Chapter 37 : A Trick of Fate. (7)
Chapter 37: A Trick of Fate. (7)
The judge standing on the platform kept chattering nonstop.
“I went to get my fortune read not long ago. According to Myungri studies, the Four Pillars of Destiny cannot be altered by any method whatsoever. If a fortune-teller tells you they can change your fate and recommends a shamanic ritual, curse them out and run. They’re definitely a scammer!”
Sitting in my chair, I looked around.
Once again, the elevator doors opened, and people entered the banquet hall one by one.
Because there weren’t enough chairs, most of them stood around awkwardly.
The name tags pinned to their chests contained their personal information.
< Kim Jin-woon >
Expected Rank : C+
< Park Sang-gi >
Expected Rank : E+
< Moon Do-yoon >
Expected Rank : C-
…….
Every single one of them had a higher expected rank than me.
The name tag of the big guy next to me also caught my eye.
< Bang Su-hwan >
Expected Rank : B+
Perhaps sensing my gaze, the guy spoke to me.
“Yong-gi hyung. There are so many applicants. Are they really going to accept all these people? We’re not going to get dropped too, right?”
Bang Su-hwan had an expected rank of B.
He was a hunter who could grow to a higher level than anyone here.
Yet even so, he was reading the room and hunching his shoulders.
Looking closely, his jacket was covered all over with what looked like cat hair.
“…….”
Was it because he didn’t have his underlings with him?
My first impression of him had been awful, but now that I looked again, he somehow seemed like a timid bear.
Suddenly, I grew curious about his story.
“Hey. But what kind of trouble did you get into to end up in juvie?”
“Ah, well…….”
Bang Su-hwan scratched the back of his head and continued.
“When I was young, I got bullied. Since I was big, classmates and upperclassmen kept telling me to join their delinquent circle, but when I refused, they harassed me like crazy.”
The smile Bang Su-hwan forced onto his face looked bitter somehow.
“Every time I walked down the hallway, they’d shoulder-check me, shove my head into urinals until my lips split open……. Even then, I couldn’t say a word back. I was soft-hearted, and back then I’d never fought anyone before.”
Bang Su-hwan calmly confessed his past.
“One time, I was on my way back from running an errand to the school store to buy bread, and I found a stray cat at the incinerator. It was soaked from the rain and trembling, and it reminded me so much of myself that I fed it the sausage and milk I was holding. The circle seniors who were smoking saw that.”
As I listened, a growing sense of unease crept over me.
“They kicked the cat and started stomping on me. Watching that cat rolling around in the mud, I just snapped and…….”
I didn’t hear what came after, but I could roughly guess.
“Anyway, all the seniors ended up hospitalized, and I went to juvie. You know those younger guys we saw at the Hunter Association back then? They’re all my juvie classmates. They were getting it just as bad as I was, so I helped them out, and they started following me like an older brother. Oh, right.”
Bang Su-hwan pulled his phone out of his pocket and showed me the background screen.
“This guy here is Mungchi, the one I met at the incinerator back then. His fur’s all fluffy like a cotton ball. Cute, right? Hehe.”
So he had protected an abandoned stray cat, gotten beaten senseless, and finally exploded and ended up in juvie.
If there were a god, whose side would they take?
Bang Su-hwan? Or the delinquent circle?
By what standard would they judge anyone?
Purple Devil had no choice but to keep asking endless questions.
As I sank deeper into thought, someone lightly kicked the leg of Bang Su-hwan’s chair.
He sprang up and shouted.
“Are you picking a fight with me! You want to die?”
“N-no. I didn’t do it on purpose…….”
“Fuck! What are you looking at! Can’t you lower your eyes?”
“Tch. Making a fuss over nothing.”
The man who had accidentally kicked the chair muttered and walked past.
Bang Su-hwan snorted angrily and sat back down.
Looking closely, his hands were trembling.
“I, I got trauma after that. So whenever I see someone, I end up shouting and cursing more than necessary. I know it’s the wrong way to deal with it. But I never want to…… go back to how it was then.”
Bang Su-hwan trailed off.
After hearing his circumstances, I understood why he had been so aggressive when we first met.
It was probably a defensive mechanism to protect himself.
“I’ll apologize once again. I was really sorry back then, hyung.”
“Alright.”
“Thank you. Hyung, you’re truly magnanimous.”
“Quit talking nonsense and sit properly.”
“Yes, sir.”
Bang Su-hwan fixed his crooked chair and sat up straight.
“Hold still.”
