“Is there no interesting online community anywhere…?”
I was a complete NEET, my days a monotonous cycle of internet browsing. Each day was a relentless hunt for a fresh hit of dopamine.
“Hmm? A Hunter Gallery? I’ve never come across this one before.”
My gaze drifted to an unfamiliar forum that had just popped up on the real-time hot list.
‘Hunter Gallery.’ The name alone suggested it was likely a community where active hunters gathered to chat.
“Hunters, huh….” I sighed. ‘If only I could suddenly awaken, too. Earn tons of money. Live an easy life….’
This was a world transformed by the appearance of Towers and monsters.
In a society where nations teetered on the brink and conventional jobs were scarce, hunters—a profession guaranteeing both wealth and prestige—were the most coveted.
Of course, becoming one wasn’t a matter of desire alone.
Hunter awakenings were determined purely by luck.
As far as I knew, there were roughly ten thousand hunters in Korea.
I found myself curious about what these fortunate individuals discussed.
As if possessed, I clicked on the gallery.
To gauge the forum’s atmosphere, I first searched through its most popular posts.
[Hunter Gallery]
Gallery Description: A gathering of active hunters in South Korea.
[Top Posts]
Click.
[Title: How to Increase Your Awakening Chances (No Joke)]
(An oddly shaped frog suppressing laughter picture)
‘As if something like that exists? Live a decent life.’
[Another manipulated top post. This forum is dead.]
[What’s the mod doing?]
[Magic is open to all. Magic opens the door when one purifies their mind, spirit, and body (TL Note: ‘sim-gi-che’ refers to the mind, spirit, and body as a unified entity in East Asian philosophy) and confronts themselves. The method is as follows: First, to purify the body, one must eat dirt for 30 days… (Read More)]
Click.
[Title: WARNING) Absolutely do NOT go to that Hunter Academy advertised recently. It’s a scam.]
[I went today, and they’re genuinely scammers.]
[They brought in some fitness trainer as a ‘professional instructor,’ which is just ridiculous, lol.]
[These guys with no hunter experience are spouting total nonsense about helping with hunter awakenings. It’s the M.M.S. Academy in Hongdae.]
[The fact is, if you have any common sense, you’d filter it out just by looking at the ad.]
[Seriously, isn’t this the fault of the person who fell for it?]
[No, but seriously, there are so many Hunter Academies these days. What are all these places?]
[They’re all scams. Awakening is just pure luck.]
[Magic is open to all. Magic opens the door when one purifies their mind, spirit, and body and confronts themselves. The method is as follows: First, to purify the body, one must eat dirt for 30 days… (Read More)]
Click.
[Title: Top Hunters’ Earnings Are Legendary, OMG]
[A-rank Y.M.R. apparently verified 1 billion won in monthly earnings. Is that real? Seriously insane. Ah, I wish I could awaken and live comfortably too.]
[It’s not comfortable, lol. Hunters face death several times, don’t they?]
[That’s for C-rank and D-rank Hunters, lol. Would an A-rank Hunter face a death crisis?]
[Seriously, lol. Plus, they’re a Magician. A spoon-fed profession. Just ‘click-click’ from behind, and money gets duplicated, lol.]
[Magic is open to all. Magic opens the door when one purifies their mind, spirit, and body and confronts themselves. The method is as follows: First, to purify the body, one must eat dirt for 30 days… (Read More)]
Ah, I immediately grasped the forum’s true atmosphere.
There were no active hunters here whatsoever.
The gallery description, claiming it was a gathering of active hunters, felt utterly meaningless.
It didn’t matter, though. I wasn’t an active hunter either.
Like everyone else here, I simply needed some trivial entertainment to pass the time.
Without a second thought, I impulsively penned a post.
[Title: Honestly, isn’t a quick reset the only answer for commoners who still haven’t awakened?]
[Seriously, lol.]
[What about you? Are you a Hunter?]
[ (Author) Me? I’m a Hunter. B-rank.]
[What’s the name of the Hunter training camp cafeteria? Tell me. You have 10 seconds.]
“Tch. Caught immediately, as expected.”
Still, an exposed post was easily dealt with by deletion.
Just as I was about to erase it and craft another provocative comment, a notification for a new reply chimed.
A self-proclaimed attention addict, I hastily clicked on the post again.
[Magic is open to all. Magic opens the door when one purifies their mind, spirit, and body and confronts themselves. The method is as follows: First, to purify the body, one must eat dirt for 30 days… (Read More)]
“Ugh, what is this? Just an attention-seeker…”
Disappointed, I proceeded to delete the post.
Yet, that recent comment lingered stubbornly in my mind.
Had I encountered such a character elsewhere, I would have dismissed them as a deranged provocateur.
However, as a ten-year veteran of online forums, I sensed this was no mere attempt at baiting.
Trusting my addict’s intuition, I checked other posts.
Sure enough, every single one had a comment about “Magic” or something similar appended to it.
The crucial detail here was the timestamp of these comments.
They appeared two to three minutes after a post was made, sometimes even ten minutes later.
The implication was clear:
These weren’t automated macros. Someone was typing them out manually.
“It’s one of two things: either they’re too broke to buy a macro, or they’re a top-tier lunatic.”
Either way, this was no ordinary individual.
Driven by a sudden curiosity about their identity, I composed another post.
[Title: Who is that person commenting about ‘Magic’ everywhere?]
[They’re manually posting it on every single thread. Seriously, what are they doing?]
This time, however, no comments appeared.
