Chapter 1
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: We Need a Male Counselor
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In Korea, if you're born a man in your twenties, there's one national institution you have no choice but to visit, whether you like it or not.
The army.
They say back in the day, if you were an orphan, you could get exempted or do public service—at least there was some basic human decency.
But things are different now.
Is this the power of low birth rates?
For the simple reason that "there aren't enough people," I—a complete orphan with no parents—was classified as fit for active duty and dragged off to that godawful army.
"...Fuck?"
At first, it was truly hellish.
I couldn't understand why I had to go through this shit even here.
But isn't humanity the animal that adapts?
After enduring my rookie private days, then moving up to private first class and corporal, around the time I started feeling this weird sense of camaraderie for the first time.
Those guys from the unit who had become like real family in that hellhole.
Before I knew it, they were my backbone, and I was theirs.
Of course, it started off brutally.
On my first day transferring in.
Just because I had no parents, I was branded as trash.
"What the hell are we supposed to do with this kid..."
The battalion held a meeting, and the assignment they dumped on me was none other than counseling soldier.
I blanked out for a second.
'Counseling?'
That's work for professionals who peer into people's souls.
I'd barely finished middle school, passed the GED, and spent my days doing hard labor on construction sites.
Me, counseling someone?
But the battalion commander was nonchalant.
"It's no big deal. Just listen to their complaints, nod along appropriately. Summarize what you hear in a report and send it up. Got it?"
And just like that, I became a counseling soldier. I started the job with zero expectations, but it began awakening something inside me.
Even though it was my first time doing counseling, sitting across from the other soldiers and talking made their feelings feel like my own.
The anger and pain they'd bottled up after being dragged here against their will.
As I listened to the seniors and juniors venting it all out, I found myself empathizing before I knew it. Nodding along, truly caressing their hearts.
'Do I... actually have a talent for this?'
The role felt strangely natural, to the point where that thought crossed my mind.
Then one day.
As I neared the end of my service as a sergeant, a private opened the counseling room door and walked in.
At that moment, a strange feeling hit me.
The counseling room was often used to dodge duties, even during work hours.
Honestly, it was mostly corporals and above with some seniority.
I knew they were just avoiding work, and it made human sense, so I'd usually turn a blind eye—that was my style.
But that private was different.
His eyes were bloodshot red. The second he opened his mouth, he burst into sobs and collapsed onto the counseling room floor.
"It's too much. I really just want to kill them all. I'm going insane... for real...!"
I froze solid.
Me? Just another conscript dragged here by the state.
No expertise, no certifications, no exceptional empathy.
All I could manage was an awkward pat on the back and a vague "I'll look into it."
In that instant, I could feel it.
This kid was truly breaking down. And yet, I couldn't do a damn thing.
I desperately wanted to help somehow.
I knew I couldn't just send him back like this.
But reality brutally reminded me I had no tools in my hands.
So I had no choice but to send him away.
Looking back now, that was the worst thing I could have done.
I let a kid with clear symptoms go, and that dawn...
The incident happened.
A firearm misfire accident.
And I... got shot by that junior and died.
Being born without parents was unfair enough.
But to have my dying moment end with "If you're hurt, it's your fault, son" in the Korean army? Really?
Is this level of bullshit even allowed in a person's life?
The dingy semi-basement room from my previous life.
In that cramped, damp hellhole where I couldn't even dream of such a sight, a view I never imagined now unfolded before my eyes.
High ceilings.
Clean air.
Out the window, the Seoul skyline at a glance from a high-rise apartment.
Lying on a plush bed, I leisurely opened my eyes once more today.
"Back then, I really thought it was over."
The day the bullet pierced my body.
Even thinking about it now sends chills down my spine.
The agony as my heart stopped, twisting through my entire body—it felt like my organs were being wrung out.
I thought that was the end, but warmth returned to my dead body.
When I opened my eyes, a cold sensation touched my skin. Snow was pouring from the sky.
...I'd clearly died in the middle of summer.
With a strange feeling, I reached out my arm, and my hand was astonishingly small and delicate.
More than that, I couldn't speak or even control my body properly.
That's when I realized.
I'd become a baby in a basket.
Not another world, not another country—just back in Korea.
