* * *
We traveled by helicopter.
The roads below appeared desolate.
Most Seoul citizens had already evacuated to underground shelters under the Hunter Management Bureau’s orders, prompted by the series of dungeon breaks that occurred the previous night.
But surely, some people hadn’t evacuated.
They must have noticed the rift forming above their heads. Word of this would inevitably reach those in the shelters before long.
Even knowing such a massive rift had appeared in the sky above Seoul, maintaining complete control seemed uncertain.
If panicked citizens tried to flee outside, it could cause a real catastrophe.
“Everything will be fine, right?”
“Don’t worry too much.”
Baek Gunho reassured me with a calm demeanor.
Even someone like Baek Gunho had to be feeling tense at this moment, yet he appeared utterly unbothered.
“Aren’t you scared?”
“No, I’m not.”
Sitting beside me, Baek Gunho took my hand.
The warmth from his grip heated my cold fingers.
“I was much more scared when you were lying in the hospital.”
As he spoke, a shadow briefly crossed Baek Gunho’s face.
He tightened his hold on my hand, as if vowing never to let go again.
“We’ll succeed.”
“…Yeah.”
I stared at the rift slicing through the sky.
Nothing had emerged from the slowly widening crack yet.
Beyond the rift lay another world, a dungeon.
If the space on the other side was stable, we’d enter the dungeon and conquer it.
But if it were already saturated, a dungeon break would occur, and monsters would pour through.
Judging by the size of that rift, the dungeon’s scale would be enormous.
The sheer number of monsters it could hold… I didn’t even want to imagine it.
That’s why we had to close it as quickly as possible.
I watched the approaching rift in silence.
The edges, still faintly open, shimmered with a mix of white and black light.
As we got closer, Baek Gunho pulled a mana stone from his inventory.
“I’ll use it first.”
Before I could stop him, Baek Gunho activated the mana stone.
A screech, like iron dragging across the ground, ripped through the air.
My gaze immediately shifted to Baek Gunho instead of the rift.
His hand glowed softly, the mana stone emitting a faint light.
There was no sign of it melting or leaving any residue on his palm.
While the rift itself was nerve-wracking, I also couldn’t shake my unease about the mana stones.
Though they had been modified, their effectiveness hadn’t been fully verified.
Someone had to use them, but Baek Gunho’s decision to jump ahead felt deliberate—as if he’d rather risk himself than let anyone else take the chance.
“I won’t let you take any risks.”
Sensing my reproachful gaze, Baek Gunho spoke in a heavy tone.
“Just look.”
Before I could argue further, he pointed toward the rift with the hand holding the mana stone.
“It’s working.”
I turned to the rift. Its edges were gradually fading, closing like an erased mark.
“…It’s really working.”
“It’s closing quite a lot.”
The helicopter began moving along the rift’s edge.
As it moved, the rift continued to close behind us.
“This might be enough, right?”
“Maybe.”
I glanced at Baek Gunho.
Though he was pretending to stay composed, his voice was lower and more subdued than usual.
“Is it hard?”
“I’m fine.”
“If it’s too much, let’s switch. We’re supposed to take turns, anyway.”
But Baek Gunho stubbornly shook his head.
“Just a little more.”
“…Alright.”
I alternated between watching Baek Gunho and the rift, my heart pounding nervously.
The rift steadily disappeared until the light in Baek Gunho’s mana stone finally faded.
As soon as I confirmed it, I pulled out my mana stone.
Baek Gunho quickly snatched it from my hand.
Without hesitation, he used my mana stone to continue closing the rift.
“What are you doing?!”
“I can handle a bit more.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! There are two of us—why are you doing it alone?”
“You’re injured.”
“I’m fine now!”
In truth, I wasn’t fully recovered.
My body still felt heavy. I
f not for this situation, I wouldn’t have left my bed.
But that didn’t mean I planned to burden Baek Gunho with everything.
I tried using a skill to grab the mana stone back, but I failed.
Repeated attempts yielded the same result, frustrating me to no end.
Catching up to Baek Gunho’s speed was no easy feat.
Even in past battles, the former “Seo Heewon” couldn’t match his speed and had to rely on brute force to overpower everything in the vicinity.
Grinding my teeth, I glared at Baek Gunho.
“Next time, I’ll get off the helicopter and go alone.”
“Stop being stubborn.”
“You’re the one being stubborn!”
“…Fine.”
Baek Gunho finally handed the mana stone back to me, albeit reluctantly.
I snatched it from him with a scowl.
Infusing it with magic, I directed the energy toward the rift.
As expected, the rift began to close again.
“Let me know if it gets too much. I’ll help.”
“I’m fine.”
Even as I said that, my body felt drained, like the mana stone was sapping my strength.
Unlike Baek Gunho, I didn’t bother pretending to be unaffected.
Leaning back against the seat, I focused on closing the rift.
Just then, a large stone bird began circling the helicopter.
It seemed to be a golem created by a Hunter from the Bureau, just as they’d explained.
The bird carried a bundle of mana stones meant to resupply us.
Opening the door, I used telekinesis to take the stones from the bird’s beak.
The bird promptly flew back the way it had come.
There were three mana stones in the bundle.
“We’ll take turns using them. Got it?”
“Got it.”
After extracting a promise from Baek Gunho, I handed over two stones.
Under my watchful eye, he refrained from any further impulsive actions.
Closing the rift proceeded smoothly—until…
“Doesn’t it feel like the rift is widening faster?”
“It does.”
Baek Gunho immediately contacted the Hunter Management Bureau.
Their response confirmed our observation.
—The rift is accelerating its expansion. And monsters have begun emerging from it.
If monsters were coming out, it was officially a dungeon break.
Allowing the rift to fully open would mean an onslaught of monsters flooding through.
“Still, we haven’t seen any monsters near us.”
—Yes, the number emerging is still low.
Why were there so few?
For a rift of this size, it didn’t make sense.
Even a minimal number should have been enough for us to encounter some by now.
Dungeon breaks were dangerous precisely because monsters surged through all at once.
But a dungeon break with so few monsters?
It didn’t add up.
I gazed at the now significantly widened rift.
The shimmering light beyond looked strangely peaceful, making it hard to believe monsters could emerge from there.
—Other Hunters will handle the monsters. Please focus on closing the rift. And…
The voice of the person speaking faltered, and the background grew louder with other voices rising.
“What’s going on?”
— I-I think… I saw an eye.
“An eye? What are you talking about?”
— W-Wait a moment. I’ll send you the footage.
The previously calm voice on the other end now sounded completely flustered and hurried. Shortly after, a video arrived.
The footage showed a section of a gaping fissure.
The split was divided into white and black, alternating again with white.
After a moment, the black area was gradually engulfed by the advancing white, only for the white to recede slowly again.
Watching it silently, a thought surfaced.
“…An eye?”
It moved like a living creature blinking.
An eyelid closed over the eyeball, then opened again.
“Could it really be…?”
If that was truly an eye, its size was incomprehensible.
While I wanted to dismiss it as an overactive imagination, once the idea of it being an eye took hold, there was no other way to perceive it.
It was unmistakable—a blinking eye.
If that thing truly belonged to a living being, then just one of its kind crossing over would spell disaster.
* * *
Well that doesn’t bode well
Yo what is even going on