Chapter 378

“How could this... how could something like this...”

Jung Haseong muttered incoherently, as though his thoughts were simply spilling out of his mouth. After spending the entire winter with Kim Giryeo and only just beginning to trust that his companion’s health was stable, it was perhaps only natural for him to be so shaken by a sight like this.

“See? I told you not to follow me.”

But what else could I have done?

For me, this had been the best possible choice.

Until now, I had often made excuses about things like mansions flooding or other personal circumstances. But the truth was, if I had arrived even a little later, that island would already have cast its shadow over the land the Earthlings called Japan.

And once it had drifted that far, dealing with the debris would have become several times more difficult.

‘At least the job itself was wrapped up cleanly. Though in exchange, the web of trust around me just got a lot more tangled.’

Damn it.

Whatever.

I gave up on trying to come up with some elaborate excuse and simply let the humans escort me to the infirmary.

The black-haired Awakener refrained from speaking, as though showing consideration for a patient like me.

“What are you staring at? Keep that up and I really will hit you with a memory-erasing spell.”

I, on the other hand, felt no particular need to be considerate.

After all, one spell was worth more than a hundred words.

And I happened to be an utterly shameless archmage from Alqhauri.

***

...A brief commotion broke out.

“-_-”

Today was Tuesday, December 24th.

While other people were busy cutting Christmas cakes at this time of year, one particular young man—hailed as one of Korea’s greatest heroes—had somehow ended up sitting outside in the cold.

“-_-”

Perhaps it was because he was a psychic whose body naturally ran hot.

Whenever he stayed inside a warm house, he found it difficult to focus.

And so, in some nameless park, Jung Haseong sat alone on a bench, lost in thought, his face troubled.

“That person really is an unbelievably shameless fraud.”

The “that person” in question was the dyed-haired Awakener now known throughout South Korea.

“How can he lie so casually without even blinking? And then claim there’s nothing wrong with him... How does someone end up like that from ‘pushing himself a little’?”

Still, muttering complaints to himself would not change anything.

For reference, all of this was happening after the strange phenomenon that had appeared over the Pacific Ocean had been dealt with cleanly.

“Ha.”

At first, the entire country had been shaken by the appearance of an otherworldly floating island.

But this was, after all, the era of Dungeon Shock.

Red Gates that spawned monsters in the middle of cities were already a reality.

So why should nests drifting through the sky be impossible?

On top of that, with January approaching, bizarre new Gates had begun appearing all over the world.

“The [Are You Happy?] EX-rank Gate in Türkiye. The Red Gate outbreaks in Africa and East Asia. In the end, is that island just going to be treated like one more incident among those?”

“-_-”

He no longer cared about a dungeon that had already been dealt with.

There was only one thing still bothering him.

“Am I meddling too much?”

A Hunter who had now become something of a national idol was suffering from a tumor.

“So that’s why he told me not to follow him. And I was the idiot who climbed onto the ship without giving it a second thought.”

As his gaze wandered, Jung Haseong noticed the dust gathered on the bench.

But he was not the sort of person who cared much about cleanliness, so he remained seated without moving.

“And besides... what right does someone like me have to follow an adult around and stubbornly tell him not to enter dungeons?”

At that moment, the only noisy thing in the park was the pyromancer’s own mind.

“Seriously...”

While they worked together, Kim Giryeo had always looked perfectly fine.

That was why Jung Haseong had almost overlooked it completely.

But if he suddenly started coughing up blood aboard a ship, then surely this was no minor issue.

Jung Haseong recalled once more what he had witnessed over the Pacific.

The fourth S-rank’s attack had produced consequences severe enough to justify his concern.

“I don’t even know how I’m supposed to react.”

Even after seeing him collapse from overexertion, Jung Haseong could not simply forbid his companion from entering dungeons.

As he had thought all along, strictly speaking, Kim Giryeo was a stranger.

They did not share even a drop of blood.

Jung Haseong had no right to restrict his actions simply because watching him behave that way made him uncomfortable.

‘If anything, the way I’ve acted up until now has already crossed the line.’

And yet, now that his thoughts had gone this far, Jung Haseong found himself wondering about one particular question.

“...Why doesn’t that Hunter just quit being a Hunter?”

Money, money, money.

In truth, the answer was absurdly simple.

But from an Earthling’s perspective, it was not a conclusion one could easily reach.

This was the sort of person Kim Giryeo appeared to be in Jung Haseong’s eyes.

A suit worn so neatly that one might suspect obsessive cleanliness.

Bare hands, without a single weapon of the sort spies usually carried—not even a gun or knife.

And a calm expression maintained at all times, as though putting the finishing touch on that composed exterior.

To anyone looking from the outside, Kim Giryeo appeared to be the very image of an ideal strongman.

At the same time, however, he could also be called eccentric.

Even bizarre.

‘I used to think he cared about the safety of civilians. But judging by everything he’s done so far... somehow, that doesn’t seem quite right anymore.’

If he continued obsessing over hunting instead of focusing on treatment, his lifespan would undoubtedly be shortened.

And Kim Giryeo was not foolish enough to be unaware of that.

In the long run, even the country would lose something valuable if he died.

‘He was the one who told me not to think so shortsightedly in the first place.’

Several possibilities flashed through Jung Haseong’s mind.

‘Did some government agency threaten him using his mother, who supposedly collapsed recently...? No. No, that’s too much.’

No matter how much he thought about it, he could not imagine someone like Kim Giryeo allowing his entire life to be dictated by another person’s threats.

After a long time sitting in the cold wind, one hypothesis gradually began to take shape in Jung Haseong’s mind.

“Then, could it be...”

There was still one possibility he had not considered.

