Chapter 54 – Class Reunion (1)

Gates usually appear at random. However, disaster agencies can forecast them, much like a weather report.

But, as they say, it sometimes rains on the weatherman’s picnic.

Not all of the disaster agency’s forecasts were accurate.

Depending on minor environmental conditions or unexpected variables, Gates could form suddenly.

These are commonly called Unforeseen Gates.

Wheeeen!

I told the director and the other center staff to evacuate the building. Then I immediately pulled the fire alarm.

As the alarm blared through the building, people inside began to look around, one by one.

“Hunter here! Everyone, evacuate the building!”

“Huh, Hunter Lee Hyunbin?”

“Whoa! It’s really him!”

I saw people taking pictures of me with their phones, even as I was telling them to flee for their lives.

Seriously, have you never heard of image rights?

But forget image rights, a Gate is opening right here, right now!

There was no time.

It was as unstable as a balloon stretched to its limit, ready to burst at the slightest prick of a needle.

“This is a real situation! Everyone, evacuate! Hello? This is Lee Hyunbin. An Unforeseen Gate has appeared, I need reinforcements…”

In that moment, a pitch-black darkness descended.

“What the. Can someone turn on the lights?”

“Jeong-hyun, Jeong-hyun, where did you go!”

I could hear the voices of civilians.

The fire alarm I had triggered had fallen silent.

-A Gate has occurred.

-You have entered the Forest of Doppelgangers.

-Doppelgangers mimic human appearance and steal memories.

-Find the doppelganger.

-The doppelganger is absorbing sacrifices and storing power for its advent.

Seeing the messages that suddenly appeared, the civilians began to chatter, trying to make sense of their confusion.

Once inside a Gate, even ordinary people are forcibly connected to the system, allowing them to see status messages.

In other words, the probability of a civilian Awakening increases dramatically if they get caught in a Gate.

Survival instinct, or something like that.

It’s been a while, doppelgangers. These things are the epitome of tricky monsters.

They perfectly mimic the appearance and behavior of the person they steal from. Even their memories are identical, making them incredibly difficult to find.

On top of all that, they’re powerful monsters, too.

A creature that an average Hunter would need a party to barely stand a chance against was now hiding its identity, pretending to be a civilian. This was going to be tough.

“What the hell, where are we!”

“A Gate? Fuck, a Gate? Why me? I’m not even a Hunter!”

“This can’t be happening. Are there any Hunters here?”

The people, suddenly swept up in an Unforeseen Gate, voiced their confusion.

The view of the shopping center we had seen just moments ago had been replaced by a dreary forest, a cold wind blowing through the trees.

An owl hooted, and crickets chirped their tune.

I did a quick scan with my Insight skill, but all I could see were emotions like bewilderment, anger, and fear.

Could it be there’s no doppelganger among them? Or is it some kind of method actor?

“Alright, everyone.”

I called out to them calmly.

Naturally, all eyes turned to me. A few of them recognized my face, letting out sounds of surprise.

This was different from before.

Ever since I started resolving disasters and earned my S-rank, a lot more people recognized me.

“Aren’t you Hyunbin?”

“Yeah, it is.”

Suddenly, someone I didn’t even know pointed at me and spoke informally.

They looked like a couple, a man and a woman around my age.

Not only that, but a few others behind them stood up and gave me incredibly welcoming looks.

“What’s up? We couldn’t reach you, but you showed up anyway, huh?”

What?

I couldn’t understand their reactions.

And for good reason.

I was trapped in a Gate with my old classmates.

* * *

There were about twenty people who had been pulled into the Gate.

“Mister, were you here for the class reunion?”

“No.”

Katrinne was spouting nonsense beside me.

“I get it. You’re not unemployed anymore. It’s about time you wanted to show off in front of people.”

“I said no.”

She must have been watching too many weird clichés.

“Hey, don’t be like that. You should’ve told us if you were coming to the reunion or not. Everyone was pretty disappointed.”

“And you are…?”

At my words, the guy who had been talking to me so cheerfully wore a wounded expression.

Seriously, what was I supposed to do when I really didn’t know him?

“I was the class president.”

“Oh, right.”

Every class had a president. So, sure, whatever.

The woman standing next to the self-proclaimed class president spoke to me.

“It’s really good to see you again. You suddenly stopped coming to school, and everyone was so worried.”

“Is that so.”

“Why are you speaking so formally? We’re. Friends.”

It feels a bit strange for me to say this, but…

Did I even have friends in high school?

Honestly, I couldn’t remember any of them. Besides, it seemed they had been day drinking. They smelled of alcohol instead of perfume.

“I thought maybe you ghosted everyone because of that incident.”

“That incident?”

At the words of the brown-haired girl in a short skirt, I tried to recall what incident she was talking about.

“I mean, I still haven’t given you an answer.”

“An answer?”

“Yeah, about your confession to me.”

“I did?”

I didn’t even know her name. And I confessed to her?

I stared at the woman claiming I had confessed to her and wracked my brain.

Now that she mentioned it, something did seem to ring a bell.

-Hey, this bastard says he likes you.

-Ugh, so gross! Stop it, you crazy bastard!

Ah, I remembered.

A confession? Don’t make me laugh.

Back then, one of the troublemakers in class had asked me about her. What did I think of her?

