An Unfinished World
To start with the conclusion, JJ had made the discovery of the century.
A gate with no fixed coordinates. A gate that showed absolutely no precursor phenomena.
No fixed coordinates meant it could be artificially installed anywhere. No precursor phenomena meant no countermeasures could be taken until the gate actually opened.
Its proliferation speed was unrealistic as well.
After combing through every existing record, there had never been a gate that absorbed this much magic power at such an explosive rate.
What if someone made contact with it midway?
It wouldn’t matter. The result would differ from the original settings, but a gate scaled to the contactor’s magic power would still be born.
Every single aspect was lethal. It was a product that perfectly deserved the name Terror Gate.
We already knew what kind of catastrophe unfolded when humans tampered with gates, didn’t we?
Depending on how it was used, the danger was beyond imagination.
JJ, who understood that risk better than anyone, had believed this incident would at least serve as a warning.
Even if it meant dragging Lee Shin, the icon of the league, into crisis!
But had she known?
That twenty years of effort would be exposed in just three minutes?
And that it would fall into the hands of a preschooler who hadn’t even awakened her magic power, whose body hadn’t properly grown yet?
Above all, that this preschooler would be extraordinarily gifted compared to ordinary children, far more enterprising, and completely fearless toward gates… No, a child whose dream was to enter gates! The first-year Big Boss of Geumryong Elementary, Kim Soyeon.
No one could have predicted it.
“Whoaaaaaaa———!!”
The children who had slipped through the closet into the gate burst into cheers at the sight of the mysterious world.
Colorful orbs floated everywhere.
Balloons? Balls? No, they looked more like soap bubbles—the way light sparkled across their surfaces every time they rolled.
“They’re so pretty!”
“Won’t they pop?”
“Ah! I touched one! Noona, I touched it!”
“Huh? Look, a fairy!”
“Where?!”
What the children called a “fairy” was actually a current of magic power.
The magic, just before taking form, had sparkled as it rode the wind. To the ignorant children, it looked like stardust glittering along the breeze.
“It’s beautiful.”
“This is insane, I’m losing it!!”
If the sky was a dazzling display of colored droplets and starlight, the ground below was no less spectacular.
Trees, plants, grass, rocks, and terrain that resembled the hills from a children’s TV show all seemed ordinary enough.
Except…
“It’s mysterious…”
“They’re see-through.”
“It looks like a half-finished drawing.”
Exactly.
They glowed faintly at the edges with transparent color. Just as the child said, they resembled an unfinished painting—only the outlines were clear while the interiors were completely empty, so hollow that even light passed straight through.
A forest, yet not a forest.
A world, yet not a world.
It was like space. Yes, exactly like the universe.
Or more precisely, an unfinished universe.
And in the center of it all, Kim Soyeon stood tall like the sun of this incomplete cosmos.
“Ehem. See? What did I tell you?”
“Yeah! Soyeon’s the boss now.”
“Boss!”
“Boss!”
Soyeon puffed her chest out proudly and planted her hands on her hips.
This is it. This is the perfect moment for praise.
Her expression was so innocently smug it reminded one of a certain someone.
Just as everyone’s eyes sparkled with admiration for the greatness of their leader, the only nine-year-old in the group, Kim Cheol-su, hesitantly raised his hand.
“Um, Soyeon…”
“It’s Boss!”
“R-right. Boss. If what you said is true, this is a gate, right?”
“Obviously!”
“Then… wouldn’t there be monsters?”
“Hup!!”
Didn’t that mean it was dangerous…?
The children, who had been celebrating, jumped in fright.
As expected of kids, their emotions swung wildly.
But Kim Soyeon was different. She nodded as if she had already considered that very point.
“As expected of you, Oppa. Sharp as always. You are now my eighth right-hand man.”
“Uh… thanks. But eighth…?”
“Tsk, does that really matter? I’m speaking right now.”
“Y-yes, ma’am.”
“Ahem. Anyway, don’t worry. I already scouted ahead earlier.”
“You scouted?”
“By yourself?!”
“Yep.”
At the children’s wide-eyed stares, Kim Soyeon gave a triumphant little smile.
To understand how the incident began, they would need to turn back time a little.
It was afternoon at the campsite.
Kim Soyeon was squatting on the ground, holding the strange stone she had picked up from beneath the car.
“Whoa, what’s this?”
She wasn’t actually asking because she didn’t know.
Look at it one way?
Look at it another?
It was clearly a magic stone?!
