004

Back in the awkward turbulence of my adolescence.

At the time, I was a middle schooler utterly obsessed with genre fiction.

Fantasy and wuxia. Novels packed with knights and mages, martial artists and impossible techniques.

Back then, I’d found myself thinking:

What if I’m seeing mana?

Well, I mean, it was my teens. The age when your sense of self is overflowing and you start hunting for some special quality that belongs to you alone.

For me, the fact that I could see those “blue dots” no one else could made it only natural that I’d start entertaining thoughts like that.

So I tried everything.

I’d climb the mountain behind our neighborhood and meditate, trying to resonate with mana. I’d read wuxia books and imitate the forms, pretending I was learning martial arts. I even tried reaching out to touch the blue dots themselves.

And, naturally, I couldn’t interfere with them in the slightest.

I couldn’t touch them, couldn’t move them, couldn’t even hold them inside my body.

All I could do was stare at them.

And little by little, as I grew older and my head got bigger in all the wrong ways, reality settled in.

Magic? Martial arts? As if any of that exists. It’s all fiction.

The blue dots are just a hallucination only my eyes can see.

If I don’t want people treating me like a lunatic, I’d better never mention the blue dots.

The childlike dream of finding magic and martial arts had long since withered away, and I went on living in the real world.

I studied like everyone else, made friends, went to college...

And at some point, I simply stopped paying attention to the blue dots that only I could see.

That was all they were: a worthless memory from my awkward teen years.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

“...Ah.”

I blinked and opened my eyes.

The familiar sight of my room came into view.

“Afternoon... no. Evening, I guess.”

Just how long had I been out? The sunset was pouring through the little window of our semi-basement apartment.

I dragged myself out of the springy bed and walked into the living room.

My sister was there.

“You’re awake? Feeling any better?”

“Yeah... Sis, bring me some water.”

“Here.”

I took the cold water she held out and gulped it down.

That cleared the fog right out of my head.

My sister looked at me with worry and asked, “You’re not hurt anywhere, are you? No psychological trauma or anything?”

“I’m fine. I didn’t even get a scratch. That tutorial wasn’t all that, honestly.”

“Still...”

“Anyway, don’t worry about me. You’re the one who looks like she needs a break.”

I set the cup down and studied her face.

The look she gave me was full of concern, but beneath it sat exhaustion in heavy layers.

Dark circles hung under her eyes, and her hair looked greasy, like she hadn’t even had time for a proper wash.

She’d been so busy lately that even when she came home, she’d only sleep a little before heading back out.

So when I said I’d come back from the tutorial, she must’ve ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠forced out the time to run straight over here.

“You might be okay right now, but you still need to be careful. You can’t ignore psychological shock... Let’s go to a counseling center, at least once.”

“I’m telling you, I’m really fine. What’s with the sudden therapy obsession? You’re worrying too much.”

“The time right after a tutorial is when you have to be most careful. Do you know how many hunters suffer from trauma they picked up then?”

“What, do I look like some crybaby who’s gonna bawl just because he killed a few monsters?”

I’d teared up a little during the tutorial, sure, but that wasn’t crying. That was yawning.

Anyway, let’s just call it that.

“If you say you’re fine, then fine... Still, what difficulty was it? Easy, I’m guessing?”

“Nope.”

“...Wait, normal?! My God!”

My sister gasped in shock.

Heh. Come on, if you’re surprised by something as pathetic as normal, what’s the point?

I straightened my shoulders and said proudly, “Extreme Lunatic Hell Difficulty.”

“Don’t joke around.”

“If it wasn’t Extreme, then it was Lunatic. Or Hell.”

“The fact that you’re making such stupid jokes means you really must be okay.”

“No, I’m serious.”

For any difficulty harder than Hard, people called it Extreme, Lunatic, or Hell.

Wasn’t that just common sense?

I told her every possible answer because the difficulty was unprecedented and I had no idea which label to use. The fact that she still didn’t believe me was unfair.

Though, honestly, I didn’t believe it either.

How had a scrawny weakling like me survived a difficulty above Hard?

“Still, I’m really glad. You got out in one piece...”

She exhaled, then brightened a little. “Let’s celebrate your safe return with some pork belly. How about it? I’ll grill your favorite.”

“Oh! Pork belly! Yeah, on a day like this, you need meat—”

Meat.

For a second, the goblin flesh that had been splattering everywhere in the tutorial flashed through my mind.

My appetite hit the floor.

“...but my stomach’s not feeling great. Let’s just keep it simple. Make me some doenjang stew.”

“You really should get counseling...”

