Chapter 143
Translator: uly
Chapter: 143
Chapter Title: Ranger Kang Taesik (1)
“Hoo.”
Jiri Mountain.
The man who had been climbing deep into the mountains stopped at a sheer cliff, breathing heavily.
His name was Kang Taesik.
A 4th Grade Awakener with an A-rank Hardening skill, he was a solo Ranger.
-What’s a Ranger?
It was what people always asked when Kang Taesik revealed his profession.
Ranger. A strange job that didn’t ring any bells just from the name.
After the First Buster, the Association was formed and dungeons stabilized, but some monsters from Variable Dungeons hid out in the mountains.
Rangers roamed mountains across the country, hunting down and exterminating any monsters that remained.
“There really aren’t any left anymore.”
Kang Taesik was forty-five this year.
He’d been a Ranger for over twenty-five years now.
Most hidden monsters had been wiped out over that time, and it was hard to find any in the mountains these days.
Back when monsters roamed the peaks in droves, there had been hundreds of Ranger teams operating in groups.
But now, including Kang Taesik, there were only about ten registered Rangers nationwide.
Ring ring ring.
Just then, the screen phone strapped to his arm blared noisily.
Seeing ‘Rip-off Maniac’ on the display, he knew it was his wife calling.
-Honey! When are you coming home?
Right on cue. On the phone screen, his wife Han Hyeonjin scowled fiercely.
“H-Honey. What’s up?”
-What’s up? Why are you out in the mountains? There aren’t any monsters left! Didn’t you say you were retiring?
“What am I supposed to do at home? I’ve got to go out and earn some money.”
Her expression grew even fiercer at Kang Taesik’s stammering reply.
-Money? What do you need more money for? Got another family stashed away?
The bounties for capturing mountain monsters that threatened public safety were incredibly generous.
Kang Taesik had done this for twenty-five years straight.
He’d already saved up more than enough for retirement.
“What kind of talk is that? I’m just doing it to pass the time...”
-Just come home today. Taeseon’s throwing a fit about forgetting what his dad looks like.
“Honey, I’m still on Jiri Mountain. Not today—give me until the day after tomorrow...”
Click.
The call cut off mid-sentence.
“Mm.”
Kang Taesik stared at the blank screen, letting out a groan as he gazed at the distant sky.
“Maybe it’s really time to quit.”
He plopped down and pulled a crumpled photo from his pocket.
It showed a middle-aged man beaming brightly. Kang Taesik’s father, Kang Yeonseok.
“Dad.”
Kang Taesik’s eyes wavered like ripples as he looked at the photo.
The truth was, there was only one reason he’d become a Ranger: to search the mountains for his missing father.
“I’ve passed your age now, Dad.”
Slumping further, Kang Taesik dropped his head in a hollow expression.
“Is it time to give up for real?”
Having lost his mother young, Kang Taesik had lived alone with his father.
His kind and gentle father, Kang Yeonseok.
He’d raised Kang Taesik with so much love that he never felt his mother’s absence.
Then, the year Kang Taesik turned ten, the First Buster hit worldwide—dungeons and monsters pouring out everywhere.
At the same time, Kang Yeonseok awakened a mysterious ability to sense signs of life.
Once word spread, the country put him on search-and-rescue missions for the missing.
After that, he saved countless lives.
But three years later...
While searching a mountain for the missing, Kang Yeonseok himself vanished mysteriously.
“I became a Ranger scouring the mountains to find you, Dad.”
Snapping out of his reminiscence, Kang Taesik murmured in agony.
“In the end, I spent my whole life searching and didn’t even find a trace.”
Boom!
Suddenly, a massive explosion echoed.
A huge pile of rocks had flown from somewhere and smashed into the opposite cliff.
Rumble rumble.
With a vibration like the mountain collapsing, the entire facing cliff crumbled down.
‘What the?’
Kang Taesik sprang up, his eyes sharpening.
Intact rocks in these stacked peaks didn’t just float into the sky and crash into cliffs on their own.
It was definitely artificial.
‘Monsters for sure!’
Taking a deep breath, Kang Taesik charged toward the cliff.
“Hah!”
With his physical awakening at 150%, he kicked off the ground, rocketing into the sky like a launched missile.
Whoosh.
He bounded to the opposite mountain and plummeted at tremendous speed.
Even an Awakener’s body couldn’t survive a fall from this height unscathed.
“Armor Skin!”
His skin suddenly gleamed transparently.
He’d activated his A-rank Hardening skill, Armor Skin.
Crack! Thud!
Kang Taesik landed, his body now tougher and more solid than metal—rocks shattered, and a dull shockwave rippled out.
“Where are you!”
Scanning around, Kang Taesik spotted a faint shadow moving in a cave midway up a distant peak.
‘Not just one.’
Drawing a monomolecular cutter from his belt, he crouched low and crept toward the cave.
‘What’s this?’
But as he neared, a shimmering glow rose from the ground.
At the same time, a mysterious power seeped from the earth, wrapping around his feet like grasping hands.
“Urgh.”
No matter how he tried to pull free, his legs were stuck fast, as if rooted in the soil.
‘No way—a dungeon?’
This kind of power from the ground could only mean a dungeon.
Did that mean the entire mid-mountain was one massive dungeon?
“Hahaha! I really like it.”
Laughter rang out then, and two shadows emerged from the cave.
Looking closer, one was a bear—and beside it, an enormous figure resembling a goblin.
“I’ll be counting on you for more interior work on Medicinal Immortal Cave from now on!”
“Thank you. We’ll do our very best.”
