Chapter 375

By the way, would it really be appropriate to call this newly emerged otherworldly nest a “gate,” as Hunters habitually did?

“This time, I don’t think so.”

Kim Giryeo continued his analysis while staring at the screen.

First of all, fortunately, the thing that could at least be called a “dungeon” had no doors dividing its interior. Nor were there any towering walls. If one had to compare it to something familiar, it was probably closest to a troublesome “Red Gate.”

Even so, the thing that had emerged from the Pacific was so utterly alien that no one could have described it as red.

And now that Red Gates had come to mind, something else occurred to him.

“No wonder there have been so many cases of open-type passages appearing lately.”

Could the recent string of Red Gate rushes have been them testing the waters?

Murmur, murmur.

By then, the atmosphere inside the Hunter-frequented restaurant had grown completely chaotic.

Sensing the shift in the air, Kim Giryeo paused with his chopsticks in hand.

“Well, I mean... it’s nice that civilization has advanced enough for us to receive news instantly, but still...”

A faint sense of displeasure crossed his mind.

“Having to look at things like this even while I’m eating... honestly, it doesn’t feel very good. I don’t think it’ll agree with my stomach.”

“So even you have ordinary concerns like that, Hyung-nim.”

But the mood did not last long.

He simply was not thinking entirely rationally with food in front of him.

It was not as though the reporter had done anything wrong.

‘It’s only been a few days since I got back from Türkiye, and things are already this chaotic again.’

The moment Kim Giryeo learned about the special dungeon that had appeared in one region of Earth, a faint sheen of sweat formed on his skin.

According to the article, the mysterious dungeon—much like a Red Gate—had suddenly manifested inside a pillar of light... and was now slowly revealing its form to the outside world.

“Since when do dungeons move?”

“Looking at its route, doesn’t it overlap completely with our side of the country?”

“No, before worrying about us, with a route like that, it would pass through Japan first.”

“Wow... is it even possible for anyone to go deal with something like that...?”

For context, the other Hunters in the restaurant were tense because they “didn’t know exactly what kind of dungeon it was.”

When a form of nest never before seen on Earth appeared, humans naturally trembled before the unknown.

But the alien sitting across from Ahn Yoonseung was worried for an entirely different reason.

If anything, he knew far too much.

And because of that, his concerns were always completely different from those of the humans around him.

‘Even I, an Archmage, had forgotten about this issue. Well, there had never been a precedent for it... but now that I think about it, this could have appeared at any time!’

Who, ultimately, would claim jurisdiction over the newly emerged dungeon?

‘The moment I start getting stressed, selfish thoughts naturally follow.’

Japan?

Considering how far from the Korean Peninsula the phenomenon had first appeared, that seemed the most likely answer.

But just as he had thought earlier, there was no guarantee that Kim Giryeo’s own country of origin would remain uninvolved.

‘At the very least, I hope a Hunter like Jung Haeseong doesn’t have to board that island.’

Island.

Island...

Right.

An island.

To add one more detail, if its size had been only slightly smaller, it probably would have been called a reef.

That was the true nature of this special phenomenon.

What mattered, however, was not its structure.

It was its location.

‘But whether a Hunter goes there or not, there’s a one-hundred-percent chance this turns into a major incident.’

That dungeon had appeared high above the ground.

What were they supposed to do about this?

Beep.

A moment later, someone holding the remote changed the restaurant television channel.

A more detailed news report immediately appeared.

According to the broadcast, if the dungeon continued along its current route, it would eventually intrude upon the airspace of a certain country.

And even now, monsters from inside the dungeon were already beginning to spill out one by one.

‘If the beasts are provoked, a panicked Japan will rush in and try to seize control.’

But if events unfolded the way he feared, it would be the worst possible outcome.

According to the information the Archmage possessed, no human on Earth should ever touch that extraordinary phenomenon.

‘I was planning to take it easy on the 24th this year too! I wanted to experience that Earth tradition called Christmas!’

In the end, however, there was only one option.

Even as frustration welled up inside him, Kim Giryeo forced himself to remain calm.

After thinking through several possible ways to contact Japan immediately, he finally took out Puri’s cellphone.

‘Let’s send Iori a warning.’

Whatever method he used, he had to make it absolutely clear that no one was to attempt clearing that phenomenon.

If they did, everyone living along the coastline would be placed in danger.

