Rumble... Crash! Clatter.
The dishes slid down with the tilt of the shattered table and crashed to the floor.
I stared blankly at the budae jigae spilling across the tiles and parted my lips slightly.
Of course, Jung Haseong hadn't destroyed the table on purpose. His eyes widened as well, as if he himself had been startled by what he'd done.
The silence lasted only a moment.
The top-ranked Hunter half-rose from his seat, visibly flustered, and immediately began bombarding me with questions.
"Health issues? Were you injured during a dungeon raid or something? Or are you sick?"
"H, huh?"
"How badly are you hurt for an S-rank Hunter to say they can't work anymore? And why are you only telling me this now? Don't tell me it's serious enough to require an elixir. Is it really that critical?"
Umm...
This suddenly feels like something very serious has happened...
Was the word "retirement" the problem?
Or was it the mention of health issues?
The moment those particular words left my mouth, Jung Haseong raised his voice as though he'd suddenly become a completely different person.
Come to think of it, Earth had rarely possessed anything resembling a proper food chain for top-tier Awakened.
S-rank individuals usually suffered only injuries that conventional medicine could heal. And since the magical evolution of viruses and bacteria had yet to catch up with them, Earth's Awakened currently enjoyed near-perfect immunity to disease.
'An S-rank Hunter becoming seriously ill would certainly be extremely rare under normal circumstances.'
Soon enough, the reason for his shock became obvious.
At this point, even the most oblivious person would have understood.
A first-rate Hunter like him would never casually use poor health as an excuse to avoid work.
I still had no idea what exactly he meant by "elixir" in this context, but if I let this continue, the national hero seemed entirely capable of doing something beyond my imagination.
Therefore...
"Besides, if you're sick, shouldn't you stop attending classes...? This isn't something Hunter Esther should hear about later. You should start by dropping my lectures immediately."
By the time the restaurant staff came rushing over in response to the commotion, I quickly opened my mouth to calm him down.
"Calm down! It's not that serious."
"Yes?"
"I only said it because I've been really tired lately... You know, like office workers who say they want to quit their jobs every single day."
It was already summer, and the oppressive, muggy weather alone was enough to leave anyone exhausted.
"It's hot, I'm tired, so I impulsively imagined quitting this damn Hunter job. But... what's with that reaction...?"
"Really?"
"Retirement was a joke. A joke. Thinking about it now, I chose my words badly. Sorry."
The other person slowly backed down, looking bewildered.
Soon afterward, the restaurant staff entered the room, and thanks to the presence of two financially comfortable S-rank Hunters, compensation for the damaged furniture and dishes was handled without difficulty.
"..."
A few seconds later, Jung Haseong, who had quietly begun gathering the broken pieces himself instead of leaving them to the staff, gradually stiffened.
He must have replayed the conversation in his head and realized that something didn't quite add up.
His expression darkened.
'He must have figured out that I said it because I was trying to distance myself from him.'
Well, he wasn't stupid either.
"Hmm."
Now, what was I supposed to do?
I couldn't criticize his abilities anymore in order to keep my disciple from leaving me.
And apparently, I couldn't quietly withdraw by using illness as an excuse either.
Yet even faced with such a desperate situation, I remained strangely calm and found myself wondering what I should eat for dinner.
"I don't know anymore... honestly..."
If things came to that, maybe I should just openly confess that every promise I'd made so far had been a lie and let myself be burned at the stake.
After all, nothing in this filthy world ever went the way I wanted.
What was the point of painstakingly constructing elaborate plans with glucose and struggling so hard?
***
About eight hours had passed since my spectacular failure to break the team promise and my subsequent return to ordinary life.
A light drizzle was falling outside.
Unfortunately, despite the weather being exactly the kind I liked, my mood hadn't improved at all.
As I'd mentioned a few days earlier, I honestly no longer had the energy to keep devising schemes in my head.
'I guess this is why people shouldn't meddle with things like pupae or cracked eggs.'
Who could have imagined that Jung Haseong would become this stubbornly attached to the idea of working together with his former enemy?
"Maybe I don't actually have nine years left to live. Maybe it's only three months..."
I was just beginning to sink into a feeling of emptiness.
Tiring.
Suddenly, an alert sounded from my phone.
[Hello, Hunter Kim Giryeo. I am Shin OO, the newly appointed president of the Hunter Association...]
A long text message filled the screen from top to bottom.
The moment I read the first sentence, I thought of phishing scams. I'd recently seen a news article about them, after all.
But after calming down and checking the sender information more carefully, it seemed this really was a message from the president of the Hunter Association.
The official contact information for the Korea Hunter Association was listed in the sender details.
"Why is the Hunter Association contacting me?"
According to the new association president, the Hunter Association was currently having difficulties because of a newly opened gate.
Apparently, they urgently needed an Awakened person with strong analytical abilities.
The monsters inside the new dungeon used an extremely unusual form of attack, so the association wanted to identify their abilities as quickly as possible before more Hunters were injured.
"Hmm."
