The Heart of a Parent
Kim Hwang-je closed the browser and sank into his chair, staring out the window.
“...”
The window in his semi-basement studio was little more than a vent that let the cold night air seep inside.
Had he always dreamed of becoming a hunter?
Of course he had. He wanted to eat well and live comfortably. But that wasn’t the whole reason. There were plenty of other jobs that didn’t involve construction work. Working at a factory processing monster corpses might have paid better.
Yet Kim Hwang-je had dreamed of becoming a shield for ordinary people while he built structures. That was why he worked on construction sites—imagining the buildings he raised turning into castle walls that could stand against monsters in times of crisis.
So he couldn’t help but sense that this ability carried something special. It was no coincidence that it was rated EX-grade.
Perhaps it really could become the wall that protected the world.
Kim Hwang-je straightened his posture. The cold draft sharpened his mind. He opened World Observation and began surveying the castle at night.
But the status window immediately crushed his expectations.
World Observation (Lv. 1)
Your Majesty! You may observe anything that interests you! However, we strictly comply with the Video Materials Ratings Committee regulations! Privacy functions are unavailable! For now.
“Ahem. I wasn’t expecting that anyway. And stop adding weird commentary when I’m trying to think seriously!”
“Besides, where is this committee even listed in the status window?”
Kim Hwang-je cleared his throat and slowly scanned the royal castle at night.
The castle was quiet. Dreamlike lantern light flickered between the old stone buildings. In any other reality he might have questioned using lanterns in a medieval setting, but in a world where monsters crawled in after dark, it made sense to keep fires burning everywhere.
The oil they used clearly wasn’t high quality—thick smoke billowed from the flames. It was probably scraped from the bellies of monsters killed during the day.
Soldiers patrolled the silent ramparts in the distance. Without mages or artificial city lights, the walls were illuminated only by starlight and the swaying lanterns.
Kim Hwang-je rubbed his lower belly.
So if that wall broke, it meant he would feel the pain.
Then he noticed a faint glow beneath the ramparts. He zoomed in.
There, children without even proper firewood were burning scraps of ruined houses. They huddled together, roasting roots and tree bark over the flames and chewing them.
“...Ah. Right. Of course.”
Someone had once said that war never truly disappears. And war always devours the poorest first.
The orphans looked so pitiful, their faces streaked with dried tears. They didn’t look like human children anymore—just like puppies whose eyes were crusted over because no one had wiped their tears.
The sight brought a flood of old memories.
When he turned from the status window, a family photo sat on the table, everyone smiling. The frame was worn smooth with age, but now it was all he had left.
After the monster incident destroyed his home and took both his parents, Kim Hwang-je had lived every day looking exactly like those children.
“What the hell are those bastards doing?”
Burly figures had appeared in front of the kids. As their shadows fell over them, one child stood up in fear. A thug said something, then kicked the small boy in the stomach.
“You son of a bitch—”
Could those thugs even imagine that someone was watching them from the sky with wide eyes?
The thug snatched the root the fallen child had been holding, chewed it noisily, and shouted something.
“-----!”
The first boy who had been hit showed some spirit. He charged at the large thug without hesitation. The man laughed and threw a merciless punch into the boy’s face.
Thud.
It felt like a punch to his own gut.
The boy flew backward. Not satisfied, the thugs began stomping on him. After beating him for a while, they spat curses and finally backed off. Only then did the other children rush over, lift their injured friend, and carry him away.
“...”
He didn’t want to see scenes like this.
No—he had desperately wished for the power to prevent them. The boys carried their friend toward another dark corner.
Kim Hwang-je dragged the screen to follow them.
The children lit another fire in a secluded spot and laid the groaning boy down. His body was burning with fever. He looked to be in serious danger.
“Right. First, they need food and medicine.”
Kim Hwang-je got dressed and headed for the shopping mall near his house.
A sick child needed someone to give them fever medicine.
* * *
The shopping mall.
In times like these, a shopping mall was an oasis in the desert, a stream flowing through a deserted island.
“Fever reducers… here they are.”
Kim Hwang-je first tossed medicine into his basket—fever reducers, antibiotics, basic trauma kits. With the world as dangerous as it was, most common medicines were mass-produced, so he could buy as much as he wanted.
“Give me all the remaining lunchboxes.”
“All of them?”
The employee at the lunchbox counter looked puzzled, but Kim Hwang-je nodded.
