The Gate Opens at Last
The Angel of Eden. It was already twenty-six minutes past the appointed time when one team finally showed up. The group of about nine looked incredibly young, and just as clearly inexperienced as hunters. Their leader, panting hard from the rush, immediately bowed deeply to the proxy.
The rest of the nine hunters followed their leader, bowing repeatedly in apology. Only then did the proxy’s stiff expression soften a little.
They also apologized to our team for making us wait. Their attitude seemed decent despite the tardiness. Still, the way they kept staring at us with sparkling eyes felt strangely burdensome.
“Their gazes are kind of intense, aren’t they?”
“For a rookie team, successful senior teams are basically objects of admiration.”
“They all look so fresh-faced, nya.”
“What adorable children. Hohoho.”
The members of Team Average settled down on one side of the room. Even after their arrival, the other team still hadn’t shown up. Both the proxy and Gwangnam oppa had veins bulging on their foreheads, making their irritation obvious.
“Oppa looks angry too.”
“The gate rental time is fixed. The later the meeting runs, the less buffer time we have. Of course he’s upset.”
“It’s already been fifty minutes, nya. At this point they’d have no right to complain even if the request got canceled, nya.”
“Hohoho, this really is going too far.”
Even the usually good-natured Ekaterina seemed to be slowly losing her patience. Finally, the proxy could endure it no longer and made a call.
"Hello? This is the proxy from Myungjin Metals. When will you be arriving? …Pardon?"
He had started the call with relatively polite words, but as the conversation continued his face twisted more and more, failing to maintain composure.
"Wasn’t the appointment at eight? I believe the document you received clearly stated seven. You thought it said eight?"
Even while trembling with rage, he barely managed to ask them to arrive by eight at the latest before ending the call.
“Wow… that’s some excuse. How does a hunter misread the request form?”
“That team’s evaluation is definitely going to drop, nya.”
“There are only five minutes left until eight. I doubt they’ll make it on time.”
“Hohoho.”
Just as I predicted, eight o’clock came and went without any sign of them. By now even the previously quiet Team Average, who had been cautiously watching everyone, began to stir with unease. In the center of the reception room, the leader of Team Average, Gwangnam oppa, and the proxy were engaged in a serious discussion with grave expressions.
“The mood is getting pretty bad, isn’t it?”
“The gate opens in an hour. We can’t delay any longer.”
“The cost of opening the gate is entirely covered by the client. Missing the window would result in massive losses.”
“Unexplored dimensions have very short gate maintenance windows, nya.”
Gates opened to unverified dimensions for safety reasons usually only stayed active for about twenty minutes—far shorter than normal. While the team leaders and proxy were talking with serious faces, the door to the meeting room opened and a group of people strode in. It was exactly 8:12.
They didn’t look the least bit sorry. Sauntering in lazily, they flopped down wherever they pleased. The tattoos visible between gaps in their gear and their rugged, intimidating faces made it clear they weren’t ordinary hunters. Naturally, the atmosphere in the room turned icy. The proxy’s face in particular had gone bright red; he looked like he was barely holding back his fury.
Among them, a bald man covered in tattoos crossed his arms, crossed his legs, and spoke.
His shameless words left me utterly speechless. It was the moment my belief that all hunters were rational, highly professional people shattered.
“What kind of hunters are these? Can they really act like that?”
“Of course not. Hunters and clients are in a contractual relationship. Basic courtesy and trust are only natural.”
“Hohoho.”
“This is a total mess, nya.”
While Team Average looked bewildered, our team’s mood had turned downright hostile. The fact that Ekaterina had been smiling the entire time was honestly terrifying. Eventually, the proxy exploded at their brazen attitude.
They stood up as if threatening the proxy, kicking over chairs with vicious expressions. The startled members of Team Average rose as well, and so did our team.
They began shouting at the top of their lungs and causing a scene.
“Looks like they’re deliberately stalling to use the gate time as leverage and extort a penalty fee.”
“What a bunch of thugs…”
“This is ridiculous, nya.”
Suddenly I noticed Ekaterina standing beside Gwangnam oppa, smiling as she spoke with him. Oppa’s previously furrowed brow relaxed into a bright smile, and he gestured toward us women. When we drew closer, he said,
The moment those words left his mouth, the screams of the men causing the ruckus filled the meeting room.
Backed by the high-ranking nun Ekaterina, we enthusiastically beat the crap out of them. Whenever one of them fainted from the pain, we tossed them aside and Ekaterina healed their injuries with holy power, restoring them to perfect condition. After thoroughly destroying the evidence, we cleaned up every last one of them and returned to our seats.
With Team Average still looking completely stunned, we listened to the exploration routes, detailed preliminary information, and especially the points that required caution, adjusting our opinions accordingly. We were then issued protective suits. The suits, which primarily covered the head and upper body while supplying fresh air, were rented by the company through the association and had to be returned after the request was completed.
Receiving the proxy’s polite request, we began crossing through the gate. Through the visor of my protective suit, the destination—the alien planet—looked exactly as described: a desolate world with an orange atmosphere thick with heavy dust and toxic gas.
Before setting off in the opposite direction from Team Average, we planted a transmitter in the ground to mark our location, wished each other luck, and departed. My role was to monitor the life detector and check for any possible lifeforms. Although the preliminary exploration team that came before us had found no life, this was our first proper long-range expedition, so gathering data was essential.
