The 1st Gen Hunter
“Who the hell are you?!”
In response to the sudden disturbance, the Yamamoto-gumi underboss drew a Japanese sword from inside his jacket.
“Kumicho! Are you alright?!”
The other gang members rushed into the room belatedly, but the space they occupied was still shrouded in darkness.
“O-over there…!”
The gang members pointed with trembling fingers at the glowing blue eyes hovering serenely in the shadows.
The moment they spotted the enemy, the gang members drew their weapons without hesitation.
It was a hair-trigger situation, on the verge of erupting into combat.
“So you’ve finally come, Hunter sir.”
Sato Akashi, the Yamamoto-gumi’s top enforcer, was the only one who remained calm as he glared at the uninvited guest.
“……”
The intruder simply stood there silently, offering no reply.
This was Akashi’s private room, accessible only to a select few trusted members of the Yamamoto-gumi. There was no reason to hold back against someone who had broken in.
“Hah!”
“Die!”
It would be a mistake to think of the Yamamoto-gumi as mere street thugs. Led by Sato Akashi, a 1st Gen Awakener, they were one of Japan’s largest violent organizations, having swallowed up all of Hokkaido. Even the lowliest members were all awakeners without exception.
They were a force that could stand toe-to-toe with most hunter guilds.
But.
Slash!
Slash!
“Gahk!”
With each casual step and swing of the intruder’s sword, the gang members’ heads flew.
Necks severed like falling leaves with every stroke. The dozens of members were all dead in less than a minute.
“K-Kumicho…! We need a plan now…”
“You idiot!”
Crack!
A massive ice pillar engulfed the underboss’s body. Akashi had frozen him alive for speaking out of turn.
“……”
The intruder silently watched Akashi’s bizarre behavior after dispatching all the gang members.
“Heh… heh.”
“……”
“Something’s off, right? Not that it changes anything!”
Bam!
Akashi clapped his hands, the sound echoing through the room. It spread rapidly, freezing everything it touched.
Crack!
The intruder, drenched in the gang members’ blood, was now covered in sticky gore that froze solid as Akashi’s Unique Ability activated.
His body trembled slightly as if trying to break free, but that was it.
It was power befitting his moniker, the “Ice Demon of the Frozen Wastes,” inspired by his ability to freeze everything around him.
“I said charge in when you hear the clap. That was the signal, right?”
“Seems like it.”
As the intruder was captured, others hidden nearby began to emerge one by one. Each exuded an overwhelming presence.
Seven in total gathered around the intruder—all 1st Gen Awakeners, influential figures from various corners of the world. Mostly for ill repute.
“Ugh! It’s cold!”
“This is the guy? The one hunting 1st Gens?”
This was a trap. Akashi had set it to catch the madman bold enough to hunt 1st Gen Awakeners.
They’d all been on edge, unsure when he’d strike. Fortunately, he’d walked right into it less than a week after they’d laid the bait.
“……”
Despite being frozen solid and unable to move, the intruder glared at them silently from beneath his hood.
“Ha! This bastard. Even in this state, his eyes are full of fire!”
“Enough chit-chat.”
Akashi placed his hand over one of the dead gang members’ corpses. Blood was drawn out, forming a long staff.
“Who sent you?”
“……”
“Ha! Don’t understand Japanese?”
“Looks that way.”
“Whatever. You’ll be spilling everything in your language soon enough.”
Akashi sneered at the intruder.
“Oh. Before that.”
Crack!
Akashi yanked off the hood covering the intruder’s face. It had been bothering him.
“Let’s see that mug of yours…”
“Hm?”
Akashi’s face drained of color the moment the hood came off.
“Y-You’re…?”
The other 1st Gen Awakeners reacted similarly, as if seeing someone who shouldn’t be there.
If the intruder was truly that person, he wouldn’t be caught in Akashi’s trap so easily.
“You son of a…!”
Akashi swung his staff immediately.
…Crack!
The ice encasing the intruder shattered with a sharp sound.
Crunch!
Sharp ice spears materialized in the air but soon plummeted uselessly to the floor. Akashi’s upper body spun through the air.
“Urk!”
“Lee Shin-yul…!”
The intruder’s identity was none other than Korea’s No. 1 ranked hunter, Lee Shin-yul.
The madman hunting 1st Gen Awakeners was Lee Shin-yul himself.
They’d expected someone strong, but not this strong.
“Hah!”
The 1st Gen Awakeners snapped out of it and unleashed their Unique Abilities at him.
But the swords appearing behind them were faster.
Abilities that hardened skin or summoned blades were futile against the Gu-guk Sword.
The twelve swords rising into the air harvested heads as smoothly as flowing water.
“G-Gahk…!”
The seven prepared 1st Gen Awakeners died without meaningful resistance.
In an instant, only Sato Akashi, the Yamamoto-gumi’s top enforcer, remained.
Thanks to his ability, he clung to life even with his body bisected.
“Wh-Why…?!”
The question carried layers of meaning. Why kill him? Why hunt 1st Gens? What crime had he committed against Lee Shin-yul?
“Because you 1st Gens are just obstacles in the future ahead.”
“Wh-What…?”
“So honestly, thanks. You all gathered in one place without me having to hunt you down.”
“Guh… hngh…”
Lee Shin-yul spoke as if everything had unfolded perfectly according to his plan.
