How potent is the temptation of power?

To convey its intensity, one could hardly find a better description than this: it erases the very concept of common sense from the human mind, filling the void with raw greed.

Thus, the actions of a fallen power holder whose authority is under threat tend to fall well outside the bounds of reason.

Thousands of years of history had illustrated this human tendency with striking clarity.

However—

People are, by nature, creatures easily lulled by inertia.

Those who live in peaceful times cannot help but think to themselves:

Surely not.

Surely no one living in the modern era would actually do such a thing.

Surely no one would go so far beyond the pale of decency to scheme for power.

Even though history has consistently shown that such complacency is betrayed by madness, eras as a rule fail to guard against precisely those situations.

That was why, even as revelations erupted in the news day after day, the public responded with outrage before anxiety.

Because there existed a will to punish that gave no heed to the aggressiveness of cornered men.

And so the terror struck the citizens with even greater shock.

Had history followed its original course, the nation would have been half-destroyed.

In the immediate aftermath, citizens across every region had been gripped by despair, confronted by the shadow of death that descended without a moment’s warning.

That was precisely why the salvation that appeared before them felt all the more dramatic.

[“This response demonstrated the true depth of South Korea’s Hunters! Confirmed casualties currently stand at zero, a testament to the integrity of the on-site response system…”]

[“Seoul’s Yeouido district is currently being encircled by the remaining major Seoul guilds as they close the perimeter! The identity of terror mastermind and Party Representative Han Dae-hyung has yet to be identified, and…”]

It would have been a lie to claim there was no theatrical intent behind orchestrating this scene.

But even accounting for that, with the guild hunters who had emerged in the crisis now dominating every media outlet—

it was clear who the citizens would see as justice and who they would define as evil.

The objects of their adoration had been chosen.

[“I was at the Daejeon Shock site and Shin Jung-woo was insanely cool. The moment he just deploys that Domain, the thought of being scared doesn’t even cross your mind lmaooo”]

└ They’re dolls and whatever but that Domain is Goth-tier?

└ This is real talk. I saw a Domain analysis video on YouTube and it actually has aggro management functionality too

└ Yeah I saw that too lol. Even with all those dinosaur dolls swarming, the monsters only focused on Shin Jung-woo

└ The kids especially are obsessed with Shin Jung-woo lmaooo. My friend’s a kindergarten teacher and apparently that’s all they talk about lol

└ If they drop merch now, it’s bankrupting competition lol

[“I thought my hometown was done for and called my mom in a panic. She then made me listen for 30 minutes about how she saw Cheon-hwa’s Ha Kwon-seung in person…”]

└ lmaooooooooo

[“Woo-woo… Hae-seo unnie is so cool…”]

└ By the way, isn’t Baek Geun-ho an absolute lunatic? He snatched the reporter’s mic and started whacking magical beasts with it. Standing ovation lmaooo

[“Thank god… I honestly wondered what would happen to the Hunter world after those revelations dropped…”]

└ Agreed. Honestly, our country was the unusual one… when you think about how over half the world’s nations collapsed after the emergence of superhumans, maintaining the existing system was a miracle.

└ Same. The moment the shock hit, I kept thinking about all those countries that reverted to class-based societies and was terrified ours would go the same way;;

The internet was ablaze.

The previous fury had given way to hues of hope and admiration.

The world yearns for heroes.

Living in such an era, the moment the public received proof that those who had become heroes stood on their side—such a reaction was only natural.

And when they looked up to the pinnacle standing at the center of that era—

[“Shin Jung-woo was just an insane thrill. Isn’t it from the moment he entered the Countermeasure Bureau that this whole snowball started rolling?”]

└ Korea’s strongest < the fact that he went into public office and eradicated corruption is insane;;;

└ If he’d had even a little greed, he could’ve become the boss of the corrupt faction. If not for him, they might have built a dictatorship.

[“I worship you…”]

└ Worship worship and more worship

└ The guy is just insanely cool lol. He’s young but that level of responsibility is unreal

From the very beginning, it was Jung-woo.

The one who flipped the board at the decisive moment was Jung-woo.

And the one who stood before the public as the representative the instant victory was secured was also Jung-woo.

