Is It So Wrong to Seek Product Placement in a Gate? (3)
Is It So Wrong to Seek Product Placement in a Gate? (3)
A little earlier, while Yujin was busy holding a fan meeting inside the dungeon,
the area outside the Gate was in utter chaos.
"Breaking news! A Gate has appeared in the Hangang Park area, trapping awakener Seo Yujin and several hundred civilians..."
"The Association has described the Gate as unprecedented, and efforts to clear it appear to be encountering difficulties..."
"My wife! She said she was just stepping out for a walk, and she's full-term right now!!"
Reporters swarmed the disaster site while family members wailed.
It was a natural reaction.
Hundreds had been trapped, including Yujin, who was being hailed as the next S-rank.
It was a scale of potential casualties almost unprecedented in Korea.
Worse, the Gate's estimated danger rating was at least A-rank.
Some were even suggesting that it might be S-rank.
And inside that Gate were only two awakeners.
Both were cadets who had entered the academy less than two weeks ago.
"As for whether the victims are still alive..."
"It's already been an hour. Aren't they all dead by now?"
It looked hopeless.
In most Gates, combat began within ten minutes of transfer.
In the worst cases, people were thrown directly into a horde of monsters.
That was why people were already talking about everyone being massacred after only an hour.
In reality, the trapped civilians were holding a Yujin fan meeting at an obviously peaceful entrance. But that was beside the point.
As a result, many people had the same question.
———Why had no one started clearing the Gate yet?
What were Korea's clans and the Awakener Association doing?
How could they be doing nothing in such a serious crisis?
"At least Seol Hayeon should come running... Huh? O-over there."
-Step. Step.
"Move aside, please."
"Y-yes!!"
As if answering the question, Seol Hayeon—S-rank No. 4—appeared.
The crowd moved well aside the moment they recognized her.
As if reenacting the parting of the Red Sea, the chaotic crowd opened a path just for her.
It showed how legendary she was in Korea.
Seol Hayeon herself paid it no attention.
"Hayeon, the field report..."
"I heard on the way. A barrier is preventing anyone from entering the Gate?"
"Yes. We've never seen this type before."
Seol Hayeon examined the Gate's crimson barrier.
Normally, a Gate transferred anyone who merely touched it.
But,
—Thump.
"...This is the first time I've seen anything like it in forty years."
This Gate was a variant.
Instead of greedily swallowing people, it had sealed itself behind a hard shell that blocked entry from outside.
"Stand back."
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Hnghhh...!!!"
-KABOOOOOM!!!!!
She attacked partly to test it.
Even past her prime, a full-power strike from S-rank No. 4 produced a gale and a shockwave.
Even so, the barrier did not develop so much as a hairline crack.
"Impossible. Even Hayeon couldn't..."
Despairing groans rose from the crowd.
They were wondering whether even Seol Hayeon, S-rank No. 4, was powerless against it.
"I'm still examining it. Don't start wailing yet."
"......Yes, ma'am!!"
Seol Hayeon showed not the slightest sign of agitation.
If someone of her stature panicked, the civilians would inevitably grow anxious.
More importantly, she'd known from the start that her attack would fail.
Her S-rank Innate Talent, Sixth Sense, had told her as much.
'Tch. I could tell at a glance that my strength wouldn't be enough, but I didn't expect it to survive without a single crack. I really have gotten old.'
-Reach.
"I'll make a quick call."
She took out her phone.
She did it with conspicuous calm, even leaning back against the barrier.
'I don't sense much danger. Yujin must be keeping things under control somehow. Should I call Công first?'
The first person she contacted was S-rank No. 7, Công.
She'd put him in her debt during his last visit, and he claimed to be Yujin's friend.
She hoped he might suggest a plausible way to break through, but...
[The person you are calling is unavailable...]
'That phone addict wasn't answering? Was he in the middle of a fight?'
The international call wouldn't connect.
A deep furrow appeared between Seol Hayeon's brows.
Someone who slept with his phone in hand wasn't answering?
Tch. He must have been fighting the Necromancer. Of all possible times.
With a frustrated sigh, she reluctantly called the second person.
This time the call connected.
[Chairwoman. Shall I do it?]
"Please do, Cadet Yoo Sia."
Because they'd discussed it beforehand, the call ended almost immediately.
Sia, the Chairwoman's second contact, took a deep breath.
And then, she...
———she pressed the Strategic Nuke button.
—Ding-dong.
"Aika Ninomiya."
[Hmm? Ah, my disciple's friend. I'm bathing right now, so if you need something...]
"Yujin has been caught up in a Gate."
[......!!!!!!?]
-Crash! Bang!
"I'm coming right now!!! Where is he!!?"
"P-put some clothes on before you come out!!!!"
The Japanese Strategic Nuke was deployed.
* * *
About twenty minutes after that.
About twenty minutes later, a woman in a deeply hooded robe appeared amid the chaos at Hangang Park.
It was Aika—S-rank No. 1 and Yujin's master.
"I was wondering why the Wi-Fi was dead. So it was your doing, Seol Hayeon."
"I couldn't have you getting worked up and charging in on your own."
Neither Aika nor Seol Hayeon looked pleased.
Aika was worried about her disciple.
Seol Hayeon was worried about what would happen if the media caught sight of Aika.
That kept their exchange extremely brief.
"You weren't spotted on the way here, I hope?"
"My disciple's friend arranged a security vehicle for me, so probably not."
