34 – Dual Dimensional Gate (1)
* * *
The day when that incident would occur was not far away.
Due to the incident that would occur a few days later, the center of the city would be completely devastated.
And it would also become widely known how dangerous a dimensional gate was, in a world that had become numb to safety for just 10 years.
That’s not all.
The woman who is responsible for the most important pillar of the returnees community, the returns.
The rank 1 returnee, Yang Jiu, dies because of it.
As a result, the laughable plaything that was the returns, maintained only by her existence, falls apart.
With the loss of Yang Jiu as the focal point, Korean returnees do not fulfill their duties properly and start running wild on their own.
The stable world, which seemed to be, would be overturned once again from that point.
Unfortunately, there was no power in his current self to prevent that incident.
It was merely the body of a superhuman high school student.
There was no one who would listen seriously even if he alerted them, and his own power was still much too weak to solve it himself.
If only there was a little more time, just a little more….
It was truly a regrettable event for Yang Jiu to die here, but there was nothing he could do about it now.
The event would inevitably occur.
All he could do was take advantage of this incident as much as possible.
That’s all he could do.
* * *
Early morning.
Yuul, who woke up from sleep, tidies up the bed and looks out the window.
The chilly weather has subsided, and the smell of spring is gradually filling the streets.
It was early March.
She rummages through the refrigerator and quickly prepares a meal.
Then she sits on the couch, killing time.
It has been a few days since attending the returnees’ gathering, visiting the open dimensional portal for the first time, and exchanging contact information with Yang Jiwoo.
To be honest.
There was nothing to do.
She wasn’t in need of money.
She had money from selling mahseok earlier, and she even received a reward for completing her “duty” a few days ago.
However, that was the problem.
If she didn’t have any money, she would have done something, anything.
What she is doing now is simply sitting on the couch all day, guarding the house.
Fortunately, due to her lack of emotions, Yuul didn’t feel bored by this monotonous daily routine.
But no matter how it was, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of emptiness by doing nothing every day.
Before Ryuun went to school, the house was not quiet.
For some reason, Yuul felt a void in her heart.
At that moment, Yuul’s smartphone vibrated.
She checked it.
A text message had arrived.
“Are you available today?”
It was Jiwoo Yang, a returnee she exchanged contact information with.
It was a good timing as she was feeling restless just staying at home.
Yuul got up from the couch.
* * *
The meeting place they agreed to meet was in front of a open dimensional portal.
The promise they made was simply to tell each other what happened in this world, but instead of just talking about it in a cafe-like place, they decided to take care of their “duties” as well.
When Yuul stepped foot into the promised place, Jiwoo was already there, waiting for her.
“Did I keep you waiting?”
“No, I just came early because I had nothing else to do, even earlier than the agreed time.”
“Oh, I see. That’s good.”
After exchanging brief greetings, they headed straight to the entrance.
This time, it was level 5.
It was a place one level higher than before.
Although it was still not a threatening place for Yeoul and Jiwoo.
As Yeoul walked on.
But somehow.
Unlike a few days ago when it was quiet and deserted, there were quite a few people in the parking lot here.
Moreover, everyone seemed to have some dissatisfaction on their faces.
-Why did you come out already?
-It hasn’t been long since the last time.
-Sigh… If I knew this would happen, I would have gone somewhere else.
-Since we’re already here, should we go now?
-What’s the point of going? Our equipment is tailored for this place. What are we going to do if we move to another location?
-Oh, right….
Using the conversations as background noise, Yeoul and Jiwoo walked past them towards the entrance.
After completing the procedures for presenting the returnee certificate.
Jiwoo said that there was something he wanted to ask the government officials who were guarding the iron fence gate.
“Why are there so many hunters here?”
“Well, the thing is, originally the expected date for the ‘boss’ to appear was much later, but it came out already, different from the scheduled date.”
“Oh, I see…”
Last time, there were only government officials guarding the gate near the dimensional gate. There was no one else. The interior was the same.
The difference between then and now is that this place was suddenly sealed without any notice.
From there, Yeoul could speculate that if the ‘boss’ appeared from the open dimensional gate, they would temporarily seal off the dimensional gate and its vicinity, hunt down the ‘boss’, and then reopen it after confirming safety.
But today, due to the unexpected sealing, many hunters had made wasted trips.
According to the government officials, fortunately, there seemed to be no remaining hunters inside.
After finishing their conversation with the officials, Yeoul and Jiwoo entered through the iron fence gate.
Then, unlike the first time they went to the overgrown forest, this time the view was clear.
Dry grass that grew tall enough to tickle the calf. Air that didn’t feel humid. And even the forms of charging monsters.
The theme of this dimensional gate seemed to be a grassy plain.
Nonchalantly cutting through the approaching monsters, I walked towards the location of the “Boss”.
“You asked me something last time.”
“Yes.”
“I asked about what happened in the other world where you went, Yeoul.”
Upon hearing her words, Yeoul seemed to hesitate for a moment.
Seeing that, Jiwoo thought that she was in a difficult position.
“Oh, if it’s hard for you to say, you can tell me later.”
“No, it’s okay. I’m fine.”
She was just trying to choose her words carefully.
“But there’s nothing special.”
He could guess what she was expecting.
It had already been three months since she started living on Earth.
At first, she didn’t know, but she soon realized that handling such power without magic was far from ordinary.
So, she had thought about the reason behind it.
Why was she able to use something that was inadequate to be simply called swordsmanship?
However, no matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t figure out the reason.
And it was understandable, considering that it happened to him somehow.
It wasn’t because there was something special, like secret teachings from a master or hidden skills or knowledge.
But still, it was a favor he had to fulfill.
Yeoul began her story from the beginning.
Ten years ago. No, now it had been eleven years.
When she was transferred to this other world with a bright light.
When she met the old king.
And when she received a request to defeat the Demon King.
She was excited to experience the dimensional transfer that had been consumed as a work of fiction.
But she also felt despair because she couldn’t use magic.
Due to the imminent destruction of the entire continent, she was thrown onto the streets without proper education, with only a sword in her hand.
“So, what happened next?”
As she finished her story, Jiwoo’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.
It was because she seemed to have had a quite different experience compared to other ordinary returnees when she heard it.
The story itself was entertaining in its own way.
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Maybe the next story, how she became stronger, would be revealed in some way.
She was filled with anticipation.
However, unfortunately, Yeoul’s story was temporarily interrupted.
A huge shadow loomed in front of them.
It was because they had arrived where the ‘boss’ was.
“I will handle this first before we continue.”
Yeoul finished speaking and put her hand to her ear.
Then, in a flash.
Not as a metaphor, but a real scorpion, a whole house-sized one, appeared before his sword.
She had a fresh impression as she looked at the scorpion falling with its side exposed.
It was like riding on a bus.
Until now, she had been in the position of giving rides to novice returnees.
Helping them to adapt to the magic-scarce environment of the Earth compared to this other world, and assisting returnees who had difficulty performing their duties, she held out her hand.
That was how she had lived, but it was the first time she had given a ride to Yeoul, a knight.
She thought that it was not necessarily a bad feeling in its own way.
But suddenly, this thought crossed her mind.
Why is the ‘boss’ a scorpion?
All the demons she had encountered so far had been faithful to the concept of a grassland.
And that was also a characteristic of the erosive dimensional gates, so there was no way for demons that did not fit the environment like scorpions to appear.
But why a scorpion?
Just in case, she also looked at the list of ‘bosses’ that had appeared before.
As expected, they were all creatures faithful to the grassland environment, and not even a scorpion had appeared as a general demon.
When she had a hunch that something was strange.
The change had begun.