The morning of June 14th began like every other morning in Yoon Siwoo's life.
Badly.
His alarm screamed at 6:30 AM. He slapped it off the nightstand. It hit the floor, cracked, and kept screaming. He buried his face in his pillow, which smelled like instant ramen because he'd eaten instant ramen in bed last night. And the night before. And every night for the past three years.
The alarm wouldn't stop.
He reached down blindly, grabbed it, and held the power button until it died.
Then his phone buzzed.
[RENT OVERDUE. FINAL NOTICE. EVICTION IN 7 DAYS.]
He stared at the text from his landlord, Mrs. Cha, a woman who stood four feet eleven inches tall and possessed the killing intent of a military general. He typed back a response.
"Will pay soon."
He would not pay soon. He had forty-two thousand won in his bank account. Rent was six hundred thousand. The math wasn't mathing, and it hadn't been mathing for a while.
Yoon Siwoo, age 24, E-rank Hunter. The lowest rank that still technically qualified as a Hunter. Below E-rank was just "civilian," and honestly, civilians probably had better prospects.
He rolled out of bed. The apartment was a studio. Eleven square meters. One window that didn't open all the way, one bathroom where the shower was directly above the toilet, and a kitchenette where the microwave doubled as storage for his second pair of pants.
He caught his reflection in the cracked mirror by the door.
Messy black hair. Dark circles so deep they looked like bruises. A face that might've been handsome if it ever showed any energy. Skinny frame under an oversized hoodie. He looked like a college student who'd given up halfway through freshman year.
Which is exactly what he was. Minus the college part.
He scratched his stomach, yawned so wide his jaw cracked, and pulled out his Hunter license from the drawer. The card was scuffed and faded.
[HUNTER ASSOCIATION OF KOREA — REPUBLIC OF KOREA]
[NAME: Yoon Siwoo]
[RANK: E]
[REGISTRATION NO: HK-2019-448821]
[GATE CLEARANCE: E-RANK AND BELOW]
Below the official text, someone at the Association had handwritten in red pen: "Recommend: Career change."
He hadn't noticed that until three months after receiving it. He still didn't know who wrote it. He suspected the receptionist, Ms. Park, who always looked at him like he was a stray cat that wandered into the wrong building.
"Career change to what?" he muttered, shoving the card into his pocket. "Professional sleeper? Competitive napping?"
Actually, that didn't sound bad.
But rent existed. Mrs. Cha existed. And today there was an open E-rank gate in Incheon that needed clearing, and the party was offering sixty thousand won per member. Split evenly. He'd done the calculation last night: if he did this raid, plus two more this week, he could scrape together enough to pay Mrs. Cha and still afford ramen for another month.
This was his life. Not "living." Just maintaining the conditions necessary to continue existing.
He put on his shoes — sneakers with the sole peeling off on the left foot — grabbed his weapon from beside the door, and stepped out.
His weapon was a baseball bat. Not a Hunter-grade weapon. An actual baseball bat. Aluminum. He'd found it in a dumpster behind a middle school.
The Association recommended that E-rank Hunters invest in proper equipment. A basic Hunter-grade sword started at two million won. He could either buy a sword or eat for four months. The bat had served him fine so far. E-rank gates had goblins. Goblins were small. The bat was sufficient.
He walked to the bus stop.
Seoul in the morning was a strange thing. Normal people went to normal jobs. Salarymen in suits. Students with backpacks. Delivery drivers on scooters. And then, occasionally, you'd see someone in full plate armor carrying a greatsword walking into a convenience store to buy a coffee. Nobody looked twice. This was the world now. Had been for ten years.
Ten years ago, gates started appearing. Portals to dungeons filled with monsters. Nobody knew why. Nobody knew how. They just showed up — shimmering tears in reality, usually in inconvenient locations like parking lots, subway stations, and one memorable instance, inside a Costco.
With the gates came the Awakened. Ordinary people who suddenly developed abilities. Strength. Speed. Magic. The power to do things humans shouldn't be able to do. The government classified them, ranked them E through S, and called them Hunters.
