Chapter 3
In the novel, Seo Gowoon committed all sorts of violent crimes, yet he always took extreme care of his own body.
At the slightest injury, he shamelessly went either to the hospital or to the guild to receive healing from a healer.
But since hospitals and healers alike only treated him under Seo Taejoo’s tacit permission, Gowoon stocked up on outrageously expensive healing potions at home as insurance and hid them all over the place.
That was what came to my mind.
‘Damn bastard. One day, I swear I’ll take you down.’
Every movement I made searching for the potion sent waves of pain crashing through me.
At last, after what felt like forever gritting my teeth against the agony, my fingertips brushed a cool glass bottle.
The potion I pulled out was colorless, but silver flecks shimmered inside like starlight. Mixed with holy water, it was a top-grade healing potion said to cure any injury short of death itself.
Who would imagine something worth a fortune hidden beneath the seat cushion of a sofa?
With the last of my strength, I yanked the cork free and downed it in one gulp.
Potions had no particular taste, but the moment it slid down my throat, the pain that stabbed with every breath vanished completely.
“Ooh…”
I tested it, moving carefully. Just flexing my fingers had been enough to send my scalp prickling with pain before, yet now nothing. Not even a twinge.
Even sitting up was effortless.
“Haah… I really almost died.”
I slumped back onto the sofa, letting out a sigh of relief.
“I really am inside the novel.”
Until now, everything had felt unreal. I had survived by pure instinct—fleeing the shelter, fighting monsters, enduring pain. There had been no time to accept reality.
But as the potion healed me, it was as though reality itself pressed down on me all at once.
I placed the empty bottle on the table and stood. Though my wounds were gone, a faint ache lingered in my muscles.
“Muscle pain, from running that little? If this were my real body, this would be nothing.”
Clicking my tongue, I stretched and rolled my sore shoulders, then set off toward Seo Gowoon’s bedroom.
“Tch. What a damned fate. What kind of hell is this?”
This house was massive—unsurprising, since Seo Gowoon had once lived here with his parents. There were countless rooms, and choosing the wrong one could mean running into Seo Taejoo, who might come home at any time radiating his murderous aura. I had to be careful.
I opened the nearest door.
“Hah. No need to search here.”
Inside, luxury-brand clothes and glittering jewelry littered the floor like trash.
“All that money, and he doesn’t even buy weapons?”
Shaking my head, I stepped in. I nudged the scattered clothes aside with my feet so as not to step on them and dropped into a chair in the corner.
“…This is driving me insane.”
The moment I sat, a sigh slipped out.
Even during investigations when I’d gone sleepless for months chasing one perp, I’d never felt this cornered.
Clues were everywhere—but they were ones I didn’t want to admit.
“…Possession.”
I hadn’t read many novels, but one thing was consistent: characters only got possessed after dying. Whether it was getting hit by a truck or a motorbike, the cliché was always the same.
But me? I hadn’t been hit by anything. I hadn’t heard a voice saying, “Awaken, hero.”
So why was I inside this body?
“…Could it be that I died?”
It fit the cliché, but no matter what, I would have remembered my own death.
What I remembered was nodding off briefly.
Sure, in a movie, a gangster who spotted my surveillance might have planted a bomb under my car, blowing me sky-high in my sleep. But in reality? Gangsters couldn’t get their hands on bombs, or even guns.
And the car we’d been using for surveillance? It was a secondhand junker, hastily bought. No way the Yasupa gang had even known it existed.
“So how the hell did I end up possessed? No… that’s the wrong question. The real problem is: how do I get back?”
In novels, protagonists had nothing tying them to their original world. But me? I did.
Kim Hae-ae.
The “child of the sea.” I had been abandoned on a stormy day, during a tidal wave warning. If an old fisherman hadn’t come to check on his moored boat, I’d have been swept away. He found me, named me, and left me at an orphanage.
But with my fierce face, no one adopted me. At school, I was mocked and shunned.
Until one day—I met the man who changed my life.
