The massive round table in the conference room.
At its center, a floating hologram screen formed an image, giving off only the faintest ripples.
-BANG—!
Within it, a man’s skull burst apart.
For an instant, red blood and gray-white brain matter stained the hologram completely, but.
-Shhhhh....
It quickly restored itself.
The broken bones returned to their original places, and the scattered muscle and skin settled back where they belonged.
Then the man slowly raised himself.
He fitted his severed arm into place as if slotting it in, then grabbed the eyeball that had fallen to the ground and pushed it into his eye socket.
After that, he entered the fight again.
The hologram screen repeated that scene endlessly.
A subjugation battle that included SS-grade Hunters, and even SSS-grade Hunter Bae Hyeong-seok.
Eight elite Hunters poured every attack they had onto a single person and killed him again and again.
Yet not once did he actually die.
At each chair around the table, instead of a person sitting there, a hologram screen floated.
On each screen, a number or symbol was drawn in place of a human face, “...Impossible.”
Among them, the screen marked ‘7’ and a silver snake lit up as a low voice spoke.
“The Curse of Immortality. To think the last of the legendary four curses would appear in reality like this.”
This time, ‘3,’ the golden eagle, lit up and a voice sounded.
“Wait. Is it safe to be certain? Could it simply be an ability with an extraordinarily strong regenerative power...?”
“Impossible. If resurrecting from a tongue, from one eyeball, and from ash is not a curse, then what is it? Such an ability is impossible.”
Then ‘8,’ the iron pillar, tried to argue back, but was cut off by the objection of ‘2,’ the red eye.
“...Research on the tower has not even advanced very far yet, and already all four curses have been discovered. Is this not truly an omen of Earth’s destruction?”
“Do not speak rashly, 8.”
This time, ‘1’ cut off 8’s words.
Beneath the 1 was a black sun, and he was positioned at the innermost part of the conference room with the round table.
“Destruction is what we will stop. That is the reason we exist.”
‘We.’
They were Yggdrasil.
The ‘World Hunter Organization,’ gathered from the highest-level personnel of nations across the world.
This organization was not merely a Hunter association.
It was a massive secret organization that managed the tower, curses, and ability phenomena as a whole, formed by the world’s strongest Hunters, agents from top intelligence agencies, and scientists and mages who researched supernatural phenomena.
Their existence was thoroughly hidden from the public, and even within ordinary Hunter associations, very few people knew that ‘Yggdrasil’ truly existed.
What they had discovered was that ‘there is definitely someone managing the tower’s System.’
This was not from a creationist perspective, but ‘data’ they had clearly obtained through scientific analysis and the experiences of Hunters.
However, even to them, the ‘four curses’ were still a distant unknown.
“The unknown stands in perfect opposition to what is known.”
The unknown is dangerous, and the unknown is vast.
This was one of Yggdrasil’s basic principles.
Reveal everything in the world.
And because of that, their objective naturally....
“The time has come.”
“Yes.”
Narrowed into one.
“Let us make revealing the four great curses that exist across the nations of the world our main objective.”
1, the black sun, said as his symbol glowed.
***
“I will put it simply. I want the wanted notice on Yoo Da-huin canceled.”
“What?”
Bae Hyeong-seok drank tea with a calm expression.
In contrast, Korean Hunter Association President Choi Yong-gil, veins bulging across his entire face, slammed the table and shouted.
-BANG—!
“Are you joking? As if failing to bring him in wasn’t enough, you want me to cancel the wanted notice on him?!”
“You heard me correctly.”
-Clack.
He set down the teacup, crossed his legs, and said, “How much did you take? Was it more than five billion won? Ten billion? Twenty billion? Who the hell paid you off?”
“...Listen, Association President.”
Bae Hyeong-seok slowly uncrossed his legs at the Association President’s rage-filled words.
“No, Choi Yong-gil.”
“...What?”
“Once you get to around S-grade Hunter, money starts looking like meaningless paper. As long as I keep doing what I’m good at—catching monsters and climbing the tower—money piles up on its own.”
