Chapter 003
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-ng!
[Gate Cleared! Would you like to receive your clear reward?]
A faint status window floated before Kang Jin-seo, who had just solo-cleared an AA-rank Gate. Due to his wide-range collapse skill, the debris of monsters and structures had turned into dust, drifting through the air and obscuring his vision.
Jin-seo narrowed his eyes and checked his wristwatch. It was a tool he used specifically to measure his clear times.
4 hours and 19 minutes.
At the number that far exceeded his expected time, Jin-seo roughly ran a hand through his hair, which had turned gray from the dust.
“I’m going to hear it again.”
He could practically hear the nagging of Lee Ahn, an Association employee.
‘I told you a thousand times to take the path that’s already there, not to make your own by smashing perfectly good walls!’
And Jin-seo would always give the same reply:
‘I wish I just had one teammate who was good at finding directions.’
But everyone knew that wish was unlikely to come true. His wide-range collapse skill possessed a merciless destructive power that applied to allies just as much as enemies. To begin with, how many Hunters in the world could withstand the attack of an S-rank Hunter?
‘Ugh! I swear that man gets lost on purpose!’
Lee Ahn would vent in frustration, but Jin-seo truly was incapable of finding his way. Whenever he used his skill, places where paths once existed became empty, hollowed-out spaces, making it impossible for him to gain his bearings.
Today was no different. Covered head to toe in dust, Jin-seo pushed himself through the Gate exit. The moment the city air hit his lungs, his phone erupted with a frantic barrage of notifications. He knew immediately that something extraordinary had happened.
[Calamity-grade Labyrinth Gates occurred. All Hunters requested for emergency mobilization. Dongjak-gu, Mapo-gu, Songpa-gu…….]
He sprinted straight toward the nearest Gate in Mapo-gu, but he came to a dead stop right before entering. It was because of one single word he had belatedly remembered.
‘Labyrinth’
If he got lost even in ordinary dungeons, how many hours would he have to wander if he entered a Labyrinth Gate?
“Haah…….”
A short sigh escaped his lips. A faint tension spread across his normally expressionless face, but he entered the Gate without further hesitation. The moment he plummeted from the sky and landed on the very top of a massive labyrinth wall, a thunderous Boom! echoed.
“…….”
He felt a strange sense of dissonance inside the Gate. It was an inexplicable, odd feeling that even he—someone who had entered every rank from the lowest to the highest difficulty—couldn’t quite describe. It was definitely different from any Gate he had entered before.
“Don’t enter the labyrinth! Protect the civilians here as much as possible!”
“Five charging-type monsters approaching from the front!”
“Healer! Over here!”
“Aaaaagh! Help me!”
In the large open plaza, Hunters were scrambling to protect the civilians who had dropped into the Gate. Jin-seo let out another short sigh. Because of his wide-range skill that didn’t distinguish between friend and foe, a Gate filled with civilians was highly restrictive for a man who always played solo.
If he used his skill, people would be swept away; if he killed monsters one by one with his sword, he was destined to lose his way and get trapped in the maze. Jin-seo leapt down from the wall, hoping that some capable Hunter who could find the exit had already entered this Gate.
* * *
It had been over three hours since the #1 Ranker entered the Gate, but the situation had not changed. In fact, it had worsened. The exhausted Hunters were starting to be pushed back by the monsters, and the terrified civilians were blocking the Hunters’ paths.
Jin-seo, who had been moving back and forth atop the labyrinth walls to gather lost civilians into the central plaza, clicked his tongue at the stagnant progress. He had been trying to force a path by destroying walls at random, but the damn walls kept respawning.
Ultimately, he had no choice but to return to the central plaza. If even he got lost and trapped, there would be no one left to assist the Hunters protecting the civilians in the center.
“X-bal……. Another wave of monsters is coming…….”
“Aaargh! The barrier here is breached!”
“I’m out of mana……. We’re out of potions, too!”
Even if he protected them all, a limit would eventually be reached. If they couldn’t find the exit like this, they would eventually be overwhelmed and killed by the endlessly spawning monsters. It was time to make a decision.
“…….”
Having finished his deliberations, he moved to the point furthest from the central plaza. He intended to destroy the entire Gate with his wide-range collapse skill, leaving nothing but the exit. Of course, he wasn’t confident he could control the range enough to ensure the central plaza wouldn’t collapse along with it.
His fatal weakness was that the more monsters and structures he collapsed, the more mana he absorbed from them, causing him to lose self-control.
“…….”
It was a dangerous gamble that could turn everyone except himself into dust, but…… he couldn’t think of a better way right now.
Jin-seo stood still, taking thin, shallow breaths. The sensation in his fingertips was growing dull. At that moment, the carnage caused by his mistake five years ago flashed through his mind. However, he forced himself to ignore it. There was no other choice.
Just as he sharpened his gaze and prepared to release his seal to discharge his internal mana to its maximum—
“……!”
