Chapter 15: The Shadow Within

The moment my shield vanished, I saw it clearly.
At the same time, something sharp sliced through the air—followed by a rapid succession of explosions.
The color drained from my face, and a chill ran down my spine.
It wasn’t the Stone Golem.
It was something else—something foreign.
An instinctive sense told me this was a new, unknown threat.

The ground rumbled violently.
Before I could even think, the gate walls began to crumble.
Dust clouds swallowed the air, choking every breath.
It felt like standing in the middle of a landslide.

An indescribable terror took hold.
I just stood there, staring blankly as waves of dirt and debris surged toward me like a tsunami.
I knew I had to run.
But my legs refused to move.

Boom! Boom! Boom!
Then the floor began to give way at terrifying speed.
At first it only trembled, like during an earthquake—then, with a crack like splitting ice, it fractured.

“…!”

The ground shattered beneath my feet in an instant.
I stumbled backward, but before I could take another step, the floor broke apart completely.
Frantically, I turned my head, trying to find a safe spot—but the dust blinded me, and I’d already lost my sense of direction.
Every patch of ground beneath me felt ready to collapse.

If I fell here, that was it.
Game over.

Just a moment ago, this spot had been an open void.
Meaning, if the floor gave way now, I’d plummet all the way to the first level.
The dizzying height I’d seen right before the dungeon activated flashed in my mind—and vertigo struck hard.

“Shit! I didn’t want to die like this!”

I shouted until my throat burned, my voice cracking with disbelief.
What a pathetic way to go.
Honestly, even the apocalypse from my past life had been a better death than this.

I stepped back again—

‘Huh?’

—and realized too late there was no ground beneath me.
My body lifted for a split second, the same sensation as dropping on a roller coaster.
One thought flashed through my mind.

‘Ah. I’m screwed.’

The air roared past me.
It felt like the wind itself was dragging me upward before slamming me down.
My ears rang from the pressure as gusts whipped violently around my falling body.
Gravity hit me full force—and I learned, in that moment, how utterly miserable dying by free fall really was.

Whoosh!

Something black lashed out from the darkness—like a whip—and wrapped tightly around my waist.
My body jerked midair and stopped falling.
The fragments of the dungeon kept plummeting past me, smashing into the ground below with horrifying force.

Watching them shatter into dust, I broke into a cold sweat.
If not for that—if I’d fallen with them—I’d be a smear at the bottom by now.
I reached down to touch the thing coiled around me.
Rough, rigid, but not painful.
Solid enough to hold me, yet strangely gentle.

‘What is this…?’

I followed the line of the black tendril with my eyes.
It stretched far through the dust, fading into the haze.
As the dust began to settle, a faint silhouette emerged.

“Yoo Heero…?”

It was him.

The very person I’d been searching for stood at the edge of the cliff.
Through the drifting dust, his dark eyes gleamed like obsidian.
For a moment, I couldn’t speak.
He looked exactly like the wanted posters from my previous life.

Those cold, lifeless eyes—devoid of any warmth.

Yoo Heero watched me float in midair for a moment before finally relaxing his expression.
He exhaled deeply, relief softening his face.
The entire scene felt surreal, dreamlike—almost unreal.

“Seong Ji-woo! Yoo Heero!”

“Are you two okay?!”

The shouts came from Shin Yoon-jae and Lee Hyerin, who were sprinting toward us through the collapsing ground.

“Cough, cough! Ugh, all this dust!”

Hyerin waved her hand in front of her face, carefully stepping across the few solid patches left as she crossed over.
When she finally made it behind Yoo Heero, her eyes widened at the sight of me dangling midair.

“Wha—why are you just hanging there…?”

She stammered, completely stunned.
Yoon-jae, however, was startled for an entirely different reason.
His suspicion had just been confirmed.
The one who destroyed the Stone Golem… was Yoo Heero.

“What—Heero, why do you have that?”

Hyerin finally noticed the dark tendril extending from beneath his feet and spoke in disbelief.
Heero gently pulled me toward him and set me down beside him.

Slide.

The shadowy tendril loosened around my waist, then slipped soundlessly back into his shadow and vanished.

“Holy crap! You saw that, right?! You knew?!”