Most eight-year-olds would have trouble identifying one, but Kim Soyeon was different.
For one thing, the school she attended—Geumryong Elementary—was a private institution founded by the Lee Do Group specifically for the children of Mir Guild employees.
She was inevitably tied to the guild in all sorts of visible and invisible ways.
On top of that, Soyeon was the daughter of the hunter ranked third in the country. The daughter of Hwarang.
And above all else, she was the beloved child of the Emperor of this empire, Lee Shin.
Frankly, there was nowhere on Yeongdo that Kim Soyeon was not allowed to go.
So it was no surprise at all that she recognized a magic stone at first glance.
Then why were her eyes so wide?
It was the color.
“A white magic stone… I’ve never seen one before. Do these even exist?”
As far as she knew, magic stones were blue.
The stronger the magic power, the deeper the color. But white? In all her eight years of life, she had never heard of such a thing!
Fascinating!
So interesting!
She kept poking the stone with a curious finger until, before she knew it, she had wandered back into the tent.
Oh my? I brought this with me too?
She muffled a little giggle. Anyway, she took out her gym clothes, intending to change from her chick dress into her tracksuit as originally planned…
That was when it happened.
The exact moment the magic stone slipped from her hand.
The instant she casually tossed it toward the closet while reaching for her gym clothes.
Whoooong——!!
A pure white light exploded outward, accompanied by a rushing wind.
The stone scattered like powder, forming a perfect circle of magic power.
And then it opened.
A white door.
“G-g-g-g-gate?!”
At the astonishing sight, Kim Soyeon rubbed her eyes.
Look at it one way? It was a gate!
Look at it another? Still a gate!
A white gate, of all things!!
Her heart pounded wildly. The surging excitement hammered against her small chest.
What should I do? Should I tell Dad?
Mom will probably scold me…
No. I’ll tell Pretty Uncle. Yeah, that’s it.
All sorts of thoughts flashed through her tiny head.
“I want to go in.”
Hup!
Kim Soyeon clapped both hands over her mouth.
Even she was startled by her own words.
As expected of a child—her body was more honest than her brain.
Soyeon had to admit it. This is beyond my control! I have to go in there!
Once she made up her mind, her previously tangled thoughts became crystal clear and began spinning at full speed.
I’ve never heard of a white gate before. This isn’t a normal gate.
Gate level equals monster strength! That’s what the internet said.
If it were a high-level gate, Noona and Oppa would have already shown up.
Still, just to be safe, I’ll call Dad. I’ll ask him to move some luggage and see if he notices.
If I get through all that, I’ll take that with me. The scroll pouch that Bokchi Oppa brought! If they’re daily-use scrolls, even I can use them, right?!
Soyeon’s cunning plan was completed in the blink of an eye.
Obviously talking would be much easier than actually going in.
But the difficult path was working out perfectly?
Kim Soyeon learned another lesson today.
You really should do what you love!
“Operation complete!”
Once the plan was set, Kim Soyeon moved without hesitation.
“Dad, can you move my bed for me?”
“Of course, where to?”
Over here, over here.
She deliberately guided him near the closet where the gate was, but her father never noticed a thing.
Perfect! This is one ridiculously stupid gate!
Amazingly, Kim Soyeon had unknowingly arrived at the correct answer.
She had discovered JJ’s magic stone far too early, before it had absorbed much power.
Moreover, the person who had touched it was a civilian—and an eight-year-old preschooler at that.
In the end, an underdeveloped gate had opened in the tiny hands of Kim Soyeon.
Back in the present, as her plan continued to unfold flawlessly, Soyeon’s confidence soared and she became even bolder.
She casually entered the camper and, exactly as planned, spoke her prepared line while heading down the hallway.
“Ah, I r-e-a-l-l-y need to use the b-a-t-h-r-o-o-m.”
Tap tap tap!
She ran and opened the bathroom door—
Then, swish swish swish!
With steps so flashy they would have made Lee Hye-jung’s “Yama” technique look tame, she slipped into the older boys’ room.
And what twist of fate was this?
There, right beside the door as if waiting for her, sat the spatial pouch.
It practically radiated presence, as if seducing her: I’m a scroll pouch.
From that moment on, Kim Soyeon’s heartbeat, which had not yet been fully prepared, changed from thump thump to BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Can I take it? What if I get caught?
A conflicted Kim Soyeon.
Before she knew it, an angel Soyeon and a devil Soyeon had appeared above her head, whispering into her ears.
Ughhh!
Kim Soyeon clutched her small head in agony.
