I Possess Too Many Characteristics

Chapter 1

A man of 23 years of age, Han Jeonghyeon.

My life was ruined like a dog’s.

My parents dying when I was 10?

Yeah, it was a little sad, but understandable.

Gates opening randomly and monsters pouring out.

How many people have died because of those bastards? I don’t have the heart to whine about this.

After that, saving up every penny and even going into debt of 300 million won to receive mana infusion treatment?

It’s fine.

Even if I went back in time, I would rather receive a more expensive treatment than give up.

But it’s already been two years since I received the treatment.

If I’ve risked my life and even gone into debt to receive the treatment, at least,

‘Shouldn’t you at least let me awaken!’

I shouted, stabbing my butcher knife deep into the mountain of goblin corpses piled up on the workbench.

I still haven’t awakened.

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“Hello, Mr. Park-nim! Mr. Jungcheol-nim!”

“Oh, yeah. Welcome.”

Jeonghyeon opened the door to the workshop, which wouldn’t open without making a strange, aged sound.

And he greeted them cheerfully.

The workers who had already arrived at work and were sharing a cup of coffee each greeted him warmly.

Jeonghyeon’s reputation within the workshop is quite good.

It’s not easy to work as a monster carcass processor at a young age.

Is it comparable to the past part-time jobs of cleaning corpses or special cleaning?

The unique stench of monsters, once it permeates, doesn’t disappear no matter how many times you change clothes or wash.

Even other workers, who could be considered veterans among veterans, would inevitably frown when entering the workshop.

But Jeonghyeon never did that.

Instead, he greeted others brightly every time he came to work.

It’s already been two years.

The workers, who had seen countless young people jump in enthusiastically only to collapse and leave before even a week had passed, had no reason not to view Jeonghyeon favorably.

But as Jeonghyeon passed by, making eye contact with people scattered here and there, the expressions of those watching his back turned bitter.

“Tsk tsk, his life is truly pitiful.”

“You’re telling me. How much debt does he have?”

“It was 300 million, but now it’s 200 million.”

It was an excessively heavy amount for a young man whose life hadn’t even fully blossomed yet.

Just as there was a generation in the past that bet their lives on virtual currency, the current generation is mainly comprised of those who gather their souls to undergo mana infusion treatment to become Hunters.

The workers, who knew to some extent about Jeonghyeon’s circumstances of becoming an orphan at a young age, still spoke words filled with half worry and half pity, as it was their daily routine.

“Well, no matter what, it’s no different from gambling by going into that much debt.”

“A 30% chance? Ugh, I can’t even imagine.”

“Oh, Jeonghyeon might hear you.”

With that one remark, conscious of Jeonghyeon still being nearby, they cleared their throats and focused on their work.

But there’s no way he didn’t hear it.

The expression on Jeonghyeon’s face, which had been smiling flawlessly, stiffened.

And then, it loosened.

Even though it was a story he had heard countless times over the past two years, it still wasn’t easy to brush it off casually.

‘They can say anything as long as it’s not their business.’

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand.

Everyone’s own life is the hardest, and as much as that is true, other people’s lives are filled with incomprehension.

In other words, Jeonghyeon had his own circumstances.

The circumstances that forced him to take on a debt that was beyond his means to undergo the treatment.

After the day referred to as the Great Cataclysm, the world changed like a game.

There are Gates, monsters, and Hunters.

However, because this world is reality, it’s not a game now, but hell.

Of course, it might feel like a game to a very small minority of people.

To those who have made a fortune through the monster byproduct business, or to Hunters who have the power to live through hell as if it were a game.

They accumulate wealth beyond comparison to before and live in luxury.

Most of the people who pour everything they have, and even more, into mana infusion treatment are probably the type who dream of such a life.

But Jeonghyeon was a little different.

‘I needed to become strong.’

Strength gripped Jeonghyeon’s hand as he reached his spot and held his work knife.

Jeonghyeon’s parents died at the hands of an Orc when Gates first started appearing.

