How To Survive as a Class a Hunter

12. Rock Spirit – [5]

“Naito-san? That Jap hunter didn’t even awaken, but he was so famous that he was contracted as a quasi-awakened person. Thanks to that, the land value in Ganseok-dong seems to be gradually recovering, and all the residents are satisfied.”

“A Japanese person who is not awakened but gets paid like an awakened person?”

“Yes? Yes. Of course, he doesn’t get paid like an A-class like you. Just about the level of those mediocre awakened ones…”

Sung Moon-young trailed off and suddenly glanced at me. It seemed my expression wasn’t good.

And indeed, hearing those words made me uncomfortable.

Why? Because a Japanese person makes a lot of money? No, I don’t care about my nationality or others’. Then why?

After quite some contemplation, I realized why those words bothered me so much.

I didn’t like the idea of someone who wasn’t awakened being treated similarly to an awakened person.

Hmm, I know this is abnormal. To feel this level of superiority and look down on others because I’m awakened?

Just half a year ago, I used to feel a sense of victimization about being awakened. Suddenly having this sense of elitism is surprising even to myself.

There is something that might explain why things have suddenly changed like this.

Today, I experienced another hallucination, and in that hallucination, I…

“Mr. Kim Geuk? Mr. Kim Geuk! Please come in!”

It was an association staff member calling out.

I stood up from my seat. The academy students who came to cheer for me also stood up and cheered for me.

“Stay strong!”

“Hyung, if you don’t get an A grade, don’t forget my advice to take a good rest before getting evaluated again!”

I showed my middle finger to the teasing Seong Moon-yeong and then entered the examination hall.

Today is the day I get evaluated as an awakened one.

There were no other awakened ones in the examination hall besides me. That makes sense, as there are few awakened ones among Koreans, and even fewer have the ability to become hunters. Even fewer have the ability to become hunters and actually want to become one.

Among the many people gathered here, I was the only awakened one. The rest were all here to evaluate me.

The people in uniforms were probably association staff, but there were many who didn’t seem to be staff.

Those people in suits were likely from local governments. They must have come to see an awakened one who might contract with them. At a glance, the people of different races were foreign scouts, and there were a few who seemed to be from China or Japan.

About two hundred people had gathered here to see just me. That fact alone was already making me feel overwhelmed.

“Then let’s begin. Get ready…”

After that, I went through various evaluations.

100m sprint, 5.8 seconds. Slightly faster than a cheetah. I was satisfied as it was 0.8 seconds faster than what was measured at the academy recently.

Long-distance running, just confirmed that I don’t get tired running below a certain speed thanks to my super regeneration ability. To prove my super regeneration ability, someone brought a scalpel and made a small cut on my forearm, and when the bleeding stopped in just two seconds, not only the people watching but even I was surprised.

Lifting weights for body enhancers…

I went through various other tests, and it seemed I exceeded the standards in all of them. Just by looking at the reactions of the people during the tests, I could tell that the evaluation results wouldn’t be bad.

“This is perfect enough to be put in textbooks as an A grade…”

After that, I demonstrated teleportation. It would have been difficult if they asked for long-distance teleportation, but what the people here wanted to see was the short-distance teleportation within sight that was shown in the video. They asked,

“Can you really do it exactly like in the video?”

By now, I had already mastered it. I picked up a random stick and showed them as requested, and the people watching gasped in amazement.

And finally, the shooting evaluation. I took the 22kg hunter rifle they provided and shot as instructed.

No, actually, I didn’t follow their instructions completely.

“Mr. Kim Geuk? Not hip shooting, but aimed shooting—”

Of course, there’s no need to listen to what non-awakened trash says. If that non-awakened person isn’t from Incheon, I can completely ignore them.

I didn’t aim at the 100-meter and 150-meter targets as instructed but shot them consecutively. The association staff member who was about to point something out just widened their eyes when they saw all the shots hit the center.

It wasn’t difficult to get perfect scores in all the shooting evaluation categories by hitting the 200-meter target and the moving targets consecutively without aiming.

Thus, my hunter license was marked with A++ in gold. It meant that I had satisfied all the criteria above the necessary standards even among A-ranks. Suddenly, I was treated like premium beef, but I didn’t feel bad about it.

“Now, Mr. Kim Geuk, you can officially act as an A-rank hunter. You know that not everyone can receive this A-rank, even if they are awakened, right?”

