**Chapter 1: "The Grave Whispers My Name"**
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**Page 1:**
**Panel 1 (Full page spread):** A moonlit cemetery, fog clinging to crooked headstones. In the foreground, a gaunt young man (**Jin Soel**, 19) kneels, his trembling hands clawing at fresh soil. His sleeves are torn, revealing blackened veins snaking up his arms. The caption reads: *"The dead never stay buried. Not for me."*
**Page 2:**
**Panel 1:** Close-up of Jin's bloodshot eyes as he unearths a coffin. His breath fogs the air.
**Panel 2:** His fingers brush the coffin lid—rotting wood splinters. Inside lies a girl in a tattered school uniform, her skin waxen. **Caption**: *"Min-ah. 17. Leukemia. Buried yesterday."*
**Panel 3:** Jin's blackened veins pulse. He presses a palm to her chest. Shadows swirl like ink in water. **Sound Effect**: *KRKKKK—*
**Page 3:**
**Panel 1:** Min-ah's eyes snap open—pupils void-black. She sits upright, coughing up clotted earth.
**Panel 2:** Jin collapses, blood dripping from his nose. Min-ah stares at her hands, whispering: *"…Why does it hurt…?"*
**Panel 3:** Flashback fragment: A younger Jin, sobbing over his mother's corpse in a hospital bed. Her hand twitches—*his first resurrection*.
**Page 4:**
**Panel 1:** Min-ah's neck cracks as she turns to Jin. *"You shouldn't have done that."*
**Panel 2:** Shadows erupt from her mouth, forming a grotesque, grinning specter. **The Shade**: *"Feast time, little grave robber."*
**Panel 3:** The Shade lunges. Jin scrambles back, grabbing a rusted shovel.
**Page 5:**
**Panel 1:** The Shade tears through the shovel like paper. Jin's veins blacken further—his left pinky finger turns ash-gray and crumbles.
**Panel 2:** Min-ah's reanimated body convulses, skin sloughing off. She screams: *"Kill me!* **Again!**"
**Panel 3:** Jin slams a dirt-caked rock into her skull. The Shade howls, dissolving.
**Page 6:**
**Panel 1:** Jin gasps, cradling his disintegrating hand. The cemetery is silent. Min-ah's corpse lies still.
**Panel 2:** A drop of rain hits Jin's cheek. He looks up—storm clouds blot out the moon.
**Panel 3 (Zoom out):** The cemetery's iron gate creaks open. A silhouette stands there, umbrella in hand. **Mysterious Woman**: *"You've been busy, Jin Soel."*
**Page 7:**
**Panel 1:** Close-up of the woman—**Yuri**, late 20s, her left eye milky white, right eye glowing faintly blue. She tosses Jin a vial of murky liquid.
**Panel 2:** Jin catches it, wary. **Yuri**: *"Drink. It'll slow the Rot… for now."*
**Panel 3:** Jin hesitates, then downs the vial. His crumbling finger stops deteriorating. **Yuri**: *"Good. Now come. The Hollow Market opens at midnight… and you owe me a debt."*
**Page 8:**
**Panel 1:** Jin follows Yuri through the gate. Behind them, Min-ah's grave refills itself, soil shifting like living tendrils.
**Panel 2:** Yuri side-eyes Jin. *"Resurrecting suicides? Bold. Stupid. But bold."*
**Panel 3:** Jin's face darkens. *"She wasn't a suicide. Someone* **murdered** *her."*
**Panel 4:** Yuri stops, her blue eye flickering. *"…Then her Shade wasn't an accident. You've stumbled into a* **harvest.***"
**Page 9:**
**Panel 1 (Full page):** The city skyline looms, but warped—skyscrapers twist into skeletal shapes, neon signs bleed downward like tears. The caption: *"The Hollow Market: Where the damned bargain with the desperate."*
**Cliffhanger Textbox (Bottom corner):** *"The dead aren't the only ones with secrets."*
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**Hook Elements:**
- **The Rot**: Every resurrection costs Jin's body. He's literally crumbling.
- **Shades**: Malevolent spirits born from violent deaths. The more pain the victim endured, the stronger the Shade.
- **Mystery**: Who murdered Min-ah? Why does Yuri care?
- **Twist**: Jin's mother's resurrection years ago started the Rot… and her Shade still haunts him.
**Visual Tone**:
- Heavy shadows, stark contrasts. The Shades are drawn as inkblot monsters with too many teeth.
- Jin's deterioration is visceral—cracked skin, fingers turning to ash, eyes increasingly bloodshot.