—Tae Tae-geon.
Tae-geon wrote his name on the smart board and looked over this week’s trainees.
The numbers varied slightly from session to session, but usually, twenty to thirty trainees were divided into three classes. However, only four people were seated in front of Tae-geon. Since he’d been assigned six trainees this time, he was short by a whole third.
Tae-geon quickly scanned the list he’d received to check who was absent, then glanced at the clock. Perhaps his coworkers’ warnings hadn’t been unfounded. As expected, the latecomers included an A-rank Awakened individual.
Late on the very first day… This training session probably won’t go smoothly.
Aware of the noisy hallway, Tae-geon deliberately raised his voice.
“First, I’ll take attendance. This is a mandatory course that must be completed before you begin working as a Hunter. If you miss even one day, you’ll have to retake the course during the next session—”
Bang! Slam!
Perhaps A-rank really did mean A-rank. A trainee who’d heard Tae-geon’s voice from the hallway came rushing in and flung the classroom door open with a tremendous racket. Another trainee followed him inside. Judging by their friendly manner, they seemed to have graduated from the same school.
The trainee who’d thrown open the door boldly called out in a loud voice.
“We’re not late, are we?”
“The class next door has already started, so please keep your voice down. Take your seats.”
“I’m A-rank. Do I really have to take this? I’ve already studied everything on YouTube. I saw the class two doors down just playing YouTube videos, too.”
“This course is mandatory for anyone who wishes to become a Hunter, regardless of rank. If you don’t plan to enter Gates in the future, you’re welcome to leave.”
“You’re so strict. It’s not like we’re in the military.”
The trainee grumbled, then looked at the electronic board and scowled.
“Tae Tae-geon? Isn’t this that instructor? The one who’s supposed to be a total hard-ass?”
“……..”
“Damn it, I signed up for a different instructor.”
“……..”
Tae-geon didn’t answer. He simply gave the trainee another pointed look, urging him to sit down.
He eventually succeeded in getting the trainees into their seats, but unfortunately, he couldn’t quite shut their mouths.
“I took a peek earlier, and there’s a pretty lady teaching in the classroom next door…”
“……..”
“Hey, hey. Should I ask my dad to switch my class? I’m sure they’d do it if I asked.”
“Trainee Park Jeong-min.”
“What? We’re not even allowed to talk? You just do your job, Instructor.”
“There are no women in our division.”
“……..?”
Confusion flashed across Park Jeong-min’s eyes. Taking advantage of the moment, Tae-geon began the lesson.
So this is how I end up relying on my coworkers for help. I should at least buy Officer Cha Yu-jin a hairbrush as a gift later.
He thought he might get through the first day without incident, but unfortunately, Trainee Park Jeong-min kept picking fights with him the next day, and the day after that, too.
‘Who does things like that these days? YouTube says you’re not supposed to do it that way.’
‘Can’t you take it a little easier? Why are you trying so hard?’
‘How much do you even get paid to do this?’
‘No, I’m seriously curious. Are you even qualified to teach me?’
Since causing trouble would lead to an immediate transfer to another department, Tae-geon had consistently ignored him. But thinking about the guy who kept snickering and needling him made his chest feel tight. He was so distracted that he could barely focus on the newspaper articles he habitually read.
Rattle, click, rattle-rattle, click.
Even so, Tae-geon stubbornly finished reading all the news articles about incidents and accidents related to Gates before getting up.
Before class, he shut himself away in the break room to calm down by eating Chubijubi. When Officer Seo Jae-hyeon came in to make coffee and spotted him, he flinched in surprise and asked how he was doing.
“…Is that guy giving you a lot of trouble?”
Tae-geon wondered if his expression looked particularly bad and replied awkwardly,
“Is it… that obvious?”
“No…”
Jae-hyeon let out an incredulous laugh. How could anyone fail to notice when someone was eating jelly as if he were about to chew another person to pieces?
He was even still twitching his jaw muscles from how hard he’d been working them. Jae-hyeon had always thought Tae-geon’s jaw was unusually angular and sharp, but now it seemed he’d built those jaw muscles by chewing jelly.
“Officer Tae, you tend to eat a lot of jelly when you’re stressed. Especially that black jelly.”
“It’s called Strong Chubijubi.”
“……..”
“Would you like to try one?”
At the casual offer, Jae-hyeon absentmindedly popped a black jelly into his mouth, only to grimace immediately. It was far too tough. It felt almost like chewing rubber.
“…Are you sure I’m allowed to swallow this?”
“Yes. By the way, how did you know I eat these when I’m stressed?”
“Well… I see you do it all the time.”
The Hunter Education and Training Division and the Awakened Registration and Management Division interacted fairly often because of the nature of their work, and they used the same break room.
