Chapter 9 – Practice (2)

“Therefore. I apologize for the lack of communication regarding this matter. Mr. Lee Jeong-ah According to the original plan, the construction should have been completed yesterday, but an extension request came in this morning.”

Beyond the small hologram, teacher Jung-a was talking to someone. She was wearing her face, showing a full expression of her uneasiness. I looked around, feeling uncomfortable as if I were standing on a thorny road.

The construction workers continued digging the floor, ignoring Mr. Jung-ah. As if they didn’t particularly care about the surrounding terrain, they could see cracks in the ground whenever they dug.

“You can’t accept that. Teacher. Obviously, this is an educational institution and an educational facility. At least you should have pulled everyone out during this class.”

“Ugh, how many donations do Black Dragon make to the academy? And, what’s going on with our teacher Jeong-ah standing next to her? Do not worry. Don’t worry, just continue with the class.”

The man on the other side of the screen waved his hand as if it was nothing. Teacher Jeonga frowned at her and spoke in a sharp tone.

“I can’t go to class like this. The sound of the drill and even the terrain are strangely changing. How do you teach? Wasn’t ‘safety first’ the Hunter Association’s motto? Will the teacher take responsibility after the accident?”

On the contrary, the man was irritated by her remarks.

“Oh, Mr. Jeonga. Then what should I do? Construction is already underway, should we go and finish it all?”

“Yes. Say it all. Call someone, or delegate full authority to me, and remove all construction personnel. And areas currently under construction. Use fences and safety devices to block them.”

Teacher Jeonga nodded her head and spoke sharply. She saw the conversation between her and her man, and one by one the workers stopped her work. Teacher Jung-ah exchanged a few words with the man in a quieter voice, then she looked at the workers and she said.

“Everyone. From now on, all of our Hunter Academy students have to go to class, so please go outside. We will take measures to prevent you from touching the equipment, so please leave it as it is.”

“Can’t we just do it? I just need to dig a little more. All of this is paid for in our Black Dragon Room.”

The man who had ignored Mr. Jung-a earlier said that while chewing gum. Teacher Jung-ah was impressed by those words. When she wrote her impressions, she radiated quite a formidable spirit.

“Are you a Hunter?”

In response to teacher Jung-a’s question, her man nodded her head and took out her hunter ID.

“Yes. Hunter. Class B Hunter. Look at this. I know because I’ve lived as a hunter for a long time, but there’s no problem doing construction or anything like this in a place like this. I’m here as a construction supervisor. Our teacher Jeong-a is also working like this, huh? Do not tell me to do the construction because there is a problem. Is it a mess? Yes? Let’s just move on nicely.”

In response to his remarks, Teacher Jung-a lightly scanned her man’s body and said:

“Bite everyone. How do you teach them to pay attention to safety while showing the appearance of complacently conducting classes under construction? You too were taught to be safe during your apprenticeship.”

At those words, the man secretly avoided Jeong-ah’s eyes. I saw students huddled together in front of the gate entrance. The man looked at her and clicked her tongue.

“You can’t touch the construction site here. Do you know? These are all assets of the Black Dragon Room.”

“Take it out quickly.”

The man let out a last murmur, gathered the people, and went up beyond the gate. She and she were watching with her eyes wide open in the direction of the construction site. Teacher Jeonga sighed deeply and looked at me. The corners of her mouth, raised slightly like her fox, seemed to be slightly drooping today. She said in her tired voice.

“Sorry. You shouldn’t show me like this.”

And she said to the other students who were still waiting on the other side of the gate.

“Everyone, please start now.”

The other students hesitantly jumped inside one by one. The air inside the gate made them hesitate as soon as they entered. Kim Joo-seong took a deep breath and frowned as if he was somehow uncomfortable, and Kim Chun-bae gasped for breath as soon as he entered and was overly nervous. I saw Kim Joo-sung patting Kim Chun-bae on the back to relieve her tension.

“Hey, hey, don’t be scared. Nothing.”

When Kim Joo-sung said that, Kim Chun-bae nodded her head and cheered up. Teacher Jung-ah opened her mouth after confirming that all of her staff had arrived.

“Yes. Everyone. There was a bit of a fuss due to a brief communication problem. But don’t worry. It is a hunter’s duty to focus on the mission without being swayed by trivial circumstances. Our mission today is to search for and defeat the boss inside the F-level gate to get the coordinates.”

