After finishing his application to return to school, Yoo Seong-hyeon boarded the bus home.
After being discharged from the military, he had felt as though he could do anything.
Yet Seong-hyeon had the distinct feeling that he was starting off on the wrong foot from the very beginning.
“If I’d known it would be like this, I would’ve looked into it before coming.”
That was because it had taken more than an hour from the time he arrived at the university until he finally finished applying to return.
Was it because he had the bad luck to come on an unusually crowded day?
Of course not. Most university administrative applications could be handled easily over the internet.
The teaching assistant, who had just returned after preparing for a freshman event, had even asked him why he had bothered coming all the way to the office.
Whenever a problem came up, Seong-hyeon had a habit of charging in first and thinking later.
That was why he had wasted three hours.
Returning to school was a departmental matter, so surely the department office would handle it.
With that thought alone, he had marched straight to the university.
‘Sigh... I can’t keep living like this forever...’
Thinking about it, Seong-hyeon realized that his life had always gone this way.
He had never taken a particular interest in anything or pursued something with genuine passion....
The reason was simple.
That was how he had been taught to live.
From school to the military, what had always been demanded of him was the same: keep quiet, do not stand out, and do not make a spectacle of yourself.
Everywhere he went, people wanted someone ordinary and easy to manage.
Seong-hyeon had lived accordingly. He had studied a reasonable amount, entered a decent-enough university, and gone off to the military at an appropriate time.
‘I don’t even know what’s what...’
Naturally, he had never seriously thought about a career, either.
He had assumed that once the appropriate time came, things would somehow work themselves out.
But listening to his classmates, he had heard that one after another, they were already starting to prepare for something.
Only then, looking back, did he realize just how short the two years he had left to decide on a career really were.
Seong-hyeon rested his head against the bus window and sank into an endless stream of worries.
[Here is the latest dungeon news. Two F-rank Gates that appeared in Cheorwon have reportedly broken simultaneously after failing to meet the minimum clear requirements.]
At that moment, the radio playing on the bus caught his attention.
The volume was fairly high, so he could hear it as clearly as if the radio were playing right in front of him.
[With attacks from Goblins and Direwolves continuing, Hunters and ordinary civilians alike are reportedly facing a serious threat. Our correspondent Seol Myeong-sik is currently at the scene....]
It was ordinary dungeon news.
A dungeon had undergone a Break, and monsters were now roaming Cheorwon....
Every dungeon beyond a Gate had its own mission, and if the minimum clear requirement was not achieved, the dungeon would undergo a Break.
Of course, there was no reason to worry too much over an F-rank dungeon.
Hunters would show up and bring the situation under control soon enough.
‘Being a Hunter would be nice. Your skill gets decided for you, too.’
Anyone in the world who Awakened would never have to worry about finding employment.
Their role was decided for them, and their income was effectively guaranteed....
But Seong-hyeon soon shook the thought away.
Awakening would certainly solve his worries easily, but it was not something that happened simply because a person wanted it.
It was a matter of pure luck, no different from winning the lottery.
There was nothing more foolish than obsessing over luck.
[Next, an F-rank Gate in Ansan has also reportedly undergone a Break after failing to meet the required threshold....]
Ansan.
That was where Seong-hyeon lived.
Judging from how peaceful everything looked outside the window, whatever commotion had erupted must have been somewhere far away.
More importantly, it seemed as though F-rank Dungeon Breaks had suddenly become much more common in Korea lately....
“Wow. Just look at the state of Ansan. Even an F-rank dungeon blew up.”
“Hey, hey. Want to go see where it happened?”
The voices belonged to two boys riding the same bus.
Judging by the way they spoke and dressed, they looked like middle schoolers at most.
Their behavior certainly matched that age.
“Why would we go there, you f*cking idiot?”
“It’s only F-rank. Don’t you think we could beat at least one monster ourselves?”
“You think that would make you Awaken?”
“That’s what they said on Winstar.”
“That’s all bullshit, you f*cking moron.”
The students burst into laughter, swearing between practically every sentence.
Seong-hyeon wondered whether there was some rule requiring boys that age to talk like that.
It reminded him of when he had been younger.
It also made him wonder what things might have been like if he had started preparing for employment back then....
‘Yeah. You two should enjoy yourselves while you can. It won’t be too late to worry about finding a job later.’
Seong-hyeon smiled faintly at the students, somehow able to picture them walking down the same path he had.
“Hey, hey. Look at that old man.”
“He’s smirking. Does he think we’re funny?”
Oh, right.
Seong-hyeon remembered one more characteristic of boys that age.
It was the age when they were least afraid of anything in the world.
Unbelievable.
Even if they were at a fearless age, were they seriously picking a fight with him out of nowhere?
With an “old man” who had just been discharged from the military and was practically overflowing with combat power?
Seong-hyeon could not just sit there and listen anymore.
“Kids, you should keep it down in public, shouldn’t you?”
“Who are you to butt in, old man?”
“I’m an E-rank Hunter. I’m on my way to deal with the Break right now.”
What made adults frightening was, as always, their shamelessness.
As long as he made his story sound even remotely convincing, middle schoolers would fall for it.
