My name is “Lee San.”
I’m an ordinary twenty-one-year-old young man, and also an “ant”—a truly insectlike existence, classified as an unfit human who failed to adapt to this dogshit world and was destined for a life like the depths of hell.
Here, “ant” was a kind of slang term attached to anyone whose job was to cling to and live off humans with special powers, those called the new humans. As for what I did, it was simple.
I was just a “porter.” Among the new humans, there were those in the top ten percent who possessed an ability called “Gate Opening.”
What those guys did wasn’t anything special, but they were treated well enough to be counted among the top ten percent, truly classified as “nobles.” I’d heard that the “Gates” they created ranged from F-rank to GX-rank.
On average, they could create Gates from F to A-rank, and it was known that only an extremely small number of people could open Gates above S-rank, all the way up to GX-rank.
To be honest, the world had fallen apart so badly that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that we “ants” earned our daily bread thanks to these so-called “Gaters.”
Back in the early days when the new humans first appeared, during the so-called “Gate Rebellion,” humanity had apparently come absurdly close to being annihilated in the most doglike way possible.
I had been one year old at the time, twenty years ago now, and in the case of my parents, they were lucky enough to barely become C-rank “new humans” and survive.
But I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t inherited even one percent of my parents’ abilities and had to scrape by as an “ant” of all things.
“Hey, Mr. Jeongjo, quit spacing out with useless thoughts and do some work, will you?”
It was an older man in the same ant unit as me, a man named Kim Cheoljong. And because his name just had to be “Cheoljong,” he ended up grouped with me.
So from time to time, Uncle Cheoljong would call me Jeongjo.
“Sorry. I thought I’d rest for just a second...”
I wanted to rest properly. I wanted to just clock out right then, hole up at home, buy a can of beer, and drink it. But there was still a lot left to do.
From atop the armored vehicle, I could see the new humans struggling against the monsters.
“Take this.”
Uncle Cheoljong lifted something up onto the armored vehicle, into what people usually called the cargo bed. When I took it, I saw that it was monster hide.
If you had to pick the most valuable spoils obtainable from a C-rank Gate, it would be the hide of a monster that often appeared in C-rank Gates—the hide of a water buffalo-shaped monster commonly called a “Tyrone.”
You could call it cowhide, in a way, and it was incredibly tough and sturdy. If tanned well, it was a common, widely used leather that drew attention as an excellent lining material for leather armor.
“You already finished skinning them?”
“There were only two.”
Only two, he said, as if that made it easy. Considering the size of the creatures, it was by no means a simple task.
Just as I moved the neatly cut square pieces into the cargo bed and arranged them one by one, the bones of the Tyrone began coming up.
The Tyrone was being processed so quickly that I found myself thinking Uncle Cheoljong was an extremely capable man, despite his name.
After carrying and stacking things for quite a while, a Tyrone’s scream rang out, and a heavy rumble sounded from afar.
They had clearly hunted down another one.
I turned my head beyond the armored vehicle and saw that they had killed one of the three they were fighting.
There were four new humans out hunting in total. Among them, I looked at the woman who could be called our employer.
The woman who had introduced herself as Na Miryeong. The woman who, at least, treated us ants like human beings and politely spoke to us every time. With her flashy spear technique, she usually preferred to smash a Tyrone’s shin and remove its mobility, and this time as well, I could see that she had shattered a Tyrone’s shin in that manner before driving her spearhead into its throat.
At the same time, the other team members were doing something similar to Na Miryeong, aiming for the legs or managing aggro separately so they wouldn’t interfere with Na Miryeong as she finished it off.
Skilled movements, well-matched teamwork—they definitely had talent that felt wasted rotting away in C-rank Gates. I swept my gaze over them, then turned my head to finish arranging the Tyrone bones being loaded up one after another.
“Huh...? What’s that?”
A red speck had appeared in midair. No, what I had thought was a speck gradually grew larger, and something slowly walked out from within it.
“G-Goddamn it! A Gate burst!!”
At my mutter, Uncle Cheoljong’s shout rang loudly through the area. Then Na Miryeong and the other party members who had been dealing with the Tyrones flinched in shock and turned toward whatever had newly appeared. Seeing their faces rapidly turn pale, I became certain that something had gone very, very wrong.
“W-We’re fucked, right?”
At my words, Uncle Cheoljong urgently ran toward the driver’s seat of the armored vehicle. From his actions just now, I could be certain he was sharp, quick on the uptake, and had good judgment.
The armored vehicle started up, and Na Miryeong’s party ran toward it. The moment they roughly jumped onto the vehicle, Uncle Cheoljong immediately stepped on the pedal. But perhaps because of the armored vehicle’s distinctive noise—
The monster turned to look at us.
No, something with such a terrifying appearance that it would be more accurate to call it a demon began glaring at us.
“Step on it! Hurry!!”
Na Miryeong and the other party members grew desperate. From their perspective, this was a bolt from the blue, but from mine, it was a situation where death was right in front of me.
An indescribable terror crept over me.
Uncle Cheoljong’s words, that an ant’s life was fleeting, kept circling in my ears. At that moment, the monster—no, the demon—finally began moving, and every time it took a long stride, it felt as though it was using some kind of ground-shrinking technique, closing the distance in an instant.
