Why He Was a Loner
"S...?"
Kang Jiye blinked both eyes as if she couldn't believe what she'd just heard. I held up three fingers toward her.
"Triple."
SSS-class.
Truth be told, a rank like that didn't even exist in the settings of Gate Apocalypse. It was nothing more than a difficulty rating players had cooked up on their own. But if anything, it was more accurate than the system's official classifications. The game developers would slap an S-rank on anything with a decent health bar, after all.
Take this, for example. A monster that was simply strong was easy enough to clear. Gear up with decent equipment, learn the patterns, and just keep beating on it until it went down. S-rank added a few more gimmicks, but nothing fundamentally different.
But a bitch like Pecia was a whole different story. She studied "humans," then used their social systems with surgical precision to aim for the collapse of the entire system. For instance, she'd take civilians hostage and demand a price — and if you ignored her and attacked anyway, she'd use that as grounds to trash the protagonist party's reputation.
So it wasn't just a contest of raw power. You had to match wits as well, like a game of go or chess. And the developers had classified both types as the same S-rank.
"Triple S?"
Arms crossed, Kang Jiye looked down at me with a cold gaze. But for some reason... even though she hadn't said anything particularly special, a scratch started forming on my heart. Of course, the emotion Kang Jiye was showing wasn't hostility or wariness. It was none other than—
"Why are you looking at me like I'm pathetic...?"
That's right. Pity.
Kang Jiye replied bluntly.
"Is that how it feels?"
"Yes. That's a total 'looking at an idiot' face."
Kang Jiye nodded.
"You really do have a solid sense of empathy for a monster. You're a genuine research subject, kid."
"......!"
I was genuinely shocked. Honestly, I'd braced myself for things like "Stay away from my daughter" or "What's your real goal here?" — but being dismissed as a braggart was not something I'd seen coming.
Wondering if I'd misread a wary expression, I studied her face carefully. No matter how many times I looked, that was definitely the look of someone regarding a pathetic creature — mixed with a touch of pity, no less.
I clicked my tongue and answered sourly.
"Look... I know the official ranks only go up to S. But even among high-tier monsters, the difficulty varies. And among those, I'm a bit of a special case."
"High-tier monster? One hit from me and you'd be dead, wouldn't you...?"
"Of course I'll get stronger than I am now!"
"People get stronger steadily too. Whether you're a monster or a human, mana training makes you stronger the same way. But S-class? That's a stretch. I'm A-class myself, and I don't exactly expect to become S."
She wasn't wrong, of course. S-class was essentially the realm of the superhuman. I didn't know exactly where my combat power sat right now, but it was probably somewhere around C-class at best. From Kang Jiye's perspective, this whole situation was absurdly laughable.
Factoring that in, I calmly tried to persuade her.
"Just hear me out first. There's no way a monster is the same as a human. Naturally, the growth rate is wildly different too."
"Is that so? That big a difference?"
"Obviously."
"Hmm..."
But Kang Jiye shook her head.
"Be honest with me."
"Huh?"
"The other monsters bullied you, didn't they."
"Excuse me? Bullied?"
"No? Looking at you, you're such a timid little wallflower I figured you never got along with the other monsters."
"There's no 'getting along' or not. Everyone lives in their own Gate."
"So you got kicked out of wherever you used to live together, then."
"......"
I said no!
Left alone, Pecia was a monster who would drive not just Seoul but the entire Republic of Korea down the path of destruction. She might not have been the final boss of the story, but she was absolutely, positively not the kind of monster you could push around wherever you went.
But why am I even defending this?
Honestly, I wasn't even Pecia. Whatever treatment this body received had nothing to do with me. If anything, getting insulted should have felt refreshing.
But the problem was this: Kang Jiye was wrong right now. I was a player who had run through this world more times than I could count, and Kang Jiye was just someone born and raised here. Having someone who hadn't even properly experienced Pecia yet casually pigeonhole this body was deeply irritating.
My voice rose a notch.
"That's not it — no. Look. ...I'm a monster, and I'm telling you so. Why do you keep arguing?"
Kang Jiye gave a slight smile.
"And why are you getting so worked up? Sounds like I hit a nerve."
"I'm not worked up. I'm simply correcting what you're saying, ma'am."
"I'm just saying what I see. Bring evidence if you've got it."
"I already told you I'm a monster. When it comes to monsters, a monster like me would know better — not a human like you, ma'am."
"The way you keep repeating the same thing, looks like you can't prove it after all."
"......"
I glared at Kang Jiye.
"Ma'am. I am a monster."
Kang Jiye let out a hollow laugh.
"Yeah, and? What does that have to do with you being weak?"
"What do you mean, what does it have to do with being weak? Of course, since I'm a monster, I—"
In that moment, I fell into thought. Something felt off. I'd never lost a logical argument anywhere before — so why was I suddenly at a loss for words?
I'd spent my entire life dedicated to logical conversation. There was no way my argument was wrong — strip away my sense of reason and I'd be a corpse. There had to be some other cause.
What is it, then?
After a brief moment of thought, I arrived at the answer almost immediately. I let out a sigh of realization.
"Ha! Ah~ so this is how you conduct a conversation."
"Huh?"
I put on a triumphant smile.
"Looking at this, it seems like you've got some kind of grudge against me just because I said I'm a monster. Am I right?"
Kang Jiye blinked both eyes as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"What are you talking about?"
"You know I'm right. You want to kill me, hit me, all of that, don't you? I look disgusting to you."
"What kind of nonsense is that."
