Chapter 5

Seong-ha had been sleeping soundly with her head buried in a soft pillow when the sunlight pricking at her eyes made her frown.

Through the narrow slit of her half-open eyes, she saw the bright morning sunlight and the vivid blue notification window floating in the air.

[Did you sleep well?]

[Good morning.]

……The notification window?

Seong-ha felt the remnants of her drowsiness vanish in an instant as she abruptly sat up in bed.

The roughly tidied interior of her home, the familiar ceiling, and even that strange window that had appeared alongside her yesterday.

Everything was real.

On the floor of the cramped room lay the spoils she had cut from the dungeon boss yesterday, along with several A-rank weapons.

Seong-ha glanced at one of the horns stained with black blood, nudged it with her foot, and tossed it onto the desk before picking up the smartphone she had left there.

Then she got out of bed and headed toward the kitchen.

Come to think of it, I actually managed to get home yesterday.

She had parked her car at the Zodiac Guild headquarters before Ha Seong-dan had dragged her into the dungeon.

Even after getting out of the dungeon, she had expected to be stranded in some deserted mountain area, spending the night exposed to the dew.

If not for the reporters who had been waiting outside the dungeon.

Seong-ha had hitched a ride home in the reporters’ car.

As soon as she arrived, she had showered and collapsed into bed, falling into a deep sleep.

And now, she had awakened.

Even when she took some cold water from the refrigerator and poured it into a glass, her mind was still hazy.

Only when she held the transparent glass in her hand and brought it toward her lips did her consciousness gradually begin to clear.

“You said you’d tell me everything once I got out of the dungeon, right? About my skills and who you are.”

[Of course. That’s not difficult at all.]

Reading the notification window, Seong-ha gave an indifferent nod.

Then she turned on her phone and entered the Hunter community.

Every matter concerning Hunters, both domestic and international, was discussed on this anonymous community.

On the main page, where articles about famous Hunters usually dominated the headlines, her name was displayed prominently.

[<Breaking News> S-Rank Hunter Ha Seong-ha clears dungeon and awakens as a High-Rank Weapon Creator!]

“That’s a good headline.”

After wetting her throat with water, she clicked on the article without hesitation.

There wasn’t much to the article itself.

It reported that S-rank Hunter Ha Seong-ha had cleared a dungeon that the A-rank Hunter Ha Seong-dan’s team had failed to clear, and that she had awakened as a High-Rank Weapon Creator.

But the impact of the headline seemed considerable, judging by the chaos in the comment section below.

[Anonymous 1: ? What the hell? Was she secretly overpowered this whole time?]

[Anonymous 2: Is this legit? Not fake?? Ah, fuck lol. Turns out rank really is everything; I’m going to reset my life. Later.]

└[Anonymous 3: Why the hell do I even live lol. Anyone wanna go to the Han River together? (1/n)]

└[Anonymous 4: Why do I even live 222. Here’s another one going, fuck.]

[Anonymous 5: But what’s a High-Rank Weapon Creator? How rare are they?]

└[Anonymous 6: A Hunter who can create weapons up to A-rank. Currently, the only one in Korea is Hunter Geum Seon-ho of the Hahyeon Guild.]

└[Anonymous 2: Thank you, Speed Wagon!]

[Anonymous 7: Wow, so Zodiac basically hit the jackpot? That’s insane. They got a High-Rank Weapon Creator for free.]

└[Anonymous 4: They only got lucky now. What the hell has ㅎㅅㅎ ever done until now?]

└[Anonymous 8: ㅎㅅㅎ is cute lol.]

└[Anonymous 6: What the hell is wrong with this lunatic?]

[Anonymous 9: Oh, then does this mean Zodiac can finally go toe-to-toe with Salvation?]

└[Anonymous 4: Enough with the bullshit. How the hell can you even compare Zodiac to them?]

└[Anonymous 10: Compare them to what? 22. Even Zodiac + Cheongwol together can’t beat Salvation. Stop talking nonsense.]

But the reactions were focused more on the Zodiac Guild, the guild Ha Seong-ha belonged to, than on Ha Seong-ha herself.

It was understandable.

