Like watching an old TV.
Scenes and voices cutting in and out on a faded screen. Yet the heat of the battlefield feels vivid.
“Kill them!”
“Destroy the Taiyuan Jin Family!”
Those filling the narrow ravine charge with battle cries. The Hengshan banner waves behind them.
At the tips of gleaming cold weapons, another banner.
Jin.
And hundreds of martial artists blocking the ravine.
“They have neither martial virtue nor chivalry. Hengshan Sword Sect ends today!”
“Charge!”
Static.
Vision zooms in with noise.
Under the Taiyuan Jin Family banner, toward two figures standing out clearly.
An old man with flowing white beard spoke:
“This will be a long battle.”
A massive man answered:
“And it will be our last.”
The old man smiled broadly.
“Indeed it will be. Without fail.”
Then.
People clash with people, swords with spears. Countless martial artists collide, thick blood mist settling in the ravine.
War drums sound somewhere, announcing the battle’s start.
I rose, body drenched in sweat. Another murim dream.
Unlike before, now I can clearly recall the dream’s contents after waking.
The battle has begun.
Even after returning to reality, time flows in murim.
The scenes I saw might be happening in murim right now. A great battle betting the fate of two massive forces.
No, there’s one more.
The third force led by the Grand Elder.
When the battle reaches its peak and both sides suffer heavy losses, that’s when they’ll finally move.
What about Hyeok Mujin? What happened to the patrol members?
If they arrive in time to reveal the betrayal, the worst might be avoided. Or perhaps everything’s already ended.
Grand Elder…
That old man who felt off from first impression.
Who’d have thought this supposed elder of Taiyuan Jin Family was plotting this.
If the Grand Elder becomes the final victor, everything ends.
For purges always follow in rebellion’s wake.
Jin Wi-gyeong, Wi-peng, Hyeok Mujin and the patrol members, plus Han Yeop too injured from fighting Jo Pil to deploy, Gong Ya-cheong and Socheon recovering, the So siblings…
Familiar faces appear and disappear repeatedly.
What were they to me?
One month in murim.
To them, I was benefactor, trusted superior, comrade to guard their backs. And to some…
I’m proud of you.
Are you hurt anywhere?
Survive, rookie.
Blood brothers too.
But what were they to me? NPCs with advanced AI? Or people?
What were they?
Another dimension only I can traverse, and the people remaining there. What should I do about this?
My eyes naturally turned to the capsule.
If I go back…
Started at the sudden thought.
I must be crazy.
Go back and do what? It’s a massive battle with 2,000 martial artists mixed in. Among them are monsters as strong as One Strike One Kill Jo Pil, or stronger.
And I want to go back there?
“You crazy bastard. Fucking insane. Properly lost it.”
Just as I muttered like a sigh, my phone rang.
Ding.
[Label Whore]
Team Leader Choi.
A large café in the heart of the concrete jungle.
“The materials you requested.”
Butler Kim held out a thick folder. Just glancing, it’s around a hundred pages of extensive content.
“Quite a lot.”
“Investigated that thoroughly.”
Minwoo nodded and started flipping through pages quickly. What he was reading was one person’s life.
Jin Tae-kyung’s 27 years contained in these hundred-some pages.
Birthplace, background and growth, even bank account records—nothing missing.
Peculiar or suspicious points were highlighted, so Minwoo finished reading all prepared documents in less than 30 minutes.
“What’s your opinion, Butler?”
“Clean.”
Butler Kim answered definitively.
“Not an illegal awakened, nor did he approach young master with ulterior motives.”
Minwoo nodded. If Butler Kim says so, that’s that.
He’s the one who used every means to examine everything about Jin Tae-kyung over the past two weeks. Likewise, the hundreds of pages on the table must have all passed through Butler Kim’s hands.
“So this is all coincidence?”
“As far as we can tell.”
“Butler?”
“Do you know the probability of re-awakening?”
“About 1 percent, I believe.”
One in a hundred.
To the public eye, might not seem so rare. But those hundred aren’t ordinary people but Hunters.
Hunters already born through similar odds. Among them, only the chosen few receive re-awakening’s fortune.
“Then what are the odds of an F-rank Hunter re-awakening straight to C-rank?”
Minwoo didn’t wait for an answer.
“What about the possibility of a C-rank Hunter clearing same-rank Gates alone?”
“Impossible alone. Would need to be B-rank at least…”
“Yet someone can.”
“Perhaps…”
“Ten C-rank Gates. Ten D-rank Gates. In twenty total raids, all I did was watch with folded arms. Didn’t even need to step in.”
Long fingers tapped the thick folder.