Bae Hyeong-seok spoke as he touched the leaf of the orchid on the table.
“Once you become SS-grade? Then you learn that greater power is authority. So gathering people of your level to your side and expanding your influence becomes entertaining.”
Then, with a snap, he plucked off the orchid leaf.
“...But SSS-grade Hunters are different.”
He glared into Choi Yong-gil’s eyes.
“It is no longer entertaining. Neither money nor power can give me anything. Because I come face to face with a vast truth.”
“What kind of bullshit is that?”
“Over there. You said your name was Lee Dae-hyuk, was it?”
“Y-yes, sir!”
Bae Hyeong-seok gestured to Choi Yong-gil’s secretary, Lee Dae-hyuk, who had been standing behind him.
“You step outside for a moment.”
“Who the hell do you think you are, you bastard...!”
“It is not something he should hear.”
“Th-then excuse me....”
Lee Dae-hyuk hesitated, gauged the mood, and eventually left the office.
-Clack.
Bae Hyeong-seok lifted his teacup again, took a sip, and looked into Choi Yong-gil’s eyes as he said,
“Yggdrasil.”
“...What?”
“Yggdrasil has come to Korea.”
“Y-Yggdrasil...?”
Choi Yong-gil’s eyes trembled.
Then, for no reason, he glanced around the empty office once before saying,
“Why would Yggdrasil...?”
“Is that not obvious? One of the four great curses has appeared in the Republic of Korea, so they are pursuing him.”
“One of the four great curses... Yoo Da-huin...?”
“Who else would it be?”
Bae Hyeong-seok sighed and said, “And the killing itself was self-defense. The ones who harmed him first were those three S-grade Hunters. For three whole days, no less.”
“...Do you have evidence?”
“Must I bring it?”
Bae Hyeong-seok asked Choi Yong-gil with a faint murderous glint in his eyes, and Choi Yong-gil cleared his throat before answering.
“Ahem... That is....”
“At any rate, speak with the government in that direction.”
“No, I have listened and listened, but I am the Association President of the Korean Hunter Association, Bae Hyeong-seok. What are you trying to do right now? Are you giving me an order?”
“Yes.”
“...What?”
-Slide.
Bae Hyeong-seok carefully gripped the teacup.
-CRASH—!
Then he smashed it down onto the table and broke it as he said, “I said yes. I am giving you an order.”
“You, what are you...?”
“It seems you do not understand when I speak kindly, so I brought two more, since I thought this might happen.”
“Two...?”
-Knock, knock.
And at that moment.
There was a knock at the door.
“Oh, come on. Why bother knocking?”
-BANG—!
Then, along with the sound of the door being violently thrown open, “Yo, long time no see, Bae Hyeong-seok. And old man.”
“You, you people are....”
“Yeah, you’re glad to see us after so long, right?”
“Do Hyeon-il and Choi Gang-hyeon...!”
Do Hyeon-il and Choi Gang-hyeon.
The only three SSS-grade Hunters who existed in the Republic of Korea.
They were the remaining two, excluding Bae Hyeong-seok.
They sat down beside Bae Hyeong-seok and positioned themselves opposite Choi Yong-gil.
“...How did you end up coming here...?”
“Huuuh?”
Do Hyeon-il smiled with sunglasses on.
“Listen. What’s so strange about Korean SSS-grade Hunters visiting Korea’s Hunter Association, right?”
“Th-that is true, but....”
“More importantly, we heard the conversation from outside.”
Choi Gang-hyeon cut off Choi Yong-gil and said, “...You were acting as if we were making a ‘request.’”
“Th-that is....”
“Ah, yeah. You were. Hey, old man, no matter how kind and gentle Hyeong-seok is....”
Do Hyeon-il slung an arm around Bae Hyeong-seok’s shoulders, slightly lowered the sunglasses he was wearing, and said, “...Do SSS-grade Hunters look like fucking jokes to you? Do you want me to teach you what the three of us do?”
