A gruff voice from the corner startled Jin-Woo, and he turned his head.
"Sorry if we startled you." "We couldn't afford to wait any longer."
Two men in black suits walked over to his bed. Jin-Woo tilted his head and asked:
"Who... are you?"
The faces were completely unfamiliar. The one with a short, military-style haircut handed over a business card.
"We handle this sort of thing."
Jin-Woo took the card.
"U Jin-Cheol, Head of the Surveillance Division, Hunter's Association?"
The Surveillance Division was the only department in the Hunter's Association that employed a large number of powerful hunters. As the agency responsible for overseeing hunters, it naturally had no shortage of high-level operatives.
"Why would the Surveillance Division want to see me?"
U Jin-Cheol pulled a chair over and sat down. The man who appeared to be his subordinate stood behind him. Two large men pressed that close created an overwhelming sense of pressure. The story they relayed was astonishing.
"So I was out for three days?" "Do you remember anything before losing consciousness?" "Yes." "Please tell us everything you recall."
Jin-Woo recounted everything truthfully, leaving out only the last incomprehensible voice message he had heard before passing out.
"And then I lost consciousness... is that it?" "Yes. When I opened my eyes, I was here."
U Jin-Cheol and his subordinate exchanged a glance. Since Jin-Woo himself knew nothing, the situation was problematic. In truth, nobody wanted to understand what had happened more than he did.
"How did I end up here? Did some big guild take them out?" "Well, actually..."
U Jin-Cheol, looking uncomfortable, finally managed to speak.
"When we from the Surveillance Division arrived at the scene together with the 'Baekho' guild following reports from the survivors, it was already..."
The Baekho guild was one of the top five mega-guilds in South Korea. The fact that the Association had brought in Baekho meant they recognized the severity of the danger. What on earth had happened there? Jin-Woo swallowed hard.
"Already...?" "Everything was gone. In that room, the only thing lying there was Hunter Sung Jin-Woo, unconscious. There were no bodies, no traces of statues or stone figures — nothing could be found." "What?"
Jin-Woo's face showed disbelief.
"We can't believe it either. If there had been even the slightest inconsistency in the survivors' testimonies, or if any body parts of the victims had remained at the scene, we would have suspected other possibilities."
U Jin-Cheol scratched his chin. With an A-rank designation and six years in the Surveillance Division, he prided himself on having seen it all. Yet this was a first. He had consulted other guilds and foreign organizations, but nothing came of it. So:
"It's our hypothesis, but..."
U Jin-Cheol spoke cautiously.
"Something powerful was definitely there. And that something was dealt with by someone — or by someone alone. Because no extra-dimensional being had exited through that Gate before it closed."
All possibilities had to be considered. Even the most minuscule probability had to be weighed. The Association deliberated and deliberated, and one hypothesis emerged. U Jin-Cheol glanced at Jin-Woo and continued:
"We suspect... that Hunter Sung Jin-Woo experienced an Awakening after Awakening."
Post-Awakening! Jin-Woo's eyes went wide. Extremely rare, but it does happen that an awakened Hunter awakens again. This process, also called "re-Awakening," typically elevates a Hunter to an entirely different tier of strength. A Hunter's rank, once set, practically never changes — all stats are locked in at the moment of Awakening. But re-Awakened Hunters are different. They can surpass their limits: a C-rank jumping to A-rank, a B-rank ascending to S-rank. U Jin-Cheol swallowed.
'If Sung Jin-Woo underwent re-Awakening and became an S-rank — or even higher — then single-handedly eliminating the monsters that were there is entirely possible.'
After all, they said the giant statue could melt C-rank Hunters with just its gaze. If someone could kill such a creature while unconscious — what kind of power did they possess? As a precaution, the entire matter was classified top secret, and every person involved was sworn to absolute silence. That was precisely why Jin-Woo had been given a private hospital room and the best medical team. U Jin-Cheol's heart hammered.
'Perhaps South Korea will finally have a Hunter at the level of national power...'
In the entire world, those called "national power-level" Hunters could be counted on fewer than ten fingers. Each one possessed strength surpassing a nuclear arsenal. If Korea could claim even one of them! Fortunately, verifying the re-Awakening was not difficult. Strike while the iron is hot. U Jin-Cheol ordered his subordinate:
"Bring it out."
The subordinate fished something out of a bag in the corner.
"That's..."
Before Jin-Woo could ask, U Jin-Cheol explained:
"A mana meter."
He added that although this meter was compact in size, its performance was in no way inferior to the full-scale mana meter used by the Association.
"You just need to place your hand on this mana crystal for a moment."
