Chapter 391

Swish swish swish.

A few days later.

I learned that an unusual gate had appeared in England, but I took no particular action. As Andy, the American, had said, our objective was to prevent certain high-ranking individuals from abusing the [Prophecy]. Just because something was written on a scroll didn't mean we could treat every gate as private property.

So, in the end, my foreign subordinates and I decided to stay out of this one.

However, ever since my reincarnation, watching the news had become something of a daily hobby. Sooner or later, whether I wanted to or not, I was bound to come across news like this.

'Another failed attempt at the gate in England?'

A negative report had surfaced regarding a certain gate nicknamed the [Rage-Inducing Zone].

I stopped cleaning my only weapon, the Hydra, and turned my head.

My phone lay nearby, and on its screen, a reporter—presumably British—was holding a microphone and delivering the following news.

British Hunters had recently decided to temporarily abandon their attempts to clear a certain A-Rank gate and instead maintain it in its current state for the time being.

Put simply, they intended to manage it carefully so that the space wouldn't explode.

But honestly, on Earth, "preventing a dungeon break" was relatively simple.

You only had to send people inside periodically to reduce the monster population.

'At least this time it's not an S-Rank. Thank goodness.'

Since the gate was completely isolated by its unique magical boundary, it didn't actually take up any surface space.

And although no one liked to mention it when public concern over disasters was high, controlling monster populations in this manner was actually a fairly common way to make money even under ordinary circumstances.

'Judging from what happened, Korea's [Delhi No. 1614] must've suffered some kind of error. Still, unless it's one of those absurdly rare cases, a break shouldn't occur while the gate is being properly managed...'

Besides, monsters that respawned later inside the gate didn't drop items anyway.

'The D-Rank gates owned by Korea's Magic Tower and used to obtain materials for mana amplifiers work the same way. I also heard that [Knight's Oath] is managed similarly by European authorities—they extract items in exactly that manner. Since there's no guarantee the same dungeon will ever appear again, they deliberately leave a few monsters that drop useful artifacts alive.'

Once I realized there was no immediate problem, I finally put my phone down.

'Now I need to learn how to ignore even news like this.'

At the same time, I found myself reflecting.

'I've been getting far too involved in the affairs of these primitive people.'

Retirement.

Ever since everything went haywire this year, I had somehow begun placing less importance on that word.

Yet the greatest reason an Alphauri had come to Earth in the first place was to live a life without work.

That dream had never changed, then or now.

And yet, whenever a somewhat unusual gate appeared, I couldn't help but take a peek.

Ironically, I was painting a picture completely opposite to the life of a retiree.

'After all, this is a planet that continues to evolve brilliantly every year even if you simply leave it alone...'

Self-reliance wasn't something only Jung Haseong needed.

In truth, it applied to me as well, and naturally, to all humans.

Moreover, humanity still had plenty of shortcomings if it hoped to confront invaders from space and fight for the survival of the species.

From now on, even when special incidents occurred, I needed to ignore most of them and let the locals handle matters on their own.

And yet, even after reaching that conclusion, I felt that perhaps there should be an exception—just this once—for the dungeon that had appeared this time, the one with "rage" or whatever in its name.

'No one has died yet, but I'm concerned that nobody has managed to reach the core where the boss is.'

Looking back on my second life so far, things around this time always seemed to take an unusual turn.

'Above all, the [Great Cataclysm] should be ending around now. The fact that the gate creators still can't properly gauge difficulty is a fairly serious problem.'

Lately, those parasitic entities seemed incapable of distinguishing the proper boundaries.

No matter how remarkable a parasite might be, it still required a host.

But if the host were made to swallow suffering without restraint like some mindless pig, both species would inevitably head toward mutual destruction.

Teaching someone how to catch their own food was one thing.

But if that young person was obviously about to drown, wasn't saving them still the humane thing to do?

'After all, even the word "alien" contains the word "person"...'

I sat alone in the dark room, gathering and sorting through my thoughts.

"Perhaps it's time to take some drastic measures."

At the end of all that thinking, I found myself muttering aloud for no particular reason.

After all, when an office worker lives alone for too long, they tend to make random noises just to keep cobwebs from forming on their lips.

"Well, if I handle this properly now, I shouldn't have to worry for a while. It's something I'd already been considering even before going to India."

Now that I had finally settled on a short-term goal, I decided to put my analysis of this Earth body on hold for a while and devote some time to a certain branch of magical research.

After all, we'd probably stop by that gate in England at some point.

Still, to be clear, it wasn't something I intended to do immediately.

Maybe they'd manage to resolve it themselves while I was preparing.

***

...And barely seven hours after I began the new research.

'Just because it's winter doesn't mean it snows every day.'

It had been a while since I'd last gone outside.

Oh, and those people who had come all the way to Korea requesting sparring matches had long since grown tired and returned home.

So, taking advantage of the peace that had finally settled over the world, I stepped outside and took care of various preparations needed for my research.

'Huh? I got a call.'

But after spending quite a while on my own, an unexpected appointment suddenly came up.

'Seo Esther? What's going on?'

