A small, pristine kitchen comes into view. A large pot is bubbling atop the gas stove. Over the sound of the roiling boil, the voices of two people seated in the living room drift in.
“I’m not sure.”
“They ruined your life, though.”
“Still… I don’t know.”
“Why…?”
The voice asking trembles slightly at the end. The other voice lets out a thoughtful “Mmm,” then replies gently.
“I don’t think my life was ruined.”
For a moment, silence falls. The faint rustle of fabric brushing together sounds, followed by a soft sigh. In the glow of a standing lamp, two long shadows are wrapped around each other.
“That’s not how I meant it. I just… wondered, that’s all.”
“I know. I never misunderstood.”
“I don’t think I could do it. I mean… I think it’d be too hard for me.”
“Mmm… Yeah, you’re right. It was hard.”
One shadow reaches out its arm. It appears to show something to the other. Then, the two embrace once more, holding each other for quite some time.
“Do you regret it?”
“I’m not sure.”
The relatively smaller shadow buries its head completely into the other’s chest, as if trying to breathe in their scent, and stays like that for a long while. Eventually, when they part, the larger shadow slowly rises to its feet.
“Why are you crying? I’m okay, really.”
“……”
“Don’t be like that. Let’s have some corn. It should be ready by now.”
A man with black hair walks into the narrow kitchen. He opens the lid of the pot and uses tongs to pull out the steaming corn. He glances toward the living room, his eyes tinged with worry.
“Moon Tae-young…”
Something stirs in his chest. It’s only upon seeing the man’s face that Cha Eui-sung realizes— Faded Photograph Fragment. His skill has activated again.
Why? With everything already in ruins, what could this possibly be showing him now? What does it want from someone already left to wander alone?
But then, as the scene begins to slowly break apart, a thought crosses his mind. No… Was it really ruined?
***
“Guhak!”
Cha Eui-sung gasped violently as he opened his eyes. But what filled his throat wasn’t air—it was a mouthful of hot, red blood.
“Ugh! H-hurgh… blegh!”
Coughing up blood in ragged spasms, his legs trembled beneath him. A slick, wet substance touched his hands. His ears were ringing, his vision blurred. His stomach churned, forcing up bile as he moaned through the splitting pain in his skull. He gasped for breath, again and again, continuing to spit out blood. Moaning. Spitting blood. Only after writhing in the throes of that headache for what felt like forever did he finally start to come to his senses.
“Kuhuk, kuhuk! Guhk!”
Cha Eui-sung lay curled up inside a dark cave.
“Huff… haah… huh…”
As his breathing settled, his vision slowly returned. It was still hazy. He instinctively tried to rub his eyes—only to find his hands soaked in blood. When he let his gaze drop, he realized his whole body was drenched in it. The stench that stabbed at his nostrils made it clear—this was poison.
Staggering, he pushed himself upright. He had to get to safety. That thought alone made him turn around and crawl through a hole—
Thud! Squish…
He fell straight to the ground.
“Shit…”
He raised his head. This wasn’t the chamber filled with Chain Crystals. It was just a crude hole dug halfway by a boss monster.
As he tried to retrace what he’d been doing before he blacked out, a dry, incredulous laugh escaped his lips.
“Ha… Haha… ha!”
He could’ve sworn he’d seen another open clearing. So what the hell happened?
In his disoriented state, he pressed a sticky hand to his forehead—and a sharp sting shot through his forearm. Cha Eui-sung quickly turned his head. Something was embedded in his right arm. A metal spike, about a handspan long, forged from crimson steel.
The hell is this now…
Touching it sent tingling pain up his nerves—it didn’t feel right. When he pinched the tip with his fingers and pressed down, a dizzying sensation swept over him.
Worse, even though the headache had passed, his condition still hadn’t stabilized. Could a skill’s Burden on the Laws of Reality really linger this long?
Wait… what if it’s the material?
When the hell did I get hit?
Digging into his memory, he recalled feeling something stab into him right before that bizarre hallucination began. That must’ve been when he triggered the trap.
He wiped the blood from his nose and sniffed the air. Even in the dungeon’s final chamber—a vast hollow—the faint trace of poison lingered. Now it made sense why he’d thought there was a large space beyond that hole.
How long had he been poisoned before he realized it?
First things first, I need to pull this out…
He raised his aching arm. The fact that this much damage was done, even factoring in the skill backlash, meant the spike must be made from high-purity Chain Crystal.
Cha Eui-sung took a deep breath and examined his arm. The pain was intense—but at least that was a good sign. Neither the bone nor any major nerves or tendons seemed damaged.
Sighing with a pained expression, he gritted his teeth and began to pull the spike out slowly with one hand.
“Hhhkk…!”
He expected it to hurt—but not this much. Each time he strained to pull it, sweat dripped from his chin.
Clatter!