Surprisingly, the criteria for appointing an A-rank hunter by the association were the same as the criteria for awarding badges on Huntweb. Unlike before, when anyone who was awakened was considered an A-rank hunter, now one had to meet clear standards to be recognized as A-rank.

Specifically, one had to be able to provide firepower beyond personal firearms or significant support as an awakened individual.

And I, as a body enhancer, could already carry and shoot heavy weapons alone, satisfying the “firepower beyond personal firearms” criterion. Additionally, I could skillfully use spatial movement, which was undoubtedly useful, thus meeting the “significant support” criterion as well.

According to the association staff who followed, I was among the top ranks of awakened hunters, counting from the top. The association president himself came out to shake my hand, perhaps because they wanted to treat such an outstanding person well.

“As a being who bears such rights and responsibilities, Mr. Kim Geuk, you must now act with a spirit of patriotism and love for the people. Do you understand?”

Trying to ignore the nonsense that sounded like something a Nazi party member would say, the loud national anthem blared, making me uncomfortable.

I barely restrained the urge to teleport out of this place until the appointment ceremony ended.

*

That evening, I checked 78 text messages and twenty more emails. They were from places claiming to be agents or something, but it was too overwhelming to check each one, so I didn’t touch them.

There’s no need to mention how many missed calls had piled up. It was truly difficult to filter out calls from acquaintances among them.

“Mr. Kim Geuk, are you coming to the academy tomorrow? Are you really coming? Okay, then I’ll order chicken in advance, so you must come.”

“I saw the news. Mr. Kim Geuk, congratulations! As soon as I entered the main hall, the chairman was urging me to try to win you over.”

As Ms. Park Mi-hyung said, I appeared on the 9 o’clock news yesterday and today. The content was about the new shooting record for awakened individuals and interviews with foreign brokers who were excited about the unprecedented A-rank.

Even a fool could tell by now. My unnecessarily eventful life had succeeded as of today.

Ⓐ BabyBerserker: Baby Mushroom got the A-rank certificate today!

A bad monster was trying to bully my friends! Baby Mushroom was scared but bravely awakened as the magical girl Hellventer and defeated it with a yap! yap! So the association guys came and said Baby Mushroom was cute and righteous and made me an A-rank hunter!

Below is the certification of Baby Mushroom’s A++ rating! If I reveal the photo of Baby Mushroom that everyone wants to see, all the oppas will fall for me~

Anonymous: I checked the association’s website, and there was only one person who got the A-rank today, so I saw this brother’s photo, and I’m really scared right now…

Ⓐ Stonehead Youth: Damn, I’m also A-rank, but after watching the video, I don’t think I can stop this guy with my strength. Where is Brother Junchi?

After spreading this good news to my comrades on Huntweb, I sat on my bed and fell into thought for a moment.

This morning, I had another hallucination.

It was quite a long hallucination. Continuing from the previous hallucination, I saw what happened when I teleported out of the scene.

Internet articles depicting me as a coward…

Because of that, in the hallucination, I suffered from delusions of persecution, thinking that everyone passing by recognized and despised me. I even had to visit a psychiatrist with financial support and loans from Ms. Park Mi-hyung.

Even to me, the hallucinated version of myself seemed like a mentally unstable madman.

Due to a series of events, the hallucinated version of me hated non-awakened individuals and despised the Korean government and its people.

Indeed, it wouldn’t have been strange if I had detonated a nuclear bomb in Seoul in the future.

But isn’t this the exact opposite of the result I saw in the previous hallucination? Would there be any reason for me to do so now?

There isn’t. As an A-rank hunter who will now earn astronomical sums of money and live boastfully, what reason could I possibly have to commit such a horrific act of terrorism?

Having taken actions different from the hallucination, will I meet a different ending than the one in my dream? It seems so.

If that’s the case, can I now stop dreaming that guy’s dream, which seemed to be my future?

*

To put it simply, no.

I dreamed again tonight.

Unlike the dream I had last time, this dream did not feature my acquaintances like Mr. Lim Hyung-taek or Jung Jin-young, who appeared in miserable conditions. The expressionless director also did not appear.

However, the end of the dream was the same. The nuclear explosion, the mushroom cloud, ended this dream as well.

Waking up again, gasping for breath, I wondered.

When will this dream finally end?

*