How long has it been since I was this nervous? I wasn’t even this nervous during my college entrance exams or university interviews.
Wonwoo bit his lower lip and fidgeted with his phone for no reason. A sense of déjà vu, as if a disaster alert message would fly into his phone at any moment, made him anxious.
He could feel the person sitting right next to him sending him uncomfortable glances, so he tried to stay still, but that too was only for a moment. If he wasn't conscious of it, he would keep chewing on his lip, almost to the point of drawing blood.
-Bbirong bbirong!
At the humming-like alarm sound from the system, Wonwoo turned on his phone screen.
[User ‘Wonwoo’'s Stress Level has risen!（；´д｀)]
[Please take a deep breath to lower your Stress Level!]
Instead of taking a deep breath, Wonwoo let out a deep sigh.
“If I could control it, do you think I’d be acting like this…?”
[Try following along! ( •̀ω•́)✧]
[Breathe in on one~]
[Breathe out on two!]
While grumbling, Wonwoo repeatedly inhaled and exhaled in time with the system's message. Annoyingly, he felt his body calming down as he breathed according to the system's advice.
As his mind settled, Wonwoo once again thought about the reason he had boarded this train.
[‘It Was That Moment Back Then!’]
[How about recreating that moment on May 8th? ( •̀ ω •́ )✧]
[Upon successful completion of the <QUEST>…!]
[A heart-pounding encounter with someone?! (●ˇ∀ˇ●)]
The first thing Wonwoo did after receiving the quest was tear out a piece of paper, write ‘May 8th’ in large letters, and then jot down everything he did on the original May 8th.
He mulled over and wrote down what time he went to sleep on May 7th, what time he woke up on the 8th, and when and what he ate for breakfast.
And today, Wonwoo acted according to the plan he had written down.
He woke up to the alarm set for 7:58 AM and got out of bed at 8:00 AM. Then he went to the bathroom, washed his hair and face as usual, and ‘prepared to go out.’
He ate the tuna-mayo rice ball he had bought the night before and then spaced out while playing on his phone. Since he was on a leave of absence, he wouldn't receive a class cancellation text, but he still checked his phone messages again at 9:00 AM to recreate the day.
Then, around 11:00 AM, Wonwoo left his house and headed for Hongik University Station. He browsed a bookstore, ate chicken at a nearby franchise chicken restaurant, and wandered around until, as the system had instructed, he boarded the train for Sindorim from car 5-3 at 2:18 PM.
And now.
-The next stop is Hapjeong, Hapjeong Station. The doors will open on….
Wonwoo took in the view of the Han River between Hapjeong and Dangsan stations. The heart he had just managed to calm down began to pound loudly again.
He felt like a disaster alert would come at any second, so he couldn't comfortably enjoy the scenery of the Han River before his eyes. As if to meet his expectations, the train suddenly came to a halt.
The Han River scenery he had always passed by came into full view. The bright sunlight and the river's shimmer sparkling beneath it.
The people inside the train began to murmur and rise from their seats one by one. Among them, Wonwoo did nothing, simply sitting still with his eyes fixed on the scenery outside the window.
-BEEEEEEEP!
[(Emergency Alert) May 8th 14:24, A-rank Gate has appeared under the Han River bridge (Dangsan Railway Bridge) on Seoul Subway Line 2 between Dangsan and Hapjeong stations]
“Crazy. What is that.”
His vision, the scenery beyond the window, was dyed black. Wonwoo stared at it blankly before realizing that the black scenery was the leg of ‘something.’ Someone screamed tearfully, “It's a kraken!!”
Wonwoo gripped his phone tightly and rose from his seat. First, he had to get out of here. Just then, one of the passengers took out the emergency hammer from inside the train and smashed a window that the ‘black something’ hadn't touched.
*CRASH!* Along with the sound of the window shattering, an alarm rang from Wonwoo's phone.
-Bbirong bbirong!
[<QUEST> Generated!]
[‘Solve the suddenly appeared A-Rank Gate!’]
[A QUEST GUIDE from ‘SYSTEM’ for user ‘Wonwoo’! ( o｀ω′)ノ]
[‘…Today, for some reason, is a fateful day to meet someone!’ (✿◡‿◡) ]
***
“Chief Shin Yonghyun, I am so sorry. During your vacation, really…”
“It’s fine. Do you know that’s the fifth time you’ve said you’re sorry?”
Yonghyun said, looking at the shimmer of the Han River spread out before him. The river's waves reflected in Yonghyun's eyes were incredibly peaceful. So much so that it was hard to believe there was an A-Rank Gate right in front of them.
Yonghyun was on a boat with the Bureau staff to get closer to the Gate. The boat's motor rumbled and cried loudly as if to assert its presence.
“St-still…. It was a vacation you had been waiting for for a long time.”
“A vacation is something I can take again someday. Right now, solving the Gate problem is the priority. And it’s not as if you created the Gate, Mihee-ssi. So please pull yourself together and brief me on the situation.”
Without much change in his expression, Shin Yonghyun put on black leather gloves and repeatedly clenched and unclenched his left hand. Simultaneously, the surrounding temperature dropped. Lee Mihee shivered from the sudden cold.
“All emergency alert messages have been sent out. As mentioned before, two A-rank Gates appeared simultaneously at 14:24, and they are showing signs of fusion just 10 minutes after their appearance.”
