VHN 1

Meeting someone for the first time while knowing everything about them was certainly a unique experience.

How they lived, what they sympathized with, and what they feared. What their weaknesses were, and how they overcame them. Even the life they would lead in the future.

Of course, I’m not an acquaintance of his, nor do I have the ability to see the future like a shaman. I simply read the novel he appeared in.

Although it wasn’t a novel I chose to read, now that the situation had changed like this, it was unexpectedly quite amusing.

“…Seo Je-hyun.”

A voice heavy with anger. I knew how to react here.

“Who are you?”

In response to my question, he strode over and easily grabbed me by the collar. He was so strong that I felt my throat constricting. The difference in power, which I had worked so hard to increase, transformed into murderous intent and relentlessly crushed my body, making all my efforts to raise my rank seem futile.

I looked him straight in the eye and calmly asked once more.

“Who are you to know me?”

“Are you even human?”

“Probably…”

I countered with a joke, but the response wasn’t very good. I thought about taking back the joke, but decided to just watch his reaction. He stared at me with eyes that seemed to want nothing more than to kill me, then suddenly released his grip on my collar. I had vaguely thought he was angry with me, but the emotion I saw up close seemed a bit more complex than that.

Black soot was smeared on the shirt where he had grabbed me.

“…I’m warning you, if I ever see you again, I’ll kill you without question.”

“Even if it’s by chance?”

“By chance?”

He let out a disbelieving laugh and glared at me. What a fierce look.

“Are you trying to joke about this?”

“I’m not… tactless enough to joke with someone I’ve just met. I’m scared because you said you’d kill me.”

“Is that how a scared person acts?”

“If someone’s really scared, they freeze up, don’t they?”

I briefly considered provoking him a bit more aggressively as he stared at me with a dumbfounded expression, but quickly decided against it. Even I didn’t want to bring my death day forward to today. Instead, I lowered my voice slightly and added timidly,

“No matter how fearless I am, it’s a bit scary when an S-Rank Hunter suddenly shows up like this. You probably don’t know, but I’m a B-Rank Hunter.”

“…Ha! B-Rank? You sure don’t sound like it.”

No matter what he thought, I really was B-Rank. At least, for now.

He stared at me for a long while before finally turning to leave. As I watched him disappear into the distance, I narrowed my eyes slightly.

S-Rank Flame Ability User, Kwon Tae-han.

Famous for his handsome looks and as an S-Rank Flame Hunter, he would become Korea’s #1 ranked Hunter in a few years and save the world. No, saying “a few years” was slightly inaccurate. There would be an enormous wall of time in between those few years.

Kwon Tae-han, now living his fifth life, would have to repeat his life a total of 994 times, becoming terribly broken in the process. But in the end, he would save the world.

From whom?

From ‘me’.

I am the person Kwon Tae-han hates the most, and a kind of calamity that will lead the world to destruction over and over again.

***

September 27, 20XX.

Noisy chatter could be heard from the barbecue restaurant. I frowned and quickly scanned the interior.

“Seo Je-hyun!”

Hearing a familiar voice, I fixed my gaze to see several people sitting at long tables pushed together, talking loudly. I walked over and casually sat down in an empty seat.

“Hey, Je-hyun, you bastard, you’re still handsome even after all this time. You must be hooking up with tons of girls in college, right?”

“Hey. Would Je-hyun even get a girlfriend? He wasn’t interested even in high school.”

“College is different from high school, you idiot. And he’s been to the military too. Even Jeong-min has a girlfriend now.”

“Gwak Jeong-min? What bullshit. Even I don’t have one, how could Gwak Jeong-min have a girlfriend?”

“Did you just talk about me?”

Voices relentlessly assaulted my ears. I listened to their conversation with one ear and let it go out the other, just smiling faintly. It was a high school reunion I hadn’t particularly wanted to attend. I had misjudged, thinking not many people would come since reunions were practically extinct these days.

Military, sports, women, games, job hunting…. The conversation continued endlessly around a few topics.

“Oh, but why didn’t Seong-yeon come?”

“Im Seong-yeon?”

I asked while drinking water. Most of these guys’ faces and names no longer matched up for me, but there were still some names that stood out. Im Seong-yeon was one of them.

Im Seong-yeon. We were in the same class for all three years, but he was small and quiet for his age, so he was marked as an easy target at the beginning of each semester. The guys who thought they were tough would pat Seong-yeon’s head as they passed by or make crude jokes, observing his reactions and snickering.

I wasn’t particularly interested in bullying one person, so I didn’t care what they did to Seong-yeon. That is, until Seong-yeon asked me for help.

‘Seo Je-hyun.’

The guy whose voice was usually so quiet it seemed to crawl along the floor called my name with unusual clarity that day. Instead of answering, I just jerked my chin, and Seong-yeon hesitantly added:

‘Help me.’

