희망 혹은 희망
Monster.
Not some pixelated blob in a video or a stack of dummy data in a simulation — a real one that breathed, smelled, and wriggled right in front of you.
When Kim Pung, the top student of SHAS, first saw one, what had he thought?
Attack route?
Surrounding angle?
Backup request?
No.
None of those clichés flashed through his mind.
The fight was already over.
Only one thing lingered in his head.
I have to survive.
Like the rat in front of the cat, like the steer being dragged to the slaughterhouse — every nerve in his body focused on a single command.
Run.
“Huff… huff, huff—!”
His heart slammed against his ribs like a drum.
Breath clogged in his throat. Neither inhalation nor exhalation worked.
The stench ripped through the air. Just that smell made his stomach churn.
His nostrils burned, and a salty taste of fish guts coated his tongue.
The air itself felt heavy.
The monster’s body odor had claimed the entire space.
Every nerve in his body stood on end, as if struck by lightning.
His lungs shrank, pupils contracted.
*If I move, I’m dead.*
What he felt now wasn’t in any combat manual from SHAS.
Fear.
Kim Pung realized it then — yet again.
No matter how much he trained or how strong he became, humans were prey in front of monsters.
“Hah… haaa…!”
But.
Blink. Blink.
“…?”
The monster’s head slowly turned.
Its protruding mouth faced his direction.
In that instant, Kim Pung thought, *It’s over.*
Yet nothing happened.
Time froze.
The monster didn’t move.
Those massive eyes blinked strangely, but the body didn’t react in the slightest.
The pupils probed forward, backward, left, right — like a fish that had missed its prey searching in the air.
‘…What?’
Instinct kicked in first.
And it clicked.
*Could it really be blind like a fish?*
The structure of fish eyes from biology class flashed in his mind.
Fish eyes were almost on the sides of the head.
Thanks to that, their vision was over 300 degrees — twice as wide as a human’s.
But the front was different.
Since the two eyes didn’t overlap, there was a 10-to-20-degree blind spot right in the center.
That was the structural weakness where predator and prey decided life or death while scanning each other underwater.
Right now the monster was sitting dead center in that blind spot.
*Swallow.*
Kim Pung swallowed hard.
Its gaze had slipped past the front.
Even though they were staring straight at each other, those eyes didn’t see him.
Especially a monster that looked like a fish — and it saw with fish eyes.
It couldn’t see forward, only swiveling sideways.
Ridiculous.
But that ridiculous thing was the only reason he was still alive.
“…Good.”
He slowly exhaled and lowered his body.
Matching the monster’s side-to-side eye movement, he tilted his own body like a shadow.
*Now… I can run!*
As long as he didn’t lose his mind, he’d live.
He could crawl out of a tiger’s den.
That moment.
A small cry slipped through the held breath.
“Hic… save me…!”
Kim Pung’s body went rigid on its own.
From the monster’s palm, a child’s wail burst out.
Its tiny feet kicked the air while trembling.
Between the monster’s fingers, a soccer ball clutched by the kid fell with a *thud*.
“…!”
What the hell was he hesitating for?
Monster.
A real monster.
If it couldn’t do anything, at least it should have a machine gun or grenade — something you could fight back with.
Charging it bare-handed was suicide.
He’d learned that the hard way at school.
No, that was common sense in this world.
*Don’t save humans captured by monsters. Hero complex isn’t a virtue — it’s a death wish.*
Yes.
He had to run.
He had to.
But—
*Bang!*
“Guek?! …What the hell is this…!”
By the time he came to his senses, his body had already charged straight into the monster’s blind spot.
The fist he’d honed a hundred, a thousand times.
The same fist that had won gold at the national youth martial arts championship before entering SHAS.
The straight punch his coach called “mechanical” — elbow to shoulder perfectly aligned — slammed into the monster’s solar plexus.
And the result—
“…Guek?”
Nothing.
Worse than nothing.
When it struck, the impact felt like punching a steel plate, not flesh.
His skin tore, and burning pain raced up his hand.
*Thud.*
From his wrist came a short, clear *crack*.
“Ugh—!!”
The monster’s scales only slightly distorted.
The muscle underneath twitched like living steel cable.
*This… is really a living creature?*
The elastic rebound under his skin sent electricity shooting up his arm.
His arm shook.
That was when—
*Creak—*
The monster slowly turned its head.
Its pupils locked onto Kim Pung.
At the same time, the hand holding the child’s head opened slowly, way too calmly.
In that opening, the kid fell to the ground.
*Kwa-jik!*
“Fu, fuup?!”
