A Hero's Smile in Hell

Did you come to save me? The memory of that day was still vivid. A gate had appeared in the middle of the city, indiscriminately swallowing people whole. I was just a twelve-year-old girl at the scene back then.

That day, I got separated from my parents and dragged into the gate. It was hell in there. Bizarre monsters tore people apart like insects, and the screams and blood from the victims drenched the entire space in madness.

In that hellish nightmare, all a little girl like me could do was cry and run. I ran until my lungs burned, stumbled, got back up, and repeated it all over again. The sensation under my feet went numb; I couldn't even tell what I was stepping on.

How long did I run like that? Finally, I saw the end of the dungeon. A crack of light splitting the dead-end wall like a fissure—the escape route. Tears streaming down my face at the thought of survival, I bolted toward it.

That was the moment despair struck again. Monsters lurking in the shadows emerged ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one by one, as if they'd been waiting, surrounding me in an instant. No place to run. I'm going to die. Those two thoughts flashed through my mind, snuffing out even the faintest hope. In the end, I squeezed my eyes shut in resignation.

It happened right then. A red flash blazed. Exactly two seconds later, a sharp explosive crack ripped through the air. When I opened my eyes again, every monster around me had been bisected. And stepping over their corpses, a man appeared. He stroked my head and said,

I just stared up at him, speechless. The man gently helped me to my feet.

"Am I going alone? What about you, Uncle?"

He gave my back a light push toward the exit, then turned and stepped into the deep darkness of the dungeon—the very hell I'd desperately fled from—to rescue others. That day, I saw it with my own eyes. The face of a man walking into hell with a casual smile. Staring at his back, I repeated it in my heart: That's a true hero. It was much later that I learned he was Korea's first and only S-rank hunter, Blade.

I wanted to pay back the grace he showed me ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠by extending it to someone else. I wanted to save people. To be the kind of person who confidently offers a hand at the moment someone's life crumbles. Just like him. But I had no talent as a hunter. So I chose another path. Even if I couldn't stand on the front lines, I could support the hunters from behind and save lives that way. That's why I, Lee Hyun-ah, joined the Hunter Association.

My usual duties were surprisingly mundane and repetitive. Organizing reports, reviewing dispatch logs, even coordinating hunters' vacation schedules. It was a far cry from what I'd imagined, but I never once thought my work was insignificant. After all, wasn't I contributing to saving lives? That alone was reason enough for a sense of mission. So I gave my all to everything. I didn't skimp on even the smallest tasks and looked after my juniors diligently. Except for one.

"·····Baek Ahjin."

Just thinking of that name still made my blood boil. 'I don't really respect him that much, though?' That was the nonsense Baek Ahjin spat out at a company dinner. About Blade, of all people. And what came next was even worse. 'He kept throwing himself into danger until he burned out. Didn't he know his own worth? Isn't that just stupid?' Is that something you say about the national hero who spent his life saving citizens and died protecting them to the very end? Even if it was drunken rambling, I couldn't forgive it.

I lost my temper and splashed water in her face right there, ending our first team dinner in disaster. Sure, she became an outcast at work after that, which is a bit pitiful, but it's mostly her own fault. This is the Hunter Association, after all. Most employees revere and admire Blade, the hunters' idol. She'd publicly disgraced him. Of course she'd get the cold shoulder.

"Thinking about it just pisses me off again."

I half-stood in my chair and glanced at Baek Ahjin's desk. It was empty.

"Where's Ahjin?"

"Didn't you hear? She got pulled for on-site support earlier."

With the gate incident blowing up, I'd been too swamped to notice. But that was that, and this was weird.

"She just left without reporting to her senior?"

My temper flared again. Just you wait until you get back.

"Achoo!"

A sneeze burst out of nowhere. Someone talking behind my back? I rubbed my nose and scanned the road near the park. Cars had been a tangled mess of panic just minutes ago, but thanks to my traffic control, order was restoring itself.

"Stop. Right-lane vehicles, move first."

I stood in the middle of the road, waving the red glow stick to direct traffic. The vehicles followed my signals, and soon the jam cleared like a drained gutter. Before long, I was the only one left on the asphalt.

"·····Aigoo, that was exhausting."

After years of desk work, jumping into the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠field was a real wake-up call. I tapped my shoulder with the glow stick and headed off the road. Next stop: inside the park. Seoul Park. Walking along the grass led under a massive overpass, where a blue glow shimmered. A rift like a crack in the air hung in the void, its leaking light warping space. That was the gate. I'd never seen one this close ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up.

A few on-site response team members were at the gate. I reported straight to the leader.

"Traffic control's done."

"Already? Didn't you say this was your first time on-site?"

"Did it like Tetris. Pretty straightforward."

"Te-Tetris?"

Ji Kang-hyun, the on-site response team leader, blinked in disbelief. Then he checked his tablet PC and coordinated the next steps.

"Alright, handle gate access control from now on. We've got to head to the Han River for support."

"Got it. Go ahead."

They handed off to me and left the park. Alone now, I skimmed the tablet PC they'd given me.

Two hours had passed since the gate opened. In that time, two C-rank hunter teams had entered, and the gate had quickly entered the stabilization phase. The dungeon boss defeated, the rift weakened. At this stage, the gate was essentially safe, all threats neutralized.

"Guess that's why they left it to a grunt like me."

The Han River situation, where the on-site team headed, was grim. The tablet had that info too.

The gate popped up at dawn, but progress was stuck at 26%. The reason? No S-rank hunters. To clear efficiently, you need a rank higher than the gate's danger level. C-rank for D-rank gates, so S-rank for A-rank. But Korea had none, so A-rank hunters were grinding it out. The gap between S and A was like heaven and earth—progress dragged, obviously.

"Whatever, not my problem."

I stuck to my assignment. Simple: Keep civilians away until the hunters finished. All I had to do.

"Should I clap when they come out or something?"

I tilted my head, stroking my chin. First time on-site; I had no clue. I'd mull it over alone until they emerged.

"But seriously, why haven't they come out?"

An hour passed waiting at the gate. No hunters. Weird, given the stabilization phase.

"Should I call HQ for backup·····."

As I fiddled with the radio, my vision flashed red. The tablet blared an alarm.

I checked the tablet, then the gate. The once-stable rift now spewed violent red energy. The crack had grown massively.

"This is getting dangerous·····."

As I reached for the radio to call for help, the red light from the gate swallowed me whole.

"They said it was a D-rank dungeon!"

"Less talking, more running!"

"Damn it! Should've just taken the day off!"

The C-rank hunters from Pungnang Guild raced through the maze. Pre-entry intel pegged it D-rank. But a higher-tier monster from a hidden room flipped everything.

'·····That thing was beyond us.'

Team leader Park Sung-hyun led the retreat. At the maze's end, a silhouette appeared.

"What's that?"

The hazy figure was human, holding what looked like a long, glowing red weapon in one hand.

'Some kind of lightsaber?'

Whoever it was, entering solo with that meant high-rank hunter. Park led his team there—and went speechless.

"Why are you here·····."

A familiar face from a few Hunter Association encounters. Her striking looks stuck in his memory: the service team guide.

"Wait, then that red lightsaber earlier was···"

Park glanced at the red glow stick in her right hand. Just a traffic wand.

"Ah."

Park Sung-hyun and his team fell silent.