Chapter 789

It must have started a few years ago.

Before that, I could close my eyes anywhere, anytime, and fall asleep as if I’d passed out. Then the nightmares began.

In a way, it was only natural.

Even someone as thick-skinned as me would start to fall apart after crossing the line between life and death several times a week and watching people close to me die or get hurt.

This nightmare was no different.

But it was far calmer, sadder, and, in a way, even more welcome than the ones I usually had. Because I met people I missed inside it.

“Son. While Dad’s at work, play nicely with Hayeon, okay?”

I heard my father’s voice.

“Just call me hyung¹. Hyung¹.”

“Whoa, we hit the jackpot with these Magic Gems today. Since we’re on a roll, let’s keep going till the end of the day, yeah?”

I saw the smiling faces of Cheonsu and the other team members who’d died in the Mutated Gate.

“It wasn’t your fault. You did everything you could.”

I got to stand beside Butler Kim once more as he struggled for breath and tried to comfort me.

Of course, if it had ended there, I wouldn’t have called it a nightmare.

Even in my dream, I fought without stopping.

I cut down people who all looked the same and drove my spearhead into monsters’ chests.

Then, amid blood that reached my thighs and corpses piled like mountains, I heard the screams of those I hadn’t managed to save.

“Help me! There are people here! Please, at least save my child…”

I looked around. A hellscape stretched out on every side.

No—maybe it was hell itself.

A familiar face came into view, one more at home here than anyone else.

“This is a pleasant place, wouldn’t you say?”

“Go fuck yourself.”

I swung my spear as I answered.

Slash.

Michael Silbert’s head flew into the air as he approached at a leisurely pace.

But the smile on his lips and the black gleam in his eyes didn’t disappear.

“Take a good look at this scene we made together.”

His headless body moved of its own accord.

Clap. Clap. Clap. The slow applause rang out, and I clenched my teeth. Flames erupted from my spear as I slashed diagonally downward, swallowing him whole.

Whoosh!

Michael Silbert’s body, moving as though controlled by invisible strings, turned to ash and crumbled away.

But the flames weren’t satisfied. They raced over the blood pooled everywhere.

Farther. On and on.

Fwoosh.

A great inferno rose, feeding on the blood and countless corpses like firewood, completing the hellscape.

The screams of those still alive rose higher than ever—then died away without a trace.

Everything was dead. Everything was burning.

The terrible sight before me was something beyond a dream.

I let my spear droop and stared blankly as the whole world went up in flames.

Then I heard a monster who had stubbornly survived even this calamity begin to speak.

“Please, survive until the end. Struggle with everything you have, every moment, until the very end of this world. That way, you can watch it all with your own eyes—”

Pop! Thud-thud.

I stomped down with all my strength, and his head burst like a watermelon.

But the silence I’d finally won wasn’t an ending. It was the beginning of something new.

Crack. Crack.

The world shook with a deafening roar.

The sky split apart, and space warped in every direction.

At the same time, a single word flashed through my mind like a bolt of lightning.

Rift.

Rrrumble!

That was when it happened.

As my senses slowly faded, someone’s distant shout caught hold of me and pulled me up from the depths of the nightmare.

“…ppa!”

Ppa?

“Oppa²!”

“…!”

At that moment, radiant light filled my vision. I woke from the nightmare and finally saw Hayeon’s face, drenched in tears for some reason.

After a brief but difficult deliberation, I greeted her with all sincerity.

“Don’t cry. You’re ugly enough as it is. If your makeup runs, it’ll only get worse…”

Smack!

Ow.

I hurt, therefore I am.

I couldn’t tell how the rest of that day passed.

Right after I woke up, Hayeon—having been hit with the hard truth—smacked my arm with a hand that stung just like Mom’s.

Then she hugged me for the first time since kindergarten and burst into tears.

Mom had stepped away for a moment. When she came hurrying back… Well, there’s no point going on. It’ll only make my mouth tired.

She sobbed so bitterly that I thought I’d woken up in a morgue instead of a hospital room.

If the medical staff who’d been waiting nearby hadn’t insisted she stop, I might have drowned in their tears. I’m only exaggerating a little.

“Um, could the family calm down for a moment? We need to run some tests first…”

Mom wouldn’t have budged even if Demon King Asmodeus had come knocking—but a few words from a renowned doctor and healer were enough to make her step back without a fuss.

Of course, she made sure to clasp their hands and ask them again and again to look after me.

“Please take good care of my son. Check if anything’s wrong with him. And there won’t be any lasting effects, will there? My younger one said Taekyung started talking nonsense as soon as he woke up…”

“Nonsense?”

“Yes. I’m not sure exactly what he said. I’d stepped out for a moment.”

“Understood. Patient, do you remember what you said?”

I answered.

“I told her not to cry because she’d look even uglier if her makeup ran.”

“…”

“And it wasn’t nonsense. I almost closed my eyes again as soon as I opened them.”

“…”

“You may not know this, but once she takes off that makeup, it’s a disaster. You don’t have to go looking far for a Monster Wave.”

Hayeon glared at me as if she wanted to kill me. The medical staff listened with their mouths hanging open, then gathered in a corner of the room and started whispering.