The screen of the device in my hand showed a radar sweeping clockwise, scanning for life signs. Aside from the five blue dots representing our team members including myself, there was nothing. Ruya carried a mapping device that automatically scanned and recorded the surroundings. Charlotte stayed on guard, while Ekaterina held a small light to illuminate our path. We walked in a line behind oppa, who led the way with a metal detector.
At Charlotte’s sharp warning—her senses far superior to ours—Gwangnam oppa shouted. We quickly dropped to the ground. The moment we lowered our posture, a fierce wind mixed with sand granules slammed into us, battering our entire bodies. Within the overwhelming sandstorm that reduced visibility to zero, the light from Ekaterina’s lantern flickered precariously.
We lay on the ground enduring the wind for a full ten minutes before the storm finally passed. When we stood up, sand cascaded off our bodies. If we hadn’t been wearing full-body protective gear, our skin would have been badly damaged by the razor-sharp particles.
“Everyone okay?”
“I’m fine, nya.”
“The environment really is harsh.”
We all stood, brushed ourselves off, and checked our equipment. Since I had clutched the bio-scanner tightly to my chest, not much dust had accumulated on its screen. The subspace bag was intact and nothing seemed damaged, so I sent the all-clear signal.
We continued forward, our feet sinking into the accumulated dust with every step. Neither the first nor the second day yielded any ore veins that met the criteria. There were still no lifeforms, and the brutal weather kept slowing our progress. Sudden gusts of sand mixed with heavy metals constantly obscured our vision and threw us off balance. Nevertheless, everyone followed steadily behind Gwangnam oppa.
Oppa, walking ahead, gave a hand signal indicating we would rest in the space between two rocky outcrops. Once inside, we cleared the ground a bit, set up the deployable air dome, and activated it. It was a product of magitech—creating a dome-shaped barrier with magic, purifying the interior, and filling it with fresh air. The moment the light on the air dome turned green to signal safety, the team members eagerly stripped off their protective suits.
“Phew! The air is fresh, but it still feels so stuffy.”
“My ears hurt, nya.”
“Mine too.”
Since the suits were made for humans, both Charlotte and Ruya complained that their ears ached. While Ekaterina infused holy power into their ears to soothe them, I prepared food for the family. They were simple emergency rations that only needed heating, but preparing portions for five still kept my hands busy.
“Here’s your meal, oppa.”
“Oh, thanks.”
I served the head of the family first, then distributed the rest to the women in order of rank. This was Ekaterina’s training method—making even trivial actions follow hierarchy so we gradually internalized the order of obedience.
While eating, I looked outside the air dome. The yellow wind had grown stronger.
“The wind’s gotten stronger.”
“It seems to cycle between getting stronger and weaker periodically.”
“Still no rare ore veins, nya?”
“Hmm. There are a few common mineral veins, but the rare ones are hard to find.”
“It’s only been two days. There should be more ahead.”
Time flowed about 1.5 times faster in this dimension than on Earth. In other words, successfully developing a rare ore vein here would yield far more mined material per unit of real-world time.
Before sleep, I performed fellatio on oppa to relieve his sexual desire. Since cleanup was difficult here, I swallowed every drop of semen with my mouth alone, keeping everything clean.
Exploration Day 9. After advancing for a full nine days, we had walked across nothing but barren wasteland. Then, at last, we discovered a rare ore vein that had been nowhere in sight before.
“Whoa, the deposit is massive. Just this alone should cover the investment costs.”
“That’s a relief.”
“The vein stretches from here all the way past those rocks over there. It’s right beneath the surface.”
The rare minerals that were buried so deep on Earth they were practically impossible to mine were lying just under the dusty surface here. While Ruya entered the data into the prepared map, I walked around measuring the size of the vein. The amount confirmed just beneath the surface was truly enormous.
“This feels like hitting the jackpot.”
“Just reporting this should count as exceeding the quota.”
“Heh, we got lucky.”
We set up the air dome at a suitable nearby location and held a family meeting. After discussing whether to head back or search a little longer, we decided to take a different route on the return trip to continue exploring. While watching Ekaterina servicing oppa’s cock with her mouth, I asked Ruya, who was watching beside me.
“Are you okay, Ruya? Both Ekaterina and Charlotte seem pretty pent up.”
“I’m managing better since I have the yin brand and I’ve been trained. Still, this clitoral ring is more stimulating than I expected.”
She pressed her thighs together with her hand and squirmed. In truth, the biggest problem the women of the family faced during requests was being unable to relieve their accumulating sexual desire. Above all, the constant stimulation from the still-unfamiliar clitoral rings was the main cause. Their sensitive erogenous zones were being teased nonstop, leaving their bodies in a constant state of arousal, yet the environment made masturbation impossible. On top of that, they also had to service oppa, which only made things harder.
Ekaterina, who had swallowed multiple loads of semen, finished cleaning up and returned to the women’s section of the tent.
“Thank you for your hard work, Madam.”
“Haah… having to do everything with just my mouth is exhausting.”
“Is oppa asleep?”
“Yes. Let’s get some sleep too.”
We lay down side by side next to Charlotte, who had already fallen asleep, and closed our eyes.