As Ichan had said, they started over from the beginning.
The dolls they had destroyed earlier regenerated and came rushing at them.
“Ah, seriously!”
Along with Ichan’s annoyance and irritation, the dolls charged en masse.
“Tsk! Those magic crystals are expensive!”
Sinhyeok said, taking out his rifle and aiming.
Ichan immediately took out his rifle as well, following Sinhyeok’s lead.
“Hyung, those are magic crystals! They’ll say something if we break them!”
“Ugh, we’ll break them first and think later!”
To make things easier, they put securing the magic crystals aside and fired away.
Bang bang bang bang!
Bullets flew, aiming for the magic crystals.
Dolls shattered, and more dolls kept piling up.
The boss mob, the music box, endlessly created them, and the two kept destroying them.
“When does this end!”
Even after pouring out bullets for a long while, the dolls showed no sign of stopping.
“Hyung! I’m out of bullets!”
Ichan slung the rifle behind him and drew his bayonet.
“I’m out now too.”
Sinhyeok also drew his bayonet and prepared to attack.
He still had a pistol at his waist, but it was an ordinary firearm that had not been enhanced.
‘It won’t have any effect. And there’s no time.’
The dolls came swarming in again.
“Tsssss!”
Sinhyeok was dumbfounded as he looked at the insane numbers.
“What is wrong with that thing! Hold back a little, damn it!”
Naturally, it did not listen.
On the contrary, the numbers grew even larger.
“Haa!”
Sinhyeok panted as he diligently put into practice the act of removing the dolls’ batteries.
“Hup, huuup.”
Catching his breath, he busily tampered with the dolls.
Seeing an opening as the boss mob faltered, Sinhyeok shouted.
“Ichan! Go in!”
With that shout, the two rushed toward the boss mob.
They stabbed the human figure atop the enormous music box, which creaked as it repeated the same action.
Thud!
Thud!
Their military bayonets went in at the same time.
When they pulled the bayonets out, parts came raining down.
“Did that do it?”
Ichan looked at it with an expectant face, but not at all.
The parts that had flown out came swarming back again.
“Ah, seriously! Hyung, can’t you take out its battery?!”
Sinhyeok grabbed Ichan and quickly retreated.
The regenerated dolls lunged at Ichan and Sinhyeok.
“That thing’s battery is an infinite power source!”
Since the core resided in that thing, it was no different from infinite power, a dream battery.
“What do we do!? Nobody’s coming!”
There had been no news from the unit that was supposed to come.
‘Exactly. Why aren’t they coming?!’
It was long past the time they should have arrived.
Sinhyeok widened the distance from the boss mob and thought.
‘That thing didn’t originally go wild like this.’
Though it was far in the past, he had entered this gate before.
To begin with, the reason this gate had been left in the middle of town with only a fence around it was because it posed no danger.
Back then, that music box had simply danced the same repeated dance all day long along with its music.
The other dolls had been the same.
‘It’s broken.’
Judging by its state, that music box was broken right now.
He did not know the cause, but something had happened to make it end up like that.
‘If I fix it, will it go back?’
The thought occurred to him.
“Should I try fixing it?”
Ichan looked at Sinhyeok, who had said he would fix it, as if he were a madman.
“Hyung, fix what?”
“That thing. It’s broken. Let’s try fixing it.”
Ichan swallowed as he looked at the music box that was grotesquely repeating only one movement and playing only one section of music.
“Isn’t that just how it normally is?”
“No.”
“Let’s think about that later and wait. The seniors will come and—”
“If they haven’t come after this many minutes, that means something happened elsewhere too.”
It was obvious.
If they still had not arrived when the unit was right nearby, then something had happened somewhere else as well.
‘Let’s try it. It might work.’
First, he examined the music box closely.
Looking at the music box, he saw a large crack.
‘If I do something about that.’
Sinhyeok stared intently at the cracked part of the music box.
Seeing Sinhyeok looking at it seriously, Ichan watched him with an anxious expression.
“Hyung? No, right?”
“Ichan.”
Sinhyeok set down his rifle and spoke.
“Ah, seriously!”
“Cover me! Guard me well!”
Wraiths poured out of Ichan’s mouth as he shrieked.
“You’re insane!”
Sinhyeok sprinted across the dolls.
The wraiths and Ichan filled the gap behind him.
Approaching the music box in one breath, Sinhyeok touched the cracked spot.
Wooooong.
More dolls were forming around him.
“How annoying…”
He kicked a doll away with a thwack! and checked the broken part.
‘Two springs are broken.’
Looking closely, two springs were damaged, so it had not been functioning properly.
“That’s it.”
“Ah, Hyuuuung!”
Ichan immediately chased after him and occupied the area around him.
“Damn it! Everyone, move!”
