C4
Resigning
“W-Won hundred million won?”
Gwanghyeon couldn’t help but doubt his own eyes as he stared at the unbelievable text message.
However, after checking his banking app, he soon realized that the message was telling the truth.
‘It doesn’t look like they deducted taxes separately, either.’
Unlike ordinary income, villain bounties were apparently exempt from taxation.
As a result, a full 100 million won had been deposited into his bank account.
“Huh… damn.”
Before his regression, Gwanghyeon had retired without ever properly checking his severance pay.
So this was the first time he had actually seen such a large sum of money deposited into his account.
Even though he was a Hunter, he had spent his entire career as nothing more than a salaried employee within a single guild. When would he ever have experienced more than 100 million won arriving in his account all at once?
‘Calm down. Calm down.’
First, Gwanghyeon decided to settle his excitement.
Enjoying the happiness was fine, but deciding how to use this money came first.
After briefly rubbing his lips and thinking, he remembered the resolution he had made a little while ago.
‘Half to pay off my debts, and the other half for immediate living expenses.’
It was simple, but it was a decent plan.
It was better to clear his debts as quickly as possible, and 50 million won would be more than enough to give him some breathing room for living expenses.
After a short deliberation, Gwanghyeon nodded as if he had made up his mind.
‘Then, the first thing I should do with that 50 million won is…’
The answer came to him without any hesitation.
The most urgent thing was, of course, a house.
It wasn’t as though he had no home at all.
However, it was a tiny single-room place, and on top of that, it was located in a hillside slum neighborhood, making it terribly inconvenient to live there.
When they slept, they had to lie practically on top of one another because there was so little space. Even going to a supermarket or convenience store required a long walk downhill.
As an adult, Gwanghyeon could tolerate it to some extent.
But he couldn’t help feeling terribly sorry when he thought about how his son and daughter had spent their childhood in a place like this.
Fifty million won wouldn’t be enough to buy a house outright, but it was more than enough for a rental deposit.
There was absolutely no need to worry about the monthly rent, either.
In his current condition, he was confident that he could earn as much income as he needed.
‘Yeah. Then why don’t I go look right now?’
Gwanghyeon checked his smartphone again, intending to look for a nearby real estate agency.
But before he could do that, he noticed that there were quite a few other notifications on his phone besides the text message he had received earlier.
Naturally, he checked those first.
‘Missed calls? Why are there so many?’
Gwanghyeon tilted his head and checked the caller.
[Fucking Bastard — 13 missed calls]
“…Who was this again?”
Even after seeing it, he couldn’t immediately remember what those missed calls meant.
Just as he scratched his head and searched his memories, his smartphone screen suddenly changed to the incoming-call screen.
There was no ringtone or vibration. Apparently, he had set his phone to silent.
[Fucking Bastard]
Why had he even set the phone to silent in the first place?
Tilting his head, Gwanghyeon pressed the answer button without giving it much thought.
— YOU CRAZY BASTARD!!
A man’s voice exploded from the smartphone, and Gwanghyeon immediately remembered who this “Fucking Bastard” was.
The guild Gwanghyeon had belonged to before transferring to the guild he eventually retired from was called Geumseong.
The atmosphere in the office of Team 16, which specialized in D-rank Gates, was unusually tense.
Gwanghyeon had disappeared without contacting anyone since yesterday, and because of that, the already foul-tempered team leader, Park In-gu, was absolutely furious.
“Choi Gwanghyeon! Don’t you know that when one bastard like you is missing, everyone else on the team has to bust their asses?! We spoiled you rotten, and this is how you repay us by causing a mess like this?!”
Park In-gu’s face was already bright red as he shouted into the phone, seemingly completely oblivious to the gazes of his team members.
After yelling one more time, he angrily ended the call.
“If you don’t show your face within ten minutes, I’ll take it as you saying, ‘Please fire me!’ So do whatever the hell you want!”
While avoiding Park In-gu’s glare, the team members gathered together.
Soon, they began whispering among themselves.
“…Is he really allowed to act like that?”
“Gwanghyeon is definitely at fault for being absent without contacting anyone, but…”
“I can understand why Gwanghyeon disappeared, too. The team leader always goes crazy on him and him alone.”
