A Hunter on Borrowed Time Keeps Surviving - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 1.
【You have been cursed with “Death Sentence” by the Trial Dragon.】
【You will die in six months.】
【Time remaining: 183 days 23 hours 59 minutes】
Si Ul stared blankly at the holographic screen hovering before his eyes.
Beyond the display, an SSS-rank Trial Dragon with luminous teal scales waited, shimmering in the light.
‘This has to be a joke.’
Two events had befallen Si Ul today—each rarer than being struck by lightning.
First: on his inaugural day as a Hunter, he had been caught in a Black Gate.
A Black Gate refers to the bizarre phenomenon in which a Dungeon’s dimensional structure inverts into another realm entirely.
The probability of occurrence was a mere 0.00001%.
And that jackpot had blown open today, of all days.
‘Why does the lottery have to hit here, of all places….’
Si Ul’s Hunter rank was D-rank.
The Dungeon he had entered for his Raid was likewise D-rank.
Yet suddenly, the Black Gate phenomenon had erupted, transmuting his Dungeon into an SSS-rank nightmare.
‘Has there ever even been an SSS-rank Gate in the country….’
In truth, not even an S-rank had manifested before, let alone anything higher.
His Party members had been torn to shreds by high-tier Monsters.
Alone by sheer accident, Si Ul found himself cornered by an opponent far worse than any he could have imagined.
“ROOOOOAAAAAARRR—!!”
The SSS-rank Dungeon’s boss himself had descended: the Trial Dragon.
Never in his wildest fears had Si Ul imagined that his first Raid as a newly awakened Hunter would pit him face-to-face with the world’s highest-ranked Dungeon boss.
‘Even nightmares don’t get this cruel, damn it!’
Then came the second rare occurrence.
This one, mercifully, had tilted toward the positive.
Second: he had been struck by curse magic—said to be wielded only by creatures of the Demon Realm.
On the surface it sounded like anything but fortune, yet it was decidedly not the worst outcome.
『 The Gate’s exit will now open. 』
The moment Si Ul received the curse of death from the Trial Dragon, a warp hole of blue light materialized.
『 The cursed one is permitted to exit the Dungeon. 』
“…!”
Si Ul hurled himself into the warp hole without hesitation.
‘Curse or no curse—survive first, worry later!’
With that singular thought, he bolted forward without looking back.
How many D-rank Hunters lived to walk out of an SSS-rank Dungeon?
Si Ul could not afford to squander such a precious lifeline.
* * *
When his senses returned, he stood at the heart of Hongdae Intersection.
Spring sunlight blanketed the street.
A peaceful, unremarkable district.
To Si Ul, it felt utterly alien.
‘Did I just… dream all that?’
He wished that were true, but the holographic display still hovered at the edge of his vision.
【You have been cursed with “Death Sentence” by the Trial Dragon.】
【You will die in six months.】
【Time remaining: 183 days 23 hours 56 minutes】
What had just transpired was undeniably real.
The death notice itself testified to that truth.
‘So I’m really going to die in six months?’
His heart sank into the depths of his chest.
Si Ul—twenty-nine years old, unmarried.
Today’s date: May twenty-fifth.
Six months hence: November twenty-fifth.
Death scheduled for a time when the first snow would not yet have fallen.
And worse still…….
‘I won’t even make it to thirty!!’
It was a curse beyond despair.
Still in his late twenties, the age felt impossibly young to die.
Yesterday he had been in perfect health, never even catching so much as a cold.
‘This can’t be right!’
Si Ul raked his hands through his hair in frustration.
Then, as he glanced down, the hologram screen scrolled, and the final sentence hidden at the bottom came into view.
.
.
.
【If you kill the Trial Dragon, the curse will automatically vanish.】
There was a way to survive.
It was certainly a hopeful statement.
But Si Ul’s expression didn’t brighten one bit.
‘How the hell am I supposed to do that…….’
The Gate connected to the dungeon had vanished the moment Si Ul returned to the real world.
It meant he had no way to meet the Trial Dragon.
