Chapter 102

Everyone has their own area of expertise.

I knew Gate formations, how to respond in a crisis, and the weaknesses of various monsters like the back of my hand. By the same token, I knew next to nothing about legal matters.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“You too.”

The man in the angular horn-rimmed glasses was the judicial scrivener I had hired to handle the purchase of the house¹. Across from me, the homeowner and the realtor were exchanging farewells and getting to their feet.

“Congratulations on the contract. You’ve done well for yourself at such a young age.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you.”

As I shook hands with the homeowner, something finally sank in.

This is my house now.

And it was my family’s house.

A home we had reclaimed after no less than eleven years.

I looked around the cramped room.

The bed whose springs had given out long ago. A small wardrobe that could barely hold a few outfits. A desk with paint peeling off in places, with a small TV sitting on top.

Once I packed my clothes and assorted belongings, aside from the things I had to leave behind, they filled a single cardboard box.

Just one box.

The past seven years were contained inside it. I was staring around the room, my chest strangely tight, when a voice came from behind me.

“You leaving?”

I knew who it was without turning around.

He was someone I couldn’t leave out of my seven years.

“Yeah.”

“What about the house?”

“I found one, so I’m moving out.”

“Bastard, that was fast. Has your family already moved into the new place?”

“No. It’s still a secret. I’m planning to move in first and tell them after my sister finishes her college entrance exam.”

“Fair enough. She’s at an important stage.”

“Yeah. I need to remodel the place first, too.”

A brief silence followed. We were comfortable enough not to need conversation, the kind of people who could read each other’s thoughts from a look alone. But right now, neither of us seemed to know what to say.

“Hyung.”

“Hey, hey. That’s enough. Don’t make this all sentimental.”

Jinho hyung slapped me hard on the back.

“You’re not some elementary school kid transferring schools. Just because you’re moving, you’re not going to stop seeing me, are you?”

“Of course I’ll see you. I definitely will.”

“Then it’s fine. Besides, I’m moving my stuff out by the end of today, too.”

“You are?”

“I told you last time. Don’t you remember?”

“Oh, right. You did.”

I had felt bad about leaving Jinho hyung alone in the goshiwon after all the years we had spent living together. Now I finally felt a little more at ease.

“Where are you moving?”

“Well, I ended up crashing at someone I know’s place. Where did you say the house you bought was?”

“Goyang. It’s only thirty minutes from here, so it’s not that far.”

“Goyang?”

Jinho hyung’s eyes widened.

“I’m in that area too, you punk!”

“Huh? Really?”

The unexpected news secretly pleased me. By now, I missed his face if I went even a day without seeing it. If we lived close by, we could still meet often.

“Hyung, then what’s the exact address—”

Just as I was about to ask, the smartphone in my pocket rang. When I answered, a gravelly voice came through the receiver.

—Hello, is this Mr. Jin Taekyung? I’m in front of the goshiwon right now.

“Ah, yes. Driver.”

It was the private moving-truck driver I had called in advance. I glanced out the window and saw a blue light truck waiting in front of the goshiwon.

—Do you have a lot of stuff? If anything’s heavy, I can help you carry it.

“No, it’s fine. I’ll carry it myself.”

I only had two things to move.

A cardboard box filled with small belongings, and…

The capsule.

Now that the Logout function had been activated, I no longer needed the capsule to travel between Murim and the modern world.

It had become nothing more than a bulky nuisance, but it meant more to me than anything else. It was the only reason I had called a moving truck despite having so little luggage.

What would have happened if it weren’t for this capsule?

I slowly ran my hand over its surface. The coldness of the metal and its rough texture traveled through my fingers.

This one old capsule had completely changed my life.

Oh, right. Someone else played a big part in that too.

“Jinho hyung.”

“Yeah?”

A laugh escaped me at his puzzled expression.

If Jinho hyung hadn’t gotten plastered that day, I never would have entered the capsule in the first place.

“Never mind. It’s nothing.”

“You’re no fun. Anyway, shouldn’t you get going? There’s a truck waiting outside.”

“Yeah. Since you’re here, carry that box down for me. I have to carry the capsule, so I don’t have a free hand.”

“Uh, what?”

“What’s with that reaction? Can’t you carry one box for your little brother who’s moving away?”

“That’s not it… Ah, now that I think about it, I need to pack my own stuff too. Even if it’s a hassle, just make one trip back and forth. Well, good luck!”

“……”

Look at him slithering away like a loach.

I watched Jinho hyung’s back inch into the distance, then finally picked up the box myself.

The moving driver, tired of waiting, honked the truck’s horn. The sound struck my ears.

Honk, honk!

“Yes, I’m coming down!”

“Are you a Hunter?”

The moving driver, who had been sneaking glances at me, finally spoke. With the box and capsule loaded in the back, the truck followed the navigation toward my new home.

“How did you know?”

“You can tell at a glance. I used to be a Hunter, too. F-rank.”

“Oh, really?”

“I’m probably your Senior by training-center class. Ah, I’m not trying to pull rank. It’d be ridiculous for a guy who quit after exactly one month and handed back his license to act like some old-timer.”

The driver continued as though airing a long-held grievance.

“Being a Hunter at the training center was manageable. Even though I was only F-rank, I took pride in becoming a Hunter. But the moment I joined a Guild after graduating, an accident happened.”

An accident at a Gate was synonymous with death.

Even if someone lost an arm or a leg, they could recover as long as they had enough money. Hunters didn’t call something like that an accident.

“He was one of my training-center classmates, and he joined the Guild at the same time as me… Before I knew what was happening, he was dragged away and died just like that. I should have chased after him and saved him, no matter what it took, but I couldn’t make my feet move. After his funeral, I applied for retirement. Someone like me had no business going on raids.”

