Chapter 18: The Gatekeeper’s Dilemma

“Ah!”

The trembling girl straightened up and ran toward the gate before I even got down.

The one who kept me from falling backward was Jikanghan.

“Not at all.”

Jikanghan, who supported my back and gently put me down while holding me like a princess, said curtly.

I couldn’t imagine Jikanghan doing this unless it was Eunbada, but I guess the Four Heavenly Kings are really the Four Heavenly Kings.

I looked at Jikanghan with a new sense of wonder.

“Oh, shoot!”

I quickly looked away from Jikanghan and hurriedly glanced around to see if anyone had witnessed this scene.

Luckily, my classmates seemed to have rushed to see Doihyun coming out of the gate.

But I still couldn’t relax.

I painfully raised my head like a creaking robot and looked up at the school building.

“Yikes!”

Countless girls still staring at Eunbada and Jikanghan were literally burning with fierce eyes.

The intensity of their gaze was enough to kill if that was possible.

“What should I do? Should I run over there even now?”

I looked around once more.

“Ah, no point in worrying about it.”

Eunbada, Jikanghan, and Doihyun who stood next to me to hold my hand didn’t catch my attention.

Neither did Han Jibin or Yeon Ha-yeon, who stayed behind for the same reason.

Ban Eunhyeol sat on a bench, saying he didn’t want to get stepped on or caught in the crossfire.

The five people who I should avoid being around as much as possible were gathered right next to me.

The longer I stayed, the more trouble I’d get into.

I pushed off the ground and ran at a steady pace toward the gate, almost on instinct.

The closer I got to the gate, the clearer the reporters and the gate entrance became.

“I need to close the gate quickly and unlock my skill.”

Since the last time the news had picked up the Phantom Thief Hunter, each guild assigned members to guard the gate entrance.

With guild members guarding day and night, the quest progress had slowed dramatically.

Even if I wanted to enter by turning invisible, the invisibility skill was automatically canceled at the gate entrance to the dungeon.

It would have been a disaster if I hadn’t tested that earlier.

Still, I had been using the quiet early morning hours when people weren’t around to close the gates…

But after the Phantom Thief Hunter news, I could only find one gate that wasn’t auctioned off and quickly close it before coming out.

[<Quest>
Kill the dungeon boss! Lv. 2
8/10
Reward – One existing skill (random)]

I opened my status screen for the first time in a while since I hardly ever entered gates lately.

Several days had passed, but I had only managed to increase one number.

The quest screen was just making me sigh the more I looked at it.

Slowly reaching the gate, I slipped in among my friends.

With the reporters behind and our classmates crowded there, it really felt like a celebrity was coming out of the gate.

Now, awakened people are even more popular than most celebrities, so it wasn’t a strange sight.

Especially the Four Heavenly Kings, or awakened like Yeon Ha-yeon and Doihyun who looked like walking celebrities, were incredibly popular.

“Dana, did you see that? Did you see that amazing nose bridge?”

“Guys… do you know what ‘Everest’ is in English?”

“?”

“It’s ‘Ihyun’s nose’…”

Unable to bear watching my friend mumble with a blissful look in her eyes, I turned my head away.

Whether I did or not, my friends’ silly chatter continued.

Still, it was funny how they quietly gushed, knowing Do I-hyun hated this kind of attention.

“Doihyun, how was the dungeon raid this time?”

“I heard from the Dungeon Management Bureau that it was rated D-class. Is that why you came out so quickly?”

Reporters bombarded Do I-hyun with questions, each pushing their microphones forward.

But someone else answered instead.

“It was indeed D-class as measured, and the raid was manageable. Did we come out too fast?”

A neatly dressed boy in a navy school uniform stepped forward and confidently answered the reporters’ questions.

He even turned the questions back on them, looking quite at ease like he’d done this many times before.

“Wait a minute.”

That neat-looking boy in the navy uniform…

“The gang leader from the vocational high school, the one who was wearing his uniform and fighting during summer break in the open lot not long after I got possessed!”

That gang leader from vocational school, Ha Mal-eum, or something like that.

I was starting to dislike myself a bit for remembering even that.

“Wow, so that was him.”

While I looked at him with curious eyes, the surrounding female students’ eyes turned into hearts.

He seemed fairly popular, though not quite at Do I-hyun’s level.

Well, with a face like that, even without the Four Heavenly Kings or Doihyun next to him, he was certainly noticeable.

Ha Mal-eum, who had been answering reporters’ questions, glanced back at the girls who were quietly watching him and Doihyun.

Then he blinked his left eye.

“We’re… Onsaemiro. We just did what was expected of us.”

