# Chapter 82
Lee Hwan had been studying the gate information all day before entry when he paused while reading about the types of monsters appearing in this gate.
‘C-rank Mimic Birds, C-rank Long-horned Locusts, D-rank King-eyed Dragonflies, B-rank Form Tree…’
It was the combination he hated the most, and also a familiar list of species that seemed recognizable from somewhere. This gate hadn’t been assigned to Support Team 3 in the past… but racking his brain, he remembered participating in combat here as training after becoming a Hunter.
‘If it’s a hidden room in a gate I personally visited, I should remember most details…’
As he scrolled up and down the monster list in deep thought, something seemed to be coming to mind. However, the fact that his memory was this hazy meant that even if there was a hidden room, there probably weren’t any valuable or important discoveries.
But if there truly was no benefit, there would have been no need to rotate the Support teams like that. Wasn’t that what big corporations did? Pretending to offer good employee benefits while ruthlessly grinding down their staff to save costs in strange ways.
Naru would know it was better to check other gates rather than send frequent explorations to a gate with nothing. In other words, it meant those bastards were hiding something again this time.
‘They really are something else. Is there anything they haven’t messed with?’
Lee Hwan finished packing his remaining luggage and left home, grumbling.
* * *
After contacting Kang Dongha in advance and moving efficiently, Lee Hwan arrived at an empty abandoned factory site. The factories had already been demolished or transformed into resting places for Hunters, but the nameplate “○◇ Industries” remaining on the building faintly revealed its past purpose.
Apparently, quite a few rumors had circulated about strange phenomena occurring here, or vengeful spirits of unjustly dead workers wandering around, but from what he could see firsthand, it was just a perfectly normal place.
‘Besides, this gate was created at dawn on Sunday, so there were no casualties… If people had died unjustly back then, wouldn’t working hours be more of a ghost story than actual ghosts?’
Being right at the foot of the mountain meant there were quite a few insects, and the mountain’s shadow made it gloomy even in broad daylight. Still, if anything had happened, Support Team 2, which regularly patrolled this area, would have known long ago. They needed to check if monsters had possibly overflowed, and there was no way they wouldn’t notice even the smallest change.
‘Besides, if we’re talking about ghost stories, I’m probably closer to being one myself.’
The gate was clearly cleaned, yet no attack team had entered, and the staff member in charge of managing and checking the gate happened to take leave that day without any substitute. When he reported this fact to his senior, the response came with a hardened face:
Just ignore it and pretend you don’t know.
“Heheh…”
Lee Hwan burst out laughing without realizing it. Looking at it that way, this business wasn’t entirely without entertainment, even if it was supposedly only rewarding.
Contrary to his worries, there was nobody at the gate today. It seemed the executive, that unlucky Director Kim, had somehow made arrangements.
Should he consider this fortunate or slightly disappointing? He knew that meeting would only lead to bickering and interfere with the gate exploration… but well. Thoughts are free, aren’t they?
Lee Hwan secured the elongated bag bulging with provisions to his back and slung the Dolpeung over his upper back before entering the gate.
The inside of the gate was more desolate than expected. The continuous lush plains made his back feel itchy. The terrain, which offered no concealment or cover, brought unnecessary tension. Lee Hwan recalled the gate information while constantly checking his surroundings and advancing slowly.
This wasn’t a complicated battle site, but it wasn’t pleasantly easy either. Partly because of the forearm-sized insect monsters that appeared, and partly because of the eerily open view with only occasional thick trees.
Moreover, the fact that those trees could also be monsters made his hair stand on end.
‘Well, no. The insects are the main problem.’
When insect-type monsters grow larger, their eyes also grow. Those disgusting pentagonal compound eyes becoming so clear when flying toward you—even the battle-hardened Lee Hwan sometimes screamed internally.
Furthermore, the locusts here had blood-red eyes and an extra pair of bizarre leg-like appendages on their jaws that made a “dididididik” sound when moving—just imagining it sent shivers down his neck.
To be honest, Lee Hwan disliked them more than certain plant monsters or cockroach-like insect monsters. Fortunately, they were easy to dispatch; if they had been even one rank higher, he might have entered the gate in tears.
