Chapter 1

　　“Sanggye-dong, please,” I said from the back of the taxi.

　　The driver’s eyes widened in the rearview mirror. “Sanggye-dong?”

　　“Yes.”

　　He switched on the meter and hit the accelerator. “What business could you possibly have in a gloomy neighborhood like that?”

　　“Ah, just a small errand," I chuckled awkwardly.

　　“Most people try to avoid that place,” he continued, undeterred. “It’s got that weird tower, you know.”

　　“Right.”

　　They called it the Overlay, a phenomenon that had begun several years ago. Scholars claimed another world had been superimposed onto our own, which explained the sudden appearance of otherworldly monsters and alien flora. But it wasn’t just plants and creatures that had crossed over. There were treasures, languages, entire civilizations, and most importantly, ruins.

　　Ancient imperial palaces, hanging gardens, dragons’ lairs, and sunken cities—though empty of people, they were the unmistakable footprints of another world. One such ruin had materialized right here in Seoul: a colossal tower that arrived with the Overlay. Just like that, Seoul had its third major building after Namsan Tower and Lotte Tower, but public opinion on this newcomer was far from favorable.

　　“The rumors are pretty nasty,” the driver said, his voice dropping. “They say it attracts monsters. That it’s crawling with an army just waiting to invade.”

　　I nodded. The people who had suffered irreparable losses during the initial monster attacks tended to reject anything from the other side. And to be fair, the area around the tower was a restricted area and a hotbed for monster activity.

　　“I heard the army tried to tear it down, but get this, guns, missiles, not a single one could even scratch it!”

　　“Incredible,” I murmured.

　　“You look like a hunter, judging by your gear, but still… be careful out there.”

　　I offered the chatty driver a faint smile and a nod. There was, of course, something I couldn’t tell him. I wasn’t a hunter. I was a mage.

　　And that tower? It was mine now.

* * *

　　Six months ago.

　　After the Overlay fused Earth with another world, humanity came face-to-face with a new apex predator: monsters. It was a strange era. Just as weeds overtake an untended lot, monsters would simply appear out of thin air. And then there were those who could hunt them: players. Like characters in a video game, they could slay monsters, raise their stats, and grow infinitely stronger.

　　However, not every player could become a professional hunter.

　　Name: Kim Yusin

　　Unique Ability: Detection

　　Personal Traits: [Over-immersion Lv.6], [Analysis Lv.1], [Child of Mana Lv.1]

　　Basic Stats: [Magic 56], [Agility 7], [Strength 5], [Stamina 5]

　　Special Stats: [Focus 3], [Endurance 2], [Intelligence 2]

　　Total Stats: 80

　　Still no change, I thought, sighing. I’d been shelling out for an expensive, player-exclusive gym to raise my strength. I’d added a grueling high-intensity cardio schedule to boost my stamina. I’d kept this up for five months straight, but my stats refused to budge. It had already been two years since I’d awakened as a player, and my growth was painfully, impossibly slow.

　　“Haaaah…”

　　Leaning my head back, I stared at the ceiling of the rattling subway car, my face etched with fatigue. I watched the people around me: middle schoolers laughing loudly, talking to each other with bizarre new slang; a father waving at his young daughter on a video call; a young woman lost in her own world with earbuds firmly in place. It was a perfectly ordinary day, no different from any other. But for me, an ordinary day, a day unchanged from yesterday, was just another word for stagnation.

　　Ugh, there I go again, I chided myself, my mood sinking further. To distract myself, I switched from my suffocating status window to my phone. As usual, the newsfeed was dominated by headlines about famous hunters.

　　Oracle Guild’s Team 1, Led by Hajin Kim, Finally Conquers the Temple of Silent Thunder!

　　Spotlight: What Kind of Dungeon Defeated Three Guilds in a Row?

　　Hajin Kim: Youngho Cha, Our Tank, Deserves More Credit Than I Do.

　　Ring of the Underworld Recovered from Temple Estimated at $50 million.

　　Damn, I’m jealous. I wanted to run a dungeon, too. It was common knowledge that hunting monsters in a dungeon was far more efficient for raising stats than any kind of conventional training. I knew that, but as someone officially classified as having non-combat potential, I wasn’t even allowed to set foot in one.

