An endless dark cave stretched out before Kang Hyeon-woo.
GRRRRRRRR.
An eerie sound that might have come straight from hell echoed through the deep darkness.
“Heh heh heh. You seem flustered?”
Ahead of Kang Hyeon-woo, the man’s voice spread from empty air.
“A Hiding item?”
“Oh, I knew I had a good eye, huh? Surviving this long means you have experience, right? And your pockets must be fat too, of course?”
“You may have experience, but you’ve got some shitty luck.”
“Still bluffing, huh? From what I saw earlier, you use magic skills, right? The Awakening System cannot be used inside this dungeon. Heh heh. Only items work here.”
SHNK.
With the sound of metal slicing through the air, a shallow gouge appeared in the wall behind Kang Hyeon-woo.
“Now hurry up and take out everything you have？Then I’ll kill you without making you suffer. Ah, it doesn’t matter if you refuse...... Heh heh heh. I enjoy torture too.”
“Let me ask you one thing.”
“Oh, your last words? Ask anything.”
“The curse on this dungeon. Did you cast it?”
“Curse?”
“Do people these days call it ‘Awakening System Link Interference’?”
“That is right. I paid a fortune for it.”
“Not bad.”
“What?”
“Didn’t I tell you? You’re clueless.”
Kang Hyeon-woo focused his mind.
‘Hold.’
BZZZT.
Rings made of light appeared in midair and shot toward the empty space in front of Kang Hyeon-woo.
“Ghk......? What is this?”
FWIP.
The rings of light seemed to pause in midair for a moment before rapidly contracting.
“Aaaaaaargh!”
The man’s Hiding was dispelled, revealing his agonized face and his body bound by the rings of light.
“H-How......?”
Kang Hyeon-woo stared expressionlessly at the writhing man.
‘Slow, Weak.’
As soon as Kang Hyeon-woo finished casting the spells, the man bound in the rings of light began to visibly change.
“W...... What...... is this....... Who...... the hell...... are you......?”
The man’s speech had already slowed to a crawl. His entire body trembled as he barely hung suspended within the rings of light.
“Follow me.”
The moment Kang Hyeon-woo finished speaking, the rings of light moved smoothly as though they were alive, carrying the man through the air.
Kang Hyeon-woo stopped looking at the man hanging in midair and headed deeper into the cave.
***
“H-How...... are you...... this strong......?”
The man barely managed to speak between gasping breaths, his eyes filled with shock.
At the end of the narrow cave passage was a vast cavern.
Kang Hyeon-woo stood there with his usual expressionless face.
Before him was a mountain of corpses belonging to the same kinds of monsters he had fought earlier that day.
“The fact that you have entered and left this dungeon ten times means you’re a Scavenger who makes a living using a Portal Generator to rob outsiders.”
“T-Ten...... times....... How......?”
“You probably invited mercenaries into dungeons, placed curses on them, and robbed them too.”
The man blinked repeatedly, looking as though he might stop breathing at any moment.
Whether the man was listening or not, Kang Hyeon-woo continued speaking to himself and silently cast another spell.
‘Air Blade.’
WHOOSH. WHOOSH. WHOOSH. WHOOSH. WHOOSH. WHOOSH.
With sharp sounds of air being torn apart, compressed currents of air whipped around like blades.
SLICE. SLICE.
The corpses of dozens of dead monsters rose into the air and were thoroughly dismantled in midair.
CLACK. CLACK. CLACK. CLACK.
“Ugh...... Ugh......”
The man trembled, unable to continue speaking at the grotesque sight, unlike anything he had ever witnessed in his life.
The dismantled monster corpses became unrecognizable masses piled in one corner of the cavern.
Kang Hyeon-woo picked up the cores that had fallen to the ground and tucked them away.
“P...... Please...... forgive me......”
The man instinctively realized that he was next.
‘Dispel.’
THUD.
Everything binding the man vanished.
The man collapsed to the floor, then quickly scrambled up and dropped to his knees.
“Sir. Please spare me. I failed to recognize who I was dealing with......”
“Hand it over.”
“Pardon?”
“Everything you have.”
“Yes, sir.”
The man hurriedly searched through his clothes and took out everything he possessed.
A few daggers, several cores, and a small device were all that lay on the ground.
“You have surprisingly little considering how many people you have robbed.”
“W-Well, you see, I have this habit of always putting my earnings into savings after collecting them? Yes. And you can sell that Awakening System Link Interference device for quite a lot too.”
Ignoring the man’s words, Kang Hyeon-woo manipulated the device lying on the ground and switched it off.
“Now open your Awakening Window and sign a Mercenary Party Contract with me.”
“Pardon?”
