"Hey, senior? What''s up?"

    Woo Min-hee sounded unusually cheerful.

    "Good news?"

    "Ah, someone posted something hilarious on the internet."

    "The internet? How are you even accessing that these days? Aren’t all the cables cut?"

    "There’s a way. The site I use has someone with the exact same name as your personal identification number."

    "SKELTON?"

    "Yeah. At first, I thought they were just a bit odd, but wow, what’s with them? It’s like they’re fundamentally twisted or something."

    "Oh, I think I get it."

    It’s you. It’s literally you.

    Who has the right to call anyone weird at this point?

    I humored her for a bit before steering the conversation to my real agenda.

    "Anyway, are there any jobs in Incheon? Things are starting to feel risky here."

    "You’re thinking of coming to Incheon?"

    I hadn’t made any final decisions yet, but one thing was certain: my bunker was no longer a safe zone.

    It was time to consider alternatives.

    What pushed me the most was the change I saw in Woo Min-hee herself.

    This junior of mine, who once radiated unapproachable madness, had somehow started resembling an actual person now that she was in her thirties.

    Honestly, I never thought a year ago that we’d be casually chatting like this.

    But on the flip side, others had changed too.

    Who would’ve thought Kim Daram would turn out like this?

    Once my best partner in crime, my "soulmate" in survival, she now had no qualms about selling me out.

    Sure, she’d always had a calculating streak, but the fact that it took her no time at all to tip off Kim Pil-seong about my location was a shock.

    "I just want to check it out for now."

    I’d already chosen sides in the struggle between the Parliamentary faction and the Legion faction.

    I chose the Parliamentary faction, which meant siding with Woo Min-hee.

    "Well, I won’t stop you. After all, you helped me resolve a big issue recently. But I’m not sure you’ll like the job. Things here are pretty saturated. And..."

    No matter how much people change, their core nature rarely does.

    Dealing with Woo Min-hee would still be exhausting in many ways.

    "You’d have to come alone. Think you can make it here by yourself?"

    "Not sending an armored vehicle to pick me up?"

    "I don’t need you enough to do that, do I?"

    The way she already showed her true colors was telling.

    Honestly, the fact that she even answered my call might just be because she was in a good mood.

    "I’ll manage on my own."

    "Alright, come to the lab when you arrive. I’ll let them know. You know where I am, right?"

    "Y-yeah."

    To be frank, dealing with Woo Min-hee would mean swallowing a lot of unpleasantness.

    But what choice did I have?

    Survival makes you do things you’d rather not.

    For now, I just wanted to see for myself.

    What was life like in a city on the verge of collapse?

    Could I, someone who’d lived a luxurious life in a well-equipped bunker until now, even adapt to such a place?

    "Oh, and senior," Woo Min-hee added with a smirk.

    "Have you ever borrowed money in the past?"

    "Uh, yeah. A little, maybe?"

    The most critical point of all:

    "I lost it gambling," I said.

    The fact that I’m a scammer? That secret is coming with me to the grave.

    *

    Since I planned to leave my home for an extended period, I informed my neighbors about my absence.

    "What? You’re going to Incheon for a week?"

    First, I contacted Defender.

    "It might be longer."

    "Why would you go to such a crowded place?"

    "Well, I’m starting to consider moving. Things aren’t looking great here."

    "You’ve been marked by the military, haven’t you?"

    "Yeah, something like that. This place was good, but now it’s not anymore."

    "Do you really need to move? It’s not like the Legion faction will send a million soldiers just to take you out, right? You’re not exactly a VIP."

    At the mention of VIPs, Defender’s sister jumped into the conversation.

    "SKELTON is a VIP? Were you a VIP?!"

    The hallmark of these siblings is how one gets excited, and the other follows suit.

    "Su-seobang?!"

    "No, nothing that grand. I’m just being overly cautious—call it paranoia."

    "I get it. But, you know..."

    Defender trailed off, his tone suddenly serious.

    One thing was clear as I entered this government-controlled area.

