Identity (1)
If you want to understand a person, look at what makes them angry.
I’d read that line in a comic book once, and it applied to me too.
I lived in a house where filthy ants crawled across the floor at the slightest provocation and cockroaches flapped through the air.
Just looking at them sent a slow wave of disgust rising from somewhere deep in my chest.
Yeah. To me, bugs were the symbol of poverty.
Come to think of it, I wasn’t exactly normal either.
The first thing I did after reincarnating was go to work.
I hadn’t even had time to catch up with my family.
And now there was awakened balance, a hero shop, and God knew what else.
I hadn’t even figured anything out yet.
Still, in a way, it made sense.
Heading straight to work after opening my eyes had been a kind of reflex.
After nearly thirty years of waking up and following the same routine, I’d gotten on the bus as if nothing had changed.
I’d gone on and on, but if I had to sum it up, the conclusion was simple.
I didn’t like that bean-shaped bug.
That was all there was to it.
“Keeeek!!!”
While Big Laba was going berserk, the bus driver pushed himself upright.
“Get off, now!”
It was a desperate situation where no one knew when the monster might charge again.
Everyone on the bus received a notification at the same time on their phones.
The so-called emergency disaster alert.
[Crisis-Level Appearance!] Please evacuate immediately from the direction of Sinheung Bridge in Eunpyeong District.
Monsters were classified by threat level as Crisis, Collapse, Ruination, and Apocalypse.
Big Laba was weak by disaster standards, but it was still more than enough to threaten ordinary lives.
“Help me!”
A pregnant woman with a belly as big as a mountain shouted.
Her ankle was trapped between two broken bus seats beneath the loose folds of her oversized maternity clothes.
“Mom!”
The little boy with her started to whimper, then burst into tears.
It reminded me of my brother’s wife in my previous life.
She’d been pregnant too.
My body, which had been standing there in a daze, moved on its own.
I used the broken bus handrail as a lever and pried the seats apart.
“Pull it out! Hurry!”
“Y-yes.”
She trembled all over, tears spilling from her eyes.
Anyone would react like that after being targeted by a monster.
The pregnant woman limped as she pulled her foot free and grabbed my hand.
She stared straight at my forehead.
“There’s blood on your face... just a moment. I can at least use this.”
She took out a purple handkerchief and wrapped my forehead with it.
I supported her with one arm and carried the child with the other.
That was how we made it safely out of the bus.
Outside was pure chaos.
A sudden traffic accident had brought the road to a standstill.
Horns blared everywhere, and the people who had managed to climb out of the overturned bus were groaning, some with medium injuries, some worse.
Big Laba writhed and curled its body into a ball.
Everyone there was frozen by learned fear, and no one dared move.
“Move!”
At the sound of the booming voice, a large man stepped forward.
Maybe it was a habit from the job, but even now, I couldn’t help noticing his gear.
The suit he was wearing was a Tk.4 model, the one that had been recalled and discontinued after radiation was detected not long after release.
“I’m here, so you’ve got nothing to worry about!”
He hammered both hands against his helmet with a heavy thud.
That safety helmet would have been cutting-edge at this point in my reborn life.
It was made with a new material mixed with wyvern scales, so it was lightweight and had excellent defense.
After spending my entire life making hunter gear, I’d developed my own peculiar way of sorting people.
People who wore flashy, expensive armor like that were usually overconfident, arrogant, and—
“Tsk. Making such a fuss over nothing like a Big Laba.”
...had a lot to say.
“That’s Seo Gwang-pal.”
“The strongman hunter, Seo!”
“Ah... of all people, it had to be someone from the Dio Guild?”
The crowd’s reaction to the hunter’s appearance was mixed.
Some cheered, but others were openly frowning.
I didn’t know much about the hunter named Seo Gwang-pal.
I felt like I’d heard the name before, but it was fuzzy.
What I did remember clearly was the Dio Guild.
Dikaiosyne, shortened to Dio.
The Greek word for “justice.”
Despite that grand excuse of justice, the Dio Guild was famous for a very unusual hiring policy.
Even if you had a criminal record, they’d give you an interview if you awakened.
Even if your character was rotten, they’d hire anyone qualified enough to be a hunter.
Seo Gwang-pal wiped the smile off his face and walked over to the civilian who’d been badmouthing him.
“What? You got a problem because I’m with the Dio Guild?”
He took a silver hip flask from inside his jacket and drank.
I didn’t know what was in it, but judging from his flushed face, it sure as hell wasn’t water.
“Damn it. I ran here with my feet sweating like crazy, and this is how you greet me?”
“No, that’s not what I meant...”
With a sharp crack, the man went flying.
Seo Gwang-pal had slapped him across the face without warning.
“You’re in no position to complain when you’re the one getting help. Shut your mouth and sit the hell down.”
Seo Gwang-pal glared down at him viciously, and the man clutched his reddening cheek and lowered his eyes.
How could something like that be allowed?
Hunters were people with privileges.
Property damage, destruction of goods, assault—when it happened in the course of battle, they could usually dodge responsibility.
It was an absurd scene, but everyone merely swallowed hard.
If they pissed him off, he might retaliate.
In the suffocating air, not a single person stepped forward.
At this rate, the people are scarier than the monster.
I knew that much.
Character and skill weren’t proportional.
I also didn’t care for the simplistic habit of dividing justice into good and evil.
Reality wasn’t that simple.
Still, if garbage that should never have been given power ended up holding it anyway...
“Hup!”
Seo Gwang-pal grabbed a car from the road and hurled it at Big Laba.
In the process, chunks of asphalt sprayed toward the civilians.
“Gah!!”
The sharp fragments barely missed the people.
He had nearly caused serious casualties, but Seo Gwang-pal didn’t seem to care about their safety in the slightest.
