“Haaahm.”
A yawn came out on its own. Standing on the drill field, Sinhyeok wriggled his stiff body.
Arin and Ichan, standing beside him, began nagging at the same time.
“That’s what you get for training or whatever.”
“You should’ve gone to bed early. Hyung.”
At the surround-sound nagging coming from both sides, Sinhyeok pretended not to hear.
“I can’t hear you.”
Everyone had formed ranks on the drill field when the battalion commander appeared. He checked the trainees lined up around him.
“Did everyone sleep well?”
At his question, the trainees forced out a vigorous answer.
“Yes!”
Captain Kim Chanyeol chuckled.
“I doubt that very much. Well, since you all say you slept well, I’ll take your word for it.”
At the predictable question and answer, both instructors and trainees smiled faintly.
He looked at everyone seriously and said,
“We have finally reached the end. With this evaluation, each of you will be sent to your respective units.”
Gulp.
Everyone listened with solemn expressions.
“This one evaluation will determine your starting point, so all of you will cling to it as if your lives depend on it. Am I right?”
“Yes, sir!”
At the booming reply, Captain Kim Chanyeol looked at them gravely.
“That said, do not actually cling to it like you’re trying to die. Please, I hope none of you go so far as to risk your lives.”
His gaze turned to Sinhyeok at the very end.
“That’s enough. Now, let’s set off. Instructors, please lead the trainees.”
Everyone began heading toward the Gate they had applied for in advance.
“All right, gather up!”
Dozens of vehicles entered the drill field. The three of them headed for the vehicle assigned to them beforehand.
When they got in, they saw a driver and an escort seated in the passenger seat.
“Good to meet you. You’re the kids going to the D-rank Gate, Old Castle, right?”
Sinhyeok didn’t know why, but the voice sounded familiar, so he studied the man carefully.
His name tag was extremely familiar.
‘Major Baek Seokhun.’
“Sa-Salute!”
Sinhyeok and Arin tensed when they saw his rank.
He smiled and waved a hand.
“I’m just out for a little stroll, so relax. Driver, let’s get going.”
“Yes, sir.”
At the voice he heard from the driver, Sinhyeok glanced at him too.
When he saw the face reflected in the rearview mirror, a laugh escaped him before he could stop it.
“Pfft.”
Both the driver and the man in the passenger seat were familiar people from the past.
Connections from his Hongik days.
Comrades who had served with him in the Hongik Battalion.
Suppressing his joy at seeing them, Sinhyeok said calmly,
“I’ll be in your care today. Major. Baek. Seokhun.”
Major Baek Seokhun glanced at Sinhyeok through the rearview mirror.
“Right, your name is Bu. Sinhyeok, I see. Sergeant Bu Sinhyeok, I’ll be in your care as well.”
He smirked and turned around.
“But your name is strangely similar to someone I know.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. His name is Sinhyeok too.”
At their conversation, the driver held back his laughter.
“It’s a fairly common name, so that can happen.”
“Well, I think so too. That guy was such a damned troublemaker. If there were two like him, it’d be quite the headache.”
The Hongik Battalion member disguised as a driver bit his lip hard and trembled.
Sinhyeok stared at Major Baek Seokhun, who was openly needling him.
“Ahem. It’ll take over an hour to get to the Gate, so get some rest.”
Throughout the ride to the Gate, Sinhyeok and the two up front exchanged countless unfathomable glances.
Ichan and Arin merely tilted their heads at the strange sight.
After an hour of driving.
They arrived in front of the Gate they had applied for in advance. The door opened, and Major Baek Seokhun opened the trunk.
“Supplies are five days’ worth of combat rations, ten boxes of live ammunition, three rifles, three pistols, one K14 sniper rifle, ten grenades, twenty Claymores, two K3s, and four bayonets.”
After rattling off the list, he looked at Sinhyeok.
“That right?”
At the sheer amount of supplies, Ichan and Arin looked uneasy.
“We don’t need that much……”
“That’s correct!”
Sinhyeok cut him off.
Ichan and Arin looked at Sinhyeok.
