Gate Break
An unidentified Gate has been confirmed. All non-combatants currently inside the shelter, please remain where you are and stand by.
Only a few minutes had passed since the broadcast announcing that the Gate had been suppressed.
Teachers were in the middle of taking roll, preparing to lead everyone out of the shelter, when a sudden announcement came over the speakers that made them all tilt their heads in confusion.
Judging by the bewildered looks on their faces as they listened, the faculty were every bit as thrown as the students. But blank stares from the adults would only rattle the kids further, so the teachers schooled their expressions and calmly resumed the headcount.
"We're going to stay in the shelter a little longer, until the next announcement. Just hang tight like you did a moment ago."
The teachers were rattled, sure — but they knew the school was packed with heroes. The kids, for their part, mostly just looked annoyed at having to wait. None of them seemed particularly frightened.
None of them except Park Yeon-chan, who felt a nameless dread coiling in his gut.
And as if to turn that dread into certainty, heroes came pouring into the shelter.
"We're evacuating everyone off school grounds. Teachers, please keep the students together and follow us."
The words that followed sent a wave of tension crashing through the shelter.
GRAAAAAAH!!
"This bastard's filthy loud."
SHRAAAK!
Cha Hui-jin cleaved a gorilla-type monster easily ten times her size in a single stroke, then dug a finger into her ear with a look of pure irritation.
"Tsk."
Even after cutting the thing down in one blow, her expression remained thoroughly displeased. Her gaze drifted to the pillar of the wall her greatsword had nicked on the follow-through.
It wasn't the usual complaint about a greatsword being too unwieldy in tight quarters. For her, any obstacle in the way simply got cut down along with everything else.
The problem was something else entirely.
"I can't just go hacking away if the whole building comes down."
Civilians were still inside. If she swung without restraint, people could die. So she held back, throttling her power as she cut through the monsters.
GRRRRRR!
"They're really pouring out of there."
Watching the gorilla-types spill out one after another, Cha Hui-jin tightened her grip on her greatsword.
At this rate, buying time shouldn't be a problem.
Luckily, the monsters were coming out in single file or tight clusters, which made them easy enough to handle. Once the civilians finished evacuating, she could stop holding back and cut loose. She just had to hold until then—
"…!"
A strange sensation snagged on her senses.
It was the feeling that came just before a Gate opened. She'd never felt it before while standing right in front of one that was already active.
And that wasn't even the worst of it.
It's not just one.
Two. Three. Five…
Whatever her senses were picking up, it wasn't a single Gate. Hoping against hope that she was wrong, she keyed the radio linked to Kim Min-hyeon.
"Kim Min-hyeon…"
"—…I really hope I'm reading this wrong."
Cha Hui-jin dragged a hand down her face. That exchange alone confirmed what they'd both been desperately hoping was a mistake.
"—Ha… this is fucking insane."
Kim Min-hyeon was swearing over an open channel with his superior, but Cha Hui-jin had no urge to reprimand him. She felt exactly the same way — she just hadn't said it out loud.
"From this moment, I want you pinpointing the exact locations of every Gate that's opening. I'm temporarily transferring command authority to you. Prioritize the safety of the evacuees and order individual strike teams starting from the most dangerous points."
"—…And you, Team Lead?"
"I'll take the biggest one."
"—Understood."
Cha Hui-jin ended the transmission, drew a slow breath, and tightened her grip on the greatsword — harder than before.
Something had definitely gone wrong.
The heroes escorting us had faces set like stone — which made sense, given how rare a Gate reopening was. If it were a simple recurrence, staying in the shelter would have been enough. The fact that they were evacuating us meant something else entirely.
A Gate the shelter can't hold back…?
Public-facility shelters were rated to withstand up to B-Rank Gates. That made an A-Rank or higher the logical conclusion — and a sizable one at that. I couldn't pin down the exact scale, but Cha Hui-jin was here: young, already being floated as the next team leader, backed by a deep bench of skilled fighters. The heroes looked tense, sure, but none of them wore anything close to outright shock—
"…Yes, understood."
—until a radio call drained the color from their faces in an instant.