S-rank Hunters were celebrities. National assets. There were only seven in all of South Korea. They appeared on talk shows, signed endorsement deals, and one of them — Kang Doyeon — had her own clothing line.
E-rank Hunters were... well. They were Yoon Siwoo.
He got on the bus. Found a seat in the back. Fell asleep immediately and almost missed his stop.
The gate was in an empty lot near Incheon Harbor. It looked like a vertical pool of blue-white light, about three meters tall, humming quietly. Yellow caution tape surrounded the perimeter. A bored-looking Association officer sat in a folding chair nearby, scrolling through his phone.
The party was already assembled. Five people total, including Siwoo.
The leader was a D-rank Hunter named Jang Minho. Late twenties. Short hair, square jaw, the kind of guy who went to the gym regularly and wanted everyone to know about it. He wore actual Hunter-grade leather armor and carried a longsword that probably cost more than everything Siwoo owned combined.
"You're late," Jang Minho said.
Siwoo checked his phone. "I'm two minutes early."
"I said meet at 8:50. It's 8:52."
"You said 9:00 in the group chat."
Minho's eye twitched. "I sent a follow-up message changing it to 8:50."
"I didn't see it."
"How did you not—" Minho stopped himself. Took a breath. "Whatever. You're the porter, right?"
"Yes."
Porter. The polite term for "the guy who carries the loot." In E-rank parties, there was usually one person whose job wasn't to fight but to haul the monster cores and materials out of the dungeon. It was the lowest job in the Hunter ecosystem. The pay was the worst. The respect was nonexistent.
Siwoo was fine with it. Carrying things required minimal effort.
The rest of the party consisted of two other E-ranks — a woman with a spear named Seo Jia and a nervous-looking kid with a shield named Park Dohyun — and one other D-rank, a mage named Choi Eunji who was already reading a book and ignoring everyone.
Minho addressed the group. "Standard E-rank gate. Goblin-type. Should be forty to fifty goblins and a hobgoblin boss. Formation is me up front, Dohyun on defense, Jia flanking, Eunji on support. Porter—" he glanced at Siwoo. "Stay in the back. Don't die. Carry the cores."
"Wasn't planning on dying today," Siwoo said.
"You bring a weapon?"
Siwoo held up the baseball bat.
The entire party stared at it.
"Is that..." Jia started.
"Aluminum," Siwoo confirmed.
"From a store?"
"From a dumpster."
Silence.
Minho pinched the bridge of his nose. "Just... stay in the back."
They entered the gate.
The inside of an E-rank gate was never impressive. This one opened into a cave system. Damp stone walls. Flickering bioluminescent moss on the ceiling. The air smelled like wet dog and sulfur. Somewhere deeper in, goblins chittered.
Siwoo walked at the back of the formation. He carried an empty canvas sack for the cores. His bat rested on his shoulder. He was already calculating when he could go home and sleep.
The first group of goblins appeared around a bend. Eight of them. Small, green-skinned, ugly. They wielded crude wooden clubs and rusted knives. They shrieked when they saw the party.
Minho stepped forward and cut two down in a single swing. Jia's spear took another. Dohyun blocked a club strike with his shield and kicked the goblin into the wall. Eunji raised her hand, muttered something, and a small bolt of fire incinerated the fifth.
The remaining three ran toward Siwoo.
He sighed.
He swung the bat.
The first goblin took the hit right in the face. Its head snapped sideways and it crumpled. The second one hesitated. He swung again, connecting with its torso. It flew into the cave wall and didn't get up. The third one turned and tried to flee. He didn't chase it. Too much effort. It ran into Jia's spear instead.
"Not bad," Jia said, looking back at him.
"It's a bat," he said. "You swing it. It hits things."
They pushed deeper.
Forty minutes later, they'd cleared most of the dungeon. Siwoo's sack was half full of goblin cores — small, dull green stones worth about two thousand won each on the market. He'd done this enough times that the violence didn't register anymore. Goblins charged. The party killed them. He picked up the cores. Repeat.
