Chapter 4
The vines and flowers protecting everyone began to wither all at once.
As they faded away, the people could finally see what was happening outside.
The Hunter was nowhere in sight.
Only the giant moray eel monsters and the mermen remained.
“T-The Hunter… is gone!”
“What?!”
“Did the Hunter lose?!”
The crowd gasped and instinctively stepped backwards.
But then they noticed something.
Every moray eel and every merman was staring in the same direction.
Someone was standing in midair, calmly balancing on floating water.
SKREEEE!
The giant moray eels charged at him together.
He simply tapped the water beneath his feet with his toes.
Ripples spread across the surface.
Then the water became countless thin streams that swept through the battlefield.
Slice. Slice. Slice.
The razor-thin streams, compressed with incredible pressure, cut through every moray eel at once.
After killing them all, he lightly landed on the ground.
There was an unconscious student in his arms.
Someone in the crowd recognised her.
“Cho-eun!”
Her parents ran over.
The stranger gently laid Ha Cho-eun on the ground.
“She is safe. Please don’t worry.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“Thank you!”
The couple repeatedly bowed in gratitude.
The Hunter smiled warmly.
“It was simply my duty.”
Only then did they properly look at his face.
He looked only a few years older than Cho-eun.
The only unusual feature was his eyes.
His black irises constantly flashed with streaks of bright yellow lightning.
It was a strange sight.
But no one had time to admire it.
Click! Click-click-click!
The mermen lowered their tridents and charged.
The couple instinctively hugged their daughter tightly.
Without even looking behind him, the Hunter casually waved a hand.
The ground rose.
Stone spikes erupted upward, skewering the charging mermen.
The Hunter stood up and gestured toward the family.
“You may take her outside the dungeon now.”
“Outside? But… we don’t know the way…”
The Hunter silently pointed somewhere.
A whirlpool had appeared where there had been nothing before.
A glowing vortex.
Anyone could recognise it.
It was the dungeon gate.
“Some dungeons reveal their exit after all the monsters have been defeated. This appears to be one of them. Simply head through there.”
“Y-Yes. Thank you.”
The people cheered and rushed toward the newly appeared gate.
Cho-eun’s parents lifted their unconscious daughter onto her father’s back.
Just then, Choi Ah-rin hurried over.
“Ma’am! Sir! Is Cho-eun okay?”
“She’ll be fine. You should hurry too.”
They gently pushed Ah-rin toward the gate.
Her own parents were already standing there, urgently waving her over.
They began to leave the Hunter behind.
Then—
“One moment.”
All three turned around.
The Hunter was looking directly at Ah-rin.
She tilted her head in confusion.
“The notebook you’re holding.”
Instinctively, Ah-rin hugged her friend’s embarrassing notebook tightly to her chest.
She could tease Cho-eun herself.
But she had no intention of letting anyone else see it.
“This? We accidentally brought it into the dungeon. It’s not some kind of item.”
“I know.”
The Hunter looked directly into her eyes.
“You’ll keep its secret, won’t you?”
“Uh… yes, of course.”
They were already too old to deliberately embarrass a friend.
She nodded.
The Hunter added one more sentence.
“Even from its owner.”
“Huh? Even from Cho-eun? Why?”
Ah-rin asked without thinking.
The Hunter suddenly looked oddly embarrassed.
“Because… she’ll be terribly ashamed.”
Understanding finally dawned on Ah-rin.
Her eyes widened.
She instinctively hid the notebook even more carefully.
“But… we’ve been carrying this the whole time. How do you know…?”
The Hunter only smiled and slowly shook his head.
A powerful gust of wind suddenly blew through.
It swept all four of them straight through the gate.
The dungeon disappeared from view.
Only ordinary sounds remained.
People crying.
Ambulance sirens.
Emergency announcements.
Ah-rin turned to look at her unconscious friend.
“Is this patient?”
A paramedic hurried over.
Only then did it finally feel like everything was over.
The bed felt much harder than usual.
And it was so noisy.
Rubbing my eyes, I slowly sat up.
“Cho-eun! You’re awake? Honey! Cho-eun’s awake!”
“She woke up?!”
Familiar faces appeared beneath an unfamiliar ceiling.
“Mum? Dad?”
“Yes. You’re okay. Thank goodness…”
Mum immediately hugged me tightly.
Only then did I properly look around.
White tiles.
Medical equipment.
It was obviously a hospital.
“That’s right! The dungeon! We fell into a dungeon!”
I’d even been attacked by a monster.
I quickly reached down.
Thump.
My hand rested naturally on my leg.
Only then did I remember.
“My leg!”
“Your leg…?”
“It got bitten off!”
“Huh?”
I barely heard my parents speaking.
My legs were completely fine.
For a moment, I wondered if everything had been a dream.
“We really fell into a dungeon, right? Who saved us?”
As I sat up, Mum nodded.
“Yes. Hunters came and rescued everyone. Sadly, not everyone made it out… but our family and Ah-rin’s all survived.”
Those yellow eyes.
So it hadn’t been a dream.
The Hunter with the yellow eyes really had saved me.
“That’s a relief.”
“It really is.”
Footsteps echoed noisily through the hospital as doctors and nurses rushed about.
Someone came running toward my bed.
“Ha Cho-eun! You’re awake?!”
Not medical staff.
Ah-rin.
“Hey! You’re okay!”
I smiled brightly, overwhelmed with relief.
But Ah-rin looked at me with an oddly twisted expression.
She seemed like she wanted to laugh.
Or maybe she was trying not to.
Her lips trembled as she handed me something.