Again as an orphan with no parents, my second life began.
Tears came bursting out on their own.
Startled by the cries, nuns came rushing out from the church nearby.
What sin had I committed in my past life to be reset as a total underdog again?
Fuck, why an orphan again?
But I didn't know back then.
That a life ending at twenty, dragged to the army before I could even bloom, gunned down by a junior, would gift me this reincarnation.
That this life, reborn as a "man" in Korea again, would be completely different from the previous world.
I first sensed something off right after starting elementary school.
Amid basic subjects like Korean, math, and social studies, there was a class called "Hunter Theory," where the teacher said:
"Alright, today we'll learn about the origins of dungeons and the dinosaur extinction~."
...Dungeons? Dinosaurs? Extinction? What the hell kind of nonsense is this? But in this world, it was common knowledge.
Dungeons existed since the dinosaur age, and dinosaurs were all slaughtered by monsters pouring out of them or something.
After that mass extinction, Earth fell into humanity's hands, and after countless sacrifices and trial-and-error, a profession to conquer dungeons was born.
Hunters.
And the most shocking fact? All hunters are women.
The superhuman skill and level-up system only manifests in women.
That's why, from ancient times, women with far higher survival rates survived, while men were pushed to near extinction.
In this world, that was just how things rolled, as if it were the most natural thing.
Male-to-female ratio: 1:10.
Men are a rare species, less than 10% of humanity.
I was one of those men.
A previous life no one knew about, forgotten even in death.
But now, just existing got me state subsidies, and thanks to the Men's Protection Law, all sorts of benefits followed. I was the protagonist of a cushy life.
I could study normally, go to school, worry about my future.
It was a dreamlike life I'd only imagined.
Above all, that damned army.
No more mandatory service just because I'm a man. Exemption was the best part.
For real.
Thanks to that, the moment I turned adult, I gained independence in a whole floor of a high-rise apartment overlooking Seoul.
For reference, this place is called Men's Safe Housing—a state-subsidized apartment with free rent for life, men only.
And hilariously, the facilities are top-notch, complete with a pool in the complex.
Seriously, it felt like all the hardships of my past life were being compensated.
Of course, still no parents, but being protected and living off the grid just for being male? Fine by me.
Honestly, reminiscing about my past life, I thought this one could just be coasting easy to a happy ending and dying old.
But.
The final day of my previous life was etched deep in my mind.
I'd tried counseling for the first time, it suited me well enough to boost my ego a bit.
Then I faced a junior who truly needed counseling... but I had nothing to offer.
Realizing I was just a frog in a well, powerless, he shot me, and I died.
Maybe that's why.
Even now, with money and a leisurely life, I wanted to properly pursue the job that led to my death in my past life.
Counselor.
So I majored in psychiatry and took the certification exams.
During my studies, people around me lost their minds.
"Men should learn cooking or laundry—what's with chasing some fake job?" I heard it endlessly.
But in the end, I did it.
Age twenty-seven.
After a bit of a delay, I graduated psychiatry and became a proud licensed specialist.
Money? No shortage thanks to men's protection benefits. Fame? Not interested.
I truly wanted to reach out a hand to someone in a place where I was needed.
So one day, as I was firing off resumes to government agencies, counseling centers, hospitals, welfare facilities...
Ding-dong.
The doorbell rang.
At first, I figured it was the usual.
In a world where men are so rare, delivery women often knocked instead of just leaving packages—dying for a glimpse of my face.
So I opened the door assuming the same, but the people standing there were different.
Black suits, sunglasses, radiating government agent vibes.
"Are you Kim Seungbin?"
"Uh, yeah... that's me."
"We checked your application for psychiatry positions. Mind if we come in and talk?"
A vague unease washed over me at their sudden visit.
And as they casually downed the hot tea I'd offered like it was nothing, the words they dropped next froze me in place.
"I'll be direct. Seungbin, could you become a dedicated counselor for hunters?"
"...Pardon?"
"It's no exaggeration to say that Korea—no, the whole world—is protected by hunters. But no matter their superhuman powers, they're still human. Still women."
The National Intelligence Service continued slowly.
"And for those women, they desperately need a male counselor who'll truly listen to their stories. Desperately!"