Chapter 78
The moment he thought of such an absurd assumption, his head spun as if a bomb had exploded inside it.
“How could that be possible?”
Eunseong, who had blurted this out without thinking, was startled by his own voice echoing inside the helmet and jumped. Thankfully, Mujin wasn’t wearing a helmet.
Hidden behind the deeply tinted visor, Eunseong gnawed on his swollen lips. This made the recent incident feel even more vivid.
‘Incident?’
Could it even be called an incident? The Mujin he knew was so diligent he was almost machine-like. Not the type to do something impulsively. Moreover, the look in his eyes when he kissed him, his facial expression, the body language directed at him—none of it seemed false. It certainly wasn’t a joke.
Yet Eunseong found it hard to believe the current situation.
‘I’m a man, though?’
While he liked Mujin, who was a man, he couldn’t quite imagine the reverse.
‘Why on earth… since when?’
As complicated thoughts chased one another, a woman with a cold impression approached the two of them.
As entry time drew near, Rift Control Agency staff were moving busily among the hunters, checking the situation. Following the delivery of briefing materials, this visit was to provide “guides.”
The guide was an item that remembered the coordinates of the entry point. It served to direct hunters back after they had eliminated the monsters inside the rift and destroyed the core that opened the passage. It was essentially a one-time navigation device.
The woman wearing a snow-white uniform indicating her affiliation with the Rift Control Agency stood close to Mujin.
“It’s been a while, Hunter Baek Mujin. It’s been over three years since we last met, right?”
To the friendly greeting, Mujin responded with just a slight nod. He took the guide and skillfully fastened it to his forearm.
“This is your first rift since resuming activities, but the atmosphere seems quite chaotic. These days, rifts are spreading faster and faster, but our response keeps getting slower… Our preparations are quite inadequate, what can we do?”
“It’s fine.”
It was an extremely blunt, one-word answer, but it matched Mujin’s image as he was wrapped in a pitch-black combat suit. He just naturally seemed like that kind of person, so it didn’t come across as unfriendly. Because of this, the two of them standing together and conversing looked quite fitting. Moreover, their outfits happened to match perfectly.
“…”
Eunseong tried to stroke his cheek out of habit but ended up just rubbing the helmet again.
“Hunter Han Geumseum?”
“Yes?”
Due to the limited field of vision from wearing the helmet, Eunseong noticed the woman approaching him late.
“We need to verify receipt of the guide. Could you please scan your biometric information here?”
“Oh… ah, yes!”
Eunseong hurriedly removed his helmet and pressed his fingerprint on the tablet. Something about his appearance seemed to trigger a thought in the woman, as her gaze moved busily between Mujin and Eunseong.
“Is there a problem?”
“Ah, no. I’m sorry. Here, take your guide.”
Mujin’s voice was full of wariness as he approached with long strides. Eunseong stared blankly at the large hand that received the guide for him and fastened it to his forearm. He put his helmet back on, feeling his face burning for some reason.
Vroooom, the motorcycle engine rumbled deeply. Looking back, Mujin had already moved and was testing various functions for inspection. A subtle blue light flickered in a grid pattern over the black body.
There was no visible manufacturer’s signature, but it was likely made by Joo Hyeonwoo. The monster-like speed had prevented a close look earlier, but now he could see the elegant curved bodylines and tightly integrated organic structure—it was quite a piece of work.
Out of curiosity, Eunseong momentarily forgot about the kiss and was staring at the motorcycle when Mujin glanced his way, instantly making his face burn again.
He would have to ride that motorcycle, holding Mujin’s waist as they entered the rift. Would that really be okay…
Eunseong glared at the wheel thicker than his torso and sighed softly. Without that motorcycle, he might have had to be carried. After all, he couldn’t become a burden with his slow legs.
“Is that person Huiseon’s new hunter?”
A whisper suddenly reached his ears. Eunseong froze and pricked up his ears.
“I don’t think so. Hunter Baek Mujin left Huiseon, didn’t you know?”
“He wasn’t in his right mind after that incident. Seems he couldn’t overcome it in the end. They had a huge fight and he left the guild. It was all over the message boards.”
