Chapter 1
Chapter 1
0. When a Hole Was Punched in the Ceiling of the World -1
Mom.
I'll see you soon.
Once a disturbance passes a certain level, it actually feels quiet. I mean it.
Wee-ong, wee-ong, wee-ong.
Noise sharp enough to pierce the eardrums blared over a muffled sensation, as if submerged in water. The siren wailed away diligently, emphasizing that this was an emergency.
Under the red flashing emergency lights, people danced. Their faces contorted with anxiety and terror, they ran in every direction, thrashing through their final struggle.
Most of them were hurling whatever their hands grabbed, or clutching receivers and repeating meaningless words. And footsteps. Footsteps urgent as if fleeing somewhere, but ultimately unable to go anywhere.
Beeeeep──
And a long ringing in the ears.
All that commotion somehow sounded quiet and still, as though I were watching it all from far away, with the distance of an entire room between us.
"Magic power reaction... off the scale! The detection equipment isn't functioning properly! I-I've never seen or heard of readings like this...!"
"God damn it, Seoul can't stop this. With the people we have here, there's absolutely no way we can stop it! Get an emergency line to New York, now! No, anywhere! Request reinforcements! Tell them if this place falls, they're next!"
"Th-the signal won't go through! The magic power storm is too strong, the communication equipment is—"
"Fuck, I said get that goddamn signal through somehow! We're all going to fucking die at this rate?!"
BANG! Crunch.
An innocent desk split in half under Team Leader Park's hand. He was acting like he was furious, but in truth, it was a scream wearing the mask of rage.
In fact, everything happening in this room was a scream.
Right.
They say a person drowning in water... lets out their final breath when their life runs out. Yeah, that's it. We too, sensing instinctively that this moment would be our last, were letting out the final breath that had pooled in a corner of our hearts.
Scolding subordinates even while knowing it was meaningless, raising our voices even while knowing it was futile, shoving off responsibility that couldn't be asked of anyone—begging someone, anyone, to take it.
But please understand this ugliness. Team Leader Park is a good person.
It's just that... the reality reflected on that external monitor was too heavy and terrifying to be handled by "a good person" alone.
Woooooo──
Something was descending from the hole punched in the sky. Something shaped like the roots of some bulbous plant. Small tentacles extended from the center of a massive circular mass.
It was so immense that it seemed to defy perspective. A single strand—a mere fragment of a tentacle—could wrap around a building and bring it down.
More than anything, you could feel it on your skin.
The sensation that the entire sky had turned into a solid wall. The suffocating weight of being buried deep in earth that could never be moved.
[Magic Power Reading: Unrecognizable (EX)]
EX-grade.
A grade read as "Evaluate X"—because it cannot be contained even by the three-inch tongue of a human.
That thing, I couldn't beat it even if there were hundreds of millions of me. No matter how we thrashed, it was an existence we could never defeat. And so.
I'll be able to see my mother's dear face again soon. My shabby intuition accepted the end with my entire body.
I sat still for a long while, face buried in my hands. I couldn't tell whether what flowed between my fingers was cold sweat or tears. Distinguishing between them was meaningless anyway. Either way, they were fluids from a body that would soon be dead and gone.
I never imagined life would end so emptily.
Looking back, this damn life never used a turn signal. More precisely... failure never signaled before merging in. It always slammed in with absurd suddenness.
Like how I worked myself to death and got right up to the brink of an idol debut, only for the CEO's son to shove his way in and push me to the back. Like how I became a third-rate idol no one had even heard of.
Like how I clung desperately to idol life because all that effort felt like a waste, and then a drama I'd appeared in without a second thought became a hit, and I thought maybe I'd finally see some sunlight—only for the Gate Incident to erupt right after and flip the world upside down.
Like how I scraped by in the 21st-century restored monarchy of the Republic of Korea, sucking up to hunters, and then finally awakened as a hunter myself and thought I'd get to enjoy life a little—only for this.
"Hunter Noah Won, Hunter Noah Won!"
"Yes. Yes... Team Leader Park. I'm listening."
