Chapter 96
Aoji Coal Mine.
The first Gate was discovered here in the early days of the Awakening, when this place was still a camp for political prisoners.
Since it was a level-scaling Gate from the start, it was only natural that it had been observed from Level 1.
At first, it was treated as a mere Stage 1 Gate and ignored because there was nothing of note inside. But in time, it was revealed to be a ‘level-scaling Gate’—an extreme rarity worldwide.
In North Korean parlance, it was also called a stage-changing portal.
When Hunters above Level 30 cleared it, they discovered that the mineral produced inside, called Hellstone, was highly valuable. The North Korean government initially mobilized Hunters to clear it.
As befitted a Gate deemed impossible to clear, it was hellishly difficult, and Hunters died in droves.
Even a dictatorship couldn't force powerful Hunters to their deaths without consequences.
In the end, it became a labor camp for Hunters who had fallen out of political favor or committed crimes.
At first, those who mined enough Hellstone could have light offenses pardoned, and even political prisoners were treated decently since they were skilled personnel.
But as international economic sanctions against North Korea intensified, the country became increasingly dependent on mining Hellstone and smuggling it to China, Russia, and elsewhere. As more output was needed, conditions steadily deteriorated.
That said, mobilizing other Hunters was difficult, since they had already become the privileged class of North Korean society.
There were no Hunters left in North Korea willing to give up their privileges and risk their lives clearing the Gate.
They were all people who couldn't conform to society, had been framed, or had lost political power struggles.
If not that, most had been dragged there after suffering some unjust misfortune.
Camp near Aoji Coal Mine.
Morning there began quietly, as always.
It would be more accurate to say they didn't even have the strength left to make a racket.
They were people who lived knowing they might die at any moment, constantly sent into the Gate.
As one Hunter swallowed the guards' ration, which was closer to animal feed, he glanced around and whispered to the person beside him.
He was Kim Seung-min, who had once graduated from Kim Il-sung University before being framed for ideological crimes and sent here.
“It's awfully quiet today.”
“The witch went outside the camp.”
“The witch...?”
“I heard the engine start.”
“She's pulling all kinds of strange stunts this early in the morning.”
“... She'll be back before noon, right?”
“Could today be the day?”
“It is today.”
A deep sigh escaped the man's lips.
If you were wondering why Hunters didn't escape despite the lax security...
Ninety-nine percent of the reason was Poison Mage Choi Hwa-jeong, known as the ‘Warden.’
Every Hunter inside had been poisoned by Choi Hwa-jeong, and unless she gave them an antidote, they'd die vomiting blood and melting away.
They needed an antidote once a week, but Choi Hwa-jeong wasn't meticulous about making sure they received it.
Dozens must have died after missing their antidote because she suddenly went on an outing.
And the man was one of those due for an antidote today.
“She'll come back, so don't worry.”
“... I suppose.”
“But I'm feeling pretty good today.”
“You too?”
He glanced around.
All the prisoners nearby seemed to be in slightly brighter spirits than usual today.
“Is it because that witch isn't here?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
After that brief moment when they could even share a short joke, the day was about to begin.
The rations were finished, so soon they'd have to line up and enter that hell.
The prisoners called it the hell inside.
Reality was, of course, the hell outside.
Whether inside the Gate or out, their lives were no different from hell.
The order of entry was determined by drawing numbered tickets every morning.
“Hurry up and draw one!”
The guard urged them to draw from the box of tickets, his expression indifferent.
Kim Seung-min sighed as he drew a number, then his brow furrowed.
“I'm number one.”
“Hurry up and go.”
“... Phew.”
The items placed in front of the Gate were shared equipment.
Even so, they weren't sent into the Gate empty-handed.
Instead, since it would be difficult to manage if everyone wore their own items, they kept a few shared sets and assigned them by class.
Kim Seung-min, a Warrior-class Hunter, put on a shield, sword, and armor and prepared to enter the Gate.
At that very moment.
Rrrrroooom!
Along with a sound as if heaven and earth had been turned upside down, a flash of light flared behind them.
Everyone was startled and turned around.
“W-What is that!”
“That...”
And what unfolded before their eyes was...
A mushroom cloud.
“A n-nuclear...”
“A nuclear bomb?”
“Is that the Republic's nuclear weapon?”
The moment they realized it was a nuclear weapon...
“Watch out for fallout!”
“If you're exposed, we're all dead!”
The guards scrambled around looking for protective suits.
The prisoners likewise desperately tried to find somewhere to hide.
Kim Seung-min alone gazed at the mushroom cloud rising in the distance, his expression hollow.
Not long after...
“W-What is that?”
