The Rift

The rift.

It was exactly what the name suggested—an empty tear in the air that looked like a crack in a boulder or the fissure running down the outer wall of an old apartment building.

Everyone, awakened or not, could tell it was there because thick, black smoke—like dry ice—billowed and curled out from inside the dark crevice.

While the crowd watched the phenomenon with tense expressions, wondering what kind of threat it posed, Kang Tae-sung stared blankly at the scene until his eyes caught a blinking exclamation mark in the bottom-right corner of his vision.

The moment he focused on it, a small window enlarged slightly, as if it had been waiting for his attention.

A quest, apparently.

But aside from the title and the remaining time, there was no other explanation.

‘What an unfriendly system.’

Or maybe he had missed something.

He briefly considered asking the people gathered around him, but decided against it. They might look at him strangely or grow suspicious. Since something was bound to happen anyway, Kang Tae-sung chose to simply observe for now. He moved quietly through the crowd, scanning the faces one by one.

He had wondered if his youngest sibling might be here, but after circling the entire area, he couldn’t find anyone who looked like them.

‘That’s a relief.’

His concern as the eldest—hoping they hadn’t gotten involved in anything dangerous—was interrupted when the quest window below changed slightly.

‘Enter?’

So they were supposed to go inside that rift? As he tilted his head and looked around, the scattered teams began showing signs of tension.

“It’s starting!”

“Stay sharp, everyone!”

The ones encouraging or warning their teammates were all awakened.

They must have received the same quest he had. If similar quests had appeared before, they would have known they were supposed to enter. He wondered why no one had gone in.

“Hello…”

A familiar voice suddenly reached his ears.

“……?”

Wondering if the greeting was meant for him, he turned toward the voice and saw Jo Yun-jeong standing a few steps away, looking hesitant.

Kim Myeong-hui was nowhere in sight. Why was the girl wandering around alone when she was supposed to have a partner?

“Ah… my partner is taking a nap right now.”

Jo Yun-jeong seemed to notice that Kang Tae-sung was looking for someone and quickly explained.

“Are you walking around by yourself? Where’s your team?”

When he asked while staring at her, Jo Yun-jeong looked like she didn’t know how to answer. She couldn’t quite ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lift or lower her head and simply fidgeted.

“If you’re weak, you need to make long-term plans that match your level. Wandering around recklessly doesn’t make you stronger.”

She must have stayed up all night standing night watch with Kim Myeong-hui. Her eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep.

He didn’t need to ask why she had come here.

“Something’s going to come out of that rift, isn’t it?”

“Yes… If no one enters, it moves to the next phase.”

“And if someone does enter?”

“Pardon?”

“What happens if someone goes in?”

“I’m not exactly sure. I heard there used to be teams that went inside… but after some time passed, it said they failed and moved to the next phase anyway…”

“They didn’t come back?”

At Kang Tae-sung’s question, Jo Yun-jeong gave a faint nod. The way she glanced around nervously afterward somehow reminded him of her partner.

‘Hmm.’

After asking a few more questions and hearing her answers, he learned that the rift quest wasn’t particularly complicated.

The total time for the quest was one hour.

For the first twenty minutes—until forty minutes remained—people could enter the rift. If anyone went inside, the quest timer would pause.

No one knew what happened inside, but if the quest failed, the paused timer would resume and the quest would advance to the next phase.

“It’s coming out!”

“Stop it!”

Just like now—monsters were leaping out from beyond the rift.

“……”

Kang Tae-sung now roughly understood why no one had entered. It seemed no one who had gone inside had ever returned alive. Whether you went in and died or stayed out, the result was the same: the quest would advance. At least out here, they could receive reinforcements.

Exactly ten minutes after it announced the next phase. It seemed like a grace period to prepare. Then the next stage began in earnest.

The black rift, still hovering in the same spot, began to writhe as if giving birth to monsters from thin air. Something far larger than the rift itself started forcing its way into this world.

The first thing to emerge was a thick, dark-green scaled leg. It thudded heavily onto the ground with a thump. Then two hands with sharp claws poked out, ripping the rift wider so the rest of the creature could follow.

“S-shit!”

“Fuck, it’s huge!”

Those who could still curse were the ones who had kept their wits about them.

The many people staring in stunned silence quickly fixed their expressions at the shouts of the hunters rallying their teams. They focused on their weapons and armor.

Like primitives in a fallen machine civilization, conventional firearms occasionally appeared among their crude weapons. The few people carrying what looked like military-issue rifles were all hunters.

