Chapter : 01
My Uncle Is a Catastrophe-Class Returnee –
Chapter 1: The Return of the Absolute One
July 22, 1997.
On that day, mysterious towers suddenly appeared all around the world.
They were called the Tower of the White Night.
Some people also referred to them as the Arks.
Those who climbed these towers were known as Hunters—a tiny fraction of humanity, individuals specially chosen from among the world’s population.
Ahyeon High School, Yongsan District – Faculty Office
“…Na-hyun, if you want to go on the school trip, wouldn’t it be best if you brought one of your parents tomorrow?”
Standing before the teacher with a troubled expression, the frail-looking girl quietly lowered her head.
The teacher’s gaze drifted to the name tag pinned to her chest.
Kim Na-hyun
Second-Year Student, Ahyeon High School
“Na-hyun, I’m not asking for anything unreasonable, am I? Right?”
“Y-Yes…”
The teacher spoke casually, but the words bring your parents pierced Na-hyun’s heart like a knife.
No one at school knew about her family’s situation.
Sigh.
“Looking at your face, I don’t think you’ll tell them this time either. Please… I’m begging you.”
From the teacher’s perspective, it was puzzling.
How did a student with no remarkable background get into Ahyeon High, one of Yongsan’s more prestigious schools?
Maybe she has connections? …No, probably not.
She had even been called into the faculty office because she couldn’t afford the school trip.
To be fair, this year’s trip was unusually expensive.
The destination was an Instant Dungeon in Jungnang District.
With humanity hoping to raise future Hunters, giving high school students firsthand dungeon experience had become almost as important as preparing for the college entrance exam.
But Na-hyun couldn’t even afford to participate.
“I’m sorry, teacher.”
“If you’re sorry, then bring your parents… Ah, never mind. If you’ve never brought them before, I suppose there’s a reason.”
“May I leave now?”
“Yes. Go home, and make sure you tell your parents. Understood?”
Na-hyun bowed slightly before leaving the office.
Outside in the hallway, students chatted excitedly about the upcoming trip.
Their carefree smiles made them seem as though they had no worries in the world.
Walking past them, Na-hyun couldn’t help thinking…
Life is really hard when you don’t have money.
“…Sigh.”
She carefully reached into her pocket and pulled out a badly crumpled business card.
It read:
Daeheung Errand Agency
A rough-looking man had handed it to her a few days earlier while she was walking home.
“Whoa. That’s quite a lot of mana you’ve got there.”
“Don’t misunderstand, kid. My line of work isn’t exactly respectable, but I do have principles.”
“Interested in selling magical materials?”
“No money? I don’t mean buying—I mean selling.”
“Hair. Blood. Fingernails. Things like that.”
“They fetch a pretty good price.”
His body had been covered in mysterious tattoos.
A skull tattoo stretched from his neck to his cheek.
She still remembered it vividly.
He had acted friendly enough…
But she could never forget the terrifying aura surrounding him.
It felt as sharp as a blade.
Fortunately, he hadn’t tried to kidnap her or anything crazy.
After looking her up and down with a click of his tongue, he had simply told her to contact him if she ever needed money.
“…Magical materials…”
It was tempting.
He had casually mentioned that even selling a handful of hair could earn several million won.
Of course…
It was completely illegal.
Using one’s own body for magical experiments was permitted.
Using someone else’s body was strictly forbidden.
Still…
The temptation lingered.
Especially for someone like Na-hyun, whose parents had disappeared.
“…Sigh.”
The school only knew that her mother had died seven years ago.
Her homeroom teacher still believed her father was alive.
Although he had been officially listed as missing for thirteen years, he had never been legally declared dead.
The government refused to acknowledge his death.
In fact, it refused to acknowledge the deaths of everyone who had vanished into that dimensional Rift.
If they admitted those people had died, the government would be liable for compensation on an astronomical scale.
“…Maybe… just a little would be okay?”
