Chapter 1

The Transmigrator’s Starting Point

People liked to talk about how I was lucky.

They said that my life would be smooth sailing when, at age sixteen, the nationally certified Hunter Aptitude Test confirmed my Unique Skill of “Spatial Interference.”

It’s true that many companies from the construction, logistics, and transportation industries lined up before me. They were all dying to scout me once I became an adult.

I guess I couldn’t deny that I was a lucky brat for having a Skill. But considering how messed up my life was afterwards, how could people honestly keep saying that?

As soon as I had graduated high school, I got swept up in that damned Gate. Three years dragged on as I tearfully survived, lost my benefactor, and learned something that I really didn’t want to know.

Truthfully, this could be the fate of anyone living in our era of an opened Gate and the Awakened running rampant.

But this was too much.

I had been taking part in the final battle where I was slaying bastards and wreaking havoc on the frontline.

Then like always, I’d been confronted by my pointy-eared enemy and engaged in a fight to the death. I’m pretty sure he stabbed my lung with his spear. As I looked at his weirdly distorted face, I grew puzzled and shut my eyes.

That was supposed to be my peaceful rest.

Or rather, my eternal rest—death! But what I’m seeing right now is...

“What are you doing, child?! Run!” The urgent voice of a middle-aged woman rang in my ear.

A wind raker—a normal-grade monster at best—was currently rampaging the mart. People were screaming as they fled past me.

It was a familiar scene. My hands shook at how surreal it was. The middle-aged woman was screaming next to me, suddenly grabbing my hand as she started running after she noticed that I was in a complete daze.

As I ran amidst the confusion, a familiar-looking window appeared.

[Notice: You have entered the Gate.]

[Verifying user.]

[Individual ‘Seoha Han (Awakened)’ has been verified.]

[Connecting to the system.]

Damn it. Looks like I’ve returned to when I was nineteen and was in my third year of living in a nightmare.

***

The mart’s entrance was blocked. This was inevitable as soon as the monster entered. The people who hadn’t been able to escape just barely managed to hide themselves in the warehouse. I, too, was among them.

“This happened so suddenly.”

“My cell phone has no service.”

“The notice said that we had entered the Gate... Is that true?”

Everyone groaned anxiously.

Even though they had all heard the notice, they wanted to escape reality. I wanted to run from this ever-changing situation too, but I kept my mouth shut and watched my surroundings.

“We must’ve gotten swept up in the Gate. There’s no other reason for our cell phones to suddenly have no service.”

“But I didn’t hear a warning sound! Before the Gate opened, there should’ve been a national emergency alert for people to evacuate.”

“I guess there was no warning. Didn’t you see in the news that for the past ten years, there’s been an increase of Gates that emit no wavelengths?”

“Man, who knew that this would really happen?”

Most people probably thought that it was politicians doing their usual political propaganda.

I remembered it vaguely. It was called the “Yeonhwa Island Gate Incident.” A tragedy that had resulted in countless casualties because the Gate couldn’t be cleared for three years. I was one of the few survivors.

At the time, people were hiding in the mart and having unproductive conversations. And then... What had happened?

So many things had happened in the Gate, and it had been so long ago, so the exact details were fuzzy. Somebody had probably stepped up and made a plausible plan.

“Please listen to me for a sec. I’m an Awakened and not a Hunter, but I did receive the recommendation to enter the Academy when I took the Aptitude Test.”

A man stepped forward and started speaking. With the absence of Hunters, he was an important human resource.

“First, since this place has become a Gate, you have all probably become Awakened. Please check your status window.”

One by one, everyone checked their status window. I also did the same.

[Status Window]

Name: Seoha Han

Title: Re ■■■ Player, One Who ■■■,■■■’s Star, ■■■’s Genius...

Unique Skill: Spatial Interference

Stamina: 3,500 (Locked)

Mana: 800 (Locked)

Strength: 15 (Locked)

Agility: 34 (Locked)

Huh?

My SSA stats—that is, my Strength, Stamina, and Agility—had fallen to a tenth of what they were before. My titles, however, were the same even though they were partially deleted in some spots.

‘Re ■■■ Player,’ was the exception as I had never seen it before. And what did “locked'' mean? It was my first time seeing such a status irregularity. Was it a system error? Could an error really exist in this system?

“Ten is the average of an adult male. Please tell me if you have a value that is higher than ten!”

“Me, my Strength is thirteen.”

“For me, it’s Dexterity.”

One by one, people started to bravely reveal their stats. Although mine had decreased, most of them were over ten.

I kept my mouth shut. It wouldn’t be seen as normal for a high school student who had just finished their college entrance exam to have an Agility of thirty-four.

“Does anyone perhaps have a Unique Skill?”

Nobody responded to his question. If anyone did have a Skill, they would at least be an aspiring Hunter. I think I did say that I had such a Skill in the past, but there was no point to reveal that now.

I suddenly remembered this place would become meaningless soon. And that reason was...

“Everyone, get away from the wall.”

I spoke curtly. Those who heard me looked at my face as if asking for an explanation, but words were now a luxury. I picked up a kitchen knife that was in the warehouse. Tension filled the air at my sudden armed stance.

“Hold on, kid. Just what do you think you’re–”

“I said, get away from the wall!”

