Solo Leveling: Ragnarok

“Woo Jinchul?”

A news anchor was interviewing people on the street about the chairman of the Korean Hunters Association. When they were asked their thoughts on him, every interviewee would return the same question.

“Do you mean before or after the Great Cataclysm?”

Indeed, the story of Jinchul’s life had shifted dramatically during the Great Cataclysm.

“Before, he was a police chief.At the Central Police Station, I think.”

The Central Station was legendary among members of the police since it had maintained the nation’s highest rate of criminal arrests for over twenty years. Jinchul hadn’t played a huge role in the creation of that legendary reputation, however.

At the time, there was a renowned detective in the Violent Crimes Unit known as the Phantom. His proportion of solved cases was a whopping 200 percent. Every violent perpetrator or ruffian turned docile as a lamb in front of the man, who was capable of tracking down not only the culprits of his own cases but those of past unsolved cases as well. Despite all that he’d achieved, he was an oddball who refused every promotion, and for an absurd reason—because he wanted to continue working in the field and bring in more criminals with his own hands.

This eccentric but morally upright detective of the VCU was none other than Sung Jinwoo—the Monarch of Shadows who was now waging a war against the Itarim in the Outer Universes.

Jinwoo had followed Jinchul everywhere since they were in high school, and it was Jinchul who had eventually convinced him to take the police cadet exam. He ended up being Jinwoo’s direct supervisor and closest friend at work. Because Jinwoo gave Jinchul credit for everything he did, Jinchul ended up on the fast track for promotions within the police force, eventually becoming police chief. Many had started criticizing him for this.

“The chief took all the credit for his subordinate’s work.”

“I wonder if Jinchul is blackmailing Jinwoo.”

But such claims were laid to rest after Jinwoo privately spoke to each person with such views.

After that, however, different rumors began to go around—namely, that Jinwoo was the real power behind the Central Police Station. These rumors were nothing new, however. Countless people had seen how reverent Jinchul was toward Jinwoo, even though Jinwoo was his direct report.

After a while, however, the famous Central Police Station ceased to be a topic of constant conversation among the police. This was when Jinwoo began to miss work for an unknown reason.

“There were so many rumors.Some said the Phantom had gone missing, that he’d quit his job, that he’d gone on a long vacation… Ah, but I can’t seem to remember his actual name.”

For such an important figure, oddly enough, the Phantom’s real name wasn’t known to the public. Nobody knew whether it was by Jinwoo’s own wishes or not, but it was always Jinchul’s name that appeared in the media.

Because Jinwoo was so well known among the police force, his sudden absence gave rise to much speculation. Jinchul, as the chief of police, did not provide any explanation. Instead, he simply placed Jinwoo on a leave of absence. He seemed to believe that his friend would be back one day.

And so, Jinwoo’s name was quickly forgotten among his coworkers. His absence was felt so strongly that they didn’t have time to remember. All the detectives in the Central Police Station grew extremely busy since they no longer had Jinwoo making the job easy for them.

“That was when the Great Cataclysm happened.”

This was where the real meat of the interview began.

“Woo Jinchul’s true value came to the surface then.”

As soon as the Great Cataclysm happened, everyone stopped believing that Jinchul had gotten his promotions thanks to his subordinate.

“I don’t know for sure, but I’ll bet Woo Jinchul was probably the first hunter to appear in South Korea.”

This much was true. The Great Cataclysm was a chaotic time when gates and magic beasts ran amok all over the planet. Jinchul, still a police chief at the time, had awakened to the ability to use mana faster than anyone else. But it was what he did after that caused people to continuously praise him. Unlike other hunters, Jinchul had never seemed amazed or confused by the powers that he suddenly found himself capable of wielding. In fact, he seemed to ease right into them, as if he had them all along.

There was also another fact not many people knew—the moment he awakened, he had closed his eyes calmly and estimated his own strength. “A-rank?Just like before,” he had said. The United States had not yet announced their hunter ranking system, which was based on the amount of mana a hunter possessed, nor had mana measurement devices even been invented. Yet, Jinchul was able to gauge his own rank from the start.

Of course, this was because he had recovered the memories of his past life decades before thanks to Jinwoo. Those memories were practically useless prior to the Great Cataclysm, but when the planet suddenly reverted to the hunter era just like their previous timeline, the value of his recalled experiences finally began to shine.

When the Great Cataclysm occurred, Jinchul realized the gravity of the situation immediately. This isn’t good.Earth is back to this state, but Mr. Sung is not here. Even before the Great Cataclysm, he knew that Jinwoo sometimes went off by himself to stop enemies from other worlds. Every time, Jinchul had covered for him by issuing vacation or leave. But now, he had been gone for years. Jinchul did not lose hope, however. He’ll return no matter what.And until then… I will do what I can.

