5:55 AM.
Siwoo's phone alarm went off. He'd set it five minutes early so he could mentally prepare for whatever the system was about to throw at him.
He did not mentally prepare. He lay there with his eyes closed and tried to convince himself he was still dreaming.
5:59 AM.
One minute left. He could feel it coming. Like the atmosphere before a thunderstorm, except the thunderstorm was a sentient training program that thought three push-ups was his physical limit.
6:00 AM.
[DAILY QUEST ACTIVATED]
[QUEST: MORNING DISCIPLINE]
[Objectives:]
[1. 10 push-ups]
[2. 10 sit-ups]
[3. 10 squats]
[4. 1 km run]
[Completion Deadline: 11:59 PM]
[Reward: 10 SP, +1 END]
[Failure Penalty: Escalating physical discomfort (Stage 1: Persistent full-body itch)]
He read the penalty again.
"Persistent full-body itch."
[CORRECT. THE ITCH CANNOT BE RELIEVED BY SCRATCHING. IT PERSISTS FOR 24 HOURS.]
He imagined itching everywhere for an entire day. Everywhere. While trying to sleep. While eating. While existing.
He got out of bed.
"You're evil."
[THE SYSTEM IS DESIGNED FOR HOST'S GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.]
"Evil with good marketing."
He stood in the middle of his eleven-square-meter apartment. There was barely enough floor space between the bed and the kitchenette to do a push-up without hitting something. He moved the ramen boxes aside and got down.
Push-up one. Easier than yesterday. His STR was 9 now instead of 8.
Push-up two. Still easy.
Push-ups three through seven. Manageable. His arms trembled slightly, but nothing like yesterday's struggle.
Push-ups eight and nine. Harder. His breath came faster.
Push-up ten. He ground it out, arms shaking, face red, and collapsed.
[Push-ups complete: 10/10]
Sit-ups were next. He hooked his feet under the bed frame and started. These were worse. His core muscles had apparently taken a vacation sometime around 2021 and never come back. By sit-up six, he was making sounds that concerned him. By sit-up ten, he was making sounds that would've concerned his neighbors if his neighbors hadn't been a seventy-year-old man who was deaf in one ear and a college student who slept until 2 PM.
[Sit-ups complete: 10/10]
Squats. Ten squats. His knees popped on every single one. Not painfully — just loudly. Like bubble wrap.
[Squats complete: 10/10]
That left the run. One kilometer.
He looked out the window. It was raining.
Of course it was raining.
He put on his hoodie, his peeling-sole sneakers, and went outside.
Running one kilometer shouldn't be hard. For a normal, healthy person, it's about six minutes. For Yoon Siwoo, who hadn't run voluntarily since high school and whose Endurance stat was a 6 — below the human average of 10 — it was a different experience entirely.
He made it two hundred meters before his lungs started burning.
Three hundred meters and his legs felt like they were filled with wet cement.
Four hundred meters and he was seriously reconsidering his life choices. All of them. Starting from birth.
A grandmother walking her small white dog passed him going faster than he was running. She didn't even look winded. The dog looked back at him with what he could only describe as pity.
"Don't," he wheezed at the dog.
Five hundred meters. Halfway. The rain was picking up. His hoodie was soaked through. His left sneaker made a slapping sound with every step because the sole was completely detached now. Flap, flap, flap, flap.
Six hundred meters. He started a negotiation with his own body. Just four hundred more meters. Then you can stop. Then you can lie down. I'll buy you better ramen. The kind with real egg.
Seven hundred meters. A man in a business suit sprinted past him to catch a bus, moving roughly twice Siwoo's speed while wearing dress shoes and carrying a briefcase.
Eight hundred meters. He couldn't feel his shins.
Nine hundred meters. He could see his apartment building. Mrs. Cha was outside. Watering the dead plant. In the rain.
One thousand meters. He stopped. Bent over. Hands on knees. Gasped like a fish removed from water.
[Run complete: 1/1 km]
[DAILY QUEST COMPLETE: MORNING DISCIPLINE]
[REWARD: 10 SP, +1 END]
[END increased from 6 to 7.]
Mrs. Cha watched him from across the street.
"Exercising?" she called out.
He couldn't respond. His lungs were staging a protest.
"Good. You look terrible."
