Chapter 39
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#39. Gate (4)
The branch director's office at the Korean branch of the World Hunter Association.
Knock-knock-
“Come in.”
After receiving permission from the room's occupant, the secretary cautiously entered the branch director's office. A small document folder was in the secretary's hands.
“This is the investigation report on the man who cashed in the large quantity of D+-rank elite monster cores I mentioned before.”
“Hmm.”
As Kang Cheol-ho examined the documents with an indifferent expression, a strange glint briefly flickered in his eyes.
“Is this true?”
“...Yes.”
The documents began with Kang Hyeon-woo's basic personal information and continued with his movements over the past six months.
“A person who was an ordinary university student until just a few days ago registered as a mage overnight, then obtained and cashed in a large quantity of monster cores despite never leaving the city...”
As he had initially suspected, if Hyeon-woo had cleared an undiscovered Gate, there should at least have been records of him visiting some remote, unpopulated area.
But over the past six months, he had barely gone anywhere besides the university, his part-time job, and home.
Moreover, his movements on the day he cashed in the cores were also strange.
“A church?”
“Yes, the church right next to our branch office. When we asked the priest there, he said the injuries had been quite serious.”
“Was he attacked by a monster?”
“He said he couldn't be certain, but judging by the circumstances, the probability was high.”
Becoming a mage was not so easy that someone could accomplish it overnight. Yet Kang Hyeon-woo had obtained a large quantity of elite monster cores without ever going near a place where an undiscovered Gate might appear—and he had even suffered injuries that seemed to have been inflicted by a monster...
Could anything possibly be more suspicious?
“There is one more matter to report, Director.”
“Hmm?”
The secretary handed another document folder to Kang Cheol-ho.
“One of the victims of the isolated Gate that occurred at approximately 7:49 p.m. yesterday was the Kang Hyeon-woo I just reported on.”
“...The other victim was the granddaughter of Madam Choi Yeong-ok, was she not?”
“Yes.”
“Huh.”
Kang Cheol-ho instinctively sensed that the situation was becoming complicated.
A suspicious man about whom almost nothing had been properly revealed had ended up trapped in an isolated Gate with the sole heir of the Seongbuk Choi clan, of all people.
Wasn't the situation a little too perfectly arranged?
“I hear the Gate is B-rank.”
“Yes... Madam Choi Yeong-ok demanded several reexaminations, so we even brought in precision measuring equipment, but there were no abnormalities.”
Two mages—a second-circle mage and a third-circle mage—could never clear a B-rank Gate, even if they died and came back to life. Surviving a week without any preparation would be impossible as well.
That was the conclusion he had reached from the data he had accumulated while holding important positions in the Association for decades.
If there was any chance of survival, it lay solely in the existence of the man called Kang Hyeon-woo, whose every aspect was shrouded in mystery.
Under normal circumstances, Kang Cheol-ho would have disliked the presence of someone as suspicious as Kang Hyeon-woo, but part of him also wanted to speak with the man.
Even Kang Cheol-ho himself did not know why.
***
Two figures were walking across a snowfield amid a fierce, biting blizzard.
They were Kang Hyeon-woo and Choi Hye-na.
Seen up close, the condition of the two of them looked far from good.
The sudden attack by a pack of White Wolves had consumed most of Choi Hye-na's mana, while Kang Hyeon-woo had suffered a fairly large wound on his arm.
He had roughly stopped the bleeding, but it was nothing more than emergency treatment.
As time passed, Kang Hyeon-woo's complexion grew worse and worse. He had applied as much pressure as he could, but a mere scrap of clothing could not completely stop the dark-red blood slowly trickling down.
In the end, Kang Hyeon-woo staggered before dropping heavily into the snow.
“A-are you okay?!”
Choi Hye-na rushed over in alarm, horrified to find that his condition was much worse than she had expected.
The scrap of clothing tied around his arm had long since ceased to function as a bandage.
Kang Hyeon-woo's face was creased with pain, and even his lips had turned deathly blue. At a glance, he looked as though he would be in danger if he did not receive proper treatment immediately.
“It's nothing.”
“Don't act tough! Why didn't you say anything until you got this bad?!”
“...”
Kang Hyeon-woo said nothing.
