The White Reaper's Trigger
『“……Well, when I was young I was always chasing after my friends and the older boys. Not my real brother, of course. Those older boys. The handsome ones on TV. Heh, not much has changed even now, but back then it was worse. Even in my senior year of high school I was running around to fan meetings for the Deluxe boys.”
“……I had zero interest in hunters or the league. I figured I’d be satisfied just working some ordinary job while looking at pretty faces. My parents, both soldiers, must have found that pathetic. They tried to shove me into the military. I’m a girl, for crying out loud!”
“……Before I even grabbed it, I felt a chill. It was asking me: the moment you take hold of me, your life will change. Ordinary days will be over. Even so, I grabbed it, and became the ‘White Reaper’ you all know.”』
— White Reaper Yu Ri-ra Story Ending.
Inside the car.
“There are several types of awakening. Here.”
Lee Shin took a banana milk from the car’s mini-fridge, poked a straw into it, and handed it over. Yu Ri-ra bowed her head slightly and began sipping.
Just moments earlier she had been wide-eyed and exclaiming “Whoa, whoa!” inside Rollin’s like a child at an amusement park, but the moment something entered her mouth she calmed down considerably.
Lee Shin smiled silently and continued.
“First, natural awakening. That’s when time passes, the body matures, and you naturally begin to sense mana. The usual window is mid-teens to mid-twenties.”
“Oh, oh, I know that one! I heard it’s better to awaken as young as possible.”
“Right, that’s the common theory. The greater your total talent, the more mana you need, so your body instinctively starts craving it earlier.”
“Eh? I heard the opposite. That you have to gather mana quickly to get stronger.”
“It’s the chicken-or-egg question. Still, for someone who claims to have no interest, you know quite a bit, Miss Ri-ra.”
“There’s an awakened kid in my class. He keeps bragging about awakening at seventeen, saying ‘upper limit, upper limit’—it was annoying, hehe.”
“Exactly. That friend and most of the awakenings we know about fall under ‘natural awakening.’”
Innate talent, genetics, later bloodlines—there were all sorts of settings, but this much was enough.
Awaken naturally, and the earlier the better.
That was all anyone needed to know about natural awakening.
The complicated part started now.
“Next is ‘triggered awakening.’ As the name suggests, it requires a specific situation or condition.”
“……There’s that kind too?”
“It’s not common. One in a thousand? Maybe even fewer. Anything can become the trigger. Overcoming something, or conversely falling into despair, shock, joy, an inner realization—whatever fits that person matters, not the type of trigger itself.”
“Whoa…… I’ve never heard of that.”
“For example, Miss Ri-ra, you watch a lot of YouTube, right? Sometimes you see people display mysterious power in life-or-death moments or at critical junctures. You can think of that as leading to awakening. Anyway, what you need is the next one.”
“The next one?”
“Yeah. The last type. Called ‘contact awakening.’”
“Contact awakening?”
Yu Ri-ra’s eyes widened like a certain cartoon cat as she stared at Lee Shin. The sight was so cute that Lee Shin burst out laughing.
“Contact awakening—what do you think it is? Want to guess?”
“I’m not sure…… Is it awakening through contact……?”
“That’s right! Miss Ri-ra, you catch on quick.”
Contact awakening.
Exactly what the words said—awakening that occurred through contact.
“It’s far simpler than triggered awakening. Maybe even simpler than natural awakening. If there’s an object like this—”
Lee Shin placed his hand on a water bottle.
“Contact. Awakening. Done.”
“Wow, you can awaken that easily?”
“Hahaha. Looks easy, right? But it’s not always that simple. You don’t think just any random object would work, do you?”
According to the GM loading screen settings rather than real-world knowledge, contact awakening was described like this:
※ Awakening that manifests upon contact with objects or tools related to a “Trait” is called “contact awakening.”
And the explanation was always followed by this line:
※ Characters who undergo contact awakening require a suitable “tool” upon recruitment. Always keep an eye on your surroundings.
Each character had their own matching object. And usually the trigger for awakening was tied to the ability they gained afterward.
“Finding the right object for awakening while someone is still unawakened and their abilities undefined is extremely difficult in itself.”
“Ah……”
“On top of that, I already told you—this case is incredibly rare.”
“You’re right. I never even considered it could be something like this from the start.”
“Exactly. That’s why the success rate is actually lower than the previous two types.”
Yu Ri-ra was one of the representative characters who experienced this “contact awakening.” Therefore, when recruiting her in the game, only two conditions were needed.
The first was “the presence of at least one guild member with sufficiently high appearance (charm) stats,” and the second was finding the “trigger related to Yu Ri-ra’s ability.”
Lee Shin glanced out the window and smiled.
“We’re here.”
The car stopped at the perfect moment.
The scenery beyond the window was a mountain. A three-story building was nestled among dense greenery, with guidelines installed around it.
A golf course? Yu Ri-ra was still wondering when—
Bang! Bang!
Faint sounds echoed from beyond the mountain.
Yu Ri-ra immediately recognized the noise. She had heard it occasionally before, after all.
