Chapter 2

Chapter 2
It took me several days to accept that I had returned to the past.
At first, I did not believe it.
I thought it was all a dream, that that damned lizard bastard was playing games with me.
But everything I saw, heard, and felt told me that I really had gone back.
That was true even now.
The scene unfolding before my eyes was exactly the same as it had been on a certain day ten years ago.
-This is a breaking news update. A strike team made up of nine members is scheduled to be deployed to clear the Gate that formed at Dangsan Station in Seoul. The names of the Hunters participating in this operation are....
“I hope they all come back safe.”
Father muttered to himself as he watched the news.
On the screen, a group of Hunters was being broadcast live as they headed toward the newly formed Gate.
Swish, swish.
As he watched the news, Father carefully cleaned a carbine rifle and a shotgun.
It had already been ten years since humanity came under attack by monsters.
Across the world, the legalization of firearm ownership was no longer a matter of debate.
And Father, a former naval special forces officer, was now serving as a commander in the Regional Defense Force.
“Dear, you’re going to wear them out at this rate.”
Mother, now a homemaker, was peeling a mango nearby, and the way she looked at Father was dripping with affection.
“My big brother is seriously handsome.”
My younger sister was watching some idol performance on her phone.
But since when did he become your big brother?
Your actual big brother is right here, you know?
I shook my head at my little sister’s childish antics.
Sitting at the kitchen table and staring blankly at my family, I could not help but smile.
‘Even if this is a dream, so what?’
It did not matter.
Father, Mother, and that little brat.
Just being able to see my family together like this—the family I had thought I would never meet again—was enough.
‘It’s peaceful.’
This world was insane.
People died every other day because of monster invasions, and it was an age where you could wake up to hear that an entire city had been reduced to ruin overnight.
And yet, despite that, people still tried their best to preserve an ordinary life.
Just like my family was doing now.
***
That afternoon, I went to the shooting range with Father.
Given his background, Father loved shooting.
He often took me to the range as well.
After the firearm legalization bill had passed, he had even bought me not only pistols, but rifles, shotguns, and all kinds of gear, including a bulletproof vest and a ballistic helmet.
BANG! BANG BANG BANG!
The shooting was over.
I set down the pistol and checked the target.
“Hmm.”
Twenty-six rounds had struck dead center.
The remaining four had missed the center by only a tiny margin.
296 points out of a perfect 300.
Not bad for the first time I had fired in nearly eight years.
“Son.”
Father walked over and spoke to me.
“Yes?”
“Wasn’t the last time you shot two weeks ago?”
“It was... wasn’t it?”
“And you improved this much in just two weeks?”
“Mm.”
I was at a loss for words.
Father’s doubt was perfectly reasonable.
If shooting skill improved that easily, everyone would have become a competitive marksman or a special forces soldier.
Pistol shooting, especially, was harder than it looked, so it normally did not improve that fast.
Besides, my shooting skill at this point in time had been nothing special, so Father had every reason to find it strange.
‘I got carried away because it’s been so long.’
It was not the shooting.
I had just been too excited to be spending time with Father again.
“Have you been training on your own?”
“Uh, yeah. I have.”
“Hm.”
“I’m enlisting soon anyway. I figured I should train hard in advance.”
At this point in my life, I had been scheduled to enlist as an officer candidate in a few months.
Just like my late grandfather had, and just like my father had.
After commissioning, I had planned to apply to the naval special forces.
In an age where humanity was fighting monsters, it might sound strange to talk about special forces, but the non-Awakened still had roles to play.
Conventional human weaponry was still more than powerful enough against monsters up to 4-Star, so the role of the military—including special forces—was still extremely important.
But I would not become a special forces soldier like my grandfather or Father.
Because next week, I will awaken and become a Hunter.
And Father would die.
“Son.”
“Yes.”
“Has something been going on with you lately?”
“No?”
At Father’s question, I did my best to put on an innocent expression.
“Why do you ask?”
“It’s nothing.”
Father shook his head.
“But if something is bothering you, or if something happens, don’t sit there suffering alone. Make sure you talk to your dad about it. Got it?”
“Yes.”
A bead of cold sweat ran down my back.
He noticed.
I would have staked a hand on it.
Father was not only a former and current special forces officer, but someone who had even worked for the National Intelligence Service.
There was no way a man like that would fail to notice the changes in me.
No—anyone who knew me even a little would have noticed.
At this point in time, I had just been an upright young man.
But now, I was a hardened veteran Hunter who had gone through every kind of battlefield imaginable over the course of ten years.
