"Ugh, my head..."
A terrible headache. It felt like my skull was splitting.
The brutal hangover from the soju I'd downed all night with that old geezer from the Association.
I curled up on the bed and pressed my fingers to my temples.
I drew up my mana.
A cold energy flowing through my veins.
As the mana completed one full circulation through my body, the residual alcohol in my system instantly broke down and dissipated.
The terrible headache vanished as if washed away.
My physical condition returned to normal.
I slowly got up from the bed.
Plopped down heavily in the chair at my desk.
Stretched out my leg and pressed the computer power button firmly with my big toe.
While the monitor was turning on, I stuck my hand inside my loose T-shirt and scratched my belly.
Clicked the mouse and opened my email.
Sender: Association President Park Jin-cheol.
It was a compiled data report from the guilds.
Dozens of pages of text and images.
I scrolled down, skimming through the information.
Cross-verification between the Fantasy ecosystem and the Murim ecosystem.
The detailed background data for what the old man had briefed me on yesterday was densely packed in.
The presence or absence of Mana Stones, skeletal structure of corpses, the nature of their energy.
After scrolling to the end, I closed the window.
That was enough headache-inducing information. First, I was hungry.
I opened my door and went out to the living room.
Mom was bustling around in the kitchen.
"Mom. Feed me."
Mom turned around and clicked her tongue.
"My puppy. Just what time did you drink until last night? Oh my."
Along with her nagging, a earthenware pot was placed on the table.
Steaming white dried pollack soup.
"Mom's the best."
I climbed up onto the chair and sat down.
Scooped up a spoonful of broth and shoved it into my mouth.
The refreshing broth went down my throat, perfectly erasing even the last traces of fatigue.
I scraped the bowl clean to the bottom and got up.
Put on outerwear as my going-out clothes.
I was at the entrance, stepping into my sneakers with the heels folded down, when Ha-eun came out of her room and spotted me, her eyes sparkling.
"Oh! Oppa, where are you going! Buy something yummy on your way back!!"
She came running over and clung to my shoulder.
Annoyingly.
"Leave what you want on messenger."
I waved my hand dismissively and opened the front door.
A cool breeze.
I threw myself into the air.
Destination: Northern Front Defense Base.
* * * * *
I flew north out of Seoul.
The territory once called North Korea.
Now it was a demon realm teeming with monsters and the front line.
I landed silently at the front line defense base.
A soldier from the guard post, detecting the mana fluctuation, came running out in a panic.
"K-Kang Tae-ho Hunter, sir! It's not time for the regular subjugation yet—what brings you here!"
His flustered expression was obvious.
An S-Rank Hunter's surprise visit would put the forward units on emergency alert.
"It's nothing major. Don't sound the alarm. I just came to check something on my own."
I calmed the soldier down.
Without even waiting for a response, I kicked off into the air again and flew toward the demon realm.
A wasteland dozens of kilometers from the defense base.
I stopped at a place littered with the ruins of a destroyed city.
If it was here, there'd be more than enough experimental materials.
I released my internal mana very slightly.
For monsters, it was irresistible top-grade bait.
—Kugugugu!!
The earth in all directions began to shake.
Starving beasts poured out from every corner of the ruins.
A monster wave numbering in the hundreds—no, thousands.
From Orcs, Trolls, and Goblins to grotesque beasts with bizarre tentacles.
I looked down expressionlessly at the horde of monsters rushing madly toward my feet.
Flicked my finger lightly.
—Kwaaang!!!
Massive gravity dropped from the air.
The thousands of monsters that had been charging were slammed straight into the ground.
The horrific sound of breaking bones echoed across the wasteland.
After completely sealing their movement, I drew out mana in thread form, stretching it long.
Blue mana threads wrapped around the monsters' bodies one by one and lifted them into the air.
The ones that looked like they'd popped out of a Fantasy world went to the left side of the air.
The bizarre demon-type ones you'd only see in Murim novels went to the right side of the air.
In an instant, the monster horde was divided into two groups.
I raised my right hand and lightly drew a horizontal line in the air.
—Seoeoek!
A sharp mana slash simultaneously cut through the chests of the monsters hanging in the air.
Their windpipes were severed before they could even scream.
Time to check the results.
The Fantasy monsters on the left.
From near their split hearts, glittering minerals—Mana Stones—came tumbling down.
Now the Murim monsters on the right.
No matter how much I searched, only blood and organs spilled out; not a single Mana Stone fell.
Naturally, there were no Inner Cores that would be treated as elixirs either.
"The Association research team's hypothesis was correct."
Fantasy and Murim.
The Gates were clearly connected to two different worlds.
I roughly gathered the corpses in one place and burned them.
Rose into the night sky again.
* * * * *
I turned my flight direction north.
The place where I'd subjugated that giant Imugi in the past.
Now the mountain range was half-carved away and the earth was grotesquely gouged out.
I floated above the devastated terrain and scattered mana thinly.
Read the residual mana that had seeped into the soil and rocks.
The government and Association had collected the corpse long ago. But if the Imugi had harbored a massive Inner Core, that dense energy should rightfully be permeated in the space.
"Nothing."
Not a trace of Inner Core energy could be felt.
Did those government or Association bastards secretly pocket it while dismantling the corpse?
