SWNOVELXO Chapter 109: The Fourth S-Class (2)
Of course, the preparations didn’t take long.
Kim Gi-ryeo had already arrived on the first floor, waiting only for approval from above.
*
Inside a tranquil consultation room.
Two men faced each other on a long leather sofa.
One was Go Byeong-do, who had been serving as the president of the Hunter Association since last year.
The other was a certain Hunter who had also completed the Awakening Test last year.
“Ah, hello.”
However, calling that Awakened a novice had its strange nuances.
First off, he was suspected of having taken down an S-Class Monster with just one sword.
And his demeanor was so unnervingly calm.
“Well, it seems we’re meeting again sooner than I expected, Hunter Kim Gi-ryeo.”
At the president’s words, the young man sitting across from him glanced up slightly.
Dressed completely in black like an Imugi, he exuded an inexplicable pressure.
“……”
Thud.
Just then, two cups of coffee were placed on the table.
“I can’t drink coffee, so please change it to something else.”
Kim Gi-ryeo said, looking at the offered cup, but didn’t receive a positive response.
“I’m sorry. Right now, we only have coffee prepared. How about going outside to buy another drink…?”
“Heh heh, why go through that trouble? We’ll just talk quickly and leave, so just bring water.”
The staff member who brought the coffee, looking troubled, conveyed this as the president quickly continued his words.
Kim Gi-ryeo quietly muttered watching the president who didn’t bother to ask for his opinion on the water.
“Making me feel bad about the food. He’ll regret this soon enough.”
An unusual conversation began with that strange statement.
Having opened the discussion, Kim Gi-ryeo decided to throw a simple question at his counterpart.
“First, let me ask something.”
“Hmm?”
“What does the Association specifically want from me?”
Hearing that, the president felt secretly delighted.
Until that moment, he thought that the guy finally decided to listen to the Association.
“Oh, we don’t really want anything! We just want to follow procedures!”
“….”
“So all you need to do, Mr. Gi-ryeo, is to confirm that you are S-Class as you mentioned last time.”
The president spoke in an excited tone, and Gi-ryeo calmly continued the conversation.
“Does that benefit the Association?”
“Pardon?”
“I’m asking if stating that I’m S-Class will do something good here.”
“Well, if you want to be specific, it’s more about honor. Look at international news. These days, even OECD countries are lining up S-Class Hunters.”
But immediately after, the statement that followed was close to shocking.
“Oh, honor. So you did all this ridiculous stuff for that?”
Kim Gi-ryeo listened quietly to the president’s words before his demeanor abruptly changed.
“What, what did you say?”
“You don’t know? You’ve been leaking my personal information everywhere.”
He tilted his head and continued speaking.
“And then getting your journalist buddies to dig into it, and later plastering it all over the media?”
“…….”
“Surely that tactic worked quite well until now. Even if you’re a High-Ranking Awakened, Hunters are still just 20-something kids.”
“What are you saying right now…?”
“You’ve got no social experience, no support base. But you’re also familiar with the internet, so you’re bound to face media pressure, right?”
What followed was a tone filled with certainty.
“But doing this to an S-Class candidate is quite bold. Does the Association even consider the possibility of an S-Class going rogue?”
The Awakened questioned with a chilling gaze.
“…Did Jeong Ha-seong go through this, too?”
What Gi-ryeo was firing back were surprisingly close guesses to reality.
“Did you gently corner that brat, too, to make him obey, using the same old tactics?”
But he couldn’t just sit there like a deer caught in headlights.
The president stuttered out a word.
“D-Don’t throw baseless rumors at me! I have no idea what this is about…!”
But the response that came back was cold.
The other man shot a glacial look without a hint of warmth.
“Really? If you don’t understand, should we move on?”
Surprisingly, the man didn’t delve deeply into the personal information leak, but the next topic was even more serious.
“Now, let’s get to the point. First off, I have absolutely no intention of giving you what you want.”
“What do you mean?”
“If I become a High-Ranking Awakened, I’m supposed to follow the Association’s orders during a Dungeon Break.”
If he violated that, he wouldn’t be able to use the Hunter Market and it wouldn’t be just a minor inconvenience…
He covered his mouth and muttered, gazing slantingly.
“So why should I do that?”
What followed was a pure voice of inquiry.
“Why should I listen to worthless folks like you?”
The missing parts of the sentence made his claim self-evident.
Kim Gi-ryeo firmly stated that he couldn’t follow the Association’s orders.
“Heh, heh heh. That’s just how it is, isn’t it? In a disaster, someone has to lead….”
Such insolent remarks.
The president clenched his fists, ready to erupt from the attitude of his counterpart.
But before he could express his anger, the other party’s actions moved even faster.
Just then.
Kim Gi-ryeo brusquely laid his cellphone on the wooden table.
‘A phone?’
The president instinctively looked down at the table.
[……Look, the traits of the Missing Bosses are mostly similar, aren’t they? If left alone, they increase in number, or give buffs to those who die.]
[So this is proof that you’re nurturing an Imugi?]
[There’s more. I’ve organized materials on the back pages.]
[Why did you bring this here? This kind of thing should go to the, um, police…?]
[No, the investigation department said that Boss Monsters aren’t under their jurisdiction, and they passed it to us.]
[Really?]
However, the voice coming through the speaker…
“Gasp!”
