My Gun Can Pierce Through Hunter Story Clichés!

“T-this…! How many times have I received calls from school, and you’re lying?”

“That’s early dismissal. It counts as attendance if I attend one hour of class and then leave.”

This is how he lived, never giving in and doing whatever he wanted.

It must have been stressful for our parents every day, but I could understand my brother.

Because I hated going to school too.

“How could you have raised a child to be like that?”

“Why blame me? I’m telling you there’s something wrong with that child.
What have you done well all this time anyway?”

“Tsk tsk… What’s the point of a husband working his fingers to the bone, bowing his head outside, when the family is in this state?”

“What? Do you think you’re the only one having a hard time? I feel like exploding several times a day!”

Whenever this happened, I would step in.

I pretended to be an ordinary 8-year-old girl I’d observed at the boring school, and feigned tears.

“Sob… Mom, Dad… don’t fight… I’ll try harder…”

I didn’t even know what I was claiming to try harder at.

But after this brief act, the situation would greatly improve.

“N-no, Seol-ha.
Mom and Dad aren’t fighting.
Right, honey?”

My mother would nudge my father’s side.

“H-haha. Of course.
Look. Mom and Dad have already made up.”

Then my father would hold back what he was about to shout and kiss my mother on the cheek.

I would then flash a bright fake smile, and our family would regain harmony.

Though inside I was filled with irritation and fatigue.

So I went to confront my brother.

“Brother. Please get along with Mom and Dad.”

I pleaded with my usual fake tears.

Who could truly understand my brother’s mind, but normally after this, he would stay quiet for a while.

But this time was different.

“I can see through it.”

“…?”

“I can see that you’re acting.”

“Um, what?”

It felt like my heart sank with a clang.

I had never been caught in my entire life until now.

“What are you talking about, brother?”

I feigned ignorance.

Then my brother continued.

“There’s a domain interval from 0 to 1.
There’s a function that equals 0 when the domain is an irrational number and 1 when it’s a rational number. What would the integral be?”

I wondered what in the world he was asking an 11-year-old.

“Hmm…? What’s inteeg… gration?”

“If you solve it, I won’t skip school.”

Those words made me waver a bit.

My brother silently stared at me as I pretended to be troubled.

His eyes seemed to penetrate my essence.

“…Why explain it in such a roundabout way?
You could just call it the Dirichlet function.”

After closing the door so our parents couldn’t hear, I glared at my brother with suddenly cold eyes.

“So the answer is.”

“It’s 0, of course. The density of irrational numbers is much greater.”

My brother didn’t stop there and handed me a pen and a piece of paper.

“Prove it.”

“Really…”

It took about a minute, and compared to my brother’s worm-like scrawl, my handwriting was incredibly pretty.

“Damn, I solved that when I was 12…”

My brother looked very frustrated.

Looking down at him, I spoke with a smug expression.

“Anyway, go to school now.
I’m dying of exhaustion because of you.
It’s such a pain.”

“Okay. Just tomorrow.”

“What? You said you wouldn’t skip anymore!”

“I didn’t specify for how long. You’ve been tricked.”

“That’s not fair!”

As I tried to protest, my brother held up the paper I had solved and showed a sly smile.

“I’ll show this to our parents.”

“No!”

“Why? They might praise you for being smart.”

“I don’t want to be like you! I prefer being ordinary.”

I didn’t want to be a square peg like my brother and be ostracized.

It was a moment when all my efforts to deliberately score average in tests, IQ tests, etc., could instantly vanish.

“Do you think a monster wearing a human disguise won’t be discovered?”

“…That’s because you’re clumsy.”

I knew all too well how my brother was treated by those around him.

At first, they promoted him as a prodigy, but later everyone started avoiding him and feeling uncomfortable.

That’s when I realized.

A being that severely deviates from common sense is bound to be ostracized.

If I were revealed as a monster, I could never blend into society.

Feeling unnecessarily angry, I spoke inadvertently, or rather, deliberately.

“You’re so stupid compared to me.”

My brother trembled to an extent that made me feel inwardly satisfied.

But he wasn’t one to be intimidated so easily.

“I should go show this to our parents.”

