Eight in the morning.
The new year had arrived, but people’s daily routines hadn’t changed. Office workers in neat suits hurried to work with tired faces, and the roads were packed with cars.
Honk! Hooonk!
At the constant blare of horns, the middle-aged man driving a midsize van rolled up his half-open window and grumbled.
“Fuck. Even the Great Cataclysm couldn’t get this goddamn road fixed. Are we supposed to drive on it or not?”
Swearing behind the wheel was practically inevitable. Especially in Busan.
He laid on the horn at a compact car trying to cut in without signaling.
Honk!
Then again, if its driver had any sense, he wouldn’t have needed to honk.
The compact car flashed its high beams in broad daylight to celebrate its successful lane change and cruised away. The middle-aged man spotted the message plastered across its rear window and swore again.
A child is on board.
“Goddamn it. Is the kid on fire? Is that why you’re driving like that?”
Only then did he realize he’d cursed aloud. He glanced at the passenger seat and cleared his throat.
“Ahem. That slipped out.”
The young man beside him answered calmly.
“It’s all right. It happens.”
He spoke to the driver, but his eyes remained on the view outside. The middle-aged man glanced at him.
“Your name was… Dongseok, right?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a relief. With things blowing up all over the place these days, it’s hard enough to remember someone’s full name.”
“It happens. Don’t worry about it.”
“Ah, I don’t know if I told you last time, but my name is…”
“I’ll call you Team Leader. That’s easier for me.”
The Team Leader blinked, taken aback by the prompt answer. Lee Dongseok added, just as abruptly, “And, Team Leader.”
“Uh, yeah?”
“The light’s changed.”
Hoooonk!
The horn behind them snapped the Team Leader back to his senses. He stepped on the gas, and as the van lurched forward, he frowned.
What a rude little shit.
But he soon reconsidered. So what if Dongseok was rude? They’d only be working together for a day. As long as he did his job, that was enough.
He’s a hundred times better than a rookie who shakes in his boots or some loudmouth who can’t back up his talk.
The Team Leader was a C-rank Hunter who had worked freelance for years. He knew a capable fighter with lousy manners was preferable to someone pleasant and polite who couldn’t fight.
At least he won’t shit the bed and disappear like that bastard a little while ago.
A team member had made a major mistake inside a Gate and then gone into hiding, leaving them in need of a temporary replacement. Lee Dongseok was the man they’d found.
His résumé gave them nothing to complain about, and from what the Team Leader could judge for himself, Dongseok was a skilled Hunter. Skilled enough that it seemed strange for him to be freelancing.
Well, I’m not complaining.
Finding people was hard enough these days. Even now, the DJs chatting quietly on the radio were discussing the main reason Hunters were in short supply.
“We have a comment from Shin Ayoung, a woman in her twenties who lives in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province. ‘A Mutated Gate appeared near my home three days ago. It happened only ten minutes away, and I’ve been so anxious I can’t sleep.’”
“Oh, no… You live right near it? That’s awful.”
“I remember seeing that on the news. Apparently it was extremely dangerous. There could have been a lot of casualties.”
“Thank goodness they stopped it just before it became a Monster Wave.”
The Team Leader turned up the volume.
As a Hunter, there was no way he could have missed the Pocheon Mutated Gate incident three days earlier. Even Dongseok, who had been staring out the window, seemed to be listening.
“Fortunately, there were no deaths this time either.”
“That’s right. They stopped the Monster Wave, so there were no civilian casualties, and the Mutated Gate was dealt with quickly.”
“That was Peace Guild’s Emergency Rescue Team, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. Hunter Jin Taekyung didn’t go himself, but Peace Guild’s Emergency Rescue Team did an impressive job.”
“Rising magic power readings have become a serious problem here and overseas. Of all the countries in the world, ours has been recognized for responding the fastest and suffering the least damage.”
“It really is remarkable. And it isn’t just Hunter Jin Taekyung and Peace Guild’s Emergency Rescue Team. All the Hunters fighting monsters under these circumstances deserve our…”
As the DJ went on, the Team Leader stole another glance at Dongseok.
“Come to think of it, you’re pretty impressive yourself, Dongseok.”
“What do you mean?”
“Going on raids at a time like this isn’t easy.”
As magic power readings rose, monsters grew stronger. Mutated Gates, which had once appeared only once or twice a year, now made the nine o’clock news headlines about every three days.
The Team Leader turned the wheel and continued. “I’m doing it for my family, but you’re still in your twenties. You don’t have a household to support. Is it youthful ambition or something?”
“No.”
“Hm?”
“I’m doing what needs to be done. I have to do it.”
His answer was firm, his eyes suddenly bright with resolve. The Team Leader blinked at this unfamiliar side of him.
“R-really?”
“Yes.”
“Well. Good for you. That’s some dedication to your job.”
Dongseok’s response had caught him off guard. So had the determination in his eyes. Sense of duty was about the only way to describe it.
