Chapter 30: In Despair, Becoming the Only Hope

“Even if we try to prove it’s not a manipulated video, this time they’ll say how can we know if it’s a video orchestrated by hiring people ourselves?

They accuse us of trying to frame them and pull them down, envious of the large guilds’ wealth and honor. There was no way to do anything.”

Han Yu Ri clenched her fist.

“Even if we expose it to the public, if the large guilds, the Hunter Association, and the government all cooperate to portray you as strange people, would the public believe you?

They told us to wake up from our dreams and give up. They threatened to revoke all our Hunter licenses if we caused any more trouble over this matter.”

“Why did they spare your Hunter licenses? They could have prevented Hunter Yu Ri and your colleagues from doing any Hunter activities at all.”

“That’s because they still need the power of our S-class and SA-class Hunters to protect the world. Also, even if they could win if we attacked with our full force, the damage to them would be quite large.

So they suppressed us to the extent that they didn’t turn us into complete enemies.”

“I see. Ha.”

I sighed with frustration and anger.

“That’s why I operate separately and am not affiliated with the Hunter Association. The medium-sized guilds not affiliated with the Hunter Association are all good Hunters who are opposed to them.

The Hunters who commit evil deeds have already all gone inside the Hunter Association’s city wall.”

“Even after being treated like that, even with such a power difference, you still oppose them?

Hunter Yu Ri is an S-class and the world’s only Buffer, so if you cooperated with them, you would be someone who could receive incredibly generous treatment.”

“Because I think they are not right. To protect the world safely, every single Hunter is precious, and I cannot tolerate that they grew by killing Hunters for profit.

So I can absolutely not be with them. Even if I leave Korea and go abroad, it seems the top guilds in foreign countries have also accumulated power and authority through such dirty methods.

I also don’t want to leave Korea because I want to protect Korea.”

Han Yu Ri continued speaking with anger.

“But…

In the early days of Hunters, we already lost many good Hunters due to their atrocities, and now, we simply cannot overcome the difference in wealth, power, and strength they have accumulated through their evil deeds.

Even if we were so frustrated and wronged, we believed we had to protect the world, so even if it felt bad, we had no choice but to continue cooperating with them to protect the world.”

“Did they not commit evil deeds against good Hunters after that?”

“Now they have secured sufficient power as they wished, and they also need us for clearing lower-level Gates, so they no longer attack us inside Gates.

Instead, they are controlling the Gates so that guilds not affiliated with the Hunter Association cannot enter Gates where they can obtain large amounts of magic stones.

And we don’t have the power to break that control.”

Han Yu Ri’s anger did not subside easily.

It made sense.

Because of them, they must have lost many precious colleagues senselessly in the early days, and now they are being controlled.

Han Yu Ri and other good Hunters could have become large guilds if they had played fairly.

Han Yu Ri is the world’s best S-class Buffer, and I know that other guilds not affiliated with the Hunter Association also have quite a few S-class and SA-class Hunters.

“Have they never proposed to Hunter Yu Ri to participate in evil deeds with them?”

“Yes. Never.

It seems they expanded their power by thoroughly investigating the normal behavior of high-level Hunters and only proposing to Hunters who were identified as likely to participate in evil deeds.

They probably thought that telling me wouldn’t work.

So instead of trying to win me over, they chose to kill me before my power grew larger.

It was the same for other good S-class Hunters besides me.

That’s why we didn’t know until that video was recorded.”

“We couldn’t enter any of the Gates controlled by the Hunter Association where large quantities of magic stones could be obtained.

After they took all the good Gates they wanted first, they only gave us Gates they couldn’t block because they didn’t have enough personnel.

Naturally, the amount of magic stones we could obtain was significantly insufficient, and while they were rapidly increasing the number of Hunters, we couldn’t even give Hunters decent salaries and had to increasingly lay off Hunters.

Of course, recruiting new members to increase our power further was something we couldn’t even dream of. The gap between us and them is still widening in real-time.”

Listening to Han Yu Ri, I felt sorry for their situation.

The evil guilds had now widened the power gap with the good Hunter guilds even more overwhelmingly.

All the chaebol chairmen and the government of Korea are providing enormous support to the evil large guilds, and on top of that, the evil guilds are still growing stronger in real-time through their monopoly of Gates every day.

“But why did they conceal the newly discovered Gate this time?”

I began to ask additional questions, assuming for now that Han Yu Ri’s words were true.

“The reason for that is this.”

Han Yu Ri showed me another video.

It seemed to be inside the Gate that was said to have been discovered for the first time earlier.

And inside that video, something like a splendid castle was visible.