“I’m fine, seriously. Forget it and just make me a nice, hot bowl of doenjang stew. I want something warm.”

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

After dinner, I flopped onto my bed and rolled around.

Then I started sorting through everything I needed to do next.

First, I need to quit the convenience store job immediately. If I tell them I became a hunter, maybe I can claw back all the wages they shortchanged me on. And I need to register as a hunter. Exchange my points for cash...

Now that I was a hunter, there was a lot to do.

For starters, I was quitting that godawful convenience store job right away.

The manager paid me an hourly wage that wasn’t even up to minimum, and until now I’d had no choice but to swallow the unfairness.

There were so many people desperate for work that even under minimum wage, someone would still take the shift.

That was the state of the Republic of Korea today, with companies collapsing left and right or being sold overseas.

Everywhere you looked, there was a surplus of labor.

That was how a social climate had formed where simple part-time work got paid less than minimum wage.

File a complaint with the Labor Office?

At best, nothing came of it.

Society was in chaos, and the administration had holes punched through it in every direction, so unless something was truly serious, they didn’t respond properly.

But who was I?

A hunter. And not just any hunter, but one who had cleared Extreme Lunatic Hell Difficulty.

Hunters were, by nature, a nasty bunch.

Rough people who killed monsters every day and breathed in the smell of blood.

Add to that physical abilities beyond normal humans, and ordinary people wanted nothing to do with getting on a hunter’s bad side.

So if I, now a hunter, told my boss to cough up the wages he’d stolen from me, there was a pretty good chance he’d go pale and throw in extra on top, just to make sure I stayed happy.

Hunter registration and exchange... better do that tomorrow morning.

Now that I was a hunter, I had to register as one.

All I had to do was go to the nearest climber branch, show them my status window, and hand over my points for cash exchange.

On that thought, I opened my status window.

The status window was bare-bones.

Name, nation, current floor, and points held. That was the entire extent of the information.

Those 110 points were all mine.

Ten points for killing a goblin warrior.

One hundred points for killing a goblin shaman.

A grand total of 110 points.

At ten thousand won per point, that came to 1.1 million won.

If I get back the wages they stiffed me for and exchange these points too... I could probably scrape together around five million.

That would be enough to buy basic starter gear.

Stuff like simple leather armor, a sword, and a shield.

Of course, the government-issued starter set existed, but that was trash in the literal sense.

I’d heard it was better to buy your own equipment.

Then again, equipment...

I use a staff, not a sword. Can I even get something like that separately?

I glanced over at the staff standing in one corner of my room.

A battered, shabby wooden staff.

Unless you counted the tiny crystal the size of a fingernail mounted at its tip, it looked like nothing more than a plain stick.

I reached out and gripped it.

-Woom.

At once, that strange sense of unity washed over me.

The staff and I were linked by the soul, as if it were part of my own body.

Was this what people meant by sword-and-body becoming one?

“Sword-and-body unity is old news. The age of the nation’s staff-and-body unity has begun!”

I performed a little bit of self-indulgent cringe, just for the vibe.

Then I tightened my grip on the staff and focused.

I tried to bring back the feeling from the tutorial.

-Woom...

Then, faintly, the blue dots began gathering.

Just like in the tutorial, I could manipulate those blue dots however I wanted.

Only, there weren’t very many of them.

Probably because this is Seoul. There are way too few blue dots here.

The amount of blue dots floating in the air was pitifully thin.

During the tutorial, it had felt like drawing water from an endless sea.

Now it was more like forcefully wringing moisture out of a desert.

Well, this was Seoul.

A giant city far removed from nature, where blue dots were as faint as the stars.

It looked like the magic I’d used in the tutorial would be hard to reproduce exactly in the real world.

But still—

Since I became a climber, something feels like it’s lodged inside my body. If I draw that out, I think I can use magic even in reality...

Some kind of energy was nestled inside me.

I instinctively knew that if I pulled it out and used it, I could activate abilities in the real world.

And if I went somewhere rich in blue dots, or ate food infused with them, I could replenish it.

That was enough.

If I could use magic even in places where blue dots were scarce, that would be more than enough to keep myself alive in the real world.

Still.

It was amazing.

“So I really can use magic...”

The memories of my teens drifted through my head.

All the ridiculous things I’d done, trying to use magic or martial arts.

Back then, they were memories that made you kick your blankets in embarrassment.

But now that I was actually casting magic, the feeling was fresh in a whole new way.

“I’ll figure out what my abilities are bit by bit. For now...”

I pulled out my smartphone.

“I should post my hunter certification.”

I immediately logged into Hunter Gallery.

Hunter Gallery.

