Hunters Keep Coming To My House - Chapter 9

Chapter 9

“…Ah!”

I screamed in surprise and sat down on the spot. 

I thought it was a real ghost. My startled heart was pounding hard.

After instinctively bowing my head upon discovering a ghost-like man, I lifted my head. If I lost my focus now, not only would the quest be in jeopardy, but I also didn’t know if the house might collapse again.

There’s an old saying that even if you encounter a tiger, you can survive if you keep your wits about you.

So, no matter who the mysterious ranker was, I could complete the quest as long as I kept my composure. However, it came with the condition of staying very focused. With determination, I observed the man outside the window.

Fortunately, the man looked human.

Yeah, as long as he’s not a ghost, I thought with a nonchalant attitude as I scrutinized the man more closely. 

If the time inside the gate followed the real world’s time, or if it was a gate without light from the beginning, the man stood in the yard with an expressionless face in the darkness to the extent that he might foam at the mouth and collapse.

‘…Could he be a grim reaper?’

If Han Seung-hoo, at least, wore clothes like a person, the unidentified man’s attire was entirely black.

These days, even grim reapers wouldn’t dress entirely in black. Just watching television, even if they were grim reapers, they would take care of their fashion to some extent… I stared through the unidentified black man.

As I did, he seemed to notice my gaze and turned his head. It felt like a signal to come closer.

Very cautiously, I moved my feet, thinking it was a good idea to reinforce the window with Han Seung-hoo earlier.

The reinforced window would at least protect me once.

I had worked hard to reinforce the window… It would be quite unfair if it just shattered powerlessly.

As I approached the mysterious black man, I took a deep breath and opened my mouth.

“Who are you?”

The man frowned and moved his hand in the air for a moment. Time passed briefly, and his actions came to a sudden halt. And I froze as well.

—Can you see this well? I can’t hear your voice.

This sentence appeared above the head of the mysterious man in a quite… flashy pink in the air.

Suddenly, the letters were changing from pink to various colors.

“…Is he crazy?”

Is he really crazy? No, even if he says he can’t hear me, it’s not like that… 

It’s awkward to have a conversation when someone floats letters above their head like that. I preferred not to attract attention because my goal was to live thin and long.

But this man…

Anyone could see that he was expressing a strong desire for attention with his whole body.

Am I seeing things right now? When I seriously pondered again, the letters above the man’s head began to change.

—No, I’m not that kind of crazy person. I just want to have a little conversation. 

I looked at him with a more surprised expression.

Is he reading my lips now…? He would be good at yelling in silence with headphones on…

Haha… What a bizarre situation this is.

From today, I sincerely pray to all the gods in this world that only things that could happen within the bounds of common sense would occur.

The man who had been silently watching me deny this situation was changing the letters again.

—Really, I’m not a strange person. So, could you let me in? 

Now, looking at the letters radiating in neon-sign-like rainbow colors, I opened my mouth.

“Hey, isn’t it customary to introduce yourself first?”

—I don’t know. I can’t read lip shapes.

“So! Isn’t it customary to introduce yourself first?”

—Can’t you write it down? You understood me well earlier…

The man who had been yelling in silence with me until a moment ago made such a proposal, which was absurd. I looked at the black man with a bewildered expression and then brought the pen and memo paper I had placed on the living room table.

And I wrote on the memo paper against the glass.

Self-introduction.

The man checked the note I wrote and nodded slightly, moving his hand in the air again. 

In an instant, I realized one thing.

‘Is that… also considered an item?’

Wow, it’s useless.

The moment I wondered how much he used that item, he showed me something on the glass.

—Cha Jae-joon, 28 years old. xxxxxx-xxxxxxx.

A resident registration card with really personal information.

I looked at Cha Jae-joon with my mouth wide open in embarrassment. What the hell is this crazy guy doing?

In such absurdity, I stared at him with my eyes wide open, my mouth hanging open.

Then.

—Name: Cha Jae-joon.

—Age: 28 years old.

—Occupation: Hunter. Lives in Apartment XX, XX, Seoul.

When I asked for a self-introduction, this crazy guy, who showed me his resident registration card, either thought I didn’t see it, genuinely wanted me to know, or displayed his personal information above his head.

He knocked a bit, and I thought he might be a somewhat normal hunter, but Cha Jae-joon shattered all those expectations and was innocently smiling.

When he was expressionless, he looked like a grim reaper, but when he smiled like this, he looked somewhat cute. 

