The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low Chapter 7

“I really have to go. An elementary schooler is wandering outside at this hour. Aren’t you worried about a child roaming the streets alone at night?”

It was a remark worthy of a public service announcement narration, moving enough to touch the heart.

Please get through. Wijae prayed inwardly as he looked at the black gas mask from which he couldn’t read a single thought.

“Right, that’s true.”

However, contrary to Wijae’s earnest wish, the gas mask’s voice was still relaxed. It sounded almost like saying such tactics wouldn’t work. After nodding a few times, the gas mask took out a phone from his pocket, typed something in, and then ostentatiously shook the phone.

“My guys will find the missing child. Just wait a bit?”

However, Cha Wijae also nimbly took the next step this time. He shook his head and spoke firmly.

“No, I’ll decline. I’m going to call the police. I’ll request help from the pillar of the people.”

“Okay… Then I’ll call the Awakened Management Agency.”

“Why would you call the management agency?”

“Because hunters using their abilities to search is faster than the police. Do you like Jeongbin? If I call, he’ll come right away. Want me to call him?”

Wijae momentarily lost his words at the gas mask who shot back as if asking why he was asking about every little thing, and openly glared at him.

Are you serious?

Yeah, I’m serious, so what?

After quickly reading each other’s eyes, the strength drained out of him and he no longer had the energy to deal with this. Wijae first slightly raised both hands as if to say fine.

If there was a hunter specialized in tracking, finding the missing child would be easier than the police, as the gas mask said. But the reason Wijae took a step back wasn’t just that. It was because this guy’s offer to call Jeongbin really didn’t sound like empty words.

Judging by the skill of someone who had beaten people not just once or twice, the gas mask was definitely recorded as a person of interest in the Awakened Management Agency database. Jeongbin, with his thorough law-abiding spirit, would rush here the moment he received his call. Then the situation would obviously get more serious—no need to see it to know it’d end up on YouTube.

Fine, just from the brief conversation we shared, I’ve concluded that this bastard in front of me is someone I shouldn’t get entangled with.

Hah… Wijae, who had let out a deep sigh, irritably swept his hair back. Time kept passing, and if he kept bickering like this, the conversation seemed like it would never end.

“What do you want from me?”

When he threw away the polite speech and asked directly, the gas mask let out a light laugh. The gas mask, who had come a little closer, whispered low.

“I’ll ask just two questions.”

“…”

Wijae nodded as if telling him to try.

“First, the first question. Take your pick.”

The gas mask made a V with his large, straight hands. Thanks to the moonlight, his hands were clearly visible even in the darkness. The fingertips he held out were all stained pitch black.

As if he had no intention of drawing out the silence long, the gas mask opened his mouth first even though Wijae hadn’t chosen.

“One, that ladle is an S-rank weapon unknown to the world. Right?”

The status elevation of a 6,900 won ladle, insane…

Just because I parried those thorns a bit, he’s elevating the ladle this much. Does the gas mask have a surprisingly naive side, or is he just an idiot? Wijae deliberately thought useless thoughts and stood with his hands behind his back, giving no answer at all.

When no answer came for a long while, the gas mask let out a heavy sigh, slowly folded his index finger, and rotated his wrist half a turn so the back of his hand was visible. With a face as composed as when he had made the V earlier, he tensed his middle finger tightly and asked.

“Two, you’re an unregistered Awakened. This one?”

“You rude bastard…”

Have today’s hunters all been eating rudeness for breakfast? Wijae made a face of disbelief at the middle finger extended with irritating length.

8 years ago, when Cha Wijae was active, this kind of insubordination was unimaginable. No matter when this guy awakened, he couldn’t possibly be a senior to him. Of course not, because I’m Korea’s first S-rank Awakened!

Just because it’s the Great Hunter Era doesn’t mean they would have thrown away Confucian ideals that have lasted hundreds of years. As Wijae suppressed his anger at a distant junior acting cocky, the gas mask drove the nail in with a laughter-mixed voice.

“Well… since it doesn’t seem like an S-rank weapon, you must be an unregistered one, right?”

“I’m not unregistered.”

In any case, his awakened registration itself should exist, so strictly speaking, he wasn’t unregistered. …He might have been processed as missing or dead and his records erased, but 8 years ago he had been registered, so there was no need to feel guilty about it.

However, the gas mask snorted as if he had heard all sorts of nonsense.

“If you’re going to lie, at least put some effort into it…”

“I’m telling you it’s true.”

Before the answer was even finished, the gas mask vanished from his sight. And the very next moment,

Kaang—!!

