The Sixth Quantum Jump

The growth of hunters on Earth is not a gentle uphill climb. It isn’t the sort of steady progress where you grow a little stronger each day, where today is only marginally better than yesterday. Of course, that kind of incremental improvement exists. Muscles develop through training, skills become second nature through repetition, and mana manipulation grows more refined the more you hammer it into your body. But the true moment a hunter steps onto an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠entirely new level is something else altogether.

Like a game character hitting level-up, it’s a phenomenon in which piled-up experience finally reaches a breaking point and explodes all at once. Hunters called it a Quantum Jump.

Yet Quantum Jumps never happened easily. There were two major conditions: an overwhelming amount of training, or a life-or-death ordeal. The first was honest but slow. No matter how talented the hunter, a human lifespan is finite. Reaching higher ranks through training alone was a path granted only to a handful of monsters. The second was fast but dangerous. Hunters who returned alive from death’s doorstep sometimes changed dramatically. Their bodies remembered the limit, and their mana circuits restructured themselves to surpass that crisis.

The problem was that the same crisis would never work twice. A wall once crossed was no longer a wall. Similar pain, similar battlefields, similar threats would never trigger another Quantum Jump. You needed greater pressure, deeper despair, higher-stakes adversity. And most hunters died before they could cross the next wall.

That was why the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠average hunter experienced at most one or two Quantum Jumps in a lifetime. Many chased more, only to have their bodies broken, their spirits crushed, or to eventually walk away and find another life.

In that sense, Jang Mihyeon was the Geumseong Guild’s openly backed next-generation star. A B-class hunter in her mid-twenties who had already undergone five Quantum Jumps. Among her peers, her growth rate was exceptional. Which was exactly why she herself could not believe it.

“No way… did I just have a Quantum Jump?”

It shouldn’t be possible. Quantum Jumps came from overwhelming experience—whether training, combat, or standing on death’s threshold. The hunter had to feel, deep in their bones, that they had surpassed their own limits. Waking up after surgery to find your body suddenly transformed? She had never heard of such a case.

Yet reality was laughing at her common sense.

Her breath went in deep. The sensation of air rushing all the way to the bottom of her lungs was crystal clear. Before, every time her output rose, the inside of her ribcage would feel tight and strained. As if old adhesions were still stuck there, something inside her body would creak faintly whenever she drew on her mana.

Now it was different. Her mana flowed smoothly, like a blocked channel had been cleared. Her muscles reacted faster too. When she threw a punch, her body—once lagging a step behind her thoughts—now moved a beat ahead of them.

At first she thought it was simply good recovery. She wondered if surviving a near-death experience had left her in peak condition. But when she sparred with Jang Songhui to test herself, the truth became undeniable.

Boom!

Jang Songhui, who blocked Jang Mihyeon’s fist, staggered back half a step. This was a spar, yet the opponent was an A-class hunter.

“…Again.”

“Sister?”

“Do it again.”

The second time was the same. So was the third. Output, reaction speed, mana circulation, focus at the moment of impact—everything had risen compared to before. These were not changes one could gain overnight through training.

Jang Songhui stared at her sister in silence for a long time before finally muttering, as if she had no choice but to accept it.

“No doubt about it. You just had a Quantum Jump.”

“A Quantum Jump…? That’s impossible!”

Jang Mihyeon shook her head without thinking.

“I’m only twenty-four, and I’ve already experienced six of them…”

“That’s why I’m losing my mind. Your body is currently breaking every record we know.”

It was good news. As mentioned earlier, a Quantum Jump was a blessing for any hunter. It meant she had become stronger, that she could stand on higher battlefields, and from the guild’s perspective, an entire combat asset had just leveled up.

But Jang Mihyeon could not rejoice without reservation. A professional hunter who accepted a sudden surge of power without question was not brave—she was a fool. Power always had a cause. If her body had changed, there had to be a reason. And there was only one possibility she could think of.

The surgery that had saved her life. And the rumored male surgeon who had performed it.

Seo Jihou.

What exactly did he do to my body?

She was curious. No—she needed to know.

So she mobilized the Geumseong Guild’s intelligence network. It did not take long to learn something unexpected. Seo Jihou was neither a resident nor a specialist. He was a second-year student at Korea Central Medical University. In other words, he had not even graduated yet.

“An undergraduate who hasn’t even graduated… saved me?”

And with a flawless operation, no less. It was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hard to believe.

