Text messages, Hunter-exclusive apps—everything was buzzing with notifications.
It was the same for everyone in the team. Even though we had already completed helicopter boarding drills in preparation for this day, a few members let out gasps of awe. Even the veteran, Jang Byeong-gon.
“I never thought I’d be riding a helicopter as a Hunter…”
The helicopter carrying us headed for the destination.
Until that moment, I had been staring blankly out the window, but then I felt a sudden, sharp sensation. It was a familiar, nauseating feeling.
My vision blurred, and the scenery outside the window began to distort.
‘Again?’
It was the hallucination.
The helicopter, which had been flying steadily, suddenly tilted violently. The sound of the rotors was drowned out by a deafening, metallic screech.
CRASH!
The world spun. I felt the crushing weight of impact as the helicopter slammed into the ground.
“Ugh!”
I tried to scramble out of the wreckage, but my legs wouldn't obey me. I looked down. My lower body was pinned under a twisted piece of the fuselage.
“Kim Geuk-hyung! Are you okay?”
I heard a voice calling my name. It was Baek Dam-bi. She was crawling toward me, her face pale and covered in blood.
“Dam-bi, get back!”
I shouted, but my voice was weak.
From the shadows of the burning wreckage, something emerged. It was a creature, tall and gaunt, with skin like cracked stone and eyes that glowed with a malevolent, sickly light.
It was a Rock Spirit.
It raised a massive, jagged arm, and with a sickening sound, it brought it down.
Clatter.
The sound of stone striking flesh echoed in the silence.
I watched, paralyzed, as Baek Dam-bi’s body was tossed aside like a broken doll.
“No!”
I screamed, but the sound died in my throat.
The Rock Spirit turned its gaze toward me. It didn't rush. It walked slowly, savoring the terror.
I reached for my weapon, but my hands were trembling too violently to grip it.
‘This isn't real. This is just a hallucination.’
I kept repeating that to myself, but the pain in my chest, the smell of burning fuel, and the sight of my teammates lying motionless were all too vivid.
The Rock Spirit loomed over me, its shadow swallowing my entire world.
“Die.”
It didn't speak, but I could hear the word echoing in my mind.
I closed my eyes, waiting for the end.
But then, a sharp, cold sensation pricked my skin.
“Kim Geuk-ssi? Are you alright?”
I snapped my eyes open.
The helicopter was still flying smoothly. The sun was shining brightly through the window.
Baek Dam-bi was looking at me with a worried expression, her hand gently touching my shoulder.
“You were sweating a lot. Did you have a nightmare?”
I looked around. The others were still sitting in their seats, chatting quietly. Everything was normal.
I let out a long, shaky breath and wiped the cold sweat from my forehead.
“Yeah. Just a bad dream.”
I forced a smile, but my heart was still hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird.
‘It’s getting worse.’
The hallucinations were becoming more frequent, and the intensity was reaching a point where I could barely distinguish them from reality.
I looked at my hands. They were still trembling.
I clenched them into fists, trying to regain some semblance of control.
‘I have to hold it together. We’re almost there.’
I turned my gaze back to the window, watching the landscape of Incheon pass by below.
The city was a scarred, desolate place, but it was the only home I had left.
And I would do whatever it took to protect it, even if it meant losing my mind in the process.
Text messages, Hunter-exclusive apps—every messenger was screaming the same sentence: "Citizens must evacuate, and Hunters must assemble."
"Yes, I'm ready. Let's go!"
Sung Moon-young immediately called the Association staff to relay that our team was ready.
When we rushed to the designated location, a dedicated helicopter was waiting for us.
Even though we had already completed helicopter boarding drills in preparation for this day, a few members let out gasps of awe. Even the veteran, Jang Byeong-gon.
"I never thought I’d be riding a helicopter as a Hunter..."
The helicopter carrying us headed for the destination.
Until this point, no one looked particularly anxious. Amidst the sound of the spinning propellers, there was even room for us to chat.
