“Call someone to fix the window. I’m freezing to death.”
Kang Yujun nodded. He just continued to silently watch Lee Kanghyun eat. Under that gaze, Lee Kanghyun felt like his throat was closing up. Why did he keep staring at people like that?
“Why do you keep staring? Aren’t you going to eat?”
“Just watching you eat fills me up.”
“Fuck off.”
When Lee Kanghyun spat out the curse, Kang Yujun laughed out loud. When the laughter rang out, the air in the house seemed to lighten a bit. Lee Kanghyun felt relieved without showing it and put the remaining sushi in his mouth. He thought he might get indigestion from the atmosphere, but it got a bit better at least.
Then, Kang Yujun’s phone rang. His expression hardened after checking the content.
“Hold on. I need to take this call.”
Kang Yujun went out to the veranda. Lee Kanghyun glanced at him. The back of Kang Yujun talking on the phone with a serious expression felt unfamiliar.
What could it be? Is it related to that intruder from earlier?
Lee Kanghyun consciously tried not to eavesdrop. That wouldn’t be polite. Though the content came through because of his developed S-rank hearing, he deliberately ignored it.
After a moment, Kang Yujun hung up and came back in. His expression had darkened even more than before.
“Who was it?”
“The Association President. Because of this incident. I think I need to go to the Association for a bit.”
Kang Yujun said as he hurriedly grabbed his outer clothes and put them on. Lee Kanghyun looked at him with surprised eyes. Now? In the middle of the night?
“It’s my business, so why are you being called to the Association?”
“You’re our guild member now. And I’m the Guild Master. Right now, I’m dealing with this on behalf of the guild. I’ll be back soon. Keep the door locked. Don’t open it carelessly for just anyone.”
“Am I a kid?”
“You are a kid. Can’t even eat alone. Sleep twelve hours at a time.”
Lee Kanghyun’s brow furrowed sharply. He did one nice thing and now he was acting up again. It seemed like he had some kind of disease where he’d die if he didn’t get cheeky.
“Just hurry up and get lost.”
Kang Yujun, who had been heading to the entrance, hesitated as if his feet wouldn’t move. He looked back at Lee Kanghyun with worried eyes.
“Want to stay at my place instead of here?”
If it was Kang Yujun’s house, it would be safe. But he couldn’t go trembling and taking refuge at his place.
“No thanks.”
Lee Kanghyun waved his hand dismissively. Kang Yujun hesitated but eventually opened the front door.
“Call me right away if you need anything.”
“Yeah. Got it.”
Kang Yujun let out a small sigh at the insincere response.
Along with the sound of the door closing, a heavy silence descended upon the house. Lee Kanghyun, who had roughly finished his meal, immediately sprawled out on the sofa. Cold air came in through the broken window.
He stared blankly up at the ceiling.
The Association President’s summons that came too quickly. The existence of an assassin.
He needed to think. To do that, he needed to use his brain, but his thoughts flowed sluggishly from fatigue.
Whatever, I’ll think about it later. Let me just sleep a bit first…
It was just as Lee Kanghyun was about to close his eyes.
Vvvvvt-!
An unpleasant vibration shook the building.
What? An earthquake?
No, it felt different. This was mana. And at that, very ominous and poor quality, high-density mana could be felt.
Lee Kanghyun opened the eyes he’d closed. The place where the vibration started was close by.
He bolted upright and approached the broken window. Then he looked down below.
Ah, fuck. They really pull all kinds of shit.
The air between the playground and parking lot was splitting open. A dark red vortex spun madly through the torn space.
Red sparks were flying from the entrance of the gate.
That was a Red Gate.
Red Gates appeared out of nowhere and caused a Break phenomenon where monsters would pour out from the gate into reality within a minimum of 5 minutes and a maximum of 30 minutes. To prevent a Break, hunters had no choice but to enter inside.
If he left it like this, it would explode within 5 minutes at the earliest. And the monsters that poured out from inside would turn this apartment complex and his home into a wasteland.
Are you insane? Why here of all places!
Lee Kanghyun clutched his head. What kind of curse was on this property? It seemed like he needed to do an exorcism or something.
It had already been 30 minutes since Kang Yujun left. Even if he reported it to the Association, it would take 10 minutes for the response team to arrive.
If that thing bursts in the meantime?
This expensive apartment would collapse, people would die, and everything would be covered in blood.
The smell of blood. Corpses. Screaming.
It was exactly what he hated most.
And if Kang Yujun’s house collapsed, he’d immediately lose both a place to sleep and a place to hide. He hated that more than dying.
There was only one option.
Enter before it bursts. Go in, clear it, and close it.
