It was a baseless post, but no other method came to mind. Pyeonghwa took a taxi to find a Gate generation zone with the desperation of grasping at straws.
He’d come wearing slippers, but it just had to be a steep forest path. Pyeonghwa put strength in his toes and climbed over the steel barricade.
‘Why isn’t there anyone guarding it?’
Gates that occur on South Korean territory belong to the state from the moment they appear. Then ownership of the Gate is transferred to Hunter guilds through auction.
Even a single low-rank Gate had tremendous resources, so state intervention was inevitable to minimize conflict.
So normally there would be someone guarding the Gate, whether they were public officials from the Hunter Association or guild members from a Hunter guild…
“Sweet, I can get close.”
Excited that he could receive more Gate waves, Pyeonghwa pushed through the bushes without thinking deeply.
The deeper he went, the steeper the slope became, requiring him to grab onto trees to move. Before long, Pyeonghwa was able to stop in front of a huge black hole.
“…Wow, that’s scary as hell.”
Since it was his first time seeing one in person, goosebumps rose all over. It felt like someone had ripped open the air like tearing open a snack bag with a swoosh.
The inside of the Gate was pitch black, and even when he shined his flashlight around, the light didn’t reflect. They say a Gate’s rank is determined by its size, and at a glance it was over 3m tall. Though he didn’t know the details, he thought it might be at least C-rank.
“Right. I should take a commemorative photo.”
Click, click. Pyeonghwa began taking pictures of the Gate with his phone’s rear camera. Since the flash light didn’t reflect off the Gate, the photos created a unique atmosphere.
Pyeonghwa was admiring the photos he’d taken with a satisfied face when he switched to the front camera.
“One, two, cheese~”
He hooked his arm around a tree to balance his center of gravity and took a selfie with the pitch-black Gate as his background.
Oh, not bad right? Handsome right? Pyeonghwa adjusted the camera position at various angles while praising himself.
Just then, he heard the sound of dirt tumbling down from below.
“Huh?”
The tree he was holding onto gradually tilted. Pyeonghwa hastily shoved his phone into his pocket to switch to another tree.
Crack!
“Ah, no… Waaah!”
At that moment, the tree root snapped and the tree Pyeonghwa was holding swayed greatly.
Pyeonghwa was helplessly sucked into the pitch-black Gate along with the tree.
Thud!
“Ow!”
He fell from midair and landed on his butt. Ugh, my butt… Pyeonghwa groaned and looked around. A completely different world from outside was spread before him.
An orange sky tinged with sunset colors, bitingly cold air, a path surrounded by high walls…
“…I’m fucked.”
Pyeonghwa unconsciously fumbled in his pocket. Either it fell out when he dropped or his phone was gone. Electronic devices don’t work inside Gates anyway so he couldn’t have used it even if he had it, but for some reason he felt even more desperate and clutched his head.
‘I’m lucky there are no monsters around, but… how do I get out of here?’
Generally, there are two ways to exit a Gate. Kill the boss monster, or use a return stone.
Pyeonghwa was a non-Awakener who couldn’t handle a single regular monster, let alone a boss. Naturally, there was no way he’d have something like a return stone.
‘It’s okay. The guild with ownership will come in. They have to collect dungeon resources too…!’
He tried to console himself, but after looking around, Pyeonghwa couldn’t hide his despair. There were clear marks on the walls where decorations had been torn off. It seemed the guild had already thoroughly cleaned out the resources down to the bare floor.
‘Th-they’ll come to close the Gate, right?’
An ominous premonition crept over him. Resources are one-and-done once collected, but monsters are regenerated by the dungeon’s magic power.
When you kill monsters, you obtain magic stones, stones containing magic power. So Hunter guilds sometimes deliberately don’t close Gates and use them as magic stone harvest farms.
The time limit varies wildly for each Gate. Some places have to be cleared within a day of generation, and among famous overseas tourist attractions, there are places where Dungeon Breaks haven’t occurred for over 30 years.
‘I’m going to die here…!’
There’s not a single person guarding outside, and not even a shadow of a monster inside. The possibility seemed high that it hadn’t been long since the Hunter guild that owns the Gate had subjugated the monsters and left.
Pyeonghwa guessed that the moment the monsters regenerated would be his last.
As death approached, the face of his father, his only family, flickered before his eyes. When Pyeonghwa tried to reminisce about memories with him, he couldn’t think of anything appropriate and clutched his head groaning.