Whether he was doing this because he was like a kid or if my head had also gone crazy, I didn’t know. No, I didn’t want to know.

I lightly clenched my hair, trembling.

Feeling the pain as if my hair was being pulled out, I felt a sense of relief, as if my mind was intact. But in my hand, there was a strand of hair.

‘…If I go bald, I should claim treatment expenses from Han Seung-hoo and that crazy guy.’

It felt like I was losing it.

No, are there no sane people among the rankers?

Han Seung-hoo looked gloomy, and Cha Jae-joon was a name I had never heard before.

‘Well, the guy who does this kind of thing being ranked 1st is also funny.’

Jung Tae-il at least seemed substantial. Now, I was starting to become curious about who this Jung Tae-il person was.

As the world is vast, there must be plenty of lunatics.

‘Now that it’s gotten to this point, I wonder what kind of lunatic that guy is….’

According to what Han Seung-hoo said earlier, it seemed like Jung Tae-il would also visit this house soon. I sighed heavily and looked at Cha Jae-joon.

He had a cute smiling emoji above his head. Is that even possible?… More than that, it doesn’t suit him….

“For now, just stay there.”

—Huh? Can’t you see it’s cold here? Can’t you help me out a bit?

“I don’t want to.”

—Ah….

This time, whether he understood my lip shape at once or not, Cha Jae-joon continued the conversation, changing the letters.

In his increasingly pitiful appearance, I almost weakened for a moment, but I couldn’t let the unidentified Cha Jae-joon into the house.

Right now, I have no information about the person called Cha Jae-joon.

That’s why it would be the right choice to ask Han Seung-hoo, who knew more about the rankers than I did. Of course, I didn’t trust Han Seung-hoo either.

I stared at Cha Jae-joon for a moment and began to write on the memo. Then, I stuck it in front of him neatly and moved to the guest room where Han Seung-hoo was. 

I felt a little sorry for Han Seung-hoo, but…

Even the landlord can’t rest comfortably with her legs stretched out right now, so where can he relax? So, it was just to take advantage of Han Seung-hoo a little more.

Now, let’s try a three-way meeting.

* * *

“…I don’t know this person, Ms. Yeon-oh.”

“He’s unfamiliar to you?”

“Yes. I see him for the first time.”

“……”

“Why would I lie to you, Ms. Yeon-oh? I truly see him for the first time.”

With those words, I lost words once again.

Han Seung-hoo, a hunter at a level where even I couldn’t sense his presence, claimed not to know him.

What kind of bizarre situation is this?

I even considered the possibility that Han Seung-hoo might be lying, but judging by his expression, he genuinely seemed clueless.

About five minutes ago, when I dragged Han Seung-hoo out of the guest room.

Han Seung-hoo left the room looking tired and immediately used the skills inside the house when he spotted Cha Jae-joon. It seemed like a reflexive action.

“<Lightning>!”

As he shouted the skill, a large spherical light appeared and moved quickly toward Cha Jae-joon.

But. Bang!

Only an enormous sound was heard, and Cha Jae-joon was unharmed.

More precisely, it was my reinforced window that I had worked hard to strengthen that showed its effect.

I was initially terrified, thinking it wouldn’t block skills used inside the house, but thankfully, it did.

Although I was terrified for a moment, I felt the satisfaction of reinforcing the window through hardships.

Of course, it wasn’t that Han Seung-hoo did well. 

How dare he use his skills in my house? How could I not block this? There must be skills that restrict this…

But that wasn’t the important thing now.

Han Seung-hoo was squinting at Cha Jae-joon, and the problem-causing Cha Jae-joon was still outside the window, repeatedly writing and erasing the letters above his head with a frowning expression.

—You startled me!

—I’m harmless! Please don’t attack.

—I have no intention of fighting! Like that.

From what I had seen so far, he didn’t seem like he would harm me. Was this all an act?

Why was he making so much effort to come into my house like this?

Unable to find a reason just like Han Seung-hoo, I involuntarily squinted my eyes, just like him.

So, with our questions, Han Seung-hoo and I observed Cha Jae-joon, but the only thing we discovered was that we didn’t know who this person named Cha Jae-joon was.

The Cha Jae-joon still in front of me was still a suspicious figure. Han Seung-hoo also had no choice but to agree with my opinion. Therefore…

“Mr. Cha Jae-joon, you can’t come in.”

You’re out, Cha Jae-joon.