Race to Namsan Second Gate
"How long does it take from here to Namsan?"
"Hmm. Thirty minutes? Traffic shouldn't be bad at this hour, so maybe less."
"Then we leave right now."
"Why... why are we suddenly going to Namsan?"
"I have my reasons."
Hong Eunyoung kept needling me with questions, her face full of doubt, but I was in no position to answer every one of them. I had a mountain of things to do.
I scooped Ahn Jihyun up into my arms after roughly getting her dressed. There was always the chance she might try to run, so I had no intention of restoring her magic just yet.
"Call every Chinese place near Namsan—no, any restaurant that does motorcycle delivery—and place orders. At least five of them. Delivery address is the Namsan Second Gate management office."
"Excuse me?"
"Just do what I tell you. I'll explain later."
"F-fine..."
Ahn Jihyun, still cradled against me, seemed to sense how urgently things were moving. She asked,
"What's going on? Where are we going?"
"I've decided I need to let you go a little sooner than planned."
"...Thank you."
"Not today. But if you do everything I tell you from this point on, I'll send you home as early as tomorrow."
"And... my magic...?"
"I'll give that back too. So help me out today."
"All right..."
Ever since I'd taken her from behind, she'd become remarkably compliant. This time it didn't feel like an act. Though she did seem to lean even more heavily on Hong Eunyoung, who had healed her raw, aching hole.
"We're going out now. Don't do anything that might make people suspicious. If you do, I really will have no choice but to kill you. Understood?"
"Yes."
"Treat us like acquaintances. If you try anything funny the moment I take that blindfold off..."
"I understand."
"Last thing—whatever I tell you to do today, you follow it. No questions. I don't have time to explain."
Still held in my arms, she simply nodded. She hadn't broken completely, not in spirit—but she wouldn't defy a direct order. Not unless it forced her to abandon her own convictions.
I loaded her into the back seat and sat right beside her. Hong Eunyoung, the car's owner, took the wheel. Even now she was busy calling place after place, placing the meal orders exactly as I'd instructed.
"Motorcycle delivery only. Make sure of it."
"Got it."
We didn't pull out immediately. I'd told her to hit at least five places, so she still had a few more calls to make. Watching her work, I dialed a number of my own in a hurry.
First call went to Deputy Manager Park from my old company. I'd never bothered deleting his number—just never cared enough to think about it—and now I was damn glad I hadn't.
"Who is this...?"
"It's me, sir."
"...Ah, Team Leader Kang? W-what is this about all of a sudden?"
"No need to be so scared. I didn't call to settle any scores."
"R-right? I mean, I never really spread any rumors about you or talked behind your back..."
"I know. I just have a few questions, that's all."
"All right... what is it?"
I asked him about everything that had gone down today. Deputy Manager Park sounded just as swamped by it. And of all teams, it was C-Team—the company's backbone, their meal ticket—that had him fretting. The kids who'd gone out onto that endless plain to hunt orcs. His nerves were stretched so thin over them that F-Team had completely fallen off his radar.
"Ah, right... that one's a mess too. We sent eight Awoken in there. Kim Chan-il's luck really ran out on this one. And Kim Miyeon—that's already twice for her... she'll probably quit the company after this. Assuming she makes it back alive, that is..."
"Send me the expedition plan Kim Chan-il filed for this run. Straight to my phone."
"Huh? Wh-why would you need that?"
"I'm going in to pull them out."
"You? Even if you did Awaken, going in alone..."
"Just send it. Fast. I'll handle the rest myself. We're leaving within thirty minutes, so hurry. I'll make it worth your while."
"W-well, that part's easy enough, but..."
"One hundred million won, straight to your personal account."
"Ah—all right. Sending it now. Not that I was doing this for the money, of course..."
"I know. Just hurry. I'm out of time. I've got other prep to handle—I'm hanging up."
Fuck. What a long-winded bastard.
The second I cut the call with Deputy Manager Park, I dialed another number. Directory assistance. One reason only: I needed them to connect me to the Namsan Second Gate management office.
And of course, the damn line was busy. It took nearly ten minutes to get through.
"Where are you calling from? This is the Namsan Second Gate management office."
Phones must have been ringing off the hook over there—they jumped straight to asking who I was. The civil servants might have been busy, but I was busier.
"What's the situation there right now? Has a rescue team arrived?"
"Not yet. We've already had this happen at four separate gates today alone..."
The news channels were in absolute chaos. It wasn't just Bukhansan Gate and Namsan Gate—two more dungeons had blown open with the same kind of disaster. What the hell kind of day was this? They were even running overseas reports that something similar had hit the United States.
How many more gates were going through this right now that nobody even knew about yet? The thought sat heavy in my chest.
"We do have one sole survivor who made it out of the gate, but he never got a proper look at the monsters. Says he ran without looking back... sir, which organization are you with, exactly...?"
"Rescue team."
"Pardon? Wh-which company..."
"Dragon Guild."
"Oh, thank you so much! As expected of Korea's finest..."
"Skip the flattery and just tell me what that survivor said."
He'd heard screaming. Explosions. Something that sounded like a building coming down. The only thing he'd actually seen was a colleague's severed back. The moment he saw it, he poured every scrap of magic into his legs and ran without looking back. Given that he was the only one who made it out of the gate, he figured the rest of his team was already dead.
That was everything the sole survivor—an F-Rank Awoken—had managed to spit out.
"Understood. Clear the area around the gate before we get there. If any reporters show up, get rid of them. You can handle that much, right?"
"Ah... yes, sir. We'll turn them away as best we can. It's late—probably won't be many anyway."
"Good."