I had a feeling I’d get into a fight if I said I wasn’t interested, so I just said something like, “Isn’t she okay?”

They took that and started teasing me, saying I liked her, and I remember the brown-haired girl reacting with blatant disgust.

Then those two started dating.

“Fuck, look at you trying to flirt. Hey, you used to say this guy was a total loser and a creep. What’s with the change of heart, huh?”

“When did I say that? Are you crazy?”

I remembered the guy with the short buzz cut, too. He was the school bully who had dated her.

He was thirty now, but he still had that punk attitude. But I felt like I’d seen him somewhere before.

“What, you trying to trade up because that bastard’s a higher rank? You think a Porter and a Dealer are on the same level?”

“Says who? You’re just a B-rank.”

Ah, I knew I’d seen him somewhere.

“What guild are you with?”

It was fine to speak informally, right? Since we were classmates, we had to be the same age.

“Huh?”

My sudden question made the bully classmate fall silent for a moment.

“Why?”

“Just curious.”

“He’s with the KF Hunters.”

Someone else answered. He must have been bragging about it quite a bit.

“They have a B-rank Hunter?”

“…”

As far as I knew, they didn’t have any B-rank Hunters. They were a guild ranked outside the top 50.

Lower-tier guilds mostly handled mana stone collection.

No guild was crazy enough to waste a B-rank on picking up mana stones.

“Ah, the results haven’t been officially sent yet. I’ll be getting my B-rank evaluation soon.”

A dry laugh escaped me.

“What? And here you were, acting all high and mighty.”

“Jung Ji-woong was always hanging around the bullies, pretending to be tough in school. Guess old habits die hard.”

At the other classmates’ whispers, the bully’s face turned red up to his neck.

The B-rank was a lie. He was probably a D-rank, I estimated. From his posture and the aura he gave off, he was definitely not a high-level Hunter.

In any case, the ones calling him out and the one bluffing were all the same to me. Not worth my time.

I addressed the gathered people.

“As you’ve all just seen from the system message, you’ve entered a Gate, something you’ve only heard stories about.”

The ones who called themselves my classmates finally shut up, and things seemed to be flowing more smoothly. The people who had been unable to hide their confusion were slowly calming down as they focused on me.

To them, I was famous, a Hunter, and probably someone they could trust.

“H-how do we get out?”

One person asked cautiously. It was the question on everyone’s mind.

“It ends when we destroy the core that created the Gate. As the message said, it’ll be over once we catch the doppelganger.”

Everyone was tense.

They had been dragged to an unknown place, and one of them was a monster. They instinctively kept their distance from one another.

“There’s no need to stay apart. Just sit down in a circle.”

-An elven unit has begun its pursuit to hunt the doppelganger.

A message popped up at that moment.

Thanks to epic fantasy movies, elves were a familiar race to most people.

A forest-dwelling race of beautiful beings who lived for over a thousand years.

When the message appeared stating that this fantasy race was hunting the doppelganger, everyone looked relieved.

This was going to be a huge disappointment for them.

The elves of reality were very different from the elves in the movies.

“Give me some buffs.”

“Okay.”

It really felt like it had been a long time since Katrinne and I partied up to hunt.

When I took a weapon out of my inventory, people showed signs of anxiety.

“Stow.”

I used the command, but there was no response.

“Stow.”

I tried again, but still nothing. What was going on?

Could it be that because a Gate was a different dimension, the inventory storage skill didn’t work?

-Protocol not permitted.

-Connection not established.

A shame.

“Director, please gather the people and wait here.”

“Yeah, don’t worry.”

The one silver lining was that the gym director was among those summoned here.

He had been a promising Hunter, but he’d retired for unspoken reasons and opened a gym.

Somehow, I had a feeling I knew what those unspoken reasons were.

Soon, a rustling sound came from the bushes, and figures holding bows emerged one by one.

Long ears. Androgynous features that made it hard to tell if they were male or female.

The people let out involuntary gasps of awe at the sight of the elves.

They were saying something to us.

After muttering amongst themselves in what sounded like elegant, flowing French, a message appeared.

-Unable to identify the doppelganger, the pursuers have decided to kill everyone to be sure.

The people just blinked, unable to believe the message floating before their eyes.

With clear hostility, the elves drew their bowstrings back and fired.

Swoosh!

As an arrow flew past and embedded itself in a nearby tree, people finally started screaming.

-Flee from the elves’ attack. They intend to kill everyone and use them as food.

The people froze when they read the message.

The truth was, the elves of this world were hideous creatures, despite their glamorous appearance.

They had a taste for human flesh.

“W-we have to run…!”

“W-where to?”

“B-but there’s an S-rank Hunter right there.”

“That guy’s a Porter!”

Ignoring the panicked crowd, I lightly gripped my No. 1 Sword and charged forward.

An elven arrow flew past. An arrow that passed through the space I had just occupied.

The elf’s eyes tried to follow me after I vanished.

“Hello there.”

The elf who received my greeting was no longer in a state to reply.

Its head fell to the ground. I pushed its still-standing body over, helping it lie down and rest comfortably.

A fellow elf, enraged, swung its sword at me. I blocked its blade with my No. 1 Sword, a longsword, and simultaneously slid my own sword down.

Splsh!

Another elf was down. Three remained.

‘Gotta carry my Katrinne.’

To create the perfect heal-bot, this was the least I could do.