Chapter 58 

 The Returnee

The downtown area had been placed under control following the appearance of a Gate.

The police had set up barricades and established a control line, while dispatched employees from the Management Bureau were watching the situation from inside.

As non-Awakened individuals, they were not combat personnel, but they had been dispatched to deal with the unexpected variables that could arise whenever a Gate appeared.

For a large-scale Gate like this, their presence was not optional. It was essential.

“That Gate… isn’t it too big?”

A man stared blankly at the Gate.

A gigantic Gate had appeared between two buildings, blocking off one entire side.

At that size, it was among the largest even for an S-Rank Gate.

The larger a Gate was, the stronger the waves it emitted became. And that meant powerful beings capable of producing such strong waves were inside.

Naturally, he couldn’t help feeling uneasy.

“Even if they’re Aegis Hunters, this might be a little difficult.”

“Stop making such a fuss. Didn’t you see the list of Hunters who went in? I heard their representative went in personally. What are you worried about?”

His colleague scolded him.

As a rule, only high-ranking Hunters of at least Grade 10 were permitted to enter S-Rank Gates. Even then, they were dangerous sites where any kind of unexpected variable could occur.

And yet, worrying about this particular site was almost absurd.

“Huh…? Wait, what is that?”

Kuuuuuuung!

At that moment, a powerful wave erupted from the Gate.

A crimson wave of light swept through the surroundings, clearly visible even to the non-Awakened employees.

It had no direct physical force, but the shape of the Gate twisted dramatically and transformed.

“T-This is insane…!”

“The Gate changed!”

The terrified Management Bureau employees shot to their feet.

The Gate’s hidden pattern had manifested.

Normally, it was possible to determine beforehand whether a Gate was a Special Gate.

But there were Special Gates whose hidden patterns only manifested after Hunters had already entered.

Space could become distorted.

Abilities could be sealed.

Gravity could be reversed.

Any kind of absurd phenomenon could occur inside, and those outside had no way of knowing what kind of variable had just erupted within.

“Contact headquarters! Hurry!”

Regardless, they immediately contacted headquarters.

Whenever a special pattern manifested in an S-Rank Gate, they were required to report it to headquarters immediately.

If an S-Rank Gate could not be contained, the surrounding area could suffer a catastrophic disaster. That was why the Management Bureau prepared for every possible variable, regardless of its nature.

But the answer they received from headquarters was unexpected.

“T-They said to stand by?”

“What? Why?”

The two employees, who had been moving urgently only moments before, stood there dumbfounded.

It was the first time they had ever encountered a situation where no action was taken despite such a major variable occurring inside an S-Rank Gate.

However, the reason headquarters had made that decision was simple.

It was because of a single name on the list.

A Grade 12 Hunter.

Two grades above Grade 10, the level at which Hunters were classified as high-ranking.

A Hunter known as a national-level asset.

All because of the name Choi Jeongil.

Crackle!

Only a few minutes after they had been told to stand by, the Gate opened.

Since the Gate had already undergone a transformation, it was possible that the monsters would emerge earlier than expected.

The employees stared tensely at the Gate.

But the figure that emerged through the dimensional rift was a human.

Step.

Choi Jeongil appeared, looking perfectly composed as he casually brushed off his hair.

After the Gate’s special pattern had begun, enormous waves of monsters had poured out from every direction.

Yet he had slaughtered every single one of them with ease.

There wasn’t even a speck of blood on his clothes.

“You worked hard.”

“I-I learned a lot.”

The Hunter who followed behind him answered with a dazed expression.

Unlike Choi Jeongil, the man was covered from head to toe in dirt and blood.

Yet the monsters he had personally cut down amounted to less than even one-tenth of the total.

He stared intently at Choi Jeongil’s back.

The man wasn’t even breathing heavily.

Not a single part of him was disheveled.

As expected… He really is a legend of the Hunter world.

The man swallowed hard.

There was a reason why, despite being a promising young prospect in the past, he had rejected preferential offers from other companies and joined Aegis without hesitation.

It wasn’t simply because Aegis was a large company.

