The following afternoon.
The Taesan Hunter Guild headquarters, located in the middle of Gangnam’s dazzling forest of high-rises.
When we opened the door to the guild operations director’s office, decorated with top-grade marble, we saw a sharp-featured young man buried under piles of documents, massaging the back of his neck.
Director Seong Ji-hun.
The eldest grandson of the Taesan Group chairman, and Yun Se-a’s older cousin.
He was also the chief executive in charge of the practical operations of Taesan Guild, one of the top guilds in South Korea.
“Se-a, what brings you here out of nowhere? I’m about to lose my mind putting together next week’s Gate raid teams.”
“Oppa, I came to solve that headache for you in one shot.”
At Se-a’s brazen reply, Ji-hun gave a faint laugh and looked me up and down.
“Solve it? And who’s this? Don’t tell me he’s your boyfriend. Grandpa would clutch the back of his neck if he found out.”
“Don’t say pointless things. He’s my business partner.”
“Business? You?”
“That’s right.”
“Hm.”
At Se-a’s firm attitude, Ji-hun set down his pen as if intrigued.
“What kind of business is an engineering student going to propose to a Hunter Guild director?”
Without delay, I stepped forward and dropped a file of documents I had prepared in advance onto Ji-hun’s desk.
“Director. You’ve been racking your brains over the hunter supply problem, haven’t you? I’ve brought you a way to solve that problem perfectly.”
“What?”
Just as Ji-hun was about to snort, I pressed on without giving him even a chance to argue.
“The reason South Korea has been in an uproar lately with Gate Break incidents happening simultaneously all over the country—is it because the monsters are strong? No. It’s because there are nowhere near enough Awakened who can tear through energy shields, while Gates are opening like mad. Isn’t that right?”
At my words, which struck the heart of the matter, Ji-hun’s brow twisted sharply.
“……That’s obvious. So what, are you saying you can clone dozens of Awakened?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“Not clone them. Mass-produce them. I have a definite artificial training method that allows even ‘ordinary people’ who have not Awakened to tear through a monster’s energy shield.”
For a moment, a heavy silence settled over the director’s office.
Ji-hun stared blankly back and forth between me and Se-a.
When Se-a quietly nodded in confirmation, Ji-hun’s eyes widened as if they were about to pop out.
“You… what the hell are you saying? Ordinary people can tear through shields?!”
“Yes. If they train for a certain period of time, ordinary people will be able to tear through energy shields.”
“Then, then……”
“You no longer have to worry about hunter supply. If anything, you’ll have to start worrying about how to build the training system.”
“That’s impossible! Isn’t this nonsense?”
Ji-hun shot to his feet, braced his hands on the desk, and began speaking urgently.
As someone on the front lines of the hunter industry, all the frustrations that had festered down to the bone poured out of him like a waterfall.
“Do you know?! Do you have any idea how much hell we go through just to bring in a single hunter?! Even D-rank and C-rank small fry know they’re valuable, so they demand hundreds of millions as signing bonuses! Labor costs are skyrocketing like crazy, but there aren’t enough hunters, so we can’t meet Gate clear deadlines and they’re bursting open!”
His voice was saturated with all the stress he had endured.
“But turning ordinary people into hunters? If this is real…… this isn’t just a matter of making money. It’s a perfect revolution that will break the damn arrogance of hunters and let Taesan seize the throat of the global hunter market!”
True to the blood of a chaebol family with merchants’ instincts running through their veins, Ji-hun calculated the overwhelming economic and political ripple effects this secret method would bring in just ten seconds.
But soon, he steadied his rough breathing and returned to the sharp, rational gaze of a guild director.
“But I absolutely won’t believe it until I see it with my own two eyes. I need to confirm whether you’re a con artist or a genuine savior.”
Ji-hun picked up the intercom.
“Let’s verify it immediately. Not with some young, spry guy, but with an old, sickly human being with not even a hair’s breadth of magical talent.”
He jerked his chin toward me.
“There’s an old porter who’s been carrying luggage for our guild forever, a man with zero chance of Awakening. Use your secret method on him and make him tear through a shield in front of my eyes.”
Proof under the harshest conditions.
For me, it was something to welcome.
Because showing a miracle under the worst conditions, rather than succeeding under half-baked ones, was the way to maximize a product’s value.
I loosened my tie at ease and asked,
“Very well. However, to transmit this method for the first time, I need a place where mana hangs thick in the air. In other words, training is only possible inside a Gate. Do you have a safely controlled Gate we can enter right now?”
“Of course. I’ll take you somewhere that’s practically Taesan’s front yard.”
Inside an E-rank farm Gate owned by Taesan Guild on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province.
It was a place where they periodically exterminated monsters and earned profit.
“Legally, aren’t Gates supposed to be closed after they’re cleared?”
“What a stupid thing to say. That law was enacted in the early days of the Gate crisis, back when nobody knew anything. Without farms like this, how would we secure resources?”
“Hm. From what I heard, that law was created because guilds kept entering only farm Gates and failed to deal with newly formed Gates.”