　　Why non-combat potential? Simple. For modern hunters, everything hinged on their Unique Ability, the core power that defined their combat style. My Unique Ability, Detection, allowed me to see other people’s status windows. If someone were to ask, “Still, isn’t that useful for gathering intel?” I would offer them a very kind smile and say, “Great. You try fighting a monster by looking at its stats. Oh, wait—they don’t have any!”

　　Ahem. In short, it wasn’t an ability that could put food on the table. I might be able to land a job as a guild scout, but I wanted to be a real hunter, out on the front lines. With a sigh of resignation, I glanced back at my pathetic status window.

　　Basic Stats: [Magic 56], [Agility 7], [Strength 5], [Stamina 5]

　　It was a sorry sight, but if I had to find a silver lining, it was my magic. That stat alone was abnormally high, likely due to my Child of Mana trait. It felt like it increased just from breathing. But there was a catch. A player’s magic stat was meant to enhance their Unique Ability. For a pyrokinetic, higher magic meant stronger flames, longer range, and more versatile applications.

　　But for my ability to peek at other people’s stats? Maybe I could see them a little clearer, or open them a fraction of a second faster. It was a subtle, almost imperceptible difference.

　　In other words, it was useless. My only strength is mana, and yet my mana stat has become nothing more than a dead weight. How could things get this twisted? My friends all had the same reaction when they saw my stats. A ruined build. A character who’d dumped all his points into magic. An eternally suffering stat-checker.

　　Even so, I couldn’t give up on becoming a pro hunter. In the end, there was only one option left for me: I had to raise my strength and stamina, the stats that mattered in a physical fight, and just tough it out. But without access to dungeons, even that was a monumental task.

　　As I was sighing at my screen, the subway announcement echoed through the car. “This is Sanggye Station, the final stop on this line. Please exit on your left.”

　　The sparse car filled with a sudden bustle as passengers gathered their belongings. I shouldered my bag and stood to see the station’s landscape reflection in the window opposite me.

　　Right. What’s the use of complaining?

　　Gathering myself, I stepped off the train at the end of the line.

* * *

　　Sanggye-dong, Nowon District, Seoul. Old, gloomy, gray houses were crammed together under a perpetually overcast sky, the streets littered with shattered concrete. It was probably the neighborhood with the lowest property values in the entire city. I lifted my gaze to the cause of that decline.

　　“There it is.”

　　The colossal gray tower, Seoul’s great eyesore, was impossible to miss from here. Rumors swirled around it—that it was a beacon for monsters, that a demon king slept within its walls. Most of it was an unsubstantiated urban legend, but the area around it was an official restricted area, a place where the influence of the other world was so strong that monsters constantly appeared. It was, without a doubt, a dangerous place.

　　And I was here for one reason. I pulled out my phone and opened a bookmarked webpage.

　　Monster Hunting Spots

　　Hunt Without a Permit, Dungeon License, or Hunter Certificate!

　　How To Sneak Into a Restricted Area Without Getting Caught.

　　That’s right. I was here to hunt illegally. I had hit a wall with conventional training methods. If the Hunter Association wouldn’t let me into a dungeon because of my non-combat potential, then I would find my own monsters to kill and raise my stats by force.

　　As dusk settled, I made my way toward the area. Beyond the gray concrete buildings, I saw a patch of land where otherworldly trees grew in a thick, jungle-like tangle. The area was fenced off with barbed wire and barricades, littered with No Entry signs that served as a silent, menacing warning to turn back.

　　My throat went dry.

　　Alright, let’s do this.

　　I double-checked the entry point on my phone. For a restricted area, security was surprisingly lax. The monsters here generally kept to their own territory. Hunters came in to clear them out occasionally, but the creatures always reappeared, as if on a respawn timer. The government and the association had both thrown up their hands, writing the land off as a lost cause. They were already stretched thin dealing with monsters spawning inside the city proper; dispatching dozens of official hunters here would be a waste of resources.

　　Following the online guide, I climbed a deserted hill and slipped over the barbed-wire fence. No cameras, no guards. So far, so good.

　　Okay, time to get ready.

　　I dropped my bag and pulled out a white, baton-like object. It had a proper name, but I just called it a steel pipe. Forged from a mix of monster bone and metal, it was designed to be imbued with mana.

