“A rift? Now?”

The siren warned of a rift opening nearby. Rifts were predicted through radar before they appeared, and the predicted rift locations were communicated to nearby guilds and hunters. Normally, hunters would have been on standby before a rift opened. But this siren implied an emergency situation.

Could it be an undetected rift? Sometimes, rifts would appear without warning signs, invisible even to radar. These kinds of rifts were extremely rare, yet here, suddenly, there was one. I glanced around, but there were no signs of life on the empty street.

“Daddy?”

“It’s okay. We’ll be fine.”

I reassured Seola, patting her head. I felt her grasp on my leg tighten. I needed to find something that could serve as a weapon. The only thing in sight was a broom leaning against a wall.

Snap! I swiftly broke off the broom’s end, creating a makeshift spear. I held Seola in one arm and carried the makeshift spear in the other.

“Seola, hold tight.”

“Okay.” She clung to my neck, gripping it tightly.

I began to run toward home, my thoughts in disarray. An undetected rift? Why? This hadn’t happened before. The chances of such rifts were exceptionally low, and there were only a handful of reported cases in South Korea. If an undetected rift had opened near our home, there would have been chaos, and I would have remembered it.

Could this be... There’s a concept known as the butterfly effect, where the flap of a butterfly’s wings can trigger a hurricane. If there was anything different from the past, it was me. I must have caused a ripple effect.

But there was no significant event I could recall that would lead to the emergence of an undetected rift. With no time to dwell on my thoughts, I ran without hesitation. Now my body was no different from an ordinary person, untrained and unprepared for a confrontation with monsters. The probability of a favorable outcome when facing a monster was low. On top of that, I was carrying Seola, and my priority was to protect her. Currently, I wasn’t strong enough to fight and protect a child at the same time.

Suddenly, there was a cracking sound, like ice breaking from the sky. Alarmed, I stopped and looked up. High above, a massive rift was tearing through the sky.

Damn it! I had no luck. I quickly changed my direction. The rift was rapidly expanding. Something emerged from the rift, crashing onto the ground in front of me with a thud. The weight of the object was enough to crush the asphalt, and the creature looked me right in the eye.

The monster in front of me was a Creten Bull, a black bull-shaped monster with downward-pointing horns. It resembled the actual Cretan Bull from Greek mythology, which is where it got its name. It was about the size of a small car, and a collision with this creature would be no different from a traffic accident. The bull exhaled a hot breath, surveying its surroundings before fixing its gaze on me.

Ugh. Running away wasn’t an option. The beast could reach speeds of up to 90 kilometers per hour, as fast as a car on the highway.

Ensuring Seola’s safety was my top priority. Where should I hide her? I quickly found a small gap between two buildings, just large enough for a small child to squeeze through. Watching the monster’s movements carefully, I gently lowered her into it.

“Seola, listen to me carefully.”

She had seen the creature and her little body was trembling as if she might burst into tears at any moment. Unfortunately, there was no time for me to comfort her. I positioned myself to shield her from the sight of the Creten Bull and began to explain.

“You need to go inside this gap and stay there until I come for you. Do you understand?”

She couldn’t speak and just nodded her head slightly, her eyes filled with fear. With a gentle push, I encouraged her to move into the gap and as she stepped inside, she kept looking back at me with worry.

“Phew.”

Once Seola was safely out of sight, I tried to focus on the situation at hand. Sirens meant that the Rift Management Bureau had detected the rift, and they would have immediately contacted nearby guilds and hunters for assistance. It would take at least five minutes for anyone to arrive.

Could this be the end? As the bull’s gaze bore into me, its front hooves scraped the earth. Its head was slightly bowed, and its horns were poised for a charge that seemed imminent. I needed to keep him focused on me as I bided my time until reinforcements arrived. One wrong move could spell disaster, and I couldn’t afford any harm to befall Seola.

I quickly raised the makeshift wooden spear in front of me. A rumbling sound echoed through the air as the bull released a plume of hot breath and drove its colossal body toward me. The monstrous creature, weighing close to 1,500 kilograms, raced toward me with incredible speed. The pressure I felt was indescribably intense, but I had to stand my ground.

“Daddy...” Seola’s voice called out, reminding me of the responsibility I bore. I couldn’t allow her to endure any more misfortunes.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The ground trembled beneath the bull’s powerful hooves. Instinct screamed at me to flee, but I defied it and ran toward the behemoth. The monster barreled into me, and I braced for the impact. The air within my lungs escaped in a rush, and for a brief moment, my vision turned blindingly white.

“Ugh!” The impact would have been fatal for an ordinary person, but I was a hunter. Enveloped in mana, I could endure it, at least for a moment. The excruciating pain made it hard to gather my wits, but I told myself I could do it. I can withstand this. I forcibly drew in a breath and gritted my teeth.

The Creten Bull charged on, carrying me with it. These creatures had a predatory instinct to kill their prey by pinning them against a wall with their horns. Thump! Thump!

My body was rapidly forced backward, and as the bull pushed me, I gripped the makeshift spear in reverse. Just like hunters, the monsters emerging from the dimensional rift were encased in mana, making their skin impervious to conventional weaponry. There was no way my makeshift spear would pierce the bull’s thick hide.

