Ha Ildo Unleashed a Dog-Squirrel into the T-Rank Rift! # 1
"So you're asking this Illinoi to teach you English…?"
Illinoi was a nymph who had spent a great deal of time in America, you see.
I wanted to learn English for the work agreement I'd be hammering out with Americans before long, and honestly, learning it from Illinoi seemed like the way to go. From what I could tell, her English was pretty solid.
"Muh-heh-heh, that is a berry nice choice…! This Illinoi is a master of the English…! English only requires knowing one sentence…!"
One sentence. I was still wondering what on earth that could be when Illinoi declared:
"Give me…!"
Oh. I see.
It was a moment of sudden, piercing doubt about why I'd ever thought learning English from Illinoi was a good idea. These days, AI translation was supposedly so good it could knock your socks off, anyway.
Anyhow.
I had been assigned to support duty for an S-Rank awakener arriving from America the next day. When you thought about it, this was my debut on a big stage. If I performed too well, would the American try something like, "Ooh, let's forge a partnership from now on. Call to me," and drag me off to the States? Countries took the overseas poaching of awakeners seriously these days. I'd need a strategy ready for refusing a recruitment offer, just in case.
With that in mind, I threw myself into preparing for the T-Rank Rift operation.
Shhk—.
My job started at the airport.
Arriving at the airport was the American S-Rank awakener Cassie. Word had it she was called Cassie the Desperado. Fitting for a country where firearms were legal — she was an S-Rank awakener who fought with guns.
Pat—.
The moment the woman with the bleached platinum blonde hair and wide-brimmed hat touched down, reporters and onlookers came swarming in. As camera flashes went off with a pang-pang—!, the S-Rank awakener Cha Yura stepped forward.
"Welcome to Korea. Wel come! Wel come to Korea!"
"……"
Instead of answering, Cassie took a slow look around. Late twenties, maybe? Her features were bold and striking — the kind of beauty that looked made for the silver screen. Her shirt was knotted up like a bikini, her stomach bare, and an American flag was wrapped around her waist like a scarf. The jagged spurs on her high-heeled boots were utterly foreign to a Korean like me.
A woman who looked like she'd stepped straight out of an American movie. That woman opened her mouth.
"Hel! Lo!"
Clumsy as all get-out — but it was Korean!
What a fascinating situation. The crowd's excitement boiled over almost instantly.
"Is it true that Miss Cassie's grandfather was a war veteran?"
"You idiot! You're supposed to ask in English!"
"I. Speak. Little. Korean!"
Well, well. So she was someone who could speak Korean. That explained why she'd been dispatched here, I suppose. America truly was a great nation, still brimming with talent. No wonder it had ten S-Rank awakeners. These days, didn't they measure a country's power not by its nuclear missile stockpile but by how many S-Rank awakeners it could field? Korea had three by birthright. For us, that was a respectable mark of a developed nation.
From there we traveled together by car. It seemed we were headed to some kind of welcome event — or so I assumed. But Cassie, dressed up like a twenty-first-century cowgirl, gazed out the car window and announced:
"To the rift! The site!"
She wanted to see the actual site? Fitting for an S-Rank awakener — her fighting spirit was already boiling over.
That suited me fine. I wanted to wrap up my first assignment quickly, after all.
Shhk—.
We headed for the location of the nearest T-Rank Rift. Somewhere near Gwanak Mountain in Seoul. The mouth of a massive rift had torn the world open across a university athletic field, and swarms of soldiers and police had flooded in to contain the incident.
Vvvvmmm—.
The rift's entrance was the size of a three-story building. The sheer presence of it was overwhelming. So that was what a T-Rank looked like. I'd seen them on broadcasts and internet posts plenty of times, but this was my first time up close. Goodness. It was like seeing Niagara Falls in person.
Not that I'd ever actually seen Niagara Falls. But I figured it would feel like this if I had.
Clack—.
The S-Rank woman Cassie eyed the pair of revolvers holstered at her waist. She spun the cylinders this way and that, checking them, then said:
"Korean T-Rank! Smaller than I expected! I can handle this alone, plenty!"
Seriously?
Even Cha Yura, who had been planning to enter the rift together as part of the goodwill exchange with America, seemed a bit taken aback by Cassie's declaration.
"Alone is fine!"
And with that, Cassie — a pistol in each hand — charged into the rift, and I got a rude awakening to American execution, decisiveness, and that fiercely individualistic independence.
Well. What now? This was my first mission, after all.
We watched the footage streaming from the camera mounted on Cassie's chest. The monsters appearing on screen were A-Rank beasts known as the Spawn of Fafnir — lizard-like creatures, enormous, some of them winged and flying around. Word was that each and every one of them was as powerful as a fighter jet. And the surrounding environment was a volcano blazing at full fury. Out in that inferno, Cassie — wearing no protective gear whatsoever — drew her 30mm large-caliber revolvers from her hips and started unloading in every direction.
Pa-pang! Pa-pa-pa-pang—!
It looked like a war zone. At that point, was she even shooting anymore, or just scattering bullets like confetti? Cha Yura clicked her tongue.
"I'll admit, working solo does look efficient for her. She's clearly earned that Rank 15 S-Rank assessment."
That was right. Of the thirty S-Rank powers in the world, Cassie ranked fifteenth. Fifteenth out of thirty — dead center. For reference, the magazine rankings released recently had Cha Yura at seventeenth and Seo Yerim at twenty-first. Korea really ought to have a solo S-Rank in the global top ten. We were the flagship nation of the 5th Industry in name only, weren't we?
Pat—.
At last, Cassie popped back out of the rift's entrance.
"Clear!"
Twenty minutes. That was how long it took Cassie to bulldoze a T-Rank Rift alone. She spun her revolvers around her fingers and slid them back into their holsters. Honestly? Pretty cool. Firearms had that kind of romance about them. Not that I could afford mana bullets — too expensive to even consider.
