The road was empty.
Song Taewon turned his head toward the long stretch of twelve-lane road. The statues of Admiral Yi Sun-sin and King Sejong, and Gwanghwamun towering in the distance, came into view.
A familiar street at sunset. For an instant, it felt enough like Korea that he could almost mistake it for having returned there. But the street was far too quiet to indulge in that kind of illusion. There were no pedestrians, of course, but not even any demonstrators. The banner that was always hanging there in large red letters—Revoke special treatment for high-rank Awakened!—was nowhere to be seen either.
Song Taewon gazed silently at the street sunken in stillness.
It looked like the world immediately after it had been destroyed. A world where only humans had been cleanly erased.
And in such a place, he alone remained.
'…Christmas's nightmare.'
The system message informed him that this place was a dungeon. Song Taewon calmly organized the situation. The current dungeon was based on Seoul, Korea. Most of the lettering on the signs had been erased, but the buildings were the same, and so were the roadside trees, the streetlamps, the bus stops, and everything else.
Crossing the road, Song Taewon peered into the inside of a coffee shop. The lights in the store were off, but the drinks and bakery items remained set out inside the display case. A dungeon like this was something he had never seen in his life. He had never even once received a report of such a thing.
Song Taewon's hand closed around the handle of the locked door. Putting strength into it just like that, crack, he tore the door right off and stepped inside the shop. Then he picked up a slice of cheesecake from the display case. The refrigerated case still held some chill.
As he looked down at the cheesecake, Han Yoojin suddenly came to mind. Sung Hyunjae followed after that as naturally as if it were inevitable. Song Taewon carefully bit off the edge of the cheesecake. There was no poison in it. The taste, too, was ordinary.
He did not particularly enjoy cakes this sweet. At most, there would occasionally be a birthday cake from a colleague sitting on a desk. Most of them were fresh cream, or mocha. Cheesecake, tiramisu, red velvet, and most of the other sweets Song Taewon remembered had come, more often than not, through Han Yoojin and Sung Hyunjae.
In any case, the objects here were the same as those in reality. Song Taewon set the cake down and picked up a cup. If it was an item inside a dungeon, it should have gone into the inventory.
[Error! Cannot place it in inventory!]
An error message appeared. Song Taewon stared quietly at the cup, then tightened his grip. Crack. Like a thin biscuit, the glass shattered into pieces and fell to the floor. Ordinary durability, ordinary shards.
Song Taewon left the café and walked along the road. Everything was the same, except that there were no people. Since this was inside a dungeon, that was only natural. It was natural, and yet.
His regular stride, exact as if measured with a ruler, gradually slowed.
"..."
Without thinking, a long, thin breath slipped between his lips.
Song Taewon was not someone who was meant to remain at the end. His place was to protect someone and disappear before it ever came to that. He had never even imagined a scene where he would be left alone in a world with nothing in it.
This was a picture of failure Song Taewon had never wanted even to think about.
If the ones he had to protect were gone, and the ones he had to stop were gone as well, then what, exactly, was left?
"...!"
Just then, a faint presence brushed against his senses. It was something alive and moving, not a gray lifeless object. If it was one of his companions, that would be fortunate, and even if it was a monster, that was fine too. Song Taewon cast aside his thoughts and began moving carefully again.
This was an abnormal dungeon whose Rank could not be determined. There was no way of knowing what kind of situation might arise. Song Taewon pulled out wire and wound it from his hand up over his forearm, and in his other hand he took a throwing dagger. Unfortunately, his skills, centered as they were on close combat, were unsuited to gathering information. The best he could do was make use of his excellent physical ability and move as quietly as possible.
As Gwanghwamun drew nearer, the Government Complex Seoul building came into view. The presence was coming from right there.
From the place where the Awakened Persons Management Office was located.
Back when Awakened people first began appearing in the world and the Awakened Persons Management Office was newly established, there had been quite a long debate over where it should be based. There had even been talk that it should go to Sejong, but in the end, for various reasons, it had been placed in the Seoul Government Complex.
The agency had appeared suddenly, and it had also had to put up with plenty of side-eye. Even now, from time to time, it still received uncomfortable looks. In the beginning, because they had not even properly prepared for the work, there had been times when they had practically reported to the Korean Hunter Association for work instead. There had been various other obstacles too, but even so, the Awakened Persons Management Office had steadily found its footing.