I repeatedly refreshed the page, waiting for a reply.
“Huh? What? Where did my post go?”
It was then that I noticed my post had been deleted.
To me, this was utterly intolerable.
I immediately began drafting a protest.
[Title: Hey, why was my post deleted?]
[I just asked about that ‘Magic’ thing, why delete it?]
As I typed the post and pressed enter, a message popped up.
[IP Blocked. Reason: M.B. Block Duration: 30 days.]
“What the hell is this?!”
My head began to throb with heat.
Post deletion? I could tolerate that.
But a ban? For thirty days?
This was an outright declaration of war against me.
I immediately activated my VPN and composed the exact same post.
[Title: Seriously, what’s ‘M.B.’ that you’re deleting posts? Is the mod insane?]
[This post has been deleted.]
[IP Blocked. Reason: M.B. Block Duration: 30 days.]
“Oh, you think you’re clever, do you?”
Predictably, this post was also deleted instantly.
But I had anticipated this.
I immediately deployed macros and a VPN, commencing a full-scale spamming attack on the forum.
[Title: Seriously, what’s ‘M.B.’ that you’re deleting posts? Is the mod insane?]
[Title: Seriously, what’s ‘M.B.’ that you’re deleting posts? Is the mod insane?]
[Title: Seriously, what’s ‘M.B.’ that you’re deleting posts? Is the mod insane?]
[Title: Another lunatic has joined.]
[Title: Seriously, what’s ‘M.B.’ that you’re deleting posts? Is the mod insane?]
[Title: Seriously, what’s ‘M.B.’ that you’re deleting posts? Is the mod insane?]
[Title: This forum is doomed.]
[Title: Seriously, what’s ‘M.B.’ that you’re deleting posts? Is the mod insane?]
[Title: Seriously, what’s ‘M.B.’ that you’re deleting posts? Is the mod insane?]
A wave of satisfaction washed over me as I watched the forum quickly become inundated with my posts.
Though the moderator was deleting them, my speed was naturally far superior to theirs, who had to manually check each title before deletion.
[Title: Seriously, what’s ‘M.B.’ that you’re deleting posts? Is the mod insane?]
[Title: M.B. stands for Magic Villain. Read the notice.]
[Title: Seriously, what’s ‘M.B.’ that you’re deleting posts? Is the mod insane?]
[Title: Seriously, what’s ‘M.B.’ that you’re deleting posts? Is the mod insane?]
[Posting is temporarily restricted in this gallery.]
“Huh?”
I paused my relentless posting, confronted by a familiar message.
The moderator had raised the white flag.
They had temporarily frozen the entire forum, preventing everyone, not just me, from using it.
This meant one thing: victory was mine.
Intoxicated by my triumph, I cracked open a can of cola and downed it in a single gulp.
****
“More importantly, ‘Magic Villain,’ huh…”
For the first time since entering this forum, I bothered to read the official announcements.
It was practically an unwritten rule (TL Note: ‘guk-rul’ is a Korean slang term meaning ‘unwritten rule’ or ‘common practice’) to only read forum rules after getting banned.
Indeed, upon checking, I found a relevant post at the very end of the usage guidelines.
[Rule Added) Block upon mention of M.B., MaVil, Magic Villain. Block the word ‘Magic’. Block Ma.gic, Ma,gic, Ma1gic, all variations.]
“Hmm, they were more formidable than I expected, weren’t they?”
I offered a silent tribute to them as a fellow forum troublemaker.
To not only ban mentions of them but to outright prohibit the word “Magic” itself from the forum?
This individual was a truly malicious character, an exceptional villain.
No ordinary user indeed.
I reread the comment they had posted once more.
– Magic is open to all. Magic opens the door when one purifies their mind, spirit, and body and confronts themselves. The method is as follows: First, to purify the body, one must eat dirt for 30 days… (Read More)
“Hmm…. Should I try following it?”
A sudden impulse seized me.
One thing was certain:
If I followed these instructions precisely, I would undoubtedly get a top post.
“If I play my cards right, I might even make it to the monthly best posts…”
Yes, this was too good to pass up.
Alright. Let’s do it now.
I immediately copied the comment and printed it out.
Once printed, I realized the considerable length of the text.
Whoever this individual was, they seemed incredibly dedicated to their lore.
“There are five attributes of magic one can awaken to. Among them, Earth-attribute magic is the safest for beginners to attempt….”
To awaken Earth-attribute magic, all one had to do was eat a handful of dirt with every meal for thirty days.
“Fire magic involves burns for 30 days, lightning involves electric shocks…. Wow, I definitely couldn’t follow the rest of these.”
In contrast, eating dirt? That was entirely doable.
I was a man obsessed with attracting attention, after all. I loved the spotlight too much.
Plus, eating dirt would make for excellent photo verification.
“What the hell, I’ll give it a try.”
From that day on, I ate dirt daily.
Even for me, chewing raw soil was difficult.
So, at first, I primarily consumed it by mixing sand with misutgaru (TL Note: A Korean roasted grain powder drink, often mixed with water or milk) in water and drinking it, or by baking and chewing mud cookies.
Until then, I hadn’t given it much thought, aside from occasionally feeling more constipated.
I was merely a machine, continuing to churn out provocative posts while browsing various online forums.
[…If such a practice continues for more than 15 days, a divine spirit (神) will reside within the body, and its energy will begin to transform.]
However, at the beginning of the third week of my practice—day 15—something strange began to happen to my body.
My fingertips started crumbling like sand.
