A Sudden Vacation and a Shadowy Intruder
I wondered how someone who had never taken a single day off in their life would handle an unexpected holiday.
They couldn’t rest.
More precisely, they didn’t even know what to do while resting.
It had been three days since I turned a freelancer.
This was exactly how I felt right now.
Of course, it wasn’t the kind of break that came from pure choice.
The moment I left the guild, I had submitted raid applications for a few gates that had appeared on the association’s public board.
All of them had been rejected.
‘Kwon Taesoo must have put the pressure on.’
Depriving a lone hunter of even one gate would be nothing to a large guild that was really trying to crush you.
‘That’s a problem for later.’
For now, I had decided to take a few days of rest and figure out what to do next.
Three days had passed like that.
“…I’m so bored.”
I lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling.
Thinking back, I hadn’t had a proper day off in the past three years—and six years if you included academy days.
Normally I was either raiding gates, writing reports, or cleaning up the messes those idiots had caused.
I had lived in that endless hamster wheel, and suddenly the schedule vanished overnight.
“Haa…”
The first day had been nice.
I slept off the accumulated fatigue and ordered whatever I felt like eating.
But from the second day, my body started to itch all over…
Today the boredom meter had completely filled up.
“Ugh.”
The one saving grace was that the last three days hadn’t been completely peaceful, right?
‘…Maybe that’s actually lucky.’
The first night I caught two suspicious guys hanging around in front of the house.
The second day, three of them on the way to the convenience store.
And this morning, one more trying to sneak in through the window.
All of them had been targeting me.
‘Kwon Taesoo’s men, no doubt.’
No evidence, of course.
The ones I caught claimed they didn’t know the client, that they had just seen the job posting on a dark-web site and gone looking.
Still, I was pretty sure.
Black-market bounty hunters had been showing up nonstop since I left Baekya.
Practically 100% certain.
But…
All the guys who had come had been ridiculously weak.
Just enough to make me laugh if you tried to take down a Lv.6 like me.
‘Kwon Taesoo is cheap, yeah. The gear he sends out is crap.’
I was grumbling like that when I sat up.
I felt mana in the air outside the window.
On the rooftop of the building across from mine.
A black silhouette moved.
‘…Here again?’
The black figure hurled two daggers at me, then vanished with a soft whoosh.
About 160 cm tall.
‘A girl?’
Or maybe a short guy.
I hesitated for a second, then slipped my phone into my pocket.
‘Too bored to ignore. Come on then.’
I threw on an outer layer and stepped out of the house.
The black figure matched my pace perfectly, keeping a steady distance.
When I sped up, they fell back.
When I slowed down, they stopped and waited.
Every now and then they even flipped me off.
‘They’re telling me straight up to follow.’
The taunts made it obvious they weren’t even trying to hide a trap.
‘Let’s see how far this goes.’
I felt a little nostalgic, like chasing down a kid with a cop when I was younger. Not bad at all.
How far had I run?
After a long while the figure finally slowed.
Then they disappeared.
“…They came pretty far.”
I had chased them for about fifteen minutes from my apartment in Yongsan.
The map app showed their location in the northern Gyeonggi region.
Technically Seoul-adjacent, but the atmosphere here was completely different.
After North Korea collapsed, countless gates had been abandoned and Gate Breaks had occurred.
The aftermath still left the northern Gyeonggi area and parts of Gangwon-do packed with monsters.
Some cities had been restored, but just a short distance outside the city limits you could see abandoned villages and ruins everywhere.
The security situation had gone to hell as a result.
Plus, this was one of the places where unlicensed hunters and mercenaries who wanted to avoid association surveillance hung out the most.
The government had basically left some districts untouched.
Through the faint smell of narcotics I could hear arguing.
“You fucking bastard, I told you to pay me yesterday!”
“Ah, wait a second! I really got money coming in!”
“How many times have I heard this bullshit from you, you idiot?”
“You goddamn bastards! Get the hell out! What the hell are you doing in front of someone else’s house!”
“Fuck, is the trash bin your house now?”
On one side of the alley stood the so-called Drug Zombies, frozen in contorted postures from black-market mana narcotics.
Nearby, drug dealers were hustling hard.
“No stronger stuff? The last batch you gave me—damn, it let me go a long time.”
“You know the stuff’s rare these days. I’m struggling myself.”
“Fuck, just give me more money. I’ll triple it if you hand over whatever you’ve got. I’m desperate.”
“It’s not money. I don’t have any on me.”
“Fucking hell!”
If you ignored the fact that everyone here was Korean, it was basically like the American ghetto.
