Sung Jin-Woo's POV
Snow clung to the forest like a second skin.
The air was cold enough to sting his lungs, sharp with the smell of burning flesh and scorched fur. Flames crackled ahead, licking upward from a pile of ice bear corpses stacked unnaturally high.
And beside it stood a boy.
Around seventeen, maybe younger. White hair dusted with ash. Blood dried along one cheek. He stood upright, shoulders relaxed, as if nothing had happened—like he hadn't just survived what should have been certain death.
Sung Jin-Woo's eyes narrowed.
Who is this guy?
He stepped closer, boots crunching against snow.
"Who are you," Jin-Woo asked, voice cold and flat, "and what are you doing here?"
Frey's POV
Can things even go worse than this?
The fire crackled behind him, heat brushing against his back while the cold pressed in from every other direction. The smell of smoke mixed with iron made his throat feel tight.
"Hello there, mister," Frey said, forcing his voice to sound light. "I accidentally got into this gate and was stuck here."
The words tasted wrong.
Dry. Forced.
"I was trying to find a safe place," he continued, "so I started running and then—"
The world blurred.
A presence closed in.
Metal kissed his throat.
Cold.
Too cold.
Frey froze.
Sung Jin-Woo had moved like a shadow, dagger pressed just enough to bite skin.
"I will ask you some questions," Jin-Woo said quietly, breath steady near Frey's ear. "You will answer each one within ten seconds."
The blade pressed closer.
"And don't think about lying. I will know. And then I will do something you won't even want to imagine."
Well, Frey thought, shit.
"First question," Jin-Woo said. "What's your name?"
"Frey Starlight."
"Are you an awakened hunter?"
"Yes."
"Were you awakened before entering this gate?"
Frey's mind raced.
Technically…
His aura usage had awakened here. But aura itself had always existed within him.
He swallowed.
"Yes."
Jin-Woo studied him for a moment, eyes searching his face.
Then—
"Did you kill all these beasts?"
ffffoooo, Frey thought. Safe for now.
"Yes."
"Then why are you burning the corpses?"
The heat from the fire crawled up Frey's spine.
He hesitated.
"I thought," he said carefully, "that by doing this, I could attract hunters for help."
The dagger pressed harder.
"Are you lying?"
"No—no," Frey said quickly, breath shallow. "I'm telling the truth."
I planned to use this excuse from the start, he thought. So yeah.
Jin-Woo was silent.
Snow drifted between them.
Then—
"Are you a fool?" Jin-Woo said. "Even if you've never entered a gate before, you should know fire attracts unwanted attention in a forest."
Frey's shoulders slumped.
"Well," he said weakly, "I was in a panic. I forgot."
Jin-Woo stared at him for another second.
Then the pressure vanished.
The dagger withdrew.
"You were lucky," Jin-Woo said, turning away slightly. "That you didn't attract anything worse."
But his thoughts didn't ease.
There's something this kid is hiding.
He acted afraid—but his eyes didn't.
As if he knew I wouldn't kill him.
Or couldn't.
Jin-Woo's fingers tightened briefly around the dagger before he sheathed it.
"Follow me," he said. "And don't get lost."
He turned and began moving.
Frey remained still for a heartbeat.
"…That went better than I thought," he muttered.
Then he followed.
After fifteen minutes, voices reached them through the trees.
The rest of the group.
At the front stood Park Hee-Jin.
She moved toward Jin-Woo, lowering her voice.
"What happened?" she asked.
Then her gaze shifted to Frey.
"And who is the boy?"
Jin-Woo replied quietly—too quietly.
Frey couldn't hear.
While they spoke, his attention drifted.
A familiar pressure bloomed behind his eyes.
The system activated.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION
NEW MISSION: Eradicate the Followers of the Corrupted One
Description:Some have taken fragments discarded by the Corrupted One.They are anomalies like you, yet still bound to this world.Eliminate them all.
REWARD:– 1 Skill Unlock– 5% Template Advancement
TIME LIMIT: 1 Month
The words sat there.
Unmoving.
Frey didn't react at first.
His hearing faded slightly, as if the forest had pulled itself a step farther away. The crackle of the fire dulled. The cold brushing his skin became distant, muted.
Followers.
The word felt deliberate.
He read further.
Some have taken fragments discarded by the Corrupted One.They are anomalies like you, yet still bound to this world.Eliminate them all.
