EP.69
[ Senior. Come down to the first floor. ]
Hyungseok’s sudden text.
‘What? Why? All of a sudden?’
“What’s going on?”
It was rare for him to ask me to come out like this.
“Ha… I really didn’t want it to come to this…”
He was standing with a hand on his waist, waiting for me, looking quite frustrated.
“You’re so hopeless, Senior.”
He clicked his tongue.
“Why? Me. What?”
“Come here.”
He led me to a café.
There, I found S-Rank Hunter Lee Yeji.
‘Huh? What? Why? What’s going on?’
I didn’t exactly know what abilities she possessed, but I recognized her face well.
I only vaguely knew her name.
She wasn’t exactly a highly active S-Rank Hunter.
Though she was surely an S-Rank Hunter and somewhat well-known, she still gave off an aura of quietly living her life.
“What’s this? Why? What’s going on right now?”
I was completely puzzled as Hyungseok practically dragged me along.
“Ha. Just sit here for a second.”
He continued to look immensely frustrated.
“Okay. You know Hunter Lee Yeji, right?”
“Hello.”
Hunter Lee Yeji bowed slightly as she greeted me.
“Ah… Hello.”
I had no choice but to awkwardly shrink back and greet her.
I could only speak in a whisper.
“Hey, what’s this? You know Hunter Lee Yeji too? Did you bring her here?”
“Yeah.”
“How? An S-Rank Hunter?”
“Oh, I have a bit of a wide network in the Hunter industry.”
“Wow. You can invite an S-Rank Hunter like this, but can’t charm any women?”
“Doing my job well and that is a bit different.”
His expression was quite confident.
“Hey. But seriously, what’s this all about?”
“Ha. I brought her here because you’re being such an idiot.”
“What?”
I couldn’t help but be offended.
“This is Hunter Lee Yeji; she can remove effects that other Hunters have inflicted.”
“?”
I had no choice but to look back and forth between Lee Yeji and Hyungseok.
“Ha. So, I think the weird way you’ve been acting is likely because of Hunter Chae Suhyeon.”
“Umm…”
“And I wanted to confirm that. Hunter Lee Yeji, could you take a look?”
It seemed she was rummaging through something.
“Um… It looks quite serious, doesn’t it?”
Her expression shifted.
“Yes?”
“How have you been living like this?”
She nodded her head, looking utterly perplexed.
“Why?”
“Severe deterioration of intelligence, severe decline in judgment, and your naivety and gullibility have increased…”
She rattled off the list.
“Are you talking about me?”
“Ha…”
Hyungseok rubbed his forehead.
“You’ve lived like this? Until now? Why? How? What happened here?”
Hunter Lee Yeji had a completely bewildered expression.
“It seems like you were nearly a slave…?”
‘Well, that’s not entirely wrong.’
“Hmm… It looks like I’ll need to spend quite a few points to sort this out.”
She appeared to be deep in thought.
“Um… the caster is… indeed Hunter Chae Suhyeon… and the intensity of the enchantment is still about 92% remaining… I assume you haven’t been around her lately?”
“Yeah.”
It felt like I had come to a fortune-teller’s house, getting my fortune read.
She seemed to instantly grasp what was going on.
‘What? Can Hunter Lee Yeji see the status windows of others too?’
For some reason, I felt delighted to meet someone similar to me.
“Hmm… I can’t believe Hunter Chae Suhyeon would do something like this… This is serious.”
She frowned deeply.
Then she looked at Hyungseok, her expression worried.
“Um, Hunter Lee Yeji, can this all be resolved?”
“Of course.”
Her smile after Hyungseok’s words was bright.
“Baek Jihoon Hunter? This is quite serious. Your judgment seems to be low right now. You probably shouldn’t go near Hunter Chae Suhyeon again… How could someone end up like this…”
She bit her lip, her voice filled with concern.
“From what I can see, you’re nearly at the level of a rag doll. It’s the first time I’ve seen someone cast such a range of negative effects on someone else.”
“Um… is it really that serious?”
“Yes.”
Her voice was very definitive.
“Is this what you usually do?”
“To be precise, I can remove or amplify the effects caused by other Hunters. Well… It’s not a particularly flashy ability, so I’m not very well-known for it.”
