The Returned Hunter Has Awakened to a Hidden Class - Chapter 1
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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1
Chapter 1
Regression.
The wind cuts through flesh.
“Damn it….”
Kim Jun was falling. A fall that began from the 100th Floor, an endless spiral of despair.
“Is this as far as I go….”
The top of the Tower, the limit of what humanity could reach. What awaited him there was nothing but despair.
‘Almighty?’
The being called the destroyer of worlds. With a single gesture, everything ended.
The strongest Hunter? An EX-grade existence?
‘How ridiculous.’
Kim Jun smiled bitterly. Only now did he realize how hollow the title of humanity’s strongest was.
Before the power called Almighty, he was nothing more than a single insect.
The skills accumulated over decades, the experience gained from countless battles, the power obtained through his comrades’ sacrifices.
Everything crumbled in an instant.
Rumble—
The collapsing Tower.
Kim Jun falls helplessly.
“Cough!”
Even while coughing up blood, Kim Jun gazed into the void. In the chaos where sky and earth were reversed, he prayed desperately.
“Just once. If only I could have one more chance….”
Falling toward the destroyed ground, he prayed again and again.
If given just one more chance, he could prevent Earth’s destruction. He could do it.
Therefore, in his final moment, Kim Jun clung to that something he denied with reason but desperately wished for in the depths of his heart.
Whether it was God, fate, or a miracle, it didn’t matter. For the first time, the man who had only believed in his own power throughout his life knelt before an existence greater than himself.
“Can’t you hear my voice? Can’t you hear the screams of the people?”
The debris of the collapsing Tower was falling to the ground along with him. He could see countless people dying, crushed under those massive fragments.
“Mommy, mommy!”
“It’s okay, it’s okay….”
A child holding their entire world in their arms, and a mother trembling while covering the child’s ears.
“Ah, ah… we’re going to die….”
People who had given up while watching the massive meteor fragments fall.
“Phew~.”
Those simply smoking cigarettes while waiting for their final moment.
‘It’s all my responsibility. I couldn’t save everyone.’
Kim Jun screamed.
But there was no one to hear.
Only the wind scratched past his body, and the ground grew ever closer.
‘Is this how it ends?’
Kim Jun closed his eyes. He could do nothing more. Regret, anger, despair—none of it mattered anymore.
It was simply the end.
But in that moment,
『—–. — — —-.』
A sound that could be heard, yet couldn’t be heard.
Flash!
*
“Jun hyung! Snap out of it!”
“Guild Leader? What’s wrong with you?”
Someone was shaking his shoulder.
Kim Jun slowly opened his eyes.
The damp Cave floor. Cold air. And faces looking down at him with worried expressions.
“Hyung, you almost gave me a heart attack. Why did you suddenly collapse!”
Park Min-soo. Tank. A reliable shield who never lost his smile. The comrade who died protecting him on the 70th Floor.
“Are you okay?”
Han Su-in. Assassin. Swift and quiet but with a warm heart, the comrade found with her throat slit after being ambushed by a villain on the 32nd Floor.
“Oppa?”
Ryu Ji-a. Mage. The cute youngest who followed him. The comrade who sacrificed herself creating an escape route on the 80th Floor Dragon’s Plain.
“What’s wrong with the Guild Leader? You must have hit your head!”
Lee Seo-yeon. Healer. The gentle and caring mother figure of the team. The comrade who died protecting him on the 95th Floor.
Kim Jun pressed his trembling hand to the floor. The cold, damp sensation. The musty smell characteristic of caves. And the sound of dripping water from far away.
‘This place is… a Red Gate?’
It was real. He had returned.
And to before everything began.
“Hyung, want some water? You collapsed right after drinking from that spring earlier.”
Park Min-soo offered him a water bottle.
‘Spring water?’
Spring water. Yes, the spring water.
Kim Jun turned his head to look behind him. A massive statue was carved into the Cave wall.
A woman’s statue with a benevolent expression. And transparent liquid dropping one by one from her eyes, forming a small puddle on the floor.
He vividly remembered losing consciousness briefly after drinking that water out of curiosity before his regression.
“Seriously, why did you drink something like that? Drinking an unidentified liquid in a gate.”
Park Min-soo sighed.
“That’s right, it was too reckless. Not like you, Guild Leader.”
