44 chapter - Uninvited Guest (3)
As soon as we stepped into the F-Rank Gate, Yuna noticed me setting up a device near the entrance and asked,
“What’s that, oppa?”
“It’s nothing special. Comes with the Premium Raid Kit. Basically a kind of security device.”
“A security device?”
“Yeah. Sometimes during D-Rank Gates, we have to camp overnight, right? This replaces the night watch.”
“This thing stands guard for us?”
“Yup. If something crosses this area, the alarm pings to this watch I’m wearing.”
It was an infrared detection device—capable of catching even invisible enemies.
I finished setting the range so it would alert me the moment anyone entered the Gate.
That should be enough.
Even if the enemy had an invisibility-type Skill, as long as I got alerted, I could respond. After all, no invisibility lasts forever.
All we had to do was lie in wait for the bastard to show.
“But why set something like that up all of a sudden? We’re not sleeping here, are we?”
“There’s been some nasty rumors floating around lately.”
I gave her a short version of the news I saw on YouTube—the reports about missing Hunters and vanishing Gates. Yuna’s expression turned anxious.
“Maybe… it really is a Gate anomaly? You never know with these places…”
“Let’s hope it’s not. If it’s a natural disaster, there’s nothing we can do about it anyway.”
She asked with a serious expression.
“…Hypothetically. If the Gate disappeared right now, what would happen to us?”
“Hmm…”
“Would we be trapped inside this cave for the rest of our lives?”
“Not even that long. We’d starve to death before then.”
Even inside the Gate, our conversation was casual—like we were out on a walk.
That’s how relaxed F-Rank Gates had become for us.
Yuna, who’d been a total newbie when we met, had now cleared dozens of Gates and was more than familiar with how things worked.
Suddenly, Soo-ah snapped at us with a glare.
“…Enough with the chatter. Start clearing.”
She usually never rushed a raid, so I raised an eyebrow—until Yuna leaned in and whispered the reason.
“Unni’s really into a drama lately.”
“Oh, the one she was watching in the car earlier? Something with ‘House’ in the title?”
“Yeah. She just wants to finish quickly and get back to it. Even when she’s hanging out with me, all she does is watch it. It’s boring as hell.”
Funny—right after the Lizardman Gate, things were so frosty between them. Now they were practically sisters.
“Let’s clean this up fast and head out.”
And with that, the raid began.
It was a standard Goblin-type Gate. We were done in under an hour.
We were on our way back to the entrance when—
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!
“Hmm?”
An alert buzzed from my watch.
We had an intruder.
**
The first officially recorded Gate was discovered near the ancient city of Fenghuang in China’s Hunan Province, around February 3rd, 2000.
But whether it truly was the first remains debatable.
There were regions believed to have experienced erosion before then, hinting at unreported earlier appearances.
Regardless, it’s been about twenty years since the emergence of monsters—and Hunters to kill them.
Some Hunters basked in fame and stardom.
Others slipped into the shadows, becoming criminals.
“Phew. Now I can breathe. So, what Rank are the ones in here?”
“Four of them? Uh… probably just regular D-Rank.”
“Kang Juhui. Are you kidding me? I told you to get the basics after putting them under hypnosis.”
“S-sorry.”
Kang Juhui and Kim Taehun were the latter kind—Hunters who had become criminals.
“Well, all she does is hoard eyeballs. Useless at everything else.”
“…I’m sorry.”
To be fair, it wasn’t entirely their fault.
Their Traits forced them down this path—ones that only grew stronger by killing people.
Becoming criminals was more or less inevitable.
“Hey, Taehun-nim…”
“Mm?”
“You sure we’re okay? I mean, it was on the news yesterday. That Hunter disappearance case…”
Kim Taehun suddenly stopped walking through the cave.
His tone turned lazy.
“Ah, it’s pissing me off. Should I just kill them?”
Kang Juhui flinched and stepped back in a panic.
“S-sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything…”
“Huh? Oh, no—I didn’t mean you. I meant those assholes in the media. That professor or whoever.”
“…”
He smiled—a warm, good-natured smile.
“How could I kill you? If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t even be able to sneak into these Gates.”
He resumed walking and muttered,
“Hm. Maybe it’s time to relocate. I hear the Gangwon-do region is pretty lax. Should we try there? Or head down to Jeolla? What do you think?”
“M-me? Anywhere that works for you is fine…”
He sighed.
“God. I’m the idiot for asking you anything. Just do what I tell you, okay?”
“Yes, sir.”
Even that borderline verbal abuse didn’t faze her.
Their relationship was like a crocodile and its cleaning bird.
Taehun killed. Juhui scavenged the leftovers—eyeballs.
From her perspective, she didn’t have to dirty her hands to get results.
“How many have we killed again? Was it twenty-nine?”
“T-twenty-seven.”
“Right, twenty-seven. And just with that, both of us hit B-Rank.”
Officially, Kim Taehun was still an F-Rank Hunter.
Made sense—admitting he’d killed enough to qualify for D-Rank would be confessing to murder.
Juhui didn’t even have a Hunter license. She was unregistered.
The “rank” he was referring to was their raw mana level.
“I-I only just crossed 3,000 though…”
“Yeah, and that’s the benchmark for B-Rank. So we’re both B-Rank.”
