Chapter 2
Before I even had time to process the status window floating in front of me…
Thud!
A floor suddenly appeared beneath me, and I landed hard on my backside.
“Ow…”
As I rubbed my aching lower back and got to my feet, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
“What…?”
I was certain I had been the only one swallowed by the intersection gate, yet hundreds, no, thousands of people were standing nearby, all looking around with pale faces.
“So I wasn’t the only one who got pulled in?”
Then I noticed that every single one of them was staring up at the sky while murmuring among themselves.
Naturally, I followed their gaze.
“Huh…?”
A dumbfounded sound escaped my mouth.
I looked up once more.
Instead of a wide, open sky, there was ground, curved overhead like the inside of a giant wheel.
It didn’t take long for me to understand.
This gate was a gigantic space shaped like a hamster wheel.
As I looked around, feeling as though I had become a hamster trapped inside it, only one thought came to mind.
“…I’m screwed.”
It had been twenty years since Gates first appeared in the world.
During that time, South Korea had achieved incredible technological progress, and many outstanding Hunters had emerged.
Normally, if this had been just another unexpected gate, Hunters would have rushed over and rescued everyone.
But…
The reason I said I was screwed was because this gate was…
A Maze Gate.
A rare gate that had appeared only once in the past twenty years, leaving almost no data behind.
You might think, isn’t it enough to just find the exit?
Rumble…!
Easy to say.
The maze walls, each over five meters tall, changed positions every three minutes.
A gigantic maze with no established strategy and constantly shifting paths.
Even if a top-ranked Hunter came here, unless they possessed a tracking or search skill, they were more likely to starve to death while searching for the exit.
“The Hunters will rescue us soon!”
“Everyone, stay calm!”
The people who had fallen into the same open area as me were comforting and encouraging one another.
If I knew nothing about Gates, maybe I could have shared their hope.
Unfortunately…
I knew far too much.
“I shouldn’t have graduated from Hunter Training Academy…”
Just then, a man shouted loudly from the crowd.
“For now, let’s all stay together and wait until the Hunters arrive!”
It was a sensible decision.
When you’re stranded, the safest thing is usually to stay where you are until rescuers arrive.
At least…
In ordinary situations.
“Everyone, run!”
Unlike that man, I shouted for everyone to scatter and flee.
Because I could already see a flock of winged monsters flying toward us in the distance.
“Flying monsters are coming!”
But everyone merely looked around in confusion.
“Why?”
“What are you talking about?”
Since they couldn’t see them yet, it was understandable that they didn’t believe me.
But my senses were far sharper than an ordinary person’s.
I could clearly see and hear them!
“They’re going to attack any second! Run!”
Judging by their speed, they’d reach us in thirty seconds.
In about ten seconds, everyone else would finally be able to see them.
But by then, it would already be too late.
The distance from this open field to the maze entrance was simply too great.
“Get inside the maze! If you stay out in the open like this, you’ll be slaughtered!”
I shouted until my throat hurt, grabbing people’s sleeves and trying over and over to pull them with me.
But everyone seemed convinced that staying together was safer.
No one listened.
“There’s nothing more I can do.”
I bit my lip hard.
“If you want to live, run!”
In the end, I gave up trying to persuade them.
Leaving those final words behind, I turned and ran.
Praying that at least one person would follow me.
Behind me, I heard people shouting for me to stop, telling me not to enter the maze.
But only a few seconds later…
Terrible screams echoed from behind.
“AAAAAH!”
“Help! Somebody help!”
Grinding my teeth, I forced myself to keep running as though I couldn’t hear them.
Huff… Huff…
It felt like my lungs were about to burst.
But I couldn’t stop.
If I did…
The monsters would tear me apart.
“Left! Straight ahead!”
The only fortunate thing was that my heightened senses allowed me to choose paths where I couldn’t detect any monsters.
As time passed, I ventured deeper and deeper into the maze.
Yet somehow…
I was still alive.
If I had stayed in that clearing where everyone had first landed, I would probably already be dead.
“Haah…”
After running for a long time, I finally realized that I couldn’t sense any monsters nearby.
Immediately, I hid behind one of the maze walls.
“Haah… Haah… Status Window.”
Keeping all my senses on high alert so I could run at any moment, I called up the status screen.
Earlier, I had been too shocked to think clearly.
Part of me had even wondered if I was hallucinating.
[Hidden Class: Beginner Owner of a Healing Therapy Shop]
[Skill: Absolute Senses (EX Rank)]
The moment I saw the neat rectangular window floating before me, I let out a hollow laugh.
“Hah… What kind of unheard-of class is this…?”
Most hunters awakened during life-threatening situations, just as I had.
And according to everything I had learned at the academy, the awakened class or skill would always be the one most needed at that moment.
For example…
If someone needed to protect their family, they would awaken a defensive class.
If they needed to save an injured loved one, they would awaken as a healer.
“Then shouldn’t someone trapped in a Maze Gate awaken something like a search skill?!”
Fine.
Search skills were incredibly rare.
Let’s overlook that.
But shouldn’t I at least receive increased strength, agility, or stamina so I could survive until I found the exit?
What was with these stats like sight and smell?
I’d never even heard of such attributes before.
“This is driving me crazy…”
I wiped the sweat from my face and forced myself to calm down.