　　Closing my eyes, I focused, drawing my concentration to its sharpest point. I could feel the mana flowing through me, a calm and steady current. I gently intervened, redirecting its path like a hand diverting a stream, and slowly channeled it into the steel pipe in my right hand.

　　Vwoom!

　　A wave of fatigue washed over me as the pipe’s surface began to glow with a faint blue light. Success. It was Mana Coating, a basic skill for all players, a technique that could turn any ordinary object into a weapon capable of bringing down a monster.

　　With my preparations complete, I began to move cautiously through the undergrowth. It was around seven in the evening now, and the forest was cloaked in an unnerving darkness.

　　It’s not too late. I can still turn back.

　　Anxious thoughts flickered through my mind, and my shook my head to clear them. The player evaluation was just around the corner. I had to raise my strength and stamina before then and shed my non-combat potential status for good. After that, I could hunt monsters through proper channels and finally start growing. I was desperate.

　　Rustle, rustle.

　　I heard a faint noise from beyond the bushes. Moving as silently as I could, I ducked behind a tree and peered around its trunk.

　　A monster.

　　It was a gurma. Its eyes, nose, and mouth were slapped onto its face with no sense of order, as if its creator had gotten bored halfway through. It bounced around in a roly-poly body, using its large, rabbit-like ears as arms to attack.

　　A wave of relief washed over me. Gurmas were considered the weakest of all monsters. If this zone had been populated by anything level 2 or higher, I would have been toast.

　　I wanted to sneak up on it, but the creature spotted me first. It curled its massive ears into fists and came bouncing toward me.

　　Stay calm.

　　I held my ground, watching its movements until the last possible second, then leaned back.

　　Whoosh!

　　The attack sliced through the air right in front of my face, and every hair on my body stood on end. It was powerful, but its pattern was predictable. I dodged its next swing by pulling my shoulder back, then aimed for its flank.

　　CRACK!

　　With a full-throated swing, I brought the steel pipe crashing down. The creature’s side caved in like jelly and turned a sickly gray.

　　“Gurgle!”

　　The gurma sprang back up and charged again, unleashing a flurry of blows. It was the same monotonous one-two pattern. As I dodged, I racked my brain. Where are its other weak points? Ah, right.

　　I ducked under another swing, planted my left foot on a nearby tree, and launched myself into the air. While still airborne, I brought the pipe down with the full force of my body weight.

　　Swish!

　　The weapon hit its head. There was a wet thwack!, like jelly bursting, and more than half of its upper body turned gray. I landed, parried another clumsy swing, and twisted my body into a powerful kick.

　　Pow!

　　Finally, the gurma’s entire body turned gray. With a faint rustle, it crumbled into dust.

　　…I won.

　　[Magic has increased by 1.]

　　“Hah… hah… whew!” I actually killed a monster! Are you watching, you bastards at the association? How am I non-combat potential now?

　　After a moment of heady triumph, I came to my senses and checked my stats. It was great that I’d won, but despite the close-quarters combat, my magic had gone up instead of my strength or stamina. What a cursed constitution.

　　Still, at this rate, it wouldn’t be long before my other stats started to climb. I pushed myself to my feet, energized, and resumed the hunt.

* * *

　　Once I got a taste of it, I lost all track of time, swinging my steel pipe long into the night. My haul for the evening was two points in magic, one in agility, and one in strength. Considering I’d seen no change after months of grueling workouts, this was an incredible pace.

　　Maybe I should call it a day.

　　Truthfully, I wasn’t feeling great. My stamina was holding up, but maybe because it had been so long since I’d fought a monster, the mana inside me was churning restlessly. I didn’t know what it was, but it was starting to scare me. I’d read enough stories online about players dying from mana overflow.

　　I turned to head back, but I stopped short.

　　I’d been so focused on hunting gurma that my surroundings had become pitch-black. The gaunt, skeletal trees stretching in every direction created a deeply unsettling atmosphere. Just getting out of here was going to be a challenge.

　　I pulled out my phone and opened my map app. According to the GPS, I had wandered deep into the forest.

　　Seriously, Yusin…

　　I knew my own flaws. Once I fixated on something, I couldn’t let it go. It made sense that the first personal trait I had gotten when I awakened as a player was Over-immersion.

　　Better hurry.

