In front of a certain B-rank Gate in Korea.
S-rank Superhuman “Lee Mina” looked up at the sky for a moment before entering the Gate.
At this late hour, the starless sky felt especially dark today.
‘This place is also experiencing Gate Backflow.’
In the past month alone, she had received three requests because of Gate Backflow.
Of course, the number was still small even now, but compared to the days when she received such a request only once a year, it was an undeniable fact that the frequency had increased.
‘Is some kind of change happening?’
A Gate was an unknowable place.
But why did it feel even more unknowable today?
Lee Mina carried a small concern in her heart.
“Is something wrong, Big Sister?”
A girl’s voice came from behind her.
She was a little shorter than Mina and wore a hood pulled over her head.
Lee Mina looked at the Gate and frowned slightly, as if displeased.
“Seol-ah. What do you think of this?”
“What do I think? It is just a Gate. And one that would end in a single blow from you, Big Sister.”
“……That is all?”
“What else is there? Why? You have had a bad expression since earlier, Big Sister. Did I do something wrong?”
Looking at the child speaking cheerfully from inside the hood, Lee Mina let out a sigh.
‘Well, it is not such a common energy.’
The fact that the child could not sense it was not her fault.
Above all, she could not simply get angry at a child who smiled like that.
“……It just feels a little unsettling.”
“Unsettling?”
S-rank Superhuman Lee Mina was uneasy.
Some would laugh it off as a joke, while others would seriously worry about the end of the world.
That was only natural, because she was one of the few S-rank Superhumans in Korea. The Crimson Witch, Lee Mina, no less.
She was an ultra-high-end force whose price started at several tens of billions of won just to call her once, yet she was also a legend who had proven she could close A-rank Gates as a matter of course, and S-rank or even higher Gates as long as she had enough equipment.
Was she not the woman called Korea’s final weapon?
“If you are uneasy, Big Sister, then is Korea, no, the world not already finished?”
“……I said it is not to that extent. What exactly do you think I am?”
Lee Mina smiled bitterly and let out a sigh.
White breath spilled from her lips and scattered into the air.
A silence continued for a while.
Lee Mina seemed to consider something, then spoke to the hooded child.
“Seol-ah. How long has it been since an S-rank Superhuman appeared in Korea?”
“An S-rank?”
“Yes. An S-rank. A promising talent is fine too.”
“I do not know about promising talents, but as for S-ranks, after the Crim…… ahem. After the Crimson Witch eight years ago, probably…….”
When Lee Mina’s gaze sharpened at the word “Big Sister,” the child made a pained sound from inside the hood, then spoke as though the answer had come to her immediately.
“There has not been even one.”
It was a firm and simple answer.
Since it was an answer she had already expected, Lee Mina smiled bitterly and looked ahead.
‘S-rank…….’
Lee Mina recalled what she had seen at the Superhuman Training School that morning.
Those eyes that made a chill run down her spine just by looking at them.
It was not simply a matter of being strong or weak.
‘Could he really be only S-rank?’
How should she put it? It felt as if something fundamental was different.
She held a small smile in her mouth.
“Ah. Come to think of it, Big Sister, you said you received a request this morning while I was not there, right? What kind of request was it?”
“A request?”
At the hooded child’s question, white breath spilled from her lips once more.
“I forgot.”
“……Then never mind that. Big Sister, you know you have to stop by the auction this afternoon, right? The Fighting Dragon’s Tooth we obtained last time is going for a high price this time……”
“Sorry. I lost it.”
“What?”
In an era where Superhumans were national power, where they determined a nation’s status, and further served as the driving force that maintained the world.
“I do not remember where I put it.”
Lee Mina thought of the male student’s eyes that she had seen that morning and lightly stepped toward the B-rank Gate.
***
The virtual Gate Backflow incident passed quietly.
Rumors had spread loudly enough to turn the entire Superhuman Training School upside down, but the teachers did not give a detailed explanation about it.
Since it was an incident whose cause they did not know anyway, and since they knew that anything they said would sound like nothing more than an excuse, the school itself decided to take an attitude of tacitly ignoring it for the time being.
Like that, daily life went on, and several weeks naturally passed.
“Haa…….”
Daehyun lightly steadied his breathing after finishing the Preliminary Preparation quest, the training that could be called the conclusion of his day.
“I will choose Strength.”
When he spoke a single sentence into empty air, an still-unknown energy circulated throughout his body and made his body even stronger.
‘I can handle this now.’
Quite some time had passed since the quest first appeared, but Daehyun was still continuing this nonsense and pushing himself.
There was no particularly grand reason.
Because he needed strength.
Because he had to become stronger.
And…….
Because there was nothing else for him to do.
‘Well, this is enough for today.’
This much was enough.
Thinking that, Daehyun nodded and closed the quest window.
‘Should I head back for now?’
***
After finishing the quest, the place Daehyun headed to was his dormitory.
It was the place where he rested.
“Oh, you are back?”
As usual, Kang Shinhyuk greeted Daehyun, and in front of Kang Shinhyuk was a teacup filled with Fatigue Recovery Tonic.
Daehyun lightly drank it down, then turned his eyes toward Kang Shinhyuk, who was sitting on the sofa and watching television.
‘……Is it fun to watch that every day?’
On the television, a handsome man in a suit was saying something.
Since Daehyun knew nothing about the situation on Earth outside the school in the first place, he had no interest, but suddenly, the caption appearing at the bottom of the TV caught his eye.
[Ext Guild Contributes Greatly to Superhuman Society!]
