Chapter 42

Metro Tower, piercing the skies…

The Association was in charge of managing hunters at that iconic location in Metro City.

‘…So this is Metro Tower.’

Shin YuSung entered the building, wearing his Gaon Academy uniform. A woman who was waiting in the lobby for him waved her hand at her.

“Hey! Over here!”

—Exuberant laughter.

The woman was wearing neat, interview-style formal attire. She greeted Shin YuSung kindly.

“Wow~ so you’re patrolling the city, even at your age. I bet you have good grades, huh? Marvelous! Oh, right, I should introduce myself first!:

The woman stopped her excited rambling to point at her nametag.

[Rank 3 Hunter Yu AeRi]

She was a rather skilled hunter from the Hunter Association who could defeat a rank 3 boss monster on her own.

“I’m Shin YuSung, the one who accepted the request.”

Yu AeRi smiled at his formal greeting.

“This isn’t some sort of stuffy event; it’s your extracurricular activity. There’s no need to address me in such a stiff manner. Loosen up~ just call me noona*.”

She looked at Shin YuSung with a worried expression on her face.

“…But I’m kind of worried about leaving this job to students. You’re just too~ adorable. What if a villain appears and decides to snatch you up?”

Her thoughts were all over the place. Shin YuSung was skilled enough to have already defeated rank 4 monsters, despite his age. He was much stronger than Yu AeRi, an Association hunter.

However, she didn’t know this and kept chattering excitedly.

“If you’re really~ scared, how about I stick close to you? I know I don’t look like much, but I can easily take care of a rank 3 boss monster on my own.”

To Yu AeRi, ignoring the stuffy mission assigned to them, Shin YuSung was her precious new junior. He was like a newly-sprouted plant from the ground. She treated him in a very friendly manner as a result.

‘…A rank 3 boss?’

But Shin YuSUng was puzzled by her words, which were completely different from what the Fist King had told him.

[At the Hunter Association, YuSung-ah, you aren’t one worth your salt unless you can defeat at least a rank 5 boss by yourself! ]

In front of him, Yu AeRi was recounting her tales against a mere rank 3 boss.

‘As I thought…Master’s standards are…’

Yu AeRi clapped her hands loudly just as Shin YuSung was beginning to lose himself in his thoughts regarding the Fist King.

“Oh, right! You’re a Gaon student, that means you’ve defeated monsters during your exams, right? Which one was the highest rank one you defeated? Rank 2? Gasp, maybe rank 3?” she asked, curiosity written on her face.

Shin YuSung kept his reply short.

“A rank 4 boss.”

“…Huh?”

Yu AeRi was bewildered by the completely unexpected answer.

“Rank 4? A-are you messing with me?” she asked, stuttering.

Shin YuSung smiled shakily. She looked up his name on her Pocket.

Voom!

His various achievements showed up on the hologram. Among those were records of him defeating the rank 4 bosses, the Dullahan and the lich.

“Uh, uh…”

Yu AeRi stared at the hologram blankly. Then, she began to mumble in a quiet voice, face bright red.

“Urk, forget everything I just said…”

* * *

* * *

The reception area of Metro Tower…

Yu AeRi had just concluded her 10-minute lesson on patrolling and began to talk to Shin YuSung in a much calmer manner than before.

“…Seriously, forget my behavior from earlier. I think I got too worked up because I hadn’t met any students in a long time.”

The boy gave her a faint smile in lieu of an answer. Yu AeRi made a conflicted face.

“…You’re telling me that someone this adorable won against a rank 4 boss? You really can’t judge a book by its cover.”

“Is the lesson over?”

“Yeah, feel free to leave. Tell your late partner the details.”

Shin YuSung slowly walked himself to the outside of Metro Tower.

As expected, there was a high-end limousine waiting at the entrance of the building.

Beep beep!

The limousine honked its horn to catch his attention.

Sliiide!

The limousine door did not open outwards, but instead swung upwards. In the limo was Kim EunAh, who was accompanying him for patrol duty.

‘…So you were waiting for me.’

Her attitude was rather irreverent, as she had skipped out on the lesson, but Kim EunAh was the beloved granddaughter of the Shinsung group’s president.

There was no need to make a fuss about it, though, considering how influential the Shinsung group was as Korea’s greatest enterprise.

“Yo~”

Kim EunAh lifted her palm towards Shin YuSung. Her legs were crossed over each other in an unseemly manner.

“All done?”

Shin YuSung nodded instead of answering her, to which she indicated to the seat in front of her with her chin.

But Shin YuSung only quietly stared at her.

—A beat.

Kim EunAh scrunched up her forehead, as if annoyed with the whole thing.

“What are you doing? Get in.”

Kim EunAh usually didn’t walk anywhere, even if it was a hair’s breadth away. No, it wasn’t limited to walking. Aside from her school activities, her bodyguard and secretary did all of her work and chores for her. She truly was the modern princess.

‘A completely different class from mine.’

Shin YuSung, who had been raised on Martial Spirits’ Mountain as an orphaned child, was living in a different world from her.

“Young Miss. We will be departing.”

The bodyguard in their twenties said, glancing their way. Kim EunAh nodded, used to the form of address.

“Okay. Let’s leave, quickly.”

Vroom–!

At her permission, the driver started up the engine of the limousine. It was the sort of high-end vehicle that didn’t shake, even at high speeds.

“…Hm.”

Kim EunAh crossed her arms and glanced towards Shin YuSUng in a haughty manner. Then, she began to talk to him.

