Eternal Gate
Department Head Han Seongmin picked up a pebble and hurled it at the Gate.
The stone passed straight through and dropped to the ground without the slightest change.
That was a massive shift.
Only an hour earlier the same pebble would have stopped dead on the surface of the Gate or bounced right back off.
"So what does this mean?"
"The Gate has opened. Anyone should be able to go through now."
Kayla answered Han Seongmin's question.
"We should run a proper test first, right?"
"Yes. We have no idea what monsters might be waiting inside, so an S-class Keeper needs to move."
"Don't worry about that part. I'll go myself. How do I get back out?"
"There should be a Gate just like this one at the spot where you entered. Come back through that."
"Simple enough."
Han Seongmin gave his gear a quick once-over and called for Park Sena.
"Sena, pick out some Association civilians who can enter the Gate. Volunteers would be even better. It's nothing special, but if you tell them they'll be the first ordinary people in the world to set foot inside a Gate, they'll line up for the honor."
"Understood. Please be careful."
"I'll be right back."
Han Seongmin reached toward the Gate. His hand sank into it.
The pebble had come out the other side, but his hand did not reappear on the far side of the Gate.
He sprang forward and dove straight through.
"Find someone among the Association's regular staff. Quickly."
Park Sena gave the order to the other Association members, and the person standing right beside me slipped forward to face her.
"Um, Sena? Would it be all right if I went in?"
"...Excuse me?"
It was Suyeon.
Her eyes were brighter and more alive than I had ever seen them.
"I asked if I could go into the Gate."
"Safety hasn't been confirmed yet. It'll be dangerous."
"It's fine. William Park will protect me."
"No, even so..."
"I'll go in and come right back out. Really, really quick."
"W-well... all right for now. I'll tell Department Head Han Seongmin once he returns."
"Yes!"
Suyeon steamrolled Park Sena with sheer momentum and secured permission to enter the Gate.
Park Sena was no pushover herself, but there was no stopping Suyeon once her curiosity had detonated.
William Park, standing off to the side, already looked like a man who knew Suyeon's personality and had simply given up.
Watching that scene, something else came to mind.
Suyeon had looked exactly the same the day she forcibly yanked my pants down.
In that state, there was truly no stopping her.
So instead of trying to stop Suyeon, I turned to Kayla.
"She'll be okay, right?"
"She'll be fine. Once the department head comes back out—"
The words had barely left Kayla's mouth when a soft whirr sounded and a small Gate bloomed into existence right beside the main one.
It was a vertical Gate, roughly the size of an adult man.
Han Seongmin walked out of it.
He looked exactly as he had when he went in—completely unharmed.
"No monsters in the immediate vicinity of the Gate. Should be safe enough for a test. Sena, are the volunteers ready?"
"Ah, Department Head. We're still looking for Association staff, and—"
"Department Head Han! May I go in?"
Suyeon cut across Park Sena's words.
Han Seongmin tilted his head, and Suyeon quickly added an explanation.
"I'm Woo Suyeon of the Shinyongsan Crew. A researcher. Not a Keeper—just a civilian."
"Ah, Miss Woo Suyeon. The leading authority on Ttanttani research. I've heard a great deal about you."
"You're too kind. More importantly, may I go inside and take a look?"
"It's possible, but something unexpected could still happen. Are you certain?"
"Don't worry about that. William Park will be going in with me."
Suyeon pointed to William Park standing behind her.
Han Seongmin exchanged a brief nod of greeting with him.
"In that case, I have no objection. But only for a moment. We're simply confirming that ordinary people can truly enter, then coming straight back out."
"Yes, I understand!"
"Excellent. Then let's go right away."
The three of them entered the Gate one after another.
I flashed Suyeon a fighting pose of encouragement, and she leapt into the Gate without a second's hesitation.
Woom.
Suyeon vanished into the Gate.
There was no falling through to the ground on the other side or anything of the sort.
With that, the existence of the Eternal Gate was proven.
The world was about to get a little noisier.
From now on, anyone could walk into a Gate.
An age when everyone could become a Keeper had arrived.
Whirr.
The first witness of that new age reappeared less than thirty seconds after going in.
Suyeon came out looking exactly as she had gone in—no, far more flushed and excited than before.
She sprinted straight toward me.
"Oppa, this is insane! Completely insane! How can a world like that even exist? It violates the laws of physics! This is completely ridiculous! Have the Keepers been hogging something this amazing all to themselves?"
"Uh, Suyeon, calm down first—"
The way she bounced up and down was adorable, but there were far too many people around.
"Huh? Oh... ah..."
Suyeon's face turned bright red. She glanced around, then darted behind me to hide.
My bulk wasn't nearly enough to conceal her, but luckily the crowd's attention had already shifted elsewhere.
Whirr, whirr.
The other two who had gone in with her emerged as well.
