1:00 PM.
A street lined with venture companies.

"Ma'am."

Why do people have to work to survive?

"Ma'am! We're short on dishes over here. Stop prepping for a moment and get some washed."

The restaurant buzzed with the steady stream of office workers pouring in.
A middle-aged woman standing in the kitchen paused for a brief moment.
It was Lee Hwayoung's weary sigh.

"The big plates! Wash the big ones first."

'How long do I have to put up with this kind of treatment...?'

The relentless debt collection calls that tormented her had finally stopped, thanks to a new government loan program for low-income citizens.
But now that the immediate crisis was over, Lee Hwayoung found herself worrying about tomorrow's meal.
Humans were such fickle creatures.

When her back was in bad shape and she had to rest, she had prayed desperately to the heavens just to be able to find another job.
But now, even though she was working herself to the bone, her social status remained unchanged, which made it all the more frustrating.
On top of that, even if time kept moving forward, there was no hope that things would improve.

'At this point, I just wish I could win the lottery.'

For a moment, a fleeting fantasy of sudden wealth passed through her mind.
But as they say, time heals all—after pushing through the exhausting workload, she suddenly realized that half of the day's tasks were already done.

"The customers are gone, so let's have our meals and start preparing for the dinner shift!"

Just a little longer, and she could go home.
At least during mealtime, she could take a break from work.
Regaining a positive mindset, Lee Hwayoung sat down at a table.
But just as she was about to enjoy what should have been the most pleasant moment of the day, someone suddenly interrupted, ruining the mood.

"Young one!"

It was one of her coworkers, trying to strike up a conversation.

"Today was even more chaotic than usual, wasn't it? Ugh, I'm exhausted. Was it social media? Anyway, I heard this place is being talked about as a hot spot again~"

It was only natural that working a job that didn't suit her would be exhausting and frustrating.
But what was so special about that that the other person had to go on and on about it?

'So loud.'

With a displeased expression, Lee Hwayoung lifted her spoon.
Truth be told, she had always found this coworker uncomfortable to be around.

—If you retire and do nothing, what's the fun in that? For people my age, staying home all the time just makes us sick. Sick, I tell you.

She, on the other hand, was confident that she could spend every day resting without ever getting bored.
Yet this person always went on about how people needed work to feel alive, spouting nonsense like that...

—My kids are all grown up now, so it gets lonely being by myself. That's why I took up this restaurant job as a way to pass the time. Oh, right! Speaking of which, how old are your kids again? Do you have a son or a daughter?

On top of everything, this person was a chatterbox who wouldn't stop bringing up topics she had no interest in.

'As if I wasn't already exhausted enough.'

Why did they always have to pry into her personal life?
Her chatty coworker was getting on her nerves.
But if she really thought about it, maybe it wasn't just the nonstop talking that irritated her the most.

"...And the other day, my daughter came to visit after such a long time. I told her not to, but she just wouldn't listen—kept insisting on bringing me gifts because it was my birthday~"
"Oh, really?"
"This here is a three-don* pure gold ring. I mean, honestly, what's the point of dressing up at my age? I figured I'd just keep it safe and give it to her later when she needs it for something important."

(*Don (돈) is a Korean unit of weight for gold, equivalent to 3.75 grams per don.)

The coworker often bragged about her children.
In contrast, whenever the topic of family came up, Lee Hwayoung had to lie—pretending her husband had passed away early and that she had no children. Conversations like these were always uncomfortable for her.

"That's nice."

So she just offered a vague response and pretended to focus on her meal.
After all, the other woman had to stop talking eventually if she wanted to eat, too.
And sure enough, as expected, silence soon followed.

—Slurp.

Silence.

But just as she was about to take another spoonful of the bland bean sprout soup, a news report from the restaurant's TV caught her attention...

["...With our country's dungeon safety management ranking reaching an all-time high, things continue to go smoothly. However, the recent increase in large-scale gate appearances has raised concerns among citizens."]

The screen filled with footage of monsters caught on camera.

Back in the early days of the Dungeon Shock, watching clips like this had felt surreal.
Now, however, she found it hard to focus on the news for a completely different reason.
Humans were creatures of adaptation—far beyond what anyone had imagined.

