How To Survive as a Class a Hunter

2. Kim Geuk – [1]

The day that damned gate opened, my sibling and I awakened. In other words, both my brother and sister became superhumans.

Even though it might sound cool, it wasn’t a particularly good thing for our lives.

A few months later, I was kicked out of the UFC after being identified as a physical enhancement awakener. This type of awakener cannot participate as a sports player. The fact that the awakening wasn’t a voluntary act didn’t matter much. Damn it.

And my sister, she went to jail. To be precise, she was imprisoned in the juvenile section of the women’s prison.

“So now I’m here, crying my eyes out at a human rights organization. Should I continue explaining?”

The woman from the human rights organization nodded seriously with a face that seemed to say her name was Park Mi-hyung.

“Please continue. So, at your sister’s school…”

“Five bullies died at my sister’s school. Those damn bullies used to torment my sister to death.”

“Your sister was bullied, right?”

“Yes. Eventually, my sister was identified as the suspect and… she was found guilty. Without any physical evidence. Does that make sense? What happened to the presumption of innocence?”

It wasn’t a question expecting an answer. Park Mi-hyung closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them to speak.

“There are cases where the so-called presumption of guilt is applied.”

“Does it make sense to be guilty without physical evidence?”

“It doesn’t make sense, but it happens in reality. I’m not trying to justify it, but look at s*xual assault trials. Even without physical evidence, if the victim’s statements are consistent, a guilty verdict can be reached.”

“Yes. So, there are many people who are falsely imprisoned.”

“There are many problems like that, but there are reasons for it. Due to the nature of s*x crimes, it’s hard to obtain evidence. So, if it seems guilty based on the circumstances, they give a guilty verdict. The reason I’m telling you this is because, awakeners… you know?”

“What do I know?”

Park Mi-hyung sighed and said.

“Awakeners can easily commit perfect crimes that current investigative methods can’t uncover.”

I roughly understood what she was trying to say.

So-called awakeners, our superhumans, can easily fool the National Forensic Service even if they’ve never read a single detective comic in their lives. How many awakeners in South Korea can freeze someone’s cerebral blood vessels or crush their heart just by staring at them? There’s a reason why introducing superpowers in detective novels is taboo.

And my sister was one of those who could freeze cerebral blood vessels just by looking. Yet, some girls gathered and dared to bully her? They probably didn’t know they’d die, those wretched girls.

“These kinds of cases are not uncommon these days. All the verdicts related to awakeners are like this.”

While I was fuming inside, Park Mi-hyung said roughly these words.

It’s hard to secure physical evidence in superhuman crimes, so guilty verdicts are reached based on circumstantial evidence. It’s too common for someone near the crime scene to be identified as a suspect just because they’re an awakener.

If someone dies and there’s an awakener among their relatives, they’re almost always identified as a murder suspect.

“I repeat, I don’t think this is right either. That’s why I’m listening to your story and trying to help.”

Then Park Mi-hyung said she was also an awakener. She said she would help my sister, who was in an unfair situation, as much as possible as a fellow awakener.

After that, most of my days were spent with the human rights organization.

We really did everything. I held a press conference for the first time in my life in front of the cameras gathered by the organization, shed tears, shouted together at group protests, and even threw out intruders who barged into the office…

“`

There was no achievement at all. Just pointless things I did because I couldn’t just stay still.

And the pointless thing I was doing these days was a one-man protest. A one-man protest in front of the court that sentenced my younger sister.

I stood alone in front of the back gate of the court for days on end. With two panels provided by a human rights organization, I did so without sleeping.

Now, after more than a week of doing that, my impression is this:

It’s really messed up.

As a physical enhancer, my legs didn’t go numb, but it was terribly boring. It was also hard to endure this situation.

I wondered why I was doing this. To reiterate, all this was just pointless things to show that I was doing something. It was to show that when my sister was released, her brother wasn’t just laughing and playing games in his room.

I know from searching myself that my protest never made it to the mainstream news and only appeared in a few lines in an internet article plastered with adult ads.

I also know from seeing it myself that the only comment on that internet article was, ‘How much is that thug getting paid for this?’

I wasn’t even close to my sister in the first place. Anyway, all of this was pointless and useless. It was just continuing out of sheer stubbornness.

I kept glaring at the judges going in and out of the court, and I thought while having a staring contest with the court security who were watching me, worried I might do something.

