Volume 1, Chapter 3
003
Creak.
The firmly shut door opened.
And from within, two shadows revealed themselves.
Srrk. Srrrk.
The sight illuminated by the two shadows emerging from the door was horrific.
One shadow was gripping another shadow’s hair, dragging him across the floor as he walked out.
The identity of the shadow gripping the hair.
“…….”
It was none other than a man with an expressionless face—I Seojun.
“Ngh! Nngh!”
The man whose hair was seized let out groans filled with pain as he was dragged out.
The man’s expression was dyed entirely in terror.
Tremble. Tremble.
His body shook uncontrollably, trembling like an aspen leaf.
Then, at that moment.
Thud!
A heavy sound rang out.
It was the sound of the man being thrown into a corner by I Seojun.
Gush.
From the open room, from the place where I Seojun had been, blood was streaming out in rivulets.
The floor was being dyed entirely red.
“Ngh! Ngh!”
A man struggling in vain, covered in blood.
He looked at I Seojun as if he were a devil, his face filled with terror, and began to crawl across the floor to escape.
With bloodshot eyes fixed solely on the exit, he clawed his way forward desperately.
Then, at that moment.
Crunch!
A horrifying noise filled the room.
I Seojun had confirmed the man was trying to escape and crushed his ankle with his foot.
“Guaaaack!”
A scream burst from the man’s mouth.
The face of Gim Juwon, the youngest of the Samil Resolution Office, was filled with despair.
No matter how much he screamed and earnestly pleaded here.
‘It won’t work!’
It was because he knew there was no one to save him.
Because everyone else who had been here had already drawn their last breath at the hands of I Seojun.
“S-save me….”
This place he had come to a few days ago through a friend’s introduction.
If he had known what they did here beforehand, he would never have come.
As these thoughts surged.
“—Any decent jobs around…? At this rate, I’m going to starve to death.”
Memories of when he had suddenly complained to his friend over the phone surfaced in his mind.
Was this what they called a life flashing before one’s eyes?
“—What? Wasn’t the situation decent these days?”
“—Decent, my ass. I’m dying here, literally dying.”
“—Hmm… Really? Then… want to try this?”
A friend who had introduced him to a decent moneymaking opportunity, now that he had become a Hunter.
“—Really? There’s a place like that?”
“—Yeah. I told you there is. You think I’d lie to you?”
“—It’s just hard to believe there’s a place like that. So when can I start? I can start as early as tomorrow.”
He had believed because it was a friend he had spent his whole life with.
Without asking much, he had immediately answered that he would do it.
What was happening in this place that he thought was such a decent job was….
“—A new recruit’s here?”
…a hotbed of crime.
The Hunter crimes that had been loudly clamored about in the media lately.
From petty violence using a Hunter’s strength to large-scale human trafficking, selling ordinary people or low-ranked Hunters.
Gim Juwon wanted to get out of this place immediately, but he couldn’t.
“—What? I didn’t hear that wrong just now, did I?”
Their eyes filled with killing intent.
Clomp. Clomp.
They approached him, holding sharp blades and emitting fierce mana.
“—……You said you’ll quit?”
And they spoke to him while pointing their swords at his stomach.
“—N-no! M-my words… seem to have slipped out.”
Fear.
It bound him tightly.
“P-please. Save me… save me….”
This was the price of his sins.
Even though he hadn’t done anything yet, it was the price for simply being in a place like this.
And surely, it was also the price for merely watching those evil deeds.
“Save me….”
Wanting to live nonetheless was human instinct.
Gim Juwon pleaded again and again within his fading vision.
It was then.
“I believe I told you.”
A face loomed large overhead.
That face, which still looked handsome even in this moment, was now to Gim Juwon that of an utterly terrifying devil.
“I said I would… spare one person.”
The clumsy Korean was gradually becoming clearer.
“S-save me….”
“Tell me everything you know.”
I Seojun lifted Gim Juwon by the hair—his face covered in blood—and spoke.
* * *
“Hunters….”
It was unbelievable.
“Monsters, Gates.”
This place was the Republic of Korea on Earth, his homeland.
The land of humans that he had thought he would never be able to return to.
But the Earth now was different from what he knew.
Many things had changed.
“Ngh.”
I Seojun let out a short groan.
Because a pain that felt like it was piercing his brain had struck.
[Forgotten memories are awakening due to the system’s correction effect.]
Along with the voice, memories began to become clear, one by one.
“Only….”
The time he had spent on Planet Lumer.
That long period where he had to forget who he was, what he was, and everything.
“Only twenty years?”
That merely twenty years had passed since the time he was there.
He simply couldn’t believe it even after hearing it.
But this was an unmistakable reality.
Something he had checked over and over.
“……….”
As I Seojun swept his hand down his face in confusion, Gim Juwon, who was barely standing beside him, reacted and trembled.
Twitch.
If it hadn’t been for the potion in the office, he might have had to limp for the rest of his life.
Fortunately, the monster before him had truly spared him and even complied with the request to drink the potion.
“And you people are….”
At I Seojun’s words, Gim Juwon spoke without a moment’s hesitation.
“From the Samil Resolution Office….”
Words he had already heard.
In other words, they were a trash group that would do anything for money on this Earth.