Lee Seo-yeon also looked worried.
Kim Jun slowly stood up. His legs wouldn’t support him well, but there was something more important.
“What’s today’s date?”
“April 15th! Hyung, are you really okay?”
April 15th.
Three days before the Tower appeared in his previous life.
The moment they cleared this Red Gate and went outside, he had witnessed a massive Tower rising from the ground.
“This time will be different. This time.”
He didn’t know why he had regressed, but one thing was certain: this time he could change everything.
Kim Jun called up his status window.
—-
[Name]: Kim Jun
[Grade]: S
[Stats]:
– Strength: 60
– Agility: 42
– Intelligence: 28
– Health: 9430/10000
– Mana: 20
—-
Just before his regression, he had been EX-grade. The man who was humanity’s strongest Hunter had returned to S-grade.
But it didn’t matter. His experience, knowledge, and memories of the future remained intact.
“Maybe we should do this without hyung? We’re enough on our own anyway.”
Kim Jun looked at him. The younger brother who had followed him to the very end after the Tower appeared.
The man who died saving him on the 70th Floor.
“Min-soo.”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
“What, what’s this? This is really serious!”
Park Min-soo was flustered. These were words that Kim Jun, who was usually taciturn, would never say.
Kim Jun looked at Han Su-in and Lee Seo-yeon, then at his remaining companions one by one. They were all people who had sacrificed themselves for him.
‘This time is different. This time I’ll protect you all. Every single one.’
Making this promise in his heart, Kim Jun walked toward the depths of the Cave.
“Where are you going?”
“To catch the boss.”
“The boss? We haven’t even explored properly yet? The scale is much more vast than expected.”
“It’s fine. I know the way.”
The deepest part of the Cave, a massive space.
There would be the Red Gate’s boss monster, the ‘Guardian of the Relic’.
An S-rank boss monster. Before his regression, he had struggled against this opponent after arriving by defeating all the monsters along every path, but Kim Jun knew a hidden route.
It had taken a full two days just to explore this ‘Lost Relic’ Red Gate, and he had made a map in case such gates would appear again in the future.
*
One hour of taking the shortest route while avoiding traps and monsters.
“This way.”
Kim Jun pointed to a small crack in the Cave wall. It looked like just a fissure from the outside.
“Hyung, can we get through there?”
“Trust me and follow.”
“No, I’m asking if my body can fit through…”
“Ah.”
Park Min-soo looked down at his sturdy build. Nearly 2 meters tall with a trained, muscular physique. Getting stuck in doorways was a regular occurrence for him.
“…It gets wider once you go in.”
“Ugh!”
After squeezing through the narrow gap, surprisingly, a wide passage appeared. Ancient characters were carved into the walls, and the floor was spotlessly clean without a speck of dust.
“Wow, this really is the Boss Room?”
In just 1 hour and 10 minutes, they arrived at the Boss Room. A massive circular space, with a giant in golden armor kneeling at its center.
And along both walls, dozens of stone soldier statues stood in rows. All holding swords with their heads bowed, looking as if they were dead.
“Grrrr…”
The Guardian raised its head. Through the gaps in its helmet, only empty darkness was visible.
“Who is it… who has trespassed upon the relic.”
A low, eerie moan echoed throughout. The moment the Guardian began to slowly rise, the sound of stone cracking could be heard from various spots on the walls.
Crack-
“Hyung! To the side!”
What had appeared to be statues all came pouring out at once.
Kim Jun and his companions immediately began forming their battle formation.
“Kuooo! Over here! This way!”
Tank Park Min-soo let out a thunderous roar, drawing the monsters to one location. He blocked the enemies’ sword strikes with his massive shield, creating a perfect wall.
“「Inferno」!”
A massive pillar of fire erupted from Ryu Ji-a’s fingertips. With a wide-area attack befitting a mage, she swept away the stone soldiers all at once.
Slash-
Swish swish swish swish-!
“….”
The monsters that survived the wide-area attack collapsed to the floor with daggers embedded in their backs.
“Guild leader!”
Lee Seo-yeon reached out toward Kim Jun. Warm light enveloped Kim Jun, applying both a protective barrier and movement speed buff simultaneously.
Shing-
Kim Jun drew his sword.
Step step-
And he walked.
Staring at the boss before him, he walked with his greatsword in hand.
