Chapter 161 – The Rise of an Unprecedented Gate

For a while now, the occurrence of Gates had decreased significantly.

Gates were plummeting in number worldwide.

People rejoiced, believing peace was just around the corner.

Then, something happened that seemed to mock the very idea.

-This is a breaking news report. An unprecedented Gate has just appeared at Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, and the JSDF and professional hunters are moving to protect the citizens…

Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion, one of Japan’s most famous tourist attractions. A Gate had suddenly materialized there.

From the Gate, which resembled a black hole, an extraordinary number of monsters began to pour out.

A typical Gate might summon twenty to thirty monsters at most. But this one was spewing forth hundreds.

Fallen samurai wielding katanas let out bizarre wails as they sliced off the heads of tourists.

The JSDF was dispatched, deploying an encirclement strategy to annihilate the monsters before they could spread.

An immense barrage of gunfire rained down, exploding everywhere.

“What… is that…?”

The soldiers’ pupils dilated, unable to believe what they were seeing.

The samurai, their bodies shattered by bullets, rose again with grotesque laughter.

Not only that, but even the ordinary citizens killed by the samurai were getting up, their necks bent at unnatural angles.

Zombies.

The most common monster, a staple of any modern apocalypse.

“Fire!”

An overwhelming volley of fire was unleashed.

They may have been monsters, but they were meaningless before the might of modern weaponry.

Until *it* appeared.

A five-meter-tall giant adorned in golden armor and shogun regalia appeared.

The moment it appeared, everyone on the ground froze.

The shogun surveyed its surroundings with an air of authority.

It unfolded a ribbed fan and issued a command to its soldiers.

As if offended by the presence of humans in such a fine place.

The zombies began to gather in one spot. They clumped together, merged, and assembled into the form of a massive giant.

A Gashadokuro.

The colossal monster, said to be formed from the bones of the war dead, had manifested before their very eyes.

The terrified JSDF requested an airstrike. But high command was unwilling to damage a major tourist attraction over a mere Gate.

And that decision turned out to be the worst they could have possibly made.

Each volley of fire chipped away at the Gashadokuro’s body. But it didn’t matter. Nearby corpses would spring to life and fill in the wounds.

Soon, the giant monster began to trample the JSDF.

Witnessing the horrific scene, a rookie soldier abandoned his bravely fighting comrades and began to flee.

He didn’t care if they called him a coward or pointed fingers.

He had no intention of sacrificing his life in this insane battle.

“Ehehehehe.”

Just then, the bizarre laughter of a young woman reached his ears.

The soldier saw her. A woman dressed in traditional Japanese clothing.

But something was off.

Her heavy makeup was beautiful yet strangely unsettling. As she let out that grotesque laugh, her neck began to stretch and writhe like a snake.

The monster opened its mouth wide and bit the soldier’s head off.

Rokurokubi appeared from all directions. They laughed as they hunted down the fleeing people, biting them to death one by one.

The beautiful garden pond, the pride of Kinkaku-ji. In an instant, it was filled with the blood of the JSDF.

It wasn’t just Japan.

In France, which had lost its Rank 1 and seen its Rank 5 retire, a massive Gate had also opened.

As if mocking the humans who had let their guard down, thinking peace might be at hand, monsters poured out.

Yann Michael.

The S-rank hunter, formerly Rank 2 but now Rank 1, was tense as he faced this new, unseen type of Gate.

Perhaps traumatized by the Arc de Triomphe incident, France quickly evacuated its citizens and launched a missile strike.

Without any regard for whether buildings or tourist attractions were destroyed.

But as if sneering at human civilization, giant monsters emerged from the bombardment, roaring with mad laughter.

Ogres.

The man-eating monsters famous in France were moving as a legion.

Even at a glance, there were hundreds of them.

“Team Leader Yann. This is a suicide mission.”

Despite his comrade’s words, Yann did not retreat from the battlefield.

Once the bombardment ceased, it would be the hunters’ time to shine.

“Shut up. Since when does France turn tail and run?”

Every S-rank hunter they could muster in the country had gathered.

The only regret was the absence of Chicken Man and the Dancing Empress, both of whom specialized in fighting people.

Soon, the bombardment stopped.

Team Leader Yann drew his sword.

“Listen up, you bastards, the hunt is on. Don’t tell me you can’t hunt just because one bald guy and a kid are missing, right?”

The French hunters swallowed hard at the sight of the vicious ogres, who were completely unscathed by the military’s bombardment.

***

Anomalous Gate phenomena were occurring all over the world.

South Korea was no exception.

A massive Gate appeared, undetected by the Wizard System.

“No, I’m telling you, I didn’t know! How are non-experts like us supposed to know if it’s a Gate or whatever?”

The factory owner was complaining tearfully in front of the cameras.

