A Horrific Price (2)
Shanghai, China.
Before an S-Rank Gate left neglected for far too long, hunters gathered from four nations stood assembled.
"We're going in."
Li Wei of China, raid leader of the expedition, gave the word, and the joint strike force passed through the Gate.
"......It's empty?"
The moment they stepped inside, Taiwan's S-Rank hunter muttered it. A hollow expanse of terrain stretched on without end, and there was nothing in it. Nothing at all.
"I don't see any monsters."
"Mana response?"
"Weak. Very weak."
The one who answered was a Chinese hunter—a healer, yes, but gifted with considerable mana and a keen sense for it.
"Usually, when a raid gets called off, the ordinary monsters respawn. This place seems to be different."
Lee Mingi said it as he stepped forward.
"Has a case like that ever been reported?"
"A thing doesn't cease to exist just because no one's reported it, does it?"
"......"
Li Wei gave no answer.
"Anyway, isn't this a good thing? We push in fast, deal with the boss, and it's over."
At Mingi's words a few of them glanced around, taking the measure of the room, then nodded. A boss fight without wasting strength on ordinary monsters? For a hunter, that was welcome. All the more so here, at the Shanghai Gate, where so much hung in the balance.
"This is a total freebie, isn't it?"
"Hahaha. If it turns out like this, it means our Korean hunters pulled off something huge last time."
Oh Chulsoo cut in, laughing. One of the Chinese hunters stole a sidelong glance.
All this way, and still. Tsk. Mingi's bad enough, but this one too—neither of them can think past shoving himself to the front.
And so the hunters arrived at what appeared to be the boss room.
"......"
Li Wei stopped. A boss room always demanded caution. He looked to the healer beside him.
"What's the condition inside?"
"......It's strange."
"What did you say?"
"I can feel mana, but it's as if it's scattered everywhere...... as if it's been warped."
The healer—the keenest sensor among the ten of them—bit his lip.
"That's absurd......"
"We should pull back for now and judge again."
Amid the uneasy murmuring, a Japanese hunter said it quietly. At those words, even the hunters who had advanced with such confidence until now began to nod. If something felt wrong, one step back was the right answer.
"Ha."
In that instant Lee Mingi snorted.
"There it is again."
"There what is?"
"The talk of retreating in front of the boss room."
"What are you suddenly—"
He didn't bother answering. Lee Mingi shifted his grip on his weapon. He had heard those exact words in this very Gate once before, and because of that single withdrawal he still hadn't closed his hand around the things that should have been his. Swapping out the raid leader had been no trouble; he'd already worked his politics and his cronyism through every corner that mattered. All he needed was the feat itself—a successful Shanghai raid.
"Everyone standing here is a hunter their country ranks among its very best, aren't they? Are we going to run because it's dark inside? After they laughed at us like that in the meeting. Honestly."
"Hunter Lee Mingi."
"We'll have to go in eventually, if this is ever going to end."
Lee Mingi stepped through first. Two hunters on the Korean side called after him in alarm, but it was already too late.
A massive sphere of flame blasted from the tip of Mingi's staff. The fireball lit the dark as it flew and burst against the inner wall in a roaring wash of flame.
"There. I can see it."
The interior of the boss room lay revealed, and he walked forward a little at a time. A boss room is never small. But in the next instant Lee Mingi, at the very front—and the hunters behind him with him—froze where they stood. Countless gazes had turned on them all at once.
"......Retreat."
With a grinding roar, the passage they had entered through came down.
"What the—!"
"The path's blocked!"
Rubble poured in, severing the hall from the corridor completely. It was no accident. It had been waiting—waiting until every last one of them was inside.
"Front! The mana's moving!"
Something burst out of the dark and punched straight through the middle of the formation.
"Aaaagh!"
The scream tore loose. No one got a proper look at what it was. All they could tell was that the floor had split open where something had passed—marks like the claws of an enormous wolf.
"Scatter! Dodge!"
The hunters broke apart. And that was the second trap.
Where did they go?
Lee Mingi caught his breath behind a shattered pillar. No one around him. He had only moved because he'd heard the order to spread out, and somehow, already, he was alone.
"Haa...... haa......"
This was wrong. This was not what he had come in for.
