Chapter 3 - Bukhansan (1)
Bukhansan (1)
What is this…?
Lee Jeon-seok stared intently at the window floating before his eyes.
His good karma had increased?
Granted, killing him had been partly for that purpose…
Still, Lee Jeon-seok couldn’t help but be surprised that the system itself had appeared directly.
—
Lv. 1
[Strength – 10] [Agility – 10]
[Vitality – 10] [Mana – 10]
Stat Points – 0
Good Karma – 5000
Evil Karma – @#%^@#TF
Owned Traits
└ Heavenly Slaughter Star (EX), Mark of Eternity, Ignition (B)
—
Something about the status window felt strange.
Just above the “Owned Traits” section, new stats had appeared.
Good Karma.
Evil Karma.
‘The 5,000 good karma must be what I just gained.’
As for evil karma, the text was corrupted to the point of being unreadable.
Were Lee Jeon-seok’s accumulated sins truly that great?
“Hm…”
He stared at the status window, deep in thought.
Why had these stats appeared all of a sudden?
“……”
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t figure it out.
There wasn’t even a plausible hypothesis.
To begin with—what was the system?
Five centuries ago.
It had appeared in the world without warning.
Along with monsters, it completely overturned humanity’s values.
‘Monsters…’
Lee Jeon-seok recalled his memories from hell.
‘Come to think of it, the torturers in Avīci looked a lot like monsters.’
Creatures that couldn’t speak, existing only to torture sinners.
Their appearance had been similar to monsters.
Of course, it could’ve been a misunderstanding.
Those memories were from far too long ago.
‘Let’s head back for now.’
Lee Jeon-seok dismissed the status window and exited the crater.
Thankfully, there was no one around.
There were CCTV cameras—but they weren’t working.
That must’ve been the Dawn Society’s doing.
‘At least I won’t draw suspicion unnecessarily.’
The department store terror attack was a major incident that even the Association hadn’t noticed beforehand.
An ordinary civilian resolving it?
Naturally, the Association would suspect Lee Jeon-seok of being connected to the Dawn Society.
Whether for good reasons or bad.
Before anyone else could appear, Lee Jeon-seok quickly left the scene.
He stopped by a pharmacy to apply ointment to the burn on his right hand, then wrapped it in a bandage.
On the way home, he checked the trait he had just obtained.
—
Ignition
Grade: B
Effect: Ignites flames across the user’s entire body. The ignited flames possess mana and erase various types of curses and marks. Additionally, attacks that hit the target leave behind an inextinguishable burn.
—
‘As expected.’
Exactly the effect he had seen on the man earlier.
‘No wonder the burn was so severe for just a brief contact.’
Lee Jeon-seok looked down at his right hand.
Pain throbbed beneath the bandage.
It seemed to be a curse-type trait.
A curse that didn’t disappear even after the user’s death.
As a test, Lee Jeon-seok activated Ignition.
Whoosh—
Flames erupted over his right hand.
But the pain didn’t disappear.
The burn remained.
Despite the description claiming it erased curses and marks, it seemed unable to erase its own curse.
Or perhaps the effect simply didn’t apply to the user.
That said, a curse of this level could easily be treated with potions sold on the market.
The problem was that they were absurdly expensive.
But—
‘Why is it so dark?’
The flames looked different from when the man had used them.
A strangely dark, crimson-tinged fire.
Only one explanation came to mind.
His time in hell.
That experience must’ve influenced it.
Traits often changed depending on one’s mental or physical state.
[Mana has been depleted.]
As his mana ran dry, the flames vanished.
‘Well, as long as it works.’
Regardless of the reason, he had gained a solid trait.
A curse-type offensive skill.
That would be a major advantage in combat.
By the time he realized it, Lee Jeon-seok had arrived home.
He looked up at the twenty-story apartment building.
‘At least the immediate crisis is handled.’
The department store terror attack and collapse—
The biggest incident had been prevented.
That alone should ensure his parents wouldn’t die in a terror attack.
The mana bombs would soon disappear as well.
The crater and the corpse—
The Association wasn’t incompetent enough to dismiss it as a simple murder case.
More importantly—
‘I confirmed that killing bad people increases good karma.’
That made what he had to do very clear.
Kill bad people—villains.
‘The first group that comes to mind is the Dawn Society.’
Villains were everywhere, but the group Lee Jeon-seok remembered most vividly was the Dawn Society.
When and where they appeared.
What they planned, and whom they killed.
Even their membership roster.
Lee Jeon-seok knew everything about them.
There was no way he couldn’t.
In his previous life, the one who destroyed the Dawn Society was none other than Lee Jeon-seok himself.
Driven by rage, he had obsessively tracked down every trace they left behind.
‘I never thought that would help me like this…’
It was deeply ironic.
Lee Jeon-seok entered the apartment lobby after inputting the password.
The Dawn Society—
And many other villains came to mind.
‘I’ll deal with them first.’
Not just to reach heaven.
This world was far too dangerous for the powerless.
For the sake of his family, eliminating villains was the right choice.
Of course—
‘To operate without drawing suspicion, I’ll need to become a hunter first.’
Hunters were state-sanctioned violence.
Murder permitted by law.
Without a hunter’s license, the government wouldn’t allow him to hunt villains freely.
‘When was the hunter exam again…?’
For now, Lee Jeon-seok decided to go home and register for the exam.
※ ※ ※
Kim Baek-dong.
Team leader of the Hunter Association’s Villain Response Division.
“Is this the place?”
Guided by the police, he entered the underground parking lot.
He had been dispatched after a report of a corpse found there.
“Yes. The scene is preserved exactly as it was found, so please take your time examining it.”
“Thank you.”
