The sudden change that occurred at Palbongsan Gate was naturally observed from the outside as well.
Since Jeong Hyeon-su, who had recently become the center of attention, was inside, predictions regarding that change could only come even faster.
“How many Hunters have currently entered the Gate?”
“From what I have heard, a clear party was also sent in yesterday and has not yet returned.”
“Do you have any plans for a rescue operation?”
A civil servant from the Korea Gate Administration, which was responsible for responding to Mutated Gates, answered the flood of questions from the reporters.
“The total number of people who entered Palbongsan Gate within the past four days, which is presumed to be the survival period for a clear party, is twenty.”
“Does that number include Hunter Jeong Hyeon-su?”
“That has been confirmed to be the case.”
“What level do you estimate the mutation grade to be?”
The civil servant’s gaze turned toward the Gate entrance.
“Considering that it closed along with the mutation, it appears to be at least C-Rank. However, we will only know for certain once the analysis by the experts from the Administration and the Association is complete.”
“What about the rescue plan?”
“Once the grade has been determined, a rescue team suited to that level will be dispatched.”
The related briefing was proceeding smoothly. However, in the midst of it, the reporters had no choice but to raise one question.
“By the way, why has no one come from Garam?”
“Check whether they released any press material!”
“There is none!”
There had still been no response at the guild level?
“That cannot be. This is Garam we are talking about.”
A reporter from a daily newspaper with a fairly long career did not express much concern.
“Senior, what do you mean by that?”
“Ah, the younger ones these days would not know. Recently, it has been extremely rare for a Garam clear party to fall into this kind of emergency.”
“Pardon?”
“Listen. Garam has fewer businesses and fewer personnel compared to other guilds, but do you know why it is still one of the Ten Great Guilds? No, why do you think so many Hunters serve there for a long time?”
The moment the senior reporter finished speaking,
FLASH!
An immense cluster of light rippled, and an emergency teleportation magic circle shimmered.
“That is Hanul’s mark, is it not?”
Then, on top of that magic circle, people were transmitted in a blaze of white light.
One, two… three… four…
Before long, dozens of Hunters appeared, filling the magic circle completely.
“Wh-what is this?”
“I-it is Garam!”
The Hunters who appeared through Hanul’s teleportation magic circle were none other than Garam’s Hunters.
It was said that Garam lacked mages because of its tendency to focus on martial arts to the extreme.
But once they appeared, the warriors of Garam, each holding a greatsword that was practically a symbol of a blender that ground down its enemies, all wore confident expressions.
“When a comrade is in danger, we set everything else aside and come running. That is Garam’s rule.”
Here and there, there were also Hunters covered in monster blood, as though they had just been inside the Tower or a Gate moments ago.
The senior reporter, who had his arms crossed, seemed lost in old memories for a moment.
“We enter immediately.”
“Please wait! Deputy Guild Master! The cause analysis is not yet…”
At the civil servant’s words, Kwon Gang-pal, Garam’s deputy guild master, glared fiercely.
“If we enter and clear it, will that not be the end of it?”
“Pardon?”
Kwon Gang-pal began pushing mana into his greatsword. It was an outrageously forceful move, as though he intended to forcibly open the Gate.
“W-wait! This is…!”
“Move aside! No matter how useless and clumsy he is, he is still a member of our Garam family!”
Just as Kwon Gang-pal, who was trying to barge in recklessly, raised his greatsword,
FLASH!
The Gate emitted a dazzling light, then vanished.
“I-it has been cleared!”
It was a series of unbelievable situations.
Hunters who entered Gates with F-Rank danger levels ranged from rookies to Silver Rank at the very highest.
For them to clear a Gate whose danger level had suddenly surged to C-Rank should have been in the realm of impossibility.
“They are coming out!”
As if mocking that impossibility, about a dozen people appeared from beyond the vanished Gate.
They looked utterly exhausted. The reporters swarmed toward the Hunters, who seemed to have had their souls drained after carrying out a brutal and arduous battle.
But before that, Garam moved.
“Find the young master first!”
At Kwon Gang-pal’s order, Garam’s Hunters surrounded the survivors in a circle.
“Please wait, this is difficult for us! The authority to investigate the Gate currently belongs to our Gate Administration…!”
“Those who need to investigate can come in and investigate! We are only looking for the young master, are we not?”
“He is not here!”
However, Jeong Hyeon-su was not visible among them.
Kwon Gang-pal immediately went toward the nearest survivor.
“Hey, did you see what happened to a young pretty-boy-looking fellow with very arrogant eyes?”
“Y-yes!”
“You saw him? What happened to him? Did he die?”
“Die? He left long before we did!”
Kwon Gang-pal could not understand what he was saying.
So, just as he was about to ask again,
[Announcement!]
[Hunter Jeong Hyeon-su of South Korea has successfully cleared the third floor of the Tower of Trials with SSS-Rank.]
“What kind of nonsense is this?”
At the announcement from the Tower, South Korea was turned upside down once again.
***
HunterNet’s flagship clear program, Kill Point, arranged a special broadcast.
“No, Hunter Jeong Yong-hwa. What happened here? You must have something to say about this incident that has now occurred in South Korea’s Hunter world.”
At the MC’s words, Jeong Yong-hwa, wearing a Platinum Rank badge, opened his mouth with an expressionless face.
“It is an exceptional case. An F-Rank Dungeon was a Double Dungeon that transformed into C-Rank, and many survivors returned alive from it.”
“Yes. And at the center of it was Hunter Jeong Hyeon-su, the promising talent born from our South Korea.”
At that, the internet comment window began to burn.
— Was Jeong Hyeon-su not born from Hyeon-su’s mother?
