The Cruel Relativity of Talent
『Gate danger zones exist in three places total: South America, Australia, and North Korea. A massive number of gates regenerate here, referred to in the story as “unauthorized gates.”
……
No need to overthink it. Just treat them as “hunting grounds.” Hunt monsters, level up, collect magic stones, and aim for items. Especially the gates you must visit here are……』
— From “Lee Teacher’s Essential GM Guide for Beginners: Hunting Grounds Edition”
LV1─ Unknown
A lightning-fast bullet pierced the kobold’s temple. Yu Ri-ra dashed past the creature as it collapsed, spewing blood.
Her eyes darted around busily.
‘Peripheral awareness! Peripheral awareness!
The field was a dungeon of ashen towers.
The concept felt like a ruined city.
Monsters were……
‘Kobolds!!’
From around the corner, Yu Ri-ra kicked off the ground and pulled the trigger. A passing kobold dropped without even reacting. The one beside it let out a shriek at its comrade’s death, only to fall next.
Meanwhile, the last remaining kobold was already fleeing.
Nothing unusual. Kobolds were infamous for their cowardice.
Yu Ri-ra gave chase.
At that moment—
Kieeeek!!
Kobolds sprang up from the ruins, howling.
Though they were only Level 1 with low intelligence and attack power, even insects squirm when stepped on. Before she knew it, they had formed a deadly encirclement.
A remarkably advanced strategy for Level 1 monsters.
But they had picked the wrong opponent.
Strategy only works when the power gap isn’t too large. These two sides weren’t even playing the same game.
‘Nice, they’re all gathered!’
Yu Ri-ra’s eyes curved into crescents. Sparks flew.
Lightning flashed beneath her feet. Every footprint she left crackled with electricity.
And then—
Time around Yu Ri-ra slowed.
In an instant, she vanished, becoming a streak of lightning.
Zap!!
Kieeeek??
The kobolds were helpless against the flashing lightning. All they could do was scream stupidly.
By then, the lightning was already far away.
Yu Ri-ra slid to a stop, turned, and looked at the kobolds.
Shhhk!
The entire pack collapsed at once, blood spraying from their bodies.
“Phew…… I didn’t trip this time.”
It was a technique Lee Shin had taught her, but it still felt heavy to use.
While drinking a potion, she watched the kobold corpses dissolve into mana.
Amid the scattering light, something remained. In Bureau-managed gates, only magic stones were left behind.
But “unauthorized gates” left other things too.
Materials. Items.
“Ugh.”
The items weren’t anything grand.
Just scraps from corpses or tools they had used.
Yu Ri-ra decided to leave them for now. She could collect everything once the gate was cleared anyway.
After quickly clearing the field, she stood before the boss room.
“Someone’s already fighting. Is it Su-bin……?”
The portal door stood open.
Even for a warm-up, bringing both Park Su-bin and Yu Ri-ra into a Level 1 gate was overkill.
Yet the moment she stepped through, Yu Ri-ra’s eyes widened at the unexpected sight.
“Huh……?”
The one fighting the boss kobold warrior wasn’t Park Su-bin.
It was Baek Yeon-woo.
He stood with a longsword, clashing against the kobold warrior.
“Ooh~”
Yu Ri-ra adjusted her goggles and observed the fight.
‘Height around 178 cm, weight roughly 55 kg……’
……No, she was observing Baek Yeon-woo.
‘A slender frame, sharp features overall. Calling it decadent feels off—more like sickly, fragile. That type definitely has demand too.’
The protective instinct wasn’t limited to men.
A frail pretty-boy radiating an “I have a tragic past” aura.
‘Plus, his face is unique.’
This was Yu Ri-ra’s specialty.
Lee Shin had called it a “pointy cat face,” but Yu Ri-ra quietly shook her head. This was why normies couldn’t be trusted.
How was that a cat? It was a fox. Not an arctic fox, not a desert fox—just a fox steeped in Eastern charm.
The first different “species” to join the Mir Guild, which was full of round-faced handsome men.
‘Training really is the best.’
She felt more and more certain that following Lee Shin had been the right choice.
She could fangirl and earn money at the same time. What could be better?
Yu Ri-ra’s eyes sparkled.
“He’s a rare find.”
“Noona.”
“Oh, Su-bin? Did you just get here?”
“No, I arrived earlier. He wanted to fight alone.”
