Song Ji-hu, a C-rank Hunter who possessed the Mental Barrier skill.
It took less than a day for the three syllables of Song Ji-hu’s name to strike the Hunter industry.
In this field, rumor was reputation, and reputation was power. It was a definite ‘name value’ that meant he did not need to make excuses for his insignificant rank of C-rank, nor painstakingly prove himself with endless explanations.
Song Ji-hu looked at the Hunter community, where his name was being mentioned over and over, and formed a cold smile.
‘The fear of mental contamination is still… eating away at the entire world.’
The fear the Abyssal Monarch had sown. Hunters all over the world lived with a time bomb called ‘mental contamination’ that could go off at any moment. It was not simply an illness like PTSD, but a phenomenon in which the soul corroded due to alien energy.
And the hope that the corrosion could be slowed by even 1%.
That one hope alone was enough for the name ‘Song Ji-hu’ to be engraved into the minds of every guild and Hunter.
The day after the lottery winners were announced.
“Congratulations on your win, Mr. Song Ji-hu.”
A VIP room at the bank. The teller handed him his bankbook with envy mixed into her eyes.
The amount stamped into an account that had not even held 1 million won was around 2 billion won. A vast sum that might have been someone’s lifelong dream. But Song Ji-hu merely accepted the bankbook with numb eyes.
Ignoring the bank employee’s investment recommendation, Song Ji-hu left the bank building and looked up at the sky, where faint snowflakes were drifting.
‘With this much money, I can’t even buy a single S-rank weapon.’
In a world where the price of a single S-rank artifact easily exceeded 10 billion won, 2 billion won was merely capital to establish a minimum foundation.
‘I need to get a weapon first.’
Since his job itself had changed from the previous six lives, he needed a new weapon suited to it.
***
Yongsan District, Seoul. Hunter Shopping District.
After Gates first appeared 20 years ago, this place had transformed into a vast market where things related to Hunters, and human desires, were traded.
“Combat enhancement suits for sale!”
“Come take a look at the latest weapons!”
“Physical enhancement elixirs for cheap! Lowest prices around!”
Letting the street hawkers’ calls wash past him like background noise, Song Ji-hu looked around several stores, only to furrow his brow.
‘They’re all mass-produced trash.’
The mental imagery world he would enter through Mental Dive. That place was a realm of the soul, not physical force. That was why he needed a special weapon capable of striking mental bodies directly.
‘Tsk… I guess finding one in a place like this was asking too much.’
Just as he was about to leave after coming up empty at the fifth store.
“Ah! I said no! At this grade, I can never match that price!”
A sharp voice of refusal. A dispute was unfolding at the entrance.
“Good grief, you do not even know the market rate these days! A young man should not already be trying to scam people! Get out!”
At the end of the shop owner’s contemptuous gaze stood a young man holding a large sword case.
“…Is that so?”
A low, calm voice. But the suppressed disappointment and faint anger inside it were faintly caught by Song Ji-hu’s ‘Mental Detection.’
Song Ji-hu’s steps stopped there.
‘That face feels familiar somehow… Where have I seen him?’
Skin so white that there was not a single smudge of soot on it, though he was clearly a blacksmith. Delicate features, sharply carved in a seemingly indifferent way.
He was the exact opposite of what a blacksmith, who should have been soaked in sweat and oil, ought to look like. Rather, he was a handsome man closer to an artist.
As Song Ji-hu pondered the face he was certain he had seen somewhere in a previous life, one forgotten name flashed through his mind.
There was certainly a difference between the face in his memory and the man’s appearance now, but that sharp gaze was identical.
‘Ryu Jin. Right… It’s definitely Ryu Jin.’
The genius blacksmith who had appeared only three times across the previous six lives.
And even then, it had been 10 years from now. He had appeared with horrendous burns over his entire body, created weapons surpassing S-rank, and vanished without a trace. An ill-fated artisan with whom even Song Ji-hu himself had barely crossed paths once.
‘He’s here at this time, looking like this? I couldn’t find him no matter how hard I looked.’
It had been the same in the previous six lives, but most lives were not fixed.
A single trivial variable could become a butterfly effect and alter the vast flow. And Ryu Jin was like the symbol of such variables.
Song Ji-hu moved without hesitation toward Ryu Jin, who was trudging away. Song Ji-hu was not the sort of man to miss a lump of good fortune that had rolled in on its own two feet.
“Excuse me.”
Ryu Jin turned his head. His sharp gaze swept over the stranger.
“…What is it?”
“You seem to be a blacksmith. I’m looking for a weapon. Would custom production be possible?”
Ryu Jin’s eyes turned cold with wariness. In this field, an unknown blacksmith was easy prey for swindlers.
“…I apologize. I do not accept personal commissions.”
The very moment Ryu Jin turned away, Song Ji-hu threw out the decisive words.
“I will pay the full amount up front.”
Ryu Jin’s steps stopped.
“…Are you serious?”
“I have neither the time nor the reason to scam you.”
After hesitating for a moment, Ryu Jin nodded. He needed the money.
‘Whatever his circumstances are.’
The suppressed disappointment he had felt at first had clearly come from his failure to sell the sword.
“…Please follow me. I will guide you to my workshop.”
.
.
.
.
.
At the far end of the Hunter Shopping District, about twenty minutes on foot from the main street, in the basement of an old building with almost no trace of people.
CREEEAK-
At the sight of the workshop revealed alongside the eerie sound of the iron door, Song Ji-hu could not hold back and let out a small laugh.
“Pfft….”
The workshop was a complete mess. The floor was so covered in scraps of metal that there was nowhere to step, and the walls were plastered with unidentified blueprints.
It was a space in perfect opposition to his appearance, which had seemed not merely neat, but almost obsessively clean.
