The Capture Card
The [Capture] card had no illustration like the others. It was simply a blank card. Only after checking its effects did I understand why nothing was drawn on it.
Capture — Sealing Card ★★★
Captures and seals monsters of 3-star rank or lower inside the card. You may command any sealed monsters!
Current Card Count: 3
※ Absorb Blue Etherium to duplicate the card and increase the count!
※ One additional Capture card is granted each time your rank increases!
※ Success rate depends on your disposition, rank, and the target monster’s disposition and rank.
“Capturing monsters? And sealing them in cards?” I was genuinely surprised. It was a concept I had never heard of before. Being able to seal monsters inside cards and command them… I wanted to test it immediately, but there were no suitable targets. I had no desire to stuff filthy monsters like the man-eating cockroaches into a card, and thanks to Ra Si-hyun incinerating every last one of them, not a single specimen remained.
“C-congratulations.” Ra Si-hyun approached and offered her congratulations on my rank-up.
“Yeah.”
“Um, by the way…”
“……?”
“Did I… do well just now?”
“What?”
“I was just wondering if I did okay……”
“Good work.”
“Is that all……?”
“Why?”
“I-I thought I’d get some praise this time.”
“You’re the mage. Why would I praise you for doing your job?”
Ra Si-hyun’s shoulders slumped. No way. Praising her wouldn’t have cost me anything, but this was Ra Si-hyun. I refused to give her any excuse to get cocky. The higher her nose went, the exponentially higher the chance she would die by my hand.
“Still… that wasn’t bad.”
“……Really?”
Ra Si-hyun’s expression brightened noticeably. Instead of answering, I checked on the chicks.
“How are you holding up?”
“I’m fine, hyung-nim.”
“Me too. Perfectly okay.”
Oh Tae-kwon and Kim Seung-hye were unscathed, as expected of their roles.
“My arm’s probably broken, but I can still manage.” Park Seok-ho grimaced in pain.
“Hold still.” I pulled a Healing Card from the deck and mended his arm. A single broken arm didn’t warrant summoning Undine.
“What about Ho-bin and the instructor?”
“No idea.” Kim Seung-hye wore an awkward expression.
“Still, it’s impressive the three of you stuck together.”
“We got lucky.”
“Ah, right. Luck matters.” People often overlooked it, but luck was far more important than most realized. Especially in hunter work, there were countless moments when you felt it in your bones. A single tiny variable could flip the entire situation 180 degrees. In that sense, the Luck Card was genuinely useful. Runes or items that raised the abstract stat of luck were extremely rare……
“Let’s form the bond first.” After linking up, we started moving again.
“May I ask what the plan is, hyung-nim?” Oh Tae-kwon asked cautiously.
“We find Ho-bin and the instructor first.”
“And after that……”
“We’ll see how things play out.” There were too many variables to give a definite answer, so I left it at that. The Fog Labyrinth was an especially tricky environment.
“Everyone put a hand on the shoulder in front of you and follow. Keep checking. Fall even a few steps behind and you’ll end up somewhere completely different.”
Nod, nod! The chicks bobbed their heads.
“Watch your muzzles. If you need to shoot, call it out first. If you blindly pull the trigger and kill an ally, I won’t let it slide.” Ra Si-hyun placed her hand on my shoulder and barked at the team.
“If the gun jams, stay calm and handle it the way you were taught. Don’t panic and flail around.”
Well, well. Why was she giving orders that were supposed to come from me……?
“What?”
“W-what do you mean?”
“That thing you just said. What was that?”
“I was just saying what you were going to say, oppa.” Ra Si-hyun looked oddly proud of herself.
“That’s not your line to say.”
“Let’s hurry. We still have to find that idol oppa and the instructor.” She quickly changed the subject. I almost gave her a smack on the head but held back. She was right—finding Instructor Kim Sang-eung and Jeong Ho-bin took priority right now.
* * *
Moving through the Fog Labyrinth was mentally exhausting. Walking through fog so thick you couldn’t see more than a few meters ahead, never knowing when enemies might appear, kept everyone’s nerves on a razor’s edge. But what truly drove people insane were the overlapping noises. Explosions, screams, monster growls, gunfire—because space itself was warped and tangled, fragmented sounds reached us from every direction, gnawing at our sanity moment by moment. Even though everyone simply followed me with their nerves stretched taut, their eyes were bloodshot.
“Everyone, ease up a little.” I couldn’t stay silent any longer.
“As long as you stick with me, nothing too dangerous should happen. Don’t stay so tense. Being tense won’t help.”
“B-but……” Park Seok-ho glanced around nervously.
“If you die, you die. Why are you so scared?”
“Huh……?”
“The average survival rate for first-year hunters is around thirty percent. That means seven out of ten die within a year.”
“Gasp?”
“Why are you acting surprised now? The Great Transfer happened fifteen years ago. How many of the first-generation hunters who awakened back then are still alive? You can count them on one hand even in Korea, right?”