Now that I shouted with a weapon in hand, people finally stepped away. I gathered everyone in the very interior of the warehouse and stood in front of them. The man who had previously taken on the role of leader tried to talk to me.

“Wait. Calm down a bit–”

“The monster is going to come soon, so either grab a weapon or hide behind me.”

“What?”

“Hurry!”

Thud!

The sound erupted almost at the same time as my yell. Cracks started forming on the wall. After another thud sounded, we could see it through the gap in the wall.

“Ahhhhhh!”

Its sparkling, bright red eyes were as big as a person’s body. Could it even comprehend the kind of horror it was to stare into its gigantic eye?

“It” being the F-grade land general.

It was a normal-grade monster, but still enough of a threat to ordinary people. I stared at the kitchen knife in my hand. The blade was quite shiny as it had just been taken out of its packaging.

Fortunately, the item verification Skill was still the same, so I checked its grade.

[Verifying item.]

<Ordinary Kitchen Knife>

Grade: F

Attack Power: 15

Description: It’s an ordinary kitchen knife. Other than its well-sharpened blade, it doesn’t have other advantages.

I expected it to be a piece of crap, but oh well. It was much better than having nothing.

“Are you perhaps... a Hunter?”

“Of course not.”

“Then how did you know to get away from the wall?!”

He was very noisy, so I lightly pushed him backward. He was probably in his mid-to-late twenties, but as I had a Strength of fifteen, I was easily stronger than an adult male.

In that short time, the land general had nearly pierced through the wall with its bloody pincers. The people barely managed to swallow their terrified screams.

An ordinary kitchen knife wouldn’t be able to cut through its hard outer shell. On average, it was also fifty feet tall. In other words, it didn’t matter if an ordinary human wielded a knife at it. They’d only be able to scratch its toe.

But I still stood at the front while everyone else stared at my back.

The land general maintained eye contact with me. It didn’t hesitate to swing its pincer. Because of its heavy weight, it couldn’t move that quickly. It would be easy to avoid it as long I kept my eyes on it, at least in my perspective.

As it swung its pincer, it dug up the ground and smashed the wall. While making sure that the ceiling didn’t collapse, I lured the land general closer.

Although it was incredibly thick and strong, it was bogged down by its own massive weight. So much so that it had to rest for a moment after swinging its pincer three times.

While the past me would’ve attacked without thinking, I had to be careful since I had become as frail as a piece of paper.

The bastard made strange growling noises as it stopped for a moment, and I finally regained my senses. It felt both painfully familiar and like it had been so long.

A circuit of blue light etched into my retina. In an instant, a space where I was in the center crammed into my mind. The sand particles that swept the floor, the flying wall debris, and even the people who were silently shedding tears... It all vividly flashed through my mind.

Spatial Interference.

I was with my longest friend, the Unique Skill I’d had my entire life. In the blink of an eye, before people could even realize it, I was on the back of the land general’s neck.

“Oh my god!”

I heard someone inhale sharply. The land general’s antennae could sense me, and it tried to attack me with its pincer.

Before its attack could land, I sunk the knife into the monster’s only weak spot. The gap in its iron-clad exterior—the back of its neck.

This was the reason why the monster was normal-grade. If you stabbed it all the way through with a mere F-grade kitchen knife, you could pierce its brain and kill it. I felt the force of my attack all the way through my fingertips.

His giant body collapsed with a thud.

As I pulled the kitchen knife out, everyone stared at me blankly.

“That, just now...”

“Everyone, get it together and start packing.”

With a collapsed wall, this place was no longer safe. The ceiling could also cave in at any moment.

“Anything to eat or drink, weapons, daily necessities to live. Pack them all. Pack mainly canned goods! And grab lighters and stuff to burn.”

“Where are we going?”

“There’s an indoor gym not too far from here.”

“How do you know that place isn’t occupied by monsters? Wouldn’t it be better to stay? There’s lots of supplies here too.”

“That monster that just came was a land general, and the one that attacked the mart was a wind raker. Do you know what ‘wind raker’ means?”

The man shook his head.

“It means it hides itself in the wind and brandishes rakes. It means that it can make itself invisible.”

At my words, people’s faces turned pale. They probably imagined getting killed by a monster that they couldn’t even see.

“So shut up and pack. Since there’s no wall, we probably wouldn’t even know if the wind raker killed someone right this instant. The indoor gym is often used as a shelter when doing evacuation training. If there are any survivors, they’re probably gathered there.”

The man finally seemed to agree with me. I picked up a nearby bag and started packing. I filled it to the brim with canned food, water bottles, and first aid kits. Things that would be most valuable when trading.

Damn it.

I suddenly felt sorry for myself for getting caught up in this situation again. The tragedy was called the worst Gate Incident ever. Over three years of isolation and no external support, it had become hard to distinguish between people and monsters.

Most people died during the first year. For two years afterwards, the remaining survivors engaged in bloody battles over supplies. I had survived because I started at the mart and had a useful Skill, but...

Originally all the people here were massacred, except for me.

At the time, my Spatial Interference only worked for me, and I could only move a few feet. I had never tried it on other people because it was illegal to use Spatial Interference to move other living things.

So I’d ignored people’s cries to save them and ran away. Eventually, I returned to the mart to steal food left in between the corpses.

Even now, it was a dirty memory. This time... I had the power to save these people. Or at least, enough power to avoid failing in vain.