It was about a forty-five-minute drive from the Countermeasure Bureau to the Yeouido gate.

The moment he arrived at the scene.

What Jung-woo encountered were the gate management executives of Seunghyeoldan.

And a swarm of reporters Seunghyeoldan had assembled.

“Hunter Shin Jung-woo! Just one look over here, please!!!”

“Hunter Shin Jung-woo has appeared at the Yeouido Third gate site! The atmosphere here is…”

“Any news on merchandise releases from the Countermeasure Bureau!”

Jung-woo understood in an instant.

‘A media play.’

They were likely gathering public attention to fabricate an alibi.

On the surface, it was a stage set to demonstrate their willingness to cooperate actively with the corporate audit and reform.

Regardless of whether they knew each other’s true intentions, once the scheme had extended this far, even such minor gestures carried outsized significance.

Jung-woo bowed his head to the reporters firing flashes in his direction and spoke.

“I’m on official duty, so I’ll postpone interviews to a later time.”

With that, he turned toward the gate.

Someone greeted Jung-woo warmly.

“Hunter Shin Jung-woo, a pleasure to meet you. I’m Yang Seong-geun, director of Seunghyeoldan.”

The man offering greetings with a broad smile appeared to be in his mid-to-late fifties, with an unassuming demeanor.

He extended his hand for a handshake, and Jung-woo took it.

That was the moment.

“I hear you’ve been making quite a name for yourself lately.”

“I appreciate the generous assessment.”

“Perhaps you’re working a little too hard?”

It was a sarcastic remark.

Naturally, it didn’t faze Jung-woo in the slightest.

“When you’re on the public payroll, you’d better work hard. That’s exactly why I’m here.”

Jung-woo smiled brightly.

For a fleeting moment, the director’s lips twisted—but the change was so brief that no one besides Jung-woo could have noticed it.

“…Youth is a fine thing. I had my days like that too.”

Even his words, which sounded like nostalgic reminiscence, were unmistakably laced with mockery.

Beyond that, the entire spectacle already felt like a farce to Jung-woo.

They surely knew by now.

This was not simply the product of a young hunter’s enthusiasm.

The Countermeasure Bureau was challenging the Management Bureau’s foothold, and in doing so, attempting to dismantle the infrastructure they had built.

Knowing this, they had laid this trap.

Both sides hiding blades behind each other’s backs while exchanging smiles to their faces—how could that not be absurd?

Maintaining a political stance alongside such an opponent could have induced self-loathing.

In a way, Jung-woo was grateful for them.

‘At least when the opposition is people like this, one thing becomes certain: I’m on the side of justice.’

He could be certain because he knew every one of their corruptions.

No matter how determined Jung-woo was to get his hands dirty, even if he approached the limits of human decency, he could never match what these people had done.

That fact was an immeasurable relief.

“Then let’s get straight to the point. The concentration is approaching A-Rank threshold limits. Internal purification reports have been omitted. There are two major violations, along with several minor reporting regulation infractions.”

“Haha, my apologies. We should have been more careful on our end, but with three gates to manage, it seems such a slip-up occurred.”

“This isn’t something to brush off as a simple mistake. Gate management regulation violations.”

Even so, he kept up his glib chatter with a laugh.

That composure in the face of a serious matter was precisely what demonstrated the entrenched position of Seunghyeoldan, that cartel of political-business collusion.

Jung-woo smiled pleasantly.

“I’ll reset it now. Please open the gate.”

“I shall humbly comply.”

What had they prepared?

Even so, Teddy Bear alone had already demonstrated its performance.

If they had any plan, one could tell that the trap laid within was at least capable of handling that one.

For that moment, he erased all complacency.

Cool-headed and steady in the field.

It was a habit ingrained in Jung-woo’s body since his days as an exploration team leader.

With that, he entered the gate.

“Entering now.”

He realized what they had prepared immediately after.

Biii—!

“E-Emergency! Gate pressure exceeding threshold!!!”

A voice dripping with desperate acting came through the communication equipment.

“H-Hunter Shin Jung-woo’s mana is triggering a gate response! Gate mutation! The rank is… S!!!”

The sky within the gate turned crimson.

The environmental pressure intensified, and goosebumps rose across his skin.

Kiiiiiiik—!

From far in the distance, the cries of countless bizarre birds began to echo.

Crystals jutted upward like mountain ranges.

Emerging behind them were massive dragon-type flying magical beasts, their entire bodies sheathed in ice.

It was dangerous.

That much Jung-woo, standing right there, could feel without anyone needing to tell him.

Yet in this moment, rather than fear, Jung-woo couldn’t help but let out a laugh mixed with admiration at their transparently obvious intent.

‘Ah, this. Well, it is their favorite method.’

Something surfaced from the depths of his memory.

‘How many did the Management Bureau bury as accidental deaths again?’

Based on the exposed information alone, the number had exceeded three digits.