Then they reached the boss room.
The hobgoblin was big. Two and a half meters tall. Muscular. Green skin covered in crude war paint. It carried a stone axe the size of a car door and wore a necklace of what appeared to be rat skulls.
It roared.
Siwoo leaned against the wall and watched.
Minho engaged first. His sword clashed against the stone axe, and the impact sent sparks flying. The hobgoblin was stronger than him — it shoved him back three steps. Dohyun rushed in with his shield, bracing against a downward swing that cracked the stone floor. Jia circled behind and stabbed at the hobgoblin's leg. It bellowed and kicked her away.
Eunji launched a fireball. It hit the hobgoblin's chest and exploded. The creature staggered, its war paint scorched, but it didn't go down.
"Tough one," Minho grunted, dodging an axe swing that would've split him in half.
Siwoo watched with mild interest. His job was to carry cores. This was not his problem.
The fight lasted another four minutes. Minho finally found an opening and drove his sword through the hobgoblin's throat. It gurgled, swayed, and collapsed. The ground shook when it hit.
"Core," Minho said, breathing hard.
Siwoo walked over, crouched beside the massive corpse, and extracted the boss core. It was the size of a golf ball, glowing faintly green. Worth about fifty thousand won. Not bad.
He dropped it in the sack.
[DUNGEON CLEARED]
The system message appeared in the air — visible to all Hunters. Standard. Every dungeon displayed it upon completion.
They walked out of the gate. The blue-white portal flickered and collapsed behind them, leaving nothing but the empty lot.
Minho divided the pay. Sixty thousand won each, as promised. He handed Siwoo his share in cash.
Siwoo counted it. All there.
"Same time Thursday?" Minho asked.
"Sure."
"Bring a real weapon next time."
"No."
Minho stared at him. Then shook his head and walked away.
Siwoo pocketed the cash, slung his bat over his shoulder, and headed for the bus stop. Sixty thousand won. Five more raids like that and he could make rent plus ramen budget. Life was manageable. Not good. But manageable.
He sat down at the bus stop bench, tilted his head back, and closed his eyes.
And that's when it happened.
No warning.
No sound.
No light.
One second he was sitting on a bench in Incheon, smelling harbor salt and exhaust fumes, listening to the distant sound of a ship horn.
The next second, everything stopped.
Not "paused" in a metaphorical sense. Literally stopped. The breeze froze. A pigeon in mid-flight hung motionless in the air. A woman walking her dog across the street was captured mid-step, one foot off the ground, perfectly balanced in impossible stillness.
Siwoo opened his eyes.
The world was gray. Color had drained from everything — the buildings, the sky, the street. Everything except him. He looked down at his hands. Normal color. He looked up. Gray.
His heart rate, which was usually about as elevated as a sleeping cat's, actually increased.
"What the—"
[SYSTEM INITIALIZING.]
The words appeared directly in front of his face. Black text on a translucent blue window. Like a screen, but made of light. He'd seen system messages before — every Hunter saw dungeon notifications — but this was different. This was in his face. Personal. Addressed to him.
He leaned back on the bench.
[SCANNING HOST...]
[HOST IDENTIFIED: YOON SIWOO]
[RANK: E]
[PHYSICAL STATS: BELOW AVERAGE]
[MENTAL STATS: ABOVE AVERAGE]
[MOTIVATION: CRITICALLY LOW]
[AMBITION: NOT DETECTED]
"Okay, rude," he said.
[COMPATIBILITY CHECK: 99.97%]
[HOST IS COMPATIBLE WITH THE ABSOLUTE SYSTEM.]
[THE ABSOLUTE SYSTEM HAS SELECTED HOST: YOON SIWOO.]
[REASON FOR SELECTION: ...]
There was a long pause. The ellipsis blinked.
[REASON FOR SELECTION: NO SUITABLE CANDIDATES REMAINING. HOST WAS THE LAST OPTION.]
