Tutorial (1)

"The Gate selected for this cohort's tutorial, the Pumpkin Forest, carries an overall rating of C-rank."

Once I was back in my seat, Hong Si-yu began the briefing in earnest.

"In the days before proper tactics existed for each demonic beast, the Iron Blood Guild won the bid to mine it. After their strike team was wiped out to the last, the Gate was transferred to the Department of Gate Management."

Every sentence set the Awakeners murmuring.

"Wiped out?"

"C-rank overall? We haven't even debuted as hunters. How are we supposed to clear that?"

"Iron Blood is a top-five guild. What are we going to do in a place that annihilated their strike team?"

Lee Hae-il looked just as deflated.

"What, they opening a free soup kitchen for the monsters?"

"How do you even come up with lines like that?"

The hollow note in his voice pulled a laugh out of me before I could help it.

"Focus."

As if she meant to pour oil on their unease, Hong Si-yu started a video. Combat footage of the Iron Blood Guild rolled across the screen at the front of the room.

"Let's go!"

"Push them back!"

"Iron Blood! Iron Blood! Iron Blood!"

True to the name, they were hunters wrapped in staggering heavy ordnance. Thick exoskeletal armor, the sort that belonged in a science-fiction film, sheathed their bodies, and they carried M134 miniguns and K6 heavy machine guns—each one dozens of kilograms—as if the weight were nothing.

Brrrrrrt!

The fire pouring from those muzzles, more than a thousand rounds a minute, looked strong enough to sweep away hundreds of demonic beasts in a matter of seconds.

"Orcs!"

"Shoot them!"

"Ah—they're not going through!"

"Aaaagh!"

"It's a Jack-o'-Lantern!"

That magnificent display of force collapsed in less than ten minutes. Every time a muzzle spat fire, the Jack-o'-Lanterns crowding the Pumpkin Forest blazed to life. Stripped of their heat and their kinetic energy, rounds that should have punched clean through a concrete wall failed to travel even a few dozen meters before dropping ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to the dirt.

"Skreee! Skreek!"

"More incoming!"

"The gunfire—it's the gunfire!"

Drawn by the shots, orcs and goblins swarmed in like a pack of wild dogs.

"Form up!"

The Iron Blood hunters pressed their backs together, fixed bayonets, and drew their melee weapons.

"A Jack-o'-Lantern?"

One of the creatures approached the cluster. Its pumpkin maw split wide.

"Pumpkin Buckshot...!"

BOOOOM!

Crimson fragments tore through them in a storm like a claymore mine—the Jack-o'-Lantern venting every scrap of thermal energy it had stored. The Iron Blood hunters, packed tight, went tumbling across the ground as one. Goblins rushed over their fallen bodies with daggers in hand. The footage ended there.

"..."

The Awakeners didn't murmur this time. They only curled in on themselves like frightened mice and shook. Lee Hae-il, seated beside me, turned a look full of dread my way.

"H-Hyung-nim. This isn't a soup kitchen. This is door-to-door service. A catering buffet. At this rate we're all going to die with orc breath in our faces."

I didn't feel the same.

"I don't think so."

"No—you just saw it! Even those monsters of Awakeners, the ones firing miniguns one-handed, got wiped out! You might scrape through somehow, Hyung-nim, but the rest of us are actually going to die."

I looked into the wavering eyes of a disciple who, in only two weeks, had been nothing but diligent and passionate, and I spoke quietly.

"They might have lived if they hadn't fired the miniguns."

"Sir?"

"You don't see it?"

I was about to explain when Hong Si-yu went on.

"As you saw, the Pumpkin Forest is thick with Jack-o'-Lanterns. You would do well to use the issued firearms only sparingly."

That was exactly what I had been about to say.

"The orcs and goblins of the Pumpkin Forest travel in packs of a dozen or so. If you can cut a pack that size down quickly with the melee weapons you've trained in, you can keep moving without a further fight."

From the look of it, that forest became a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nightmare the instant anyone fired a single shot. Jack-o'-Lanterns woke as they drank in the heat, and the gunfire pulled in still more orcs and goblins. From then on, the fight was too heavy to survive without a gun's firepower—and yet the Jack-o'-Lanterns meant you could not shoot. Scatter, and the orcs and goblins picked you off one by one. Bunch up to stand your ground, and Pumpkin Buckshot swept you away. If there was a way through, it was only this: while the packs were still a dozen strong, kill them fast and never stop moving.

"Of course, we will not be requiring you to clear the Gate."

By the time my thoughts had reached that far, Hong Si-yu advanced the slide.

"The Pumpkin Forest is managed in five sectors. The closer you get to the center, the stronger the demonic beasts. The closer you stay to the edge, the weaker they are."

A map came up: three overlapping circles, quartered by a cross.

"You will enter through Sector 1, where the Gate stands, and you must pass through either Sector 2 or Sector 4 until you reach Sector 3, directly opposite the Gate."

Every eye fixed on the map.

"Bring back a Jack-o'-Lantern sapling—at present they exist only in Sector 3—and you pass the tutorial."

Hong Si-yu indicated the overlapping rings.

"In every sector, the outermost green zone holds few demonic beasts. The catch is the time. Circle the long way around, and you may arrive to find that other trainees—the ones who took the risk—have already pulled every sapling."

The outer ring was green.

"Even with a moderate amount of fighting, the middle zone should be manageable. Iron Blood failed in the past for lack of information. I will choose to believe that you can succeed."

The middle ring was yellow.

"Sector 5, the central zone—I advise you not to enter. If you do, we cannot guarantee your safety, regardless of your scores."