"Fuck, we can't even get a line to New York, and those Beijing bastards won't pick up at all. Jamming devices aren't working either...! What—what are we supposed to do now...?"
"Even if you ask me that."
After civil wars and infighting, hunters pointing blades at each other, and invasions from beyond the Gates intensifying—the Republic of Korea shattered into dozens of pieces, people died, and I thrashed to survive in the middle of it all, until finally.
"Isn't Seoul yours?! We—we citizens of Seoul—have no one to trust but Hunter Noah Won...!!"
Before all that, I'd been nothing but a third-rate idol, and not only did I end up clutching the ridiculous title of A-rank hunter in this restored-monarchy world, I ended up responsible for the people of this city.
And now even that was about to become ashes. This small patch of land I'd protected by cutting into my sleep, scraping and clawing—it was about to be brought down by an enemy unprecedented in the history of Earth.
It withered. In my heart, slowly, from the tips of the petals.
The comrades who protected Seoul with me, the politicians who walked on eggshells trying to stay on my good side, the citizens who handed me an apple with words of thanks, the bastards who told me to compensate them for collapsed buildings.
The flower of all those years of laughing and crying withered, shriveled, dried up, and collapsed at the stem, pathetically shrunken like a candle burned to nothing.
Look.
The miser inside me sneered. See, it withered anyway in the end. So why did you water it so diligently? You dumbass. Should've just never grown it in the first place.
And yet, when I clutched the grave of those dying flowers, something surged up.
Stubbornness.
"...Fuck."
Stubbornness I'd tried to put down countless times because it was filthy and petty, but clung to until the very brink of death.
The last handful of stubbornness remaining at the very bottom of my heart made me move.
Yeah, fuck it. I'd been knocked down time and time again. And from now on, I wouldn't even have the chance to be knocked down anymore. Because it would all be over. Because we'd all die.
So at the very least... I intended to go down swinging until the very end. Thoroughly. Until I'd gotten it out of my system.
I would not lie down and accept death like this. If I was going, I'd at least go with my head held high, looking cool.
I crooked a finger at Team Leader Park.
"Give me the communicator."
"...Excuse me?"
I didn't bother with the usual courtesy. What courtesy, when we're all about to die?
"I said give me the New York communicator."
"But the magic power storm has knocked everything out—"
"It's different when an A-rank hunter uses it. If I use it, the signal will punch through the storm. If I get through, I'll try making a request for rescue."
"Y-yes, sir! Hey! Bring the communicator right now! Handle it carefully, batteries and all!"
When I dropped the pleasantries and spoke cynically, Team Leader Park snapped to attention and moved in a flurry.
Part of it was probably shock, since I never acted like that.
But my attitude of trying something—anything—gave him hope that maybe, just maybe, we could survive. That's why he moved so briskly instead of collapsing to the floor.
Even if we all died, dying with hope would be better. I didn't bother correcting his misunderstanding. He wouldn't have wanted me to, either.
I took the communicator from Team Leader Park and stepped out onto the building's rooftop.
Goooooo──
A terrifyingly heavy wind fluttered across the sky, and beyond those buildings, the EX-grade calamity was in full, clear view. That bastard was my death.
At least hundreds of tentacles were scraping across the ground, bringing down every building in sight. Tower Palace, which had been barely repaired in a harsh environment and was functioning as a "symbol of hope," had just snapped at the waist with a crack.
It had been a zombie of a building, kept alive with nothing but patched-on framework, but even if it had been built properly, it probably would've been cut in half.
If I poured every stored attack I had onto that monster, could I even scratch it? Probably not.
"Hoooooo..."
I connected the New York communicator I'd brought and infused it with magic power. As the condensed magic power of an A-rank hunter entered the device, I could faintly hear the internal circuits burning out—tick, tick. A kind of overclocking.
It would probably be scrap metal by the time this call was over.
Click.
After a brief wait, the line connected. A voice I'd heard a few times before came through the communicator. It belonged to Max Owen, the only S-rank hunter on Earth.