A little deeper in, women in cheap neon signs under flickering signs turned their heads toward us.
It was broad daylight, so the neon lights were off, but the hawking continued.
“Hey, you’re handsome. Don’t just walk away—let’s hang out a bit.”
“Yeah yeah, we’ll give you a good deal!”
It was loaded with innuendo.
One of them even reached for my arm.
I casually dodged.
“Enough. Actually, did you see a masked guy pass by a minute ago?”
“A mask?”
The women looked at each other, puzzled.
“Umm… I didn’t see anyone like that. You sure you weren’t imagining it?”
“Yeah, I didn’t see anyone. And I’m not into girls anyway.”
“Think about it. Black outfit. Height around this.”
I held my hand up to chest level.
“I don’t know. Maybe a couple of people passed.”
“Yeah. Why, did your girlfriend run off?”
“Not possible. If she had, I’d be happily chasing her.”
“Then how about we have fun instead? We’ll really take care of you.”
“No thanks.”
I didn’t like prostitution, and the way these women who looked older than me called me “oppa” felt off.
While I was scanning the surroundings, the figure reappeared on the rooftop of some derelict building in the distance.
This time they wiggled their fingers.
A clear “come here” gesture.
“Annoying.”
I answered with a middle finger of my own.
The figure froze.
‘Pissed off?’
I almost laughed.
I ignored the women and walked straight into the ruined building.
“Ugh, such a brat. You’re gay, right, oppa?”
“Change your mind and come back, oppa!”
Inside, it looked like an old warehouse: rusty metal furniture and broken glass littered everywhere.
No signs of people.
Except one.
“You came this far, so you might as well come out.”
They had been ignored.
I walked slowly toward the center.
And then.
‘They’re coming.’
I opened my eyes.
My vision turned blue.
At the same time, futures thirty seconds ahead overlaid my sight.
And.
“What the—?”
My vision split in an instant.
But there were a lot of them.
One.
Two.
…Ten?
In front of me were dozens of futures.
‘This many?’
It wasn’t my first time seeing it.
The stronger the opponent, the more futures appeared, and the more complex they became.
I had seen it a few times before.
The problem was…
‘Right here? In a place like this?’
For a bounty hunter hunting a reward, the level was way too high.
‘Top-tier ranker.’
That meant…
‘At least Lv.7 or higher.’
Clang!
From the darkness came the sound of chains and a black figure stepped out.
Two 15 cm daggers gripped in their hands.
Daggers of defeat, but if the user was skilled, that changed everything.
The moment they took their stance, the futures in front of me exploded into dozens.
I wouldn’t know which direction the attack would come from until I actually took it head-on.
‘Not even killing intent.’
The daggers in both hands.
The glass shards on the floor.
The chains hanging from the ceiling.
Everything the figure could touch could become an attack.
So the only way was…
‘Block everything.’
Whoosh—!
I swung the sword with all my might.
Clang!
The blade sliced through the front, and one dagger ricocheted off.
Instead of trying to pick off one at a time, I covered the entire incoming attack with my sword.
“…”
The figure staggered, then moved again.
Thud!
They kicked a steel pipe off the ground and used its handle to smash my sword.
“Hup!”
Crash!
When I hit the pipe with the sword, broken glass followed.
In the gap, two more daggers stabbed in.
Chink! Clang!
I knocked away what I could and swung my sword wide to clear the rest.
‘They’re using everything.’
The entire terrain around me moved like weapons for them.
Looking closer, I saw mana-infused wires strung everywhere.
‘They connected the glass to it.’
On top of that, the movements were strangely complete.
The kind of martial skill only people who had fought through countless battles could possess.
My guess that they were a top ranker, and definitely an Innate Ability User, hadn’t been wrong.
But after clashing swords a few times, something felt off.
‘They’re too weak.’
Their strength and mana were way below what I expected.
‘They’d be lucky to hit Lv.4.’
Would a martial arts master feel like this when stuck in a kid’s body?
My skill and current body didn’t line up at all.
The longer the fight went, the clearer it became.
Their breathing grew erratic, movements slowed.
Eventually the number of futures started dropping one by one.
‘Here it is.’
Ten.
Five.
Three.
And one.
When they dove left.
‘Now!’
I threw the sword aside without a second thought.
“……!”
The figure’s eyes widened at the unexpected move.
I used the opening to grab their wrist and twist their body.
‘Light.’
Boom!
The small body hit the floor.
I pressed my knee into their stomach and pinned their arms.
‘Were they wearing armor?’
The spot where my knee touched felt hard.
