The group was thrown into the middle of a field overlooking a small hill.

“Whew~ It feels like something will jump out at us~. It’s so empty.”

This was Che-nayun’s first impression as she looked around her surrounding. The other party members made a fuss at her flippant manner, but they seem to agree with her sentiment. As her words had indicated, the large field was very bleak. The floor was littered with wild grass, which was brown and listless. If it weren’t bizarrely twisted ancient trees, one might mistake this place for a desert. No, it may as well been a desert since one couldn’t find any hint of green in this place.

“I guess that place is our destination.”

The muscular man, Kim-gyushik, pointed to the top of the hill with his husky voice. The end of Kim-gyushik’s thick finger was pointing at a creepy white stone tower with a triangular roof. There was an unknown bird sculpture hanging at the edge of the roof and it looked like it was looking down on the group.

Even if Kim-gyushik hadn’t pointed it out, the group would have noticed the winding narrow path leading to it.

“Ha, a tower in the middle of a desert. It sets quite the mood.”

“Let’s head over there.”

The tall woman, Ahn-haemi, took point, and the group slowly headed towards the tower. The forward, middle and rear group moved with 2-3 meters of distance between them. They decided there wouldn’t be any danger until they had entered the tower, so they walked while chatting. Also, the surrounding was a wide-open field, so there was almost no chance of an ambush. Ha-taegyong had also thought this, so he didn’t restrain them in any way.

Noguduk was of no interest to anyone, so he walked at the very end. Next to him, there was a female college student with a short sword, and a man with a pair of hand axe hanging off of his belt. He matched steps with them. From time to time, they heard laughter coming from the other groups, and one could tell they were getting acquainted with each other. This group was particularly quiet. It could be because they had less members compared to the other groups. However, the uncomfortable existence of Noguduk added to the problem.

The female college student, Shin-soyool, couldn’t stand the uncomfortable silence so she let out a sigh.

‘Whew. I must have been crazy. I shouldn’t have volunteered to manage the rear group.’

Lee-junghwan seemed like he preferred juggling his hand axes over getting along with other people. The uncle named Noguduk was sullen, so he wasn’t in a mood where she could strike up a conversation. She still had to walk like this for 20 to 30 minute, and if the mood stayed like this…..

‘This is suffocating. I can’t take it anymore.’

She was an outgoing person, so she couldn’t take it anymore. She spoke first. She chose Noguduk, since he seemed relatively easy to approach. Lee-Junghan kept twirling his ugly hand axe, while emitting an air of solitude. Noguduk was easier to talk to. Of course, she also felt sympathy in the corner of her heart.

‘I feel sorry for this uncle. How did he get involved in this….’

“Uncle?”

“Huh?”

Noguduk turned his head towards her with a stupid look. Then he saw a pale, little tear-drop shaped face. Now that he had broken out of his stupor, he realized she was the female college student he first spoke to. Her name was Shin-soyool. Now that he observed her closely, she had fine facial features and a fair appearance.(TLN: ears eyes mouth and nose => shortened it to appearance) Her lustrous black hair was tied into a ponytail, and it exposed her forehead. She had white skin, and she evoked a feeling of a recently blossomed peony(TLN: its a pink flower). Even if she didn’t realize it, she had melted the hearts of the surrounding male students

If it were normal times, she would be holding a pen between her slim hands, but currently she was holding onto a blade, which scattered blue light.

“Uncle?”

“Yeah?”

The sound he heard for a second time(TLN: she said uncle twice) immediately woke his mind up.

“Ah, ah, ah. I was thinking about something else. Yes, why did you call me?”

“Uh, mmm… You seem more quieter than I thought.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“If you look at what you just went through… To be honest, anyone would feel anxiety if one suddenly fell into this place. If it was me then I probably would have cried and made a fuss?”

Noguduk alternatively looked at Shin-soyool’s face, and the hand that was grasping her small sword. He didn’t agree with her last words(TLN: he doesn’t agree she would have cried), but he didn’t show it on the surface. She had shown him kindness by speaking to him, so he replied out of courtesy.

Truthfully, he had mostly come to terms with the situation. The deciding factor was the fact that they fell into the wasteland. He had experienced a supernatural event like teleportation, so the other details felt comparatively small. He was able to stave off despair, and it was an advantage that comes with aging since he will be 50 in a couple  years.

“Well, yes. However, what can I do? I received the thing called the Journal and now I’m here. How can I not believe it? I was unsure until we left the room… Shit.”

“Heh. So you have years of experience.”

“It’s not experience. I just give up faster.”

The two of them continued to to have a friendly talk, and Lee-junghan continued to be disinterested in the other two people.