'Ugh, what a way to ruin my appetite. Why do they have to show such disgusting things in broad daylight?'

Feeling disturbed by the writhing creatures on-screen, Lee Hwayoung averted her gaze.

But just seconds later, the voice from the news grew even more unsettling as it announced the appearance of something—or someone—far more ominous.

[(Street Interview)]
Q: "What are your thoughts on Korean hunters?"

[A: "In Japan, it's common for the general public to form fan clubs for famous psychics. Similarly, interest in Korean hunters has been rising, much like the K-POP boom of the past."]

A random interviewee on TV had made this statement.

[A: "The start of the Korean wave was Jung Ha-seong, and now, people like Kim Ki-ryeo and Esther are just as—"]

The broadcast then transitioned to edited footage.

A man in a suit briefly flashed across the screen—someone with an appearance that might seem average on a crowded street but was unmistakable to any Korean viewer.

Upon seeing that image, Lee Hwayoung immediately grabbed the remote.

'I'd rather watch the monsters than this.'

She changed the channel without hesitation.

"Oh! Hold on, stop right there! They're re-airing the World's Best Trot show!"

She had tried to ignore it and let it pass, but it seemed like this hunter's fame simply refused to fade.

Sigh.

At that moment, a long-forgotten conversation resurfaced in Lee Hwayoung's mind.

— Looking at your state, I'd guess your son never had much of a conscience to begin with...

It was something said by a hunter named Kang Changho.

'Unbelievable! If that bastard had a nasty temper, then obviously, it came from his father's side of the family!'

For a moment, frustration flared up inside her.

After mustering up the courage to seek him out, it had all been for nothing—some mixed-blood hunter hadn't even bothered to keep his promise.

Despite all her efforts, she hadn't been able to get any more news coverage on the matter.

'If he was just going to ignore me like trash, why the hell did he even call me there in the first place?'

But getting angry alone would only ruin her health.
Besides, she was too scared to confront Kang Changho directly.

So what would change now?

A season of being threatened by family and deceived by Kang Changho...

Lee Hwayoung had almost entirely given up on squeezing money out of this situation.

Perhaps that was why this autumn felt even more miserable than the last.

"Let's all push through until the end of our shifts tonight!"

But perhaps life's trajectory wasn't always meant to spiral downward forever...

Just as work had finally ended and she was peeling off her rubber gloves, her ever-chatty coworker suddenly dropped an intriguing piece of gossip.

"What? Unnie, are you serious?"
"Yeah, yeah~ That whole family is in complete chaos now. When the aunt was struggling to raise the kid, everyone pretended not to see. But now that the funeral's over, the kid's father suddenly showed up with a lawyer, demanding inheritance. And we're talking billions!"
"Wait, is that really how the law works?"
"Apparently, yeah. At least for now."

A reserved portion inheritance claim...?

A new piece of legal knowledge settled into the mind of a worker who had spent her life too busy surviving to care about such things.

She had heard about something similar before, but...
She had always assumed that rule only applied when an inheritance was being passed down to children.

'So if a child dies, their biological parents automatically become the heirs? Even if they were divorced, that doesn't change anything?'

Even when it involved the previous generation, the law remained the same.

If Kim Gilyeo were to die without getting married, then as his biological mother, she would automatically become a high-ranking heir.

Moreover, even if a certain individual were to transfer their wealth to someone else before passing away, a lawsuit could still secure an overwhelming portion of the estate.

At this point, another thought surfaced—the high mortality rate among Hunters.
After all, hunting had always been a perilous profession, no matter the era or the culture.

"Take care on your way home, Dongsaeng. It's getting late."
"Yeah... yeah, I will."

With that in mind, perhaps it was best to live quietly, without unnecessary greed.

Having finished cleaning up and heading home, Lee Hwayoung sat in the taxi, mulling over what she had just heard.
Sure, she sometimes reminisced about her son with a sense of longing, but...
The world wasn't a place where one could survive on sentimental feelings alone.

And so, another thought crept into her mind.

'After all the suffering I endured to give birth to him...'

She had done things for him in the past.
It wasn't as if she was cursing her son, wishing for his death outright.

Ring ring.

Suddenly, her phone rang.

"...Who is it?"