"Are you nervous?"
Sung Moon-young asked as if shouting, and Jung Jin-young replied in kind.
"Yes, a little...!"
"I'm actually kind of excited! It's our first operation, right? I'm wondering what I should buy with the money I earn! Just imagining it makes my heart race like crazy!"
Lee Jong-ho was laughing, saying that the other guy's heart was probably racing because of nerves, when a bizarre sound mixed into the roar of the propellers.
It sounded like a siren. Looking down through the window, I saw cars equipped with emergency lights, emitting flashing beams as they raced in one direction.
In the world from years ago, I would have thought they were tow trucks, but not anymore.
"Those are Hunters."
Like the tow trucks of old, they acted just like them. They all flashed their emergency lights and blared their sirens, forcing surrounding vehicles to yield. Some vehicles were even driving on the sidewalks to get ahead as quickly as possible.
They say Hunters have inherited the notoriety of the old tow truck drivers, and it was certainly true. Jang Byeong-gon clicked his tongue.
"They say the provinces get all congested because of Hunters whenever something happens, and it's true? It's a total mess..."
Was this guy trying to belittle Incheon by comparing it to Seoul?
"What makes Seoul so great that they deploy in such an orderly fashion?"
When I snapped back at him, Jang Byeong-gon hurriedly tried to explain.
"It's not that Seoul is great and disciplined, it's just that they have no choice. Seoul has a large population and plenty of money to hire Hunters, so they can assign specific Hunters to each sector and have them deployed. But in a province like Incheon, the population is small and there isn't enough money to hire Hunters, so that's impossible. Hunters have to treat the entire region as their territory and deploy. That's why this kind of mess happens all the time. Anyway, the situation is dire, so it can't be helped. It's only natural that everyone wants to leave the provinces and go to Seoul..."
Jang Byeong-gon added that for the same reason, a single Awakened in a province like Incheon has to cover a much wider range than in Seoul, which is why Awakened Hunters especially avoid signing contracts in the provinces.
Feeling unpleasant, I turned my gaze away. I kept glaring at the Hunters down below.
Seeing that chaotic scene, one thought was solidifying in my mind.
The thought that non-Awakened, whether they carry guns or have long experience in Hunter activities, are ultimately unreliable.
Everyone is probably trying their best to reach the scene as quickly as possible, but to be such a disorganized mob...
Of course, this was a thought too mean to have while my colleagues were right beside me, so I tried to shake it off.
And anyway, I soon lost even the luxury of dwelling on such thoughts.
"Uh, shit...?"
My colleagues, who had been chatting, fell silent and groaned.
I stopped all thought and squeezed my eyes shut.
It felt as if an abstract video were playing in my head. All sorts of emotions and metaphors of every concept, none of them my own, were running wild in my mind.
Jang Byeong-gon also muttered with a frown.
"We've entered the Gate's domain. Damn, this is the first time I've felt something this intense... Don't worry too much, you'll adapt after a while."
I had been taught that the more intense the aftermath of a Gate, the larger the Gate that had opened, and that usually, more monsters would pour out from within.
I felt that this was a significant scale, and I already had a bad feeling about it.
I glanced at Baek Dam-bi and saw that she was the only one among us who looked calm. I tried to act indifferent as well, and truly, I gradually began to feel better. It was when my head had cleared up reasonably well.
"Oh, look there!"
Sung Moon-young shouted, pointing outside the window. I looked out and my eyes widened.
A small apartment complex consisting of 12-story buildings.
People had climbed up onto every rooftop.
And below them, I could see monsters, albeit small from this distance, targeting them.
Judging by the superior vision of a Physical Enhancer, they were monsters that looked like hyenas.
The monsters were climbing the walls, heading toward the 12th-floor rooftops. Their wall-climbing speed was bizarrely fast, even from afar.
At this rate, it was clear they would reach the rooftops in a few dozen seconds. I didn't even want to imagine what would happen to the people who had fled there.