No—to be precise, he did not have the strength even to make excuses.
“Getting out of here comes first.”
According to what Choi Hye-na had told him, White Wolves formed packs that were even larger than White Yetis.
The White Wolves they had killed had numbered roughly ten, and he did not think they had merely happened to encounter a small pack.
They had no idea when more White Wolves might come after them.
‘...The shop hasn't reset, either.’
After defeating the Ice Bear and the pack of White Wolves, his coins had surpassed 3,000, but the shop had not reset, and it had nothing useful for their current situation.
With time still remaining on his matches with Iris and Cheon Yeo-hwa, the only thing he could consider as a last resort was a new match.
But that was still a gamble. He could not choose his matching partner with certainty.
‘Should I set my matching partner's occupation to doctor?’
That would raise the odds, but it still would not be certain.
Even so, it would be better than bleeding to death in the snow, so he resolved to keep that option in mind at all times.
“Use this to apply pressure.”
Choi Hye-na took off the fur coat she was wearing and handed it to him.
It was a coat that had been reduced to tatters during the battle with the Ice Wolves.
“Take it quickly. If the bleeding doesn't stop, you'll die anyway, and I'll be killed by the monsters following us.”
Her argument wasn't very persuasive while she was trembling all over.
“...Fine.”
Of course, he did not even have the luxury of refusing.
He cut the fur coat he had been given into suitably sized pieces. Only after using the cut-up coat to apply firm pressure did he feel the bleeding begin to slow somewhat.
“Phew...”
He felt considerably better.
His condition did not suddenly improve in some dramatic fashion, but simply knowing that the bleeding was slowing made things far better than before.
However, the bitter cold that made him feel as though his toes might be severed at any moment did not improve at all.
His mana was almost depleted, so he could not use it to warm himself, and Choi Hye-na, who had taken off her tattered fur coat, was also growing paler in her extremely thin clothes.
At this rate, they were both destined to freeze to death.
There was no time left to weigh this and that. They had to do whatever it took to survive.
·
·
·
“...Are you serious?”
“What else? Do you want to freeze to death?”
“...”
Choi Hye-na frowned as she looked at the shelter Kang Hyeon-woo had painstakingly made through backbreaking effort.
“...You perverted bastard.”
The small hole dug beneath a gently sloping hill was so narrow that their best option was to spread out the one-person tent as compactly as possible.
Naturally, it was too narrow for two people to enter.
In other words, they could barely fit only if they pressed themselves tightly together.
“...It's not like this is the first time we've done it.”
“What did you just say? Huh?”
Choi Hye-na's fierce glare stung.
Still, there was nothing they could do.
Since they could not see anything like the shallow cave they had found at first, pitching a tent on bare ground would leave them vulnerable to a monster attack at any moment.
It was better to cover the entrance with snow, leaving only the smallest air hole, and stay inside.
Besides, if they had not had a tent, they would have had to lie down with snow as their blanket. Thinking of that, he did not feel inclined to complain.
Of course, even though the inside of the tent automatically became warm, with both their bodies cold as ice and neither of them knowing when they might come down with a cold...
He knew all too well that amount of heat would be nowhere near enough.
Hye-na and I both knew it.
-Then what are we supposed to do?
What else? We have to hold each other naked again.
“Are you completely undressed?”
“...”
There was no answer.
Realizing that itself was the answer, he stripped off his clothes as quickly as possible, blocked the entrance with snow, and entered the tent.
Inside the tent, Choi Hye-na sat with her naked body covered.
“...Just lie down.”
He lay down as instructed.
The instant he lay down, Choi Hye-na climbed on top of him.
“Why are you staring at me...! I said close your eyes!”
If he did not do as she said, he felt like he would be hit any second.
He had no choice but to close his eyes, and after cautiously gauging his reaction for a while, Choi Hye-na quietly burrowed into his arms.
He felt the softness of her breasts.
“...Touch me and I'll kill you.”
***
How much time had passed?
His heavy eyelids lifted without him realizing it.
It was extremely dark around them, and Choi Hye-na was sleeping soundly in his arms.
She looked incredibly beautiful as she slept.
‘She's warm...’
Was it morning outside? Or evening?
He had no idea.
