Hidden Boss at 5:29:48
5:29:48
The van rattled to a stop and men in dark blue combat uniforms began climbing out. Last to appear, stepping heavily, was a pale-faced man. He scratched at his messy white curls, dark circles carved deep under his eyes, and surveyed the crowd before muttering, “All latecomers, raise your hands.”
5:30:00
He’d timed it perfectly. While I stood there confused, wondering if he’d planned the whole thing, the man took a clipboard from his subordinate and began reading names.
“Kang Min-ho, Kim Jae-moon, Kim Hyuk-woo, Na Hyung-sik, Shin Ho-min.”
No one answered. He didn’t wait for replies.
“These five latecomers will be fined an additional two hundred thousand won for breach of contract.”
With that, he climbed back into the vehicle and told his subordinate, “Let’s move.”
The subordinates answered vigorously. “Yes, boss!” Then they started guiding the stunned crowd away.
Naturally, the words that reached me were, “Heh heh. Of course we can’t take you.”
Seo-hyun apparently hadn’t seen this coming. “What?!”
She looked shocked, then whispered to me, “What do we do? They say you can’t go!”
I let out a helpless chuckle at the sheer absurdity and told her, “I’ll follow on my own, so go ahead first.”
Seo-hyun’s eyes widened again. “By myself? With those scary-looking uncles?”
The muscular young man she’d just called “uncle” grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and started hauling her away. “No take-backs. If you don’t want to pay the penalty fee, move it—”
“Hwaaaang—Iseul—!”
What the hell is she doing? Leaving Seo-hyun’s incomprehensible howling behind, I slipped into a deserted alley.
There I formed the smallest possible spirit body, rose into the air, and scanned the surroundings for awakeners. I even read the wavelengths of the detection-types to map out a safe route. Just then the van carrying Seo-hyun started moving, so I matched its speed and flew along behind it, fluttering gently like a breeze through the mountains.
It really felt as if I had become part of nature itself. I crossed one ridge while savoring the meditative calm I had never known in my human days. Then the destination came into view—a landscape completely different from anything I’d seen before.
A plain black door frame towered thirty meters high with no decoration whatsoever. The two-hundred-meter radius around it had been torn up as if a meteor had slammed into the earth. Ironically, that made building a base camp easier.
A bumpy dirt road packed down by rollers. Crude utility poles and panel buildings. The spot where the exploration team—including Seo-hyun—would gather was the “Final Checkpoint” in front of the gate, the first structure completed.
Black vans began filling the checkpoint parking lot. The people climbing out of them all looked roughly the same—scavengers, just like the ones I’d seen that morning. They assembled in front of the checkpoint under the direction of squad-leader types.
While that was happening, a pure white limousine stopped in front of the building that appeared to be the exploration team’s headquarters. The moment its door opened, I felt an unfamiliar mana signature. It radiated from the blonde woman who had just stepped out.
Light-green beret. Flowing white dress. A magic tome that looked exactly like a pocket Bible in her hand. She appeared to be a support-type awakener. Given how important she seemed, a small escort of uniformed combatants accompanied her inside the base.
The remaining group of nearly three hundred people lined up in front of a platform behind the checkpoint. Soon a fully armed middle-aged man stepped onto the stage and began a mind-numbingly boring speech. It felt exactly like weekend assembly back in an 1980s elementary school. The latter half did contain some genuinely important warnings, but they were buried under so much flowery rhetoric that I doubted anyone actually absorbed them.
The truly surprising part was that this still wasn’t the end. Simply entering the gate turned out to be an ordeal in itself. One team entered, five-minute wait. Another team, another five-minute wait. I thought I would die of boredom.
The only part worth watching was the reserve team that went in once every five groups. Especially the one entering now. Oh? The ace reserves are attaching to Seo-hyun’s side?
Even at a glance they were clearly the strongest members of the expedition. The fierce-looking man carried a spear similar to the one used by Cheon Sal-bu. The blonde woman I’d noticed earlier had opened a book radiating yellow light and was chanting spells. The two men armed with a sword and greatsword wore plate armor instead of modern uniforms.
The last member, who looked relatively normal, was the white-haired, haggard man I’d met at the mart earlier. He had changed into a dingy dark trench coat at some point. With a lethargic expression he told his teammates, “Let’s go in.”
Unlike the other teams there was no briefing, no pep talk. The other four entered the gate without a word.
I still had a long wait ahead. Forty-five minutes later, after the final team had gone through, the area around the gate finally grew quiet. Most of the detection equipment had been taken by the reserves; only two wide-area devices remained. They must have improved enormously over the last fifty years… but it should be fine. After all, I am natural mana.
