Chapter 333

Reputation be damned. A Hunter from South Korea had just made the audacious move of threatening to defect to a neighboring country.

Every mammal gathered in the room reacted the same way.

“Are you crazy?”

Their faces said it all.

Still, it was difficult to dismiss his talk of naturalization as nothing more than provocation. There were several suspicious details surrounding the matter, and before long, an awkward silence settled over the room.

“Why are you all looking at me like that?”

Even when I asked again, no one answered.

Dark pupils drifting like the eyes of a dead fish.

Objectively speaking, that was probably exactly how I looked as I stared blankly at the people across from me through my heavy-lidded eyes.

Would an expression like this really inspire a favorable impression?

I still don’t know much about Earthling physiognomy, but after everything I’ve experienced so far, I’ve learned at least one thing.

When a hulking man sits there staring at you with unnaturally vivid blue eyes, ordinary people find it difficult to press their opinions.

And fortunately, the atmosphere that followed unfolded exactly as I had expected.

‘Look at his eyes. He’s completely insane. He really looks like the kind of guy who would do exactly what he says....’

‘No matter how I look at him, he seems completely serious.’

If thoughts like those were running through their heads, then everything was going according to plan.

Having carried out every move I had prepared in advance, I made one final, subtle adjustment to my posture.

It felt as though all the pointless psychological maneuvering had finally run its course, so I leaned back comfortably and focused once more.

***

And then, how much time passed?

“....”

In truth, the danger that had suddenly closed in around the alien disappeared almost instantly.

So abruptly, in fact, that to an outsider, the resolution might have seemed anticlimactic.

But just because the situation ended without much drama did not mean the result had been easily won.

It was the product of sharp instincts combined with meticulous preparation and research.

“Wait a moment. I’m not sure I heard that correctly. Are you saying Hunter Kim Giryeo brought up changing his citizenship before the questioning had even properly begun?”

“Yes!”

Let me say it again.

I had effectively dropped a bomb on them by declaring:

‘If you treat me unfairly over this incident, I’ll simply side with another country.’

And with that, I seized the initiative.

So what could the natives of Earth possibly do about it?

Even now, I still had no idea what motives or methods the powers who had summoned me to that meeting had originally intended to employ.

‘No matter how much of my magical power I’ve regained, I can’t exactly crack open people’s skulls every time I want to know what they’re thinking.’

However, once the people sitting across from me were forced to consider the possibility that this Hunter might renounce their country—and perhaps even publicly identify and drag down the officials who had provoked him—everything else became irrelevant.

They could no longer attempt even the smallest negotiation.

Besides, I thought this kind of threat was actually an extremely peaceful solution.

“I told you not to worry, didn’t I? From the very beginning, I intended to settle everything with words.”

I wasn’t some swindler pretending to be an S-rank anymore.

I was a genuine SS-rank superhuman.

Who in the world would seriously want to resolve a dispute with something like that through physical violence?

“Of course, using this kind of tactic recklessly would have consequences. But since I acted for the greater good in that last dungeon, I think I can allow myself to use it just this once.”

Still, considering how much more easily the tension dissipated than I had expected, perhaps they had never intended to push me very hard in the first place.

The main reason I had predicted that they might pressure me at all was because a foreign national had been involved in the incident.

‘If I look at it from something like an insurance company’s perspective, negotiations between two countries would probably be easier if Korea bore at least a little responsibility instead of Enzo being completely at fault. Honestly, if I were in their position, I’d probably want to dig around and see whether the injured party had made any mistakes too.’

But no matter how powerful the country making the request was, Kim Giryeo’s body was still Korean.

Trying to pick a fight with someone who shared your nationality and affiliation—someone who was technically “one of your own”—might not have sat well with everyone involved.

Perhaps, for some of them, the sudden appearance of a legitimate excuse to look the other way had actually come as a relief.

‘At the very least, one or two people in that room gave off that impression.’

Anyway, it was a relief that the incident had safely been recognized as self-defense.

It was around then that a woman’s voice suddenly came through the other end of the receiver.

“And of all things....”

That clear, familiar voice belonged to Seonwoo Yeon.