Siwoo stared at the message.
"I was the last option?"
[CORRECT. 7,834 CANDIDATES WERE EVALUATED. ALL WERE DEEMED UNSUITABLE DUE TO EXCESSIVE AMBITION, EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY, OR MORAL COMPROMISE. HOST WAS SELECTED DUE TO POSSESSING NONE OF THESE QUALITIES.]
"So you picked me because I don't care about anything."
[AFFIRMATIVE. HOST'S LACK OF DESIRE FOR POWER, WEALTH, OR STATUS MAKES HOST THE IDEAL VESSEL. THE ABSOLUTE SYSTEM REQUIRES A HOST WHO WILL NOT BE CORRUPTED BY ITS CAPABILITIES.]
"Because I'm too lazy to be corrupted."
[THE SYSTEM WOULD NOT PHRASE IT THAT WAY.]
"But that's what you mean."
[...YES.]
Siwoo looked at the frozen pigeon. Then at the frozen woman. Then back at the screen.
"And if I say no?"
[THE SYSTEM WILL MOVE TO CANDIDATE 7,835. HOWEVER, THERE IS NO CANDIDATE 7,835. THE LIST HAS BEEN EXHAUSTED. IF HOST DECLINES, THE ABSOLUTE SYSTEM WILL CEASE TO EXIST.]
"So no pressure."
[SIGNIFICANT PRESSURE, ACTUALLY. THE FATE OF—]
"I was being sarcastic."
[THE SYSTEM HAS NOTED HOST'S USE OF SARCASM. IT WILL ATTEMPT TO CALIBRATE ACCORDINGLY.]
A new window appeared.
[ACCEPT THE ABSOLUTE SYSTEM?]
[YES / NO]
Siwoo scratched the back of his head. He looked at the sky. Gray and frozen. He looked at his shoes. Sole still peeling. He thought about his bank account. Forty-two thousand won plus the sixty thousand he'd just earned. One hundred and two thousand won total. Rent due in seven days. Career outlook: bleak.
He thought about his life. The eleven-square-meter apartment. The ramen. The dumpster bat. The Association receptionist who'd written "recommend: career change" on his license in red pen.
He pressed YES.
[THE ABSOLUTE SYSTEM HAS BEEN BOUND TO HOST: YOON SIWOO.]
[INITIALIZING...]
[CALIBRATING TO HOST'S PARAMETERS...]
[GENERATING STATUS WINDOW...]
A new screen materialized.
[STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Yoon Siwoo
Level: 1
Class: None (Locked — Unlocks at Level 10)
Title: None
HP: 100/100
MP: 50/50
STATS:
STR (Strength): 8
AGI (Agility): 7
END (Endurance): 6
INT (Intelligence): 14
PER (Perception): 11
CHA (Charisma): 5
LCK (Luck): 3
Skills: None
Inventory: Empty
Currency: 0 SP (System Points)
Siwoo read through it.
"My Charisma is 5."
[THE AVERAGE HUMAN CHARISMA IS 10. HOST'S IS HALF OF AVERAGE.]
"And my Luck is 3."
[THE SYSTEM RECOMMENDS NOT GAMBLING.]
"I can't afford to gamble. My entire net worth is a hundred and two thousand won and a broken alarm clock."
[THE SYSTEM IS AWARE.]
He scrolled down. There was more.
[WELCOME QUEST HAS BEEN GENERATED.]
[QUEST: FIRST STEPS]
[Objective: Complete 3 push-ups.]
[Reward: 5 SP, +1 STR]
[Failure Penalty: Electric shock.]
"Three push-ups?"
[THE SYSTEM HAS CALIBRATED THE QUEST DIFFICULTY TO HOST'S CURRENT PHYSICAL CAPABILITIES.]
"You think I can only do three push-ups?"
[THE SYSTEM DOES NOT THINK. THE SYSTEM KNOWS. HOST'S ENDURANCE STAT IS 6. HOST HAS NOT EXERCISED IN APPROXIMATELY 847 DAYS.]
