CH 17

April 11th, 2023

An irregular gate was literally a gate with no discernible spawning pattern.

A disaster, like an asteroid flying out of nowhere and hitting you.

The good news is that this particular irregular gate had two S-classes in it.

One was Geum Myeong-yeol, an S-class curse mage who was making the sound of wind being blown out of his sails by my side.

The other was.

“Guild Leader Geum Myeong-yeol.”

A thick hand gripped the gaping window frame lightly.

Oof.

“If you needed to see my guild member, you should have contacted me.”

Even the door on the right, which was still holding its shape, was torn apart like a sheet of paper.

Boom!

Hundreds of sizzling fireballs filled the blue sky.

“Don’t just come out like this.”

Han Cha-soo sighed as he felt the heat radiating through his body.

“Mmm, it’s really getting hot, isn’t it?”

Don’t leave your secretary and pretend to be friendly to me.

Han Cha-soo turned his head, pushing aside the expectant Geum Myeong-yeol.

The battle of nerves did not last long.

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-!

The ground rumbled like an earthquake.

The four heads snapped around at the vibration, which was strong enough to rattle the carriage.

The bulls stampeded across the grassland, kicking up dust.

Their muscles glistened in the sunlight as they pounded the ground, leaving a trail of ugly scars in their wake.

“Wow.”

A voice I didn’t know if it was an exclamation, or a lament rang in my ears. It was Geum Myeong-yeol.

“That’s a dinosaur bull.”

Han Cha-soo and others agreed with him.

[ Iron Bull (Legion) senses a foreign aura]

[ Iron Bull (Legion) detects the presence of an enemy.]

[ The ‘Unstoppable Iron Bull’ has detected your presence!]

With the last message, an angry howl shook the atmosphere.

Woooooooo-!

The lead bull raised his horns and stomped the ground with his hind feet.

The gazes of at least fifty bulls turned in unison.

The heat from their heated bodies made the grassland air sizzle.

A flash.

Han Cha-soo felt it.

The red eyes of the bull in the lead were pointed at him.

Han Cha-soo subconsciously lifted the corner of his mouth.

A thud. He naturally took a step out of the distorted body.

[‘The Unstoppable Iron Bull’ bellowed at his companions.]

[ Iron Bull (Legion)’s objective changes.]

[ Iron Bull (Legion) uses ‘Charge’!]

It was at that moment that Jung Yiheon’s hand sliced through the air.

Kwah!

With a single nonchalant wave of his hand, hundreds of fireballs struck the grassland like a meteor shower.

Boom, boom, boom!

The end of the bull rang out with sizzling and the sound of the flesh ripening.

Han Cha-soo furrowed his brow at the smell of charcoal carried by the wind.

“Guild Leader, let’s finish what we were talking about.”

(TL/N: Lmao, Yiheon is like, ‘Anyway~’)

Jeong Yiheon turned his back with an indifferent face.

It was Han Cha-soo who placed his hand on his chest.

“Han Cha-soo?”

“It’s not over yet, Guild Leader.”

Han Cha-soo’s eyes stared out over the scorched grassland.

Jung Yiheon turned his head to follow.

Amongst a mountainous pile of armoured bulls.

The red-eyed bull raised what was left of its upper body and opened its mouth.

Swoosh!

Jung Yiheons fingers snapped through the air and the bull’s head was severed with a snap.

But the last howl of the bull captain’s life filled the air with blood.

Beep!

A system window popped up with an eerie, ear-piercing warning.

[Warning!]

[Named, the final scream of the ‘unstoppable iron bull’ echoes across the field!]

[The roar spreads across the ‘Fields That Never End’!]

[The monsters of the ‘Endless Fields’ have recognised your presence!]

“Wow, that’s quite a skillful way to aggro on a bull.”

The grasslands darkened with the words, whether in admiration or mockery.

A procession of monsters that could not be counted in tens or hundreds.

A horde of monsters, more than a thousand by any estimate, began to run towards this direction from beyond the grasslands.

Thump, thump, thump…!

“Here they come again, this time from the right… no, up, up!”

“Master, if you have time to broadcast from the field, drive for me!”

“You know I don’t have a licence…. Uh-oh, Mr Han Chasoo, be careful.”

The doorless car lurched, bounced, and then settled back down.

Han Cha-soo sighed deeply at the hand holding him instead of his seatbelt.

