29 chapter - Gangwon-do Gate (4)

My mother, screaming as an unidentifiable monster sank its fangs into her neck, shrouded in darkness.

It was the exact same scene from the nightmares I used to have every night as a kid.

That same nightmare that always ended with me running away, no matter how hard I resisted.

It had been a long time since I’d seen it.

“Just hold on—I’ll save you!”

I charged at the monster with my warhammer.

“Die, you bastard!”

I swung the hammer straight at the monster’s head.

Maybe it hadn’t expected me to attack—its shadow flickered violently.

“Kyaaaagh!”

It let out a grating screech and narrowly dodged the blow.

The moment I saw its mouth dripping with my mother’s blood, a surge of seething hatred exploded inside me.

‘I’ll kill it.’

The monster that killed my mom and dad.

This time, I’ll be the one to end it.

Even if it’s just a dream.

BOOOM!

The blood-stained, wrecked floor of the house cracked open beneath the weight of my warhammer.

Then, my eyes caught on my mother’s vanity tucked into the corner of the room.

In its mirror, I saw my reflection.

‘Hammer? When did I even pick this up?’

Something was wrong.

This wasn’t like the nightmare I’d had all those times before.

I could move of my own will—and I wasn’t a child.

‘This is…?’

A grown man with a strong build and a warhammer in hand. The face in the mirror was Choi Changshik’s.

‘…That’s not me.’

That’s when I snapped back to myself.

‘I was hit.’

I couldn’t remember exactly what had happened.

It felt like my memories had been wiped away at some point.

I remembered entering the Gate, arguing with the party, and starting the exploration together—but everything after that was fuzzy.

I thought I heard Hong Soo-ah’s voice at some point…

‘A mental attack. Then how do I break out of it?’

Without hesitation, I pulled off my glove and bit down on my thumb.

Flesh tore, and blood welled up—but nothing changed.

‘Shit.’

And then—

“Kyaaaagh!”

The monster suddenly lunged from the side, baring its sharp fangs at my throat.

I reflexively raised my weapon to strike, but froze mid-motion.

‘Something’s off.’

The creature closed in and sank its fangs into my neck.

“Ghkk.”

A sharp pain stabbed in, but I didn’t resist.

WOOOOOM.

Then, a warm light spread throughout my entire body.

As the light wrapped around my head—

SHHHHH.

The darkness scattered, and the world came flooding back into brightness.

“Please wake up, Oppa.”

Lee Yuna was holding me, her eyes tightly shut.

Her tears trailed down my cheeks and dripped from my chin.

‘This is…’

In front of me, Seong Yohan had fallen back in shock, staring up at me.

He was trembling, eyes wide with terror.

‘I see.’

Now that I’d broken free of the hallucination, I could understand how I’d gotten trapped in it.

‘The Snow Leopard.’

The moment I made eye contact with it, the illusion had taken over.

‘So that’s what happened.’

Now I understood why Hong Soo-ah had reacted so intensely.

And I could guess what she’d gone through too.

Tap, tap.

“I’m back, Yuna. I’m alright now.”

I gently patted her back, and she slowly let go.

She looked up at me, her eyes glistening with tears.

I spoke to her as gently as I could.

“Thank you. I got out of the hallucination because of you.”

It seemed like this light Yuna produced didn’t just heal the body—it also protected against mental attacks.

“P-Party Leader? Are you back to normal now?”

Seong Yohan, still slumped pitifully on the ground, asked me.

Judging by our positions, the monster I’d seen attacking my mom in the illusion had been Seong Yohan himself.

I nodded.

“Sorry. I attacked you, didn’t I?”

“…Yes. You really startled me.”

“Hey, Boss. You sure you’re okay?”

Im Jin-sol’s voice came from behind me.

Her bow was still aimed in my direction.

I figured there was probably a glowing blue target on the back of my head.

“I’m good. I’m back.”

She lowered her bow and asked,

“Phew… What the hell just happened?”

“A monster got me. I was hallucinating.”

“Monster?”

Judging by her reaction, it seemed no one else had seen the Snow Leopard.

I looked toward the spot where it had been, but it was already gone.

