Seeds of Conflict (6)
Warm sunlight spilled through the curtains, and a noisy morning began.
"Did my school uniform dry yet?"
"It should be on the balcony. Hold on a second."
"No, it’s fine. I’ll go chec—"
In the living room, my younger brother was talking with the woman who helped out around the house.
"Hey, you little shit! You should be the one taking care of your own uniform!"
"Ow! Grandma, that hurts!"
When Grandma smacked him on the back, my brother yelped and ran off.
Just another peaceful morning.
"Ma'am. Breakfast is ready."
My brother, Grandma, and I sat down at the table together.
Black rice, spicy braised chicken, grilled mackerel, rolled omelet, bellflower-root salad, japchae, soybean paste soup, and more.
There was so much food the table looked like it might snap under the weight of it, and just looking at it made my mouth water.
My brother muttered, "Ah, I hate lotus root—"
He caught Grandma’s eye and quickly changed his tune.
"Lotus root is great. It’s good for you, too. Thanks for the meal!"
And so breakfast began.
I filled my mouth with fresh, delicious food and chewed slowly.
It made me strangely emotional.
It felt like only yesterday that I’d been eating cold rice soaked in greasy beef soup, with sour kimchi on the side, in a moldy basement room no bigger than a closet.
This all feels like a dream.
I smiled to myself.
The TV in the living room was on, and the news was drifting out of it.
I frowned and turned my head.
The firefighters’ group protesting against the corrupt police force, the Firefighters' Solidarity, had announced that it would be holding a rally a week later.
The cause was noble.
They were going to expose corrupt cops and demand the rightful protections firefighters deserved.
On the surface, there was nothing wrong with it.
It was a legal, peaceful protest.
The result wasn’t so peaceful, though.
"The police expressed regret over the upcoming rally and said they would deploy more than 3,000 officers to ensure the safety of the Firefighters' Rally..."
Having police on hand to protect the protesters was fine.
The problem came when villains secretly slipped into the police ranks.
The peaceful protest turned into a scene of chaos in an instant.
And then it becomes a violent riot.
It all started with the police assaulting and dragging off firefighters.
Then the firefighters’ anger exploded.
That was the moment the Firefighters' Rally turned into the Police-Fire War.
Grandma followed my gaze to the TV and let out a sigh.
"Aigoo. What in the world is going on? The whole damn world’s gone rotten."
My brother shrugged.
"At this rate, the cops and firefighters are gonna throw down for real, huh?"
Blood really didn’t lie.
What he blurted out without thinking was exactly what was going to happen in the future.
"Ah, Grandma, I think I’m gonna be late. I should get going."
"Hey, you little shit! Sit back down this instant! If you leave rice, you’ll be cursed by heaven! This whole table was made from the sweat and blood of farmers..."
"Ugh, enough with the nagging. I know, I know."
Grandma checked the clock.
"Good grief, what am I doing? I’ve got a meeting with Chairman Baek today!"
The gukbap restaurant Grandma had opened was thriving more and more with each passing day.
Before long, it had become one of Gangnam’s most famous restaurants, a tourist destination people even came to from overseas.
"Grandma! Eat before you go! This is a table built from the sweat and blood of farmers..."
"You little bastard, now you’re trying to lecture your grandmother? Fine, fine! All right, all right!"
"Hehe."
I watched the two of them laugh and bicker.
"And next, our news on the political clash over the Firefighters' Rally..."
Bad news kept pouring in by the second.
"Choi Sungmin. Are you short on allowance?"
"Nope. I’m fine, hyung. I still haven’t even spent all of last month’s."
Once again, I made up my mind.
If I wanted to protect my family, I had to win the Police-Fire War.
And for that, I’d need to get used to fighting multiple enemies at once...
I was training with Na Sang-min, but no matter what, I couldn’t shake the unease completely.
Then it happened.
Ding.
An alarm sounded, and a blue window popped up.
Monster Elimination
0 / 10,000
Time Limit: 24 hours
On mission success, a Hero Selection Ticket will be awarded.
I swallowed hard.
The number of targets was absurd.
Ten thousand?
No matter how often Gates opened or how common monsters had become, like stray dogs wandering the neighborhood, this was still ridiculous.
How am I supposed to kill ten thousand monsters in a single day?
The first thought that crossed my mind was simple.
...Impossible.
It wasn’t even common to see ten thousand monsters in one place under normal circumstances.
Would it even come close to the number of tentacles that showed up during the Busan Dirty Kraken invasion?
...No way.
This was too much, wasn’t it?
