A Secret Awakening and the Call of Dimensions
Awakening.
In modern society, remade in the aftermath of the Great Cataclysm, it was the ultimate winning lottery ticket — an absolute first prize that could overturn the course of one's life in a single stroke, a blessing from God Himself.
The world had teetered on the brink of destruction when Gates appeared and spewed forth hordes of demonic beasts, but the rise of superhumans known as Awakened laid the foundation for a new civilization, and new nations.
The three great world powers — Korea, the United States, and Japan — owed their very existence to the overwhelming strength of the superhumans who held their borders.
Among them, in Korea, noble houses descended from King Gwanggaeto the Great of Goguryeo — inheritors of that dynasty's brilliant ancient hegemony — reigned from the very summit of society.
Go Yushin, a young man of twenty-four, was likewise the rightful heir of the Go clan, carrying the direct bloodline of that great Gwanggaeto the Great in its purest form.
He stood at the heart of a privileged class where polygamy and polyandry alike were practiced to preserve the power of untainted blood — a class where even marriage within the family was taken for granted.
Yet despite bearing such a noble and potent warrior's bloodline, the voice of awakening that rang in Yushin's ears was far beyond anything common sense could explain.
You have awakened.
Your unique ability: Dimensional Wanderer.
Along with a cool, mechanical tone that rang clear through his mind, a translucent window bathed in blue light unfolded in the empty air before Yushin's eyes.
Yushin, who had been sprawled lazily across his bed staring at the ceiling, swallowed a dry breath and pushed himself half upright.
"Dimensional Wanderer...? Not even a normal, powerful combat class like an archer, mage, or swordsman — what the hell kind of bizarre job is this supposed to be?"
He muttered to himself, tapping his own cheek.
Born with one of the purest direct bloodlines in the entire clan, he had never once doubted that an ancient martial discipline of his house — or some ferociously destructive combat skill — would manifest. In modern times, mixing the blood of different houses often produced mutated abilities, but the name "Dimensional Wanderer" was uncharted territory; not even the Hunter Association's vast databases held a single precedent.
"Did I not inherit Goguryeo's blood, but some wandering drifter's instead?"
Tossing out the pointless joke, Yushin steadied his spirit and quietly recited a command.
"Status window."
With a crackle of static, all of his potential and information laid itself bare before him.
"...F-Rank?"
Yushin's brow furrowed in an instant.
The words "Growth-Type" were attached, but starting at the absolute rock bottom of the ladder — F-Rank — was no small shock.
A memory flashed through his mind: a news story from not long ago about a growth-type hunter who had awakened at F-Rank, trained until he vomited blood, barely clawed his way to E-Rank — and then stopped growing entirely, left in despair.
"No, it's fine. I've always been lucky. Born lucky, that's me."
Forcing out a positive thought, Yushin pressed the shimmering details button beside his grade.
With each dimension you complete exploring and conquer, the Wanderer's grade and authority permanently rise.
"Exploration and conquest... So the conqueror's blood of my ancestors, who once commanded an entire continent, manifested in this bizarre form?"
A hollow laugh escaped him at the grandiose description — cross the dimensions and claim new worlds for your own.
But when he checked the skill window that followed, curiosity began to color Yushin's eyes.
Travelable Dimensions
⊳ Arhen — Difficulty: E
⊳ Abyss — Difficulty: F
⊳ Gomba Company — Difficulty: S
⊳ Glaives — Difficulty: B
⊳harma — Difficulty: C
The worlds listed there gave no hint whatsoever — from their names alone — of what dangers and secrets might lurk within them.
Yushin lightly touched the one that seemed to have the lowest difficulty: Abyss.
Difficulty: F-Rank
The land of the demon realm. Its absolute Demon King vanished without warning, and the realm — stripped of discipline and control — has fallen into lawlessness.
"A demon realm that's lost its Demon King, and the difficulty is only F?"
The description sent a chill down his spine.
The very word demon realm carried a heavy, oppressive weight, and he found himself doubting whether this place was truly the safest possible starting point.
Just in case, Yushin checked the description of the highest-difficulty, S-Rank dimension.
Difficulty: S-Rank
Gomba Company. Join us right now and become a corporate slave for all eternity.
"...What kind of insane world is this one?"
The absurd phrasing didn't even draw a hollow laugh out of him. It was enough to make him wonder whether the status window was playing a mean joke at his expense.
But Yushin knew perfectly well the most important unwritten law that had been handed down through Awakened society since the Great Cataclysm: those who took the system's messages lightly, or doubted them, without exception ended up as cold corpses rolling across the floors of Gates.
Safety rules were always written in the red blood of the hunters who came before.
Taking a deep breath, Yushin turned his gaze back to his base stats.
"Strength E, Stamina E... Sure, I put on a little weight after getting discharged, but this is decent enough baseline, right?"
One hundred seventy-eight centimeters, seventy kilograms. A slight layer of flesh had settled over the muscles forged by grueling military training, leaving him with a solid, sturdy frame.
The problem was the bizarre entries written beneath them.
"Intellect F, fine, whatever... but Mana isn't even measurable, and what the hell is Virility F supposed to mean?"
Yushin's pride took a sharp, stinging scratch.