The Hahyeon Guild, ranked third in Korea, was able to maintain its position despite its relatively lacking combat power thanks to Hunter Geum Seon-ho, a High-Rank Weapon Creator.

Furthermore, the article had only reported that she had awakened as a High-Rank Weapon Creator.

Nothing about her actual skills had been mentioned.

Even the authenticity of the report itself had yet to be confirmed, since neither Ha Seong-ha nor Zodiac, the guild she belonged to, had issued an official statement.

But Seong-ha had absolutely no intention of revealing her skills to the world.

The skills that only Ha Seong-ha possessed in this world were weapons in their own right.

Unlike Geum Seon-ho, who can only create weapons up to A-rank, my skills can continue to grow.

Someday, I’ll be able to create S-rank weapons.

Just as the community’s reactions suggested, Ha Seong-ha had no intention of obediently allowing Zodiac to devour her.

Unless I’m the one doing the devouring.

Tap.

After finishing her water, Seong-ha set the glass down on the table and opened the refrigerator.

Unfortunately, all it contained were spoiled side dishes, overripe fruit, and milk that had reached its expiration date.

Seong-ha had spent barely a day inside the dungeon.

Yet in the real world she had returned to after leaving the dungeon, a full week had passed.

So this is the time difference between the dungeon and reality.

She had only ever heard about it.

She had never imagined she would experience it herself.

Then again, that was true of nearly everything happening to her right now.

Seong-ha took out the milk, poured it into a large bowl, and added cereal that had already begun to smell slightly stale.

She roughly stirred the milk and cereal with a spoon before shoveling it into her mouth.

“So tell me now. Who are you, who am I, and why were my skills sealed?”

[Hmm…… Where should I start? How should I explain this?]

[How would you like me to explain it? Long and in detail? Or short and simple?]

“Short and simple.”

Seong-ha crunched noisily on her cereal and answered decisively, like a true Korean.

[All right.]

[Just wait a moment.]

[I need some time to organize my thoughts too.]

For a while, the only sounds filling the cramped studio apartment were the refrigerator humming and Seong-ha noisily eating her cereal.

When she had eaten roughly half of it, a translucent notification window appeared before her once again.

[Ha Seong-ha.]

[You’re going to die in two years.]

[The lifespan I designed for you is twenty-seven years.]

The cereal on the spoon slipped down in a scattered shower.

“……Wait. Explain it to me in detail.”

Another notification window appeared before Ha Seong-ha’s eyes.

[My name is Quasar.]

[I am the administrator who governs the dimension in which you live, and an observer who watches over the beginning and end of the world.]

[I manage multiple dimensions, but the dimension you’re currently in has grown old, causing cracks to form in the membrane separating dimensions.]

Seong-ha read through the words stretching across the window before her.

Dimension?

Cracks?

Words she had never even imagined continued appearing one after another.

[Those cracks continued to multiply. As a result, the dimension in which you exist began repeatedly attempting to merge with other dimensions.]

[That is why dungeons and gates were created in this world, and why beings from other dimensions began flowing into the dungeons, which are gaps between dimensions.]

[If we leave this alone, this world will be destroyed two years from now. So, in order to save this place, I brought a single soul here from another dimension.]

[……That soul is you.]

Seong-ha quietly raised her hand and pinched her thigh.

It fucking hurt.

Well, I guess this isn’t a dream.

She had learned the secret of the world, yet she felt surprisingly little emotion.

If anything, she simply felt dazed, as though she were reading a fantasy novel.

When Seong-ha merely blinked without responding, the notification window displayed another message.

[Didn’t you ever wonder why you were an orphan?]

“I just thought that was another part of my misfortune. This world hated me and deceived me, after all.”

[No.]

[It doesn’t hate you.]

The notification window responded firmly.

[How could I—or this world—possibly hate you?]

“Then why……”

[Because you originally weren’t an existence belonging to this dimension.]

[That’s why, when you were first born, you were unable to form connections with the people of this world, so you were set up as an orphan.]

[It took a full twenty-five years for you to naturally assimilate into this world.]

[I was actually just about to make contact with you so that you could fulfill the purpose for which I brought you here.]