The center circle was red. Beside it hung a grainy photograph: an impossibly enormous pumpkin, and a dragon crouched before it.

"What is that?"

"Bosses. A field boss and the Gate boss. Smash that pumpkin and the Gate probably clears."

"Either way, I am never going in there."

Hushed voices drifted up from every corner.

"Direct combat between trainees is strictly forbidden. Instructors under concealment fields will be watching you throughout, and sensors fitted to your firearms will automatically lock the weapon if the muzzle turns on another trainee."

Hong Si-yu finished and opened the floor.

"All right. Questions, then you gear up and we depart. Anyone?"

Countless hands rose.

"The trainee in front?"

"Are we allowed to move solo, or as a group?"

"Either is acceptable. Move alone if you like, or all one thousand of you together. However many of you go, it will be neither a particular advantage nor a disadvantage. Next."

"How many magazines can we take?"

"As many as you can carry. Mind the weight."

"If the demonic beasts attack us, the instructors will help, won't they?"

Someone in the crowd had asked it.

"No."

Hong Si-yu shook her head as if she had been waiting for the question. Her short red hair swung, light and bright, as though it were speaking for the lift in her mood.

"What?"

"Y-you're not going to help?"

"That can't be right. You're saying we could actually die?!"

"Are you insane?!"

This time the unrest truly spread.

"Fuck. We're fucked."

I watched the color drain from Lee Hae-il's face. I wasn't surprised.

"If this is enough to kill you, you will not be entering a major corporation or a public institution. If you die even with the information in hand, you will die soon enough no matter which guild takes you."

Hong Si-yu laughed, bright and satisfied, like someone who had wanted to say it for a long time. I had known she would.

"The fuck is that supposed to mean!"

"You're telling all of us to go die?!"

"Call a lawyer! This is a human rights violation!"

Curses burst from every side, but she didn't so much as furrow her brow.

"Is the country allowed to do this?!"

Someone shouted it, voice raw with outrage.

"Yes. It is."

Hong Si-yu answered with perfect calm.

"The country needs ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hunters. That is why becoming a hunter means wealth. It means honor. Commit a crime, and you still do not go to prison."

The tattooed pigs dropped their eyes as one, as if they remembered the fire of the first day.

I thought I understood the heart behind those words. It was the demand of someone who had put her life on the line and, at the end of it, won wealth and honor. Lee Hae-il let out a breath thick with tension.

"This is brutal."

I drew in a breath full of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thrill.

"And I like it."

"What?!"

"Don't you?"

"Hyung-nim, you really are a madman."

A challenge, by its nature, was a pleasure. It burned hotter when someone who had already overcome it stood in front of you—and hotter still when the challenge called for the tool you loved most.

"If you want a result no one else can reach, you have no choice but to live like no one else."

I turned the Status Window Ring on my finger.

Honestly.

I was confident.

The Awakeners, former model prisoners, split among dozens of forty-five-seat coaches and rode for the Pumpkin Forest, armed with sensor-fitted MP5 submachine guns, black tactical combat uniforms, and whatever melee weapon each of them carried.

With a soft scrape of cloth, Jeong Jae-ha drew the curtain aside and looked out the window.

An odd light touched his expression.

Words like those... I've never seen them before.

Colorful banners and electronic boards bristled with phrases that would have been unfamiliar to him. Homeless people lined one side of the street; on another, protesters in headbands were demonstrating. Across from them, smartly dressed men and women laughed through their dates, and a massive screen flashed an advertisement for some ranker. An ordinary South Korea, in the age of hunters.

Meanwhile, Hong Si-yu had already gone ahead to the situation room near the Gate and was watching the trainees. Footage from the miniature reconnaissance golems Ji In-hwi had made filled an eight-way split screen.

The door creaked open, and a group filed in.

"You're early."

"You made it?"

"Thanks for last time. We landed five this round."

"Five? Ours all died on us."

"Didn't your side take more than ten? Burn through them a little more carefully. Shit or not, they're still resources."

Most of them wore impeccable suits, though military uniforms and police uniforms were mixed in among them. Whatever their true ages, every one of them looked to be in their mid-twenties, and a faint radiance of mana drifted through hair and eyes dyed every color there was. Overflowing vitality had wound their biological clocks back to the prime of the human body, and overflowing mana had rewritten the color of hair and pupils. In short, they were the hunters of South Korea.

"Sooo, when do we start?"

"There has to be a law somewhere against a strapping man in his thirties, in a military uniform, talking like that."

"If there are any decent rookies, poke them my way, nya. Lots and lots and lots!"

"Listen to that nya. Somebody shove some catnip in that magical girl's mouth."

Hong Si-yu, Policy Coordination Section Chief of the Awakeners Association Special Cooperation Bureau, received the scouters from the guilds, the government, and the major corporations without ceremony. Most of them were old comrades who had survived a bitter fight to live in isolated Seoul during the early days of the Opening.

"I'll say this up front. We're out. We're not taking rookies this time, so don't glance our way—take whoever you want."

"Why?"

"Last cohort was garbage. A hunter ditching their comrades and running? How does that make any sense? And the few who were actually usable all went to the big corporations."

"..."

"The report on the rehabilitation hunters went all the way up to our Guild Master. He said Si-yu's lost her eye for talent since she left the guild. That she's sending out people we would have burned to death in the old days and calling them rookie hunters."

So even when the scouter from her old workplace, the Saetbyeol Guild, took her to task, she did not open with fire.

"Anyway, Saetbyeol isn't taking anyone unless they're skilled enough to actually shake the Guild Master's heart."

Honestly.

This time, it was a little funny.

"Do as you like. But."

"But?"

"I don't think you'll be the one who decides whether they get taken."