September 3rd, 2023
Yes, the new employee must have seen something wrong due to heavy work. She can’t believe Lee Sa-young is here. That’s impossible, isn’t it? It seems that he has become weak and cannot distinguish himself well. Otherwise, he wouldn’t say this crazy thing.
Hye-jin looked at the newcomer with pity. She thought, ‘I’ll have to feed him some bellflower juice when I get back to the administration’. And she recited Lee Sa-young’s profile in my head.
Lee Sa-young, a strong hunter who has maintained the No. 1 position for six years, even though he lost the No. 1 spot to a person who suddenly jumped out of the blue or who did not know whether he was impersonating. The only thing unusual about her is… ‘he mostly ignores requests from the Awakening Management Bureau and the Rift Management Agency’.
Since Yang Hye-jin worked at the Rift Management Agency, Lee Sa-young has never responded to a request for support. A B-rank hunter standing next to her laughed as if it was no different from Hye-jin’s idea.
“Why is Lee Sa-young here? Did you see it wrong?”
“Oh, no. It’s the real Lee Sa-young….”
“I heard that the number of concept worms using gas masks in techware has increased these days after watching public service advertisements. Are you sure it’s not one of them?”
“That’s a possibility.”
“Right? I get goosebumps whenever I see that commercial.”
Hahahaha, it was time for a change of mood that didn’t help much with a ridiculous joke. It was a drowsy voice that everyone knew that froze the friendly atmosphere in an instant.
“Have you come to make your sacrifice…. before the rift.”
“It’s like a family reunion.”
It was a familiar voice, but too familiar. It was understandable because it was a voice that she could hear all the time after the weekend entertainment program recently.
Yang Hye-jin slowly turned her head. He was walking leisurely across the access ban line that the dark gas mask had set at best. He’s big, he’s got dark tech, he’s got sarcasm, he’s got goosebumps, he’s got a gas mask… Only one!
The B-rank hunter, who had been sweating from the moment he heard his voice, eventually made a cross shape with a safety rod and began to shake it. It looked like he was about to exorcise evil spirits. Yang Hye-jin also dropped the cigarette she was holding. Of course, she came to her senses right away and rubbed it off with her feet.
In the midst of confusion, there was only one thought that came into everyone’s head.
‘What the fuck is this guy doing here?’
A rank 5 rift is not an easy rift. But it wasn’t so tricky that it required an S-rank hunter. Of course, she called them for support, but she knew they wouldn’t come, so it was embarrassing when they did. It was like winning the first prize in a lottery that she bought for fun.
Before she knew it, the gas mask standing tall in front of the rift entrance tilted his head.
“What are you doing? Not going in.”
Yang Hye-jin, who swallowed, asked carefully.
“Are you here… for support?”
“Yes.”
“…For what?”
He pointed his chin at the fissure opening.
“To get rid of this.”
She’s asking why the current rank two in the country would come to a fissure that’s only ranked five…. But Yang Hye-jin quickly gave up on getting an answer. She’s in a hurry and doesn’t have time to argue with Lee Sa-young.
“Support personnel from the Awakening Management Bureau are also on their way. It’s better if you wait a bit and enter together…”
Lee Sa-young replied sourly.
“I don’t need it.”
“What?”
Beyond the gas mask lens, the indifferent gaze swept the new recruits, B-rank hunters, and Hye-jin one after another.
“You guys, take care of the survivors.”
He strode into the rift before she could stop it. After the rift swallowed Lee Sa-young, the newcomer stamped his foot while alternating between the rift and Hye-jin.
“Se, senior… What should I do?”
“Hah…”
Hye-jin threw off her yellow safety helmet and ruffled her hair.
“What can we do. We’re going to follow him right away…”
“What? Oh, yes!”
“Don’t worry about the master, he’ll take care of it, we focus on identifying and rescuing survivors. Move!”
“Yes, sir!”
“And… Newcomer!”
“Yes?”
The newcomer raised his head. Hye-jin took off her fluorescent vest and wore a thick bulletproof vest and pointed to the supply truck with her thumb.
“Bring a gas mask that is more than the number of people, and bring everything that has an antidote and detoxifying effect.”
“W, why is that…?”