The most decisive reason was that he had followed Choi Jeongil, the living legend of the industry he had always admired.

Normally, he had no reason to forget about it since they would never participate in the same operation.

But seeing him on the battlefield once again sent a shiver down his spine.

His combat style was so concise and efficient that he had earned the nickname of a living textbook and professor for every Hunter.

And above all, even amid such a fierce battlefield, he never showed the slightest sign of disorder.

The legendary figure he remembered from the past was still there.

Even as a Grade 10 Hunter himself, he could feel a depth in Choi Jeongil that he still could not see the end of.

Thud!

Meanwhile, Choi Jeongil sat down on a chair and took a drink of water.

Then, as he looked down at both of his hands, he let out a hollow laugh.

That was definitely a battlefield that should have given me quite a bit of trouble… I didn’t expect my body to move this well.

If it had been only a month ago, a Gate of this caliber would have left him struggling while covered from head to toe in blood.

But the fact that there wasn’t even a single bloodstain on him now showed just how surprised he was by how well his body was moving.

Choi Jeongil had spent an entire month staying in Changyeong-ri, eating three meals a day with Hyeonseong and spending time with the Spirits.

He had expected his body to improve as the murky energy was neutralized.

But the effect had been far more dramatic than he could have imagined.

And then, suddenly, he felt something strange in his eye.

A ticklish yet unfamiliar sensation.

Without thinking, Choi Jeongil removed his blindfold.

But the instant he did—

He was stunned.

“M-My… eye…?”

His body flinched as an intense, dazzling light flooded into his vision.

The pitch-black darkness that had occupied half of his field of vision was gone.

His vision was still terribly cloudy and blurry.

But there was no mistaking it.

His left eye was receiving light.

It was forming an image.

D-Did it really recover?

It had already been several years since his left eye had lost its sight.

Faced with this sudden change that he had never even dared to expect, he blinked repeatedly, unable to believe it.

“Haha… This doesn’t make any—”

“R-Representative!”

A severe dizziness unlike anything he had ever experienced suddenly swept over him.

His vision spun.

And Choi Jeongil collapsed limply to the side.

“Hm-hm~”

Joo Jihye walked down the street, humming to herself.

Wrapped tightly in a winter hat and scarf, she was fully bundled up as she looked around at the sky and the streets.

For someone who normally paid close attention to fashion trends, it was an outfit she would never have worn under ordinary circumstances.

But today, she was willing to make the sacrifice for the atmosphere.

“Winter isn’t winter without snow.”

Snow was pouring heavily from the sky.

The streets were covered in a blanket of pure white.

According to the forecast, the entire country was expected to be hit by heavy snowfall for some time, and Joo Jihye was quite pleased about it.

There was a reason she had chosen to walk all the way instead of calling her manager and taking a car as she normally would.

And on top of that, she had received some wonderful news on this particularly pleasant day.

The representative can see again? No way!

She had immediately headed for the hospital where Choi Jeongil had been admitted after hearing that he had regained the sight in his lost left eye.

Officially, she was visiting him as a patient.

But in reality, she was there to celebrate.

He had been hospitalized for a while because of his dizziness, but there was nothing seriously wrong with him.

It was the perfect opportunity to celebrate to her heart’s content.

How should I congratulate him? Should I just smash a cake right into his face? No, knowing my luck, I’d miss again like last time and end up covered in it myself…

Thud!

“Eek?”

Just then, while walking through a narrow alley, Joo Jihye collided with someone coming around the corner.

She came out of nowhere.

Wondering if the woman was some kind of ghost, Joo Jihye turned her head.

And she couldn’t help but let out a gasp.

Wow, she’s incredibly pretty. Who is she?

Joo Jihye stared at the woman she had bumped into.

Normally, she would have quickly moved on, worried that the other person might recognize her as a celebrity.

But this woman didn’t look like an ordinary person either.

She looked somewhat pale and hollow-eyed, but her natural beauty was so striking that it only seemed to accentuate her frail appearance.

And with her exceptional proportions, she looked like either an actress or a Hunter.