Just as, during the Millennium Shock, First Bureau Chief Chun Jun-ho had become a star of hope for a nation in chaos—

a symbol of peace had descended upon this land once more.

[“So when they dissolve the Management Bureau, who takes over?”]

└ Why even ask the obvious lmaooo

└ JUNG WOO TAKES OVER

The era had a new name.

Three syllables: Shin Jung-woo.

The world moved swiftly.

The exposé articles were taking a settled form, and it was the season to determine what punishments would be handed down to them.

The world was quick to erase the scars of terror and began dreaming of a better future.

Amid this upheaval, new heroes were rising, their stock climbing by the day.

But not everything was over yet.

[“The core criminals, including Party Representative Han Dae-hyung, remain at large and are being actively pursued…”]

[“With the Management Bureau paralyzed, all gate-related operations have been fully transferred to the Countermeasure Bureau. Active inspection consultations with the guilds are ongoing to prevent a recurrence of terror…”]

The culprits of the terror had not yet been caught.

It was too early to feel safe.

Swaaaaah—

It rained that day.

A torrential downpour, unseasonably fierce for spring rain.

On days like this, the mountain terrain turned treacherous, and hikers’ footsteps ceased entirely.

The unpleasantness conjured by the brooding sky and sodden earth bore a resemblance to the stubborn, clinging regrets of days past.

At least, that was how it felt to Ho-jong.

Gol gol gol…

Ho-jong poured soju over an unvisited grave.

The name carved into the headstone—a rough stone that looked like it had just been picked up and jammed into the earth—read Chun Jun-ho.

The name of a man who had been closer than a brother: his superior, his comrade, and his friend.

Ho-jong let the pouring rain hit him directly and muttered.

“It’s almost over. I’m sorry. Took me too long.”

It was a modest gravesite he had prepared for a friend whose body had never been found.

The man had loved nothing more than shouting from the top of a mountain in life, and so even on this dreary day, the grave offered a clear, distant view of Seoul’s skyline.

Gazing at it quietly, Ho-jong added one more thing.

“But it’s almost over. This time, it really is.”

That was the moment.

“Jin Ho-jong. I knew you’d be here.”

A grizzled, incensed growl cut through the sound of the rain.

Ho-jong rose to his feet and turned around.

“Old man, you’re going to dislocate a joint hiking in this weather at your age.”

“You think I’d worry about that and pull a stunt like this?”

Han Dae-hyung—the man the entire nation was hunting—stood right there.

He was not alone.

The first-generation political hunters known as the heart of the Hogukdang were all present, their faces contorted with rage as they glared at Ho-jong.

It was not particularly surprising.

From Ho-jong’s perspective, he had practically lured them here himself.

Dae-hyung spoke.

“Are you that resentful over the death of one man? Enough to shake the entire nation?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Old man, did you develop dementia?”

“You insolent brat! Did you think I wouldn’t know this was revenge for Chun Jun-ho—!”

Ho-jong’s gaze went cold.

Dae-hyung grew even more furious.

“That’s right! I killed him! But so what! What is the problem with that! The times changed! Peace came, yet that thoughtless fool kept playing hero and refused to compensate us for our sacrifices! Mere admiration! Money barely above a common laborer’s wages! That! That was the compensation we received!”

His fury pierced the sky.

“So I killed him! Because what he took from us was rightfully our compensation to begin with!”

Ho-jong closed his eyes and drew a deep breath.

Listening to any more of this drivel was making his head feel hot.

Then he spoke.

“You’re wrong, old man.”

Yes, it had been wrong from the very start.

“That compensation was never your share to begin with. It was his.”

It had been that way since the Millennium Shock.

The one who rallied hunters into a military force to save a crumbling society was Chun Jun-ho.

The one who worked harder than anyone to stabilize the world was Chun Jun-ho.

Through Chun Jun-ho’s efforts, this society had been able to endure.

Because he understood better than anyone the changes that would come to a world where superhumans and monsters roamed, because he agonized over how horrific a society defined by the hierarchy of power would be—

Because he was that kind of man.

—Ho-jong, we must be heroes, not kings.

The Management Bureau was established instead of a Hunter Military, and hunters became figures of admiration.

