The EX-Rank Lethal Poison Formulator
“You son of a bitch!”
I roared at the man standing before me in a sharp, tailored suit, vomiting out every ounce of bile festering in my chest.
“Come on, Dohyeon,” Lee Minseok said with an easy shrug. “That’s just how the world works. Who told you to bite off more than you could chew?”
“You fucking bastard…”
“You should’ve known when to rein in your greed.”
I couldn't believe what was coming out of his mouth. Was this really the same guy who had begged me with every fiber of his being, pleading for just one more chance, swearing on his life that this time would be different as he pressured me to invest?
“You told me it was a rock-solid company!” I yelled, my voice cracking under the weight of sheer despair. “You swore pouring every last cent of my life savings into it was a guaranteed win!”
Minseok stayed silent, his expression utterly blank.
“Say something, you bastard! Say something!”
The moment we graduated high school, Lee Minseok had awakened as a B-rank hunter. Shortly after, he signed with a prominent guild, a triumph that became the talk of all our alumni. So when that very same classmate came knocking on my door asking for an investment, I scraped together everything I had to help him, believing in his success.
Minseok clicked his tongue. “Shin Dohyeon. You absolute dumbass.”
“What…?”
“What’s with those dead-fish eyes, you pathetic loser?”
“Minseok… have you lost your goddamn mind?”
“Yeah, I’ve lost it. Got a problem with that? Jesus fucking Christ. I treat you nicely for five seconds and you try to paint me as the villain?”
A suffocating silence descended between us. It was Minseok who broke it, a contemptuous sneer playing across his lips.
“Listen closely, Dohyeon. You were just an easy mark.”
“You con artist piece of shit…”
“And that right there is why everyone calls you a moron. You barely had two pennies to rub together anyway, yet here you are acting like you did me some grand favor…”
Blood rushed to my head in a deafening torrent. Before my rational mind could intervene, my body moved on pure instinct.
I lunged forward and seized him by the lapels of his suit jacket. Minseok didn't even flinch; he merely stared down at my trembling hands as if watching an insect crawl across his sleeve.
Smack!
A flash of blinding agony ripped across my face, and the next second, the pavement slammed violently against my back.
“Guh…!”
“You actually think you’re a real hunter?” Minseok spat, dusting off his pristine lapel. “Where does an E-rank piece of trash get the nerve? Just crawl back into that pathetic little hole of yours and stick to brewing rat poison.”
The breath caught in my throat. My cheek burned where his fist had connected, but the icy shock running through my veins hurt far worse. Was this reality? Could this nightmare be real?
“Forget about that chump change and live like it never existed,” Minseok added, glancing down at me like I was dirt under his shoe. “Know your place. Understand?”
He turned on his heel to walk away, then paused, glancing over his shoulder.
“Oh, and just in case you get any stupid ideas about calling the cops… you know which guild backs me, right? Watch your step. I’m leaving. Let’s never see each other again.”
Damn it. Damn it, damn it all! This rotten world was nothing but a playground for the strong, where the weak were crushed beneath their boots. Awakeners held all the cards, ruling society from the top down. Even as I lay there, humiliated and threatened in broad daylight, I couldn't utter a single retort. The humiliation tore at my insides.
Report him? Sure, I could file a report. Maybe I could even send him to prison for a few years if the legal system worked miracles. But what came after that? A B-rank hunter wasn't some harmless neighborhood mutt. The sheer terror of imagining the day he walked free to hunt me down choked out whatever defiance I had left.
“Haah… God, what a joke my life is…”
Something scalding hot spilled over my eyelashes and streaked down my bruised cheek.
“Status window…”
The meager, pitiful stats glared back at me, fanning the flames of my misery. When I first awakened, I honestly believed I had the world in the palm of my hand. It didn't take long, however, to realize just how much contempt the world reserved for an E-rank.