Before she knew it, Park Su-bin had appeared beside her, his trademark mink coat fluttering.
“The other teams are probably finishing up too?”
“They might already be done. Even at Level 2, they have more people.”
“Boss really is…… ‘Move move!’ one second, and the next thing you know—huh? We’re in North Korea? Is this for real?”
“He’s the boss.”
“Can’t argue with that.”
Only Lee Shin would think of dumping the entire raid team in North Korea under the guise of a spring camp.
In the blink of an eye, all thirty-three members—thirty-four including Lee Shin—had arrived and were now running gates nonstop.
Meanwhile, Baek Yeon-woo’s foot swept elegantly into the kobold warrior, sending it tumbling. He drove his sword into its neck without a hint of emotion.
“It’s over.”
“Over.”
The moment the boss dissolved into the air—
Dizziness hit, and the world around them collapsed.
Was it because this was an unauthorized gate? It felt different from usual.
Bureau-managed gates stayed open even after clearing, but this place was pure wilderness. The gate vanished the instant it was cleared.
Soon, the real forest reappeared. Where the gate had stood, magic stones and all sorts of junk now lay piled up.
The spoils of their hunt.
“Hmm? Tastes different.”
“It does.”
If Bureau gates felt like running through realistic training grounds, unauthorized gates felt like real combat with no protective gear.
“More vivid, maybe?”
“Growth feels faster too.”
“You noticed correctly. That’s exactly why hunters run unauthorized gates. The sense of life.”
“……Grandpa!”
“Captain!”
Turning around, they saw an old man in white robes approaching—Kim Jong-phil.
He patted Park Su-bin’s shoulder, ruffled Yu Ri-ra’s hair, then gestured toward Baek Yeon-woo, who stood a little ways off leaning on crutches.
“Let’s head back.”
Long ago, when the Korean Peninsula had only recently been split by ideology—
Anomalies began manifesting across North Korea and all of Manchuria.
Enormous mana surged from beneath the earth, strong enough for ordinary people to feel it on their skin.
Like rats fleeing before an earthquake, humans instinctively understood as they watched the waist-high aurora of mana.
Disaster.
Unstoppable.
Certain death.
In the face of death, money and honor meant nothing. Ideology and beliefs were useless. They fled desperately, fighting for survival.
Yet as if mocking their struggle—
The disaster stretched powerfully.
A massive earthquake struck, and gates erupted from the ground.
Roughly three million gates were created that way.
They expanded and merged repeatedly……
Until at last the disaster opened its eyes.
A blood-red gate.
Level 9 Gate. “Demon King’s Castle.”
A catastrophic monster wave.
·
·
“……It was the third great disaster, after South America and Australia.”
“Whoa…… I learned about this! In history class! They said it pushed all the way to Busan before being pushed back.”
“Yes. That place right there is where it ended.”
Camp 38.
The farthest point of the northern offensive they had studied in history class.
Now it served as a shelter for unauthorized hunters.
Looking at the towering container-box buildings, Yu Ri-ra kept exclaiming in wonder.
“There are so many people!”
“Of course. This is the holy land of unauthorized hunting. People come from neighboring countries too, not just Korea.”
“Whoa……”
Just as he said, plenty of people with clearly different nationalities were visible nearby.
White, Black…… Southeast Asian?
Yu Ri-ra was too busy sightseeing to care. Everything looked new and fascinating to her.
But one thing felt strange.
Yu Ri-ra whispered softly to the Mountain King.
“Grandpa. Um, is it just me, or are people only staring at us?”
“Heh heh, you’re not wrong.”
Kim Jong-phil chuckled.
Just as Yu Ri-ra said, everyone was looking their way.
Especially Park Su-bin and Baek Yeon-woo, who lagged slightly behind because of the crutches, drew particularly sharp gazes.
“You two, and those two behind you—they possess things these people could never have.”
“What is it?”
“Talent. Genius. The things you’re born with.”
Truthfully, the reason this place had become the holy land of unauthorized hunting had a very business-like side to it as well.
Since all Bureau-managed gates in Korea were assigned to the “league,” guilds without affiliation or the ability to participate were ultimately driven into these danger zones.
In a way, the hunters running unauthorized gates hadn’t chosen their hunting grounds—they had been assigned to them.
Perhaps because of that, the hunters here both admired and envied the guilds.
Kim Jong-phil raised his head and looked around. People quickly averted their eyes.