“W-well, yeah……”
“That’s a hunter’s life. Like a fly. Exactly like that.”
“……”
“No need to tremble. Whether you die today or tomorrow, what does it matter? If you die, you die. So……”
Damn it. I’d only meant to help them relax, but the mood had plummeted. Still, a bit of gloom was better than everyone being so wound up they made mistakes. People tended to screw up when they were too tense.
“By the way,” Ra Si-hyun spoke up. “Are you really just a reserve hunter, oppa?”
“Why are you asking that?”
“You talk like someone who’s been through every kind of hell.”
“You don’t need to experience it yourself to know. It’s all in the statistics.”
“That’s true……”
“Shut up and just keep following.”
Thud. Something caught on my foot. I looked down and saw a leg wearing military boots.
“……This is……”
After taking a couple more steps, a horrific sight unfolded before us. Corpses. Corpses. And more corpses. Nearly twenty bodies lay scattered across the area.
“Marine Corps…… Special Search Unit and hunters, by the looks of it.” Even in death, their uniforms told the story.
“T-they’re all dead……”
“Ugh……”
“What do we do……”
The team members looked like they could barely keep their eyes open. It was understandable. No matter how insane the world had become, witnessing this many corpses wasn’t exactly common.
“Stay on guard. I’m checking the bodies.”
“Got it.”
While the others watched the surroundings, I examined the corpses and the scene. After about a minute, I could roughly deduce what had killed them.
“This wasn’t monsters.”
“W-what do you mean? If it wasn’t monsters……” Oh Tae-kwon was visibly shocked.
“People. Maybe even allies.”
“Huh……?”
“Look.” I pointed at the scene. “The way they’re lying is wrong.”
“I don’t really get it……”
“Their heads and bodies are facing inward. This wasn’t a combat formation.”
“Gasp?”
“There are barely any shell casings on the ground either. If they’d been fighting monsters, there should be at least hundreds of casings.”
“Ah?”
“The wounds on the bodies are too clean to be from monsters. Every single one was made by a sharp blade. They were all stabbed in vital spots, like they’d agreed on it beforehand, and died from massive blood loss. Look—the place is a sea of blood. This was done by a highly skilled hunter. Someone who’s very good with daggers.”
I was certain. Experience told me this wasn’t the work of monsters. It was human.
“Who would do something like this……”
In any other area I would have suspected the Wreckers, but this was Jebu Island. With the Special Ability Training Institute located here, it wasn’t the kind of place Wreckers could casually wander into. I scanned the bodies again. A butcher’s work. This wasn’t a fight. It was a massacre. Even for a hunter, using a dagger this skillfully against other people was rare…… The wounds suggested someone who had gone far beyond mere skill—someone who had truly mastered the art of killing.
The only places that systematically teach this kind of murder technique are special forces units. There’s also the possibility of an assassin-type hunter specialized in daggers. Instead of voicing my thoughts, I gave the team a short warning.
“From now on, don’t trust anyone we meet. Not until I say it’s safe. Never let your guard down. Suspect everyone until the very last moment. Got it?”
“Yes.”
We resumed searching for Jeong Ho-bin and Instructor Kim Sang-eung.
Yeah, no way. A thought had flashed through my mind, but I pushed it away. Misunderstandings and speculation were dangerous. Still, one particular face kept surfacing in my head. Even though I knew it couldn’t possibly be true……
* * *
About thirty minutes after leaving that gruesome scene behind—
Thud, thud!
Footsteps approached from the opposite direction. At my hand signal, the team quickly spread left and right, forming a combat line. Soon the owner of the footsteps appeared.
“Instructor!” Oh Tae-kwon recognized him and called out happily. It was Instructor Kim Sang-eung, the dedicated instructor of Bravo Team and my father’s junior.
“Nobody’s hurt?” A relieved smile appeared on Kim Sang-eung’s face the moment he saw us. “Thank goodness. I was worried about everyone. Seeing you all together puts me at ease. Eun-seong, you took the lead, right?”
Instead of answering, I raised my rifle and aimed it at him.
“……!” The team flinched at my sudden action. But they remembered my earlier warning and didn’t rashly intervene.
“Who are you?”
“Hm?”
“I asked what your real identity is.”
Instructor Kim Sang-eung’s expression hardened slightly. “I can tell you’re tense, but there’s no need to point a gun at me. Eun-seong, it’s fine. Lower the rifle. I’m Uncle Sang-eung.”
“Bullshit.” I didn’t waver. There was no way I’d fall for such a cheap trick. I was far too seasoned for that.
“No signs of fighting monsters, but plenty of signs of killing people.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Me, killing people?”
“You’re covered head to toe in human blood, yet you still play dumb.”
“……”
Kim Sang-eung’s face turned rigid. After a brief silence, he spoke.
“You’re quick on the uptake.”
His face twisted into something demonic. It was impossible to tell whether he was smiling or crying—an utterly grotesque expression.