The C-Class Gate
Woo Cheong-han let out a long sigh as he watched the hunters enter the gate until the very last one disappeared. Regardless of the outcome, he had successfully sent the Korean and Japanese hunters inside. They were out of his hands now. All he could do was wait and hope they would clear the C-Class gate.
'If they succeed, I can sever our ties with China. If that happens….'
He could rebuild the now-impoverished Taiwan. Of course, not immediately. There were mountains of issues to resolve with China. 'That’s a task for the next President.'
He was, after all, only the Acting President. A new presidential election would be held within the next 90 days. He just had to hold the fort for the next three months. His duty was to lay the strongest possible foundation for whoever would take the title next.
Just then, something strange caught his eye.
'W-what are they doing?'
They appeared to be the agents sent to escort the Korean hunter, Cheon Yooshin. They were setting up a tent. And right in front of it, they were nonchalantly grilling meat.
'A-are they here for a camping trip?'
In this critical national crisis?
Meanwhile, Park Hae-soo and the other agents were preparing the food they had bought in advance.
"Is it really okay to be doing this, Team Leader?"
The agent asked if it was truly alright to be leisurely grilling meat. Park Hae-soo nodded at the agent's question.
"You didn't come on the North Korea trip last time, did you?"
"No, sir. I was on vacation then."
The agent scratched the back of his head, feeling awkward. Park Hae-soo smiled faintly.
"Then don't ask. We just need to wait and enjoy ourselves."
"I-is that so?"
The agent nodded, looking unconvinced. Wasn't social life all about doing what your superior tells you? Especially if it was something easy rather than difficult.
On the other hand, the agents who had accompanied them to North Korea were beaming, as if they understood Park Hae-soo's intentions perfectly.
'If you've seen the miracle in that bunker, a C-Class gate is nothing. It's a joke.'
'This is the life!'
'I must come on overseas assignments again! Even if it's unpaid!'
'Keep this a secret from the other colleagues!'
The agents locked eyes. Unpaid was fine. A free flight, a free trip while clearing the gate, and free food. Wasn't this, quite literally, a legal vacation?
Park Hae-soo and his team had finally realized why Cheon Yooshin had been so confident all this time.
As soon as they entered, they split into three factions. The Japanese hunters gathered together like haughty peacocks, while the Taiwanese hunters checked their gear in the back, their faces tense.
Yooshin stood alone, staring into the surroundings.
'A cave, huh?'
It was a cave that stretched out so far the end was invisible. And it was incredibly wide, too.
'What’s going to pop out this time?'
Judging by the sheer scale of the terrain, it certainly wasn't going to be anything small.
That was when it happened. A faint sound drifted from the distance. At first, it sounded like the wind. But then—
Shhh-shhh-shhh-shhh-shhh!
The sound grew louder and clearer. It was as if thousands of sheets of paper were rustling at once, intensifying from deep within the unseen reaches of the cave.
'W-what is it?!'
Tension filled the people's eyes. It wasn't just one creature; it was a sound made by a multitude. Along with that noise, other unidentifiable sounds echoed intermittently.
At some point, the Japanese hunters' expressions hardened. They felt it, too. Something was coming. They naturally spread out into a combat formation, and the Taiwanese hunters also gripped their weapons, focusing their attention to identify what was approaching through the darkness.
That moment.
Flap-flap-flap-flap!
'Spiders.'
The source of the sound was hundreds of spiders. The problem was that these weren't the spiders they had known until now. Each one was well over the size of an adult man, and their legs were a meter long. Their sharp teeth and claws looked capable of tearing through steel, and their eyes, glowing red in the darkness, were chilling.
Given their appearance and numbers, a collision would inevitably lead to casualties. Seiko’s brow furrowed. But he was an A-Class hunter. He couldn't be called an A-Class hunter if he panicked at such a variable. He had to prepare for the hunt in a safe place before those things reached them.
"Everyone, stick to the corner! Avoid fighting in open spaces!"
"Understood, Captain!"
At Seiko's command, everyone moved in perfect unison, weapons drawn. They arrived at a corner where their backs were completely blocked. Yooshin nodded as he watched their response.
'A decent choice.'
Arrogant as he was, his judgment was quite sound. The Taiwanese hunters followed suit after seeing what the Japanese hunters were doing. But Yooshin didn't follow them. Instead, he began to walk steadily toward the open space in the center.
Seiko sneered as he watched him.
"This is why you shouldn't bring inexperienced kids along."
"Heh-heh-heh, indeed. He doesn't seem to know how disadvantageous it is to fight a multitude in such an open area."
"Since Cheon Yooshin is in their path, he'll have to fight them first. We can just watch him fight and judge what kind of abilities those spiders have."
"A very good idea, Captain."
"He'll probably die first while trying to look cool."
Meanwhile, Yooshin stood in the middle of the clearing, watching the creatures crawling toward him. There were so many. But there was one thing he had to check.
He pulled a black jelly from his inventory—the King Slime's core.
Squish, squish.
'You better show me you're worth the Green Magic Stone you ate, little guy.'
But how did he activate it? He was sure it said it would wake up according to his will. He thought for a moment, then just—
'Eh, whatever!'
