Gate Break.

It was the second of humanity’s greatest disasters since the Gates first opened.

The event had occurred less than five years ago, and as everyone who remembered it froze in place, a violent rumbling began to shake the ground. The very earth trembled. Sa-yoon let out a hollow laugh as he watched the monsters swarm toward him.

Now that they were closer, he could sense their numbers more clearly.

There were about two thousand, just as he’d estimated. Factoring in the unseen monsters swarming toward the surrounding cities, the total was an uncountable horde of thousands.

And this disaster is because of a Gate Break?

The core mechanic of a Gate Break was a chain reaction: a previously cleared Gate would suddenly experience “Saturation,” and the monsters that poured out would converge in one spot to create a new, unrankable Gate. From the looks of it, this was the exact moment that convergence was happening, and a wave of exhaustion washed over him.

If dozens of Gates have saturated, and all those monsters are heading here…

“…This is tricky.”

To be honest, it was impossible.

Stop this?

How?

He could reduce the number of monsters, but he couldn’t stop them from gathering. In the end, the unrankable Gate would appear regardless. Finally grasping the full scope of the situation, Sa-yoon stroked his chin. At the time of the last Gate Break, he had been clearing another Gate, so he hadn’t experienced the full reality of it. But now, he thought he understood.

For those who remembered it, the event from five years ago must have been a truly despairing cataclysm.

That’s why Jaehee is in this state.

As he glanced at the man, who was far more panicked than usual, a familiar chime echoed.

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<‘The Resistor’ shall save the world!>

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[Proof – The Second Quest for The Resistor] ‘Stop the Gate Break and save the Republic of Korea from crisis!’

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Condition: Rescue as many people as possible from the Gate Break, then clear the resulting mutated Gate.

Reward: 1,000,000 Karma

Penalty for Failure: The death of one hundred thousand innocent civilians.

Other: The major gods have launched a surprise attack! A war is about to break out, but we’ll get to the details later! For now, let’s solve the immediate crisis!

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He was about to indulge in a bit of feeble denial—is this a dream?—but the damned System wouldn’t even allow him that. Staring blankly at the quest that confirmed the Gate Break was inevitable, Sa-yoon let out a deep sigh, placed a hand on his hip, and rolled his neck.

The mention of crappy things like “war” must have meant the end was finally drawing near.

The only problem was that it was happening much sooner than he’d anticipated.

He hadn’t even finished securing all the Awakeners he needed; for things to unfold like this was troublesome. He had to minimize the loss of talent in this disaster. His eyes fixed on the approaching horde, Sa-yoon unleashed his frosty energy and exhaled once more. The overlapping power of the Frost Pills amplified the chill, freezing the ground over which the monsters were advancing. As he clenched his fist, a massive wall of ice erupted from the earth, blocking the monsters’ path.

It won’t last long, and it won’t stop the flying ones.

But it would buy enough time for the remaining people to evacuate. Since a Gate was going to form anyway, he figured he might as well decide where. He reinforced the wall, making it even stronger, and saw Lee Jaehee take a deep breath. He had been planning to slap the man if he was still out of it, but thankfully, it seemed that wouldn’t be necessary.

“…I’ll evacuate the people.”

“That’s what I was about to ask you to do.”

Lee Jaehee was a powerful summoner, but he wasn’t a frontline combatant. When Sa-yoon told him to just focus on not dying, the man, having regained some of his composure, offered a faint smile.

“I won’t die. You’ve experienced my skill before, haven’t you, Sa-yoon-ssi?”

“……?”

“The nullification. Don’t worry, and fight. I’ll take care of myself.”

“What?”

Before Sa-yoon could press him for details, Jaehee flew off toward the civilians. Sa-yoon stared in disbelief at the back of his not-quite-ally who had just blindsided him, and let out a breath of incredulity. Now that he thought about it, when he had first met Jaehee, his own skill had definitely been nullified. Realizing that’s what he must have been referring to, Sa-yoon resisted the urge to activate the Eyes of a Genius and scrutinize his status window. He turned his attention to Geon-joo, who had a tense expression, and pulled him to a higher vantage point.

“Save the Demigod Body. And conserve your rounds, pretty boy. We’ll probably have to enter another Gate after this.”

“Should I take care of the flying monsters?”

“That would make things easier.”

No sooner had he answered than shadows erupted from the ground, piercing the bodies of the incoming aerial monsters. It wasn’t just one or two. At Han Geon-joo’s clenched fist, hundreds of spikes shot up in an instant. Leaving the sky to him, Sa-yoon turned his attention to the ice wall.

BOOM! CRASH!

No matter how sturdy he had made it, the ice wall couldn’t hold forever against thousands of monsters ramming into it. Seeing cracks begin to form, Sa-yoon breathed another layer of frost onto it. He spotted foreign Awakeners scattered amongst the monster horde and expanded the range of his ‘Pale Day’ skill to include them.

“What…? Why am I suddenly getting a buff notification…?”

The fighting hunters looked up, their expressions confused by the system windows. They instinctively followed their senses and found Sa-yoon.

