HDCA 01

CHAPTER 01

The world flipped upside down in an instant.

Or maybe I had gone insane.

It was the only explanation for this situation.

Otherwise, there was no way I would be here instead of lying in ambush with my partner, Detective Kim, trying to catch the drug ring boss Kim Deok-pal.

“Mom, I love you….”

“If I’d known this would happen, I wouldn’t have fought with you this morning….”

“Everyone, recovery hunters are on the move and rescue personnel are heading to the shelters, so let’s not lose hope!”

Unfamiliar words echoed all around me.

“Recovery hunters? Shelters? What the hell does that even mean?”

What are “recovery hunters,” and what is a “shelter”?

“Lord, this suffering must also be your will… why did this have to happen to me… damn you, God!”

People were already in despair as if the apocalypse had come. Some were praying with trembling hands, only to break down crying and then explode in anger.

“What is going on here?”

Confused, I looked around.

Among the crowd surrounding me, I saw a large TV.

On the screen was a grotesque scene I had never seen in my life—monsters with long tentacles tearing apart fleeing people.

But it didn’t feel like a movie. The words “Breaking News” made it all feel far too real.

Then, beneath the horrifying yet unreal footage, red subtitles appeared.

[Seoheyon-dong, Buyeon City / Monster Wave outbreak — Dawn Guild dispatched]

“Monster wave? Guild?”

Words that shouldn’t exist in reality. And yet, they weren’t entirely unfamiliar.

“Don’t tell me… no, that can’t be it.”

A ridiculous thought flashed through my mind.

“Haha, no way. It’s a dream. It must be a dream.”

I tried to deny reality and forced my eyes open wider.

I slapped my cheek, even pinched the back of my hand.

But nothing changed.

“Then… is this really ?”

I reached into my pocket.

Unable to accept the truth, I planned to call my partner, Detective Kim, to confirm.

But what came out wasn’t my worn-out seven-year-old phone full of scratches—just a brand-new smartphone I had never seen before. I frowned.

“Whose phone is this? Why is it in my pocket?”

I searched again for my phone, but all I found were unfamiliar items: a smart car key, a wallet, and what looked like house keys.

Even the wallet wasn’t my cheap, torn one—it was a luxury brand wallet with a massive logo stamped on it.

“Sorry, sir. I’ll just make one call.”

Even if I could unlock it, I couldn’t get past the password or pattern.

In the end, I borrowed a phone from a nearby woman watching the TV.

I dialed Detective Kim’s number from memory.

But—

“The number you have dialed is not in service. Please check and try again.”

“…Not in service?”

I checked again.

I was certain I had dialed correctly—the same number I had used even right before I fell asleep.

But it didn’t exist.

“Damn it.”

I tried every number I could remember.

My senior officer. The captain of Violent Crimes Unit 3. Even the office line.

All of them were disconnected.

“Maybe I didn’t wake up properly because I didn’t hit myself hard enough.”

Thinking I still might be dreaming, I slapped my face again—hard.

“…That hurts like hell.”

But all I felt was burning pain on my cheek and a stinging palm.

Everything around me remained the same.

Unknown scenery. Unknown monsters. And none of my contacts existing.

“No. Get a grip, Kim Hae-a. Even dreams can feel pain. Yeah… I’ll just sleep here. When I wake up, I’ll be fine.”

I refused to accept it.

And just then—

The phone I was holding must have been touched accidentally, because the camera turned on.

And the face reflected in it was…

“What the hell?”

It wasn’t my face.

Neat features. Brown hair. A beauty mark under the right eye. And heterochromia—one orange eye, one purple.

I remembered laughing at descriptions like that, thinking such eyes couldn’t exist in real life.

“Shit… don’t tell me… no way.”

Yes.

These were the exact traits of a character named “Seo Goun,” from a fantasy novel I had finished reading just a few days ago during vacation.

A trashy, reckless maniac who once broke a security guard’s nose at a department store for no reason, took over an entire floor of a mall and drained a guild’s yearly budget in one go, and regularly picked fights with strangers only to get beaten up.

The only reason that garbage human had survived so far, despite living such a pathetic life, was one thing.

His younger brother.

“Seo Tae-joo, vice guild master of the Dawn Guild.”

Seo Tae-joo, an SS-rank hunter and vice leader of the Dawn Guild—always ranked among the top five guilds in the country.

Though not blood-related, he had been adopted into Seo Goun’s family. Even after awakening as an SS-rank hunter, even after their parents died, he endured everything—his adopted older brother’s abuse, violence, and humiliation—because of his parents’ last wish.

That’s how Seo Goun was able to continue his trashy life.

I only read that novel for a simple reason.

After helping arrest a nationwide criminal, I was promoted and given paid vacation as a reward.

When I complained that they should just give money instead of vacation, Detective Kim lent me a completed novel, saying I should at least read it since I’d already borrowed it.