The way I thought, acted, spoke, looked at people, the expressions I wore—all of it was bound to be different.
Even Mother and my sister had been looking at me suspiciously every now and then over the past few days.
“Father.”
“What is it?”
“Next week, why don’t we all go camping together?”
“Camping?”
“I think it’s been over five years since we last went as a family.”
“Camping, huh.”
“I’m only a few months away from enlistment, so I just wanted to go on a family trip.”
“Sure. Let’s go.”
Father nodded readily.
“If my son wants to go, then we go.”
“Haha.”
“Let’s shoot one more time. This time, not with the pistol. Rifle movement drill.”
“Yes, sir.”
I picked up the rifle.
This time, I had better hold back a little.
***
A week passed.
“Bring your gear, just in case. And check it again before we leave.”
“Yes.”
It was an age in which even civilians naturally carried weapons with them, because no one ever knew when or where a Gate might appear.
My family loaded camping equipment and weapons into Father’s pickup truck and headed for Yeongwol in Gangwon.
After arriving, we pitched the tent and caught a few freshwater fish in the stream to make spicy fish stew.
We lit the firewood into a blaze and grilled lamb over charcoal.
“Here.”
“I’m fine, Father.”
“Why aren’t you drinking? We came all the way out here.”
When I refused the alcohol, Father tilted his head.
“Alcohol hasn’t been sitting well with me lately.”
“Really? All right, then. I won’t force you.”
Father looked a little disappointed by my refusal, but he did not press the matter.
Before dawn that night, I slipped out of the tent under the pretense of going to the bathroom, stole Father’s car, and headed for Seoul.
‘No matter how crazy the world is, drunk driving is still a bit much.’
VROOOOM!
When I pressed the accelerator, the eight-cylinder engine roared like a beast.
I checked the time.
3:00 a.m.
‘Seven hours left.’
At 10:00 a.m.,
a three-kilometer radius centered around our apartment complex would be swallowed by the [Transference] phenomenon.
That was the reason I had suddenly suggested a trip in the first place.
It was to get my family away from [Transference].
Unfortunately, I was the exception.
If I wanted to awaken and become a Hunter again, I had to be at the scene of the incident.
As I drove back home, I remembered Father’s final moments.
-I’ll hold them here! Take your mother and Sua and go, now!
-But...!
-Go, now!
The image of Father’s back as he stood there—noble and fearless—rose before my eyes.
But in this life, I had no intention of losing Father.
I did not want to see Father’s body torn to pieces ever again.
A corpse so badly mutilated that even the mortician preparing it for burial had clicked his tongue.
‘Dragon Lord. I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I will never repeat the past. Never.’
When I met the Dragon Lord again someday, I wanted to ask it one thing.
Why did you send me back to the past?
‘I’d rather die than become a Supporter again. Does it make any sense for a special forces officer candidate to end up as a Supporter?’
The memory of spending my previous life being dragged around as a tool and worked to the bone made my teeth grind and my whole body tremble with rage.
Since I had come back to the past anyway, I would have given anything to awaken as a damage dealer instead of a Supporter whose only purpose was to prop other people up.
Not that something like that was up to me.
‘First, I will prepare.’
The moment I got home, I armed myself.
I put on a ballistic helmet and a plate carrier.
I packed ammunition and grenades.
I also took a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol.
In the old days, it would have looked like I was heading off to a battlefield, but that was just the kind of age we lived in.
Humanity had been at war with monsters for the last ten years.
‘One hour left.’
I checked the time and launched a drone.
Buzzzz!
A civilian needed prior authorization to fly a drone, but with chaos about to break loose anyway, it hardly mattered.
Without a word, I stormed straight into the apartment management office.
It was the weekend, but given the times, a young armed security guard was on duty.
“What is this? There hasn’t even been a monster sighting, so do you know what happens if you go around armed like tha—”
Of course I knew.
If one little thing went wrong, I could even be shot dead by the soldiers and police who responded.
“Move.”
BAM, CRASH!
The moment I shoved the guard aside, I smashed the glass case mounted on the wall and slammed the emergency alarm.
WEEEEEEEEEOOOO!
-Emergency, emergency! Attention, residents. Attention, residents. A [Transference] phenomenon has been observed, so all residents are requested to evacuate immediately. We repeat. A [Transference] phenomenon....
Along with the siren, the emergency evacuation announcement thundered throughout the entire apartment complex.
Yeah. This should do.
One hour was more than enough time for anyone willing to evacuate to get out.
“You fucking psycho!”
The guard roared and thrust a hand into the desk.
But I was faster.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
“Agh!”
With a short scream, the guard collapsed.