“Gah!”

My body shook relentlessly. If I hesitated too long, I would be crushed against the wall. I regained my composure. Clutching the spear, I willed every ounce of my being into focus. I am not the prey...

My target was a weakness all creatures have in common—the eye. In the commotion, I needed to thrust the spear precisely into that small mark. In an instant, time seemed to slow down.

I’m a hunter! I drove the spear down. Snap! I felt the resistance in my hand and knew it went in perfectly. With a sudden thrust, the Creten Bull jerked its head back.

Boom! My body was flung over the bull and I landed on the asphalt road. It took me several rolls to finally come to a stop. With the spear lodged in its left eye, the bull screamed loudly and thrashed about. I gasped for breath through the pain and struggled to get back on my feet. It felt as if I had been hit by a car, thrown up in the air, and crashed onto the ground. My body wasn’t in great shape, but the monster was no better off. The pain must have been excruciating, as it repeatedly rammed its head into the wall with the broken spear still in its eye.

Crash! The bull kept barging in the wall until the shattered spear finally fell from its eye. It shook its head from side to side, then turned its body toward me and growled. Its remaining eye was filled with a mixture of hatred and fury.

Again? I had managed to stall it for a few minutes, but it recovered more quickly than I had anticipated. This time, I had no weapon, and I could barely even move my body. Can I avoid it? Even if I managed to dodge the first attack, it would just barge at me again. No matter how I thought about it, there was no apparent solution, especially because my current body had yet to undergo any training. Right now, I am not much different from an ordinary person. Think!

The Creten Bull stomped a few times and charged toward me. My thoughts began to accelerate. Its left eye is injured. That means I need to move to its blind spot on the left. But at that moment...

“What?” My legs gave out, and I found myself plummeting toward the ground. The problem was that I’d landed awkwardly on the road before. My ankle was either sprained or twisted, making it impossible to apply any pressure.

Thump! Thump! Thump! I could see the creature getting closer and closer. My instincts told me that this would definitely kill me.

Thud! But at that very moment, something extraordinary happened. I couldn’t be sure, but the Creten Bull’s front leg seemed to have snapped sideways. Crack!

Losing its balance, the beast tumbled to the side and crashed its head on the asphalt road, coming to a halt. Had the bull diverted a moment later, I would have undoubtedly met my end.

This is... Perhaps, if I had been an ordinary person, I wouldn’t have realized what had happened. But I was a seasoned hunter with over a decade of experience in the field and I could tell exactly what had saved my life. Magic… It had been executed so seamlessly, so naturally. There was no time to ponder the answer to my question. I felt several people approaching from behind.

“A Creten Bull! There are civilians!”

“The priority is their protection!”

Hunters in traditional martial arts garb arrived in great haste. They carried Korean swords and were members of the Goryeo Sword House, a renowned guild of hunters. With their expertise, they could handle a creature like the Creten Bull with ease. As the adrenaline in my veins began to dissipate, my vision blurred. My depleted body finally gave out, and all the strength left my body.

One of the Goryeo Sword House hunters came and asked, “Hey, are you all right?”

“My child...”

I was more worried about Seola, who had been hiding alone in the crevice of a building. In my wavering sight, I saw someone small rushing toward me.

“Daddy!” Seola, looking like she might cry any moment, entered my field of vision. She promptly sat down in front of me and buried her face in my chest, trembling.

She must have been terrified. I could barely manage to raise my hand to gently stroke her back. Then I lost consciousness.

* * *

When Eunhye received the phone call, she felt her heart sink. She hastily took a taxi and rushed to the hospital.

When she arrived, Seola, who’d been waiting in the lobby, dove into her arms. She held Seola, stroking her daughter’s back gently. “Seola, are you all right?”

“Yes, I’m okay.”

“How about Seojun?”

Seola didn’t answer and quietly took Eunhye’s hand with a pained expression. She led her mother down the corridor and into a hospital room. Inside, they found Seojun lying on a bed.

“S-Seojun...” She was speechless. He had casts on his arms and legs, bandages wrapped around his head and abdomen, and an IV dripping beside him. Her lips trembled as if she were on the verge of tears.

“He was trying to protect me and...” Seola murmured in a defeated voice.

Eunhye had received a brief report from the Goryeo Sword House about the situation. An undetected rift had opened, and Seojun had bravely fought alone to protect Seola. Sitting in a chair beside the bed, Eunhye watched him, unable to find the words to say. Then suddenly, his eyes flashed open.

“Gotcha!”

“Ahh!” Eunhye’s shocked scream echoed through the room as Seojun abruptly sat up.

“You… you… you!” she stammered, utterly astonished.

“Great teamwork, Seola! Give me five!”

“High five!”

Eunhye couldn’t help but become emotional. She had been genuinely concerned. As Seojun and Seola playfully boasted about their successful prank, tears welled up in her eyes.

This time, it was Seojun’s turn to be flustered. “Hey, are you crying?”

“Yes! You idiot!”

The sharp sound of Eunhye’s hand slamming against Seojun’s back echoed through the hospital room.