Chapter 1
<Korean Hunter Gallery>
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[Title: Burger, First Come, First Served—One Person]
[Fake Monkey's Paw]
(green frog waving gif)
Comment with your wish and I'll grant it along with a burger, yeah yeah
But you'll get a side effect in a reply too, so choose carefully
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[Comments]
[The ability to summon my own gate full of rare resources]
↳[Fake Monkey's Paw: But you have to gather them yourself]
↳[(frog emote staring with cold, dead eyes)]
↳[So? What about the burger?]
↳[Fake Monkey's Paw: I put it inside the gate, yeah yeah]
↳[What does that even mean?]
↳[Huh, what? It says I just awakened all of a sudden???]
↳[Wait, my body's g-e-tt-ing s-tr-a-n-ge ㅎ.../]
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[Title: -The End-]
[Fake Monkey's Paw]
(green frog waving gif)
The bus has left, yeah yeah
───
[Comments]
[- This comment has been deleted -]
↳[Fake Monkey's Paw: But you have to gather them yourself]
↳[- This comment has been deleted -]
↳[- This comment has been deleted -]
↳[Fake Monkey's Paw: I put it inside the gate, yeah yeah]
↳[- This comment has been deleted -]
↳[- This comment has been deleted -]
↳[- This comment has been deleted -]
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Yesterday, I had a really bizarre dream.
A dream so bizarre I'd be embarrassed to tell anyone about it.
'Oh, right. I don't have anyone I'm close enough to tell that kind of thing to, do I?'
Ahem. Anyway.
To roughly summarize that bizarre dream, it was exactly 11 p.m.—the time when all the fun stuff in the world was said to really get underway.
As usual, I was browsing Hunter Gallery (Hunter Gal), catching up on what was going on in the world…
[Title: Burger, First Come, First Served—One Person]
"What!?"
Then I spotted a fresh-off-the-press post offering a burger to the first person in.
My three years of Hunter Gal experience hadn't been for nothing—I managed to comment first.
And at that very moment.
Ding!
[You have awakened the class 'Gate Summoner'.]
With a cheerful chime, a translucent notification window—the proof that I'd awakened as a Hunter—appeared before my eyes.
[No mana circuit detected.]
[Beginning reconstruction of the body.]
After that, my memories were so hazy I couldn't recall much, but I think I was overcome by a wave of dizziness and eventually passed out…
'...What a stupid dream.'
Seriously, even though I'd always talked about how much I wanted to awaken as a Hunter.
I hadn't realized I wanted it so badly that I'd dream something so ridiculous.
'Maybe I should just take this week off from my part-time job…?'
But that thought didn't last long.
Even paying rent was a struggle for me as things stood.
If I took time off work in that situation, I'd surely get kicked out of this tiny studio and end up on the street.
"I have to live responsibly…"
Even if it was summer and I wouldn't freeze to death, I had no desire to live on the streets.
After giving myself a stern talking-to, I headed to the bathroom to wash my face and clear my head.
And the moment I stood in front of the sink and looked in the mirror.
Ding!
[Body reconstruction complete.]
"…?"
A translucent notification window began appearing before my eyes.
[You have met the requirements to acquire the class 'Gate Summoner'.]
[You have acquired the class skill 'Gate Summon'.]
[From now on, you can summon gates.]
Not just one, but several.
A whole string of notifications saying I'd acquired a new class and skill.
"No… what is all this…?"
Was I seeing things?
But wasn't this way too realistic to be a hallucination…?
I stared silently at the notification windows before my eyes for a while,
wondering whether the dream I'd had yesterday might not have been nonsense, but reality…
[The initial status window will be displayed automatically.]
Ding!
[Name]: [Kang Yul]
[Class]: [Gate Summoner]
[Class Skill]: [Gate Summon]
"Status window…?"
Along with the notification that appeared a moment later, a status window containing brief information appeared before my eyes. Only then could I accept it.
The fact that I'd really awakened as a Hunter.
########
Twenty years ago.
Gates, supernatural passages connected to other dimensions, appeared all over the world.
As the various supernatural phenomena that flowed out of the gates became known to the public, the way people understood the world changed drastically.
As such.
'Awakening as a Hunter and getting a status window?'
That was possible.
This 'Hunter awakening' happening to all of humanity was itself one of the supernatural phenomena.
And after countless researchers studied it, the conclusion was that it was a blessing-like power that did no harm to the human body.
However, if there was one problem with this power that seemed like a blessing, it was that no matter how hard the world's best researchers studied it, they couldn't figure out the conditions for awakening. There was no way to awaken other than naturally…
'…I've seen posts saying that sometimes people awaken as Hunters after meeting special conditions.'
Especially since the famous Hunters mostly said they'd awakened through 'some incident.'
I figured that awakening by commenting on a gallery burger giveaway might be one of those special cases.
'If I tell the gallery about this, they'll call it another bait post and bury me in downvotes.'
But there'd also be people wondering, 'Is this for real?'
The world was full of supernatural phenomena we didn't know about, and academia's accepted view was that their number was steadily increasing.
That gallery post, too, was probably a type of supernatural phenomenon that hadn't been discovered yet.
