Chapter 56 Part 2:  Cooperation 

“Hmm…. Then why did you suddenly ask about the missing hunter?”

“Because I recently went to a gate, and I found something a little strange.”

“Like what?”

“Well, I can’t give you an exact number, but a small group of less than ten people were nowhere to be found, as if they… had disappeared.”

“Maybe they’ve already been eaten by monsters?”

“Maybe.”

Twenty of the thirty were found.

Alive, or dead.

Of the remaining ten, how many had been eaten by the spider and how many had disappeared?

I wasn’t sure about that, either.

Maybe all ten had just been eaten by the spider.

“But if this only happened at this gate. If this isn’t an anomaly, then there must be a trend.”

It was no longer a suspicion. Baek Mok-Ryeon sighed.

“…It must be true, this time.”

Of course. I nodded.

“We’ve only recently begun to recognize it… as Ms. Han Seo-Ha had said, it’s a very small number, around single digits, so we haven’t noticed it until now and it’s been a while since we’ve attempted to classify the dead hunters from the missing ones. It’s hard to say how long it’s been going, but we finally see some clues…. And I understand there’s been an attempt…”

She suddenly lowered her voice to a whisper,

“Of a Hunter abduction.”

It was, indeed, unprecedented.

We’ve seen people kidnap Hunter’s family for ransom, but no one has ever tried to kidnap an enhanced human being.

Until now.

“We don’t know what’s going on yet, we’re just guessing, and we’ll be investigating other gates to see if there are any similar cases.”

“How long do you think this has been going?”

“Well, they can’t have been taking multiple Hunters since the beginning. So it’s hard to say for sure, since we can’t even figure out if one or two people are taken but… Yeah, I’d say since then.”

With a snap, Baek Mok-Ryeon tapped her fingers on the table.

“Since the Yeonhwado Gate.”

I wondered if it’s because I’ve changed something..

“Ever since then, the numbers suddenly increased, to the point where it’s starting to become statistical.”

The new developments that had begun to spiral out of control were holding me captive.

The Yeonhwado gate had changed a lot because of my intervention.

So maybe the Hunter abduction that started after that…. Could have been caused by me.

‘Did this happen before the regression, and did I just miss it?’

I don’t know, I can’t remember.

It’s possible that the government kept it a secret.

“Anyway. There are a lot of things but… right now I feel like borrowing even a cat’s hand, so I can’t help it.”

Baek Mok-Ryeon lifted her chin haughtily.

“Why don’t you cooperate with me?”

It was an unexpected offer.

Considering what we’ve talked about so far, the cooperation she was now proposing was probably…

“Unfortunately, I’m a researcher, not a hunter. I don’t know much about what goes on inside the gates, and my statistics are limited. I need you to be my eyes.”

“That…”

I felt somewhat cautious. I don’t want to reveal too much about which gate I went to.

“I’m not saying I’ll just take your word for it, but for every one you bring back, I’ll share my findings with you. You get access to government data, and I can get raw data from inside the gate, so it’s a win-win situation. What do you think?”

I thought about it for a moment, but then nodded.

I needed to find out more about this case.

If I could get the government’s side of the story, it would speed up the investigation.

And if I didn’t want to, I wouldn’t have to give anything to them.

“Okay, I’ll cooperate.”

“Alright. Please Take good care of me from now on, Ms. Han Seo-ha.”

We clasped hands.

I must have been mistaken in thinking that all normal people have soft hands.

Baek Mok-Ryeon’s middle finger was studded with calluses from holding a pen. It was a sign of a fierce life.

?Lim Cheon-hoon, a member of the South Korean parliament, criticized the current government, saying, ‘The current pro-hunter policies is turning a blind eye to the large number of non-hunters.’?

This comment has gained a lot of traction as anti-hunters have become an increasingly controversial issue in modern society.

I was watching the news while having dinner when an interesting topic came up.

The TV screen then showed a clip of Representative Lim Cheon-hoon expressing his views.

The political giant was being bombarded with questions from reporters, and he was selectively answering them.

?Magic generators using magic stones are the main source of energy in modern society, but magic stones are the exclusive monopoly of hunters, and… The current regime’s pro-hunter policies are doing little to stop the immediate problem. Hunters have an undeniable vested interest in the relative deprivation felt by non-hunters and…?

Then a familiar face appeared behind the enthusiastic ranting of Lim Cheon-hoon.

Black hair and a clean-shaven face.

He was a man with gentle eyes and a wistful expression.

‘Kwon Seong-min?’

‘Of course, I heard he was going into politics, but I didn’t expect to see him on TV like this….’

He was following behind like an entourage. It was funny.

He’s an awakener but he follows closely behind someone who closely criticized the current regime’s pro-Hunter policy…

Of course, he’s only an awakener not a real hunter, but Kwon Seong-min is more of a hunter than ordinary awakeners.

?I decided that I could no longer ignore this situation… and I strongly appeal to you!?

Lim Cheon-Hoon’s words did not even sound right, he’s actually urging the current regime to reflect on its own actions, which seems to be taking care of its vested interests while ignoring the interests of other citizens who are non-Hunters.

I could only see Kwon Seong-min standing behind him with a calm face.

He was neatly dressed, which was very refreshing. Although it was not obvious that he was an Awakener, he looked unusually like a normal person. Or, more accurately, like a non-hunter.

“Why are you watching this?”

“Oh… I just saw it.”

Hye-won interjected, “Don’t pay attention to that.”

“It’s all a political stunt. I don’t know how many of them would actually stand up for the rights of non-hunters, anyway. Hunters have it easy now that the system is in place, but just a few generations ago, there were more Hunters dying than surviving.”

… There was emotion in her grumbling tone. As a 2.5 generation Hunter, she’d probably seen more disorganized meetings than I have.

“During the first generation, no one wanted to be a hunter, but we couldn’t all die together, so we persuaded them to give all kinds of benefits.. Now they’re changing the subject!”

It’s true that…

Hunters make a good living selling byproducts, but nowadays, when you can get a state-sponsored Hunter test at age 16, the percentage of truly pure “Normal” people who aren’t “Awakened” isn’t that high.

The likelihood of becoming a purely ordinary person is like when one scratch their lottery ticket and actually won a prize.

“If they think that hunters are only there to look good, then they can do it themselves. They don’t want to die, but they still want to make a lot of money, seriously?”

Meanwhile, on the TV, Representative Lim Cheon-hoon’s criticism of the vested interests of the hunters was intensifying, and Hyewon-unnie’s words against him were also rising.

I turned my attention to Kwon Seong-min in the middle.

‘What are you thinking?’

You know that the people you grew up with dreamed of becoming a Hunter, and actually became one.

Why are you standing behind a political bigwig shouting anti-Hunter protests, with a calm face. What is he thinking inwardly.

“Oh, right. I forgot the point.”

“What?”

Hye-won said while turning off the TV.

“I got a call from the Blue Serpents.”

?

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