“If you make me repeat myself one more time, I’ll kill you.”
“Eek! Yes. Yes!”
A holographic window appeared before the man’s eyes. Seeing it, Kang Hyeon-woo took out his own device and manipulated it.
[Mercenary Contract]
[Contractor Information]
[Code Name: SIN]
[Class: Mage]
[Grade: ???]
[Affiliation: Shinhwa Company]
[Contract Details: Anomaly Resolution (Party)]
[Contract Transmitted]
“Ghk.”
DRIP, DRIP.
As the man stared at the words displayed on his holographic window, the crotch of his pants gradually grew wet.
“Sh...... Shi...... Shinhwa. No way...... an Inspector?”
[Contract Established.]
[Contractor “SIN” has requested confirmation of contract fulfillment.]
[Contract Fulfillment Confirmed]
[Anomaly Resolution (Party) Contract Completed by Mutual Agreement.]
“Um...... why did you go out of your way to make a contract......?”
The man asked as cautiously as possible, trying not to displease Kang Hyeon-woo.
There was no particular need for a party to resolve an Anomaly.
As far as the man could tell, Kang Hyeon-woo was close to being a top-grade mercenary. Even if he went out of his way to file an Anomaly resolution report like this, it was obvious that it would not benefit him at all.
“Rating.”
[Please rate your satisfaction with contractor “SIN”.]
“Five stars.”
‘Rating? He’s definitely a crazy bastard.’
Gulp.
Watching Kang Hyeon-woo do something utterly pointless, the man was calculating his chances of surviving.
[Contractor “SIN” has been awarded ★★★★★ (10 points).]
[Write a contract review?]
[(Anonymous): He is truly, incredibly strong, kind, handsome, and...... benevolent.]
[(Anonymous): Highly recommended. Seriously.]
[(Anonymous): I agree with the review above. Seriously, you absolutely have to hire him at least once.]
[(Anonymous): Thank you for helping our village. I highly recommend him to others as well.]
‘All the bastards who wrote these reviews......’
With Kang Hyeon-woo staring straight at him, the man forced himself to focus on the hologram and moved his fingers through the air.
[(Anonymous): SIN is my light. My sun. And the greatest mercenary in the world.]
Before the man could say anything after finishing his review—
“Now die.”
The emotionless voice of Kang Hyeon-woo sent chills racing across the man’s entire body.
‘D...... Damn it.’
“W-Wait! Did I not tell you? Everything I have earned until now is in the city. If you spare me, I will give you all of it.”
“I don’t need it.”
BZZZZZZZT.
The sound of air being torn apart once again came from behind Kang Hyeon-woo, and the man began speaking even faster.
“I-It is not just cores! I have all kinds of rare items too! A Gender Conversion Device, a Hair Growth Potion, a Virility Enhancer......”
With tears in his eyes, the man recited the list of items he had collected.
“......an old Shinhwa Company Tracking Device.”
HUSH.
The wind raging through the cavern stopped in an instant.
“Tracking Device. Explain it in detail.”
“Uh....... It is an item I happened to obtain back when I was active in Sector 5.”
The man had been operating as usual, triggering Monster Breaks to destroy settlements and collect their items.
While searching through a ruined village, he had discovered an old antique and taken it with him because he thought it might be worth money.
“I-It does not work, but the device itself should still be fairly useful.”
“What was written on the outside?”
“Ah, probably...... Shinhwa Electronics Tracer something-or-other......”
“If it does not work, what makes you think it is a tracking device?”
“When I took it to the Mercenary Management Center, they told me it was an old Tracking Device. Something people used a very long time ago to track others......”
Kang Hyeon-woo watched the man desperately explain for a moment.
“Guide me to old Incheon, Port Mine.”
“You’re sparing me? Thank you. Thank you!”
The man lowered his head and answered loudly to hide the delight on his face.
‘This lunatic bastard. Just wait until we get to the city......!’
‘Time Explosion.’
When Kang Hyeon-woo finished casting the spell, a cluster of red light appeared and sank into the man’s body before disappearing.
“W-What is this?”
“It explodes after some time passes.”
“Pardon?”
“I’ll dispel it before it explodes and cast it again. If you want to die, just run away.”
“G-Ghh......”
The man’s face contorted grotesquely.
“B-But when does it explode?”
“I don’t remember. Was it twelve hours?”
“H-How can you say something so irresponsible? What if it explodes?”
“Then you’ll die. If you don’t want that, get us there quickly.”
“Let’s go!”
The man sprang to his feet, adjusted his damp pants, and ran toward the cave entrance.
Kang Hyeon-woo was about to follow him when his gaze swept across the now-empty cavern.
SNAP! SNAP!
