Prologue
This world has changed.
Monsters appeared and followed the appearance of Monster Hunters.
The gigantic flow changed the world upside down.
And I wasn’t an exception.
I, who was just an ordinary janitor, became a Monster Hunter.
I thought I would get an ability just like other Hunters in this world.
But that was a mistake.
So, I despaired.
However, one line of hope shined on me.
A line of hope in the form of donation.
“Ah! Thank you for the twenty-thousand-point donation!”
A lot of people call me crazy.
And they’re not wrong.
I am crazy.
That’s right, I’m crazy for points.
I became a monster born by capitalism.
Becoming a Hunter (1)
“Yoo-sung, today will be a hard day.”
There was already a sigh in the boss’ voice.
“Was there a day that wasn’t hard recently? I’ll just bear with it.”
Yoo-sung responded as if it was nothing to him.
His work was already hard enough to begin with. A day being a little bit more difficult just meant using a few more pain relievers.
“Not physically, but it will be harder mentally.”
“Boss. Is it…”
Yoo-sung looked at the boss with his eyes wide open.
‘Please don’t tell me it is.’
Yoo-sung’s eyes looked as if he were saying that.
But the boss just closed his eyes and tapped on Yoo-sung’s shoulder.
“Cheer up, Yoo-sung.”
“Haah… Even dreams will get weird after looking at a dead body…”
“You think I don’t know that? Let’s finish before the smell gets on our clothes. Changsik! Let’s start!”
“Yes, Boss!”
As soon as the boss said to start working, Yoo-sung pulled out his mask and wore it.
Wearing a mask is a must for him while working. Else, he will faint from the stinky smell.
After wearing the mask, Yoo-sung turned the doorknob and slowly opened the door.
Squeak!
Yoo-sung frowned at the horrible sound of the rusty steel and the stinky smell poking his nose at the same time.
‘Oh my god, what is this smell…’
The mask was properly taken care of and the mask filter was new. However, it didn’t seem like it was blocking out all the smell.
‘I’ll just bear with it.’
The nasty smell from the room was making his head dizzy, but there wasn’t much he could do except to bear with it.
“Why did it turn out like this?”
Yoo-sung asked the boss while looking at an old man’s decaying corpse with crawling maggots.
“It was the goblin.”
“Goblin?”
Goblin.
A monster that usually appears in a video game came out of the boss’s mouth. However, Yoo-sung and the boss talked like it’s an everyday conversation.
In the current world, it wasn’t a strange thing for monsters that only usually appear in a game or a movie to come out in the real world to harm humans.
“What? How was a goblin able to get here and kill a human? It looks like this person has been dead for a while, but I didn’t hear any news about a goblin being under surveillance and escaping the gate.”
“They probably hid it. Just think about what would happen if the surveillance missed a goblin that killed a human. They collected all those taxes for what? Both the surveillance and the Hunters will be looked down upon. The government that watches the Hunters’ backs probably hid it. You know how our country’s press shut their mouth for only a few bucks.”
“What are they if they aren’t reporting properly? They’re just presstitutes*.”
T/N: Press + Prostitute. A reporter or a journalist who will do anything for money and attention.
“There’s nothing you can’t do with money in this country. Not having money is a crime. If this old man is a billionaire, then the whole country would turn upside down.”
Yeah, that’s right. Not having money in a country where money can do everything is a crime. Reality sucks, but it’s the truth.
“Let’s clean it up quickly. We have other places to go today. Changsik! Bring a bag!”
“We must hurry up if we want to finish before the sun goes down.”
They had to work fast if they wanted to go home before sunset. Yoo-sung shut his mouth and started cleaning quietly.
“Yoo-sung, rest well and I’ll see you next week. You’ve done well today.”
“Okay. Thank you for your work, Boss.”
“I didn’t do as much as you. Go home and rest up. Your clothes will be stained with the smell so wash that as well.”
“Okay. I’ll get going now.”
“Alright, go ahead.”
Boss’s old grey van soon faded away.
Yoo-sung dragged his heavy body home.
***
“Ehhh. My back.”
Since he was working squatting down all day, his back had stiffened.
Sniff! Sniff! Sniff!
The stinky smell became apparent as he pulled the sleeves close to his nose.
“The smell stained my clothes as Boss said. I don’t think this smell will go away for weeks…”
The smell of a rotten corpse is not a smell that can go away that easily. Well, the smell can even get past the wallpaper and attach itself deep inside the concrete.
Yoo-sung took off the clothes stained with the rotten corpse’s smell, put them in the laundry machine, and poured in a bunch of laundry soap. He even used a laundry deodorant that he tends not to use since it’s expensive.
‘The smell will only go away with something like this.’
Beep! Beep!
Uomm~!
After starting the laundry machine, Yoo-sung headed right away to the bathroom and started showering.
“Ahh, it’s so warm.”
Showering with warm water eased his fatigue a little.
After he finished showering, Yoo-sung laid on the bed. His body feels as heavy as metal. He didn’t even want to move an inch. He thought about rolling around his bed for a while before going to sleep, so he grabbed the remote for the TV.
Beep!
After turning on the TV, Yoo-sung pressed the remote control buttons and searched for a channel.
“Thrall! You made me so crispy.”
“Nope… You’ve juiced up yourself…”
”Crispy outside! Juicy inside! Garrosh Chicken! Order now! We have green tea chicken as well!”
“Ah, now I want to eat some chicken.”
On the screen, there was a crispy fried chicken. It was a delicious-looking chicken.
However, there were a lot of things he had to pay this month. There’s a sibling who was graduating from nursery and there’s another one going into college. He had to save his money.
“Let’s just watch some news.”
Yoo-sung thought he’d impulsively order the chicken while looking at the advertisement, so he quickly changed the channel.
Beep!
“Yes! Today’s guest is Korea’s SSS-class Hunter, Mr. Gang-Inhan! Let’s welcome him with a round of applause!”
Wahhhhh!
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
When he changed the channel, there were noisy cheering and clapping sounds. It was as if the fans were meeting their idols.
“Gang-Inhan… He’s appearing on TV often nowadays.”
That guy on the TV who seemed to be sheepishly scratching his head is a Hunter, Gang-Inhan. He’s an internationally known SSS-class Hunter.
SSS-class Hunter, Gang-Inhan, is a clan master of ‘Taegeuk’.
“Hunter…”
Hunters. It’s been twenty years since the name ‘Monster Hunter’ has settled in society.
After the first monster breakout in the late 20th century, the world was run with the Hunters at the center.
At the end of the 20th century, people were yelling out and getting noisy about the Rapture*. However, what came are monsters from another dimension.
PR/N: A Christian belief about the Second Coming.
Many people died. Yoo-sung had lost his parents during that time.
The reason humans were able to win against monsters, that can’t be damaged with modern weapons, is because of those supernaturals.
Hunters went to different worlds named ‘Estelle’ and ‘Muhuan’, gained supernatural powers, and came back to earth with a little Angel supporting them.
Is it because many Hunters are going back and forth to different worlds?
Nevertheless, the Hunters quickly settled in this world.
Nowadays, the students’ number one choice for a job is inevitably to be a Hunter. Yoo-sung agrees with this fact.
Why would being a Hunter be a bad occupation when you could earn a high income with just a single hunt?
Even clearing a low-class dungeon equals a salesman’s monthly income more or less, so who wouldn’t want to be a Hunter?
Yoo-sung, who is scratching his belly and holding a remote control, also wanted to be a Hunter.