(Yoo Sujin)
>Taeyang, you have a gate tour today, right?
>Be careful and don't get hurt!
>(Cute puppy making heart emoticon)
(So Yumin)
>Taeyang♥ㅠ♥
>I wanted to go on support with you, sob...
>I'm so sad thinking I won't see you today
>(Small cat waving heart-shaped tail emoticon)
As soon as I got on the bus heading to the gate, messages flew in as if on cue.
It was a calculated time, considering that I might be busy preparing in the morning and unable to reply.
Even if Sujin knew from experience, how did Yumin know this timing?
It would be difficult to guess by intuition since each gate has different entry times.
Is a witch really that different?
(Yoo Sujin)
>No, if there's anything you don't know, ask me.
>If there's anything I can help with, I'll definitely help!
>Okay, make sure to!
The reason I replied to Sujin first wasn't special.
It's just a familiar habit to reply to messages in the order they came.
"Who are you messaging so much?"
"Just a noona I know."
"I see..."
Minsu, sitting next to me, suddenly stuck his face close.
Honestly, I had no intention of going with this guy.
There was no need or reason to.
The two-person team was only for inside the gate.
I was hoping to travel comfortably at least on the way there.
'Why did he wait for me?'
I can't forget the sight of him waving his hand while waiting at the dormitory entrance.
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't understand why Kim Minsu waited for me.
He wasn't even chattering away beside me.
He was just quietly sitting next to me, occasionally blurting out a few words like just now.
"Why did you wait for me?"
"Ah, well... There's what you told me yesterday... And you said you'd help with my relationship... So, um..."
It seemed like his words would go on endlessly, so I decided not to listen carefully.
If the gap between reading Yumin's message and replying got too long, nothing good would come of it.
A woman's message takes priority over listening to nonsense.
(So Yumin)
>Gasp, then ♥!
>Can I come over to the dorm again tomorrow?
>Then it's settled? I'll barge in right away tomorrow.
>Contact me when you're back from the gate!
>♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
>(Cat meow turning into hearts emoticon)
I needed a few more plot points to break up Yumin and Minsu anyway.
It was better to meet in advance, as there's no harm in preparing early.
'That's not a problem...'
Kim Minsu had been staring intently at his phone for a while.
It wouldn't bother me if he just kept his mouth shut and did that, but the problem was he kept glancing at me too.
"Minsu, if you have something to say, say it."
"Ah, ah, well, it's been five hours since I last texted Yumin, but there's still no reply... Is it because she's busy with the gate?"
Every time I hear it, I feel like his sentences are really long.
Every time he speaks, it makes my ears feel very tired.
He had an excellent talent for making things unpleasant to hear.
"Yumin must be busy in her own way... I guess..."
"Y-yeah, right? Honestly, I thought we'd cleared up all the misunderstandings... I wanted to live without shame, so I told her everything that happened in the counseling room... I apologized and Yumin accepted it... But with no contact for five hours, it feels a bit... Yumin said she was going to sleep at exactly 11:27:17 yesterday... Then around 4 or 5 in the morning, I suddenly wanted to hear her voice..."
"Um... Minsu."
"Huh?"
"I'm feeling carsick, so how about we stay quiet until we arrive?"
"Oh... oh okay! That's what I was going to do too!"
If I had listened a bit more, blood might have come out of my ears.
It was pitiful that he didn't know Yumin was actually good at replying and even urged responses.
I considered gradually scratching at their relationship on the bus.
But talking with Kim Minsu in an enclosed space was insane.
His spit flying every time he spoke was cute in comparison to how I wanted to do something about his flopping tongue.
Why do this guy and Glasses Fatty keep overlapping in my mind?
Even if I wanted to see him in a good light, I couldn't.
I knew he had this personality because that guy created him, but for even their appearances to overlap...
'Don't tell me this bastard turns into that if he gains weight and wears glasses?'
It was a reasonable suspicion. But I decided not to think too deeply about it.
The top priority now was finding Kim Minsu's heroines.
I couldn't tell who was pretty from the class roster explanation Kim Seokgu gave.
He showed photos too, but trusting photos is amateur of amateurs.
The power of editing that can distort space and emphasize body shape can completely change a person.
I've actually run away before after meeting someone who looked incredibly pretty in photos but turned out to be a hamburger in person.
[The next stop is XX, XX.]
"Let's get off, Taeyang!"
"Okay. It's good we're close by."
"Right. I heard they went all the way to Jeju Island last year. Guess we're pretty lucky."
Gates and dungeons have very different natures.
Dungeons absorb the surrounding terrain to build their own domain. You could say they perform a kind of terraforming.
But gates appear as cracks in the air, as if they just fell from the sky.
The common point is that both gates and dungeons erase the surrounding terrain.
The difference is that dungeons change the terrain into new terrain, while gates only create a crack in the place they're generated.
Moreover, gates disappear immediately after being cleared, but dungeons remain even after being cleared.
Of course, there were a few more differences, but these were the most representative ones.
"But last year was a dungeon, right?"
"That's true... They must have gotten a lot of byproducts."
In the short term, gates that consume less of the surroundings might be more profitable.
But in the long term, dungeons with various byproducts from the terrain were overwhelmingly more profitable.
"To think we're acting instructors... It feels good but also nerve-wracking... Honestly, after sparring with you, Taeyang, I thought about various things..."
As soon as we got off the bus, Minsu started talking.