Ichan resisted with his whole body and bought time.
“Hyung! I’m dying here! Ugh!”
Gradually, Ichan began getting beaten up.
Sinhyeok glanced back and shouted.
“Just one doll over here!”
“Seriouslyyyy! Ugh! Gghhup!”
After being struck in a precious place, Ichan trembled and kicked one broken doll over.
Receiving the doll, Sinhyeok immediately slammed it to the ground and broke it. He gathered the fragments that had become shards.
Checking the cracked part of the music box, he searched for a piece as similar as possible.
‘This should do, roughly.’
He picked it up and reached toward the cracked spot.
“If this works, it’ll be huge.”
“Ugyagagagak!”
Behind him, someone’s fierce sacrifice was visible, but Sinhyeok deliberately ignored it.
After roughly fitting in a similar piece, Sinhyeok covered it with his hand and flowed mana into it.
‘Enhancement.’
[Core: Enhancing the broken music box and the shattered spring fragment.]
[Enhancement has failed.]
‘Enhance again.’
He flowed mana into it and continued attempting it in two places.
‘My mana is a magic crystal. My mana is a magic crystal.’
Repeating that thought endlessly, he continued trying.
[Enhancement has failed.]
Sinhyeok stretched out both hands, touched the fragments, and flowed mana into them as intensely and densely as possible.
‘Densely. Weave it well.’
[Enhancement has failed.]
[Enhancement has failed.]
“Hyuuung! I’m really dying!”
Sinhyeok turned back and checked Ichan’s condition.
He was truly on the verge of going to the afterlife.
Ichan’s blackened face was truly an emergency situation.
“I’m about to burst! Huh!”
“Hey, hey! If you burst, that’ll be an even bigger problem! Hold on!”
“Aaaaaaagh! Cough! Hyung, I don’t think I can!”
Sinhyeok focused on the music box with an even more anxious heart.
“Come on, work, damn it! Just work like a potion!”
‘Potions work just fine, so why won’t this!’
[Enhancement has failed.]
Every time the message of failure appeared, he flowed mana even more intensely.
[Failed.]
‘No. Is this not it?’
He stopped for a moment.
‘What’s wrong? The dwarf did it so easily. Just what’s different?’
The moment he stopped, he saw his mana unraveling in the air.
It only condensed briefly before immediately vaporizing into the atmosphere and disappearing.
‘Mana. Is that substance what I’m supposed to weave?’
That thought occurred to him.
Perhaps what a magic crystal bound together was not the substance, but the unique mana inherent within that substance.
‘Not the materials, but only the mana?’
With that thought, he savored the two materials with both hands. In great detail.
He took out one of Mapping’s search orbs and carefully scanned the music box.
The more he focused, the denser and finer all his senses became.
‘I can feel it.’
An intense energy and a faint energy.
[Core: Enhancing the mana of the broken music box and the shattered spring fragment.]
[Enhancement has succeeded.]
[You have realized a secret art of ancient alchemy.]
[Secret Art: Synthesis has been added as a main skill.]
When he took his hands away, the music box, which had been trapped repeating one section, began producing proper movements and sound.
“Huh?”
All the dolls stopped, and even the mana of the gate, which had been about to scatter and erupt explosively, grew calm.
“It worked.”
Sinhyeok looked at it and smiled.
“So this is synthesis…”
The reassembled music box leisurely danced and sang.
The dolls went back out onto the street and repeated their play.
Ichan lay down on the road now that the scenery had become safe.
“I’m dying.”
Sinhyeok looked at Ichan lying on the ground and searched through his pocket.
“Where did your potion go?”
“R-right side. Mom’s calling me again.”
Ichan stared into the air and tried to reach out his hand.
“Hey, hey, snap out of it. If you go there, that’s the afterlife!”
He smacked him hard across the cheek.
“Argh!”
He poured the purification potion into his open mouth.
“Huaaa.”
Ichan’s blackened face returned to normal.
Sinhyeok reached out and pulled Ichan to his feet.
“Let’s get out of here.”
“Yeah. Wow, hyung, seriously… why would you fix that in that situation?”
“Because I thought it would work. Didn’t it make your heart race? Dopamine bursting everywhere.”
Ichan made a disgusted face.
“It didn’t just burst with dopamine, I felt like I was going to explode. I think I died a few times, hyung.”
Sinhyeok chuckled and fully expressed his joy at having obtained “Synthesis.”
“Still, we got something out of it! Nobody died! I solved my homework! This is great!”
Ichan was appalled.
“Ugh. Seriously, don’t ever do that again. It was really dangerous.”
“Got it, you punk.”
As they headed toward the portal, Ichan asked Sinhyeok.
