Chapter Text
Jinwoo was just making his morning coffee when the display appeared, hovering over his coffee mug.
[A System Update is Available] [Update] [Not Now]
He blinked slowly. Update? Ever since he'd woken up from the double dungeon… He'd never had an update to the System before. What would happen?
[A System Update is Available]
[Due to new job criteria, the System requires an update.]
It didn't give him much to go on. Jinwoo hesitated, wondering (not for the first time) what could possibly happen? The dark screen hovered ominously over his cooling coffee.
"Update."
The screen flitted away, another cropping up just as he was about to pour in some cream.
[System Updating… Services will be temporarily offline.]
Wait— As in all services through the system?!
Panicked, Jinwoo tried to summon up his inventory, only for nothing to happen except an error message. He tried again to summon his inventory, his weapons— nothing nada. "Shit!" He swore, eyes wide. This was not good, this was so not good!
He waved a hand over his shadow and called Igris forward. Luckily the general answered, melting out of the shadows and into his small kitchen. Jinah was already at school, so he didn't have to worry about her seeing him. Igris knelt before him, his black armored face and glowing blue eyes fixed on Jinwoo's troubled expression.
"Any chance you know what's happening?" He asks, although he knows Igris cannot respond. None of his shadows had the ability to talk, sadly.
Igris shook his head.
"Great." Jinwoo slurped his coffee loudly and glared at the loading window that floated overhead. The progress bar was barely at 7%. "Looks like we're taking a few days off." He declares, grabbing his phone to pull up Jinho's contact. This was definitely going to throw a wrench in their plans for the next… however long this would take.
[System Update is Loading…. 10%]
Jinwoo glared at the screen after a disheartening call with Jinho. He looked around the apartment and sighed, might as well clean the place up a bit. He started with the laundry, absolutely terrified when he opened Jinah's door to find clothing strewn all over the floor and furniture. Once he'd started the task of deep cleaning the apartment, time seemed to flow by differently.
By the time Jinah was returning from school, several hours later, the apartment was sparkling clean.
"Woah…" Jinah gaped as she came in, a little afraid to touch anything. Even the floors sparkled, probably clean enough to eat off of. "What… happened in here?" She asks with suspicion, eyes falling onto where Jinwoo was looking down at his phone. "You didn't kill someone in here and have to get rid of evidence, did you?"
"What are you talking about?" Jinwoo asked, not that he ever knew what Jinah was on about.
"Nothing, nevermind." She shook her head, dropping her bag on the island and falling onto the couch beside her brother. "What are you looking at?"
"Gates…" He answered.
"Again? Can't you ever take a break? And who is this Jinho guy anyways, dragging you along every day for like two weeks now for these gates…" She complained, laying down and dropping her head into Jinwoo's lap like when she was younger.
"What are you doing?"
"What does it look like? I'm tired! I just had my midterm for chemistry today!" She whined, rolling over to bury her face in his stomach.
Jinwoo laughed a little, twitching as she blew a raspberry into his stomach and dropping a hand into her hair. "Yeah, how did that go?"
Jinah relaxes as her brother pats her head slowly while he continued to scroll. "That asshole—"
"Language—"
"— teacher gave us questions on stuff we only learned last week! I studied the entirety of my notes, but nooooo," She complained, kicking her feet a little. Jinwoo snorted at her behaviour, shaking his head. "She only taught us the basics of bonding and inter-molecular forces! How am I supposed to understand the strengths of the formations and what they're called!?"
Poor Jinah, with that big brain of hers how was she ever going to survive university? Jinwoo asked himself, rolling his eyes. He didn't really take chemistry in high school, the gates had opened and he barely graduated before he was able to test his rank after awakening. He'd been dungeon crawling since then, trying to amass enough money for the hospital bills, the rent and Jinah's school expenses while still being able to feed the two of them. He couldn't remember what the importance of inter-molecular structures or whatever even where.
"I'm sorry to hear that." He says, playing with her ponytail idly. He scrolls past a new posting on the dungeon hunting website he was on.
Jinho had been scouring the site and buying up all the C-Rank gates, and now, in lieu of Jinwoo telling him he was feeling 'sick,' they'd have to sell the permits for the gates to make a portion of their money back. He looked at the C-Rank gate that had come up, and felt… disappointed. He really was having fun on those gates, clearing them easily and even starting to consider what a B-Rank would be like.
He huffed, definitely not pouting about it as he swiped away the app and opened Instagram. Immediately he was surprised to see a new reporter standing outside a large gate in China, which was red in color instead of blue. He clicked on the news clip, turning on the audio.