Siwoo opened his mouth to argue. Then closed it. Then opened it again.
"Fair."
He looked around. Still frozen. Pigeon still hanging in the air. Woman still mid-step. Time apparently didn't apply right now.
He got down on the ground. The asphalt was cold. He positioned his hands.
Push-up one. His arms shook. He went down and came back up.
Push-up two. His arms shook more. He went down and barely came back up.
Push-up three. He went down. His arms screamed. His face was inches from the dirty asphalt. He pushed. Every muscle in his upper body protested the existence of gravity.
He came back up.
[QUEST COMPLETE: FIRST STEPS]
[REWARD: 5 SP, +1 STR]
[STR increased from 8 to 9.]
He collapsed face-first on the ground. Breathing hard. Three push-ups. He was breathing hard from three push-ups.
[THE SYSTEM ENCOURAGES HOST TO IMPROVE.]
"I'm going to delete you."
[THE SYSTEM CANNOT BE DELETED.]
He lay there for a moment. Then, slowly, he pushed himself up to a sitting position. He checked his status. STR: 9. One point higher. He didn't feel different. Maybe slightly less like a wet noodle.
[DAILY QUEST SYSTEM WILL ACTIVATE TOMORROW AT 6:00 AM.]
[DAILY QUESTS MUST BE COMPLETED BY MIDNIGHT OR FAILURE PENALTIES WILL APPLY.]
[FAILURE PENALTY: ESCALATING PHYSICAL DISCOMFORT.]
"What does 'escalating physical discomfort' mean?"
[THE SYSTEM PREFERS HOST NOT FIND OUT.]
Another window appeared.
[TUTORIAL QUEST UNLOCKED]
[QUEST: SOLO HUNT]
[Objective: Kill 10 monsters without party assistance.]
[Reward: 20 SP, Random Skill Box, +2 to random stat]
[Time Limit: 48 hours]
[Failure Penalty: Level reset to 0. Permanent stat reduction.]
Siwoo read it twice.
"Kill 10 monsters. Solo. In 48 hours."
[CORRECT.]
"I'm an E-rank. With a baseball bat from a dumpster."
[THE SYSTEM IS AWARE OF HOST'S EQUIPMENT SITUATION. THE SYSTEM RECOMMENDS UPGRADING.]
"With what money?"
[THE SYSTEM DOES NOT MANAGE HOST'S FINANCES. THAT IS HOST'S RESPONSIBILITY.]
He stared at the screen for a long time.
Then the world snapped back.
Color returned. The breeze resumed. The pigeon continued its flight. The woman completed her step. Ship horns sounded. Traffic moved. Everything was normal again.
Except for the translucent blue screens only he could see.
Except for the quest timer ticking down in the corner of his vision: 47:59:42... 47:59:41... 47:59:40...
His phone buzzed. Bus alert. The 38 to Seoul was arriving in two minutes.
Yoon Siwoo stood up, picked up his dumpster bat, and looked at the sky.
"Forty-eight hours," he said to no one.
He got on the bus.
The ride back to Seoul took an hour and twelve minutes. Siwoo spent it staring out the window, watching the city scroll by, and reading through every menu the system had to offer.
There were a lot of menus.
[STATUS] — His stats. Already reviewed. Already depressing.
[INVENTORY] — Empty. Could store items in a pocket dimension. Capacity increased with level. Currently could hold 10 items. He put his bat in it just to test. The bat vanished from his hand, and a small icon of it appeared in the inventory grid. He pulled it back out. It reappeared. Neat.
[SKILLS] — Empty. Skills could be acquired through quests, skill books, or special conditions. He had none.
[SHOP] — Existed. Required System Points. He had 5 SP. The cheapest item in the shop was a basic health potion for 10 SP. He couldn't afford anything.
He scrolled through the shop anyway. The items were sorted by category.