“Hyung, do we need this much?”
“The more, the better.”
“Sergeant Busikhyeok, check everything carefully and put it in your inventory.”
When they looked into the trunk, there was a subspace box inside.
Sinhyeok collected most of the items.
After finishing their preparations, the three of them stood side by side in front of the portal.
Major Baek Seokhun, their escort, cautioned the three of them.
“Everyone, don’t rush in like you’re trying to get yourselves killed.”
But his gaze was fixed especially on one person.
“If you decide it’s dangerous, come out immediately.”
“Yes, sir!”
The major looked at Sinhyeok for a moment.
“Then go in. I wish you luck.”
Seeing him wink, Sinhyeok chuckled.
“Let’s enter.”
The three of them entered the portal, and the major stood there watching quietly.
The driver watching beside him quietly took off his top and cap.
“Operations Officer, shall I give you your gear?”
He took out a black combat uniform and threw it on.
From the vehicle, he took out a pistol and a sword, then fastened them to himself.
“I’m fine. My two hands are enough.”
“Oooh~ The confidence of someone at the tail end of A-rank.”
“Hyeonjun, if you’re jealous, then climb up to A-rank too.”
“Ugh, I still have a long way to go before I’m at that level.”
Major Baek Seokhun looked around and said,
“It’s quiet. Doesn’t seem like the ones we’re waiting for will come anytime soon.”
“But would they come if they were thinking straight?”
The major agreed with him.
“Still, from their point of view, today’s their only chance. Considering we’ll be taking him to Hongik from now on.”
That was why Major Baek Seokhun remained thoroughly tense and watchful.
“So, Sergeant First Class Lee Hyeonjun, don’t slack off and keep a good lookout. If you miss them, the rumors will spread everywhere.”
“Ugh, why would you say something that horrifying?”
As they were making idle banter,
a chilling wind swept past them.
Ssssh.
Major Baek Seokhun felt a strange sensation from the chill and the faint flow of mana.
“Hyeonjun, stand by.”
He immediately used his ability.
“Silape.”
Wind coiled around his fingertips.
It unraveled into the air on its own, forming a small girl.
“Check the surroundings.”
The girl nodded and scattered into the air.
‘What is this?’
Only a few seconds passed before Silape returned and whispered to the major.
‘Two Gates are going berserk.’
“Hyeonjun! Where are the nearby Gates?”
“One C-rank two kilometers away, and one B-rank three kilometers away!”
“Damn it! Report it right now! It’s a Break!”
Sergeant First Class Lee Hyeonjun was about to send a request for cooperation to a nearby unit, but soon his expression turned bewildered.
“O-Officer?”
“What?! I said it’s urgent!”
“Right now, every Gate within a twenty-kilometer radius…… is going berserk. All fourteen nearby Gates are apparently on the verge of opening.”
“Haah, fuck.”
The major looked at the Gate Sinhyeok had entered with an incredulous expression.
“Checkmate, huh. Haah, these goddamn bastards.”
He trudged toward the vehicle.
“Send a support request to the battalion commander. And let’s make the rounds of the Gates. Damn it, we’re going to get chewed out like hell.”
“Yes, sir!”
As Major Baek Seokhun climbed into the car, he muttered,
“They’re even setting off Gates however they please? So they’re saying they’ll play with us as much as they want.”
Sergeant First Class Lee Hyeonjun got into the driver’s seat.
“I called the battalion commander. He’ll be here soon, so he says to clean up the surroundings.”
“Then let’s go.”
After the car left, a black shadow stretched long across the ground in front of the empty Gate.
From the shadow covering the ground, a man with gruesome holes torn through his cheeks emerged first.
“Hurry up and come out.”
Soon after, dozens of people in black masks emerged with him.
Without a word, he pointed to the portal for those he had brought with him.
“Go.”
As soon as the order fell, they leapt straight into the portal.
“Hoo, hohoho.”
Persona Guild Master Kim Mincheol thought of someone inside the Gate, his expression trembling.
“Yu Sinhyeok, I’ll see you soon.”
With a faint smile, he too pushed himself into the Gate.