Is there a monster in that rift that uses poison? The newcomer looked at Hye-jin with a puzzled face. She clenched her tongue and gestured hastily.
“If you don’t want to die from the poison, then hurry up!”
While the Rift Management Agency hunters scrambled to open their supply trucks, Lee Sa-young, who lit up their tails, moved slowly. Acting as if he would run to the master of the rift at any moment, he stopped in a quiet place and was watching a purple ivy wrapped around a tree.
After a few minutes, something black and round popped out of his shadow. It was the sunglasses-wearing head of Min-ki.
“Guild leader.”
Min-ki, who deals with shadows and lives in hiding, was able to hide only in the shadows of others. That’s why he couldn’t enter the rift alone and waited for Lee Sa-young to arrive. Min-ki’s head bobbed up and down for a moment, then he crawled out of the shadows and stood on his own two feet.
He cleared his throat.
“It’s quiet.”
“Yes, it is.”
Normally, when you enter a rift, you’ll be greet by monsters roaming around like it’s their own backyard. But in this rift, they haven’t seen a single monster from the moment they entered until now. It’s as if there’s not a single living thing. Pushing up his sunglasses, Min-ki trailed behind.
Lee Sa-young picked up a red feather that fell on the floor. The feathers glowed without a grain of dust. Min-ki slipped down his sunglasses to check the feathers and murmured quickly.
“It’s the chest feather of a fourth-rank monster red-chest pterodactyl. It’s a violent temper, so whether it’s a person or another monster, it runs like an Adelie penguin whenever it sees it and it’s characterized by travelling in groups of five or six. Looking at the condition, it looks like a feather that has recently fallen out.”
“You’re smart. I’ll leave the training of next quarter’s new recruits to you.”
“I’m sorry.”
Feeling a sharp thorn, Min-ki closed his mouth. Lee Sa-young, who took off his gas mask, looked around.
When the hunter moves, the distinctive smell remains. Whether it’s a body odor, a lingering scent from a weapon, a monster’s blood smell, a scent from his breath, or… whether it’s the smell of a human being who was attacked by a monster. Lee Sa-young smelled such a smell especially well.
However, during the journey from the entrance of the rift to here, there remained strangely no odor in the rift, except that the plants in the rift spit out.
‘I don’t even smell that common blood.’
Even though it entered the middle of the habitat of red-chested pterosaurs, this stillness means that all pterosaurs have died. It’s possible that monsters fought, but if there was a battle between monsters, there wouldn’t be this much of a mark.
“It’s too clean.”
“Either the master of this rift is very powerful, and the monsters have good discipline, or someone cleaned it up. Which do you think?”
The master of the rift manages the monster, so there is no relatively quiet rift. However, in that case, the master’s power was very strong, and the moment he entered the rift, he could recognize the master’s existence. But this rift didn’t feel like it.
“The latter.”
Someone killed all monsters without leaving a trace.
Anyone caught in this rift who could do that… Sa-young thought of Ui-jae, who had blocked his attack with a ladle and ripped off his gas mask with his bloody hands. Yeah, it’s Ui-jae. He started walking slowly.
“Seo Min-ki.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Where do you think hyung is?”
Hyung, a polite title that he couldn’t believe had come out of his mouth. Suspecting his ears, Min-ki received a cold stare before coming to his senses and answering.
“Well, wouldn’t he be hiding somewhere? He has to hide his power. He doesn’t have to catch a monster and reveal his existence.”
Seo Min-ki’s opinion was valid. Sa-young also agreed with him in his head. Didn’t Cha Ui-jae even strongly insist on living quietly? There’s no way such a person would kill a monster. However, the inside of the strangely still rift kept bothering him.
Suddenly, Sa-young stiffened his lips. Come to think of it, he insisted that he was not, but anyway, Cha Ui-jae needed money and tried to sell Mana Stone. At the tomato market.
‘I don’t have money…’
Did he kill them all to collect monster byproducts? If so, the condition of this rift, which seemed to have been completely cleaned with a vacuum cleaner, was also understandable. Sa-young’s delicate facial line frowned, and he lightly clicked his tongue.
‘Shit, if you need money, tell me.’
Cha Ui-jae is strange and suspicious. He couldn’t figure out how he was acting.