Yuna, still in my arms, asked,

“Then… is Soo-ah unnie trapped in a hallucination too?”

I looked over at Hong Soo-ah. She had both hands clamped over her ears, shaking her head and muttering to herself.

“…It wasn’t me… I didn’t do it… No… No, no…”

She was clearly not in her right mind.

“…She’s probably not hallucinating.”

The hallucination shown by the Snow Leopard was designed to provoke attacks on others.

And Hong Soo-ah already knew that looking it in the eyes would trigger that effect.

Putting those two facts together, I could reasonably guess what she’d been through.

‘She attacked one of her teammates.’

Maybe she even killed them herself.

I gently released Yuna’s arm and approached Hong Soo-ah.

“Hong Soo-ah. Snap out of it.”

“Don’t come near me!”

She was deep in a panic spiral.

I slowly lowered myself to her eye level and spoke.

“Listen to me, Hong Soo-ah. It was an accident. It’s not your fault.”

Her eyes quivered rapidly as she looked at me.

“You were caught in an illusion by a monster. You used your power to protect yourself. That’s all. It wasn’t your fault.”

She trembled, confused, and replied,

“B-but the Captain… I—I killed the Captain myself…!”

I took her hands and said,

“The Captain was killed by the monster.”

At those words, she fell silent for a moment… then burst into tears.

“Huuh… Huhuh…”

Her sobs grew louder and louder until she was crying like a child.

I held her close and gently stroked her head.

“It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”

“Waaah…”

Hong Soo-ah sobbed in my arms for a long time.

**

We huddled between rocks to take shelter from the snowstorm.

It was the first place in the Gate where we’d found even a moment of rest.

I knelt and apologized to Seong Yohan.

“I’m sorry, Yohan.”

“I’m fine.”

Im Jin-sol, who’d been listening quietly nearby, snapped and yelled.

“Fine, my ass! You almost got your skull caved in, and that’s all you’ve got to say?!”

“Haha. Really, I’m fine, noona. It’s not like the Party Leader meant to.”

“Hey! Your head almost exploded!”

For some reason, Jin-sol seemed even angrier than Yohan himself.

“…The Snow Leopard is a monster that appears alone in Gates. It’s the only boss-tier spirit-type monster among D-Ranks.”

Everyone turned to look at Hong Soo-ah.

Maybe it was thanks to her earlier crying fit—she seemed far calmer now.

Im Jin-sol whistled in surprise.

“Wow. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard Soo-ah unnie talk that much.”

“Same here, noona,” Seong Yohan added.

But Hong Soo-ah continued without reacting.

“…It goes without saying, but I’m the only one here who can deal actual damage to that thing. So this raid will have to revolve around me.”

Spirit-type monsters.

The kind that couldn’t be harmed by simple physical attacks.

And yet one of them was acting as a boss in a D-Rank Gate.

I asked,

“I’ve never heard of a monster called Snow Leopard.”

“…That’s probably true. Snow Leopards have an extremely low spawn rate.”

At that point, Im Jin-sol raised her hand and blurted out,

“Ooh! Ooh! Then how do you know so much about it, unnie? You’ve fought one before, haven’t you?”

“Unnie!”

“Noona!”

Lee Yuna and Seong Yohan both glared at her.

Im Jin-sol just shrugged.

“What? You’re not curious? I mean, it looked like something serious went down earlier.”

Seriously—she really was the type to bulldoze through conversations.

“…One of the Snow Leopard’s weapons is hallucination. If you make eye contact, you fall into an illusion and lose the ability to distinguish friend from foe. Most of the time, you’ll see a scene tied to your own trauma—and that usually leads to attacking your teammates.”

“Ah. So that’s why Boss…”

“In the past, I got caught in one of those hallucinations too. Back then, I inflicted serious injuries on my party members. The battle that followed took two of their lives.”

“Ah… haha…”

For once, Im Jin-sol looked genuinely apologetic and bowed her head.

“I’m sorry.”

Having satisfied her curiosity, she quietly began listening again.

“…So when facing the Snow Leopard, you absolutely must not look it in the eyes.”

Seong Yohan let out a small sigh.

