‘No joke.’

Go Byeonggap felt a powerful urge to smoke. He actually pulled a pack from his inner pocket. But instead of taking one out and putting it between his lips, he shoved it back in. Kim Hana standing beside him made him hesitate. So he just stared ahead.

At the sight of kids whose baby fat hadn’t even fully faded, butchering monsters.

Jane, Do Eunho, Kang Hancheol. All three of them swung greatswords the size of their own bodies. He worried they’d cut off their own ears swinging them around.

Turned out that worry was pointless. A wildcat worrying about a lion only ends up making a fool of itself.

“Kghahahaha—khh!”

The monster that appeared alongside Gados was a Cabra.

An insectoid giant with a spider’s body and a dinosaur’s head. It was about the size of a small bus.

Both Gados and Cabra were monsters too fearsome to need introduction. If those creatures had appeared in the middle of a city, killing a hundred people wouldn’t even be a challenge. But not this time. No, it couldn’t be.

Because between the top 19% and the top 2%, there existed an absolute, unbreachable gap of power.

“Kihih!”

“Kyaaak!”

“Khk!”

Jane. The black-haired girl with skin pale as moonlight moved like she was performing magic—she tore the enemy apart without even touching it.

Do Eunho. The buzz-cut boy, youngest of them all, possessed strength beyond measure. Watching him swing his sword made you feel like he was swinging a mountain.

Kang Hancheol. Impossible to track with the eyes. Whenever Byeonggap tried to catch even his afterimage, a spray of blood would erupt from some completely unexpected spot. The salt-and-pepper streaks in his hair didn’t even have time to get stained red.

Kim Hana watched the three children fight with eyes like a hawk’s. She seemed like an emotionless robot.

Roughly an hour and thirty minutes had passed since they entered the hidden world assault.

There had been several battles so far, but Kim Hana had yet to wear a single satisfied expression.

‘What the hell are these people?’

Go Byeonggap couldn’t shake the thought. They weren’t running rifts for money.

‘It feels like they’re running some kind of test, but…’

He was glancing at Kim Hana’s side profile, lost in thought, when a monster leaped up from ahead.

“Gyaaaaaaah!”

A Gados. The creature’s high jump brought it thudding down, aiming straight for Byeonggap and Kim Hana.

Go Byeonggap gasped, sucking in air as his hand shot to the hilt of his sword by instinct. But there was no need for him to step in.

When Gados was within five meters, its body suddenly burst apart.

Literally exploded—a wet, percussive pop.

‘Wh… what just happened?’

—Shiiing!

Kim Hana was already sheathing her blade.

Go Byeonggap couldn’t even process what had occurred.

‘She cut it?! She hadn’t budged an inch beside me—when the hell did she move?’

He looked back and forth between the Gados’s corpse, now scattered in thousands of pieces, and Kim Hana.

“…Tch!”

Kim Hana bit her lip hard, visibly struggling to swallow her anger.

‘She’s pissed again…’

The fact that she’d let a monster slip past up ahead clearly chafed at her. Go Byeonggap took an instinctive step back.

‘Anyway, the boss bastard should be showing up any minute now, right?’

He’d bagged a good two hundred by now, and the fresh wave of eighty-odd monsters was nearly cleared. That meant the boss monster would show up at the latest, next wave.

‘Tch. Better get ready for my part.’

Go Byeonggap hummed a little tune as he reached for the dagger hanging from his belt. And right then—

‘!?’

He sensed a threat so primal it defied words—like a gun barrel pressed to the back of his skull.

No time to think, no room to hesitate. Byeonggap whipped out his longsword and swung it behind him.

-Crack!

The blade collided with something solid.

“Ghhk!”

A monstrous shock traveled up the sword, rattling his entire frame. Byeonggap’s eyes snapped wide as he took in the thing that had ambushed him.

‘Raven!’

Raven. An A-rank humanoid monster.

Stood about two meters tall. Its muscular body was a sickly gray, with pipe-like veins bulging across every inch of its form.

Its face was utterly featureless—no nose, no mouth—just eight blood-red eyes.

Raven was known for reshaping its limbs at will. Right now, its arms had formed into jagged wedges.

‘You son of a bitch!’

Byeonggap’s body moved on instinct. He shifted his stance to deflect the attack, then stabbed his blade into the opening—a hair’s breadth of opportunity.

The edge struck Raven’s neck dead-on. But it didn’t cut through—it didn’t even leave a scratch.

