Chapter 12
I’m translating the chapter into the required HTML format now, preserving the system blocks and dialogue structure. Then I’ll do a quick consistency pass to make sure the names and terminology stay aligned.CHAPTER_TITLE: Chapter 12
[■ WARNING.]
[■ If this gate is not cleared, the Contamination Rate will increase by 10%.]
The system message left my head foggy and distant.
And when I opened my eyes after that.
[■ You have entered the gate.]
[■ Achieve the objective.]
[■ This gate’s objective is “salvation.”]
[■ Save the world.]
Salvation?
I frowned as I read the system. Save the world, all of a sudden?
I looked around as that thought sank in.
Where is this?
It was an unfamiliar place. If the last gate had been an open field, then this one was...
A forest?
A forest thick with trees. As I stood there, dumbfounded by the strange surroundings, I heard voices nearby.
“Did you see that message? The Contamination Rate is going up by 10%? What the hell kind of crazy crap is that?”
“...It says the Contamination Rate rises by 10% if the gate isn’t cleared? What a load of nonsense.”
When I turned my head, I saw three people besides me talking among themselves.
Who are they?
I could tell they were superhumans, but I’d never seen them before. At least, not from where I stood.
They seemed used to this kind of situation.
“Four people. It’s been a while since we had a party gate.”
“How long has it been?”
“I think this is my first one since last fall.”
A party gate. A gate tackled by a set team.
Rather than hundreds or thousands operating in one gate, countless worlds were split up, and many four-person teams cleared the gate separately.
And if just one of those parties cleared it, that was enough to resolve the entire thing.
So this time there are four of us.
I’d seen the notice on the network. The moment word spread that four people had to be secured, I’d watched as others began forming parties.
...You can make a party before entering.
It was possible to form a party on the network before connecting to the gate and enter together.
I hadn’t done that, so I must have been assigned at random.
Like those people over there.
The ones grouped with me. I looked at each of them in turn.
Just then, they seemed to be introducing themselves.
“My name is Toshiyu Yuji. I’m a B-class superhuman.”
He looked Japanese. Mid-twenties, maybe.
Strange.
He was clearly a foreigner, but I could understand him just fine. The network and the inside of gates were supposed to translate languages automatically, and sure enough, I was hearing everything in plain Korean.
Then—
“I’m Jayve Raine. B-class superhuman.”
A woman who looked Western, though her nationality was hard to pin down, introduced herself. She seemed to be in her thirties. And the last one was...
“My name is Lin Shao.”
A man with a somewhat cold face looked around before speaking.
“I’m an S-class superhuman.”
For a moment, the air went still.
An S-class superhuman. The sheer violence of those two words was enough to press down on everyone in the area.
An S-class?
He looked Chinese. An S-class, though?
I guess I don’t know much about the overseas scene.
He had a face I’d never seen before. Then again, it wasn’t easy to memorize every S-class superhuman overseas.
If he were famous, I’d know him.
...The Chinese side is especially hard.
It was a country where superhumans were exposed to the public far less than elsewhere. If I didn’t even know the faces and names of S-classes I should have known, that said enough.
About the only thing I know is...
China, one of the few countries in the world with an SS-class superhuman.
The Chinese superhumans I knew could be counted on one hand, including him.
So not recognizing him was only natural.
“S... S-class...? Is that really true?”
“An S-class superhuman...”
The others seemed deeply shocked that one of the party members was an S-class. Not just shocked, either. Relief had seeped into their faces as well.
“Then we should clear the gate without much trouble.”
“That’s reassuring.”
Raine spoke with evident relief, and Toshiyu thanked Lin Shao as if he’d been saved.
Lin Shao seemed pleased by their reaction, a smile curving his lips.
Then his gaze shifted to me.
“Then you are...”
He spoke as if expecting an introduction.
“...!”
But he stopped short as soon as he actually looked at me.
“...No way.”
Lin Shao’s eyes widened. At his reaction, I made an awkward face.
Looks like he knows me. Or rather—
He knows that name.
It was a name that had spread all over the network by now. Thinking of that, I touched my face with my hand.
Sure enough, the same mask as before was still there.
Remembering that, I said quietly the other name the old man had given me. The one that was both a name and an identity.
“Musin.”
At my words—
“...!”
“...Hah...!”
The atmosphere froze in an instant.
Everyone visibly stiffened.
“Musin... if you’re Musin...”
“That Musin?”
They all looked at me with obvious doubt, as if unsure whether they’d heard right.
Of them all, Lin Shao reacted the most strongly.
“...You really are Musin? You’re not lying, are you?”
The S-class hunter stepped closer to my face. A superhuman on the same level as the association president.
