Family Bonds and the Weight of Return
“If it’s just about the money, then I want to oppose it even more.”
Following Kang Tae-sung’s words, Kang Han-sung wiped the playful expression from his face and spoke in a serious tone.
“There are terms like big aggro and small aggro floating around. If you wanted to become a hunter, you must have at least searched for stuff like that, right?”
“Roughly….”
“This girl and her ‘roughly, roughly’… Anyway, the more you hunt monsters, the more this thing called aggro builds up. It’s a term derived from the word ‘aggressive’… something that came over from games.”
Small aggro that accumulates during a monster hunt, and big aggro that builds after the hunt. Aggro was said to be divided into those two categories.
Small aggro affected things within the hunt itself, while big aggro was the kind that provoked monsters from outside the hunt.
Depending on the situation, people often lumped both together and simply called it aggro, but the real problem wasn’t small aggro. It was big aggro.
“Small aggro disappears once the hunt ends, but big aggro piles up on the person. The system doesn’t even show you how much you have.”
What was certain, however, was that the more it accumulated, the more aggressively monsters would attack. Kang Han-sung spoke with a firmness that matched his name.
“If there are both ordinary people and awakened individuals present, monsters will obviously attack the awakened first. And if there are only awakened, they’ll go after the one with the higher aggro value.”
Of course, there were occasional exceptions. Like when someone carried an object or scent that triggered a specific hostility.
But if you weren’t truly prepared to fight, if you were thinking of it lightly as just getting a bit stronger or earning some pocket money, then awakening wasn’t something to speak of so casually.
“If it weren’t for that, I’d awaken all of you—hell, even Mom and Dad.”
“Umm. Sorry, oppa. I guess I was thinking too loosely about it.”
At Kang Han-sung’s serious explanation, Kang Yu-ri quietly backed down. It didn’t seem like she had given the matter very deep thought.
“If you don’t have anything specific in mind, just take it easy for a while and look around slowly. Honestly, there aren’t that many worthwhile things to do in the world right now anyway. The city’s conditions aren’t great either.”
“…If you really can’t think of anything, how about volunteering at the welfare center where In-hye works? It’s okay if you don’t earn money, right?”
Kang Tae-sung looked at his younger sister, whose face had brightened a little, and smiled back at her as he nodded.
“Doesn’t matter. We’ve got three Level 2 awakened in the family.”
He was playfully borrowing the line Kang Han-sung had used earlier. After having a proper conversation with his family for the first time in a while, he finally felt like he had truly come home.
When Kang Tae-sung glanced to the side, Kang Yeon-sung was puffing out his chest with a rather pleased expression, while Kang Han-sung narrowed his eyes mischievously and looked at Kang Yu-ri.
“So you’re just gonna loaf around?”
“……I heard they’re hiring at that leather factory or whatever it’s called.”
“Hey. Don’t even think about it. They use harsh chemicals there. You’ll ruin your skin. Just loafing around is better.”
When Kang Han-sung waved his hands as if to say ‘I was joking, why are you taking it so seriously?’, Kang Yu-ri also laughed and clasped her hands together in a playful apology.
“Sorry, oppa. Oh, and Yeon-sung too. …I’ll think about it slowly. For now, I’ll just relax and enjoy myself. Hehe.”
“Hehe? Hehe? Everything’s fine, but hehe? Since when do you say hehe?”
“Is it so bad if you just look at your sister cutely for once?”
Watching his siblings growl at each other like a dog and cat, Kang Tae-sung let out a small chuckle. Their father, who had been observing him, quietly spoke up.
“Tae-sung… what do you plan to do?”
“Are you going to go out hunting or whatever it’s called?”
Their mother, watching with a worried face, chimed in with the question.
“I hear a lot of people are doing it these days. They say the city, even the whole country, can be revived through it.”
The city’s population had grown compared to the past.
Or to be precise, it hadn’t exactly grown—it had simply become more certain.
Back when the original headquarters controlled this area, there had been roughly 100,000 people living outside the city who had never joined it.
Those external populations, who had gathered in their own ways across various places for all sorts of reasons—personal philosophies, values, and more—were now slowly trickling back into the city.
Of course, the reason they were returning was the news that City Hall had been normalized, and City Hall wasn’t turning them away.
Naturally, a larger population meant relief supplies would run critically short, yet strangely enough, the daily free meal services and other welfare events held throughout the city had not been discontinued.
They must have inventories.
Kang Tae-sung recalled the hunters of Level 3 and above he had seen at City Hall. Among the bodyguards for government officials and separately operating staff, he had spotted several radiating yellow energy.
Considering these were people who could easily earn money on their own yet were handling minor tasks in a provincial city office, it was highly likely the government had raised their levels with points and then bound them with contracts.
Of course, levels raised with points were still levels, so they weren’t looked down upon.
However, since Level 3 allowed one to purchase an inventory from the point shop, it was also possible they had used those hunters’ inventories—separate from transport helicopters—to bring in relief supplies.
Come to think of it, the fact that the government had enough supplies to send down to the provinces in such a manner was even more surprising.
“For now, I plan to hunt moderately for a while and also keep an eye on how the city’s reconstruction plans are progressing.”
At the eldest son’s statement that he wasn’t ruling out the possibility of leaving the city together with the whole family if necessary, their father gave a small nod.
“I believe that if the entire family unites with one heart, there is no crisis we cannot overcome. …I’m sorry that all this powerless father can offer are such words.”
“Not at all.”
