Jumping Character

Black smoke billowed thick across the mountainside. The stench peculiar to monsters mingled with the acrid odor of burning flesh, rolling outward in waves. Melted by bombardment, monster corpses lay sprawled everywhere — but mixed among them were large monsters with massive carapaces that bore not so much as a singe mark. Bodies covered in countless sword cuts, slain only after being hacked apart again and again. High-grade mana bombs hadn't worked on them at all. These were higher-tier species.

"To think I'd be seeing these things again."

Kang Seok muttered as he stood before the monster's corpse. It was a species he'd already crossed paths with once before — in China, not Korea.

"This species hadn't been discovered until now, sir. They're not in any of our data."

"Well, of course not. They're not simply monsters that drifted in — they're direct-line members of Lastus's legion."

"...You're saying they were produced in a nest?"

Kang Seok nodded silently. That a species thought wiped out along with the Special Species Lastus had reappeared like this could only mean one thing: the creature had already established a nest somewhere. Whether that nest lay in the Chinese interior or the northern Korean peninsula was still unknown — but either way, the headache was the same.

"...Their movements are far from normal."

Chief of Staff Park Seong-hwan, standing beside him, paused deliberately before speaking. "The legions under his command have grown more active while simultaneously digging far deeper into our territory. As if they'd caught wind of our movements."

"Yes. It's blatant enough to be almost insulting."

The military was currently on the verge of launching a full-scale campaign against the Root. The operation had been postponed once, and in exchange they were conducting pre-operational work that much more thoroughly. But of late, the movement of Lastus's legions had taken on the shape of an effort to obstruct the Root campaign. They hadn't launched an active offensive yet, but the moment the assault on the Root began, it was obvious they would converge from every direction.

"If they throw in with him in earnest, the difficulty of the Root operation will rise considerably. To prevent greater losses, we need to force the operation through now, even at this late hour."

"No. Not yet."

"Is this about... that method? The one that supposedly lets us take the Root without casualties?"

"That's right. The agreed time hasn't come yet."

"Who in the world is the person who proposed this method?"

"Do I seem that untrustworthy to you?"

"Hardly. I have thrown my very life on the line on your word alone, Commander, all this time."

"Then trust me on this one too. He's someone I trusted with my own life."

At his resolute answer, Park Seong-hwan fell silent, and before long he quietly nodded.

...

Kang Seok let out a short, soundless sigh. He'd also heard that helicopters belonging to the National Security Bureau had been crossing the border back and forth of late. The only person who could shuttle about unilaterally at a time like this, without a care for the military's sensitivities, was Baek Ji-soo. And she wouldn't have suddenly shown up on her own initiative out of nowhere — it had to be connected to Oh Hyeon-seong.

I have no idea what he's planning to do... but whatever it is, he'd better hurry.

Given how things were unfolding, there wasn't much time to spare. Once the allotted window lapsed, the operation would have to proceed without delay, and an operation of this scale would inevitably produce heavy casualties. Kang Seok was no less reluctant than anyone to drive the men under his command into a living hell.

Which was why he hoped, more than anyone, that Oh Hyeon-seong would bring back good news.

When Oh Hyeon-seong had first faced Baek Ji-soo after his discharge from the hospital, she had been a woman worn down to the bone. Her body was being eroded by miasma, most of her senses paralyzed alongside it, and far from resting, she had been driving herself into the ground. She'd been hovering at the very edge of the fate no hunter could ever escape.

But unlike then, her skin now glowed with a smooth sheen.

Slurp!

Baek Ji-soo brought a mouthful of ramen to her lips. A deep, sweeping wave of emotion followed. Her expression melted away, smooth as thawing ice.

"Mm..."

She nodded. In her line of work, flawless expression management had earned her recognition across her team — but right now, that discipline was hard to maintain.

"What is this? It's different from the one I had last time."

"It's kimchi we jarred fresh recently."

"...It's delicious."

This was kimchi made from Epic-grade cabbage, and its crisp, snappy texture was a work of art — the difference unmistakable from the very first bite. Beyond the cabbage at its heart, only the highest-grade ingredients had been used without reserve, so a gap in flavor was only natural.

Baek Ji-soo, born with a hypersensitive palate, possessed the full sensibilities of a gourmet. Confronted with cuisine of this quality was, in itself, a profound happiness. It was no accident that she'd accepted his proposal — the one she'd sworn she'd absolutely refuse — the instant she heard it.

But the taste alone wasn't the whole reason.

"...It tastes like the ramen we used to have, back then."

"You mean the one we ate as kids?"

"Right. I never thought I'd get to taste it again."

Baek Ji-soo nodded even as she lifted her chopsticks, heaped with noodles. The steam rising in curls, carrying a faintly spicy aroma, prodded at her nostalgia for the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠past. After the gate catastrophe, the flavor of every food on earth had plummeted into ruin, and that had simply become the way of the world. Yet even living in that world all this time, the taste of the ramen from her childhood had never faded from memory. It wasn't a perfect recreation of that era's flavor — but reproducing it this closely was enough to move her to her core.

Sluuurp!

But right now, someone present was experiencing even greater happiness than she was.

"...He's in combat mode."

"Tell me about it."

A man had been waging an all-out battle beside them for some time now. Jang Seo-jun, utterly overwhelmed by the astonishing taste of ramen for the first time in his life, had half lost his mind, scarfing down his meal in a frantic scramble. Oh Hyeon-seong, whose reaction he'd fully anticipated, let out a quiet chuckle. He was fairly used to this flavor himself by now, but he knew exactly what kind of shock a person took when they first encountered real food — not cheap synthetic substitutes.

"Senior, let's talk for a minute."

"Sure."

