* * *
A new gate already?
No matter how you looked at it, this was way too fast.
In his previous life, there had been a bit more breathing room.
But then again, not every new gate was necessarily an Irregular.
Raon forced himself to stay calm.
“Is it another Irregular gate?”
Seokhyeon asked, maintaining his composure.
The voice on the other end replied, trembling.
— No, it’s not an Irregular gate.
“Whew, that’s at least a relief.”
— But… the color…
“What about the color?”
Seokhyeon frowned, his tone sharp as he pressed for details.
Soon, a flustered voice came through the watch.
— It… it’s purple.
“What? Purple?”
— Yes, sir.
Purple. That was definitely a first for a gate. Raon’s expression hardened.
It was true that the gate appearing after the Irregular gate in Zone 3 was supposed to be purple.
But the timing… it was way too early.
On top of that, the gate was originally supposed to appear colorless, as an Irregular.
“Phew… Which zone did you say?”
— Zone 7, sir.
“Understood. I’ll dispatch a special team immediately. Keep monitoring the situation.”
— Yes, sir!
As the call ended, Seokhyeon lifted his gaze and looked directly at Raon.
“Looks like we’ll have to continue this conversation after we return from the gate.”
“Understood.”
The matter of the article had already faded to the back of Raon’s mind.
Rising from his seat, Raon headed straight for the training grounds.
“W-We’re already entering the gate? I’m so nervous…”
Inside the helicopter, Dasom clenched his seatbelt tightly, murmuring anxiously.
Raon let out a small chuckle and spoke.
“Isn’t the helicopter scarier than the gate itself?”
“Eek!”
The helicopter’s rotors whirred loudly, signaling imminent takeoff.
Dasom shrank his shoulders.
“I-It’s my first time on a helicopter!”
“Same here.”
“Huh? But… you’re so calm…”
“Hmm.”
Raon nodded at Dasom’s words about it being his first time.
Dasom looked at him with confusion, clearly wondering how he could be so composed.
‘Well, it’s technically my first time in this life.’
In his previous life, he practically lived on helicopters.
After the public pressure forced even the villain Han Raon into entering gates, helicopters became as familiar as eating breakfast, thanks to the endless gates exploding all over South Korea.
‘Zone 7 is quite far from here.’
Not as far as Zone 5, which had included the old Busan area, but Zone 7 was still located in the region where Gwangju used to be, meaning it was quite a distance from Zone 1, where the main center was.
Usually, gates appeared more frequently in densely populated areas, which was why the center and major bases were concentrated in Zone 1.
But Irregular gates were unpredictable, often popping up in far-flung places like this, making things complicated.
“We’re taking off!”
The helicopter slowly lifted off with a loud rumble.
Dasom clenched his seatbelt tighter, swallowing a scream and shutting his eyes.
Raon leaned back comfortably in his seat.
After all, this world was just a novel.
It wasn’t going to be a helicopter accident that killed him.
‘Did I change the timeline by handling the original plot differently?’
Instead, Raon’s mind drifted back to the gate.
The Violet Gate was the trickiest and most unpredictable of all gates that appeared before the Black Gate in the original story.
That’s why Raon wanted to drill his team harder in preparation.
But seeing as it had appeared earlier than expected… it was probably because he had successfully dealt with the Gray Gate, accelerating the timeline.
‘If I manage to clear this one smoothly, maybe the next gate will appear even sooner…’
Raon bit his nail in frustration.
Even if he handled things well, could they really keep suppressing the gates, one after another, without fail?
What if the system reset midway?
The flood of negative thoughts gnawed at him.
“Hyung, stop that.”
“Ah.”
Siwoo, sitting beside him, stopped Raon from biting his nails.
Raon awkwardly pulled his hand away from his mouth and smiled at Siwoo.
“Guess I’m more nervous than I thought.”
“It’s okay. Nothing bad will happen.”
“…Yeah, you’re probably right.”
With Siwoo’s reassuring words, Raon steadied himself.
The helicopter cut through the sky at high speed.
“Whoa… this thing’s insane…”
“Dasom-ssi, are you okay?”
“Y-Yeah…”
Hamin checked on Dasom with concern.
Raon glanced around to make sure the entire guide team was present, then turned his head.
“Are you Team Leader Han Raon?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
At that moment, someone approached Raon.
Judging by the military uniform, they were an Esper.
