SSS-Class Hunter Goes On Vacation (4 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 3

When Su Ji didn’t respond, Dad quickly continued.

“Why, you know it yourself, don’t you? The Hunter tutorial isn’t easy. Your older sister hit a roadblock during hers, so she’s trying to enroll in an academy—but it’s ridiculously expensive… Could you help out just a little? She’s not some stranger; she’s your sister.”

So it was Stepmom’s idea.

The answer was obvious even without looking.

‘…But she *is* a stranger. What relation is she to me anyway? She’s just someone Stepmom brought home. We don’t even share a drop of blood.’

Su Ji was irritated by her shameless stepmother scheming openly for the family’s money, but she wasn’t fond of her older sister either. Her sister had always treated Su Ji like she was invisible—never once properly acknowledging her greetings.

Her emotions twisted inwardly.

Under normal circumstances, she would’ve just given the trivial sum and been done with it.

But for some reason, the forum posts she’d read kept swirling in her mind.

Posts where people freeloaded off her hard work and mocked her as a fool. Posts so piercing they drowned out all the praise and compliments.

“So what about it?”

“Could you lend me around 300 gold? You seem like you’ve got some to spare.”

Three hundred gold.

It was indeed a small amount for Su Ji, but typically, a new Hunter earned only 30 to 50 gold per month at the start.

Even as the Hunter Seo Su Ji her family knew, this was clearly a large sum.

Besides, they never planned to repay it. If they’d intended to, they would’ve paid back what they’d borrowed before.

Yet they’d never repaid a single coin, and the amounts they kept demanding only grew larger.

She’d stayed quiet about how, as an S-rank Hunter, she’d been obsessively clearing the Tower for vengeance over her mother—who’d died atop it after striving to end the A.W. era—partly because explaining that to others felt awkward… Now, seeing this, she was glad she’d said nothing.

“No.”

At Su Ji’s first refusal, Dad looked far more startled than expected, his eyes wide like a rabbit’s.

“…Huh? What did you say?”

“I don’t want to.”

When Su Ji stated firmly, her stepmother—who’d apparently just arrived behind Dad—furrowed her brows sharply.

“How can you be so selfish? Think of all the money you’ve spent just living, eating, and sleeping in this house. Are you really that stingy over something so small?”

Su Ji stared straight at her stepmother.

This house—yes, she’d been staying here.

But the money used to buy it? It came entirely from what Su Ji’s mother had earned as a Hunter.

Dad, though decent-looking, was utterly incompetent—so much so that his only possession was this house, received as alimony after the divorce.

Yet hearing her stepmother speak as if Su Ji were freeloading in *her* home made Su Ji’s blood boil.

Besides, the days she’d actually slept and eaten here could be counted on one hand.

She’d started Hunter activities much earlier than others right after graduating from the academy. Even adding up all her days at home in a year probably wouldn’t reach thirty.

After her mother’s death, Su Ji spent a year as a shut-in before gritting her teeth and enrolling in the academy.

There, she’d scored the best results on the entrance exam and earned a scholarship, never needing any support from her family.

Now that her eyes were open, she couldn’t believe how naive she’d been. So many infuriating issues suddenly became glaringly clear.

“I didn’t want to say this, but your older sister has no talent. It’d be better not to waste money like that. And what’s so great about this anyway, that you’d spend such a huge sum on it?”

“…What did you just say?”

“I’ll go now.”

“…What?”

“I’m leaving. I didn’t realize I was wasting so much money here.”

Her stepmother pressed a hand to her forehead in exasperation.

“Oh my, do you think leaving is that easy? What exactly do you plan to do? A child should know better than to act so rudely without discipline.”

Apparently, her stepmother thought Su Ji was throwing a tantrum to win back Dad’s affection.

But Dad would understand.

Who Seo Su Ji truly was.

That once she spoke, she never took it back.

“…Su Ji. That’s not why I brought this up. Please, just listen to me.”

Listen to Dad?

Truthfully, Dad was the most infuriating person in this house.

Why couldn’t those her mother had protected with so much love ever show gratitude?

“I’m sorry I couldn’t clean up the pizza before leaving. Anyway, I hardly have anything left in this house—you can dispose of the rest however you like.”

“Su Ji.”

“You can bill me for what I’ve used. And from now on, I’ll manage my share of the inheritance myself. That’s all you need to know.”

“…Su Ji.”

