Chapter 3. Goal
Orphanage, Haneul’s Home.(the name of the orphanage, first introduced here; “하늘의 집” means “Heaven’s Home” in Korean).
After helping the teachers prepare the meal, Kim Suho headed to the playground in front of the orphanage to take a break.
He brushed off the fallen leaves from a bench, sat down heavily, and looked out over the playground.
Staring vacantly at the empty playground, Kim Suho pulled his wallet out of his pants pocket. Instead of an ID card, a Hunter license labeled with the rank “F” was tucked inside.
A month-long training course.
At the end of the course, he received a completion certificate along with his Hunter license.
Though he had watched from the outside, it was his first time actually entering a gate.
One part of the Association’s Hunter course included weekly field training inside a gate under the supervision of a training instructor.
“Preparation’s done.”
This training cycle had too many awakened students, so they couldn’t hunt many monsters, making it impossible to level up. Still, under the instructor’s protection, they learned various ways to fight monsters.
In solo play, he used close combat with a sword.
In party play, he used Sarang’s flame control for ranged combat.
Since his main weapon was a sword, during party play, he would protect the Hunters stationed in the rear.
“Party play still feels awkward, though.”
Anyway, for low-level gates, solo play is more efficient than party play.
“Let’s see…”
He put away his wallet and pulled out his smartphone to check his schedule.
From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., gate activity.
From 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., part-time job at a barbecue restaurant.
He had already quit his convenience store job.
Training inevitably built up both physical and mental fatigue. Doing “double shifts” was impossible, so about a week into the training, Kim Suho had quit the second job.
After checking his schedule, Kim Suho opened a new memo pad.
The instructor had said:
Set daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals, yearly goals, and a final goal.
“Daily goal: one hundred ghosts.”
Ghosts are incorporeal spirit monsters. Since they don’t leave behind corpses, there's no profit from selling remains—but unlike regular monsters, spirit types drop mana stones with a 30% chance.
So, the daily goal was to eliminate one hundred ghosts.
“Weekly goal: six hundred.”
Taking just one day off per week was no big deal for Kim Suho. Since middle school, he had gone straight to part-time work after class.
“Can’t have the same monthly goal.”
He planned to write his goals down in the memo to check every day. If the goals were just hunt, hunt, and more hunting, there was no point in writing them down.
“Monthly goal: skill grade advancement.”
He would raise the grade of the Undead skill. Since a summon’s skill rank rises alongside the summoner’s skill grade, the monthly goal would be to raise that.
“Guess I’ll have to spend my days off researching.”
Even his few days off had now been reduced.
“Yearly goal…”
Should it be Hunter rank advancement?
No.
Hunter ranks naturally rise as one levels up. As long as he kept hitting his daily goals, his rank would improve on its own.
Creeeak.
At the sound of the door opening, Kim Suho looked up. A boy emerged from the building, yawning.
“Huh? Heading to school already?”
“There’s a volunteer event—cleaning the streets.”
“Wow. What a completely pointless activity.”
“Agreed.”
Kim Suho shook his head. The boy, Kang Hanseul, walked over and sat beside him.
“What were you doing?”
“Setting goals.”
“Huh?”
“My Hunter activities start today.”
“...Ah, right.”
Kim Suho had awakened. And with that awakening, he had decided to become a Hunter.
Kang Hanseul glanced at the smartphone screen.
“A hundred?”
“Yeah. They’re spirit monsters, so I think it’s doable.”
“Still, even if they’re spirit monsters, a hundred is… Have you tried it?”
“Yep. On the day I graduated, I entered a gate with the instructor to test it. It’s doable.”
“Got it.”
Nodding, Hanseul let out a big yawn. Staring lazily toward the orphanage entrance, he then peeked at Kim Suho’s phone again.
“You don’t have a yearly goal yet.”
“Yeah. I was just about to write it down, but I’m drawing a blank.”
“Hmm.”
Daily goal: gate activity.
Weekly goal: gate activity.
Monthly goal: growth as a Hunter.
