Chapter 2  : Return (1)

“AAAARGH!”

It was a shout full of fear, anger, despair, and regret. Woojin felt strange at the sight he saw in front of his eyes as he woke up. It was so familiar. Familiar faces were looking at him in shock.

It was surely not a scene he should see after his head was just pulled off by a god. And as he thought about that, he felt something approaching the back of his head.

He immediately turned to block it as he grabbed the face of the man who had swung the attack at him and threw him to the ground.

Woojin tried to finish him off with the last blow but stopped in shock as he recognized the man who had fainted and was foaming at the mouth.

“Park...?”

He realized it was his coworker Park, who had constantly bullied him at work ten years ago. Woojin shook his head and stood up. The people around him flinched and looked away. Woojin looked past them and at his surroundings.

It was the company he worked at ten years ago. But why was he here? He thought it might be a dream, but the feeling of throwing a man to the ground felt real. Woojin kicked Park to check.

“UGH!”

Park gasped in pain. It definitely wasn’t a dream. Woojin then reached into his pocket and checked his cellphone date.

May 12th, 2017.

He had been sent ten years into the past.

It was the day his family died and his sister went missing. Woojin quickly put on his jacket and ran out while calling his sister.

“Woojin!”

Woojin turned back and his supervisor was angrily looking at him. It seemed like he was trying to stop Woojin as he had thrown his coworker and run out, but he couldn’t say anything especially with Woojin’s viciousness.

It was the aura that Woojin had built up after ten years of fierce battles. He was still in an enraged state at the god.

Woojin shouted as he burst out of the company, “I’m quitting!”

He didn’t have time to stay at his job. He heard his sister’s voice through the phone, whispering,

[Woojin? What’s going on?]

It was a voice he had not heard in ten years. He never even got to listen to this voice again at the end. Woojin felt like he would cry and stopped walking. He felt dizzy and placed his hand on a wall to steady himself and asked, “Where are you?”

[I’m at school. What’s going on?]

“Nothing. Go straight home when you’re done, okay? Don’t go anywhere. Go home right away.”

[Huh? Okay. Are you sure everything’s okay?]

“Yeah, don’t worry. Bye.”

Woojin hung up the phone and placed his back to the wall. He remembered that he had thrown a man to the ground with his untrained body and he trembled in nervousness. He took a deep breath and slapped his both cheeks with his hands.

This was the day he attended the company dinner. When he returned home after, he was welcomed by a bloody house. His parents had been ripped apart and his sister was missing.

He reported it to the police, but his sister was never found. Woojin then quit his job and tracked down his sister. Instead, he found beings from another world.

And after ten years, when he finally found his sister, it was too late.

It could not happen again. Woojin knew that calling the police wouldn’t help. He had met many people in his ten years as a hunter, but he couldn’t ask them for help right now. If he had indeed gone back ten years, there was no way that they would know him now.

Woojin took the elevator and went to the ATM on the first floor. He didn’t remember how much he had left, so he had to check. He gritted his teeth as he checked his account, he had a mere two hundred and twenty thousand won. That wasn’t enough. He walked out and went to the bank. He had said that he quit, but in the bank system, he was still employed which allowed him to overdraft his account. He overdrafted his account to the maximum of five million won and immediately took everything out.

“Let’s go to Garibong.”

Woojin quickly thought everything through as he hailed a cab. He needed to check what he could do with his current amount of money. He wished to get a weapon at least, but that wasn’t enough. He needed to fend off today’s attack with the money he had. Woojin made a plan as he reached his destination. Garibong, or the so-called Yeonbyeon streets, were not so different from his memory.

Korea was a bad place for hunters who hunted down otherworldy beings. Gun laws were so strict that hunters couldn’t carry guns. Not having a gun made it difficult to hunt down avatars, monsters, or spiritual beings. There was Hunters Guild in Korea, but no decent hunters lived here. It didn’t do any good and there were avatars who had lived so long inside Korea that they were too powerful to hunt.

That’s why Woojin was here. He knew this place had a black market. It was much more expensive to purchase things here than from the Hunters Guild, but he had no choice. There were things that he could only get from this place.

Woojin went to a meat shop at a corner. A man who was chopping up pork meat stopped his work and turned to Woojin. Woojin knew who he was, but he couldn’t mention it right now.

“I’m here to buy rotten lamb.”

The man scanned Woojin from top to bottom and closed the door of the store.

“I don’t know you.”

“You only sell to regulars?”

The man scoffed, “Go in.”

Woojin opened the freezer. Beyond all the hanging meat was a door. As he walked out, there was a narrow corridor and two men were blocking the exit.

Woojin walked up to them and stated, “I’m here to buy rotten lamb.”

The two men didn’t say anything but moved aside to let Woojin walk in. Inside, there was an old man reading a newspaper. As Woojin walked in, the old man looked up at him.

“Hmm? A new customer? How did you find out about my store?”

Woojin walked up to him and declared, “I need Cocktail-B and Spiderweb of Inmen.”

The old man smiled as Woojin ignored his question.

“Hunter?”

Woojin just looked at him. The old man looked back and nodded. Those eyes were of one who had seen much bloodshed. It was typical for an experienced hunter.

“That was a foolish question. Do you know the price?”

“How much is it these days?”

“Cocktail-B is two million each. Spiderweb is a million per meter.”

Woojin realized the price was as he remembered and knew the old man did not lie. Well, he wasn’t the type to lie anyway.

“Do you have Gloves of Wyvern?”

“I have a secondhand one. It’s two million.”

Woojin took out his entire five million and demanded, “Get me everything, including a meter of the spiderweb.”

“Okay. Do you need anything else?”

Woojin shook his head. The old man went inside a room and came back. Woojin checked the items he received. He first put on the glove, then tested to see if the spiderweb was durable enough.

After checking everything, Woojin stuffed everything into his bag and turned to leave. The old man spoke from behind.

“If you get any good ones, come and sell them.”

Woojin raised his hand in reply and left. The old man then picked up his phone.

“Run a check on that man, including his background.”

The old man whistled after hanging up.

“We might see a good hunter in Korea soon.”