DEB 9

“You….”

With black hair and blue eyes, the man looked quite handsome. 

His sharp features and piercing gaze gave him the impression of a perfectionist. 

As he frowned at Huiyun, the man’s mouth trembled several times. As if he had seen something he shouldn’t have, or as if he couldn’t believe what was in front of him.

Huiyun, forgetting what he had just done, was puzzled.

When he wondered why the man was acting that way, he realized that the man’s physique seemed familiar. Just like the person who had been lying in the garden….

“Could it be…?”

“Could it be….”

They spoke almost at the same time. The moment they looked at each other, saying similar words, the man with wide eyes grabbed Huiyun’s hand. Startled by the sudden contact, Huiyun tried to pull his hand away reflexively but couldn’t due to the man’s forceful grip. 

As time passed, the man holding onto Huiyun’s wrist lost focus in his eyes.

“Why… did you leave us?”

 “…What?”

“You pitied me for being abandoned, so why….” 

“Uh-uh…!”

The man trailed off, then collapsed as if his soul had left his body.

Huiyun, who had caught the man leaning towards him, checked the face of the man who had closed his eyes and fallen over. Up close, he was strikingly handsome.

The man’s eyes look slightly reddened as if he was about to cry…

Huiyun measured the man’s overall physique with his eyes and was astonished.

“It really is the person who was in the waiting area earlier?”

That physique, unmistakably. It was the person Huiyun had stepped on when he first entered the gate.

Huiyun, confused about how the man who had clearly been down could have entered the gate again, pondered over their recent conversation. 

The fact that he had abruptly grabbed his wrist, and acted as if he recognized him despite it being their first encounter, was strange. As Huiyun looked bewildered, a notification window popped up with cheers.

[You have cleared the gate of the remnants of the high-ranking Persian Ducal family!]

It was a belated notification.

[After Care Service System Quest has been completed! As a reward, you receive a ‘Mana Hypersensitivity Treatment Progress Bar’ and ‘5% Progress’.]

[Additional service! A status window is provided. Through the status window, you can check the current quests and the progress of mana hypersensitivity treatment.]

[Good job, MR. Huiyun! The remaining progress until complete recovery is 95%! However, please do remember that if you awaken now, it will lead to immediate recovery!]

[The power of the honorable savior has manifested in you across the ages. Would you like to awaken?]

We were going along quite well, but at the end, the administrator sneakily doing this. By this point, it seemed they were hoping for him to accidentally press the ‘Accept’ button. 

Huiyun, who had received the reward while supporting the unknown man, softly recited to open the status window. Half in disbelief, a blue information window solemnly appeared.

“To live and see the day I get a status window.”

It felt quite strange to see a window that only hunters could see in front of him.

It’s like being an unofficial hunter, but it’s not bad. As long as he can make use of this and avoid awakening.

Huiyun looked at the dead Steward. Since the boss typically holds the reward for clearing a gate, it was cumbersome to have to search the boss’s corpse to check the reward.

It’s still a bit awkward.

Because he had ordered the boss to commit suicide, it was even more unsettling to search the corpse. Unwilling to leave the rewards behind after going through the trouble of clearing the gate, Huiyun suppressed his uneasiness, put the man down and approached the Steward. 

However, without having to search around like a petty thief, a reward box was neatly placed on the chest of the steward.

If it’s a high-level gate reward… it might contain something significant.

He had heard that even clearing a mid-level gate could yield fifty million won. So, a high-level gate would likely contain something worth at least 200 million won. As he untied the prettily wrapped box with a ribbon, golden light poured out. It was the effect of an S-grade item he had only heard about.

Suddenly, blood rushed to his head, and his heart started beating faster.

This is insane.

An S-grade item.

I probably won’t need it, but Huigang is a hunter. If I give it to him, he’ll surely be delighted, jumping with joy. 

A little later, as the light dimmed, the item floated up.

<Manuscript of the Persian Ducal Family(S)>

Description: A manuscript by the Persian Ducal Family. If you possess it, someday it will provide you with a useful guide when the conditions are right.

– Luck stat permanently increased by 10 when owned

– Not transferable or tradable to others

“…?”

Huiyun squinted as he looked at the luxurious paper with what seemed like trashy writing. He glanced left, then right, then back at the paper, but the content remained the same.

“Is this really an S-grade item?”

He incredulously looked at the system window as he sincerely wondered if the system seriously considered this trash as a treasure. The system defended that gate rewards were not within the jurisdiction of the system administrator, so even if he stared like that, there was nothing the system could do. The system said it wasn’t an excuse, but to Huiyun, it sounded like nothing but an excuse.

His hand holding the paper trembled lightly. Moreover, this useless piece of paper wasn’t even an item that could be used right away. It was described ambiguously as ‘someday when the conditions are right,’ without even disclosing what those conditions were, leaving Huiyun to wonder whether that day would come today, tomorrow, or the day the owner dies.

