Damn, She's Drop-Dead Gorgeous
Shit.
Thirty minutes locked in this room.
Why won't it open?
I'd tried every stupid thing I could think of. Swinging my weapon at the door, digging at the floor — nothing got a reaction.
Ugh, what the hell is this?
Escaping was an option. I could just buy an item from the shop.
◈ Description: Allows escape from inside a gate (can only be used while in a safe state).
◈ Price: 1,000 Coins
The problem was that failing a clear meant monsters would come pouring out of the gate.
"What do you think the issue is?"
"Beats me. Our stream Constellations say they don't know either."
Kim Dongmin answered my question, but it wasn't exactly a useful answer.
"Haaah……."
If there really was no other way, I'd have no choice but to buy the item.
I really don't want to, though.
The monsters that spilled out of a failed gate came from a completely different environment than the ones we'd entered with. Typically they were several ranks stronger. The dog-moles had been relatively easy to handle, but there was no guarantee we could take whatever came out next.
Have hunter reinforcements even arrived? If they have, we might manage.
It wasn't like the thought hadn't crossed my mind. But—
It's such a waste.
Giving up when we were this close felt too damn wasteful. How do I put it? Like when you're one match away from a rank-up in a game and you just have to queue one more? When a little more effort would get you there, walking away made everything you'd done so far feel like a total loss.
Let's look around a little more.
If the door wouldn't open, that meant there was a clue in here somewhere. I was still half-wondering whether we really needed to dig our way out when a new viewer chimed in.
"Sure, go ahead."
We had plenty of time anyway. Honestly, we needed to wait for hunters outside to show up as backup.
"Ah."
Right. I was supposed to keep using the cultivation method.
I'd built it by chanting a mantra from some adult game, and I needed to keep cycling it so the dantian that held my mana would expand. Sure, elixirs and scrolls could grow it too, but using the cultivation method cost nothing, so keeping it running was pure upside.
A lot of people assumed that once you learned a cultivation method it became a passive skill that ran on its own — that was a misconception. It also wasn't anything like the breathing techniques those Japanese monster-hunters used in that manga about hunting vampires. If it were, I'd already have learned Thunderclap and Flash.
The energy in the dantian — internal energy in martial arts terms, mana in fantasy terms — had to be continuously circulated through the body. That was what using a cultivation method meant. Put simply, you kept cycling mana through your body. In game terms, it was more like a toggle skill.
Obviously it demanded a fair amount of concentration. Supposedly it eventually became as natural as breathing once you adapted, but for now it was still hard for me. Low proficiency was the culprit, nothing I could do about that, but I at least wanted to be able to use it under normal conditions. Right now, just moving around was enough to break my focus and drop it.
I think there were items that boost concentration, too.
I'd look them up in the shop later.
I shoved the stray thoughts aside and focused on the cultivation method. I felt the mana in my dantian pass through my heart, then my arms and legs, my waist, my neck and head, cycling it for several minutes. When I opened my eyes, Kim Dongmin was staring at me.
"Ah, you were using your cultivation method. For a second I thought you'd fallen asleep and was about to take a nap myself."
"……."
"If you're too focused to talk, just blink for me."
I didn't answer. I canceled the cultivation method, picked up my club, and started walking toward him.
"Uh, uh… why are you suddenly coming at me with that thing……."
"Move."
The second I said it, Kim Dongmin threw himself aside, and I swung the club at the spot where he'd been standing — more precisely, a little past him.
CRAAACK—!
It looked like I'd just swung at empty air, but something shattered. Because with the cultivation method active, I'd seen it: a dog-mole crouched behind Kim Dongmin, waiting for the perfect moment to ambush us.
"Kihiihing!"
"What the fuck is that."
Kim Dongmin's face went blank with shock as he swung his sword, and the dog-mole split clean in half and died.
Like the chat said, we'd gotten lucky. If the cultivation method hadn't had stealth detection — if both of us had been sitting there complacent and off-guard — we probably would have died.
Not "probably." We would have actually died.
It hit me all over again what kind of world this was. A world where one mistake could kill you. A world where you could be walking down the street and die to a Sudden Gate that appeared right in front of your face. The reason hunter loans were so easy to get was because the Hunter Association paid out a death benefit when a hunter died.
And the reason pretty much every other kind of insurance was nearly impossible to get is suddenly making a lot more sense, too.
I'd be more careful from now on.
"Hoo……."
Normally this was the kind of situation where I'd be bawling my eyes out, but with Kim Dongmin right there I couldn't just start crying.
Nothing more pathetic than sniveling in front of other people.
Pride alone was enough to keep the tears in.
"That was close."
Kim Dongmin, for his part, checked and stowed his gear with the calm of someone who treated this as routine. …Though he couldn't quite hide the tremor in his fingertips.
Loot appeared from the dog-mole split in half, and a portal out of this place finally generated.
