The Rift That Moves
After slaying a couple more monsters that wandered out, Tae-sung’s gaze lingered on the monster corpses left behind even after the rift had vanished, and on the city hall workers who had begun loading them onto trucks.
Perhaps ownership hadn’t been properly recognized, or maybe the one with ownership rights simply hadn’t used automatic butchering. Still, securing over ten monster corpses meant they had likely earned a considerable sum.
The individual hunters and civilians who had only been watching from the sidelines frowned slightly or spat on the ground, but since hunting was still possible outside of rifts, no one made a serious fuss about it.
Kang Tae-sung turned and walked away.
His destination was, of course, the outskirts of the city. When he noticed a vehicle heading in that direction, he asked for a ride and was allowed to hop on.
The fairly large truck didn’t have much space in the rear passenger area, but like the others already seated there, Tae-sung showed no particular reaction and simply sat down.
When the truck left the city center and stopped at an appropriate distance alongside the other vehicles traveling with it, the many people who had been riding in them got out and began checking their equipment.
“Today’s hunting target is the monsters in the area around this intersection. This is one of the main entry points from the outskirts, and according to the information, dozens of monsters pass through this intersection every single day.”
Leaving behind the representative of the hunting party—who was going on about how there were no monster packs in the area, making it suitable for hunting—Tae-sung quietly slipped away from the group.
If the leader is a coward, the whole group becomes a pack of cowards.
It was true that this was a path used by monsters entering from outside.
It was also true that dozens of monsters passed through every day.
But it wasn’t the only path, and monsters weren’t brainless.
There was no reason for them to deliberately walk into a place where so many humans were camped out. They could simply take a side road.
Humans had a tendency to overestimate their own abilities.
Of course, becoming an awakened being definitely improved one’s physical capabilities, but that didn’t mean they could match the speed of a monster that was truly determined to charge.
Unless they’ve invested at least 5 points into agility, I suppose.
Besides, instinct couldn’t be ignored.
Monster instincts were almost like a sixth sense, linked to all their other senses to detect danger. They could pick up the scent of other species, find traces, and never let their guard down even on familiar paths.
That was why monsters had to be hunted by actively seeking them out rather than waiting in ambush. Waiting hunts were essentially an admission that you were the one who was afraid.
That was why skilled teams preferred mobile hunting.
Leaving some members in place while others drove monsters toward them wasn’t very efficient. Of course, if the goal was intentionally funneling experience to others, that would be understandable.
“Hmm.”
Tae-sung removed the earphones from his smartphone, bundled them up, and stored them in his magic pouch. Since hearing was crucial during hunts, he couldn’t afford to block his ears with earphones.
He had also prepared plenty of spare batteries, so he could stay out for about a week without issue. The only problem would be the byproducts obtained from hunting during that time. But he had already made a decision.
He would receive points from the system and hand them over intact.
After calculating it, he realized he would receive about thirty percent less than if he sold them to city hall. Still, the advantages were that he could process them immediately and earn points in the process.
He could also choose to forgo picking up the items after automatic butchering and receive points right away. It was a system well-suited for large-scale hunting.
As Tae-sung moved alone after separating from the group, he suddenly spotted traces of a monster. Just as he was about to resume tracking, he felt his smartphone vibrating inside his pocket. He paused the pursuit for a moment and took it out.
Below his younger sister’s message in the group chat was a link to an internet video site. Just as she had said, it was footage of a shimmering rift moving rapidly through the sky.
“……”
Since it had been filmed from what seemed to be an airplane or helicopter, the background shook quite a bit, but the video quality wasn’t so bad that he couldn’t recognize the rift.
A moving rift.
Is this a composite?
When he asked his siblings, they all said it didn’t seem like one. The internet was already in an uproar about it, and when he searched separately, it turned out to be exactly as they said.
Reports were pouring in one after another—strange rifts appearing and crossing over cities, or entering already existing rifts.
It was unclear whether there was one moving rift or several.
Since they were appearing here and there in the blink of an eye, opinions were divided on whether a single rift was moving through them or if multiple rifts were wandering about on their own.
However, among the reports were some claiming that certain rifts stopped in one place and then transformed into ordinary rifts. This lent more credibility to the theory that there were multiple rifts rather than just one.
What the hell is going on?
He felt an uneasy sensation.
However, the reason he stopped hunting and immediately ran back home wasn’t because of that unease.
It was because he received word that the area near their villa had become chaotic, followed by news that a rift had appeared only about twenty meters away.
