RAAGOAT 01

Chapter 1

[Urgent breaking news!]

Crash!

A pot fell, spewing its contents. My soles burned from the lava-like ramen broth.

“Hunter Seo, who was considered Korea’s first potential S-rank Hunter, lost his life in a gate today.”
“Government ministries and all major guilds are now entering a state of emergency……”

A day in 202 X.
“……H-Brother.”
In a B-rank Abyss Gate.
My greatest pride had died.
Such a thing should not have happened.

I quit my job. Before my contract expired and the company could notify me of termination, I preemptively struck first.
I immediately threw myself into the hunter industry.
“Isn’t that guy Hunter Seo’s younger brother?”
I possessed the minimum requirement to be a hunter: an Awakening ability.
“Now that I look, his face does seem a bit handsome too.”
I also had the halo of being the half-brother of Korea’s strongest hunter.

[Ur-gent Breaking News!]
I became an instant celebrity in the industry.
And, as expected, I had talent.
“T-The grade… it can’t be like this.”
The talent to fluster an employee who had cultivated immovable composure from seeing countless hunters.
“F… no, E-grade……?”
The looks directed at me changed in an instant.
“What? He’s Hunter Seo’s brother?”
“……Yes. So we conducted an even more thorough examination……”
Sidelong glance.
“Isn’t his Awakening ability ‘Blessing,’ like Hunter Seo’s?”
Blessing.
A supernatural ability one dimension above standard Awakening abilities.
“We can’t determine it for now…… but even so, the ability’s grade is unbelievably low.”
E-grade.
The stigma of the lowest grade, derisively called the F-grade, was stamped on me.
From that day on, people averted their gazes with the same intensity they had once shown interest.
“Ugh Ugh, what a waste of bloodline. They said he was Hunter Seo’s brother.”
“What can you do? Besides, he’s not a full brother, but a half-brother. The genes just didn’t carry over.”
Mockery and sarcasm followed me everywhere.
I endured with a single goal. I had to uncover the truth behind my brother’s death.
I was quite stubborn.
I had confidence in my tenacity alone.
For ten years, I rolled through the field like a pebble.
I guess my desperate struggle looked pathetic.
The year I turned 34.
A man who claimed to be my brother’s close friend bought me a drink.
I was moved that a busy A-rank Hunter had called for me separately.
“No matter what you do, your brother won’t come back. So get a hold of yourself now and return to society.”
My glass, which I had been readily accepting, stopped mid-air.
“You know. You know my brother wasn’t the kind of person to go out like that.”
“I know, I know better than anyone. But, Wonseok, even monkeys fall from trees sometimes. Right?”
“My brother wasn’t a monkey.”
My brother was my pride. Such a brother couldn’t have died in a B-rank gate.
He was more cautious than anyone. His field sense and crisis response were perfect.
“Both the brother and the younger brother are truly ill-fated.”
His gaze held an inscrutable meaning.
He left, stirring a chilling wind.

Two years slipped by.
I met the man who claimed to be my brother’s close friend again.
This time, the location wasn’t a bar. It was an Abyss dungeon.
A B-rank dungeon.
A testament to how desperately I, a perpetual E-ranker, had struggled.
There were more changes.
His rank. He had now ascended to become Korea’s first S-rank Hunter.
Crucially, I had gone from being his drinking companion to his enemy.
My faded eyes lost focus. A blade pierced my stomach.
“……Anyway, both the older brother and the younger one are pointlessly upright. Annoying bastards.”
Cough!
A bloody phlegm slid down his cheek.
Smack!
“What are you acting tough for, believing in? Your perfect brother? The one who got stabbed by me and bit the dust?”
It was obvious, so it wasn’t even surprising.
However, his following story was beyond expectation.
“You know what? Do you think I could have taken down your brother alone?”
“……?”
“Your brother, you know, he was much more of a monster than you think. I shouldn’t be the one saying this since I killed him, but the way he went out was truly an art form.”
He chuckled.
“It’s frustrating, you know. It was a plot hatched by the government ministries and guilds that spread rumors all over the place when he died. I just had a tiny bit of a grudge against your brother, I didn’t really intend to kill him?”
What?
“So I’m just the blade wielder.”
Why, why on earth?
“Being a hunter, the higher you go, you have to get your hands a bit dirty while doing it. But your half-brother was too upright, even for being upright.”
He suddenly picked up a twig, grabbed both ends, and bent it.
“He should have been more flexible.”
Snap.
“Because he was too rigid, we broke him like this.”
“……Huh.”
A hollow laugh.
“I knew it.”
“What do you mean, ‘I knew it’?”
“There’s no way my brother would fall to a loser like you.”
“……? A loser?”
Whoosh!
I threw a punch like lightning.
“What are you doing?”
The distance was too great; it didn’t reach him.
I strained, raising my middle finger stiffly.
“Eat shit.”
Impressed by my character, the bastard threw another punch.
I allowed the fist. My neck made an ominous cracking sound as it twisted.
It’s fine.
Give flesh, take bone.
Chomp!
I stretched my neck and bit down on his throat. It was a textbook vampire-style ambush.
“Ugh!”
He struggled to tear me off.
“Let go, you won’t?! You son of a bitch!”
Seeing it was futile, he violently yanked his upper body back. A chunk of flesh ripped away.
He frantically poured potion onto the wound.
“Crazy, haa… you bastard.”
“Being A-rank must be nice. ……Haa, using top-grade potions worth thousands a pop like that.”
“Fuck, fuck! Why won’t the bleeding stop?!”
His complexion paled.
That was a bit surprising even to me.
Even after pouring that much potion, the blood kept flowing.
Could my unidentified Awakening ability be something like this?
“You damn brothers, sons of bitches!”
Seething!
Furious, he yanked the curved blade from my stomach as if drawing a sword. A blade more suited to a thug than a hunter.
Even with blood streaming from his neck, he still tried to act imposing.
“……Don’t bother leaving any last words. Like your brother.”
No.
“In hell, my sins will be lesser than yours, so I’ll be above you. I’ll make sure to work you like a slave.”
The moment the sword light flashed, my vision went dark.
There’s no pain.
Just pitch black.
So when you die, it really is the end…….
That’s when it happened.
In the darkness, a crimson thread undulated. The thread originated from my index finger.

