Kang Jin lost his combat exam to a bird that wasn't even in the room.
OUTPUT: 42 J
Instructor Lim enlarged the comparison diagram. An adult pigeon struck a glass door, spread into an undignified star and slid out of frame.
“Approximately equivalent,” Lim said. “F-rank.”
Jin looked at the falling pigeon.
“Does it pay the same tuition?”
Somebody snorted. Theo, an E-rank Moon Dancer, folded forward in the gallery, beautiful face disappearing behind both hands. The Academy used that face on recruitment posters. They used Jin's results to recommend less ambitious employment.
“Recovery assignments,” Lim said. “Next.”
“I'd like the bird's training budget.”
“Next.”
Theo met him outside with two coffees.
“Good news. You beat a moth.”
“Alive or dead?”
“Let's preserve the achievement.”
Jin took the cup without a lid. Theo's had one.
“You charged me for half.”
“You received half the accessories.”
The first sip tasted like someone had boiled the machine's coin tray.
Above the vending machine, Song Yu-ra smiled from an advertisement. The screen switched to her latest S-rank clear. A boss filled the frame; she stepped under its claw and cut its head off before the sponsor's slogan finished loading.
Jin held his coffee toward her smiling replacement image.
“You endorse this? I want your manager.”
Theo lifted his phone.
“Say that again.”
“Send it to customer service.”
“Of course.”
That should have worried him.
Mira's message arrived: Friday. Registration fee. Please look before saying you've handled it.
Jin checked his balance. Then the recovery-shift payment. Together, they would cover the fee if nothing else required money, including him.
He typed, I looked. I'll handle it.
Across the yard, fellow F-rank Seo Min-jae was being refused a crew-leader retest. Again.
Min-jae borrowed the registrar's pen, wrote something on his own palm and returned it.
“Examiner's name?” Jin asked as they passed.
“Next application date.”
Theo elbowed Jin. “Some people make useful lists.”
“Mine has enemies.”
Readers looking for the author's publication can use the official story page; this chapter was copied without consent.
The assembly speaker called their team.
Jin's private status followed him into Gate F-04.
KANG JIN
HUNTER: F | CLASS: WAYFARER — F
LEVEL 1 | EXP: 0/3
Three years. Same number.
Inside, four dead thorn hounds lay on limestone. The senior Hunters had moved ahead. Recovery got the bodies, venom and whatever hadn't already been broken.
Theo held a tin under the first hound while Jin clamped its venom sac.
“Delicate,” Theo said.
“You're welcome to become the replacement container.”
“I have a recruitment contract.”
The dead creature stayed dead. Blood dripped into the tin. Earth left you something to clean up.
Then every loose hair on its hide stood upright.
The lantern flame bent sideways.
“Back!” someone shouted.
A white cut opened above the floor. Stone chips lifted into it. One hound slid across the limestone, claws ticking, and disappeared. Three bodies remained.
Theo's boot skidded.
Jin caught his harness. The strap ripped through Jin's glove. He grabbed bare wrist instead.
“Let go!” Theo yelled.
“Great plan. You first!”
The floor tilted toward the white cut.
A senior Hunter reached for Theo. Jin shoved his friend into that hand, hard enough to send them both stumbling. The sudden loss of Theo's weight left Jin nothing to pull against.
White closed around his chest.
Theo reached back.
Jin vanished before their fingers met.
He hit earth shoulder-first and rolled through wet leaves. Something tore his sleeve below the elbow. His radio screamed once, then died.
Purple sky. Two unfamiliar ridgelines. No Gate.
“Theo?”
A fern shook.
Jin dragged himself upright, knife out. His knee threatened to resign. He needed it employed for another minute.
A six-legged creature stepped from the fern. Cat-sized, pale, spines down its back. One cloudy eye. Teeth made for opening somebody's bad afternoon.
It jumped at his bleeding arm.
Jin flung his forearm up. Teeth caught jacket instead of skin. He kicked the thing against a root; it bounced, landed on six feet and came straight back.
He had four fewer feet and no useful qualifications.
He threw a stone at its cloudy eye.
The stone struck bone. Its front legs buckled.
Jin drove his knife under the throat plate.
The blade jammed.
The animal twisted, teeth snapping beside his wrist. He dropped a knee onto its shoulder and shoved with both hands. His knee screamed. Something in the creature's neck crunched first.
It sagged against his boot.
Blue-white sparks climbed its hide.
Jin scrambled back. The corpse came apart, legs and teeth and blood lifting into light. Leaves underneath sprang clean.
RECLAIM DETECTED
EXP +3
He stopped breathing.
The counter moved.
LEVEL UP: 1 → 2
FREE ATTRIBUTE POINTS: +5
Jin touched the number with a dirty finger.
Still there.
He put one point into Agility. Four remained.
Heat tightened his calves. He rocked back, expecting the bad knee to fold, and his foot slid into place underneath him.
It was a tiny correction.
He tried it again.
His foot obeyed.
Jin laughed once, sharp and breathless, then looked around for Theo to tell him.
Only trees.
A panel opened over the empty leaves.
QUEST COMPILER — DAILY QUEST
STATE YOUR FULL NAME AND HUNTER RANK TO THE NEXT LIVING CREATURE YOU MEET.
ASK TO SPEAK TO ITS SUPERIOR. DO NOT ATTACK UNTIL IT RESPONDS.
REWARD: EXP +10; ONE LOCAL FIELD RECORD.
Ten.
For asking a monster to fetch the manager.
Something called from lower down the slope. Farther away, something much heavier answered.
HOST IS NOT ON EARTH.
“No shit.”
The nearer fern opened. Six pale legs stepped through.
Jin had already raised his hand to complain.