VHN 4

Leaving aside the transcendent being of space-time, a seed of the Great Demise, huh? Even a passing elementary school student could recognize the ominousness of that.

As I stared blankly into the air without a word, Ryu Tae-yeong asked again.

“Are you an Awakened?”

He probably is, considering he killed the protagonist 999 times.

I gave up on maintaining my suspicious silence and answered.

“I think I just experienced Awakening.”

Seeing my rank change from nonexistent to F, it seems I gained power this time around, but strangely, there was too much information that didn’t match what I read in the novel. It wasn’t simply because the narrator had changed from Kwon Tae-han to me.

How should I deal with Im Seong-yeon, that bastard?

While I was lost in thought, Ryu Tae-yeong asked once more.

“Are you injured anywhere?”

“Yeah, well.”

Having nothing more to say, I nodded, and Ryu Tae-yeong stared at me intently. After a moment of silence, Ryu Tae-yeong held out his Hunter license and greeted me.

“Hello. I’m Ryu Tae-yeong, Team leader of the Gate Special Response Team.”

“……”

Ah, he wants to exchange names… now?

Unable to hide my awkwardness, I answered slowly.

“Seo Je-hyun.”

My name was what he wanted to know, as Ryu Tae-yeong continued.

“First, I apologize for the critical accident that could have occurred due to our team’s mismanagement. We will provide information about the compensation process later.”

I almost died just now, and he’s talking about later measures. His handling of the situation was truly outstanding. My expression must have been terrible, but Ryu Tae-yeong continued without a word.

“First, since you have been confirmed to have undergone Awakening, would it be alright for us to move together now and help you register as an Awakened?”

“What happens if I don’t register?”

Since this is a country with resident registration cards, the answer was obvious, but Ryu Tae-yeong rattled off the answer like a machine to my question.

“If you are aware of your Awakening but do not register, or register with false information, you may be sentenced to imprisonment for no less than three years and no more than five years.”

“It’s mandatory, then.”

“Yes.”

What am I supposed to do? Ryu Tae-yeong was still staring at me even after he finished speaking. Then, after a moment, he asked back in a stiff voice.

“By the way, Seo Je-hyun.”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure you just Awakened this time?”

* * *

Four years and ten months since the first Gate appeared. The first Gate was, quite literally, a ‘disaster.’

The first Gate appeared in the middle of Saha-gu, Busan. At 6:30 PM, during the evening rush hour when people were particularly crowded, a small crack formed in the air in Saha-gu. That Gate, which at first looked like a line drawn in the air, gradually increased in size, and a week later, monsters began pouring out of the gap in the air.

It was the first Dungeon Break.

To be precise, a Gate is, as its name suggests, a kind of ‘door.’ So, what’s inside?

After several trials and errors and persistent research, humanity came to a conclusion. It was a different world entirely from Earth. Inside the Gates were the deep sea, jungles, caves, even rooms, spaces of nothingness, mazes, or places that could only be seen in fiction or mythology.

Before naming each of the environments inside, people called the structures inside the Gates ‘Dungeons’ because they were similar to Dungeons in games. A Dungeon Break referred to the case where the Gate could not withstand the power of the Dungeon and opened, causing monsters inside the Dungeon to pour out.

Going back, what was Saha-gu, Busan, like when the first Dungeon Break occurred?

It was literally a scene of carnage. It took only seven seconds for twenty-three people near the Gate to lose their lives. The area was quickly cordoned off and people were evacuated, but the casualties at the time amounted to 133 people.

However, when a ‘disaster’ arrives, a ‘hero’ to prepare for that disaster also emerges. And the hero grew stronger as they faced the crisis. The first ‘hero’ of South Korea was So Ye-ji, an 18-year-old student attending a nearby girls’ high school.

So Ye-ji Awakened while returning home after finishing night self-study. There was no precedent because she was the first Awakened. However, she instinctively realized how to handle her power, went out of the Gate, froze all the fire-breathing monsters, and closed the Gate.

It was fortunate that the fiery monsters reminiscent of hellfire and So Ye-ji’s freezing ability were a good match, and that So Ye-ji was a Hunter of a higher rank than the Gate. Now that we measure the Saha-gu Gate by rank, it would only be a high C-rank at best.

That Gate, which did not even reach B-rank, brought many sad stories but was also an opportunity to bring an A-rank Hunter to South Korea.

Starting with Saha-gu, Gates appeared all over the world. Of course, so did Hunters, the available manpower to prepare for the Gates.

Hunters’ abilities varied widely. Some created fire in the air, some manipulated minds, and others healed people. They ‘Awakened’ different abilities in the midst of danger. The abilities that could be used differed from Hunter to Hunter, but as the system was established, names began to be attached to the abilities one by one. For example, from intuitive names such as ‘Binding’ and ‘Flight’ to metaphorical names such as ‘Ring of Fire’ and ‘Shadow Step.’

