Episode 05
Gate Break Cleared!
Total EXP Gained: +7,544
For a split second, I thought my eyeballs were going to pop out of my head at the sheer amount of experience points.
So that’s why this bastard was so obsessed with hunting goblins.
Seeing it firsthand was dizzying. What made it worse was that only I could see the experience, neatly quantified in the form of a status window.
“I thought you were dead.”
“…!”
My eyes met Han Bi-yeol’s. I felt the strength in his grip loosen.
A stalemate.
This situation wasn’t favorable.
My sigh brushed against the arm that had me by the collar.
I’ll deal with the details… after I handle this first.
With a glance, I dismissed the status window. So it worked like that too. Convenient.
Still.
I stared at Han Bi-yeol through the window frame. His face looked like it had been cut clean in half.
I was the one who’d nearly bled out—so why did you look like you were about to die?
…My head…
The world spun from anemia. Leveling up was one thing, but the accumulated fatigue lagged behind, slow to recover.
I was exhausted. Even with my sworn enemy right in front of me, the usual killing intent wouldn’t boil up. Come to think of it, it hadn’t even been half a day since I’d regressed. A truly chaotic, densely packed two hours.
If my brother were here, he’d be dragging me to the hospital, no questions asked.
Maybe it was the fatigue. When I opened my mouth, a blade-cold tone slipped out—cold enough to surprise even me.
“Let go. Now.”
Han Bi-yeol’s blue lips twitched.
“Your identity is—”
Before he could finish, a shout slammed into the side of my face like an arrow.
“Hey! You there!”
It was Mr. Choi. He came charging over, golf club in hand, eyes blazing.
“Kid! Let him go and talk it out!”
With his rough hands, Mr. Choi pried me off. Han Bi-yeol released me far too easily—or rather, he dropped me.
“You okay, kid?”
“I’m fine… I think.”
“As long as you’re fine, that’s all that matters.”
That courage and loyalty—S-rank, no question.
“Excuse me.”
“….”
The moment the words slipped out, Han Bi-yeol snapped his gaze at me.
At this point, doesn’t this look like a school bully getting his dominance shattered by the kid he picked on?
Either way, the atmosphere made it clear there was no need for any more pointless bickering. Since I wasn’t saying anything, Mr. Choi didn’t push further either.
Yeah. Let’s just stay like this for now.
In a moment…
“Just a second.”
An unexpected voice cut in.
It was the reporter—Gi Ja-ryeong.
In a low, cool tone, she addressed Han Bi-yeol.
“I didn’t just imagine that, did I?”
“…What?”
“You were grabbing this man by the collar and threatening him just now. That’s what it looked like to me, at least. I think you owe us an explanation.”
Han Bi-yeol twisted his lips into a hollow laugh.
“Do I—do I really owe you an explanation?”
“No, you don’t. I’m just giving you options. I’m a reporter. HTN Network. Gi Ja-ryeong. What, want my business card?”
“A… reporter…?”
Only then did Han Bi-yeol’s gaze drop. It froze on the object in her hand, then wavered.
“…Let me see that.”
“Are you trying to confiscate a reporter’s camera?”
Han Bi-yeol forced his trembling voice to steady.
“This is a clear violation of portrait rights. I belong to R&Y. Before the guild takes official action—”
While I’m still being polite.
I caught the shape of those words in his mouth.
That was a murder flag.
No.
Even with blood failing to reach my head, I squeezed out a countermeasure.
“Wait.”
I slung an arm around Mr. Choi’s neck and stepped in front of Gi Ja-ryeong.
With the two of us blocking his view, Han Bi-yeol flinched. More precisely—he looked at me.
“….”
“….”
A brief contest of stares.
I tore my gaze away from Han Bi-yeol and tossed it toward Gi Ja-ryeong.
“I know it’s presumptuous, but… please. Just give it to him.”
“…What?”
You owe me your life.
* * *
What was he thinking?
Gi Ja-ryeong stared at the man, lips parting slightly. Anyone would be furious if told to hand over an SD card embedded with a mana stone.
He was the one who suggested it first, too…
Her expression shifted.
A mana-stone SD card could be synced to up to two devices, as long as the owner’s individual identification number matched.
In other words—a cloud system. One shared database, provided the ID matched.
Which meant—
Even if I hand the SD card over to that blond hunter, the photos remain in the database.
Gi Ja-ryeong’s eyes flicked toward Seo Won-seok’s pocket.
As a reporter, she didn’t like jumping to conclusions—but the pieces fit too neatly. More than that, this man already knew she was a reporter.
From the beginning until now… was this all a calculated approach?
It was only a hypothesis.
But her reporter’s intuition whispered that everything was unfolding according to this Awakened one’s intentions.
Oddly enough, despite being toyed with, she didn’t feel angry. She felt amused. As collaborators went, someone a little clever was far better than a naïve saint.
The SD card? Painful, considering the price—but in the long run, she’d consider it an investment.
“Alright.”
Gi Ja-ryeong calmly removed the SD card. Han Bi-yeol snatched it as if he’d been waiting all along, then said something absurd.
“We’ll return it after discussing it with the guild executives.”
“If you’re going to process it, please notify me beforehand. I’ll need to take out a loan to buy a replacement.”
“If… such a situation arises, R&Y will provide appropriate compensation.”
Gi Ja-ryeong gave a professional nod and turned away.
