17 – HGL 17

Butterfly Effect

The Hanover Soup Restaurant was empty after business hours. Eui-jae sat at a neatly wiped table, staring intently at his phone, deep in thought. The screen displayed a thread of questions and answers on KnowledgeON, with several replies and comments.

“If it’s a somewhat famous Hunter and the evidence is solid, a Bureau of Rift Management Hunter will come right away.”

Eui-jae collapsed onto the table. Damn it, the problem with South Korean civil servants was that they worked too hard. It seemed impossible to resolve this quietly if he reported it. If he reported Lee Sa-young for obstruction of business, he wouldn’t be surprised if the Director of the Awakened Management Bureau came in person.

Eui-jae frowned deeply, resting his cheek on the table and scrolling down the screen with his fingertip. The nonsensical comments below the helpful answer he had just read were mostly impossible. What? Tell them the initials? Sorry, but if he messed with that crazy brat carelessly, South Korea might be cut in half.

Being ranked number one was originally such a position. The fight between those who cursed and those who defended his every move continued endlessly. Eui-jae knew it well because he had experienced it to the point of being sick of it in the past. No matter how annoying Lee Sa-young was, he couldn’t cause a volcanic eruption on the internet just for his own convenience.

Mana Stone recorders were too expensive, and he would rather die than do an interview unless he was crazy. Eui-jae, who was scrolling down, unconsciously banged his head on the table. He was startled by the sound and checked the table, but fortunately, it didn’t crack. Eui-jae, who rubbed the spot where his forehead had touched with his hand, turned his phone over and lay down again.

‘I’m in a dilemma….’

The reason why Cha Eui-jae was so troubled was none other than…

Because of one hateful crazy brat who had stormed into his peaceful Hanover Soup Restaurant part-time life.

As a restaurant known as a Hunter hot spot, the Hanover Soup Restaurant had quite a few Guilds that prepaid. There were more than a few Hunters who insisted on paying in advance because they were too lazy to carry cards, and it was common practice because they often had to rush out without even putting down their spoons, let alone paying, when sudden calls came.

When Eui-jae first learned the job, he received the prepaid ledger as part of the handover, so prepaid payments were nothing special. However, he could guarantee that Lee Sa-young was the first crazy brat in the history of the restaurant to suddenly shove a card at him and say he would prepay fifteen million won. Seriously, what kind of dog’s name was fifteen million?

Cha Eui-jae eventually glared at Bae Won-woo, who had brought an unnecessary burden, and released a little bit of killing intent.

‘Stop this crazy brat.’

That was roughly what he meant.

But perhaps it was only Eui-jae who thought it was a little, because Bae Won-woo, who jumped about 0.5cm from his spot, was equipped with keen senses like an AI that had been system-updated, and he thoroughly dissuaded Lee Sa-young.

“Let’s pay quickly and return to the Guild. You said you were really busy.”

“I’m not particularly busy?”

“You said you had to go to the Bureau of Rift Management. Weren’t you supposed to meet Jung-bin?”

“I can postpone it.”

Lee Sa-young was nonchalant even though he was facing an interview with the Bureau of Rift Management that others would never want to do in their lives. Bae Won-woo thought it wouldn’t work and changed his strategy, subtly adding his personal desires.

“Hey, change my armor with the money you’re going to prepay fifteen million won. I heard there’s an Hong Ye-seong equipment auction in Songdo.”

“How can you buy equipment with only fifteen million? Are you a beggar?”

Wow… he’s so annoying.

Every word that came out of that hateful mouth was art. It was clear that not only Eui-jae but all the Hunters who heard the conversation in that place thought the same thing. May Lee Sa-young’s card melt away like the precious 6,900 won ladle that was heroically destroyed that night…. That was what Eui-jae was thinking as he resisted taking the card in front of him.

Bae Won-woo spread out his right hand and shouted bravely.

“…Five hundred!”

“Huh?”

“Just swipe five million. I’ll come here often for team dinners with my teammates. Fifteen million is too much.”

“Hmph.”

“With fifteen million, you can eat Hangover Soup three times a day for 333 days!”

I think I can eat enough. You’re already doing that. Lee Sa-young, who was looking at Bae Won-woo as if he was dumbfounded, glanced at Eui-jae. When Eui-jae’s eyes met his, he quickly put on the smile of a part-time worker who was tired of social life. Hurry up and swipe it and get lost. That was roughly what he meant.

Sa-young, who pretended to be thinking for a moment, soon nodded.

“Well, okay….”

That crazy brat stuck the card into the calculator and added while making eye contact with Eui-jae.

“Tell me when you’ve eaten it all. I’ll prepay again.”

Please just get lost.

In that way, Lee Sa-young swiped five million won as a prepayment, as if paying for ruining the business that day, and left more easily than expected. It was an anticlimactic farewell compared to the intense meeting. Is he going to leave like this and secretly come back at night? Eui-jae waited all night in his small room with a ladle just in case. If he saw even one hair on that crazy brat’s head, he was really going to not let it go.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the misfortune of Lee Sa-young coming back at night did not happen. Instead,

“Ssseuu, neun tteu eu tteureu euittneu.”

“Sorry, what?”

