Hara began to curse all the gods she had just pleaded for help from.

Regardless of that, people screamed and ran towards the entrance of the studio.

“Don’t run!”

Yoon Seheon got up from his anchor seat and shouted to calm down the people. But it was useless. 

[Notice of gate formation]

[Formation of a guerrilla gate in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Yeouido, Seoul]

[An unknown star approaches you. Do you want to allow it access? Y/N]

[Emergency Disaster Text Message: Disaster Response Agency/ Gate warning at Yeouido-dong (East Yeouido), Seoul at 15:40 today. Please evacuate from the danger zone and refrain from going outside]

[Expected gate classification: B]

[The difference between you and the unknown star is so wide that access has been forcibly granted.] 

[Gate type: Unpredictable]

System messages and text messages appeared before her eyes frantically. There were some unfamiliar messages, but the first thing that caught Hara’s attention was the message that the expected gate classification was B.

B class?

Hara’s face turned white. Zzzz, meanwhile, her ears hurt along with the sound of air crackling. The appearance of a gate would cause air pressure to rise, thus causing such a phenomenon. 

“This is a large broadcasting station, so why is a gate appearing here?”

She could hear Yoojung’s scream through her dimmed hearing.

Just then, the FD that was next to Hara, shouted in fright.

“Heok, I heard that they were temporarily moving the fuse box out from the control room for a while to construct a set for a drama!”

It was evident. Someone has brought the mana stone from the control room out altogether. Hara looked at the FD dumbfoundedly. 

“That’s a violation of the fire department regulations…”

“Argh! Drama department, that s*n of a b*tch!”

However, the FD also cursed and ran towards the entrance.

The one that held the stupefied Hara’s shoulder was a tall man. 

“Hunter-nim! Please avoid it!”

Yoon Seheon.

Hara instinctively tried to shake the man off, but she realised that she was mistaken. Just like he’d said, now wasn’t the time to do this. 

When she glanced at Yoojung, Yoojung was lying on the floor, trying to take care of other staff.

“Hunter-nim!”

At this moment, the space was currently splitting apart. The situation was rather chaotic.

‘I have to get a grip.’

Come to think about it, she has been a civil servant for 10 years. Although she’d worked in mana stone management for 10 years, she was prepared countless times in the event of a sudden gate appearance. 

Hara looked around calmly and shouted.

“Everyone bend down under the rift and remain still!”

When a gate is opening, the rift has the property of rising upwards. As such, if they crouched down or laid on the floor, they could avoid being drawn in.

The same was true of the rift that was created now. It was soaring upwards in a whirl. However, the direction it was heading in was unfavourable. This is because the whirlwind had to extend towards the entrance, which was full of people.

Hara ran towards the entrance of the studio. This is to hold and separate the people that were congregating at the narrow entrance and clamouring at each other to get out of there. 

However, the lighting staff that Hara caught shook her off, saying, “Get lost!” Hara fell backwards with an, “Ack!” He was so panicked that he didn’t seem to notice Hara was a hunter.

Just then. 

“Get a grip!”

Yoon Seheon, who chased after Hara, grabbed the lighting staff and forced him down onto the floor. It was only possible because he was twice the size of Hara.

“You must avoid the rift!”

The staff was dumbfounded, but he only realised the situation at Seheon’s words and flattened himself on the floor.

Seheon looked back at Hara immediately.

“The rest just have to do the same thing, right?”

After belatedly noticing that Seheon was asking her, she nodded. Seheon grabbed the backs of the people that were clustered at the entrance and threw them to the floor, even though the whirlwind was blowing crazily. 

‘Wow…’

Hara looked at Yoon Seheon, who was active for a while, blankly. The man’s actions to evacuate the people from the rift inside the collapsing studio were swift. It was as though he’d prepared for this situation over and over again.

“Hara-ssi!”

At that moment, Yoojung called for her. Hara’s head whipped in her direction. 

“Your bag is in the waiting room, right?”

“Oh, yes! But my equipment is with me!”

It was her personal equipment that she’d prepared in case she was caught up in a gate. Even if she was an E-class hunter, she also had a weapon.

…Though it was simple and crude.

[The unknown star is dumbfounded by your equipment]

Hara flinched as she was taking out her equipment. It was because of the message that appeared before her eyes. But she’d been seeing this since a while ago, so perhaps…

Crash!

