Chapter 7
Chapter 7
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 007
Chapter Title: Choices
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Gate.
A passage created by the Tower's mana influence, connecting the inside of the Tower to the outside world.
But you can't enter from the outside, and no one knows what monster will burst out from within.
Han Jeong-woo kept watching the black hole undulating ominously through the window, as if it were alive.
Sirens soon blared, and people began gathering busily around the Gate.
Those in uniforms set up a barricade line to block civilians, while a few in white coats measured the Gate's mana levels with portable devices.
"...A Gate."
Deep hatred laced Han Jeong-woo's voice.
It was a Gate that had taken his mother's life when he was seventeen. And just a few days ago, it had demolished the villa he'd bought with every penny saved over ten years.
Now, that damned thing had reappeared right in front of his new home, as if mocking him.
📜 NEW QUEST 📜 [Sudden Quest Occurred!]
[Defeat the monster emerging from the Gate.]
🎁 Success: Blessed Skill Enhancement Ticket x1
⚠️ Failure: Permanent physical impairment due to gravity and destruction of your current one-room apartment
Han Jeong-woo's face clouded with puzzlement as he checked the sudden quest.
'Blessed Skill Enhancement Ticket...?'
He'd never heard of such an item.
But what really furrowed his brow next was the utterly ridiculous failure penalty.
'Gonna wreck my place again?'
It was outrageous. Did it really think he'd just sit back and watch?
But before he could deal with the Gate, one harsh reality held him back.
He was still an unregistered Awakener who hadn't even filed with the Korea Awakener Management Agency.
Handling the Gate would inevitably force him to reveal his identity.
As he pondered this complicated mess, urgent knocking sounded from the door, followed by a gruff male voice.
Bang bang!
"Gate Response Team! Anyone inside?"
He hesitated for a second.
'Should I just play dead?'
But the dilemma didn't last long.
"...No response, so it's probably empty. Still, better safe than sorry—pry the door open and check!"
His eyes widened at the threat to break in.
'No way—they're gonna smash someone else's door?'
He couldn't let that happen. Sure, it was a rental, but a busted door would make life hell right away.
Han Jeong-woo bolted to the entrance and shouted.
"Someone's in here! I'll open it now, just give me a sec!"
Creeeak—
He swung the door open to find two uniformed men gripping crowbars.
"Anyone else inside? A Gate just spawned right below! It's dangerous—evacuate immediately beyond the barricade line!"
"Got it! Heading out now!"
Han Jeong-woo put on a scared civilian act and replied energetically. The moment he stepped out of the one-room, he dashed in the exact opposite direction of their evacuation route.
If he followed their orders to the barricade, he wouldn't even get a peek at the monster from the Gate. That would lock in a quest failure for sure.
He quickly ducked into a narrow alley across the street. Luckily, he could just make out the Gate from here.
"The best play is—"
To hide here and take out the monster the instant it emerged.
If that didn't work, he'd reveal himself and kill it anyway.
Either way, failing to catch the monster wasn't an option for Han Jeong-woo.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ A team of Awakeners arrived on site for the Gate raid.
"What's the Gate's rank?"
A male Awakener clad head to toe in gleaming silver armor asked curtly.
His name was Park Jin-ho, one of two B-rank Awakeners dispatched for this Gate.
"No clue. But since it's just us two, it can't be too high."
The female Awakener beside him—wearing a deep purple robe and a pointed conical hat—replied indifferently.
She was also B-rank: Lee Min-joo, dispatched alongside Park Jin-ho.
"Why'd this Gate open so fast, though? One popped just days ago."
"Don't ask me. How should I know?"
"You're so prickly. Keep that up, and no guys will like you."
Park Jin-ho smirked slyly at Lee Min-joo, lifting one corner of his mouth.
She recoiled in disgust, stepping back.
"Shut it, you moron. You think I came here to Gate-crash for your bullshit? Just play meat shield up front. I'll handle the DPS."
"Sis? We're the same age, you know."
As the two bickered, the black hole before them began pulsing more violently and ominously.
The playfulness vanished from their faces in an instant.
Park Jin-ho gripped his greatsword—nearly as big as he was—tightly, while Lee Min-joo began condensing mana at the tip of her massive wooden staff held in both hands.
Then, as if the gates of hell had opened, a golem appeared: charred rock skin veined with glowing crimson lava like blood vessels.
It melted the asphalt as it lumbered forward slowly.
"...That thing!"
Park Jin-ho faced it head-on first. His eyes shook fiercely.
It wasn't just any monster.
This was the 25th-floor boss: a Magma Golem.
"Damn it, a Magma Golem!"
Park Jin-ho shouted, his face draining to pale blue.
He'd climbed to the 30th floor, but the Magma Golem was no pushover. Its obsidian hide was insanely tough—even his greatsword couldn't crack it easily.
"Why'd it have to be this bastard!"
And for Lee Min-joo, who wielded ice magic, it was the worst matchup possible.
"Hey, Lee Min-joo! You said the Gate rank was low!"
"Quit bitching at me! Take it up with the Agency!!"
It had measured as D-rank, maybe C at worst. But now? A 25th-floor boss monster had popped out.
This Gate should've been rated at least B-rank.
But there was no turning back now.
The Gate break was underway, and that blazing golem was bearing down to turn everything to ash.
They had only one choice: fight.
"...Hey, Lee Min-joo! Blast it. I'll cover you."
No time to call for backup now. All they could do was chalk it up to rotten luck.
"We can take it down, but..."
Park Jin-ho glanced at the surrounding one-rooms.
With just him and Lee Min-joo, minimizing damage to the area while subduing it was damn near impossible.
The moment he clicked his tongue and hoisted his greatsword overhead—
Piiiing!
