Korean Hunter Association
The Korean Hunter Association was bustling.
But it wasn’t the usual kind of bustle.
—Have you contacted the buyer yet?!
—Pull every nearby CCTV feed!
Someone shouted. Someone else broke out in a cold sweat. The entire office felt like a battlefield caught in frenzy.
In the middle of that chaos, Association President Seung-hoon stared intently at the recorded CCTV footage.
The video showed a scene near a tower close to Namsan Tower.
A blue meadow lightly dusted with snow.
And in front of it stood a single bulletin board.
It was the Auction House board that had appeared alongside the towers. An indestructible, mysterious fixture that simply existed as naturally as the grass beneath it.
A human-shaped figure was captured approaching that board.
However—
…It’s distorted.
The unidentified weapon known as the Unnamed Ring had only been faintly visible during the brief instant it was registered on the Auction House. Nothing else about the small silhouette could be made out.
Seung-hoon moved the mouse and zoomed in on the paused frame.
Dark red noise. Blurry clusters of light that interfered with the view.
To Seung-hoon—an A-class hunter long before he became the head of the Association—the distortion was intimately familiar.
The inside of the tower.
Anything that belonged to the tower could not be preserved by any recording medium.
Not expensive cameras, not mana-powered crystal orbs, and not even…
Extracted human memories.
That was why the tower’s interior could only be documented through the experiences of those who had climbed before.
The noise in the footage before him now was identical to the phenomenon he had witnessed during past recording attempts.
“But… that’s strange.”
This kind of distortion was something he had never seen outside the tower.
Monster byproducts or equipment obtained from inside always became perfectly clear the moment they left the tower.
“Huu……”
Seung-hoon let out a long sigh and turned his head.
Outside the window, even though dawn had only just broken, scattered lights between the towering buildings painted Seoul’s skyline.
At an hour when everyone should have gone home long ago, the faces of the staff who had stayed behind to investigate were thick with exhaustion.
“Ha… All this trouble over a single weapon……”
“It isn’t just any weapon.”
Seung-hoon turned toward the voice.
Han Suhyun, head of the Emotion Management Department, was walking toward a subordinate who was clutching his head in frustration.
“It possesses effects that defy common sense. Now that we’ve confirmed the weapon was crafted in Korea, securing this unidentified maker must take absolute priority over every other nation.”
“Even so……”
The staff member pouted, grumbling. A new hire from a few months ago.
Before he was a hunter or an association employee, he was simply a lucky young man who had awakened and rocketed up the social ladder.
“Sigh… And we must also consider Hunter Daon’s situation.”
The unidentified weapon Daon held and the one just registered on the Auction House—two out-of-spec items that had appeared within a single month.
“It could be coincidence… but if we fail to identify the truth, then our very existence loses all meaning.”
At Suhyun’s words, Seung-hoon rested his chin on his hand and sank into thought.
Coincidence?
Absolutely not.
Ever since the towers appeared, coincidence had ceased to exist. At least in Seung-hoon’s opinion.
Inevitability. Or fate.
Whether the arrival of this anomalous item would bring fortune or disaster, even Seung-hoon could not yet tell.
I had run straight into a massive obstacle.
“If you don’t have an ID… what about your parents?”
“……”
The problem was exactly that—identity.
I needed somewhere to stay, so the moment I walked into a hotel carrying a thick bundle of cash, the issue had slammed into me at the front desk.
“A beastperson with no identification… She must have just come out of the tower, right?”
“Looks that way……”
I overheard the hotel staff whispering among themselves.
Beastperson and no ID. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to be anything particularly unusual.
“You said your name is Dan, right? Could you wait over there on the sofa for a moment?”
I nodded at the smiling staff member and plopped down on the sofa she indicated.
So soft.
The moment the plush texture enveloped me, my whole body melted.
I really should try leatherworking someday.
Whether in the forge or in this modern world, the only material I had ever handled was steel.
The feel of soft leather and cotton—unlike cold, hard steel—was utterly enchanting.
While I sat with my eyes closed, savoring the sensation, multiple sets of footsteps approached from a distance.
Soon, several people in suits entered the hotel.
“Is this the child?”
It was the face I had seen near the tower earlier.
The suited man nodded at the hotel staff, then turned his gaze to me.
“Then… could you come with us for a moment?”
The hand he extended was cautious.
Whether because my identity was unknown or because I was a child without papers, his attitude was strangely considerate.
Instead of taking the offered hand, I rose from the sofa on my own.
Parting with the fluffy leather was a shame, but I instinctively knew this was a necessary step now that I had stepped into the outside world.
Tap, tap.
