Chapter 150
[Ppururung Kids Cafe.]
A person in a mascot costume stood near the entrance.
A mascot-suited figure that didn’t even budge when people passed by to take photos or when children touched it.
“Is that... a bodyguard?”
“You’re quick on the uptake.”
I stared at Kim Suho in disbelief.
“Why a kids’ cafe of all places? I know I look young, but I’m not exactly old enough to come here.”
“I do have a hangout I usually go to, but it’s not the kind of place kids should go.”
“Even so, a kids’ cafe...”
I sighed and got out of the car.
The bodyguards at the entrance spotted Kim Suho and bowed respectfully.
Doing that while wearing mascot heads made the whole thing rather eerie.
I said to one of the bodyguards,
“If you greet me so openly, doesn’t that make the sunglasses pointless?”
“Yes, sir! I’ll correct it at once!”
“No, that’s not what I meant...”
I shook my head and went inside.
The inside was much bigger than I expected.
A jungle gym, trampolines, and even a giant ball pit for children to play in.
The empty playground, devoid of anyone, created a strange sense of unreality.
It felt almost like looking at the Backrooms.
Kim Suho pointed at the ball pit and exclaimed in admiration.
“It’s been ages since I last saw one of these. I used to love stuff like this when I was little.”
Then Kim Suho suddenly strode toward the ball pit.
I followed behind with my hands in my pockets as if I wasn’t interested.
“Do we have time for this? Isn’t the representative waiting?”
“Ah, let me just take a quick look at this...”
Kim Suho stopped in front of a cannon-shaped machine at the edge of the ball pit.
A toy cannon that launches balls with air pressure when you load and fire it.
“Have you ever been to a place like this?”
“No?”
I wouldn’t come to a place like this unless there was someone to bring me here.
I yawned and tried to step out of the pit.
Just then.
Bam!
A ball flew toward the back of my head.
Just before it hit my head, an automatically generated wall of sand blocked it.
I slowly turned my head.
Kim Suho was grinning with his hand on the cannon’s grip.
“...What are you doing?”
“Wanna play a round?”
An S-rank Hunter, provoking me in a kids’ cafe.
I let out a dry laugh in disbelief.
“So childish.”
I walked over to the cannon opposite him.
I picked up a ball rolling on the floor, loaded it into the cannon, and fired.
Pow!
The ball I fired hit Kim Suho in the face.
“Oh, really...”
Whoosh! Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!
As if unwilling to lose, Kim Suho began firing balls in rapid succession.
But the balls were blocked by my automatic barrier and fell helplessly to the ground.
‘This is more fun than I expected...?’
Intrigued, I grabbed the cannon too and started firing balls back.
Pow-pow-pow-pow!
Balls kept landing on Kim Suho’s face.
It was my complete victory.
“Hey, isn’t using magic cheating?”
“What kind of cheating is there in something like this?”
“...Ha, so that’s what you’re saying first?”
Suddenly sparks flashed in Kim Suho’s eyes.
He let go of the cannon and picked up a ball.
“I sometimes train with these balls. I control the air inside them.”
“...?”
“After practicing, I got to the point where I can do this too.”
Boom-!
The ball flew at a terrifying speed and slammed into the barrier.
I glared at him in disbelief.
“What are you doing?”
“Training, training.”
“What training? I could throw balls too.”
“No, the key is not popping the ball. Look. It’ll be perfectly intact.”
“...You’re right?”
Despite the strong impact, the ball still kept its shape.
Considering how thin-walled the balls were, that was incredibly delicate control.
“Once you get used to it, you can do this much.”
Kim Suho raised one hand overhead, the hand clenched into a fist.
In sync with the motion, dozens of balls rose into the air at once.
“Wind-Wind Machine Gun Barrage.”
As he opened his fist, the balls rained down all at once.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
The sound of a machine gun rattled persistently against my automatic barrier.
The automatic barrier gradually began to crack.
“Wow, are you actually trying to kill someone?”
“Are there Hunters who die from being hit by toy balls?”
At last, the barrier shattered.
A storm of balls kept battering my entire body without stopping.
“Gah!”
I fell backward on the spot.
The soft ball pit caught my body.
“Damn it...”
A strange competitive spirit kicked in.
So that’s how you want to play, huh?
I swung my arms wide and scattered sand around me.
I coated each ball with sand and lifted them into the air.
“As long as the balls don’t tear, right?”
At my feral smile, Kim Suho panicked and waved his arms.
“Hey, that’s not fair! How is this any different from putting rocks in snowballs!”
“I don’t know about that. Anyway, I followed the rules, didn’t I?”
Bang-bang-bang!
I hurled the balls with all my might.
“Damn it...!”
Kim Suho, unwilling to lose, lifted more balls and started shooting mine down with his own.
Bang-bang-bang!
The sound of bursting air filled the ball pit.
Amazingly, not a single ball burst even then.
It meant our control over the balls had both reached its limit.
“I’m slipping a little...”
Maybe because it was my first time, I could control fewer balls than Kim Suho.
Slowly, the number of balls striking my forehead began to increase.
It didn’t hurt, but it was strangely irritating.
I concentrated harder. I couldn’t win like this.
‘Mirage.’
I subtly split the balls into two groups.
One pile of balls would keep blocking Kim Suho’s attacks as before.
The important part was the other pile—the balls coated in sand and made transparent.