“Hunter Kim Giryeo, are you saying you actually considered using a change of nationality as a weapon...?”

At first, it seemed she had called simply to check whether I had been detained.

But as the conversation continued, Seonwoo Yeon clearly had a few questions of her own.

“Want me to guess?”

I assumed she was wondering how an alien of all beings had managed to identify something that would resonate so strongly with humans on Earth.

Having reached that conclusion, I answered cheerfully even though she hadn’t directly asked.

“You noticed too, huh? Well, first of all, it wasn’t difficult to deduce that an S-rank Hunter emigrating wouldn’t be treated lightly—especially once military strength enters the equation.”

“....”

“If I was going to threaten them, I figured I might as well make the threat effective. That’s why I asked for the names of the people in the room. Sure, having a powerful soldier inside your country is something to celebrate, but whether that weapon belongs to you is another matter entirely. That’s why people like Go Byeongdo don’t scare easily even when someone threatens to defect.”

“....”

“Ah, but just in case that still wasn’t enough, I personally added one more element....”

Come to think of it, life really was unpredictable.

A blessing in disguise, as the saying went.

“People here seem to pay especially close attention to neighboring countries, right? That’s why I specifically mentioned China and Japan as possible destinations for naturalization.”

It had already been about a year since I first stepped into this world of mammals.

Back then, I had barely been scraping by—so weakened by the aftereffects of magic that I was picking sweet red-bean buns off the ground.

Who would have imagined that someone like that would eventually have enough breathing room to study the social structure of an entirely different world?

“But Seonwoo Yeon, how did my words sound to you during that meeting?”

I leaned closer to the phone and waited.

After a brief pause, a certain B-rank Hunter answered in a weary voice.

More precisely, it was the evaluation of someone native to this planet.

“...Compared to an ordinary declaration that you intended to naturalize elsewhere, the way you phrased it, Kim Giryeo-ssi, was definitely much more psychologically burdensome....”

“Right?”

“And now that I think about it, names like Nakamura and Chi Wei... you memorized those in advance because you fully intended to make people uncomfortable from the very beginning, didn’t you...?”

Seonwoo Yeon, an employee of the Hunter Association, gradually fell silent as she reconsidered each of my actions one by one.

The reason she was at a loss for words was obvious.

She wasn’t even a native Korean herself.

So the fact that some alien from a distant corner of the universe had resorted to such a ruthless tactic was bound to stir a complicated mixture of emotions.

“How did you even come to understand differences in national attitudes like that...?”

There really wasn’t much to explain.

Unless you were some extraordinary genius, most achievements simply came down to steady effort and genuine interest.

“Actually, regardless of where you are, people naturally pay more attention to countries that share their borders than to some distant foreign nation.”

I adjusted my grip on the phone and continued.

“Of course, from the perspective of someone who has lived in ‘bigger waters,’ East Asia as a whole seems genetically and geographically quite close.”

“Hmm.”

“But if I lump all of you together by saying, ‘Aren’t you basically the same race?’ I get the feeling I’d manage to anger Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese people all at once. So I’ll make sure to correct that line of thinking as quickly as possible.”

I believe that should sufficiently explain how the self-defense issue was resolved.

“Thank... you?”

Now that I had finished reporting that I was free....

I was just about to finally go get something to eat—

“Ah, wait.”

Just before I could hang up, Seonwoo Yeon’s urgent voice came through the receiver.

“First of all, congratulations on resolving the matter successfully. But I heard that during the questioning, the [Book of Destruction] also came up. Is there anything related to that you could tell me about...?”

Ah.

The [Book of Destruction].

Of course, I had heard that item mentioned too.

But there really wasn’t much for me to explain.

“That?”

Because in the end, that artifact had entered a state where neither I, nor any government agency, nor even its original owner could freely touch it.

“What a pity.”

If the people who eliminated criminals were automatically entitled to claim their possessions, modern society would have stumbled straight into a new era of bounty hunting.

Modern courts had established countless safeguards precisely to prevent that kind of chaos.

“But anyway, it’s a useless burden.”

In other words, because I was the one who had killed Enzo, it was impossible for me to simply claim the item as loot.