“Ah, no!”

“Then from now on, be my assistant.
If you do, I won’t tell.”

“Assistant?”

“Like, using your good acting to defend me when I skip school, or solving problems I give you and submitting them to me daily, something like that?”

I said I didn’t want to, questioning how that made sense, but he kept threatening me with my ‘evidence of abnormality,’ so I ultimately had to surrender.

“Fine! I’ll do it, okay!”

That’s when it started.

My life of being under my brother’s thumb and feeling exhausted every day.

But well… it was sort of fun in its way.

After all, only a fellow monster could understand another monster.

x x x

While Han-wol was hunting all night in the Tiger’s Den, Seol-ha also woke up from sleep.

“Mmm…”

Han-wol’s younger sister, Seol-ha, felt drowsy as she rose from her bed.

Looking at the hospital room window, it was already night.

“Already this late…”

She had only meant to take a short nap but ended up sleeping for over ten hours again.

She kept trying to resist, but whenever she let her guard down, she would lose consciousness like this.

At first, it was 8 hours.

Then it increased gradually to 9 hours, 10 hours, and before she knew it, it had changed to 18 hours.

It was a symptom of ‘Magic Poisoning.’

As the body became infested with magic power, it couldn’t function properly.

There was no cure yet.

There was no way to slow the symptoms either.

Therefore, anyone afflicted with magic poisoning would inevitably die.

If there was any consolation, perhaps it was that, like the Sleeping Beauty, one could fall into an eternal sleep without pain.

‘It’s been a while. That dream from those days.’

Childhood was somewhat enjoyable.

But those pleasant memories were making the present more difficult.

‘I wonder if brother is okay?’

According to cousin Hye-jin, her brother had recently been active as a player.

He used to visit the hospital room daily, but lately, he seemed busy and only came on weekends.

Still, she wasn’t particularly bored.

Because a month ago, her brother had given her a notebook that he claimed contained a discipline he had created.

The notebook, titled “Theoretical Magic Studies,” was filled with content she had never seen before, making it quite challenging to understand.

She was so amazed at when he had time to research all this that she felt dizzy.

To be honest, at first she thought he had brought knowledge from the future.

‘Of course, that can’t be true… My head already hurts enough.
And his handwriting is so messy.’

Her brother had said he would give her something else once she finished reading it.

He also emphasized that she should study it in her spare time, as there would be a lot to do when she resumed being his assistant.

But with a self-deprecating smirk, she unconsciously rebutted.

“How long is that promise supposed to last?
Our parents are gone now anyway.
And I’ll soon…”

She had to close her mouth after saying that much.

Because her brother suddenly grabbed her shoulder.

“Until when? Until I die.”

It was a statement with multiple meanings.

Whether it meant that if Seol-ha died, Han-wol would die too.

Or that he would definitely cure Seol-ha.

“……..”

Afterward, her brother said he had to leave and went out of the hospital room.

His back had become unrecognizably muscular compared to before.

He must be getting less than 3 hours of sleep a day, researching while also being active as a player.

Ending her reminiscence.

“Yes. I need to stay strong too.
I can’t keep being a burden…”

She tried to get up from the hospital bed to look at the notebook her brother had given her.

First, she needed to turn on the light…

Just then.

“H-huh…?”

Suddenly overcome by drowsiness, she collapsed on the floor with a thud.

In her arms.

In her legs.

And even in her chest, she couldn’t muster strength, making it difficult to breathe.

“N-no… this can’t…”

Her head became increasingly dizzy.

Her vision distorted.

And her thoughts grew increasingly foggy, as if shrouded in mist.

At the moment she sensed the end.

She thought of someone.

And found strength again.

“Nngh…!”

Forcibly moving her trembling legs.

Not caring that her fingernails were breaking.

She reached upward.

Gritting her teeth, determined never to die.

x x x

Beeeeeeeep!

“Emergency patient! Emergency patient! Patient Lee Seol-ha in Room 603!”

The sound of urgently moving a patient, drr-rrk.

Artificial respiration device.

Gray electrodes and yellow and blue tubes attached like spider webs all over.

And various measuring devices with all kinds of graphs and figures.

Morning had come.