Humanoid
Restoring my official identity proved simpler than expected. The moment the paperwork was settled, I set my sights on Muhaksa Temple, nestled deep in Mount Jiri.
I had hoped to rent a car, but my driver's license had long since lapsed. Left with no choice, I had to rely on public transit. I hailed a cab and set off immediately. It was roughly a two-hour drive from here.
Though a decade had elapsed, the world had not changed all that much. Yet one thing was undeniably different: artificial intelligence. By combining computational logic with the mana pouring from the Gates, humanity had succeeded in creating artificial intelligence capable of thinking like a human being. This new energy called mana had turned the dreamlike concept of humanoids into reality. Magic engineering utilizing magic stones had also advanced in leaps and bounds.
However, mana erosion—spread by the monsters surging from the Gates—had brought grave consequences. The contaminated mana rotted the earth and drifted into the atmosphere, tainting even the falling rain. Crops drenched in that water mutated, their flavor and quality severely degraded. Livestock suffered the exact same fate.
"Here we are, sir. Man, it really is Mount Jiri, isn't it? The air is wonderful. They say the produce from around here still tastes pretty decent."
"Is that so? Here..."
I handed over the fare agreed upon from the start.
"Would you like a cash receipt?"
"No need. I have no use for it. Please, keep the change."
"All right, thank you!"
The taxi quickly vanished from sight. Muhaksa Temple was situated deep in the mountains, which meant hiking the rest of the way on foot. Taking my time, I strolled up the slope, quietly taking in the surrounding terrain.
Mmm. A place overflowing with pure spiritual energy. Compared to everywhere else, the mana contamination here is noticeably lower. Is it because it's a sacred mountain?
At the foot of the mountain, someone had cultivated a patch of napa cabbage. Seemingly left untended, the heads had sprawled open in their natural, unkempt form. I plucked one of the inner stems and popped it into my mouth. While it had a satisfying crunch, the fresh, crisp sweetness unique to cabbage was entirely missing. Still, it seemed far better than the food I had eaten at the convenience store.
Hup!
I inhaled sharply, drawing out the contaminated mana lingering within the cabbage leaf.
Oho? This is strikingly similar to demonic qi. Not bad at all.
I scattered the absorbed mana into the empty air. It was a murky, low-purity energy. I could have utilized it if I truly wished, but purifying it would consume more internal energy than it was worth. Dissipating it was the wiser choice.
I placed the purified cabbage leaf back into my mouth.
Crunch.
Sure enough, its true flavor blossomed on my tongue. I had faintly sensed mana in the convenience store food, but I hadn't imagined it was the sole reason Earth's culinary standards had fallen so low.
"...Not bad. A hundred years, was it? Living quietly and farming wouldn't be such a terrible way to spend it."
Wealth and glory meant nothing to me. A century was but a fleeting moment in my eyes. Once those hundred years passed, I would have to return to the Demon Realm, as I couldn't maintain an incarnated avatar indefinitely. I resumed my trek up the mountain path.
Then again... did I really have to go back to the Demon Realm? When I thought of that desolate wasteland drowned in blood and foul demonic energy, every lingering desire to return evaporated.
"...Would Gremory feel slighted? Hmm..."
Well, if she felt truly abandoned, she could always follow me here. She was fully capable of manifesting an earthly avatar of her own.
"J-Jinhyuk! It's you!"
The Monk recognized me the instant he heard me. Yet his eyes lacked focus, gazing adrift into the empty air. They were the clouded, hollow eyes of a blind man.
A decade ago, he had been a vigorous Buddhist monk in his early forties. Now, in his early fifties, barely ten years had weathered him beyond recognition.
A lump surged into my throat. I barely managed to swallow down the swell of emotion.
"Thank you. Thank heavens... You came back alive. You really returned to me."
Tears streamed endlessly from his sightless eyes.
"M-Monk... what happened to your eyes...?"
"Ah... it just turned out this way somehow. Come inside first, child."
I wasn't sure where to begin. After a moment's contemplation, I laid everything bare. What reason did I have to hide anything? Whether he believed me or not was beside the point. I quietly recounted the two thousand years of life I had endured.
"...Amitabha... I see. You have returned from an extraordinarily long dream. Our dear Jinhyuk..."
He called it a dream. He didn't mean he considered it a mere delusion; rather, just as human life is likened to an ephemeral dream, so was the vast stretch of time I had weathered. It was his gentle way of telling me that now that I had awakened, I should live in the present world.
