In a secluded corner of an obviously old alley, there was a restaurant operating without even a signboard. The only clue as to what kind of place it was was a "Hangover Soup" sticker attached to a creaky iron sliding door, yet the place was packed. The inside was as busy as it was crowded outside, with people lining up.
The only items on the menu were a fifteen-thousand-won hangover soup and alcoholic beverages. Near the menu on the wall, there were some faded posters and autographs taped up haphazardly. Not celebrity autographs, but rather;
[Hangover Soup Restaurant – Hunter Bae Won-woo]
[It's a great restaurant! – Hunter Yang Hye-jin]
They were autographs from hunters.
Among the crowd, a young man with black hair skillfully navigated his way. Wearing a gray hoodie and a black apron with a soju brand logo, he nimbly moved through the narrow shop, even with a tray full of boiling hot stone bowls in both hands.
"The hangover soup is ready."
"Oh, thank you."
"Boss, we need two more hangover soups here!"
"Alright."
"Also, add two bowls of rice, please."
"Sure, coming right up."
The young man memorized the table with his eyes and busily headed to the kitchen. Just then, a man with a shaved head asked in a booming voice from behind.
"Excuse me, can we get another bottle of soju?"
"No, you've already had two bottles of soju."
"What are you talking about? This is only our first bottle."
"I saw you put the empty bottle in the inventory earlier. No more."
The young man pointed to a spot next to the simple menu with his index finger. The hastily scribbled note on an A4 paper in black marker showed the firmness of its writer.
[Soju limited to two bottles per table]
[※ To prevent nuisances and fights]
The young man gathered empty dishes and stone bowls from the next table and went into the kitchen. As the shaved head man awkwardly pulled out the empty soju bottle from his inventory, the man opposite him scolded him, saying he knew this would happen.
"See, I told you, it's not allowed. That part-timer is very strict about how much we drink. It's always two bottles."
"He's sharp as a hawk. I slipped it in quicker than when I catch monsters. Isn't he a hunter?"
Correct
But the man opposite shook his head.
"I heard from Team Leader Han that he already asked and the guy said he's just an ordinary person."
"What? Is that the trend now? Hidden-power hunters? Or is he unregistered?"
"Come on, you know how severe the penalties are for unregistered hunters. And if he were a hidden-power hunter, he'd be raking in money in dungeons, not working part-time at a hangover soup joint."
The young man's back flinched for a moment, but the shaved head man didn't seem to notice. Instead he nodded in agreement.
"True. Those hiding their power are always after some grandstanding."
"Team Leader Han is waiting to recruit him once he awakens. If he's this good before awakening, he'd be at least a B-grade after."
With the murmuring voices of the hunters behind him, the young man who entered the kitchen poured water into the dishwashing basin and chuckled. 'I bet I awakened before you did. Instead of bringing in some far-off veteran hunter…'
The young man, named Cha Eui-jae, had an exceptional vision that could spot the empty soju bottles being hidden, and the superhuman strength to carry several boiling stone bowls at once. Despite being a hidden-power hunter, there was a reason why he chose to settle in this old and shabby restaurant instead of taking the easy way out in dungeons.
***
Several months ago, Cha Eui-jae woke up in a garbage dump. How long had he been unconscious? He blinked his eyes for a long time before his twisted senses slowly started to return.
"Where am I, ugh…!"
As soon as the unpleasant stench hit him, bile rose from his stomach. Despite having eaten nothing, his exhausted body heaved uncontrollably. The world spun, and he had no strength to move even a finger.
Monsters had poured endlessly from the white ruin. Yes, he remembered fighting the basilisk at the end, and stabbing its head. And then…
When he finally opened his eyes, he saw a giant black hole in the middle of the dark blue night sky. It had appeared as if to herald the end of the world, but by now, it had become a familiar sight to the extent that one couldn't imagine the sky without it. Commonly referred to as the Black Hole.
Black holes are not visible within rifts. That meant he had returned to reality. As his consciousness became clearer and he grasped the situation, the next thing that came was a physiological need.
"I'm hungry…"
He had to eat something. Cha Eui-jae used the trash piled up around him to prop himself up. Leaning against the dirty wall, he caught his breath for a moment. He then pushed his weak body forward, using the wall to steady himself like an invertebrate.
As he forced his wobbly legs to keep walking, the smell of meat wafted in from somewhere. His instincts made him open his eyes wide and scan his surroundings. At the end of the alley, he saw a solitary light. He continued to drag himself toward it.
He arrived at a shabby place with no signboard. Through the glass of the iron sliding door, an old woman was sitting alone. Hearing a presence, the old woman who had been peeling garlic with her back to the door slowly turned her head. Cha Eui-jae leaned his face against the glass and mumbled.