“Oh, since you’ve come all this way, how about a bowl before you go? I dug up some great ingredients just yesterday...”
The black bear burst into hearty laughter, clapping the goblin’s shoulder familiarly before heading back into the cave.
‘A bear talking?’
If monsters could talk, the Awakener Association never would’ve formed.
Swish.
As the black bear and goblin entered the cave, the light from the ground faded.
Kang Taesik’s rooted legs began to move again.
“What... was that? Am I seeing things?”
Kang Taesik shook his head, mouth agape.
Rustle rustle.
Then, a strange sound came from the forest to his left, white light pouring out.
Shimmer shimmer.
The light intensified like the sun, forming a circular space.
“Hoo.” With a short exhale, a shadow slowly stepped out from within.
A middle-aged farmer in ancient hanbok and a straw hat, like something from a history book.
“Wha—?”
The farmer glanced around, then gaped at the upright Kang Taesik.
Kang Taesik’s face was an exact match to his own, molded from the same stamp.
“Th-This...”
Kang Taesik’s lips trembled.
The farmer before him was identical to the photo he’d stared at atop the cliff moments ago.
No—it was the same man.
“Dad!”
Kang Taesik rushed forward and hugged the farmer tightly.
The warm embrace from thirty years ago, the familiar sour-sweet scent.
No doubt. This farmer was his father.
“Dad!”
Seeing Kang Taesik collapse in sobs, the farmer-clad middle-aged man—Kang Yeonseok—gaped and shouted.
“No way. T-Taesik?”
“Dad...! Daddyy...!”
Kang Yeonseok panicked as his son wailed, crumbling to the ground.
“What happened? Why are you here?”
He gently stroked his sniffling son’s head, embraced in his arms, and spoke calmly.
“Taesik. What on earth happened? Tell Dad calmly.”
“What do you mean what? Dad, you’ve been missing all this time!”
“Hahaha. Missing? What missing?”
Patting his dear son’s back, he pointed across with a finger.
“I just fell off a cliff while searching for missing people. Broke my leg, of all things... Had to impose on some folks in that village over there.”
Kang Taesik wiped his tears and followed his father’s pointing finger.
But it was just dense forest.
“There’s a village in that forest?”
“Huh? This should be the village entrance. When did it turn into forest?”
Kang Yeonseok blinked around.
Then he stared straight at Kang Taesik, who was over 180 cm tall.
“But Taesik. Why do you look so old?”
“Old? I still get carded plenty...”
Pouting, Kang Taesik finally looked closely at his father’s face.
Only then did he realize the face from thirty years ago matched the photo exactly.
“What the hell happened?”
“Hm?”
“Dad, why does your face look the same?”
“Same how?”
Kang Taesik blinked.
“Didn’t I tell you? My face wasn’t hurt—I just tumbled off that cliff and broke my leg.”
“No, that’s not...”
Unable to hide his bewilderment, Kang Taesik asked cautiously.
“Then how long were you in that village?”
“About a month and a half? Took a while for the leg to heal.”
“A month and a half...?”
Kang Taesik was baffled.
His father had been missing for thirty full years. Maybe his mind wasn’t right.
But his eyes were too clear, his appearance too youthful for a peer.
“Dad.”
Taking a deep breath, Kang Taesik said seriously.
“Let’s go to the hospital first.”
* * *
XX University Hospital, Health Promotion Center.
Hearing the detailed checkup results, Kang Taesik’s jaw dropped.
Completely clean.
No diseases, no abnormalities, and his physical age was near twenties—robust and flexible.
“You’re really saying you were only there a month and a half?”
“That’s what I’ve been telling you.”
Kang Yeonseok shook his head in disbelief as they left the hospital.
“But what the hell happened? Why’s the city changed so much?”
Gawking at the sky-scraping hospital building, he shook his head, mouth open.
“And what’s with the robot doing weird tests in an hour flat? Isn’t this a hospital?”
“Dad.”
Kang Taesik sighed.
“I told you. You’ve been missing over thirty years.”
“You keep saying that. I just broke my leg and...”
“Dad, have you ever seen one of these?”
Kang Taesik held out the phone on his wrist.
“It’s just a watch...”
Kang Yeonseok chuckled, but before he finished—click—a holographic screen popped up in midair.
[You called, Mr. Kang Taesik?]
The woman on the screen smiled brightly, and Kang Yeonseok swallowed hard.
“...It’s not.”
“Look around. Ever seen buildings like that? Cars like that? Those structures?”
“Mm.”
Kang Yeonseok groaned.
“But Dad really was only in that village a month and a half. I swear.”
They could sense neither was lying.
Still, the gap between thirty years and forty-five days wasn’t easy to accept.
‘Like a wormhole or something? Or the Philadelphia Experiment?’
Scratching his head, Kang Taesik asked carefully.
“Dad. What was that village like?”
Kang Yeonseok smiled faintly, almost resigned.
“It was paradise. Abundant, serene, and everyone there was so kind.”
His eyes shone with happy memories as he recalled it.
Kang Taesik could tell.
His father must have spent very peaceful, joyful time there.
[Ah.]
Then an egg-shaped nanobot bumped into Kang Yeonseok’s foot.
[Sorry. My detection sensor’s under repair.]
“Oh, no—my fault for not looking.”
[Got distracted looking for my user. Excuse me.]
Kang Yeonseok swallowed again as the nanobot scratched its round head and shuffled off.
“Thirty years... What now?”
Kang Taesik grinned and nodded at his dazed father’s mutter.
“Don’t worry. You’ll live with me from now on.”