“Ri-ra, you debuted in the canyon after just a few days, didn’t you?”
“That was…… I don’t even remember it.”
“That canyon you barely remember—most of the people here will never set foot in it in their entire lives.”
“Ah……”
“There’s a reason people say just participating in league matches puts you above average. The people here are fighting tooth and nail for things you all take for granted.”
“Tooth and nail……”
“Yes. Fierceness. You and Su-bin have both loosened up a bit lately, haven’t you?”
“T-that’s not true!”
Yu Ri-ra shook her head as if denying a misunderstanding, but Kim Jong-phil only looked at her warmly, as if he understood completely.
“I’m not blaming you, so no need to deny it. Arrogance without skill is a sin, but when backed by real ability, it becomes composure. You have the right to that composure.”
However—
“Cruelly enough, talent is always relative.”
Even the opponents Yu Ri-ra had crushed had all been called geniuses in their time. Even the nameless hunter sitting on that container box, sending glances of envy and longing, had been a genius at the moment of awakening.
No—simply awakening to mana was enough to be called chosen.
It was just that Yu Ri-ra and Park Su-bin were even greater, true geniuses.
And now, League 1—the stage Mir Guild was about to step onto—was a stage only for “true geniuses.”
“Until now, your mistakes didn’t show much. Even if you made one, someone covered for you, and if all else failed, you could just do better next time.”
“……”
“That won’t work anymore.”
His tone was as calm as ever, yet today his words struck deep into Yu Ri-ra’s chest.
“Your opponents are geniuses just like you. Just as you steal their attack timing and counter, they can turn a single bullet you waste into victory.”
And if you lose that way—
“You too could end up like those kids over there at any moment.”
“!!”
The position of being looked up to with envy and jealousy.
Yu Ri-ra shuddered.
……Something about it felt off. She couldn’t put it into words, but it left a bad taste.
Kim Jong-phil knew that feeling was “pride,” yet he didn’t explain it. He simply smiled in satisfaction. Now they were getting somewhere.
“The boss probably brought you here because he knows that too.”
“……Boss did?”
“Your boss may look clueless on the outside, but he’s got a few snakes slithering around in that head of his. Do you really think he didn’t notice you kids getting complacent?”
“Ah……”
For a moment, Yu Ri-ra pictured Lee Shin shouting “Yahoo!!” with an innocent face on the mountain a few days ago and tilted her head. But the next words from Kim Jong-phil forced her to nod.
“It might feel sudden to you all, but this spring camp was planned a long time ago.”
“A long time ago……?”
“Round 40.”
“Hup. We hadn’t even confirmed promotion back then.”
“That’s what makes it fun. That kid was already acting like we’d been promoted.”
Even Kim Jong-phil had thought the boy had eaten something weird at the time. Talking about promotion like it was guaranteed while rattling off plans from recruitment to the spring camp.
But in the end, it happened. Lee Shin had proven it.
“From what I can see, that kid wants you and Su-bin to learn the fierceness these people have.”
“Ah…… Fierceness……”
“Yes. These friends live truly fierce lives.”
Before they knew it, they had arrived at their lodgings while talking.
Kim Jong-phil disappeared on some errand, and Yu Ri-ra waited for her younger teammates while glancing around.
People openly sharpening blades. Someone haggling with a shopkeeper while waving a monster’s arm. People returning from battle covered in blood.
People who slept on the edge of a blade—for money, for strength, for dreams.
Yu Ri-ra suddenly found them impressive.
‘Yeah. I was being complacent.’
In the old days, getting killed once would make her furious enough to kill them back exactly the same way. These days, she just laughed even after dying once or twice.
Yu Ri-ra pressed her lips together and clenched her fists.
‘Reflect, Yu Ri-ra.’
Fiercely! Fiercely!! Fiercely!!
The next day.
Yu Ri-ra thought.
Hmm…… Hmm…… So…… what exactly is this?
“Hey. Why do you keep messing up the line?”
“That’s what I want to ask you. Why are you setting the line like that?”
“Wait wait, the line? Are you saying the tanks messed up?”
“Honestly, that’s not wrong.”
“Hah…… Bunch of amateurs.”
“Hey, what did you just say? Watch your mouth.”
Dealers and tanks glaring at each other like they wanted to kill one another.
Hmm…… Fierceness. Maybe a little too much……