Chapter 31
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Gate Murder Case
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“Are you listening to me?”
“Huh? Oh... yeah....”
Nayeong, who had been staring blankly at the pattern with hazy eyes, startles and answers.
Drool drips down from between her parted lips.
“Why are you drooling? Was kissing me that weird?”
“Kissing? Oh... right, we kissed. Ah... why am I....”
She hurriedly wipes the saliva away.
Why is she suddenly acting like this?
“S-So, kissing you lets me receive the Great Spirit’s pattern?”
“Next time, you can get it without kissing. The kiss was just because of your vessel.”
“Vessel?”
“Hunters apparently have something like a vessel to hold Yin Energy, but I don’t know the details. Yours was too small and about to shatter, so I sealed it with a kiss. It’s hard to explain, so just go with that.”
“I-I see....”
She trails off with a disappointed look.
Did she like my kiss that much?
“It’s a chance to level up, so grab that thing. Sylph said she’d lend you a familiar.”
“Got it.”
Her shy girl’s gaze shifts to that of a warrior.
｢Good eyes. Focus on your right arm.｣
“W-Who’s that?”
Nayeong startles, hearing Sylph’s voice for the first time.
“It’s the Great Spirit Sylph. You’ll be meeting her a lot from now on, so don’t freak out.”
I answer in her place.
Nayeong bows at a perfect ninety degrees to the empty air, her face full of reverence.
“Hello, Lady Sylph! I’m Nayeong, Woojin’s childhood friend. Thank you for granting me your power!”
｢Hehe, what a polite girl. I’ll lend you Ariel—use it however you like.｣
Nayeong’s right arm begins to glow as a tattoo etches itself onto her skin.
It’s far more intricate than the crude one from the Blue Gate.
The tattoo unspools into the air like thread, then draws together to form a bow.
Clearly different from the one that had burst from her chest and butt—this felt like a proper divine weapon.
“It’s back to normal now.”
｢The Gate likes things popping out of chests and butts, but I can’t stand that kind of nonsense.｣
With the thrusting sensation gone, Nayeong wears a disappointed expression.
Was I training her without realizing it?
“Huh?”
Nayeong startles, noticing something.
“What?”
“I got a skill!”
I opened Nayeong’s status window using the Yin Energy Scout.
A brand-new unique skill had truly appeared.
Probably because Sylph unlocked it, it had a wind theme.
Nayeong looks like she’s about to burst into tears.
“I was so worried it wouldn’t show up... but it came so easily....”
｢Playing around is getting tiresome. Hurry up and finish it.｣
Boredom laced Gnome’s voice.
I spoke to Nayeong, lost in her.
“It’s coming. Arrows, now!”
“Huh? Oh, got it.”
The sand dunes bouncing across the floor vanished in an instant.
With the obstacles cleared, the Queen Scorpion roared and charged toward us.
Seven arrows appear in Nayeong’s hand.
She’d said accuracy dropped beyond three, but now seven was no problem.
She nocks them in a flash and looses them into the air.
｢She follows the pattern’s guidance perfectly. Her spirit affinity is impressive too.｣
Spirit affinity is one of the key abilities for a summoner.
The higher it is, the more spirits you can call.
Now even archer Nayeong had gained talent for summoning spirits.
‘So my Yin Energy has this kind of power too.’
Amazed inwardly, I watched Nayeong.
Ecstasy filled her eyes as the arrows soared into the sky.
“Lady Ariel, now!”
At Nayeong’s shout, the arrows scattering through the air altered their paths.
All seven traced different trajectories as they rocketed toward the Queen Scorpion.
Pook, pook.
Thuk-thuk-thunk!
Grraaaaaah—!!
The supposedly impenetrable shell of the Queen Scorpion shattered.
Arrows striking the joints unraveled like thread and burrowed into the shell.
Blade-like winds howled through the cracks created by the arrows.
Crack!
Finally, the joint connecting its left pincer burst open.
Then the right pincer, left leg, bifurcated tail—its seven joints exploded one after another, and it collapsed.
Its fiercely glowing eyes dimmed, and a message appeared in midair.
You have conquered the Navy Gate (Unregistered). Congratulations!
[Rewards]
Points: 2,000pt
Artifact: Yin Energy Navigator
A message confirming the gate clear.
Nayeong rushes over, hugs me tight, and starts jumping up and down.
Hyang! I hurry and activate the Yin Energy Terminator.
“Waaah, thank you. My level, my leeevel... skyrocketed!”
Just one boss kill, and her level jumped by five (42 → 47).
C-Ranks need massive experience to level up, so this was like hitting the lottery for a hunter.
｢Using spirit power makes levels rise fast. Thank your friend.｣
Hearing Sylph, Nayeong beams and plants a kiss on my cheek.
She could’ve gone for a deep one while she was at it.
Instead, she presses her lips to my ear and whispers softly.
“Thought you were a total perv, but I’ve reconsidered. Suck me dry outside. Tongue’s fine too.”
I held back, and now she’s the perv.
Before leaving the gate, I checked my status window.
The Yin Energy Navigator I’d just received was in my inventory.
As I looked at it, its description popped up.
【Yin Energy Navigator】
An artifact that detects Yin Energy flows. It can only sense Yin Energy permitted by gates and has no distance limit. Useful for tracking gates or hunters with Yin Energy.
Like a car navigation system.
Except the search targets were gates and hunters with Yin Energy.
Not sure if I’d ever need to track Yin Energy, but no harm in having my own artifact.
“Did you get an artifact?”
“Yeah, here.”
An artifact ore appeared in Nayeong’s hand.
Since it came from an unregistered gate, I couldn’t use an official appraisal office with records.
“For private appraisers, just ask the Guild Master.”
Being illegal, it required connections—and Mito Guild’s Guild Master had wide reach in that world.
Her guild management sucked, but her network was solid, apparently.
“You know the hunter industry well.”
“That’s what I hear. Anything you wanna know?”
“Yeah.”
The tongue guy’s words inside the gate kept nagging at me.
“He said he killed the hunter who was tailing him.”
Nayeong’s expression darkened instantly.
The tongue guy had confessed to killing Juyeon, an A-Rank hunter.
And not just killing—dismembering her limbs in a brutal murder.
“Her dad’s a minister, uncle’s a magic stone chaebol, right? No way a family like that stays quiet after their daughter’s murdered. I’m curious about the aftermath.”
The government tightly controls everything that happens inside gates.
It might not have made headlines, but with a minister’s daughter dead, her family wouldn’t sit idle.
They’d have hunted the perp with everything they had—yet the tongue guy roamed free.
‘Not the kind of case yakuza could cover up.’
It was reasonable to suspect he had backing beyond gangsters.
Or maybe the minister had reason to bury his daughter’s death.
Either way, no leads from the outside.
The hunter world and related government agencies were that closed off.
“More than that, I can’t believe Yumi killed Juyeon. Juyeon wasn’t ordinary.”
“Oh?”
The tongue guy—Yumi—was a fresh A-Rank, while Juyeon was a veteran A-Rank gunning for S-Rank.
“Same rank and all, but the power gap was huge. Juyeon was our guild’s ace.”
Her story only made it stranger.
Hunters had clear gaps by rank and level—low levels rarely overtook higher ones.
“That’s why I’m even more curious. Definitely ask the Guild Master.”
“Principal and interest wiped clean, right?”
“Yeah. Don’t worry about it.”
Otherwise, she’d get a real taste of bitterness.
“You’re the Guild Master’s benefactor, after all. She’ll look into it for you.”
A while later, I learned it wasn’t just a simple murder case.