<The Final Trial of True Awakening : Death Achieved!>

A voice clung stickily to my eardrums.

<O Great One. Lead this Saba World with blood.>

Tick, tick.
The sound of winding gears lingered in my ears……
“&%^%.”
What is it saying?
Half-asleep, I couldn’t hear well.
“Wonseok! Seowonseok!”
A groan escaped me.
Ugh, my head.
That bastard must have coated his blade with some potent poison. He’s tormenting my skull even after death.
“Snap out of it!”
Thump, thump.
“Ugh……!”
He thumped my back so hard my heart nearly leaped out.
I slowly leaned my upper body back. Ugh. Suddenly seeing the light, my eyes sting.
“Where is this.”
“Oh dear. I should have known when someone who can’t handle alcohol poured drinks into a beer glass.”
The man with the blurry face held out a glass of water to me.
Whew.
I think I’m alive.
Finally, my vision fully returned. My pupils dilated to the size of lanterns simultaneously.
“……Brother?”
“What? Why are you staring so creepily.”
What is this.
Throb.
I grabbed my temples and swallowed a groan. The distinct pain wracking my body was clear.
Too vivid to be a dream.
“Brother.”
“Why do you keep calling me so uneasily.”
“Can you hit me just once?”
“Suddenly?”
“Yeah.”
I can’t tell if this is a dream or reality.
“If it’s to sober you up, I can do that.”
My brother clenched and moved his fist.
“But I can’t control my strength well, so if I mess up, you might just die?”
It was a known fact, but my brother was Korea’s top hunter. In his own words, even a cotton-like punch from him could easily burst an orc’s head.
“I’ll pass on that, even if it’s a dream.”
“I told you it’s not a dream. Drink more water. I’m heading in first.”
My brother slipped a bill from his wallet under the fishcake bowl. A call came for him just then.
“Oh dear, your sister-in-law is urging me to come quickly. It’s our niece’s fourth birthday tomorrow, and she says I’m wandering around outside. You know how extreme your sister-in-law can be.”
“……Fourth birthday.”
That phrase lodged itself.
Simultaneously, the hazy surroundings’ resolution increased.
A quiet street food stall.
A place I could never forget.
Wasn’t this the last place I saw my brother before the news was adorned with his obituary?
Don’t tell me, me…
‘Did I regress?’
The puzzle pieces clicked into place.
“I’m going now.”
“Brother.”
I tossed a remark at his retreating back.
“What now? It’s creepy for a grown man to be like this.”
I hesitated, then barely managed to part my lips.
“Can I come to the birthday party?”
My niece.
As you can tell from us being half-brothers, our family situation was complicated, so I rarely got to see her. Especially after what happened to my brother, I didn’t have the courage to see her.
“Why are you even asking that?”
……As I thought.
“Of course you should come. But bring a gift. I’m really going now.”
With that, my brother disappeared, leaving me alone. It still doesn’t feel real.
Regression.
While I was in confusion, my thigh vibrated. A text from my brother.

───〈Seo Bo-seok〉───
-Sending Remittance-
Sent 1,000,000 won.
The sender can cancel from the details screen until the recipient accepts.
-Accept Remittance-
───────────

Ding.

───〈Seo Bo-seok〉───
Brother: Take a taxi home
Brother: Use the rest to buy a gift for your niece
Brother: And don’t whine about your contract ending. You can go somewhere better
Brother: Anyway, bye
───────────

Knock, knock.
A drop, then two, formed on my smartphone screen.
Soon, my face was reflected in the black screen. My pathetic self, squeezing out tears.
“Who sends a million won for taxi fare, you crazy man…….”
Murmurs came from a family sitting at a nearby table.
“Mom, that brother is crying and laughing! He looks handsome, why is he like that?!”
“Shh. That’s what happens if you don’t study hard.”
“Aha!”
Ignoring the provincial noise, I left the stall. I looked up at the sky.

I came back.
I can set things right.
I will set them right, no matter what.