* * *

It had been an exhausting day.

Do Hajun steadied his wavering mind and closely examined the figure before him.

His team had just cleared an A-rank dungeon, and he spent the following three days and nights without sleep, dealing with a crack that had appeared on his way back.

To make matters worse, with the absence of a crucial healer, his body was in tatters, and his mind was filled with fatigue.

“Is that why I’m seeing things?”

Hajun bent one knee.

He could hear faint, steady breaths near his ear.

“Hmm.”

Amid the clothes of an adult man, which looked like they came from a high-end store, a naked child lay curled up, sleeping on the bare asphalt.

The child, who looked around three or four years old, not a newborn, lying naked in front of someone’s house, seemed extremely surreal.

“Whose child is this?”

He wondered if the child had been abandoned.

However, the child was naked, and the clothes scattered around were high-end adult suits, which made the situation even stranger.

Hoping to find some information about the child among the clothes, Hajun began to search.

The moment his hand touched the child’s body, information appeared above the child’s head.

[Status: Hot/Exhausted]

[Affinity level too low to view detailed information]

[Current affinity Level: 0 (Neutral)]

Hajun slightly furrowed his brows.

“A Hunter…? This child?”

Seeing information that should not be visible to ordinary people, Hajun clicked his tongue and stood up.

This was the era of the Great Awakening. Since the dungeons and cracks had opened, many people had awakened and become Hunters.

However, most awakened individuals were adults.

Even those who awakened at a very young age were at least high school students.

It was extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for such a young child to awaken.

After a moment of furrowing his brows, Hajun took out his phone and dialed a familiar number.

“I’m busy. If you’re going to whine, call me later.”

“This is Do Hajun. Director, there’s a minor Hunter abandoned in front of my house.”

“What? A minor Hunter?”

“Yes. I haven’t seen this face before, so it doesn’t seem to be a registered Hunter.”

“Hmm, a minor is a rare case. How old? Seventeen? Eighteen?”

“It’s hard to believe, but he seems to be around three or four years old.”

He could sense the surprise on the other end of the line.

He could understand why. Minor Hunters were usually high school students.

A three-year-old Hunter was unheard of.

After a brief silence, the voice on the other end sounded sympathetic.

“Did you push yourself too hard on this mission?”

“Pardon?”

Hajun, lightly furrowing his brows, asked again.

“A three- or four-year-old? Can he even speak properly? What nonsense is this? A Hunter that young? Are you seeing things? Do Hajun, this isn’t some post-dungeon delusion, right?”

The person on the other end didn’t believe him at all.

Hajun cut him off firmly.

“It’s really a three-year-old Hunter. An unregistered one. Please come and take him.”

“Rest up, man. Some Hunters see hallucinations after coming out of a dungeon. You ran into a crack without a healer and now you’re losing it. Stay home and don’t wander around. I’ll send a healer specialized in mental recovery. And if it’s really a child Hunter, you can take care of him. It’ll be good for you to use your abilities too.”

“Are you crazy…!”

Before Hajun could finish, the call was cut off.

“Ha, really.”

He knew it was hard to believe.

Minor Hunters were extremely rare, and there was no prior case for a Hunter so young that he couldn’t even attend school.

But in this world after the gates opened, where monsters appeared and people awakened strange powers to shoot fire from their hands and control the wind, there was no law that said baby Hunters couldn’t exist.

Anything could happen in this world.

Hajun himself was one of the people who had awakened after the gates opened.

His ability allowed him to assess the condition of someone upon first contact, gauging their health or status abnormalities.

Besides that, he had skills like:

[Stop Crying!]

– The target becomes calmer. More effective when used on a crying young child. Has little effect on those over ten years old.

[Good Boy]

– When used on a target who has done something good, their stats increase slightly faster. More effective the younger the target and the higher their affinity for the caster. Has little effect on those over ten years old.

[Spank!]

– When used on a target who has done something wrong, the target’s stats temporarily decrease. More effective the younger the target. Repeated use may decrease affinity. Has little effect on those over ten years old.

These skills were ones he had never used, as they were more effective the younger the target, and explicitly stated they had little effect on those over ten years old.

They weren’t directly helpful in combat and were quite different from healing or support skills, so he had only used his ability to check the basic condition or injuries of other Hunters.

But now, this ability had shown him a child suffering from heatstroke.

Not knowing what to do with the child, who was lying in the scorching sun, Hajun clicked his tongue and reached out to take the child inside but hesitated.

“…How do you even hold a child?”

As an only child with parents who were also only children, he had no relatives.

Moreover, due to his bleak social life, he had never met the child of a friend or colleague.

“Hmm.”

While he hesitated, wondering how to hold the child, the child’s status window turned red and updated.

