And on top of that, it's not like I'm just barely alive—I've been transferred to a city hospital?
Fumbling.
I placed my palm over the spot on my chest that had once been pierced through, checking my condition once again. As expected, nothing had changed. This secondhand body of mine, with a total mana capacity barely at F-rank, had been restored to a structurally perfect state. Aside from the fact that the clothes on my skin had been swapped out for a hospital gown, I looked more or less the sa as when I'd left ho. How on earth could sothing like this even be possible?
Is this the VIP ward? There's a barrier—yeah, I can sense it. But it's just that kind of simple defensive barrier, then a very coordinate would be completely exposed to [Searcher]'s tracking.
I sat there in stunned silence, my face blank with disbelief. But just as I was rolling my eyes around, trying to make sense of the situation, the doctor standing beside my hospital bed dropped an even more shocking revelation.
"And Hunter Kang Changho is currently waiting at the café..."
"What did you say?"
"H, h, here. The VIP ward has a shared space nearby, you see."
The doctor wearing glasses barely managed to continue speaking with a pale face.
"The Hunter insisted we notify him imdiately once you regained consciousness, Kim Giryeo-ssi, but... if you feel uncomfortable about revealing your whereabouts, our dical staff will do everything we can to manage the situation for you this ti."
I appreciate the courage it took for them to say that much, but deep down, I felt conflicted.
"Well."
No matter how many tis I thought about it, the whole situation just felt absurd. So, pretending to ponder deeply, I told the doctor, "Let's just talk with the person involved first."
Just call Kang Changho.
The dical worker wearing glasses flinched in surprise upon hearing that. He then made a hasty call to soone.
***
In the luxurious hospital room warmly lit by 3,000K indirect lighting, a single Earthling appeared from outside. He was Kang Changho, one of Korea's top elite hunters with an exotic appearance.
The S-rank awakened hunter who entered the hospital room opened the door and stepped inside, holding a communication device to his ear as he spoke with soone unknown.
"----Yeah. I'll be staying at the Daeheung-ro hospital for a while. If you want to talk more, co here and et on the first floor..."
A mont later, the visitor finished the phone call sowhat abruptly, slipped his phone into his pocket, and slowly approached my hospital bed, saying.
"You're late."
At first, he thought he was referring to himself, but with the next sentence, the aning completely reversed.
"Honestly, I thought you'd wake up earlier than this."
Was he scolding for waking up so late? Complaining to soone who just regained consciousness barely three minutes ago?
"Is it down...?"
He woke up in Kang Changho's basent around 10 PM. So, the ti they were caught by the EX-rank gate was probably around the sa late night hour. But now, the sky outside was already turning a pale blue, brightening up.
Kim Giryeo—now a man who no longer intended to be called by any other na—stared intently out the window. In his mind, he was already pondering which question to ask first for the most efficient conversation. But given the current situation, there were too many things he, a selfish Alphaurin deeply imrsed in magic, couldn't comprehend. As the elite at his bedside was expending much ntal effort to grasp the circumstances, the main player behind the third kidnapping cri finally spoke.
"It must have been the perfect opportunity—are you wondering why I didn't just finish Hunter Kim off right then and there?"
He tilted his large fra sideways, forcing eye contact like a bully. He kept one hand in his pocket and glanced at people crookedly.
But this intimidating attitude lasted only for a mont. Kang Changho soon straightened up and began the conversation.
"Yeah. I wanted to use [Improvent]. The place was perfect too—inside an EX-rank gate, convenient for disposing of a corpse. And right in front of was the guy who stabbed in the back hard. Honestly, if it were up to , I'd have done it a thousand, ten thousand tis over..."
The other person's tone was exactly the sa as usual.
"But I didn't. When people go through a shocking experience, their way of thinking changes."
"Change?"
"I feel like I won't be able to sleep until I clear up so questions I have right now. So, for the sake of my health, I guess I have to confirm the truth with the fraudster."
Rustle.
As he continued speaking, Kang Changho reached into his right pocket and pulled out a wallet along with several docunts. The white A4 sheets, spread out by the S-rank Hunter, contained information that was very familiar even to the blond man.
