The next day. It had been ages since the front page of the sports newspaper—once filled with athletes' and pop stars' news—had been taken over by stories about Hunters, and one morning, an article with a sensational headline made it onto page one.
[Two Hunters, Sung Jin-Woo and Cha Hae-In Spotted at an Amusement Park — The Birth of the Strongest Couple Ever?]
The article featured phone photos of the two of them visiting an amusement park, and a large image of them riding a magic beast off toward somewhere. In principle, the private lives of two Hunters under information protection were not supposed to be published. But the newspaper, salivating at the scoop, decided to eat whatever consequences came their way and ran the story anyway. The reaction was enormous. The scandal of two S-rank Hunters that everyone in the country would recognize by name alone breathed fresh life into people who had been worn down by the nonstop stream of super-giant Gate articles. The strongest male Hunter in the world and the strongest female Hunter in Korea. The public showed explosive interest. In particular, the story spread with even greater intensity online.
-If Sung Jin-Woo and Cha Hae-In get married and have a kid, isn't the story going to be "Sung Jin-Woo Junior beats up all the magic beasts"? └Sung Jin-Woo Junior LMAOOO └They haven't even officially announced they're dating yet, look at you getting all worked up, tsk tsk └By that logic, did Sung Jin-Woo come out great because his parents were top-tier Hunters? He'd probably be some clueless kid who doesn't even know how Hunters awaken their powers. └Still, if they really were dating, wouldn't you be excited? └I hope it's real. One married-couple fight and the whole surrounding area gets annihilated lol
-I live near Seoul, and I was passing by Gangnam when I saw a Gate in the sky and thought the world was ending. But seeing that Hunters are still going on dates and having fun, it makes me feel like there's still hope, and that's comforting. └Agreed └I wish they'd stop running all these Gate special broadcasts for once. └Hunter Sung Jin-Woo, Hunter Cha Hae-In, please, whether it's a super-giant Gate or a super-super-giant Gate, just block it for us!
"Tsk, tsk."
Baek Yoon-Ho, the president of the Baek Guild, clicked his tongue and folded the newspaper. Now that he thought about it, the way Hunter Cha Hae-In had been looking at Hunter Sung Jin-Woo had always seemed a little off — turns out there was a reason. But that wasn't what he was clicking his tongue about.
"This headline is completely nonsense. 'Strongest couple'? What couple?"
The disgruntled-looking president was addressed by Manager An Sang-Min, who happened to be nearby.
"What do you mean, sir? From what I can see, calling them the strongest couple sounds about right." "Any female you put next to Hunter Sung Jin-Woo, it'd still be 'the birth of the strongest couple.' So what value does that have as a headline?"
Hmm? Now that he thought about it, that made sense. An Sang-Min, who had been mentally swapping in female Hunters one by one next to Jin-Woo, nodded at Baek Yoon-Ho's explanation. Even if the young female Hunter was his girlfriend, there was no man or woman who could beat the two of them. The young female Hunter aside, the other half was just too much of a cheat code.
"That really is the case, sir." "See? That's what I'm saying."
An Sang-Min nodded again and took a sip of the coffee he'd just pulled from the vending machine, then turned his gaze toward the window.
"By the way, the fine dust is really bad these days. I'm scared to open the windows anymore."
An Sang-Min frowned and reached to close the window, which was half-open. But Baek Yoon-Ho stopped his hand.
"Hold on." "Huh?"
Baek Yoon-Ho approached An Sang-Min and, instead of closing the window, pushed it further open, then stuck his hand outside.
"This... isn't fine dust."
A cold sensation touched his fingertips. This was fog. A bone-chilling, bitterly cold fog packed with freezing air.
"That's strange."
At this time of year — barely past the middle of autumn — and yet a winter fog was blanketing all of downtown Seoul? A chill slithered down the back of his neck. Eyes sharp as a beast's, Baek Yoon-Ho stared out the window and muttered with a grim expression.
"Something... something doesn't feel right."
* * *
Jin-Woo was the first to wake. Hae-In must have been exhausted from the day before, because she was still deep in sleep. Like this. How long had it been since he'd greeted a morning alongside someone? Jin-Woo carefully slipped out without waking her and walked into the woods.
'It was around here, I'm sure...'
He tidied himself up at the nearby stream he'd used once before, and on his way back to where Hae-In was still sleeping, he spotted something and stopped in his tracks.
