Ghost Valley (1)

The moment I arrived at Jeju International Airport, I boarded a sedan that was already waiting for me.

Of course, Seong Ju-ah came along too.

She was, for all practical purposes, acting as my secretary for this assignment, so it went without saying.

Vroooom—.

As the car slowly picked up speed, I took in the scenery of Jeju Island spreading out beyond the window.

How long has it been since I last saw Jeju Island intact?

Jeju had been reduced to a wreck before the Iron Blood Monarch even appeared, and in the end, its restoration had failed. It was proof of just how desperate things were on the mainland — desperate enough to abandon the island's entire economic value in one fell swoop.

I'd never expected to see it like this again.

Regression really does have its perks.

I steeled myself once more.

This time around, I'm going to protect this view no matter what.

After a long drive, we arrived at our destination.

"It's a stadium."

Jeju World Cup Stadium, its green turf stretched out under an open sky. And there, in the center of an arena that should have been packed with passion and cheering crowds, a blue gate gaped wide open.

"Team Leader. I've brought Tae-hyun-nim."

Seong Ju-ah led me toward a man who looked thoroughly worn down.

"Uh… y-yes……."

He forced an awkward smile, his expression uncomfortable at a glance.

At first I assumed it was because of me.

Wait, his eyes aren't on me?

He was sneaking glances at Seong Ju-ah instead, sweat beading on his forehead.

Though to be fair, the look he gave me wasn't exactly warm either.

"I-I'm Wi… Wi Han-jun…! Pleasure to meet you!"

"Lee Tae-hyun."

Since when was a handshake such a grand affair?

Gripping and shaking a hand drenched in sweat was hardly a pleasant experience.

"Ahem. Team Leader?"

"Y-yes?!"

"Where is our hunter?"

"Ah… he's seated over there."

Wi Han-jun turned his head toward the seating area. Following his gaze, I spotted someone sitting quietly in the stands.

"…Why is he sitting all the way over there?"

"Beats me… apparently he doesn't want to draw attention to himself."

"Good grief, honestly……."

Seong Ju-ah pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a sigh.

Unlike her, though —

Oh.

I was fairly impressed.

A man that size with that kind of presence, and yet I couldn't even sense he existed until I laid eyes on him.

A hunter twice the size of an ordinary man, wearing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a black mask. He sat with his arms crossed, watching us in complete stillness.

For someone impossible to miss, he was suppressing his presence with almost absurd thoroughness.

So Seong Ju-ah wasn't wrong after all.

A skill level like his meant there'd be no risk of him being caught on camera mid-broadcast. His identity being a mystery was a little uncomfortable, but at that caliber, his very identity was probably classified as high-level intelligence. It made sense.

"No unusual mana fluctuations… gate condition stable… all right. We're ready."

"May I enter right away?"

"Yes. Tae-hyun-nim enters first, and just before the entrance seals, the accompanying hunter will follow you in."

How convenient.

"Then I'll start the broadcast shortly."

I activated the device I'd brought along.

I had announced the date and time of the broadcast in advance, so I flipped it online without hesitation.

Viewers poured in exactly as I'd expected.

Thanks to the test stream and the advance notice, the rate at which my audience was growing was far faster than on day one.

Over thirteen thousand in just three minutes.

Hiding my mild surprise, I waved at the camera.

"Good to have you all. I'm Lee Tae-hyun."

I'd done nothing more than offer a greeting, and the chat was already ablaze — practically at the point of crashing.

Hm.

I'd known attention would flood in, but I hadn't anticipated a reaction on the level of a world-famous celebrity.

While I was standing there slightly flustered, Seong Ju-ah sidled up beside me.

"This much is a given."

"Is it, now?"

At my answer, she gave me a look of pure incredulity, a faintly exasperated smile tugging at her lips.

"The first live broadcast from inside a gate. An F-rank hunter challenging a B-rank gate. The holder of the fastest C-rank gate clear on record. And above all, this is the broadcast of the eldest son of the Cheonseong Group. Wouldn't the strange ones be the people not watching?"

Come to think of it that way, it did sound like a fairly compelling broadcast.

Each item on that list carried so much weight that the C-rank record almost felt like an afterthought.

Every so often, comments written in stiff, machine-translated phrasing drifted past — traces of the automatic chat translation the Link platform provided.

"Looks like we've got plenty of international viewers too."

"…Tae-hyun-nim, do you not read the news or articles about yourself?"

"I read them."

I just happened to only pick out the ones trashing me.

Praise is short, sweet, and quickly forgotten — but grudges linger, and lingering grudges make excellent raw material.

"Do you even realize what position you're in right n—… you know what, never mind."

She started to say something, then gave up.

Pointless messages kept popping up, so I shut it down fast.

"This woman is a staff member of the Hunter Bureau. Anyone claiming she's my lover or anything else gets blocked. All of you."

It was more of a threat than anything — in reality, I couldn't block every one of them. There were ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠simply too many people, and the Link platform's built-in AI already filtered out profanity and hate speech by default.

How was I supposed to catch what an artificial intelligence couldn't?

The viewers' restlessness was steadily climbing, so I stretched out lightly and said,

"I'll be disabling donations."

And I turned them off.

"Hearing donation chimes going ding-ding-ding mid-raid would throw off my focus."

It wasn't as if I was desperate for money anyway. I still had the three million won from last time sitting untouched — why would I need to earn more?

"All right, then."

Let's go in.

"The raid begins now."

Into the B-rank gate.

