Thud.
The bus jolted as it sped over a speed bump. It hit hard enough that my body momentarily lifted off the seat.
My hood fell off as a result.
"Damn, what the hell?"
A few passengers muttered complaints.
The bus continued on indifferently, and I turned my gaze back to the window.
A billboard the size of a playground flashed the name Glory Guild.
The top hunter guild in Korea today.
The new elite of this changed world.
They protect their assigned territories—and maybe, just maybe, they could fix the ticking clock on my life.
Hmph.
I scoffed inwardly.
They might be heroes to the world, but not to me.
There's a test called MMPT (Multi Monster Poison Test).
It checks whether you've been poisoned by monsters that carry venom.
Once you're poisoned, not even an average hunter can last more than a year—let alone a normal person.
And unfortunately, I recently tested positive.
"At most a month? Maybe two weeks, hard to say."
Goddammit.
Even delivery services give you more accurate timelines than that.
The doctor delivered my death sentence in the most indifferent tone imaginable.
These days, death is common. Ever since monsters started appearing.
All I could do was respond calmly.
"Okay."
"Hmm... If you want, I could request a transfer to a guild lab..."
"No, that won't be necessary."
The doctor glanced at my clothes and, as if expecting my answer, closed the chart without hesitation.
A guild lab—like the one run by Glory Guild from the billboard.
The medical tech in those labs puts regular hospitals to shame.
After all, they're responsible for keeping hunters alive.
They might actually be able to cure me or at least give me more time.
But civilians receiving treatment in guild labs? Rare.
Why?
Simple.
The price is nauseatingly high.
"If you have money, you don't die. If you don't, you don't even have the luxury of hoping to live."
A saying born from the growing power of guild labs.
"Cough, cough."
I've lived with fevers, migraines, and fatigue since I was a kid.
Some called it chronic inflammation, others said it was just my constitution.
"Shit, what does it matter?"
Pain is pain. And that was if I was lucky.
What about the blotchy, grotesque marks covering my body?
Looking like a monster worse than the ones beyond the Gate made even me grimace.
"You're still handsome, Haeseon."
My sister always said that when she saw me.
Even porcupines think their babies are cute.
Maybe she's right. Without the marks, maybe I'd have a decent face.
"Whatever. What does it matter now?"
I'm dying.
Not from a monster beyond the Gate.
Not from a car crash.
But from some godforsaken poison no one's even heard of.
"So I'm dying, huh."
Maybe it's a blessing—to finally be free of this constant pain.
I'm not afraid of death.
What really scares me… is imagining my sister, left behind and heartbroken.
Thud.
"No seats left."
A couple stood in front of me.
They glanced at me briefly.
A look I know all too well—yet one that still suffocates me every time.
I slowly pulled my hood back up.
"Ugh, what's with his face?"
"Babe, he can hear you."
The girl whispered. The guy tried to stop her.
"Yeah, I can hear you, assholes."
I scoffed internally and looked out the window again.
Rage surged in me.
And I knew exactly why.
Why was I born like this? Why do I have to be sick?
Why do I have to die at an age where I should be out playing with friends?
And of all things—poisoned by monsters?
It'd almost be funny if it weren't so damn tragic.
My condition has gotten much worse recently.
We went from hospital to hospital, but no one could find the cause.
Useless quacks.
And most of my sister's paycheck went down the drain because of it.
Turns out, the cause was something no one expected.
Just to be thorough, the doctor ran an MMPT—and it detected not one, not two, but seven different poisons.
To date, there are only seven known monster venoms.
That means I'm carrying every single one of them in my body.
The doctor said he ran the test twice, just to be sure.
A walking mass of poison.
Terminal, but thankfully not contagious.
That's what I am now.
"What do I even tell my sister?"
I'm worried about her. The thought alone squeezes my chest like a vice.
Being sick isn't new, but today… today the pain feels more mental than physical.
Anger at the world. At the helplessness. At the unfairness of it all.
And a desperate hunger to live.
Everything's tangled into a giant knot.
My head's starting to throb.
"Ugh, what's that smell?"
The girl muttered again.
Both of them turned their eyes toward me.
Th
But the smell right now had nothing to do with me.
My clothes were old, sure—but that didn't mean my body was dirty.
Normally, I would've just ignored it and pretended not to hear.
But today… for some reason, I couldn't let it slide.
The hell? Smell? Go brush your own damn teeth.
I lifted my head, ready to say just that.
But before I could even look at the couple, something else caught my eye.
A pitch-black darkness outside the window.
It was spreading—fast—and large enough to clearly make out with the naked eye.
"…Huh?"
Was that the smell the couple was talking about?
The stench hit my nose too now—thick, metallic, almost rotten.
The crazy part? It wasn't just us on the bus. People outside were also covering their noses.
This isn't because of someone on the bus.
Something ominous was spreading across the entire area.
SCREEEEECH!
The bus slammed to a stop, leaving black skid marks across the pavement.
THUD THUMP!
"Aaahhh!!!"
Passengers lurched and tumbled as the bus shook. Some hit the floor.
I reflexively grabbed a handle and held myself up.
"Screeeam!"
"The door!! Open the door, now!!"
The driver frantically hit the emergency button and bolted from his seat.
Everyone rushed the narrow door, jamming together in a panic.
We spilled out of the bus and looked up at the sky.