“So what are you guys? I want to know something about it.”

At Noguduk’s urging, Shin-soyool briefly agonized over it. She didn’t mind telling him, but she was thinking about where to start the story.

“Mmm. We are called Hunters. Moreover, this place is called the Septic square. We shorten it and call it Square. Basically, this world is called Square. We are… Hunters are… How should I say this…”

“We are monster hunters.”

Lee-junghan suddenly butted in. His eyes were still locked on to the hand-axes spinning in his fingers. Shin-soyool pouted when her explanation was interrupted midstream, but Lee-junghwan continued to speak without paying any attention to her.

“Uncle. Do you like soccer? I mean watching it. They have something like K-League and Premier League.” (TLN: he is speaking in casual form, not respectful form. It’s an insult considering there is about 30 year age difference.)

‘How come all the guys here are rude? Jeez, these damn kids.’

Noguduk complained inside, while he nodded his head.

“Of course. I’m in this situation because of soccer…”

The moment the car had hit him in the cross walk, a supernatural power must have formed and dropped him here. If he was nitpicking, the main reason why he was crossing the cross walk at that time was the soccer match. Of course, he muttered all of this, so Lee-junghwan couldn’t make out what he said.
“……?”

Lee-junghwan had question in his eyes, but he refrained from asking any further.

“Then it’ll be easy for me to explain this. Both the earth and Square are occupied by humans. The only difference is that this place is full of monsters called the Kar’m. We are mercenaries invited from earth to exterminate the monsters. The people of earth are more suitable for ‘Empowering’ than the natives of Square. This is why we are called ‘Hunters’. As the word implies, we were brought here to hunt the monsters.”

“The test we are taking right now is called the Draft. You can say it is the selection of rookies. There are other teams that are also participating in the Draft right now. Depending on the grade, the amount of attention paid to us by the Clubs varies.

“Club?”

“The Hunter Clubs. It is the organization affiliated to the Hunters. For example, doesn’t soccer or baseball have teams? Just think of it like that. They play a similar role. If your grade in the draft is excellent then the larger clubs will make you an offer. After you make a contract, you can live here comfortably for the duration of the contract. This one test could set you up for life.”

Shin-soyool, who was listening from the side, couldn’t hold back so she continued explaining from where he left off.

“That is why! This is the reason why everyone is on edge. The SAT? It can’t even be compared to this since you have to really put your life on the line. I’ve heard that the monsters were very formidable. To tell you the truth, I’m a little bit worried. This is my first live battle….”

Noguduk, who was listening closely, suddenly had a question. By listening to their stories, they were also new to this place. So how were they so knowledgeable?

“You heard they were formidable? From whom?”

“Ah, about that. The Scouter that chose me….”

“We’re here.”

Shin-soyool’s face sulked at being interrupted again, but she earnestly looked towards the front. After Noguduk saw this, he felt his grip tighten on the club. Maybe this was the instincts he had learned from many hardships giving him a warning.

Something really dangerous was in front of them.

One couldn’t tell from beneath the hill, but the entrance to the tower was fairly large. There were square windows on the surface of the wall like gradations on a ruler. By counting it, one could guess that the structure had 4 to 5 floors. The tower was shaped like a thick cylinder with a conical roof on top of it. Che-nayun from the middle group complained that it looked like a flipped over pencil. She complained that the tower’s architect must not have had any formal training. Later on, Shin-soyool hinted that Che-nayun was an art student.

‘No wonder her face looks drawn on.’

He had a moment of clarity on why Che-nayun wore an uncomfortable amount of heavy make-up.

After they entered the tower, they were greeted by stale and humid air that stuck to their lungs. Every time they took a breath in, there was a pungent smell that stabbed at the end of their nose. While everyone was frowning, Ha-taegyong reassigned Ahn-haemi from the front to the middle combat support group. Since they weren’t in an open terrain, he told them he didn’t need someone with good vision in the front.

“What are we going to do about light? If we go in any further then we won’t be able to see anything. Should we make a torch?”

“We have to… It looks like we don’t need it. Look over there.”

“Uh? Is that a lamp?”

“It is filled with oil. We just have to start the fire with a flint.”

There were 3 oil lamps lined up next to the entrance. They guessed this was the host being considerate. It was put out for them, so it was human nature to use it. To satisfy everyone, the lamps was distributed to each of the groups. Then they got into a line and they launched their expedition.

“Ooh… It stinks.”

“Shh. Be quiet.”

