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Northern Gyeonggi Province.
The sky near Yeoncheon tore open.
A dimensional rupture.
The so-called Dungeon Impact.
Crimson fog blanketed the earth. A metallic stench filled the air as grotesque howls poured forth. The nearby village descended into pandemonium in an instant.
"All units, disperse! Civilian evacuation is the top priority!"
Leading the dispatched Hunters was A-rank Hunter Ice Flower Lee Seoyun, a veteran of the Korean Awakened Management Bureau.
Zzzzt—
From the feet of the cold-attribute ability user, the ground froze white.
But the situation was already the worst imaginable. What had leaped from the rift was a Rank 5 magic beast—Scar Blood. A monstrosity the size of a house, its entire body covered in spines.
"KRAAAARGH!"
The beast roared. The shockwave crumpled a nearby armored vehicle like paper. Lee Seoyun gritted her teeth.
"Frost Barrier!"
A massive ice shield blocked the beast's forepaw. KWAANG! With a thunderous crash, ice shards sprayed in every direction. A thin trail of blood ran from the corner of Lee Seoyun's mouth.
Ugh… I have to hold on!
Squeezing every last drop of her mana, Lee Seoyun unleashed her ultimate technique—Absolute Zero Dagger. It pierced straight through the beast's heart.
Kuuung.
The beast collapsed, foaming at the mouth. The crimson fog blanketing the area began to slowly clear.
"Haa… haa…"
Lee Seoyun planted a knee on the ground and gasped for breath. Her entire body was caked in sweat and beast blood. Fortunately, the worst had been averted.
"Team leader! Are you alright?"
"…Yeah. Check on the injured first."
With trembling hands she stared at the beast's corpse. The byproducts of a Rank 5 magic beast were a national asset. As she approached to recover it—
A presence—
Lee Seoyun's sixth sense screamed. She leaped backward on pure instinct.
"What—it's not over yet?!"
Space tore open like paper. A massive hole of darkness yawned wide. Someone slowly walked out—a man in a black coat.
This aura… could it be…
Lee Seoyun drew up her cold energy.
After North Korea's collapse, the northern reaches of the central Korean Peninsula were officially Korean territory. In reality? They had become a battleground for the great powers—little more than occupied zones for foreign guilds. And the ones running rampant?
Hyena bastards… I had a feeling. Chinese guild trash.
Huge men blocked Lee Seoyun's path as she tried to recover the corpse.
"Out of the way, woman."
Rough Chinese. Hunters bearing the emblem of China's largest guild, Black Dragon. Behind them strode a man with an arrogant air—China's Dragon-rank named Hunter, Wang Lian.
"This is a controlled zone of the Korean Management Bureau! Stand down!"
Lee Seoyun gritted her teeth and shouted. Wang Lian only snorted.
"Korea? A Hunter from that pathetic little country, giving orders to me?"
"Heh. We'll spare your life, so get lost. This is Black Dragon property now."
"If you don't want to die, disappear."
The Chinese Hunters surrounding them radiated killing intent.
Lee Seoyun bit her lip. She was exhausted. Her mana was completely drained. If she fought now, her entire team would be slaughtered.
Frustrating… but I have to fall back for now.
The moment she was about to give the retreat order—
Kuuuuuuuung—
The ground began to shake with insane force. A vibration that made the earlier Dungeon Impact feel trivial.
Kurrrrung! Kwaaaaaang—
Once more a colossal hole ripped open in the sky. Violet lightning shredded the earth.
"What? A second Impact?"
Even Wang Lian's composure cracked. The scale of the rift was anything but ordinary.
The sound of space tearing hammered against eardrums. The aura pouring from beyond was mightier and more ominous than any magic beast that had ever set foot on Earth.
"Looks like that woman's scared stiff."
"Hahaha. What else do you expect from Hunters of a tiny country?"
"Perfect timing. Let's show them the difference in power for real."
The Black Dragon Hunters sneered. At Wang Lian's signal they charged as one. Sword aura and flames tore through the air, converging on a single point.
And from the heart of that mana storm walked something that looked like formless mist.
No—it was a vast mental body, a pure aggregation of mana. A being without flesh.
It was Kang Hanul. He gazed expressionlessly at the chaos before him.
Hmm. When I was dragged into the Demon Realm I thought only my mental body had been taken and my physical body would still be waiting… but it's gone.
If a body had remained, it would have resonated with the wavelength of his mental form. He had already constructed a formula so the coordinates would lock on automatically.
Yet here his mental body floated with nowhere to settle. Meaning the flesh that should have been left behind on Earth no longer existed.
Didn't matter. Hanul had reached the absolute pinnacle of black magic—enough to be called the Demon God in the Demon Realm. Reconstructing a new body was nothing.
It'll take a little time to properly adapt after a fresh reconstruction, but…
In an instant the blood and demonic energy of the scattered magic beasts condensed into a single point. Blood and darkness tangled together, forging skeleton and muscle. In the span of a heartbeat, the body of a man in a black coat stood complete.
