Translator: Vine
Translated At: Nyx Scans
Chapter: 73
A few hours later.
Inside the Unknown Gate.
"D-damn it! Gyeongho! Seok Gyeongho!"
"I know, so stop rushing me!"
Wooooooong—
The atmosphere vibrated.
Steam-like smoke billowed from the feet of 'Striker' Seok Gyeongho.
Hard Leg.
Kicking off the ground, he leaped and suddenly vanished from sight.
And the next moment—.
Craaaack!
The monster's neck spun like a windmill with a dull thud.
Junhwan, who had been waiting for an opening, didn't miss that instant.
[Passive ▶ 'Weak Spot Detection' activated. Instantly identifies the enemy's vital point. Critical hit chance is maximized upon successful attack.]
Flash!
The knife Junhwan held emitted a short, intense burst of light.
Stab!
...Thump.
Its neck broken and chest pierced, the monster collapsed powerlessly to the ground.
[Congratulations! You have defeated the last named monster!]
[The exit will be activated soon.]
[Loading]
"Haa... Haa..."
Junhwan gasped for breath, staring at the system window that popped up before him.
The content was no different from a regular gate, but the difficulty was not.
It took one S-Class hunter and five A-Class hunters considerable effort to clear a single Unknown Gate.
Wiping the purple blood from the knife's surface, Junhwan brought his hand to the 'TIME' section in the bottom right of the system window.
Clear Time 08:03:22
With these members, they could usually clear even an S-Class gate within 5 hours.
But 8 hours.
'If even one person had been missing, it would have been dangerous.'
Usually, Corps members moved in pairs of two.
For S-Class gates, it was trios.
It was very rare for six members to be dispatched all at once like this.
At this level, Immortal's losses during the previous Busan Unknown Gate were understandable.
'This is an Unknown Gate.'
As Junhwan stared at the monster's corpse at his feet with a complicated gaze, Gyeongho abruptly approached and tapped his shoulder.
"Bae Junhwan, what are you doing? Hurry up and grab what you need so we can get out."
"Move quickly before the time bonus ends."
"Ah, right."
"Still, it's an Unknown Gate, so I think we can expect some decent loot."
But it was strange.
Nowhere were any items worth taking as spoils of war.
He had heard that Unknown Gates were unpredictable in both difficulty and rewards, but...
'Is this kind of thing possible?'
No matter how much he thought about it, it was utterly puzzling.
At the very least, shouldn't there be some miscellaneous items like monster bones or something?
"Hey. This is what Unknown Gates are usually like..."
It was then.
BOOOOOM—!!!
Suddenly, rainbow-colored smoke billowed up before them.
This was definitely the smoke bomb Minjoo usually carried.
"M-Master?!"
Cough, cough.
The startled guild members coughed and looked around, but due to the garishly colored smoke, the small boy was nowhere to be seen.
However,
"There's still one left."
Only Minjoo's low warning came from somewhere.
"Huh? What's that."
They had definitely defeated the last named monster.
They confirmed the corpse and the clear message popped up.
But...
"Get out."
Clank!
The sound of a bullet being loaded came from somewhere.
"Right now."
The Saturday Minjoo had promised.
Ding dong—
Not long after pressing the doorbell, click, the door opened.
"Oh my, Ms. Yura. You're here already?"
Ham Suhyeon.
One of the Corps guild members, the one who had approached Eunha, who was being held captive by Minjoo, and offered her a drink.
Junhwan's words, that she was merely the nominal deputy guild leader and that Suhyeon actually held that much power, suddenly came to mind.
"Yes. Is Minjoo here?"
"He's probably on his way now. Would you like to come in and wait?"
"I was bored guarding the house alone, so this is perfect timing."
Eunha entered the HQ interior with Suhyeon.
Despite the ground floor not being very spacious, the atmosphere felt strangely emptier than before.
It seemed all six members, excluding her, had gone on a business trip to Pohang.
Suhyeon placed drinks and simple snacks on the table, then rummaged through her pocket and checked her phone.
"What on earth are these guys doing, not a single call? They should have left already."
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
Suhyeon, as if sending a message to someone, rapidly tapped her phone screen, then slammed it face down on the table with a decisive thud!
"They're probably off sightseeing somewhere again. Seriously, not an ounce of crisis awareness."
Watching Suhyeon shake her head, Eunha smiled faintly.
"It seems they're always like that."
"Ugh, don't even get me started. Since they went to Pohang, they probably went to see the ocean while they were at it. One hundred percent, I tell you."
Suhyeon clicked her tongue.
"Master is fifteen, so that's understandable, but those grown-up guys. Instead of stopping him."
Her arms crossed, her huffing demeanor made her look like an eldest sister talking about her thoughtless younger siblings.
Perhaps because of that, Eunha felt she understood a little more why they called each other 'family'.