She smiled slightly bitterly.
“Senior, I’m going to completely eradicate this today. Phew. Hunter Chae Suhyeon is way more serious than I expected. This is the first time I’ve heard Hunter Lee Yeji speak like this.”
Hyungseok shook his head.
“Yeah…?”
“I’ll handle this quickly. It seems like you’ve been carrying a heavy burden for quite some time.”
She began to touch various parts of the status window.
*
“Hey~ Baek Jihoon, where have you been?”
Manager Cha greeted me with a wave.
“I just went to the first-floor lobby.”
Earlier, I had experienced Lee Yeji’s effect that allowed me to break free from Chae Suhyeon completely.
I was strenuously suppressing the remaining anger I had towards Chae Suhyeon, but now I had no reason to do so.
It felt like I was completely liberated.
What a relief it was.
‘Ha… So, all those things were caused by Chae Suhyeon? What a damned bitch?’
An even stronger anger welled up inside me.
I couldn’t help but harden my expression.
“Um, Jihoon, you look a little different. Did something happen? You seem like a different person.”
Manager Cha was surveying me with a somewhat perplexed expression.
“Yeah, it has changed a bit.”
I sat down in my chair and began to focus on my tasks.
Of course, I wasn’t concentrating on them right away.
‘Ha. That bitch has been messing with me this whole time…? How do I handle this?’
All my nerves were now focused on getting back at Chae Suhyeon.
I suddenly realized how absurdly I had been living.
“Hey, Jihoon. Could you come to my office for a moment?”
“Yes.”
It was Lee Sooah calling for me.
*
“Um… Jihoon? You know, I think we have reasons to get closer.”
“And so?”
I spoke a bit more stiffly.
“Um…”
Lee Sooah looked flustered.
It seemed she was struggling to adapt to my sudden change.
“Um, Jihoon, is something bothering you? Was I too rude? I’m really sorry.”
Her tone slightly shifted.
It felt like she was becoming increasingly humble.
“Then… I’ll just talk for today…”
“Sure.”
*
“Oh, is it already over? I thought you were going to have a long talk with Hunter Lee Sooah?”
Manager Cha looked confused.
He seemed to be quite perceptive, reacting sensitively to my transformed demeanor.
“Yeah, she didn’t say much.”
*
“What’s going on?”
Lee Sooah sat at her desk with a blank expression.
She had called for Baek Jihoon with cheerful anticipation, but something felt off.
It was as if I had become someone entirely different.
‘Um… Why? Suddenly? Huh?’
She looked quite confused.
‘Was that the real him? Perhaps he was just pretending to be weak all this time…?’
‘Um…’
‘This is actually better!’
Despite tilting her head with an expression that suggested she found something odd, she began to smile cheerfully.
“Later at quitting time~ we should go together~”
Lee Sooah started humming as she focused on her work.
*
“Hmm…”
Chae Suhyeon appeared to be deep in thought.
She kept tapping the desk with her pen, wearing a serious expression.
‘Ha… Jihoon oppa… what should I do? Ha… sigh…’
Then she opened her status window.
‘Hmm… Is there nothing I can do with the remaining enchantment… Did I speak too irritably? Is that why the enchantment doesn’t work…?’
She started fiddling with the status window.
“Wait?????”
Suddenly startled, she jumped up from her chair.
Her chair nearly toppled over.
“What? Why? How come?”
She couldn’t close her mouth.
The status window showed Baek Jihoon’s enchantment level had dropped to zero.
“Why? It was clearly 92%! What? What’s going on? Why? What? What is it? Huh??”
She was in such disbelief that she kept touching and looking around the status window in a frenzy.
“Huh? Did the status window malfunction? Why suddenly drop from the 90s to zero? What’s going on…?”
Her face became rigid with a very perplexed expression.
It seemed she was profoundly shocked that what she thought was her glimmer of hope had vanished.
Thud.
She sat down heavily as if the world had collapsed around her.
‘Ah… What the hell? What is this? Is the status window crazy? Why suddenly?’
Her face contorted seriously.
But there was nothing she could currently do.
‘What should I do?’
‘Jihoon oppa…’
‘This is a big deal…’
Various thoughts about Baek Jihoon began to bubble up inside her.
To be continued.
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