“Hey, you’re participating in the Representative Selection, right?” she asked. She seemed interested.

“Yes, that’s correct.”

His first goal was the Selection.

Then it was the International Competition.

The process so far, to Shin YuSung, was just like climbing a set of stairs.

The Selections were a step that he had to climb over to reach the top, where he would become the strongest hunter in the world.

Kim EunAh began to mutter to herself at his reply.

“Then you’ll be pitted against Adela, huh? Hah, a fight between an F-rank and an S-rank…”

First in the student rankings…

Adela Ortensia.

Shin YuSung had heard her name enough to make his ears fall off ever since he had been enrolled in Gaon. However, he had never personally gauged her skill even once.

‘…First place in Gaon.’

If one was first place in Gaon Academy, it meant that they were first place in Korea. Shin YuSung was curious about Adela’s skills.

‘Come to think of it…’

His gaze turned towards Kim EunAh. Despite her personality, she was a skilled hunter who was ranked second in the student rankings.

“Do you have some time after your extracurriculars?”

Kim EunAh paused at his question. She mulled over his words slowly, finally coming to a conclusion and keeping the smile threatening to stretch across her mouth at bay.

“Hah~ man, this always happens. It’s such an issue.”

Kim EunAh looked excited by Shin YuSung’s query.

“Sure. I already know what you’re going to say, but I’ll hear you out. Why are you asking for my time?”

She asked him excitedly, words dripping with arrogance. Shin YuSung gave her a succinct reply.

“Spar with me.”

“…Huh?”

Kim EunAh froze up. It seemed like his response was much different than the one she anticipated from him.

“…Y-you want to fight me? So suddenly?”

Her reaction showed surprise at his words.

But Shin YuSung continued to show his sincerity.

“I want to check the strength of the rankers before I participate in the Selection.”

Kim EunAh swallowed as his eyes bored into hers.

‘A spar… out of nowhere? I won’t lose to an F-rank, sure, but…’

Kim EunAh scanned his body once again. His muscles were incredibly well-built.

‘He looks like someone who fights with his physical abilities. I can also feel a lot of mana coming from him…’

He was completely incompatible with Kim EunAh, who couldn’t fine-tune her control over her electricity. Shin YuSung, in her eyes, seemed way too strong for an F-rank.

‘He’s already third in the rankings, too…’

Kim EunAh looked composed on the outside, but her back was drenched in a cold sweat, and her brain was running around in circles.

What if, just what if…

What would happen in the absolutely minuscule chance—as minuscule a chance as lightning striking you on a clear day—that she lost to him?

As her thoughts reached that point, Kim EunAh turned her head towards the window to evade his gaze.

‘…Shit, wh-what should I do? Should I just fight him?’

Kim EunAh’s strong confidence prevented her from admitting to herself that she was scared. After mulling over it for a while, she managed to come up with a good reason as to why she couldn’t spar with him.

“Hey, what’s on the schedule after extracurriculars are done?” she said to her bodyguard, prompting Shin YuSung to listen in.

“It’s Metro Hospital.”

“That so? I guess the spar is out of the question, then.”

Kim EunAh nodded, a proud expression on her face. The limousine stopped as they reached their patrol area.

The driver opened the door of the limo. Kim EunAh looked at Shin YuSung and give a high-pitched laugh.

“Got it? Give up. I’m busy.”

Two bodyguards were already waiting outside the limousine with parasols in their hands. Kim EunAh took out sunglasses from her Pocket and put them on her face, all the while striding confidently out of the car.

Kim EunAh looked over the bodyguards with a distasteful expression on her face, then began to complain.

“Hey. I’m going on patrol. Why are you following me? So cumbersome.”

Despite being the words from Kim EunAh herself, the bodyguards showed outright disapproval at the thought of leaving her alone. It was because they couldn’t imagine the rage that the president of the Shinsung group, Kim SeokHan, would express if Kim EunAh was somehow hurt.

“B-but…”

“But what?”

But she stood firm.

“Are you looking down on my skills?”

Bzz bzz!

Static began to erupt from Kim EunAh’s body as she began to show her annoyance. There was not one person in the Shinsung group who could stop her if she began to stubbornly insist on having her way.

“…I understand.”

The bodyguards ended up backing off.

Shin YuSung looked at Kim EunAh.

‘…What a thorny person.’

It wasn’t a big deal, actually, since she was fairly polite to him, but he began to remember something that the Fist King had said to him before.

[There were always some young’uns who were entitled and didn’t know their place, even back when I was on active duty.]

A hunter who was triumphant in every mission he took part in and was on the road to success… Mind’s Eye Yu HyungJin—he began to pick a fight with the Fist King without a shred of fear in him during the time when they were both climbing the Tower.

[This old man is the party leader instead of me? I can’t accept this!]

—A youthful man in his twenties.

Even so, he had rebelled against the greatest hunter in Korea, the Fist King. When Shin YuSung had first heard of this, he couldn’t hold back his curiosity about it.

[S-so what did you do?]

The Fist King picked his ear with his finger at the boy’s question.

[I pulverized him until he was practically dead. One doesn’t gain any respect towards others until they get beaten up, you know.]

Truly a bone-chilling story.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Hey, what are you just standing around for? Let’s go.”

Shin YuSung laughed weakly as he watched Kim EunAh make a ‘come here’ motion with her finger.

‘…EunAh should never meet my master.’

*Noona is a title used by men for women who are older than them, but it's only saved for younger women, and between people who are relatively close to each other. It's also the title used by men to refer to their older sisters.