“......”
At those words, Choi Yong-gil felt a tension as if his blood had frozen, sat bolt upright, and said, “N-no matter if it is a request from SSS-grade Hunters, Yoo Da-huin is currently the greatest topic in society. Clearing him of charges would be....”
“It is not a request.”
Choi Gang-hyeon cut off Choi Yong-gil again.
“...Huh?”
“I said it is not a request.”
“What does that mean...?”
-CLANG—!
“Hiiik...!”
Choi Gang-hyeon drew his sword at a speed impossible to see and drove it into the table.
-Crack, craaaack....
The table began to shatter and collapse.
Choi Gang-hyeon’s eyes flashed as he looked at Choi Yong-gil.
“SSS-grade Hunters do not make requests of anyone. Think properly before you speak.”
“...I....”
Choi Yong-gil’s hands trembled for a moment.
“...I will do that.”
Then he lowered his head and nodded.
“Good.”
-Shing....
Choi Gang-hyeon slid his sword back into the sheath at his waist and rose from his seat.
Following him, Bae Hyeong-seok and Do Hyeon-il also stood.
“Th-then what do you intend to do?!”
“Huuuh?”
“I mean Yoo Da-huin! Assuming punishment will not be carried out, what do you intend to do with him?”
“Hmm.”
The three SSS-grade Hunters looked at one another at Choi Yong-gil’s words.
Then Bae Hyeong-seok answered on their behalf.
“For now, we should fight him again. Three against one.”
***
[ The whereabouts of the wanted criminal ‘Yoo Da-huin,’ who fought against multiple SS-grade Hunters at Namyangju Tower No. 2 recently, have been identified once again. ]
[ The Hunter Association announced that immediately after he disappeared, they searched the Namyangju area, but his whereabouts were already unknown. ]
The electronic billboard was still talking about me nonstop.
Though a month had passed since I entered the tower, my popularity was incredible in an unwanted, malicious direction.
[ Meanwhile, after a close investigation, the Hunter Association and the government were revealed to have claimed ‘self-defense’ regarding the murder case of three S-grade Hunters by ‘Yoo Da-huin,’ prompting backlash from the bereaved families and the public.... ]
After watching and listening up to that point, I pulled my hood down deeper.
Once I came out of the tower, there was no more death.
Therefore, I had finally escaped that maddening loop of death and resurrection.
But how should I put it....
“...I want to die.”
My desire to die had grown stronger.
There was nothing else I wanted out here, and that was why I had entered the tower.
My original intention had hardened even more firmly, and because of that, I began to think rather deeply about what I should do going forward.
“...The purple crystal.”
I remembered what the purple crystal had said.
I can die.
But if I cannot, even after Earth’s destruction, I will drift through the universe alone forever, unable to die.
What a fucked-up fate is that?
Whether that world was another world or whatever, whether it was a dream or whatever, one fact was certain.
I will not be able to die through ordinary means.
“...Fuck.”
It made sense.
It wasn’t as if I’d die just because Earth disappeared.
Then, even if I don’t know what is what, even if I don’t know whether it’s that destruction or whatever, or whether it’s Infinity or whatever, or why she is looking for me and why she sent me, for now, the only thing I can do is climb the tower and grow stronger.
Was it for that reason, or was this some kind of fate?
-Thud.
As I ran with my strengthened stats, no, as I practically flew,
I arrived at another tower.
[ Ding! ]
[ You have discovered Bukhansan Tower No. 1! ]
“...Bukhansan?”
From Namyangju to Bukhansan.
I did think I’d run quite a bit, but I’d come pretty far.
[ Enter the tower? ]
I looked around and took off my hood.
Come to think of it, you really did revive again and again like you were part of my own flesh.
I am sick of you now, too.
“Well, I guess it really isn’t time for me to die yet.”
To think I was making jokes like this.
I let out a small laugh to myself.
[ Y/N ]
-Press.
I entered a new tower.