More importantly, although there was no reason Tae-geon couldn’t simply sit at his desk and eat a little jelly at a time, he always went to the break room and finished an entire bag. This habit had made him rather famous among the staff ever since his early days as a civil servant.
There was even a running joke that while the other employees enjoyed their so-called cigarette breaks, he enjoyed his own private jelly breaks.
But Tae-geon tilted his head as if he found Jae-hyeon’s comment puzzling.
“Don’t you usually look at people as if they’re talking potatoes?”
“Well, not exactly…”
“So I assumed you wouldn’t be interested in me, either.”
“……..”
Jae-hyeon was momentarily at a loss for words. It was true, but he hadn’t expected Officer Tae, of all people, to say it so bluntly. Besides, they worked in different departments and had rarely spoken about anything personal.
Wondering if his usual behavior had been that bad, Jae-hyeon replied defensively,
“…I do find you rather interesting, Officer Tae.”
“Is that because my past records are blocked?”
“……..”
“Hacking into a public institution’s system is a serious crime. Be careful not to get caught.”
Jae-hyeon’s fingertips trembled.
He was surprised that Tae-geon had figured out he was hacking into the system. But he was even more surprised by Tae-geon’s attitude, as though he knew all about it yet was willing to turn a blind eye.
“…Just… when did you find out?”
“I’m fairly good at observing people.”
“…It seems you are.”
He looks like a bear, of all things…
Seo Jae-hyeon narrowed his eyes, then dropped onto the sofa and asked,
“So what did that brat do to get under your skin so badly that you’re taking it out on the jelly?”
“……..”
Tae-geon stared at Jae-hyeon, who was clearly trying to change the subject without making it obvious. Eventually, he explained what had happened. He’d needed someone to vent to anyway.
And after hearing the whole story, Jae-hyeon reacted exactly as Tae-geon had hoped, getting furious on his behalf.
“Wait, you just let him get away with that?! If it were me, I’d have really given him a piece of my mind…”
“You’re the one who warned me not to provoke him, Officer Seo.”
“Even so! I knew he was a troublemaker, but this is too much!”
“I only have two more days to put up with him, so I’ll try to endure it. There’s nothing to gain by causing a scene. Besides, I can’t afford to get into trouble this time…”
“…Is something going on?”
“Well…”
Tae-geon carefully explained that his classes were so unpopular that he might be transferred to another department, then let out a frustrated sigh.
“I don’t understand why my classes aren’t popular. I work so hard to prepare them.”
“…You really don’t know?”
“……..?”
“It’s because you try too hard. That’s literally the problem.”
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
“Uh… well…”
Faced with Tae-geon’s genuinely innocent reaction, Jae-hyeon rolled his eyes around for a moment, then turned on his smartphone, opened a Hunter community forum, and found a post to show him.
[Title: I’m turning twenty soon. Which instructor at the Seodaemun Branch is the easiest to take classes with?]
[Post: Title says it all. Recommend someone who’s easygoing, please.]
“What does ‘title says it all’ mean?”
“…It means the title already explains the content. Don’t you use online communities?”
“I tend to stay away from social media because of the nature of my job…”
“Just read the comments.”
Tae-geon scrolled down the screen to read them.
└ Anonymous: Can’t remember his name, but his surname was Choi. He just plays YouTube videos and fills the time. Doesn’t care if you look at your phone.
└ Original poster: C.S.H.?
└ Anonymous: Think so.
└ Original poster: Oh, that’s a sweet deal.
└ PotionDiluter: Yeah, if you just want to finish the course easily, I recommend C.S.H. You can just sit there and do your own thing.
└ LookingForGuild: C.Y.J. was fine, too. Plenty of breaks.
└ HunterHere: And he’s even pretty. A feast for the eyes.
└ M.N.O.R.: That instructor’s a man, though.
└ HunterHere: Yeah, I’m a woman.
└ BabyHunter: None of that matters. Just avoid T.T.G.
└ PorterNo.1: Agreed. Just stay away from T.T.G.
└ WantToGoHome: Why?
└ PorterNo.1: He’s a total by-the-book hard-ass. The way he talks is so stiff, you’d think you’d enlisted in the military. I thought all the instructors were like that, but it turns out only T.T.G. is.
└ BabyHunter: Yeah, he fills every minute of class. Breaks? What are those? He asks a ton of questions so you can’t mess around, either. But I gotta give him credit for his physical abilities. He was a whole different person during practical training. Still, most of us get retrained after joining a guild anyway, so I don’t think there’s any need to make the course so damn strict.
└ AliveAndWell: This bastard seriously gets into power struggles with the trainees.
└ BabyHunter: Bullshit. He only puts arrogant bastards in their place.
