Master Smith Under Ministry of National Defense

022 – Gate

Myung-jun cautiously aimed the scope attached to the slingshot in the direction of the Monster. Even in the darkness, the bright red crosshair clearly indicated the path the bullet would take.

“About 100 meters, perhaps. It’s an unreasonable distance for a slingshot, but…”

Myung-jun triggered the shape-shift on the stretched rubber band. As he did, the pressure on the trigger rapidly increased, accompanied by the sound of gears meshing.

“Initial bullet has about 5,000J.”

Considering that the kinetic energy of a rifle bullet used to hunt Rank 1 monster was around 1,700J, the power of the large-caliber metal bead would be more than enough to shatter the target even with around 5,000J. If Myung-jun wanted, he could have stretched the rubber band’s elasticity further to match that of a .50 caliber bullet, but he didn’t bother. After all, what he intended to do wasn’t to kill the creature with a single blow.

Myung-jun deliberately aimed for the creature’s thigh as it approached the rabbit, then pulled the trigger.

–Bang!–

“Kwaaaack!!!”

With a deafening sound that was almost unbelievable for something shot from a slingshot, the 20-gram metal bead tore the creature’s thigh to shreds.

Simultaneously, the monster’s agonized scream reverberated through the entire forest. Myung-jun quickly reset the rubber band to its original state and reloaded the slingshot. Due to the enhanced elasticity, manually reloading it was nearly impossible for a human, which was a drawback. However, the custom slingshot could certainly guarantee the power, even if it meant needing to trigger shape-shift each time it was fired.

“I have 103 points left. It takes about 30 points to fire once, and considering the restoration process, I have two shots left.”

The creature, caught off guard by Myung-jun, looked around with an expression mixing anger and fear, as if searching for the being that attacked it. However, unable to detect Myung-jun’s presence perfectly extinguished in the darkness, it had no choice but to release the rabbit, which had been paralyzed by fear, in front of it. Compared to humans, even the weakest Rank 1 monster, which had an instinctive preference for survival over killing, was infinitely stronger.

“Kuuuugh, aaaaaaargh!!!”

As a different sound from the pained scream before spread through the forest, a smile crept onto Myung-jun’s lips. It was precisely for this tone that he had deliberately aimed for the thigh. And at that very moment, the second shot was fired from Myung-jun’s slingshot.

–Bang!–

Unlike the first shot, the second bullet was precisely aimed at the head of the creature, which exploded outwards like a bomb. Upon confirming the creature’s state, which seemed as if it had been hit by dynamite, Myung-jun rushed toward its location.

He quickly drew the knife attached to his waist and slashed the creature’s belly. Inside, where a heart should have been, a glittering crystal revealed itself. Quickly retrieving it, Myung-jun converted it into points and once again concealed himself in the darkness.

A while later, far more Rank 1 Monsters than Myung-jun had anticipated, five in total have appeared in the vicinity.

“Querrum.”

“Kkeuwoeoom!! Keomkeom!”

As one of the creatures lifted its head as if examining a comrade’s body, the others immediately began to watch their surroundings closely. Then, they started running toward the direction where Myung-jun was hiding.

“Keuwooong!!”

However, what the creatures discovered were the remnants of Myung-jun’s coat, smeared with blood from dismantling a comrade, and a knife handle left intentionally in the same spot. Knowing they would instinctively run towards the strongest scent, Myung-jun had deliberately left them there. And the moment these creatures realized they had fallen into a trap, Myung-jun’s third shot flew through the darkness.

“Kwuaaack!!!”

Seeing one of the five creatures instantly explode, the others screamed in anger, scattering in all directions. Myung-jun’s second trap, intentionally staged, aimed to tear apart these creatures that dared to underestimate him, a humble human, and use their comrades as mere fodder.

*********

Having a slingshot with strong firepower but lacking rapid fire capabilities, how should one hunt a pack-hunting prey that is both powerful and fast? The answer is to scatter the pack. When two monsters attack together, one can engage while the other attacks, but when the pack is dispersed, it becomes easier to establish a 1:1 engagement.

After defeating another creature, Myung-jun reached his planned position and tore open the prepared envelope he had hidden there. Then, he spread the contents on the escape route, simulating the appearance of being wounded and leaving a trail of blood. Next, Myung-jun’s task was to move to a distant sniping spot after placing the envelope fragments among the bushes and taking aim directly at the head of a creature that was busy searching through the undergrowth.

This could be seen as a slightly different form of hunting compared to the conventional approach. Unlike other creatures that typically roam in packs, Rank 1 monsters were strong-willed individuals, even while hunting in a group.

Inherently, these creatures tended to underestimate humans, and Myung-jun’s strategy aimed to exploit this aspect of their nature effectively. Finally, out of the five creatures, only one remained, and Myung-jun accurately predicted its next move.

‘Now, I’ll wait near the gate until a new monster spawns.’

Ordinarily, the vicinity of the gate was crowded with lower-rank monsters awaiting orders. However, for newly created gates, the summoned monsters in the vicinity were engaged in monitoring activities until a higher-ranking one was summoned. It was as if someone had taught them to behave in such a way.

Occasionally, though, there were monsters who prioritized instinct over this innate behavioural pattern, often creatures that would recklessly attack humans or livestock. These creatures failed to grasp why they should fear beings like humans, believing they could overcome them easily. However, even in such instinct-driven creatures, a hint of fear imprinted during their first encounter could lead them to follow their innate behavioural patterns.

Avoid human gaze.

Don’t engage unless confident of victory.

Exclude witnesses when attacking.

Hide near the respawn area in dangerous situations and wait for reinforcements.