"...Indeed. Now that you've woken up, live freely as your heart desires. Here. Take this."
The Monk extended a bankbook toward me. Inside were deposits steadily saved month by month over the past ten years. Some months, a million won; other months, a hundred thousand won. A modest fortune quietly accumulated bit by bit.
It wasn't an immense sum by the world's standards, but to me, it was the greatest fortune on earth. The financial reality of a tiny, secluded mountain temple was painfully obvious. Even so, not knowing whether I was dead or alive, he had scraped and pinched every single coin for my sake.
"Now, let me... let me feel your face."
The Monk's trembling hands reached out, gently feeling the contours of my cheeks.
"You've grown even more handsome. A real man now."
"...I was always handsome, wasn't I?"
"Yes. That you were. Our Jinhyuk was always the finest."
"Monk. May I take your wrist for a moment...?"
"Hm?"
He held out his arm without hesitation. I gently channeled internal energy through his wrist. The origin of my martial arts was the Three Talents Heart Method. It was considered the most unrefined, rudimentary cultivation manual under heaven, notorious for its dismal efficiency. Yet conversely, that simplicity meant it produced the purest, most gentle qi possible. The Heavenly Demon Divine Art I had mastered during my reign as the Heavenly Demon was incomparably more powerful, but the Monk's frail body could never withstand its raw, tyrannical energy.
My internal qi seeped through his meridians, meticulously inspecting every corner of his flesh to discern what had gone wrong. Slowly, I completed a full heavenly circuit.
"...All done."
"How wondrous. My body feels so much lighter. Have you also... undergone that thing they call Awakening? Are you a hunter?"
"Something like that."
"I see. I've heard it is perilous work. But an essential one nonetheless."
I was well aware of what a hunter was. Realistically speaking, it was also the vocation I was best suited for.
...I had intended to spend my days farming peacefully, but it seems I'll have to pay a visit to one of these Gates. Life-nurturing techniques alone cannot restore the Monk's sight. I need spiritual herbs.
From the kitchen came the clattering sounds of someone preparing a meal.
"Monk, I'll be in the kitchen for a moment."
"Go on, then. Though you truly don't need to help."
"I'll be right back."
I walked straight into the kitchen. The residents of the village below took turns preparing meals for the Monk.
"...Auntie. Good to see you. It's Jinhyuk."
"Oh, my goodness! Little Monk?!"
"Ah, no. I returned to secular life. Please speak comfortably."
This kind-faced lady was a devout follower who had frequented the temple since my childhood. Ever since I was a little boy, she had doted on me, affectionately calling me 'little monk.'
"Aigoo, look at my head! Right, of course. Our Jinhyuk returned to the secular world. Ten whole years... it's been so long. You've grown into such a fine young man. If you hadn't spoken up, I wouldn't have recognized you at all."
She tactfully refrained from prying into my long disappearance.
"Thank you. You're cooking lunch, right? May I inspect the ingredients?"
"Hm? Here they are. Sigh... No matter how devotedly we farm... nothing tastes the way it used to. I suspect the Monk lost his sight because the food turned out like this..."
Her intuition was spot on. While healthy individuals might withstand it, someone inherently frail was bound to suffer severe consequences if they consumed mana-contaminated food over an extended period.
I slowly drew in a breath, siphoning the tainted mana suffusing every ingredient in the kitchen. A sudden gust of wind swept through the room.
"Oh my! Where did this breeze come from...?"
Startled, she looked around in bewilderment.
"All done. Please go ahead with the meal."
"Right, right. Go rest with the Monk. It won't take long."
Before long, the table was set.
"Come now, Monk, please eat up! It's the strangest thing... I'll join in as well."
Her face beaming with anticipation, the temple cook sat down to eat. Tilting his head in mild curiosity, the Monk began his meal with a quiet blessing. She carefully picked up a side dish and placed it in her mouth. Her eyes went wide. She chewed again.
I scooped up a heaping spoonful of warm, fragrant rice. The savory broth of radish greens soup. The crisp, piquant kimchi.
Yes. This was the taste.
"W-We found him! Identity confirmed!"
At that sudden shout, the President, the NIS Director, and the Hunter Bureau Commissioner rushed over in shock.
"W-Who is it?!"
"Who is he?!"
"Where?!"
All three blurted out simultaneously.
"His current location is the Mount Jiri region. He initially manifested in Mujin City along the southern coast."
