Chapter 65: Proof That No Longer Exists

[We’ve received a lot of inquiries about what’s going on. According to the village police officer, a Gate has appeared in our village. So don’t dawdle—everyone, please come to the village hall immediately.]

The friendly voice, tinged with a rural dialect, was speaking words that were anything but familiar.

“I didn’t just hear that wrong, did I?”

Sung Ji-woo asked in disbelief, but instead of an answer, the exact same announcement played again.

“Do they do civil defense drills like this these days?”

He tried to deny it, but Koo Min-ah’s expression hardened coldly.

“This place is a Gate safety zone. We’ve never done drills like this. It’s real. Follow me.”

Koo Min-ah picked up the basket and started walking ahead. After passing through the mountain path and reaching an unpaved road, a truck came to a stop in front of the three of them.

“Oh, Min-ah. You heard the broadcast? What kind of mess is this….”

“Sir, this is our place.”

Koo Min-ah loaded the basket onto the truck as if she were used to it.

“Sure, I can give you a ride home. The tall guys in the back—your friends?”

“Yes. But you don’t have to give us a ride. We need to head out now.”

It was obvious at a glance that Koo Min-ah intended to go check out the Gate.

“In a situation like this, where do you think you’re going?! I said I’d take you home and to the village hall!”

The man asked, his face pale.

“You’re not seriously thinking of going into the Gate, are you? If your father finds out, all hell will break loose. Get in, hurry!”

“In this tiny village, who else is there with abilities besides me?”

It was the first time Sung Ji-woo had ever seen Koo Min-ah speak with such agitation. Normally, whether a Gate appeared or not, she would’ve treated it as none of her business and watched from the sidelines….

“We don’t even know the situation yet. Like he said, let’s go to the village hall first. Once we’re there, you two can say you’re Hunters and—”

Sung Ji-woo cut in, trying to stop her. They did have Hunter licenses and could enter the Gate without extra procedures, but that would’ve been reckless.

“Hyung.”

“Huh? What?”

“Hyung is a Hunter too.”

At Yu Hiro’s words, Sung Ji-woo clamped his mouth shut.

Wiiiiiiing!

As if urging them to hurry, a siren started blaring.

“Get in, now!”

The man waved them on, and the three of them climbed into the back of the truck without really thinking. The bumpy road made their backsides ache terribly.

“No! Absolutely not. We wait, no matter what, until the professionals arrive.”

“What professionals? I am a professional.”

At the village hall they reached, Sung Ji-woo met Koo Min-ah’s father for the first time.

The man who’d never shown his face until now had apparently been in this village the whole time. Hearing that left Sung Ji-woo utterly dumbfounded.

“It’s because we don’t get along. She’s not a kid anymore, but honestly, I don’t know what she thinks she’s doing.”

Koo Min-ah’s mother said that calmly.

Sung Ji-woo didn’t know much about families, so he could only nod. Were real families like this…? There was no way for him to know.

The village hall was full of elderly residents, yet the two of them started arguing without bothering to lower their voices.

“I said I’m a Hunter!”

“Then don’t do it! Don’t be a Hunter! You think you’re the only Hunter in the world?!”

As the fight grew increasingly childish, Sung Ji-woo pretended not to hear. The mother was handing out the peaches they’d harvested to the villagers.

“Oh dear, the Koos really went through a lot.”

The villagers seemed used to it, tacitly ignoring the father-daughter argument.

“This area was originally a safety zone. This is the first Gate that’s ever appeared here.”

“Ah….”

So they needed to find Hunters willing to come all the way out here.

“But will Hunters really come this far?”

Sung Ji-woo was skeptical. Unless they were government-affiliated Hunters, the chances of regular guild Hunters coming here were close to zero.

Ninety percent of the country’s guilds were concentrated in the capital region, and most of them moved for money.

A business trip to a Gate in a rural village like this?

“Well, a guild aiming for a first clear might come.”

“…That’s true.”

As Yu Hiro said, such a guild might show up. But that also meant any guild without a specific objective wouldn’t come here at all.

Just then, the door to the broadcast room opened, and the village head came out, wiping sweat from his brow with a handkerchief.

“What should we do…? They say they’ll try to organize a team they can dispatch, but… they don’t even know when they’ll arrive. According to whatever device they checked, it doesn’t seem that dangerous…. For now, everyone should go home—”

Thud! Kugugugung.

Before he could finish, the ground began to shake again.

“Oh dear, I’m going to die!”

The villagers all screamed at once, grabbing onto whatever they could see. Those who had nothing to hold onto clutched the hands of whoever was next to them and squeezed their eyes shut.

“…Are we still going to keep waiting?”

Koo Min-ah asked in a calmer voice than before.

“That’s right, Mr. Koo! Your daughter says she’ll do it—!”

A man suddenly raised his voice in agreement, only to be sharply rebuked by a woman.

“Hey, keep it down. Don’t meddle in someone else’s family business! This is a matter of life and death—how dare you speak so lightly!”

“No, I just—”

Koo Min-ah’s father glanced at Sung Ji-woo and Yu Hiro, then said,

“If they’re such great Hunters, tell those two to go.”

