Ch.14Chapter 14 – A Complete Transformation

I opened my eyes. I bolted upright.

“Argh!”

My head throbbed as if it was about to split open. Something was being pulled out of my arm. Had I been drinking last night? No, this pain wasn’t a hangover. It felt like actual, physical pain… What happened? What had occurred?

“Just a moment! Patient Shin Jaehyuk, please lie back down!”

A passing nurse grabbed my arm and laid me back on the bed. I surrendered to her touch and reclined. Wait, a nurse?

“Hospital?”

“Yes, yes, you’re in a hospital. It must be confusing to suddenly wake up here, right? Do you remember what happened before you lost consciousness?”

The nurse spoke while reattaching the IV needle that had been pulled out of my arm. Hospital… Right, hospital. This is a hospital room.

Outside the room, I could see nurses and doctors rushing about noisily. They seemed extremely busy. Only then did fragments of memory gradually piece together, and I recalled what had happened before I lost consciousness. My mouth was dry, making it difficult to speak. With a trembling voice, I barely managed to form words.

“Demon, the burning giant…”

“Yes, yes, you don’t need to recall any more. It must have been a frightening memory. I’m sorry for asking and reopening your wounds…”

The nurse apologized to me, mistaking my trembling voice for trauma.

“You were rescued from that street. When you were first found, you were covered in blood, and we worried you might be dead, but fortunately, despite appearances, you had no serious external injuries. However, you had abrasions and signs of a concussion, so you’ve been unconscious for three full days.”

Only those minor injuries? I was certain all the bones in my body would have been shattered… Who healed me? More importantly, what about the demon? I asked urgently with a cracking voice.

“The demon, what happened to the demon?”

“Calm down… The demon was destroyed. Oh, look, it’s on the news right now.”

Could it be? Is there someone on Earth capable of defeating a high-ranking demon? I hurriedly turned my head to look at the screen above the hospital bed. The news anchor was mumbling something. The nurse brought a remote control and increased the volume.

“…achieved the remarkable feat of closing the first Hell Gate. Videos of the burning giant being defeated have spread across social media, earning him the nickname ‘Warrior of Light’ and becoming a beacon of hope for people worldwide…”

A video played. A familiar monster appeared in a familiar setting. Electronic devices near the Hell Gate should have all been damaged, but this camera seemed to have been lucky enough to survive. It appeared to have been secretly filmed from inside a building; the photographer’s breathing was rough, and the camera shook slightly.

As the man on screen raised his sword, a pillar of light and a rising dragon formed from it, creating an incredible atmosphere. A stage of raging storms was set. The burning giant turned around and charged at the man, and just as its fist seemed about to crush him, the man swung his sword down, cleanly erasing the giant with the pillar of light.

“Insane…”

‘That level of power is on par with Eden’s 12 Heroes… No, even beyond that.’

While Shin Jaehyuk was shocked by this feat, the nurse marveled:

“No matter how many times I see that scene, it’s truly… mythical.”

There was a pause between her words, as if she was searching for the right term to describe that mysterious and majestic scene.

“Who is that person?”

The nurse smiled and explained calmly:

“One of the first Awakened, the Warrior of Light, Kim Jaemin.”

It was a smile full of hope.

***

After a few simple tests, Shin Jaehyuk gathered his belongings and left the busy hospital, heading home. His smartphone had been destroyed when he was hit by the demon, but fortunately, his wallet was intact, allowing him to pay the hospital bill.

His original clothes were torn and covered in blood, so he had to quickly buy new ones from a nearby clothing store. Surprised that stores were open during such a disaster, he asked the store owner about it. The owner explained that all gates in Seoul had closed on the first day, and those in other regions by the second day at the latest, so stores were now operating as usual. He then launched into a lengthy praise of Prime Minister Park Joogwan. Shin Jaehyuk let the words go in one ear and out the other.

Shin Jaehyuk safely returned home. The roads near his house were a mess of broken and melted debris, so no cars were passing through. As soon as he entered his home, he opened a secret door and hurriedly rushed into the passage.

‘Please!’

He flung open the door to his figure display room. Numerous Gundam model kits and anime girl figures were displayed in glass showcases.

“Oh, thank the Lord…”

He had worried they might have fallen and broken due to the earthquakes caused by the giant’s rampage, but fortunately, no such terrible thing had happened. After catching his breath, Shin Jaehyuk headed to his workroom.

While his main computer was booting up, he took a new smartphone from a drawer and replaced the USIM chip. When he turned it on, it worked perfectly.

“Good.”

First, he quickly sent messages to his acquaintances to let them know he was alive. He thought others would be safe thanks to his early warnings, but they would have been worried after not hearing from him for three days. Responses came back quickly; fortunately, Yoo Sungha, the orphanage people, Lee Yujin, and Cha Eunkyung were all safe.

Everyone seemed to have been very worried during the three days they couldn’t contact him. Since he couldn’t tell them he had fought a demon, he made up an excuse that it took time to get a new smartphone after his old one broke. After confirming his acquaintances’ safety, Shin Jaehyuk leaned back deeply in his chair with a sigh of relief.

‘Mr. B would have taken care of himself, the people at the police station should be safe, and Kim Jaemin seems to have become an incredibly powerful Awakened for some reason…’

Having a small social circle was convenient in times like this. There weren’t many people to contact. As he wondered if there was anyone else he should reach out to, one name crossed his mind.