“Kwon Sa-yoon?”

“It’s not free. Get back to clearing the monsters.”

He assigned them their task and turned his attention back to the horde. This time, he could clearly see a large number of S-Rank monsters in the mix.

It’s a good thing this is happening during the Unity Conference.

That a Gate Break would occur at the exact time when some of the world’s most prominent talents were gathered in Korea was a blessing in disguise.

Or was it the other way around? Did they cause the Gate Break because they’re here? To eliminate any elements that might interfere with their war all at once?

That makes sense.

Knowing the major gods as he did, that was entirely plausible. He consumed another Frost Pill. He could feel the cold radiating from his heart growing more savage, but this was no time to pick and choose his battles.

So, he didn’t. He took the fire along with the ice. Just as he was getting used to the feeling of his heart freezing over, a searing pain, as if his organs were being incinerated, followed. It wasn’t unbearable. He used a Fire Pill to suppress the side effects of the Frost Pill and unleashed his skill.

Another ice wall formed, this time blocking a different direction where monsters had begun to swarm, a path the previous wall hadn’t covered.

His plan was to erect defensive walls on all sides, wait for all civilians to be evacuated inside, then release his skills and let the unrankable Gate form right where he stood.

To do that, he had to control the monsters’ movements, even if it meant pushing himself to the limit.

Drip.

A drop of cold sweat trickled down his face. As it ran past his nose, he wiped it away and saw that it was red. It seemed he had a nosebleed. He wiped it carelessly on his collar and moved to a new position.

“Sa-yoon?”

“It’s Sa-yoon! Kwon Sa-yoon!”

“Is he here to help?”

With every new wall he erected, he saw more hunters. Thanks to their S-Rank status, the foreign hunters weren’t ignoring the crisis unfolding in Korea and were fighting alongside the locals.

Well, it’s more like they’re fighting for their own survival.

If an unrankable Gate opened in Korea, the World Hunter Association would send support, just as they had in the past. That support would undoubtedly include some of the hunters who had come for the Unity Conference. They seemed to have judged it wiser to stop the situation now, surrounded by proven powerhouses, rather than risk tackling a perilous Gate later with a team of lesser-knowns.

Not that they can stop the Gate from forming, though.

The System had declared it, so it was a near certainty. He knew, with a grim sense of acceptance, that he alone couldn’t stop this many monsters. Hiding his thoughts, Sa-yoon cast the Pale Day buff over the foreign hunters. The more slaves—no, assets—he had to clear this with, the better.

After consuming one more Frost Pill and one more Fire Pill, he finally succeeded in walling off every direction.

“I just need to help with the evacuation, right?”

Just in time, Geon-joo, having finished off the flying monsters, joined Jaehee to help with the remaining civilians. The fact that he acted without needing to be told was certainly convenient.

Sucking on a mana potion like it was the elixir of life, Sa-yoon was micromanaging over a hundred ice walls when a shout announced that the civilian evacuation was complete, a mere fifteen minutes after the walls had been finished.

“Evacuate the B-Rank and lower hunters as well.”

Hunters below A-Rank would only be throwing their lives away. At his cold command, a few hunters protested that they could still fight, only to be caught by Han Geon-joo’s shadows and unceremoniously tossed into the safe zone.

He’s just flinging people around.

Sa-yoon clicked his tongue, wondering where he’d learned such manners. Once he confirmed that even the troublesome hunters were gone, he withdrew his power that had been spread across the area. He had pushed it beyond its limits, and the feeling of his life force, not just his mana, being drained away had been deeply unsettling. He finally felt like he could breathe.

I wouldn’t do that again even if you asked me to.

He wiped his mouth, thinking he would have ignored the whole thing if not for the special circumstances, when a cough escaped him. Kuh-luck. Swallowing the metallic-tasting saliva, he grimaced and simultaneously shattered the remaining ice walls to attack the monsters. The ones at the forefront shrieked and collapsed, only to be trampled and finished off by the monsters behind them. In a natural display of friendly fire, the horde paid no mind and began to converge on the center that Sa-yoon had prepared.

Even as hunters attacked them, the monsters, seemingly bereft of reason, only pressed forward. The first to arrive at the spot beneath Sa-yoon’s position took its place, and then dozens, hundreds of monsters swarmed in, curling their bodies into a massive pile. As he had heard, the signs of a Gate Break were clear; the monsters were focused not on attacking, but on gathering together.

Finally, when every last monster had reached the spot, a black light descended upon what now looked like a tower of monsters. The light from the sky slammed into them, and a foul energy swept through the area, triggering an explosion.

BOOM! CRASH! BOOM!

A series of ear-splitting explosions shook the ground. As the smoke, mixed with a cloud of dust, slowly began to clear, a portal came into view where the monsters had been. Even to Sa-yoon, it was a Gate that radiated a deeply ominous and terrifying aura.

As the hunters stood breathless at the scene of the Gate Break, a system notification appeared before everyone present.

‘Pandemonium of Chaos,’ has appeared!>