It was late anyway. Selling them all would be good for the store. The employee loaded the cart with every lunchbox they had.
Kim Hwang-je carried everything to the register.
“That comes to 200,000 won.”
He completed the transaction and stepped outside. Standing in the corridor, he searched for the tagged children.
He needed to use Tribute Trade to bestow potions and food upon them.
He finally located the children. The sight made his eyes burn again. Kim Hwang-je pressed down on the child and opened the trade window.
He loaded all the remaining lunchboxes into the trade slot.
“These are lunchboxes. There are spoons inside, so you can eat with those. (33/70)”
‘Items to receive?’
What could they possibly give him?
[Ragged cloth, dirty underwear, begged trash, one copper coin.]
That was everything the child possessed. Kim Hwang-je chose to receive nothing and pressed Y. A massive scroll—the same one the king had seen before—appeared above the children.
While they stared in confusion at the dazzling light, the scroll unfurled and gently set the lunchboxes down in front of them.
The child has accepted the tribute trade.
Bestowed items have been delivered.
The child’s loyalty rises, moved by His Majesty’s kindness.
A ‘Sponsor’ relationship has been formed with the child.
The Emperor’s fame increases slightly within the kingdom.
The child’s eyes widened. A bundle wrapped in silk descended from above his head. Inside were potions and a mountain of lunchboxes.
“----!”
“-----!”
The boy immediately woke his friends. The orphans who had been huddling around a small campfire to endure the cold night rubbed their eyes and sat up.
They swarmed the lunchboxes, cheering as if Santa had left them presents.
Children within the royal castle can be summoned for work at any time.
Supporting the ‘Beggar Group.’ Would you like to rename this group?
The name didn’t matter. What should he call them?
‘Village Children.’
Sponsor relationship established.
Available manpower for Manpower Deployment has increased.
Well-Fed Village Children × 10.
Kim Hwang-je felt like his mouth would split from grinning.
Caring for children like these, protecting people who were dying because of monsters—this had always been his wish. It was why he built buildings. Those structures served as breakwaters to stop monsters from advancing in emergencies.
It was also why he had done manual labor. Someone had told him that physical work increased the chances of awakening as a hunter. From that day on, he had carried stones and poured cement at construction sites.
“...If.”
If he could become a kind of ‘breakwater’ for the children of this world.
If he could become their parent…
If he could prevent a nation full of children suffering the way he once had…
As Kim Hwang-je thought this, a quest appeared.
Skill Unlocked: The Heart of a Parent
Your Majesty.
The king is the parent of all people.
Your name is no coincidence.
Your name carries responsibility. Do not allow this cold abyss to swallow everything.
If the royal castle falls, the waves of the rift will devour your world as well.
When that time comes, everything will sink into darkness.
Eternal darkness!
Do not take this warning lightly. Countless worlds and stars have already perished. Remember Fermi’s Paradox.
Shout! Resist!
Do not meekly accept the dark night!
Reward: 100 Gold
Chwaaaaaarrrk!
“Whoa—!”
Before he could even finish reading the status window, a shower of gold coins poured onto the floor in the middle of the corridor.
In reality, even a hundred 500-won coins scattering would cause chaos. Faced with a hundred gold coins, Kim Hwang-je frantically scrambled to gather the rolling coins.
“Whew—thank god it’s dawn. Damn it, status window! Put them in the bag! The bag!”
This wouldn’t do.
Since it was giving him money again, he would deliver everything the people in that royal castle needed to survive.
Having made up his mind, Kim Hwang-je returned to the register.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes, how can I help you?”
He reached out and swept his hand across the entire display shelf that stretched nearly two hundred meters behind the counter. It was stocked with dungeon rations, a small amount of rice, and various snacks.
The government controlled food distribution, so there wasn’t much rice, but buying every dungeon ration available should fill quite a few stomachs.
“Give me everything from here to there.”
“Sorry?”
The clerk looked at him as if she had misheard, then narrowed her eyes.
“Mister, have you been drinking? Don’t joke around at this hour. That much would cost over twenty million won.”
“Just give me that much for now. If there’s anything left in the warehouse, bring it all out too.”
Kim Hwang-je handed over his card.
The employee’s eyes widened.
“Huk… A Lost Black Card!”
‘It really is famous, huh…?’
Not many people in Korea knew about Lost yet. They were an organization that traded in ‘forgotten’ memories. A group that bought and sold information on dungeons, monster locations, and items essential to hunters. The public knew little about them, and the same had been true for Kim Hwang-je.
