Daddy is too Strong-Chapter 70

“Please, come in,” Hyuk-Soo said.

As they stepped through the door, a surprisingly neat living room came into view—especially considering that it was a bachelor pad. There wasn’t a pile of dirty dishes, and the trash bin was empty and clean.

Hyuk-Soo removed his shoes and walked directly to the kitchen to boil water in the kettle.

“Supervisor Kwon, you do live alone, right?” Ye-Ji commented, impressed, as she looked around.

She also lived alone after moving to Seoul, but to be honest, even if she tried, she couldn’t keep her place as spotless as this.

She wondered if perhaps a secret, skilled girlfriend was helping him keep the place clean.

“You really live as properly as your image suggests,” she commented playfully once more.

“Thank you for the compliment,” Hyuk-Soo cheerfully responded while bringing out coffee.

Do-Jun sipped his coffee and walked over to the balcony. He glanced down at the Fissure that had appeared near the neighborhood park and the crowds gathered around it.

“It really is right there.”

“It is...”

“It’s understandable that you’re worried, Senior.”

What worried Hyuk-Soo the most was the potential decline in the property value due to this Great Fissure. With over sixty percent of his property tied up in mortgage loans, it was easy to empathize with his concern.

Although civil servant salaries weren’t particularly low, paying off the 300 million won principal would still take at least ten years of focusing on debt repayment. If the apartment’s value decreased in the meantime, it would be a significant source of stress.

“Shall we drink this quickly and head out?”

Do-Jun’s relaxed demeanor prompted Ye-Ji to nod as she glanced at the suitcase she had left by the entrance.

“A-are you serious?” Hyuk-Soo asked in surprise.

The Fissure that had appeared in the neighborhood park was classified as an A-rank.

Considering that the monsters inside were powerful enough to threaten the lives of most Hunters, entering it would have been a suicide attempt for most.

He had ended up inviting them to his home due to the flow of things, but he expected the visit to end with some conversation with coffee and then send them on their way.

Seeing the two seriously consider entering the Fissure left him utterly bewildered.

***

A large crowd was gathered in front of the Fissure.

“Ugh, why did this have to happen?”

“Yeah, why right in front of our building?”

“They said it’s the second-highest rank among Fissures.”

Local ladies out for a walk chatted as they looked over at the Great Fissure.

“Ladies, please step away from the barrier tape!”

The staff from the Hunter’s Bureau, tasked with managing the Fissure, had set up a control line about five meters from it to prevent civilians from entering.

It was a chaotic scene.

Ye-Ji glanced at Do-Jun and said, “Wouldn’t it be better if you stayed at Supervisor Kwon’s place?”

“No, I can’t just stay put when my assigned Hunter is entering the Fissure.”

“Tsk, and yet you’ve been sending me out on my own a lot lately.”

Do-Jun was momentarily speechless and looked away.

Recently, with the busy administrative work, he had been sending Ye-Ji alone to do the safety patrols for mapped-out Fissures, which seemed to have left her feeling a bit neglected.

“And since it’s a Great Fissure, it might actually be dangerous for you, Mr. Administrator.”

“It’s fine. You’ll protect me, won’t you, Ms. Ye-Ji?”

“W-well... that’s true! But there’s always a chance that...”

“Let’s go.” Do-Jun approached the Hunter’s Bureau staff managing the Fissure.

“He’s getting slyer,” Ye-Ji mumbled with a sigh.

***

[Lee Do-Jun, Fissure Management Division, confirmed.]

An automated voice rang out as Do-Jun pressed his thumb on the biometric scanner presented by the Hunter’s Bureau staff.

The staff member reminded them to stay cautious as it was a dangerous Fissure and allowed them through.

Normally, in the case of Great Fissures, the area would be sealed off with a specially designed protective barrier, and entry would be controlled via automated ID verification. However, since the Fissure had appeared so suddenly, staff had to manually guard the area in shifts until the barrier could be constructed.

“Excuse me!” A young man with a short, cropped undercut waved his hand and ran toward them.

Do-Jun stopped just before entering the Fissure and turned to face him.

“Are you entering the Fissure right now?” the man asked.

“Yes, we are,” Do-Jun answered.

“Then, could I join you? It’s tough to hunt alone, and I hoped to get some help... Ah, of course, I won’t drag you down. Working together would be much more efficient for you as well.”

As Do-Jun considered the request, Ye-Ji mumbled upon recognizing the young man, “Hunter Lee Sang-Woo?”

Lee Sang-Woo, as he was called, nodded eagerly.

Do-Jun turned to Ye-Ji and asked, “Do you know him?”

“We’ve never actually met, but I recognized him because he’s recently been quite popular online. The Hunter’s Bureau recently released a new emergency camera that allows one to broadcast directly from inside a Fissure. Hunter Lee Sang-Woo has been streaming using that and has over ten thousand viewers. I’ve also watched his streams a few times, but I never thought I’d meet him here...”

Lee Sang-Woo scratched his head awkwardly, hearing that Ye-Ji seemed to know quite a bit about him.

“Thank you for recognizing me. I’m not that famous yet, though...”

“Isn’t having over ten thousand viewers pretty impressive?” Do-Jun asked him.

“Well, not really when there are channels with a million viewers. Haha,” Sang-Woo replied.

