Chapter 1 …
1. Awakening
“Mom…”
When Sejin rubbed her sleepy eyes and opened her bedroom door, what greeted her was a world already destroyed.
Whooosh.
The heat of the gusting wind scorched her cheeks.
‘A dream?’
She had only just woken up, yet the floor of their seventh-floor apartment was cracking apart with a grinding sound.
No matter how many times she blinked in disbelief, all five senses warned her—this wasn’t a dream.
“M-Mom? S-Sea!”
No one answered the frantic cries of the ten-year-old child.
Just as she was about to dash into her mother’s room in panic—
Crack!
A fissure raced across the floor like lightning, and the building split cleanly down the middle.
The massive quake made her small body stagger. Sejin clung desperately to the doorframe as tears streamed down her face.
“M-Mom! Wake up! Mom!”
Her mother’s tightly shut bedroom door, visible across the gap, was drifting farther and farther away.
Creeeak—crash.
The floor split wider, and scorching heat surged up through the cracks.
Was this really a dream?
She had simply gone to sleep excited about what birthday present she might receive tomorrow.
Even to young Sejin, this was far too absurd to be real.
Red-hot lava churned beneath the widening fissures, and sweat-soaked strands of hair clung to her burning forehead.
“Mom! Sea!”
No matter how hard she screamed, her voice raw and strained, no one answered.
“T-This… this can’t be real. Why—why is this happening?”
Across from her, her little sister’s room was tilting dangerously.
All Sejin could do was cling to the threshold with her tiny hands.
The building slowly collapsed, concrete dust scattering like snow.
“N-No! No!”
Mom and Sea were over there!
Tears poured down her face.
“Hk—!”
As she sucked in the scorching air, a strange sound echoed from somewhere.
It sounded like a human scream.
Her body trembled as she lowered her gaze with shaking eyes.
From the cracks in the building, bizarre figures were crawling upward.
At a glance, the black shadows almost looked human.
But their bodies were like charred lumps of coal.
Beneath their ash-black skin, a molten red glow flowed like lava.
‘W-What… what are those…?’
Her breath caught in her throat.
In the overheated air, the creatures slowly raised their heads.
“Hng—!”
Black, hollow eye sockets turned toward Sejin all at once.
Their cutting gazes pinned her in place.
‘R-Run… I have to run…’
But the monsters dug their claws into the walls and steadily closed in.
Kikikik.
Their mouths stretched into mocking grins, packed with sharp teeth.
Sejin collapsed, scrambling backward with her feet, but they kept crawling toward her without pause.
“S-Stay back!”
Her childish voice quivered.
In moments, the black figures surrounded her, closing in from all sides.
Saliva dripped from their gaping mouths.
Her throat felt clogged; she couldn’t even scream.
As if she had been their target from the beginning, their hands reached for her without hesitation.
Just as their razor-sharp claws were about to tear into her—
“Gasp!”
Her eyes flew open.
Soaked in sweat as if she’d been doused in water, Sejin sucked in a desperate breath.
Like a drowning person clutching a lifeline, she gripped her blanket tightly, her body trembling.
“A dream…? Was it a dream?”
It was so vivid and grotesque that she muttered blankly to herself.
[My child, this was not a dream.]
“W-Who’s there?!”
Startled by the voice echoing in her head, Sejin shot upright.
I—I need to go to Mom.
Shaking with fear, she swung her legs off the bed.
But the voice continued.
[I am Pagun, the Star Lord of Yaoguang among the Seven Stars. You are the reincarnation of Cheonhee. Do not be afraid.]
This has to be a lie.
Hearing voices like this—there’s no way that’s normal.
Frozen stiff by the unfamiliar voice reverberating in her mind, Sejin instinctively knew something was terribly wrong.
Something was very, very wrong.
Just as she reached for the door, ready to burst out calling for her mother, her body abruptly stopped.
[Do you remember what you just saw?]
The voice was gentle, like one used to soothing children, yet it carried an undeniable authority.
[You are a child born with Cheonhee’s soul.]
What are you talking about? I can’t hear you. I’m not listening.
Her sweat dried instantly, and her body temperature plummeted. Sejin hugged herself tightly as she shivered.
[If you reject your fate, the dream you saw will soon become reality.]
Reality?
That nightmare… actually happening?
