Code Name Black
Cheongdam-dong, Seoul.
A private whiskey bar known only to those in the know.
"So who is it, then? Yoon Tae-sung or Han Baek-san?"
"Hmm. In Korea, Yoon Tae-sung's still got to be the strongest. I'm going with Yoon Tae-sung."
"Come on, that's just ignorance talking. Sure, Yoon Tae-sung's strong, but he's a dungeon specialist. He's not quite enough to call the strongest in a one-on-one."
"So you're saying Han Baek-san?"
"That's how I see it. There's even a rumor he snagged some massive secret manual in a dungeon recently."
The Hunter Management Bureau executives, already thoroughly wrecked from their first round at a barbecue joint, were now raising their voices over drinks at the second stop.
The topic that always got men worked up was, as ever, simple.
Who was the strongest?
"A secret manual? Those have to be registered with the Association. I haven't seen any recent updates."
"Why so naive? Who in this business dutifully reports the real prize finds they pick up?"
"Fair point. But Yoon Tae-sung snagged some spiritual herb recently too, didn't he? And look, man—does finding a manual make you stronger overnight?"
"Even accounting for all that, it's still Han Baek-san. The man reached the top with nothing but a sword. His nickname is Sword Sovereign. Sword Sovereign Han Baek-san! Don't you know that?"
"Whatever. Director! What's your take?"
"Who knows."
Clink.
The Director's wrist turned his rocks glass with genuine weariness.
"What does it even matter?"
The two of them would never face each other anyway.
Both were national assets the country could not afford to lose.
The moment any sign of conflict appeared, the higher-ups would stop it by any means necessary.
"At the end of the day, they're both acorns."
"Excuse me?"
"What do you mean by—"
"They're measuring acorns against each other and calling it a contest."
The executives exchanged looks.
Was the Director that drunk?
Comparing S-rank hunters—strategic weapons and the nation's highest combat power—to mere acorns?
"Listen, you idiots. The world is wide, and extraordinary people are many. So shut up with the nonsense and drink more."
Gulp.
The amber liquid slid smoothly down his throat.
"Ahhh."
A heavy body, born of long years of patience inside an oak barrel.
He really loved this whiskey too.
Director Kim Hyung-seok set down the empty glass and narrowed his eyes.
His unfocused gaze drifted through empty air, then was pulled back into the memory of that day one month ago.
One month earlier.
The Leviathan subjugation operation that had unfolded in the East Sea.
That day had nearly been recorded as the worst in the history of the Republic of Korea.
The measuring device's readings had spiked madly alongside a red warning light, and then—
BOOM!
It had exploded.
The first appearance of an Unmeasurable-rank monster!
Naturally the entire world had paid attention, yet no hand of salvation had reached them.
"The American side says they'd like to help, but all their major hunters are currently deployed!"
"What about China? They're right next door!"
"A monster appeared in the Yellow Sea, they say. Regrettable, but defending their own territorial waters takes priority!"
"Those sons of bitches."
At the time, Kim Hyung-seok had bitten his lip until it bled.
They called it the World Hunter Alliance, but it was obvious they were just watching from the sidelines, afraid their own hunters might get hurt.
They wanted Korea to be the meat shield that generated the data.
It was unavoidable, but that was reality.
What if it had been them?
If a monster like that had appeared in another country?
And if that country had requested support from Korea?
Would they have willingly thrown the pillars of their nation into a death trap with no known survival rate?
National interest.
In the face of those two damned words, loyalty and everything else meant nothing.
"In the end, it's on us. Issue the emergency mobilization order. Assemble every S-rank hunter!"
Kim Hyung-seok had personally gone out with five of the Republic of Korea's top ten hunters.
Even that had been barely scraped together.
The Han Baek-san and Yoon Tae-sung the executives kept mentioning?
All of them had tucked their tails with nonsense about being inside unconfirmed dungeons or getting injured during training.
