Hunters were gathering in Seoul one after another.
Due to the emergency alerts, phones were constantly vibrating without a break. Casually switching my phone to silent mode, I looked up at the sky. Several drones had been launched, seemingly to monitor the situation, and helicopters were flying past.
[EMERGENCY ALERT] Month 00, over 40 rifts have appeared in central Seoul and its surrounding areas / Please exercise caution.
[EMERGENCY ALERT] Month 00, over 52 rifts have appeared in central Seoul and its surrounding areas / Please refrain from going outside and pay close attention to disaster broadcasts.
Social media and online communities, meanwhile, were in complete chaos.
***
[♥RedCarrot♡AkgaePrism: Omg I got so many alerts, this is scary ㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
[YouAreGood ∑ദ്ദി˙◡･): People in Seoul, please be careful. I have no idea what’s happening.]
[RomanticChurch (Please follow me!!!): What the hell is the Hunter Association doing when everything’s going to shit?!]
[Ibrik_chaho: Are we seriously only getting emergency texts with no official statement from the Association??? Anyone know??? ㅠ???]
[CutieLoveDori: Fuck, the alerts woke me up. What the hell? Am I gonna die?]
[Crybaby Minsik: This kind of thing should’ve been prepared for in advance. What were they doing instead of investigating rifts beforehand?]
┖[PpakjjokStar: Isn’t this after an investigation? It looks like multiple rifts opened suddenly…]
┖[Crybaby Minsik: lol who even are you to be messaging me?]
[g-Matrix: This is clearly due to recent global warming anomalies. It’s been getting seriously cold lately, and that prolonged cold seems to be causing these rifts.]
[CyberGhost: Oh fuck, our area’s completely fucked lmaoooooo]
***
Title: What Just Happened
Views: 4,090 | Likes: 12 | Bookmarks: 3
Posted by: Kim Ant
Someone summarize this mess, please.
[Comments]
Seoul’s fucked
┖22334444
┖Seoul’s fucked… Seoul’s gonna blow, guys. Hahaha
┖Bullshit. Don’t you see the hunters being deployed right now?
┖Deployed my ass. My cousin’s a B-Rank hunter and he says it’s hopeless. He refused the call and ran from Seoul.
I just woke up and realized this is a real disaster. Was it like this during the Monster Calamity?
┖Nah, that hit even faster. Right now it feels more like a slow death creeping in… fuck
┖Yeah, the Calamity was more like a swarm of locusts coming at once. When monsters covered the sky, I thought it was a solar eclipse at first.
┖So doesn’t that mean we have a better chance now? Korea’s not some idiot country, we must’ve prepped for this
┖Yeah, but the problem is the Hunter Association that was supposed to prep is completely silent
***
Title: What the Hell is the Hunter Association Doing?
Views: 5,874 | Likes: 32 | Bookmarks: 8
Posted by: Kant of Regeneration
Things are this bad and not a single Hunter Association rep in sight. What’s the point of even having them?
Did they all just fucking run?
[Comments]
It’s not just the Association. Gongmyeong’s MIA too.
┖Where the hell did all these bastards go?????????
┖Only major guilds visible right now are Goblin, Hansung, and Wanderers
┖With no Association, the mid- and small-sized guilds are gathering and following the big ones’ lead
If you want to escape Seoul, now’s the time. If this goes south, Seoul’s gonna get wiped.
┖Stop fearmongering
┖I’m serious. Reports already say over 70 rifts have been detected. It’s just a matter of time till it hits 100. With this level of anomaly, it won’t be long before the dungeons burst and monsters pour out. Forget your bags—just grab your phone, cash, and get out now
┖Too late—roads are already all jammed
This atmosphere is fucking insane. Feels like the apocalypse.
┖Not “feels like”—is, you crazy fuck
┖What’s the President doing right now???????????
┖Why the fuck are you looking for the President lmao
┖President’s overseas on a diplomatic tour lol
They told everyone to stay indoors, but people are flooding out…
┖Wouldn’t you run too?
┖If bombs were getting planted around my house in real time and the government told me to stay inside for “safety,” I’d break the door down and run. Obviously.
┖Yeah okay but like… what’s the Association actually doing?
***
Title: (Verified) I’m from the Hunter Association
Views: 82,874 | Likes: 145 | Bookmarks: 99
Posted by: 548820h
Photo Attached: Association_ID_Verification.jpg
I seriously have no idea what’s going on either ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ We’ve been ordered not to leave the building under any circumstances and to cut off all external contact.
[Comments]
?????????
┖Are they fucking insane?
┖Is this… real? That makes no sense.
┖Fake?
┖It’s definitely NOT fake!!! ㅠㅠㅠ I swear to the heavens it’s real—I’ll swear it on the River Styx.
Is this legit??
Huh?? Huh????
Holy shit… if this is real, I’m freaking the fuck out…
┖Isn’t the government basically turning a blind eye to the whole thing?
┖Fucking hell, we should’ve known when the President suddenly announced that overseas trip.
┖What kind of country pretends everything’s fine while its capital is about to explode?????????????
I thought maybe I was overreacting, but there’s not a single news article about this. Doesn’t look like any international outlets are covering it either.