I brushed off the hair stuck all over his body.
“Haha. It’s Mungchi’s fur. I forgot to use the lint roller before coming out.”
Bang Su-hwan grinned foolishly, baring his teeth.
The surface of the chair gleamed as it reflected the lighting.
My professional habit kicked in, and I began analyzing the material.
As soon as I felt the smooth texture, I knew.
‘Burn Light?’
No matter how high-end the banquet hall was, using chairs made of a cutting-edge material like this was excessive.
Was it to flaunt their wealth?
No.
‘So the rumors were true.’
More precisely.
‘Just like what happened in my previous life.’
The judge on the platform waved his hand.
“Looks like almost everyone’s here now. You there! The ones who just got off the elevator, come forward. Anyway. So why do fortune-tellers lie and say they can change a predetermined destiny?”
The chattering voice had been irritating me for a while now.
The judge grinned and said,
“It’s because they need to squeeze money out of you.”
There were so many applicants that not even half of them could sit on chairs.
The rest stood in place, staring at the platform.
“You’re the same. You didn’t come to the Dio Guild for any lofty reason—it was for money, wasn’t it? Money? We’ll give it to you. But you have to provide us with something too. That’s how a fair transaction works.”
A sinister aura boiled up from the judge’s body.
Bang Su-hwan, beside me, flinched and activated <strong-weak-weak-strong>.
“H-hyung. That guy’s dangerous. At least S-rank?! Be careful.”
Bang Su-hwan swallowed hard, cold sweat running down his face.
The judge clapped his hands—smack!
“Alright, quiet! Everyone, quiet down! We’ll begin the initiation test now.”
At this point, the applicants started voicing their complaints one by one.
“What kind of test are you talking about when we already got expected ranks?”
“Are you looking down on us just because we’re rookies?!”
“Are you going to keep us standing like this? Call the female staff and at least bring us some coffee. Hehehe!”
Most of the bastards gathered here had utterly vile personalities.
‘What a complete shitshow.’
The judge unfolded a single sheet of paper.
“When you came in through the entrance, you all signed this, right? If you look closely, it says this. That you will not hold us responsible for any injuries or damages that occur during the initiation test.”
Bang Su-hwan’s eyes widened.
“That was written in there? I had no idea! Hyung, did you see it?”
I knew.
Everyone had been in a rush and hadn’t noticed.
In my previous life, this incident had caused quite a stir in the media for a while.
The headline was probably something like,
<< Dio Guild’s Brutal Employee Selection. Is This Really Okay?! >>
The atmosphere grew more heated under the judge’s provocation.
“What kind of bullshit is that!”
“Writing it in ant shit-sized letters. How the hell are we supposed to read that!”
“As expected of the Dio Guild. Tsk tsk. Where are the female staff? If you call the female staff, I’ll let it slide.”
The judge tried to placate the applicants.
“Yes. Yes. I understand well. For now, shall we try standing up from our seats?”
“Fuck off!”
“You’ve been barking orders like crazy since earlier.”
“What rank is that bastard anyway?”
The judge, still wearing a smile, took in a breath and adjusted the microphone.
“STAND UP!!! YOU TRASH!!!!!”
An echo that felt like it would tear eardrums apart rang through the banquet hall.
A few people sprang to their feet reflexively.
The once-noisy banquet hall fell silent in an instant.
With that single lion’s roar, everyone realized it.
The gap between themselves and that judge.
Bang Su-hwan and I also quietly lifted our asses off our chairs.
Somehow, it felt like if we didn’t, that bastard would do something at any moment.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
The judge’s distorted expression returned to normal in the blink of an eye, and a gentle voice drifted out.
“I’ll only say this once, so listen carefully.”
When he snapped his fingers, a low-ranking agent ran up onto the platform and placed a chair in front of the judge.
“The test is a kind of game. It’s called <Chair Snatching!> The rules are simple. Bring a chair and sit down, and that person passes! Simple, right?”
The judge plopped down into the chair.
Then he checked the watch on his wrist and opened his mouth.
“You have exactly ten minutes. If you fail to secure a chair, you’re eliminated. There’s no chance to apply again. You go home. Like a loser. A loner. A wounded failure. Dragging your feet.”
The judge’s frivolous tone was no longer funny.
“Then, ready.”
The tension was so taut it felt like even the air had frozen.
He raised his index finger and brought it down.
“Go!”
The once-peaceful banquet hall instantly turned into a living hell.