That was when Jinchul began to utilize his memories in earnest. Right after the Great Cataclysm, new hunters, not to mention the rampaging magic beasts, came into being left and right. This was throwing the world into untold chaos. Jinchul utilized his influence as a police chief and his connections to establish the Korean Hunters Association. He made himself the first chairman and began negotiations with the government.

“Our country was probably the first to create a hunters association.”

“That’s why hunter laws were also enacted so quickly.”

The creation of new laws was a very involved process that required lengthy periods of time. Knowing this, Jinchul slowly worked on passing the most important laws first—one of them being the Villain Punishment Act. Villains were the single greatest cause of chaos in society following the Cataclysm. Using this law, he had begun rooting out all the villains that had been causing trouble with their powers. As if magic beasts weren’t difficult enough… We can’t afford to fight among ourselves.

Of course, it was challenging for Woo Jinchul to defeat all the villains by himself. Just like in the previous life, he was simply an A-rank hunter. But I can recruit help, he thought. As the first step toward strengthening the association, he decided to recruit the S-rank hunters that he could remember.

He recalled a hunter nicknamed the Ultimate Soldier—Choi Jongin, who had once been the guild master of the top guild in South Korea. Jinchul “coincidentally” became acquainted with Jongin before he even awakened. The moment he did, and as an S-rank hunter, Jinchul politely handed him his business card.

“Will you fight with me for this country, for justice, and for the world?”

“I… accept.”

From that day, Jongin became the greatest S-rank hunter in the Korean Hunters Association.

Thanks to Jinchul’s leadership, South Korea quickly recovered from the disorder. The speed of this recovery was such that the entire world acknowledged it, and Jinchul was catapulted to stardom.

“Woo Jinchul is a national hero!”

But Jinchul did not let all the attention and hype shake his resolve or blind him. In fact, he shrugged it off and focused only on his work, which only made the citizens of his country fall more in love with him.

His success was almost a given, however, as he was literally living his second life as a hunter and using all the experience that came with it. In actuality, he was the second chairman of the association, since Go Gunhee had held the role in the previous timeline. He rallied South Korea’s hunters and enhanced public security like he had no greater calling in life than being the association chairman.

By that point, no South Korean could deny that the man was their hero. He was still just an A-rank hunter, but not even S-rank hunters dared to snub him.

“What Mr. Woo has done over the past two years as a government-approved hunter will go down in history. He is the pivotal foundation for all hunters in this country.”

One of the people who had agreed to the interview vanished after this final comment. The interviews now over, the anchor nodded with satisfaction.

“That will be all for the interviews.Next up, we have some updates on Jisan Prison.Jisan Prison, the facility established two years ago by the Korean Hunters Association for the exclusive incarceration of villains…”

“So Jinchul became the chairman of the association. Thank goodness.” After leaving the Glacier Dungeon, Haein was checking videos on the internet for news of South Korea. She sighed with relief. With Jinchul at the helm, the country was in good hands. She couldn’t even begin to picture all the effort and preparation he had gone through to make up for her husband’s absence.

She felt a pang of pity in her heart. “Jinchul is an old friend who knows about your father,” she told Suho. “He’s up north assisting hunters right now, so give him an update as soon as he gets back. He’ll prove very helpful.”

“You’re really not coming back, Mother?” Suho said, looking at her stiffly. They’d finally been reunited after such a long time, and yet she was going to head back into the Glacier Dungeon right away.

Haein’s reason for returning was Kaisel, the dragon who had protected her with complete dedication for the past five years. She patted Kaisel’s head as he sat on her shoulder, shrunk to the size of a parrot.

“Kaisel will die if I do. I can’t let that happen,” she said. She intended to go into the heart of the Echo Forest, where the gray snow had been falling. “Curiously, the harder that snow fell, the more Kaisel’s power was restored. The process was slow, however.”

“I would wager that it’s because the gray snow is actually the ashes of burnt dragons,” Beru said, nodding with a grave look on his face.

“I believe it is.” Haein still remembered the story Jinwoo had told her while looking up at the white snow falling from the clouds. When he defeated the army of the King of Dragons, one of the largest threats he had ever faced, the ashes of dragons had rained down from the sky. He told her that snow reminded him of that day. “I’m sure that beyond that gray snow…”

“…Is a dimensional breach that leads to their graves,” Beru said, finishing her thought.

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