As if reading her thoughts, Pagun answered.
[What you saw was the near future. Hell will descend, and evil spirits will devour everything.]
The bitterness in his voice no longer frightened her.
Instead, a strange certainty arose—that he wouldn’t harm her.
“T-Then what does that have to do with me?!”
Even as she trembled, Sejin shouted back bravely.
[All of it includes the family you love.]
My family…
Her mother, who raised two daughters alone after her father’s absence?
Her annoying little sister, Sea, who adored her older sister more than anyone?
The thought that her mother and Sea might die terrified ten-year-old Sejin more than anything.
[Yes. Your beloved mother—and your younger sister, Sea as well.]
Fear surged around her feet like rising tides, gripping her ankles and refusing to let go.
[So if you do not wish to lose the family you love.]
Sejin erased the word “refusal” from her mind.
Her family’s lives were at stake.
Even at ten years old, she understood this wasn’t something she could ignore.
[Accept me.]
The gentle yet inescapable voice echoed in her ears.
“Are you sure a gate’s opening around here? It’s way too quiet.”
Inside the noisy soup restaurant, Sejin wore earphones so she wouldn’t look like someone talking to herself.
[Are you doubting my abilities?]
Pagun snapped irritably.
“It’s not that. It’s just—these days the Hunter Association guys predict gate locations ridiculously well.”
[It’s not a gate. It’s a Ghost Gate!]
“Ah. Yes, sir.”
Sejin replied half-heartedly to the pedantic correction.
Ghost gate or gate—it was the same thing. Didn’t he get tired of flipping out over wording every time?
She shook her head as if conceding to Pagun’s stubbornness.
[How many times must I correct you? Tsk.]
She’d nearly been verbally pulverized just for one wrong word.
Pagun had always been like this. He constantly complained that this world was fundamentally flawed.
The “Ghost Gate” he spoke of—
It was a doorway connecting this world and hell, allowing evil spirits to pass through.
Modern humans called them “gates,” and the creatures that emerged “creatures.”
“Y-Yes, anyway—ga—Ghost Gate.”
Sejin quickly corrected herself before making another mistake.
Seriously. Everyone had called them gates since birth. Why insist on Ghost Gate?
‘What a personality.’
Even after twelve years of Pagun’s nagging, Sejin’s habits refused to change.
[Stubborn.]
Huh? Who, me?
Hearing that from Pagun made her eyes bulge.
Seriously? Just because you’re a god?
Sighing deeply after the scolding, Sejin muttered inwardly.
I’ll endure it.
“The g—Ghost Gate detectors are really accurate these days.”
Unlike the past, when gates opened without warning, now their locations could be predicted.
Out of roughly twenty monthly gate openings, fifteen were predicted correctly.
Thanks to scientific advancement, perhaps. After all, if gate difficulty kept rising while humanity stagnated, they’d already be extinct.
If that had happened, the world would’ve ended long before she ever accepted a god.
“They’re accurate like weather forecasts now.”
[Accurate? They said it wouldn’t rain, then said it would.]
“…Fair point.”
Having been betrayed by the weather forecast more than once, Sejin nodded and looked around.
The fifty-year-old Kim Mak-rye Soup House was packed with customers.
The sign outside showed a kindly grandmother in a traditional hanbok—
Yet behind the counter stood a shockingly youthful grandmother dripping in gold jewelry.
Certified famous restaurant.
“Let’s eat first. Then think.”
Drawn by the savory aroma, Sejin opened the utensil drawer.
[Today’s Ghost Gate would be rated C-grade by modern standards.]
That wasn’t impossible to handle alone, but it wasn’t easy either.
Sejin’s strength—bearing only Pagun among the gods—was still in an awkward middle stage.
[Still, do not let your guard down. I am the only one of the Seven Stars you possess.]
Knowing that, Pagun warned her sternly.
She pouted, remembering how badly she’d suffered the last time she entered a C-grade gate.
Before entering, Pagun had repeatedly warned her not to fool around. She’d been overconfident—and paid for it with hours of relentless nagging.
“Yes, sir. Grandpa.”
[Such disrespect, even when I worry for you.]
“By the way… think any other gods will show up today? It’s been over ten years. Nothing at all.”
Sejin quickly changed the subject before another storm of nagging began.
If she listened any longer, she’d be exhausted before even entering the gate.
