Archidia (1)
When he announced he was entering the gate, Ram clenched his fist and flashed a savage grin.
“You’re mine now.”
A gate meant for solo clearance? It was a golden opportunity for Junil, but Ram felt the same thrill.
“Let’s throw the probability factor out the window and settle this like men.”
Ram rolled up his sleeves, practically vibrating with excitement. The reason was simple: when other characters were involved, even tiny changes burned through coins at an alarming rate.
This gate had become Julian’s personal subspace, a closed-circuit story in every sense. Just as Ram had cheaply inflated the difficulty of that fairy tale book, raising the stakes here would cost next to nothing. Only one person would bear the burden, and since it was already a red gate, the constellations wouldn’t sense anything off.
But Sam, who had praised the fairy tale decision earlier, cut in from the side.
“Ram? You’re raising it even more? This is already spicy enough.”
The gate was indeed brutal. It demanded a full party of five top-tier elites to have any hope of clearing it.
“No way. Haven’t you seen that guy fight? This isn’t nearly enough!”
“What if it fails?! If the gate bursts, no one can stop what comes out!”
This strategy’s single fatal flaw: if Julian failed and the monsters spilled into the real world, could the remaining Awakened possibly hold them back?
“Ugh…”
Ram clutched his head in frustration. ‘Now that I think about it, he’s right!’
The plan was inherently ironic. Raise the difficulty beyond Julian’s reach and the world was doomed. Keep it within his capabilities and you were just handing him a boost.
“Aaaaaaaaagh!”
Ram let out a frustrated roar. The chance to kill his target was right in front of him, yet he couldn’t go all-in on coins. It was maddening.
“Fine. Just two stages. That should let Kang Hae-il awaken, and if enough Awakened swarm in, they might contain it.”
“……”
What about all those Awakened dying? Sam wanted to ask, but he held his tongue. He did offer one final warning, though.
“No matter what, risk and return are always equal. You know that, right? Breaking that law costs an astronomical amount. At this point you might just be inflating the reward Julian receives!”
“We can’t just sit on our hands, Sam!”
“…Sigh. Understood.”
Two stages increased
Clink! Clink!
Two coins dropped, and the difficulty surged.
But then—
Whoosh!
A cascade of coins poured down like a waterfall.
“Ram!”
“Uh… I, I swear my hand slipped.”
“You’re insane!”
“O-our cat walked across the keyboard…!”
The gate’s interior began to transform. To face something that had surpassed every limit, it borrowed power from another dimension.
‘Come to think of it, this is my first time inside a gate.’
Having spent his previous lives trudging through medieval fantasy worlds, this experience was entirely new.
‘What is this? A winter forest…?’
He had expected to drop into some dungeon, but this was nothing like that.
It was outdoors. A dense, ancient forest. The only real difference was the thick blanket of snow covering everything.
Considering it was inside a gate, the setting wasn’t nearly as alien as he’d feared. If anything, it felt more familiar than modern-day Seoul.
‘The air’s nice.’
He inhaled deeply. The crisp cold somehow felt welcoming, like a reunion with an old friend.
Yes. This was what a place where people lived should feel like. After thirty years in a world like this, the smog-choked air of Seoul had been hard to adjust to.
‘If I move into a Han River view apartment, will the smog be just as bad…?’
The property he’d bought was bound to have plenty of it. Bridges crossing the river, constant traffic along its banks; the Han River and exhaust fumes were practically inseparable.
‘Well, I’m breathing in the taste of money.’
Junil had always been willing to compromise with reality when cash was on the line.
That was when a voice called out.
“Are you the hero?”
Rustle.
A boy emerged from the underbrush.
“…What the hell. You’re not a goblin?”
He had sensed something small hiding in the bushes earlier. He’d assumed it was just another goblin. Never imagined it would be a human child.
Why would a person even be inside a gate?
‘I thought it was just “enter dungeon, kill everything.”’
This was completely different from the gate stories he’d heard.
‘Something’s off.’
He focused mana into his eyes and scanned the boy thoroughly.
‘Not a demon… physiognomy looks normal… he really is just a kid?’
It was an ordinary human child. The boy spoke again, voice trembling.
“I-I was waiting here at the prophet’s request…!”
He had only been told that entering a gate meant clearing a dungeon. Apparently the situation was more involved than that.
‘Is this normal?’
He glanced at the constellations’ reactions.
Yes, this gate was definitely unusual.
“They said five would come… did you really arrive alone?”
“I pull more than five people’s worth of weight. Just guide me.”
“Uh…”
The constellations were fascinated by Junil’s effortless composure, as if he already knew exactly what was happening.
“Ah, I see. You were fully briefed in advance? As expected of the hero.”
The boy, assuming the hero knew everything, began to lead the way.
“Right now Helket Castle is under attack by the Demon King’s forces. It’s a desperate situation. Two of the three outer walls have already fallen. This is the final one.”