No. That couldn't be.
I was the one who killed the Imugi.
When its head exploded, if there had been high-density energy like an Inner Core inside its body, my senses couldn't have missed it.
Then there was only one conclusion.
That giant Imugi never had an Inner Core to begin with.
My head got complicated.
I recalled the Murim novels and legends I'd read in the past.
Imugi. A spiritual creature that cultivates for a thousand years, harbors a Dragon Pearl, and finally ascends as a dragon.
For a calamity-class monster of that caliber, there should naturally be a crystallization of spiritual power befitting it inside its body.
"No way."
One horrifying hypothesis flashed through my mind.
The Imugi that had torn apart the continent while consumed by extreme rage and ferocity.
Why had it gone so insane and rampaged like that?
'What if it left its Dragon Pearl behind in its own world?'
No. It didn't leave it behind.
It was forcibly dragged over.
At the very moment of ascension after a thousand years of cultivation.
What if it was suddenly sucked into a hole called a Gate and forcibly dumped onto the unfamiliar planet called Earth?
With its Dragon Pearl—its everything—stolen away in the dimension where it originally belonged.
"That'd be enough to drive anyone insane."
Then the monsters we'd thought were invading Earth all this time.
They too might be victims forcibly relocated by the Gate's terrible suction force.
I got goosebumps.
I needed to confirm this.
I exploded my mana again and flew south at full speed toward Seoul.
* * * * *
Hunter Association Headquarters.
I opened the window to the Association President's office and barged right in.
The old man, who'd been looking at documents, jumped in shock and dropped his glasses.
"You crazy bastard! Use the door!"
"Old man. I need to confirm something."
I plopped down heavily on the sofa and got straight to the point.
The situation during the past Imugi subjugation.
The absence of a Dragon Pearl or Inner Core.
And my hypothesis that the Imugi too might have been a victim forcibly swept over by dimensional backflow.
As my explanation continued, Association President Park Jin-cheol's wrinkled face hardened stiffly.
I finished explaining.
A heavy silence descended on the Association President's office.
The old man pulled out a cigarette and put it in his mouth.
His fingertips trembled slightly as he lit it.
"Phew..."
Murky smoke dispersed into the air.
The old man stared at me with terribly tired eyes.
"I participated directly in that Imugi corpse dismantling work too. We searched through bones, hide, and organs thoroughly, but... just as you said, there was no condensed energy like a Dragon Pearl or Inner Core."
The old man roughly tapped his cigarette into the ashtray.
"Your hypothesis has a high probability of being correct."
"So they didn't come to destroy Earth—they woke up one day, found themselves dropped in a strange land, got pissed off, and went on a rampage."
"Perhaps the beings coming over from the other dimension are also... unfortunate victims of the massive disaster called Gates."
The old man rubbed his face dry and let out a deep sigh.
"Ah, what a headache. To think humanity's enemies are actually refugees."
His expression showed a terrible headache coming on.
But in this situation, doing politics and establishing countermeasures was this old bureaucrat's burden to bear.
Not a weight for a shut-in unemployed person like me to carry.
I sprang up from the sofa.
"Old geezer's gonna lose some hair. I'm gonna head home now. Good luck."
Without even waiting for the old man's response, I threw myself out the window again.
The higher-ups would handle the complicated world affairs on their own.
* * * * *
Penthouse entrance.
As soon as I opened the door lock and entered, noisy footsteps came from the living room.
"Oppa!! Did you buy something yummy?!"
Ha-eun came running like a puppy wagging its tail.
Her gaze went to my empty hands.
"Ah."
My mind went blank.
I'd completely forgotten while proving my hypothesis.
"Ah. Sorry. I forgot."
At my answer, Ha-eun's shoulders, which had been bouncing up and down, drooped.
A face that became dejected like a puppy whose snack was taken away.
"Ah... really? I was really craving it today."
She stuck out her lower lip.
After quickly scanning my tired appearance, she forcibly swallowed her disappointment.
"Well, Oppa must've been busy with work. Can't be helped. Got it. I'll just boil some ramyeon and eat that."
Her retreating figure looked pitiful.
Whatever I'd experienced outside, right now I was just a thoughtless older brother who'd forgotten his little sister's errand.
My conscience pricked me a bit.
I pulled out my wallet from my pocket.
Held a black unlimited black card between my fingers.
"Hey."
Ha-eun, who'd been walking dejectedly, whipped her head around.
At that moment, I flicked the card lightly coated with mana.
Smack!
The black card flew straight to Ha-eun's forehead and stuck there with a slap.
She blinked stupidly at the card stuck to her forehead by mana's adhesiveness.
"Let's order delivery with this."
"Yahoo!! Oppa's the best!!"
The sad face from just moments ago was nowhere to be seen.
Ha-eun shouted in joy as she peeled the card off her forehead.
She urgently called out toward the kitchen.
"Mom! Dad! Oppa's treating us with his black card! What should we have for dinner tonight?!"
The noisy voices of my family filled the living room.
More than the grand truth of the world, more than the pitiful monsters from another world.
In the end, what's most important to me is this noisy and peaceful daily life.
I buried myself deep into the sofa.
I should catch some sleep until the delivery arrives.
