My Assigned Hunters Climb the Tower - Chapter 11

========== CHAPTER 11 ==========

[Judgment Pendulum]

A massive magical pendulum formed from the ceiling, and with a terrifying whistling sound, it plummeted vertically toward Kang Hoon. There was nowhere to dodge.

“Damn it!”

Instead of pushing off the ground, Kang Hoon threw his body behind the largest gear structure nearby.

Kwahhhhh-!

A roar as if the world were collapsing. The steel platform he had been standing on just a moment ago had vanished without a trace.

And Kang Hoon saw it. The Golem, having used its ultimate skill, momentarily froze, and the core on its chest was glowing, defenseless.

“Now…!”

Go Gyeol’s shout wasn’t necessary. Kang Hoon’s body was already reacting.

He kicked off the gear and sprang out. He leaped over the broken platform, trampled the crawling soldiers, and charged toward the single target.

“Let’s end this, you tin can bastard!”

He gripped the iron pipe in his hands like a spear, put his entire body weight into it, and struck down toward the glowing blue core.

Crunch!

A bone-chilling rupture sound as the iron pipe pierced the Magic Core.

Kzzzzzt-!

The Golem could not maintain its form and collapsed into a pile of massive gears and parts.

“……Huff, huff, ugh…….”

Kang Hoon slumped to the spot. His entire body was drenched in sweat, and his legs were trembling uncontrollably.

Just then, he felt the Sanctuary lift from behind him with a soft pop.

“Look at you.”

It was an indifferent voice, but Kang Hoon could hear it. The voice of his master, whom he considered his nemesis, was trembling ever so slightly.

“I thought I was going to die, you crazy master.”

“Shut up, kid. You’re an eyesore.”

Lee Seong-ha said bluntly as he approached and roughly ruffled Kang Hoon’s hair. The touch was awkward, but it was undeniably warm.

Go Gyeol chuckled and nudged Lee Seong-ha.

“Stop being so dramatic. Anyone would think you were the most anxious bastard in the world.”

He immediately turned his head toward Kang Hoon.

“D-rank clear, congratulations. This is just the beginning.”

At the word ‘beginning,’ Kang Hoon could only look back and forth between the two men looking down at him, with an expression that couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry.

“Wow, I’m telling you, the fist was as big as a building! It slammed into the ground, and it was like an earthquake….”

After clearing the D-rank dungeon [Clock Tower of Stopped Time], Kang Hoon’s repertoire was fixed on just one thing. At every opportunity, he would passionately recount his ‘heroic’ battle experience, inflated by at least 100 times.

Lee Seong-ha was listening to the tall tale while cleaning his training dagger, looking annoyed. Playing along was fine once or twice, but his patience was starting to run thin.

“Hey.”

Lee Seong-ha spat out without taking his eyes off the dagger.

“If you tell that story about the fist as big as a building one more time, that’ll be exactly the hundredth time.”

“Aww, when have I said it a hundred times?”

“Ninety-nine times.”

At the sharp, cutting reply, Kang Hoon flinched. When Lee Seong-ha looked at him with an incredulous expression, Kang Hoon rolled his eyes and stared at the innocent ceiling. A sense of crisis washed over him that if things went on like this, his weekend training time might double. He hated that study time was increasing, but he hated increased training time even more. He quickly changed the subject.

“But… why is Gyeol-hyung’s pressure so low today?”

Lee Seong-ha just shrugged.

“I don’t know, you brat.”

It was definitely different from the usual Go Gyeol.

Even though he always looked busy, he would usually come over and chat with Kang Hoon for a bit after weekend training ended. He would check the training content or toss out information about common dungeon monsters. His advice was always sharp and accurate.

But today, he hadn’t said a single word.

Throughout their conversation, he had been staring at a point in the air, emitting ice-cold air around him. His stiff expression was like a well-honed blade, and no one dared to even try to talk to him.

Kang Hoon swallowed dryly without realizing it.

It wasn’t just a simple case of being in a bad mood.

It was a clear signal that something very bad had happened.

It was when Lee Seong-ha and Kang Hoon were walking on eggshells around Go Gyeol.

Zzzzt-

Breaking the silence, Go Gyeol’s phone, which had been lying on the desk, vibrated lowly.

Go Gyeol wiped away his playful expression for a moment, raised his eyebrows in confusion, and picked up the phone.

“Yes. This is Go Gyeol.”

His expression as he took the call sank into seriousness in an instant. Sensing the change, Kang Hoon instinctively moved his seat, inching toward Lee Seong-ha, who was sitting on the sofa.

“Hyung. What kind of call is that?”

Lee Seong-ha shrugged. He couldn’t know what the person on the other end was saying, but the two had no choice but to watch him, holding their breath, due to the ominous atmosphere radiating from Go Gyeol.

The air in the office was slowly freezing over in sync with the responses coming from the other side of the phone.

“Yes. I understand. Please send the details by text.”

Go Gyeol, who spat out the last words in a dry voice, threw his phone onto the desk with a nervous, sharp sound. The clack- sound cut through the silence with unusual sharpness. He buried his body into the chair just like that. The slight wrinkle between his brows, his tightly shut lips, and his ominous gaze directed at the phone on the desk. His eyes were burning, as if the phone were an enemy he wanted to crush right then and there.

