Chapter 4

Eunseong sat upright in his desk chair and lightly patted his cheeks.

Click.

Not long afterward, the door to the representative’s office opened, and Kang Mujin walked in. He was wearing the drab shirt and pants provided as standard-issue gear, but there was no hiding the naturally powerful build beneath them. Apparently having only taken a quick shower before coming up, droplets of water clung to the ends of his black hair and trickled down along his neck.

“Did you call for me, Representative?”

His voice was low and polite. Yet there was a chill underneath it that seemed to cool the air in the office. Politeness and hostility coexisted in that single voice.

Eunseong, who had been lost in thought, felt his heart drop at the murderous pressure coming from him. Outwardly, however, he rested his chin arrogantly on one hand and stared at him.

‘What’s with that look in his eyes?! Don’t be scared. Don’t be scared! I’m higher-ranking than him!’

He desperately tried to hypnotize himself into believing it, but it didn’t work.

The intimidating aura radiating from Kang Mujin made his grand ambition of changing the future shrink away. He felt as though his head might be severed at any moment.

Eunseong interlaced his trembling fingers and lowered them beneath the desk to hide them.

He had completely forgotten that the transparent reinforced glass made them perfectly visible.

“Sit.”

His nervousness made his voice come out stiffly.

Despite Eunseong’s brief invitation, Kang Mujin didn’t even glance at the sofa. He simply stood rigidly in place and bowed his head mechanically.

“My clothes are still damp. I’ll listen standing.”

“……”

Though his speech was impeccably polite, his blatant refusal felt like he was drawing a clear line between them with his entire body.

Maintaining his stiff expression, Eunseong silently gestured toward the desk with his chin.

The Black Lord he had taken out earlier was lying there, its black surface gleaming.

“Take it.”

Kang Mujin’s gaze naturally shifted toward the desk.

His pupils widened slightly at the waves of magic power emanating from the black scabbard.

An S-rank item.

The highest tier of equipment, something even ranked hunters coveted with their eyes burning.

“Your sword was broken.”

Eunseong added the words as casually as he could.

He couldn’t exactly tell his favorite character that he had given him a new sword because it was heartbreaking to see him using such an old weapon.

Kang Mujin’s eyes sank deeply.

Before his regression, this man had never given him anything in his entire life.

And now, after an S-rank elixir, he was giving him an S-rank weapon.

With each gaze directed toward him piling up, it felt as though something were being fastened around his neck and gradually tightening.

‘…There has to be a reason he’s giving me this.’

Kang Mujin’s thoughts turned cold as though someone had poured ice water over them.

This had to mean he intended to send him into a dungeon dangerous enough to require him to stake his life.

He couldn’t help wondering what the man’s true intentions were in constantly throwing bait before him.

The longer Kang Mujin remained silent, the more Eunseong prayed inwardly.

‘Please, don’t be suspicious. Just take it. It’s incredibly valuable. I picked it out especially for you!’

But contrary to Eunseong’s desperate thoughts, Kang Mujin looked back and forth between the sword and Eunseong before speaking.

“…May I ask why?”

At the sudden question, Eunseong merely blinked blankly.

He wanted to shout that this was simply what being a fan meant, but if he said that, he would probably be treated as a lunatic on the spot, so he swallowed the words.

Eunseong sank deep into the backrest and subtly crossed his trembling legs.

“Do you need a reason?”

Was he saying he shouldn’t even ask?

Kang Mujin ran his tongue along the inside of his lip as he approached the desk and picked up the sword.

His grip tightened around the weapon.

Murderous intent boiled all the way up to his throat, but at a time when he needed to build enough strength to bring down Zenith, he had no choice but to quietly swallow those emotions.

“…I’ll accept it gratefully.”

Eunseong, completely unaware of what was going through Kang Mujin’s mind, was practically dancing with joy inside at the fact that he had accepted the sword.

“Which dungeon boss would you like me to kill?”

“Huh?”

“You’ve given me an elixir and now an S-rank weapon. I’ll bring back results worthy of them.”

At Kang Mujin’s calm declaration, Eunseong’s mind momentarily went blank.

Results?

He had only given him a good weapon because he wanted him to fight safely without getting hurt.

How had he somehow arrived at that conclusion?

For an instant, the horrific sight of Kang Mujin inside the dungeon flashed through Eunseong’s mind.

His heart sank.

‘No! He just recovered, and now he wants to go into another dungeon?’

Eunseong wanted to grab Kang Mujin by the hem of his pants and stop him.

But he didn’t forget that he was Baek Eunseong now.

Clenching his molars, Eunseong spoke firmly.

“There will be no subjugations for the time being.”

A brief silence followed.

Then, in that silence, Kang Mujin’s eyes shook strangely.

The Baek Eunseong he knew would never take a hunter carrying an S-rank weapon out of the field.

If he wasn’t being sent into a dungeon, perhaps Eunseong was ordering him to deal with someone privately.

“…Then who am I supposed to deal with?”

Eunseong was horrified inside and hunched his shoulders.

What on earth had the original Baek Eunseong usually done for Kang Mujin to jump to such an extreme conclusion?

