Chapter 97: Premonition

“Who… what happened to him…?”

It was something I had never even imagined, so my first thought was that my ears were playing tricks on me.

I didn’t even feel emotions like confusion or surprise.

“Hic, sob….”

Ri-hyun couldn’t even form proper words and just let his tears answer for him.

Telling me that what I heard wasn’t wrong.

Only after getting that confirmation a second time did I realize the gravity of the situation.

Jaeyul… Jaeyul is missing.

Seon Jaeyul is missing.

The more I repeated Ri-hyun’s words in my mind, the faster my heart began to pound.

A fierce emotion surged up, as if the heart that was pounding against my chest was about to leap into my throat.

“What kind of ridiculous nonsense is that?

Jaeyul can’t be…?”

But I couldn’t easily accept it.

I know Seon Jaeyul’s abilities better than anyone.

How could Jaeyul, who possesses the power of ‘X’ that could destroy the world, go missing inside a gate?

I asked again, hoping he would tell me it wasn’t true, that I had misheard.

I grabbed the shoulders of Ri-hyun, who was looking at me pitifully, and shook him, demanding an answer.

To give me the answer I wanted.

I wished for it so much, but seeing Ri-hyun shake his head, I had to accept that Jaeyul was missing.

“What are you going to do, going alone…!”

“You get treatment here and come slowly.

I’ll use the helicopter.”

“I’m sorry to say this, but it won’t help even if you go, hyung!

The esper search party has already gone in, so let’s wait, okay?!”

“…I’ll handle that myself.”

I shook off Ri-hyun, who was grabbing my forearm and blocking my way.

Ri-hyun’s condition was quite serious even at a glance, so it seemed difficult for him to travel by helicopter again.

But I couldn’t wait for Ri-hyun’s body to heal, so we had to part ways here.

“H-hyung…!”

I understood in my head that his words—that my help wouldn’t be much needed—were not entirely wrong.

I don’t think I alone am better than a multitude of search party members.

But I can’t just sit back and wait for news.

I headed for the helicopter Ri-hyun had arrived in, almost at a run.

The pilot who had come with me from Busan hadn’t returned yet, so I had to borrow the helicopter.

With every minute, every second precious, my priority was to get to Seoul quickly.

Inside the helicopter, I tried to map out a plan.

When I first heard the news of Jaeyul’s disappearance, my mind went blank, and I couldn’t come up with any measures, but as time passed, I thought that I shouldn’t just be dazed like this.

Of course, I wasn’t completely okay, but it seemed I could finally think to some extent.

I had to come up with a way to find Jaeyul before I arrived in Seoul.

The situation I had roughly heard from Ri-hyun was this.

-Subjugation Day 1-

‘In the early stages of the subjugation, we advanced quite stably.

The poison used by the monsters was a nuisance, but Jaeyul’s strategy of dividing into five teams centered around the fire-type espers worked perfectly.

It was a very high-difficulty gate, so there were many minor and major injuries, but thanks to the antidote Jaeyul had ordered us to pack to an almost excessive degree, we were able to avoid any fatal wounds.’

Ri-hyun, his voice choked with sobs, recounted the events that had befallen the subjugation team from the beginning, dredging up his memories.

That was the one fortunate thing in the story.

The message I had sent before the cell phone signal was cut off had been properly delivered to Jaeyul, and Jaeyul had not only packed the antidote but had also newly organized the teams to match the poison-wielding monsters, allowing them to start the subjugation relatively smoothly.

‘It seemed the subjugation team members also shed their fear as we advanced at a speed that made it hard to believe it was an SS-rank gate.

The prevailing mood was that we could definitely subjugate it.

They regained their confidence.

I did too….’

‘It was that easy…?’

I couldn’t remember clearly, but I think I had quite a hard time when I entered that SS-rank gate.

Of course, I hadn’t packed a ton of antidote like Jaeyul, so that was to be expected, but even considering that, it was by no means an easy gate to the point of regaining confidence.

