Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong!"

There was no time for further conversation.

Baek Cheon-myeong immediately understood what Kang Ha-min meant and grabbed him.

"Hold tightly."

The window opened.

Baek Cheon-myeong leaped from the high-rise building.

The night sky rushed past them in an instant.

Normally, Kang Ha-min would have screamed.

But his expression was more serious than ever.

His parents might have been caught inside a Dimensional Break.

There was no way he could remain calm.

Baek Cheon-myeong kicked through the air.

Soon, Donghwa Hospital came into view.

A transparent barrier covered the entire hospital.

It was a phenomenon caused by a Dimensional Break, visible only through a Hunter's eyes.

Baek Cheon-myeong passed through the barrier and landed on the hospital roof.

The scenery inside was completely different.

A pitch-black sky.

Unknown black roots wrapped around the entire hospital.

Strange twisting sounds echoed from somewhere in the darkness.

It would've been useful if they had a measuring device.

There was no way to know what Rank this Dimensional Break was.

"Kyaaaaaak!"

A deafening screech suddenly tore through the air.

Ha-min looked up.

A gigantic monstrous bird filled the sky.

There was a person trapped in its claws.

The bird was flying upward, apparently planning to drop them from the sky.

"Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong!"

Baek Cheon-myeong had already turned his wooden sword in his hand.

He swung toward the sky.

A sword strike shot from the blade and split the monstrous bird in half.

As it fell,

Baek Cheon-myeong leaped up, caught the person, and returned to the rooftop.

The person's chest had already been torn open.

They were dead.

Meanwhile,

Kang Ha-min looked over the edge of the rooftop.

Monsters were chasing people everywhere.

Screams and chaos filled the hospital grounds.

There were several Hunters fighting below,

but the scale of the Dimensional Break was much larger than expected.

There was no guarantee they could save everyone before reinforcements arrived.

Ha-min's eyes grew hot.

Back when he worked in Dimensional Break management,

deaths had only been numbers entered into a computer.

Numbers that usually didn't stir any particular emotion inside him.

But someone had truly died behind each of those numbers.

And every one of those people had been precious to someone else.

Kang Ha-min had no grand cause to save the world.

Long ago, after his childhood friend disappeared in a Dimensional Break, he had promised himself that he would find them.

But after being crushed by ordinary society,

that determination had disappeared long ago.

Grand causes belonged to people praised as heroes.

They were too distant for someone like Kang Ha-min, an Estrogen Man.

Even when he ordered Baek Cheon-myeong to climb the Tower,

it was simply because Ha-min himself wanted to live.

He had been born with the heart of an ordinary person.

But even an ordinary person

had family.

Had people they cared about.

Had people they didn't want to lose.

And now,

right in front of him,

people precious to someone else were disappearing.

Kang Ha-min wasn't evil enough to simply turn his eyes away after seeing all of this.

"Master."

Baek Cheon-myeong's voice reached him.

"This body's sword exists only to be swung for Master."

That was the deal they had made on the day Kang Ha-min awakened Baek Cheon-myeong as the Gravekeeper.

"Master should simply do what Master wishes."

"This body possesses the power to make it happen, and Master also possesses more than enough power."

Kang Ha-min clenched both fists.

"The Gravekeeper's skills and the Star-Destroying Sword Style. With those two things, Master has more than enough strength to survive this."

The Tower was frightening.

Dimensional Breaks were frightening.

The cruel world was frightening.

But Kang Ha-min stood on the rooftop.

"Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong, please save my parents."

If it was Baek Cheon-myeong,

he would definitely find them.

"I'll return quickly. Before that..."

Baek Cheon-myeong struck a small tree growing in a rooftop planter.

The wood split into thin pieces.

A mask formed.

It covered half the face.

"Master wished to hide his identity, so at least wear this."

In the end,

Baek Cheon-myeong was always the one who thought most carefully about Kang Ha-min.

With that,

Baek Cheon-myeong disappeared.

Kang Ha-min raised the mask and placed it over his face.

It fit perfectly.

Now he was alone inside a Dimensional Break.

He was in greater danger than ever before.

Yet strangely,

his heart was calm.

What could he do to stop this Dimensional Break?

His eyes moved toward the monstrous bird that had been cut in half.

Maybe that would work.

I am the Gravekeeper.

A Gravekeeper didn't need to fight personally.

There was only one thing he needed.

Corpses.

Activating his skill felt almost instinctive.

Kang Ha-min simply followed that instinct.

A powerful reaction of mana gathered at his fingertips.

He could clearly feel the power stored inside his body flowing outward.

Then he snapped his fingers.

[Activating Army of Ash.]

Mana shot from his hand and entered the monstrous bird's corpse.

Crack, crack, craaack!

The two halves of the bird reconnected.

Then its form began changing.

Wind blew across the rooftop.

Ash scattered through the air.

The gigantic monstrous bird slowly raised its body.

Huge claws.

A mane wrapped around its neck.

