The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low

Chapter 127

White ash floated down like snow.

“...”

The air seemed to have stopped, and the brown hair of a schoolgirl named Yun Gaeul flew wildly in the stillness. She was wearing her school uniform as she looked around at the familiar ruins that greeted her.

Gaeul opened her hands and checked them. Both were glowing in iridescent colors. Her face turned to one of confusion as she hastily patted down her body.

“…What the hell is this?”

Just moments ago, she had been sitting in class. Now, Gaeul anxiously surveyed her surroundings. There wasn’t a single sign of life. It was a desolate, apocalyptic landscape—the kind she had often seen while traveling through fragments of the world.

But something was different. Gaeul had only ever seen these fragments while sleeping in her bed at home. Never had it happened at school, whether she was dozing off or taking a quick nap. And yet...

‘Why am I here?’

Was it a side effect of her ability? A new power? Or had she lost control over it? Every possibility felt like the worst-case scenario. Cold sweat dripped down her face. Gaeul slapped her cheeks with both hands, the sting helping to clear her mind.

‘Stay calm. Think.’

She pulled out a necklace hidden beneath her shirt. Attached to it were a white shard and a name tag engraved with “HYS.”

Gaeul tightly gripped the shard. Dark strands of light coiled around the white fragment like snakes. It was a shard from the Erosion Dungeon.

The shard had come from the body of a golem inside a suddenly reconfigured Erosion Dungeon. It was the first time she had found a shard like this in reality, not in a dream. Normally, she would have reported it immediately to Jung Bin, but he had passed out from severe injuries while protecting them... Gaeul bit her lip awkwardly.

‘I haven’t said anything yet... I’m really sorry.’

The only thing that had changed since then was the shard in her possession. It was likely both the cause of this situation and the key to escaping it.

‘I don’t know what will happen if I stay here.’

She had been at school. She couldn’t let her friends get involved in something strange. Taking a deep breath, Gaeul strengthened her grip on the shard. The iridescent glow intensified, and then—

*Screeeech!*

Something white erupted from the ground, wrapping around her entire body.

“Ack!”

Gaeul screamed and stumbled backward. The white ash piled up like snow, devouring the sound of her footsteps. The white substance constricted around her, tightening, making it hard to breathe. She squeezed her eyes shut and opened her mouth wide in desperation.

“Help—!”

Suddenly, something cold gripped her neck. *This is it. I’m going to die,* she thought, gritting her teeth. But strangely, she could breathe again. Opening her eyes, she saw a stark black figure standing in contrast to the white ruins around her.

Gaeul struggled to look at what was gripping her throat—a black hand, impossibly dark, gripping her neck. Not just the hand, but everything from the wrist up was pitch black. The white substance that had been suffocating her faltered as if it had never been there.

Then, *it* spoke.

? Open your eyes.

“…Ah.”

? Look at me.

“…Wha…”

? Yun Gaeul.

“Yun Gaeul!!”

*Crash!* The sound of something breaking echoed loudly. Gaeul gasped for breath and shot up, wide awake. She was back in her classroom. Looking around in a daze, she saw her friend, Dayeon, staring at her with a startled expression.

“What’s wrong... Are you mad?”

“Huh? What? No.”

“Did I make you mad by yelling in your ear?”

“You… yelled?”

“Duh. You dropped your study guide.”

Oh. Gaeul, still a bit out of it, picked up her fallen study book, *CSAT Special Lecture*. The crashing sound had been the book and her pencil case falling to the floor. Dayeon gave her a worried look.

“You’ve been acting weird lately. Is something going on?”

“Huh? No... nothing’s wrong.”

“You sure? You can’t tell me?”

“No, seriously, it’s nothing. I’m fine.”

“Then why... Your eyes have been looking a bit weird recently, you know?”

Dayeon scrunched her face as she muttered:

“Sometimes you look at us like you’re seeing a ghost.”

“What... are you talking about?”

Gaeul mumbled, avoiding eye contact as she looked around.

The classroom was empty except for the two of them. She checked the clock. Lunch had started ten minutes ago. Normally, they would’ve rushed to the cafeteria the moment the bell rang, like a herd of stampeding bison!

Fixing her disheveled hair, Gaeul asked:

“Why are you still here? Aren’t you going to eat?”

Dayeon sighed and propped her chin on her hand.

“You were lying there like a drugged-up zombie, so where could I go? Besides, today’s school lunch wasn’t that great, and the teachers have been cracking down hard on deliveries. Minji and Suyeong went to the snack shop, but they’ll be back soon.”

“Why only those two?”

“They lost rock-paper-scissors.”

At that moment, the front door of the classroom swung open, and two girls entered, their arms loaded with drinks and bread.

“Man, it was packed! Guess everyone had the same idea.”

“They were already out of pizza bread.”