Lee Hwayoung rummaged through her bag with a weary expression.
She thought it might just be another spam call—

[Caller: Kang Changho]

The moment she saw that name, her hand paused for a second.

Why again...?

It was someone who hadn't contacted her much since their last meeting.
Why was that hunter calling her now?

Could it be...

Could it be that something had happened to Kim Giryeo?

Her heart skipped a beat.
But Lee Hwayoung quickly suppressed her emotions and pressed the call button.

"...What is it?"

— "Hey, Lee Hwayoung."
— "......"
— "Looks like there's something to celebrate."

Kang Changho let out a short chuckle as he spoke.
And then, the next words that entered her ears sent a chilling shiver down her spine.

— "Your son has gone missing."

thud.

beep-beep-beep.

She had just stepped inside and taken off her shoes when the sound of the door lock clicking shut echoed behind her.

Hmm?

Thankfully, her cardiovascular system was in good shape. Otherwise, she might have had a heart attack right then and there.

?!

A man's silhouette was in the living room.

Lee Hwayoung froze in terror as she realized someone was inside the darkened room.

They say that when you're truly shocked, you can't even scream.

Turns out, that was true.

She wanted to let out a bloodcurdling scream, but her body only convulsed in fear.

Who is that? What's going on?!

And then—

As her vision adjusted to the darkness, she realized the presence in the living room was moving toward the entrance.

And in that moment, Lee Hwayoung finally made out the figure standing before her.

It wasn't some nameless burglar.

It was just a man—with thick eyelids and pupils dark as a crane's neck.

Recognizing his identity only made her even more speechless.

Click.

The light by the entrance flickered on just as he stepped closer.

Under the now-brightened doorway, he was the first to speak.

"Mom."

To an outsider, he might have looked like a dutiful son waiting late into the night for his mother to return home.

"Welcome back."

But as everyone knew, their relationship was far from warm.

***

Of course, things had to turn out like this.

"Aaaaaaah!"

This was, without a doubt, the worst home visit of her life.

'Ugh! My arm—'

The middle-aged woman lowered her gaze to check her condition.

She was bound tightly to one of the dining chairs in her tiny one-room apartment.

All she had done was blink after that so-called greeting.

But somehow, in that brief moment, she had lost consciousness—only just coming back to her senses now.

Cable ties.

Originally meant for bundling electrical wires, those thin plastic restraints now bound her hands and feet.

Flimsy-looking things, yet no matter how hard she strained, they wouldn't snap.

"Ah. You know, I actually have a fair amount of experience with kidnappings..."

In this terrifying situation, why was this intruder talking so casually?

"Well, to be precise, I've been kidnapped many times. But since I've always approached life with a learning mindset, it turns out that knowledge does come in handy someday. Mom."

Black eyes.

Black clothes.
Black gloves.
The only thing that stood out was his hair, dyed with cheap drugstore color.

The man continued speaking.

Now that she looked closer, Kim Gi-ryeo was sitting on the same kind of wooden chair as she was.

And yet, despite the number of chairs in this cramped apartment, there was no one else who might come to her rescue.

Those chairs were just old furniture she had picked up for free from a local café giveaway.

'Lord...'

So that meant she was truly trapped, with no way out.

As the reality of the situation set in, the resident of this apartment clamped her mouth shut, overwhelmed by a growing sense of despair.

But at that moment—

The psychic sitting across from her also fell into silence, seemingly choosing his words carefully.

That gave her a chance to examine his face in detail.

And during this close observation, Lee Hwa-young came to a renewed realization.

"Marriage is madness."

To be precise—her marriage had been the kind of decision only someone truly out of their mind would make.

Genetics truly were a mystery.

The man before her bore a striking resemblance to his father—or more precisely, to the only halfway decent member of that family, his paternal grandmother.

As Lee Hwa-young scrutinized her son's face, regret settled deep in her chest.

What had she ever seen in such an unfortunate-looking man back then?

In truth, if she looked back honestly, her ex-husband's appeal had never been about his personality. His status in school and his outward presence had been what stood out.

To put it bluntly, he had been little more than a delinquent.

And he had left behind not just a family history of bad decisions, but also a hereditary risk of lung cancer.

Not that any of these thoughts mattered anymore.

At this point, it was all meaningless.