He said he wanted to live quietly, but he made a lot of accidents, and at some point, he accepted the deal. This time, he will be caught in a rift and instead of staying put, he’s going out of his way to dry the monster’s seed. Apparently, he was born to attract storms.
What appeared at the end of walking through the blue reed field was an open space with grass. In the center of the vacant lot, there was a life-size stand of Lee Sa-young with dirt and a broken office chair, and in one corner, dead pterosaurs were piled up like towers. Min-ki, who made eye contact with a life-size figure, was more shocked than the pterosaur corpse.
“Oh, my God.”
Sa-young approached the pile of pterosaur carcasses and picked up the top one. It is a curiously clean corpse. The only trauma is a twist in the neck. He didn’t even pull out the feathers. He thought he was aiming for a monster byproduct, but it wasn’t either.
“What did you just say… you’re sure he’s just hiding somewhere?”
“……”
Min-ki trembled with fear, sandwiched between paper Lee Sa-young and real Lee Sa-young. What are you going to do with Cha Eui-jae going around breaking my expectations! He was a criminal who moved based on very common sense, so he didn’t dare to follow the movement of Cha Ui-jae.
Sa-young threw the pterosaur carelessly and turned toward the life-size stand.
“When did they make this?”
“Isn’t it after the public interest advertisement was aired? I think we should ask the public relations team for the exact details.”
“I’m not that curious…”
When Sa-young raised his hand, Min-ki understood it well and turned around and began to search around. Meanwhile, Sa-young looked intently at the life-size figure. When he saw the dirt on his waist, he wondered who took out what was buried in the ground. Min-ki, who approached him before he knew it, reported.
“I don’t see any footprints around here, or any sign that anyone has passed by.”
“It wouldn’t have risen to the sky, or gone out to the ground.”
“Yes. He may have the skill to hide signs or traces.”
“The more I think about it, the more fun it is.”
Sa-young replied with a face that didn’t look amused at all. His palm began to throb like it was burning, and he sternly removed his gloves to check his hand.
The palm of his hand, the blood, the evidence of the contract, the golden line… It was burning black. Sa-young murmured coldly.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, damn.”
September 3rd, 2023
Yes, the new employee must have seen something wrong due to heavy work. She can’t believe Lee Sa-young is here. That’s impossible, isn’t it? It seems that he has become weak and cannot distinguish himself well. Otherwise, he wouldn’t say this crazy thing.
Hye-jin looked at the newcomer with pity. She thought, ‘I’ll have to feed him some bellflower juice when I get back to the administration’. And she recited Lee Sa-young’s profile in my head.
Lee Sa-young, a strong hunter who has maintained the No. 1 position for six years, even though he lost the No. 1 spot to a person who suddenly jumped out of the blue or who did not know whether he was impersonating. The only thing unusual about her is… ‘he mostly ignores requests from the Awakening Management Bureau and the Rift Management Agency’.
Since Yang Hye-jin worked at the Rift Management Agency, Lee Sa-young has never responded to a request for support. A B-rank hunter standing next to her laughed as if it was no different from Hye-jin’s idea.
“Why is Lee Sa-young here? Did you see it wrong?”
“Oh, no. It’s the real Lee Sa-young….”
“I heard that the number of concept worms using gas masks in techware has increased these days after watching public service advertisements. Are you sure it’s not one of them?”
“That’s a possibility.”
“Right? I get goosebumps whenever I see that commercial.”
Hahahaha, it was time for a change of mood that didn’t help much with a ridiculous joke. It was a drowsy voice that everyone knew that froze the friendly atmosphere in an instant.
“Have you come to make your sacrifice…. before the rift.”
“It’s like a family reunion.”
It was a familiar voice, but too familiar. It was understandable because it was a voice that she could hear all the time after the weekend entertainment program recently.
Yang Hye-jin slowly turned her head. He was walking leisurely across the access ban line that the dark gas mask had set at best. He’s big, he’s got dark tech, he’s got sarcasm, he’s got goosebumps, he’s got a gas mask… Only one!
The B-rank hunter, who had been sweating from the moment he heard his voice, eventually made a cross shape with a safety rod and began to shake it. It looked like he was about to exorcise evil spirits. Yang Hye-jin also dropped the cigarette she was holding. Of course, she came to her senses right away and rubbed it off with her feet.
