Chapter 50

Chapter 50

Not the face brought about by the ‘Ruler’s Garden,’ but the real Yoon Juyeong, wearing an expression honest to his own emotions and heart.

Just as the conversation with Yoon Juyeong had ended, and I was about to turn around to break up the strange argument Guild Master Kang Mujin and Jeong Seojin were still having among themselves, a bluish hologram suddenly flared up in the middle of the guild master’s office with a bright light.

I stopped mid-step on my way toward the Guild Master and Jeong Seojin, staring with bewildered eyes at the familiar woman’s figure rising beyond the hologram.

“Administrator?”

I wasn’t sure if it was me who said that, or someone else. What was certain was that the figure rising beyond the hologram was the Librarian — the Catastrophe in human form that humanity had faced countless times.

The Librarian beyond the hologram looked around as if surveying something on the other side of the screen, then immediately smiled straight at us.

—Wow, humanity is looking at me with such stupid faces again today. Personally, I think it’s a face I never get tired of. You humans are most charming when you act dumb, after all.

The Librarian, whom I was seeing for the first time in nearly a month, looked exactly the same as ever — brown bobbed hair sticking out at odd angles, glasses perched precariously on the bridge of her nose.

The Librarian flaunted her signature condescending tone, unchanged from before, and waved her hand toward the hologram.

—Ah, but don’t get your hopes up thinking I’ll lower the difficulty out of pity for you stupid humans. I’m still rooting with all my might for humanity’s extinction.

This woman just casually let her true feelings slip. No, in this case, maybe ‘casually’ isn’t the right word — ‘bluntly’ might be more accurate. I stared at the Librarian, as insufferable today as she was yesterday and five years ago, with wide, disbelieving eyes.

—Well, I don’t have time to chat with you humans for long anyway. So, in that sense, ta-da. I’ve prepared something again this time.

With the ‘ta-da,’ the Librarian pulled out a thick book she had been hiding behind her back. It was the same kind of book she had brought out when announcing the first tutorial.

‘No way.’

By now, anyone would have realized why the Librarian had shown up this time.

I glanced around at the reactions of the people near me.

Yoon Juyeong was… well, no different from usual. He was watching the Librarian with an expressionless face. And Jeong Seojin was still sprawled lazily on the sofa, looking at the Librarian.

‘The Guild Master seems to be… contacting people.’

As the leader of the largest guild in South Korea, maybe he had a lot to handle regarding the Librarian’s sudden appearance.

After confirming that Hunter Kang Mujin was manipulating his smartphone, making a call to someone while watching the Librarian, I finally turned my gaze from Avan — who was practically perched on my shoulder — back to the Librarian.

—Alright, the second tutorial, I now reveal!

Right on cue, the Librarian was unveiling the tutorial, the reason for her appearance this time. I squinted at the page of the book she had opened.

[Tutorial 2. Learn a Skill and Give It to Someone Else]

‘What kind of idea did she come up with for that name?’

Last time during the first tutorial, she had written something weird like ‘Group Assignment’ as the name, and now this again?

I stared intently at the page the Librarian was holding open, narrowing my brow slightly.

—I haven’t exactly studied or researched you humans thoroughly, but I’ve heard that ‘skills’ are very important to you.

The fact that there was someone who could teach the importance of skills to *that* Librarian was even more surprising. Honestly, given her personality, I couldn’t imagine her having any being she’d have a friendly conversation with.

—In that sense, honestly… looking at you Awakened, you’re all specialized in combat, aren’t you? That won’t do. Balance and harmony are important, you know. It’s problematic when all you have are aggressive, battle-hungry people.

Those weren’t exactly words coming from the person who had triggered the Monster Parade out of nowhere and inflicted massive wounds on humanity.

The current global hunter-centered society… or to put it more bluntly, the ‘military power-centered society’ had started entirely because of the Monster Parade five years ago.

Honestly, when a monster you can’t handle is rampaging right in front of you, and the cold weapons humanity used before don’t even work properly against it, who among the humans who experienced that wouldn’t prioritize practical military strength?

“There’s probably a reason civilians, awakened beings, and everyone else cheers for high-rank hunters like that.”

Those who possess the power to actually protect them, and who bear the duty to do so. Naturally, for the majority of ‘weak’ people who are in a position to be protected by them, cheering for them was only to be expected.

