Chapter 90

Still, even if I turned down the meal, the one at the wheel was Sung Uijae.

Well, it’s not like I planned to ditch him here; I just wanted to say no for the sake of it. So I went along and headed to a restaurant with him.

He took me to a restaurant inside some hotel.

“Is this where you’re staying, Hunter Sung?”

“Yeah.”

It was close enough to walk from the hotel I was at.

“Do you eat a lot?”

“A bit more than average.”

“Anything you want?”

“Order whatever you like.”

I could eat anything, and I didn’t have the will to sit there flipping through a menu with him, so I left the whole order to him.

He picked a few things and, for himself, even ordered a drink.

'He’s S-rank; alcohol won’t do anything anyway.'

The higher the hunter’s rank, the more enhanced the body—alcohol stopped producing any buzz. No matter how strong it was, it was just a beverage at that point.

Of course, drinking’s a habit to some degree, so even if it didn’t “work” on the body, some people still drank. I had one of those at home.

I took a sip of the water poured into my glass. Watching me drink, he asked,

“You don’t drink?”

“No.”

“Why not? At a low rank, alcohol should go down fine. Any reason you don’t?”

Reasons I don’t drink? Plenty.

“You said it tastes bad.”

“...You’ve never had any? Didn’t you say you’re twenty-four?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t drink to get drunk either, but it’s a pretty decent hobby.”

Decent, my ass. I’ve never seen anyone who had drinking as a hobby keep all their marbles. Not to mention, it’s a straight shot to a shorter lifespan.

When I just gave a lukewarm nod, he brightened with interest and suggested,

“How about trying it this once?”

Right then, his drink arrived. He took the clear glass and tilted it toward me like he’d pour.

“You’ll spill it.”

“Not tempted?”

“No.”

“Unexpected.”

Muttering to himself, he brought that useless beverage to his lips.

After a moment, the dishes began coming out one by one. I’d been hungry and drained already; with food in front of me, my patience evaporated.

While I focused on eating, he, unexpectedly, didn’t focus much on the meal.

'Im Haekyung also seemed to eat little—maybe S-ranks just have ridiculous bodily efficiency.'

I glanced at him and thought briefly about S-ranks.

Before Kwon Taehan has even regressed, I’m already running into two S-ranks. And what’s weirder is that both were chance encounters, not something I orchestrated.

'Sung Uijae...'

Thinking back on his path in the original, I suddenly remembered the artifact he bought today. A kind of restraint that can suppress mana.

'He used it on Im Haekyung.'

There was an episode where they clashed over a difference of opinion, and when Im Haekyung tried to control Uijae’s mind, Uijae blocked it with that restraint.

Though, in the end, things still went Im Haekyung’s way.

Anyway, the point was that Uijae and Im Haekyung were never on great terms. If Im Haekyung can’t stand not controlling people and situations, then Uijae pursues autonomy to the extreme, maybe?

'Well, there’s some overlap.'

Honestly, Im Haekyung’s need for control is a kind of counteraction to his impulses. Calling him a psychopath every time I see his face isn’t for nothing. In short, he’s a very well-organized lunatic. Uijae is just openly abrasive.

'From where I’m sitting, with personalities that shitty, they’d probably get along.'

Let the assholes hang out with each other. Just stop harassing innocent citizens.

I was off in useless thoughts about their relationship when his voice cut in.

“So why are you pretending to be an appraiser at SH?”

“Want to trade questions one for one?”

“I’m not into losing deals.”

Give me a break. He’s been asking the questions and somehow he’s taking a loss?

“If you don’t want to, then don’t.”

To be fair, I had plenty to ask. Like how he knew the thing in my palm was a beast, and whether he brought it up just to drag me along to today’s auction.

He stared at me, dropped his fork onto the plate with a clack, and slid his chair a bit closer.

“Alright.”

“......”

“Doesn’t hurt to tell you. It’s already over anyway.”

He smiled slightly and began.

“Willow Reinhart—pretty famous among tamer-type hunters. Heard the name?”

Willow Reinhart. Hard not to know.