Do-Jun raised an eyebrow slightly at the mention of a million. Considering Korea’s population was just under sixty million, it meant that about one in every sixty people, regardless of age or gender, was watching the stream simultaneously.

Even if it was just a peak number, it was still quite impressive—almost unbelievable.

“By the way, what are your names?” Lee Sang-Woo asked.

“I’m Cha Ye-Ji, a B-rank Hunter. And this is Supervisor Lee Do-Jun from the City’s Fissure Management Division.”

Upon hearing that, Lee Sang-Woo mumbled that the name sounded familiar. After thinking for a moment, he recalled that this was the same civil servant who had once made headlines.

When the S-rank Great Fissure incident in Umyeonsan Mountain took place, articles about a civil servant leading the operation dominated the trending search rankings for days.

Do-Jun extended his qi sense to assess Lee Sang-Woo’s physical condition. Though he couldn’t determine his exact level, he estimated that the young man’s stats were just about at the threshold of an A-rank Hunter.

We could use him.

With that, Do-Jun decided that bringing Lee Sang-Woo along would make things easier, especially since working together would lessen Ye-Ji's burden.

***

Do-Jun and his group entered the Fissure in a forest bathed in the setting sun.

Lee Sang-Woo eyed Do-Jun with concern, noticing he wasn’t wearing any protective gear despite being inside a Fissure.

Do-Jun was dressed in typical office attire, a suit meant for work.

“If we run into A-rank monsters, you could be killed in one blow...” Lee Sang-Woo said with concern.

“Thank you for your concern, but that won’t happen.”

“Well, if you say so, Supervisor Lee.”

Today, Do-Jun even left his SpacePad back at the office since there was no need to map it, as this Fissure didn’t fall under the jurisdiction of the Fissure Management Division.

He planned to simply walk around and help out a bit if Ye-Ji found herself in danger.

Lee Sang-Woo’s circular camcorder around his neck activated with a beep, emitting a light. When he reached out into the air, a rectangular hologram screen appeared, followed by a notification sound and a chat window.

﹂Didn’t you say you weren’t streaming today?

﹂Hi, Sang-Woo!

﹂This is so sick! Sang-Woo!

﹂Where is this? Is it a Fissure?

The viewer count climbed rapidly, surpassing three thousand in the first minute.

Watching from the side, Ye-Ji widened her eyes in awe. “So, this is how streamers see things.”

“It was really fascinating for me, too, at first.”

[SangWooSangWooSan has donated 500,000 won.]

﹂Sang-Woo, you’re always complaining about not having a girlfriend, so who’s that next to you?

Images of bills filled the hologram window, followed by a robotic voice reading the message aloud.

Lee Sang-Woo pointed to Do-Jun and Ye-Ji and said, “These are my partners for today’s run through the Fissure. And for those interested, we’re currently in the A-rank Great Fissure located in Muhakbong Neighborhood Park, Hawangsimni-dong.”

Standing nearby, Ye-Ji curiously browsed through the messages in the hologram chat, but Do-Jun was uninterested and focused on sensing the energies moving through the forest.

The monsters seemed to have established a settlement in the deeper woods and were living together.

Elves typically formed communities to care for their needs as higher-order life forms.

That one must be it.

By amplifying his vision with his internal energy, Do-Jun spotted a dark elf. Likely the boss monster, it was sitting beneath the base of a large tree fashioned into a dwelling in the deep recesses of the forest.

***

A bright red broth boiled inside a pot—it was a budae-jjigae, filled with sausages, rice cakes, kimchi, onions, and other ingredients.

Yoon-Hee stirred the stew to evenly mix in the seasoning. She paused and took out her smartphone from the pocket of her apron to make a call, only to receive an automated message that the number she had dialed could not be reached.

“Sigh... where is he and what is he doing?”

It was almost 7 PM, yet she hadn’t heard a word from Do-Jun, nor could she reach him.

The automated message hinted that he was inside a Fissure somewhere.

Yoon-Hee turned around and looked at the two dragons huddled together in the corner of the living room. They had been fiddling with a SpacePad that Do-Jun had purchased with his money, just in case he needed it for remote work from home.

“Eh? It’s Master!” Yong-Yong’s expression brightened as he looked at the SpacePad, wagging his tail vigorously from side to side.

Hearing that, Yoon-Hee turned off the stove and walked over to where the two dragons were. She peeked at the SpacePad screen that the dragons were watching.

“An online stream...?”

It was indeed an online broadcast, showing a male Hunter hunting inside a Fissure, facing off against a pitch-black elf amidst the setting sun in the forest, exchanging blows with his sword.

But why did the word “Master” come out of Yong-Yong’s mouth?

“Yong-Yong, where is Father?”

“He was on the screen a moment ago... hmm.”

“I saw him too. It was definitely Master,” Karsiel added.

And soon after, as the streamer turned around, the screen shifted and revealed a man dressed in a suit.

“See? I told you. It’s Master.”

“Why is he there...?”

[SaebyukS has donated 100,000 won.]

﹂Are we getting a “stream til I beat this game” tonight? Damnn

The automated voice read the donation amount and message, prompting the streamer to reply.

Yong-Yong had been watching the screen in a daze. He looked up at Yoon-Hee and spoke. “I think I can ask when Master’s coming home.”

Yong-Yong reached out with his paw and pressed the Donate button.

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