The chalkboard today had a new message, written in bold capital letters:

TAKUYA IS A PIECE OF DOG SHIT

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the sheer creativity of it. For the entire class, my gaze kept drifting back to the chalkboard, where that one sentence sat, glaring back at me, its sole purpose to humiliate me. When I walked into the classroom after hiding out during break, I saw it and immediately moved to wipe it away... but Do-Hyun, that bastard, grabbed me. Meanwhile, Min-Kyu and some other goon started laying into me.

Min-Kyu was the real piece of shit. A follower through and through. He only ever felt strong in Do-Hyun’s presence. And why wouldn’t he? Do-Hyun was untouchable. His parents were loaded. Successful business moguls who had conveniently donated a new gymnasium to the school just this year. Of course, he was the teacher’s pet. Coincidence? Yeah, right.

The anger in me boiled over.

And what had Miss Park (our class teacher and the school principal) done when she walked into class? First, she carefully erased the rest of the board. But when she got to the part where it said I was a piece of dog shit, she paused, read it, and left it up.

Now she stood there in her usual elegant posture, wearing a pristine silk blouse, an expensive pencil skirt, and thin-framed glasses.

"As you’ve probably seen on the news," she began in her calm, deliberate voice, "exactly one week ago, a new Abyss appeared nearby. In Everland amusement park, to be specific. It took less than twelve hours for those grotesque Hellspawn to take over the park and claim it as their domain. Hundreds of visitors and countless employees either lost their lives or were corrupted by the dark presence."

Soo-Min raised her hand and was called on immediately, as always. Soo-Min was easily the prettiest girl in school. Maybe the prettiest girl in the entire world. There was only one problem with pretty girls: when you’re a loser like me, they don’t even look your way.

So yeah, I’ll admit it—there was a dark corner of my soul that resented her, even though I knew it wasn’t her fault. If I were in her position, would I care about the scrawny kid with glasses who reeked of fear sweat and sat next to me as the class punching bag? I’d probably pity him, but I definitely wouldn’t be interested.

"Exactly, Soo-Min," Miss Park said with a small smile. "There have already been four attempts by rookie Monster Hunters to reclaim the Hellspawn’s domain... or as you’d say, to clear the dungeon. All of them failed. Every last one of those Hunters lost their lives. The most recent attempt was just last night. And this afternoon, yet another group is scheduled to try."

I’d read about it on my phone this morning. Even though Everland was classified as an A-rank dungeon, all the groups so far had been wiped out. And when I say wiped, I mean dead. Permanently.

I swallowed hard. Why was this topic making me so nervous?

Oh, right. Because Sin-Joo and I had signed up for the dungeon as soon as it was announced. Yesterday, we got confirmation via the Dungeon Finder app: we’d been placed in a random group, and our run was this afternoon.

Happy birthday to me.

And if we died, like all the others?

Well… at least I wouldn’t have to deal with this shit anymore.

When I wasn’t binging old samurai movies, I was glued to the Dungeon Now app. It was a comprehensive database of all the newly discovered Abysses, complete with detailed boss information. Think Wikipedia, but exclusively for dungeon content. Even experienced Monster Hunters shared their strategies there. Sure, there was a lot of competition in the Monster Hunter world, but this virtual hub had a surprising sense of community. Knowledge was power, after all, and sharing it benefited everyone... including me and Sin-Joo, my one and only friend.

Last night, during a marathon Discord session, we’d crammed every single piece of intel about the Everland Dungeon. We’d memorized the boss mechanics, the mob patterns, even potential exploits.

"What makes entering a dungeon so dangerous," Miss Park continued, "is that we can never predict with absolute certainty how strong the monsters inside will be. We can measure something called the Nexus—the magical energy emitted by an Abyss. Generally, the higher the Nexus, the stronger the monsters. But as we’ve seen with Everland, that’s not always reliable. Were the groups too inexperienced? Or are the monsters unusually powerful? Unfortunately, bureaucracy moves slower than real life. Mistakes get made, and before they’re fixed, new problems arise. It could take days before Everland’s difficulty is officially adjusted. But today’s group doesn’t have that kind of time. They’re going in blind."

I glanced sideways at Sin-Joo, and at the same moment, he turned to look at me.

We exchanged a conspiratorial grin.