Even if he somehow managed to find the Gate again, how could a mere D-rank Hunter like Si Ul possibly defeat the boss of an SSS-rank Dungeon?
‘A commission…! I’ll commission an S-rank Hunter!’
Si Ul’s head snapped up.
The curse description contained no condition stipulating that Si Ul had to kill the Trial Dragon through his own power alone.
If that was the case, perhaps he could break the curse by commissioning a strong Hunter to kill the Trial Dragon in his stead.
[Daeho Guild Customer Service Hotline: 1577―XXXX]
The Daeho Guild—the strongest private Hunter organization in South Korea.
If it meant breaking the curse, Si Ul was prepared to scrape together every last penny and loan he could to commission an S-rank Hunter.
— This is Lee Min-jung from Daeho Guild inquiries. How may I help you?
“Hello! I urgently need to file a commission right now!”
— Yes, please go ahead.
“I entered a Black Gate and…….”
Si Ul stopped mid-sentence.
A warning message had appeared before his eyes.
【※Warning※ If you disclose any information related to the Trial Dragon, your death notice will be moved up significantly.】
— Hello? Customer?
A voice came through the phone urging for a response, but Si Ul couldn’t speak a single word.
Beep… beep….
The call ended.
Only then did Si Ul’s throat finally open.
“What kind of goddamn nonsense is this…!”
It was a warning in crimson letters, as if commanding him never to speak carelessly.
Only then did Si Ul understand.
The curse was more than just a death sentence.
The real suffering lay elsewhere.
The true curse was this: he couldn’t tell anyone about his situation.
“…….”
Si Ul’s eyes grew increasingly dim.
Six months from now, he would be dead.
He wanted to break the curse, but he couldn’t ask for help from anyone.
Solving it alone was practically impossible.
Trapped in this damned dilemma, Si Ul was forced to endure days that were merely the shadow of living.
* * *
A week had passed since the curse took hold.
During that time, Si Ul had lived like a recluse.
Upon investigation, the D-rank Gate before it turned into a Black Gate had already vanished.
Naturally, the record was left as follows.
<Dungeon cleared successfully. Majority of party members deceased in the process.>
Since it was common for Hunters to die in dungeons, Si Ul had no difficulty maintaining his silence without drawing suspicion.
But weighed down by guilt for not revealing the truth, he visited the funerals of each and every party member.
And today, all the funerals had come to an end.
Click—.
As Si Ul left the Convenience Store, he cracked open the bottle of Soju immediately.
The Soju he swallowed recklessly had no taste at all.
“Guess my tolerance is shot when I’m about to die.”
The rain started falling right on cue.
Though it was only three in the afternoon, the world was cloaked entirely in darkness.
Perfect weather for straight soju.
“Damn it! That’s way too much, isn’t it?!”
Si Ul, drunk and reeling, stormed down the street with a tirade of curses.
Oblivious to the stares of passersby, he soliloquized like the star of some grand theater.
“If I’d at least made some money as a Hunter before this happened, I wouldn’t feel so cheated!”
And he had every right to be furious.
Twenty years ago, Gates connecting to other dimensions had opened, and monsters came pouring through.
At the same time, certain humans became Awakened Ones—a new profession, Hunters, who hunted these monsters.
Since they protected the world, the government paid Hunters an enormous salary.
And if they sold items like Mana Stones acquired inside Gates, they could earn even greater wealth.
“I thought my life was finally blooming….”
Si Ul had dreamed of becoming a Hunter since childhood.
Raised as an orphan, he’d started life from a different line than everyone else.
He’d always longed to close that gap, but three months ago, a hologram message appeared before him.
【You have become an Awakened One!】
From that day on, Mana began to flow through Si Ul’s body.
He had gained the chance to become a Hunter and make his mark.
Si Ul headed straight to the Hunter Association that very day.
After completing the Awakening Rank assessment, he underwent registration and training.
The measurement results placed him at D-rank, falling between F-rank and S-rank.
Though a lower grade, Si Ul was thrilled nonetheless.
“D-rank Hunters supposedly earn more than a large corporation’s salary, so I was overjoyed….”
He thought his life was finally changing.
