Chapter 5: Goblin Gate (1)

The next day, a refreshing morning greeted by drinking Dr. Pepper.

I’m looking for a suitable gate on the Hunter Association’s job site.

I think the prerequisite for enjoying a happy life is to have a lot of money.

From that point of view, I was clearly unhappy right now.

All I had was 50,000 won.

If the red-haired woman hadn’t paid for my meal yesterday, I would have been a beggar already.

I had to make money to avoid starving to death.

I went to the main website of the Hunter Association.

The Hunter Association, a government agency also called the Hunter Management Bureau or the Hunter Monitoring Bureau, is an organization that performs most of the tasks related to hunters.

That task included mediating party recruitment for independent hunters.

[F-rank Gate 6-person party looking for one porter. People with good stamina are welcome. (5/6)]
[E-rank Gate 5-person party looking for one porter. (4/5)]

Hunters and porters are strictly different.

On paper, they are unified as hunters. But in the field, they are classified.

Porters are literally porters. They support the hunters and can stay relatively safe in the dangerous zone called the gate.

It’s inevitable to play the role of an emotional trash can for bad-tempered hunters, but it’s still better than being killed by monsters.

On the other hand, hunters directly fight the monsters inside the gate.

Facing monsters that are beyond common sense required more courage than I thought.

And I was a coward at the time.

I was afraid of the life-and-death battles.

Because I had seen countless hunters die before my eyes.

I volunteered to be a porter because I was afraid of that.

I laughed because it was absurd.

Because there is no reason for me now to be afraid of monsters.

[F-rank Goblin Gate looking for one vanguard! (2/3)]

“This guy is the standard for the first prey.”

I applied for the party and waited for a while, and a message came.

We decided on the meeting place and time.

I needed to check what my level was now.

Park Hyena, the leader of the F-rank Goblin Gate party and an iTuber with 400,000 subscribers, was waiting endlessly at a cafe.

‘…What time is it, why isn’t he here yet.’

Actually, the last person wasn’t that late.

It was only about 5 minutes past the appointed time.

Moreover, he had contacted her an hour ago to say that he would be about 10 minutes late, so she thought she could wait that much.

But the problem was her boyfriend, Jo Hyeonchan, who was next to her.

“Sigh… Jagiya(darling /honey). Who is that person, why isn’t he coming yet?”

“…Yeah, I wonder why…”

Park Hyena, who was already hearing the same thing for the 8th time, answered without a soul, like a person with neurosis.

And she realized it right after she answered.

As expected, Jo Hyeonchan was not satisfied with that answer.

“Jagiya. Are you not listening to me?”
“No, it’s not that…! I was wondering why he wasn’t coming~ I just got a little angry for a moment~.”
“…Really?”
“Of course!”

Park Hyena acted all cute to appease Jo Hyeonchan.

Park Hyena sighed in relief as she felt Jo Hyeonchan’s expression gradually relax.

“…Sigh.”

“What? Did you just sigh?”

Park Hyena felt like she was going to get a mental illness.

Because she had learned from experience that once those words came out, no matter what answer she gave, it would not be accepted.

Park Hyena pretended to listen to Jo Hyeonchan’s nagging on the outside, and stared blankly at the pattern of the wooden table with her head down.

Ding, dong.

Perhaps because she was listening to the nagging, the sound of the bell on the cafe’s glass door was particularly audible.

Park Hyena’s gaze naturally turned to that direction.

‘Wow, crazy…’

He was handsome.

There was no need for adjectives like a god-sculpted body or a beautiful face.

Because everyone who encountered him would obviously admire his appearance.

Jo Hyeonchan glared at Park Hyena, who suddenly looked elsewhere with a dumbfounded expression while talking.

‘What the hell is it…’

He was curious about what Park Hyena was looking at because her mouth was wide open.

Jo Hyeonchan also turned his head to where Park Hyena’s gaze was directed.

And opened his mouth wide.

‘Wow. He’s very handsome.’

If it was a face that could be compared to some extent, he would have been jealous, but it was such a unique visual that he rather gave a sincere admiration.

As iTubers with a certain level of recognition, they had quite a few opportunities to meet celebrities.

From fellow iTubers to people in the hunter industry, and very occasionally celebrities.

They also saw people who are commonly called the visual line.

But no matter how pretty or handsome they were.

In front of that face, everyone seemed to have to bow their heads.

He looked around for a moment and then approached them.

“Are you the Goblin Gate party members?”
“Ah, yes, yes, yes. A-Are you the one who contacted us…?”
“Yes. My name is Han Suhyeon. Nice to meet you.”
“No, no! We are the ones who should be saying that! My name is Park Hyena, and this friend is Jo Hyeonchan!”

