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CHAPTER 14: I Became the Successor of a Constellation.
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Chapter 14
*Slurp.*
Kim Dai stared at the monitor, downing what was already her third cup of coffee.
The clock hands pointed to 10 PM, but this was just another day at the office for her.
“Ugh, should I just change my home address to the office at this point?”
She stretched.
On the screen was a map displaying the current situation in South Korea.
Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Daejeon, Gwangju, Jeju.
Looking at the red Tower icons marking each of the six cities, Dai let out a deep sigh.
Her mind drifted back three years.
To the work and piles of documents that accumulated day after day.
Whenever she debated pulling out the resignation letter she kept tucked away in her heart.
The memory of that day always stopped her in her tracks.
Back then, she had been living a completely different life.
She was a police officer at the Jongno Police Station, an ordinary civil servant on the verge of being promoted to sergeant.
That day was supposed to be no different from any other.
Until the first red Tower appeared in Gwanghwamun Square.
“Wh-what is that?”
“Aaargh! It's a monster!”
“Run! Quickly!”
In an instant, Gwanghwamun Square had turned into a living hell.
Dai remembered that moment vividly.
An impossibly colossal red Tower had shot up from the middle of the square, and Dungeon gates had begun to spring up around it like mushrooms after a rain.
And the things that had poured out from within.
Grotesque creatures, looking like a mix between spiders and wolves, charged at the civilians without any warning.
Dai, who had been directing traffic at the time, instinctively began to command the civilian evacuation.
“This way! Everyone, evacuate to the subway station!”
But there was little an ordinary police officer could do.
The monsters were barely affected by bullets and possessed a strength that no ordinary human could possibly match.
It was then.
“Mommy! Mommy!”
A little girl, who looked to be about six years old, was sitting on the pavement, crying. She seemed to have been separated from her mother in the chaos.
But a giant variant pigeon was flapping its wings, closing in on the child.
Dai didn't hesitate.
“Hey, kid! Come here!”
With no proper equipment, armed with only a pistol, she ran toward the monster.
Looking back now, it was a reckless act, but at the time, her only thought was to save the child.
The variant pigeon opened its sharp beak and aimed for Dai.
There was no time to dodge. Death was imminent.
*Thwack!*
In that instant, a man appeared like a flash of lightning and obliterated the monster in a single blow.
A man in his mid-forties, wearing a black leather jacket.
The sight of him beating a monster to death with his bare hands was hard to believe, even seeing it firsthand.
“Are you all right?”
The man extended a hand to Dai and the child.
It was the first time Dai had ever encountered a ‘Hunter’.
“You are...?”
“Han Seokjin. We'll handle the civilian evacuation, so please take the child and get to safety.”
Han Seokjin. He was none other than her current boss, the man now known as ‘Lightning Spear’ who led the Hunter Management Department.
After that day, Dai's life changed completely.
She quit the police force and joined the newly established Hunter Management Department.
Back then, it was really just at the level of a ‘temporary disaster response headquarters’.
What the Towers were, how to stop the monsters in the Dungeons, how to manage these new beings called Hunters.
With no one knowing anything, they had to build everything from the ground up.
‘Those were truly crazy times.’
Three years later, things had stabilized, at least to the point where civilians could walk the streets again.
There had been countless sacrifices along the way, and even now, Dungeon incident reports were filed daily, and she was still plagued by consecutive all-nighters.
Still, it was a much better situation compared to the hellish early days.
‘I wonder how that little girl is doing now?’
She’d be about nine years old. If she was in school, she would be learning about the Towers.
The world had changed so much that ‘Dungeon Prevention Education’ was now part of the elementary school curriculum.
“What are you so deep in thought about?”
A voice from behind made Dai turn around.
Park Junhyeok was holding two cups of coffee.
“If I drink that, it'll be my fourth.”
“In these chaotic times, ordinary people like us have to force an Awakening with coffee.”
Junhyeok had joined the Hunter Management Department a year after Dai, but his data analysis skills surpassed most of his seniors.
He was tall and good-looking, making him quite popular.
Except for the fact that he was a fan of Japanese anime and would sometimes say cringey things.
“You pull all-nighters just like me, so how does your skin look so good?”
“Hehe, I take a lot of vitamins. So, what were you looking at?”
Junhyeok sat down next to Dai and glanced at the monitor. The screen showed the nationwide incident status.
“Just checking the situation. It's hard to believe it's already been three years.”
“I know, right? Back then, it really felt like the end of the world. Seeing how stable things have become, humanity's ability to adapt is scary.”
“Adaptability, huh…”
“Except for Jeju Island.”
Junhyeok clicked on the detailed information for Jeju Island. The words ‘Restricted Access Zone’ appeared in large red letters on the screen.
“No results from the negotiations yet, right?”
“They keep refusing. They're completely rejecting any intervention from the Hunter Management Department.”
“This woman, Na Yerin, is she really that strong?”
“Jeju Island has been a lawless zone for a long time now. All sorts of criminal organizations have flocked there, and the black market is thriving. And she's the one who took control of it all.”