└ 100Lessons: Instructor T.T.G. is really good at teaching. Go for it.
└ S-RankSpectator: You bastard, lmao.
└ 100Lessons: ? I’m serious.
Tae-geon finished reading the comments and asked,
“What does ‘bullshit’ mean here?”
“…It means ‘don’t talk nonsense.’ Anyway, don’t get caught up in individual comments. Look at the overall picture and you’ll see why your classes aren’t popular.”
Tae-geon skimmed through the comments again, then timidly offered a counterargument.
“…But someone said I teach well.”
“……..”
Jae-hyeon instinctively gave him a slightly sympathetic look before offering some comfort.
“I guess it’s because people aren’t actually studying for an exam. All they need to do is fill the required training hours and complete the course. Honestly, who’s going to take it seriously?”
“…I still think there should be a separate examination for Hunter certification.”
“I agree, but… what can low-ranking civil servants like us do about it?”
Jae-hyeon patted Tae-geon’s broad shoulders and continued.
“As for the online community… I’ll see what I can do. I’ll also recommend you to newly Awakened people. If we can just fill all the seats in next week’s class, it’ll be harder for them to transfer you right away. For now, just get through this group of trainees.”
“…Thank you.”
As a token of gratitude, Tae-geon handed Jae-hyeon a piece of Strong Chubijubi, which took a long time to chew, then headed for the classroom.
Right. It’s almost over anyway. There’s no point in getting stressed over just today and tomorrow. Officer Seo said he’d help, so if I can just get through this session quietly, things should be fine for now.
Of course, he’d have to adjust the curriculum to suit the trainees’ tastes. Otherwise, he’d be sent off to the Gate Management Division.
Unfortunately, Tae-geon’s resolve didn’t last very long.
“Gates are broadly divided into four types based on their clearance conditions: dungeon-type, labyrinth-type, survival-type, and time-limited-type. Of these, the most dangerous is the time-limited type, because—”
“If you don’t clear it in time, the number of monsters increases exponentially until they eventually pour out into the outside world! Oh, come on! Would it kill you to teach us something useful instead of pointless information that we can find anywhere? Like how to train our skills or how to make a contract with a constellation! Who doesn’t know the different types of Gates these days? You’re wasting our damn time.”
“……..”
Without realizing it, Tae-geon stopped writing.
If it had been anything else, he could have simply ignored the comment and continued teaching. But he couldn’t let the claim that he was wasting their time slide.
“You don’t even need to learn that crap—”
“Trainee Park Jeong-min.”
“……..!”
For a moment, Tae-geon’s blue-gray eyes turned cold, and an oppressive presence weighed down the air around them. Park Jeong-min instinctively shrank back under a pressure unlike anything he’d ever experienced before.
“Do you know how many people sacrificed their lives just to obtain that supposedly useless information?”
“……..”
“Do you have any idea how many people stepped into those unknown spaces without knowing how to clear them, just hoping to buy a little more time?”
Gates had first appeared in South Korea only seven years ago. And naturally, when they first emerged, there was no storybook scenario in which people awakened skills as soon as the Gates appeared, system windows materialized before their eyes, or heroes emerged from nowhere to close the Gates for them.
People couldn’t check their own stats, either. There were no friendly NPCs to explain the situation or hand out quests.
These days, a system window appeared when someone entered a Gate and at least offered a few hints. But even that had only begun after humans had investigated and organized information about Gates to some extent.
In the beginning, people had literally been thrown into the deep end with no guidance.
Of course, there was no denying that people had been able to adapt more quickly thanks to all the books, films, games, and other media inspired by human imagination that they’d encountered beforehand.
But if anyone asked whether the transition had been peaceful, the answer was no.
The United States, where Gates had appeared first, had struggled for a long time to find a way to clear them. At one point, they even launched a nuclear weapon into a Gate. After the Gate overflowed, mutated monsters exposed to radiation poured out, causing widespread chaos. An entire state had to be shut down.
An S-rank Awakened individual had since appeared and successfully cleared the Gate, but Wyoming, once known as one of the country’s pristine regions, was now dying under the effects of radiation.
Thanks to the sacrifices made by other countries, South Korea had been able to prepare in advance and avoid experiencing a Gate overflow. But just because the country had avoided a catastrophe didn’t mean there had been no sacrifices.
To prevent Gates from overflowing, people had to be sent into them constantly.
Send people in. They all die. Send more people in. They die again. Send even more…
And naturally, the ones who had to lead the way in such circumstances were the military, organized to defend the nation.
‘S-Sergeant Tae-geon…’
‘Use your call signs during missions, Cherry.’
‘Waaah! Who chose playing-card names for our call signs?!’