He tried to sound calm, but he couldn’t hide the slight tremor in his voice.

“Listen to me saying something so ominous in front of a Hunter customer. It’s not even a pleasant story. Sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

I understood how he felt.

I had experienced something similar. If I hadn’t felt responsible for my family, and if Jinho hyung hadn’t been there to comfort me, I might have retired two years ago.

Then my life would have turned out completely differently.

Being a Hunter was a brutal profession. The media praised them as humanity’s guardians and shields, but they lived with death always at their side.

—Turn right in fifty meters.

The driver paused at the navigation’s voice, then muttered, “Oh, come to think of it, this is a safe zone.”

“That’s right. Just keep going.”

“Ah, yes.”

The truck arrived at its destination soon afterward.

A two-story detached house with a blue roof. A low stone wall and a yard covered in grass. It felt different from when I had first seen it a few days ago.

It must be because it’s ours now.

Our house.

The more I repeated those words in my head, the better they sounded. Of course, the fact that the house itself was beautiful probably helped.

“Wow… It’s a nice house.”

The driver climbed out of the cab and clicked his tongue in admiration. Praise always sounded sweeter coming from someone else. No matter how hard I tried to suppress it, the corners of my mouth kept rising.

“You must be a successful Hunter. Living in a house like this was my dream.”

“Mine too.”

“Your wish came true. You must be happy.”

Of course. I was ecstatic.

The driver continued exclaiming over the place, touching the stone wall and looking over the lawn, before asking,

“Would it be all right if I took a quick look inside? I can help move the capsule while I’m at it.”

“Sure. Go ahead.”

The moving driver became the new house’s first guest by accident as he climbed into the truck bed to move the capsule.

“That thing must weigh quite a bit.”

“It’s fine. I’ve moved plenty of them, so I know. Game capsules all weigh about the same.”

“No, it’s seriously heavy.”

I knew because I had lifted it myself earlier. It had felt reasonably hefty even to me, with my Strength stat in the triple digits. For the driver, it would be a different story entirely.

“Boss, I’ll move it myself.”

The driver wrapped his arms around the capsule and grinned.

“Come on. You’re underestimating me. I was a Hunter back in the day. Something like this is—nnngh!”

“Oh, wow.”

As expected of a former Hunter, he did manage to lift it in one go.

The only change was that the smile had vanished from his face.

“Go ahead and open the doors. Quickly!”

At the urgency in his voice, I dashed ahead and threw open the front gate and the front door. I had no idea why I was getting nervous too.

“I can carry it—”

“Move!”

“Ah, yes.”

He barreled into the living room at a speed fit for an alarm and screamed, “Which room?!”

“I was going to put the capsule upstairs…”

“What?!”

“…but just leave it in the nearest room.”

Fortunately, the door to one of the rooms was already open. The driver set the capsule down with a thud and began panting.

“Why… is this… huff… so heavy?”

“……”

Hadn’t I told him it was heavy?

As soon as the moving driver left, I dropped onto the living room sofa.

It was one of the pieces of furniture the previous owner had transferred to me on the condition that I pay the remaining balance all at once.

I’ll have to live alone for a few months.

I had told my family that I was going back to Bucheon.

Until Hayeon finished her college entrance exam, I planned to eat and sleep here while commuting to work.

I need to remodel the house and buy a car too. Ah, the Guild said they’d provide me with a car anyway, so I need to get my license first.

There was a mountain of other things to do. But instead of feeling tired, I felt energized. These were all things I hadn’t been able to do before, no matter how much I wanted to.

It had only been a few months since I had done nothing but suffer while going back and forth between Gates and the goshiwon, yet so much had changed.

You’ve come a long way, Jin Taekyung.

One person suddenly came to mind.

A man who had always smiled like a boy despite his age. A man who had done his best for his wife and children and approached them like a friend.

Dad, I bought a house. The place we used to live in was already gone. But I did well enough, right?

I wanted to brag about it like a child, but the person who would have praised me had passed away long ago. All I could do was repeat words in my heart that would never reach him.

How much time passed like that?

When I came to my senses, it was already eight in the evening. The summer sun was slowly setting.

So this is how my last day of vacation ends.

An entire week of vacation. It had been hectic because of everything involving the Sangdong Guild, but it was still the best rest I had enjoyed since becoming a Hunter.

Now it was time to return to my daily life.

In exactly twelve hours.

I lay flat on the sofa where I had been sitting. I briefly considered entering the capsule, but soon dismissed the thought.

After eleven years, I finally had a home again. Just this once, I wanted to wake up in our living room instead of inside that stuffy capsule.

Login.

The System responded to my call.

Ding.

System

Would you like to connect to Murim?

Y / N

Of course, my answer was yes.

Long after Jin Taekyung lost consciousness, something no one could have expected was happening in the room beside the front door.

Hissssss.

The door of the metal object that looked like a gigantic egg—the capsule—slowly began to open.

The first thing to emerge was a pair of feet.

Red letters were printed across a pair of long athletic socks that reached up to the calves.

Hope Goshiwon Early-Morning Soccer Club

Next came sweatpants rolled up halfway, followed by a pair of pale, skinny hands. The cover of the book he clutched tightly, as though it were scripture, gleamed in the sunset pouring through the window.

Complete Mastery of the Civil Service Exam

And finally, his face emerged.

After enduring several long hours of agony, he looked as haggard as Crown Prince Sado² yet as relieved as Park Hyeokgeose emerging from an egg.³

A parched voice slipped between his bone-dry lips.

“Is this my new nest…?”

As Seong Jinho gazed around the spacious room, a satisfied smile spread across his lips.