Do You Believe in God?
"Ha..."
Inha sighed as she arrived at school. It had all happened just yesterday. What if Boss hates me? Ever since then, that single worry had made her head feel like it was about to burst. She had shown him her bare face — not a stitch of makeup, comfortable clothes — and right after rolling out of bed, at that. He's bound to be disgusted! Inha wailed inwardly. Han Jin was a benefactor to both her and her grandfather. Being hated by someone like that was something she couldn't bear to let happen.
"Inha, why are you sighing like that?"
"Ah, Sunha."
Seeing her friend Sunha lifted her spirits a little. Back when Inha had been on the verge of getting bullied, Sunha had appeared like a hero out of nowhere and subdued the entire gang of delinquents. That incident was how the two of them had grown close.
"What's wrong? You have to tell me if you want me to do something about it."
"Ah, well then..."
Because she trusted Sunha, Inha recounted everything that had happened yesterday. And the moment the story ended, Sunha seized Inha's cheeks and stretched them out mercilessly.
"Who on earth would hate that! And you're pretty even bare-faced, so it doesn't matter!"
"Reawwy?"
Inha answered in an adorable voice, cheeks still stretched taut. At that, every boy in the class clutched at his heart. Not that Inha or Sunha had any idea.
"See! There's absolutely no guy like that!"
"Th-then that's a relief."
The moment Inha agreed, Sunha let her cheeks snap back into place.
"Let's go to the school store."
"Okay."
With the matter settled, the two headed for the store — and a thought crossed Sunha's mind. Come to think of it, I feel like I've heard this story somewhere before. Is it just my imagination?
"We'll hold a briefing before we enter the gate."
With barracks pitched near the gate, the team leaders of the second-string raid force had gathered. Tanks, healers, dealers, supporters — only when all of these combinations banded together did they become a true second-string strike team.
"First, I'm Park Seonjin, and I'll be serving as the overall team leader for this raid. I look forward to working with all of you."
The other team leaders applauded his introduction. Park Seonjin apparently commanded deep trust among the second-string members.
"We won't know the gate's details until we're inside, but judging by the mana in the air, our second-string force alone should be more than capable of clearing it."
The briefing continued from there. Team rosters were checked, support items sorted, and after one procedure after another, the time finally came.
"And this is Awakener Han Jin, who will be joining us for this S-rank gate raid."
"I look forward to working with you."
The uninvited guest in the barracks. That was me, being introduced.
The other team leaders tilted their heads at my introduction. Gate raids were normally run with people who knew one another well. Even when a newcomer joined, the custom was to rotate them through lower-rank gates to build teamwork first — never straight into a high-rank one.
Is it only natural for them to be wary when someone joins this abruptly?
Every one of them kept a wary eye on me, the uninvited guest. And Park Seonjin, reading the mood, stepped forward.
"Including him in the strike team was the guild master's decision."
"If it's the guild master's decision..."
"Then there's nothing to be done about it."
The second-string leaders who had been eyeing me with suspicion just moments ago dropped their guard at once. A few hadn't fully let it go, but at least they no longer showed it.
"I apologize."
"No, it's fine. I am an uninvited guest who barged in out of nowhere, after all."
If an uninvited guest like me hadn't been here, everyone in this place would probably have been wiped out. Second-string or not, every one of them was a strong awakener in their own right. As expected of the Geumgang Guild, I thought.
"Um, the guild master told us to come to you, Han Jin, if anything happens... are you really that skilled?"
"Oh, I get by."
Instead of a straight answer, I gave a vague one. If I had acknowledged it outright here, this raid would likely have come to revolve around me from the very start. For now, the Geumgang Guild needed to be the one leading. I was, after all, nothing more than an uninvited guest.
"Then we will now enter the S-rank gate, the Battlefield of the Wild!"
"Waaahhh!"
At Park Seonjin's cry, the guild members raised a roar of their own. It was loud enough to draw a noise complaint, but the citizens nearby walked past as if they'd seen it all before.
"Entering now."
And with that, we stepped through the gate.
"Pawoo!"
The moment we entered the gate, an elephant's trumpet rolled across the land. Around us, true to the gate's name, wilderness stretched out in every direction.
No quest window popping up, so this must be an annihilation type. The condition was as simple as it was grueling: wipe out every monster in this gate.
"First, we'll set up the barracks!"
"Support team, move!"
Under Park Seonjin's command, a base camp quickly took shape around us, and reconnaissance squads were assembled and sent out. Preparations were proceeding without a hitch when a team that had gone out to search came pelting back, gasping for air.
"Chief Team Leader Park Seonjin!"
"What is it?"
"We've confirmed the monsters appearing in this gate."
"What kind of monsters?"
At the report that followed, Park Seonjin couldn't keep the grimace off his face.
"A monster with the body of an elephant and the upper body of a human."
"Such a monster exists?"
"Yes... it may well be a new species."
"Ha... of all things, a new species monster..."
When a new species shows up in an S-rank gate, panic is inevitable. Of course, I — who had more or less seen it coming — was the exception.
So it really is Shuharim. If my hunch was right, everyone here could end up annihilated.
