With a sound, the sliding door opened and someone appeared in the shop, and the slightly relaxed atmosphere froze again. The hunters who had been chewing on their rice grains immediately stopped chewing, and the one who was about to die could barely hold it together with his mental strength.

Even the gas masks that had come in, hunched over, stood still for a moment, as if taking stock of the situation. There was silence, not even the sound of breathing.

The first of the two to break the silence was the one standing at the door.

"Strange."

He spat sarcastically and stalked across the hall.

"Why is an officer here?"

Jung-bin said calmly.

"I'm here for dinner, of course. I didn't expect to see you here."

"Yeah... You look idle."

"Haha, not really. Even if Lee Sa-young doesn't bother, Korean officials are always busy."

Despite the obviously sharp words, Sa-young snorted and walked over to the corner table and sat down. Hunter, who had sat at the table before Sa-young and was slurping down a bowl of Haejang-guk, let out a huffing sound, threw the money on the table, and stomped out like a sledgehammer.

Damn, those bastards are kicking out all our customers. When he saw the other hunters' butts start to move as one of them left, he froze. As it turned out, the two uninvited guests were having a conversation of their own.

"Anyway, now that I've seen you... Lee-ssi, there's something I need to tell you."

"......."

"It's not something we can talk about in public like this. Could you please get back to me in private?"

"A Haejang-guk."

It was a complete disregard, but Jung-bin was undaunted and continued speaking impatiently.

"I went directly to the Pado Guild, but you were absent every day, and when I sent a letter, the guild leader said that he couldn't confirm it due to his out-of-town schedule. However, I heard that he eats at the Haejang-guk restaurant nearby, so I came here just in case."

"A lot."

"Oh, I'd like some Haejang-guk as well, please."

"......."

Ui-jae, who took out a pen to write the bill, opened his fidgety eyes and glared at them. If you want to fight, then go out and fight. Don't make a part-timer's back explode in a hunter's fight. Ui-jae pressed his temples with the ballpoint pen in his hand. His head hurt from the sudden sight in front of him.

Looking around, Jung-bin finished what he had been saying.

"And the commissioner said I have to pay for the last one."

"......."

Lee Sa-young, who had been silent the whole time, not reacting to Jung-bin's words, tilted her head this time.

"Oh, and... Wait a minute."

Jung-bin took out a round cotton ball from his inventory. He squeezed it with his thumb and an opaque membrane formed, hiding the two of them behind it. The flow of air that had been stagnant before immediately opened up. The hunters, who had been watching the conversation with bated breath, let out a collective gasp.

"Wow, they're even using a spatial separator. They're really talking about something important."

"Oh, just out of curiosity, are you going to hang up here?"

"No, we don't want to get involved, or we'll be X. Let's just eat and get out of here."

"These two aren't going to have a fight here, are they?"

"No way, there are normal people here."

"Lee Sa-young might."

Don't say horrible things. Ui-jae narrowed his eyes.

The Jung-bin he knew wasn't the kind of person to play games in a place like this, but from what the hunters were saying, nothing was safe as long as Lee Sa-young was involved. The last thing he needed was for Haejang-guk House to be on the news as the place where the number one hunter and the shield hunter met.

Ui-jae pressed his pen tightly in thought. Although spatial separators were often used to tell secret stories, they had a fatal flaw. An Awakened higher than the rank of the item could easily see through it.

He couldn't be sure if the item Jung-bin was using was A-rank, but there was no reason to use an S-rank item in a shabby Haejang-guk house. When Ui-jae slowly lifted his eyelids, the membrane he'd seen before was nowhere to be seen and he could clearly see Jung-bin and Lee Sa-young.

Bingo. Ui-jae sang a happy tune in his head and sat down on a nearby seat, pretending to be invisible, and started peeling garlic.

"Lee-ssi, you were looking for an unregistered person, weren't you? In such a hurry that you searched the database of the Awakening Management Bureau."

"......."

"That unregistered person is said to be a powerful person, and he was able to block your attack. ...."

