CHAPTER NINE!
────the chairmen.

❝BUT WE WANT TO FIGHT.❞

THE MAN LED THE two down the hallway and they were greeted with an old man in a nice black suit, scars littering his face and hands.

he gives the two a warm smile and outstretches his hand to them. "hunters sung jin-woo and [y/n] [l/n]? nice to meet you two. i'm go gun-hee. please have a seat." he greets as the players felt his strong magical aura he had.

he shakes hands with them and leads them to sit down. the two sit across a bench across from the chairmen.

'despite being over the age of 80, he has a build that reminds me of retired pro wrestlers. not to mention that he's an s-rank. he's not normal.' jin-woo thinks, scanning the man before him.

"i would like to congratulate you two on becoming s-rank hunters." he states confusing the hunters.

[y/n] tilts her head, confused. "but there's still a re-examination left."

"to tell you the truth, the reexamination is useless. a precise detector is to help us segment the results. it's not a tool to help us measure outside the scoping range." gun-hee begins to reveal as to why the re-examination is useless. "even if it was possible for us to measure past the current range, it would still be impossible to distinguish between an s-rank, ss-rank, and sss-rank."

"then why...?" jin-woo mutters with furrowed eyebrows.

"are you asking about the existence of the re-examination procedure?" the old man asks with a smile.

"ITS TO BUY US TIME."

"buy time?" [y/n] questions, still very confused.

"it's to buy time for us to meet with s-rank hunters such as yourselves before anyone else can. as you may know, the hunters association doesn't have many talented hunters such as chief woo jin-chul." the old man starts gesturing to the other man in the room.

he then continues to explain. "who would want to join the association when the top guilds can ensure them fame and large salaries. there are people who can name every core member of the top guild's raid team but there aren't many that can name jin-chul despite being a top-class among the a-rank. that's why they created this little trick to meet with talented hunters."

'...is that the true meaning of the re-examination?' the two players think, staying silent.

"i will get straight to the point. since we're not an enterprise, we cannot promise you a lot of money. but we can help you go down a different path." gun-hee suggests, capturing their attention.

"what does that exactly mean?" [y/n] asks raising an eyebrow.

"WE CAN HELP... HUNTER SUNG JIN-WOO AND HUNTER [Y/N] [L/N] FLOURISH ON A DIFFERENT PATH."

───── ⋆⋅ ☽ ⋅⋆ ─────

"THIS COUNTRY IS currently not being run by the government, but rather the hunters who protect the citizens from monsters. and the ones above them are the hunter association." gun-hee continues.

"WE'LL HELP YOU STAND SHOULDER TO SHOULDER WITH US.

he suggests and the two player's eyes widened, realizing the gravity of his offer.

playing with her sweater sleeves, [y/n] speaks. "why are you offering this to us? especially me, i'm technically not even officially a hunter from korea."

the old man smiles warmly at her and chuckles. "when your an s-rank, things like that don't matter."

his answer had the female hunter in shock, not realizing that a title of an s-rank had that much power alone

"you two aware of the top 5 guilds?" he asks and they reply with a nod.

"the balance of this country is currently barely being held together by those five dinosaurs. if you two were to join one of those guilds, the balance will topple and the country would be thrown into chaos." gun-hee explains to the two players. "the law and the system. normal government authority isn't powerful enough to keep hunters in check. that's why the hunters association is needed."

after the moment, the chairmen asks them the fated question.

"WHAT WILL BE YOUR DECISION?"

the two stay silent as they think about the offer that is being given to them.

'it's not a bad deal. anyone with the backing of the chairmen go gun-hee will be set for life. there's isn't a place where he has an influence.' [y/n] thinks, glance at jin-woo who also seemed to be in thought.' he and his skills are amazing and as of right now we're probably at the same level. but...'

their eyes meet for a moment and not even second later they both nod.

it was then they knew their answer.

"i'm sorry." the [h/c] hunters speaks, making the chairman look at her.

he closes his eyes in understanding. 'so in the end it's about money...'

but his thoughts couldn't be finished when she suddenly speaks again. her voice uttering words that shook him to his very core.

"BUT WE WANT TO FIGHT."

[y/n]'s statement caught gun-hee extremely off guard and his eyes widened, asking. "do you mean you want to fight with monsters?"

the two players realized if they take the offer, the dungeons they will be handling with leftover dungeons, if they join, there won't be a chance to level up.

'WE CAN KEEP GROWING AS LONG WE DON'T STOP.'

the two think together as their eyes start to glow, illuminating the darkness of room.

[y/n]'s eyes seemed to be like the light at the end of the tunnel. the sun's rays seem to enchant her irises. while jin-woo's eyes only fit the mood of the room, though they may be glowing, it was an ominous and luminous color.

"yes," jin-woo continues. "i believe the place where we need to be is inside the dungeon."

gun-hee looked into their glowing eyes and his heart stops for a second.

'my god. those eyes... they're telling the truth.'

jin-woo and [y/n] stood up abruptly and bowed, "since my sister is alone at home, i will have to leave." the dark-haired hunter explains.

gun-hee stood up and thanked the two for their time. they turned around to leave, but [y/n] lags back a bit

as he was passing, jin-woo stopped by jin-chul. "chief woo jin-chul, your intuition wasn't wrong. i wasn't the one who took care of the monsters in the double dungeon." he confidently states as he continues walking.

he notices his best friend wasn't beside him and she motions that she'll catch up with him. he respects her wishes and leaves.

once he was out of earshot, she turns to the two men with a shy look. "i was wondering if you could do a tiny favor me." she states with a soft smile, catching the two men off guard.

"OF COURSE, WHAT IS IT?"

"I NEED YOU TO LOOK INTO A HUNTER FOR ME. THEIR NAME IS..."

CHAPTER NINE! END!
────the chairmen.