Hyerin grabbed my shoulders and shook me hard, eyes wild with excitement.
My stomach churned from suddenly being back on solid ground.
Her shaking made it worse—I felt bile rising.

“Urgh… I think I’m gonna throw up.”

Hyerin immediately let go and took a step back as I collapsed to the ground with a groan.

“What the hell, Heero. You saw that too, right? You must’ve! I mean, he saved you!”

If she asked whether I’d seen it, the answer was obvious.
Of course I had.
I weakly raised a hand toward Yoo Heero—a silent ‘thanks for saving me.’
Heero’s expression was unreadable as he approached, then gently brushed his hand along my back.

“You must be exhausted. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you…”

“No, it’s fine. Thank you.”

I couldn’t bring myself to meet his gaze directly.
For the first time, it really hit me.
The man once hunted by every Hunter in Korea—the man I had hunted in my past life—was standing right in front of me.

“What’s with this weird tension?”

Hyerin frowned, clearly picking up on the strange atmosphere.
I pushed myself off the ground, legs shaky.
Heero caught me before I could stumble again.
His face looked the same as always—soft eyes, filled with concern.

“You used your ability,” I murmured.

The moment I’d been waiting for had come far sooner than expected.
From here on, Yoo Heero would only grow stronger.
And I needed to stay sharp—to make sure the future didn’t repeat itself.

“…Yeah. I did.”

His tone was difficult to read—half dazed, half uncertain.
Maybe even a hint of unease.
Not that it made sense for him to resent it.
I gave him a faint, awkward smile as our eyes met.

[<Today’s Hot Topic> So they say the X-Gate’s acting weird… are we all screwed or what?]

Anyone connected to the Hunters who went in—friends, family, whatever—must’ve noticed something’s off.
It suddenly started getting really bad.

Heard a whole team on mandatory service got wiped out recently.
Not publicly announced yet, though.
Word is, the government and the Korean Hunter Association plan to make a statement by the end of the month.

Injuries and disappearances are skyrocketing.
Talk’s going around about a temporary shutdown.
I don’t know all the details, but one thing’s for sure—
Something is seriously wrong with the Gate.

Feels like Mount Baekdu’s about to erupt or something.
Damn.
How are we supposed to live like this?
If you can, get out of Korea while you still have the chance.
Preferably somewhere without any Alphabet Gates.

– Isn’t the Association covering this up?
– What happens if the X-Gate explodes?
└ We all die.
└ Like, literally Earth-goes-boom die.
– Shouldn’t the International Hunter Association step in?
└ Maybe they already did, and that’s why our Association can’t act.
– What the hell happened? Is this the apocalypse or what?
– Scary as hell, man. Glad I already emigrated.
– I just finished my mandatory service there not long ago. Everything was fine back then.
└ When was that?
└ Two months ago?
└ Yeah, fits the timeline. It started going to shit about a month ago.
└ Why though? Damn, it’s even scarier not knowing.
– Just ordered some emergency supplies after reading this.
└ Pointless lol. If it blows, you’re toast anyway.
– Wait, but if you’re inside another Gate when it happens, would you be safe? Since Gates are kinda separate dimensions?
└ Maybe, but the X-Gate’s basically the source of all other Gates. If it collapses, the rest probably follow. Monster wave incoming, maybe?
– Someone, please deal with the X-Gate already. What kind of cosmic joke is this?
└ There’s no Hunter strong enough in the country to handle it.
└ Not just here—nowhere. Unless the world’s top Hunters assemble like the Avengers, we’re doomed.
– Can’t the government assign the big names to it?
└ Most countries don’t even have government-run Hunter units. The U.S. is private. Japan and France are half-state, half-corporate.
└ Only our country’s stuck with mandatory service, lol.
└ Didn’t you know? Our Hunter Association’s a joke. The head isn’t even an Awakened! Bureaucrats who’ve never stepped inside a Gate think they can fix one. Pathetic.
└ True. Even the gifted ones skip X-Gate service for cushy “alternative” roles. Whole system needs a reset.
– If you live near it, find your local shelter. Even a minor collapse could wipe out the entire area in seconds.
└ Yeah, already making plans to move.
└ Damn, my grandparents live there… we’re screwed.
– Please, just let nothing happen.

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