The unregistered person who blocked Lee Sa-young's attack. Even though there was no indication of who the subject was, Ui-jae could tell who the subject of this dialog was. You're telling me that you searched the database of the Awakening Management Bureau just to catch me? The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as he realized that there was a reason why he had let him go so gracefully.

"Did you find him?"

Ui-jae held his breath. For a moment, the violet gaze inside the gas mask seemed to reach beyond Jung-bin's aura and into his own. Before he could wonder if it was an illusion or confusion, he heard a short answer.

"No."

"Really?"

Jung-bin's eyes searched over the face hidden by the gas mask. His attitude was puzzling, and Sa-young set her jaw and asked coldly.

"Don't you think you should explain the situation before prying?"

"......."

"I feel sorry for you if you're just asking for things."

The two of them stared at each other for a long moment. But it wasn't long before Jung-bin raised his hands. It was a gesture of surrender.

"Okay, I'll tell you."

He didn't move, but you could tell he was listening. Jung-bin took out his cell phone, flipped it a few times, and then flashed a picture on the screen in his direction.

"You do know that an A+ rank mana stone was listed on the Tomato Market not long ago, right?"

"If you don't know about it, you should be a Folding Hunter."

Folding Hunter? Ui-jae wondered, feeling like he'd gotten himself into a tight knot. Maybe he was more famous than he thought.

"You know that Hong Ye-sung is up on Jirisan, locking doors and building equipment, and of course you know that it was you who laid the internet line to Jirisan."

"Yes, but?"

"Do you also know that Hong Ye-sung smoked a lot to get the mana stones?"

"Well, of course."

"In conclusion, I believe that the unregistered person you are looking for is the owner of the mana stone."

Crazy ghost bastard. You're so quick-witted.

Ui-jae calmly put on a blank face and crushed the garlic. Sa-young smiled, his eyes narrowing slightly. Then he spoke with a voice that was actually quite sweet, in contrast to his earlier severity.

"That's a huge leap of logic."

Jung-bin put his cell phone back in his pocket and continued.

"Anyone who can obtain this level of gems must be at least a top 100 ranked player, and such people naturally use the Hunter Market. The identities of both the seller and the buyer are guaranteed, so it's safe to make large transactions."

"......."

"If you don't want to pay the fees and taxes, and I hate to say this as a public servant, but you can sell it on the black market. That way, you don't have to put it on a public app where the public can see it and make a fuss about it, because there are at least ten ways to do it quietly."

Lee Sa-young began to lazily drum on the table with his gloved fingers.

"Then why was this mana stone listed on the Tomato Market, and at such a ridiculously low price?"

"......."

"Probably because the seller doesn't have a registration and can't use the Hunter's Market, so he put it up for sale on the Tomato Market, which means one of two things. An ordinary person and an unregistered amateur. But the chances of an ordinary person having a stone like that... I'd say close to zero."

Amateur. It was a word that struck a chord in the heart of the former number one ranked J. The pace of his walk increased slightly. With rustling sounds as background music, Sa-young asked.

"So?"

“That narrows it down to one. The owner of the mana stone is unregistered.”

“Aaah….”

“My conclusion is that the only unregistered person who is good enough to obtain a magic stone of that caliber at this time… is the person you’re looking for.”

Jung-bin’s reasoning was pretty accurate. Being a former police officer and having spent some time in the hunter world, he seemed to have a better instinct than before. If he hadn’t listened, he would have been in trouble. Ui-jae felt the need to be more careful with his behavior in the future.

Tap, tap, tap.

The black fingers were still tapping on the table. As if drawn by something, Ui-jae’s gaze travelled to Sa-young’s fingertips. The slow movement of the black fingers as they drew the letters stuck in his mind like slow motion.

Did

you

hear

that?

Ui-jae’s head snapped up and he stared at Sa-young. The hand that had been mechanically peeling garlic fumbled in the air, but he was so startled that he didn’t even have time to think about whether the poker face trait was working.

The expression clearly visible through the gas mask.

Lee Sa-young was smiling.