“If we can’t settle this amicably, feel free to hire a lawyer. But I’d appreciate it if you didn’t go that far. I’ll take my leave now.”

[This is the timeline separator]

Despite how stubbornly she’d clung on before, leaving home turned out to be surprisingly easy.

After all, Daphne’s daily life and world had always been the dungeon and the Tower, and all her assets were stored in her inventory.

In terms of current possessions, she owned little beyond a few sets of clothes, some favorite comic books, a laptop, and her mother’s ring and necklace.

She had so few belongings that even packing everything left extra space in a single suitcase.

She saw Dad and her older sister follow her to the door, but Su Ji didn’t bother offering any further goodbyes. It wasn’t as if they’d never see each other again.

Still, her sister’s reaction was unexpected.

After staring at her toes for a long while, her sister murmured bitterly,

“Our mom’s being a bit shameless… I’m sorry. I didn’t expect things to turn out like this…”

Su Ji never imagined that her perpetually distant older sister would ever apologize like this.

She realized just how foolish she’d been—meekly accepting everything just because they were “family.”

If she hadn’t acted this way, she never would’ve heard that apology.

Truly, she’d been a fool.

[This is the timeline separator]

Once she’d walked a fair distance from home, Su Ji shifted her appearance to Daphne’s.

Her hair and eye color instantly turned violet.

In an instant, transformed from Su Ji back into Daphne, she whispered softly to the air,

“Check current assets.”

[329,999,036,000G]

An enormous figure unfolded before her eyes.

But Su Ji’s assets weren’t limited to that.

Messages kept appearing.

[Owns lodging in Tower Floor 50 Safe Zone

Owns private SSS-rank Hunter residence in Civil Servant Housing Zone E

Owns 8 residential spaces within active Gates in Seoul

Owns 2 in Gyeonggi-do Gates, 1 in Gangwon-do, 1 in North Chungcheong, 1 in South Chungcheong, 1 in North Jeolla, 1 in South Jeolla, 1 in North Gyeongsang, 1 in South Gyeongsang, and 2 in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province

Additional item-based assets available for inquiry.

Proceed with detailed inquiry?]

The window before her listed assets so staggering anyone would gape in awe.

Had her family known even a single line of this, her stepmother surely wouldn’t have asked for such pocket change. In a way, that was fortunate.

Anyway, Su Ji had never been greedy about her wealth—she’d only earned money but never had time to spend it. When you’re constantly on the front lines of the Tower, facing death daily, money starts to feel worthless.

Still, now that she was taking a break, having money seemed better than not.

Same for having so many places to stay.

Su Ji shrugged.

She’d stayed near her only remaining blood relative simply because she’d decided to—but now that she’d left home again, she had plenty of places to go.

“Skip the item inquiry. But did I really have that many residences in Seoul?”

[In Seoul, you own 5 residences awarded for being the first to clear the Tower, 1 from being the first to clear the main dungeon, and 2 purchased personally.]

Seeing this jogged her memory.

Not all dungeons were hellish.

Some, though offering fewer rewards, were quite beautiful. She recalled being so stunned by a scenic area filled with small mobs resembling rabbits and deer that she’d bought a residence there.

Well… those mobs all happened to be on par with S-rank.

Though expensive to purchase, “residences” offered decent perks. Once inside, the owner and their invited guests couldn’t be attacked and received a very minor healing buff.

After a brief moment of thought, Su Ji narrowed down several options.

“First, exclude the civil servant housing.”

She didn’t want her location exposed.

“And exclude crowded areas too. Dad might come looking, so also avoid places too close to home. Oh, and anywhere with lots of civil servants passing through.”

Soon, she selected the perfect place to stay from among her residences.

[This is the timeline separator]

Now appearing as Daphne, Su Ji stared at the sudden pile of packages before her.

A ray-shaped monster had just dumped all the parcels it carried on its black back right at her feet.

Though ordinary people couldn’t easily access dungeon entrances like Gates, Hunters with the Tamer trait sometimes used their tamed monsters to deliver parcels for a fee.

It cost a fortune compared to regular delivery, but Su Ji never cared about such things.

The gigantic ray-like monster, hovering in midair as if blocking the sky, stared intently at her before landing gently, pressing its tail to the ground as if showing off.

“…Ah. Was this one I caught myself?”

As if understanding her words, the ray swished its tail and leaned its head toward Su Ji’s hand, clearly savoring her touch.