Because of her soldier parents and brothers.
“Why are there gunshots……?”
Indeed.
Guns.
This was a shooting range on the outskirts of Seoul.
Lee Shin opened the door first and stepped out to escort Yu Ri-ra.
“A character’s first trait is often related to their main combat ability, and the object tied to that is most likely a ‘weapon.’ Please step out, young lady.”
Yu Ri-ra looked around, took his hand, and hopped down.
Normally she would have blushed furiously just from holding Lee Shin’s hand, but the gunshots had flustered her so much that embarrassment—and even the fact that he was still holding her hand—completely escaped her notice.
“It’s no exaggeration to say that a hunter’s life can change depending on which weapon they choose. For a hunter, a weapon is both symbol and destiny, sis.”
At Lee Shin’s signal the secretary bowed and walked ahead.
She entered the interior first, checked the surroundings—surveillance, cameras, listening devices—prepared for any contingency according to the manual, set the 007 bag she had prepared earlier on the counter, then returned to stand guard by the door.
Yu Ri-ra entered through the door guarded by the stylish older woman, still holding Lee Shin’s hand.
The two of them stood before the 007 bag.
Then Lee Shin opened it.
The moment the elegant barrel—grip, trigger, slide—appeared through the widening gap—
Thump! Thump!
Yu Ri-ra’s heart fired like the gunshots echoing outside.
“A mana pistol crafted with the utmost care by Glock. The Glock Prime Qual 00 (Double-Zero). Among the Prime series, of which only one hundred units were produced, this Double-Zero model boasts the greatest versatility.”
Gulp.
Yu Ri-ra’s throat bobbed, her eyes sparkling with rapture.
It was beautiful. So beautiful. She couldn’t look away for even a second. It felt like she might stop breathing.
That barrel, that silhouette, and even the “voice” she could hear now.
“Have you ever seen someone awaken?”
“Ah…… no.”
“Watch it today. In person.”
As he took one more step closer, the voice became clear. The sweet whisper of the gun.
— Hold me. Hold me and change yourself.
Hadn’t he said a weapon was destiny?
He was right. That was destiny. Destiny itself.
Yu Ri-ra looked down at her own hand.
The moment she grasped it with this hand, the peaceful life she had lived until now—the life of chasing after boys with a silly grin—would end.
Instead, calluses would form one by one on her once spotless hand, scars would appear, and eventually blood would stain it.
Even so……
Yu Ri-ra, who had been hesitating, smiled brightly and reached out.
Flash—!!
A pillar of light descended upon the shooting range.
If it could be refused in the first place, it wouldn’t be destiny.
Traits (2/9)
「Lightning Speed」, 「Appearance Supremacy」
— “The first set of the 3rd Round match between and has been won by Mir Guild. Hello, this is Kim Ye-won hosting the analysis desk. Let me introduce the two guests joining us today. Analyst Im Cho-rong and Kang Do-kyung.”
— “Hello, this is analyst Im Cho-rong.”
— “Hello, this is Kang Do-kyung.”
— “What are your thoughts on Mir Guild’s victory, you two?”
— “There wasn’t much to analyze. It ended smoothly.”
— “Right. They maintained pressure from start to finish. When the game is this one-sided, there’s nothing left to say.”
— “Heh, still, let’s break it down a bit. Shall we look at the first engagement?”
The video played.
A 5v5 standoff in front of the objective.
had been operating around river fights near the objective by leveraging their unique water-attribute synergy. That was why they hadn’t avoided teamfights—and the result was a crushing defeat.
In the end, they couldn’t overcome the massive wall named Park Su-bin.
The chat exploded, as expected, at the sight of Park Su-bin blocking the ever-changing water claws raining down from the front line.
The analysts were visibly excited as well.
— “I really like Mir Guild’s positioning. Look, normally you’d put a tank or bruiser on the front line, but they placed Park Su-bin right at the very front. (clap clap) A perfect 100-point choice.”
— “Analyst Im Cho-rong hit the nail on the head. The core of Mir Guild’s current strength is Park Su-bin, and they know that maximizing him is the fastest path to victory.”
The analysis was somewhat biased, but it was understandable. Only three rounds had been played, yet Mir Guild’s performance was extraordinary.
Not only had they dominated Round 1, but in the raid of Round 2 held the previous week they had shattered every gate record again.
Combined with the records from League 4, that made “39 consecutive new records.”
So it was only natural to predict an easy win.
— “Honestly, unless it’s a top-20 or top-10 guild, or a promotion-contending team, I can’t even picture them losing.”
— “Same here. I’m already dying to see them face higher-ranked guilds.”
The fans shared the same optimistic mood.
Having perfectly erased any lingering anxiety with Park Su-bin’s performance, they were now leisurely savoring the feeling of being winners.
But they had to remember one thing.
Who the representative of the Mir Guild they were cheering for actually was.
* OUT: Jang Cheong-ho.
* IN: Yu Ri-ra.
Yu Ri-ra, debuting only 10 days after awakening!
……?
??!!