The system wasn’t unfair.
If anything, it always followed the principle of give and take.
Even if a class or skill looked useless at first glance, it must have some purpose.
Otherwise, the system wouldn’t have given it to me.
I tried to think as calmly as possible.
Remaining Stat Points: 2
So far, I had escaped by hearing monsters before they reached me.
Maybe I should invest in Hearing…
My finger hovered over the hearing stat.
Then I hesitated.
Was it really the right choice to keep focusing on running away?
Ever since graduating from the Hunter Academy, I’d barely exercised.
How much longer could I realistically keep outrunning monsters?
Even if my hearing improved…
Without stamina, what difference would it make?
Thump. Thump.
Mixed with the pounding of my own heartbeat, I heard the heavy footsteps of monsters approaching in the distance.
I needed a way to end this escape.
Not prolong it.
“Eighteen years ago… the Hunter who cleared the Maze Gate said in an interview…”
The Maze Gate didn’t need you to defeat a boss.
The moment someone found the exit, every monster would disappear, and the gate would automatically be cleared.
So I didn’t need to avoid monsters.
I needed to find the exit.
Once I reached that conclusion, only one choice remained.
The way to find the exit.
That meant…
Sight.
Tap.
The moment I selected the Sight stat, an odd sound effect played, and another system window appeared.
[Error Occurred]
[Your skill level is too low to use this ability directly.]
[A medium is required.]
“A medium?”
I quickly searched my pockets.
My fingers touched a small bottle of essential oil that I always carried out of habit.
The instant I took it out…
The previously clear oil began glowing blue, swirling inside the bottle.
As though it were begging to be released.
Carefully, I opened the cap.
The oil transformed into a mist.
Then it stretched out in a single direction.
As if…
It was guiding me toward the exit.
Meanwhile,
BEEEEEEP!
WOOOOOOO!
February 19, 2026. 6:06 p.m.
Emergency alerts were issued across all of South Korea.
[Unexpected Gates have appeared throughout Seoul. Please remain cautious. 6:06 p.m., February 19.]
[Catastrophe-Class Maze Gates have appeared. All Hunters are ordered to mobilize immediately. Locations include Dongjak District, Mapo District, Songpa District… 6:07 p.m., February 19.]
“Eleven unexpected gates at the same time? Is that even possible?! And what? They’re all Maze Gates?!”
Maeng Seokwoo, Chairman of the Korean Hunter Association, stared in horror at the eleven blinking red dots scattered across the map of Seoul.
“Because they appeared during rush hour, tens of thousands of civilians have already been sucked into the eleven gates!”
“Reports are coming in that multiple Maze Gates have also appeared in capitals around the world!”
“The Gates range in size from a minimum radius of three meters to a maximum of one kilometer!”
“Damn it! Damn it!”
Chairman Maeng slammed his fat hand onto the desk.
As if eleven simultaneous Gates weren’t bad enough…
They had to be Maze Gates, the rarest kind, which had appeared only once in twenty years!
“I’ve only been in this position for a week… Why does this have to happen now?!”
“Distribute every piece of information we have on Maze Gates to every Hunter in the country!”
“W-We don’t really have anything that can be called a strategy! The only known method is to accompany a hunter who possesses a tracking or search skill and find the exit…”
“A search skill?! That’s easy for you to say!”
It was one of the rarest awakening skills in the world!
“The last Hunter with that skill disappeared years ago! I don’t care if they’re F-rank! Is there anyone in Korea registered with a search skill?”
“…There isn’t.”
The employee lowered his head.
“Even worldwide… including the missing Hunter… there have only ever been three.”
“Damn it all!”
Chairman Maeng roughly wiped the sweat from his forehead as he tried to suppress the worst-case scenarios racing through his mind.
The Maze Gate.
During the twenty years since Gates first appeared in Korea, it had caused the greatest number of casualties of any Gate.
Chairman Maeng still vividly remembered the hellish chaos of that day.
“…No.”
He swallowed hard and shook his head.
“No… Things are different now.”
Eighteen years ago was not today.
An S-rank Hunter, someone considered an exceptional awakener, should be able to clear it even without a Search skill.
Unfortunately…
One S-rank Hunter was permanently disabled.
Another was a healer.
And the remaining one had been sent to assist with a gate in Japan at the worst possible timing.
Tsk.
There was only one person Chairman Maeng could still rely on.
South Korea’s first S-rank Hunter.
Ranked No. 1 in Korea and No. 5 in the world.
“Kang Jinseo! Where is Hunter Kang Jinseo right now?!”
“He’s currently solo-clearing an AA-rank dungeon…”
“What? How much longer until he comes out?!”
“He’s already been inside for three hours, but as for how much longer it’ll take to clear…”
“Even if he’s soloing it, he’s S-rank! He should’ve finished by now!”
“W-Well…”
Sweat trickled down the employee’s face as he answered the chairman’s desperate shout.
“H-Hunter Kang Jinseo suffers from… a severe… lack of direction. He normally takes a long time to clear Gates…”
That’s right.
The Hunter who stood proudly as Korea’s No. 1, Kang Jinseo…
Had an absolutely terrible sense of direction.
At that very moment, the top-ranked Hunter’s closely guarded secret was finally revealed.
