Without Sight, Even a Single Step Is Terrifying
If Hahyang-i wasn’t there to guide me, even taking a single step was terrifying when I couldn’t see what lay ahead. Following the braille blocks with my cane, an illegally parked shared scooter would inevitably catch my foot. Without an audio signal at the crosswalk, I would shout “Is anyone there?” and remain frozen for what felt like ages, unable to cross. The courage to thrust my body between speeding cars was not something that formed overnight.
The one who had guided me through all of that was Hahyang-i. Her soft fur and warm body heat. The solid, unshakable trust I felt when I gripped the end of her leash. I had only ever received help within the darkness.
‘And now that I can finally see Hahyang-i properly…’
Someone had entered that very body. Naturally, my reaction was not going to be positive.
Click.
I raised the revolver and leveled the muzzle.
“Who are you?”
It was cold. The metallic chill traveled from my fingertips straight into my bones. The pounding of my heart filled every inch of me.
Good! Good! Crave me even more!
Power surged violently, and I could feel Asadia’s delight radiating through me.
‘Ugh.’
My mind was already drifting. I had used too many abilities at once. Perhaps the strain of drawing so many cards. My eyes stung as if pricked by needles, and a migraine hammered my skull like someone was driving nails into it.
Still, I endured it all. I had to confirm the bastard’s true nature.
I am Achilles, the immortal hero blessed by the River Styx.
The voice sank directly into the depths of my consciousness, as if speaking straight into my mind.
‘Damn it, I can’t see anything.’
I needed to check the information, to open the status window, but nothing was visible. The letters that usually floated before my eyes grew increasingly blurry; some had already vanished. The only fragments I could barely make out through the thick fog were a few scraps of data. The shattered pieces were so broken I couldn’t read them to the end.
“Get out of Hahyang-i’s body, you damn bastard!”
“Why?!”
For a moment my breath caught in my throat.
“What… did you say?”
I didn’t want to believe him. No, I desperately prayed it was a lie. But I could neither believe nor verify it. If only the status window were clear, everything would be simple and obvious.
‘My eyes hurt too much to check properly.’
My fingertips trembled. I had the gun aimed, yet could I really pull the trigger? The finger resting on it would probably never squeeze, no matter what happened.
“……”
Guide dogs for the visually impaired usually retired after seven to ten years. Their joints weakened, their stamina failed, and they could no longer support their handlers. Hahyang-i was twelve. That was advanced age for a guide dog. It was natural for her to return to a normal household after retirement. After all, she had devoted her entire life to staying by my side.
“…So you’re saying the World Boss saved Hahyang-i?”
Was that the truth? Or was that catastrophic monster toying with a human in some new way? Who could say the World Boss that had just slaughtered countless hunters wouldn’t stoop to cheap tricks?
‘I can’t see.’
My eyes burned. It wasn’t the sensation of seeing—it felt as if my eyeballs themselves were on fire. Eyes that should have been able to discern the answer refused to obey. My lifelong limitations clung to my ankles and would not let go. The familiar sight I had known all my life returned.
Darkness. The darkness came rushing in. Within it, only a few shattered fragments of text, like broken glass, flickered and faded in my vision.
Status: The cerebral cortex (occipital lobe) and neural circuits linked to visual information have depleted their neurotransmitters. Peripheral nerve response has slowed. Autonomic nervous system imbalance is causing full-body fatigue.
Cause: Nervous system overload from abnormal sensory usage.
Result: Applying status effect ‘Fainting’ to block sensory input.
Duration: Approximately 24 hours.
“…Ugh.”
My consciousness drifted away. The burning heat in my head cooled in an instant. Every sense cut off as if a thread had been severed.
“Damn it. What the hell is…”
I tried to mutter, but the words wouldn’t form. My head felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. In the end, I could no longer support my body and collapsed on the spot.
Clatter.
The revolver I dropped rang against the ground, echoing through the darkness.
Even the cold rationality of a battlefield blade and the warrior’s icy resolve that never wavered before death seemed to soften in this moment.
Achilles looked down at the girl. So young. So small. Her body was as slender as a dry twig, her hands and feet tiny. A mere handful of life made of bone and flesh. She looked so fragile she might snap with a single breath.
Tap.
He took one step closer. Within Hahyang-i’s large, round eyes, the hero’s gaze settled calmly.
‘Such a little thing…’
He couldn’t continue for a moment. All he could do was recall her deeds, which stood in such contrast to her delicate appearance.
‘She pierced through the ash-gray emotions and killed me.’
