‘Eyes of the Tracker’ was a skill that allowed him to see a person’s unique light, and it was often useful when searching for someone as he was doing now.

In the places where people had been, instead of human figures, white lights flickered like candle flames here and there. A child’s light was slightly smaller than average. Wijae sharpened all his senses and scanned the area, but it seemed Haeun was not nearby.

Just as Wijae broadened the range of his skill a little—

Flash!

An intense violet flame seized his gaze in an instant. It was the brightest and largest flame he had seen in his life, burning fiercely as if it would devour everything around it.

…A flame?

He hesitated only briefly. Wijae quickly moved his steps toward the flame.

A being that appears not as mere light but in the form of a flame is an Awakened—including Hunters. This neighborhood had many Hunters, but a flame burning so vividly that it blazed bright could not be an ordinary person. It was sharp and enormous, closer to a monster than a typical Hunter.

So he had to check it himself. Whether it was simply a Hunter with strong presence, or a being that could pose a threat. If the latter… Haeun could be in danger. Wijae tightened his grip on the ladle with firm strength.

The flame was burning in an alley not far from the hangover stew restaurant. As the distance to the flame grew closer, the dull thud, thud, thud… of kicking sounds and muffled groans of “Ugh,” “Ugh” grew louder. Someone was beating another person.

At the end of the alley he finally reached, where the moonlight shone brightly.

In the center of a violently burning violet flame, a large figure clad in black was ruthlessly kicking someone curled up on the ground. The ominous energy radiating from the figure pierced his skin sharply.

And at the same time, Wijae’s keen intuition flashed. He could feel it instinctively. The size of the flame rivaling a monster’s, and the oppressive pressure that pinned down the surroundings just by its presence. The figure before him was…

The same S-class as me.

The figure that had been kicking the man suddenly snapped its head toward him. Wijae hastily turned off his skill and retreated a step. Only then did the figure, previously obscured by the flame, come clearly into view.

A man wearing a gas mask that covered his entire face, black techwear, and leather shoes that glistened as if stained with blood. Everything about his attire screamed Hunter. After a long silence, with his gaze fixed, the gas mask raised a black-gloved hand and pointed precisely at Wijae.

“You.”

“…”

Wijae stood motionless even at the voice calling him. The gas mask spoke in a languid voice.

“Saw everything, didn’t you, you apron-wearing bastard.”

“…”

As Wijae took a step back into the shadows, the gas mask added, as if telling him not to think of running.

“Ladle too.”

Wijae quietly hid even the hand holding the ladle behind his back. Had it been visible because it was a stainless steel ladle? Sharp-eyed bastard. Maybe I should wear a damn apron from tomorrow.

Just then, the collapsed man twitched and moved, and the gas mask kicked his stomach again. His head was still turned toward Wijae.

“Ugh!”

“This bastard, the moment he sees an opening, he’s all eager to crawl out again….”

Muttering in an irritated tone, the gas mask ground his foot into the man’s stomach while staring intently at Wijae.

“Civilian?”

“Yes.”

“Working late….”

Whether he asked out of courtesy, his follow-up was half-hearted. After a long silence, the gas mask added another question.

“But what are you doing outside at this hour, holding a ladle?”

“I came out to look for my niece. They said she wasn’t home.”

Wijae answered in a calm voice and waved his hand at about waist height, palm down.

“Have you by any chance seen a girl about this tall? An elementary schooler with her hair tied up in one ponytail.”

When Wijae asked brazenly, the gas mask shrugged.

“Don’t know.”

“I see. Then, may I be on my way?”

“Wait. I’ll ask this guy too.”

The foot that had been pressing down on the man seemed about to lift, then thudded into his side again. But the man, already unconscious, only groaned, “Ugh….”

“Sorry. This bastard doesn’t know anything. His brain’s pickled in drugs.”

Despite his words, the gas mask did not sound sorry at all. At this point, it seemed he just wanted to use any excuse to land another hit. But more than the fact that some all-black weirdo was beating someone up, finding his niece was more important, so Wijae said nothing further and shook his head.

