Chapter 1: The S-Rank in Name Only

Yun Yeongwon. Twenty-four years old.

He was South Korea’s second S-rank hunter.

He was famous enough that every citizen of the country knew his name.

The late-born son of Yun Hojeong, chairman of RS Group, one of the top three companies in Korea.

Cynical, but so handsome that once you looked, you couldn’t look away.

He looked thin, but up close his body was beautifully and harmoniously put together.

There was no shortage of phrases to describe him.

However…

“What? That’s Moose-rank? Is that really him, or a different hunter who looks similar? Is he really Moose-rank?”

“Where else would a guy who looks like that be? We saw him with our own eyes, so you can’t argue. How much did you bet? A million won?”

“No, man. Does this make sense? Why is a Moose-rank fighting in a dungeon?”

“Who cares? Just pay up!”

Moose-rank.

It was short for “S-rank in name only,” a nickname even kindergarteners knew.

Many people called Yun Yeongwon “Moose-rank.” Some called him “Scary-rank” or “Ridiculous-rank,” but all of it was wordplay built on the Moose-rank nickname.

Despite being an S-rank hunter, he was scared of monsters and avoided dungeons like the plague.

Whenever he did show up in a dungeon, he hid behind espers far below his rank and squawked loudly, causing trouble for everyone.

Nothing described him better than “S-rank in name only.”

“f*ck. No way.”

But not anymore.

Yun Yeongwon stood proudly, as if he had never been afraid of monsters, leaving behind the hunters who were awkwardly promising to transfer him money.

An ogre at least three times his size breathed out steam and swung a huge club.

“Ha…”

Yun Yeongwon dodged the attack nimbly and curled his lips. In an instant, he leaped. His right leg was covered in solid ice.

“Arghhhh!”

Yun Yeongwon flew up more than three meters in one breath and kicked the ogre’s face without hesitation.

The ogre, hit squarely by the ice-covered foot, twisted its head sharply, let out a death cry, and collapsed to the ground with a thud.

Yun Yeongwon, who had taken down the ogre in one blow, looked around. There were no monsters left, only hunters watching him from a distance.

“Phew…”

It was over.

Yun Yeongwon lightly shook his shoulders and let out a long breath.

For some time now, the hunters had only been watching instead of fighting, but he didn’t need their help, so he ignored them.

He also pretended not to know about the bets over whether Moose-rank Yun Yeongwon would actually fight in a dungeon.

Who cared, really.

It didn’t matter.

As long as other people didn’t harm him, he was fine with whatever they did.

“Hyung!”

“Ah, f*ck…”

So all would be perfect if only that bastard who cheerfully called him “hyung” and approached him would disappear.

Yeongwon turned and walked in the opposite direction of the voice. Toward the dungeon exit.

“Why are you pretending not to hear me, hyung?”

But catching up to him was nothing to this bastard.

“Hyung. Hyuuung.”

“…”

“Yeongwon hyung.”

Yeongwon ignored the guy persistently calling him. He had to keep as much distance as possible from him.

“Hey, Yun Yeongwon.”

“Haah, f*ck, what?”

“This hyung!”

But Yeongwon’s resolve didn’t last even a minute. The guy had dropped the polite form, and Yeongwon snapped before he knew it.

‘Not like I’m some old geezer…’

He didn’t care if people spoke casually or talked behind his back, but in front of this bastard, he always got irritated.

It was that guy’s personality problem.

“Why are you pretending not to know me? And it seems like you’re avoiding me. Am I right? Anyway. You were cool today. When you killed three ogres at once, seriously…”

“Hunter Han Haeseong.”

Yeongwon ignored the barrage of questions without answering and called the guy’s name.

The other person was Han Haeseong. Twenty-two years old, a hunter who had awakened as S-rank earlier than Yeongwon.

Even among S-ranks, he was strong enough to feel like a different class, and he was the one who had indirectly given more weight to Yeongwon’s Moose-rank nickname.

“Why are you calling me so coldly? You should call me Haeseong.”

“Huh? Call me Haeseong. Please?”

“I don’t want to.”

Yeongwon frowned and looked Han Haeseong up and down. His lips were sticking out as if he had been hurt. Yeongwon turned his head away from the guy’s face.

