The Trash Wants to Live

PR: Naa_chi

“Do you have any thoughts about exchanging techniques? SNT and Sungwoon are in a cooperative relationship, so it would be nice to share such knowledge with each other.”

I just smiled. If I asked Jae Hyuk to teach him, he would do it; however… I didn’t want to. Instead, I hinted to Chuck, “Why don’t you come to Sungwoon to learn?” 

Chuck turned around and laughed awkwardly.

“I must be asking too much. Forget it.”

“Well… we can teach you if Chuck really came to Sungwoon.”

I really meant to teach him if he became one of my people. When I said that, Chuck laughed and shook his head.

“Unfortunately. I have no intention of leaving America.”

“You can come as an American if you want?”

“Didn’t you hear about that? About my background?”

Chuck kept talking when I shook my head, since I hadn’t heard anything about him.

“I was a soldier before I came to SNT. I was stationed in the Middle East. When I became a soldier, I decided to serve my country. I transferred over to SNT, but I still think of myself as an American soldier.”

Chuck chuckled. That’s why he couldn’t go to Sungwoon. It was said that Americans were very patriotic, and I really thought so when I saw Chuck.

“I’ll get going. See you next time then.”

He got up, dusted off the bottom of his pants, and walked away. The more I got to know him, the more I liked Chuck.

…Speaking of which, what happened to him?

Chuck was said to be the strongest among the current SNT hunters in the US, but as far as I know…

I think Isabella Dunner is the strongest…

In fact, Isabella was strong, but that didn’t make her number two. Isabella as a rookie was impressive, but there was still a gap between her and Chuck in terms of rankings. Even if Chuck suddenly retired, Isabella couldn’t immediately become the strongest person…

“What’s going on?”

“What’s that?”

“Yikes!”

I was startled by the sudden voice and looked behind me to see Kwon Jae Hyuk crouching behind me. I wondered when he had gotten there. He stood up with a smile, then came beside me and sat down on the ground.

Cookie glanced at Kwon Jae Hyuk who was sitting next to me, then walked over to sit between my legs. It seemed that he had finished eating his beef jerky.

[I’m full.]

Kwon Jae Hyuk questioned me as I petted Cookie’s back, who yawned because he was full.

“What are you curious about?”

“Umm…”

I looked around. There was no one there, and it was just the two of us—three people, including Cookie. There were also very few people who could speak Korean, so I spoke to him with ease.

“The… that… In the future, Isabella will become America’s strongest hunter, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Then… What about Chuck?”

Then where did Chuck go? Was it because he retired? I asked that, but deep down I knew the answer.

When Jang Eui Yeol was 22 years old, Isabella was called the strongest hunter in the United States in the original story.  Currently, I was 17 years old… What about five years later?

Chuck looked over 30, but I didn’t know his real age since I hadn’t heard how old he was. Nevertheless, I knew he wasn’t old enough to retire within the next five years. Since he was so patriotic and willing to sacrifice his life for the prosperity of his country, there was no way he would suddenly lose his patriotism and retire within five years.

“Dead.”

I knew it. I had hoped that he would have just been badly injured and retired. As I thought, his death had made Isabella the strongest hunter in America…

“What?”

However, when I thought about it, it was weird. Was he saying that another strong person had appeared in the rankings between the time when Chuck and Isabella were at the top? I looked at Kwon Jae Hyuk, but he didn’t say anything, so I had no choice but to ask him.

“By any chance, other—?”

No way, right? I looked at him, and Kwon Jae Hyuk calmly replied, “He died.” I feel a little dizzy. There were incidents where many gifted people died in a short period of time, but there was no mention of these events in the original work. I wasn’t really familiar with the original work, but I was sure I knew the bigger picture… Just what had happened?

How come such a major incident was never mentioned?

Not a single line was mentioned, as if it had been skipped over. Kwon Jae Hyuk thought for a moment as I looked at him in confusion, then he asked, “How far along do you know?”

“Hmm? That… Isabella is the most powerful hunter in America, and… that her personality is very different from her current one?”

“Then you pretty much don’t know anything.”

I felt so embarrassed; even though from the way Kwon Jae Hyuk spoke and acted, it was clear he wasn’t blaming me for not knowing anything. He smiled faintly at my flushed face and slowly opened his mouth.

