Hunter Kim Bong-pal (2)

After parting with Kang Jun, Kim Bongpal set up a deposit account with compound interest at the bank as he advised.

The Bank of Os Pago was the largest in the world. So, of course, it welcomed Kim Bongpal’s visit. There wasn’t one in the world that wouldn’t welcome a customer who wanted to deposit a billion dollars without question. The Bank of Os Pago admitted compound interest deposits that it would never have imagined because that was the value of a billion dollars in the world.

“Please take care of it.”

“Yes, sir!”

The customer is king. It was a long-standing adage of the Bank of Os Pago. Thanks to this, the rookie Kim Bongpal was treated like a king at the bank.

Then, after visiting the bank, he headed to a city called El Plades. It was a newly built entertainment city on the ruins of Las Vegas, which collapsed during the Outbreak. Even there, Kim Bongpal was treated close to a king.

“Huh? What? 1,000 bucks for a chip? Then bring me 100 of them.”

This man spent money like it was water. Even if a real monarch had come to El Plades, they would not have been treated more favorably than Kim Bong-pal.

*

Just as Kim Bongpal described compound interest as magic, it actually had powers close to magic. At least when your starting capital was one billion dollars. Even if Kim Bongpal threw 100,000 dollars into the air in one day at El Plades, more than that amount was replenished the next day. Therefore, he began to enjoy his life by praising a god he had never before believed in.

For reference, the name of the god he started praising every night was compound interest.

“What? Even an Awakener will get drunk if they drink this? Haha! Why don’t you bring it here right now?”

And El Plades was like heaven for Kim Bongpal. Every day he used to cut down monsters, and he would dream of the life he lived now. It was actually something he had dreamed of since his days in the orphanage.

Greasy food like they enjoyed on TV! Expensive-looking clothes! Pretty girls! Such a dream gradually developed as Kim Bongpal’s condition improved.

“Who’s that guy?”

“No one knows. But everyone knows that he has a lot of money.”

“No one even knows?”

“The hotel owner looked around a bit, but he couldn’t find out who he was. He thought he might work for the mob, but no one ever comes to visit him.”

No old acquaintances visited him, but Kim Bong-pal wasn’t a man who cared about his old ties in the first place. He could be satisfied enough without such people buzzing around for his money. In fact, not thinking about things was a habit that Kim Bongpal learned during his long career as a hunter.Anyway, Kim Bong-pal’s life in El Plades was blissful. He spent more money than the average person earned in their annual salary before going to sleep. He became accustomed to a life in which more money was put into his bank account when he woke up. It was more money than he’d ever spent on himself before in his life.

Hence, his life in El Plades was new every day. After all, this was a place where you could do anything. However, ordinary humans tend to become increasingly insensitive to the same stimuli. While Kim Bongpal wasn’t ordinary in hunting, he was completely ordinary. His ever-changing routine became more and more familiar.

So Kim Bong-pal sought a new stimulus. Higher levels of pleasure, new forms of entertainment, even gambling. The pleasure of dopamine secreted in the brain when winning money was very similar to what he felt when picking up a monster’s head after a hard fight.

But even that also gradually faded away. There were many rich people in El Plades, but only a few had as much money as Kim Bong-pal, and soon Kim Bong-pal noticed that the interest he received was higher than what he could win on gambling.

From then on, Kim Bong-pal began to lose on purpose. Even if he was winning, Kim Bong-pal bet all his chips at the end, and if he lost, he ended the day’s gamble without any regrets. If he won?

Then he bet all the chips again.

Seeing other gamblers cheering for him as he threw away money was a new pleasure he found. And then, one day.

[Obituary] Notice to the relative: Hunter Seo Kang Jun of Aegis Corporation passed away on November 11, 20XX, at 8:10 pm.

A letter arrived at Kim Bongpal’s doorstep. The Aegis Corporation was the place where he last worked as a Hunter.

“Damn it. I told you to give up your stupid work and live comfortably.”

It was the first day Kim Bongpal had felt depressed since his retirement. He quickly shook it off. The death of his hunter colleagues was a daily occurrence, and when he parted with Kang Jun, he expected that he would one day hear the news of his passing.

“Fuck? His surname is not Kang but Seo??”