“True. It must be terrifying for Gwanghyeon. The team leader is a C-rank Hunter, and he treats him like a rat every single day.”
They hadn’t heard any actual news yet, but everyone on Team 16 had already concluded that Gwanghyeon’s absence was probably because of the team leader’s abuse.
They all sighed and remembered how exhausted Gwanghyeon had seemed lately.
Then, one of the team members cautiously asked, looking worried.
“What if Gwanghyeon really quits? We don’t even get many new recruits, so if even Gwanghyeon leaves, we’re completely screwed.”
Although Gwanghyeon’s rank wasn’t particularly high, he played an important role in maintaining the balance of Team 16.
The previous day, when they had been forced to tackle the Gate without him, had been absolute hell.
“No way. That won’t happen.”
“You’re worrying about nothing.”
The other team members chuckled at the question.
Then they spoke as though there was no reason to worry.
“Don’t you know Gwanghyeon’s situation? He’s paying off hundreds of millions of won in debt right now.”
“Yeah. There’s no way someone who probably doesn’t even have 100,000 won in his bank account right now could quit.”
“It’s hard enough raising two kids by yourself, and he’s got two children. If he leaves this place, his kids would starve to death.”
“Exactly. The team leader knows he can’t quit, so that’s why he treats him even worse than everyone else.”
Park In-gu’s attitude toward Gwanghyeon, along with the verbal abuse and swearing he constantly hurled at him, was enough to make an ordinary person quit within a month.
The fact that Gwanghyeon had silently endured it for several years was impressive in itself, so the team members could understand why he had disappeared for a day.
“Jeez. Well, the team leader said that, so he’ll probably come soon.”
“Let’s just make sure we don’t get caught in the crossfire.”
Gwanghyeon was undeniably being treated unfairly within the team.
Yet not a single person stepped forward to help him.
“Yeah. What can we do about it? Let’s just make sure none of us attracts attention today.”
The team members who had gathered together glanced nervously at Park In-gu before returning to their respective seats.
And so, everyone held their breath and waited for Gwanghyeon to arrive.
“…”
But then.
“This damn…”
An hour passed, yet Gwanghyeon still hadn’t appeared.
“Why isn’t he here?!”
Park In-gu couldn’t help but grow flustered.
Telling him to show up within ten minutes had obviously been a bit unreasonable.
Even if Gwanghyeon hurried as much as possible, it would take at least twenty minutes to get from his home to the office.
Still, Park In-gu had expected him to arrive within thirty minutes at the latest.
Yet, strangely enough, Gwanghyeon had still not shown himself.
‘What the hell? Is this bastard really not coming? That can’t be right.’
His anxiety gradually began to grow.
He had threatened to fire Gwanghyeon if he didn’t come quickly, but if Gwanghyeon actually left the team, Park In-gu would be the one who suffered the most.
During Gate raids, the jobs Gwanghyeon had always handled included leading the initial charge, holding the front line, and retrieving corpses—all the difficult tasks everyone else avoided.
Whether the other team members had to divide those jobs among themselves or they had to recruit a new member capable of handling all of them, things would obviously become complicated.
‘And what if he tells the higher-ups that he quit because of me…?’
Park In-gu swallowed nervously.
He began fiddling with his smartphone, wondering whether he should call Gwanghyeon again.
—Bang!
Just then, the office door opened, and everyone’s gaze simultaneously turned toward it.
The person standing in the doorway was none other than Gwanghyeon.
“Hey, Choi Gwanghyeon!!!”
Park In-gu jumped to his feet, feeling both anger and relief.
Suppressing the smile that threatened to escape, he approached Gwanghyeon.
“You bastard, have you really lost your mind?!”
He, a C-rank Hunter, had been made to worry over some damn E-rank Hunter.
The more he thought about it, the more infuriating it was. As always, Park In-gu approached Gwanghyeon and grabbed him tightly by the collar.
Soon, Gwanghyeon would become frightened and apologize, begging for forgiveness until his hands were practically raw.
‘Even if you do that, I’m not letting you off this time.’
Park In-gu had no intention of brushing this incident aside.
He intended to teach Gwanghyeon a harsh lesson so that he would never cause such a sudden commotion again.
“…Haa.”
“A sigh? Has this crazy bastard really lost his mind?”
