NovelForge

# Chapter 1 Six in the morning. Junho was already awake. The moment his eyes opened, the mold stains on the ceiling came into view. They were always there on the damp semi-basement ceiling. For the past ten years. Or rather, if you counted the fourteen years including... Junho pushed that thought away. The early morning brain was dangerous. That was the first thing he'd learned after the regression. He got up, stepping over the pile of clothes spilling out from under the bed. How long it had been since he'd washed them didn't matter. What mattered was when the Hunter's Guild office opened. A thirty-second cold shower. When he faced the mirror, Junho checked his expression. Indifference. Not hope, not despair, but something in between. Good. This kind of expression earned more money. His hands moved automatically as he dressed. Gray hoodie, black training pants, sneakers with velcro straps. They were like a uniform he hadn't changed out of in the past fourteen years. He pulled his smartphone from his pants pocket. The screen already displayed today's list of requests. 'Low-grade monster extermination, reward 80,000 won.' 'Residential area low-level dungeon scan, reward 120,000 won.' 'Abandoned building residual mana removal, reward 60,000 won.' Junho scrolled through the screen. As always, these were jobs for F-rank hunters. Low danger, low reward, high competition. Yet with just these, he could earn about three million won a month. Enough to maintain a semi-basement room on the outskirts of Seoul. The Hunter's Guild office was near Gangnam Station. Junho took the bus. He could have taken a taxi, but taxi fare was money he needed to quietly save. Capital for other possibilities. The bus was already packed with morning commuters. Junho leaned against the window and looked outside. Seoul's morning was always the same. Busy, heavy, nobody looking at anybody. But to Junho, who had lived through both the past fourteen years and this past decade, the scene looked slightly different. That office worker over there will get bitten to death by a monster in three years. He didn't voice that thought and continued looking out the window. Some would endure such things, some wouldn't, and some would find a way to avoid it altogether. Junho wanted to belong to the third group. Or rather, he already did. Already. The Hunter's Guild office lobby was cramped. On one wall hung a request bulletin board, and on the opposite side was a hunter rank status board. In the gray F-rank section, several hunters were already gathered. Junho passed through them, remaining an anonymous presence. This too was a skill. "Lee Junho." The employee behind the counter called him. A woman in her early thirties. Junho remembered her name. Kim Eunyoung. She had been sitting in this position in the past fourteen years as well. But now she didn't treat Junho specially. Good. "What will you do today?" "I'll do all three." Junho pointed to the requests on the screen. Then Kim Eunyoung looked up. "All three in one day?" "It's possible." "An F-rank doing all three in one day... the insurance processing could get a bit complicated. Wouldn't it be better to do them one at a time?" Junho laughed quietly. His laughter should sound like humility, not confidence. "I have the ability. It's fine." "Then... okay. Please sign here." Junho signed on the tablet. It was a signature he'd done hundreds of times already. With this signature, he was legally putting his life on the line. If he died in a dungeon, the Hunter's Guild wasn't responsible. That was what the contract said. "Here's the location of the first request. Cheonho-dong, Gangdong-gu. Low-grade monsters have been spotted in an apartment basement. They probably came from a C-rank or higher dungeon gate. The danger level is low, but..." "Understood." As Junho received the address on his phone, Kim Eunyoung stopped, as if about to say something more. That moment of silence was important. In that silence, she observed Junho once more, and he felt it but pretended not to. "Be careful." "Yes. Thank you." Junho left the Hunter's Guild. The sunlight outside was strangely intense. It was a moment that confirmed again that much of the past fourteen years had been spent inside dungeons. This time would be different, Junho thought. On the subway heading to Gangdong-gu, Junho closed his eyes. But he didn't sleep. He was simply organizing his memories. The apartment complex in Cheonho-dong. The low-grade monsters in the basement. All of it was something he'd already experienced. Or rather, precisely, it was something he would experience the following year. A very small smile appeared at the corner of Junho's mouth. No one saw it. Everyone around him was looking at their phones. In the everyday life of the city, the anonymous F-rank hunter Lee Junho was already one step ahead. And no one yet knew what that meant. Three hours after getting off the subway. Junho was sitting in a café near the Gangdong-gu Office. An Americano was cooling in front of him, and the Hunter's Guild request board was displayed on his phone screen. The request for the