I awakened.
But....
[Huh? You can see me? Nice to meet you, homeowner!]
From that day on, I started seeing ghosts.
[It was getting suffocating in here, so this is perfect! Let’s live well together from now on!]
There was only one thing I had to say to that uninvited guest.
“Get out.”
***
When choosing a job, the most important consideration is always stability.
The three most important things are these.
Does the salary come in regularly without being delayed?
Is there no risk of the company going under?
Are the labor rights guaranteed by law properly protected?
I wanted a job that satisfied all those conditions, and at last, I got one.
That job was none other than a civil servant.
A perfect, secure job guaranteed until the country itself collapsed.
I had finally achieved the dream I had cherished since childhood.
There was nothing more I could ask for in my life.
Civil servants were famous for low pay, but even that was an investment in the future.
Civil servants had something called a pension.
I would save diligently, even if it was only a small amount, buy a little house in the provinces in my later years, and enjoy a leisurely life after retirement while receiving my pension.
Civil servants also had guaranteed job security, so if I took out a loan at the right time, I might be able to buy my own home much sooner.
It was my perfect life plan.
Until a ghost in the corner of my room appeared before my eyes.
[You’re a Hunter, right? I was a Hunter too! So when are you going to the Tower?]
“Shut up.”
To think someone else..., no, some ghost would be living in the three-room apartment I had taken on a lump-sum lease with a loan.
This was definitely a newly built apartment.
[If you’re a Hunter, you should climb the Tower!]
I had absolutely no intention of doing that.
Hunters, by nature, were freelancers whose lives were premised on irregular schedules.
There was the shelter of a guild, and they were at least classified as a profession, but the fact that their lives were fundamentally unstable remained unchanged.
But I was a civil servant of the Republic of Korea with a stable job guaranteed by the state.
And civil servants were forbidden from holding side jobs.
“Get out of my home before I come back from work.”
[Come on! You’re so uptight! Are you a T?]
“.......”
To think I would live long enough to hear that kind of crap from a ghost.
“Don’t ever show yourself to me again.”
SLAM—!
I shut the front door, which I usually closed carefully, harder than usual today. It was a powerful declaration of my will.
***
“Officer Lee, you’re here? You’re early again today.”
“Yes, but where did everyone go?”
The people who were usually at their desks at this hour were nowhere to be seen.
“Ah, well, there’s going to be a presidential address to the nation today. An emergency one.”
“An address?”
No matter how urgent it was, in cases like this, news usually managed to spread somehow beforehand.
If there was no official memo, at least rumors would circulate inside.
But this time, there had been neither warning nor official notice.
“Yes. So the district mayor told everyone to gather in the auditorium. I stayed behind to guide the others.”
Come to think of it, Officer Kim was holding Scotch tape and a printed sheet of paper.
[Please come to the auditorium when you arrive at work!]
“Please go on ahead first.”
“Understood.”
When I went to the auditorium, I saw familiar faces.
“Hey, Officer Lee. You’re here?”
“Yes, Team Leader. But what is going on?”
“This is confidential....”
The team leader looked around, then lowered his voice and spoke.
“You know Hunters?”
“...Hunters?”
“Yeah. Until now, they’ve left them to autonomy, right? Entrusted everything to the Hunter Association.”
“They did.”
“Looks like they’re planning to overhaul that.”
“What do you mean by that...?”
A Hunter-related address out of nowhere, the day after I awakened.
I felt an unwarranted sense of crisis.
The team leader began whispering in an even more secretive voice.
“They’re going to establish something new.”
“Establish something new?”
“Yeah, the Hunter Management Agency.”
“Then....”
The team leader suddenly put on a solemn expression.
“By any chance, Officer Lee, have you awakened?”
“......!”
That sudden jab came out of nowhere, and I was startled.
But judging from the atmosphere, it seemed the team leader had said it without any particular thought.
“They’re saying they’ll select only Awakened people and create the Hunter Management Agency. Until now, when people awakened, they just quit being civil servants and all that, right?”
That was true.
Because of the clause forbidding civil servants from holding side jobs.
That was why I still had not breathed a word about it.
The team leader smacked his lips and continued.
“If only I’d awakened, I would have applied right away. What a shame. Looks like they’re really going all out this time. With the salary.”
“By going all out..., do you mean the pay-step system is completely different?”
“Yeah, don’t even get me started. Our step 20 is their step 1 salary. On top of that....”
Step 20?
Did that mean the salary started at three to four million won?