The team members watching the two swallowed nervously.
They desperately wanted this commotion to end as quickly as possible.
“You really want to get fired? Huh?!”
“I can’t do that.”
Everyone felt somewhat relieved at Gwanghyeon’s answer.
Just like always, if Gwanghyeon apologized now, this whole incident would come to an end.
—He’ll be okay, right?
—Come on. The team leader will stop once he’s had enough.
—Yeah. Don’t stick your nose into it for no reason. Just leave them alone.
The team members gathered briefly and whispered among themselves before quietly nodding.
Then they resumed watching the situation.
—SMACK!
But the sight that followed made them doubt their own eyes.
Their mouths fell open, yet not a single sound came out.
Gwanghyeon, who had been grabbed by the collar, instantly grabbed Park In-gu by the collar in return and slapped him across the face.
“Y-You… you?”
Park In-gu could only stare blankly, completely stunned by the sudden turn of events.
Meanwhile, Gwanghyeon calmly spoke as though nothing had happened.
“I was planning to leave on my own anyway. But if I got fired before I could do that, it’d be a little unfair.”
“Y-You… you crazy bastard…?”
—SMACK!
—SMACK!
—SMACK!
…
After that, Park In-gu could no longer say another word.
Not long afterward, he passed out completely, leaving him in no condition to speak at all.
Park In-gu lost consciousness much sooner than Gwanghyeon had expected.
With a sigh, Gwanghyeon relaxed the hand that had been gripping his collar.
Park In-gu naturally collapsed onto the floor.
The team leader who had once seemed like a monster to his former self…
Gwanghyeon had never imagined that Park In-gu was actually this weak.
He had expected at least a little resistance, but the man had fallen far too easily.
“Haa… well, whatever.”
Gwanghyeon turned his gaze away from Park In-gu as though he felt nothing in particular and didn’t spare him another glance.
There was no point in bothering him any further when he was already unconscious.
‘Still, it does feel pretty good.’
Under normal circumstances, Gwanghyeon would have spent several more years being worked to the bone in Team 16 before finally succeeding in transferring to another guild.
Back then, he had ultimately been forced to end his time in Team 16 without ever once being able to raise his voice against Park In-gu.
It had happened so long ago that his emotions toward it had grown dull.
Even so, it felt refreshing to finally put a proper end to something that had been buried deep within his heart for so long.
“Do you have a box?”
“Huh? Y-Yes? Yes?”
Gwanghyeon suddenly looked toward one of the Team 16 members and asked.
The team member stammered in confusion.
It was a little frustrating that he hadn’t understood the question the first time, but considering that Gwanghyeon—an E-rank Hunter, at least according to everyone here—had just knocked out their C-rank team leader, his bewilderment was understandable.
“A box.”
“Ah! Yes.”
After Gwanghyeon repeated himself, the team member hurried to the storage room, found a box, and handed it to him.
Gwanghyeon took the box and walked over to his old desk, where he began putting his belongings inside.
There weren’t many things there.
But the reason he had specifically come all the way here to retrieve them was because those belongings were photographs he had taken with his children.
‘That’s everything.’
After finishing, Gwanghyeon glanced around.
The team members were still staring at him as though they had been frozen in place.
Even so, Gwanghyeon calmly said what he needed to say, seemingly unconcerned.
“If that guy says he’s going to report me, tell him to go ahead. I don’t care.”
The team members began sweating nervously.
Everyone knew that, even though Park In-gu was currently lying on the floor like this, if Gwanghyeon testified about the unfair treatment he had endured within the team, Park In-gu would receive a much harsher punishment.
There was a reason Gwanghyeon could knock Park In-gu unconscious in front of everyone and still act so confidently.
“Anyway, I’m leaving. Take care.”
Gwanghyeon didn’t have any particularly close or friendly relationships with anyone here.
So he had no regrets as he picked up his box and headed toward the door.
Before leaving the office completely, Gwanghyeon casually tossed a single sheet of paper onto the unconscious Park In-gu.
Afterward, the team members checked the paper he had left behind and couldn’t help but look utterly bewildered.
There were only a few words scrawled across it in Gwanghyeon’s handwriting.
RESIGNATION LETTER
I’m quitting because this place fucking sucks.
— Choi Gwanghyeon