Cheonho-dong apartment basement had already been marked as completed. Clearance time: 23 minutes. Compensation: 4.3 million won. Clean. A KakaoTalk notification sounded. It was Park Min-ji. ─ Do you have time right now? Junho looked at the screen. Above the message was a small profile picture. A woman's face in a black suit. Sharp eyes. Even when she had her eyes closed, she was someone whose mind was difficult to read. ─ Yes. I'm available. Ten seconds after sending the reply, a call came through. "Junho. You've only just arrived, but you're already showing results." Park Min-ji's voice was soft, but her tone rose at the end. It was phrased as a question, but intended as confirmation. "I simply completed the request." "You did complete it. Actually, I was curious how quickly you could finish." The sound of keyboard tapping came through the phone. "The Gangdong-gu request was originally something two mid-level hunters would go in for. You finished it alone in 23 minutes." Junho picked up his Americano cup. The coffee had already gone cold. He didn't drink it; he simply picked it up and set it down repeatedly. "I was lucky." "Lucky?" Park Min-ji let out a laugh. It was short and sharp. "Do you believe that?" "What else should I say?" Silence fell. Junho could tell that Park Min-ji was thinking about something on the other end of the line. Her silence wasn't rest. It was calculation. "Junho. This time, I have a different request." She finally spoke. "Not through official channels." Junho's hand stopped. The hand that had been picking up and setting down the cup came to rest on the table. "I'm not interested." "You haven't even heard the details yet?" "It doesn't matter." Park Min-ji laughed again. This time it was a bit longer. It was the kind of laugh one gives when looking at a weaker opponent. "I knew you'd be this kind of person. An honest hunter, I mean. Someone who follows guild regulations and only takes official requests." Mockery dripped from her voice. "But I'm curious about something. A person who lived as an F-rank for ten years suddenly starting to show their abilities. Why is that?" Junho didn't answer. "Is it because you need money? Or are you preparing for something?" Park Min-ji's voice grew stronger. "Ah, wait. Did your old memories come back? Did you recover from brain damage caused by an accident or a dungeon fall?" Silence. "Are you going to keep making a living off F-rank requests? Keep farming low-level dungeons for 4.3 million won? If you're really mid-level, isn't that a waste?" Junho held the phone slightly away from his ear. The noise of the café mixed in. The sound of a coffee machine. People's voices. A spoon clinking against a teacup. All of it came through together. "Tell me the details of the request." "Ah. That's why I like you." Satisfaction rose in Park Min-ji's voice. "You see the practical side." "The details of the request." "Underground in a residential area near Guryongsan in Gangnam. Residents have been hearing strange sounds for the past week. There was no official report. Because no one knows if it's a dungeon or a monster. And..." Park Min-ji paused. "Two hunters who went to investigate haven't come back for 24 hours." Junho's face hardened. Very subtly. Imperceptibly to anyone else. "That should be reported to the Hunter's Guild." "It was reported. But the problem is..." Park Min-ji's voice lowered. "Those two belonged to my guild. And it wasn't an official request. It was an unofficial preliminary investigation." Guryongsan. Junho turned the place name over in his mind. Gangnam. 2035. He knew what had happened there back then. It wasn't a low-level dungeon. "What's the compensation?" "First task is to assess the situation underground at Guryongsan in Gangnam. Second is to confirm whether my two guild members are alive or dead. Third is..." Park Min-ji spoke quietly. "Disposal." "Disposal?" "You'd understand if you're who I think you are. If it's a dungeon, it would be gone. If it's not, then there's something there." Junho looked out the window. The sunlight was still strangely intense. An ordinary street in Gangdong-gu. Apartments, convenience stores, and people. All of this was 2025. "What's the compensation?" "First, 50 million won. An additional 30 million if you confirm their status. And if you complete the disposal..." Park Min-ji took a breath. "100 million." Junho picked up his phone. The Hunter's Guild request board was still displayed on the screen. He couldn't live like this for the next ten years. The next ten years. And everything after that. "Can you give me more information?" Park Min-ji laughed again. This time it was the laugh of a hunter who had won. "Good. I like you. A wise decision." The call ended. Junho brought the cold Americano to his lips. As he drank the tasteless coffee, he recalled the underground of Guryongsan in Gangnam. That place in 2035. And everything that had happened there. A different possibility. For that, he needed money. And he needed power. He couldn't obtain both through the official channels of the guild. The sunlight outside the window was still intense.