The civil servant, whether he liked it or not, led Gidan straight to the suspect.
“Don’t come any closer! If you take even one more step, I’ll blow up this pipeline!”
The lunatic was making absurd demands—something about bringing back his ex-wife.
Even after closing the distance to just one meter, Gidan kept tapping away on his phone, completely unfazed.
“You! Get lost, right now!”
Still, Gidan didn’t bother looking up. He simply scratched his chin, his voice laced with mild annoyance.
“Ah, I really need to wrap this up. Looks like my Guild Master kidnapped a kindergartener.”
“What?”
It wasn’t just the suspect who was shocked. Every single person gathered at the scene for the emergency response stared at Gidan in disbelief.
The Guild Master of Hyeonak did what now?
But Gidan didn’t care. He spun his dagger around and gripped it in a reverse hold. A sharp, deadly aura radiated from him as if he had suddenly become a different person.
His crescent-shaped eyes curled up in amusement.
“Let’s finish this quickly. I need to get my hit in before my Guild Master regains his sanity.”
“Wh-what?”
Muttering that he wouldn’t even make it close otherwise, Gidan took a single step forward.
Tap—
The air quivered, following some invisible shift.
The civil servant blinked.
No one had sensed anything.
But in that exact moment, Gidan, who had just stepped forward in front of the villain, was now standing behind him.
Effortlessly, Gidan flipped his dagger back into position.
“U-uh...?”
The suspect let out a strangled sound of confusion before his knees buckled beneath him.
The one-meter radius around Kim Seungbeom was completely annihilated. The ground was scorched, the grass and insects all dead in an instant.
It had happened so fast—so overwhelmingly fast—that no one could react.
‘This... this is insane...’
While everyone else stood in stunned silence, Gidan casually sheathed his dagger back into his inventory.
“Aah—”
“I’ll be heading out first. I’m busy preparing for a coup d’état.”
Gidan gave a polite nod before turning to leave.
“C-coup d’état?”
“Wait! Hunter Gidan! You’ll write the incident report, right?!”
Completely ignoring the troublesome request, Gidan opened his messenger app.
— Guild Master-hyung.
— Gidan, are you heading to the Management Bureau?
— Why? Is the director throwing a fit again?
— Did he find out you wrecked the Gongdeok Station Dungeon without permission?
— ᅲᅲ
— Guild Master-hyung.
— Wait, that was you?
— Sorry, sorry.
(Bowing emoji)
— ᅲᅲ
— Guild Master-hyung.
— We’ll talk later. First, get to the Management Bureau.
— You need them to edit the Awakener ranking data to change someone’s classification to F-rank..
— The Management Bureau itself?
— If they catch us, that’s immediate arrest, you know?
— Guild Master-hyung.
— If you don’t want to, just forget it.
— I never said no.
— Sorry, sorry.
— Check my messages. Sorry, sorry.
(Gift card sent.)
— ...Hyung, I’m always ready.
— Should I go now?
— Guild Master-hyung.
— Come to the company first.
— Okay, just give me ten minutes.
— I’m on a field job right now.
— By the way, who’s getting their data changed?
— Guild Master-hyung.
— An S-rank kindergartener.
— ?? Is this phishing?
— Hyung?
— PICK UP YOUR PHONE.
— Hyeonak-hyung!!
— ᄆᄂᄋᄅᄋᄀᄌᄂᄐ (Random keyboard smash.)
At that same moment, inside the Hyeonak Guild’s break room...
“I heard the CEO is adopting a kid?”
At the absurd remark, laughter erupted throughout the room.
“What? Don’t be ridiculous.”
“The CEO doesn’t even keep houseplants. He says they’re too much trouble. And now a kid? How?”
“Right? I can’t believe people in Hyeonak still don’t know what On Jurim is like.”
The employee who had been spreading the rumor grumbled in frustration.
“I’m not lying! The secretariat was buzzing with the news... Huh?”
Before they could finish, their eyes widened as they noticed something. Naturally, everyone followed their gaze toward the break room door.
The guild employees, who had been excitedly gossiping about On Jurim, froze.
Peeking inside was a small child.
As all eyes landed on him, huge coral-colored eyes rolled around nervously. The child hesitated for a moment before stepping forward and giving a polite bow.