That was how much this organization loved disguising eliminations as “unforeseen accidents.”

It made sense, didn’t it?

Setting aside questions of power, the fact that they carried out such acts without hesitation was precisely why no one dared to touch the Management Bureau.

At any rate, only then did the outline of this scheme become visible to Jung-woo.

‘An S-Rank gate occurrence caused by management negligence. It wouldn’t have mattered who entered. The internal pressure must have been powerful enough to trigger a mutation from that external factor regardless of who went in. It just so happened that I was the one who stepped in…’

Since he was the only personnel capable of responding on-site, retreating here would collapse the footing he had built in one fell swoop.

A situation where he had no choice but to demonstrate his determination to resolve it.

And so, the not-yet-fully-grown Shin Jung-woo would nobly perish in an S-Rank gate he had been forced to enter.

Afterward, the S-Rank hunters of the Three Great Guilds would be urgently deployed to subjugate the gate.

Once that was done, they could sacrifice a few management officials to appease public opinion.

‘”Due to management negligence, we suffered too great a sacrifice. We will take responsibility and restructure the organization.” Something like that? And if they canonize me in the process, it becomes easier to manage public sentiment too.’

It seemed too cheap a trick, but surprisingly, it worked well.

If they layered on other issues as follow-up measures, the public’s anger would quickly lose its cohesion.

Of course, for that to work, there was one prerequisite.

‘I have to die. That’s the condition.’

An S-Rank gate was certainly a place where even an S-Rank hunter could die recklessly if they lacked sufficient experience.

In fact, hunter-related case studies sometimes presented relevant international examples to novice hunters to instill caution.

Even so, Jung-woo did not consider this a significant threat.

Why bother saying it?

He knew all too well how overwhelming physical caliber created a terrifying level gap in the hunter world.

Perhaps at this point in Korea, Jung-woo was the one who could best represent that power at its precise level.

After all, wasn’t he the only person who had witnessed with his own eyes how the fully bloomed S-Rank hunters fought during the Seoul Zero Gate disaster ten years later?

Therefore, this could not be a serious threat.

The situation itself was within his expectations from the start.

‘So they engineered an S-Rank gate environment. No champion was generated. They probably weren’t confident they could handle that. It’s not something you can create just because you want to, anyway. That would be a genuine nation-collapse-level scenario.’

Teddy Bear’s specifications had already been verified.

He was confident that any gate up to S-Rank could be handled with Teddy Bear’s bombardment alone, as long as no champion was present.

But now there was an addition.

Even without understanding the mechanism of its abilities, he had a summon whose capabilities were on par with it.

The difference between possessing a single-use strategic weapon and possessing a single-use strategic weapon ‘as well’ was so self-evident it barely needed saying.

The enemies had apparently assumed that Teddy Bear’s one big strike would be the end of it.

Given the nature of S-Rank gates, waves came in multiple surges, so they likely thought that would be enough.

Even if Sea Otter turned out to be single-use as well, it was fine.

There was the stability that came from sheer caliber.

By alternating between the two summons’ skills, even just buying recharge time would turn wave clearance into manageable labor.

‘You took a high-risk gamble. Too bad it failed.’

Jung-woo parted his lips.

“Come out.”

Jung-woo activated the skill.

What he brought out was not the Teddy Bear they had anticipated, but a different summon.

【[All-Ages Filter] is activating!】

【[Children Need Heroes!] is activating!】

【Slot 2! Sea Otter Grand Mage (S) is being summoned!】

Ppok!

A sea otter wearing a cone hat appeared with a Ppong! of smoke.

The sea otter, clutching a clam, looked up at the crimson sky within the gate.

This was a test run, for now.

Feeling a fair amount of anticipation, Jung-woo spoke.

“So, want to show me what you can do? Don’t feel pressured. If the environment doesn’t suit you, we can always call Teddy Bear.”

The moment he said that.

Ppok!

As if offended, the sea otter stamped its foot with a Tak! and roughly thrust its hand into the cone hat.

After rummaging through it, what it pulled out was a magic stone—when it had brought it out and stashed it inside the hat was anyone’s guess.

Grunting with effort, it fitted the stone into the clam.

Was there meaning to that behavior after all?

As he watched, pondering this.

Pyopyopyopyopyok!

The magical beasts entered the domain of the All-Ages Filter and began transforming into dolls.

Their charge trajectories simplified.

Having become something adorable, their comical flapping caused their formation to fall into disarray.

It was then.

Ppok!

The sea otter raised the clam with the magic stone fitted into it.

Then it slammed it against the ground.

Gwarurururung—!

The sky roared.

And with that, lightning surged upward and began drawing something in the air.

Jung-woo’s eyes widened as if they would tear open.

‘That’s…?’

The shape woven from intertwined lightning was the massive turtle-type magical beast—an A-Rank champion he had subjugated at the Dongjak-gu gate not long ago.

As if to say it was too early to be surprised, the lightning-formed magical beast let out a roar.