It should really have been called Hunter-Bashing Gallery, but paradoxically, it was also the only place where brand-new climbers could get any information at all.

Established hunters had their own communities where they could get decent information.

New hunters fresh out of the tutorial didn’t have anything like that.

So the usual path was to become awakened, start hanging out on Heon-Gal, and once you climbed high enough, get invited into established hunter communities and pick up better information there.

I’d follow that path too—post my proof and keep participating regularly.

That was what I was thinking when I opened Hunter Gallery.

“Huh?”

Soon enough, I had no choice but to blink in confusion.

The atmosphere on Heon-Gal was different from usual.

“Huh. So that’s how it is.”

Looks like there were a lot of lower-tier hunters forcing their ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠way up the Tower.

Understandable, really. With the country doomed in three months, they had to emigrate somehow before then.

Hunters who had only ever hung around the low floors were challenging the upper floors and dying in droves.

As a result, climber slots opened up, and new climbers like me were selected in droves.

For reference, the number of climbers was fixed at 0.1 percent of a nation’s population. When an existing hunter died, a new one was added to fill the spot.

So that’s why Sis has been so busy lately.

The low-floor hunter team my sister handled had apparently been pushing into much harsher climbs lately.

They’d been attempting reckless raids day after day in the hopes of emigrating, and my sister, as their manager, must have gotten dragged into the mess too.

That was when I was still skimming the posts.

Bang bang.

“Jiye! Jiye! Are you in there?”

A voice came from outside.

It was a voice I didn’t recognize.

What the hell? Who’s looking for my sister?

Jiye was my sister’s name.

I quietly got up and walked into the living room.

“Sis. Who is it?”

“...The team leader of the hunter team I manage. I texted him that I was heading home because something urgent came up, but... I didn’t think he’d come all the way here.”

“Ah.”

The voice from outside sounded like my sister’s boss, the hunter team leader.

My sister said with an awkward expression, “Stay in your room for now. I’ll send him away.”

“Okay.”

I went back into my room obediently.

Then I cracked the window open a little.

I can see the front gate from here.

My room’s window was positioned just barely well enough to look out toward the front gate of the building.

Usually all I could see were people’s ankles, and sometimes some drunk would just come by and piss against the wall, so I’d always wished the window wasn’t there at all.

But as they say, everything has its use.

Standing on tiptoe and peeking through the window, I spotted a middle-aged man with a rough face.

So that’s my sister’s hunter team leader. He looks like a thug.

He had the kind of presence that screamed “hunter”—mean, sharp, and unpleasant.

His sparse beard wasn’t properly trimmed, his eyes looked vicious, and his face was downright ugly.

It made me respect my sister all over again.

How had she managed office life with someone like that as her boss?

As I watched, my sister stepped outside.

“Team Leader Gwak Hyeokjun. Coming all the way to my house like this is a problem.”

“The problem is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me, actually. Jiye, as a manager, do you even understand what’s happening right now? You’re going home in the middle of something this important?”

“I told you already. My younger brother got dragged into a tutorial. My family nearly died—how was I supposed to work?”

“You think I’ve never gone through a tutorial? Enough already. Go back to work right now. There’s a lot of loot to process.”

“At the very least, I’m staying with my brother today.”

“Haa... fuck. Jiye, is this a joke to you? Do you think I’d be coming down on you for family matters one by one if this job were easy? You want to get yourself ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠kicked out of being a manager? You’ve always been good at your job, so what’s with this? Hm?”

“...”

Looks like Sis had left work without permission because she was worried about me.

I felt sorry. Watching her get cursed out by her employer because of me made guilt twist in my gut.

Then—

“Hah... Fine. In that case, let me ask you this. Jiye, have you thought about my offer?”

The middle-aged man said it in a slippery voice.

Offer?

Something about that sounded bad.

“Our team’s already reached Floor 8. With the three months we’ve got left, we can definitely make it to Floor 11. If we’re lucky, we might even make it to Japan.”

“...”

“You want to survive too, don’t you? Come on, be my woman.”

...Fuck?

Who the hell was this psycho trying to hit on my sister?

But I was still too early to be horrified.

“Don’t you have a wife and a son?”

“Wife and kid can survive on their own. We’re about to reach the middle floors, so I should be starting a new life too, shouldn’t I? So—”

“That’s disgusting. Don’t ever say that again. If you say it one more time, I’ll really quit.”

“Tch. You’re stiff-necked now, sure. But when the end of the world is right in front of you, you’ll open your legs too...”

And he was even married, with a kid?

That son of a bitch. I couldn’t take any more.

I grabbed my staff and charged outside.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