“Kyah-uh! Ugh!”

“Do I-hyun, quiet before you run away!”

“Ah… I think my heart’s broken. Only Mal-eum can cure this disease…”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Was that really a wink?

Honestly, I wanted to give up on my eyesight.

I closed my eyes tight to avoid looking at Ha Mal-eum and prayed for this moment to pass quickly.

Even back when I was obsessed with popularity before possession, I never did something like that.

The shocking behavior caused my thoughts to freeze.

Do I-hyun seemed indifferent to whether my friend winked or answered the interview for him, and just walked past the reporters.

His guild members still formed a barricade around him.

It was truly… a bizarre sight.

The kids stood as if nailed to the spot, following the reporters out the school gate, their faces completely dazed from that wink a moment ago.

It was Eun Bada who snapped the kids back to reality.

Clap clap—

“Alright, everyone. Let’s practice for the sports festival now.”

Ha Mal-eum’s wink couldn’t outshine Eun Bada’s face.

The kids who suddenly came to their senses blushed even more deeply.

Like ducklings following their mother, the kids trailed behind Eun Bada.

I joined them and returned to where I was practicing the stepping-on-bridge game.

“Again. Dana, hold on.”

And once more, I had to stubbornly ignore the sharp, judging eyes of the whole school.

***

As soon as Doihyun closed the gate and came out, he put Haemalkum in front.

Surrounded by the press and the Gamseong High students, he just wanted to get home quickly.

“You lead the charge and your eyes change when you fight or clear dungeons, but are you uncomfortable with this kind of thing?”

Haemalkum lightly teased Do Ihyun as if he didn’t understand him at all.

They’d been friends since childhood, but Haemalkum could never figure out exactly when Doihyun got timid.

Probably thinking his friend might have a split personality, Haemalkum answered the reporters’ questions while Doihyun walked among the guild members, staring only at the school gate.

Then a voice caught Doihyun’s ear.

“Really handsome.”

It was a compliment said with all the effort in the world, but somehow the tone was strangely soulless.

Despite that familiar feeling, he turned his head and searched for the owner of the voice with his eyes.

“To think the moment I meet him in person has come… I can die without regret now.”

Not this voice.

“Hey guys… do you know what Everest is in English?”

Suddenly, he felt like he should cover his ears quickly. This wasn’t it either.

“Wow, that nose is really high.”

As soon as he left the dungeon, Doihyun’s blurry eyes were caught by a colorful figure.

Turning his head to the source of the voice, he saw a girl he’d never seen before, mixed in with the reporters and Gamseong High students.

‘I don’t know her.’

But why did this voice feel so familiar?

Had he heard it somewhere?

He racked his brain but nothing came to mind.

Walking out of Gamseong High’s gate, Doihyun was seized by an inexplicable uneasy feeling.

“What is it?”

He felt like he’d missed something important.

Surely, he remembered the girl whose eyes were blurry like his while earnestly agreeing with her friends’ words.

He’d never seen her before, but why did he keep feeling like he was missing something?

With this uneasiness, he headed toward the busy streets with his guild members.

The school was probably in session by now, but he had no intention of going back to class.

***

On a dark, gloomy dawn before the sports festival, I was excited for the first time in a while.

I had just barely succeeded in finding a gate that the Dungeon Management Bureau hadn’t discovered yet, and rushed here at full speed.

Searching the neighborhood thoroughly right after school had paid off.

“If I close this one and one more, I’ll unlock another skill!”

The gate was in a residential alley near Iljin High School.

Since it was late, no one was around, so I safely deactivated my shadow form.

Even after entering the gate, I quickly checked the surroundings just in case, and it was certain no one else had come in yet.

[You have entered the dungeon.]

[Rank: D]

With this, I could finish quickly and go home to get some rest.

Smiling with satisfaction at the rank, I looked around inside.

‘A school?’

This dungeon’s interior was a school building.

Since it was inside a dungeon, it was obviously not Gamseong High.

The corridor that appeared upon entry was ordinary.

It was so similar that I momentarily got confused whether I was at Gamseong High or inside a dungeon.

At night, this would be exactly what a school looks like — the classrooms were tidy, and not a single monster was in sight in the hallway.

I couldn’t guess what monsters might appear here, so my heart was pounding.

Before I got possessed, I used to fly around the dungeon, genuinely enjoying killing monsters.

But now with skills locked, I couldn’t enjoy it as much, which was frustrating.

This is a D-rank dungeon.

Although skills were lacking, I could still enjoy some close combat.

It would be tougher than before, but maybe that difficulty could add to the thrill of battle.

As I stepped forward looking for the boss monster, I sensed movement from the upper floor.