Hajin and... Hajin.
They both stood in front of each other and stared for a while.
Until, Jinwoo spoke.
"So, like do we fight now. Can a clone even understand anything other than orders."
Hajin frowned and put his hands on his waist.
"Hah!? Clone? You are the clone, you fckass."
"Look at this guy, I guess even clones know how to reply." Jinwoo mocked once again.
But after a little chatter. They both came to a realization.
They weren't clones.
Neither Hajin…
Nor Jinwoo.
They were both real.
"…Wait," Jinwoo muttered, expression darkening. "You're not just a mirror version, are you?"
"Oh c'mon! Stop making me confused. I am real!" Hajin yelled, growing furious of his identity being neglected.
"Hey, then tell me. How did you get here?" Jinwoo asked.
"Well, I was just… living my messed-up life, thank you very much," Hajin snapped, rubbing his temple. "Then boom—system message, weird dream, next thing I know I'm standing in white nothingness arguing with some half-baked version of me who can't even accept himself."
Jinwoo blinked. "…Okay. That was oddly specific."
"Because I'm not a clone!" Hajin shouted again. "I have memories! Feelings! I even remember crying when our goldfish died in third grade!"
"We never had a goldfish," Jinwoo deadpanned.
Hajin paused. "…Right. Maybe that one's a hallucination."
[Mind Fracture: 12%]
[Warning: Emotional Conflict Rising]
"Okay okay, let's just think for a second," Jinwoo said, waving both hands. "We both have the same name, same face, same sarcasm levels—"
"—cut the bullshit." Hajin cut in sharply.
Jinwoo paused.
Stared.
—then sighed.
"Let's get to business. The quest is to kill each other. So how about you just die and let me win." He said.
"That's a very one-sided idea," Hajin muttered, cracking his neck. "But I guess that's just like you—thinking you're the main character in everyone's story."
Jinwoo rolled his eyes. "I am the main character. Have you seen how the system talks to me?"
[You're one of many variables. Statistically significant, but narratively optional.]
"...Shut up, system."
"Ahh, fuck it. I will just kill you and leave their damned place."
Hajin summoned a sword, it seems like they both were different in their Fights.
"Oh.. So you are not a side-to-side copy of me?" Jinwoo once again mocked him, as a bright red fireball covered in blue-yellow lighting appeared in his palm.
Hajin twirled his sword with a scoff. "Side-to-side? Oh Please. If I were a copy, I'd have your crappy humor."
Jinwoo smirked. "You do have that. You're just angrier about it."
"Shut it."
---
Pangyo abandoned city.
The man that had came of the sky like a meteor was non other than Him.
Jinwoo, the Hero hunter..
Everyone's attention immediately turned to him, worried and terrified by the presence.
Harin's eyes widened. It wasn't shock it did. Afterall, her brother was standing in front of her. The once stupid jerk was now a scary monster feared by nations.
She and Seokjin immediately rushed to attack him.
Harin reached faster, pulling down her sword at jinwoo.
CRACK!
The sword shattered, the fragments reflecting the light of the bright sun.
Just then, she could see it. His face, but something was off.
He was looking downwards, his hair almost covering his eyes.
She composed herself and twisted her body, kicking his leg with the momentum.
It didn't work, all he did was just a little flinch, and that too made her eyes widen.
Because now his eyes were visible, or not..
His eyes—
They weren't just dark.
They were empty.
Not the coldness of a killer, not the rage of a villain.
But something worse.
A stillness.
Like the world inside him had already ended.
"Jinwoo…?" Harin's voice trembled for the first time in years. "Is that really you…?"
He didn't respond.
No witty remark.
No sarcastic jab.
Not even a glance.
Seokjin moved next, appearing behind Jinwoo in a flash with his barrier gloves charged. "Harin, step back!"
He slammed a glowing palm toward Jinwoo's back—
But the air around him twisted.
CRACK.
The barrier gauntlet shattered. Just from touching Jinwoo's mana field.
Seokjin stumbled, shock flashing across his face. "What the hell—!?"
The ground beneath Jinwoo's feet cracked, mana rippling outward in invisible waves. Not bursting. Not exploding.
Just… erasing.
"His mana," Seokjin muttered, his throat dry. "It's not leaking. It's absorbing. It's like the air's bending into him."
Jinwoo finally moved.
He lifted his head slowly. Not like a person preparing to fight—
More like someone waking up from a dream they had no reason to return from.
"…This place," he said.
His voice was calm.
Flat.
But deeper.
Like two tones overlapped. One sarcastic. One inhuman.
And then he vanished.
Not blinked.
Not dashed.
Vanished.
Harin's eyes widened, but before she could shout, a boom echoed through the air behind her.
Seokjin was flying.
He crashed into a half-destroyed building, the wall caving in as if paper-thin. Dust flew. Silence followed.
"Seokjin—!" she screamed.
But then—thud.
She turned. Too late.
Jinwoo stood in front of her. No wind. No warning.
Just him.
A hand on her shoulder.
A pulse of mana surged through her body—not an explosion, but a shutdown. Her legs gave out, sword dropped from numb fingers, and she collapsed on her knees, breathing hard, unable to move. Not injured.
Just disconnected.
Then he turned around—
And a dozen hunters from the Korean Association lunged at once.
Bad move.
One hunter shot blades of air. Another summoned a spectral wolf. A sniper bullet cut through wind—
All gone.
The moment their attacks touched his aura, they unformed.
Mana turned to mist. Steel to dust. The wolf whimpered and evaporated before it touched the ground.
Jinwoo just walked forward.
A punch came toward his head from the side—
He caught it without looking.
Broke the hunter's wrist.
Threw him into two others like they were bowling pins.
Another hunter screamed and channeled a flame dragon—
Jinwoo inhaled.
And the fire vanished like smoke pulled into a void.
Then—
A dimensional pulse echoed.
Five flashes of color streaked down from the sky—landing with heavy bursts of mana.
One woman, long silver hair tied in a military braid, stepped forward. A German badge on her shoulder gleamed.
"Park Jinwoo," she called. "This is your final warning. By authority of the International Guild Alliance, you are under global arrest."
Behind her, four other elite hunters stood. One floating. One cloaked in ice. One massive as a tank. One… smiling eerily.
Jinwoo looked at them.
And...