Kim Baek-dong nodded and crossed the safety line into the scene.
A space artificially excavated deep into the ground.
On the dark floor lay a single corpse.
‘…The Dawn Society.’
He identified the body almost immediately.
There wasn’t any concrete evidence.
But the man’s face matched someone he knew perfectly.
Yoo Unseong.
Captain of the Dawn Society’s 4th Action Unit.
‘He was so elusive that even the Association had a hard time tracking him…’
And yet, he had been found dead out of nowhere.
And the wound on his neck—
‘A single strike?’
He had been killed almost instantly.
A villain known as a B-rank hunter had died in the blink of an eye.
‘Whoever did this is highly skilled.’
Skilled enough to utterly overpower a B-rank hunter.
‘Who could it be?’
Kim Baek-dong pondered for quite some time.
But no answer came.
The CCTV was dead, and there were no visible traces.
Then—
“Team Leader!”
Someone called out from behind.
A newcomer—recently joined as an intern.
“Just as you predicted, the entire department store was rigged with mana bombs!”
“I see.”
“Yes. But there are so many… I’m not sure if we can disarm them all in time—”
Kim Baek-dong, who had been examining the body, slowly stood up.
“That won’t be a problem.”
“Pardon?”
“Mana bombs don’t activate without a detonator.”
“R-really?”
The intern let out a sigh of relief.
His back was drenched in sweat.
He must have been under intense pressure.
Hundreds of bombs that could explode at any moment—
His anxiety was understandable.
“Well, you’re new to the department, so it’s natural you wouldn’t know. Information on mana bombs is restricted since it’s tied to the Dawn Society.”
Maybe I should’ve explained earlier.
Kim Baek-dong muttered softly and turned to the intern.
“More importantly—what about the CCTV?”
“Ah, yes. As you said, we checked, but…”
The intern operated the tablet in his hands.
“All CCTV inside the department store had its power cut. The monitors connected to them were looping footage from exactly 24 hours earlier, so even the guards didn’t notice.”
“Then we can’t expect any useful information.”
With that, Kim Baek-dong exited the scene.
As he emerged from the underground parking lot, the evening sunset greeted him.
There wasn’t a single person around.
An evacuation order had been issued until all the bombs were removed.
“Still… this is a huge relief.”
Bathed in sunset light, the intern spoke.
“Just imagining if all the bombs had gone off—”
“The casualty count would’ve easily exceeded a hundred.”
“Yikes!”
The intern shuddered.
Kim Baek-dong, on the other hand, quietly sank into thought.
‘Something about this doesn’t sit right…’
It was fortunate the department store hadn’t collapsed.
But the real issue was—
Who had killed Yoo Unseong of the Dawn Society?
‘I hope it wasn’t another villain.’
If someone that skilled turned out to be a villain, it would be a massive headache.
On the other hand—
‘If they were on our side, that’d be incredibly reassuring.’
Of course, the odds were slim.
Click.
Kim Baek-dong lit a cigarette.
Exhale—
Gray smoke scattered and vanished into the air.
※ ※ ※
On the way home.
Lee Jeon-seok ran into his father—Lee Han-seok—in the elevator.
It seemed he was returning from work.
“What happened to your hand?”
He noticed the bandage and asked.
Lee Jeon-seok smiled awkwardly.
“I got burned by accident…”
“It’s nothing serious, right?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Ding—
The elevator reached their floor and the doors opened.
As Lee Han-seok stepped out, he clicked his tongue.
“A grown man playing with fire. Tsk, tsk.”
Despite his words, concern was clear in his tone and eyes.
Seeing that, Lee Jeon-seok felt as if forgotten memories were resurfacing.
‘…Dad always seemed cold, but he was warm at heart.’
Yes. That was right.
And it wasn’t just Lee Han-seok.
Han Yuri and Lee Ji-hye, too—
They argued and snapped at each other, but they had never truly hated one another.
They were family.
Irreplaceable.
Lee Jeon-seok thought—
He didn’t want to lose that.
But there were too many bad people in the world.
Erase the Dawn Society?
Impossible.
Other villains would take their place.
Even if villains disappeared, monsters remained.
Dungeons could appear anywhere at any time and swallow him and his family whole.
Would eliminating all of them make things safe?
Who knew.
Even Lee Jeon-seok wasn’t certain.
The world was full of uncertainties.
Nothing was definite.
Everything was opaque.
The future had always been like that.
But at the very least, if he eliminated visible villains and dungeons, his family would be able to walk outside safely.
‘I’ve got a lot to do.’
There was a mountain of work ahead.
‘First… I become a hunter and erase the Dawn Society.’
That became his top priority.
“I’m home.”
“Welcome back, dear.”
Lee Jeon-seok and Lee Han-seok entered the apartment together.
Han Yuri was startled when she saw Lee Jeon-seok’s injury, but relaxed after hearing it wasn’t serious and gently scolded him to be careful.
After that, Lee Jeon-seok returned to his room.
In the silent space, he turned on his computer.
The hunter exam.
An event held regularly each month by the Association.
‘The next exam is in a week.’
That meant there was a lot to prepare.
‘First—stamina.’
Lee Jeon-seok opened a notebook and began scribbling.
‘This body is too weak.’
Perhaps because he had returned to the past—
His physical condition was abysmal.
Even in terms of basic stamina.
A body that became breathless after only minimal exertion.
Even when he killed the Dawn Society member at the department store—
‘If that fight had dragged on any longer, I’d be the one dead.’
So Lee Jeon-seok set his top priority, before the hunter exam, as improving his stamina.
But with only a week—
It was unrealistic to raise his stats through training alone.
That was when Lee Jeon-seok thought of another method.