Story 0: The Fall

For the plan I had improvised to work, two things were absolutely essential.

One was Yoo Jinchae's help. The other was a little time.

"The summoning ritual will begin this morning at 4:44. Until then, believers, please rest comfortably where you are."

Fortunately, time was something we had.

Current time: 3:44 AM.

I could hear the man on the platform helpfully announcing the exact hour down to the minute for the benefit of his faithful.

I went straight over to Yoo Jinchae, who lay curled up on the floor like a shrimp.

She looks a little ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠better than she did earlier, at least.

With my freed hands, I set down the bag I'd been carrying this whole time, then slid it under her head so it wasn't resting directly on the bare floor.

The Baekgu doll I detached and tucked into my pocket separately.

I brushed back the blonde strands stuck to Jinchae's sweat-damp forehead and spoke.

"Teacher, if it isn't too much trouble, there's something I'd like to ask."

Her quietly closed eyelids fluttered at my question, then opened with effort.

"……Ask away."

"You seem to have acrophobia. How severe is it?"

For a moment Jinchae's face crumpled in embarrassment, but then, as if she'd given up on everything, she let out a deflated laugh.

"Bad enough that I'm lying here like an idiot~"

So… very serious, then.

In this state, forget carrying out the plan — I wasn't even sure Jinchae could jump clear if this place started collapsing around us.

In the end, after agonizing over it, I asked her one more question.

"Teacher, hypothetically — if your acrophobia improved a little, could you transform into that man over there?"

Rolling only her eyes, she checked past my thumb, which was pointing precisely at my back.

He would be heading this way by now, most likely.

That cult-leader bastard.

"That plank-faced bastard?"

"Yes. That one."

"……I mean, sure. Mana refills on its own as long as I sit still and don't use my abilities. But it wouldn't do any good. My body's completely locked up right now. Even if I turned into him, what exactly could I do?"

"……"

Jinchae, who had been staring at empty air, spoke in a voice tinged with sadness.

"I've tried everything. It doesn't work. Every single time I go somewhere high, it's always…. I've done counseling. I've even received so-called treatment for outright nonsense. Nothing helped. It's infuriating."

Watching her like that, I let out a sigh — then pulled off my outer jacket and dropped it straight over her face.

"……What is this?"

"Cover yourself. That plank-faced bastard looks like the cult leader. There's no way the cult leader doesn't know Team Leader Moon Chaeyoung's face."

After all, even the borrowed shell of Moon Chaeyoung's face was gone now.

I dusted off my knees, stood, and called out to Jinchae.

"Teacher."

"Yes?"

"My way of doing this might be different."

"Pardon?"

The footsteps approaching from behind were growing louder. I listened closely to that sound as I looked at the status window floating in the air.

"Because it's already been verified once."

When 'NEW STORY' had suddenly appeared for Kwon Haeseong too, it had been a past directly tied to his psychological trauma.

I don't exactly relish reading other people's pasts, but there's no way around it right now.

If I viewed this, there was a strong chance Jinchae's mental stability would rise automatically as well.

If that happened, she'd at least be able to stand and walk on her own…. There's no reason to hesitate.

"Yes."

Steadying my heart, I lightly placed my hand on top of it….

The world flipped over — and finally, it shifted.

Ah.

Not into an underground chamber crawling with fanatics.

But into the middle of a ruined Seoul that looked like the apocalypse itself.

Na Hwiyeon opened his eyes. Sure enough, his consciousness had settled into the body of someone familiar.

Yoo Jinchae's body.

He dragged his gaze downward and realized he was wearing the exact same field uniform Lee Seohyeok always had on.

Whoa, hold on — this woman was a Hunter too?

He'd wondered about it before — the mention of close-quarters combat training, of having conducted interrogations, how casually she threw around the word "civilians" — but….

And she's from BOND, same as Kwon Haeseong?

A blue shoulder patch emblazoned with 'BOND' was stitched onto the right shoulder.

No, seriously — why?

Why would you take a job at the kindergarten sitting directly next to the company you quit?

It was structured so that running into your former coworkers was practically guaranteed at least once a day, wasn't it?

Isn't that awkward for both sides? Is she a masochist?

If it were him, he'd have sworn never to set foot within ten meters of the place the moment he resigned.

While he was recoiling at his host body's past life choices, the body abruptly began moving on its own.

I've been through this once, but it still feels awful.

As before, the only thing he could control was the movement of the eyes.

What the shared vision showed him was a gate spewing aurora light, and beyond it, a bridge sheared clean in half.

Through the gap in that broken bridge, a crushed car was plummeting toward the river below.

Where is this?

Barely had the question formed before, just as with Kwon Haeseong, fragments of information began pouring in like a torrent.

And with them, he felt Yoo Jinchae's memories and emotions seep into him, undiluted.

……A C-rank dungeon clearance request that had come in one ordinary day.

A dungeon judged to have no resources worth extracting, no monsters of note to be found, and therefore no further value in maintaining.

Having heard the assignment team's briefing, her team had accepted the request without much deliberation.

C-rank? Just a little grunt work, then.

But the moment they actually entered, hollow laughter had escaped at the scenery inside.

A silence like the end of the world.

Crumpled, abandoned cars lining the streets.

And, naturally, not a single human figure anywhere.

