"And how are you liking your new title, the Monarch of Dungeons?"
Han Jinhyuk remained expressionless.
If anything, he looked mildly irritated.
It wasn't unusual. The man had always worn the same detached expression, as though the entire world was nothing more than an inconvenience.
Smiles were so rare from him that many wondered if he even knew how to. Even when his words came across as blunt or cold, no one could deny that he had never abused his authority.
Whenever civilians were in danger, he was always the first to arrive and the last to leave.
"I don't have an opinion on it," he answered flatly.
The interview was being broadcast live across the world, countless cameras fixed on the man regarded as humanity's strongest hunter.
The interviewer maintained her smile despite the awkward atmosphere.
"Then is there anything you'd like to say to everyone watching?"
Jinhyuk looked into the camera for a brief moment before averting his gaze.
"No."
A brief silence followed.
The interviewer forced another smile, resisting the urge to panic. Interviewing Han Jinhyuk was infamous within the media industry. Getting him to agree to an interview was already a miracle. Getting more than a one-word answer was considered impossible.
She quickly flipped through the cards in her hand before deciding to change tactics.
"W-Well... if you don't mind me asking, what about your love life? Is there someone special to you?"
For the first time since the interview began, Han Jinhyuk didn't answer immediately.
"...Love life."
The words rolled quietly off his tongue.
Fragments flashed through his mind.
The woman whom he met the first time inside a dungeon... Her beautiful pair of eyes that looked at him so gently it made his heart feel weird.
That same woman whom... disappeared. Without even giving him time to process anything.
She disappeared.
His chest tightened so suddenly that he instinctively frowned.
"...Maybe."
The interviewer blinked.
"Maybe?"
"I think..." he murmured absentmindedly, almost as though he were speaking to himself. He remembered the woman inside the dungeon, but what did she look like again...?
It felt more like a distant memory, if anything.
"...I might've had someone."
The words left his mouth before he even realized it.
He frowned deeper.
Him? Being in a relationship? Him, loving someone when he's so detached emotionally? And besides, he had no memories of being in a relationship at all.
No memories of ever loving anyone.
And yet...
The emptiness in his chest whenever he thought of that woman felt far too real to be a simple dream or delusions.
It was as though someone important had been ripped away from him, leaving behind only the lingering pain.
Is it a skill? Did those monsters cast some kind of curse on me before they died?
"Wait!" the interviewer exclaimed, her eyes widening. "Are you saying you were in a relationship? Does that mean you've broken up? Who was she? Is she also a hunter?"
The questions came one after another. After finally managing to get a few words out of this man, she couldn't be more happier.
Just from him talking, her interview was already a success..!
"...I don't know." Han Jinhyuk trailed off.
It was an honest answer. He truly didn't know, but for some reason... His heart refused to believe it.
Before the interviewer could ask another question, Kim Taewon stepped forward and offered a polite smile.
"I'm afraid that's all the time Mr. Han has today. Thank you all for tuning in."
Without another word, Han Jinhyuk turned and walked away, leaving behind a studio full of unanswered questions and a livestream chat exploding with speculation.
·•—–٠✤٠—–•·
Inside his spacious penthouse, silence filled every corner.
The place was almost empty, furnished with only the bare necessities. There were no paintings hanging on the walls, no decorations to give the place warmth, and no signs that anyone truly lived there beyond a place to sleep.
It suited Han Jinhyuk just fine.
He walked toward the corner of the kitchen where a neatly arranged coffee station occupied an entire section of the counter.
Ironically, it was the most furnished part of the entire apartment.
Shelves lined with carefully labeled containers displayed coffee beans from all over the world, alongside rarer varieties harvested from dungeons. Brewing equipment of every kind was meticulously organized, each one maintained with almost obsessive care.
Even Jinhyuk himself didn't understand why.
He wasn't particularly fond of sweet coffee, nor would he call coffee a hobby.
Yet, for some reason, he found himself collecting beans whenever he came across a new variety, especially those grown inside dungeons. It had become such a natural habit that he no longer questioned it.
Grinding a handful of beans, he quietly prepared his usual cup of black coffee.
The rich aroma filled the apartment, breaking the silence for a brief moment.
Cup in hand, he settled onto the sofa positioned before the floor-to-ceiling windows.
The tower overlooked nearly all of Seoul.
As the sun dipped below the horizon, the city slowly transformed. Buildings lit up one after another, their lights resembling countless stars scattered across the earth. Cars flowed through the streets like rivers of light, while the Han River reflected the colors of the evening sky.
It was a breathtaking view. Yet no matter how many times he looked at it... He always felt that something was missing.
"..."
Jinhyuk took another sip of his coffee.
For some reason, it didn't taste quite right today.
『Rebooting Dungeon █▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ 30%』
『⋘ Loading... ⋙』
Han Jinhyuk stared at the blue screen that had abruptly appeared before him.
"...What?"
Rebooting dungeon?
What was that even supposed to mean?
His brows furrowed as several possibilities ran through his mind. Had a dungeon appeared somewhere nearby? Is there a glitch in the system? Or was this another variable brought by those monstrous beings from that dungeon...
None of them sounded reassuring.
Since there was nothing else he could do, he quietly began preparing for the worst. He gathered the special coffee beans and stored every last one inside his inventory. If something really was about to happen, he wasn't about to lose them over a moment of carelessness.
The loading bar continued to crawl upward at an agonizingly slow pace.
Thirty-one percent.
Thirty-two.
Thirty-five.
Time passed without anything else occurring. The room remained silent as it always has been, the percentage rising little by little.
An hour became two.
Then three.
