Descent into the Rift
It had been about twenty minutes since we started the hike. We finally reached the 'rift' yawning open on the mountainside. It looked as if spacetime itself had been violently torn apart. The surrounding rocks and grass had partially lost their shapes from the rift's formation, and only the rift itself sat nestled in the fractured rock, radiating an eerie blue glow. The sight was so sinister it completely flipped the serene, beautiful atmosphere of Mount Gyeryongsan.
Yellow DO NOT ENTER tape blocked off the area. Standing guard by the rift was a woman in a suit. She approached us.
"You've finally arrived."
From her attire, she was clearly a guard. A guard's primary duty was controlling civilian access near rifts. Hunter Kim Du-sik tucked away his sunglasses and replied.
"Any unusual activity?"
"No, nothing particularly noteworthy. Though an old hiker kept poking his head around out of curiosity... May I head out now?"
The woman looked utterly exhausted as she asked. Hunter Kim nodded.
"Yes, you're free to go."
"But...?"
"Before that, how about grabbing a cup of coffee together?"
At the sudden mention of coffee, every student's eyes snapped toward them. Like typical teenagers, they immediately perked up with curiosity about someone else's potential romance. Of course, Hunter Kim didn't seem to have that kind of intention at all.
"I have something to discuss regarding the recent phenomena on Mount Gyeryongsan. So if we could just take a moment..."
"Ah, I see."
Hunter Kim gestured for us to rest, then pulled out a map and walked behind a cluster of trees with the guard. She seemed slightly annoyed, but whatever. During the break, the students' reactions split off in every direction.
First off...
"So this is a rift!"
Seo Geon-woo couldn't contain his curiosity and stepped right up to the rift. One of his lackeys, Jo Min-hyeok, trailed after him.
"Seeing it up close, it's seriously fucking creepy. So monsters are crawling all over the other side, right?"
"Didn't you hear earlier? There aren't any monsters here. This place was already cleared once."
"Oh, for real?"
Just as they said, the Gyeryongsan Rift had been pre-cleared by the Hwasan Guild. The clearance rate was around 99%. They probably figured they couldn't drag students into a completely untouched rift. Still, the fact that danger could remain was undeniable.
That's exactly why we were armed. Hidden monsters could reveal themselves at any moment. So claiming there were absolutely no monsters here was a bit of a stretch.
While I was thinking that, a shrill "Kyarruk!" rang out from the side.
"Oh my gosh!"
"Eek!"
The girls' piercing laughter stabbed at our ears. When I turned, another one of the lackeys—Park Dong-su—was handing some kind of gift to an unnamed female student. What he gave her was... candy? Out of nowhere?
"Thank youuu!"
A girl from Class 2 responded in an adorable lisping voice. The burly Park Dong-su giggled shyly and scratched the back of his head. He looked exactly like a boy mustering the courage to confess. Though whether this was the right place for it was debatable.
Still, when he laughed like that, he really did look like an idiot. That wasn't his usual image at all.
I watched his clumsy courtship with amused interest. That's when Ahn Kyung-tae's thin voice reached me.
"Ha Yeonjun! Did you prepare too?"
Ahn Kyung-tae had snuck up beside me at some point and was grinning like an idiot.
"Prepare what?" I asked.
"It's Sweet Day today! Don't tell me you forgot?"
Sweet Day. The day male students give candy to the girls they like.
...Honestly, I had no idea it was today.
Ahn Kyung-tae pulled something from his pocket. What he showed me was a bundle of candies wrapped with a red ribbon.
"Look! Pretty cool, right? I'm going to give it to Jeong-a after the rift exploration ends."
"What? You're serious?"
"Why do you look so shocked?"
"No, it's just... how do I put this."
"Anyway! What do you think? Will Jeong-a like it?"
I looked back and forth between the candy bundle in his hand and Kim Jeong-a. Kim Jeong-a was one thing, but the candy itself was the real problem. The tacky packaging and the middle-aged flavors—mint, pumpkin taffy, and even red ginseng candy. This was definitely not a girl's taste.
I thought I should be honest and tell him girls wouldn't like this. But...
"She'll like it."
I decided to just let him be.
"Right?"
Ahn Kyung-tae suddenly looked full of confidence. His expression alone made him seem like a regular Casanova. He continued.
"So, could you put this in your bag for me?"
"Huh?"
Before I knew it, Ahn Kyung-tae's candy bundle was in my hand. So that was his goal all along. Having slyly dumped his baggage on me—the designated porter—he turned around looking refreshed.
"Thanks, Ha Yeonjun! Good luck!"
