"The weather really is fucking awful."

The battlefield lay beneath a blood-red sky.

Standing before the enormous corpse of a monster, Oh Hyunseong muttered to himself as crimson rain poured down over him. With considerable effort, he turned his head and looked around.

Everything was in ruins.

It was a place of death, littered with the bodies of countless civilians who had failed to evacuate in time.

Every operative deployed alongside him had been killed.

Oh Hyunseong was the only one left alive in this hellish place.

"Cough! Damn it..."

And he wasn't exactly in good shape himself.

Blood streamed from wounds all over his body, and even the slightest movement brought excruciating pain. One of his eyes had refused to open for some time now. At least half his ribs were shattered, and the organs inside him had long since been reduced to mush. Hyunseong was accustomed to getting injured in all sorts of ways, but this time, the damage felt different.

More importantly, I think one of my legs is completely done for... At this point, there's probably no saving it.

A hollow laugh escaped him.

Several teams of operatives had been wiped out, and his own body had been utterly destroyed.

But that wasn't the only thing tearing him apart inside.

I'm sorry. You ended up with such a lousy master.

Traces of elemental energy lay scattered and shattered around him.

Among the awakened, Oh Hyunseong possessed an exceptionally rare "special constitution."

And even among those special constitutions, his was unique in the entire world: "Spirit Communion."

But he had lost all of his spirits on this battlefield.

Even the partner who had remained by his side ever since his awakening was gone.

Only the lower spirits, which possessed no combat ability, had survived.

"Whimper, whimper."

Tiny spirits glowing green appeared one after another.

The life spirits hovered around Hyunseong, gazing at him as though worried about his condition.

Bzzzt!

"Silence from the queen-class individual has been confirmed. The mission is a success."

"Senior! Senior! Can you hear me? Just hold on a little longer! Please...!"

Voices finally came through the radio that had been dead until now.

In the distance, he could hear the approaching thrum of helicopter rotors.

"Guess I'm not destined to die here after all."

He had accomplished a mission that had been considered nearly impossible.

He had killed the queen-class individual everyone had believed could never be defeated, and the strategic objective had been achieved as well.

He had also saved millions of lives.

His accomplishments would become the stuff of legend among hunters throughout the industry.

But what does any of that matter?

It had already been ten years since he'd begun living as a black ops agent for his country.

Now, all he felt on these blood-soaked battlefields was emptiness.

In other words, whatever had once driven him as a hunter was gone.

"It's time... for me to retire."

Oh Hyunseong pulled the resignation letter he had kept tucked inside his clothes.

Then he brought his pen to the final signature line, which he had left blank for the past year.

Scratch, scratch.

Suddenly, he remembered something his hometown friend had once told him.

Enough of the suffocating city life. He'd found some land in the quiet countryside, so Hyunseong could come down and live there whenever he wanted.

Normally, he would have dismissed the suggestion without a second thought, yet for some reason, his friend's words had lingered in his mind ever since.

At the time, he hadn't understood why.

But now, he thought he did.

Perhaps his resolve had already begun to waver long ago.

"Phew..."

Clenching the bloodstained resignation letter tightly, Oh Hyunseong tossed the pen aside.

Then he closed his eyes and repeated the decision to himself.

"Yeah. I think I'll move to the countryside and take up farming."

Chapter 1

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