“Is he all right?”

“Does he look all right to you?”

“Hard to say. His younger sister looks pretty, at least. Her makeup’s waterproof, so I don’t think it ran…”

“I can’t believe this. Is that what you’re worried about right now? Are you in your right mind? Who recommended you for this job?”

“I did. Sorry.”

“I’m sorry, Professor. What should we do?”

“Hmm. There doesn’t seem to be anything obviously wrong with his body, but the aftereffects could have affected his brain. Let’s run a full set of tests.”

“Yes. We’ll include a psychiatric evaluation.”

“…”

I’d told the truth, and they were treating me like a lunatic.

It was unfair, but there was nothing I could do. The fastest way to stop Mom from crying was to show her I was healthy.

Like I’d be sick.

But I swallowed that thought and cooperated with the healers and doctors.

Even after they’d put me through every test known to this world, I was forced to rest until the following day.

Two days.

It wasn’t a bad stretch.

Honestly, it was peaceful for once.

I was stuck in bed for two whole days without a smartphone or TV, all in the name of rest. But the people I cared about most were right there with me.

I ate, slept, laughed, and talked with my family. It felt like a dream.

If not for the nightmare I’d had just before waking up, those days would have been so happy I wouldn’t have felt a hint of anxiety.

But I already knew I couldn’t make them last any longer.

If I wanted to quiet the unease growing inside me, it was time to step back out into the world.

Mom and Hayeon. The medical staff. And all the friends who didn’t come to visit because they wanted me to rest.

They might have kept quiet about what was happening outside for my sake, but the System hadn’t.

Alliance Leader, huh?

The System notifications I hadn’t had a chance to check told me what had happened. Right after I’d finished Michael Silbert off for good, the World Hunter Federation had appointed me its new Alliance Leader while I was unconscious.

Never thought I’d end up as Alliance Leader, of all things.

I was surprised at first, but after thinking it over, I decided to accept.

It was their decision, but it was mine too.

I’d seen more than once what someone’s ambition—what a hunger for power—could lead to.

Team Leader Choi or Magic Johnson would make a leader several times better than me. But if I was the one they’d chosen, I was willing to live up to their expectations, even if I still had a lot to learn.

I’ll do the best I can.

Before that, though, there was one thing I had to take care of.

“Hayeon.”

“Yeah?”

“You know Team Leader Choi’s number, right?”

“No. Rest.”

Her answer was immediate and firm.

Hayeon continued, her face set.

“Mom would be thrilled to hear that. Right?”

“Call him for me.”

“…”

“There’s something I need to take care of. Please.”

At my earnest request, Hayeon bit her lip.

“Ugh, this is driving me crazy.”

“Thanks.”

“Are you crazy? Who said I’d call him for you?”

“You always bite your lip before agreeing to do me a favor.”

“…”

Hayeon stared at me without a word, then let out a deep sigh.

That meant yes.

“The wind’s cold.”

That was the first thing Team Leader Choi said when I saw him after several days.

I was sitting alone on a bench. Glad to see him, I broke into a grin.

“How long has it been?”

“Today makes exactly one week since that day.”

“Must’ve been a busy week. In more ways than one.”

Team Leader Choi smiled back and joked, “Yes. While you were lying comfortably in bed, we were running around like mad.”

“You make me feel bad. Should I apologize?”

“No need. It’s one of the boss’s privileges. Though the press is desperate to find out how you’re doing.”

“Fair enough. They made a fuss last time, too. Now I’ve even got the title of Alliance Leader.”

Team Leader Choi paused at my calm response.

“You knew?”

“Yes.”

“That’s not quite the reaction I expected. Did your family tell you?”

“No. They wouldn’t even let me lift a finger.”

“Hmm. I wonder where the news leaked from. I told everyone to keep quiet so you could rest.”

“Who knows? I’ve got sources you don’t know about, too.”

Team Leader Choi studied me for a moment, then nodded without saying anything.

The gesture said he wouldn’t ask any more.

He already suspected I had secrets other people didn’t know about. To him, why I’d contacted him only two days after waking was probably the more important question.

“Things outside are going smoothly, despite what you may think. You could rest a little longer.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. A week ago, we arrested a number of key figures with close ties to Michael Silbert. Among them…”

He rattled off names: French President Emmanuel, Swiss Interior Minister Werner, who was almost certain to become the next president, and the head of a massive corporation.

Every one of them was a heavyweight who held sway over politics and business around the world.

There were few Hunters among them. The ones who could have been called their leaders had either died alongside Michael Silbert that day or been captured.

“It was a bold and excellent decision. If you’d spared them, a much larger civil war would have broken out.”

Yes. That was exactly why we couldn’t let the bastards live.

The battle at the National Assembly had been a bloody bargain: their lives in exchange for tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of others.

But Team Leader Choi still hadn’t mentioned the one being I wanted to know about.

What had happened to the one person I was worried about. The source of this unease.

“Team Leader Choi.”

I looked up at the night sky, thick with stars. No—I looked at the information for the Main Quest, Cataclysm, still hanging there, and continued.

“Where is The Prophet?”