"Noona, stay with me. Keep your eyes open."

A young boy, holding a bloodied woman, pleaded desperately. The woman, coughing up blood, struggled to speak.

"Chaeyoon… I have a wish…"

"A wish?"

"I wanted to fulfill it once I got out of here, but it seems hopeless now. Could you do it for me…?"

The boy, called Chaeyoon, furrowed his brows openly. The moment the word "wish" left the woman's mouth, some of the desperation in his gaze faded.

"Cough, cough! Cha… Chaeyoon… my wish…"

"I'll go get Mr. Sangtae."

"N-No, it has to be you, Chaeyoon."

"I told everyone that if I get out of here, I'll die, that I'll take my own life. Why is everyone like this? Mr. Sangtae is right over there, and so are Alex and Kangjin hyung. There are so many people here, why do they all come to me?"

"If you grant wishes for the living, can't you grant one for the dead?"

"That seems a bit different."

"Cough, cough… Huff!"

The boy's expression turned increasingly cold as the grip on his forearm weakened. He muttered a curse under his breath.

"Fine. What's the wish? If it's something I can do, I'll grant it."

The woman, as if she'd been waiting for his response, finally spoke.

"Three million squats, five thousand runs. That's all I need…"

The boy was at a loss for words. The woman, as if satisfied, closed her eyes and drew her last breath. Around them, comrades wept and called out her name. For the boy, who now had 218 ridiculous last wishes to fulfill once he left this place, all he felt was bitter frustration.

***

The world changed.

One day, strange phenomena appeared across the globe, and translucent windows appeared before a select few. At first, everyone was baffled. What was happening? What were these windows? Why could only certain people see them? Before anyone could fully grasp the situation, monsters began flooding into the world, and society quickly crumbled.

In the early days of the apocalypse, known as the "Dark Era," some believed Earth was doomed, while others held on to hope. Gradually, people started understanding the situation, learning how to fight the monsters.

Those who could see the translucent windows, known as "Awakened," gained special abilities. It was discovered, through much sacrifice, that dungeons were forming across the planet. If these dungeons weren't cleared in time, the monsters inside would flood out, or the dungeons themselves would explode, turning the surrounding area into a wasteland.

Based on this information, a few highly skilled individuals took the lead in humanity's restoration, and countries that once clashed now joined forces. People of all races and religions united as one to fight against monsters.

Just as people were nurturing hope for a new era, a dungeon appeared in the Arctic. It was the most dangerous dungeon ever seen, and if it wasn't cleared, the resulting explosion was estimated to rival the Permian extinction event.

Facing this unprecedented catastrophe, humanity had no time for despair and began to rally its strength. Awakened ones volunteered to enter the Great Dungeon, and nations spared no resources, providing military equipment, including nuclear arms.

The Great Dungeon allowed a maximum entry of 1,203 people. These 1,203 were called the "Revengers." The vanguard was a multinational team of the six strongest Awakened, followed by eighty-two other Awakened teams, with the rear consisting of unawakened volunteers who bravely joined.

Once the 1,203 heroes, the Revengers, entered, the world could only wait and pray, as nothing was known about what was happening inside.

Finally, on the day before the expected explosion, the dungeon was cleared, sparing the world from annihilation.

But the cost was steep.

Of the 1,203, only four emerged alive from the Great Dungeon. One of them was Seo Chaeyoon, known as the ace of the Revengers.

At nineteen, Seo Chaeyoon was carried out of the dungeon unconscious, and after that day, he vanished from the world.

Rumors spread, some said he was dead, others that he had lost his powers or developed a mental illness, but no one knew the truth. Those who knew about Seo Chaeyoon kept silent, and over time, he became a legend.

Then, ten years later…

***

Today, the sun blazed with no breeze in sight. It was mid-July, and after standing under the sun on a rooftop of a residential complex for two hours, even Yoon Seo, with his above-average stamina, was starting to tire. He should have wrapped up sooner. Fanning himself, he let out a hot breath as the sun beat down on his neck and face, heating up every part exposed to sunlight.

"Hunter!"

The building owner, who had come to check on the progress, hurried over with a handheld fan.

