Chapter 3
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: I Became the Last of the Giant Clan
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Evening, 6 PM.
A subway station crowded with countless people.
No one was speaking, but everyone frowned at the sweltering heat.
But Kang Hyuk didn't care about the rising temperature or the body odors wafting through the dense crowd.
It was because of what had happened that day.
"......"
Normally, after today, he should have grown distant from his mentor, Lee Yeon-hee.
But with a few pieces of information and some quick thinking,
one of the darkest futures had completely changed.
That realization hit him.
'I really did go back to the past. And I remember everything from the future.'
A strange sensation wrapped around his entire body as he muttered to himself.
Until now, he hadn't had a moment to truly process that he'd returned to the past.
It was inevitable.
He had died—or so he thought—only to return to the past.
The mere fact that he'd kept his sanity intact was miraculous in itself.
But now,
fully accepting that he'd returned to the past changed the way he saw the world before his eyes.
"......"
He knew the future.
And in that future, South Korea collapsed due to an S-Rank Gate orchestrated by five national-level hunters.
[This station is Hongdae, Hongdae Entrance Station.]
Now that he was back, knowing all those events,
he knew that the second chance he'd desperately wished for had arrived once more.
The chance to stop the incident that destroyed South Korea.
'......No, maybe I can not only stop it but also get revenge on the bastards who caused it.'
Silence fell with his murmur.
In that instant, tens of thousands of thoughts flashed through his mind.
The current situation, the future,
and all the information from his past life tangled together in a complex mess, making his body tremble faintly.
Kang Hyuk, lost in thought amid it all, soon had his eyes gleam.
He lifted the corner of his mouth and muttered.
"......How could I let a chance like this slip away?"
There was an easier path.
He could forget all about the future, use the knowledge he had to live comfortably on his own—a truly easy life.
But Kang Hyuk decided against that path.
'If all I wanted was to live comfortably by myself...... I could have done that plenty in my previous life.'
The S-Grade talent: the power of the giants.
With that power, he could have lived better than anyone, without a care.
But he gave up that path because it wasn't the direction he wanted.
'Maybe it's because of how my parents raised me, but it just didn't suit me. That's why I didn't hunt for money, and I lived by my principles.'
That was why he could easily abandon that path this time too.
No.
He had to abandon it.
'Those five who shattered future South Korea. I have to stop their plan and get revenge.'
He hadn't given up even on the brink of death during that catastrophe.
Because he wanted to prevent that catastrophe in this life, no matter what.
Of course, it wouldn't be easy.
'......Those guys are world dominators on a level I can't even compare to right now.'
Among them, the Million Summoner, Raymon Kim, was a world-famous hunter who received all the spotlight.
Her ability to endlessly summon Shadow Soldiers up to the limit of her mana pool had earned an S-Grade rating comparable to the power of giants.
Even in America, the land of hunters, she was treated like royalty, and killing her in his current state was impossible.
'No, it's not just the Million Summoner. The other four national-level hunters are in similar positions. Charging at them now with just revenge in my heart...... would be suicide.'
With that thought, Kang Hyuk's eyes sharpened.
To kill them, he had no choice but to become a hunter like them.
'A national-level hunter standing on the same level. But right now, I'm not even an F-Grade hunter—I'm just an ordinary civilian.'
That was why he needed to 'awaken' first and gain his unique power.
'Hunters awaken in two ways: natural awakening and forced awakening. For me, it was...... natural awakening.'
The most common method: encountering a gate's otherworldly beings or touching an item from one.
'I encountered an orc from the gate at the district office station and became a hunter. In other words......'
To become a hunter again, he needed to encounter a gate's inhabitants or items, just like that time.
'......Considering I work at the Hunter Management Office right now, there'll be plenty of opportunities ahead. It's the department that handles gate incidents, after all. The problem is.'
Whether he could awaken again.
'I've gone back to the past, but...... will I awaken the same way as before?'
Even in the future, the exact cause and mechanism of awakening remained a mystery.
In that sense, even though his future self had awakened, there was no guarantee his current self would.
That was when Kang Hyuk was deep in thought.
A strangely familiar wind brushed past his entire body.
"......?"
Startled, Kang Hyuk looked up toward the lake park formed in the residential complex where he lived.
"Waaah—!"
"Jin! What if you fall?!"
This lake park was a popular spot for outings.
