Two years and several months since the Great Cataclysm.
Gates that appeared without warning, and monsters that came pouring out of them.
The world was plunged into great chaos, but the damage was not as severe as expected.
The early monsters could be suppressed by the military alone.
But with each passing day, the monsters grew stronger, and the damage could only continue to accumulate.
When the mounting damage threatened to topple the existing order, the ones who appeared were the Awakened.
Like in a game, the Awakened could see their own levels and stats, use a mysterious power called skills, and grow stronger by hunting monsters.
And when it was revealed that only the Awakened could enter Gates, they headed into them, and the world became stable as it was now······ or rather, it did not.
Because the situation was not so easy.
Monsters that grew stronger at a rapid pace, and Awakened who, frightened, refused to enter the Gates.
The more they refused to enter the Gates, the greater the damage to cities and ordinary citizens became, and the problem only grew more serious. That was when the “First Awakened” appeared.
Hero, savior, hope—there were many titles, but the one used most often was still the First Awakened.
Because unless they were the First Awakened, their abnormal strength could not be explained.
As if they were accustomed to situations like this, they cleared Gates without hesitation, won fame, and made their strength known throughout the world.
Yun Seula did not miss the opportunity presented by such circumstances.
She moved quickly, made contact with the First Awakened, sponsored them, built relationships with them, and helped them come together as a single organization.
That was how the guild “Taeryong” was born.
It was the guild led by Nam Taemin, regarded as the most outstanding among Korea’s First Awakened, and also the guild to which Yun Seula currently belonged.
“Phew······.”
The First Awakened, hero, savior—Nam Taemin.
A figure everyone admired, and currently the person with the greatest influence in the Republic of Korea.
But to Yun Seula, he was nothing more than an irritating guildmaster.
Still, what could she do?
After all, after awakening, the one who had entered Taeryong Guild not as businesswoman Yun Seula, but as Awakened Yun Seula, was herself.
“I should work. Work.”
If she lived buried in work, too busy to think, things were a little better.
There were no moments when her chest grew so tight she could not breathe, nor did she have the leisure to clutch her head over horrific memories.
But even work had its limits.
A fleeting gap in her thoughts.
A slight stretch to loosen her stiff neck.
And then, if her gaze happened to fall on the photograph placed in one corner of her desk—
“······”
Her breath caught in her throat.
Two siblings with their arms around each other’s shoulders, smiling affectionately.
The reason her mind sank endlessly was because she would never again see that smile on her younger brother’s face.
And because the bright smile in the photograph overlapped with the sight of him hanging by the neck before her eyes.
Her younger brother, who had been caught up in a Gate despite being an ordinary person.
Her poor younger brother, who had barely returned alive, only to go mad not long afterward—whatever it was he had seen there.
What saved Yun Seula from sinking without end into those distant memories was a knock, knock, sounding at the door.
“······Come in.”
The man who opened the door and entered grasped Yun Seula’s condition and schooled his expression.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. Get to the point.”
“It is an order from the guildmaster. A new Gate has appeared, so you are to deploy immediately.”
As if she had been waiting for those words, Yun Seula shot up from her seat.
“Estimated rank? Who from the guild is entering besides me?”
“The guildmaster will be entering personally.”
At that answer, Yun Seula’s movements stopped for a moment.
“The order given to Team Leader Yun Seula is······ management of the area around the Gate.”
“······Ha.”
Soon, with a cold smile, she began walking again.
“······I understand how you feel, but the guildmaster must have his reasons······.”
“Of course.”
Through the roughly closing door, Yun Seula’s barbed words slipped out.
“Isn’t he the great hero who saved Korea?”
* * *
The place Yun Seula arrived at was the site where the new Gate had appeared.
Military forces had already been deployed nearby to restrict civilian access, and beyond them, reporters hungry for a story had set up camp.
A soldier who immediately recognized Yun Seula saluted and stepped aside, and reporters who also recognized her came rushing over in a swarm, camera shutters clicking.
“It’s Yun Seula!”
“Miss Yun Seula! Since joining Taeryong Guild, we haven’t heard of any notable achievements from you······.”
“Regarding the claims that you forced your way in using Chairman Yun Hyeonsu’s backing······.”
“There are suspicions that you are actually a non-Awakened. Just one comment on that······.”
Passing by such things with practiced ease, she entered the restricted area.
A massive Gate that looked to be as tall as the fifth floor of an apartment building.
Yun Seula’s eyes as she looked up at it were nothing if not cold.
“You’re here.”
Taeryong Guild members who recognized her bowed their heads politely.
Since they were Awakened who had been left outside the Gate just like her, Yun Seula swallowed a sigh and nodded.
“How long has it been since Nam Taemin, that basta······ no, since the guildmaster entered?”
“About an hour.”
“Then it’ll still be a while before he comes out.”
Judging as much, she plopped down onto a chair set up nearby.
“Don’t just stand there. Come over here and rest.”
“But shouldn’t we be prepared for an emergency···?”
“Emergency, my ass.”
Yun Seula smiled brightly and gestured again.
“He’s that amazing hero, isn’t he? Do you think he’d fail in some Gate like this? So come on.”
The Awakened, momentarily dazed by that smile, soon came to their senses and began approaching hesitantly.
To them, Yun Seula had been a figure who shone too high to ever reach, so it did not feel real.
