"Oppa! Where the hell did you go?!"
The moment Sung Jinwoo stepped through the door, his little sister's voice hit him like a flashbang.
He rubbed at his ringing ear, bewildered. "Didn't I say I was going on a trip for a week?"
Sung Jinah put her hands on her hips, clearly not buying a word of it.
"A trip? Yeah, right—what, did you get stranded in some remote wilderness? I called you a million times and you never picked up! I thought something happened to you!"
"What could possibly happen to me…?"
Jinwoo walked in, tossed his backpack onto the couch, and responded as if it were nothing.
Things weren't what they used to be. He was no longer the E-Rank Hunter who risked serious injury even in an E-Rank Dungeon—the one everyone mocked as "The Weakest Hunter of All Mankind." Although he hadn't taken any formal tests, he could feel it: at this point, his strength was comparable to an S-Rank.
All thanks to the [System] he'd obtained inside a Dungeon called the Cartenon Temple.
For most Hunters, once Awakening occurred, their abilities and total mana capacity were essentially fixed. No matter how hard they trained and refined their skills, they couldn't close the gap with higher-Ranked powerhouses. Only an extremely small number experienced Reawakening.
But he was different. With this [System], he gained experience through combat and leveled up. As long as his LV increased, all his stats rose with it—exactly like a game.
And leveling wasn't even half of it. The [System] came with all kinds of features. This time, for instance, he hadn't gone "traveling" at all—he'd entered an S-Rank Dungeon called the Demon Castle. Its Gate was visible only to him, and only he could enter. The key to open it had been a [Reward] from a quest issued by the [System].
Jinwoo opened the fridge. He hesitated for half a second between Pepsi and Coke before reaching for a Coca-Cola—only to hear Jinah's voice from behind.
"It's because of that super creepy Gate that suddenly appeared! Seoul's been freaking out for days, and right when things are this bad, you disappear and won't answer. Of course I'd worry!"
Jinwoo's hand froze midair. His expression tightened briefly before he asked, as casually as possible, "A creepy Gate?"
"Yeah. A Purple Gate—no one's ever seen anything like it." Facing away from her, Jinah didn't see the split-second shift in his expression. She continued, rattling off what she'd heard. "It's by the plaza. You can't miss it."
"The plaza…"
Then it wasn't the Demon Castle. He'd opened the Demon Castle Gate somewhere else—and it definitely hadn't been purple.
He took a sip of Coke, expression unreadable. "When did it appear? What's the Hunters Association doing about it?"
"Wait—don't tell me you really were out in the sticks?" Jinah stared at him. "It's been all over the internet for days. How do you not know anything?"
Because he'd been grinding levels in a Dungeon, he genuinely didn't. But he couldn't exactly tell his sister that, so he brushed it off with a vague answer.
No wonder the streets had felt off when he returned. It was because of this Purple Gate.
After nearly a week inside a Dungeon, Jinwoo rushed through a shower once he got home. Then he locked himself in his room, towel-drying his hair while scrolling through the past few days' news.
He didn't even have to search hard. Articles about the Purple Gate were pinned at the very top—highlighted in red. Clearly, the government was taking it seriously.
And to his surprise, the Purple Gate wasn't limited to South Korea. China, the United States, Germany, Russia… numerous countries had discovered Purple Gates within their own borders.
Four days had already passed since the Purple Gates appeared. During that time, each country had sent its strongest Hunters to scout what lay beyond.
Normally, a Dungeon was packed with monsters, among which would be an especially powerful monster known as the final boss. Only by killing the final boss could a raid be considered cleared—and only then would the Gate close. That was why some Hunters deliberately left the boss alive until they had gathered all rare resources—ore, medicinal herbs, and so forth—from the Dungeon before finishing the job.
But according to the Hunters who'd returned from the Purple Gate, the other side had no "mobs" at all—only a single abnormally powerful monster presumed to be the Dungeon's final boss.
Beyond that, Jinwoo noticed two pieces of standout intel.
Intel 1: After the final boss was killed, a magic circle appeared in its room—but it couldn't be activated, and no one knew its purpose.
Intel 2: People killed inside the Purple Gate's Dungeon didn't actually die. Instead, they were immediately sent back outside the Gate. Their bodies showed no wounds, but they were weakened for an entire day afterward.
Intel 1 came from countries like China and the U.S. Intel 2 came from places like South Korea and Russia.
"It's literally a game… die, respawn at the fountain, wait out the timer…"
Jinwoo sat on his bed, rubbing his sharply defined chin. His eyes were deep—so deep it seemed like shadows coiled within them.
"A Dungeon even S-Rank teams can barely clear… an S-Rank Dungeon, huh. Then China and the U.S. must've deployed National-Level Hunters…"
National-Level Hunters—beings so powerful that even nations struggled to control them. Exceeding S-Rank, each was a strategic asset akin to a nuclear warhead: the ultimate trump cards for their countries.
Jinwoo stared at the news on his phone, caught in hesitation.
Should he go and attempt that Dungeon?
If the Dungeon wasn't cleared within seven days, the monsters would pour out. And if that happened, his bedridden mother—and his sister—would be in danger.
