Chapter 9: Hunters Association (2)

The civil servant (in charge civil servant), who had fallen like a pig rolling in mud, immediately started to cry.

“Ugh…! Sob, sob…! Wh-What are you!”

‘This guy is crying.’

Hiding my inner thoughts, I approached the civil servant, pretending to be genuinely flustered.

“A-Are you okay?”

Civil servants from nearby desks immediately gathered around.

“What’s going on?!”

“The desk disappeared for a moment!”

Because it was a built-in desk, they also saw the desk disappear, and they had no choice but to come over because of the commotion that followed immediately.

“What’s all this commotion!”

When a harsh voice rang out, the surrounding civil servants flinched.

“M-Manager!”

A haggard-looking middle-aged woman walked out from between the people who parted like the parting of the Red Sea.

I don’t know if I should say this to a woman, but she had the typical face of a cuckold. (meaning a man who is taken advantage of by his wife)

She meant she looked good at doing housework… ahem. She looks good at housework.

It seems that that person is the highest-ranking person here.

‘I can use this.’

I ran to the woman called the manager and held her hand tightly.

I moved my tear glands and facial muscles to act out a pathetic expression that stimulates the desire for protection.

“Th-That’s… The civil servant asked me what kind of skill I had awakened… I thought it would be better to show him directly. So I just used the skill, but I didn’t know he would fall like that…!”

“I understand, first…”

“I-I’m serious…!”

When I leaned my body slightly forward, the collarbone between the neckline of the T-shirt was emphasized.

A man’s instinct. No, in this world, a woman’s instinct, the manager’s gaze naturally went to my chest.

What the hell is this guy doing?

I’m sorry, but this is what men do in this world.

Since I’ve come to a gender-reversed world.

I have to use as many weapons as I can.

The manager was startled when she saw the sight, and then her eyes widened as if they were about to tear as she looked at my face.

“Ahem, ahem…! I-I understand for now. Ahem. Ahem.”

‘F*ck, don’t blush.’

It’s fine if a pretty person is embarrassed, but please think about my mental health, who is doing this to a wrinkled old lady.

“D-Don’t lie! Huf…! You clearly did that on purpose! You even stepped on my head! Huuung…!”

The civil servant in charge continued to cry and scream as if having a seizure.

‘Well, it’s not entirely wrong…’

“Seonu! What’s with the ‘bullsh*t’! You shouldn’t use such words while dealing with people!”

“That’s right, Seonu. No matter what, swearing is a bit much.”

“He seems to have really wanted to show his skill with a pure heart. Isn’t Seonu being too harsh?”

Starting with the manager’s initiative, the surrounding civil servants, emboldened by the manager’s momentum, began to speak their minds one by one.

” …Are you okay? You must have been very surprised. Please come over here and rest for a moment.”

“I’m sorry. We didn’t educate him properly. Hehe. We’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again. Are you uncomfortable anywhere?”

I entrusted my body to a comfortable-looking chair according to the manager’s touch.

The female civil servants, who had been criticizing the civil servant in charge until just now, were very sweet to me.

I also heard gossip from around.

“Tsk. I knew that Kang Seonu would cause trouble someday.”

“Right. He was hired because of the male quota, but his work performance is low and he keeps doing memi things. He’s causing me a lot of stress.” (cicada behavior, memi actions, likely referring to actions similar to those of incels or men’s rights activists)

“There have been complaints about Kang Seonu’s poor customer service. Does the crazy guy think his d*ck is power? He should know when to stop.”

“I’m sorry, but d*ck is power. But there’s a difference between powers. If Kang Seonu is a baron, that handsome guy is an emperor. Ha, when will I ever meet a man like that?”

‘Yeah, you should have acted properly in the first place.’

Hearing the gossip that poured out as if they had been waiting for this day, I thought that his usual behavior must have been very bad.

“No! Huff, huff…! I’m really innocent!!!”

“Sigh… He’s at it again. You two, take Seonu and comfort him.”

“Don’t touch my body! Don’t touch me!”

“Oh, c’mon, Seonu! What woman would want to touch you! Stop it!”

“…Sob, sob…! Waaaaah!”

At the manager’s command, other civil servants dragged Kang Seonu away on the floor.

A woman can move that heavy-looking lump of fat.

As expected of a gender-reversed world. It seems that women are stronger than men when viewed as ordinary people.

“I’m sorry. I apologize on behalf of Mr. Kang Seonu. I am Eun Yuhye, the manager in charge of hunters at the Hunter Association. May I ask your name…”

“My name is Han Suhyeon. I came to apply for promotion to an E-rank hunter.”

Then someone shouted from around.

“Ah! Then the desk disappearing earlier, was it possibly…?”

“The desk disappeared? What are you talking about? The desk is here…? Huh?”

It seems that Eun Manager only noticed that the desk had disappeared then.

Snap!

When I snapped my fingers. The desk reappeared in reality.

“Gasp!”

Eun Manager was startled and touched the desk that suddenly appeared.

“W-What is this…”

When I approached the desk and touched it, the desk disappeared in an instant.

