Chapter 457. Infiltration (4) |
"Where on earth does your confidence come from?"
The shadow of the mage gradually falling silently and unnoticed.
"But well, honestly, whether it's artificial awakening or whatever, there's still no mercenary as reliable as a seasoned, naturally awakened one."
For reference, the practitioner at this location had deliberately sacrificed some safety to lure in ordinary people. Presenting certain information as if it were high-level, they thoroughly silenced some individuals through contracts. Occasionally, a few test subjects were released freely, eventually spreading the information throughout the market.
So, in a way, it was only natural for guests to enter this place. But that an alien with a cold heart (or perhaps a sociopath) would be among them—only a shaman could have known that.
"Let's see... is the artifact really fully charged?"
The relentless alien creature had already arrived within striking distance.
"OK, OK."
Amid this quietly escalating crisis, an Earthling, completely unaware of the situation outside, was just nonchalantly lifting an object...
Something ambiguous, with a magically measured power level that was relatively low.
[Instructions: ① Before use, insert enough magic stones to fully charge the energy.]
The mid-tier "Unique" that had just appeared was merely the result of measuring the empty shell of some entity. Now, an artifact, its power fully accumulated and glowing continuously in a bright grape hue, was held in a person's hand. For reference, it was such an expensive item that even someone who makes a living from divination might use it. The bowling-ball-sized object was covered with soft velvet clothing, carefully intended to avoid even a single scratch.
Tak.The elderly practitioner placed his hand on the orb-like artifact and sent a strong flow of thoughts into it.
"When I see something like this, I sometimes wonder about the true nature of the Gate."
What followed next was the practitioner's personal opinion.
"Come to think of it, I've occasionally seen signs in the streets calling for the complete eradication of both superhumans and superpowers."
"..."
"But the argument that supernatural phenomena must be avoided at all costs is a bit ridiculous."
"..."
"Dungeons are places that grant humanity blessings like this, so that would be a problem."
The person wearing sunglasses remained silent. While the Korean pretended to be distracted, the Unique-grade magical tool had already begun performing its function.
Creak...The dungeon was undergoing radical changes, almost like cells dividing. The gate where Ant-Envy Spiders appeared was divided like the berries of a wax tree—an outer shell and a white inner part. But just now, one side of the space had been disturbed. Moreover, along the blurred boundary, a new landscape from another world was slowly creeping in.
[How to Summon the Iron Palace]
The item the practitioner had just awakened was actually a tool with a rather sinister name.
[Description: ① You can control certain types of EX-grade gates.]
This remarkable ability existed because of that feature.
***
Closes their eyes. Opens their eyes.
On a street in South Korea, a new structure appeared in literally the few seconds it took to blink. Something long and towering, whose apex could barely be seen even if you craned your neck. Yet, even with such a distinctive object appearing in the city, the citizens didn't worry that it might have been funded by taxes.
"Huh?"
Above all, it was a shape familiar to the citizens of an East Asian country.
"Isn't this the same one?"
In Alpharet, these signs were often used to indicate the appearance zones of feeding boxes. On the new planet, however, they displayed a shocking ability... a black, pointed stele.
"Ah! That's it! That's right."
"I should contact the Hunter Association."
For reference, this black obelisk, during snowfall, would reflect faces and instantly push S-ranks into a space called the Labyrinth of the 13th Month. It was an incident widely reported as a special alert, so even ordinary people uninterested in gates remembered it to some extent.
"Hello?"
A single non-Awakened individual immediately raised an electronic device to report.
However, in reality, the current obelisk slightly deviated from their expectations. Its shape was the same as before, but the location it summoned was completely different.
Yes. This is the Gate Disaster Safety Reporting Center. How may I help you?"Operator, I was on my way to a convenience store, and I just came across a stone pagoda on the street."
A stone pagoda?"I mean that thing that once captured three S-rank hunters from our country? It looks exactly the same as that one, but..."
Sir, if that's what you're talking about, you probably mean the gate called [Labyrinth of the 13th Month].It's not the previously mentioned [Labyrinth of the 13th Month], but the [Iron Maiden] gate. In other words, that nightmare, which had only briefly shown its might in the Nordic region, has finally reared its head.
