Chapter 58
That was when I was caught up in a swirl of light and sent out of the Gate.
[Hunter Kim Segyun has cleared the Stage 29 Gate, ‘Temple of the Fanatics,’ for the first time!]
[The Hijaz region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been pacified!]
[Monsters appearing in all Gates in the Hijaz region have been weakened!]
When the first pacification message appeared, cheers erupted.
[Hunter Kim Segyun has cleared the Stage 29 Gate, ‘Temple of the Fallen,’ for the first time!]
[The Hijaz region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been pacified!]
[Monsters appearing in all Gates in the Hijaz region have been weakened!]
But twice?
And the Gate’s name had changed.
An elderly Islamic jurist gathered in Mecca cried out.
“It is the will of God!”
Murmur, murmur. People started talking.
“Allah Himself has shown us that fanaticism and blind faith lead to corruption! What could it mean for Him to send such a message so suddenly? Is He not punishing the actions of those Shia?”
At his words, the people who had been nodding in agreement...
“That’s right! He’s right!”
“Allah is great!”
“We must follow Allah’s will and subjugate those who have fallen into corruption!”
“That’s right! That’s right!”
“Indeed!”
What the hell? That’s terrifying.
At this rate, one wrong Gate clear around here could start a whole Middle East war.
What was amazing was...
Not a single police officer tried to stop them.
Hmm, maybe stopping them would’ve caused even more trouble.
The situation was already spiraling beyond anyone’s ability to control it.
No, that’s not the problem...
How do I get out of here?
“Hey.”
“Senior.”
Choi Kang opened a path with his usual massive frame, his expression indifferent.
The miracle of a path opening up just because he walked forward!
The Saudi police came running up behind him, out of breath.
“S-Sorry! The disturbance delayed us in finding the exit point!”
“It’s all right. Let’s go.”
It’d been a while since I’d cleared a Gate without drawing this much attention.
I did feel like I’d started a whole mess, though.
Well, they’d figure it out themselves.
It wasn’t like I’d cleared it of my own accord. They’d asked me to...
**
The situation in Mecca was so complicated that we returned to Jeddah, the major city nearby.
About a day later, the Crown Prince came to see me again.
This time, he was beaming from ear to ear.
“Hunter Kim, you’ve saved our kingdom. You’ve been through a lot.”
...I have?
“Th-Thank you, but you’re too kind.”
“No, I’m not. The truth is, things were dire for the royal family. Countries that haven’t experienced the great powers’ bullying over their non-membership in the WDDO can’t understand it.”
Didn’t our country go through that, too?
Back then, it was practically a ‘Black Week.’
Economic sanctions over our declaration that we wouldn’t join the WDDO sent the KOSPI plummeting for an entire month.
The government couldn’t take it and immediately surrendered.
The previous administration got absolutely roasted for throwing a tantrum and tanking the stock market, only to join anyway.
That was part of the reason the administration changed, too.
Come to think of it, President Kang Min-guk became president because of our WDDO non-membership, didn’t he?
If that was the case...
The Saudi royal family must’ve been under pressure, too.
Of course public opinion would’ve taken a nosedive.
But now that I’d cleared the Mecca Gate and earned the pacification effect, they’d be able to breathe a little easier.
There was even research showing that pacification increased the economic value of a region’s Gates by anywhere from 20 to 50 percent.
No wonder they were so happy.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
“Thanks to Hunter Segyun changing the Gate, we’re gaining a great deal. For Saudi Arabia, the benefits are beyond measure.”
Really?
I hadn’t checked what had changed about the Gate.
“We’ll have to study the exact profitability, but... it turns out the metal produced in Gates of that stage is a new material.”
“...There’s metal in there?”
“The armor.”
“Oh.”
I’d dismantled them all, so I hadn’t noticed.
...That was one of the downsides of Unit 1.
If I didn’t pay attention, it wouldn’t even leave behind byproducts.
“But that’s only a secondary benefit.”
Really? What else did they gain?
“The greatest benefit to the royal family is... that the nation has been united. By an external enemy. That, too, is thanks to your sacrifice. I can’t help feeling sorry, but I can’t deny that it’s been a benefit.”
...Could he mean that jurist from yesterday?
Nah, surely not.
That’d be going too far. I’d rather think of it as a coincidence.
“I heard the terrorist badly injured your face. Are you all right? You certainly don’t look it.”
