The Gate we'd be raiding today was in a busy downtown district.
Since Gates appeared regardless of time or place, they often showed up even in busy districts like this.
The one saving grace, I suppose, was that it was a D-rank Gate, on the lower end, with a low risk of a Gate Break, so people hadn't had to evacuate.
"Excuse me, are you Hunter Yun Min-jun, by any chance?"
"Ah, yes. And your name is?"
"I'm Kim Jun-hwi. Looks like the others aren't here yet."
Kim Jun-hwi, one of the raid party, offered me a handshake with a good-natured smile.
Perhaps he had only just come of age; he was a Hunter with a strikingly boyish face and, in contrast, bulging muscles.
"Did you have lunch before you came?"
"I grabbed something quick at a convenience store. How about you, Jun-hwi?"
"I had a big, hearty bowl of rice soup. Won't you get hungry?"
"I'll be fine. I've got some emergency rations in my subspace, too."
We introduced ourselves briefly and made small talk to ease the awkwardness, and before long, two young women and a man came walking toward us.
It wasn't written on their faces, but all three of them had a certain Hunter-like air about them.
"Is this the party for the Antman Gate?"
"Yep."
Sure enough, they were Hunters joining the raid party.
"Sorry. We're so late. Did you wait long?"
"Not at all. We just got here too."
Once everyone had gathered, we exchanged names briefly before heading into the Gate.
The three were D-rank, in their mid-to-late 20s, and their positions were well balanced.
There was just one unusual thing about them.
"All three of you are siblings?"
"Yes. Isn't that something?"
"Yeah! Wow, so this can happen. It's not common for all three siblings to Awaken."
Seo Yu-hyeon, Seo Yu-ra, Seo Yu-seon.
The three of them were siblings.
Raiding Gates, I'd naturally met all sorts of Hunters, but I didn't think I'd ever seen a case like this.
"I like to think it's a fate the heavens gave us."
Seo Yu-seon, the youngest of the three, gave Kim Jun-hwi and me a foxy smile.
If Sia had seen that, she might have grumbled to herself, 'Isn't that woman trying to seduce oppa?'
"But three Hunter siblings sounds like the kind of thing that'd make the news. Why don't I remember seeing any articles?"
Come to think of it?
Hearing Kim Jun-hwi say it, I found it strange too.
If I were a reporter, I wouldn't have passed up such an interesting story.
Maybe it was just me, but something felt off.
"We did get interview requests, but we turned them all down. None of us are the type to enjoy that kind of thing."
Perhaps because he'd heard it a lot, Seo Yu-hyeon answered smoothly.
"Ahh."
"Let's save the rest for inside the Gate when we have time, and head in for now."
"Sounds good."
Before entering the Gate, we carefully checked each other's identification, just in case, and put on our gear.
Then, on top of my gear, I put on the wearable cam Sia had specially made and entered the Gate.
With that, all our preparations were done.
We began making our way through the Gate in earnest.
Maybe because we hadn't run into any monsters right away, everyone was in good spirits and full of energy so far.
But we hadn't gone far from the starting point.
Seo Yu-ra, the second of the three Hunter siblings, came over to me and asked.
"Min-jun. Where did you get all that gear, if you don't mind my asking?"
She'd seemed to be sneaking glances this way ever since I took out my gear and put it on; apparently it had caught quite a bit of attention.
"I didn't buy it. It was a gift."
"A gift?"
"Yes. From my girlfriend."
Maybe it was my imagination, but the air seemed to shift strangely for a moment.
"Your girlfriend gave you all this? Isn't this all expensive gear?"
"I'm not really sure, but I'd guess so."
"Wow....... I wish I could walk around in gear like that."
"Your girlfriend's amazing."
All four of them seemed genuinely envious.
When you thought about it, a dragon, no less, had handpicked this gear, so naturally it was good.
Even I'd been amazed when I saw what it could do.
I'd have to thank Sia again later.
"Is your girlfriend some 3rd-generation chaebol heiress or something? Or a rising star at a major guild?"
"Or maybe she's a famous celebrity. Wow, Min-jun, you've really got game."
"Oh, come on, no."
I couldn't tell them the truth, so I lightly brushed it off.
"Then what about this wearable cam?"
"Oh, this. My girlfriend gave me this too. She said to record things so we can watch them together later. So we can look for anything I need to fix."
Meanwhile, even though we'd been speaking formally to each other until just now, Kim Jun-hwi was now calling me hyung-nim in a friendly way, not hiding his envy.
He seemed like a pretty sociable guy.
The Hunter siblings were much the same.
Only, maybe it was just me, but they seemed more interested in the gear Sia had given me than in my Sia herself.
They seemed to be trying not to show it, but apart from Seo Yu-hyeon, who was up front, I could feel the two sisters stealing glances at my gear again and again.
They seemed to like my gear an awful lot.
'It's nice that they like the gear Sia gave me... but they're staring way too openly.'
However much they liked it, having it stared at so hard made me a little uncomfortable.
This was suspicious.
Thinking that, I remembered what had been said before we entered the Gate.
Three Hunter siblings, whatever their rank or type, should have been something I'd heard of at least once, whether in an online article or on TV.
Sorry to the three of them, but something about it bothered me.
Anyway.
As we moved along making small talk, it wasn't long before a pack of Mega Antmen came into view.
"Antmen spotted at eight o'clock."
"Jun-hwi, let's dive in together, you and me."
"We'll provide covering fire from over here."
As we quickly went over the plan, I adjusted my grip on my sword for the real fight.
'Now it's for real.'
