【Kim Daram】
【Level】: 1
【Traits】
└ [Manipulation] Puppet (LV 1)
└ [Unique] System Observer (LV 1) New!
【Encroachment Rate】: 0%
【Ranking】: Requirements Not Met
【Performance Score】: 27,000 New!
The moment I checked my Status Window, I immediately saw what had changed.
I had gained another Trait.
And, unbelievably, the new Trait was the exact same one I had possessed in my previous life.
“What… System Observer? I got the same Trait again? Then this can’t just be a coincidence…”
There was one difference, though.
In my previous life, I had not obtained [System Observer] until a full ten years after I Awakened.
Still, my surprise lasted only a moment. Countless possibilities flashed through my head like lightning.
A little while later, the reflection in the mirror was grinning from ear to ear.
This wasn’t bad.
No, this was great.
[Puppet] and [System Observer] went together like they had been made for each other.
Come to think of it, I had only begun making even a modest name for myself as a Hunter after acquiring [System Observer].
And I had only just Awakened, yet I already possessed two Traits.
It was not as though Hunters with multiple Traits did not exist, but they were exceedingly rare.
As for someone possessing two Traits from the moment of Awakening?
At least as far as I knew, I had never even heard of such a case.
Unlike [Puppet], [System Observer] was a Trait with a very simple ability.
Still, depending on how it was used, it could be more useful than almost any other Trait.
The first ability of [System Observer] was that it displayed one hidden piece of information in the Trait holder’s Status Window.
The Performance Score.
The Performance Score could be considered a comprehensive index that converted an Awakened’s overall capabilities into a numerical value.
For some reason, [System Observer], which belonged to the [Unique] category, did not display a detailed description in the Status Window like other Traits did.
Because of that, I had spent a long time researching exactly what those numbers meant in my previous life.
The relationship between the Score and Ranking.
The standards by which they were calculated.
The range those values could reach.
After countless trials and errors, I had come to two conclusions.
How had I figured all that out?
Thanks to the second ability of [System Observer].
The ability to view another target’s Status Window.
Of course, the information I could view depended on the Trait’s level. At Level 1, I could see only something as basic as the target’s primary Trait.
But I could check a target’s hidden Performance Score no matter who it was.
Get the idea?
I could now distinguish, with considerable accuracy, between opponents I could take on without worry and opponents I should not even make eye contact with.
In the Hunter industry, rookies died all the time because they rushed at monsters without knowing what they were dealing with.
To survive inside the System, the most important ability was recognizing the gap between yourself and your opponent.
And from the moment I Awakened, I possessed that invaluable ability.
As I eagerly scanned my Status Window, however, I soon noticed something strange.
【Performance Score】: 27,000
My Performance Score was…
Way too high.
I had only just Awakened. I was a Level 1 rookie.
Yet my Score was already nearing thirty thousand.
Considering that my final Score in my previous life had been in the seventy-thousand range, this number was ridiculous.
But I quickly figured out why.
This had to be proof that the System valued the abilities of [System Observer] that highly.
Of course, if we were talking about actual combat power, my current Score was clearly inflated.
But that was fine.
No, it was better than fine.
The higher a Performance Score was, the better.
The indirect advantages a high score brought could, at times, be a weapon more powerful than actual skill.
That put my mind at ease.
This was a pretty damn good start.
Grandfather, are you watching?
Just as you said, I let go of my greed and emptied my heart, and I was immediately filled again! Hahaha.
…
Well, I had technically managed to cast aside my worries and clear my mind for a moment…
I checked the phone sitting on my desk.
Just as expected, today was March 1st.
Two days from now, on March 3rd, the Hunter Association would hold a Hunter Selection Assessment for nineteen-year-old Awakened.
Just like in my previous life, I intended to participate.
The Assessment was held in a System stage with a safety rating, but the Hunter Association always implemented an Easter egg in that stage.
In other words, those who ranked near the top in clearing it received exceptionally worthwhile rewards.
I had never even dreamed of reaching those rankings in my previous life.
This time would be different.
In more ways than one, this was an opportunity I could not afford to miss.
Two days until the Assessment…
The house I had lived in at nineteen was in Hannam-dong, while the Assessment would take place in Yeouido.
The distance was short, which meant I had plenty of time to prepare.
Today and tomorrow, I would get myself into top condition, review the Traits I had regained, and make sure I was fully prepared for the Assessment.
As I organized my thoughts, I suddenly remembered that I was not the only person living in this house.
“Ah… fuck.”
I carefully opened my bedroom door.
Through the narrow gap beneath it, I could see a pair of feet in cute floral slippers.
“D-Daram, are you okay? Nothing happened, right?”
A woman’s voice came from outside the room, thick with concern.
When I opened the door, a stunningly beautiful woman was standing before me.
I recognized her immediately.
Ugh… She was home.
There was only one reason she would be lingering outside my room right now.
I must have cursed way too loudly after pulling the Puppet Trait…
She had clearly rushed over because she thought something had happened.
But even after coming all the way to my door, she had not been able to bring herself to knock. She had only stood there, hesitating.
“Daram. Is something wrong?”
She asked again, her expression full of worry.
Instead of answering, I stared blankly at her anxious face.
She really was beautiful…
Come to think of it, after I hit puberty, I could not remember ever properly looking at her face despite living under the same roof.
When I only stared at her without answering, she swallowed her words and looked me over from head to toe.
Then she noticed the Red Ticket in my hand.
“So, in the end, you decided to follow in his footsteps?”