She clenched the worn business card tightly.
The tattooed man had even said that if meeting in person felt dangerous, they could complete the transaction through parcel delivery.
Just once.
One sale would more than cover the school trip.
She bit her lip before slowly taking a photograph from her wallet.
Three people smiled from the faded picture.
The edges were worn from years of handling.
Her mother.
Her father.
And…
“…Uncle.”
Standing quietly behind them with his arms folded was a handsome man with black hair.
His expression was so emotionless that he almost looked bored to be in the picture.
Do Min-hyuk.
He wasn’t her biological uncle.
He had simply been as close to her father as a real brother.
Yet Na-hyun had always called him Uncle.
Though the memories were from childhood, they remained vivid.
She still remembered riding on his shoulders while they quietly walked through the neighborhood at night.
“…I guess I’ll never see you again.”
Unlike her father, whose fate remained uncertain…
Do Min-hyuk had officially been declared dead.
Although both had disappeared, the circumstances were different.
Her father had vanished inside the Special Grade-7 Rift known as The Labyrinth of the Vomiter.
Min-hyuk, on the other hand, had reportedly been swallowed by a bizarre monster that looked like a cross between a whale and a wild beast.
It wasn’t even something that could properly be called a Rift.
Its estimated danger level had been Grade 9.
Even after thirteen years, humanity still hadn’t conquered a single Grade-8 Rift.
The possibility of Uncle Min-hyuk returning alive…
Was effectively zero.
“…Uncle… I miss you.”
A bittersweet smile appeared on her face.
Every day was another meal of instant noodles.
A homeroom teacher who simply didn’t want a missing student ruining his school-trip record.
Friends she could never truly join because she couldn’t afford to.
Would life really be different if I had money?
She closed her eyes.
She had made up her mind.
She would contact the man from Daeheung Errand Agency.
“…Selling just a little hair should be okay…”
Several million won…
Enough to pay for the trip.
Enough to buy bags of rice.
Enough to catch up on overdue rent.
Enough to eat meat instead of instant noodles.
Just once.
Only once.
That was what she told herself.
Above Gangnam, Seoul
CRACK—!
A horrifying sound echoed through the night as space itself split apart.
From within the torn Rift…
Pure white fingers emerged.
A man’s hand.
Moments later, the owner of those hands tore the Rift open with both arms and calmly stepped through.
“…What a nostalgic scent.”
A man with black hair.
Dressed in pitch-black martial robes, he brushed his hair back while looking over the city below.
Late at night…
The lights of Seoul filled him with countless emotions.
At last…
He had returned to Earth.
And at the same time…
“…I wonder if Na-hyun has been doing well.”
She was the daughter of Kim Sang-gil, the man who had treated the orphaned Min-hyuk like a real younger brother.
Though not related by blood…
She was family.
By now she should be a second-year high school student, living an ordinary life.
Crack.
Several black fish-like creatures attempted to crawl through the opening behind him.
Without even looking back…
Do Min-hyuk casually slapped them away.
The creatures offered no resistance as they were hurled back into the chaotic void beyond the Rift.
He waited quietly until the tear in space completely closed.
Then he gathered his thoughts.
“…Before I see Na-hyun, I should get something to eat.”
“And I ought to buy her a present.”
“If she’s moved, maybe I should stop by an errand agency to find her address.”
“Well… there’s no rush.”
He had dreamed of this return for ages.
In the other world—
Ignoheim.
There, he had become known as the Calamity among Calamities.
But he had no desire to live that kind of life on Earth.
What he wanted…
Was an ordinary, peaceful life.
But first…
“I should get a gift for my Na-hyun.”
A faint smile crossed Do Min-hyuk’s lips.
Then, like a shadow melting into the darkness of the night, he disappeared into the streets of Seoul.
By Earth’s reckoning…
Thirteen years had passed.
But according to the flow of time in the world of Ignoheim…
It had been hundreds of years since his departure.