Even though it was still early, voices of families and couples out for dinner echoed from all around.
But Kang Hyuk's gaze wasn't on those families or couples—it was fixed on the center of the lake park.
"......"
A chilling wind blew from that center.
It wasn't his imagination; the wind grew stronger the closer it came from that direction.
Kang Hyuk's lips parted slightly.
'No way, this is......'
A sensation remembered not by logic or mind, but by his body.
His instincts recognized the unique wind mingled with vibrations that he'd felt every time he'd raided hundreds of gates.
At that moment.
"Mom—!"
Suddenly, the little kid playing beside him ran toward the wind.
"......!"
Kang Hyuk's body reacted before his mind, moving instinctively.
"Huh?"
The kid, chasing a balloon, stopped at the sudden appearance of the stranger.
"W-Who are you?"
With the question, Kang Hyuk hurriedly turned his head.
He scooped up the kid, eyes wide, and turned his back to it.
Boom!
A sudden explosion ripped through the air above the fountain's center.
"W-What?"
"G-Gate?"
People screamed and jumped to their feet.
It was an anomaly even ordinary citizens could recognize.
When the air split open and a massive door appeared, it was a sign of a 'gate'.
"Mom!"
The kid in Kang Hyuk's arms cried out from within.
As the presumed parents surged forward in shock, Kang Hyuk shouted.
"Don't come any closer!"
With those words, a rift tore open in the center of the fountain.
Thud!
A massive door emerged.
Kang Hyuk clenched his fist at the eerie cries leaking from the gaps in that door.
'Goblins. Steel Goblins.'
The sudden anomaly.
Kang Hyuk's mind and body froze for a brief moment.
"Aaaah!"
But the screams and the monster's distinctive cries snapped him back to reality.
'No illusion. A real gate.'
With that thought, he turned his gaze.
"Uh, uh?"
The kid's parents stood frozen, at a loss.
'In a panic?'
Ordinary humans couldn't move when facing a gate.
The biological revulsion and fear locked down all movement.
'......But not me.'
His hands and feet,
and his entire body moved properly, unlike the parents.
That was why Kang Hyuk twisted the corner of his mouth upward.
'You only feel no fear in one case.'
A grotesque sensation struck the back of his head.
'When you've become an equal to them.'
The world flipped as adrenaline exploded.
"M-Mister?"
The kid in his arms murmured in shock at the change, while the Steel Goblin bellowed fiercely.
Kiruruk!
It bared its savage fangs in a grin.
A strange new world before it.
In this mysterious realm, it had found something enticing.
Kiruruk!
Prey to fill its starving belly.
Kirururuk!
Kiruk!
Kirururuk!
One Steel Goblin stepped forward.
The lowest in the pack's hierarchy.
Goblin nature followed the law of the jungle, sending the weakest first.
Still, a Steel Goblin was a Steel Goblin.
With its evolved body superior to regular goblins, it prepared to charge at Kang Hyuk.
Kiruruk!
With an ominous cry, the Steel Goblin leaped.
"......!"
The kid in Kang Hyuk's arms gaped, as the goblin's club swung toward his head.
In that moment, the Steel Goblin was certain.
Kirururuk!
It could kill these stupid humans with this first strike.
With that strong conviction, as it swung the club down onto Kang Hyuk's skull—
......Kiruk?
Something impossible happened.
Kiruruk!?
Not the human's head, but its own club split in half.
The Steel Goblin stared at Kang Hyuk in panic, hesitating.
But even looking again, the human stood unharmed.
Its club, however, was cleanly broken.
Kiruruk!
Enraged, the Steel Goblin lunged with fangs and claws.
Claws and teeth coated in poison lethal even from a graze.
Kiruruk!
With these weapons, it wouldn't repeat the previous mistake.
With that renewed certainty, it swung again—
......!
A hand shot out.
His hand gripped its head.
Kiruruk!
The startled Steel Goblin reflexively slashed with claws and nails.
But its weapons didn't even scratch the human's skin—they snapped powerlessly, just like the club.
Kirururuk!!!!
As the goblin shrieked in pain, Kang Hyuk muttered.
At that instant.
"It worked."
The goblin's head in Kang Hyuk's grip exploded.
"......Huh?"
The kid in his arms gaped in shock.
Meanwhile, Kang Hyuk eyed the status window that had appeared before him.
You have successfully awakened!
Your awakening ability is......