Cheer Station → Ssangmun Station

Looking at the Air Worm — the thoughtform Worm had sent — Kang Yul came to a conclusion.

The Gates he summoned were never, ever ordinary. That was a fact that could not be allowed to leak. And even if he did someday fulfill his dream of owning a home — a mountain — he was going to have to seriously reconsider the idea of letting Worm out into the world.

Because as he gazed at Worm in the far distance, a scene he could not explain bloomed unbidden in his mind.

He had no idea why. But if he assumed, for any reason at all, that Worm's true body emerged from the Gate, that scene burned itself into his mind with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠perfect, terrible clarity.

A first-person view of himself sitting in front of an ancient black-and-white television he had never seen in his life, watching the end credits roll.

Kang Yul had no idea why that image had surfaced. But it was too chilling to simply ignore, and the possibility that it might actually come to pass had already taken up residence in a corner of his mind.

Which meant—

Sorry, Worm. But you are absolutely never leaving that Gate.

Kang Yul decided to retract the promise he had made before. The one about living together on a mountain. The moment he made up his mind, his chest stung as if pricked by a needle, and a powerful feeling washed over him — as though he had just committed some unforgivable act of filial impiety.

But he couldn't go and do something as absurd as letting the world get eaten just because his conscience stung, could he?

I have to survive first...

Not that he intended to irresponsibly leave it at that and call it done. If he did, he might well be the one swallowed into that enormous mouth looming in the distance. He would look for another way.

If it's Chae-ryeong noona, she might have a method.

She was a dokkaebi's disciple, after all. Which meant she might possess some mystical treasure that could resolve the current situation, the way Kang Yul had his dokkaebi club. No — more precisely, there had to be one. Because if there wasn't, Kang Yul might die.

At any rate. Having reached that conclusion, he spent a while staring silently at the Air Worm.

"Rookie...?"

"Hunter Kang Yul..."

At the plaintive voices beside him, he turned his head — and found himself meeting the eyes of the two team leaders, both of them looking at him with expressions loaded with far too many feelings.

"Ah. Right."

Only then did Kang Yul realize he had abandoned the two of them entirely, vanishing into a world of his own to let his imagination run wild. What followed was an explanation of the current situation, delivered under a barrage of looks that screamed this is your doing, isn't it? Right? It is, isn't it? Just admit it already!!!

But even that only lasted a moment.

"S-so, that Worm is... ah, that's my friend. We ran into each other in another Gate by chance and hit it off."

The trouble was, even as he tried to explain, Kang Yul didn't actually know much about Worm himself. Bringing up anything related to his Gate was out of the question. In the end, the best he could manage was to fudge it somehow with a stubborn anyway, we're friends.

"A friend...?"

"With something that enormous?"

Naturally, that answer earned him a pair of withering stares packed with with THAT? Friends? WHY? — but then came what followed.

"It's not usually like that... well, anyway, that's the situation. Right, Worm?"

"I-I believe you! I believe you, okay?! Don't talk to that thing, rookie—!!!"

"I believe you! Please cease all further communication!"

...And with that declaration of surrender from two team leaders who looked ready to die of joy at even the tiniest twitch of Worm's body, they somehow managed to skate past it.

Holy shit. How big IS that thing?

For the record, the vibration had caught Kang Yul off guard too. One little gesture, and the ground around them thundered. The train itself rocked. He'd known, roughly, that it was big — but the sheer scale had completely wrecked his sense of perspective, and he hadn't been able to gauge it properly. Worm, out there in the distance, was far larger than he had imagined.

"So, uh. It's not going to attack us, right...? Since it's the rookie's friend?"

"Of course not. It may not look like it, but it's a sweet, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gentle friend. So it won't attack... probably?"

"Rookie... you really shouldn't have ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠made that a question..."

"...We will now exit the station as quietly as possible."

"Ah, yes, ma'am."

Anyway. Enough of that. Time to get out of this godforsaken Gate already. They were about to head for the platform when—

A rattle... then a clunk—!

From behind Kang Yul came the sound of the door connecting to the adjacent car swinging open, and both team leaders reflexively snapped their gazes in that direction.

A footstep—!

Kang Yul felt the presence of something as well, and was about to turn to see what it was — when a woman's voice bloomed inside his mind, delivered in the cadence of a station announcement.

And in the next instant, Kang Yul turned around — and found himself face to face not with the male conductor he had seen earlier, but with a supernatural being in a woman's form, wearing a slightly different uniform.

The Train Driver of the Rush Hour Express had come to find Kang Yul's party.

And she had come to hand over the compensation herself.

Having grasped the general situation through his skill, Kang Yul explained it to the two team leaders.

"If it's driver-class — actually operating the train — that's not going to be anything ordinary... these things really will do whatever it takes to stay alive, huh."

"Given the caliber of who they're dealing with, they appear to be observing proper formalities."

"Yeah, fair enough..."

