The Struggles of the #1 Rank - Chapter 27
Yoo Chan-hee was definitely Yoo Tae-jun’s younger brother. Training with him made Joo-ah painfully aware of that fact.
Even when she had been a member of the elite unit, she had suffered under Yoo Tae-jun’s Spartan-style training more times than she could count.
He was a lunatic who manipulated the training room system to raise monster levels to the absolute maximum, until they could not be increased any further.
And now, his younger brother, Yoo Chan-hee, was doing the exact same thing.
“Please assign me a different Hunter for my training.”
The reason Chan-hee had been put in charge of Joo-ah’s training was simple. He was the highest-ranked Hunter in Higher-Ranked Group B.
However, making her fight monsters two whole ranks above her own without giving her proper breaks was too much for Joo-ah, whose stamina was low.
“No.”
Chan-hee cut her off immediately and recklessly summoned more monsters.
Three A-rank monsters appeared across the vast training ground.
Joo-ah frowned deeply and asked,
“Hunter Yoo Chan-hee, you haven’t forgotten my current rank, have you?”
Chan-hee chuckled at her words and answered leisurely.
“Just hold out for ten minutes. If it looks like you’re about to die, I’ll help you from behind.”
Was he seriously saying that?
She couldn’t understand how that was any different from telling her to risk her life during training.
She wanted to argue with Chan-hee some more, but training had already begun.
Joo-ah took a longsword out of her inventory. She stepped on the leg of a monster charging toward her, leaped into the air, and attacked its head with her sword.
However, her blade could hardly pierce a body covered in hard iron armor.
CLANG!
Her sword slid to the side. The enraged monster let out a roar and shook its entire body violently.
Joo-ah clung to the back of its neck, desperately trying to hold on, but eventually fell to the ground.
Another monster immediately tried to crush her with its massive foot. Joo-ah scrambled to her feet and barely managed to block the attack with her sword.
She wanted to steal the monster’s stamina with Devour magic, but she couldn’t activate it easily.
Another monster attacked from the opposite side. It bit her with its enormous teeth and hurled her against the wall.
“Ugh.”
While she struggled to catch her breath, all three monsters charged at her simultaneously. It happened so quickly that she had no time to react. She instinctively squeezed her eyes shut.
CLANG!
At that moment, Chan-hee’s sharp blade sliced through the A-rank monsters one after another.
“I told you to hold out for ten minutes.”
He approached Joo-ah with his longsword already returned to his inventory.
The three virtual monsters in the training ground had disappeared.
Having narrowly escaped death, she lay there in a daze, staring blankly at the ceiling without saying a word.
Chan-hee looked down at her with one hand tucked carelessly into his pocket.
“I’m summoning the monsters again. Get up, quickly.”
He was out of his mind.
That was what Joo-ah thought as she stared at Chan-hee looking down at her.
“I want Hunter Shin Jae-rim to train me.”
She said this as she raised her upper body. Chan-hee curled his lips into an amused smile.
“Didn’t I tell you that’s not happening?”
Joo-ah glared at him, her eyebrows drawn into sharp angles.
“Why not? Hunter Shin Jae-rim is S-rank, too. Someone like him is already more than qualified to train me, considering I’m only D-rank.”
“It’s not Shin Jae-rim who’s too good for you. It’s me.”
Watching him emphasize his higher rank even at a time like this, Joo-ah let out a hollow laugh.
“Exactly. Hunter Yoo Chan-hee, you’re far too qualified to be responsible for someone as low-ranked as me. So please assign me to another Hunter…”
“The others are too soft. Nobody knows when Yoo Tae-jun might summon us to a higher-floor Tower. How are you supposed to wait around and train at a leisurely pace?”
Given Yeon-joo and Jae-rim’s personalities, they would obviously take Joo-ah’s lower rank into consideration and adjust their training accordingly. Chan-hee meant that he would shorten the process and finish training her quickly instead.
Joo-ah had no real argument against that.
Just as he said, there was no way to know when Tae-jun would issue a summons.
Of course, Tae-jun had agreed to assign them to lower-level Towers at Chan-hee’s suggestion, but with Joo-ah’s current rank, there was no Tower she could confidently call easy.
Joo-ah let out a deep sigh and stood up.
Chan-hee opened the training room system window and spoke in a crisp voice.
“This time, you absolutely must last ten minutes.”
Before she had time to prepare, three A-rank monsters were summoned into the virtual training ground once again.
Joo-ah hurriedly replenished her depleted stamina.
The training that had briefly paused began all over again.
“The number one-ranked Hunter who went missing… The police are making every effort to investigate, but there has been little progress so far, raising concerns.”
