Daddy is too Strong-Chapter 122

Cheol-Soo was on the phone, arguing with someone.

“Did that Hunter say he saw it himself?” he asked.

His voice could be heard across the office, even though it wasn’t overly loud. He sounded just like the middle-aged man he was.

“You must be joking—what do you mean, ‘a ghost in the Fissure’? It’s obvious they mistook a monster for one!” Cheol-Soo’s forehead creased into deep furrows. “Hello? Hello?”

It seemed the other party had hung up on him. Annoyed, he slammed the phone down.

Hyuk-Soo stood up from his desk and cautiously approached Cheol-Soo to ask whether something was wrong.

“Hyuk-Soo, do you believe in ghosts?” Cheol-Soo asked in response. freēnovelkiss.com

What kind of answer was Hyuk-Soo supposed to give? He paused briefly, then grinned and shook his head.

“I was in the Marines. I could beat up a ghost if needed,” he said playfully.

“Keep up the jokes, and I’m going to turn you into a ghost,” Cheol-Soo said, seemingly not in the mood for jokes.

“So, what’s going on?”

At Hyuk-Soo’s question, Cheol-Soo logged into the Seoul City administrative system and pulled up a complaint filed earlier that day.

[Subject: Too scared to hunt.]

Hello, I’m a thirty-one-year-old resident of Huam-dong. I recently became an F-rank Hunter and have been making a living by hunting in the F-rank Fissure called Horned Squirrel’s Cave in our neighborhood. However, lately, a female ghost with pink hair has been appearing every evening, and it’s terrifying. Please investigate and address this issue. I nearly died of a heart attack. I’m not the only one who has seen her.

The Fissure Management Division had received numerous complaints over the years, but a report of a ghost wandering inside a Fissure was unprecedented.

It seemed reasonable to conclude that the complainant had mistaken another Hunter for a ghost.

However, if they dismissed the issue internally and something happened later, they would undoubtedly have to write an incident report.

“What should we even—gah!” Cheol-Soo stopped abruptly, then asked, “Do-Jun, when did you get here?!”

At some point, Do-Jun had appeared beside Cheol-Soo. No one had heard him approach or even noticed he was missing from his desk.

“A ghost, huh?” Do-Jun muttered as he mentally reviewed the information about the F-rank Fissure, the Horned Squirrel’s Cave.

Having memorized the details of most Fissures managed by Seoul City Hall, he visualized the mapping data for this one and nodded.

“Should I go check it out today?” he asked.

The Fissure in question wasn’t large—at most, it was the size of three school fields.

However, Cheol-Soo shook his head and replied, “If this needs attention, we’re doing it together.”

Their workday just got a lot longer.

***

Yoon-Hee’s hands moved busily over the cutting board, skillfully scoring the sausages with her knife. She added the sausages to the frying pan, and they made a pleasant sizzling sound as they crackled, their sweet and savory aroma filling the kitchen.

“I want lots!” Yong-Yong wagged his tail eagerly, watching with a bright smile.

Sausages were always delicious, no matter when or how one ate them.

Yong-Yong looked on in confusion as Yoon-Hee transferred the cooked sausages into a lunchbox.

On weekends, when Yoon-Hee took Byeol and Karsiel to the park for walks, she occasionally packed snacks or meals in a lunchbox. However, today they weren’t going out, so why was she packing sausages into a lunchbox?

Moreover, it wasn’t only sausages—she carefully added rolled omelets, doenjang soup, and vegetable dishes.

When all four lunch boxes were packed, Yoon-Hee wrapped them in a cloth with a handle to make them easier to carry.

“Huh?” Yong-Yong blinked as she tied the bundle around his neck, snug between his wings. He stared at her, confused, as if asking what this was about.

Yoon-Hee smiled and said, “I packed lots of sausages in yours, Yong-Yong.”

“Uh... what am I supposed to do with this?”

“Father’s working late today. Can you deliver these to him?” Yooh-Hee asked him.

***

7 PM.

In the meeting room within the office, surrounded by transparent partitions, three men sat with their laptops, reviewing data on the F-rank Fissure, Horned Squirrel’s Cave, in Huam-dong.

This was a cave-type Fissure. Its by-products weren’t as valuable as those from goblins, so it wasn’t particularly popular. However, since goblins were grotesque in appearance, Hunters who were squeamish often preferred the Horned Squirrel’s Cave. Its users were mainly women or younger Hunters.

As they were engrossed in their research, Do-Jun sensed a massive presence in the lobby. He expanded his senses and heard a familiar voice talking to himself.

—Hah, where am I supposed to go?

Glancing at Cheol-Soo, who was engrossed in his laptop, Do-Jun said, “Chief, I’ll be back in a moment. I need to check on something on the first floor.”

Yoon-Hee had texted earlier, saying she was preparing lunchboxes, so Yong-Yong likely had arrived with the delivery.

Do-Jun took the staff elevator, which reached the first floor in under three seconds. As the doors opened, he spotted Yong-Yong near the small fountain in the lobby, staring blankly at the information desk.

“Master!” Yong-Yong’s face lit up as he ran toward Do-Jun, wagging his tail furiously.

In moments like these, he was no different from an affectionate puppy, eager to please its owner.

***

After dinner, Do-Jun and his group arrived at a condo complex in Huam-dong.

A fissure stood about five meters away. Rookie Hunters—still lacking proper suits or equipment—could be seen presenting their Hunter ID cards to the Hunter’s Bureau staff for verification before entering the Fissure.

“Are you really sure you’ll be okay going in alone?” Cheol-Soo asked anxiously.

