Clearing a Gate? Impossible, Impossible, Impossible
“I will commit the safety protocols to memory. First: obey all instructions from the raid party. Second: do not touch anything that exists inside the gate, no matter what it is….”
Tension hung thick inside the bus that had set out after lunch. It came from the simple fact that they were finally about to enter a gate—and from the stern, no-nonsense tone of the raid party members who had joined them from headquarters.
“The monsters inside a C-class gate are aggressive types. The moment they spot a person, they attack. Until our tank has drawn their aggro, all of you will remain in the rear and wait.”
Lua fidgeted with her paper umbrella as she looked the raid party over.
Their escort, Kim Jaehyun, was a dealer, and there was one mage from the same Raid Division 1. The remaining tank and healer were people she had no particular need to remember.
Not like I’m going to be doing anything anyway.
Lua closed her eyes. It was about thirty minutes to Jamsil, where the gate was. She figured she could snatch a little sleep. She was a teacher—surely no one would scold her for dozing off.
How much time passed after that, she couldn’t say. Lua’s eyes snapped open on pure instinct.
The moment the bus crossed the Han River, safety tape strung across the streets came into view. With a massive tower rising in the background, police officers armed with riot shields stood in a line, sealing off one entire section of the district.
“…We repeat. A C-class gate has appeared in this area, and traffic is currently restricted. We ask for the public’s understanding despite the inconvenience…”
The crisp, ringing voice spilling from a patrol car only deepened the sense of unease.
Lua shifted her gaze past the cordon. At the center of the controlled zone, the entrance to an underground shopping arcade—its sign reading Gukhwa Shopping Center—yawned open like a mouth.
Fully eroded…
The entrance that had once given off a shabby, familiar comfort was completely swallowed by an ominous black aura. And on the stairs leading down, a gate mouth glowed a vivid red.
In the game, she had come and gone through gates without a second thought. Seeing one in reality sent a chill down her spine.
“Th-that’s it….”
“Doesn’t exactly look inviting.”
“…Gulp.”
Even the smiles had vanished from the students’ faces.
“…….”
Lua stole a glance at Himari beside her. True to form, Himari showed almost no change in expression. She only stroked the hilt of the blade at her waist, as if steadying herself.
“All right, everyone off!”
The moment Hunter Kim Jaehyun presented his license, the officers controlling the road stepped aside.
“Identity confirmed. Please stay safe.”
“Thank you.”
A party of ten students, four raid members, and one school nurse advanced toward the gate with grim faces.
“Everyone ready?”
“…Yes!”
Once you went in, no one could come back out until the boss was down.
Clear it, or overflow. Bring it down, or be brought down.
That was what a gate was.
“Then let’s move.”
Following the raid party’s decisive lead, Lua and the students passed through the crimson gate mouth.
The instant a chill wrapped her entire body, her vision went black. She couldn’t sense Himari, who had been right beside her, or even hear the footsteps of the pro hunters ahead. She couldn’t tell whether her feet were on solid ground—or whether her eyes were open or shut.
Battle begins in 30 seconds.
Please select the skills you wish to equip.
◈ Healing (Lv. MAX)
◈ Perfect Healing (Lv. MAX)
◈ Diagnosis (Lv. 1)
None
There were three skill slots in total. No matter how many skills you learned, you could only use three in actual combat. Once equipped here, a skill stayed locked until the gate was cleared—so the choice had to be made carefully.
Well, I’ve only got three anyway. Not much of a choice.
Just as she had before, Lua equipped Healing (Lv. MAX) and Perfect Healing (Lv. MAX).
That left Diagnosis (Lv. 1)….
Can’t hurt to have it.
It was a skill she barely understood, but she slotted it into the last remaining space all the same.
Battle begins in 03 seconds
Battle begins in 02 seconds
At last the countdown ended—
Defeat the boss!
The message appeared and scattered, and her vision brightened all at once. At the same time came a faint floating sensation.
“Oof!”
Lua hit the ground from midair and pushed herself up. The students around her were doing the same.
“—Ugh!”
The first thing that hit her was the smell. The entire space reeked of rot.
They really didn’t need to implement the smell….
“Whoa. So this is a gate.”
“This is gross….”
Students pinched their noses and muttered as they took in their surroundings.
The underground arcade that had once been a merchants’ haven had become a ruin.
Thick dust blanketed every storefront sign. The stone floor was cracked and broken beyond repair. Display counters that had once been piled high with goods stood empty and split in two, moss settling over them. Nearby, a little stream even trickled out from inside a wrecked shop.
It looked as though every person had vanished and centuries had passed.
For the moment, though, there was no sign of any monsters.
“All right, eyes on me!”
Hunter Kim Jaehyun clapped sharply to seize the students’ attention. At some point he had already drawn his longsword. The tank, mage, and healer had each equipped their gear as well.
“As I said earlier, as long as you follow the safety protocols, there’s nothing to fear. Just watch carefully how we handle combat.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Then let’s begin.”
The pro hunters took the lead.
Whether by game logic or not, the ceiling lights were on—dimly—but whatever waited at the far end of the long underground corridor remained hard to make out.
