The Four Worlds and a Business Card
"Oh, I've watched your streams all the time. Never thought I'd get to meet you like this—Seoyeon, you're way prettier in person, you know?"
Unlike its crumbling exterior, the abandoned building's interior was equipped with a surprisingly respectable array of gear.
Dozens of monitors stood arranged in rows, their purposes impossible to guess, while a tangled nest of cables sprawled across the floor.
And the mistress of that space, Han Chaeyun, was currently fussing over Seoyeon with unbridled excitement.
"Huh? You watch my streams?"
"Well, I watch pretty often, actually? Under the name Let'sEatBeef. Ring a bell?"
"Wha—how could I not know you! You're one of the only true viewers I have!"
That was the exact moment Seoyeon let out a gasp of astonishment.
And I was no different.
Back when Seoyeon had been streaming, I vaguely remembered seeing that username scroll past in chat.
But the most violent reaction of all came from none other than Seo Jinwoo.
"Whaaat? You're Let'sEatBeef?"
"Huh? You know me too? Aren't you Iron Wall from that Hyunmu Guild?"
"I-I'm Robang. I watch the streams a lot too."
"Eh? YOU'RE Robang? I always figured you were some creepy middle-aged guy."
I let out a soft sigh as I watched Seo Jinwoo's wounded expression.
He hadn't even organized the fan meetup for Seoyeon's stream, so I decided it was time to get to the real reason we'd come all this way in the first place.
"First, could you take a look at this?"
I held my phone out toward Han Chaeyun as I asked.
On the screen, of course, were the traces of my sister that we had discovered inside the gate.
"I read an old article. The one where you argued that gates were contact points with other worlds—or perhaps copies of them. I thought that article might be connected to my sister, so I came to find you."
At my words, Han Chaeyun studied my face with a strange expression before her attention snapped to the photos.
Then, with her slender fingers, she traced the traces of my sister remaining in the images.
"Interesting. My hypothesis was right after all. People assume gates are just holes that spit out monsters, but that could never be the case. They're nothing more than the projection of a cross-section of this world—one with specific coordinates—into ours."
Having muttered words none of us could follow, Han Chaeyun immediately began hammering away at her keyboard with astonishing speed.
In an instant, an enormous map bloomed across the main monitor.
The map was divided into four broad color zones, and within each of those lay multiple islands—no, entire continents.
"There are four major categories of other worlds I've confirmed so far. The first is Murim, a world that deals in high-density qi-based energy. The second is Terra, a world tied to what we'd call fantasy magic. The third is the Yoma Realm, a chaos-dominated world ruled by monsters and fiends beyond common sense. And the last one is..."
Han Chaeyun paused there and stole a glance back at my face.
"Arcana. A world of alchemy where magic and mechanical engineering have developed to the extreme. The golem your sister left behind is a classic product of Arcana. Of course, even within these four worlds there exist multiple continents, and there may be places I haven't discovered yet—but for now, the highest probability points to Arcana."
As Han Chaeyun's explanation continued, my brother-in-law's breathing grew ragged.
A lead on my sister's whereabouts had finally been found.
Even if it was merely one person's conjecture, it was unquestionably a far more hopeful situation than having nothing at all.
"So—how do I find her? Is there no way to get to that world?"
At my words, Han Chaeyun's eyes went wide, and she stared at me intently.
"You're a returnee, aren't you? Surely you of all people would know best?"
"...What do you mean by that?"
"There's only one officially known method of returning. Experiencing death in that world. Every returnee must have gone through something similar over there. Which means the missing people who still haven't come back fall into only two cases. Either they haven't yet experienced death—or they're trapped in a dimensional fragment. Though the latter is just my speculation."
Han Chaeyun spoke with eyes full of certainty.
It went without saying that she didn't know everything, either.
After all, the perfect counterexample to everything she'd just said was standing right in front of her—me.
"You don't necessarily have to die. I walked here on my own two feet."
In that instant, Han Chaeyun's eyes lit up.
Her face was suddenly thrust right up to the tip of my nose.
"What does that mean?! You crossed dimensions while still alive? Really? No wait—HOW?"
I gave Han Chaeyun a rough explanation of the situation as she bombarded me with questions.
About the life I had lived in Murim, and about how I had opened a dimensional gate to Earth.
"A formation array? But how is that even possible? If that worked, it would mean you could arrange energy into a specific structure to generate interdimensional interference—without any physical computing device? That's impossible. For that to work, the dimensional axis would have to..."
Han Chaeyun muttered to herself like a madwoman, staring blankly into the air.
And a moment later, she fixed me with eyes brimming over with the hunger for knowledge.
"Could I possibly see the structure of that formation? I can't promise anything, but if I had that, I might be able to attempt a reproduction. If a dimensional gate can be opened from Murim to here, that means it should also be possible to punch a gate from Earth to somewhere else."
I slowly nodded at Han Chaeyun's words.
After all, my master's knowledge of that formation remained perfectly intact inside my head.
The problem was the Murim Treasure Cores that had been used to power it.
"I'm not entirely sure what these Murim Treasure Cores are, but other sources of energy should be more than adequate substitutes. All that matters is generating the power to produce the interference, after all."
Having said that, Han Chaeyun suddenly began sweeping the messy stack of documents on her desk into her bag.
"It's decided. I'm going with you. So—looking forward to working with you."
