A heavy silence settled over the dungeon interior as the thick dust began to subside. Deep blue blood seeping from the felled mutant boss's enormous carcass traced grotesque patterns as it spread along the cracks in the floor. The hunters who had barely survived the brush with death slumped to the ground, gasping for breath.
Kang Jina slid her sword into its scabbard with trembling hands. Rather than the elation of victory, it was a strange sense of dissonance crawling up her spine that pricked at her senses. She slowly raised her head and looked up at the ceiling. The massive collapsed boulders, and visible between their fragments, the boss's vital point.
'Too precise to be a coincidence.'
Jina's gaze turned to her brother, Kang Somyeong, silently organizing the luggage at the rear of the formation. He was brushing dust off his clothes, wearing an expression of regret over the shattered potion bottles. To anyone watching, he was the very picture of a porter so ordinary he bordered on incompetent.
Jina quietly approached Somyeong. Her eyes gleamed sharp.
"Oppa."
"Hm? What is it, Jina? Are you hurt somewhere? You don't look so good."
Somyeong asked, widening his eyes with worry. His tone was the same as always—a little slow, a little simple. But Jina did not let up.
"About what happened back there. The ceiling collapsing—do you really think that was a coincidence? Timed perfectly to the exact moment the boss was about to use its wide-area attack?"
"I know, right? Our ancestors really must have been watching over us. I was so scared I covered my head and hit the floor, and then I heard this huge crash. When I opened my eyes, the thing was buried."
Somyeong scratched the back of his head with practiced ease. Jina peered straight into his eyes. They were unwavering—so clear they looked almost dim-witted.
"And the tentacles that were flying at me. I was definitely about to be hit, but there was this sound of something striking them, and their trajectories bent. Oppa, did you see anything?"
"Come on, that's because you're just that fast. I watched you out there—my little sister was flying. That elixir effect must really be something. Are you sure that wasn't some legendary tonic instead of whatever the Association gave you?"
Somyeong laughed and patted Jina's shoulder lightly. Jina still wore an expression of lingering doubt, but in the face of her brother's sunny response, pressing further felt almost embarrassing.
'Is it really my imagination? Maybe my senses were just heightened from the extreme situation.'
The moment Jina turned her head briefly to check on her teammates, the look in Somyeong's eyes sank cold in an instant. At an imperceptible speed, he pressed the tip of his foot flush against the ground and applied a minute force.
Crunch.
An exquisitely controlled vibration, starting from the tip of Somyeong's foot, flowed through the ground and into the area surrounding the boss's carcass. The small pebbles scattered on the floor—the traces of what Somyeong had fired with the Divine Finger Flick—were swept up in that vibration and dissolved into fine powder. The destruction of evidence was flawless. No matter how brilliant an investigator might come, no trace of artificial strikes would ever be found here.
***
What greeted the raid team as they emerged from the Gate was a blaze of searchlights and heavily armed Association agents. Team Leader Han Minwoo swept his sharp gaze over each person as they came out.
"All members survived."
Bewilderment crept into Han Minwoo's voice. The energy waveform detected inside had clearly exceeded A-rank levels. The statistical probability of a raid team built around C-rank hunters returning unharmed was less than five percent.
"Team Leader, the boss room interior investigation is complete."
An investigator who had rushed back from the scene held out a tablet PC and reported. Han Minwoo skimmed the data, furrowing his brow.
"The cause?"
"Crushing death by terrain features, plus a fatal blow to the exposed core. It seems the bedrock of the boss room ceiling was unstable. We surmise that the magical energy waves discharged by the mutant created a resonance effect, causing it to bring the ceiling down on itself."
"You're saying it self-destructed?"
"That's what the data indicates. But the finishing blow was delivered by Hunter Kang Jina. She struck the core exposed between the collapsed boulders with pinpoint accuracy. This can only be explained as genius-level physical ability manifesting in a crisis—not mere luck."
Han Minwoo looked over at Jina, sitting in the distance wrapped in a blanket. A swarm of reporters had already gathered around her, camera flashes popping.
'Not only did she survive an unrecorded mutant, she used the terrain to subjugate it?'
Han Minwoo's suspicions refused to fade. But the scientific instruments and the evidence at the scene all pointed to Jina's heroic performance. In the end, he could only nod.
"Elevate Hunter Kang Jina to special management status as a subject with off-the-charts potential. This incident will be officially announced as 'mutant subjugation by newly awakened trait.'"
With that single directive, the atmosphere at the scene transformed. In an instant, Kang Jina was elevated from a mere prospect to the 'herald of a great turning point' poised to reshape the entire landscape of Korea's hunter world.
***
The area around the Gate was in full festival mode. Scouts from major guilds were frantically filing reports to their headquarters, and reporters were obsessed with drafting front-page headlines.
"Hunter Kang Jina! Just one word, please! How did you evade the boss's attack?"