“...I’m fine.”
Anyone listening would think the terrorist had punched me in the face.
Wait, wasn’t that already the rumor going around?
“Do you know why I came all the way here to discuss this with Hunter Kim?”
“I wonder?”
“Truthfully, we could just gloss over all this and end with the reward we promised. The Gate may have changed, but ultimately, it was the result of the clear we commissioned. We don’t have to compensate you for that as well.”
“...That’s true.”
It was in the contract, too.
Immunity for any unforeseen circumstances.
That immunity was a double-edged sword. Even if the Gate changed for the worse, we’d be protected—but if it changed for the better, we couldn’t claim any additional benefit to match.
So I wasn’t particularly excited about it.
My current feeling was... good for you, I guess.
“But our kingdom wants to maintain friendly relations with you, Hunter. Our kingdom is vast, and we have many unexplored dungeons. We don’t want to offend a great Hunter like you.”
“Well, I’m not offended.”
“Then I’m glad. I intend to open all the Gates in the Hijaz region to Hunters from your company, SG Group. Of course, not infidels or atheists. Someone like you would be welcome.”
“...Pardon?”
“And that includes tax exemptions for three years. Consider it my gift to you.”
I was dumbfounded.
I knew it was an enormous privilege, but I couldn’t quite calculate its value.
“Ah, and one last thing.”
When the Crown Prince clapped his hands lightly, a woman brought something over.
An item... a bow?
“The terrorist didn’t have any other items worthy of your status... This bow was the only thing of any real value. Take it. As promised, it’s yours.”
Ah, the bow that nearly killed me.
Let’s take a look at its description.
[Ad Astra]
[Grade]: Relic-grade Bow
[Description]: The creation of a craftsman whose obsession was to shoot arrows far enough to reach the stars. It cannot actually reach the stars, but it can shoot an arrow an incredible distance.
[Effect]: Arrows can be shot as far as the horizon at the edge of your line of sight. Their power does not diminish with distance.
Archers would probably call it ridiculously overpowered, but...
It was a little awkward to use inside a Gate.
For one thing, there were almost no situations inside a Gate where you needed to snipe something as far away as the horizon.
The space inside a Gate was limited.
There was a reason they were called ‘dungeons.’
Of course, there were Gates with unusual gimmicks, but they were few and far between.
...It was probably just my imagination that I seemed to be going through every last one of them, right?
Anyway, it was Relic-grade, so I was sure it’d come in handy somehow if I held onto it.
I could always sell it, too.
“Well, shall we go to the banquet hall together now? I’ve prepared a great deal for you.”
“Yes, let’s go.”
And at the banquet that followed, I learned two things for certain.
Middle Eastern banquets never ended, and...
Middle Eastern food didn’t really agree with my palate.
**
By the time I returned to Korea...
The huge ball I’d set rolling was still rocking the entire Middle East.
To begin with, religious scholars were divided over the Gate’s transformation. Some called it a divine revelation, while others said it was simply a coincidence.
And then, in the end...
War broke out.
The Houthis, a Shia group occupying northern Yemen, joined hands with the Hashashin and launched a localized provocation against Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia immediately deployed its military and even issued a call-up order to Hunters.
The Houthis and the Hashashin mobilized all their Hunters, too.
Even so, Saudi Arabia had the advantage in overall strength.
But Iran, the leading Shia power, joined in and supported its own Hunters.
So where do you think the panicked Saudis turned for help?
Their former ally, the United States.
Not the U.S. government, though...
Kaiser Corporation.
Ordinary Hunters didn’t butcher people for a living.
But some Hunters worked as mercenaries for one reason or another.
For example, they might have weapons, skills, or classes—like the bow I’d received—that were more effective in the real world than in a dungeon.
The companies they worked for were known as PHMCs (Private Hunter Military Companies).
True to Kaiser Corporation’s sprawling reach across the Hunter industry, it had several PHMCs under its umbrella.
The Saudi government handed over some Gate rights and mobilized the PHMCs.
It was the beginning of the second large-scale Middle Eastern war since the Awakening Era began.
In the past, the overall level of Hunters had been lower, so their role had been limited...
But this war was different.
...That’s what Zephyros was saying.
“It’s practically the same as support from the U.S. government.”
“...Really?”
“Yeah. This is one of the first large-scale wars since the Awakening Era really got underway. The U.S. would want to collect data.”
