“Why… Why did you just let it open? With the power you just used, you could have stopped the Gate from forming. So why?”

With his bloodshot eyes wild, the man named Lee Jaehee interrogated him. His gaze served as a clear indictment, accusing Sa-yoon of failing to use his power to annihilate the monsters when he had the chance, which would have prevented the Gate’s creation altogether.

He’s lost his mind.

Sa-yoon clicked his tongue and slapped Jaehee’s hand away. He was only tolerating this because it was Jaehee; anyone else would have had their wrist broken by now.

“You can’t stop the Gate itself from forming. You, of all people, should know that if you looked with those special eyes of yours.”

Lee Jaehee flinched. As expected, he had likely already foreseen the general outcome with his Celestial Reading. And yet, in a rare display of stubbornness, he persisted.

“But if it was you, Sa-yoon-ssi—”

“Get a grip, Lee Jaehee. Stop acting like a spoiled child.”

“……”

“The System itself gave me a quest. It told me to clear the Gate to stop this. Am I still the villain here?”

Jaehee fell silent as Sa-yoon dusted off the collar he had grabbed. Sa-yoon wiped his face with a dry hand, trying to brush away the fatigue.

One bothersome brat like Han Geon-joo is more than enough. And even that kid is calmly doing his job right now. How can the one person who needs to be the most level-headed be acting so weak?

“I get that you’re panicking because this is dredging up old memories, but you need to pull yourself together. If you want to lose someone again, then by all means, keep this up.”

“……”

Jaehee’s eyes couldn’t find a focus, darting left and right. His pupils, more constricted than usual, were a clear sign of his agitated state and irrational thinking.

If he continued this behavior, Sa-yoon couldn’t risk taking him into the Gate. But who would truly suffer from that loss? While Lee Jaehee was a valuable asset, their side could manage without him. In the end, it would be Jaehee himself who faced the most frustration, the very man behind this reckless plan to bring down the gods responsible for his lover’s death during the last Gate Break.

Sa-yoon considered slapping him but thought of all the help he’d received from the man and decided against it. “Do what you want,” he said, and walked past him. He might seem unstable now, but Jaehee was someone who always found his purpose in the end. A little time alone, and he would calm down.

Sa-yoon then turned his attention to the situation below.

The civilian evacuation was complete; there were no living civilians left.

‘Living’ civilians, that is.

Even for someone like Sa-yoon, it was impossible to protect everyone in a catastrophe of this scale. It was inevitable that some, who were beyond the reach of the hunters or for whom help had arrived too late, had met their end.

It’ll be hard to even find their bodies.

Chewing on a Fire Pill, Sa-yoon looked down upon the land—scorched, frozen, and stained dark red with blood. If a land of the dead existed in this world, this would be it. At least two hundred people had died. And there was no telling how many more would follow. To minimize the damage, there was only one solution.

A small, elite team.

The last Gate Break had claimed the lives of most of the three thousand hunters who entered. Sending in three thousand weaklings would be useless. He needed a team composed entirely of S-Ranks.

Conveniently, there was an abundance of S-Ranks right here. Sa-yoon’s gaze swept over all the hunters he recognized from the Unity Conference before he slowly approached the Gate portal. The system notification window was hovering there as well.

The System itself was urging a large-scale assault. It seemed like both a kind warning that they would be massacred if they went in unprepared, and a chilling prophecy that it would lead a hundred of the world’s finest hunters to their deaths. Sa-yoon addressed the international hunters who had naturally gathered around the portal.

“Rewards will be distributed based on contribution. Any volunteers?”

Not a single hunter raised their hand. Having all seen the system message, they were wary. The last Gate Break hadn’t come with such explicit warnings.

Anyone not a fool could guess that this Gate would be far more difficult than the last. He was about to click his tongue at the predictable response when someone raised their hand.

“I thought it was obvious you’d be taking me.”

That unique, insolent, yet beautiful voice. Sa-yoon looked at the owner of the pleasant voice and let a slow smile spread across his face.

“You’re part of the package deal.”

At his words, Han Geon-joo shrugged, his attitude making it clear that it didn’t matter since he’d be sticking by his side anyway.

“…I’ll go as well.”

Lee Jaehee, seemingly having come to his senses, announced his intention to join.

Reading the heavens was no ordinary feat. A normal person would have had their mind broken several times over, yet Jaehee had maintained his sanity for years. He possessed that much mental fortitude; he must have calmed down by now.

Seeing that reason had returned to his face, Sa-yoon beckoned with his finger. Geon-joo and Jaehee came to his side.

“That makes three. Next?”

“Then I’ll also…”

“No, noona, you can’t.”

Sa-yoon stopped Mi-jeong, who had been gauging the mood before raising his fan. Mi-jeong’s eyes turned menacing.

“Are you saying I don’t meet your standards?”

“No.”

“Then why?”

“Because you need to protect this place.”

“What?”

