Chapter 117: Gaze

“Baba… are you abandoning me?”

Baba looked up with teary, pleading eyes.

Ion took the bat and gently stroked it.

“I explained enough. We’re meeting again in a month anyway.”

“Yeah… I know. But sad. Already miss Dam Ion and Sanse.”

“Your ancestor was said to overflow with dignity—how did you end up this weak?”

“I’m not weak. I just have lots of affection. Having lots of affection isn’t weakness.”

“…”

Ion had nothing to say, so he rubbed Baba’s face with his finger.

“But I’m okay. Actually, I understand parting. I want memories too.”

Baba spoke with a slightly braver voice. Its round eyes stared at Ion.

“I need to find memories. Become helpful bat. Get powers and come back. Dam Ion saved me. Next time I save Dam Ion!”

“…Okay. I believe you.”

“Yes! Dam Ion stay healthy. I say bye to Sanse too.”

Baba slipped out of his hand, landed on the Sanse pot, and rubbed against the leaves in farewell.

“Jin Seong-ha. Take good care of Dam Ion.”

“Don’t worry. He’s extremely important to us—we’ll treat him well.”

Why ask Jin Seong-ha to take care of me? And what’s with calling me “extremely important”?

The Idea team went through the gate first, then the Earth team stepped forward.

After two long months, Ion was finally returning to Earth.

Word had already spread on Earth: the person everyone thought was Peter Argen had persuaded the giants in the Moniti dungeon and was actually a Special Team 1 hunter.

Horizon had done its best to suppress his face, but age and name had leaked.

Now that same Ion mercenary leader had returned with information about another world called Idea.

A dimension different from Earth!

A fantasy world with dragons, fairies, humans, and spirits.

Earthlings were ecstatic and wanted to know more.

Domestic and international media, as well as the public, flooded Ion with attention.

Government agencies contacted him too, but Ion ignored them all.

He had far more urgent tasks than satisfying people’s curiosity.

“I already heard the rough details from Aide Dam. The guild will handle complicated matters like information disclosure and future exchange plans, so you two focus on what only you can do.”

Thanks to Ji Pyeong-seop’s consideration, Ion and Jin Seong-ha were freed from bureaucratic headaches and quietly planned how to contact the System Age cult leader.

After finishing their planning, the two visited Ryu.

When the Ion leader—who was shaking the world—and Jin Seong-ha—who had awakened his fourth skill, the world’s first—walked into Ryu, Branch Manager Sa Ji-woon and the Sun broker came out barefoot to greet them.

“Ion Leader… you’re back. Glad to see you again. An honor to meet you too, Hunter Jin Seong-ha. Looking forward to working together.”

“Likewise.”

Ppuru!

The branch manager smiled warmly at Ppuru wagging its tail on Jin Seong-ha’s shoulder, showing no surprise.

“So you’re Ppuru. Hi. Much cuter than on TV.”

Ppuru.

The monster doted on by Jin Seong-ha was used to kind human greetings and wiggled cutely.

Ion thought of Baba. Baba would have loved greetings too.

…No, it’ll be treated like royalty in hybrid society.

Ion brushed away the image of a gray fluffball and entered Ryu headquarters.

They passed a corridor with triple shields and arrived at a room decorated in traditional Korean style.

Security had been upgraded since his last visit.

Glancing at the various new security devices, they sat.

Opposite them sat Branch Manager Sa Ji-woon and the Sun broker. A quiet staff member served tea and snacks in order: Jin Seong-ha, Ion, the manager, the broker.

The staff member didn’t leave—he stood right beside them.

Lee Do-jin.

Not even thirty yet, but Ryu’s strongest hunter and the branch manager’s most trusted subordinate.

“He’s trustworthy, but if you’re uncomfortable, I’ll send him out.”

When Jin Seong-ha and Ion looked at Lee Do-jin, the manager spoke.

[Sadness] had a warm middle-aged woman’s voice too.

The manager being a middle-aged woman reminded Ion of the memory from when he passed out from mana depletion.

“It’s fine.”

Jin Seong-ha got straight to the point.

“We want to meet the System Age cult leader.”

“I expected as much. Even before you left for the other world, Leader Ion wanted contact with Age. But… I’m truly sorry…”

She looked troubled but not flustered.

“About a month ago, System Age shut down all communication channels.”

“They cut off contact? Then how do they proselytize?”

“They’re not doing any missionary work at the moment. The vice-leader kept wanting to meet Leader Ion, but even he has gone silent…”

“How long since contact was lost?”

“One month. When they closed the channels, all contact stopped. Actually, we anticipated this request and have been trying to reach Age ever since you returned—but no response.”

Jin Seong-ha and Ion exchanged glances. The manager spoke with slight urgency, guessing their thoughts.

“The black market is the same. They even asked us if we had contact with Age.”

Ion had no intention of going to the black market.

