The World Is Not Equal
In an ordinary, worn-out, and cramped one-room apartment.
Han Yujin lay on his bed, idly fiddling with his smartphone, when he habitually opened his messenger app and saw the section labeled ‘Friends with birthdays today.’
A familiar name appeared.
His middle school classmate, his first love, and the girl he had carried a one-sided crush for. She had always been stunningly beautiful and wildly popular. He remembered mustering up the courage on graduation day to ask her to see a movie with him, only to be gently turned down.
“······.”
It had already been nearly ten years since then. They had never spoken once in all that time, but she apparently never changed her number, because her profile still showed up as a friend in his messenger.
A wave of nostalgia for the past made his fingers move on their own. As Han Yujin scrolled through her profile pictures, his eyes gradually widened.
Every photo showed a life that far surpassed anything he could have imagined.
It started with a picture taken in a luxurious art gallery, followed by shots in front of a sprawling foreign mansion with its own swimming pool. There were photos from her parents’ birthday party at Korea’s only six-star hotel, several taken at a golf course he would never set foot on in his lifetime, and even in the seemingly casual shots, expensive designer brands were everywhere.
‘She wasn’t this rich before… was she?’
Just as that thought crossed his mind, one particular photo caught his eye. It was a picture of her with a man, and unfortunately, it was a face he recognized.
Another middle school classmate who had been quite close to him back then. Around the time they entered high school, the guy had suddenly awakened an ability and transferred to a specialized hunter academy. Naturally, they had drifted apart.
There was an enormous gap between an ordinary civilian and a hunter who had awakened supernatural powers. The difference in income, reputation, and everything else was so vast it was hard to even quantify.
‘So they’re dating.’
The moment he reached that conclusion, an emotion so strange and uncomfortable surged through him that it startled even himself.
Han Yujin turned off his phone screen and closed his eyes tightly. He lay there motionless for a long time, doing nothing at all. He was too busy trying to identify exactly what he was feeling.
It was probably jealousy. Mixed with self-pity. Maybe even a sense of unfairness toward some vague, indefinable thing.
In truth, high school had been the most miserable period of his life. That was when his once-stable family had completely fallen apart.
It was the kind of tragic but all-too-common family story.
His father had been scammed, collapsing the household finances. His mother, overwhelmed by stress, divorced and ran away. Left behind, he had been taken in by relatives where he endured constant side-eye and scraps of food. Unable to bear it, he started working part-time jobs, barely managing to become independent.
As a natural consequence, his once-excellent grades dropped to average, and he couldn’t get into a good university. Still believing he needed a degree to get a job, he took out student loans and struggled through college. Yet in today’s social climate, a college diploma felt almost meaningless.
On the other hand.
That middle school classmate who had once been in a similar situation and played with him as an equal…
Thanks to the incredible stroke of luck called ability awakening, it seemed a golden path had opened in his life. Dating the girl who had been Han Yujin’s first love—and the first love or crush of countless other classmates—was probably just a small fragment of that golden road.
Of course, the guy must have his own pains and hardships, shedding tears from time to time…
‘When you cry in your luxury car, I’ll be crying on my bicycle.’
And no matter how hard he pedaled, he would never catch up to the speed of someone lightly pressing the accelerator. Just being able to watch their taillights disappear would already be considered lucky.
Life was inherently unfair.
He thought he understood that fact well, but there were moments like this—sudden, like being stabbed by a hidden blade—when the truth hit him anew. And each time, it was inevitable that his strength would drain away.
‘I definitely wasn’t a worse person than you.’
At least not back in middle school when they hung out together.
‘If only I could awaken too…’
It had been his dream since childhood, and rather than fading with age, the desire had only grown stronger.
But now that wish was little more than a fantasy.
Statistically, the probability of someone awakening was on the level of winning the lottery, and as one approached thirty, even that slim chance dropped sharply.
He was already twenty-five. People who awakened at this age were extremely rare. Most awakenings happened in the mid-teens. Just like his middle school classmate.
If he were to awaken, what kind of ability would be good?
Lying there limply and indulging in such delusions, Han Yujin felt exhaustion creeping in from the stress. He prepared for bed right away. In his current emotional state, he had zero desire to touch his overdue assignments.
After a good night’s sleep, his mood would probably improve a little.
Nothing would change, but he could somehow keep going, searching for small bits of happiness along the way.
If you didn’t know how to accept and resign yourself to the unfairness of reality, you couldn’t call yourself an adult. Wasn’t life all about never being able to reach certain things no matter how desperately you longed for them?
With those tangled thoughts, he lay down in a proper posture and soon began breathing evenly.
It was the same ordinary sleep as always.
However, what happened alongside that sleep was anything but ordinary.
Han Yujin stood in a pitch-black void at some unknown location. He couldn’t even tell how he was standing, yet strangely, he felt no discomfort at all.
His gaze was drawn, as if by instinct, to the ‘door’ before him.