A third-generation heir of a leading conglomerate.
Beautiful looks and a refreshing personality.
A person known to have created Taeryong Guild by sponsoring the First Awakened amid a rapidly changing world.
But after a certain incident, she awakened and personally entered Taeryong Guild. That person was Yun Seula.
At the time of her awakening, she had received a high level measurement and attracted the attention of the world, but······ her current circumstances were, as you could see, like this.
And so one of the Awakened, thinking this was an opportunity, tried to strike up a conversation with Yun Seula, but—
“······Who is that person? Who let him in?”
Yun Seula’s gaze had gone to the very front of the Gate.
Only then did the other Awakened take their eyes off Yun Seula and look there.
“What is that?”
“He’s not one of our guild members.”
“Who let him in?”
“More importantly, what’s with his clothes?”
The man standing before the blue Gate, blankly looking up at it, seemed extremely out of place at a glance.
Shabby clothes that looked like something one might have worn in the distant past.
How had he entered this place, which should have been under military control?
Ordinary people could not enter Gates anyway, so that was fine, but if he was an unregistered Awakened, it would be a fairly serious matter. Yun Seula hurriedly approached the man.
“Excuse me! How did you get in here?”
As if startled by her voice, the man whipped his head around and looked at Yun Seula.
A tall frame, and a trained body as though he had exercised. Shabby clothes that did not match it.
And his expression and behavior, as though this situation itself was astonishing, gave her a certain sense of incongruity.
Slowing her steps, Yun Seula smiled as if to reassure him.
“My name is Yun Seula. Could you tell me how you came here?”
The man’s reaction to that kind and gentle voice was exceedingly unusual.
“Korean······. I really··· must have come back.”
The words were muttered very quietly, but they faintly reached Yun Seula’s ears, and so her expression hardened.
The words he had muttered.
The way he looked around at the Gate and his surroundings.
A man who had suddenly appeared in a place he should not have been able to enter.
All of it pointed to a single fact.
“Don’t tell me······ a Gate survivor?”
One of the Awakened who had followed behind Yun Seula spoke as if he had realized something, and those words spread quickly.
“A Gate survivor?”
“Crazy··· that was really possible?”
“Excuse me! Do you remember where you were until just now?”
Turning back to look at those Awakened, Yun Seula spoke coldly.
“Be quiet. Please, if you don’t know anything.”
Judging by the circumstances, the man seemed certain to be a Gate survivor.
A non-Awakened ordinary person who had happened to be at the site of a Gate’s formation and had been caught up in it.
And among such people, only a very, very small number barely made it back alive. Those people were called Gate survivors.
In every case, without exception, they returned with only their lives intact, their minds nearly gone.
Even if they seemed fine at first, they gradually went mad and, in the end, took their own lives—pitiful people.
Just like her younger brother.
Barely suppressing the beloved face that suddenly came to mind, Yun Seula made her smile even wider.
“Hello. Could you tell me your name?”
The one thing you must never do to them was ask about what had happened inside the Gate.
Because merely recalling it would cause their mental abnormalities to worsen rapidly.
“Ah, I’m Lee Hyeonseung. More importantly, what do you call this?”
However, this man, who introduced himself as Lee Hyeonseung, was a little unusual in that he first asked what a Gate was.
“This is called a Gate. It’s a phenomenon that appears commonly all over the place, so don’t worry about it too much.”
“A Gate······. By any chance, are there no Abyss Ga······ Gates that look exactly like this, but with a very dark black color rippling inside?”
“There are······ no such Gates.”
A black Gate?
She had never even heard of such a thing, so Yun Seula could only look at the man with even greater pity.
Just what had they seen inside those things for all of them to lose their minds like this?
“More importantly, may I ask you something else?”
Since she had to avoid talking about Gates as much as possible, she quickly changed the subject.
“Where is your home? Is it in Seoul?”
“Ah, my home. Could I see a calendar, by any chance?”
At the man’s request, Yun Seula showed him the screen of her phone, and after checking the date, the man nodded.
“My home is probably gone, then.”
Since that was obviously not a good thing, she quickly continued with the next question.
“Then··· where is your family······?”
“I don’t have any.”
“······Ah. Then··· perhaps some relatives.”
“I was an orphan who never knew my parents in the first place.”
“T-then if there are any friends or close acquaintances, I can contact them······.”
“They’re all dead.”
“······.”
The man spoke calmly, and the scene fell into silence, unable to continue.
One of the Awakened standing behind her stepped in to break the awkward silence.
“For now, our guild will assist you······.”
But Yun Seula blocked him.
She knew more about survivors than anyone.
It was only a matter of how long it took; in the end, they went mad.
They hurt themselves, harmed themselves, and finally took their own lives.
Even if that was what survivors were···.
Who knew?
If one helped him maintain as peaceful a daily life as possible, perhaps he could return to normal.
Her one and only younger brother had been unable to endure the questions and memories that poured in the moment he returned alive, and had gone mad, but perhaps this man, at least, could be saved.
If she entrusted a man with no background whatsoever to the guild, it was obvious he would be bombarded endlessly with questions he could not handle.
“Just come home with me.”
Yun Seula said this while gently wrapping her hand around the man’s.
“Yes!”
And the man nodded with unbelievable reaction speed.