I hoisted the backpack onto my shoulders again. For some reason, I felt like I now understood how the guards felt being turned into pack mules.
Meanwhile, Kim Jeong-a—who had no clue about the future awaiting her—was calmly retying her hair with a hair tie. Our eyes met for a brief moment, but right then Hunter Kim returned.
"Alright everyone! Break time is over. Let's move out."
"Yes!"
So it was finally beginning.
With Hunter Kim at the front, the students began entering the rift one by one. As expected, I was dead last.
The students disappeared one after another, sucked into the magical subspace. If the gates of hell truly existed, this was probably what they looked like.
As I thought that, I unconsciously glanced behind me.
That's when I heard the strange noise.
Unique Skill 'Insight' Lv. 2
[Scrrrt....]
It sounded like a cassette tape being rewound. The source of the noise was none other than Lens.
"Lens...?"
He wasn't moving. Like a broken robot, he kept making that bizarre sound while his gaze remained fixed solely on the rift. The sight sent a slight chill down my spine.
It took about a minute before Lens's focus finally returned. Coming back to his senses, he made a dumb face and answered belatedly.
"Uh? You called me?"
I stared at him blankly. To be honest, I was a little surprised. He had clearly been reacting to the rift itself.
"...Never mind. Let's go."
I shrugged at him, pushing all my speculations aside. There was nothing I could confirm right now anyway.
And so I finally took my first step into the rift.
*
It was cold. A damp chill wrapped around my entire body. In the pitch-black darkness where I couldn't see even an inch ahead, a small light suddenly illuminated the space. The owner of the flashlight was Hunter Kim.
"Whoa!"
The students' exclamations followed right after.
A completely new scenery unfolded before our eyes. Stalactites and stalagmites rising from the uneven ground, moisture-laden limestone cliffs. I was now deep inside a cave.
No one could know what world lay inside a rift until they stepped through. Forests, swamps, tundras, deserts—the environment appeared randomly, and the monsters inhabiting them varied wildly.
The theme of the Gyeryongsan Rift was an underground cave. It was known as the place with the highest concentration of damp-type monsters.
Then Hunter Kim's voice rang out.
"Everyone watch your step. The floor is extremely slippery...!"
"Whoa!"
"I told you to be careful."
A few students still hadn't adjusted to the darkness and stumbled around without watching where they stepped. I reached out to Ahn Kyung-tae, who had fallen flat on his backside.
"Grab on."
"Ugh..."
Ahn Kyung-tae took my hand and stood up, then frowned at his now soaking wet pants.
"Ugh! This feels gross."
He looked like a drowned rat. Hunter Kim cleared his throat and spoke in a firm tone.
"Don't let your guard down. This is real combat from here on out."
He was right. A 99% clearance rate basically meant remnants were still lurking about. The rift was D-Class. While not particularly dangerous, there were definitely creatures here that wanted to harm humans.
"Absolutely do not separate from the group. Do not touch anything recklessly. Let's move out."
And with that, Hunter Kim's signal marked the official start of the rift exploration class.
The students lined up in their pre-assigned order and began moving. Most of them looked visibly tense.
But no matter the situation, there were always people who couldn't stay focused.
"Kyarruk!"
The Class 2 girls' laughter never stopped. Since they were walking right in front of me, I could hear every word of their conversation.
"Isn't she kind of annoying?"
"Totally! She's been acting all cute since earlier!"
The target of their gossip was none other than Yu Hae-rin.
"Ha, look at her. Did you see the way she just glared at me?"
The Class 2 girls shot contemptuous looks at Yu Hae-rin after she glanced back. They were probably jealous. Yu Hae-rin had always been like that—exceptionally beautiful compared to her peers and ridiculously wealthy. A crowd of envious girls had followed her like shadows since childhood.
I didn't know what Yu Hae-rin was thinking right now. But from her expression, I could at least guess that this kind of thing had been happening to her for a long time.
As I thought that, I suddenly glanced to the side. That's when my senses sharpened.
Unique Skill 'Insight' Lv. 2
My senses locked onto the cave wall to one side.
"This is...?"
There were violently scratched marks from battle. And a creature's corpse so mangled its original shape was unrecognizable. This wasn't damage from the Hwasan Guild members who had come here before. It had been torn apart and eaten.
The faint bite marks visible through Insight were as sharp as saw blades. The bodily fluids still flowing from the torn corpse suggested it had died relatively recently.
At that moment, I felt a faint vibration.
Drrrr.
From the very back, I looked past my teammates toward the front of the cave. Something up ahead had noticed our presence.