He explained at length, starting from feedback on his sparring, praising me, his understanding of weapons, the direction of using fists, and so on.
I felt like stuffing an apple in his mouth and punching his jaw.
'He didn't seem to have this image...'
He had been hiding it.
At first, I thought he was a quiet virgin because he only said a few words, but he turned out to be an incredibly talkative guy.
He burst open the mouth he had been deliberately hiding since I said I'd give him dating advice.
"Since I use a sword, I feel like my movements are too predictable... You look like you'd use something amazing just from your weapon case... Isn't it heavy? The case is huge... And you're carrying it effortlessly in one hand, it's really..."
"Minsu, shall we run? Since we're acting instructors, I think we can go faster."
"Let's do that then!"
There was quite a distance between the bus stop and the gate.
Very luckily, the gate appeared on a mountain far from civilians, and "coincidentally" it was also an F-rank gate.
'Well...'
I couldn't say for certain yet, but it reeked.
'We'll see when we get there.'
A huge crack taller than the trees started coming into view.
++++++++++++
"You're here."
""Hello, Instructor.""
"Right, since you'll be acting instructors from now on, is it okay if I speak casually?"
""Yes.""
Kim Seokgu had come before sunrise, his forehead already beaded with sweat.
Maybe because he was bald, my eyes hurt every time the sun reflected off his head.
"Taeyang, as I explained before, you'll take care of the cadets from the rear, and Minsu is in the vanguard."
Just as he was about to mention the gate precautions he told us yesterday, thinking one explanation wasn't enough.
People who anyone could see had "Hunter" written on their foreheads appeared in a group.
"Ah, look at me. This is Team Leader Lee Minjun who will help with our gate tour."
"Hello, I'm Team Leader Lee Minjun. Please take care of us."
Even if it's an F-rank gate, a gate is a gate.
The more insurance the better, since you never know what might happen.
Of course, the best insurance is veteran hunters.
That's why Victory Academy called a team composed only of hunters.
'Even so... to call an entire team.'
It was in Baek Taeyang's memories too. They were one of the hunter teams quite well-known in the media.
Lee Minjun's hunter team was weak individually, but when united, they could take down even A-rank monsters.
Putting an A-rank team in an F-rank gate was like using a knife for butchering cows to cut onions.
'But they're men...'
Team or whatever, from the leader to all members were men.
They seemed like good people after exchanging greetings and chatting a bit.
'When will Kim Minsu's harem appear?'
There was about 30 minutes left until the assembly time.
Since I could tell at a glance which faces were likely to be in the harem, I fixed my gaze on the entrance.
"By the way, Taeyang...? Was it?"
"Yes, yes, you can speak casually, Team Leader."
"Really? Thanks. But why is your weapon case so big? What's in it?"
"Just various things."
"It's a secret, right? I'm a bit disappointed but it's a good attitude. It's important to hide your capabilities."
Minsu and I were surrounded by Lee Minjun's team, receiving various questions.
They were clearly trying to make an impression on promising rookies who could become acting instructors.
Even now, they're subtly praising us while trying to give tips as 'seniors'.
If I were an ordinary cadet, I might have bowed gratefully, but I wasn't.
"I guess so... But for an F-rank gate, Instructor Kim Seokgu is examining it very thoroughly."
"There's no harm in being careful. I think all hunters should follow his example."
As soon as greetings were over, Kim Seokgu kept sticking close to the gate.
He was constantly analyzing, manipulating numerous machines connected to the gate.
What he's most worried about is probably the difficulty increase due to changes in the gate's rank.
"Oh? Taeyang, the kids are here."
I turned my head at Minjun's words.
Numerous black-haired heads slowly revealed their faces on the hill.
'Found her.'
When everyone has black hair, a brilliant blonde stands out.
Curled roll bun hair, a haughty and arrogant expression, brand-name clothes that diverge from the regular uniform!
It was clearly written all over her, "I'm the new heroine."
After childhood friend and teacher, now it's a rich young lady.
Yumin looked rich too, but this woman felt completely different.
She was giving off an overwhelming aura of wealth.
"Hmm! Good. This gate has a 0% chance of changing."
Kim Seokgu announced the results with a refreshed expression, seeming to have finished his analysis.
"Team Leader Lee Minjun, what do you think of this gate?"
It was time to properly verify the hypothesis I had made at the bus stop.
"I agree with Instructor Kim Seokgu. It's an F-rank gate with no chance of changing, so no one will get hurt."
We'll protect you, Minjun answered with a very confident face.
'This is really funny.'
An F-rank gate confirmed to have no chance of changing.
A heroine with the rich young lady setting about to join the harem.
The protagonist Kim Minsu with the [Hero] trait.
And even an A-rank hunter team prepared just in case.
The development was too obvious.
Even I, who hadn't read many novels, could predict how this would unfold.
'So that's how it's going to play out, huh?'
F-rank gates always change.
Glasses Fatty would never just let this slide.
The gate would have changed even if I wasn't here.
There aren't many ways to connect a rich young lady with a virgin loser.
The easiest is to use the suspension bridge effect, and an F-rank gate was a very good means.
"Taeyang, that blonde girl over there is the daughter of Yumin's rival group."
"Ah...."
To even have the position to create an opposing structure with the main heroine.
She already had the fate to enter Kim Minsu's harem.
'Hey, this is too cliché.'
There's a plan for every love.
Until it's stolen by Baek Taeyang, that is.
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