That was , the story of Seo Goun the maniac and his brother Seo Tae-joo.

“I only forced myself to read it because it was too trashy, just so I could summarize it and not waste the rental fee.”

And now I had become that character.

Not even the protagonist—but a disposable side character, a comic-relief trash villain who would die early.

I let out a hollow laugh.

“Of course this can’t be real. It’s a dream. Just a dream.”

As I laughed at my denial of reality, the woman who had lent me her phone smacked my arm.

“Hey! Get a grip! What happens if you lose your mind here?”

“Huh?”

“Seriously, you’re completely spaced out. Here, look.”

She pinched my cheek hard. Pain shot through it.

Why does it hurt in a dream?

As if reading my thoughts, she said,

“First time experiencing a wave? You keep saying it’s a dream or whatever. See? It hurts, right? This is reality.”

“No way…”

“What do you mean ‘no way’? Monster waves happen all the time. The Dawn Guild will come, so don’t worry too much. That hunter Seo Tae-joo has already saved me several times. Young people these days are so scared, tsk tsk.”

I had no answer.

This… really wasn’t a dream?

Then what—had I really become Seo Goun? That useless scumbag?

Overwhelmed, I grabbed my hair.

The woman quickly stopped me.

“Hey, hey! Don’t hurt yourself!”

“Is possession even real? How does something like that even exist?!”

“Huh? Possession? What are you talking about? You’re losing it, kid. Calm down.”

“I—I need to go to the bathroom for a moment…”

“Go wash your face. Honestly, young people these days…”

Leaving the woman behind, I moved to a quiet corner and collapsed.

“So stories can become reality… If that’s the case, I’m never going back. Living in a fantasy world sounds amazing, right?”

“That’s not amazing. I like things the way they are now.”

“You brat, that’s why you’re hopeless. No dreams or hope at your age?”

Detective Kim’s voice echoed in my memory as if the conversation had just happened.

I had never imagined I would actually be possessed into a novel.

But the bigger problem wasn’t possession itself.

“Why did it have to be this guy… and this situation?”

Seo Goun.

The adopted older brother of Seo Tae-joo, the protagonist, a walking disaster who ruins everything in his path.

Demanding money from Seo Tae-joo, assaulting civilians while drunk, abusing the Dawn Guild’s name to throw his weight around, trying to fire employees with no authority—he was absolute trash.

And if I remembered correctly, this situation was one of the most famous scenes in the novel .

Seo Goun, the infamous trash character, dies in a monster wave when the shelter collapses.

A satisfying “karma” moment.

“I shouldn’t have been happy about his death back then…”

A deep sigh escaped me.

How did I end up here? Why me? I wanted to ask someone—but right now, the only urgent matter was survival.

If I died here and returned to reality, I might be relieved.

But like most possession stories, I might not return at all—I might die for real.

“…Die? Me? Here?”

A hollow laugh escaped me.

I’ve lived my whole life with sheer determination. And I’m supposed to die like this?

Me—Kim Hae-a, the “mad dog of Yeongdeungpo”?

“No. I can’t die.”

If death was my fate, then I would twist that fate and survive.

I decided to reconstruct everything I remembered about the novel.

“Seo Goun definitely dies in the shelter.”

I have a perfect memory when I need it. Every scene, every line from was still in my head.

And right now—I was in a shelter.

There was one shelter per district, and Seo Goun dies in one.

So this place would become my grave.

But I realized something.

“Everything stops if I destroy the gateway.”

Monster waves continue until the gate is destroyed.

In the novel, Seo Tae-joo eventually arrives and destroys it—but by then, Seo Goun is already dead.

So my only option was to leave before dying and destroy the gateway myself.

But the problem was—

“Monsters on the way.”

I checked my pockets again.

“…Of course. What a useless bastard.”

No weapons. Just keys, wallet, and a car key.

“Seriously, what does this guy even carry around?”

Frustration surged through me.

Unlike other hunter novels, there was no inventory system here.

Hunters used “infinite pouches,” but Seo Goun—this fashion-obsessed idiot—refused to use one because it ruined his outfit.

“With that money, he’d rather buy another luxury item…”

I bit my lip.

There were weapons in the shelter—axes, bats—but even with my military background and combat training, I couldn’t kill monsters without hunter abilities or specialized weapons.

Then it hit me.

“Wait… Seo Goun is a hunter too, right?”

A D-rank hunter with a hidden skill capable of killing even A-rank monsters.

“Alchemy.”

Even if he died pathetically in the story, that ability still existed.

“If I can use Seo Goun’s power…?”

The monster wave here was C-rank. That ability should be enough.

As long as the story’s nonsense didn’t interfere again.

“Fine. Better to try and die than just sit here and get crushed.”

I rushed out of the shelter.

Outside, the city looked like the apocalypse.

And in the sky, a tear in space spewed monsters endlessly.