#126
[God’s Judgment]
God shall test you.
Only those who pile up and offer blood shall gain glory.
*Those who do not pass the test cannot return.
As soon as he stepped through the gate, a status window obscured Dan Joo-hyuk’s vision. Simultaneously, he felt an irritating sensation clinging to his head.
Narrowing his eyes as he read the content, Dan Joo-hyuk quickly glanced at the hunters following behind him.
“What is this…!”
“Damn, is it an anomaly?”
“A test?”
The hunters who had entered all clutched their heads and collapsed to the ground. The A-rank hunters managed to endure somehow and read the status window that appeared before them.
A great confusion in sensation struck, as if someone was grabbing and shaking their heads. Resisting that sensation and standing firmly upright, Dan Joo-hyuk continued to watch the gate entrance.
For some reason, Yoon Pa-ran hadn’t entered.
The entry of the attack team that should have followed was also abruptly cut off. As soon as he realized this, Dan Joo-hyuk quickly returned to the entrance.
“……”
And he couldn’t get out.
“Is, is that blocked now?”
Unlike before, he couldn’t pass through the gently undulating gate.
He immediately swung his fist towards the circular gate, intending to break it. However, his arm stopped abruptly, unable to advance further.
It felt as if something invisible was stopping his body.
“…The gate is gray, isn’t it?”
“No, did it deactivate? While we’re inside? What the hell!”
“Damn, how should I know?”
At the successive anomalies, the hunters looked at Dan Joo-hyuk with uneasy eyes. The continuously undulating sensation now spread throughout their entire bodies.
Dan Joo-hyuk judged that this probably wasn’t a curse. If he had to describe it, it felt like the motion sickness from passing through a gate was continuing.
So what had happened to Yoon Pa-ran?
“Aagh, the ground!”
“Jump! Go forward!”
At that moment, the ground beneath their feet began to sink. As soon as he sensed it, Dan Joo-hyuk leapt high into the air.
He swung his fist at the ceiling to create a gap to anchor himself. The hunters who had collapsed on the floor fell endlessly through the cracks. Some A-rank hunters tried to follow Dan Joo-hyuk but succumbed to dizziness and followed the others.
“……”
Until the very end when even the ceiling completely collapsed and everything fell, Dan Joo-hyuk watched the gate entrance.
Yoon Pa-ran hadn’t entered the gate by the time he fell.
“Where is this?”
“Just now, we definitely… fell from above?”
After falling through a distant darkness for some time, when Dan Joo-hyuk opened his eyes again, he was standing in the middle of a jungle.
He slowly surveyed his surroundings. Even as the gate collapsed, he hadn’t actually felt an ominous sensation.
More precisely, he hadn’t worried that he might die here.
That’s why he had held out until the end, intending to grab Yoon Pa-ran when he entered, but he never came in. What could have happened?
If the gate had truly been deactivated, there was a possibility that he couldn’t enter from the outside. Since Yoon Pa-ran was quite far back in the line, he should be safe outside.
However, for some reason, the back of his head tingled. An unpleasant feeling gradually rose due to the premonition that Yoon Pa-ran was somewhere inside this gate.
Recalling the Gumun-dong Anomaly Gate, he realized. In situations like this, hunters entering could enter at different places and times.
If so, he should find Yoon Pa-ran.
“Where are we going?”
“Hunter Dan Joo-hyuk!”
He jerked his chin in one direction towards the hunters looking at him annoyingly. It was the direction where he sensed monster energy.
Whether it was a test or whatever, it was the obvious choice for now. The only thing that could test hunters inside a gate would be related to monsters.
Whatever it is, if we kill everything, this gate will end too, right?
However, the phrase “God’s test” bothered him. If so, could this also be the doing of the ‘Sacred God’ that has been appearing irritatingly often recently?
…Will Yoon Pa-ran be safe?
Anyway, Dan Joo-hyuk began searching for groups of monsters along with about ten hunters. If he sensed any presence, he would rush over to check if Yoon Pa-ran was there.
If he had time, he could search the entire vast gate. However, the gate periodically flipped over violently.
Each time, hunters disappeared one by one. Whether they died or simply moved to another place was unknown.