He ran at full speed, ignoring that it was still broad daylight.
When he arrived at a terrifying speed that even the awakened beings on the streets were startled by, he saw the rift that had formed right next to the villa complex and the hunters surrounding it.
What is this?
What Tae-sung found strange was that, unlike what he had seen earlier, there were hardly any city hall combat personnel visible around this rift.
Or are there?
Looking again, there did seem to be some, but very few of them were carrying guns. In fact, almost none were. From the surrounding atmosphere and snippets of conversation, he learned that an official notice had come down from higher-ups to reduce ammunition consumption.
But of all times, they were facing monsters without guns? A distance of only twenty meters was far too short to properly stop monsters.
If the city hall was running the villa, shouldn’t they at least protect it properly to justify the rent? Complaints rose up, but in reality, the ten million won monthly rent likely didn’t include protection against rifts.
I’ll have to step in.
The thought of protecting his family took priority over any desire to avoid revealing how strong he was or the hassle that might follow. Depending on what came out, if a monster that made twenty meters feel insufficient appeared, it would truly be a disaster.
Tae-sung quickly sent a message to his siblings and moved.
His smartphone began vibrating repeatedly right after—probably a string of messages trying to stop him—but instead of checking the screen, he tossed the phone straight into his magic pouch, not even bothering with his jacket. He pushed through the crowd surrounding the rift and leaped straight toward it before anyone could even utter a surprised “huh?”
“Huh?”
“Who was that? Who went in?”
“Let’s just wait for now.”
“Did anyone see who it was?”
“What’s the point of looking for someone you know? They’re not coming back anyway.”
“……”
From one side, Kang Han-sung and his two younger siblings watched the scene while repeatedly reading and rereading the message from Tae-sung on their phone screens.
“What is this… it sounds like he’s going off to die…”
There were already quite a few videos of people who had entered rifts and returned safely. They showed that there was another world inside, and if you spent some time there before coming out, nothing bad would happen.
But something felt ominous.
And it seemed Tae-sung had felt it too, because the tone of his message was far too negative.
It was as if he thought he might not return.
“He’s saying that because of his past record.”
Still, Han-sung did his best to maintain a calm expression as he comforted his younger siblings.
After already disappearing for five years, he must have said those things because he didn’t want his family to worry.
“Those guys over there will somehow block the rift. Let’s go do some strength training. We won’t get any experience just loitering around here.”
“Yes, brother.”
“You should come too.”
“I want to wait until big brother comes out.”
“…Alright then.”
After briefly debating whether to stop her, Han-sung decided against it and nodded, turning away. Then he suddenly looked up at a spot in the sky.
“……?”
There was a dot floating in one part of the sky, but it was so far away that he couldn’t see it clearly. After tilting his head for a moment, he casually dismissed it, thinking it must be a bird.
One strange thing about the rift today was that no quest had been assigned.
It was possible that the first stage had already ended and he had jumped in during the waiting period before the next stage began, but the immediate problem was the monsters waiting just beyond the rift.
“Hoo.”
Tae-sung let out a low sigh and looked around once more.
“Good thing I came in. It would’ve been a disaster otherwise.”
The place where he now stood was not a deep forest. It was an open plain where the horizon was visible in the far distance, a grassland filled with low grass rather than trees.
And there he was, standing in front of the rift located in the middle of that plain. What densely surrounded him was none other than dozens of orcs.
However, the reason Tae-sung maintained such a calm expression was because of the amount of mana he could feel in the air here.
It was even more abundant than the place where he had spent over a hundred years. Just breathing made him feel as euphoric as if he were drunk.
Tae-sung casually lowered the orcish stone axe that had been slung over his shoulder and gripped it with both hands. He slightly abandoned his earlier thought of conserving strength and began channeling mana into it properly.
When a considerable amount of mana flowed through the handle and completely saturated the stone axe—enough to produce an audible hum—the head of the foremost orc flew sideways and smashed into the temple of its kin, shattering both skulls at once.
It’s annoying that I can’t see the time.
It was something he could finish at an appropriate pace and then return, but “appropriate” required a baseline to determine what that meant.
With no countdown or anything of the sort, even as he snapped orc necks and shattered leg bones while rampaging, he couldn’t help but keep glancing sideways at the rift.
The moment there was even the slightest change in its shimmer, he would have to ignore everything and return. Because of that, the range of his combat movements had become extremely narrow. As orcs began piling up in layers around him, he gradually ran out of even a place to set his feet.