"GrassTypeOnePiece. You saved us. Thank you."
"Not at all. Even without the cultivation method I don't think you were in real danger. The claws looked quite sharp, but if it hadn't gone for the throat, your clothing would have done its job, and……."
Why does this guy talk so damn much?
"I appreciate the thanks, but if you're going to write a donation message for ten coins, keep it to three lines or less."
"Speaking of invisibility, that reminds me — my old dream used to be turning invisible and peeping into the women's bathhouse. I even tried making an invisibility cloak once, and looked into invisibility magic and potions, but it all ended in failure. And then I realized something. Which is……."
"Get the fuck out."
FeelGoodPotion has been banned.
I told them not to spam and they immediately spam. Unbelievable.
"All of you, out."
My Mom Looks Like a Woman has been banned.
Merciless Dumpling Slayer has been banned.
Not an Octopus has been banned.
These bastards never have a quiet day, I swear.
Outside the gate.
Kim Hyeoncheol, guild leader of the Eclipse Guild, was standing by in front of the Quick Gate.
"Dongmin went in with who, again?"
"Have you been on Hunternet? She's been insanely hot lately."
"I don't really check Hunternet."
That was a lie. Kim Hyeoncheol was a genuinely famous high-tier poster on Hunternet. Username: Introduction to Hunter Studies. He was the same guy who'd seen Park Sohee's photo and immediately regretted not going to the Hunter Association that day.
So the person who went in with him is that one?
The hunter who'd smashed orcs with that ridiculous weapon. The weapon had been shocking enough, but her looks had been even more so.
If I were just eighteen years younger. No — thirteen.
He'd at least have asked for her number. That was the internal monologue of forty-one-year-old Kim Hyeoncheol (who insisted he was thirty-nine by international age).
"Anyway, there's this hunter who's ridiculously pretty and fights well. Word is she only became a hunter pretty recently."
"Doesn't that make it dangerous?"
"Dongmin's with her, though. Shouldn't that be fine?"
"No. Don't put too much faith in that kid."
Kim Dongmin had talent as a hunter, that much was true. Adding a feature where Constellation sponsorships made him suffer, then leveraging his punchable-face energy to rake in coins — that was definitely talent territory.
Separately from that, he didn't train.
Sword training? I just swing and it cuts, so why bother?
Mana Heart? Sure, I turn it on when I fight. But wouldn't learning one aura skill just be better?
Detection skills are too expensive so I just bought something else.
If it were only the lack of training, fine. But even when Kim Hyeoncheol offered advice based on everything he'd lived through as a hunter, Dongmin treated it like old-man nagging — and that was enough to make his blood pressure spike.
"How does our guild not have a single normal person."
He sighed and stared at the gate for a moment.
"…But, hypothetically."
"Yes?"
"Hypothetically. Purely hypothetically."
"I'm listening. Go ahead."
"If that… Park Sohee? If that hunter and Dongmin talked a lot inside the gate and got close, you know—"
"I don't think that's going to happen."
Kim Hyeoncheol momentarily lost his words at the vice guild leader's response. Even as a hypothetical, he couldn't imagine any woman getting close to Kim Dongmin after hearing how he talked. In practice, women who'd approached Dongmin based on his looks alone tended to vanish with a look of pure disgust after a few sentences — and it wasn't a rare occurrence.
"…Hey, still, pure hypotheticals exist."
So Kim Hyeoncheol floated a theory he didn't even believe himself.
"If those two got close, do you think she'd be open to joining our guild?"
"I'd say that ship has already sailed."
"…Yeah?"
"Still, we should at least try. Other guilds are apparently showing massive interest too."
Fair enough. One swing of a club to an orc's head put it in critical condition at minimum, and she was a rookie hunter? She'd casually displayed the kind of power that hunters with a well-developed Mana Heart or dantian usually showed off — she was destined to get love calls from every direction.
"Whatever. Just get ready to collect Dongmin when he comes out."
"Got i— wait? They're coming out."
"Hey! Hey! Take pictures!"
"They're out! Photos! Hurry!"
In front of hunters, reporters, and Hunter Association staff, Kim Dongmin and Park Sohee stepped out of the gate.
"Uh, but……."
"Why is one of them filthy and the other one spotless?"
"Ah, who cares! Just shoot! Make it look like a photoshoot!"
"Even random shots look like magazine covers! Continuous fire!"
"Reporters! You cannot come any closer than this! Everyone maintain distance!"
"Out of the way! You're blocking the shot!"
Kim Dongmin moved quickly, shielding himself, while Park Sohee stood there zoning out with an expression that said she had no idea what was happening. Watching the scene, Kim Hyeoncheol spoke.
"Wow. She's drop-dead gorgeous."
Bring Dongmin over.
"Sorry?"
"Huh? Ah — bring Dongmin over."
"Ah, yes sir."
For a moment, Kim Hyeoncheol's thoughts and words had come out in reverse.