Chapter – 07
I grabbed my hair and screamed in despair.
I had awakened as an F-rank, and now I suddenly had to enter a Gate!
Wasn’t this basically telling me to go inside and die?
“Forget the points and everything else. I can’t do it!”
The shop? It was important.
Bungeoppang? Of course I loved it.
But more important than all of that was my life.
I was saying that I didn’t want to get trampled to death by some monster while trying to find some mysterious grass I had never even heard of.
“You don’t need to worry about that, nya. You have received my blessing.”
According to Ha-nyang, the monsters inside the Gate would consider me part of nature, like a rock or a blade of grass.
If I made a loud noise or attacked them, they would sense that something was strange. But as long as I didn’t do anything like that, there shouldn’t be any major problems.
“Then as long as I stay quiet, I won’t die?”
“That’s right, nya.”
“That’s certainly a relief, but….”
There was another reason I was reluctant to enter a Gate.
My parents had died in a Gate accident.
‘More precisely, it was because the initial containment of the Gate had failed.’
These days, technology had advanced enough to predict when and where Gates would appear, and Hunters could even enter Gates beforehand to eliminate the danger.
But until just a few years ago, it had been considered normal for Hunters to close Gates only after they appeared.
That was why whenever a Gate opened, there could be hundreds of casualties at worst.
‘My parents were victims of something like that.’
A Gate had suddenly appeared on their way home after finishing work.
Hunters had immediately been dispatched, but the Gate had been much larger than predicted, so the initial containment had failed.
And my mother and father had met a meaningless death at the hands of the monsters there.
“…No matter how I think about it, I don’t think I should enter a Gate.”
I bit my lip as I recalled my parents’ deaths, which were still vivid in my memory.
Even though Ha-nyang’s blessing would reduce the danger, I couldn’t help being afraid.
I wanted to give up on the mission, but the reward kept tempting me.
It would be really useful to have those points.
“It would be good for the shop if I could get the points… Is there any other way?”
“Don’t worry, nya. Once the shop is upgraded, the equipment will naturally change as well, nya.”
“Upgraded? You mean this?”
I checked the number remaining until the new menu was unlocked.
There were now 438 out of 500.
I only needed to bake about 50 more bungeoppang to obtain a new menu.
“That’s right, nya. So if you don’t want to, there’s no need to force yourself into a Gate just to obtain points, nya.”
“If you’re okay with it… can I think about this mission a little longer?”
“If you don’t want to do it, there’s nothing I can force you to do, nya.”
Ha-nyang came over and rubbed her body against me as if comforting me.
Maybe there was another way to solve Ria Hunter’s problem.
After thinking for a while, I closed the mission window.
BEEEEEEEEEP—
A ringing sound loud enough to tear her ears apart echoed through the room.
The peaceful expression between a woman’s brows crumpled irritably like a sheet of paper.
Outside, a dreary winter rain was falling.
“…3:07.”
After checking the clock, she let out a sigh.
She had tossed and turned for a long time before finally falling asleep, but only about ten minutes had passed.
‘Ha… I’m tired….’
Her name was Ria Minogue.
She was a high-ranking A-rank Hunter, a member of the less than five percent of Hunters around the world who had reached A-rank.
And she was suffering from a terrible side effect of awakening: sensory hypersensitivity.
After tossing and turning in bed for a long time, Ria eventually got up.
Her head felt heavy, and her eyeballs throbbed painfully.
She was desperately tired and wanted to rest, but the moment she closed her eyes, every sound around her tormented her and prevented her from falling asleep.
“The rain is still falling….”
After staring blankly at the falling rain for a long time, she changed her clothes.
She still wasn’t sleepy, and her head felt foggy as if she were underwater.
At times like this, it was better to move her body.
She packed her belongings with practiced ease, tied her hair tightly, and went outside.
The chilly dawn air carried the faint, fishy smell of rainwater.
“It feels just like the day I first awakened.”
Four years ago, when she had first awakened, she had received the expectations of everyone around her.
The Prime Minister of Australia had even come all the way to her house to encourage her.
Remembering the day she had first awakened, she gave a self-deprecating smile.
‘What good did that do? I couldn’t do anything inside the Gate.’
