January 1st, 2020
[The Game Will Commence Shortly]
That single phrase changed the world into a game.
Like a game, dungeons started to appear, and monsters began to come out from them.
The people were able to experience these changes right away with their bodies.
"What's that?"
"Hey, what is that black hole over there?"
"Hmm? Something is coming out?"
Dungeon gates spawned everywhere around the world, and the monsters that resided on the other side of these gates started to break out.
"Mon, Monster!"
"R-R, Run!"
Monsters turned the whole world into a battleground in a flash.
Of course, the monsters that initially appeared weren't of any threat to the human race as a whole; the monsters were not powerful enough to handle the weapons developed by mankind.
At the very least, there were no problems dealing with low level monsters in the beginning.
"We have taken care of the ogre that appeared in Seoul."
"Another ogre has appeared again in Incheon!"
"An ogre has appeared in Busan as well!"
Nobody knew that it was the beginning of a nightmare.
"Daegu, it appeared in Daegu as well."
"Are you talking about an ogre?"
"Uh, uh... apparently it's a dragon."
The true horror was that there was no end to this nightmare that had begun.
Even though they avoided the complete destruction of the city by hunting all the monsters, new monsters began to appear over and over again from the gate in unpredictable intervals.
Unless the dungeon that existed beyond the gate was destroyed, their only option was to continually repeat this painful and disastrous war.
Thankfully, an answer to such a problem soon manifested.
Players appeared.
"From this point forward, this dungeon is obliterated."
Players who went past the gate to destroy the dungeon brought them hope.
The world, which had changed to become like a game, had reorganized around the players.
And in 2023, the people that survived finally adapted to the changed world.
Monster warning issued in food district Neojo-ri, Paju Province.
[Warning Level 1!]
People now accepted monsters as a routine part of their lives. Once the warning had been issued, they escaped without becoming flustered due to the appearance of the monsters.
People who hunted monsters were deployed.
At this point, it was now rare for the military to move.
"The number of times monsters appeared has decreased lately, while the number of players keeps increasing."
"So what if the number of players increase? They're only walking around in the first or second floor of the dungeons, scared of losing their petty lives."
"Nevertheless, they get paid in millions. The same work, catching monsters like us, but they get paid hundreds of millions of dollars, and are treated as celebrities by the public, while people like us are treated like dirty hunting dogs. What a shitty world!"
The mercenaries who were deployed were employed by the corporations who had contracts with the government.
It was the most cost efficient arrangement. Rather than allocating and spending more money on the military to kill the monsters, outsourcing was much more efficient in terms of management and cost.
Mercenaries were easier to dispense of after as well.
When a soldier sacrifices himself for his country, the country has to come forward, and give his family and loved ones a pension as well as compensation, but the mercenaries didn't have such rights or qualifications.
Of course, a sensible person would never work as a mercenary, for they could die at any moment.
In other words, every mercenary had at least one complicated circumstance or reason that prevented them from living a normal life.
"If I didn't have a criminal record, I would probably have worked part-time at a convenience store."
This was the case for those who were now on the military trucks to deal with monsters in Paju.
"I am pretty sure that you would not get the job with a face like yours."
"What? What's wrong with my face?"
"Do I really have to tell you?"
"Fucking asshole! What about your face?"
"Better than yours!"
Either one had a criminal record or was desperate for money; to the point of selling their own life or atleast head over heels in debt...
For those who could not lead an ordinary life, there were few options other than to risk their lives against monsters as mercenaries.
"Anyway, Kim Woo-jin, this bastard, sleeps so well even in this kind of environment, while I'm here dying of motion sickness."
Kim Woo-jin, a young man who had fallen asleep with his arms folded in one of the trucks, was also a hunting dog.
"When you look at him like this, he looks like a normal college student, but the moment he opens his eyes... there is no crazier dog than him."
On the outside, Kim Woo-jin looked like a normal youth.
Just like a normal person, he lacked presence, for he was a young man without any distinct features.
"This is still better."
"You are saying this is better?"
However, Kim Woo-jin's background was totally different from his appearance.
"Before the monsters showed up, he used to hunt guys that looked like gangsters."
"Gangsters?"
"Yeah, he used to mug gangsters, even hunting them for a bounty."
Kim Woo-jin, he was a criminal hunter.
"So, he was an apostle of justice."
"It's not like that."
Of course, hunting criminals was never for justice.
"He didn't catch gangsters or criminals for justice. He did it because they were supposed to be okay to even kill."
"What?"
"Isn't it? Have you seen a gangster reporting to the police that he had been robbed?"
No matter what was done against criminals, there aren't much consequences afterward.
"Over 10 organizations were destroyed by his hands alone."
That's the reason Kim Woo-jin became a criminal hunter, and this was the reason why he became a monster hunter.
"Anyway, he is a fucking psycho.The fact that he initially worked as a mercenary already proves my point, but he is a psycho that is on an another level, compared to assholes like us."
"Psycho?"
The sleeping Kim Woo-jin's lips opened.
"Hup!"
As Kim Woo-jin was right in front of them, they were surprised, and choked on their own breath.
Soon, Kim Woo-jin opened his eyes and looked around.
Because of his action, the young man who was telling the story of Kim Woo-jin yelped, surprised.
"Woo, Woo-jin I was just..."
Kim Woo-jin frowned at his figure.