'—eems that a Red Gate has cropped up in the middle of Wuhan's Manchu Residential District. A group of 3 star hunters did enter about 3 hours ago, but there has been no signs of survivors thus far. ' Reported the Korean news station, panning over from the reporter with their mic to the red swirling mass behind them. 'As our viewers may remember, China has a 1-5 star ranking system instead of E-S Ranks for their hunters and gates. I'm being told that this gate here was reported to be around a 3 star gate, but after turning red after members of the party entered, they are now saying that the gate has risen to a 4 or possibly even 5 star gate!'
"Why are you watching that? Lame!" Jinah complained but she'd still rolled over to look as well. "What's a red gate, anyways?"
Jinwoo frowned, looking down at his sister. Even if she wasn't a hunter, the gates had been around for a decade already, did she really forget? "A red gate is when a regular gate seals off its entrance once someone walks through it, trapping the hunters already inside the gate and preventing anyone else from the outside from entering the gate. After this happens, the gate will not open until one of three things happen: the boss is defeated, the entire raid party is killed, or a dungeon break occurs."
"Oh…" Jinah frowned. "That's…"
"It's not good." Jinwoo supplies. "But this is all the way in China, so we don't have to worry."
"They have the most S-Ranks in the world, right?" Jinah asks, looking up at Jinwoo. "So even if something bad happens and there is a dungeon break, they're handle it, right?"
"Right."
Jinwoo didn't mention that if there was a dungeon break, it meant that A-Rank or higher beasts would pour out— potentially killing hundreds before an S-Rank could get on the scene to diffuse the situation. He skipped past the rest of the video, preferring to look a stupid memes that were 'boomer' according to his sister.
Eventually they make dinner, but Jinwoo can't help but ponder over their japchae about the System's update. He pulled up the window, but only got the same message as before. The progress bar had only gone up 5% since this morning.
[System Update is Loading…. 15%]
He glared at the window. This was going to be a long few days.
Jinwoo was just walking around the park, finished with his run, when he saw it— a statue of an angel. He'd never seen it before on his runs, and couldn't help but stop cold in his tracks. Even though it had been months since the double dungeon… even though he'd changed so much…
His hands started to shake.
It's just a statue. He tells himself, glancing around before looking back at the stone angel. It hadn't moved. It hadn't started to sing. It…
This wasn't the double dungeon, this was just a public park. But he swore he could feel eyes watching him. Swallowing thickly, he shook his head. I must be imagining things.
He pulled up the system again, looking at his progress through today's dailies.
[Rewards have been added to inventory!] it said, but there was no way of accessing them. The System was still updating.
[System Update is Loading…. 30%]
It had already been a day and a half! This was really starting to get on his nerves! But he still had his shadows, he still had Igris… Just because he didn't have his daggers didn't mean he couldn't fight, right?
He pulled out his phone to text Jinho about tomorrow's gate. Suddenly he wasn't feeling so 'sick' anymore.
"Are you sure about this? Without any weapons? Here, I brought mine, you can borrow it!" Jinho said after witnessing Jinwoo destroy a handful of goblins with just his bare hands.
Scary! False rankers were so scary!! Jinho thought to himself, as he meekly offered up his own sword that had been strapped to his back. It had cost a pretty penny too, so hopefully Jinwoo's erratic fighting techniques wouldn't destroy the 40,000 won blade.
"Ah… Sure. Thanks." He said, taking the golden sword by the handle and whipping it around a few times. It crackled with the fire magic that lay within it, pulsing as Jinwoo's overpowering mana. "This… this has special properties?"
He could feel something emanating from the blade faintly, feeling like hot sparks and warm light. Jinho grinned, nodding and starting to babble about all the cool attributes that the sword apparently had, where it was found and how much he paid for it.
If he paid 40,000 won for this… I wonder how much I could get for Kasaka's Venom Fang?
Jinwoo only continued forward when he was called by Jinho, who looked back over his shoulder with worry. "Everything alright?"
He swung the blade in his hand again, unused to something so long compared to his usual daggers. "Yeah, let's go."
In no time the dungeon was cleared and the supplies gathered with his new little shadow army of soldiers. Jinho had nearly fainted at the sight of them, but after a few experimental pokes and prods at the soldiers, he'd realized that they were on their side and relaxed.
"Looks like it was good that I brought this along, huh?" Jinho asked, pointing at the blade he'd loaned him. "Pretty cool huh? On top of having fire attributes that occasionally cause your enemies to catch on fire, it also serves as a light source!"
Jinwoo nodded along, twirling the blade in his hand a few more times. A sword wasn't terrible, but it did limit his movements more than a dagger would. It also required two hands most of the time, which wasn't very ideal.
Yawning lazily, Jinwoo exited the gate, half a mind to hand back the sword, but something else distracted him. Outside was their usual group of retired hunters and handicapped former hunters that were waiting for them to return. Amongst them though, was a man he didn't recognize in a black suit. Probably from the Hunter's Association. Great.
"Is there something we can help you with, sir?" Jinho asked, smiling like any businessman facing a cop would.