In the midst of confusion, there was only one thought that came into everyone’s head.
‘What the fuck is this guy doing here?’
A rank 5 rift is not an easy rift. But it wasn’t so tricky that it required an S-rank hunter. Of course, she called them for support, but she knew they wouldn’t come, so it was embarrassing when they did. It was like winning the first prize in a lottery that she bought for fun.
Before she knew it, the gas mask standing tall in front of the rift entrance tilted his head.
“What are you doing? Not going in.”
Yang Hye-jin, who swallowed, asked carefully.
“Are you here… for support?”
“Yes.”
“…For what?”
He pointed his chin at the fissure opening.
“To get rid of this.”
She’s asking why the current rank two in the country would come to a fissure that’s only ranked five…. But Yang Hye-jin quickly gave up on getting an answer. She’s in a hurry and doesn’t have time to argue with Lee Sa-young.
“Support personnel from the Awakening Management Bureau are also on their way. It’s better if you wait a bit and enter together…”
Lee Sa-young replied sourly.
“I don’t need it.”
“What?”
Beyond the gas mask lens, the indifferent gaze swept the new recruits, B-rank hunters, and Hye-jin one after another.
“You guys, take care of the survivors.”
He strode into the rift before she could stop it. After the rift swallowed Lee Sa-young, the newcomer stamped his foot while alternating between the rift and Hye-jin.
“Se, senior… What should I do?”
“Hah…”
Hye-jin threw off her yellow safety helmet and ruffled her hair.
“What can we do. We’re going to follow him right away…”
“What? Oh, yes!”
“Don’t worry about the master, he’ll take care of it, we focus on identifying and rescuing survivors. Move!”
“Yes, sir!”
“And… Newcomer!”
“Yes?”
The newcomer raised his head. Hye-jin took off her fluorescent vest and wore a thick bulletproof vest and pointed to the supply truck with her thumb.
“Bring a gas mask that is more than the number of people, and bring everything that has an antidote and detoxifying effect.”
“W, why is that…?”
Is there a monster in that rift that uses poison? The newcomer looked at Hye-jin with a puzzled face. She clenched her tongue and gestured hastily.
“If you don’t want to die from the poison, then hurry up!”
While the Rift Management Agency hunters scrambled to open their supply trucks, Lee Sa-young, who lit up their tails, moved slowly. Acting as if he would run to the master of the rift at any moment, he stopped in a quiet place and was watching a purple ivy wrapped around a tree.
After a few minutes, something black and round popped out of his shadow. It was the sunglasses-wearing head of Min-ki.
“Guild leader.”
Min-ki, who deals with shadows and lives in hiding, was able to hide only in the shadows of others. That’s why he couldn’t enter the rift alone and waited for Lee Sa-young to arrive. Min-ki’s head bobbed up and down for a moment, then he crawled out of the shadows and stood on his own two feet.
He cleared his throat.
“It’s quiet.”
“Yes, it is.”
Normally, when you enter a rift, you’ll be greet by monsters roaming around like it’s their own backyard. But in this rift, they haven’t seen a single monster from the moment they entered until now. It’s as if there’s not a single living thing. Pushing up his sunglasses, Min-ki trailed behind.
Lee Sa-young picked up a red feather that fell on the floor. The feathers glowed without a grain of dust. Min-ki slipped down his sunglasses to check the feathers and murmured quickly.
“It’s the chest feather of a fourth-rank monster red-chest pterodactyl. It’s a violent temper, so whether it’s a person or another monster, it runs like an Adelie penguin whenever it sees it and it’s characterized by travelling in groups of five or six. Looking at the condition, it looks like a feather that has recently fallen out.”
“You’re smart. I’ll leave the training of next quarter’s new recruits to you.”
“I’m sorry.”
Feeling a sharp thorn, Min-ki closed his mouth. Lee Sa-young, who took off his gas mask, looked around.
When the hunter moves, the distinctive smell remains. Whether it’s a body odor, a lingering scent from a weapon, a monster’s blood smell, a scent from his breath, or… whether it’s the smell of a human being who was attacked by a monster. Lee Sa-young smelled such a smell especially well.
