Chapter 251. Total crisis (3)
A rustling sound is heard. A large yard house where just watering the grass feels like it could cause a water bill explosi on every month. The guest who got out of the black sedan, following the driver's guidance, heads toward the detache d house in front.
However, despite the impressive exterior, the inside was rather gloomy. The hallway was filled with cold, shadowy cor ners. Even though it was broad daylight, the house was so large that without turning on the lights, it was too dark to fig ure out how to walk around. Most of the furniture in the house was made of expensive hardwood, but even in the diml y lit scenery, dust was clearly visible on them.
The feeling was strange. The guest glanced around the interior of the single-story building, which had an unsettlingly bleak atmosphere...
"Oh, you're here."
The destination was the kitchen. A black island table with a marble countertop. The neatly dressed man waiting there greeted the guest warmly as soon as he spotted them.
What followed was a rather unfamiliar term of address.
"Thank you for your hard work in coming here, Mother."
"Oh, it's no trouble at all."
"Please sit over there."
The identity of the guest who had walked down the long hallway was none other than the parent figure of someone.
"Originally, I should have taken you to a proper restaurant, but as you can see, I'm in this condition, so going out is diff icult."
"Oh my! How did a young person end up with an injury like that? Did you get hurt while working?"
"Of course."
The man, who had burn scars on his forearm and part of his trapezius muscle, gestured with his chin toward the oppo site side. At his signal, the escort politely pulled out a chair at the table for the guest. After completing this task, the el derly escort quietly left the room, as if his role had come to an end.
"That's not like the mouth is sewn shut. How can someone who works under someone not say a word of greeting whe n they come and go?"
It was around the time when a question that sounded like a complaint came to mind.
"Well then, there's not much, but please have a seat and eat while we talk calmly..."
"Aah, yes!"
When the homeowner made the offer, the guest nodded eagerly. After all, just as he said, she had come here to pour out her grievances.
Hwayoung. The reason why a 49-year-old Earthling had ended up in this situation could, in some ways, be considered rather mundane. After all, it involved a monster with an S-rank awakening level... The issue? Money.
Listen carefully. If you ever show your face in front of me again, I swear I'll kill you for real.
Lee Hwayoung had, in fact, been following the instructions given to her quite well until just a few days ago. Her attitud e, which had been somewhat threatening with the blonde hair, was rather serious. Though the magic couldn't be imme diately felt through the senses, the media had been saying that her son was an Awakened one, right in front of her.
I promise, I will make it better for you to die.
The storyline where a father, dissatisfied with his daughter's academic performance, would beat her with a shoehorn, only to end up in the emergency room due to a blood relative suddenly becoming a superhuman... This kind of narrativ e is still frequently reported in the news today. So, Lee Hwayoung, not wanting to risk anything, decided to follow the warning for the time being.
[Web Message] Dear Customer, Lee Young, it has been confirmed that the payment for your current mobile phone s ervice has not been made. There is an outstanding amount of 243,110 KRW, and if the payment is not made, your mobi le phone's outgoing calls will be suspended. Please take this into consideration when using the service.]
[[Missed Call @ Sunhwan Bank - 2 times]
[[Cheonyang Loans] Ms. Lee Hwayoung, your payment is overdue. Please pay the interest of 101,800 KRW as soon a s possible.]
But things have changed a bit since then. The situation had. Even though society had been transformed by the Dunge on Shock, she still lacked any special abilities. And as someone suffering from a severe spinal condition whose surger y window had long passed—causing constant nerve pain—it was nearly impossible for her to hold down any kind of p hysical labor job. Before long, the guest in the courtyard house found herself in circumstances not unlike those her so n had once faced.
She fell ill and lost her job. But in order to survive, basic living expenses still had to be covered.
These days, from morning till night, she was consumed with the stress of debt collectors constantly hounding her. An d yet, in the midst of all this, who could think about something as immoral as a failure that hadn't even begun to unfol d?
Whenever Hwayoung saw the annual salary statistics of hunters in the media, she couldn't help but feel a strange, gu t-wrenching pain, as if she had lost the tens of billions she once had in her hands. With her current poverty added to t he mix, she felt desperate, thinking she couldn't go on like this. In the end, she made up her mind for one last gamble. To be exact, it was an attempt at blackmail.