"Good. Then... this is the barrier's weak point. We strike together."
"Understood."
The exchange lasted barely ten seconds.
Even their conversation moved at breakneck speed.
The crowd stirred.
-Murmur, murmur.
"She's speaking to Seol Hayeon as an equal? Who is she?"
"A retired awakener?"
"Then there'd be no need to hide her identity. Isn't she a villain?"
"A villain doing that, my ass... wait."
But that was only for a moment.
The murmuring died down immediately
because Seol Hayeon and Aika took their stances at the same time.
"Three. Two."
-Clench.
Seol Hayeon twisted at the waist and clenched her fist.
It was the stance of someone who had chosen to fight bare-handed forty years ago, when awakeners were treated as monsters.
Aika, by contrast, merely curled one hand into a loose fist.
She didn't touch the katana at her hip and moved with deliberate slowness.
To any observer, Seol Hayeon looked far stronger.
"One."
—Goooo....
But once mana bloomed around their fists, the impression changed.
Crimson energy flowed along Seol Hayeon's forearm and gathered in her fist.
The pressure radiating from it was enough to prove she was S-rank, but...
Aika's mana was so immense that it made the air around her shimmer.
Like heat haze rising in midsummer.
And that was while she was holding back.
That was the gulf between S-rank No. 4 and S-rank No. 1.
But their objective was the same.
Neither hesitated as they thrust their fists forward.
"———Zero."
"Hraaaaah!!!!!"
Seol Hayeon launched an enormously telegraphed punch with a full-throated battle cry.
Aika casually pushed out a steamed-bun punch.
It was the first time in Seol Hayeon's entire career as an awakener that she had performed a joint attack with another S-rank.
The effect went without saying.
-Thunk.
The barrier gave way so easily that it was almost anticlimactic.
It didn't look shattered so much as though their fists had simply passed through it.
The sound was completely flat and dull at first too.
The backlash arrived only after the two women's figures began disappearing into the Gate.
'Huh? Hayeon, nothing happened—'
—Tukwaaaaaaaang!!!!!!
"Good heavens!!?"
The barrier didn't merely break; it exploded into fragments as though a claymore mine had detonated.
Even after destroying it, the remaining force became a shockwave that wreaked havoc on the surrounding area.
For a moment, a gale raged through the area like a typhoon.
The wind was strong enough to lift lighter people briefly onto their toes.
The impact sounded like a bomb exploding.
The awakeners nearby endured it, but the sound would have damaged a civilian's hearing at that distance.
The list could have gone on, but...
But one thing was certain.
'Even Seol Hayeon wasn't capable of that. Who was that woman!?'
Everyone's curiosity about the robed woman surged.
* * *
Meanwhile, the two women had transferred through the Gate.
Seol Hayeon looked around and sighed.
"I-it's Seol Hayeon!!"
"Did the assault team come!?"
"......Hoo."
Her Sixth Sense had been quiet, so she'd assumed Yujin was somehow keeping everyone safe. Apparently, the entrance was simply a safe zone. Lucky bastard.
Her sigh came from relief.
However,
"Why did it take so long!?"
"My apologies. A barrier prevented us from entering..."
"Seo Yujin already went into the dungeon!!!"
"......What?"
The civilians had been unable to stop him, but they had been worrying about Yujin all along.
They all explained the same thing.
The situation had been urgent, and rescue had shown no sign of coming.
So Cadet Seo Yujin had gone to clear the dungeon himself.
'Yujin, why would you do something so reckless...? Is that a pregnant woman?!'
She understood his reason at a glance.
A pregnant woman lay to one side, looking toward them.
Her lower body was drenched in amniotic fluid, making the urgency obvious.
Seol Hayeon's brows furrowed sharply.
'You damned, needlessly decent brat!! Even for you, an A-rank Gate is still far too soon!!'
There was no way a clever boy like him had failed to understand the danger.
She understood his reason and wanted to praise his courage.
But it was an A-rank Gate.
It was a deadly place where no one knew what danger might await.
And his only companion was Cadet Alice.
In practical terms, Yujin would have to clear it almost alone.
Even someone like him could d—
-Step.
"......Hm?"
A footstep interrupted her long train of thought.
When she looked, Aika was heading somewhere alone.
Toward what was obviously the dungeon entrance.
And then...
"My discipleee!!!! Are you aliveeee!!!!"
"......!!!!!!?"
———and caused a major incident.
-Murmur, murmur.
"Wait, disciple!? That woman is Seo Yujin's master!?"
"There isn't anyone like her among the instructors..."
"Doesn't that voice sound familiar?"
The crowd immediately began buzzing again.
Seol Hayeon felt faint.
-Scurry. Whisper, whisper.
"A-are you insane?! I told you to keep your identity secret—"
"I'll be back soon, just in case!!!!"
But Aika didn't care in the slightest.
Her disciple mattered more to her than anything else.
—Fwoosh!
"Wait there for just a moment!!!!"
"You're the one who needs to wait—please!!!"
And so the two S-ranks raced through the dungeon.
"Yujin, did you hear that!? Now we only have to hold out without fighting—"
"Alice, hit it with every spell you have! Hurry!!"
"Huh?"
"Anyway, hurry!! Please!!!"
For once, the usually upright young man began a speedrun of the boss fight.
'I couldn't let my master see what was happening here!!'
A boss raid with his survival at stake in an entirely different sense.
Begin.