Back when New Seoul was still standing, Hunters were deployed to clear out monsters entrenched in Seoul and the surrounding suburbs.

That was largely thanks to the new Hunter system I designed, which incorporated Regular Awakened into the squads.

Back in my day, hunting monsters meant risking your life—but just by adding one Awakened to the group, it became an easy job.

After all, the monsters’ most powerful weapon is their reflective force field, which neutralizes humanity’s most powerful invention—guns.

Whenever something troublesome showed up, like a long-nesting Spider-type, I occasionally went out to assist personally.

So I know this well.

Those guys started leveling up fast and eventually didn’t need me anymore.

Sim Hyeong-bo had adapted perfectly to that new system.

He was part of the New Seoul monster suppression unit, working alongside other Awakened who had been cast out of Jeju and didn’t quite mesh with Kang Han-min’s faction—people like Ahn Seung-hwan, Lee Haru, and Kim Han-na.

Unlike me, who was always an external figure subject to suspicion, Sim Hyeong-bo had risen smoothly through internal ranks. His rise was all but guaranteed.

That promising man was now reduced to a mere errand boy for a local gang.

With a bitter tone, he recounted the collapse of the government—things I hadn’t known.

“You know how it is, right? Like when a company goes bankrupt, and all the full-time employees already know, but the contract workers and temps show up in the morning, only to find the office empty and stand there dumbfounded.” 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The collapse of the government wasn’t caused by Hong Jeong-ho alone.

The opposing side had already prepared to fall.

“When the Baekgol guys came, no one tried to stop them. I mean, our side had the advantage—we had more troops, better firepower, even tanks. But no one fired a shot. Later I found out the tank units were quietly pulling out through a side road, right as Baekgol’s forces were coming in.”

They’d already yanked out the support beams and were just waiting for a gust of wind named Hong Jeong-ho. And when he came charging in, it all collapsed—like they’d been waiting for it.

It was all staged. And Hong Jeong-ho was just a sacrificial pawn.

I’d warned my friend Defender about it, anticipating the setup—but he hadn’t listened.

Well, there’s no point in blaming him or regretting it now.

It was enough just to have one small doubt cleared up.

So we moved on to the next topic: monsters.

“You’ve hunted a lot of monsters, haven’t you?”

Sim Hyeong-bo is undeniably skilled.

But only in terms of regular soldier-level strength.

He doesn’t know how to hunt the way our school taught it.

That kind of hunting is only possible for someone who can numb a few human instincts on their own.

Sure enough, Sim Hyeong-bo waved his hands in protest.

“...Yeah, I’ve hunted a lot. But only because we always had an Awakened backing us up.”

Lighting up a low-quality post-war cigarette, he offered a bitter smile.

“Honestly, it was easy. As long as we cleared a path to the monster, the Awakened would neutralize the force field, and we’d just open fire.”

I didn’t bother asking how he ended up with Minsik’s remnants, after once living the cushy life of a government-assigned Hunter.

Just like he hadn’t asked how someone like me—once called captain or chief—ended up in a place like this.

Before the war, someone’s fall from grace might’ve been a novelty. Now, in an age where everyone’s fallen together, seeing someone else at rock bottom is nothing unusual.

What matters is not dying.

Staying alive and active—that’s everything.

As seasoned survivors, we got to the operational details quickly.

“There’s a warehouse. Right. A Jeju Committee member who was close to our old leader used to store supplies there.”

In other words, a stash of embezzled goods.

If I recall, before Jeon Si-hoon rose to power as a hero, everyone was scrambling to smuggle valuable supplies out of the Seoul asset depots, trying to flee the city.

Then they got screwed over, and all but a few fell into ruin.

Kim So-uk seemed happy to have made it to Jeju, but in my view, he’s headed for something far worse—a slow, drawn-out, inescapable collapse. Something far more painful than a sudden downfall.

“What type is it? Infiltration-type, right?”

We kept the conversation moving.

Better to finish this quickly.

But Sim Hyeong-bo’s expression turned strange.

He hesitated for a moment, watching my reaction.

“It’s a standard Spiderling type. But... there’s something else.”

“What kind?”

“I... don’t know.”

His answer lacked confidence.

That’s not like him.

He was always bold and assertive, even more so than most school-trained Hunters, trying to overcome his “academy” background.

For him to be this hesitant meant something had changed over the past few months—or he was deliberately holding back.

“...It was something I’d never seen before.”

So that wasn’t it.

Something he’d never seen.

Sounds simple enough, but the weight of that is close to death.

The most dangerous monsters are always “new types,” regardless of classification.

