Seung-hoo stood in the middle of the ruined street, slowly turning in place as if he were searching for something that should have been there.
Or someone.
His eyes moved from the shattered pavement to the broken buildings, then to the empty sky above. His chest felt tight. The Rift was gone… but so were the people he remembered fighting beside him.
Before he could take another step, heavy boots echoed across the concrete.
Soldiers and police officers rushed toward him from all directions, weapons lowered but ready. Their expressions were tense, unsure whether he was a survivor… or a threat.
Seung-hoo didn't resist. He was still looking around, still searching, when they reached him.
One of the officers grabbed his arm. Another placed restraints around his wrists.
They told him he was being detained for illegally entering a Rift as a civilian.
Seung-hoo didn't argue. His mind was elsewhere.
Within hours, the news spread across the city.
A Rift had been cleared.
A mysterious Hunter had appeared.
And that Hunter… was an ordinary citizen.
Videos taken from a distance flooded social media. Blurry images of a lone figure standing in the empty Rift zone. Headlines called him a miracle. A hero. A mystery.
People were shocked.
How could someone with no record, no license, no rank… clear a Rift alone?
No one knew his name. No one knew his face clearly. Yet the public loved him. They called him the "Unknown Hunter."
Some said he was chosen by fate. Others said he was a sign that anyone could awaken.
Seung-hoo was taken into a quiet interrogation room inside the Association building.
A man in a suit sat across from him and asked questions for hours.
How did you enter the Rift?
What did you fight?
How did you survive?
Seung-hoo answered truthfully. He spoke of the Stone Weeping Angel. He spoke of the monstes he faced, but hid the fact that he died. He did not exaggerate. He did not hide anything.
The interrogator listened carefully.
In the end, there was nothing more to accuse him of.
The Rift had been cleared.
The threat was gone.
And so, he was released.
The next morning, Seung-hoo woke with a sudden realization.
His teammates.
They were alive in this timeline.
His heart pounded as memories rushed back—voices, faces, battles they had fought together in the past future that no longer existed. He remembered one moment clearly.
A Rift job.
A guild mission.
And one person he met there.
Seo-yeon.
His assassin.
Without wasting time, Seung-hoo left his small room and walked into the city streets. Crowds moved around him, unaware of who he really was.
Screens in shop windows still showed news about the mysterious Hunter, but none of them showed his face.
He walked for hours, searching, thinking, remembering.
Then it hit him.
The Hunter's Association.
If he wanted to meet them again, he needed a license.
He returned to the Association building and entered the registration hall. Rows of chairs filled the wide room.
A clerk told him to take a seat and wait until his name was called.
Time passed slowly.
Minutes turned into hours.
People were called in one by one. Some walked out smiling. Others left in silence. Seung-hoo stayed seated, hands clenched, replaying memories of his past life in his mind.
Finally, his name echoed through the hall.
He stood and entered the evaluation room.
Inside was a large crystal sphere resting on a metal stand. The evaluator, a middle-aged man with tired eyes, pointed toward it.
"Place your hand on the ball," he said. "Its color will determine your rank."
He explained calmly:
Black – S rank
Blue – A rank
Red – B rank
Light blue – C rank
Green – D rank
White – F rank
Seung-hoo placed his hand on the crystal.
At first, nothing happened.
Then suddenly, light burst out of the sphere.
It shone so brightly that the evaluator shielded his eyes. The room was flooded with blinding radiance, and for a moment, the evaluator thought the result would be Black.
Only S-rank Hunters had ever produced light like this.
When the glow finally faded, the room fell silent.
The color inside the crystal was not black.
It was white.
F rank.
The evaluator stared at it in disbelief. His brows furrowed, but he still wrote down the result and handed Seung-hoo his Hunter license.
Seung-hoo accepted it without a word.
He left the Association building, stepping back into the busy streets.
Minutes later, inside the evaluation room, a faint cracking sound echoed.
The crystal ball split slightly along its surface.
The evaluator noticed the fracture and frowned. After a moment, he shook his head and dismissed it as pressure damage.
Meanwhile, Seung-hoo walked toward a familiar building.
The Bajin Guild.
He remembered this place clearly.
This was where he first met her.
Seo-yeon.
His assassin.
Even as an F-rank, he applied for a support role, just like before. The receptionist barely looked at him before accepting his application.
The guild was short on members and needed anyone willing to enter Rifts.
He was told to return the next morning for a Rift job.
Seung-hoo stepped out of the guild hall, gripping his license tightly, his thoughts racing with memories and expectations, he remembered the promise he made in the hospital..
The next day, Seung-hoo arrived at the Bajin Guild early in the morning.
The sun had barely risen, and the streets were still quiet. The guild building stood tall and familiar before him, its symbol carved into the stone above the entrance. Seeing it again made his chest tighten.
This place…
This was where everything had begun before.
He took a slow breath and stepped inside.
The lobby was already awake with activity. Staff moved between counters, and a few Hunters gathered near the mission board, reading posted requests.
The smell of coffee and metal filled the air. For a moment, Seung-hoo simply stood there, letting the noise and movement wash over him.
Then—
He bumped into someone.
Not hard, but enough to make both of them step back.
"Im sorry," Seung-hoo said immediately, bowing his head out of instinct.
When he looked up, his breath caught.
It was her.
Seo-yeon, his assassin.
Her hair was tied back neatly, and a dagger hung at her side beneath a dark cloak. Her eyes were sharp and alert, scanning him the way an assassin would scan a stranger—cold, cautious, and unreadable.
To her, he was nobody.
Just another F-rank applicant who wasn't watching where he was going.
But to Seung-hoo…
She was someone he had fought beside.
Someone who had saved his life more than once.
Someone who had died in front of him in another timeline.
His heart skipped painfully.
For a second, memories flooded his mind.
Her voice calling his name in the Rift.
The sound of steel clashing.
Blood on broken stone.
The moment she fell and didn't get back up.
His fingers trembled slightly.
She tilted her head. "Are you okay?" she asked, her tone polite but distant.
Her words pulled him back to the present.
"Yes— I mean, no— I mean… I'm fine," Seung-hoo said quickly, straightening himself. "I wasn't paying attention. I'm sorry."
Seo-yeon studied him for a moment longer. There was no recognition in her eyes. No memory. No hint that she knew him at all.
"You should be more careful," she said calmly.
"This place gets crowded in the mornings."
"I will," Seung-hoo replied softly.
He wanted to say her name.
He wanted to tell her that they had fought together.
That she had trusted him.
That she was alive now, standing right in front of him.
But he couldn't.
To her, he was just a stranger who had bumped into her in the lobby.
She stepped past him, walking toward the mission board with quiet confidence. The faint sound of her boots against the floor echoed in Seung-hoo's ears.
He turned slowly to watch her go.
His chest felt heavy, like something precious had been returned to him… but only halfway.
Alive.
Breathing.
Unhurt.
In this timeline, she hadn't suffered yet.
Seung-hoo clenched his fists at his sides.
He told himself that this was enough for now.
That seeing her alive was already a miracle.
Around them, the guild continued to move—people laughing, missions being called out, papers shuffling—but to Seung-hoo, everything felt distant and quiet.
This simple collision in the hallway felt more powerful than any battle.
Because this time…
Seo-yeon was not a fallen comrade.
She was a beginning again.
Seung-hoo took a slow step forward, following the path she had taken, his eyes never leaving her back, his mind filled with memories she did not yet share, and questions he could not yet ask…
He knew that he was steps away from saving his teammates from their impending demise.