“I won. Are you ready to be a cop now?”
“…So mean.”
The voice was definitely female.
“What’s mean about it? There’s no rule against cheating in real combat.”
“…Even an inspector should know you can’t throw your sword when they’re fighting you.”
“I’m unemployed, so I don’t know that. Besides, I’m not even an inspector.”
I fixed their arms without thinking.
The figure’s body stiffened.
“By the way.”
“……Why?”
“Based on your movements you’re clearly a veteran, but why is your strength so low? How many days have you been starving?”
“…”
“Your muscle strength is a little above average for a normal person. Who sent you? Baekya? Or was it someone from Kwon Taesoo’s family?”
The figure turned their head, avoiding my gaze.
“…I’m not anyone like that.”
“No way. You stirred up that much trouble during broad daylight.”
I pulled the hood off.
“Wait.”
Along with the surprised voice, black hair spilled out.
Then I lifted the mask.
Her trembling eyes met mine.
“Don’t take that off.”
“Why. You think I’ll be in trouble if I see your face?”
“…Privacy violation.”
“So what?”
I ignored her words lightly.
Then I pulled the mask all the way off, revealing a face I knew.
“Umm… where have I seen that before.”
I searched my memory for a second, then remembered a case from years ago.
Back when I was at the academy.
There was a time when external exit controls were put in place because a brutal serial killer had appeared.
The face I had seen on the news so many times.
A hunter who had once reached Lv.8.
Later wanted for murdering fellow hunters.
‘No way…’
I remembered hearing they had been caught.
Plus, the hair color and eye color didn’t match.
‘Wanted poster said white hair, purple eyes. This one has black hair and black eyes.’
I overlapped the face in front of me with the memory.
Then, out of sheer disbelief, I called the name.
“Jin Seohyun?”
“……!”
It was the truth.
Her mana exploded from her lower abdomen, and my entire field of vision filled with futures of my own death.
Ten.
Twenty.
Fifty.
‘…Insane.’
More than a hundred futures of me dying.
[Curse description and effects]
The curse shattered her internal mana circuits and patched them together with sinister shadow art, degrading her effective combat power to Lv.4. Formerly the greatest talent in the Jin Clan, she had been framed four years ago for the massacre of her own raid team. Paternal granddaughter of the Jin Clan Head, now disguised with dyed black hair and dark eyes—pure white hair and striking purple eyes hidden beneath the illusion.
But in this moment, all of that was irrelevant.
Her body was light, her strength pitifully weak, her mana hollowed out by the curse.
Yet the futures still numbered over a hundred.
I pressed her down harder, knee on her stomach, arms pinned.
“Looks like you’re done.”
“…This isn’t over yet.”
Her voice was weak, but there was still fire in it.
I laughed.
“Too bad. You’re under arrest for attempted murder and illegal hunting.”
“……”
She didn’t respond.
I stood up, kicked the broken glass away from my feet, and looked around.
The derelict building creaked in the wind, but no one else came.
Good. I didn’t want any witnesses.
I grabbed the black figure by the collar and dragged them out.
The evening sky over Yongsan was already dark.
My apartment was a short walk away.
“Walk. If you try anything, I’ll throw you back in and call the cops myself.”
The figure didn’t resist.
Just walked.
I kept an eye on her the whole way.
But my mind was elsewhere.
A hundred futures of my own death.
It was ridiculous.
I had never seen anything like it before.
Even against top rankers I had fought, the number had never gone past ten or twenty.
This was something else.
Something that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
‘Jin Seohyun.’
Former Lv.8 Hunter.
Disgraced.
Framed.
But now?
Cursed.
And somehow… still chasing me.
I felt a strange mix of pity and disgust.
She had once been the pride of the Jin Clan.
The kind of prodigy who made the entire clan look up to her.
Now she was nothing more than a broken tool for Kwon Taesoo.
The kind of man who would use a former national elite as a disposable pawn.
I had been that pawn once.
Former superior, now de facto ruler of Baekya.
Vice Guild Master Kwon Taesoo.
Greedy, hypocritical, calculating.
He had sent hit contracts my way more times than I could count.
And now?
This.
I glanced sideways at the black-haired woman walking beside me.
She was still shaking.
Not from the cold.
From the humiliation.
From the knowledge that I had seen the real her.
From the fact that her future had already been written in futures.
I almost felt sorry for her.
Almost.
But then I remembered the guild report I had to file.
The gate I had abandoned.
The real estate fraud I had helped cover up.
And the man who would never face justice.
My expression hardened.
“Keep walking. Talk to me again and I’ll make sure you regret every second.”