According to the head of the Korean Magic Tower, a curse practitioner, whenever she happened to encounter me at various sites, she always felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

And it turned out that it wasn't really déjà vu at all.

She had simply realized, somewhat belatedly, that my clothes looked practically identical every single time.

'Am I not supposed to wear suits?'

The problem wasn't the style.

It was the lack of variety.

Whether someone wore a suit or a hanbok apparently didn't matter.

What shocked her was discovering that an acquaintance in the field had simply been rotating through clothes sold by his own family's shop...

'Why was she shocked?'

When I voiced my confusion, Esther gave a few more explanations.

To summarize, she apparently felt a sense of crisis over a certain man's habit of wearing whatever clothes he happened to receive as gifts.

Because of that personality, she felt she needed to intervene somehow.

Before that monstrous indifference summoned another neon-green sweatshirt, she absolutely had to act...

If I made an effort to interpret it, the emotion Esther felt could almost be described as a sense of responsibility. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

So, since she happened to have some free time, she came all the way to where I was and picked out several new clothes for me.

'I was planning to check whether you've been keeping up with the textbook anyway. I suppose this gives us an excuse to meet in person.'

Among the gifts the curse practitioner gave me this time, there were a particularly large number of scarves.

'The number on the price tag is higher than the cost of an entire pot of gukbap.'

When I asked why she had given me so many scarves, Esther explained that in the middle of winter, seeing me walking around dressed so neatly without anything warm around my neck made the people looking at me feel colder.

The conversation kept drifting into matters I could hardly understand.

But in any case, free things were always welcome.

'It's not like I need to be overly cautious around the curse mage anymore. Isn't it fine to take a little advantage?'

After spending such a frivolous day, evening eventually arrived.

It was simply winter, so the sun had set early, but regardless, darkness had already fallen.

We decided it was about time to wrap things up and head out.

Beep-beep, beep-beep.

But a single phone call Esther received in the middle of all that abruptly changed the peaceful atmosphere.

"What was that call about? I couldn't hear anything because it's noisy around here."

"Oh, nothing serious. For a moment I thought I'd have to rush somewhere, but it was just someone from the Association sending me gate information, as they'd promised."

"Gate information?"

"When it comes to sharing information about gates around the world, the Association is faster than the internet... Ah, since you're here, shall we take a look together, Giryeo-ssi?"

Naturally, I was always happy to catch a glimpse of humanity's progress.

But as I looked at the phone screen Esther showed me, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

'So jealousy isn't something unique to Kim Giryeo.'

I hadn't really mentioned it before, but the original owner of this body had quite a jealous streak.

People like Gu Seohyeong, Seo Esther, and Jung Haseong.

Whenever this body's brain encountered someone who excessively satisfied its aesthetic standards, it would reflexively generate a sense of aversion.

Because Kim Giryeo had spent his entire life feeling inferior about his appearance, those negative reactions had become deeply ingrained.

'From an alien's perspective, I honestly can't tell what makes them so different...'

The reason I suddenly started thinking about jealousy was because the gate currently being reported to Seo Esther inflicted exactly that effect the moment someone entered.

[Status Abnormality: Jealousy]

A "feeding box" had appeared that drove people mad with envy.

At first, you would resent the monsters for possessing horns, colors, or other traits that you yourself lacked.

But after defeating the monsters and making some progress, the space gradually became one where even every little thing about your teammates started getting on your nerves.

The adventurers who challenged this newly appeared gate encountered truly troublesome incidents.

They became envious not only of visible traits such as appearance and strength, but even of less tangible things like personality.

Even though the people around them were long-time companions who had endured countless hardships together, the entrants eventually began openly mocking each other out of jealousy.

And from there, things escalated into violent fights, with weapons being drawn against one another.

If the team's ace—the only person with strong mental resistance—hadn't restrained everyone...

It probably wouldn't have ended with nothing more than hurt feelings.

'Uh... I feel like I've seen this picture somewhere before?'

Once again, a "feeding box" that strongly lured Hunters had appeared.

At first, I thought they had simply reused a similar system.

No matter how well humans armed themselves with items and training, their mental resistance to magical influence was still pitiful.

In a sense, it was only natural for psychics to be swayed by powerful brainwashing.

And failures in difficulty adjustment could happen easily enough.

However, the abnormal status reported this time seemed to reveal quite a lot specifically about Earthlings.

Soon, Esther, who had been staring at the screen, mentioned an unexpected piece of additional information.

"By the way, after anger comes jealousy. Isn't that a little too obvious?"

"Yes?"

"Oh, you might not know this, Giryeo-ssi. If you're not interested in religion or subculture, I suppose it wouldn't immediately occur to you."

What was she talking about?

"It's that abnormal-status gate that first appeared in England and has been causing trouble ever since. Maybe nobody told you, but it might actually be part of a series. On top of that, there was even an inscription written in runes inside the gate."

Esther read it aloud.

"'Do not live a life of sin.'"

Clearly, only one gate had been announced on the scroll...

Twenty-four hours later, events began unfolding as though to prove Esther's claim.

Hunter Associations around the world even went so far as to rename the hunting grounds they had casually called the [Rage-Inducing Zone].

Its new designation was—

[Sin Classification].