“What’s there to worry about when he’s involved? He’d probably drag someone back from the dead by the collar if he had to.”
One of the reporters even let out a yawn. If it were anyone else, blood-soaked victims would have to crawl out of the portal half-conscious just to generate views and clicks. But with Tae Woon in the mix, that wasn’t going to happen. If anything, he’d be the one dragging out a Portal Keeper covered in blood.
One reporter smirked.
“Don’t you smell something fishy?”
“Your breath?”
“Fuck off. I’m serious. It’s not just the Guildmaster in there—Pi Minhyung and Seo Gaeun are, too. What if this whole thing’s a trap set for the Seven Guild? Doesn’t it feel like we’re about to get some real prime material?”
“Whatever story you’re planning to get, just write it well. It might end up being your last. I’m stepping back—I’ve got no desire to get killed by the Guildmaster for pissing him off.”
He kept a straight face, hiding the fact that he’d already begun gathering intel on people who might have set up the 7777 Guild.
Over at the 7777 Guild, the same concerns were brewing. In the vacant president’s office, Chief Secretary Yang Eunho let out a heavy sigh. He wasn’t worried about Tae Woon or the others caught in the Eid Portal.
There are too damn many people capable of pulling something like this. I don’t even know where to start.
The guild had mobilized its entire intelligence network to narrow the field, but so far, they had no real leads. Finding the culprit wouldn’t be the hard part—beating the hell out of them would be easy. The tricky part would be cleaning it all up in a way that didn’t stir up a media firestorm. Just thinking about the headlines was giving him a headache.
Best case scenario, no civilians get hurt at all…
Even if civilians did get injured, the fewer, the better. That was the only way they could talk tough afterward. As he brooded, Yang Eunho’s gaze drifted to a sculpture displayed on the console.
It was carved from the bones of Myeongsa, the S-rank monster Tae Woon had hunted near Mount Kumgang ten years ago.
But the truth behind that sculpture was far different from what the public believed. At the time, the son of North Korea’s head of state had become the host of an Eid Portal. Desperate to contain it, the North Korean government deployed every top Hunter they had—but even then, they couldn’t clear it. If left unchecked, not only would the heir die, but Pyongyang and the entire government complex would fall to monsters.
Backed into a corner, North Korea swallowed its pride and reached out to South Korea for help.
More precisely—they asked for Tae Woon.
An Eid Portal on the verge of mutation is at its most dangerous. The world has many Hunters, but among them, the only one who could possibly clear a near-mutated portal—alone, no less—was Tae Woon.
Despite all the risks, Tae Woon accepted without hesitation. Under the guise of the “Myeongsa Raid,” the 7777 Guild crossed into North Korea. Only a few trusted insiders within the guild knew the real reason.
To protect the secrecy, Tae Woon entered alone. Not only did he clear the portal without serious injury, but he also rescued the mentally shattered North Korean Hunters and brought them back alive.
Right after that, without even resting, he hunted down Myeongsa at Mount Kumgang.
Right… Tae Woon-hyung is in the Eid Portal.
Suddenly, all of Yang Eunho’s concerns melted away.
Six months later, amid internal chaos, North Korea’s head of state died in a suspicious “accident.” His son, who had defected to the South, ended his life in pathetic irony—a drug overdose. But in any case, the South Korean government owed Tae Woon more than they could repay.
His nickname, “Mad Dog,” wasn’t just for show—it reflected how fearlessly he fought against monsters, saving countless lives. In every major operation to reclaim territory from monsters, Tae Woon had led the charge.
Sure, the Tobazishu Hussars in Daejeon and the Avenger Guildmaster in Busan had public support. But Tae Woon had grown up fighting on the front lines, and the public had watched that struggle with their own eyes since he was a teenager. No one else compared.
People still remembered the boy who saved refugees in Seoul—who, even while bloodied and critically wounded, slew Xiangliu and freed Busan from the monsters.
If you gathered every thank-you letter from the people he’d saved, it would overflow even this spacious office. Of course, fame attracted jealousy and enemies, and Tae Woon’s personality didn’t help—but even his detractors couldn’t deny his accomplishments.
If it’s Tae Woon-hyung, he’ll bring every civilian out alive.
And if that happened, even a media frenzy wouldn’t sway the public.
Once again, Yang Eunho reaffirmed the unshakable truth: if Tae Woon causes a problem, Tae Woon will solve it. With that, he left the office with a light step.
***
Eid Portals reflect the host’s subconscious—manifesting their inner world in physical form.
That’s why, while technically considered instance dungeons, they don’t mirror reality exactly. A tiny one-room studio could stretch into a vast, horizonless plain. A normal school could morph into a nightmarish hellscape. Sometimes, they even dragged out the host’s hidden criminal pasts, exposing the rawest parts of human nature.