And besides…
He couldn't shake the feeling that this Purple Gate might be connected to his [System].
In front of him floated a translucent screen only he could see, displaying his level, stats, [Inventory], and [Quest].
…I'll go take a look.
He made the decision quickly.
...
The Dungeon looked like a cave. Jagged gray rocks jutted out in all directions, massive webs clinging to the walls.
Here, Jinwoo finally met the terrifying monster even S-Rank Hunters couldn't handle—a gigantic black spider.
The enemy was formidable, pushing him to desperation more than once.
But in the end, victory was his.
"Haa… what vicious poison. Good thing I'm immune to poisoning and negative status effects."
Exhausted, Jinwoo sat down on a protruding rock to catch his breath. Nearby lay the spider's corpse—its eight legs and head severed, its body slashed brutally.
The internet had already explained why the S-Ranks kept losing: the spider carried an overwhelmingly potent toxin. Once poisoned, the victim would die within five seconds.
It could spew venom like a weapon. It could fire poisonous webs. Even its body was saturated with poison—there was no safe angle, no perfect defense.
Its shell was hard as steel, impossible to cut with ordinary weapons. Jinwoo had been forced to hack at it repeatedly to break through.
[Longevity]—a skill he'd acquired from the [System]. It enhanced his recovery, granted immunity to diseases, poisons, and various abnormal statuses, and vastly improved his regeneration while sleeping.
The spider's toxin was terrifying. Even an S-Rank Hunter would die miserably if careless.
But it had no effect on Jinwoo. That was how he'd managed to grind the monster down, inch by inch.
"Still not working…"
Jinwoo's face was grim. The moment he stepped through the Gate into this Dungeon, his [System] had vanished. No matter how he called for it, it didn't respond.
He'd suspected before that the [System] might be malicious—that it might be using him. But he couldn't lose it now. His mother was still bedridden, and the [System] might hold something capable of saving her. Until his mother was saved, he couldn't allow the [System] to fail.
Thankfully, the blockage seemed temporary. The instant Jinwoo exited the Dungeon, the [System] returned.
"So this Dungeon can even block the [System]… It's getting stranger by the minute."
If the [System] truly was using him, he needed a way to restrain it—or even remove it entirely.
His instincts told him that method might lie within this Dungeon.
He'd already explored every corner of the cave. The only thing still suspicious was the magic circle in the boss room, glowing with an eerie light.
Jinwoo crouched beside it and reached out to touch it. Nothing.
"Figures. If it were that easy to trigger, someone would've done it already…"
He tried various methods. The magic circle wouldn't activate. He couldn't make sense of the symbols carved into it—staring too long only made his head ache. He finally tore his eyes away and looked back at the spider's corpse.
"With the [System] blocked… I don't even know if Shadow Extraction will work."
Muttering under his breath, Jinwoo approached and placed a hand on the corpse.
Normally, a prompt would appear informing him that the target's shadow could be extracted.
Now, there was nothing.
Jinwoo took a deep breath. Ghostly blue flames flared in his eyes.
"[ARISE]."
The instant the word left his mouth, the spider's lifeless body began shuddering violently.
From within, waves of pitch-black aura surged forth, whipping up a fierce black wind. Jinwoo's clothes snapped and flapped loudly—yet he didn't move an inch. Calm and composed, he watched the corpse closely.
When the trembling finally ceased, the black aura wrapped around it abruptly burst apart. Jinwoo frowned.
"Did it fail? Then…"
He could use Shadow Extraction three times per target. That meant two chances remained.
Jinwoo was about to try a second time when a blazing light erupted behind him. His expression changed sharply.
The magic circle—completely inert moments before—was now glowing brilliantly. One by one, the mysterious runes etched into it floated upward, radiating uncanny mana.
In the next instant, the light swallowed Jinwoo whole.
Before he could even open his eyes, his body felt it first—a violent, wrenching sensation of weightlessness. He was falling.
Then freezing liquid enveloped him, wrapping him from head to toe—as if he'd plunged into a bottomless expanse of water.
For some reason, the water was shockingly cold. His clothes offered no protection; it was like being stripped naked and thrown onto a snowfield amid a fierce winter storm. A chill that could freeze the soul penetrated him through every pore.
His heart, his blood—even his thoughts—slowed, as if locked in ice.
He tried to swim, to escape the icy depths, but his limbs felt like they'd been filled with cement. He couldn't move.
Am I… going to die here…?
The thought surfaced in his mind against his will.
Just as his consciousness was about to slip away—just as his body was about to become food for whatever lurked beneath—a fishhook snagged his clothes and yanked him violently from the water.
"Cough—cough… cough-coughcough!"
After a series of harsh coughs, Jinwoo finally recovered enough to open his eyes and speak.
And then he saw his savior.
A tall young woman sat on a gray rock by the riverbank, using a thorn-shaped vermilion spear as a fishing rod.
Scáthach gave Jinwoo a brief once-over. Then her lips curved into a smile dazzling enough to steal breath.
"Kid," she said softly. "Wanna be my disciple?"
---
T/N: mommy....
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