Chapter 6

9 A.M.

Kang Taeha came down the PC bang stairs at 9:47 a.m.

Hood pulled down to the tip of his nose, one hand gripping the railing, taking the stairs one at a time—he looked like a college kid after an all-nighter. He did, in fact, have the face of someone who'd pulled an all-nighter.

The skin under his eyes was even darker than yesterday.

"I said nine."

"...I got up at nine."

"What time did you go to sleep?"

"Eight."

Doyun looked at his watch. Then he decided not to say anything. Contract Article 5: on any day with less than six hours of sleep, Party B shall rest. A clause he'd written himself.

By that clause, today should have been a rest day.

"...Taeha, I'll make an exception to the clause today. But starting tomorrow, we follow it for real."

"You're breaking your own clause?"

"Looks like it."

For the first time, Taeha snorted out a small laugh under his hood.

The first things Doyun bought with Oh Malsun's money were two aluminum baseball bats, a motorcycle helmet, and a pair of construction-site knee pads. He'd picked them up making the rounds of the neighborhood sporting goods store and hardware store. The phrase "Hunter gear" didn't exist in this world yet. In his past life, it had come about a year later, and the very first protective gear made specifically for Hunters had been a modified motorcycle helmet.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

Taeha took the bat and asked. The way he held it was awkward. He'd swung a sword thousands of times in games, but this was probably his first real bat.

"Catch rats."

"Rats?"

"Like the ones we saw at Sillim Station."

Doyun opened the map on his phone. Mangwon Reservoir. A stormwater pumping station beside the Han River park. By his past-life memory, a small rift opened there around 10:40 this morning. About the same size as the Sillim Station one, and four cat-sized rats came out. That day there'd been a news brief about the pumping station's caretaker getting bitten on the leg and hospitalized.

"From what the news says, people who personally kill the monsters that come out of those holes suddenly get stronger. Like the construction workers in Seongsu-dong."

"...So you want me to kill rats."

"Yep."

"That's awakening?"

"That's what they're going to call it."

Taeha looked down at the bat, then propped it on his shoulder. Then he looked at Doyun.

"What about you?"

"I'm not killing anything. I'll be in the back holding the helmet."

"Isn't the helmet yours?"

"It's yours."

Doyun held out the helmet. Taeha took it and looked at it for a while, then pushed back his hood and put the helmet on. It was a little big. Every time he turned his head, the helmet followed half a beat late.

"...You didn't know my size so you just bought whatever, huh."

"...Yeah."

Mangwon Reservoir was quiet on a weekday morning. Two bicycles were parked in the empty lot next to the pumping station building, and on the riverside path an old man was slowly walking his dog.

Doyun went up to the old man. No cones or A4 sheets this time. Instead he was wearing a reflective vest borrowed from Oh Malsun. The PC bang owner wore it for neighborhood watch patrols, and it had SAFETY printed in huge letters across the back.

"Sir, so sorry. There's a sewer inspection around here. Would you mind going around that way for about thirty minutes?"

The old man glanced once at the big SAFETY on the back of the vest and tugged his dog's leash without a word of complaint.

Next was the pumping station caretaker. Through the window of the management office, Doyun could see a middle-aged man listening to the radio. The man who'd been bitten on the leg in the past life.

Doyun knocked on the window.

"Excuse me, sir, is there a basement inspection at the pumping station scheduled for today, by any chance?"

"Inspection? Nobody told me about one."

"The district office will be in touch. Just in case, please don't go down to the basement until eleven and stay in the office. You've seen the news about the holes lately, right?"

The man looked doubtful, but this was coming from a guy with SAFETY written on his back. He nodded and turned up the radio.

Doyun stepped back from the window and wiped his palms on his pants. No call from the district office was coming. Still, if that man stayed in his office until eleven, this time he wouldn't get bitten.

That was enough.

10:35. Doyun and Taeha stood in the empty lot next to the pumping station, in a spot with a view of the storm drain.

10:41. The concrete under the drain grate lifted.

"...It's real."

Taeha muttered inside the helmet. This time he didn't make a thing about it being a minute late.

The rift was the size of a manhole cover. Blue light seeped out. And through that light, rats crawled out. Cat-sized bodies, two hairless tails. One.

Two.

Doyun didn't put on a second helmet. He'd only bought one in the first place. Instead, he took three steps back behind Taeha. The manager's spot.

The side of the stage, out of the camera's frame.

The first rat saw Taeha. It ran.

Taeha didn't swing the bat. He stepped half a pace to the side. The rat shot past where Taeha had been and skidded across the lot. The same judgment that had kicked over the trash can on the pharmacy steps at Sillim Station.

The second rat ran in after it. This time Taeha didn't sidestep. Instead he choked up on the bat and swung it upward from below. It was the exact arc of the rising slash the character on the PC bang monitor had used.

The rat flew into the air, dropped onto the concrete, and didn't move.

Taeha stopped where he was. His breathing got ragged inside the helmet. The hand gripping the bat was shaking.

"Taeha?"

"...Mister."

Taeha turned his head. The helmet followed half a beat late. Behind the visor, his eyes were strangely clear.

"The rat's slow."

"What?"

"That first one. It's coming back, and it's slow. Really slow."

Doyun looked across the lot. The first rat had shaken itself off and was charging at Taeha again. To Doyun's eyes, it was going exactly as fast as before.

Not to Taeha's.

Taeha raised the bat. This time he didn't hesitate. The moment the rat leapt, the bat cut sideways. Once. The rat flew all the way into the brush at the edge of the lot.

The remaining two hesitated at the edge of the rift, then went back into the light. The rift slowly closed. All that was left was a crack in the concrete.

Taeha took off the helmet. Sweaty hair was plastered to his forehead. He looked down at his hands. The palms that had gripped the bat were red.

"...Mister, what did I just turn into?"

Instead of answering, Doyun took out his phone and checked the time. 10:46. Three weeks earlier than in his past life: the Sword Emperor's first awakening.

The Taeha of his past life had met this moment in front of Oh Malsun's shattered window. Right beside Grandma, who'd collapsed bleeding. So for the next ten years, he'd hardly ever let anyone see him smile.

Right now, Taeha was looking at his reddened palms and smiling a little, like he couldn't believe it.

"Awakened. You're a Hunter now."

"...Less of a big deal than I thought."

Then a voice came from behind them.

"You two over there."

Doyun turned around. A man was walking over from the pumping station's front gate. Gray windbreaker, briefcase, a government ID hanging around his neck. Mid-forties or so, glasses. A clipboard in his hand.

The man looked at the cracked concrete, at the rat lying over in the brush, at Taeha holding the bat, and finally at Doyun in his reflective vest.

"Interim Rift Response Task Force, Ministry of the Interior and Safety. I need to confirm what just happened here, and who you two are."

The man flipped through the clipboard. The stack of papers clipped to it was thicker than expected.

"There are seventeen provisional report forms."

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