They huddled together, whispering like they were running a field briefing, and then:
"We're counting on you."
"Got it."
Of the six heroes escorting us, three peeled off and sprinted away at a dead run.
"Everyone, this is an emergency! We're picking up the pace — stay tight on the person in front of you and don't fall behind!"
By now even the kids had grasped how bad things were. The low chatter that had been bubbling through the group vanished without a trace.
"Oppa… the sky…"
Lee Yeon-ah tugged at my sleeve. I looked up.
The scorching summer sky was gone. In its place hung something cold and dark.
"Gate Break…?"
The sight dragged a line from the original novel straight into my head.
Pitch-black darkness swallowed the sky, and beings from another world revealed themselves.
A single passage from the book.
But why the hell was it happening now?
Timeline-wise, the Gate Break wasn't supposed to hit for several more years.
A Gate Break was a phenomenon where multiple Gates opened in a cascading chain reaction. That much was common knowledge. From the past all the way to the present, there had never been any report of anything other than massive monster swarms coming out of one.
But if — if — the things that showed up in the mid-to-late original novel came through…
Cha Hui-jin or no Cha Hui-jin, everyone here would be wiped out.
Why? Why had the future shifted this hard?
Because I interfered?
It was worth considering, but the odds felt low. Saving Lee Yeon-ah had almost nothing to do with Gates.
But if I'd missed something — if I'd made a mistake somewhere along the way—
"Chan… Park Yeon-chan! Snap out of it!"
"Yeah. I'm with you."
"You sure as hell didn't look like it."
A short laugh slipped out of me before I could stop it.
Right. Doing everything I could was what had gotten these kids this far in the first place. Whatever was causing this, I had no answer for it — and spinning my wheels on unsolvable questions was nothing but a waste of time.
"There. You're back."
"…"
If she'd said that the second I cleared my head, my face must have looked pretty rough.
"Alright, kids! Form up! Hold your neighbor's hand tight and don't let go — follow me!"
At the teacher's booming voice, everyone grabbed the hand next to them and fell into line.
The Gate Break was unexpected, but a solid force was already stationed at the school. It would be fine. I forced the optimistic circuit to keep spinning and put one foot in front of the other.
"Halt!"
The shout came from the hero at the head of the column. Every one of us froze in place.
A few seconds of silence.
KRA-BOOOOM!
The wall to our side exploded inward, and a massive bipedal monster with the bulk of a giant bull came crashing into our path.
"Aaaah!"
"Hey! Get back! Move!"
Panic rippled through the line, threatening to shatter it completely — until a voice roared from the front again.
"FOCUUUUS!"
The chaos that had been surging toward us went still in an instant.
"Everyone! We'll hold the line here! Teachers, take the kids and fall back!"
"Kids! Follow your teachers! Hold your partner's hand like before! Quick steps — keep the line!"
The teachers took point without hesitation, herding the students. Thanks to the heroes holding the monster off, none of its shockwaves reached us. Even with the danger unchanged, the evacuating kids seemed to settle a little.
But I couldn't. Not even close.
You've got to be kidding me!
Monsters described at that size were A-Rank. That was the knowledge I carried from the novel. Given the situation, the Gate Break had almost certainly spawned multiple Gates.
Don't tell me every single one of them is A-Rank…?
I tried desperately to talk myself down, but the conclusion had already settled in my head.
Shit. It probably was.
Even in an A-Rank Gate Break, not everything that came out was A-Rank. But if the fighters on site were so overwhelmed that monsters were spilling all the way over here, then every last one of them was probably A-Rank.
Decent roster or not, a pure numbers game would push even the people currently at the school past their limit.
And that ugly prediction of mine—
"Kids, just a little farther! We're almost—"
KRA-BOOOOM!
—unfortunately refused to miss.
Three teachers were leading the students: one man, two women.
Among them, PE teacher Go Chan-ho swept his eyes across the surroundings at speed.
If we get through that side, we're straight out the school gate.
Past the doorway currently blocked by the monster lay a direct path to the main gate. He flicked a glance over the kids behind him, then set his jaw.