"They'll be back soon. It's alright. I can wait a little."
Eunha, picking up a snack Suhyeon had offered, said leisurely.
Watching her, Suhyeon awkwardly scratched her cheek.
"Yes, well... Master wouldn't break a promise with Ms. Yura, of all people."
Suhyeon sat down on the sofa beside Eunha and picked up a snack.
She wasn't angry anymore.
"Anyway, Master is like that too. The way he sings 'Noona, Noona' all the time, it's enough to make a guild member a little jealous."
After that, Suhyeon, changing the subject to keep Eunha from getting bored, shared various stories.
The main topic was the trivial daily lives of the seven Corps guild members.
What was surprising was that during their conversation, which lasted over an hour, Suhyeon never once mentioned Eunha's dress or parasol.
She didn't look down on or belittle Eunha, who was known as an F-Class concept hunter.
She didn't even bring up the recent controversial topics of Jagalchi Market or the Monkey King.
Was it because of that?
When she came to her senses, Eunha found herself leaning back against the chair cushion, nodding her head comfortably.
Rrrrr...
"Ah, just a moment."
Suhyeon, who had been complaining about Junhwan's gluttony, reached for her vibrating phone.
"Hey, where are you?"
As soon as she answered the phone, Suhyeon yelled abruptly and then unleashed a torrent of nagging, like a machine gun.
"Ms. Yura is already here, you know. Master too. Don't tell me you forgot about today's appointment?"
...
A brief silence flowed.
Suhyeon, saying "Hello?" checked her phone, then brought the speaker to her ear again.
"Why aren't you saying anything? Hello? Are you listening, Bae Junhwan?"
Just then, a crack appeared on Suhyeon's face.
"...Wait, are you crying?"
The moment Eunha, who had been quietly sipping her drink, glanced at her—
Thump.
The phone slipped powerlessly from Suhyeon's grasp.
Thump-thump-thump—
Arriving at the university hospital near the Corps HQ, Suhyeon ran frantically somewhere.
'It seems I'll have to go for a bit. Looks like the guys got a little hurt.'
Just a few tens of minutes ago, Suhyeon, having received a call from Junhwan, hastily grabbed her outerwear and said so.
'Hurt, you say?'
'Actually, this Pohang mission was an Unknown Gate raid.'
Only then did Eunha realize that the place they had gone to was an Unknown Gate.
Towards Eunha, who had frozen in place, Suhyeon said.
'Would you like to come along?'
'Me... too?'
'Yes. Ms. Yura, you're Master's officially recognized family member.'
—So she had tagged along, but.
Eunha glanced at Suhyeon's retreating back.
She had said they were prone to exaggeration and that this was probably just them feigning illness again, but contrary to those words, Suhyeon, upon arriving at the hospital, looked extremely anxious.
Turning the corner of the corridor, a familiar group in green capes came into view a short distance away.
It was the family.
Suhyeon suppressed a curse, "Hey, you...!" and strode towards them.
Smack!
And then she flicked Junhwan, who was standing at the very front, on the forehead.
"I knew this would happen! Do you know how shocked I was when I heard you were in the hospital? Oh, my heart."
Suhyeon yelled.
Though her tone was aggressive, her lips, which had been set in a hard line, finally seemed to loosen.
"See, Ms. Yura? What did I tell you? Those guys exaggerate like crazy. They look perfectly fine, what's with the hospital."
Eunha, following Suhyeon, also visually confirmed their condition.
All five had numerous cuts and scrapes, and their capes were covered in a great deal of dirt, but they didn't seem to have suffered any major injuries.
'...How?'
They were an elite group composed solely of A-Class hunters.
But conversely, that meant not all of them were S-Class.
Unknown Gates were notoriously enigmatic, with raid difficulties varying greatly each time, but it was surprising that not a single one of them was missing and they had all returned safely.
During the previous Busan Unknown Gate, Immortal had lost a significant number of personnel.
Even considering their tight-knit bond and excellent teamwork, it was strange that they had returned without a single deep wound.
What was even more concerning was that despite returning safely, their faces looked somehow gloomy.
"Why does everyone look like that? Goodness, anyone would think you all got a three-week diagnosis."
Suhyeon lightly teased her colleagues, feigning nonchalance.
But she couldn't possibly have failed to notice it.
This suffocatingly heavy atmosphere.
"What's wrong, really, why are you all like this. Making me anxious. Alright, I won't say anything more now..."
Suhyeon's lips began to tremble slightly.
Behind Suhyeon, who was forcing a smile, Eunha, who had been silent all along, took a step closer.
"Where's Minjoo?"
Those words were the trigger.
Silence fell.
Even Suhyeon, who had been chattering away, froze solid.
A long silence ensued.
In that silence, Junhwan spoke with difficulty.
"...Master is."
Contrary to his faltering lips, his head drooped lower and lower.