-We are shocked to report that a factory on the outskirts of the city has been caught brazenly extracting illegal mana stones.

The factory was a place that handled illegal mana stones.

-The owner reportedly failed to report the Gate that formed in the factory to the authorities, instead unilaterally hiring illegal hunters to raid it…

It was an unprecedented blunder for South Korea.

Unlike the original Wizard System, the Second Wizard System adopted a sensor-recognition method that relied on a widespread network.

The problem was, this method didn’t work in quiet, remote areas.

In the end, one businessman’s greed led to the unilateral mining of mana stones from the Gate, and as a result, what had been a lowest-grade Gate suddenly evolved into a super-massive one.

This was different from the usual process, where a Gate would turn into a dungeon after its formation was complete.

-With the appearance of this unprecedented Gate, all relevant parties are on high alert, and a joint raid by top-ranked guild members is…

With the emergence of the massive Gate, every available hunter in the country was mobilized.

Of course, a minimum number of emergency combat personnel were left behind in each region.

Seeing the unprecedented situations unfolding in other countries, everyone felt a sense of imminent crisis.

Every day, online communities were flooded with posts to the point of crashing servers, and news feeds were dominated by articles about the Gates.

Swoosh, shhhk!

Daggers flew through the air. They seemed to be simply thrown, but each one flashed with a skill effect.

Clang!

But the daggers were blocked by an invisible barrier.

The Tushin Guild’s training ground.

Here, Seol Ji-hoon, Tushin’s sole S-rank hunter, was in the middle of training.

His opponents were five of the top-ranked hunters from his own guild.

Skill effects flared as they charged forward, aiming for Seol Ji-hoon’s neck with real swords.

Tang, clang!

But every one of their attacks was blocked by Seol Ji-hoon’s shield skill.

South Korea’s top tanker.

No attack could get through to Seol Ji-hoon.

The five attacking him were rankers considered to have the highest attack power in the Tushin Guild, yet they couldn’t even scratch him.

“Wow, phew. Phew! There’s really no opening.”

“You’re just impossible. I give up, this is hopeless!”

“Hah, hah. I don’t even know if this is, *huff*, helpful for your training. We’re just too weak in comparison.”

His comrades, who had been attacking him, collapsed onto the floor, drenched in sweat.

Watching them, Seol Ji-hoon offered a faint smile and said,

“What are you talking about, hyung? It was plenty helpful.”

“Always says the right thing, doesn’t he? Our Ji-hoon.”

His comrades smiled back at Seol Ji-hoon.

“We have the joint raid tomorrow, so let’s call it a day. Sound good?”

“Yes, hyung.”

As his comrades left, they joked that the Tushin Guild’s future was bright with Seol Ji-hoon around.

Left alone, Seol Ji-hoon peeled off the white gloves he had worn for his comrades and shoved them into the trash can.

“This isn’t even practice.”

He might be the best in the Tushin Guild, but not in his own eyes.

One-on-one was no match at all, so they had tried five-on-one, but he still felt no tension whatsoever.

Seol Ji-hoon picked up his phone from a chair and sat down.

He unlocked the screen, and a video he had saved on his phone appeared.

A video Seol Ji-hoon had specially requested and obtained in secret.

He pressed the play button.

Thwack! Pow!

In the video, two S-rank hunters were fighting.

This was no spar. They were fighting for real, fighting to kill, to break each other.

No, to say it was a real fight would be a misstatement.

-Guhk!

The battle was completely one-sided.

The man with massive muscles wore a look of disbelief.

Ever since he had awakened, he had possessed overwhelmingly greater strength than others.

Thanks to that, he had grown strong with ease.

But now, he was being toyed with.

An ironic scene was unfolding, where he was now attacking just to stay alive.

Craack!

He dodged his opponent’s fierce punch with a slight turn of his head and immediately countered, striking the man’s face.

Simple, but devastatingly effective.

This was footage of the actual fight between Lucky Man and the Delivery Man.

Bodycam footage from an agency’s special forces unit, an original copy obtained secretly and at great cost.

Lucky Boy Lee Han-seong could be seen growing more and more desperate. He was being thoroughly crushed by Lee Hyunbin.

Even without using any particular skills, Lee Hyunbin’s attacks were excruciatingly painful.

Normally, the HP Shield would neutralize the damage.

In the end, Lee Han-seong fell to his knees without landing a single clean hit on Lee Hyunbin.

Watching this, Seol Ji-hoon closed his eyes.

He remembered the first time he had fought him.

A mental duel.

He pictured a battle in his mind between the Lee Hyunbin of that time and his current self.

His ability, which had never once been broken.

He returned to the moment his Aegis had shattered.

This time, he didn’t panic.

His present self was incomparably stronger than he had been back then.

