Chapter 40
#40. Gate (5)
Gates are vast.
The higher their rank, the larger they become, and some of the highest-ranking Gates are said to be absurdly enormous—nearly the size of continents.
This explained why a superpower like the United States had left an A-rank Gate open for years, and why humanity never had to worry about resources as long as Gates existed.
[Raging Screw]
KABOOM!!
Six White Wolves burst apart in midair inside the waterspout spiraling up into the sky.
Their blood and flesh rained down.
I had grown fairly accustomed to the sight of pure-white snowfields being fouled by the stench of magical beast corpses.
However, the blisters that had formed across my palms from gripping the sword hilt so tightly for so long remained painfully unfamiliar.
“Good work.”
“Hmph.”
Choi Hye-na casually ignored my words.
The moment the battle ended, she went off somewhere, and I let out a small sigh.
I had no right to complain, since I was entirely responsible for Choi Hye-na acting like that.
I had been caught masturbating while rubbing my dick against her pussy as she slept, and the fact that she hadn't driven magic into my skull was already merciful enough.
On top of that, I had ejaculated all over her ass.
Looking back, there was no other way to describe it than my brain being ruled by my dick.
“Haa...”
I couldn't help sighing again and again. But what good would regretting it now do? Even if I went back to that moment, I felt like I'd do the exact same thing.
Anyway, I did what needed to be done, extracting the mana stones from the magical beast corpses and washing my hands in the snow.
No matter how exhausting it was, I couldn't commit the atrocity of leaving behind the mana stones of C-rank magical beasts.
‘Of course, since White Wolves weren't individually C-rank, they would be worth a little less.’
Choi Hye-na said.
White Wolves were classified as C-rank because they traveled in packs, while an individual specimen was around D+ rank in strength.
However, the app treated White Wolves as C-rank and gave me the corresponding reward. The app's standards for magical beast ranks seemed to differ from ours in some way.
‘Still, it's a good thing we didn't run into a pack of White Yetis.’
Those things were genuinely C-rank one by one. If the group we'd fought this time had been a pack of White Yetis, it would have been difficult to deal with them using a single spell like that.
“Still, I seem to be gradually getting the hang of fighting C-rank magical beasts, so I might somehow manage against three White Yetis...”
Even as I tried to think positively, I couldn't help wondering what the hell I was doing.
At first, I had planned to learn swordsmanship properly at a dojo. I was going to learn the proper grip, build up my stamina and strength, and study the basics of swordsmanship.
But what was this? Why did I always have to start with actual combat?!
It reminded me of the underground dungeon.
Even then, I hadn't been learning magic for a month, yet it was a crazy place where D+ rank magical beasts were the norm, and elite specimens wandered around whenever they felt like it.
“Haa...”
Right. This must be my fate.
I'd never seen anyone get anywhere by whining about their fate.
In the end, I had to make my own way through it.
I decided to stop complaining and moved on to find Choi Hye-na, who was probably grumbling beneath another tree somewhere.
It had already been two days since we were swallowed by the isolation-type Gate. Four days and roughly ten hours remained until the Gate opened.
***
Choi Hye-na had always thought that marriage and romance were things she would never have anything to do with in her life.
Outside of official matters, she hated even imagining speaking to a man or holding his hand.
Misandry? Well, that was probably what it was.
The memory of her father, who had abandoned her in childhood, had left a heavy and profound trauma in her heart.
Perhaps because of that, Choi Hye-na had hated men ever since she was old enough to understand things.
Of course, as the sole heir of the Seongbuk Choi clan, a prestigious mage family, as well as a woman of outstanding beauty and overwhelming talent, men had never stopped gathering around Choi Hye-na since childhood. It was rather far from the life she wanted.
Whenever they had the chance, the adults around her thought of nothing but introducing men to her, and the blind dates she had been forced to attend under their pressure were truly the worst. Every man who showed up as her supposed blind-date partner was someone she didn't even consider worth speaking to.