‘Why should I?’

It wasn’t an answer meant to refuse. I was simply asking for a reason. There wasn’t any particular reason for me to help Seong-yeon, was there? And I was curious why, out of all the guys, he had singled me out to ask for help.

However, instead of explaining his reasons in detail or begging, Seong-yeon looked me straight in the eye and said this,

‘It will definitely be helpful to you later.’

‘What are you talking about?’

I was dumbfounded. I mulled over those words, which were ambiguously between a promise and a prophecy, for quite a long time. ‘Definitely’. That seemingly insignificant assertion bothered me subtly.

And from the next day on, Seong-yeon was no longer a target of bullying. The reason was simple. The all-boys Hanjeong High School I attended was obsessed with hierarchy, and the guys had enough sense not to pick fights with those they might lose to. That judgment was a good thing. If they had started bullying me for helping Seong-yeon, I would have cleanly knocked them down and faced punishment.

However, Seong-yeon didn’t particularly help me after that either. There was no one better at studying than me, so I didn’t need help with that in the first place, and he didn’t ask me to fill out his student records (though I wouldn’t have counted that as help anyway), and he didn’t even pay me back financially, so in the end, despite waiting for three years, Seong-yeon failed to prove his usefulness.

I considered beating him up a few times over that, but I didn’t really feel like it. Seong-yeon didn’t attend the graduation ceremony, and since we went to different universities after that, I couldn’t hear any more news about him. To be honest, I wasn’t curious either. Enough to bury even this conversation in the depths of my memory.

Just as I was reminiscing about the past, the door of the barbecue restaurant opened once more with a cheerful sound. I had often thought that if nothing else, Seong-yeon had a talent for timing, and sure enough, it was the same this time too. The still small guy entered the restaurant with an awkward gait, looking down at the floor.

“Seong-yeon’s here?”

“Hello.”

After the bullying ended, Seong-yeon had managed to blend into the class adequately, if a bit on the fringes. Everyone greeted him lightly before the conversation continued. Naturally, it was uninteresting content.

When the smell of cheap meat and alcohol was starting to become unpleasant, Seong-yeon, who had been quiet all along, quietly spoke to me.

“Seo Je-hyun.”

It felt very similar to back then. I answered, feeling a sense of déjà vu.

“Yeah.”

“I came to keep my promise.”

“What are you talking about?”

There was only one promise I had made with Seong-yeon.

‘It will definitely be helpful to you later.’

“I said I’d be helpful to you, didn’t I?”

He’s bringing up that promise now? I felt vaguely interested and stared at Seong-yeon without answering. If he was going to introduce me to a woman or talk nonsense about stock investments as “help” this time, I might really… be disappointed.

However, Seong-yeon fell silent again after those words. I waited for Seong-yeon to say something more, but soon turned my head and pretended to listen to the conversation I had no interest in. I knew Seong-yeon wanted to be alone with me.

Of course, I could have left the place now, but I didn’t. The reason was simple. I was slightly annoyed by Seong-yeon glancing at me, hoping I would make the first move.

“So, are we going for round two?”

The guy who had been talking the most actively, his face red from alcohol, suggested a second round. I put my hands in my pockets, thought for a moment, then stood up.

“Je-hyun, are you leaving now?”

“Yeah. I just dropped by for a bit anyway. I’ll go first.”

I finished paying as I got up and headed out in front of the restaurant. After waiting for a while, sure enough, Seong-yeon approached me with his characteristic gait.

“Seo Je-hyun.”

“I wonder… how big of a help you’re planning to be, to make me expect this much.”

My voice trailed off at the end, as I wasn’t particularly curious. Seong-yeon was certainly a unique guy. Despite being so weak that he’d collapse after one proper hit, he didn’t even avoid my eyes like this.

Since the front of the restaurant was glass, I took Seong-yeon to my car to avoid drawing attention if we talked here.

“Why did you bring your car? It’s going to be drunk driving.”

“I didn’t drink.”

It was true. I hadn’t had a single sip of alcohol since turning twenty. And I had no intention of drinking in the future either.

Seong-yeon seemed surprised by my answer and couldn’t continue speaking for a while. However, as the silence was starting to get boring, I slammed my palm on the dashboard of the passenger seat where Seong-yeon was sitting, as a way to hurry him up.

Startled by the sound, Seong-yeon immediately took out his phone from his pocket and typed something. Then, after a moment, he spoke.

“Check… your messages now.”

I obediently took out my phone and checked his message to find a link attached. Without any particular suspicion, I clicked on the link and a web novel page popped up.

“What is this?”

“It’s a web novel.”

“I know that. So what is it?”

“…I wrote it.”

What, do you want me to praise you?

I raised one eyebrow and waited for Seong-yeon’s answer. However, Seong-yeon’s voice came back slightly strangely excited.

“I knew a day like this would come.”

Did he succeed?