IOERG 02

Chapter 2

“Good job, everyone. Those who have unpacked, line up over here.”

The raid leader’s dry voice echoed loudly across the open clearing at the dungeon entrance.

Lim Chan-ho took off his gloves, which were heavily caked with blood and dirt, and stuffed them into a corner of his backpack. After rolling his stiff, aching shoulders a few times to loosen them up, he stepped toward the end of the settlement line.

The dreadful, disgusting mana stone mining work was finally over. The nauseating, fishy stench unique to low-grade monsters still lingered in the clearing, but the cool air outside offered a much-needed breath of fresh air. All that remained now was to get the payment credited to his account for rolling on the dungeon floor like a dog all day.

Rubbing his fatigue-ridden eyes, he turned on his smartphone screen.

There were only a few days left before the bill for his parents’ hospital fees back in his hometown was due. If he received today’s allowance on time, he could put out the immediate fire right in front of him. It was also an amount that would barely allow him to defend against the rent for his cramped rooftop room, which just kept rising.

He was in the middle of making those petty, desperate calculations in his mind.

“Hey. Trash Hunter.”

At the thick, obnoxious voice that suddenly interrupted him, Chan-ho pulled his eyes away from his smartphone.

It was Choi Gyeong-soo, the porter who had been glaring at him with annoyance and picking fights ever since they were inside the cave. With a rough appearance, he stood blocking Chan-ho’s path, a crumpled cigarette crookedly dangling from his mouth.

Chan-ho tried to quietly avert his gaze without saying anything. Now that they were outside the dungeon anyway, there was no reason to get involved with unawakened people like him. Once they exchanged settlement envelopes, they would be strangers forever.

However, Choi Gyeong-soo deliberately shifted his path and took another step closer to Chan-ho.

“If someone calls you, you should make eye contact. Are your earholes clogged?”

Choi Gyeong-soo’s thick hand shoved Chan-ho’s shoulder roughly.

Losing his balance from the sudden impact, Chan-ho stumbled back half a step and furrowed his brows.

“What is it?”

“What do you mean ‘what is it,’ you jackass. Hey. If you have any conscience, spit out today’s pay.”

“What?”

“Am I wrong? You couldn’t even slice a single monster properly and just trailed behind us like a tail. Don’t you think it’s unfair that you take home the same share as a porter?”

It was absurd nonsense. Corpse butchering and mana stone mining were strictly daily laborer tasks assigned to Chan-ho. While others took breaks, he had cut open the hideous bellies of over a dozen monsters all by himself to meet his quota. It was the result of digging out murky mana stones until his fingers blistered while being drenched in the foul stench.

Yet, Choi Gyeong-soo tilted his chin up and sneered as if such facts didn’t matter in the slightest.

“To think that kind of thing calls itself a hunter. You just do butcher work, slicing meat with the back of a blade, and yet you expect to eat up a hunter’s allowance. Isn’t it because of trash like you that people like us, who work our fingers to the bone, take a loss?”

It was a blatant, malicious provocation. The other porters gathered nearby smoking cigarettes snickered along, agreeing with Choi Gyeong-soo.

Chan-ho quietly hid his tightly clenched fists behind his back.

Losing his temper here and grabbing that guy by the collar to fight would yield only one result: a total forfeiture of today’s pay and a bad record on the Association’s daily laborer app.

He had to endure. Just like he always did, if he gulped down his surging humiliation just once, he would get the money for food to survive tomorrow. Paltry pride wouldn’t inflate his empty bank balance.

“Please move aside. The raid leader is calling.”

Chan-ho spoke in a flat voice, suppressing his emotions as much as possible, as he tried to pass by Choi Gyeong-soo.

However, Choi Gyeong-soo persistently extended his legs to block Chan-ho’s path. When Chan-ho bowed his head deeply and tried to force his way around to avoid a collision, the man curled the corners of his mouth sneeringly, mistaking that patience for absolute submission.

“Where do you think you’re running off to? Did my reality check sting? Well, looking at you strutting around pretending to be a hunter with those garbage stats, the rest is obvious without even looking.”

Choi Gyeong-soo blew a long drag of cigarette smoke directly into Chan-ho’s face.