He gave her a thumbs-up. Then went inside. Climbed four flights of stairs, which nearly finished him off. Entered his apartment. Fell on the bed. Lay there motionless for twenty minutes.
When he could breathe again, he checked his status.
SP: 35. He had 25 before, plus 10 from the daily quest. Getting closer to being able to buy things from the shop. A basic health potion was 10 SP. A basic iron sword was 50 SP. At this rate, he'd need a few more days of daily quests.
But he couldn't just rely on daily quests. The SP gain was slow. He needed to do real quests. Dungeon quests. Kill quests.
He needed to grind.
He hated grinding.
[THE SYSTEM HAS DETECTED HOST'S RELUCTANCE. THE SYSTEM REMINDS HOST THAT FAILURE TO PROGRESS WILL RESULT IN INABILITY TO HANDLE FUTURE THREATS.]
"What future threats?"
[THE SYSTEM CANNOT DISCLOSE INFORMATION BEYOND HOST'S CURRENT CLEARANCE LEVEL.]
"You're giving me classified information about my own life."
[CORRECT. HOST'S CLEARANCE LEVEL IS INSUFFICIENT.]
"How do I raise my clearance level?"
[INCREASE HOST'S LEVEL AND COMPLETE SYSTEM MILESTONES.]
"Which milestones?"
[THAT INFORMATION IS ABOVE HOST'S CURRENT CLEARANCE LEVEL.]
Siwoo stared at the ceiling. The water stain still looked like a dog. He was starting to feel a personal connection with it. They were both trapped in this building, going nowhere.
He spent the rest of the morning doing something productive: researching gates on his phone.
According to the Hunter Association's public database, there were currently 847 active gates across South Korea. The majority — about 600 — were E-rank. Another 150 were D-rank. Sixty were C-rank. Thirty were B-rank. Five were A-rank.
And two were S-rank.
The two S-rank gates were in Jeju Island and the DMZ, respectively. Both were under heavy military and Hunter surveillance. Neither had been cleared. S-rank gates required S-rank Hunters, and South Korea only had seven of those. Clearing an S-rank gate was a national operation that required months of planning.
The Association website had profiles on all seven S-rank Hunters.
1. Kang Doyeon — S-rank. Class: Swordmaster. Age: 29. The "Queen of Blades." Most popular Hunter in Korea. Fashion line. Talk show appearances. Estimated annual income: 47 billion won. Siwoo looked at that number for a long time. Forty-seven billion. He had thirty-five SP and a dumpster bat.
2. Baek Jungsoo — S-rank. Class: Healer. Age: 52. The only S-rank Healer in East Asia. Calm. Professional. Saved approximately 4,000 Hunter lives over his career.
3. Choi Seunghyun — S-rank. Class: Tank. Age: 41. Could allegedly take a direct hit from a B-rank boss without flinching. Built like a refrigerator.
4. Park Mirae — S-rank. Class: Mage. Age: 34. Specialized in large-scale destruction magic. Once collapsed an entire C-rank dungeon with a single spell. The Association asked her to stop doing that because it made core retrieval impossible.
5. Han Dojin — S-rank. Class: Assassin. Age: 27. The youngest S-rank. Almost nothing was publicly known about him. His Association photo was blurry. On purpose, probably.
6. Im Jaehyuk — S-rank. Class: Summoner. Age: 45. Could summon up to twelve A-rank level shadow beasts simultaneously. Extremely wealthy. Owned three buildings in Gangnam.
7. Yoo Taeshin — S-rank. Class: Berserker. Age: 38. Known for collateral damage. The Association had a dedicated legal team just for his incidents. Once punched through a dungeon wall and accidentally created a new exit. The Association fined him. He punched a different wall.
Seven people. Seven absolute monsters. The gap between them and Siwoo was not a gap. It was an ocean. A galaxy. A conceptual void.
He closed the browser and opened the system quest log.
[AVAILABLE QUESTS:]
[QUEST: E-RANK HUNTER (Repeatable)]
[Kill 20 E-rank monsters.]
[Reward: 15 SP, +1 random stat]
[QUEST: DUNGEON EXPLORER]
[Clear an E-rank gate solo.]
[Reward: 30 SP, 1 Random Item Box]
[QUEST: ABOVE YOUR GRADE]
[Kill 1 D-rank monster.]