“We’ll find a way to meet the leader ourselves. Do you know the locations of their branches in Korea?”

“…Branch locations, you say.”

If Age had gone silent, the only way was infiltration.

And the only infiltration method was to disguise themselves as cultists.

Fortunately, Ryu knew where the domestic branches were.

Ion traded information about Idea’s fairy race, branch locations, and security systems.

After leaving Ryu, the two got into Jin Seong-ha’s car in the parking lot—Jin Seong-ha in the driver’s seat, Ion in the passenger seat.

Jin Seong-ha pressed a button beside the steering wheel; the car vibrated. Nothing changed inside, but outside it would have turned transparent—special coating material made by Ji Pyeong-seop.

While Ion hugged the Sanse he had left in the car, Jin Seong-ha asked,

“Leader Ion, any guesses about the cult leader?”

“No clue. They never appeared until the end of <Hunter and Hero>. What about you, Hunter Jin Seong-ha?”

“I think they’re from Idea. Like your Teacher came from Idea to Earth using ‘magic,’ maybe someone crossed over to our world.”

“Possible. Spatial movement magic originally existed in Idea… Whatever their identity, they’ll be a formidable opponent.”

“Most likely.”

The System Age cult leader was completely veiled.

Even Dam Da-on’s Sage’s Mirror couldn’t generate one—so definitely a strong enemy.

“Oh, right.”

Ion pulled a compact mirror from the Sanse pot.

“You keep one too. The more communication methods with Idea, the better.”

Da-on had made Sage’s Mirrors for Bran and Haidian.

She had tried for Baba too, but only got a “skill inapplicable” message.

“Whose mirror?”

“Haidian-ssi’s.”

“The blue-haired fairy. Got it. I’ll keep it safe.”

Jin Seong-ha casually called Haidian’s emerald-green hair “blue.”

He rolled Haidian’s faintly glowing emerald mirror in his large hand, then looked at Ion with a strange, amused expression.

“But why… were you keeping it buried in the pot instead of your inventory?”

Ion flinched.

He should have put it in his compressed spatial pocket, but he was so used to burying things in the pot that he instinctively did it again…

“The pot feels safer to me than inventory.”

“Doesn’t it harm the grass clump?”

“It’s not a grass clump—it’s Sanse. Sanse is special; even burying lead in the soil is fine.”

“You never told us your inventory ID, and I’ve never seen you use inventory… Leader Ion has almost as many secrets as the Age cult leader.”

“…”

Unlike Sieg and Semil, who had immediately suspected he wasn’t awakened, no Earthling had ever doubted Ion’s awakener status until now.

They didn’t know magic existed. Vine growth, flame swords… nothing but awakening skills could explain them.

Now magic was known. People would start suspecting.

Someday I’ll have to reveal I’m not awakened.

But not yet.

It felt unfair.

He had worked so hard for the environment—why was he the only one not awakened…?

“Hm, come to think of it, there was something weird about these mirrors.”

“What?”

Ion asked bluntly. Jin Seong-ha tilted his head.

“You said you only looked at me once from Idea?”

“Yes. Only one use left, so I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”

“That’s the weird part. I felt your gaze quite a few times.”

“You’re the world’s strongest hunter with four skills—lots of people must be watching you.”

“Exactly because I’m the world’s strongest, I can usually trace normal gazes. I’ve even caught a few foreign guilds spying. But one gaze… I can’t trace at all. It’s so vast and distant it’s impossible to even attempt.”

“…!”

Ion had thought nothing of it, but a certain fact suddenly hit him.

A gaze that even munchkin Jin Seong-ha described as vast and distant.

No way.

Chills ran down his spine.

Can Jin Seong-ha sense the Apostle’s gaze?

The Apostle.

The absolute being Teacher said there was no way to resist.

The being who created the system solely to offer plays to the gods.

And Jin Seong-ha could feel that absolute being’s gaze?

Because the protagonist was set as too much of a munchkin…

“When… in what situations did you feel the gaze?”

“Only once last year. But this year the frequency increased, and lately if I focus, I feel it almost every time. More when I’m talking with someone or clearing a dungeon than when I’m alone. I thought it might be a curse, so I met several curse-specialized awakeners—nothing.”

The more he heard, the more certain Ion became.

It was the Apostle.

[Joy] watching the protagonist.

Checking if the plan was proceeding smoothly… observing the protagonist’s surroundings.

The ultra-sensory munchkin protagonist had ended up detecting the Apostle’s gaze.

[Joy] can’t reduce Jin Seong-ha’s detection ability. Because it would break ‘fidelity to truth.’ To present a perfect play, it can’t touch the creations’ base settings.

This raised the possibility that the Demon King—who was set to rival gods—might truly rival gods in reality, not just in the play.

“Do you feel it now? Right now?”

Jin Seong-ha calmly closed his eyes.