Chapter 1

Please save me

According to the Hunter Association accident statistics I saw during a recent training session, around 2,800 people had been listed as missing at gates within the country over the past year.

Disappearing inside a gate did not immediately mean you were declared dead.

Since no body had been found, the paperwork simply listed you as ‘missing.’

Of course, that made little difference in the field.

After an evacuation was complete, people left alone inside a gate almost never came back alive.

At the time, I had thought it was someone else’s problem and merely glanced at the numbers before moving on.

... If I’d known my name would end up on that list, I would’ve looked more closely.

“Main force evacuation complete. All confirmed personnel alive.”

When I heard those words through the special radio used for gates, I was hanging from a backpack caught on a pile of collapsed rubble, unable to move an inch.

A moment later, another voice cut in.

“Wait. One person from the rear is unaccounted for. Transporter Yoon Jaemin.”

Bzzzt—.

“Transporter Yoon Jaemin, can you hear me? Please respond if you can.”

I had to answer.

Tell them I was here. That I was still alive.

I barely managed to clutch the radio.

“...He...re...”

The voice I barely forced out broke apart in my throat.

The backpack strap had dug into my neck at that moment.

I could barely breathe.

The more I tried to inhale, the tighter the backpack strap cinched around my throat.

Even so, I squeezed out what little strength remained in my fingers and refused to let go of the radio.

If I missed this chance now, another one would never come.

With that single thought, I barely managed to press the transmit button.

Then I heard another conversation through the radio.

“Chief. There’s no response.”

“Why are you still checking? Bad luck. With a collapse like that, he probably just died in there. Just cut it off. Hurry up and write the report so we can go home.”

Bzzzt—.

Click.

“...Still.”

The voice scraped out of my throat and echoed between the piles of stone.

“One person... is still here.”

At that moment, the strength went out of my legs.

My body, which had been holding on, slipped downward.

Snap—.

At the same time, the backpack strap crushing my neck broke.

“Huuuh... Damn it.”

Gasping for breath, I barely managed to pull myself upright.

The first thing that came to mind wasn’t the fact that I was alive, but something else.

Of all places, the company I had contracted with this time was notorious for framing people and billing the bereaved family for the equipment first.

It would already be unfair enough to die. I couldn’t let my final record say I was some useless bastard on top of that.

I covered my mouth with my sleeve and swept the flashlight around.

The ceiling and floor were almost touching in the direction the main force had left through.

When I nudged one stone, gravel came pouring down from above.

“... This way won’t work.”

I turned around.

The sack of magic stones attached to the end of the backpack was swaying back and forth.

Using a nearby rock as support, I tugged on the backpack.

After straining a few times, the backpack finally came free.

I strapped the sack of magic stones separately to my side.

Even if I made it out alive, these were the kind of people who would ask where I had thrown away the equipment.

Better make sure I brought it with me.

“So what do I do now...”

I looked around for a moment.

It would have been nice if there were even some little crawlspace somewhere, but of course there wasn’t.

Unfortunately, there was no way out.

The only path left now led deeper inside.

“...Guess I have to go.”

For someone like me, who wasn’t even an Awakened, to venture deeper into a gate alone.

Under normal circumstances, it would have been unimaginable.

Fortunately, the monsters had already been cleared out, so none were in sight.

After walking deeper inside for quite some time, I spotted a large crack in one wall.

It was just wide enough to squeeze through if I turned sideways.

When I pushed the flashlight into the gap, I saw something red near the entrance

At first I thought it was a work glove, but when I pulled it out, an oval pendant about the size of one joint of a finger emerged, hanging from a broken red necklace cord.

“This is... A pendant?”

Its exterior was covered in scratches, and the hinge of the cover was half bent.

When I carefully opened it, a faded photograph appeared inside.

A photo of a woman that looked as though it had been taken a long time ago.

“Who does this belong to...”

I noticed faint writing remaining on the back of the pendant, so I took off my glove and scratched at it a few times with my fingernail until a name appeared.

Baek■rin.

The moment I confirmed the name, blue light spread from my fingertips.

“Huh?”

[Rescue Target Tracking]

[Medium Confirmed: Damaged Pendant]

A translucent blue window appeared before my eyes.

I had heard during training that Awakened people saw things like this, but this was my first time seeing one myself.

Beneath it, faint footprints spread outward.