At last, the wicked hunk of metal clanked to the ground. Cha Eui-sung trembled violently, panting as he clutched his bleeding arm. He flexed and turned it, trying to assess the injury.
The bone’s fine… definitely intact. Tendons too. Nothing’s torn.
A jolt of weakness ran through his muscles whenever he moved, but that was nothing compared to what it could have been. As long as he sterilized it and wrapped it well, it would heal on its own.
To think something in this dungeon could leave an S-rank like him in such a state. What kind of deranged trap was set in here?
And of all things, it had to be Chain Crystal—which explained why the bleeding wouldn’t stop. No wonder he’d felt so drained.
Pressing firmly against the wound to stem the bleeding, Cha Eui-sung picked up the bloodstained spike. There was a small hole at the tip.
“Goddamn it. What did it inject into me?”
The hallucination he’d seen while unconscious came rushing back.
If nothing else had interfered, he might’ve been knocked out for hours. Even poisoned and drained by Chain Crystal, to be rendered completely unconscious like that—it couldn’t have been a mere hallucinogen.
Poison… that was poison too.
It must’ve been intended to kill him outright.
But since he was S-rank, he must’ve just taken a nap and survived.
Inspecting his wound once more, Cha Eui-sung stripped off his filthy clothes and wiped down his hands and face with the cleaner parts. He scrubbed away the blood, unzipped the front pouch of his bag, and took out a fresh set of clothes.
Tch. This was exactly why he hunted so clean—so he wouldn’t have to deal with bloodstains. Muttering complaints in a drained voice, he changed into the new outfit and grabbed his bag. What had once looked like a pile of rocks now gleamed like a heap of gold again.
He packed the spilled minerals tightly into his bag and checked his watch. Nearly four hours had passed since he’d entered. He couldn’t afford to stay any longer.
“Gotta hurry… Moon Tae-young.”
The name escaped his lips without thinking. His mind was still foggy.
He’d meant to remind himself to return—but waking up from that memory shown by his skill must’ve triggered something. He had to go to him.
Cha Eui-sung shook his head hard, snapped back to focus, and hurried toward the portal.
Thunk!
Weirdly, his bag wouldn’t pass through.
“Oh, come on!”
The anger he’d been holding back exploded. His rising panic gnawed at his nerves like a buzzsaw.
Unable to hold back any longer, he shook the bag violently—and the overstuffed zipper tore open with a loud snap. The ores tumbled out in a clattering mess.
Only then did the resistance against the portal ease ever so slightly.
…
No way.
Gritting his teeth, Cha Eui-sung backed away from the portal. He began tossing out the rocks one by one and testing the bag again and again.
Thunk. Thunk.
Blocked each time—until nearly half the contents were gone. Then finally, it slipped through.
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…
He realized, even the foul stench in the air had started to fade.
This dungeon was designed so you couldn’t carry out more than a certain amount of loot. If you went over the limit, it triggered the spread of poison to kill all the Hunters inside.
“AAAAAAAAARGH!”
Cha Eui-sung screamed in fury. It was just a hunch—but the probability was too high to ignore.
Now it made sense why so many Hunters were willing to enter this hellhole. Without Porters, it would take a whole squad to scrape the place clean.
To get caught by such a cheap trick and suffer like this…
Grumbling under his breath, Cha Eui-sung stumbled out of the dungeon. It had been bright when he entered, but the sky was now growing dark.
Sure, he came out with some high-value loot—but his body was wrecked, and his head was spinning. He’d seen something strange, maybe a dream or maybe a hallucination. His Faded Photograph Fragment skill had activated again.
And more than anything… He’d seen something pretending to be the System—and another presence that stopped it. The real System.
[S%$TㅌM: Open your eyes]
Run.
A cold shiver ran down his spine.
The world—slowly unraveling and getting sucked away— That deep-blue pupil, which he had mistaken for a planet, passed through his mind over and over.
What was that?
He hoped it was just a crazy dream, born from his frayed nerves… but the implications were too heavy to ignore.
With a weary face, Cha Eui-sung descended the mountain and left the area without looking back.
Even as he sped down the highway with a foul taste in his mouth, visions of a ruined world and his lonely self, left behind in it, kept flashing through his mind.
Ding!
―In 300 meters, take the ramp on the right toward the expressway.
Even the GPS startled him. He’d been driving nonstop for five, maybe six hours.
Only when familiar sights of his rural hometown came into view did his eyes begin to droop. Seeing people walking around was the first thing that finally put him at ease.
The blue eye and the strange illusion that had haunted him began to settle into the realm of memory—just another piece of his Faded Photograph Fragment.
He couldn’t even remember the voice, but he recalled how gentle the conversation had been. Suddenly, he didn’t want to be home alone.
“Tch.”
But the pain in his arm reminded him of the shape he was in.
Even the thought of the loot-packed bag in his trunk failed to lift his mood. Clenching his jaw, Cha Eui-sung drove down the narrow road toward his empty house.