But the clerk was different. After all, in this era, shopping malls were primary supply depots officially designated and managed by the state.
The clerk bowed deeply and apologized.
“I’m sorry. You’re a hunter with a Black Card. I’ll process this immediately.”
Strictly speaking, he wasn’t a hunter yet.
The employee pressed a button on the register and spoke.
“Manager? Where are you?”
“What is it?”
“A customer at the register just placed an order…”
“What did they order?”
“Everything on the food shelves… all of it. They have a Lost card.”
“What? What color?”
“Black.”
“I’m coming right now.”
Soon, someone who appeared to be the night-shift manager came running.
“Oh my, sir! I’m so sorry I didn’t recognize you!”
The middle-aged man in thick glasses ignored the clerk’s greeting and rushed straight to Kim Hwang-je, rubbing his hands together like a fly.
“Um, are you from a hunter management company? Seeing as you’re stocking up on this much food in the middle of the night, you must be preparing for a major hunt, yes?”
Honey seemed to drip from his voice, and his sparkling eyes held the desperate gleam of a fisherman who had spotted a big catch.
After the monster outbreak, the government had designated shopping malls as ‘National Crisis Response Management Facilities’ and granted them priority sales rights for emergency hunter supply teams. Thanks to that, the manager knew every major hunter management firm.
“Hehe, are you looking to establish a deal with our store through Lost as well? A Black Card is the highest tier…”
Kim Hwang-je took a step back from those honey-filled eyes.
After being carried around on a bandit’s shoulder all day, the attention made his skin crawl.
“I’m not from management. Just give me the items. People are starving.”
“Ah, of course, of course! I’ll process the payment right away. Hey! Clear the shelves— But sir, did you bring a truck?”
Kim Hwang-je swallowed hard and answered.
“There’s an empty space in the parking lot. Just stack everything there. I’ll pick it up later.”
The car would never come. The Tribute Trade skill would simply activate. But there was no need to explain that.
“Yes, of course. Now, I’ll take payment first. How much is it?”
The question was directed at the employee. The staff answered promptly.
“We don’t have much left in stock. The shelf food, hunter-exclusive ration kits, rice, smoked meat, energy bars, candy, and miscellaneous items come to a total of 160 million won.”
“Will you be paying in installments?”
“No, one lump sum please.”
“Understood. I’ll swipe it now.”
Spending this much money didn’t even feel real.
He couldn’t even wash his face with cold water to snap out of it. Yet an uncontrollable grin kept twitching at the corners of his mouth.
Beep—beep-beep-beep—
The card payment sound and receipt printer sang beautifully as the slip came out.
“Thank you, sir. Payment has been processed. We’ll move everything to the parking lot shortly—”
Suddenly, someone kicked the door open.
The man wore a lanyard around his neck, marking him as a senior Costco manager.
If he outranked the clerk, he was probably from headquarters. Without hesitation, he shouted at the store manager.
“Why weren’t you answering your phone?!”
“Brother, I’m in the middle of an important transaction right now…”
“I’m sorry, but this is urgent. I’ll need to borrow the manager for a moment.”
The man spoke to Kim Hwang-je, then turned away. He dragged the manager into a corner. Since there were few people around, every word was clearly audible.
“Sweep up all the food supplies. Howling has appeared. They’re looking for a sea giant’s corpse and destroyed every nearby hunter warehouse. They’re in chaos trying to secure supplies in the middle of the night.”
‘Howling? That criminal organization attacked Korea? And they destroyed food warehouses? Why?’
Kim Hwang-je knew of Howling. It was an organization made up of hunters. They were infamous for human trafficking, terrorism, and assassinations—an utterly vile group.
A bad feeling settled in his chest.
“Our client, Hunter Park Dae-sik, got beaten too.”
“What? Then what are we supposed to do? We just sold all the goods.”
“We have to replenish emergency reserves anyway. Take everything out. I already told them we’d supply Hunter Park Dae-sik.”
“But it’s a Lost customer…”
“Our client takes priority. I’ll explain it myself.”
The headquarters employee cautiously approached Kim Hwang-je.
“Um, sir…”
“That won’t be possible.”
Kim Hwang-je cut him off firmly before he could finish.
The payment was already complete. The people in the royal castle were starving.
And if that castle fell from hunger, the next to perish would be their own world.