In a corner of the consultation room.
The management staff of the Association, with hands behind his back, took a sharp breath.
[…I thought you might say that, so I even got the coordinates for where a Dungeon Break would occur. Seoul ## District ## Road 163……]
Last October.
An appraiser reported that the Nachalsawon was trying to stage a terror attack using the Missing Bosses persistently.
But as everyone knows, the end of that accusation was…
[You came all this way, and honestly, before the real Imugi shows up, we can’t do anything.]
[You’re saying you won’t do anything? In this situation?]
The president’s expression hardened instantly.
“Honestly, I’ve had a habit of keeping records for a long time.”
But Kim Gi-ryeo continued, undeterred.
Even after serving the evidence on a silver platter, would they have any words left to say?
The ‘Unavoidable Malice’ was a thoroughly predicted situation.
Thanks to their repeated disregard for warnings, the damage had grown.
Yet why should I follow their orders?
Something along those lines of critical rhetoric.
“W-Wait, that reporter was you…?”
“By the way, let’s not pretend that your subordinates handled this without knowing anything.”
“…!”
“You certainly received reports from the team leader that day. I asked them to lie down in the corridor like that.”
“A-About that…”
“But you left the Association after hearing that.”
Kim Gi-ryeo sneered at the events of that day.
Of course, none of the Association members dared to speak up. This was clearly their blunder.
“With that said, since you brought it up, let me tell you this: people can insult me on the internet for days, and it won’t affect me at all. But I think public opinion might matter a little more for people like you?”
Gi-ryeo confidently declared.
Their smear campaigns had had no effect at all.
“Tch, anyway, how can a president calmly play golf while such a major disaster is looming…?”
But then.
As soon as the word golf slipped from the Awakened’s mouth, the president couldn’t hide his surprise and shouted.
“W-Where did you hear that?!”
But the other’s response remained consistent.
Having suddenly become an S-Class candidate, he kept a nonchalant expression throughout the conversation.
“From Esther Hunter.”
Gi-ryeo nonchalantly threw a bombshell.
“I had that person personally conduct an investigation for me. Given how much she wanted to help me, I thought, why not…?”
Just an F-Class! Does he really have connections with Korea’s S-Class Hunter, Seo Esther?
“But I figured it might be possible, but I never thought the Association would collude with journalists to stage something against me. Esther was pretty upset about it when it came to light, though?”
“….”
“After annoying a Hunter from the Curse lineage, you think you’ll be okay going forward?”
The reason the president had been so relaxed until now was due to his assumption that the other wouldn’t easily uncover his dirty tricks.
Whether it was Ahn Yoon-seung, Kang Chang-ho, or the young man in front of him—ultimately, they were powerless individuals in society.
But the truth was that Kim Gi-ryeo had the backing of the Guild Master of the Korean Magic Tower and had even delved into the agency’s hidden relationships concerning the Unavoidable Malice incident.
The president’s expression faltered as he plunged into shock, but the psychological blow to him was just as heavy.
‘This is ridiculous.’
In fact, this F-Class Awakened had nearly been shocked speechless since entering the consultation room.
“How dare they give orders to an S-Class.”
In Alphauri, where he lived.
They categorized people without mana or those unable to wield magic as having some sort of serious illness, effectively casting them aside.
But here, Awakened individuals were a minority of mutants.
Moreover, those who weren’t even sorcerers were attempting to control born mages, what a world this was!
‘The world has truly flipped upside down.’
Kim Gi-ryeo looked down with disdain at the powerless beings lacking mana.
The social construct where Non-Awakened held high positions in the agency was an incomprehensible culture to an alien.
“Y-You…”
But no matter what Alphauri was.
Ultimately, this was another world called Earth, and the existing power structure would likely last for a few more years.
“So, what exactly do you want to say? Are you saying you find my actions dreadful enough to raise a ruckus using Awakening Abilities?”
“Pardon?”
“Are you trying to threaten us?!”
As expected.
The president brazenly issued a threat to the figure before him.
It’s not that we can’t suppress an S-Class Hunter.
If you even touch innocent citizens, the international community won’t let you off the hook…
“Oh no.”
Well, look at that, he can really raise a racket.
“Using Awakening abilities against citizens? Such a scary thing to say…”
Certainly, if an S-Class were to rampage, it would be disastrous, but don’t they remain people first?
Unless there’s a special reason, S-Class individuals don’t easily commit severe crimes like killing compatriots.
So, that authority figure was probably just testing the waters with a light scheme against the Hunter.
“Don’t worry. Why would I touch those innocent folks?”
Gi-ryeo spoke freely.
“The only ones I can’t stand are you people.”
However, strangely, his ensuing words contained a chilling undertone.
“The Association that sold my personal information and ignored my requests!”
The man directed an accusatory finger towards the humans before him, moving the muscles of a corpse he wore like a costume.
What followed was a threat rooted in a more realistic fear than fantastical impossibilities.
“What do you think will happen if I release that recording I shared earlier, along with proof that you mobilized journalists?”
The representatives of the Association shrank back significantly at that declaration to unravel all their incompetency.
Finally, Kim Gi-ryeo led the conversation to the topic he had been wanting to discuss.
“Still, I’ll offer you a chance to negotiate.”
Fear in humans.
Sometimes, it translates to money.
“I won’t play ball like so many others.”