The air in the office was stale. It smelled of cheap coffee, cheaper perfume, and defeat.
Lee Seong-Jin stared at the termination notice on his tablet. The digital seal of the "Apex Hunter Management Corporation" glowed a soft, dismissive blue. Effective immediately. Twenty-nine years old. Eight years in the industry. No stable clients. No prospects.
"It's not personal, Seong-Jin," Director Park had said, not looking up from his monitor, which displayed the real-time stock prices of dungeon mining conglomerates. "You have an eye for talent, I'll give you that. But you keep picking up… damaged goods. In this business, potential is a liability. Proven performance is the only asset."
Damaged goods.
The words echoed in the sterile subway car as Seong-Jin rode down to the Gwangjin District, the underbelly of Seoul. Here, the neon was grimy, advertising cheap enhancement potions and dungeon-crawler gear for amateurs. The billboards here didn't feature the smiling, flawless faces of S-Rank Hunters. They were plastered with warnings from the Hunter Association and ads for trauma therapists.
He was here for one last interview. A formality, really. A final, desperate grasp at the career he was being forced to abandon. A young woman, a former D-Rank Tank, had applied for a non-combat logistics position at his (now former) company. Her file had crossed his desk during his clearance. He'd been struck by her record. A meteoric rise in her rookie year, followed by a catastrophic dungeon collapse two years ago. The "Goblin's Crown Incident." One survivor. Her.
Her name was Kang Yuri. The media had called her "The Lucky Coward" for a week before forgetting her entirely.
Her apartment was in a building that seemed to sag with collective despair. Seong-Jin knocked.
The door opened a crack, a chain still latched. A single, grey eye stared out. "You're late."
"My apologies. The subway…"
The door closed, the chain rattled, and it opened fully.
Kang Yuri was a ghost of a Hunter. She was tall, her frame still holding the broad-shouldered musculature of a Tank, but it was draped in a baggy, washed-out sweatshirt. Her hair, once probably vibrant, was a dull black, tied in a careless knot. Her face was pale, with dark circles under eyes that held no light. She looked older than her twenty-three years.
"Come in. Don't mind the mess."
The apartment was a monument to stopped time. A single shelf held a Rookie of the Year trophy, dusty. The rest of the space was dominated by physical therapy equipment—a half-dismantled resistance frame, elastic bands, a balance board. The air smelled of antiseptic and loneliness.
She didn't offer him a seat. She just stood in the middle of the room, arms crossed, as if waiting for a blow.
"I read your application, Ms. Kang," Seong-Jin began, his professional facade automatic. "For the logistics coordinator role. Your understanding of dungeon topography is exceptional."
"I was there when it fell," she said, her voice flat. "I know how it looks when the ceiling comes down."
A heavy silence followed. Seong-Jin glanced at the trophy. "Your rookie season was impressive. You were being scouted by Golden Phoenix Agency."
Her jaw tightened. "Before."
"Yes. Before."
He was about to continue the scripted interview questions—strengths, weaknesses, where do you see yourself in five years—when his vision flickered.
A translucent, blue screen materialized in the corner of his eye. Text scrolled, crisp and silent.
[Manager System Initializing…]
[User: Lee Seong-Jin. Profession: Talent Manager. Core Aptitude: Identification.]
[Scanning Subject: Kang Yuri…]
Seong-Jin froze, his breath catching in his throat. A System? He wasn't a Hunter. He'd never awakened any power. Systems were for those who fought, for those with the gift.
[Scan Complete.]
[Subject: Kang Yuri]
[Public Designation: D-Rank Tank (Inactive). Mental Corruption: High. Physical Trauma: Moderate.]
[True Assessment: CONCEALED]
[Analyzing…]
[Talent Core Found: 'Unbreakable Fortress' – S-Rank Potential.]
[Status: SEALED. Fractured during traumatic event 'Goblin's Crown'.]
[Foundation: CRACKED. Mana circulation impaired at 7 nodal points.]
[Hidden Trait Available: 'Vengeful Earth' – Offensive Tanking Capability. Activation Condition: Unmet.]
[Management Options Available:]
1. Foundation Repair (Cost: 50,000,000 Won per nodal point. Total: 350,000,000 Won.)
2. Talent Seal Purge (Cost: 200,000,000 Won + High-Grade Mana Crystal.)
3. Contract Offer: Standard Manager-Client Agreement. (System-assisted terms.)
Seong-Jin's heart hammered against his ribs. S-Rank Potential. S-Rank. In this broken, forgotten woman in a slum apartment. The numbers were astronomical. 350 million just to fix her foundation? He had barely 5 million in his savings, his severance pay.