And Hunters were always an effective subject against kids like these.
“Y-You’re lying. What kind of Hunter rides the bus?!”
“Th-That’s right. Hunters make that much money, and you’re saying you don’t even have a car?!”
“You two don’t know that it’s hard for vehicles to get anywhere near a Dungeon Break, do you?”
The boys, who had looked ready to lunge at him just moments earlier, suddenly seemed startled.
Before he knew it, they could barely meet his eyes and were stumbling over their words.
‘They bought it.’
Seong-hyeon did not let the opportunity slip away. He stood up and pressed the stop button.
BEEP-
“The Break is around here. Want to get off with me?”
“G-Get off and do what?!”
“I was thinking of throwing the two of you to a Golem. You said you could kill one, didn’t you?”
“Y-You’re lying....”
“Then get off and follow me.”
Seong-hyeon stepped off the bus with complete composure.
He could see the students cautiously peeking at him through the window.
“Why, you—!”
“Aaagh-!”
Seong-hyeon made an exaggerated lunge toward them, and the boys flinched in terror before ducking their heads.
As if the timing had been planned, the bus immediately pulled away.
When the two boys cautiously poked their heads up again, their faces were drenched with tears.
Having completed his lesson in etiquette, Seong-hyeon headed straight home.
‘Good grief... What a day. Should I buy a lottery ticket or something?’
He had already experienced several strange incidents over the course of a single afternoon.
Maybe he was simply getting all his bad luck out of the way.
He was just about to open his front door when—
[※Awakening a Skill.]
[You will be forcibly transported to the Tutorial Area to facilitate System adaptation.]
A sparkling light appeared before his eyes, followed by an impossible phenomenon floating in midair.
A System window appeared.
He had heard about them so often that the sight was almost familiar.
“...What the f*ck....”
A brief moment passed.
BZZT-
[Transporting to Tutorial Dungeon F-0011/Goblin Stronghold....]
Seong-hyeon vanished from the entryway.
His mother, Kim Gyeong-ae, had been preparing dinner in the kitchen when she heard his voice and walked toward the entrance.
“Seong-hyeon, are you home? And what is this ‘f*ck’ the moment you walk through the—”
But no one was there.
“Hmm? Was that the wind?”
Kim Gyeong-ae tilted her head for a moment, apparently deciding that she must have imagined it.
Then she returned to the kitchen, humming once more.
***
[Transportation to Tutorial Dungeon F-0011/Goblin Stronghold has been completed.]
[Awakening and transportation occur regardless of nationality, race, time zone, etc.]
[Awakened individuals transported to a dungeon have their Vitality, Mental Strength, and Fatigue reset.]
While the System window explained one thing after another, Seong-hyeon stood there in a daze, trying to understand what was happening.
A short while later.
‘This isn’t a dream, right?’
Even though the System window itself told him this was reality, he could not stop wondering whether he was dreaming.
That was how unbelievable and uncommon the situation was.
Before he knew it, he found himself automatically doing the sort of things people always did in movies and dramas.
SLAP- SLAP-
STREEETCH.
‘Ow... That hurts.’
His cheeks stung and burned.
Which meant this really was an Awakening.
According to the System window, he had entered a Tutorial Dungeon.
Nationality, race, time zone.
None of them mattered.
As if to prove that explanation, another Awakened person nearby, someone who was clearly not East Asian, was vigorously slapping their own cheeks.
Just like Seong-hyeon.
Most of the Awakened who had arrived in the Tutorial Dungeon were behaving similarly.
On the other hand, he could see an Arab person calmly examining something nearby.
There were dungeon fanatics even among ordinary civilians who knew dungeons inside and out, so they were probably that type.
[There is a Skill you can check. Say ‘Skill Window.’]
When the System window provided another explanation, Seong-hyeon realized what the other person had been looking at.
The most important thing to an Awakened individual.
A ‘Skill,’ something that was practically a profession assigned by the System itself.
Seong-hyeon summoned his Skill Window with a trembling voice.
“S... Skill Window.”
[Skill]
『Meteor(EX)』
Level: 1
Details: Summoning-Type, Material Summoning
Skill Mechanism:
※Unperturbed Descent: When the Skill is activated, an iron meteorite with a maximum diameter of 10 cm is instantly summoned 1 km above the target or designated location.
※Anomaly Resistance: Due to System interference, aerodynamic heating occurs, but the fluid drag coefficient is fixed at 0.
※Special Inertia: The meteorite is considered to have fallen from beyond the atmosphere. The meteorite maintains a speed of 10 km/s. As a result....
※Anomalous Physical Phenomena Control
Low-Frequency Vibration Isolation
Fluid Displacement Suppression
※Destruction Range and Effects
Direct Impact Zone: Within a 10 m radius
Shockwave Effect Radius: 150-300 m
Acoustic Noise: 180 dB
“Whoa... Amazing. This feels like the real thing.”
Actually seeing a Skill for himself filled him with almost overwhelming excitement.
It meant he could use a Skill like real Hunters.
No.
It meant he could use one as a Hunter himself.