‘Don’t get your hands bloody, don’t get hurt, just rest!’

Eunseong carefully chose his words.

“Take some time off.”

“……”

It was a short answer, but not a bad one.

Kang Mujin, however, did not take the words “take some time off” at face value.

‘Rest? How dangerous an assignment is he planning to give me?’

Kang Mujin gripped the sword hilt hard enough to nearly crush it.

Before his regression, he had never once received an item while alone with Baek Eunseong.

What could possibly have prompted this man’s sudden change of heart?

He wanted to uncover Eunseong’s true intentions, but he was still a powerless guild member.

Not only that, he was merely a low-ranking hunter scraping along at the very bottom.

Kang Mujin slowly raised his head and met Eunseong’s eyes.

“Then I’ll wait at the dormitory.”

With those words, silence filled the spacious representative’s office.

“Thank you… for your consideration.”

His voice that followed was dangerously low.

But the only word that registered in Eunseong’s ears was “consideration.”

Mistaking Kang Mujin for willingly accepting his concern, Eunseong nodded in satisfaction.

At that casual nod, Kang Mujin’s jaw tightened.

When he clenched his teeth, the muscles below his ears trembled.

Before his boiling hatred could be exposed, he averted his gaze first, firmly pressed his lips together, and silently turned around.

Click.

Only after the door to the representative’s office had completely closed did Eunseong finally let out the breath he had been holding.

The moment Kang Mujin’s back disappeared beyond the door, his suppressed cheekbones shot upward uncontrollably.

The corners of his mouth twitched on their own, and he pressed both palms against his cheeks, rubbing them down.

“This is pretty great. I get to see Mujin, and I never have to worry about money for the rest of my life!”

Eunseong sank deep into the plush leather chair, savoring this incredibly sweet power.

“…Wait. I’m a hunter, aren’t I? Then that means I have to go into dungeons too, right?”

Baek Eunseong was not only the representative of Zenith Guild, the No. 1-ranked guild in South Korea, but also its poster boy.

If someone like that simply holed up at headquarters and stopped participating in dungeon subjugations, there was no way the media and Hunter Association would let it slide.

Knock, knock.

Before he had time to despair, a mechanical knock sounded at perfectly regular intervals.

Eunseong jumped and instinctively straightened his back, composing his expression.

“…Come in.”

He deliberately lowered his voice to hide its tremor.

The door opened silently.

A man with his hair neatly combed back without a single strand out of place entered, carrying approval documents tucked beneath his arm.

The chief secretary of Zenith Guild, Choi Taejun.

Although he had never awakened as a hunter, he was a man who knew how to manage hunters more efficiently than anyone.

He always moved like a machine, without the slightest margin for error.

In the original novel, he was a spy planted in Zenith by the final boss.

‘What exhausting thing has that man brought me this time?’

The original Baek Eunseong had acted arrogantly toward Chief Choi, only to eventually be thoroughly used and discarded.

The Chief Choi in Baek Eunseong’s memories wasn’t much different.

He subtly manipulated Baek Eunseong into moving in whatever direction he wanted.

Eunseong deliberately ignored the gaze behind the coldly gleaming lenses of his glasses, rested his chin on the glass desk, and lowered his eyes.

“I have a report to make, Representative.”

Chief Choi extended the documents in a dry voice.

The crisp rustling of turning paper sounded unusually sharp.

“I’ll brief you on tomorrow’s scheduled raid of the A-rank dungeon, Black Thorn Valley.”

Black Thorn Valley.

The moment Eunseong heard the name, a deep crease formed between his brows.

For Eunseong, who had reread the original novel dozens of times, that dungeon was enough to turn his stomach simply by hearing its name.

The magic traps laid across the ground were nearly impossible to detect, while groups of mutated monsters lurked in every narrow, twisted crevice of the valley.

It was also a place where Kang Mujin had narrowly escaped death several times in the original novel.

“C- and D-rank hunters will take the lead and break through the magic traps. After that, we’ll deploy the B-rank hunters…”

Eunseong interrupted without even listening to the rest.

“Cancel it.”

Using low-ranking hunters as the vanguard meant nothing less than using their lives as stepping stones to clear the dungeon.

Chief Choi’s fingertips stopped in midair as he was about to turn the page.

He pushed up the bridge of his glasses with his middle finger and stared directly at Eunseong.

The representative, who normally pushed dungeon raid schedules almost excessively hard, had just ordered one canceled.

It was the first time.

“May I ask the reason for canceling the schedule?”

Deep suspicion colored Chief Choi’s voice.

“I’m going to manage the guild.”

Eunseong kept his words as brief as possible so that Chief Choi, who had been by Baek Eunseong’s side for a long time, wouldn’t notice his flimsy acting.

Besides, he was too nervous to spare the energy for a long explanation.

“Perhaps another operation…”

“None.”

Eunseong raised his eyes sharply while resting his chin on his hand.

His heart was pounding from fear, but the Baek Eunseong he knew would never make excuses here.

“Do as I say.”

“…Understood. I’ll revise the entire schedule and order everyone to stand by.”

On the surface, his response was obedient.

But the eyes behind his glasses had settled into deep suspicion.