In particular, the Hunters belonging to the Management Office were, for the most part, also people Song Taewon could call his disciples as well as his team members. So that he would not lose even one of the people who had stayed to the end despite the poor conditions, Song Taewon carved out time he did not have and trained them himself.
He also pushed as much of the distributed equipment toward the Management Office Hunters as possible. An S-rank Hunter's life would not, under ordinary circumstances, be in danger. And with the nature of his own skills, a shortage of equipment was not a major flaw for him either. So it was more efficient to make sure the already scarce manpower did not grow any scarcer.
It was neither sacrifice nor consideration. From Song Taewon's point of view, that was simply what was better and more right.
For the past three years. Soon, four years. The Awakened Persons Management Office was a place he had raised like that.
"It's quiet today."
A familiar voice rang out. The tone was light, entirely lacking in tension. Song Taewon's body reflexively slipped behind a thick roadside tree.
"Hasn't it mostly been like that since the Seseong Guild Leader disappeared? Hunter Kang Soyoung got a lot more restrained too. Now she really feels like a guild leader."
"It's probably been more than half a year since the last time she got slapped with a ticket."
Song Taewon all but stopped his breathing as he listened to the voices. Hunters from the Management Office were having an unfamiliar conversation. It sounded as though the Seseong Guild Leader had disappeared, and Kang Soyoung had taken his place. From Song Taewon's point of view, it was difficult information to accept.
Song Taewon slightly leaned his head out and looked around. The entrance, where there should ordinarily have been security police standing guard, was empty. There was not a single vehicle in the parking lot either. Beyond the wide-open metal gate, the two Hunters from the Management Office were chatting leisurely while holding paper cups of coffee. They did not seem to feel the slightest suspicion toward the scenery around them.
"…I really wish the Seseong Guild Leader had just moved overseas completely at an earlier stage."
"And changed his nationality too."
"If someone caught you saying that, you'd get cursed at for the rest of your life."
"He's gone now anyway. If he'd kept that nationality and gone abroad, he'd only have suffered more, wouldn't he."
"That's true. When he lied and said he was still in the country, sneaking after him to clean things up was seriously… ugh."
"He even got blasted by the media for neglecting his duties as Director of the Management Office, remember?"
"It pisses me off all over again. Like he wanted to leave his post empty."
The Hunter grumbled and downed the rest of his coffee in one gulp. The paper cup crumpled in his hand.
"I want a cigarette."
"Then smoke one secretly. If an article comes out saying a public servant is smoking expensive Hunter-grade cigarettes, you're done for."
"I swear, I ought to just quit out of sheer disgust. It's not like I'm here because I don't have ability."
"But you can't leave, you bastard."
"If I tried to leave even now, there'd be guilds lining up to take me, but I still can't leave!"
The two of them snickered. Then, abruptly, the laughter stopped. A short silence followed.
"Maybe we should go visit the grave this weekend."
"That's the one thing I'm grateful to the Seseong Guild Leader for. It's close, so we can go often."
"…What is that, poison first and medicine later? No. More like he killed him and then paid compensation."
Song Taewon's body froze.
"Watch your mouth. It's not certain."
"At this point, what's there to hedge about? If nothing was hanging over him, he wouldn't have disappeared. Honestly, does it even make sense that Director Song died in a dungeon raid? Huh? Even the run-of-the-mill S-ranks still haven't had any deaths during raids, so how could he?"
Even without trying to think deeply, Song Taewon's mind easily fit together the front and back of the story.
Song Taewon had died. Officially, he had died during a dungeon raid, but there was suspicion that he had been murdered by Sung Hyunjae. Sung Hyunjae had made a grave for Song Taewon in Seoul, and then disappeared.
It was astonishing, and yet not astonishing.
There had been times when he thought that one day he might die by Sung Hyunjae's hand. But the part about Sung Hyunjae disappearing because he had killed him—that was unexpected.
Naturally, he had assumed Sung Hyunjae would go on unchanged, behaving as though a person named Song Taewon had never existed in the first place.
'…No, in the first place, this is.'
It was only a false future shown by the dungeon. Since it was said to have ties to the raiders, it was probably an illusion created on the basis of Song Taewon's own memories. Perhaps even an illusion mixed, in some small part, with his own wish.
A desirable future in which he died by Sung Hyunjae's hand—presumably while trying to stop him.
