Chapter 20

Instructor Choi Mi-hee (1)

In the year the new millennium began, Rifts opened in the skies above capitals around the world, and monsters poured out.

After a desperate struggle, humanity managed to repel them. But no matter how much time passed, the Rifts themselves did not disappear.

If left alone for seven days, newly spawned monsters would once again crawl out of them. To prevent this, people had to periodically enter the Rifts and reduce the monster populations inside.

Only a select few humans who had awakened as superhumans could enter the Rifts.

They were collectively known as Hunters.

Twenty-four years had passed since the first Rift appeared, yet humanity still had not discovered what caused the Rifts or how to close them.

World peace continued to depend on Hunters.

As always, humanity adapted even to this upheaval. Hunters, precious human resources that they were, received systematic education and training before venturing beyond the Rifts day after day.

And this year in particular, an uneasy atmosphere had begun spreading among Hunters.

2005, 2010, 2015....

The danger level of the Rifts surged every five years.

And next year would bring the fifth cycle: 2025.

Considering the catastrophe that had occurred during the fourth cycle in 2020, everyone had reason to be cautious.

When a new cycle arrived, it wasn't just a few specific Rifts that became more dangerous.

The difficulty of every Rift increased simultaneously.

For the Academy, which had to train each year's prospective Hunters well enough to deploy them in the field, this was a constant source of headaches.

Of course, unlike the instructors and active Hunters, the Academy's prospective Hunters had never experienced the field firsthand.

They still held romanticized ideas about Hunters.

So they were simply excited.

"Anyway, this is great. So when I get out this time, let's eat tons of beef and sashimi. Oh! Should we make a huge list this weekend of everything you need? It'd be such a waste to finally have money and not spend any of it!"

Among those prospective Hunters, Choi Bom had been smiling a lot lately, almost like an ordinary teenage girl.

After the day's schedule ended, during the period when trainees were allowed to use their phones, Choi Bom happily twirled a strand of hair around her finger.

—Let's do everything we want. I'd like that too.

"Yeah! Then keep this weekend free... Wait. Ah, no, I can't. I got so excited I forgot."

—You can't come out this weekend?

"Our class has field training this weekend. Active Hunter teams enter on weekdays, so trainees like us have no choice but to go on weekends.... Ahh, this sucks. Why did it have to be this week?"

—....

"...Field training? Isn't that dangerous?"

Was he just worried about me?

How funny.

At Lee Shin's words, Choi Bom smiled without even realizing it.

Holding the phone to her ear, she glanced around.

Not a single one of her classmates seemed nervous about the upcoming field exercise.

"They already contacted the team in advance, and they're going to clear the place out thoroughly on Friday. Active Hunters will accompany us Saturday morning and Sunday morning too, and the instructors used to work in the field themselves, so it's not dangerous at all. The seniors said they only saw one monster during two whole hours of their last field exercise."

—I'm still worried.

"Hmph. If you're that worried, why don't you send Hunter Seong Chan-yang? You said she's your friend."

—Should I? She probably isn't asleep yet.

"W-what are you talking about?! I was joking! You'd better not call her. Hunter Seong Chan-yang works herself to the bone day and night, so she needs to rest properly, okay? You're going to call her and say you've got a friend named Choi Bom and ask her to help, aren't you? Absolutely not!"

Lee Shin was the kind of person who followed through once he decided to do something.

Choi Bom had briefly forgotten that her friend wasn't very good at recognizing jokes.

"Anyway, when I get out next week, let's have a ton of fun, okay?"

—Okay.

"Hmph. If you make other plans that day, I'm seriously going to get mad."

—I got it.

Just hearing his answer made a sweet smile rise to her lips, but the pleasant moment didn't last long.

An announcement signaled evening roll call.

Choi Bom threw her daily uniform jacket over the comfortable sleeveless shirt she was wearing and ended the call.

Still disappointed, she stepped outside.

Her classmates were already lined up in the hallway, while seniors from the second and third floors came down late, yawning sleepily.

A short while later, the duty instructor, Choi Mi-hee, appeared.

"Any unusual incidents?"

"None, ma'am!"

"Any patients?"

"None, ma'am!"

Unlike instructors who sometimes rushed through evening roll call or skipped it entirely, Instructor Choi Mi-hee followed regulations to the letter.

Even the trainee on duty stood ramrod straight.

Standing in the hallway, Choi Mi-hee spoke.

"This instructor is well aware that all of you are approaching this weekend's field exercise with a relaxed attitude and little sense of tension."

"...."

"There hasn't been so much as a minor accident in the last five years, and trainees rarely encounter actual monsters during field exercises. Even so, never let your guard down."

Instructor Choi Mi-hee's voice echoed through the hallway.