"You people are fools. But I'm grateful this country still has five fools like you left. Please—please don't make me carry this as a lifelong debt. Come back alive."
The result had been catastrophic.
"KRAAAAGH!"
"S-save me!"
Ten minutes.
That was how long it took for five S-rank hunters to be reduced to rags.
Two of them were already cold corpses sinking into the sea. One had his limbs torn off and was left a vegetable.
"…This is—"
On the scene, Kim Hyung-seok had felt death approaching.
The remaining two hunters had almost certainly felt the same.
And in that moment—
KRRRRRAAAAK!
The sky…
tore open.
With a flashing burst of light, the atmosphere above the East Sea screamed in agony.
At the same time, every monitor and gauge in the command center glowed like mad before bursting one after another—pop, pop.
"W-what the hell! Satellite signal is down!"
"Mana readings have exceeded measurable range. We can't get radio!"
"All the field camera lenses are shattered!"
As the control room descended into pandemonium, Kim Hyung-seok saw it.
From the torn dimensional rift, a man dropped with a soft thud.
Dressed in tattered rags, the man looked down at the enormous catastrophe roaring beneath his feet.
Then he frowned.
"What the hell is this little snake."
The man's voice cut clearly through the roar and drilled straight into their eardrums.
Little snake?
Calling that Unmeasurable-rank disaster a little snake?
At the same time, he waved his hand lightly, as if annoyed.
Truly—an indifferent gesture, like swatting a fly.
SPLAT!
Just once.
With that single wave of his hand, Leviathan's head burst open like a watermelon.
A rain of blood poured down like a torrential storm.
Kim Hyung-seok's jaw trembled as he stared blankly at the sea turning red.
W-what the hell is that?
The thing that had killed the monster was an even more vicious monster.
And that monster—
"Hah, shit. Dizzy."
—left those words behind and plummeted into the sea like a puppet with its strings cut.
The shock of that day had been branded into Kim Hyung-seok's mind like a fire brand.
Hannam-dong, Seoul.
In front of a premium safe house.
"Hoo… hoo…"
Lee Se-ah, a rookie agent assigned to the Bureau's special task force, clutched her heart as if it might explode.
With trembling hands she checked the tablet PC screen she held against her chest once more.
It was the profile of the nation's highest-level classified document—Code Name: Black.
NAME:Kang Hyun
AGE:33
RANK:Unmeasurable
◈ Appeared above the East Sea accompanied by a dimensional rift phenomenon.
◈ Killed the monster Leviathan with a single wave of the hand.
◈ Severe alcohol dependence; particularly fond of whiskey.
◈ Communication is not easy.
◈ High probability of acquisition attempts by foreign powers. Security equivalent to a top-tier strategic asset required.
At first she hadn't believed it.
Leviathan… wasn't killed by the S-rank hunters, but by this man?
But she had no choice but to believe it.
It was top secret—an official national document.
Only a handful of people in the entire Republic of Korea knew of this document's existence.
The President, the Chief of Staff, the Director of the National Intelligence Service, the Bureau Director, the two surviving S-rank hunters, and a tiny number of special task force agents within the Bureau itself.
At first I was thrilled.
Being granted access to a secret like this was proof she had stepped onto an elite track with guaranteed rapid promotion.
So she had even popped champagne.
But now?
Her current feelings were less like holding champagne and more like holding a cup of poison.
Because she had realized that this magnificent secret was, in reality, a bomb no one on the team wanted to touch.
Even today.
"Anyone willing to go see Black?"
At the Director's single sentence, a cold front had swept through the conference room.
The gazes of veteran seniors who had been through every hardship under the sun had, as if by prior agreement, all turned toward the ceiling, the floor, or their own fingernails.
"Uh, Director. My lower back suddenly flared up… Damn, why does it hurt so much today?"
"I have a meeting with the Cheonrang Guild Master this afternoon. Something about them acquiring a secret manual."