Through the acrid, disgusting smoke, words came out that should never have been uttered.

“Your parents’ guts must be rotting away. Could they even hold their heads up straight in the neighborhood out of shame? Their kid went out claiming to be a hunter, only to end up doing stuff worse than a mere porter. Must be quite a sight to see your family situation.”

In an instant.

Snap. Something snapped in Chan-ho’s ears.

His rational control evaporated coldly. Hospital bills, monthly rent, pay cuts, bad worker records—all those petty calculations of reality that had been swirling in his head were consumed by blood-red fury and vanished without a trace in a single moment.

Chan-ho snapped his head up.

“You son of a bitch.”

His calloused fist shot straight toward Choi Gyeong-soo’s chin.

It was a strike of pure rage, without any calculation or hesitation.

However.

Thwack!

“…!”

Chan-ho’s fist barely grazed the tip of Choi Gyeong-soo’s chin. Choi Gyeong-soo, whose bones were hardened by back-alley brawling, casually tilted his head slightly to deflect the impact.

Even though he had undergone the awakening process, Chan-ho’s physical abilities, evaluated at an unprecedented FFF-rank, were only slightly better than an ordinary person unable to use mana. On top of that, he had exhausted all his physical strength throughout the day flipping and butchering heavy monster corpses. He was hopelessly lacking in both speed and the power behind a weighted blow.

“Oho. You swung? You struck first?”

A crazy glint shone in Choi Gyeong-soo’s eyes. Without missing Chan-ho’s clumsy opening, he pounced like a hungry beast.

Thud!

A merciless fist struck Chan-ho square in the face.

Sparks flashed before his eyes as his head snapped to the side. His mouth tore open, and a fishy, metallic taste spread rapidly.

Chan-ho stumbled and tried to regain his balance somehow, but the rough brute force exuded by the giant porter did not leave him be. Choi Gyeong-soo grabbed the collar of Chan-ho’s worn-out work clothes with a powerful grip and slammed him onto the dirt ground.

Bang!

“Kuh…!”

The dull impact against his back knocked the breath out of him. The air in his lungs escaped all at once, triggering a painful cough.

Yet that was only the beginning.

“Where do you think you’re swinging your fist, you little shit!”

Choi Gyeong-soo kicked the fallen Chan-ho’s abdomen without mercy.

Thwack! Thud!

“Kack, ugh…!”

The hard toe of the heavy work boot ruthlessly trampled his ribs and stomach. Huddled up, Chan-ho could do no more than cover his head and vital spots with both arms.

He wasn’t even given a chance to counterattack. Physical strength, reflexes, weight class—nothing could overcome Choi Gyeong-soo. It was a thorough and one-sided beating, so much so that the flashy title of ‘Hunter’ paled in comparison.

“If you’re going to throw a punch, do it right! Swinging like a damn mosquito and making a fuss!”

Thwack! Thud!

Dull striking sounds echoed through the dry clearing. Dirt dust scattered into the air, and Chan-ho’s clothes were torn to shreds. Red blood seeped from his forearm, scraped against the sharp rocks on the ground, and mixed with the dirt.

The reaction of those around watching the miserable scene was beyond cold.

The regular hunters who were casually smoking while waiting for settlement, far from breaking it up, chuckled as if they had found an entertaining spectacle.

“Hey, look at that. A guy who calls himself a hunter is getting beaten to dust by an unawakened porter.”

“Looking at his stats, the picture was clear. I could throw a stronger punch with my bare hands.”

“Leave him be. That bastard brings shame to all hunters anyway; he needs to get beaten up this time to come to his senses.”

Not a single person stepped in to stop the porter’s violence. The cruel logic of power in hunter society. The FFF-rank, existing at the very bottom of that pyramid, was not even a comrade or a fellow hunter to them. He was merely a petty clown good for chewing on to pass the boring time.

“Phew, fuck. Filthy bastard.”

Choi Gyeong-soo, who had been stomping and kicking for a long while, gasped for breath and stepped back. He spat a gob of yellow phlegm toward Chan-ho, who lay sprawling on the ground without moving.

