The Crack at Seoul Station

The SUV that arrived this time on Captain Seong Hyeon-jun's orders did not carry Second Lieutenant An Eun-young. We climbed into a vehicle full of unfamiliar soldiers and headed straight for Seoul Station.

Inside the car we changed into the clothes and shoes a Monster Special Forces operative handed us, and a brief briefing followed.

"A dungeon gate has formed inside the station. The first dispatched unit suppressed the situation and completed the dungeon clear, but part of the building has collapsed. Rescue operations are underway, and our senior operatives have to move on to other emergency sites."

"Seoul Station... The damage must have been enormous."

In truth, I already knew what had happened at Seoul Station. In the past I'd only heard it on the news and never seen the scene with my own eyes, but I still remembered how hard the reporter's account alone had hit me.

"...That's correct. The situation has been contained for now, but the dungeon gate appears to be a Crack, so the lower-ranking operatives will have to stand by."

Dungeons came in several kinds. Once one formed, Awakener Hunters entered, killed every ordinary monster inside along with the boss, and that was a clear. Among dungeons cleared once, some vanished and some remained.

A dungeon gate that disappeared was simply a one-time gate. People called them gates, and they called them portals. But a dungeon portal that stayed behind without vanishing was called a Crack.

A scar where dimensions had twisted. A fissure in the seam. A Crack kept spawning monsters again at irregular intervals even after the dungeon had been cleared.

Things had been better, relatively speaking, before the Second Open, when monsters did not leap out of dungeons. Cumbersome as they were, Cracks had been useful places to study steadily and to harvest dungeon byproducts. More than ten years after the First Open, there were even people posing for commemorative photos in front of Cracks that had opened in crowded places.

But from the moment monsters began spilling outside, they became an appalling headache—things you could never be sure wouldn't vomit monsters again, and things you couldn't remove.

"The monster grade itself isn't dangerous. They're only goblins."

The operative who said it wore a dark expression. Even mere goblins had been enough to turn Seoul Station into a massacre. Of course, that was true of everywhere right now. Ordinary humans were that frail before the things beyond the door.

The inside of the car went abruptly quiet. It was Han Gyeol's voice that broke the silence.

"How are the other places? The other regions..."

"That... isn't something we can share with civilians yet."

"We're not exactly just civilians. We're Awakeners too. And we're out here right now to help you."

"I'm sorry. I can't tell you."

The operative kept his words short. Revealing, unfiltered, what the Monster Special Forces and the state were still trying to grasp to people who belonged to no organization would have been too much to ask. Not that I needed him to tell me. I already knew all of it.

These things called portals, dungeons, gates, and Cracks appeared in proportion to population density. Strange, wasn't it. No one would figure out why they formed, not even fourteen years from now, and yet they had a peculiar habit of appearing mostly around cities packed with people.

There were exceptions, of course, but where there were many Awakeners, there were many portals. Where there were few Awakeners, there were few portals. So the situation was much the same everywhere. Setting aside dungeons, monsters, and what the Awakeners could handle, ordinary disasters like fires and collapses would vary by region.

Whether I should call that a mercy... They say God only gives you pain you can endure. I wasn't sure this was the occasion for that line. I worked the bitterness out of my mouth. Then, at last, the car stopped.

"We've arrived."

"...!!"

"Mr. Eun Ha-jun, Mr. Han Gyeol. Please follow behind me."

The door clicked open, and the familiar shape of Seoul Station came into view. Or was it unfamiliar? Broad daylight or not, there wasn't a person to be seen around the station.

A place that had always bustled with people coming and going. When I'd come here before the regression, the restoration had already been finished. The Crack had been properly dealt with too. They'd isolated the site and posted Awakeners to guard it, and everything had gone back to running as it should. And yet...

"This way."

The Monster Special Forces operatives headed down into the subway entrance.

"Ugh."

Han Gyeol stopped and took a step back. A foul reek of blood. The smell of something burned. Dust. Indescribable stenches surged up all at once.

The bodies had already been recovered, but horrific bloodstains covered everything, and dark red scraps that looked like flesh lay scattered in pieces.

"Are you all right? This isn't a site with monsters that use chemical weapons, so we didn't issue gas masks, but if you need one..."

"...I'm fine."

Han Gyeol barely managed the answer. After awakening, the senses grew sharper than an ordinary person's, and until you got used to it the pain was real. Either that, or your sense of self as an Awakener had to grow strong enough to overpower those sharpened senses—like the people I'd seen that morning, pushing through the danger all the way to the Awakener Management Department.

"Gyeol, if it's too much, at least put on a mask."

"...No. I'm really fine."

Gyeol covered his nose with the back of his hand and gestured for us to keep going. We started moving again, and just as the operative had said, the site was fairly well in order. Collapsed sections had been temporarily opened up, so we could keep descending through the tangled passages. From the sounds at the ends of the corridors we passed, I could even gauge where recovery work was still underway.

