Auto Hunting

Episode 56

At a parking lot just beyond the blocking line, a medical tent had been hastily erected. It was a state-of-the-art tent specially provided for Tenz hunters during operations.

However, this tent had been built three hours after the operation ended. It had been assembled for just one person, a foreigner who signed a free-agent contract with the global company.

“Woo!” a man loudly exhaled as he walked out of the tent.

He was Seo Hwa-yoon, the current general manager of the Tenze Medical Support and Research Department.

Seo Hwa-yoon was sweating heavily. He looked exhausted.

“Uncle,” a young woman called him. He turned, and a smile began to form on his lips.

“Hey! It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a pretty face!” he said cheerfully.

Seoyu’s smile brightened as she approached him.

“How is he?” she asked.

“He’s asleep now, but he was awake throughout the diagnosis and initial assessments.”

Both the uncle and the niece sighed. Like Seo Hwa-yoon, Seoyu was also exhausted.

A few hours ago, she was called into the center of the operations.

What was waiting for her was a scene she did not expect.

A giant monster corpse surrounded by several hunters.

And in the middle of it all was Oh Yoo-seong, repeating a single phrase over and over.

‘Don’t touch it.’

‘Don’t touch it.’

Seoyu rushed through the crowd, pushing through the veteran hunters. As soon as Yoo-seong saw her, he began to repeat a different phrase:

‘Article 5-2.’

In the contract he had signed with Tenz, Article 5-2 stated that if he suffered an injury that required treatment by a professional medical staff, it would be provided to him on demand.

Regardless of the situation, Tenz was contractually obligated to fulfill it.

Seoyu had been placed in a tough situation. They were in Shanghai, a place without a Tenz branch.

On top of that, Yoo-seong was bleeding heavily through his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.

It was obvious to anyone that he needed medical attention right away.

Seoyu tried to convince Yoo-seong to visit a nearby hospital, but he refused.

Instead, he kept repeating the phrase:

‘Article 5-2.’

‘Article 5-2.’

There was no concession.

In the end, Seoyu gave up and dialed her uncle in front of Yoo-seong. Then, Yoo-seong insisted to personally watch over the Qiongqi’s disposal with her.

He was in a state where he was depleted both physically and mentally, but he held on until the end.

Seo Hwa-yoon noticed his niece looking towards the tent.

“Don’t worry. He can’t hear us,” he said.

“Yes?”

Seo Hwa-yoon smiled bitterly.

“Because he can’t hear any sound. The nerves in his ears were completely damaged.”

Seoyu’s eyes widened in shock.

“Of course,” his uncle continued, “his body has CE, and he would be able to recover after a while.”

Seo Hwa-yoon looked away as he wondered aloud.

“But the fact that he was able to stand still for a few hours… a person’s sense of balance depends on their ears.”

The Qiongqi’s scream. It was an unthinkable feat for a human to withstand a 12-star monster’s main attack.

As Yoo-seong hung onto its back for almost twenty minutes, his eardrums had been sacrificed.

Seoyu felt goosebumps rise on her arms.

“That person… he’s a monster,” she said.

“He’s a hero. How could someone catch one of the Four Perils alone?”

“It’s not impossible! Even if we don’t go as far as the Master, any of the ten Ship Zones could…”

Seoyu stopped herself as she realized what she was saying.

The Ship Zone. The top hunters across all of China.

She was comparing Oh Yoo-seong to the country’s pride.

“It could be considered as the best solo achievement since the Cheongpung Swordsman,” Seo Hwa-yoon remarked.

“Well. There’s a very slim chance for a Ship Zone to face a Peril on a one-on-one basis, but I’m sure…”

Seo Hwa-yoon stared at his niece.

He wasn’t a hunter, so he could observe the situation objectively. However, Seoyu must feel the same as all other hunters who were in Shanghai, perhaps, even those in other parts of the country.

A foreigner. From the barren land of the Korean peninsula nonetheless.

For someone like Yoo-seong to catch a specie of the Four Perils alone, it was a fact that was too difficult for them to accept.

Their great pride in the Chinese industry refused to concede that someone overseas may have a stronger Ki and Tech than them.

The fact that Tenz had signed a free agent from Korea was a topic of great controversy, even among the executives of Tenz themselves. Jin Wei-baek simply laughed at his subordinates when they tried to ask him for his reason.

“Because,” the old man said, “I want to drop a bomb.”

Seo Hwa-yoon, who was at that meeting, tilted his head. He did not understand.

However, now… the mystery was solved. The bomb had gone off in Shanghai.

“I heard that Oh Yoo-seong is considered a bomb in the Korean hunting scene,” he told Seoyu.

“A bomb?”

“A generational talent, one who could bring about change in the entire industry. It is said that many young hunters were inspired by him and started to work harder.”

Seoyu remained silent.

‘Perhaps,’ her uncle wondered, ‘she was also affected by the explosion?’

Seoyu trembled. She hated to admit it, but Yoo-seong’s achievements could not be ignored. Even by the high Chinese standards, his act was worthy of praise.

“Since this has come to pass, why do you think the Master attached you as his secretary?” Seo Hwa-yoon asked her.

She couldn’t respond. She knew where the conversation was leading to.