Why was the system shoving a mission at me that I clearly couldn’t do?
A flood of resentment rose in me.
Then I shook my head.
No. Wait.
I thought back to the last mission.
Kill: 0 / 100
I had ended up completing a mission I had never wanted in the first place, and in doing so, I’d come to understand the weight of being a hero all over again.
What exactly is it trying to teach me this time...?
Who knew.
Maybe it didn’t have some deep meaning at all.
Maybe it was just cornering me.
Maybe it was pushing me to my limits.
Maybe it’s trying to force me to grow.
Ding.
Another alarm chimed.
On mission success, I would receive a Hero Selection Ticket.
It was a groundbreaking item that let me choose the hero I wanted, whenever I wanted.
Even if I didn’t use it in the Police-Fire War, it would be a card I’d absolutely need someday.
At that point, there was nowhere left to retreat.
I have to do it.
What was the best way?
As I searched for an answer, something suddenly flashed through my mind.
Maybe I can do it there.
I set my spoon down and got to my feet.
"Thanks for the meal."
* * *
After leaving the house, I slung my backpack over my shoulders and headed somewhere.
I checked the map and kept moving.
My destination was Gwanaksan.
I stretched at the trailhead before starting up the mountain.
It had taken some time to prepare everything I needed.
Hurry up.
I kicked off the rocks and shot forward with nimble steps.
My speed gradually increased.
The trees vanished behind my field of vision, and I had the strange illusion of being sucked into the air itself.
It was almost like I was using Infinite Acceleration, the Speeder’s skill.
Of course, I’m still nowhere close.
As I climbed quickly, I couldn’t help but marvel.
Because I was going so fast that it was practically a run, one foot caught on a protruding stone.
I twisted once in the air and landed like a ninja.
It was a movement I never would have dreamed of pulling off before.
I’m light on my feet.
All the training I’d been doing since awakening was showing up in daily life, just as it should.
Without stopping, I kept moving like a bolt of lightning, like a ghost.
Solo hiking in a world where monsters appeared was extremely dangerous.
There was no telling what might jump out at me, or from where.
To keep the distance as short as possible, I chose the steepest sections of the trail.
There were several places where a single misstep would have sent me plunging off a terrifying cliff, but I passed even those with ease.
Someone came to mind.
As expected.
Na Sang-min’s special training had been effective.
The endurance drills that drove me to the edge of collapse were finally paying off.
A quiet smile spread across my lips.
So I really am a superhuman now.
Even though I was stuck at B-class, there was no reason to worry.
Just like always, I’d get through it.
Maybe this mission was an opportunity.
I would kill ten thousand monsters.
And break through my limit!
What would normally have taken a civilian two hours, I crossed in just fifteen minutes.
When I reached Yeonjudae, the view of the city spread out below me in a single glance.
"Hah..."
I drew a breath of clean air deep into my lungs.
I took a bottle of water from my bag and eased the dryness in my throat.
I checked the time.
11:56 a.m.
Good. Let’s go.
I prowled around near Yeonjudae, sensing for mana.
It should be around here.
I stopped walking.
I could feel a region where mana was lingering like a whirlpool.
There.
I reached out and poured mana into it.
Just as I’d expected, light leaked from an oval-shaped sphere.
Found it.
It made a strange, humming sound as wind puffed out from inside.
A Gate.
Suddenly the entrance shrank, and the force of the wind weakened.
If I left it alone, the gate would close in no time.
It was a phenomenon that was especially common at the top of mountains around noon.
It was known as a Mountain Gate.
The exact cause wasn’t known, but it was said to occur naturally in high places when the mountain’s energy and mana combined.
Its properties were similar to those of a closed Gate.
No monsters came pouring out, and if you ignored it, it disappeared in a short time.
Unlike a closed Gate, however, a Mountain Gate could still be entered from the outside.
When Mountain Gates were first discovered, they had drawn the public’s attention, but that interest had quickly gone cold.
The inside was nothing but empty wasteland.
There were no monsters, and no living creatures of any kind.
There was no benefit to going in, and no harm to humanity if you didn’t.
So people came to regard Mountain Gates as just another natural phenomenon and left them alone.
But.
Even if it hadn’t been revealed yet at this point in time.
I know the hidden secret.
I was already hungry again, apparently having digested breakfast.
I pulled a chocolate bar from my bag and bit into it.
"Time to enter the secret garden."
I hurled myself into the narrowing Gate.
* * *
My vision went dark.
This place...
Outside had been bathed in bright sunlight, but here, a dusky sunset hung over everything.
