Chapter 1: Prelude to a Twist

“Lee Younghak, your service period is extended by three years! You fucking bastard!!”

Covering his mouth~

“You murdering bastard!! You worthless piece of shit!! I’ll kill you for real!! I’ll kill you!! You fucking bastard!!”

“Hey!!!!”

When Cho Geunsung, the station chief, waved his hand, the waiting military police subdued Younghak by hitting him in the stomach with a baton.

Despite being the world’s first Level 1100 expert in a world with mana, outside the gate where there was no mana, Younghak was just an ordinary person and was easily subdued.

“Take him away! Lock that bastard inside the gate! Restrict his outings! If it wasn’t for his skills, I’d kick him out immediately!!”

Even after Younghak was dragged out by the military police, Cho Geunsung rubbed his sore cheek and glanced at me.

“Kim Sungho.”

“Yes, station chief.”

“Unlike Younghak, you’re great. You listen well.”

Cho Geunsung lit a cigarette.

“You know things are noisy because of Lee Sangmin’s death, right? Don’t go around spreading weird rumours and lowering morale. You’ve got one year left in your hunter service period, right?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t want to end up like Lee Younghak with your service period extended, do you? You want to finish your mandatory three years and leave, right?”

I clenched my fist secretly.

Fucking bastard.

I wanted to punch him like Younghak, but doing so would extend my service period.

I didn’t want to get eaten by monsters.

After a moment of internal struggle, I had no choice but to bow my head humbly.

“Yes, station chief.”

“Don’t say anything more to reporters about Lee Sangmin’s death. The Ministry of Defence officially stated he died due to underlying conditions. If you go spreading strange stories, it’ll cause trouble for all of us.”

Sangmin was a good guy.

While hunting a monster horde near a crack opening in Seoul, he got poisoned and was urgently transported to the station.

But there were no medical supplies that should have been there.

Why weren’t there any?

I don’t know.

Managing the station was Cho Geunsung’s and a few female awakened soldiers’ responsibility.

But what was clear was this:

Lee Sangmin was neglected at the station for three days.

Because of that, a guy who could have been saved with the right medical supplies died with his body half-melted.

He kept crying that he wanted to see his family until he died.

And I witnessed the whole scene.

Younghak couldn’t hold back seeing that and punched Cho Geunsung, leading to his service period being extended by three years and being kicked out.

And I too could end up like that any time.

Pathetically, selfishly, disgustingly.

But a thought crept into my mind: I just need to endure quietly for one more year and get discharged.

I nodded with an expression I couldn’t tell was a smile or tears.

“Yes, station chief.”

“Good. You know there’s a new crackstone in Zone 39? It’s a boss raid. The coordinates of the connected crackstone are confirmed to be in the middle of Seoul. You need to handle it. It’s really fortunate to have a tamer like you! Ha ha! Wouldn’t you stay longer?”

When I didn’t respond, Cho Geunsung, sensing my mood, gestured for me to leave.

“Take a day off within the restricted area. I can allow that much discretion. Good job, Sungho.”

I bowed slightly and left the room without a word.

It was a day so disgusting I wanted to throw up.

Feeling like I would go crazy if I didn’t drink, I rushed to a bar in the restricted area.

Daejeon.

Once called a boring city with nothing but bakeries, it ceased to be a no-fun city ten years ago when an unavoidable main gate opened in the heart of Daejeon.

Now, it was a fierce city with numerous military units stationed in case the gate went berserk.

That’s the current state of Daejeon.

Hunters, who might escape, were allowed leaves only within designated restricted areas of Daejeon, under strict military surveillance.

“A bottle of soju is 30,000 won.”

I’ve gotten used to the damn prices in the restricted area.

Ordering three bottles of soju and a fish cake soup instantly cost 60,000 won.

These ridiculous prices were a collaboration between the restricted area merchants and station chief Cho Geunsung, so there was no chance of change.

I drank alcohol.

I drank and drank again.

When I was drafted at 20, I told my parents they didn’t need to worry too much, but now that I’m here, there’s an endless list of things to worry about. I’ve seen far too many things I shouldn’t have seen during my two-year service period.

Scenes of people dying.

Scenes of people collapsing.

And incidents where there were only victims with no one held accountable.

Brother Younghak was a hero.

The first hunter and a legendary one who has been semi-forced to live inside the gate for the 10 years since gates started appearing.

There wasn’t anyone in the world who could match his level among all the hunters.

Thanks to the know-how and monster hunting methods he taught us, in the early days when a hunter died almost every day, now it’s rare for even one to die in a year.

But such a hero got his service period extended and was thrown back into the hellish gate just for protesting the absurd death of his party member.

With about one death per year, people will just move on when someone dies absurdly next year.

The deaths of hunters were forgotten so cheaply.

Something was seriously wrong.

But I had no idea how to change it or where to start.

In this horribly twisted system, there was nothing I could do alone.

“Fuck, really.”

Three bottles of alcohol disappeared in no time.

If I was inside the gate, I could circulate mana to instantly get rid of the drunkenness, but here outside the gate, I couldn’t do that.

I stared blankly at the fishcake soup.

Maybe I should just die.

Even if I get discharged like this, can I call it a happy discharge?

Damn Korea.

Fucked up Korea.

I wish it would just collapse.

As I was chewing on a piece of fishcake, these thoughts ran through my mind, and breaking news from the TV in the store caught my ear.

[This is breaking news. DARPA, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency of the United States, has announced a new use for the mana stones obtained from monsters inside the gates.]

