VSP 142

The weather now feels perfectly natural to call autumn. As the street trees shed their leaves one by one, Lee Dohun yawned while driving, watching leaves fell on the windshield.

“Ha… I’m tired.”

He rubbed his eyes roughly, he was genuinely exhausted.

It had already been a week since his usually comfortable sleep pattern had gone haywire.

He wasn’t particularly stressed, yet he had lost his appetite along with it.

The problem was, if you asked him why, he didn’t know himself.

He just felt restlessness. It was a bit strange that something so minor could mess up his sleep pattern and leave him tired every day.

What was wrong?

The world was peaceful enough, with no apparent problems.

‘Are you worried about something lately? The kid who always used to eat two bowls of rice now only eats one.’

His condition must have been pretty obvious, because at a recent family gathering, relatives he hadn’t seen in ages playfully worried about him, asking if he was sick or had something on his mind since he wasn’t eating like he usually did.

Everyone else was ordinary, none of them even realized there was a problem. Seeing their peaceful faces, Dohun couldn’t bring himself to say anything.

It was just him feeling this way and losing his appetite for no reason. Better not mention this.

‘Ah, what do you take me for, a pig?’

He responded to the joke with a joke, but he was inwardly serious.

Am I the weird one? Am I the only one thinking this?

Could it be that because he’s an S-rank hunter, he’s feeling ‘something’ this keenly? If that’s the case…

He was agonizing over who to ask when Ryu Sehyun’s message arrived. Hearing that all S-rank hunters were being summoned for some announcement, he decided he’d ask that day.

But wait, has there been anything worth a meeting recently?

‘What? What? Another meeting?’

Dohun’s younger brother, sitting next to him, was so curious about what was going on that he tried to sneak a peek at Dohun’s phone screen. He started pestering him when he spotted the word ‘meeting.’

This kid had always been unusually curious about Dohun’s work, or more precisely, the lives of high-ranking hunters, and couldn’t help but butt into Dohun’s affairs whenever he got the chance.

“Lee Dohyun, get lost.”

True to the typical dynamic of ordinary brothers in Korea, Dohun dismissed his bothersome younger brother.

“Ah, damn it, you’re so heartless. Let me see it too!”

“What do you need to see it for?”

Dohun snorted derisively.

Anyway, no one in this family except Dohun has awakened. Dohyun made a sour face at the underlying thought that what good would it do for an ordinary person to care?

‘Ah, come on, I’m just curious!’

‘Yeah, right. Why don’t you focus on your own grades?’

At the mention of grades, he glanced nervously at their mother and nudged Dohun’s side. Knowing his brother’s grades well, Dohun’s jab made Dohyun hastily change the subject.

‘Hyung.’

‘What?’

‘You know that guy, Seo Sejun?’

Though meant to divert attention, the unexpected name made Dohun flinch. Unaware, Dohyun continued.

‘Hyung, you went on a mission with Seo Sejun last time, right?’

He was referring to the Taesong Department Store incident. Dohun nodded.

‘Why do you ask?’

‘Seo Sejun’s been all over the news lately, with people arguing if he’s gotten stronger or not. What do you think, hyung? Is he stronger than Jeong Siwoo or Choi Hangyeol?’

Dohun frowned and turned to look at his younger brother. He saw a face so annoyingly similar to his own.

Lee Dohyun, Dohun’s younger brother, had been putting off enlistment until now, at twenty-three, thinking he might awaken like his older brother.

It was absurd, but the Ministry of National Defense had offered him a deferment first, and the person who had accepted it without hesitation was still a bit immature.

Lee Dohun himself wasn’t exactly the type to be praised for being mature or grown-up, but his brother was even worse.

Even though he hadn’t actually awakened, he was so pleased with the special treatment the country gave him that he bragged about his older brother to everyone around him. He even subtly acted like he had awakened as a hunter himself.

Dohun never paid it much mind since it didn’t directly harm him, but this was different.

This wasn’t some cartoonish argument about whether Character A or B was stronger. Dohun sighed.

Even if S-rank hunters are somewhat idolized and treated like heroes, who’s stronger, Superman or Ultraman? To the same question, with the same playful tone, Lee Dohun was always the one fighting on the front lines.

