Chapter 451

If I had known things would turn out like this, I should have looked into the company hunters beforehand. If I hadn't given them such a large cut and had instead assigned a bigger share to the guild from the beginning, I could have used the profit to hire an appraiser. By the time all the contracts were finalized, however, it was already too late.

I had completely botched the very first step.

I slipped my hand into my pocket.

I really don't want to work.

I thought it over carefully, but at this point, there was no choice I could undo.

Even if it means operating at a loss, maybe I should just lose my mind later and hire a full-time appraiser...

Even though it was clearly summer, for some reason the road to work felt unusually cold.

Another day passed. To be precise, it was the third day since the lower-ranking guild members had been unable to come to work at all because their weapons had been confiscated under the pretext of enchantment.

A victory born of effort.

I finally finished sorting through all the loot piled up in the rental office and regained my freedom. And as soon as I returned to the seaside mansion, I shut myself away in the basement to accomplish my objective.

Should I go up to the first floor and take another look at the shape?

A magically animated doll capable of autonomous movement.

I had successfully created that very item, one that originated from Alphauri.

It's hastily made, but the exterior finish is decent enough.

The outer layer was mottled like kudzu. I had chosen dungeon materials that were as flexible and durable as possible, giving the whole thing a subdued, non-reflective finish. With all those characteristics combined, the item balanced itself perfectly in the palms of my hands.

But as I quietly observed the completed prototype golem, a certain thought briefly crossed my mind.

By the way, I spent a long time deciding what kind of animal to imitate... and somehow, I ended up recreating the model I often used back on my home planet.

Centipedes, spiders, and various others.

Earth, being unmistakably another world, had an astonishing number of bizarrely shaped creatures. Especially animals with absurdly long necks, like giraffes. Their sheer impracticality was somehow appealing. But copying them purely for their appearance was troublesome, since creatures like that usually caused all sorts of complications when it came to control...

So in the end, I had no choice but to settle for a simple form.

What I held in my hand was a magic-engineering weapon modeled after a snake.

It didn't have an excessive number of legs that would complicate manual control. And to repeat myself, this was the form I had handled most often back in my days as an archmage.

Still, while I'm glad the finished product turned out neatly...

No matter how much effort I put into it, this prototype's performance fell short compared to the cherished models I used back on Alphauri.

Suddenly, memories of my younger days came to mind.

At that moment, I remembered a gigantic creature that once lived in the wilds of my distant homeland.

A hellish monster.

A hornless dragon.

For reference, that place had a long-standing resident known by those two nicknames.

To clarify in advance, the magicians of Alphauri often favored golems modeled after this "hornless dragon." The sizes they produced varied quite a bit as well.

In Earth terms, they were sold on the market as Hornless Dragon Small, Hornless Dragon Medium, and so on.

If I ever got the chance, I wanted to reproduce that technology here as closely as possible, but given the current shortage of suitable materials, it was nearly impossible.

So for now, I'll have to make do with a snake.

No matter how many times I think about it, it's a shame.

The creatures of Alphauri that had already gone extinct... their mythical names hadn't been given to them for nothing.

They lived in shallow waters and sometimes moved vertically, as though ascending.

And thanks to the peculiar spatial system unique to ancient creatures, every time they swam, they could alter the water currents of an entire region of the planet.

If I had been able to reproduce a true dragon like that, even this insignificant Earth would surely have been conquered in no time.

[=^=]

But this thing is supposed to be a super-magical weapon built around a Legendary core?

It was modeled after the creature known as the "snake," which was usually associated with viciousness, yet for some reason the object in front of me gave off an oddly weak, almost harmless impression.

[=w=]

I met the eyes of the prototype resting on my palm once again.

Its eyes were round...

Its face was round...

And its body was plump, like a freshly made rice cake.

For reference, this object had been made using the corpse of a native Earth snake that I had brought in directly, since modifying the form too freely might cause malfunctions in Earth's environment.

But the longer I looked it in the eyes, the less imposing the golem seemed.

It looks so bland.

A lot of people online had been saying something similar.

[Comments on Seonhan Daily 'Hunter Kim Retires...']

[Whoa------- This country is rotten to the core. Stabbing its own citizens in the back just like that violent ex-convict --no better than each other.

This is why our ancestors believed in physiognomy. Kim Giryeo has the classic snake face!! If you let someone like that into your house, your life will be ruined.]

Why did humans on Earth always compare harsh or menacing-looking people to snakes?

That thought crossed my mind as I stared at the machine in front of me, which somehow looked rather underwhelming.

Then, should I at least try a test run...

There were plenty of things I wasn't satisfied with, but for now, this magical doll was still an extension of myself.

Hey!

There was no need to give it some grandiose name just because it was my only troop.

It was only a hastily assembled prototype anyway, so in the end I settled on something simple.

Yong! Drop yourself over by the sofa.

At my command, the golem, having recognized my voice, began to move.

Smrk.

The mud-colored magical tool slithered naturally like a real snake, moving its body toward the designated spot.

It was a structure difficult for humans to control, but in fact, the AI of that product, Ego Sword, had decent value in its own right.

Since setting up a complete behavioral protocol from the beginning would be tedious, it's better to establish only the basic framework and move on.

Jj- Jj!

Suddenly, my phone began to ring.

It's Jeong Haseong.

Of course, it wasn't difficult to tell who was calling. The moment I picked up the device, the three characters of his name appeared clearly on the screen.

I answered immediately.

Hello?

The person on the other end, Jeong Haseong, responded the instant he heard my voice.

Hunter Kim!

It was a form of address I hadn't heard in a long time.

However, his tone was noticeably different from usual.

Hunter Kim, aren't you at the guild building today?

I blinked and answered his strangely agitated question.

Why all of a sudden?