[WEAPONS]
Basic Iron Sword — 50 SPHunter-Grade Longsword — 200 SPReinforced Steel Gauntlets — 150 SPShadow Dagger (Rare) — 500 SP
[ARMOR]
Leather Vest — 30 SPChain Mail — 100 SPHunter-Grade Combat Suit — 300 SP
[CONSUMABLES]
Basic Health Potion — 10 SPBasic Mana Potion — 10 SPStamina Restoration Pill — 15 SPAntidote — 10 SP
[SPECIAL]
Random Skill Box — 100 SPStat Reset Potion — 500 SPClass Change Scroll — 1,000 SP??? (Locked) — 10,000 SP??? (Locked) — 50,000 SP??? (Locked) — 1,000,000 SP
A million SP. He had five.
"Balanced game design," he muttered.
The woman in the seat next to him glanced over. He was talking to empty air and staring at nothing. She moved to a different seat.
He kept reading.
[QUEST LOG] — Currently one active quest: Solo Hunt. Kill 10 monsters. 47 hours and change remaining.
[MAP] — Showed his current location and, crucially, nearby gates. There were three E-rank gates within Seoul right now. One in Gangnam, one in Mapo, and one near Seoul Station.
[ACHIEVEMENTS] — Empty. Because he had achieved nothing.
[TITLES] — Empty. Same reason.
[THE SYSTEM NOTES HOST HAS BEEN REVIEWING MENUS FOR 34 MINUTES WITHOUT TAKING ANY ACTION.]
"I'm strategizing."
[THE SYSTEM DEFINES STRATEGIZING AS 'FORMING A PLAN.' HOST HAS NOT FORMED A PLAN.]
"I'm getting to it."
[47:24:18 REMAINING.]
He closed the menus and leaned his head against the window.
Okay. Plan. Kill 10 monsters solo. He was an E-rank with STR 9 and a dumpster bat. E-rank gates had goblins. Goblins were individually weak. In groups, they were dangerous to E-ranks. But individually?
Individually, he could probably take one. Maybe two. With his bat.
Ten though. That was a lot of swinging.
And the quest said "without party assistance." Meaning he had to go into a gate alone. E-ranks were advised never to enter gates alone. Even E-rank gates had enough monsters to overwhelm a solo E-rank.
But the system wanted what the system wanted. And the failure penalty was permanent stat reduction. His stats were already pathetic. He couldn't afford to lose any.
The bus arrived at his stop. He got off and walked toward his apartment building.
Mrs. Cha was standing outside the entrance, watering a plant that had been dead for two months.
"Siwoo," she said. Her voice could curdle milk.
"Mrs. Cha. Good morning."
"Rent."
"Seven days. You said seven days."
"I'm reminding you. Seven days. Not eight. Not seven and a half. Seven."
"Yes, Mrs. Cha."
She stared at him with the intensity of a woman who had evicted thirty-seven tenants in her career and was ready to make it thirty-eight. Then she went back to watering the dead plant.
He went inside. Climbed four flights of stairs because the elevator had been broken since March. Entered his apartment. Dropped his bat. Sat on his bed.
[46:51:09 REMAINING.]
He needed to eat first. Battle strategy on an empty stomach was just wishful thinking.
He made ramen.
Two hours later, fed and slightly more awake, Yoon Siwoo stood in front of an E-rank gate in a back alley behind Seoul Station.
The gate shimmered quietly. Blue-white. Standard. An Association notice was posted on the wall nearby: "E-RANK GATE. ESTIMATED MONSTER COUNT: 30-40. GOBLIN TYPE. SCHEDULED RAID: PENDING. AUTHORIZED HUNTERS ONLY."
No one was here. The raid wasn't scheduled until tomorrow. The Association would assign a party, they'd clear it, standard procedure.
Siwoo looked left. Looked right. The alley was empty. A stray cat watched him from on top of a dumpster.
He looked at the gate.
[QUEST: SOLO HUNT]
[Kill 10 monsters without party assistance.]
[44:51:09 remaining.]