“Wh-what is so funny?”
Ryu Jin’s face flushed bright red, as if he himself thought his workplace was quite untidy.
Since there was nowhere for even one person to sit, Ryu Jin hurriedly began clearing tools off the floor.
“No. It’s just that this confirms it.”
“…Pardon?”
“That I came to the right place.”
After saying something only he could understand, Song Ji-hu perched on a table that looked relatively suitable to sit on amid the chaos, then brought up the main point.
“I want a sword that works on spirit-type or ghost-type enemies. Enemies without substance.”
“…Pardon? What?”
Ryu Jin’s hands stopped. It was not an obvious request like an element or weight reduction. It was an extremely abstract and fundamental commission.
“Well, I understand for now, but… then the shape and size…?”
“That would be the blacksmith’s domain.”
Song Ji-hu looked straight into Ryu Jin’s eyes.
“I do not know swords. But you do. Seeing the essence contained within the material and finding the form most suited to it is your work, is it not?”
“…!”
Ryu Jin’s eyes widened in shock. It was the first time in his life he had met someone who did not see a blacksmith as ‘a technician who stamps out weapons,’ but as ‘an artisan who sees essence,’ someone who understood his art.
“Give me your account number. I will transfer 1.5 billion won as an advance payment right now.”
Song Ji-hu said it as if delivering the finishing blow.
“Pardon? One… point five billion? My… my account number is here!”
Ding-
The deposit notification rang, and after confirming the number ‘1,500,000,000’ stamped on his phone screen, Ryu Jin’s hands trembled faintly.
1.5 billion won. Without doubting his skill, he was burning such a huge sum all at once?
“For now, this is all I have, so I cannot make it an S-rank commission. Is it possible at a price that matches?”
“It is absolutely possible! But what on earth do you trust about me…?”
Ryu Jin asked back as if he could not understand this man, who had met him for the first time today and so readily handed over a huge sum.
“What is your name?”
“I am… Ryu Jin.”
At those words, Song Ji-hu smiled and held out his hand.
“I’m Song Ji-hu. Ryu Jin… That name sure inspires confidence.”
“Song Ji-hu…! Could you be the one with the Mental Barrier skill…!”
“Yes, that’s right.”
The moment he answered, Ryu Jin sprang to his feet and bowed at a ninety-degree angle.
“I will repay you! I swear I will repay you with the finest work!”
Song Ji-hu stood with a satisfied smile.
‘Why in the world did someone like this end up so broken in the past?’
He recalled Ryu Jin’s appearance 10 years later, when he had suffered horrendous burns over his entire body and turned almost monstrous.
He did not mean only his outward appearance. His personality, too, had felt eccentric to the point of paranoia.
‘When there’s a problem, nine times out of ten, it’s because of that bastard the Abyssal Monarch. This life will be different.’
Along with those bitter thoughts, Song Ji-hu infused his energy into the metal as Ryu Jin instructed.
After the basic work was finished and Song Ji-hu was about to leave the workshop, he turned around as if something had just occurred to him.
“Ah, do you have any weapon I can use right now? If it meets even a little of the conditions I mentioned earlier, I will pay whatever rental fee you ask.”
After thinking for a moment, Ryu Jin opened an old box in the corner of the workshop.
“There is one, but… this is a failure. Its grade could not even be measured properly….”
What he took out was a blade about thirty centimeters long. Its edge was a mixture of black and silver, and unknown patterns were engraved on the handle.
“How much is this?”
“That is just… I will give it to you as a service.”
“Then I will accept it as part of the contract.”
But the moment Song Ji-hu took the dagger, an electric thrill traveled through his fingertips.
It had a strange feel, as if the blade were alive and responding to his mental power.
‘A failure? No. This… is perfectly resonating with my ability. What is it?’
To think Ryu Jin had been about to discard something like this. He really was an eccentric. But there was no way Song Ji-hu could accept such a piece for free.
“This is enough. I will transfer 100 million won.”
“O-one hundred million won?! You can just take it… This is a failure…!”
“To me, it has that much value. It is not measurement impossible. It is a weapon that fits me perfectly.”
Song Ji-hu freely swung the blade he had grasped for the first time and formed a satisfied smile.
Ding-
At the deposit notification ringing once again, Ryu Jin wore a dazed expression. He had never imagined that his failure would hold a value of 100 million won to someone.
“Please contact me when it is complete.”
“Yes, sir! I will contact you!”
Leaving the workshop, Song Ji-hu fastened the black dagger at his waist. The handle fit perfectly in his hand.
‘I’m lucky. Very lucky, at that.’
A smile slipped through his lips at this unexpected windfall.
‘Next is Eun Seo-jin. There’s no time.’
It was time to save the S-rank Hunter he had not managed to save even once in his previous lives.
***
The outskirts of Gyeonggi Province.
National Hunter Specialty Hospital. It was a hospital in name only. With its high walls and tight security, it was closer to a prison designed to keep those inside from escaping than to a hospital.
From the entrance of the hospital, he could hear the desperate laments of Hunters.
“Did you hear the rumor? The one with the Mental Barrier skill!”
“I heard! I really hope he comes to our guild. If I can slow this damned contamination level even a little, I could do anything.”
“Exactly. …Before I get culled after being called a Calamity.”
With his cap pulled low, Song Ji-hu passed them and entered the lobby. Reinforced glass walls, magic circles, heavily armed guards. It certainly suited a place that managed time bombs that could explode at any moment.
“Are you here for a visit?”
At the receptionist’s gentle smile, Song Ji-hu spoke the name in a low, heavy voice.
“Yes. I am here to visit Eun Seo-jin.”
In that instant, as if all the noise in the lobby had stopped, the smile vanished from the receptionist’s face, and wariness filled it.