Not just the clouds—but a darkness so thick it felt like it could swallow souls.
The darkness grew wider, deeper…
And then—it started raining monsters.
Creatures of all shapes and sizes began pouring out from the sky.
"…Oh my god."
It's been 20 years since monsters first appeared.
Everyone knows what it means when something like that shows up in the sky.
"A Gate…!!!"
"What the hell is going on? Why aren't the hunters here yet? The gate's already opening!"
"Which guild is in charge of this district?! Damn cowards!!"
People screamed in panic, looking around in desperation.
And they were right—normally, hunters would be stationed nearby before a gate fully opened.
The core energy released before a gate activates can usually be detected ahead of time.
But for some reason today… no hunters showed up.
Not even when the monsters were already hitting the ground.
"R-Run!!"
No one knew what was going on—but one thing was clear:
If we didn't get out of here right now, we were going to die.
The crowd broke into chaos, everyone scattering in blind terror.
"…Monsters."
If someone had looked at my face just then, they'd probably think I was a traffic light—going from one expression to another.
At first, I was scared—just like everyone else.
Then rage boiled up inside me, and I clenched my jaw.
And finally, a look of grim resolve settled in.
Monsters.
The catastrophe that fell upon this world.
The cause of endless tragedies—and the reason for my tragic life.
The ones who gave me this damn terminal diagnosis.
"You sons of bitches!!"
Tap tap tap tap tap—
While everyone else was running away…
at same look—like they're staring at a sewer.
I also took off running in one direction with everything I had.
Because I wanted to live like everyone else?
Not a chance.
I was already living on borrowed time—how much longer could I possibly live, anyway?
The direction I ran in… was the complete opposite of everyone else.
Toward the monsters.
And I had two reasons for doing it.
The first—if I died while trying to stop a monster, I'd be awarded an honorary medal.
That would help my sister a lot, now that she's alone.
The second?
Screw it. If I'm already dead, I might as well get in one good punch on one of those damn monsters.
You're thinking: You're not even a Hunter, what kind of insane idea is that?
Yeah.
Maybe the heat raging inside me had driven me half mad.
But just thinking that the monsters who wrecked my life were right in front of me made my blood boil.
So I ran—straight at a monster that looked like a giant toad.
Boom.
But I didn't get far before I dropped to my knees.
"Ugh…"
Almost as if the growing Gate resonated with my body, my condition suddenly took a nosedive.
"Damn it… what's happening…?"
I hadn't had any major symptoms back at the hospital, but now? My entire body was burning up.
My mind started fading in and out. It felt like a giant needle was ripping through my bloodstream.
So frustrating.
If I could just go a little further, I could land a hit.
My vision went white… then black.
And just like that—I collapsed.
Who knows how much time passed?
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
A shrill, desperate scream jolted me awake.
Gaebang-dong intersection—once quiet and peaceful…
Was now pure hell.
Slrrkkk…
"G-Get away from me!!!"
A woman, one of the couple from the bus, was scooting backward on the ground in fear.
Opposite her was a green, alien-looking creature.
A toad-like monster, maybe 50 cm long.
Its skin was bumpy and oily, glistening like it had been soaked in sludge—disgusting just to look at.
–Slrrrk.
The toad monster flicked its tongue toward the woman.
Her boyfriend? He was already a corpse, sprawled on the pavement.
And he wasn't the only one.
Corpses littered the whole area—at the bus stop, on the sidewalk, outside buildings—everywhere.
All the cars, including the bus, had stopped in the road. Some were flipped over completely.
Weeoo weeeoo weeeoo!!
A blaring siren screamed in my ears.
Still no Hunters?
Even now, when everyone's dying?
The dead man's body came into view.
His eyes, nose, ears, mouth—every hole was oozing blood.
My expression froze over.
"Poison-type…!!!"
Among all monsters, they were a notorious subspecies.
Even mid-tier guilds struggled to deal with these nasty bastards.
And the bodies lying around the street? Every one of them died in the most grotesque ways.
How ironic.
I'd heard poison-types were so rare, they only appeared maybe once a year.
And yet, on the day I was diagnosed with a terminal illness caused by a monster infection… these damn things showed up right in front of me.
Honestly, it felt like fate.
Fine then. I already had enough resentment toward your kind to last a lifetime.
Even if I die today, I'm taking my anger out before I go.
As I forced my burning body upright, the toad monster turned toward the woman and spat something at her.
–Ssshhhkkk.
"AAAAAAHHHH!!"
She let out a blood-curdling scream and collapsed.
The toad's saliva just looked dirty—but once it touched human skin, it penetrated instantly, causing rapid poisoning.
That's why these things were so lethal—despite being less than a meter tall.
"Ugh…"
She let out a choked gasp, then, just like the man before her, bled from all her orifices and died on the spot.
Just a drop of saliva—and that was all it took.
Each poison-type monster was a walking biochemical weapon.
"You son of a bitch…"
I clenched my teeth at the sight of the toad.
As if my rage wasn't already boiling over, seeing people get slaughtered like this right in front of me pushed me over the edge.
–Krrrk?
Maybe it thought I was dead, since I had collapsed earlier.
The monster tilted its head in my direction with a weird twist.
And a moment later—
–Ssshhhkkk.
Shit.
The monster's spit came flying—
Straight at me.