"A hunter."
Ha Joon's voice was quiet.
Hollow.
"That's what I always wanted to be."
He stared at the blue screen floating in front of him as they walked down the gray hallway, Chi-Long ahead, Eun Byol behind, all of them moving in silence broken only by their footsteps on wet stone.
"Now... I don't know."
---
*Hunters.*
*The last line of defense against monsters.*
*Nine years ago.*
*Yes.*
*It all started nine years ago.*
His father's face flickered in his mind.
Blurred now.
Fading.
*My father was one of the hunters that tried to help when the chaos consumed the streets.*
*That was the last time I saw him.*
---
In this world, there were only two types of hunters.
Sleeper hunters.
Awakened hunters.
Sleepers could barely detect mana.
But they had immunity.
Not like normal people.
Normal people died if they got close to mana.
Slow.
Painful.
One that Ha Joon knew too well.
*His mother had the Rot.*
To be a sleeper meant surviving exposure to mana.
It was painful at first.
Burning.
Like your cells were tearing themselves apart from the inside.
But you got better.
It took two days of pain.
Then immunity.
Then survival.
The awakened hunters—
Those with the system.
Those who got a chance to grow.
To be strong.
Porters were sleepers who went into dungeons with awakened hunters, hoping for a chance to catch a kill.
The only requirement: the kill had to be done by hand.
No weapons worked unless mana flowed through them.
Monsters regenerated from any wound.
Grew back limbs like nothing happened.
Only one thing affected them.
Mana.
*Mana kills mana in this world.*
You had to get a kill.
That was the only way the system would recognize you.
Acknowledge you.
Empower you.
Easier said than done.
Many went into the dungeons.
They didn't come back.
If dungeons weren't cleared, monsters would come pouring out—gushing into the streets, into the cities, into the world that was already broken and dying.
That's why dungeons existed.
*Come and kill the boss.*
*I'm waiting.*
And monsters carried mana with them.
It leaked out like the stench of rotting corpses.
Thick.
Oppressive.
Everywhere.
---
Ha Joon's hands still shook.
The blood had dried now.
Cracked.
Flaking.
But he could still feel it.
Still smell it.
He looked down at the blue screen again.
**Ha Joon**
**Cultivation: Level 1**
**Body Development: Level 1**
**Mana: Level 1**
Level 1.
After everything.
After the goblin.
After the blood.
After crossing a line he could never uncross.
Just... Level 1.
The system didn't care.
It just watched.
Always watching.
He whispered again.
To himself.
To no one.
"What did I become?"
The hallway stretched ahead.
Endless.
Gray.
Silent.
And the blue light followed.