"Huh? Manager Kim, didn't you say last time you wouldn't even piss in Cheonrang's direction?"
"Director? We have to separate public and private. Even if I won't piss there, we still need to keep track of national management assets, don't we?"
It was pathetic.
Seniors who spun heroic tales at company dinners were now trembling at the mere two syllables of the name Kang Hyun.
The result:
"Hmm. No choice, then. Agent Lee Se-ah?"
"Yes?"
"You came in at the top of your class, right? Prove you're fundamentally different from those freeloaders."
I-I still have zero field experience…
She couldn't bring herself to say it out loud.
What kind of lowly rookie would say something like that to the Director?
"Just go and come back. I'll pack five stars into your performance review."
Lee Se-ah had swallowed hard.
That was how the whole thing had started.
Fine.
How bad could it really be?
Just as Lee Se-ah gritted her teeth and reached for the doorbell—
Huh?
The safe house door was slightly ajar.
An intruder?
No.
Impossible.
The security system here was stricter than the Blue House.
And considering the monster—no, the person—inside, any intruder would be the one to pity.
"I-is anyone there? I'm from the Management Bureau."
No matter how many times she called, there was no answer from within.
Ssshk.
Lee Se-ah wiped her damp, tension-soaked palms on her pants and carefully stepped into the entrance hall.
Inside was dark.
Every curtain was drawn, and a chill hung in the air.
And the sharp smell of alcohol stabbed her nose.
"Um…"
Her gaze turned toward the living room sofa.
And froze.
Stretched-out sweatpants, hair that looked like it hadn't been washed in days, and dozens of empty whiskey bottles rolling across the floor.
That wreck of a man killed Leviathan?
She was seriously considering the possibility of a data error when—
"Hey."
A cracked voice reached her.
"Y-yes?"
"Booze."
The man pushed himself up with a rustle.
The skin under his eyes was hollow, his complexion paper-white.
Lee Se-ah couldn't understand it.
If your head felt like it was splitting, shouldn't you drink water instead of alcohol?
Just give him what he asked for!
Lee Se-ah quickly held out the whiskey Senior Kim had shoved into her hands before she left.
Whoosh!
The man snatched it and gulped, gulped, gulped! down the harsh liquor like water.
Insane.
How could anyone drink that without changing expression once?
No—if anything, his face looked ecstatic, like a desert traveler who had found an oasis.
"Hah. Now I feel a little alive."
Only then did the man's gaze properly settle on Lee Se-ah.
"Who are you. I thought I explained it clearly enough to the government. Preferably don't come near me."
In that instant, Lee Se-ah forgot how to breathe.
The eyes revealed between the tangled hair.
A cold presence was piercing straight through her.
Hhk.
It felt like a herbivore standing face-to-face with the apex predator of the food chain.
A bone-chilling thrill ran up her spine, and every hair on her body stood on end.
I-I have to speak.
That disposing of Leviathan's contaminated corpse in the East Sea was difficult.
That the toxic energy was so strong even S-rank hunters couldn't approach it.
That they were sorry to ask when he was still recovering, but could he please just handle that one thing.
But her lips wouldn't move.
"Well, perfect timing. I just happen to need some help."
At those words, the pressure crushing Lee Se-ah vanished with a soft snap.
Help?
Lee Se-ah felt a quiet relief.
If that out-of-spec monster was the one making a request first, that meant—looking at it the other way—there was now room for negotiation.
"W-what kind of help do you need?"
"Over there."
The man's languid chin-jerk pointed the way.
Only then did Lee Se-ah realize the eighty-inch large-screen TV filling the living room wall was on.
On the screen, a news report was showing the magnificent grounds of the National Academy—Korea's premier hunter training institution—along with elite students pouring themselves into training.
"Can you send me there?"
Silence fell for a moment.
An Unmeasurable-rank monster… to a hunter academy?
Why?
Surely not as a student?
The answer came quickly.
"Preferably as a professor."