Only the top Hunters from our school had the honor of facing new types.

And of course, no one had that honor more often than Professor.

In a flash, I did the math on who to bring.

We’d need to send everyone.

Myself, Cheon Young-jae, and Kim Daram.

But if we all went, we’d leave the home base completely undefended.

“Could you watch over our place for a bit?”

Sim Hyeong-bo, who had been showing signs of fear, immediately understood what I meant and grinned.

He turned and glared at the neighbors hovering near our border.

“You want me to stomp them?”

I nodded.

*

“Aaaargh!”

Scavengers aren’t the same as raiders.

They always claim, We’re peaceful folks, just gathering supplies.

That’s the line they use to defend themselves—but I’ve always thought of scavengers as nothing more than opportunistic looters, gang variants wearing a nicer mask.

Crack!

Watching them beat men and women alike with rifle stocks—no discrimination—just proves my point.

“So what? Huh? You think you can act all high and mighty and we’re just gonna roll over? You’re clearly not getting the picture, so let me spell it out for you—this is our fuckin’ turf now.”

The guy casually walks up to someone holding a gun, snatches it out of their hands, and starts wailing on them.

This isn’t his first time doing this.

He’s got that go ahead, shoot me and see what happens kind of attitude. Sure, if someone did shoot him, he’d die.

But the one who pulled the trigger would die even more gruesomely.

“If you wanna keep testing us, then keep stirring shit. Hey, you old hag! Quit flapping your damn gums. Got something to say? Then say it to my face!”

Sim Hyeong-bo’s junior—he looked barely twenty—but the way he cornered and crushed people was masterful.

Some folks are just born with that kind of talent.

Regardless, I asked Sim Hyeong-bo to keep watch.

We were deploying our entire combat force.

Their side needed someone to guard things too.

Sim Hyeong-bo agreed without hesitation.

“We’ll send someone.”

When things go this smoothly, it’s not always a good sign.

The fact they were so accommodating likely meant the burden on our end was going to be massive.

“This way.”

At first glance, the mission site didn’t seem like much.

A warehouse, stamped here and there with government seals.

A sign warning of landmines looked ominous, but Sim Hyeong-bo waved it off.

“Just for show. There aren’t actually any mines. But the sign’s enough to keep most idiots from poking around.”

Apparently the site was important enough that Minsik’s remnants had built a full-fledged outpost on a hill overlooking the warehouse.

From the rear, I could see five vehicles and nearly twenty armed personnel stationed there, along with a solid collection of heavy weapons.

Even an anti-tank rocket—seemed like they were ready for anything.

But the real issue was Sim Hyeong-bo’s suspicious behavior.

He’d acted calm at first, but the closer we got to the target, the more visible the fear became on his face.

Kim Daram whispered to me.

“If this doesn’t feel right, let’s bail.”

She’s not the type to shy away from combat.

Quite the opposite.

She’s wired her reward system to feel the highest thrill when she lands a bullet on her target.

It’s not a natural trait—it’s a self-induced mental conditioning.

Her experience is probably on par with mine, maybe even more.

I nodded.

Cheon Young-jae seemed puzzled by how quickly I agreed with her, but he’d follow my lead.

We stepped cautiously into the warehouse.

We’d been told there was a Spider-type inside.

Sure enough, a maze of webbing surrounded the warehouse, and we could hear the dragging footsteps of a Spiderling inside.

But no way would something like that rattle Sim Hyeong-bo this badly.

There had to be something else.

I stared him down and asked directly.

“Be honest. What are we dealing with?”

Adults who’ve aged poorly tend to lie even when they know they’ll be exposed. But Sim Hyeong-bo wasn’t that far gone.

“...I don’t know.”

A flash of killing intent glinted in Kim Daram’s eyes.

I stopped whatever she was about to say with a signal and calmly asked again.

“What kind of thing is it? Medium class?”

“No. It’s not that... It’s not a combat-type either.”

“Then?”

“I swear, I’ve never seen anything like it. Fuck... my team just started dropping. Like they’d been stabbed with knives. One by one. And no one knew how or why. We barely escaped.”

Sim Hyeong-bo’s body trembled slightly.

“...That’s why I got demoted from being a state Hunter.”

His face was composed, but his body betrayed pure terror.

There’s something in that darkness.

I took a few steps back from him and gathered my team.

“Looks like a new type. That’s why they agreed to everything we asked.”

Kim Daram, barely able to hold back her resentment, muttered in a low, bitter voice.

Cheon Young-jae didn’t look thrilled either.

