Chapter 1. Prologue
WEEEEEEEOOOOOO!
A deafening siren screamed while red light washed over the entire world.
People are precious.
That was a truth no one could deny.
Especially...
“Gueeegh...”
...in a world where 99.999 percent of the population had turned into zombies because of a virus.
Even then, I never gave up.
I killed anything that came at me.
I survived dozens of days on a single can of food.
I crossed entire continents.
All to find another living human being besides myself.
And at last, I found the final survivor.
Dr. Richard, Director of the United States Centers for Disease Control.
He had been hiding here, in a fortress stocked with mountains of relief supplies, a place sturdy enough to survive for a thousand years.
But today...
Dr. Richard had also been infected.
“There really isn't much time left now.”
He spoke weakly.
“There are no antibodies. In the end, everything will be over. And perhaps... that will finally be peace.”
Dr. Richard was a somewhat unusual man.
He believed the world was doomed to be destroyed by the zombie virus anyway.
So, in order to finally grant humanity peace, he had linked every remaining nuclear missile on the ruined planet into a single system.
“There is no hope. Only despair. This is God's punishment upon mankind.”
“Punishment?”
“Turning into a zombie is like being dragged into hell while still alive. We've confirmed that they retain consciousness for as long as they remain alive.”
According to Dr. Richard, zombies were conscious.
They simply had no way to express it.
They felt everything.
The sensation of chewing through the flesh of their own family.
The feeling of their bodies being hacked apart.
All of it.
“That's why I made that button, but...”
A button capable of launching every nuclear missile in the world at once.
That disaster-colored red button glowed right in front of us.
Dr. Richard's speech began to slow as the zombification progressed.
He spoke with regret.
“But in the end, I couldn't press it. Because I know the zombies aren't dead. They're still alive.”
“Zombies are just zombies.”
At my answer, Dr. Richard grinned.
“Then let me pay my respects to you one last time. You survived thirty years in this insane world... completely alone.”
Thirty years alone.
Once Dr. Richard died, I might have to spend eternity by myself.
“Still no change in expression. I know you're an emotionless bastard, but couldn't you at least look a little sad while I'm dying?”
“Do I just press this button?”
“...Right. That's the kind of person you are.”
Dr. Richard laughed weakly and muttered.
“Maybe someone like you really can press it...”
Those were his final words.
After that, nothing but animal-like growls came from his mouth.
Before the zombification fully took over, Dr. Richard had tied himself up tightly.
Now, a zombie wearing a white lab coat struggled at my feet.
I stepped forward.
Then, without hesitation, I pressed the button Dr. Richard had been unable to press.
[NUCLEAR MISSILES LAUNCHED.]
[NUCLEAR MISSILES LAUNCHED.]
[NUCLEAR MISSILES...]
...
It was over.
[10 seconds until target impact. 10... 9...]
The computer screen glowed red as it counted down.
[3... 2...]
Humanity could no longer continue.
This blue planet would soon become a sea of fire.
Because of me.
In a way, that was fortunate.
Humanity would be completely wiped out.
There would be no one left to record history.
Beeeeeeep.
Because if history had survived...
BOOOOOOOOM!
I would have been remembered as the greatest mass murderer in human history.
The man who killed seven billion people.
People were precious.
Thirty years had passed since the first Gate Break.
Countless people had died to monsters that suddenly appeared, and humanity began awakening as Hunters in order to save itself.
No one knew when or where the next Hunter capable of saving humanity might appear.
That was why people were precious.
Especially the person I'm about to meet.
Choi Ji-woong, a team leader of the Special Division under the Korean Hunter Association, had come to meet a man discovered inside a special Gate not long ago.
Returnee Code Number 007.
Alias, the Massacre.
This would be their second meeting.
The Gate where that man had appeared was beyond S-Rank.
Its rank couldn't even be measured.
He had been found inside a calamity-class Gate capable of determining the survival of South Korea, no, perhaps all of humanity.
Standing on top of countless monster corpses.
Looking more like a wild beast than a human being.
Step. Step.
Choi Ji-woong still remembered the sound of those footsteps.