‘Security was airtight…!’
This was a trap even his right-hand man—the now-frozen underboss—didn’t know about.
How had he known and countered it perfectly?
“I know.”
“W-Wait…!”
“What you 1st Gens will do in the future.”
Crunch!
The sword in Lee Shin-yul’s grip pierced Akashi’s forehead.
No amount of vitality could sustain life with a shattered skull.
“Kyaa… kyaaa…”
Now only Lee Shin-yul, who had come as the intruder, and a woman who had luckily survived by hiding in the corner remained.
“Be quiet.”
She clamped her mouth shut at his low murmur in Japanese.
“Mmgh…”
She bit back a sob.
Having witnessed what Lee Shin-yul had just done, she had to play nice to survive.
The Gu-guk Sword, gleaming in the moonlight and still wet with fresh blood. Lee Shin-yul raised it high and brought it down.
Crack.
The blade’s tip didn’t target the woman.
It struck the bare floor beside her as she lay crying.
“……”
Lee Shin-yul gathered the half-burnt bundles of cash.
He handed them to the sniffling woman, slipping a sheet of paper in with them.
“Try following this method when you have time. It’s a mana core training manual.”
“Eh, wha…?”
“A world where non-awakeners struggle to survive is coming. Learn it no matter what.”
“Eeeh…?”
She understood the Japanese words but couldn’t grasp the meaning.
“Well then.”
Flash.
Lee Shin-yul vanished as quietly and tracelessly as he’d arrived.
* * *
Lee Shin-yul brushed the snow from his body and wiped the blood from the Gu-guk Sword.
Sensing his return, Section Chief Kim Ji-seon cautiously entered his room.
“You went out again, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
Lee Shin-yul gave a wry smile in response.
Having assisted him for over a decade, Kim Ji-seon knew to some extent what he was doing behind the scenes.
Hunter hunting. Specifically, his blade targeted only 1st Gen Awakener hunters.
A figure dismissed as urban legend by the public, a ghost to the 1st Gens. The 1st Gen Hunter.
“Curious, right? Why I do this.”
Kim Ji-seon clamped her mouth shut at his question.
“Just a hobby.”
“…Even without my ability, I can tell that’s a lie.”
“Heh. Good.”
Thanks to her lie-detection Unique Ability, she knew better than anyone.
That Lee Shin-yul didn’t truly want to kill.
That there was a more important reason for these unwanted murders.
His Unique Ability.
[Precognition.]
It was why he’d held Korea’s No. 1 rank all this time, and why he hunted 1st Gen Awakeners without ties.
Flash.
A blue glow swirled in Lee Shin-yul’s eyes. His gaze turned to Kim Ji-seon.
“……”
One year from now. Kim Ji-seon dies.
Not just her. Most of Gu-guk Guild’s members die too.
If even Gu-guk’s hunters perish, others won’t be spared.
Everyone dies.
That was the clear future in Lee Shin-yul’s eyes. And the primary cause? The 1st Gen Awakeners.
So they all had to die. As many as his power could reach.
“…Hoo.”
But Lee Shin-yul wasn’t strong-hearted enough to slaughter strangers indiscriminately.
Sometimes he wondered if it was right to kill 1st Gens based on a future that hadn’t happened yet.
Then.
One man appeared.
A being immune to his ability.
‘Park Soo-hyeok.’
For some reason, his precognition didn’t work on Park Soo-hyeok alone.
Precognition defied nature’s laws to begin with.
Yet Park Soo-hyeok was utterly free of it, as if something greater.
Normally, he could see a target’s future just by looking.
With Park Soo-hyeok, it was like peering through thick fog—only up to a minute ahead, and even then, low accuracy.
It terrified him.
The first opponent his ability failed against.
He considered eliminating him to reduce uncertainty.
Instead, he kept him close to observe.
Pondering what to do with him.
“……”
“President?”
Seeing Kim Ji-seon’s worried expression, Lee Shin-yul relaxed his eyes.
“Section Chief.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What did you think of Park Soo-hyeok?”
“Pardon?”
Kim Ji-seon felt a chill at the sudden question, especially fresh from a 1st Gen hunt.
From Gu-guk’s intel, Park Soo-hyeok wasn’t a 1st Gen. No 1st Gen lacked records for 20 years post-Cataclysm.
But if she said the wrong thing, Lee Shin-yul’s sword might turn on him.
After a moment’s thought, she spoke firmly, nothing but the truth as she felt it.
“At least, not a bad person. He helped when I nearly got hurt by mistake.”
“…Right?”
Lee Shin-yul agreed. Setting aside his strength in soloing Masinjeon Dungeon, as a person, Park Soo-hyeok seemed good-hearted.
A man with such power, yet content farming quietly in a rural village without greed.
That was Park Soo-hyeok in his eyes. With Kim Ji-seon’s words, he solidified his resolve after two weeks of deliberation.
This man was necessary for the future.
To change the despairing one ahead.
“I’m tired. Head home once things are sorted. You too.”
“…Yes, sir.”
Kim Ji-seon bowed and left the office.
‘It’ll be fine.’
Lee Shin-yul reassured himself, quelling his unease.
Though he was under one major delusion.
‘He cleared a dungeon, so at least he’s not a 1st Gen Awakener.’