Chapter 216 – Epilogue 1

Epilogue 1

The items for the after-party were bought using Appearance Change Potions.

It was because all four of us had our faces exposed—if people spotted us, it would hit the news in no time.

And with that, a raucous after-party kicked off.

The table was dominated by gaoliang liquor, steeped in the deepest resentment from the three of us excluding Joo Hunter Yian.

We swept up bottles of gaoliang as if by prior agreement and lined them up in front of Joo Hunter Yian.

“As you know, I don’t drink—”

We dunked Joo Hunter Yian—who doesn’t drink—straight into the booze.

“Drink up.”

Payback! Payback!

We, with so much pent-up frustration(?), shouted in unison.

“If you pull that even once more from now on.”

I finally laid down the law right in front of Joo Hunter Yian, with a bowl of gaoliang liquor set before him.

Confident that So Yeri Hunter and Shin Jae-heon, standing behind me, wore similar expressions.

“From now on, unless it’s a status ailment slapping a speaking penalty on you, spill everything. Spill it all. Be ready to chug a whole bottle for every single word you hold back. Got it?”

Joo Hunter Yian gave me a troubled look in response to my threat.

“But—”

“Buts and whatevers!”

You can’t win a logic battle with this guy!

Because I lose!

I cut him off with utter confidence in that thought.

“No exceptions. Got it???”

In the end, we succeeded in getting Joo Hunter Yian to nod.

“……Understood.”

He quietly murmured as he reached for the massive bowl—far too big to call a mere glass.

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry doesn’t cut it!”

So Yeri Hunter fumed.

Of course, we couldn’t push the grudge-settling(?) any further, so there was only one option left.

Pour booze down his throat until Invulnerable to All Poisons kicks in!

Will the alcohol win, or the skill? A burning question for any scholar.

S-rank poison resistance already crumbled to strong liquor—that much was proven.

But would even Invulnerable to All Poisons hold up?

In the country, Joo Hunter Yian was the only one who could test it.

But I’d stomped flat anyone bold enough to suggest experimenting on him, so the last inquiry was three years back.

And now? The experiment you’ve all been dying for—happening today!

An hour later.

“This is my first time downing this much booze at once.”

Joo Hunter Yian said with a troubled expression.

But his face wasn’t flushed in the slightest.

“SS-rank tolerance holding strong?”

“Can’t tell if it’s raw SS-rank poison resistance or the Invulnerable to All Poisons doing the work.”

Shin Jae-heon and I pondered right there in front of him.

Joo Hunter Yian chugs hunter-rank gaoliang for an hour straight and doesn’t even wobble?

Impossible.

Of course, two dealers racking their brains yielded no answers.

I glanced at So Yeri Hunter.

She, who would’ve polished off half the bottles on a normal day, was unusually quiet.

“I think I know.”

Our eyes met, and So Yeri Hunter spoke. She shook her glass.

“Listen to my story, and I’ll spill.”

All eyes locked on her as she grinned playfully.

We had a hunch what was coming, so Shin Jae-heon and I took our seats.

“Alright.”

Let’s hear it. We grabbed fresh glasses, settling in to listen intently.

The snacks had vanished ages ago, but no one cared.

“First off…….”

So Yeri Hunter opened her mouth. She hesitated a moment, then continued.

“I should’ve said something before it all came out like this. Sorry.”

None of us three said a word. So Yeri Hunter pressed on.

“I’ve been deceiving you all until now.”

Deceiving? I tilted my glass, mulling it over.

So Yeri Hunter was the one I’d known from the start.

When she first appeared before Shin Jae-heon and me and introduced herself, she clearly said her name was So Yeri.

Joo Hunter Yian would’ve gotten the same intro—So Yeri, not Lee Jin-ah.

Strictly speaking, no one had been fooled.

“At first, I just hated my old self. Embarrassing, snapping at everyone left and right…… ‘I’m dying soon anyway, might as well go wild,’ so I stirred up trouble everywhere.”