And then—
KWAANG!
The Chinese Hunters' attacks slammed into Hanul's body. Not even dust rose. Every strike shattered against the invisible barrier surrounding him.
"I just arrive and instead of a welcome, these insignificant things start swarming."
Hanul lightly flicked a finger. Black magic of the Demon Realm, rooted in mental-type power, manifested for the first time upon Earth's atmosphere.
Zzt. Zztzt!
Black shadows erupted from beneath the Chinese Hunters' feet. They became thorns and saw blades that engulfed them.
"A-Aagh! My legs!"
"Save me! My body… my body's melting!"
The screams did not last long. The Chinese Hunters touched by Hanul's black magic were literally ground to pieces.
Kwachachachacha—
Flesh crushed. Souls devoured by Hanul's demonic energy. In a matter of seconds more than a dozen elite Hunters turned to blood and evaporated.
"What… is this…"
Wang Lian no longer even had the strength to scream. Revenge for his subordinates? Absurd. This was a completely different class of existence. His pride as a Dragon-rank Hunter had already been smashed into the dirt.
He fled in panic—a miserable figure left with nothing but the raw instinct to survive.
"…"
Meanwhile Lee Seoyun radiated cold air, warily watching Hanul. Her fingertips trembled. The man before her had just annihilated China's elites in a single breath. Before she could speak, Hanul opened his mouth first.
"Hey. You there, woman. I'll ask you something."
"Y-Yes?"
"Is this Korea?"
"Y-Yes, it is."
"Those guys earlier were babbling Chinese, so I wondered if the coordinates were off. Good."
Lee Seoyun's pupils shook violently. A hypothesis flashed through her mind.
"…Could you be a Returner?"
"Return? Probably."
Lee Seoyun's thoughts raced. She had to secure him. By any means necessary she had to bring this man over to their side.
Korea stood on the brink. Guilds of the great powers were devouring territory and plundering resources. The Chinese Hunters' atrocities moments ago were living proof. If power of this magnitude became an ally, the entire war could reverse.
As she scrambled for the right words to persuade him—
"What rank are you?"
"Pardon?"
"You're a Hunter. You have a rank, don't you?"
"A-rank."
"A-rank means you're not complete bottom-tier. You'll have at least some pull with the government."
Hanul regarded her indifferently and asked again.
"I want to find someone. Can you do that?"
Lee Seoyun's eyes lit up. Opportunity. If he wanted something, negotiation became simple.
"Of course! I'm directly under the Hunter Association—I can cooperate however you need!"
She answered, fighting to keep her voice steady.
"Just tell me who you're looking for. I will find them no matter what."
"Kang Junwu."
A cool, aching longing colored Hanul's voice as he spoke the name.
"My older brother."
Hanul sat in the back seat of the official car. Lee Seoyun's hands on the steering wheel trembled faintly. The vehicle headed toward a quiet farm on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province.
A short while later they arrived at an abandoned black goat farm—Junwu's Goat Farm. Weeds grew wild. Without care the land had become little more than ruins.
Hanul walked to a corner of the farm, a shaded spot where sunlight barely reached. There stood a single shabby tombstone.
Kang Junwu's Grave
Kim Hyein's Grave
Hanul's pupils trembled. His brother and sister-in-law were already gone from this world.
He reached out and gently touched the stone. The hand that had pacified the Demon Realm and been called a god shook with empty futility. He had returned with power that transcended death itself—yet the people he had wanted to protect had already become earth.
"…"
Lee Seoyun carefully spoke up.
"Did you know you have a niece?"
"A niece?"
Life returned to Hanul's eyes. His brother's bloodline still remained. A young child, surely—someone who still knew nothing of the world's cruelty. He vowed then and there to raise her safer and happier than anyone else on Earth.
"Where is she? I'll go get her."
"Go get her?"
"Yeah. With my brother gone, I'm that child's guardian, aren't I? Come to think of it, I don't even know the name."
"Well…"
Lee Seoyun held out her terminal with a troubled look. On the screen floated a photo of a young woman in a sharp, elegant suit.
"Kang Eunha. Twenty-eight years old."
"…?"
"Currently the youngest-ever Minister of the Dungeon Management Department of the Republic of Korea. After the Tower conquest battle you were involved in, she has become the figure holding the core of national security."
Hanul's brow furrowed.
A child… she wasn't? More than that—twenty-eight? Before I went over there, the niece hadn't even been born yet.
"A minister?"
"Yes. Korea's situation right now is extremely precarious. Foreign encroachment is one thing, but internally many places have completely rotted. At least Minister Kang Eunha is called this country's hope and is fighting with everything she has."
My niece is that kind of talent…
As expected. Taking after her father, she was clearly no ordinary person.
"Interesting. I should go see my niece."
Hanul's violet eyes turned toward the sky over Seoul.