“R-right…”
Juhui looked faintly nauseated.
Taehun talked about ranks at least a dozen times a day.
She stared at his back, annoyed.
“Insecure freak.”
She could already guess what he’d say next.
She’d heard it too many times.
Sure enough—
“Man. I spent over half a year grinding as an F-Rank. If I’d known it’d be this easy, I’d have started killing people sooner.”
Her face twisted.
Next came his tired rant about the struggles of being an F-Rank.
She cut in quickly to change the subject.
“W-what happened with those guys at the night market? They offered to recruit you, right?”
The night market.
South Korea’s premier black market.
They sold off stolen Hunter gear there for cash, and Taehun had been scouted by a group he met during one of those deals.
“Oh, that? I said yes.”
“Wh-what?”
“They’re paying just for joining. Why would I say no? Besides, it’s a group made up of people like us.”
He pulled a dagger from his coat.
“Got this for signing up. Pretty, huh?”
It definitely looked expensive.
Juhui asked with a sour face,
“You sure they’re okay? They looked… pale. Creepy, even.”
“What? What’s wrong with pale skin?”
That’s when she realized—Taehun looked paler than usual today, too.
She hadn’t noticed before, not that she paid much attention to him anyway. But something felt off now.
She scrambled to redirect again.
“S-so what’s the price?”
“Price?”
“W-what do we have to do after joining…?”
“Oh, that? Just keep killing like we’ve been doing.”
“R-really? That’s it?”
“Yep. There was one special clause, but I’ll show you later.”
She asked in a low tone,
“W-what about me?”
“You?”
He looked at her with a strange expression.
“You wanna join too?”
“Eh?”
She instinctively took a step back.
Taehun smirked and sneered.
“They don’t just take anybody, you know. It’s a group for people with real talent—like me.”
“…”
She thought,
“God, I want to kill him.”
But the opportunity would never come.
He knew her ability far too well.
He’d never once looked her in the eyes—making it impossible for her to use her hypnosis unless she went all in.
“Forget it. Be patient.”
He wasn’t wrong about having “talent.”
Taehun had gone from F-Rank to B-Rank in just a month—a monster.
Even with similar Traits, growth speed varied wildly. That’s ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) what people meant by “talent.”
Some never made it past D-Rank no matter how hard they tried, while others rocketed upward with minimal effort.
At this rate, Taehun would likely hit A-Rank—and maybe even S-Rank one day.
That was why Juhui stuck to him despite everything.
Once he got powerful enough, even his scraps would be worth something.
As she silently swallowed her hatred and followed him—
“…Just one question.”
“Hm?”
“Are you the bastards who’ve been killing Hunters in F-Rank Gates lately?”
A man stood in front of them, blade in hand.
His entire body glowed with a faint light.
When Taehun saw his face, he exclaimed,
“Oh! Aren’t you Choi Changshik?”
“…How do you know who I am?”
“How could I not? You’re a celebrity from the Certification Program. You look even more jacked than you did on TV. Been working out?”
Grinning, he turned to Juhui.
“You know him, right? Choi Changshik—the rising star who showed up with over 3,000 mana at the C-Rank Promotion Exam.”
“I-I’m not sure…”
“He’s basically the strongest C-Rank out there. Bet he’s already B-Rank by now.”
Taehun drew the dagger he’d shown earlier.
“And that means if I kill him, it’s proof I’m worthy of B-Rank too.”
Juhui’s expression contorted.
She knew what would follow if he succeeded—a long, drawn-out rant about ranks again.
“My very first big-game kill. What an honor, really.”
Taehun’s muscles started to swell. Veins popped across his skin.
But then—
Thwack!
Things didn’t go as she expected.
“…Huh?”
Taehun’s head flew from his body and tumbled across the cave floor.
“What…?”
She blinked and saw the man calmly sheathing his sword.
“…No way!”
Taehun, for all his bravado, had real talent.
He was a monster—he could take a blade and come out unscathed.
Yet here he was—decapitated in a single stroke.
“A-a monster…!”
The man began walking toward her with a blank expression.
His right eye, glowing red, made him look like a demon.
Juhui dropped to her knees.
“P-please, don’t kill me! I didn’t do anything wrong! I was just following orders! Hngh…”
Tears spilled down her face—pure fear-induced panic.
The man stopped.
“Really? You did nothing wrong?”
“Y-yes! He did all the killing—I just did what he told me to!”
“What he told you?”
“I-I had no choice! He said he’d kill me if I didn’t help. Please, just let me go!”
The man stared into her eyes.
“Then turn yourself in. Confess to the police and be investigated. If you’re truly innocent, you’ll walk free.”
Juhui stared into his one red eye and thought,
“Idiot…”
There was no way she could be investigated.
She hadn’t killed anyone since meeting Taehun—but before that, she’d killed plenty.
Zzzzzzt.
Her eyes glowed red as she activated her power.
“Kill yourself! Right now!”
“…”
She stared straight into his eyes—but he didn’t even blink.
He simply gazed back coldly.
She realized something was wrong.
He spoke, eyes flat.
“A mental-type attack. Activation condition: eye contact.”
“P-please don’t—”
“I won’t kill you.”
He continued.
“But you’ll pay the price for trying to kill me.”
His fingers plunged into her eyes.
“——Aaaaaaaaagh!”