“Fuck… That was money I bled to save…”
I had begged on my knees to borrow funds from my parents just to set up a modest ten-pyeong workspace: the Poison Laboratory. Even low-grade E-rank toxins had their niche uses, and by scraping by day after day, I had finally managed to turn a modest profit. And now, every single won of that hard-earned cash was gone.
“Hahaha…”
A hollow, fractured laugh echoed across the empty lot, trailing into the cold air.
For days, the television had blasted nonstop coverage about the sky. The entire public was transfixed by the upcoming meteor shower. Some spouted apocalyptic nonsense about the end of days, while others babbled about hidden geopolitical ramifications.
“Tonight? Who gives a flying damn. Give me another drink.”
Several days had passed since Lee Minseok scammed me out of everything, yet my shattered psyche showed no signs of mending. Whenever I opened social media, Minseok was living the dream. Photos of him flanked by gorgeous women at upscale clubs, popping bottles at five-star hotel parties—it was all over his feed.
“You vile son of a bitch. One day, I swear to God…”
Bzzzz.
My phone rattled on the table. Setting down the green bottle of soju, I checked the screen.
“Prick… Your best friend is drowning in despair and you can't even sit with him for an hour…”
With a heavy sigh, I collapsed backward onto the battered sofa in the corner. Looking around, my tiny ten-pyeong laboratory was a total disaster zone, littered with scattered glassware, empty bottles, and neglected ingredients. Thanks to Lee Minseok, what little will to live I possessed had nearly evaporated. If I stayed curled up like this, I was going to rot away in obscurity.
I reached over to the side table and picked up a small glass vial. It held the flagship product of my modest operation.
A handcrafted paralysis toxin refined from the venom of Thorn Bees.
Effect:Temporarily paralyzes the target's physical movement.
Grade:E-Rank Concoction
A toxin extracted and refined from Thorn Bees, a low-tier monster. It wasn't flashy, but the ratio was my own secret recipe, perfected through endless trial and error.
“I guess I need to make another batch… Community interface, open.”
A translucent blue window materialized before my eyes.
And that poison is called solitude.
My buddy just ditched me to watch the meteor shower with his girlfriend…
Honestly? I'm so damn jealous!!!
“A fateful encounter?”
I scoffed, closing the window. Then again, rotting away inside this tiny room wasn't going to fix anything either. Maybe getting out into the night air was exactly what I needed. Following the advice of my fellow basement-dwelling poisoners, I threw on a jacket and headed out into the night.
“Ugh… this is insane…”
It was 11:00 PM. I thought Yeouido Plaza only got this congested during the annual fireworks festival, but the square was packed shoulder-to-shoulder, an ocean of heads leaving barely an inch to step. Families, friends, couples holding hands—every single person around me looked radiant with anticipation.
“Maybe I should just head back…”
Every face in the crowd was flushed with joy. Everyone except me. The stark contrast made me feel like an alien intruder. Perhaps the sprawling span of Mapo Bridge stretching out past the plaza was a far more fitting place for someone like me.
I dragged my feet onto the bridge. Unlike the packed plaza, only a handful of scattered pedestrians were strolling across the pedestrian walkway. The night sky overhead was crystal clear, without a single cloud to mar the gentle radiance of the crescent moon.
Ding.
A notification chimed from my pocket. Pulling out my phone, I saw a new post pop up from the account I had set alerts for: Lee Minseok. The photo showed him grinning ear-to-ear, popping an expensive bottle of vintage champagne surrounded by an entourage of glamorous hunters. It looked like all the happiness in the universe had been collected and poured into their little circle.
“Living the high life, aren't you, you miserable bastard…”
I hated him. I wanted nothing more than to erase his face from my memory forever, yet some morbid impulse compelled me to stalk his every move. Was I waiting for him to crash and burn? Deep down, I knew the answer: in a world governed by raw awakened rank, someone like him was never going to face retribution.