First of all, thank you for reporting this! We'll handle it immediately through the Hunter Association.Additionally, the appearance of this black monument had a particularly malicious aspect. Those who had taken up residence in the illegal clinic paid no attention at all to the selection of entrants that would occur in South Korea.
You're probably familiar with the raid strategy as well. Moreover, since the [Labyrinth of the 13th Month] gate doesn't spawn high-grade monsters, a proposal might be extended to Seo Esther-ssi...The crystal orb held by the elderly man was, in fact, a controller capable of manipulating the dungeon. However, the black obelisk already contained the magical energy data of countless Awakened individuals collected from all over the world.
[Before Modification: The entrants are determined in the order of who last touched the marker stone.]
How that memory is used depends entirely on the will of the dungeon's owner.
[After Modification: Entrance participants are selected in any order the controller desires from the mana signatures recorded in the monument.]
About 24 hours later—when the time came for the monument to be destroyed—a fire-attribute Awakened was destined to be drawn into the subspace. Had nothing unexpected occurred, that's exactly how it would have gone.
"..."
But when has the world of ordinary humans ever been free of unexpected variables?
"Ahem."
The story swung right back to its main thread—accompanied by a weak, hollow cough that no one would ever believe came from a being of transcendent strength. In the darkness, the archmage named Kim Giryeo opened his eyes.
'Oh my.'
He had entered an ant nest overseas, and upon sensing the dungeon's distortion, he personally moved to the site where the event was occurring. Of course, entering the newly formed [Iron Maiden] gate itself wasn't particularly difficult.
He merely had to walk, and walk, and walk through the organically connected tunnels of the ant nest. Do this tedious routine about three times, break through the final chamber where the dungeons had fused—and that would be it.
'To think I'd get to see such an extraordinary sight here on Earth.'
A familiar scene unfolded—a hunter standing in another world. However, once you realized that this gate was quite literally a dungeon within a dungeon, a subtle sense of peculiarity began to settle in.
'Qisimche aren't the kind of race to conduct pointless experiments like this. It must have been the work of some shaman.'
In any case, he had already suppressed his mana to an insect-like level, so there was no way he'd be detected. And so, the alien scholar fully entered the feeding box, eager to observe this mysterious Earth phenomenon for the first time. He became the very first entrant—the one the ritualists could never have imagined. With his soul's inherent traits, Kim Giryeo easily discerned the true nature of the trap.
'Still, this is something that would be impossible without a magical device. These primitive sorcerers of this planet would need to live a few hundred more years before they could manipulate space like this.'
At that moment, for some reason, the word matryoshka came to mind. But whatever—earth's unusual vocabulary didn't really matter.
'A dungeon-creation remote control. Was it ever possible for a reward with such excessive power to drop in the first place?'
The figure disguised with a face full of freckles moved their body.
"Hmm?"
What he could see right away were walls stacked with dark bluish-black bricks, or magical lights made of crystal. Yet, despite a highly skilled individual having gone to the trouble of coming here, not a single monster appeared in this gate.
'Fitting for an Ex-rank.'
All that entered the entrant's field of vision was just this.
A height comparable to that of a human. A face so unpleasant it looked like it had been drawn by a cheap AI, complete with two mouths. And on top of that, a roughly 190-centimeter-tall object with a coloration similar to brass.
"Huh?"
Should he call that a statue? Or would it be rude to describe it as an enormous bungeoppang mold? The blond alien blinked as he examined the strange object with hinged openings.
'It's similar to the White Maze. Looks like the challenger enters that thing, and then the next room's door opens. Well, I his was something I'd already checked before stepping into the dungeon anyway.'
The man with both hands stuffed in his pockets stared blankly up at the ceiling.
First: There was no sense of the unsettling attention of the Gisimche. Second: This place was an unidentified illegal clinic that had been causing suffering to countless people. Third: And for the record, he currently had magic power to spare.
After a long moment of contemplation, the archmage objectively analyzed the situation he was in. And if that was the case, there was any reason to leave a box that had clearly been tampered with by mammals alone?