Kang Hyeon-woo lightly snapped his fingers twice, then turned and headed toward the entrance.
***
‘F-Finally......!’
When the man saw the silhouette of the city in the distance, he smiled more happily than he ever had before.
But then he glanced back at Kang Hyeon-woo, who was following at an unhurried pace, and shuddered.
‘I got stuck with this fucking bastard.’
Their bizarre journey after leaving the Anomaly had already continued for three days. Having suddenly found himself serving as a guide to Port Mine, the man knew those three days would remain the most horrifying memories of his life.
‘What the hell kind of monster is he......? Is he even human?’
Throughout the journey, Kang Hyeon-woo had disposed of every monster and Scavenger they encountered without so much as blinking, as casually as a yawn.
What sent the greatest chills through the man was what Kang Hyeon-woo did after hunting monsters and taking their cores.
He ate them.
‘Why the fuck would you eat those?!’
He had never even heard of anyone eating cores. Cores were humanity’s energy source and also circulated as an important form of currency.
‘It’s a crazy world anyway, so let’s say eating them is one thing......’
Something even more horrifying happened whenever they encountered Scavengers.
Scavengers were loners who had survived in the wasteland. Surviving meant that, at the very least, they either had a way to escape when things went wrong or possessed some hidden move they could fall back on.
Yet that bastard completely ignored all of it and neutralized the Scavengers through methods the man could not even understand. It was not even a fight. Watching them get taken down one-sidedly was enough to make him feel sorry for them.
‘What the hell is his class?’
Judging from the skills he used, Kang Hyeon-woo did seem to be a Mage, but he was completely different from everything the man knew.
Normally, Awakened who used magic skills stayed hidden in the rear, launched one attack, and provided support.
The most horrifying part came after Kang Hyeon-woo subdued the Scavengers.
Cruelly, the bastard did not kill them. Instead, he took everything they owned and forced them to sign mercenary contracts.
‘Is this bastard fucking obsessed with star ratings and reviews......?!’
Who in a world like this even cared about such things?
Like a lunatic obsessed with evaluations, the bastard made sure they gave him 10 points and wrote a review before abandoning the Scavengers in the middle of the empty wasteland and continuing on his way.
‘He should’ve just killed them...... that fucking bastard.’
A Scavenger without items was certain to die soon unless they possessed an exceptionally good skill.
All the man wanted was to reach the city as quickly as possible and finally bring this nightmare to an end.
“The item first.”
“Y-Yes!”
The man had already abandoned all dreams and hopes of escaping amid the confusion once they reached the city.
***
“Is this what you were looking for?”
The man looked anxiously at Kang Hyeon-woo.
They had just arrived at a storage facility in the middle of the city, a building people called a bank.
The banks operated by Shinhwa Company were connected to every city in the world. As long as something was not a living creature, any deposited item could be instantly teleported from anywhere.
The man handed Kang Hyeon-woo a device he had taken out of a storage box.
It was an old, worn-out device that gave no clue as to how it was supposed to be used.
Kang Hyeon-woo quietly examined the device.
Then he took out his own device, switched it on, and placed the two side by side.
‘Identify.’
[Tracking Device]
[Manufacturer: Shinhwa Electronics]
[Tracks a designated target.]
[Combat Support System detected.]
[Can link with Combat Support System.]
The device had originally been designed to prevent party members separated inside dungeons from being lost.
Back then, no one even knew what kinds of dungeons existed or how long clearing one would take.
That was why devices like this were essential. Even if party members became separated, they could use them to find one another.
The Tracking Device had been designed to locate not only a designated target, but also anything that retained traces of the target’s Mana.
But a hundred years ago, after the Outbreak at the final dungeon and Shinhwa’s rise to rule the world, devices like these were no longer necessary.
Kang Hyeon-woo manipulated the hologram and activated the Tracking Device.
[Combat Support System link complete.]
[Tracking Target: Beast]
[Tracking...... Please wait.]
Kang Hyeon-woo silently watched the hologram.
“U-Um, may I leave now?”
The man cautiously spoke while slowly backing away.
“You can leave, but leave the cores behind.”
“......Yes. Thank you for sparing me.”
The man forcibly moved his twitching facial muscles and barely managed a smile. Then he emptied every last core from the storage box and placed them on the floor.
SNAP! SNAP!
Flinch.
‘Those damned fingers.’
Like Pavlov’s dog, the man got chills every time Kang Hyeon-woo snapped his fingers.
After snapping his fingers, Kang Hyeon-woo turned and left the bank.
DING.
At that moment, a new message appeared on the hologram.
[Target Search Complete.]
[Trace found 3 km from current location.]
Kang Hyeon-woo’s previously expressionless brow shifted slightly.