NOVEL ONLINE FREE #082
#082
A plausible assumption suddenly occurred to him. In the past, he would have just ignored it, but recently Yoon Pa-ran had developed a slight sense of caution. It seemed to be because there was a big pervert nearby.
And also, for some reason, he felt a completely different level of aversion compared to when Dan Joo-hyuk did such things.
“Don’t come any closer. I’m warning you.”
Yoon Pa-ran sternly warned, holding up the pack of diapers like a shield. Being a civilian, he couldn’t just beat him up to get rid of him, which was quite troublesome.
“Ha. You don’t seem to understand how serious this is. If Dan Joo-hyuk finds out about us…”
“Shut up. Don’t ever come looking for me again.”
Feeling annoyed, Yoon Pa-ran leapt away.
In an instant, he escaped from the deserted alley and ran quickly towards the orphanage.
“Hunter Yoon Pa-ran…!”
The voice heard from behind still gave him the creeps. It was as if the cold winter air, which he hadn’t properly felt until now, was brushing against the nape of his neck.
Shuddering, Yoon Pa-ran turned onto the main street. As he ran frantically avoiding people, he strangely noticed irritating things here and there.
Aren’t there a lot of black cars?
Dan Joo-hyuk came to mind briefly again, but he was in Russia. Judging that he had a bad feeling about this, Yoon Pa-ran immediately kicked off the ground.
He moved by stepping on the walls of houses in the residential area, leaving the road. His movements were incredibly agile, disregarding the mountain of luggage he was carrying.
“Hah……”
His frown wouldn’t ease due to the series of unpleasant events in various ways.
Indeed, since he was in a foul mood, he should stay at the orphanage for a while and not come out.
❖ ❖ ❖
Shortly after Yoon Pa-ran leapt away and disappeared, men in black suits swarmed into the alley.
“We, we lost him.”
“You idiots! Couldn’t even stop one person!”
Secretary Kang, who had been wandering the alley, shouted angrily at them. For some reason, he couldn’t contain the anger boiling inside him.
As if, it had reached a critical point.
“But, but how could I stop a hunter jumping across rooftops?”
The subordinate in charge of tracking stepped forward and made excuses. Secretary Kang dismissed the nonsense of his subordinate No Won-min with an angry tone.
“You call that an excuse, you bastard!”
Unable to control his anger, he even swung his fist at No Won-min.
“Ugh.”
The arm that hit No Won-min’s face squarely had excessive force behind it.
Not satisfied with just that, Secretary Kang lost his reason and started shouting wildly.
“Aaaagh!”
At Secretary Kang’s sudden abnormal behavior, the subordinates exchanged tense glances.
“……”
“……”
Originally, they had a next plan too. They never thought Yoon Pa-ran would be persuaded at once.
The person who knew this best was clearly Secretary Kang, yet he continued to go berserk. Screaming like a madman, he even tried to bash his head against the alley wall.
“Se-Secretary! Please calm down.”
“Do I look calm right now!”
No Won-min and the other subordinates all rushed to restrain him. However, Secretary Kang shook them all off.
It was an incredibly strange, tremendous strength.
“Ugh.”
“Urgh!”
As the subordinates fell to the ground with painful groans, Secretary Kang’s vision turned from red to black.
Just as he felt his reason snap strangely,
“Huff, huff.”
He was suddenly standing in front of a black river.
“Where is……”
This?
His own rough breathing echoed in his ears. Confused, Secretary Kang looked around frantically. With each turn, the streetlights blurred in his rapidly changing vision.
It was already the middle of a dark night. He was standing on a bridge over the Han River where no cars were passing, perhaps due to the late hour.
“What is this……”
Just a moment ago, the sun had been setting. The many subordinates who had been trying to restrain him were nowhere to be seen.
It was bizarre. It felt like the center of his memory had been cut out.
Urgently, with trembling hands, Secretary Kang felt all over his body. He was strangely cold, unbearably so.
“Cold……”
His lips trembled and white breath escaped. Though it was winter, the breath was unusually thick.
As if his soul was leaking out of his mouth.
―Grrrr.
Just then, an ominous growl was heard from behind.
“Huff!”
When he turned around, a monster as big as a house was standing right there. As if it had suddenly appeared in the empty space where there had been nothing just a moment ago when he looked back.
Did a gate break occur nearby? The monster, seemingly having spotted him, slowly approached one step at a time.
“D-don’t come…!”
Confused, Secretary Kang stepped backwards. His eyeballs rolled incessantly in all directions, searching for a way out.
Suddenly, something caught his eye. Without time to think, he turned his body and leapt towards where he had seen a gray glint just a moment ago.
What he crossed over was the railing of the Han River bridge.
“Aaaaaargh!”
Finally, with a splash, only cold ripples spread on the river’s surface.
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▷(Breaking) Hunter Dan Joo-hyuk solves unprecedented SS-grade gate… “Russia’s benefactor”
｜Posted 20XX.12.04 04:42 AM (Original article)
｜Reporter Kim Myung-gu
(Photo)
[Hunter Dan Joo-hyuk shaking hands with the Russian Tsar after emerging from the SS-grade gate. (Photo=Neulbom Daily)]
The SS-grade gate in Russia, which had shown unprecedented observation results, was successfully conquered at 22:00 local time on the 3rd.
Contrary to earlier predictions, the time taken for the gate conquest was 4 days. Sources say this is entirely due to the efforts of S-grade hunter Dan Joo-hyuk.
