Yi Sun-sin's Three Gates (1)
The gates are classified into six stages from E to S according to their danger level. An E-class Hunter clears E-class gates, while a D-class Hunter tackles D-class gates. If you look even closer, each stage is further divided into danger ratings from 1 to 10. But anyone who underestimates a D-1 gate is in for a rude awakening. The world inside a gate is a place where absolutely anything can happen.
C-class Hunter Yu Cheol-min was paying the full price for that complacency.
“Damn it! Why the hell are there warrior goblins in a place like this…!”
“Kiiik, kiiik!”
Yu Cheol-min, who had entered the D-1 gate alone after underestimating it, was now panicking at the sight of a variant goblin horde that should never have appeared in this section.
“Kiiiiik!”
Clang!
Yu Cheol-min blocked the goblin’s descending iron hammer with his sword and grimaced.
‘This bastard is swinging a hardware store hammer…!’
When people thought of goblins, they usually pictured cowardly creatures shooting poison darts from a distance. But that image was outdated. The monsters that had taken over the area north of the Han River now scavenged modern objects and used them as weapons.
The goblin pack Yu Cheol-min encountered had apparently raided a hardware store; each one was armed with various tools. Worse, these weren’t ordinary goblins—they were warrior goblins. Creatures that should only appear in D-8 gates had shown up in a D-1 gate.
Inside gates, events that defied common sense sometimes occurred. Unfortunately for Yu Cheol-min, he had drawn the shortest straw.
“Kiiiiik!”
At the chieftain goblin’s cry, four warrior goblins charged toward him.
“Tsk!”
Yu Cheol-min blocked the goblin swinging a running chainsaw and retreated. Even though he was a C-class Hunter, facing four warrior goblins at once was too much.
‘I really underestimated this D-1 gate.’
Having given up on clearing it, Yu Cheol-min decided to head for the safe zone. To exit the gate, one had to reach a safe zone first.
Just as he was about to turn, a strange scraping sound reached his ears—something being dragged across the floor.
‘Scraping?’
While Yu Cheol-min was still trying to figure out what the noise was, a voice spoke beside him.
“Excuse me, mind if I pass through?”
“?”
A young man walked past him, dragging an enormous greatsword across the ground. The scraping sound had been the blade scraping against the floor.
‘What kind of sword is that…?’
The greatsword looked at least three meters long. It seemed far too heavy for any ordinary Hunter to wield. As proof, the man wasn’t even lifting it—he was sweeping the floor with it like a broom.
Yu Cheol-min stared in disbelief. Then the charging pack of warrior goblins entered his field of vision.
“It’s dangerous!”
“Kiiiiik!”
Vrrrrrr—!
One of the warrior goblins brought down a revving chainsaw toward the young man. The man belatedly swung his greatsword, but it looked less like a swing and more like a limp, powerless flail.
‘Oh no!’
The sword’s path wriggled like a worm. Yu Cheol-min squeezed his eyes shut. It looked like the man would be sliced apart by the goblin’s chainsaw any second.
Splat!
The gruesome sound of flesh being torn rang out. Yu Cheol-min’s eyes flew open in shock.
“…What the—?”
The young man’s limp, powerless swing had completely erased the upper half of the warrior goblin’s body. The momentum didn’t stop there—the sword energy continued on and shattered the tree behind it.
Crash—!
“Ugh, that was tiring.”
“……”
Watching the man wipe sweat from his forehead as if he had just finished a light workout, Yu Cheol-min was completely stunned.
“Hup!”
Despite the energetic shout, the sword continued to flop around like a jellyfish. The resulting gust of sword wind made Yu Cheol-min’s hair whip wildly as the goblins were shredded apart.
“……A, a high-rank Hunter?”
There was no confidence in Yu Cheol-min’s voice. The man was clearly powerful, but something about it was… off.
‘Why is he swinging the sword like that?’
As a swordsman-type Hunter himself, Yu Cheol-min had considerable knowledge of swordsmanship. But he had never, in his entire life, seen a Hunter wield a sword with such limp, flailing motions.
‘Is this some new kind of sword art?’
Maybe it was a technique that increased elasticity by relaxing the muscles…?
While Yu Cheol-min was still trying to analyze the man’s sword style, the stranger finished cleaning up the goblin pack and dragged his greatsword straight toward the boss room.
Driven by curiosity, Yu Cheol-min followed him inside. The sight that greeted him made him swallow hard.
“Haaap!”
—Kiaaa…!
Splat!
The boss monster of the D-1 gate—a hobgoblin—was torn apart in a single limp swing of the man’s sword.
That day, Yu Cheol-min posted his experience on HuntWeb, Korea’s largest Hunter community forum.
Rumors about the “Sword-Dragging Weirdo” began spreading across HuntWeb.
“Ugh, my arms are gonna fall off.”
I set the Twin Dragon Sword down on the shop counter and massaged my overworked arms.