* * *
“Stand by for a moment.”
Sinhyeok, who had entered the Gate first, used Mapping before anything else.
[Activating Mapping.]
Two blue crystals popped out.
At the massive amount of information coming in from two places at once, Sinhyeok faltered for a moment.
‘This is a little overwhelming.’
It felt as if someone were speaking to him from both sides.
Soon, once Sinhyeok grew used to it, he checked the surroundings.
‘Doesn’t look like there are any moving monsters.’
He immediately got up and gestured to the two who were keeping watch.
“Let’s go right away.”
“Okay.”
Before leaving, Sinhyeok took something out from his chest.
He pulled out a teleport scroll and set the coordinates.
When a faint blue light drifted around the scroll, he put it away at once.
“Hyung, what’s that?”
“Yeah, mister, what did you bring and hide all by yourself? That’s unfair.”
“There’s such a thing, punk. Just go.”
Then he swiftly moved forward, and the two quickly stuck close to him.
“I’ll go first. I’m the only tank.”
Arin moved first and took the position in front of Sinhyeok.
And Ichan naturally took the rear, placing Sinhyeok in the middle.
“There are no moving ones. Let’s approach the old castle right away.”
The only thing visible around them was that absurdly enormous old castle.
“Mister, anyone can tell the core will be in there, right?”
“It does look that way.”
Recalling the information he had checked beforehand, Sinhyeok cautioned them.
“They said there are a lot of mimics. Don’t touch anything carelessly. Mimics can disguise themselves not only as chests, but also as furniture, walls, ceilings, or just the floor.”
The two recoiled at Sinhyeok’s warning.
“Ugh, I hate that.”
Before they knew it, the old castle was close, and Sinhyeok stopped the two of them.
“Stop. Let’s check before we go in.”
Facing the old castle, he scanned the interior in advance.
‘Four floors, and the size is……’
The search orb went endlessly deep inside.
At the scale that seemed to continue without end, Sinhyeok clicked his tongue.
“It’s really wide. It’s almost the size of two stadiums.”
Arin responded dryly to that.
“That much is nothing.”
Having entered Gates a few times in her own right, she had gotten used to it.
Sinhyeok smirked and mentioned something else.
“But the inside is complicated. It’s practically a maze.”
At those words, Arin and Ichan’s faces fell.
“That’s a bit much.”
“Done. I’ve checked the entire first floor, so let’s go in.”
Before entering the old castle, Sinhyeok changed the direction of one search orb.
One of them retraced the path they had come from. It headed toward the place where the portal was.
“Hyung, aren’t you going?”
Ichan asked Sinhyeok, who was standing still and looking back.
“Yeah, just a second. Done.”
After embedding the search orb in the portal, he headed for the old castle again.
Sinhyeok looked at the old castle that was gradually drawing closer.
‘It’s huge.’
He wondered why only such a massive old castle had been left standing all alone.
“Hyung! There’s a door.”
Ichan discovered a side door. Arin moved without delay.
“Don’t forget to check if it’s a mimic before grabbing the door.”
Arin, who had been about to seize the doorknob, stopped her hand.
“Ah, okay.”
She took out her sword and carefully tapped it a few times.
“It’s fine.”
Sinhyeok nodded and gave the signal to go in.
The door swung open, and the three of them entered the old castle first.
Tingle.
Before the door closed, Sinhyeok stared outside.
Seeing Sinhyeok turned around, Ichan asked,
“What is it?”
“No, I just felt like I saw someone familiar.”
At those somehow chilling words, Ichan asked back,
“If you saw them here, wouldn’t that make them a ghost?”
At the mention of a ghost, Sinhyeok chuckled.
“Maybe.”
Sinhyeok moved past Arin and stepped forward.
“Ah! Mister, we have to keep formation!”
“But right now, why don’t we try pushing through quickly? Straight to the core.”
“Seriously.”
Sinhyeok moved swiftly, sweeping through the first floor of the old castle.
‘Come on. I’ll welcome you to your heart’s content.’
With a murderous smile, he changed the magazine of his rifle.