It was a castle that was entirely red, very large and magnificent, giving an overwhelming feeling.

“A castle…?

What is this castle?”

I asked, puzzled.

Why is there such a big castle inside a Gate?

“It’s not a castle.”

Han Yu Ri said.

Huh?

This isn’t a castle?

“This is a portal.”

“What does that mean? A portal?”

I asked, not understanding Han Yu Ri’s words.

“More precisely, let’s call it a summoning headquarters. As we quickly found out by dispatching investigators while dealing with the 1st-class monster, that castle is the cause of Gates opening in our country.

It appears they are opening Gates in our country through this castle and sending out monsters from it.

Although we couldn’t fully grasp everything, some kind of operation is continuously proceeding inside this castle, and it’s speculated that stronger monsters will gradually be able to come out of the Gates as that operation progresses.

It seems the 3rd-class monster that rushed out of the Gate this time is also related to this castle.”

Han Yu Ri spoke seriously.

A building that carries out such things.

It was serious.

Then shouldn’t they destroy it immediately?

It seems 1st-class monsters also exist, and if such things can also cross over into our world, the world would be in big trouble.

“Then why did they conceal it? Shouldn’t we cooperate and quickly destroy it?”

I asked, slightly flustered.

“We think so. But… Ha…”

Han Yu Ri sighed as if frustrated.

“The large guilds like the status they currently enjoy. The power and authority they have now, standing above the government and the president, with all citizens and large corporations supporting them.”

“Yes, and?”

“When we informed them of the existence of this Gate, the Hunter Association also investigated this place. As a result, they say it cannot be breached.

So they told us not to worry about this place from now on. And then they started controlling it so that we couldn’t enter. We cannot enter that Gate anymore.”

“Does that make sense? Even if the damage is great, we have to breach it, don’t we? We can’t just leave it like that, can we?”

“They don’t tell us honestly, but we already felt it from their attitude. Why they aren’t trying to breach this place.”

“Why?”

“To breach that place, countless Hunters’ sacrifices are needed. And it is likely that if we breach that place, Gates will no longer be generated in Korea. Perhaps, that place might be generating Gates all over the planet.”

“Ah, then surely…”

“If Gates no longer open, and monsters no longer appear. Will Hunters be needed? Will the public and the government need Hunters?

Then what about the power and prestige that the large guilds, the S-class, and SA-class Hunters currently enjoy? It will all disappear. They don’t like that.”

“And they choose to leave such a dangerous building as it is?”

“They are that kind of people. Otherwise, would they have reached that position by murdering humans?

They want to enjoy everything at the highest position until humanity is destroyed by even stronger monsters coming from that Gate, whether it’s a few years from now, or if they’re lucky, a few decades from now, whenever it is, until the final moment of humanity.

That is their intention as we understand it.”

Han Yu Ri finished speaking.

Han Yu Ri and I were both angry.

Han Yu Ri knew that Kim Joon Hyuk was a bad bich from the start.

Perhaps she didn’t mention Kim Joon Hyuk’s true nature when she heard my breakup story at the cafe on the first day we met, for fear that I wouldn’t believe her.

“We are different from them. We don’t care if we lose everything we currently enjoy as S-class Hunters.

We don’t care, we just hope the world can become safe. So we want to destroy that castle. But we don’t have the power to do so.

We lack the power to break through them. The World Hunter Association will also side with the Hunter Association. Even if we inform foreign countries, there will be no forces that will believe us and support us.”

Listening to Han Yu Ri, I felt choked up.

It felt like a hopeless situation.

What on earth should we do?

Kim Joon Hyuk and the evil large guilds.

Are we just supposed to wait for the day we die, feeling the threat to our lives increasingly, while they enjoy their power until the world is ruined, leaving that red castle neglected like that?

“Then what should we do? Do the good Hunters have any plans?”

This situation felt utterly hopeless just by hearing about it.

I asked very worriedly.

“Our only hope is this.”

Han Yu Ri took something out of a drawer.

Unlike ordinary purple magic stones, it was a beautiful crystal that shone a radiant red.

“We collected some of these crystals from that Gate. They haven’t all been researched yet, but they possess incredibly strong power compared to ordinary magic stones.”

Han Yu Ri said that and placed the crystal in my hand.

I turned the crystal this way and that.

I could definitely feel that the crystal contained immense power.

“Using these crystals, we decided to develop a new rank assessment device for Mr. Geon, one that has never existed before. Perhaps then, what Mr. Geon’s hidden power is. We might be able to understand it perfectly now.”

Han Yu Ri looked into my eyes seriously and said.