So Yeri Hunter set her glass down as she spoke.

“But after awakening as a hunter, the illness vanished like magic. And that terrified me. Who’d want to befriend someone like that?”

We all knew exactly who “someone like that” meant.

I recalled her as a kid, sitting on the bed opposite Shin Jae-heon’s in the hospital.

She hadn’t seemed so bad.

I shot my hand up high.

So Yeri Hunter burst out laughing at me.

“Didn’t expect someone like you, Yuri Hunter.”

Her laughter faded, and she continued.

“I lacked confidence. Joo Hunter Yian, Hunter Shin Yuri, Shin Jae-heon Hunter—all of you shine so brightly, while I felt faded. Like I was forcing a shiny shell over myself. I wanted a fresh start.”

With a new name and look. Leaving the past behind.

“……I approached you two to finally say thanks, but then I couldn’t. Because I’m So Yeri, not Lee Jin-ah.”

She dipped her head slightly.

“I always planned to come clean someday, but it kept getting delayed. Joo Hunter Yian didn’t know the full story at all, and with you two…….”

She glanced at Shin Jae-heon and me before adding,

“Everything built as So Yeri would turn fake. I’d lied from the start about who I was. Felt like the whole foundation would crumble, and all trust with it. I was scared.”

She smiled faintly.

“You think it’s too late when it really is. I should’ve spoken up.”

She slowly closed her eyes, then opened them.

“I’m Lee Jin-ah. Sorry for taking so long.”

She looked at the two of us as she said,

“Sorry. And thank you. Truly.”

Joo Hunter Yian smiled silently at her words. Shin Jae-heon and I locked eyes.

As if by agreement, we shrugged.

“What’s the point dredging up ten-year-old stories? Water under the bridge.”

Shin Jae-heon shook an unopened bottle as he spoke.

“Feeling sorry? One-shot it.”

So Yeri Hunter snatched the bottle without a second thought.

Joo Hunter Yian panicked.

“So Yeri Hunter has no Invulnerable to All Poisons.”

She shot back proudly,

“That’s why I’m drinking. How far does SS-rank alcohol tolerance go?!”

She flashed a cheeky grin.

“I’ll test it out!”

“Do you really have to…….”

The logic of “Is that even necessary……” went nowhere.

—Pop!

Because So Yeri Hunter had popped the cap and started chugging straight from the bottle.

“Whoa, cover the label and I’d swear it’s water!”

I burst out laughing.

“Kyaaaah!”

So Yeri Hunter drained the bottle in seconds and held it triumphantly overhead. We all cracked up.

“How’s it hit? Feeling it yet?”

Shin Jae-heon asked. He seemed curious about SS-rank alcohol tolerance too.

“Hmm.”

So Yeri Hunter furrowed her brow seriously.

“Something’s coming up.”

“What?”

We asked in unison.

“Don’t tell me it’s rainbow-colored.”

You know, the technicolor yawn? She laughed at my words.

“C’mon, do I look like some amateur who pukes after a few drinks?”

She set the bottle down on the table.

—Crash!

She misjudged her strength, and it shattered.

“Oh.”

Startled, Joo Hunter Yian stood, but So Yeri Hunter’s hand was unscratched.

A bottle scratching an SS-rank hand? That’d make a better weapon.

I pressed Joo Hunter Yian’s shoulder, seating him.

Narrowing my eyes,

“So Yeri Hunter, you seem tipsy.”

“Nah, just strength control issue. SS-rank turned me into a powerhouse.”

So Yeri Hunter flexed her fist. Shin Jae-heon picked it up.

“Then bottles should shatter at your touch.”

He turned to me.

“Hey, pour me one.”

“You got no arms?”

He brazenly replied to me,

“Can’t control my strength.”

I reached for his glass.

—Crunch!

And crushed it. I grinned.

“Me neither?”

Try bossing me around! Shin Jae-heon grabbed another bottle with a defeated look.

“Cleanup’s gonna be a nightmare.”