So, returning to the present.
"I… really awakened as a Hunter?"
After coolly and objectively analyzing the situation, I concluded that I wasn't crazy or dreaming—I really had awakened as a Hunter.
I could finally live the life of a Hunter I'd always wanted.
"Phew… first, calm down… I need to calm down…."
I wanted to jump around right then and there and tell everyone in the neighborhood I'd awakened, but that was something only a rookie would do.
After all, the undisputed number-one cause of Hunter deaths was getting into trouble after telling people around them they'd awakened without knowing any better.
To follow the perfect plan I'd made after imagining this day over and over, I needed to keep a cool head.
To be honest, Kang Yul, twenty-three years old, was a job-seeker bouncing between countless part-time jobs in a cramped, run-down studio apartment.
My hobby was storing all kinds of tips and information from Hunter Gal in my head, dreaming of the once-in-a-lifetime chance to turn my life around by awakening as a Hunter someday.
That's why.
'Now that I've awakened as a Hunter, you could say my plans for the future are perfect.'
I just hadn't been able to realize my dreams because I hadn't awakened.
Like a poor artist who couldn't paint because he had no canvas or art supplies.
So first, I needed to go over the changes to my body—the first thing anyone who'd awakened as a Hunter should check.
'My body… doesn't seem particularly different?'
I slowly examined myself in the mirror.
I saw the same ordinary Korean man as always, neither particularly handsome nor ugly.
Then I picked up and put down things around me to check whether I'd gotten stronger, but I didn't feel any particular change.
'My physical abilities are about the same as before I awakened.'
If my class were a frontline type like a warrior, I'd see changes like increased strength or reflexes, but since I was a back-line summoner, there didn't seem to be any special changes.
'But there must have been some change.'
My memory was hazy, but I definitely saw it.
[No mana circuit detected.]
[Beginning reconstruction of the body.]
Right after I awakened as a Hunter.
My body had been reconstructed along with the notification saying I had no mana circuit, so I must have gained one in my body.
So if I knew the trick, using simple magic or skills shouldn't be a problem. I could put them to the test… but before that.
'First, I should check the class information.'
I knew most class information by heart, but 'Gate Summoner' was a class I'd never seen before, so I needed to check it out.
'I think I open the status window… and tap the class field… Ah, there it is.'
Ding!
[Class]: Gate Summoner
Your mana circuit is special.
It is a 'dimensional' mana circuit that combines the 'time' and 'space' mana circuits, either of which alone could make you the world's greatest archmage.
Through this mana circuit, you can manipulate 'gates' connected to other dimensions.
Also, when you summon a gate, you can check the amount of resources obtainable from that gate, as well as its notable features.
'Hmm… I see.'
So, to sum it up.
The mana circuit that appeared in my body is specialized in dimensions, and I can use it to manipulate gates?
'It sounds incredible, but it doesn't really sink in.'
How should I put it? It doesn't feel real.
It'd be easier to understand a one-line explanation like 'You are a brave warrior with outstanding strength and toughness!' like you'd get for a warrior class.
The Gate Summoner's 'Anyway, it's amazing!' written out at length didn't really resonate with me.
'Well, I guess I'll find out if I try it.'
Figuring that when I didn't understand something, the best thing was to try it out, Kang Yul used the [Gate Summon] skill.
Using the skill was extremely simple.
First, I just had to strongly will it in my mind…
Ding!
[Using the skill 'Gate Summon'.]
[Attempting to connect to the dimension desired by the skill user.]
[………]
…And the skill activated according to my will.
At that moment, I felt as if something flowed out of my body. That was probably the mana Hunters talked about.
"Whoa, shit. It actually works."
Anyway, focusing on the summoning again.
'It said it would try to connect to the dimension the user currently desires, right?'
If so, Kang Yul had only one thing to do.
Since I didn't have purified water… I knelt reverently before a bowl of water I'd drawn from the water purifier.
'Please, a freebie gate…! Please, an amazing gate…!! Please, a safe gate…!!!'
I prayed fervently for an amazing gate that would let me coast through life.
How long did I pray with all my heart?
[………!]
[Search complete.]
[Beginning gate connection.]
"I'm going to Mars—!!!"
Just as the notification announced that the gate had connected, I let out a spirited shout to pump myself up.
Ding!
['Primordial Land - Terra' connection complete.]
[A summary of the gate's information will be displayed.]
As the brief information on the connected gate appeared before his eyes with a cheerful chime, Kang Yul couldn't hide his astonishment.
[Primordial Land - Terra]
﹝Resources obtainable from gate﹞
- Mineral resources: Reserves immeasurable
- Plant resources: Yield immeasurable
- Biological resources: Population immeasurable
- Special resources: #@$! immeasurable
﹝Notable features﹞
: A land that retains its primordial appearance, untouched by civilization.
: It is extremely rich in resources, and the mana density in the atmosphere is very high.
"Could it be that there's so much stuff that it can't be measured…?"
If that was true, it looked like I'd hit the jackpot for real.
And what a jackpot—if anyone found out I had a gate like this, the whole world might try to kidnap me.