"-Yeah, there was an accident. Huh-! No, I'm fine. You don't have to come pick me up or anything. N-No-! It'll be fine…"
I tried to assure Emma on the other side, but she seemed to have no intention of calming down.
Her voice was also getting louder and louder, and the people around me were getting more and more annoyed, even if they did not show it.
'Well, it is a given. I have been on the phone for the past 15 minutes. I need to cut the call off.'
The female beta hunter who gave me her phone seemed to be getting anxious when my call kept on getting longer and longer.
And if it were in my hands, I would have long cut the call and given the phone back to her.
But Emma was being particularly difficult with me and it felt overwhelming.
"You don't have to put up with any of this nonsense, Kyle. You are a civilian after all. You know what? Let me go and complain to the Luminous Guild. After all, this is their fault. They can handle this."
Emma sounded determined and I knew I needed to try and stop her.
"Emma, there is no—"
But the call finally got cut off and I could only look at the phone blankly for a few seconds before the female hunter coughed to remind me that I still had her phone.
I silently handed the phone back to her but my emotions felt strange.
This was not the first time I had to go to an emergency dungeon hunt. As an S-class hunter, I was often dispatched suddenly for dungeon raids and sometimes two or three one after another.
But never had I ever heard someone be this concerned about me.
Even back then, I had seen other hunters' families often tell them words of encouragement or get angry on their behalf, and I had wanted that for myself.
That was a long time ago and my expectations had been snubbed by now.
But still, it felt good to see that someone cared.
"Once again, I'm sorry for this mess, kid. I will find a way to make it up to you once we come back."
Rhiner spoke softly before the car stopped.
I could only make out darkness around me, which indicated that we were in a gate's vicinity.
Judging from the intensity of the mana around as well as the darkness surrounding me, I could safely say that it was a C-class dungeon.
"Looks like the emergency dungeon is C-class. It should be relatively easy with Rhiner around. But we all should be careful. Remember, we are not the only team around here called in for duty."
The female beta stood and spoke up. Her words sounded normal at first, but there was hidden meaning behind them that made the people around me shiver.
Naturally, the meaning of these words was not lost on me either.
Hunting was a highly competitive profession and the closer you were to the top, the more benefits you had.
As such, I had seen a lot of hunters try and take other hunters out during my time in order to get a higher ranking.
Of course, I had been a victim of the same treatment, but then the other hunters had realized I was too strong for them to mess with and I was excluded.
It seems this had not changed even after 10 years.
"Hey kid, you should stay with me. If you walk too far off, then I won't be able to ensure your safety."
Rhiner spoke as he grabbed the back of my shirt and dragged me behind him. I had no choice but to follow… or, better suited was, to be dragged after him.
We stood in front of the gate before the female beta spoke again.
"Three teams entered before us, but there is only one who can compete with us in terms of power. It's Lee Minho's team. Well, the team is not a problem, but Lee Minho sure is."
Lee Minho was not a name I recalled, but somehow, it did sound familiar. I was sure I had seen it before.
"I see. In that case, I will leave a notice in the hunter chat. You all are checking the hunter net, right? Keep an eye out there for information."
Rhiner's voice carried authority but I felt more curious about the 'hunter net' thing he talked about.
Seeing my curious look, Rhiner chuckled and decided to answer my question.
"Are you curious about hunter net? Well, most civilians are so it's not a surprise. Well, in simple terms, it is like the internet but exclusively for hunters. It is based on the system, and the amount of freedom you have there depends on your hunter rank. You might not know this, but there is even a chat room with the top #100 current hunters. It sounds cool, right?"
The more I heard about this, the more curious I felt about checking the hunter net.
But a part of me also told me that I should not do that.
After all, hunter net was a place that seemed to put emphasis on one's rank, and I was the former no.1. Even if it had been 10 years ago, to me it just felt like yesterday.
Then again, I was curious to see where I would rank in today's terms. Have the brats that awakened after me managed to surpass me?
'Maybe I should enter the hunter net after this dungeon raid. I'm sure everything would be alright.'
"Well, we have chit-chatted enough. It is time for us to enter the dungeon. Everyone, brace yourself."
With the order given, everyone entered the dungeon. Rhiner grabbed my wrist to pull me along so that I wouldn't get lost inside.
No sooner had we crossed the gate, I felt my senses warning me that I was under attack and I tensed.
At the same time, Rhiner created a barrier around himself and me, blocking the attack heading our way.
"Tsk, so it's you who entered next, Bullet. And here I thought I would be able to get rid of the competition… why do you have a civilian with you-? And you… Shit, it's you-! Rhiner, did you bring an omega civilian inside the dungeon with you?"
The voice sounded familiar and that was a sentence that I felt I was saying too much these days.
The smoke cleared, but my eyes adjusted even before that to see who had attacked me.
'Shit! What bad luck! I should have never stepped out of my bed today.'
I looked at the alpha hunter who had attacked me and my eyes immediately focused on the Lee Hara fan I had encountered the day I ran away from the hospital.
What were the chances of that man being a hunter and a high-level one at that?
"Lee Minho, this is not the time for you to question us. Rather, you should be explaining why you attacked us. Have you decided to join the dark side to eliminate your competition? Should I report you to the league as well?"
The female beta barked, standing in front of myself and Rhiner.