[Hunter Kim Giryeo, not only do you possess the [Appraisal] skill, but as an S-rank Hunter, your physical abilities are also exceptional, granting you considerable resistance to various attacks. If you are willing, we would like to ask you to visit the site and briefly observe the new gate. Naturally, appropriate financial compensation will be provided if you agree to assist us...]
The message was written in an unusually polite tone.
The problem was that the most important assumption in that long message was completely wrong.
All I possessed was the intuition and knowledge inherent to an Alphauri.
That was entirely different from the way Hunters with appraisal abilities perceived matter.
And on top of that, I wasn't even a real S-rank Hunter.
"I'm not exactly convinced."
At first, I intended to ignore the association president's request.
-- Tiring.
However, the next message changed my mind.
[Below are the basic characteristics of the new dungeon. Please exercise caution if you encounter similar phenomena while exploring other gates.]
Right.
There was no way an Alphauri like me could simply ignore information like this.
***
Is there anyone here who frequently suffers from nightmares?
Or perhaps someone who enjoys horror movies?
This may be an interpretation unique to the individual known as Kim Giryeo, but from what I've observed, the inhabitants of Earth generally seem to derive fear from deviations from what they consider familiar.
For example, imagine the person preparing kimbap in your kitchen suddenly twisting their neck 270 degrees to look behind them.
Or, to use a more traditional image, picture a figure wrapped in burial cloth crawling out of a dark well.
Egg ghosts, red masks, zombies.
The central figures of Earth's horror stories are almost always shaped around the human form.
Of course, insects, the deep sea, and other uniquely terrifying subjects exist as well.
But when it comes to fear, humans seem particularly fond of twisting familiar things into something wrong.
People are the easiest example.
Imagine someone close to you—your family, friend, partner, or colleague—suddenly losing the ability to speak human language and beginning to behave strangely.
The emotion an Earthling would release after witnessing something like that would be exactly the kind of nourishment an intellectual parasite would find irresistible.
.
A few minutes later, I responded to the association's summons and arrived at the scene.
"Hunter Kim Giryeo!"
"We've been waiting for you!"
According to the message from the new Association President—a person I'd never even met face-to-face—the enemies inside this bluish new gate were said to inflict a status effect that could only be described as "possession."
Possession.
Honestly, with that much foreshadowing, anyone could probably guess what I was thinking.
The strange phenomenon in this dungeon bore an uncanny resemblance to the work of the Gishinche, those external usurpers.
Of course, calling the gate phenomenon itself a disaster caused by them felt somewhat redundant when the Gishinche were essentially the root of the problem in the first place.
But anyway.
'A gate creature capable of communicating with humans, and an EX-rank dungeon that demanded the corpse of a sorcerer.'
Now, let me explain the characteristics of the Gishinche.
The recent changes observed in EX-rank feeding grounds had actually been a kind of prelude to disaster.
When the Gishinche—the masters behind the gates—arrived on a new planet, they followed a three-stage behavioral pattern based on what they themselves considered the standard process of occupation.
To strip away everything unnecessary and summarize it simply, Earth might have just entered what could be called Occupation Phase 2.
When the Gishinche first landed on a planet, the first thing they did was gather information about what their hosts valued.
Once they had learned enough about the native culture, a certain instinctive temptation began to take hold of them.
『 They want to see the divine food-spirit (heart) they create up close. 』
It was like an alcoholic becoming so obsessed with liquor that they wanted to dive straight into a vat of rice wine.
The more the Gishinche learned about a planet, the more intensely they began craving the bodies of its inhabitants.
And the EX-rank scenario gate mentioned earlier was proof that they had successfully absorbed Earth's language system.
The request for a corpse discovered by Brooklyn inside that EX-gate signaled that they had begun taking an interest in the physical form of Earthlings.
In other words, the necessary information had finally been gathered.
"It's time."
However, unlike the Alphauri, they couldn't simply make use of another being's corpse.
The Gishinche were closer to conceptual or mental entities by nature, and handling actual flesh and bone was difficult for them.
So what they ultimately chose was mental infection.
In other words, they caused literal possession, much like the phenomenon described by shamans on Earth.
By taking over a living body, they could experience the emotions stored within it from the host's own perspective.
For the Gishinche, that sensation was incredibly addictive.
『 Blinded by greed, abandoning safety. As expected, the entire species is foolish. 』
But possessing the body of a living person was essentially the same as breaking into someone else's home.
Could such a thing really happen without resistance?
Of course not.
The Gishinche's possession naturally provoked strong rejection from the host.
For example...
"Before we proceed, let me confirm something. The association originally sent its own personnel to investigate and clear the new gate. But midway through the dungeon, one of the investigators suddenly began displaying abnormal symptoms. Is that correct?"
"Yes. The most obvious sign was that the person 'absolutely refused to speak.'"
"Didn't their movements become somewhat unnatural as well?"
"Ugh, yes. The way they walked looked like something straight out of an exorcism movie."
"But the creepiest part was that they continued participating in the raid with a completely normal expression until the team finally confronted them. Looking back, though, that staff member is usually very talkative. The fact that they stayed silent for so long was definitely strange."