Tap, tap, tap.

Kim Giryeo moved his fingers across the phone.

For reference, the device still contained an old message thread that had never quite been finished.

[Message from 1 month ago]

[Recipient: Iori (Japan)]

[Hello, Hunter Kim Giryeo from Korea! I’m truly sorry for not replying sooner.

I’ve only just seen your message.

From today onward, I’ll make sure to respond immediately at any time!

By the way, regarding your message from yesterday, may I ask what situation prompted you to send it?]

[Kim Giryeo (Me)]

[Ah, that... it was nothing.

I heard you were ambushed by hunter ants...

I just wanted to check whether you were okay...

I sent the message as a courtesy, nothing more.

I’m S-rank myself—there’s no way I’d contact another S-rank just to beg for money.]

[Iori (Japan)]

[Ahaha, I suppose so.]

.

.

.

Meanwhile, December 23rd.

At the same time, in another East Asian country.

“Wow, it’s cold.”

Christmas was almost here in Japan as well.

A walk through the shopping districts revealed event displays drenched in red and green everywhere.

Until November, however, tensions between the non-Awakened and the Awakened had remained intense.

There was a particular reason Tokyo’s streets had managed to regain some semblance of peace.

“Iori!”

More precisely, it was because of an incident caused by a single Awakened individual.

Explaining the entire matter would take too long, but in short, it had begun with the deep-rooted prejudice against superpowered people in this country.

It was not simply that ordinary people vastly outnumbered them.

Many members of the upper class—what one might call “old money”—also belonged to the anti-Awakened side.

Most newly Awakened mutants were in their twenties or thirties, and even when they earned a great deal of money, very few held any genuine political power.

As a result, political figures who felt their authority threatened had stirred up fear through biased reporting.

By manipulating public opinion in this way, they attempted to preserve their influence.

That was the sort of conflict Japan had been dealing with until recently.

“Iori, is it really okay for you to be out like this?”

But when the famous Hunter Iori was attacked with a weapon by an extremist activist, those political efforts effectively collapsed.

From that point onward, public opinion reversed completely.

The Awakened had supported a bill expanding item-possession rights because they believed dangerous individuals like themselves needed the means to defend themselves.

But once an ordinary person managed to injure an Awakened individual, people began questioning whether that had truly been the right approach.

And amid all of this, the nation’s representative Hunter—the face of the country, so to speak...

Rumors had even begun circulating that Morita might become the first S-rank Hunter to die of overwork, given how obsessively he threw himself into his duties.

On the rare occasions when he appeared in interviews, his face looked gaunt enough to belong to a skeleton.

Even when ordinary citizens committed outrageous acts or openly criticized him to his face, he responded with impeccable courtesy.

Seeing that, Japan’s elderly population could not help but cast their sympathy toward the nation’s representative Hunter.

Public sentiment shifted.

And it was not only domestic opinion that changed.

When senior officials continued refusing to stop provoking conflict among the population, international criticism began to mount as well.

[U.S. President expresses ‘regret’ over anti-Awakened remarks by member of Japan’s Nara Party]

Once statements like that began appearing, there was little left to be done.

So many events had unfolded that, taken as a whole, it would not be an exaggeration to call the outcome a victory for the Awakened.

“Is it really okay for you to be walking around already? You haven’t been out of the hospital for long.”

“I wanted to see the illuminations.”

It was then.

The young man who, in anyone’s eyes, seemed to have been the catalyst behind the shift in public opinion spoke up.

“By the way, you still didn’t know?”

He was Iori, one of Japan’s S-rank Hunters.

And the person listening to him was likewise an S-rank Awakened.

“I was a fake patient.”

“Huh?”

“Of course, I did let myself get hurt a little to sell the act, but all that stuff about undergoing major surgery was a complete lie.”

“W-what?”

And what kind of shocking confession was that?

The woman beside him, whose medium-length hair had taken on an unusual color due to trichromatic disorder—a condition unique to the Awakened—stared at him in disbelief.

Yet Iori continued talking, completely indifferent to the way her face was turning pale.

“Anyway, we secured the civil rights of the Awakened. That’s what matters, right?”

In truth, this S-rank Hunter had already had a rough understanding of the domestic political situation before the incident at the Tokyo Expo.

He had spent a long time preparing a stage on which he could sway public opinion, then put the plan into action when the right opportunity appeared.