What’s with this guy?
A rude young man burning with a sense of justice? A kid dreaming of becoming a hero in troubled times? Whatever it was, he was an odd one.
The Team Leader eased onto the brakes. When he parked in the Gate management office lot and got out, the team members who recognized the van came over.
“Hey, Team Leader Kim. You made it.”
“You’re here, hyung1.”
“You’re early, oppa2. But who’s that with you…?”
“This is Dongseok. You know—the temporary guy I told you about.”
“Ah, is that right? I could tell at a glance. He looks just like someone from Seoul.”
“I think he is. Dongseok, these are the rest of the team…”
The Team Leader naturally turned his head, then blinked. Something about Dongseok didn’t look right.
“Dongseok. Are you feeling sick?”
“……”
“Hey. Dongseok?”
Dongseok stood staring silently at the Gate, his face rigid. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
“No. I just got a little nervous all of a sudden.”
“Hmm. You’re all right, though?”
“Yes. There’s no problem.”
The Team Leader eyed him doubtfully, but they were already at the Gate. The manager responsible for Siren’s Black River, the C-rank Gate in Haeundae, was ambling over from a distance.
“Oh, Team Leader Kim. You’re here.”
“Yes. We’re a little late.”
“No trouble, right? Got everyone?”
The Team Leader glanced at Dongseok and nodded.
“Of course.”
“You sure? You know they’ve tightened the regulations. If something goes wrong, you and I both…”
“I know, I know. Have you ever seen me or my team cause trouble? You’re going to inspect everything anyway.”
“With things the way they are lately, I can’t help worrying. And yes, I was going to inspect you.”
The inspection was quick. The manager checked everything, finishing with Dongseok, then grinned.
“All right. Go on in.”
With permission granted, the team began moving, talking noisily among themselves. Everyone except Dongseok.
At the back of the group, he stared at the Gate with trembling eyes.
Thump. Thump.
His heart hammered. He’d suffered from cold hands and feet since his days at the orphanage, but now his palms were so clammy with cold sweat he might have developed hyperhidrosis.
Don’t get nervous. Not until the very end.
He had a mission. A mission he absolutely had to complete.
Dongseok took a deep breath. At the front of the group, the Team Leader suddenly looked back.
“Dongseok. You really are okay, right?”
“…Yes.”
“You don’t look good, and you took your time answering. Your mind isn’t somewhere else, is it?”
“No.”
The Team Leader would never know that Dongseok had been slow to answer because he still wasn’t used to the name, not because his mind was elsewhere.
And Lee Dongseok—or rather, the man behind that name—had not forgotten his purpose for a single moment.
“Don’t worry. I’ll definitely do it.”
“What?”
For a moment, the Team Leader looked baffled. Then he gave Dongseok a look that said What an oddball and turned away.
They stood at the entrance to the Gate.
“All right, before we go in—everyone together. Safety first, today too!”
“Safety first!”
The chant rang out, and the Team Leader stepped toward the entrance.
“Let’s go in!”
Whoosh!
The rippling magical power swallowed them one after another.
As the others hurried inside, Dongseok lifted his head and looked at the sky.
It was a January morning. The sky was blue, and the wind was still cold.
And… this might be the last sky he ever saw.
“I have a mission for you.”
A voice he had heard several days earlier seemed to reach him on the wind, along with his own answer.
“I’ll do it.”
“Your life could be at risk.”
“The former Vice Guild Master saved my life in the first place.”
He had been told that his mother, whose face he had never seen, gave birth to him in a subway restroom. Wrapped in toilet paper and thrown into a trash can, the newborn survived by sheer luck. He was sent to an orphanage secretly supported by Lee Jungryong, where he grew up healthy and strong.
“If I can help… I’ll do anything.”
To him, Lee Jungryong was a father, and Ares Guild was the home he’d shared with that father. He could do anything for him.
“Leave it to me.”
At his resolute answer, the other person had smiled broadly. Then he had handed him something—an object now kept deep in his subspace pocket.
“You must succeed.”
That was the last thing he’d said. After receiving his orders, Dongseok changed everything, including his face and name, and went down to Busan with that precious, dangerous object in his possession.
“I…… will definitely do it.”
His turn had come.
He fought down his fear, steadied himself with those murmured words, and stepped toward the rippling field of magical power.
Whoosh!
About an hour later, the people outside the Gate saw what happened.
Beep beep beep beep!
The magic power reading climbed at a frantic pace. Then a change began too quickly for anyone to stop.
Kiiiiing.
A rift tore open in the air, and a dense breath of death blanketed the sandy beach of Haeundae.
After arriving in Busan through three Teleportation magic circles, I knew at once.
No—I could feel it.
“Aaaaaah!”
“Aaargh!”
Kwaaaang!
The countless screams and tremendous din coming from far away. And…
Kuuung!
The immense magical power shaking the earth.
“…Fuck.”
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