At Yun Se-a’s sharp question, Seong Ji-hun was at a loss for words.
“…Why has this girl gotten so smart? That’s not what’s important right now.”
“Well, I’ll let it slide just this once.”
*
Perhaps because the monsters had already been exterminated, the inside of the Gate was utterly desolate.
“Fuck…… What kind of bullshit farce is this supposed to be?”
Baek Gang-ho, a B-rank hunter belonging to Taesan Guild, stood near the Gate entrance with his weight on one leg and spat irritably.
At the end of his gaze was a bizarre, ill-matched group gathered in the middle of the Gate.
Seong Ji-hun, the successful director from Taesan Group.
Yun Se-a, supposedly the daughter of a president of a Taesan affiliate.
Some half-baked brat who practically screamed college student, and Old Man Kim, a porter in his fifties who had only ever done odd jobs for the guild, were sitting face-to-face.
‘They suddenly called me in on my day off saying it was an emergency, so I thought a Gate had burst.’
Baek Gang-ho snorted in disbelief.
At a glance, it looked like that young lady had brought her boyfriend to sightsee inside a Gate.
‘They called me here to play nanny for some chaebol young master and young lady’s games? Safety control? Fuck, is a goblin going to pop back out of a Gate that’s already been cleared?’
His pride as a hunter was deeply wounded, but because Taesan had slipped him an enormous hush-money “special allowance” of fifty million won, he was forcibly keeping his mouth shut.
‘I only came because they’re paying a lot. Otherwise, I’d never come to watch this third-rate comedy. An ordinary person tearing through shields just by breathing? Did they all go crazy reading martial arts novels?’
As Baek Gang-ho watched with his arms crossed in contempt,
far off, that bratty college student, Gang U-jin, was speaking to Old Man Kim, the aged porter.
“Mr. Kim. Follow the acupoints I point out and imagine you are breathing in the energy drifting through this dungeon. Start from your dantian, pass through your chest, and release it through your fingertips.”
“Oh dear, young man. I’m over fifty years old. What Awakening could I possibly do at this age……”
“Discard idle thoughts. Don’t imagine it. Actually push it out.”
Gang U-jin placed his hand on the old porter’s back and began giving him instructions.
Baek Gang-ho watched the scene and snickered inwardly.
‘Let’s see what kind of show they put on. It’ll be a relief if that old man doesn’t throw out his back while shouting.’
However, it did not take long for Baek Gang-ho’s ridicule to turn into shock.
“Hup! Huuuuup……!”
Old Man Kim’s breathing grew rough, and a strange ripple began to rise over the veins bulging from his skin.
Ssssss—!
“……Huh?”
Baek Gang-ho, who had been leaning against the wall, stiffened.
His keen hunter’s senses had clearly detected something—an “alien yet sharp aggregate of magical power”—forming over the old iron sword of the porter who, until just moments ago, had been nothing more than an ordinary person.
‘S-sword aura……? That’s aura, isn’t it?! Shit, that old man was an Awakened?!’
As Baek Gang-ho stood frozen with his jaw hanging open,
Gang U-jin called out to Director Seong Ji-hun in a relaxed voice.
“Director! Release one of the things in the iron cage. Let’s test our old man’s skills.”
The common sense of the B-rank hunter who had sneered at this as a shallow chaebol prank was on the verge of being shattered completely.
*
The metallic sound of the iron cage door opening split the dungeon’s silence.
“Kieeeek!”
A single vicious goblin that had been released flashed its bloodshot eyes and charged madly at Old Man Kim, the prey who looked easiest to handle.
“H-hiiik!”
The legs of Old Man Kim, who had spent his whole life carrying luggage and trembling at the dreadful cries of monsters, shook like an aspen tree.
He squeezed his eyes shut, backed away, and swung the rusty iron sword in his hands wildly through the air.
“Don’t close your eyes! Recall the acupoints I showed you and exhale!”
My thunderous shout struck Kim’s eardrums.
The most primal fear—the threat of death. It was the greatest catalyst for forcibly drawing out human potential.
In order to survive, Kim instinctively drew in a deep breath, forcibly pulled energy up from his dantian, and pushed it into both hands gripping the sword.
Ssssss—!
Over the iron sword, which until moments ago had been nothing more than a lump of old metal, a rippling blue, alien wave formed.
An incredibly crude and feeble aura, as if it might scatter at any moment.
But that was enough.
“Dieeeee!”
With his eyes squeezed shut, Kim brought the iron sword down toward the goblin’s chest.
Crackle—!! Craaack!
A crisp rupture rang out, like a window shattering.
The goblin’s translucent energy shield, which had easily deflected dozens of bullets from modern firearms, was torn apart before the old iron sword swung by an aged porter as if it were a lie.
Puk!
“Ki, kiek……”
The goblin vomited black blood and collapsed limply at Kim’s feet.
“……”
A chilling silence settled inside the Gate.
B-rank hunter Baek Gang-ho stood frozen like a stone statue, the gum he had been chewing dropping from his mouth to the floor.