Chapter 124: Inevitability (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 124: Inevitability (6)
Kids these days have all sorts of weird acronyms.
I looked up a few just in case I needed to know them for university, and one of them was ‘clueless loser.’
It’s short for an oblivious, pathetic person, and the meaning… well, you can probably guess just from the words.
The message window that just popped up in front of me is exactly that: a clueless loser.
Just when the mood was getting good, it has to block our eye contact like this?
I was about to dismiss the message without a second thought when I noticed the color of the window was strange.
From the moment I started my life as a Hunter in Son Si-woo’s body until now…
The message windows had always been blue.
But the one floating before me now was red.
Even its content was… unusual.
It was addressing me specifically, Participant No. 504, and asking what I was doing.
The feeling was exactly this:
Like a GM, who usually just sends out one-sided announcements, notices, and notifications, had suddenly sent me a private message.
In all my decades as a Hunter, nothing like this had ever happened before…
While I was still processing my surprise, the message window refreshed with new text.
[All participants have joined the Key Scramble. Except for Participant No. 504!]
[I mean, I made sure to open a rift nearby, taking every participant's location into account. Why haven't you entered?]
Ha.
Now it’s even scolding me.
I’m starting to get pissed.
I don’t want to, so why is it making such a fuss?
The message didn’t end there.
[The performance Participant No. 504 displayed at the last face-to-face meeting was truly astonishing.]
[Though it was a replica, the very act of sitting in that chair was enough to show us the extent of your qualifications.]
[That is why I wish to give you an opportunity.]
[In a moment, I will open a rift near you.]
[Enter it and find the key.]
[There are no competitors, so if you just put in the effort, you should be able to find it….]
Yeah, fuck that.
I got stressed just reading it and closed all the message windows.
It seems they don't know that kids these days won't read anything that's even slightly long.
“Should’ve summarized it in three lines, you bastards…”
The words slipped out, and Shin Yu-jeong, who was nearby, tilted her head.
“Three lines… what?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
I quickly brushed it off.
Another red message window popped up.
[Participant No. 504! If you continue to ignore my messages…!]
Ignored.
I quickly dismissed the window and pulled out my smartphone to check the time.
7 PM.
Time well spent.
“Aren’t you hungry?”
“I am.”
She looked quite hungry.
I’m pretty sure we each had more than five chicken skewers earlier.
“Let’s go eat, then.”
I naturally took her hand.
“Where are we going?”
“I already made a reservation.”
“Ooh, a reservation?”
After putting it off for so long, this was finally our first date. I had to put in at least this much effort to enjoy the meal myself.
If you leave the Yongsan Arms Market and enter the alley across the street, you’ll find a food street packed with all kinds of restaurants.
A wise sage once said:
When five people gather, one of them is bound to be trash.
The same applies to restaurants.
In a place with this many restaurants clustered together, there are bound to be some terrible ones hidden among them.
To prevent such a disaster, I made a reservation at a good restaurant I know.
“…Don’t tell me the reservation is here?”
“Yep.”
Shin Yu-jeong’s eyes widened as she stared at the pure white building before us.
The name of the restaurant was ‘Viva la Vida.’
It was a restaurant with a rather long and storied history, having stood here since the Yongsan Arms Market was first established.
“This place looks fucking expensive… are you sure about this?”
As I always say, there’s only one answer to that.
“It’s our first date.”
“Hmph…”
Shin Yu-jeong shifted her weight to one leg and eyed me with a peculiar gaze.
“I’ve been thinking this for the past few days…”
“Thinking what?”
“You… you’re so damn sly. No, you’ve gotten sly.”
“So you don’t like it?”
“No. It’s way better than your old dorky self. But…”
She suddenly stepped closer and poked my chest with her index finger.
“If I catch you acting like this with any other bitch… you know what’ll happen, right?”
“Of course.”
It’s fine as long as I don’t get caught.
“Let’s go in. Our reservation time is almost up.”
I led the faintly smiling girl into the restaurant.
After giving my name, we were guided to our table and ordered our food.
Since neither of us could be satisfied with small portions, we each ordered a two-person serving.
Yu-jeong, who had been looking around with curiosity, suddenly looked glum.
“Hey… if you were going to book a place like this, you should’ve told me beforehand…”
“Why?”
“Well, it’s just my clothes… they stand out.”
Hmm.
There was certainly a big difference between what the people at the distant tables were wearing and Yu-jeong’s outfit.
