Solo Leveling Go Gunhee

Go Gunhee (고건희) was a Korean S-Rank Hunter and the Chairman of the Korean Hunters Association.

Appearance

Gunhee was a muscular old man with gray hair, greenish-gray eyes, and numerous scars on his body. When using his powers, his eyes glowed bright yellow. As a high-ranking government official, he was usually seen wearing a three-piece suit.

Personality

Gunhee was a humble, open, and honest individual who was very appreciative towards those with good morals, but also very distasteful towards those who only aimed for personal gain. As a result, Gunhee had a good relationship with Sung Jinwoo and was widely respected in Korean society. He was also a workaholic to the point that his job affected his health and had a strong desire to fight for the greater good, as he yearned to be a hunter again and hated the fact that his age was keeping him down. He is also had good sense when it comes to romance, seeing Jinwoo together with Cha Hae-In in the training hall, along with his interaction to her about Jinwoo after the Jeju Island raid, he decided to have the cameras turned off for their privacy.

History

Gunhee was once easily the strongest hunter in Korea. Unfortunately, due to his old age, his body began to lose its ability to handle its own strength and as a result, Gunhee was forced to retire after only a few years of working as a hunter. When healing magic was discovered, Gunhee hoped that it could reverse his age and allow him to get back in the game, but to no avail.^[1] With no other options left, Gunhee gave up on ever getting back to working as a hunter and eventually became the Chairman of the Korean Hunters Association.

Retesting Rank Arc

After learning that Jinwoo was Korea's 10th S-Rank Hunter, Gunhee attempted to recruit him for the Association to no avail, as Jinwoo knew that he wouldn't be able to keep raiding high-level dungeons if he joined. Realizing that Jinwoo was being honest to him, Gunhee accepted his reasoning and decided to go out for a drink with his right-hand man Jinchul, not wanting to waste his time on his scheduled meeting later that day with several government ministers.^[2]

Hunters Guild Gate Arc

Wanting to know more about Jinwoo, Gunhee dug up his file and learned about his troubled past, expressing respect for Jinwoo's resolve to financially support his family as a hunter even though he ran the high risk of getting killed every time he went on a raid. Much to his confusion and surprise, however, Gunhee then learned from Jinchul that Jinwoo had joined a mining team under the Hunters Guild.^[3]

Return to Demon Castle Arc

Two days later, Gunhee was present during Jinwoo's official re-evaluation and helped him get inside the building after Lee Minsung's bodyguard attempted to cut him off for disrupting the latter's show for the press.^[4]

After learning that the ants of Jeju Island had developed the ability to fly long distances, Gunhee grimly noted that the situation was not looking well for them, especially since the foreign community did not want to help, and started to develop a hopeless feeling after Thomas Andre refused to participate in the raid unless he was paid his fee.^[5] However, he was ultimately proven wrong when Goto Ryuji, Japan's strongest hunter, came to Korea to meet him personally and offered to help the Koreans reclaim the island with a simple plan that involved the Japanese hunters using themselves as bait for the ants while the Korean hunters snuck past them and killed the unguarded queen. As he didn't have another choice and the plan looked promising, Gunhee accepted Goto's offer.^[6]

Jeju Island Arc

When Jinwoo returned from the Demon Castle, Gunhee called him in and told him about the Korean government's plan to launch a fourth search-and-destroy raid on Jeju Island.^[7] Unfortunately, Jinwoo told him that he planned on sitting out of the raid to look after his mother, who had just recently been cured of Eternal Slumber.

During the broadcast of the 4th Jeju Island Raid, Gunhee accidentally crushed the left armrest of his chair in excitement when Jinwoo appeared to fight the Ant King and saved the other Korean S-Rank Hunters from certain death.^[8]

Recruitment Arc

When the Jeju Island finally came to a close, Gunhee attended Min Byung-Gyu's funeral and learned from Jinwoo that he was planning on starting his own guild.^[9] When a B-Rank Gate spawned in the middle of a highway several hours later, Gunhee called Jinwoo to see if he could take care of it and used his authority as Chairman to allow Jinwoo to break the standard raiding laws and enter the gate alone.^[10]

Ahjin Guild Arc

In the aftermath of the bloodbath at Jinah's school, Gunhee met with Jinwoo to inform him that a whole bunch of other nations were trying to recruit him and sincerely asked him to stay in Korea, offering to do everything in his power to provide Jinwoo with whatever resources that he needed in return. Seeing an opportunity here, Jinwoo asked if he could be legally allowed to raid high-ranking gates alone, to which Gunhee promised that he would make it happen.^[11]

After the National Assembly approved Jinwoo's request out of the fear that he would defect to another country if they didn't compromise with him, Gunhee sent Jinchul to accompany Jinwoo on his guild's first dungeon raid and make sure that everything worked out safely. When a haggard Jinchul returned several hours later describing the raid as a massacre, Gunhee realized that he'd been right about Jinwoo all along, in that he was an one-man army, and excitedly mused to himself about how his existence would soon change the world.^[12]

Double Dungeon Arc

Shortly after a S-Rank Gate suddenly spawned in Tokyo, Gunhee was met in-person by Matsumoto Shigeo, the Chairman of the Japanese Hunters Association. During their meeting, Matsumoto made an offer to hire Jinwoo in exchange for completing giving up the Japanese government's share of the essence stones that had been retrieved from Jeju Island.