They were typical spoiled brats who strutted around, relying solely on their family's background and their parents' money. Her blind dates had never once lasted longer than thirty seconds.
But Kang Hyeon-woo was somehow different.
Perhaps it was because their first meeting had been so terrible.
In front of him, she kept revealing her unvarnished self without hesitation, the self she usually hid for the sake of social relationships.
-What the hell are you talking about, you crazy bitch.”
-Hey, open your ears and listen carefully. Do you know what's more important than being the Seongbuk Choi clan's heir or a genius mage or any of that nonsense? Manners. Manners. You're barely even a person, and you call yourself a mage? Research? What a load of crap.
-Y-you...!! How dare you say such things to me when you're nothing but a beggar!!”
-You'd better prepare yourself. From now on, there won't be anywhere in this land where you can set foot as a mage.
Even now, it had been a truly terrible first meeting.
If they had parted ways there, she would have used the power of her family to torment him, let alone agreeing to a second date.
But now, she couldn't even think, ‘Did I really do that?’
What had changed?
No matter how much he had saved her life, he had taken advantage of her sleep to commit sexual harassment that she couldn't even bring herself to describe, and e-e...
‘Ejaculation...!!!’
Even now, whenever she closed her eyes, she remembered Kang Hyeon-woo's hot, sticky, slimy thing splattered all over her buttocks.
The man's semen she had only heard about, and even a man's penis.
No matter how favorably she tried to view him, she couldn't forgive the shameless grin on his face after committing such an outrage without her consent.
She should have ripped out every strand of his hair instead of merely choking him then.
‘Kang Hyeon-woo's face after he went bald...’
It was somehow funny.
She almost never laughed, but merely imagining him bald kept making her let out silly little laughs.
How had things ended up like this?
If someone asked whether she had fallen in love with Kang Hyeon-woo, the answer was no.
She was grateful to the benefactor who had saved her life twice, but she had no intention whatsoever of using that as an excuse to give him her body.
The more she thought about it, the deeper she seemed to sink into a maze.
‘...Come to think of it, it's been a long time since I slept that deeply.’
When she had been held in Kang Hyeon-woo's arms, she had not suffered a nightmare—something that happened very rarely.
Nine times out of ten, the memory of that day appeared in the form of a dream: the blood-soaked hallway and her father staring at her with murderous eyes.
Medicine had no effect.
She could not even conduct magical research properly because she suffered from chronic insomnia.
What did he have that made her allow him the body she would never have permitted anyone else to touch, and spared her the nightmares she normally would have had?
Choi Hye-na suddenly felt afraid.
She felt as though, if things continued like this, she might truly let him have even her first time.
She felt as though she might even give her heart to that frivolous man.
She was frightened by herself when she felt the corners of her mouth lifting as she imagined such a terrible future.
But if someone asked whether she truly wanted to run away from him because she was genuinely afraid... Choi Hye-na, unusually, could not give a definite answer.
She did not know why.
‘But...’
When had it become night?
The large tree she had clearly been sitting against, the dull gray sky, and the cold, tiresome snowfield were all gone.
All that surrounded her was pitch-black darkness.
The ominous darkness made it impossible to tell whether what she was looking at was right in front of her or so far away that she could not even estimate the distance.
Just as her hands and feet began to tremble slightly.
-...Hye-na!!!
Crack—
The darkness surrounding her shattered into pieces like glass, and familiar light streamed in from every direction.
“Hey!! Choi Hye-na!!”
“...Huh?”
Although her vision had returned to normal, Choi Hye-na still could not properly understand what was happening.
No wonder.
“Wake the fuck up!!”
At that moment, she was pouncing on Kang Hyeon-woo as if she were about to plunge a sharp shard of stone into his neck.
***
Spirits are beings of a different nature from magical beasts, and they exist everywhere in the world.
