Descent into the Abyss: Sector 0
This is not a realm for the living.
Ambient demonic energy concentration exceeds lethal levels.
The moment they passed through the dimensional gate, a piercing stench and bone-chilling cold wrapped around their entire bodies. It wasn't just cold or smelly—it was a primal revulsion, like billions of needles stabbing their skin and rotten water flooding their nostrils.
The sky hung with a blood-red moon that dyed the world crimson, while the ground was covered in decayed black soil and the filth of demonic beasts. A perfect land of death, devoid of any sign of life.
Yet in the heart of that dead land burned a single, fragile flame of life, flickering like a dying candle.
"Haa... haa..."
Yoo Isu barely held herself upright, using the hilt of her broken sword as a crutch. The woman once called the "Goddess of the Battlefield," who had commanded Korea's hunters, was a wretched sight.
Her once-radiant silver hair was matted with blood and dirt, turned into a gray broom. The legendary armor "Valkyrie's Breastplate," forged from dragon scales, lay in tatters, exposing her flesh.
Before her eyes stretched an endless horde of demonic beasts undulating like waves. Tens of thousands of Abyss low-grade monsters—Ghouls and Skeleton Warriors. And behind them, mid-grade beasts eyed her hungrily, waiting for an opening.
I'm getting tired...
It had been three years. There was no day or night here—just eternal twilight under the red moon. Thousands of sleepless nights haunted by hunger, thirst, and beasts that lunged for her throat the moment she closed her eyes.
The only thing keeping her sane was one promise: the one she'd made to her husband on Earth, Jinhyeok.
'I'll be right back. Have dinner ready.'
That simple promise had sustained the strongest hunter in humanity for three years. On the day the gate closed, she'd glimpsed their apartment living room behind her husband's back. His rough hands, probably stirring stew while waiting for her.
"Damn... I want food... kimchi stew loaded with pork chunks..."
Yoo Isu let out a hollow laugh, clinging to her fading consciousness. She was at her limit. Her mana core had been empty for ages, and her life force was flashing red. One more push from them, and the gate would break. Earth would fall.
Her trembling hand fumbled in her bosom. Her last resort: detonate the mana left in her heart in a suicide explosion. At least destroy this gate, keep them from reaching Earth.
"Sorry, honey. Looks like I'm going first... Dinner... next life."
As she closed her eyes to reverse her mana flow—
Kugugugu—!
The black sky of the Abyss screamed. A roar beyond the beasts' cries, space itself tearing. A dazzling purple rift split the heavens.
[KUOOOOOH—!]
A heaven-shaking roar poured out. Yoo Isu snapped her eyes open. From the rift plummeted a massive red form like a meteor. A divine beast wreathed in hellfire, the apex predator that terrified even Abyss monsters. The S-rank fire dragon, Balakas.
And atop that dragon's back, one incongruous white dot.
"Get out of the way!! Patient's guardian coming through!!"
A voice boomed through amplification magic, echoing thunderously. It didn't fit the apocalyptic hellscape—like a tantrum in paradise. But to Yoo Isu, it was more familiar than any angel's trumpet.
The grumbling voice she'd longed for even in dreams.
"Ji... Jinhyeok?"
KWAAAAANG!
Balakas slammed into the ground. Or rather, crashed right into the horde. A massive flame wave erupted on impact, vaporizing thousands of ghouls like ants into ash without a scream.
"Kieeeek!"
"Grrr...!"
The survivors scattered in panic. As the dust cleared, the red dragon's colossal silhouette emerged. A man leaped down from it.
Wearing a crisp white doctor's coat instead of armor. Carrying a battered leather medical bag instead of a weapon. He dusted off his sunglasses casually, as if he'd just landed in Gangnam.
"Hey, Team Leader Yoo."
Jinhyeok strode over casually. Mid-grade beasts growled and lunged, but Balakas glared and snorted behind him, sending them yelping back. Ignoring them completely, he approached the dazed Yoo Isu.
"What the hell is this mess? You look like a beggar. No shower in three years?"
"You... really... Jinhyeok?"
Yoo Isu's voice trembled. A hallucination? Deathbed flashback? She staggered forward, reaching out to touch his cheek. Not cold armor—warm skin. Human warmth, alien in the Abyss's chill.
"Yeah, it's me. Said we'd eat dinner. You trying to starve your husband?"
Jinhyeok smirked, grasping her filthy hand. In that instant, her doubts of hallucination vanished. He's real. My husband came.
Relief, joy, and grievance crashed over her like a tsunami. Tears she'd held back burst like a broken dam.
"Waaah! You jerk!"
Slap!
"Ow!"
Instead of an embrace, her palm smacked his back hard. Even depleted, an S-rank smash rattled bones.
"Are you insane?! Why come here?! This place'll kill you?!"
