Chapter 9

I hate the thought of you going in alone and ending up in danger even more

I thought it would be quick now that we’d even found the dog tag.

“... I think it’s left.”

“You said right earlier.”

“Ahh... Well, I’m still not used to my ability yet...”

“... Right.”

It had all been a misunderstanding.

A very grand misunderstanding.

Wasn’t there a saying that the scariest kind of person was someone who only knew a little but acted like they knew everything?

That was exactly what I looked like right now.

‘... She won’t suddenly cut me, will she?’

I glanced unnecessarily at the sword floating around, then looked forward again.

The footprints that had seemed like they would continue forever began to fade not long after we picked up the dog tag.

At one fork in the road, traces even appeared in both directions.

There were even footprints that occasionally circled around in place.

Taking all of this together, it seemed my ability wasn’t something convenient like navigation, but simply showed a record of where the rescue target had moved.

Which meant every path marked here was somewhere Han Doa had actually walked...

“Hmm...”

The heavy weight of the chunks of magic stone against my back.

It was the result of Hunter Baek Seorin slaughtering every monster we encountered as we moved.

“Gwehh—”

Slice—.

“At this rate, we’re going to end up closing the gate.”

The Blackfang Hound’s neck was cut before it could even make a sound.

Beside its rolling head, I heard Hunter Baek Seorin grumbling.

“Sorry, Seorin noona.”

“It’s fine. Awakened abilities aren’t omnipotent or anything. You’ve only been Awakened for a single day.”

Baek Seorin shrugged as though it were no big deal.

“Thanks to you, I get to take a walk like this. I like it.”

...Her expression didn’t look happy at all.

She had sighed who knew how many times already and kept kicking innocent stones with her foot.

“Hey, Jaemin. Don’t you have anything interesting?”

“Anything interesting?”

“Yeah. A story or something. It doesn’t have to be anything amazing. Just something ordinary.”

“Hmm...”

After thinking for a moment, I remembered something from high school.

“Come to think of it, something did happen when I went to an amusement park with my friends.”

“Oh. What?”

“We made a bet among ourselves for the price of the unlimited ride passes. Whoever screamed first on the Viking had to pay for everyone.”

“... You screamed while riding the Viking?”

“Neither of us was Awakened. And everyone screams on those things.”

Come to think of it, Hunter Baek Seorin had been Awakened since first grade.

She had been up there from childhood, so it wasn’t surprising she didn’t understand the feelings of ordinary people.

... Anyway.

“So I held out until the very end. I was literally biting down on my lips.”

“What about your friend? Did he scream?”

“Of course. He was shrieking his head off from halfway through.”

Baek Seorin finally burst out laughing.

“Then that friend lost and paid for everything in the end?”

“... If that had happened, there wouldn’t be much of a story.”

I frowned as I remembered what happened back then.

“We ate everything too, and when it was time to pay, the guy said he was going to the bathroom and never came back.”

“Don’t tell me he ran away.”

“Yeah. He even turned off his phone. I trusted him...”

“Ha. What an interesting guy...”

Baek Seorin laughed in disbelief.

Her expression turned frightening halfway through, probably because she had remembered something recent.

... I should’ve brought up something other than money.

I regretted it, but it was already too late.

So I just continued explaining.

“S-So the next day, I smacked him once on the back of the head and made him pay everything back.”

“Ah. You got the money back?”

It still made me grind my teeth whenever I thought about it.

He had clearly agreed to pay, then ran off right before the bill came.

That wasn’t something you could simply dismiss as a joke.

Of course, I had also eaten meals he paid for a few times and slipped away myself.

“Wait. Then aren’t you the same? If you ate on his dime and ran away too?”

“Come on, noona. That and this are different.”

“How are they different?”

“Eating on a friend’s dime and running away can just be a joke between friends. But running away after clearly losing a bet is betraying your honor.”

What I had done was just the sort of prank friends naturally played on one another.

But the amusement park incident was different. He had actually lost a bet and then run away.

The severity of the offense was completely different.

“Whatever else, that absolutely has to be punished.”

“Pfft... Hey. You’re seriously hilarious.”

“Why? I’m telling you, this is an important issue. You’re an S-rank Hunter too, noona.”