—And that’s why we’ve prepared this. A tutorial for discovering new S-Ranks who possess ‘skills,’ not combat ability!

The Librarian, who had no idea what I was thinking and probably didn’t care to know, continued speaking with a bright, unbothered face.

—The second tutorial, ‘Learn a Skill and Give It to Others.’ From now on, humanity, I hope you will discover hunters or awakened beings who achieve S-Rank through ‘skills,’ not ‘combat’ ability.

Ah, right. I suppose I need to explain a bit more.

The brown-haired woman in the video rested her chin on her hand and spoke in a calm, composed tone.

—What I mean by ‘S-Rank production-type hunter’ is someone with the ability to produce results at an S-Rank level. Actually, there may have already been people who fit this criterion. But until now, the system’s standards have been centered on combat-type hunters, so these people were likely assigned lower ranks due to their insufficient combat ability.

For just a moment, as if recalling something, the Administrator’s amber eyes grew hazy before returning to normal.

—If the ‘judgment’ determines that you’ve met the conditions I mentioned, the rank recorded in your Status Window will also be immediately changed to S-Rank, reflecting the newly established standards.

“Then we should aim to discover one production-type hunter per guild.”

The Administrator’s voice was clearly smiling, yet somehow tinged with weariness, and over it, Guild Master Kang Mujin’s voice, infinitely heavy and serious, overlapped.

It truly was a sight that instantly showed the contrast between the Administrator, who committed absurd acts as if they were ‘games,’ and humanity, who had to respond to the Administrator’s ‘games’ with all their heart and soul.

—Well then, I’ll be waiting with great— anticipation, humanity!

With those final words, the hologram floating in the air vanished with a soft *pop*. An exit as abrupt as its sudden appearance.

* * *

As always happened whenever the Administrator appeared and disappeared, everyone in the world was now absorbed in the quest the Librarian had suddenly thrown at them.

Naturally, on any normal day, I too would have been watching the news, analyzing this quest from a safe distance like watching a fire across the river.

Yes, on a normal day, that is.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to watch news covering this quest or browse internet articles, casually chattering about how this quest was this or that without much thought.

There was only one reason for that. It was because of the Guild Master sitting on the sofa across from me right now.

“An official document came down from the government last night.”

“Ah, yes… But what does that have to do with me?”

“To put it simply, in relation to the tutorial the Administrator revealed yesterday, the government has requested that our guild discover one of the three technical personnel demanded of Korea.”

“Oh… I, I see. But what does that have to do with me…”

Right after the Administrator’s tutorial announcement, Guild Master Kang Mujin immediately got up and began directing the effort to clear this ‘tutorial.’

Since quests given by the Administrator were often assigned on a national level, the government usually took overall leadership, but the internal or detailed aspects were different.

‘Because fundamentally, the ones who clear the quests are hunters.’

Usually, the content of quests given by the Administrator involved clearing a specific dungeon, creating a small-scale Monster Parade and telling them to deal with it, or summoning a high-rank boss monster in a specific area and having everyone raid it together.

As such, it was only natural that while the government might oversee the overall plan, the internal details were handled by the hunters themselves—among them, the Heewon Guild, which possessed great power and scale, along with several other guilds.

So it was perfectly natural that Guild Master Kang Mujin had been busy since the bomb that dropped yesterday.

After all, he was the guild master of Heewon, one of the three giant guilds in South Korea and simultaneously the largest guild in the country.

However, while it was perfectly natural for Guild Master Kang Mujin to appear extremely busy…

It was by no means natural for him to suddenly contact me the next morning, apologize, and ask if I could come to the guild master’s office alone, without any accompaniment.

‘Being alone together like this is really awkward…’

Even before the Administrator caused that ruckus yesterday, Guild Master Kang Mujin and I had been stuck in a bizarre relationship that couldn’t possibly be explained in words.

“Me, the older ‘master(?)’ of a younger acquaintance, and Guild Master Kang Mujin, who’s both the older brother figure of the man I’ve been semi-forced into enslaving and also my own guild master… This is a relationship I really couldn’t talk about with a straight face anywhere.”

Of course, neither Guild Master Kang Mujin nor I were the type to fail at separating public and private matters, so we wouldn’t show our awkwardness to each other right here on the spot… but the awkwardness we held inside was something we simply couldn’t help.