“Yes, I’ll be fine,” Do-Jun replied.

They had divided the patrol area of the Horned Squirrel’s Cave into three sections. Cheol-Soo and Hyuk-Soo each had an E-rank Hunter, contracted through City Hall, assigned to accompany them for protection. However, Do-Jun insisted that he didn’t need any assistance and went in alone.

Cheol-Soo glanced at Yong-Yong, who was tagging along after Do-Jun.

He recalled the time several months ago when Do-Jun had taken first-year Hunter Academy students to an F-rank Fissure for practical training and unexpectedly brought back this mysterious monster, claiming he had awakened as a Tamer.

“Well, you are technically an Awakened, but still...” Cheol-Soo trailed off.

Yong-Yong had tiny wings on his back and two small horns on his head. His overall appearance was undeniably cute—tiny and adorable, as one would expect from an F-rank pet.

However, Hyuk-Soo knew the truth.

The “1” marked on Yong-Yong’s forehead reminded him of the “Bangbae-dong Dragon Incident,” a case that had previously caused an uproar.

Glancing at Do-Jun, Hyuk-Soo thought that if he wasn’t mistaken, Yong-Yong was a dragon. What puzzled him, though, was why a dragon was calling Do-Jun “Master” and following him around like a loyal subordinate, with Do-Jun clearly treating it as one.

“If anything happens, make a big noise. I’ll come running right away,” Cheol-Soo said, his voice still filled with concern.

“Will do. Thank you, Chief.”

“Don’t let your guard down just because it’s the Horned Squirrels. We have good insurance coverage, but it’s still best to avoid getting hurt.”

Do-Jun nodded in agreement.

***

[Welcome to the Fissure Management System.]

[Accessing Fissure information for Huam-dong-001, Yongsan-gu, Seoul.]

The map of the Horned Squirrel’s Cave was displayed on his SpacePad. The area had already been mapped out two years ago, and there had been no notable changes to the terrain since.

Recalling the complaints filed with the city, Do-Jun marked the location where the supposed “ghost sightings” had occurred.

“Let’s go over there!” he said to Yong-Yong.

“Got it!”

Nearby, two Hunters in basic supply suits scrambled to catch a Horned Squirrel. These F-rank Hunters, still unable to use mana effectively, swung mana-less blades as they clumsily chased after the creature.

Watching them, Do-Jun chuckled, thinking that they reminded him of his first day back at the Fissure Management Division after returning from the Martial World, when he had hunted goblins with Ye-Ji.

“Kyuu.” A Horned Squirrel turned toward Do-Jun, curiously circling him.

Given their non-aggressive nature, Horned Squirrels usually lost interest and wandered off when left alone. However, the moment it locked eyes with Yong-Yong, the creature froze in place.

Yong-Yong remarked, “These guys are supposed to taste good.”

Having watched “Taste vs. Taste,” a show about cooking and eating monsters, Yong-Yong vividly remembered the host enjoying grilled Horned Squirrel. Salivating at the memory, he stared at the squirrel, making it turn pale before it bolted away in panic.

Then, for just a second or two, the Fissure shook violently.

The Hunters paused but quickly resumed their hunt, unfazed.

“Another tremor,” a Hunter remarked.

“Don’t worry about it. It always happens around dinnertime.”

“Maybe it’s the ghost!”

The Hunters chatted casually, but Do-Jun’s sharp gaze was fixed on the source of a massive presence that had briefly appeared and then disappeared. A being so powerful that even S-rank Hunters would struggle to handle it.

“Huh...?” Yong-Yong glanced toward a fork in the cave’s path, looking startled.

***

Do-Jun walked calmly toward the source of the powerful energy he sensed. He realized that it was concealing its qi; otherwise, it would have long been detected by the monitoring room of the Hunter’s Bureau, and higher-ranked Hunters would have been dispatched to investigate.

Still, something felt off. Why was it deliberately concealing its presence? Moreover, no deaths had been reported in the Horned Squirrel’s Cave in the past six months. Whoever this powerful being was, they hadn’t harmed anyone who had entered the Fissure.

Passing a stalactite that jutted from the ceiling, Do-Jun rounded a corner deeper into the cave and came to a stop.

There, he saw a young girl feeding the Horned Squirrels. Her description matched the complaints: pink bobbed hair of moderate length. What stood out was her outfit—a black maid’s uniform adorned with white frills.

The startled girl looked at him in surprise; rather, she was staring at Yong-Yong beside him. Slowly, she clasped her hands together in front of her and bowed politely, saying, “Greetings, Lord Izaas.”

“So it is you, Anne. I knew the scent was familiar,” Yong-Yong remarked.

It was clear they weren’t meeting for the first time.

Do-Jun noticed the number “8” engraved on Anne’s thigh.

“A dragon?” he muttered.

Anne smiled and nodded, but then widened her eyes, speaking curiously, “Lord Izaas, what is that human doing with you?”

“He’s my Master,” Yong-Yong replied.

“I see...” Anne murmured as though she understood completely.

Her reaction was starkly different from Karsiel’s—calm and unflustered, as if nothing could surprise her.

“If he is your master, he must also be mine. By the way, what brings you here?”

Do-Jun explained the situation, including the complaints about ghost sightings and his investigation.

Hearing this, Anne looked genuinely apologetic. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to trouble you, Master.”

Despite having met him for less than ten minutes, Anne addressed Do-Jun as “Master” without hesitation. He had not displayed any overwhelming power to assert dominance. She was truly a peculiar individual.

“What... should I do now?”

Anne placed a hand lightly on her chest and looked up at Do-Jun as if uncertain and seeking guidance.