[Reward: 50 SP, +2 STR, +1 AGI]
He looked at the third quest.
Kill one D-rank monster. Solo. As a level 3 E-rank.
D-rank monsters were significantly stronger than E-rank goblins. We were talking orcs, large wolves, armored lizards — creatures that could and did kill unprepared E-rank Hunters. D-rank parties usually consisted of at least one D-rank Hunter and three or four E-ranks.
The reward was massive though. Fifty SP. Plus three stat points. That would put him close to being able to buy real equipment.
He thought about it.
Then he thought about Mrs. Cha and his rent.
Then he thought about the daily quest penalty — the full-body itch — and what future penalties might be if he fell behind on progression.
"The Dungeon Explorer quest first," he decided. "Clear an E-rank gate solo. I already killed ten goblins in one yesterday. I can clear the rest."
[THE SYSTEM APPROVES OF HOST'S DECISION TO PROGRESS METHODICALLY.]
"I'm not progressing methodically. I'm doing the easiest one first."
[THE SYSTEM RETRACTS ITS APPROVAL.]
He went back to the gate behind Seoul Station. The one from yesterday. It was still there — he hadn't cleared it, just killed ten goblins and left. The remaining twenty-five goblins and the hobgoblin boss were still inside.
The Association notice was still posted. The scheduled raid was set for this afternoon — about three hours from now. If he was going to clear it solo, he needed to do it before the assigned party showed up.
He looked around the alley. Empty. Afternoon rain had driven most people indoors. No Association officers in sight.
He activated Predator's Eye and looked at the gate.
[E-RANK GATE]
[Remaining Monsters: 23 Goblins, 1 Hobgoblin Warrior (Boss)]
[Gate Stability: Stable — estimated 18 hours before natural collapse]
Twenty-three goblins and one boss. He'd killed twelve goblins total across yesterday and today. He knew the patterns. Goblins in groups of two to four, scattered through the forest dungeon. The boss in the back.
He pulled his bat from inventory. Checked his stats.
STR: 9. AGI: 10. END: 7. PER: 13.
Better than yesterday. Not great. But better.
He walked in.
The dark forest again. Same damp air. Same bioluminescent moss. Same chittering in the distance.
But this time, Predator's Eye was active. And it changed everything.
He could see them. Not physically — the skill overlaid information onto his vision. Small markers appeared at the edges of his perception, indicating monster positions. Level numbers. Stat summaries. Weaknesses.
There. Thirty meters ahead. Two goblins.
[Goblin — Lv. 2 — STR: 5 / AGI: 7 / END: 3]
[Weakness: Blunt trauma to skull, fire, loud noises]
[Goblin — Lv. 3 — STR: 6 / AGI: 8 / END: 4]
[Weakness: Blunt trauma to skull, fire, loud noises]
Both weaker than him. His STR was 9. His AGI was 10. He was stronger and faster than every goblin in here.
He crept forward. Ambushed. Two swings. Two kills.
[Goblin defeated. +3 EXP]
[Goblin defeated. +3 EXP]
He moved on.
The next hour was systematic slaughter. Predator's Eye let him track every goblin in the dungeon. He could see them through walls, around corners, behind trees. He knew exactly where they were, how strong they were, and where to hit them.
Ambush. Swing. Kill. Move.
Ambush. Swing. Kill. Move.
He fell into a rhythm. Not a combat rhythm — more like a work rhythm. Like stacking boxes in a warehouse. Repetitive. Mechanical. Boring.
[Goblin defeated. +3 EXP]
[Goblin defeated. +3 EXP]
[Goblin defeated. +3 EXP]
[LEVEL UP!]
[Level 3 → Level 4]
[+5 HP, +3 MP]
[Stat points available: 3]
He put two into STR and one into AGI.
STR: 9 → 11. AGI: 10 → 11.
The bat felt lighter. His swings were faster. The goblins died quicker.
[Goblin defeated. +3 EXP]
[Goblin defeated. +3 EXP]
[LEVEL UP!]
[Level 4 → Level 5]
[+5 HP, +3 MP]
[Stat points available: 3]
Two into END, one into LCK.
END: 7 → 9. LCK: 6 → 7.
He was breathing easier now. The fatigue from sustained combat was less. His legs didn't burn as much. His arms recovered faster between swings.