He’d already voiced similar concerns before—asking whether it was really worth sacrificing ourselves to help guys [N O V E L I G H T] like this, even if they had connections.

“I’ll take a look around first.”

“You sure?”

Kim Daram asked.

I nodded.

“Wait here. Don’t do anything.”

I have a skill that very few people know about.

Monsters can’t see me.

Even new types shouldn’t be much different.

Sure, some in the rift have begun displaying changes akin to human organs, but the ones that roam the world are still closer to objects than living beings.

Click-

As always, I placed my faith in my gun and axe.

That hasn’t changed since China.

No matter where I am, no matter what I’m doing, the only thing I can trust are my weapons—my partners.

Shuffle, shuffle—

As I went deeper inside, I spotted Spiderlings patrolling in groups.

There was a sharp 30-degree incline ahead—crosshatched with rubble and blockades—but I noticed signs of an explosion.

Sim Hyeong-bo had made an effort, at least, to breach the path to the monster.

The terror he spoke of must be beyond that.

Shuffle, shuffle—

A Spiderling brushed right past me, oblivious.

I was sure of it now, from repeated experience—they couldn’t perceive me.

So my footsteps carried no hesitation.

But my mind stayed cautious.

Carefully watching the shadows, I searched for the master of this nest.

There.

In the far distance—a faint, unmoving, pale gray form with long spider-like limbs loomed in the dark.

A Spider-type.

It wouldn’t be hard to kill.

Just walk up and land one punch with the Monster Punch device we’d been issued, and it’d be over.

But if it were that easy, Sim Hyeong-bo wouldn’t have called me.

I raised my Monster Punch, scanning the shadows with guarded eyes.

What exactly is hiding here?

Sim Hyeong-bo had refused to describe it.

He said it didn’t belong to any known category of monster.

So what was it?

Nothing visible.

All monsters, regardless of classification, share one trait: they’re pale gray.

No exceptions.

Their homeland—the very material that composes them—comes from that same pale gray world.

But something had been bothering me.

There was a peculiar haze here. A patch of especially dense fog that stood out.

Yes, air currents can naturally create vortices and clumps in mist—but this hazy blob kept catching my eye.

And my hunger—

Every time I noticed that fog, my hunger spiked sharply.

“...”

Shrrrk

I drew my axe.

My pathological curiosity kicked in.

But I believed it was warranted.

In a space where no other monster-like object was provoking me, something about that patch of fog was.

So I had to check it out myself.

That’s what I always did back when I was a squad leader.

There’s a reason picky people like Kim Daram follow my orders without a word of complaint.

Axe in one hand, the butt of my rifle snugged against my ribs, I crept toward the thick mist.

The air shifted strangely.

The fog began to move.

“There’s something off about the mist.”

For the first time, I contacted my team via radio.

Even if something happened to me, at least they’d know what got me.

“I’m approaching the fog.”

Then I heard Sim Hyeong-bo’s voice through the receiver.

“That’s it. It was the fog. My teammates started dying when that fog appeared!”

Just as I thought.

The fog was the key.

And still—I walked toward it.

Toward that unnaturally thick blur.

Carrying the deep, unshakable hatred that’s become my foundation.

Step—

The fog was right in front of me.

No smell.

I moved closer.

The mist curled around me.

Absolute numbness—no sensation at all.

I slowly exhaled.

Then—

“!”

A wave of malice swept through the fog.

I raised my axe.

Clang!

Something collided with it.

Enough force to push my arm back.

I stepped back and glared into the mist.

“...”

It was there.

Something inside that pale fog.

And it was coming.

Not that fast.

Slower than a human.

I could run if I wanted.

But from that brief exchange, I felt something—an indescribable clarity from the depths of my mind, like a puzzle box unlocking.

It gave me complete confidence.

I stood firm.

Let the fog surround me.

Shuuu—

I saw it.

Something inside the fog.

Clang!

I swung again, slicing into the mist.

And there it was—a faint, pale-gray shape lurking within, like a ghost made flesh.

Tat tat tat tat tat!

I unloaded bullets into it.

They struck home.

I saw pale shards break off.

The final round passed clean through—and a moment later, the creature began to dissolve into motes of light.

“...”

Was this a new type?

Not quite a monster.

A step below monsters, but above your average interdimensional species.

A new class.

Easier to mass-produce. Greater in number.

Hell, maybe it was one of Kang Han-min’s bastard creations.

As I watched hundreds of Spiderlings swarm toward me, drawn by the gunfire—

I pointed the Monster Punch at their mother.

BOOM!

That’s enough hunting for today.

We’ve got a bigger problem now.