I Became The Rankers’ Number One Pick [EN]: Chapter 15

15.

Silence hung in the air. Geon-woo nodded, looking dazed.

“I see… I have cancer…”

“It’s okay. They said it can be cured with treatment and surgery.”

She decided to hold off on mentioning the liver transplant for now.

“But, Sis, where will you get the money? We’ve canceled all our insurance policies.”

“Hey, Park Geon-woo! Why are you worrying about that!”

Seo-ah raised her voice and lightly smacked Geon-woo on the back.

“Ow, ouch! I’m a patient!”

“Don’t worry! I have a plan. Just focus on getting better.”

“…How could you possibly… Ah, okay. I understand.”

“Is there anything you need? I’ll bring it next time I come.”

“Something I need… a game console?”

Geon-woo cautiously glanced at her, and Seo-ah smiled wryly.

“Okay, I’ll bring it next time. I should get going now. I’ll come again in a few days.”

Fortunately, this hospital provided both nursing and care, so a guardian didn’t need to be constantly present, nor did they need to hire a separate caregiver.

Seo-ah went down to the administration office and paid the overdue hospital bills with the money she had earned from the raid.

It was an amount she would normally have to work an entire month to earn. Even this amount would be considered pocket change in the world of Hunters.

Still, the fact that she had started working as a Hunter was a secret from Geon-woo. Otherwise, how much of a burden would it be on his young mind?

“Since he needs to undergo more chemotherapy and then surgery anyway… and we have to find a matching liver.”

Geon-woo’s illness was liver cancer, and according to the doctor, it was on the verge of spreading to surrounding organs, so they needed to reduce the scope with chemotherapy first.

She could only hope that they would find a matching liver in the meantime. And of course, she had to save money too.

“Let’s do our best, fighting!” [A Korean expression of encouragement, like ‘Let’s go!’]

Seo-ah steeled her resolve and headed home.

* * *

Drrr-

The next morning, the cell phone that had been lying on the desk vibrated.

Seo-ah looked at the phone screen with a toothbrush in her mouth.

“Who is it? An unknown number.”

[Tomorrow by 10 AM, at the Sun Guild Office]

After seeing the message, she seemed to know who it was.

“It’s Yoo Ji-an.”

The message content was just like her.

Seo-ah turned her phone face down again and headed to the bathroom.

* * *

Cha Tae-woon, the chairman of the Hunter Association, was sitting in the chairman’s office for the first time in a long while. His neatly combed-back hair with pomade and his towering height of nearly 2 meters [approximately 6 feet 7 inches] made him stand out wherever he went.

It was extremely rare for him to be manning the desk like this. His massive frame didn’t quite fit with the desk.

Cha Tae-woon was the chairman of the association and, at the same time, the association’s only S-class Hunter. He was always busy handling the gates that each guild was reluctant to take on.

Cha Tae-woon frowned as he read Kim Jeong-soo’s report.

“What is this nonsense?”

Cha Tae-woon carefully examined it again to make sure he hadn’t misread it.

“Why would S-class Hunters like Yoo Ji-an and Baek Eun-hee enter a D-class gate?”

“Well, that’s…”

Cha Tae-woon slammed the file down.

“Furthermore, there was a disappearance in that gate, with as many as four people missing. A death in a D-class gate that even an S-class Hunter went to.”

A disappearance in a gate meant death. What that meant was clear.

It meant that the S-class Hunters had either condoned their accident or killed them directly. If it was the former, they couldn’t be held responsible, but if it was the latter, the story would be different.

“Yes, so we didn’t know how to handle it and brought it to the chairman.”

Kim Jeong-soo and Oh Hyeon-soo stood in front of the desk, looking at Cha Tae-woon with nervous expressions.

Of course, accidents could happen at any time inside a gate, and people could die.

Even if someone died in a battle between Hunters, it was treated differently from murder in general society.

However, that didn’t mean it would always pass without any consequences.

Hunters were even more dangerous if they were criminals, so the association would arrest them and impose sanctions. Of course, that was only for the mediocre Hunters.

It was impossible to restrain even an S-class Hunter.

If they decided to commit massacres, there was virtually no way to stop them. Fortunately, there weren’t many such cases reported worldwide. Rather, mid- to low-level Hunters caused more accidents.

Basically, Hunters had a strong hunting instinct for monsters, so they weren’t very interested in the lives and deaths of other humans.

That didn’t mean they were easy to deal with.

It was clear that they were capricious and difficult to handle.

The fact that each country catered to the whims of S-class Hunters to prevent them from exploding also contributed to preventing major accidents.

“What’s the reason? There’s no way an S-class Hunter would do something like that without a reason. Moreover, both of them at the same time.”

