By Zephyria 
“Hyung!”
For some reason, Tae-un’s voice sounded urgent as it rang through the receiver.
“You mean you passed through the barrier? How? Do you know someone? Other than me? Pi Min-hyeong and Seo Gae-un shouldn’t be at the barrier right now, right?”
Amidst the flood of pouring words, Kim Si-baek barely found a gap to answer.
“Yeah. I met Section Chief Gwak.”
…Hyung. Section Chief Gwak is two years older than I am.
“Is that so?”
“I mean, he’s not some kid.”
“Still, being a section chief in his thirties is impressive. If a civil servant is a section chief, what grade was that again?”
“Section Chief Gwak is grade 4. It’s because he’s a hunter. He just hasn’t ranked up his hunter grade, but practically speaking, he’s probably S-class. Anyway, he’s older than me. He’s old. If you round up, he’s a whole forty. Forty!”
“Aren’t you forty if you round up too?”
…My age is calculated by rounding down.
Kim Si-baek wondered what the big difference was between 35 and 37, but since Tae-un was emphasizing age so much, he simply went along with it. At that, Tae-un’s voice sounded a bit more relieved.
“It won’t distract you if I text while you’re hunting, right?”
“Of course not.”
Kim Si-baek let out a light chuckle. If his concentration were broken by the vibration of a pocket, he would have died decades ago in the mak slecht.
“Keep contacting me. Though I might be late in checking.”
Tae-un replied with a small laugh. The image of a brightly smiling child naturally came to mind, and Kim Si-baek’s expression softened. He thought that even if Tae-un became 95 instead of 35, he would still be cute.
“When will you be back?”
“Hmm. If I find something that could be a clue, I might be back soon.”
“Since you’ve gone a long way, let’s grill some meat when you return.”
[Death and Beauty points out that from the city center to the barrier isn’t far enough to be called ‘a long way.’]
“Sure. You have to wait patiently until Hyung goes home, okay?”
Biyendwe’s scathing truth-bomb had not the slightest effect on Kim Si-baek.
It was true that he didn’t need to borrow a weapon. Picking up a branch of appropriate length, Kim Si-baek snapped off the smaller twigs.
He had only crossed a single wall, but he was greeted by the remnants of a collapsed civilization.
The roads were maintained for the movement of hunters, but that was all. The buildings had collapsed to the point where their original shapes were unrecognizable. It was a scene of vivid destruction, incomparable to when he had looked at Seoul through satellite photos. The air, close to the habitats of magical beasts, was tinged with unpurified magical energy, and plant-type magical beasts, rather than rice or fruit trees, were spreading their roots across the fields.
After walking off the road to avoid the trucks running behind him, he arrived at the spot Gwak Yun-sang had mentioned shortly after.
“Do you feel anything?”
[Death and Beauty says that the providence and logic of the universe are like a supernova explosion—violent at times, yet quiet as dust dancing in the morning sunlight.]
“You have a long way of saying you don’t know.”
Peck! Peck!
“Ow.”
Rubbing his head where he had been pecked by the beak, Kim Si-baek looked around, but he didn’t get any particular feeling. In truth, he had only come to check; he hadn’t expected a special discovery from the start. The rift that connected world to world had vanished like water mist, and the atmosphere was extremely peaceful.
[Death and Beauty asks what you’re going to do.]
“Hmm.”
A magical beast that had caught the scent of a human was approaching.
“Since I’m already out, I might as well recover some divine power before I go.”
A holy aura began to swirl around the branch in his hand.
✽ ✽ ✽
The deformed monsters that threatened humanity were named magical beasts. This was because they were beings that reproduced like biological organisms. Consequently, their uses were similar to those of biological creatures.
Plant-type magical beasts provided fruits, stems, and sap, while animal-type magical beasts provided bones, hides, and meat. Of course, many magical beasts contained toxins harmful to humans.
Among them, the most highly utilized was the magic stone, which could be called the heart of the magical beast and the source of its magical energy. Magic stones were absorbed to temporarily amplify physical abilities, melted to be used as raw materials for potions, or used as essential materials for crafting sacred artifacts for hunting great magical beasts. Furthermore, because they possessed inherent value, they were processed like gemstones.
However, not all hunters were capable of hunting magical beasts to extract magic stones. There were disparities in hunters’ abilities, and many low-grade hunters spent their time gathering plant-type magical beasts or mining ores transformed by magical energy.