These patterns seemed like behaviours forcibly instilled in instinct-driven creatures to mimic human strategies. Therefore, before his regression, awakened hunters like Myung-jun diligently memorized the lower-rank monster patterns, almost like a manual. Myung-jun’s current actions were also in accordance with this code of behaviour, designed to become a lower-rank hunter.

With an anxious expression, Myung-jun followed the monster, which was cautiously moving away while maintaining vigilance. He retrieved metal beads from his pocket and loaded them into the slingshot. As soon as he confirmed the gate’s position, he prepared to hunt the remaining monster and clear the gate.

This action of Myung-jun’s was something that, to his knowledge, no one on Earth’s current timeline had ever achieved.

*********

[Gate]

In some countries, it’s referred to as a [Portal], while in others, it’s called a [Dimensional Door]. However, the most universally used term is [Gate], which is the name commonly used in South Korea. This is because the country that established a system to manage these Monsters on the Earth where Myung-jun lived before his regression was South Korea.

And now that Myung-jun has regressed to the past, governments around the world secretly possessed minimal information about the unique phenomenon known as [Gate].

As of the current time, the following information is generally known about Gates:

1. They are unidentified phenomena that occur near the areas where these monsters appear.
2. They have a form resembling a dimension door that cannot be seen from the other side, often described as black.
3. Occasionally, higher-rank monsters than the typical ones emerge from within the Gate.

Due to their appearance resembling a dimensional door that seems passable, various attempts have been made by governments to explore the insides of the Gate. These attempts included using devices with attached cords to understand the structure on the other side, deploying wireless drones, and even risking sending people inside.

However, the information collected from these attempts was very limited due to the unique nature of Gates. First, once inside the Gate, any means of communication used on Earth becomes ineffective.

Therefore, the only way to bring information from inside the Gate was for a person to directly enter, clear the Gate, and come back out. But the fundamental condition of this method was that, even for a Rank 1 Gate, one had to capture a Rank 3 Monster or higher to clear it. This was quite literally an ‘impossible condition’ given the circumstances of the current time.

Even Awakeners struggled to capture Rank 2 Monsters, making it nearly impossible for them to hunt Rank 4 Monsters, let alone Rank 3 Monsters. According to Myung-jun’s memory, it was still quite some time before the first Awakener cleared a Gate before D-day.

‘That means I’ll be the first one to clear a Gate in human history. Assuming I succeed.’

Of course, even for Myung-jun, capturing Rank 3 or higher creatures wasn’t an easy task. Additionally, his goal wasn’t merely to clear a Rank 1 Gate.

Myung-jun drew a small dagger, about the length of his thumb, from his belt and cut his palm deliberately. ‘”Ouch! This hurts like crazy!’ While complaining, he purposefully opened his palm to keep the blood flowing. He then clenched a Crystal stone in his other hand and began feeding his blood to it.

[Overrun]

This was often referred to as the Gate Overrun technique, a kind of taboo that was discovered as a result of an accidental event. It was discovered when a hunter who had collapsed while desperately trying to seal a Gate threw a Crystal stone into the Gate using his bleeding hand to stop the Gate from overrunning.

Originally, one of the most important uses of Crystal stone was to stabilize Gates, preventing an Overrun phenomenon. If an unstable Gate wasn’t stabilized using a Crystal stone within a certain timeframe, it would release an overwhelming number of monsters of an unmanageable level. Interestingly, if a Crystal stone saturated with enough awakener blood was thrown into the Gate, instead of stabilizing, the Gate had the characteristic of raising its rank, and this unintended method of changing the Gate’s rank was widely adopted by awakeners aiming to farm higher-rank Crystal stones by intentionally turning lower-rank Gates into higher-rank ones.

However, with the proliferation of lower-rank Gates Overrunning and being turned into higher-rank Gates, the method was strictly prohibited as a kind of taboo. The increased occurrence of Gates Overrunning to an unmanageable level due to this process resulted in this method becoming a forbidden technique.

What Myung-jun was about to do was to break that taboo, and this decision weighed heavily on him.

‘Can I really go through with this?’

In fact, the method to induce Gate Overrun was quite simple, something anyone could do. However, due to its simplicity, it was a double-edged sword. If this method spread uncontrollably in a world that didn’t have a proper Gate management system, it could lead to humanity’s destruction due to the reckless choices of some greedy and foolish individuals.

Aware of this fact, most government institutions that learned of this method on the Earth before regression took extreme measures to eliminate the hunters who had come across this information and thoroughly kept the information about Gate Overrun hidden to prevent it from spreading.

However, considering all these points, Myung-jun’s situation wasn’t favourable. While trying to evade government surveillance, he was pouring tremendous efforts just to secure a Rank 1 Gate. The idea of clearing even a rank 1 Gate seemed like a distant goal to him. Myung-jun tightly gripped the Crystal stone that had turned from blood-red to flame-red, as if it was alive. Then, as though the stone itself was alive, he hurled the pulsating, blood-red Crystal stone toward the Gate in front of him.

Ugh! My body!! –

In an instant, accompanied by a deep vibration that seemed to shake space itself, the Gate began to be dyed blood-red. And the Gate, now returned to its original color, displayed different information than before to Myung-jun.

[Rank 3 Gate Awakened by Blood]

[Time Remaining until Overrun: 32 days, 23 hours, 16 minutes, 15 seconds]

[Points Required for Stabilization: 424/100546]

Instead of the thousands, it demanded points in the hundreds of thousands. This meant that to close this Gate, an enormous number of Crystal stone equivalent to 100,000 points were needed. It was a clear sign that the Rank 1 Gate had transformed into the world’s most dangerous Rank 3 Gate at this point in time.

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