In the original, she only showed up twice—not many times—but she’s the world’s first tamer-type hunter and a lunatic who made a zoo at home out of beasts.

She didn’t appear often, but she got mentioned plenty.

“Who wouldn’t know.”

He grinned at my answer.

“Truth is, I was sharing vision with that hunter at the Hunter Association building to appraise the beast.”

“......”

Reinhart... sharing vision?

'Fuck me—it was a lucky day, huh.'

Willow Reinhart, being a tamer-type, has a passive skill. Eye of Insight.

Exactly what it sounds like—a beast-only identification skill used to grasp a beast’s type, abilities, traits.

'Yeah, that’s what felt off.'

There’s no way Uijae, who doesn’t even have a basic appraisal skill—much less Eye of Insight—would have recognized the extremely docile beast in my hand. It was weird.

If you don’t use Eye of Insight, you can’t tell—and I got caught by someone actually using it.

Seeing my face, his mouth curved.

“This is what you wanted to ask, right?”

“Yes.”

I couldn’t deny it. That’s what I was most curious about.

If he really did use Reinhart’s skill, then denying it would’ve been pointless anyway. The problem was that someone who was essentially a stranger—Sung Uijae—found out.

Still smiling, he added, almost playfully,

“She wanted to see the beast appraisal, so we shared vision in secret for a bit. I didn’t expect it to turn into something this fun.”

Sure, you didn’t. I dipped my chin in a vague nod. He finished and just looked at me, clearly waiting for my answer in return.

'Why I’m pretending to be an appraiser at SH?'

Not like it would do him any good to know, but fine.

I told him the truth.

“I needed to get into a guild, but my hunter rank was trash, so I scammed my way in with appraisal ability.”

“Even without an appraisal skill? Bold.”

“Well, the fact is I can appraise.”

Skill or not, inside SH I’m already a pretty damn good appraiser, aren’t I?

I added, like it was nothing.

“I’m quite good at it.”

“......”

“Everyone’s satisfied.”

“...Your ability is good.”

He conceded readily, propping his chin and squinting a little. Hard not to, since he’d just seen my ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) appraisal ability in real time.

After a pause, he asked something else.

“Why didn’t you report to the state? Not a fan of the recognition?”

“Yes.”

Not the whole story, but.

Plenty of people are squeamish about raising beasts; public opinion on beast-fusion hunters isn’t exactly rosy. But I wasn’t avoiding it because I feared backlash—I wanted to avoid the creation of public opinion itself.

For reference, I also didn’t report that I’d ranked up from F to E for a similar reason.

As a harmless, law-abiding citizen, it was nerve-wracking to be committing crimes like this, but I had no choice. A lot of people, including guild folks, already had me pegged as an F-rank; I didn’t want the attention of constantly correcting that.

'It just makes backstabbing later harder.'

And once you’re judged a high-rank hunter, restrictions follow. It’s premature worry for a small fry like me, but still.

Not talking about the beast sleeping in my right hand was in the same vein.

He muttered to himself.

“Mm... The state would also clamp down pretty hard with management, so it would’ve been difficult to disclose it, yeah.”

“......”

“Hey, I love Korea too. I just couldn’t stand the administrative system. Report this wherever you go, cautions for even running a single dungeon... that kind of thing is exhausting.”

“Yes...”

“You think I gave up my nationality for money?”

He finished with a crooked smile.

To someone like him, each of those requirements probably felt like an infringement on freedom. I agreed to a point. Reporting, inspections, registrations—one by one.

'It is a pain.'

But sorry for the guy in front of me—I already knew his backstory from the original.

Wiping my hands with a napkin, I met his eyes.

“So what are you thinking now, that you’ve gone quiet?”

His backstory, huh. I didn’t care about his personality or future life, but the reason he left Korea was decently interesting. For all his bluster, he did have a kind of victim position.

It’s something Kwon Taehan and “Seo Jehyun” find out when they upend the Hunter Association in the original, but the people Uijae crossed weren’t just the masses.

For starters, right now, even the Association’s representative had worked hard to drive him out.