"The field personnel, including myself, will prioritize protecting you trainees, who are our future. But as you've been taught, the inside of a Rift is an unknown space to humanity and a battlefield where anything can happen. Never forget that, in the most dangerous situation, the person who ultimately saves you is yourself."

"Dismissed."

Once Instructor Choi Mi-hee returned to the duty room, everyone scattered.

Choi Bom let out a relieved sigh because the instructor hadn't found anything to nitpick about today.

"Bom, isn't Ant Mi-hee seriously making way too big a deal out of this?"

"At least she finished quickly today."

"It's just field training. Anyone listening would think we're being deployed straight into the Seoul Rift tomorrow. We're only going to the Cheorwon Rift. Why is she freaking out so much? I heard we even have to turn in our phones."

"Really?"

"Ugh, this is my first time entering a Rift, so I was totally going to take proof photos. Now I can't even make Reels or take pictures.... This is so annoying."

For some reason, Choi Bom thought she could understand why Instructor Choi Mi-hee had warned them so strongly not to lower their guard.

No matter how safe everyone said it was, did these girls really think this field exercise was basically a picnic or sightseeing trip?

***

Although Lee Shin had suddenly become extremely wealthy and had even befriended some fairly famous people, his daily life hadn't changed much.

"Ahem. You know, our son doesn't like sports and prefers staying home, so the only thing we can really do together is play games, right? Dad looked into it, and having a PlayStation in the living room would be really nice...."

"You. Just try asking him to buy you that game console."

"Ahem! When did I ever ask him to buy one? I was just saying, for bonding with my son...."

"Son, don't listen to your father. You remember Aunt Mi-young, right? Her daughter bought her a dishwasher recently, and apparently it's unbelievably convenient...."

"You're exactly the same!"

"How is a dishwasher the same as a game console?!"

When Lee Shin's parents first heard how much money he had earned, they had been shocked.

But before long, they were making small requests like these.

They could have asked him to replace their car or move into a better house with his money.

Instead, seeing them ask for things like this made Lee Shin think that they were exactly the kind of parents he had always known.

"You can buy all of it. Or I can just give you my card. Buy everything you've wanted all this time and do everything you've wanted to do."

They deserved that much.

But his mother shook her head.

"No. We earn plenty ourselves. If our son does everything for us, what fun do we have left in life? Mom only needs one dishwasher. And honestly, I can live without that too."

"Dad absolutely needs a PlayStation."

"You! Seriously! Be quiet!"

"Ouch, ouch!"

Dawn Management had offered to provide Lee Shin with a luxury residence now that they had entered into a partnership, but he refused.

He asked his parents too, and they gave him the same answer.

This house held far too many memories.

Of course, Dawn had offered him many other services besides housing, and he hadn't rejected all of them.

They offered him a car, and when they discovered Lee Shin didn't have a driver's license, they even assigned him a personal chauffeur.

They told him his parents could call for the driver whenever they needed transportation too, which Lee Shin liked.

This'll be convenient when I go visit Bom from now on.

An enormous amount of money had suddenly appeared in his account, but Lee Shin had never cared much for luxury brands or extravagant spending in the first place.

So, in a daily life that hadn't changed much at all, Lee Shin decided to spend today observing the small world, which was surely bustling along as usual.

"Pick me up!"

Jude now spent more time in the Small but Deadly World than in his own world.

Bringing him into reality consumed interference power, but apparently, travel between worlds already under Lee Shin's possession was unrestricted.

Jude could wander between them as much as he wanted without consuming any interference power.

"God, God! You're here!"

Watching Eve greet him enthusiastically, Lee Shin looked over the Red City of Gepetto, which had flourished at an astonishing pace.

Centered around the forge, Gepetto had now become a fortress city, with machine guns jutting out at intervals along the massive walls.

It looked as though they intended to turn the place into an impregnable stronghold.

The skeletal workers Jude had raised labored without rest, while the dwarves worked just as diligently, taking shifts and steadily developing the city.

Before he knew it, the city had transformed so completely that hardly any trace of its original appearance remained.

And this much happened with just one forge.

How much further would they develop if he built them more structures or chose some of the other options that had been available through Creation?

Watching the dwarves busily build and improve things in the small world always filled Lee Shin with satisfaction.

The better their lives became, the happier he felt.

Still, they can't produce food yet.

There was nothing they could do about that, given how barren the land was.

Fortunately, the dwarves were small, and as long as they drank plenty of water, they didn't eat much. The food Lee Shin tossed down to them was enough to sustain them.

Besides, the food expenses that had recently started becoming somewhat burdensome were now covered by selling the gifts they brought him.

For the moment, there wasn't much Lee Shin could do for the dwarves working so busily.

Unless he had divine power.