Set into the center of the disk was a fist-sized mana crystal. A pitch-black crystal that seemed to suck you in like a black hole — the highest-grade mana crystal, obtainable only from A-rank or higher monsters, worth over a billion won apiece. While Jin-Woo stared silently at the crystal, U Jin-Cheol continued with a grave expression:
"This is a necessary procedure for the investigation. Will you cooperate?"
Jin-Woo nodded. If this was truly the re-Awakening he had dreamed of, his life would change 180 degrees. Why would he refuse a free check? Jin-Woo placed his hand on the crystal, and soon a soft glow began to emanate from it. Beads of cold sweat appeared on the foreheads of U Jin-Cheol and his subordinate. Shhhhhh — the light surrounding the crystal vanished. U Jin-Cheol hastily removed his sunglasses and checked the reading. His pupils went into shock.
"Impossible!"
He looked at the numbers again. Nothing had changed.
'How...'
How could a person holding a Hunter's license have a mana level of just 10? Considering that the average for the lowest rank, E-rank Hunters, was between 70 and 100, Sung Jin-Woo was virtually indistinguishable from a civilian.
"Re-Awakening? If it is re-Awakening, what rank would it be?"
Jin-Woo clenched his hands in sweat. Judging by the reaction of the two Surveillance Division officers, the result was far from normal. U Jin-Cheol compared Jin-Woo's previous data with the current reading and nodded.
'First reading was 12. Four years later — 10. It decreased by 2, but that's within the margin of error.'
There was nothing wrong with the mana meter. Sung Jin-Woo's mana was simply, incomprehensibly low. Surviving until now had been a miracle. Deciding that further questions were a waste of time, U Jin-Cheol stood up.
"Let's go." "Yes."
U Jin-Cheol and his subordinate quickly packed up.
"Um, could you at least tell me what—"
When Jin-Woo asked, U Jin-Cheol bowed his head.
"Thank you for your cooperation. If you remember anything else, please contact us."
The two men, as if they had somewhere urgent to be, grabbed their things and left the room. The once-crowded hospital room quickly emptied.
"..."
Jin-Woo scratched the back of his neck.
'So it was all for nothing after all.'
Come to think of it, aside from feeling refreshed, nothing had actually changed. And even if he had re-Awakened, fighting all of those monsters alone would still have been impossible.
'Would the Hunter known as the Ultimate Weapon, or the Hunter known as the S-rank above S-ranks, Ko Gun-Hee — would even they stand a chance?'
He had never actually seen either of them fight, so it was a pointless assumption. Information on S-rank Hunters was largely shrouded in mystery. Truly beings beyond the clouds. As he thought this and raised his head, suddenly —
'Huh?'
Glancing upward, he saw text floating in midair.
[You have an unread message.]
***
'...?'
He closed his eyes and opened them again.
[You have an unread message.]
The text hadn't changed by a single character. He shook his head hard, rubbed his eyes — nothing changed. Jin-Woo clutched his throbbing forehead with one hand and let his head drop.
'Not long ago I was hearing voices, and now I'm seeing things...'
Was something really wrong with his head? There was a condition called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder — PTSD. It described the abnormal symptoms displayed by people who had experienced severe accidents or horrific ordeals. He had recently lost most of his comrades and had nearly died himself, so hallucinations and visions as a result would not be unusual.
'But...'
Brushing it off that easily felt off — there were things that didn't quite add up. Jin-Woo's gaze drifted down to his leg. The leg that had been severed by the statue's shield was now fully intact. The double dungeon with the underground temple, the sudden voice, his completely healed leg, and now this message before his eyes — far too much had happened at once.
'Maybe...'
These events were not separate incidents but might all be connected in some way. With that thought, the fog in his head cleared slightly.
'Fine.'
Jin-Woo raised his head. Once the anxiety settled and he felt calmer, curiosity about the message's content crept in — it might hold clues to solving many of his questions. He reached toward the text to check the message. His hand passed right through the letters.
'It's not touchscreen?'
He had apparently grown too used to smartphones. No other method occurred to him. He was pondering how to open the message when a memory from before he lost consciousness surfaced.
'Right.'
Back then, all communication with the unnamed voice had been through conversation.
'Maybe if I think the words in my head, or speak them out loud?'
Having reached that conclusion, Jin-Woo began trying out various plausible commands in sequence.
"Check." "Message." "Open message." "Message check." "View." "I want to view." "Show me." "Show me!"
That was when:
"...What exactly are you so desperate to see?"
Feeling a piercing stare, he turned his head — and through the half-open door of the hospital room, he saw his school-uniformed younger sister peering in.
"Um..."
Jin-Woo was speechless. A brother lying on his back, gazing at the ceiling, begging someone to show him something in midair. There was absolutely no way to explain this away.