It was a bizarre door that transformed every time he tried to perceive it. One moment it looked like a medieval Western stone gate, the next it became an ancient Eastern wooden door. Just as he formed an impression, it shifted into a completely alien style made of glass and jewels.
Like a man possessed, Han Yujin reached out and touched it. The endlessly shifting door instantly froze into a single form and began to emit a faint vibration.
Wooooooong…!
Along with the resonant hum, the fixed shape became a modern emergency exit fire door. On its rusted surface, silver letters shimmered into existence, reading something chilling: Post-Apocalyptic Earth.
Still moving as if in a trance, he opened the door and stepped through. After taking a few more steps—
“…Huk!”
He snapped awake as if jolted from a dream and spun around.
He had definitely passed through the door, yet behind him there was only empty space. And beyond that stretched a desolate city that looked abandoned for decades, completely devoid of any human presence.
“······.”
For a long while, he stood there speechless. Simply maintaining his composure in the face of this sudden, surreal situation was already overwhelming.
‘Is this a dream?’
To test his first thought, he pinched the back of his hand. A vivid burst of pain followed. The sense of reality touching his skin was far too clear to be mistaken.
Suppressing his gradually trembling body, he looked around.
No matter where he looked, it was a city abandoned for at least several decades. Abandoned cars littered the streets, buildings were cracked or collapsed everywhere. Every window was shattered, and every piece of metal was covered in rust.
Strangely, not even a single weed could be seen, as if every living thing had gone extinct.
A chill ran down his spine from the blowing wind. Han Yujin suddenly realized he was wearing the tracksuit he usually wore around the house. He had definitely gone to sleep in different clothes and had no memory of changing.
‘Did I black out?’
The only memories that came to mind were falling asleep in his one-room apartment and the pitch-black space with that strange door.
‘Wait a second…’
The moment he recalled that he had arrived here by passing through that door, his body trembled again. This time it was a slightly different kind of shiver.
‘Did I… awaken?’
If this was an ability, it could explain the current situation. In fact, it was the only hypothesis that made any sense.
But there were quite a few problems with simply rejoicing.
Post-Apocalyptic Earth.
Those were the exact words that had appeared on the door’s surface right before he entered.
If this desolate city really was a post-apocalyptic future Earth, the first priority was figuring out how to return to his original time and space.
Han Yujin circled the spot where the door should have been. But as expected, there was only empty air.
To make matters worse, the sun seemed to be setting. The already gloomy sky grew even darker, and the temperature plummeted so sharply that his breath began to fog.
‘Change of seasons?’
Even for seasonal change, this level of temperature drop was abnormal. He dreaded how much colder it would get once night fully arrived.
At the same time, he wondered what kind of catastrophe had caused this future—or parallel—Earth to end.
‘That’s not something I should be pondering right now.’
First, he needed to find a way to preserve his body heat.
After scanning his surroundings once more, he began moving in earnest, hoping to find clothes inside one of the buildings. After walking quickly for a few minutes—
Suddenly, a ruined jewelry store caught his eye. Strangely, the items inside were almost perfectly preserved, still neatly arranged in the glass display cases as if the world had never ended.
Despite the situation, his steps halted. After a brief hesitation, he told himself it would only take a few minutes and squeezed through the half-shattered glass door.
‘How much is all this worth…?’
Staring at the gold items filling the display cases, Han Yujin had many thoughts. Not just about their price, but why they remained so perfectly intact. Shallow but varied thoughts.
It seemed the apocalypse hadn’t been caused by war or plague. If it had been that kind of catastrophe, these gold pieces wouldn’t still be here.
Then what kind of apocalypse would leave these treasures untouched by human hands, preserved so perfectly?
“······Hmm.”
After thinking a little longer, he examined the display case structure, quickly figured out how to open it, and began grabbing whatever he could reach.
He draped multiple gold necklaces around his neck, slipped several gold bracelets onto his wrists, put gold rings on every one of his ten fingers, and stuffed even more gold into the pockets of his tracksuit. Despite the low temperature, his heart began pounding and he felt a rush of heat.
‘This should be enough for now. Let’s find some clothes and get out.’
Now all he had to do was endure the cold and find a way back. The loot he had gained was already enough to completely change his life. And if he could visit this ruined world again, he could continue exploring and become rich.
The possibility of achieving the ‘financial freedom’ he had only dreamed about was now visible.
Right at that moment.
A small but eerie sound rang out.
His head turned instinctively toward a corner of the jewelry store. In that instant, he witnessed a pitch-black hand silently lunging toward him.
Crunch—!
A horrifying sound of something tearing and breaking echoed. Before the agony could even fully register, his consciousness began to fade. With his one remaining eye, he saw bright red blood and chunks of flesh scattering through the air, along with the black silhouette that had clearly attacked him.
That was the last thing he saw before his vision went dark.
Consciousness terminated.
— You have died.
— Please select your harvest.