We didn't stop. Our destination lay elsewhere.

The strange light Han Gyeol and I had seen through the subway window on the first day after the regression began to appear before our eyes.

"We're here. We'll stand by in case any monsters come out."

The dungeon gate—the portal—had appeared. Like an aurora, or some jewel, or the cosmos as I'd seen it in photographs: an oval form in which all kinds of uncanny light shimmered. It felt a little like the magic mirror from the story of Snow White, and it looked like a dimensional door I'd seen in a game. Something whose mere sight made you feel how alien it was.

It existed floating just above the ground. From the side it was thin, no more than about two inches thick. That thin membrane of uncanny light was the dimensional fissure itself—the entrance into the dungeon.

My heart lurched, as if the Awakener's power running through my body were resonating with the portal. The sensation was strongest right after awakening, and with time it would grow familiar and dull. Han Gyeol seemed to feel it too. Gyeol wore a strange expression as he drifted toward the portal, drawn to it.

"You mustn't go too close."

Another Monster Special Forces operative who had been waiting before we arrived stepped in front of Han Gyeol.

Looking around, I counted three Monster Special Forces operatives, plus me and Han Gyeol. Five of us, it seemed, assigned to guard this place. When the operative who had come with us gave them a brief introduction, they nodded. The atmosphere was anything but welcoming.

Not that I don't understand. From their point of view we're chicks who awakened yesterday, and in the end this just means more work. They're probably praying we don't become dead weight.

They didn't even seem inclined to hide their expressions. The two operatives who had already been holding the post put a good distance between themselves and us, then started muttering among themselves.

"Haah. What on earth is Captain Seong thinking."

"That's what I'm saying. If those kids die, it lands straight on us, doesn't it."

"Fuck, seriously. We'd better hope no more monsters come popping out. This is bullshit."

"Don't worry. Even if it is a Crack, monster respawns take at least a few weeks."

"One of them's supposed to be D-rank? That D-rank over there is pale as some shut-in loner—wouldn't he drop dead if we so much as brushed him?"

"Hey, even an S-rank dies easier than you'd think at level one."

"Heh. I was holding that thought in, and you just went and said it?"

Maybe they assumed freshly awakened chicks wouldn't hear them. Maybe they didn't care if we did. Or maybe they truly thought we were going to die. Either way, they ran their mouths without a shred of fear.

"Those sons of—"

"Gyeol. Don't."

When I stopped Han Gyeol, who was about to flare up, startled black eyes locked straight onto mine.

"Endure three times, and you spare yourself a murder."

"What?"

Han Gyeol's eyes said he couldn't believe what he was hearing. I only shrugged. This was experience. This was being the adult. Right? No point taking the bait on some cheap provocation. Besides, we really were newly hatched chicks. Sort of.

However they looked, they were Awakeners with a lot more seniority than us. For a posting like guarding this place, they were probably D-ranks or C-ranks with some levels on them. And killing humans didn't raise your experience. Yeah. Definitely not.

Ah, should I try that skill? Soul Discerner.

The strange skill I'd gained after regressing. It was supposed to tell you the other person's soul grade, wasn't it? I'd been so rattled I'd forgotten it for a moment. Imagine forgetting that. Even as I thought it, I dropped the idea almost at once.

No point wasting it on guys who are D-rank to C-rank anyway. Mana's too precious. Yeah, too precious... I'd rather be at the exchange selling items than standing here taking this treatment.

I pretended not to hear the insults that were perfectly audible and found somewhere I could more or less lean. Han Gyeol came over to my side reluctantly, and only the operative who had brought us stood awkwardly in the middle, looking uncomfortable.

"Don't be so scared just because you awakened yesterday!"

"They're still Awakeners, though?"

"No need to back off quite that far, is all I'm saying. Hahaha!"

"Don't worry. We'll protect you, young masters. Wait—you two aren't minors, are you?"

The ones badmouthing us raised their voices and cackled. They seemed to think our retreat meant we'd been cowed by their presence. Seeing that he couldn't stop them, the one who'd brought us was probably the lower in rank.

The insults grew distant and hard to make out, and time crawled by in an awkward silence.

Even before the regression, I'd sometimes thought about it—if only I could go back. The worry I'd always had then was the same: my memory wasn't great, so what if going back turned out to be useless? You couldn't remember every little detail, after all.

I dredged up everything I could of what had happened in the past and turned it over. Today—what incidents had there been today. Tomorrow, and the day after.

Right. Still, Captain Seong Hyeon-jun sent us somewhere relatively easy. At least I've got room to sort my thoughts.

But I withdrew that thought almost immediately.

"Huh?"

"Ah, shit."

The faces of the two operatives nearest the portal twisted. At the same time, the center of the uncanny portal warped and stretched long. Something was coming out of it.