"The consensus is that this was practically a solo subjugation—how do you feel?"
Jina was visibly flustered by the barrage of questions. She kept glancing back at Somyeong behind her. But Somyeong had simply set his huge porter bag down beside him and was gulping down the free bottled water the Association had handed out.
Just then, a man in a flashy suit appeared, pushing through the noisy crowd. Behind him trailed a line of bodyguards radiating an intimidating air.
"Coming through. Clear the way, everyone."
The reporters flinched at the man's high-handed manner and opened a path. He was Park Taejun, Chief Scouting Director of the Cheonseong Guild—a massive guild ranked within the nation's top five. He raked his greedy gaze over Jina.
To Park Taejun, Jina was not a human being. She was nothing more than a goose that laid golden eggs—one that would raise the guild's stock price and generate enormous profits.
"Hunter Kang Jina, a pleasure. Park Taejun of the Cheonseong Guild. I watched your performance today with great interest."
He seized Jina's hand and flashed an artificial smile.
"Our guild has already finished assembling a dedicated team for you, Hunter Kang. We guarantee the best contract terms in the industry. I'd like to move somewhere quiet right now and discuss the specifics—what do you say?"
"Oh, um...... I haven't discussed anything with my guild yet. And I'm really exhausted right now......"
Jina tried to withdraw her hand awkwardly, but Park Taejun's grip was persistent. Naked possessiveness gleamed in his eyes.
"Opportunities like this don't come along every day. That's how this industry works. You have to row while the tide is in. Sign with us, and we'll handle all these tiresome interviews and investigations for you."
He subtly applied force, trying to steer Jina toward his car. It was a half-coerced proposition. The other guild representatives nearby, cowed by his razor-edged aura, could only watch and exchange glances without stepping forward.
That was the moment.
"Excuse me, mister."
A low voice burrowed into Park Taejun's ear. At some point—no one had seen him approach—Somyeong stood between Park Taejun and Jina, porter bag slung over his shoulder.
Park Taejun frowned and looked at Somyeong. At the sight of the low-grade porter covered in dust and reeking of sweat, he made no effort to hide his disgust.
"What's this leech? Get out of the way."
"My sister said she's tired. Are you hard of hearing?"
Somyeong's tone was utterly ordinary. But in that instant, Park Taejun felt a chill, as if every hair on his body were standing on end. It was the inexplicable, frigid energy rippling in the depths of Somyeong's eyes.
'What is this? Why am I feeling this kind of pressure from this worthless nobody?'
Park Taejun strained to hide his trembling and raised his voice.
"A mere porter dares—! What, are you Hunter Kang Jina's brother or something? If you're family, all the more reason not to block your sister's path. This is all for her sake."
Instead of answering, Somyeong let the corner of his mouth curl upward. It was less a smile than the cold sneer of a predator that had spotted its prey.
'For her sake, you say?'
Somyeong read the pitch-black desire and greed welling up inside Park Taejun. Even the revolting intent to use Jina to pad his own achievements and work her like a slave.
To Somyeong, who had observed every breed of humanity across a hundred years in the martial world, dealing with this type of person was easier than breathing.
"You're right. It is for her sake."
Somyeong laid a hand lightly on Park Taejun's shoulder. To all appearances it was a friendly gesture, but in that instant, Park Taejun felt as though tens of thousands of tons of rock had settled onto his shoulders. His breath caught, and his heart hammered as if it would burst.
"But you see, the people I hate most in this world are the ones who force my Jina to do things she doesn't want to do."
Somyeong's voice echoed in his ears like a hallucination. Park Taejun tried to scream, but no sound came out. Reflected in his terror-stricken pupils, Somyeong's smile was the very image of a reaper's.
Somyeong patted the shoulder of the trembling, wilting Park Taejun and withdrew his hand.
"Get home safe. The roads can be dangerous at night."
As the pressure vanished, Park Taejun scrambled backward. Face pale as a man who had seen a ghost, he hid behind his own bodyguards.
"L-Let's go! Withdraw for now!"
Park Taejun hurriedly climbed into his car, as though chased by a terror he could not name. The onlookers tilted their heads, unable to understand. The sight of a high-and-mighty major guild director fleeing at a single word from a nameless porter was bizarre indeed.
Jina stared at Somyeong with a bewildered expression.
"Oppa, what did you do to that man?"
"Do? I just wished him well—told him to be careful on the road at night. Come on, let's go too. Mom's at home grilling meat for us."
Somyeong adjusted his bag again and took the lead. His back had already returned to that of an ordinary older brother. But his gaze followed Park Taejun's receding car to the very end.
'A new prey has presented itself.'
The smile on Somyeong's lips deepened. Weeding out the vermin that threatened his family's peace in advance—that was the secret to a long and healthy life. Somyeong left the bustling Gate behind with a light step.