Chapter 54

It felt like watching an old TV.

Scenes and voices stuttered across a faded screen, cutting in and out. Even so, the heat of the battlefield came through vividly.

“Kill!”

“Destroy the Jin Family of Taiyuan!”

The people packed into the narrow gorge charged forward with a roar. Behind them, a flag marked Mount Heng whipped in the air.

At the tips of those steel-blue weapons was another flag.

Jin (振).

And hundreds of martial artists sealing off the gorge.

“They’re bastards with neither martial honor nor chivalry. The Mount Heng Sword Sect disappears today!”

“Attack!”

Static crackled.

The view zoomed in through the noise, locking onto two people who stood out beneath the flag of the Jin Family of Taiyuan.

An old man with a long white beard spoke.

“This is going to be a long fight.”

A massive man answered.

“And the last one.”

The old man smiled broadly.

“It will be. Without fail.”

And then—

People crashed into people, swords into spears. Countless martial artists collided, and a thick blood-mist settled over the gorge.

Somewhere, a drumbeat announcing the start of battle rang out.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

“Hah.”

I sat up, soaked in sweat. Another Murim dream.

Unlike at first, I could now remember it clearly even after waking.

The battle has begun.

Even after I came back to reality, time kept moving in Murim.

The scenes I had seen might be happening there right now. A great battle with the fate of two massive forces on the line.

No. There’s one more.

A third force led by the Head Elder.

Once the battle hit its climax and both sides had taken heavy losses, that was when they would finally make their move.

What about Hyuk Mujin? What happened to the reconnaissance squad?

If they arrived in time and exposed the betrayal, the worst could still be avoided. Or maybe the opposite had already happened, and everything was already over.

The Head Elder…

That old man had given me the creeps from the moment I met him. Who would have thought someone who was supposed to be an elder of the Jin Family of Taiyuan would plot something like this?

If the Head Elder became the final victor, it would all be over.

A bloody purge always followed a rebellion.

Jin Wikyung, Wipeng, Hyuk Mujin, and the reconnaissance squad.

Then there was Han Yeop, too badly injured in his fight with Jopil to join the battle, as well as Gong Yacheong and the siblings Socheon and Soyul, who were still recovering.

Familiar faces appeared and vanished in my mind again and again.

What were they to me?

One month in Murim.

To them, I had been a Benefactor, a trusted superior, and a comrade they could trust to watch their backs. And to someone…

“I’m proud of you.”

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Survive, youngest.”

I had been a blood brother, too.

But what had they been to me? NPCs loaded with advanced AI? Or people?

What were they?

Another dimension only I could come and go from, and the people left behind there. What was I supposed to do about that?

My eyes drifted to the capsule on their own.

If I went back…

The sudden thought startled me. I’d lost my mind.

Go back and do what? It was a great battle with some two thousand martial artists mixed together. Among them were monsters as strong as Jopil, One Question, One Kill—or even stronger.

And I was thinking of going back there?

“You lunatic. You crazy bastard. You’ve completely lost it.”

I was muttering it like a sigh when my phone rang.

Bzzz.

Designer-Brand Junkie.

It was Team Leader Choi.

A large café in the heart of a downtown forest of high-rises.

“Here are the materials you requested.”

Butler Kim held out a thick binder. Even at a glance, it looked like a massive file of more than a hundred pages.

“That’s a lot.”

“That’s how thoroughly I investigated him.”

Choi Minwoo nodded and began rapidly flipping through the pages. What he was reading was the life of a single person.

Jin Taekyung’s twenty-seven years were contained within those hundred-odd pages.

Birthplace, background, how he had grown up—even account inquiry records provided by the bank. Nothing was missing.

Unusual or suspicious parts had been highlighted in bold, so Choi Minwoo finished the entire file in under thirty minutes.

“What do you think, Butler Kim?”

“He’s clean.”

Butler Kim answered in a definitive tone.

“He isn’t an illegal Awakener, nor did he approach you as part of any deliberate plan.”

Choi Minwoo nodded. If Butler Kim said so, that was how it was.

He was the one who had spent the past two weeks using every means available to look into everything about Jin Taekyung. Likewise, every page of the hundred-odd-page file on the table would have passed through his hands.

“So this was all a coincidence?”

“For now, yes.”

“Butler Kim.”

“Yes. Please go ahead.”

“Do you know the odds of reawakening?”

“I understand they’re around one percent.”

One in a hundred.

From an ordinary person’s perspective, that might not seem impossibly rare. But those hundred people were not ordinary people. They were Hunters who had already been born through similar odds.

And among them, only the chosen enjoyed the luck of reawakening.

“Then what are the odds that an F-rank Hunter reawakens in one jump as a C-rank Hunter?”

Choi Minwoo didn’t wait for an answer.

“And what are the odds of a C-rank Hunter clearing a Gate of the same rank alone?”

“Alone, it would be impossible. He’d have to be at least B-rank…”

“And yet I found someone who can.”

“Could it be…?”

“Ten C-rank Gates. Ten D-rank Gates. Across twenty raids in total, all I did was sit with my arms crossed and watch. I never even needed to step in.”

His long fingers tapped the thick binder.

Everything about Jin Taekyung was written inside it, yet in another sense, nothing was.