Kang Tae-sung answered calmly. To him, the fact that his entire family was alive and relatively healthy was already a blessing. Having a home to return to was the same.
But if he had to choose between home and family, it would of course be family. So if this place became dangerous, he would leave without hesitation together with them.
If it’s Seoul, there’s almost no chance of it collapsing, so we should head there.
Yet the thought he had held since first returning home—that this city would eventually fall—had been gradually diminishing with each passing day.
The vast amount of information he had gained after the internet reopened showed that the world had not collapsed as badly as he had imagined.
Of course the map had changed, and the vegetation had changed… but among cities of a certain scale, some now had even larger populations than before.
It was the result of surrounding populations concentrating and clustering in safer locations.
It was said that roughly twenty major cities and over a hundred smaller cities existed in Korea. Some had kept their old names, while others had been renamed.
And this place, Cheongmyeong City, was one of the cities that had received a new name.
The family talked late into the night, losing track of time. They shared stories from the past five years in ways that weren’t too dark, and Kang Han-sung’s tales from the various sites he had been dispatched to were the most numerous.
“It’s gotten late. We can continue the stories another time, so let’s get some sleep.”
“I’ll look for blankets soon.”
“Having beds at all is something. Don’t push yourself too hard.”
Since they had only just moved in and had almost no furniture yet, the beds installed in each room remained exactly as they were.
Their mother waved her hands at Kang Tae-sung, who had spoken with a slightly apologetic look, and went to sleep in a proper room with a proper bed for the first time in a very long while.
After watching his family head into their respective rooms, Kang Tae-sung quietly stepped outside the front door. The night air was chilly, but it helped clear his slightly heated mind.
“Why are you out here?”
A voice came from behind him. Knowing it was Kang Han-sung, he didn’t turn around.
With his laces still untied, he simply slipped his feet into his boots, closed the front door, and sat down on the bench beside his older brother.
“Hey, bro. Can I say something real quick?”
“Go ahead.”
With an expressionless face, Kang Tae-sung’s gaze was fixed on the moon and stars floating in the sky. The moon, which had grown slightly larger compared to the old days, was said to still be orbiting without any major issues.
“When I keep watching you… you look like someone carrying a deep grudge. I’m talking about you, hyung.”
“…….”
“How should I put it? It feels like there’s this pressure on you, like you have to make up for everything you couldn’t do before.”
At his younger brother’s words, Kang Tae-sung didn’t say much, but his expression had changed slightly.
“It’s only been five years. It honestly wasn’t that hard. Just a bit inconvenient.”
It wasn’t your fault, hyung.
Kang Han-sung added those words silently and remained quiet for a moment. But perhaps finding his older brother’s continued silence uncomfortable, he spoke again.
“Think about what you want, hyung. Family is important, of course… but don’t let it bind you. No one is forcing you to sacrifice yourself.”
“What I want….”
Only then did Kang Tae-sung murmur.
What he had wanted. The single wish that had allowed him to endure in that place. It was family.
Returning to his family, doing all the things he hadn’t been able to do before. Sitting together with his family, eating warm meals, sharing stories, and sometimes bickering over trivial things.
“In that place… I disappeared.”
“……?”
“Me. At some point, the person called ‘me’ was no longer there.”
“Hyung.”
Kang Han-sung turned to look at him with a slightly hardened face. When he saw his older brother still gazing at the sky, he looked up at the same place.
“When you kill something, you start to resemble it. If you keep killing and killing… at some point you realize you’ve become that thing.”
It had been around that time.
The first time he had deserted the battlefield.
The period when he had not lived as a human for a long while.
But somehow he had pulled himself together and returned.
He had desperately gathered his scattering mind and clenched it tight.
“I held on to just one thing.”
Kang Han-sung felt like he already knew what that one thing was, even without his brother saying it.
“Family.”
Even after losing himself, the one thing that had allowed him to regain his senses was that single vague anchor—the word ‘family’ and the faces that rose in his mind when he spoke it.
But Kang Han-sung, who had been looking at the same sky, shook his head and said,
“To be honest, you look like you’re in overload right now, hyung. I think you need to rest.”
“It’s not that.”
“Maybe it isn’t, but that’s how it looks from the outside.”
“…….”
“It’s not exactly a peaceful world where you can relax, but you can still live a little lighter. Enjoy yourself. Meet some women, that kind of thing.”
“Women?”
“It’s a good world for men. Marriage has almost disappeared. In a way, it’s paradise for guys.”
These days, almost no one got married.
Only families with power used the institution of marriage for political alliances. Otherwise, it was just meeting and parting, or women clinging to capable men in dependent relationships.
It was like females wagging their tails to share in the food of a superior hunting male.
Moreover, because the number of young men had greatly decreased during the last war, such scenes had become even more common.
“Women, huh.”
As a man, there were times when lust boiled up. Especially on the battlefield, that urge grew even stronger.
Usually it was resolved with prostitutes, and sometimes by sleeping with female mercenaries.
But right now, he didn’t feel much interest.
Or rather, he had no motivation.
“…….”
He had returned for the sake of his family, yet his younger brother was saying that very thing might be slightly wrong.
And Kang Tae-sung himself knew it. That family had merely been an excuse to endure.
At some point, that excuse had been overlaid onto his very identity and could no longer be peeled away. Kang Tae-sung wore a slightly dazed expression.
Now that he had finally returned to his family’s side, he was being told to live his own life. To enjoy it.
Thank you.
See you next time…