‘Ext…… Ext…… Ah.’
Daehyun had heard of Ext before.
It was an organization led by the high-ranking A-rank Superhuman “An Gihyeon.”
Though it had no S-ranks, it was still an impressive guild that had risen to the ranks of high-ranking guilds with only A-rank Superhumans.
‘Although I do not remember anything else in particular…….’
—The Gate Backflow phenomenon is increasing with each passing day. Accordingly, Representative An Gihyeon of “Ext Guild” has contributed to society by publicly releasing a strategy for the Gate Backflow monster “Hellhound”…….
“……Hellhound?”
At the word that suddenly came from the TV, Daehyun tilted his head.
‘Those people know about Hellhounds? About monsters from the Demon Realm?’
For a moment, he wondered how, but one reason he could immediately accept came to Daehyun’s mind.
‘Demon Realm Rifts…… No, Gate Backflow.’
Demon Realm lifeforms. Monsters that lived in the Demon Realm generally could not leave the Demon Realm.
Originally, that had been the truth, and Daehyun had known it as such.
However…….
‘If that phenomenon did not happen only to me, then the story changes.’
A phenomenon where the master of a Gate changed and a new boss appeared.
What if the phenomenon people called Gate Backflow was not something that happened only to Daehyun?
What if it was a nationwide problem, or even a worldwide one?
‘As expected, something happened in the Demon Realm.’
There was surely some connection between this life’s Daehyun not falling into the Demon Realm and the changes in the Demon Realm.
Holding that certainty, Daehyun nodded.
Beep—.
As Daehyun was smiling like that,
Kang Shinhyuk turned off the TV and rose from the sofa.
“I am tired. I should sleep early.”
“Already? That is a bit early.”
“Tomorrow is the weekend. I am going out for the first time in a while.”
Kang Shinhyuk said that and lightly tapped Daehyun on the shoulder.
“Are you not going anywhere?”
“Going out…….”
Come to think of it, tomorrow was the weekend.
Since there were no classes scheduled and no particular duties to attend to, most students would go outside.
Kang Shinhyuk would be no different.
“Do you not have anyone to meet?”
“……I do not know. Not particularly.”
But Daehyun was different.
For him, someone with no parents or relatives, there was no reason or motive to go out, and no one to meet.
That was why Daehyun spent most weekends in the school dormitory.
……Of course, that was how it had been before.
“I am going to an interview tomorrow. At Ext Guild, no less!”
“Ext? Those people?”
“Mm!”
And at this moment, Kang Shinhyuk looked more enthusiastic than anyone else.
Kang Shinhyuk clenched his fist tightly and his eyes sparkled.
“You have already decided? Is that not too soon?”
“Man, did you not see the news just now?”
“What news?”
Daehyun tilted his head, and Kang Shinhyuk’s eyes blazed.
“The information on Hellhounds! They are saying they will distribute the monster information they collected for free! Urgh……!”
“……So you fell for that?”
“Of course! They are the ones who place the safety of citizens first. They are the perfect image of a Superhuman I have in mind!”
“Ah. Yes.”
“My goal is Ext! I have no intention of going anywhere else, nor any reason to!”
Kang Shinhyuk clenched his fist and swore strongly once more.
“I am sure you will do as you please.”
There was no need to pour cold water on a guy who had already decided on the guild he wanted to join.
After all, the decision and the responsibility for that decision were both Kang Shinhyuk’s problems.
‘I do not really know whether that is a good guild or not.’
At least, that was not something Daehyun could tell him.
Daehyun lightly tapped Kang Shinhyuk on the shoulder, then quickly entered his own room.
Click—.
‘Status Window.’
Ding—!
[Kang Daehyun]
[Stats: Strength (85), Agility (75), Intelligence (60), Unique Stat = Divine Power (140)]
[Type: Healing-Type (C)]
[Traits: Speed Reading (E), Quick Thinking (C), Observation (C+), ??? (EX)]
[Skills: Lesser Healing (LV.1), Divine Shield (LV.2), Divine Fist (LV.2)]
Quite some time had passed since he returned to his original body, but because he had focused on training, he had forgotten the passage of time.
With each passing day, he could feel his body growing stronger, and he intuitively knew that he could still become even stronger.
“This much is not bad.”
When he woke up, there were times when he missed the power of the Fist King, but even so, this was already something.
It was far better than when he had first begun with that frail body.
‘Hmm.’
As he smiled like that, Daehyun’s eyes turned toward the tooth placed on his desk.
The object the woman called the Crimson Witch had given him.
“Something like this is not just used as is. It is probably used to craft Superhuman-exclusive equipment.”
‘……An artifact, is it?’
The things called Superhuman-exclusive equipment seemed to have quite a variety of effects and types.
It was not that Daehyun had not thought of obtaining an artifact over the past few days, but those things were not something he could possibly obtain with the money he had on hand, so he had no choice but to give up.
“But if it is crafting…….”
Just because immediate purchase was impossible did not mean there was no method.
He could not obtain an artifact, but instead, he had found someone who could process that tooth.
“Something of this level is probably not something just anyone can process…… Still, I think that person might be able to do it.”
It was a little far from here, but if he asked Kang Shinhyuk, he seemed likely to tell him properly.
Even if he did not know whether it could be made right away, if he at least learned the price, it might be useful someday.
That was enough.
Money was something he could obtain somehow later, was it not?
“Hmm.”
Tomorrow would be his first outing.
Daehyun closed the status window and lightly lay down on his bed.