Chapter 1
The World Tree had grown on my smartphone.
The game had been called Growing the World Tree, though all it had ever shown was a desolate wasteland that looked fit to swallow the soul. And now, at last, a World Tree had sprouted there.
It was the result of a year’s worth of tapping the screen every spare moment I had.
The tiny sprout filling the phone display rustled as if it were greeting me.
“Thanks to Baek Do-woon’s Warm Touch, the World Tree has finally grown!”
“As a reward for the achievement of growing a World Tree Sprout in the wasteland, you will receive the Fruit of the Previous World Tree.”
The Fruit of the Previous World Tree…?
Up until now, there hadn’t been a single item in this game. Not even background music. Not even an official café.
With fewer than a hundred downloads, it made sense that there was no official community or fan café. It had only ever shown a barren stretch of earth.
No tutorial, either. All it had given me was a single World Tree Quest: “Please grow the World Tree with Warm Touch.”
The only reason I’d kept playing such an utterly hopeless, bottom-of-the-barrel game was sheer stubbornness.
If it asked to be raised, then sooner or later it had to grow, right?
I’d see it with my own eyes, no matter what.
That was the only thought that had kept me from quitting all this time.
Would you like to receive the Fruit of the Previous World Tree?
Of course I would!
The instant I read the question, I hit the Receive button below it.
The Fruit of the Previous World Tree is being summoned to Baek Do-woon.
White light burst from the smartphone screen with the message.
Maybe it was the dazzling effect. Maybe it was the satisfaction of finally making the World Tree grow. Either way, I couldn’t stop smiling.
“……!”
No. I could have.
The smile on my face vanished the moment I looked at what was in my palm.
My hand was still holding the smartphone.
A hunter smartphone, the kind designed to work even inside gates.
But that wasn’t what wiped the grin from my face.
What sat on top of the phone, as if it had always been there, was a fruit.
I’d never seen anything like it in my life.
At a time like this, there was only one thing I could conclude.
It had to be the Fruit of the Previous World Tree.
Baek Do-woon has become the Manager of the World Tree.
The game Growing the World Tree is beginning synchronization with the manager.
The smartphone is now deactivated.
1%… 2%…
So that was it.
A real World Tree had grown inside my smartphone.
“How come you’re not playing your game today, Team Leader Baek?”
Lee Seong-hun, my deputy, asked as he came into the tent.
He was part of the salvage management team under Baekwooncheon Guild, just like me.
In other words, he’d been a hunter once, but now he was retired and stuck doing office work.
Even if he was office staff, the fact remained that we were still on-site in a B-class gate.
We managed the guild’s salvage crews, the people assigned to dismantle monster corpses at the base camp we’d set up inside the gate.
Most of the job was checking workloads, distributing pay accordingly, and coordinating schedules.
I tilted my chin toward the smartphone I’d set down beside me.
“Game’s updating.”
I wasn’t even sure I could call it an update.
The game had suddenly announced that it was synchronizing, then gone into a deactivated state.
No matter how many times I poked at the screen, nothing happened. Even turning the power off didn’t turn it off.
Only the synchronization percentage kept climbing, slowly, one percent at a time.
If I left it alone, it’d reach one hundred eventually.
At least, that’s what I told myself as I set it aside.
Lee Seong-hun sat down across from me and glanced back and forth between me and the phone.
“Figures.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He nodded to himself as if he’d understood everything on his own.
And here I was, starting to think I looked like some kind of gaming addict.
I only played whenever I had a spare moment, so it wouldn’t interfere with work.
The mana pressure here was so intense that I couldn’t really have a hobby other than my phone.
If not for the mana generator that blocked the gate’s mana, neither I nor the salvage crews would even have been able to move around in this place.
A smartphone game was a fine way to pass the time in a place like this.
Whether he understood me or not, Lee Seong-hun shrugged.
“Anyway, enough about the game.”
Look at this guy.
He was the one who brought it up in the first place.
Lee Seong-hun pointed at the fruit I was eating.
Crunch, crunch.
“What are you eating? Did they serve fruit at dinner?”
“World Tree fruit.”
“What fruit?”
“I said World Tree fruit.”
“……”
Lee Seong-hun shut his mouth and stared at me blankly.
The look in his eyes clearly said, Has this bastard finally lost his mind?
I understood why he couldn’t believe it.
If I hadn’t seen it pop out of the smartphone with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it either.
“Maybe because you’re not playing your game? Why do you sound even more unhinged than usual?”
“What, asshole?”
He pointed at the fruit disappearing into my mouth.
“Even if that’s somehow a real World Tree fruit, why the hell are you eating it?”
“Then what?”
“Sell it, obviously. Why would you eat something that precious? If you sold that, you’d make billions without breaking a sweat.”
