TRGBH 01

When I was young, my grandfather used to say,

• The more you empty yourself, the more you become filled, and the more you give, the more you receive in return.

Before going to sleep, I would always quietly repeat those words to myself.

But as I grew older, one year at a time, I naturally came to realize something.

Emptying yourself was never easy.

Humans were creatures who only became thirstier the more they filled themselves.

“Father, were you like this too?”

My father was also an awakened and a hunter, just like me. Unfortunately, he suddenly disappeared in the year I was about to graduate from elementary school.

My father must have known the sentence my grandfather always repeated like a habit. He must have heard it until he was sick of it.

But he couldn’t put it into practice. He couldn’t empty himself.

Just like me now.

“Ah… damn it. I’m almost there…”

Inside a chamber with a high ceiling.

Ash-gray walls surrounded the chamber in a circle, and torches hung at regular intervals along them.

I was standing in the center. One of my legs had been cut off, and I had a long, deep wound along my side. I was holding the wound shut with one hand, but blood was pouring down the back of my hand.

Beside me, a huge lizard-man lay sprawled on the ground with its tongue hanging out.

Despite its ugly appearance, it was a strange bastard who had kept lecturing me in fluent Korean.

Going on about timelines and telling me not to break taboos.

If it was going to talk like it was so smart, it could at least have attacked me a little more politely.

When I looked at my left leg, which had not only been crushed by that bastard but also severed, nausea suddenly rose in my stomach.

Fortunately, my body had already entered an awakened state, so I couldn’t feel any pain.

However, I had no strength left to move. Maybe I’d lost too much blood.

Anyway, to clear the dungeon, I had to open that reward chest over there.

‘It’s far. So far… Can I make it there with my one remaining leg? Wouldn’t it be better to use the escape ticket now? But Daram, Kim Daram! Even if you’re going to die, shouldn’t you at least open that thing before you die…?’

I still had the escape ticket I had spent a fortune to obtain before entering this place.

But because my wounds were so deep, even if I successfully escaped, there was no guarantee that I would survive.

Still… wouldn’t my chances of survival increase by at least a tiny bit?

I didn’t think for long.

Escape, my ass.

I was going to open the chest. If I died without opening it, I might die with a grudge in my heart and become a ghost bound to this chamber, wandering here forever.

My head spun, and I became dizzy. I had lost too much blood. I couldn’t delay any longer.

Grandfather, I’m sorry. Even at the very end, I couldn’t empty myself.

But I can’t help it.

After killing the boss, there’s no way I can leave the dungeon without opening the reward chest. Even Buddha himself couldn’t make me do that.

I summoned the only puppet needle I had left.

Then I immediately drove it into the back of my neck.

A tingling sensation, like electricity running through my body, spread across my entire body. My vision became clear, and strength returned to my arms and legs.

I had already exceeded the safe usage limit of the needle by a long time. Under normal circumstances, I would have suffered aftereffects that would leave me bedridden for a month or two.

But what lay before me now was either death or a miracle.

There was nothing left to hide or save.

As I walked toward the chest, I called up my status window.

——————————

【Kim Darum】

【Level】: 52

【Traits】

└ [Manipulation] Puppet (LV 4)

└ [Special] System Observer (LV 3)

【Corruption Rate】: 0%

【Ranking】: Below Standard

【Performance Score】: 78,394

——————————

“Damn it.”

My level had increased by two after killing that lizard-man. My performance score had also risen considerably.

But that damn message next to my ranking was still the same.

“Entering the top 1,000 is going to be a long and difficult road.”

I hurriedly ran toward the chest with my one remaining leg and finally reached it.

It was an ordinary chest with a black, glossy surface. It wasn’t much different from the ones that appeared whenever I entered the system and cleared a stage.

“Please…”

I had high hopes.

From the way I entered, to its structure, to the boss, there had been nothing ordinary about this place.

As someone who had worked as a hunter for nearly twenty years, even I found this dungeon stage filled with unfamiliar things.

So…

Could there be an incredible reward? An absolutely amazing reward…?

Finally, I opened the lid of the chest.

At that exact moment, a spear flew from behind and pierced straight through my heart.

“Cough…”

What…? Where did that come from?

Was the lizard-man still alive?

No, that was impossible!

I had definitely defeated it and leveled up.

That meant the system had recognized its death.

Then how…?

Had a new enemy appeared?

Unable to shake off my curiosity, I turned my head to check the enemy.

But I soon gave up on that thought.

Let’s check what’s inside the chest.

That came first.

I forced open my closing eyes and looked inside the chest.

But there was nothing inside.

Thinking that I might have seen it wrong, I reached into the chest with my hand.

But there was nothing there.

“Ah, seriously… This dungeon really knows how to drive a person crazy until the very end.”

Grandfather, if this grandson is ever reborn, I promise I’ll live my life practicing the art of emptying myself.

My eyelids slowly closed.

Along with a ringing sound in my ears, my head drooped and my forehead touched the bottom of the chest.

My consciousness faded away.

The last thing I felt was the cold touch of the empty chest.

I opened my eyes.

The cold sensation I had felt just moments ago was completely gone.

“Where is this…?”

I slowly looked around.

It was a place more familiar to me than anywhere else.

But it was also a place I hadn’t set foot in since becoming an adult.

It was none other than the room I had used as a child.

I looked around the room with nostalgic eyes before fixing my gaze on the mirror hanging on the wall.

I saw the figure of a young boy.

He was holding a red ticket in his hand and blankly staring at himself in the mirror.

‘A red ticket…?’

I remembered this moment perfectly.

