Free Web NovelAround 3 a.m.
Pyo Won-sang called me in.
My rare deep sleep had been interrupted, but I didn’t get angry.
I knew Pyo Won-sang didn’t abuse his emergency privileges lightly.
“He contacted us.”
So this wasn’t a trivial matter. freewebnøvel.coɱ
“Jeong Dae-kyung.”
The man who brought me here suddenly appeared again in my fate.
“He sent a transmission under the title of Deputy Commander of the Jeju Command of the National Defense Forces.”
Astonishingly, that Jeong Dae-kyung was the same smart and sharp army general I had owed a debt to back in Paju.
But that astonishment was soon eclipsed by something even bigger.
Jeong Dae-kyung’s side had sent a welcome message containing a video.
“Hello. I’m Jeong Dae-kyung, formerly Deputy Commander of the Jeju Command of the National Defense Forces.”
The man in the video had the same neatly parted hair, pristine uniform, gleaming Eulji Medal of Military Merit, and a faded wedding ring that symbolized a perfectly closed-off romance—all just like the Jeong Dae-kyung I knew.
“Wow! That’s definitely General Jeong Dae-kyung. After he went missing in a Rift, they officially declared him missing in action.”
Pyo Won-sang confirmed it was him with an overwhelmed expression, as if he had just discovered a new continent.
And he wasn’t the only one.
“That voice... yeah, that’s definitely Jeong Dae-kyung.”
Even Woo Min-hee, who didn’t know his face but remembered the voice, testified it was him.
But that man is not the Jeong Dae-kyung I know.
He’s an entirely different person.
And yet—I know him.
*
Soldiers and Hunters may appear similar on the surface, and their jobs often overlap, but in truth, they’re fundamentally different groups with distinct identities.
For starters, Hunters aren’t part of the military; they belong to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Not that it matters much.
No matter who we report to, the work we do stays the same.
One thing is certain: we were in a cooperative relationship with the military, not a subordinate one, so we weren’t exactly familiar with each other.
So technically, Brigadier Jeong Dae-kyung and I were supposed to be strangers—never even exchanged a word.
But in my case, due to certain circumstances, I caught his attention, and we would occasionally share a casual chat in his office.
Of course, not everyone received such favors.
Paju’s Old School Hunter unit was capped at twenty members. It wasn’t a frontline zone but more of a resting ground for retirees, a place where people came to kill time and collect some money.
Some had battlefield experience, but by the time I arrived, the team had turned over, and those without any were filling the ranks—flunk-outs from academy schools or failed Hunters from private institutes.
Anyway, there were rumors that many of the dispatched Hunters I worked with had gotten in through connections.
I didn’t bother trying to blend in with them.
I wasn’t the sociable type, and they clearly didn’t like the “Chinese Dispatch.”
Most of the Chinese-dispatched Hunters who came to the Rifts suffered from PTSD or had personality issues.
Those who had returned from China had little hesitation when it came to pointing guns at civilians and often got into brutal clashes with C-rank Hunters—those who had no real combat experience.
“Ha... seriously. Why do we have to patrol in this goddamn heat?”
Occasionally, we’d work in pairs to survey the outskirts of the Rift.
It wasn’t combat duty.
Not combat duty.
It was all the small stuff—checking erosion levels, inspecting Rift conditions, searching for capsules, collecting samples of the mutation agent.
Still, the kill zone surrounding the Rift had uneven terrain from heavy shelling, unexploded ordnance embedded here and there, and there was always the risk of monsters popping out from beyond.
So, it wasn’t exactly a free ride.
There was a guy I often got paired with.
“I mean, as long as the artillery’s doing its job, what’s the point of us even checking this? As long as humanity can mass-produce shells, nothing’s gonna happen, right?”
His name was Lee Haeng-taek. Medium height, sturdy build.
He was in his mid-forties—a rare age for a Hunter.
I didn’t know the full story, but I’d heard he was part of Korea’s first generation of Hunters, active even before the Hunter academies existed.