“Hmm. I don’t think an S-rank Hunter would eat a friend’s food and run away.”

“...”

“Ahh. Seriously, this is killing me.”

She started outright giggling as she looked at me.

Her expression was a little irritating, but at least her face, which had looked stifled until moments ago, seemed to loosen up.

‘That looks much better.’

“Don’t you have any funny stories, noona?”

“Me? Hmm...”

Baek Seorin thought for a moment, then nudged a magic stone rolling on the floor aside with her foot.

“Not sure. Nothing really comes to mind. Maybe because lately I’ve only been trapped somewhere.”

Her tone was light, but her expression had stiffened slightly.

“I don’t have any funny stories... If I had to choose one. When I really wanted to give up on everything, you came. I was grateful for that.”

“Ah...”

“I really had given up on everything, but because of you, I wanted to get out again.”

Baek Seorin smiled faintly.

“And I thought there would be people waiting for me outside.”

Then she stopped speaking.

I remembered what had happened at the foundation today.

So many of the people she had missed had been gathered there, but not one of them had actually been waiting for her.

If anything, there had only been people who wished she would never return.

Her footsteps, light until moments ago, had slowed before I knew it.

Feeling like I had asked something unnecessary, I didn’t say anything more either.

For a while, only the sound of our footsteps against the damp passage continued.

“Still, I have y—”

“Huh? Wait a second.”

“...”

The penlight, which had been quiet until just now, began trembling faintly in my hand.

At the same time, light began filling the faded blue footprints.

“They got brighter again.”

“Which way?”

“Over there. That way.”

Following the footprints, we walked until, just like last time, we saw the blue footprints continuing beyond a narrow gap between massive walls.

“I think that gap is the entrance.”

“Then let’s go right away.”

“Wait.”

Clang—.

With a clear metallic sound, the space in front of the wall rippled like water.

When I reached out, a cold membrane touched my fingertips.

When I pushed a little harder, my fingers were sucked through the membrane.

“I’ll go in first.”

“What? We should go together.”

“There’s no guarantee we’ll be able to return together.”

Baek Seorin looked back and forth between the rippling wall and me.

“Last time, the number of people who could escape together was only one. If something goes wrong, you might get trapped again.”

“... How much time?”

“If it’s the same as last time, about 40 minutes.”

Baek Seorin said nothing for a while.

Her gaze, which had been fixed on the rippling wall, slowly dropped beneath my protective vest.

Apparently it had opened again, because blood leaking from the wound was gradually staining the bottom edge of the vest.

Baek Seorin bit her lip tightly and let out a short breath.

“Forget it.”

“What?”

“We’re going together.”

Baek Seorin stepped closer to me.

“It’s a life that nearly ended once already anyway.”

“...”

“And you’re the one who saved it.”

Her red eyes stared straight at me.

“So I hate the thought of you going in alone and ending up in danger even more.”

I didn’t even have time to stop her.

Baek Seorin reached out first.

And the moment her fingertips touched the rippling membrane.

Boom—!

With a sound like the air exploding, Baek Seorin’s body was hurled backward.

“Huh...?”

I didn’t even have time to understand what had happened.

At the same time Baek Seorin was thrown back, the rippling membrane pulled my body toward it.

My vision lurched forward in an instant.

For a brief moment, my eyes met Baek Seorin’s outside.

“Jaemin!”

Before I could even reach toward her at her call, my body was sucked straight through the membrane.

Then my vision flipped completely.

____________

I slammed into the hard floor back-first.

“Guhk!”

All the breath barely remaining in my lungs burst out at once.

Only after coughing several times was I able to sit up.

Then a blue window appeared before my eyes.

[Return Portal Connected]

[Destination: Yeonhwa Gate Exterior Entry Zone]

[Return Condition: Accompany Rescue Target]

[Accompanying Capacity: 1 Person Excluding User]

[Remaining Duration: 39:59]

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like I had broken any bones.

Instead, the side that had been stitched earlier started burning hot again.

“Looks like I really am going to get hospitalized...”

The nurse had said that if it opened again this time, I would definitely be admitted.

‘Being hospitalized is going to cost a lot...’

I pressed my palm against the wound to keep it from opening any farther and looked around.

