Chapter 30
I was in a good mood from the morning.
No same-aged guy from the next room chasing after me since morning, no young kid from downstairs chattering about breakfast.
Though I felt somewhat wronged by this free feeling, as if temporarily released from the stress of raising children, it was still a peaceful day.
The reason for this peace was simple.
“Hyung, I passed too. You’re not the only one going.”
Ji Yeohoon had obtained gate entry qualification not through school application, but through his status as a prospective Calling guild member and his experience of already clearing a C-class gate.
Yoon Cheong already knew I wasn’t going, but Ji Yeohoon, who had been bragging for a while about Yoon Cheong being able to enter the gate, thought I was going too and promptly spoke to his parents to apply.
Ji Yeohoon hadn’t said a word about raid applications for a while after the gate raid.
Though gate level increases weren’t uncommon, he tried to avoid it even more because he knew this incident happened due to his power.
“Should I tell the guild? That might be better.”
I had assumed Ji Yeohoon wouldn’t tell anyone about his ability to increase gate levels.
But conversely, if people who knew this fact watched over Ji Yeohoon, wouldn’t things flow differently from before my regression when everyone kept it hidden?
After all, wasn’t the main reason I tried to befriend these guys to prevent Ji Yeohoon’s involvement in gate explosions?
“Do you want to go to gates?”
“…Yes.”
“Then let’s tell them. And you can just avoid gates run by other guilds. Calling will adjust things based on your participation, right?”
“That’s true, but…”
“Are you going to live hiding it?”
Ji Yeohoon quickly shook his head at my words.
Before my regression, he hid it out of anxiety, but now there’s no need to.
For a while, Ji Yeohoon went to the guild every afternoon class time at the school’s request and returned at night.
The research team created control items to stabilize Ji Yeohoon’s growing power as much as possible, and afterward, he said his power stopped leaking without him knowing.
And recently he smiled, saying he became confident and able to control it again, showing a face full of confidence in his abilities, expressing his desire to enter gate raids again.
I heard that since raids conducted by Calling would allow protection at the guild level, he agreed to only go with the guild until graduation.
But did it have to be now?
What happened after he said his gate raid application was approved was even more ridiculous.
“Oh, okay.”
“…Why is your reaction like that?”
“…No, that’s good.”
“What is?”
Whether it was Ji Yeohoon’s questioning expression or Yoon Cheong’s face that changed to one saying he couldn’t suffer alone.
I stared at them and smiled.
“Hyung, why are you smiling all of a sudden…”
“Then you two have a good trip.”
“…What?”
“I’m not going. Why would I go there? Be careful.”
“…Yoon Cheong hyung!”
Ji Yeohoon’s voice rang out in anger, but it was now out of my hands.
Guessing that if they submitted my name without permission like before, I wouldn’t just get angry and let it slide this time, they didn’t dare apply on my behalf secretly.
In the end, last night, the guys boarded a small bus with people from Calling.
The gate they were going to raid was scheduled to open at dawn, so they had prepared their bags and left school early.
I waved my hand at the departing car. Both of them had dissatisfied faces until they boarded the bus.
Though they eventually smiled a little and said they’d be back in response to my request to keep in touch and to relax their expressions, I was still worried.
But despite my concerns, I fell soundly asleep around midnight.
After all, they weren’t going with others, but with Calling who already knew Ji Yeohoon well and knew Yoon Cheong.
…Or so I thought.
Contrary to my goal of enjoying a leisurely weekend by sleeping in, I woke up early in the morning.
“Is this a habit now…”
Having woken up even earlier than on weekdays when I need to attend school, I covered myself with the blanket, thinking I might force myself to sleep more.
But it was ineffective, so I just got up and looked at my phone.
There were lots of messages sent by the guys before they entered the gate.
It was a bit comfortable without those guys who would come looking for me every night, chattering about wanting to sleep together.
Now that they’re middle schoolers, teenagers should be independent, why do they keep trying to stick close?
[Ji Yeohoon> Hyung, we’re about to enter now. We’ll be back soon.]
[Yoon Cheong> Going in. Sleep well.]
It seems the gate opened around 3 AM.
There were no messages after they went in.
Since it was the weekend and I didn’t have to go to school, I turned on the computer in my dormitory room as soon as I got up and accessed Calling’s website.
