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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: The E-Rank Civil Servant
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Chapter 1
All citizens have the freedom to choose their occupation. Except you.
Originally, being a Hunter was a job for people who had awakened special abilities.
But in the 21st-century Republic of Korea, where Gates popped up left and right, the nation was obsessed with efficiency. It wasn't just those who had manifested abilities who were tested; even non-Awakened individuals were put through the screening.
So, for excited youngsters who had just turned seventeen to get their national ID cards, they first had to step into an Awakened rank measuring device to have their rank determined.
It was an era where the number one dream job for elementary schoolers was S-rank Hunter, followed by X-tuber at number two, and singer at number three.
Though 950,000 out of a million people would test as F-rank or unranked, most kids dreamed of a “What if I’m secretly an S-rank Hunter?!” scenario and got tested as soon as they turned seventeen.
But Ha-ra was an exception.
“What Awakened? Don't even think about such nonsense.”
Her father would threaten.
“Ah, even if Sis becomes an Awakened, she'll probably be F-rank anyway.”
Her snickering younger brother would add.
Thanks to them—or not—Ha-ra had never once imagined she could be an Awakened.
So, she procrastinated until her third year of high school, right before taking the college entrance exams, to finally get her ID card made.
She was so upset about how awful her ID photo turned out that the rank measurement was the last thing on her mind. It had been a mistake to expect much from a photo taken at a five-thousand-won studio near her school.
She stepped onto the rank measuring device with a gloomy look at her own ID photo, and on her way out, she asked the official in charge.
“Can I change this photo later?”
“What? No.”
At the words that it was only possible upon re-issuance, Kang Ha-ra exclaimed, “Oh, I’ll come back later then!” and bolted. All she could think was that next month, when she got her allowance, she’d ask Jia to do her eyebrows, take off her glasses, and get a new ID photo taken.
And on the day she received her allowance the following month, Ha-ra received a home visit from a Ministry of National Defense official.
“Hello, Ms. Kang Ha-ra. I'm from the Ministry of National Defense. You underwent the physical examination conducted by the Special Practical Safety Division of the Seoul Metropolitan Natural Disaster Response Policy Agency, correct?”
“...Yes, but...”
“Congratulations. You have been confirmed as a candidate for a Practical Safety Agent.”
“A candidate for a Practical Safety Agent...?”
Ha-ra cautiously peeked her head out the front door and asked again, unsettled. The official shrugged as if to say, *what’s there to confirm?*
“It means you are a candidate for Hunter Awakening.”
“What?”
“Ah, here are the results from last month's physical examination. Please review them and register according to the instructions.”
The official handed an envelope to the frozen Ha-ra and left.
Ha-ra opened the envelope.
Below the line that read “Kang Ha-ra, age 18, etc.,” she saw very large letters.
[Measured Rank: E]
[Subject to Service as a Practical Safety Agent]
She couldn't quite grasp the situation. Kang Ha-ra typed “Measured Rank E” into an internet search bar.
[F-ranks are typically considered useless and not utilized. But from E-rank onwards, you are obligated to 20 years of national defense service after graduating high school.]
So it seemed. It was absurd.
National defense service?
*Aren’t women exempt from service?*
But, to repeat, this was the 21st century, where Gates popped up left and right. Kang Ha-ra’s rank was E. With trembling hands, Ha-ra read the notice the official had given her. It wasn't much different from the information online.
[Subjects for service must register at their regional disaster agency within 15 days of receiving this notice...]
[The service period is 20 years...]
[After 20 years of continuous service, a government-provided pension and...]
It wasn't bad.
If Ha-ra had been a poor student with no dreams, she would have shouted, “What a windfall!” It was as if a lifelong job that even came with a pension had suddenly fallen from the sky.
But Kang Ha-ra had received all first-grade scores on her last mock exam. In other words, getting into law school would have been no problem.
But now, a sudden 20-year stint as a civil servant? Military service is only 18 months, so what kind of bullshit is this?
*I have to go to law school!*
When Ha-ra told her family about her mandatory service that day, the house erupted in chaos. The eldest daughter they thought would become a judge or a doctor was now being forced onto the fast track to becoming a civil servant.
Her mother clutched the back of her neck, about to collapse. But Ha-ra's mother, Yoon Hyeon-sook, couldn't quite faint. Because Ha-ra’s father, Kang Jae-pil, was holding her and screaming at the top of his lungs.
“Do you think I sent her to a private high school of all places so she could do *that*?!”
But screaming at his wife wasn't going to solve anything. Kang Jae-pil screamed at Ha-ra, too.
“Hey! Tell them you won't do it!”
Of course, if it were something Kang Ha-ra could refuse just by saying no, the family wouldn't have been in such an uproar.