Song Taewon looked up at the building through the tree branches. He had learned more about the dungeon, but even for him, he still could not immediately grasp how he was supposed to move now. In an ordinary dungeon raid, one killed the monsters inside the dungeon.
But now—
"You lot are awfully idle, aren't you."
Yet another voice sounded out. At the approach of light footsteps, Song Taewon's back stiffened slightly. The Rank he felt was not low. For an instant he thought it might be the newly arrived director of the Awakened Persons Management Office, but that voice, too, was familiar. At the point in time Song Taewon knew, it belonged to a Hunter who had definitely been B-rank. Baek Yeonjun, a B-rank Hunter who had stood out enough that Song Taewon had expected him to rise to A-rank soon enough.
But now, he felt close to S-rank.
"Right now, here— Who's there!"
Baek Yeonjun suddenly shouted sharply. Along with that cry, a short double-edged blade traced a circle as it flew toward the roadside tree. Kaga-gak—the rotating blade sliced clean through the thick trunk in a single blow. As splinters flew up, the roadside tree toppled sideways with a crash. Leaves scattered down in a rush.
'As I thought, monsters.'
Song Taewon, who had already retreated before the blade ever reached the tree, muttered bitterly to himself. The real Baek Yeonjun would never have done something so rash in the middle of the city. No Hunter from the Management Office would have thrown a weapon first like that unless it were an emergency in which a monster was attacking an unawakened civilian.
"D-Director?"
The Hunters' eyes flew wide when they saw Song Taewon revealed after dodging the attack. A dead man had appeared. But their surprise lasted only a moment. Thick hostility immediately rose over their faces.
"Damn it, what kind of bastard is this!"
"A monster? Then just say you're a monster!"
"I am—"
Not a monster. This place is a dungeon, and you are the monsters. The words did not make it out of Song Taewon's mouth. While he hesitated, the Hunters all drew their weapons.
"If it's a monster, we have to kill it, and if it's not a monster, then all the more reason to kill it! Fuck!"
"With that face, how dare you show up here?! What's your purpose!"
The voice shouted, thick with pent-up rage. Song Taewon clenched his teeth. They were monsters. As long as he had to clear the dungeon and get out, he had no choice but to fight them and kill them.
'It's only a simple mental-type skill.'
He tried to think that way. But Song Taewon was an S-rank Hunter, and among them one whose physical senses were especially keen. If he had been duller, it might have been easier to deceive himself. But every one of his senses was telling him that the people before him were real.
"Jina!"
"Yes!"
The support-type Hunter quickly retreated to the rear and used a skill on Baek Yeonjun. He knew he should take down the support-type first, and yet Song Taewon could not move immediately. It was as if his feet had stuck fast to the paving stones.
"Go inside, report the situation, and evacuate them! This one doesn't look easy!"
The remaining Hunter instantly turned around. A monster. A monster was trying to call in comrades. He had to stop them.
Strength entered Song Taewon's fist, and almost by habit the muscles in his legs coiled tight. His body shot forward like a loosed arrow.
"Look out!"
Baek Yeonjun threw a short spear. Crunch! The forearm wrapped in wire knocked the spearhead aside, and without the slightest shake in his motion, Song Taewon reached the Hunter who had been about to enter the building. The tip of his foot stamped down onto the startled Hunter's leg.
"Gah!"
Crack—the leg bone broke. As the body dropped heavily downward, Song Taewon's hand seized the man's head. The blade of the dagger in his other hand swept through flesh and bone in a single motion.
With a precision and efficiency that was almost mechanical, he cut off the monster's breath.
"Seonghu!"
A grief-stricken cry drove into Song Taewon's ears. Widened pupils met Song Taewon's eyes. Blood that had splashed upward soaked his chest dark red.
"Y-you crazy bastard! Jina, fall back farther! Everyone, get out here now!!"
One familiar face, then two, then three appeared in the parking lot. Song Taewon absentmindedly wiped the blood spattered up to his cheek with the back of his hand. But his hand was even bloodier, so the red smear only spread wider.
"Fuck, what happened!"
"What is it, a m-monster?!"
"If it's openly killing people, then what else would it be besides a Hunter! Be careful! It looks like a boss-class monster that can imitate other people's appearances!"
A monster. To them, that was surely exactly what he was. Without a single word of excuse, Song Taewon silently took up a combat stance.
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