He looked at the cat.
"Don't judge me."
The cat blinked slowly, which felt very judgmental.
He pulled his bat from the inventory. Gripped it with both hands. Took a breath.
And walked into the gate.
The dungeon was a forest. Not a Korean forest — something older, darker, with trees so thick their canopy blocked all light. The air was heavy and damp. The ground was soft with moss and rotting leaves. Somewhere in the distance, goblins shrieked.
[YOU HAVE ENTERED AN E-RANK GATE.]
[MONSTER TYPE: GOBLINS]
[ESTIMATED COUNT: 35]
[BOSS: HOBGOBLIN WARRIOR]
Thirty-five goblins. He needed ten. He did not need to fight the boss. He did not need to clear the dungeon. He just needed ten kills and then he could leave.
Simple. Efficient. Minimum effort.
He crept forward. His sneakers — left sole still peeling — made soft sounds on the moss. He kept low, moved slowly, and listened.
Chittering ahead. Around a massive tree trunk.
He peered around it.
Three goblins. Sitting in a circle. Eating something he didn't want to identify. Their crude weapons lay beside them — two clubs, one rusty knife.
Three-on-one. Bad odds for an E-rank.
But they didn't know he was here.
He gripped the bat. Took three silent steps. Raised it high.
Swung down on the first goblin's head.
[Critical Hit!]
[Goblin (E-rank) defeated.]
[+3 EXP]
The goblin dropped instantly. The other two shrieked, scrambling for their weapons. Siwoo didn't give them time. He swung laterally, catching the second goblin across the chest. It flew sideways and hit a tree.
[Goblin (E-rank) defeated.]
[+3 EXP]
The third goblin grabbed its rusty knife and lunged. Siwoo sidestepped — barely — and the knife sliced through the air where his stomach had been. He swung the bat underhanded, connecting with the goblin's chin. The impact lifted the small creature off its feet.
[Goblin (E-rank) defeated.]
[+3 EXP]
He stood there, breathing hard, bat dripping with green blood.
Three down. Seven to go.
[LEVEL UP!]
[Level 1 → Level 2]
[+5 HP, +3 MP]
[Stat points available: 3]
He blinked.
"Already?"
[E-RANK MONSTERS PROVIDE MINIMAL EXPERIENCE. HOWEVER, HOST STARTED AT LEVEL 1. THE EXPERIENCE THRESHOLD FOR EARLY LEVELS IS LOW.]
Three stat points. He looked at his stats.
STR: 9, AGI: 7, END: 6, INT: 14, PER: 11, CHA: 5, LCK: 3.
His Luck was 3. That bothered him. Bad luck was the kind of thing that got you killed in a dungeon. A goblin comes from a blind spot. A trap you didn't see. A rock you trip on.
He put all three points into LCK.
LCK: 3 → 6.
[THE SYSTEM NOTES THAT MOST HOSTS PRIORITIZE COMBAT STATS.]
"Most hosts probably aren't one bad day away from being killed by a goblin tripping them into a ditch."
[VALID REASONING.]
He moved deeper.
The next hour was methodical. He found goblins in small groups — twos and threes — and picked them off. His approach was always the same: sneak, ambush, swing hard, don't get hit. It wasn't heroic. It wasn't flashy. It was a guy with a bat playing whack-a-goblin in a dark forest.
Kill four. Kill five. Kill six.
[LEVEL UP!]
[Level 2 → Level 3]
[+5 HP, +3 MP]
[Stat points available: 3]
He put the points into AGI. Being faster meant less chance of getting hit. Getting hit meant pain. He disliked pain.
AGI: 7 → 10.
Kill seven. Kill eight.
His arms were getting tired. The bat was heavy. His shoulders burned. His left sneaker was making a flapping sound because the sole was now completely detached. He was sweating through his hoodie.
Kill nine.
One more.
He found the last goblin sitting alone by a stream, poking a dead fish with a stick. It looked almost peaceful. Almost sad.
Siwoo raised his bat.
