“…Stop faking it and open your eyes, patient Ryu Yeon-ho!”

The first thing he felt when he came to was lightness. His body, usually heavy from training, now felt as light as a feather. The sharp smell of disinfectant stung his nose, and the cold hospital sheets pressed against his skin. 

A steady mechanical beeping reached his ears. It sounded like his pulse, beating strong and completely normal. The sensations he had lost were slowly returning.

‘What’s going on here…?’

His heart started beating faster on its own. He struggled to lift his hand, and a strange, unfamiliar arm came into view. It was thin and pale, with prominent joints and smooth fingers with no calluses—hands that looked like they’d never held a sword. This body wasn’t his.

Just moments ago, he had been in an S-class dungeon, where terrifying lightning was ripping through the dark sky. He had even defeated the boss monster himself. But now…

He lay on a hospital bed, sunlight pouring in. Outside the window, Seoul’s skyscrapers were packed together. From the hallway came the sounds of nurses’ hurried footsteps and medical machines.

“Your pulse and breathing are normal. You’re also fully conscious, patient Ryu Yeon-ho.”

The female doctor’s voice was sharp and cold, and the tap-tap of her pen against the chart quietly got on his nerves.

“Just so you know, even if you lie, I’m a C-rank healer—I can verify everything with my Mental Awareness skill.”

There was a hint of irritation in the rising tone at the end of her sentences. The young female doctor, barely in her twenties, showed no concern for her patient. A quick look at the patient’s chart revealed it was filled with negative notes: “frequent hospitalizations,” “uncooperative,” “delusions,” “paranoia.”

Gradually, he began to get a sense of what kind of person Ryu Yeon-ho was, despite only just hearing the name. As Hong-jun shifted his gaze around the room, he would eventually discover the reason behind Ryu Yeon-ho’s behavior.

It was a single hospital room, decorated like a flashy hotel. Across from the soft bed, a rollable screen projected a bright, clear image—something he wouldn’t expect in a hospital. He studied the images on the thin display for a moment before speaking.

“…What year is it now?”

As soon as he spoke, he felt the vibrations of unfamiliar vocal cords. His voice sounded young, about half an octave higher than usual. The doctor, who had been writing quickly on the medical chart, paused. She looked at him suspiciously before answering.

“Of course, it’s 20XX…?”

He paid no attention to her answer and kept his gaze fixed on the rollable screen. Real-time news flashed across it, and even on mute, the vivid images and captions drew his eyes.

[Breaking News: The Eighth S-Class Gate Appears After Two Years and Is Successfully Cleared]

[S-Class Hunters Min Ga-on, Cha Ju-heon, and Kang San-gyeol Help Defeat the Fire-Type Boss “Immortal Asmodeus”]

The news anchor didn’t stop talking on the screen. When the gate was shown being destroyed, the bright white light from the projector filled the large screen. That’s when he realized the situation he was in. 

The boss monster he had just defeated, Baal, had been the boss of the seventh S-Class Gate. But when he closed his eyes and opened them again, the eighth S-Class Gate had appeared—and had already been cleared, the first S-Class Gate to appear in two years.

Had it really been about twenty years since those damn gates had suddenly appeared? The gates, which had started popping up all over the world, were like nuclear power plants about to explode. To clear a dungeon, someone had to go to the core and defeat the boss monster. If they failed, the gate would explode with power according to its rank.

Luckily, humans had adapted to the changing world. People with special abilities, called “hunters,” began to appear, and the world changed a lot. His life had changed too—he was considered a legendary dealer even among S-rank hunters.

Hunters were ranked from F to S when they awakened, and S-rank hunters were extremely rare worldwide. Hunters like him, who possessed several powerful S-rank skills, were even rarer. He hadn’t just relied on luck to enter an S-rank Gate alone. Still, no matter how much the world had changed, this was a bit too much.

‘Two whole years just passed like that?’

Two years was definitely not a short time. In that period, no one knew how many gates had opened and closed, how many hunters had awakened, or how many had died. Countless questions filled his mind. 

A moment later, his last memory—right after he defeated the boss monster—suddenly flashed through his mind. A cold hand gripping the back of his neck, pain so intense that death might’ve been better, and that terrifying feeling of his consciousness slipping away…

The shock and emptiness of that moment returned to him vividly.