He was a healthy twenty-four-year-old man in the full bloom of his vigor — a man who had spent every night struggling to suppress the desires that welled up in him beyond all control.
Being branded with Virility F was a humiliation he simply could not accept.
"Me, Virility F? This damned system has no idea what my equipment is actually worth."
Recalling the massive slab of flesh coiled heavy and dormant inside his pants, Yushin clicked his tongue.
The total absence of mana stung too. He had secretly nursed the romantic dream of a mage dominating the battlefield with a torrent of dazzling spells — but from the very start, the path of magic appeared to be sealed off to him completely.
"All right, forget sulking. Let's plot our route instead."
Yushin paged through the detailed descriptions of the other dimensions one by one.
Difficulty: E-Rank
A classic fantasy world where brilliant swordsmanship and a profound civilization of magic flourished side by side.
"Could even someone with no mana like me learn the fundamentals of magic there?"
His heart pounded.
For Yushin, who still clung to a lingering attachment to magic, Arhen was an exceedingly tempting option.
The next entry, the Glaives dimension, offered nothing but a short, blunt description — a world of steel that worships firepower, and only ever more overwhelming firepower — and finally he pulled open the description of the last remaining world, Harma.
Difficulty: C-Rank
The Fortress in the Sky, Harma. A silent aerial citadel abandoned and forsaken by the gods. A mysterious treasure said to grant wishes sleeps within.
"A treasure that grants wishes, huh... That's a pretty tempting hook."
He was still savoring the phrase, the romance of it stirring something in a man's heart, when the blue text before his eyes rippled strangely — and the difficulty listing changed in an instant.
Difficulty: B-Rank
"...Huh?"
Yushin's eyes went wide.
A difficulty that had read C-Rank had climbed to B-Rank in real time.
"The danger level of a dimension fluctuates... live?"
Cold sweat trickled down his back.
If he had blundered in with no preparation, he would inevitably have been swept up in some sudden upheaval of the dimension and torn apart before he knew what hit him.
An unease crept over him — the fear that, thanks to the low grade of his Dimensional Wanderer ability, he might be falling prey to some sinister demon or illusion right this very moment.
At exactly that instant, a voice utterly unlike anything before it rang vividly in Yushin's ears.
Dimensional Wanderer is an absolute authority of latent S-Rank.
However unrefined its initial state may be, interference or illusion from any external, lesser power is categorically impossible.
It was not a mechanical notification tone.
The nuance was that of a living, sentient being whose pride had been wounded by Yushin's doubt — snapping at him with thinly veiled displeasure.
"What? The system judges for itself and talks back? And my latent grade is S?"
Yushin could hardly believe it.
Only three hunters in the entire world held officially recognized S-Rank.
Korea's Ice Empress, Kang Yoora. Japan's Plum Blossom Sword Master, Hanazawa Hina. And America's Flame Emperor, Arnold Brown.
Thanks to those three superhumans, the world maintained its delicate balance among the three great powers — and even China, a massive continental giant, held its breath, having never produced a single official S-Rank of its own.
And that meant S-Rank potential, power enough to shake the entire world order in one stroke, was resting in his hands at this very moment.
"You... don't tell me you're not just a status window, but the system itself, with a will of your own?"
When Yushin asked, staring up into the empty air, the response came immediately.
That is correct. I am the auxiliary system endowed with the inherent will of the skill Dimensional Wanderer.
If you would register a convenient name by which to call me, that will suffice.
"Then I'll call you Yurangi."
Understood. Shall I set my form of address for you as "Master Yushin"?
"No — call me Lord Master."
...Understood. Lord Master.
At the system's brief, halting reaction, Yushin burst into a snort of laughter.
There was no doubt about it now — this was no mere program, but a being with genuine emotion and a self of its own.
Yurangi promptly cleared her throat — or made the screen do the equivalent — switching displays and presenting the optimal route.
The first destination I most recommend to you, Lord Master, is Abyss.
ABYSS DIMENSION
Difficulty: F-Rank
"Why?"
Abyss is currently in a state where the sovereign who once ruled the demon realm has vanished, and the powers of the high-ranking demons who drew their mana from him are rapidly withering.
Simply put — Abyss right now is an empty house, overflowing with vast treasures and unclaimed frontier.
At Yurangi's lucid explanation, a gleam kindled in Yushin's eyes.
A demon realm thrown into chaos by the Demon King's absence. That place was the perfect land of opportunity — where a man utterly without mana could safely take his first step and swallow up enormous reserves of mana and fortune besides.
Awakening was not simply a process of gaining power.
It was a colossal leap that flipped a man's entire way of seeing the world — his eyes, his standards, everything — completely upside down.
Behind him, beyond the door of his room, he could feel it in the hallway: the hot, sticky, creeping presence of his younger sister Go Yeona, her obsession with him drawing slowly closer. Leaving that presence behind, Yushin reached out his hand with resolve.
"All right. We depart for Abyss."
A wise judgment, Lord Master.
Initiating Dimension Travel. Target coordinates: Abyss.
CRACKLE—!
Space twisted, and a dimensional gate of azure light wrapped gently around Yushin's body.
Toward an unknown world from which there might be no road home — the first footsteps of a great Wanderer were already striding boldly forward.