For the past week, I had been roaming Seoul’s gates to get used to the Twin Dragon Sword. The results? It was still ridiculously heavy, but I could at least swing it now. Whether that counted as “swinging” or just “flailing” probably depended on who you asked…
‘I think I’m handling it pretty well for my level, right?’
It wasn’t baseless confidence. After all, I had cleared every gate from D-1 to D-7 with a perfect SSS rating.
That might sound easy, but it was incredibly difficult. When you cleared a gate, a rating appeared. Even in low-level gates, achieving the highest SSS rank was extremely rare.
The sword was still too heavy for me to swing freely, but…
‘If things get dangerous, I can always use Napoleon’s Rifle.’
Having more than one relic gave me some peace of mind. Still, safety came first, so I never went near anything above D-class. I only had one life. It would be stupid to swing an unfamiliar sword recklessly and get myself killed.
Cautious hunting was the number one virtue of any Hunter.
“Still, the rewards aren’t bad.”
Low-grade mana stones from D-class gates didn’t sell for much. But as the saying went, every little bit adds up. Clearing zones one through seven netted me a decent amount of income. In just one week, I had gathered two million won worth of low-grade mana stones.
But I couldn’t stay stuck clearing only D-class gates forever.
Twin Dragon Sword Connection (1)
📍 Special Gate: Myeongnyang
📍 Objective: Liberate the Joseon navy soldiers
📍 Difficulty: D
📍 Status: Stable
📍 Clear Condition: Twin Dragon Sword
📍 Time Remaining: 168 : 28
🎁 Reward: Yi Sun-sin related relic
“I guess I have to clear it eventually.”
This was the Twin Dragon Sword-related quest the status window had given me upon returning to the modern world. Several gates related to Yi Sun-sin existed across the Korean Peninsula: Noryang, Myeongnyang, and Hansan. They were known as Yi Sun-sin’s Three Gates.
Hansan had already been cleared. Noryang was an unstable gate that had to be cleared at regular intervals. But Myeongnyang was an uncleared gate—no one had ever succeeded.
Even Korea’s three major guilds—Samdocheon, Yeomyeong-ui Seongjwa, and Cheonmumun—had given up on it. The government had washed its hands of the place entirely.
Inside the gate were countless skeletal soldiers believed to have died during the Imjin War, and the surrounding sea was filled with violent whirlpools. The reason Myeongnyang Strait had become an inaccessible sea of death was precisely because of this gate.
It was also why I had been hesitating to challenge it. If even the nation had given up, how was I supposed to clear it?
Still, what made my heart waver was the difficulty rating.
[Difficulty: D]
D? Did that even make sense?
D-class gates were basically free passes that could be cleared by simply swinging a sword. Yet Myeongnyang’s difficulty was listed as D. On top of that, the reward was a Yi Sun-sin-related relic.
Ideally, I wanted to get stronger before attempting it, but the shrinking timer suggested this was a time-limited quest.
“There’s no reason not to go, then.”
I’d just dip one toe in. If it got dangerous, I’d run. The deliberation was long, but the decision was quick.
‘Let’s just test the waters.’
Kim Hayun, who had placed second in the Trial of the Gate, did not look well.
‘Seolhwaseok…’
She had missed out on the first-place reward, the Snow Flower Stone. If this had been a personal matter, she wouldn’t have been so hung up on it. But the Seolhwaseok wasn’t just important to her—it was vital to the entire nation of South Korea.
To clear the gate Noryang that Yeomyeong-ui Seongjwa was currently attempting, Kim Hayun needed to become stronger. Either that, or they needed to obtain a relic that could help with the raid…
“Yunha, calm down. I’ll find a way to get an Imjin War relic no matter what.”
Ha Jinwu, 1st Team Leader of Yeomyeong-ui Seongjwa, tried to comfort her. But his expression was just as grim. The reason was simple: Noryang was an unstable gate.
An unstable gate was one that would eventually go into overload after a certain period. In other words, a gate break. The monsters inside would pour out into the real world.
Records from Noryang’s previous overload showed it was a disaster that surpassed even an A-class gate break. The problem was that Noryang was a special gate that only water-attribute Hunters could enter, and Kim Hayun was the core member of the raid team.
Yet she had already failed three times. Three attempts, three failures. The media was already filled with voices criticizing Yeomyeong-ui Seongjwa for their repeated failures at Noryang.
‘We need to obtain a water-attribute relic somehow.’
Otherwise, Yeomyeong-ui Seongjwa would have to bear the blame when the Noryang gate finally broke.
Only three days remained until the gate would break.
While Ha Jinwu anxiously searched through the artifact market listings, a subordinate suddenly burst in.
“Team Leader! The Myeongnyang Gate has been cleared!”
“What?! Myeongnyang?!”
Ha Jinwu opened his status window in shock. His eyes widened.
Myeongnyang Gate Cleared
Clear Rating: SSS
‘Who on earth…?!’