Still, I couldn't know for sure. That survivor was F-Rank, so of course he'd been helpless—but our kids would be fine. I'd raised Kim Isol's magic to the same level as my own. Under ordinary circumstances, nothing should touch them. For all I knew, they'd already be outside by the time we arrived. They weren't the type to fold in a mere E-Rank dungeon. Even if those hyenas—or gnolls, whatever they were—came at them in a pack, the team as they stood now could hold their ground.
"Turn on the radio. Gate emergency news channel."
"Ah... okay."
Hong Eunyoung, still driving, scrambled to switch it on. The dial barely had time to spin before it locked onto a station. Every channel was running the same breaking coverage—of course it was.
So the Community was mobilizing too. Corporate rescue teams would be dispatched to the different dungeons, no doubt. But if they were only just starting to gear up, they were already too late. It wasn't one or two dungeons in crisis—and there was no telling how many more gates beyond the ones already reported might be going through the same thing right now.
"Um..."
Ahn Jihyun, who had been listening to the broadcast in silence, finally opened her mouth.
"Would you mind telling me what this is about? What's actually happening?"
"It's a Double Gate. You've been listening to every call I've made—I'm sure you already know what that means."
"...Yes."
"Four gates blew open at the same time. We're heading to one of them. That's why I need your help."
"W-why would you... you're just an Academy student."
"People I know are inside that dungeon. I'm not going to sit around waiting like an idiot."
"...Give me my magic back. I understand what you're saying."
"Not yet. Just like you couldn't trust me, I can't trust you either."
"But... if we go in like this, even I won't be able to do anything."
"Don't worry about it. The moment we see a monster, I'll give it back."
Hong Eunyoung was watching me in the rearview mirror, gauging my mood. She had to have a dozen questions of her own.
"What is it? Stop side-eyeing me and just ask. I'll answer until we reach Namsan. And step on it."
"B-but... if I get a ticket..."
"Is that really what you're worried about right now?"
"F-fine... you always pick on me."
Raising my voice a little seemed to kill whatever questions she'd been holding onto. She went quiet and focused on the road. It wasn't until we were nearly there that she spoke again.
"Am... am I going in too?"
"Of course. If we find anyone injured inside, your abilities are going to matter. You don't want to go?"
"Wh-who said I didn't want to? I was just asking... but how are we supposed to go in with no gear at all?"
"Don't worry. That's exactly why I brought Ahn Jihyun. Park in front of the equipment rental place around here."
As head of the Awakened Community, she could borrow gear anytime she wanted. Her identity was ironclad. From the shop's perspective, putting Dragon Guild in their debt was a two-for-one deal. And if her name somehow carried no weight at all, I still had the option of just taking the equipment by force—or by threat. That was the last resort. Pulling something like that would make founding my own company that much harder down the line.
"Oh, thank you so much. We'll take excellent care of your deposit."
We rented the gear. Naturally, the shop tried hard to refuse at first. At this hour, they said, rentals were banned for everyone—corporate clients included. But Ahn Jihyun's authority, combined with the absurd amount of money sitting in my account, solved the problem without much trouble.
The real reason they'd hesitated was insurance. If something went wrong under these circumstances, official coverage wouldn't apply. The moment I put down a deposit equal to the full value of the equipment, their attitude flipped. Even if we walked off with the gear and never came back, the deposit would cover their losses. Simple math.
My precious fifty billion won...
I didn't rent C-Rank gear. I rented A-Rank. Nearly my entire fortune went into that deposit. Would those idiots even appreciate how far I was going for them?
Fuck. As if.
"Ahn Jihyun. You did very well."
"It still hurts my eyes..."
I gave her hair a light stroke by way of praise. After so long without light, she fortunately did everything I told her to. The separate men's and women's locker rooms had been a real problem—I couldn't follow her inside—but Hong Eunyoung got her changed and brought her back out without incident. Not that she could have run far with no magic left in her body.
For weapons, I rented both a bow and a sword. The two women—a mage and a healer—didn't need arms of their own, so I had each of them shoulder a Supporter's backpack instead. I stripped out all the usual junk and packed them with water and food. This dungeon was enormous. Water and rations were non-negotiable.
"Excuse me, I need to check your identification..."
Fortunately, the area in front of the gate was quiet. The civil servant I'd spoken to on the phone came out to meet us. Everyone else must have been pulled toward Bukhansan Gate—there wasn't a single bothersome reporter in sight.
"We came in a hurry, empty-handed. No IDs, but take a good look at this woman's face. This is Ahn Jihyun, head of the Awakened Community. Just write down that a three-person advance rescue team from Dragon Guild went in."
"Well, even so..."
"Is following a manual more important than people's lives?"
"B-but... if I don't check properly, I'll get fired..."
What was I even supposed to call this? A model civil servant who stuck to the book? Or a piece of garbage who, even now, only cared about protecting his own paycheck?
"Don't worry. If you get dismissed over this, I'll take care of you through retirement. Double salary, thirty years' pay in a lump sum—or I'll put you on desk work at our company. Deal?"
"At... at Dragon Guild? In that case, all right."
He was clearly laboring under a serious misunderstanding, but so what. The way he kept glancing around, worried someone might overhear—I wanted to punch him.
And then there were the people standing off to the side, staring at us blankly, listening to every word.
"Uh... who ordered the jajangmyeon and sweet-and-sour pork?"
"Jokbal delivery!"
"Pizza and chicken delivery. Where should we put it?"
The delivery drivers from the places Hong Eunyoung had ordered from earlier. God bless Korea. How long ago had she placed those orders, and they'd beaten us here? Then again, renting the gear had eaten up some time.
"We're the ones who ordered. All of you, head into the management office, eat that food, and take a taxi home. What I need isn't the meals—it's the motorcycles you rode in on."
Temporary transport for inside the dungeon. Secured.