The Disgrace of a Prestigious Hunter Family

"So, what is Jiwoo up to these days?"

"Is he in high school? The Korea Hunter Academy? ...What? Just a regular high school? He hasn't awakened yet?"

"He went to college? Wait, don't tell me Jiwoo still hasn't awakened?"

"He's looking for a job? Wow... How did someone like him come from our family?"

My family is a prestigious hunter clan that goes back generations, starting with my grandfather. It was around the 1960s, I think, when gates suddenly began appearing all over the world. Naturally, South Korea was no exception. Having just begun its economic recovery after the Korean War, the country had to pour massive resources into managing these gates. Two of the hunters who were most active back then were my grandfather and grandmother. They became a rare hunter couple, had my father, and my father in turn married my mother, who also came from a hunter family. That was how it went.

Because of that, everyone in our bloodline is a born hunter. Uncles, maternal uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews, nieces, older brothers, younger sisters—literally everyone is a hunter. Some are among the top-ranked hunters in Korea, while others are active abroad, affiliated with international hunter associations. On top of that, some are leaders of world-renowned giant guilds, and even those who aren't leaders usually hold high-ranking positions within them. If not that, they are specialized hunters in various fields, or they occupy key posts in the state-run Hunter Association. In short, my family is an ultra-prestigious hunter clan that dominates every single path a hunter can take.

And in this incredibly prestigious hunter family, I was the only one who failed to awaken—the ultimate disgrace of the clan.

"Ugh, seriously... Can you keep it down? I'm already exhausted from clearing a dungeon, for real..."

"S-sorry... My exam is coming up soon..."

"Then go study outside! Why do you have to make so much noise at home, seriously?!"

As the useless one in the family, I had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to walk on eggshells even just to study. Hunters are basically superhumans, so their senses are entirely different from ordinary people. On a quiet night like this, even the faint scratching of a pencil was enough to make my younger sister snap. If she was going to be like that, she should have just moved out and lived on her own. Instead, she and my older sister insisted on staying in my house, making my life miserable. They claimed they were too busy with hunter work and needed someone to keep the place clean. If that was the case, I didn't understand why they didn't just hire a housekeeper instead of treating me like their personal servant. It was one thing when we were kids, but we were all adults now, and they made more than enough money. Thanks to them, I had to do chores for both of them every single day while walking on eggshells, struggling to study for the Hunter Association entrance exam.

Then came the day the exam results were announced.

"I-I passed...!"

I had been accepted as an employee of the Hunter Association, a position known to be the hardest to obtain for an unawakened person. It was the first time in a very long time that I felt pure, unadulterated joy. I passed. I actually passed. All my life, my family and relatives had looked down on me as a useless, unawakened nobody. But now, even as an unawakened person, I was taking my first step into hunter society. It was a massive relief because being constantly belittled for not having powers had been agonizing. There was a time when I hated myself so much ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for not awakening. But once I accepted reality and started preparing for the Association exam, I actually felt a bit proud of myself. I couldn't help how I was born, but I had done the absolute best I could within my limitations.

I called my mother.

My mother hung up just like that.

Of course. Honestly, I hadn't really expected any congratulations. To hunters like them, no matter what an unawakened person achieved, they were still just unawakened. Even if a frog wore a crown, to a human, it was still just a trivial frog. A crown didn't make a frog a king.

"Sigh... Whatever. It's not like this is anything new."

I was used to this kind of treatment by now. In the past, it would have made me sad, but now? I felt absolutely nothing. More importantly, I needed to learn the ropes quickly and get promoted. Once you entered the Hunter Association, junior employees had to work themselves to the bone. New hires were bound by a mandatory service period. Furthermore, Association employees were fundamentally barred from relocating. Traveling abroad was, of course, strictly forbidden unless it was for an official business trip. This was because no one knew when or how an emergency would strike, meaning employees had to remain near their assigned branch at all times.

None of that mattered to me anyway. It was probably the same for most people. To the unawakened, the Hunter Association was a dream job with high salaries and prestigious credentials. No one wanted to leave voluntarily. If anything, they worried about how to survive past the five-year mark.

"...Let's do this!"

I had to admit, I was a pretty positive guy. Even though I was the only one in a legendary hunter family who hadn't awakened, I still maintained this level of optimism. What's good is good. I cheered myself on, looking forward to the future. Now that I was hired, I was going to do my absolute best. Steeling my resolve, I prepared for my first day of work. Up until that very moment, I genuinely believed everything was going to go smoothly. That was, of course, before I regained the memories of my past life.

"Aaaaaaaargh!!"

There was a game called Debubble Hunter. It was an action-adventure game set in a world where gates suddenly appeared on Earth. The premise was simple: become a hunter, clear gates, and grow stronger. However, it was vastly different from your run-of-the-mill hunter games. If I had to describe it, it was more of a dystopia. It depicted a world where decades had passed since the gates first appeared, and hunter society had become deeply entrenched. At the start of the game, a massive horde of monsters far beyond anything humanity could handle suddenly emerged, setting the world on a path to absolute ruin. The main objective of the game was to clear unprecedentedly difficult dungeons to prevent this apocalypse.

