The hunter interface was inherently an unhelpful system by nature.

However, when it came to the information it did display, it guaranteed that data with absolute certainty.

From that perspective, Jung-woo’s new skill was exceedingly peculiar.

‘It’s been redacted.’

The skill name was displayed as [■■■■].

No skill Jung-woo knew of had ever looked like this.

There weren’t enough clues.

‘An inactive skill?’

No.

‘Inactive skills are merely displayed in gray text; their names are still properly registered.’

This skill’s text was white. It meant it was in an active state.

It was just that the name, effect, and whether it was active, passive, or a buff were completely indistinguishable.

It was somewhat frustrating, but there was still one undeniable fact.

‘The scale feels like L-Class.’

Considering his other two skills were L-Class, it would make even less sense for a skill with such conditional unlock requirements to be of a lower rank.

Therefore, if he could just find the trigger and activate it, it could serve as a reliable means to increase his combat power.

Of course, the problem was that he had no idea what that trigger was right now.

Jung-woo let out a deep sigh.

‘…It’s useless to speculate based on imagination. That’s just how the Hunter System is.’

Countless things had been uncovered about gates.

The academic field of Otherworld Studies had now firmly established itself.

However, even with PhDs and scholars worldwide putting their heads together, there was still no definitive answer regarding this Hunter System that resembled a game interface.

There was no way Jung-woo would find a clear answer just by agonizing over it himself.

So, he would put the analysis on hold for now.

“Rest well, Grandma.”

It was the next morning.

Their one-night rural vacation had ended, and the colleagues who had rested together were all returning to their respective places.

Hae-seo had disappeared early in the morning due to her filming schedule, and Geun-ho remained passed out drunk until Jung-woo’s departure.

Thus, it was a farewell to Soon-ae.

“I’ll visit again. Though I’ll see you in the North before that.”

[Right, you said you’d set up the Wooden Palisade over in Hwanghae Province?]

“Yes, as soon as the cleanup around the southern area is finished.”

A large-scale project was scheduled to remove the Wooden Palisade blocking the 38th Parallel and push the defense line further north.

This would come after resetting all nearby gates in the North and shaking off the erosion. The research progress on the relevant technology was already quite advanced, so construction was slated to begin by the end of this year at the latest.

[Drive safe. Get plenty of rest, okay?]

“Yes. Se-gi, say goodbye too.”

“Can I see Grandma again???”

[Then you can come visit whenever you miss our little baby.]

“Hehe…”

Se-gi tightly hugged Soon-ae. Her chattering farewell dragged on for a long time before finally ending.

Only then could they leave Seolyang Village.

The journey back was with Ho-jong.

“Is it really okay for me to get a ride like this?”

“Don’t be like that. Don’t be cold. It’s just that you’re the only person there I’m not awkward around.”

“The prices for the doll merchandise were truly wicked. Considering the complaints I got from the kids’ parents at the department store, I think I deserve this much.”

“That’s just the cost of raw materials. I was trying to do business ethically.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Please get me home safely.”

His skill in dodging disadvantageous topics was truly unparalleled.

Jung-woo chuckled as he drove down the road.

Then, he spoke up.

“You were drinking alone late into the night yesterday.”

“Grandma kept me company.”

“Sounds like you have something weighing on your mind.”

It wasn’t just a passing remark.

They had spent over half a year together, after all.

By now, Jung-woo knew a few things about him.

“Drinking. This is only the second time I’ve seen you do it.”

“When was the first time?”

“The day you lured and caught the Management Bureau executives. It was in the mountains.”

Ho-jong did not enjoy drinking.

Even setting aside his smoking habit, despite his disheveled middle-aged appearance, he was a man who paid meticulous attention to self-restraint.

If he touched alcohol, it meant he was dealing with something deeply frustrating.

Se-gi had fallen asleep in the back seat.

Perhaps craving nicotine, Ho-jong was chewing on dried squid legs.

It was a long while before he added anything.

“It’s because the way the world is turning is shit.”

“Does it have to do with me?”

“Something you might get swept up in.”

Roughly speaking, with the information he had gathered so far, Jung-woo could make a decent guess.

“If it’s related to North Korea, I think I have the right to hear it.”

“…”

Ho-jong fell silent.

For quite a long time, as they drove down from Cheorwon to Seoul, little else was said between them.

It was right after they entered Seoul.

“Jung-woo.”

“Yes.”

“The academic seminar is next week, right?”

“That’s right.”