-Hunter Noah Won?
"Impressive guess. This communicator shouldn't have any caller ID function."
-I've already been briefed on the regrettable situation in Seoul. The only person in Seoul who could push a signal through an EX-grade Monster Tree's magic power storm is Hunter Noah Won. Simple deduction.
"Then you already know what I'm going to ask. People are dying by the hundreds as we speak, so I'll be direct. Seoul needs support."
New York was the only hope in this situation. Of all the city-states, New York had the most hunters, and above all, it had Max Owen himself, an S-rank hunter.
In an era where everyone was desperate just to survive, they alone had the luxury to reach out to others. But Max Owen answered without a moment's hesitation, sharp as a blade.
-I can't do that. I can't leave New York.
"As far as I know, New York is in a stabilized state right now. It's probably the safest place on Earth. Seoul, on the other hand, is literally on the brink of collapse."
-My answer is that there's nothing to gain from stepping in. A battle with an EX-grade Monster would be extremely costly. If you were me, would you go?
I wouldn't have gone. Who in their right mind would head to a foreign country to resolve a crisis on the other side of the world? I'd thrown it out there just in case, but what I actually meant to request wasn't combat.
"The support I'm talking about is evacuation support. I gave up on defending Seoul a long time ago. At least save the citizens. If not you, then one of your hunters—even just one."
-I can't do that. I'll say it again: I have no intention of participating in a fight against an EX-grade Monster.
"...My team and I will handle the battle with the EX-grade Monster. Just help evacuate the civilians while we buy time."
-Unfortunately, I can't do that either.
My brow furrowed on its own. His attitude was more unyielding than I'd expected. Was this really something to refuse so adamantly? I took a deep breath and stepped back one more pace.
"Fine. We'll fight on our own and evacuate on our own. Still, I trust you'll at least accept refugees. As you know, Seoul's population is quite valuable. Lots of skilled professionals, and we even have three doctors."
-I can't do that.
"........"
-Let me make a counteroffer. Hunter Noah Won. Bring only your hunter team and come to New York. I'll promise you treatment worthy of your rank.
"Hah."
Only then did I understand Max Owen's intent. He didn't have the slightest intention of saving Seoul's citizens.
I could understand it. Sure, he'd rather recruit hunter personnel than civilians. With most of Earth's land occupied by monsters, the usable territory would only keep shrinking.
But people were dying in droves. People, I said. Not monkeys—fellow human beings. Even if he made a cold-blooded choice for the sake of the city-state he led, couldn't he at least take a moment to deliberate?
No, wait—did he get that knighthood from the Queen of England shoved up his ass? This bastard used to be a police officer, and now—
"I won't go. I sincerely hope you come to regret this choice later."
-A shame. Good luck.
Crunch-!
I folded the New York communicator—now a lump of scrap metal—in half and kicked it flying. Goddamn bastard. The negotiation had gone up in smoke.
As I stood there cooling my anger, my T-shirt fluttering, beep. A signal tone sounded once in my in-ear, and a call came in from Minsik.
Kim Minsik. One of only three B-rank hunters in Seoul, and a friend who'd worked as my road manager.
-Noah Won, how'd it go? Are they sending support?
"Support isn't coming no matter how you slice it. He said if we're so upset, we should evacuate to New York ourselves."
-Knew it. Knew it, that son of a bitch. All he does is strut around because he's S-rank, but he doesn't do a goddamn thing. If he's gonna cosplay Captain America, he should do it right.
"Besides both speaking English, what else does that guy have in common with Cap?"
I perched on the building railing and casually talked shit about Max. Maybe it's because we're a people of humor—even in a situation where we were all about to die, jokes still came out.
-So... the nation's only A-rank hunter, the pride of the Republic of Korea, Mr. Noah Won. What do we do?
"........"
Yeah. What do we do.
That said, the truth was that our course of action was already set. With asylum requests and support requests both refused, we had to struggle however we could within our remaining capacity.
How far would we protect? How far would we embrace? And how far... would we remain?
I made my decision soon after.