There was another reason Lee Hwan didn’t particularly like this gate that he’d visited only once. Walking along such quiet mountain paths with nowhere to hide occasionally reminded him of a scene from a horror movie.
‘Mike, doesn’t something seem strange?’
‘What do you mean, Jessica?’
‘The insect sounds… the bird sounds are gone.’
It’s a very common jump scare. The conversing characters suddenly realize there’s no ambient noise around them except for the sound of leaves rustling in the wind, and then something suddenly jumps out and slices their bodies into sixteen pieces.
In reality, this gate also had moments when it became very quiet. At those times, it was even worse than horror movies—even the sound of grass disappeared completely.
And when you slowly turned around, there would be a giant old tree standing firmly where there definitely wasn’t one before, with a knot resembling a human face in its center, grotesquely splitting into a smile.
Creak, squeak…
Just like now.
“Fuck.”
Bang-!
Boom!
With Lee Hwan jumping back to create distance and firing his Dolpeung as a signal, the battle began. As the lush leaves burned and fell away in a cascade, tough and rough branches bent violently and came stabbing toward him.
Lee Hwan cut down the branches with his knife and changed trajectory to avoid the attacks. He fired another bomb to burn and break several branches, and while the monster hesitated, quickly surveyed his surroundings.
Judging from the unpleasant sounds of “digigigik, dididik,” locusts were gathering. Then,
“Fuck-!”
“Fuck-!”
Lee Hwan’s earlier shout echoed grotesquely from all directions. It seemed the Mimic Birds had flown in after hearing the commotion.
‘Of all things to imitate…’
While his face reddened with inexplicable embarrassment, birds showing off colorful feathers flew in with sharp beaks at the forefront to attack Lee Hwan. Insects underfoot, flocks of birds overhead, and a tree right in front of him.
It was a moment of confusion in the face of Mother Nature’s strike from who knows what world.
“Die…!”
Lee Hwan’s pupils glowed brightly. The locusts that had been jumping were pressed to the ground with a crackling sound.
The birds in descending flight had their trajectories altered and crashed miserably into the ground and rocks, while the tree that had been wildly swinging its branches approached but hesitated again with the explosion of the Dolpeung.
Bang!
The flames of the bomb caught on the human-faced knot dried by Spatial Control. Despite being a living tree, it made the crackling sound of well-dried firewood burning.
Lee Hwan threw and burst the oil he had prepared in that direction. Whoosh! The more the monster writhed, the more fiercely the flames licked.
The monsters that barely managed to rush through all those countermeasures were cut in half with a swing of his knife. The sticky insect fluid splashed all the way to the back of his hand, staining the sleeve of his jacket with blotches.
“Whew…”
The space, quiet again, was a mess with the corpses of dead monsters strewn about. Lee Hwan wiped away all the sticky liquid and gathered the bodies of the Mimic Birds half-buried in the ground.
The chunks of meat, each the size of a pigeon, all had broken necks hanging limp. It wasn’t a pretty sight.
‘Ugh.’
Still, when fighting alone, he didn’t experience symptoms like sudden dizziness or lightheadedness. Lee Hwan gathered five dripping Mimic Birds, tied them well with string, and picked them up. These would be useful for opening the hidden room.
The next battle was with dragonflies. Giant dragonflies that had been flying in circles with consistent orbits all simultaneously twisted their heads toward Lee Hwan when he appeared. As the compound eyes, each the size of a fist, all turned toward him at once, Lee Hwan felt disgusted and immediately launched his Dolpeung without hesitation.
It wasn’t that he was afraid of bugs. Just that when faced with monsters that could harm him, especially in giant versions, he somehow ended up freaking out. He wasn’t trying to discriminate against monsters based on appearance, but compared to the relatively cute animal monsters among them, he honestly couldn’t help wanting to eliminate them all.
‘In your next life, be reborn as a hamster.’
Despite not believing in any particular afterlife, he wished them peace and threw a small bomb with delayed explosion at the approaching swarm of dragonflies.
When the bomb made contact with the monsters, he compressed them all into a narrow space using gravity. Bang! Dragonflies with separated heads, thoraxes, and abdomens wriggled inside the space.
Lee Hwan pressed down on the space once more with gravity, compressing it like a cube, and then picked it up after tying it with string. The bodily fluids dripping down were truly disgusting.