"Ms. Park, I'll draw it off. Take the kids outside while I've got its attention."
"Mr. Go! That's far too dangerous!"
"I'll be fine. I'm a washed-up Awakened myself, weak as I am."
He rolled up his sleeves like he was showing off and charged straight at the monster.
He never intended to win. All he needed was its eyes on him long enough for the others to run.
GRAAAAAAAH!
A howling bellow split the air, and the monster's fist came screaming toward Go Chan-ho's torso.
Slow.
The whole world seemed to stretch and drag. A strange sensation washed over him — every memory of his life flickering past like a panorama.
Ah. So this is what they mean by your life flashing before your eyes…
And in that same instant—
"…Huh?"
Go Chan-ho's body went flying in a direction that had nothing to do with the way he'd been running.
KRA-BOOOOM!
"Hah… hah… hah…"
The monster's fist grazed past him and punched a grotesque hole clean through the wall beside them.
"Teacher, you okay?"
He turned toward the voice. A boy was looking down at him. For a second the shock was too thick to place the face — then it clicked.
"Yeon…chan?"
"Teacher, I'll draw it off. You take the kids and get out."
Park Yeon-chan spun on his heel and started toward the far side. Go Chan-ho lunged to stop him.
"Yeon-chan! No! Let your teacher handle this!"
"You can't."
The cold finality of it made Go Chan-ho scramble to his feet and grab for the boy.
Or rather — he tried to.
His legs gave out the moment he put weight on them, and he crumpled back to the floor.
As if he'd expected exactly that, Park Yeon-chan never looked back. He simply kept walking, putting distance between them.
"Get the kids out. Especially Lee Yeon-hui and Lee Yeon-ah — drag them out if you have to."
With those words, his student charged the monster. Go Chan-ho could only stare after him, face blank with helpless despair.
Roughly eight meters tall. Bipedal. A bull's head on its shoulders.
A Minotaur, then.
I catalogued its features as I closed the distance at a measured pace. At A-Rank, even active-duty Awakened couldn't just walk up and trade blows with one of these. Let your guard down and you'd be paste before you blinked.
What I had to watch for: the straight-line charge, and the kind of punch I'd just seen. Give it space and it would close the gap at a speed I couldn't answer. Get too close and one fist would split me in half.
"Hey! Park Yeon-chan! What the hell are you doing?!"
"Oppa!"
Familiar voices shouted from behind me. I forced myself not to turn around.
I scooped up a few chunks of rubble from the wreckage and hurled them at the thing.
THUNK!
The stones bounced off with a sound like hitting metal. The Minotaur, which had been eyeing the crowd, swung its gaze onto me.
"Yeah, that's fucking terrifying."
I swallowed the chill racing down my spine and kept thinking. Top priority: keep it from charging the people. Next—
KRA-BOOOOM!
"There it is!"
The instant it wound up to strike, I moved — slipping past the fist by a hair.
Aggro's locked on. Good.
Now I just had to lead it away.
I bolted through the shattered wall. The thing thundered after me without hesitation.
"Park Yeon-chan!"
I risked a glance back. No one was following — the teacher must have held them. Good.
And just like that, I started a deathmatch game of tag with a giant bull.
"Oppa!"
"Park Yeon-chan!"
"Kids, no!"
Thanks to Park Yeon-chan drawing the monster's attention, they'd made it out through the school gate. Getting outside, however, did nothing to cool the two girls down.
The two women teachers were doing everything they could to hold them back when Go Chan-ho — who hadn't taken his eyes off the school buildings once — spoke up.
"Ms. Park, I'll go bring Yeon-chan back."
He took off toward the school at a run.
"Mr. Go!"
The teachers' attention snapped to him for a single heartbeat — and in that heartbeat:
"Hey! Girls! What are you doing?! Get back here right now!"
Lee Yeon-hui and Lee Yeon-ah tore free and sprinted after Go Chan-ho without a second's hesitation.
"Girls!"
A teacher's shout rang out behind them. Neither of them looked back.
They ran with only one thought in their heads — Park Yeon-chan.