Shit!

‘Damn it! I should’ve wrapped myself in karma!’

Lower-rank awakeners rarely had cause to channel karma. What was the point when you had barely a trickle of the stuff to begin with?

0.1 seconds.

No. Less than half that—a fraction of a fraction of a moment.

Locking eyes with Raven, Byeonggap felt a voice seeping into his skull.

—Aberrant being. What are you?

Those were the words Raven had spoken.

—Ssssssh!

Raven pulled another trick from its sleeve: stealth. That was how it could close in without a whisper—no presence, no warning.

Sensing the creature was about to flee, Go Byeonggap hurriedly flooded his longsword with karma.

And in that instant—

Snap. Raven’s head went flying.

Kim Hana’s doing. She looked at Byeonggap, her face flushed.

* * *

‘…What the hell is this guy?’

Kim Hana stared at Go Byeonggap, eyes wide. A bead of cold sweat traced down her forehead.

‘Sure, my mind was wandering, but… he reacted faster than me. And that movement just now?’

She had seen it clearly.

Go Byeonggap blocking Raven’s attack and driving in a counterstrike in the same motion—the action straight as a bamboo joint, yet fluid as water.

Even with the perfect counter, Go Byeonggap’s strike didn’t sink into Raven. Because it was a ‘raw’ attack — one carrying no karma.

‘He can’t be a high-rank awakener, can he?’

Kim Hana swept her gaze over Go Byeonggap again, from crown to sole. Nothing had changed. The karma radiating from him was still faint — weak as ever. A low-rank awakener through and through.

‘A low-rank awakener blocking an A-rank’s attack? And a stealth ambush at that?’

Her head spun.

With Raven dead, the hidden world quivered. A subtle vibration. This rift’s boss, then.

“Hssss…”

Go Byeonggap grimaced, rubbing his arm.

Kim Hana hurried to stop him.

“Don’t touch it! It’s probably broken.”

Even if sheer luck let him block it, taking a high-rank’s blow as a low-rank meant at least a fracture.

Hell, he’d be lucky if every bone in his arm wasn’t powder.

But Byeonggap seemed utterly unbothered.

“No. It’s not broken. Just tingling. Should be fine in a bit.”

“…What?”

She froze for a solid second.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

An urge she couldn’t suppress. Hana reached out and felt his arm — fingers trailing the skin. Beneath bark-tough flesh, muscles writhed.

‘It’s true. Not a single break. And this man… just how has he trained his body?’

She hadn’t bothered to notice before, but now it was obvious. His body was anything but ordinary.

It was tough as raw rubber, hard as tempered steel.

In a hunter’s world, where karma’s quantity and density measured strength, bodies like this were nearly impossible to find.

Still touching him, Hana sneaked a peek at his karma.

‘About D-rank.’

She’d hoped — but no. It was as paltry as ever.

And yet.

‘A swordsman’s hand, but soft.’

Go Byeonggap felt strange with Hana touching his arm. Never imagined he’d be skin-to-skin with an S-rank hunter.

Should he brag about this to the whole neighborhood?

‘Tch. Nowhere to brag. Might as well tell the goblins.’

After a moment of kneading his arm, Kim Hana let go.

She opened the side pouch of the backpack Byeonggap was carrying. Inside, a top-grade potion — an elixir — sat nestled in cloth.

One hundred milliliters worth over three million won. Pricey, sure, but the real issue was supply: scarce enough that most hunters never even laid eyes on one.

Kim Hana unscrewed the cap and held it out to Byeonggap.

“Drink about a fifth. No more than that.”

Byeonggap stared at the elixir, hesitating.

Could he really drink something that precious just for a numb arm?

“Is it on the house? Or are you deducting it from my pay?”

Kim Hana wore an expression of utter incomprehension.

“No payment. Your injury was my negligence.”

Free? No reason to refuse that.

Go Byeonggap accepted the elixir with careful hands.

“Just a fifth of it. No more.”

“Ah, yes, ma’am.”

‘Gives it to me then bitches about how much I take.’

Byeonggap touched only his lips to the bottle, then pulled away. He figured he’d downed about 18 mL.

He smacked his lips, savoring it. The pain in his arm vanished in an instant. And that wasn’t all—his shoulders, sore for ages from carrying packs, felt washed clean and light.

They said it was a wonder drug, a miracle cure. Damn if it didn’t live up to the price tag.

As Byeonggap marveled,

Kim Hana still watched him with those meaningful eyes.