My heart had just started pounding when—
“I asked whether you’re really Musin.”
Lin Shao had come all the way up to me now. Somehow, he seemed openly hostile.
What’s this?
Why was he reacting like that? It was strange. There was no reason for him to come at me like this out of nowhere, was there?
“Black mask, black clothes... the description matches. I can’t believe we’d meet here.”
“...”
“Say something. I didn’t think you were mute earlier.”
I said nothing and only stared at him. I honestly had no idea what I was supposed to say here.
“...Hah. So you’re going to keep quiet. Are you looking down on me?”
At my silence, Lin Shao’s expression twisted as if he’d mistaken it for something else.
“Y-”
Before his anger could escalate further—
[■ The gate mission is in progress.]
[■ Protect the chosen ones from the wicked and save the world.]
[■ Time is running out.]
[■ You have encountered a crisis. Hurry.]
— the system cut him off.
“...Tch.”
Lin Shao flinched as he looked at the system. The time pressure seemed to seize his ankle and drag him back.
“...We’ll talk later.”
Talk later about what?
Everyone’s attention had already shifted to the system window that had appeared.
“...Protecting them from the wicked?”
“The chosen ones?”
“What does that mean?”
While everyone was still confused, a voice rang out.
-Please save us...!!
-Over here...!!
At the sound, the superhumans moved at once.
“West.”
Lin Shao threw out the word and headed west. There, I found—
“Please save us...!!!”
“A, a monster...!!”
People in priestly robes were trembling in fear.
So that’s it.
The chosen ones.
Salvation from the wicked.
I understood the objective of this party gate. At the same time—
So are those the wicked, then?
Were they even human to begin with? What was threatening those people looked like a monster.
...It looks like an ogre.
A monster with the shape of a dog, walking on two legs. I’d heard creatures like that were usually called ogres, and that was exactly what it looked like.
“Looks like we just need to take it down,” Raine said, as if she’d figured it out already.
“For its rank, it looks rather simple.”
Lin Shao moved as if he agreed. Seeing that, I was about to move too. I thought of Patcheonmu.
I should be able to use it again.
In a gate, power increased fiftyfold. Even the pride I usually didn’t have seemed to swell here.
That sensation from before. Could I use that impossible strength again? As that expectation rose in me—
Ping.
An alert sounded.
[■ The cast conditions for Patcheonmu have not been met.]
[■ Use is unavailable.]
What?
The skill wouldn’t activate. What was this? It had worked just fine last time.
Why wasn’t it activating? What was different?
As I frowned inside my mask—
— a different skill I’d obtained this time activated instead.
Why is this one triggering now?
Why was Sense of Killing Intent activating all of a sudden?
[■ A skill has activated.]
[■ Sense of Killing Intent (SS) activated.]
There it is again?
Why was Sense of Killing Intent activating out of nowhere?
[■ Killing intent has been detected nearby. Identify the source.]
Killilng intent.
At that word, I looked around. I’d assumed, naturally, that it was the ogre.
Hmm?
Nothing was showing from the ogre at all.
What was this? Was I looking at it wrong? If it wasn’t the monster, where was the killing intent coming from?
Maybe there was some other method, I thought, narrowing my eyes—
[■ An illusion has manifested.]
Huh?
Another alert appeared. It was the SS-class artifact I’d obtained last time.
[■ Ogre hero.]
[■ The beings chosen to save this world.]
What?
The new information made me blink.
Chosen ones?
That’s what it said earlier...
The line about protecting the chosen ones came back to me, and my eyes widened.
Which meant—
No way.
I turned my gaze and identified the humans we were supposed to save.
[■ The source of the killing intent has been identified.]
“...!”
Sense of Killing Intent activated again. Then—
[■ An illusion has manifested.]
[■ Lower in rank than the Four Deities.]
[■ The illusion has pierced the essence of the being.]
Another illusion appeared, and a new system window floated before my eyes.
[■ Followers of the Cult of Destruction.]
[■ Those who exist to destroy this world and resurrect the evil god.]
...
Seeing that, I understood at once.
Unbelievable.
What this gate really wanted.
* * *
[■ Party 412 failed to progress through the gate.]
[■ Party 621 failed to progress through the gate.]
[■ Party 61 failed to progress through the gate.]
[■ Party 12 failed to progress through the gate.]
[■ Party 345 failed to progress through the gate.]
[■ Party 91 failed to progress throug...]
System messages kept appearing one after another. The notifications flooding the network made the screen itself seem to shake.
“Ah. What is going on here?”
In the middle of it all, a young man was doing a live broadcast.
On his screen, the homepage of the Reincarnator Network was displayed front and center.
