The Awakened One, Lee Shin (1)
January 1, 2000—the day the new millennium began.All kinds of imaginations ran wild, various doomsday theories surfaced, and TV news programs even invited experts to debate absurd rumors.
Some people felt anxiety.Others felt anticipation.
With countless emotions intertwined, the first day of the new millennium dawned. And the experts who said nothing would happen and that there was no need to worry were wrong.
January 1, 2000.Cracks opened in the skies above the capitals of every nation. From the gaping rifts, monsters poured out in droves, and at the same time, a portion of humanity awakened as superhumans. Those awakened humans fought against the monsters, and they came to be called "Hunters."
The opening of a new era.A historic day when chaos, crisis, and opportunity arrived together.
Lee Shin was born on that day.
"It's a boy."
At the very moment the world was in an uproar.January 1, 2000.The time was even exactly midnight—00:00.
"He's definitely going to be someone great later on!"
Lee Shin's parents made a big fuss.Being born at the exact moment a new era began couldn't possibly be a coincidence. He must have been born under the destiny of the heavens. No matter what he became when he grew up, he would surely be someone important!
Holding their precious child, whom they could never love too much, Lee Shin's parents nurtured their expectations endlessly.
But Lee Shin didn't grow up to become a great person—he couldn't even have a smooth school life. In elementary school, Lee Shin was always ostracized and lived as a loner.
His parents couldn't bring themselves to blame the other students in anger. That was because the children weren't bullying their son out of malice. Rather, they were afraid of Lee Shin.
"Ma'am… Shin is a bit unusual, somehow..."
Lee Shin had difficulty getting along with others.More precisely, others had difficulty getting along with Lee Shin—and that included not only students, but even teachers.
"Seon-ah in Class 3 has a sick younger sibling. Every night she prays to me, asking me to make her sibling better, but I don't know how to do that, so I gave her milk. Mom always said that if you drink milk well, you can recover from any illness."
"Cheol-min regrets pretending not to know his father during the class observation because he was embarrassed. I wasn't trying to expose Cheol-min's family situation. I just knew that he would regret this deeply in the distant future, so I told him in advance to apologize to his father."
"Teacher Minji is seriously pulling over whether she should marry the man she's currently seeing. That man gambles habitually, lies all the time, and sometimes even meets other women. It's obvious that he'll bring misfortune to Teacher Minji's future, so I gave her some advice. She tells me every day at church, asking what she should do. So I simply gave her an answer—the clear and correct one that would let her walk the right path."
Lee Shin was a strange child.
What was even more surprising was that among all the things Lee Shin spoke so smoothly, there wasn't a single fabricated lie.
His parents wondered if perhaps Lee Shin possessed some kind of spiritual power.
But neither his father nor his mother came from a shamanic family. Both were devout Christians—was it even possible for a child with such abilities to be born into a Christian household?
Or perhaps, because he had been born on such an extraordinarily special day and at such a precise moment, he had inherited a power that science couldn't explain, just like the Hunters the world buzzed about.
They even went so far as to visit the Association and paid a hefty sum to have him tested—but the result came back negative. Amid the confusion, his mother would sometimes joke about Lee Shin's occasional flashes of uncanny insight.
"Our Shin… should we make him a shaman?"
It might have suited his nature. His father was briefly tempted by the idea as well, but soon shook his head. With that level of insight, Lee Shin might have made a name for himself as a shaman—but his parents knew their son well.
Others admired him, saying that their son was always expressionless and calm, praising him as a child who had matured early. But through a parent's eyes, Lee Shin was nothing more than a pitiable child.
They had seen Lee Shin in kindergarten, flustering himself as he tried to mingle with the other children.
They knew that the reason he shared those kinds of stories with students and teachers at school was simply because he wanted to be close to them.
They knew that when they occasionally put on children's animation shows, he would watch the lively, playful junior patrol characters with eyes filled half with envy and half with loneliness.
What their son needed wasn't something special.
It was an ordinary, simple everyday life.
"Son, want to go hiking with Dad?"
"Shin, let's go have a picnic by the Han River!"
"Mom, Dad… what about school…?"
"It's okay if you don't go to school. Son, for now, let's just play to our hearts' content."
"But if I don't go to school, my friends…?"
"Oh my, our son really doesn't know much! There are lots of friends outside of school too. There's an uncle Dad's really close with—his daughter doesn't have any kids her age to play with, so she cries every day. How about we all go see the sea together this Saturday and let our son be her friend?"
Consideration and love.
Surrounded by overflowing affection, Lee Shin came to live not as a special child, but just as he himself had wished—enjoying an ordinary and modest everyday life.
They were days of boundless joy, precious memories that couldn't be exchanged for anything else.
And just like that, Lee Shin turned twenty-four.
Unlike his unusual childhood, he grew up into a young man you could find anywhere in South Korea. But Lee Shin's parents didn't know—
That fate was something no one could avoid.
"Haaam. I'm seriously exhausted to death. They train us so insanely hard that I don't think I've slept even ten hours total this whole week!"
"Then your health's going to get worse."
"Of course it will! I can literally feel my lifespan getting shaved off in real time. At this rate, I'll die before I even make it past forty. I wasn't like this when I was twenty, but now that twenty-five's creeping up, my whole body aches—every joint."
