Dawn Raid at Incheon Port
The seldom-visited Incheon Port lay quiet under the cold dawn air, thick with moisture. The orange glow from the lights reflected off the cement ground, lending a fleeting warmth to the chilly harbor. But that warmth didn't last.
Tututu-tu―――!! Tututu-tu―――!! Bang――!! Bang――!! Intense gunfire echoed through the humid air, reverberating across the entire port. Far too ferocious a sound to herald the end of night. And amid the spent casings littering the ground, a black-haired woman charged forward. Her crimson eyes burned like those of a beast.
"Th-this monster bitch…!!"
"Aim for the legs or head!! Keep her from regenerating as much as possible!!"
They poured bullets of every caliber into her, but the skin of S-rank hunter Yoo Ji-na wouldn't yield to mere lumps of lead. At best, they left shallow scratches. You'd need at least a 20mm anti-materiel rifle or armor-piercing rounds to even have a chance of piercing her. And even if they got lucky and landed a hit, it was futile against her unique magic, [Super Regeneration].
Yoo Ji-na leaped onto a container beyond the reach of their bullets. Her eyes locked onto a man fleeing in the distance—a bald-pated figure with a face full of greed. He was so corpulent, it was like a pig on two legs stuffed into a suit. He was the target she'd been hunting.
Without a second's hesitation, Yoo Ji-na extended the crimson cloth Gleipnir toward him, attempting to bind him.
"Guh… ack…!!"
The red cloth wrapped around his neck like a noose. As he struggled, it tightened further, making him writhe in agony. Yoo Ji-na, by contrast, descended gracefully from the container and approached him at a leisurely pace.
"Park Min-cheol, CFO of Taedong Guild. You're under arrest for smuggling."
As she yanked her right arm back, the man toppled backward. She released the chokehold around his neck and bound his arms instead. Gasping for air at last, he erupted into coughs and a torrent of curses.
"Cough…! Cough…! Y-you… crazy bitch…! You think you'll get away with this…!?"
"…"
Yoo Ji-na offered no reply. To her, he was a criminal not worth the breath. Irredeemable scum threatening society—that was her image of Park Min-cheol.
Ignoring his empty threats, she pulled out the radio issued by the Hunter Management Bureau and made contact.
"Park Min-cheol secured. Heading there now—prepare for transport."
With gunfire still crackling around her, it seemed the Bureau agents deployed with her were locked in combat with the remnants.
"You haven't wrapped up over there yet?"
The voice on the other end sounded utterly frustrated. The core of this mission was to apprehend Taedong Guild members smuggling the dungeon-core awakener drug Minos's Liver. Park Min-cheol, who'd been on the run until now, was already in custody, and the remaining stragglers numbered fewer than fifty at most. For the Bureau, which had assembled a team capable of handling them preemptively, the sudden arrival of mercenaries was an unforeseen variable. The power gap was inevitable.
Yoo Ji-na listened quietly to the radio, her head already aching at the thought of extra work.
"I'm heading over now, so prep transport. I'll hand off Park Min-cheol to you and deal with the mercenaries myself."
Finishing the call, Yoo Ji-na prepared to head toward the gunfire. The bulky baggage that was Park Min-cheol could simply be hoisted with Gleipnir. She was inwardly grateful to her sister for gifting her such a convenient artifact.
# Just ten minutes after Yoo Ji-na linked up with the main force, the situation was resolved. Her combat style was brutally simple: charge the direction the bullets came from, twist the gun barrel, or punch their faces just hard enough not to kill and knock them out cold. A few of the mercenaries were awakeners, but how many could defeat an S-rank hunter like her? Awakener or not, they all ended up sprawled equally on the ground.
"Hunter Yoo Ji-na, great work!!"
A fully geared Bureau agent saluted her. It had been a full month since she'd started operating with them like this. Though nominally with Maru Guild, she was on extended dispatch to the Bureau to uproot organizations that might seek revenge. Long-term deployments like this weren't welcome from a guild's perspective—especially for an S-rank like Yoo Ji-na, it was practically a major blow to Maru Guild. Already struggling with manpower shortages, most operations ground to a halt without their key pillar. She knew full well that Guild Master Cheon So-hee's ambitions were drifting further away.
And yet, Cheon So-hee had forced a smile and said, "Do whatever our empress wants." But that was no easy acceptance. Feeling both grateful and sorry toward Cheon So-hee for the tough call, Yoo Ji-na couldn't help it. It might seem a bit shameless, but it was all for her sister, reunited after six long years.
Even so, hitting crime scenes daily without a break for a month wasn't easy. Yoo Ji-na gave the agent a perfunctory response before leaving the site for the temporary lodging provided by the Bureau.
The sun hadn't risen yet, but the cold dawn air was turning to dew. Ever since her sister Yuina returned, Yoo Ji-na no longer suffered nightmares. Still, years of irregular sleep patterns meant she only rested every other day. And today was just such a day.
Arriving at the lodging, she took a quick shower and collapsed into bed.
"Taedong Guild ends today. Left are… China's Black Society… and a few black market players…"
Not yet sleepy, she reviewed the remaining targets. Plagued by guilt, she'd vowed to eradicate every criminal group or guild that might resent her. But the most dangerous among them was one in particular.
"And Silver Arrow… That insane cult is too much for me alone."
Her fist clenched so hard her nails drew blood, crimson trickling between her fingers.
Silver Arrow, formed in the early 2000s around S-rank hunter Lee Shin-woo, was a guild and emerging cult. Lee Shin-woo proclaimed himself God's proxy, spreading false good deeds and evil across Korea, preying on people's weaknesses to amass followers. Human trafficking, ritual murders, kidnappings, drugs—the worst kind of group. Yet only a tiny few knew the truth.
Their devotees included experts at concealing and fabricating information, making them untouchable even by the government. And Yoo Ji-na was marked by them. The reason? She'd destroyed most of the fields growing their primary revenue and proselytizing tool: the hallucinogenic drug Monghwancho.
She'd only acted on Bureau orders, but Silver Arrow naturally saw her as an enemy. A month ago, with nothing to lose, it hadn't mattered. But now, she wasn't alone anymore. The Bureau felt responsible and threw full support into wiping out unresolved crime groups, but Silver Arrow—militarily a match for the Bureau—was a tough foe.
Thinking of the road ahead left her feeling bleak. She picked up her phone.
"Now that I'm trying to sleep, I'm wide awake…"
She regretted mulling over work before bed—it had chased away all drowsiness. Idly tapping until sleep came, she spotted a credit card statement she hadn't checked yesterday.
For someone who never splurged, it was just a periodic reminder the card existed. But this was the new one issued a month ago for her sister's living expenses, so she took a mild interest. Unless she was buying a supercar monthly, the limit didn't matter… but she quietly wondered if her sister was eating well.
After staring for a while, she set the phone down.
"Haa… whatever. She's not a kid anymore…"
It touched on privacy, so she decided to let it slide. If caught checking itemized statements, her sister would sulk about "black history" and threaten to "kill her" for sure.