Dayeon smirked.

“Damn, you guys are fast. Are you Hunters or something?”

“Oh, I’m taking the Hunter exam to join the Wave Guild.”

“I’m aiming for the HB Guild. Oh, look! Gaeul’s up.”

“You okay? You were sleeping like the dead. Good thing it was during homeroom.”

Minji handed Gaeul a bag with a hamburger bun inside, the kind Gaeul often ate. Warm steam wafted from the slightly torn package. Gaeul smiled faintly and took the bun. It was warm.

She wasn’t sure if she was smiling properly. Her friends didn’t seem to notice anything unusual, so she assumed she was doing it right. She forced her stiff lips to move.

“Thanks.”

“Hey, say it like you mean it.”

“Leave her alone, she’s sick.”

“Maybe she should go to the nurse?”

“What’s the next class?”

“No idea.”

“Do you even know anything?”

As her friends chattered warmly, laughter and the soft breeze from the cracked window drifted into the classroom. Gaeul quietly sighed in relief and unwrapped the warm bread.

Then, it happened.

“…Hey, Gaeul.”

“Yeah?”

Gaeul looked up. Suyeong was staring at her with a puzzled expression.

“What’s with your arm, under your sleeve?”

“Huh?”

“There’s something weird... like a mark.”

“...”

Gaeul quickly rolled up her sleeve.

There, on her wrist, were deep red marks, as if she had been bound.

Thud.

*Oh no.*

Cold sweat trickled down her back.

*This can’t be happening.*

The familiar classroom and her friends’ faces began to distort. The world around her turned green, orange, blue, red, yellow, and then white. Her friends’ faces multiplied. Two, four, eight, sixteen…

The bread in her hand slipped to the floor.

A friend with 108 heads tilted to one side. A voice from 256 mouths asked:

“...?”

“...”

The overlapping voices no longer made any sense, becoming a cacophony of noise. Sweat poured down her face, and her stomach churned. She clutched her chest, feeling suffocated.

‘I’m going to throw up...’

Her hand, which had gripped the desk, crushed its corner. Her study guide and pencil case clattered to the floor.

Gaeul stumbled to her feet, her vision filled with fractured reflections. Her friends were so distorted by the shards of reality that she could no longer tell if they were even human.

The noise of a scream echoed in her ears, and everything around her shimmered like a kaleidoscope. The world spun.

Gaeul clamped her hands over her ears. She might have screamed herself.

The next thing she remembered was...

Nothing.

With a soft click, a white-gloved hand set a magnifying lens on a tray. A young boy carrying the tray scurried away. The owner of the hand, Nam Woojin, crossed his arms and let out a low hum. Standing behind him, Jung Bin cautiously asked:

“What do you mean by ‘nothing’? Does that mean she’s unconscious?”

They were in Nam Woojin’s lab, deep within the Seowon Guild. On the operating table lay Yun Gaeul, still in her school uniform. Despite having no visible injuries, she remained unconscious. Her sleeves were neatly rolled up, revealing the deep red marks on her wrists.

Her chest rose and fell faintly, and her necklace was slightly visible. The shard attached to it was a plain white fragment. After a long silence, Nam Woojin suddenly spoke.

“How did you find her? Was anything strange about her recently?”

Jung Bin sighed and pulled a notebook from his jacket pocket, reading from it.

“When I got the call from her homeroom teacher, she was already lying in the nurse’s office. I talked to her friends. Apparently, she slept like the dead all morning and only woke up at lunch, screamed, and then collapsed. Recently...”

“...”

“They said she

’s been acting strange. Sometimes, she’d look at her friends like...”

Jung Bin’s face darkened.

“Like she was seeing someone who had already died.”

Nam Woojin, still scrutinizing Gaeul’s pale face, asked again:

“When she saw those fragments before, did she ever pass out like this?”

“No. I’ve seen her in that state, and she always looked like she was just sleeping.”

“Then I’m almost certain.”

Nam Woojin turned abruptly, his lab coat flaring out as he moved. He headed for the corner of the lab, his crocs squeaking across the floor. Jung Bin watched him, confused, and asked:

“Is it some kind of psychic attack?”

“No. It’s something entirely different.”

Nam Woojin decisively pulled away a white cloth, revealing a glowing orb, similar to a globe, but instead of a map, it was made of an iridescent light.

He reached out toward the orb. His once white, now scorched eyes gleamed brilliantly.

“I can tell because I’ve been in this state myself, watching the gaps between worlds.”

“...”

“Her soul has been pulled into another world. I don’t know the details, but...”

Jung Bin’s mouth dropped open slightly.

“Then...”

“Yun Gaeul has been seeing fragments of a destroyed world, right?”

Nam Woojin peered into the orb, his voice turning cold.

“She’s been dragged into *that* destroyed world.”