In young Jeonghyeon’s eyes, the Orc that casually struck people down with its rusty axe was the worst monster on Earth.

That monster even shattered the heads of Jeonghyeon’s parents, who were his everything, in the same way.

Without a moment’s hesitation.

“Kuiik!”

The Orc, unable to escape, raised its axe high to kill even Jeonghyeon, who was crying in place.

But in the next moment, it wasn’t Jeonghyeon who died, but the Orc.

“Little boy, are you alright?”

A Hunter stood firmly before Jeonghyeon’s eyes, looking down at him.

He had the power to kill the Orc as easily as the Orc had killed his parents.

He was strong.

That was when admiration for strength and Hunters sprouted in Jeonghyeon’s heart.

The year he turned 21, the age when mana infusion treatment was permitted.

Jeonghyeon took out the maximum loan of 300 million won that he could get with his credit score as a new member of society, added the 50 million won he had desperately saved while working in monster butchering, and underwent mana infusion treatment.

It wasn’t a very high-grade mana, but it was a bet on the maximum possibility that Jeonghyeon could aim for.

It was a time when he believed that results were somewhat proportional to desperation and effort.

‘That was all nonsense, though.’

And it’s already been two years since he received the infusion treatment.

The probability of the treatment leading to awakening is estimated to be roughly 30%.

However, this 30% is only within a year after the treatment.

The distribution of Awakened from a week to a little over a year after the treatment decreases exponentially.

And there have been no reported cases of awakening after that.

No one has ever awakened after a year since the treatment.

What happens to someone who doesn’t awaken even after receiving the treatment?

‘They’re stuck stabbing goblin bellies, what else.’

Jeonghyeon stabs between the belly and chest of the goblin on the workbench with familiar hand movements.

Since the blood had already been drained, purple blood didn’t spurt out, but the smell of the exposed internal organs was no joke either.

The stench, which he couldn’t get used to no matter how many times he smelled it, intensified.

Jeonghyeon gritted his teeth.

No matter how much mana you’ve been infused with, if you don’t awaken, you’re just an ordinary person.

You had no particular vision before the treatment, and you’re saddled with a huge debt?

You have no choice but to become a monster byproduct processing worker, a job that doesn’t require skills thanks to the worst working environment, but pays well.

That’s Jeonghyeon’s current situation.

It’s fortunate that he can do this, even if it’s a byproduct processing worker who isn’t treated well.

If he couldn’t even do this kind of work because his stomach was weak, despite being deeply in debt, he might have had to spend his entire life until middle age just paying off his debt.

Fortunately, Jeonghyeon was rather insensitive.

While working at the workshop, waiting for awakening after receiving the mana infusion treatment, most people who passed by him said this:

“Mr. Jeonghyeon, seeing how good you are at this, maybe being a Hunter is your calling?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know us when you awaken later!”

Back then, they genuinely cheered him on, and Jeonghyeon was filled with anticipation, but now, two years later, no one said such things anymore.

As if even talking about Hunters was an insult, they intentionally avoided the topic in front of Jeonghyeon.

If he had known it would be like this, he would have rather waited normally.

Jeonghyeon regretted it.

He hadn’t seen anyone else who had so readily come to the workshop to become a Hunter.

Especially not someone who had received the treatment.

‘Why bother when I’ll awaken soon anyway.’

Half of those who awaken after the treatment receive their trait within a week.

Even if they didn’t, they would awaken soon, so why jump into such a difficult job, was their thinking.

But Jeonghyeon had his own calculations for choosing to work at the byproduct processing workshop, apart from making a living.

Wouldn’t he gain knowledge while butchering the corpses, even if they were dead monsters?

The only corpses he could encounter in a typical workshop were goblins, skeletons, or at best, Orcs, but that was still something.

The first monster Jeonghyeon would encounter after awakening would most likely be one of those.

There were also some achievements he had made while working at the workshop for a little over three years after leaving the orphanage.

‘A goblin’s solar plexus is in a slightly different location compared to a human’s.’