Anomalies.
Like you.
Frey blinked once.
Not in shock—more like something had nudged the edge of his awareness.
Fragments.
Discarded.
Corrupted.
None of the terms meant anything concrete yet, but together they formed a pattern that didn't sit right. Like pieces from different puzzles placed on the same table.
He became aware of his breathing again. Slow. Controlled. Too controlled.
Followers implies intent, he thought distantly. Not monsters.
He read the reward.
REWARD:– 1 Skill Unlock– 5% Template Advancement
TIME LIMIT: 1 Month
Five percent.
That was… significant.
The system had been stingy before. Painfully so. Fractions. Margins.
This wasn't.
Frey's fingers curled slightly at his side.
This isn't like the other missions.
He didn't think that with alarm—just recognition.
The earlier mission had been simple. Blunt. Kill a monster. Survive.
This one felt different.
It wasn't reacting to circumstances.
It was pointing.
His gaze drifted away from the window for a moment, settling on the snow between his boots. The surface was disturbed—footprints overlapping, blood darkening the white.
"Anomalies like you."
He hadn't questioned that word when it appeared earlier.
He should have.
His mind went back—not far, just enough.
The wheel.The Nameless template.The god's casual dismissal.
"You don't need to know for now."
At the time, it hadn't bothered him.
Now, the memory felt heavier.
Not threatening.
Incomplete.
Frey swallowed.
The fire popped behind him, sending sparks upward. Heat brushed his back, grounding him again in the moment.
Fragments discarded by the Corrupted One.
Discarded implied rejection.
Or loss.
If something can discard power, he thought, it means it once held it.
His thoughts didn't spiral.
They stacked.
Each idea placed carefully atop the last, forming a structure he didn't yet understand—but could feel the weight of.
These followers aren't like monsters, he realized. They chose something.
That choice had consequences.
And somehow—
The system considered him adjacent to that category.
Not the same.
But close enough to draw a comparison.
His chest felt tight—not from fear, but from misalignment. Like his instincts and his thoughts weren't syncing the way they used to.
From the start, he thought slowly, acknowledging it without judgment,I've only been thinking about getting stronger.
Not why.
Just how.
Survive.Adapt.Keep up.
That focus had felt natural.
Necessary.
But now—
The question surfaced quietly, without force.
Why does it feel like that wasn't entirely my choice?
The thought didn't accuse.
It observed.
He searched inward for a reaction—panic, resistance, denial.
There was none.
That absence unsettled him more than any answer would have.
I know myself, Frey thought. At least, I used to.
Yet the calm he felt now didn't match the situation.
Standing in a Red Gate.Surrounded by hunters.With a system assigning executions.
His pulse was steady.
Too steady.
Something was influencing the direction of his thoughts—not steering them outright, but… narrowing the path.
Like invisible rails beneath his feet.
Nameless, he thought.
The word surfaced without effort.
Not as a name.
As a placeholder.
He exhaled slowly through his nose, letting the breath ground him. Cold air burned his lungs, sharp and real.
Not now, he decided. I don't have enough pieces.
The system window still hovered, patient.
Watching.
Frey dismissed it.
Not because he understood it—
But because, for now, he chose not to follow where it was pointing.
And that choice, small as it was, felt important.
He exhaled slowly, forcing his thoughts to settle.
Then—
A hand touched his shoulder.
Frey startled, muscles tensing instantly.
He looked up.
A woman in her early twenties stood there.
Park Hee-Jin's POV
When I tapped the boy's shoulder, he jumped.
The reaction was sharp—too sharp.
His expression flickered before he caught himself, and for a moment, it looked almost… funny.
"Don't worry, Frey," I said gently. "I heard everything from Mr. Sung. It must have been really hard for you."
He looked at me for a second.
Then nodded.
"Yeah," he said quietly. "I definitely needed that."
Something about him felt off.
After hearing what he'd done and seeing how calm he was now, he didn't feel like an ordinary civilian at all.
I turned toward Jin-Woo.
"And the same goes for Mr. Sung," I said. "He's supposed to be an E-ranker, but his performance says otherwise."
My gaze shifted back to Frey.
"I'll need to report this to the Guild."
My voice steadied.
"An E-ranker fighting far above his level… and an anomaly who awakened and killed multiple beasts on his first accidental raid."
Snow continued to fall.
And none of us spoke.