As far as anyone could tell, there was a restaurant tucked away in the corner of an old alley with no sign. The only clue to what this place was was the 'Haejang-guk' sticker on the iron sliding door that squeaked as it opened and closed, but the place was packed. The line out the door was as long as the bustling inside.

The only items on the menu were haejang-guk and alcoholic beverages, both priced at 10,000 won. On the wall near the menu board were faded posters and autograph sheets, crudely taped together. Of course, they weren't celebrity autographs...

Haejang-guk Restaurant ᅳHunter Bae Won-Woo

It's a great place to eat! Hunter Yang Hye-Jin

They were autographs of hunters.

And then there was the dark-haired young man who deftly walked through the crowd. Wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and a black skirt emblazoned with the logo of a soju brand, he maneuvered nimbly through the narrow shop, carrying a tray of boiling water in each hand.

"Your haejang-guk is ready."

"Oh, thank you."

"Boss, let's have two haejang-guk!"

"Yes."

"And two gonggimbap, please."

"Yes, I'll take them right away."

The young man memorized the order with a wave of his hand and was on his way to the kitchen when a dark-haired man called out from behind him in a booming voice.

"Excuse me, can we have extra soju?"

"No, you're on your second bottle of soju."

"What do you mean, I only bought one bottle?"

"I saw you put it in the empty bottle inventory earlier, so no."

The young man pointed to the side of the short menu. The words scrawled in black on an A4 sheet of paper seemed to show the author's determination: "Limit two bottles of soju per table to prevent arguments and fights.

The young man collected the empty bowls and pots from the next table and went into the kitchen. When he casually pulled an empty bottle of soju out of the air, the man sitting across from him claimed to know.

"See, I told you, didn't I? That part-timer knew exactly how much he was drinking. Two bottles, no questions asked."

"You've got a good eye, Ghost. You're faster at catching monsters than I am. This part-timer is a hunter?"

That's right.

But the man across from him shook his head. "No. One of the team leaders asked, and he said he was a regular guy."

"Well, that's it. It's all the rage these days. I can't wait to see how strong he is. You know, the unregistered one?"

"Aye, how strong can an unregistered be, and if you're a hunter with hidden powers, do you think you'll be running around dungeons sucking honey and working a part-time job at a haejang-guk?"

The young man's back twitched for a moment, but the dark-haired man didn't seem to see it. He nodded in agreement.

"No way. Those who hide their power are crazy to take care of themselves somehow."

"Team leader Han is trying to bring him back when he wakes up. If he's this good before he wakes up, he'll be at least a B class after he wakes up..."

The young man stepped out of the hunters' noise into the kitchen and grinned as he poured water into the dishwasher. I bet I'll wake up before you do. Rather than bring in some cranky hunter senior, I'd rather...'

A young man. Name: Cha Ui-Jae. Possesses the fuselage vision to snatch empty soju bottles like ghosts and the strength to carry several boiling pots at once. Although he was a hunter with hidden powers, there was a reason why he had settled down in this dilapidated old shop instead of sucking the honey of dungeons.

A few months ago, I woke up in a garbage dump. I'd blinked my eyes for a long time, my mutilated senses beginning to come back to me.

"Where am I, ewww...!"

An unpleasant stench hit me, followed by the gurgling of gastric juices. I hadn't eaten anything in particular, but my exhausted body was swallowing down my stomach like a crazy colic patient. The world was spinning and I lacked the strength to lift a finger.

I remember fighting the last basilisk and plunging my sword into its head, but that was it. And then ....

I looked up and saw a huge black hole in the middle of the inky night sky. An entity that looked like it would bring about the end of the world, but has become so commonplace that we can't imagine the sky without it: a black hole.

This black hole was invisible through the rift. This meant that I was back in reality. Once my consciousness was somewhat clearer and I had a sense of the situation, the next thing I felt was a physiological need.

"I'm hungry..."

I had to eat something. I pulled myself up by the garbage piled haphazardly beneath me. Leaning against the dirty wall, I took a moment to catch my breath, and then, weakened by the vomit from earlier, I pushed myself forward, sliding over the wall like a mollusk.

As I continued to walk, holding on to my wobbly legs, the smell of meat wafted in from somewhere. My eyes opened instinctively, scanning my surroundings. At the end of the alley, there was a lone glow of light. I stomped towards it.