Lee Kanghyun checked the pill bottle in his pocket, then irritably grabbed slippers from the entrance and stepped up onto the broken windowsill.
He put on the slippers while on the window frame.
The wind blew fiercely. The loose t-shirt he was wearing as pajamas fluttered.
“I’m definitely getting overtime pay for this.”
Simultaneously with his muttering, Lee Kanghyun threw his body into the air.
Whiiiiing!
He began falling at a terrifying speed.
People standing on the ground shrieked in horror when they saw the black object falling from the sky.
“Huh, what? Something’s falling! Get out of the way!”
Lee Kanghyun’s body grew closer and closer to the ground. Just before touching the ground, he spun once in the air and then landed.
KWAANG!
With a sound like a bomb exploding, the asphalt floor caved in and shattered.
The alarms of the parked cars all went off at once, beeping- beeping-, and a thick cloud of dust rose up.
“Cough, ugh…”
“Wh-what’s happening?”
Surprised residents and security guards cautiously approached the dust cloud. Soon the hazy dust cleared, and a person walked out from within.
A handsome man in short sleeves that didn’t match the weather and wearing three-stripe slippers was shaking his hair with an annoyed expression.
“…Lee Kanghyun?”
Someone muttered blankly.
“That’s Lee Kanghyun! The S-rank hunter!”
“He lived in this neighborhood?”
Lee Kanghyun didn’t even glance in their direction and glared at the gate.
I’ll deal with this quickly and get out.
Lee Kanghyun didn’t give people a chance to talk to him and threw himself into the gate.
Along with an intense light, Lee Kanghyun was sucked into the gate.
The gate that had been swelling precariously as if it would burst at any moment became calm as if it were a lie.
Right before a Break, it was a close save.
***
Lee Kanghyun, who entered the gate, couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh. As soon as he entered, dozens, hundreds of monsters greeted him.
Grrrrr-.
Giant wolf-shaped monsters covered in black fur greeted him. Upper-tier entities that could wipe out an entire regular hunter party if even a few appeared were now swarming before his eyes like a swarm of ants.
He didn’t even have time to grumble as usual. The moment the creatures noticed Lee Kanghyun’s presence, they rushed at him like mad. The ground shook and red dust rose up.
The head of the monster at the front exploded from Lee Kanghyun’s carelessly swung fist. Blood splattered in all directions.
Disgusting. Lee Kanghyun frowned and shook off his hand. But there was no time to indulge in sentiments. Two that rushed in afterward tried to bite Lee Kanghyun’s arms and legs from both sides.
Thud.
Lee Kanghyun kicked the monster’s jaw with his slippered foot and simultaneously drove his fist into the crown of the one on the opposite side.
The horrific sound of a skull being crushed echoed through the gate.
But there was no end. No matter how many he killed, they continued to pour out like a black wave.
This is kind of strange.
No matter how much it was a Red Gate, it was rare for A-rank monsters to swarm from the entrance like this. It was as if someone had artificially cultivated and released the monsters.
Each time Lee Kanghyun’s fist cut through the air, monsters’ heads exploded.
However, it was too much for him to handle the endlessly surging monsters alone.
Taking advantage of a momentary gap, a monster’s sharp claws sliced long across Lee Kanghyun’s side.
“Ugh!”
Flesh was torn away. The red blood that seeped out soaked his t-shirt.
But that wound immediately began to close, emitting white steam. Soon, the wound healed right away.
Veins bulged on Lee Kanghyun’s forehead.
The torn flesh forcibly attached itself, and severed nerves reconnected. Terrible pain struck his brain.
“Haah…”
His legs staggered from the pain. Not missing that opening, the creatures rushed at him again. Lee Kanghyun gritted his teeth and swung his fist. His forearm was bitten, regenerated, and torn again.
Lee Kanghyun’s vision wavered. His hand instinctively reached for the medicine in his pocket.
To erase this fucking pain, he needed medicine. Altrapin. If he chewed this, he could forget all this terrible pain and the disgusting smell of blood.
His hand rummaged inside his pocket. The patches had all run out after using the last one before. All that should be left were the capsule pills.
Lee Kanghyun took out the pill bottle and opened the lid. But it was completely empty.
A hollow laugh came out involuntarily. The pills had all run out too, and he hadn’t even noticed. I should’ve checked in advance. He resented his own laziness.
“Ha… Fuck.”
No medicine meant he had to endure this pain with a clear mind.
The monsters that smelled the thick scent of blood went even more berserk and charged. Dozens of teeth and claws were aimed at him.
Lee Kanghyun bit down until his molars threatened to crush. He threw the empty pill bottle to the ground and hurled his body into the middle of the blood-splattered battlefield.
Fine. Let’s see if I die from the pain first, or if you all die before that.