“On Hunters’ roles, tactics, and strategies in war, I guess.”
“Yeah. Kaiser Corporation was hired to demonstrate the strategies and tactics developed by the U.S. Department of Defense in someone else’s war.”
Using another country’s war as a testing ground for your own strategies and tactics.
Just how malicious could humans get?
I hadn’t intended it, but I couldn’t be happy that my clear had sparked a war on such a massive scale.
Zephyros gave my slightly slumped back a few pats.
“Hey, cheer up. If someone uses a kitchen knife to stab a person instead of chopping food, should the knife feel sad? The one who stabbed them is the piece of trash.”
For the past week, I’d watched the news as the war in the Middle East gradually worsened, but I’d been so unmotivated that I just took it easy.
Of course, I still handled company work, like brewing liquor and disposing of waste.
But it was about time I got moving again.
I should deal with what I’d brought back first.
“Teacher.”
“Yeah?”
“By any chance... can undead be sold?”
“...What kind of undead nonsense are you spouting now?”
“Well, you see...”
I explained briefly.
I’d obtained some undead I could transfer to someone else.
Zephyros’s expression grew serious as he listened.
“There’d definitely be demand for them at auction. But the government probably wouldn’t like it if you handed them over to another country.”
“Really?”
“Training necromancers is one of the current government’s key national projects.”
Necromancer-force buildup. Something like that?
Come to think of it, I think I heard something about that when I first Awakened.
“It might be better to ask the government first.”
“Sure, let’s do that.”
The government had done a lot of favors for me, so I should help out where I could this time.
“Let’s call them now, then. Hey, Director Cho. I have something to discuss. Can I come over? It’d be good if the minister could join us, too. Yeah. It’s important. Uh-huh, right.”
After finishing his call with someone who seemed to be Director Cho Hyeong-bin, Zephyros stood up.
“Let’s go.”
“To the Management Bureau?”
“Yeah. Hey! You get ready, too! Take it easy with the lifting!”
I couldn’t help smiling at Zephyros’s nagging of Senior Choi Kang.
**
Unlike government departments that had been scattered across the country in the name of balanced regional development, the Awakened Management Bureau was still in the Government Complex Seoul in Gwanghwamun.
The reason was simple: most Awakened lived in Seoul.
That was how much the current administration favored Hunters.
At the same time, President Kang Min-guk’s skill lay in keeping Hunters from feeling alienated from ordinary people.
When we arrived at the Awakened Management Bureau in Gwanghwamun, Director Cho Hyeong-bin, the minister, the vice minister, and even officials at the assistant-minister level were waiting.
Hmm, did I make this too big a deal?
“You want to sell... undead?”
“Yes.”
“I won’t bother asking whether it’s possible. You wouldn’t offer to sell them if it weren’t. May I ask what kind they are?”
Fifty knights.
Twenty priests.
The knights were one thing, but the priests were unusual.
What kind of abilities could undead priests even use?
The answer was in the clear video of the new Gate, ‘Temple of the Fallen,’ which had appeared in Saudi Arabia after my clear.
The mindless undead priests, who seemed like inferior copies of the undead I’d taken, buffed and healed the knights.
In other words, they were support-type undead who aided an undead army.
There had been ranged attackers like Skeleton Mages who used magic, but support-type undead were virtually unheard of.
When I mentioned that, the people from the Awakened Management Bureau swallowed nervously.
“Well, if Ahmad found out, money wouldn’t be an issue, would it? For the record, I’m close with Ahmad.”
That said, I had no intention of giving that creepy guy this kind of power.
“...What is it you want from the government, Hunter?”
“For the government to buy them, I guess.”
“...The Awakened Management Bureau’s budget isn’t all that large.”
Of course, it was sizable, but the problem was that all of it had already been allocated.
To begin with, a budget wasn’t meant to be left unspent.
At the minister’s words, Zephyros cut in with a smile.
“Why use the Awakened Management Bureau’s budget?”
“Pardon?”
“Necromancer training is a key government project, isn’t it? Why is it a national project? Wasn’t it because you argued it would help the country’s defense in an emergency?”
“That’s true, but...”
“Then it’s a defense budget. Defense budget. You can use money from the Ministry of National Defense.”
At Zephyros’s words, the minister, vice minister, and assistant ministers looked at one another...
Then they stared at Zephyros.
The thought that probably crossed all their minds as they looked at him was the same.
‘Genius?’