A Sword from the Blue
Out of nowhere, the window exploded into shards as something streaked right past my face. If my Crisis Detection hadn't made me freeze, it would have smashed straight into my skull. The thought sent a full-body chill racing down my spine.
What the hell was that...?
I quickly scanned outside the window, keeping my body hidden in case anything else came flying. What? There's no one out there...? The glass had sprayed inward, so it clearly came from outside... but not even an ant was visible beyond the broken pane.
"Fuck... what kind of situation is this?"
This was the third floor of a villa. Not the kind of place where someone accidentally shatters a window. That made it reasonable to assume the attack had been aimed at me.
Did someone snipe it from a distance?
But would they really go that far just to assassinate me? I've piled up plenty of grudges, sure, but I can't remember doing anything that would make someone want me dead. Who the hell could it be...?
Could Kwon Si-hu have targeted my house?
No. It couldn't be him. The injuries I gave that bastard weren't the kind that healed in a day or two. He'd need months of rehabilitation even after treatment before he could function normally again. Especially with his pulverized arm and leg—even healing magic would take forever to fully restore them.
Then maybe one of the looters I killed back in that gate?
No, they were definitely dead. And even if they had colleagues, how would they know I was Sexy Guy?
Then who the fuck is it...?
No matter how hard I thought, the answer wouldn't come. I stayed hidden for a long time, but there were no signs of any follow-up attacks. Only then did I slowly stand and survey the room.
"Ha... what a fucking disaster... how long is this going to take to clean up?"
The living room was a war zone of scattered glass. And the window frame was completely blown open.
It's the middle of summer, damn it! Even if I turn the AC on, all the cold air's just going to leak right out!
It was a truly shitty situation. Without AC I couldn't even stay in the house during the day, and replacing that window frame would cost at least a million won.
Still, it was a relief that I wasn't completely broke. Hunter Academy cadets received a monthly allowance under the support fund, and I'd earned some money from jobs at the Labor Office.
I'll clean this up and call a window repair company...
I was heading off to find the broom when—
"What the hell is that?"
Only then did I finally identify the object that had flown in.
Something was embedded deep in the wall.
"Huh? A sword...?"
It was a sword. A one-handed blade with a pitch-black edge.
They threw a sword...?
There were plenty of throwing weapons out there, so why a sword? Wasn't that kind of an unsuitable choice for an assassination?
Thinking that, I took a closer look at the sword.
"Why does it look like this?"
The sword's condition was... to put it politely, absolute dogshit.
The black blade wasn't just chipped—it was riddled with holes. It looked like the mouth of some Line 1 villain grandpa who'd never bothered with dental care. The hilt was so filthy I didn't even want to touch it. The thing practically screamed plague.
If I tried to sell it for scrap, the junkyard owner would probably slap me across the face and tell me to fuck off.
Wait. Hold on.
"No way... could it actually be?!"
I knew this trope!
The cliché where a special sword seeks out its owner by itself! I'd seen it a billion times in anime and web novels.
Right now it looked like worthless junk, but the moment I grabbed it, it would transform with a dramatic flash. Then I'd act all surprised—"What?! Why is it doing this?"—even though I already knew what was coming. And only I would be able to hear the sword's voice.
Master! Your scent is so wonderful... haa... it's tingling down below... heup...
Yeah. That might be a bit much. I'm not a pervert who gets turned on by swords.
Anyway! That special sword could even polymorph into human form! Ego Sword? Polymorph? I think those were the terms.
This was one hundred percent certain. This was the destiny between me and this fated blade.
If that wasn't the case, there was no way a piece of trash like this would have flown into my house!
I couldn't stop the corners of my mouth from twitching into a grin as I approached the sword.
"Hehehe. Come to me!"
I grabbed the hilt and yanked it free.
Chunks of wall debris clattered down. And then...
"What? Why isn't anything happening?"
There was no change to the sword at all. The blade that looked like it might snap at any second just trembled faintly. Even that wasn't a reaction to me—it was just the vibration from pulling it out of the wall.
"Fuck, then what the hell is it?!"
My consciousness cut off right there.
I was standing somewhere.
A collapsed, shattered city. The hollow sound of wind. An eerie emptiness with no trace of life anywhere.
Where... is this?
It was Gangnam. I definitely remembered seeing that building full of holes before. It was already half-destroyed, but the shape matched.
I wandered the city searching for someone.
No matter how loud I shouted or how far I walked, no one answered. The few human shapes I occasionally spotted had long since rotted away, leaving nothing but skeletons.
I kept desperately searching for survivors. But there weren't any living people. Not even zombies that would fit a post-apocalyptic setting.
Hours passed. Days. Months. Years.
There was no one.
I was the only one left in this world.
I had to accept it now.
The world had already ended completely.
"Huk!"
I snapped awake with a gasp.
What... what was that...?
What the hell did I just see? Was it some kind of hallucination? Or had I been hit with a mental attack?
"H-how much time has passed?"
The current time was 9 a.m.
I was out for over two hours...?
I wasn't an idiot, so I didn't fall into cliché oblivious thoughts like Maybe I've just been a little tired lately? That's exactly why it was so terrifying—the completely unrealistic situation where the moment I touched that sword, over two hours of my life had been literally deleted.
The despair and loneliness from that vision still filled my head.
