Chapter 158

Citizens permitted to live in the city were either Grade 1 citizens or Grade 2 citizens, but the gap between them was enormous.

Apart from the way Grade 3 citizens, who lived separately in provincial communities, were treated like people from another world, Grade 2 citizens were constantly in a position of being compared to Grade 1 citizens.

They called themselves "beggars" or "hicks" with self-deprecating humor.

If they wanted to afford the insane rent, they could not live in the central district, so they moved as far out toward the city outskirts as possible, and the farther they went, the closer Grade 2 citizens inevitably ended up to the paupers.

"... Ah, what the hell."

The man got up and turned on his phone screen.

It was past one in the morning.

"Ah, seriously, my fucking laundry..."

It must already be all wrinkled.

"I swear the alarm went off, so why the hell couldn't I wake up?"

Grumbling, the man went to collect his laundry from the communal laundry room.

Inwardly, the man thought that if a Grade 1 citizen saw him, they would sneer at him for having the nerve to care about cleanliness.

'Still, we may not have money, but that doesn't mean we don't have pride.'

'We already get cursed out for being dirty, so we can't actually let ourselves get dirty.'

It was a tall, run-down villa tangled up with the entertainment district.

The walls were thin as hell, so living there was practically living with noise, and every facility in sight was rusted and creaking.

Grade 1 citizens who lived only in the clean central district had every reason to point fingers and call it filthy.

Still, he could not exactly go to work looking like an actual beggar, so he had to put in at least this much effort.

Because the old washing machine could not spin-dry properly, the laundry that had soaked up water was unbelievably heavy.

"Ugh."

The stairs creaked with every step.

After returning home with the laundry basket, the man headed straight for the veranda.

Since the weather was still quite chilly before the cold had fully let up, the man took out his phone, wondering, 'What the hell is the temperature for it to be this damn cold?'

"..."

1:24 a.m.

"... Huh?"

As the man looked at his phone, a couple entered his field of vision.

Beyond the veranda, his gaze dropped down below.

"What the hell, at this hour?"

His voice lowered on its own.

After all, perhaps because this residential area had been built together with the entertainment district, there were animal bastards who would sometimes come deep into the alleys late at night to take care of business in a hurry.

Fortunately, though, it did not seem to be that sort of atmosphere.

As he looked at the man and woman, who seemed more sober than expected, the man thought.

'The guy looks like a Hunter.'

'Isn't that Gita Orphanage over there?'

'Looks like they have business there, but... why go to an empty abandoned house with no monsters in it?'

And then, the man saw it.

"..."

A cat-shaped jewel letting out an eerily beautiful cry.

"... Uh..."

At that bell-like cry, young souls walking out of the abandoned building one by one.

"Uh, uh."

And the one who ruled over all of them.

"─..."

A priest.

'... No, a trainer?'

Before he could organize his thoughts any further, the man realized that his eyes had met those of the platinum-blond Hunter.

For an instant, his breath caught in his throat.

"..."

Only after a long time had passed did the man realize that the entire situation had vanished as if it had never happened, and that he was sitting collapsed on the veranda.

"... Uh, what, what was that?"

He could not quite remember what he had seen.

He was sure their eyes had met, but his memories of what happened in between were hazy.

'Fuck, they said Hunters were scary...'

'Our eyes just met, and I almost pissed myself.'

It seemed he had briefly panicked because he had made eye contact with an overwhelmingly powerful Hunter.

Knowing such things did occasionally happen, the man accepted the situation without any suspicion, and soon picked up his phone with a hand damp with cold sweat.

The low-quality phone was heavy and sluggish, but even taking that into account, the man's hand holding it now was shaking far too much.

"... What, what kind of world has ghosts in it?"

When he turned on his phone, he saw notifications silently filling the screen.

They were from the local community he had joined, and the man instinctively realized that this quiet commotion had come from the incident just now.

'I wasn't the only one who saw it.'