The woman didn’t answer.
She just kept walking.
Toward whatever future Kwon Taesoo had planned for her.
I, Lee Hajin.
The man who had once been framed.
The man who had escaped.
The man who was now carrying the weight of the entire guild on his shoulders.
I was the one who was going to write her ending.
Not the other way around.
The thought should have made me feel powerful.
But all I felt was exhaustion.
A sudden vacation.
Boredom.
A hundred futures of death.
And the ghost of a former Lv.8 Hunter who had been broken by a curse.
It was all too much for one day.
I sighed again, pulled my phone out, and called the guild.
“Yo, it’s me. Yeah, the freelancer. Listen, I’ve been out for three days. No, I’m not dead. Yeah, the usual. Look, I’m taking a break. Yeah, all of them. No, I don’t know when I’ll be back. Yeah, whatever. Just shut up and pay me.”
I hung up.
Then I looked at the woman beside me.
“Welcome to your new life, Jin Seohyun.”
She still didn’t look at me.
But I could see her shoulders tremble.
I smiled.
It was the first real smile I had had in weeks.
“Welcome home.”
The night air of Yongsan was cold.
But for the first time in a long time, I felt warm.
Because I had finally found someone else who understood what it was like to be framed.
And to be hunted.
And to be used.
I had been that person.
Now she would learn it the hard way.
And I would make sure she never forgot.
The guild would pay for what they had done.
Kwon Taesoo would pay for what he had done.
And Jin Seohyun?
She would pay for trying to kill me.
With her life, if necessary.
I glanced at her again.
The black-haired girl who had once been the greatest talent in the Jin Clan.
Now nothing but a broken shadow.
I felt a strange satisfaction.
Not because I had won.
Because I had finally understood.
That in this world, some curses were stronger than even top rankers.
And some futures were written in blood.
And some hunters…
Would never get to live their own lives.
The thought should have felt dark.
But for once, it felt right.
Like a prophecy finally coming true.
I stopped walking.
Turned to face her.
“Listen.”
She finally looked at me.
Her purple eyes—real ones—met mine.
They were empty.
Hollow.
Like a doll that had been used too many times.
“Tomorrow you start working for me.”
She didn’t flinch.
Just waited.
I continued.
“For free. Until I say otherwise.”
The expression on her face didn’t change.
But her eyes widened slightly.
Just for a moment.
Then she looked away again.
I laughed.
“Good. You’ll fit right in.”
I turned and walked toward the apartment.
Behind me, I heard the sound of footsteps.
Small.
Reluctant.
But they followed.
I smiled again.
“Welcome to the team, Jin Seohyun.”
The night deepened.
And somewhere in the distance, another gate might have broken.
But that was someone else’s problem.
Mine was right here.
With the woman who had once been a national elite.
Now just another hunter.
Disguised.
Broken.
And finally, finally, starting over.
With me.
I didn’t know if it was mercy.
Or just revenge.
But for the first time in years.
I felt like I had found something.
A purpose.
A reason to keep going.
Even with a hundred futures of death still waiting.
I walked faster.
The apartment lights were on.
The door was unlocked.
I pushed it open and stepped inside.
Jin Seohyun followed without a word.
I threw my coat on the chair and poured myself a drink.
Then I turned to her.
“Sit.”
She sat.
I poured her a drink too.
“Drink.”
She drank.
The silence stretched.
Then she spoke.
“…Why am I here?”
I took a sip.
“Because you tried to kill me.”
She flinched.
I smiled.
“Relax. I’m not going to kill you.”
Not yet.
“At least not until you earn it.”
She looked at me.
Really looked.
Like she was seeing something she had never seen before.
Something in me.
Something that hadn’t been there before.
I put the glass down.
“You’re coming with me from now on.”
“…”
“Whether you like it or not.”
Her voice was quiet.
Almost resigned.
But there was something else in it.
Determination?
Resentment?
Or just the exhaustion of a curse-ridden body that had run out of options.
I didn’t know.
Didn’t care.
As long as she was there.
As long as she was useful.
As long as she was mine.
I stood up.
“Tomorrow we start training.”
“Training?”
“Yeah. You’re going to learn how to fight properly.”
“…”
“You’re not Lv.4 anymore.”
She didn’t answer.
But I could see the fire in her eyes.
The kind of fire that used to make the entire Jin Clan tremble.
I walked over to the window.
Looked out at the city lights.
Yongsan at night.
Full of gates.
Full of monsters.
Full of the same people who had tried to kill me tonight.
And would try again tomorrow.
I smiled.