She spoke with a lonely expression, her voice trembling faintly.
That finally snapped me out of it.
“Yes. That’s right.”
At my answer, she lowered her head.
When she raised it again, her eyes were brimming with tears.
She looked at my face for a long while before quietly turning away and starting to walk off.
Right.
Around this time, I had become about as distant from that beautiful woman as it was possible to be.
We did not share a drop of blood, yet she had always treated me with unwavering love.
But throughout my adolescence, I had been brutally cold to her.
In my previous life, I took the Hunter Selection Assessment just as things were, then started dorm life afterward.
After that, we did not even have a reason to live under the same roof anymore.
Looking back on it now, I had been childish and stupid.
We did not share blood, but she had raised me from the time I was five years old.
Even after my father disappeared, she had remained at my side, doing everything she could as my guardian.
As I watched her walk farther away across the living room, my lips parted.
What the hell was I hesitating for?
Hadn’t I regretted this broken relationship countless times in my previous life?
What made a nobody like me so special that I was clinging to my pride?
I had to stop her.
Right now.
But what had I called her again?
You fucking idiot.
What did that even matter?
She had always been my mom.
No matter where I was, no matter when it was, she had always been my mom.
“Mom!”
The single word that slipped from my lips echoed through the silent house.
My mother, Joo Miyeon, spun around and stared at me with wide eyes.
“D-Daram… what did you just call me?”
“Mom, don’t worry so much. I’m not going to disappear without a word like Dad did.”
“D-Did you just call me Mom?”
“What else would I call my mom? It’s not like I’d call you ‘ma’am’…”
Ah.
That was it.
Ever since the first dark shadow of stubble had started appearing beneath my nose, I had stubbornly—almost obsessively—called her “ma’am.”
God.
I really had been a fucking awful bastard.
“Mom…”
She covered her face with both hands and burst into tears.
Mom, I’m sorry.
I learned it after living a life of my own.
No one in this world had ever loved me as much as you did.
I walked over and gently wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
“Why are you crying? I only called you Mom…”
“Sob… Do you know how badly I wanted to hear you call me that…? Ever since you started middle school… do you know how cold you were to me…? Calling me ‘ma’am’ every chance you got… refusing to even look me in the eye… Do you know how hurt I was…?”
Her shoulders trembled.
“You never came out of your room, and I never knew what you were thinking… I was so scared that, just like your father, you would disappear one day without a word… I was so afraid… I can’t anymore…”
She poured out the words in a rush before finally breaking into loud, helpless sobs.
Ah…
I really had been the worst.
Mother, forgive me. Your son had committed a crime worthy of death.
I desperately searched for the right words to calm her down.
“Just think of it this way. Puberty hit me out of nowhere, and now Awakening suddenly knocked some sense into me. I’m really sorry for everything. So please don’t cry.”
“All this time, I begged you not to Awaken… but now I almost feel relieved that you did. I’m sorry…”
“What are you sorry for now?”
“I told you not to because it was dangerous, but now I’m relieved because I can see how much you’ve changed after Awakening… I feel so pathetic.”
Oh, Mom.
I love you.
I fought desperately to hold back my own tears.
After wiping her face and taking several deep breaths, Mom finally calmed down. Then she led me to the sitting room at one end of the living room.
Before long, she brought out tea and an assortment of sweets from around the world, setting them carefully on the table before me.
Then we sat facing each other for a long time, simply looking at one another.
My mother, Joo Miyeon, was the first to speak.
“So, are you planning to take part in the Hunter Selection Assessment two days from now?”
She had spent nearly ten years married to an Awakened who had worked as a Hunter in Korea.
There was no way she did not understand what it meant for me to tear a Red Ticket and Awaken the moment I turned nineteen.
I answered calmly.
“Yes. I have to. Once the Assessment is over, I should have some time before I move into the dorms.”
“I’m still worried. Unlike your father, you’ve always been frail. You were always tripping and coming home hurt… I wish I could go with you.”
“You don’t need to come with me. I’ll be fine. More importantly, don’t you have work, Mom?”
“Well, I do… but it’s only local work. I can tell the company to cancel all of it.”
The woman who had raised me, Joo Miyeon, was still one of South Korea’s top actresses, right in the prime of her career.
Back when my father had been rising through the ranks as a Hunter, he had somehow managed to charm her—a top actress in Korea—into marrying him.
I had been five years old at the time.
Even now, I had no idea how a widower with a kid in tow had managed to get so damn lucky.
What had Mom possibly seen in that man?
“Don’t do that. And from now on, stop turning down overseas work. Accept every offer you get. I’m an adult now. You don’t have to stay tethered to me anymore.”
Joo Miyeon was such an exceptional actress that she had even received offers from Hollywood.
It was only much later in my previous life that I realized she had deliberately avoided overseas work until I became an adult.
Ha…
Mom, the more I thought about it, the more I realized what a horrible son I had been.
“Still, I want to stay in Korea for a while. I want to have all the conversations I never got to have with my Daram.”
Her large eyes curved into crescents.
I smiled back at her.
*****
Two days later.
“I’m off!”
As I stepped out the front door, I reassured Mom that I would not get hurt and that I would come straight home as soon as the Assessment was over.
She gave me a tight hug before seeing me off.
“Come home safe, my son.”
Mom, don’t worry. Believe it or not, my nickname in my previous life was the Snuffed-Out Flame. People would think I was dead, but whenever they checked again, I was always back on my feet.