Ultimately, the only thing it practically provided was an increase of 10 points to the Luck stat when owned. Despite its S-grade designation, even if he wanted to put it up for sale based on the grade value, the item being untradable made it was nothing but junk. 

Huiyun couldn’t help but let out a bitter laugh.

Ha, hahaha.

Right. In life, even when you go through three near-death experiences and clear high-level gates, you can still get an item like this. They say when misfortune strikes, it doesn’t come alone, but luck comes along with it. 

So if you look closely….

Look really closely….

Damn it, no matter how much he looked, there was nothing else but ‘Luck stat +10.’ 

Huiyun glanced at the system with eyes that asked if it had anything more to offer even though he had cleared a high-level.

[To receive additional rewards for clearing gates, you must complete Hunter registration! There are five special rewards available if you awaken now!]

No, thanks.

Though bitter, he had limited time to dwell denial, so Huiyun, considering the Mana Hypersensitivity Treatment Progress Bar as a reward, received a notification that the distortion effect from the gate had been mitigated. 

The mitigation of the distortion meant that the gate of the Persian Ducal Family’s remnants, which was created by a sudden distortion going to disappear.

He had to get out of the gate before it completely disappears.

He looked at the collapsed man, he felt that dealing with him would be troublesome, but still, he couldn’t leave a person in the gate behind. 

Of course he moved the man by using his abilities, not his physical strength.

However, he immediately regretted it.

“Cough!”

Whether the penalty reduction effect was disappearing because the gate was vanishing or because this was the second time he had used the ability, the pain he had thought had stopped suddenly returned. Clenching his teeth against the surge of nausea, Huiyun glanced at the system window.

“If you have a conscience, wouldn’t you wait until I return to the hospital to give me this penalty?”

[Th-that… I don’t have the authority to issue penalties…?]

“Even when the gate rewards are terrible, you can’t hand out penalties like this. Then what can I do? I guess I have to erase the concept of awakening altogether from my mind, what a trash system, just because I’m not a hunter….”

[…was what I was about to say! Even if it’s not within my authority, I’ll quickly assist you, Mr. Huiyun^^ (you little bastard)]

You didn’t delete the parentheses.

Huiyun pretended to ignore what he saw and he felt hos body getting better as time passed. Just as he was thinking for the first time that the system was useful, the golden notification window disappeared.

[The administrator went off duty, and the automatic operating mode has been reactivated.]

So, he went to get disciplined.

Now, he could see the ecosystem over there fairly clearly. Still, he was grateful for the help, even at the cost of the administrator getting disciplined. Deciding that he should at least pretend to consider awakening as a hunter next time, Huiyun used his ability to lift the man and left the mansion.

Coming down the chaotic stairs and returning to the entrance, he saw two men lying in the waiting area. They were in the same position Huiyun had first seen them in.

“These guys strangely remind me of someone….”

Their closed eyes and overall appearance were quite beautiful and handsome. With faces like that, it wouldn’t be easy to forget meeting them, so Huiyun wracked his brain, but couldn’t recall anyone. Feeling frustrated, he used his ability to lift them up as well. 

Then, he saw that the previously blocked entrance was now wide open.

Now, even that felt unfortunate. Doing such a thing twice was out of the question.

He exited the gate and checked the time. 6:30 PM. 

The nurses would probably be grumbling about him not returning, Huigang shouldn’t returned yet.

He thought he could handle the situation if he returned in time. As he was about to leave, Huiyun suddenly remember the three men floating above his head.

“What should I do with these guys?”

He didn’t feel comfortable leaving them here in the distorted area. Seeing that they hadn’t regained consciousness after fainting, he felt quite concerned about their condition. Huiyun pondered, realizing that since he was going to the hospital anyway, he might as well drop them off near the hospital entrance. He moved along the building towards the hospital.

“At least there’s no one around here….”

The CCTV cameras on the building wall were functioning properly. Huiyun, scattered the air with his power, summoned weapons that emitted intense light to block the cameras in angles where he might be visible.

Then, he jumped off the building rooftop, swiftly placed the three men near the hospital entrance, and returned to the hospital room to change clothes.

He disposed of the blood-soaked clothes in a black bag, cleaned himself up as best as he could, and looked in the mirror. Surely enough, the clothes he had changed into were once again turning red. It was then that he noticed that blood was still flowing from the area around his neck where he had been injured with the maid. 

He quickly wrapped a bandage around his neck to stop the bleeding and lay down on the bed. At that moment, the nurse returned, and the penalty began.

“Mr. Huiyun! Where on earth did you go? I already told you not to wander around so recklessly….”

“…Cough!”

“Mr. Huiyun? Oh my god. Mr. Huiyun!”

The startled nurse rushed over.

“Oh, I’m not someone who faints so frequently….”

Muttering something that sounded like an excuse to the approaching nurse, Huiyun closed his heavy eyelids.