“You can move together with me then.”

Jung-woo didn’t fail to understand the implication of his suggestion.

Jung-woo replied quietly.

“Yes.”

The car arrived in front of Ho-jong’s house.

Externally, the North Korean reclamation was progressing smoothly.

This was because, having crossed the major ridge of the Three-legged Crow, there were no other crises in Hwanghae Province.

Hunters were deployed into areas where the Shark Avatars left on-site had finished scouting. The regional purification continued by clearing the zones and conquering the gates, and the speed was astonishing.

With corporations pouring money in and overwhelming them with equipment, how long could wild gates possibly hold out?

It was an academic seminar held at such a juncture.

Jung-woo arrived at the conference hall where the seminar was being held early in the morning.

Last time he had been alone, but this time Ho-jong was with him.

“Look at you, coming in looking sharp for once.”

“Even so, the Association Chairman can’t show up to an official event looking shabby. Thanks to someone, I’ve become the type of person who has to care about these things.”

“Save the thanks.”

“Jung-woo, you’re doing that on purpose, right?”

“Was it that obvious?”

They had barely finished exchanging such banter.

“See that? The foreign scholars swarming in.”

“They’re probably after the North Korean reclamation data.”

“Global interest in Erosion Zones is rising. The capitalistic gains from regional reclamation are slowly being proven.”

Just as Ho-jong said, there were foreigners everywhere.

It was immediately apparent they weren’t here out of simple academic curiosity.

“That’s Neo Alpha over there. The company that makes gate waveform analyzers.”

“Next to them is Magina Crack. The place that makes soil mana extractors.”

Research, in the end, was money.

Even if it were public-interest research, if it promised material rewards, its progress would become incomparable to before.

That was why the eyes of the world’s leading corporations were focused here.

“It’s your achievement, Jung-woo. You can be proud of it.”

“It’s nice, sure. Except for the occasional burden of the attention.”

Even now, attention was focused on him.

The reason they didn’t approach rashly, well…

“You know, Jung-woo? The professors are terrified of you.”

“Why is that?”

“Why are you asking me? Every professor I know contacted me to ask what topic you were mainly going to see this time.”

“I was planning to look at research related to Erosion Zone contamination patterns, if you hadn’t been here, Mr. Chairman.”

Ho-jong was supposed to choose the topics for today’s seminar.

Jung-woo had vaguely sensed that there was a matter regarding North Korea that Ho-jong was deeply concerned about.

Thus, Jung-woo had come all the way here without knowing what they would be sitting in on.

Instead of answering, Ho-jong handed him a flyer.

It was immediate.

Jung-woo’s expression stiffened.

“…We’re going to see this?”

“Not interested?”

“No. It’s not that…”

It was the exact opposite.

[Analytical Trend Report on Mana Erosion in Hunters]

It was a topic on Demonification and otherworldly parasites.

It was Jung-woo’s ultimate goal.

How did he know.

Why.

Jung-woo’s gaze turned to Ho-jong.

His perpetually sleepy face, the aura of a disheveled middle-aged man.

There was no way Ho-jong could know about Se-gi.

He had never once given off even a hint of that to anyone.

Therefore, Ho-jong must be seeking an answer regarding this phenomenon for some other reason.

What?

He had said it was related to North Korea.

He had said it might be related to him.

As the timeline organized itself, information began to assemble in his brain.

North Korea, the connection to the reclamation team, Ho-jong’s level of interest, whatever had been frustrating him.

The two instances of drinking, what North Korea had swallowed, the common denominator.

At the end of the information assembling piece by piece.

“…Mr. Chairman.”

“Speak.”

“The thing that consumed Pyongyang.”

Ho-jong slowly turned his head and met his gaze.

He was calm, but rather than his emotions not boiling, it looked as if they had all burned up and dried onto him.

He spoke like that.

“Because I hoped it wasn’t true. Because I wanted to find grounds to deny it.”

Jung-woo read desperation from Ho-jong.

“I want you to find the grounds to deny my conjecture at today’s seminar, Jung-woo.”

It felt like his heart turned cold.

Sometimes, living as a hunter, Jung-woo felt like a scriptwriter for a wildlife documentary.

Whatever the case, the nature of the profession required him to explore distinct ecosystems, understand their ecological habits, and forge causal links.

He was not yet looking at a world where everything was clearly revealed.

Moments where he had to fill the gaps in causality through speculation came upon him suddenly.