Joo-ah was walking toward the dormitory while reading a news article on her phone. Training had not ended until late at night.
It had been three days since Eun-young’s body disappeared.
The police had still been unable to locate Kwon Eun-young. They also seemed to be struggling to determine who had committed the crime.
The first problem was that all the CCTV cameras had been smashed. The second was that not a single witness had come forward.
Joo-ah slipped her phone into her pocket, her expression impassive.
The lack of witnesses meant that a Hunter was likely responsible.
Who on earth could it be?
She stopped walking toward the dormitory.
Her head turned, following the path she had just taken.
If she continued walking in the opposite direction, she would reach a place sealed off under strict police security. Neither ordinary people nor regular Hunters could enter freely.
It was an important building accessible only to members of the elite unit.
‘Perhaps the person who cares about Eun-young the most was responsible. It’s hard to believe, but that’s what I think.’
There was only one reason why Chae-rin, who had worked alongside Eun-young for so long, had calmly explained that she believed Eun-young was safe.
The person Chae-rin suspected of committing the crime was someone quite close to her, too.
And someone who knew Eun-young very well.
Someone who had served alongside them as a member of the elite unit.
Someone who had saved Joo-ah from being killed by a monster a few days ago.
Han Se-hyeon.
Joo-ah’s expression darkened. She retraced her steps and stopped in front of a building.
“Why would Han Se-hyeon do something like that…?”
She murmured while gazing at the unit’s building with a wistful expression.
She wanted to go straight to Se-hyeon and find out the truth, but she couldn’t.
She was no longer a member of the elite unit.
Joo-ah let out a quiet sigh and turned around. At the same time, her shoulder collided with someone walking beside her.
“Ow.”
The man grabbed his shoulder and pretended to be in pain. Watching him, another Hunter walking with him chuckled, rolling the candy in his mouth.
“That bastard Lim Hyuk-jae is exaggerating again.”
“Get lost. It actually hurts. I nearly broke my shoulder.”
Lim Hyuk-jae made a playful motion as if he were going to kick the man, but the other Hunter quickly dodged. Muttering a curse, Hyuk-jae turned his head forward.
His eyes met Joo-ah’s.
He curled his lips into a long grin and approached her.
“Hey, how are you going to take responsibility? You ruined my shoulder.”
Joo-ah stared at Lim Hyuk-jae without saying anything.
His familiar elite unit uniform caught her attention.
She remembered him trying to kill Boram when several monsters had attacked the training center’s banquet hall.
Elite Unit Team X.
Lim Hyuk-jae, standing in front of Joo-ah, and Choi Gyeol, who stood beside him with a playful smile, belonged to the same team.
“Huh? Your face looks kind of familiar.”
Lim Hyuk-jae tilted his head and looked down at Joo-ah. Then he furrowed his brow and bent forward.
Choi Gyeol crunched the candy in his mouth and asked,
“What is it? Some woman you know?”
Hyuk-jae narrowed his eyes and stared at her, apparently unable to remember where he had seen her.
“I’m sure I’ve seen you somewhere…”
Joo-ah only pressed her lower lip firmly between her teeth.
She had never expected to run into Lim Hyuk-jae here of all places. She could already feel a headache coming on.
His eyes widened as if he had finally remembered.
“Oh, that’s right. You’re that bitch who made a scene at the banquet the other day, aren’t you?”
Choi Gyeol tilted his head curiously.
“Who is she?”
Straightening his back, Lim Hyuk-jae answered with an interested expression.
“A member of Yoo Chan-hee’s team.”
Choi Gyeol wrinkled his nose in confusion.
“Yoo Chan-hee? Yoo Tae-jun’s younger brother? He’s in a higher-ranked group.”
He was questioning how someone with Joo-ah’s low rank could be on the same team as a higher-ranked Hunter like Chan-hee.
Lim Hyuk-jae merely shrugged as if he had no idea either.
“Hey, more importantly, how are you going to take responsibility for my shoulder?”
Lim Hyuk-jae pointed at his perfectly fine shoulder and picked a fight with her.
“Do you have any idea how valuable this body is? Even the government is terrified of me getting hurt. You dare to leave a mark on someone like me, so shouldn’t you take responsibility?”
He was making an utterly ridiculous demand.
Choi Gyeol watched the situation with an amused expression, clearly curious about how Joo-ah would respond.
“I’m asking you how you’re going to take responsibility.”
Frustrated by Joo-ah’s silence, Lim Hyuk-jae raised his hand and forcibly lifted her chin. Their eyes met directly.
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