He sensed a familiar flow of mana from a place not too far away.
‘The exit?’
It was a mana flow that could only be felt from a Gate’s exit. Jin-seo quickly turned his head. With the superior vision of an S-rank Hunter, he caught sight of a woman limping toward the newly manifested Gate exit.
A woman with a slender build and long brown hair tied up in a ponytail. ……Was it just his imagination that her back looked familiar?
Tudududuk.
The soil and monster remains that had turned to dust because of his power floated in the air before instantly crashing to the ground. In that moment, a status window appeared before everyone in the Gate.
[Gate Cleared!]
Simultaneously, Jin-seo dashed toward the Gate exit at maximum speed. He had never heard news of a Hunter with an Exploration skill existing in Korea. But this was a woman who had found the exit that every other Hunter in the Gate had failed to find. She couldn’t be anything other than a Hunter with an Exploration skill.
If so, she was either an unregistered Hunter or a freelancer. Or perhaps she had awakened just today. He had to find that woman with the precious skill at all costs.
Not only would she be a great asset to the nation, but he intended to ask her to become his teammate for clearing Gates together. Since Jin-seo hadn’t sensed her presence or mana until the very moment the exit was created, she had to be of the same rank as him—or even higher.
‘I have to catch her no matter what.’
The moment Jin-seo stepped through the exit—
“Oh! It’s Hunter Kang Jin-seo!”
“Take a picture! The Gate has been cleared!”
“I knew Hunter Kang Jin-seo would pull it off!”
The woman he was looking for was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he was surrounded by a bustle of civilians shoving phones in his face and reporters holding cameras. Only about 20 seconds had passed since she exited, yet no one knew her whereabouts.
* * *
February 19th, 10:10 PM.
Thousands of civilians poured out of the Labyrinth Gate exit in Seoul. It was an achievement reached only four hours after Labyrinth Gates had appeared worldwide. While even countries with Exploration-skill Hunters were groaning in frustration, unable to find even a clue, all 11 Gates in Seoul had been cleared.
S-rank Hunter Kang Jin-seo, the first to emerge from the exit—news of him spread rapidly across the globe. The Korean Hunter Association and the Blue House were in a state where normal operations were impossible due to the non-stop ringing of phones and flood of messages.
A smile refused to leave the face of Chairman Maeng, who had been wearing a look of despair just minutes ago.
“Bwahahaha! As expected of our S-rank Hunter! He never lets us down! Who called him directionally challenged? Eh?”
Upon hearing the news that Kang Jin-seo was returning to headquarters, Chairman Maeng couldn’t keep his backside on the sofa. A blessing! A golden lump of luck! The entire world was screaming that they would give him a fortune if he would just send Hunter Kang Jin-seo their way!
What if he sent Kang Jin-seo to clear the Gates in other countries one by one? Not only would the prestige of the Korean Hunter Association skyrocket, but they could stack money all the way to outer space.
“But when exactly is he com……!”
“……late.”
“Oh! Oh! Hunter Kang! My goodness! You’ve worked so hard, truly. Here, sit down. I’ve personally prepared the drink you like. Go on, have some of this first.”
Jin-seo stared at the glass of milk thrust into his hand. Steam was rising from it. His straight brows furrowed slightly. It was true that he liked milk, but he found it unpleasant that Chairman Maeng knew that fact.
Jin-seo immediately placed the glass on the table.
“I will submit the Gate report immediately after I’ve washed up.”
His cold, sunken voice echoed quietly through the Chairman’s office.
“No, no! Forget the report for now!”
“……Are you going to ask why the clear time was delayed? I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I……”
“Hunter Kang!”
Chairman Maeng cut him off and grabbed his scarred hands. His eyes were shining like never before.
“Don’t be shocked.”
“……?”
“I’m telling you, the whole world is waiting for you! They said they’ll give you as much money as you ask for and even hand over whatever national treasure items you want!”
“……?”
“You’re so shocked you’ve lost your words! Hahaha! It’s understandable! From those high-and-mighty Germans and Russians to……!”
Jin-seo slowly pulled his hands from the Chairman’s grip and knit his brows.
“Why are those countries waiting for me?”
“Why else? Ah! You might not know. The Labyrinth Gates that appeared in Seoul have appeared in capitals all over the world. But right now, we are the only ones who have cleared them! So everyone is in an uproar, asking us to send you to their country first!”
Great greed overflowed from Chairman Maeng’s eyes.
“The President will be arriving shortly! He decided to respect your opinion, but in my view, in exchange for receiving an S-rank artifact from Germany……”
Ha.
The thing that cut off Chairman Maeng’s chipper voice was Jin-seo’s low sigh. His deep, sunken brown eyes stared straight at the Chairman.
“I am not the one who cleared the Gate.”
“What? No, if not you, then who could have cleared the……”
In the Chairman’s office, which had been buzzing with intense excitement, a sudden silence fell.
