The Delivery Man from Murim: Prologue
Episode 0. Prologue
The world called him Yama.
Because he was an assassin who had never failed, not even once.
Thus, they called him so, likening him to how one would surely die when called by King Yama of the underworld.
Though perhaps the greater reason was that there simply wasn't a name befitting enough to call him.
Calling him Number 129 just felt somewhat lacking in stature.
Before long, two more characters were added before his name.
Martial God.
He was a man worthy of the name Martial God.
Annihilating the assassin organization he belonged to, all by himself, was merely the beginning of the legend.
He slew the absolute ruler of the Black Path who stood behind the assassin organization, and even forced the leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, which was entangled with the organization, to his knees.
The leader of the White Path martial world, astonished by his divine might, made peace with him, and the Emperor personally summoned him to share a drink.
All of the Central Plains and the martial world were shaken, and they did not hesitate to call him the Martial God.
But he did not like being called Martial God or Yama.
He simply wished to be called Gangso.
Meaning "strong smile," it was a name given to him by the girl he cherished.
And he—Gangso—wanted to protect the girl's happy daily life.
Had the world learned that he had swept aside the assassin organization, the absolute ruler of the Black Path, and the leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult simply because they hindered that wish, what a tremendous shockwave would it have caused?
In the end, Gangso protected the girl's daily life, and a year ago, he had her marry a man who loved her and settle down in a village below.
Of course, he had investigated the man thoroughly and concluded it would be fine to let her marry him.
His flaw was that his personality was a bit soft and overly kind, but the girl, who had been capable and level-headed since she was young, would keep things well-balanced.
After all, Gangso had personally taught her martial arts.
He turned his head to look at his thatched house.
The thatched house, from which the girl who chattered every day had left, was nothing but silent.
Gangso looked up at the sky and smiled.
Thinking about it now, though he had said everything he did was for the girl, he realized it had ultimately been for himself.
He liked seeing the girl's smile, liked her chattering, and liked seeing her happy appearance.
That was why he conquered the world.
Because seeing her happy made him happy as well.
“It was truly a tumultuous life.”
But Gangso was too young to say such a thing.
Thirty-five.
He had conquered the world before even reaching the age of fortitude.
But the life he had lived through those thirty-five years was far richer and denser than that of ordinary people.
Gangso slowly walked the front yard, lost in thought.
That despite living so fiercely and desperately, life was, in the end, about crying and laughing for the sake of happiness.
It might have been an insignificant thought to some, but to Gangso, it was a great enlightenment.
Rustle.
Then, a spring breeze blew, lifting a strand of Gangso's hair.
The wind gradually grew stronger.
It was not a spring breeze, but a wind that began from within his body.
At the same time, an anomaly began to occur in the empty air before him.
Perhaps due to the immense energy rising from his body, white cracks began to form in the air.
The cracks grew larger, to the point of enveloping his body, yet he remained unaware, lost in a state of selflessness.
In that moment.
Flash-!
Like lightning striking a clear sky, the surrounding space was dyed white for an instant before growing dark again.
The cracks in the air and Gangso disappeared along with the light.
The Delivery Man from Murim: Episode 1
Episode 1. The Stranger (1)
20XX.
Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea.
A fairly wide field located quite far from the outskirts had been a residential area where quite many people lived in the past.
But now, it was nothing but ruins, devastated and broken.
Ten years ago.
Because an S-rank Gate that had appeared there overflowed, monsters poured out, and a fierce battle took place.
It was the battle called the 'Great Clash.'
The result was humanity's victory, but it was a victory written in blood and scars alone.
Countless civilians and Awakened died, and the land where the battle took place for an unknown reason was completely contaminated.
Land where not a single blade of grass could grow.
Land that not even the homeless, let alone criminals, would ever approach.
Though it had been called by a different name in the past, it was currently called the 'Land of Death.'
No method could restore it to what it once was.
All that could be done was to monitor and clean up the Gates that appeared in that land.
Moreover, most Gates that appeared in the Land of Death were high-difficulty B-rank or A-rank Gates.
“Team Alpha! Entering Gate A-0128109.”
- Good luck.
From behind came the communication of a Hunter belonging to the Awakened Association.
As always, the moment of entering a Gate made one's body tremble with tension and excitement.
But the leader of Team Alpha, a veteran among veterans, raised his hand calmly and signaled.
“Enter!”
The team members shouted.
“Enter!”
'Alpha,' the premier elite team of the Red Dragon Guild, one of Korea's three great guilds.
Excluding the porters and the Hunters from the Awakened Association following behind, most of the twelve team members were A-rank and B-rank Awakened.
The Gate Team Alpha had currently entered was a cave-type A-rank Gate that had appeared in the Land of Death.
It was a cave large enough to easily fit a jumbo jet.
Alpha Team tensed at the sticky, chilling air flowing from within the dark red cave.
“Um...... Team Leader.”
The team leader turned his head at the team member's voice.
“What?”
“It's been ten minutes since we entered this Gate.”
“So?”
“But we haven't seen so much as the tip of a monster's nose.”
“Did you do nothing but sleep at Hunter Training Camp?”
“Sir?”
“This is an A-rank Gate! A-rank means monsters with considerable intelligence appear. Didn't it occur to you they might be gathered at the end of the Gate for a coordinated assault?”
Such a case had actually occurred five years ago, and the Hunters at that time had suffered heavy casualties.
The team member realized his mistake and his face turned red.
“Tch, prepare yourself when we get back. I'll make sure your theory classes are brutal.”