‘…It’s Jaeyul, after all.

Not a single person died, and we finished the first day’s subjugation.’

When a subjugation is too easy, you should actually be suspicious.

Monsters are not incapable of thinking.

Just look at Poppy; doesn’t he make many thoughts and decisions on his own?

Anyway, it was already in the past, so I didn’t probe any further and asked him to tell me the rest of the story.

-Subjugation Day 2-

‘The… accident happened after the midpoint of the subjugation….’

Ri-hyun bit his mangled lips as if recalling a terrifying memory and continued speaking.

His eyes were also trembling fiercely, so he must have been quite shocked.

‘Monsters that would normally appear as bosses in other gates suddenly poured out in swarms.

We were advancing with sufficient caution, but their numbers were so great that we tried to retreat first and regroup.

But our escape route was blocked by monsters swarming from all sides, so we had to deviate from our planned path….’

As expected, the monsters of an SS-rank gate were not so easy.

Instead of suffering unnecessary sacrifices against the intruders who were pushing in at a terrifying speed in the beginning, it seemed they had been waiting for an opportunity to slaughter the subjugation team by forming their own groups.

There were sometimes monsters that engaged in such bizarre behavior, but unfortunately, it seemed no one had suspected it.

‘After moving through a narrow passage for a long time, we realized we were going in circles….

We realized we were trapped in a huge labyrinth, the likes of which we had never seen before, and we split into teams at every fork in the road and advanced.’

‘Monsters must have attacked you in there, right?’

Ri-hyun looked at me with a startled expression.

As if asking how I knew what was happening inside the gate.

It was obvious, since the monsters had lured the subjugation team there.

‘How did you know?

O-our team was attacked by too many monsters again.

We couldn’t fight against dozens, hundreds of monsters with only ten agents, right?

Right?’

‘Well… I guess so.

So?’

I agreed with Ri-hyun, who had stopped talking as if waiting for my answer.

I’m sorry, but what I want to know is what happened to Jaeyul, not the hardships Ri-hyun went through.

That was most of the story for the second day.

Ri-hyun said he got separated from the other team members while protecting a severely injured teammate.

‘It was impossible to continue the subjugation with an injured team member, so I just ran, trying to drop him off near the safe entrance.’

‘All the way to the entrance?’

‘Yes…?’

There are plenty of places to hide a person in a gate.

It means there’s no need to go all the way to the safe zone at the entrance.

It was a somewhat incomprehensible action, but it was nothing compared to what followed.

“We have arrived.”

The sudden voice of the helicopter pilot stopped me from recalling the story Ri-hyun had told me.

Time had passed in an instant.

I had tried to come up with a way to find Jaeyul in the helicopter, but I arrived in Seoul before I could even formulate a proper plan.

It seems I spent too much time worrying about Jaeyul’s safety.

I knew in my head that I had to act more rationally at times like this, but I couldn’t help but feel anxious.

I took a deep breath and held on tightly to my mind, which was about to get complicated.

Anyway, I had no choice.

Because there was only one thing I could do.

“Thank you.”

“What are you doing!

Wait, we’re still landing!”

When the helicopter got close to the landing pad, I opened the door and jumped out.

It was a little far from where I wanted to go, but it was enough that I could get nearby quickly.

I left the heliport building and ran down the neighborhood road towards home.

I’m not going straight to the gate where Jaeyul went missing.

No matter how urgent the situation is and how tangled my thoughts are, I’m not that foolish.

How could I find Jaeyul by going in alone?

What I really need right now isn’t me.

“Poppy!”

I opened the front door and ran into the house without even taking off my shoes.

Poppy is the perfect search party member.

“Woof!

Woof!”

Poppy shot out from the kitchen and burrowed into my arms.

The smell of grilling meat, from whatever he was doing in the corner of the kitchen, filled the living room.

My heart began to beat a little faster at the smell.

It was different from the pounding that had been making my chest uncomfortable until now.

It was anticipation.

The anticipation that Jaeyul might have already returned.