Listening to teacher Junga’s explanation, the students’ eyes changed. I also listened to the explanation in a tense position. The other students were standing next to each other, but I stood a little apart because the picture was strange that I was standing next to Ms. Jeong-a.

The way to get the coordinates was simple. After defeating the monster that caused the strongest wave inside the gate, the machine automatically captured the coordinates. This was because the boss level monsters emit their own unique wavelength, making it impossible to read the coordinates of the gate.

“Before the full-scale mission, we will have time to learn about safety rules once again. First of all, never come into contact with plants or animals you don’t know about. And…”

Teacher Jeong-ah was slowly explaining the contents that we were able to know while watching the gate search through search or internet broadcasting. While explaining the ecology inside the gate or examples of monsters from E to D in the monster picture book, the students’ concentration was distracted because the explanation was boring.

Because it was a story everyone knew. Teacher Jeong-a’s unique dry tone and long, boring explanations like a dictionary were added, so the students glanced at each other and joked around or looked elsewhere in a distracted manner. Teacher Jeonga frowned slightly as she looked at them.

And I tapped the floor lightly with my foot and waited for this explanation to end. Because the explanation time was too boring. The more I dug the ground, the weaker the ground was, so I went in easily, and before I knew it, I was able to dig enough to swallow the entire axle of my foot. Teacher Jeong-ah said, pointing out one of the students she was talking lightly.

“Student Kim Jin-pyo. Please don’t play around. Does my explanation look funny? Are you that confident?”

“Oh, sorry.”

The eyes of the students all stayed in one place. Teacher Jung-a was also looking at the student she called Kim Jin-pyo. I also looked at him and lightly pressed my foot on the floor.

“Huh?”

The floor has sunk in. The soil, which I thought was only lightly soaked in my shoes, could not support my feet. Looking to the side, the cracked ground came to my feet before I knew it. The floor collapsed without a sound. I unconsciously looked at teacher Jeonga. I could see Miss Jeonga’s face hardened as she belatedly turned her gaze to me. She jumped reflexively and lunged at me.

Despite her distance, she ran towards me with the speed of her bullet. She and she reached out her hand to take my hand. I also reached out her hand to take hers. My hand barely brushed teacher Jeonga’s hand. She was a sword-hander, but her hands were very soft.

“Aaaaagh!”

At the end, thinking such a pathetic thought, I fell to the deep bottom. People who heard my screams were belatedly rushing to the pit. I heard Teacher Jung-ah shouting to get back.

*****

The world was dark. My head was dizzy.

Why am I here?

I forcibly recalled memories that seemed to come to my mind. I was an awakened Hunter. During the first practice session, I was standing next to a construction site when the floor collapsed and I fell. It was very stupid. When I looked up, I could see nothing but pitch black space. Is it right for me to keep my head up in the first place? I didn’t even know I was already dead and in heaven.

When I thought I was dead, my body relaxed. My body relaxed and my breathing slowed down. When the body is comfortable, the mind is also comfortable. It’s good to die. Come to think of it, it wasn’t a good life anyway. I failed the civil service exam 3 times, and it was a life without motivation.

I didn’t know if I would succeed even if I awakened. I heard that there are people who end up being D-class hunters for the rest of their lives, but I could have been that way.

Death is said to be the completion of life. If I die like this, people will mourn me. They will shed tears saying that they are unfortunate hunters who died by accident. Would Jung-ah think that she died because of him? I felt a little sorry when I thought about that.

I also felt sorry for senior Yoojung. He could have felt guilty because he died because of the construction work in the Black Dragon Room. I wanted to tell them not to feel too guilty if given the chance.

News articles will also appear. Poor young hunter who died by accident. My name will be featured in the headlines.

[Ada Bomber Jung Su-hyeon Hunter Mistakes]

“No fuck!!!!! Fuck!!!!”

I woke up and woke up. I shouldn’t have died. I had to survive no matter what. I couldn’t die with Su-hyeon, the bomber of Ada. I didn’t want to see people talk about [Ada Bomber Jung Soo-hyeon Hunter] At the memorial service at the funeral home.

I crawled across the floor and barely got up. The soil was soft, and fortunately there were no injuries. But it was nowhere to be seen. No matter how deep he dug it, even when he looked up, he couldn’t see the light.

Maybe it had rolled down an incline and dug in an odd direction. I got up to leave.

[Come here.]

And then, something came up in front of me.