    The soldiers were using mobile phones.

    The signal was working.

    Curious, I took out my own phone.

    Sure enough, it showed a signal.

    While waiting for the higher-ups’ orders, I approached one of the soldiers, handed him a cigarette, and casually asked, "Do phones work well here?"

    "Pretty well."

    "It feels like the reception is better here than in Seoul."

    "That’s right. Fewer people and less land mean stronger networks. Plus, we’ve expanded the infrastructure."

    "Really?"

    "In a world where strange things pop up everywhere, isn’t it better to have everyone carrying a phone and acting as an information source? Add to that the government providing sites like Failnet, and it’s a win-win."

    This soldier seemed under the impression that Failnet was a government creation.

    I didn’t bother correcting him. Who would believe that such a monumental site was built by one man’s obsession?

    Soon, the higher-ups sent their orders.

    "Leave your bicycle here. You’ll be escorted by Jeep."

    The soldier smiled as he delivered the message.

    Relieved, I no longer had to endure the envious, greedy stares of others while riding my bike.

    The Jeep took me straight to the research lab.

    By the time we arrived at the port, the salty sea breeze greeted me, and it was already late at night.

    A staff member on duty assigned me a room connected to the lab.

    The room had a bunk bed, but no one else was there.

    I lay down, waiting for morning to come.

    When the sun rose, I began my day.

    For the first time in a while, I showered in someone else’s facility.

    The lab had excellent shower facilities, allowing me to clean up thoroughly.

    For some reason, they even had baby powder, so I used it generously.

    It wasn’t something I had in my own supplies, so I relished the fresh, soft feeling.

    While I rested in my room, one of Woo Min-hee’s subordinates came to find me.

    This time, it was a different man from the one who’d guided me before.

    "I’m sorry, but Director Woo is currently out."

    Dressed in a white lab coat and looking unassuming, the man seemed unable to make eye contact as he relayed Woo Min-hee’s message.

    "The Director mentioned you were a former hunter. Is that correct?"

    "Yes."

    "She suggested freelance hunting. I was just about to guide you to the freelance hunter accommodations."

    "Freelance hunter accommodations?"

    "Ah, yes. You see..."

    For the first time, he made eye contact with me as he explained.

    "Originally, there weren’t any welfare provisions for freelance hunters. But since the Legion faction has been recruiting them aggressively, the government hastily implemented support measures."

    "I see. What kind of work does a freelance hunter do?"

    Though I already knew, I asked out of courtesy.

    Freelance hunters were essentially problem-solvers.

    They handled issues in remote areas where government intervention was too costly and inefficient.

    Their main targets were usually mutations, not monsters.

    Before the civil war, freelance hunters had operated somewhat effectively in the shadows. Mutations appeared unpredictably, and deploying the military for every instance was far too expensive.

    However, the treatment of freelance hunters had never been favorable.

    Just look at Baek Seung-hyun.

    Once an A-rank hunter by old-world standards, he now fraternized with the likes of pioneer scum.

    The freelance hunter accommodations were located behind the research lab.

    Between the red-brick lab and the densely packed port warehouses was a narrow alley.

    That alley housed the freelance hunters.

    A handwritten sign on a white wooden board marked the entrance:

    Hunter Street.

    "B-23. That’s where you’ll be staying," the staff member said, stopping at the alley’s entrance.

    He clearly didn’t want to go in.

    After assuring him I could manage on my own, I ventured into the alley.

    In the shadows, I saw people sitting by the roadside.

    Old men playing chess, elderly women hanging laundry, children fiddling with phones.

    They seemed ordinary.

    Surprisingly so.

    I’d expected a den of old-world hunters, filled with hostility.

    Then again, maybe I’d run into someone who recognized me.

    "Ah?"

    In front of a makeshift building marked A-13, a man greeted me with surprise.

    "You’re here?"

    It was Baek Seung-hyun.

    Holding a baby in his arms—a baby that looked just like him—he stared at me with a stunned expression.