Naturally, his skills were garbage.
But like many from the golden era, he had a flair for flashy melee weapons. In his case, it was a red-tasseled Chinese-style spear.
Originally, he used a machete. But after seeing other Hunters getting attention for using ornate weapons, he paid extra to a local Hapkido instructor and began relentlessly training with the spear, hoping for some spotlight.
Unfortunately, by the time his technique became viable in actual combat, the Rift had started spewing its first monsters.
In Korea, which was late to the Hunter-development game and never produced many stars, most of the first-generation Hunters were weeded out.
Many had to start over—essentially forced into a second act in life.
Lee Haeng-taek was one of those unfortunate souls.
He never spoke of his past, but it didn’t seem like he had lived an easy life.
From what I could tell, he never even had a heyday.
Maybe that’s why—
He remained unmarried and hadn’t saved much. Whether it was loneliness or just his nature, he frequented hostess bars, which probably played a role ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) in how his life turned out.
He wasn’t a man of many words, but the few things he did say usually revolved around dragging others down with envy. It was like peering into a twisted core shaped by a life that never quite worked out.
He gossiped about other Hunters any chance he got. Thankfully, he never seemed to badmouth me.
He didn’t know I was “Professor”—none of the other Hunters did either—but he was cautious simply because I was Chinese-dispatched.
Apparently, one of his past gossip targets, also Chinese-dispatched, nearly killed him once.
They say that Hunter, enraged by Lee’s insults, lined him up and fired a barrage of bullets close enough to graze his scalp—just to teach him what scalping meant.
Anyway, there was someone Lee truly envied.
None other than Jeong Dae-kyung.
“Ah, that guy. Colonel Jeong Dae-kyung. I heard he got divorced. Then why’s he still wearing his wedding ring? Maybe he just doesn’t want others to know.”
“I’ve got a friend in the army HQ. Said he worked in the same unit. Yeah, he’s from the Officer Candidate School. Anyway, Jeong Dae-kyung’s a divorcee now. Not some ‘divorcé’—a plain old divorced man.”
“They say his daughter went with the mom and he’s raising the son. But isn’t it kinda risky? Girls from broken homes tend to be a bit... you know.”
This wasn’t just dislike. It was deep-seated hatred.
And it wasn’t hard to see the source: inferiority.
They were similar in age, from the same region, and even attended the same high school.
Jeong Dae-kyung was a few years senior, but it was clear they’d lived through the same era.
Jeong Dae-kyung also knew Lee Haeng-taek despised him.
But that was it.
“So Haeng-taek’s talking shit about me? Let him. If it makes him feel better, why not? He got in through connections anyway. Not like Hunter Park, who earns ten times the salary. You know not all Hunters get paid the same, right? Park’s salary alone probably outweighs everyone else’s combined. Because Park deserves it. But that guy? When he’s tossed back into the world before he even hits fifty, what can he even do with the pennies he saved up?”
While Jeong Dae-kyung was planning a new life in Jeju and on track for general promotion, people like Haeng-taek weren’t even on his radar.
That Lee Haeng-taek went to Jeju was unexpected—but there was more to the story.
“I heard he joined the Rift Exploration Support Unit.”
By then, the Awakened force led by Kang Han-min had already begun entering the Jeju Rift. But not everyone going in was Awakened.
Awakened were rare and valuable. And group operations always came with grunt work.
Guard duty, patrols—too menial for Awakened.
So non-Awakened individuals were also brought in.
Naturally, there was a hierarchy:
Full Awakened → Low-level Awakened → Old School Hunters → everyone else.
It was obvious which caste Lee Haeng-taek belonged to.
Even among Old School Hunters, he probably wasn’t considered a real Hunter.
Maybe if he danced through monsters with his spear, people would take notice. But according to Woo Min-hee, by that time the Rift was already producing humanoid, executioner-type monsters—specifically engineered for combat.
I remember the day he left.
We had a small farewell gathering.
There were twenty Old School Hunters, but only four showed up, myself included. One even left halfway, citing a date with his girlfriend.