But the boom microphone, which was right next to Hara, fell and stopped Hara’s train of thought. 

“What’s next!”

Yoon Seheon, who was standing amongst the people that were lying on the ground, shouted at Hara. Hara’s eyes widened. Uh, that… 

“Avoid it!”

Kungugu……

[Gate formation is complete]

It happened instantaneously. A rift behind Yoon Seheon’s head swallowed him. Hara reached out without thinking of anything else. The man that was being drawn into the rift widened his eyes. 

Oh, it’s X.

Hara managed to grab onto his fingertips underneath a deafening pressure. It was the man’s collar. 

And that was the last time.

Zzzz, with that sound, darkness fell. 

“Hara-ssi!”

Only Yoojung’s vain cry remained in the air behind her. 

*

The first ever gate to open in the world occurred in Thailand, in the year 1986. 

When the gate was first opened, it was disastrous. Soon, however, the ‘Awakened’ appeared, with abilities that transcended modern humans.

Soon after, the Awakened figured out how to attack the gates. The gates were connected to a dungeon, which only disappeared when its magic core was removed.

In normal situations, monsters would appear in dungeons to protect the magic core, and the power of the monsters were connected with the level of the dungeon.

No one knew why the gates were appearing all around the globe. The system remained silent about it till the end. 

Most of the information on ‘gates’ and ‘dungeons’ were shared with the entire human race. This was because they didn’t know when or where gates would appear and turn dangerous. Therefore, people that weren’t hunters were well informed about Gates and Dungeons.

However, not many people have actually entered a dungeon.

The same held true for Hara, an Awakened.

[The unknown star laughs]

[It wonders why wasn’t she taught actual combat when she holds the name of a civil servant]

Dudududu……

The sound of vibrations could be heard from everywhere. Hara frowned and jumped up.

“Oh, be quiet!”

She’d fainted and wanted to remain on the ground, but this system messages were too loud.

[The system’s message sounds are currently disabled]

“I said that it’s too noisy, noisy!”

What kind of manners is this, to send dozens of messages in front of an unconscious person? Hara screamed in the air. And the next moment, she quietened down. 

“Oh my god.”

She was surrounded by a forest. Only then did Hara realise where she was.

A dungeon. She was drawn in by a gate that suddenly opened at that. 

[Dungeon]

Grade: B

Participant limit: None

Environmental classification: Forest, Swamp, Field. 

Monsters appearance type: Insects, Herbivores, Carnivores……

Quest: Normal (1) Hidden (0) Side (0)

[Would you like to view the quest information? Y/N]

Information about the dungeon was instantly conveyed through a system message. It seems like this was a forest dungeon.

It was the only fortunate thing amongst misfortunes. If she was unlucky enough to have fallen into an underwater dungeon, she would have drowned without the time to faint.

Hara looked around. 

A sigh slipped out automatically.

“Sigh…”

It was as she’d expected. The man that fell unconscious in Hara’s last memory was lying beside her. 

Yoon Seheon.

The last thing she remembered was reaching out to save him after seeing him fall into a rift. And as expected, it seemed like they were the only two people around. 

“I’m going crazy…”

The situation was rather simple. Yoon Seheon was drawn into the gate while evacuating people instead of Hara.

Hara was drawn in while trying to save Yoon Seheon.

And this is the B-class gate. Kang Hara was an E-class hunter. Yoon Seheon… was tall, with quite a big stature, and seemed to be in good shape, but he was an ordinary person.

No matter what, it became X.

That was the conclusion that Kang Hara reached after careful consideration.

Hara murmured blankly that it’s like the beginning of a movie’s original SF novel that she’d recently read.

[The unknown star is viewing information about the user, ‘Kang Hara’.]

[The unknown star is dumbfounded by Kang Hara’s grade.]

Hara’s eyes widened. Yeah, that’s the thing that has been bothering her for a while now!

‘No way…’

System messages. It was a window that was invisible to the Unawakened, but extremely familiar to the Awakened. 

However, the message that has been appearing in front of Hara’s eyes since earlier wasn’t the black system message that she usually saw.

A message that not all the Awakened have seen. 

As far as Hara knows, it was probably a message from a constellation.

* * *