Inside contained everything about Jin Tae-kyung, yet simultaneously nothing at all.
After brief silence, Butler Kim spoke:
“I’ll investigate again.”
“No.”
Minwoo shook his head.
“Keep scratching and you’ll just make sores.
I plan to keep him close and watch.”
“Still planning to recruit him to the guild?”
“Have to. If something stinks we dig deeper, if not…”
Minwoo’s eyes flashed.
“I’ll make him my man. Even if it takes three visits to a thatched cottage.”
And the next moment.
Ding-a-ling.
Seeing someone enter the café with the bell, Minwoo smirked.
Zhuge Liang—no, Jin Tae-kyung.
5 hundred million won signing bonus.
50 million won monthly base salary with 70% profit share. 40-pyeong officetel and car optional, four major insurances basic.
After reading the contract, only one thought came:
Insane.
Such outrageous contract terms.
Giving house, car, money flowing like water.
Average C-rank Hunter annual salary is 200 million won.
That’s including base salary and raid bonuses.
But me?
Just signing bonus is 500 million.
A contract only B-rank Hunters usually get.
This means either my skills are worth that much, or I’ve found an employer with vision who doesn’t just judge Hunters by rank.
Plus he’s loaded.
I stared across the table at Team Leader Choi. As always, that unreadable expression with deep eyes.
Team Leader Choi spoke abruptly:
“This makes three times.”
He’d offered contracts twice before. Though I refused both times.
An indirect way of saying don’t refuse this time.
“I apologize about that.
Had some small issues.”
“Resolved now?”
“Yes. Seems so, for now.”
“Then no problems now.”
“…Right.”
Answering while doubting. Really no problems now? Really okay like this?
What am I even thinking.
Need to finish before other thoughts creep in.
“I’ll sign.”
I started signing with the fountain pen Team Leader Choi handed over.
One page, two pages, three pages…?
Contract was five pages total. Just need to write my name on the last page.
At that moment, doubt arose again.
Is this really okay?
The fountain pen moving smoothly until now slowed. Thoughts chained together.
What if it’s not? Isn’t this what I wanted?
Right. What I desperately dreamed of for seven years.
Getting massive salary and high social status.
Becoming a proud son and brother who can pamper family.
Being envied and admired instead of ignored and despised.
Can achieve it all now.
Can live enjoying all those things. Goodbye to that miserable life, and that dog-shit murim.
Crack.
And goodbye fountain pen.
I released my grip. Ink from the shattered pen soaked the contract.
“Mr. Jin Tae-kyung. Let me ask again.”
Team Leader Choi pulled out a white handkerchief to wipe ink from his chin.
Despite the sudden situation, he seemed calm.
“That issue from before, really resolved?”
“No.”
Felt relieved after answering.
“If it’s something I could help with…”
“Appreciate the words, but I must solve this alone.”
Team Leader Choi stared at me with a peculiar gaze before smirking.
“Never knew contracts could be this hard. Didn’t expect getting rejected three times either.”
Tone suggesting he found this situation amusing rather than angering.
“When would be good for the fourth offer?”
Though likely half-joking, my answer was serious.
“Tomorrow, same time, same place.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yes. Tomorrow.”
Just one day.
But for me, it’ll be a month or months.
Team Leader Choi, who couldn’t know this, frowned.
“Don’t much like jokes like that.”
“I don’t like these jokes either.”
He doesn’t know what meaning my words carry.
“I’ll definitely see you.”
This is a promise to myself.
A vow to return alive without fail.
And…
“Tomorrow’s contract terms will need to be higher.”
I left the café, leaving Team Leader Choi with widened eyes.
“Whew.”
Taking a deep breath, I opened the capsule.
Seeing the sunken chair and VR helmet, my heart pounds. Even having come this far, temptation keeps raising its head and whispering.
Don’t go back.
Just forget everything and live content with your reality.
Those met in murim are all NPCs, murim just a simple game.
Right. There was a time I thought that.
But after contemplation, realized. The fact I’d return somehow—
The conclusion was made long ago.
That snowy night, I returned to Gong Ya-cheong.
United with the siblings who were like baggage, and instead of using patrol members as shields, fought Jo Pil and survived death’s door.
Probably started then.
When the letters “NPC” etched in my mind began fading.
When Jin Wi-gyeong’s back, turning after telling me to survive, made me think of family.
“Fuck, life’s really a variety show.”
I entered the capsule with a bitter chuckle. As soon as I put on the VR helmet, a message appeared:
Ding.
- Log in to [Murim]?
Y / N
“Yes.”
Consciousness fading, vision darkening—
I logged in.