In fiercely blazing flames, in raging waves, in the wind sweeping across fields, and in dark caves.
Spirits were all extremely self-centered and selfish, so most people did not like them.
No, some people even hated them.
The fact that spirits and magical beasts had once been considered the same showed just how badly they must have behaved.
Of course, if one asked whether spirits were therefore inherently evil, the answer was no.
No, spirits were actually closer to pure humans.
Just as people could not be neatly divided into good and evil, most spirits also tended toward neutrality.
Just as some people were born with good natures, there were exceptionally good spirits, while, just as some people were born evil, there were also spirits that harmed humans for no reason at all.
“Wh-what...??”
“Wake up!!”
Choi Hye-na, who had pounced on Kang Hyeon-woo, was threatening him with a sharp piece of stone she had picked up somewhere, as if she were about to stab it into his neck, her eyes bloodshot.
Kang Hyeon-woo could do nothing but grab Choi Hye-na's arms and hold her back against a strength unimaginable from the normally composed Choi Hye-na.
“W-why am I...??”
“If you've come to your senses, get off me...!!”
Ngh, she seemed to have regained consciousness, but her strength seemed even greater.
His neck was about to be pierced by the sharp stone at any moment.
“M-my body won't move the way I want it to!!”
“What...!!”
Kang Hyeon-woo squeezed out a voice that sounded as though he was about to die, and he actually felt as though he was about to die.
The force driving the stone down was so strong that even with both arms blocking it, he felt the joints in his bones ringing.
While looking around for a way to calm Choi Hye-na, who was surely angry, he spotted her standing blankly beneath a fairly large tree and ran over.
She did not answer when he called her, and he had only briefly wondered if she was very angry when she attacked him with the sharp stone in her other hand the moment he drew near.
Because he had been unable to react properly to the unexpected ambush, the standoff had reached its current state, and five minutes had already passed.
His strength was gradually draining away. He had fought the pack of White Wolves only a short while ago, and he no longer had the strength to keep holding out.
Choi Hye-na was just as flustered, but as a mage, she quickly and rationally assessed the situation.
A monologue whose beginning she could not remember, a consciousness trapped in an unknown space, and a body that would not move as she wished.
They were classic signs of mind control.
There were not many magical beasts capable of using mind control against a mage like her, who possessed a mental barrier far stronger than that of an ordinary person.
Moreover, if a magical beast capable of doing so existed in a snowfield Gate estimated to be at least C+ rank, there was only one possible candidate.
“Wendigo!”
A Wendigo was a spirit of snow and ice, a spirit so vicious that it was called an evil spirit.
Its rank was an astounding B-.
Although it had no physical strength, it was known to possess human bodies and control their minds.
According to people who had had their minds stolen by a Wendigo and survived by sheer luck, they had felt an intense murderous urge.
Fortunately, her strong mental barrier meant she did not feel that murderous urge, but even that barrier was gradually reaching its limit.
She was only a third-circle mage, while the Wendigo was a B- rank magical beast.
Her consciousness was gradually fading, and if things continued like this, it was obvious that even her mind would soon be controlled by the Wendigo just as her body was.
If that happened, both Kang Hyeon-woo and she would be finished.
“What the hell is a Wendigo...!!”
“A B-rank magical beast that controls minds!!”
“What is its weakness?!!”
“Divine power!!”
There was no priest using divine power in the middle of a Gate containing only two mages, nor was there any holy water imbued with divine power.
That left only one method.
“S-shop!!”
Ding—
[Shop]
[Lowest-Grade Antidote: Sold Out]
[Sweet Apple: 250 Coins]
[Imperial Army's Magic Sword: Sold Out]
[A Culture Book for Elegant Women: 540 Coins]
[Advanced Random Scroll: 600 Coins]
·
·
·
As she had feared, the shop had not reset.
“Fuck...! Reset already!!”
At this rate, she really was going to die. She seemed to have no choice but to start a new match.
