Capitalist Monster Hunter

Return (2)
“Being a hunter? It’s a decent job.”

“Right?”

“But not just any average hunter. You’ve seen the news, haven’t you? You know how high the death rate is for hunters, right? Hunters risk their lives on the job. They get eaten, ripped apart, and stabbed to death. And then there are the blacklist hunters to watch out for. One mistake, and you’re done for. Imagine risking your life to take down monsters and only earning five or six hundred a month. That barely covers medical bills, let alone anything else.”

“Yeah… true.”

“Hunters are only worth it if they’re top-tier, like S-rank or A-rank. I think hunters are like celebrities. Mediocre ones don’t even get a single shot on TV before they’re forgotten. But at least celebrities don’t die. Mediocre hunters? They die without a trace. If you’re going to be an average hunter, it’s better to get a decent job instead.”

‘Guess it’s better to keep this a secret from Ahri.’

I only brought it up to test the waters, but nope, no way this is happening. If I tell her I became a hunter, I’ll get an earful for sure.

“By the way, why’d you bring up hunters? Don’t tell me…”

“Don’t tell you what? Someone I know became a hunter and was bragging about it, so I just brought it up.”

“Is that so? Well, tell them to be careful. I hear rookie hunters have the highest death rate.”

“You sure know how to sugarcoat things.”

“I’m just stating facts. Anyway, Yoo-seong oppa, I’m heading to bed now.”

“Sure thing. It’s already midnight. Don’t forget to brush your teeth.”

“Do I look like a kid to you? I’ll handle it myself.”

“Of course, you’ll handle it so well on your own, right~?”

“Ugh!”

Eun-Ahri huffed in annoyance and stomped off to her room.

Swoosh! Zoom! Pow, pow, pow!

The noise was coming from the living room. No doubt it was Ha Eun-chan. Yoo-seong walked over to the source of the commotion. Ha Eun-chan was frantically clicking away on his keyboard and mouse, eyes glued to the monitor. He was so engrossed that he didn’t even notice Yoo-Seong standing right next to him. Yoo-seong casually turned off the computer with his toe.

Click!

“Huh? What the—?! Damn it, what happened?!”

As the screen went dark, Ha Eun-chan panicked. Yoo-seong put a hand on his shoulder and whispered softly.

“If you don’t want to get smacked, turn it off and go to bed, Eun-chan.”

“Hyung! I was in a ranked match! How could you turn it off?!”

“Ranked match, shanked match, I don’t care. Go to sleep. You’re gonna wake everyone up. How can you play so loudly?”

“Loud? I turned the volume way down!”

“Who are you back-talking to?”

“Ugh, seriously… If I get demoted, I’m telling Ahri Noona everything.”

“Then that’ll be the day we both go down together. I’m turning off the lights, so take your game and head to your room.”

“Hyung, just one more match, please! I’ve been letting the others take turns all day. I just started mine!”

“I’ll buy you a laptop for graduation. Now go to bed.”

The sulky Eun-chan immediately perked up at the mention of a laptop, bouncing with joy.

“Really? You’re the best, Hyung! I respect you so much. All right, I’m heading to bed now!”

“Yeah, yeah. No need for a formal report. Just zip it and get moving, okay?”

When Yoo-seong raised a fist, Eun-chan bolted to his room. Finally, the living room was quiet. Yoo-seong turned off the lights and sprawled on the sofa.

As he lay there, waiting for sleep to come, Eve’s voice spoke to him.

[Are those people your family, user Han Yoo-seong?]

“Huh? Eve? When did you get into my phone?”

[I transferred myself into your personal phone since a New World drone would stand out too much in this world. This outdated phone is quite inconvenient. I recommend carrying a portable device for future use.]

“You mean that thing on the suit? That was portable?”

[Yes, it was portable.]

“Got it. What were you saying earlier?”

[Are the woman called Eun-Ahri, the man named Ha Eun-chan, and the priest named Johan your family?]

“Yeah. We grew up together, so they’re like family.”

[You were an orphan, then…]

“In this world, yeah. My parents died when I was little. In this world, monsters appear. When there’s a monster break, a lot of kids end up orphans. I was lucky to end up in this orphanage.”

[You must’ve had a hard time.]

“Not really. Father Johan took great care of us. And with siblings like Ari and Eun-chan, it’s not all bad. I do miss my parents sometimes, but what can you do? The dead don’t come back. You just keep living.”

[You’re strong, user Han Yoo-seong.]

“Strong? Me? The real strong ones are people like Father Johan. Running an orphanage in times like these, when it’s hard enough to take care of yourself? That’s amazing. True strength is in people like firefighters, soldiers, and rescue workers.”

Yoo-seong chatted with Eve about all sorts of topics until he eventually fell asleep.