‘That guy? Noona Sungha said she’d contact him, so that bastard should be fine. We’re not close enough to be in touch anyway…’

Shin Jaehyuk cleanly erased that name from his mind. He entered his password on the now-powered computer and opened the internet. He accessed a news site. Now it was time to find out what had happened while he was unconscious.

“Prime Minister Park Joogwan Appointed as Acting President by Unanimous Vote of Legislative and Executive Branches”

“Blue House, Seoul City Hall, Seoul Southern Detention Center Half-Destroyed… Bodies Difficult to Identify”

“What are the Awakened? Hope in the Gate Crisis, the New Humans Who Defeat Monsters”

“Warrior of Light, Kim Jaemin. Who Is He?”

***

On what seemed like an ordinary summer day, the world became hell. Not metaphorically, but literally. Without warning, black holes appeared in major cities worldwide, and green demons poured out from them. People called these spheres “gates.”

When the gates opened, electronic devices in the vicinity malfunctioned for some reason, delaying the spread of information. Most people in the area were massacred. The monsters killed everyone they could find, including those fleeing and those hiding in nearby buildings.

Only after survivors reached areas where electronic devices worked could they report what was happening, which delayed military deployment. Another factor in the delayed response was that police and military initially didn’t believe reports of monsters appearing.

While the world had turned into hell, to some eyes it looked like heaven. Journalists and military generals were prime examples. In the current situation, where a new threat that wasn’t human had appeared, force became the highest value. Demons that couldn’t be defeated with money could be killed with the flick of a soldier’s finger. And the military was the nation’s ultimate force. The leaders of this organization naturally seized power.

Especially for the new Prime Minister Park Joogwan, a former military general, this new world was a utopia tailored for him. His military background, once criticized and considered a political weakness, became an enormous merit in the new world. His connections with other high-ranking officials through senior-junior relationships became political power he could leverage.

When the Gate crisis erupted, Park Joogwan first received a call from a mysterious sponsor who funded his political activities. The instruction was to immediately deploy troops to Gwanak District. When he subsequently received reports of the Gate incident from his subordinates, he didn’t hesitate to contact his juniors and mobilize the military.

Park Joogwan realized this was his opportunity. Although it was a serious overreach of authority, at that time, he couldn’t contact the President, the Presidential Chief of Staff, or other high-ranking administrative officials, making Park Joogwan, as Prime Minister, effectively the highest authority.

From the inability to contact the VIP at the Blue House, Park Joogwan sensed something but didn’t send troops there. He rationalized to himself that the citizens were the priority, but of course, he had other sinister thoughts. That choice proved to be correct.

The military slaughtered the monsters overwhelmingly with minimal casualties. Because Park Joogwan immediately dispatched troops, the monsters didn’t spread far into the city, and except for people who were near the gates when they opened, there weren’t many casualties. They even achieved the feat of closing the gate in Gwanak District, the first in the world.

Shortly after, a crisis arose when a fire giant appeared, but even that was defeated by a new human called an Awakened who emerged like a hero. That fire giant was abnormally powerful, but all gates nationwide were closed one after another thanks to the military’s efforts. The entire nation cheered for the victory while watching the news.

Public support for Park Joogwan skyrocketed. Examples from other countries where monsters infiltrated cities due to hesitation and delays, causing significant damage, made Park Joogwan’s achievements seem even greater and more admirable.

As luck would have it, a Hell Gate opened near the Blue House, killing the President and other high-ranking administrative officials who were in a meeting there, leaving the head of state position vacant. With overwhelming support from military forces, politicians, and citizens, Park Joogwan became the acting head of state. Some journalists criticized Park Joogwan, who was among the highest authorities during the Gate crisis, for intentionally letting the President die without saving him, but these “opinions” were buried by forces supporting Park Joogwan.

With the world overflowing with other news stories, even those journalists didn’t dig deeper into the incident and moved on to find other stories. For example, the new humans called Awakened.

Right after the Gate crisis, some people began using unrealistic, “fantasy-like” superpowers. Breathing fire from their hands, having enhanced vision to see very far, moving extremely fast. The types of abilities varied, but all so-called Awakened reported one common symptom.

Status windows.

According to the Awakened, at the moment of awakening, a status window activated before their eyes like an RPG game character, and knowledge of how to use their special abilities flowed into their minds. When they said or thought the word “status window,” a hologram-like status window opened before their eyes, displaying several pieces of information.

Like an actual game, it didn’t provide detailed numerical information. In fact, the status window that appeared in reality was extremely unfriendly. It only displayed name, level, achievements, and something called civilization level. The level had no experience bar, so it was unknown when or how to level up, and the criteria for determining an Awakened’s initial level was also unclear. Most Awakened had no achievements, and the civilization level showed [0/5] with a percentage experience bar, indicating the maximum level was 5 and the current level was 0, but no further information could be extracted. The status window didn’t even display what abilities one had.

Regardless of these inconveniences, all Awakened were powerful. Their physical abilities alone made them strong enough to face several trained soldiers, and their unique special abilities made them even more powerful.

For various reasons such as revenge, honor, and power, they unleashed their strength on monsters. They killed demons that had infiltrated cities after evading the military, protecting people. People praised these Awakened who protected humanity and killed monsters, calling them “Hunters.”