By the time he'd cleared all twenty-three goblins, he was level 5 with significantly better stats than the E-rank Hunter who'd walked in an hour ago.
But the boss was still alive.
The hobgoblin warrior waited in the deepest part of the forest, in a clearing lit by clusters of glowing moss. It was the same type as the one from yesterday's party raid — two and a half meters tall, stone axe, rat skull necklace.
Siwoo activated Predator's Eye.
[Hobgoblin Warrior — Lv. 8 — BOSS]
[STR: 18 / AGI: 9 / END: 15 / INT: 4]
[Weakness: Low agility. Slow recovery after overhead swings. Joints (knees, elbows) are unarmored.]
[Threat Assessment: DANGEROUS for current Host level.]
STR 18. His was 11. The hobgoblin was almost twice as strong as him. But its AGI was 9, and his was 11. He was faster.
Low agility. Slow recovery after overhead swings. Unarmored joints.
He could work with that.
He took a deep breath. Gripped the bat. Stepped into the clearing.
The hobgoblin saw him immediately. It stood up from a crude stone throne, grabbed its axe, and roared. The sound shook the trees. Birds — or whatever dungeon equivalent existed — scattered from the canopy.
Siwoo didn't roar back. Roaring was effort.
The hobgoblin charged. It covered the distance in four massive strides and brought the axe down in a vertical chop aimed at splitting him in half.
He stepped left.
The axe cratered the ground where he'd been standing. Dirt and moss exploded outward. The hobgoblin was hunched over from the swing, arms extended, off-balance.
Slow recovery after overhead swings.
Siwoo swung the bat at its right knee. Full force.
CRACK.
The hobgoblin shrieked. Not a battle cry — a pain cry. Its right leg buckled. It swung the axe sideways in a wild counterattack. Siwoo ducked. The axe passed over his head, close enough to ruffle his hair.
He circled to its right side. The damaged leg. It tried to pivot and couldn't move fast enough. He swung at the same knee again.
CRACK.
The hobgoblin dropped to one knee. It was now at his height. Eye to eye. Its face was twisted in rage and pain. It grabbed a fistful of dirt and threw it at his face.
He didn't expect that.
Dirt hit his eyes. He stumbled backward, blinking, vision blurred. The hobgoblin lunged forward on its one good leg and swung the axe horizontally.
He couldn't see it clearly. But Predator's Eye wasn't vision — it was perception. The skill still tracked the hobgoblin's position, its movement, the trajectory of the axe.
He dropped flat.
The axe whistled over him.
He wiped his eyes with his sleeve, blinked rapidly, and rolled sideways as the axe came down again, cratering the spot where his chest had been.
His vision cleared just enough. The hobgoblin was leaning forward, axe embedded in the ground, both hands on the handle, one knee down.
Its left elbow was completely exposed.
Siwoo swung the bat at the elbow.
CRACK.
The hobgoblin's left arm went limp. It released the axe with that hand, now holding it with only its right. One leg damaged. One arm damaged. Still dangerous — STR 18 even one-handed was brutal — but it was falling apart.
He didn't let up. He circled to the left. The hobgoblin tried to stand and failed. Tried to swing one-handed. The axe was too heavy for a one-armed swing from a kneeling position. It overbalanced and planted its face in the dirt.
Siwoo stood over it.
He raised the bat.
Brought it down on the back of the hobgoblin's skull.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
[CRITICAL HIT!]
[Hobgoblin Warrior (E-rank Boss) defeated.]
[+50 EXP]
[Boss Core obtained.]
[LEVEL UP!]
[Level 5 → Level 7]
[+10 HP, +6 MP]
[Stat points available: 6]
[DUNGEON CLEARED]
[QUEST COMPLETE: DUNGEON EXPLORER]
[REWARD: 30 SP, 1 Random Item Box]
He stood there. Bat dripping. Breathing hard. Covered in dirt and green blood. His hoodie was torn on the left sleeve from where the axe had barely missed. His left sneaker sole was gone entirely — he was basically wearing a sock on one foot.
But the dungeon was cleared. Solo. An E-rank gate, soloed by a level 7 with a baseball bat.
He sat down on the hobgoblin's corpse. It was the only dry surface in the clearing.
"Six stat points," he said.
He thought carefully. Then distributed.
