Chapter 5: Grade-9 Civil-Service Hunter (3)
It happened the instant he activated his Subspace Storage.
Jin-young felt a sudden jolt near his heart.
A sensation he had experienced only once before—but one he could never forget.
It was similar to what he felt on his final day in Renard, facing the “Demon King.”
Similar, but only that.
Compared to back then, this was a mere speck—not even a drop in the ocean, but dust in the universe.
Yet it was still powerful enough to bind his body for a fleeting moment.
“Oppa!”
The instant Chae So-young shouted toward him—
BOOOOM!
Jin-young erupted psionic energy from his body, and the black tendrils wrapping around him exploded all at once.
The dark remnants that fell to the floor writhed for a moment before gradually hardening like stone.
Chae So-young’s expression stiffened along with them.
“Oppa… you’re not corrupted by creep, right?”
“No way.”
If he had been corrupted by creep, his body would no longer be intact.
He would have long since mutated into a “demonized” being.
His best guess was that a fragment of the Demon King had somehow clung to him during regression.
He wasn’t certain—his memory was incomplete after pushing psionic energy beyond its limits.
Even if it was a fragment of the Demon King, there was no reason to tell his sister.
Explaining would be pointless anyway.
“I think it’s strange too. But the demonic energy from these black tendrils… it’s way too similar to what I felt in the Hongcheon Contaminated Zone.”
“Hongcheon Contaminated Zone? You went there?”
For the first time, Jin-young’s calm voice trembled.
Noticing the odd tone, So-young nodded cautiously.
“Y-yeah…”
“With whom?”
“Alone.”
Hearing “alone” relieved him slightly.
“Why?”
“It’s our hometown, after all… I was just curious how it’s doing…”
“…”
Jin-young started to speak, then stopped, calming his rising emotions.
Hongcheon Contaminated Zone.
As So-young said, it was their family’s hometown.
And where their deceased parents rested.
After losing their parents in the gate runaway, Jin-young had fled with his sister, desperate to survive.
Of course, that alone wasn’t why he was angry.
“Your guild is planning to reclaim the Hongcheon Contaminated Zone, aren’t they?”
“……!”
So-young’s eyes widened.
“Never go there. Absolutely not.”
“Why…?”
“Just this once, don’t doubt me and listen. I’ll explain the details later.”
So-young had almost no memory of her brother acting like this.
The only time was during the Hongcheon gate runaway, when he dragged her to safety.
The memory resurfaced, and without realizing it, she nodded.
Even now, when he was just a half-penny hunter of lower grade, So-young had never looked down on her brother.
When the world felt like it was collapsing, the only person she could rely on was him.
Meanwhile, only after hearing her answer did Jin-young finally breathe a sigh of relief.
SP Guild’s plan to reclaim the Hongcheon Contaminated Zone.
Back then, core attacker Chae So-young had been declared missing during the operation.
The only hunter from the strike team who never returned alive.
Jin-young had just prevented that tragedy from repeating.
But it wasn’t completely over.
Not while the trash who wanted his sister dead were still breathing.
“Let’s go.”
“Huh? Where?”
“You said you booked a hospital, right?”
“Oh, right. Yeah, let’s go.”
Watching her brother’s back as he led the way, So-young felt it.
He was clearly different from the oppa she had seen recently.
***
Transferred to Hyeonseong Comprehensive Awakened Hospital, Jin-young received treatment the next morning and was discharged around noon.
“Money really is nice.”
Hyeonseong Comprehensive Awakened Hospital specialized in treating awakened—hunters.
But not just any hunter could go there.
You had to be affiliated with a major guild like SP, where So-young worked.
Or be filthy rich.
“Thanks to having a good little sister.”
“You’re completely right.”
So-young boasted beside him.
Jin-young couldn’t really argue.
He wasn’t in a major guild, and he certainly wasn’t rich.
It was purely thanks to his sister.
“By the way, are you really going to work?”
“Our team leader died yesterday, so the support team is short-staffed. Even someone perfectly healthy like me has to go.”
“That trashy team leader you hated? How’d he die?”
“They say a Rock Golem got him.”
“Whoa, really? That guy had terrible luck.”
“Yeah, he did.”
Jin-young lied with a completely straight face.
“Who knows, maybe our team leader should’ve watched where he was going.”
“Your team leader? What was his name again?”
“Oh Jong-yeon. Why are you asking about that bastard?”
So-young visibly grimaced at the mention of Oh Jong-yeon.
“That guy—he bullies you, doesn’t he?”
“It’s no joke. I’ve wanted to quit because of that asshole more times than I can count. If the Guild Master wasn’t so good to me, I would’ve left long ago.”
After finishing her sentence, So-young belatedly glanced around the deserted parking lot.
Even though she knew there were no hunters nearby whose mana she could sense, she couldn’t help it.