Under the list of Espers entering the gate today, the Guides going in with them, and the names of Guides waiting outside, the names of temporary guild members Yoon Cheong and Ji Yeohoon were written.
The estimated completion time was also written at the very end.
Seeing that it would finish quite late in the evening, it seemed we wouldn’t be able to have dinner together.
Only the top guilds in Korea listed the exact number of people entering scheduled gates.
Most small and medium-sized guilds didn’t bother to write it down, but seeing them deliberately recording it like this gave me the impression of stars posting their schedules for fan service.
In fact, there was a lot of attention focused on the people entering gates from Calling, the #1 ranked guild.
Comments from people supporting them and believing they would return safely were also posted.
Occasionally there were malicious comments, but since Espers and Guides are ordinary citizens no matter how famous they are, Calling always responded with strict legal action, and most offenders were punished.
There were also lots of supportive messages for Yoon Cheong and Ji Yeohoon, who were marked as temporary guild members.
There were insults directed at Calling Guild or the Guild Master for entrusting important tasks like gate raids to temporary guild members, but it seemed like they just wanted to post malicious comments, so I captured and saved them.
On the contrary, perhaps because it was already known that the guys were middle school students, there were many comments among the harsh ones saying not to speak that way to children.
Looking at Yoon Cheong who’s grown so tall recently, you wouldn’t call him a child.
Recently, Yoon Cheong had already exceeded 175cm, and Ji Yeohoon was also growing diligently with growing pains in his arms and legs.
During the last health check, Yoon Cheong’s expected height was announced to be over 185cm, and the same for Ji Yeohoon.
[Don’t fight with each other again.]
They wouldn’t be able to check it until they came out after clearing the gate, but I sent a quick message to the two guys and then searched for the Association’s website to check the gate information they had entered.
Since gates entered through school practice applications are supervised by the Association, the items that come out are managed by the Association. And only a small amount was distributed by the Association to the students during the raid.
Of course, the gate we went to last time, whose level increased, was not the F-class gate that the Association initially talked about, so as an exception, most items went to students and guild members.
Among them, the amount that went to Yoon Cheong and Ji Yeohoon, who had high contribution, was quite large.
Of course, I, who was rated as having high participation as an S-class Guide, was also shocked by the amount deposited in the bank account created after the gate raid.
This made me think, so this is why people who want to make money enter gates.
Who earns 20 million won at once in 2nd year of middle school…
I felt like the protagonist of that famous book about becoming rich at twelve years old or something.
Moon Soo-young, who became rich at fifteen, gave half of his money to his parents out of filial piety.
“I like it.”
I had a satisfied look at the amount on my bank account, then looked back at the monitor.
The place these two were going to raid this time was a C-class gate from the beginning, one that student Espers couldn’t enter as a part-time job, or rather, through school practice applications.
Since they already had a C-class raid record and it was a gate where Calling was supervising the raid, it seems they passed with temporary guild member qualifications…
These guys, after having their first raid in a C-class, it seems they’re not afraid of anything.
I browsed the Association’s website familiarly, looking for gate information.
It wasn’t too far from here.
The gate gauge fluctuation had appeared a month ago, but the gate was on hold because it hadn’t opened.
As soon as the gate showed signs of opening, a notice was posted that Calling had applied for priority raid.
The Association employees near the gate must be working hard, as the gate gauge levels were being registered at intervals of 30 minutes to an hour.
“Doing that at dawn must be really tiring…”
I felt momentarily nostalgic, remembering things from before my regression.
Usually, one Association team is assigned to one gate.
They need to check and register the gate gauge values in the system, and the website automatically posts the measured level based on the system check.
Since checking the gauge isn’t difficult, the measurement itself is usually done by one person, but since it’s hard for one person to guard the gate continuously, they switched places with someone else after some time.
Since they also had to prevent ordinary people from approaching the gate, other team members who weren’t checking the gauge were in charge of controlling the surroundings.
Meanwhile, if gate raids occurred simultaneously elsewhere, they had to split personnel within the team to check, often resulting in sleepless nights.
Of course, Association salaries were much higher than those of regular large companies, but there was no way around the physical exhaustion.
Lost in old thoughts, I clicked on Calling’s website again.
I stared for a long time at the place where Yoon Cheong and Ji Yeohoon’s names were written.
There was no way to check from the outside what was happening inside the gate.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