Just call me Cherry Blossom instead!
He remembered the youngest member of his team, who had complained about his call sign even while he was on the verge of death.
‘Sniff… It’s so uncool. Please call me by my name, Sergeant.’
‘……..’
‘I feel like I won’t get another chance to hear it…’
‘……..’
‘Hyung Tae-geon… Please, hurry…’
At the time, Tae-geon had agonized over something so trivial for a long while before finally managing to speak.
‘…Min-jun.’
‘……..’
‘Oh Min-jun.’
‘…Thank you, Hyung Tae-geon.’
‘Min-jun.’
‘Hyung.’
‘……..’
‘Do you think I’ve bought us a week?’
The kid had volunteered for one reason alone: his love for his country.
Unlike the other team members, who had endured years of brutal training, he’d barely completed a five-week boot camp. He was a freshly turned twenty-year-old kid who was practically still a civilian.
Right. The higher-ups had attached him to the team as bait. Elite special forces operatives were expensive to deploy. More than anything, they must have wanted to raise the odds of success by any means necessary.
The kid hadn’t known any of that. He’d been happy, thinking he’d become a special forces operative himself.
…If only they’d known that the Gate they’d entered was a survival-type Gate where all they had to do was hold out. Then he wouldn’t have died searching for a dungeon boss that didn’t even exist.
Remembering the lives that had slipped away before he could do anything to save them, Tae-geon clenched his teeth.
“Never forget the sacrifices of the soldiers who led the way into the fires of hell to protect even brats like you, who are citizens of this country.”
“……..”
There was no response. No, he probably couldn’t respond. How often had someone truly directed killing intent at him in his life?
Tae-geon regretted that he’d finally lost his temper, but he turned around calmly and picked up his smart pen.
“Let’s continue the lesson.”
On the way home after completing the mandatory Hunter training course—
“Seriously, what the fuck did I even do to deserve being talked to like that…!”
“…Just calm down, Jeong-min.”
“How am I supposed to calm down? Damn it, the more I think about it, the more pissed off I get.”
“Argh! This is so annoying!”
Park Jeong-min finally couldn’t hold back and shouted. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He was A-rank, yet he’d been so overwhelmed by that man’s presence that he couldn’t even talk back.
If he could, he’d go back to that moment and punch the instructor right in the face, just to show him.
Then he noticed a trash can on the side of the road. Needing somewhere to vent his anger, Park Jeong-min rushed over and kicked it.
BANG!
The metal bin burst apart with a loud crash, scattering the trash inside in every direction. But instead of scolding him, people glanced nervously at him and hurried away.
Only then did Park Jeong-min’s expression relax a little.
Right. He was A-rank. What did he have to be afraid of? The country’s number-one guild, Myth Guild, had already approached him with a recruitment offer. Unlike some civil servant, his future was bright.
Park Jeong-min immediately took out his smartphone and called his father, who was an executive at the Awakened Management Bureau.
Until now, that instructor had never done anything particularly serious, so Jeong-min hadn’t had a reason to bring it up. But today was different, wasn’t it? The instructor had not only called a trainee a brat but had also released his oppressive aura to intimidate him.
Soon, a voice came through the speaker.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“Dad, about the Hunter training… Is there any way I can switch classes?”
“Switch classes? Why all of a sudden? Isn’t tomorrow the last day?”
“Well, yes… I was going to put up with it, but the instructor is being a bit…”
“You mean Officer Tae? I deliberately assigned you to him… Was there a problem?”
“…What? Why?”
Park Jeong-min was stunned. He’d thought he’d just been unlucky enough to end up with Tae Tae-geon, but it turned out his father had arranged it?
“Well, you awakened as A-rank, didn’t you? Officer Cha Yu-jin is only C-rank, and he has less experience with Gates. Officer Choi Seong-hun isn’t much good in practical situations, either… Anyway, wouldn’t an experienced B-rank Hunter be better for you to learn from?”
“Oh… Is that right?”
“Why? Are you two not getting along?”
“What? Oh, no, no problem. Bye, Dad.”
Park Jeong-min immediately hung up and grinned.
“Hey, did you hear that? That bastard’s B-rank. What the fuck? B-rank?”
“…I’m C-rank, though.”
“Ha! A B-rank thinks he can threaten me?”
“…He didn’t exactly threaten you…”
“He’s seriously crossed the line.”
In fact, B-rank placed someone among the top ten percent of Awakened individuals. But what mattered to Park Jeong-min wasn’t the statistics. It was simply that the instructor’s rank was lower than his own.
“Hey, hey. Didn’t they say we’d be doing our training inside a Gate on the last day?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“Just you wait until tomorrow. I’ll show you something damn entertaining.”
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