“CEO. Your afternoon schedule includes a meeting at 3:30 with the Cheonyangji (泉壤地) Cult Leader. From 5:40, together with the model requested by the advertisers, Team Leader Lee Yu-seol…….”
“Stop.”
Go Pil-hoon, who had been receiving the secretary’s report, raised his index finger.
Smoke rose from the cigarette held between his fingers.
The entire Dio Guild was a non-smoking area, but Go Pil-hoon didn’t care in the slightest.
Lee Yu-seol, standing nearby, waited in silence.
After Go Ju-hoon died, his half-brother Go Pil-hoon took over the position of leader.
In other words, the current king of the Dio Guild was Go Pil-hoon.
“Today’s the day, right?”
“Which matter are you referring to?”
“The day you pick new recruits.”
“That’s correct. As per your instructions, CEO, we added a new initiation test based on a skill-first principle.”
“Hm. Will that be enough?”
Go Pil-hoon wore an unconvinced expression.
The secretary diligently flipped through the tablet PC screen.
“The judge is Na Sang-min, an S-rank hunter, so there’s no need to worry.”
“Na Sang-min, huh. Then that’s fine.”
The seat of Go Ju-hoon, the Dio Guild’s only S-rank hunter, had become vacant.
Go Pil-hoon paid a huge sum to scout Na Sang-min from another guild to fill that S-rank position.
“What did Na Sang-min say?”
“He complained about being made to clean up after rookies as soon as he arrived, but when told it was your order, CEO, he accepted it without further complaint.”
The secretary checked the time.
“They should be gathered in the banquet hall by now.”
“Let’s go see.”
“Yes? Right now?”
Go Pil-hoon stubbed out his cigarette on the desk, not in the ashtray.
“Why? Is there a problem?”
“No. Let’s go.”
“Ms. Lee Yu-seol. You come along too.”
“Me as well, CEO?”
Lee Yu-seol’s brow narrowed.
She felt uncomfortable calling anyone other than Go Ju-hoon ‘CEO.’
Being with the unpredictable Go Pil-hoon made her uneasy.
“There’s still time, isn’t there? Let’s go enjoy some entertainment. Secretary Kim, you stay here. Ms. Lee Yu-seol will guide me.”
Lee Yu-seol had already finished reviewing the contents of this program.
Calling hunters fighting for their lives ‘entertainment.’
‘Should I really trust and follow someone like this?’
Lee Yu-seol hesitated.
“I…….”
“Hey. Team Leader Lee. This isn’t a suggestion. It’s an order from your superior.”
“Understood.”
Go Pil-hoon walked ahead, whistling.
Lee Yu-seol followed after him.
The two of them boarded the elevator.
Silence filled the heavy air.
The one who spoke first was Go Pil-hoon.
“My brother used to talk about you sometimes. Team Leader Lee Yu-seol. He said you were reliable and a good woman.”
Go Ju-hoon and Go Pil-hoon were not particularly close brothers.
They only met occasionally at official events to exchange formal conversation.
“My brother praising someone. The man who looked down on everyone but himself.”
Go Pil-hoon lifted one corner of his mouth, but he didn’t look amused at all.
He turned toward Lee Yu-seol.
Then he held out his hand.
“In any case, I look forward to working with you as well. If you’re someone my brother acknowledged, you must be dependable.”
Lee Yu-seol looked down at Go Pil-hoon’s hand.
The pale, white fingers looked almost like a woman’s hand.
It was rare for a hunter to have such delicate hands.
“Wouldn’t my brother in heaven be pleased to know you’re helping me?”
Go Pil-hoon’s gaze touched the elevator ceiling.
His constant mention of his dead brother wasn’t mourning.
It was a thoroughly calculated act meant to draw out Lee Yu-seol’s guilt.
Go Pil-hoon’s strategy was successful.
Lee Yu-seol took his hand.
“Understood. CEO Go. I will serve you to the best of my ability.”
Ding.
The elevator stopped.
When the doors opened, the two of them turned their heads while still holding hands.
In the silence, Go Pil-hoon’s and Lee Yu-seol’s pupils widened.
The banquet hall was utter chaos.
People panting and vomiting their insides, people rolling on the floor as bloody messes.
Out of more than a hundred applicants,
fewer than ten were still standing on their own two feet.
Among them, one person stood out in particular.
With his arm slung over the shoulder of a large man with a cropped haircut.
A man drenched in fresh blood, as if he had washed his face with it.
As he steadied his ragged breathing, his eyes met Go Pil-hoon’s.
“Fuck. What are you looking at.”