TLNHS 1

Chapter 1

I awakened.

But then….

[Huh? You can see me? Nice to meet you, homeowner!]

From that day on, I started seeing ghosts.

[I was getting bored! This is great! Let’s live together happily from now on!]

There was only one thing I had to say to the uninvited guest.

“Get out.”

The most important thing to consider when choosing a career is always job security.

There are three things that matter most.

Does the salary come regularly without delays?

Is there any risk of the company going bankrupt?

Are workers’ rights, as guaranteed by law, properly protected?

I wanted a job that satisfied all of these conditions, and at last, I got one.

A civil servant.

A perfect, secure job that was guaranteed for as long as the country itself didn’t collapse.

I had finally achieved the dream I’d had since childhood.

There was nothing more I could ask for from life.

Civil servants were famous for their low salaries, but I saw that as an investment in the future.

Because civil servants had pensions.

I would diligently save even the little money I earned, buy a small house somewhere in the countryside when I got old, and enjoy a leisurely life after retirement while collecting my pension.

Civil servants also had solid job security, so if I took out a loan at the right time, perhaps I could buy my own home much sooner.

It was my perfect life plan.

At least, until a ghost appeared right in front of me in the corner of my room.

[You’re a Hunter, right? I used to be a Hunter too! So when are you going to the Tower?]

“Shut up.”

I never imagined that someone else… no, a ghost, would be living with me in the three-room jeonse apartment I’d rented with a loan.

This was definitely a brand-new apartment, too.

[If you’re a Hunter, you have to climb the Tower!]

I had absolutely no intention of doing that.

Being a Hunter meant accepting an irregular lifestyle as a freelancer.

There were guilds to provide some sort of shelter, and it was technically classified as a profession, but the fact remained that it was fundamentally an unstable way to live.

But I was a civil servant of the Republic of Korea, with a stable career guaranteed by the government.

And civil servants were prohibited from holding second jobs.

“Get out of my house before I come back from work.”

[Geez! You’re really uptight! Are you a T?]

“……”

In all my life, I never thought I’d hear something like that from a ghost.

“Don’t let me see you again.”

Bang─!

I usually closed the front door carefully, but today I slammed it a little harder.

It was a forceful declaration of my intentions.

“Mr. Lee, you’re here? You’re early again today.”

“Yes, but where did everyone go?”

The people who were usually here at this hour were nowhere to be seen.

“Ah, well, apparently there’s going to be a presidential address to the nation today. An emergency one.”

“A presidential address?”

Even if it was an emergency, news of something like this would normally spread somehow beforehand.

If there wasn’t an official notice, there would at least be rumors circulating internally.

But this time, there had been no warning and no official notice.

“Yes. So the district mayor told everyone to gather in the auditorium. I stayed behind to guide the others.”

Come to think of it, Officer Kim was holding a roll of Scotch tape and some printed sheets of paper.

[Everyone, please come to the auditorium when you arrive at work!]

“You can go ahead first.”

“Understood.”

When I arrived at the auditorium, I saw a lot of familiar faces.

“Hey, Officer Lee. You’re here?”

“Yes, Team Leader. But what’s going on?”

“It’s a secret, but….”

The team leader looked around before lowering his voice.

“You know about Hunters, right?”

“…Hunters?”

“Yeah. Until now, we’ve left them to operate independently, right? We left it all to the Hunter Association.”

“That’s right.”

“They’re apparently thinking of changing that.”

“What do you mean?”

An address concerning Hunters being announced the day after I awakened.

I couldn’t help feeling uneasy.

The team leader began whispering in an even more secretive voice.

“They’re apparently going to establish a new agency.”

“Establish one?”

“Yeah. The Hunter Management Agency.”

“Then….”

The team leader suddenly put on a solemn expression.

“Officer Lee, by any chance, have you awakened?”

“……!”

The question came out of nowhere, and I was startled.

But judging by the atmosphere, the team leader didn’t seem to mean anything by it.

“They’re apparently going to create the Hunter Management Agency by recruiting only Awakened people. Until now, people would just quit their civil service jobs as soon as they awakened, right?”

That was true.

Because civil servants were prohibited from holding other jobs.

That was why I hadn’t even breathed a word about it yet.

The team leader smacked his lips and continued.

“If only I’d awakened, I’d apply right away. What a shame. Apparently, they’ve really gone all out this time. The annual salary is…”

“If they’ve really gone all out, does that mean the pay scale is completely different?”

“Yeah, don’t even get me started. Their first-year salary is equivalent to our twentieth pay grade. And on top of that….”

Twentieth pay grade?