Then,

Jjeojeojeojeojeojeong—!

Shells erupted from the beast’s carapace and rained down in all directions.

It began bombing everything in sight.

Only then did Jung-woo realize, and he let out a hollow laugh.

The magic stone fitted into the clam was the Special magic Stone obtained from defeating that magical beast.

The clam appeared to serve as a staff.

Now the true scale emerged.

‘Copy?’

The Sea Otter Grand Mage’s ability was to replicate the skills of magical beasts embedded within Special magic Stones.

Outside the gate.

The reporters, who had been reeling from the sudden S-Rank mutation, began raising their voices in a different kind of excitement from the moment the Sea Otter Grand Mage cast its magic.

“Ah! It’s not Teddy Bear! It’s the Sea Otter! The Sea Otter has appeared!!!”

“It appears to be Hunter Shin Jung-woo’s second summon! Has there ever been a high-rank hunter who grew at this rate!!!”

“In just one month! He has succeeded in unlocking two summons capable of that level of output in a single month!!!”

The higher a summon’s entity rank, the more exponentially the difficulty of its required quest increased.

Finland’s Red Dragon was a prime example.

Would it suffice to explain that the quest to summon it required surviving five minutes submerged in lava?

The unlock conditions for an S-Rank summon were that horrifying.

Yet Jung-woo had obtained two summons that played with gates as if they were toys, without any such process.

It was an astonishing feat, and above all, the visuals.

The sight of a cone-hat-wearing sea otter grunting as it cast magic dissolved the tension.

For that reason, the reporters’ commentary became as comical as the adorable spectacle itself.

“Ah! The Sea Otter is pulling out another magic stone! It doesn’t seem to fit into the clam very well! It’s struggling! Oh! Hunter Shin Jung-woo is helping! Ah~! It got it in! What an independent summon!!!”

The cheers grew louder.

An atmosphere that could in no way be mistaken for the site of an S-Rank gate incident filled the entire area.

Amidst all this, there was someone who couldn’t smile.

‘Why? Why?’

The man drenched in cold sweat was Seunghyeoldan director Yang Seong-geun.

He hadn’t anticipated this scenario.

No—he couldn’t have anticipated it.

‘It wasn’t just one teddy bear?’

He had thought an S-Rank gate would be enough to handle it.

After all, Teddy Bear’s combat mechanism was well within the range of predictability based on the footage released through media so far, wasn’t it?

‘Intense instant bombardment. Delay. If they could just endure the first hit, an opening would appear, leaving it defenseless…’

But how had things come to this?

This was a catastrophe.

It had been a gamble from the start—one that would inevitably backfire if they failed to eliminate Jung-woo.

Seong-geun clenched his teeth.

He hurriedly picked up his smartphone to report to his superiors, but…

[The number you have dialed does not exist.]

Kwajik!

The smartphone shattered.

The contact number had been erased.

What could this mean?

‘These bastards…!’

He had been abandoned.

The sacrifice to be offered on the altar had been switched to himself.

This is how they treat him?

For a moment, fury surged within him, and he considered the option of taking them all down with him—but it was impossible.

[Director.]

It was the auditor from the Council of Elders.

Using his supernatural ability, the man whispered from an unseen location.

[I trust you will make the wise choice.]

Those who have something to lose understand fear.

Between dying alone and having his family and foundation he was responsible for wiped out entirely, Seong-geun chose the former.

His fists trembled as his shoulders slumped.

Amidst all this, the gate subjugation was completed.

Paaaaang!

“Ahhh! Subjugation complete! All enemies beyond the gate have been annihilated—!”

The Sea Otter, having fitted a new magic stone, wreathed itself in flames and delivered a dropkick that shattered the last magical beast’s neck.

Hwaaak!

The sky beyond the gate turned blue.

Vegetation sprouted across the ground.

Gate purification.

One of Seunghyeoldan’s cash cows had been reset to its initial state.

As Jung-woo emerged from the gate, a barrage of flashes rained down upon him.

Reporters raised their voices.

“Hunter Shin Jung-woo! Please tell us about your second summon!”

“What is your position on the gate mutation!”

“Just one word, please!!!”

The upper hand had been wrested from their grasp.

Jung-woo adjusted his tie, then spoke with a pleasant smile.

His gaze was aimed precisely at Seong-geun.

“It’s regrettable. An incident like this.”

Chwajwajwajwajwajwajwak—!

Was it a delusion?

That the sound of these flashes rang like gunfire.

That Jung-woo’s voice sounded like a sentencing.

“It was a bewildering incident, but I’m relieved to have resolved it safely. Regarding this matter, I intend to spare no means, including a comprehensive investigation…”

“An S-Rank gate is a national disaster. The moment it is determined to have been for private gain…”

“Ah, and regarding the merchandise questions that keep coming in, I’ll keep it brief by saying we do have plans in the works internally.”

Seong-geun’s vision went white.