The two attempted kidnappers, who had apparently joined forces, were loud and talkative.

‘We might as well get out and fight.’

Part of me wanted to run across the meadow with a dagger in hand.

But there were many eyes watching.

Every single one of them had been at odds with him in the original.

Han Cha-soo decided to play the patient rather than risk raising suspicion.

“Whoops.”

Guuuuk

With a flick of his cuff, several black worms were sliced in two.

The silvery thread in his hand glowed like a sword blade.

It was Geum Myeong-yeol’s weapon, a graphite yarn, Black Link.

That’s what he used to torture the original Han Cha-soo by hanging him from the cave ceiling.

Han Cha-soo reflexively pulled his arse away from him and sat down.

Then, like a ghost, Geum Myeong-yeol reached out his waist.

“Mr. Han Cha-soo, don’t fall off.”

The arm around my waist in place of the broken seatbelt was very uncomfortable.

“You don’t have to.”

“Aww. Everyone here knows you’re sick.”

Geum Myeong-yeol waved away the graphite thread with his left hand and frowned at Han Cha-soo.

If you’re going to take care of me like this, you shouldn’t have run me over in the first place.

Han Cha-soo looked at him with regret in his eyes, and Geum Myeong-yeol shrugged.

“I’ll tell you more when it’s safe to do so. With an apology, of course.”

He was a selfish man.

Han Cha-soo didn’t hide his trepidation, but he agreed with him for now.

‘It’s a bad situation.’

It’s been two hours since they were caught in the irregular gate.

At a rough estimate, they’d killed over two hundred monsters, but instead of changing anything, the monsters just kept respawning endlessly.

‘Something’s wrong.’

At this point, Jung Yiheon and Geum Myeong-yeol also seemed to sense that something was wrong with this gate.

Woooo-

BANG!

“I burned all the monsters in the immediate vicinity.”

Jung Yiheon, who had completely burned down a 20-metre radius, sat back in his seat.

KIEEEEK-!

In the distance, he could hear the sounds of monsters being burnt to a crisp.

“It looks like we’ll be fine for the time being, so let’s sort things out.”

Jung Yiheon said that without even turning his head, and then snapped his fingers.

Soon a huge barrier of fire rose up behind them.

“Ugh, it’s hot.”

Jung Yiheon, who shed a grunt of Geum Myeong-yeol with one ear, pulled the car over.

“Perhaps there’s something we haven’t discovered.”

Jung Yiheon looked over the barrier of fire.

“The monsters we’ve killed so far are more than most of the other five gates combined. If we take the average, we’re not even close to being done.”

“I agree.”

Geum Myeong-yeol his hands and waved them in the air.

“If we keep circling the meadow, we’ll be eaten.”

Continuing to fight without a way out of the gate was self-defeating.

Unlike the endlessly respawning enemies, they had a limit.

They couldn’t keep fighting a pointless war of attrition.

Han Cha-soo agreed with them.

However, there was one thing that bothered him.

‘Could an irregular gate be this unkind?’

In essence, an Irregular Gate is the process by which a fragment of another dimension first contacts this world and synchronizes with it.

And the system is there to make that process safe.

However, throughout the entirety of this irregular gate, the system didn’t give me any prompts.

The monsters just respawned endlessly….

“Ah.”

Han Cha-soo turned toward Jung Yiheon and stretched out his hand.

“Guild Leader.”

He caught his staggering body as he unbuttoned his collar.

“Are you dizzy?”

“No, no, I need to ask you something.”

Grabbing Jung Yiheon’s forearm, he asked.

“Did anything drop after the ‘Unstoppable Iron Bull’ died earlier?”

“Not exactly, but…. Um, wait.”

Realising something from Han Cha-soo’s question, Jung Yiheon immediately waved his hand.

He seemed to be checking something, and Han Cha-soo left him alone without further prodding.

Soon, Jung Yiheon gasp.

“I’ve been led astray.”

“…….”

“As expected, I lived because of you.”

With a heartfelt thank you, Jung Yiheon extended his hand to Han Cha-soo.

In his palm lay a small jewel.

Inside the hexagonal, colourless gem was a strange little swirl.

[The Unfinished Wail (Unfinished)]

-Gather the souls who have not been able to let go and end their cries.

-Soul Collection Status ( 214 / 1000 )

-Completion Reward: ??? , Return Stone