And even if I went out of my way to seize it by force, the [Book of Destruction] was basically nothing more than a simple storage device.

To use the recorded magic, the wielder had to supply the magical power personally.

Besides, how impressive could the spells contained in some object passed around from person to person really be?

Since it was packed with “cheap” magic intended for broad use, anyone capable of constructing spells themselves would honestly be better off casting directly rather than relying on the [Book of Destruction].

“They say the American side is claiming the [Book of Destruction] was stolen, so apparently there’ll be quite a lot of back-and-forth over it from now on....”

So I had almost completely lost interest in the thing.

“I have no intention of getting dragged into some international dispute over it. It’s troublesome, and I already have plenty of other things to do. I told them not to contact me about that item anymore.”

That brought my report on most of the Beast incident to an end.

“Yes. The matter of how to dispose of the [Book of Destruction] will probably be resolved somehow. Thanks to Hunters like you, Kim Giryeo, nobody will have to be threatened by a book like that again.”

But then her tone changed.

“But hearing everything again like this... it feels a little strange to call someone’s second awakening nothing more than good fortune.”

“....”

“Once again, I really want to thank you for what happened. Koreans... when you think about it, we don’t actually have much to do with you. And yet you always step in to help us....”

“Yes.”

I ended the call without saying anything more.

She sounded so relieved that it was almost pitiful.

But that Earthling probably had no idea.

“That’s true. In reality, we’re quite distant from one another.”

Perhaps Korea was both the safest and the most dangerous place on this planet.

Because once the grading was complete, I intended to begin applying the results from the very place where I had been living all along.

***

The next day, shortly after my visit.

“Whoam.”

Finally, more than thirty hours had passed since my wound had been stitched, all of them spent in complete rest.

‘I feel refreshed!’

That meant I no longer had to constantly restrain myself from using magic out of anxiety.

So the moment I got up, I finalized the day’s agenda.

[Plan]

Investigate the bodies of Enzo Chiano’s group.Buy a fast charger on the way.For reference, I had already negotiated permission to inspect the bodies in advance.

My stated reason was that I wanted to confirm with my own eyes whether the person I had killed really was that famous Hunter....

Though now that I thought about it, there was something about that sentence that didn’t quite match the mood.

Still, it couldn’t be helped.

According to what I had checked yesterday, tonight’s dinner menu in the ward was samgyetang.

‘I-I should at least take my time and get discharged tomorrow. Honestly, once I leave this place, when am I ever going to have the chance to eat hospital samgyetang again?’

My body had already recovered completely.

In fact, a suitcase Jung Haseong had brought over was standing in one corner of the hospital room.

In other words, I had already retrieved all the belongings that had been stored at someone else’s house as though I were a guest.

And yet, driven by one small, ordinary indulgence, I decided to remain in the hospital for one more day.

That was why I suddenly found myself wanting to buy a decent charger—something convenient to use while I stayed here.

‘Enough lazing around. Once the morning rounds are finished, I’d better head out immediately.’

But just as I was about to put the plan into action—

“Hmm?”

An unexpected trace of magical energy began flowing from directly outside the hospital room.

‘What is it?’

At this hour, I shouldn’t have been encountering magical energy like this.

But no matter how many times I checked, the presence outside really did seem to belong to someone I knew.

So after staring through the wall for a long moment, I finally reached a conclusion.

‘It’s Ahn Yoonseung.’

I should go outside and pretend I’ve only just noticed him.

‘I can finally keep my energy from leaking out of my body. Maybe I should sneak up on him like an assassin and scare him a little.’

Besides, I wanted to tease him in celebration of regaining control over my magical power.

‘This guy... Unlike me, he’s a professional attached to a guild, and yet he’s skipping work and hanging around here?’

However, after slipping outside as quietly as possible, what I encountered was something I could never have imagined.

“Huh.”

The hallway was silent.

Since I was currently the only VIP patient admitted, the entire floor was almost unnaturally still.

And yet someone was standing there.

‘What the... Did he come to the hospital because he’s sick too?’

To get straight to the point, a certain shaved-headed Hunter was standing in the hallway with his fist pressed against his mouth.

He was crying.

Silently.

Without making a single sound.