A dark, suffocating fog rolled over my mind, whispering venomous thoughts into my ear. Looking over the railing, the pitch-black river beckoned, stirring a sudden, reckless impulse.
What if I just jumped? Would everything finally stop hurting?
Because of my E-rank Poison Immunity, even the potent sleeping pills I had begged a doctor to prescribe were broken down harmlessly in my system. Deprived of sleep for days, my exhausted mind was fraying at the edges, making it near impossible to keep my despair in check. Just like right now.
“If I’m going to die, I’ll choose where it happens.”
Midnight was fast approaching. I hoisted myself up, swinging my legs over the cold metal railing of Mapo Bridge, sitting precariously above the abyss. From the distant plaza, the cheerful din of the crowd drifted over on the river breeze.
“Meteor shower my ass… Goodbye, world.”
I lowered my gaze toward the drop, bracing myself to let go. But looking down into the Han River at midnight, the black water churned with a terrifying, bottomless depth that made my stomach lurch.
“W-Well… I mean, even if I’m going to die, I might as well see this damn meteor shower first.”
It wasn't that I was scared. Absolutely not. I just… suddenly felt an overwhelming desire to watch the sky. That was all.
“Five! Four! Three…!”
The distant crowd began their collective countdown. Overhead, tiny pinpricks of radiance began to flicker across the ink-black expanse of space.
“One!!!”
A brilliant deluge of light cascaded across the heavens. Living up to the breathless news bulletins, a breathtaking multitude of shooting stars rained down across the night sky.
“Damn it… it really is pretty…”
To my immense frustration, the sight was genuinely magnificent. Massive fireballs blazing white, smaller streaks trailing glowing tails of emerald and silver—they wove an incandescent tapestry directly above my head.
Wait. The size of that one falling toward me seemed…
“What the…?”
Amid the lines and dots of light streaking across the sky, one particular meteor violently banked mid-flight, turning sharp and plunging straight toward me. It accelerated with impossible speed, swelling larger by the microsecond until its blinding glare filled my entire field of vision.
“S-Stay back! I don't wanna die yet! Arrrgh!”
Fwoooosh!
The divine streak slammed dead-center into the exact spot where I was sitting.
Silence.
I blinked. There was no fiery explosion, no shattered concrete, no agonizing shockwave. Glancing nervously left and right, I noticed a couple of passing pedestrians giving me strange, side-eyed glances as they walked past, as if they hadn't seen the blinding projectile at all.
“What's his deal?”
“Should we call the police?”
“Just leave him alone… Get tangled up with weirdos and you only bring trouble on yourself.”
Their hushed murmurs drifted past me as they hurried along. Above us, the peak of the celestial shower passed, leaving the quiet night sky bathed once more in peaceful moonlight.
Was it an hallucination?
No. I hadn't imagined it. I had seen it with absolute clarity—a thunderous star hurtling straight into my chest.
Ding!
[You have been chosen by the God of Poison.]
◈ A new trait is being bestowed.
◈ Class is being adjusted.
◈ Mana rank is being adjusted.
◈ Skill ranks are increasing.
[Due to the player's insufficient capability, a portion of your abilities has been sealed.]
“What in the world is this…?”
Could this be… a re-awakening? Ever since the Black Tower materialized and hunters flooded the world, researchers had spent billions studying the possibility of re-awakening. Being stuck at the bottom rung as an E-rank, I had devoured every scrap of news on the subject, clinging to any glimmer of hope. But the scientific consensus had been unanimous: re-awakening was an absolute impossibility.
Trembling with a mixture of dread and wild hope, I summoned my status window once more.
“…Holy shit.”
Right alongside my original trait sat a brand-new addition: Lethal Poison Formulator.
“I have dual traits now?”
More importantly, what on earth was an EX-rank? A rank that didn't even exist in standard hunter classifications… Something monumental was stirring inside me. The stagnant air of my ruined life was finally beginning to shift.