“I’m Second Lieutenant Lee Juseong from Zone 7’s surveillance team. I’ll escort you to the base.”
“Understood.”
The surveillance team consisted of Espers dispatched from the military to scout out gates in each zone.
But with this being a gate color that had never appeared before, it seemed no reconnaissance had taken place yet.
“This way, please.”
“Ah, you’re here.”
Inside the base, the combat team leaders had already arrived.
Raon greeted them with a short nod.
“Let’s begin the briefing.”
Dojin, after confirming Raon was the last to arrive, started the briefing.
There wasn’t much information yet, so it ended quickly.
“But… are we deploying already? No reconnaissance?”
Yoonchae asked cautiously.
Normally, gates were scouted first before cautiously moving in.
“Didn’t Team Leader Dojin rush the reconnaissance during the last Irregular gate and cause chaos?”
Inho chimed in, blatantly pointing out Dojin’s mistake.
Dojin’s thick eyebrows twitched in irritation.
“That may be standard procedure, but the gate’s energy waves are highly unstable right now.”
“Unstable?”
“Usually, the energy stabilizes shortly after the gate opens, but this one’s still fluctuating like it just appeared.”
“Hmm…”
A heavy murmur rippled through the conference room.
An unstable gate meant only two things: it had just opened, or it was on the verge of exploding because it hadn’t been subdued.
In short, an unstable gate was a ticking time bomb.
If they didn’t act quickly, it could collapse at any moment, unleashing monsters.
“So… we’re going in without reconnaissance?”
“We have no choice with the waves this unstable.”
“You reported this to headquarters, right?”
“Yes.”
The team leaders didn’t like it, but since HQ had approved, they couldn’t argue further.
Among them, only Raon remained calm.
“Team Leader Han Raon.”
“Yes?”
As everyone scrambled to prepare for the operation, Dojin called out to Raon.
Raon approached, puzzled.
“What is it?”
“How about you support the combat team at the front line?”
“…Pardon?”
The unexpected request made Raon frown, but Dojin continued nonchalantly.
“We can’t predict what might happen inside the gate. If things go south, the combat team could be overwhelmed. You should join them directly.”
“No, I’ll stay with my own team.”
At first glance, Dojin’s words seemed to be for everyone’s benefit, but Raon didn’t hear them that way.
No matter how exceptional Raon was as an S-Rank Guide, there were limits to how much he could guide the entire combat team.
On top of that, assigning a Guide — especially one who was the target of protection — to the combat team and exposing him to danger?
It was absurd.
“You’re refusing a superior’s orders in this situation?”
“Strictly speaking, we’re both team leaders. And my direct superior is the Director.”
“Han Raon!”
“Ugh.”
When Raon refused to the end, Dojin shouted, his temper flaring.
The force radiating from the S-Rank Esper pressed down on Raon, making him nearly groan, but he clenched his teeth and held it in.
“What the hell are you doing?”
At that moment, someone stepped between Dojin and Raon.
Raon saw the back of a black head, slightly shorter than himself — it was Yoochae.
“This has nothing to do with you, Team Leader Yoochae.”
“How does this have nothing to do with me? I’m part of the combat team now, too.”
“Hah, why don’t you just back off.”
Dojin muttered sharply, his face cold.
But Yoochae didn’t budge.
“I happened to overhear — you’re saying you’ll send only Team Leader Raon into the combat unit? Have you completely lost your mind?”
“Lost my mind? Kwon Yoochae, you’re not even a proper team leader right now.”
“Well, look at you acting all high and mighty.”
Yoochae chuckled as she looked up at Dojin.
For Yoochae to openly oppose Dojin, not even Inho, was no ordinary thing.
Raon swallowed nervously from behind.
“Our job isn’t just to fight monsters. We have to keep the Guides safe, too.”
“Even if you didn’t go into the Irregular Gate, you read the report, didn’t you? You know full well anything could happen with this Gate.”
Dojin and Yoochae glared at each other, neither backing down an inch.
Raon stood between them, lips tightly pressed together, unable to utter a word.
“How about we settle this with a majority vote?”
“…?”
An unexpected, laid-back voice interrupted.
Turning his head, Raon saw Inho leaning against the doorway, arms crossed, watching them.
“Majority vote?”
“Yeah, we’ve got four team leaders, don’t we? Might as well follow the democratic process.”
Inho tilted his head with a sly grin, and Dojin’s face hardened like ice.
* * *