“Why don’t you try hitting me again? Trashy bastard. You think glaring at me is all it takes?”

Choi Gyeong-soo dusted off his pants with a face intoxicated by a exhilarating sense of victory. The surrounding porters approached him, raising their thumbs and tossing flattering comments.

Chan-ho gasped heavily while curled up on the dirt ground.

Every joint in his body screamed as if broken, and blood dripping from his torn lips and forehead dyed his vision red and blurry. His abdomen throbbed so severely he felt like vomiting. Every time he took a breath, a sharp, tearing pain surged inside his chest.

It was miserable.

He felt a deep, piercing sense of terrible helplessness—unable to land a single proper strike even after having his everything, his family, insulted like trash. It felt as though it would be easier if he just closed his eyes tightly and passed out.

Yet Chan-ho did not pitiably groan in pain, nor did he lose his mind and scream.

He put strength into both hands pressing against the cold ground.

Barely stabilizing his trembling legs, he stood up with a slow but resolute movement, wavering on his feet.

“Oh? Hasn’t this bastard had enough yet?”

Choi Gyeong-soo snorted and muttered with a laugh mixed with ridicule.

Chan-ho didn’t even look at him. With the back of his hand, he wiped away the blood and dirty dust from his mouth. As the open wound rubbed harshly, a sharp pain shot through him that brought tears to his eyes, but his expression didn’t change in the slightest.

The mocking gazes from all around focused on Chan-ho at once. Everyone expected him to cry loudly and run away, or slump onto the ground and beg for his life.

However, Chan-ho’s heavy footsteps passed through the snickering crowd of porters and headed toward the raid leader, who was standing there dazed.

Even while limping heavily, his back was straight and upright. His gaze stared unwaveringly left and right, fixed as if to pierce only the raid leader.

Seeing Chan-ho approach drenched in blood, the raid leader showed a startled expression.

“Uh, well… Are you okay?”

At the raid leader’s awkward, flustered question, Chan-ho opened his mouth, heavily pooled with blood, and uttered just one sentence.

“Give me my settlement.”

It was a voice so chillingly cold it gave goosebumps. It contained no appeal for sympathy out of resentment for being beaten unfairly, nor any pathetic blame toward the raid leader for not stopping the assault. It was merely a dry, mechanical declaration demanding his rightful payment for the sweat he shed today.

“Ah, uh. Right. Here.”

As if overwhelmed by something, the raid leader hurriedly held out a thick cash envelope containing Chan-ho’s share.

Chan-ho snatched the envelope with his blood-stained hands. Right there on the spot, he pulled out all the bills and checked them one by one to see if the amount was correct.

It was the original daily wage and the additional mana stone mining allowance as agreed upon, without a single ten-thousand won missing.

After confirming there was no issue with the amount, Chan-ho carefully folded the envelope in half and pushed it deep into the inner pocket of his work clothes.

Then, he raised his head and looked straight into the raid leader’s eyes. It was a cold gaze, devoid of any emotion, to an unsettling degree.

“Raid leader.”

“Uh, huh? Why. Is something wrong with the amount?”

“If there’s any schedule with that porter bastard included next time.”

Chan-ho turned his head slightly, glinting a glance back at Choi Gyeong-soo, who was still snickering behind him. Then he turned his gaze back and locked it onto the raid leader, driving his point home clearly.

“I will unconditionally refuse any raid.”

Those were not words a low-level daily laborer—someone who could be easily replaced at any time—dared to say to a raid leader. It was an arrogant notice tantamount to kicking away his immediate source of income on his own accord.

The raid leader froze in place, his mouth agape in utter bewilderment. The light laughter of the regular hunters watching from the surroundings also instantly ceased. A heavy silence descended upon the clearing.

Chan-ho did not wait for the raid leader’s response any longer.

Turning around decisively, he walked silently through the silenced onlookers.

Even if he was desperate for every single penny, took on the lowest dirty work, and endured treatment worse than a dog’s…

He had no intention of handing his leash over to the trash of this field. In the face of crossed lines and injustice, he would not be dragged around helplessly.

Chan-ho’s faltering silhouette gradually faded into the evening sunset, which was dyed a deep red.