Before long, Park Seonjin gathered a few team leaders and guild members and set out to find the Shuharim the searchers had discovered. Naturally, that included me.
"Pawoo!"
Up close, the Shuharim was a truly imposing sight. A powerfully built elephant's body with a human torso mounted on top — like a centaur out of Greek and Roman myth, only wrong in every possible way. This horrific chimera would come as a novel shock to the people here.
"Tanks, to the front."
"Healers, be ready to heal on demand."
"Archer team, nock your arrows."
"Mages, get your casts ready."
"Dealer team, prep your skills."
Under Park Seonjin's direction, the formation fell into place with practiced speed. And once it did, the battle finally began.
"Tanks, Provoke."
"Provoke!"
In time with his command, the tanks activated their Provoke skills. Snared by the aggro, the Shuharim charged straight at them.
"The moment it closes in, we unload everything!"
At Park Seonjin's order, everyone simply swallowed hard. Then, when the Shuharim had come near enough, he shouted:
"Commence attack!"
With his cry, every manner of attack came raining down on the Shuharim.
"Fireball!"
"X-Slash!"
"Charge Impact!"
Magic, axe, and bow — every strike landed dead center. Boom! Boom! Boom! The Fireball that had struck home sent smoke billowing across the field. That much power would have been enough to turn the tide in any other S-rank gate.
Definitely not a team thrown together at the last minute. Everyone seemed thoroughly familiar with one another. This looked like a party that had raided gates together many times over, not one assembled on the spot.
"Is it dead?"
Just then, the healer team leader began casting a spell. For someone who wasn't even a mage to use magic was impressive — assuming it was meant for the allies. But when the smoke thinned and the Shuharim revealed itself, every face in the raid twisted.
"That's impossible!"
"It took all those skills head-on and it's unscathed?"
By any common-sense measure, they were right. But the opponent was a Shuharim. A monster.
"It's coming!"
Perhaps offended at having been struck, the Shuharim came barreling toward them at full tilt. Judging there was no winning this, Park Seonjin readied to fall back with his people. Right up until I stepped in.
"Can I take that one?"
"I'm sorry?"
"I said, may I take that monster?"
"Are you out of your mind? That thing shrugged off every skill we threw at it!"
If you didn't know the first thing about a Shuharim, it was a perfectly reasonable thing to say.
"I'll take that as a yes."
"What on earth are you—"
Before Park Seonjin could even finish, I was already moving. Basic footwork: Speed. With the technique humming under my feet, I planted myself in the Shuharim's path. At this rate, we would collide within five seconds.
"Then let's see what you can do."
Perhaps because I'd only ever fought either absolute powerhouses or absolute weaklings, there had never been a proper chance to use these daggers. And now, at last, that chance had arrived.
"Pawoo!"
Perhaps displeased that I had blocked its path, the Shuharim kicked up its pace and came charging. And I swung both daggers to meet it.
Shick! Shick! Shick! Shick!
A crisp, clean sound of cutting. The Shuharim that had been lunging at me was carved apart in an instant. The black blade sheared through it like tofu.
"Better cutting power than I expected?"
Not just durability — the edge was considerable too. Daggers like this were genuinely hard to come by. So I never got a feel for it because I kept fighting people far too strong for me? Realizing that stung. If only I'd known this dagger's true performance sooner, I could have come and gone through other gates freely.
"Y-you...?"
A voice came from behind me — one thick with bewilderment and fear. It was Park Seonjin, who until moments ago had been commanding with every confidence.
"You were this strong all along?"
"It's just the gear."
I answered, praying that would be the end of it. Fat chance. Park Seonjin promptly handed overall command over to me. Having never expected to receive it so quickly, I grimaced.
"Isn't that a rather hasty decision?"
"No. I think I finally understand why the guild master sent you along with us."
"Ha..."
A sigh slipped out of me, but it was too late to refuse now. I passed along everything I knew about the Shuharim to each team leader, and from there we set about clearing them out, step by careful step. Then, just as it had been when the scouts first found the Shuharim, an awakener came sprinting into camp, breathless.
"So you're telling me there's a temple around here?"
"That's right."
The information the scout team had brought back the previous evening was that they'd found a temple. It was funny enough that a gate named "battlefield" was no battlefield at all, but this was something else entirely. As the investigation showed, no fighting was taking place anywhere in this gate. Something was off. We only caught on about five days into the raid — and while digging into it, they stumbled upon a suspicious temple.
"Over there! My colleagues are stationed right there!"
Looking where the search team pointed, I could indeed make out a temple. And as we made our way toward it, a bell began to toll from somewhere unseen.
Dong! Dong! Dong!
A sacred sound. The instant it reached my ears, a thought flashed through my mind.
"Damn it!"
An ordinary person would have been swept away by it. I was not ordinary. Only one thing in this world suited a sound that holy. Angel Summoning! I broke into a run for the temple, but the summoning had already gone off. In the end, a door opened in the heavens and an angel descended — not an Angel Pow, but a real angel. And its first words were more outrageous still.
"Do you believe in God?"