I moved those balls into a blind spot, then fired them all at once.
“Huh?”
Kim Suho sensed the balls only right before they hit him, but it was already too late.
Pow-pow-pow-pow-pow!
The balls mercilessly pummeled his entire body.
Kim Suho collapsed face-first onto the bottom of the ball pit.
“I won!”
I jumped up and down with my arms raised in victory.
Who knew carrying out justice could feel this satisfying?
Kim Suho, who had been lying down, got up and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“Jeez, you said you weren’t interested, but you’re really good at this. I’ll have to bring you here sometimes.”
He caught his breath and snickered.
Only then did I realize I was grinning from ear to ear.
A wave of embarrassment washed over me.
“......”
What am I even doing right now?
Me, Kim Hanbyeol, an A-rank Hunter.
Someone who would soon become S-rank.
And yet I was getting this happy just playing ball games in a kids’ cafe.
“...Let’s just get on with business already. Seriously, what am I even doing? There’s someone waiting.”
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go.”
Kim Suho chuckled and headed toward the room inside the cafe.
When we opened the door and went inside, a middle-aged man in a suit was waiting.
According to what I’d been told beforehand, this man was Park Jeongwon, chairman of the National Hunter Management Committee.
The man in charge of Hunter policy, and a minister-level official appointed directly by the president.
Chairman Park Jeongwon stood up as soon as he saw us.
He wore a strangely flustered expression.
“Chairman, allow me to introduce. This is Hunter Kim Hanbyeol.”
“Ah... yes. Nice to meet you.”
Chairman Park offered a handshake with a bewildered look.
His gaze didn’t leave me.
He glanced at Kim Suho and whispered,
“Um, Mr. Kim Suho... you never said she was an elementary school student.”
“Ah.”
As soon as I heard that, I clicked my tongue inwardly.
Kim Suho said with a troubled expression,
“On paper, she’s twenty-three. Her appearance is just... stunted growth and a baby face.”
“Stunted growth? No, no matter how you look at it, this is a bit much.”
“She awakened while she was still a minor, and as a side effect her body couldn’t grow.”
“Hmm...”
Chairman Park’s face practically asked, ‘Does that even make sense?’ but it seemed he couldn’t bring himself to question an S-rank Hunter like Kim Suho.
Even as he sat down, he kept sneaking glances at me.
His eyes were full of suspicion.
Kim Suho spoke first.
“You saw the training just now, right? Hunter Kim Hanbyeol’s skill is already on par with mine.”
“Yes, I definitely saw that, but...”
Only then did I understand why Kim Suho had suddenly started talking about training and throwing balls.
It was probably to show this man my abilities.
It seemed the reason he chose a kids’ cafe was the same.
‘...That must be it, right? He wasn’t just messing around, right?’
While I was inwardly wondering about Kim Suho’s intentions,
Chairman Park spoke to me with an expression that still seemed unconvinced.
“Student Kim Hanbyeol? Anyway, our government is desperately in need of a climber who can reach the fortieth floor or higher...”
“Please call me a Hunter, not a student.”
“Yes, Hunter Kim Hanbyeol... um, could I perhaps meet your parents? Minors make things messy with all sorts of contracts and legal issues.”
“......I’m an adult.”
“Ah, of course, that’s what it says on the paperwork. But if your parents come looking for you later, it would cause all sorts of trouble...”
I don’t have parents.
I was about to argue that, but I quietly closed my eyes.
It wasn’t a problem that could be solved that way.
Chairman Park trailed off, but I could clearly see what he was thinking.
I didn’t come here to play with kids. What on earth is this? That had to be what he was thinking.
A subtly dismissive tone.
There was no overt malice. He was just instinctively treating me like a child because I looked young.
But that only made me feel worse.
I glared at Kim Suho.
‘You said I was the one in charge...’
Kim Suho seemed to feel my gaze too, and tried to jump into the conversation in a panic.
But I was even faster.
It couldn’t be helped. I had to show my power even more clearly here.
Tap, tap.
Without saying a word, I lightly tapped the table.
At the same time, the table crumbled into sand.
Crash!
The coffee cup on the table tipped over as it was.
Hot Americano soaked Chairman Park’s pants.
“Hot!”
Chairman Park sprang up from his seat with a scream.
“Wh, what is this...!”
While he panicked and flailed about, I took a staff out of my pocket.
Baekgyeong’s Bone Staff.
“Hey, Hanbyeol! Wait a sec...!”
Kim Suho jumped in alarm and tried to stop me.
But my hand was faster.
I brought the tip of the staff to Chairman Park’s wet pants.
“Dry-and-fluffy mode activated.”
The coffee soaked into the pants was instantly drawn into the staff.
The pants were so dry they looked as if they had just come back from the dry cleaner.
Not even a coffee stain remained.
“Huh...?”
Chairman Park looked down at his legs with a dazed expression.
Thud!
This time, I took out the World Tree’s roots and slammed them into the ground.
The sand scattered across the floor rose up again and turned into stone.
The material had changed from wood to stone, but the table returned in an instant.
While I was at it, I recreated the shattered coffee cup too.
“......”
“.....”
All of this happened in less than ten seconds.
Chairman Park’s jaw dropped.
I crossed my legs and said with a relaxed smile,
“Are you ready to talk now?”
“...Haah.”
Kim Suho held his forehead and shook his head beside me.