"As a matter of fact, there is. Sung Jinwoo, would you have a moment to spare?"
"Me?" Jinwoo pointed at himself before looking around as if a second Jinwoo would appear. Unlikely.
The man snorted, offering him a dazzling smile. "Yes, if I could just have a word…"
Unable to really run away in broad daylight, Jinwoo followed the man out of earshot of their group who was piling back into the van. This was the last gate of the day, and Jinho was going to drive them all home.
"I'll find my way back, thanks." Jinwoo told Jinho, waving him off before turning back to the man in black. "Are you from the Hunter's Association?"
"I'm actually with The White Tiger Guild. My name is Ahn Sangmin, and I wanted to talk to you about the gates you and your party have been clearing lately…"
Jinwoo's eyes narrowed as they entered the cafe, discomfort taking place in his gut.
[System Update is Loading… 45%]
Jinwoo laid on the couch again, mindlessly clicking away through dramas on the TV. Yesterday had sucked. So he was on their radar, huh? So much for hiding his rank. Perhaps since he'd beat Igris and his army in the Instant Dungeon and gone through the Job Change he'd become too strong to hide anymore. He didn't like it, but there wasn't much he could do about it, he wasn't talented at hiding his mana unless he was using his assassin skill to camouflage his presence.
"Oppa!" Jinah's voice called from her room.
"What?" Jinwoo called back, too lazy to climb off the couch to see what she wanted.
"Oppa, there's… there's a gate outside the apartment!"
Jinwoo sat up, immediately looking out the windows of the living room. Jinah came out of her room with her eyes glued to her phone, typing much faster than Jinwoo ever would be able to comprehend. Outside, on the grassy area right before the parking lot of their complex, was a spiral of bright blue, not yet blocked off by Hunter Association staff for safety precautions.
"Great." He sighed, grabbing his own phone while Jinah posed by the window for a selfie. "I gotta make a call." He said, pulling up the number of that one Association guy from that time with Hwang's crew. "Hello?" He asks as the dial tone clicks.
"Hello, this is Woo Jinchul , to who am I speaking?"
Jinwoo ran a hand through his hair frowning at his reflection in the window. "It's Sung Jinwoo, from that C-Rank gate a while ago? Uh… a gate just opened in front of my apartment."
There was a pause, before a sigh. "Thank you for letting the Association know. We'll send someone over shortly."
"About that…" Jinwoo worried his lip with his teeth. "I could just take care of it for you?"
"What do you mean 'take care of it'?"
"Well I think you and I both know I'm not E-Rank." He looked back to the blue vortex outside his home. "I could just—"
"No. Absolutely not. You have no idea what rank that gate is, if it's a red gate, or even an S-Rank gate. You promise me, Hunter Sung, that you will not go into that gate alone." Woo Jinchul sounded seconds away from popping a blood vessel.
Jinwoo was already slipping on his shoes and grabbing Jinho's sword that he'd borrowed. He had intended to return it after the dungeon but Jinho insisted he hold onto it for now since they'd be clearing dungeons tomorrow anyways. He sighed and grabbed his keys, closing the door behind him.
"Hunter Sung, promise me." Woo Jinchul demands.
Geez, pushy.
"I…" He pushed the button for the elevator and hesitated. He could probably clear it before the Hunter's Association even gets here. He hadn't even given him the address for it yet.
"Hunter Sung—"
"Alright. I get it. I won't go into the gate alone." He swears, stepping into the elevator. He looked down at his shadow as the doors closed. It wriggled a little in excitement that was coming from within him.
A sigh of relief could be heard. "Perfect. Although I'm sure you could clear a C maybe even B-Rank Gate with minimal people, we have no idea what rank that gate is. If it was A or S-Rank you could easily die in there and no one would even know about it until we organized a raid."
Jinwoo nodded as the elevator dinged at each floor before reaching the lobby. Since it was later at night, it didn't seem like any of the other residents of their building had noticed the gate yet. "You're right. Sorry, I guess I jumped the gun a bit, huh?"
"I'll send a team over shortly." With that the call ended and Jinwoo smirked.
"Come, Igris." He called. The knight rose from the ground like smoke, stepping out of Jinwoo's shadow. Now then, he wasn't really alone, was he? His smirk grew into a near feral grin, eyes catching the light of the street lamps and seeming to glow blue with power. "Let's go take a look."
Woo Jinchul hung up and immediately called in a favor to get out of his desk early. Something about Hunter Sung's voice had been… far too playful. Excited, even. It put him on edge and soon he found himself in a car with a group of other A-Ranks headed for downtown.
Just what exactly was he planning on doing? He'd sworn he wouldn't go alone, so that was good. But judging from his previous dungeons he'd been clearing with that Yoo kid… He might just have a team on hand that was stupid enough to go through an unranked gate.
Woo Jinchul hoped he was mistaken.