Stone dust floated in the air like fine powder, and the dry atmosphere was laced with a rank, animal-like stench.
Far ahead, a massive lump was embedded in the stone wall, squirming faintly.
Rrrrrumble…
Was that the boss monster?
The vague tension that had lingered began to gradually dissipate.
It didn’t even feel worth the effort to conceal his presence anymore, so Cha Eui-sung walked forward with deliberate steps. As he approached, the lump slowly pulled its head free.
The ground quivered in response to its movement.
Grrk—
A menacing growl echoed off the cave walls, shaking them. As the monster slowly turned, its grotesque appearance came into view bit by bit.
Eyes gleaming in the dark, a snout slick with strange mucus—likely from something it had just devoured. Fur so coarse and bristly it looked like it could flay flesh on contact. And then…
Long claws.
“I figured.”
Another mole.
Fwip-fwip-fwip!
ROOAAR—!
At this point, he more or less understood the dungeon’s theme.
It was clearly a warren dug by the Mole King and its underlings.
As if to prove it, chunks of stone lay scattered all around the clearing, displaced by digging.
Dodging to the side, he picked one up and cracked it open. A reddish mineral gleamed from within.
“You don’t even need to mine it.”
Honestly, it felt weird how easy this was.
Tsk. Cha Eui-sung tilted his head, suspicion clouding his face. Then suddenly, he swung the stone fragment in his hand—
Crack!
ROOOAARRRGH!
The boss mole, charging at a frightening speed, took a direct hit to the head and tumbled to the ground.
“Well, not that I’m complaining.”
In that case, there was no need to drag things out.
He hadn’t snuck in here to play detective.
All he needed to do was grab the Chain Crystal and get out.
Ssshhh—
Cha Eui-sung raised his weapon again and activated a skill.
SHHRRAAAGH—BOOOM!
A massive hole was blown through the charging boss monster’s head.
Stone dust and dirt burst into the air. Blood trickled down into the hole now yawning in the floor.
At the far end of the chamber, near where the mole had been lodged in the wall, a portal appeared.
Dungeon cleared, just like that.
Cha Eui-sung drove his weapon into the stone floor and bent over with a grunt.
“Ugh-cha…”
He began cracking open the stones scattered around, picking out only those that were minerals and stuffing them into his bag.
The large bag quickly filled out with a lumpy silhouette, growing heavier by the minute. The added weight gave him a comforting sense of satisfaction.
He’d accomplished everything he came for in under fifty minutes. As he approached the portal, something caught his eye.
…What the hell is that?
His steps came to a sudden halt.
Beyond the wall where the monster had been lodged, he spotted another chamber.
He crept closer and peered beyond the wall. What met his eyes was a space packed with reddish walls and stone formations.
Cha Eui-sung quietly picked up another stone and cracked it open. The same glimmering hue as the wall beyond shone through the fracture in a thin, teasing layer.
…
What is this?
Beyond this wall—piled up were Chain Crystals of a value incomparably greater than all these ordinary stones.
Thud!
He dropped his heavy bag to the ground and flipped it over.
The minerals he’d painstakingly collected came tumbling out in a heap.
What moments ago had looked like chunks of cash now looked like nothing more than plain old rocks.
No way he was wasting limited bag space on this garbage.
Jackpot.
His heart began to race.
Dopamine surged through him like a switch had been flipped—any earlier boredom instantly forgotten.
Why had the other Hunters just taken these basic stones and left?
Then again, maybe this was a first-clear reward.
Given how secretively this dungeon had been managed, it made sense the clear reward would be equally confidential.
Still, just in case…
No harm in being cautious.
Cha Eui-sung held his breath and heightened his senses.
He strained his ears for a while, but no strange sounds came from the surroundings.
The exit portal’s open, so there shouldn’t be any monsters left.
This unexpected stroke of luck felt surreal, but apart from that, nothing felt suspicious or dangerous.
And really—who would leave behind a fortune in a situation like this?
In the end, Cha Eui-sung picked up his now-empty bag and climbed through the hole.
The moment both feet landed in the new chamber lined with red walls—
CRACK!
“Huh?”
His vision suddenly shifted.
***
“You think I care about anyone?”
“N-no? I just thought… you always bring him along, so…”
“What, should I turn away an S-rank that comes crawling to me? What if I do and it works?”
“Well… yeah, I guess that’s true.”
Drip.
A droplet hit his forehead.
He licked the water trailing down his face.
Drip.
Another drop. Moisture began to return to his parched lips.
Cha Eui-sung slowly opened his eyes. His blurry vision gradually sharpened.
A purple sky came into view.
…What?
Trying to get a grasp of the situation made his head throb. Nothing came to mind.
With a limp hand, he reached around to the back of his head. His fingers brushed against something rough and crusted.
He carefully peeled it off and held it up in front of his eyes—dried blood.
As he sat up, rubble and stone fragments that had been weighing him down slid off and scattered.
What the hell…
His head was spinning. His stomach ached. Actually… his whole body hurt. Not a single spot wasn’t in pain.
In a daze, he dragged his battered body a few steps forward.