　　I started walking, relying on the map to guide me. It was so dark I was tempted to use my phone’s flashlight, but I resisted, not wanting to attract any more monsters.

　　Thud.

　　My foot hit something. A texture, distinctly different from the soft earth, sent a jolt up my leg. I lifted my foot and stepped down again.

　　“……!”

　　This time, it was just dirt.

　　A cold dread washed over me. I quickly pocketed my phone and scrambled back. From the oppressive darkness, a low, guttural growl echoed.

　　“Grrrrrrr…”

　　Dammit! This was no gurma.

　　Without a second’s hesitation, I bolted in the opposite direction.

　　“SCREEE!”

　　A bloodcurdling shriek erupted behind me, as if on cue. I dove into the bushes, unable to see, and just charged forward with my arms outstretched to Shield my face. Branches whipped against my skin, leaving stinging cuts all over my body.

　　SNAP! CRACK!

　　The sound of entire trees being splintered and uprooted thundered right behind me. A powerful monster was on my tail. To make matters worse, the mana that had been simmering inside me was now boiling over, threatening to erupt.

　　“Hah… Hah!”

　　Ragged breaths tore from my lungs. The stamina training I’d forced myself through was the only thing keeping me going. But I knew I couldn’t outrun it forever. It would catch me.

　　What do I do? What now?

　　Swoosh!

　　A sudden rush of air behind me sent my instincts screaming. I dropped. A chilling sensation passed just over my head. Cold sweat trickled down my neck as I looked up to see a black-furred beast soaring over me, its eyes locked on mine.

　　This is insane!

　　The monster skidded to a halt, tearing up the earth, and then launched itself at me again. Cornered, I gritted my teeth and thrust my steel pipe forward.

　　It snatched the pipe out of the air with one massive paw. Horrified, I let go and stumbled back. As if to mock me, the beast bent the pipe in half with ease and tossed it aside.

　　…It was on a completely different level, at least a level 3 monster.

　　It charged again, swinging its arm. I scrambled backward.

　　Thud!

　　I dodged the attack, but my frantic retreat sent me crashing into a tree. The impact jolted through my body, and for a split second, my strength gave out.

　　“Grrrrrrr…”

　　Having cornered its prey, the monster closed in for the kill. I was weaponless. My Unique Ability was useless. Even as a player, there was no way I could win this.

　　“Gah!”

　　And then, everything went from bad to worse. The mana I’d been trying to suppress finally erupted, boiling with the force of a volcano. Red alarms blared in my head.

　　“Hah… Haah!”

　　Gritting my teeth, I stretched a trembling hand toward the monster. It was a desperate act. If I didn’t vent this mana from my body, I was going to explode long before the beast got to me.

　　I have to release it. Somehow.

　　Focusing on the churning chaos inside me, I tried to push it out through my palm. Unlike the controlled flow I used for Mana Coating, the violent energy surged down my arm as if it had been waiting for this moment.

　　And then…

　　FWOOOSH!

　　With a sense of release as profound as curing a decade of constipation, the mana burst from my hand and began to take shape in the air.

　　…What is this?

　　The mana solidified into lines of light, weaving together to form a complex geometric pattern. The brilliant glow painted an elegant, luminous circle in the pitch-black void.

　　It was a massive, intricate magic circle.

　　TIIING!

　　A pillar of pure light erupted from the circle and slammed directly into the monster. Engulfed in the dazzling radiance, the beast was blasted out of sight in an instant. The recoil threw me to the ground.

　　RUMBLE! CRASH! THUD!

　　In the distance, I heard the chaotic symphony of falling trees.

　　…Did I really do that?

　　I stared at my palm in a daze, then slowly turned my head. I had somehow ended up right next to the gray tower. And there, etched into its stone surface, was the exact same symbol that had just appeared before me.

　　I stared at the symbol, speechless.

　　Seoul’s eyesore. The monsters’ lair. A flood of dark rumors filled my mind, but I found myself walking toward it with bewilderment. It wasn’t a logical decision. My legs were moving on pure instinct, guided by the unshakable conviction that if I didn’t go inside right now, I would regret it for the rest of my life. It felt like an inevitability.

　　Finally, I stood before the Magic Tower’s massive, sealed gate. I reached out and placed my palm against its cold surface.

　　Shwoooosh!

　　And like magic, I was pulled inside.

* * *