Chapter : 01
Inside the front-line barracks.
Joari, currently the strongest hunter in South Korea, quietly closed her eyes.
She was exhausted.
She was tired.
A faint static noise buzzed as captions scrolled beneath the news.
“—Dungeon occurrence.”
“Currently, 13 dead, 139 injured.”
Her head spun, and she felt like she was about to vomit.
No matter how many people she risked herself to save, it never seemed to end.
When would she finally be able to rest?
Even now, thinking that someone somewhere was dying made it hard to breathe.
People at Hunter Headquarters called her obsessive. The situation had improved a lot compared to before, but why was she so compulsively saving others?
They weren’t wrong.
Still, she couldn’t just sit still.
Because the moment she allowed herself comfort, someone would be dying.
The clamor of her subordinates reached her ears.
Kang Suwon, her subordinate, had gathered the rookie hunters and was giving a speech.
“Alright, alright! What is a hunter? Yakmokseon, flip over poverty!”
“Excuse me?”
“Yes, you! A hunter is poverty!”
Wow…
The rookies groaned in despair.
“Even if you work thirty years based on a civil servant’s salary, the consensus is you still can’t buy a house in Seoul.”
“Chances are, you’d die before that anyway.”
“Hey, talk sense for once.”
Ignoring the noisy group, Joari focused quietly on her book.
It was an old book. Only a few letters could be seen on the faded cover.
She had found this book while clearing out a dungeon.
The plot was simple: the male protagonist of a novel gains a system and grows stronger.
The ending wasn’t written properly. Midway through, the protagonist suddenly loses the system, and the story just stops there.
Still, the book contained extremely detailed descriptions of various situations, making it almost like an information manual.
Joari had brought it along because it seemed helpful for dungeon runs, and some of the content had indeed proven useful in combat.
What caught her attention the most was the protagonist’s system. The system described in the novel was remarkably similar to that of hunters.
Kang Suwon approached Joari.
“Captain, I really envy that guy in the book. What was his name… Aisher Hart?”
“…Arisha Hart.”
“Oh, right, Aisher Hart.”
“No. Arisha… not Aisher.”
Smack! Yakmokseon hit Kang Suwon on the head.
“You idiot! Arisha, Arisha! Aisher? What is that? Candy? A snack?”
“Did… did you just hit me?”
“Yes, I did! I smacked your idiot forehead!”
“Let’s really fight today! Come on, come on!”
Arisha Hart was the villain in this book.
She had been the eldest daughter of the Hart family, the most powerful noble house in the empire, but lost her abilities in an accident at age nine.
Consumed by inferiority, she caused trouble everywhere and ultimately died in another accident.
A tragically meaningless life.
Suwon shouted from the battlefield.
“Rich, powerful family, but no abilities—nobody cares about you! That’s the sweetest thing ever!”
“Sweet? Sweet? She ends up dead in the end.”
“If you don’t get greedy and just stay cooped up in your room, that’s the best life! Did you think about that before talking~?”
“You’re mentally messed up. What’s the point of a life spent just playing around?”
“So what? A thin and long life is the best! Right, Captain?”
“I… guess so…”
Joari didn’t really know. Honestly, even thinking deeply about anything now felt exhausting.
She was stroking the worn cover of the book when—
Beep—beep!
A loud alarm rang through the barracks.
[Disaster in Area 5739. Immediate dispatch required.]
[Again, disaster in Area 5739. Immediate dispatch required.]
Joari put the book down and quickly stood.
“Prepare.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Ah… here we go again.”
Even outside the barracks, hunters could be heard groaning. Rest was never an option for a South Korean hunter.
Alone in the quiet barracks after everyone had left, the book on the table trembled and glowed faintly.
“Why did it turn out like this?”
Joari held the blood spilling from her stomach with her hands, thinking.
She had assumed it was just another ordinary situation: a similar disaster, the same type of battle.
But the situation had gone completely differently than expected.
A dungeon that had been a normal A-rank suddenly glitched and became unmeasurable.
From that moment, everything began to change.
The biggest change was the dungeon’s reward.
It was an extremely special reward, one that any South Korean hunter would have fought to claim.
Even at the cost of their life.
[Congratulations! Raid success!]
[Final battle complete. Rewards granted.]
[Special reward: ‘Saved the Country in a Previous Life’ acquired!]
[Your soul’s rank has increased.]
[The reward stabilizes South Korea’s situation.]
She had succeeded in this raid, and now she was dying as a result.
Kang Suwon hurried over and poured healing potions onto the gaping wound in her abdomen. But the injury wouldn’t heal.
“Are you insane? Why do you always have to jump in?”
Suwon’s face was smeared with tears and snot.
“Do you have a hero complex or something? This is a mess, damn it!”
“…Stop it.”
Yakmokseon intervened. She knew the wound was caused by a completely different level—healing was impossible.
“Let go. Blood is still coming out. This wound can’t be healed!”
“….”
“Hey, what are you standing there for?! Come on, do something!”
Suwon shouted hoarsely, his voice completely exhausted.
Watching him shout so desperately, Joari let out a faint, silly laugh.
“What’s wrong? You saved the country… a national hero…”
She spoke playfully with a barely audible voice.
“Who knows… maybe next life you’ll be born somewhere better.”
“Are you joking… now? In this situation?”
“Yeah… a little…”
“You only joke like that normally… why now?!”
Joari’s vision blurred.
“Don’t say anything, just shut your mouth. I… I’ll save you.”
“Your tone…”
“The one who convinced me to become a hunter is now trying to die as he pleases? Crazy. I won’t let you. You won’t die comfortably.”
Suwon poured all sorts of potions into her wounds indiscriminately.
Yet the injury did not heal.
They all knew it was a futile struggle.
“Short and thick…”
“What nonsense is that now?”
“I lived in reverse…”
Suwon understood Joari’s meaning and stopped his hand.
“A thin and long life is the best! Right, Captain?”
“Next life… I’ll live like that.”
Joari couldn’t bring herself to speak the words.
Her eyes closed.
“Open your eyes! Open your eyes! Damn it! Hey!”
‘Hey… hey what…’
Faint voices came and went. Finally, she heard Suwon’s voice briefly.
“Open your eyes… please…”
A voice thick with tears.
She wanted to tell him not to cry, but Joari couldn’t say a word. She could hear nothing anymore.
The hunter who had saved South Korea quietly faced death, watched by only a few people.
Shhrrr—
Behind her fading consciousness, she faintly heard the rustling of pages.
From far, far away, a faint voice spoke.
“Let’s go back.”
When she opened her eyes again,
She had become Arisha Hart.