Ha-ra fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face, before retreating to her room. Outside her door, her parents screamed as they fought.
“Why is it my fault!”
“Isn’t it because you gave birth to her like this!”
“Do I make babies all by myself?”
Now, she could hear the sounds of crashing and shattering as they started throwing things while they fought. Then, Kang Jae-pil threw her bedroom door open. He found Ha-ra staring blankly at the laptop on her desk and roared.
“Good for you! Think you don't have to study anymore, so you're already slacking off!”
The laptop wasn't even on, and Ha-ra had just been sitting there, crying. Kang Jae-pil grabbed the laptop in front of her and immediately smashed it on the floor. With a loud crash, the laptop broke in two. Fresh tears poured from Ha-ra’s eyes.
“I knew it ever since you were on the news last year for chasing after some singer! That video still isn't deleted, do you know how much humiliation I have to endure...”
Mr. Kang fumed that he had thought it was a relief his firstborn—a daughter he wouldn't have had if he'd known—was at least good at her studies, only for her to betray him like this.
What could she do? She couldn't go back to being a student. From Measured Rank E, it was a mandatory civil service track.
“Ah, why not! If Sis becomes a Hunter, I don't have to go to the military!”
“Ha-da, are you that happy about it? Aigoo, you immature child.”
From outside her door, she heard her younger brother’s happy voice, and her mother clicking her tongue. The tears just kept flowing.
The summer she turned nineteen, exactly one year after being immortalized on X-tube.
Kang Ha-ra became a civil servant. A grade-9 civil servant, at that.
＊ ＊ ＊
Hunters make a lot of money. This is a well-known fact.
And the question non-Awakened people ask Hunters most often is about their salary.
“I hear it’s easy to make money as a Hunter, right?”
To which about 95% of the Awakened would reply:
“That’s bullshit.”
As is the case everywhere, the ones who make a lot of money are a select few.
Just like how a new hire at a conglomerate doesn't make the same as the company chairman.
Hunters are also divided by rank. S-ranks earn enough to rival a conglomerate chairman.
E-ranks... Do I even need to mention them?
Anyway, even though Hunters are said to make a lot of money, the lower the rank, the more obvious the downsides become.
That’s because a Hunter’s rank is nearly unchangeable until death.
In new-hire terms, it means you're still a new hire even after twenty years.
The upside? Well... in Korea, it's a secure civil service job, I guess.
There is an exception. You can have a “second Awakening.”
But that's only possible if you meet a Constellation. A probability rarer than winning the lottery. Maybe like winning first and second prize on ten pension lottery tickets at the same time, earning you 22 million won a month.
[User: Kang Ha-ra (E)]
Stamina: 7
Agility: 3
Strength: 4
Dexterity: 2
Magic Power: 9
Luck: 1
Of course, Kang Ha-ra, who had been an E-rank for ten years, was not one of them.
[Checking coin balance.]
[Coin Balance: 127]
But because she wasn't one of them, her desire was all the more desperate.
“127... Damn, maybe I should just buy a lottery ticket.”
*That would probably be faster than meeting a Constellation.*
*Thud.* She slammed her head on the table in front of her. Her superior, Yu-jeong, who was sitting next to her fixing her makeup, widened her eyes and asked.
“What's wrong, Ha-ra?”
“Gwalligwan Yu-jeong.”
“Hm?”
“Do you happen to know where the Constellations are? I need to go catch one...”
Yu-jeong chuckled.
“If I knew that, I'd have sold maps and gotten rich. Why the sudden interest in Constellations?”
Ha-ra answered, her head still resting weakly on the table.
“Because I can't believe that after ten years, all I've saved up is 127 coins...”
“Oh. That's rough.”
Coins. A currency used only among Hunters. You can earn them by selling dungeon byproducts on the Hunter Market, or by other means. They also accumulate instead of experience points.
You could use coins to raise your stats, but with the amount Ha-ra had, it was a pipe dream. Of course it was. It took ten million coins just to raise Stamina by one point.
It was absurd. For reference, her bank account balance was about 1.5 million won. After putting money into her savings from her tight civil servant salary and paying for fixed living expenses, there wasn't much left. Still, it was money she had scrimped and saved.
I hear so-and-so S-ranks live without ever checking their bank accounts. For the E-rank Kang Ha-ra, it was a far-off dream. A sigh escaped her lips.
Yu-jeong patted Ha-ra's back, pretending to wipe under her nose.
“It's okay. At least our desk job is safe.”
“But that's why I couldn't save any coins...”
Just then, someone opened the door. It was a broadcast producer.
“Gwalligwan Sim Yu-jeong? We're doing a camera test, so please get ready.”
“Oh, my. Yes.”
Yu-jeong got busy.