But I didn’t see what that had to do with anything.
It’s not like the restaurant told us to come in specific attire. Why should we have to worry about our clothes?
“Thinking you have to wear a suit and a dress to a restaurant these days makes you an old geezer, too.”
“…You think so?”
Not wanting to be an old geezer, she was quickly convinced.
Our meal began, starting with the appetizers.
I chose this place so we could have a nice, quiet meal, cutting our steaks and chatting…
[Participant No. 504! If you continue to ignore my messages….]
This thing is annoyingly persistent.
Thanks to it, my mind was even busier.
Eating, talking with Yu-jeong…
And on top of that, trying to figure out the intentions of this thing that kept sending me such personal messages.
I’m just one person out of 504, so why is it so obsessed with me?
“Wow… so this is what a restaurant tastes like.”
Meanwhile, Shin Yu-jeong was being ridiculously cute.
“Is this your first time at a restaurant?”
“Yeah.”
I could see how that might be.
She’d never had a boyfriend, and even if she wanted to come with her family, her dad was all the way out in Haenam. She probably never thought of coming here with just Jeong-hee.
But then, she suddenly shot me a sharp glare.
It wasn’t even scary anymore.
“Why are you looking at me like that again?”
“It’s just… weird. You should be new to restaurants too, but you’re acting so experienced.”
I’ve decided to diagnose this obsession Shin Yu-jeong has with my firsts.
I’ll call it ‘First-Time Fixation Syndrome.’
Since everything is a first for her, she wants everything we do together to be a first for me, too.
You could say she’s showing all the classic signs of someone who’s never dated before.
“I’ve already been here once.”
“With who?”
“Someone from the Association.”
“…Yoon Ji-an?”
“No, someone higher up. A middle-aged man named Kim Seong-tae. He’s a department head.”
“Hmph, I see.”
Look at her, convinced the moment I laid out his personal details.
The main course, steak, was placed on our table, its delicious aroma filling the air.
And to top it off, some red wine to enhance the mood.
I don’t drink wine often, so I just ordered whatever they recommended.
“Hey, hey! Let’s have a toast, a toast.”
The excited girl raised her wine glass, practically bouncing in her seat.
“Alright, cheers.”
I raised my glass to gently clink it against hers, but suddenly, a commotion erupted outside.
“Kyaaaaak!”
A piercing scream.
Our cheerful attempt at a toast froze mid-air.
“Hmm…”
“…We should probably go check it out, right?”
Screams don’t usually break out during peaceful moments.
Especially in a world like this, a scream that loud could only mean one of two things.
Either a villain has appeared, or a rift has suddenly opened.
Either way, it was a time for Hunters to step in.
We quickly crossed the restaurant.
When we finally opened the door, the scene outside was…
“R-run!”
“It’s a rift, everyone! Get away, quickly!”
…utter chaos.
“Did you hear that?” Yu-jeong asked me.
“Yeah.”
I guess you could call it a blessing in disguise.
A rift is far safer than the appearance of a villain who attacks civilians and Hunters indiscriminately.
As long as it wasn’t the type to spew out monsters, nothing catastrophic would happen immediately.
The sudden chaos made the back of my neck tense up.
A sharp instinct told me to check the message log I had been ignoring.
And I quickly found the cause of this situation.
[A rift will soon be generated.]
[Conquer the dungeon, find the key, and claim your reward.]
…I had a feeling, but it really was this bastard.
“Ah… so stressful.”
I told it I didn’t want to go, and it just creates a rift on its own?
Fine. I have my own ideas, too.
“What are you doing? Let’s go!”
“Right, yeah. Let’s go.”
We pushed against the tide of fleeing people, heading toward the rift.
A pitch-black rift, not far from us, shimmered ominously.
Then I realized something was missing.
“What the, where’s the barrier?”
“……”
Right before a rift forms, there’s a telltale sign.
The surrounding mana density increases by more than tenfold.
Usually, when the sensors that measure mana density detect a fivefold increase, a warning broadcast goes out. At sevenfold, a safety alert is sent. And at tenfold, a barrier is supposed to deploy around the rift’s center…
But the mana density I could see around me was no different than usual.
It seemed this special rift didn’t affect the surrounding mana density at all.
Just then, another message arrived.
[Please enter the rift.]
Now I was just getting stubborn.
I’m not going in.