He had an appearance that could be found anywhere. However, the moment he opened his eyes, the look in his eyes did not appear to be human.
It was more similar to a ferocious beast that had noticed a scent of lingering delicious blood.
"I, I was..."
Kim Woo-jin, who was observing the company with a dangerous frown, said in surprise, "Yang Jae-ho?"
"Uh, yes?"
"Are you Yang Jae-ho?
"Uh, yes," the young man, Yang Jae-ho, replied instinctively.
At that moment, Kim Woo-jin approached Yang Jae-ho and closely observed him.
It was a most bizarre sight.
KkiIik!
"Aaaah!"
"Uh-huh-uh-uh!"
"Holy crap!"
Suddenly, all the people sitting on the truck were swept away.
When the sound of a radio was heard, Kim Woo-jin did not ponder on his doubts anymore.
'I will just have to confirm it,' he decided.
Humans are weak.
A naked man cannot even beat a large dog.
However, humans with tools are different.
With just a bag of guns, it is easy to annihilate a group of simple monsters.
In fact, among the monsters who stood against humanity, there weren't any monsters that threatened the human species as a whole. There wasn't even a need to use nuclear weapons.
The main issue was collateral damage.
If even one of the countless cars running in the ten lanes in the downtown area of Seoul crashes into the sidewalk, it will cause immense chaos, massive carnage, and widespread panic.
Then what would happen if a monster that can be only taken down by a hail of gunfire appears in such a crowded area?
Of course, there would be a tremendous number of casualties. However, the property damage dealt to the area would be beyond description.
Unquestionably, the most important priority when taking care of the monsters was to reduce the property damage.
That was the reason.
"Fuck, why does it have to be an orcish squad..."
"What a pain. To kill one of these orc bastards, we have to use at least one of our magazines..."
"Orcs are not the kind of monster that can be killed with a rifle in the first place. We need at least an RPG to kill bastards like them."
The reason why the mercenaries were only provided with automatic rifles was...
"There's not much ammunition... we might have to fight them with an axe."
Furthermore, the amount of ammunitions they were provided with was nowhere near enough.
Naturally, that was the case. If people hired to dispose of monsters by the outsourcing companies who weren't even part of the military were to be given weapons like machine guns, tanks, and grenades, and used those weapons with a bad intention, the situation could deteriorate to something much worse.
Liabilities was also the reason why they weren't provided with a lot of ammunition.
"So, only pull the trigger when you're certain. Don't waste any ammunition."
"Okay."
"Roger."
"Good, now let's take a deep breath and prepare for battle."
Once again, the mercenaries began to breathe deeply.
Taang!
However, the sound of gunfire was heard just as everyone began to take a deep breath.
"Hukk?"
"Who the fuck?"
The sudden bangs of gunshots sent everyone in a frenzy. Then, someone shouted, "Kim Woo-jin! That crazy bastard Kim Woo-jin charged into the squad of orcs alone!"
Kim Woo-jin!
That name was all they needed to understand what happened.
'That bastard, of course he would be the one to fuck up and get us into trouble!'
It was a situation that could not be understood through common sense. What Kim Woo-jin was doing was completely unreasonable and incomprehensible.
"Crazy fucker, if you want to die so badly die by yourself..."
"Wha, What, is he doing?"
"I, don't know."
Instead of firing from a long distance, he was pulling the trigger again and again as he drew closer to the orcs that were running toward him.
Taang!
He was single-handedly putting a bullet in each orc's head.
'That, That's possible?'
'One shot One kill? But this isn't even a game?'
However, Kim Woo-jin's shots were undoubtedly far beyond the normal level of accuracy.
Everyone was staring, as if Kim Woo-jin was using some kind of sorcery.
It was as if Kim Woo-jin was using a weird magic to put all the orcs he confronted to sleep.
Taang!
After the twelfth shot like that, there wasn't a single orc left standing.
'Am I dreaming right now?'
The mercenaries stood speechless in front of such a scene.
And Kim Woo-jin, who had finished his hunt, also stood still.
'What I saw wasn't a dream.'
However, he wasn't mindlessly standing. Kim Woo-jin was calmly analyzing his situation.
'If everything was a dream, I wouldn't be able to do something like this,' he realized.
At the very least, he understood that he wasn't dreaming and that what he experienced was also not a dream. For, if what he experienced was inside of a dream, he would not have such accuracy.
Furthermore, the feeling of murder, the smell of the monsters' ripped flesh and blood, and their miserable screams that Kim Woo-jin had heard a little while ago could not be considered a dream.
In other words, everything Kim Woo-jin had experienced was likely to be real.
To be perfectly certain, however, he definitely needed more evidence.
'For example, I need to experience the future reproduced in front of me, that level of evidence,' he decided. 'Anyway, that person Yang Jae-ho... I definitely met him while I was working for the Delta Company. I was associated with the Delta Company back in early February 2020 until March 7th, 2023, the day I woke as a player during the orc hunt.'
Kim Woo-jin heard the notifications of the system at that very moment.
[You Will Be Awakened as a Player] [The Undying Fighter Reaches Out to You] [The Emissary of the Underworld Reaches Out to You] [The Silent Hunter Reaches Out to You]
To Kim Woo-jin, the sound of the system was the most definitive evidence that he had been betrayed, murdered, and returned to the past.