Kang Jin-woo withdrew from the perimeter of the forensic laboratory, leaving behind a heavy silence and a message that shook the very foundation of the security forces. As he breathed in the cold night air, the system screens began to flicker—this time in an eerie blue hue.
[Oath System Notification]
Alert: You have provoked the "Hunter."Warning: The detective has begun digging through the "old ashes."Status: Viewers are uneasy… Will your past obstruct your current performance?
Jin-woo ignored the warning. To him, the "old Jin-woo" had died in that warehouse.But to Detective Lee Do-hyun, that past was the only logical beginning.
In the Central Archive Basement
Amid towering stacks of dust-covered paper files, Do-hyun sat beneath a single flickering light. He had refused to go home. The sentence written on the wall—"Your lenses are blind"—spiraled through his mind like a storm.
— "Why me? Why did he address the message to me?"Do-hyun whispered to himself as he flipped through the files of serial killers he had hunted over the past ten years.
His finger suddenly stopped on a folder marked with a red stamp:
[Kang Jin-woo – Status: Closed / Suspect Deceased]
Do-hyun pulled the file out.
He began reading the details of Jin-woo's old crimes, committed before the incident. There had been no supernatural power back then—but one thing was consistent: surgical precision and a chilling emotional coldness.
— "The pattern is the same… but the capability is different,"Do-hyun muttered as he compared photos from the cinema crime scene with Jin-woo's earlier cases."Back then, he hid in the shadows because he feared the law. Now… he hides in the shadows because he owns them."
The Forgotten Flaw
As he read further, Do-hyun discovered a small detail that had been overlooked in the previous investigation. In every crime Jin-woo had committed in the past, he left behind a small personal item belonging to the victim—placed somewhere far from the body, as if offering it to an unknown place.
— "He doesn't kill with complete randomness, no matter what the system claims,"Do-hyun concluded sharply."He has rituals. And if I understand those rituals, I'll know where he'll strike next."
Do-hyun lifted his phone and called a colleague.— "I want a full list of every place Kang Jin-woo visited in his childhood. Schools, shelters—even abandoned hospitals. This man isn't running forward… he's reenacting his past, only more brutally."
Jin-woo Moves
Meanwhile, Jin-woo felt a sharp sting in the Oath tattoo on his chest. The system began projecting distorted images from memories that were supposed to be "erased."
[Urgent Viewer Mission]
Title: Burn the ArchiveDescription: The detective is approaching a truth he must not uncover.Reward: Full suppression of criminal identity for 24 hours.
Jin-woo stood atop a building overlooking the Security Directorate. His eyes gleamed with a violet light.
— "So you've started digging through graves, Do-hyun?"Jin-woo said, his voice carrying a demonic tone it had never held before."I'll give you what you're looking for… I'll give you my own corpse."