Contrary to everyone’s expectations, during her first Gate mission, she had frozen stiff like a piece of wood.
There had been hundreds of yellow spiders inside the Gate, each one larger than an adult man.
They spat venomous webs from their mouths and let out horrible screeches.
‘Aah! Help me!’
‘G-Go away! I said get away from me!’
No matter how many times the spiders were cut down, they kept charging toward them.
She had watched as her fellow Hunters were bitten by the monsters, their flesh torn apart and their skin melting from the poison.
Among them had been a friend who had awakened at the same time as her.
‘R-Ria! Help me!’
When the monster approached, her friend had called out to her in terror.
But Ria’s legs had become rigid, as though they had been dipped in wax and left to harden.
‘Come to think of it, I haven’t been able to sleep since then.’
Whenever she closed her eyes, she felt as though hundreds of spiders were crawling all over her body.
At the same time, she could hear the anguished screams of her comrades in her ears.
Even the voice of her friend begging to be saved.
Sometimes, even when she managed to fall into a light sleep, she would soon wake up drenched in cold sweat.
Eventually, she decided she needed to find a new solution.
She resolved to become strong enough that even remembering the monsters would no longer affect her.
‘You’re really leaving?’
‘Yeah. I’ll come back after becoming stronger.’
Her decision to leave Australia and come to Korea had been an extension of that resolve.
After barely surviving the Gate, her friend had come to the airport to see her off.
As she hugged Ria before she left, her friend said,
‘I’ll work hard and live well here too, so come back anytime if things get too hard!’
Ria had nodded, but in her heart, she had vowed that she would never return until she became stronger.
Her goal was to defeat Korea’s S-rank Hunter, Lee Hyun-woo.
Even if she couldn’t defeat him because of the difference in rank, she wanted to at least become skilled enough to stand on equal footing with him.
‘Although instead of defeating him, I feel like I’m only getting in his way.’
The skill of the S-rank Hunter she had witnessed from up close was truly terrifying.
His unbelievable reflexes.
His boldness in charging straight into the middle of monsters.
His tremendous physical strength.
She had struggled desperately just to catch up to even a quarter of his ability, let alone defeat him.
Yet he didn’t seem interested in her at all.
‘…He might even find me annoying.’
It was all because she was weak.
Because she hadn’t been able to protect her comrades.
Because she hadn’t been able to earn her leader’s recognition.
‘If I want to prove my existence, I have to work harder than I am now.’
Ignoring the headache stabbing into her brain, she stepped into the cold dawn air.
She didn’t want to remain someone who was unable to do anything inside a Gate.
“Ria Hunter was injured?”
A few days later, I heard some shocking news.
Ria Hunter had been seriously injured inside a Gate.
“They said she suddenly lost her balance and staggered during the battle.”
“Oh no… I’m so worried.”
“They say it was because of her awakening side effect. I had no idea her side effect was this severe.”
The Hunters who were her fans sighed with worried expressions.
She had only staggered for a single moment.
But inside a Gate, even that brief instant could determine whether someone lived or died.
Fortunately, the Hunters around her had noticed that something was wrong and reacted quickly, preventing a major accident.
Still, there was no doubt that it had been a dangerous situation.
“An awakening side effect?”
“Yes. Apparently, the accumulated fatigue from not getting proper sleep has become quite severe.”
“Ah….”
I bit my lip sadly.
I remembered how she had staggered at the shop the other day.
“I thought her only awakening side effect was loss of taste….”
“That’s just the basic one. Actually, side effects are different for every person.”
Ria Hunter’s side effect was sensory hypersensitivity.
Her heightened five senses constantly kept her on edge.
‘And she was even doing high-intensity training every day….’
The Ria Hunter I had seen was in a state where her body was practically screaming for rest.
“We’ll be going now….”
Normally, the Hunters who received their bungeoppang would have brightened up.
But today, they listlessly chewed their bungeoppang and trudged away.
Their gloomy mood made me feel down as well.
“Your face looks gloomy, nya.”
“I heard Ria Hunter was injured… It’s bothering me.”