The men Jang Mihyeon had known were usually beings who needed protection. Sometimes, when dispatched to dungeon break sites, she had seen them near shelters or safe zones. Fragile. Weak. Beings who required even more careful guarding because of it. People who looked like they would break if grabbed too hard, who would flinch if you approached. She had always watched them only from a distance, over the shoulder.

Yet she had been saved by one of those men.

When she recalled that fact, a strange tickling sensation bloomed in one side of her chest. It was embarrassing. It was fascinating. Above all, she wanted to meet him in person.

So she quietly headed for Korea Central Medical University. At first she really intended only to see his face. She would confirm from afar what kind of person the man who had saved her was, then leave.

But the moment she arrived near the main gate, Jang Mihyeon stopped in her tracks.

“…A barrier?”

The air felt different. It was thin and sophisticated enough that an ordinary person would never notice. Most hunters would have walked right through it. The version of herself before the surgery probably would not have sensed it either. But now she could see it—a thin membrane overlaid on reality, a space that twisted sound and gaze to separate its interior from the outside world. And inside, she felt a faint presence.

It was a man’s presence.

The instant she realized that, red mana surged over her fist.

Boom!

The precisely woven gap in the barrier tore open, revealing the scene inside. White uniforms. A red wall. And the man standing at the center of it all.

Jang Mihyeon did not hesitate. Clenching the remaining mana in her fist, she leapt through the torn gap. And at present, she was smashing the Reproductive Agency’s deputy director’s jaw to pieces.

Crash!

“Ughhh… m-my jaw…!”

“Kyaa! D-Deputy Director!”

“Her teeth! Her teeth flew out!”

“Pick them up… pick them up right now! And subdue that crazy bitch first!”

Striking the enemy leader first. Whether monster or human, it was the most basic strategy when facing a group. And the woman before them seemed to be following that principle faithfully.

A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠strangely familiar face.

“Wait a second… aren’t you Patient Jang Mihyeon?”

Her shoulders twitched.

“You remember me?!”

“Of course. How could a doctor forget a patient he operated on himself?”

He had simply stated a fact. To a doctor, patients were never mere numbers—especially not one he had pulled back from death with his own two hands. But Jang Mihyeon seemed to interpret those words in a completely different way.

Her eyes widened for a moment, then she clenched her fists tightly.

“As expected… I was right to come find you!”

“Huh?”

“Please stay behind me. I will protect you with my life!”

The moment she spoke, the Reproductive Agency employees began to move as well. Mana rippled between the white uniforms. Some conjured flames at their fingertips, others had their arm muscles swell abnormally. Another employee dropped low like a beast the instant he kicked off the ground. Not all of them, but a significant number were awakened. They wore the name tags of Reproductive Agency staff, yet in reality they were no different from hunter combatants.

Yet Jang Mihyeon did not retreat.

Boom!

A fist wrapped in red mana drove into the first charging employee’s abdomen.

“Guhk!”

Before the man could even double over, she caught the wrist of a second opponent slipping in from the side and twisted it.

Crack!

“Aaaagh!”

The next instant, her foot slammed into the ground.

BOOM!

The shockwave erupted, sending the surrounding white uniforms flying all at once.

She was strong. It wasn’t simply raw power. Her movements were fast, her judgment precise. Most of all, her positioning was exquisite. Even while fighting, she completely blocked the path so that not a single person could reach him. Like a boxer in the ring—slipping away lightly, stabbing in deeply, and driving her fist into any opening without hesitation.

The saying “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” existed for a reason.

But it was still too early to feel relieved.

The real problem is that barrier.

Kwon Doyeon, the deputy director, had not fallen yet. Even with her jaw shattered and teeth sent flying, she was slowly rising with the support of her subordinates. More importantly, the red wall of light surrounding them showed no sign of wavering. That meant the barrier was still active.

For the past week I had been taking classes related to hunters. Fortunately, one of them had covered the basics of barriers. There were usually two ways to break a barrier cast by a hunter: incapacitate the caster, or find and destroy the barrier’s core.

The problem was that neither option looked realistic in the current situation.

Can Mihyeon hold out alone?

The opponent was a former B-class hunter turned deputy director, plus the awakened agents she had brought with her. No matter how strong Jang Mihyeon had become, facing all of them—including the barrier—by herself would be too much.

But at that moment—

At the same time, the scalpel in my hand cried out.

The Hunter’s Scalpel—whose blue blade had never been able to cut anything except patients—began to surge with mana so vivid it was on another level from before. It was as if the world itself were speaking to me.

Cut that red barrier. Perform surgery on it.