Rather, what surprised Kim Bongpal was that he rarely called Kang Jun by his name.

At first, it was always newbie, rookie, and other nicknames. Then later, he called him by hey, you, and rarely by his name.

Kim Bongpal even thought his name was Jun, not Kang Jun. Kang Jun also knew Kim Bongpal had mistaken his name, but he didn’t bother to correct it. It wasn’t an important issue for either of them.

“Hey, I’ll be back in a few days. Here’s a tip.”

Anyway, Kim Bongpal left for his hometown in the Republic of Korea.

*

The flight didn’t take long. Thanks to the emergence of the new power, mana, that appeared simultaneously as monsters, technology had surpassed the previous world’s level faster than could be tracked. It wasn’t to the point where people could move in the blink of an eye, but the flight time from the U.S. to Korea was reduced to about two hours. During those two hours, Kim Bongpal, who tried to take a nap but couldn’t sleep, learned about what had changed.

[S-Class Hunter, Seo Kang-joon Was Killed in a Battle with a 7-Star Monster, Starfish.]

[The God of the Korean Hunter World Was Defeated.]

[Disaster-like Starfish. The Deaths of 1 S-Class, 5 A-Class, and 34 B-Class Hunters.]The 7-star rank didn’t even exist when Kim Bongpal was active. Therefore, the strongest monster that Kim Bongpal faced was the maximum 6-star. A lot must’ve changed over the 10 years Kim Bong-pal spent in El Plades.

Seo Kang Jun, who was just looking for a B-Class promotion, became an S-Class Hunter, and a new disaster appeared in the world. After his retirement, Kim Bongpal hated the talk of hunters around him. And no one could disobey the richest man in El Plades.

“Hah! He wet his pants after hearing the chicken pigeon’s roar, but then he was made S-Class. And what else is this 7-star ranked monster? Fuck.”

What Kim Bongpal called a chicken pigeon was a 4-star monster with the official name of Ternodon. It was a monster of the dragon species which could induce a panic through its roar. Seo Kang Jun peed after hearing Ternodon’s roar, causing Kim Bongpal to call him Piss Boy for several months.

Of course, when Kim Bongpal had just started his life as a hunter, he also experienced a similar thing because of the roar of other dragon-type monsters. Now it was a secret that only he knew, thanks to all his colleagues at the time dying.

[Dear passengers, welcome to Incheon International Airport. Please stay still and do not leave your seat until the plane has come to a complete stop and the seatbelt sign goes off…]

While Kim Bongpal recalled his old memories with Seo Kang-joon, the plane landed in Korea. He left on a shining day.

“Fuck. It’s the perfect day to die.”

Before the world collapsed, Kim Bongpal had only one hobby. And surprisingly, it was one he shared with Seo Kang Jun.

Just like that, Kim Bong-pal commemorated Seo Kang Jun by watching a movie.

*

“Ahem. Haah. It’s a hell of a lot.”

When he arrived in front of the funeral hall, Kim Bongpal was surprised by the large crowd at Seo Kang Jn’s funeral, who, to his knowledge, was second to him as not very sociable. Besides that, it was just an unfamiliar scene. When Kim Bongpal was active, a hunter’s funeral was a luxury.

It was closer to being a ceremonial act that had nothing to do with its grandiose name. Most ended with just pouring a glass of alcohol and burning a cigarette.

Still, he remembered the world before it collapsed. When he was in the orphanage, when the only nun in the orphanage died, they gathered to mourn her passing. Even Kim Bongpal.

“It’s the same with so many people coming, but…damn it.”

However, if there was a difference between the funeral at that time and now, the nun’s gathering wasn’t as complicated.

“Wait! You must not come in!”

“Ouch! Where are you pushing? Excuse me!”

“I’m from SBC! After the death of Hunter Seo Kang-joon…”

“There were only five S-class hunters in Korea! Please respect the people’s right to know!”

“Citizens are anxious! Now, Korean hunters…”

Countless flashing cameras and a lot more reporters. Although they couldn’t enter the ceremonial hall, a shower of lights bathed the entrance. It was completely different from the last funeral Kim Bong-pal remembered.

“Fuck.”

And Kim Bongpal didn’t like it.