"You bastards. You said it was a plains dungeon."

Crrrick. The sound had come from Yoo Jinchae's mouth as she cracked her neck, loud enough to hear.

Assignment team bastards, every last one of them. I chewed them out last week when they handed me that garbage request, so this is their little payback, huh?

She fiddled with the watch on her wrist a few times, then heaved another huge sigh.

"Argh…. And nobody's answering their calls. This is driving me insane."

In the end, she decided to move for now.

She quickened her pace. Following her soundlessly moving legs, the scenery whipped past.

She combed between buildings, flinching at the faintest stir of air, searching for something.

What Yoo Jinchae was looking for was clear.

Her teammates — and the boss of this dungeon.

All four members of the team, herself included, had opened their eyes scattered to the four winds the instant they crossed the gate.

Getting separated inside a dungeon is dangerous.

Yoo Jinchae threw herself into a desperate search for her teammates, driven by that simple and terrifying truth.

Telling herself that her teammates had to be doing exactly the same.

So roughly four hours went by….

Yoo Jinchae came to a stop in front of a certain department store.

Old and partially collapsed, yet compared to the buildings around it, relatively intact.

As she stood staring up at the building, a fairly plausible suspicion naturally bubbled up.

"Don't tell me those bastards are hiding somewhere and slacking off."

They were usually so relentlessly mischievous that she wanted to believe it — but….

Failing to run into each other even once, while all of them were searching for one another, was hard to accept, and so her thoughts had drifted this far.

Hmm… somewhere big with lots of amenities, like a department store, would be perfect for hiding out and cooking up a scheme.

She knew perfectly well they turned dead serious in the field, but right now she would honestly have preferred a prank…

"No. If they get caught pulling that, they're dead. Dead, I say."

She smothered the sourceless, anxious imagination the instant it rose, burying it under anger.

Then, using that anger as fuel, Yoo Jinchae stormed into the department store without hesitation.

…A dust-caked revolving door creaked around, and the first floor of the department store came into view, every light dead.

She swept the first floor quickly, then stomped up the motionless escalator, climbing toward the upper levels.

Past the first floor where cosmetics and accessories had been displayed, she scanned the second and third floors packed with women's clothing.

Impatience bled into every footstep.

Only after about another hour had passed did Yoo Jinchae finally reach the sixth floor, where the appliances and furniture were gathered.

Nothing to show for any of it.

"Can't even find a single hair on their heads."

By now, she had accepted the reality she'd been straining so hard to deny.

Something was very, very wrong.

It was one of those moments that made her years of hunter life feel like a joke.

"To only figure this out now — what a grade-A dumbass…. Ha, seriously."

Even standing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠still and steadying her breathing, her heart refused to settle.

Below her throat, anxiety and fear swayed and sloshed.

Yoo Jinchae sat down heavily on the nearest visible bed and buried her face in her palms.

Slow, deep breaths, over and over, as she tried to… gather her thoughts.

……Forget the boss. Grab the kids and get out.

Yes. Simple.

Simple…, right?

So what if her pride took a dent, retreating from a C-rank dungeon?

"Staying alive comes first."

For all she knew, it wasn't even a real C-rank to begin with.

"Assignment team, you sons of bitches — the second we're out of here, I'm flipping this whole damn company ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠over."

It was the very moment she forced her boneless legs to move and tried to rise again.

"……Tea–cher!"

?

"Hey…! Team Leader, you– bastard!"

At the familiar voice, her body shot upright. She turned her head, straining to focus on the faint, distant sound….

The voice was coming from the long full-length mirror standing right beside the bed.

"Hey!"

"Team Leader!!"

Inside the full-length mirror, one of her teammates was shouting in her direction.

No visible injuries — but their face was caked head to toe in dust and grime.

They were clutching the mirror and yelling something, but it barely came through. Yoo Jinchae snatched hold of the mirror in turn and shouted back at the figure inside.

"Where are you?! Where are the kids? Hey, get out of there right now! Gather at the gate!"

"……What— was that? I can't hear you!"

"No — hey! Just get out! Get out through the same gate you came in, unless you want to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠die!!"

"……What? — No, where even is this—"

Her chest tight with frustration, Yoo Jinchae's gaze snagged on the scenery behind her teammate inside the mirror.

Where the hell is that?

A cabinet crammed full of cups. Several coffee roasting machines. Round tables and chairs lined up on either side.

A café so intact it looked as though a customer might burst in any second demanding a latte.

Granted, it was just as old and abandoned as everything else.

Yoo Jinchae bellowed into the mirror.

"Don't you move from there! I'm coming to you!"

"What?…… Ugh… what is she even saying."

"ARGH!!"

She spun on her heel and bolted out of the department store.

Emerging at blistering speed, she stormed into every single café she had passed on the way.

But.

Nothing.

Nothing, and—

nothing here either.

And then, at some point, Yoo Jinchae found herself standing at the very spot where the gate she had entered through should have been.

"……"

And at that same instant, Na Hwiyeon — sharing every last sensation with Yoo Jinchae — felt his mind flash white.

The screen — no, the vision — shook chaotically before locking hard onto a single point.

A river flowing past, and the half-destroyed bridge above it.

The gate had stood exactly there, offering a clear view of that scene.

But… it was gone.

"…F*ck."

The exit out of this hell had vanished.