“Hewwo.”
“A... a baby?”
“...Whose daughter is she?”
“Can I take a picture?”
“Oh my god. She’s too cute.”
“Hi there, little one.”
As the employees made a fuss and warmly welcomed him, Guru’s face lit up with a bright smile.
“Hewwo! I’m Hanguru from Saebom Kindergarten’s Chick Class. I came to eat bwead.”
Laughter blossomed at Guru’s adorable introduction.
“Can Guru eat this too?”
Blushing red, Guru carefully picked out a sandwich.
“Eat up, eat up!”
“Take some! You can have all of it.”
One by one, the employees stuffed snacks into Guru’s arms. Guru shoved everything into his bag and gave a deep bow.
“Thank you vewy much.”
Click! The sound of cameras went off from every direction.
“Where are your parents, sweetie? Do you need someone to take you home?”
Guru shook his head.
“Nope! Just gotta go stwaight ahead.”
But the hallway Guru pointed toward only led to the Guild Master’s office.
“...The Guild Master’s office?”
Guru nodded.
“Uhh, that’s not really a place you can just waltz in and out of...”
“Guild Master-nim said I should come back right after eating bwead.”
“The Guild Master said that?”
“Yeaah.”
Uh-oh, I’m late! Guru gave another deep bow before skipping off down the hall.
“...Seriously?”
“That can’t be real.”
“Wait, is it really him?”
Mouths hung open. Every single person in the break room slowly turned to face the employee who had first mentioned the rumor about On Jurim adopting a kid.
“S-see? I told you it was true...”
A moment later, everyone silently raised their phones. And the typing frenzy began.
Guru patted his bag, now stuffed to the brim with goodies from the break room.
Some people disliked children, but everyone in Hyeonak had been so nice so far.
‘Hyeonak is so cool...’
Maybe it wouldn’t take long to register a new guardian here?
‘I’ll walk around later and find an S-rank who likes Guru!’
But for now, he had something more important to do.
Shoving an entire sandwich into his mouth and patting his full belly, Guru hummed a happy tune as he made his way to the Guild Master’s office, mentally reviewing his plan.
Operation: "Hidden Power Project!" (Codename: Guru)
Objective: Register Guru as an official hunter—but as an F-rank instead of an S-rank!
According to Guild Master-nim, Awakener powers were a double-edged sword.
They could be used for good, but there were also plenty of bad people who abused them.
Guru had seen the news—villains who misused their strength for evil.
If people found out that a tiny, weak kid like Guru had an L-rank skill? Bad guys would definitely come after him.
So the plan was simple: register as an official hunter but hide all the good skills.
To do that, they’d need to cause a little bit of confusion at the Awakener Center to get the system to classify him as an F-rank.
Thump-thump.
Guru’s cheeks flushed with excitement as he clenched his tiny fists.
‘I feel like a real main character!’
The idea reminded him of his favorite anime, Loser But Level 999!—which aired every Wednesday at 7 PM.
At the orphanage, everyone gathered to watch it together. The older kids called the protagonist a "Hidden Power Weakling."
A chuunibyou who pretended to be weak while secretly being super strong.
‘Guru is a Hidden Power Weakling now too...!’
As of today, only three people besides Guru himself knew his secret.
Guild Master-nimNayun-noonaSome guy named GidanAll three were helping with Guru’s hunter registration today.
‘Gotta hurry up~!’
Guru half-ran down the hall, too excited to walk properly.
Then—
He stopped.
“...Huh?”
Someone was standing at the end of the empty hallway.
A Hyeonak employee?
No...
The person was wearing a school uniform.
His tie was slung over his shoulder, his sleeves rolled up, and he had headphones around his neck.
At the orphanage, the older kids got scolded when they wore their uniforms like that.
A delinquent!
At that moment, the boy pulled a dagger from his inventory.
Gasp!
Guru sucked in a breath and quickly hid behind a pillar.
The blade was pitch-black and jutted out sharply, like a shark’s fin.
This wasn’t just a kitchen knife—this was a combat knife, used by hunters.
The boy casually spun the dagger between his fingers, like it was second nature.
‘Who? What’s he doing? What is he planning?’
Guru’s brain felt like it was spinning in circles.
Could it be... an enemy?!

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