Joo Hunter Yian eyed the table littered with shards, smiling awkwardly.

“Nah.”

Then So Yeri Hunter waved her hand.

A magic circle formed on her palm, and the glass shards floated up, dumping into the trash.

I blinked, then shot to my feet.

“Whoa, magic!”

What? We cleared an RP dungeon—how’re you casting?

“Dungeon reward. Magic usable!”

She wiggled flames around her fingertips.

“Insane.”

No better reward for a new-skill fanatic like So Yeri Hunter.

Heard Shin Jae-heon snagged “Imperial Bloodline,” a passive boosting weapon damage by a flat 30%—total cheat skill.

And Joo Hunter Yian?

“Got a skill called Netherworld Interference.”

This time, he spilled without holding back.

“L-rank skill, only works on the dead—”

“Ooh.”

“Ooh.”

“Ooh.”

We three gasped in unison. No way?

“Revive the dead?”

“Penalty?”

Questions flew, and Joo Hunter Yian answered.

“Penalty says ‘pay a price varying by situation.'”

A situational price?

In other words.

“Isn’t that the Hunter Association job posting line?”

I drew a box in the air.

“Salary determined post-interview.”

Meaning they’ll lowball! Demand top dollar for the price!

“Spot on.”

“That’s it.”

Shin Jae-heon and So Yeri Hunter chimed in together. With Joo Hunter Yian not denying, we unanimously concluded.

“Seal that skill.”

Don’t pay any price!

“So Yeri Hunter, now you can share old stories, right?”

So Yeri Hunter seemed much lighter after her apology.

Forgives everyone else’s slip-ups, but agonized for a decade over that one little word from way back.

Idiot. Total idiot.

I thought that, but still asked.

“Old stories~?”

To the somewhat giddy So Yeri Hunter, I nodded.

“Yeah. About Lee Jin-ah.”

Now we could hear it.

No reason for her to hide her past anymore.

“Hmm, Lee Jin-ah stories, huh.”

So Yeri Hunter cleared her throat and launched into various tales.

Mostly school days. And what we’d suspected was confirmed right there.

“Turns out Joo Hunter Yian’s the only model student among us.”

The gazes of three habitual class-skippers and nappers turned to the good boy.

Joo Hunter Yian waved it off.

“I wasn’t a model student either.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Joo Hunter Yian was surprisingly upfront.

“What’d you do?”

Joo Hunter Yian’s rebellion? Nothing more intriguing.

He waved his hand again.

“That’s a secret.”

As if anyone here would let that slide.

“Hey, no hiding.”

“Bet you snuck into the office and stole test answers.”

Joo Hunter Yian choked on Shin Jae-heon’s words.

“What, for real?”

So Yeri Hunter and I freaked. But he shook his head vigorously.

“I upheld morals.”

Sounds minor from that alone? Then what?

Leaning on the school fence smoking? Sneaking booze in a tumbler?

Student Joo Yian’s grand rebellion turned out to be this.

“I once covered for a friend during self-study, taking attendance for them.”

We three went silent.

Rebellion? That’s it?

I mulled it over briefly.

Covered self-study attendance for a friend? Meaning…….

“……So you did extra self-study you didn’t have to?”

“Exactly.”

Joo Yian nodded.

“Just means you studied more.”

So Yeri Hunter summed it up neatly.

“No good.”

“Total model student.”

Shin Jae-heon and I piled on, and Joo Hunter Yian looked truly resolute.

“Wasn’t gonna mention this far.”

“Spill?”

Finally? Our eyes sparkled.

Joo Hunter Yian blushed faintly.

“……During self-study, I read a novel a friend lent me.”

I grimaced.

“Rebellion my ass.”

So Yeri Hunter calmed me.

“Wait, the book’s content matters.”

……What? Really? Shin Jae-heon and I stared at Joo Hunter Yian.

“What book?”

He replied,

“‘Altruistic Interpretations of Humanity’—”

I shot up without hearing the rest.

“Party’s over.”