Holy B-Class Life

#025

The world had turned upside down.

The status window that Yoon Pa-ran and Dan Joo-hyuk had seen appeared before everyone’s eyes. For “all humans” on Earth, regardless of whether they were hunters, civilians, or even newborn babies.

This was the second system notice since the gates first opened.

In 1914, the first gate appeared on Earth. The gate, which happened to block the path of a marching European imperial crown prince, announced its shocking first appearance by spewing out monsters.

After its debut, later named the Sarajevo Gate Incident, gates were chaos incarnate. Until those who had awakened in South Korea, then merely a periphery of East Asia, discovered that there were distinct rank differences among them.

The first generation of Korean hunters, who appeared at the Versailles Gate Treaty with U.S. support, widely proclaimed this. Simultaneously, a status window appeared before all humans worldwide, just like yesterday.

A great discovery activates the system.

From now on, each hunter’s rank will be displayed.

We pray for your blessing.

This first system notice is called the ‘Korean Wave’.

The appearance of the status window was as shocking as the occurrence of gates. At that time, there was a strong tendency to perceive things like gates and monsters as the result of experiments by enemy countries.

The status window appearing in mid-air was a phenomenon beyond human technology or cognition at the time. If the system hadn’t been activated just then, World War I, which broke out due to the first gate, might not have ended so easily.

Complete ignorance leads to fear. Therefore, humanity, which had been in chaos due to the sudden gate phenomenon, was able to regain hope through the ‘information’ provided by the system.

However, unlike this first system notice, the notice that appeared yesterday was despair itself.

“Good work, Hunter Dan Joo-hyuk.”

“…”

A Gate Management Office official greeted him with a tense expression. Once again, Dan Joo-hyuk, who was the last to come out of the S-class gate, moved with his habitual smile.

About two days ago. Yoon Pa-ran, who had seen the system notice with him, had turned pale and disappeared somewhere without a word. He probably went to the orphanage he cherished so much.

Dan Joo-hyuk’s scheduled gate entry was naturally postponed. The Special Administrative Safety Department had been annoyingly persistent in asking him to attend meetings.

If two S-class gates hadn’t occurred that evening, he would still have been wasting time unnecessarily.

“Dan Joo-hyuk. Why are you so quiet? It was an S-class gate you liked so much.”

Heo Sang-yeon, one of Korea’s S-class hunters, called out in a boisterous voice. Officials from the Gate Management Office were crowded around her, eagerly trying to engage her in conversation.

Just then, one of the officials looked at their watch and said something. Heo Sang-yeon, who had bent her tall frame to listen to the official, soon called out loudly again.

“You’re going straight to the next S-class gate, right? Let me come with you!”

It seemed her hearing hadn’t recovered yet after getting hit on the head during the final boss confrontation. Everything from her action of slamming her huge greatsword into the ground to her voice was irritating.

It was beyond irritating; it was disgusting.

“Situation report, please.”

Ignoring the familiar rising emotion, Dan Joo-hyuk answered calmly. Anyway, Heo Sang-yeon probably felt the same disgust towards him.

This unique hatred experienced between S-class hunters was a physiological issue. It was an unpleasantness that couldn’t be understood by anyone who wasn’t S-class, no matter how much it was explained.

Yet, the two didn’t show it outwardly. It was a fragile peace achieved after an implicit agreement.

“Uh… You’re saying you’re going? Huh? What did you say? I can’t hear well right now. Does anyone have a potion? Even a weak one would do.”

Unable to hear the words of the short female official well, Heo Sang-yeon kept bending down to focus on them.

After watching this scene for a while, Dan Joo-hyuk ran his hand through his hair and started walking.

Both S-class hunters had similar smiling expressions. However, unlike with Heo Sang-yeon, no one blocked Dan Joo-hyuk’s path. This was because he didn’t extend the kindness of suppressing his wavelength for other humans.

Unlike him, Heo Sang-yeon always lived with her S-class wavelength suppressed to the point where her presence couldn’t be felt. It was like constantly breathing with just one lung.

“Oh! Thank you. Please charge this to my account.”

Too many humans had approached too closely because of Heo Sang-yeon. Dan Joo-hyuk struggled to keep his increasingly sharp mind in check.

S-class hunters occasionally felt this disgust towards all ‘humans’.

