Chapter 62

I had never once regretted awakening as a dealer.

The first time the gate incident happened, when the school turned into an A-rank gate.

If I had been a support or healer, I wouldn’t have been able to clear the dungeon.

Then not only me, but Shin Jae-heon, the other kids at school, and even the teachers—all of us would have died.

It would have been a full-blown A-rank gate catastrophe.

And it stayed that way afterward too.

Taking the lead to deal with monsters suited my temperament perfectly.

Even as a dealer with hardly any support skills, I’d never felt the lack.

But not right now.

Right now, I needed it.

‘If the chance comes, I’ll die in your place for sure.’

Die before you do.

Just like how you saved me. Just like how you got covered in blood instead of me.

Back then, that’s what Shin Jae-heon did. He was only C-rank and thought I was dead weight.

But he was never a burden to me, not even once.

I was afraid of being alone, and even more terrified of having no one at my back.

No matter what awful sight lay ahead, it was because you followed behind me that I could charge forward.

That’s why, back then and even now as I recall the past, I could answer him without a second thought.

You were never a burden in my life.

‘Don’t leave me alone. Don’t go anywhere. Got it?’

That was what I said every time we entered a dungeon in the early gate days.

Shin Jae-heon seemed to have forgotten.

‘Ghosts don’t come out, I told you.’

‘Even if they don’t, just don’t leave me alone.’

The irrational fear of ghosts vanished after I awakened as a hunter.

What scared me instead was being left alone.

That’s how people described the day the gates broke out.

The day I became an S-rank hunter and the whole world began to change.

Gaining power right in the heart of the disaster, I thought the world I lived in wouldn’t crumble away.

But I lost my family, and everything I needed to protect vanished.

At that time, the one by my side was Shin Jae-heon.

If he disappeared too, I’d be completely alone. I wouldn’t be able to bear it.

‘Would you join our Hunter Alliance? For Hunter Shin Yuri, we’re happy to offer the alliance leader position.’

‘In exchange, on the condition that you don’t leave our region…’

Surrounded by people who saw me not as Shin Yuri but as an S-rank hunter—a weapon to eliminate gates—I had no idea how to live.

Without you.

So don’t leave me alone.

—Thud!

The moment he dashed out, I shot to my feet.

I had no intention of just sitting there. Dealer or support, I was going to do what I could.

Because it wasn’t just me—we had to survive and get out of here.

Pouring out both skills and mana at once made the system window distort grotesquely.

Of course, I had no time to worry about that.

Countless layers of afterimages stacked over me—I’d lost track of how many.

They would disperse the damage as much as possible.

Not sure if it’d work.

—Clang!

Sword in hand, I wedged myself between Shin Jae-heon and the math teacher.

In that final moment, I got used to the afterimages, and the surroundings seemed to slow down.

I saw Shin Jae-heon’s shocked face.

And then.

The instant my eyes flew wide.

The system window flashed blindingly bright.

Through it, I saw Shin Jae-heon’s sword—hesitating for a split second—thrust forward.

—……!

I think I heard a massive roar.

His sword struck the math teacher’s weak point dead-on, and a red effect burst out, shaking the entire corridor.

And then.

The moment I thought I’d seen that message.

My vision went black.

The next instant I opened my eyes, the system window floating in front of me was serene.

As if everything before had been a dream.

Too soon to think I’d died and Joo Yian had revived me—it was still 4th period.

Meaning only a few seconds had passed.

I barely pried my eyes open and saw the classroom. Before even grasping the situation, I checked the party status first.

All four of us were alive, at least.

So Yeri the hunter and Joo Yian-ssi were unscathed, while Shin Jae-heon and I were the ones scraping the bottom of our HP.

Joo Yian-ssi seemed shocked. He tossed a hunter chat message and immediately poured heals on us.

Even so, with my HP climbing to around 40%, my vision finally cleared.

The system window flashed up. I blinked. I still hadn’t fully grasped the situation.

A PE exam… in the classroom? Written test?

I raised an eyebrow at the next system message.

Unlike our puzzled selves, Joo Yian-ssi and So Yeri the hunter seemed to have a rough idea of what was going on.

Did you guys smash up all the gymnasiums or something?

Huh?

My eyes and Shin Jae-heon’s met those of Joo Yian-ssi and So Yeri the hunter in the front seats.

It was the moment So Yeri voiced everyone’s hopes.

Angry? Another monster? I tensed up instinctively.

“Who the hell is the lunatic going around wrecking the school?!”

The PE teacher stormed into the classroom, shouting. But there was no rank marker above his head.

Not a monster. Huh?

“Everyone’s attitudes in class have been total shit lately, huh?!”

—Bang bang!

The PE teacher slammed the teacher’s desk.

“The second the school’s fixed, we’re doing the exam right away, got it?!”

Then he dragged a chair over to the front of the desk and plopped down.

“?”

That’s it?

In a normal high school, if intact buildings got smashed, people wouldn’t just assume it was some human’s doing, right? Smashed, pissed off, and done?

Our eyes met again.

At that moment, Joo Yian-ssi’s hand flashed.

A few abnormal statuses had cleared up.

But the remaining two were beyond what even Joo Yian-ssi could fix in one go.

Joo Yian-ssi looked grave upon seeing our conditions.

I started typing in chat, but felt Shin Jae-heon’s gaze. His face said he had plenty to say too.

As I was about to type something.

The system flashed. Surely it wasn’t going to drop our class attitude scores and piss off the PE teacher?

Fortunately, the PE teacher seemed pretty chill(?) and nothing like that happened.

So Yeri the hunter sighed at the sight.

RP dungeons could sometimes be cleared with such irregular tactics.

But the risk of failure was huge. B-rank RP dungeons turning S-rank wasn’t unheard of.

If we’d messed up, we’d probably be chatting in heaven by now.

—Bang bang!

That’s when the PE teacher slammed the desk again.

“Turn off the private chat.”

Wait, the teacher can hear the hunter chat too?

I quietly averted my eyes from the hunter chat.

No need to poke the already fuming PE teacher.

Instead, I flipped open the notebook in front of me.

Conveniently, there was a pencil case too. No idea whose, but thanks!

Angry?

Shin Jae-heon raised an eyebrow at the words I’d scribbled quickly with a sharpie.