Whoosh-
The greatsword soon began to hold flames along Kim Jun’s fingertips.
“Come.”
“Insolent…”
The Guardian fully stood up and raised its massive axe.
An intimidating 5-meter frame, ancient mana seeping through gaps in the golden armor made the air vibrate.
“Pay the price.”
Boom-!
The axe struck the floor, and a massive shockwave spread in all directions. Kim Jun had already moved away from that spot.
‘Just as expected.’
It was exactly as he remembered from before his regression. The Guardian’s patterns, attack timing, everything.
Whoooosh-!
The Guardian’s axe swung horizontally. Kim Jun lowered his body, dodging with a slide while simultaneously raising his greatsword upward.
The very moment the axe blade passed over his head-
Crack-!
The flame-wreathed greatsword pierced through the gap in the Guardian’s left shoulder joint and began burning its interior.
“Graaah! How dare a mere human! Let me show you…,”
“Trying to move to phase 2? Sorry, but I won’t let that happen. Die like this.”
Before his regression, this Guardian had persistently repeated resurrections across a total of 5 phases.
It was a nightmarish opponent that plunged the raid party into despair by rising again every time they thought it was dead.
Because of that grueling battle, they had wasted several days recovering from injuries even after the Tower opened.
He had no intention of letting that happen this time.
Both his companions and himself needed to climb the Tower as quickly as possible.
“Ah, was it up to five times?”
“How, how do you know?”
He wouldn’t give it any openings.
Thud-
Kim Jun pushed the greatsword deeper while concentrating all his mana into the blade. Even if his head spun, even if his body swayed, it didn’t matter.
‘I’ll end it in one go. Before it can advance.’
“Im, impossible! Who are you! How do you know all my…,”
The Guardian cried out in a terror-stricken voice. But Kim Jun didn’t give it time to finish speaking.
“「Explode」.”
Whoosh-
Whoosh-
Boooooom-!
Ding!
[Guardian of the Relic elimination complete.]
[Hidden clear complete.]
[Additional rewards will be granted.]
.
.
.
[‘Relic Key’ acquired.]
.
.
.
[An entrance is being created.]
*
“Oh! It’s breaking! Isn’t it cleared?”
“Red Gate cleared! Hurry up and put out the breaking news!”
It was chaos in front of the Red Gate.
Reporters thrust their cameras forward, soldiers shouted into their radios. Onlookers murmured with expressions of disbelief.
The Red Gate that no one had dared to touch.
Since it was certain to be at least an S-rank dungeon or higher, even the Large Guilds had turned away from it.
But a guild of only 5 members had cleared it.
Just like ‘today’ as well.
“I, I’m out! Guild Master!”
“Hunter Kim Jun! How was it inside!”
“It was a Red Gate, and you cleared it in just 2 hours! How do you feel?”
Kim Jun and his colleagues walked out through the barrage of questions.
Han.
South Korea’s 5th ranked guild. Only 5 members. But all S-rank elite.
“Why do you think the other Large Guilds didn’t participate?”
The reporter asked bluntly.
“Gates open nationwide. Besides, Red Gates are dangerous. They must have had their circumstances.”
Kim Jun answered calmly.
“But the ‘Han’ Guild has always handled these dangerous gates, haven’t you?”
“Haha….”
That was actually true.
Suddenly occurring gates, gates corrupted by accidents, Red Gates that no one wanted to touch.
Places that were ignored even when the Hunter Association offered additional bonuses were always handled by ‘Han’.
“Will you be donating half of today’s profits as well?”
“Yes. I believe we are who we are today because of those people.”
‘Han’ spared no support for veteran hunters who had fought against unknown entities before information about gates and hunters was established.
An era with no system and no information. The first-generation hunters who simply risked their lives and led the way.
Today’s safe hunter system was built upon their sacrifices.
That’s why reporters poured out even more articles praising ‘Han’ and putting down other guilds.
After all, that’s what got the views.
Virtuous Small Guilds versus selfish Large Guilds. It was a predictable narrative, but the public loved these stories.
“Now, now, let’s direct the questions to Park Min-soo here! Hahaha!”
While the reporters flocked to Park Min-soo, Kim Jun quietly stepped back.
“Three days.”
Unconsciously looking toward Yeouido.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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