└Indeed.
— Until a few days ago, no one was interested in him. No, did they not target him as a candidate for owner risk who would ruin Garam?
└No. They said Garam Guild’s deputy guild master, Kwon Gang-pal, should act on his behalf, and that Jeong Hyeon-a should become guild master later instead if she proved her ability.
Even as that happened, the program continued.
“Is it not extraordinary? According to the videos released by the survivors, Palbongsan Gate, no, Netracta Necropolis by its official name, was ultimately cleared by Hunter Jeong Hyeon-su alone. Your prediction was completely wrong, was it not?”
“I also watched the analysis video, and after thinking about it, it seems Guild Master Jeong Cheol knew the information about this Gate in advance.”
At that, the MC made a deliberately exaggerated gesture.
“No, what did you say? Why is Guild Master Jeong Cheol suddenly coming up here?”
“There are combat skills possessed by Garam. In places that lean toward martial artists, they call them martial arts. Among the martial arts possessed by Guild Master Jeong Cheol’s family, I know there are some with special abilities like what we saw in the video. It seems he taught that to him in advance and prepared the clear very thoroughly.”
“First, let us watch the video that Kill Point has obtained exclusively.”
A moment later, the video played.
It showed the Undead monsters that appeared in Palbongsan Gate, the graveyard of rookies, the Data Pirates and Watchers, and even the final form of the Watcher, the final boss, being rendered completely powerless before Jeong Hyeon-su.
— The magic used by that Watcher mob is extremely troublesome, but it just becomes useless.
— It is erased in a single attack. What is that?
— I am terribly envious. Some people are born guaranteed to have something like that…
└Do you think anyone who learns that can fight like that? I admit the technique is fraudulent, but look at the flow of the battle. Can you not see that his footwork is different? That is why your life is the way it is.
└Leave him alone. People like that are simply losers who blame everything on talent.
└└The other kids from the Ten Great Guilds must have been taught skills of a similar level, so why can they not do that? Why can Seon Woo-hyeon’s children and Alexander’s children not set SSS-Rank records? Why can they not? Talent, be destroyed! Earth, be destroyed! Tower, be destroyed!
The viewers’ reactions split sharply according to the panel’s evaluation.
And then,
— While the children here are blaming talent, Jeong Hyeon-su cleared Palbongsan and immediately climbed the Tower, where he got SSS on the third floor too.
└This is it. And he is still wearing a tracksuit and three-striped slippers. (Capture of Jeong Hyeon-su entering his house after finishing the Tower climb.)
└└That is insane. If his face had not been caught, anyone would think he was cosplaying.
After the final crowning touch of clearing the Gate, the conversation shifted toward Jeong Hyeon-su, who had nonchalantly cleared the third floor of the Tower in splendid fashion as well.
“It is truly hard to believe even after seeing it. He even takes care of climbing the Tower this diligently. Has it not been a long time since we have seen a rookie like this?”
“Yes, well. Perhaps he felt a prick of conscience. Since he cleared the Gate so easily, he must have thought he should do something else as well.”
“Surely there is no need to speak of conscience. In any case, it is clear that he is drawing tremendous attention. Now then, Hunter Jeong Yong-hwa, please analyze the battle video released this time with the eye of a Platinum Hunter.”
Just as the analysis video of the battle displayed in the Gate was about to begin,
[Announcement!]
[Hunter Jeong Hyeon-su of South Korea has successfully cleared the fourth floor of the Tower of Trials with SSS-Rank!]
At the relentless news of his climb, the comment window truly exploded.
***
There was a daily restriction on climbing the Tower.
For the sake of fairness of opportunity, if nothing else, floors below the fiftieth could only be climbed once per day.
For that reason, after finishing the clear for that day, Jeong Hyeon-su immediately returned to the training hall.
The trial on the third floor was a stage called the Maze of Oblivion, and the fourth floor was a place called the Library of Lost Words.
The Champion Trophies he had received as special privileges for SSS-Rank clears, and the skill he had found in the Library of Words on the fourth floor, “Ancient Language Deciphering,” were extremely meaningful results.
[Ancient Language Deciphering (Unique)]
As the name suggested, it instantly deciphered ancient languages, and from it, Jeong Hyeon-su was able to discover a very unexpected clue.
‘To think the clue to Overlord’s Talent would connect from here.’
While obtaining Ancient Language Deciphering in the Library of Words on the fourth floor, he had happened to read a book.
The title of the book itself was Overlord’s Chronicle, and astonishingly, it was a work written by a priest of the “orc” race.
The Greenskin Clan, which included ogres, goblins, and orcs. Leadership of that clan had always been held by the strongest race, the ogres.
The orcs were prey for those ogres, and though they built strongholds using their countless numbers and resisted through fierce struggle, they had been pushed back every time.
In the midst of that, a tyrant was born among the ogres. Female orcs became the playthings of the ogres and then their meals, while male orcs fell into slavery in the truest sense.
The book stopped at the contents describing how an orc born in that process displayed the spirit to uproot mountains and shake the earth, rallied the orcs, and launched a war of independence from the ogres. It clearly brought Overlord’s Talent to mind.
[You have obtained the clue: Orc Warlord.]
[Keyword: Establishment of the Great Orc Chieftain.]
As if to confirm that his judgment was correct, the System updated the Quest contents.
It meant that for the trial related to Overlord’s Talent, every information network would have to be focused on Gates and books related to Greenskins, including orcs.
BANG!
Even as he organized his thoughts, Jeong Hyeon-su’s smartphone rang while he was dripping with sweat.
DING-DONG!
After checking the contents, Jeong Hyeon-su’s expression twisted slightly.
“What is this?”