Chapter 1
#1 I Hate the Apocalypse
The world was ending.
Looking down from my window, I cursed under my breath.
Monsters spilling from the Gates entangled with fleeing crowds and vehicles, paralyzing the streets.
Government-affiliated Awakened had arrived belatedly to contain the Gates, but they could only manage low-tier monsters at best.
They were literally shredded by the monsters. Pointless deaths.
With the very protectors meant to safeguard citizens dying en masse, the city ground to a halt.
I squeezed my eyes shut as a fleeing man stumbled into the street—only to be snatched and torn in half by a monster’s claws.
Bloodied survivors flooded the roads and spilled from buildings, desperate to escape the onslaught.
Screams that shouldn’t have reached this high echoed in my ears.
My office view, until yesterday a gleaming trophy of success, now offered front-row seats to the apocalypse.
I staggered back from the window.
But turning away didn’t erase the crumbling world.
『Multiple Gate Breaks are causing catastrophic damage across Seoul. Citizens must evacuate to bunkers immediately. Government personnel have been dispatched to—』
The broadcast looped for the thirtieth time, but I couldn’t shut it off. Silencing it would make the end feel real.
Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.
How did we get here?
I knew better than anyone.
Because Seol Rok-jin and I crushed those who could’ve saved this world.
Because we eliminated the ones who might’ve resolved these Gate Breaks before they matured.
The reason was simple:
Seol Rok-jin believed untamable dogs were better off dead.
Why?
Because we never imagined the Gates would open like this.
We didn’t know! That the world would end like this!
Unstable Gates had begun erupting globally just fifteen days prior. The world that once boasted of conquering Gates now collapsed in half a month.
Fuck. I can’t die here.
I didn’t grovel like a dog all these years for this.
Clutching my phone, I muttered like a madman.
Yet hope lingered.
After an eternity, the call came.
“Yes, Councilman.”
Seol Rok-jin.
The man I served—the architect of this ruin.
Ironically, my only lifeline now.
[Where are you?]
His voice held surreal calm amid the apocalypse. Mine trembled:
“I—I’m at the Yeouido office.”
He wouldn’t abandon me, right? My nerves burned to ash.
[Good. Retrieve the case from the vault. Come to Pyeongchang-dong.]
“The vault case?”
[The Egyptian auction prize.]
I swallowed. There was only one.
We’d sacrificed lives to break its curse. Yet after securing it, Rok-jin had locked it away unopened, stonewalling all questions.
Why demand it now?
“What’s inside that—”
[Call it a perfect wild card. If things align, it could reverse this mess.]
Then why stash it here to rot?
I bit back my retort.
[Bring it.]
“To the Pyeongchang-dong estate?”
Crossing the Han River now was suicide.
As if reading my mind, Rok-jin coaxed:
[I’d send a helicopter, but Seoul’s skies belong to monsters. Take my car.]
Through the window, winged horrors circled above.
Were the roads safer?
Hiding here in the bunker might’ve been wiser.
But defiance wasn’t an option.
“Understood.”
I hung up and clawed at my hair.
Refusing meant death—if not by monsters, then by Rok-jin.
Fear of him outweighed even oblivion.
The vault door groaned open after biometric scans and codes.
Inside, artifacts crammed the spacious chamber. My gaze snagged on a glowing trident—Poseidon’s Triaina, its core forged from a frost giant’s heart. China’s famed “Guan Yu Reborn” had once vowed to trade everything for it.
This was just the beginning. Rok-jin’s armory overflowed with relics that should’ve empowered hunters on the front lines. Instead, they moldered here as trophies.
I passed these graves of potential and lifted the Egyptian case.
A 7-star cursebreaker had died to neutralize its hex. Yet its contents remained a mystery—one Rok-jin now demanded.
The weight in my hands felt like a coffin.
My Gate-reinforced office withstood the chaos as I stepped into hell.
“This is insane. Insane.”
I babbled nervously but obeyed, descending to the parking garage. Empty, save for Rok-jin’s custom armored car.
Reality dissolved until I reached the exit.
Corpses littered the ground.
Mid-tier monsters—land hounds—sniffed fresh prey.
“Goddammit!”
I floored the accelerator. The mana-engine roared, flinging us forward.
Thud. Clang.
The reinforced chassis repelled lunging hounds. I swerved, barely avoiding a wall as tires screeched.
Gasping, I watched the pack recover and snarl.
“Fine. I’m leaving.”
I shut my eyes and accelerated.
Crunch.
The hounds’ yelps faded behind us.
Rok-jin’s car—built for emergencies, not apocalypses—tanked the attacks. Maybe it’d survive the journey.
But the streets were clogged with wrecks and corpses. Larger monsters now prowled, dwarfing the hounds.
No time.
I rammed through abandoned vehicles, legs cramping from slamming the pedal.
Cars crumpled like paper. No drivers left—just corpses I forced myself to ignore.
Each monster collision smeared blood across the bulletproof windshield.
My heart jackhammered. Sweat soaked my back.
This is madness. Madness.
『Speed bump ahead in 200 meters.』
The navigation’s calm tone drew a hysterical laugh. I’d crushed dozens of “speed bumps” already.
Pleading survivors raised hands—families, children—but I drove on.
Hesitate, and I’m dead.
My hands shook violently. Witnessing so much death had shattered my psyche.
What good’s an S-rank mental passive when my resolve is tofu-soft?
I laughed hollowly, driving like a maniac until—
Mapo Bridge. Or what remained.
A colossal Gate-born monstrosity had shattered it. The severed bridge and gridlocked road screamed doom.
This was the apocalypse—no escape, only suffocation.
Bang!
Impact whiplashed me forward.
The car behind had rear-ended us, its windshield blood-smeared.
Before I could mourn them, monsters noticed.
Trapped, I reversed uselessly.
Then it turned—the bridge-destroyer, draconic and towering.
Thud. Thud.
Its footsteps crushed cars and people like rotten fruit. I fumbled open the case, revealing an Ankh-shaped metal shard.
“What the fuck is this?!”
My final memory: a shadow engulfing the car.
Agony.
Then nothing.