Over the past few months, we’d signed up for dozens of beginner dungeons around Seoul, but the waitlists were always ridiculous. This was the first time we’d gotten lucky. Through sheer chance, we’d snagged a spot in the Everland Dungeon.

This was our shot. The beginning of our Monster Hunter careers.

Sin-Joo was like me. A scrawny, quiet kid who carried way too many books in his backpack. He dreamed of becoming a fearsome Paladin someday, and once he gained access to the leveling system, he planned to dump all his points into Intelligence.

"Intelligence is the most powerful stat," he’d always say.

He was probably right.

But me? I didn’t want to outthink Do-Hyun. I wanted to punch his face in so hard he’d go crying home to his mommy.

"And one more thing, kids," said our teacher, though I was only half-listening at this point. "You should abandon any dreams of becoming a Paladin right now. If you hear the call of adventure, ignore it. Only about one percent of people survive their first encounter with the Abyss. Just one percent, statistically speaking, my dear students. And far fewer ever return alive. According to the data, of all the Monster Hunters who set their sights on becoming a Paladin, only 0.1% ever succeeded."

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Yeah, that was pretty bleak, I thought. But Sin-Joo didn’t care. He was determined to make it. He’d rather die than not even try. I respected him for that.

Sin-Joo was an outsider, just like me. People called him weird. Maybe that’s why they mostly left him alone: some part of them was subconsciously afraid of him. Weird. Once your classmates label you that, it’s game over.

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring!

The school bell. Five-minute break. I got up as Miss Park was still talking. Class was over. Break time was short. I had the right to get up, didn’t I?

Suddenly, I felt a hard blow to the back of my head. It was like being struck by lightning. My glasses flew off my face. Furious, I spun around.

Let me introduce you to Choi Ji-Won. Eighteen years old. The school’s best wrestler. Aggressive, unpredictable, and built like a tank. Sure, he was carrying a little extra weight, but that just made him more intimidating. He bullied the weak for fun, thriving off the power he held over them. Naturally, he was best friends with my archenemy, Do-Hyun.

"Sit your ass back down, you little piece of dog shit," Ji-Won said, grinning at me.

I clenched my fists. What was I supposed to do? I was trembling with rage, and my shaking just made the others laugh even harder.

Miss Park shot me a sharp look. "Sit down immediately," she ordered. "I’ll need to speak with your parents. You’ve been very rude, Takuya."

And then she said it.

"Oh, I forgot... you don’t have parents. Maybe that’s why you’re like this. No one to raise you properly."

I sat back down.

That’s why I’m like this, huh? Got it.

I had tears in my eyes. My whole body was trembling with anger. I hated them. I hated all of them.

My dad was dead, sure. But my mom? My mom was a researcher who’d disappeared four years ago while on an expedition to Mount Namsan near Gyeongju. That mountain was famous for its countless Buddhist relics, temple ruins, and Buddha statues carved into the rocks. It was a treasure trove for someone like her. But then an Abyss opened up there and swallowed her whole.

She didn’t die instantly. The dimensional rift had dragged her into the Abyss, and she was never seen again. In South Korea, anyone who disappears into an Abyss is declared dead after three years.

But not to me.

To me, she was still alive. Somewhere.

"Bad students like you, Takuya, don’t just get bad grades—they get punished," Miss Park continued, her tone ice-cold. "Tomorrow, while the others are enjoying swim class, you’ll stay in this classroom and write an essay about why your life will be a complete failure if you keep being the way you are. Do you understand?"

"Yes," I whispered.

"What was that? Speak louder. You sound like a mouse."

The class erupted into laughter.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

Don’t cry.

That’s exactly what they want.

----------------------------------------

After school, I waited for Sin-Joo by the lockers in the hallway of Cheonghwa High School, the worst high school in the world, if you asked me. Sin-Joo was already five minutes late. The students from other classes flowed past me in an endless stream. It was the end of the day, and everyone wanted out. Nervously, I scanned the crowd, looking for my friend. We had plans. We had things to do.

Suddenly, someone tapped me on the shoulder.

"Sin-Joo, where were you? You’re late," I said, turning around.

But it wasn’t Sin-Joo.

My tormentors stood before me.

