"I was surprised to see you here," Shiwoon said while looking at the road ahead.

Park Sunha was looking out the window to her side and she turned to him with a smile when she heard his words. "Why? It's my old neighborhood, you know."

"Didn't you move away years ago?"

"So?"

He drummed a patient beat on the wheel as he responded. "So there shouldn't be a reason for you to be here at this time?"

She shook her head. "Don't you remember our Chemistry teacher telling us not to make assumptions before actually doing an experiment?"

He laughed and turned to her for a moment as they stopped at a red light. "Oh? What sort of experiment were you doing that took you till midnight to finish?"

Her merry laughter was all the more loud in the enclosed walls of the car. "I was visiting my grandparents after meeting Soojin."

"Right, you were always close with her." He nodded his head as he continued to drive after the green light came on. For a few breaths neither of them spoke. The radio continued to hum a gentle ballad - Through The Night by IU - as they rode silently into the night.

Park Sunha was the first one to break the silence. "What were you doing till so late then?"

"I was waiting for the Portal to collapse."

"Oh." They slipped back into silence for a moment before she continued to speak. "How's work these days for you?"

He took a hand off the wheel to scratch absentmindedly at the back of his head. "It's okay. I'm surprisingly good at being a Hunter."

She scoffed. "I don't know if I should believe that, coming from you."

He laughed as he turned his head to her. "It's true. Why shouldn't you believe me anyway?"

"I could never picture you being able to hurt someone else willingly." There was a sad look on her face as she said it, which he briefly glimpsed before it returned to a solemn smile. "Do you remember Baek Wooseok?"

The name instantly created a detestable face in his mind. "Yes, I remember that punk. Why?"

"Do you remember how you were after you beat him up, back in high school?"

He scratched the back of his head again. "...you really do remember the most meaningless things."

"It was shocking to all of us to see the winner of a fight crying," she said with a giggle, "but it really made me believe you were a good person."

"A good person, huh." He said, an uneasy feeling sprouting within him. It was the feeling of being an imposter.

"That's right. You know, Shiwoon," he turned to her as she said his name and saw that she was staring out the window with a wistful look, "you were always so downcast when you came to the gatherings after you finished your time in the army. All of us could tell that you were disappointed in yourself. I'm sure you probably thought of yourself as a failure at times. But, you know, the you of high school was already a success. Money and status isn't everything, no matter what anyone in this society says. That's what I think at least."

Bombarded by a barrage of positive words, Shiwoon turned his head to the front and fixed his eyes on the empty road ahead of him. It was a simple two lane road but he suddenly felt like he could not possibly avert his gaze.

"Right," he said, "they aren't everything."

After that, he forcefully redirected the conversation to more lighthearted avenues. He could tell that Park Sunha was more than a little disappointed that he hadn't opened up, but he knew himself well. If he had opened up, if he had shared the feelings of conflict within him, the feelings of shame at his own lies, he would lose their friendship. Who could stand being friends with someone who lied so easily?

As she got out of the car, Park Sunha turned around and bowed. "Thank you for sending me home." She turned towards her home before suddenly spinning back towards him. "I hope that even if it's not with me, you will be able to open up to someone." With a mesmerising grin, she turned back and went up into her apartment complex.

He drove back towards his neighborhood afterwards. The roads were empty this time of the night and he could cruise by without focusing too much. He found his mind naturally being drawn to the conversation he had just shared with Park Sunha.

'But, you know, the you of high school was already a success.'

She had said it so easily. But those easily spoken words were a difficult pill for him to swallow.

'If that's true… then for what have I been doing everything for?'

*

It was a week before the next call from the Monitoring Bureau. During that time, Shiwoon had returned to the training center, where the instructor received him warmly. The man still seemed to resent the fact that Shiwoon had graduated from the training course early.

Even as a D-rank Hunter, with all the enhanced physical abilities it conferred, he could not manage to beat the instructor. It made him wonder what rank the instructor had been before retiring. Shiwoon thought that it would be no less than B-rank; he might even have been A-rank.

He trained to clear his mind of all the troubles and doubts that had begun to resurface in his mind. There had been a period in his life when he had been free of those awful spectres, but they had haunted him for years now.

Unfortunately, training was not as effective as he hoped in doing so. The instructor continued to point out the flaws in Shiwoon's technique, but ungrateful as it might be, Shiwoon could not muster in himself the determination and willingness to improve. He felt drained. He was tired of all the things in his life and all the things clogging his mind. Space for improvements? There was no such spare capacity in his mind.

The call came as he was driving home from a day of easy sweating at the training center.

"Hello?" He spotted the call and answered with the car system.

"Hello, Hunter Kim Shiwoon. A D-rank Portal has appeared in Mokdong. Please proceed there immediately. More details will be sent to you shortly."

"Alright." He replied.