"Come out, King Slime's core!"
He shouted a line that even an elementary schooler wouldn't say and threw the slime core straight at the swarming spiders. The core, flying at high speed, rippled.
Kwee-it.
Then, it began to rapidly inflate its body.
'It’s out!'
Show me your true form. Yooshin sharpened his vision in the darkness. And he could see it. The spiders were rushing toward the slime, which had grown to the size of a giant, as if they were launching a suicide attack. The slime fired jelly-like liquid like Spider-Man, wrapping up the spiders that bypassed its body and were rushing toward Yooshin, sucking them into itself. Thanks to that, not a single spider reached Yooshin, who was standing behind the slime.
Yooshin just watched. He watched the slime's movements.
Sssss!
He heard the sound of the spiders melting as they were absorbed into the slime's body. And he felt it—the slime's body growing larger and larger as it continuously absorbed the spiders.
"Wow, this thing is a treasure."
It was worth every bit of the Green Magic Stone it had eaten. No, at this rate, the Green Magic Stone wasn't even a waste. It was fighting the endlessly rushing spiders all by itself. It was playing the role of both tank and dealer.
Yooshin wasn't the only one surprised. The Japanese hunters and the Taiwanese hunters in the back were also standing there, mouths agape, unable to move.
"W-what is that?"
A strike team member responded to Seiko's mutter.
"A... King Slime?"
"What? A King Slime? That thing is a King Slime?"
He had caught one before, too. A C-Class gate had appeared in Japan, and there had been a King Slime there. Now that he thought about it, it did look similar. But the color was different. The one they had caught was green; that thing was deep black. But the power he felt from it was on a different level. If the one they caught was like a stream, that thing felt like a river—no, an ocean. And what was that technique? It wasn't like he was Spider-Man, shooting spiderweb-like liquid like bullets. Every time it hit, the spiders corroded, melted, and dripped onto the floor. It was truly worthy of the term 'one against a thousand.' At this rate, that slime was going to steal all the spiders.
It seemed Cheon Yooshin was controlling that slime, for whatever reason. Seiko's gaze shifted to the Taiwanese hunters and his own team members. They were holding cameras and filming this entire scene. If this continued, they would just be bit players. That was something he could never allow. For the pride of Great Japan.
"Move out!"
Following Seiko's command—
"Hai!"
The mage-class hunters holding staves stepped forward in unison. Normally, they should have maintained a safe formation, but they were about to lose all their contribution points if they worried about safety now. Besides, they were filming this with the cameras they had given the Taiwanese guys. They had to step up and create their own stage somehow.
And so, the mage hunters unleashed their magic in unison. A whirlwind of flames flew toward the spider swarm at high speed. In an instant, dozens of spiders were engulfed in flames.
"We did it!"
"It works!"
A smile spread across Seiko's lips. They were nothing special, despite their appearance. Seiko's booming voice rang out again.
"Launch the second attack!"
"Hai!"
Just as the mage hunters were about to fire their flame magic again, something unexpected happened. Driven by the agony of being burned, the spiders rushed toward the mage hunters. But the mage hunters didn't even blink. They assumed they wouldn't be able to cross the barrier of that black slime anyway. But even as the spiders brushed past it, the slime didn't take any offensive action. It simply stood by and watched them pass.
'W-what?!'
Seiko drew his sword, realizing too late that something had gone wrong, but it was already too late. The mage hunters, surrounded by spiders, couldn't handle their physical attacks. In an instant, the spiders tore their flesh, leaving behind only skeletal remains.
"Y-you idiots!"
Seiko's eyes flashed. The mage hunters shouldn't have fallen so easily. An immense amount of money had been poured into raising them. Their deaths had been instantaneous. Was it fortunate, at least? The spiders that had fulfilled their duty eventually fell to the floor, unable to withstand the flames. But Seiko ground his teeth. He glared at Cheon Yooshin. It was that guy's doing. A certainty, if not proof. He couldn't prove it, but—
Just then, he saw Yooshin smirk.
'It was you, you bastard!'
Then, Yooshin reached out toward him.
'Don't tell me he's attacking?'
But Yooshin's hand wasn't pointed at Seiko; it was pointed at the swarm of spiders that had been burned to death by the flames.
Summon Monster
In an instant, an impossibility unfolded before Seiko's eyes. The spiders that had become corpses, burned by the flames, began to twitch slowly.
'T-they weren't dead?'
Just as he raised his sword to deliver the finishing blow, the spiders' charred flesh regenerated. Their broken legs grew back. Soon, the spiders regained their vitality and began to scurry about again.
"I-impossible."
That was nothing short of resurrection. How, all of a sudden? But the surprises didn't end there. The resurrected spiders were circling around Cheon Yooshin, as if waiting for their master's command.
Everyone in the cave was focused on Yooshin. There wasn't a single fool who didn't know that Yooshin had caused all of this. The Taiwanese hunters focused their cameras on him, and the Japanese hunters stood there with their mouths hanging open, unable to do a thing.
Meanwhile, Cheon Yooshin had annihilated every spider that had rushed at him. He scanned his creations with a haughty gaze. Like a mine, the orange magic stones were shining and showing off their beauty.
No one could move.