“Huk! I-I'd rather do more physical training instead!”
“Haah, it's because of guys like you that tanks get mocked for having muscles for brains! Just shut up and take the theory classes.”
“.......”
They walked another ten minutes like that, but no monsters were seen, and the expressions of the team leader and members grew darker.
“Those monster bastards! So they do use their heads because they've got some intelligence?”
“Damn! How many are they planning to throw at us this time?”
“Exactly! This armor is brand new from yesterday, so if it gets even scratched, my heart will ache like crazy.......”
How much further did they go?
Before crossing the rocky hill rising in the middle of the Gate, the figure of a monster began to appear atop that hill.
“Huk! That's...... a Cyclops!”
The Alpha Team leader gulped and signaled.
The meaning was: prepare for battle!
Close-combat Hunters drew their weapons, and magic-type Hunters prepared their spells.
Support-type Hunters loosened up, ready to be deployed at any moment.
Soon, the Cyclops that spotted Alpha Team crossed over the hill, shrieking and charging......
“......It's not moving at all?”
Come to think of it, something was strange.
Cyclops, being one-eyed, were monsters with extremely keen senses.
Normally, they should have attacked before Alpha Team even came into view.
But there was no sign of that; it just sat blankly, leaning against the wall.
Then a young support-type Hunter spoke.
“Team Leader! No life signs are detected from that Cyclops.”
“What?”
“Only a very few monsters with extremely faint life signs are detected nearby.”
“That can't be! This is still an A-rank Gate! Are you sure?”
“I'm sure!”
“You, come with me. The rest, hold position!”
The team leader carefully headed toward the hill with that member, and examined the area where the Cyclops was.
“.......”
For a moment, the team leader was at a loss for words.
The place where the Cyclops currently sat was a dead end.
In other words, this had been the boss room.
Below it, the corpses of hundreds—no, thousands—of monsters were piled haphazardly like laundry.
Because the Cyclops was so massive, the monsters piled beneath it hadn't been visible from afar.
Moreover, all the monsters, including the Cyclops, had expressions as if they didn't even know they were dead.
The team leader muttered.
“......This is insane.”
* * *
The superiors ordered a thorough investigation into this absurd situation.
“In twenty years as a Hunter, this is the first time I've seen something like this.”
“Could the monsters have fought among themselves?”
“If that were the case, the corpses are in too good a condition.”
“Then who on earth did this? This Gate appeared yesterday.”
Just then, a team member examining the monster corpses shouted.
“Team Leader, no matter how much I look, this werewolf only has this one wound.”
“Same here!”
The only commonality among the corpses was a single, deeply sunken wound.
“You're saying that wound was made by a human fist?”
One of the team members answered the team leader's question with great tension.
“According to the investigation, yes.”
“Hard to believe.”
“But the forensic results say so......”
“Even if it's a werewolf, an Awakened who can kill an A-rank monster like a Cyclops with a single punch? To my knowledge, there's no one who can do that.”
Then a Hunter from the Awakened Association, finishing a call with the superiors, lowered his communicator and spoke.
“Um...... A reply has come from S-rank Awakened, Sir Isin.”
“What did he say?”
“He said not to make such unfunny jokes.”
“.......”
“He said even he couldn't do something like that...... He said only a Zero-rank Awakened could possibly do that......”
For a while, they were left speechless.
* * *
A short distance from the Land of Death where the A-rank Gate had appeared.
A young man was walking across the barren land.
“Just where is this place?”
The sun was scorching.
Above the parched earth, dust clouds billowed thickly.
Where something had clearly once stood, nothing but ruins too broken to discern their original shape remained.
“How is it that the only traces of people are white bones?”
He wondered if it was Hell, but it didn't seem to be.
He wasn't old enough to die yet, nor was he lacking in skill enough to die from an unexpected ambush.
The man's name was Gangso.
When he, who had been called the Martial God and Yama, organized his enlightenment and opened his eyes, the house he lived in was nowhere to be found, and he was inside a strange cave.
And completely naked, at that!
Thinking something might be inside, he went in to find it filled with strange-looking monsters.
A giant with only one eye, wolves walking on two legs, and so on.
They all attacked Gangso the moment they saw him.
Though he had long since ceased killing people carelessly, Gangso was not one to sit still and take it from those who targeted him.
Moreover, his opponents were monsters, not people.
'Why are these guys who'd fall from a single punch charging so aggressively.......'
After dealing with all the monsters targeting him and exiting the cave, he was bewildered once more.
Because what lay before his eyes...... was nothing but ruins.
After rummaging through a nearby collapsing building and putting on something roughly resembling clothes, he surveyed his surroundings.
There were traces of people, but no living people at all.
In this unfamiliar place, as if a colossal being had trampled everything upon the earth, not a single blade of grass grew.
Gangso knew the reason very well.
'It's contaminated by demonic energy.'
Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
In other words, it was the same energy he had felt when the madmen of the Demonic Cult used forbidden sorcery.
With the martial arts Gangso had mastered, he could even purify that demonic energy, but since this was an unknown place, he could not act rashly.
He raised his head and gazed at the silver tower standing tall in the distance.
It was the 70-story building commonly referred to as the Silver Tower, the headquarters of the Awakened Association.
Gangso decided to head toward that area.
Because he could sense the presence of many people around the Silver Tower.
Bang-!
The moment Gangso kicked off, the air burst with a sound and his figure vanished.
It was the day before the Red Dragon Guild's Alpha Team entered Gate A-0128109.