A homicide detective.
More just than anyone, stronger than anyone, kinder than anyone. He had saved me, an orphan framed and cuffed for a crime I hadn’t committed.
I wanted to become like him.
After leaving the military, I passed the police exam. All that was left was to join his team, to be his partner. That was my dream, my goal, the fruit of every effort I’d ever made.
And now this damned possession was telling me to give it all up?
That was the same as denying my whole life.
“I’m going back. No matter what it takes.”
But the problem was—I had no idea how.
“…Damn it. What a nightmare.”
I forced myself to calmly recall the novel’s plot.
The novel Cradle of the Apocalypse was about hunters fighting against a divine trial called the Tower, gifted by the gods.
“Right. There were gods in this novel. Should I… meet one?”
The world seemed modern, but deities were real. The issue was…
“…Gods never descended.”
They only spoke through the Saintess, who never left the temple. She hadn’t even lifted a finger during the final “Cradle” raid, despite the world being at stake.
Which left one option.
“…I’ll have to join the party that raids the Cradle.”
I tapped the desk with my finger.
Hunters challenged the Cradle not just because failure meant the end of the world, but because success promised a wish-granting orb.
“If I can succeed… maybe I can wish myself home.”
With a goal in mind, I summoned the status window to assess Seo Gowoon’s abilities.
[Seo Gowoon]
Level: 4
Class: Alchemist
Rank: D
Age: 27
HP: 300 / Mana: 2000
Stats: Strength C / Stamina C / Agility D / Magic A / Dexterity S+
Attack: F / Defense: F
Unique Skills: [Dismantle], [Synthesize], [Comprehend]
“…Seriously? Level 4?”
He’d awakened at 20, and now—seven years later—was still only level 4?
I recalled the description in the novel and realized: this was probably thanks only to mandatory dungeon training for new hunters. Gowoon, terrified of monsters, never set foot in dungeons again.
But more than his level, his HP was the real disaster.
“Even fully healed, only 300 HP? Trash stats.”
I groaned.
“Figures. No wonder I hated this bastard. …Skill window.”
[Active Skills]
Dismantle Lv 8
Synthesize Lv 9
Comprehend MAX
Appraise MAX
[?? – Unlocks at Lv 10]
[?? – Unlocks at Lv 20]
[?? – Unlocks at Lv 30]
“Well, at least he bothered to use these.”
Stats went up from kills, but skills leveled through use. His skills being nearly at 10 meant he’d been playing around with alchemy constantly.
“…Now for passives.”
[Passive Skills]
Truth: Eyes that pierce through all things.
Transmutation: Perform alchemy without a circle.
Amplify: Increases… something.
[?? – Unlocks at Lv 50]
“Huh. No mention of these in the novel. Guess he died too early.”
I could guess at Truth and Transmutation, but Amplify? Who knew.
Not that it mattered—I had no intention of living my life as Seo Gowoon.
What mattered was the Cradle raid.
The problem was its element: Darkness.
Darkness resisted every attribute except Light. And while rank trumped attributes to a degree, affinity mattered. Seo Taejoo himself had mused that he should’ve taken a B-rank Light hunter over an A-rank Fire one.
“So priority one is finding a Light-attribute hunter. But…”
Light was rare. Even late in the story, most survivors were only B-rank at best.
“…Unless I look for a multi.”
Some hunters had multiple attributes—so-called Multis. If their main stat was high, the sub usually was too.
“…Shin Sooha.”
That name leapt into my mind instantly.
The strongest fighter of the mid-story arc, ranked #1 in raw power. An SSS-rank multi hunter with psychic power as his main and Light as his sub.
Perfect for the Cradle.
“…Right. Even in the novel they said, ‘If only Sooha had been there…’”
But Shin Sooha had been the first to die.
Or rather, the first mentioned dead. His actual death wasn’t shown—only revealed after the fact, at a funeral.
Seo Taejoo learned of it at… Seo Gowoon’s funeral.
Which meant—
“…Shit. That’s today.