"Roughly speaking, those are the kinds of side effects we're seeing."
I quietly listened as the Hunter Association personnel gave their testimonies one after another.
And before long, a thought occurred to me.
"They said they tried pouring status-cleansing potions over the affected investigator, but there was no response."
After they hurriedly dragged their teammate out of the feeding box, however, the person eventually returned to normal as though nothing had happened.
"Hmm."
Given the circumstances, there was a strong possibility that this really was the result of Gishinche possession.
"Do you think the named monster we encountered earlier was responsible, then? It used some flashy-looking skill, but no one was actually injured by it."
"That could be... possible. Either way, I think I'll need to see it myself."
I maintained a calm expression and leisurely clasped my hands behind my back.
Wait.
Why was I so relaxed about an incident involving the Gishinche, cosmic-scale wanderers?
Well, because there was no immediate reason to panic.
If they had only reached Stage 2 of the invasion, then their growth would inevitably slow down for a while, whether they liked it or not.
The phenomenon known as 'possession' was, ironically enough, extremely disadvantageous to the Gishinche themselves.
It was like an animal shedding its shell and exposing nothing but its vulnerable flesh.
When a Gishinche possessed a host, it became highly unstable and fragile.
There was no need to injure the body directly.
If the host's mind was shaken strongly enough, the Gishinche itself could perish almost instantly.
"Phew."
This was why, even though I had seen them use magic, I never referred to them as sorcerers.
To be fair, their abilities related to creation were almost impressive.
But because they were slaves to their own greed, they never made proper use of what they possessed.
The Gishinche were not sorcerers.
They were merely creatures driven by desire.
Unlike the people of Earth, they were a species I could never acknowledge.
That one fact had remained unchanged no matter how much time passed.
"Hmm."
But there was still a problem.
'Stage 2. It's already Stage 2...'
What came next was predictable.
Once the Gishinche had thoroughly indulged themselves in the energy of their hosts through various dungeons and repeated acts of possession, they would begin preparations for a full-scale [Descent].
Right.
The real danger lay in that third stage.
Even the Alphauri had once believed there was still plenty of time before the [Descent] event.
Then, without warning, the southern hemisphere descended into chaos, and I was forced to intervene.
'Just remembering how I worked day and night without rest back then is enough to bring tears to my eyes.'
F*ck.
Seriously, why had they insisted on observing unverified lands just because aliens were fascinating?
Those incompetent, damn upper-class bastards should have been thrown into lava a long time ago.
'Fine, whatever.'
I quickly steadied my breathing, which had grown rough from the memories, and forced myself back to the present.
This explanation had become rather long, but the important point was simple.
Even if the possession phenomenon itself wasn't an immediate threat, the possibility that the Gishinche had already begun advancing to the next stage made this situation worth investigating personally.
I needed to confirm whether their critical weakness still functioned the same way on this planet.
There was no need to approach recklessly.
Gishinche in the early stages before full possession were generally sluggish and driven almost entirely by instinct.
That made this one of the safest opportunities to observe them.
"Hmm."
But now that I thought about it...
There was actually a fairly high chance this wasn't the Gishinche's work at all.
Would they really have developed far enough to prepare for a much greater catastrophe and already begun revealing themselves this openly?
Something about the timing didn't fit.
Compared to what I'd seen in the past, it was far too early to conclude that Earth had already entered Stage 2.
The recent period of dungeon upheaval had only just begun.
'If this isn't the work of the Gishinche, then it's probably that white worm.'
The symptoms were so similar that distinguishing between the two was difficult.
While the association staff handled the entry permits over the phone, I covered my mouth with one hand and sank into thought.
Still, no matter how many possibilities crossed my mind, my conclusion remained the same.
'I need to check it myself.'
Annoying as it was, the archmage would have to step in for a moment regarding this new gate.
Naturally, it was for my own safety.
If I could determine exactly what kind of creature was responsible, understand how it behaved, and identify what it hungered for, I might even be able to predict the level of dungeons likely to appear in Korea in the near future.
'I'll assess the situation, and if things feel dangerous, I'll leave the country immediately.'
What exactly was waiting inside that dungeon?
The Gishinche?
The white bug?
Or simply some new monster using an unfamiliar kind of magic?
Tuk.
Still running through the possibilities in my head, I took my first step forward.
"Ah."
Then, just before entering the dungeon, a promise suddenly flashed through my mind.
'Now that I think about it...'
The Knight's Oath!
I'd almost forgotten about it entirely.
Well, considering my body hadn't suffered from the penalty at all, it was only natural that I hadn't felt particularly nervous about it.
Beep beep beep.
I picked up my phone and dialed a familiar number with practiced ease.
Normally, in a situation like this, I would have handled things with a quick text message.
But the last time I'd done that, the contractor had threatened—while we were flying back from China—to smash my head in like some journalist's if I ever pulled the same stunt again...
"Hello? Hunter Kang Changho?"
The call connected shortly afterward.
As always, I reported the dungeon's classification and exact location into the microphone.
Then, just as usual, a cheerful voice came through the receiver.
"~ You can't."
Huh.