The two team leaders turned silently toward the open door, glanced once at the enormous something watching them from that direction, and then sent Kang Yul a look that said, quite clearly, then hurry up and take the reward so we can get out of here.

"Then we'll accept it."

Having somehow become the party's representative, Kang Yul stepped forward and told the Train Driver they would receive the compensation. The moment the words left his mouth, the woman's voice bloomed in his mind once more.

Once the announcement had finished, Kang Yul and the two team leaders gathered in one spot to discuss the rewards. Or rather — they were about to.

"First pick should go to the rookie, right?"

"I agree."

The two team leaders surrendered their priority. The reason was absurd.

"I should pick first?"

"Obviously. We barely did anything in this Gate, but you pulled high-quality intel that you'd normally have to grind through dozens of people to get. First pick belongs to you."

"I am of the same opinion. Were it not for the one-reward-per-passenger rule, I would have yielded this privilege as well."

They hadn't done anything, they said. So the first choice should go to Kang Yul, who had demonstrated his competence. And upon hearing this, Kang Yul...

"...Still, you two are the team leaders."

Honestly, the whole situation made him extremely uncomfortable. What the two team leaders had said was fair, and Kang Yul himself found it reasonable enough. But that wasn't purely why they had said it.

He had seen it clearly.

A sidelong glance—

While they were laying out this reason and that for him, both team leaders had been watching their guardian — Worm — out of the corners of their eyes. And he had seen Worm, up there in the empty air, nodding along, applying a wordless pressure of her own.

Which meant, in the end—

"Then, if you'll forgive my shamelessness... I'll take the third option."

Kang Yul figured that if even a whisper of their guardian's influence had gone into that opinion, it wasn't exactly fair. But looking at it the other way, it also meant this was a choice that could not be opposed no matter what he did. So he simply went along with it in silence.

"Rookie. Any particular reason you went with the third?"

"Ah, well, if it's something the Train Driver personally collects, I figured it couldn't be bad."

"Solid call."

"A rational choice."

And after that—

"Hey, cat. First option's probably gonna spit out a corpse. Mind if I take that?"

"The second option appeals to me more anyway, so that will be fine."

Team Leader Oh took the first option, and Team Leader Myo followed with the second. That was that.

At which point—

"Team Leader Oh, is there a particular reason you're trying to obtain a corpse?"

Kang Yul, puzzled by her insistence on getting a dead body, asked about it.

"Ah, you didn't know, rookie? My class is Necromancer. I didn't get to show off this time, but next time we hit a physical-type Gate I'll give you a proper demonstration."

The answer was so far outside anything he had imagined that Kang Yul started to decline, insisting there was really no need — until the next thing out of Team Leader Oh's mouth made him agree to pencil in a date.

"Ah, there's really no need to show me..."

"Oh, and for the record, I've got this smoking-hot jiangshi I dressed in a cheongsam. Super popular with the male hunters. When she fights, the clothes flutter and you catch little glimpses, you know?"

"...but if you put it that way, I'll be sure to come see it sometime."

"You little shit, rookie... so you ARE a guy, huh?"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Ahem."

Anyway.

"We'll be escaping the Gate now."

Rewards chosen, they finally — truly, this time — set out to leave the Gate, and stepped toward Cheer Station.

Clap clap clap clap clap—!

"You can do it!"

"You've got this!"

"Just a little more!"

Walking through the cheer squad, bathed in their encouragement, Kang Yul strode toward the exit of Cheer Station with genuine conviction — if I just keep following this path, I can finally go to work! I can do anything! — and the moment he stepped out through an ordinary ticket gate of the kind you'd find anywhere...

They were standing in front of the ticket gates of Ssangmun Station — the commute destination they had designated before entering the Gate.

And at that moment—

A cheer stick...?

In one of Kang Yul's hands was a yellow cheer stick that looked related to Cheer Station.

A seashell...?

In the other was a peculiar blue seashell, small enough to sit in his palm, that appeared to have been given to him by the Train Driver. Kang Yul was turning it over with curiosity — I get the cheer stick, more or less, but what's this shell even for...? — when, in that instant—

Whether it was because he had only just stepped out of the Gate, or because the ticket gate he had come through was still spatially connected to it, he couldn't say — but the same kind of discovery information he had seen inside the Gate appeared before his eyes.

"Oh..."

Kang Yul let out a quiet sound of wonder, murmuring, "It can store any liquid...? Isn't this actually incredible?" — and then, a moment later—

Bzzzzzt—!

"?"

The smartphone in his pocket had apparently caught a signal, and began to vibrate as if telling him to check the backlog of messages. Kang Yul pulled it out thinking, Chae-ryeong noona again? — but the vibration, surprisingly, was not from a text.

The phone had buzzed because of an alert from the Hunter Gallery app, telling him a direct message had arrived. It was the reply from Favorable Merchant — an answer to the question Kang Yul had sent before departing for the Gate, about the proper conditions for awakening the roots.