They kept glancing at each other, unsure whether they should use their guns. They were probably worried about the noise… or perhaps conserving ammunition.

“This won’t be easy.”

Kang Tae-sung looked around and muttered. Seeing the identical monsters pouring out of the rift one after another, he could roughly estimate how much damage this side would take.

‘Still…’

The problem was that these monsters looked strangely familiar.

They were definitely among the creatures he had fought in that other world over the long years.

‘Well, I suppose so.’

What hadn’t he fought? What hadn’t he killed?

If he exaggerated a little, he had killed just about every kind of being except gods.

Kang Tae-sung watched as the forces from all directions began pushing toward the rift almost simultaneously, as if they had coordinated their signals.

In the front were shield bearers carrying crude shields made by welding together metal plates. When that wasn’t possible, they used car doors ripped off from somewhere. They hid their bodies as much as possible behind the large shields and advanced with heavy steps.

Right behind them came the spearmen.

Most had blades welded onto iron rods. Some had crudely taped rebar spikes to wooden poles.

It was hard to expect much damage from such weapons… but the eyes of those holding them were deadly serious.

‘Even a needle can do damage if a thousand of them stab at once. I guess that’s the idea.’

However, there were only about a hundred people here in total. The number of those holding spears was barely over half that.

There were around twenty shield bearers. The rest were either giving commands from the perimeter or, like Jo Yun-jeong, preparing long-range attacks by nocking arrows.

Jo Yun-jeong’s bow was neither a recurve nor a Korean traditional bow—it was a medieval-style wooden longbow. It had probably been obtained by a hunter from a hunt or made by hand. Its performance didn’t look particularly impressive.

Moreover, she lacked the strength to draw it properly, and her hands were shaking. It seemed unlikely she could hit anything accurately.

“Do you still get experience even if you miss?”

When he asked quietly, Jo Yun-jeong shook her head from side to side.

“Then why bother with the bow?”

“My partner said… someone as weak as me shouldn’t be in the front line. If I get knocked around and fall in the middle of the crowd, I’d be done for. She said it’s better to support from the second line.”

“She’s not wrong.”

Kang Tae-sung nodded in understanding and replied.

But if she kept doing things that way, she would find it extremely difficult to awaken unless her archery skills improved dramatically.

“If you only learn how to retreat and dodge from the start, you won’t even be able to grasp the small things right in front of you.”

“……”

Jo Yun-jeong seemed quite shocked by his following words. The tension in the bowstring she had been drawing went slack.

Thud.

Kang Tae-sung casually caught the arrow that had been about to shoot forward. When the now-alert Jo Yun-jeong quickly drew the string again and corrected her grip, he gently released it.

“How far can you reliably hit a target?”

“Huh? Ah… About ten meters. No, maybe five meters…”

“Right in front of you, then.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize.”

Kang Tae-sung shook his head and looked at the monster that had emerged from the rift. It was roughly three meters tall, a bipedal beast covered in dark-green scales. Right now, people had surrounded it from the waist down, so only its upper body was clearly visible. The same was true for the identical monsters that had come out afterward.

“Five meters, huh.”

Kang Tae-sung glanced around, then casually ripped a door off a nearby car with a loud crunch.

The car had already been missing the opposite door, so losing another one didn’t make much difference.

“Stay behind me.”

“Pardon? …Yes!”

At Kang Tae-sung’s words as he strode forward using the car door as a makeshift shield, Jo Yun-jeong quickly answered and followed closely behind him. But soon she asked in a hesitant voice,

“Why are you…”

Her words were ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠swallowed by the surrounding noise. Kang Tae-sung simply continued walking forward without answering.

‘Can’t be helped. That’s just how humans are.’

At that moment, Kang Tae-sung was looking over the various teams encircling the monsters and thinking to himself.

At first glance, it looked like they were surrounding and pressuring the creatures from all sides. But if someone were watching from above, they would see that the encirclement was thick on only one side while the other sides were comparatively thin.

The reason was simple. Everyone wanted to attack the monsters from behind; no one wanted to stand in front and block them.

‘Gargos, was it?’

Dark-green scales.

A massive body paired with matching strength.

Conversely, low intelligence.

However, the direction Kang Tae-sung was heading was the front of where two Gargos had grouped together. He slowed his pace slightly, drew closer to Jo Yun-jeong who was following behind, and spoke without turning to look at her.

============== Author’s Note ==============

I can’t do reply ripples today,

but I’m always grateful.

See you next time…