With his trained abilities, when clues were given, weaving them together to create a timeline and reach a conclusion happened quite fast.

Thus, during the presentation, Jung-woo looked at the PowerPoint slides floating before him and thought of the man named Chun Jun-ho, the First Bureau Chief of the Management Bureau.

“Based on the data observed so far, it is confirmed that mana contains components that promote DNA mutation. This tendency is…”

He was the hero who allowed Korean society to maintain a form similar to before the Millennium Shock.

His achievements would never pale in comparison to any of the world’s other heroes.

However, his soft heart had invited tragedy.

In the face of political risk, he chose to sacrifice himself.

Fifteen years ago, he left for North Korea with a few colleagues.

The result was disappearance. With this much time passed, it was effectively a death sentence.

That was supposed to be the end of his story.

At least, until today.

“…Therefore, even without an atypical situation like a Zero Gate, we can conclude that a hunter’s body always carries the risk of mana erosion. Although no related cases have appeared yet, with the reclamation of Erosion Zones becoming a global topic, I judged it a subject worth discussing. I have prepared my presentation in this manner.”

Ho-jong was the one who had received the report regarding the Three-legged Crow’s corpse.

He had discovered the remnants of a familiar person in the swirl-shaped scar on the magical beast’s abdomen.

However, that scar could only be seen as the wound of the Pyongyang territory war.

A being that should have been human had left that scar through a territorial dispute among magical beasts.

“I will now take questions.”

Jung-woo found grounds to deny it.

But he couldn’t.

It was clear that parasites existed that used human bodies as hosts.

They were anomalies that violated the host and turned them into otherworldly magical beasts, and up to the future Jung-woo knew, they only appeared in Zero Gates.

And even then, it was a trait that only manifested regarding unawakened talents.

However—

“Isn’t using the Zero Gate as an example too much of an outlier?”

“In Otherworld Studies, everything is an outlier. Even the smallest data becomes evidence. For instance, if we add the theory that the Zero Gate’s parasite chooses a host among non-awakeners with low resistance to immediately secure a host, we can explain the principle.”

It was the answer to someone’s question.

“Prolonged activity in an Erosion Zone without safety measures carries a high risk of creating a parasitic environment for the parasite within the hunter’s body.”

Even the slightest denial became impossible.

“Demonification is sufficient to reinforce the case. Even in non-eroded lands, hunters are that sensitive to mana. It would be even more so with eroded mana.”

Because it was Jung-woo, and no one else.

Because Jung-woo was more obsessed with uncovering the principles of erosion and parasitism than anyone else, he saw credibility in that possibility.

“What do you think, Jung-woo?”

Ho-jong turned his head and asked the question.

Jung-woo could not answer.

Silence answered in his stead.

“…I see.”

Ho-jong turned his gaze back to the presenter.

“Hoping for another miracle was too conscienceless of me. Right?”

His eyes held a sadness that made him look somewhat desolate.

Kugugugugung—!

It was a place near the northernmost edge of North Hwanghae Province.

The master of the Cheon-hwa guild and the oldest S-Rank hunter in South Korea, Kwon-seung, floated in midair in a lotus position, looking past the mountain range at Pyongyang.

It was a city of ashes where the black flames that seemed eternal had been extinguished.

However, the landscape was different from the desolate silence after a war.

The waves generated by the resonance of dozens of runaway gates were unsettling.

Walking beneath them were magical beasts, their entire bodies twisted as if exposed to radiation.

It was an observation conducted by an S-Rank hunter using his supernatural ability.

Everything was revealed in detail, and because of that, he saw something.

‘He’s there.’

A place where the ashes had been shaped into a throne.

A humanoid magical beast wreathed in a dark aura sat upon it.

That unsettling power radiated past the mountain range, freezing his spine.

He tried to see more closely.

It was to deny the anxiety that had arisen when he saw the scar on the Three-legged Crow’s abdomen.

He made the image clearer.

He poured all the capacity of his Garden of Immortals solely into observation.

And so, the moment he tried to peel away the silhouette of the magical beast wrapped in a dark aura—

Taaaaaaaang—!

A black storm erupted from the throne and tore Kwon-seung’s body apart.

Far from that spot, at the base camp.

Kwon-seung lost his Wonyoungsin and opened his eyes in his main body.

“…Director Jeon.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

“Report to the Association.”

Deep fatigue was pooled in Kwon-seung’s eyes.

“Tell them we observed a new S-Rank Champion in Pyongyang.”

The tips of his fingers were trembling.