The whole of Seoul was in an uproar—not over a gate or a monster outbreak, but because of a human.
An influencer, apparently.
A Winstagram account under the handle Hero_Hunter_526 was gaining massive attention, like a dungeon core on the verge of explosion.
The content was disturbingly direct.
One post featured a B-Rank hunter unconscious among garbage bags.
Caption: "Recycling day came early."
Another image—a selfie—displayed a masked figure posing in the foreground, while a bleeding C-Rank hunter lay behind him.
Caption: "Smile for the followers, bro."
The comment section was chaotic:
"THIS HAS TO BE STAGED."
"Hunter guilds are gonna sue for real."
"Is that garou?!"
Hunter associations were alarmed. Guild leaders scrambled.
Yet the public? Entirely hooked.
No one could identify the masked man.
No guild ID. No mana signature. No known affiliation.
Just a ragged black hoodie and unmatched confidence.
He didn't kill. He humiliated. Clean takedowns, broadcasted with comedic flair.
It wasn't revenge. It was content.
---
At the Hunter Association's secure conference room, the mood was tense.
President Jong Yoo stood at the head of the long table, facing the six S-Rank hunters who had shown up. His expression was severe.
"Where is Park Harin?" he asked, tone cold and deliberate.
Yoon Dae, seated two chairs down, tapped on his mana tablet.
"She entered Gate 82 this morning. A-Rank classification. She's with three other A-Rank hunters. Communications went dark twenty minutes ago."
Jong Yoo narrowed his eyes.
"And the other three S-Ranks? Why aren't they here?"
Yoon Dae hesitated before responding.
"Kang Minsoo declined, saying—'Meetings are cringe. I'm grinding my solo build.'
Seo Mirae is at a Jeju spa on a juice cleanse.
And Shin Daehyun's mana signal places him in a Gangnam karaoke bar."
Jong Yoo closed his eyes.
He inhaled. Then pinched the bridge of his nose with visible frustration.
"So let me summarize," he said slowly. "Four of Korea's ten highest-ranked Awakeners are absent—one inside a gate, three deliberately ignoring protocol—and none of you have identified this Hero_Hunter_526?"
There was an awkward pause.
Han Jae finally broke the silence.
"At first, we assumed he was a joke. A prankster with decent form. But if the footage is accurate—"
"It is," Jong Yoo snapped. "Lee Hojin's still in the hospital."
"Is he okay now?" someone asked.
"He's stable. His girlfriend's taking care of him."
At that, the room fell quiet again.
Each hunter shared the same unspoken thought.
'Lucky bastard.'
...
"…So, Yoon Dae. Have you analysed his style?" Jong Yoo asked, voice strained but trying to stay composed.
"Yes," Yoon Dae replied seriously. "He wears a hoodie."
"Not that, fucker."
The other hunters snorted. Even Jong Yoo almost smiled—almost.
Yoon Dae cleared his throat, pulling up a paused frame from one of the leaked videos.
A blur of fire and water twisted mid-air—Jinwoo's silhouette backflipping over a shocked B-Rank's head.
"He looks like a mage," Yoon Dae began, gesturing to the screen. "Fire, water, maybe even some wind control. Classic elemental affinity. So you'd expect long-range bombardment. Backline support."
He tapped again, and the next clip played—a lightning-fast sequence of Jinwoo sliding low under a sword slash, grabbing the attacker's ankle mid-motion, then slamming him into the wall with raw force.
"But he moves like a rogue. Actually—no, better. His footwork's cleaner than half the martial artists I've trained with. His reaction time's wild, and his tempo changes mid-fight as if he's crazy."
"Identity disorder?" Asked Hijin, but got ignored.
"You're saying he's a battle-mage?" Han Jae asked.
"No," Yoon Dae said, eyes narrowing. "I'm saying he doesn't fight like a mage. He doesn't act like a rogue. He doesn't follow any known combat school. He improvises like a street brawler and strikes with the precision of a pro. The guy uses water to trip people, fire to blind, even reflects his own spells off walls like he's playing a damn FPS."
Jong Yoo frowned. "So… unpredictable?"
"Uncomfortably," Yoon Dae replied. "He doesn't dominate with overwhelming power. He humiliates with style. That's worse."
A pause.
"…So, he's cracked and he's got good internet?" Shin Minsik muttered. "God help us."
Yoon Dae sighed, rubbing his temples. "Look, the real issue is—if he's this good already, and he's not affiliated with any guild, school, or known clan… then he's been hiding his powers for years…and right now, he's An S-Ranker."
---
Cut to the penthouse suite of The Skyglass Hotel—thirty-six floors above Seoul, where the floors were marble, the water cost extra, and even the curtains had security clearances.
Jinwoo was sprawled across a bed the size of a small battlefield, half-buried in silk sheets and room service wrappers. A bottle of overpriced grape juice (that tried really hard to be wine) sat uncorked beside him. His black hoodie was tossed over a golden statue of a lion with sunglasses.
He laughed.
Like—actually laughed. The kind that shook his chest and made his eyes crinkle like someone had just told him his math teacher tripped down an escalator.
The screen of his mana tablet glowed in the darkened room, open to his account on HunterPay—the under-the-table marketplace for off-guild contracts.
Balance: ₩42,957,800.