'This is...?'
A small tree with a fresh sprout. It looked like an ordinary young sapling you might find anywhere, but its leaves shimmered in silver. It was a tree that had never been discovered on Earth. Sure enough, a faint trace of mana was flowing from it — so subtle that anyone other than Jin-Woo might have missed it entirely.
'It's not from this world.'
Different mana waves from those of magic beasts, so it wasn't a magic beast. As Jin-Woo peered at the tree, he lifted his head and caught sight of silver leaves sprouting all around. It was a stark contrast to the surrounding trees, which were slowly drying out and withering.
'The ground... is changing.'
Was this part of those Rulers' plan? Or was it some kind of aftereffect caused by the magic beasts? Jin-Woo crouched and sniffed the freshly dug soil, rubbing it between his fingers and letting it trickle to the ground. Even the earth carried a faint scent of mana. Perhaps the world had already become entangled with mana, and it was humanity alone that simply hadn't noticed. Just then. From somewhere in the distance, he sensed Hae-In stirring awake. He brushed off his hands, stood up, and headed back. Worrying about a world in transition was important, but right now, there was something far more important — reassuring Hae-In, who would be flustered to find him gone. He made his presence known deliberately as he approached, and when Hae-In spotted him, she let out a small sigh of relief. Jin-Woo smiled and greeted her.
"Sleep well?"
Her face flushed for some reason, and she looked away as she answered.
"...Yeah."
When Jin-Woo gave her a puzzled look, Hae-In lifted her head slightly.
"Where did you go?"
As she asked carefully, Jin-Woo wiped his hair with the towel draped around his neck and replied.
"I went to clean up a bit."
Come to think of it, she probably wanted to wash up too. The sea air left salt clinging to your skin after even a short exposure.
'But I can't exactly have a lady wash up out here...'
As he racked his brain for a solution, a smile spread across his face. That place could take care of bathing and a meal all at once.
"I know a hotel nearby with an amazing breakfast. Want to go?"
She didn't say it, but she was clearly hungry already — Hae-In pressed her lips together and nodded. Jin-Woo extended a hand, helped her to her feet, and summoned Kaisel. Kaisel spread its wings with a piercing cry. Hae-In tilted her head at the sight.
"You said it was nearby." "If I run at full speed, it's about five minutes away... So, want to run together?"
Five minutes at Jin-Woo's speed — Hae-In tried to gauge how far that actually was, then climbed onto Kaisel's back without a word of protest.
'Fast travel is really convenient.'
Jin-Woo grinned and took the front seat. Kaisel beat its wings and launched into the air. In Korea, Kaisel had appeared on television enough times to be somewhat familiar, but he wondered what the Japanese hotel staff's reaction would be when they saw it in person. He especially hoped the chef wouldn't be too startled. With Jin-Woo aboard, Kaisel banked and headed toward the hotel.
* * *
'It' appeared out of nowhere. The first person to encounter it was a middle-aged man who had just left the Hunter's Association building after learning that his measured result was a B-rank awakening. Thud. He bumped shoulders with 'it,' which had materialized right in front of him, and stopped in his tracks.
"Huh?"
The man followed the shadow upward with his eyes. Standing before him was a massive figure, well over two meters tall. The man wore clothes made of what looked like beast hide, and what radiated from him was raw wildness. No — calling it beauty wouldn't do it justice. It was wildness itself. His sheer size drew every eye in sight, and the staring middle-aged man and the giant soon became the center of everyone's attention.
"What's going on, are those two fighting?" "Whoa! That guy's build is insane! Even Ma Dong-Wook would have to back down." "But doesn't that older guy have a death wish? He's gonna get carried off on a stretcher."
The crowded street fell into a sudden, heavy silence. At least, that was how the middle-aged man felt with all eyes on him. On any other day, he would have apologized and stepped aside immediately, but the man he was now and the man he had been before were nothing alike. The old days of groveling to superiors and being brushed off by subordinates were over.
'I am a B-rank awakened Hunter.'
B-rank placed him among the upper echelon of Hunters. There was no reason to bow and scrape to some ordinary thug who relied on nothing but his size. The middle-aged man set down his briefcase neatly, squared his shoulders, and spoke up.
"Hey! If you bump into someone, you should apologize!"