It had not been a hallucination.

With trembling hands, he typed a title to make a post on the community where people from his neighborhood came and went.

It was the freaking huge ball "Mr. Seo Jio" had sent flying.

A traditional Korean trait that had endured since before the Great Calamity.

-??? What the hell did I just see??

An internet powerhouse.

Even after the world ended and came back to life, Koreans' social media and communities remained alive and well.

Perhaps because the world had been turned upside down once, residents of the same area had a strong sense that they were practically one family.

When incidents or accidents occurred, it was a sort of etiquette for the residents of that area to share the matter.

Because of that, the Gwanak-gu community that "Hunter Seo Jio" had visited was thrown into an uproar.

"Hey, they say a ghost showed up in Gwanak-gu."

"Are you fucking serious?"

The rumor quickly spread through the area.

One photo was attached to the community post.

Whether it was because the poster's hands and feet were shaking, as stated in the post, or because the phone camera's performance was poor, the photo was extremely blurry.

Even so, it was enough to confirm the blond Hunter and the woman sitting collapsed on the ground, just as the poster had said.

At the photo, which seemed to have been taken from a high position, the community was once again thrown into an uproar.

By the time the incident had spread not only through Gwanak-gu but through the community for all of Seoul.

"It should be fine now."

"Uh... Uh..."

"Would you please upload it?"

"Can I really upload it?"

"This is a matter Collector has permitted."

"Wow."

The woman who had been one of the parties in that day's ghost commotion uploaded a photo to the community.

It was a two-shot taken with Hunter Seo Jio.

Unlike the earlier proof photo, the photo taken with permission was extremely clear, and while the woman's face was covered with a sticker, Hunter Seo Jio's face was shown as it was.

The contents of the post were brief.

A beauty that could topple a nation.

That was the end of it.

And the comments exploded.

"..."

"The reaction is really good..."

"It seems so."

And Yu Seongun thought.

'When it comes to muddying the issue, there really is nothing like visual violence.'

As one proud Curator, Yu Seongun fully acknowledged the beauty of "Jio's Portrait."

Judging by what he saw, the mood seemed to be turning in a fairly good direction, so Yu Seongun gave his usual mild smile.

"Thank you for your cooperation."

"Ah, no. I'm glad if I was of help."

"As I told you earlier, all of your personal information will be protected, Ms. Choi Raon."

"There are still people who manage to find things out, though..."

"We will take measures to ensure that this cooperation does not cause you any personal trouble."

"I-I would be grateful if you did."

"You just signed the contract."

"Do you have any other questions?"

"Um."

Choi Raon, one of the parties in the incident who had become known as "the flop-down woman," asked with a solemn expression.

"Can I make a fan forum?"

"... I would think that much is the citizens' freedom."

"Ah, I mean, if Hunter Seo Jio might dislike it, I won't do it."

"I will ask him separately about that matter and contact you afterward."

"If I get permission, can it become the official fan forum?"

"I will... ask about that part too."

"Thank you...!"

"No, it is nothing."

Yu Seongun thought inwardly.

'Should I hurry and schedule some public activities?'

When attention was just beginning to gather, they needed to ride the good momentum.

'I don't know what level of intensity would be an appropriate position for Jio.'

Even so, he had absolutely no intention of sending Jio onto a broadcast.

Jio himself did not seem to want excessive attention focused on him, and he seemed resistant to working as a celebrity, so if possible, Yu Seongun intended to leave him in the underground sphere.

'Though now that things have come this far, it will be difficult for him to remain an unofficial Hunter.'

But, well, that much was what Jio himself had wanted.

"..."

A dungeon raid should be manageable enough for his first activity.

'... I think there was a decent dungeon scheduled for a raid that some other denomination or guild had been holding onto...'

In any case, that was no longer Yu Seongun's job.

'I need to go hand things over right away.'

At the thought of shoving the work onto Ju-hyeon, Yu Seongun felt warm inside.