Even in a society where those capable of killing with a flick of a finger walked the same streets, ordinary citizens and hunters coexisted and loved one another.

Hunters who protected citizens like the protagonists of hero films.

Citizens who adored them, who believed in their power and loved them for it.

The reason this naive and malformed society could be realized was the anguish of a man named Chun Jun-ho.

Ho-jong took one step forward.

“You old men, you know what? I’ve hated you since back then.”

“Ghk…!”

“The way you schemed to gorge yourselves the moment the war ended so you could live comfortably. I couldn’t stand it.”

Not satisfied with what they already had, coveting ever more.

“In the end, you devoured the very man who handed you that honor. That, I could never forgive.”

They had driven the hero of all people into a death trap.

They had laid a snare he could not possibly avoid stepping into, and brought him down.

He could never forgive them for that.

But he knew that giving in to rage and tearing them apart in a frenzy would betray the very friend who had tried to protect this society.

And so he could not bring himself to do it with his own hands.

He had endured.

For fifteen years, he had lived like that, watching for the chance to carve them and them alone out of society.

The end of that patience was now at hand.

Dae-hyung scoffed.

“So, you’re going to take us down? Don’t delude yourself, Jin Ho-jong. Every single one of us here is A-Rank. You’re no Chun Jun-ho. You’re not in the class to catch us.”

Seureureung—

The enemies drew their weapons.

Arms that had once made them great.

The decline in combat power from age and aging bodies was, at the very least, not a concept that applied to hunters blessed with transcendent concepts.

“We’ll take you down. We’ll snap your neck and throw it into the heart of Seoul!”

Their gleaming eyes held the vengeful fury of wounded beasts.

To which Ho-jong replied.

“Getting forgetful in your old age, aren’t you? Old man.”

“What?”

“You really did forget. Why the Abnormal Disaster Countermeasure Bureau was created when there was a perfectly functional Management Bureau already in place.”

Ho-jong took another step forward.

His unassuming, middle-aged face betrayed no discernible emotion, yet through the relentless downpour, a chilling aura seemed to bleed through.

“I don’t hunt magical beasts, you see.”

Only then did the old men flinch.

“You bastard…!”

“Taboo Code, Article One.”

Ho-jong covered his eyes with his hand.

“Block all visual information within the domain.”

【Taboo Code(A) activated.】

【Entry registered: All visual information for entities A-Rank and below within the space is blocked.】

Hwaaaaak—!

Darkness swept in.

Everyone present was stripped of all sensory information classified as visual, and they began to stumble about in confusion.

Cheolpeok, the sound of Ho-jong’s foot pressing into the mud was audible.

It was a sound that brought back a forgotten terror.

“Article Two. Block all supernatural ability activation.”

【Entry registered: All supernatural ability activation for entities A-Rank and below within the space is blocked.】

Only then did the old beasts remember.

That the man named Jin Ho-jong had, after Chun Jun-ho’s death, lived like a corpse inside the cave of the Countermeasure Bureau—

but the name people once called him by had been very different from what it was now.

It was a story from the distant past now.

At the moment when superhumans and monsters appeared in the world and the birth of a new society was foreseen, the hero Chun Jun-ho had been wary of them crushing the world beneath raw power.

And so, to elevate hunters to the role of heroes who served the citizens, he had moved them with cause and justice, building their image from the ground up.

But not every hunter had sympathized with that endeavor.

There had always been those who wished to use their abilities for malice.

The anxiety that these walking strategic weapons might run amok at any time, anywhere, had cast a pall of fear over society.

In those times, the hero found one measure to suppress that anxiety.

—Ho-jong, didn’t you say you wanted to be a police officer?

—Why bring up old stories, sir?

—Let’s be police. Starting now. Special police.

—Excuse me?

Hunter supernatural abilities come in all shapes and forms.

Among them were abilities that did not combat magical beasts, instead performing peculiar feats of an entirely different nature.

And among such abilities—

—We need an agency to catch villain hunters. Society needs a sense of security.

It was not particularly strange that there existed abilities designed to hunt hunters rather than magical beasts.

Ho-jong had been the man who used such abilities to hunt down hunters who terrorized public order.