Did that mean the salary started at thirty or forty million won?

“You know the byproducts that come out of dungeons? Apparently, those will be compensated separately too. There are even tax benefits.”

“……”

“They’re planning to specially recruit some existing Hunters this year. Apparently, the official notice being sent around now is to prevent further defections in the future.”

I’d heard plenty about dungeon byproducts on the news. They were basically called Bitcoin that came out of dungeons.

Job security as a civil servant, official permission to hold another occupation, and even tax benefits on dungeon byproduct coins?

If that were true, owning a stable home of my own wouldn’t be a dream anymore.

It might even be possible as early as next year.

And in old age, I could keep collecting my pension without fail.

“That’s me.”

“…Huh?”

“The civil servant Awakened person you’re desperately looking for. I’m right here.”

“Uh… Officer Lee, don’t tell me you’re actually…?”

“Yes. I awakened yesterday.”

“You awakened?!”

“Seriously!!!”

“What? Officer Lee did?”

In an instant, the auditorium erupted into an uproar.

So much for a secret conversation. Everyone had been listening.

There were still about ten minutes until nine o’clock, the scheduled time for the presidential address.

In that case, I should start with the one thing every Awakened person apparently did.

“Status Window.”

A transparent blue window appeared before my eyes, like proof of my status as an Awakened person.

<Name: Lee Jihoo Lv. 1

Class: Necromancer

Rank: Not Yet Measured

Nation: Korea

Title: Sealed

Stats: Health [20] Mana [10] Spirit Power [300] Mental Power [10] Attack Power [810] Defense [10] Strength [10] Intelligence [200]

Skills: Summon Spirit 1 (S), Exorcism 1 (A), Materialization 1 (A), Eye of Truth 1 (A)>

<Rank Information:

Measurement Location: Tower Floor 10.

Evaluation based on tutorial floor (Floors 1–10) clear results, title, potential, and other factors.>

S-Rank Seal.

Gather information after defeating the boss on Floor 40.

Benefits after unsealing:

Priority in all judgments related to spirits.>

Sealed?

And what did having priority in judgments mean?

“All of you, please take your seats!”

Someone shouted from the stage.

It was Officer Kim, who had sent us to the auditorium earlier.

A few minutes before the presidential address was scheduled to begin, a video started playing on the multimedia screen in the auditorium.

“It was sent out by the Presidential Office.”

The team leader sat down beside me as he spoke.

Against an entirely black screen, white letters appeared one by one.

[We will remember them.]

The screen brightened, revealing the figure of someone.

A single ray of light descended from a sky filled with clouds.

A woman stood within that brilliant light.

[Play.]

She said only one word.

And then—

Fwoooosh─!

The light spread outward, raising everyone around her to their feet.

People who had collapsed from severe injuries to their arms and legs, people bleeding from wounds that had pierced their stomachs, people lying helplessly on the ground—all of them were suddenly bathed in that light.

Then, an astonishing transformation began.

Their wounds disappeared as if erased by an eraser.

Severed arms and legs began growing back.

One person who had been lying there waiting for the end shed tears as he reached a hand toward the light.

As though giving thanks for God’s grace.

“Isn’t that Lee Se-a?”

“You know her?”

“Officer Lee, don’t you know? That’s Lee Se-a, who used to be No. 2 in the Hunter rankings.”

Used to be No. 2?

Did that mean the rankings had changed?

But what came out of the team leader’s mouth was something I hadn’t expected.

“It’s a shame. She died. Was it about six months ago?”

“She died?”

“Yeah. Where was it again? The Tower on Gwanaksan Mountain?”

“……”

Come to think of it, I vaguely remembered hearing about it.

Even the district office had been in an uproar over the incident for a while.

Being a Hunter really was a dangerous profession.

It was a relief that the Hunter Management Agency was being established.

Otherwise, I would have had no choice but to hide the fact that I’d awakened until the very end.

This time, another person appeared on the screen.

On a vast stretch of land.

A man was surrounded by monsters.

At a glance, there seemed to be well over a hundred enemies surrounding him in several layers.

But he remained calm.

The man raised his gaze and swept his surroundings with cold eyes.

[Is this your answer?]

And then….

A magnificent sword grazed the neck of a monster.

But that alone was enough.

Slash─!

In an instant, more than a dozen monsters’ heads fell to the ground, severed by the sword energy.

And that was only the beginning.

A feast of blood.

The battle was overwhelming.

It was nothing short of a one-sided massacre.

The district office employees watching the screen cheered and shouted their support for the man.

“As expected! Korea’s No. 1 Hunter!”

“No wonder he’s ranked fifth in the world!”

