Chapter 3

KWA-GA-GA-GA-GANG—!

[Gate Clear! Would you like to claim your clear reward?]

A hazy Status Window flickered into view before Kang Jinseo, who had just solo-cleared an AA-grade Gate.

The debris of monsters and shattered structures—reduced to dust by his wide-area collapse skill—floated thickly in the air, obscuring his vision.

Jinseo narrowed his eyes and checked the time on his wristwatch.

He used it to measure how long it took him to clear a Gate.

Four hours and nineteen minutes.

Far longer than expected.

He raked a hand through his hair, now turned gray with dust.

“Guess I’ll be hearing about this again.”

He could practically hear Ian from the Association nagging in his ear.

‘How many times do I have to tell you? Follow the path that’s there! You don’t smash perfectly fine walls just to make your own!’

And Jinseo always had the same reply.

‘Then I’d love to have just one teammate who can actually find the way.’

But everyone knew that wish would never come true.

His wide-area collapse skill was merciless—it didn’t distinguish between ally and enemy.

To begin with, how many Hunters in this world could withstand an S-rank Hunter’s attack?

‘Ugh! I swear he gets lost on purpose?!’

Ian would explode like that, but the truth was, Jinseo genuinely couldn’t find his way.

Once he used his skill, places that had been corridors turned into empty craters. There was no way to get his bearings.

Just like always, Jinseo—covered head to toe in dust—stepped into the Gate’s exit.

The moment city air rushed into his lungs—

His phone began blaring with notifications.

Something was wrong.

[Calamity-grade Labyrinth Gate has appeared. All Hunters, report for emergency deployment. Dongjak-gu, Mapo-gu, Songpa-gu…….]

He sprinted straight toward the nearest one in Mapo-gu—

Then stopped short just before entering.

One word surfaced in his mind, too late.

‘Labyrinth.’

He got lost in ordinary dungeons.

If he entered a Labyrinth Gate… how many hours would he wander?

“Haah……”

A short sigh slipped from his lips.

A faint tension spread across his usually expressionless face.

And then, without hesitation, he stepped inside.

He plummeted from the sky at high speed and landed with both feet atop a towering maze wall.

BOOM!

“……”

The moment he entered, he felt something strange.

An odd sense of dissonance.

He had entered Gates of every rank, from the lowest to the highest difficulty. Yet this—

This felt different from anything before.

“Don’t enter the maze! Protect the civilians here as much as possible!”

“Five charging-type monsters approaching from the front!”

“Healer! Over here!”

“Kyahhh! Please save me!”

In the vast central clearing, Hunters scrambled to shield the civilians who had fallen into the Gate.

Jinseo let out a quiet breath.

A Gate packed with civilians was nothing but restrictions for someone like him, who always fought solo because his skill didn’t discriminate.

If he used his skill, people would be swept away.

If he cut down monsters one by one with his sword, he’d inevitably lose his way and end up trapped inside the maze.

Hoping that somewhere in this Gate there was a capable Hunter who could find the exit in his place—

Jinseo leapt down from the wall.

---

Three hours had passed since the rank-one Hunter entered the Gate.

Nothing had changed.

No—if anything, it had gotten worse.

Exhausted Hunters were gradually being pushed back by monsters, and terrified civilians clogged the battlefield, blocking their path.

Jinseo had spent the entire time moving along the tops of the maze walls, gathering lost civilians and directing them toward the central clearing.

Now he clicked his tongue at the hopelessness of the situation.

He had been smashing through maze walls at random, forcing paths open through brute force—

But damn it all, even the walls respawned.

In the end, he had no choice but to return to the central clearing. If he lost his way and became trapped himself, there would be no one left to help protect the civilians.

“Fuck……. They’re pushing in again…….”

“AAAH! The barrier’s been breached here!”

“I’m out of mana……. I’m out of potions too!”

Even if he protected them all, there would be a limit.

If they didn’t find the exit soon, they would be overwhelmed and killed by the endlessly spawning monsters.

It was time to decide.

“……”

After reaching a conclusion, Jinseo moved to the farthest point from the central clearing.

He would destroy the entire Gate with his wide-area collapse skill—leave only the exit behind.

Of course, he had no confidence he could fine-tune the range enough to spare the central clearing.

The more monsters and structures he collapsed, the more mana he absorbed from them.

And when that happened, he lost control.

That was his fatal weakness.

“……”

It was reckless.

If he miscalculated, he could turn everyone but himself into dust.

But right now, he couldn’t think of a better option.

Jinseo stood still, drawing in a thin breath. The sensation in his fingertips was already dulling.

For a fleeting moment, the catastrophe born of his mistake five years ago flashed across his mind.

He shoved it aside.

There was no other way.