“No problem. You’ve had a hard time. Then I’ll be going.”

“Hold on.”

Just as Wijae turned to leave the alley, the gas mask abruptly stopped him. After staring intently at Cha Wijae’s face for a long while, the gas mask tilted his head. Perhaps because of his leisurely tone, every movement seemed slow.

“That’s strange.”

“…”

“Have we met somewhere before?”

“No, we haven’t.”

“…Is that so?”

Wijae stared at the gas mask with a face that said, why are you asking that. Without a single shred of falsehood, he and the other were complete strangers. There was no way he would forget someone who wore a gas mask so conspicuously—a concept addict like that. Wijae guessed that this black-clad concept addict was a newly awakened Hunter who had appeared while he was inside the Rift.

After scrutinizing Wijae for a moment, the gas mask raised one index finger to his lips. A gesture meaning: don’t you dare tell anyone what you just saw. Well, getting entangled with the police or the Agency would only complicate things.

Wijae was no stranger to the difficulties of beating people up in back alleys without getting caught, so he readily nodded. He had no one to tell anyway, so he would just pretend he had not seen anything. The gas mask waved his hand as if to say, go ahead.

Then it happened.

Gigig… kkigig….

Ssheeeak!

Sharp spines burst through the back of the crouching man and flew toward Wijae in an instant. Wijae was not surprised even seeing the ferocious charge. Instead, he calmly stepped aside, adjusted his grip on the ladle, and put strength into his arm. And—

Clang!!

He knocked the spines away with perfect form!

Maybe I should have pursued a career as a baseball player. Even if not a home run, that was at least a triple. Feeling secretly pleased, Wijae clenched and unclenched his hand a couple of times, then casually looked at the gas mask. He was gripping the spines Wijae had deflected—with his bare hand.

“…”

“…”

Did he… catch them for me?

That seemed to be the case from the circumstances. Protecting civilians was a basic principle for Hunters, and according to his current cover, Wijae was a civilian who had come out late at night with a ladle to find his niece. No matter how much he had just swung the ladle at those spines, he was still someone who should be protected, so it was understandable that the gas mask would cover for him.

A trickle of cold sweat ran down Wijae’s spine. The awkward silence continued.

“…”

“…”

Damn it.

What civilian in this world swings at spines hurtling toward them like mad? Wijae wanted to punch himself for failing to play the role of a terrified, law-abiding citizen facing down spines.

Making a run for it now was obviously impossible. So did he have no choice but to knock the gas mask unconscious? Where on the head and with how much force should he strike to make him lose his memory just enough and be done with it? Awakened could probably take a harder hit.

The problem was that his weapon happened to be a ladle, so he could not gauge the force well. Just from the fact that the gas mask had caught the suddenly redirected spines with his bare hands, that bastard was no pushover. Wijae was frozen like a broken robot, lost in profound contemplation.

In the meantime, the gas mask stuffed his gloves into his pocket and slowly folded his arms. He seemed to be waiting for a reaction, so Wijae first pulled himself together and faced him.

Ha….

Life is such a bitch….

Now that it had come to this, it was frontal breakthrough—no, frontal escape. Wijae stared into the void, then politely bowed his head.

“…I’ll be going. I urgently need to find my niece.”

Escape from reality, begin.

“Hey there—”

But the gas mask did not back down easily. Instead, he drew out his words and strode closer. Stop talking to me. Wijae took two steps back, but somehow the gas mask was already right in front of him, hands clasped behind his back as he leaned his upper body down slightly.

His long shadow, matching his tall stature, completely covered Wijae. The voice seeping out from outside the gas mask was thick with amusement.

“What’s your name?”

“I don’t have a name.”

“Ah ha…. So you haven’t picked a Hunter name yet?”

“No. I just don’t have a name.”

“Then shall I give you one?”

“Do you run a naming service?”

“I’m thinking of opening one temporarily.”

The more he tried to escape, the more it was like a swamp grabbing at his feet. The rule of swamps is that the more you struggle, the deeper you sink. He had no choice but to end this conversation somehow. Wijae took a deep breath and composed his voice.