“Hey… it wasn’t just you that survived.”
“This survived too.”
“AAAAAH! The cursed notebook!”
Why won’t this thing just die?!
As I screamed and snatched the notebook away, a startled nurse rushed over.
“What happened?!”
“N-Nothing! Sorry! It just startled us…”
Ah-rin and I immediately bowed our heads.
The nurse gave us a stern look before walking away.
Only then did I calm down enough to tuck the notebook safely into my arms.
Once my panic settled, I remembered someone.
“The Hunter with the yellow eyes… was he the one who saved us? Did he heal me too?”
“Huh…?”
Ah-rin blinked in confusion.
“I remember him saving us… but after we hid in that tunnel, I don’t remember anything else. What happened after that?”
The longer I spoke…
The wider Ah-rin’s mouth opened.
Finally, she shouted,
“Ah! I really should’ve recorded it on my phone!”
“What are you talking about?”
She groaned dramatically before finally calming down.
“Right. Yeah, he saved you. But someone else healed you. That person left really quickly, so you never got to see them.”
“Oh… I see.”
Somehow, I felt a little disappointed that I hadn’t met the Hunter properly.
Then again…
Thinking about the people who never returned from the dungeon…
Feeling disappointed seemed selfish.
I absent-mindedly rubbed the notebook before leaning toward Mum and Dad.
“I’m just really glad we’re all alive.”
“Me too.”
My parents quietly hugged me.
Together, we wiped away tears of relief.
Then, right in the middle of the emotional moment…
Ah-rin casually interrupted.
“So… what are you going to do with that notebook?”
“Burn it.”
“Come on. It survived the dungeon with you. Show it a little loyalty.”
She was talking complete nonsense.
Smiling sweetly, I answered,
“I’d burn it even if someone offered me 1 billion won.”
“Do you know how hard I worked protecting that thing?”
“I’d burn it for 10 billion won, too.”
“…You’re such a heartless Chloris. Is that what the flower garden taught you?”
Where had that frying pan gone?
Since I couldn’t find one, I settled for grabbing a pillow instead.
Ah-rin immediately sensed the danger and bolted from the room.
“Hey! At least think about keeping it! A notebook that survived a dungeon has to be valuable!”
Even as she ran away…
She still couldn’t resist saying one last thing.
…Did she read it while I was unconscious?
A perfectly reasonable suspicion crossed my mind.
My eyes narrowed.
The more I thought about it…
The stronger my determination to burn the notebook became.
The groans and crying throughout the hospital faded into the background.
Only one thought remained.
I’m finally going back to my ordinary life.
Time flowed on like a river.
Eight years passed.
Fortunately…
Our family regained a normal life.
The accident from eight years ago, which had once felt like something out of a novel, became just another old memory.
Dungeons still existed.
Dungeon disaster alerts still appeared.
Restricted danger zones continued to increase.
Even so…
People still commuted to work.
Students still went to school.
Families still laughed together after coming home.
Ours did too.
We even moved to a new house.
But it never felt like a painful reminder.
Home was still home.
A place that always welcomed me back.
“Wow… can you believe that happened eight years ago already? I saw the date today and was completely shocked.”
“Time really flies. Honestly, moving to a house in the suburbs after that accident worked out well for us. Buying dungeon coverage with the house insurance was definitely the right choice.”
“You got it for this house too, right?”
“Of course. What about you? Is living on your own going alright?”
Mum asked over the phone.
Even though I’d been living alone for three years…
She never stopped worrying.
“Everything’s fine. I just got home from work and I’m eating fried chicken.”
“You should eat proper meals instead of living on things like that.”
“I already had rice for breakfast and lunch.”
After my quick excuse…
Silence.
I answered with silence of my own while taking a sip of beer.
Eventually…
Mum gave up first.
She couldn’t exactly check.
“Make sure you eat breakfast. Should I send you some side dishes?”
“It’s okay. I’ve still got kimchi left.”
“You still haven’t finished it? Eat more!”
“You sent way too much! Right now I’m eating kimchi fried rice, kimchi stew, and kimchi side dishes!”
“Well… at least you’re eating.”
“Mum.”
I heard her laugh through the phone.
I smiled and took another sip.
Whenever we talked about that day eight years ago…
I always remembered the Hunter who had saved me.
The one whose yellow eyes were all I could remember.
I’d searched every news article about the apartment incident.
But I never found him again.
Is he still an active Hunter?
…Or is he gone now?
Ding—
“Hm?”
A text message?
I pulled the phone away from my ear.
There wasn’t a single new notification.
Instead…
A perfectly square window floated in front of my eyes.
[Congratulations on your Awakening.]
Awakened Individual: Ha Cho-eun (霞初㐆)
As if it realised I could see it, the window flickered before displaying another message.
[Trait: Cringe Past]
You can draw out and utilise other versions of yourself.
“AAAAAAH!!”
After eight years…
The prairie dog scream made its grand return.
Mum shouted in alarm over the phone.
“Wh-What?! What’s wrong?! What happened?!”
I’d screamed without thinking.
But there was absolutely no way I could explain this honestly.
“My manager called me! That idiot! Who calls someone on a Friday night?!”
Drawing upon every ounce of panic-induced quick thinking I possessed, I blurted out the excuse.
Mum sighed.
“You scared me half to death. Don’t scream over something like that.”
Fortunately, my manager contacting me late at night wasn’t unusual.
She didn’t suspect a thing.
“Sorry, Mum. I’ll call you again later. Bye!”
“Alright. Bye.”
The call ended.
Now…
Only my cringe past remained in front of me.
Unfortunately.