“Then I won’t even get the chance to try my ability. I was kind of curious if it would work on spirit-types…”

I turned to Hong Soo-ah.

“You think you can take it down by yourself?”

“…I’m not completely sure, but it’s possible. Right now, this environment boosts my power to the extreme.”

A snowfield Gate in the middle of a blizzard.

Even more catalytic conditions than the foggy cliff last time.

The power of her ice magic would be pushed to its limit.

“…The problem is, that thing uses ice magic too. So my damage will be halved.”

Magic users naturally possessed resistance to their own elements.

The proof was right in front of us: even in this snowstorm, Hong Soo-ah showed no signs of discomfort.

Her cheeks and ears weren’t red, and she wasn’t shivering.

She had innate resistance to cold and ice.

‘The issue is, that Snow Leopard probably has the same kind of resistance to ice magic.’

Even with mana reserves approaching a C-Rank’s, Hong Soo-ah would likely struggle to take it down solo.

‘A monster that appears alone in a D-Rank Gate can’t be weak.’

The fact that it was alone inside the Gate meant all the power within was concentrated into that one being.

That made it one of the most dangerous bosses in the D-Rank category.

‘I should probably consider it equivalent to a C-Rank boss.’

Hallucination was bad enough, but this was a spirit-type monster that used ice magic, too. It was absurdly overpowered for its rank.

“…The only upside is that the Snow Leopard doesn’t have much durability.”

In other words, it was strong, but physically fragile.

“Good. Then we can work with that.”

The rest of the party stared at me like I was talking nonsense.

Im Jin-sol asked,

“Boss, are you sure about this?”

I ignored her and started the briefing.

“When it shows up, Yuna, the first thing I need is your power.”

“My power?”

“Yeah. I got out of the hallucination earlier thanks to your ability. That light had a side effect—it nullified mental attacks.”

Lee Yuna blinked up at me with wide rabbit eyes.

“Really?”

“Yeah. So when the Snow Leopard appears, just hold my hand.”

“Okay!”

I scanned the party and continued the briefing.

“While you’re doing that, I’ll provoke the monster. I might not be able to land a real hit, but I can throw it off. It won’t be able to trap me in another illusion. That opening will be your shot, Soo-ah—go for the kill.”

I turned to Hong Soo-ah.

“Think you can do it?”

“…Yes, Captain.”

**

“You goddamn hunting dog bastards.”

Cheongil-myeon, Hoengseong County, Mount Jubong.

A man in a ragged robe stood at the base of the mountain trail, gritting his teeth and cursing Hunters.

“Fucking maggots…”

The man was Lee Beopseong, the former manager of the Giant-Beaked Crow Gate.

He had recently been fired from his position.

Even though Hunter Bureau employees were practically government workers, getting on the bad side of the Taeseong Guild meant the end of the road.

That was how much sway Taeseong held.

‘I’ll kill them all.’

Lee Beopseong’s rage was focused entirely on Choi Changshik’s party.

He’d barely managed to find out the location of the Gate they were raiding and rushed straight to Gangwon-do.

‘I’ll slaughter every last one of them.’

He ran his fingers ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) over the pistol hidden in his jacket, biding his time.

The robe and gun he wore had cost him everything he had—Hunter-grade equipment bought with his life savings.

All for the sake of wiping out Choi Changshik’s party inside the Gate.

‘Doesn’t matter if they’re C-Rank. A bullet to the head still kills.’

Luckily, he had mana in his body.

He was an unlucky F-Rank Hunter who’d failed to awaken a Trait and was forced to retire.

‘Thanks to that, I can have my revenge.’

As long as you had mana, you could pass through a Gate.

Legally, F-Ranks were only allowed to enter F-Rank Gates—but this was an unauthorized entry anyway.

It didn’t matter.

No one knew what happened inside a Gate.

And he understood the loopholes in the Bureau’s system.

As he waited patiently, he saw the Gate manager for the one Choi Changshik’s party had entered get up and leave.

To go to the bathroom.

D-Rank Gate managers often worked alone, so it wasn’t unusual for them to step away like this.

‘Now’s the time.’

Lee Beopseong scanned the area. Once he was sure no one was watching, he threw himself into the Gate.