Chapter 14

After parting with her, Cho-i quietly stared at Dongju Kim’s number in the taxi heading to Nara’s house.

“Should I delete it?”

She wouldn’t see him again anyway, and he kept trying to recruit her, which was annoying. She suddenly remembered what Yeonhan Kim had said.

‘You’ll get restless.’

She snorted and turned off her smartphone screen.

“No way.”

However, Dongju Kim’s number remained undeleted. So she started frantically going through below-rank dungeons for a while, looking for ‘hidden dungeons.’ After a day, two days, three days, four days, a month, and then about two months, she realized. No hidden dungeons appeared, and Yeonhan Kim was right. Playing around with these damn weaklings felt like her hands and feet were cramping.

“Haa…”

She sighed as she stomped on a Sewer Rat in the illegal dungeon under the sewer. Her whole body was itching. The monsters that burst with a thud before she could even exert proper strength were too boring. Doing this for two months made her feel like she was going crazy again. Hmm, would that mean she was regaining her sanity?

“Should I contact him again?”

Cho-i shook her head. No, I said I didn’t want to be restricted. It’s better to be alone than to rejoin a guild and be ordered around. It’s not hard to earn a living with lower-rank dungeons anyway.

“But… why do I feel like this?”

She felt like she didn’t even know her own condition. It was ticklish, especially her lower abdomen. Something wanted to fight. But Cho-i couldn’t distinguish the Entity from her own will. Therefore, she felt she wanted a more extreme fight, a fight where she had to clash with all her might.

“This can’t be happening.”

She sighed, facing the boss monster, the Sewer Rat. She felt like she’d seen that face three hundred times. She was constantly going around and around the same place, day in and day out. She raised her hand and pulled her shoulder back, swinging her fist at the rat. She didn’t even put much force into it. But when the rat was hit in the face by her hand, it was knocked out with a loud crunching sound, spitting out low-grade items. Her whole body tensed up. She even felt annoyed. Her finger joints cracked as they moved. Her teeth were bared, grinding together with a harsh sound. What was she lacking so much? It felt similar to being hungry. Cho-i was too lazy to even pick up the items the rat spat out, so she trudged outside. When she came out, the next person was waiting for the dungeon to reset. She saw someone subtly enter as she came out empty-handed, but Cho-i didn’t care and left the smelly sewer, heading outside. As soon as she came out, Cho-i sniffed herself to see if she smelled. Fortunately, it seemed the smell hadn’t lingered. It made sense, as she had gone straight into the dungeon. She walked out onto the street, trudging along. Her now-familiar walkers didn’t even make her heels ache. But something kept bothering her. Her stomach felt uneasy. So, she finally turned on her smartphone and called Dongju Kim’s number, which she hadn’t been able to delete back then.

Ring, ring, ring… click.

-Hello?

She heard the man’s dry voice. Cho-i chuckled for no reason. When she laughed, he asked in an exasperated tone from the other side,

-Why are you laughing as soon as you call? “It’s just funny.”

She asked,

“Paehyeok, how do I get in?” -You want to come in? It won’t be easy. “I’m counting on some connections, you know.”

Laughter was heard from the other side. Yeonhan Kim’s voice was also heard over the receiver. “You’re coming? Really?” Her voice was bright. Even though it had been two months since she called, the voice that welcomed her more than she expected kept her laughing. She could go to the dungeon. Somehow, it felt like that itself had become the goal.

***

She headed to Paehyeok the very day she made the call. When she called Nara Shim to tell her she was going to Paehyeok and to come out, Nara Shim cheered and, in less than 30 minutes, took a taxi and frantically rushed her.

“What did they say? They’re just letting you through? Did you mention me? Please tell me you did. Please!”

“Could you ask one thing at a time?”

“Did you mention me?!”

“No, I didn’t!”

“Hey!”

“That’s why I’m taking you to introduce you now.”

“Sir, what did I just say? Please forget it. Thank you. I was impudent.”

Cho-i couldn’t even laugh anymore and looked at her with pity before heading with her to Yongseon District, where Paehyeok was located. Nara Shim couldn’t contain her excitement the whole way, talking to the taxi driver.

“Driver, please drop us off in front of Paehyeok. Understood? It’s Paehyeok, Paehyeok. We’re going to Paehyeok, I tell you!”

“I’m a little embarrassed by you.”

“Be embarrassed then! We’re going to Paehyeok!”

“Many people go to Paehyeok for trials.”

“Oh, right. You said they’d just let you through? How did you do it?”

“First, I think I need to apply for a correction. There’s an awakened registration office in Yongseon District, so I’m going to try there. I still have some time before my appointment.”

“Okay, let’s do that. Ha. I really hope it goes well. If you do well, I’ll do well too.”

“If I do well, why would you do well?”