┖I’m not the only one who doesn’t get it, right?
┖Only Twitch streams are freaking out. ㅠ Yoo Ji-won is broadcasting in like five languages, yelling that Korea’s totally screwed.
So the Association planned this?
┖Then what about Gongmyeong?
┖Wait, doesn’t this confirm that rumor? That Gongmyeong killed the Association President and took control behind the scenes?
┖Where did you even hear that??
┖People on this site have mentioned it before.
┖You believe that garbage because there’s nothing else to trust? Really;;;;
What matters now is that the Association clearly has no intention of fixing this. Are we just the abandoned citizens of this country now?
***
‘I didn’t think they’d go this far.’
At the very least, I thought they’d try to maintain appearances—but they hadn’t. Was the plan just to wait until Fenrir was released and everything ended? Their arrogance was so staggering it was almost applause-worthy.
Among these countless rifts, there must be at least one dungeon that holds Fenrir. The others were clearly just distractions to stall for time. They intended to wait amidst this chaos until Fenrir was unleashed.
“Guilds with more than ten members, please gather over here!”
“Has there been any word from the Association yet?!”
Some Hansung Guild members were attempting to organize the various guilds, but the situation was far too chaotic, and people weren’t listening. Deployment orders should’ve been issued by now, but nothing was coming from above. Of course. The Association was already in Angrboda’s hands.
“We need to send more people to the Jamsil area immediately.”
“Have we heard from Area A in Gangbuk District?”
“Move! Step aside, please!”
“Shouldn’t we enter in the order the rifts were detected?”
“Speak louder! We can’t hear over the helicopters!”
“These are just rifts right now! We don’t know when they’ll become dungeons….”
A blaring horn echoed. Screeeeech, crash! A car collided with another in a desperate attempt to escape the roads. Nearby hunters rushed to control the situation, but people were already too consumed by fear to think rationally.
‘So this is why they tampered with the Association,’ came the immediate thought.
There was no leader. No one to take command. Everyone was panicking and pushing the responsibility onto someone else.
[CH. Private / One Who Seeks to Prevent Destruction: The place where Fenrir is.]
[CH. Private / One Who Seeks to Prevent Destruction: Can you locate it?]
[CH. Private / One More Dazzling Than the Sun: Hey, he’s asking you.]
[CH. Private / Horseback Herald: Me, you mean?]
[CH. Private / One More Dazzling Than the Sun: Who else here could possibly do it besides you?]
[CH. Private / One Who Weaves Euphoria: If it’s the flooding of Ragnarok that’s beginning, why are there so many Greek Constellations here?]
[CH. Private / Free Wind: Maybe because the ones from other mythologies tend to be a little… darker?]
[CH. Private / One Who Guides the Dead: The hell did you just say?]
[CH. Private / One Who Seeks to Prevent Destruction: Anyway, can you find it or not?]
[CH. Private / Horseback Herald: Hmmm.]
[CH. Private / Horseback Herald: I don’t know the exact location, but I should be able to narrow it down.]
[CH. Private / Horseback Herald: With the power Father Odin lent me.]
So, the location could be approximated. That meant they could start clearing dungeons in that vicinity first.
But how could I even convey that to others? With the constant blaring of car horns and the roar of helicopter blades, it was hard to even talk to the person next to me. At some point, Park Gil-seon and Lee Myung-won had also disappeared.
What I tripped over was a person.
[CH. Private / One More Dazzling Than the Sun: Want me to stick a halo on the back of your head?]
[CH. Private / One Who Seeks to Prevent Destruction: Are you insane?]
[CH. Private / One More Dazzling Than the Sun: Why not? You’ll look even more like a god.]
[CH. Private / Free Wind: How about wings? Like last time!]
[CH. Private / One Who Seeks to Prevent Destruction: Like that would make anyone actually listen to me.]
“What’s wrong, hyung?”
“Lee Myung-won… I don’t see him anywhere.”
“If you’re looking for him, he just went over that way. Why?”
“I need to tell the Hunters something. There’s something I have to say…”
“Is that so?”
Baek Tae-beom lightly tapped my shoulder. I looked up at him, and he gave me a gentle smile before shifting his gaze forward. In that exact moment, his sword cut through the air.
A massive gust of wind exploded outward around us.
I stared at his back, eyes wide. The way his coat and hair fluttered, the space around us split open by the sheer force of his swing, and the distant gazes that slowly turned toward us as the wind settled—
You crazy bastard.
Could you at least give people a damn warning before pulling something like that?
The murmurs started trickling into my ears.
“Isn’t that Baek Tae-beom?”
“Choi Ga-hyeon’s with him too!”
“What the hell’s Baek Tae-beom doing now?!”
“Wait, did he just swing an actual sword?”
“Ugh, what’s he even trying to show off for…”
“Choi Ga-hyeon…”
“A Hunter who couldn’t even get an official rank…”
So many voices poured in all at once.
Instinctively, I tried to step back—but my eyes stayed locked on Baek Tae-beom’s back. A back that looked like it could withstand anything. Like it would protect me from whatever came our way.
Instead of backing down, I moved forward.
I lifted my head.
And then, stepping past Baek Tae-beom, I turned to face them head-on.