Sometimes, as if there was a glass wall between others and themselves, they felt a fundamental difference that was impossible to cross.

This phenomenon, named ‘S-class syndrome’, was treated as top secret. There was nothing good about letting it be known that biological weapons worse than nuclear bombs could harbor unilateral disgust even towards civilians.

So, Heo Sang-yeon’s attitude of smiling kindly and listening to the officials even now was quite remarkable.

It was also a skill that he had chosen not to exercise.

Dan Joo-hyuk had been experiencing this ‘S-class syndrome’ towards all humans since immediately after his awakening.

“…”

Dan Joo-hyuk smiled again as he mulled over Heo Sang-yeon’s words. Despite behaving no differently than usual, he sensed that his smile was slightly twisted.

In any case, it was true that he was currently overwhelmed by an emotion similar to frustration.

Despite having just rampaged through an S-class gate, he couldn’t feel the usual elation. Following the cause, Dan Joo-hyuk glared at the air, moving only his eyes.

>> [Sacred Energy S] Absorption rate___00%

Yoon Pa-ran’s skill that he had carefully charged up had disappeared.

Before he could even swing his sword for the first time in the gate.

“Ha.”

During the meeting arranged by the Special Administrative Safety Department, he witnessed the numbers dropping for the first time. He had hoped it wasn’t the case, but the charged energy really did disappear as time passed.

This had never happened with any of the skills he had absorbed so far. He had thought the consumption rate was extreme in the last gate, but it clearly included this dispersing energy as well.

This level of inefficiency was excessive. His plan to test his power on an S-class monster had instantly vanished, leaving him in a foul mood.

“Are you worried about yesterday’s system notice?”

At that moment, Heo Sang-yeon approached and spoke to him. She must have simply poured the potion into her ear, as her upper garment lined with monster leather was soaking wet.

Due to her skill that required her to fight like a berserker, Heo Sang-yeon’s appearance was quite ragged. At least her loud voice from earlier was gone, which was somewhat better.

“Of course not.”

“I didn’t think you would be.”

He ignored her, finding her proud expression, as if she had believed in him, absurd.

S-class gates appeared at most five times a year. Two appearing at once was clearly an anomaly. It meant that the order that had barely maintained equilibrium between the number of hunters and gates was being disrupted.

Of course, the fact that order was being disrupted didn’t capture Dan Joo-hyuk’s interest.

“Oh? Dan Joo-hyuk! They say the other S-class gate has closed. Looks like Kim Sang-deok moved? That’s unusual.”

“…”

His expectation of rampaging in the next S-class gate was shattered once again. If it was going to be like this, he should have come to this gate alone too.

Originally, only one S-class hunter enters an S-class gate. Due to the nature of S-class hunters rejecting each other, fighting together is more inconvenient.

However, the association took the status window’s warning seriously and wanted to close the S-class gates, currently the biggest threat, as quickly as possible.

“Sigh… Then I guess I’ll rest a bit and head to the gate headquarters tomorrow. What about you?”

Dan Joo-hyuk’s face froze with a smile as he looked down at his phone filled with useless notifications.

It was a dirty feeling, as if all his motivation had viscously flowed down to the floor, piling up like filth.

“We’ll see.”

Before emptiness could consume his mind entirely, Dan Joo-hyuk started walking, intending to go home.

Going home didn’t necessarily mean he could recover pointedly. It was just a habitual action because that’s what he had always done for the past few years.

“See you tomorrow!”

He heard Heo Sang-yeon shouting at his back, but he didn’t turn around.

Going to his car felt quite bothersome. The system notice from yesterday must have been shocking, as the voices of A-class hunters gathered and whispering could be heard from various places instead of going home.

“Wow… My phone’s been ringing all day. It was my day off, but I just came back.”

“Can’t be helped. Ugh… I still get chills thinking about that system notice.”

“Too many A-class hunters died in the last anomaly gate. I heard they’re going to intensively train some B-class hunters.”

“Can they just be trained like that?”

“We have to try something.”

The voices exchanged were filled with anxious energy. It seemed to clearly show how the world was being shaken.

Just then, someone approached Dan Joo-hyuk directly.

“Joo-hyuk.”

He slowly turned his gaze at the woman’s voice. A familiar A-class hunter was addressing him with a tense expression.

“Are you free today?”