To put it simply, that was the story.

These days he operated as part of the gate disaster response team.

But the Abnormal Disaster Countermeasure Bureau had originally been created to prevent man-made disasters.

Cheolkeok!

The sound of a magazine locking into a pistol rang out.

“Let’s end this. This way of living.”

Wasn’t it right to put an end to the ghosts of the old era rampaging here, for their sake and his own?

Ho-jong’s index finger found the trigger.

The muzzle pointed forward.

Track the sound. Fire.

Taaaaaaaang—!

Gunfire echoed across the mountaintop.

Jung-woo stood beneath an umbrella, taking in the scene at the mountain’s summit.

It was a rather grotesque sight.

“Keuk, keueueuk…!”

“Eueoheueueok…!”

Wretched old men lay on the ground, weeping as blood oozed from arms and legs pierced by bullets.

At the center of it all, Bureau Chief Jin Ho-jong was painstakingly lighting a soaked cigarette, drawing in the smoke and exhaling it.

The rainwater running along the ground fed on the blood and turned red.

Drenched to the bone, Ho-jong wore the hollow eyes of a man who had fulfilled a revenge that offered no satisfaction.

“Did you call an ambulance?”

“Yes, but we’re at the top of a mountain and it’s raining, so it’ll be a bit late.”

“That’s fine. These old bastards don’t die easily. They’ve all got reserves.”

Huu, Ho-jong exhaled.

“Are you a little disappointed?”

“In you, sir?”

“Yeah.”

“Not disappointed. Just…”

Jung-woo recalled what he knew from before the regression.

That the emotion that had driven Jin Ho-jong was, indeed, revenge.

Adding that fresh conviction, he said—

“You’re a frightening man, sir.”

“Coming from you, Jung-woo, that’s a bit rich. You’re the cunning one.”

“The number one cunning spot belongs to you now, sir.”

“That’s too far.”

Jung-woo smiled brightly.

Then he stepped closer and offered a spare umbrella.

“Here, use this.”

“You should be handing over the one you’re already using.”

“Then I’ll get rained on. I have to go pick up Se-gi, so that won’t work.”

There was no way Jung-woo could know the heart of a man who had waited fifteen long years to complete his revenge.

But he knew this man was not someone driven by malice.

And knowing that this man, having finished his revenge, would burn himself out and retire, Jung-woo felt a pang of regret and spoke up.

“You’re going to get busy from here on out, sir.”

“Me? You’re the one who’s going to get busy, Jung-woo.”

“No, sir. You’re the one who’s going to get busy.”

“Hm?”

The era of the Management Bureau was over.

The new era needed new rules, and between drafting documents and conducting external meetings, there would be no shortage of complicated work to establish them.

Was he going to handle all of that himself?

‘No way. I’m already busy enough as it is.’

He had to secure time to play with Se-gi.

And who better to take over than this man?

As far as Jung-woo knew, when a person got busy, they stopped having other thoughts.

He wanted someone like this to remain in public office for as long as possible.

“Hanging around like this, I’ve actually built up quite a list of journalist contacts.”

“…?”

“Please serve faithfully until retirement age.”

Ho-jong didn’t realize the meaning of those words until after he descended the mountain.

“Hunter Jin Ho-jong! Is it true that you single-handedly lured and captured the corrupt hunters?!!”

“Live from the scene! Hunter Jin Ho-jong of the Abnormal Disaster Countermeasure Bureau has apprehended the fleeing terror masterminds, and here at the site, Hunter Jin Ho-jong and Hunter Shin Jung-woo are overseeing the cleanup…”

“This is the revenge of a gentleman! Bureau Chief Jin Ho-jong, who spent fifteen years watching for his opening, maintained his vigilance to the very end…!”

Ho-jong’s gaze turned toward Jung-woo.

Jung-woo could sense the betrayal in his eyes.

Not that it mattered.

“I’ll be heading off first.”

“Jung-woo.”

“It’s time to pick up Se-gi.”

“Jung-woo.”

“See you tomorrow, then.”

“Hey.”

Jung-woo walked away.

Since it was raining, he’d put Se-gi to bed early tonight and have a beer before turning in himself.

That was the kind of thought he entertained as he went.