Chapter 128: Panhandlers 3

It was early evening, Jaehwang took a shower and went for a talk with the raid leader.

“Great work out there,” the leader said to him politely.

“It wasn’t just me, I couldn’t have done it without Seongbin. Is she done with the raids?”

“Yes, it was originally supposed to go on for two more days but their leader gave them the thumbs up. They could now return to their base.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. Because of their leader, they were able to recover from their injuries and they made it back safely. You should thank him.”

Jaehwang didn’t know the hunter leader so well but he remembered that he showed him a great raid spot a while ago.

In a city in the Alousu, the monster’s habitat has been moved, it caused them to struggle and those beasts that left their homes had run into the Dakosu monsters. One would expect them to have some sort of trouble but little by little, they got along until they were able to find a new area for themselves.

“It was a good thing that they helped.”

“True, I don’t know what would have happened without them,” the leader replied and Jaehwang nodded his head in agreement.

“By the way, there’s something I need to ask you…”

“Sure, what is it?…”

“Have you heard of someone that had gotten a head injury or something today?”

The leader’s face glowed after he heard his question. He didn’t notice any accidents happening to anyone.

The higher-ups had personal connections with the Korean army and their standard circumstances seemed pretty high. They were considered as champions in the past and they were still well-known up to this day.

However, that team ran into a high ranked monster and they stood no chance against it.

Their connections proved them to be very effective in terms of their careers all the more while they do their jobs protecting their base. It meant that having bigger connections would mean bigger opportunities, what he thought was right.

“Well…”

“Yes, you’re right.” He could already tell what he was thinking.

“I’m not asking for much, but… The truck carrying those high-leveled monsters caught on the raid… it needs a tighter security.” Jaehwang said and the leader shook his head as he thought about it.

There’s a slight problem with what he had in mind but after thinking about it for a second, he asked, “Do you think you’ll hit the jackpot if everything goes well?”

“Yes and that would be great,” Jaehwang answered and the leader replied with a smile.

“Alright. We’ll issue some personnel to secure those big monsters. If everything does go smoothly, it’ll do wonders for the military budget.”

“Great.”

It was a win-win agreement.

***

Ten days had passed since that meeting took place. All of the hunters were at lunch in the cafeteria and Jaehwang was sitting at a table with Seongbin. Over the past ten days, Seongbin seemed to have changed a lot. Her usual slightly tilted shoulder was straightened and her leg brace looked decent and new.

“Have some of this.”

“Thanks.” Something about her had definitely changed. Her face for the past ten days seemed a lot happier.

“Are things going great on your end?”

“Yes, I found a great house in the countryside for my mother. She was able to leave the hospital and she lives there now.”

“Your mother’s living alone, doesn’t she get lonely?”

“Haha, of course not. She told me about that place and besides, she likes spending time by herself.”

In just ten days Seongbin was able to rest, help her mother and do all the other things that she needed to finally become stress-free.

On the first day, Seongbin was able to pay off a stressful private loan, it was the type of loan where she would get phone calls every day as a reminder about the loan that she couldn’t pay. She got her way out of it with a single payment and she had a chunk of funds left to take care of the things that she wanted.

For the second day, she was able to move her mother who was in the hospital to a much better facility and was emitted a few days later thanks to her having a better treatment.

The third day was a fulfilling day and so was the fourth. Joining the raid with Jaehwang as her teammate was very challenging but it really paid off in the end. She also went up by three levels over the past ten days, it was the shortest amount of time where she had gained so much progress at once.

Obviously, they earned a lot from the raid and although it was really dangerous and exhausting, they didn’t regret a thing. They were able to sit back and just relax for the time being.

Seongbin thought of Jaehwang as her savior for helping her make those past ten days possible. Jaehwang’s advice and knowledge worked perfectly and she couldn’t have done it without him and his amazing skills. She thought that maybe he wasn’t such a bad person after all.

He would send her a signal whenever a monster would come inside their range and he wouldn’t just shoot them randomly, that was too risky so he shot them down one at a time. There were also some cases where a few would get too close and he had to take them all, it looked like he made his arrows rain and none escaped it.

The sixth day was their last and it was their greatest. A seventh tier monster appeared and she thought that it would sweep everyone and everything. That was the first time she doubted their plan.

However, they placed their heads together and they were able to come up with a great idea. They got the rest of the squad together and although they weren’t able to destroy and capture the monster, they were at least able to chase it away.

The next day, Jaehwang received a request and had a meeting with some guy. He was presented with a special set of brand new high end arrows to thank him for his efforts.

But, that person was a monster as well. How? Because that guy went and loaded the fifth tier monster onto the truck. What was even more surprising was the talk that both of them had.

“Why did you come here?”

“I’m here as a backup for the raid.”

“We don’t need any backup so you can go. You and I don’t ever have to see each other.”

“Hey, I’m just a friend trying to help…”

“Well, then I don’t have to share any profits with you, deal?”

“Are you serious?”

“If you don’t think that’s a good idea then you can just go…”

“I have to take the bus back too ya know.”

Both of them were capable of handling such a strong monster. Dongchul and Jaehwang had to take the military bus back to the base so it didn’t really matter who left first because they would just have to see each other again very soon. Jaehwang was ignoring his friend Dongchul, it was hard to avoid him but he didn’t really want to start a fight between the two of them.

Soon, the raid was finally finished. Other people had showed up to help them load the dead monsters onto a truck to be taken away so the area could get cleaned up.

Dongchul and Jaehwang then went onto the military bus to exit the scene.

Tak…

Jaehwang finished eating and placed his empty glass on the table.

“What’s this?” Seongbin asked as she handed Jaehwang a card to with his name written on it. Jaehwang took the card and looked at it in surprise.

[Mr. Choi Jin-Ha]

“I can’t believe I still have this around.”

“Huh?” Seongbin said, still being confused.

“I forgot all about this. Someone from the head office in Seoul gave this to me. The tasks to get it was unbelievably difficult but I pushed through it all…” She then handed the card back to Jaehwang.

“Why are you giving this to me?…”

“Don’t you hate the team?” Seongbin thought for moment before she took the card.

“T-Thanks.” Seongbin said. Jaehwang’s head was facing down on the table when he noticed a tear falling down to the table.

He could understand her struggle and sympathise with her a lot. All he wanted to do was to make things easier for her so he did the best he could to do that.

—Look what you did.

—What are you talking about? I did my best to try and help…

Jaehwang said in reply to the spirit. He never had it in him to comfort others so he kind of just sat there awkwardly.

“Thank you so much Jaehwang… this really means a lot to me.” Seongbin said as she cried.

Jaehwang then looked at her and said, “Don’t worry. I just want to give you a chance to get up on your own. You can be just as good as I am, I know you can so don’t cry and get some rest. We have a lot to do tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Seongbin said before she left the cafeteria to take a rest.

Jaehwang then got up to leave as well but he suddenly stopped and asked the spirit a question.

—Spirit

—What is it?

—I’m not strange, am I?

—Are you stupid? You’re always strange.

The spirit unhelpfully replied.

—Whatever.

Jaehwang said as he moved on and the skill status window then suddenly opened.

—Archery skills (Unique skill)

Possessor of the skill: Jeon Jaehwang

Effects:

Archery strength increased by 10 percent

Others:

Level one: 1000 — In effect

Level two: 10000 — In effect

Level three: 100,000 — aesthetic

(Next level cannot be shown due to the lack of energy.)

Energy: 500 – 426

“Wow.”

His skill had improved a lot since the last update. He was now ready to continue his training to make himself better.

Jaehwang was ready to continue to work hard to make even more improvements.

Panhandlers 3, The end.