MCRP 60

MCRP

Chapter 60 Emergency Assembly (3)

“Phew, well… that went better than expected.”

Once every team member had crossed through the rift, Chief Hong finally let out a long breath.

“Talk about perfect timing. Who would’ve thought Saint Union would lend a hand?”

The intervention of a major guild had been completely unexpected.

Of course, he knew full well that their intentions were far from pure.

Saint Union would want to monopolize the spoils of this operation as the “main contributor,” while Captain Yoo Gun-hyuk was probably planning to leverage the fame from closing a stellar-class rift to push for his own new guild’s establishment.

Still—what did it matter? If they wanted to use this crisis for their own benefit, he could do the same by using them.

Saint Union had even created its own internal manual for routine purges.

Now that they were involved, there was little to worry about.

All he needed to do was maintain the situation until they came back out.

“Keep the perimeter under control. Just in case, maintain the detour route. You contacted HQ, right?”

⋮

“What? They just now accepted the support request? Forget it! No need to give latecomers a piece of the pie.”

⋮

“Yes, Director, sir. No need to worry about this one. Haha, no, no—of course. Took a bit of persuasion to bring Saint Union in, you see. Haha! Yes, sir. Of course! Let’s have dinner sometime soon—.”

Managing the site and keeping up with reports—Chief Hong handled it all swiftly, then dropped into his chair with a heavy sigh.

His body was exhausted, but his heart was lighter than ever.

“At this rate, the higher-ups will love me.”

On his first day as a newly promoted department head, he had faced an unprecedented crisis and thought he was finished.

But now, the situation had changed.

He could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

They said crisis breeds opportunity, didn’t they?

If he failed, he’d take all the blame. But if he succeeded… it could be his ticket to a higher position.

“At this rate, it won’t be long before I wipe that smug look off that bastard’s face…”

He chuckled darkly at the thought—

Step, step—

Bootsteps approached. The tent flap was yanked open.

When he saw who stepped into the temporary command post, Hong’s face immediately darkened.

“Damn it! Speak of the devil and he appears!”

Rachel, unfazed by his glare, calmly scanned the interior.

“How’s it going? Heard things were pretty urgent.”

“None of your business. Don’t think you can come here to leech credit—get out.”

“Oh, come on. Aren’t we all Foundation members? Helping each other’s what family does.”

“Don’t lump yourself in with us, you glorified admin clerk!”

The Korean branch’s Defense Department of the Foundation was divided into two main divisions:

The Rift Suppression Division, responsible for rift operations.
And the Management Division, which handled player disputes.

But even though they were both divisions under the same roof, their status couldn’t have been more different.

The Rift Suppression Division had always been the Foundation’s pride—powerful, influential, and well-funded.

The Management Division, on the other hand, was a dumping ground for those with nowhere else to go—thankless work, no recognition.

They had to deal directly with players, endure constant complaints, and even when they did a good job, they only got more cleanup duty.

It was the textbook definition of a dead-end post.

So when one of them suddenly showed up here—well, the motive was obvious.

They wanted a cut of the spoils.

“Don’t be so cold. I just came to check in, in case tensions rise among all the players you’ve gathered. And I even brought an official cooperation request.”

“Cooperation, my ass! That sly fox of a management chief—always meddling…!”

Tsk!

Hong clicked his tongue and stopped talking.

Arguing with her was a waste of breath.

He’d just find a way to shoo her off politely—

Then he frowned.

“…What the hell is she doing now?”

Woom— woom—

The woman beside Rachel—Kael—was staring at a blue candy in her hand with sparkling eyes.

“Mmm~ this unstable flavor! New batches are always the best!”

Then she popped it into her mouth and rolled it around with delight.

Hong had heard about her abilities.

That “candy” was probably data crystallized from rift wave signatures.

But knowing that didn’t make her antics any less incomprehensible.

Tasting an unprecedented disaster as though it were a new recipe?

“Seriously. Not a single normal one in that division.”

He clicked his tongue again.

Kael, Rachel—both were far too competent to belong in the Management Division.

If they weren’t there, he wouldn’t have to clash with them so often.

And worse yet, thanks to those two, the Management Division’s reputation had actually improved recently.

It was ridiculous—people from the Rift Division like him shouldn’t even have to talk to them.

Sighing, he turned back to his paperwork—

Then commotion erupted outside.

“Wh–who are you?”
“You can’t go in there!”
“Stop him!”

Crash!