There was no one beside me to advise me on drawing out the sword's power, but I couldn't rely on advice and help even in real combat anyway.
'The keywords: domination, and will.'
Sia's advice, and Rokan's teachings.
Keeping all of that in mind, I had to draw out as much of the sword's power as I could and somehow find the feel of wielding a Dragon Word.
Kim Jun-hwi, our tanker, charged in first, and I soon joined him and began swinging my sword.
SKREEEE—!!!
As the battle began in earnest, the Antmen's shrieks rang out.
Engraving the will to dominate anyone and everyone into my heart, I swung my sword.
Sometimes with lofty grace, sometimes with ferocity.
"Whoa. That's killer, hyung-nim, right?"
At first Kim Jun-hwi had been scrambling just to block the Antmen's attacks, but perhaps he now had some room to breathe; he chatted with me casually even though the fight wasn't over.
"You too, Jun-hwi."
Grinning at my answer, Kim Jun-hwi ran around blocking attacks even harder, while the three siblings actively supported the fight from the rear.
Heals and buffs, and the ranged attacks pouring in from the rear, all came exactly when needed.
Of course, the Antmen didn't just take our onslaught lying down, but the gap in strength was so great that we wrapped up the fight without any real damage on our side.
Once the fight was over, we gathered the loot and decided to catch our breath for a bit.
"I had my doubts, but those were Antmen after all, huh, hyung-nim."
We hadn't agreed to be like brothers or anything, but once again Kim Jun-hwi naturally called me hyung-nim.
Oh, come to think of it, he'd been doing that since right after we entered the Gate.
"Sorry?"
"You took 'em down so easily, hyung-nim, I figured they were just regular ants, not Antmen."
He had smoothly tacked that on when I looked like I didn't get it.
"Oh, come on... thanks."
"Feel free to drop the formalities, hyung-nim."
Whatever else he was, this guy was seriously good at the social game.
"Hmm, then can I drop them after the raid's over?"
"Oh, sure. Whatever you're comfortable with, hyung-nim. You three are all hyung-nim and noona-nim to me too, so feel free to talk casually with me."
This time, Kim Jun-hwi's target shifted to the Seo siblings.
Just like he had with me, Kim Jun-hwi chatted up the three siblings in a very friendly way.
"We'll drop them after the raid too."
"Oh, sure, no problem."
"Sorry, nature calls. I'll be right back."
Maybe Kim Jun-hwi's chattiness was secretly getting to her, or maybe she really did need to go.
Seo Yu-seon excused herself for a moment.
"I'll go with her."
Then Seo Yu-ra followed her little sister.
"While we're at it, I'll hit the restroom too. Be right back."
Then even Seo Yu-hyeon, the party leader, stepped away.
With all three Seo siblings gone at once, Kim Jun-hwi and I, left behind, exchanged awkward glances.
"Jun-hwi."
"Yes, hyung-nim."
"Did you, by any chance, sense anything strange about those three?"
With the three of them conveniently gone, I took the chance to whisper to Kim Jun-hwi.
"Strange how?"
I told Kim Jun-hwi about the things that had bothered me about the Seo siblings.
I started with how I'd never heard of them anywhere despite their being that rare case of three Hunter siblings, then how they had stared at my gear with strange openness.
On top of that, maybe it was just me, but the three of them leaving all at once gave me a bad feeling.
"Hmm. I didn't really notice anything."
Kim Jun-hwi didn't seem to see it the same way.
Was I being overly sensitive? Was I reading too much into strange things?
'I don't think so, though.'
Kim Jun-hwi said he hadn't noticed anything, but I still couldn't shake the uneasy feeling.
"......."
Maybe because it was a bit of a heavy topic for a break, the mood grew even more awkward.
It felt a little weird to keep talking like this.
I figured I'd just spend the rest of the break swinging my sword and getting a feel for it.
***
A thicket some two or three hundred meters from Min-jun.
After making sure no one was watching, the two sisters lowered their voices and whispered.
"What do you think?"
"Ha, I dunno. Looks like it'll be fucking hard."
The two had clearly left saying they needed to relieve themselves, but they showed no sign of doing any such thing.
Furtive, careful gestures. Voices kept as low as they would go.
To look at them, they were exactly like crooks hatching a scheme.
"When on earth is he coming? We're short on time."
"Fuck if I know. Isn't the bastard off smoking?"
"Ugh, chain-smoking bastard. Can't even hold out that long?"
Why were they waiting for their big brother when they'd said they were going to the bathroom?
Besides, they had split off in opposite directions.
"You're the ones who smoke, you chain-smokers. I quit."
When Seo Yu-hyeon, arriving late, spoke up, the two sisters glared at him with faces like they'd bitten into shit.
"Sure, and a dog'll quit eating shit."
"Still, smoking's a hundred times better than cheating on a whole string of girls at once like you."
Seo Yu-hyeon raised his middle finger and snarled, but the two women ignored him like it was nothing.
"We're out of time, so get to the point. Are we robbing them today or not?"
"Absolutely, we're robbing them. That Kim Jun-hwi or whatever doesn't look like much, but that bastard Yun Min-jun is the real prize. Looks like he's fully decked out in nothing but shiny top-tier gear."
Seo Yu-seon wore the look of a hyena that had spotted plump prey, and then Seo Yu-ra spoke with a sly grin.
"He's not some rich boy, he's a kept boy, isn't he? Must've snagged himself some rich, gullible older woman, not a girlfriend."
They had disguised themselves as ordinary Hunters, but in truth, the three were villains who'd had a warrant out on them for weeks.
All three were wanted for the same crime.
Robbery-murder inside Gates.