No one wants their work trivialized.

His younger brother waved his hands, misinterpreting Dohun’s sigh.

‘Ah, I know you hate Seo Sejun, hyung. I’m just curious. Everyone knows you’re my brother, so they keep asking me.’

He was proud of having such a talented S-rank hunter as a brother.

Regardless of the situation, the question was worth considering.

How strong is Sejun now?

It had actually been a topic of discussion since the Taesong Department Store incident. The issue of Seo Sejun’s strength resurfaced again after recent the incident where people got trapped in a dungeon.

It was common knowledge that Sejun was a half-baked hunter, unable to use his full power due to mana shortage.

But looking at it another way, that meant Seo Sejun was strong as long as his mana kept up.

The Taesong Department Store incident, which became an unintended live stream, broadcast Seo Sejun clearing a S-rank dungeon solo, and such controversies were commonplace lately.

So, is Seo Sejun strong? That sort of thing.

But whether Seo Sejun was strong or weak, what annoyed Lee Dohun in that moment wasn’t that issue.

‘Hey’

‘Huh?’

‘Since when do you get to call Sejun ‘that guy’ or ‘Seo Sejun’?’

‘...What?’

Caught off guard, his brother asked, then realized what Dohun meant and asked again.

“Then what should I call him?”

“Seo Sejun-ssi, or Sejun-hyung.”

‘Are you sick, hyung? You don’t call him that either!’

That’s true.

He reflexively agreed, but Dohun couldn’t help feeling annoyed.

‘Anyway, cut the crap and study. If you hate it, just join the army.’

‘Ah, hyung!’

‘You’re not awakening, as far as I can tell.’

His younger brother was on the verge of sulking, but since he was still his little brother, Dohun couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt. He sighed and slipped a few yellow bills into his brother’s pocket without their parents noticing. His brother immediately cheered, “Hyung, you’re the best!” as if he’d never been upset.

People think being a hunter is easy. After all, in this world, articles highlighting how amazing domestic S-rank hunters are get more clicks than news reports about casualties in some dungeon, seen through the TV screen from the comfort of a cool or warm home.

Even families of hunters think this way, so it wasn’t surprising that those without hunters compared them like heroes, ranking who was weaker or stronger.

Is Sejun strong?

Dohun couldn’t say for sure.

He’d rewatched the Taesong Department Store incident footage countless times. The more he saw it, the clearer Hoya’s strength became. He’d always thought Hoya was powerful, but that day was different.

That day, Sejun embodied an S-rank hunter. If you only considered Hoya, you could believe he was an EX-rank hunter.

Especially when he finished off the boss at the end, that sight was…

It would have been better if he hadn’t passed out at the end, but even without that, Sejun was strong enough that day.

But as a fellow hunter, Lee Dohun also knew. Sejun didn’t originally possess that much mana.

How did he compensate for that mana shortage? How much did his mana increase?

Without knowing that, it was hard to say exactly how much stronger Sejun had become.

But fundamentally, as a summoner, his physical abilities were only slightly better than Jeong Siwoo’s. His biggest problem was that he became completely helpless, to the point of being fatal, if his summoned beast, Hoya, was counter-summoned.

Therefore, if he had a companion who could compensate for that weakness by his side, Sejun could be considered strong.

For instance… someone like me.

“Fuck.”

Lee Dohun was startled by the sudden thought and, without meaning to, honked the horn. He was surprised he hadn’t slammed on the brakes.

Why did thought of that?

Feeling a sudden dizzying sensation, Dohun roughly swept his bangs back.

The thought of something bad was beginning to cross his mind, but he deliberately suppressed it, as he had done ever since he first became conscious of it.

Because otherwise, he really would have gone mad.

No, maybe he already was crazy. Fuck, after everything, and not just anyone, but Sejun… Lee Dohun, you fucking lunatic. Just die.

Saying “die” didn’t actually make him die. He was one of the S-rank hunters particularly gifted in physical prowess, so even while his mind was elsewhere, he drove flawlessly and arrived at the Association.

He parked the car, entered the main building, and still tried desperately to clear his mind. Sejun would be at the meeting today too, and in this state, he didn’t know what kind of stupid thing he might do if he saw him.