After a moment of silence, Butler Kim spoke.

“I’ll investigate him again.”

“No.”

Choi Minwoo shook his head.

“Keep digging and you’ll only stir up trouble. I intend to keep him close and watch him.”

“Do you intend to recruit him into the Guild after all?”

“I should. If something smells fishy, I’ll dig into his background. If it doesn’t…”

Choi Minwoo’s eyes gleamed.

“I’ll make him one of my people, even if I have to pay him three personal visits.¹”

And in the next moment—

Jingle.

As someone entered the café to the sound of the bell, Choi Minwoo gave a quiet laugh.

Zhuge Liang—or rather, Jin Taekyung.

A signing bonus of 500 million won.

A fixed monthly salary of 50 million won and a seventy-percent share of the proceeds.

A roughly 132-square-meter officetel² and a sedan came as extras, while the four major social insurances were standard. After reading through the contract, I had exactly one thought.

This is insane.

What kind of outrageous terms were these?

They were giving me a home, a car, and more money than I knew what to do with.

The average annual salary of a C-rank Hunter was 200 million won, including fixed pay and raid pay.

And me?

The signing bonus alone is 500 million.

This was the kind of contract only a B-rank Hunter or higher could expect.

It also meant my skill was valued that highly. And it was proof I had found an employer with the insight not to judge a Hunter by rank alone.

And he has the money, too.

I stared across the table at Team Leader Choi. As always, his expression gave nothing away, and his eyes were deep.

Team Leader Choi spoke without warning.

“This makes three.”

He had already offered me a contract twice before. I had turned him down both times. This was his roundabout way of telling me not to refuse him again.

“I’m sorry about that. There was a minor issue.”

“Have you resolved it?”

“Yes. For now, I think so.”

“Then there shouldn’t be any problem now.”

“…Of course.”

Even as I answered, I still had doubts. Was there really no problem now? Was it okay to leave it like this?

What the hell am I thinking?

I had to knock this out before my mind wandered.

“I’ll sign.”

I started signing with the fountain pen Team Leader Choi had handed me.

One page, two pages, three…

The contract was five pages long. All I had to do was write the three characters of my name on the last page, and it would be done.

At that moment, the question came back.

Is this really okay?

The fountain pen that had been moving without hesitation slowed. One thought caught on the next.

What if it isn’t? Isn’t this what I wanted?

It was. This was exactly what I had dreamed of so desperately for seven years.

A massive salary and high social standing.

Becoming a son and older brother my family could be proud of, and treating them to an easy life.

Becoming someone others envied and admired instead of ignored and scorned.

I can have it all now.

I could live enjoying every bit of it. Goodbye to my grimy life. Goodbye to that shitty Murim.

Crack.

And goodbye to the fountain pen, too.

I relaxed my grip. Ink spilled from the shattered pen and soaked into the contract.

“Mr. Jin Taekyung. Let me ask you again.”

Team Leader Choi pulled out a white handkerchief and wiped the ink that had splattered onto his chin.

For all the sudden mess, he looked calm.

“That problem from last time. Have you really resolved it?”

“No.”

The moment I answered, a weight lifted from my chest.

“If it’s something I can help you with…”

“I appreciate it, but I have to handle this myself.”

Team Leader Choi studied me with an odd look, then gave a small laugh.

“I didn’t know a contract could be this hard. I didn’t expect to get turned down three times, either.”

He sounded more amused by the situation than angry.

“When would be a good time to make my fourth offer?”

He probably meant it half as a joke, but my answer was serious.

“Tomorrow. Same time, same place.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Yes. Tomorrow.”

Just one day.

But for me, it would be a month. Maybe several.

Team Leader Choi had no way of knowing that, and he furrowed his brow.

“I don’t much care for jokes like that.”

“Neither do I. Not jokes like this.”

He didn’t know what my words meant.

“I’ll be sure to see you.”

It was a vow to myself.

A vow that I would make it back alive.

And…

“Tomorrow, you’ll have to raise the terms even higher.”

I walked out of the café, leaving a wide-eyed Team Leader Choi behind.

“Phew.”

I drew a deep breath and opened the capsule.

The sight of the sunken seat and VR headset made my heart hammer. Even after coming this far, temptation kept raising its head and whispering.

Don’t go back.

Just forget everything and live content with your reality.

Everyone you met in Murim is an NPC, and Murim is nothing more than a game.

Right. There had been a time when I thought that way.

But after wrestling with it, I realized I was going back, one way or another.

I’d already reached my conclusion a long time ago.

On the night of the blizzard, I had gone back for Gong Yacheong.

I had brought along two young siblings who were nothing but baggage, and instead of using the reconnaissance squad as human shields, I had fought Jopil and barely made it through.

It probably started then.

That was when the three letters NPC, lodged in my mind, began to fade.

That was when the two-character word family came to mind at the sight of Jin Wikyung’s back as he told me to survive and turned away.³

“Fuck, my life really is a variety show.”

With a hollow, complaining laugh, I climbed into the capsule. The moment I put on the VR headset, a single line of text appeared in front of me.

Ding.

System

Would you like to connect to Murim?

Accept / Decline

“Yes.”

My consciousness faded. My vision darkened.

I logged in.