“Two years… No, about a year and a half left? The first gate opened in Europe.”

What came out of Kwon Jae Hyuk’s mouth was a story that should’ve been a part of the original work. Cookie, whose head was resting on my leg, raised his head and looked at Kwon Jae Hyuk. Cookie looked at Kwon Jae Hyuk as if he was wondering what he was talking about. Kwon Jae Hyuk also felt Cookie’s gaze on him and glanced at him, but immediately averted his eyes.  He immediately summoned a short dagger and scraped the ground with the tip of his blade, as if drawing on the ground.

“A few months before the first gate appeared. It hasn’t been revealed anywhere, but America found a gate in the desert.”

“Oh…?”

“And then they went inside that gate. Of course, they weren’t this well prepared at the time. I heard it was a little sloppy.”

“Who… did you hear that from?”

“A survivor.”

He smiled. I got goosebumps and rubbed my arm unconsciously. A gate that had appeared before the first recorded gate. The location was in the desert. An undisclosed operation… I thought, no way.

“Perhaps… that gate is this place?”

“That’s right.”

“What?”

I jumped. It was a problem that I could easily infer. We were talking about the people who had died so far, then came the question of how Isabella became the strongest person in the United States, and then about this gate.

“Did they all die here?”

Kwon Jae Hyuk nodded. I mean, was this such a dangerous place? Were you saying that Kwon Jae Hyuk dragged us into this dangerous place?

He raised his hands as I stared at him with a look of betrayal.

“Actually, I didn’t know that the gate was this place until I came in here.”

“You didn’t know?”

“I’ve only heard about it. I heard that it was located in a desert, but I hadn’t heard of which desert. As you know, there isn’t only one desert in America right?”

Well. I had nothing to say about that. Since America was so vast, there were many deserts… I sat down again. Cookie rubbed his body to comfort me when he saw my ugly expression. As I stroked Cookie’s back, Kwon Jae Hyuk continued to speak.

“It’d been a long time since the accident happened, and I didn’t hear about it properly because the survivor’s mental state was unstable. When he saw Isabella on TV, he said, ’That little lady is growing up well’.”

Kwon Jae Hyuk said the following: There was a commander named Chuck, a former soldier, and under him were Isabella and several other gifted people. When a hideous gate appeared on their land, the government wanted to know what was inside. So they sent drones and search robots. When they couldn’t get any results, they had no choice but to send in people. There were 50 gifted people and 100 soldiers. As soon as those people entered the gate… 

“Did they all die?”

“No way. As you can see, this place is only a level two.”

What did he mean by that again? My eyes were wide open. This place was a level two? But how did he know that? The dungeon-level measuring device currently didn’t have a set standard, and I didn’t know what its exact level was. Kwon Jae Hyuk smiled and explained as if my thoughts were fully expressed on my face.

“If you enter the gates a lot, you can feel it to some extent. I’ve gone through most of the dungeon levels.”

“Ah…”

“That’s why I thought this wasn’t the place at first. Even if it was their first experience, it would be impossible for that many people to be killed in the level two gate. In the second level, firearms still worked. This isn’t a place that would cause 50 hunters and 100 soldiers to die.”

However, you should observe the vegetation and monsters when attacking. That’s what you have to do. Everything had fit according to what the survivor had told him.

“Then… if this is the right place, why did they all die?”

“According to him, a disaster appeared.”

“A disaster?”

“Yes. But, he didn’t tell me anything else.”

What did this disaster look like? How did it appear? How and why did it kill these people? The survivor said he was terrified just by thinking about it.

“His words were later close to a murmur. ‘There was only Chuck Jones and a few other gifted people remaining. We could only leave it up to them–leave it up to those non-combatant hunters who were than us. We could hear the explosions, shouts, and screams coming from behind us. But it didn’t last long. We ran away. Run, run, run. The monster was chasing us. A calamity. To kill those of us who entered its territory…’ he said. I couldn’t hear the rest properly because of his crying.”

T/N: Sorry a bit late, just done proofing since my PR was a bit busy these days. I might change the releases to sporadic schedule for now. Thank you. 🙏💜