I’m going to wait for the other Hunters to arrive and let them handle it, you bastard.
[If you don't….]
[...the encroachment will begin.]
Along with the unbelievable message, the ground around the rift began to turn a dark, murky color.
The beautifully laid, colorful bricks were all covered in blackish soil.
Watching this, Shin Yu-jeong cried out in a shocked voice.
“E-Encroachment?”
The worst-case scenario when a dungeon isn’t conquered in time.
When the mana emitted by the dungeon’s monsters reaches a saturation point, it leaks out, transforming the area outside the rift into an environment just like the dungeon.
If that happens…
“A m-monster!”
“A monster came out!”
“Why isn’t the barrier working?!”
Monsters can freely move in and out of the dungeon.
It was truly the worst of the worst.
Encroachment beginning the moment the rift appeared, and the barrier was nowhere to be seen.
There were still many people milling about.
The chaotic movements brought on by the panic were hindering their escape.
“Ah…”
I just don’t get it.
What’s the reason for going this far just to shove one person—me—in there?
Is it really because of that spectacular mess I made at the face-to-face meeting?
They saw that, thought my talent was too good to waste, and are doing all this?
As my head throbbed from the incomprehensible madness, a woman’s desperate cry cut through the scattered screams.
“Yun-jeong! Yun-jeong!”
From beyond the rift, a skeleton soldier holding a worn-out sword and shield staggered out.
Species name: Skeleton.
A monster that ranges from D-rank to B-rank, its strength varying wildly depending on the state of the corpse in its previous life.
Judging by its gear and bone structure… it didn’t seem to be a high rank.
At best, it was probably bottom-tier C-rank.
In front of the creature, which was walking forward with a red glow emanating from its empty eye sockets, was a child.
“Moooommyyy!”
That must be Yun-jeong.
It would be too late to push through the fleeing crowd to reach her.
But that distance was no obstacle for me, so it didn’t matter.
[Ice Shield.]
I erected a massive shield.
A shield large enough to completely protect the child from that pathetic skeleton.
A crude tower shield materialized.
But stopping here would only be at a beginner’s level.
Form plays a crucial role in perfecting magic.
The more detailed the image you try to realize, the more mana it consumes, but it becomes that much harder and more powerful.
My mana reserves had long surpassed the beginner level, so it was only right that the level of my magic should grow as well.
Therefore, to grant it a more perfect form, I quickly redefined the shield’s shape.
I pictured the most fucked up, annoying shield I had ever faced.
The S-rank Hunter from Greece, praised for possessing the wisdom of Athena, the might of Ares, and the beauty of Aphrodite all at once.
The divine armament she wore.
I overlaid the ice with the form of that shield, the very definition of infuriating, which would petrify you if you so much as hit it.
[Aegis.]
On the surface of the astonishingly intricate shield, the head of a fearsome, snake-haired woman was embossed.
As it blocked the skeleton’s rusty sword, the snake-haired woman’s mouth opened and spewed forth a chilling frost.
Kwakwakwakwa!
The raging cold instantly trapped the skeleton in ice.
I reached for the box in Yu-jeong’s arms.
“Sorry, let me borrow this for a sec.”
I felt bad for being the first one to use her gift, but… given the circumstances, she would understand.
I tore open the box and drew the sword from its sheath.
Then, I sliced straight through the neck of the frozen creature.
Shluck-!
The thick ice and the creature’s neck were cut through like tofu.
“Hey, Kim Do-jin…!”
After a glance at Shin Yu-jeong, who was running up late, I lifted the child who had fallen to the ground.
“You’re a good girl, aren’t you, princess? There, there.”
“Hic… okay…”
“Aww, such a good girl.”
I patted her head a few times before handing her over to Yu-jeong as she approached.
“Hold her for a minute.”
I was about to head straight for the rift, but she grabbed my arm.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“If I don’t clear this dungeon now, more monsters will keep coming out.”
“Then I’m going with you.”
I’d like that too, but…
“Hmm… I don’t think you can.”
“What? What does that…”
I abruptly shook off her hand and quickly moved away.
“I’ll be right back, so go grab a coffee at a nearby café or something.”
Before placing my hand on the rift, I added one more thing to Shin Yu-jeong, who was standing there with a dazed expression, holding the child in her arms.
“Because tonight, I’m not letting you sleep.”
No matter how tired I am, I’m definitely not letting tonight go to waste.
With that resolve, I placed my hand on the rift.