Excluding Che-nayun’s voice complaining to Ha-taegyong, the exploration of the first floor was quiet and smooth. No, it was more accurate to say there weren’t anything there. They turned left from the exit then they circled back to their original position. They couldn’t find anything, so the group felt a little bit of their pulse slow down. However, they were successful in figuring out how the tower was structured. Normally, towers like these have similar floor plans for each floor. By studying the layout of this floor, there was high chance that it’ll help them in exploring the other floors.

“There is nothing here?”

“The edge of the corridor is surrounded by the middle 4 rooms. The stairs leading to the next floor is on the opposite side.”

“The problem is there is another stairway leading downstairs.”

Usually, the problem that occurs during an exploration delays the party. They had to decide if they want to go upstairs first or downstairs first.

“If we go downstairs, then it’ll most likely be the basement. Let us go there first for the sake of being tidy? I don’t like my backside being dirty.(TLN:figure of speech i.e. don’t like leaving something unfinished behind)”

“Let’s go up. The upper floor  will at least have sunlight coming in from the windows onto the corridors. We won’t be able to see anything in the basement. Do we really need to go to a dangerous place first?”

They all had differing opinions. The men like Park-junghwan wanted to go to the basement first. The women like Yoon-hweeji, Ahn-haemi and Che-nayun insisted they shouldn’t take risks from the start.

The decision was Ha-taegyong’s responsibility as the leader. He carefully listened to both sides of the argument then he spoke.

“Each argument have their merit. So let’s do this. We don’t know if the basement is single or multi-layered. It might be relatively dangerous,so we’ll only check out the entrance. If it is a simple storage room, then we’ll continue to explore it. If the layout is complicated then we’ll explore it later. Does anyone disagree?”

Both positions were addressed in the solution, so there weren’t any disagreement. Without a doubt, there were good reasons as to why Ha-taegyong was chosen as the leader.

‘He was employed by the H trading firm? He is really giving off an elitist air.’

Somehow, Noguduk didn’t like Ha-taegyong. He had a cold, and intelligent face. He wore a suit, which didn’t belong in this place, and he had taken on the role of a leader. Whether it was Che-nayun or Ahn-haemi, they were stealing glances at him, so Noguduk didn’t like any part of him. It had more to do with him being by Ha-taegyong in the ready room.(TLN: his attitude changed after he learned MC didn’t have any skills)

“Look at that guy. He’s a hotshot.”

“What?”

As if she had heard his muttering, Shin-soyool turned to look at him. Noguduk kept his mouth tightly sealed. He was being jealous of a young man in the prime of his youth, and it put a bitter taste in his mouth. He thought about what he was like at that age, and Noguduk felt self pity.

They headed toward the stairway located on the other side, and they slowly headed down the stairway with Kim-gyushik in the front. The back group of Noguduk, Shin-soyool and Lee-jonghwan slowly followed after them, and soon they heard the dejected voice of Kim-gyushik.

“What is this? This place is locked?”

“The steel chains, and the lock is very thick. We’ll have to find the key.”

“Jeez~. We just wasted our time.”

After Che-nayun’s flighty voice ended, the front group started climbing back up the stairs. After hearing their explanation, they found out that the route leading to the basement was blocked by a sturdy steel door, and the door handle had a thick lock on it. There was no way they could enter the basement. Therefore, the discussion on which direction they should explore became useless.

“This might have worked out better for us. Let us go straight to the 2nd floor. Also, observe your surrounding as a precaution. We might be able to find the key to the underground lock. Also… Mmmm.”

Ha-taegyong’s brows furrowed a little bit. He saw that the atmosphere had become much looser. They were tense when entering the tower, but the only thing they found on the first floor was empty rooms and a basement that was locked. It was inevitable for them to relax in this situation. One could just see it from the way they walked. One could
tell that they weren’t being cautious.

‘This isn’t good.’

“We’ve entered the second floor. Front group, be careful…”

As he was about to warn them, an urgent shout exploded out from the front group.

“Hey, don’t go there!”

“What? Ooh, ooh-ahhhhhhk! Ggah-ahhhh!”

Clank!

Accompanying the ominous husky voice, someone started screaming. As events unfolded in the front, the general formation they were in broke. As if she had seen something, Che-nayun also started screaming and Hwan-gijung rushed to the front. Even Yoon-hweeji’s face had paled. During all of this, Ha-taegyong was trying hard to be hold onto his control over the group.

“Quiet! Quiet!”

“Ggyahhhhhhhh!”

“Miss Che-nayun! Please!”

However, Che-nahyun couldn’t calm her surprised heart, and she continued screaming. As a last resort, Lee-junghwan quickly moved from his place in the back group, and he forcefully shut Che-nahyun’s mouth. Ha-taegyong coldly glared at Che-nayun’s frightened face. Her face was already white from her make-up, but now her face was devoid of all color.