“It’s right here.”
“Which means it isn’t a World Tree fruit.”
What a joke.
I shook my head and let out a sigh.
If there was someone who thought he should sell the Fruit of the World Tree, then there had to be someone else who thought he should buy it.
And what would someone do after spending an absurd amount of money on it?
There were plenty of possibilities, but one of them was definitely that they’d buy it to eat it.
I was no different.
The instant I became certain this really was a World Tree fruit, all I could think was that I had to eat it.
If it could fix this body…
If that were possible, then maybe I could become a hunter again.
“They say the World Tree fruit is the greatest elixir in the world.”
“…You do know that’s just a rumor, right?”
Lee Seong-hun’s face darkened as I ate the fruit.
I knew exactly what was behind that expression.
It was the same look of pity and worry I’d been getting ever since my injury forced me into retirement.
If anyone else had looked at me that way, I might have hated it.
But Lee Seong-hun was in more or less the same boat, so it didn’t bother me.
I answered him with a faint smile.
“By the way, did you hear?”
He seemed to want to change the subject, so he asked me a question.
It was so obvious he was trying to steer the conversation away that it was almost funny, but I appreciated the effort and went along with it without complaint.
“Hear what?”
“Our guild has won exclusive rights to the A-class gate in Hyehwa, the Naksan Park Gate.”
“A-class? Not B-class?”
“Yeah. They say the article’s coming out in a couple of days. Didn’t the guild master tell you?”
“I don’t talk business with my friends.”
Even if the guild master was my friend from childhood, we didn’t talk work.
There was a gap in rank between us, and it could come off as overstepping or abuse of authority.
Of course, the biggest reason was that talking business with a friend just felt suffocating.
Exclusive rights to an A-class gate…
“…Wait, how did you find out about that?”
“We’re going to get busier.”
He ignored my question entirely.
This bastard?
“Tch. I’m fine with being busier than I am now.”
“Because it’ll cut into your game time?”
“Why do you keep tying everythi—ng, hnk?”
“Team Leader?”
“……”
The mana lamps hanging from the ceiling of the tent flickered.
That drew my attention.
I finished off the last of the World Tree fruit and looked up.
The mana lamps were a modern piece of technology blending science and magic, fed by mana through cables connected to the mana generator.
Unlike ordinary lights, they didn’t flicker with changes in voltage.
They either burned until they died, or they stayed lit. They did not flicker.
And yet they were flickering.
Not one, but several at once.
It was easy to think of the only reason such a thing could happen.
“Damn it!”
“What?”
“Alarm! Sound the alarm now!”
I didn’t have time to explain things to anyone.
I needed to make it clear as fast as possible that the situation was urgent.
For that, sounding the alarm was the best option.
Once the alarm went off, everyone would move according to the emergency procedure.
That procedure was simple: stop whatever you’re doing and gather at the center of the base camp.
“Why are we sounding the alarm all of a sudden?”
“Sound it! Do you hear me? Sound it now!”
“Wait a minute!”
Leaving Lee Seong-hun’s flustered voice behind me, I rushed out of the tent.
The moment I was outside, I sprinted straight toward the center of the base camp.
I had to get there faster than anyone else.
I was the only one who knew just how dangerous our situation really was.
Fortunately, Lee Seong-hun followed my lead and the alarm started blaring loudly.
Two men hurried up beside me.
“Team Leader Baek! What’s going on?”
“If it’s monsters, we’ll handle them.”
Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol.
They were rookie hunters who’d joined our guild not long ago.
They were probably waiting for the salvage crews to finish dismantling the monsters they’d hunted.
I ran as I answered, forcing my breath down through my chest.
“Enemy… attack!”
“What? An attack?”
Their eyes went wide.
Were they scared?
The thought flashed through my mind, then disappeared just as quickly.
These were people who made their living hunting monsters in a B-class gate.
They were only in their early twenties, but in terms of raw strength, they were out of my league.
Even if I were still uninjured, that would have been true.
“We’ll help with evacuation.”
“I’m counting on you! The evacuation point is—”
“We know!”
The two hunters took off at once.
Before long, I reached the center as well.
There was a single square one-story building there.
At each of the building’s corners stood a four-story stone pagoda, each one part of a kind of barrier.
A barrier that kept the concrete from weathering too quickly inside the gate.
I took the key from my pocket, unlocked the door, and went inside.
The interior was bright, lit by the mana lamps on the ceiling.
Thanks to that, I could clearly see the emergency mana generator sitting there, ready to kick in if the main one failed.
“Huff… huff… huff…”
Gasping for breath, I walked over to it.
The lever was coated in dust from never having been used.
In truth, the emergency generator was automatic.
When the mana generator shut down, it would automatically activate and produce mana.
