By Zephyria Eui-jae, trudging towards the temporary center’s entrance, plunged his hand deep into his pocket.
‘What’s this?’
Eui-jae pulled out the hard object he had grasped and examined it. After making eye contact with the serene Buddha once more, he briefly pondered why he had shoved this into his pocket instead of the glove compartment. Eui-jae sighed softly and returned the fan to his pocket.
Upon reaching the entrance, an employee standing in front of the container greeted him kindly.
“Hello. How may I help you?”
“I’m here to register as an Awakened.”
“Please take a number from here and wait for a moment.”
Surprisingly, Min-gi Seo’s words about there being no people were true; the temporary center was occupied only by Eui-jae and the civil servants.
Eui-jae took a number from the machine, sat on a plastic chair, and checked the digital clock on the wall. 3:02 PM. The examination itself wasn’t supposed to take long, so if he moved quickly, it wouldn’t interfere with the evening business.
They’ll surely take me to the Hanover Soup Restaurant… Closing his eyes, he waited for a moment until his number was called.
“Number 93.”
Eui-jae walked to the counter and handed over his number. The employee placed the number in a plastic basket and asked,
“What brings you here?”
“I’m here to register as an Awakened.”
“Congratulations on your Awakening. How long has it been since you Awakened?”
11 years.
However, Eui-jae had to lie because telling the truth would get him arrested.
“It’s been 3 days.”
“Please give me your resident registration card and your phone number.”
Eui-jae handed over his ID and recited his phone number. As the employee entered the number, several documents printed from the adjacent printer. After verifying his identity, the employee handed over the documents and the resident registration card, providing instructions in a businesslike manner.
“Please fill out only the sections highlighted with a highlighter here. Your name, resident registration number, phone number, and address. For the skill name and description sections, please access your System information and fill them out accordingly. You don’t need to write down all your skills, but you must accurately write down at least one skill to demonstrate during the ability measurement.”
“Okay.”
“There are pens over there. Please give it back to me after you’ve filled it out.”
Eui-jae, briefly leaving the counter, settled in a secluded spot and pondered with a pen in hand. The address could be the Hanover Soup Restaurant… and personal information could be easily filled out. Thoroughly managing the personal details of Awakened was something that didn’t exist at all when J was active, so this part was rather easy.
The problem was what came next. He summoned the information window that he had deliberately avoided checking for a while.
[Accessing Cha Eui-jae’s information.]
[The amount of information is large. Summary function is supported.]
[Would you like to view the summarized content?]
[When summarizing, traits and skills will be displayed up to a maximum of 3, in order of highest proficiency.]
[Using the summary function.]
[Error!]
[Due to ■■, ■■ is not possible for some items.]
As several System notification windows overlapped and appeared, Eui-jae frowned slightly before relaxing his expression. Just because he hadn’t experienced it didn’t mean the 8 years didn’t exist, so it was the same as collecting 11 years of data.
After waiting a little longer, summarized information appeared in a white window.
[Cha Eui-jae
Hunter Name: J
Age: 2■
Gender: Male
Rank: A (Currently under a Weakening Curse.)
Traits: Basilisk’s Poison (S+), Strength Enhancement (S+), Poker Face (B)
Unique Traits: Hand of the Skilled (S+), The One Who Pierces All Things (S+), ■■■ ■■■(?)
Title: ■■■ ■■■
Skills: Eye of the Tracker (S+), Heart Piercing (S), Silent Steps (S)]
Eui-jae quickly scanned the information, then suddenly felt overwhelmed and stared into space. So, then.
‘What the hell should I write…’
Skills were like the lifeline of Hunters, and even with a low rank, having just one good skill was enough to be active as a Hunter.
As society stabilized and the status of Hunters rose, the ‘Hunter Association,’ an interest group for Hunters, argued that disclosing all skills owned by an individual violated the Personal Information Protection Act. The Awakened Management Bureau vehemently opposed this, calling it nonsense, but after a long battle, the Management Bureau had to back down. They changed the criteria so that not all skills had to be registered when registering as an Awakened.
Thanks to this, the skill section of the Awakened registration form was replaced with a single space to write down a skill that would represent the individual, the so-called representative skill.
The one skill written would become the Hunter’s signboard. Well, it wasn’t important to Eui-jae, who was going to hide his strength and identity anyway. However, he couldn’t make up something that didn’t exist since he had to demonstrate it. His eyes carefully scanned the list.
