BRDM 01

~Prologue~

Yi-hyeon thought his life was like a pearl.
A pearl, created only after filtering out all the dirt.

Even though he grew up as an orphan without parents, suffering through every hardship, his life had always been filled with glory.

Top of the 17th class at the Awakener Military Academy, graduating early.
The youngest Ranker in the world.
Leader of the special task force Blue Thunder.

His career shone as brightly as anyone could hope for.

But…

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$Severefatiguehassetin.$
$Fatiguelevel:91$
$Currentcondition:“Dying.”$

‘In this situation, does any of that glory even matter?’

$Thecurse“RingofFrost”fromthe\ast QueenofEyes\ast forcefullyclosesyourmanacircuits.$
$Coredestroyed.Manacannolongerbeused.$

The dungeon was at absolute zero, where even breath froze instantly.
A 4-star dungeon, Ice Palace, appeared for the first time in 20 years, and it had turned into a battlefield of chaos.

‘Gyeong-ryeol…’
His always-complaining comrade had his heart pierced while trying to protect him.

‘Mi-ryeong…’
The junior who respected him so much, only two years younger, had half her body ripped apart and froze to death.

They weren’t the only ones.
Everywhere around him, his unit members—friends he once laughed and talked with—were dead or gravely wounded.

The 66th Special Task Force.
Known as the Awakeners’ Unit, or Blue Thunder.
The unit that had once been praised for their exploits was now on the verge of destruction.

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$Severeeyedamagedetected.$
$The“CurseofFrost”isparalyzingtheopticnerves.Status“Blindness”added.$

Yi-hyeon wanted desperately to see his comrades one last time, but his vision was already freezing over with ice crystals.

The curse came from the dungeon boss, the Queen of Eyes, even as she died.
She was not easy prey, even at the end.

“…Why did you do it?”

Yi-hyeon staggered toward the person closest to him—

Moon Soo-chan.
Like him, he was an orphan. They had been together for over 20 years, through the academy and beyond.
A brother. No—more like a parent.

“Heh… are you crying? Always crying, huh… men shouldn’t cry…”

But Soo-chan had a dagger stabbed in his heart, coughing out his final breath.
Even then, he was smiling.
He had always been someone who smiled easily.

“Why, damn it! Why did you do that!”

“Well… my stupid little brother… was about to die… so who else but me… would save him…”

When Yi-hyeon had broken his mana core to land the final blow on the Queen of Eyes, something he never expected happened.

Four of his own comrades betrayed him.
They wanted the relic that the Queen carried.

In the chaos, Yi-hyeon barely managed to kill two of them, but the other two escaped with the relic.
He was left to die.

That was when Soo-chan stepped in—
and took the fatal blow in his place.

The traitors fled before the surviving comrades could punish them.
Yi-hyeon was devastated. One of the betrayers had been his lover.

“Damn it! You think I’ll thank you for this?”

“Of course not… you ungrateful brat…”

Yi-hyeon tried to leave to find a healer, but Soo-chan grabbed his wrist.

“Don’t go… it’s too late for me…”

“No, it’s not! I’ll bring someone—anything—”

“You can’t see, can you?”

Yi-hyeon froze.
Soo-chan’s smile deepened.

Golden eyes.
Golden Eye.
His codename.

“Always such a bad liar… that’s why you keep getting stabbed in the back. Didn’t I warn you? Don’t trust too many people… She wasn’t the one…”

“Enough! Stop talking like that! I’ll bring a healer!”

“Take my eyes.”

Yi-hyeon’s breath caught.

“What are you saying—”

“You know what they are. My eyes… aren’t normal. This is my end. But you… you’re not finished yet.”

It was a secret.
Moon Soo-chan’s eyes were actually a relic.

Hwaan Geumjeong — Golden Fiery Eyes.
Said to hold the legend of the Great Sage, Heaven’s Equal—Sun Wukong.

Soo-chan once told him he got the power as a child, playing in a mountain cave, where immortal monkeys gave it to him as a gift.

Ever since, he had always been Yi-hyeon’s strongest ally.
The Pathfinder.
The one who always led the way, scouted ahead, and warned of ambushes.

He always said his eyes were his pride, because they could help Yi-hyeon.

“Don’t say things like that! Even if you give them, I won’t take them! Just get up!”

“Live for both of us. Live well.”

“Hyung!”

“…And don’t waste it…”

Soo-chan’s eyes slowly closed.

“No! Stay with me! Please!”

Yi-hyeon poured every potion he had into him, screaming for the others to fetch reinforcements.

“…I thought my little brother was handsome… but this close, you’re kind of ugly…”

Thud.

And Soo-chan, still smiling, went limp.

Yi-hyeon’s cry echoed through the dungeon.

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$Bossmonsterdefeated.Dungeonquestcleared.$
$Dungeonclosing.Pleaseretreattoasafezone.$

$10$
$9$
…

And then—

Four years passed.