“Curiosity.”

Could Korea’s fourth S-rank be so obsessed with hunting simply because he enjoyed it?

It sounded ridiculous.

And yet there were, surprisingly, plenty of real examples that made the theory plausible.

The dominant species of this planet had always possessed a culture of extreme sports.

Earthlings willingly went skydiving despite having bodies fragile enough to suffer fatal injuries from falling out of a third-story apartment window.

And even more astonishingly, they paid money for the experience.

Now they lived in a world where monsters straight out of an RPG wandered the streets.

In that case...

‘For people who enjoy the thrill of danger, this world must feel like paradise.’

A man who found ordinary life too boring and had taken up modern hunting as a hobby.

Jung Haseong thought such a person could very well exist.

In a way, it resembled the misconception Kang Changho had once entertained.

But unlike Kang Changho, the national hero did not stop at merely thinking about it.

‘Still, I can’t just leave that Hunter alone.’

No matter how capable or extraordinary someone was, if they kept risking their life, sooner or later they would die.

Jung Haseong knew that very well.

He was a hero who had regained his ability to make sound judgments only after consistent treatment from specialists and constant mental discipline.

More than most people, he understood what it meant to become obsessed with work.

And so, he came up with a method.

As long as Kim Giryeo lacked one particular “trait,” what Jung Haseong was about to try might resolve the problem surprisingly easily.

.

.

.

Ding dong.

A few hours later, the mechanical chime of a doorbell rang through a mansion by the coast.

“Hoho.”

Beyond the wide glass windows, the winter sea stretched out at a glance.

This place was the private residence of an alien.

After the incident aboard the ship, Kim Giryeo had gone straight home, claiming he was exhausted and needed to rest.

Therefore, the only way to meet the alien mage now was to come here, where he had shut himself away.

“So he really came just because I called him.”

However, the homeowner’s expression upon spotting his guest was anything but welcoming.

Of course, being a polite local, Jung Haseong had called in advance and received permission to visit.

But from the perspective of someone who had planned to spend the day lounging around the house, snacking and browsing the internet, the visit was hardly welcome.

“Enough. What would be the point of getting angry at an inferior Earthling?”

Tsk.

Kim Giryeo clicked his tongue meaninglessly and then obediently got moving.

He opened the necessary doors and let his guest into the living room.

“Hello, Hunter Kim Giryeo.”

“Merry Christmas!”

“It’s not even Christmas yet.”

“I thought showing up on Christmas Day itself would be too much of an inconvenience, so I deliberately came today.”

“Is that so...”

By the way, what business did this fire-attribute young man have coming all the way out to a mansion by the sea?

“What is it?”

Tuk.

Once they reached the living room, Jung Haseong first asked after his condition with a serious expression.

Only after Kim Giryeo assured him several times that he was fine did Jung Haseong begin taking objects out of the bag he had brought with him.

“What on earth...?”

The first item was an analog wristwatch.

Next came what appeared to be a plane ticket to the United Kingdom.

And then...

Another rectangular document whose purpose was unclear.

‘It’s covered in English. Judging from the general look of it, it seems to be some kind of event ticket.’

The alien tilted his head slightly, careful not to make his confusion too obvious.

Still, the final item Jung Haseong produced was at least something he recognized from everyday life.

“A photo?”

More precisely, it was a car magazine featuring various foreign automobiles sold on Earth.

A wristwatch.

Several tickets.

A magazine.

To the alien, the collection seemed completely random.

The homeowner, currently sitting on a negative balance of forty billion, stared at the objects on the glass table for quite some time.

In the awkward silence that followed, the guest sitting across from him finally seemed to gather enough courage to say what he had come to say.

“Hunter Kim.”

Jung Haseong spoke quickly.

“May I ask you something?”

Naturally, the answer was short.

“Yeah.”

Considering that Jung Haseong was two years older than him, the casual tone was rather inappropriate.

But the alien figured that changing the way he spoke now would only make things more awkward.

The number one Hunter in the country did not seem bothered by it either.

If anything, Kim Giryeo’s usual reaction appeared to reassure him.

And so Jung Haseong finally asked the question he had prepared.

“What do you think of these products?”

“Hm?”

“By the way, this watch is from a newly released line by a Swiss luxury brand. Apparently, it’s made entirely from newly developed high-strength materials, so even Awakeners can wear it comfortably.”

But the alien had very little to say on the subject.

“What do you think of these things?”

Watches.

Cars.

These were the sort of objects that usually caught an Earthling’s eye.

A soul from a remote planet still did not truly understand why such things were considered luxurious.

“Please. I’d like you to be completely honest.”

With his acquaintance addressing him so earnestly, the alien sitting at the center of his domain—the sound of waves faintly audible beyond the glass windows—gave his opinion without hesitation.

“Well... it’s just a watch.”

“-_-”

“The thing next to it is a blue car.”

There did not seem to be anything particularly strange about that assessment, so he continued speaking with complete honesty.

“Is that all?”

“Of course.”

“Then... are you not interested in the ticket to the professional soccer match either?”

“Oh, so those were soccer tickets.”

And when the subject shifted to ball sports, his reaction was one of genuine indifference.

Watching this sequence of responses, the visitor tried testing several other subjects as well—games, fashion, and the like.

As expected, the atmosphere did not change much.

“You’re asking whether I play mobile games because I use the latest phone? Well... I know they exist, intellectually speaking.”

“So you don’t actually play them yourself?”

“Isn’t that expensive?”

“Usually, no. But the fact that you’re even asking that tells me roughly what I needed to know.”

Jung Haseong’s face gradually went pale, as though he had just confirmed something he desperately hoped was not true.