Kim Seung-min saw something flying toward Aoji.
Everyone was too busy running away to notice, but it was definitely getting closer.
When it came close enough for them to make out its shape.
“A-a person?”
The guards spotted it too and hurriedly aimed their weapons.
The guards' weapons turned to dust and scattered, as if they had never existed.
The man who had flown down from the sky landed lightly before them and spoke.
“Well, I've already taken out five people today and gotten hit by a nuke, so I'm in a pretty terrible mood, all right?”
Strangely, his low voice echoed throughout the entire camp.
He had recreated the vibration frequency of his voice using the bacteria he'd spread through the camp, but they had no way of knowing that.
“So... are you going to keep this up? Or... will you surrender quietly?”
Seeing the dictator's statue on one side vanish without a trace at his outstretched hand, the guards raised their hands in surrender.
“Good. Glad we can understand each other.”
Kim Segyun smiled in satisfaction, and his eyes met Kim Seung-min's, who was staring at him blankly.
“A-are you from South Joseon?”
Surprised by the way people spoke in the southern dramas he'd watched, he asked, and Kim Segyun nodded.
“That's right. Are you... a prisoner?”
“That's right.”
“Good.”
Then he opened his inventory and poured out a flood of items.
Most were weapons, and there was armor too.
“W-What is all this?”
“A gift from the NIS.”
Of course, Kim Segyun hadn't prepared them himself; it was the NIS's plan.
The plan was to take control of Aoji Coal Mine first and subdue the guards, then distribute weapons to the prisoners.
“... What are we supposed to do with these?”
“That's for you to decide. Do I have to think for you about what you'll do, too?”
“......”
He was right.
As human beings, they had the right to act of their own free will.
But...
They had lived without that free will for far too long.
‘I was... livestock.’
The very things he'd done to avoid becoming livestock...
Had made him a prisoner.
Prisoners were even more like livestock than ordinary people.
“But we're all on a leash.”
“Oh, if you mean the poison, that should be taken care of. The one who administered it is dead.”
“What? You mean the witch?”
Kim Segyun nodded and pointed toward the blast site.
“You shouldn't stay here long. Fortunately, the wind isn't blowing this way, but even Hunters would have a hard time enduring direct exposure to the fallout.”
“Did you come all the way from the South to save us?”
“... Of course not.”
“Then...”
The direction he pointed with a finger was...
The place he'd been about to enter just moments earlier...
The Hell Mine Gate.
“No way.”
“That's right. That's what I'm here for.”
With an expression like he'd just seen a madman willingly walking into hell, Kim Seung-min stared at Kim Segyun for a long while.
**
“Hmm, he seemed a little clueless... I hope he can handle it.”
Subdue the guards, arm roughly three thousand Hunters, and release them into North Korean society.
That was the NIS's plan.
They didn't know what abilities the Hunters at Aoji had or how strong they were.
Still, what if three thousand mid- and high-level Hunters were released into society...?
Especially if they were people with deep-seated resentment toward the regime...
“North Korea's going to be in an uproar.”
Depending on how those three thousand Hunters banded together and what they did...
It might go beyond simply causing a commotion.
With the five absolute powers gone, it wouldn't be strange if North Korea's power structure collapsed at any moment.
Well, of course...
I wasn't planning to worry about that now.
The thing I needed to focus on was clear.
[You have entered the Stage 39 Gate, ‘Hell Mine.’]
As expected of a level-scaling Gate, it was set to match my current level, Level 39.
I would've liked to come back after reaching Level 40 and getting a reward for every ten levels, if possible...
Well, I could level up here.
It had been quite some time since I reached Level 39, so I was sure I'd hit Level 40 in this Gate.
“I wonder what the gimmick here is.”
Last time, having to clear it with only one Pride was way too unfair.
It had tied up about ninety percent of my power, after all.
Surely it wouldn't happen again.
Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any gimmick like that.
If there had been a mission, a message would've appeared, but it hadn't.
“So this is a simple extermination Gate with no separate mission, where I just need to clear out all the monsters inside...”
How was I supposed to find Greed in a Gate like that?
Had I gotten it wrong?
Was it just called the Hell Mine?
“Well, since I'm here, I might as well clear it.”
Had there been any uncleared Gate I couldn't clear so far?
Probably not.
And today would surely be no different.
The Hell Mine here wasn't a tunnel mine that burrowed inward, but an open-pit mine.
In other words, it was exposed to the outside, with terraced levels surrounding a wide plaza in the middle.
The entrance was at the very top of the mine.
From here, steps led down toward the plaza, where countless hellhounds and monsters roamed.
I scattered the Gluttony legion toward the plaza.