The HG Guild was exactly such a place where low-grade hunters gathered. In fact, since it was a guild formed by people of similar ages introduced through acquaintances, it was closer to a social club. For a side job, the earnings were quite decent.
“Go, Pyorong!”
“Pyopyo!”
The Guild Master of the HG Guild released a small magical beast, tamed through training abilities, from its cage. The one-horned rabbit could detect the ripeness of prey fruits with the horn on its forehead. Since most of these fruits had a slight magical power recovery effect, their selling price was not bad.
It was while they were in the middle of gathering with the guild members. One member, who was scouting the surroundings to ensure they didn’t unconsciously wander too deep, shouted.
“Guild Master! There’s a discarded magical beast carcass over there!”
“What? Is it really discarded?”
“It’s a magical beast I saw earlier, and it’s just lying there.”
Sure enough, at the spot the guild member pointed to, the carcass of a magical beast lay sprawled, looking as if it had been killed with a single slash. It wasn’t an uncommon sight, as hunters who hunt quickly often leave carcasses behind. Except for the fact that the magic stone had not been extracted from the carcass.
One guild member gulped.
“I guess it’s okay if we take the magic stone…”
“What if the original owner shows up and goes crazy? It looks damn strong.”
Even if magical beasts near the barrier were only slightly stronger than wild animals, they were still strictly magical beasts. At the trace of the magical beast being sliced in one blow, the guild members’ hearts shrank timidly.
However, as more fallen magical beasts were discovered nearby—one, two, three, four… the shrunken hearts swelled again. The world is wide; wouldn’t there be at least one hunter who only hunts and finds the time to extract magic stones a waste?
Ignoring the realistic question of why such a strong hunter would be in such a low-level field, the Guild Master made a momentous decision.
“Let’s wait just 30 minutes—no, one more hour—and if the owner doesn’t come…”
An hour passed in tension, and the owner still had not appeared. The guild members quickly began to cut through the hides and flesh of the carcasses while keeping an eye on their surroundings. They were prepared to bow and excuse themselves, saying, ‘We intended to extract the magic stones on your behalf so that you wouldn’t have to struggle, Hunter!’ should the original owner appear.
It was while they were in the middle of recovering magic stones from the haphazardly scattered carcasses. Through a sense of smell dulled by the stench of decay emanating from the corpses, a thick scent of blood suddenly wafted in. Along with a death scream. The dull thud of a magical beast falling, sliced in two, was the last thing heard.
“Gasp.”
The Guild Master and the members of the HG Guild all inhaled sharply. The hunter who had brought down the magical beast was a tall man. Looking at his lithe back as he stood turned away, the Guild Master swallowed hard.
Between the trail of magical beast carcasses leading here and the fact that he didn’t even think about mining the magic stone regardless of whether the beast fell or not, that hunter was definitely the original owner of the carcasses.
After quickly exchanging glances and gaining silent agreement from the guild members, the Guild Master began to warm up her mouth. It was unpleasant, but inside the barrier, it was a world of the law of the jungle where human laws hardly applied. A low-grade hunter like her had to know how to grovel. Pride be damned; survival came first.
She was just about to shout the phrase she had practiced in her mind: ‘We intended to extract the magic stones on your behalf so that you wouldn’t have to struggle, Hunter!’
“Ack! Guild Master!”
The scream of a guild member with detection abilities rang out. By the time that scream was heard, the time to escape had already passed.
“Shaaaaa!”
The sky, the view before her eyes, turned dark. A C-class magical beast, the Five-Colored Hoachin, which rarely appeared near the barrier, was gliding with its wings spread horizontally. It flashed a saw-like beak capable of killing a low-grade hunter in a single strike. Once she was dead, the Five-Colored Hoachin’s murderous intent would immediately turn toward the other guild members.
The idea of a revolving lantern of memories was a lie. What occupied her mind as she sensed her death was nothing but her remaining student loans.
‘I graduated college just to spend my life paying off debt and then die?! I didn’t even pay it all back! I even named the guild after paying off student loans!’
Tears welled up from the sheer unfairness. Through a vision blurred by tears, a flash of light suddenly spread. It was at that very moment, when her frustration peaked because she was witnessing a strange optical illusion instead of a life review.
Boom! A thick cloud of dust blocked her vision, and the sound of something heavy crashing down was heard.