Han Bi-yeol didn’t bother stopping her.
Beep—beep—
Only then did phones begin ringing everywhere. Signal had finally returned.
Seo Won-seok’s pocket vibrated violently, but he lacked the strength to check it.
He let out a harsh breath, relieved nonetheless.
Not an ordinary woman. Making it seem natural that there’s only one SD card.
One thing bothered him—when she handed it over, she’d given him a long look. That gaze lingered in his mind.
What Seo Won-seok didn’t know—
was that SD cards could be synced.
If Gi Ja-ryeong had known that he didn’t know, she would have been stunned.
But handing the card to Han Bi-yeol had been her own decision.
Even if it had all been a misunderstanding.
Either way, that’s one load off my mind.
Han Bi-yeol’s eyes widened.
“Don’t tell me you even planted a reporter… to bury me.”
At that moment, an ominous presence descended from above.
An overwhelming aura sliced through the night sky and slammed into the ground. Debris was blasted away by the air current, dust swirling as fierce eyes gleamed through it.
“So that’s why contact suddenly went dead…”
It was a hunter.
“A gate break would block signals, I suppose.”
“…!!”
Compared to this man, that blond punk of a hunter wasn’t even worth mentioning.
“I told you to take a taxi.”
Though he smiled, his eyes were ice-cold.
With that chilling gaze, he fixed Han Bi-yeol—who still clutched his curved blade.
“How am I supposed to understand this situation?”
“S–Senior…”
Han Bi-yeol answered in a withered voice.
“You’re Han Bi-yeol, right? But were we ever close enough to call each other senior and junior? I think we’ve only crossed paths once or twice.”
“Th–That’s not—”
“I heard you were close friends.”
The words slipped out of me before I could stop them.
“Wh–When did I ever say that?!”
So it was a lie.
“Were we close friends, Hunter Han?”
“I’ve never said such a thing!”
“……”
My brother shot him a displeased look.
Han Bi-yeol kept repeating his excuses.
Mr. Choi, several beats late, finally seemed to realize who my brother was.
Meanwhile, Gi Ja-ryeong stared at me with an oddly complex expression.
Why? How? Seriously…?
That seemed to be what her eyes were asking.
……
The entire scene blurred together.
The dizziness I’d been holding back finally crushed my head completely.
Maybe it was relief—knowing Korea’s strongest hunter had arrived. My surface consciousness flickered out, my mind sinking deep.
“…?! Hey, Seo Won-seok!”
I sensed my brother’s panicked gaze.
I wanted to answer—but I really couldn’t hold on.
I’m dizzy.
For a moment, it felt like I might even forget my sworn enemy.
“This is… a dream…”
Please.
Let it be.
After blinking a few times, I finally closed my eyes.
* * *
When I woke up, the sharp smell of medicine stung my nose.
In other words—I was in a hospital.
More specifically, the emergency ward.
In my confusion, I had no sense of how much time had passed, or how. Nurses came by periodically to change my IV—that was all.
Anyone else might not understand.
But I did.
At least, I could sympathize with the staff in the emergency ward.
Surrounded by familiar antiseptic smells and the screams of other patients, I spent the night wide awake.
My wallet.
On the bedside table lay a grimy wallet. My brother’s. The ER was a restricted area.
Did he leave it with me in case he got called out…?
Knowing him, he was probably on standby somewhere.
Haa.
“I need to get up—”
The room spun.
Is this a side effect of the blessing ability?
It was overpowered enough that carrying some risk made sense. If dizziness was the price, that wasn’t so bad, right? I could just live on aspirin.
I was wrong.
The doctor adjusted his glasses and said,
“You’re anemic.”
“Ane… mic…?”
“Yes. Simply put, you don’t have enough blood.”
He simplified that very professionally.
Well… not entirely wrong, I guess.
No, wait—before that.
Had I ever had anemia?
…No. Never.
I’d never felt anything like this before.
“I hate to say this to a patient, but severe anemia… it’s unusual. Other conditions would make more sense, but anemia is—”
That was when it happened.
Greenish light gathered along the white coat, shimmering faintly. The same holy glow reflected in his pupils.
An Awakening ability.
Even though he was checking my condition, my mouth went dry. A healer—just seeing one reminded me of the day I’d dropped out of school.
“Yes, anemia. Blood loss can’t be treated with healing abilities, but since there are no other injuries, you’re free to be discharged. If you notice any abnormalities afterward—”
He added a few more words and left. Alone, I tried to organize my thoughts—then gave up.
Let’s just get outside.
I grabbed the wallet and got off the bed. A nurse came by and removed the IV needle.
“Thank you.”
I staggered out of the ER.
And sure enough—
“…Seo Won-seok…!”
Exclamation marks practically trembled above my brother’s head.
Mine probably did too.
Because—
A red thread.
From my index finger extended a crimson thread…
Connected directly to Hunter Seo Bo-seok.
How did I not think of this?
Come to think of it, when I saw him yesterday, I hadn’t been in my right mind.
Drunk right after regressing. Half-dead from anemia on the bridge.
Bloodline.
A common expression—but seeing it with my own eyes made it real.
My brother and I were family by blood.
Of course a Lifelong Blessing would bind us. I’d been blind to the obvious!
At the same time, I realized the cause of my anemia.
That red thread is woven from my blood.
So much blood had been drained away.
It was a miracle I hadn’t gone into shock and died.