Both of them came out looking exactly as they had entered, just like Suyeon.
"This confirms that ordinary people can enter the Gate. Just as they call it in the other dimensions, we will refer to this Gate as the Eternal Gate."
Han Seongmin made the declaration in front of everyone.
A few people looked puzzled at the mention of "other dimensions," but most simply nodded.
In the process of explaining the Eternal Gate, nearly everyone present had already learned that Kayla and Elena were from another world.
"Sena, please keep watch here for a moment. I'm going to hold a short meeting."
"Yes, Department Head."
"Then everyone, this way."
Han Seongmin led me and the others to his tent.
Five people gathered inside the tent.
Han Seongmin, William Park, Kayla, Elena, and me.
For the record, Suyeon was waiting in another tent.
As a non-Keeper, she had no place in a discussion about the Gate.
William Park also held higher decision-making authority within the Crew.
"There were no monsters near the Gate. Still, is there a chance monsters could cross over to this side?"
"There is. The magic circle is still active. Until we fully understand its effects, we should move carefully."
Kayla answered Han Seongmin's question.
"So your recommendation is to secure the entrance first before taking any further action."
"Yes. I believe we should wait until more Keepers arrive."
"I've already put out the word, but everyone except Shinyongsan is running late. S-class Keepers are busy, so it can't be helped."
"With something this serious, they'll all get here soon. I was dragged over the moment I stepped out of a Gate myself. I only heard the details on the way."
William Park spoke up.
As he said, this was an emergency above all else.
The world's first Eternal Gate.
The entire world would fix its eyes on this Gate, and whether a Crew was present at this moment or not could decide its future.
"Then how about running reconnaissance while we wait?"
"Too dangerous. We have no idea what monsters are inside."
"That's exactly why we recon, isn't it?"
"True, but charging in blindly could draw the monsters out. High-ranking monsters are far more cunning than people realize. Tracking a recon team and discovering the exit Gate is entirely possible."
I had thought a little recon would be fine, but Kayla never opposed anything lightly.
She shut down my complacent thinking on the spot.
"What do you think, William Park?"
"Right now we should follow the experience of our friends from the other world. Fortifying our defenses comes before reconnaissance, doesn't it?"
That made it two against one.
Even though there were three of us, we counted as a single opinion.
But Han Seongmin showed no sign of changing his mind.
"Hmm... As a monster specialist, however, I have no choice but to recon. Having even a single piece of information about the monsters versus having none makes an enormous difference. The S-class Keepers gathering here will need that information if they're going to fight at full strength. We need to know what monsters are present, and if they're new, we need to find their weaknesses. Investigating them after they've already come out of the Gate is far worse than investigating them inside, don't you think?"
"I'm not opposing reconnaissance itself. A little later, once more Keepers have arrived, we can split into teams and recon properly. But right now we simply don't have enough Keepers. We need enough people to handle any emergency that—"
Kayla was restating her opposition when the tent flap opened and Park Sena rushed in.
"Ah, just a moment."
Park Sena approached Han Seongmin and whispered something in his ear.
His expression brightened at whatever she said.
"It seems preparations are complete. In that case, I'll go on recon myself."
"...What?"
Everyone's face hardened—even Park Sena's.
"This is my decision as the Association's on-site commander. I will enter the Gate to conduct reconnaissance, the fundamental first step of any major monster engagement. The rest of you will remain here and prepare for any possible combat."
"Department Head! That's far too—"
Park Sena raised her voice in protest, but Han Seongmin ignored her and walked out of the tent.
Everyone stared at one another in a daze at the sudden turn of events.
"Let's follow him for now."
I stepped outside the tent first.
A large crowd had gathered near the Gate—about twenty more people than before.
"Sena, who are those people with?"
"...They're Association. Department Head Han Seongmin's direct subordinates."
"We've been played."
There was no stopping this now.
They had already decided to enter the Eternal Gate—whether it was Han Seongmin's personal call or an Association-level decision.
"This is his unilateral action. The Association will discipline him for it."
Park Sena clearly did not agree with that assessment.
Whirr.
Han Seongmin and his thirty subordinates vanished into the Gate before we could even reach it.
"Haah..."
In the end, only a handful of Association Keepers Park Sena had brought, William Park, Kayla, and Elena remained.
"...Sena, the other Keepers are coming, right?"
"They are. The Association already sent out urgent notices. They're just not here yet because they're all inside other Gates. The Association isn't pulling any tricks."
"Got it. Then all we can do is pray nothing happens until they arrive. Let's look on the bright side. We were going to have to recon eventually anyway, right?"
I forced a smile while everyone else wore grim expressions.
It had no effect.
"Jungmin, do you really think that? Or are you just shielding your hero?"
Kayla's words stabbed into my chest like a sharp blade.
"No... sorry."
Damn it.
I thought I already knew that media and reality were different things. Apparently I had only known it in theory.