A ear-splitting whoosh echoed from behind the golem.
Something sharp pierced its rock-solid chest and burst out the front.
"...What the hell?"
Stunned by the unbelievable scene, Park Jin-ho slowly lowered his raised greatsword.
He edged forward cautiously, eyes locked on the unknown object embedded in the golem's chest.
It had punched through the Magma Golem's obsidian hide—tough enough to shrug off his greatsword—like paper.
It was a flashy silver trident, its sharp prongs gleaming.
"A trident? What the hell's this doing here?"
Even Lee Min-joo, mid-cast behind him, halted her spell and rushed over.
Park Jin-ho freaked and yelled.
"Hey! Are you nuts? Get back—it's dangerous!"
But Lee Min-joo snorted dismissively, like he was pathetic.
"What bullshit. It's already toast."
It had happened so fast, Park Jin-ho hadn't even registered the golem was dead.
Only now did he see it: standing rigid, trident through its chest, lifeless.
"Who the...?"
Park Jin-ho muttered, still in disbelief.
"Who else? Some other Awakener nearby, you idiot!"
Lee Min-joo smacked the back of his head and bolted toward the trident's trajectory.
She closed her eyes, focused, and spread her mana wide.
Moments later, her sharp senses picked up unfamiliar mana.
It was in the alley across the street, not far from her position.
"Found you."
Deep in the alley, she spotted a man leaning against the wall, breathing raggedly.
"That you?"
"...Pardon?"
"Playing dumb isn't a smart move. Hunting a Gate monster without permission while official dispatched Awakeners are on standby? That's straight-up illegal, you know?"
Just as she said, unauthorized Awakener combat was criminalized for poaching Gate byproducts and endangering public safety.
"You two probably couldn't have taken it down anyway."
"What did you say?"
Lee Min-joo's face hardened.
"I live around here. Couldn't just stand by and watch."
She looked incredulous.
A monster who one-shot a 25th-floor boss Magma Golem, living in this rundown one-room district? Bullshit.
She was convinced he was spouting nonsense to hide his identity or weasel out.
"Come with me for now. The Agency investigation will sort it all out."
"You gonna drag me?"
Lee Min-joo turned back from the alley exit with a smirk.
"Nah, no plans for that. Just asking for your cooperation. But..."
She gestured around with her staff tip.
"As you see, this area's completely surrounded by Agency staff and police because of the Gate. You wouldn't try breaking through, right?"
Of course, if he really wanted to, it wouldn't be impossible. Even she, a B-rank, could laugh off a barricade like that.
But her real message was a warning: 'Run, and you'll just pile on worse charges—don't be stupid.'
"Fair enough. Lead on."
"...Huh? Oh, uh... sure. Let's go."
His compliant response caught her off guard instead.
'What's his angle? Caught red-handed, but he thinks he can slip away?'
Screw up here, and she could kiss the entire Gate raid payout goodbye.
She vowed to process him by the book, no matter what, and secure her pay.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Han Jeong-woo's expression was utterly relaxed as he followed Lee Min-joo out of the alley.
Just as she'd said, poaching a monster from an official Gate standby was illegal.
But there was an exception.
In emergencies threatening nearby damage—like now—even non-dispatched Awakeners could intervene.
And even if it became an issue, Han Jeong-woo had a surefire way out.
His own value.
No way would the Korea Awakener Management Agency treat Korea's sole four SSS-rank raiders—and the one EX-rank Awakener—like a criminal over this.
He had no intention of spilling his full rank, but it was time to reveal Awakener Han Jeong-woo to the world.
His living expenses were running dry anyway.
"Oh, this guy's the one?"
Arriving at the golem corpse skewered by the trident in its chest, the armored Park Jin-ho spotted Han Jeong-woo and asked.
"Yeah."
Lee Min-joo grunted curtly, but Park Jin-ho ignored her and approached him directly.
"You took down the golem?"
"...Yes. Sorry if I stepped on your toes—"
Whatever the circumstances, he'd effectively stolen their kill.
As Han Jeong-woo started a polite apology, Park Jin-ho waved it off.
"No way! Nothing to apologize for! We're the ones who should be grateful! Honestly, with just us... we'd have struggled hard against this thing."
"Hey, Park Jin-ho!"
Lee Min-joo panicked and tried to shut him up, but he barreled on.
"What? It's true. Without him, these one-rooms would've been toast."
Lee Min-joo bit her lip in frustration but couldn't argue.
"Anyway, thanks a ton. You'll have to go through investigation procedure, but it won't be a big deal. I'll put in a good word."
"Shut up and stay out of it!"
Lee Min-joo finally snapped.
How was he so clueless?
She grabbed Han Jeong-woo's arm and dragged him toward the barricade where Agency staff clustered.
"Ah, Awakener Lee Min-joo! Good work out there."
A staffer from the on-site support team recognized and greeted her.
"Thanks, you too. Who's the scene lead here?"
The staffers exchanged uneasy glances.
"Not a big deal. Or maybe it is. There was an issue during the Gate suppression."
Lee Min-joo pointed her staff at Han Jeong-woo.
"This guy beat the Magma Golem before we could. Without authorization."
"What? Unauthorized?"
From the murmuring crowd stepped a man cradling a fluffy white Pomeranian. Baek Yoon-seok, from the Strategic Talent Management Team.
"I'm not the scene lead, but... you're talking about this guy, right?"
Baek Yoon-seok eyed Han Jeong-woo up and down with wide-eyed surprise.
"Yes. Run his ID and process him properly, quick."
Lee Min-joo replied with a smug grin.
All eyes turned to Han Jeong-woo.
But he just quirked a smile at Baek Yoon-seok.
"Mind if we talk privately?"
His calm demeanor sent an inexplicable chill through Lee Min-joo.