Once my sister is released, I will take her and leave the country. There are many countries that need powerful awakeners, so if I set my mind to it, I could live well anywhere. If I look, there must be a country that doesn’t care about a criminal record…

…In the midst of my delusions, they stopped. Not by my will, but for an external reason.

Hallucinations…

Like forcibly ejecting a videotape that was playing and inserting a new one, my mind started filling with sounds and images that weren’t my own thoughts.

A bird escaping from a cage and flying out the window. A slave successfully escaping in the dead of night. A black slave breaking shackles and escaping. An immigrant ship crossing the sea to escape war. An ancient warrior reaching the exit of a giant maze.

Scenes of escape and movement. All sorts of abstract symbols.

Amidst the hallucinations that filled my head to the point of dizziness, I was surprised but could understand the situation. Hallucinations from fatigue and stress? No.

This was an awakening. A second awakening.

I had experienced a similar moment before. When I achieved my last victory in the octagon, when I raised my fist high, I experienced such hallucinations. At that time, I awakened as a physical enhancer…

But, huh?

“Sir! When did you get in there? Come out quickly!”

When I came to my senses, I was inside the court’s fence. The security guard, startled by the sudden action of a dangerous person, was shouting and gesturing.

I only realized hours later that I had awakened to the ability of teleportation.

It took some time to accurately grasp because there were few people other than me who had awakened to this superpower, making me a rare type of awakener.

*

Half a year later, I had to give up all protests and solidarity movements.

There were two main reasons. First, my savings had run out. The money I earned from my career as an athlete and trainer couldn’t sustain me any longer.

Isn’t it a world where a bag of snacks cost twenty thousand won two months ago, thirty thousand won this month, and fifty thousand won next month? In a hyperinflation situation that would only appear in children’s economic learning comics, my savings lost value rapidly even without spending a penny.

And another reason was that the human rights organization I was part of, the Korean Awakening Solidarity, disbanded in this terrible economic situation.

“`

If the government had disbanded us due to some pressure, considering us a thorn in their side, there might have been some sense of tragic beauty in it, but that wasn’t the case. Just as my savings ran out, so did the funds and activity money for this organization.

All kinds of banks and companies have gone bankrupt. It seems that even civic groups and their members couldn’t withstand this terrible economic crisis.

Damn Gate. Damn monsters.

“You’ve worked hard, Mr. Kim Geuk. I pray that your sister gets released soon.”

Like me, individual human rights activists were also not in good financial shape. Everyone scattered, looking for ways to make a living.

I was also about to leave the empty office.

“Mr. Kim Geuk? Shall we have a meal together and talk?”

Ms. Park Mi-hyung from the human rights organization asked to meet.

When we met as she wished, Ms. Park Mi-hyung was dressed well and had a neat face. Unlike other human rights activists who had to worry about their livelihood, she looked well-off. Well, she was originally a wealthy lady.

“I heard you got elected as a city councilor? Congratulations.”

At my words, Ms. Park Mi-hyung smiled awkwardly and asked how I was doing.

“So, Mr. Kim Geuk, how are you these days?”

“How do you think? Just like a beggar.”

“Right. Everyone’s having a hard time these days.”

Despite that, I didn’t sarcastically say that she seemed to be living well. I owed her a lot. The villa where I currently eat and sleep for free belongs to her, so it’s hard to say anything.

As I listened silently, Ms. Park Mi-hyung spoke.

“So, Mr. Kim Geuk. Do you have any immediate plans?”

“Not really. Why?”

“I was wondering if you might be interested in becoming a Hunter.”

I couldn’t help but frown at these words.

“You know I can’t be a Hunter because of my criminal record, right? If you have a criminal record, you can’t get a Hunter license. That’s why I’m planning to emigrate when my sister gets released.”

“Well, the law is going to be revised.”

Ms. Park Mi-hyung said that the criteria for obtaining a Hunter license would be significantly relaxed. Under the current law, if you hadn’t been out of prison for five years, you were prohibited from possessing firearms and couldn’t get a Hunter license, but all of that would be revised.

“There is a shortage of Hunters compared to demand, and even fewer awakened Hunters. They plan to change the law so that as many people as possible can become Hunters, regardless of their criminal record. I called to let you know because they said it would change by July at the latest. So, what do you think? Are you interested?”

I didn’t know how to express my gratitude. Even if my mother were alive, she wouldn’t have taken care of me more than this lady. That’s for sure.

I chose my words carefully and then spoke.

“Alright, I’ll give it a try. Hunter.”

*