And with Meteor being EX-rank, he had clearly obtained no ordinary Skill.
‘...But....’
Unperturbed Descent, Special Inertia, fluid drag....
Seong-hyeon had studied the humanities.
He was far too much of a humanities student to understand any of this.
‘If you’re going to Awaken me, couldn’t you at least explain it in a way I can understand?’
He had to understand what the Skill actually did before he could decide how to use it.
It felt as though he had suddenly been handed a physics problem more complicated than anything he had seen even on the college entrance exam.
[The Tutorial will now begin.]
【F-0011/Goblin Stronghold】
『Primary Monster: Goblin』
『Boss: Goblin Centurion』
『Primary Mission: Defeat Boss (Goblin Centurion) (0/1)』
『Minimum Requirement: Defeat Goblin (0/1)』
『Time Limit: 03:00:00:00』
[You will be warped to a random location within the Tutorial Dungeon.]
Unfortunately, it seemed that the System window had no intention of waiting for a bewildered humanities student.
The Tutorial began before Seong-hyeon had even finished understanding his Skill.
BEEP-
※Unperturbed Descent: When the Skill is activated, an iron meteorite with a maximum diameter of 10 cm....
※Anomaly Resistance: Due to System interference, aerodynamic heating occurs, but the fluid drag coefficient....
※Special Inertia: The meteorite maintains a speed of 10 km/s....
Without even knowing where he had been warped, Seong-hyeon read through the Skill Window for the third time.
And yet—
Meteor?
He still could not picture what the Skill actually did.
At Seong-hyeon’s level of understanding, the only part that made any sense was that it summoned a 10-centimeter rock roughly the size of his palm.
‘To hell with it. Should I just try it?’
No matter how many times he reread the Skill Window, he was not going to decipher it.
If he wanted to understand his Skill under those circumstances, there was only one thing he could do.
Use it himself.
Seong-hyeon immediately focused on the Skill.
A System window linked to the Skill appeared.
There was no accompanying explanation, but he instinctively understood how to operate it.
『Meteor(EX)』
[Target Designation]
001. Goblin Recruit ◀
002. Goblin Recruit
003. Goblin Recruit
004. Goblin Apprentice Priest
005. Goblin Instructor
…….
Apparently, Meteor allowed him to designate individual targets one by one.
More surprisingly, the Skill Window seemed capable of identifying every monster inside the dungeon.
……
185. Goblin Warrior ◀
……
237. Goblin Priest
……
301. Goblin Centurion (Mission Target)
302. Other Location (Specify Point)
303. Saved Target (None)
“Goblin Centurion?”
Even the boss monster was displayed at the very bottom of the list containing more than three hundred entries.
Along with the conspicuous label ‘Mission Target.’
‘Oh... I can target the boss directly?’
There was no need to look any further.
Nothing would be more reliable than testing it himself.
For now, he would just fire one shot....
Goblin Centurion (Mission Target) ◀
‘How strong can a palm-sized meteor really be...?’
[Skill activated. Meteor will be summoned.]
“Oh! It wor—”
Exactly 0.1 seconds after the System announced that the Skill had been activated—
Before Seong-hyeon could even finish reading the message—
He saw a streak of light falling from the sky.
In the blink of an eye, it plunged toward the mountainside like a spear and slammed into something.
A settlement built from trees and brush collapsed, and Goblins were swept away by the shockwave and hurled through the air.
It was a sight that embodied the overwhelming majesty of nature.
The shockwave reached all the way to Seong-hyeon, carrying an enormous roar and a violent blast of dust with it....
KABOOOOOM!!
[You have cleared the Tutorial Dungeon.]
[Personal Record]
【F-0011/Goblin Stronghold】
『Defeat Boss (Goblin Centurion) (1/1)』
*Contribution: 100%
『Defeat Goblins (147/1)』
-New Record: Most Defeats
『Time Elapsed: 00:12:14:10』
-New Record: Fastest Clear
The dungeon had been cleared.
With overwhelming destructive power, only 0.1 seconds after he had used the Skill.
Seong-hyeon even found himself wondering whether that had truly been a Skill.
Everything had happened that quickly.
※ All subjugation loot has been automatically collected into the Inventory.
[You have achieved 1st place in the Tutorial Dungeon.]
[You may register your first-place record. Would you like to set a nickname?]
“Huh...?”
As if answering his doubts, the System window confirmed it once again.
He had taken first place in the dungeon.
“It really was me? Meteor is f*cking insane....”
[Profanity cannot be used in a nickname.]
[Filtering profanity and generating the optimal nickname.]
“Nickname? What nickname?!”
[Dungeon F-0011/Goblin Stronghold has been cleared!]
[With a contribution rate of 100%, first place is awarded to Hunter ‘Naya Meteor.’]
While Seong-hyeon was still too stunned by the aftermath of his Skill to gather his thoughts, a new rising star of Korea’s Hunter community was registered in the System.
Hunter ‘Naya Meteor,’ who had seized first place in a Tutorial Dungeon in only twelve minutes.
[As a 1st-place reward, a 2× Magic Crystal drop-rate buff will be applied to the affiliated country (Korea).]