That was how he, as an Awakened individual, had finally reached the point where he could walk freely through the streets of Tokyo.

“Th-then... does Guild Master Ito know about this too?”

“No. That guy pulled something obnoxious before, so I deliberately kept him in the dark.”

“Then...”

“You mean he genuinely worked himself half to death trying to keep the citizens safe. Still, do you feel a little sorry for the guild you belong to?”

“You brat.”

“You should’ve gone independent sooner.”

For someone who had supposedly sacrificed himself for all superhumans, the remark that followed was remarkably flippant.

“And you—stop looking at me like that.”

“What did I do?”

“I made this decision based on perfectly rational calculations.”

The young man in the light green scarf continued speaking.

Honestly, perhaps it would have been better not to hear what came next.

“Well, I am pretty good-looking, after all.”

The listener half-closed her eyes like someone who had just put in eye drops.

“I’ve got more members in my fan café than Ito does, so with this level of popularity, there’s nothing I can’t pull off. Honestly, I was convinced from the very beginning that the staged terror attack would succeed one hundred percent.”

Modern society had already reached the point where Awakened humans could literally shoot fire from their hands.

And yet, somehow, that shallow relic of the past known as lookism still remained alive and well.

“It’s honestly a relief that Hunter Iori... became a Hunter.”

“Why?”

“If you’d gone into entertainment, you definitely would’ve ended up in some tabloid scandal over an affair within five years. Seriously, how can someone think in such a shameless and shady way?”

“Still, I’m better than those old elites who hate mutants. At least I’m open-minded.”

The blue-haired Awakened no longer spoke quite so harshly after that.

As shaken as she was, it was undeniable that she too had ultimately benefited from someone else’s reckless scheme.

Sparkle, sparkle.

Iron reindeer stood along the street, and trees were lavishly wrapped in strings of lights.

“Hmm?”

But several minutes later—

Just as they finally stepped onto a crowded street, a strange dungeon suddenly appeared out of nowhere...

‘Christmas Eve is right around the corner, so what the hell is that?’

Before Iori even had time to complain, another piece of information arrived on his phone.

“Gasp!”

“What? What happened?”

“A message from Hunter Giryeo in Korea just came in!”

“Seriously? Damn it, why does he only message you?”

The sender was a man named Kim Giryeo.

Without hesitation, S-rank Hunter Iori immediately activated the translation function on his phone.

But by the time the translated text appeared on the screen—

“Huh.”

Iori’s face had gone deathly pale.

Even though he was the same man who had boldly deceived most of the nation with an elaborate performance, when it came to something like this, he could not summon his usual nerve.

“Kim Giryeo says we mustn’t clear the dungeon.”

Fear flickered across the young man’s face.

“The... the dungeon... He said not to even think about touching the dungeon that was just on the news.”

“What? That’s all he said? Then isn’t that a good thing?”

“What do you mean, good?”

“If he sent that message, doesn’t that mean he wants to deal with the dungeon himself? It looked like a pain anyway, so this works out perfectly. I’m totally in favor. Completely in favor.”

“This isn’t about whether you’re in favor, you idiot!”

At that moment, the colleague beside him made the thoughtless remark...

But it did not take long before the same person who had spoken so casually shrank back in fear.

“You! Did you already forget what happened at the Black Dragon Gate?”

“Huh?”

“I’m talking about when Kim saved our country’s Hunters. That was the reason, wasn’t it?”

For reference, a certain blond superhuman with sambagean eyes had once brushed aside an attempted murder inside a dungeon under the pretext of “preserving gate-management personnel.”

Of course, that had merely been an excuse fabricated on the spot.

In reality, the weaker Kim Giryeo of that time had survived by relying on his eloquence.

But the Japanese president had never realized that they had been deceived.

And now that Kim Giryeo had regained his strength, the truth no longer mattered anyway.

“Oh? Ah, right. I remember. He clearly told us to keep managing the dungeons properly, and that was why he let us off...”

“And now he’s suddenly telling us not to do it. That has to mean something.”

The proverb, “When the cunning rabbit dies, the hunting dog is cooked,” was known in their part of the world as well.

In other words, they too understood what happened to a hunting dog once it could no longer hunt.

The two Japanese Hunters soon froze where they stood, wearing nearly identical expressions.