Chapter 20

I couldn’t exactly tell him to just sit around waiting, since who knew how long this would take. ...Should I text Do Yehyun, too?

After thinking for a moment, I sent him a message. For the record, I’d already given him a card to use. When I told him to buy a phone, the little bastard bought a flip phone because he thought a smartphone was a waste of money.

Obviously, I smashed it to pieces and made sure he switched to a proper smartphone.

'Yehyun-ah, I’m stopping by a dungeon in Sokcho today, so I’ll be late. Nothing’s wrong, so go to bed early.'

I expected a simple acknowledgment, but instead, the reply I got was completely different.

'I’ll go too.'

...Seriously? How the hell was he planning on getting here? Still, it was kind of cute. Even back here, Joo Seowon was throwing a fit about not going in, but Yehyun wanted to come.

I didn’t bother replying and slipped my phone back into my pocket.

At the Gate, there were reporters, cops, a few government officials, and several hunters. Some of them were familiar faces.

Looked like Im Haekyung had come straight from Seoul, judging by the timing of his arrival.

Just as I was thinking that, he suddenly turned his gaze toward me.

...We just made eye contact, didn’t we?

I’d seen him plenty in articles, so I thought seeing him in person wouldn’t feel much different. But it did. When I saw him at the night market, he’d been wearing a black half-mask, so I couldn’t even count that as “seeing his face.” His silhouette had been too hazy in my memory.

“Excuse me, we’re restricting this area right now, so I’ll have to ask you to step back.”

“Ah, yes.”

As expected, not letting me through. A cop stepped directly in my way. Hm. Judging by his status window, he wasn’t awakened. Should I just push through? While I was considering it, Im Haekyung walked over and stopped right in front of the officer.

“Excuse me, Officer. Just a moment.”

“Yes?”

“...I know this person.”

So he had noticed me earlier. Up close, Im Haekyung’s build was almost identical to mine.

'He looks better in person.'

So this is what they mean when they say your hair color changes after awakening.

At first glance, it looked like he had plain black hair, but actually it was dyed. After awakening, his natural hair had bleached out to a pale blond. Since he couldn’t dye his lashes or irises, those remained light, giving him a strangely soft look despite the cold impression.

“Oh, an acquaintance? Then he’s a hunter too?”

“Yes. Didn’t expect him to come here.”

Chatting casually with the cop, Im Haekyung tilted his head slightly to glance at me, then smiled.

“We know each other... don’t we?”

What the hell was with that tone?

When I’d run into him at the night market, I’d blatantly used my status window to read his info and greeted him like I knew him. He must have remembered that clearly. I didn’t know why he’d play along, but if I wanted in, this was my chance.

Instead of answering, I asked a question of my own.

“You’re going in?”

“Of course. People are trapped inside.”

Fair enough. A completely reasonable answer. I looked him straight in the eye and asked, as sincerely as I could:

“I want to go in too. By any chance...”

He fell silent, seeming to consider, then smiled.

“No.”

'Called it.'

“Bringing in someone no different from a civilian into an A-rank Gate would be too much.”

So he could dig up background info even without a status window. Well, he was the night market’s overseer.

Still, even as he called it unreasonable, he didn’t walk away.

Tch. Getting inside this Gate was definitely worth it. Helping SH Guild in a crisis, then being recognized and scouted—that was the picture I wanted. But with Im Haekyung blocking me, there was no way in.

Well, if he won’t take me, he won’t.

“Understood. Good luck in there.”

With both the cops and an S-rank hunter standing side by side in my way, I gave up quickly.

'Whatever. SH Guild will have other chances. Worst case, I can just send Seowon in instead.'

It was an A-rank Gate, after all. Casualties were inevitable. But with Im Haekyung around, they’d probably manage just fine.

'Guess I’ll just take Seowon out for dinner.'

Not that many restaurants would be open at this hour.

I turned to leave without hesitation, but then I heard Im Haekyung mutter,

“I didn’t expect you to give up that quickly...”

What was that supposed to mean? When I turned back, he frowned slightly, then let out a short laugh.

“Why [N O V E L I G H T] don’t you step closer?”

He waved the cop aside and only called me over once no one else was nearby. Then he asked,

“Why did you come here? You’re not SH Guild, and your awakening rank is only F.”

Exactly. Why had I dragged myself all the way out here? Honestly, I should’ve just waited until Kwon Taehan woke up, shot him with the 999 gun, reset, and ended it quickly.

Hold on. That was the more efficient route, wasn’t it? If the thousandth death was the trigger, then I could just kill him 999 times in this life without bothering to wrap things up here.

Taehan was an infinite regressor anyway. If I explained it well enough, he might even accept it. Shoot, revive, shoot, revive. Clean and efficient.