But the crucial detail was that the tutorial area of the game was South Korea. Korea was the epicenter of these anomalous, out-of-spec dungeons. Since the dungeons couldn't be cleared even with foreign aid, the International Hunter Association ultimately decided to abandon Korea to buy time for the rest of the world. Thus, the Korean Peninsula was completely quarantined and wiped off the map by the overflowing monsters from the gates. Naturally, with all flights grounded, every ordinary citizen left behind perished. That was the tutorial's plot, and it was hardcoded—absolutely nothing you did in the game could change it. In other words, the game actually began with the Korean Peninsula already erased from existence.

"H-how many years do I have left? Five? No, not even five years!!"

It was funny how closely the game's lore matched this world. Once I regained my memories, I realized I was originally from a world where hunters didn't exist, and I had reincarnated into the world of Debubble Hunter. My memories of my past life were fragmented, but I probably got hit by some kind of isekai truck. Regardless, the cause of death wasn't the issue. The real problem was that the Korean Peninsula was doomed to be destroyed within the next five years—and I had only remembered this terrifying fact after getting hired by the Hunter Association.

"Aaaaaaaargh!!"

"Ugh, seriously! You're so loud first thing in the morning!"

Bam!

As I shrieked at the top of my lungs, my younger sister rushed into my room and delivered a flying dropkick. I soared through the air and slammed face-first into my bed. Hey! Is an awakened hunter even allowed to kick an ordinary person like this?! If I report this, you'll get disciplined! Of course, those words never left my mouth, remaining trapped in my throat. It was the result of years of survival instincts honed from living at the bottom of the family food chain.

"Hurry up and make breakfast! I want beef sandwiches this morning!"

My sister stood there in dolphin shorts, an oversized shirt, and her hair tied up in a messy bun. She looked completely different from the S-class hunter the public saw. People probably thought she was a kind, benevolent paragon of hunter virtue. Knowing her true nature, I ground my teeth every morning—no, every single hour. "Hmph, seriously..." she muttered, turning on her heel and heading toward the fridge. She was probably planning to drink cola first thing in the morning. She always claimed that because an awakened body was different from an ordinary person's, drinking soda on an empty stomach didn't affect her at all. Naturally, my endless complaints remained unvoiced, just like always. I would have to prepare breakfast while trembling with silent rage.

...Wait, no. Hold on a second.

Did I really need to keep doing this? Now that I knew this country was going to be destroyed anyway. She was a Korean hunter, so she would probably die fighting when the apocalypse came. Since everyone was going to die regardless, why on earth should I keep living as a doormat? Having realized the grim reality after regaining my memories, I bolted upright and clenched my fists. There was absolutely no reason for me to endure this treatment anymore. Whether we were a prestigious hunter family or I was the disgrace of the clan, we were all going to ruin anyway! I glared at the back of my sister's head as she chugged her cola and yelled out with newfound courage.

"N-N-N-N..."

"...?"

But the words wouldn't come out easily. It was a deeply ingrained instinct built up over years. Have you ever heard of the glass ceiling experiment? If you trap a flea in a jar with a glass lid, it will repeatedly bump its head against it. Eventually, even if you remove the lid, the flea will never jump higher than that limit. Once you set a boundary for yourself, you restrict your own potential even when you have the ability to break free. No! The current me was different!

"—No way!!!"

I did it. The very first rebellion of my life. I was no longer going to live as a pushover who had to cook breakfast for his sister while frantically getting ready for work. At my explosive shout, cola dribbled out of my sister's mouth.

"Drinking cola, eating meat and bread first thing in the morning. You eat like that every single day, no wonder you're gaining weight!"

"W-w-what did you say?! Unlike ordinary people, my body doesn't gain weight from stuff like this! And this is Diet Coke!"

"What are you talking about? I literally heard you on the phone the other day, complaining ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that you gained weight and had to order new gear because your old stuff didn't fit!"

"T-that was just my hips... I mean, no! What are you talking about, you pervert?!"

"Anyway, make your own damn food! I'm going to work... Ah, damn it, I seriously don't want to go to work!"

I grabbed my bag and angrily slipped on my shoes. Just yesterday, I had been burning with passion for my new job, but now that I knew staying here meant certain death with no escape, the thought of going to work made me want to vomit.

"What is wrong with him? Just a few days ago, he was over the moon about passing... No, more importantly, give me food!!"

Ignoring my sister's screams, I slammed the door shut and left the house. Seriously, how could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠someone like her be an S-class hunter? Is having a good innate trait everything? A rude hunter like her should be disciplined, or better yet, expelled from the industry...

...Wait. Expelled? Fired?

At that moment, a brilliant idea flashed through my mind. Normally, once you joined the Hunter Association, you were legally barred from resigning for five years. However, there were exceptional cases where employees were forced to strip off their uniforms early. That was when they were disciplined, deemed severely incompetent, or fired for making a catastrophic mistake. Getting disciplined for leaking classified information or corruption wasn't a good option. Disciplinary actions from the Hunter Association were treated on par with international felonies, which would completely ruin my future. In that case, what if I just pretended to be utterly incompetent and got myself fired? Under normal circumstances, no one in their right mind would do such a thing. The Hunter Association was a dream workplace that everyone clawed their way into. Who would throw away a position they had worked so hard to get? But I was different. I was going to quit this stupid company and immigrate to America. Sure, they might not accept an unawakened immigrant like me easily. But it didn't matter. In five years, South Korea would be wiped off the face of the earth anyway, so I could just claim refugee status.

"Jiwoo! We have an urgent matter regarding an A-class dungeon. Take care of it. If we don't clear it this time, a dungeon break will occur!"

And on that very day, the perfect task landed right in my lap.