"Assembly point, let me know over the radio later."
At my words, Sung Moon-young twitched her eyebrows.
"Yes?"
There was no time for a long explanation.
I threw open the helicopter door. As I did, I looked at the apartment where the monster was just about to reach the roof.
Ah, one had just climbed onto the apartment roof. It lunged toward the apartment residents who were backing away...
"Hyung?"
And then, I jumped from the helicopter. With a Hunter Rifle in my left hand and the combat hammer specially crafted by the city in my right, I surrendered my body to gravity.
"Hyung—"
I didn't need a parachute. As my body accelerated in an instant, I swung the hammer down.
And the moment I used Spatial Movement, my hammer struck the target precisely. Carrying the speed and weight of my fall. CRASH!
"Ah! Ah! Ah, uh..."
The man who had been screaming widened his eyes at me. Or rather, he must have been shocked to see the corpse of the monster that had been crushed into nothingness by my hammer.
To ease the tension, I opened my mouth.
"Long live Incheon."
"Yes?"
"Long live Incheon!"
"Yes? Yes, long live Incheon..."
That should be enough of a victory chant. I stood up and set the hammer down on the floor.
Then I picked up the 55kg Hunter Rifle.
On the wall of the apartment across the way, another group of hyena-like monsters was climbing up. I aimed the Hunter Rifle at them and fired immediately, without even taking aim.
Before long, the 30mm autocannon shells fired with a flash began to tear them to pieces. I shredded them one by one with each shot. The sound of their bodies exploding and the gunfire rang out in almost the same rhythm.
The dying monsters couldn't even let out a death cry. Only the sound of gunfire and flesh exploding rang out in succession.
*******
Gates can open anywhere. They can open inside abandoned buildings, deep in the underground parking lots of apartment complexes, or even inside the ocean or a reservoir.
That is why it is extremely difficult to discover exactly where a Gate has opened, but it is very easy to realize that a Gate has opened nearby.
Inside a Gate, the thoughts of the sentient beings who have lived on this land are accumulated. It is a place where all sorts of metaphysical things—emotions, concepts, symbols—are stored.
The moment a Gate opens, the things accumulated inside pour out.
Thus, sentient beings nearby are swept away by a wave of all sorts of emotions, concepts, and symbols. Even while sleeping, they are jolted awake because the information flooding their brains constructs bizarre nightmares.
It takes quite a while for a Gate to expand to a size large enough for monsters to emerge. So, you are given time to run away the moment you realize a Gate has opened.
However, you are not given enough.
On the rooftops of every building—apartments and commercial buildings alike—people who couldn't escape the neighborhood are screaming.
Everywhere I look is a living hell.
Another piercing scream rang out from the rooftop of a building. Monsters were climbing the walls to attack the people there.
All Hunters know these monsters well.
They are Deathclaws. The most common monster.
But just because they are common doesn't mean they are weak. Excluding the supernatural-scale giant monsters, Deathclaws are notorious for having killed the most people and the most Awakened to date.
On the feet of the Deathclaws are long, curved talons, and those talons are shrouded in energy that looks like a heat haze.
Force Field Blade.
It is a monomolecular cutter created by gathered force fields, and it literally cuts through anything.
There are no exceptions to what gets cut. Whether it's titanium or concrete, it gets sliced just by touching that blade. It even goes beyond the simple concept of a monomolecular cutter; I have learned that even the force field of an exceptional Force Field Ability user, which can block missiles, is cut through by the Force Field Blade of the most insignificant Deathclaw without any problem. It makes one wonder if it's actually cutting through space itself.
Naturally, the muscles of a Physical Enhancer are nothing more than tofu placed before a kitchen knife in front of those claws.
So, if you let those bastards get close, you die—whether you're a civilian or me.
Keeping that fact in mind, I fired the Hunter Rifle again and again.