With the sound of footsteps on carpet, I followed them outside and climbed into the large black sedan waiting by the curb.
Buildings and neon signs blurred past the car window.
“Whoa……”
While I stared at the scenery, the car stopped in front of a massive glass building before I realized it.
Korean Hunter Association
A huge sign stood in front. It seemed these people were employees of the Association.
“I’m dead tired… How many days has it been?”
“They said we’ll get two days off once this is finished. Just hold on a little longer, sunbae.”
Following the staff who comforted each other, I entered the enormous building.
“We’ve received the report.”
“Yeah, you’ve worked hard too.”
The deeper we went, the stricter the security became.
Eventually we passed through a door marked “Restricted Area” and I saw three people seated around a large round table.
“Thank you for coming.”
The woman with long straight hair occupying the center seat spoke to me.
“Shall we introduce ourselves first? I’m Han Soha, head of the Foreign Species Management Department.”
Instead of answering, I looked around.
Pure white marble floors and a wooden round table. The room had a rather elegant, antique atmosphere.
“……Um. Actually, I already heard the name. Dan was discovered near Namsan Tower in an unregistered state. Moreover… in the form of a beastperson.”
Soha, who had been slightly flustered, rested her chin on her hand and continued while reading from the file in front of her.
“Due to the tower’s upheaval, there are cases where the internal ecosystem affects human bodies, or—rarely—individuals born inside the tower who are expelled outward. Dan’s case would be the latter, correct?”
It wasn’t entirely wrong, so I nodded.
“There is a procedure for issuing new identities to such people… but there are a few things we need to do first. Is that all right?”
Soha carefully handed me a single sheet of paper.
Comprehensive Examination Sheet for Tower Attribute Unregistered Individuals (Youth Version)
I skimmed the document she gave me.
Bright, colorful illustrations immediately caught the eye.
There were fields for basic personal information such as name and gender, questions about the environment inside the tower, physical condition, expected unique abilities, and so on.
Most of it was information I didn’t know, and the rest was too embarrassing to write myself.
“Ah, if you can’t write, you can just tell me verbally.”
“Um……”
I could have done it. However…
Gender…
It was still unbearably embarrassing.
I had lived as a man for countless years. My pride refused to let me utter the word “female” now.
Soha watched me frown and wrestle with my inner thoughts for a long time, then made an expression of understanding.
“It seems you don’t have memories of living inside the tower… That isn’t an uncommon case.”
Muttering to herself, she filled in only my name and gender on the form, then looked at me again.
“It’s just a formality, so don’t worry. There’s one more important thing left…”
Soha gestured with her chin toward the center of the round table.
A blue crystal orb emitting a faint vibration sat there.
“Children born having absorbed strong tower energy often have unstable magic power. Could you lightly place your hand on the magic power measurer over there?”
A measurer, huh.
A scene suddenly flashed through my mind.
—M-magic power overload…!
—E, S-class!
I had seen it so many times that even after years long enough to forget my own name, the memory still lingered.
This is going to be annoying.
I thought so without the slightest doubt. After all, this body was the most perfect masterpiece I had ever created.
Even though it betrayed me once…
Still, I would be strong.
With firm resolve to endure the annoyance, I placed my palm on the crystal orb.
At that instant—
BEEEEEP—!
I looked at Soha with a proud little smile.
“It’s all right. Don’t be scared. That sound always happens during magic power measurements.”
“……Oh.”
The only reaction I received was one of complete nonchalance.
Feeling awkward, I turned my eyes and noticed another crystal orb sitting on the table.
“…What’s that one?”
“Ah, that measures the rank of equipment rather than people. Awakeners can check through the System, but ordinary people cannot.”
Then shouldn’t I be measured with that one…?
The question rose in my mind, but I kept it to myself.
Soon the beeping stopped.
“Ah, the results are here.”
A sheet of paper slid out of the printer in the corner.
Soha and another staff member walked straight over to it.
“Hmm.”
“Oh……”
Both Soha and the staff member hummed thoughtfully as they read the paper.
“I want to see it too.”
Unable to contain my curiosity, I got up from my chair and approached them.
Standing on tiptoe, I looked at the paper.
…It seems the average stats for hunters are quite low.
If these were my numbers, then ordinary averages must all be 1.
Which meant I was somewhat strong and extremely, extremely fast.
While I was nodding to myself in satisfaction, the staff member looked back and forth between me and the paper.
“……What a weakling.”
“Wha—what?”
The staff member standing beside Soha muttered quietly.
“Hey, that’s rude.”
Soha’s narrowed-eyed rebuke drove the final nail into the coffin of my despair.