“The Guild Master of the Merchant Guild is being awfully slow on the uptake, isn’t he? If I, Lee Jaehee, and Han Geon-joo all go in, and the rest of Noah joins too, do you really think the Republic of Korea will be safe?”

“Ah.”

A collective gasp came from all the Noah members who had been considering the same thing. Hunters, honestly. Sighing at their complete lack of consideration for the bigger picture, Sa-yoon found a tree and leaned against it.

“Don’t forget what rank of Gate we just cleared.”

“…Yeah, if we all leave, this place will be devastated,” Mi-jeong conceded.

“Exactly. So the rest of you, protect this land. We can’t very well ask these poor bastards to guard someone else’s territory while we’re busy clearing the Gate.”

For a moment, some of the foreign hunters shot him a look that said, ‘So it’s okay for us poor bastards to join an assault on a Gate Break that happened in Korea?’ but Sa-yoon ignored them. He asked for volunteers again, but having heard his explanation, the foreign hunters grew even more hesitant.

This isn’t going to be easy.

The momentum that Jaehee and Geon-joo’s volunteering had created was completely gone.

“You think you’ll be safe if this place goes down?” he threw out, exasperated, but the hunters either avoided his gaze, lowered their heads, or just groaned.

Well, of course they’re conflicted. It’s unavoidable. Cooperating to stop the Gate Break itself was one thing, since they were all caught in the chaos, but clearing the newly formed Gate was another matter entirely.

How could they be sure their own countries were safe while this was happening in Korea?

If the Gate wasn’t cleared in time, the damage would spread, and the fallout could even reach their home countries, but that was a problem for after the clear failed. They were more concerned with the immediate danger.

Strictly speaking, the Gate Break in Korea was someone else’s house fire. He could understand their reluctance to help put it out.

So, I’ll have to throw them some bait.

“I’ll sell information to those who come with me.”

“Information?”

“The reason the Gate appeared.”

The hunters reacted. Information that even non-hunters would be desperate to know began to pour from Sa-yoon’s lips.

“The reason for the Gate Break, what kind of Gates will appear in the future, how you should prepare for them. How the world is going to change. You’re curious, aren’t you?”

People standing in the midst of chaos crave information to escape the confusion. They had all thought the age of chaos, which began twelve years ago with the first Gates, was over. They had seen the signs of a new storm brewing, which was why events like the Unity Conference were held to encourage friendly competition and cooperation between nations. No one knew when another disaster on the scale of the original festival of unity might break out.

But today, they hadn’t just seen the signs of a storm. They had seen the storm itself. And Sa-yoon was the man standing in its eye.

They would be curious. They would be interested. It would have been a very tempting offer.

Sa-yoon watched as their hesitation turned into a more positive form of deliberation and waited. He had cast the bait; now it was time to see if the fish would bite.

Before long, the first fish took the bait.

“I will cooperate.”

It was Jin Huan. His declaration of cooperation also signified the cooperation of his entire guild. Sa-yoon smiled and beckoned him over. Jin Huan shot him a look of annoyance at being ordered around but came to stand by his side.

“I’ll go, too.”

“Grainne?”

“Why you?”

Though she was called by the grand title of Saintess, there wasn’t a hunter here who didn’t know Grainne’s true nature was that of a slacker who sought safety and a peaceful life. Amidst the surprised murmurs, Grainne took off her priestess robes and sighed.

“The revelation is pointing this way, what do you want me to do? If God says jump, I jump.”

Her tone was remarkably casual for a Saintess. Sa-yoon gladly welcomed Grainne, who walked over slowly with the look of someone being dragged into this against her will.

Jin Huan and Grainne.

With the two biggest players on the board besides himself having made their move, the tide naturally turned in Sa-yoon’s favor.

That should be enough of a carrot.

Sa-yoon tapped his arm and raised the corner of his lip.

Now, it was time for the stick.

“And it seems you’re all misunderstanding something. Just because people call me Sa-yoon, have you all forgotten that I’m still Kwon Sa-yoon?”

“……”

The hunters’ expressions hardened. Sa-yoon offered them a gentle smile, hoping they would recall the epithet attached to his name.

“The Night Rat repays kindness with vengeance. So, what do you think we repay vengeance with?”

The Night Rat repays kindness with vengeance.

It was a rather famous saying among prominent hunters. ‘This bastard stabbed me in the back after I helped him?’ was a line often heard by members of the Night Rat guild. In truth, they’d often feigned ignorance since they’d rarely received any help grand enough to be called kindness. Even Sa-yoon himself was still repaying his debt to Mi-jeong little by little.

But that saying also meant that unless it was a grand act of kindness, there would be no special treatment. That was the way of the Night Rat. So what would happen if, instead of kindness, they were met with contempt?

Sa-yoon graciously gave them time to choose. Remembering the ice wall that had held back the monster horde moments ago, the hunters ground their teeth and declared their participation.

It was a truly peaceful party formation.