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Translator: penny
Chapter: 128
Chapter Title: Old Virgin
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Han Semi had received elite education from a young age.
A family lineage connected through prosecutors and judges marrying into a family of doctors.
If things had gone as planned, she would have graduated from law school and become a prosecutor or judge herself.
But Han Semi didn't want to live like that.
She abruptly dropped out of law school and started a business.
The long, drawn-out story of cutting ties with her meddlesome family wasn't all that important now that she was in her forties, nor did she particularly want to dwell on it.
She had to succeed, no matter what.
Having left home without a penny to her name, she needed success just to survive, and to escape the predictable sneers from her parents about what someone like her could possibly do on her own.
Her twenties passed that way.
She had left with a sense of possibility and confidence in her own intelligence, but reality wasn't so kind.
She experienced plenty of failures, and it wasn't until her early thirties that she finally gained a foothold.
Those few years weren't wasted; the business she had built a foundation for soared, growing into a company worthy of news features.
She felt proud.
The sense of accomplishment from pursuing what she loved couldn't be put into words.
Around that time...
The world changed.
Hunters appeared, and dungeons became the center of the new world.
The resources from dungeons naturally permeated human civilization, and anyone—not just businesspeople—could predict they would lead the new markets.
Even Han Semi awakened as a hunter herself.
A-rank ability: Mobility Mage.
The name suggested grand magic, and the skill she received, "Space Teleport," painted a rosy vision of a bright future in her mind.
But reality was different.
It was certainly a good ability and skill.
She could teleport like everyone dreams of at least once, and early on, it drew a lot of attention.
"Can you make it to work early?"
"Can you go straight home from a dungeon?"
And so on.
Its utility in dungeons was hard to find, though, and the B-rank skill paled in comparison to her A-rank ability.
Thanks to the uniqueness of her ability, she was still recognized as an A-rank hunter.
She had proven in real combat that it could save key dealers or healers in critical moments, depending on how she used it.
Once she became an A-rank hunter, Han Semi thought less about how to better utilize her ability in dungeons and more about starting a new business with her A-rank certification.
So she liquidated the company she had been running.
With the proceeds, she founded a guild, recruited hunters, and spent more time outside dungeons schmoozing hunters than actually raiding them to grow the guild.
Her thirties slipped by like that.
When she came to her senses, she was in her forties.
After a hectic life too busy for romance, all she had left were the skin and beauty investments she'd made as substitutes for relationships—and the youth they bought her.
No, even that was just an effort to look young, not true youth.
"Oh my, really? I thought you were in your early thirties. You're so pretty!"
"Want to go on a blind date? She's in her early fifties but has great conditions."
Finding a match now was incredibly tough.
So she decided to live alone.
If she didn't need a husband, her youthful appearance had plenty of value, and her well-maintained skin softened the loneliness of solitude.
But that was it.
Once Semi Guild ranked among the top guilds and was mentioned as a candidate for the top ten, she finally had some leisure to look around—and mere "aging a bit later" no longer compensated for her lost years.
She wanted something more.
She needed a goal to achieve.
She hadn't given up on the grand dream of making Semi Guild number one.
But she knew it was realistically impossible.
Too much time facing reality had worn down the youthful bravado of her twenties.
Her heart still felt like it was in her twenties or thirties; she couldn't even grasp how the time had flown.
Around the time emptiness started creeping in...
A desire to evolve her ability quietly surfaced.
The biggest trigger was Kang Hana.
Watching her gain an SS-rank skill through additional awakening, going from simple reconnaissance to commanding an entire S-rank dungeon on Mars and getting promoted to S-rank hunter, made Han Semi think she wanted the same.
Non-combat hunters could outshine combat ones in dungeons too.
Maybe I could too...
If she just improved a little more.
Hana had only done recon and leveled up, but became a battlefield dominator—maybe she could too.
Of course, the prerequisite was additional awakening, and gaining a skill or ability flashy enough to show results.