The moment I thought that, my status window flickered. Yeah, yeah. Plausibility. I get it, you fucker.

Meanwhile, Im Haekyung didn’t even bother to hide the fact that he remembered me from before. I’d expected him to play dumb once more, but no—his judgment was fast.

I glanced toward the Gate.

A-rank Gate (Snowy Mountain)

A snowy mountain where snow never stops falling.

Dungeon Boss – Cave Giant

Other dungeon lifeforms... [More]

'Would you like to view information on the Cave Giant?'

“Right.”

“You didn’t come all this way just to stand around, did you?”

“I did want to go in. But if it’s not possible, then so be it.”

“No chance you’ll tell me why you wanted to?”

“Because it’s dangerous.”

And even while I was saying that, danger was probably escalating in real time. Im Haekyung studied me.

“Because you have an appraisal skill, you can tell right away when something’s dangerous?”

“Yeah. Something like that.”

Close enough.

Given the news reports of an A-rank Gate, it wasn’t exactly hard to claim I’d sensed danger. Sometimes it was better to just let things slide.

If he wasn’t going to let me in, he should’ve just gone inside already. But then he said something unexpected.

“Hm. An appraiser, huh...”

“......”

“If you’re an appraiser, you can immediately tell what’s useful and what’s dangerous inside, right?”

“Correct.”

“Your appraisal skill seems pretty strong, but your rank is only F. I’ve never seen such a gap before. I do know cases where appraisers, enchanters, or healers have a skill-rank mismatch, but...”

He trailed off, then suddenly grinned.

“Then let’s go in together!”

“......”

Just like that? That worked?

Not that I minded. But this guy was all over the place—no way he was completely sane. Still, I wasn’t in a position to be picky. I grinned back and quickly fell in step beside him.

***

Even a week ago, would I have believed I’d actually be stepping inside a Gate? Only once the world of text unfolded before my eyes did it start to feel real.

I slipped through the rift—and stepped into another world entirely.

'Not even an amusement park could pull this off.'

An endless mountain of snow stretched before me. Piled high, stretching as far as I could see. There was no way anyone would believe this was just on the other side of Korea.

'...Unreal.'

I couldn’t help admiring it. If not for the danger, this would’ve been perfect as a paid VR experience.

“The snow’s not cold.”

Haekyung crouched, scooping some up with his hand. I ignored him and pulled up the status window.

'Hm?'

Five hunters had gone in, but I only saw three status windows. Split up? That was a problem. At least the three were still within range of my display.

“We’ll need to do a bit of searching. Figuring out their positions might be... difficult. I hope they weren’t buried in the snow.”

He spoke in his usual calm but detached tone. Was he really worried? Standing up, he continued,

“Let’s search the nearby area first—”

But before he finished, the ground began to shake.

—Thoom. Thoom. Thoom. Thoom.

The tremors were strong enough to make it hard to stand. Both our faces hardened. Haekyung muttered,

“This can’t be an earthquake.”

“No.”

I pulled up information on all nearby lifeforms. More important than hunters’ windows right now.

Snow Giant (A)

A creature dwelling in the snowy mountains.

Can make snow fall endlessly.

A Snow Giant. But the dungeon boss listed wasn’t the Snow Giant—it was the Cave Giant.

Meaning that even a non-boss monster here could cause tremors like this. Was this what a normal A-rank dungeon was like? My heart, which had been calm until now, began to pound faster.

I reopened the hunters’ status windows nearby and checked the distance again.

“There are other hunters close by. Should we back them up first? Looks like three of them.”

“I didn’t know appraisal skills could tell you that.”

“They can.”

Suspicious, sure, but what could he do? Call it a mana-sensing skill if he wanted.

“Fine, let’s go.”

There were five SH hunters in total. Three were grouped together, the others... unknown. Dead already?

We trudged through the snow—snow that, despite piling high, wasn’t cold. Soon we saw two people collapsed in the snow, bloody, and another barely sitting upright.

Haekyung rushed over to the sitting one and checked his condition.

“What happened?”

Even seeing Haekyung, the man’s eyes stayed dull. His teeth chattered, lips blue, as he stammered:

“It’s... so cold...”

“What?”

“So cold... I’m freezing to death...”

Cold? This place wasn’t cold at all. If anything, it was warmer than October in Korea. It only looked cold.

I went to the collapsed hunters and checked their pulses. Alive. Both of them.

But their skin was ice-cold, their hands frostbitten. If their feet were the same, their toes were probably already gone.

'If they feel cold in this climate, something’s messing with their brains. An illusion?'

Just then, a massive shape loomed in the distance, shaking the ground with its steps.

“That’s...”

Snow Giant (A)

A creature dwelling in the snowy mountains.

Can make snow fall endlessly.

The giant thundered closer, and then, as if it had locked onto us, broke into a charge.