The problem was how long it took to come online.
It took five seconds after the main generator stopped for the emergency one to begin working.
During that time, everything that needed mana stopped.
Even the defensive systems that blocked the gate’s mana.
That was far too long.
I, along with many others, would be crushed by the gate’s mana and die.
That was why I’d rushed here to manually activate the emergency generator before the main one shut down completely.
“What the hell is going on?”
“Is another monster coming?”
“Come on, if that’s all it is, let us work already. Do you know how much is backed up right now?”
“J-just a moment! I’ll explain!”
Maybe because the alarm had gone off, I could hear people gathering outside the building.
And Lee Seong-hun’s panicked voice, too.
“Team Leader! Did something happen—oh, right.”
Lee Seong-hun looked at me and let out a breath of relief.
“Come out here and explain the situation—guhk!”
At that exact moment, the mana lamps lighting the interior went out.
The mana generator had stopped producing power.
In an instant, darkness swallowed everything, so complete I couldn’t see an inch in front of my face.
With that darkness came the gate’s mana, wrapping around my body.
It hurt so badly it felt like I might black out, but I couldn’t afford to.
If I lost consciousness now, I’d die.
I grabbed the lever with all my strength and yanked it down.
The emergency generator rumbled to life.
I could feel the oppressive mana vanish in an instant.
“Sh-shit…”
My mouth spilled the curse before I even realized it.
Even though it activated right away, if I hadn’t braced myself in advance, I would have passed out.
Just like Lee Seong-hun, who’d collapsed by the door.
Everyone outside had probably been hit just as hard.
If it had really taken five seconds, someone might have died.
I let out a long breath, then stepped on Lee Seong-hun as he lay there and went back outside.
Out there, Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol were calmly taking care of the people who had collapsed.
“Team Leader! Are you all right?”
“Don’t worry. They’ve just passed out, that’s all.”
“Thank you for helping with the evacuation.”
When I thanked them for coming toward me, both of them waved their hands at once.
“It’s nothing!”
Then they got serious and asked me, “How did you know?”
“Yeah. How did you know?”
“Because the mana lamps were flickering.”
“The mana lamps? You figured this out from that?”
“Yeah.”
“Whoa…”
Leaving the two of them stunned behind me, I walked among the fallen people.
I was curious what the bastards who’d done this would do next.
Their plan had probably been to fake casualties caused by a generator accident.
But now there were no casualties to show for it.
“To notice it from something that small… that’s incredible!”
“Seriously, I’m impressed! Team Leader, your head is amazing!”
“I didn’t notice anything at all when I saw the lamps flicker.”
“Exactly. I thought maybe they were due for replacement.”
The two of them were making a fuss.
There was no grand deduction involved; I’d just had a hunch because the lamps gave off that kind of sign.
Their praise was excessive.
Still, I didn’t hate it, so I let it go.
Praise gets better the more of it you hear.
“No one’s dead… That’s impressive.”
Along with a low male voice, I heard applause.
Turning around, I saw about ten men walking toward us.
The one who seemed to be their leader was clapping slowly.
He had long gray hair and sharp features.
All nine of the others had faces I didn’t recognize either.
They didn’t seem to be under the pressure of the B-class gate’s mana… and they weren’t famous.
From that alone, it was easy to guess they were people from the other side of the world.
Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol drew their weapons and moved to my side.
The man stopped clapping and clasped his hands together, staring only at me. Then he pointed his right index finger at me.
“You’re the one, aren’t you? The bastard who saved these guys.”
“……”
“Yeah, I thought so. Baek Do-woon.”
“……!”
“What’s with the look? You’re the guild master of Baekwooncheon, Lee Tae-cheon’s friend. And the deputy guild master’s older brother, Baek Do-hee’s brother, Baek Do-woon.”
“…Was I the real target?”
“There you go! Lee Tae-cheon really did pick a good friend. Smart, too—ah!”
It happened instantly.
Before anyone could blink, the man was already standing in front of me.
In his hand was a dagger I hadn’t even seen him draw, held in a reverse grip.
The blade pierced straight through my chest.
“Team Leader!”
“You bastard!”
Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol swung their weapons.
The man dodged without even looking at the attacks, his eyes never leaving mine.
Then he grinned.
“Goodbye, Baek Do-woon.”
“Ghk, huff….”
Some strange sound leaked from my mouth.
Probably blood trying to rise up my throat.
My legs swayed on their own, stumbling backward.
I couldn’t die like this… huh?
“……Huh?”
Why?
My throat suddenly felt clear.
My legs hadn’t lost their strength, either.
The sneer vanished from the man’s face as he looked at me.
“……”
“……”
“……Why aren’t you dying?”
“……Good question.”
He stabbed me through the heart, so why wasn’t I dead?