Junil suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.
‘Helket?’
A name he knew all too well.
‘Gate means door. A connection between dimensions…’
Could it really be that Helket?
Or was it simply the same company recycling a name from their story board?
He couldn’t be sure. It might just be wishful thinking on his part.
‘Meyrin. That’s where we first met.’
The possibility that this was the same place from his first life.
“Is it too much for one person after all?”
The boy looked back at the suddenly motionless Junil, apparently assuming he had frozen at the mention of the Demon King’s army.
“No… Helket…”
“That’s correct.”
There were so many questions he wanted to ask. What had happened to the lord of the castle? Why was the Demon King’s army here again? Was this truly the same place?
But the constellations were watching. He swallowed every question.
“Tell me what kind of forces the Demon King’s army has deployed.”
“Ah, yes…”
The boy listed off various types: rag golems, death knights, ogre zombies, and more. He explained their troop composition in detail.
But that wasn’t what Junil wanted to know. Since he couldn’t ask directly, he simply listened.
The important part would come soon enough.
“The commander is Sirvelis. Though none of us have actually seen him yet.”
Sirvelis.
The cold flower of death. An ice necromancer. An incredibly troublesome opponent.
One of the Demon King’s chief commanders from his first life, the one who had fought Julian in a brutal struggle. Even Meyrin, the fire archmage with perfect compatibility against him, had been pushed to her absolute limit.
‘Damn it… this too…’
Junil ground his teeth.
‘Is everything the same? Is this really that place?’
Was he truly back on the Archidia Continent?
‘Don’t those demon bastards ever stay dead?’
After all the blood and effort it took to defeat them, they were invading again?
‘No wonder it felt so cold.’
A freezing wind sliced through the air, cutting to the bone. Helket was located at the northernmost edge of Archidia, the first line of defense against the Demon King’s territory.
“It’s cold.”
“Ah… yes. There’s a cabin just ahead with clothes prepared. I’m sorry, I should have brought them. They were too heavy for me to carry.”
“Are there enough fire mages?”
“Pardon?”
“In a place this cold, it seems like you’d need plenty of mages who can handle flames…”
He was trying to ask about skilled fire mages while drawing as little attention from the constellations as possible.
“Ah, yes. Helket has always welcomed such mages. Quite a few are scheduled to be deployed in this battle. Given the nature of the enemy…”
But no specific names were mentioned.
“Huu…”
Junil breathed out a visible cloud of cold air, lips trembling.
‘Are they here… or not?’
* * *
“Uh… what the hell happened?! Where are we?! Who am I…?!”
Ram muttered like a fairy who had lost her mind.
The gate’s interior had begun displaying bizarre phenomena.
“Ram! Get a hold of yourself!”
Slap!
It wasn’t a corruption trigger, but Sam slapped him anyway. Honestly, he had just wanted an excuse to hit him.
After all the coins Ram had wasted.
“It looks like the mission is to confront the Demon King’s army.”
“Are you insane? No! That would be more than enough to kill the current Julian! Kiriri!”
Ram was spiraling, barely coherent.
“That may be true, but who the hell is supposed to stop them if the gate bursts?! Won’t the Demon King’s army pour into our world?!”
It wasn’t guaranteed, but the gate’s design made that outcome highly likely. Once a gate burst, it became a permanent dimensional passage. Something from the other side would inevitably cross over to claim new territory.
And that something was the Demon King’s army led by Sirvelis.
“If they cross over, it’s game over.”
The end of the storyboard.
The end of Ram’s own story.
She bit her finger, trembling violently.
“What do we do?”
“Pray, I guess.”
Sam had no solutions left. Ram was the one responsible. Ram was the one who had dumped all those coins.
Click.
He switched the monitor to another feed.
“Hey. What are you doing? Don’t tell me you’re job hunting?!”
“N-no, that’s not it! I just wanted to check the constellations’ reactions!”
Like a thief with guilty feet. Job hunting? A bit much, wasn’t it?
“The rumor that Julian entered the highest difficulty gate is spreading like wildfire among the constellations.”
“R-really?”
It was inevitable. Anything labeled “the strongest in the world” became hot news, whether ally or enemy.
A small but dedicated group of Sagosul fans had formed among the constellations. They had been promoting him nonstop in the shared viewing spaces.
And now they were at it again.
Many constellations began showing interest at the mention of the highest difficulty gate.
“Crazy… the Kang Hae-il faction is crossing over too!”
“Well, Hae-il hasn’t been doing much lately…”
“He’s been active! In his own way!”
“You mean calling the porter?”
Exactly. Hae-il had been trying to call Junil to tackle today’s gate together. But there was no way a phone in another dimension would have any signal.
Kang Hae-il, casually saying things that would make any constellation want to vomit blood.
“Why the hell are you raising his level?! Aaaargh!”