“A fusion… Gate.”
Yonghyun said, clicking his tongue so quietly that no one could hear.
Dealing with just one A-rank Gate required not only himself but also two or three more espers of A-Class or higher. And now two such Gates had fused.
The frightening thing about a Fusion Gate was that it was impossible to predict how much stronger and more dangerous the fused gate would become. Sometimes, an A-rank and an A-rank would fuse and simply result in a larger size, while other times, they could double in power and transform into an S-rank Gate.
“Have you completed measuring the Fusion Gate's danger energy level?”
“Th-that is….”
“Speak.”
“The Gate's wavelength scan result… is a danger level of AA-rank.”
“I suppose we should be thankful it’s not S-rank.”
Yonghyun tossed the suit jacket he was wearing far away and unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt, folding up the sleeves. In the meantime, small ice crystals trickled down, making sharp clashing sounds.
“Are there any other unusual circumstances?”
“…A monster from one of the A-rank Gates has attacked a subway train that was crossing the bridge. It is an octopus-type monster. The dispatch department has urgently deployed units to focus on evacuating the citizens. However… it is difficult to be optimistic that there will be no casualties.”
Yonghyun took a deep breath. The most important thing in a Gate situation was to minimize casualties through a swift response, but that didn't mean one should rush in to solve things hastily.
He had to be calmer than anyone else. Getting scared or feeling impatient and rushing was a job for his subordinates or the citizens who had to evacuate quickly, not for him, an S-Class esper and the Chief of the Gate Management Department.
“Have you sent out all the requests for support?”
“Yes, yes! I requested support while making the emergency call to you, Chief.”
“What’s the status of support requests to the S-Class espers?”
There were a total of four S-Class espers based in Korea, including Yonghyun. But getting S-Class espers to move was no easy task.
Baek Juwon, the S-Class esper belonging to the Geonyeong Guild, prioritized guild activities in any situation. Even when sent a Gate dispatch request, he would usually refuse, saying to contact the guild, so the only way to request his support was to submit a formal request to the guild.
Guild requests cost more than personal requests. That’s why the Planning and Management Department, which managed the budget, wailed every time they had to request support from Baek Juwon, or rather, the Geonyeong Guild.
In fact, not just Juwon, but basically a lot of money was needed to move any S-Class esper. And to use a budget in the hundreds of millions, there had to be a proper justification.
That’s why Yonghyun was always the first to go out whenever a Gate occurred. It was more convenient to solve it alone than to submit a budget approval, get the consent of the Planning and Management Department, and brief the headquarters director on the reason for ‘spending so much money.’
But all this changed when it came to an A-rank or higher Gate. The appearance of an A-rank Gate was an urgent matter, enough to issue an emergency order to all espers and guilds to mobilize.
Yonghyun hoped there were espers who had responded on their own before he and ‘Bureau’ had to compel them.
“Han Jinho-nim has responded first. As for Baek Juwon-nim, the Geonyeong Guild is still handling the Gate in Geoje Island, so…”
“Good. Then please guide the remaining S-Class esper, Kim Hyeonil, that man, as soon as he responds. And send dispatch requests to the top guilds to manage the situation.”
“Yes.”
“And I will go on ahead.”
Taking a wireless earpiece from Lee Mihee, Yonghyun carefully put it on. Then, he leaped out, flying towards the Dangsan Railway Bridge at high speed.
Every time he took a step, the surface beneath his feet froze in time with his movements.
***
There are safety rules to follow when a Gate occurs.
First, get away from the Gate first and foremost.
Second, run as far away from the Gate as possible.
Third, turn your back to the Gate and run blindly….
He had once clicked his tongue while watching public service announcements or participating in disaster drills and seeing these safety rules, thinking, 'Isn't this all just telling you to run away?'
But Wonwoo realized that the safety rules were ultimately.
“Guu-oo-eh-ehk….”
The only thing an ordinary person could do in front of a Gate. He realized this only after seeing the movements of the octopus-type monster.
The monster wrapped one of the subway cars with its long, slimy-mucus-covered legs and then squeezed, crushing it. The car, which had become a lump of scrap metal in an instant, was soon thrown far away.
Wonwoo felt his mouth go dry and swallowed hard.
He remembered the hand that had fallen limply among the various debris. He remembered the sight of the ruined city. He remembered the squirming suckers, the monsters stuffing humans into their mouths.
“How am I, how… how am I supposed to solve a Gate where a monster like that comes out?”
Among the crowd screaming in terror and running down the tracks, Wonwoo couldn’t even think of moving and just gripped his phone tightly.
'Is an esper, is an esper coming?'
'Then do I just have to wait here for an esper until then? Or what am I supposed to do?'
The system, which would normally send a message with an annoying humming sound, was silent. To give a quest so suddenly and then go silent like this.
'I knew I shouldn’t have trusted this damn thing,' Wonwoo thought, chewing on his lip. As he hesitated, the octopus monster’s legs began to climb onto the bridge, one by one.
Watching this, just as he resolved to run away now and think about the quest and everything else later, the monster’s leg, which had been crawling over the remaining subway cars, stopped its slithering movement.
It was as if….
“Ah.”
As if it was about to lunge at him at any moment.
It was then.
“Get down!”
From behind Wonwoo, a man’s voice was heard.
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