"You can't die early. You're my only friend."
"What are you talking about? I'm going to live longer than you."
Twenty-four years old—Lee Shin.
He was meeting Choi Bom, the daughter of his father's closest friend, Uncle Choi Seungbaek. She was his childhood friend whom he'd known for ages, and his only peer.
"You say you'll live longer than me, but if you drink this much, it's dangerous. I can handle alcohol well, but you've got a weak body. You're going to suffer badly tomorrow morning."
"Ugh, stop nagging. I know, I know—you drink well!"
"You'll start regretting it at 1:32 a.m. You'll grumble that you shouldn't have ordered another bottle, then gulp down aloe because you're thirsty, and at 2:44 a.m. you'll have the horrible experience of vomiting aloe out of your nostrils..."
"I told you not to do that, didn't I!"
Smack.
Choi Bom flicked Lee Shin on the head.
"I know I'll have a bad hangover tomorrow too. But what can I do? When you're surviving day after day getting tossed around at a Hunter Academy, alcohol starts calling to you like crazy!"
"..."
"The instructors are seriously awful. Especially Instructor Choi Mihee—she's a real piece of work. She's always saying it's for our sake, that the fifth rift cycle is coming up soon, and that if we don't want to bleed later, we need to sweat one more drop right now..."
Lee Shin's childhood friend, Choi Bom, was a hunter trainee. She had awakened not long ago, and because she had considerable talent, she was receiving generous support while undergoing training at the Hunter Academy.
All to become a Hunter—
a hero who fights to protect humanity.
"What does 'fifth cycle' mean?"
"Do you seriously have zero interest in what I do? The rifts that first appeared twenty-four years ago increase in danger every five years. Four years ago marked twenty years, so that was the fourth cycle. Next year will be twenty-five years, which means the fifth cycle. I hear that with each cycle, the monsters that come out get more brutal, and things get way more dangerous."
"I just wish you wouldn't do anything dangerous."
Hehe.
Choi Bom, her cheeks flushed red from the alcohol, grinned foolishly.
"Of course this unni is scared too. But what choice do I have? If you leave a rift alone, it goes out of control and swallows up Seoul. And the only ones who can enter rifts are awakened Hunters. So for other people's sake, someone has to go in—that's what I'm sayinggg. Got ittt?"
Choi Bom tugged on Lee Shin's cheek.
Lee Shin stared straight at her without a single change in expression and said,
"If something happens, pray."
"Huh?"
"I can hear your voice anytime."
"What are you talking about. Miss—another bottle of soju here!"
Unlike Choi Bom, who was grinning playfully, Lee Shin continued to look at her without changing his expression.
…He was serious.
After the noisy drinking party ended and he returned home, his parents were already asleep. Lee Shin washed up neatly, changed into his pajamas, and lay down in bed.
— Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her King~.
From the master bedroom came the hymn his mother always played when she slept.
He had grown used to it long ago.
— Let every heart prepare Him room~.
— And heaven and nature sing~.
But tonight, it sounded unusually loud, as if she had pressed the volume button in her sleep. It even seemed to be getting louder by the second.
"You have been chosen."
As if a text message had arrived late at night, a ding notification sound rang out between the verses of the hymn.
[Name: Lee Shin]
[Divinity: God (神)]
[Rank: Lowest Tier]
[Trait: Creator Lv.1]
[Skills: Creation / World Dominion / World Interference / Apocalypse]
[Followers: 0]
[Owned Worlds: 0]
[Divine Power: 0]
Ding, ding, ding, ding…
The notification sound began ringing so insistently that it was impossible to ignore.
Lee Shin shut his eyes tight and tried to go back to sleep. He had always been sensitive by nature—once he woke up, his drowsiness usually vanished completely.
"You have received the earnest prayer of a pitiable believer who did not lose faith even in a forsaken world."
"A believer has been born."
"The world of this believer has no owner. As the greatest, noblest, and absolute being, ownership of that world is bestowed upon you."
The notifications didn't stop.
And then—
[First World]
[Moving to Earth No. 444, a small but lethal world.]
Fighting ♥
Lee Shin's body began to float up into the air.
3:21 a.m.
Far too late an hour to be setting off anywhere.
"Joy to the world! The Savior has comeeeeee!"
When he opened his eyes, Lee Shin was standing on desolate land. In the middle of the wasteland was a tiny girl, kneeling with her hands clasped tightly together.
"O God, O God! You have finally answered me! This Eve can now die without regret!"
She wore priestly robes caked in dirt. Her face and body were gaunt, as if she had been starving for a long time—but her eyes burned fiercely, blazing like the sun.
As Lee Shin stared blankly at the tiny girl, ding, another notification sound rang out. A transparent status window unfurled before him.
"A faithful believer who held onto faith until the very end, even in a forsaken world."
[Name: Eve]
[Class: Cleric]
"Overall Evaluation: She has not had anything touch her lips for ten days. This small life needs water right now."
"TIP: Bestow [Water] as an act of mercy!"
"TIP: This faithful girl will be greatly delighted by the grace of you, the omnipotent and benevolent one!"
[TIP: (6●u-)令]