"hehehe" he whispered to himself, wiping a tear. "I got paid... for slapping a guy into a dumpster."
Another job request pinged in.
> New Offer: Target: Yoo Minjae, B-Rank (Arrogant. Throws swords mid-conversation.) Reward: ₩3,000,000 Bonus: Extra ₩500k if you make him cry.
Jinwoo rolled over, kicking his feet like a middle schooler who just found his crush liked his story post.
"that looks personal, haha"
His phone buzzed again—Winstagram notifications exploding.
@Hero_Hunter_526 just hit 2 million followers.
The newest meme someone made of him was already trending:
A low-res screencap of him grinning mid-fight with the caption:
"When you low-key solo everyone."
He sipped the grape juice.
"God, I love capitalism."
Somewhere outside, a gate cracked open in the distance.
A monster howled. A hunter screamed.
But in here?
Jinwoo just turned up the hotel's bluetooth speaker, lay back on seven pillows.
---
Gate 82 – 3:16 PM
The dungeon smelled like rotting wood and wet metal. Mushrooms clung to stone like tumors. The air buzzed—not with mana, but tension.
A flicker of silver light tore through the shadows.
Slash.
Then silence.
A horned lizard twice the size of a pickup truck collapsed in two clean halves, its body still twitching as it fell. Behind it stood Park Harin—calm, composed, completely unbothered.
Her blade shimmered like moonlight, faintly translucent—not steel, but soul. The wind around her whispered.
"Clear," she said, not even raising her voice.
Three other A-Rank hunters slowly lowered their weapons. They hadn't even seen her move.
"Did… did you already summon your spirits?" asked Ha Jinsu, the youngest of the squad.
Harin gave a small shrug. "Didn't need to. Just used Moonwalk Step and a basic Wraith Edge. These are small fry."
The others exchanged glances.
Small fry?
They were Tier 2 mutated trolls. Fast. Regenerating. Highly aggressive.
And Harin had one-shotted two of them before anyone blinked.
Her armor wasn't heavy—sleek black plating laced with rune-threads. Her long white coat flowed behind her like a cape, and a glowing sigil hovered near her shoulder: a bound spirit named Saejin, shaped like a wolf made of smoke and frost.
"North tunnel's next," Harin said, already walking. "Try to keep up."
Jinsu whispered to the others, "Do you think she has, like… ghost aim assist?"
"Bro, I think she is the aim assist," muttered the tank.
---
Ten minutes in, the tunnel corpses were piling up.
Monsters lunged—Harin vanished.
Spells were cast—Harin redirected them with spirit shields.
Even traps didn't matter. Her eyes glowed faintly whenever danger approached, as if the dead were whispering warnings in her ear.
Finally, they reached the Gate's core chamber.
And froze.
Because something was wrong.
This wasn't just a regular dungeon boss.
A rift had torn open behind the throne-like altar. Purple static pulsed. Something was… coming through.
And it wasn't in the dungeon file.
"…That's not supposed to be here," whispered one of the hunters.
"No shit," Harin muttered, tightening her grip on the Spirit Blade. "Saejin, manifest."
The wolf appeared, howling into the darkness.
Whatever came out of that rift—it wasn't going to leave quietly.
---
Meanwhile…
A bed so soft it made clouds cry beneath him. Silk sheets. Gold-trimmed pillows. A chandelier overhead like mana crystals frozen in time.
Jinwoo lay there, shirtless, wrapped in a bathrobe worth more than some hunters' entire equipment sets.
One hand behind his head. The other scrolling.
Cha-ching.
Another deposit hit his account.
₩1,200,000. Reason: "For making that cocky C-Rank cry on stream lol."
He chuckled. Like, genuinely—head tilted back, chest bouncing, full-throated joy.
"Man," he said to nobody, "I should've started beating people up professionally way earlier."
The screen glowed on his phone:
Hero_Hunter_526
Earnings This Week: ₩13,870,000
Assignment Requests Pending: 26
He scrolled the newest offer. The offers were coming even on the winstagram. There wasn't even any need for the website anymore.
> ₩3,000,000 if you take down Hwang Jisoo from Red Fang Guild.
Bonus ₩500,000 if you post it with the caption: "Fangless."
"Oh, these people are sick," he laughed. "I love it."
Room service knocked.
"Your vanilla-strawberry gatefruit smoothie, sir."
"Leave it by the door!" he called. "I'm working!"
He wasn't.
He flipped over, sinking deeper into the mattress, face half-buried in pillow, legs swinging in the air like a kid at summer camp.
Just a week ago, he was clocking into a dingy convenience store in Mapo, dealing with drunk dudes and expired ramen. Now? He was rich. Anonymous. And the entire Hunter Association was probably frothing at the mouth.
He cracked open Winstagram. Notifications in the thousands.
@Hunter_Slayer: "You got hands like plot armor, damn."
@JinwooFanEdits: "STOP BEING HOT AND DANGEROUS."
@GuildLeader_Rant: "We are looking into legal options."
@JustHereForDrama: "Tag me when he humiliates another B-Rank lol."
His latest post:
Caption: "I don't make the rules. I just make you log out."
Image: Him squatting over a knocked-out hunter, sipping boba through a straw.
300,000 views in two hours.
He didn't need a dungeon.
The internet was his battlefield.
And business?
Blooming!