“Hyung! Why didn’t you come yesterday?”

“Oppa! Did you bring us presents? Something yummy?”

Yoo-seong was surrounded by kids. They must’ve fallen asleep waiting for him yesterday. Now they bombarded him with questions.

“All right, kids. Let’s eat first. I made some delicious curry for you all yesterday.”

“Curry?”

“Wow! Curry!”

“Curry! Curry!”

The promise of curry was enough to distract the kids. All their attention shifted to the meal, and Yoo-seong finally escaped the barrage of questions.

“Eun-chan, feed the kids. I left some toys and dolls over there for them. Hand those out too.”

“Got it, hyung.”

With that, Yoo-seong began putting on his shoes.

“Huh? Hyung, where are you going?”

“I need to visit the Hunter Bureau. Gotta officially register as a hunter.”

“Will you come back after?”

“If I have time. I’m planning to clear an F-rank dungeon real quick.”

“All right, then.”

“Okay. And make sure to sweet-talk Ahri for me.”

Yoo-seong left the orphanage.

He headed straight to the Hunter Bureau, just like he told Eun-chan. The bureau was located in Yeouido.

When he arrived, he approached the receptionist at the front desk.

“Hello, how can I help you?”

“I’m here to register as a hunter.”

“Hunter registration? You’ll need to go to the registration office on the second floor.”

The receptionist pointed towards the stairs, and Yuseong headed up as directed.

On the second floor, there was already a long line of hunters waiting to register. Although the line was pretty long, it moved quickly, and soon it was Yuseong’s turn.

“May I see your ID?”

“Here it is.”

“Confirmed. Mr. Han Yuseong, which dimension were you summoned to? Muhwan? Estelle?”

“Uh… well…”

Yuseong hesitated at the question.

‘What should I even say? Do I just tell them I ended up on a parallel Earth?’

After a brief moment of deliberation, he decided to just wing it.

“Estelle.”

The staff member nodded and began typing on their keyboard. After entering his personal details, they moved on to a series of quick checks, including a physical exam and an inventory check. The whole process didn’t take too long.

“Lastly, just place your hand on this orb, and we’ll be done.”

“What’s the orb for?”

“It measures internal energy and mana. The orb quantifies the amount of power a hunter possesses, which is used to assign their rank.”

“Ah, I see.”

‘So that’s how they assign ranks, huh?’

Yuseong placed his hand on the orb.

Wooooong!

Beep!

As soon as his hand touched the orb, it emitted a sound, and a number slowly appeared above it.

[1]

The number displayed was 1.

“Uh… hang on a second. Did I mess up the settings? There’s no way it should show a 1.”

The staff member looked baffled, fiddling with the orb to check for any issues.

“That’s odd… It doesn’t seem to be malfunctioning…”

Normally, if a non-hunter touched the orb, it would display 0. Even an F-rank hunter, the lowest official rank, would show a minimum of 10 because they still possessed some mana. But seeing a 1 was unheard of, and it left the staff member thoroughly confused.

For Yuseong, however, this result made perfect sense. Unlike other hunters who were summoned to worlds like Estelle or Muhwan, where they underwent systematic training, Yuseong had ended up in an entirely different kind of world. One with no training, no mentors, and no way to develop his internal energy or mana like the others.

“I’m sorry, it seems the orb is malfunctioning. We’ll probably need to replace it later.”

“So, what does that mean for me?”

“You’ll have to come back another day to register properly… Sorry for the inconvenience.”

“I don’t have much time. Isn’t there any other way?”

“Well, according to protocol, if we can’t measure properly, we can still register you as F-rank. But most people wouldn’t want that, so—”

“That’s fine. Just do it.”

“Pardon? You’re okay with F-rank?”

The staff member blinked in disbelief. In all their years of working at the Hunter Management Bureau, they had never encountered anyone asking to be registered as F-rank.

It wasn’t hard to see why. F-rank hunters were essentially a joke. Globally, there wasn’t a single active F-rank hunter. The rank existed only on paper.

The official definition of an F-rank hunter, according to the World Hunter Association, was:

[A regular person possessing an almost negligible amount of mana or internal energy.]

Even those who weren’t combat-focused, like alchemists or blacksmiths, were at least given E-rank.

The staff member explained all of this to Yuseong, but he didn’t seem to care.

“Just do it. I can always retake the test or improve my rank by clearing dungeons, right?”

“Well, that’s true, but… are you sure about this?”

“Sure about what?”

“Being F-rank.”

“Games have bronze ranks too. F-rank’s no big deal. Just process it.”

“Comparing this to a game is a bit… fine. I’ll process it for you. But keep in mind, if you come back later to complain, there’s nothing we can do for you.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t complain.”

And just like that, Yuseong became the world’s first official F-rank hunter.