“They have nothing to do with this village. Why should they go? You think Hunters are volunteers or something?”

That was when Sung Ji-woo noticed the looks the villagers were giving them weren’t normal. Ever since Koo Min-ah had mentioned they were Hunters, those ambiguous gazes hadn’t let up.

They were clearly asking for something.

Sung Ji-woo leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. It felt better not to see.

“Should we go out?”

“It’s dangerous.”

“If you’re with me, it’s not dangerous at all.”

“Stay still.”

He half-ignored Yu Hiro’s words. The argument between father and daughter showed no signs of ending. After that, whether aftershocks or something else, the ground shook several more times. A large nearby tree collapsed limply.

The village head said they were allowed to return home as instructed from above, but no one dared to step outside.

Time passed, and evening came. In the countryside, evening arrived faster than expected, because there were no streetlights.

Everyone complained of hunger and somehow filled their stomachs with peaches. Sung Ji-woo and Yu Hiro did the same. The father and daughter had fallen silent by now. Their opposing opinions showed no sign of narrowing the gap.

“How long are we supposed to sit around like this?!”

A young man sprang to his feet. His frustration was understandable. Being forced to wait helplessly when anything could happen at any moment was a special kind of torment.

Sung Ji-woo looked at him with sympathy. The feeling was painfully familiar to him, but not to others—especially civilians. For people who’d lived in a safety zone far removed from Gates, it would be even worse. Until now, it must have felt like something happening in another country.

“Exactly. Shouldn’t we at least come up with some kind of plan?”

A woman raised her voice as well. Everyone was wearing down.

“I’m going home.”

Finally, someone stood up. It was the father of a child who looked about five years old.

“Do people have to start dying before you come to your senses? Call 119, at least! If you can’t get Hunters, send someone else! There are elderly folks here too!”

“That’s right!”

Pent-up anger burst out from all sides. Startled by the uproar, the children began to wail. It was chaos.

Sung Ji-woo let out a deep sigh. He really couldn’t pretend not to notice anymore. He couldn’t keep waiting for someone else to step up.

Just as he was about to open his mouth—

“Whoa!”

A loud commotion broke out.

“It’s a blackout! What do we do?!”

Someone’s despairing voice rang out in the darkness.

“Emergency lights—any emergency lights? Flashlights!”

People started scrambling around. The village head tried to calm them, saying he’d look for something right away, but all that could be heard were crashes and thuds as people stumbled over one another. When Sung Ji-woo thought someone might actually get trampled to death at this rate, he used his ability without hesitation.

Light blossomed from his palm, spreading to the center of the village hall and illuminating the surroundings. Faced with the unfamiliar sight, people fell silent. They could see villagers tangled together on the floor, having fallen over one another. Those who finally had their bearings groaned in pain as they struggled to sit up.

Everyone immediately realized who the owner of the light was. They couldn’t not—the light source was floating above Sung Ji-woo’s palm. Holding their breath, they all stared at him.

“…I’ll go.”

Sung Ji-woo finally forced the words out with a sigh, after hesitating until the very end.

“Let’s go.”

The moment he said that, voices erupted as if they’d been waiting.

“No! Don’t go!”

Koo Min-ah’s father desperately grabbed her arm. She looked down at him with a complicated expression.

“If you go, don’t ever think about seeing this father of yours again.”

The words were both harsh and desperate. Sung Ji-woo thought that maybe Koo Min-ah wouldn’t be able to come with them after all.

Still, there was Yu Hiro….

Wait—Yu Hiro?

Sung Ji-woo suddenly turned his head to look at him. Come to think of it, how had he not thought of this sooner? Even rural villagers couldn’t possibly not know Yu Hiro. Sung Ji-woo lifted the straw hat Yu Hiro had pulled low over his head.

His hair was slightly flattened, but his strikingly handsome face was unchanged. Yu Hiro tilted his head, not understanding Sung Ji-woo’s intention. Sung Ji-woo grabbed Yu Hiro’s arm and pulled him closer.

“Everyone recognizes this face, right?”

At the sudden question, the villagers began to murmur. Sung Ji-woo raised the light source above Yu Hiro’s head so they could see him better. Yu Hiro’s long eyelashes cast shadows, lending him an even more mysterious air.

“…Now that you mention it, he does look familiar.”

“Isn’t that Yu Hiro?”

A young woman shouted.

The moment the name left her mouth, information began to spread from person to person.
Who’s Yu Hiro?
Oh, that guy from TV?

Until it finally reached—

“Isn’t he Hunter HERO? The one who cleared the X-Gate!”

The answer Sung Ji-woo had been waiting for.

“He, and Koo Min-ah too—they’re well-known Hunters in the industry, so don’t worry. Leave it to them.”

“…Our Min-ah?”

Koo Min-ah’s father asked in disbelief.

“Yes. And me too….”

“….”

“And I….”

Sung Ji-woo clenched his fist tightly.

“I’m just a supporter.”

There were no words left in this world that could prove who he truly was.