When she tapped his shoulder and spoke, Oh Hyeon-seong nodded and rose from his seat. Naturally, even as she stood, Baek Ji-soo made sure to gather up her ramen bowl and chopsticks. The two of them drifted a comfortable distance away from Jang Seo-jun, still eating with single-minded devotion, and sat side by side in camping chairs with a lantern lit nearby.

"You calling me aside like this means you've got something to say about the training."

"To sum it up simply — he was usable. Made me realize you don't just ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠scoop up any random person off the street, Senior. Oh, and hearing his story, apparently he's from the North."

"What? He didn't have a trace of that accent. He blends in perfectly."

Northerners living in Korean society was hardly a shocking thing in itself. During the Queen's invasion of the past, a truly staggering number of people had died due to the North Korean regime's incompetent response. Had they admitted the situation was beyond them and not refused cooperation with the South, the damage could have been reduced many times over. But even amid that catastrophe, the millions of refugees who survived to the end had made it safely across into Korea.

"From what I hear, you're the reason he's alive at all, Senior."

"Yeah. If we hadn't stopped the Queen in Pyongyang back then, they'd all have been slaughtered to the last one."

Oh Hyeon-seong nodded as he said it. There was no need for false modesty here — moments like this filled him with a quiet pride. It was the clearest, most undeniable proof that the blood-soaked past he'd endured had not been for nothing. Nothing in the world was as visceral as the lives saved by his own two hands.

"No, that's not actually what I wanted to say..."

Baek Ji-soo started to say something, then swallowed the rest. Shrugging her shoulders, she slurped down more ramen and went on. "How much did you know, Senior?"

"What do you mean?"

"Jang Seo-jun's Special Constitution isn't something like Mana Extension. You knew that, didn't you?"

She asked with markedly serious eyes, and Oh Hyeon-seong shook his head. "No, I didn't know. Though I did suspect there had to be something else to him."

Jang Seo-jun's status window listed his growth potential as nothing less than SS-rank. Even at a glance, the figure was far from ordinary, so he'd assumed there was more to the man than the potential visible to his own eye — even if Mana Extension really was his Special Constitution, common as dirt.

"So you saw something during the training."

"I did."

"Did you figure out what his real Special Constitution actually is?"

"No. From what I can tell, his Special Constitution hasn't fully manifested yet."

"Ah. So it's one of those cases."

An awakened individual who had already awakened, and yet whose Special Constitution had failed to manifest completely. It wasn't common, but such cases turned up now and then. The reason was almost always the same: compared to the hardware the hunter currently possessed, the innate grade of their Special Constitution was simply too high for it to come out.

"But if it won't manifest even in a Rank 7 hunter — not some bottom-tier 2nd or 3rd Grade, but someone genuinely in the upper ranks — then it's no ordinary trait, is it?"

"It's definitely a top-tier detection-type Special Constitution, at the very least. The kind I've never personally encountered before."

At her confident assertion, Oh Hyeon-seong nodded. It was a category he'd never seen either, so he couldn't gauge it himself — but apparently the potential the status window had revealed hadn't lied. On this subject, at least, Baek Ji-soo's eyes were dead accurate.

"Well then... let's find out together, shall we? Exactly what this ability is."

Oh Hyeon-seong arrived at his answer without ceremony. If his Special Constitution couldn't manifest because his hunter rank was simply too low for his innate gift, then the solution was to raise that rank by leaps and bounds. Of course, even with the finest teacher in the world, such an achievement was no easy feat in a short span of time.

But he had one other means at his disposal.

"If his hardware's lacking — you just feed him until it isn't."

"...Hup."

The next morning, Jang Seo-jun shot upright inside his tent. He checked his wristwatch once, then rose in a rustle of movement and readied himself to head out. In the middle of it, yesterday came back to him, and the taste of that ramen still lingered faintly on his tongue. A shockingly delicious flavor — one he still couldn't quite believe was real.

Huh? Now ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that I think about it... nothing on me hurts at all.

Yesterday's training had been brutal. Pushed to his physical and mental limits, he'd assumed he'd wake up a wrung-out wreck the next day. But it was exactly the opposite. After a single night's sleep, every ache in his muscles had vanished and his energy had surged back in full. Judging by the clock, he hadn't even slept that long — yet his mind was completely refreshed, as if he'd slept an entire day straight.

All of it, of course, was thanks to the handmade ramen Oh Hyeon-seong had crafted himself and the side dishes served alongside it. The ramen alone — noodles, broth powder, and even the dried flakes — was made from Special Crops of at least Unique grade, so the combined effects of the ingredients had manifested in full. Overnight, his body and mind had been filled to overflowing with vitality.

"You're up?"

Oh Hyeon-seong and Baek Ji-soo were already awake. Jang Seo-jun snapped to attention with a crisp bow, and even mid-greeting his gaze was helplessly drawn by an aroma drifting softly from somewhere nearby.

"I was just about to wake you for breakfast anyway."

"Breakfast... sir?"

On the table sat a large, generous bowl — piled high with steamed potatoes. But these were no ordinary potatoes. To Oh Hyeon-seong's eyes, the mound glowed with a pure white light, and he picked up the most radiant one of the lot.

"...Delicious."

Oh Hyeon-seong bit into the potato and let out a soft chuckle. The flavor and texture filling his mouth brought satisfaction, but above all, he could feel the mana welling up from deep beneath his core. Even for Oh Hyeon-seong, who boasted an overwhelming mana reserve beyond any hunter alive, the effect was instantly palpable.

So what would happen if a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠crop like this were fed to a hunter still lingering in the lowest ranks?

He intended to find the answer to a question he'd been chewing on for a long time — starting now.