Evasion Instinct
Saturday, when there were no classes.
After lunch, my father and I left the house.
“We’re heading out! We’ll probably be back around dinner.”
“Don’t push yourselves too hard. Be careful not to get hurt, and come home safely.”
“Yes, we will. We’ll be back.”
After hearing that I would be engaging in real combat, Mother couldn’t hide her worry.
But she didn’t try to stop me.
Partly because Father had persuaded her, but also because she had decided to trust and support me as I strove to become stronger.
I told her not to worry, then turned away from her.
“Shall we go?”
“Yes. Let’s go.”
Our destination was the nearest Regulus Clan branch.
The clan where my father also worked.
I rode there in my father’s car.
How much time had passed like that?
A building came into view.
A blue emblem modeled after a lion glittered at the top.
“That building, right?”
“Yes. That’s where I work. This is your first time coming here, isn’t it?”
“That’s right. I only had a rough idea where it was. I’d never actually been here.”
The Regulus Clan, which could be called the origin of the Divine Sword Do family.
The clan founded by the first family head during the Great Cataclysm now had branches throughout the country.
This place was one of them.
‘And it’s also the clan where Dad serves as the branch director.’
That was why I had come here.
To enter dungeons, gates, or monster habitats managed by the state, one needed a Hunter license.
As someone without one, there was nothing I could do about that restriction.
But things were different at the clan where my father was the branch director.
I didn’t have to be bound by those limitations.
Using my father’s authority, I could exercise a certain degree of flexibility.
‘For example, I could enter a gate owned by the clan.’
That was precisely my purpose.
To gain practical combat experience by fighting the monsters inside a gate.
Before long, Father parked the car.
“All right, let’s get out. Don’t forget to bring your sword.”
“It’s here.”
Of course I hadn’t forgotten.
I held the sword up high so Father could see it.
* * *
According to the game’s setting, this world had become drastically unstable dimensionally after the Great Cataclysm.
As a result, dimensional distortions began occurring at all times and in all places, affecting the world.
Monsters emerged from distorted dimensions, and when those distorted dimensions became fixed in place, they transformed into dungeons.
Gates also originated from that phenomenon.
As the world’s dimension distorted, it came into contact with the distorted dimension of another world, creating yet another world. That phenomenon was what constituted a gate.
‘If that phenomenon isn’t dealt with in time, the world inside the gate explodes and pours out into reality.’
This was known as an Outbreak.
The player had to keep that in mind along with the story.
Gates appeared randomly throughout the Academy City, and unlike dungeons, they had time limits. Failing to conquer them within the allotted time affected the ending.
‘That was why I had to keep an eye on the gate’s erosion rate if I wanted to reach the ending I desired.’
Because of that, in my previous life I frequently launched the game to check whether a gate had appeared.
In that sense….
‘From the perspective of simple game content, gates were fairly intelligent content.’
They kept the player’s attention from ever drifting away from the game.
They brought freshness to players who had grown tired of the story.
They helped characters grow, among other things.
Gates served a variety of functions.
They were one of the game’s charms.
On the other hand, conquering a gate allowed one to obtain a gate key.
‘Using that key, it was possible to challenge a gate that had already been conquered.’
Presumably, the game’s developers had added that feature so players could enjoy conquered gates again.
That aspect had also been faithfully reflected in the world I had been reincarnated into.
“Let’s go get the gate key first. We can’t do anything without it.”
“Where is the gate key?”
“It’s kept in the warehouse.”
Regulus Clan Songpa District Branch.
My father and I went down to the basement, where the warehouse was located, to retrieve the gate key.
Along the way, we met people who worked with my father.
“Wow! Is this the branch director’s son? He’s so cute!”
“Exactly…. He looks so gentle. He doesn’t look like the branch director, does he? What a relief.”
“What’s so fortunate about him not looking like me? Are you openly insulting me right now?”
“Hello…. My name is Do Gyeonu.”
They pinched, touched, and stretched my cheeks….