It was a 24-hour hangover soup place. We ordered pork spine stew.
For someone like Lee—whose wallet was light and who was known for blowing money at bars—it must’ve been quite the expense.
Sadly for him, no one drank.
Everyone planned to leave early.
Lee tried to offer drinks a few times, but when everyone refused, he just kept downing soju alone, his face gradually turning red.
Tak!
He slammed his glass down.
A desperate attempt to grab attention, but no one even looked over—the place was full of tired office workers.
He let out a heavy sigh, reeking of alcohol, and glared at us with bloodshot eyes.
“Must be nice. All of you.”
As he collected the bitterness in the room, he added with another sigh:
“You’re all young.”
A Hunter who used to frequent bars with him said,
“You’re still young too, hyung.”
Lee shook his head.
“No. I’m a failure. Isn’t it obvious?”
“I heard you’re going to Jeju? That’s a good opportunity.”
“What am I gonna do there? Serve a bunch of brats who just graduated high school? Or fetch water for some guy like Kang Han-min?”
Normally, I don’t let emotions show. But even hearing Kang Han-min’s name was enough to twist my face back then.
Lee had one strength:
He was perceptive.
“Oh? What’s this, Hunter Park? Your mood just dropped like a rock. All I said was Kang Han-min’s name.”
He leaned in, bringing his face closer.
“I’ve always wondered. Hunter Park, do you know the Savior Kang Han-min? If you're from his school, you look like the exact graduating class.”
“······.”
I stared.
With a touch of killing intent.
Maybe it sobered him up—Lee awkwardly looked away.
“Sorry. My bad. I get carried away when I drink.”
I began gathering my things.
No one stopped me.
As I packed, Lee opened his mouth again.
“Just imagine. Let’s say someone like Kang—or Mr. K and Mr. N—suddenly got their powers dropped from the sky.”
It was a tragic topic, but the first interesting one since the dinner started.
Even so, I stood up.
A few Hunters met my gaze and gave silent nods. Lee, perhaps still embarrassed, seemed to be purposely ignoring me.
As I walked away, Lee’s voice followed like a ghost, brushing past my ear.
“If you had that kind of power... could you make your wish come true?”
I never saw Lee Haeng-taek again after that. freёwebnovel.com
He went to Jeju. I stayed behind, dispatching small-scale monsters emerging from the Rift on my own.
Jeong Dae-kyung headed to Jeju a bit later.
“Professor, aren’t you going?”
The day before he left, he asked me.
I shook my head.
“What would I even do there?”
“Come on. If you go to Jeju, at least you’ll survive. I told you before—when the war breaks out, Jeju will be the only refuge. And this is a secret, but the government’s already moving all strategic assets there.”
“If I go, they’ll treat me like they did Lee Haeng-taek.”
Jeong Dae-kyung chuckled.
At the mention of Lee Haeng-taek’s name, a question surfaced in my mind—like fate.
I asked him.
“Do you have a wish too, Brigadier?”
“Brigadier-to-be. Not quite there yet.”
After correcting me, Jeong Dae-kyung furrowed his intelligent-looking brows and thought for a moment.
Then, with a gentle smile, he looked at his hand, at the faded gold ring—looked like 18K.
Looking off into the distance, he said:
“······My family’s happiness?”
That man who once wished for his family’s happiness—he no longer exists.
Now there is only a man who wears the shell of that life, everything about him unnatural.
“I apologize for the delayed contact. I was aware you were headed this way through the internet, but things are in a quasi-war state over here. If you do come, I’ll do my utmost to support you. But it won’t be an easy journey.”
That man is not Jeong Dae-kyung.
The clothes, the hair, the expressions on his face—yes, they resemble Colonel Jeong Dae-kyung. But my eyes do not lie.
“This has been General Jeong Dae-kyung.”
That man... is Lee Haeng-taek.
The man exiled to Jeju, who envied and hated Jeong Dae-kyung more than anyone.
I never did hear what his wish was.
But now—I think I know.