It would have been easy enough to say, "I'm taking the day off," but I was more curious about why he was asking in the first place, so I decided to get ahead of the issue.

Actually, I thought I might stop by to see you, so I headed over to the guild building in Seoul earlier, but there were journalists everywhere...

But what does that mean?

What did you say?

Oh, my goodness.

Naturally, suspicion was the first thing that came to mind.

Journalists had gathered at the temporary office I had rented for guild operations.

However, my company was effectively closed at the moment because of schedules involving enchantment work and golem production.

No matter how much the landline in the rental building rang, there was no one there to answer it.

For now, that was the full extent of the situation.

Why on earth are there journalists at my guild?

I asked the brief question into my phone's microphone.

You haven't seen today's news, have you?

What I heard next was an ominous prelude.

While I had been busy dismantling Ego Sword, the world's attention had clearly shifted in another direction.

Yeah, it's not like I sit around reading the news every day, you know.

Ah! Heuk! Wh, what I just said wasn't meant to blame you at all, Hunter. Yes, of course, it's perfectly normal for someone not to keep up with the news all the time.

After that brief commotion, a concise exchange followed.

Thank you for covering up someone else's laziness as best you can.

But anyway,

Tak.

I picked up the mobile phone again.

I heard the artificial awakening scandal got so big that the news about my license restoration was completely buried. Do you happen to know why the reporters suddenly came to my guild?

The Earthling then answered.

It's because Hunter Kim was on the list of fake Awakened individuals.

It was truly a ridiculous situation.

The posts that used to circulate only on internet tabloids were broadcast as news by a major network, and now there's even a public petition calling for a thorough investigation into you, Hunter Kim.

What...

From what I've seen of public opinion, the situation definitely isn't looking good.

Just how many times does the phrase 'hot issue' need to be attached to this sacred name, Kim Giryeo?

This isn't the time for that.

It'll be faster if I just check the internet myself.

For reference, the traditional Earth invention called the cellphone had an impressive feature.

By skillfully using the "back" gesture, I could open a portal site while still remaining on the call.

Step, step.

I then used the browser application I had opened to assess the situation.

[Kim at the Center of Controversy Again... This Time Named as a Forged Awakener!]

As expected, the main page of the news site was a complete mess.

Even the Hunter-exclusive forum I checked afterward wasn't any better.

[I knew this b*stard would do that (812)]

[Wow, someone posted a speculation and this is creepy as hell.; (30)]

[So he was showing signs ever since he was first registered as an S-rank (114)]

The top three HOT posts were all about me.

################

Title: I knew this bastard would do it

Content:

Characteristics of artificially induced Awakened individuals

(According to information revealed so far)

① Lying in bed, groaning from illness

② Despite being a high-grade individual, frequently suffering from nosebleeds

③ The circumstances of their awakening are unclear

Jeong Haseong encountered a Kraken, and Seo Esther had the roof of a two-story villa in Gangwon-do completely blown away by a monster--normally, mutations appear after major incidents like those, but artificial awakening doesn't show anything like that.

"That Hunter"'s characteristics

① Does this even need further explanation?

################

But when you thought about it a little more carefully, the trend made sense.

Oh my.

Judging from the circumstances...

Judging from the circumstances, South Korea's fourth S-rank really was a strange one...

Hunter, have you checked public opinion? There are always plenty of amateur detectives online who love to speculate. Apparently, some of them calculated the timing of your retirement and other details, then added their own theories on top of it.

I was terribly unlucky.

The past behavior of an alien just happened to fit a particular theory with uncanny precision.

The combination of my retirement and the rumors about my health worked fatally against me, making it nearly impossible to look innocent.

[Speculation post] Could it be that 'that Hunter' underwent some additional treatment and came back more stabilized than during that sudden previous trip to the U.S.?]

Of course, the fact that I had obtained the Elixir was a secret, so even that trip became dragged into the controversy.

[So that's why the former Association President kept Hunter KGR's rank under wraps. He was a superpowered human created through the Association's cruel experiments, wow.]

[I've seen stuff like this in movies;]

I really wish the South Korean Hunter industry would stop standing by and actually step forward.

I narrowed my clear eyes and took a moment to collect myself.

Honestly, the criteria for proving someone had awakened naturally were so vague that this entire situation felt even more absurd.

What am I supposed to do about this?

But even if there was nothing I could do about countless netizens, surely I could at least convince this one person.

It's all baseless.

I spoke clearly into my phone.

I've checked the posts online too, and just to be clear—I really did awaken naturally.

Is that so?

The moment I said that, a sigh of relief came through the speaker.

The illness I went through, to put it simply, was just the result of a hereditary condition acting up, combined with chain-smoking until everything spiraled out of control.

By the time I finished that sentence, the person on the other end instead sucked in a sharp breath of surprise.

So forget any worries about artificial awakening completely.

I didn't pay much attention to the Earthling's reaction.

The topic immediately shifted.

Haseong-ah, actually, I was thinking about how to resolve this whole situation.

Resolve it?

They say the side effects are that severe, so simply allowing the procedure to spread among civilians like this doesn't seem right either.

Aha.

So while we're on the subject, let me ask--do you happen to know where that Hunter Changho is right now? Has his location been tracked?

South Korea's third S-rank.

His only means of contact was blocked now, so I could no longer reach him by phone--but with the power of an archmage, I could easily intimidate him into working if I wanted to.

It may feel terribly unfair, but this is for the sake of humanity--so please, just cooperate.

I wanted to make use of a certain mammal who was relatively knowledgeable about the underworld--if possible.

Kang Changho?

But when I asked where Kang Changho was, Jeong Haseong made a troubled sound from the other end of the line.

He's probably not in the country right now?

What possible reason could that superpowered individual have had for leaving Korea?