At least, until he eagerly entered his first Raid and became embroiled in this mess.
“Argh!! I’m so damn furious!!!”
Si Ul swung the soju bottle in his grip wildly through the air, venting his frustration.
Crack! Thunder answered him with a roar.
“Ah.”
A man in a business suit passing nearby let out a small gasp and stopped in his tracks.
He was holding an umbrella, but liquid had splashed across his cheek.
Alcohol from the soju bottle Si Ul had swung had sprayed onto him.
“Hey, come here.”
The man spoke to Si Ul from behind.
Si Ul turned around, his eyes flushed red.
“What?”
Whether from the alcohol or the recklessness of a man soon to die, Si Ul’s aura was nearly that of an S-rank Hunter.
“What? What the—look, you little bastard.”
The man lowered his umbrella.
In that moment, a red flower-shaped Badge appeared near the left breast of his suit.
Si Ul’s shoulders jerked in surprise.
‘Ah… I’m screwed….’
A red flower-shaped Badge.
It was the mark of an A-rank Hunter.
High-ranking Hunters of A-rank and above received such commendations from the state.
“You know who I am?”
Jang Jin Young. Thirty-one years old. Seven-year veteran A-rank Hunter.
The most notoriously foul-tempered blockhead among Korean Hunters.
“Come here. You ignoring me?”
“No, sir. It’s just….”
Jang Jin Young approached roughly, and Si Ul cautiously backed away.
But just as the distance between them closed, a shriek suddenly tore through the surroundings.
Kugugung—!!
The ground trembled with a violent gust of wind.
Si Ul and Jang Jin Young spun around, startled, and saw a massive silhouette rising above a distant building.
“Kaaaaack!!”
The piercing cry of a monster echoed across the city.
Greenish skin. Enormous bat-like wings. Teeth sharp as daggers.
“…… A Wyvern Goblin?”
Jang Jin Young identified the monster and went pale.

Not a goblin or the small-fry crawling across the earth we know.
A goblin that had evolved into a higher form, an A-rank monster claiming dominion over the sky.
Its size was roughly ten times that of an ordinary goblin.
That was the Wyvern Goblin.
“Did the Gate explode?! How is that thing on the street…!”
In this day and age, monsters escaping beyond a Gate were rare.
But if a dungeon went unconquered for too long, the Gate’s barrier function would degrade, and something like this could happen.
“SCREEEEE!”
The Wyvern Goblin didn’t so much as glance around.
Its target was already fixed.
Whoooosh—!
The Wyvern Goblin’s wings tore through the urban landscape.
Cracks spiderwebbed across building windows, and dust and debris rained down below.
Soon the Wyvern Goblin landed on the road.
Concrete buckled beneath its weight, shockwaves rippling outward.
It stamped across the asphalt and stood there, its bloodshot eyes fixed downward on Si Ul.
It had chosen him as its prey.
“Fall back!”
The moment Jang Jin Young cried out, the Wyvern Goblin’s wings spread again, wider and fiercer.
Its body shot forward like a bullet.
The speed was so inhuman that Si Ul’s eyes couldn’t possibly follow it.
The Wyvern Goblin bared its fangs and lunged at Si Ul with terrible ferocity.
“Ah.”
All Si Ul could manage was a short, sharp exhale.
There was no time left to dodge.
The Wyvern Goblin was already upon him, jaws spreading wide with a sickening creak.
……Right then.
【The trait ‘Undefeated Until Death’ activates.】
An interface window materialized in Si Ul’s vision, obscuring the monster.
‘……?’
Brief as it was, time seemed to freeze for him in that instant.
‘What is this?’
As if answering his question, text appeared on the screen.
【You will never die until your designated date of death arrives.】
The Doomed Hunter’s Survival
Author |
Kutsummatsu
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Editor-in-Chief |
Editorial Department
Published by |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. — Dream Books
Address |
7th Floor, Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
UCI |
G720:N+A063-20260731071
Blog |
blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter (X) |
@dreambookss
Submissions |
[email protected]
The contents of this book may not be used in any form or by any means without the express written permission of Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. — Dream Books.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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