[From Orphanage Child in Crisis -> Reborn as an S-Rank Hunter]
Back when the world was in an uproar over Chairman Go's frantic outburst—in fact, her phone had received calls from people claiming to be producers from YTV or reporters from SBC.
Hwayoung had originally intended to refuse all requests from the media. And in fact, for the past few months, she had ignored them and lived quietly. But lately, she had begun to feel an unexpected sense of injustice.
[Jeongseong Daily]
[Comments (44)]
[[BEST] How can you live, abandoning your own child and eating? Don't you know? Tsk, tsk.
Just a coward. A demon-like creature left behind.
By now, that proud son. The act of abandoning him.
You must be deeply regretting it.]
The problematic Jeongseong Daily article had revealed that Kim Giryeo's mother was still alive, intending to defame hi m (though it only backfired), and netizens hurled insults like "demon" at a biological mother whose name they didn't e ven know. But honestly—could a person really let go of a child they had raised with their own hands for over a hundre d days without a single regret?
If it had been possible, she too would have wanted to raise him. But the so-called father was the kind of bastard who c ouldn't quit smoking even while the baby was in the womb—puffing away beside the pregnant mother. And after the d ivorce, he never once properly paid child support. Hwayoung judged that her ex-husband had played a major role in h ow things turned out. And truthfully, he had. But since he had already passed away, people rarely brought him up in th er discussions—and that, she found deeply unfair.
"Anyway, only those who have lived long enough are wronged."
On top of that, the now adult child had given her a warning that was practically a death threat, making it a tricky situati on to approach him directly and ask for money.
"Now, I'm so frustrated that I need to explain myself to the world."
So—in a country like South Korea, where familial bonds are held in unusually high regard, imagine the backlash if an S-rank hunter ever laid a hand on a parent. Kim Giryeo wouldn't dare touch his birth mother recklessly, not with every one watching. Which means...
"Haa."
... The story got long. To summarize, Lee Hya-young started calling reporters a while ago. She intended to both reduc e the insults directed at her and try demanding some sort of hush money from Kim Giryeo.
A, an article about Kim Giryeo? Oh, um... the follow-up piece? That's... well, journalistic ethics... Anyway, we got a dir ective from higher up not to pursue it... You've got the wrong number. This isn't Reporter Lee Ji-young's number.
But strangely enough. The people from the broadcasting station, who had been begging her to contact them at least o nce until spring, suddenly changed their tune when the topic of a certain Hunter came up.
Ughhh! I made a mistake. The test! I sent back then was a mistake! It was a mistake!
Just as the loud refusal from a reporter named Yang Hyunggu ended, she was about to give up on the report.
One day, a call came to Lee Hwayoung's phone from an unknown number. A man with a heavy voice said he was inter ested in her story. He suggested that if she played her cards right, they might give her a big report separately.
But, as she heard during the call, and again when she looked at it, the identity of the caller is still surprising.
"His face looks exactly like a Westerner, and his build is just like that..."
The third S-rank Hunter of Korea, Kang Changho is sitting across from her.
The guest was feeling a pressure from the immense magical force created by the top-tier Awakened, causing their sto mach to tighten. However, at the same time, they didn't want to offend their host by rejecting the luxurious food on th e table. After all, the man in front of them was a massive figure, his body tightly packed with muscles, and he was som eone who worked in hunting.
"Hmm? You haven't touched your food since earlier. Is it not to your taste?"
"Oh no, not at all! It's definitely not that..."
In front of such a Hunter, anyone would naturally be cautious with their words and actions. It was only common sense.
Clank.
Kang Changho looked at Hwayoung with a strange gaze as she nervously forced herself to eat, trembling with the spo on in her hand.
"Anyway."
It was after that that a proper conversation began.
"I've more or less heard the whole story from Reporter Yang. You said you have a lot to say about Hunter Kim Giryeo."
"Uh? Oh, Yang Hyunggu...you know Reporter Yang Hyunggu?"
"Of course. I know him very well."
Kang Changho idly stirred the shark fin soup, then soon set his spoon down.
"But strangely enough, despite having shared meals at work with Hunter Kim Giryeo, I don't seem to know a single thi ng about him."
"Hmm."
"Well, he's always been the quiet type who never really talks about himself."
"Is that so?"
"I've actually been personally curious about him for a long time. And wouldn't you know it? I just happened to hear that Kim Giryeo's mother is in trouble."
