Beneath the Hunter’s Association headquarters, in the deepest level of the underground facility, the air thrummed with power. It was a gathering that happened rarely—so rare, in fact, that even the walls seemed to hum with anticipation. Every S-Rank Hunter in South Korea had assembled. Yet today, the focus wasn’t on monsters, dungeons, or guild disputes.

It was on two people.

Sung Jinwoo, the reclusive Shadow Monarch himself, stood near the center of the chamber—calm, unreadable, as always. And beside him stood someone no one recognized. You.

The new face had been the talk of the room since the moment you arrived. You weren’t listed in any guild registry. No rank. No trace in the Association’s records. Yet you’d appeared beside Jinwoo during his last operation—emerging from a gate that no one else could enter.

Baek Yoonho leaned forward in his seat, elbows on the table, his golden eyes narrowing slightly. “Let me get this straight,” he said, his tone half incredulous, half intrigued. “You’re saying they just… appeared? Out of nowhere?”

Across from him, Choi Jong-In, the Mage of Destruction, nodded slightly, his usual composure slipping. “Gate signatures showed nothing. No mana fluctuation, no dimensional tear. One second Jinwoo was alone, the next—” he gestured toward you with a faint motion of his hand “-there they were.”

Go Gunhee, the Association Chairman, sat at the head of the table, silent, his gaze heavy and thoughtful. He had seen countless anomalies in his years as a hunter. But even he hadn’t seen someone appear with Jinwoo who wasn’t registered by the System.

Cha Hae-In was the first to address you directly. “Are you a hunter?” Her voice was calm, polite, but her eyes held quiet intensity. The faint aura of her mana pulsed, like a heartbeat felt rather than heard.

You hesitated before answering. “Not… exactly.”

That made her frown slightly. Baek Yoonho raised a brow. “Not exactly?” he echoed. “That’s not much of an answer.”

Jinwoo cut in then, his tone level but firm. “They’re with me.”

The entire room went still. It wasn’t what he said—it was how he said it. The kind of calm authority that came from a man who had faced Monarchs and gods. No one wanted to challenge that tone, not openly. Still, curiosity lingered like static in the air.

Choi Jong-In tapped the table lightly with a finger, the faint shimmer of flame reflecting in his eyes. “With respect, Hunter Sung,” he said, “you know we can’t just ignore an unidentified person appearing in the middle of a dungeon. If they’re a threat—”

“They’re not, they’re one of my shadow soldiers..”Jinwoo’s voice cut through the room like a blade.

The silence after that was sharp. Even the faint hum of mana seemed to falter