I came to a dilapidated shop with no sign. Behind the glass of the iron sliding door, an old woman sat in an odokani. An old woman sat with her back to the door, peeling garlic and turning her head lazily at the noise. I leaned my face against the glass and murmured, "Now... eat... can I...?"
(Note: 오도카니 (odokani) = (of a person of small size or height) while standing or sitting, usually alone, as if lost in thought)

Of course, I was soaked to the skin and standing on wobbly legs, so the way I said it sounded more like, "This... I'm eating..."

Instead of yelling at me, the old woman stood up and held the door open for me, even though I looked like a homeless man who had just escaped from a psychopathic killer.

"What's the point of standing there if you're not coming in?"

Warmth and the smell of meat soup wafted from inside, enveloping me. I looked down at the old woman.

"You look like shit. Where have you been rolling around in the dirt? Were you in a dungeon or something?"

"Eh..."

Clicking her tongue, the old woman gestured for me to sit anywhere and disappeared into the kitchen. I sat down at a table in the far corner of the mess hall. A moment later, a bowl of fried rice and flawless gomguk was placed in front of me.
(Note: Gomguk (곰국) = beef bone soup)

"Oh my. Haejang-guk is still far away."

"......."

"If you're not going to eat it, throw it away."

I looked at the bowl of rice with a puzzled expression, then bowed my head and looked at Grandma again. The old woman turned away before I could finish speaking and went back to her seat on the street and began peeling garlic.

With the food I was presented with, my appetite was incomparably greater than before. I emptied my bowl as if possessed. As the clear bone broth entered my stomach, I felt my body, which had been shivering with cold and hunger, slowly warming up. I thought that maybe the light I had seen in the alley was the old woman's halo as she scooped up the rice and rolled it into the soup.

Having satisfied my immediate appetite, my eyes slowly took in the view of the shop. A brown tube TV on a shelf, a faded soju poster, old wall fans, and a large wall calendar that had been given away by a union somewhere. It was an old store that was showing its age.

How much time had passed since I entered the rift? I looked at the calendar.

20... what year?

I blinked once in disbelief. I rubbed my eyes, wondering if I was looking at the wrong year, but the words on the paper didn't change.

I held my breath. My barely regained sense of reality was trying to get me out of the house again. Confused, I scooped another bowl of soup from the tilted teapot. My head was spinning, so I thought I might as well calm it down.

Just then, a soothing narration came from the brown tube TV on the shelf.

-...8 years ago today, there was a class 5 rift in the Western Sea.

...8 years? I swallowed the soup again.

-When the rift was suddenly upgraded to Class 1, the government sent S-class hunter J, 14 more A-class hunters, and 30 more B-class hunters into the rift. The rift dissipated a week later... but... the Raiders sent there never returned.

The screen flashed a series of photographs of familiar faces, the ones I had been looking for as I sifted through the pile of bodies.

I felt a pang in the pit of my stomach, but I shrugged it off and continued to watch the TV with an impassive expression on my face. Pictures of the B- and A-Level Hunters flashed by, until finally a picture of S-Level Hunter J, wearing a black mask that covered his entire face, appeared alone.

-The Awakening Administration has admitted that three months after the rift's disappearance, all the hunters who entered the rift have died.

With these words, the screen changed. I shoved an empty soup spoon into my mouth.

'All dead?

All of them were dead, including S-Class Hunter J?

I continued spooning into thin air, my hands moving without realizing it. On the next screen, a middle-aged man appeared and gave a closing speech.

- Song Jo-Heon | S-Class Awakener | Samra Guild Leader -

-Without J, our country has no future. Eight years ago, we lost a hero in Incheon: J and the 44 hunters who bravely entered the rift. They gave us a future. We have an obligation to look ahead and move forward.

The grim-faced man looked at the screen and spoke solemnly.

- [To J], a commemorative documentary on the 8th anniversary of the West Sea First Grade Rift. This is the end of the program.

The screen went black for a moment as the words "This program was produced with the support of the Wave Guild and the Awakening Bureau" appeared at the bottom of the brown tube. For the umpteenth time, I checked my memory to make sure I had heard correctly.

-The hunters who entered the rift have all been pronounced dead.

-Eight years ago, we lost a hero in Incheon.

-The 8th Anniversary Commemorative Documentary, [To J].

Was this a dream? Would I wake up if I closed my eyes again? But this place felt real to me. The black hole I'd seen earlier had filled up to the point where my stomach was as full as an empty pot, as evidenced by the spoon I'd dropped with a clatter.

I grabbed my head, unable to hide my disbelief. All the hunters sent to the Western Rift were dead, and as far as I knew, that was absolutely not true. No, it couldn't be true.

Because Hunter J, Cha Ui-Jae, was the only one still alive, scooping up soup right here and now!