“What incident? I don’t go on the web, so I don’t know.”
“Wow, there are already hunters who don’t know about that incident?”
“Hey, he’s 19. A complete newbie.”
“Yoo Eunseong, his friend died and…”
Clang!
While Eunseong was just looking down at his clenched fists, Mujin tapped his helmet. The cheerful sound brought Eunseong back to his senses, and he looked up. Mujin’s gaze seemed both reproachful of Eunseong’s agitation over useless talk and simply smiling without any particular meaning.
At that moment, the siren announcing entry blared loudly. Simultaneously, the guide absorbed light as it recorded the return coordinates.
“Shall we get going?”
Eunseong had to ride behind Mujin. Unlike himself with his stiff limbs, Mujin was completely natural. Even now, he was adjusting Eunseong’s helmet and wiping fingerprints off the visor with his usual attitude. With Mujin also wearing a helmet, his facial expression was no longer visible.
As the motorcycle carrying the two entered the rift slowly, light burst from the guide. Falling into the deep purple void with a trail of pure white light, it felt like walking into hell on one’s own feet.
“Hold tight.”
Yet somehow, just the voice resonating inside the helmet gave him a strange sense of reassurance. Until now, all he could do was watch Mujin’s back as he entered rifts.
As they free-fell through the void of the otherworld filled with rift material, Eunseong gripped Mujin’s waist tightly. The motorcycle, which had been accelerating, at some point floated up as if resisting and stopped on a stone bridge. Taking his first willing step into a rift, Eunseong staggered slightly.
* * *
The view gradually opened up.
The narrow, bumpy stone bridge crossed the void and extended far underground. Looking down, the bridge piers were hidden by thick fog. The motorcycle seemed to be running on ropes scattered across the void.
Eunseong raised his helmet visor completely. He could feel tiny rift particles through his skin. Although the atmosphere was dark and murky, strangely, his eyes felt comfortable.
After following the seemingly endless long path downward, a blood-red ground appeared. A huge pit was bored into the rough surface, and vibrations rising from below struck the soles of their feet. The hunters who had arrived earlier had already drawn their weapons.
“Creatures trying to reach the surface will pour out of the pit.”
The initial rift origin point coincided with the pit. Mujin parked the motorcycle beside the stone bridge leading to the surface and joined the frontline with Eunseong.
Eunseong looked up. Purple rifts lay like clouds over the pitch-black void, and the stone bridge they had ridden down spiraled toward the very top. They had essentially descended along the path created by monsters for invasion.
“Something’s coming.”
Just as Eunseong said this to Mujin, three shadows leaped out of the pit.
The battle between the monster at the forefront and the hunters began. Surprisingly, Choi Seongdo and the Rift Control Agency combat support team were at the vanguard on their side. The snow-white combat suits were even more visible inside the rift. Eunseong clearly remembered the energy of each hunter he had buffed.
“Geumseum.”
Mujin lowered his head toward Eunseong, who was concentrating. With the communicator microphone turned off, he brought his lips to Eunseong’s ear. His voice, mixed with the sound of wind, flowed in.
“This is nothing special, so relax.”
When Eunseong nodded, he could feel Mujin’s lips curling up against his earlobe as he smiled.
“Let’s finish quickly and find Curry together. I’ll sweep this front, so don’t worry.”
Before Eunseong could respond, Mujin rushed forward.
Soon, all hell broke loose. The pit was like the mouth of a giant monster. When Mujin shot a huge fireball down into it, an eerie roar erupted from below.
The surroundings suddenly brightened as someone launched a light. The monsters pouring out of the pit numbered at least several dozen. High-grade hunters, including Mujin, stood at the front, cutting down monsters as soon as they came within range. Each time foul-smelling bodily fluids and corpses rained down into the pit, the ground shook as if an earthquake had struck.
“I too… came all this way, I want to do something too.”
Muttering quietly, Eunseong clenched his fists tightly.
Right then, the energy of the hunter directly in front of him flickered like a bulb and suddenly lit up brightly, as if a light had been turned on.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