The diagnosis report of the fourth Korean S-rank's lungs. A few minutes ago, a highly educated Earthling had been holding the exact sa paper and even gave a separate explanation about it.
"There aren't other results like biopsies yet, but according to the doctor's opinion, it's hard to consider this tumor benign, and the stage seems to have progressed quite a bit."
Kang Changho also pulled out images taken by a CT scanner and showed them. Honestly, as an alien, I wondered how just one hard-to-understand picture could provide so much information.
But at this mont, that wasn't what mattered most.
"So the Enhancer really noticed the flaws in this body."
It was just as the fake S-rank in the hospital bed narrowed his eyes in thought. The blue-haired Awakened flipped through the papers briefly, then roughly placed them on a nearby drawer. A simple action, but one that naturally made the other person tense in various ways.
Right after finishing the conversation with the doctor, I looked it up myself. Recently, thanks to advances in dicine and the discovery of dungeon materials, the average survival rate for ordinary cancer patients has terrifyingly risen to 88%.
Anyway, whether it's 80% or 90%, what does it even matter? For Kang Changho, there was always the option to achieve his goal with a 100% certainty: killing the prey right then and there. From the perspective of the living skill stone, it was only natural to worry that this S-rank hunter might suddenly turn hostile and attack at any mont.
"Hunter... sick?"
But...
"So that's the reason."
It was at that mont. The alien hiding beneath human skin found themselves caught in a conversation they had never expected.
"So that's why you accepted the fact that you'd die in ten years so calmly."
Giryeo blinked, unable to imdiately grasp Changho's claim. But the real S-rank hunter here didn't bother to wait for the alien's hesitation over the Korean language.
"A lot of things make sense now."
Let explain first.
✦ Why did Kim Giryeo accept the 10-year deal so easily?
This can be interpreted easily if you consider, as various portal site search results say, that the five-year survival rate for awakened tumor patients is roughly at a dire level. So the contractor didn't particularly see the 10-year period as a loss.
Wait, let ask you just one thing. What if I get seriously ill before I turn 34?
Looking back, I think the fourth S-rank subtly ntioned this during the contract. Kang Changho considered the possibility that Kim Giryeo was a psychic suffering from a hard-to-recover disease, and that even Kim himself was aware of it, so he decided to think a little more about it.
Then, surprisingly, all the strange behaviors of the contractor that he had been puzzled about were clearly explained as if he had finally found the right answer.
✦ Blueshell's case.
If soone were truly strong, they wouldn't bother with such a minor booster. But if the person obtaining the Blueshell was a patient suffering persistent pain, then he could understand why he might desperately try to get it as a last resort. Going as far as buying extras on the black market was definitely suspicious, but considering so desperate circumstances, it was also plausible to infer that the person chose to go through a re-examination despite its inefficiency.
"Now that I think about it, that was the last ti he got any more Blueshells."
And.
✦ Kagoshima Dragon Gate.
Grass Nest.
In the past, pretending to be just F-rank and even acting like he was sick, the mont a dragon appeared, he showed eager interest. For a while, he thought maybe he was just putting on a show.
But actually, unintentionally, because of the penetrating wound, Kang Changho had the chance to see Kim Giryeo's lung with his own eyes, where the skin had peeled off. He witnessed the strange tissue layered over the lung. Though the size was sowhat different, as the only one carrying the sa type of artifact, he could definitely recognize the form.
'Dragon's lung.'
A monster's organ. Nowadays, its new use has been discovered and its value skyrocketed, but before that, it was treated as worth less than a single potion. And yet, this otherworldy item was covered in this.
The Dragon's Lung has always traded at a staggering minimum price of around 2 billion won. Two billion. An amount that leaves ordinary people utterly speechless. But why does that worthless artifact—one that doesn't boost mana by even a single drop—consistently maintain such a high market value?
'...'
The Dragon's Lung. In truth, it was an item consistently in demand by elderly people whose lung function had declined with age, or by wealthy individuals who were particularly concerned about their lung health. For ordinary patients with respiratory illnesses, there were far better treatnts available for the sa price, so they had no real reason to seek out that artifact.