[Status: Early stage of heatstroke/Exhausted]

[Body temperature is too high. Please move to a cool place to rest.]

Damn it. A Hunter with heatstroke?

Even after spending three days and nights in the Sahara Desert or dancing samba with penguins in Antarctica for a week, a Hunter wouldn’t get heatstroke.

“Is it because he’s young? Or is he weak?”

Feeling burdened, Do Hajun clicked his tongue once more. Anyway, he just needed to move the unconscious child, right?

With that thought, he lifted the child over his shoulder.

“How long has this kid been starving?”

He was momentarily surprised by the child’s light weight, but the warmth of the child’s body made him realize the urgency.

Without delay, he gathered the clothes wrapped around the child and brought him inside.

Unsure whether the child was asleep or unconscious, Hajun placed him on the sofa like a piece of luggage and set the air conditioner to the lowest temperature.

‘If it cools down quickly, the child should recover soon.’

Making sure the air was directly hitting the child, Hajun headed to the bathroom.

“…? What’s wrong with this kid?”

It was clearly heatstroke, and the obvious solution for the early stages of heatstroke was to be in a cool place.

However, when he returned after a brief absence, contrary to his expectations, the child’s face and lips had turned a frightening blue.

[Status: Early Stage Air-Conditioning Syndrome / Fatigue]

[The surrounding temperature is too low. Please maintain an appropriate temperature.]

[The optimal temperature is 27 degrees.]

Rubbing his temples, Hajun let out a deep sigh.

Outside it was heatstroke, and now in front of the air conditioner, it’s air-conditioning syndrome?

Back and forth, what should he do?

Clicking his tongue, Hajun raised the air conditioner’s temperature.

He then went to the bathroom, grabbed a large towel, and wrapped it around the child’s body.

The child’s small frame was completely enveloped by the large bath towel.

As Hajun watched the child’s blue lips return to a normal color, he took out a can of beer from the fridge, turned on the TV, and leaned against the sofa next to where the child was lying.

A special news report about the cracks was being broadcasted on TV.

– The crack that appeared in Jongno at 2:42 PM has been classified as Grade B. The Oricon Guild and the Baekho (White Tiger) Team of the Seoul Center are currently handling it…

A hundred years ago, dungeons and cracks suddenly appeared, throwing people into fear.

Monstrous creatures appeared, sometimes familiar and sometimes unknown, and massacred humans.

Humans tried to resist with the latest weapons they had created, but it was like hitting a rock with an egg.

Even the terrifying nuclear weapons were ineffective against these monsters, and as people lost their will to live, some humans awakened.

These awakened humans possessed superhuman strength, psychic powers, and other unknown abilities, and they fought against the monsters, achieving the first victory.

Since then, humanity did not face extinction because of these empowered humans.

In fact, with the resources obtained from the dungeons and cracks, humanity was able to develop faster than before, although the battle between hunters, humans with superhuman powers, and monster creatures continued.

– The crack is currently being closed…

“Whimper.”

A faint crying sound contrasted with the announcer’s voice.

Turning towards the sound, he saw the child, now sitting up, holding the slipping towel with both hands. The child’s eyes were a deep cobalt blue, filled with tears.

So, the child is a hunter. Those eyes are definitely hunter eyes.

Unlike the black hair, the bright blue eyes proved the child was a hunter.

When a person awakens as a hunter, they lose their original color. Their hair or eyes, or sometimes both, change to vivid colors.

“…Why?”

“Waaah!”

As if Hajun’s question was a signal, the child started crying loudly.

Hajun quickly put down his beer and reached out to the crying child.

“Why are you crying? You need to tell me!”

As if understanding his words, the child’s status window appeared before Hajun.

[Status: Hunger / Fatigue]

[The child is hungry. Food is required.]

“Aha!”

Leaving the crying child, Hajun quickly ran to the kitchen.

He didn’t know what to feed the child, but he opened the fridge, hoping to find something.

‘Ah. There’s nothing to eat.’

He usually ate all three meals at the Center and ordered delivery on holidays, so the fridge only contained beer, water, and some meat he grilled occasionally.

Hajun then rummaged through the pantry.

There were only cans of spicy tuna he ate with beer and some ramen for late-night snacks.

“…What should the child eat?”

“Waaah!!!”

The child’s cries grew louder.

Without much thought, Hajun took out the ramen and the can of spicy tuna and put a pot of water on the stove.

He also placed a frying pan on the other burner.

While listening to the child’s urgent cries, he cooked the ramen with the spicy tuna and grilled the meat, preparing a perfect meal.

After setting the pot of ramen and the meat on the dining table, Hajun went to the child.

The child’s face was red from crying non-stop while he was preparing the food.

“Come on. Let’s eat.”

* * *