C18
Preparations
Gwanghyeon didn’t even report Raven’s hideout to the Villain Task Force after burning the entire place to the ground.
Not only would recovering the bodies left behind as ashes and confirming that they belonged to villains have been an extremely complicated process, but there was also a possibility that he might leave traces of himself behind during that process, just as he had before.
However, it seemed that the seven small-time villains he had subdued and reported earlier had been properly processed.
[National Police Agency — Special Villain Task Force]
─Bounty payment completed.
─Amount paid: 210 million won.
Now that Raven itself had been erased, the small-time villains who had operated under Raven’s name had no connections whatsoever to any other villains.
Therefore, Gwanghyeon had nothing to worry about by claiming the bounty.
‘At least I got something out of it.’
He had gone through a bit more trouble than before, but in the end, he had eliminated the villains he wanted to get rid of and obtained the bounty as well.
Since he had wrapped everything up cleanly, Gwanghyeon was fairly satisfied with how things had turned out.
“…That being said.”
Even so, Gwanghyeon felt that he needed to change his methods somewhat.
There was nothing wrong with hunting down and eliminating villains themselves, but he didn’t want to expose himself to unnecessary danger.
That didn’t mean he had any intention of giving up villain hunting altogether.
If anything, his desire to completely eradicate these vicious villains had only grown stronger.
‘Then…’
He would continue hunting villains, but first eliminate any factors that could potentially put him in danger.
Having reached that conclusion, he slowly nodded.
‘Of course, it’s easy to say, but it’s not something I can simply solve all at once just because I want to.’
It wasn’t something that could be accomplished simply by making up his mind.
So Gwanghyeon decided to deal with things one by one, starting from now.
As he thought carefully about what to do, his eyes fell upon the sunglasses and mask he had briefly used the previous night.
He had worn them temporarily after discovering that Raven had investigated him using nothing but his face.
‘Right. Exposure of my face. That’s the first thing I need to deal with.’
He had put them on in a hurry the previous night, but ordinary items like these could be difficult to wear while operating as a Hunter.
If he moved too violently, they could easily come off.
And sunglasses could interfere with his vision as well.
Therefore, Gwanghyeon decided that he needed equipment that could conceal his face without interfering with his activities.
‘Since I’ve thought of it, why not go get one right now?’
Having made up his mind, Gwanghyeon slowly stood up.
After quickly searching for a location on his smartphone, Gwanghyeon immediately left the house.
His destination was a specialty mask shop.
Specialty masks were, of course, completely different from the ordinary medical masks used by civilians.
They were the type of protective masks commonly associated with special forces soldiers.
The most basic models of these specialized masks only provided protection against poisonous gases, while more expensive models came equipped with various additional functions, such as fire resistance and underwater breathing systems.
Originally, these specialized masks had been used almost exclusively by the military and police, so the market for them had been relatively small.
However, after the appearance of Gates, Hunters began using them as well, causing the market to expand considerably and leading to the development of a wide variety of specialized masks.
The reason Hunters used these masks was simple.
They needed protection against things like poisonous gas and flames that they could encounter inside Gates.
Of course, in Gwanghyeon’s case, those functions were secondary.
His main purpose was to prevent his face from being exposed.
‘I wonder if it’ll be uncomfortable.’
In his previous life, Gwanghyeon had never been able to purchase specialized mask equipment himself.
Back then, he had struggled to afford even basic weapons and suits, let alone something like a mask.
But now, he had more than enough money.
He could easily afford even the highest-end mask equipment.
“Is this the place?”
After arriving at the shop he had found through his smartphone, Gwanghyeon slowly entered.
The shop assistant spotted him and greeted him warmly.
“Welcome! Is there anything you’re looking for?”
“Ah, yes. I’m looking to buy a mask.”
At Gwanghyeon’s words, the shop assistant enthusiastically began explaining the various products one by one.
This model had such-and-such functions, that design looked like this, and so on.
While listening to the explanations, Gwanghyeon spotted one particular product and pointed at it.
“That’s the one Hunters use a lot, right?”
“Oh! Yes, that’s right. You know about the RD-6? It’s a somewhat expensive model. Are you sure you’re okay with the price?”
“Yeah. I have plenty of money.”
RD-6.
Gwanghyeon recognized it immediately.
He remembered a former colleague of his purchasing one and boasting about it for days afterward.
He had gotten so tired of hearing, “Do you know how good this thing is?” that the memory was impossible to forget.
Hunters who had some money to spare certainly seemed to use the RD-6 without hesitation, so it was probably a decent product.
“Would you like to try it on?”
“Sure.”
Gwanghyeon accepted the RD-6 from the shop assistant and began putting it on.
After securing it around the back of his head, he moved his head around to test it.
He was fairly satisfied.
“…Oh.”
Despite being a specialized mask packed with various functions, it was surprisingly light.
It wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as he had expected, either.
The fit was excellent.
He had no trouble moving his head or breathing.
Furthermore, when he checked himself in the mirror, he confirmed that more than half of his face below the eyes was concealed.
This would definitely allow him to fight without interference while also preventing his face from being recognized.
‘It’s definitely good.’
Gwanghyeon thought the RD-6 would probably be the right choice.
Of course, there were more expensive models with better functions.