Then let's see what kind of story you're trying to push. Kang Changho leaned back in his chair with a look that seemed to say just that.
What followed was a desperate complaint.
"Th, the truth is, a long time ago... things weren't going well for me, so I had to leave my child at an orphanage..."
The homeowner had remained mostly indifferent to Hwayoung's claims, which lacked objectivity—but at one point, his demeanor changed drastically.
"Anyway, he swore as if he had become a completely different person."
Tuk.
The S-rank Hunter set down the glass he was holding and asked for a more detailed explanation. At that, Hwayoung h esitantly began to speak, piecing her words together bit by bit.
"Shut your mouth, will you? Who's whining about their circumstances?"
The man, who had never once cursed before, had completely changed and was now spewing all sorts of harsh words.
"..."
Kang Changho listened to the testimony and raised the corner of his mouth with a curious expression. Of course, for a young man who'd been scanned out of around 27 million won, such a change in behavior wasn't all that surprising. B ut that was really all there was to Kim Giryeo's shift in attitude? Could there perhaps be a more novel reason—somethi ng more fitting for an evolved being of the Dungeon Shock era?
"...Oh my."
"Uh, wh, why? Did I say something wrong?"
The landlord lightly drank the lemon water in his glass.
"No, don't worry about it."
He got the information he was looking for, so it's probably time to end the conversation.
"Oh, then can I take it that everything I said will safely be published in the article...?"
"Mother. But I'm asking because I suddenly got curious."
A wooden chair that Kang Changho's parents once used. Someone is sitting there. The owner of the dragon's eyes cu t off the person sitting across from him. Then he asked in a light voice.
"Setting the tone aside, was Kim Giryeo really that nice back in the day?"
"Yes?"
"No, it's just—looking at you, I get the feeling your son probably never had much sense to begin with."
.
.
.
Ding Dong. Ding dong.
As expected, I guess it's a bit too sudden, so opening the door might be difficult for you?
The doorbell rings from somewhere. The scene shifts back to that familiar one-room apartment. Right now, I'm dealing with an unexpected visit from someone named Seonwoo Yeon.
If letting me in isn't possible, then maybe we could just talk like this for a moment...
Besides, the Earthling at the door has been speaking under the assumption that I'm inside this whole time.
I felt a sense of discomfort from the other person's actions. However, despite that feeling, I soon accepted the guest's entry.
Click.
"Ah."
"I'm sorry I opened it late. I was doing something else for a moment. Please come in."
If she had come with some suspicious purpose, then ironically, it would be easier to deal with her inside rather than ou tside.
"T, thank you."
Kliek... click.
The employee with the long straight hair stepped into the wizard's domain with an awkward expression. Perhaps beca use she had been to the one-room before, she didn't seem particularly surprised. She simply sat down when told to, lik e any other guest, and by the time the green tea had finished steeping, she handed over some unfamiliar tools as gift s, saying they probably didn't have anything like this at the Hunter's home.
Is it a teaware and tea timer?
"Oh."
If it's free, there's no reason to refuse. I gladly accepted the items the Association employee had brought. However, th e conversation that followed was shocking.
"Dropping by unannounced on a public holiday must have been quite rude. First of all, let me apologize."
"It's fine. Honestly, since I don't have to go to work, I don't really have any meaning to my days off, so I don't think you need to bow that much..."
"A completely absurd complaint came in. That's why I had no choice but to pay you a visit."
"Complaint?"
"The truth is, yesterday...on my way home from work. I, uh, ran into Hunter Kang Changho."
The moment the name of the issue was mentioned, I momentarily froze.
"To be precise, it wasn't so much that I ran into... rather, he came to find me unilaterally. Anyway, as he handed m e these, he said some really strange things."
However, the other person didn't seem to care and continued with her task. In her jeans pocket, there was a white bo x, small enough to fit easily in her hand. Soon enough, from that item box, a magical tool appeared—one I never could have imagined.
"There's a situation. If it's alright with you, before we get to the main point, may I ask you a few questions to confirm s omething?"
[Justitia].
Seonwoo Yeon held a clean silver balance scale in her hands. At the same time, she began murmuring some kind of in cantation.
Have you ever stolen the identity of someone named Kim Giryeo? Wow, saying it out loud, it really sounds like a joke. E, still, for now, could you at least give a rough answer...?