It was the worst possible situation. In her current state, she did not even have time to leisurely specify the other person's information.
Just when all she could do was pray that an ordinary person would be matched with her.
Ding—
[Shop Reset]
[Price: 1,000 Coins]
[Would you like to reset the shop?]
[Y/N]
[Warning! Once selected, this action cannot be undone]
Hope appeared.
But it was an extremely unsettling hope.
The timing was suspiciously perfect, and it cost 1,000 coins. Even when people's lives were hanging in the balance, the bastards running this shop were shamelessly profiteering.
“I'm resetting it!!”
But she had no other choice now.
[Y]
[The shop will be reset]
Ten new items appeared, but she had no time to read the description of each one.
She had no choice but to guess what they did from their names.
Her eyes raced down the scrolling list.
And by instinct, she knew that only one of these items could solve the current situation.
[Would you like to purchase the Desire Reversal Ring?]
[Y/N]
[Y]
[You purchased the Desire Reversal Ring]
[Coins Remaining: 2,000 Coins]
“Choi Hye-na! Lower your mental barrier!!”
“What?! Are you insane?! If I lower it, we'll both die!!”
“Trust me!!”
The eyes of Kang Hyeon-woo, more serious than she had ever seen them, came into Choi Hye-na's blurry field of vision.
“Trust me.”
“...Fine!!”
[Would you like to use the Desire Reversal Ring?]
[Target: Choi Hye-na (Wendigo)]
[Y/N]
[Y]
Crack—the Desire Reversal Ring shattered, and a wave carrying some unknown, intangible energy swept through the area around them.
I was completely unharmed, but Choi Hye-na, who had lunged at me as if she were about to kill me, collapsed sideways as though she had fainted.
“H-ha, ha... I almost really died.”
That was one hell of a save.
That was the kind of save that belonged in a funeral montage.
The snowfield was brutally cold, but right now I did not even have the strength to move a single finger.
Fortunately, after using mana detection, I found that the only magical beast nearby was the Wendigo possessing Choi Hye-na's body.
“How am I supposed to deal with that now...”
Just as the thought of how to deal with a B- rank magical beast made my head throb.
“U-uh...”
Choi Hye-na, who had been lying in the snow, seemed to come to her senses and raised herself up.
Fortunately, judging by her eyes, the possession appeared to have been lifted.
I did not know what effect the Desire Reversal Ring had, but considering that I had paid 800 coins for it, it seemed to have worked.
“Hey, if you're awake, could you come help me up? I can't feel any strength in my body... Choi Hye-na...?”
Choi Hye-na, who had been struggling to get up, was somehow approaching me.
Her unsteady steps looked precarious, but more than that, something about Choi Hye-na's condition was strange.
“Haa, haa...”
Her ragged breathing made her seem strangely uneasy.
‘Could it be... that the possession hasn't been lifted??’
But when Choi Hye-na had been possessed by the Wendigo and tried to kill me, I had felt a murderous intent from her.
By contrast, the Choi Hye-na in front of me gave off no murderous intent, nor did I sense any threat whatsoever.
Then was this a side effect of the possession?
“Choi Hye-na? Are you oka...”
I had only just begun forcing myself upright when Choi Hye-na pounced on me.
More precisely, she climbed onto my stomach.
“Choi Hye-na...?”
“Hh, hhaa... haa... haah...”
Choi Hye-na's condition looked abnormal up close.
Her face was bright red, and her breathing was strangely ragged.
Ding—
“Kang Hyeon-woo...”
Her voice was syrupy and seductive, a voice that would have been unimaginable from the usual Choi Hye-na.
Moreover, Choi Hye-na's pupils were shaped like hearts, just like something one would see in a 19+ doujinshi.
[Desire Reversal Ring]
[Target: Choi Hye-na (Wendigo)]
[Reversed Desire: Murderous Urge > Sexual Desire]
“Youu... look delicious...?♡”