Even after waiting that long, nothing unusual happened. No earthquakes or mana fluctuations around anywhere. No sudden appearance of a dungeon gate.
It was almost enough to make him wonder if he was just seeing things.
By the time the loading bar finally reached one hundred percent, dawn had already begun to break outside his window.
Han Jinhyuk narrowed his eyes, waiting for something, anything, to happen. But instead...
『 Thank you for waiting! 』
『 Your dungeon is now ready. 』
『 Would you like to visit your dungeon? Y/N』
Naturally, out of curiosity and a sense of caution, Han Jinhyuk agreed. Whatever this dungeon was, he needed to investigate it for himself.
"Yes."
The moment the word left his mouth, he was transported into the dungeon.
Yet, despite being inside one, there was... nothing.
At least, nothing he could sense.
Aside from the glowing exit behind him, all he could see was a long, dark tunnel. The air was cold and slightly damp, and an eerie silence hung over the place.
At the end of the tunnel lay a small chamber. A luminous lake glowed along one side, its surface shimmering faintly in the darkness. At the center stood a lone pedestal.
"What is this...?"
A system notification appeared before his eyes.
『 Congratulations! You are now the new owner of ██』
Jinhyuk stared at the message.
A harmless dungeon, an unfamiliar location, and a system congratulating him on becoming its new owner?
What the hell was going on?
"Do you know anything about this?"
He directed the question toward his constellations.
Of course, he didn't expect an answer.
Ever since he'd formed a contract with them, not once had they spoken to him directly. He'd long since grown accustomed to their silence.
So why had he even bothered asking?
He let out a quiet sigh and turned his attention back to the pedestal.
『 How fascinating. Luck is truly on your side. 』
The unfamiliar words appeared before Han Jinhyuk's eyes without warning.
He froze at the surprise, because for the first time since he has awakened, his constellation had spoken to him.
He stared at the blue screen in disbelief.
Unlike other hunters, who often boasted about receiving blessings, advice, or constant chatter from their constellations, his had remained eerily silent.
It was as if the constellation was simply watching his existence, like an audience observing a play from afar, it never once interfered with the story unfolding before it.
There were even rumors that powerful constellations could temporarily descend into the mortal world by possessing their avatars, lending them a fraction of their strength. Some hunters had even claimed to hold entire conversations with theirs.
Jinhyuk had always assumed those stories had nothing to do with him.
His constellation had never shown the slightest interest.
Until now.
"...Luck?" he muttered quietly.
What exactly was it referring to?
Before he could dwell on the question any longer, he received a notification on his watch. It was an emergency alert whenever a dangerous dungeon had appeared.
"Tch." He clicked his tongue and proceeded to leave the dungeon.
However when he arrived at the site of where a gate had opened, revealing another S-rank dungeon only a week after the disaster, he didn't have time to think and jumped in.
There were procedures he had to follow before he could enter. Not anybody could just enter regardless of rank and status, but Han Jinhyuk had always hated this idea and had no intentions whatsoever to follow this notion.
So when he went inside, he was met with an icy terrain. So cold that he had to take out a cloak that puts his temperature back to normal, making him unable to feel the cold.
Even if he was an S rank hunter who can sustain in harsh environments for long periods of time, it wasn't ideal to deal with it. There was no reason to if he has the cloak to begin with.
As he moved across the frozen wasteland, Han Jinhyuk slowed his steps.
Something was off.
The blizzard here howled, whiteout stretching for kilometers, but something here felt...wrong.
His eyes swept across the mountain range ahead.
At first glance, it looked like a normal chain of snow-covered peaks. They were massive mountains that would seem almost impossible to climb for any normal hunter, but they were far from mountains.
Jinhyuk clicked his tongue.
"Tch. As if that's a mountain."
He tilted his head slightly, studying them. If you looked around the area closely, the dungeon was surrounded by these peaks. But if his assumptions were right and these weren't mountains, then it would get dangerous.
The good thing here was that he came in alone. If he had been in a subjugation team, it would've proved to be much more challenging. As others were far weaker than him and so he would've had to focus on protecting them instead and adjusting his battle style.
He let out a heavy sigh and brushed his hair back in annoyance.
Out of all the days this gate forms, it had to be today just when he had an urgent situation. Still, at least the other dungeon at his home isn't anything dangerous. There were no monsters at all.
"...Hic..."
Jinhyuk shifted his gaze from where the small sound had come from and disappeared from where he stood.
Behind a ridge of ice, he found them.
About fifty survivors. Most of them were kids bundled up together, and women. They all seemed like they were barely holding on.
The women of the group were wearing aprons with chicks embroidered at the corner. Were they kindergartner teachers? That was the only plausible explanation.
The moment they saw Han Jinhyuk approaching, their faces lit up like they'd just been saved.
"A hunter...!"
"You're here!"
"We thought no one was coming..."
Jinhyuk glanced over them once.
"How long have you been here?"
"Just a little over an hour..." an older lady responded.
It's been a little over an hour and there were no emergency scout dispatched? Usually when there's a random gate opens, it's not unusual for civilians to get swept up like them which is why scout hunters are sent to scope out for any survivors. Usually their top priority are just getting the civilians out instead of clearing the dungeon...
He turned his head slightly toward the sleeping giants in the distance.
The scouts must've realized too who the enemies are in this snowy escape. So instead of supporting the civilians themselves, they chose to protect their own life.
It's not that I don't understand them, but who would ever come and save civilians if hunters can't be relied on? We took this job knowing the risks.
Bastards... I guess even if you become a hunter, there are still cowards out there.
"Follow me quietly."