In any case, he confirmed a total of five gates this way.
It was easy to distinguish them as they evenly gathered five different attributes. However, the unpleasant feeling kept building up as their positions changed due to an irresistible force.
It felt like they were being toyed with as this entity calling itself a god kept rotating the gates as if solving a cube puzzle. Finally, when he was left alone, Dan Joo-hyuk thought:
He couldn’t find Yoon Pa-ran this way.
With this judgment, Dan Joo-hyuk changed his method. Even amidst moving here and there, he decided to go in the direction he thought was the ‘center’.
He destroyed everything that blocked his path. If monsters appeared, he cut them all down, and if walls appeared, he broke through them.
Finally, he was able to reach a clearing with a strange shape.
However, there was no time to slowly survey the clearing. As he got closer to this place, monsters swarmed in like a tsunami.
Just seeing that, he could tell this place was very important. Convinced he had come in the right direction, Dan Joo-hyuk activated his provocation skill without hesitation.
If he drew all the monsters here instead, Yoon Pa-ran would be safe, right?
It was a simple principle.
He felt certain that if he kept killing monsters here, he would eventually meet Yoon Pa-ran too. Once he settled in the clearing, he could see that paths from all gates led here.
“Whew……”
Thus, Dan Joo-hyuk ceaselessly cut down monsters. Occasionally, a few hunters would suddenly fall from the ceiling, but he didn’t pay attention since they weren’t Yoon Pa-ran.
How much time had passed? Even for Dan Joo-hyuk, so many monsters swarmed in that it was starting to become burdensome.
Then suddenly, amid his frantic state, something registered in his senses. Because it was a movement contrary to the monsters, Dan Joo-hyuk reflexively turned his gaze.
Behind him, on the wall of the clearing that stood like a cliff, he saw something white.
Clinging there with familiar tunic hem fluttering was Yoon Pa-ran.
“Ah.”
Dan Joo-hyuk’s eyes widened as he finally spotted him.
What is he doing now?
Had he barely clung to the wall after suddenly falling from the air like the other hunters? However, his movement seemed strange for someone trying to escape.
While precariously clinging to cracks in the rock face and barely moving, Yoon Pa-ran gradually approached the wave of monsters. It was an absurd movement to consider as an escape route.
Dan Joo-hyuk’s sword slowed bit by bit. All his attention was focused on Yoon Pa-ran’s unexpected behavior.
Quickly scanning the wall, he could see what Yoon Pa-ran was aiming for.
A dark shield was unnaturally embedded in the middle of the cliff.
Only after focusing his gaze could Dan Joo-hyuk finally read the strange flow emanating from the shield. The unpleasant energy that the [■■■ Fragment] had emitted also oozed from that item.
Even while facing monsters, it was too late to realize the existence of such a suspicious item. And he still couldn’t understand Yoon Pa-ran.
Why is he doing such a dangerous thing alone?
“Ugh……”
Just then, a monster with scythe-like forelegs slashed across his abdomen. It wasn’t a deep wound, but it was enough to instantly focus his scattered attention.
He needed to clear out the monsters quickly first. He had thought it was a sure method even if it took some time, but it was a misjudgment. He hadn’t expected Yoon Pa-ran to act like this.
Even as he made this judgment, Dan Joo-hyuk couldn’t easily focus on the monsters before him. This was because Yoon Pa-ran, precariously scaling the cliff, had reached above the swarming monsters.
Even for Yoon Pa-ran, falling there would be dangerous. Especially today when he was wearing equipment with options other than defense.
He wanted to shout a warning, but he was concerned that the monsters’ attention might suddenly turn upwards. Unaware of this sentiment, Yoon Pa-ran finally reached the suspicious shield.
However, it seemed his hand couldn’t quite reach it. Watching Yoon Pa-ran hanging even more precariously and stretching out his hand, Dan Joo-hyuk became increasingly anxious.
Finally, at the moment when Yoon Pa-ran’s eyes opened clearly as if he had made some decision.
“…!”
Dan Joo-hyuk unconsciously launched his body in that direction.
Disregarding all the monsters swarming behind him like a pack of starving beasts.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