Through the efforts of researchers and agreements between countries, common languages related to Hunters began to emerge one by one.

As the number of Hunters increased, countermeasures against Gates also began to take shape.

Various researchers were rapidly conducting research to predict the cause of Gate occurrences and the timing of the next Gate appearance. As it was an unprecedented crisis of human extinction, national interest was poured into it.

The cause of Gate occurrence has not yet been revealed, but research has not been without its gains.

The abilities of Hunters, which cannot be easily explained, and the energy generated near the Gates had the same wavelength. This was called Gate Energy (GE) or simply mana, and researchers discovered that Gates occurred like clockwork in places where this mana increased rapidly.

The forms of Dungeons were different, but the methods of attack were similar. If you defeat the creature with the greatest mana inside the Gate, called the Dungeon Boss, the Gate would naturally close. Since a Dungeon Break occurred when mana exceeded a certain level and could not withstand the space, pouring out, it was best to attack the Gate as soon as it was discovered, or at least within a week.

Because if a Dungeon Break occurs like today, damage is inevitable.

As research on Gate attacks and various mana developed, many things changed about Hunters as well. In the beginning, regardless of the country, Awakened had to register with the state and go out to attack Gates under state control. But now the form has changed quite a bit.

There were Hunters who worked as individuals, but group activities were still common, so if we classify them into three main categories, they would be as follows.

First, government official Hunters managed by the state. In South Korea, they are called the ‘Gate Special Response Team,’ or ‘Special Response Team’ for short. The second is the ‘Hunter Association,’ or ‘H.A’ for short, a pan-national organization that responds to state exploitation. And the last is the ‘Guild,’ which is established by individual Hunters and operated by hiring other Hunters or ordinary people.

So, what is the driving force behind Guilds, which are neither government officials nor associations? A sense of duty?

Unfortunately, humanity was not so altruistic. It was soon discovered that the Dungeon, which seemed like a disaster, was hiding enormous resources inside. These resources were sometimes obtained from the corpses of monsters, and sometimes they could be mined from the Dungeon itself. And as if to prove high risk, high return, the more difficult the Dungeon attack, the better the resources or items it spat out.

Of course, since it was an item inside the Dungeon, it was by no means easy to obtain. However, if Hunters were to bring it and process it… depending on the resource, there were times when things were created that could not even be converted into value.

As a result, at some point, even entering the Gate became a battle of wits.

And back to the present.

Ryu Tae-yeong, who is the Team leader of the Gate Special Response Team 1, was wondering what to do with this Hunter who was blatantly lying in front of him.

A Gate that rarely appeared, splitting the earth. It was also a deep-sea type Gate, and because confirmation was delayed, it even led to a Dungeon Break. It was a situation that would have caused panic for ordinary people.

But this Hunter, no, Seo Je-hyun, seemed strangely unfazed. Not only that, but he calmly pointed to the ruined building and asked, ‘Can you see that?’

A house ruined by the Gate. Even in this situation where ordinary people would be embarrassed or full of despair, Seo Je-hyun calmly asked about compensation procedures.

But that was fine up to that point.

The reason why Ryu Tae-yeong considered Seo Je-hyun an unregistered Hunter was none other than his use of skills.

Was it possible for a Hunter who had just Awakened to calmly respond to the Kraken’s tentacles that were attacking his head? Moreover, the suckers on the Kraken’s tentacles contained a deadly ingredient. It wouldn’t matter if the Hunter was resistant to poison, but if not, it was quite fatal.

But Seo Je-hyun nonchalantly reached out and flicked away the tentacles.

Other people might not have known what Seo Je-hyun had done. However, it was an action that only Ryu Tae-yeong could recognize. Because the skill Seo Je-hyun used was too similar to his own. Creating a shield by compressing air was something that a Hunter who had just Awakened could never do.

Even he was doing strenuous training every day to freely control the air. Of course, he had no complaints about training. It was a natural thing to do in order to prove that a being stronger than ordinary people was ‘not threatening’ when mixed among ordinary people.

That’s why Ryu Tae-yeong ended up working as a civil servant. In a similar vein, he hated Hunters who didn’t report for their own benefit. The circumstances of those guys were obvious. No matter how good it sounded, their own interests came before the public interest.

But Seo Je-hyun flicked away the Kraken’s tentacles and still brazenly said to Ryu Tae-yeong.

‘What happens if I don’t register?’

Ryu Tae-yeong never hated people at first sight. But he didn’t think he could have good feelings for Seo Je-hyun.

He wouldn’t register. A Hunter? Moreover… a Hunter who was clearly at least B-Rank.

Ryu Tae-yeong frowned slightly as he looked at the man in front of him, who had an excessively calm tone and looked a bit gloomy but was handsome enough for anyone to think so. He was displeased. Not just because he was hiding his abilities, but because he seemed to have no feelings even while watching his house being torn apart and people getting hurt.