At least several hundred... maybe a thousand hellhounds and monsters.
“Sorry, but... become sacrifices for my clear.”
They turned to dust and scattered in an instant.
[Your level has increased.]
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 40.]
[As a reward, you have been given a ‘Legendary Equipment Selection Ticket.’]
Stingy, stingy.
Legendary at Level 40?
Give me an Artifact-grade item, at least.
Right at that moment.
A new message appeared, covering the item reward message.
[The Hell Watchdog leaves a dying message.]
[The Gate difficulty is being adjusted to reflect your combat power.]
[The stage of the Gate, ‘Hell Mine,’ has been adjusted to its maximum.]
[You have entered the Stage 59 Gate, ‘Hell Mine.’]
... What?
The problem... didn't end there.
[Your combat power exceeds the highest stage of this Gate.]
[The Hell Usurper (地獄簒奪者), Helltaker, opens a rift in Hell and appears!]
[The Gate's stage temporarily exceeds its limit!]
[You have entered the Stage 69 Gate, ‘Hell Mine.’]
You've got to be kidding me. Seriously.
[The Gate becomes extremely unstable due to the appearance of an entity that has transcended its rank.]
[The Gate will collapse in 59 minutes and 59 seconds.]
So you're suddenly throwing a Stage 69 Gate at a Level 40 Hunter...
And making it a one-hour time attack, too?
Come on, System...
Isn't this a bit much?
There wasn't time to complain.
Rrrrummble! The ground split with an earthquake that shook the earth to its foundations.
The ground beneath me cracked too, so I hopped up and took flight with Icarus's Wings.
And from underground...
“What the fuck is that?”
Is that Mazinger Z?
A giant humanoid entity, dozens of meters tall, made of gleaming black metal...
Was emerging from the split earth.
“... This is cheating. Crazy... It's in a different weight class.”
At that size, even disassembling it with Gluttony would take ages.
The problem was the time attack.
This was a one-hour Gate.
I had to clear it before the Gate collapsed, at the very least.
At my gesture, about 40 trillion Gluttonies clung to the giant robot(?) around its neck.
No matter how huge it was, it was still humanoid, after all.
“If I sever its head from its body... it'll die!”
... That was my reasoning: it couldn't escape the weakness that could kill even an immortal.
The Gluttonies clung to its comparatively slender neck and tried to disassemble it.
At the same time, I flew upward to dodge the fist coming at me.
Even without using methane bacteria...
[You are receiving the maximum effect from Pilgrim's Footsteps.]
My speed fleeing toward the Gate entrance was ten times normal.
Since Icarus's Wings' flight speed was affected by movement speed, I could fly at ten times my walking speed.
But its punches were incredibly fast.
“Urgh!”
Whoosh! The pressure of the passing blow alone made my whole body tremble.
Gluttony, how much longer?!
As if responding to my shout...
Just like that, snap.
The creature's head separated and fell to the ground.
“All right!”
Just as I shouted, clenching my fist...
Something enormous rushed toward me in an instant.
Bam! Along with a tremendous impact, I was sent flying.
“Kugh!”
I barely managed to right myself in midair.
It didn't hurt at all.
[3 trillion entities have been sacrificed, and Sacrificial Offering has negated a massive impact.]
No, take that back.
It hurts my heart. My heart.
... Crazy.
Nearly half the entities had vanished in one hit.
Especially now, after I'd already used a lot of entities to endure the nuclear explosion, it was a huge blow.
“How the hell...”
When I looked toward the giant robot in shock...
The robot, headless, had brought the hand it had swung at me down toward the open-pit mine.
The metal it absorbed from the mine gradually began forming a head, and the fallen head slowly grew back.
“... Was its head just for decoration?!”
Even the powers that be would know the head couldn't possibly be just for decoration.
But to move normally even after losing such an obvious, vital weak point...
“I'm going to have to completely change my strategy for clearing this.”
I had to admit this wasn't a Gate I could beat with a single click.
Still.
For the first time in a while, tension filled my entire body, and I felt adrenaline surging.
“The most important thing when fighting an unknown enemy is...”
Without a doubt, understanding the enemy.
There's a reason they say, ‘Know your enemy and know yourself, and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.’
In that sense...
I do think my class is a bit overpowered, too.
But I think the most overpowered skill of this ‘Ruler of the Microscopic World’ class is this one.
“Use Mision.”
Within the microscopic world, invisible to the naked eye...
To discover by pursuing the principles (原理).
In that process of discovery...
[You have discovered a large cluster of a new entity, ‘Greed.’]
I would inevitably reach the enemy's ‘weakness.’