Normally, she'd have laughed it off.
Hana just got lucky.
Envy it and move on.
But from Im Hyeji to Lee Sua to Kang Hana.
Having seen the women connected to Kang Jik awaken one by one, Han Semi couldn't just laugh it off.
It would be weirder not to suspect.
Im Hyeji suddenly brought some "friend's brother" as a porter after her awakening.
Lee Sua went on a few dungeon surveys, used her friendship with Hyeji as an excuse to frequent Mars, and awakened double SSS-rank.
Kang Hana was Kang Jik's little sister.
At first, she thought Sua kept buying magic stones out of folk superstition hopes.
But recalling that Hyeji had demanded magic stones as a contract deposit too...
"Could I join the guild too?"
She didn't know the exact mechanism.
But Hyeji had hinted indirectly.
If she was desperate enough, she should ask.
Whether it worked or not, Han Semi was confident in her desperation at least.
Having thrown everything away in her early to mid-twenties to chase her dreams, selling a successful business to build a guild and propel it to the top ranks.
She felt that drive again now.
"...Pardon? What do you mean?"
"I want to awaken too. Like Hana. Like Hyeji. Like Sua."
So even though the timing was abrupt, she spoke to Kang Jik with sincerity.
"Of course, I won't tell a soul. I can gather magic stones too."
She saw the surprise in Kang Jik's eyes.
But Han Semi laid down her thick social armor built over years.
It probably wasn't just her who'd noticed.
Rumors were already swirling; they were just hushing it as mere speculation.
If she spoke up and he called it nonsense, she could face serious trouble starting with mercenary issues.
Still, it was desperation for her new goal.
A brief silence fell.
Maybe it was good she hadn't mentioned the vague story she'd heard from Hyeji.
Kang Jik, after pondering, asked her.
"By any chance, do you believe in folk superstitions?"
She didn't.
From a wealthy family upbringing, she'd trusted money, knowledge, and science over faith.
After leaving home, effort and results.
"Yes. I was the one who recommended Sua go into dungeons, right?"
But she didn't give a clueless answer.
Recommending it to Sua was to strengthen their bond, but it wasn't wrong.
At his tone suggesting it might work, she infused her words with confidence that she could do anything.
She really did have that confidence.
If she could just additional awaken.
If she could become not just Semi Guild's master, but an S-rank, even SS-rank hunter.
"For example... you'd have to drink my semen or something."
"Of course.... Huh?"
That was before hearing Kang Jik's words.
"It might work, it might not, but are you prepared to follow that kind of folk superstition?"
"...Is that... the condition?"
Her confidence in herself wavered instantly.
She'd thought something was up with him and those three women.
But grasping the implication of his blunt words made him look like some cheap con artist.
Yet the three women who'd joined his guild had awakened, so it couldn't be.
So, Kang Jik was demanding it.
Sexual favors.
Was she prepared to offer her body as payment?
Absurd, and she wondered if the other women had done the same.
Young girls like Im Hyeji and Kang Hana, fine.
But even Lee Sua?
And yet, she also thought:
Why me?
"Um... I was born in '83...?"
Unlike other women her age, Han Semi knew her place.
The marriage market value of a spinster over forty.
She'd been too busy for men or even interest, but she'd heard plenty of stories and blind date offers nearby.
Besides, Kang Jik was surrounded by three young, pretty women already.
She eyed him even more suspiciously.
Kang Jik scratched his head and asked.
"Yeah. Do you like women by any chance?"
"...Pardon?"
"I mean, still a virgin... so you're an old virgin, but... why still...?"
It felt like... something.
That look of pity from Kang Jik.
She'd lived without issue until now, no reason for others to know, no need for pity.
How he knew was secondary; that gaze made her want to explain herself.
"...I like men too. I just didn't have time."
"Ah..."
"For real!"
His half-hearted sigh stabbed her like a dagger in the chest, making her regret speaking up.
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