novelraw Chapter 101
Chapter 101
Chapter 101
There are a lot of reasons I do not really like tournaments.
One of them is that the older a tournament gets, the harder it is for it to run properly.
Especially when one team or one country has overwhelming influence.
“Bribes go back and forth just enough, they give a little help to people they know.”
We grow together by pushing and pulling our connections.
You ask why anyone needs to hand out bribes and play the acquaintance card when we are just going to pick up weapons and fight anyway.
In principle, contestants in this sort of tournament are not supposed to know who they will face. But if you lean on your network and add enough money on top, you can find out plenty of things you are not meant to know.
This mostly happens among Korean Hunters.
Most Hunter companies are based in Korea to begin with, and the main host country that leads this tournament is always Korea.
— Of course Hunter Yoo Chan-seok’s ability is already well known, but this is still a tournament where rookies from all over the world, the ones who really stand out, participate. It is better to have things nailed down clearly, you know how the world is.
“Yes, I will think about it and get back to you.”
That is why I keep getting messages and calls like this.
— If you just sit and think, you might miss your chance. Opportunities like this do not come often.
“I said I will think about it and get back to you.”
Why is this guy so clingy, it is annoying. On the other side of the smartphone I can feel him trying to keep the conversation going.
“Hey, you bastard, you know perfectly well what I am saying, so why do you keep going? Shut your mouth and end the call.”
As soon as I finished, I hung up.
It seems we are living in an era where polite words simply cannot get you what you want.
I tossed my phone onto the sofa and turned my gaze to the window. Han Sang-ah sat on the window frame, staring blankly down.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m sitting on the window frame.”
“I have eyes too.”
At my words, Han Sang-ah nodded.
“I never implied you were blind.”
I was not sure this counted as a conversation. I started up the capsule coffee machine in the room and said,
“Anyway, how is the Association reacting?”
“They say they will investigate, but seeing how they have taken no concrete action for three days, it looks like they are not interested.”
I took a sip of coffee and nodded. I figured they would respond like that. What I had asked Han Sang-ah to pass on to the Association was simple.
The previous Sohwi incident.
There is no guarantee the same thing will not happen at this tournament.
If you want a loan from a bank, the process is complicated. Borrowing from a loan shark or a street collector is simple. And simple loans are that much more dangerous.
“It is not like I told the Association President because I actually expected them to do something proper.”
I have been stabbed in the back so many times that I live without expecting much from people.
There are two possible reasons they are taking no real action.
“Either the Association thinks this is no big deal, or they have some shady part tangled up in it themselves.”
“It is strange for them to think it is no big deal. Seoul took damage because of Sohwi. People usually die in many different ways, but casualties from those monsters have been rare for years.”
The Association is probably tangled up with the Korean government to some degree anyway.
“You cannot tell which one has the leash on the other, the government or the Association. But one of them is basically acting as the other’s mouthpiece.”
At my words, Han Sang-ah tilted her head and answered,
“They can be business partners.”
“That concept exists in the world, but it does not actually exist.”
Business partners, my ass. In reality, people smile and shake hands while looking for a chance to swallow the other whole. That is how people on this planet live.
A relationship where they profit together? When you can get far greater profit by devouring the other side the moment they show an opening, what kind of idiot refuses that and insists on maintaining this so-called business partnership.
The relationship between the Association and the government is probably similar.
“Even if it is not like one side is already completely the other’s mouthpiece, there is still a hierarchy between the two.”
“So what is the problem?”
“Which means we cannot yet be sure whose hounds the Descendants of Dangun are.”
Are they the hounds turned loose by the Hunter Association, or the hounds turned loose by the government.
“For now it does not seem like an urgent issue.”
What Han Sang-ah said was true too. But even if it was not urgent, that did not mean I could just ignore it forever.
It was a question I needed to keep in the back of my mind.
“Pick up your sword.”
“Okay.”
At my words, Han Sang-ah immediately took her sword in hand. I gripped the spear I had rented from Miracle Junk Shop and stood in front of her.
“With your level, you can definitely make the list.”
“Yeah.”
She nodded. The talent she had from the start had now grown wings in the form of skill. She had enough real combat experience to match that skill.
The same went for Jung Oh-hoon. I could not be certain, but both of them could probably become Hunters who ranked comfortably within the top twenty.
“We went around talking big about taking down first-class Erosion Cores.”
If that was our talk, then the three of us all needed to be Hunters who ranked in that top twenty. That would make the picture look good.
“We have to live up to expectations.”
Right now the three of us in the Headhunter team were at the peak of our popularity. We were swatting away all sorts of offers that kept pouring in without a break.
“We have a lot of enemies.”
To be precise, we had a lot of potential enemies. The only ones openly at odds with us for now were the Descendants of Dangun, but depending on how things unfolded, there were countless organizations that could become enemies.