Unfortunately, I encountered some particularly excitable clan members and had a rough time of it.
When a muscular man pulled me into his arms, I felt deeply depressed.
“…”
“Gyeonu, are you all right?”
“…No.”
Only after being fondled by all those people was I finally able to escape.
I never wanted to experience that again.
Fortunately, the people I met afterward were at least relatively normal.
“You look like a good boy. How old are you?”
“The branch director’s son? My goodness…. Be honest! You picked him up somewhere, didn’t you!?”
“Come to think of it, your wife was beautiful.”
“Want to take a picture with your big sister?”
“I want to put him in my pocket and take him home….”
…They were relatively normal.
After politely greeting them, I quickly left the area.
“Dad.”
“Yes, Gyeonu.”
“Are all Hunters like that?”
“Uh, well…. Not all of them are like that, but there are certainly some.”
“…”
“Try to understand, Gyeonu. Fighting monsters with your life on the line every day makes it difficult to remain completely sane.”
“Oh, yes….”
It sounded suspiciously like an excuse, but.
I decided to let it go.
Before long, we arrived at the warehouse.
The woman at the warehouse reception greeted us warmly.
“Hello, Branch Director. I heard about it yesterday. You’re going into a gate with your son, aren’t you?”
“Yes. You have the key, right?”
“Yes. Please wait a moment. I’ll bring it out right away.”
The woman went into the warehouse.
A short while later, she returned and held out a small box.
It was slightly larger than my hand.
“This is the key you requested to borrow. Please check whether it’s the right one.”
“Hmm… It is. Thanks. And could you tell me which room I reserved?”
“It’s listed as Room 2.”
“Room 2, huh…. Thanks for letting me know. Good work.”
“Good work to you too, Branch Director.”
The business at the warehouse was finished.
After checking the box’s contents, Father turned away from the reception desk.
I hurried after him.
“Where are we going now?”
“To the room with the artificial gate. We’re going to Room 2.”
A gate key couldn’t be used by itself.
Just as a key required a door.
To activate a gate key, one needed a door into which it could be inserted.
That door was an artificial gate.
A sort of artifact made by humans.
However, manufacturing an artificial gate cost an enormous amount of money.
‘Not to mention the maintenance and management costs….’
As a result, only super-large clans like the Regulus Clan could afford to possess artificial gates.
According to Father, there were three artificial gates here.
I walked down the corridor as I listened to him.
“Then what rank is the gate I’m going into? White? Gray?”
“It’s White Rank.”
Gates were classified into seven ranks according to their color.
White, Gray, Yellow, Green, Red, Blue, and finally Black.
The difficulty of conquering a gate increased from White to Black.
The gate I would be entering today was White Rank, the lowest difficulty.
Before long, we entered a room marked with the number 2.
“…”
“You’ve already seen one at the main house, but that’s an artificial gate.”
It was an extremely vast space with a floor made of square tiles.
There was almost nothing decorating the area.
There was, however, a huge door on the wall opposite the entrance.
A circular iron door.
A keyhole had been set in the center of it.
“We’re going into this gate now. Are you really ready? Think it over carefully, even if it’s only now. Once you enter, you can’t come back out until the gate has been conquered.”
Father spoke to me as I looked up at the gate, as if urging me to reconsider.
But my answer remained unchanged.
“I’ve already thought about it enough. I’m fine. Besides, if I can’t conquer it, you’ll conquer it for me, won’t you, Dad?”
“You little rascal…. All right, I understand. Like you said, even if you can’t conquer the gate, I can do it for you, so don’t overdo it. Don’t make your mother scold me for no reason.”
Father gave a hollow laugh, as though he couldn’t help it.
Then he pulled the box from inside his coat.
“Then I’ll activate the gate.”
It was a key with a white handle.
Father took it from the box and inserted it into the artificial gate.
When he turned the key to the right, white ripples spread outward from the keyhole.
Whirrrrr—
The dimension distorted.
The iron door became suffused with white.