How could I forget?

March 1st, the year I turned nineteen.

The exact moment I tore the red ticket and became an awakened.

I had never been the type to get startled easily since I was young.

No matter what happened, I was always calm.

But this time, I think I should be a little surprised.

“Holy shit…”

I placed both hands over my chest, trying to calm my pounding heart.

It had already been fifty years since the system first intervened in this world.

Since then, countless strange events had occurred around the world that couldn’t possibly be understood or accepted with common sense.

And I knew those bizarre phenomena caused by the system very well.

Why?

Because I’d spent a full twenty years in the hunter industry, an occupation that couldn’t be separated from the system!

“Regression to the past…”

But I had never even heard of, let alone witnessed, a reward like this.

No, was this even a reward?

Honestly, I had no idea.

I stood in front of the mirror and carefully examined my entire body.

Nothing had changed.

No matter how many times I checked, I was definitely nineteen years old.

I quietly looked at the red ticket in my hand.

It was a palm-sized piece of paper dyed bright red, as if it had been dipped into a bucket of red paint and pulled back out.

On the day the system first appeared on Earth, tens of millions of red tickets rained down from the sky all over the world.

And those who tore the tickets could become awakened.

Just in case, I called up my status window.

“…”

Nothing happened.

Of course it didn’t.

The ticket was still intact in my hand.

I had definitely returned to my ordinary, unawakened state from before I became an awakened.

I raised the ticket to eye level and examined it carefully.

“A fresh start…”

I suddenly thought back to my previous life.

I never achieved the kind of incredible success where everyone would recognize my name, but I was proud that the people around me respected me and that I had done my part.

Of course, I had gone through every kind of hardship imaginable, and the ending wasn’t exactly good either.

Even the trait I gained when I awakened in my previous life was 【Puppet】.

Its potential became endless as its level increased, but it was never a trait I would recommend.

It was difficult to handle, and during the early stages when I needed to establish myself as a hunter, it wasn’t very useful in combat.

In fact, for the first ten years after becoming a hunter, I had to survive at the very bottom of the industry, barely clinging to my life.

And now I had been given another chance.

A chance to tear the ticket and receive a new trait.

“Hmm…”

Of course, there was also the option of throwing away the ticket and never becoming an awakened.

But that wasn’t an option for me.

I had a reason why I absolutely had to become a hunter.

Although that reason had gradually faded during my twenty years as a hunter, until I eventually forgot about it.

But now, standing once again at that crossroads…

That reason had come back to me with perfect clarity.

My father’s disappearance.

The clues he left behind.

To reach the truth, I had to become a hunter.

I didn’t hesitate for long.

I would tear the ticket.

And I would become an awakened.

I had no idea how this had happened, but since things had turned out this way, I was going to give it another try!

But then again…

What kind of trait would I get this time?

Whatever trait I received, I still had twenty years of valuable experience as a hunter.

Even if things went badly, I could definitely climb higher than I had in my previous life.

That much was certain.

But if I could choose…

“Phew…”

My head was filled with all kinds of thoughts.

In my previous life, I had simply accepted whatever trait I was given because I knew nothing.

But things were different now.

I was the one who knew better than anyone just how much the trait given at awakening could determine a hunter’s entire life.

But wait…

Let’s think about this for a moment!

Wasn’t this obviously the moment when I was supposed to receive an incredible trait?

Whether it was a novel or a comic, when the protagonist regressed, wasn’t it standard procedure to give them at least an S-class ability?

I took a deep breath.

Greed began filling me from the deepest part of my stomach.

Suddenly, I felt as if I could hear my grandfather’s voice from somewhere.

• The more you empty yourself, the more you become filled…

I quickly shook my head.

Grandfather!

This isn’t the time to empty myself!

I got another chance to tear the ticket!

Let me pull a super rare one first!

Then I’ll empty myself afterward!

I promise!

Rip.

I tore the ticket.

Drumroll…

At the same time, a translucent status window slowly appeared before my eyes.

——————————

【Kim Darum】

【Level】: 1

【Traits】

└ [Manipulation] Puppet (LV 1)

【Corruption Rate】: 1%

【Ranking】: Below Standard

——————————

“Fuuuuuck!”

I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Ah, actually, I wasn’t someone who cursed very often.

Even among hunters who were known for having filthy mouths, I was especially famous for being polite.

But this was too much!

How could I not swear?!

There were so many traits in the world!

There were as many traits as there were tickets!

And I got the exact same trait!

I had to start my hunter life all over again with that damn Puppet?

My head throbbed.

I’d been too hasty.

I should have torn it tomorrow instead of today.

No, I should have waited just a few minutes longer.

No!

Things like this should be attempted exactly on the hour so you wouldn’t have bad luck…

All kinds of regrets filled my head.

Then, suddenly, my boiling emotions cooled down.

‘Kim Darum! Don’t repeat the same mistake!’

Hadn’t I made a promise before I died?

If I were ever reborn, I would fill myself by emptying myself.

Then why was I clinging so desperately to something that had already happened?

Let’s think about this calmly.

I thought I had died, but I had come back alive and perfectly healthy.

Not only that, I had returned with all my memories intact, in the fresh body of a nineteen-year-old.

Yes.

Let’s be satisfied.

Let’s be grateful for everything that had happened and do my best to live.

When had I ever relied on my trait to get through my life as a hunter?

That’s right, Darum.

At that moment, the status window flashed, and a notification sound rang out.

“Hmm?”

I absolutely wouldn’t get my hopes up.

I had already let go of everything.

I opened the status window again.

My fingertips trembled.