"But then… what did I come here for?"
It was my first T-Rank Rift, so I'd been a bit nervous, a bit thrilled, even. It was a moment of genuine regret for having stayed up all night studying rifts and learning English.
Then the blue-eyed woman asked me:
"You! Are! Mister Haildo!"
I froze. Despite everything I'd been through, the side effects of rote-memorization English education apparently ran deep — the moment a foreigner spoke to me, my hands and feet started trembling and my heart dropped like a stone.
What should I say?
I said it anyway.
"Of course…! That's me, Haildo…!"
An S-Rank awakener who'd crossed the Pacific knew my name. Between the surprise and the flutter of pride, Cassie spoke again:
"I heard you have a very cute K-squirrel! Show me the cute K-squirrel! The animal only found in Korea!"
I blinked for a moment, not knowing what a "K-squirrel" was — then it clicked. She meant a Dog-Squirrel. Kae-daramjwi. Daeramjwi. Close enough.
Anyhow. So our Keong-keongi had become famous all the way across the Pacific, on that distant New World.
I opened the bag at my waist. Dog-Squirrel Keong-keongi poked his little head out with a ━Keong-keong…!, and at the sight of him, Cassie reacted with the oversized theatrics only foreign women seem to possess.
"So cute! So lovely! So cute! If I come to Korea, can I catch this K-squirrel? Where do I have to go! Guide me quickly!"
Somehow, it all made sense. She'd blazed through a T-Rank Rift in record time because she wanted to go see the Dog-Squirrels, hadn't she?
But was that even allowed? I looked over at Cha Yura, the President's daughter. She was the one in charge here. Cha Yura surveyed our surroundings, then finally made a call to someone.
"Unbelievable!"
Cassie arrived at Taecho Village, where Dog-Squirrels and Honey Ants swarmed, and was overjoyed beyond measure. Before I knew it, I'd been roped into being a tour guide — though honestly, there wasn't much to introduce.
"This is the road where Dog-Squirrels come and go. Way. That, squirrel. Chimmingk way."
"Ohh! Chimmingk way!"
━Keong-keong…!
━Keong-keong…!
Several Dog-Squirrels were scurrying about — and quite a few tiny baby Dog-Squirrels among them, which made for good watching. Cassie sounded genuinely moved.
"Different from America's countryside! Korea's countryside is small and warm! Squirrels are small too! Everything is small and cozy!"
"Of course…! It is exactly as you say…!"
Shhk—.
Illinoi emerged from the yard. At the sight of her, Cassie was startled yet again.
"This is Korea's elf? Korea's elves are small and cute too!"
"This Illinoi is not an elf but a nymph…! Are you a redneck Yankee from America who doesn't know this Illinoi…? But I will Paul-give-you anyway…!"
Listening to the two of them converse, I felt like my ten years of school English had been rendered completely meaningless.
Anyhow.
Perhaps wary of a stranger, the Dog-Squirrels weren't coming into our yard, and the Honey Ants had hidden themselves away for the day too. Word had it that to animals, S-Rank awakeners looked like terrifying predators or natural enemies.
The Desperado Cassie spoke up.
"I want to take two Dog-Squirrels! Dog-Squirrels! I heard they are strong! America! Many all kinds of animals! Take Dog-Squirrels there and release them, very good!"
America was a vast land. Foreign species from rifts were constantly invading it and wrecking the ecosystem, apparently. So she genuinely wanted to take the sweet, adorable Dog-Squirrels over there to help protect American wildlife.
"Aren't there giant crocodiles lurking all over America? Species that came through from rifts, or so I've heard."
When I asked, Cassie shouted like she'd been waiting for exactly this.
"Witch! Witch! In America! They control the animals! Evil magic! Animals and plants change! Does Korea have witches too?"
Witches. Never thought I'd hear the word from an American's mouth. And I was someone who knew that name all too well.
Were there multiple witches, or just the one? And she manipulated animals, twisted beasts and plants with dark magic — it sounded like something straight out of a fairy-tale villain's résumé.
Time passed in that fashion, and evening came.
"So Cassie and I are heading to a B-Rank Rift together tomorrow. She says she wants to see what Keong-keongi can do. Apparently there's an unclosed B-Rank rift out in Chungju, in Chungcheong Province."
An S-Rank awakener volunteering to watch me clear a B-Rank Rift. It was a nerve-wracking moment, all things considered.
"Cassie? You two got that close already?"
It was Seo Yerim, come to pick Illinoi up. The girl wrinkled her brow. For some reason, Seo Yerim didn't seem to care for Cassie. Now that I thought about it, her mood had soured slightly ever since word first came that an S-Rank awakener was visiting from America. Curious about why, I asked:
"Did something happen between you two?"
Had they even met before? Three years ago, the S-Ranks gathered for a conference in the States, right? If something had happened, it was probably then. Seo Yerim didn't answer — she just hauled Illinoi off and left.
And so the day turned, and the next morning—
I woke up to find myself in an awkward position. Because Seo Yerim had shown up at our house first thing in the morning.
"You're telling me two S-Rank awakeners are entering a B-Rank Rift?"
"Yep. So I'm coming too!"
Two S-Rank awakeners for a single B-Rank Rift. Wasn't that a total waste? It was exactly like deploying two strategic bombers to swat a single mosquito.
"Seo Yerim, remember what you said when I made milk tea with my expensive tea leaves? What you're proposing right now is an even bigger waste of manpower than that."
"The milk tea was delicious, so what's your point! Fine then, if you feel that way, let me into the T-Rank Rift I was supposed to clear today instead. Haildo, don't you want to try your first T-Rank mission?"
"Oh."