“But why did it suddenly try to explode? It was being managed well. Gates don’t usually burst as long as they’re cleared every now and then. They said they could last for decades.”
Sinhyeok recalled the moment he had fixed the music box earlier.
‘There was a lot of foreign energy around it.’
There had indeed been foreign energy gathered around the core.
In addition, unlike in the past, the energy of this gate itself was very turbid.
“Hmm… maybe someone tampered with the core?”
“That makes sense.”
As Sinhyeok exited through the portal, he thought.
‘But there were no traces that anyone had touched it.’
There were no traces of anyone breaking in and clearing it either.
The core had simply shaken naturally, been stimulated, and driven to the brink of a break.
‘There’s no way that could happen… If it could, that would be a disaster.’
When they came out of the portal, the surroundings were chaotic.
“What’s going on around here?”
Everything around them was noisy.
“It’s opening over there! Someone go and blow that one up too!”
Everyone from Hongik was clearing gates in the middle of the night.
“Are you two all right?”
Hearing a voice from behind, Sinhyeok turned around.
The command sergeant major had come to meet them.
“Loyalty! No injuries.”
“It’s a relief you’re fine.”
She checked the gate and asked.
“I clearly heard it was going to burst?”
“We went in and fixed it.”
“What?”
“It had a few screws loose, so I patched it up and fixed it.”
At Sinhyeok’s calm answer, she looked as if she could not understand.
“The core?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Tsk. What kind of nonsense are you talking about?”
She checked the gate, then accepted it.
“It’s true.”
Seeing Sinhyeok looking proud, the command sergeant major wore a subtle expression.
“You’re talented, I’ll give you that. Return for now.”
Seeing her stare at the gate, Sinhyeok asked about the situation.
“May I ask what’s going on?”
“Gates all over the country at E-rank and below are bursting and shaking all at once.”
“Pardon?”
“Just know that much. Go back now. This place is scheduled to be closed too.”
At the mention that it would be closed, Sinhyeok thought of the wasted resources and said,
“There are some magic crystals in there.”
“We don’t need them.”
She extended a finger.
A small, condensed stream of qi shot out from its tip.
It pierced straight through the entire gate, and the portal trembled.
Soon, it vanished with a whisper.
[The gate is being closed.]
[Experience will be distributed according to contribution.]
[A large amount of experience has been distributed.]
With a single gesture from her, the gate was smashed.
“Uh.”
“Ah.”
The two lost their words at the sight.
“Hurry back. Be careful of monsters on the way.”
She calmly stepped through the air and headed elsewhere.
“Write your duty logs properly! If you leave anything out, it’s full gear!”
Sinhyeok smiled awkwardly, saluted, and got into the car.
“Let’s go. We’ll pick up Arin and the senior on the way.”
“Yeah.”
On the way back, they headed to the place where they had dropped them off and saw an exhausted Arin and Sergeant Yun Taehyeok.
He smiled and waved.
“You two are fine. I thought you’d have gotten scratched up in a few places.”
“Come on, I do have some experience.”
“Haha. Right, at your level.”
Sergeant Yun Taehyeok carefully observed Ichan, who belonged to the same unit, and checked on him.
“Ichan, you’re all right too, aren’t you? How do you feel? Are you tired, hearing things, or did anything feel different from usual? Anything unusual?”
At those words, Ichan remembered how he had nearly burst inside the gate earlier.
Just as his lips twitched, Sinhyeok beat him to it.
“There was nothing. It was the music box gate, so there wasn’t anything strenuous.”
Sergeant Yun Taehyeok nodded at that.
“Ah, it was there. Since it’s an F-rank gate, I guess nothing much would have happened. Then let’s head back.”
The four of them got into the vehicle together and returned to the unit. By the time they arrived, everyone was coming back in droves.
“Ugh~ What kind of commotion is this in the middle of the night?”
“Platoon leader, I’m leaving right away! I’m late for an appointment!”
“Yeah, yeah, go. I’ll file the report.”
“Squad leader, since we’re already out, how about a drink?”
“Sounds good. Let’s just drop off the equipment first.”
It seemed everyone had come out and thoroughly cleaned up the gates.
The person on guard duty at the gate came out and welcomed them all.
“Everyone’s worked hard. Hurry in and get some rest.”
Sinhyeok also returned to the officers’ quarters.
“Ah, I feel stiff.”
Sinhyeok looked at Ichan, who was following him in with a gloomy expression.
Ichan trudged toward his room.
“Ichan.”
Ichan turned around with a sulky expression.
“What.”
“Cheer up. It’s not like you committed a crime. And you said you wanted ramen.”
“……”
Ichan came out into the living room and lay down on the floor. With his face against the floor, he muttered,
“Hyung, make me ramen.”
“Sure. I’ll add tuna too.”
“Sausage too.”