What stopped those potential enemies from turning into actual enemies was our reputation and our strength.
“Let’s absolutely win this.”
When I said that, Han Sang-ah raised her sword and took her stance.
“You feel confident enough to beat Choi Yeoreum?”
“I’ll only find out when I fight her.”
The instant my words ended, her body floated a little off the ground. She formed a magnetic field under her feet.
“You do this pretty well now. You kept training it.”
If she moved like that, she was fast. But that meant she usually had to choose one of two options.
Either let the opponent see the path she would take in advance, or lay a magnetic rail over the entire area.
The first was too dangerous. The second wasted too much mana.
“I put in the time and effort.”
But now Han Sang-ah could control her mana skillfully. If she used mana that was under her strict control, she could lay magnetic rails without letting the opponent know where she would move.
“So, can you see where I am going to move?”
“I’m an exception.”
I traced a line in the air with my spear. It overlapped exactly with the path of the hidden magnetic rail she had laid with such care.
Her expression immediately darkened.
“Keep working on it.”
Instead of answering, she dropped lightly back to the floor with a thud. If the opponent knew her movement route, riding the rails was nothing but a waste of mana.
Sword in hand, she kicked off the ground and rushed at me, swinging down. The electric force she poured into the blade sliced the air around me with a vicious crackle.
“Still, among the opponents you will face, I doubt any of them will notice those magnetic rails ahead of time.”
“But you do.”
While I blocked the flurry of attacks, I smashed the butt of the spear into her stomach and sent her flying.
“If you are going to move that wildly just because you got a little annoyed, you should go back and get some sleep.”
After rolling on the floor a few times, she got up and settled her breathing again. We continued our exchange for another thirty minutes or so, then stopped sparring.
“I can do more.”
“Control your condition.”
There was not much time left until the tournament. This was not a sudden fight or a war, it was a scheduled match. We had to prepare what we could and keep our bodies in the best possible shape.
“It is not a battle or a war after all.”
This was just a sport. People hardly ever died, and the goal was not to kill the opponent, it was to win.
And this was the method, like some kind of sport, they used to measure the ability of people who risked their lives fighting monsters.
“What about Oh-hoon?”
“Not sure, he went to practice shooting last night, I think.”
Last night?. I should go fetch him too.
Both Han Sang-ah and Jung Oh-hoon were full of drive. It was good that these young ones were nervous before something big and working hard, but I did feel the need to rein them in a bit.
When I went down to the shooting range, a sea of brass casings rolling on the floor greeted me first.
“Good grief.”
Just how many bullets had he fired. I watched him for a moment, then said,
“Mr. Jung, stop there and take a break.”
At my words, Jung Oh-hoon set his gun down. I nudged some casings with the tip of my shoe and spoke.
The dark circles under his eyes were heavy.
“Maybe I pushed a bit too hard?”
“A bit? Do not give me that. Get your act together before I knock you out from behind.”
These were the guys who had not even been that tense heading for Jaun Valley. I could not understand why they were so wound up over a single tournament.
“Chan-seok, this is not nothing. Getting your name on the List of Hope is huge. Even if you do not make it, just having tried changes how people see you.”
Slumping down, he wiped the sweat from his forehead, examined his hands, then wrapped a bandage around the raw spots.
“Damn it, it would be weirder not to be nervous.”
“This isn’t as great as you think.”
At my flat statement, he replied quietly,
“Sorry, I just cannot think like you.”
He did not have to. I could understand that they saw this tournament as something heavy and important.
For Han Sang-ah and Jung Oh-hoon, the pressure of the tournament in front of them seemed pretty intense.
“I get that you are tense, but if you wreck your body over it, that is just stupid.”
He answered,
“I cannot sleep. Damn it, I cannot sleep.”
So this one was more on edge than Han Sang-ah. I clicked my tongue and used Paradoxical Flame on him, burning away his fatigue and other junk.
“Go get something to eat. If you have no appetite, forget it.”
If he ended up with a stomach bug right before the tournament and ruined his results, he would be too frustrated to sleep at all.
“Do you know why I am this nervous?”
As we walked out, he asked, and I answered simply,
“How would I know. I am not even curious.”
Why he was nervous, why he wanted to make so much money. Honestly, I was not that interested. People had countless reasons and goals in life.
I did not care. We were not going to understand each other anyway. Only one thing mattered.
“Even if our goals and reasons are different, we are together for now.”
For now we were on the same road. In time, that might change.
Not every passenger on a train from Seoul to Busan had Busan as their final destination. Some would transfer to Gwangju, some would get off in Daejeon.
You go together for a while, then part ways when the time comes. You stay together until you reach the fork, then you separate.
“You said you need money, right? When you reach your goal, you can quit whenever you want.”
It was not like I was maintaining this relationship under the illusion we would travel together for life.
As I left the shooting range, I gave Jung Oh-hoon a nod.