It is known that Hunter Dan Joo-hyuk has acquired priority rights for two items from this gate. The world’s attention is focused on whether one of them might be the world’s first SS-grade item.
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｜Comments (441,004)
ID475937: This is the status of a country that has Dan Joo-hyuk.
└ID192837: This is the savior of Russia
└ID076673: Ah, SS-grade gate? That’s just a piece of cake.
└ID027656: Russia? You mean that country that knelt before a mere SS-grade?
└ID837169: You crazy bastards, it’s SS-grade, of course they can kneel a bit lol
ID283746: Insane, 4 days OMG Wasn’t it predicted to take about 2 weeks originally?
└ID329763: Yeah, it’s a crazy new record;
└ID138725: They put in several times more hunters, that’s why. It’s been less than an hour since the gate conquest ended and they’re saying it’s all Dan Joo-hyuk’s achievement, what the fuck lol
ID655352: Wonder what items came out, from the analysis of the gate exit video it looked like a sword, really want to see an SS-grade
└ID739326: If it’s really SS-grade, it might be something that could save the world
└ID009273: I doubt it, the guy using that SS-grade doesn’t seem to have the will to save the world lol Anyway, its performance must be insanely good
└ID008635: Hope high-quality footage comes out lol It was wrapped in cloth when he came out so couldn’t see well, is that cloth an item too?
└ID258895: If it’s really SS-grade, it must look damn holy lol Hope it has options like a hidden card that can destroy all gates lol
❖ ❖ ❖
―……shaking hands with Hunter Dan Joo-hyuk. This proud S-grade hunter of the Republic of Korea has achieved the great feat of conquering even Russia’s SS-grade gate. In this gate, Hunter Dan Joo-hyuk…
“……”
It had already been three days since the suspicious man came looking for Yoon Pa-ran.
During that time, Yoon Pa-ran barely moved from the orphanage. It was also good timing to spend time with his younger siblings as they were on vacation.
And on the 6th day since Dan Joo-hyuk left for Russia, from early dawn, the news kept announcing his return.
―……Meanwhile, in academic circles, regarding this gate’s wavelength…
Footage shot from a helicopter of Dan Joo-hyuk coming out of the gate was broadcast repeatedly all day. Although he had seen the news several times already, Yoon Pa-ran observed his appearance closely.
The scene was shot from too far away to see if he was injured. Anyway, he couldn’t help but focus on the sight of him confidently shaking hands with Russia’s highest-ranking person.
Well, he’s not dead, so that’s fine.
“……”
At the sudden thought, Yoon Pa-ran awkwardly rubbed the nape of his neck.
It was almost dinner time. In the quiet room without his siblings, Yoon Pa-ran kept watching the news that was bound to have the same content.
A strange sensation spread ticklishly from a corner of his chest. He couldn’t identify the unfamiliar emotion.
Instead of thinking deeply about it, Yoon Pa-ran just turned off the news.
If someone you’ve been in contact with for quite a while dies, wouldn’t it make for bad dreams? That’s why he just paid a bit more attention to the news.
“Ah.”
Just then, Yoon Pa-ran’s phone, which had been quiet all along, rang. It was strange that there hadn’t even been any contact about entering gates, whatever Dan Joo-hyuk had done.
“Who is it?”
It was an unknown phone number. It didn’t seem to be a number commonly used for advertisements, but someone’s personal number.
Still, Yoon Pa-ran ignored it and flatly rejected the call. He had been getting too many calls from unknown numbers recently and it was annoying.
He mechanically continued to reject the calls that came a few more times while changing his clothes. He was thinking of exercising in the orphanage yard.
Then a text message arrived. He picked up his phone intending to block it immediately if it was spam, but it was from a rather unexpected person.
Hi? It’s Heo Sang-yeon whom you met recently, can we talk on the phone?
“Uh……”
Is it voice phishing? He thought reflexively, but something felt off. How would anyone else know that he had met Hunter Heo Sang-yeon recently?
While pondering over the message, the phone rang again. It was that number that had been persistently calling since earlier.
After some deliberation, Yoon Pa-ran decided to answer the call.
―Hello. Are you not busy?
“……Hello.”
The owner of the voice was indeed Heo Sang-yeon.
He had no idea why he was contacting him. If he had to guess, maybe it was about Dan Joo-hyuk.
Either way, it was an awkward situation, so Yoon Pa-ran scratched his cheek uncomfortably.
―I don’t have much time, so I’ll get straight to the point. Um… My cousin is a lawyer, and one of his clients has gone missing recently.
“Yes.”
―And the last place this client was seen was some orphanage?
“……”
However, his expression gradually hardened at the matter he was bringing up.
―After some investigation, it turns out it’s a place related to Hunter Yoon Pa-ran. So I wanted to ask you something.
“……Yes.”
He didn’t like how the connection between himself and the orphanage kept being revealed. Yoon Pa-ran, raising his guard, tensed up and waited for Heo Sang-yeon’s words.
―Do you know Lim Hyun-sung?
“Yes.”
Finally, it was about that bastard again. What kind of person is he that all sorts of people keep looking for him?
The deliberation was brief. He decided it would be better to explain that he was the one who had suffered harm while minding his own business.
However, before he could even open his mouth, Hunter Heo Sang-yeon abruptly asked.
―By any chance, is Hunter Yoon Pa-ran hiding him?