Long white stone pillars cast shadows and stood in elegant silence.
It looked strangely like the Parthenon in Greece.
Outside the temple was a flat stretch of land where weeds grew in sparse clumps.
The vast plain and the artificial structure blended together beautifully, creating a breathtaking scene.
But that was all.
As expected, there was nothing here.
No signs of life. No monsters.
It was utterly empty.
That was why humanity had lost interest in Mountain Gates.
If there were no monsters, that meant no magic stones, and no other items to be found either.
And yet.
There was definitely an extraordinary twist hidden in this place.
I left the temple and walked on.
Standing out in the field, I lifted my head.
It was true that there was nothing on a Mountain Gate.
On the ground, anyway.
Something flashed past above the violet clouds.
At first glance, it looked like a bird gliding through the sky.
It was too far away to see clearly, and I couldn’t even judge its size.
Well then. Time to begin.
I picked up a stone that had broken loose from the temple.
After rolling it in my hand for a moment, I put strength into my arm and hurled it into the sky.
The stone, dragged down by gravity, fell lifelessly back to earth in no time.
It wasn’t nearly enough to hit whatever monstrous thing was flying up there.
"Hmm."
I glared at the unidentified flying object for a long moment.
I didn’t have the power of flight.
Except for the floating talents, even the strongest hunters could rarely fly freely through the sky.
So then.
How was I supposed to bring that thing down?
No problem.
I picked up an even larger rock than before.
Like a pitcher throwing a baseball, I drew my arm back behind my head.
Then I used my hero ability.
With a crisp alarm, Judgment of the Superhuman activated.
"Hup!"
With a shout, the rock shot upward in a straight line with ferocious force.
It struck the flying target dead on.
"Kreee!"
Whatever it was let out a strangled cry and plummeted to the ground.
Dust billowed at the impact site.
Even after falling from the sky, the creature didn’t seem to have broken anything, because it jumped back up immediately.
...
It was about 2.3 meters tall.
Standing upright on short legs with a thick, trunk-like torso, it looked absurdly ridiculous.
Its wings, tiny compared to its fat body, looked far too small to be useful.
Pink skin shimmered seductively in the sunset.
So there it was at last.
"Fatty."
That was exactly what it was.
The monster in front of me looked uncannily like a pig walking on two legs.
Its official designation was Pink Poker.
As if it understood me, the Pink Poker clenched a huge axe, a war axe, in both hands.
"Sshhk! Sshhk!"
Apparently furious at being knocked out of the sky by a rock, it snorted and flared its nostrils, spitting as it seethed.
Perfect.
That was exactly what I wanted.
"What’re you looking at, you pig bastard?"
The pig monster screeched and charged at me.
Even if it looked ridiculous, the Pink Poker was famous for its terrifying brute strength.
If that war axe landed properly, my body would be sliced clean through, spine and all.
I lowered my center of gravity and took my stance.
Severing Cut, First Form.
A black flash swept past.
The Pink Poker was cut cleanly in half and rolled across the ground.
Its guts spilled out along with thick slabs of fat.
As expected, there was no magic stone inside its body.
Was this just a meaningless, fruitless killing?
No. This is only the beginning.
Immediately afterward, something fluttered down from the sky.
There were two of them.
Two Pink Pokers hovered in the air before touching down, as if they were coming to avenge their fallen comrade.
"Oink!"
"Oink!"
The way to summon the hidden feast of the Mountain Gate was simple.
First, knock a flying pig out of the sky.
Second, kill it.
Then the Pink Pokers would continue spawning endlessly from above, doubling each time.
Their numbers increased at a truly exponential rate.
Two, four, eight, sixteen...
At this pace...
Ten thousand won’t take long at all.
This was the hidden Easter egg buried inside the Mountain Gate.
In the future, this place would come to be known as Pig Room.
Another unexplored zone born beyond a dimensional portal.
At first glance, it seemed like a pointless event, but hunters gradually came to recognize Pig Room’s true value.
There was only one kind of monster that came out of Pig Room.
But there was no better place to test new weapons or skills.
The Pink Poker sat somewhere between Collapse-class and Ruins-class.
It was also perfect as a training ground for mid-ranked hunters.
The villains I’d be fighting in the Police-Fire War numbered a hundred.
Add the police on top of that, and if I wanted to face them properly, I absolutely had to get used to fighting one against many.
This is exactly the dungeon I need.
Pig Room was the perfect stage for both mission completion and leveling up.
I spun Heoksikdo halfway around and took my stance.
"Bring me more friends."
Two war axes came crashing down at me.