From early morning, the pounding at the front door made Kang Somyeong let out a deep sigh. He had expected the fallout from the Jamsil upheaval to be intense, but this was beyond anything reasonable.
"Oppa...... what do we do? Their voices carry right through."
Jina was curled up in the corner of the living room, looking terrified. After the rumor spread that she had felled an S-rank boss in a single blow, her name had seized the number-one real-time search spot. Through the window, dozens of broadcasting vans and black sedans were visible, clogging the alley.
"It's fine. I'll handle it, so go to your room and put in some earplugs. Mom's still sleeping, so don't wake her."
Somyeong patted Jina's shoulder gently and sent her to her room. Once her figure disappeared, his expression sank cold. He slung the porter's backpack over his shoulder near the door and opened it.
The instant the door opened, a barrage of camera flashes erupted and dozens of microphones were thrust in his face.
"You're Hunter Kang Jina's brother, right? A word about yesterday's events, please!"
"The Sun Guild sent us! Just five minutes with Hunter Kang Jina, please!"
"I stake my position as a Blue Dragon Guild director on this proposal. Step aside!"
Shouts and demands blended into bedlam. The men at the front, shoving people aside to assert dominance, were executive-level hunters from prominent guilds. They regarded the civilian Somyeong as nothing more than an annoying obstacle, bearing down on him with imperious attitudes.
"Listen, porter. While we're still being nice, clear the way. Do you have any idea what an opportunity this is for your sister?"
A man wearing a gold badge shoved Somyeong's chest roughly. Somyeong did not budge. If anything, he stood rooted like a deep-set old tree, looking down at the man with indifferent eyes.
"Our Jina is really exhausted right now. She's in no state for visitors, so I'd appreciate it if everyone went home."
"What? Does this guy not grasp the situation? Who do you think we—"
The man reached out again—
In that instant, an energy so faint yet so crushing rippled outward from Somyeong's body like a wave. To civilians, it might have felt like the air suddenly growing colder. But the reaction of the hunters present was very different.
"......!"
The Sun Guild executive at the very front stumbled backward with a gasp. A pressure like someone was squeezing his heart. The ordinary-looking man before him suddenly felt like a towering cliff. Cold sweat poured down, and his knees began to shake of their own accord.
It was the instinctive fear born from an overwhelming difference in martial power. Somyeong still wore his simple smile, but every hunter whose eyes met his fell silent as though they had made a pact.
"You all seem like busy people, and standing here would block the neighbors' walkway. Please leave before I have to call the police."
Somyeong's voice was low and calm. But that single sentence bored into their minds like a stern command. Crushed by his presence, the executives could say nothing, only glanced at each other before slinking backward.
"W-We'll come again another time."
"I'll leave my contact info, so whenever you're ready......"
The pomp and swagger had evaporated. They fled as though chased, and the reporters, overwhelmed by the strange atmosphere, stopped pushing their cameras forward and hesitated. In a matter of minutes, the crowd that had packed the doorstep receded like a tide.
Somyeong closed the door and knocked gently on Jina's room.
"Jina, they're gone. It's quiet now, so get some rest."
A sigh of relief came from inside. Somyeong smiled wryly and sat at the dining table. He had turned them away for now, but worse would come crawling in soon. To protect his sister's daily life, the root cause had to be eliminated.
***
That afternoon, Somyeong left the house in a black hoodie. In his hand was a recycling bag. The picture of a useless big brother as always—but his senses were already sweeping every meter within several hundred.
'Three of them.'
When he turned into a quiet residential alley past the apartment complex, hostile gazes latched onto his back. They were hiding in the shadows, suppressing their presence, but to Somyeong's eyes they were as vivid as the midday sun.
They maintained their distance until Somyeong entered a dead-end alley with no one around. The moment he set the garbage bag down, sharp whistles of parting air heralded three masked figures bursting from every direction.
"Kang Somyeong. Consider yourself unlucky."
A man in a black mask raised his dagger and spoke coldly. Their movements were far more precise and lethal than those of ordinary hunters. Professional assassins, without a doubt.
"Not content with tormenting my sister—now you come for me."
Somyeong murmured, not even turning around.
"Once you're dead, that girl will crumble. A hero's downfall is all the more tragic."
The dagger surged toward Somyeong's neck. A split second. Somyeong tilted his head slightly to deflect the strike, then seized the man's wrist.
CRACK.
"GAAAH!"
A scream erupted alongside the sound of bone dislocating. Somyeong's expression did not change as he thrust his palm toward the other two men's chests. Invisible true energy detonated, and the pair flew like paper into the wall.
"This is the best they sent to catch me?"
Somyeong grabbed the writhing leader by the hair and lifted him. In Somyeong's eyes, the warmth he had shown moments ago was gone—only the ruthlessness of the Heavenly Demon who had held all men beneath his feet remained.
The man fumbled inside his jacket for a compact communicator, trying to call for backup. Somyeong let out a cold laugh and crushed his wrist.
"Do not bother calling. I will be visiting in person."
Somyeong snatched the communicator from the man's hand and forcibly injected his energy into its circuitry. The energy riding the radio waves was more than enough to overload the devices at the command center on the other end.
HISS, HISSSSS—!
From beyond the communicator came noise that bordered on screams. Somyeong addressed the unseen controllers on the other end.
"The price of touching my family—I will make you feel it in your bones. Stay right where you are."
The communicator disintegrated into dust. Somyeong searched the unconscious assassins' bodies and collected a special ID tag that appeared to be a security card. A key that could get him into their base.
***
When Somyeong returned home after brushing the dust from his clothes, Jina was watching television in the living room. The news was still consumed with the previous day's events.
"Oppa, where'd you go? That took a while."
"Oh, just took out the trash and walked around the block. Nice weather."
Somyeong grinned his usual goofy grin and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. Not a trace remained of the monster who had been snapping bones in an alley moments ago.
"Oppa, something's weird though. Those guild people earlier—why did they go so quietly when you talked to them?"
"Beats me. Maybe I looked pitiful. My sister's a hero and I'm a porter, so maybe they felt sorry for me."
"Tch, what a letdown."
Jina let out a small laugh at her brother's flippant response. Somyeong watched that laugh and silently renewed his vow. To protect that ordinary smile, he would not care if a storm of blood raged across Seoul's skies tonight, unknown to the world.
As the sun set and the city's neon signs flickered on one by one, Somyeong confirmed his sleeping family's breathing and quietly opened the window.
The coordinates he had traced while dismantling the device yesterday. Their hideout, cunningly concealed among the towering buildings of Gangnam, crystallized in his mind.
"If you send assassins, it's only polite to return the visit."
Somyeong's figure vanished, slicing through the night air. Moments later, in an underground parking garage beneath a high-rise building in Gangnam, a man in a deep hood appeared before a steel door guarded by unidentified security personnel.
"Who goes there?! This area is restricted to autho—"
Before the sentry could finish, the tip of Somyeong's foot lightly kicked the ground. Heavy, chilling true energy spread through the floor, freezing the air of the entire underground space.
Somyeong tapped the confiscated ID tag against the reader.
BEEP.
The door opened, revealing a long corridor stretching into darkness. Somyeong stepped into the shadows without hesitation.
"Let the hunt begin."