“I will turn myself in.”
Gim Juwon said.
He didn’t know who the man before him was, or why he was asking such strange things.
‘That is… the way to survive.’
But to him now, such things didn’t matter.
Gim Juwon spoke, thinking he had come to receive the punishment for his sins.
Though he thought it was the only chance to survive.
“…….”
The man didn’t answer easily.
He merely stared at him with an expressionless face.
“Hah.”
I Seojun let out a short sigh.
His throbbing head.
But contrary to that, his mind only grew clearer.
One by one, things were being organized.
Swish.
The man trembling and avoiding his gaze.
‘Just like… back then.’
Looking at him, something came to mind.
Something that had happened on Planet Lumer.
“—We’re all going to die….”
“—It’s insane! This place is insane!”
When everyone fell into panic and gave up the chance to survive, I Seojun alone held onto his sanity and thought.
And survived.
“That won’t be bad.”
I Seojun looked at Gim Juwon and said.
“……Yes?”
The words I Seojun had spat out.
Gim Juwon, who couldn’t understand them, shifted the gaze he had been desperately avoiding.
He looked at I Seojun.
“I said you’d be helpful.”
Their gazes met.
At that moment.
Drip.
The smell of urine began to fill the room.
Something yellow was flowing down between the hem of Gim Juwon’s pants.
“Resolution offices will do anything as long as they get paid, won’t they?”
“Y-yes…?”
Gim Juwon, so overcome with fear that he couldn’t comprehend the words.
“……Yes!”
Feeling I Seojun’s gaze, he hastily answered without even knowing what the question was.
It was Gim Juwon’s will to survive.
“Is money more precious than your life?”
A question whose meaning he couldn’t fathom.
“T-that shouldn’t be the case.”
I Seojun smiled, seemingly satisfied with Gim Juwon’s answer.
“Then guide me.”
His body was slowly stabilizing.
“To the nearest resolution office.”
* * *
Korea Hunter Association Headquarters.
Tap-tap-tap!
The Hunter Association was currently bustling with activity.
“—…This Gate is… at least SS-rank.”
The great disaster that had swept through moments ago.
The appearance of at least an SS-rank Gate.
They were busily moving to organize the situation from that time.
“A short while ago, our Association discovered the appearance of an SS-rank Gate. But mysteriously, the reading of the SS-rank Gate has now completely vanished….”
The same footage was being displayed on the walls of high-rise buildings.
The Association was making an official announcement to calm the citizens who would be trembling in anxiety.
Clomp.
Someone was walking toward that Association building.
He was walking down a secluded alley with no people.
Clomp.
A man wearing a sharp, sophisticated black suit.
“—Surely… you’re not thinking of going there?”
It was I Seojun.
The clothes he had been wearing then were rags that could barely be called clothes.
But since it didn’t matter to him, he had been about to leave as is, when Gim Juwon at the resolution office stopped him and got him clothes.
“—I… This might be out of line, but do you not mind standing out?”
Also, unlike before, he now had short black hair with a natural look.
“—If not, I think you should change your hair. Long silver hair tends to stand out wherever you go.”
Gim Juwon, who had been struggling to survive, was quite capable in his own way.
Survival instinct.
He too knew that it was best to avoid standing out in order to survive.
‘Three days.’
Three days since his return.
During that time, I Seojun gathered information about the changed Earth.
Gim Juwon had been fairly useful.
To I Seojun, who had absolutely no knowledge of present-day Earth, Gim Juwon had taught him general knowledge about Earth.
“—Hunters.”
New superhumans.
“—Gates.”
New spaces and monsters.
Everything had been turned upside down.
It was no exaggeration to say it was a new world rather than Earth.
But that didn’t matter.
‘Survive.’
His mindset was similar to when he had been on Planet Lumer.
Doing his best to survive and ultimately surviving.
That was the instinct engraved in I Seojun’s chest like a tattoo.
‘Had I been unable to return, it would be a different story.’
And as his forgotten memories awoke, something had become clear.
‘Since I have returned, there is something I must do.’
But to do that, there was something he needed.
He had to undergo something called Hunter registration.
‘In this world, Hunters hold a unique and tremendous status.’
The things Hunters could do in this world were limitless.
No, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say there was almost nothing they couldn’t do.
Because on this changed Earth, Hunters were revered worldwide.
‘A dream.’
The reason Hunters were revered was simple.
It was because Hunters could enjoy things that were no different from dreams to ordinary people.
‘……….’
Hunters hunted monsters, obtained loot, and sold it to earn sums of money that ordinary people couldn’t hope to see in their lifetimes.
Also, the stronger they grew, the higher their honor rose.
The higher they rose, the more countless corresponding benefits they could enjoy.
They could be provided houses and cars worth hundreds of millions, and even make their names known worldwide.
‘Power.’
Now that monsters were appearing in the world, Hunter power was incomparable to that of police, soldiers, and the like.
Using that, he could collect rare information that others wouldn’t know.
If he held such a position, there would be much more he could do to achieve his goal.
‘Here?’
I Seojun stopped his steps in front of the massive building.
It was the building of the Korea Hunter Association.
‘Shall we?’
I Seojun stepped into the massive building.
The greatest villain in history had returned.