“How about killing him?”
“The team leader? If I could, do you think I’d still be here?”
“You don’t have to do it yourself.”
“What, hire an assassin? Oppa, this is reality. Stop treating it like a game. How can you talk about killing someone so easily?”
‘It’s not that hard.’
Jin-young only thought it to himself and shrugged, changing the subject.
“With your level, you could’ve gone to Crystal or Guardian, right? Why stay there?”
“First, Guardian Guild smells too much like sweat—I hate it.”
“…”
That was her only reason. Jin-young regretted asking.
“Crystal… honestly, I thought about it a lot, but SP’s conditions were way better. Crystal isn’t the kind of place that would regret missing out on someone like me.”
“Even if the conditions are good, if the people suck, it’s tough, no?”
“Only the team leader is like that—the rest are fine. Especially the Guild Master; he’s so kind, handsome, rich, and—”
“…”
As So-young suddenly launched into praise for the SP Guild Master, Jin-young fell into silent thought.
Oh Jong-yeon—the name matched the one he’d heard before regression.
The team leader of the strike team when his sister went missing.
That meant the bastard had been harassing her even before the incident.
Whether this was limited to just the team leader or if there was someone bigger behind it.
Interrogating the guy would definitely yield something.
He’d investigate Oh Jong-yeon’s schedule and habits, then pick the right time and place.
Until then, he planned to continue his civil-service life while finding ways to climb higher.
Or perhaps becoming a secret agent for the Intelligence Department wouldn’t be bad.
“Oppa, you’re heading straight to the district office, right? I’ll give you a ride.”
So-young said as she got into her small, cute red imported car.
“Yeah.”
***
For civil servants, complainants were an unavoidable part of the job.
That was no different for civil-service hunters.
First-year civil-service hunter Jin-sol wore a troubled expression.
“No, I mean… just restore my vegetable garden to how it was and compensate me for the crops. Why can’t you understand that!”
“I’m sorry, sir. That’s going to be difficult. It’s not under our jurisdiction either…”
“This fucking—! They say no over there, no over here! Then who the hell am I supposed to talk to? Huh?”
A middle-aged man with patches of gray hair spat curses and pointed aggressively at Jin-sol.
Support team 9th Grade hunter Shin Ji-ho, sitting beside her, fidgeted anxiously as he watched.
As the team’s youngest, he had tried handling the complainant first, but his mental fortitude had shattered, leaving senior Jin-sol to step in.
But even as the senior, Jin-sol wasn’t much different.
She was just a bit more accustomed to taking abuse thanks to longer experience.
“Sir, we’re civil-service hunters, so that matter is—”
“Hunters my ass—bunch of useless trash who became civil servants because you lack ability. If you’re eating my tax money, you should at least do your job properly!”
“And in the first place, making a vegetable garden in a public park is illegal—”
“Illegal? Hey, do you know who I am to be spouting that shit? Huh? Bring your team leader here. I said bring the team leader!”
“…”
At the mention of “team leader,” Jin-sol’s face darkened.
The original support team leader, Kim Young-jae, had died yesterday in the gate runaway.
Until a new team leader arrived, someone needed to act as temporary leader—but that person was also hospitalized with injuries.
In the end, the only one who could step up was Jin-sol.
“The team leader is…”
Before Jin-sol could finish, a familiar male voice cut in.
“I’m the support team leader. What’s the problem?”
It was the temporary support team leader—Jin-young—who had appeared.
The middle-aged man turned toward Jin-young and spoke.
“You’re the team leader? Some baby-faced kid is the team leader?”
“The regular team leader is absent, so I’m acting temporarily. So what’s the issue?”
“I already explained it to that bitch over there. I don’t want to repeat myself.”
The man pointed at Jin-sol.
She forced a faint smile despite her pale face.
Then she briefly summarized the complaint.
“You had a vegetable garden in Gangseo Hangang Park, and yesterday’s gate runaway destroyed it, so you want it restored and compensated. Is that correct?”
“Yeah, exactly. See, someone at team-leader level actually understands.”
“And you thought that made sense when you came here?”
“…What?”
The man looked stunned, as if he’d been hit from behind.
“J-Jin-young ssi…”
Jin-sol jumped in surprise and tried to intervene, but the water was already spilled.
“I asked if you think that makes sense.”
“Y-you… did you just talk down to me? Do you even know who I am?”
“Who else would you be but some loudmouthed nuisance spouting bullshit?”
“You—you little shit, what’s your name? 9th Grade Chae Jin-young? A measly 9th Grade dares touch me—you’re going to regret this.”
The man suddenly pulled a smartphone from his pocket.
Just as he was about to press a button to make a call—
CRACK!
The phone suddenly folded in half like a flip phone.
“W-what the—? What’s wrong with this thing?”
Panicking, the man repeatedly opened and closed the broken device.
