Dossier[]
Overview[]
Affiliated Country: Korea
Rank: E-Rank
Gender: Male
Age: 24
Main Ability: Somewhat physically fit
Special Note: He was once an E-Rank hunter, called "The Weakest Hunter of All Mankind." However, after a certain incident, he became a hunter capable of infinite growth.
Main Equipment Details: Inaccessible
Dossier #01: Ordinary Days[]
Sung Jinwoo's life wasn't all that out of the ordinary. He had a loving family, dependable friends, and a relatively event-free early life.
And then the gates appeared, and everyone's lives went through some sort of radical change. Sung Jinwoo was no exception.
His father, a firefighter, became one of the chosen ones and set off to fight the magic beasts.
The very same magic beasts that had come to the forefront of the news to drown out everything else.
Sung Jinwoo realised that his life would never be the same again. His father was one of the lucky few chosen ones that could stand against those all-important magic beasts.
That meant that his father was no longer his father. His father was now everyone's hero. Against his will, his father would be plucked from his life and sent off to the battlefield. And everyone took it for granted.
He realised the goodbyes he exchanged with his father every morning may as well be farewells. It filled Jinwoo with a sense of dread.
His mother treated his father no differently than when he was still a firefighter, but there was no denying that the atmosphere in their home had changed.[1]
Dossier #02: A Long Wait[]
His father read him like an open book. He saw the pain and anxiety on his son's face.
And his father didn't pretend not to see it. One day, his father invited him on an outing. Just between the two of them, without his mother or his siter Jinah. He said it was because he felt sorry he had never taken his son to the amusement park since he was busy all the time.
And so, the father-son duo went on a trip by themselves for the first time in either of their lives. Despite the awkwardness, there was still a sense of excitement, and oddly, calm. In those moments, the two of them had regained a slice of their normal lives, and it helped ease the uncertainty that had been lurking about in their heads.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, these would be among the last memories Jinwoo had of his father.
A gate appeared in the middle of the park and Jinwoo's father disappeared into it. He reemerged some time later, carrying an injured person, but he turned around to head right back into the gate.
"I'll be back. Wait for me here." Jinwoo put on a brave face and did as his father said. His father came out from the gate carrying survivors on his back, time and time again, then went back in to search for more survivors. But when the day turned into night, and the gate finally closed, his father was nowhere to be seen.
Jinwoo returned home alone. His soul drained from his body, he broke the heavy news to his mother.
His mother buried her face in her hands and took deep breaths. After a moment, she addressed her two children in the strongest voice she could muster.
"Your father is the strongest man I know. He's going to survive. He's going to come back, I promise." Both Jinwoo and Jinah nodded in agreement.
For the next five years, Jinwoo held hope that his father would return. Until his mother collapsed.[1]
Dossier #03: A series of Misfortunes[]
In the five years that his father had been gone, a lot had changed. Even though their family was locked in time, the world had sped away around them.
Awakened beings were now called hunters, and they were all assigned ranks based on their capabilities.
Essence stones emerged as a potent new energy source to shower said hunters in riches and led to the formation of major guilds.
An S-Rank gate appeared on Jeju Island and many Hunters lost their lives trying to close it. Eventually, the entire island was declared lost.
As the words "hunter", "gate", "dungeon", "magic beast", "Essence Stone", and "mana" entered the common lexicon, so did the various effects of their presence. For example, certain people's bodies couldn't tolerate the effects of mana and fell into a deep sleep.
His mother was one of those people. She succumbed to "Eternal Slumber," as it had come to be known.
There was no cure for Eternal Slumber. The only thing that could be done was to put the affected on life support in the hopes that they'd wake up one day. But the equipment needed to sustain one person required Essence Stones to operate, and the price of Essence Stones showed no signs of coming down.
Those who couldn't afford the hospital bills could do nothing but watch as their loved ones slowly withered away. Eternal Slumber left people broken and financially destitute.
Jinwoo had no way of paying those bills at the tender age of twenty. The college fund that his parents had left him only covered three month's worth of hospital bills.
So he put himself to work. He cut down on expenses wherever he could. He slept less. Ate less. Took every job he could. But there was no way for a regular person to keep up with the rising cost of Essence Stones. You had to be at least a hunter to even keep up.
Maybe things would have been different if his father were still there.
When Jinwoo returned home after a long day and collapsed on his bed, the first thing that he thought of was his father. But he couldn't really afford to keep on hoping for his father's return.
His mother's life was on the line. He was the man of the house now.
As his family's savings had dwindled away, he found himself losing hope for his father's return.[2]
Dossier #04: Signs of change[]
The shared experience of people who have awakened is that "they just got stronger all of a sudden." For most people, there was no dramatic, life-changing event. For some, the change was minuscule, but they all said that they could feel like something large had changed within them.
Jinwoo had always thought that those were white lies to protect the myth that the awakened were "the chosen ones."
But when he woke up on that hospital bed after what he believed to be certain death, he realised that it was no lie.
He was tired on the job, and carrying a heavy load on his back up a set of steep stairs.
Maybe it was because he didn't eat a lot that day, or maybe it was because of the heat... But what was certain was that he remembered having a dizzy spell and losing his balance.
He fell backwards down the stairs, heavy load and all. As the world around faded to black around him, he heard unintelligible cries of panic as his co-workers tried to save him.[3]
Dossier #05: The Face I Wanted to See[]
After his fall, Jinwoo dreamed of his father.
He dreamt that his father was staring at him from within the gate that he'd disappeared into five years ago. He didn't know whether to be glad that his father was back, or angry that he had left them for so long.
Jinwoo struggled to find the words in such a strange and incomprehensible situation, but he managed to speak.
"It's been a while." There were so many things he wanted to say when his father returned, but seeing him face to face like this, all he could do was greet him.
His father continued to stare at Sung Jinwoo and then squeezed his hand tightly as he shouted something. Strangely, he couldn't hear his father's voice, but he could feel his father's strength when he held his hand.
Jinwoo read his father's lips as he shouted with all his might, and soon as he understood the word "heart," light poured from behind his father's back and Jinwoo opened his eyes.
He realised then that seeing his father had been a dream. Jinwoo had been taken to the hospital after falling down the stairs.
He also realised that he felt physically stronger and more capable- like some small amount of power had entered his body, just like how other awakened people had described it.
Immediately after he was discharged from the hospital, Sung Jinwoo went straight to the Hunters Association. As expected, he was an awakened being.
His mana level was only 10, far less than the expected minimum of 70. Thus, "The Weakest Hunter of All Mankind" was born.[3]