It hadn't even been a few hours since his explosive Awakening, but the South Korean Hunter Association was already here. They couldn't even wait for him to officially report in; they had literally sent agents directly to his campus to intercept him!
Honestly, it made sense. After the terrifying amount of energy Min-jun had accidentally broadcasted on his live stream, there was a massive probability he was an S-Rank. The South Korean government was incredibly desperate to secure high-ranking Hunters to keep the country safe and save face on the international stage.
Naturally, they wanted to lock him down immediately.
"And you are?"
Min-jun stood at the campus gates, entirely speechless. A group of men in sharp black suits was actively blocking his path to class. Why did it feel like they were trying to intimidate him like a gang of debt collectors?
"My name is Woo Jin-chul," the leader of the group said, bowing politely but keeping his gaze sharp. "I am the Chief Inspector of the Hunter Association's Surveillance Team. If you would please come with us, we will escort you to headquarters for your official measurement."
It was phrased as a request, but the heavy tone made it sound like an order.
Min-jun completely ignored their oppressive aura. He checked his watch and looked Jin-chul dead in the eye. "Chief Woo, my psychology midterm starts in exactly twenty minutes. You can wait for me in the main hall until I finish. And please, tell your men to retract their mana. You're terrifying the freshmen."
His eyes slowly drifted to one of the agents standing behind Jin-chul. The man had a nasty, mocking smirk on his face and was subtly leaking a sharp, malicious killing intent toward Min-jun, testing him.
Min-jun didn't know who this guy was or why he was acting so edgy, but it was annoying. He rolled his eyes and casually let a fraction of his new S-Rank aura slip out, dropping it directly onto the man's shoulders.
Thud!
The aggressive agent—Kang Tae-sik—violently hit the pavement, his knees smashing into the concrete. He gasped for air, completely unable to stand up under the sudden, mountain-crushing pressure pinning him to the ground.
"Take better care of your men, Chief," Min-jun yawned, covering his mouth.
He was genuinely feeling a bit sleepy since he had pulled an all-nighter. Fortunately, his newly awakened S-Rank body, combined with the Manager actively optimizing his biological functions to reduce stress and fatigue, kept him moving perfectly fine.
As Min-jun casually walked past them and onto the campus, Kang Tae-sik clutched his chest, panting heavily in sheer terror. He suddenly realized just how insignificant he was compared to the monster that had just walked by. Tae-sik had been trying to test the rookie, but he was instantly humiliated. Still, as a veteran Hunter, he wasn't stupid enough to plot revenge. You don't scheme against someone who stands at the absolute top of the food chain. He was just intensely grateful that Min-jun had ignored him like a squashed bug instead of snapping his neck.
Meanwhile, Woo Jin-chul broke out in a cold sweat.
He realized immediately that Min-jun was not some confused, panicked teenager they could easily manipulate. They couldn't just sweep in, act like his saviors, and force him to become a loyal pawn for the government.
Min-jun was in absolute, terrifying control of the situation.
What do we do now? Jin-chul thought grimly, pulling out his phone to call the Association President. He was going to have to explain that negotiating with this kid was going to be an absolute nightmare. As for Tae-sik still gasping on the ground? Jin-chul didn't care. The idiot deserved it for trying to provoke an S-Rank.
Walking into his classroom, Min-jun found his classmates staring at him in absolute awe and terrified curiosity.
His Awakening clip had already become the most-watched video in the country. No one could believe that the quiet, handsome guy who sat in the back of their lectures had just become an S-Rank Hunter.
They felt a bizarre sense of pride knowing him, but absolutely no one dared to approach his desk. In modern society, an S-Rank Hunter was basically a walking god. To normal humans, he was entirely untouchable.
Min-jun ignored the stares and sat down. Outside in the hall, Woo Jin-chul and his men were standing guard like a private security detail, dutifully waiting to act as his free chauffeurs once the test was over. Min-jun had fully expected this. He knew his market value, and if the Association wanted to show up uninvited, he was going to make them work for him.
When the midterm exam finally started, Min-jun breezed through it. With the Manager actively scanning his memories and feeding him perfectly structured answers, the test was a total piece of cake.
Amazing... Min-jun thought as he filled out the last page.
Finishing early gave him plenty of time to sit quietly and strategize. His everyday life was over. He needed to make massive adjustments, and the Manager was already feeding him logical advice.
I need to join a Guild.
Unlike the protagonist of this world, Sung Jin-woo—who famously operated alone and eventually created his own Guild—Min-jun wanted corporate backing. Jin-woo had to go solo because his power (the Shadow Army) was a massive, world-breaking secret that he couldn't let anyone see.
Min-jun didn't have that problem. His Manager was an innate, mental AI. It was completely invisible. Nobody was ever going to notice it.
So, why join a Guild instead of going solo?
Pure convenience.
Min-jun wanted a Guild so they could handle all the agonizing, boring stuff: the legal paperwork, the marketing, the PR, the accounting, and the brutal taxes. Sung Jin-woo might have been an all-powerful badass who saved the world, but realistically, someone still had to fill out the government tax forms for all those dead monsters! Min-jun didn't want to spend his wealthy new life doing administrative paperwork.
Furthermore, Min-jun fully admitted that his actual knowledge of the Hunter industry was just surface-level internet trivia. The Hunter world was highly exclusive.
He had always thought that lower-ranked Hunters could easily double their income by simply live-streaming their dungeon runs. But he quickly realized the grim truth: those people were fighting for their lives in terrifying, bloody caves. They couldn't focus on chatting with a Twitch audience when a goblin was trying to bite their face off.
And now, I'm going to be a part of that world, Min-jun realized.
Naturally, as a Hunter, he would have to enter dungeons and risk his life fighting monsters.
Hmm...
Thinking about his future, the weight of reality settled heavily on his shoulders. But he would be lying if he said he wasn't at least a little excited.
He didn't want to follow Jin-woo's painful, exhausting path. Jin-woo was basically a tragic martyr who fought endless wars to save a world that kept resetting. Min-jun refused to live like that. He was going to carve out a totally different path.
But before he could rewrite the future, he had to build his power base. He needed to get strong enough so that the terrifying "higher beings" of this universe couldn't look down on him like an ant.
He was just a small fish entering a massive ocean right now, but his journey to the top started today. And the very next step was finally letting the Association officially measure his power.