C6
Villain Hunting
— …Huh? W-What?
Jung Hongseok’s extremely flustered voice came from the other end of the phone.
Gwanghyeon kindly repeated himself so that there would be no misunderstanding.
“I’m telling you to fuck off. I’m not going back there.”
— H-Hey, Mr. Choi Gwanghyeon! Please, just listen to me!
— Click.
Gwanghyeon couldn’t be bothered to continue the conversation, so he simply hung up.
Then, staring at the smartphone whose call had just ended, he muttered,
“Why can’t people understand simple words?”
There was a reason Gwanghyeon had rejected Jung Hongseok so coldly before he could even properly begin talking.
It was because Gwanghyeon already knew exactly what kind of person he was.
Jung Hongseok had never directly harmed Gwanghyeon, but he was an incredibly hypocritical person.
Even now, Gwanghyeon vividly remembered the conversation they had once had.
— Our branch… No, our guild really needs someone like you, Gwanghyeon.
He pretended to understand people’s hardships and acted like a kind person, but in reality, he was indifferent toward most other people.
He spoke with such skill that it seemed as though he was offering to help, but he had never actually helped anyone out of genuine goodwill.
The main reason Gwanghyeon hadn’t been able to leave the Geumseong Guild sooner in his previous life was because of Jung Hongseok’s persuasion.
But now, Gwanghyeon knew exactly what kind of person Jung Hongseok was.
‘He’ll probably try to stop me from leaving again, saying he’ll help if things get difficult and asking me to work with the guild just a little longer.’
“…What the hell? This guy’s calling again.”
Not long after he ended the call, his smartphone began ringing again.
Without hesitation, Gwanghyeon rejected the call and blocked the number.
‘Good. Now I really won’t have to deal with them anymore.’
Gwanghyeon nodded in satisfaction.
“So then…”
Just as he’d been thinking earlier, Gwanghyeon decided to look for villains who were currently wanted.
He turned on the ancient laptop sitting at home and muttered with an exasperated expression,
“I should buy a new laptop when I have some free time.”
As soon as the laptop booted up, Gwanghyeon typed “wanted” into the search bar.
He immediately found the wanted-villain database portal operated by the Hunter Management Bureau.
When Gwanghyeon entered the site, he was slightly surprised.
‘Were there really this many villains?’
The names of villains were densely listed alongside their photographs.
No matter how far he scrolled, the list of wanted villains seemed endless. There were far more of them than Gwanghyeon had imagined.
Even a quick glance revealed hundreds of names.
‘…No, I suppose it makes sense.’
After thinking about it a little more, he could understand why.
There were currently nearly one hundred thousand Awakened registered in South Korea.
Even if only one percent of them became villains, that would still amount to over a thousand people.
So having this many villains wasn’t particularly strange.
“Disgusting bastards.”
Gwanghyeon currently harbored considerable hostility toward villains.
Naturally, there was a great deal of anger in his eyes as he looked through the list.
He had made up his mind.
There was no way he could simply sit back and watch so many villains run rampant.
Besides, if capturing them also earned him money, there was no reason not to do it.
Having made his decision, Gwanghyeon slowly began reading through the information on the wanted villains listed on the site.
The Hunter Management Bureau classified villains according to seven levels of danger.
The lowest level was Level 1, while the highest was Level 7.
Generally speaking, villains with lower Awakener ranks tended to have lower danger levels, while those with higher ranks tended to have higher danger levels.
Level 1 corresponded to F-rank, Level 2 to E-rank, Level 3 to D-rank, Level 4 to C-rank, and so on.
However, the system wasn’t absolute.
Even if two villains had the same Awakener rank, a villain could be assigned a higher danger level if they had committed particularly serious crimes or were simply considered more “dangerous.”
‘I should be fine up to Level 4 villains for now.’
Of course, it would be great if he could immediately capture high-level villains.
But Gwanghyeon decided not to push himself too hard from the beginning.
For now, he would start with villains who could be found and subdued as easily and safely as possible.
Naturally, the distribution of villains formed a pyramid, with large numbers of low-ranked villains and relatively few high-ranked ones.
Therefore, the most numerous were Level 1 and Level 2 villains.
Gwanghyeon scrolled down the site to examine their lists first.
“…Hmm.”
After roughly checking the information, he found that the bounties for Level 1 villains were generally 10 million won or less, while Level 2 villains had bounties of 50 million won or less.
Level 3 villains had bounties of up to 100 million won, and Gwanghyeon remembered that Kim Chang-hyeop, whom he had captured yesterday, had been a Level 3 villain.
‘Well, it’d be nice if I could easily find guys like Kim Chang-hyeop…’
Honestly, that had been a rather unusual situation.
How often would a villain happen to live right next door?
So rather than getting distracted, Gwanghyeon decided to continue looking through the information on the relatively easy-to-find Level 1 and Level 2 villains.
“Huh?”
Soon, Gwanghyeon found a villain with a familiar name and face.
He began reading through the information about him.
Meanwhile, at the Fourth Branch of the Geumseong Guild.
Branch Manager Jung Hongseok was sitting there with his face bright red, clutching his smartphone.
After his call with Choi Gwanghyeon had been disconnected, he tried calling several more times, but he couldn’t get through again.
‘D-Did he block me? Me?’
