The rain in Seoul didn't wash away the blood. It just pooled on the cracked pavement, a slick, coppery sludge that clung to Jin-woo's boots.
He slumped against a flickering neon sign for a 24-hour convenience store, his breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps. His left arm was dead weight. Where his windbreaker used to be, a jagged gash from a C-Rank Shadow Stalker had left a mess of shredded fabric and raw, pulsing muscle.
"He's done," a voice muttered, thick with disgust.
Jin-woo dragged his heavy eyelids upward. Kang stood over him. The raid leader, a B-Rank Tank, was encased in shimmering alloy armor that cost more than Jin-woo would earn in a lifetime. Rain beaded off its pristine surface, mocking the filth Jin-woo lay in.
"The gate is collapsing." Kang tapped the glass of his tactical watch. "Three minutes until the breach seals. If we stay to carry a dead-weight E-Rank, we all get buried in the Void."
"But he saved the healer!" a voice cracked. Min-ah stood trembling behind Kang. Tears cut clean tracks through the grime on her cheeks, and the healing magic in her hands had faded to a sickly, exhausted flicker.
Kang shot her a glare. "He did his job. He's a meat shield, Min-ah. That's what E-Ranks are born to do."
They turned their backs. Boots splashed against the wet asphalt, the sound fading into the roar of the downpour. They didn't look back. In the Hunter's world, empathy was a luxury that cost too much mana.
Jin-woo watched their silhouettes bleed into the swirling, ash-gray fog of the Gate. He was alone in the Dead Zone.
The Weight of the Silence
The silence hit him harder than the monsters.
Above him, the glass skyscrapers of Gangnam twisted like grotesque monuments. Thick, pulsing veins of purple quartz choked the steel frames. The sky hung low, the ugly, mottled color of a fresh bruise.
Jin-woo planted his good hand on the ground and pushed. His knees shook. His muscles screamed. He collapsed back into the oily puddle.
"So... this is it," he whispered to the empty street.
Twenty-four years old. Three years of scraping the bottom of the barrel, hunting garbage D-Rank mobs just to pay for his sister's tuition. The World's Weakest Hunter. The title choked him like a noose.
A low, wet snarl vibrated from the shadows of a crushed city bus. Three of them slinked out. Shadow Stalkers. They moved like liquid obsidian, their eyes burning with a hollow, sickly-green hunger.
Jin-woo was the bone.
He tightened his grip on the hilt of his broken iron dagger. The metal was freezing, his knuckles turning white. "Come on, then." His voice shook, but he bared his teeth. "I'm not dying on my back."
The pack leader sprang.
Jin-woo swung blindly. The broken blade sparked uselessly against the creature's hardened smoke-hide. A heavy paw, cold as ice, slammed into his chest, pinning him to the ground. Crack. The wet snap of his ribs echoed in his ears.
Blood filled his mouth. The neon light above him began to blur and fade.
I hate this, he thought. Why am I always the one bleeding? Why do I get the scraps while they get the feast?
The Stalker unhinged its jaw. The stench of rotting meat and charged ozone washed over his face. Jin-woo forced his eyes shut.
If I just had one more chance... just one.
Access Denied
[WARNING: Vital signs dropping below 1%.]
It wasn't a voice. It was a piercing, mechanical shriek that rattled his teeth—like a dial-up modem screaming in an empty cathedral.
[CRITICAL ERROR: User 'Lee Jin-woo' is slated for deletion.]
[Scanning for Administrative override...]
[...No Admin detected.]
[Unauthorized emergency protocol initiated: 'The Janitor's Key' detected in vicinity.]
Jin-woo's eyes snapped open. The world had stopped.
The Stalker's jagged teeth hung inches from his nose, completely frozen. Around them, raindrops were suspended in mid-air like shattered glass on invisible strings.
A screen hovered in front of his face. Not the pale blue Hunter interface. This was jagged, deep, and blood-red, bleeding raw lines of code.
[Do you wish to log in to the Root Directory?]
[Accept / Decline]
"Accept," he gasped, his lungs burning. "I... accept."
The Admin System
The red screen shattered into a million glowing shards.
[Welcome, User 0.0.1.]
[Authority Level: ADMIN (Temporary)]
[Executing 'Emergency Patch' on damaged hardware...]
A violent jolt of electricity ripped down his spine. He threw his head back and screamed. Beneath his skin, splintered bones snapped back into place. Severed muscles knitted themselves shut in seconds. The agonizing pain vanished, replaced by a cold, terrifying numbness.
[World Status: Paused.]
[Current Zone: Instance ID #4092 (Seoul Sector 7).]
[Detected Entities: 3x Shadow Stalkers (Trash Data).]
Jin-woo slowly sat up. He reached out and touched the snout of the lead Stalker. It felt like cold, hard plastic.
"Trash data?" he muttered.
A sleek, minimalist menu materialized in his vision.
Command Console
[Select Target: Shadow_Stalker_01]
[Available Actions: Move / Modify / Delete]
His eyes locked onto the word Delete. He tapped it.
The terrifying predator simply ceased to exist. In the blink of an eye, it dissolved into a flurry of green binary code and blew away like ash in the wind.
[Experience Points gained: 0 (Admins do not gain XP).]
[Loot Table modified: Forced Drop 'Void Essence' x10.]
Jin-woo's heart hammered against his newly-healed ribs. His hands flew across the red interface, tapping Delete twice more. The other two monsters vanished.
[Warning: Temporary Admin status expiring in 60 seconds.]
[To retain Admin privileges, you must complete the 'Security Breach' quest.]
Above him, the bruised sky tore open. It didn't just part; it unzipped, revealing an endless void of black code. A colossal, gold-plated eye stared down at him from the rift.
[NOTICE: The World System has detected a 'Virus' in Sector 7.]
[System Guardian 'The Executioner' deployed to eliminate the anomaly.]
A pillar of blinding white light crashed into the intersection fifty yards away. From the dust stepped a towering, faceless knight clad in liquid silver. It drew a broadsword that pulsed with holy, terrifying heat.
[Level: ???]
[Target: Lee Jin-woo]
[Status: Target marked for Permanent Deletion.]
Jin-woo stared at the glowing red console. His mind raced.
"You want to delete me?" Jin-woo gripped his broken dagger, a frantic smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. "I just figured out how this works."
The Executioner raised its sword. Jin-woo didn't step back. He tapped the search bar on the console and typed a single line:
//God_Mode = True
The red screen flared into a violent, blinding gold.
[CRITICAL WARNING: SYSTEM INTEGRITY AT RISK.]
[UNAUTHORIZED COMMAND ENTERED.]
The Executioner lunged, crossing the distance faster than the speed of sound. Jin-woo didn't even blink. He raised his bare hand, and the world screamed