I was supposed to become a hero.
The Korean raid leader who cleared the Shanghai Gate. He had already drawn, in full, the picture of how the Association, the press, and the politicians would receive him when he went home. So why was he here now, pressed to a wall, holding his breath alone?
"Hyung-nim!"
Oh Chulsoo's voice carried from far off.
"Chulsoo! Hey—!"
Mingi shouted on reflex, and regretted it at once.
"......"
Their eyes met. A massive wolf, its body laid with brilliant patterns, was looking at him. The gaze was pure arrogance—move even a little, and I can tear you apart—and the difference in power, felt on instinct, locked his body where it stood.
"Spare m—"
The words never finished. A ripping slash, and Lee Mingi was gone from the world.
"H-Hyung-nim!"
Oh Chulsoo came running, weapon raised.
"Aagh! Ah—!"
Another slash. A second victim. For anyone called S-Rank, it was an end far too empty.
"The two of them—!"
"......It's no use."
The hunters who had forced a way through the collapsed passage with mana and barely escaped ran for the Gate's entrance.
"This can't be."
Even as he ran, Li Wei, the raid leader, looked at his left arm. The enemy's attack had only grazed him, and still the blood was dripping steadily. A little deeper, and the arm would have been gone.
"Two Korean hunters were left behind!"
"Their signals are gone. The mana responses, too."
"......"
The hunters looked back. Nothing came after them out of the dark. However you looked at it, the result was plain, and reality had to be swallowed. Defeat. Yes—this was a defeat.
"We're leaving! All of you!"
But only the living could plan for another day. And so the eight who remained stepped out of the Gate.
The Shanghai raid had failed. The news sent China's public into a tremor of fear, but the shock that landed, in the moment, fell harder on Korea—the side that had produced the dead.
The Republic of Korea stopped.
Since the Gates had first appeared, an S-Rank hunter dying in the middle of a raid had never once been written into the country's history. The instant the bulletin hit, schools, offices, even department stores across Korea hung suspended.
"......"
People who saw the news had no idea what they were supposed to say. All they could feel, on the skin, was that something horrific had happened.
A few days later, at Incheon International Airport—
"They're coming out!"
Hundreds of reporters packed the arrivals hall. S-Rank Hunters Park Jisang and Son Heungbin walked out. Both of them were wrapped in bandages. Shutters crashed in a storm of flashes.
"Hunter Park Jisang! What happened inside the Gate!"
"Is it true that Raid Leader Lee Mingi acted on his own!"
"What is the boss monster!"
Neither man said a word. A few months ago, someone else had stood before the cameras in this very place. Back then, there had at least been jeers. Now there wasn't even that.
"......"
The two surviving S-Rank hunters walked with their heads bowed.
"Three S-Rank hunters have vanished from Korea in a short span of time. Any recovery of their strength, going forward, looks doubtful."
After the Shanghai Gate, the Republic of Korea had nothing to say but this. And as always, once a problem arose, people began looking for someone to blame.
Los Angeles, United States.
"......"
Morning sunlight—none too welcome—came in through the window. I lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling. Hannah was beside me. She wore nothing, her face buried against my arm, and the dazzling gold of her hair tickled my shoulder.
"Mmm. You're up early."
"Yeah. A little."
Hannah said it with her eyes still closed. Her fingertips drifted slowly across my chest. That a morning like this had become familiar still struck me as strange, now and then. It was a kind of time I could never have imagined back in Korea.
"What are you thinking about?"
"......"
"You look tired. You didn't lose sleep, did you?"
"No. No, I didn't."
The lie came out anyway. The truth was I hadn't been able to sleep properly at all. Ever since that news broke, I couldn't get my head clear. Even a night spent with a woman this lovely, and I still couldn't shake it off.
The Shanghai S-Rank Gate. Two of Korea's S-Rank hunters had died there. The very Gate I had turned away from, standing at the door of the boss room.
So I was right.
What I had felt back then hadn't been a mistake. And it had taken two people dying before that was proved.
The feeling surged, and before I knew it my fist had clenched tight.
Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.
"Dohyeon?"
"It's nothing."
I tried to smile. The woman who made me smile was right there beside me. It didn't work.