Novel Test - Chapter 1.1

001. Awakening Dream

 

 

 

 

 

There are countless ways to divide people into two groups.

Men and women, the rich and the common, ordinary people and celebrities, people with disabilities and those without.

But lately, the criterion most often used to categorize people is this.

The awakened and the non-awakened.

Ten years ago.

When the rifts in the world called ‘gates’ opened, people began, at very low odds, to awaken mysterious abilities.

Before long, people learned that from gates all over the world, monsters that kill humans were popping out.

They realized that the superhumans who had awakened new abilities could fight them head-on.

Those awakened who fight monsters on the front line are called hunters.

Among them, those with exceptional abilities became regulars on broadcasts and YouTube, gaining worldwide fame and enormous wealth.

The so-called S-rank hunters.

It was the rise of elite awakened.

They enjoy tremendous rewards just by raiding high-grade gates once every few months.

Nice houses, nice cars, the public’s envy.

Being popular with the opposite sex goes without saying, and some S-ranks even command massive fan clubs or wield power bordering on unchecked, using their abilities as leverage.

I stared at my laptop with a gloomy face.

‘That’s all a foreign tale to me, anyway.’

I was a non-awakened hunter.

Hunter ranks start at D-rank and go up to S-rank.

But even the lowest rank, D-rank, was only for those who had awakened an ability.

Someone like me, a non-awakened, can become a hunter, but such people are jokingly called E-rank hunters, or lumped together as porters.

We clean up after awakened hunters, carry their gear, rummage through the corpses of dead monsters to extract Aether crystals, and haul valuable resources on our backs.

If we happen to run into a live monster, we run for our lives.

At best, our last stand is some potshots with the pistol issued by the Association.

When I think about this, I start to doubt whether choosing the path of a hunter was really the right thing.

So why did I become a hunter?

Because my family was killed by monsters.

In a word, revenge.

In a world like this, it’s about the most common reason there is.

Propping my chin, I stared at the pretty face that had popped up on my laptop screen.

B-rank hunter ‘Fireball’ Jang Seulbi.

She was the one person you could call my only childhood friend.

As a kid she was a little shrimp who got teased, but now, at twenty-five—the same age as me—she was a full-fledged active hunter.

The internet news was reporting that Seulbi had teamed up with A-rank hunter ‘Shielder’ Min Kyungwook to raid the gate that appeared in Suwon.

True to her moniker ‘Fireball’, Jang Seulbi’s ability was to control fire.

Like magic in a game, she gathers flame and shoots fireballs—that’s her attack pattern.

Even monsters are living beings, so they’re often weak to fire attacks.

They say she’s especially excellent at raiding insect-type or beast-type monsters.

In short, it was one of the top-tier combat abilities specialized for gate raids.

‘……Jealous.’

Honestly, I feel inferior.

I know jealousy is just ugly, but seeing someone I’ve known since childhood show up in articles like this made me feel self-loathing.

‘C-rank, no, even D-rank. If I could just awaken, I’d have no more wishes…….’

Some say that if a non-awakened goes in and out of gates often, they’re more likely to awaken under the influence.

That was why I insisted on playing porter and tagging along with hunters.

It’s not certain, but I’m basically grasping at straws.

It’s the only effort I can make, I suppose.

Keeping my body busy has the advantage of shaking off bad thoughts.

I suddenly frowned.

‘Ugh. More hate comments.’

Just like with celebrities, it’s common for named hunters to be trailed by trolls.

I knew reading the comments would only sour my mood, but I scrolled anyway.

― Is Jang Seulbi a goldfish’s turd? She just doggedly chases Min Kyungwook lol

― There must be something between them. Otherwise why would an A-rank drag a B-rank around?

― Sigh, if only I were A-rank…… That Shielder punk, so damn enviable. Please let me awaken a high-grade ability already

Choked up.

Whatever my complicated feelings about Seulbi, seeing comments like this about her makes my blood boil.

‘What do you guys know about Seulbi. Jang Seulbi isn’t like that.’

Having been close to her since we were little, I know best.

Even if she tosses off her words and seems blunt on the surface, Jang Seulbi is fundamentally kind and timid.

It’s true that her joint hunts with A-rank hunter Min Kyungwook have gotten much more frequent lately, but that’s only because they’re in the same guild.

The fact that Min Kyungwook is fairly handsome, or popular enough to get asked for autographs on the street, has nothing to do with it.

Face burning, I started hammering at the keyboard.

I know engaging only hurts you, and that ignoring is the right answer.

Even so, I couldn’t hold back.

Tap, tap-tap. Clack, tap, clack!

Just as I finished my rage-typing and was about to hit Enter.

Bzzzz.

I looked down at my vibrating phone.

[Jang Seulbi] Yo. What are you doing

“…….”

About to go to war with your haters.

I couldn’t reply that.

After a moment’s hesitation, I deleted the comment I’d just written.

Then I picked up my phone and sent a reply.

[Ji Woojun] Just chilling

[Jang Seulbi] hehe

[Jang Seulbi] Do a job with me

“……?”

Work together?

[Ji Woojun] I’m non-awakened so I’m useless tho

[Jang Seulbi] Just say whether you’ve got time tomorrow or not. Quick

[Jang Seulbi] It’s not dangerous

I let out a small sigh.

This had happened once before, too.

She knew I sometimes skipped meals to save money, and dragged me to a cleared gate, saying she’d give me a paying gig.

It really did make money.

I picked up two pricey aether crystals, as if someone had planted them there for us.

Thanks to that, I got over 2 million won in hand, paid the urgent rent, and even ordered fried chicken.

‘……But.’

That day, Seulbi had surely spent the whole day with no gains.