‘…Ah! Collecting allowances from the moms was pretty fun!’
What he barely managed to recall wasn’t his father, but memories related to his father’s lovers.
Pyeonghwa’s father, Noh Baram, had so many lovers his nickname was King Uija. Fortunately, everyone knew he was a philanthropist who didn’t discriminate by gender, age, or race, so it never became a big problem.
Pyeonghwa grew up surrounded by his father’s lovers. Unable to know who his biological mother was, he thought of everyone who raised him as his mother.
The tears that hadn’t come out even a single drop when thinking of his father trickled down when he thought of his father’s lovers.
‘Sniff, I miss the moms too.’
Seventeen years ago from now, a box containing a newborn baby was delivered to Noh Baram’s doorstep. They say Noh Baram couldn’t doubt the baby was his child because the baby’s features were too identical to his own.
With the baby’s appearance, cracks formed in his peaceful octopus-like lifestyle. His lovers began competing to become the baby’s mother.
Stressed out, Noh Baram named the baby ‘Pyeonghwa’ saying he needed peace of mind, and declared he would marry whoever Pyeonghwa chose as his mother in the future.
Thus began the Noh Pyeonghwa Mom Survival. For a full 13 years.
Until elementary school, Pyeonghwa lived moving from one mom’s house to another. And Noh Baram left Pyeonghwa with them and enjoyed the same free life as before.
It was natural for Pyeonghwa to have deeper bonds with his lovers, who were complete strangers, than with his biological father.
—I don’t need something like a mom!
On elementary school graduation day, the peculiar co-parenting ended when Pyeonghwa refused to have a ‘mom’.
It wasn’t that they hadn’t done enough. Rather, he grew up receiving more love than he deserved. But ultimately having to choose one person became a burden for young Pyeonghwa.
Fortunately, they all respected Pyeonghwa’s opinion.
Noh Baram was thrilled and hugged Pyeonghwa, rubbing against him. He was someone who had no intention of being tied down to anyone from the start. How could he not be happy when Pyeonghwa’s refusal of a mom allowed him to easily avoid the empty promise of marriage?
Pyeonghwa found such a father pathetic and annoying. He wasn’t a bad person, but he’d never seen an adult who didn’t act their age to that extent.
He lived alone with his father from the first year of middle school. Yet even so, no proper memories came to mind. Because after Pyeonghwa firmly told him not to bring lovers home, he only stopped by the house once or twice a month.
Well, it didn’t matter. To Pyeonghwa, his father was someone who was fine whether present or absent as long as he provided money well.
The moms occasionally contacted him. Some even came to find him in front of his school saying they missed Pyeonghwa.
At first it was nice and good, but as time passed it became uncomfortable. Pyeonghwa didn’t want to give false hope anymore to the victims who had been used by his father to raise someone else’s child for over 10 years.
In the end, he cut ties with a single stroke, telling them never to come again.
—I’m different from Father. I’ll only love one person for my whole life.
Growing up in this environment, Pyeonghwa’s view on romance formed extremely. When he said he would only love one person for his whole life, it literally meant ‘one person’. Pyeonghwa firmly resolved never to become a slut like his father.
“What slut. I’m about to die without even holding hands once.”
Pyeonghwa flopped down and muttered while looking at the orange sky. If he’d known he’d die young like this, he should have at least dated once.
Even when his friends bragged about getting girlfriends, all that was in Pyeonghwa’s mind was games. He hadn’t even experienced watching pornographic videos that teenage boys supposedly watch at least once.
The root of the problem was going to a PC room following his friends in the first year of middle school.
“Hah… I shouldn’t have met that bastard Bae Sinhyo back then.”
When he muttered the name of someone who had now become less than a stranger, complicated emotions surged up. He’d stuck with Bae Sinhyo throughout middle school and they were close enough to enter gaming high school together, but… the relationship collapsed when Bae delivered the final blow to his expulsion.
Pyeonghwa recalled the memory of first meeting Bae Sinhyo. That day was the first time he went to a PC room and encountered online games, and the day he learned he was a gaming genius.
—Hey, Noh Pyeonghwa. Hurry up and accept the invite.
—But I’ve never played computer games before…
—It’s fine. Originally you learn this stuff by dying. Play healer. Healer’s the easiest.
Having barely learned the controls, Pyeonghwa chose healer, which supposedly had the lowest entry barrier for beginners.
