n

n

n< Now, Pretending to be Weak >

nBam!

nA loud noise struck my ears while I was in a deep sleep. It was probably the sound of the closed door opening. Or breaking.

nContinuing, The Weak’s Premonition sent a piercing warning. Maybe because the effect was quadrupled, amazingly, even the opponent’s rank and aptitude were felt.

nThe guy coming over was a stat S-Rank with an SS-Rank skill and had a mainly attack aptitude with a flame attribute.

nIt was Yoohyun, huh.

nAnd there was Yerim and Kim Sunghan too.

nWhen Yoohyun came closer and closer, The Weak’s Premonition became even more strongly stirred up. It felt like it was whining and asking right in my ear what I was doing not running away. At the same time, Fear Resistance was like ‘it’s okay, there’s no problem’ and emitted a calming effect.

nShould I say it was like ‘it’s a scary guy, super intimidated!’ VS ‘it’s just an S-Rank, don’t be intimidated!’? Of course, the winner was the latter. It was an L-Rank skill.

n‘Would it be this chaos for a week if I meet an A-Rank or higher? It’s annoying.’

n

n

nCould you turn off a premonition skill too? Still, having it on would be good for hiding my state. I would be able to quickly tell when an A-Rank or higher was approaching.

nCreak

nI heard the sound of bars crumpling. Then, there was a noise of them completely breaking.

nWould it be okay to start to pretend I woke up? Peace was so quiet, it might be weird for me to wake up first. But if it was the disgustingly perceptive little brother, I felt like he would notice I was pretending to be asleep.

nLet’s just say I took in less of the drug.

n“……Hyung.”

nI heard a heavily weighted voice.

nLet’s see, should I act alarmed first? Being afraid because someone was coming, and then being alarmed but happy to hear my brother’s voice and feeling relieved, would be an acceptable response.

nWhen I slowly moved my head to the side, my little brother’s face appeared in front of my eyes. It should be okay to put on a relieved smile around now. One that showed I hadn’t completely woken up yet, but was pleased to see him.

n…Doing this wasn’t easy either.

n“…Yoohyun. It’s you, right……?”

n“Yeah, hyung. Are you okay?”

n“Uh… yeah.”

nI was a poor helpless kidnapping victim. I was suddenly kidnapped and dragged to an unfamiliar place and locked up. And I had been living normally and faultlessly until now, as a stat F-Rank who hadn’t been Awakened for long.

nOf course I was frightened, and it was scary and terrifying, and I was pleased to see my little brother who had come to save me, and I was so thankful I clung on and even tears, **, let’s be reasonable.

nI put on a reasonable ‘wow, what a relief, I’m saved’ expression and held Peace, who was starting to shift, maybe from the effect of the drug wearing off. Then I raised up my body and,

n“Ugh.”

n“Hyung?”

nI had forgotten that I had hurt my ankle.

nYoohyun’s face, which was loosened as if to relax me, immediately hardened. It wasn’t just this guy who reacted.

n“What was that sound just now? It was ahjussi’s voice, right? Could it be he is hurt? Crazy, what bastard did that!”

n“Is he injured? What kind of thing to do to a weak person! I will call over a healer right away.”

nYerim’s and Kim Sunghan’s voices also cut in.

nThen, my little brother picked me up. Ack, wait. He said he would call over a healer.

n‘I can’t just push this aside either…’

nIt was a guy who would definitely be like ‘hyung, it seems like you’ve gotten stronger than normal?’ and notice.

n“Ah, it’s not to the point of not being able to walk, though……”

nBut even so, I couldn’t insist ‘no, stop, go away’. Since I was a kidnapping victim who had suffered from violence and was obviously frightened. …How long did I have to be like this? Couldn’t I slowly start to act normal? Was it too fast?

n“What bastard was it? What bastard made ahjussi get hurt?”

nYerim stuck right next to Yoohyun, who was walking toward the door while holding me, and kept on pressing in an angry voice. I had already killed that guy, though.

n“……I don’t, really remember.”

nMaybe because I had just woken up, my memory really was blurry. Though what would I do with remembering a dead guy for a long time? What was his name? It was Kim something.

n“Not even a little? Age, or maybe height-.”

n“Hunter Bak Yerim.”

nYoohyun said in a stern tone.

n“Those sorts of things should be asked after stability is secured first.”

n“Ah… I apologize.”

nYerim sullenly hung her head. Really, and I couldn’t say it was alright either.

nWhen we passed through the door, I saw the healer who Kim Sunghan had brought. They were a Westerner and looking at the skills and ranks, they weren’t a healer from Haeyeon Guild. Did other guilds provide aid? If it was an A-Rank healer, was it Seseong? Was there one in Breaker too – I couldn’t remember well.