His eyes sharpened as he prepared to release the seal and unleash the dense mana within him to its absolute limit—

“……!”

Not far away, he sensed a familiar flow of mana.

‘The exit?’

It was the distinct current he felt only from a Gate’s exit.

Jinseo snapped his head toward it.

With the keen vision of an S-rank Hunter, he caught sight of a woman limping toward a newly formed exit.

Long brown hair tied up in a single high ponytail. A slender figure.

…Why did her silhouette feel so familiar?

Thud-thud-thud.

The dirt and monster remains that had been suspended in the air—reduced to dust by his power—suddenly dropped to the ground.

And in that instant—

A Status Window appeared before everyone inside the Gate.

[Gate Clear!]

At the same time, Jinseo sprinted toward the exit at full speed.

He had never heard of a Hunter in Korea with this kind of detection-type skill.

Yet she had found an exit none of the Hunters inside the Gate could.

She had to possess one.

If so, she was either an unregistered Hunter or a freelancer.

Or someone who had just awakened today.

He had to find her.

Not just because she would be an invaluable asset to the country—

But because he wanted to ask her to join him as a teammate.

Until the moment the exit formed, he had never sensed her presence or mana.

That meant she was the same rank as him—

Or higher.

‘I have to catch her. No matter what.’

The instant Jinseo stepped out of the exit—

“Oh! It’s Hunter Kang Jinseo!”

“Film it! Film it! The Gate’s been cleared!”

“As expected of Hunter Kang Jinseo!”

The woman he sought was nowhere to be seen.

Only civilians thrusting their phones at him and reporters crowding forward with cameras.

Barely twenty seconds had passed since she exited the Gate.

And yet—

No one knew where she had gone.

---

February 19th, 10:10 p.m.

Thousands of civilians poured out from the exits of the Labyrinth Gates in Seoul.

It had taken roughly four hours since Labyrinth Gates began appearing worldwide.

Even countries that possessed Hunters with detection-type skills had been unable to find a single clue to clearing them.

Yet all eleven Gates in Seoul had been cleared.

The first to step out had been S-rank Hunter Kang Jinseo.

News of him spread across the globe in an instant.

The Korea Hunter Association and the Presidential Office were drowning in nonstop calls and flooding messages, unable to function properly.

Chairman Maeng, who had looked as though he might faint just minutes earlier, now couldn’t stop smiling.

“Khahaha! As expected of our S-rank Hunter! Never disappoints! Who said he had no sense of direction? Huh?”

When he heard that Kang Jinseo was returning to headquarters, Chairman Maeng couldn’t sit still on the sofa.

A blessing! A golden blessing!

The entire world was clamoring—offering fortunes beyond measure—just to have Kang Jinseo.

If they sent him abroad to clear Gates one by one?

Not only would the Korea Hunter Association’s prestige soar to the heavens, they could stack money to the edge of the universe.

“But when is he getting—!”

“……I’m late.”

“Oh! Oh! Hunter Kang! Goodness! You’ve worked hard, very hard. Sit, sit. I even prepared that drink you like myself. Here, have this first.”

Jinseo looked down at the glass of milk suddenly pressed into his hand. Steam curled up from its surface.

His straight brows drew together slightly.

He did like milk.

But the fact that Chairman Maeng knew that irritated him.

Jinseo set the glass back down on the table.

“I’ll submit the Gate report immediately after I wash up.”

His voice was cold and steady as it filled the office.

“No, no! The report can wait!”

“……Are you asking why the clear time was delayed? I’m not sure what you’ve heard, but I—”

“Hunter Kang!”

Chairman Maeng cut him off and grabbed his scarred hand.

His eyes were shining brighter than ever.

“Don’t be surprised.”

“……?”

“The whole world is waiting for you, Hunter Kang! They’ll pay whatever you ask! They’re even offering national treasure–grade items!”

“……?”

“You’re speechless, aren’t you? Hahaha! Of course you are! Even Germany and Russia, with all their pride—!”

Jinseo gently pulled his hand free, a faint frown creasing his brow.

“Why are those countries waiting for me?”

“Why? Ah! You might not know. The Labyrinth Gates that appeared in Seoul have appeared in capitals around the world. But we’re the only ones who’ve cleared them! So now they’re all in an uproar, begging us to send you first!”

Greed spilled from Chairman Maeng’s eyes.

“The President will be arriving shortly as well! He’s willing to respect your decision, but if you ask me, we should demand Germany’s S-grade relic in return—”

Ha.

It was Jinseo’s low sigh that cut through the chairman’s animated voice.

His dark, sunken brown eyes fixed steadily on him.

“I’m not the one who cleared the Gate.”

“What? If not you, Hunter Kang, then who could have possibly—?”

The feverish excitement in the office fell into stunned silence.