Conscience or dream?
It was a dilemma even adults would hesitate to decide, but the girl thought deeply and dramatically found a compromise.
She pressed hard on a nearby pen and wrote on a memo pad.
Bokchi Oppa, if you’re reading this note, the pouch was taken by Soyeon…
In truth, if she had simply taken a few scrolls from the pouch, Park Su-bin would never have noticed right away.
But the excited Soyeon at the time failed to realize that.
Only after entering the gate and fulfilling her wish did she learn that fact.
Anyway, after gathering all her supplies, Kim Soyeon once again used her flashy steps to escape the camper, safely returned to the tent, and stepped through the gate.
“Whoaaaa!! This is amazing!!”
Kim Soyeon, age eight.
She had achieved her dream☆!
“The moment we entered, I used a search scroll. This one right here. It lets you know if there are any monsters within two kilometers of me. How big is two kilometers, you ask? Have you ever run the hundred-meter dash? It’s about twenty times that distance. During that process…”
Kim Soyeon explained while drawing on the dirt floor with a twig. At some point she had put on a pair of sunglasses, looking every bit the cool raid leader.
“To summarize, I confirmed that this gate is smaller than two kilometers. The scroll scattered halfway and left behind these crumbs. That only happens when the search fails. Can’t understand? Hmm… even I find this part tricky, so I’ll just show you. Watch closely.”
The children clapped like seals as they looked at the torn scroll Soyeon showed them. Their jaws had long since dropped.
“Still, just in case, I used an alarm scroll too. See this scarecrow? It disappears if any living thing approaches. The fact that it’s still here means no one has come near us.”
“How do I tell the scrolls apart, you ask? Original scrolls have set patterns. This one is search, this one is alarm.”
Learning the standardized patterns through YouTube was easy.
And these days, kids watched a lot of YouTube!
So once you knew the patterns, pulling the right ones from the spatial pouch was simple, and using them was even easier—just tear them.
See? Pretty easy, right?
Soyeon slightly lowered her sunglasses and looked at the children. Their reaction was…
Well, it spoke for itself.
“…Boss, I think I’m stupid. I don’t understand any of it.”
“…Me neither.”
“Same here…”
“…Soyeon?”
“It’s Boss.”
“Um… Boss, I lost track of what you were saying halfway through.”
Even Kim Cheol-su, who was a year older, couldn’t follow. It was only natural that the same-age Mi In-hye and the Kang twins understood nothing.
“Was it hard?”
Was it…?
How can I explain this more simply?
Soyeon tilted her head, but soon let it go.
Pretty Uncle had once told her that a true boss must have a big heart.
Besides, that wasn’t what mattered right now.
“I’ll tell you our objective first.”
The goal of Mir Elementary’s elite team!
Big Boss Kim Soyeon’s grand ambition!
It was this!
“A gate that can’t be cleared…? I wonder why Soyeon is curious about that. Anyway, to answer Soyeon’s question—there isn’t one. A gate without a clear method does not exist.”
“The difference between a gate and an subspace lies in its purpose, its mission, and most crucially, this clear condition. Without it, the space is no different from a simple subspace.”
“…That’s what Pretty Uncle said. No matter how much the world changes in the future, this law will never change. Therefore, a gate without a clear condition cannot exist in this world!”
Among the people Kim Soyeon knew, no one was smarter than Lee Shin.
Even her incredibly smart father lost to Pretty Uncle in pure intelligence.
Therefore, if Lee Shin said so, then if this place was truly a gate, there had to be a way to clear it.
“We have four days of vacation. Three hours every night. That is the time we’ve been given.”
Within that time—
“We are going to clear this gate!”
““Whoaaaaaaa———!””
When Kim Soyeon clenched her fist and stood up, the children jumped to their feet with a roar. And so, with proud steps, Kim Soyeon’s raid party marched into the forest.
But of course.
The world is a place where not everything goes according to plan, and it is a place where any variable might suddenly appear.
Swish swish.
The sound of something moving came from within the forest.
The alarm scroll hadn’t rung. The detection scroll hadn’t reacted. Yet something was definitely there.
And then…
Rustle.
Along with the shaking undergrowth, that something was coming this way.
The presence grew louder.
Thud.
Louder.
Thud!
Louder still.
Thud——!!
When the sound finally became clear.
Something burst through the forest and flew toward them. A round shadow fell over Kim Soyeon.
“Kyaaaaaaa—!”
“Monggeul!”
??
……Monggeul?