STR: 11 → 13.
AGI: 11 → 13.
END: 9 → 10.
CHA: 5 → 6.
LCK: 7 → 8.
He kept his stat growth balanced but leaning toward combat stats. The Charisma point was because having a 5 was genuinely embarrassing and might literally have been affecting how people treated him.
[RANDOM ITEM BOX obtained. Open now?]
"Yes."
The box materialized and cracked open.
[ITEM OBTAINED: Hunter-Grade Reinforced Bat (D-rank)]
[Type: Blunt Weapon]
[Attack Power: 45]
[Durability: 200/200]
[Special Effect: Impact Force +15%. Strikes have a 5% chance to cause Stun (1 second).]
[Description: A professionally manufactured combat bat reinforced with mana-conductive alloy. Significantly superior to a dumpster bat in every measurable way.]
He looked at the weapon.
Then he looked at his old aluminum bat. Dented. Bent slightly from hobgoblin skull impacts. Green blood staining the barrel.
Then he looked at the new bat.
It was sleek. Dark metal with a matte finish. Slightly heavier. The grip was wrapped in some kind of synthetic material that molded to his hand. It felt like it was made for him.
[THE SYSTEM NOTES THAT THE RANDOM ITEM BOX RARELY GENERATES ITEMS MATCHING HOST'S PREFERRED WEAPON TYPE. HOST'S LUCK STAT MAY HAVE INFLUENCED THE RESULT.]
LCK: 8.
"This is going into Luck every time," he muttered.
He placed the old dumpster bat on the ground. A moment of silence. It had served him well. Three years of goblin bashing. Found behind a middle school. Died in a dungeon behind Seoul Station.
He put the new bat in his inventory and walked out of the gate.
The gate collapsed behind him. A shimmering implosion, blue-white light folding in on itself and vanishing, leaving nothing but empty air and a slightly singed patch of concrete.
An Association officer arrived twelve minutes later. He found no gate. Just a scorch mark on the ground and a discarded aluminum baseball bat.
He filed a report: "Gate collapsed naturally before scheduled raid. No anomalies detected."
Siwoo was already on the bus home.
He checked his full status on the ride back.
[STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Yoon Siwoo
Level: 7
Class: None (Unlocks at Level 10)
Title: None
HP: 130/130
MP: 68/68
STR: 13
AGI: 13
END: 10
INT: 14
PER: 13
CHA: 6
LCK: 8
Skills: Predator's Eye (C) [Passive]
Equipment:
Hunter-Grade Reinforced Bat (D-rank) [ATK: 45, Impact +15%, 5% Stun]
Inventory: 7/10 slots used (goblin cores x23, hobgoblin boss core x1)
SP: 65
Level 7 in two days. Starting from literally nothing. If the Hunter Association re-evaluated him right now, he'd probably rank as a mid-to-high E-rank based on stats alone. Maybe low D-rank.
But he didn't want to be re-evaluated. Re-evaluation meant attention. Attention meant expectations. Expectations meant work.
He wanted to do the minimum amount necessary to not die, pay his rent, and sleep.
That was the plan.
[THE SYSTEM HAS DETECTED HOST'S PLAN. THE SYSTEM FINDS IT INADEQUATE.]
"The system can find whatever it wants. I'm going home."
[A NEW QUEST WILL BE GENERATED UPON REACHING LEVEL 10. THE SYSTEM RECOMMENDS REACHING LEVEL 10 WITHIN THE NEXT 72 HOURS.]
"Recommends or requires?"
[RECOMMENDS. THE SYSTEM CANNOT FORCE HOST TO ACCEPT NON-DAILY QUESTS.]
"Good."
[HOWEVER, FAILING TO REACH LEVEL 10 WITHIN 72 HOURS WILL RESULT IN THE PERMANENT LOCKING OF THE CLASS SELECTION FEATURE.]
"..."
[THE SYSTEM WOULD DESCRIBE THIS AS A STRONG RECOMMENDATION.]
"That's a threat."
[THE SYSTEM PREFERS THE TERM 'INCENTIVIZED GUIDANCE.']
Seventy-two hours. Three days. Level 7 to level 10. He needed roughly three more levels. Based on the EXP he'd been getting from E-rank monsters, that would require... a lot of goblins. Or fewer, stronger monsters.