Yoo Isu grabbed his collar, shaking him, face streaked with tears as she screamed.
"Go back! Now! This isn't for civilians like you! Even breathing rots your lungs!"
She was desperate. She was already broken, but he had to live. He'd come on Balakas—he could leave. Hurry, go.
But Jinhyeok didn't budge. Rubbing his throbbing back, he pulled her into a fierce hug instead.
"Not going."
"What? You get the situation—"
"Won't leave without you. If you can't go, I'll camp here too."
His firm voice. The heartbeat against her. Yoo Isu's body stiffened. Her resisting hands fell limp. She buried her face in his chest and sobbed like a child.
"Hic... sob..."
The scent she'd missed so much. Disinfectant and coffee—home. Heaven's fragrance, the only one allowed in hell.
Behind them, three men—Lee Shinwoo, Ma Dongtak, and Seo Jihu—stood awkwardly.
"Uh... we invisible?"
"Read the mood, idiot. Ma Dongtak, you crying?"
"No sir! Just dust! Sniff!"
Korea's top hunters were mere backdrop to this tearful reunion.
After a long cry, Yoo Isu pushed Jinhyeok away. Her face darkened again, reality sinking in.
"...Can't leave."
"What?"
"I can't go. Can't go back to Earth."
She looked up, gray eyes shaking. She pointed to her chest. Through the shattered armor, grotesque black veins bulged from her heart, burrowing deep into the ground like massive tree roots, binding her to the land.
Abyss Assimilation Syndrome
Heart sharing life force with the 'Abyss Core'.
Jinhyeok's eyes narrowed. His Eyes of God pierced her condition raw.
Three years ago, to block the horde, she'd used her heart as a medium for a sealing ritual on the land's "core." As long as she lived, the gate stayed shut. But if she left, the seal broke, and the gate to Earth opened permanently.
Worse, her body had changed drastically.
Patient's body has mutated from Abyss adaptation.
Exposure to Earth's atmosphere will cause immediate respiratory failure and shock death.
Half-demonized already. Earth's clean air was poison to her now.
"If I move, the gate opens. And... I'm not human anymore. I'd die on Earth."
Yoo Isu smiled bitterly. So poignant it wrenched the heart.
"So you go. Please... don't make me more miserable. Just knowing you're alive is enough."
Desperate situation. Medically, magically, hopeless. A normal person would weep, kiss goodbye, and mourn forever.
But Kang Jinhyeok wasn't normal. He'd cured a dragon's constipation with a plunger, operated on a giant's cataracts. Before Korea's top "quack... no, genius doctor," incurables didn't exist.
"Ha, what a pain."
Jinhyeok snorted in disbelief, then flicked her forehead harder than before.
Thwack!
"Ow! Hey! That hurts!"
Yoo Isu clutched her forehead, yelling.
"Hurts? Good, you're alive. That's what matters."
Jinhyeok pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped her grimy face.
"Hit you 'cause you won't listen. Who am I?"
"Who? Grumpy porter."
"Correct that. I'm a doctor. One who cures S-rank dragon constipation."
He kicked the leather bag on the ground.
"Can't go to Earth? Air doesn't suit, you'll die?"
"Yeah! So go!"
"Then we'll live here till I fix you."
"...What?"
Yoo Isu's eyes widened. Did she hear right? Jinhyeok beckoned the fidgeting trio behind him—Lee Shinwoo, Ma Dongtak, Seo Jihu.
"Hey, assistants. Unpack."
"Pardon? He... here?"
Lee Shinwoo's jaw dropped.
Look around.
Unpack amid ghoul corpse mountains and toxic fog?
"Yes. If patient can't come to hospital, hospital goes to patient. House call, right?"
Jinhyeok rolled up his sleeves. His eyes gleamed—not bravado. He saw this not as disaster, but "tricky surgery environment."
Dirty OR? Clean it.
Immobile patient? Bring the bed.
"Can't go? Fine, stay till cured. Was too busy spending on Earth anyway. Air's nice... wait, no, air sucks, view... sucks too. Whatever, convalesce here."
"Ji... Jinhyeok? You sane?"
Yoo Isu gaped.
"Shut it. Patient talks too much. Malnourished mess. Pitch tent first. Hungry—eat."
Jinhyeok spread a mat right there. In the Abyss teeming with beasts, Korea's hunters' base camp rose.
"Ma Dongtak! Clear that rock! Ruining the mat!"
"Yessir!"
"Seo Jihu! Ice AC on. Hot."
"This is demon realm! Mana efficiency sucks!"
Yoo Isu stared blankly. Hell, clearly hell. So why was she laughing?
For the first time in three years, under the Abyss's red moon, the sound of human life began.
This marked the start of the most reckless, romantic, absurd "Abyss squatting" in hunter history.