The moment I stepped through the gate, damp air pressed against my skin.

The first thing I saw was a hazy fog.

Ordinarily I'd have blown the fog away on the spot, but I deliberately took my time.

"This gate has pretty heavy fog."

Feeding the stream some idle commentary, I stole a glance back at the entrance I'd come through. A few seconds later, I felt a faint ripple and confirmed the gate's mouth closing behind me.

Good — I'm properly in.

A hunter of that caliber would step in if I landed in real danger. And with the broadcast running, the odds of anyone pulling a stunt like Jung Min-chul's were slim.

You could call it insurance on top of insurance.

"Let me clear this fog, shall I?"

I'd given anyone hiding their moment to settle. I swept my spear back and forth, driving the fog out and securing my line of sight.

And then, what came into view —

"…Hoh."

A vast hidden paradise.

A winding river spread through the valley like veins of blood, and spirit-infused pines clung to the mountain paths.

So what I took for fog was cloud cover all along.

A single gate flashed through my mind.

Gwigok — the Ghost Valley.

Unpacked, the name meant "the valley where ghosts emerge."

What a mind-boggling coincidence.

To think I'd end up walking into this place. No survey had ever been conducted here, no record left behind — and yet I knew this place better than anyone.

As the pale clouds cleared completely, the gate's interior revealed itself more vividly.

Though water still flowed, the river had rotted through, giving off a foul stench. Every pine had twisted and died, leaving skeletal branches clinging like bones.

"Chilling, isn't it?"

The atmosphere was as if someone had carved out a piece of hell itself. The mystical ambiance from moments ago had vanished without a trace.

If this really is the place I think it is…

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠monsters here were somewhat special.

I calmly looked up at a tree with thick, overgrown branches. The rustling sound coming from up there had been tickling my ears for a while now.

"Everyone, brace yourselves."

"It's coming."

The instant the words left my mouth —

KIIIIYAAAAAAAK!

Something in human shape lunged at me.

A ragged, threadbare robe clinging to its frame. Dried bloodstains. A bluish face and bloodshot, crimson eyes. Its long, tangled hair hung wild, making its features impossible to make out.

But if you had to pin it down…

Its form was closer to human than monster.

Even if it truly had been human once — anything that attacked me inside a gate was an enemy, plain and simple.

"—!"

I thrust out my spear without hesitation.

Deflect, then strike.

As my spear bore down on the creature's long nails, it drove hard into its chest.

CRUNCH!

The sensation of cleaving through ancient, rotting meat. Its upper body split open, and decayed blood and organs spilled out in a wet cascade.

For an ordinary human, such wounds would mean certain death —

KHAAAAAAAK!

— but it was still glaring at me, drool trailing from its mouth.

That's right. That thing was a type of undead monster — a jiangshi.

And among them, the kind that manifested when an immortal cultivator became a jiangshi:

a Cultivation Ghost.

Its traits: defenses far tougher than an ordinary jiangshi's —

VMMMM!

— and the ability to use portions of the martial arts it mastered in life.

Blue energy gathered along the Cultivation Ghost's arm. A fierce streak of lightning had been whetted sharp as a beast's claws, lingering at its fingertips.

"Looks like it was fairly accomplished in life."

PA-JIK! PA-JIJIJIK!

The instant the violent current crackled, the Cultivation Ghost's body shot toward me in a straight line.

If that attack landed, even I would probably feel it.

"If you had lingering attachments to this world, I'm sorry, but…"

I lowered my spear shaft.

"Rest now."

No dragon's shape coiled around the blade anymore.

The Nameless Spear Art was not the sword sect's technique — it was mine.

But in its place —

SSSSSSAAAAH—!

The ferocious visage of a yaksha wrapped itself around my body.

This was the Ghost Spear.

Faded and feeble as it was now — too dim to even deserve a name —

But once I've gathered every piece needed to complete the Ghost Spear…

It would become the strongest spear in existence — the one that had pierced even the Iron Blood Monarch's steel.

My spear tip, laden with that unshakable conviction, rose and cleaved the Cultivation Ghost's head in two.

"……."

The moment its skull was destroyed, its strength drained instantly and it collapsed to the ground. A jiangshi's sorcery was, at its core, inscribed in the brain.

I stole a glance at the chat — the reactions were solid.

If I kept delivering performances at this level, I'd hit my original goal without a hitch.

Not that there isn't a problem…

"Whoaaa!!"

Just as I was about to sink into thought, a cry of pure, unfiltered admiration rang out from somewhere not far off.

"What was that spear technique you just used, Mister?! It was so cool!"

A girl with a bun-shaped hairstyle had sprinted up before I knew it, gazing up at me.

"When you swung the spear like — whoosh! The monster went — splat! Just like…"

"K-Kang Yul, you—!"

Midway through wriggling her small body in a clumsy imitation of my movements, she was cut off by a boy who'd hurried up behind her.

"I told you not to go up to strangers like that!"

"Aww… but this mister was suuuper strong! He seems like a really nice person…"

"Grr……."

A boy with brown hair in a topknot, dressed in a loosely worn set of ancient Eastern-style clothing.

He stared at me with a face brimming over with wariness.

"Don't tell me, you're……."

"That's right."

I said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Someone who came from beyond this world. In your words……"

I knew exactly who these boy and girl were.

Kang Hwi and Kang Yul — brother and sister.

Those two were the central figures of this gate. Which meant —

"I'm an Outlander."

…Someone from outside — while they were the residents of this place.