Just like last time, this was a completely different space from the underground waterway I had been walking through moments ago.

In the middle of a huge cavern surrounded by gray stone, only the square stone slab I had fallen onto floated in midair.

Below the slab looked deep enough that light couldn’t reach the bottom.

Platforms of varying sizes stretched like stairs toward the opposite wall, which seemed to be the destination.

Some moved from side to side, while others sank downward the moment they were stepped on before slowly rising again.

Considering the iron spikes that occasionally shot out of the walls, it was clearly a path designed to be crossed by jumping.

‘... I feel like I’ve seen this in a game.’

It felt strangely familiar.

Like something I had been put through over and over again since I was very young.

But that wasn’t important right now.

“You want me to cross this?”

Before Awakening, I was confident I would have fallen from the very first platform.

Of course, nothing had changed even now that I was Awakened.

I sighed and turned around, only to see a massive iron door.

An old sign hung above it.

『Gate of Courage』

Just in case, I grabbed the handle and pulled.

“Ughhhhh— Ugh?! Aghhh...”

The door didn’t budge.

All I accomplished by straining myself was making my injured side throb again.

Frowning, I let go. Then I noticed a fist-sized keyhole in the center of the door.

“This seems like the exit...”

I turned my head again and gripped the penlight.

The blue footprints stopped in front of the door, then reappeared on the floating platforms.

A path that went all the way to the opposite wall and then came back.

It seemed Han Doa had actually crossed that path and returned.

“I heard she was a healing type...”

Healing type or not, I guess rank really did trump everything.

Imagining her crossing it easily made me unnecessarily envious.

...

Anyway. That aside.

I gathered my thoughts and followed the trail with my eyes again, and spotted a small iron cage hanging high on the opposite wall.

Inside the cage was a black key about the size of my palm.

Only then did I roughly understand how this room worked.

You had to jump onto the first platform, cross the moving stones, climb all the way to the wall where the iron spikes shot out, retrieve the key, then return here in order to escape.

If you followed the intended route, it was a fairly long detour.

But.

“... Hmm? This is actually closer than I thought...”

Surprisingly, the straight-line distance between the key and me wasn’t that far.

About ten steps in a straight line.

There was just nowhere to put your feet in between. The distance itself was nothing special.

“Can’t I just pull that out?”

I reached one hand toward the key.

Then, when I lightly curled my finger, my temple throbbed and the key lifted into the air.

Scrrrape—.

The black key slowly moved while scraping against the floor of the cage.

The head of the key caught on the bars once, but when I twisted my wrist slightly, it turned diagonally and slipped through the gap.

The key flew straight across the air toward me.

Without undergoing any real trial at all, I caught it safely in both hands.

“This is basically cheating...”

I looked back toward the other side.

The stone slabs were still diligently moving, and iron spikes continued thrusting out of the wall into empty air.

Even though the cage was now empty.

“Tsk.”

If there was someone who made that course, they might feel a little wronged.

But wasn’t that just how life worked?

There was even a saying that luck was part of skill.

As expected, using my head intelligently suited me much better than blindly moving my body.

“Do I just put it in like this?”

I carefully inserted the key after lining it up.

Fortunately, it fit perfectly into the hole in the center of the door.

Click.

The moment I lightly turned it, a heavy vibration echoed throughout the cavern.

The platforms floating in the air stopped one by one, and the firmly shut iron door slowly opened inward.

Faint green light leaked through the opening, and along with it came the smell of disinfectant.

“Wow...”

Another world was visible beyond the open door.

There was a makeshift clinic on top of a blue field.

Three simple beds surrounded by green light.

Women wearing bloodstained white coats stood between them.

And all three had the exact same face as Han Doa from the article.

“Hunter Han Doa?”

All three women turned toward me at the same time.

“Yes?”

As if to prove it wasn’t an illusion, their answers overlapped from three different places at once.

What in the world was going on?

I was momentarily speechless from confusion when.

Brrr—.

The penlight in my hand trembled faintly.

Soon, blue light flowed between my fingers and wrapped around one of the three people.

“““Who are you?”””

The light settled around the person standing farthest to the right.

At least it didn’t look like I needed to worry about which one was the real one.