Reckless destruction, hatred, and pain. The emotions that had coiled around him, strangling him, refusing to stop. Amid the blood and weeping, the burning ashes, Achilles had been alive yet already dead. Lost in the darkness, his very essence distorted, he had wandered like a beast.
Yet this small, fragile girl had freed his soul.
The unconscious girl looked infinitely peaceful. Gazing at her, Achilles suddenly recalled his own mentor, Chiron.
‘Is this how Master felt when he first saw me?’
A small, delicate body. Yet within it hid boundless potential. Especially those eyes.
The eyes this girl possessed were more alien and profound than any divine power Achilles had ever witnessed. Omniscience was an absolute realm even the gods had never reached. Not even the heavenly gods could see through everything. Had this child’s power touched that domain? He could not yet judge.
But one thing was certain.
He murmured as if to himself. Within the hero’s voice lingered faint expectation and curiosity.
Achilles made up his mind. He would become the mentor to this small, fragile child. With a warrior’s touch and the footsteps of legend, he would set her upon the world.
Yet in less than a second, a competitor appeared.
“I rushed over as soon as I heard a World Boss had appeared…”
A design of crossed sword and shield. The overall pattern formed a circular structure. Seven small stars surrounding it glowed softly, symbolizing the mission that hunters would become stars for all and serve as guides for humanity. Below the emblem was engraved the motto of the Korean Hunter Academy.
In places without light, we become the light.
A professor at the Korean Hunter Academy and one of the few publicly acknowledged S-class hunters in the country. The Flame of Roaring Energy, Park Hangyeol.
“……”
He stopped speaking and examined the scene before him. He had seen it on the way here. The message that had likely appeared before every awakened individual across the globe.
KR/World Boss: The Immortal Knight has been subjugated.
Conqueror List
Grim Reaper
Normally the World Boss subjugation list should have been flooded with titles from countless hunters around the world. Yet there was only one name.
“Grim Reaper. That’s quite the profound title. Appeared suddenly, subjugated it alone, then vanished without a trace, did he?”
Like some kind of Hong Gildong. Park Hangyeol looked around. The devastated city streets. Buildings reduced to rubble and the scattered stench of blood. The intense traces of battle remained perfectly intact. A tragedy befitting the name World Boss. Yet the only survivors of this massacre were, unbelievably, one young girl and a single dog.
“A dog in a place like this? And dressed, too… so it’s a guide dog for the visually impaired.”
But something felt off. Questions chained together in his mind.
‘Visually impaired? No, that can’t be.’
This was a battlefield where even A-class hunters had been brutally slaughtered. A horrific site born from the fusion of massive magical and physical shocks. How could a visually impaired person survive here? And a young girl without a single trace of combat on her at that?
‘I’d like to track down this Grim Reaper, but…’
If an existence of that caliber had begun hiding themselves, revealing their identity would be nearly impossible. For now, he had to save the person. That was a hunter’s duty.
“Hey, are you all right?”
The girl did not respond. No, she could not respond. She was not covered in blood, nor did she show any life-threatening external wounds, yet she was unconscious.
‘Did she faint?’
However, he could sense the faint trace of an awakened one from her body. The subtle scent of mana flowing from her fingertips to the crown of her head was something that could never come from an ordinary human.
‘She’s definitely an awakened one. But with power this faint, she must have only just awakened. How on earth did she survive a place like this?’
Park Hangyeol brought his fingertips close to the girl’s forehead. He tried to send a light stream of mana to check her condition. At that moment, the retriever growled lowly as if to block his hand.
“It’s all right. I’m not trying to hurt your master.”
Park Hangyeol soothed the dog in a low voice. In that instant, the white retriever’s eyes glowed strangely. Deep. Something dwelled within them. Was this dog some kind of spirit beast?
‘What is this? This dog is strange too. It doesn’t seem to have any physical abnormalities, though.’
Full of questions, but there was nothing else he could do. The only one left was this girl. Park Hangyeol carefully lifted her in his arms. Sleeping on the cold ground would leave her neck sore. He intended to take her to the academy. It had the latest medical facilities, and it happened to be the start of the new semester.
“Since she’s an awakened one, she’ll have to enroll anyway. Just in case, this girl might know something about the one called Grim Reaper who appeared here.”
And if she had survived a World Boss, she might have obtained some special skill.
‘Surviving the site where a World Boss emerged means she’s no ordinary kid.’
Collecting talent was a professor’s duty. Of course, Park Hangyeol could not even dream that this twelve-year-old girl was the one who had subjugated the World Boss.