Still, better safe than sorry. I stretched my spirit body as thin as a thread, lowering its density to the absolute minimum. Like smoke rising neatly from a mosquito coil, I drifted stealthily into the gate.
The moment I crossed over, I felt the mana of another world. It was far more intense and vivid than when I had possessed a human body. The turbid energy left no doubt.
This really is another world.
It felt more real now than it ever had when I risked my life as a soldier, passing through hundreds—thousands—of times.
The inside of the gate was a truly shitty place.
Forty-five minutes since Cheon I-seul’s presence had vanished. Seo-hyun’s anxiety kept growing.
The hundred-plus people who had gone in first were nowhere to be seen. The guides whispered among themselves, then finally chose a direction.
“Everyone follow me.”
The gate entrance looked like an ordinary mountain slope. Dense coniferous forest, the kind you could find anywhere in Korea. Such a normal landscape was usually a sign that the gate’s difficulty was low.
But Seo-hyun, who now carried natural mana inside her body, could tell differently. Something feels nasty…
She lacked the knowledge to describe it in technical terms, yet instinct and sensation alone let her see the true nature of this world. It feels like anything could jump out at any moment.
Chaotic. A complete mess. Just thinking those words made her anxiety swell as they advanced.
Then the guides started showing their incompetence.
“Hey! This isn’t the way!”
“It’s not my fault! The machine broke!”
“I told you to check it before we came in.”
“You think I didn’t?!”
Whether they were normally hot-tempered or simply emotional because the situation was serious, the squad members hid their fear behind jokes.
“Executive selection really drew the short straw.”
“Actually, it’s fine. This is our chance to raise the team average.”
“If we get zero encounters, isn’t that an automatic zero?”
“I usually score in the negatives, so that’s still a win.”
They chuckled, but the truth was that every member except Seo-hyun—who had raised the team average—was an F-class leftover. A strange tension hung in the air, unavoidable.
And their anxiety turned out to be completely justified.
Rumble rumble rumble—
The ground suddenly shook violently. The flustered guides rushed to assess the situation.
“Scout! What’s happening?!”
“Underground! Everyone fall back!”
As the squad members took combat stances and looked around,
“It’s a golem!! Anyone E-class or below, get the hell out!!!”
Just ten meters ahead, a mound of earth the size of a small hill swelled upward like an inflating balloon.
C-CLASS GATE CONFIRMED
As expected. The mana was far too turbid for a mere E-class gate.
Screams that sounded like shouts erupted from every direction.
“What do you mean get out of the way?!”
“Our whole squad was F-class to begin with!!!”
“Fuck! Where the hell is the reserve team?!”
“Something else is coming! Dodge!”
Boom!!!
Five super-large golems. Seven large ones. If the entrance was already this bad, the gate had to be at least C-class.
I checked the direction where dust pillars were shooting up like geysers. The first reserve team had already headed that way… As for the ace reserves assigned to Seo-hyun’s group, I watched to see where they would move.
“Ha-baek! You take the fourth squad alone!”
At the spearman’s order, the white-haired, haggard man called Ha-baek frowned. “Huh? Why me?”
“You can handle golems by yourself.”
The rest of the team left without another word. I found it strange—his mana was the faintest among them. Still, it was fortunate that the fourth squad was Seo-hyun’s unit. I could focus on him with peace of mind.
He scratched his head irritably, then started walking. Slowly he lifted his right foot and stepped forward… Wait, what?
The foot he extended turned into something black that resembled ash scattering in the wind and simply vanished. Then, matching his walking motion, the rest of his body flickered like dying embers and completely faded away.
It didn’t seem like spirit transformation… As I wondered what it was, his presence suddenly appeared in front of the golem attacking the fourth squad.
I quickly shifted my gaze. The giant golem swinging its arm filled my vision first. Right before it could crush the officer in its path, a single pistol magazine dropped to the ground.
The gunshot only rang out after Ha-baek had materialized his upper body and finished reloading.
Ratatatatang—
The golem’s arm shattered into pieces an instant later, scattering in every direction without reaching its target.
Now fully materialized, Ha-baek walked toward the newly appeared super-large monster and said, “Everyone stand by. Pass it back.”
My interest surged. I wanted to keep watching his fight. But a sudden chill ran down my spine. The source was the gate entrance.
I hurriedly deployed a Dew Lens, then cursed inwardly. Since I was in spirit form, the lament only echoed inside my head.
Oh shit…
The Dew Lens I had placed a hundred meters in the air. A man standing on the ground stared straight at it and smiled.
I’d seen that face plenty of times on the internet.
It was the President.