While I was hunting for aether crystals, she just kept watch for monsters and cracked jokes.

If she’d gone off to hunt without me in that time, she would easily have earned a few hundred.

I didn’t want her wasting time like that because of me.

But I was too strapped for cash to turn her down flat.

“…….”

When I didn’t reply for about 5 minutes, another text came in from her side.

[Jang Seulbi] You could probably make a bit more than last time?

[Jang Seulbi] Don’t want to?

[Jang Seulbi] Hey

[Jang Seulbi] Hey

[Jang Seulbi] Heyheyhey

[Ji Woojun] Ah, why

[Jang Seulbi] I’m saying let’s do it together

[Jang Seulbi] Tomorrow work? Or not?

After hesitating a bit, I pressed down hard on the smartphone keyboard.

[Ji Woojun] It’s because I feel bad for you

[Jang Seulbi] Ugh. There you go worrying about useless stuff again.

[Jang Seulbi] I’m calling you since I have to go anyway?

[Jang Seulbi] I’m telling you it’s a better opportunity than before

[Jang Seulbi] Ah, forget it

[Jang Seulbi] I’ll pick you up at 9 tomorrow morning

[Jang Seulbi] Get comfortable clothes and shoes ready and wait. ok?

Seriously, why does she do all this for someone like me.

I agonized for a long time, then sent a short reply.

[Ji Woojun] OK

[Jang Seulbi] (emoticon)

Back came a cute emoticon giving a thumbs-up and shouting ‘Good!’.

 

* * *

 

The next day.

I washed up thoroughly and waited in front of my place for Seulbi’s pickup.

Of course I also brought along the Association-issued 9mm pistol for large monsters, the so-called ‘popgun’.

The moment it hit 9 sharp her sleek gray Range Rover SUV pulled up.

I’d looked up the price before, and with full options it ran over 90 million won.

At twenty-five, the only ones who can drive a car like this are either born with a silver spoon or hunters.

Seeing Seulbi’s face through the window, I opened the passenger door and got in.

Jang Seulbi changed gears and set the car in motion.

“Right on time?”

“I have to. A B-rank hunter is coming for me, after all.”

Seulbi chuckled awkwardly and glanced at my face in the rearview mirror.

“But why do you look tired?”

“It shows?”

“Yeah.”

I rubbed my cheek, a bit rough with stubble.

“Didn’t sleep much, had a weird dream.”

“What kind of dream?”

“……the end of the world.”

Seulbi’s expression turned a little strange.

“You…… could that be an awakening dream?”

Awakening dream.

In English it is called Awakening Dream (Awakening Dream), or Transition Dream (Transition Dream).

It’s said that the awakened have a very striking dream, like an omen dream, right before their abilities awaken.

A staple motif in that dream is the end of the world.

In a world facing the apocalypse, you suddenly feel immense omnipotence and slaughter the enemy before your eyes from a first-person point of view.

That was the typical storyline of an awakening dream.

But my dream last night was a bit different.

A world where steel, glass, concrete, and human corpses were shattered and mixed together into heaps of trash.

It was definitely an apocalypse.

But I felt no omnipotence, that is, no sense that I could do anything.

Instead, what I felt was an intense sense of defeat.

And sorrow.

I can still see it vividly.

The neat yet shadowed face of a woman who was giving me a lap pillow as I lay collapsed.

A single cold tear fell from her otherwise impassive eyes onto my cheek.

And I think she said something.

Something about the ‘seventh dream’ or whatever.

I frowned and shook my head to shake off the thoughts.

“It’s not like that. Nothing had changed when I woke up in the morning.”

“Really?”

Usually, after an awakening dream, your abilities manifest the moment you open your eyes the next day.

Sometimes you see a status window, sometimes you hear a strange voice.

Or you might become able to see things like the flow of aether or mana pervading the world.

Even Jang Seulbi dozed off in class, had an awakening dream and right after waking sparked flames in the lecture hall, causing a big commotion.

Nothing happened to me.

Seulbi muttered as if to herself.

“It’d be nice if you awakened too…….”

“Well, yeah.”

No one wants that as desperately as I do.

After that brief exchange, we hardly spoke until we reached our destination.

 

One hour later.

We were at the hill behind an apartment complex in Pangyo.

“Here?”

“Yeah.”

Within bright yellow tape marked Do Not Enter, a hole about 5 meters in diameter gaped, emitting a grotesque light in five colors.

It was a gate.

No matter when I see it, it’s a spine-chilling sight.

Usually Association staff or guild hunters stand guard out front to block civilian entry, but it seems the clear is over and the personnel have withdrawn.

Even if someone were guarding it, with B-rank hunter Jang Seulbi with me, we could go in and out all we wanted.

“Weren’t we going to Suwon?”

“That one’s B-rank danger, so no. This place was cleared by another team yesterday, it’s D-rank and they say there are still lots of uncollected crystals.”

By crystals, she meant aether crystals.

Since the Great Upheaval, several new energy sources have appeared in the world, the representative one being aether.

Aether is said to be both the source of the special power granted to the awakened and the food of the monsters that spill out of gates.

Apparently, the reason a hunter grows steadily stronger by hunting fiends is actually because they naturally absorb the fiend’s aether.

Conversely, if a fiend kills a strong hunter and absorbs that hunter’s aether to grow, it can become difficult to put down.

Inside a gate, aether is distributed more densely than outside and sometimes forms crystals, which are essential components in gate-related devices and, for the awakened, a means to increase their power.

Accordingly, large, high-quality aether crystals tended to sell for very high prices.

“There won’t be any fiends. Let’s go in.”

She said that, vaulted over the no-entry tape, and went into the gate without delay.

“Hey, let’s go together!”

I hastily stuck my head into the gate after her.