“Heujeunggeuk deugeu meujeuseujeu.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

After that day, he started coming to eat Hangover Soup every day as if he was stamping an attendance card!

Ignoring Bae Won-woo’s whispered words with gritted teeth, Lee Sa-young, who brilliantly understood only Eui-jae’s words, who was also grinding his teeth, took out a disposable spoon set from the air. This crazy brat couldn’t possibly deduct the cost of the spoons from the prepaid amount, so he started carrying his own personal spoons. Was it too much to carry the earthenware pot? You bastard. Does he have enough Inventory space?

Okay, let’s concede a hundred times that he had Inventory space left and happened to have spare disposable spoons, so he carried them around. He might have gotten a taste for Hangover Soup.

However, Eui-jae couldn’t stand the fact that the surrounding tables were completely empty every time Lee Sa-young appeared. Those Hunters, who were known for their strong egos and not listening to others, were practicing social distancing very diligently without anyone telling them to! Eui-jae let out a hollow laugh.

‘Damn it, this is clearly obstruction of business.’

The Hanover Soup Restaurant’s pride was its high turnover rate and low prices, but whenever Lee Sa-young appeared, a Lee Sa-young ZONE was created, and it was a disaster. The turnover rate was out of the question, and of course, the store’s sales plummeted. Even though they were somehow managing to keep going thanks to the heavy Hangover Soup enthusiasts…. At this rate, they would even lose their regulars.

Thanks to this, Eui-jae had recently been searching for things like “abuse of power” Hunters, laws related to reporting Hunter crimes, and the Awakened Special Act on portal sites, and finally came to a conclusion.

‘To solve this… I have to become a Hunter again or have money!’

It might seem like a sudden outburst, but Eui-jae had his own reasonable reasons.

To publicize Lee Sa-young’s atrocities, solid evidence was needed. With ambiguous testimony alone, he could face backlash for daring to smear South Korea’s number one ranked Hunter.

The most reliable way was to release a recording file containing Lee Sa-young’s misdeeds. However, as the KnowledgeON respondent said, with an ordinary recorder, he couldn’t even collect the ‘s’ of evidence against an S-rank Hunter. That’s because an S-rank Hunter is someone who can quickly recognize and destroy recorders and cameras.

In that case, he needed a recorder that was not easily damaged, made of Dungeon byproducts, or undetectable…. In fact, these items were difficult to obtain, and,

‘They’re damn expensive.’

He hadn’t really realized it when he was Hunter J, but items made from Dungeon byproducts were disgustingly expensive. Cha Eui-jae, a humble Hanover Soup Restaurant part-time worker, could never afford to buy them even if he saved money his whole life!

He was receiving only a portion of the store’s profits as his salary, just enough for his needs, and in reality, that was enough. Since there was nowhere to go anyway, he could clean and rotate a few clothes and a pair of sneakers. If Lee Sa-young hadn’t interfered in the second act of Cha Eui-jae’s life, he wouldn’t have had to worry about this.

…Should I register as a Hunter?

All he had to do was go to the Awakened Center, have his ability measured, and be assigned a rank… but what if the J data he didn’t know about remained? And even if he somehow managed to get to the ability measurement, what if he couldn’t control his power for a moment? What if the measuring device broke because he tried to hit it as weakly as possible?

At that moment, his quiet life would cross the River Jordan. It was too much for a Power Sealer. Fortunately, when he Awakened, it was before the Bureau of Rift Management started collecting detailed information about Awakened people, so he didn’t even need to forge an ID.

“If it weren’t for that crazy brat Lee Sa-young….”

Recently, Eui-jae had been vaguely understanding why other Hunters didn’t even want to approach Lee Sa-young. Lee Sa-young was a snake. A snake that roamed around its prey and slowly tightened its body.

Look at how he could openly threaten him because of what happened that night, but he kept coming to the store and subtly pressuring him. He didn’t know what he was thinking, but Lee Sa-young hadn’t asked Eui-jae his name since the first day he visited the Hanover Soup Restaurant. He didn’t even know if he had already been exposed to him or not.

Lee Sa-young’s current actions were similar to poking a quiet surface of water with a finger. The calm water could fluctuate greatly with just one small movement of the finger. Even if there was no big impact, the fact that he kept testing him like that was…

Unpleasant.

He felt like an animal whose territory had been invaded. Eui-jae, who was frowning and staring at the air, suddenly put his hand into his Inventory.

There were many empty Elixir bottles in the Inventory. All of them were used in the Incheon Rift. He had been putting off throwing them away. And the black longsword he picked up from the Rift, the Basilisk Fang. Eui-jae glared at the Basilisk Fang and turned his gaze elsewhere. Something shining was visible between the rows of Elixir bottles.

A golden gem the size of half a thumb.

It was a Mana Stone.

In the past, there was no place to use or sell Mana Stones, so they were thrown into the Inventory or somewhere in the house, but these days, Mana Stones were used a lot here and there, weren’t they? From eavesdropping on the regulars at the Hanover Soup Restaurant, it seemed that there was quite a bit of equipment made by processing Mana Stones.

“…Should I sell one?”

If I sell this, I think I can buy a pretty good recorder?

Eui-jae stealthily took out a Mana Stone from his Inventory and started wiping it clean with his apron.