The D-rank quest was still in his quest log.
[QUEST: ABOVE YOUR GRADE]
[Kill 1 D-rank monster.]
[Reward: 50 SP, +2 STR, +1 AGI]
One D-rank monster. His stats were now in the 13 range — roughly equivalent to a D-rank Hunter's baseline. With Predator's Eye showing him weaknesses and his new bat hitting significantly harder...
Maybe.
But not today. Today he'd already cleared a dungeon, done his daily quest, and run one kilometer in the rain. His body was done.
Tomorrow.
He got off the bus, walked home, climbed the four flights, and entered his apartment.
The ramen supply was running low. Four packets left. He'd need to buy more. But first — the goblin cores.
He pulled them from inventory. Twenty-three goblin cores and one boss core. Regular goblin cores sold for about two thousand won each on the open market. Boss cores went for fifty thousand.
23 × 2,000 = 46,000 won.
1 × 50,000 = 50,000 won.
Total: 96,000 won.
Plus the sixty thousand from yesterday's party raid. That was 156,000 won in two days. Not enough for rent yet, but getting there.
He'd sell the cores tomorrow at the Association exchange. They took a 10% commission, which was highway robbery, but it was the only legal way to sell monster materials.
He made ramen. Two packets. A luxury. He cracked a real egg into it — a promise he'd made to his body during the run.
He ate, set his alarm for 5:55 AM, and lay down.
[HOST HAS 69 HOURS AND 42 MINUTES TO REACH LEVEL 10.]
"Goodnight to you too."
He closed his eyes.
He was almost asleep when his phone buzzed.
Group chat. Jang Minho.
[MINHO: The gate behind Seoul Station collapsed early. Association says natural collapse. Weird though — E-rank gates usually don't collapse before the scheduled raid. Anyone hear anything?]
[JIA: No idea. Lucky for us, less work this week lol]
[EUNJI: Natural collapse rates are 3% for stable gates. Statistically unlikely.]
[DOHYUN: Maybe a solo Hunter cleared it?]
[MINHO: Who would solo an E-rank gate? And why? The pay's barely worth it for a party. Solo would be insane.]
[DOHYUN: True lol]
Siwoo read the messages. Typed nothing. Put his phone face-down and went to sleep.
Outside Seoul, in the Hunter Association's headquarters in Yeouido, a different conversation was happening.
The monitoring room was large. Dozens of screens showed gate locations across the country. Officers tracked gate stability, assigned raid parties, and logged clearance reports.
Senior Analyst Kwon Hyejin frowned at her screen.
"Gate SK-E-2847. Seoul Station sector. Status changed from 'Active' to 'Cleared' at 14:23 today."
"Cleared?" Her colleague, Park Jinwoo, leaned over. "The raid wasn't scheduled until 15:00. Who cleared it?"
"That's the thing. No one. Field report says the gate collapsed naturally."
"But the status says 'Cleared,' not 'Collapsed.' Those are different system flags."
Hyejin nodded slowly. "Cleared means something killed every monster inside, including the boss. Collapsed means the gate's mana expired. The system reads differently for each."
"So someone went in and cleared it before the raid team arrived."
"Without authorization. Without filing a party entry report. And without anyone seeing them."
They looked at each other.
"Should we flag it?" Jinwoo asked.
Hyejin thought about it. An unauthorized solo clear of an E-rank gate. Technically a violation. But E-rank gates were the lowest priority. The monsters inside were barely a threat. The Association had bigger problems — like the two S-rank gates that hadn't been cleared and the three A-rank gates that were giving everyone headaches.
"Log it as anomalous. Low priority. If it happens again, we'll investigate."
She typed the report, filed it, and moved on to the next screen.
It would happen again. Many times. And each time the priority level would tick up, from "low" to "moderate" to "high" to "what the hell is going on."
But that was a problem for future Kwon Hyejin.
Current Kwon Hyejin needed coffee.
Back in his apartment, Yoon Siwoo slept.
He dreamed about baseball. A field. Green grass. Blue sky. He was at bat. The pitcher threw. He swung.
The ball exploded on contact. Literally exploded. Fragments everywhere. The crowd went silent. The umpire stared.
"Foul ball," the umpire said.
Even in his dreams, his luck was mediocre.
[END OF CHAPTER 2]