“Ha-ra, does my makeup look okay? How is it?”
“Amazing.”
She gave a thumbs-up without even lifting her head from the table. Yu-jeong smacked her on the back.
“Show some sincerity, will you? No matter how upset you are, you have to cheer up. How are you going to pay off your debt otherwise?”
“Debt... Right...”
Kang Ha-ra. Age 29. Ministry of National Defense, Seoul Metropolitan Natural Disaster Response Policy Agency, Special Practical Safety Division, Mapo Branch... anyway, it was super long, so let's just say she was an E-rank Hunter belonging to the Hunter Agency's Mapo branch. Commonly called Gwalligwan. Current bank balance: dismal. Coin balance: 127.
On the cusp of thirty, her life was unremarkable. And with the debt from a recent incident, her life had become even more unremarkable.
As for what she did...
[Shocking news from the Hunter Agency's Mapo branch.jpg]
I work at Mapo, and our Magic Stone Management Team broke a magic stone lolololol. An A-rank one at that lolololol.
-Crazy, how does the Magic Stone Management Team break a magic stone?
-Poor team leader, has to write a formal apology.
-Who broke it? A newbie? Someone hiding their true power?
-OP/Nah, just a genuine 10-year veteran weakling.
-A genuine weakling lolololololololololol
-A 10-year veteran of the Magic Stone Management Team broke a magic stone? But it really happened.
She had caused an incident big enough to be immortalized on Hunter Blind.
Ha-ra felt it was a bit unfair. An E-rank Hunter breaking an A-rank Magic Stone. Normally, that should be impossible. Upon receiving the report, the Mapo branch chief even had Ha-ra put through the rank measuring device again.
But the result was still E.
The “genuine weakling” Ha-ra tearfully accepted the fine. Although it was something a civil servant did on the job, there's a limit to what can be covered by taxes.
The total fine Ha-ra had to pay was 8 million won.
People said she got off easy for breaking an A-rank Magic Stone worth hundreds of millions of won. But to Kang Ha-ra, a person whose life consisted of a 1.5 million won bank balance, it certainly didn't sound that way.
The deadline for the fine was in two months.
“You'll have to break your savings account, what else can you do? Oh, right, did you say your mother manages your savings?”
“Yes. But if I tell her the whole story, my mom will be furious...”
Yu-jeong looked at Ha-ra with pity. She knew that Ha-ra still hadn't moved out of her parents' house and that her mother had a tight grip on her bank accounts.
*Honey, you should probably check if that savings account is even still intact...*
But Yu-jeong was the type who knew that meddling in other people's affairs was rarely helpful to oneself. Instead, she massaged Ha-ra's shoulders and urged her on cheerfully.
“Aigoo, get up, get up. We have to go film. They're paying 300,000 won for the appearance fee, at least.”
“That's what you're getting, Gwalligwan...”
Despite her words, Ha-ra sluggishly got to her feet.
The white waiting room of a public broadcast station. The two were here today to film a video titled “Hunter Agency's Guide to Magic Stone Management: Let's Find Out!”
Civilian facilities in the Republic of Korea were required to install Magic Stones to prevent Gate occurrences. Failure to do so was a violation of the Fire Service Act.
But due to a shortage of civil service personnel, they couldn't conduct individual checks. Instead, they filmed a video every year and had it aired at the very end of the news on a public broadcast channel.
This year, it was the Mapo branch's turn, and Yu-jeong, the most beautiful woman at the branch, was chosen. Ha-ra was her assistant.
Yu-jeong was already opening the door to the waiting room and heading out. Dressed up for the occasion, she looked dazzling.
Ha-ra adjusted her horn-rimmed glasses and called out from behind Yu-jeong.
“Awesome. After today's broadcast, you'll definitely succeed in getting remarried.”
“Thanks for the good wishes. I'll split the appearance fee with you when I get it.”
Yu-jeong, who was waiting for a second date request from a man she'd recently met on a blind date, gave her a thumbs-up.
Ha-ra grinned and followed her.
“You're from the Hunter Agency, right? This way, please.”
An assistant floor director guided the two to the studio.
It was Ha-ra's first time at a broadcast station, and she was busy looking around with her mouth agape. Yu-jeong subtly nudged her, but to no avail.
“I can't believe I'm at a broadcast station, this is so cool.”
“Why? You've been on TV before.”
“Ah, that wasn't at a broadcast station. And that was so long ago...”
Yu-jeong brought up Ha-ra's “Ugi Oppa incident” and snickered. Her face turning red, Ha-ra grabbed Yu-jeong's arm and begged her to be quiet.
But Yu-jeong’s laughter didn't stop. And for good reason, because Kang Ha-ra was about to come face-to-face with the star of that damned “Ugi Oppa incident.”