Seeing that, Kang Hanseul suddenly became curious.
“Hyung.”
“What.”
“You decided to become a Hunter the moment you awakened, right?”
“That’s right. I made up my mind as soon as I awakened.”
“Why?”
“Hmm?”
Kim Suho turned his head.
“I mean, you and I are the same.”
“Same… Ah. The same case.”
There were two kinds of kids at the orphanage.
Those who had lost their parents to gates or monsters.
Or those who were abandoned at the orphanage as infants.
“Yeah, so I was just curious why you want to be a Hunter.”
If it were the former, becoming a Hunter out of desire or revenge would make sense. But both Kang Hanseul and Kim Suho were in the latter group.
“Hmm…”
Kim Suho looked over the goals written in his phone again.
“…Ah.”
He remembered.
“Money.”
“What?”
“Because of money. That’s why I decided to become a Hunter the moment I awakened.”
“…”
Hanseul blinked, staring at Kim Suho.
“That’s right. I’m doing this Hunter thing because of money.”
“…Seriously?”
“Hunters make good money, don’t they?”
Money.
Kim Suho was obsessed with it. Yet he never spent it on himself. He used it for the orphanage—and for the younger kids.
“You know, we…”
“...Yeah.”
“Because we don’t have money, our dreams are limited.”
“Our dreams are limited?”
Kim Suho nodded.
“Yesul.”
“Lee Yesul?”
“Yeah. She says she wants to be a doctor.”
“…”
Seven-year-old Lee Yesul had started dreaming of becoming a doctor after meeting volunteer physicians from a university hospital.
“Jaehyun wants to be a lawyer, just like his late father.”
“…”
“It’s not just Yesul or Jaehyun. Even ordinary dreams—common careers—we can’t hope for those. Even getting into college isn’t easy for us.”
There’s a world of difference between “college graduate” and “high school graduate” on a resume. And if the job has an education requirement, we can’t even apply.
“With our circumstances, we’d have to study until we nosebleed every day to earn a scholarship and make it to college. But that’s… not easy.”
“...Yeah, it’s hard.”
“Right.”
“But hyung.”
“Yeah?”
“They’re just kids—they don’t understand reality yet. I was like that too.”
When he was younger, Hanseul also had dreams. But now, he focused on surviving the present as best he could.
Kim Suho gave a bitter smile.
“Yuna.”
“…Yuna noona?”
“Yeah. She’s thinking of giving up on college.”
“What? Why!”
Even in her third year of high school, Yuna had stayed in the top 10 of her class—and now she was giving up on university?
“No idea. She says she wants to be a civil servant.”
“A civil servant? Her dream was to be a doctor too—oh, money.”
Kim Suho nodded. Hanseul clicked his tongue at the bitter reality.
“Hanseul.”
“…Yeah?”
“Let’s just wait one month.”
“For what?”
“Let’s see how much I can earn as a Hunter in one month.”
Hanseul turned his head. In his view was Kim Suho, seriously entering goals into his phone.
“…Why?”
“If the income is bigger than I expected, quit your part-time job and go back to studying.”
“Ah, hyung…”
“I just figured you’d have complaints. That’s why I’m saying this. Just give it a month.”
“…”
Even though he’d become a Hunter, it was clear Kim Suho would quit if the money wasn’t worth it.
Hanseul shook his head and stood up, looking at Kim Suho.
Kim Suho.
The oldest at Haneul’s Home, aside from the teachers.
Nickname…
Haneul’s Hyung.
“Hyung.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m off to school.”
“Okay. Watch out for cars—”
Tilting his head, Kim Suho corrected himself.
“Actually, watch out for gates. And monsters.”
“…Phew.”
The gate came into view.
A low-level gate where spirit monsters appeared—the Ghost Town.
“Sarang, summon.”
The Undead named Sarang spun once in midair and landed on Kim Suho’s head.
—Nyaang.
With her tail, Sarang thumped the back of his head. Kim Suho reached up and gave the cat perched on his crown a quick pat—then entered the gate.
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