The gate had been activated.
“All right, let’s go inside. I’ll enter first, so you come in about ten minutes later.”
“Yes. Be careful.”
“Of course.”
Once activated, a gate remained in that state until the gate inside it was conquered.
The key also transformed into a gate, and it could not return to its original form until the gate was conquered.
After Father entered the gate, I waited several minutes before moving.
A pure white light engulfed me.
* * *
A gate was an overlapping world created when a distorted dimension met another dimension.
The exact reason remained unknown, but inside gates, system messages resembling those from a game would sometimes appear.
‘Of course they would, since this was a world based on a game.’
I now knew the reason, so I no longer questioned it.
When my vision, washed in light, returned, a message was floating before my eyes.
[You have entered a gate.]
[White: Pink Crystal Cave II]
Beneath that message, the conditions for conquering the White Gate appeared.
[The conquest conditions are as follows.]
[Subjugate the monsters.]
[Goblins (Rank 01) x 15]
A mission to subjugate fifteen Rank 1 goblins.
Perhaps because it was a White Rank gate, the conquest conditions were extremely simple.
After checking the message, I looked around.
‘Where are the goblins…?’
It was a world surrounded on all sides by pink crystals.
I heightened my senses and moved in the direction of the sound.
Father was there.
“You’re here.”
“Did you catch all the goblins?”
“Yes. These are all of them.”
The goblins lay sprawled on the ground, disarmed and bound with ropes.
I counted the ones rolling around at Father’s feet.
There were fifteen in total.
The number matched the goblins listed in the gate’s conquest conditions.
If I defeated these creatures, the gate conquest would be complete.
“Then let’s start right away.”
“If you’re ready, let’s do that. You can’t face a large group from the start, so let’s begin with one.”
I put some distance between myself and the goblins and assumed a stance.
Father looked over the goblins and cut the rope of the smallest one.
“He’s the weakest of the group. But don’t let your guard down just because of that. As you know, goblins are….”
“Cunning creatures, right?”
“…Yes. Don’t forget that.”
I had knowledge from the game.
I had also learned about monsters while living as a member of the Divine Sword Do family.
Thus, I answered Father as I watched the goblin whose ropes had been removed.
Kieek?
The creature looked back at Father, as though unable to understand the situation.
Father silently gestured toward me with his chin.
The goblin’s head turned again, and its gaze fixed on me.
At that moment, it seemed to understand.
Kieeeek!
Even if it was no more than a thread of hope.
The only way it could survive was by fighting me.
Its expression changed, and it charged.
It picked up the fist ax lying on the ground and closed the distance in an instant.
The way it had staggered to its feet moments earlier now seemed like a lie.
“Whew….”
It was that desperate.
Every living creature struggled and flailed to survive until the very moment it faced death.
Monsters were no different.
They resisted to the very end to avoid dying.
That was why, in order to kill them, I had to be prepared for the possibility that I might die as well.
That was real combat.
I inhaled, twisted my body, and moved my right foot back.
Piercing Stance.
A stance in which one stepped forward and thrust the arm pulled as far back as possible.
It was the thrusting stance of the Divine Sword Do family.
Based on that stance….
Lion’s Returning Needle.
I manifested the mana within my body, activating the mana circuits from my legs and waist, through my heart, and into my right hand gripping the sword.
At the same time, I used the mana flowing outside my body to envelop the blade.
And then….
Kieeeek!
I placed my weight on my forward step, twisted my waist, and thrust my right arm forward with all my strength.
I released the power I had gathered while holding my breath.
As my elbow shot forward in a straight line, the sword radiating blue light cleaved through the air.
At that moment, I gently twisted my wrist, adding rotational force.
That strike….
Pshuk!
I thrust with all my strength into the mouth of the goblin as it leaped toward me.
…Eek….
The goblin dangled in midair, impaled all the way through to the back of its neck.
Its hands and feet twitched for a moment before it met its death.
“One down.”
Became the Mid-Boss’s Childhood Friend