BANG! I shot a Deathclaw that was just trying to shove its body into a window, shattering it to pieces. I fired in rapid succession with the selector set to burst, shredding several of them in an instant, but there were still far too many Deathclaws climbing the walls of every apartment.
I kept firing, roaring at them until my throat tore.
"Look at me, you sons of bitches—!"
I'm not a tank in some game. This roar doesn't have some taunt function to draw all the aggro of nearby enemies.
However, the infrasound embedded within it made the monsters hesitate for a brief moment.
And the gazes of several Deathclaws running on the ground turned toward me. They lunged at me.
The fact that I was on the roof of a twelve-story apartment building meant nothing to the Deathclaws. With a single leap, they latched onto the second-story wall and began to scale it.
They moved just like an adventurer climbing an ice wall with pickaxes in both hands. The Deathclaws drove their razor-sharp claws into the concrete, twisting them to anchor their bodies, then repeated the process to haul themselves upward in an instant.
No, "climbing" isn't the right word. They were practically sprinting up the wall.
I, too, was pouring bullets into them from the rooftop railing, but I didn't feel like a soldier on a castle wall pouring oil on invaders climbing ladders.
As I said, these bastards were scaling the wall at a full sprint—at the speed of a human running. The speed at which they were reaching me was faster than the speed at which I could tear them apart with my gunfire.
In the midst of this, my Mental Mesh warned me of danger. The presence of others approaching from my blind spot was captured in the net.
In an instant, the Deathclaws reached the roof and lunged at me from all sides.
And then, I used Spatial Movement. Since the people I had to protect were gathered behind me, I didn't go too far—just to the roof of the adjacent apartment building.
As soon as my vision shifted, I pulled the trigger again, shredding the monsters that had been gathered where I had just stood.
"Over here! Over here!"
People shouted from behind me. It seemed they were calling out to the rescue helicopter.
Soon after, the rescue helicopter began boarding the survivors one by one.
Ah, it wasn't just a rescue helicopter; an attack helicopter had arrived as well. Look at that steel raptor soaring through the sky with the magnificent roar of its propellers.
It seemed even the Deathclaws found it threatening. I saw a group of them scattering to avoid the hail of machine-gun fire from the attack helicopter.
I was just thinking that a single helicopter like that might be enough to protect this entire area.
"Huh?"
Someone groaned. And I, too, saw the scene that must have shocked them.
A single Deathclaw that had been running on the ground—a monster that, at a glance, looked no different from the others—kicked off the earth and leaped.
No, it would be more accurate to say it was launched into the air.
Its leap reached the helicopter, which was flying higher than a four-story villa. The beast drove its claws into the helicopter's outer hull, and then, it forced its entire body inside.
The attack helicopter began to thrash wildly.
And I used Spatial Movement to teleport inside the attack helicopter.
My vision shifted abruptly.
"Argh! Argh!"
I saw the machine gunner, his stomach ripped open and spilling his intestines, and the pilot, who was at a loss between his comrade's situation and his own impending fate.
And one large, fat Deathclaw.
When the beast saw me, I grabbed the surviving pilot and the dying machine gunner and used Spatial Movement.
In front of the people gathered on the apartment rooftop waiting for rescue, I shouted.
"When the helicopter comes, tell them to take these people first!"
As I was setting them down, a loud explosion rang out. I glanced over to see the helicopter crashing.
And the Deathclaw that had been inside?
It had survived. And it was completely unscathed. Neither the shock of the crash nor the explosion and the resulting flames could singe a single hair on its body.
The Deathclaw surged out of the burning wreckage and looked around. It soon seemed to have found its prey and began to run somewhere, its speed so fast it was almost indistinguishable from Spatial Movement.
Rescue helicopters arrived one after another. While they loaded the people from the roof and flew away, I stood guard nearby.
"Thank you so much!"
As the words of gratitude faded into the air, my radio crackled.
「Hyung! We've gathered! The location is—」 The end.
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