In the case of goblins, the ribs are abnormally long compared to humans.

Therefore, if you try to stab their solar plexus based on human standards, the knife gets blocked by the breastbone.

It had to be stabbed about a handspan lower than expected, and the blade had to be angled upwards from below to achieve a sufficient effect.

‘For skeletons, you need to find the right spot to break with the hammer.’

Most skeletons are shattered well enough by Hunters that they don’t need separate processing, but occasionally, some arrive with their skulls intact.

He heard that it happens when they’re instantly killed by a mage’s attack.

Jeonghyeon, who had been hesitant for a while after hearing the workers’ scary stories about some of those skeletons playing dead and biting off workers’ hands,

‘Here!’

Crack.

Now, Jeonghyeon was able to find the right spot and shatter the bones in one go, to the point where other workers were impressed.

“Wow, Mr. Jeonghyeon, how do you break that in one go? No matter how hard I hit it, I can’t even make a scratch.”

Jungcheol, a worker who was watching from the side, asked.

He was a newbie who hadn’t even been working at the workshop for three months yet.

It would be difficult to skillfully break the skull of an intact skeleton, wouldn’t it?

Even if a skeleton was weak, it was still a monster.

Its bones were harder than those of an ordinary person.

Jeonghyeon answered with an awkward smile.

“You get the hang of it after doing it for a while. It’s easy if you find the right spot.”

“Even if you say that, I still don’t get it.”

Jungcheol still had a puzzled expression.

But there was nothing more he could say.

Even Jeonghyeon had learned the trick after experiencing wrist pain several times.

Again, he sliced open the goblin’s belly a few times, took out the internal organs.

Smashed the skeleton’s skull, ground the hand bones into powder.

How much time had passed as he endlessly focused on his work?

The voice of the work team leader reached Jeonghyeon’s ears.

“Alright everyone, let’s have lunch! Jajangmyeon and Tangsuyuk!”

“Wow, is it a special day today? Tangsuyuk?”

At the news that there was Tangsuyuk, which was rare to eat, Jeonghyeon smiled unconsciously.

And after realizing his own smile, it turned into a self-deprecating one.

‘Yeah, it’s time to give up on being a Hunter.’

Hunters who awaken, defeat monsters, and protect the world.

They were already a story from a different world than Jeonghyeon’s.

He would only live by processing the corpses they left behind after their hunts.

“Jeonghyeon, eat a lot too.”

“Ah, I can’t resist Tangsuyuk.”

The work team leader, whom he encountered while entering the office, patted Jeonghyeon’s shoulder and said.

Jeonghyeon responded naturally, joking along.

Yes, now he had to live a life where he found joy in Tangsuyuk like an ordinary person.

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“Ugh, the smell is really the problem.”

Jeonghyeon, who had just finished showering after work, sniffed his nose.

Even though the sense of smell is the first to dull among human senses, this damn smell seemed to be constantly renewing itself around his philtrum.

Jeonghyeon, who plopped down on the bed that took up half of his small studio apartment, glanced at the clock on his desk.

It was already 11 p.m. because he had volunteered for extra work again today.

He had to wake up at 6 a.m. to get to work on time tomorrow.

Naturally, his gaze shifted to the mirror next to the clock.

Jeonghyeon faced himself in the mirror.

Even though he had decided to give up his desire for awakening just a while ago, a corner of his heart felt heavy.

He couldn’t count how many times he had tried to give up since a year had passed.

A repeating pattern of his anticipation growing again whenever he thought he had given up.

It wasn’t so much regret about not becoming a Hunter, but regret about giving up the desire to become one.

Jeonghyeon, who had been glaring at himself in the mirror, relaxed his eyes and spoke as if complaining.

“Ha…… Can’t it just appear clearly like it’s supposed to?”

The translucent window that appeared, pointing at the mirror that contained another Jeonghyeon.

Jeonghyeon blinked a few times and then spoke briefly, putting all his emotions into it.

“What?”