I turned my gaze to the TV while eating fishcake.

On TV, a U.S. researcher was making an announcement in front of reporters.

[We discovered that while mana stones themselves have no utility, they can be processed into a liquid form through a special refining process. We have decided to call this liquid elixir.]

[What are the benefits of the elixir?]

[We found out that it can distort physical laws.]

[What exactly do you mean by that?]

In response to the reporter’s question, the researcher took out a square piece of metal and placed it on a magnet.

The metal piece floated effortlessly in the air.

[Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to officially announce that the development of a room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductor is possible using elixir…]

I couldn’t watch the news till the end because of the loud siren, and I had to get up from my seat.

There’s only one reason for a siren to ring in a restricted area.

It meant a rift was about to connect to the territory of South Korea.

I had to urgently return to the base inside the gate, not finishing my fishcake soup.

“Brother Younghak.”

When I returned, Brother Younghak and three parties were fully armed and preparing to sortie.

He glanced at me and pointed to one side with his finger.

“The rift stone in sector 39. It’s about to activate. The mana wave is unusual.”

“Didn’t they say it would open in at least three days?”

“Whatever the reason, it seems to have been moved up. We’re not even properly prepared. This is unsettling.”

The faster formation of cracks either meant that the number of monster hordes had swelled enormously beyond expectations or that a boss-level monster with immense mana had appeared.

The latter was far more dangerous.

“Who’s going?”

“Teams 41, 42, and 43 are going. Along with you and me. Should be no problem like this, right?”

It was the maximum firepower the outpost had.

The rest of the parties were in charge of defending the outpost.

Hoping desperately that it wouldn’t be a boss over level 900, I summoned the three wyverns I had tamed.

“As planned!”

I directed 41’s wyvern towards my wyvern. 42’s went to Wyvern II.

43 climbed into a large basket carried by Wyvern III.

Then, I climbed onto the largest wyvern, Wyvern I.

“Move.”

The three wyverns took flight.

Like this, we began our perilous boss raid, where death was a distinct possibility.

Normally, Younghak would joke and try to lighten the mood, was unusually quiet today.

The other party members were the same.

Though they said Sangmin had died due to a chronic illness, we knew better; no one cared when we died.

No one cried for us or treated us with respect.

It felt like pride in protecting South Korea through sealing the rift had vanished with Sangmin’s death.

I wondered if this was what slave mentality was like—performing tasks we’d habitually learned without understanding why.

But such thoughts rapidly faded as we approached the rift.

“The fucking mana blowing over….”

The unusual sensation was palpable on our skin.

The roiling mass of monster hordes wasn’t in sight.

Instead, there was only the colossal form of one monster.

A body stretching over 60 meters.

A slick, scaly body that seemed armoured.

Enormous wings.

[Boss Monster <Despair Flame Dragon> has entered the area.]

[Warning! Target is an Ancient-class dragon!]

The status screen constantly flashed a bright red warning to us.

“Level in the 1200s.”

A level unheard of in my two years as a hunter.

“Surely… surely when we scouted, it was in the 800s.”

Even Younghak, with ten years of experience, stumbled over his words.

And amidst this,

The dragon slowly turned its head to look at us.

Pieces beneath its feet seemed to be sloughing away with its movement.

It had gotten stronger, advancing from a worm that opened rifts to a dragon-grade.

It was an unforeseen event.

“Let’s… let’s go back!”

“I don’t want to die!!”

Party members who were already mentally strained by Sangmin’s incident all shouted in unison.

To fight and die like Sangmin, without any care or treatment.

And then, the responses from the Ministry of Defence saying, “Oh, another chronic illness” were out of fear.

The problem was that Younghak, who should be holding us together, couldn’t say anything.

His expression was one of despair when I looked at him.

Just fucking this country.

Wouldn’t it be bad if we all died because the rift opened?

I thought.

So I shouted.

“Capture!! Reduce it to 10% health!! I’ll try taming!!”

Straightaway, objections came.

“If you catch it and die! Huh? Who’s going to compensate us for that! Hyung-seong!”

If people who saw the Sangmin incident were to see it, it would be a question anyone could ask.

And thank goodness.

I had one answer to that question.

“I’ll make you all rich! I just saw news that we can make high-temperature superconductors from magic stones!!”

My words change the expressions and atmosphere of the people.

“Whatever we have suffered!! The unfair death of our comrades!!! All the money we will make! Let’s catch it! And let’s make the bastard mine with taming! If we do that, We will live like kings from those hunter novels.”

The atmosphere and expression of the party members change to my exclamation.

Younghak looked up at me.

“Is that really true?”

“It’s really fucking. I don’t lie about something that can kill people.”

Our eyes met for a moment, then Younghak-nim raised his 1.3-meter-long sword, modelled after Admiral Yi Sunsin’s sword, which he wielded effortlessly.

“Let’s trust Sungho and do this, guys. We need to get what we deserve for all the shit we’ve been through.”

With Younghak-nim’s words, the party regained its original spirit.

I landed the wyverns.

Against an ancient dragon, the wyverns wouldn’t approach within a certain distance.

It was a trait of dragonkind.

From here on, we would have to fight on foot.

“Let’s go, guys! Let’s survive today!”

With Younghak-nim’s rallying cry, the hunters shouted in unison.

I summoned all the monsters I had tamed, except the wyverns.

Dozens of 700-level monsters I had tamed so far.

Three hunter teams, each with monstrous 900-level strength.

[Starting the boss raid!]

This was the most suitable line-up to face an unprecedented level 1200 monster.