[Eye of the Tracker (S+)]
The ability to track and find other people was not a common skill. If it became known that he possessed this, he would become twice as bothered as he was now. Excluded.
[Heart Piercing (S)]
When used, it can always pierce the heart. It was also J’s signature skill. If he used this now that J had returned alive, he would be immediately caught by the Awakened Management Bureau. Excluded.
[Silent Steps (S)]
When used, it can perfectly conceal one’s presence. There’s no way a low-ranked Hunter would have such a skill. Excluded.
Even when he tried to use relatively low-ranked skills, they were all ambiguous. At this point, the only option was to use his imagination and lie appropriately. The problem was that his imagination was at a terrible level.
‘…What’s something that’s not too noticeable and easy to get away with?’
Eui-jae was good at beating people up and enduring like hell. But he couldn’t beat people up as his representative skill… After much deliberation, Eui-jae finally wrote down a skill.
Tough (D)
Strengthens the body to become tough.
‘First, get hit. And then insist that it’s because I used the skill to become tough.’
All he had was a tough body and resilience. He would become a Tanker while he was at it.
Choi Seok-yoon, a C-rank Hunter belonging to the Awakened Management Bureau. He was assigned to work at the Gwangjin-gu Temporary Awakened Registration Center because he was a newbie.
It was nice that there was little work because it was a temporary center and he would soon be transferred to the main building… but it was so boring because there was too little to do. Recently, he had even binge-watched an entire season of a drama during work hours. If there were no special events today, he would probably be able to finish another season.
Ding-dong.
Choi Seok-yoon, who had been yawning widely with the video screen showing the play button paused, was startled by the long-awaited notification sound and checked the monitor. It seemed that someone was finally coming to have their ability measured. He cleared his throat and raised his voice.
“Oh, come in.”
The person who opened the door and entered was a tall young man wearing a gray hoodie. The young man approached Choi Seok-yoon without hesitation and handed over the documents. His movements were so straightforward that Choi Seok-yoon was rather taken aback. He was briefly flustered before checking the documents.
‘Name, Cha Eui-jae. Age, twenty-eight. The skill is… Tough? What kind of skill name is that.’
Choi Seok-yoon chuckled without realizing it. Well, even if you just browsed Hunter Net a little, there were quite a few people with ridiculous skills. He scratched his temple with a pen and asked.
“Judging from the skill description, it seems to be a Tanker-type skill that increases defense, is that correct?”
“I think so, but I’m not really… sure.”
The young man trailed off. His voice lacked confidence, which was completely different from the bold movements he had shown when he first entered. Choi Seok-yoon glanced at the young man before examining the documents.
‘Awakening date is… 3 days ago? Then that’s understandable.’
If it was a self-enhancement buff, it would be difficult to feel it even if he used it alone. It wasn’t an attack skill either. Choi Seok-yoon nodded and stood up from his seat.
“Just a moment.”
He took out a Dummy doll that was placed in the corner and turned it on. The Dummy doll, which looked like a wooden mannequin, creaked and stood at attention. Seok-yoon handed the Dummy doll a wooden sword and gestured to Eui-jae.
“You just need to get hit while using your skill. The impact will be inflicted with the average attack power of a D-rank Awakened, is that okay with you?”
“Yes.”
“If it hurts too much after getting hit, you must! Tell me. I’ll give you a recovery Elixir.”
“Yes.”
The young man’s voice still felt a little timid, but considering that he was about to be beaten by a Dummy doll, this level of calmness was quite impressive. Choi Seok-yoon was secretly impressed.
‘His composure is amazing… Tankers are valuable, so small to medium-sized Guilds might take him right away.’
And Cha Eui-jae was….
‘Use the skill so that you don’t take a big hit, but still act like it hurts.’
He was preparing for a Hollywood-style performance.
“Did you use your skill?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll start.”
As Choi Seok-yoon pressed the button, the doll raised the wooden sword high and charged towards Eui-jae. It looked terribly slow to Eui-jae, but he couldn’t avoid it. Eui-jae rolled his eyes, following the slowly descending trajectory of the wooden sword. It’ll be the shoulder at this rate. As he expected, the moment the wooden sword struck his left shoulder,
‘Ah, wait.’
Crack!!
Hearing an unusual sound, Eui-jae sensed it. Something was terribly wrong. What he had expected was not something this light, but a more weighty blow. His uneasy gaze hesitantly turned towards the air.
No way, the wooden sword that should have stopped after touching his shoulder was…
‘I’m screwed.’
It was flying into the air, broken in half.