「TIP: There is a way.」

At that moment, a ding sounded.

「TIP: Divine power is always necessary when rebuilding an abandoned world!」

「TIP: Just as there are multiple ways to obtain interference power, there are also multiple ways to obtain divine power!」

It was exactly the advice he needed.

「TIP: This is something I told you in the past as well. If you enter a Rift in reality and defeat invaders from other worlds... or 'monsters,' as they are called in the world where you currently reside, you can obtain interference power and divine power at the same time. That is because they are servants of demons.」

"Servants of demons?"

「TIP: Many of the abandoned worlds within the World of Stars were destroyed by 'Rifts.' And Rifts are one of the primary means demons use to spread 'despair.'」

"Despair...."

「TIP: Just as divine power is the source of power wielded by gods, despair is the source of power possessed by demons. When you defeat the servants of demons, the despair contained within them is converted into divine power, further expanding your soul!」

Lee Shin had just learned the cause of the Rifts, something even humanity's experts had yet to uncover.

And long ago, the status window had told him that demons were the enemies of all gods.

...Rifts.

He had thought they were something distant from him.

Apparently, that wasn't the case.

***

"Rifts? Are you thinking of becoming a Hunter?"

Sip, sip.

Seong Chan-yang, sitting by the window of a café and drinking her café latte, blinked and tilted her head.

"I think killing monsters might help my friends."

If Jude hadn't been there during the second invasion, the dwarves of the Small but Deadly World would have been in serious danger.

A single forge had already brought enormous change.

If Lee Shin could invest even more divine power, his worlds would undoubtedly become safer.

"Rifts are dangerous, but it's also true that Awakened can't really grow unless they enter them."

"Do you have to be a Hunter to enter a Rift?"

"You need a license."

"Do you have to take an exam or graduate from the Academy to get one?"

"Usually. But there are other ways too. Who would dare evaluate and teach God? Right, that would be absurd!"

Nod, nod.

Seong Chan-yang nodded firmly.

「TIP: Your new believer speaks nothing but the truth!」

「TIP: (m·口·の)令」

Even the status window joined in.

"So there is another way?"

"The Academy and Hunter exams are basically meant to verify basic qualifications. In the past, too many newly Awakened people entered Rifts without knowing anything and ended up injured or dead, so the licensing system was created. You know what they say: every safety regulation is written in blood."

"If you have a recommender, or enter with an active Hunter and simply prove that you have sufficient ability, they can issue a license immediately. There are never enough Hunters, so capable people are always given favorable treatment. Plenty of Hunters debuted that way."

It was an interesting system.

But could Lee Shin actually accomplish anything inside a Rift crawling with monsters?

Jude needed corpses before he could truly shine, while the dwarves were tiny people who trembled in fear and called even humans Lee Shin's size giants.

Of course, he hadn't been asking because he intended to enter one immediately.

It was the weekend, there wasn't anything in particular he needed to do for the small world, and his parents had gone to work because their restaurant was open on Saturdays.

So rather than sit home alone, he had simply met up with Seong Chan-yang, whom he'd recently befriended.

She had also kept asking what he was doing over the weekend.

Ah.

There was something else he wanted to know.

"Is Academy field training dangerous?"

"Field training? Ah, you mean when trainees come on weekends to look around inside Rifts? It's not especially dangerous. Whenever trainees were scheduled to come, I'd clear everything out on Friday too. They choose stabilized Rifts, and we're already near the end of the fourth cycle, so it should be safe...."

As Seong Chan-yang spoke, her hand accidentally bumped the glass on the table.

The next instant—

Crash!

The glass fell to the floor and shattered, spilling its contents everywhere.

"Ah! Sorry. Why did I make a mistake like that?"

Startled, Seong Chan-yang went to get some tissues to clean up the floor.

But as Lee Shin stared at the shattered glass, an inexplicable sense of foreboding came over him.

Things like this had happened several times in the past.

And whenever they did—

[Help me.]

Lee Shin's eyes snapped open.

[Help me, Shin....]

The chatter inside the café, every tiny sound around him, all faded away.

In the complete silence, only a pitiful, sobbing voice echoed in Lee Shin's ears.

[Save me....]

[I don't want to die....]

It was Choi Bom's voice.

Lee Shin immediately rose from his seat.

When Seong Chan-yang returned moments later, she saw his face.

For some reason, there was something about him now that felt utterly untouchable—something so overwhelming that she didn't dare speak first.

"Hunter Seong Chan-yang."

"...Yes."

"Help me."

It wasn't a request.

There was no explanation whatsoever.

But the relationship between Seong Chan-yang and Lee Shin had never been one that required such things in the first place.

Despite the abrupt command, Seong Chan-yang answered without the slightest hesitation.

"Yes."