"Wow, next you'll start abusing me too. 'A monster has no business clinging to people like this' — and you won't even let me play with Yena anymore."
"Where is this coming from all of a sudden."
"No, no. You're right, ma'am. I'm a monster and you're a human. Think whatever you want. You wouldn't believe me no matter what I said anyway."
"......"
"It's not like I said anything wro— ugh!"
Thwack!
Suddenly the world turned bright yellow and the sky started spinning. As a dull pain gradually bloomed across the top of my head and I forgot whatever I'd been about to say, Kang Jiye's mouth opened.
"Ahh — that feels better."
Only after seeing her refreshed smile did I realize what had just happened. I cupped the top of my head with both hands, eyes wide.
"D-did you just hit me?"
"Yeah. You asked me to, didn't you?"
"...When did I?"
"You've been picking the most punchable things to say this whole time. If that's not thrashing around begging to get hit, what is it?"
I let out another sigh.
"I didn't say anything wrong. Honestly, my logic was perfect. Since I'm a monster, a human like you just can't accept the fun—"
At that moment, Kang Jiye raised her fist. I immediately clasped both hands together in a polite, submissive gesture.
"...I'm sorry. I must have been wrong."
Kang Jiye kept her fist raised as she spoke.
"Hey."
"Yes?"
"When have I ever not shown you affection?"
Affection?
From the day she'd picked me up, Kang Jiye had steadily taken care of everything around me. She never dug deep into my past, and she'd even handled the legal procedures so I could hold a legitimate identity. She'd taught me how to dress and present myself, stocked me with cosmetics — everything to help me adapt to society as a human woman.
I couldn't bring myself to say no.
...Shake shake.
"Have I ever needlessly chewed you out over Yena?"
No. She'd scolded Yena before, but never me over her.
Shake shake.
"Have I ever told you to get out because you were annoying? Ever refused to explain something you didn't know? Ever shown hostility when you confessed you were a monster?"
"N-none of that."
"So why are you like this."
I hesitated for a moment before answering.
"To make you acknowledge that I was right..."
Kang Jiye's eyes began to blaze.
"You made me out to be some petty little person over something that small? You really want to die?"
"I'm sorry."
"Do better from now on."
"Yes..."
Damn it.
Something I'd been through countless times in my previous life, and I was getting hit with it again here. People in this world were shameless. No matter how logically correct something was, if it clashed with their common sense, they dismissed it as nonsense and refused to take it seriously. When they ran out of words, they forced the issue — and when forcing didn't work, they raised their fists.
And so, in my previous life, I'd been hit by my parents, hit by my friends, hit by women I didn't even know, and even smacked with a wooden fish by a Buddhist monk.
But I still won't surrender.
Bark all you want about the ground being flat. The Earth is round either way.
"...Pecia von Chiffonside is Triple S-class. That's a fact."
When I muttered it in a voice that barely crawled out of my throat, Kang Jiye replied with a thoroughly fed-up expression.
"We'll talk about this next time. Today I should just play with Yena."
"Fine by me. Oh, there are drinks and fast food over that way too."
"Huh? There's stuff like that?"
"Yes. It's an amusement park, so of course there is."
"Who makes it?"
"This world does. My mana does. The very existence of this beautiful being known as Pecia creates everything."
"Yeah, yeah. You're strong. You're the absolute king of everything."
This isn't a monster.
Looking down at the sleeping Pecia, Kang Jiye came to that conclusion. She wasn't denying the tangible evidence — the Gate, the peculiar teddy bears, and the rest. By the dictionary definition, classifying her as a monster was correct. But the disposition and personality this girl named Pecia possessed were simply too hard to see as monstrous.
Stubborn, and she reveals her identity without a second thought.
If this were some advanced act or strategy, it would be the stupidest move imaginable. The moment Pecia showed any suspicious behavior going forward, Kang Jiye — an A-class Hunter — would be the first to catch it. If she tried something inside the Gate, Yena would be visiting often; if she tried to scheme outside, she'd have to escape a forest of CCTV cameras. And at least around Incheon or Seoul, no such place existed.
Pecia would know all of this perfectly well too.
"If she'd meant to harm humans in the first place, she would have just handed out the teddy bears..."
If she had done that, the Republic of Korea would have suffered catastrophic damage. With no mana signature to detect, a preemptive response would have been impossible. And if the teddy bears had spread as far as they could across the entire country before activating all at once? Countless casualties would have followed. As a Hunter sworn to protect civilians, there was no more terrifying scenario.
The mere fact that she hadn't pulled a stunt like that was enough for Kang Jiye to place a certain degree of trust in Pecia.
"Uh..."
Just then, Pecia opened her eyes with a faintly flustered expression. Kang Jiye blinked, then asked,
"What. You weren't asleep yet?"
"No. But..."
"Hm?"
"I'm going to sell the teddy bears."
"...?"
The truth was, I'd been pretending to sleep. I'd trusted Kang Jiye enough to go through with things, but you never really know what's in a person's heart. I'd been worried that the moment I let my guard down, she might slit my throat or drag me off to a research lab.
Kang Jiye sat me down in the living room and asked,
"What do you mean, you're going to sell the teddy bears?"
Watching her carefully for a reaction, I said,
"I-is that a problem after all? Because I'm a monster."
"It's not that I don't trust you. But I need a good enough reason. Why are you trying to spread the teddy bears around?"
After a moment of hesitation, I spoke honestly.
"In the future."
"In the future?"
"...A massive Gate is going to open at the Academy."
"......!"