The hunters moved more slowly than a normal walking pace, carrying out their duties with practiced ease. The mage used a scouting skill to find traps; the tank went ahead and cleared anything that looked dangerous. The healer triggered healing skills the instant any party member took even a minor scratch.
—Clack-clack-clack.
“Th-they’re here!”
Half a dozen or so skeletons smashed through a side shop’s partition wall and spilled into the corridor. The students recoiled in shock, but the pros immediately formed up and engaged.
“Hah!”
To hunters ranked around the three-hundreds, ordinary skeletons were easy prey. Kim Jaehyun cut them down without even bothering to collect the low-grade rare metal, advancing at a brisk, clean pace.
“Wow… pros really are different….”
“Someday I want to be like that….”
The students watching from behind murmured in admiration, but Lua had no interest in their performance.
They’re moving too slow. Hurry up already…!
She simply toyed with her paper umbrella, waiting for her moment.
After about thirty minutes of progress, the group reached the central plaza of the arcade—home to a dried-up fountain and a stairway leading down to the second basement level.
“Looks like the boss is on the third floor.”
“Figures. They’re always in the deepest spot.”
The pros traded opinions over a map of the underground mall they’d obtained in advance.
Correct.
Thinking as much, Lua quietly slipped off to the side. The students were too busy chattering about whatever had impressed them most to notice.
“That part where you took one out bare-handed was seriously cool! Did you bring a Strength Enhancement skill, sir?”
“Nah, that much is just my normal strength….”
“Whoa!”
Fortunately, Juju was drawing everyone’s attention. Himari still hung at the edge of the formation, arms folded, watching Juju with a distinctly unimpressed look.
No one was looking at Lua.
Now!
Lua hurried over to the cosmetics shop beside the corridor. It was sealed by a fire shutter that rolled down from above.
But the moment she jammed the tip of her paper umbrella into the lock and released the mechanism, the thick fire door sprang upward like a coiled spring.
—BOOM!
“?!”
An ominous, heavy thud. The gazes of pros and students mid-conversation snapped toward the source.
—Clatter-clatter-clatter!
—KRAAAAH!
What burst out of the shop and into the plaza was a skeleton lizard so massive its shoulders scraped the arcade ceiling—the D-class named monster Pyro.
Originally, the protagonist gets greedy for rare metal, unlocks the fire shutter, and this thing shows up.
But Lua had summoned it on purpose. To force the story back onto its original rails.
“Kyaaaaah!”
Screaming so she wouldn’t look suspicious, Lua fled into the plaza. Everyone was so panicked by the sudden enemy that her awkward acting went unnoticed.
—Thud. Thud. Thud.
Pyro charged the students on enormous legs of bare bone. The skeleton lizard’s massive jaws yawned wide.
“Not on my watch!”
But a D-class named was no match for an A-class hunter. The raid party’s tank raised his shield and bravely intercepted Pyro’s charge.
“Get the students down the stairs!”
At Kim Jaehyun’s order, the mage herded the students toward the stairway leading underground. Lua quietly slipped in among them.
“Is this going to be okay?”
“A monster like that, out of nowhere…!”
“It’s fine. We’re not about to lose our heads over a monster that shows up in a mere C-class gate!”
The mage’s confident words seemed to settle the students.
Right. Named or not, it’s only D-class. No match for Kim Jaehyun’s party.
Of course, Lua already knew that.
—FWOOOOSH!
“Whoa—living up to the name, huh.”
Pyro belched a massive pillar of flame from its jaws. The fire looked hot enough to cook you just from watching, but the tank blocked it expertly with nothing but his shield.
—WEEEEEEOOO!
Then, without warning, an alarm blared through the entire underground arcade—and the tank’s expression hardened.
—BOOM!
—BOOM!
—BOOM!
“…Huh?”
From far away, a steady, rhythmic sound drew gradually closer. The students looked at one another. None of them knew what it was.
None of them except Lua.
“All right, stop wasting my time and die already!”
Kim Jaehyun swung his sword and activated a skill. The skeleton lizard screamed in agony and let out its death cry.
And in that same instant—
—right before the eyes of Lua, the students, and the mage watching from the foot of the stairs—a thick fire door slammed shut.
“Huh?”
Sudden darkness.
Only then did the students understand what had happened.
The flames Pyro had unleashed had triggered the arcade’s fire-alarm system. The sound rolling in from the far end of the corridor had been the fire doors closing.
Floor 1 of The Ball of the Dead has been sealed.
Please proceed to Floor 2.
A system window appeared right on cue.
With that, the first basement level—where the pros were—and the second basement level—where the students were—had been completely cut off from each other. No matter how skilled a hunter might be, no one could break the gate system itself.
Whew. Done.
Lua quietly ditched the paper umbrella she’d still been holding somewhere out of sight. With the protagonist absent, her half-baked effort to shove the main story back onto its original track had, in the end, succeeded.
But from here on is the real problem.
Because now, just as the protagonist once had, she would have to clear The Ball of the Dead.
“Aaaagh! Somebody help! I can’t see anything!”
“Moooom!”
“…….”
Lua let out a long sigh.
And I’ve got to do it with these greenhorns in tow….