One heel was deeply imprinted, and beside it was a trail showing that something had been dragged, continuing all the way into the gap in the wall.

“Is it because of this?”

To check, I put the pendant down on the floor, and the footprints disappeared.

When I picked it up again, the trail reappeared as though nothing had happened.

“...This is kind of hard to believe.”

So I can see the trail when I’m holding the pendant...

Unless I’d gone insane and started hallucinating, it seemed I had probably Awakened.

“...”

If I was going to Awaken anyway, they could’ve at least given me an ability flashy enough to smash through walls.

What kind of ability was this supposed to be?

“...Figures. That’s just my luck.”

I was an idiot for getting my hopes up.

Not once in my life had I ever been lucky.

I grew up without even knowing my parents’ faces, and unlike everyone else, I had nothing inherited from anyone.

I didn’t have any abilities worth mentioning either, so the only work I could do involved physical labor.

That was why I chose to become a gate porter.

I thought that at least I wouldn’t starve to death.

I never imagined I’d be abandoned inside a gate on my very first day of work.

“... Sigh. Let’s go.”

Anyway, I didn’t know where this led, but going there seemed like the right thing to do for now.

I exhaled every last bit of air in my lungs and pushed myself into the gap.

My side scraped against the rock, sending up a stinging pain.

Enduring the scraping against my side, I somehow kept moving until the space ahead opened up.

“What is this place...”

A tiled corridor.

At a glance, it even looked somewhat like a temple.

Whoooom—.

Then a blue line appeared beneath my feet.

Unlike the faint footprints from before, it ran backward in the direction I had come from.

[Return Portal Connected]

[Destination: Gate Exterior Entry Zone]

[Return Condition: Accompany Rescue Target]

[Accompanying Capacity: 1 Person Excluding User]

[Remaining Duration: 39:59]

A return portal.

The moment I saw it, my heart pounded hard.

Until just a moment ago, it had clearly been a dark gap between rocks.

Now, beyond it, I could faintly see the familiar white tent overlapping the darkness.

The place where I had briefly stayed before entering the gate.

“I’m saved.”

I reached out almost reflexively.

But the instant my fingertips touched the blue light, something like a solid barrier pushed them back.

“...Huh?”

I pushed again, but the result was the same.

The outside was right there, yet I couldn’t even get one hand through.

Instead, another blue window appeared.

[Return Condition Has Not Been Met.]

[Please Accompany the Rescue Target.]

I stared at the message for a while.

Then I slowly turned my head.

The blue footprints were still leading deeper into the corridor.

“Ah. Seriously...”

The message was clear.

I couldn’t leave by myself.

I looked down at the pendant I had brought with me.

Baek■rin.

I still had no idea whether the owner of this trail was truly in there.

Maybe this pendant had simply been abandoned, and there could be something else waiting in there instead...

[38:12]

Nearly two minutes had passed in the meantime.

I had no idea what might happen from here on out, so I couldn’t keep wasting time like this.

“Huu...”

I also had no way of knowing how long this newly awakened ability would continue working properly.

I tightly wrapped one end of a rope around a protrusion near the gap in the wall and secured the rest around my waist.

“Is anyone there?”

My voice traveled down the corridor, but there was no answer.

Instead.

Screeeech—.

I heard an unknown metallic scraping and grinding sound.

My feet stopped naturally.

Cold sweat began running down my back.

The fear that I might die wrapped around my entire body.

After all, just because I, an ordinary porter until moments ago, had Awakened didn’t mean my fear would suddenly disappear too.

“Damn it...”

But I only had one choice anyway.

I forced myself to steady my nerves and started walking again.

As I followed the blue footprints, I noticed one tile just ahead of my toes was slightly raised.

Something about it looked suspicious, so I picked up a piece of stone lying nearby and threw it hard onto the tile.

Click—.

In an instant, arrows poured out from both walls.

“...Insane.”

If I’d stepped on it without thinking, I would have been turned into a pincushion.

Only then did I understand for certain.

The trail only showed me the way. It did not choose a safe route for me.

From then on, I checked the ground one step at a time as I moved.

Eventually, I reached the end of the corridor.

The ceiling had collapsed at an angle, leaving only a gap barely large enough for a person to crawl through on their stomach.

Seeing that the trail passed through that gap, I supposed it wanted me to go through there as well.

“Hup—.”

Holding the pendant in one hand and the flashlight between my teeth, I lowered myself and crawled into the gap.

