Chapter 95 - Chapter 95 (1/2)

Finding himself surrounded by a wall of reporters, Jin-Woo became quite flustered.

'Why aren't these people taking pictures of Rhee Min-Seong like they were supposed to, instead of blocking my way??'

Wondering if Rhee Min-Seong was standing behind him, he took a quick glance, but he could only see Baek Yun-Ho and Choi Jong-In there.

It was then, his thigh began vibrating.

Vrrrr.... Vrrrr....

It was his mobile phone inside the pocket.

'Why would Jin-Ah call me at this time of the day?'

As soon as he tapped on the 'Answer' icon, his little sister's urgent voice exploded out from the speaker.

- "Oppa! Oppa, you're on TV!!"

But, that was obvious. Just how many TV cameras were present here? You would still get roughly the same picture regardless of which TV station you tuned into.

He got momentarily tense after his sister, who was supposed to be still in school, suddenly called him up but was able to breathe a sigh in relief.

"Mm.... So, nothing in particular happened, right?"

- "Nothing in particular?? How can you even say that?! What's this about Re-Awakening? And this rank S thing, too???"

From her voice, it was quite obvious that the girl was feeling really shocked at the moment. Unfortunately, his current circumstances meant that he couldn't explain everything to her in detail.

"Right now, I'm a bit occupied so.... Okay, I'll tell you everything once you get back home."

- "Oppa?! Oppa!"

Despite his sister's anxious voice calling out to him, Jin-Woo ended the call.

Click.

And at the same time, he got to figure out how the current situation came to be.

'….There was a message, huh.'

The Hunters Association used a dedicated app to deliver important information in real time. Most of the time, the app alerted the users to the locations of rank A or higher dungeons, or where dungeon breaks were about to occur, but it was a different story today.

'….Huh.'

After confirming the contents of the message, Jin-Woo quickly accessed the Association's website. And sure enough....

The ink on his rank S Hunter licence wasn't even dry yet, but the list of the highest ranking Hunters in South Korea had been updated already.

[Seong Jin-Woo, rank S, Mage-type]

It was as it was written on his licence.

'….They are unnecessarily fast on things like this.'

Shoving the phone back in his pocket, Jin-Woo redirected his gaze back to the front.

"Mister Seong Jin-Woo! Are you really the rank E Hunter once affiliated with the Association?"

"You are now a very rare Re-Awakened!! How are you feeling right now?"

Reporters writhed and struggled desperately in order to capture a bit more of Jin-Woo's face or his voice with their cameras. However, Jin-Woo found their explosive attention towards him simply annoying.

'I gotta get out of this place first.'

Asking them politely to make way wouldn't going to work.

Jin-Woo's brows quivered. Should he just summon his Shadow Soldiers to carve out a path and leave?

"Over here! Mister Seong Jin-Woo, please look over this way!"

"Mister Seong Jin-Woo! The whole country is watching, so how about a smile for the viewers?"

While the camera lenses and mics were gradually inching closer, Jin-Woo spent the next two seconds earnestly pondering whether he should summon Shadow Soldiers like 'Tank' or 'Fangs' or not.

Meanwhile, behind Jin-Woo...

Choi Jong-In looked at Jin-Woo's back as the youth stood there, unable to go anywhere thanks to the cordon of reporters blocking his way.

He approached Baek Yun-Ho and spoke.

"Looks like my new recruit Hunter-nim is feeling a bit troubled from the excessive attention, no?"

"And just who gave you the permission to call Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim 'your' new recruit now?"

"Can't I even make a joke? It's just a joke."

Two men began their war of nerves once more. In the end, though, Choi Jong-In took a step back first. He sighed before speaking up again.

"In any case, it'd be the same thing as giving other Guilds a chance if we waste any more time here."

Baek Yun-Ho agreed with that assessment. Not just the Reapers Guild's Master Im Tae-Gyu, who just so coincidentally was present here today because of Rhee Min-Seong, but the other remaining super-large Guilds would be desperately trying to get in touch with Hunter Seong Jin-Woo right about now.

Baek Yun-Ho scanned the crowd of reporters.

"So, Chairman Choi, what you're suggesting is...."

"Before flies come rushing in from the smell, let us escort Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim to his residence. While we have a chat with him regarding this and that."

Meaning, the two of them should pool their resources first, and prevent more potential rivals from appearing.

Didn't matter what kind of abilities Hunter Seong Jin-Woo possessed, he'd still need a Guild's aid if he were to attack high-ranking dungeons. So, if they played their cards right, then either the White Tiger or the Hunters Guild could find themselves with another rank S in the roster.

Choi Jong-In was utterly confident of the Guild he led, the Hunters, and....

"Alright."

….Baek Yun-Ho too didn't feel that this was a bad suggestion, either.

The White Tiger might not have been as big as the Hunters, but it still was a Guild with great future prospects.

'Besides, our Section Chief Ahn and Deputy Hyun are familiar with Mister Seong Jin-Woo from a while ago, too.'

At a bare minimum, he knew for sure that they had a closer relationship than the Hunters Guild.

And so, the interests of these two men lined up rather nicely. They exchanged a few suspicious gazes at each other, before turning around to approach Jin-Woo.

The first one to engage the young man in conversation was Baek Yun-Ho.

"Hunter-nim."

Jin-Woo looked behind him.

"Yes?"

Choi Jong-In inwardly clicked his tongue after losing the initiative, but since they made a tacit agreement to cooperate, he didn't interfere. Baek Yun-Ho formed the brightest smile he could manage and continued on.

"Are you feeling lost with all these reporters around? We can safely escort you back to your house, so how about going with us? We are pretty good at dealing with these sorts of situations, you see."

Although a bit of exaggeration was mixed in there, what he said wasn't an empty promise at all.

This event was something any rank S Hunter would experience at least once. Not only that, these two men also learned how to deal with people's attention while managing their respective large Guilds, too.

Choi Jong-In provided support fire from the side.

"Let's head out together. Also, there is something we'd like to discuss with you, as well."

Too bad for them, Jin-Woo simply formed a polite-enough smile to reject them.

"I'll be alright."

He then pulled the hood attached to his top and hid his face.

"I actually do have a place I need to stop by first."

"Excuse me? But, how will you get out of here, what with all these repor....."

Choi Jong-In couldn't get to continue with the rest of his sentence.

Swish-!!

Because, Jin-Woo turned to face the reporters and then, jumped up tens of metres in the air before landing on the other side of the crowd, that's why.

"Uh, uh???"

Even before the flustered reporters could respond, Jin-Woo blended into the crowd and disappeared from the view.

Choi Jong-In was left speechless. Now that was a movement he couldn't even react to in time, even though he was a rank S. It was quite obvious that the reporters, who were all regular people, wouldn't be able to follow that with their naked eyes.

Choi Jong-In let out a wry chuckle.

'As soon as registering as a rank S, he's already playing the part of Superman?'

How was he supposed to be a Mage-type with that sort of physical ability? As a fellow Mage-type, it sure riled him up a bit.

But, in that case, how would a rank S melee-type Hunter think of that?

"Just now, he...."

Choi Jong-In turned towards Baek Yun-Ho in order to ask a question, but he flinched and reflexively took a step back.

"Chairman Baek, your eyes??"

He was so surprised that he even forgot to add the honorific title.

"Ah....! M-my apologies."

Baek Yun-Ho hurriedly covered his eyes with his hand and turned around. When he opened his eyes again a short while later, they had reverted back from the monster-like irises to those of a normal human being. However, just because his eyes changed back to normal, that didn't mean his shock had worn off.

'How can this be.....??'