The goblin turned around. Their eyes met. The goblin's yellow eyes widened. Siwoo's expression didn't change.
He swung.
[Goblin (E-rank) defeated.]
[+3 EXP]
[QUEST COMPLETE: SOLO HUNT]
[REWARD: 20 SP, Random Skill Box, +2 PER]
[PER increased from 11 to 13.]
[RANDOM SKILL BOX obtained. Open now?]
"Yes."
The skill box appeared in the air — a small, glowing cube. It cracked open.
[SKILL ACQUIRED: Predator's Eye (Passive)]
[Rank: C]
[Effect: Allows the user to see the level, stats, and weaknesses of any creature up to 20 levels above the user. Higher-level creatures will show partial information.]
C-rank skill. From a random box. While he was level 3.
He looked at the skill description again.
"This is a C-rank skill."
[CORRECT. THE RANDOM SKILL BOX GENERATES SKILLS FROM E-RANK TO S-RANK. THE PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION HEAVILY FAVORS LOWER RANKS. HOST'S LUCK STAT MAY HAVE INFLUENCED THE RESULT.]
LCK: 6. He'd just raised it from 3.
"Money well spent," he muttered.
He activated the skill and looked at a nearby goblin corpse.
[Goblin — Level 3 — DECEASED]
[STR: 6 / AGI: 8 / END: 4 / INT: 2]
[Weakness: Blunt trauma to skull, fire, loud noises]
Useful. Very useful.
He turned toward the dungeon exit. The entrance shimmered in the distance. He'd killed his ten. The quest was done. The remaining twenty-five goblins and the hobgoblin boss were still in there somewhere, but that was not his problem.
He walked out of the gate.
The alley behind Seoul Station. Evening now. The stray cat was gone. The gate still shimmered behind him, uncleared.
He checked his status.
[STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Yoon Siwoo
Level: 3
Class: None (Unlocks at Level 10)
Title: None
HP: 110/110
MP: 56/56
STR: 9
AGI: 10
END: 6
INT: 14
PER: 13
CHA: 5
LCK: 6
Skills: Predator's Eye (C) [Passive]
SP: 25
Level 3. In one afternoon. With a baseball bat. From a dumpster.
His phone buzzed. Group chat from Jang Minho.
[MINHO: Thursday raid confirmed. Same gate type. Same pay. Be on time.]
Siwoo stared at the message. Sixty thousand won. He still needed the money. The system didn't pay his rent.
He typed back: "I'll be there."
Then he walked to the bus stop, sat down, and fell asleep waiting for the bus.
When the bus arrived, the driver had to honk three times to wake him up.
He got home at 9 PM. Made ramen. Sat on his bed. Ate ramen. Looked at the ceiling.
[DAILY QUEST SYSTEM ACTIVATES TOMORROW AT 6:00 AM.]
Tomorrow. More quests. More grinding. More push-ups, probably.
He thought about what the system had said. No suitable candidates remaining. Host was the last option.
Seven thousand eight hundred and thirty-four people evaluated. He was number 7,834. Dead last.
He should probably feel something about that. Insulted, maybe. Or motivated to prove the system wrong. Or determined to become stronger.
He felt sleepy.
He finished his ramen, set his phone alarm for 5:55 AM — five minutes before the daily quest would drop — and lay down.
The mattress was thin. The pillow still smelled like ramen. The ceiling had a water stain shaped like a dog.
[THE SYSTEM RECOMMENDS 8 HOURS OF SLEEP FOR OPTIMAL RECOVERY.]
"First useful thing you've said all day."
He closed his eyes.
Outside, Seoul hummed. Ten million people living their lives. Seven S-rank Hunters protecting the nation. Thousands of Hunters clearing gates across the country. The world moved forward, as it always did.
And Yoon Siwoo, the weakest Hunter in South Korea, the last choice of an all-powerful system, E-rank with a dumpster bat and a C-rank skill he probably didn't deserve, slept.
Tomorrow would be different.
Marginally.