When Park Hyena smiled and grabbed the hand he held out with both hands, Jo Hyeonchan pinched Park Hyena’s side as if to tear it apart.

Because she casually introduced him, her boyfriend, as ‘this friend’.

In the gender-reversed world where the common sense of men and women is reversed.

The invisible hierarchical relationship when dating the opposite s*x was also reversed.

When Park Hyena turned her gaze to the terrible pain she felt in her side, there was a squid with its teeth bared.

‘Oh my goooood…!’

She rubbed her eyes and looked again, and it was back to Jo Hyeonchan’s normal appearance.

Jo Hyeonchan’s appearance was also excellent when viewed objectively.

Even if you take off the rose-colored glasses, there were few people who would disparage him for his appearance.

When Jo Hyeonchan appeared in the iTube comments, there were many comments saying he was handsome and asking for more of his screen time.

She had never been disappointed with his appearance while dating him.

But still, this difference was too big.

The man who introduced himself as Han Suhyeon sat down at the table without saying a word about the bizarre behavior in front of him, and immediately got to the point.

“Actually, I’ve done a lot of porter work, but this is my first time working as a hunter.”
“Ah. So this is your first time… Huh? Porter?”
“Yes.”

Han Suhyeon calmly stated that he had worked as a porter.

Park Hyena and Jo Hyeonchan found it difficult to honestly believe his words.

In their common sense, the job of porter was the number one job that men avoided.

The porter job was difficult both physically and emotionally.

There were many jobs that paid more money around. Especially for men.

It’s not for nothing that prostitution crimes are reported on the 9 o’clock news every evening.

Even Jo Hyeonchan, a man, thought that it would be better to do such a job rather than work as a porter.

Moreover, Han Suhyeon, with that level of appearance, would have had a much wider range of choices than other men.

Like a celebrity, a boy group, or an actor.

But he dared to work as a porter?

They, who had seen many mentally ill people while doing iTube, thought that Han Suhyeon was lying to over-package himself.

“Um… Mr. Suhyeon? Honestly, it’s hard to believe that a man worked as a porter. Do you have any supporting documents?”
“Yes. Here.”

The skeptical duo could only believe his words after Han Suhyeon showed them the records of his activities as a porter.

The document was filled with details of how he worked as a porter every few days.

His age is currently 20 years old.

But the age he first started working as a porter was only 15 years old.

‘Oh my god, from the age of 15…?’
‘He did that hard work for 5 years since he was in middle school?’

Park Hyena and Jo Hyeonchan’s noses tingled slightly.

At an age when ordinary children of the same age would be enjoying their school life by attending school or a hunter academy.

But the boy in front of them was already a 5-year veteran porter.

‘What kind of circumstances did he have….’
‘Even in difficult circumstances, he kept his purity as a man and lived hard…. That’s admirable.’

The way they looked at Han Suhyeon became much gentler.

“Don’t worry too much! Actually, I’m a D-rank hunter! I’ve cleared Goblin Gates more than twenty times!”

Park Hyena shouted confidently.

A D-rank hunter was a fairly recognized level of hunter.

To the extent that you can confidently present your business card anywhere.

It was different from the F-rank that anyone can apply for, and the E-rank that you can only apply for promotion after awakening.

You must have accumulated enough practical experience to shed the lower tier and enter the intermediate hunter level to receive the qualification to be promoted to a D-rank hunter.

From there, you had to pass the Association’s strict promotion test to be able to call yourself a D-rank hunter.

“Ah, yes. Then what about the gentleman…?”

Han Suhyeon dismissed her lightly.

‘Ah, I guess he doesn’t know much about hunters because he’s a man and it’s his first time…’

While Park Hyena was getting flustered, Jo Hyeonchan picked up the camera he had placed next to him.

“I’m a cameraman.”

Han Suhyeon tilted his head.

A cameraman? A cameraman to go to the gate. It was a bit random.

As if reading his expression, Jo Hyeonchan added an explanation.

“Ah, we are actually iTubers who mainly do gate raid content.”
“Oh. Then do you film the gate raid with a camera?”
“Yes. So I was wondering. Would it be okay to film Mr. Suhyeon a little bit inside the gate?”

Actually, they were planning to get the last person as a reaction, but a man with Han Suhyeon’s appearance was too precious to be consumed that way.

If they just put Han Suhyeon’s face on the thumbnail, they would easily get 500,000 views.

If they add tags such as #First time at the gate #Day 1 male hunter, they could even aim for 600,000 views.

“Yes, I don’t mind.”

Han Suhyeon nodded readily.

Because he had a feeling that something interesting would happen.