Do-Hyun grabbed the back of my neck and told me to come with him. I shoved his hand away, refusing, but my defiance earned me a punch to the gut. Another guy kicked me in the thigh. Pain shot through my body as I grimaced.

There were six of them. Six bullies dragging me toward the school bathrooms. I thought about screaming for help. But then, in that twisted moment, I convinced myself that the other students would think we were just a big group of friends messing around. Most of the kids from other classes didn’t know I was the class punching bag. But if I screamed, everyone would know. And what difference would it make? If even the principal wouldn’t defend me, who would?

Before I could decide, it was already too late.

Everything happened so fast.

They shoved me into the boys’ bathroom. The first thing I noticed (sharpened by fear) was the overwhelming stench.

They forced me into a stall. And there it was. A toilet full of shit. It was so stuffed that I was sure every one of them had taken a turn, one after the other, until the bowl was half-full.

"You know the saying, Birds of a feather flock together, don’t you, Takuya? Well, you’re a piece of shit, aren’t you?" Do-Hyun smirked, pulling the hem of his sweater up over his nose to block the smell. He laughed through the fabric.

What did this jerk want from me? He was tall, muscular, good-looking, and always got good grades. Wasn’t that enough? Why did he have to make my life a living hell too?

"It’s simple," Ji-Won chimed in, grinning. "There’s a toilet brush right there. Clean up the mess, and we’ll let you leave without any trouble."

Behind him, his pack of hyenas roared with laughter. That disgusting group. In that moment, I wondered: Were the monsters from the Abysses I wanted to fight really worse than these guys?

Rage bubbled up inside me, and I started shaking uncontrollably.

"Look at him! He’s trembling! This loser’s scared out of his mind!"

I reached for the toilet brush. Even it was filthy, with bits of soggy toilet paper clinging to the bristles.

"Happy birthday, Takuya. I hope you like our gift. My dump’s the one on top, by the way," Min-Kyu said, laughing so hard he clutched at one of his buddies for support. That guy, just as pathetic, grinned awkwardly, like he was ashamed to be part of this but couldn’t back out without risking his own position in the group.

Where the hell was Sin-Joo? If he’d shown up on time, none of this would be happening.

Suddenly, someone smacked me on the back of the head.

"Get to work!"

With tears in my eyes, I pressed the toilet brush into the disgusting pile. The stench made me gag.

Why me?

Why me?

Why me, goddammit?

I could feel my lunch rising in my throat. I retched but swallowed it back down. I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction.

"Man, that’s gross. Glad I’m not that loser."

"It’s his own fault."

"We’re just helping him prepare for his future career."

"Ha! He totally deserves it."

At some point, I bit down so hard I chipped my own tooth.

I was furious.

I slammed the toilet brush deeper into the disgusting mess, stomping and stabbing like I was trying to crush Do-Hyun’s face beneath my feet. Min-Kyu’s face. Ji-Won’s. Those filthy pieces of shit. I kept imagining their faces as I bashed the brush into the mess, over and over. Then it wasn’t just them—it was the principal’s face. And the face of the stunning Soo-Min, who always got along so well with my enemies.

"That guy’s crazy! Look at how hard he’s scrubbing!"

"Maybe we should dunk his head in next. His scraggly, greasy hair already looks like a mop, doesn’t it?"

"Yeah, the guy’s practically a human washcloth," Do-Hyun sneered.

That’s when I snapped.

I spun around, holding the toilet brush high above my head. The insanity in my eyes must’ve been obvious, because Do-Hyun’s cocky expression twisted into one of pure terror. That face.... the moment he realized he’d made a mistake... I’ll never forget it. He must’ve thought he’d taken a wrong turn into some nightmarish version of reality. His shocked expression was priceless.

Then, without a word, I brought the brush down and swung it like a baseball bat, the shit-covered bristles smearing across his perfect, smug face.

Dead silence.

It took everyone a moment to process what had just happened.

Then chaos erupted.

They dragged me out of the stall and started beating me senseless. My head hit a soap dispenser, ripping it off the wall. Warm blood trickled down my face as I lay on the floor, watching shoes stomp on my body. On my face.

My heart was racing.

And through it all, I was grinning.

I made myself a promise: No matter how much they hurt me, I was still going to that damn dungeon. I was going to become a Monster Hunter that people respected. No. A Monster Hunter that people feared.