The man had walked toward the dozens of Hunters who entered the Gate with solemn determination, prepared to fight for humanity.
That was as far as Choi Ji-woong's memory went.
In the next moment, every Hunter there, each one praised as a hero, had lost consciousness.
Later, they discovered the absurd reason.
Killing intent.
S-Rank Hunters had collapsed unconscious simply from the killing intent released by one man.
When they woke up, they were already outside the Gate.
Apparently, that man had carried all of them out.
A new S-Rank Hunter. No... he might be SS-Rank at minimum.
For the Korean Hunter Association, the fact that the Returnee was Korean was tremendously exciting.
With those expectations in mind, Choi Ji-woong arrived at the entrance of the safe house where the Massacre was staying.
The moment he opened the door...
He nearly died.
SWISH! CRACK!
A wooden stake flew from somewhere, grazing Choi Ji-woong's cheek before burying itself into the door.
“...Hic.”
Choi Ji-woong, team leader of the Korean Hunter Association's Special Division, hiccupped without realizing it.
The Special Division dealt with the Association's most dangerous and secretive work.
Every single member was a veteran Hunter ranked A or above.
And yet...
I... I didn't see it.
He hadn't even seen the stake flying toward him.
No.
He hadn't even reacted.
Most importantly, the stake wasn't even a magic-infused item.
What the hell is this...?
It looked like someone had carved it from the leg of a chair.
Yet that pathetic object had pierced straight through the door of the Association's highest-grade protective facility.
If its angle had been just slightly different, the thing it pierced wouldn't have been the door.
It would have been him.
A chill ran down his spine.
“I-It's me! Choi Ji-woong!”
He announced his identity almost entirely out of survival instinct.
Then, from one corner of the room, deep within pitch-black darkness, a quiet voice answered.
“...Sorry.”
It was unmistakably Korean.
“...So you were human.”
And finally, the person who had thrown the stake revealed himself.
Only his head peeked out from behind one of the kitchen pillars.
What kind of stealth skill is that?
Choi Ji-woong was shocked all over again.
After the weapon had flown toward him, he had raised his mana as much as possible, sharpening every sense to its limit.
He was in a state where he could feel the tiniest shift in the air, a single speck of dust, even the twitching of a muscle.
And yet he could barely perceive the other man's face.
His presence was unbelievably faint.
Terrifying killing intent had been stabbing into Choi Ji-woong's skin since before he entered the safe house.
But its range was so enormous that he couldn't even determine where the center was.
Was this what it felt like to enter a calamity-class Gate alone?
Still, what does he mean, “So you were human”? Does he think he's some kind of monster himself...? No, actually, maybe he is one.
While Choi Ji-woong was busy thinking useless thoughts, the man spoke.
“...Are you hurt?”
Even though half his upper body was now visible, Choi Ji-woong still found it difficult to properly sense him.
But there was something even more terrifying.
Shake. Shake.
The muscles throughout Choi Ji-woong's body trembled uncontrollably.
Even as an A-Rank Hunter, there was only one thing he could do.
Struggle desperately not to faint.
And still...
“...Are you all right?”
He could not get used to that killing intent digging into his flesh.
“I-I don't think I'm hurt.”
“Haah, haah. Y-Yes! I'm fine!”
As the Massacre approached until he was right in front of him, Choi Ji-woong stiffened like a newly enlisted soldier and shouted.
“That's good.”
The Massacre sighed in relief and checked him over.
Choi Ji-woong felt like a little child standing in front of a lion.
“Be more careful next time.”
“What?”
“I almost killed you...”
If anyone else had said they'd almost killed an A-Rank Hunter with a sharpened piece of wood, Choi Ji-woong would have laughed it off as a bad joke.
But coming from this man, it didn't sound like a joke at all.
“I deliberately missed just in case, but you really were human.”
The moment the Massacre fully revealed himself and looked directly into Choi Ji-woong's eyes...
Gulp.
Choi Ji-woong couldn't endure it any longer.
He fainted.
“...Why is everyone so weak?”
Kim Si-hyeon, the man who had survived the zombie apocalypse only to fall into a new world, clicked his tongue as he looked down at the unconscious Choi Ji-woong.