[But I never expected you to suddenly die like that.]

“……”

Her appetite vanished completely.

She no longer even had the will to put anything else into her mouth.

Seong-ha ran her tongue over her dry mouth and barely managed to force a question through her throat.

“……What purpose?”

The notification window remained silent for a while.

Then, cutting through the suffocating silence, another notification window appeared before Seong-ha’s eyes.

[To provide the weapons you create to humanity, so that they can fight off the beings pouring in from other dimensions.]

[And to have you close the hole connecting this world to other worlds, thereby preserving this place.]

“……Ha.”

At some point in her life, Seong-ha had vaguely imagined what her end might look like.

For Ha Seong-ha, who had been unable to enter dungeons, some of the possibilities had been ordinary traffic accidents.

Or dying of cancer.

Or simply living out a normal lifespan and peacefully closing her eyes.

But she had never imagined that her end would look like this.

Two years.

I only have two years left.

Without realizing it, Seong-ha covered her mouth with her hand.

Then she looked around.

The languid sunlight creeping through the half-drawn curtains.

The unfinished bowl of cereal.

The clothes scattered here and there, casually discarded like shed skins.

Ha Seong-ha had been handed a terminal sentence right in the middle of her ordinary life.

“What if…… I refuse to save the world? Would I be able to live longer then?”

The translucent blue window answered her question firmly.

[No.]

[If you don’t save the world, it will survive for a little longer than two years before collapsing. Every living creature on this land will be annihilated.]

[But even if you don’t save the world, you will still die in two years.]

[When I first created your body, I designed it to last approximately twenty-seven years.]

“My body…… You created it?”

The more layers of truth she peeled back, the more absurd it became.

Seong-ha was so dumbfounded that her head began to ache.

Her hand instinctively went to her forehead.

The notification window, oblivious to what she was feeling, continued displaying new messages.

[That’s right. I put an incredible amount of effort into creating you.]

[I told you that you’re a soul I brought here from another dimension.]

[That’s why, in order to place you into my world, I needed a body that could function here.]

[And your skills were so unusual.]

[When I took those into consideration as well, it wasn’t enough to create your body solely from the materials of my dimension.]

[So your body is composed of things from both another dimension and this one.]

[In other words, Ha Seong-ha.]

[You’re a one-of-a-kind existence across all dimensions.]

After Quasar, the being that called itself the notification window, gave her such a detailed explanation, Seong-ha had nothing left to say.

Could it be a lie?

[I told you.]

[How could I—or this world—possibly hate someone as precious as you?]

……It couldn’t be a lie.

If all of that was a lie, then the very existence of the notification window floating before her eyes, something impossible to explain with modern technology, would also be inexplicable.

If it was all a lie, then Ha Seong-ha would need to make an appointment at a psychiatric hospital immediately.

“……All right. I understand for now.”

In truth, she didn’t understand anything at all.

“I came from another dimension as a soul, I’m the only person capable of saving this world, and that’s why I’m going to die in two years. Got it.”

She hadn’t understood that either.

“Let’s say I do all of that.”

[Yes.]

But the reality she had witnessed within this unreal situation was painfully vivid.

As though it had finally arrived.

Ha Seong-ha’s eyes, belonging to someone who had spent twenty-five years living at the bottom of society by everyone’s standards, flashed coldly.

Where the bomb had exploded, all that remained now was a desolate wasteland and her reason, standing sharply alert as it tried to clean up the wreckage.

She had never expected anything in the first place, so there was no disappointment.

She had tasted more than enough despair throughout her life.

But this one was particularly bitter.

If I’m going to die in two years anyway.

If it’s a fate I can’t escape.

“Then what are you going to do for me?”

That thing had saved her when she was dying in the dungeon.

It had a responsibility now.

She intended to wring out as much as she possibly could from the being that called itself a god, spend it all extravagantly, and give back exactly what she had received to the people who had made her life miserable.

Of course, among those things……

[Ha Seong-ha, I’ll give you anything you want.]

You’re included, too.

The blue notification window reflected in Seong-ha’s eyes gleamed with an icy brilliance.