Chapter 01

Kim Jinwoo woke up in a cramped apartment in New York and looked out the window.

Until six years ago, he had been called the strongest Hunter in the world, beyond even South Korea.

But now, he was nothing more than a Hunter working for a small guild that only chased money.

The honor and pride he once had as a Hunter had long since disappeared.

Just then, his smartphone suddenly rang.

It was an emergency breaking news alert.

• South Korea, catastrophic-level monster “Leviathan” appears. State of emergency declared across all of Seoul.

Leviathan.

Just hearing that name was enough to make Hunters around the world tremble in fear.

It was the boss monster of a 9-star dungeon.

Jinwoo quickly checked the news with a shocked expression.

On the screen, Leviathan was destroying downtown Seoul while terrified citizens fell into despair.

• Not only Seoul, but monsters are appearing simultaneously in major cities including Busan, Daegu, and Incheon. The scale of the damage is beyond imagination, and the government has requested support from the International Hunter Association.

As Jinwoo watched the news, it felt like he could barely breathe.

It had been a long time since he left Korea, but deep in his heart, he had always missed his homeland.

But soon, he bit his lip tightly.

Despair washed over him at the fact that even if he wanted to help Korea, he was unable to do anything.

At that moment, his body suddenly began to feel heavy.

It was as if the strength inside him was being drained away.

He clenched his fist with force, but he could barely tighten it properly.

The worse the situation in Korea became on the news, the weaker his body grew.

‘If I had stayed in Korea… If I had protected Korea…’

His vision blurred, and breathing became harder and harder.

Feeling as though every bit of energy inside his body was disappearing, his sight slowly darkened.

The last thing he heard was the desperate voice of the news anchor.

• Seoul… Korea is collapsing.

At that moment, Kim Jinwoo helplessly collapsed onto the floor.

Along with the despair that everything was over, he felt as though his body was being swallowed into darkness.

“Uh?”

But when he closed and opened his eyes again, he found himself standing inside a familiar thirty-pyeong apartment.

It was the apartment in Seoul where he had lived until just before he was driven out of Korea six years ago.