nWhatever else, I had to find a healer for Haeyeon. Should I set aside some time to travel around the country?

nThe healer fixed my ankle and even removed the drug effect from Peace. But that little brother still didn’t put me down. If it was an A-Rank healer, they fixed, not just fractures, but even breaks immediately, so let me go already.

n“Now, put me dow-.”

n“I will come back after taking hyung back. Hunter Bak Yerim, please investigate this place. I think you know well which points to pay attention to.”

n“Yes. I will take care of it for certain.”

nDid he mean her using White Corpse? And telling her to pay attention seemed to be about her skills not getting caught. I had thought it would be better for Yerim to use that skill after a longer while. But it was a skill that was too useful to keep unused.

nIn the end, until I was lowered to the backseat of a car, my feet couldn’t touch the ground. When I settled down, Peace went ‘kkiing’ softly and snuggled into my arms. With his ears and tail drooping, he looked really listless.

n“Okay, okay. You were really alarmed, right? It’s okay now.”

nEven if you said he was a dungeon boss monster, he was still a kid, a baby.

nYoohyun got on the next seat and the car started. Speaking of, where was this? Was it outside of Seoul?

n“Let’s go straight to the hospital first. While we’re there, get a general health check-up, too.”

nThat little brother said, taking out his cell phone. Why were you saying something difficult all of a sudden? The healer already treated me!

n“I’m not hurt anywhere besides my ankle.”

nI would have a bit of a bruise on my belly. And some of my hair was pulled out. When I was being thrown around, my shoulders and back also… actually there was a lot. I had rolled around more than I had thought.

n“And right now, I want to go home……”

nI said in a purposely weak voice. Hospitals were definitely a no. If I got a health check-up right now, there would be a commotion. All my stats had risen so starting from my durability, things would be different, so after seeing the injection needle unable to go through, immediately they would be like ‘it seems you aren’t stat F-Rank’.

n“Can’t I just go home and rest? I don’t want to meet unfamiliar people anymore today, and for the examination, I’ll probably have to get something like anesthesia again… I don’t want to think about stuff like that for a long time.”

nEven though it wasn’t kidnapping trauma, I didn’t like hospitals. Anyways, I couldn’t go for at least one week. At my words, Yoohyun put his cell phone away again.

n“Sorry. I wasn’t thinking. Let’s go straight home. You’re really not hurt anywhere, right?”

n“I’m okay.”

nIt was a relief. Now he wouldn’t say anything about getting a health check-up for a while now. I was relieved of a worry, and changed the subject.

n“But you found me faster than I had thought you would? The guy who kidnapped me assured me that you wouldn’t know until we were on the boat.”

n“The MKC Guild Leader tipped us off.”

n“The MKC Guild Leader? He was related to it?”

n“He wasn’t behind it; should I say it was negligence of management? It seems like it wasn’t the person he was originally going to send. The system of command transmission in MKC has a bit of a problem… it’s a bit tough to talk about it in detail here, and that person should’ve been different from the people sent from the other guilds.”

nSo it really was like that. The rank was different, but more than anything, he had too little interest in familiars.

n“I had just thought MKC was saving manpower. I guess the situation there isn’t good.”

nThey had held out for 3 more years originally. Like this, wouldn’t they crash faster than before the regression?

n“It’ll be okay from now on. For now, MKC will be exempt and for the other guilds, the guild leaders said they would directly let us know the visitors’ information.”

n“The guild leaders would? Aren’t they busy? They have to go into dungeons too.”

n“There’s no helping it. Unless there’s the danger of the information changing in the middle, that’s the most certain method. Of course, among the other five, there aren’t any guild leaders who can’t properly manage their own affiliated Hunters, like in MKC, but just in case.”

nNow, I really wouldn’t have my safety threatened. No, still, you couldn’t guarantee it 100%. Where would you find a perfect place in this world?

n“Even if they paid attention like that, there aren’t any ways to make the guild members not betray you, right?”

nHow could you know what was inside someone’s mind? At my words, Yoohyun hesitated a little and then opened his mouth.

n“That’s, affiliated guild members are a little different. Normally, if they had attacked a high rank dungeon with the guild leader, they wouldn’t really do something like betray. That is to say… something like camaraderie?”

n“Really?”

nCamaraderie, huh. There wasn’t anything like that at all in low rank Hunter teams. Of course, it wasn’t that there weren’t good people. The problem was that they didn’t go far and all died.

nThere were fixed low rank teams united through trust and friendship, but in long term cases, they were extremely rare. As much as they stuck together, if one of them died, they couldn’t bear the shock and would break up, or even if that didn’t happen, if they seemed like they were doing pretty well, they would be attacked from the outside, since there were many Hunters would would find it unpleasant.