“You know dungeon byproducts, right? I heard they’re going to calculate those separately too. There are tax benefits as well.”
“.......”
“Looks like they’ll take some existing Hunters through special recruitment this year. Apparently the official memo this time is to prevent future departures.”
I knew all about dungeon byproducts from the news. They were the Bitcoin that came out of dungeons.
Civil-servant job security, official permission to hold a side job, and on top of that, dungeon byproducts—the dungeon version of Bitcoin—plus tax benefits?
In that case, buying my own home in a stable way was no mere dream.
It might even be possible as soon as next year.
And in old age, I could keep collecting my pension too.
“It’s me.”
“...Huh?”
“The Awakened civil servant you’re so desperately searching for is right here.”
“Huh...? Officer Lee..., are you really?”
“Yes, I awakened yesterday.”
“You awakened?!”
“Seriously!!!”
“What? Officer Lee did?”
The auditorium became noisy in an instant.
He said it was confidential, but everyone had been listening.
***
There were still about ten minutes left until 9:00, the scheduled time for the address.
Then, first of all, this thing every Awakened person did.
“Status Window.”
As if proving that I was Awakened, a transparent blue window appeared before my eyes.
Class: Necromancer
Grade: Unmeasured
Nation: Korea
Title: Sealed
Stats: Health[20] Mana[10] Spiritual Power[300] Mental Strength[10] Attack Power[810] Defense[10] Strength[10] Intelligence[200]
Skills: Summon Dead Spirit 1(S), Exorcism 1(A), Materialization 1(A), Eye of Truth 1(A)>
Measurement Location: Tower 10th Floor.
Assessed by combining tutorial floor(Floors 1~10) clear results, titles, potential, etc.>
S-Grade seal.
Information acquired after defeating the Tower 40th Floor boss.
Special benefit after seal release:
Gain priority in all checks related to spirits of the dead.>
Sealed?
And what was priority in checks supposed to mean?
“Everyone, please take your seats!”
Someone shouted from the stage.
It was Officer Kim, who had sent us to the auditorium earlier.
A few minutes before the presidential address began, a video started playing on the large display in the auditorium.
“It’s being broadcast by the Presidential Office.”
The team leader spoke as he sat down beside me.
White letters appeared one by one on the entirely black screen.
[We will remember them.]
The screen brightened and showed someone.
A single beam of light descended from a sky thick with clouds.
A woman stood inside that radiant light.
[Regeneration]
She said only one word.
And yet.
FWOOOSH—!
The light spread outward and raised those around her to their feet.
Those who had collapsed after suffering severe injuries to their arms and legs, those whose stomachs had been pierced and were pouring blood, those lying on the ground unable to move their bodies—all of them were in that light before anyone realized it.
Then an astonishing change began.
Wounds vanished as if erased with an eraser.
Severed arms and legs began to grow back.
A person who had been lying down, waiting for the end, stretched a hand forward with tears streaming down his face.
As if giving thanks for the grace of God.
“Isn’t that Lee Se-a?”
“You know her?”
“You don’t know her, Officer Lee? That’s Lee Se-a, who used to be ranked second among Hunters.”
Used to be ranked second?
Then did that mean her ranking had changed?
But unexpected words flowed from the team leader’s mouth.
“What a loss. She died. Was it about six months ago?”
“She died?”
“Yeah. Where did she die again? Was it Gwanaksan Tower?”
“.......”
Come to think of it, I vaguely remembered hearing about it.
The district office had been in an uproar over that for a while too.
Hunters really were dangerous professionals.
It was truly a relief that the Hunter Management Agency was being created.
Otherwise, I would have had no choice but to hide the fact that I had awakened until the very end.
This time, another figure appeared on the screen.
Upon a vast expanse of land.
The man was surrounded by monsters.
Enemies that looked well over several hundred at a glance encircled him in layer after layer.
But he was calm.
The man raised his gaze and swept his cold eyes over his surroundings.
[Is this your answer?]
Then....
An ornate sword narrowly brushed past a monster’s neck.
But that alone was enough.
SLASH—!
Soon, by the force of his sword energy, the necks of ten or so monsters fell to the ground in an instant.
That was the beginning.
A feast of blood.
The battle was overwhelming.
It was nothing short of a one-sided massacre.
The district office employees watching the screen were shouting and cheering the man on.
“As expected of Korea’s No. 1 Hunter!”
“He’s not ranked fifth in the world for nothing!”
“Now that’s reassuring!”