The world ended? Then... did I just see the future?
I tried to calm my pounding heart and kept thinking, but no answers came.
The half-broken sword still showed no changes whatsoever.
I definitely saw that vision right after touching it...
Now that I thought about it, this sword was seriously suspicious.
Let's organize the situation.
Some junk sword flew in and smashed our window to pieces. There was no one who threw it. The moment I touched it, I saw a despairing vision and my mood completely tanked.
...Should I just call the police?
But what would I even tell them? That someone threw a sword into our house? That I saw a vision?
Wouldn't that just get the Hunter Association involved? I really, really didn't want to get tangled up with them.
Plus, talking about visions might get me labeled as mentally ill.
Sigh... fuck... let's just clean up.
I grabbed the broom and diligently swept up all the glass and cement fragments. Then I roughly dusted off that ominous sword and stuck it in the umbrella stand.
After that I called the window company to make a reservation, but they said they couldn't work on weekends and could only come Monday. It would cost two million won including the service fee.
"Fucking hell, seriously!"
But at the time, I had no idea.
That inside the umbrella stand, the sword was continuously emitting a faint vibration like a cheap vibrator.
"It's hot... way too hot..."
After finishing the cleanup, it was already midday. The weather was scorching.
Ever since I started training, my muscle mass had increased dramatically. As a result, I'd recently discovered one mysterious fact.
High muscle mass equals high energy consumption. High energy consumption equals lots of heat generation. Lots of heat generation equals fucking hot.
I had discovered this miraculous formula.
So right now I was fucking hot. The AC wasn't working properly, so it felt like I was dying.
Slap!
The mosquitoes were fucking awful too.
"No way! I can't take this anymore!"
I loved my house, but today I absolutely could not stay here. It wasn't just the heat—with the window blown open like that, way too many bugs were getting in.
Of all seasons, this shit happens in the middle of summer...
In times like this, taking refuge at someone else's place was the best option. But where would I have friends? I was an orphan with no family.
Park Ha-eun's house? Unfortunately we weren't close enough for that. We were just senior and junior who greeted each other and had shared a light kiss. Not close enough for a home visit.
No matter how much I thought about it, there was nowhere to go.
Should I just go to a cafe...?
After seeing something so depressing earlier, my mood still hadn't recovered. Every time I looked at the broken window, my blood pressure seemed to rise.
I packed my tablet and power bank and headed to a large franchise cafe.
"Wow... now I feel like I can actually live!"
The cool AC breeze felt like pure happiness.
I ordered an iced Americano and settled into a seat.
Good! I'll hold out here until evening!
I'd kill time playing games until sunset, then stop by Daiso on the way home to buy a mosquito net for the bed. Perfect plan.
I put in my earphones and launched the BanDream rhythm game, playing a few rounds.
Just to be clear.
Me playing rhythm games doesn't make me some otaku degenerate.
I'm still consistently doing strength training at the gym. I don't skip technical training like swordsmanship either. On top of that, I'm sharpening my senses every week through real combat in gates and rank battles.
So what training am I lacking?
Agility and reaction speed.
That's why I play rhythm games—to train that reaction speed. It's literally to improve my dynamic visual acuity.
It doesn't mean I'm playing because the game is fun.
Even though I spend 300,000 won a month on gacha to collect characters. Anyway, that's the situation.
I was enjoying this long-awaited break, playing games and watching anime, when I suddenly felt the cafe growing noisy.
What is it...?
When I looked around, everyone in the cafe was staring at a woman who was ordering. So I turned my gaze there too.
"Huk!!"
It was an incredibly rare sight to see in a neighborhood cafe.
Long, flowing golden blonde hair. An unbelievably violent figure revealed by a sleeveless dress. Skin that seemed to glow white. And a face so beautiful it felt unreal.
Wow... fuck, is this actually real...?
It was enough to make every man stare with his mouth open. Even the women's gazes weren't jealousy—they looked closer to reverence, like they were beholding a work of art.
Anyone who didn't look at her was the weird one.
After finishing her order and receiving her drink, the woman began walking slowly.
To be exact, she was walking straight toward where I was sitting.
Well... there are fewer people here, so that must be why.
I still hadn't broken the habit of sitting in the emptiest spots possible.
And I'd heard that women could feel everyone's stares. She must be coming toward me because of all the eyes on her, seeking the place with the fewest people.
Click—
But then, without warning, she set her drink down on my table.
And with a beautiful smile, she spoke.
"Oh my, we meet again here? Mind if I sit for a moment?"
"...Yes? Me...?"
No... who are you...?
"You're Cadet Yoo Ji-min, right? You don't remember me?"
"Uh..."
Now that she mentioned it, she did look familiar...
Ah! I remembered!
"The nurse noona...?"
"Hehe, that's right. You remember me?"
She was the noona who first spoke to me when I was hospitalized after falling into erosion. That celebrity-level beauty! She was so pretty that I still remembered her name.
It was Song Eun-chae.
"Ah, it's been a while. I didn't recognize you in casual clothes."
"But... why didn't you contact me?"
"Huh...?"
What? Had I made that kind of promise?
"I've been waiting so long. Cadet Yoo Ji-min... or perhaps..."
Song Eun-chae tucked her hair behind one ear and smiled seductively. Then she said,
"Should I call you Sexy Guy?"