He acknowledged that Aegis could be broken.

If the opponent was strong, he just had to increase its durability even further.

He stacked the Aegis skill, over and over.

As the shields of light layered over one another, they created an overwhelmingly solid defense.

He won.

Seol Ji-hoon surrounded Lee Hyunbin with dozens of shields, immobilizing him before delivering the final blow.

‘Now, for the current Lee Hyunbin.’

He pictured a fight against the Lee Hyunbin who had overwhelmingly beaten down Lee Han-seong.

His movements were different. He threw up shields of light in all directions to block his advance.

But he charged forward faster than the shields could form.

Facing the oncoming opponent, he activated his exclusive weapon, the Twin Driver.

Ether coiled around the blades in a spiral, emitting a brilliant light.

Fshaaaaa!

Seol Ji-hoon slashed at the charging Lee Hyunbin. But he couldn’t cut him.

He didn’t know why.

His opponent’s fist rattled his jaw.

It hurt. It felt like his HP Shield wasn’t working properly. No, the HP Shield was fine.

It was just that his opponent’s attack was unbelievably strong.

He lost.

A real fight is different from a simulation.

In a real battle, the opponent would react more nimbly, attacking in even more unpredictable ways.

Seol Ji-hoon re-entered his inner world, simulating the battle again.

There, the monstrous Lee Hyunbin was still charging at him, unarmed.

He lost. He lost again, and again.

He couldn’t win. No, he couldn’t even picture a scenario where he could win.

Crack!

Without realizing it, Seol Ji-hoon threw his phone.

He watched as the phone, slammed against the floor, spectacularly spewed out its components and shattered.

He couldn’t overcome him. That monster.

He was probably even stronger now. He didn’t know how, but with every passing moment, Lee Hyunbin was becoming a monster he couldn’t even dare to look at.

“Why’d you break a perfectly good phone?”

Only then did Seol Ji-hoon realize someone else was in the training room.

“It’s you.”

A woman with a black bob, a black choker around her neck, dressed entirely in black.

Her villain name was the Company Man, but now she was known as the Shadow Mage of the Tushin Guild: Ryu Ji-yeon.

“Why are you so angry?”

“I can’t beat him.”

Hearing Seol Ji-hoon’s words, Ryu Ji-yeon hung a slick smile on her lips.

“Let me change your perspective a bit. It’ll put your mind at ease.”

“?”

“That man. He hasn’t even recovered his synchronization rate yet.”

“What…?”

For once, Seol Ji-hoon showed a rare, intense emotion at Ryu Ji-yeon’s words.

That was absurd.

When you connect to a new system in a different dimension, you awaken new abilities and have to level up again.

To regain your original power, you have to go through synchronization. And the method of synchronization is different for everyone.

“His synchronization rate… you mean he’s like that when it’s not even complete?”

Seol Ji-hoon suddenly felt a wave of despair.

The day he was brutally defeated by him.

He had thought he would one day get his revenge.

Thanks to the invasion of the filthy modern humans, the continent he had lived on had suffered a mass extinction.

The survivors were now rebuilding their civilization, but he had no desire to return.

He had to get revenge.

He had lived with that single thought, but the one blocking his path was a giant.

An insurmountable one at that.

“More importantly, there’s a directive from Kei.”

Ignoring Seol Ji-hoon’s darkened expression, Ryu Ji-yeon continued.

“The day of revenge has finally come.”

Hearing her words, a strength returned to Seol Ji-hoon’s eyes.

Her words heralded the arrival of the moment he had been waiting for.

Seol Ji-hoon felt a slight feverish heat.

“You look happy. How cute.”

Seeing Ryu Ji-yeon’s low chuckle, Seol Ji-hoon glared at her.

“Scary. Could you not look at me like that?”

“What is it you even want?”

“Me?”

They had lost their homes because of the mages who crossed over from the modern world.

The villains who harbored vengeance for that reason had crossed dimensions.

What they wanted was revenge.

But the Company Man, she was a little different.

Even when she massacred hunters, it was never for the sake of revenge.

“Well, what do you think I want?”

Ryu Ji-yeon gave a sly smile.

In her heart, there was only one thing.

She wanted to see that sight from back then one more time.

That brilliant golden light.

The light that had saved her when she had been living as a man just to survive. She had, at some point, become a moth drawn to that flame.

***

At that same moment. An incident was unfolding elsewhere.

“What did you say?”

Kei asked his subordinate again.

“All of our agents in the Gyeongbuk region have been taken out…”

Kei tilted his head.

This wasn’t part of the blueprint he had laid out.

He had planned to mobilize his secretly formed organization all at once for an attack. Something was starting to go wrong.

There was only one reason for a chosen future to go awry.

“So the Hero has made his move.”

The corners of Kei’s mouth twisted.