Yet despite having one foot in both industries, Joo Jihye had never seen her before.

Someone that beautiful should be famous just for her face. That’s strange. Hm-hm. Of course, she’s still a little less pretty than me!

Joo Jihye indulged in the silly thought as she stepped aside to let the woman pass first.

But the woman with long, straight hair staggered and reached for the wall.

“Ah… A-Are you okay?”

Joo Jihye immediately realized her mistake and reached out a hand.

She was sure she had restrained her strength, but this had been a collision between a Hunter and an ordinary person.

The impact might have been much greater than she intended.

But at that moment—

Whoooosh!

“Ugh…?!”

A thick, viscous killing intent suddenly swept over her, and Joo Jihye hurriedly stepped backward.

It had lasted only an instant, but the genuine killing intent was strong enough to make her throat tingle.

Every hair on her body stood on end as she quickly drew up her mana.

But when she looked ahead again—

The woman was already gone.

“…She disappeared?”

The woman had vanished in the blink of an eye.

Joo Jihye frantically looked around, but she couldn’t find even the slightest trace of her.

All she could hear was the pounding of her own heart.

D-Did I… just get scared?

Joo Jihye looked down at her trembling hands.

For an instant, she had been completely overwhelmed.

It was an unfamiliar kind of fear, something she had never experienced before.

Yet at the same time, it felt strangely familiar.

It was exactly the same sensation of being overwhelmed that she had felt when witnessing the abilities of Oh Hyeonseong or Choi Jeongil, legends of the past.

But she definitely looked Korean…

Joo Jihye had now reached the realm of an 11th-grade Hunter.

Even among all the Awakened in Korea, a country counted among the world’s leading Hunter nations, there were fewer than thirty Hunters above Grade 11.

And yet someone had appeared who could completely overwhelm her.

“What… What the hell was that woman?”

Oh Hyeonseong had come to Seoul for the first time in a while.

Driving such a long distance through heavy snowfall was hardly appealing, but given the circumstances, he had driven all the way there without hesitation.

Officially, he was visiting his junior in the hospital.

But the atmosphere was actually quite cheerful, with everyone celebrating.

“I can’t believe your eye actually recovered… I guess the effects accumulated slowly before finally showing themselves. That’s great. Really.”

“It’s all thanks to you, Senior. Thank you.”

Choi Jeongil spoke with a dazed expression.

He had once believed that he would never be able to see light through his left eye again.

He had completely given up and accepted reality.

Even when Oh Hyeonseong had taken such an active interest in his condition, he hadn’t actually believed he would recover.

No matter how much he trusted his senior, he had thought that this time, Hyeonseong was simply trying to solve a problem that had no answer.

Perhaps because of that, even now, his strongest emotion was bewilderment at something so completely unexpected and unbelievable.

Of course, Oh Hyeonseong simply smiled proudly as he looked at him.

“I’ll go wash my hands for a moment.”

Oh Hyeonseong then briefly left the hospital room.

He had been cutting fruit and gotten his hands sticky, so he was looking for the restroom.

And unexpectedly, he ran into Han Suyeon standing outside the door.

“Hm? Why are you standing out here instead of going in?”

“Senior, look at me for a moment.”

“I’m looking at you right now.”

“No. Not here.”

Han Suyeon glanced discreetly inside the hospital room before pulling him away.

Oh Hyeonseong wondered what could possibly be going on, but he couldn’t think of anything.

Eventually, Han Suyeon led him all the way up to the rooftop.

After confirming that there was no one else around, she finally spoke.

“Senior, you haven’t heard anything yet, right?”

“Heard what? Didn’t I come here because of Choi Jeongil?”

“…That’s how it started.”

“What happened?”

Seeing her serious expression, Oh Hyeonseong asked.

It was not an expression that suited such a good day.

After remaining silent for a moment, Han Suyeon finally managed to speak.

“Yoon Seolha has appeared.”

“…What?”

A name belonging to a former comrade who should definitely have been dead.

A name that Choi Jeongil must never hear.

Oh Hyeonseong’s expression hardened in an instant.