All he could hear from time to time was the sound of the blizzard.
He was hungry, but they had to hold out here as long as possible.
Moreover, considering that mages were backline specialists and that Choi Hye-na was the typical researcher type who spent her days holed up in a Mage Tower workshop, her stamina had clearly already reached its limit.
They should let her rest as much as possible while she had the chance.
‘Come to think of it, my condition is better than I expected.’
Although he had stopped the bleeding, he had not received a transfusion, so he had expected his condition to be poor even after sleeping.
However, his physical condition was far more normal than he had expected.
Was this also thanks to his mana?
He did not know the details, but he decided it was fortunate and let the matter go.
“...She's sleeping well.”
Even in sleep, she radiated the air of someone from an illustrious family.
That was clear from the fact that she did not even sleep-talk loudly despite being in an uncomfortable position atop him.
“Dad...”
He had only been watching Hye-na sleep for a moment when he heard her murmur for her father in a tiny, ant-like voice.
Come to think of it, she had called for her father in her sleep last time, too.
He could see Hye-na's complexion gradually worsening as she called for her father in her sleep.
She even began sweating cold, as though she were having a nightmare.
“H-hic... Hnng...”
Wondering what kind of dream she was having, he considered waking her immediately when he saw Hye-na finally shed beadlike tears.
Just as his mind was growing tangled with indecision, he remembered what the head nun at the orphanage had done whenever he suffered from nightmares as a child.
He placed a hand on Hye-na's back and gently stroked it.
As slowly and leisurely as possible.
The warm touch stroking her back made Hye-na's complexion improve considerably.
She looked far more peaceful than before.
But a problem arose.
It was already unbearably difficult to endure holding the naked Hye-na in his arms, and stroking her smooth, soft skin as well was driving him truly insane.
‘...She's asleep, so it should be fine, right?’
Considering how he had protected her solidly from the front and carried them through the monster hunt, didn't he deserve a small reward?
Besides, since he had killed half the White Wolves by himself, this was a legitimate reward.
His hand slowly moved down from her back.
Squeeze...!
Her firm, plump buttocks filled his palm.
He gently stroked them, savoring the sensation.
Fortunately, Hye-na was still asleep with a happy smile, as though she felt even more comfortable.
Seeing that she was sleeping far more deeply than expected, he decided to go one step further.
He subtly changed position and slipped his already-swollen penis between Choi Hye-na's legs.
Almost touching her vagina, his penis clamored to press against her womb and release a thick load of semen inside her.
Of course, he wanted to do that as well, but this was not the time.
Holding her buttocks with both hands, he rubbed Choi Hye-na's vagina against his penis.
Squelch, squelch-
The precum that had leaked out served as lubricant between his penis and her vagina.
His movements were restricted, so he could not move as satisfactorily as he wanted, but this was not bad in its own way.
It was frustrating frottage, but his sexual desire had reached its peak after the successive battles with monsters, and the urge to ejaculate was gradually building.
At the same time, his hands kneading Hye-na's buttocks grew even bolder.
He vigorously kneaded her buttocks with the sensation of handling springy jelly, then cautiously brushed her vagina with his fingertips.
“Ah, ahng... Ah...”
Under the continued caresses of his penis and fingers, Hye-na let out soft moans.
Already at his limit, he began thrusting his hips to hasten his orgasm.
Just as he was moving his hips while enjoying the feel of her vagina, which had grown even slicker and wetter, as though her juices had begun to flow...
Splurt, splurrrt!!
“Kugh...!”
Semen he'd been holding in for days burst out all at once.
The semen he ejaculated landed atop Hye-na's buttocks like a topping.
It was an enormous amount at a glance.
Just as he began wondering how he would clean up once his mind had cleared...
“Mmm...”
Choi Hye-na stirred awake with a strange moan.
Hye-na's violet eyes, newly awakened, turned toward him.
Her eyes were unfocused for a moment because she was still half-asleep, but after sensing something strange and glancing at her own buttocks, Choi Hye-na's expression twisted into something too savage to describe.
“...My daughter, did you sleep well?”
“Die.”
It took Choi Hye-na only 0.1 seconds to strangle Kang Hyeon-woo with a murderous expression.