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—
The streets of Seoul stretched endlessly before him, a maze of neon lights and shadows. The air was crisp, biting at his skin, but Jin-Woo hardly noticed. His steps were slow, deliberate, as if each one weighed heavier than the last. The city pulsed with life around him—cars honking, distant laughter, the murmur of late-night conversations spilling from bars and street vendors. Yet, he felt utterly disconnected, as though he existed in a different reality, a fragile ghost barely clinging to the edges of the world.
His reflection flickered in the puddles that lined the cracked pavement. He barely recognized himself anymore. The hollow eyes, the unshaven jaw, the faint scars running along his arms, remnants of countless battles with monsters he had no business facing. He was supposed to be a Hunter, one of humanity's last lines of defense against the dungeons that appeared across the world.
But what kind of Hunter was he?
E-Rank.
The lowest of the low.
His fists clenched at the thought.
"A failure."
"A dead weight."
"The weakest."
The words of others echoed in his head, voices from the past, from the guild recruiters who barely glanced at him before turning him away. From the stronger Hunters who laughed at his presence in their raids. From the onlookers who pitied him, a man walking into death traps for the sake of a few hundred thousand won.
But he endured. He always endured.
Not for himself.
Never for himself.
His mother's face flashed in his mind, pale and fragile against the stark white sheets of her hospital bed. Tubes connected her to machines that kept her alive, but no amount of money could buy the cure she needed.
His younger sister, Jin-Ah, was waiting for him at home, pretending to study late at night when he knew she was worrying about whether he would come back alive.
He sighed, dragging a hand through his disheveled hair.
"I don't have the luxury to give up."
Even if the world saw him as nothing.
Even if every dungeon raid was just another step closer to his grave.
His phone buzzed in his pocket, breaking the heavy silence of his thoughts. He pulled it out, the faint light from the cracked screen illuminating his weary face.
— Joohee (Healer)
He hesitated before answering.
"Jin-Woo?" Her voice was soft, cautious. She always spoke to him like that, as if afraid her words would break him.
"Yeah."
"…Did you take the evaluation today?"
He closed his eyes for a moment, exhaling slowly. "Yeah."
Silence stretched between them.
"…And?"
He didn't answer. There was no need to. The result had been the same. Always the same.
Joohee sighed on the other end of the line. "Jin-Woo… you don't have to do this."
"I do."
"You'll die at this rate."
There it was again. That quiet worry in her voice. She was one of the few people who didn't mock him, who didn't look at him like he was a joke. But that made it worse. Pity was harder to bear than insults.
"I'll be fine," he lied.
A bitter chuckle. "You're a terrible liar."
He didn't respond. What was there to say?
"…There's a raid tomorrow," she continued after a pause. "It's E-Rank. It won't be dangerous."
That was a lie, too.
Even the weakest dungeon could be deadly for someone like him. But she wanted to keep an eye on him. She wanted to make sure he didn't throw himself into something worse.
Jin-Woo exhaled through his nose. "Alright. I'll be there."
She hesitated, as if she wanted to say something more. But in the end, she just murmured, "See you tomorrow."
The call ended.
Jin-Woo lowered his phone, staring blankly at the screen for a moment before shoving it back into his pocket.
The wind howled through the streets, slipping through the gaps in his worn jacket. He turned his gaze upward, looking at the towering buildings, the endless city stretching beyond the horizon.
"Just a little longer."
"If I can just hold on a little longer..."
He turned and kept walking, disappearing into the shadows.
Tomorrow, everything would change.
______
End of Chapter 1.
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