"Is it… possible… to get food…?"
Of course, he looked like a wreck, with a haggard and emaciated body, barely able to stand on shaking legs, so it probably sounded more like, "Isht… passhible…to get fud…?" But he had no time to be self-aware. Despite looking like a homeless person who had barely escaped from a psychopathic murderer, the old woman opened the door for him instead of screaming.
"What are you doing standing there? Hurry and come in."
The warm atmosphere and the smell of meat broth enveloped him as he entered. Cha Eui-jae looked down at the old woman who opened the door with a blank expression.
"What happened to you? Did you roll in the dirt? Did you come back from a dungeon or something?"
"Uh…"
Clicking her tongue, the old woman gestured for him to sit anywhere and disappeared into the kitchen. Cha Eui-jae awkwardly sat at the table in the farthest corner. After a while, a bowl of white bone broth1 and a bowl of rice were placed in front of him.
"Eat up. The hangover soup will take some time."
"…"
"If you're not going to eat it, throw it away."
Looking bewildered at the bowl of rice, Cha Eui-jae finally bowed his head and looked back at the old woman. Without waiting for his response, she turned and resumed peeling garlic.
Faced with food, his appetite soared far beyond what it had been earlier. As if possessed, he devoured the bowl. As the white bone broth entered his empty stomach, the cold and hunger that had made him shiver began to subside. Cha Eui-jae thought that maybe the light he saw in the alley was the old woman's kindness, and he scooped rice into the broth.
After satisfying his immediate hunger, Cha Eui-jae started to notice the interior of the restaurant. There was an old CRT TV on a shelf, faded soju posters, a worn-out wall fan, and a large wall calendar from some association. It was a restaurant that bore the marks of time.
How long has it been since I entered the rift? Cha Eui-jae closely examined the calendar.
'20… what year is it?'
He blinked his eyes in disbelief. The year on the wall calendar showed eight years had passed. He rubbed his eyes thinking he saw it wrong, but the printed numbers on the paper did not change.
Cha Eui-jae held his breath. The sense of reality he had barely regained was slipping away again. He tried to calm his swirling mind by taking another sip of broth. Just then, the TV on the shelf began to broadcast a calm narration.
—…Eight years ago today, a Grade 5 rift occurred over the West Sea.
…Eight years? Cha Eui-jae took another sip of broth.
—When the rift suddenly upgraded to Grade 1, the government deployed S-grade Hunter J, along with 14 A-grade and 30 B-grade hunters. The rift disappeared after a week. Unfortunately, the hunters dispatched did not return.
Familiar faces flashed across the screen. These were the people he had desperately searched for among the piles of corpses.
Cha Eui-jae felt a pang in his heart but ignored it, maintaining a calm expression as he continued to watch the TV. After the pictures of B-grade and A-grade hunters passed by, a final image showed S-grade Hunter J wearing a black mask that covered his entire face.
—The Awakened Management Bureau acknowledged the deaths of all hunters who entered the rift three months after it closed.
With that, the screen changed. Cha Eui-jae, holding an empty spoon, put it in his mouth.
'All dead?'
Even S-grade Hunter J?
He continued to move his hand in the air, not realizing he was still spooning an empty spoon. The screen now showed a middle-aged man giving a closing remark.
[Song Jo-heon | S-grade Awakener | Guild Leader of Samra Guild]
—Without J, our country would not have a future. Eight years ago, we lost a hero in Incheon. J and 44 hunters bravely entered the rift. They gave us a future. We have a duty to look forward and move ahead.
A man with a somber expression spoke solemnly as he looked at the screen.
—This concludes the documentary commemorating the 8th anniversary of the West Sea Grade 1 Rift, 'To J'.
A caption appeared at the bottom of the screen: [This program was produced with the support of the Pado Guild and the Awakened Management Bureau], followed by a moment of blackout on the screen. Cha Eui-jae replayed what he heard several times to ensure he had heard correctly.
—It has been confirmed that all the hunters who entered the rift perished.
—Eight years ago, we lost a hero in Incheon.
—The 8th anniversary commemorative documentary, 'To J'.
Is this a dream? If I close my eyes and open them again, will I wake up? However, it was clear to him that this was reality. The black hole he saw earlier, his belly filled like an empty bowl, and the spoon he had unintentionally dropped with a clang, all proved it.
Cha Eui-jae couldn't hide his astonishment and clutched his head. All the hunters dispatched to the West Sea rift perished? As far as he knew, that was absolutely not true. No, it couldn't be true.
Because Hunter J, Cha Eui-jae, was the sole survivor and was sitting here eating soup!