In the suffocating silence, Kang Hoon glanced at Lee Seong-ha with a look full of question marks. ‘What’s going on? Why is that hyung like that again?’ However, Lee Seong-ha just shrugged nonchalantly as if he didn’t know, and pointed at Go Gyeol with his chin. ‘How should I know? Ask him yourself.’ Even while that silent conversation was going on, Go Gyeol was staring at the phone without moving a muscle.

How much time had passed? As if breaking the flow of stopped time, Go Gyeol jumped up as if springing up. At that sudden movement, both of their gazes were fixed on him simultaneously.

“Where are you going?”

It was Lee Seong-ha who spoke first.

“To pick up a Hunter.”

A short and concise answer. At those words, Lee Seong-ha also stood up without hesitation.

“I’m coming too.”

At that moment, Kang Hoon’s eyes shone faintly. It felt like a lifeline of salvation had been thrown down. If Lee Seong-ha followed Go Gyeol? That meant he would be perfectly free until he returned! He hadn’t come to find Go Gyeol in the first place because he harbored some delusional expectation that he would change the hellish training schedule. He just wanted to escape the prison called home for at least a few hours before being shackled again. But unexpected luck had come his way.

“Sure. Let’s go together.”

As soon as Go Gyeol’s permission was granted, Kang Hoon cheered inwardly. However, that sweet sense of liberation didn’t even last 3 seconds. Because Lee Seong-ha, who was walking out of the office door, suddenly turned around like a ghost. His gaze was directed exactly at Kang Hoon, who was flinching in surprise.

The light, soft tone that had been directed at Go Gyeol just a moment ago was nowhere to be found. A voice as cold and low as a snake pierced Kang Hoon’s ears.

“When you get home, you’re taking a test. Know that for every question you get wrong, your Sunday break time will be reduced by one hour.”

“No way!”

A scream close to a shriek burst out, but Lee Seong-ha only twisted the corners of his mouth and showed a devilish smile.

“There’s no such thing as ‘can’t’ in this world, Kang Hoon-ah.”

With the desperate cry of despair echoing behind him as background music, Lee Seong-ha hummed a tune and walked down the stairs lightly. In the office, only Kang Hoon, with an expression as if the world had collapsed, remained frozen like a statue.

The familiar city scenery flashed by outside the car window. Lee Seong-ha’s gaze, gripping the steering wheel softly, was directed forward, but all his nerves were focused on Go Gyeol, who was sitting in the passenger seat. Without even giving a hint about their destination since earlier, he just stared out the window and directed the turns like a machine. Just as that silence was starting to make him restless, Go Gyeol spat out the name of their destination in a low voice.

At that moment, Lee Seong-ha’s head, which had been watching the road ahead, snapped around. He barely managed to refrain from slamming on the brakes.

“Kwon Do-geun? Wait, don’t tell me, that Kwon Do-geun? You mean the actor Kwon Do-geun who was even nominated for an Academy Award?”

“Yeah.”

Such a calm affirmation. Whether Lee Seong-ha’s eyes widened in shock or not, Go Gyeol just nodded his chin with a bored expression.

“Right.”

“Seriously? Are we really going to meet the actor Kwon Do-geun right now? How do you know that guy? No, more importantly, Kwon Do-geun was a Hunter?!”

Lee Seong-ha’s voice grew higher with disbelief. The combination of the name of a genius actor who had once shaken not just Korea but the world, and the word ‘Hunter’ who fought monsters on the flip side of the world, was something he had never even imagined. Go Gyeol didn’t even blink at the barrage of questions.

He had thought Lee Seong-ha would be this excited if he knew. It made sense, as Kwon Do-geun was a huge star famous enough for even kindergarteners to know.

“Left. Yeah. He was pretty famous. You didn’t know?”

“I’ve been living under a rock regarding TV ever since I entered the monastery!”

When he shouted in frustration, he heard Go Gyeol click his tongue.

“Tsk. Even if you’re a priest, you should live knowing the news of the world. Left again.”

As if he had become a human navigation system, Lee Seong-ha, who was turning the steering wheel according to the words Go Gyeol spat out, suddenly asked in a voice filled with curiosity. The excitement that had been boiling over had subsided a little, and pure curiosity raised its head.

“But why are you recruiting an entertainer all of a sudden? Don’t tell me it’s a mission?”

“Yeah.”

“Is he good at Hunter work?”

“No.”

“Then why is it a mission?”

“Who knows.”

In truth, he didn’t understand it either. The mission just threw the task of recruiting Kwon Do-geun at him. Go Gyeol had to do all the cleanup that resulted from it.

“Will such a popular entertainer do Hunter work?”

“No. He’s not an entertainer right now.”

The firm answer chilled the air inside the car for a moment. Lee Seong-ha swallowed dryly without realizing it.

“Why?”

Go Gyeol was still staring somewhere out the window. As if reciting someone else’s dinner menu, he dropped the truth in an extremely emotionless voice.

“He was kicked out of the entertainment industry for a double contract and a sex scandal.”