There was more than one strange thing. Baek Eun-hee and Yoo Ji-an went into a low-level gate together and caused an accident?

And they didn’t fight each other but killed the small fries?

“We haven’t heard the details yet, so we can’t be sure, but it seems to be because of Hunter Park Seo-ah.”

At Kim Jeong-soo’s words, Cha Tae-woon glanced down at the documents.

“Park Seo-ah, now that you mention it, she’s been mentioned throughout the report. An E-class Healer, you say.”

“Yes, the three of them met here on the day the chairman was away.”

“And luckily, nothing happened that day.”

“Yes, they even left on friendly terms.”

Thump-

Cha Tae-woon slammed his palm on the desk. The office shook with the light motion. But fortunately, the desk was fine.

This was because Cha Tae-woon’s desk was a weapon that had been reinforced and reinforced in anticipation of such an event.

Thanks to that, it could withstand this level of impact.

Instead of Kim Jeong-soo, a terrified ordinary person, Oh Hyeon-soo explained instead.

Oh Hyeon-soo was the first to meet Park Seo-ah at the association.

“As you’ve already seen, she’s an ordinary E-class Healer. It seems she awakened quite a while ago, but there’s no record of her activities. She only recently registered with the association.”

“But why would those great figures be interested in a mere E-class Healer? Enough to follow her into a D-class gate.”

Oh Hyeon-soo and Kim Jeong-soo simultaneously became tight-lipped. They were also in the conference room that day, but they still didn’t know the real reason.

Cha Tae-woon paused, lost in thought.

“You both don’t know the reason either, do you.”

“Yes, but we do know that Hunter Park Seo-ah has agreed to alternate between the Sun Guild and the Royal Guild for raids. Because of that, they’re placing advance payments to reserve her first when a B-class or higher gate appears.”

“Can I meet her once?”

“The chairman? Hunter Yoo Ji-an?”

Kim Jeong-soo mentioned Yoo Ji-an as if it were obvious, and Cha Tae-woon shook his head.

“No, I should meet that Hunter Park Seo-ah once.”

Kim Jeong-soo and Oh Hyeon-soo looked at each other for a moment, and Oh Hyeon-soo hurriedly answered first.

“Yes, but why do you want to meet her specifically…?”

“There must be a reason why those two S-class Hunters are acting like that. Who knows if she’s being threatened to take a mere E-class Hunter to an upper-level gate.”

Threatened. He didn’t get that feeling, but you never know.

“Yes, I understand, Chairman.”

Oh Hyeon-soo answered first, and then Kim Jeong-soo asked.

“What should we do about the D-class gate incident?”

“Since it’s a fact that the two S-class Hunters were involved in this disappearance, let’s wrap it up by imposing fines on each guild. Write a report of the circumstances appropriately. Looking at those missing Hunters, they seem to be the worst of the worst. There are several lower-level Hunters who have been harmed by them.”

“Yes, I understand.”

* * *

“Ah, am I going to be late?”

With a large backpack on her back, Seo-ah hurriedly shoved her shoes on and ran outside.

She was supposed to go to the Sun Guild office by 10 AM today. But the departure time was already 9:30. She had overslept without hearing the alarm.

“Oh.”

But there was an unfamiliar car parked in front of the alley. It was a blue sports car that didn’t quite fit in this old neighborhood.

Seo-ah just passed by the car. Of course, she thought it had nothing to do with her.

Honk honk-

But then the horn sounded. Looking back, a person with bright yellow hair and sunglasses leaned out of the lowered window and waved.

“Hunter Park Seo-ah!”

“The Sun Guild’s Guild Master?”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s Han Seok-hyun. Get in quickly!”

“Gasp.”

Seo-ah glanced around and quickly got into the passenger seat. The car was too flashy, and she was afraid people would see her.

The car started smoothly without a sound.

It looked like an ordinary expensive car from the outside, but the inside was completely different. Complex patterns were engraved everywhere, and there were many small buttons.

It seemed to be a vehicle modified for Hunters.

Afraid of accidentally touching something, Seo-ah placed her hands neatly on her lap and just rolled her eyes around.

Would they ever enter a gate in this car?

“How did you come all the way here?”

“I came after seeing the address you wrote on the documents.”

“So, why bother…?”

“Ji-an said that Hunter Park Seo-ah would be training at our Sun Guild starting today, isn’t that right?”

Han Seok-hyun asked with a puzzled expression, and Seo-ah nodded.

“Ah, that’s right. Still, there was no need for the Guild Master to come pick me up in person. Of course, I’m grateful.”

She felt a hundred times more burdened, but she didn’t leave out the words of gratitude.

“Hmm, Ji-an couldn’t come because she had an urgent matter requiring support.”

“Yes?”