“Welcome to the real world, Jin Seohyun.”
She stood up.
Walked to the window beside me.
Looked out with me.
For the first time, I felt like I wasn’t alone.
Even with a hundred futures of death.
Even with the curse.
Even with the guild.
The weight was still there.
But now there was someone else carrying part of it.
With me.
I turned.
She turned.
Our eyes met.
For the first time, neither of us looked away.
I extended my hand.
She didn’t take it.
But she didn’t pull away either.
Just stood there.
I smiled.
“Tomorrow, we start over.”
She nodded once.
Small.
Almost imperceptible.
But it was enough.
I turned back to the window.
The city lights flickered.
Somewhere out there, another future waited.
A hundred of them.
But for tonight.
Just one.
I was alive.
She was with me.
And that was enough.
The night deepened further.
And in the distance, a new gate opened.
But that was tomorrow’s problem.
Tonight, I had a team.
A broken one.
A cursed one.
But a team nonetheless.
And I had just started.
The game had changed.
The rules were different.
And I was finally, finally.
The one who decided.
Not the one who was decided.
I looked at the woman beside me.
Jin Seohyun.
Former Lv.8.
Disgraced.
Cursed.
Now simply.
Mine.
I laughed softly.
“Welcome home.”
The city lights reflected in her purple eyes.
For the first time in years.
She looked almost… human.
Almost.
I turned away.
Walked to the kitchen.
Began to cook.
Because tomorrow we trained.
Tomorrow we fought.
Tomorrow the world would burn.
And I would be ready.
With her.
By my side.
The thought should have been terrifying.
But it wasn’t.
It was freedom.
True freedom.
The kind I had never had before.
Because I had finally stopped running.
Stopped hiding.
Stopped being the pawn.
I was the one who moved now.
And for the first time.
I was moving toward something.
Not away.
Toward.
Jin Seohyun.
The woman who had once been the greatest talent.
Now just another hunter.
But a hunter I had chosen.
A hunter I had claimed.
A hunter who would never be taken from me again.
I smiled as I stirred the pot.
The smell of food filled the apartment.
The woman who had tried to kill me was cooking with me.
It was absurd.
It was perfect.
Because in this world.
Some futures were written in blood.
Some curses were stronger than rank.
And some hunters…
Would do anything.
Even cook.
Even laugh.
Even survive.
I laughed again.
“Jin Seohyun.”
She looked up.
I pointed at the pot.
“Stir that.”
She took the spoon.
Stirred.
I poured her a drink.
She drank.
We sat.
We ate.
We talked.
About nothing.
About everything.
About the past.
About the guild.
About the curse.
About the futures.
About the man who had sent her.
About the man who had ruined her.
About the man who would pay.
About the man who was me.
I didn’t know where this was going.
Didn’t care.
As long as she was here.
As long as she was with me.
As long as she was mine.
The night wore on.
And somewhere in the distance.
Another gate broke.
Another wave of monsters poured out.
But that was tomorrow.
Tonight, I had a meal.
A team.
A future.
And for the first time in six years.
I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time.
Hope.
Real hope.
Not the fake kind the academy had sold me.
Not the fake kind Baekya had sold me.
Real.
Because I had finally stopped being the victim.
I was the one who wrote the script now.
And Jin Seohyun.
She was the first line.
The first page.
The first chapter.
Of a new story.
One that started with a broken hunter.
And ended with me.
Not her.
Me.
I looked at her across the table.
She looked back.
No words.
Just eyes.
Sharing the same silence.
The same exhaustion.
The same curse.
The same purpose.
I raised my glass.
She raised hers.
We clinked.
“Cheers.”
“To new beginnings.”
“To new deaths.”
We laughed.
The sound echoed in the empty apartment.
For the first time in years.
It didn’t feel empty.
It felt full.
Full of possibility.
Full of blood.
Full of curses.
Full of futures.
Full of me.
Full of her.
Full of us.
The night deepened.
And in the distance.
The city lights flickered.
And somewhere.
A new gate opened.
But tonight.
We had each other.
And that was enough.
Enough to start over.
Enough to write a new ending.
Enough to say.
We were finally, finally.
Starting.
Together.
---
“Welcome to the team, Jin Seohyun.”
“Whether you like it or not.”
⟨ NEW BEGINNINGS ⟩
I didn’t know if it was mercy.
Or just revenge.
But for the first time in years.
I felt like I had found something.
A purpose.
A reason to keep going.
Even with a hundred futures of death still waiting.
The night was young.
The future was ours.
And Jin Seohyun.
She was finally.
Home.