In that sense, the current Eid Portal was relatively tame—if you ignored the fact that monsters were now charging at Tae Woon and Seo Gaeun like a tidal wave the moment they turned toward the presumed core.
“KYAAAH!”
“KRARRRRRAAAA!”
Three-Horn Roe Deer, Herrerasaurus, Red Lithops… too many monster types to count, all lunging forward with gaping jaws full of razor teeth and claws powerful enough to rip through steel.
Seo Gaeun braced herself against the flood. With a massive shield strapped to her left arm, she swung a battle axe in her right. The blood-soaked blade tore through flesh and shattered bone, cutting a brutal path through the swarm.
“HAAAH!”
Driving the bottom edge of her shield into a monster’s neck while swinging her axe to split another’s skull, Seo Gaeun kicked away a smaller creature trying to inject venom into her leg. The force of the kick sent it flying—right into a larger monster, blowing a gaping hole through its torso from the impact.
There were a lot of them, but none were particularly dangerous. As she executed her attacks with mechanical precision, Seo Gaeun kept circling back to a nagging thought.
Tae Woon-oppa being here makes sense—he’s famous, after all—but isn’t it strange? So many people got caught in the portal, yet the only Hunters here are the three of us from our guild?
Even the timing of the portal’s appearance felt too perfect to be coincidental. It had formed the very moment she and Pi Minhyung parked at the department store—right after they stepped into its range. She hadn’t said anything around outsiders, but the whole thing felt like a setup. Like the portal was targeting them.
If we’re talking about people who’d hold a grudge… There are too many to count.
She’d been a Hunter for over twenty years—she’d made plenty of friends, and just as many enemies. And Tae Woon, with a history of wrecking havoc even in political circles, easily led the pack in that regard. The only reason the 7777 Guild hadn’t faced serious repercussions was because most of the politicians who might have gone after them were already dead.
Either way, they had to clear the portal first.
After relentless combat, completely disregarding the risk of injury, the last monster finally went down. Breathing heavily, Seo Gaeun dropped onto a corpse and sat down to catch her breath.
Tae Woon, who had been casually knocking down any monsters that came his way without lifting a finger beyond necessity, finally walked over to her.
“Whew… Huff… Thanks.”
She took the canteen he handed over and drank deeply. Seo Gaeun possessed a high-speed regeneration ability unique to herself. Though her guild uniform was torn in several places, not a single scratch showed on the bare skin underneath.
“The moment we went off course, the attacks intensified. There must be an External Core nearby.”
“Tch.”
Tae Woon clicked his tongue in annoyance. Of all times, the scanner had to be right today—despite barely having a thirty percent accuracy rate. Just his luck.
“I didn’t mind, honestly. It’s been a while since I hunted a monster swarm on my own. Felt like good training. But what about you, oppa?”
“What about me?”
“Don’t you need to break the External Core fast if you want to get back to your mentor?”
Seo Gaeun might be a human shield that never falls, but even she had her limits when it came to firepower. What took over an hour to clear on her own would have taken half the time if Tae Woon had joined in fully.
“If I go back early, hyung’s just going to think I got stronger.”
“Time might move differently here, though. And doesn’t your mentor watch the news? One quick internet search is enough to find out you’re one of the highest-ranked Hunters alive.”
“Sibaek-hyung barely touches the internet. He was going to buy a flip phone. I had to talk him into getting a smartphone.”
“Why?”
“He’s an old man.”
Seo Gaeun was briefly at a loss for words. Old man? Sure, technically he was older, but barely in his forties. In an age where sixty is still considered young, calling a man in his forties an old-timer who doesn’t use the internet felt absurd.
“I’ve wondered ever since I first met him. He seems like someone you’ve known for a long time. How did you meet? If he were a local, Minhyung-oppa or I would’ve known. Was he someone who used to volunteer at the orphanage?”
“……”
Tae Woon’s tired gaze drifted toward her, and she blinked in confusion. But just as indifferently as it had come, his gaze moved on.
“You don’t need to know. Even if you did, you wouldn’t understand.”
It was a vague, evasive answer. As Seo Gaeun tried to interpret what he meant, Tae Woon casually jerked his chin at the path ahead.
“If you’re done resting, let’s go.”
After fending off several more waves of monsters, what finally appeared before them was a towering structure that seemed to pierce the sky—the headquarters of the 7777 Guild.
“…Shit.”
Seo Gaeun muttered under her breath.
The likelihood that the host of this Eid Portal was someone targeting Tae Woon had just skyrocketed.