It was so low that the top brushed against my back, but somehow I barely managed to squeeze through.

“You there.”

At that moment, a voice came from deeper inside.

It was a low, firm voice.

It wasn’t even loud, yet my body froze before I could think.

“Turn off the light. Now.”

I reflexively switched off the flashlight.

The instant my vision disappeared, I heard the sound of something scratching against a door somewhere.

“Stay exactly where you are.”

I did as she said and waited without moving, and little by little, my eyes adjusted to the darkness.

There was one person at the end of the corridor.

It was difficult to make out her exact appearance.

A dense blue light was wavering around the person, almost as if marking her so I would know to come all the way here.

From her voice, I could just barely tell that she was a woman.

Scrape—.

At that moment, a black finger crawled out through the crack in the door.

As the finger groped across the floor and stretched toward me, the woman lightly waved her hand at it.

Thud.

The severed finger rolled across the floor a few times before stopping right in front of me.

“Were you bitten?”

“No. I wasn’t bitten.”

“Those things react strongly to bright light. Don’t turn on your flashlight carelessly.”

As I drew closer, the situation became a little clearer.

A sword was embedded in a groove in the floor, bracing the door at an angle.

Every time something pushed from the other side, the sword hilt jolted violently, but it refused to budge, as though something were holding it in place.

“Where did you come from?”

“From the collapsed corridor back there. I found this...”

When I held up the pendant, the mass of light surged violently once.

“... Why do you have that? Put it down beside my foot. Right now.”

“Yes. I’ll put it down.”

I placed the pendant beside her boot as ordered.

The blue footprints stretching along the corridor vanished all at once.

At the same time, the mass of blue light covering her slowly faded away.

‘No way? Whew...’

I reflexively turned my head.

Fortunately, fortunately, the line leading to the return portal was still there.

“Whew... Thank goodness— huh?”

Only then did her face come into view.

A woman with red eyes who looked to be in her mid-twenties.

Her name was written on the metal nameplate on her collar.

Baek Seorin.

It was a name and face that were impossible not to recognize.

The youngest S-rank Hunter who had once caused a sensation throughout South Korea.

I had seen her photo hanging in the training center hallway so many times I was sick of it.

Just a few days ago, I had even read an article marking the seventh anniversary of her disappearance.

“Hunter Baek Seorin... Is that really you?”

She glanced toward the gap I had entered through before answering.

“Yeah. I’m Baek Seorin. Where are the others?”

“I’m alone.”

“Did you come in with a rescue team?”

“No.”

I showed her the temporary entry pass hanging from my waist.

At the bottom of the pass, it read ‘Yoon Jaemin / Transporter.’

“As you can see, I’m a porter. I got separated while carrying supplies.”

Baek Seorin looked over my entry pass and backpack once before asking.

“Do you have a way back?”

Her voice was indifferent.

She sounded like someone who had never expected an answer in the first place.

“Yes. I found a way back. A return portal connected to the outside appeared where I came in.”

Only then did Baek Seorin turn to look at me.

“...What?”

For a moment, the red aura surrounding the blade wavered

Boom!

As the iron door pushed inward, Baek Seorin hurriedly threw her weight against it.

Fortunately, the iron door did not move any farther.

“W-Wait.”

For the first time, Baek Seorin’s voice shook.

“What did you just say? H-How...”

“Well...”

I pointed a finger at the pendant lying beside her.

“I think it’s probably my Awakened ability. When I grabbed that pendant, a window called ‘Rescue Target Tracking’ appeared.”

“That’s a pendant I lost a long time ago. There’s a photo of my mother inside.”

“... I don’t know if this pendant was the trigger, but when I followed the trail, something called a ‘Return Portal’ appeared. I personally confirmed that it connects to the outside.”

“Hmm. A return portal... I’ve never heard of an ability like that before.”

Baek Seorin fell silent for a moment.

“I’m not exactly sure either. It’s an ability I just got after Awakening...”

“... You’re not lying right now, are you? If what you’re saying is true, you could’ve just left on your own without coming all the way here.”

“Hmm. Actually, I couldn’t pass through it by myself. It said I had to accompany the rescue target in order to return.”

I looked back and forth between the pendant and Baek Seorin.

“Which means?”

“I have to go with you, Hunter, if I want to get out.”

Baek Seorin’s eyes widened slightly.

“So please save me.”

“...”