But rather than choosing something expensive and uncommon, an affordable and widely used model would better fulfill his original purpose of making his face difficult to identify.
“The RD-6 comes equipped with gas protection, fire resistance, and cold resistance as standard. It also has an additional night-vision function.”
“…Night vision on a mask?”
Gwanghyeon tilted his head at the shop assistant’s explanation.
The shop assistant smiled and pointed toward the side of the mask.
Gwanghyeon casually touched the indicated area with his finger.
He immediately flinched.
─Click.
A section on the side opened, and a night-vision device popped out, positioning itself in front of his eyes.
‘Is this what modern technology can do?’
Gwanghyeon couldn’t help but feel slightly impressed.
With the night-vision device deployed, the mask could now completely conceal his face as well.
It fulfilled his primary purpose while offering plenty of useful additional functions.
There was no reason for Gwanghyeon to hesitate.
He decided to purchase the RD-6.
‘Yeah. I’ll go with this.’
After completing the payment, Gwanghyeon left the shop.
The shop assistant smiled and called out after him.
“Thank you, sir! Have a safe trip home!”
After purchasing the RD-6, Gwanghyeon immediately headed to the Hunter Management Bureau.
This time, he intended to make his publicly available Hunter profile private.
‘They definitely said they checked my Hunter profile and started investigating me from there.’
Gwanghyeon hadn’t forgotten what the small-time villain had told him during the interrogation.
That was why he had decided to make his Hunter profile private.
Soon after arriving at the bureau, Gwanghyeon completed the registration process and explained his request to the civil servant.
“You want to make your profile private? Uh… Are you sure you’ve thought this through?”
The employee looked quite bewildered as he asked again.
Of course, Gwanghyeon understood the man’s reaction.
An ordinary Hunter would have no reason to make their public profile private.
Hunters needed to submit a public Hunter profile to join a guild, while guild scouts could only recruit Hunters through their publicly available profiles.
Even working as a mercenary required a Hunter profile.
Unless he already belonged to a guild, making his profile private while remaining unaffiliated was essentially the same as quitting the Hunter profession altogether.
“You understand that making your profile private will cause quite a few problems with your activities, right?”
“I know. Please do it.”
Even knowing all of that, Gwanghyeon repeated his request without hesitation or any change in expression.
After all, none of those things were a problem for him.
“Huh… I’ve never had anyone make a request like this before.”
The civil servant became quite curious about what Gwanghyeon actually did and why he wanted to make such a request.
But there was no way for him to know.
After completing all the necessary procedures, Gwanghyeon immediately left the bureau.
In the end, all the civil servant could remember was that Gwanghyeon was a rather mysterious person.
‘Looks like I’ve taken care of all the simple things I can do for now.’
After leaving the Hunter Management Bureau, Gwanghyeon checked the time.
Seeing that evening was approaching, he headed to a bank and withdrew a fairly large amount of cash.
‘There’s one slightly annoying thing left to take care of.’
A specialized mask.
A private Hunter profile.
Those two things alone would probably be enough to avoid being tracked by most villains.
But Gwanghyeon decided to take things one step further and make one additional preparation.
‘Since I’m going this far, I might as well do it properly.’
Gwanghyeon left the downtown area where the Hunter Management Bureau was located and headed toward a place he remembered.
He stopped in front of a building that appeared to contain nothing more than ordinary businesses.
There was a restaurant on the first floor, a karaoke room on the second, and a billiards hall on the third.
‘I never thought I’d come back here.’
After briefly looking around, Gwanghyeon slowly entered the building while wearing the mask he had purchased earlier.
His destination was none other than the basement level.
“…It’s exactly the same as back then.”
Looking at the old, firmly closed steel door, Gwanghyeon muttered to himself.
He approached the door and knocked on it several times with his fist.
─Knock. Knock. Knock.
There was no response for quite some time.
Gwanghyeon wondered if nobody was there.
But after knocking once more, he began to hear signs of movement from inside.
─Step. Step.
Soon, a voice that sounded as though its owner had just woken up came through the door.
─Who is it?
Gwanghyeon recognized the voice, faintly remembered from the past.
Without hesitation, he spoke.
“Bang Su-bin.”
─…What?
“I’ve come to make a request.”
─…
Silence lingered between the two for a moment.
But, just as Gwanghyeon had expected, the door soon opened, revealing Bang Su-bin.
Loose-fitting clothes.
Dark circles under her eyes.
And hair that was completely disheveled, clearly showing that she had just woken up.
She looked exactly as Gwanghyeon remembered her.
“Huh? Who are you?”
Bang Su-bin opened the door while scratching her stomach and tilted her head in confusion.
He had suddenly called her by name, so she had assumed he was someone she knew.
Instead, a masked man was standing in front of her.
Naturally, she reacted with suspicion.
“I’m a customer who came to make a request. Isn’t that all you need to know?”
“Hmm… Well, I suppose that’s true.”
Bang Su-bin pursed her lower lip and thought about it, looking somewhat uneasy.
Even if all kinds of strange people came looking for her, was she really supposed to accept someone like this?
Still, in the end, she figured nothing particularly bad would happen.
She nodded and answered with a huge yawn.
“Yaaawn… Come on in.”