I can use the inventory even if I don’t touch the object I want to put in the inventory, but this was a kind of deception.

If you deceive the activation condition, you can make the opponent let their guard down at an important moment.

Eun Manager waved her arm in the place where the desk was to check if the desk had really disappeared.

“Huh… It’s not transparency, what is this…”

“It’s the skill I awakened. It’s the ability to store the objects I want in subspace when I grab them with my hand. And if I snap my fingers like this…”

When I snapped my fingers again, the desk reappeared in reality.

“Like this, I can take out the stored items again.”

Eun Manager stared at the desk with a dazed look and lost in deep thought.

“…I’ve never heard of anyone awakening such a skill. It seems that Mr. Han Suhyeon is a special awakened one.”

“A special awakened one?”

“Yes. Generally, awakened ones are divided into two categories. Physical awakened ones who have obtained skills that strengthen the body, and mental awakened ones who have obtained skills such as magic or psychic powers. But very rarely, awakened ones who do not belong to these two categories appear.”

Eun Manager sighed for a moment.

“The skills of special awakened ones are often things that make you wonder why they even exist. There is a very low probability that good skills will come out, but… most of them are useless skills, from skills that make you drink water faster to skills that can determine whether you are a virgin or not. In the past, there was a woman who was mistaken for a molester because of a skill called filming, anyway.”

Eun Manager’s eyes sparkled and she grabbed my shoulder.

“Mr. Han Suhyeon’s skill is on a different level from those kinds of skills, it has tremendous potential. Enough to cause a seismic change in the hunter industry.”

Most of the special awakened ones awakened unnecessary skills that were irrelevant whether they existed or not.

Moreover, their numbers were very small, so the Association did not pay much attention to them.

In fact, they were only registered as awakened ones and then neglected.

Because it was much more profitable to spend time on ordinary awakened ones than to care about them.

But Han Suhyeon was different.

His skill was too heterogeneous compared to other special awakened ones, and it had infinite potential.

Eun Manager set a hunter promotion test schedule with Han Suhyeon three days later, saw him off as he left the Association, and headed to the smoking area outside the building.

“Manager, is the skill that person awakened really that good?”

Eun Manager sighed as she looked at her subordinate who asked a stupid question.

“Hey. Mr. Han Suhyeon is a large ship.”

“…Manager. Are you okay? Mr. Han Suhyeon is not a ship floating on the sea, but a person walking on land.”

“Oh, you idiot. That’s not what I meant. That skill. The skill. The one Mr. Han Suhyeon called Inventory. You saw the desk disappear earlier, right?”

“Ah, yes.”

Eun Manager lit a cigarette and said.

“Hey. How long does it take for a gate to close after hunters raid it?”

“Um… Isn’t it a little less than 2 hours?”

“Yeah. 2 hours. The gate closes in just 2 hours after the raid. Because of that, we can’t completely collect the monster corpses, and the loss is enormous, right?”

Monsters are money.

Monster byproducts, including mana cores, can be made into all kinds of weapons and armor.

And they can also be made into accessories or luxury goods such as rings, necklaces, wallets, and watches.

Even cosmetics are made with added monster byproducts.

Because products containing monster byproducts were far superior to ordinary products in every way.

Monster byproducts are even attracting attention as a new energy source.

Because of that, monsters have always been one of the main reasons for gate raids.

“Yes. So even the monster collection teams of large guilds can only collect 50% of the monsters defeated inside the gate, right?”

“That’s right. Most machines can’t be used inside the gate, so we use manpower. Large guilds put hunters in the collection team, so they can at least recover 50%.”

There was no way ordinary people could collect the corpses of those huge monsters without the help of machines.

Because of that, large guilds put a lot of effort into the collection team, comparable to the raid team.

Especially the two so-called top two guilds in Korea.

Yeonseong Guild, which achieved 6th place in the world guild ranking and 1st place in Korea.

Hwanggeumhyang Guild, 9th in the world ranking and 2nd in Korea.

These two places filled the collection team entirely with B-rank or higher hunters and uniquely achieved a 60% recovery rate.

“…Huh? But Mr. Han Suhyeon can just touch it… Ah!”

Eun Manager exhaled as she looked at her subordinate who finally realized Han Suhyeon’s value.

The pungent cigarette smoke scattered.

“We’ll have to check it out in three days, but if Mr. Han Suhyeon’s skill works on monster corpses…”

All the guilds in Korea.

No, the whole world will try to get him.

So.

Before others realize his value.

“We, the Hunter Association, will take Han Suhyeon.”

Even if his skill doesn’t work on monsters, his value doesn’t change.

His skill will lead to a revolution in logistics distribution.

Eun Manager stubbed out her cigarette and looked down at the building.

“…!”

Her eyes met Han Suhyeon’s.

Why? He should have left a long time ago?

He, who I thought had long since left the Association, was looking directly at Eun Manager with a strange smile.

It was a distance of hundreds of meters, but he had the look of someone who had heard every word of the conversation just now.

Han Suhyeon turned around again and disappeared into the distance, becoming a dot.