Soft brown hair and even lighter eyes. Red lips that suited his white skin. A tall man, so tall that Yeongwon had to look up for a while to see his face, with a solid build at a glance. The handsome man grabbed Yeongwon’s arm and pretended to look pitiful.

Literally pretending to be pitiful.

Yeongwon had to shake off this hand and get away from him.

He was suspicious of Han Haeseong’s intentions in acting friendly, but more than anything, Yeongwon had a reason he had to avoid him.

Han Haeseong was the protagonist of the fantasy novel

“The Peaceful Daily Life of an EX-Rank Hunter”,

and Yun Yeongwon was a pitiful extra who died instantly after hovering around Han Haeseong in that novel.

‘If you stay with the protagonist, you die.’

Yun Yeongwon had no intention of getting close to Han Haeseong.

He wanted to enjoy the life that had been turned upside down overnight, comfortably and for a very long time!

Three months ago.

Yeongwon opened his eyes in a soft, cozy bed.

‘…Was a hospital bed always this nice?’

Maybe because he was used to sleeping on the floor, even a hospital bed felt soft.

Anyway, it was comfortable enough that he didn’t want to open his eyes. Maybe he wasn’t in a hospital, but in heaven?

‘That could be it.’

Yeongwon had been hit by a truck. He remembered vividly how his body had flown into the air when the truck came speeding at him at dawn.

‘It doesn’t hurt…’

The accident had been so big that he might have died instantly.

‘Is that a relief?’

If so, maybe it was a relief. His body didn’t hurt anywhere, and he was comfortable. So he really was in heaven, not a hospital. He was dead.

To feel at peace about being dead. He was even glad that he could finally rest.

“Young master!”

But Yeongwon’s rest didn’t last long.

The door burst open with a bang, and a booming middle-aged woman’s voice followed. Then she slapped his back so hard it made a smacking sound.

“How can you still! Be sleeping! At a time like this!”

“Ugh! Ah, wait, aaaagh!”

Yeongwon writhed in pain so sharp it made his eyes fly open. But the woman’s beating didn’t end easily. He was hit until his back felt hot and stinging, and he sat up in alarm.

Wary that the woman’s hand might come up again.

“What… is this. No, who are you? More importantly, ah, where am I…”

Yeongwon fled to the corner of the large bed, looked at the woman he had never seen before, and glanced around the luxurious room that had nothing to do with him.

Was this what heaven looked like? Was heaven’s welcome this rough? He wouldn’t know unless he’d been there.

“Young master. Are you still not sober?”

Yeongwon, who had been rolling his eyes around, straightened up at the woman’s chilly voice. He had a bad feeling that her palm was about to smash his body again.

“I’m not sure what you mean…”

“Aaaagh! You’re really crazy! I knew something was off when you came in raving drunk last night!”

“W-wait. Ah, please! Just a moment! Aaagh!”

And bad premonitions were never wrong.

Yeongwon twisted his whole body as the woman ran at him in the corner and delivered another smash.

“Pull yourself together! Huh? Please! Today! I’m telling you, you have to go out!”

“Ack! It hurts! Ah! Go where?!”

It hurt so much tears welled in his eyes. Did she learn volleyball or something? Otherwise, it couldn’t hurt this much.

Anyway, this wasn’t heaven.

Yeongwon intuited. He had never been to heaven, but a place where people slapped your back couldn’t be heaven.

“Where do you think? A dungeon! A dungeon! You said you would definitely go today! If you don’t, everyone starting with me will lose their heads!”

The woman stamped her feet and shouted. Unfortunately, Yeongwon found her words even harder to understand.

A dungeon.

It was a word that only appeared in fantasy novels or games. Come to think of it, everything the woman said was strange.

“The chairman said he won’t let it slide anymore! He’ll cut all your cards and take away your car! You said you’d go this time because you can’t let that happen, so how can you be like this… There’s only an hour left, young master…”

Dungeon, chairman, young master… A flood of words he should never have heard.

But Yeongwon couldn’t say anything. The woman was too serious.

“Honestly, I don’t care about your cards or car, young master… If I get fired, what am I supposed to eat…?”

The woman looked ready to burst into tears.

There was a mountain of things he needed to know: whether he was alive or dead, where this place was, why he was here, who the woman was…

“If I go, it’s fine, right…?”

Unable to resist her sorrowful eyes, Yeongwon had to nod first.

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