He had died once…! Someone had attacked him from behind his back. As soon as he realized that, the hairs on his body stood on end. He quickly touched the part of his neck where it had been cut, but his smooth neck had no scar, no wound. A cold chill ran through him.

‘…I need to check my skill list first.’

Once he got a sense of the situation, the first thing he thought about was his skills. To a hunter, skills were as valuable as life. It was only natural—he had been killed while celebrating leveling up some of his skills. 

On top of that, S-rank skills were practically national treasures.

His fire-based skills were among the best in the world, which might explain why he had become someone’s target. Instantly, he could see the details of his skills in his mind. It felt like a semi-transparent hologram spreading out inside his head.

[List of Skills: 5

1. Attack Skill: “Abyssal Hellfire” (S)
2. Attack Skill: “Inferno” (S)
3. Support Skill: “Blazing Gaze” (S)
4. Support Skill: “Melting Point” (S)
5. Healing Skill: “□□□ □□” (F)]

Luckily, all his skills were still there. He felt relieved for a moment as he checked them one by one.

‘…What is this?’

He stared blankly at the fifth and final healing skill—an F-rank skill whose name didn’t even display properly.

[Healing Skill: “□□□ □□” (F)]

What had happened to him after coming back to life? A healing skill, when he had only ever used attack skills? He shook his head. Trying to focus, he opened his skill window again, but the list hadn’t changed. 

An F-rank healing skill with no name? Where had such a useless skill come from? He forced his drifting thoughts under control and slowly reviewed everything he knew in his mind.

‘A hunter can have a maximum of five skills. All five of the skills I had were S-rank. My fifth skill is a support skill: Eternal Furnace.’

Hong-jun couldn’t help but gape.

‘Where did my Furnace go…?’

Instead of his missing S-rank support skill, an F-rank healing skill had taken its place. It was like being ripped off. Before he could even get over the shock, the news panel’s words on the screen hit him through the captions.

[Since the late Hunter Hong-Jun, no S-rank fire-type hunters exist]

[S-rank skillbook “Eternal Furnace” has been ownerless for 2 years]

[Other S-rank fire-type skillbooks remain missing]

On the fast-changing screen, he saw himself—Hong-jun’s face—appear in past footage and then disappear. The shocking captions made all the sounds around him turn into a loud, rusty machine buzzing in his ears.

In other words, he had been assassinated and died two years ago. One of his S-rank support skills had been ejected when he died and became a skill book. Now, his soul was in the wrong body, and an empty skill slot had suddenly gained an F-rank healing skill…?

“Haa…”

A sigh slipped out as his heart pounded hard enough to burst. He had no idea where to even begin untangling this mess. Maybe he should consider it lucky that he’d come back from the brink of death…? But his mind was Hong-jun’s, and this body belonged to Ryu Yeon-ho. It felt almost like he had stolen it.

‘Then… where did the original Ryu Yeon‑ho go…?’

Had he taken Ryu Yeon-ho’s body, or had Ryu Yeon-ho pulled him into it? Confused thoughts clashed in his mind. It was total chaos. He frowned and exhaled roughly. The female doctor, who had been watching him, looked at him with suspicion.

“Patient Ryu Yeon‑ho, are you really okay? Do you have any headache or dizziness?”

No, there was no way he was okay. He hesitated for a moment at the doctor’s typical question. How could he explain this? If he said, “I died and ended up in someone else’s body,” they would send him straight to psychiatry.

Questions filled his mind, but he needed to focus on the present. First, he had to figure out what he could do with this new body. He also needed to get out of the hospital safely.

He yanked the IV needle out of his arm without care. Blood dripped from the spot where the needle had been. The sharp pain stung, but he ignored it. He looked at the female doctor, who stared at him in shock, and spoke quickly and clearly with a demand.

“Excuse me, could you call this patient’s guardian?”

He brushed his black hair out of his eyes as it kept falling down and added another word.

“I’ve lost my memory.”

The moment he finished speaking, the doctor’s pen, which had been scribbling across the chart, came to a complete stop.