Mana. As his excited heart began to race, he felt his mana coursing intensely through every corner of his body. His cells were speaking. You are alive. You are ready to begin a new life as a Hunter. Whether it was his overwhelming aura or something else, the beast of a man simply stood there, saying nothing. Seeing the giant's reaction, the middle-aged man grew bolder.
"Just standing there staring isn't going to end this. If you did something wrong, admit it and ask for forgiv— Ah, AAAH!"
The beast seized the middle-aged man's head in one massive hand and lifted him clean off the ground, drawing screams from the crowd.
"Ah! Ah, aaaaah!"
Veins bulged thick across the middle-aged man's face as it was crushed in that iron grip. A bear. No — a tiger. A lion, a shark, a crocodile, a venomous snake — could any predator on Earth give a human being this kind of overwhelming, suffocating pressure? The primal fear of apex predators, hardwired into every strand of human DNA, soaked the man's trousers yellow.
"Ah... ahhh..."
And then. Crunch! With the sickening sound of something being crushed, blood and brain matter sprayed in every direction.
"AAAAAAAAAAH!"
But the beast did not stop there. It lowered its body and began ravenously devouring the middle-aged man's crumpled corpse.
"I-it's eating him!" "Wh-aaaah!" "What the hell is that thing? WHAT IS IT?!"
The grotesque meal ended in an instant. The beast wiped the flesh clinging to its mouth with one hand and straightened up. A beast. The eyes of the man held not a shred of reason — they were unmistakably the eyes of a beast. Many had screamed and fled, but just as many had not yet grasped the situation and stood frozen, watching the creature's spectacle. The beast howled at them.
[Hear me, worthless humans! From this moment on, I shall hunt you all!]
Paralyzed by the thunderous roar, people trembled and wept. Sharp fangs, freshly erupted, jutted from the beast's mouth as it roared, displaying their full terrible grandeur.
[My fangs and claws will tear apart the skin and flesh of every last one of your pathetic kind!]
The King of Beasts. The roar of the Fang Monarch, fangs bared, shook the entire street from end to end.
[I dare you — try and stop me!]
* * *
Chairman Woo Jin-Chul received word of the 'abhorrent thing' that had appeared without warning in the heart of the city.
"Casualties?" "At present, it's impossible to determine the number of casualties."
First spotted in Myeongdong, the creature was moving in a straight line, killing every human it laid eyes on.
"Based on its trajectory, the estimated destination is..." "The Hunter's Association."
Woo Jin-Chul bit his lower lip and clenched his fist.
"One Gate crisis after another is already enough to give me a headache, and now some monster shows up from where..."
But. There was no time to seethe. He had to think of some way to stop the creature.
"Is Hunter Sung Jin-Woo reachable?" "We can't get through." "Damn it..."
The curse slipped out involuntarily. He had just received word that a single guild, dispatched to intercept the monster, had been annihilated without landing a single meaningful blow. The only comfort was that the creature's speed was not particularly fast — as though it were waiting for something. But if they didn't stop it, the staggering death toll would keep climbing astronomically with every passing second. And in that context, a report that the nation's strongest asset was unreachable pointed to the worst-case scenario.
'If it comes to that, I'll go myself...'
Just as Woo Jin-Chul steeled his resolve, jaw clenched tight, a piece of welcome news arrived.
"Chairman!"
An employee burst into the chairman's office without permission, and Woo Jin-Chul shot to his feet.
"Is it a message from Hunter Sung Jin-Woo?" "No, sir. But a world-renowned Hunter who happened to be nearby is currently confronting the creature!" "What? Who?" "Well, that is..."
* * *
The foremost Hunter of the German Hunter world. Renat Nirman could feel the creature's killing aura washing toward him, staining the streets in its wake.
'Can I... do this?'
But as a Hunter, there was no way he could turn a deaf ear to the screams of innocent civilians. Renat looked around at the faces of the people who brightened upon recognizing him — the man ranked twelfth on the U.S. Hunter Management Bureau's Hunter Points Ranking — and felt the weight of enormous responsibility settle on his shoulders. No. The question wasn't whether he could — it was that he had to. That was a Hunter's sense of duty.
'Maybe this is why...'
Maybe fate had kept him in Seoul so that he could stand against that monster with his own two hands. With a resolute expression, Renat unbuttoned a few buttons on his chest and took a step toward the monster, whose silhouette was now visible in the distance. Then a deep voice spoke from behind.
"Move aside."