The hunter industry... Overall, since the age group tended to be young and cases like Kim Giryeo's were rare, the price of the monster's lung remained relatively stable for a while.
"They say that people change when they die."
The narrow nurse's chair in the hospital room was sowhat uncomfortable for a man who was very heavy. So Kang Changho quickly stood up again and took a new stance. He continued the conversation with his arms crossed and looking down at the other person.
"Is that why you changed too?"
The following sentences had many parts omitted, but overall, the tone was consistent, so the aning wasn't difficult to understand.
The series of misunderstandings that began with the [White Maze], and that strange nerve which never faltered even when facing a powerful S-rank Hunter—Could it be that the courage behind all this was because of the few words on the his dical diagnosis obtained at the hospital? That was what Kang Changho directly asked Kim Giryeo.
"Also, you recklessly threw yourself into every dangerous situation that would make anyone's adrenaline surge..."
Even shamans don't know the exact day they'll die. Indeed, if an ordinary person realizes the length of their life at such a young age, it's no wonder they'd beco such an eccentric.
Kang Changho muttered to himself like that, twitching the muscles in his face briefly. The corners of his mouth were up, but only one side was tilted asymtrically, making it difficult to see it as a genuine smile.
"I feel bad."
And just a few seconds later, he even ended up proving that his expression didn't match his true feelings.
"Anyway, lately your behavior's been really off. It just leaves anyone watching feeling uneasy for no good reason."
Had the third S-rank Hunter ever spoken such a blunt denial before? That thought alone showed just how unusual Kang Changho's attitude was. On top of that, he genuinely looked upset about sothing.
"Anyway, Kim Giryeo. There's sothing I'm curious about."
Soon after, Kang Changho explained.
"Why did you choose 'blue' in the final room of the dungeon?"
"..."
"Did you seriously think soone would applaud you for doing that?"
"..."
"Did you really think sacrificing yourself for others would make you look noble or sothing?"
"..."
"But sorry to say—more than anything, I just feel pitied, and I hate that. And on top of that, seeing soone else's or gan out of nowhere? My stomach's so turned I can't even get a cup of coffee down right now."
What kind of disgusting thing is that in front of people? Kang Changho said that and tilted his head to the side. Without blinking once, he kept his gaze fixed squarely on the patient.
But that intense stare didn't last long. The dragon's eyes soon shifted, glancing out the window. The other bearer of the monster's organ quietly shared his thoughts.
"Regrettably, no matter how I feel, it's beco clear that I've been misunderstanding you all this ti because of the c hoice you made in the dungeon, Kim Giryeo."
"Misunderstanding?"
"This is a bit of a secret, but you know, those who spread the gates in this world..."
As if they were beasts hungry for the suffering of humanity.
"No matter what anyone imagines, they hate 'us' far more than that..."
When faced with the choice between their own safety and that of inferior Earthlings, these rciless beings would never sacrifice a single piece of flesh—even if it ant lying. Recalling the peculiar nature of the gate creators, Kang Changho slightly reflected on this truth.
Seonwoo Yeon, who took [Justitia], returned without suffering any particularly notable injuries. Moreover, when the st udio apartnt was at risk of collapsing, he urged the neighboring residents to evacuate.
Most of the earlier actions could even be suspected as bait set by Kim Giryeo to deceive the contracting party who doubted him.
"..."
Kang Changho concluded that it was hard to dismiss the serious injury—one severe enough to pierce the lung—as a re disguise. Especially since the incident happened inside a gate, their own ho ground, it was even less likely. This was a case where, in a place with no witnesses, he ended up unconscious while trying to protect a fellow hunter.
"How much benefit can you really gain by being considerate like that?"
The one who was assud to be a monster made a sacrifice. No, how could a fearso being from another world pos sibly find itself in such a flimsy crisis? After muttering a description that seed to point toward the gate creators, Kang Changho fell into a long silence.
And then, when a few noises from the hospital hallway passed by,
"Let's stop now."
The true aning of the conversation was revealed.
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