"Hunter, use this. You must be so hot!"

"I'm almost finished, so please stand back."

"Oh, sure, sure."

The owner, flustered, stepped back inside the rooftop door. Even though Yoon Seo was from a small guild, as an Awakened, he was always treated with deference by unawakened civilians wherever he went.

After completing the basic setup and orientation calculations, Yoon Seo entered numbers on his U-Pad, linked it to the address from the contract record, and placed a small amount of mana on the trap. With a flash, a blue sphere appeared in midair. Yoon Seo quickly sent it upward. The sphere rose to three meters, gradually turned transparent, and vanished, replaced by a faint blue boundary surrounding the old four-story building. The shield was successfully activated.

"Wow, it's done."

The building owner marveled, placing his hand on the blue boundary. As Yoon Seo took a verification photo and video of the shield installation, the boundary gradually faded, becoming completely invisible and remaining inactive until triggered.

On his U-Pad, Yoon Seo brought up a semi-transparent display with the contract and approached the still-awed civilian.

"It's a B-grade shield. Please check it and sign here."

"Oh, yes."

The building owner gripped the pen and quickly signed.

"It ended sooner than I thought. The other building took six hours, they said."

"The time required varies depending on the building's size and grade. I'll explain the contract details first."

"Oh, I already know about it."

"An explanation of the contents is mandatory."

After putting away the display, Yoon Seo reattached the U-pad to his wrist. The building owner's gaze followed the U-pad. While it looked like an ordinary smartwatch, this special device for awakened beings could pull out a semi-transparent display and project holograms, always drawing the attention of non-awakened people.

"A B-grade shield provides safety from dungeon explosions of B-grade or below and equivalent impacts. According to the special provision you applied for, the shield will hold for three hours after the first impact. Please note, the contract term is one year and will automatically renew yearly. Our guild will send personnel for shield trap maintenance on a quarterly basis."

"Will you be coming for that as well?"

"Of course, a hunter will come."

"No, what I meant is, will you be the one coming?"

"Ah… There's a good chance it will be me."

While large guilds have separate installation and maintenance teams for shield traps, small guilds like "The Guild of Leaves," to which Yoon Seo belonged, often consolidated these under a public support team. Having worked in this support team for ten years, Yoon Seo was assigned to the Seoul West Station area, so he would be responsible for this location too.

"I see."

The building owner nodded repeatedly, looking relieved. Finally, Yoon Seo escaped the scorching rooftop and headed inside the building. Though the shaded stairwell was still hot, it was better than the rooftop. As they descended the stairs, the building owner chattered on with pointless small talk.

"To be honest, this is my first time contracting a shield, so I was quite worried. I heard that it takes a long time, and that hunters are arrogant, expecting to be humored. But the time passed quickly, and you turned out to be very kind. I feel bad for having held those prejudices, haha."

"Our guild members at The Guild of Leaves aren't like those other hunters. Please consider us again in the future."

"Yes, yes. I'll be sure to recommend you to others."

Even in this small country of South Korea, between 30 and 100 dungeons appear daily. While Korea's hunter system is well-organized, meaning the chance of a failed raid is low, the problem is that the failure rate isn't zero.

Even with methods to detect dungeon occurrences, it's difficult to cover the entire country. Sometimes dungeons have unreasonably short time limits when discovered, making it impossible to clear them, and other times, the portal itself is too small to enter without miniaturization skills or items. Because of this, monster outbreaks occurred almost daily, with small-scale explosions happening two or three times a week.

To mitigate these damages, a hunter developed a shield trap device ten years ago, which could block explosion impacts and monster attacks. He released the blueprint for free online, and people, like taking out building insurance, began to request guilds to install shield traps everywhere. Variations such as explosion traps and transport traps were later developed, and the trap business became one of the main sources of income for guilds.

For non-awakened people, shield traps were practically a lifeline against unpredictable disasters. Some unscrupulous hunters took advantage of this, bullying civilians by lowering shield defenses below contract standards or reducing mana storage to wear down durability faster.

The building owner seemed highly satisfied that Yoon Seo wasn't one of those arrogant hunters.