A man burst into the tent, an earthen jar slung over his back, his clothes covered in ash.

…Who the hell?

Before Hong could even ask, the man shouted:

“Who authorized entry into the rift?! You? You’re Chief Hong Chan-ho of Rift Suppression, right?”

A strange man—someone he’d never seen before—yet he somehow knew Hong’s name and title, even though Hong had only been promoted yesterday.

“Get everyone out of that rift—now! No, wait, better yet—let me in! Right this second!”

“I don’t know what nonsense you’re— the deployment’s already done—”

“Adding one more person isn’t hard! I don’t need any compensation!”

As Hong blinked, taken aback by the man’s desperate plea—

“…Nam Se-hyun?”

“Huh? Rachel?”

Rachel was the one who reacted first.

* * *

Chief Hong Chan-ho, head of the Rift Suppression Division.

In Se-hyun’s past life, this was the man in charge of the catastrophic stellar-class rift incident.

The Foundation had publicly claimed the crisis was resolved successfully, but Se-hyun later learned the truth was the opposite.

A colossal rift had appeared without warning.

It was unstable from the start, and when the situation worsened, the higher-ups ordered a forced closure—

Even though hundreds of players were still trapped inside.

The man who commanded that decision on-site was none other than Hong Chan-ho.

“Half of all Korean players never came back from that rift…”

It had been a foreseeable disaster.

And though Se-hyun knew it was coming, it wasn’t really his duty to stop it.

There were limits to what one person could do, and he didn’t even know all the specifics.

But with In-ha and Seong-cheol now caught up in it, doing nothing wasn’t an option.

“Still… why is she here?”

If it had only been Hong, he could’ve talked his way through.

But with Rachel also on-site—it was a problem.

She had every reason to distrust him.

And sure enough, she glared daggers at him.

“What’s your scheme this time?”

“…Scheme? You make me sound terrible.”

“Do you really not know how I see you?”

And just like last time, they ended up at odds again—

Even though Se-hyun genuinely had no intention of fighting her.

“I didn’t come to fight you. I just want to go into the rift.”

“…”

Even with that honesty, Rachel’s eyes were full of suspicion.

Of course, she wouldn’t buy it easily.

Sneaking in alone and rescuing his friends wouldn’t be hard, sure.

But right now, there were still over a hundred players trapped inside—still a chance to save them all.

“It’s been less than an hour since they entered. If I can warn them and pull them out fast enough…”

For that, he needed the Foundation’s cooperation.

If they enforced a forced shutdown again—it would be over.

He turned back to Hong.

“You know this rift isn’t normal, don’t you?”

“Hmph. Aside from its sudden appearance, there’s nothing particularly—”

Hong averted his gaze mid-sentence.

Pretending ignorance—but clearly he knew.

He knew this rift wasn’t like the others.

“So he knew and still sent them in? That bastard…”

Judging by his attitude, he had concealed the truth to save face—throwing hundreds of lives into the rift to protect his reputation.

Rage boiled up in Se-hyun’s chest, but he forced it down.

Stopping the disaster came first.

The problem was—he didn’t know much.

All he had was after-the-fact knowledge from his past life.

So he’d have to piece things together from what he remembered and what he saw now.

“There must’ve been something strange about this rift. The research team investigated it, right?”

“Th–there was nothing unusual! If you’re just here to cause trouble—”

“Me! Me! I found something!”

The woman next to Rachel suddenly raised her hand, cutting him off.

“…And you are?”

“What? You don’t remember me? I was always next to my senior! I even processed your data—mmph!”

“Quiet, please.”

Rachel clamped a hand over her mouth—but the woman wriggled free and continued anyway.

“Anyway! This rift’s supposed to be stellar-class, right? But the spatial scale’s weirdly small! Not that different from a regular rift! No matter how much we checked, we couldn’t figure out why—it was driving me crazy!”

She was still rolling a candy in her mouth.

Se-hyun guessed it was how she gathered data.

And buried in her rambling was something that matched his memory.

The small scale—that much aligned perfectly with what he remembered.

“That’s probably because it’s a Labyrinth-type Rift.”

“Huh? Labyrinth-type?”

“Yes. That’s a typical trait. The space folds and twists in on itself, so it looks smaller from outside.”

“…He’s right?”

Kael’s eyes lit up with interest.

Then another thought hit Se-hyun.

“And the monsters are scattered all over. Around 75% of them are dormant, right?”

“Whoa! Exactly! How’d you know that? But why?”