I Became The Rankers’ Number One Pick [EN]: Chapter 153

153.

He was also the boss monster we encountered in the raid a while ago.

Seeing him again in such an unexpected place after only a few days was surprising.

“So, sorry.”

Seo-ah tried to pass by quickly, but Jackson spoke to her.

“Oh, you. I saw you on TV.”

“Yes…?”

“Park Seo-ah Hunter, right? The one who recently awakened as an S-class.”

This was the Hunter Lounge, and it would be ridiculous to deny it here. Seo-ah readily admitted.

“Yes, that’s me. And you are….”

“Oscar Jackson, at your service, beautiful Hunter. I wanted to meet you while I was in Korea, and here we are.”

He greeted her with a gentle smile.

It was a charming smile, but it didn’t work on Seo-ah for several reasons.

“Yes, nice to meet you. Then, I’ll be going….”

Seo-ah stuttered in English and tried to hurry past, but suddenly he grabbed her arm.

“Wait a minute!”

“Ah!”

Seo-ah was startled and pulled her arm away, but immediately regretted it.

She realized she had overreacted.

Of course, considering the context, it was clearly rude of him to grab her arm… but to argue about it, the other party was the world’s number one ranked hunter.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I wanted to talk a little more, so I was rude.”

For a moment, she worried if she would turn into an ice statue, but thankfully, he was still polite.

Nevertheless, seeing him overlap with the boss monster ‘Oscar Jackson’ from inside the gate made it a bit awkward.

“Yes, what is it?”

“I’d like to invite you to the United States soon….”

“What are you doing here.”

Just as Jackson was about to get to the point, Yoo Ji-an’s voice suddenly cut in from behind Seo-ah.

“Eek!”

With her feelings for Yoo Ji-an still unresolved, Seo-ah was even more surprised than when Jackson had grabbed her earlier.

“Park… Seo-ah?”

This time, Yoo Ji-an also looked a little embarrassed. Seo-ah quickly apologized.

“I, I’m sorry! I was just surprised…!”

“Come here.”

Yoo Ji-an gestured for her to come to him, ignoring Seo-ah’s reaction. His atmosphere was unusual.

“Ah… yes.”

Seo-ah glanced at Jackson and moved towards Yoo Ji-an. At that moment, Seo-ah briefly saw Jackson’s expression turn frighteningly cold before returning to a gentle one.

‘What, what was that?’

Yoo Ji-an protectively moved Seo-ah behind him.

Jackson greeted Yoo Ji-an with a subtle smile.

“Yoo Ji-an Hunter, long time no see.”

“I heard you came to Korea, but I didn’t expect to see you here.”

Seo-ah mouthed ‘Oh’ from behind. Yoo Ji-an’s English was quite fluent.

She couldn’t imagine him studying English conversation separately, so this must be a passive skill from his fourth life.

“The Korean government invited me. But I’m sorry, I’m personally interested in Park Seo-ah Hunter right now. Would you excuse us for a moment?”

“Drop that interest.”

Yoo Ji-an’s energy instantly sharpened.

“Oh, dear.”

Jackson feigned surprise, raised both hands, and stepped back.

“Yoo Ji-an Hunter, if we fight here, Seoul will be devastated.”

“Don’t worry, it won’t take long to take your head in this district.”

“Oh my, you’re still the same. Still hasty… still arrogant.”

Oscar Jackson muttered, glared sharply at Yoo Ji-an, then shrugged his shoulders.

“I have no choice, I can’t fight as a guest.”

Then he glanced at Park Seo-ah behind Yoo Ji-an. Park Seo-ah was looking at Yoo Ji-an with a worried expression.

Seeing that, Jackson faintly raised the corner of his lips and asked.

“By the way, is Park Seo-ah Hunter your lover, Yoo Ji-an Hunter?”

“Ah, no… that.”

Seo-ah’s face turned red, and she quickly shook her head.

Yoo Ji-an also glanced at Seo-ah with wavering eyes, then hesitated and opened his mouth very slowly.

“We’re not… lovers.”

Oscar Jackson smiled brightly, as if relieved.

“I see, well then… Park Seo-ah Hunter. I’ll formally make an appointment next time. I apologize for today.”

“…….”