"Mujin City?" The President tilted his head in confusion.
"It is a small municipality with a population under a hundred thousand. Mr. President may not be familiar with it," replied Baek Yucheon, Commissioner of the Hunter Bureau.
The President was not a career politician. Amid rapidly shifting global dynamics, he had unexpectedly captured public attention and ridden that wave all the way to the nation's highest office. Thoroughly sick of the gridlock inherent in two-party politics, the electorate had elected an independent out of sheer frustration—and unburdened by political debts, he had governed remarkably well. By humoring both parties in moderation and strictly adhering to established protocols, the Republic of Korea was functioning far more smoothly than anyone had anticipated.
"Is he truly a hunter beyond the heavens?" the President pressed.
"Undoubtedly. Every hunter ranked A and above felt that spiritual wave. Word is that even the United States detected it. Isn't that right?" Baek Yucheon glanced at the NIS Director.
"Indeed. And that's not all. Not only our allies, but even hostile regimes like North Korea reached out through the emergency hotline."
The President slumped heavily into his chair.
"Haah... I'm no hunter, so I don't grasp the technicalities, but foreign heads of state have been bombarding me with calls. Quite brazenly, at that. They are treating us as though we secretly developed an arsenal of strategic nuclear warheads."
Watching the pale, bloodless faces of the NIS Director and the President, Baek Yucheon felt a faint twinge of vindictive satisfaction. For all their talk of how crucial hunters were, the political elite had always treated them as mere utilitarian tools—an attitude that had long grated on him. Yet the moment a transcendent being appeared, their haughty posture crumbled into panicked deference.
"...However, the spiritual pressure detected upon his initial emergence has subsided drastically. Whether he suppressed it himself or something else occurred, we cannot say. If... if he had materialized—no, descended upon South Korea in his full majesty, it wouldn't have just wiped this country off the map. The entire planet would have ceased to exist."
That was Baek Yucheon's stark assessment. Neither the President nor the NIS Director could fully fathom the incomprehensible magnitude of his words. Baek Yucheon masked a bitter smirk.
Naturally, civilians wouldn't understand. The sheer stature that manifested that day... I have never felt anything comparable, not even before an S-rank Gate Boss. How can a human being wield that magnitude of power? This man is not someone you appease or co-opt. All we can do is prostrate ourselves and pray he doesn't become the enemy of South Korea—no, of all mankind.
He organized his thoughts and drove the point home: under no circumstances should they offend this individual. Even if they couldn't turn him into an ally, they had to ensure he never became a foe. This was not a matter of South Korea's survival, but potentially the survival of the human race.
The President and the NIS Director exchanged stunned looks. They hadn't intended to antagonize Seo Jinhyuk in the first place; their plan had been to grant him top-tier national privileges, offer him state 'protection,' and shower him with goodwill, calculating that such benevolence would naturally inspire him to fight on Korea's behalf.
Yet Baek Yucheon shattered that naive calculation without hesitation.
"Discard any half-baked notions of placating or recruiting him. Furthermore, as this matter falls squarely under hunter jurisdiction, full authority rests with me. Neither of you have objections, I presume?"
"S-Sure. Well... your judgment is paramount here," the President conceded with a nod. The NIS Director did not dispute it either.
"In that case, release it."
"Release what?" The NIS Director blinked, puzzled.
"...The being we are dealing with is not human, no matter how human he may appear. Therefore, assigning a humanoid to assist him will prove far safer than a human. A machine won't harbor treason or stray thoughts."
The NIS Director gasped. Baek was not referring to the discreet humanoid companions developed for the private indulgences of the ultra-wealthy. He was demanding the top-secret unit commissioned as a national strategic asset.
"Hmph. Well, yes, the NIS does maintain one unit... but Commissioner Baek, that thing is obscenely expensive. You know that, don't you?" A pained, reluctant grimace spread across the Director's face.
"I am well aware. Which is precisely why we must deploy it."
From Baek Yucheon's standpoint, the price tag was irrelevant. He knew development costs had run into the trillions of won, and its combat prowess was said to rival that of an A-rank hunter.
"Ah, by the way. You should attend the first meeting, Mr. President. As head of state, shouldn't you be the one to greet him?"
"M-Me?"
Both Baek Yucheon and the NIS Director nodded in solemn agreement.
In the end, the decision was made: the President and a single humanoid unit tasked with assisting Seo Jinhyuk would make the urgent journey south to Mount Jiri.