‘If he’d died, that would’ve been a headache. Lucky.’

If the porter she’d brought today hadn’t been Go Byeonggap, they’d be arranging a corpse by now.

“Master.”

The three children approached, having finished off all the monsters.

Kim Hana regarded them with a cold gaze. They bowed their heads, rigid with tension.

She let out a short sigh and spoke.

“Let’s talk when we’re back. Mr. Byeonggap, please gather the magic stones. You kids help him.”

“Yes, Master.”

Byeonggap and the children set to work collecting magic stones.

He glanced at Kim Hana. She was deep in thought, her brow furrowed.

He whispered to Do Eunho beside him.

“How old are you?”

Eunho flinched at being addressed.

He didn’t answer right away, instead checking Kim Hana’s reaction.

‘What the? Can’t even speak without her say-so? …Fuck. Is this child abuse?’

It wasn’t totally outlandish speculation.

If it was true, how should he handle it?

Call the cops? Or the Association?

“…Fourteen.”

“Fourteen?”

Byeonggap was appalled. Hunters didn’t discriminate by age, but fourteen was pushing it.

He glanced at Kim Hana again. She wasn’t paying them any attention.

“You sure you’re okay?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, if you three are going through something messed up. If Ms. Hana is—”

Byeonggap was about to ask, ‘Is she abusing you?’

But before he could, Eunho shook his head.

“Master is kind.”

“Ah… Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“So, what’s your relationship with her?”

“……”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

Silence.

The two of them wordlessly pried out more magic stones and packed them into the bag.

Byeonggap hated the quiet. He felt like he should say something, anything.

“Don’t look so down. If you ask me, all three of you are incredible. I’m just a D-rank porter, so I don’t know much about your world, but even I can tell you’re something special. And you’re all still young — your futures are wide open.”

“Ah… yes. Thank you.”

“And from what I can see, Ms. Hana is a bit overbearing — ahem.”

Go Byeonggap caught sight of Kim Hana’s head turning and quickly clamped his mouth shut.

Kim Hana withdrew her gaze after a moment.

“Anyway, keep your spirits up.”

With all four of them pitching in, the magic stone retrieval was over quickly.

They slipped out of the hidden world and headed back to where they’d parked.

“I’ve wired the payment. Go ahead and check.”

“Ah, yes. I’ve got a text. …Huh?”

Go Byeonggap peered at the amount transferred and tilted his head.

“What’s this? You sent six million won instead of three million.”

“It’s right. I made a mistake earlier, so I added a little extra.”

‘What? Why?’

Honestly, it didn’t make sense.

A porter’s job is to put his life on the line for money too.

There was no obligation anywhere for Kim Hana to ‘keep Go Byeonggap safe.’

But.

‘Just keep quiet.’

He decided not to make a fuss. It wasn’t like she was shortchanging him — she was paying more. No point in poking a sleeping dog.

“Well then, get home safe.”

Go Byeonggap and Kim Hana’s group parted ways.

Kim Hana stood still, watching Go Byeonggap leave.

“What did you talk about with that man?”

She asked Do Eunho.

Do Eunho hesitated before answering.

“He asked how old I was.”

“That’s all?”

“…He also asked if Master was mistreating us.”

“And what did you say?”

“I said Master is a good person.”

“Good. You did well.”

Kim Hana paused, then spoke.

“Do you think I’m mistreating you?”

“No, Master.”

The three children said in unison. A shadow of sadness crossed Kim Hana’s face.

“Come here, all of you.”

She gathered the three children into her arms. They nestled into her embrace without resistance.

“I’m sorry. Bear with it a little longer, even if it’s hard.”

“Don’t say that, Master.”

“We’re happy being with Master. It’s not hard.”

“We’ll always stay by Master’s side.”

The four of them stayed like that for a while. After a moment, Kim Hana let the children go.

Her voice was lighter when she asked.

“What did you all think? The man we worked with today. Didn’t you sense something special about him?”

“Huh?”

“Something special?”

The children tilted their heads, looking clueless.

“I don’t know. I didn’t feel anything.”

“Me neither.”

“He just seemed like an ordinary lower-rank awakener. Why do you ask?”

“No, nothing important. Let’s head back.”

Kim Hana offered a subtle smile and climbed into the car.

‘If he really is an Irregular, I’ll run into him again even if I leave him be.’

With that, Kim Hana erased Go Byeonggap from her thoughts.