However, unfortunately for Matsumoto, Gunhee had known about his plot to use the Jeju Island Raid as means to wipe out the Korean S-Ranks the whole time, due to having learned about it beforehand from a receiver that was recovered intact from Goto's corpse. Enraged that Matsumoto still had the nerve to talk about essence stones after all the crimes he had committed, Gunhee furiously rebuked him for his actions and got so angry at one point that he crushed the receiver in his hand, destroying the table they were using in the process. However, as he knew that Jinwoo desired power over materialistic things like money, Gunhee told Matsumoto to be grateful that Jinwoo would be happy to accept his offer regardless of how much he was paid for it.^[13]

International Guild Conference Arc

Several days before the International Guild Conference was scheduled to take place, Gunhee learned from his staff that Liu Zhigang had sent them a request for all the public information they had on Jinwoo at the time. Although stunned to know that the Liu Zhigang had taken an interest to Jinwoo, Gunhee did not want to work with him and ordered his staff to either send him surface-level information or deny his request altogether.^[14]

Monarchs War Arc

On the last day of the International Guild Conference back in America, Gunhee was still working at his office late at night. Just before he was about to head home, he suddenly detected some kind of barrier around him and was caught off-guard when Sillad suddenly appeared out of thin air on a couch on the other side of the room.^[15]

Although he quickly deduced that he wouldn't be able to win, Gunhee refused to go down without a fight and unleashed his powers in order to buy enough time for Jinwoo to arrive. Although he was able to fight evenly with Sillad at the start, his body eventually hit its limit and left him wide open for Sillad to fatally stab him right through the chest. With no time to lose, Gunhee put his plan in motion and blasted a huge hole in the barrier around him, allowing the ant inside his shadow to jump through and alert Jinwoo for help.^[16]

Although his plan worked and forced Sillad to retreat, by the time Jinwoo found him, Gunhee had already lost too much blood and was on the brink of death. When Jinwoo attempted to save him with the Holy Water of Life, Gunhee told him not to and thanked him for coming to his aid. Believing that he wasn't worth saving due to his health, Gunhee asked Jinwoo to remain on the side of humanity in the coming war with the Monarchs and silently accepted his fate as he succumbed to his injuries and bled out, dying right there in his office.^[17]

Epilogue

After the Rulers used the Cup of Reincarnation one last time on Jinwoo's request, this created a new timeline where humanity never learned of the existence of magic beasts. As a result, in this timeline, Gunhee never became a hunter and thus was never killed by Sillad in battle.^[18]

Several years after the Rulers reset the timeline, Gunhee became incurably ill and was secretly visited by Jinwoo in the hospital, who gave him a bottle containing the Holy Water of Life and explained to him how they fought together in the timeline that the Rulers erased. Although he found Jinwoo's story hard to believe, Gunhee decided to take the potion anyway since he had nothing to lose and it enabled him to live 10 years longer than he naturally would have.^[19]

10 years later, the Holy Water of Life began to wear off and Gunhee found himself back in the hospital once again. When Jinwoo came to visit and offered to heal him a second time, Gunhee declined, as he had already lived a long life and was content with the extra 10 years that Jinwoo had given him. Instead, he asked Jinwoo to show him the world where they fought together, prompting the latter to give him back his memories of the erased timeline. Upon remembering everything, Gunhee tearfully thanked Jinwoo for their time together and sat back with a smile on his face as his heart suddenly gave out and he peacefully passed away.^[20]

Abilities

As the vessel of a Ruler, Gunhee was one of the strongest hunters in the world. However, his old age prevented him from using his powers to their max potential and fighting for prolonged periods of time, making him significantly weaker than the other humans who'd been granted power by the Rulers over the past 10 years.

• Immense Strength: Gunhee possessed immense physical strength. He was strong enough to shatter large layers of ice with a single headbutt and easily deflect an energy blast from Sillad with his bare hand.

• Immense Speed: Gunhee was incredibly fast and could move at immense speeds. He was able to keep up with Sillad in their brief battle and proved to be agile enough to even dodge some of the latter's attacks from point-blank range.

• Ruler's Authority: Gunhee was able to control and move objects via telekinesis.

• Spiritual Body Manifestation

Trivia

• Unlike the vast majority of the Korean characters in the series, Gunhee was fluent in both Japanese and English, which was displayed during his conversations with Matsumoto and Thomas Andre.

• His Japanese voice actor, Banjō Ginga, is also the narrator of the anime series.

• In the Japanese version of the anime, Gunhee's name is changed to Kiyoomi Goto (後藤清臣).