Seo-ah didn’t answer, and Jackson passed them by leisurely.

Jackson entered the VVIP room here. He and his party must have made a reservation in advance.

After Jackson left, Yoo Ji-an turned around and looked Seo-ah up and down.

“What did that guy do to you?”

“Uh, he didn’t really do anything. I just bumped into him, and when I apologized and tried to pass by, he suddenly grabbed my arm….”

“Arm?”

Yoo Ji-an immediately grabbed Seo-ah’s wrist and examined it. He only let go with relief after seeing that there were no marks.

Seo-ah was dying.

‘My… my heart feels like it’s going to explode.’

From earlier on, Yoo Ji-an’s caring heart had been flowing to her, and she didn’t know how to react at all.

He wasn’t saying anything, so she couldn’t pretend to know, but it was also quite difficult to ignore his actions.

She didn’t know why her [Emotional Transference] was reacting so sensitively today. It wasn’t usually this intense.

“Let’s go inside.”

Fortunately, Yoo Ji-an led her back to the room, allowing her to breathe a sigh of relief. But the reality of being alone with him remained.

Seo-ah sat back at the table and picked up her spoon. It was a little cold, but the food was still edible.

She had to eat it, considering the effort that went into preparing it.

‘But this atmosphere….’

Seo-ah looked up and met Yoo Ji-an’s gaze, which was fixed on her, and she buried her face back in her plate. As she did, she barely managed to come up with a topic of conversation.

“You, you don’t seem to get along with Jackson very well.”

“Yeah. It’s not that we don’t get along… it’s more like I’m constantly holding back the urge to kill him.”

Seo-ah’s eyes widened at Yoo Ji-an’s blunt answer.

He definitely wasn’t joking. Yoo Ji-an wasn’t the type to joke about something like that.

World rankings weren’t necessarily a measure of pure strength, but Yoo Ji-an was ranked 3rd, and Jackson was ranked 1st. Yet Yoo Ji-an spoke so casually about Jackson, as if he was holding back.

And Seo-ah didn’t think it was just a bluff.

“Why? What happened?”

“Nothing yet, at least not in this life.”

“Then….”

Did that mean something had happened in a previous life?

As Seo-ah stared blankly, Yoo Ji-an leaned back in his chair and put down the glass of water he was drinking.

“In the first timeline, that guy caused the annihilation of Korean hunters.”

Seo-ah put down the spoon she was eating with and looked at Yoo Ji-an, surprised by the serious story.

“Annihilation…?”

“Yeah, he used Korean hunters as shields when the Legend Gate opened in Guam. At that time, he waited without sending the promised support troops, until all the Korean hunters were dead.”

“That’s… oh my god.”

Yoo Ji-an spoke calmly, as if telling a story from another world, and looked out the window. It was slowly getting dark outside.

‘Well, it is another world. Because the spacetime is different.’

“As he wished, all the hunters except me died that day. Baek Eun-hee, Cha Tae-woon, all the well-known hunters died on that island.”

“And, and what happened then?”

“The guys who arrived late attacked me when they saw I was alive, and I went berserk in response.”

Seo-ah knew what happened when Yoo Ji-an went berserk, having experienced it herself. She listened to his words with tension.

“When I came to my senses afterward, there was nothing alive on that island….”

Yoo Ji-an trailed off and fiddled with the glass.

“S-class monsters poured out of the gate. That was the end.”

The meaning of ‘the end’ was that Yoo Ji-an had died to those S-class monsters.

“That’s….”

She didn’t know what to say and only moved her lips, but Yoo Ji-an chuckled.

“You don’t have to react like that, it’s something I barely remember now.”

“After that… the Earth must have been destroyed.”

Seo-ah had never actually seen an S-class monster.

Even Jackson, whom she met in the temporary gate, was an S-class hunter, but the monster grade recorded on the state checker was A-class.

Like hunter grades, monsters also came out as S-class if they deviated from certain criteria, so it was impossible to gauge their strength.

But not just one, but several of those entities poured out, and all the world’s top hunters who could stop them died on that island, so they couldn’t have stopped them in the end.

“Maybe.”

Yoo Ji-an brought the glass of water back to his mouth.

Watching the water flow into his lips, Seo-ah felt her own mouth dry, so she picked up her cup and took a sip.