“That’s reassuring!”

“Cha Junhyuk! Cha Junhyuk!”

“So satisfying!”

But I….

No way.

No matter how I looked at him, he seemed familiar.

The exact same facial features as the ghost I’d encountered at home.

There was no doubt.

The ghost who had been squatting around my house was that very man—the No. 1 Hunter in Korea, Cha Junhyuk.

But the Cha Junhyuk on the screen and the ghost in the corner of my room outside the screen had such completely different atmospheres that it was hard to believe they were the same person.

I hadn’t really known what Cha Junhyuk looked like in the first place, but the reason I hadn’t recognized him immediately was actually because of this.

Then the screen changed.

The Presidential Office briefing room, with blue curtains hanging behind it.

The president standing before them had a serious, heavy expression.

The president closed his eyes and spoke.

[We will now observe a moment of silence.]

Everyone looked puzzled at the words.

“A moment of silence?”

“Why all of a sudden?”

“Ah, is it for Se-a?”

[Hunter Cha Junhyuk’s vital signs ceased at 17:00 three days ago.]

Everyone stopped moving.

Not even the sound of breathing could be heard.

As if time itself had stopped in the briefing room, the president calmly looked around the room once before continuing.

[Based on our investigation, he is presumed to have died inside the Tower.]

“…No way.”

“Is that true?”

“The news hasn’t said anything about it yet…!”

Confused voices filled the auditorium.

The reporters sitting in the briefing room also began murmuring among themselves.

[For the sake of accurate verification, this matter was kept strictly confidential. However, yesterday, his death was confirmed as a fact.]

“How…?”

Something impossible had happened.

Even I, who rarely watched television, had heard his name countless times.

Thanks to Cha Junhyuk, our country had been able to remain at peace.

He had conquered the uppermost floors of the Tower, allowing us to enjoy ordinary daily lives like we used to.

The fact that I could live without really knowing what Cha Junhyuk looked like was, in a way, thanks to him as well.

After all, they say that when a country is enjoying a peaceful era, its people don’t even know the ruler’s name.

[Two months ago, we had to send off an S-rank Healer named Lee Se-a. And yesterday, we once again lost an S-rank Hunter named Cha Junhyuk.]

Amid the gloom, someone’s voice quietly rang out.

“…What are we going to do now?”

Everyone was probably feeling the same way.

If our country could no longer conquer the Tower with its own strength, that was when hell would begin.

It was even covered in the study materials for the civil service public administration exam.

San Marino, a small country in Europe, had issued an evacuation order for its entire population after a Tower collapse.

And Congo had repeatedly rented top-level Hunters from other countries until its foreign exchange reserves were depleted. In the end, it had no choice but to apply to the IMF for financial assistance.

The situation inside the briefing room still looked as though a typhoon had just passed through.

After all, becoming a reporter assigned to the Presidential Office was no easy task.

Each media company selected only its most experienced veterans to send to the Presidential Office press corps.

Yet even this collection of the best reporters was unable to hide their confusion.

[Mr. President!]

[Do you have evidence?]

[Are you certain he’s dead rather than merely missing?!]

At that moment, the Blue House spokesperson stepped in to calm the situation.

[Once the address is over, we will hold a separate question-and-answer session. So for now, please remain quiet.]

The reporters seemed to have plenty to say, but for the moment, they stopped asking questions.

The president’s speech resumed.

[My beloved citizens.]

The president looked directly into the camera with an expression filled with emotion I had never seen on him before.

[We are now facing the greatest crisis since the founding of the Republic of Korea.]

Sighs could be heard from all around.

Someone even began quietly sobbing.

[And so, I would like to make one promise to all of you here today.]

“A promise?”

“Ah, could it be…?”

[I will no longer simply stand by and watch. I will prevent any further innocent sacrifices.]

The president’s eyes became resolute once more.

That gaze seemed to reveal his firm determination.

[From this moment forward, the government will share the heavy burden they have been carrying.]

Another wave of murmuring swept through the room.

Whose burden was the government talking about sharing?

But if you thought about it carefully, there was only one possible answer.

There was only one organization currently responsible for Hunters.

[Until now, we have entrusted the Hunter Association with the management of Hunters. However, this burden was never something a single association could bear.]

The president took direct aim at the Hunter Association.

[Therefore, the government takes full responsibility for the current situation and intends to develop measures to improve these circumstances. As the first of those measures….]

The president had phrased it as indirectly as possible, but this was practically a declaration that the government intended to take the Association’s authority away.

And the means would probably be this.

[Effective immediately, the Republic of Korea will establish the Hunter Management Agency.]