Wijae blocked with his ladle a blow that flew from behind without warning. Beyond the gas mask’s lenses, purple eyes flashed fiercely. Even though his attack was blocked, the gas mask didn’t withdraw his hand but rather gripped the ladle tightly. Crunch, the ladle, already dented, crumpled in the shape of his grip.

Sssss—

A moment later, the ladle crumpling in the gas mask’s hand began to melt pitch black. The acrid smell of burning metal stung his nose.

‘Corrosion or decay-type ability?’

Drip, drip, black liquid fell to the floor, and the moment the liquid dripped down, every place it touched turned pitch black. Wijae had seen this kind of sight recently. Everywhere the fangs of the Basilisk, master of the West Sea Rift, had touched, it had melted just like that.

‘It’s poison.’

And a deadly poison comparable to the Basilisk’s at that. He had thought the gas mask was just a concept, but…

As Wijae furrowed his brow, he felt the face beyond the gas mask grin. Whether he had gotten the answer he wanted, he didn’t press further but dusted off his hands and stepped back one pace.

“It’s an ordinary ladle.”

“…”

“And you, an unregistered Awakened who blocks my attacks…”

“I told you I’m not unregistered, how many times do I have to say it.”

“That’s because.”

Beyond the gas mask’s round lenses, purple eye-light was shining brilliantly.

“There’s no way I wouldn’t know someone at this level.”

It could be taken as a compliment, so why did it feel oddly bad? Wijae thought about the reason while receiving the persistent gaze without avoiding it. Soon he realized one fact without difficulty.

This bastard, he’s been speaking informally from a while ago.

Since when did we meet that you’re speaking casually? Former J, current Cha Wijae, who had lived a refined hunter life hearing only extreme polite speech, found this behavior extremely grating. After all, even cold water has its upper and lower levels. Wijae twisted his posture crookedly and raised his eyes.

“Hey,”

“Yeah?”

“How old are you.”

The gas mask, who tilted his head at the unexpected question, soon killed the momentum from earlier and answered innocently.

“Twenty-four.”

Twenty-four? Twenty-fooour? Cha Wijae leaned his body’s center even more to one side and stood with one leg cocked.

“Look at this, a young punk speaking casually to someone he just met.”

“You look about my age too.”

“Hey, I’ve eaten about five thousand more bowls of rice than you,”

Of course, Cha Wijae still couldn’t believe he was twenty-eight and not twenty, and he hadn’t actually eaten five thousand more bowls either! But if it was about age, he should use it more effectively. The only thing he could beat the gas mask with right now was the 8 years he had gained for free.

At the sudden old-man remark, the gas mask tilted his head again. Perhaps because his actions didn’t match the ominous gas mask, he seemed like a pure child.

“Aha… So what?”

“Your words are too short, I’m telling you.”

“I see…”

The gas mask laughed briefly and slightly bowed his head toward Wijae. The eyes beyond the lenses curved as he whispered.

“Shall I use polite speech?”

Perhaps because he had just been beating someone, the gas mask had a strangely exuding aura. If Wijae hadn’t had the experience of fighting monsters as a hunter, he might have been a little intimidated.

However, Cha Wijae was a veteran hunter who had rolled and rolled until he was worn down to the point of near extinction. Seeing the gas mask subtly sharpening his edge within his soft tone, his first thought was that it was tiresome. Of course, he hadn’t grown enough to calmly let slide being spoken to casually by someone four years younger than him.

His body was still twenty, but his heart had surpassed twenty-eight and become 280 years old. Perhaps the age of 280 suited his old-man temper better.

Whether or not he knew Wijae’s boiling insides, the gas mask touched the black surface with his fingertip and added.

“Is it weird? Sorry. It’s been a while since I’ve used polite speech.”

Was this what they called forcing a bow? Even though he heard the polite speech he wanted, Wijae actually felt more displeased. It felt like being a grandfather with a disobedient grandson who, when told to bow, bows twice instead.

Cha Wijae suppressed his feelings and repeated to himself.

Right now, I’m a regular person. A regular person. Not Hunter J. That side is a precious hunter, and I’m a regular person. A regular person who absolutely needs his help to find Haeun quickly. Recalling the purpose of coming out tonight, his head seemed to cool little by little.

—Haeun went somewhere and isn’t here, what do I do. I don’t know when she went out without me or anyone noticing. The world is so scary these days, and she went out alone…

But, couldn’t I have already found Haeun in the time I’ve been bickering with this guy? Once his thoughts reached that point, cracks began to form in Wijae’s self-hypnosis. Something seemed to surge up from inside.

Right now I’m not J, but a good and ordinary per—

“Even twins born a minute apart distinguish between older and younger!”

In the end, Wijae’s old-man energy exploded.