In the meantime, I had baked all 500 bungeoppang, unlocked the new menu, ‘Custard Cream Bungeoppang,’ and completed the shop upgrade.
However, I hadn’t obtained the special effect, so that slot remained empty.
In other words, I had ultimately postponed entering the Gate because I wanted to find another solution.
“…Would things have been different if I had unlocked the special effect?”
The thought suddenly occurred to me.
If I had bravely entered the Gate and brought back the grass…
If I had made bungeoppang with the special effect…
Would she have avoided getting injured?
“Don’t think like that, nya. This isn’t your fault, nya.”
“I know. I know that too… But I still didn’t do something I could have done.”
Even though I tried not to think about it, I couldn’t stop worrying.
Especially whenever the words ‘Special Effect Synthesis Available’ flashed beside the Custard Cream Bungeoppang, my conscience pricked at me.
In the end, the next day, when the recovered Ria Hunter came to our shop, I made up my mind.
“Hunter! Are you feeling better?”
“The news has already spread, huh? I’m fine. I just lost my concentration for a moment….”
But despite saying that, her face still showed traces of exhaustion that hadn’t disappeared.
I had heard that she had been treated at the Management Bureau, but apparently the treatment hadn’t helped with her awakening side effect.
I had a feeling that if her condition continued to deteriorate like this, something truly terrible might happen.
“Hunter, what if… What if…”
Before handing her the bag of bungeoppang, I carefully spoke up.
“What would you think if I made bungeoppang with an effect that helped you sleep deeply?”
“…Bungeoppang with an effect that helps you sleep?”
She looked at the bungeoppang inside the bag.
She seemed to be asking whether I was really talking about the bungeoppang in front of her.
I nodded.
Ria Hunter quietly fell into thought.
“I’ve tried every method that’s supposed to help with insomnia. Of course, I’ve tried items too.”
After pausing for a moment, she shook her head.
“…But none of them worked for me. So I don’t expect anything anymore.”
She spoke calmly, but I could tell how many times she must have placed her hopes in different methods only to be disappointed again.
I placed the bag of bungeoppang in her hands and said,
“Could you believe in me just one more time? I’ll prepare a special bungeoppang just for you.”
“With this bungeoppang?”
I nodded.
Ria Hunter didn’t seem to believe that bungeoppang could suddenly gain such an effect.
But instead of saying anything, she simply nodded.
“Well, all right. I appreciate you even saying that.”
Then Ria Hunter checked the time.
Saying she was going to be late for training, she gave me a slight bow and disappeared.
I stared in the direction she had gone for a moment before speaking to Ha-nyang.
“Let’s go in, Gate.”
“Are you really going, nya?”
“Yeah. I have a way to help her, so I can’t just sit around and wait.”
The Gate was still something I feared.
But I decided to trust the blessing Ha-nyang had given me.
I would go in quickly, quietly pull up the grass before attracting any attention, and come right back out.
Fortunately, tomorrow was the weekend.
That meant it was the perfect time to close the shop for a while and make the trip.
“If I click the Enter button, I can go straight to the Gate, right?”
“That’s right, nya. It works on the same principle as moving to the shop, nya.”
Fortunately, I didn’t have to ask anyone to arrange my entry into the Gate.
It was perfect for moving around quietly.
I didn’t know what kind of Gate the ‘Red Plains’ was, so I first prepared everything at home.
“I packed water, snacks, and emergency medicine.”
I wasn’t sure whether I would be able to use it inside the Gate, but I also brought a hammer that I had at home.
On top of that, I packed a change of clothes and even a sleeping bag in case the trip took a long time.
By the time I finished packing, it was practically like preparing for an overseas trip.
If I didn’t have an inventory, I might really have had to stuff everything into a suitcase.
“This should be enough. Ha-nyang, are you ready?”
“I’m always ready, nya!”
“Good. Let’s go in.”
I brought up the mission window I had put away earlier and clicked the ‘Enter’ button next to the Gate.
Would you like to enter Gate ‘Red Plains’?
Yes / No
‘…All right. Let’s do this.’
Holding Ha-nyang tightly in my arms, I clicked ‘Yes.’
And with the sensation of the ground disappearing beneath my feet, my vision suddenly shifted.