And then, the scene came into focus—
A world reduced to ruins.
“Ugh…”
Pain shot through his head. He groaned and turned it slightly. The place where he’d been lying was soaked in dried blood.
He reached around to his back. The spot that had been touching the ground was stiff and crinkling.
All of it… was his own blood.
He had no clue what had happened.
Thunk.
Just as he took another few steps, something heavy caught underfoot.
He stumbled and looked down—shattered marble.
[Hunter Association HQ]
A familiar font.
The Hunter Association’s nameplate stone.
Why was it here…?
Just as the thought struck, a piercing flash of memory jolted through his mind.
…!
His head shot up. The purple sky once again filled his vision.
He reached for his left wrist and felt a broken watch.
He unclasped it and brought it up.
The watch face had been half-blown off, but the emblem of the Hunter Association was still visible.
That design… it was from the commemorative watch made when the new Association President took office.
Fragments of memory began surfacing.
He had worn this watch to attend the celebration party held after the inauguration ceremony.
A party thrown for the new face of the Hunter Association—President Cha Eui-sung.
This… can’t be…
He shook his head, but now the memories came flooding back.
The sound of applause from the cheering crowd.
The handshakes from prominent figures.
The moment he stepped out of the building… the meteor that blotted out the sky.
And the white-haired man who locked eyes with him.
KABOOOM—!
“Guh!”
Cha Eui-sung convulsed, his body wracked with tremors.
He gasped for breath and glanced around.
Nothing remained but endless ruins—no sign of life anywhere.
How long had he been unconscious?
How much time had passed since he was struck by a piece of falling meteor and blacked out?
No matter how hard he tried to recall, he couldn’t piece anything together.
The purple sky, devoid of sun or moon, made it impossible to even guess the time.
A small blue planet floated near the horizon, but that only made things worse.
He’d never seen a star like that in the solar system.
Before the disaster, the party grounds at the Association HQ had been packed with people.
And now, not a single corpse was in sight.
Where did everyone go?
Did someone survive and clean up the bodies?
His aching head made it impossible to think further.
His vision blurred again…
By the time he came to, Cha Eui-sung was walking endlessly through the ruins.
His gaze drifted to the horizon, where the landscape seemed to scatter into dust.
He vaguely thought, the world is collapsing into itself.
The world has ended.
Now, he understood.
And he was the only one left in this fading world.
Cha Eui-sung shrugged off his tattered suit jacket and let it fall to the ground.
The blood-soaked shirt beneath it looked disgusting.
“Status…”
He tried again for the umpteenth time to summon a system window—
But nothing appeared.
No matter how he called it—by thought, glance, gesture, or voice—it was useless.
Even the System had abandoned him.
What could he possibly do here?
Why was he the only one left on this sinking ship?
Why…
“Ugh.”
Just as his mind began to scatter again under the weight of pain—
As if someone had heard his thoughts, a sound pierced through the silence.
Ding!
[ !! !? oㄷa ! ! ]
[na ?? han ? te !! ]
What the hell was this?
A glitch-ridden message popped up in front of him—something he’d never seen before.
The color was off, and it gave off an eerie feeling.
But it was the first thing that had spoken to him since he woke up.
That alone felt like grabbing hold of a lifeline.
Cha Eui-sung stared at the trembling, corrupted system window—like it had caught a virus—and nodded blankly.
And from that moment on, he turned around and started walking in a different direction.
Step. Step. Step.
The sky remained dyed eternally in purple.
As he moved, the blue planet grew steadily larger.
Every time he regained consciousness, he fumbled through half-lucid thoughts like a man on sedatives.
So what happens to the Hunter Association now?
I’m injured, so I probably won’t be able to work for a while.
Since the S-rank bastards will have to listen to me at least a little, I should secretly toss a couple things to Go Yeong-won…
Wait. The Association is gone. So now I have to listen to the Bureau of Regulation?
Oh Se-dan’s gonna flip if he sees this.
Should I have some of his favorite tea ready so he doesn’t faint…
Ah. Right. Oh Se-dan’s dead too.
And then—at some point, Cha Eui-sung realized he had reached his destination.
He lifted his head with an empty expression.
A vast blue planet now blocked out most of the purple sky.
He stared up at it blankly—
WHOOSH!
Suddenly, the planet moved.
A black circle studded with thorns contracted and expanded, focusing directly on Cha Eui-sung.
Ah.
Goosebumps spread across his skin.
The hair on his entire body stood on end.
This… wasn’t a planet.
It was a giant, glacial pupil.
One he had seen before. One he would never forget.
Ding!
Another alert sound rang out, and a different system window popped up.
This one looked somewhat intact—normal in color, less distorted.
His throat tightened, and for a moment, it felt like he’d finally found the real System again.
[$YS+E∑: Eye]
[S%$TㅌM: Avoid the eye]
Run.
Somehow, Cha Eui-sung already knew what the next message would say.
He spun around and bolted, retracing his steps, running far, far away.
And then—his vision exploded in brightness.
He no longer felt his aching head, the burning in his lungs, or the trembling in his limbs.
“Don’t you want revenge?”