The woman on the other side hung up the call as Shiwoon began to make a turn. Mokdong; it was a vibrant and valuable area compared to the other areas he had been sent to for exterminations. At the very least, he thought that he wouldn't be entering a Portal that had appeared in a shabby front yard. That would also mean that there would be less margin for error.

'Still, none of that is really my concern.'

He forced his mind to return to thoughtlessly driving towards Mokdong. Was it because he had been going on more drives lately? His mind, that would be forced to focus nervously on the road before, found itself oddly at ease and he felt in control. It was a dangerous mindset to have, as a driver and as a Hunter, he thought. Complacency always leads to carelessness. But he could not find himself feeling nervous about a car crash - he wouldn't die anyway.

When he reached Mokdong, he drove past the cordon after flashing his identification. The Portal had opened near the Hyperion Towers; next to the skyscrapers, it seemed almost miniscule in comparison. As a result of its prime location, however, he saw that the evacuation effort was still ongoing. Shoppers and workers and residents were still being slowly herded out of the immediate area.

He spotted an unwelcome face looking into the Portal. Han Sungoh. Somehow he shared a fate with the man but all he felt towards Han Sungoh was distrust. There was something about his words that made Shiwoon feel dirty afterwards, like his tongue had been coated in oil and his words greased Shiwoon all over. But he was still Shiwoon's senior and Shiwoon had thus far found no reason to be antagonistic towards the man.

"Oh," Han Sungoh said after spotting Shiwoon, "if it isn't Shiwoon!" He spoke and waved with the false zest that Shiwoon heard from salesmen who were about to push a very unfair deal. Shiwoon just waved back in response.

The team leader was a bespectacled man with three rings who introduced himself as Shin Taemin. He was average looking but there was a casualness to his movements that suggested comfort. He looked at the monsters beyond the Portal with a dull gaze.

Shiwoon followed his gaze and saw that there were monsters already on the other side. Crawling over burning buildings, they seemed to swarm the whole landscape in the world beyond.

"Given the presence of Bird Bugs, the fire, and the possibility of other monsters around, we must treat this Portal with the appropriate level of caution." Shin Taemin said with a stern expression that did not suit his demeanour. "We will adopt a standard formation but please be careful. Bird Bugs are never good news. I have already contacted the Bureau and they are prepared to send a C-rank team in the event we die in the Portal. Let's hope they never get called."

Bird Bugs. The grotesque fusion between the body of an insect and the head of a white dove produced the unnatural looking Bird Bugs. Shiwoon had done some research into these monsters and found that they were typically accompanied by ravenous destruction. The creatures were driven by an insatiable hunger that compelled them to devour everything in their path, with deadly sharp arrays of teeth hidden behind their beaks. The fires were odd; as far as he remembered, Bird Bugs didn't have any means to start a fire. Their saliva was mildly acidic and they spat everywhere, but it was not considered a flammable substance.

Was it Goblins again then? The possibility of another Goblin trap frightened him. Not only because he didn't want to relive his previous experience, despite it propelling him into D-rank, but because he knew that none of the other Hunters would have his back in a grave situation.

He was clearly the black sheep of the group again. Where others gathered in small cliques to discuss battle plans, he was left alone to think and wonder about the threat of the monsters. Even Han Sungoh didn't speak to him, opting instead to remain with a group of two other Hunters who seemed like they were friends with him.

Shiwoon could understand though. None of them wanted a stranger to steal their rice bowl. Every monster he killed was money flying away from them. It was a system that seemed to actively disincentivise cooperation. Shiwoon wondered what the Bureau was thinking when they set it up. Perhaps the goal beyond E-rank was not so much to foster an overall strong community of Hunters but to motivate individual Hunters to climb above the rest. After all, competition did breed champions.

"Let's go in now," Shin Taemin announced, "form up!"

Shiwoon took his spot in the vanguard. There were three other men with him, two who wielded shields with their weapons and another man who wielded a single two handed axe. Shiwoon only had his sword with him, but the instructor's teachings had left him uncomfortable with using a sidearm. He thought that it restricted his mobility.

Behind them was Shin Taemin and two other ranged attackers; Shin Taemin was an archer type while the other two used magic. And behind this group in the middle were the two healers; Shiwoon thought that it was a waste to have two, though he couldn't argue that it did make him feel safer.

"Let's go!" Shin Taemin yelled after verifying that everyone was ready.

Shiwoon walked into the Portal and was met by a blast of hot air and smoke and the smells of death and destruction. Everything was burning and the whole area seemed to be bathed in the crimson of flames and blood.

"What happened here?" He heard the swordsman next to him say.

They moved forward to allow the others to come through. The Bird Bugs were still skittering over the burning buildings instead of crawling towards the Hunters. Shiwoon wondered if the smoke was obscuring them from detection.

He could see Shin Taemin thinking deeply about something. The man wore a troubled expression plainly. Shiwoon wondered what the man was feeling so disturbed about.

"Let's move towards that building there," Shin Taemin pointed to a tall building at the center of the blazing ruins, "and investigate. Kill any of the Roaches that cross your path but don't make it a point to engage them from afar."

