The neon lights of Seoul blurred into a cacophony of colors as Jin Choul stumbled through the crowded streets. His mind was a haze of regret and alcohol, his thoughts a relentless echo of failure. Once a promising engineer, now he was just another statistic—a man whose dreams had crumbled under the weight of reality.
Jin stopped at the edge of a busy intersection, his reflection staring back at him from a puddle on the ground. He hated that reflection. The hollow eyes, the slumped shoulders. A loser. He clenched his fists, feeling the weight of his despair pressing down harder than ever.
A distant scream shattered his self-loathing reverie. He looked up, confusion mingling with the fog in his mind. People were running, panic etched on their faces. Jin's eyes followed their direction and widened. A massive, swirling portal had appeared in the middle of the street, its surface rippling like liquid darkness.
"What the...?" Jin muttered, his voice drowned out by the chaos around him.
Out of the portal stepped creatures from nightmares—hulking beasts with gnashing teeth and razor claws. The crowd's panic escalated into sheer terror. Jin's legs felt like lead, but instinct urged him to move. He turned to run, but the ground beneath him trembled violently. His foot slipped, sending him crashing to the pavement.
Pain exploded in his head, and the world around him began to fade. As darkness closed in, Jin welcomed it. Maybe this was the end he had been too cowardly to seek out himself.
But fate had other plans.
When Jin awoke, it wasn't to the familiar sights and sounds of Seoul. The sky above was a bruised purple, streaked with crimson clouds. Strange, twisted trees loomed around him, their branches reaching out like skeletal fingers. He sat up, his body aching, his mind racing to make sense of his surroundings.
"What is this place?" he whispered, fear and awe mingling in his voice.
A sudden rustling in the underbrush snapped Jin to attention. A figure emerged—tall, armored, and carrying a blade that shimmered with an eerie light. The figure removed their helmet, revealing a stern but kind face.
"Welcome to the dungeon world," the woman said, her voice steady. "I'm Seo-Yun. You've got a lot to learn if you want to survive here."
Jin struggled to his feet, his heart pounding. The despair that had once consumed him was still there, but now it was joined by something else—a flicker of hope, a chance for redemption.
For the first time in a long while, Jin Choul felt the stirrings of purpose.