He was a superhuman with the ability known as Information Seer, and Kim Hyeokcheol of Korea, a B-class reincarnator, was a man who earned donations by live-streaming the inside of gates without entering them.
“...Party after party is failing one after another. This is the first gate of this kind I’ve ever seen.”
How many parties had already failed? The number was impossible to count, especially for a party gate that had only just returned after so long.
Perhaps because of that, deep lines had formed between Kim Hyeokcheol’s brows too.
This is insane, seriously.
Not because the gate was failing.
...They paid for the ad and now they’re getting eliminated like this? What am I supposed to do about that?
A company had wired in a huge sum to promote a superhuman under its sponsorship. That sort of thing happened sometimes for information seers who could broadcast or record and bring data back.
Especially from B-class and up, they could perceive the inside of a gate without entering it, and given that most information seers were lower ranked, Kim Hyeokcheol was clearly a particularly capable one.
Damn it, they even shoved an A-class into the party and told me to hype them up all I wanted.
A party with an A-class superhuman in a B-class gate.
He’d been told to make sure the sponsored superhuman looked impressive on stream.
And it failed the moment they arrived.
The instant they entered, it failed.
No, strictly speaking, it hadn’t been the instant they entered. The gate’s special rules were the problem.
...How are you supposed to tell?
On the broadcast screen, another party came into view.
-Die!!
Fwoosh—!!!
Flames burst forth, and a monster burned to death. It happened in an instant.
Just as the triumphant superhuman turned around, ready to tell everyone that it was safe—
[■ Party 821 failed to progress through the gate.]
-Huh?
The failure message appeared, and the superhumans’ bodies vanished.
...This is crazy.
In a shocking twist, hunting the ogres caused the gate mission to fail.
The beings that had to be protected were the ogres,
and the ones they were supposed to hunt were humans.
How is anyone supposed to figure that out?
It was a matter of perception. A situation no one could have easily predicted.
-What is that? Are we supposed to protect the ogres?
-They said escort, but how are we supposed to know they meant escort the monster?
-Wow, even Calm Knight failed. Can this even be cleared?
The chat exploded.
The viewers had realized something was seriously off.
When even an A-class superhuman like Calm Knight failed to clear the gate, everyone panicked. At this rate, weren’t they all going to fail?
That thought flashed through my mind.
-...If this gate fails, the Contamination Rate rises by 10%, right?
-How does 10% even make sense? That means a catastrophe, doesn’t it?
The fear of another disaster spread through the crowd—one like the calamity that had nearly annihilated Russia and blown apart the Pacific rim.
Was there anyone who could tear through something that absurd and still win?
At this rate, the gate might really end in failure.
Just as that anxiety reached its peak—
Ping.
An alert sounded.
[■ Party 1223 has successfully cleared the gate.]
[■ Congratulations.]
-Huh?
-What?
News came through that one party had cleared the gate.
“What?”
Kim Hyeokcheol’s eyes widened too.
“1223? Where is 1223?”
He hurriedly used his skill to bring up the party spectatorship screen. The party number was so far down the list that he hadn’t even bothered to check it properly.
Wait.
As Kim Hyeokcheol checked the channel, he flinched.
Lin Shao?
Because there was a name on the party roster called Lin Shao. Lin Shao was...
A Chinese S-class superhuman.
He was an S-class superhuman from China. China was so closed off that people didn’t know much about its superhumans, but as an information seer, this was the kind of thing he absolutely had to know.
But—
Why didn’t I know?
Kim Hyeokcheol frowned. If an S-class superhuman had appeared, the channel should have reacted. It should have flashed orange to indicate a high-rank superhuman had appeared.
On my skill...
Nothing like that was displayed. Instead, the outline was...
...Huh?
Kim Hyeokcheol noticed something strange. The channel wasn’t orange—it was black.
A dark, slightly scorched border that didn’t stand out much.
“What the hell? Why is it like this?”
He blurted it out without thinking. What in the world was going on?
Why black? Shocked, he clicked the channel.
Normally, the color of the highest-ranked superhuman in the party would be displayed.
But black...
As Kim Hyeokcheol stared in confusion and showed the party view on his own channel, the moment—
-...What?
-What is that?
—all the viewers were struck dumb.
What appeared wasn’t a forest, but ruins.
And standing there atop them was a single figure in a black mask.
Then—
[■ The gate has been cleared. Rewards are being distributed according to contribution.]
the notification announcing the gate’s clear appeared, along with the contribution rankings of those involved.
[■ 1. Musin 100%]
[■ 2-]
[■ 3-]
[■ 4-]
Only one name appeared atop the system.
Musin.
The black name, that is.