However, during the journey from the entrance of the rift to here, there remained strangely no odor in the rift, except that the plants in the rift spit out.
‘I don’t even smell that common blood.’
Even though it entered the middle of the habitat of red-chested pterosaurs, this stillness means that all pterosaurs have died. It’s possible that monsters fought, but if there was a battle between monsters, there wouldn’t be this much of a mark.
“It’s too clean.”
“Either the master of this rift is very powerful, and the monsters have good discipline, or someone cleaned it up. Which do you think?”
The master of the rift manages the monster, so there is no relatively quiet rift. However, in that case, the master’s power was very strong, and the moment he entered the rift, he could recognize the master’s existence. But this rift didn’t feel like it.
“The latter.”
Someone killed all monsters without leaving a trace.
Anyone caught in this rift who could do that… Sa-young thought of Ui-jae, who had blocked his attack with a ladle and ripped off his gas mask with his bloody hands. Yeah, it’s Ui-jae. He started walking slowly.
“Seo Min-ki.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Where do you think hyung is?”
Hyung, a polite title that he couldn’t believe had come out of his mouth. Suspecting his ears, Min-ki received a cold stare before coming to his senses and answering.
“Well, wouldn’t he be hiding somewhere? He has to hide his power. He doesn’t have to catch a monster and reveal his existence.”
Seo Min-ki’s opinion was valid. Sa-young also agreed with him in his head. Didn’t Cha Ui-jae even strongly insist on living quietly? There’s no way such a person would kill a monster. However, the inside of the strangely still rift kept bothering him.
Suddenly, Sa-young stiffened his lips. Come to think of it, he insisted that he was not, but anyway, Cha Ui-jae needed money and tried to sell Mana Stone. At the tomato market.
‘I don’t have money…’
Did he kill them all to collect monster byproducts? If so, the condition of this rift, which seemed to have been completely cleaned with a vacuum cleaner, was also understandable. Sa-young’s delicate facial line frowned, and he lightly clicked his tongue.
‘Shit, if you need money, tell me.’
Cha Ui-jae is strange and suspicious. He couldn’t figure out how he was acting.
He said he wanted to live quietly, but he made a lot of accidents, and at some point, he accepted the deal. This time, he will be caught in a rift and instead of staying put, he’s going out of his way to dry the monster’s seed. Apparently, he was born to attract storms.
What appeared at the end of walking through the blue reed field was an open space with grass. In the center of the vacant lot, there was a life-size stand of Lee Sa-young with dirt and a broken office chair, and in one corner, dead pterosaurs were piled up like towers. Min-ki, who made eye contact with a life-size figure, was more shocked than the pterosaur corpse.
“Oh, my God.”
Sa-young approached the pile of pterosaur carcasses and picked up the top one. It is a curiously clean corpse. The only trauma is a twist in the neck. He didn’t even pull out the feathers. He thought he was aiming for a monster byproduct, but it wasn’t either.
“What did you just say… you’re sure he’s just hiding somewhere?”
“……”
Min-ki trembled with fear, sandwiched between paper Lee Sa-young and real Lee Sa-young. What are you going to do with Cha Eui-jae going around breaking my expectations! He was a criminal who moved based on very common sense, so he didn’t dare to follow the movement of Cha Ui-jae.
Sa-young threw the pterosaur carelessly and turned toward the life-size stand.
“When did they make this?”
“Isn’t it after the public interest advertisement was aired? I think we should ask the public relations team for the exact details.”
“I’m not that curious…”
When Sa-young raised his hand, Min-ki understood it well and turned around and began to search around. Meanwhile, Sa-young looked intently at the life-size figure. When he saw the dirt on his waist, he wondered who took out what was buried in the ground. Min-ki, who approached him before he knew it, reported.
“I don’t see any footprints around here, or any sign that anyone has passed by.”
“It wouldn’t have risen to the sky, or gone out to the ground.”
“Yes. He may have the skill to hide signs or traces.”
“The more I think about it, the more fun it is.”
Sa-young replied with a face that didn’t look amused at all. His palm began to throb like it was burning, and he sternly removed his gloves to check his hand.
The palm of his hand, the blood, the evidence of the contract, the golden line… It was burning black. Sa-young murmured coldly.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, damn.”