Something brushed his face.
The hot stench of blood stabbed his nose.
And pain.
Late, crushing-bone pain swept through his whole body.
The spot where his arm had snapped throbbed like it was on fire, and his ears rang with a *wing* that felt like an eardrum about to burst.
His vision wobbled. Red flooded in. The world tilted.
The air stopped. All sound cut off.
The last thing he remembered was a sharp *cut*.
***
Even now, once a week, that day wakes up as a nightmare every time he sleeps.
Just like always, he says, “I’ll be back soon.”
His parents in decoy-unit gear turn away with a tight nod.
Before deployment, Dad’s hand ruffles his hair while pressing his helmet down.
Mom beside him, adjusting her goggles and smiling.
Back then he’d just grinned.
They’d be relieved if he looked happy.
But in truth, he’d never truly smiled once.
Even waving goodbye that day, inside he’d wanted to cry.
He wanted to grab them, stop them from leaving, and beg, *Please, don’t fight.*
He couldn’t because they were so cool.
Despite how scared he was, he envied their backs.
And…
“Haa—”
He opened his eyes.
“How long… had I been out?”
They said you see a tunnel of light before death.
Maybe what he’d just seen was that.
The moment consciousness returned, the pain hitting his whole body was overwhelming.
His arms and legs felt like lead weights.
Moving sent pain like sand grinding between bones.
Every breath carried a metallic taste up his tongue. One cough sent blood *tup* through his throat.
His vision spun, a thick heat blooming at the back of his head.
Even as his senses warped, Kim Pung instantly understood.
This was a severe injury.
Treatment was impossible.
A wound that meant the end.
His instinct, not his reason, had already known he was dying.
But there was no time left to feel the death pulse.
The culprit who’d made him like this stood right in front of him.
“…You came to eat me?”
“Guek… guegureuk.”
“Freaky bastard.”
The monster slowly twisted its head.
Not just the neck — the entire bone structure twisted and snapped.
A dry metallic *clink* rang out as the eyes on both sides rolled simultaneously along the scaly tracks.
That gaze pulled Kim Pung from both sides.
And its small mouth twitched.
Regularly, like it was breathing.
But that wasn’t breathing — it was the signal of an open mouth.
*Zch—*
Skin tore, the jaw dropped to its waist.
The jawbone popped out, flesh *screeching* away, and the whole face instantly became one huge “mouth.”
Layered razor teeth jutted from the scale gaps, reflecting light.
Inside, smaller teeth whirled in a spiral.
Then, without a sound, the massive mouth slowly turned toward him.
“Damn it…”
The monster’s hand clamped down on his broken leg.
No time to scream — his body was lifted into the air.
His vision flipped upside down. Red sky and black teeth overlapped on the same screen.
Even in that, Kim Pung saw the distant, small figure running away in the background.
A tiny kid.
The same child snatched by the monster just moments ago.
*At least… he got away safely.*
A stupid ending.
People said children were mirrors of their parents — and this ending matched perfectly.
No tragedy needed. Just the inevitable.
Even so, thinking of this kind of end made him smile faintly.
But in that moment—
*Kwaang—!*
Air split.
Red fragments flew.
The boy’s final moment never arrived.
Instead, the monster’s colossal shadow collapsed, and Kim Pung’s body hit the cold ground.
“Are you okay?”
“…Ah!”
Before him stood *that man*.
Black cloak.
A silhouette that swallowed light.
A white bone mask on its face.
The man with the bone mask he’d seen countless times on news and videos.
“Blood Eclipse Art.”
Blood gushed from the ground beneath him.
The monster’s body — once a nightmare — lost its shape and was brutally crushed.
A creature that a living human fist couldn’t scratch.
Now it was scattered into blood and flesh.
Kim Pung swallowed.
And… realized.
At the same time, his body was healing.
Torn flesh knit together, broken bones realigned. Pain vanished, blood cooled.
“My body’s better…? How…?”
“Then…”
“…!!”
An impossible scene no science could explain.
But none of that mattered now.
It stood right in front of him.
The real hero he’d dreamed of meeting for so long.
“I, I…!”
His heart pounded.
Far harder than when he’d first seen the monster.
Even though the injury was already healed, his chest rattled as if it would collapse.
Still, what could he say?
He wanted to meet this person so badly…! What first?
*Thank you for saving me?*
*How exactly are you that strong?*
*I’m your fan?*
Then his first words finally came out.
“I can… become like you too?”
“….”
It was a question clinging to hope even in front of cold reality — a youth who refused to let go of dreams.
“Can I become a hero like you?”