“Isn’t that a key position? Surely, there must be others who have more experience…”

Jin Wei-baek was known for his sound decisions. He would hardly assign someone who was lacking in experience and achievements. Both uncle and niece were thinking about the same thing.

“If it’s just about translation…”

“Uncle, stop it.”

Seo Hwa-yoon closed his mouth immediately.

Even so, they both knew what the reason could be. Perhaps, the Master thought that Yoo-seong would prefer to be with a young woman like Seoyu rather than one of Tenz’s executives.

There was only one reason for this. One she preferred not to talk about.

“Master wouldn’t command me to give my body to a foreigner. Even if he does, I won’t follow him,” Seoyu was stubborn.

She was a hunter. Not a woman who used her body to get what she wants.

That is why she felt this much resentment toward the man she was assigned to accompany. She was madly envious of his talents.

…

The doctor advised him that it would take a week for his ears to recover.

Of course, Yoo-seong wanted to continue training.

As long as he could move his limbs, even if his auditory nerves were injured, he wanted to keep improving.

However, the problem was that the ears’ purpose was not only for hearing. It also controlled a body’s sense of balance.

As much as he wanted to exercise, Yoo-seong struggled in doing simple things, such as standing upright. He also needed crutches to walk.

“Damn, it’s a bigger deal than I thought,” Yoo-seong muttered in his empty hospital room.

It looks like he wouldn’t be able to improve his body for a whole week.

He had been spending four days in bed, worrying about his lack of exercise, when an unexpected situation happened.

“Mr. Oh Yoo-seong,” Seoyu told him. She could only communicate with him by typing in words on her phone and showing him the screen.

“Today, you’ll have a visitor.”

Yoo-seong took the phone and typed his response.

-A visitor? Who?

-Red Dragon Society Vice Lord. She said you used her Twin Swords?

Yoo-seong nodded. Seoyu typed more words on the phone.

-Then, you must say that you took it without her permission. She may file claims to share the profits in your bounty if you admit that you cooperated with her.

-Okay.

Yoo-seong thought about it. If that was Yang Biyeon’s intention, she wouldn’t have to meet him in person.

She was probably trying to offer an apology.

Seoyu typed a few more words, then gave the phone to Yoo-seong.

-I’ll be out for a while.

Then, she bowed her head deeply toward Yoo-seong before leaving the hospital room.

Yoo-seong watched her close the door gently. After the tantrum she threw the day they met, she had turned cold and professional toward him.

‘It’s better that way,’ Yoo-seong thought.

While waiting for his visitor, Yoo-seong opened his laptop and started browsing. His struggle against the Qiongqi was on top of every video streaming site.

As the battle occurred in the sky, even civilians from beyond the blocking line were able to watch the battle and film.

At first, the Chinese authorities requested the removal of the video clip. However, the next day, Tenz uploaded an official video.

-Four Perils – Qiongqi – Tenz Solo Hunting-

The video’s content was about the horrendous power of Qiongqi and how a hunter signed with Tenz was able to capture it singlehandedly.

Yoo-seong’s name was clearly stated in the video, even if it was not part of the title.

This surprised him. He thought that his name and nationality would be hidden because he was a foreigner.

Yoo-seong then logged into his hunter community account. It was the first time he tried doing so since going to China.

“What is this?!” he blurted out in amazement as he saw the number of the unread mail.

Suddenly, a phone screen was placed under his eyes.

-You couldn’t hear the knock.

Yoo-seong looked up.

Seoyu was standing by his bed, with Yang Biyeon beside him.

Yang Biyeon was wearing a casual outfit, a loose sweatshirt over jeans. The loose clothing only seemed to emphasize her body’s figure.

Yoo-seong then asked Seoyu to give them privacy. The secretary bowed once more and left the room to leave the two alone.

After offering a chair to his visitor, Yoo-seong pulled out his phone, where Seoyu had installed a translator app.

He handed it over to Yang Biyeon. Surprisingly, Yang Biyeon refused to take it.

Instead, she picked up her phone and started typing slowly.

She showed him the screen.

-We don’t need an interpreter,

Then, she began typing again.

-I heard that your ears were badly injured.

Yoo-seong tilted his head in wonder as he stared at the Korean words shown to him. He took the phone and typed his response.

-You speak Korean??

Yang Biyeon stared at his message with her eyebrows narrowed as if she found it hard to read. Then, after about ten seconds, a light came to her face, as if she finally comprehended it.

-Yes. Write. Read. Study. For four days.

In China, it was rude to use a translator app. She thought that to properly apologize to Yoo-seong, she had to learn his language.

Yoo-seong took the phone and typed in a long message.

-I’m sorry for taking your swords without permission.

He used the simplest words so that she could understand them as easily as possible. Yoo-seong wanted to state it as early as possible to see if Seoyu was right about Yang Biyeon’s intention.

However, as he watched Yang Biyeon smile upon reading his message, he knew that she was not here to stand against him.

She then responded.

-Thank you for making your words simple for me.

Then, she began tapping on the keyboard again. This time, she held the phone closer to her body, and it took more time than before.

For some reason, her face turned redder, and it seems that she was hesitating on what to say, typing a message and erasing it afterward.

Finally, she finished it and showed Yoo-seong the screen.

-Will you marry me?

[TL NOTE: Tenz be dropping the vods like it’s a Youtube highlight.]