nBut if it was a high rank dungeon attack team where those sorts of unfortunate incidents barely occurred, they could from a strong camaraderie, and continue to stay together.

n‘Still, trusting in something like camaraderie and thinking there wouldn’t be a reason to be betrayed. Is he really still just young?’

nWas it still okay like this, Haeyeon Guild Leader? I knew the future where he was on a roll, but I worried a little. A flaw that didn’t originally exist appeared in MKC too, because of me, so there was a possibility of anything else changing too.

n“But hyung, are you really okay?”

n“I’m fine? Why?”

n“No, um…… You’re a little different from normal.”

nAt the significant words, my heart skipped1. Could he have noticed my stats changing? I was staying still, though. But the continuing words were unexpected.

n“Something like a nasty reptile smell……”

n“……What?”

n“No, I’m not saying that the smell is coming from hyung… You didn’t happen to get caught by a curse or poison?”

n……Ridiculously sharp guy. Was he feeling the skill I received from Blackie? I slightly used Lizard Stuck on the Wall and shook my head.

n“If something like that was put on me, I would have known first. The healer didn’t say anything either.”

n“Maybe if it was poison, but if it was a curse, a healer wouldn’t have noticed either. Just in case, here.”

nHe took off a bracelet on his wrist and then pulled my wrist over to put it on there. No, that wasn’t necessary. Then, he brought my hand over until the back of my hand was about to touch his nose, and sniffed me.

n“It seems like it’s definitely gotten weaker than before.”

n“……Is that so.”

nIt was a relief that Wall Lizard had an effect. Stat S-Ranks really were troublesome.

n“If you’re an S-Rank, you can feel things like that too?”

nI asked, pulling away my grabbed hand without giving my maximum strength.

n“A little if it’s right after the skill is used? If it’s the level I felt from hyung, rather than being the target of a skill, it’s more likely that you have the skill, though. Since it’s not absolute.”

nWow, you really could know even things like that. It was a scam. I should be careful, very careful. But I had a lot of other skills; could he not feel those?

n‘If he had felt them, he would have questioned me a lot already.’

nSeeing how he had only noticed the poisons and curses of Blackie’s skills, it seemed like attack skills were limited to attribute.

n“Here, take this back. If I had really been cursed, I probably would’ve been de-cursed now.”

nI took off the bracelet and handed it over. You wouldn’t know, but I have an L-Rank curse resistance. You take good care to have de-cursing items instead.

n“Your detoxification and de-cursing items were taken away, right? Soon, I’ll find even better ones for you.”

nYoohyun said, taking back the bracelet. Um, I went around without them on so they were in my inventory, untouched. Should I pretend they were taken and give them to Myeongwoo? And speaking of, would that guy Myeongwoo be worrying, too?

n“Before that, mana increasing equipment is more urgent. My earrings were taken too.”

nRight now, even my mana was enough, but after one week, it would hit rock bottom again.

n“The one that I have now is just a ratio increase. Should I give you that at least?”

n“I won’t need to use the skill right away, so it’s okay.”

nIt was a little embarrassing because that little brother kept on trying to take care of me. Setting aside that we were family, we had a relationship that was enough to get care in a business way, but if I was going to take advantage anyways, it would be more comfortable to do so to other guilds. Especially MKC, shouldn’t I properly recompense them?

nIt was already dark when we arrived at Haeyeon Guild.

n“Home would be safer than the dorms, though.”

nYoohyun said, pressing the elevator button. It was safer, but I had an ominous hunch that if I went in now, it would be hard to come back out.

n“No thanks. Anyways, you have to go back right away. It’s more comforting to have another person around, even an F-Rank, rather than being alone.”

n“I don’t really have to go-.”

n“You should go quickly, Guild Leader. I can go by myself from here.”

n

n

n“Still…”

n“If you dig out the instigator and clean everything up even one day faster, wouldn’t I also be more comfortable?”

nDid I pretend too much that I was weak? Stop clinging and quickly go work.

nI said it was okay, but Han Yoohyun took me all the way to the dorm room door before he turned back. It would be great if it ended with this – he wouldn’t act more annoying from now on, right?

n“Peace, we’ve finally come back home.”

nLet’s sleep early today. Should we sleep together for the first time in a while?

nI coaxed Peace, who completely couldn’t regain his energy, and opened the door. Then, when I also opened the inner door.

n“……Yoojin.”

nI saw Yoo Myeongwoo with a devastated look on his face.

n1 it’s more like ‘sting

/burn’ but in this context, it means more like he was shocked

/alerted, if you say sb’s ‘heart (was) pricked’ in eng it implies more that their conscience was roused (which this krn phrase can also mean, but that’s not the meaning here).

n