“Miryeong, d-do something!”
At the words of a woman named Kim Jiwon, the team’s “healer,” Na Miryeong’s face crumpled. Honestly, I wondered what anyone could even do in this situation, but surprisingly, I saw Na Miryeong calmly balancing herself atop the moving vehicle as she gripped the middle of her spear and raised it.
It was the posture she took when “throwing” her spear. Na Miryeong watched for an opportunity, steadied her breathing, then hurled it in time with the demon’s next step.
The spear flew like an arrow. But no matter how I looked at it, I didn’t think it could do anything to the demon.
And sure enough, the demon lightly swatted the incoming spear aside with a tap.
Just as everyone fell into despair at that horrifying reality, Uncle Cheoljong’s shout rang out.
“One minute! Hold out for just one minute!!”
The exit was visible in the distance. There was definitely a path to survival. Since C-rank Gates themselves didn’t cover that large an area, the hunting ground and the exit being close together was both an advantage and a drawback. But today, I couldn’t understand why the distance to that not-so-distant entrance felt so endlessly far.
As I swallowed my fear while watching the demon charge in with my heart in my throat, the other party members, realizing they only needed to hold out for one minute, began using every ability they had against the demon as if showing them off to the fullest.
They spewed fire and raised the earth. On top of that, Na Miryeong pulled out a spare spear and threw it at the demon, but that goddamn demon bastard rendered all the new humans’ efforts meaningless as it rapidly drew closer.
The closer we got to the entrance, the more the demon accelerated. I was trembling before its overwhelming, fear-inducing presence when it happened.
The demon suddenly raised its hand, and black energy began gathering in its palm.
“It’s coming!”
Na Miryeong, sensing something, urgently grabbed onto something to brace herself so she wouldn’t be flung off the armored vehicle. But in my case, that wasn’t an option.
I was inside the cargo bed, and there wasn’t a single fixture inside it that I could hold onto.
The only word that came to mind was “fuck.” Then the demon swung its hand, and the thing that shot from its palm came crashing down right behind the moving armored vehicle and exploded.
Kwaaaang!!
As if we had run over an anti-tank mine, the rear wheels of the heavy armored vehicle lifted into the air and then slammed back down to the ground with a thud. The problem was that the Tyrone byproducts, thrown along with the falling vehicle, crashed over my body, and unable to withstand the weight, I fell off as well.
“Aaaaaaah!!”
A single scream. And as I fell mixed in with the spoils, the new humans looked at me with dry, emotionless eyes. Yes, in this goddamn situation, an “ant” had unintentionally become a throwaway.
An “ant toss” that occasionally happened while exploring Gates. Literally using an ant as a sacrifice to buy time for the new humans to escape, then making excuses outside like, It was an accident. It wasn’t something we could prevent! That kind of thing had happened.
It really had been an accident, and there had been no way to prevent it, but from my perspective, no matter what anyone called it, it was a dogshit situation, and I was fucked.
I was hurled to the ground, unable to move because of the spoils covering my whole body. The fear of death swallowed my mind so completely that I couldn’t even feel pain.
Just as my head failed to understand what the monster that had appeared moments ago was, or what the hell this situation even was, a shadow began falling over my head.
Through that shadow, blazing eyes looked down at me.
A “life flashing before my eyes.” Just as I felt despair at a situation I really didn’t even want to think about, the noise of the armored vehicle disappeared in the distance.
“They made it out of the Gate, damn it.”
The demon also realized that the noise had vanished all at once. It looked toward where the armored vehicle had been frantically fleeing, then looked back down at me.
And just as I imagined what would happen next—me being chewed to pieces in its mouth and becoming a snack—
A voice rang inside my head.
—You have become a chosen human. May glory fill the future of you who will come to possess something special....
Why the hell was the voice people said you heard when you became a new human coming to me at this very moment?
Just as a hollow, dumbfounded laugh was about to escape me, the ability I had gained as a “new human” flashed through my mind.
And, thankful again and again that even when the world collapsed there was still a way out, I shouted.
“C-Collect!!”
In that instant, the demon jolted. Its eyes shook violently, and soon its body rapidly shrank until it became a size that could fit on my palm, then toppled to the ground.
It was a sight I couldn’t believe even after seeing it. Goosebumps rose all over me at the fact that I had truly become a “new human.” Then I picked up the demon, now like a “figure” that had fallen by my feet, and examined it this way and that. Realizing that I had really survived, I shouted.
“I’m alive!!!”
A roar of joy. I set aside the demon that had become a figure(?) and began clearing away the Tyrone byproducts covering me, only to feel chills creeping over me.
“Huh...? Huh?? For real?”
The byproducts hardly felt heavy at all. Just a moment ago, they had been so heavy that carrying even one at a time was a burden, yet now they felt this light. While I was dumbfounded, I also couldn’t help being shocked by how incredible the abilities of the demon I had collected must be.
I stopped clearing things away and recalled what was in my memory.
Collection — When the target’s mental power or physical strength falls below 20%, when the target willingly desires it, or when an item or power with special force has become a “collectible,” you may place it into your collection.
— In the case of the first collection, the target’s condition or collectible status may be ignored once. Forced collection is possible.
— 1% of the abilities possessed by a collected item will enhance the Collector’s abilities.