“Cha Jun-hyeok! Cha Jun-hyeok!”
“So satisfying!”
But I....
‘No way?’
No matter how I looked at him, he did not seem unfamiliar.
He had the exact same facial features as the ghost I had run into at home.
I was certain.
The ghost in the corner of my room was that very man, Cha Jun-hyeok, the one called Korea’s No. 1 Hunter.
But Cha Jun-hyeok on the screen and the ghost in the corner of my room outside the screen had such different auras that it was hard to believe they were the same person.
Part of it was that I had not known Cha Jun-hyeok’s face very well to begin with, but this was actually why I had not recognized him right away.
Just then, the screen changed.
The Presidential Office briefing room, hung with blue curtains.
The president standing before them had a grave and solemn face.
The president closed his eyes and said,
[Let us observe a moment of silence.]
At those words, everyone looked puzzled.
“What?”
“Why a moment of silence all of a sudden?”
“Ah, is it for Ms. Se-a?”
[Hunter Cha Jun-hyeok’s life signs ceased as of 17:00 three days ago.]
Everyone froze.
Not even the sound of breathing could be heard.
In the briefing room, where time seemed to have stopped, the president calmly looked over the audience once before continuing.
[Based on verification, he is presumed to have died in the Tower.]
“...No way?”
“Is that true?”
“The news hasn’t said anything yet...!”
Confused voices filled the auditorium.
The reporters sitting in the briefing room also stirred noisily.
[It was kept strictly confidential for accurate verification, but yesterday, his death was confirmed as an established fact.]
“How...?”
Something impossible had happened.
Even I, who normally lived without watching TV, had heard his name until it was worn thin.
Because Cha Jun-hyeok existed, our country could be at peace.
Because he cleared the uppermost floors of the Tower for us, we could enjoy ordinary everyday life as we had before.
The fact that I had been able to live without knowing Cha Jun-hyeok’s face well was, in a way, all thanks to him.
After all, they said that in an age of peace, you did not even know the ruler’s name.
[Two months ago, we had to bid farewell to an S-Grade Healer named Lee Se-a. And yesterday, once again, we lost an S-Grade Hunter named Cha Jun-hyeok.]
Amid the heavy gloom, someone’s quiet voice drifted over.
“...What do we do now?”
Perhaps everyone felt the same way.
If a country could not clear the Tower by its own power, that was when hell began.
It was even in the Introduction to Public Administration exam-prep books for civil servants.
San Marino, a small country in Europe, had issued an evacuation order for all citizens because of a Tower collapse.
Congo had leased top-ranked Hunters from other countries again and again until its foreign exchange reserves ran dry. In the end, it had no choice but to apply to the IMF for a bailout.
The situation inside the briefing room still looked as if a typhoon had swept through.
In truth, not just anyone became a reporter assigned to the Presidential Office.
The presidential press corps was made up of veterans handpicked by each media company.
But even this press corps, assembled only from the very best, could not hide its confusion now.
[Mr. President!]
[Do you have evidence?]
[Are you certain he is dead, not missing?!]
At that moment, the Blue House spokesperson stepped in to calm the room.
[A separate Q&A session will be held after the address. For now, please remain quiet.]
The reporters looked as if they had much more to say, but for the time being, they stopped asking questions.
The president’s speech resumed.
[My beloved citizens.]
The president faced the camera with emotion in his eyes, the likes of which I had never seen before.
[We now face the greatest crisis since the founding of the Republic of Korea.]
Sighs sounded from all over.
Someone even sobbed quietly.
[Therefore, here and now, I wish to make one promise to you, the citizens.]
“A promise?”
“Ah, could it be...?”
[I will no longer simply stand by and watch. I will prevent any more innocent sacrifices.]
The president’s eyes grew resolute again.
That gaze seemed to show his firm will.
[From now on, the nation will share in carrying their heavy burden.]
At that, murmurs began again.
Just whose burden did the government mean to share?
But if one thought about it, there was only one conclusion.
At present, there was only one organization related to Hunters.
[Until now, we have entrusted Hunter management duties to the Hunter Association. But that burden was not one that a single association could bear.]
The president took direct aim at the Hunter Association.
[Accordingly, the government keenly feels its responsibility and intends to prepare measures to improve the present reality. As the first such measure....]
The president had phrased it as indirectly as possible, but that was as good as a declaration that the government would seize the Association’s authority.
And the means was probably this.
[As of this moment today, the Hunter Management Agency will be established in the Republic of Korea.]