Then he pointed accusingly at Jin-young.
“You… it was you! A hunter using abilities on a civilian? You trying to go to jail!?”
“What did I do?”
Jin-young shrugged innocently.
The man, eyes rolling in fury, lunged at him—
“Huh?”
—but tripped over his own feet and crashed face-first onto the floor with a loud thud.
“Argh! Ow, I’m dying! A hunter’s trying to kill a civilian!”
“Shut your mouth before I make you wear dentures.”
“…”
At Jin-young’s words, the man’s mouth snapped shut as if by magic.
Just the atmosphere alone achieving that—
Jin-sol, watching the middle-aged complainant suddenly stop screaming, couldn’t help but admire Jin-young’s presence.
Completely unaware that psychokinesis had forcibly sealed the man’s lips.
“What’s going on here?”
A civil servant from a neighboring department rushed over at the sudden commotion.
She alternated glances between the complainant sprawled on the floor and Jin-young standing before him.
“Excuse me, Chae Jin-young. No matter how angry the complainant makes you, how could you use force? This won’t end with just a simple disciplinary action…”
“Which department are you from, and who are you?”
“What the—? I’m Lee Ju-hee from the Complaints Administration Team. Don’t you remember?”
“Officer Lee Ju-hee. Isn’t this your team’s responsibility? Are you looking down on the Awakened Support Team right now?”
“Huh? What are you suddenly…”
“Shouldn’t your side have rejected him and sent him away in the first place? Does it make sense that someone you couldn’t handle ended up here?”
Lee Ju-hee blinked rapidly at Jin-young’s transformed demeanor.
The image she had of him was always slumped, lacking confidence, practically invisible.
The punching bag constantly harassed by Team Leader Kim Young-jae.
A sudden thought crossed her mind.
‘With Kim Young-jae gone, has he gotten full of himself?’
She decided she needed to step in and put him back in his place.
“Look here, Chae Jin-young. We listened to the complaint and handed it to the closest department. Why are you talking like we didn’t do our job? Do you think volume makes you right?”
“A proper complaint should be passed on—something worth handling. Isn’t this just you dumping trash because you couldn’t control the complainant?”
“What did you say?”
“If something like this happens again, I won’t be responsible for what I do. Being a civil servant means you can’t get fired, right? Same for me.”
“Are you threatening me right now…?”
Lee Ju-hee was about to press him further when she suddenly closed her mouth.
The moment her eyes met Jin-young’s, an instinctive aversion surged through her.
‘He barely survived death—has he lost all fear?’
As the saying goes, dealing with a madman only brings loss.
Swallowing her anger, Lee Ju-hee turned sharply and walked away.
Watching her leave, Jin-sol approached cautiously and whispered.
“Mr. Jin-young, that was incredibly satisfying… but I’m a little worried. Handling the aftermath won’t be easy.”
“I didn’t kill a complainant with my ability or anything. It’ll be fine.”
“Still…”
Jin-sol was convinced yet couldn’t fully understand.
The complainant’s phone had clearly broken on its own, and he had tripped over nothing.
But dismissing it as coincidence felt too convenient.
Jin-young turned to the youngest member of the support team.
“9th Grade Shin Ji-ho, kindly escort this gentleman out.”
“Huh? Y-yes, sir.”
Shin Ji-ho, who had been dazed, hurried over and tried to lead the complainant away.
At that moment,
Three civil-service hunters in black suits appeared in front of the support team.
They were the Investigation Team from the same district office’s Awakened Department.
Their duties included surveying gate occurrence areas and monitoring monster activity in contaminated zones.
But their primary role was investigating crimes committed by hunters.
Being in the same building meant they arrived quickly.
“9th Grade Chae Jin-young. We received a report that you used your ability on a civilian.”
“Do you have evidence?”
“Pardon…?”
“I asked if you have evidence. Can’t you tell by checking for mana traces here?”
At Jin-young’s words, the investigators exchanged glances and scanned the scene.
No matter how thoroughly they searched, no mana traces were found.
“And my unique ability is Subspace Storage—what other ability are you claiming I used? Shouldn’t the Investigation Team know at least that much as basic information?”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
“The rest of you can go back. I’ll handle this.”
The highest-ranking among the three stepped forward.
The Investigation Team Leader.
“9th Grade Chae Jin-young. Regardless of whether a crime occurred, a report was filed, and since the victim is a civilian, this won’t just end here. A higher authority might visit for a precise forensic examination. Before that, it would be best to reach an amicable settlement with the victim…”
“Which higher authority are you referring to?”
“Huh? Obviously the Intelligence Department. They’re the ones who can detect even invisible traces.”
The team leader answered as if it were obvious.
Jin-young nodded.
“Then tell them to come.”
“Pardon?”
“The Intelligence Department. Tell them to come in person and conduct whatever precise examination they want.”