“Did you forget all the times I’ve taken care of you? I even washed your hair. If you say you forgot, I’ll bite you.”

“Bite all you want. You won’t leave a mark.”

“Damn tanks.”

“If you’re so upset, be a tank yourself.”

First, they decided to go to the awakened registration office nearby, not Paehyeok, to apply for a grade correction. The staff member at the counseling center, though not smiling, spoke in an incredibly friendly voice.

“Please bring your resident registration copy first.”

“What?”

“You need to bring your resident registration copy for the next step.”

Cho-i tried to get the resident registration copy through an app. Then the staff member said,

“There’s a separate resident registration copy used at the awakened registration office. You have to go and get it yourself.”

Why do they insist on analog in this day and age? The two went to the community service center and got the resident registration copy. They didn’t know this was just the beginning.

“To get that, you need to go to the awakened registration office, fill out the awakened registration form first, and bring it here.”

So they went back, filled out the Awakened registration form, and returned to the community center. They got a resident registration copy for Awakened individuals and headed back to the Awakened registration office.

“Please give me your ID and hunter license together.”

Cho-i handed over the resident registration copy, her ID, and her hunter license. The counselor then offered her a document.

“You just need to fill this out, go to your district office, get a stamp, and bring it back.”

“Huh…?”

“Once you get the stamp, you’ll receive a re-evaluation form, fill it out, and then undergo a re-evaluation. Please understand that it can take 15 to 20 weeks for the documents to be processed, and sometimes even longer.”

“…”

“…”

Nara Shim and Cho-i Hyeon felt all the strength drain from their bodies, and they couldn’t even laugh.

“Hey, then shouldn’t you have to take a trial as a C-Rank?”

“That might actually be better, it’ll be easier to pass.”

“Is that so?”

“Well, our appointment time is up, let’s go.”

The two, completely drained, trudged towards Paehyeok with a different demeanor than before. The Paehyeok building, with its 83 floors, wasn’t the tallest in Seoul, but it was the largest among guild buildings. Nara Shim looked up at the tall building and seemed to regain her energy, her mouth agape.

“I’m in front of Paehyeok!”

“It’s embarrassing. Be quiet.”

As the two women stood hesitantly at the entrance without entering, a security guard who was guarding the front approached them. Even the security guard seemed to be an Awakened, his presence was extraordinary.

“Do you have business in the building?”

Cho-i said,

“Oh, we have someone we’re meeting. We were waiting out front.”

“Excuse me, but may I know who you’re here to see?”

“Mr. Dongju Kim and Mr. Yeonhan Kim.”

At her words, the security guard smiled dismissively.

“The two of them are busy. We even posted a notice in the fan cafe not to loiter in front of the building, so this is problematic.”

“What? There’s a fan cafe too?”

“Please leave quickly. Don’t disturb others.”

“No, we really came to meet them! We even know their numbers!”

“How did you even get their numbers? Hand over your smartphone!”

“Ugh! You’re impossible to talk to!”

Nara Shim was acting like a stalker fan. Cho-i sighed and called Dongju Kim. After a few rings, he answered.

“Where are you?” -I’m on the first floor. “You have a fan cafe too?” -It just kind of happened. “We’re being mistaken for your stalker fans right now, could you come help us out?” -What?

Then there was silence. Cho-i looked at her smartphone with a ‘what the’ expression. And then she saw Dongju Kim opening the first-floor door and coming out.

“Hey!”

“Huh, Hunter. Why did you come all the way down here?”

“They’re my guests.”

“Huh?”

“They’re guests I have an appointment with.”

“Ah.”

The security guard looked back and forth between the fuming Nara Shim, the smartphone-holding Cho-i, and Dongju Kim, and then…

“I apologize. Guests.”

“It’s fine. It happens.”

“It does not happen!”

“You be quiet.”

Sometimes, at times like this, Nara Shim seemed even more hopeless than Cho-i Hyeon. Cho-i Hyeon pressed down on Nara Shim’s head and followed Dongju Kim. As she trailed after his red hair, which looked like it was dyed with cheap dye despite his wealth, the lobby soon came into view.

“Wow.”

The lobby was as clean and spacious as any major corporation. No, it actually was a major corporation. After all, it was a hunter guild run by an SS-Rank and three S-Ranks. The two women followed Dongju Kim into the elevator. She wondered if there would be a bellboy in the elevator, but thankfully, it wasn’t that extravagant. Dongju Kim scanned her hunter license at the bottom of the elevator and pressed the 80th floor button.

“From the 10th floor up, you can only go if you have a registered hunter license here. And from the 80th floor, only S-Rank hunter registration cards can grant access.”

“Wow…”

Nara Shim exclaimed in admiration again. Didn’t that mean they were going to a floor only accessible to S-Rank hunters?