Heat like a furnace glowed from the cracks across its chest, releasing ash into the air.

Instead of ordinary wind,

eerie gray ash swirled around it.

[Ashen Monstrous Bird]

It was the first Ashen Monster Kang Ha-min had created.

The bird spread its wings.

Ash scattered through the sky.

As if responding to its master's call,

it roared toward the heavens.

"I'm getting on."

At Kang Ha-min's order, the bird lowered its head.

Ha-min climbed onto its back.

An open view stretched before him.

Had his physical ability increased because his level had risen?

Or had he simply grown a little braver over the past few days?

Either way,

he wasn't afraid even while sitting on top of the gigantic bird.

"Let's go!"

The bird immediately flew toward the ground.

"Aaaaaah!"

"Help! Someone please save us!"

Screams echoed below.

People had been chased into a dead end by monsters.

A giant boar-like monster was about to charge into them.

Whoosh!

The monstrous bird swooped down and grabbed the beast.

Then its claws tightened.

CRUNCH!

The monster's body shattered.

At the same time,

Kang Ha-min snapped his fingers again.

Ash surrounded the broken boar monster.

Then it stood back up.

"Protect the people!"

"Grrrung!"

The boar monster immediately responded and charged toward the other monsters.

Every time Kang Ha-min saw another monster,

he killed it and converted it into part of the Army of Ash.

The army gradually grew larger.

"What the hell is that?"

"The monsters are helping people."

Some Hunters finally noticed Kang Ha-min.

His arrival gave the exhausted Hunters, who had been overwhelmed by numbers, a chance to breathe.

"It's a Hunter! Reinforcements arrived!"

"Whoa, what Rank is he? Was there really a Hunter like this?"

"Who cares right now! If you have room to breathe, take care of the injured first!"

The Hunters immediately began moving again.

They had finally gained some breathing room,

but they still couldn't afford to rest.

Thanks to their efforts,

the situation quickly began stabilizing.

Only one person had appeared.

Yet that single person was changing the entire battlefield.

Meanwhile,

Kang Ha-min entered the hospital building.

The monsters inside were also tearing everything apart.

Maybe because he shared a soul with Baek Cheon-myeong,

Ha-min could feel the presences inside the hospital.

"All of you, move."

The moment he gave the order,

the Army of Ash spread throughout the building.

By now, thirty monsters were following his commands.

Their bodies had become stronger than before.

Even after raising this many,

Kang Ha-min's mana still showed no sign of running dry.

He had been born with an enormous amount of mana.

The hospital was dark.

Walls and equipment had been smashed apart.

There were horrifying scenes everywhere.

But for some reason,

Ha-min wasn't afraid at all.

He simply continued walking calmly while giving orders.

Maybe it didn't feel real.

Only minutes ago,

he had been lying comfortably on a luxurious bed.

And now,

he had suddenly entered a Dimensional Break and was saving lives.

It was too unrealistic.

But he really was saving people.

Maybe this was anger.

The day he finally accepted that his childhood friend had disappeared,

the day he helplessly gave up on searching.

Or back when he had been a civil servant,

before the Dimensional Break accident.

Even when he knew something was going wrong, he had looked away while thinking someone else would handle it.

Kang Ha-min had also been irresponsible.

He had also turned his back on people.

Perhaps what he was doing now was simply his way of venting all that frustration toward the cruel reality he had lived through.

"T, thank you."

A voice suddenly reached his ears.

Ha-min snapped back to reality.

Behind him stood countless patients, doctors, and nurses.

Even without receiving specific orders,

the Army of Ash had naturally gathered people around Kang Ha-min and protected them.

Protect the people.

That was the order he had given.

So the monsters had moved the survivors toward the safest possible place.

And inside this Dimensional Break,

the safest place was beside Kang Ha-min.

Before long,

he could no longer sense any hostile monsters.

Every monster created by the Dimensional Break

had been defeated by the Army of Ash.

"Master."

Baek Cheon-myeong appeared.

"Your parents are safe. It appears they evacuated early. I confirmed them outside."

Only then did Kang Ha-min feel his mind returning.

At the same time,

the strength left his legs.

His parents had been in danger.

People were dying inside a Dimensional Break.

His frustration and anger from his days as a civil servant.

All of it had mixed together.

He had simply followed those emotions without thinking.

The hospital had become quiet.

Everyone was staring at Kang Ha-min.

Naturally,

their lives had been completely in his hands moments earlier.

Only now did Ha-min realize what he had done.

He panicked.

His emotions had overwhelmed his reason.

Even if he had worn a mask, he had still revealed himself before countless people.

What had been the point of asking everyone to keep his existence secret?

No.

His safe and peaceful life was collapsing!

Everyone waited for Kang Ha-min to speak.

Then,

"U, um... Could everyone please keep seeing me today a secret?"

A tiny, timid voice escaped Kang Ha-min's mouth.

Only moments earlier, he had looked like the strongest Hunter imaginable, silently saving people with an expressionless face.

Now,

his timid request completely destroyed that image.