As a B-rank Hunter and the branch manager of this guild, Jung Hongseok was accustomed to being treated with respect wherever he went.
Yet this man had dared to treat him like this.
Jung Hongseok stood up abruptly, utterly dumbfounded.
He strode over to Team 16’s team leader, Park In-gu, once again.
“Team Leader Park! W-W-Who the hell is this guy?”
Jung Hongseok asked what kind of person Choi Gwanghyeon was.
Park In-gu slowly explained.
A single father raising two children while burdened with hundreds of millions of won in debt.
Until the day he submitted his resignation, he had been a timid and quiet team member who had hardly been close enough to anyone in the team to call them a friend.
“…Hmm. Is that so?”
Naturally, Park In-gu never mentioned anything that had happened between himself and Choi Gwanghyeon.
Even so, he swallowed nervously, feeling guilty.
After a moment, Jung Hongseok nodded and slowly opened his mouth.
“He’s just being reckless.”
“…Pardon?”
“Choi Gwanghyeon. He’s acting out of recklessness.”
Park In-gu tilted his head in confusion at Jung Hongseok’s sudden statement.
Jung Hongseok sighed and continued.
“He’s been living a difficult and exhausting life, and all the emotions he’s been bottling up suddenly exploded. Don’t you understand?”
“Ah, yes. I suppose that does make sense…”
Park In-gu nodded blankly.
It certainly did seem like all the pent-up emotions had finally burst out.
“But what do you mean by recklessness…?”
“It’s a form of rebellion. All the emotions he’s been suppressing have finally erupted, so he’s started behaving in the exact opposite way from how he normally does. But he’s taken things too far. He even submitted his resignation without thinking it through, and he probably hasn’t given a single thought to what he’s going to do from now on.”
That was why he’d behaved so irrationally.
Jung Hongseok nodded with a smile as though he had figured everything out.
Park In-gu was still somewhat uncertain, but he eventually nodded as well.
“U-Um. I suppose that could be the case.”
“He’s still being consumed by those emotions right now, but he’ll come to his senses soon. Before long, he’ll be desperate to return to the guild.”
“R-Really?”
Park In-gu looked at Jung Hongseok expectantly.
At the moment, he was somewhat afraid of Choi Gwanghyeon returning.
But if Jung Hongseok’s theory was correct, Gwanghyeon would soon return to his old self.
Park In-gu wouldn’t be able to treat him the way he had before, but if Gwanghyeon returned at all, that alone would be a huge relief.
“You want Mr. Choi Gwanghyeon to come back soon too, don’t you, Team Leader Park?”
“Ah! Yes, of course…”
“There’s nothing we can do about it. I’ll help you a little.”
Park In-gu looked surprised.
“Help me?”
“I mean I’ll help Mr. Choi Gwanghyeon come to his senses.”
Jung Hongseok smiled confidently.
For someone who was good at reading other people’s psychology and skilled with words, this was an extremely easy task.
The problem was that Gwanghyeon had just abruptly hung up and blocked his number.
But the solution was very simple.
“Could you give me his address?”
“What? Are you planning to go there yourself?”
“He’ll probably just hang up again if I keep trying to call him for the time being. But it’ll be different if I talk to him face-to-face.”
“That may be true, but do you really need to go this far for this…?”
It was rather unusual for a branch manager to go to such lengths for a single member among the guild’s many employees.
So it wasn’t strange that Park In-gu found it puzzling.
“Hahaha! What are you talking about? Managing and helping the members of our branch is my job.”
“Ah…! Thank you, Branch Manager. Then I’ll send you Choi Gwanghyeon’s address right away.”
Of course, Jung Hongseok wasn’t going through all this trouble out of goodwill.
He simply wanted to make Choi Gwanghyeon desperately want to return to the guild, then watch him beg for forgiveness for his rudeness.
‘Ha. I’m looking forward to this.’
Soon after receiving Choi Gwanghyeon’s address, Jung Hongseok smirked.
Of course, he wouldn’t discover that Gwanghyeon had already moved until after making the trip there in vain.
Late at night.
Seojun carefully lay down beside Seoyoon, who had already fallen fast asleep after the blankets had been spread out.
Then he looked up at his father, Gwanghyeon, and asked,
“Dad.”
“Hmm?”
“Is it really okay for us to live in a place like this?”
“Why? You don’t like it here?”
“N-No, it’s not that I don’t like it…”
Seojun seemed to hesitate for a moment before carefully speaking.
“Dad, it’s hard for you.”
It was a short sentence, but it contained so much meaning.
Gwanghyeon genuinely didn’t know whether he should feel happy or sad.
But soon, he gave a gentle smile and answered briefly.
“Dad isn’t having a hard time anymore.”
“Really?”
“Of course.”
Seojun seemed somewhat reassured by those words. He gave a slight nod and slowly closed his eyes.
Gwanghyeon sat there for a moment, quietly watching him.
Then, with a faint smile, he slowly stood up.
“Whew.”
He changed into comfortable clothes and finished preparing to go out.
Standing in front of the entrance, Gwanghyeon glanced back once more.
Then, in a quiet voice, he murmured,
“Dad’s going to work. I’ll be back.”
Gwanghyeon checked the information he had saved as a screenshot on his smartphone and walked out.