But the System was real. It saw what no one else could see. What he had always tried to see—the worth beneath the damage.
"Ms. Kang," he said, his voice suddenly different. It lost its professional neutrality. It became softer, yet more intense. "Forget the logistics job."
She blinked, a flicker of confusion in her dead eyes. "What?"
"That's not why I came. I came because your file didn't make sense. A D-Rank shouldn't have survived the collapse of a C-Rank dungeon. Not without a scratch on her record before that. They called you lucky. But you weren't lucky, were you?"
Her posture shifted. Defensive. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"You took the full brunt of the cave-in. You covered your party. Your shield… it didn't break. Not at first. You held it long after your mana should have been depleted. Until something snapped inside you. Then the pain started. And it hasn't stopped since."
Yuri's face went from pale to ashen. Her arms uncrossed, hands curling into fists at her sides. A tremor ran through her. "How… how do you know that? The report said…"
"The report was written by people who need things to be simple. You are not simple." Seong-Jin took a step forward. He ignored the system screens. He looked only at her. "They see a broken D-Rank. I see a woman who held a mountain on her shoulders. I see an S-Rank Tank, sleeping in the wreckage."
The word 'S-Rank' hung in the dusty air like a detonation.
She laughed, a short, brittle, painful sound. "Are you insane? Or just cruel? Get out."
"I was fired today," Seong-Jin said, not moving. "For picking 'damaged goods.' I'm starting my own agency. Right now. It has no name, no office, no clients, and no money. All I have is this: an eye for what others throw away. And I am looking at you, Kang Yuri, and I do not see trash. I see the cornerstone of everything I will build."
He reached into his inner pocket and pulled out a plain, white business card. On it, he scribbled his name and personal number with a pen.
"I am not offering you a pity job. I am offering you a contract. A manager-client contract. My job will be to fix what's broken. To get you back into a dungeon. Not as a D-Rank. As what you were always meant to be. Your job will be to fight. To become a star. To make us both very, very rich and in doing so, become stronger than you ever dreamed."
He held out the card.
She stared at it as if it were a live serpent. "You're a fool. I can't even channel mana for more than three minutes without my nerves feeling like they're on fire. My foundation is shattered. Every healer I saw took one look and said it was a waste of resources."
"I have resources they don't," Seong-Jin said, thinking of the system, of the pathways it showed. "But it won't be easy. It will be painful. It will require your complete trust. And it will require you to want it. Not for them. For you."
He saw it. A tiny, almost imperceptible spark in the grey of her eyes. The faintest glimmer of the woman who had once stood proud on a rookie podium. It was buried under layers of pain, shame, and neglect. But it was there.
"Why?" she whispered. "Why would you…?"
"Because," he said, his smile tired but genuine. "I am a manager. And you… you are the most valuable talent nobody wants. That makes you my perfect first client."
The spark flickered, grew. Her hand, calloused and scarred, slowly uncurled. It trembled as it reached out.
Her fingers brushed the card.
[Subject Kang Yuri's Will to Live detected. Resonance with Manager's 'Identification' aptitude confirmed.]
[Contract Offer may proceed.]
[Do you wish to offer a Standard Manager-Client Agreement to Kang Yuri?]
In his mind, Seong-Jin thought, Yes.
He felt a subtle warmth flow from him, through the card, into her fingertips. Yuri's eyes widened slightly, as if she felt a sudden, faint surge of something.
She took the card.
"You're crazy," she said, but the dead flatness was gone from her voice. It was now laced with a fragile, terrified hope.
"We both are," Seong-Jin replied. "That's why we'll succeed. Get some rest. I'll be in touch tomorrow with a preliminary assessment and plan. We have a lot of work to do."
He turned and left her standing in the middle of her ruined apartment, clutching a plain white card, the first ember of a future she thought had turned to ash glowing in her hand.
Outside, in the grimy alley, Seong-Jin leaned against the damp wall and let out a long, shaky breath. The system screens were still there, now showing a new prompt.
[First Client Secured: Kang Yuri.]
[Agency Founded: Unnamed.]
[Primary Mission: Restore Client Kang Yuri to operational status (S-Rank Potential).]
[Current Funds: 5,200,000 Won. Required: 550,000,000 Won + Materials.]
He looked up at the narrow strip of smoggy sky between the buildings. In the distance, a massive holographic ad played, showing the S-Rank Hunter "Frostblade" dancing through a dungeon of ice, her smile dazzling millions.
"Alright," Lee Seong-Jin murmured to himself, a new fire igniting in his own eyes. A fire of ambition, of a perfect, calculated gamble. "Let's get to work."