“Hmm… In anime, characters like that usually become allies later on.”
“Unfortunately, this isn't an anime.”
Dai shook her head with a bitter smile.
“Anyway, this is the best we can do for now. 1,147 registered Hunters nationwide, with an average of 120 Dungeon clears per month. It's a huge improvement compared to before.”
“The incident rate has dropped a lot too, right?”
“Yeah. It was over 50% at first, but now it's down below 20%...”
Just then, a new notification window popped up on the monitor.
It was an email from Seoul Hunter Hospital. Any matters related to Hunter injuries or illnesses were required to be reported to the Hunter Management Department.
The email subject read: [Additional Medical Opinion Regarding the Songpa-gu Spider Dungeon Incident].
“Another incident?”
Junhyeok said, looking at the screen.
“No. It's a follow-up report on yesterday's incident.”
Dai opened the file, and a brief incident summary appeared.
“Wait, isn't this a little strange?”
Dai read it over again more carefully.
“An F-Rank cleanup crew member rescued a C-Rank Hunter?”
“Huh, you're right.”
Junhyeok, too, started to show interest.
“But it's not impossible, is it? Depending on the situation…”
“Junhyeok, you know how big the difference in physical ability is between an F-Rank and a C-Rank, right?”
“That's true, but maybe the C-Rank Hunter was injured and in a weakened state.”
Dai clicked on the attached hospital CCTV footage. The entrance to the hospital's emergency room appeared on the screen.
The time was 7:10 PM. Soon, two men entered through the doors.
“So that's the F-Rank.”
On the screen, Minho was carrying Taehyun on his back. Taehyun was unconscious, while Minho looked relatively unharmed.
“Huh? This guy, he's that cleanup crew member.”
“Who? You know him?”
“The Dungeon collapse incident that was on the news! They said an F-Rank cleanup crew member evacuated all the Hunters and was the last one out.”
“This is that guy?”
Dai remembered now. The last survivor of the ‘Gangdong-gu Dungeon Collapse Incident’.
The one who had evacuated everyone from the collapsing Dungeon before barely escaping himself.
Back then, she had just thought of him as a brave cleanup worker.
Dai searched for Minho's past records.
[Basic Information]
-Age: 28
–Occupation: Contract worker, Cleanup
-Previous Occupation: Firefighter (5 years of service)
-Hunter Rank: F-Rank
-Noteworthy Details: Dismissed due to a major fire incident
“Still, with five years of experience as a firefighter, he'd be skilled at rescues. Wouldn't that make it plausible enough?”
“But look at this.”
Dai pointed to the medical opinion written in the email.
[Medical Opinion]
‘Patient's trauma pattern is inconsistent with that caused by Dungeon monsters. Wounds are presumed to be from artificial impact.’
“This… is getting really interesting.”
Junhyeok said with a curious expression.
“You think they fought each other in the Dungeon?”
“An F-Rank beat up a C-Rank? No matter how you look at it, that's a bit...”
Junhyeok tilted his head.
“But based on the circumstances, Kang Minho was the only one with him at the time.”
Dai leaned back in her chair, lost in thought.
“I have a feeling there's something about this guy.”
“I don't know. Even if they did fight like you said, couldn't he have just gotten lucky?
It happens in anime sometimes, you know? An ordinary character dramatically defeats a powerful enemy.”
“Unfortunately, this isn't an anime.”
“That's true, but... sometimes unexplainable things happen in the world.”
Junhyeok still didn't seem very suspicious. But Dai was different.
Her intuition was telling her that this man, Kang Minho, was no ordinary cleanup worker.
Dai kept her eyes on the calm gaze in the CCTV footage.
‘Kang Minho. There’s definitely something about him.’
“Junhyeok, you're free tomorrow, right?”
“Tomorrow? But it's the weekend.”
“I know. I figured you'd be free.”
“Ah... uh, I have a meeting tomorrow I can't miss...”
“Thanks.”
“An anime viewing party...”
“See you at 10.”
“...”
***
Minho opened his eyes, feeling a pang of hunger.
In the dead of night, while everyone else was asleep, he had been engaged in continuous mock battles with the variant wolf in his soul space.
He had now completely grasped the creature's surprise attack patterns and could subdue it with relative ease.
Considering how one-sidedly he'd been beaten at first, it was definite progress.
‘At this rate, I should be able to take on stronger opponents soon.’
Satisfied with his growth, he got up.
Training in the soul space didn't consume physical stamina in the real world, but it was quite mentally exhausting.
“What should I eat?”
He got up and opened the refrigerator. His plan was to quickly make some fried rice with the leftover side dishes, then go see Suyeon at the hospital.
He was just about to put last night's leftover cold rice into a frying pan.
Ding-dong!
Someone rang Minho's doorbell.
‘Who could it be at this hour?’
“Kang Minho, are you there?”
A low, steady woman's voice. Minho opened the front door.
“Who is it?”
At the door stood a tired-looking woman with dark circles under her eyes, and a handsome man with a displeased expression.
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