I could only nod as I watched Han Chaeyun smile at me.
"Failure, hm. Fine. Failure can happen. But an elite team came back without so much as laying eyes on the boss—they just ran. How exactly am I supposed to accept that?"
A voice cold as a winter blade rang through the Cabinet Office in Tokyo, Japan.
Sato Kenji, leader of Japan's Awakened team, merely kept his head bowed and silently endured the old man's reproach.
"Would it not have been better to die there, like the Chinese Awakened did? At least then you'd have preserved your honor."
But even at that, Sato Kenji couldn't help feeling the accusation was unjust.
Death?
Few would welcome it, plainly speaking—but he hadn't fled out of fear.
His decision had come from the judgment that preserving what fighting strength remained was better than sacrificing his teammates' lives in a foreign country for absolutely no gain.
"There is no excuse, sir. But the enemy was simply out of gauge. The Korean Awakened wielded abilities that clearly defied all common sense—"
"Ha. Busying yourself praising the enemy now, are we?"
One of the men seated beside the old man let out an unmistakable sneer as he murmured.
"That's not what I—"
"Korea now holds a monopoly on the northern S-rank gate, and with every single Chinese Awakened dead, their stock is rising. China at least saved face by staking their lives on another nation's affair. Japan, meanwhile, earned itself the disgrace of having fled. If that isn't a national shame, what is?"
Sato Kenji clenched his fist tight as he looked at the man who had cut him off mid-sentence.
Frankly, the injustice was enough to drive him mad.
The man clinging to the old man's side and heaping blame upon him was one of the Awakened—a political rival of Sato Kenji's stretching back years.
He could feel, plain as day, the man's intent to use this opportunity to bury him completely. The problem was that there was no way out of it.
Even if he tried to explain that their opponent had been a monster who shattered a formation array deployed by China's Awakened with a single clap, all he'd get in return was mockery and contempt.
People, after all, only accepted what they could imagine for themselves—unless they'd lived it firsthand.
"You are hereby relieved of your position and placed under house arrest. A disciplinary committee will rigorously hold you accountable in due course."
And so the meeting concluded with exactly that.
This had never been a gathering convened to hear Sato Kenji's side of the story in the first place—it existed solely to dump the entire blame onto his shoulders.
"Well, well. The guy with no actual skill steps up, and look how that turned out. Serves him right."
A barbed sneer pierced Sato Kenji's back as he exited the conference room.
His fist trembled as he walked down the corridor.
He had risked his life for his country, and all he'd received in return was the label of failure.
In most nations, the Awakened were treated as precious assets—but Japan's system worked a little differently.
The government had built a structure designed to control the Awakened completely, and to pit them against one another in constant competition.
Naturally, there had been pushback from the Awakened themselves, but unless one had nothing left to lose, there was no choice but to follow the government's orders.
None of it was known abroad, but the things the Japanese government did were as petty and underhanded as they came.
"...Mocking someone who just survived a brush with death? That's a bit much, don't you think?"
In that moment, an unfamiliar voice drifted from the far end of the shadow-drenched corridor.
Sato instinctively rested his hand on his sword hilt, but the voice's owner raised both hands as if to declare they had no intention of attacking, and slowly stepped out of the darkness.
"Who are you? This is hardly a place unauthorized personnel can simply walk into."
Sato addressed the strange figure in the white mask.
The voice and build suggested a woman, but regardless of gender, daring to enter this place—a corridor frequented by the government's most senior officials—while wearing a mask was itself flatly illegal.
"Haha. Sorry, but we have no need of permission. The order of this world is going to be decided by us—not by them."
the masked woman said with an unsettling laugh.
Then she produced a small card from her hand and flicked it straight toward Sato Kenji.
Sato caught the business card flying at his face with his hand.
[BABEL]
☉ A single word, beside a geometric tower emblem
Sato's eyes went wide in an instant.
He was, after all, one of Japan's high-ranking Awakened in his own right—he knew at least what kind of organization Babel was.
"Ha. Am I a joke to you? Joining some criminal organization like—"
"Hehe. Who said anything about you joining?"
"What?"
"Just a proposal for cooperation. We need information on those monsters you witnessed in Korea—and you need power. The power to take revenge on that rival who trampled all over you."
Sato Kenji swallowed hard as he stared at the woman behind the mask, who met his gaze unblinkingly.
If she had demanded he join outright, he would of course have refused—but the offer on the table was, in truth, undeniably tempting.
At that same hour, in Beijing, China.
Operation Heaven's Net Over Earth, proposed by the Sword Emperor Namgoong Hwi, was kicking into full gear.
Thousands of tons' worth of rapid-hardening cement sat loaded in ready-mix trucks lined up around the gate, while China's Awakened stood arrayed in formation against any unforeseen incident.
"Pour it! We're burying that damn hole for good—every last inch of it!"
At Namgoong Hwi's bellow, a waterfall of cement began cascading toward the gate's entrance.
Namgoong Hwi smiled as he watched the scene.
He had no idea how it would turn out—but the simple fact that he had finally done something filled him with satisfaction.
"Hey! People! There are people!"
That was the moment the laborers pouring the cement at the site began to shout.
Someone had appeared beyond the gate. Watching the cement flooding the ground, they brushed the wet cement from their feet and muttered:
"What the hell is this crap water?"