The team moved towards the building together. Shin Taemin kept checking his pocket watch, seemingly anxious about the time. But there were hours still before the Portal would begin to collapse. There was no reason to be afraid.

Shiwoon was surprised, however, when they reached the building. It looked oddly like a church and had stained glass windows that depicted a purple man in yellow robes challenging what appeared to be cockroaches the size of a whale. He saw that Shin Taemin was looking at the mural uneasily.

"Let's search inside." Shin Taemin said. "Could be weapons or armor or something like an artifact." He looked to one of the two mages. "Please extinguish the fire with your magic."

Skills related to water were rare among Hunters; much more common were Skills pertaining to fire and lightning. Still, there were many Hunters who possessed Skills that enabled them to utilise ice, and the mage Hunter promptly shot spears of ice at the flames in their path, extinguishing them while smoke bloomed out of the dead flames.

Shiwoon was a little confused and so he asked the frontliner next to him, "Why are we entering this place anyway?"

The woman looked at him as if he was asking the most obvious question in the world. "Didn't you hear him?" She pointed backwards to Shin Taemin with her thumb. "Something valuable may be here."

"Why would something valuable be here?"

She rolled her eyes. "Do you think all weapons are made by humans? Most of them, we find in ruins of some dead civilisation in the Portals. Ruins like this one, though this place seems to be newer than the typical ruins."

"I see. Thank you, senior."

She nodded before returning her gaze to the front. The team was moving forward much more slowly; everyone seemed on edge in the building, as if something was about to pop out at any moment.

"Do D-rank Hunters usually encounter these places? Everyone seems very experienced." He decided to ask again.

"We run into these ruins but usually they aren't very valuable. You find the odd enchanted weapon but that's it, for D-rank Portals. At the higher ranks, though, you hear of Hunters finding S-rank weapons."

"Ah. I see. Thank you again, senior."

Shin Taemin suddenly chimed in. "Higher ups think it's because of the Aether density - the same thing that attracts the stronger monsters also drew the ancient civilisation to settle there."

That was new information to Shiwoon. He hadn't ever heard of any such civilisation before. As far as the public was concerned, the Portals simply led to another world where monsters that couldn't be hurt by conventional weapons. If it weren't for that, governments around the world would never have allowed an armed force like the Hunters to form. Before he could ask another question, Shin Taemin had already turned his attention elsewhere, speaking to the mage beside him about something that sounded important.

The fact that they did not encounter anything within the ruins was worrying to Shiwoon. Walking forward in a highly alert state, he thought that such a building would be home to traps or some monsters that had made their homes in the building over the years. There were none; he saw a cup of knocked over dark purple liquid with a sweet smell that wafted into their noses and made him miss wine.

They walked past rows of scorched cushions and arrived at an altar. The melted remnants of what must have been an idol stood sloppily on the altar. There was no way to identify what it had looked like but Shiwoon was certain now. The building had been a place of worship. He could hear Hunters around him muttering silent words of prayer.

A door lurked at the back, behind the altar. It was locked. One of the Hunters, the great big hulk holding the greataxe knocked the door down with a charge after being instructed to do so by Shin Taemin.

There was no gold or silver behind the door. At the center of the room a wooden sword stood, edge buried into the stone, with a flower wreath hanging off its scabbard. The mage informed them that it was just a regular sword. Standing against the walls were kegs. When Shin Taemin opened one of them and smelled the inside of the barrel, he showed a revulsed look before pulling away from the barrel and slamming the lid back onto it.

Shiwoon could hear unexcited murmurs all around him. He wanted to ask what it was all about, but he thought that his questions were a personal problem he couldn't trouble them with, on account of their strictly professional relationships.

The grand prize hung proudly on the wall and everyone was trying to avert their gazes so they wouldn't be misunderstood. After they took it down, the mage announced proudly the result of his appraisal.

"It's a magic weapon." He said proudly.

Shin Taemin quelled the brewing tension by announcing that they would sell the mace to the Bureau and split the profits equally among all the Hunters. Shiwoon sensed a note of hostility among the Hunters at this announcement, particularly towards him. But it was a fair decision and a handsome reward considering they hadn't faced any danger yet.

"We will go back to the Portal and set up a blockade. Hopefully, those bugs stick to these ruins and don't rush towards the Portal." Shin Taemin declared.

Walking back towards the entrance of the building, Shiwoon felt like everything was going smoothly. Too smoothly. He wasn't used to getting rewarded so easily.

When they neared the entrance, however, Shin Taemin suddenly issued an urgent cry. "Formations! Birdbugs ahead!"

As the Hunters began to organise themselves haphazardly, Shiwoon saw it. From afar, it had seemed to him like part of the darkness on the horizon. Now that the monsters had drawn closer, he could see that it was an innumerable swarm, which swallowed the light of the flames and seemed like a wave of blackness.

The Bird Bugs were coming for them.