“Iron Head Technique!”
Seo Gwang-pal headbutted Big Laba’s body.
The impact sent Big Laba flying far away.
“Kekek.”
He smiled in satisfaction and took another swig from the hip flask.
The brown liquid that looked like whiskey ran down the back of his neck.
Drinking while life and death were hanging in the balance.
And we were supposed to rely on a bastard like that.
This is fucking insane.
Why would the Hunter Association let a bastard like that and the Dio Guild run loose?
Because they were short on manpower, probably.
Gates exploded every other day, and monsters came out like it was nothing.
Compared to that, hunters were precious human resources.
Even the hunters they already had could end up crippled or become monster food overnight.
It was like turning on a faucet because you were dying of thirst, only for a thin trickle to come out, barely enough to wet your tongue.
Demand was urgent, but supply was pathetic.
“I should wrap this up soon.”
Seo Gwang-pal muttered, wiping his mouth.
Big Laba seemed to be preparing something too, curling its body with more care than before.
The difference was this.
Clank!
Spines sprouted all over its body.
The bone needles radiating that ominous energy looked powerful enough to pierce even solid armor.
The sight made Seo Gwang-pal’s eyes waver.
“Damn it.”
As if the alcohol had worn off, he staggered backward.
Big Laba let out a screech and charged at him.
Seo Gwang-pal twisted his body and barely dodged to the side.
“This is Dionysus. Requesting backup. A mutant just appeared! I can’t handle it alone! Get your asses over here now!”
Monster mutant.
A rare mutation phenomenon.
Its defining trait was the creation of a new skill, and its disaster level also rose by one step.
That meant it was no longer a Crisis—it had become a Collapse.
The people watching went pale when the hunter they had trusted suddenly tucked his tail and seemed ready to run.
“P-please, someone help!!!”
The people scattered like herbivores before a predator.
The moment I was about to move too—
Swish.
The purple handkerchief covering my forehead loosened and slipped over one eye.
When I turned my head, the pregnant woman came into view through the narrow gap.
Her ankle was injured, and she was holding her young son in her arms.
If I stepped aside now, the woman and the child would be smashed to pieces by Big Laba.
Kwa-gwang!
As Big Laba charged forward without hesitation, the pregnant woman set her child down and shoved him away with desperate hands.
“Jin-oh! Run!”
I hadn’t been loved by my mother since I was little, and I’d grown up under my grandmother’s roof all my life.
If maternal love existed, it was probably something like that.
“No! I want to stay with Mom!”
The child, struggling in panic, dropped something.
I hadn’t noticed because everything was happening so fast, but he’d been clutching it tightly the whole time.
What fell to the ground was a hero toy wearing a steel suit.
...
The boy’s face as he screamed overlapped with my own from when I was eight.
Then something inside me woke up.
Calmly, I untied the purple handkerchief from my forehead and used it to cover my face.
Like I was putting on a mask.
I slowly turned and stood facing Big Laba head-on.
I clenched my fist and lowered my stance.
The hero I admired most had worn a purple mask.
His name was ZIN SHAK.
A man who would face death itself to protect what he believed in.
I wasn’t throwing my life away recklessly like ZIN SHAK had done.
It was reckless, yes, but I had something I could rely on.
[Hero Skill Shop]
1. Super Kid Series.
1) Judgment of the Superhuman
: 1,000,000 won per use.
A power I’d bought with my own money.
It would’ve been nice to test it beforehand, but there hadn’t been any time for that.
Still, it would definitely help.
Since it had come to this, I had to protect them.
Both myself, and the innocent people here.
Big Laba’s body surged closer until it was nearly touching my face.
Hup.
I held my breath and thrust out a straight right hook.
Judgment of the Superhuman has been activated for the first time.
The instant the text in front of my eyes vanished, hot energy erupted through my entire body, racing over me and gathering at the point of impact.
The striking point blazed with light.
Without meaning to, I squeezed my eyes shut.
Thwack!!!
I felt something burst at the end of my fist.
Something warm soaked my entire body.
Little by little, everything became visible again.
The caterpillar had been blown to pieces so completely that its shape was impossible to make out.
And a moment later, chunks of flesh began falling in a rain.
After a brief silence, the people around me started murmuring.
“...Wow. Who is that?”
“A new hunter?”
“I’ve never seen that face before.”
I hadn’t made some wild, dramatic movement, but my excitement still hadn’t settled.
“Hah... haah...”
My chest heaving, I let out ragged breaths.
I stared blankly at my fist.
I did it.
I’d killed Big Laba.
Cleanly. In one hit.
Euphoria made my whole body feel light.
Without leaning on anyone else.
It felt this damn good to solve something myself.
My past life flashed before me like film.
A miserable life of suffering under poverty, never even able to protect my own family.
This time around...
I would carve through every obstacle with my own hands.
“Hey. You.”
A furious voice came from behind me.
“I was the one who killed that thing, and then you jump in and steal the last hit? What kind of shameless bastard are you?”
The foul stench of alcohol poured from Seo Gwang-pal’s mouth as he raised his voice.
“Are you a Dio rookie? If you see your senior, the least you can do is say hello!”
Seo Gwang-pal grabbed the back of my neck.
“What the hell are you?”
This time, I didn’t feel anger.
Just a little annoyed.
Thwack!
I struck the bridge of his nose lightly with the back of my hand.
The cutting-edge bulletproof helmet shattered into pieces.
Seo Gwang-pal didn’t even manage a scream before rolling backward for a long time.
Reduced to a rag, Seo Gwang-pal slammed into the overturned bus and groaned.
“Keugh...”
Who was I?
With the purple handkerchief covering my face, I answered.
“A hero.”