'I don't know the details, but this was probably summoned by the practitioner for some pointless stunt.'
As the alien was thinking now, it didn't know the humans' purpose. Still, the presence or absence of information posed no problem for the aquatic creature.
'Then let's get this done quickly.'
Thud!Thud!Thud!What followed was the sound of something exploding in rapid succession, with intervals of just 0.01 seconds.
Grrrk...Kim Giryeo focused his mind for a full minute. Then, just as the air around him seemed to shiver with fear, he completed the exit, opening the door. The sight of the gates, like no one else, and as he spilled fear and blood, every means to mean that those failed to die. The [Iron Maiden] had originally caused such a high number of casualties that it had drastically lowered the average survival rate of EX-class gates.
Thunk!If Korea's hero had been brought in as planned, that foolish "bungeoppang mold" remark probably wouldn't have come out, despite Jeong Haseong quickly collected the nature of the gate like no one else, and as he spilled fear and blood, every time he crossed a room, people were expected to weaken. That was also the true purpose of a certain practitioner team.
Thunk!But at that moment, what would happen if a mystically wealthy being with an absurd amount of magical power appeared? Had simply done what he needed to do, Kim Giryeo inadvertently ended up saving Korea's hero. As he took action, the black pillar that had appeared in South Korea was simultaneously destroyed.
"..."
When all the torture devices were destroyed, the feeding box—unable to collect any more pain—listlessly towed toward the exit, opening the door. The sight of the gates, formed in a straight line, opening their mouths as if recognizing their owner, was a spectacular sight.
'Damn it, what the heck!'
Honestly, it would have been fine if it weren't for that special effect when the human-faced coffin exploded...
'It was a liquid without magical power, so I couldn't detect it.'
Squeak!
Inside the dungeon's torture devices, there was absurdly a bag of artificial blood. As a result, Kim Giryeo's chest unintentionally became stained red. On top of that, the metal objects shattered violently, sending fragments flying in all directions.
'Good thing I wore cheap clothes... right?'
The archmage's skilled delicacy actually caused embarrassment.
Perhaps because the magical power was condensed into a single point and hidden, the T-shirt—deprived of proper protection—had been shredded all the coffins. The cloth didn't shredded to rags, and as you can see, the skin remained perfectly fine.
"Huh?"
Feigning the weakness of an ordinary human and hiding his claws, it was no longer the stage to whine, "I want to become the ongoing spell and shattered all the coffins. The objects that had been reigning over this gate were, in truth, coffin clearance of the [Iron Maiden] gate had also confirmed that this place was extraordinary. Therefore, from now on, the only thing left to do was a one-sided interrogation.
'If anyone tried to run, I was going to chase them immediately... but I guess I saved my mana this way.'
A short while later, Kim Giryeo quickened his pace and headed for the exit. Naturally, since it was a fabricated space, the exit, opening the door. The sight of the gates like no one else, and as he spilled fear and blood, every time he ant-netting spiders appeared was now fully exposed.
"Hmm?"
But even a mage with a vivid imagination would be a little taken aback when faced with a scene like this.
Tak, tak, tak.Tak.The people from the illegal augmentation clinic rushed here the moment they realized a trap that should never have been undone had been destroyed.
"This isn't a country with cold temperatures, is it?"
Among them, unsurprisingly, was a familiar face. Kim Giryeo, covered in artificial blood, couldn't even think of using [Clean] and froze awkwardly in place.
'Damn. So there must be entrances connected to the ant nest in other countries too.'
Who would have thought that a Korean S-rank hunter would come face-to-face with them at an illegal overseas clinic? At this point, it's worth noting that the blue-haired Awakened was just as taken aback by the situation.
"..."
At first, expressionless. But as seconds passed, he fiddled with his sunglasses. Eventually, the superhuman with enhanced abilities gave a vague smirk and scratched his forehead.
"Ah, this is a bit..."
Soon after, a natural reaction escaped from him. Not Korea's hero—suddenly, some ordinary-looking Westerner appeared, opening the door. The sight of the gates like no one else, and as he spilled fear and blood, every time he, though fortunately, even the alien understood the reason for that.